The Federal Executive Council has approved N40.2 billion for the construction of Phase III of the National Assembly complex and renovation of the first and second phases of the complex.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed, told State House correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting on Wednesday in Abuja, that the project was under the Federal Government’s National Priority Programme.
Mohammed added that the project would involve the renovation of the two chambers of the National Assembly.
He said: “We are going to close down the two chambers of the National Assembly for a period of 12 months and we are lucky we have already provided large committee rooms that will be used during the period for the parliament to continue its work.
“The contract is for N40.2 billion and it will take 40 months to complete.”
Mohammed stated that the work concerning Phase III of the complex would involve the construction of a library, budget office, printing press, clinic, restaurants, banquet hall, places of worship and plenary hall (auditorium).
He explained that at the end of the project, television/radio/press facilities, fitness room, administrative offices, technical rooms, and meeting rooms would be available while two of the chambers would be renovated.
Also addressing the correspondents on the outcome of the meeting, chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo, the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, said FEC approved N3.6 billion for the purchase of an office building for the Petroleum Equalisation Fund Management Board.
According to Maku, the building is located at Plot 542, Cadastral Zone, B09, Kado District on the Mabushi Expressway, Abuja.
He said the board had been operating from rented quarters since 1998.
He also disclosed that the council approved the establishment of National Petroleum Laboratory in Owerri, Imo State to serve as a testing outfit for all petroleum products imported to the country.
He said the laboratory would also help to detect products being stolen from Nigeria or those that could pollute the Nigerian soil.
Maku stated that the meeting considered the draft bills on the metrological sector and that of National Migration Policy.
The minister said the meeting also dedicated its first session to paying tribute to the late former South African President, Nelson Mandela, where the council members unanimously stressed the need for Nigerians to be guided by unity and development of the country in politicking.
At the first session of its meeting devoted to paying tribute to Mandela, who died on December 5 at 95, Sambo invited ministers and other presidential aides in at the commencement of the session to individually admonish the virtues of Mandela.
One after the other, about 20 council members participated in the session, which lasted for 45 minutes.
In his tribute, Sambo said South Africa and indeed the continent had lost its greatest son who dedicated his entire life to the service of humanity.
He said Mandela was a great visionary, philanthropist, politician and anti-apartheid crusader whose entire life was devoted to the struggle for equality among all races and nations.
Sambo said: “He spearheaded the struggle for an end to apartheid in South Africa, a struggle he paid for.”
The vice president stressed that Mandela was in prison and ex-communicated from the rest of the world for 27 years.
He added that in all these time, Mandela never wavered in his fight against racial discrimination, which he believed in and in which he was ready to lay his life for.
He added: “At the end of apartheid, Mandela left no one in doubt that his struggle was for mankind and all races.
“He never looked back to the dark days of apartheid struggle.
“As the first black President of South Africa where he presided over a post apartheid regime, he made national reconciliation the primary task of his administration.
“He worked to reassure the white minority of running a multiracial government in a multiracial country where the right of every individual will be protected and guaranteed.
“After serving just one term in office and in spite of the very many successes he attained, Mandela did not rest on his oars.
“He continued with his activism and philanthropy at home and abroad despite his advanced age and health.”
Sambo said Mandela lived a life of exemplary leadership worthy of emulation.
All ministers, who paid the tribute, eulogised Mandela’s sacrificial and selfless quality.
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