₦airaland Forum

dikeigbo2:
uote author=BeeBeeOoh post=63724932]
Oh Lord, please save Zimbabwe






As if your own country is safe

The Senate yesterday said the current payment of N26 per litre to subsidise Premium Motor Spirits (PMS) by the federal government was illegal as the monies were not appropriated for by the National Assembly as constitutionally required.

The matter of subsidy returned to the forefront of national discourse recently in the wake of the lingering fuel scarcity, following reports that the landing cost of the product per litre, had increased to N171, while the official price remains N145.

The Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Maikanti Baru, said six days ago that PMS was currently being subsidised with N26 per litre, due to government’s determination to retain the pump price at N145, despite the landing cost of N171.

He outlined the cost, insurance and freight of the product to $620 per metric tonne, and that at the exchange rate of N305 to US$1, the landing cost was N171.

Baru put consumption at about 50 million liters daily but attributed the increase to hoarding of the product.

The Vice President Yemi Osinbajo briefing journalists in Lagos recently, said the subsidy payments were being borne by the NNPC and not the federal government.

The statement drew the ire of several stakeholders who said Osinbajo’s statement implies that the NNPC can spend monies without appropriation, despite being an agency of the federal government, or that the corporation is independent of the government.

The Senate joined the controversy yesterday when it declared that the said subsidy payments were not appropriated for, and therefore illegal.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources ( Downstream), Senator Kabiru Marafa, speaking at a news briefing yesterday said the Senate was determined to stop the payments which are illegal.

” At our slated investigative public hearing on the sector next week Thursday, NNPC and other stakeholders should be prepared to explain to Nigerians who approved the subsidy for them and who appropriated it?

“There is complacency in the sector and sharp practices that must be stopped. They want to take us back to subsidy regime that has never been beneficial to ordinary Nigerians across the country. We cannot go back to such scam called subsidy which robbed the country of N10 trillion between 2006 and 2016.

” Before we went on recess , I remember submitting on the floor of the senate that I am no body’s man or rubber stamp ,the same way I strongly believe that the Senate is not a rubber stamping platform for anybody or arm of government,” he said .

Marafa maintained that there must be transparency in the sales and importation of fuel, which he claimed began in 2015 under the current administration.

“The current administration opted for the more transparent model of directing selling crude oil and purchasing refined products, instead of the model of swapping crude for refined products adopted by the previous administration,” he noted.

StarUp:
The last picture with the guy on suit sitting on the ground looks like he has started seeing visions and revelations about Nigeria's future. Who knows maybe he is supposed to be a "Man of God" but ended up becoming "Man of the bottle"...God punish devil.

President Muhammadu Buhari says some Nigerian elite connived with foreign firms to defraud the country.

Buhari said this on Friday when he received a delegation of All Progressives Congress (APC) from Kebbi state in the presidential villa, Abuja.

The president said the elite colluded with foreign shipping firms, insurance companies and financial outfits to deplete the country’s foreign reserves.

But the president did not identify such individuals.

He said: “When I was told that the CBN had no savings after the windfall of selling oil for more than 100 dollars per barrel for many years and production was 2.1 billion barrels per day, I did not believe them.

“I did not believe them because majority of Nigerians cannot afford imported food; they rely on what is locally grown. It turned out that 50 per cent of the export bills were fraudulent, courtesy of the Nigerian elite.

“Unfortunately, we will not know all that happened because the elite worked in collusion with institutions in developed countries like insurance firms, shipping companies and other financial outfits, to perpetuate the fraud.”

Buhari reiterated his administration’s commitment to reviewing and strengthening agricultural reforms “until Nigeria regains its pride of place as food exporting country”.

While observing that the country’s rice import bill has dropped significantly, he said: “Beyond self-sufficiency, Nigeria must strive to become net exporter of food commodities.

“We are not doing badly in the agriculture sector. Nigerians and indeed the world, are beginning to appreciate our efforts. We will work harder until we start exporting food.

“We are happy that rice and beans importation into the country have gone down by over 90 per cent, and everyone can see how productive states like Kebbi turned out to be and states like Lagos, Ogun and Ebonyi are following the example.”

