₦airaland Forum

lookmangiw: :odid i just hear you call diezani madueke the best petroleum minister in nigeria's history. You must be high on the cheapest of weed.

You heard me right. DIEZANI ALLISON MADUEKE has proven to be the best minister of Petroluem in Nigeria's history.
She is the first minister to improve our local content in the crude export market.
She is the first minister to open up NNPC and oil sector to public scrutiny. Under her watch, govt set up the AIG committe probe which has duly submitted its report and provided the much needed grounds for the ongoing trial of subsidy thieves.
She invited the anti corruption czar and fearless Ribadu to oversee our oil revenue profile. Which minister has ever or will ever take this bold step?
She is the first Minister to prosecute oil thieves and cabal in Nigeria.
She is presently rehabilitating our refineries and some will be due by November.
She is also reviving ailing depots like the Aba depot which was grounded since 10 years ago.
She is spearheading several PPP initiatives with private investors like Vulcan for building of more refineries in Nigeria.
She is the first minister to formulate a comprehensive and revolutionary PIB for passage by the National Assembly.

Please I challenge everyone to come out with a better performance of an oil minister in the history of Nigeria. This is just one year. More are still in the pipeline.

berem: did u actually read what u typed before posting? Ok I guess its the other way round! Pdp has failed and will continue to be a failure.come 2015 Pdp will surely kiss nigerian democracy goodbye.there will be no space for them to rule nigeria!

Political m.asturbation cannot appear in a better form.

HNosegbe: But the only thing of substance I can read here is that the president has approved the setting up of a "project" to implement the report. The actual clean-up has not begun yet.

OP, the title is misleading.

What is misleading about the post? How else would the govt start the clean up if not the setting up of HYPREP?
It is HYPREP that will carry out the implementation of the project. You can't hold an Olympics with an IOC local organizing committee. You can't start EPL Without the FA.
The UN knows this much hence the immediate commendation of GEJ's move.
Those who also want to insinuate that this latest move was borne out of fear for the kangaroo declaration of Ogoni state last weekend should draw their eyes to the second paragraph of the above report.
That paragraph clearly states that GEJ had already given approval since last week far before the Ogoni declaration.
We must appreciate that this govt is pro active and we are witnessing the best ever Petroluem minister in history.

This is what happens when a section of the country believes its their birth right to rule. Just because by divine providence Jonathan became president, some people in the north decided to blow up the whole country. They betrayed their sinister motives over the weekend by releasing a video calling for Jonathan's resignation. Isn't that madness?

Asari may have said it in a crude form but we all know that this country cannot survive any harm to GEJ either by impeachment or whatever means.
Those who desperately wish to see the back of this first minority president should wait patiently for 2015 elections.

When terrorists struck in the US, everybody including democrats and republicans rose in unison to condemn the attacks.
No body has asked IBB to come and take over the security challenge. All that Clark request of him is to make a public statement against this terrorism.
I don't know how this is so difficult for such a statesman to do. is it rocket science for a former head of state of a country to speak out against the evil ravaging his country?
The northern leaders are hypocritical in their approach of this Boko Haram issue. They feign ignorance in the afternoon and go behind in the night to support them.

Our problem is that we keep trading blames without facing the real issues. All these pastor turned political advicers have never offered a single practical solution to the security challenges facing us as a nation. This particular pastor of an unlimited church, whatever that means, said GEJ should have a lion heart and declare Nigeria as a war state. How will such declaration end Boko Haram?
The way some people talk, it just appears as if BOKO HARAM is just one rabbit that you will diligently pursue and capture. Some people also think BH to be a definite group of people resident somewhere, which govt has been afraid to confront.

The truth is that Boko Haram is an orientation. Anybody can be a Boko Haramite in his own little environment once he catches that orientation. And the orientation is more deadly because it makes the person believe that he has nothing to loose. The most difficult warfare is against anybody who has nothing to loose.

In other conventional crimes like stealing, murder, armed robbery, rape etc the perpetrator proceeds with the intention of surviving at the end of the day. This is the insecurity facing other nations and the police can tackle it. But not a situation whereby somebody goes out to buy gas, cable wires and assembles them in a room. He stays awake all night improvising an explosive. Next morning, he places it in his car boot and heads for the nearest public place. When he gets to his destination, he rams his car into the building killing himself and otthers in the process.

It's hard to detect such crimes even in the most sophisticated of places. It's akin to preventing someone from committing suicide. In Colorado, we saw how a disoriented youth shot so many people in a cinema for no just reason. In Maidugri, we saw a 15 year old commit suicide bombing in a mosque.

