PROPERTY ARTICLES

The newly reconstituted boards of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and the federal Housing Authority (FHA) have been asked to concentrate on policy issues in the overall supervision and monitoring and not to interference with the day to day operations of their respective agencies.

Minister of Works, Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Hassan Muhammad Lawal, who made the charge last Tuesday in Abuja while inaugurating the reconstituted governing boards of parastatals in the ministry, urged them to provide the political leadership, policy direction and overall supervision of these bodies, which he said constituted the major tool for infrastructural development in the country.

He said, "FERMA will continue to be in the forefront in the area of maintenance of our federal highways. Similarly, the FHA is more than ever before geared towards collaborating with the private sector to ensure the provision of adequate housing for the needy. As for the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), the Federal Government intends to transform this agency into a viable and robust institution that will always be there for every Nigerian in dire need for housing. It is in the light of this that the top management of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria was reconstituted"

The minister announced that, besides the boards, the top management of the FHA and FERMA would equally be reconstituted to inject new blood into their operations.

He urged the top management of the parastatals to cooperate with the new boards and develop a spirit of teamwork for the overall benefit of the country. He praised the members of the boards as "honourable citizens of this country who in one way or the other have made tremendous contributions towards the socio-economic and political development of our great country."

Lawal stated that their appointments would "facilitate the realisation of the Seven-point Agenda of the present administration, especially in the critical infrastructure sector of road construction and housing delivery."

He charged them to always adhere to due process and the rule of law in all their official undertakings, saying, "You should, as responsible and respected public officers, discharge your functions in conformity with all extant financial regulations, limiting yourselves to only the statutory functions bestowed upon you by the various acts establishing your respective agencies."

The memberships of the reconstituted board of FERMA include Mr. Abdulkadir Kure (chairman), Mr. Abdulaziz Umar (member), Mr. Musa Husaini (Member), Mr. Yakubu Bello (member), Mr. Akin Arikawe (member), Ike Ndiokwelu (member), Mr. Bolaji Dudu (member), a representative of the PPPRA (member), a representative of NARTO (member), a representative of NAPTHO (member), a representative of the Federal Ministry of Finance (Member), a representative of FRSC (Member), a representative of the Federal Ministry of Works, Housing and Urban Development (Member).

Those for FHA are Mr. Ademola Attah (Chairman) and Kabir Maiwada (Member).

The FMBN board members include Mr. Barnabas Gemade (mhairman), Siraja Garba Sallama (member), Tanko J. Ibrahim (member), Albert Aigbogun (member), Tajudeen Oladipo (Member), Lanre Edun (member), Nonye Rajis-Okpara (member), Mansur Ahmed Yakasai (member), Bandiya Zayyanu Muhammed (member), Abubakar M. Muktar (member) and Abubakar Mamu (member).

Minister of State in the ministry, Mrs. Grace Ekpiwhre, said the inauguration of the boards marked another chapter in the lives of the celebrated Nigerians appointed into the boards. She admonished them to uphold "a high sense of probity, good and exemplary conduct predicated on the fear of God and inspired by the zeal to serve." She said their success would be assessed by how much and how fast they were able to achieve the critical components of the Seven-point Agenda in road construction, housing delivery, urban renewal and land reforms, and "thereby impacting positively on the lives of Nigerians."

Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Tukur Bello Ingawa, assured the board members of the support and continued cooperation of the ministry in the discharge of their duties. He said, "As partners in progress, the ministry will be ever ready to provide you with the necessary guidance, advice, and assistance to make your job of providing policy direction to your respective agencies easy and smooth."