The Chairman of First Bank, Dr Ibukun Awosika, is set to appear on the soon to be released movie, Citation, by Nigerian actor and movie director, Kunle Afolayan.
The Punch gathered that the movie tackles the ordeals faced by female students in Nigerian Universities and it aims at propelling women to become great leaders.
Dr Awosika plays the role of the university faculty dean, heading the senate hearing panel of a female postgraduate student (Moremi), played by Temi Otedola, who has been a victim of sexual harassment.
Citation also features the likes of Jimmy Jean Louis, Sadiq Daba, and Gabriel Afolayan and was shot in Obafemi Awolowo University and in three countries.
Relishing the experience in the casting of her debut in the acting world, Awosika, on her official Instagram account said, “It is not in all situations, that we get a chance to do more than talk, about an issue that we are passionate about. The challenges that the female gender faces in her pursuit to be her best is multidimensional. When great institutions all come together, with an award-winning producer to take on a global issue, it seemed like a good risk worth taking as well as a great adventure into a field I had never experienced.
“Real respect for the players of the field. Don’t judge a man’s job until you have walked in his shoes. Nigeria is truly blessed to have so many great professionals. The potential for the sector to create jobs and add to economic growth is without question.
“I enjoyed the experience and I thank all those who made it fun for me! Wakanda forever! CITATION is a definite must-see!!”
Weruchie Opia, the daughter of veteran broadcaster and longtime ‘Nightline’ host, Ruth Benamaisia Opia, stars alongside BAFTA winner Michaela Coel (Chewing Gum) in ‘I May Destroy You’, the acclaimed HBO’s Drama of the Year.
The hit HBO series showing on Showmax every Wednesday centres on Arabella, a witty, carefree, and successful young Londoner with a break-out writing career, great friends, and a some-time hook-up in Italy. When her drink is spiked with a date-rape drug in a nightclub, Arabella is forced to reassess every aspect of her life: her career, her friends, and even her family. As Arabella tries to process her trauma, she begins an often painful, sometimes hilarious journey of radical self-discovery that leads her to some surprising places – and controversial conclusions.
Weruche plays Arabella’s devoted, fun-loving best friend, Terry, who’s struggling to get her acting career off the ground. The graduate of Drama and Sociology was born and raised in Lagos but moved to London at 14, where her father, Eric Opia, was a professor. Her early roles were mainly in British TV series. She played Nafisa in Channel 4’s ‘Top Boy’ and Cleopatra Ofoedo in Jack Whitehall’s ‘Bad Education’ (series and movie).
However, the movie that brought her to the limelight was Seyi Babatope’s 2014 Nigerian romantic comedy movie ‘When Love Happens’. The movie also fetched her first award nominations such as the 2015 Nigeria Entertainment Awards where she was nominated for Nollywood Actress of The Year; and a nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy in the third Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards. She also went on to star in the sequel movie ‘When Love Happens Again’.
The young actress owns a fashion line, Jesus Junkie Clothing.
During the shooting of the film, Weruche, who is a devout Christian, had her spiritual convictions challenged with the requirements of the role, which included a fairly graphic party. She, however, was able to play the part without compromising her faith. She revealed in an interview with an international publication that she didn’t play the sex scenes herself. According to her, a body double played the part and an intimacy director Ita O’Brien was on set to ensure that she was comfortable with how her character would appear on screen. There was also a therapist on hand to support the cast and crew in dealing with the show’s sensitive topics.
‘I May Destroy You’ depiction of the need to ask for help, find support structures, and lean on strong friendships has resonated with audiences and critics alike. The show received positive reviews from critics and sits at #23 on Rotten Tomatoes Best TV of 2020 with a 97% critics rating. The show airs every Wednesday night on Showmax and 1Magic.
Chief Obiaruko Christie Ndukwe, a Publisher and Founder of the advocacy group, Citizens Quest for Truth Initiative speaks with Nseobong Okon-Ekong and other journalists on recent developments in the Niger Delta Development Commission and the Senate probe
Your advocacy group has been in the news lately, what are you up to?