How would anyone have thought that the little boy who just walked bye, had bombs strapped under his kaftan, and was willfully walking to explode himself?
I'm sure that he must have passed security men unnoticed in the midst of other worshippers.
If this pastor was a security man deployed to that mosque, it will not have crossed his mind too to stop that boy.

To stop this menace, we should prevail on Muslim clerics and northern leaders to reorient their subjects. Somebody needs to tell them that Islam is a religion of peace.
They need to be told that even in UAE, tourists " infidels" operate freely.
They need to be reminded that there's nothing like suicide bombings in the world's most populous Islamic state-Indoneia.
They should expose their brothers who engage in this heinous crimes rather than see them as martyrs.
Northern leaders should condemn these attacks in unmistakable terms rather than play politics with it. It may be serving their interest now but the reality will dawn on them in 2015 when southerners refuse to vote for any northerner on account of Boko Haram.

I support the re introduction of tolls on our federal highways. It is the norm globally. But such tollgates must be done under concession arrangements.
If the roads are concessioned, then we are guaranteed that the concessionaires will fix the roads and maintain it accordingly. Then motorists can have real value for their tolls.
What I abhor is a situation whereby govt will erect tolls on bad roads. It will amount to exploitation of the highest order. But I'm sure this govt won't behave that way.

Good thinking. Good product. So happy to see that we are beginning to tackle these menace from source. We will get there. Soon. Very very very soon.

Lagos tops list of indebted states. Incredible. Yet they generate over 23 billion as IGR. They also collect an average of 10 billion as federal allocation. What do they do with all these money ?
The last time I checked, the biggest road project undertaken by this govt and which covers less than 100 km was concessioned and lagosians have to be extorted daily on that road.
What massive investments have the Lagos state govt done to justify this revenue and huge debt profile?
How many cottage industries have the Lagos state govt established? How many model schools has Fashola erected like his counterpart in Rivers and Akwa Ibom?
How many new bridges? How many new hospitals? Even doctors in Lagos had to go on series of strikes to collect entitlements that were due to them.
How many power plants has Fashola built like Amaechi and Akpabio who enjoy a commensurate revenue profile?

The opposition will not cease to amuse me. This remarkable feat is comIng against the background of criticisms that this govt is the worst in oil theft.
Actually, the govt has indeed improved on security and has cut down waste and corruption in the sector leading to this feat.
The air just keeps getting fresher.

I think it behoves on Mr. Femi Gbaja, sorry, GBAJIAMILA to take steps to monitor the projects upon which funds have been released to ascertain their implementation.
It is his oversight responsibility. I don't know whether he has even diligently undertook this duty over the MDA's that his committee oversees.
His legislative function is not restricted to flaunting impeachment threats over a budget that is barely 5 months old.

Those who begrudge Aunty Ngo for proposing the removal of subsidy are myopic and do not understand the real issues surrounding the subsidy regime.
Our overall development of the oil sector lies in our ability to tell ourselves the truth that oil subsidy is not sustainable at the long run.
No economy can move forward under an arrangement were a quarter of national budget is spent in subsidizing one commodity.
No investor will also be willing to invest a kobo in refinery under a system where govt fixes prices at random.
No intelligent investor will venture into production where his colleagues are making cool money from Importation and collecting subsidy claims.
We are just postponing the doomsday in this country. And because this woman has summoned the courage to tell us the truth, she has now turned to an object of ridicule.
Time will tell

BoboYekini: kobojunkie, if you have no particularly meaningful contribution, why not read and watch like me?

Post of the day.

My take on this issue has always been that if you fight corruption, corruption will fight you back.
One would ask, why the sudden clamour for full implementation of a 5 month old budget or risk impeachment?
Ironically, these politicians in NASS kept and delayed the passage of the budget for 5 months. Why didn't they demonstrate this new found zeal for speedy implementation in passing the bill?
At least, if they had passed the budget by January the FG would have gone far by now.
I have said it before and will stick with it, the NASS deliberately delayed the budget in order to force the executive into making hasty releases without due process so that it will be business as usual. It wil not work. Things have changed.

How can a group of people who have failed to fulfill 1/4 of their promises to enact laws for the good governance of the country demand 100% performance from the executive in September. Isn't this the height of hypocrisy?

kommy: Lawan, just get a good lawyer that knows the law or one that knows the judge.

This is Nigeria, you can't go to jail.

