₦airaland Forum

My dear Africans which way?

That is Nigeria for you. Meanwhile everybody focus attention on every cough made by the president. Whereas, the governors get away with a lot of atrocities.

July 26, 2019
Olusola Fabiyi and Olufemi Atoyebi, Abuja

The National President of the National Union of Local Government Employees, Ibrahim Khaleel, said the state governments had come up with another means of taking money from the local governments’ accounts despite the financial guidelines issued by the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit to them not to tamper with local governments’ funds again. The NFIU had said that in consonance with the 1999 Constitution, no debit would be allowed on any local government funds with effect from June 1, 2019 until the money was credited to the receiving local government.

In an exclusive interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja on Thursday, Khaleel accused the state governments across the country of forcing local governments to pay levies to them from the fund apportioned to the councils from the federation account. Khaleel said local governments were being asked to contribute to the running of some projects in states which ordinarily were responsibilities of state governments. He said, “The NFIU guidelines started operation on June 1, 2019 but it is being partially complied with by state governments. Banks are restricted by the guidelines that they should not make payment or approve expenditure from the joint accounts to any state governments’ agencies. Any bank that goes against the rule will pay a penalty of 100 per cent of the amount spent. Because of this, the money from the federation account is properly channelled to the local governments.

“But the major challenge we have observed in all the states is that after releasing the money to the councils, state governments are forcing the councils to return part of the money to state agencies in form of what they call government obligations’ fund. “These obligations differ from state to state. It is in form of contributions to finance projects like the activities of local government and chieftaincy affairs ministry, road construction, maintenance of universities, hospital maintenance and so on. Ordinarily, these are responsibilities of the state government. It’s like giving money with the right hand and taking it back with the left hand. “I am saying authoritatively that this is happening in all the 36 states of the federation. For the NFIU guidelines to achieve its purpose, local governments must be allowed to utilise their funds for the benefit of the people and not losing it to unnecessary levies by state governments.”

The NULGE boss said the union had approached the NFIU and other anti-graft agencies with facts gathered from states, saying that if the issue was not properly addressed, it would be difficult for the government to tackle corruption and issues related to it in the country.
He added, “We have already drawn the attention of the NFIU and the anti-graft agencies to this development. This is another form of fraudulent activities coming from state governments and it has to be addressed if truly issues of money laundering, financing terrorism and so on must be addressed also. “During our meeting with the leadership of the NFIU, we gave them facts and figures and they promised to follow up the issue. The truth is that the state governments have devised other means of taking back council funds after paying it to them.”

The NFIU spokesman, Sani Tukur, declined comment, saying the matter was in court. But a source said the local government councils should report the state governments to the anti-graft agencies if the governors forced them to part with their allocations. The official stated, ”Our guidelines is to ensure monies reach their destination. If they (councils) chose to give back to the governors willingly or unwillingly, I don’t know what they expect anyone to do. “If they are forced, they know what to do: They should simply report to the anti-graft agencies for investigations. As far as our records show, banks, which are the target of the guidelines, are complying fully.”

Meanwhile, the governors are saying they have not done anything wrong with their actions. While they also said the claim by the NULGE chairman might not apply to all the governors, they (the governors) however said some local governments had been supporting their state governors to execute what they called laudable projects. One of the governors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they would not go contrary to the directives of the NFIU until the NGF was done with the case it instituted against the agency.

The governor said, “The claim by the NULGE chairman may be true and it can also be false. In some states, the local government councils have been granted full autonomy. Elected council officials are however free to contribute to developmental projects in the states and their councils through the state governments. “You should also know that it is the same state and government. That is why the 36 state governors also contribute huge sums of money to the Federal Government to fight terror in the country. “With this, there is nothing to worry about. Whatever the case, we are working together for the development of our states.”

Better for Utd after all pogba has become overrated player who brings more of distractions to the team than football success he was bought to come and bring.

Very lovely.

mosegifted:
It has never been these bad as it is like this today in this country, and this man's first reign back then in 80s, courtesy to his lack of knowledge over anything in this life... spit on the people that collaborate to bring this lazy man to us

You are talking nya nya mpu.

I hope he is not a militant?

Channels Television
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A drama played out at the Ondo State House of Assembly on Thursday in south-west Nigeria.

This followed the appearance of a snake which fell from the roof of the Assembly while lawmakers were holding plenary.

The development forced the members to scamper to safety, leaving Thursday’s proceeding disrupted.

However, the snake escaped.

As a result of this, legislative activities have been suspended in the Assembly until the complex was renovated.

Very lovely.

richie240:
@contigency,

If I may ask, why was ur initial post [shown below] removed? Who removed it? You or d mod?

Honestly I am worried. I don't know how it got missing.

ginovera:
Lets break it down. In as much as i would not support the insult, but think of how you would feel if your father in whom you so relied and trusted at the lowest point of your life tells you to go looking for another father simply cos you complained? That should not be what real caring father should say to a child who needs answers and visible changes away from what he perhaps see. What is wrong is wrong. Real problem is that our collective sense of good judgement is now more than ever before so beclouded by "our own" mentality and so we must defend it!

