FG grants citizenship to 43 foreigners

Federal Government on Wednesday granted citizenship to 43 foreigners who applied for Nigerian citizenship. They were chosen from the 122 applicants presented to the Federal Executive Council by the Minister of Interior, Mr. Ababa Moro, who is also the chairman of the Advisory Council on Nigeria Citizenship. Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, said this at the end of the weekly FEC meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Maku, who was joined at the briefing by the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Usman, said nationals of Britain, United States of America, Lebanon, Russia, Egypt and Uruguay were among those granted Nigerian citizenship. He said the FEC decided to step down the remaining 79 applications to give room for further screening. Maku also said the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, briefed the meeting that the 2011 budget has performed 83 per cent. He quoted Okonjo-Iweala as expressing the confidence that by the end of the month, the budget would have recorded higher percentage of performance. He said the government was already working towards achieving 100 per cent performance for the 2012 budget. The FEC also approved contracts totalling N15.4bn. The contracts include the design for the dredging of River Benue, building of five new power substations and the rehabilitation of Warri Seaport. Maku said that because of the expected increase in power generation by the time new plants would have been commissioned later in the year, the government approved the building of the five substations in Kaduna, Enugu, Kogi, Ondo and Jigawa States and to be completed in 24 months. The project, according to the minister, will cost $ 21,400,650.42, €5,148, 815, and N3, 675,786,105.87. The council also approved the rehabilitation of AMS Terminal ‘B’ at Old Port, Warri, Delta State for the Ministry of Transport/Nigerian Ports Authority in favour of Messrs China Harbour Engineering Company Limited in the sum of N2,022,310,942.78 inclusive of all taxes with a completion period of nine months. When completed, the project will meet the berthing requirements of shipping companies serving oil drilling and prospecting companies.