Exactly. You see where the problem lies. After the executive struggles against all odds to prosecute these criminals, lawyers and judges let them off the hook through legal gymnastics and abracadabra. Yet many Nigerians never bother to look in the direction of the judiciary.
All that FACROOK needs to do at the moment is to hire any of the big SAN's and this case is history.

Dotman01: am sure this gon be last we gon hear on this case, where's Bankole? ibb? Alams etc?. They are playing nigerians like ludo, na ''do me i do u stylee''
Prosecute the subsidy guys and we'll expose u too.

This is where you miss the point. It is the role of executive to prosecute through the police or EFCC while the judiciary is to adjudicate and bring the criminals to justice.
No matter how hard GEJ loves to see these criminals go to jail, he cannot all by himself take over the trial and convict the accused persons. It is the duty of the judiciary and the judges to so do.

Mr president's anti corruption role stops with investigations and the arraignment of accused persons in court. He can't go beyond that.
Take for instance the Bankole case you mentioned. When that scandal broke out, the president directed the EFCC to investigate the outgoing speaker.
Upon the expiration of his tenure, he was immediately arrested and taken to court alongside his deputy Bello Nafafa.
You would recall that EFCC even engaged the services of lawyer activist, Festus Keyamo to assist in prosecuting the case.
The trial began and after serious legal fireworks, govt lost the case. The court dismissed Bankole.
I suggest that if you have any grievance at this point. You should lay it at the doorsteps of the judiciary.

In Alams case, I'm shocked you don't know that Alams was charged to court by EFCC and also convicted accordingly. It was through plea bargain that he regained his freedom. The plea bargain option ensured that Govt was able to recover over 50 billion Naira and Chelsea hotel from Alams.

What should bother any objective Nigerian is not the release of funds and the statistics or percentages of budget implementation but the actual implementation itself.
I am of the school of thought that rather than achieving 100% implementation on paper, we rather achieve 40% in reality with visible projects on ground.
Instead of splitting their hairs over the release of funds, more emphasis should be placed on oversight and maximum utilization of the little released. It is on this score that I have thrown my weight behind Okonjo.
It must not be business as usual. Full procurement processes must be adhered to in the award of govt jobs.

This govt is just unique. The news of prosecutions against these criminals always gladdens my heart.
Everywhere we are hearing stories of probes, investigations, arraignments, prosecutions, refusal to grant bail because of criminal history etc.
Fresh air is just blowing through our anti corruption drive.
I know the uninformed will be quick to criticise and say that nothing will come out from the prosecutions.
But the informed will acknowledge that we now have a president who is courageous to prosecute and now redirect their criticisms towards the judiciary whose constitutional role it is to bring the criminals to justice.

Nice one Maku. I like your presentation on this.

I have always said it that the responsibility of administering justice in this prosecution of oil thieves have shifted to the judiciary.
The president has done his own by charging the suspects. It remains for the courts to have the courage and wil to administer justice without fear or favour.
This is a classical case of that resolve. You must not always grant bail. At times, you refuse bail and there's nothing any one can do about it.

aryzgreat: The rejection of anyim and co to represent d finance minister has now been tagged "walk out" to make it look as if there was a conflict between d executive and legislative arm. Lies painted to appeal to d public. SMH

That is the media for you. Always exercise caution in reading their stories. They all have their biases. Except very few ones.

dayokanu: Dafty, So what clarification did you make on the thread on the Ibadan-Ilorin road? Can you point your leprous finger to where you made the said clarification

You are almost sounding like a broken record. Are you a stammerer? Ibadan-Ilorin" Ibadan-Ilorin". Ibadan-Ilorin". After going through a whole dossier of roads and achievements in all the sectors by a govt in one year, all you could stammer is " Ibadan-Ilorin". Since you are not satisfied with all the clarifications on that road, I suggest we fix an appointment for me to lecture you on that particular road.
But for now let's face the topic of the moment which is budget implementation.
Please don't run. I know it's intuitively compelling but at the end of the day we will learn something from this topic

dayokanu: M0r0n, They are waiting for you to come clear your lies here

https://www.nairaland.com/1005076/massive-re-construction-enugu-ph-expressway/7#11640506

.
It's like you have a phobia for objective arguments so you always feel threatened by my presence.
For your information, I have exhausted discussions and clarifications on that thread which has gotten to the 7th page.
It's time to confront the lies and falsehood you are spreading here.

dayokanu: M0r0n, They are waiting for you to come clear your lies here

https://www.nairaland.com/1005076/massive-re-construction-enugu-ph-expressway/7#11640506

I.mbecile. I have exhausted discussion and clarifications on that thread. It's almost about 7 pages now. Let's move ahead.
Face the new issues that I have raised on this thread and tackle it. We are on budget implementation now. Copy that

Demdem: U initially stylishly accused the NASS for tampering with the budget submitted by Ngozi therby making it difficult for Ngozi to implement. i showed u the explanation of the NASS that what they did was minimal adjustment considering past experiences and shouldn't be the reason for Ngozi's shoddy job so far now u are accusing the NASS again that they are to be blamed because they didnt do their work in scrutinizing the budget
dedeike, what exactly do u want?