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

Organized labour has hailed the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, for directing the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to cut short its recess and immediately convene industry stakeholders meeting in a bid to end the ongoing fuel crisis that has imposed hardship on the citizens.

NEC member of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Issa Aremu, observed that the protracted fuel crisis was a reflection of “crisis of corporate governance in the petroleum sector”.

According to the labour leader, the bane of down stream sector was “abysmal absence of accountability, transparency and openness in the administration of the petroleum resources of Nigeria,” adding that only the parliament can make a difference in “exposing the rot” in the sector.”

Comrade Aremu said the Senate leadership by urging relevant committee members to resume duty had shown that the legislature is truly a vent for public grievances, a useful organ of public opinion, adding that legislators cannot be in recess when those who elected them were groaning in filling stations.

The labour leader urged the legislators to demand for consequences of the actions and inactions of petroleum sector operators.

In his words, “There is a deep seated conflict of interest in the downstream sector; regulators are operators, regulators are importers, importers are products hoarders, regulators are also saboteurs, definitely we have a sector capture in our hands, Nigeria and Nigerians need liberation.”

The Labour leader added , “NNPC is the only public corporation that annually awards its directors long service incentives for no service at all, for non-functioning refineries, called for a total ban on importation to reinvent domestic refineries and beneficiation to crude oil.”

Comrade Aremu however said if the intervention of the legislature failed to put an end to product shortages, labour may compel all Nigerians to return to street protests like in the past.

He observed that the situation may force the ruling elites to face up to the challenges of governance of the most populous promising but badly governed country in the continent.

“The one month long fuel shortage has further worsened poverty, puts productivity on hold. We dare not enter 2018, new year with this recurring old mess,” he warned.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Senator Kabiru Marafa, disclosed that following the directive of the Senate President, the Committee has summoned the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, and other relevant stakeholders in the petroleum sector to a crucial meeting on Thursday January 4, 2018.

frankyychiji:
Stewpid thread.

Buharis only achievement in 2017 is producing a wayward son who will represent Nigeria in the Paralympics next year.

The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has identified high cost of governance and inherent disconnect between political leaders and the populace as the major flaws of the presidential system of government.

On the contrary, he said the parliamentary system is cheaper to run and promotes popular participation and accountability.


Ekweremadu spoke at the inaugural session of the non-partisan Enugu West Peoples Assembly last Wednesday at Udi, Udi Local Government Area, Enugu State.

The lawmaker, who has been an advocate of a hybrid of the presidential and parliamentary systems of government, said deliberations at the assembly were consciously tailored along the parliamentary system to enable the people seek direct answers from their elected representatives on issues relating to their wellbeing and their collective aspirations.

“What we are doing here is a very creative contribution to political science. For a long time, some of us opposed the presidential system for the reason of its expensive nature and disconnect between the leaders and those they are leading.

“You hardly see your ministers and commissioners. Sometimes, even when you invite them, they do not come. But what we are doing here is akin to a parliamentary system where the Prime Minister Cabinet Ministers, and other government officials regularly field questions from the parliamentarians.

“If there is a problem with roads, the Minister of Works takes questions and offers answers. If the issues relates to transportation, the transport minister is taken to task and so on. That is exactly what we have been doing today.

“What we want to do is to show Nigerians that at our own level; at the local level, the parliamentary system can work and I am happy that it is working here and we are sitting here and thinking about the welfare of our people,” he said.

The Deputy Senate President also harped on the need to focus on the youths and women in the political recruitment process with a view to producing future leaderships that are vast in experience at all levels of government.

“We are going to promote political empowerment of the youths, especially at the lowest level to nurture them for higher political leadership. That is why the average age of our councilors in Enugu West senatorial district is about 25 years. In the next few years, they would have risen to the peak with sufficient experience instead of retiring midway as those that start much later in life,” he said.

Fielding questions on the high unemployment rate in Nigeria Ekweremadu said the solution rested on vocational training and skill acquisition as government could not provide employment for all.

“That was why I facilitated the setting up of the European Vocational Training School in Enugu to offer over 20 vocational training in the areas of technique, food services and hospitality, information and communication technologies, agriculture and energy, beauty and fashion among others to create a pool of self-employed people who will employ others,” he added.