We are more or less focused on leadership. We focus on leadership and try to use it as a standard so that others can follow that path. I think the bane of the country has been bad leadership. We have the resources, we have everything but unfortunately, we lack the right leadership and I think the reason is because we have not taken time to assess those who should be in positions of leadership. We have also not taken time to identify those who serve creditably and even honour them. Unfortunately, those we look at are those who have money to throw around and use them as a standard. If we continue like that, things will not go the way we want. Secondly, we also look at news reportage, the fake news syndrome because lots of the stories you read are either adulterated or aimed at tarnishing somebody’s image. We are interested in searching for the truth. That is why we go in there to verify the claims to enable us and ultimately the society know the truth. Even though we have the Freedom of Information Act, it is not yet well implemented because a lot of public servants don’t want to release information, so we go in there to get such information to the best of our ability. That is basically what we do.
Why the interest in issues affecting the NDDC?
We are not particular about the NDDC. We are not registered to focus on a particular region. We are focused on working in Nigeria for Nigerians. We are also allowed to partner with donor agencies, but we must have a starting point. They say charity begins at home, so for some us, where we come from should come first. We are barely one year and I can assure you that we have recorded lots of successes.
What has been your experience regarding the NDDC?
I live in Niger Delta, I come from the Niger Delta, but I never knew that this kind of rot existed in the NDDC. I have never done any job with the NDDC, I only hear of the things happening there. Having come closer, I think it is not a delight for anyone at all. The stories are not palatable at all.
A lot has gone down. The government over the years has not been fair to the people of Niger Delta. How can you give out so much to cater for the people and fail to check whether the amount of work done is in commensurate to the funds given out. It is not enough to sack the NDDC boards over allegation of corruption. You need to find out whether anybody has been jailed from mismanaging such funds. How come people serially and severally accused of corruption have not been prosecuted? But thank God that today we have a president who has said no, we have to do things differently. We cannot keep doing the same thing over and over again. That is where we are. I can tell you that many vested interests do not want the forensic audit ordered by the president to succeed. Whatever drama you are seeing is just to scuttle the forensic audit, nothing more. For us as a group, the forensic audit ordered by the president has to go on, but even in doing that, development of the Niger Delta must continue. We have an Interim Management Committee supervising the commission, for as long as they last, six months, one year, two years, I don’t know, but they should be allowed to continue with the development of the region. Why are you saying you want to check the books and you stall the development of the region? We are still looking at them and I can tell you that we have a board that is transparent. They are helping us with information and you know information is key. In the past, nobody will do that. For now, I rate them 80 percent in information dissemination. We have a lot of documents and we have asked them a lot of questions on allegations raised. They have given us their responses. Not only that, they have given us documents to back those information.
But the National Assembly is saying something to the contrary.
When you are an interested party in a matter, what do you think the judgment will be like? The budget of NDDC is harmonized by the same National Assembly by the two committees on NDDC. Of course, there are vested interests. For the first time, the NDDC board and the supervising minister told us that members of the National Assembly, past and present have been involved in the sleaze. If they are involved, it means that somebody is protecting them or they are protecting themselves and deny Nigerians access to the truth. While we support their looking into the books, they should also allow those who have been accused to be probed. Before the motion to probe the so-called missing N40 billion in NDDC, did they have enough evidence because one of them claimed that the information supplied by the Minister was not enough to probe anybody? If the Minister has accused past and present members of the National Assembly in the looting of NDDC, it behoves the leadership of National Assembly to ensure such people are made to face the law.
The IGP should move in and begin to investigate these people based on available documents. I don’t want to believe the minister was joking. He has made available the documents and some of us have managed to get these documents. A situation where a Senator or House of Representatives member is influencing over 50 contracts in a year is worrisome. I think Nigerians should be worried. We expect the EFCC, NFIU to trace the movement of funds from the account of contractors some of them allegedly nominated to see where the monies ended up because as a public officer you cannot nominate your company to do contracts. The National Assembly needs to make the probe of members accused as transparent as possible. It is very easy to do if they have the political will. But if we continue to dance around, trying to shield some people from probe,, we are yet to start the much anticipated journey.
