₦airaland Forum

EasternActivist:
Long over due....
Even federal govt owe

kenny987:
They better remember to redirect FG allocation for d Police to the states before we hear that it failed because states are unable to pay salaries.
There should be full devolution of powers and divestment of unnecessary weight from the centre and it should be done wholly otherwise this piecemeal approach will be scuttled very easily.

ABUJA—-THE House of Representatives Tuesday approved the establishment of state police in the 36 states of the federation and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

The approval of state police was contained in a bill seeking to alter Section 214 of the constitution to provide for establishment of state and community police in the country which passed second reading in the House.

The Bill also seeks to replace the word “force” with “service” in its nomenclature.

Speaking in his lead debate, the Sponsor of the bill, Dada Awoyele, said that there was urgent need for an amendment to the 1999 Constitution to allow the government establishment of a State Police in all the States.

According to him, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) as presently constituted was highly centralized and very far away from the people, adding that the alteration had become necessary given the rate of insecurity in the country.

Some of the longer term structural changes that we need to institute to salvage our economy will require a bipartisan handshake because they call for constitutional changes. Those who are calling for some form of political restructuring are right to put that on the table because it is unclear how unviable state governments that cannot pay salaries, can become serious economic actors over the course of the next decade.

Our economy could do with some fiscal stimulus, but the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has no net savings to draw upon and our external reserves have fallen dangerously low (below $25 billion). Instead, FGN faces a rising local debt burden which can only become progressively burdensome on account of high nominal naira interest rates which are still necessary to contain inflation and help douse exchange rate pressures. The harsh reality is that the foreign exchange scarcity will continue to bite for a while because business confidence is exceedingly low and investors (local and foreign) have lost faith and now prefer to delay forex inflows.

In my previous capacity as the Chairman of the Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatisation up until May 2015, I canvassed for the privatisation of the power sector, sale of Nitel and pushed for the sale of the refineries and the passage of the transport reform bills before time ran out on the last administration.

The Nigerian economy has since taken a turn for the worse. We are now confronted by the twin evils of economic stagnation (2.06 percent contraction of real GDP in the second quarter of 2016) and a high inflation rate (above 17 percent.) Stagnation + Inflation = Stagflation. Those calling for a drop in interest rates, at a time of ravaging inflation and uncontained exchange rate pressures, are guilty of carrying out a partial/jaundiced analysis. Their prescription would further destabilise the macroeconomy.

Stagflation is one of the most difficult macroeconomic conditions to break out of and the Nigerian elite owe it to the teeming masses to jettison our differences, end the blame game and instead work together to initiate a credible path towards both lowering the inflation rate and restoring economic growth. If we do not act now, we may face four to eight years of zero per capita income growth. Italy has just completed a decade of no growth and Japan has attained that same state for close to two decades. Brazil has been in recession for three years and the economies of Zimbabwe and Venezuela are in free fall. With our large youthful population, that is unprotected by adequate safety nets, Nigeria cannot afford to emulate any of these countries.

There are two broad avenues for quickly increasing the availability of forex and these are: (1) external borrowing; or (2) asset sales. Let me quickly add that I am nervous about the former because we have weak institutions, a bloated and inefficient public service and a challenged economic team. The recent bad decision to sell subsidised forex to pilgrims after a sharp naira devaluation for everyone else speaks volumes.

That brings me to asset sales. If these are done strategically, they can constitute a triple boost to a flagging economy. They can: (1) bring in forex; (2) improve efficiency; and (3) reduce the drain on existing resources which some FGN assets/investments presently constitute. Call this my three-way test.

I would not advocate for the sale of a “cash cow” like the FGN stake in Nigeria LNG (NLNG) at this time because it does not pass the second and third pillars of my three-way test. Conversely, I would advocate for the replication of the very successful NLNG model, where the FGN stake is capped below 50 percent across the oil producing Joint Ventures (JV). The biggest obstacle to incorporating the existing JVs between FGN and the oil majors is attributable to the fact that no right-thinking business house will want to be “trapped” in an Incorporated JV (IJV) in which the FGN has majority control. What happens when FGN dissolves the Board and fails to appoint new directors, thereby leaving the IJV short of a quorum? NLNG works because FGN is not in control there.

This is an excellent time to form separate IJVs with Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total etc. but for this arrangement to takeoff properly and quickly, FGN must sell down its stake from the 55-60 percent that it presently holds to no more than 40 percent in each of the IJVs.

Anybody in his right mind will gladly pay a premium to attain 51 percent and move away from the present clumsy and unwieldy structure where they are junior partners in a Joint Venture with a historically meddlesome and value-destructive Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Adopting the NLNG model also frees the FGN from the debilitating cash calls that have become increasingly burdensome on the annual FGN budget because the IJVs will be able to borrow internationally to finance their investment programmes. I would also favour the listing of the IJVs on The Nigerian Stock Exchange by placing the balance of the nine percent shareholding in each of the IJVs with the investing public. This will provide added public scrutiny (possibly better than what FGN alone can provide through board representation.) The refineries should also be sold outright because NNPC has never been able to run them and their outright sale also passes my 3-way test above.

What we need is a combination of well thought out, calibrated and properly sequenced fiscal and monetary policies supported by the right mix of macro-prudential tools. Thankfully, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the CBN recently brushed aside some ill-advised public pleas for a drop in interest rates in the face of stagflation. Monetary and exchange rate policy, based on a sound theoretical underpinning such as the Mundell-Fleming Trilemma, is clearly not everyone’s forte.

The Deputy Director linked to the plagiarism of Obama’s speech in President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech when he launched the “Change Begins With Me” campaign has been redeployed from the State House.