He further explained that the Governor of Enugu State, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi was working on the establishment of two industrial park at 9th Mile and Ememe, Enugu, which would be boosted with a Free Trade Zone on completion to create job opportunities for the teeming masses of the state and beyond.

Meanwhile, the inaugural session of the Enugu West Peoples Assembly was graced by the elected political leadership in Enugu West, including the two members of the House of Representatives from the zone, Hon. Toby Okechukwu and Hon. Dennis Amadi as well as the five Council Chairmen, Councillors, traditional rulers, presidents-general of town unions, and representatives of youths, women, market associations.

dokiOloye:
Spot on bro.I work with a lot of supposedly educated Hausa/Fulani.
They can barely hide their joy anytime misfortune or death hits a southerner,especially SS and SE.
Come and see how doctors who were trained to and practice how to save lives were jubilating when d zoo army was in its campaign of murder in d SE!!
Wishing the young man quick recovery sha.

frankyychiji:
I have 2 accounts with First Bank and didn't get Nada.

dingbang:
Firstbank and union bank did...

oderemo:
I would have said gory.

The Federal government said it would use the $321 million stolen funds recovered from Switzerland on social protection programmes, while calling on Civil Society Organisations and the media to monitor the use

Senior Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Justice Reform and Open Government Partnership (OGP), Mrs. Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu, disclosed this in an interview with Daily Sun, in Abuja.

The money is said to be part of the over US$2.2 billion allegedly stolen by the late former head of state, Sani Abacha, when he presided over the nation between 1993 and 1998.

The money was originally deposited in Luxembourg, but was confiscated by a Swiss court in late 2014 and in March last year the two states signed an agreement on its repatriation.

The Attorney General of Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, had revealed that negotiation with Switzerland on the return of $321 million recovered from the late Abacha family had been concluded.

Malami stressed further that with the conclusion of negotiation, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed by parties at the Global Forum on Assets Recovery meeting coming up on December 4 to 6 in Washington and that the repatriation would follow within weeks as agreed by the parties.

Speaking with Daily Sun after an interactive session with Open Government Partnership Nigeria and Civil Society Organisations, Ibekaku-Nwagwu expressed the need for said CSO and the media to hold government accountable.

“It is important that CSO and the Media should be able to have the capacity to continue to hold government accountable on all fronts.

“OGP encourages government to implement transparency measures as well as citizens participation in governance. The whole idea is that citizens should looked into every budget to understand what government is doing and to be part of governance.

“And so what President Buhari did in May 2016, was to sign into Open Government Partnership Initiative (OGPI) and by so doing committing Nigeria to the principles of transparency, accountability and citizenship participation.

“And when he signed into it, Nigeria committed to physical transparency framework and anti-corruption, access to information and citizen engagement.

“Within these five or six thematic areas, we have open budgeting framework, open contracting framework and we agreed on transparency in the extracting sector, transparency in Revenue as well as improving the ease of doing business.

“The other critical components of that commitment is transparency in the recovery and management of recovered assets, especially stolen assets. And that is why we have CSO as key partners in monitoring that aspect.

“It is important that CSO and the Media to have the capacity to continue to hold government accountable in all fronts.

“Recently, we attend the Global Forum on Assets Recovery in Washington D.C. And CSOs from Nigeria were part of government delegation where Nigeria signed an MoU with Switzerland and World Bank on the return of the $321 million.

“We urged the CSO and the Media to monitor the funds which Nigeria has agreed to invest in social development, particularly in the cash transfer programme that the president is ready to implement.”

She revealed that the cash transfer programme will be managed with the World Bank and CSO.

According to her, “the idea is that CSO will have all the information to be able to know who and who is benefiting from the funds, who and who are actually poor and who are benefiting.”

The interactive session proper was to review the progress report presented by the National Secretariat and discuss the role CSOs and Media played in the progress made so far.

Lalasticlala, Mynd44

EternalTruths:
Where did he get fuel to ride his bike at top speed.?


Buhari should bring out the fuel he is hiding