What is your reaction to the allegations of lack transparency against the Minister and NDDC by its former MD?
Even though I have my reservations against the report of the senate committee on NDDC because we were first told its N40 Billion, later it was N1.5 Billion , and at the end of the probe, they said they were looking for N4.9 Billion and they alleged that N2.9 Billion was paid for Lassa fever without following due process. That was the period when the former MD was there. They said N4.9 Billion that was paid for palliatives should be refunded. For crying out loud, they are querying monies for COVID 19 for members of staff. What does the law say? Sections 42 and 43 of the constitution says they can spend without following due process during a pandemic, then when the pandemic is over, they can now retire what was spent. Anybody, talking about money spent on Lassa fever and COVID 19 at this time has lost it.
It means that person does not know what the constitution says. Out of over N80 Billion they claimed is missing therefore, it means nothing is missing, so, what are we talking about? That is the report of the senate committee, on the allegation by the chairman of the palliatives committee, the issue is that he raised the issue after the senate probe had been concluded, so, it was an after thought. The fact remains that governors of the Niger Delta insisted that they were not going to allow palliatives to be shared by anybody other than the governors. Of course, they needed the support of the governors to get these things to the people. Don’t forget that there was a lockdown moving these palliatives and medicals became an issue, so, the NDDC had to bend to the governors and even gave them money. Some states got N100 Million, some got N75 Million each. No governor has denied collecting the money. Why have the governors not accused the NDDC of lying? Where did the chairman get information that the money was mismanaged? He is inadvertently accusing the governors of mismanaging the monies. If anybody should be investigated, it should be the governors of the nine NDDC states?
A coalition of holders of Higher National Diploma have threatened industrial action if government fails to implement a white paper detailing the removal of dichotomy on their career progression in public service in four weeks.
The coalition, comprising public servants, unions and students amongst others, says it will occupy the office of the Head of Service of the Federation, if its demands are not met in four weeks.
“We are going to occupy that office until they do the needful because we will not continue to keep quiet and things will continue to go wrong,” Chris Isiquzo Ikechukwu, president of Nigerian Union of Journalists and a Visitor of International Institute of Journalists, told a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday.
He said having one group of workers enjoying their promotion in service and another group retarded, “is unacceptable to us.”
“We are not going to take this lying low; we are going to mobilize our students and members across Nigeria.”
The white paper has been nearly 14 years waiting to be implemented, said president of Higher National Diploma Holders Association of Nigeria (HNDHAN) Sabastine Onyemaobi
He added the wait continues to expose HND graduates to discrimination, stigmatization and undue stagnation.
He said HND holders do not progress above level 14 rather they are faced with demotion in cases where they try to rise above that, after acquiring PGD and Masters as required by the law.
He demanded that the HND certificate holders from accredited NBTE be recognized as approved by the white paper to progress to higher grades up to level 17.
While noting that their members are becoming restive and they may not be able to contain their agitation, he said promotion and progression in career if free and highly competitive and that HND holders should be given a level playing ground.
The coalition, however, appealed to the president to take this seriously and call the HoS to order because anything that affects a particular set of government affects the entire system.
Over 16,000 people have signed a petition on Change.Org calling on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate All Progressives Congress leader, Bola Tinubu.
The petition, which was started a week ago by Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, had garnered 16, 243 signatures as of 9.30 am on Friday.
The petition is titled, ‘Calling on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate Bola Tinubu for contravening the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act of 2011, by having bullion vans ferry alleged large sums of money into his house on the eve of the 2019 Presidential election’.
Omokri wrote, “Dear citizens of Nigeria, let’s take our country back by signing this petition to compel the EFCC to investigate and prosecute Bola Tinubu for contravening the Money Laundering Act, by ferrying bullion vans into his house. Don’t say ‘na today’, or ‘leave matter’.
“We as Nigerians must stop confusing cynicism for wisdom. If we do not fight for our country, who will? George Floyd’s death sparked a revolution in America and we joined. We did not say ‘na today’, or ‘leave matter’. You and I can make a difference with this petition. #EFCCMustInvestigateTinubu.”
