Kano: Igbo Group Wants FG, Boko Haram to Dialogue

Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano 

The Eze Ndigbo of Kano, Igwe (Dr) Boniface Ibekwe, has appealed to the federal government and the Boko Haram members to dialogue for peace to retun in the restive states of the north.

Dr. Ibekwe also condemned in strongest terms the dastardly killing and maiming of innocent worshippers at the Bayero University, Kano (BUK) old campus and noted that they should know that "they our children.”

He said: "Members of this group should end their hostilities and consider dialogue as a road map to the peaceful resolution of whatever grievances they have."

The Eze Ndigbo also commended the Joint Task Force (JTF) in handling the situation "and it is in this vein that we wish to call on all Igbo’s and indeed other ethnics groups in Kano not to see the problem as targeted at Igbos but should rather to know that it is a general calamity.”

Addressing reporters in Kano Monday, the Eze Ndigbo said: “Igbos should go about their normal lawful business without fear, molestation or intimidation and always commit the situation in prayer for divine intervention”.

Dr. Ibekwe then commended Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso for his untiring efforts to contain the challenges and for his ability to continue with his infrastructural development in the state, despite distractions.

Gowon: We Did Everything to Avert Civil War

Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon

More than four decades after the Nigerian Civil War, one of the key actors and former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, has expressed regrets about the carnage, saying he did everything possible to avoid it.

He said: “Whatever the cause, there was no need to go into a civil war.”

Gowon also said the call for the Islamisation of Nigeria by Boko Haram should not be interpreted to mean the position of the entire North.

Speaking at the Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos at the weekend at the sixth edition of the Silverbird Man of the Year event where he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award along with Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, he said: “It was not my wish or the wish of those serving with me at the time (to prosecute the war). We did everything to make sure it did not happen.”

Referring to the effort of the late Ghanaian Head of State, Gen Ankrah to reconcile the Biafran secessionist leader, late Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu and himself at a parley in Aburi, which later became famously known as the 'Aburi Accord', Gowon disclosed that a decision was reached to give Ojukwu everything he wanted,  “including giving up my own power”.

In a veiled pointer indicting Ojukwu for not keeping his part of the bargain, Gowon implied that the war was forced on him.

According to him, “if there was no secession, the situation would not have degenerated into war. In a situation where Nigeria was to be dismembered, we had to order a police action to bring back that part of the country. But in 24 hours, the Biafran army had overrun parts of Western Nigerian and were heading towards Lagos. Of course, their intention was not to come and shake hands with Gowon. If they had succeeded, Ojukwu would have been Head of State of Nigeria and he would have defended Nigeria.”

In an emotion-laden voice, Gowon, who spoke after watching highlights from a film, “Making of a Biafran Legend: Reminiscences of a Boy Soldier” by Basil Okafor, said the film brought back sad memories.

“My heart bleeds to see that (film) clip with those kwashiorkor-stricken children. God knows how much effort I made to send food to those children, but it was sabotaged by propaganda that the federal troops had poisoned the food,” he said.

Speaking on the popular interpretation of his name, Go-On-With-One-Nigeria, the former head of state said: "I did not produce that coinage. I read it on the pages of newspapers like everyone else. Then I thought to myself, 'is this what Nigerians want me to do?' This made me more resolved in the task of keeping Nigeria one."

Gowon, who is yet to write his memoirs, recalled the warm welcome he got from children in eastern Nigeria who survived the war.

“They sang songs of welcome and acknowledged us as their fathers and leaders. It drew tears from my eyes and I promised them that if I had anything to do with Nigeria, I will make sure we did whatever we can to restore the hope of those children.”
Acknowledging the efforts of former soldiers, officers and administrators who have written books on the Nigeria Civil War, Gowon said: “This calls for me to write my own story.”

However, the former head of state regretted the current state of insecurity in the country and said emphatically that the call by Boko Haram for Islamisation of Nigeria and its attendant carnage were being done by that particular sect and should not be misconstrued as the stance of the whole North.

“I feel very bad with what is happening (the way we kill ourselves). I had hoped that after the civil war, there will be no more killing. We must do whatever we can to halt this trend,” he said.