Please try to understand me. I accused NASS for approving some insertions by some corrupt civil servants in the system. It is done with the understanding that there may be kick backs and award of contracts by those civil servants to the politicians in return.

I read in one publication that almost all the MDA's budgeted billions for furniture and equipment for 2012 and instead of NASS to quash some of these unnecessary expenditure, they approved it in the guise of not giving the executive problems. But meanwhile, the appriopration bill stayed over 4 months in NASS. So what were they doing?

Coming to the controversial issue of constituency projects, the Executive has issues with the amount budgeted by NASS for that purpose.
If implemented to the latter, the Minister is saying that the expenditure is not sustainable.
It is one thing to appropriate money, it is another to make sure that our financial state can afford such expenditure.
It's fiscal management. And the woman is working hard to end domestic borrowing for funding of the budget

Let us not shave Okonjo's hair in her absence. She is not going to reside in London. Let's await her return. Too many questions for her.
After her defence, we can now take it up from there.

But before then, we need to put certain things in proper context.
1. The budget was submitted to the NASS in December, passed in March and signed in April,
2. The budget is barely 5 months old as it took effect in April.
3. There are so many suspicious projects inserted into that budget by corrupt civil servants and politicians in the National Assembly. NOI risks trouble if she implements that budget as passed hence the due process hurdles she has erected for its implementation.
4. The minister initiated the integrated online payment system that enables her monitor and approve the transfer of funds from CBN to various MDA's. This new system no doubt creates hitches in the quick release of funds.
5. It is unconstitutional for the minister to apply a selective Implementation of the budget because, once passed, a budget becomes an ACT of the National Assembly.
6. On the hand, the minister does not want to be at the recieving end of attacks and probes for approving the release of Funds for suspicious projects.

davechika: i have taken the pains to read at least up to 80% posts here on the above topic,everybody is entiltled to his/her opinions.
but one thing i wouldnt want to pin my tent in any camp is,it takes TWO to agree,meaning that having heard from one side the lawmakers and senate,the executive (NOI etc) should be heard too before you can be able to deduce the facts,compare and make your points clear.i'll reserve my comments after NOI defence.
you guys should also know that its not everything on media is true,some are
misconstrued to favour your points.

Best comment on this thread. It is not hard to notice an objective mind when you see one. Thanks bro.

Demdem: oga read this

The Senate said the Federal Government had no reason not to effectively implement the budget given the fact that the National Assembly expeditiously approved what the government asked for without any major alteration.

Ekweremadu said, “I recall that when the 2012 budget was presented to us as a draft bill, we in the National Assembly decided that we are going to do everything possible to send it back to the Executive the way it came, so that there will be no argument on whether it will be implemented or not, because over the years we have had this issue of non-implementation of the budget.

”We had to do that to ensure that they received the budget the way and manner they wanted it so that the implementation would be much easier. Unfortunately the level of implementation has been anything less than commendable and that is why we are worried.

Therein lies the major fear. there was no proper scrutiny by senate over that budget. It was just garbage in, garbage out.
So it's this kind of uncircumcised budget that you want Okonjo to speedily release funds for? No. That era is gone,
I'm still at a loss as to what the National Assembly was doing with the budget for over 4 months.
Where they playing Ludo with it for that period?

Kobojunkie: Whether or not the legislators care is another story. This move however is a correct move as Nigerians are usually oblivious to how their money is being spent. I can upload a simple budget document for one ministry, please see attached sample. These are common sense projects and notice that many of them are labeled ONGOING. What they are doing here is demanding that the budget be implemented, and of course I wish they would focus on also driving the message home that Nigerians need them implemented correctly.