Tinubu had while responding to questions on the bullion vans in his home, said he was free to give anyone money since he was holding no government position.
He had said, “Is it my money or government money? I don’t work for the government. I am not in an agency of government and let anybody come out and say I have taken any contract from the government of President Mohammed Buhari, APC in the last five years.
“They should prove it. I am on my own and I’m committed to my party. So, even if I have money to spend on my premises, what is your headache? Excuse me, if I don’t represent any agency of government and if I have money to spend…., if I have money, if I like I give it to the people free of charge, as long as is not to buy votes…..who are those watching my house looking for bullion vans? They must be mischief-makers.”
Several groups had in the last one year submitted petitions to the EFCC demanding Tinubu’s probe but there has been no official reaction from the EFCC.
The Convener, Concerned Nigerians, Deji Adeyanju; Ariyo-Dare Atoye of the Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy and Constitution and Adebayo Raphael of the Free Nigeria Movement as well as many others had written the EFCC calling for Tinubu’s probe.
Adeyanju’s The petition noted that Section 7 (1) (b) of the EFCC Establishment Act 2004 gives the commission the power to investigate properties of any person that appears to the commission that the person’s lifestyle and extent of the properties are not justified by his source of income.
It added, “To the best of our knowledge, Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a private citizen who ordinarily should not be seen with a convoy of bullion vans.
“The questions begging for answers are: What are Bullion Vans doing in the house of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu? Who owns the content, believing to be cash in the Bullion Vans that were seen entering the house of Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the eve of Nigerian Presidential elections?
“Has the commission, based on its core mandates, investigated the source of the Bullion Vans? Is Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s house, now a bank where bullion vans now take money to?”
No fewer than 183 of 360 House of Representatives members do not have a single bill listed against their names since their inauguration in June last year, The Nation has found.
The 1,039 bills that have passed first reading were sponsored by only 177 members.
The Executive and the Senate also have bills either pending or being passed by the House.
Ten executive and 10 Senate bills are at various stages of consideration.
Our correspondent found that 93 All Progressives Congress (APC) members have sponsored bills in the House.
They lead members of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) 73, All Progressives Grand Alliance’s (APGA’s) six, African Democratic Congress’s (ADC’s) two and one each from members of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
The Southwest leads in members with bills, with 43 of the 71 from the region proposing 181 bills since inception; 35 of 55 members from the Southsouth have proposed 198 bills.
Twenty-nine of the 51 members from the Northcentral have contributed 217 bills; 26 of the 43 members from the Southeast have contributed 192.
From the Northwest, 25 of 92 members from the region have contributed 158 bills; 19 members of the 48 from the Northeast have contributed 99 bills to the pool.
Tajudeen Abbas (APC, Kaduna) has the highest numbers of bills (58) that have passed through the first reading.
The Chief Whip, Tahir Mongunu (APC, Borno), has the second-highest number of bills (43).
Ossai Nicholas Ossai (PDP, Delta) is third with 38 bills; Dachung Bagos (PDP, Plateau) is fourth with 32 bills; House Spokesman, Benjamin Kalu (APC, Abia) and Uzoma Abonta (APGA, Abia) have 30 bills each.
Deputy Chief Whip, Nliruka Onyejeocha (APC, Abia), Minority Whip, Gideon Gwani (PDP, Kaduna), Simon Mwadkwon (PDP, Plateau) have 29, 23 and 21 bills.
Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos) has 19 bills against his name, with many of them already passed and some others awaiting committee report or second reading.
About 152 members have between one and nine bills, including Minority Leader Ndudi Elumelu (PDP, Delta), with nine bills.
The Nation found that 28 members account for about 564 of the bills currently being considered, ranging from 10 to 58 listed against each of them.
Immediate past Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, who recently returned to the APC, has 10 bills listed against his name; Deputy Speaker Ahmed Idris Wase (APC, Plateau) has 15 bills.
Lagos, which has 24 members, tops the states with the highest number of members who have sponsored bills (11).
