Abuja – President YarÁdua had summoned his ministers, special advisers and other aides to a meeting with the aim of sounding them out on the way out of the economic meltdown currently unsettling the country.
The meeting eventually resolved to cut down the remunerations of the political office holders as a first measure at assuaging the economic down turn in Nigeria.
Inside sources claimed that he expressed misgivings at the level of corruption in government circles which he said had been hampering the government officials in performing effectively, and called for suggestions on how to tame the menace.
YarÁdua, it was learnt, had hardly landed when the Minister of Information, Professor Dora Akunyili, took the floor only to start recounting all efforts she had been making towards tackling the issue of corruption, seizing the opportunity to present her pet project: “Rebranding Nigeria”.
Unknown to Akunyili, it was not all the government officials that shared her deep passion for the project which critics had already started equating with the image laundering initiative put in place by the government of late General Sani Abacha and exclusively anchored then by Chief Tom Ikimi.
Akunyili had not gone far in her presentation when she was halted abruptly by a minister from South South, Godsday Orubabe, who reportedly drew her attention to the specific issue that President YarÁdua wanted the meeting to address, thus barring her from taking over the meeting with the rebranding Nigeria agenda.
Source – Tribune
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