We have been told time and time again by the current Government that it has won so many wars against corruption in the system it is currently over, so I don't see why we should continue to claim their is massive corruption in the system STOPPING it still from doing it's job. That is a silly COPOUT at this point, and honestly, it does not make sense. Last week, some tried to posit that the reason for the 56% number was because the budget was approved late in the year, forgetting that late approval is typical in Nigeria.
The FInance minister herself never went as far as to try to blame the low implementation on that or lack of resources, but trust Nigerians in their desperate attempts to create loops holes for those in government, many made attempts at concluding that way it.
We need to demand truth on implementation and we need to demand common sense. If Jonathan Goodluck has really been able to get corruption in check, as he has said so many times in his TV interviews/chats/monologues nothing should stop him from implementing even simple projects on the budget this year.

Have you not heard about the yearly recurrent apprioprations for office furniture and equipment by corrupt senior civil servants and the National Assembly approved such suspicious budgetary heads.
The minister has repeatedly said she has a problem with such apprioprations. Though we know that once passed, a budget becomes an ACT which must be implemented to the latter.
But NOI feels the liability ultimately falls on her for releasing such funds.
She wants to avoid the " I don't know what is going on approach" which your likes have criticized her for.

Without holding brief for Okonjo on the low budget performance, I must add that she is threading with caution given the massive corruption in the system.
There is so much consiousness in Nigeria at the moment over governance. Every public official is now very cautious so as to avoid being caught up in the cross fire of probes.
What Okonjo is doing is to make sure that suspicious projects padded up by corrupt politicians in the National Assembly do not scale through.
And that is why they are crying foul over speedy Implementation.
After all, if the National Assembly was so desirous of budget implementation, they would have given this budget a speedy passage. They were given the budget in December but they passed it in April. I can even assume that this delay was intentional in order to ensure that NOI will not have time to enforce due process in the implementation if the budget.
Now everybody is shouting 12% implementation in August without remembering that the budget is barely 4 months old.

swaggerific: I think its callous for you guys to be attacking this guy like this. Leave him alone jor. He stated an opinion, you all should either respect it or ignore it. Why all the severely personal attacks on the guy. I dunno who this dedeike guy is neither do I give 2 fukcs about him but its just wrong what you guys are doing to him.

I know you all are as passionate as I am about Niger, but attack him based on the policies he is championing or the validity of his statements but not stripping him naked on Nairaland. I will even join in debating some of the "facts" he laid posted on here.

. I feel like a king. Or a James Bond of some sort. You know when people ascribe to you some status you could ever imagine, it makes you feel real good,
DEDEIKE-the nightmare.. From laptop 15 to Reno omokri's boy then to senator's son, and I'm waiting to be promoted to Goodluck Jonathan's younger brother. That's the hallmark. .
I can't wait.

Olaolufred: Thank you.
Obasanjo used 1999 constitution and pegged subsidy regime at 272 billion in 2007.
Yaradua left it at 536billion,
How come this same constitution inflated it to trillion under jonabere?
Two things can be responsible,
It is either 1999 constitution is the problem, or
Joesatan is terribly daft to understand that extra-bugetary spending is an impeachable offence.
We ve been fooled totally.
But I plead with ifihearam to learn how to seperate a quote from your comment.
You quoted me and made your comments in same quote.

Bros, there's nothing like using constitution to peg oil subsidy. Prior to GEJ's presidency. There was no accurate data and records as to the amount spent on subsidy. NNPC was more like a secret cult. Every of it's activities were shrouded in secrecy.
it was under GEJ's watch that oil subsidy payments were transferred from a first line charge item to the appriopriation bill. By implication, subsidy payments had to be approved in the budget for a fiscal year.
I know that some of you may consider this my voice very irritating but I appeal to you to tolerate and read through before blabbing.
After GEJ noticed the level of fraud ongoing in the sector and the need to deregulate the market for private sector participation, he sought to withdraw subsidy. But people's power prevailed against it. As a true democrat, he let their wishes prevail.

Subsequently, GEJ set up the AIG committee to investigate the subsidy regime and it turned out that the committee actually indicted 45 more names than FACROOK.
On Friday, he demonstrated the courage to implement the report by prosecuting the oil thieves, who incidentally are the sons of his political allies.

This was the first time in the history ofNigeria where a group of people will face charges in court over the oil sector.
Much as I have reservations against the nolle prose qui filed in favour of the new 4 accused persons in court today, I must remind us that it doesn't detract from the fact that GEJ has prosecuted the real figure heads of the subsidy regime.

I'm tempted to believe that the reason for this withdrawal may be very altruistic. This is so because the persons involved are nonentities. GEJ has nothing to loose by sacrificing them tor prosecution. If there was a case GEJ would have wanted to excuse from prosecution, it would have been that of the Tukur's and ALI's. Not these political nonentities.