Gowon also said the way out “is for us to love Nigeria and believe in Nigeria; good or bad, right or wrong. In the name of God, stop the excesses and imbibe the love of your country. Bring all your grievances to the table for discussion. Let us get together truly and sincerely and find a solution to our differences.”

Gowon, who was Nigeria’s longest serving military head of state, was described by Chief Edem Duke, Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation who presented him with the award on behalf of the organisers, as a “living legend”.

Power: FG Admits Planning Mistakes

President Goodluck Jonathan

Mistakes were made by the Federal Government at the planning stage of the building Independent Power Plants (IPPs) in the country, President Goodluck Jonathan said Monday.

These mistakes, he said, were because the government was in a hurry to achieve results and the feasibility studies were overlooked.

Although he did not elaborate on these mistakes, but when most of the contracts were awarded in 2006, there were no plans on how they would get gas.

This has led to the non-commissioning of many of the plants but efforts are currently on to lay gas pipelines to the sites so that they can begin to generate electricity.

Jonathan, who was speaking at a workshop on “Unbundling Barriers to Achieving Power Sector Vision” at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, also warned that manipulation in the privatisation and implementation of the power roadmap would no longer be tolerated.

He said officials handling the exercise would face severe punishment should they bow to any pressure to do otherwise as Nigeria must get it right this time.

He further said in the privatisation process of the sector, only competent and performing companies with proven ability to deliver would be given opportunity to participate while those short-listed must have followed internationally laid down procedures for the best results to be achieved.

The president also called for more advocacy to keep Nigerians abreast with the events in the policies and programmes of government, especially before the take-off of planned increase in tariff next month.

He said there was need to always keep the people informed to remove friction.

Jonathan, who spent the whole day with Vice-President Namadi Sambo at the workshop, said the real decisions would be articulated today so that major decisions and adjustments that will yield fast result in the power sector could be reached.

He warned officials to resist any manipulative politician, even if the person claimed to have come from him, saying that anyone indicted for not executing the programme transparently would be made to face the music alone.

He said: “The Bureau for Public Enterprises must follow up on the privatisation issue strictly. We do not want to hear any story again; they must follow issues to the letter and strictly with the dates.  That we must do with date on the power reform roadmap.  We agreed that it is only through privatisation that we would get to where we want to go.

“Let me use this opportunity to warn that I do not want to hear that they have been influenced by any politician. At least I am the number one politician. Whether the person is my mother or my uncle, I do not want to hear that somebody is from the president or vice-president or that. If you make mistakes, you are on your own and we will deal with you decisively.  We must give to the best.

“The BPE will never make mistakes to give these to companies that cannot perform. It must follow international best practice. So I want to assure all Nigerians and all the companies that have indicated their interest that there will be no political manipulations and that everything will be followed professionally and only the best can get it. We are not going to play politics with the power privatisation programmes.”

On the planned date of tariff increase, he said: “I do not think we have had a robust advocacy and this happened to me during the deregulation. At a point, I wanted to send a team to the states to work with the governors and Benue State Governor (Gabriel Suswam) said no that if we do that, there could be crises, that the governors should take charge. At the end of the day, by the day we announced the deregulation, almost everything was on my head.

“Everything was on Jonathan to the extent that even the House of Reps met on a Sunday to discuss it and it became an issue. At a point, some of the governors who participated in pressurising me started shifting back. All what I am saying is that we do not have a robust advocacy. The Civil Society may come and tell you that they never heard you. We want enough communication so that we do not get to that June 1st and Nigerians have not been sufficiently informed.”

Earlier, participants at the forum agreed that the problem that afflicted the power sector stemmed from lack of feasibility studies or citing of the stations through political considerations without looking out availability of gas to fire the stations which has led to plants being ready without gas to power them.

However, speaking at a joint address of State House correspondents, Ministers of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, and his Petroleum Resources counterpart, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, said that they met the situation on ground and had to synergise and ensure that never again would such mistakes arise.
Nnaji, who said current power generation hovered between 3,500 to 3700 megawatts, blamed loss of generation at hydro stations to low water levels, but promised that from next month, the volume of generation would steadily increase “never to drop as it is now”.