Speaking on condition of anonimity, a source close to the presidency reveals that the said director who was discovered to have copied part of a speech by President Barack Obama of United States has been sacked. “At 8 o’clock on the Monday morning following the allegations, he reported at the office of the Head of Service, and he was immediately asked to vacate his position and office at the State House pending further measures which will be guided by civil service rules and regulations,” Our source disclosed. The Presidency has also taken steps to avoid a repeat of such an embarrassing occurrence which sources said goes against everything that President Muhammadu Buhari represents and stands for. A new digital process has been put in place in the State House to aid the process of drafting speeches. This includes the provision of tools that detect plagiarism, similar to those used by editors and academics around the world. Meanwhile the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity equally confirmed that the officer is no longer in the State House. The government of President Buhari had since expressed regret over what it said was an unfortunate incident, expressing hopes that Nigeria can look beyond it to embrace the message of change.

You can call it the wedding of the year and you will not be wrong.This will be a mega wedding that will take place in three major cities. We are referring to the wedding of Orobosa Saadiyah Sophia Igbinedion and Umar Ibrahim Mantu.
This wonderful event is topnotch because of the calibre of the parents of the couple.The bride ia the daughter of The Esama of Benin Kingdom, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion while the groom is the son of former Deputy Senate Presisent, Senator Ibrahim Mantu.
The wedding ceremony will kick off this Saturday with the traditional wedding at the Igbinedion Benin Mansion located in the GRA of the ancient city.

Examples of marriages that cross the ethnic barrier include that of Ebitu Ukiwe, former number two to General Ibrahim Babangida, who married Amina, the daughter of Ahmed Talib, foremost Northern Nigerian leader and General Mamman Remawa’s daughter, Fati, is married to the son of Ambassador Tunji Olagunju, Nigeria’s ambassador to South Africa.

Leadership Confidential can also affirm that, the son of consummate politician, the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Murtala, is married to the daughter of Dr. Sadiq Wali, physician to five past Nigerian leaders. It is also true that General John Temlong and General Jerry Useni, former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, are in—laws.

It is also authoritative that one-time General Officer Commanding (GOC), General Joshua Dogonyaro married the daughter of elder statesman Ali Monguno, Fatima, and they have five children. Also, the late General Joe Garba, former Nigeria’s External Affairs Minister was married to the sister of one—time Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Coomassie, with whom they sired a daughter, Fatima, who got married to Omar Ado Ibrahim’s son. Ibrahim is the Attah of Ibirra.

Edo State born Christopher Abebe, former chairman/CEO of United African Company (UAC) is the father of Stella, wife of President Olusegun Obasanjo, while the Lamido of Adamawa, Dr. Aliyu Mustapha, sired one of the four wives of Vice President Atiku Abubakar. General Buba Marwa’s first wife, Zainab, with whom he has all his grown up children (all lawyers), is the elder sister of Phil Agbassi, currently Vice President Atiku’s special assistant, who was married to Sonia. Chiikwuemeka Chikelu’s elder sister. Chikelu is the current Nigerian minister of information.

Chikelu himself is married to the daughter of Adamawa State born General Anthony Hananiya, Corps Marshall of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).
Former Minister for Special Duties, Yomi Edu, is married to the daughter of Alfa Wali of Kano State, one-time Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence.

JCKA23:
Any pillar home that is build on the pillar of deceit, not love but money and connection can not last.

I pity the girl she,, she doesn't know the agenda of a typical Hausa Muslim from the northern Nigeria...

Quote me and I mean it this will come 2 pass... when he finished her by having 2 to 3 kids that's when d wahala will start... he will force her to either convert to Islam or he will divorce her and get a much younger pretty Muslim girl, and she will never have access to her kids again.....

So in d whole of S/S, S/E, S/W she hasn't seen any good guy to marry na leprous awusa man she see... I pity her sha.

if she was any Muslim from south may be yelloba that she married it would have been good. but for this leprous man I pity her future.

From across the Niger, the first wife of Michael Ibru, (patriarch of the Ibru dynasty), Muriel, had a son, Nnaemeka, for Nigeria’s first president, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. She was then the secretary of African Continental Bank (ACB), which Zik founded in the 1955. Nnaemeka, through the Ibru connection (maternal) set up Emene Motors Ltd, which is an offshoot of Rutam Motors, owned by the Ibrus

Are you aware that Mohammed Ibrahim, former director—general of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Dr. Mahmud Tukur, a one-time vice chancellor of Bayero University, Kano and Minister of Commerce during General Muhammadu Buhari’s administration; and Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar (Mairago), Executive Secretary of Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) are married to the sisters of Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, former military governor of Kaduna State? Equally, the other wife of Dr. Mahmud Tukur is the elder sister of Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Mairago's other wife is the daughter of the late Hamza Zayyad, chairman of the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation (TCPC). Dr. Mahmud Tukur’s daughter is married to her cousin, the son of Bamanga Tukur, Awwal.

The daughter of Senator Isaiah Balat is married to the son of AVM Ishaya Shekari, former military administrator of old Kano State. Likewise, do you know that the wives of General Domkat Bali, Nigeria’s former defence minister and Solomon Daushep Lar, former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are sisters? Senator Aliyu Zego Aziz (Wazirin Jaba) and Air Commodore David Jonah Jang, former military governor of defunct Gongola State are also married to sisters.

Unknown to many also, is the fact that the wives of Mamman Daura, chairman of Kaduna Furniture and Carpets Company (KFCC), Abubakar Alhaji, former minister of finance and current Sardaunan Sokoto, General Aliyu Mohammed, National Security Adviser (NSA) and Munnir Ja’afaru, former director—general of Nigerian Maritime Authority (NMA) are the daughters of Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki.

STFUareyouG0d:
And the circle goes on and on. The rich marries the rich, poor marries poor