₦airaland Forum

kneeyi1@gmail.com

The House of Representatives finance committee walked out the minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Thursday, after a brief but stormy session in which lawmakers tasked the minister with 50 questions on the state of the Nigerian economy. Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala had earlier presented the budget proposals for 2014 to the Senate and the House of Representatives, before meeting the house finance committee.

The minister said she was indisposed and only
responded to her invitation out of respect for the
legislature. But when lawmakers offered to excuse her due to her health, but with a condition she responds to 50 questions in writing within two weeks, the minister backtracked choosing instead to answer the questions at the meeting. Exchanges between the minister and the committee chairman, Abdulmumini Jibrin, quickly escalated with Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala accusing the committee of being disrespectful.

“With all due respect, I will not tell your committee that
I’m feeling fine when I’m not. We have had good working relationship with your committee; I thought we’ll be treated with courtesy, but the way you’re starting is a bit disturbing,” the minister said. Mr. Jibrin said the committee had ruled that she be allowed to go and respond to the questions. “We don’t want any haphazard answers,” he said. The minister insisted on being heard, but was asked to eave.

“I’m sorry Honourable Minister. You can only decide what happens in the Finance Ministry and not in the House,” Mr. Jibrin said.

Read the lawmakers’ 50 questions below: House Committee on Finance Questions for the HMF/CME on the State of the Economy.

1. What should you consider as the major economic
achievements of this government in the 2013 fiscal year
and why? In your explanation, we will need facts and
figures in demonstrating such achievements.

2. You have been credited with many announcements regarding Nigeria’s economy as one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. If the economy is one of the fast growing economies, what is exactly growing the economy? What role does government play in the said economic growth, especially given that as high as 80 percent of the country’s total annual budget spending still goes into recurrent expenditure?

3. Since your arrival as minister of finance in 2011,
you have publicly announced the need to reduce the
recurrent expenditure so that more money would be
made available to capital spending which is critical to
growing and diversifying the country’s economy. How far has government succeeded in making these necessary cuts; and where exactly have these cuts been made in this effort to reduce recurrent expenditure? In other words, based on real amount spent on capital expenditure, how much reduction was made in 2011 against 2010, in 2012 against 2011 and in 2013 against 2012?

4. You are known to be celebrating a single-digit GDP growth. But speaking recently at a breakfast dialogue with some members of the organized private sector in Lagos, organized by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), you were quoted as saying: “We are growing, but not creating enough jobs. That is a very big challenge…We need to grow faster. I think it needs to grow at least 9 to 10 percent to drive job growth the way we want.” Don’t you agree that a good finance minister managing an economy like ours should be celebrating a GDP growth as high as 20 percent annually? Why is it that our economy cannot grow beyond a single digit? How many jobs are being created as a result of these said growths? In which sectors of the economy are these jobs created? If in private sector, what contributions is government making to further assist these private sector firms?

5. In the presence of Nigeria’s huge infrastructure
deficit, why is it that the country’s debt-to-GDP at about
19 percent in 2012 remains one of the lowest in the world when compared to nations already with world-class Infrastructure and industrial economies such as
America’s 105 percent, Brazil’s 65.49 percent, India’s
67.60 percent, and South Africa’s 40.9 percent?

6. Since facts don’t lie, have you any disagreements
with the September 4, 2013 Global Competitiveness
Report of the World Economic Forum for 2013-2014,
which ranked Nigeria 120th out of 148 countries ranked
in the Global Competitiveness Index, including being
ranked far behind some African countries such as
Mauritius 45th, South Africa 53rd, and Kenya 96th?

7. ”For the first time in Nigeria’s 53rd year history, we
have successfully privatized the electric power industry,’’ so said the President at a recent meeting in London with some foreign investors. As minister of finance should you agree that the recent privatization of the country’s power infrastructure is worth celebrating as a major economic achievement in 2013, when in reality there is little or nothing to show as an improvement in the country power supply? Also why our rush to wholesale privatization of the power sector when countries like South Africa,

generating as high as 42,000MW still have their power
sector mostly in public hands?

8. What was your reaction to the November 12, 2013
statement credited to the World Bank Country Director
for Nigeria, Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly, who said that
over 100 million Nigerians are today living in absolute
destitution, representing an unheard-of 8.33 percent of
the world’s total number of people living in destitution?

9. Nigerians are increasingly perplexed that these days
nothing happens without government borrowing. And for most Nigerians, it is frightening how those managing the economy are just dragging us into excessively
unproductive debts. More worrisome is the fact that
every effort is being made to hide the details of the
country’s debt stock from Nigerians. Where are the facts that the country’s current high rate of borrowing is
productive, let alone have the ability to be repaid without having to resort to more borrowings?

10. Is prudence in our borrowing simply reduction in
borrowing or simply constructive borrowing with
government putting necessary measures in place to
ensure that domestic debt profile is properly supervised
and utilized by curbing corruption?

More from source. premiumtimesng.com/news/151805-reps-walk-out-okonjo-iweala-give-her-50-question-homework-on-nigerian-economy.html

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Kneeyi1@gmail.com

South Africa's first black president and anti-
apartheid icon Nelson Mandela has died, South
Africa's president says. Mr Mandela, 95, led South Africa's transition from white- minority rule in the 1990s, after 27 years in prison.

He had been receiving intense home-based medical care for a lung infection after three months in hospital.
In a statement on South African national TV, Mr Zuma
said Mr Mandela had "departed" and was at peace.
"Our nation has lost its greatest son," Mr Zuma said.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was one of the world's
most revered statesmen after preaching reconciliation
despite being imprisoned for 27 years.