Only a member each from Yobe (which has six members), Sokoto (11 members) and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) (two members) have sponsored bills.
Majority of the bills are either for new universities, polytechnics, colleges of education or agriculture, or federal medical centres; several others are on constitution amendment.
A breakdown shows that 81 of the bills seek one form of an amendment or the other to the constitution, while 44 seek the establishment of both conventional and specialised universities.
Also, 43 bills seek the establishment of federal medical centres across the country; 27 bills seek the establishment of federal colleges of education; 22 bills seek the establishment of colleges of agriculture, while 17 bills seek federal polytechnics.
Some bills are for the conversion of Auchi Polytechnic, Kaduna Polytechnic, Yaba College of Technology, Adeyemi College of Education and Federal College of Education, Zaria to universities.
While the bill seeking the conversion of Auchi Polytechnic to City University of Technology has been passed by both chambers of the National Assembly and is awaiting presidential assent, others are still at committee stages.
The cost of internet use is so expensive in Nigeria that the country ranks at the very top in a survey of 85 countries of the world.
An analysis by Surfshark Press, a United States-based solution provider released Monday, said Nigeria ranks below Columbia and Honduras in terms of internet affordability.
“Nigeria has the least affordable internet globally. It ranks below Columbia and Honduras in terms of internet affordability,” it said.
In its methodology, the company said the overall affordability is measured by combining the affordability of the cheapest mobile and broadband plans available in a country.
On the overall analysis of digital quality of life index 2020, Nigeria ranked 81st.
The analysis was based on five pillars: Internet affordability, internet quality, electronic infrastructure, electronic government, and electronic security.
The examined countries have a combined population of 6.3 billion people.
In Africa, the report said while Nigeria surpassed Algeria, it lagged behind South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, and Tunisia.
Algeria ranked 84th while South Africa took the 59th position. Kenya is in the 77th place, Morocco at 70th and Tunisia at 64th.
According to the report, Nigeria ranked 70th in terms of e-security, 53rd in terms of cybersecurity, 81st in electronic infrastructure and 82nd in electronic government.
It has data protection laws available in the country, the report said.
The report revealed that Nigeria has better internet quality than Peru, Algeria, Philippines, and Sri Lanka.
Overall, Denmark came first, followed by Sweden, Canada, France, Norway, Netherlands, and the UK.
The U.S. ranks 22nd; China, 38th and Russia, 42nd.
Internet is most affordable in Israel, Canada and Azerbaijan, the report found.
“Top 10 countries with the highest e-security levels are the European Union member states. Globally, they lead in implementing effective cybersecurity policies and ensuring personal data protection,” the report says.
The report said countries in Central America and Africa lag behind in terms of ICT adoption and internet usage.
“The government’s readiness to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the artificial intelligence technology and the assortment of its services provided online strongly correlate with the country’s e-security, except for Eastern European, South Asian, and African countries,” it added.
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, approved the implementation of the proposed cost-reflective electricity tariff for the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
However, residential areas classified as “poor” will not be affected by the increase in tariff, TheCable understands.
Also, Buhari has approved a one-year waiver of 35 per cent import tax for prepaid meters.
In January, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) had announced that there would be an upward review of electricity tariffs across the country from April 1.
However, it directed electricity distribution companies (DisCos) to suspend the proposed tariff increase in March as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In June, the national assembly had persuaded the DisCos to defer the plan till the first quarter of 2021 because of the pandemic on energy consumers.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan had maintained that consumers should be properly metered before the tariff hike is implemented.
With the approval of the president, the new tariff regime is expected to kick off on September 1 and to be reviewed quarterly.
This is said to be a requirement for the approval of a proposed $1.5 billion World Bank loan for the power sector.
According to the new tariff via a NERC order dated December 31, 2019, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) residential customers R3 that were paying N27.20 per unit will now pay N47.09 and N63.42 by next year.
For the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) customers, the R3 category paying N26.50 per unit will now pay N36.49 per unit and later N58.
Meanwhile, Buhari approved a one-year waiver of 35 per cent import tax on prepaid meters to facilitate increased provision to consumers for accurate billing.
