Follow @9jaLife The Presidency yesterday defended the proposed N4 billion African First Ladies' Peace Mission building project, saying that to abandon the project would not augur well for the image of the country. Special Assistant on Media to the First Lady, Mr. Ayo Osinlu told State House Correspondents that despite the pressure being mounted on the National Assembly not to approve the Peace Mission building, there was no going back on the project. According to him, the office of the First Lady would rather do whatever it can to sensitise the public and the legislature on the importance of the project. Osinlu said that the project was not for the office of the First Lady to defend as the Federal Capital Territory Ministry has responded appropriately. He said: "I can assure you, without any doubt that it is far from the preference and far from the objective of the first lady to have the project turned down. One, it will amount to an abdication of responsibility by Nigeria and the diplomatic recklessness will be worst for the country. Certainly, the First Lady will not expect Nigeria to behave in such a reckless manner. "The First Lady would not also want the project abandoned because it is an undertaking that the country has made to the continent. It means therefore that the credibility of Nigeria will drop significantly if it goes back on its deliberate and willing commitment to host such an organ for the continent and at the request of the continent. "Africa First Ladies Mission said, give us a secretariat and you agreed that you will do it and then five years after, you wake up and say you don't want to do it again. I don't think that level of irresponsibility would be expected of Nigeria and the first lady won't encourage that at all. "What I want to do here is to sound a note of warning and to read a public alert. This is to the degree that we must be very careful and very observant and not allow ourselves to be seen by certain persons as instruments to drive very private and very personal political objectives. "If there are politicians [...]
