RAJAB 7 1430 A.H.
MONDAY JUNE, 29 2009
Print This Page 
Minister inspects Nigeria House in New York
The Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamusdeen Usman, on Friday inspected the Nigeria House in New York.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister was conducted round the 21-storey edifice by the Head of Chancery at the Nigerian Mission to the UN, Ibrahim Rabiu.
Usman had earlier met with Nigeria's Permanent Representative to the UN, Prof. Joy Ogwu, who decried the state of the building due to lack of maintenance over the years.
Ogwu told the minister that the edifice had been neglected and ``is now in a deteriorating condition''.
She noted that the building needed ``'total rehabilitation'' to enable it meet up with New York building code and other requirements.
Usman expressed displeasure over the condition of the building and promised to take up the matter with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Ojo Maduekwe for urgent attention.
He said the Federal Government was aware of the situation and that something was being done to address it.
Most of the facilities, including the heating and air conditioning system, elevators, offices, the curtain glass on the building have not been replaced for more than 16 years.
Recently, some high ranking Nigerian officials on a visit to New York were trapped in one of the elevators.
NAN reports that the building, was initiated by former military president, Ibrahim Babangida and inuagurated by his successor, Chief Ernest Shonekan in 1993.
Its management is the responsibility of the Nigerian mission to the UN, in conjunction with the Nigerian Consulate in New York.
NAN, however, recalls that Maduekwe had in an interview with NAN in New York said: ``It is high on my priority to make it more befitting to Nigeria's global status''.
He had said that a committee chaired by the Minister of State in the ministry, was studying a proposal for the maintenance and the possibility of engaging private managers.
He said budgetary constraints had in the past
hindered its maintenance.
NAN learnt that building is the country's largest Chancery among its foreign missions.