I am happy you want us to break it down. But after breaking it down in your submission, you still missed the point mr president was making.

My understanding of what he said is that we should love our country and show patriotism to the overall interest of the country instead of trying to destroy it as many are clearly doing. Because if we destroy the country, we have no other country to run to. That's why he said that those who think that they have another country are free to go instead of destroying it.

Example of those the president is referring to is the Op who carefully abridged this video instead of showing at least an extended version that will enable people to fully understand what the president was saying. The Op presented the very part that will suit what he is trying to achieve which is to create bad affection against the president. Again, the video was a response by the president over what happened since 2016. Why is the Op bringing it up now as if he made the statement today.

Or is anyone expecting him to start begging adults to know what's wrong and what's right?

currencyz22:
if u see nothing wrong with that statement, then you need remedy, it's liking seeing someone trying to commit suicide on third mainland bridge instead of talking him out you decide to make his jump quicker by pushing him, nothing wrong with that cause he is going to die either way abi

You should have just summarized this by pointing out what is wrong in what he said. Or you just want to follow the crowd of those who criticize without being reasonable?

Abeymills:
my God will punish u n ur likes u still have d gurts to defend dis wicked evil old man I repeat God will punish u

My happiness is that God has already started punishing you because of the level of hatred that feels your mind, judging from the way you talk out of frustration.

greenguy:
A 43 man list with no single technocrat. Must we politicize everything? Nigeria is sure heading for doom.

Can you please define who is a technocrat for us and differentiate such a person from all the nominees.

But when this fake pastor cum activist read about the money recovered from Patience Jonathan and the cost of jewelries recovered from Diezini Alison, he looked the other way. Anu mpama.

emilas1979:
Had to smash my television because of the lies emanating from his gutters yesterday morning watching him.
Femi was among the major problem we faced during change.
And here we have him again in the NEXT LEVEL.
Indeed there was a country.

Stop speaking in vague, be specific and tell us what is not true in what he said. Is it that the matter was not appealed as he said or that the hearing is not coming on Monday. Please be fast with the clarifications.

I watched the highlights of the game and I was highly impressed by our boys. Up you legendary Lampard.

As if America is the route to heaven. They can keep their visa because I don't care and some other Nigerians do not care as well.

Waking up early this morning and embracing this kind of good news about my Darling club Chelsea all goes to suggest what a great day I am going to have.

Good decision from the supreme court. I want APC to suffer this because they created the problems for themselves. All efforts made to stop them from having this problems, they rebuffed all of them.

That we know for sure. Including their parrots; FFK, Reno and all other ethnic champions fanning the Amber of war.

Diamondwriter:
This is really sad though.

It's one thing to say that Buhari won the election and another to say that there was no server.

So the corpers that spent several hours (stayed till the next morning) trying to transmit results to the "server" were fooling themselves?

I keep saying it, we patronize these leaders unnecessarily and that's why they can ride on us at will.

May God help us.

Which corpers stayed till morning trying to transmit results to server? Was it to transfer results to server that made them to stay till morning or they were collating results after helping different parties to thumbprint as much as they could. Everybody just forming busy bodies.

A very serious and unintelligent scam. We warned him but he wouldn't listen.

You mean 15000 naira or 15000 euros?

The man gave a very fair and decent answer to the question. How best does the op wants the question to be answered?

When did she join the crew of those who show us what they do in private. She has always been a very decent African woman.

Pavarottii:
U no know say u follow... If not why u open d trend? Hypocrite...

Check oga, I didn't open the thread.

Wasted generation.

Atiku is a thief.

Beautiful and blessed woman. God may you locate me and my household with favor and grace.

The Second Niger Bridge in Onitsha, Anambra State, being constructed by the Federal Government, may be completed before the 2022 completion date. This hint was dropped on Wednesday by the Controller, Federal Ministry of Works in charge of Anambra State, Engr. Adeyemo Ajani, at both ends of the bridge at Asaba, Delta State and Onitsha, Anambra State.

It was when the Nigeria Society of Engineers from Abuja, led by their President, Engr. Chinasaokwu Okoli, visited the place. Ajani, who conducted them round the project, said with the speed of the construction firm, Messrs Julius Berger, the project was likely to be completed before the approved date. He said the last time the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, visited the place, about two months ago, the work stood at about 15 percent , while, today it had risen to 23.18 percent completion.

According to him, “from the way the work is going, we are likely to complete the work before 2022. Everything is possible, the construction is fast and everyone is happy with the firm handling it, “Ajani said. The Second Niger Bridge stood at 150 metres wide, according to Ajani, compared to the first bridge that was built in 1965, which was only 60 metres wide.

However, the engineers raised the alarm over possibility of suicide cases if the pedestrian platform was not raised to a certain height. Speaking with reporters yesterday at the Onitsha end of the bridge, the leader of the delegation, Engr. Chinasaokwu Okoli, described it as a wonderfully crafted contract.

He said their concern was not that the project was not moving smoothly, adding that the concern they had was a positive one, because considering the number of suicide cases in the country today, there was need to raise the pedestrian pathway. Okoli said the normal height should be above 1.5 metres high, in order to make it difficult for anyone that may want to jump into the River.