The ministers said for every power plant built now, there was plan to supply gas to power them while the transmission and distribution infrastructure were being expanded to ensure that the wheeling of generated power to homes was no longer a problem, adding that from where the country was now in power supply, it will only improve and never to fall back.

On the gas supply emergency declared, Diezeani said the scheme was looking beyond the immediate needs but includes supply plans till 2020.

She said that by the first quarter of 2013 Nigeria would be able to approximately put at the disposal of thermal stations in the country 500 million square cubic meters of gas daily.

“But beyond that we also looked at the schedule to ensure that we begin to ramp up so that we can ensure proper alignment between the gas supply and the NIPPs which will be coming on board. Because as early as the end of this month, NIPPs will begin to come on stream so we are planning for the immediate 12 months calling it an emergency period to put the required impetus on the necessity gas supplies to meet the demands on power sector.

“Beyond that, we are looking to 2014 and then we will ramp up again between 2014 and 2020. So we are going into very aggressive planning stages from here on. But the beauty of it is that we are now aligning properly with the power sector. Before this time, there was no alignment which means that while the NIPPs were being built nobody considered where the gas that would fuel the power for the NIPPs was coming from. They did not align the NIPPs that were being built with the required gas supply. Now we are working together, power and petroleum resources ministries to ensure henceforth that will never happen again,” she said.

Nnaji explained that “we have a number of power plants that are going to come on stream this year and next year and the issue is quite unlike in the past, when these power plants come due for production that the gas will be valuable because a lot of the power plants that we are building over the next many years would be gas-fired. So we must prepare for the gas and of course the infrastructure must be well planned so that we don't have stranded capacity due to transmission.

“What we are doing now is fleshing out all those issues that are impeding progress in the power sector and aligning them and the stakeholders are here so that these issues would be addressed. Alignment didn't exist before but with what we are doing now you are going to see real deliveries.”

On sustainability, he said: “Let me say from this month a lot of power will come and will continue to come through the end of the year. So what Nigerians are expecting will begin to be seen for sure. The misalignment yes, at the beginning there was no proper plan to deliver gas to support power, that is really the problem and is not just thinking it, it has to be planning it, engaging the people that are to be part of it and committing resources to ensure we realise it.”

President Goodluck Jonathan

Mistakes were made by the Federal Government at the planning stage of the building Independent Power Plants (IPPs) in the country, President Goodluck Jonathan said Monday.

These mistakes, he said, were because the government was in a hurry to achieve results and the feasibility studies were overlooked.

Although he did not elaborate on these mistakes, but when most of the contracts were awarded in 2006, there were no plans on how they would get gas.

This has led to the non-commissioning of many of the plants but efforts are currently on to lay gas pipelines to the sites so that they can begin to generate electricity.

Jonathan, who was speaking at a workshop on “Unbundling Barriers to Achieving Power Sector Vision” at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, also warned that manipulation in the privatisation and implementation of the power roadmap would no longer be tolerated.

He said officials handling the exercise would face severe punishment should they bow to any pressure to do otherwise as Nigeria must get it right this time.

He further said in the privatisation process of the sector, only competent and performing companies with proven ability to deliver would be given opportunity to participate while those short-listed must have followed internationally laid down procedures for the best results to be achieved.

The president also called for more advocacy to keep Nigerians abreast with the events in the policies and programmes of government, especially before the take-off of planned increase in tariff next month.

He said there was need to always keep the people informed to remove friction.

Jonathan, who spent the whole day with Vice-President Namadi Sambo at the workshop, said the real decisions would be articulated today so that major decisions and adjustments that will yield fast result in the power sector could be reached.

He warned officials to resist any manipulative politician, even if the person claimed to have come from him, saying that anyone indicted for not executing the programme transparently would be made to face the music alone.

He said: “The Bureau for Public Enterprises must follow up on the privatisation issue strictly. We do not want to hear any story again; they must follow issues to the letter and strictly with the dates.  That we must do with date on the power reform roadmap.  We agreed that it is only through privatisation that we would get to where we want to go.