The approval was as a result of the request by Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, to fast-track the deployment of prepaid meters under the meter asset providers (MAP) scheme.
In a statement, Yunusa Abdullahi, special adviser to the minister on media and communications, said the application of the levy on imported meters has created a significant challenge to the smooth implementation of MAP scheme.
“The 35 per cent levy was imposed on the recommendation of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, to encourage local production, as well as protect investments in the local assembly of electricity meters,” Abdullahi said.
“An important feature of the MAP regulation is a gradual up scaling of the patronage of local manufacturers of electricity meters with an initial minimum local content of 30 percent with the potential of significant job creation in the area of meter assembly, installation and maintenance.
“Even though the 35 percent was in existence since 2015, the MAP regulations by NERC in 2018 to bridge current electricity metering gap did not factor the 35 percent levy in arriving at the regulated cost of electricity meters to end-users (consumers).
“This is to immediately bridge the gap between the demand for electricity meters and local supply. It is also envisaged that this will provide protection for local electricity meter manufacturers and the opportunity to ramp local capacity in the production of meters.”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State is currently in a quandary over the selection of its candidate ahead of the October 31 Lagos East senatorial district election in the state.
This is as the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) appears to have settled for the outgoing Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Polaris Bank, Tokunbo Abiru, as its candidate for the vacant senatorial seat.
The position became vacant following the death of Senator Bayo Osinowo aka Pepperito who died on June 15. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently announced the schedule for by-elections affecting 12 constituencies across eight states in both federal and state legislative houses, including Lagos East and Kosofe state constituency II.
The vacancies across the federation were as a result of litigation and death of members. Ahead of the by-election, it was gathered that no fewer than six members of the party have signified interest to represent the party and they have all obtained the party’s nomination form.
Among those already signified interest for the party’s senatorial ticket is the governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) in 2019 election, Mr. Babatunde Gbadamosi; the party’s candidate for the district in 2019 and daughter of the late Ayangburen of Ikorodu – Oba S.A.A Oyefusi, Princess Abiodun Oyefusi.
Others include the immediate past Vice President, Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Yeye Adenike Shobajo; a trade unionist, Babatunde Olanrewaju; a legal practitioner, Aare Oladotun Hassan and Princess Saidat Fawora.
New Telegraph learnt that delegates and leadership of the party are currently divided on who will become the flag bearer of the party following the decision of some blocs within the party to support Gbadamosi who recently returned to the party ahead of Oyefusi who represented the party in the 2019 polls.
A source who spoke on the condition of anonymity said: “The PDP has a better chance of winning Lagos East if we present BOG (Gbadamosi), but it appears some people within our party don’t want him. He is popular, has a deep pocket, and understands the issues, even the APC is scared of him. I hope we get it right resig this time.”
But a former member of the state executive in the state said the party should conduct free-and-fair primaries ahead of the election, asking: “Why are we always looking for short cut in our affairs?
Someone left the party to contest on another platform against our candidate, and he came back again and we are already putting him forward. Don’t we have other capable people within the party again?”
Meanwhile, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP has inaugurated a five-man screening committee for the Lagos East Senatorial and Kosofe state assembly by-elections.
The committee has Hon. Tajudeen Ayo Yusuff as Chairman while Barr. Jacob Otokpa will serve as its Secretary. In the meantime, the APC may have settled for Abiru who announced his retirement from the service of Polaris Bank, effective August 31, 2020, having completed his second two year tenure at the helm of the bank.
Some of the aspirants within the party are said to have withdrawn their interest following the resignation of the former Commissioner for Finance who appears to have the backing of the party’s National Leader and former governor of the state, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
A former member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Lanre Odesanya, a few days ago stepped down for Abiru.
The Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle has presented some gold bars and other precious stones to President Muhammadu Buhari. The presentation was done at the residence of President Buhari on Monday night, reports AIT.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) at the weekend urged telecommunication companies to reciprocate the reduction in the charges on Right of Way (RoW) by reducing data charges to Nigerians.