He had rarely been seen in public since officially retiring
in 2004. "What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves," Mr Zuma said.

"Fellow South Africans, Nelson Mandela brought us
together and it is together that we will bid him farewell."
Earlier, the BBC's Mike Wooldridge, outside Mr
Mandela's home in the Johannesburg suburb of
Houghton, said there appeared to have been an
unusually large family gathering.

Among those attending was family elder Bantu Holomisa, A number of government vehicles were there during the evening as well, our correspondent says.
Since he was released from hospital, the South African
presidency repeatedly described Mr Mandela's condition as critical but stable.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and was elected South Africa's first black president in 1994. He stepped down after five years in office.

m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25249520?post_id=1583773440_10201962182847863

The Deji of Akure of Akure, Oba Adebiyi Adesida, the
monarch that presides over Akureland, the Ondo State
capital is dead.

Details of his passage was sketchy as of press time but
our correspondent learnt on Sunday that the monarch
died around 4am as a result of an unknown complication.

The 63-year-old first class paramount ruler ascended the throne about three years ago after his predecessor was deposed as a result of a street fight with one of the
former monarch’s wives
.
A highly competent source confirmed the death but said
such announcement could only be made after seven
days in accordance with tradition.

Details later.

www.punchng.com/news/deji-of-akure-dies-at-63/

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How do I go abt it.

Not working bro.
I got d app installed on my pc. When I lunch d pc version it sats execution conflict. I installed d 64 bit on a windows 8 PC.

As part of his efforts in ensuring participatory governance
and bringing government to grassroot, the Governor of
Ekiti State, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi has appointed a former prominent student leader as his Special Assistant on Students’ Matters; an office which he hopes will bring
about a working relationship between the Government and the Governed. It would be recalled that Dr. Fayemi, the Ekiti State Governor, had promised to choose among three nominees presented to him, who have got impeccable antecedence and of proven integrity, during his interactive session with the Student leaders at a parley about two months ago. The
governor has thus fulfilled his promise in making history,
by not only creating such an office but also confirming the
appointment of Adeolu Oyebode as the most preferred.
By the virtue of the appointment, Oyebode sets history by
becoming the first Special Assistant on Students’ Matters in
Ekiti State and also the youngest Special Assistant in
Nigeria.

He is in his mid twenties.
Oyebode was the Chairman of National Association of
Nigerian Students (NANS) Joint Campus Committee Ondo
and Ekiti States, between 2008 and 2010, a position which
gave him the opportunity to negotiate on behalf of
students and youths of Nigeria with Governments and
institution administrators both at Local, State and National
level and also a member of prominent youth organizations
In Nigeria.

As at his appointment, the Ikere-Ekiti born activist is the
Ekiti State Coordinator of Socialist Youth League and the
director of programmes and planning of the International
Youth Congress of Nigeria, the Nigerian charter of
International Youth Congress (IYC) Inc. – United State of
America (USA).

While reacting to the appointment and the history made,
Oyebode said it was dedicated to the constituency that
produced him.
“I give glory to God for the history made, as defined by
you, but the fact remains that I return all accolades to that
Students’ Constituency that produced me, there is every
possibility that I might not have been considered for this
assignment if I wasn’t produced from the students’
activism constituency and definitely, the confidence
reposed on me by the students who are left on campus
that made my recommendation must not also be dashed”
“I see this task as an assignment of my life; I must not fail
these young ones, my principal Mr. Governor and my
generation because of tomorrow”.

Source.
www.newsat247.com/nigerias-state-governor-fayemi-sets-history-appoints-youngest-special-assistant-in-country/

U mean GEJ is an ASUUite.
Hard to believe.

The end to the ongoing strike by the Academic
Staff Union Of Universities, ASUU, might not be in view yet, as the union has rejected the offer of N200 billion by the Federal Government. The government had earlier offered N130 to the protesting lecturers in order to resolve the impasse; the offer was also increased to N150 billion, all of which ASUU rejected, insisting that government must implement the 2009 agreement. The union asserted that going by the 2009 agreement, government is supposed to have injected N500 billion

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tpacalipse: ASUU is one. And at the negotiations wit Federal Government, state universities have their representatives too. This struggle is not for federal universities alone, state schools are also included as federal government fund states. If I must tell you, state universities have collected funds from the little that federal government has released. For example, Adekunle Ajasin has collected 1.05 billion directly from federal purse from this present strike action. The tertfund being enjoyed by most Lecturers on PhD programs and those travelling for conferences and seminars came from ASUU struggles and this funds are both enjoyed by state and federal universities. So many state universities in this country would be left naked if ETF buildings are removed from their institutions. Even some state universities shud be named ETF universities, as all their buildings are products of ETF, which is also a product of ASUU struggle. So, who the hell says state universities do not benefit from this struggle? It is very unfortunate that most Nigerian students do not even know what this ASUU strike is all about. Long live ASUU. Long live Nigeria.

Guy you are very wrong, I'm not impressed with ur post and be careful before you comment Here, cos wise people see... Where are u when the president gave His speech on sunday? On the national tv? You need to do more research before you start write Here.

Ivory Coast v Senegal

Ethiopia v Nigeria

Tunisia v Cameroon

Ghana v Egypt

Burkina Faso v Algeria.


God bless NIGERIA.

Source. www.punchng.com/sports/african-world-cup-play-offs-draw/

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