“Let me use this opportunity to warn that I do not want to hear that they have been influenced by any politician. At least I am the number one politician. Whether the person is my mother or my uncle, I do not want to hear that somebody is from the president or vice-president or that. If you make mistakes, you are on your own and we will deal with you decisively.  We must give to the best.

“The BPE will never make mistakes to give these to companies that cannot perform. It must follow international best practice. So I want to assure all Nigerians and all the companies that have indicated their interest that there will be no political manipulations and that everything will be followed professionally and only the best can get it. We are not going to play politics with the power privatisation programmes.”

On the planned date of tariff increase, he said: “I do not think we have had a robust advocacy and this happened to me during the deregulation. At a point, I wanted to send a team to the states to work with the governors and Benue State Governor (Gabriel Suswam) said no that if we do that, there could be crises, that the governors should take charge. At the end of the day, by the day we announced the deregulation, almost everything was on my head.

“Everything was on Jonathan to the extent that even the House of Reps met on a Sunday to discuss it and it became an issue. At a point, some of the governors who participated in pressurising me started shifting back. All what I am saying is that we do not have a robust advocacy. The Civil Society may come and tell you that they never heard you. We want enough communication so that we do not get to that June 1st and Nigerians have not been sufficiently informed.”

Earlier, participants at the forum agreed that the problem that afflicted the power sector stemmed from lack of feasibility studies or citing of the stations through political considerations without looking out availability of gas to fire the stations which has led to plants being ready without gas to power them.

However, speaking at a joint address of State House correspondents, Ministers of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, and his Petroleum Resources counterpart, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, said that they met the situation on ground and had to synergise and ensure that never again would such mistakes arise.
Nnaji, who said current power generation hovered between 3,500 to 3700 megawatts, blamed loss of generation at hydro stations to low water levels, but promised that from next month, the volume of generation would steadily increase “never to drop as it is now”.

The ministers said for every power plant built now, there was plan to supply gas to power them while the transmission and distribution infrastructure were being expanded to ensure that the wheeling of generated power to homes was no longer a problem, adding that from where the country was now in power supply, it will only improve and never to fall back.

On the gas supply emergency declared, Diezeani said the scheme was looking beyond the immediate needs but includes supply plans till 2020.

She said that by the first quarter of 2013 Nigeria would be able to approximately put at the disposal of thermal stations in the country 500 million square cubic meters of gas daily.

“But beyond that we also looked at the schedule to ensure that we begin to ramp up so that we can ensure proper alignment between the gas supply and the NIPPs which will be coming on board. Because as early as the end of this month, NIPPs will begin to come on stream so we are planning for the immediate 12 months calling it an emergency period to put the required impetus on the necessity gas supplies to meet the demands on power sector.

“Beyond that, we are looking to 2014 and then we will ramp up again between 2014 and 2020. So we are going into very aggressive planning stages from here on. But the beauty of it is that we are now aligning properly with the power sector. Before this time, there was no alignment which means that while the NIPPs were being built nobody considered where the gas that would fuel the power for the NIPPs was coming from. They did not align the NIPPs that were being built with the required gas supply. Now we are working together, power and petroleum resources ministries to ensure henceforth that will never happen again,” she said.

Nnaji explained that “we have a number of power plants that are going to come on stream this year and next year and the issue is quite unlike in the past, when these power plants come due for production that the gas will be valuable because a lot of the power plants that we are building over the next many years would be gas-fired. So we must prepare for the gas and of course the infrastructure must be well planned so that we don't have stranded capacity due to transmission.

“What we are doing now is fleshing out all those issues that are impeding progress in the power sector and aligning them and the stakeholders are here so that these issues would be addressed. Alignment didn't exist before but with what we are doing now you are going to see real deliveries.”

On sustainability, he said: “Let me say from this month a lot of power will come and will continue to come through the end of the year. So what Nigerians are expecting will begin to be seen for sure. The misalignment yes, at the beginning there was no proper plan to deliver gas to support power, that is really the problem and is not just thinking it, it has to be planning it, engaging the people that are to be part of it and committing resources to ensure we realise it.”

Lagos Fires 788 Doctors over Strike, Recruits 373

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola

Lagos State Government Monday fired 788 medical doctors following their refusal to suspend their 13-day-old industrial action.

