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Jonathan Goodluck

President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday decried the politicisation of the October 1 bomb blasts in Abuja.

Jonathan, who stated this on his social networking site, Facebook, said those playing politics with such tragedy were enemies of the country bent on riding on sectional sentiments to promote their parochial interests.

He said, “ It is unfortunate that an unprecedented national tragedy of this nature has been politicised by people whose only interest is what they can get from the country and not what the country can get from them.

“They specialise in playing one part of the country against the other and riding on sectional sentiments to promote their narrow ambitions. I believe that Nigeria has grown beyond this parochial mentality.”

The President alleged that the aim of the attackers was to create a sense of insecurity in the country in order to advance their narrow interests. He stressed that Nigerians would stand up to and make it clear to them that they could not be intimidated.

Jonathan added that though the experience(bomb blast) was somewhat new to Nigerians, the security agencies had been instructed to leave no stone unturned in securing lives and properties in the country.

Meanwhile, Jonathan has directed all the ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government to clear their tax arrears.

The President, in a note he presented at the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, said the challenges relating to tax payments and remittances from the MDAs to the Federal Inland Revenue Service had adversely affected government’s revenue generation efforts.

He said, “Tax payments and remittances from the MDAs are being delayed and this is already affecting the revenue generation efforts of government. All MDAs should clear the backlog of tax arrears incurred by them.”

The President added that the MDAs were expected to request for “Tax Identification Numbers as a mandatory requirement for the award of any contract and for all payments made.”

Jonathan , therefore, directed that “henceforth, all contracts awarded by FEC should be supported by properly issued TIN and with Tax Clearance Certificates authenticated by FIRS.”

Also at the FEC meeting , the Federal Government said that it had plans to create about one million jobs within the next six months through the implementation of the National Action Plan on Employment Creation.

NAPEC, which was developed by the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, and approved by FEC , is a strategic national working document to be incorporated into national development plans.

NAPEC stipulates that all memoranda to FEC for contract awards by all MDAs should indicate the local employment content implication of the project or programme before approval could be given.

The action plan was the outcome of a National Employment Summit convened by the Ministry of Labour and Productivity and the National Employment Council.

The summit examined the employment crisis facing the country, the effect of which had been compounded by the global economic crisis.

Amongst the many commitments made by stakeholders and development partners, especially the International Labour Organisation, at the summit was to place the creation of “decent employment” at the centre of socio-economic policy in Nigeria.

The Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, who briefed journalists on the development, explained that the implementation of NAPEC would strengthen national drive towards the achievement of Vision 2020.

“NAPEC needs to be implemented in a coordinated and coherent manner to ensure

success,” Akunyili said.