The government simultaneously employed 373 fresh ones “for immediate deployment in the public hospitals while recruitment continues”.

The Head of Service (HoS) of Lagos State, Mr. Adesegun Ogunlewe, said in a press statement that the dismissed doctors were axed by the “Lagos State University Teaching Hospital Board and the State’s Health Service Commission (HSC) following an illegal strike embarked upon by the doctors since April 16, 2012”.

He also said the two bodies attributed the sack to the refusal of the doctors to answer to queries issued to them to explain why they were absent from work without leave and without the due observance of the rules and regulations guiding strikes and industrial actions in the state’s public service.

According to Ogunlewe, 316 of the doctors were working with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital while the remaining 472 were from other hospitals in the state.

Explaining the acts leading to the sack of the doctors, the HoS said: “Resulting from the contemptible act of the Medical Doctors LASUTH Board and HSC, the two bodies that appointed them in line with subsisting statutes, served those who were ‘Absent without Leave’ (AWOL) with queries”, adding that while a handful of them responded, a majority of the doctors shunned the query.

He maintained that the strike came as a rude shock to the state government “since the leadership of the medical guild still met during the week preceding the illegal strike with top government officials in charge of health and establishment sectors”.

On what made the strike illegal, the statement said, among other things, that the doctors only gave the state government 24 hours notice “as against the time-tested and statute-bound processes and procedures for declaration of industrial disputes”.

THISDAY also gathered from the Special Adviser to the Governor on Information and Strategy, Mr. Lateef Raji, that the doctors’ decision to stay away from work, despite government efforts to revamp the state's health sector, was regrettable.

He alleged that “the strike was politically motivated", adding that it was curious that "the doctors could abandon their jobs at such a critical moment like this, when the state government is investing heavily in the sector”.

Raji insisted that the need to replace the doctors was aimed at saving the state’s health sector from total paralysis.

The state government also alleged that the doctors consume 60 per cent of its total annual recurrent expenditure, disclosing further that an average house officers earns as much as N173,927.33 monthly, while a consultant takes home as much as N801, 985.09, excluding  the teaching allowances.

Raji rejected the doctors' claim that the government had been adamant on its demands, explaining further that the government expends nothing less than N20 million on the training of each of its 339 resident doctors at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).

Raji, who further said only Lagos State competes with the Federal Government on the payment of its doctors, added: “We match the Federal Government naira-for-naira. We don’t short change our doctors.”

In the recent medical/officers’ salary regime published by the state government, doctors on level 12, step two, earn 207, 629.75; level 12, step three officers 213,784.00; level 12 step 4 N219,938.30 while level 12, step 15 officers earn N226,092.42.

In the same vein, doctors on level 15, step six earn 408,387.50; medical officers on level 15 step seven, earn N420,375.50, while those on level 15 step eight earn N432,363.50.

On the other hand, senior medical doctors at the consultant cadre of level 17 step 4 earn 703,390.50; level 17 step five officers earn 723,109.25; level 17 step six officers earn N742, 828.33, level 17, step seven officers earn N762,547.25, level 17, step eight doctors earn N782,266.17 while level 17 step nine officers earn N801, 985.09.

The doctors had, on April 24, embarked on an indefinite strike following the expiration of their initial three-day warning strike between April 11 and 13. Key on their demands’ list is that the state government should effect a 100 per cent implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS).

In September 2010, the doctors had also embarked on a three-month strike to press home its demand for payment of 100 per cent CONMESS.

However, after three months of fruitless negotiations, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola approved 75 per cent salary increase, prompting the doctors to suspend the strike.

The ongoing action is aimed at compelling the state government to implement the entire CONMESS.

Meanwhile, the state Chairman of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Edamisan Temiye, after an emergency congress, said the association described the government's action as draconian, undemocratic and most uncalled for.

“If they do this to the doctors and they survive, they will do it to the other workers in the health team. They have turned everybody to their slaves because they think they are so big now that people should become their slaves.”

He explained that last week, at its 52nd Annual General Conference and Delegates' Meeting, the decision-making body of the NMA had reviewed what was happening in Lagos State and were very disturbed and arrived at the decision to set up an elders’ committee to meet with the state government.

Kano: Three Bombs Defused at BUK

Bayero University Gate, Kano

Three bombs have been defused at the Bayero University, Kano  by members of the police bomb squad.

The latest incident, which happened Tuesday, is coming on the heels of a number of attacks on the higher institution in recent weeks by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect, which have left scores dead.

Enugu Shuts Down 10 Hospitals for Poor Standard

Governor Sullivan Chime

Enugu State Government has shut down ten privately owned hospitals in the state for declining standards, inadequacy of health personnel and use of obsolete and non-functional equipment.

The state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Chuks Ugwoke, who announced this while briefing the pressmen at the end of the State Executive also disclosed that the state government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a North American Company, San Carlos of Mexico for the establishment of Pineapple fruit juice processing factory in the state.

He gave the names of the clinics closed by the task force set up by the state Ministry of Health to monitor the standard of practice by private health facilities in the state as Moonlight clinic 81 Agbani Road, Enugu, Chief Dennis Okafor Memorial hospital and maternity, Ogbete Avenue off Kings Way Road, Zirank hospital and maternity, 167 Nike Road Abakpa Nike and Mount Olive Specialist hospital, Abakpa Nike, all in Enugu.

Others are the Royal Diagnostic Centre, 200 Agbani road Awkunanaw, Spring of Live Specialist hospital, 106 Agbani Road, Merit Laboratory, 151 Nike Road Abakpa Nike, Somadina hospital, 146 Nike Road ,Abakpa Nike and Divine Dividend Medical Centre, No 5 Udo Club road Gariki Awkunanaw, Enugu.

According to the Commissioner, the exercise is an ongoing one and would cover more than 450 registered private health facilities all over the 17 local government areas of the state to ensure that their owners comply with the standard set up by government and enable those seeking health care services get the best from the institutions.

He said strict sanction would be imposed on offenders who reopen their clinics without satisfying the laid down requirements.

The fruit juice project  the commissioner disclosed, would be executed by the state  government and the North America Company at 46 per cent ratio.  Already, the State Executive Council has approved the sum of  N965,320.02 representing its forty percent contribution for the purchase of agricultural and construction equipment for the take off of the project.

According to Ugwoke, the North American Company would in turn contribute 60 per cent of the sum which would take care of the purchase of bulldozer, loaders vibro compacter, tractors, harrows and other farming equipment for the project.

The commissioner who was accompanied by his Transport and Agriculture counterpart, Professor Martin Anikwe and Chuka Utazi, and SPA Rural Development, Mr. Dons Udeh, said the factory when established would create jobs and usher in well organised farming system in the state.

Ugwoke told the press that the council also gave approval for the development of raw surface water supply from Attavu River in Umueze Awkunanaw in Nkanu West local government area by the state Ministry of Environment and Korean firm’

Under the programme, the pilot project which will be replicated in the 17 local government areas of the state would involve collecting water from an existing river and piping it to treatment facility for advanced water treatment.

For the project when completed would help satisfy water demand of the people, improve hygienic and environmental health through safe drinking water, reduce water borne diseases.

UN: Attacks in Nigeria, Iraq Show Terrorism Still Formidable

United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has said though collective efforts had disrupted attacks and disabled terrorist networks, recent attacks in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen showed that the threat was still formidable.

Addressing the Security Council at the UN headquarters in New York Friday during the open debate on "Threats to International Peace and Security Caused by Terrorist Acts", Ki-moon noted that, "Terrorism is a significant threat to peace and security, prosperity and people."

He said while the international community continues to pursue a robust and comprehensive response, "terrorist organizations continue to look for new havens, adopt new tactics and seek new targets."

Noting that in combating terrorism, the international community must work as one, the UN scribe said, "by working together - from strengthening law enforcement to tackling the underlying drivers of extremism - we can greatly reduce this major threat to peace and security."

In that respect, he expressed hope that member states would decide to create the position of a UN Counter-Terrorism Co-ordinator to promote better co-ordination, collaboration and Co-operation among all players.

He acknowledged that the newly established UN Counter-Terrorism Centre, within the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force Office, plays a critical role in supporting member states in all areas under the four pillars of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.