Its Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, stated this while addressing participants at the maiden virtual edition of the Telecoms Consumer Parliament (VTCP) at the NCC headquarters in Abuja.
Danbatta noted that considering the steps the Federal Government had taken to reduce the charges of RoW below N145 per linear metre while some states waived the charges outright, it had become necessary for operators to reciprocate the gesture.
“The commission is hopeful that with the reduction in RoW, which will automatically result in reduction in capital expenditure (CAPEX) by the network operators, telecom companies will sooner or later reciprocate the gesture by making their services, in particular, data services, more affordable to Nigerians,” he said.
The NCC boss said the event, with the theme: Impact of COVID-19 on Telecoms Service Delivery, considered the dynamics of the global pandemic and the directives from the Federal Government on social distancing and other measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Danbatta said the National Assembly also provided an opportunity for industry stakeholders to examine how the pandemic was impacting service delivery in the telecommunication industry, which currently provides the digital platform for the economy to remain afloat.
“As we all are aware, telecoms is highly capital intensive and, as such, continuous network upgrade and expansion are very key to operators’ ability to deliver top-notch Quality of Service (QoS) to their consumers.
“For instance, if operators are not able to expand or they are incapacitated to expand and upgrade their network in the face of spike in traffic, as occasioned by the pandemic, it will definitely have potential grave impact on quality of service delivery.”Despite the pandemic and the lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 virus, we on our part have also not relented to ensure that the quality of telecom services is sustained during and post COVID–19 period,” he said.
The Lagos State House of Assembly has asked Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to explain the whereabouts of three helicopters belonging to the state government.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the matter was raised during plenary on Monday sequel to the Matter of Urgent Public Importance moved by the Chief Whip of the House, Mrs Mojisola Miranda.
The House, therefore, summoned some key government officials to explain to the Assembly the agreement between the state and Caverton Helicopters, the managers of the helicopters.
The state officials summoned were Chief of Staff to the governor, Tayo Ayinde; Commissioners for Economic Planning and Budget, Sam Egube; Special Duties, Seye Oladejo and management of Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF)
“Recall that in 2007, Lagos House of Assembly passed a bill for the establishment of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) for the state government to equip and strengthen the security agencies in the state.
“Three helicopters were bought to strengthen security in the state. But, the helicopters are nowhere to be found now.
“I will want us to look at it and get the concerned parties to tell the House the location of the three helicopters to see if they are just lying fallow.
“If the state government has entered into an agreement with an entity on the equipment, let’s see to what extent the agreement has been working,” Miranda said.
The Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, noted that the helicopters were meant for dual purposes – for security and for commercial purposes.
Obasa emphasised that the House should know the amount that had accrued to the state from the helicopters so far.
“What we have said so far has nothing to do with the image of the state or the assembly.
“What the Chief Whip has done is not too much. We need to know what has happened to the helicopters,” he said.
In his contribution, Mr Rotimi Olowo (Shomolu I) said that the House had approved the purchase of two helicopters during the era of former Gov. Babatunde Fashola.
Olowo said the House learnt that the state had an agreement with Caverton Nigeria Limited to partially commercialize operations of the helicopters on behalf of the state government.
He added that it was important to know how the three helicopters had been managed so far.
Also speaking, Mr Fatai Mojeed (Ibeju Lekki I) said the assets were purchased for security purposes and to generate money for the state government.
Mojeed said the House needed to know what had happened to the helicopters and urged that a committee should be set up to look into the matter.
Corroborating, Abiodun Tobun (Epe 1) said the helicopters should be at the reach of the state for security, probity and accountability.
However, Rotimi Abiru (Shomolu II) cautioned that the assembly ought to have approached the office of the Chief of Staff over the helicopters before bringing it to plenary.
Another lawmaker, Olawale Olayiwola (Mushin II) noted that it was important to call the attention of the state government to the matter.
Olawale said the House needed to know the whereabouts of the helicopters, adding that many vehicles that were donated for security purposes in the state were also not functioning well.
The Legal Defense team of Dr. Obadiah Mailafia has explained why the former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Dr. Mailafia would not honour the fresh invitation extended to him by the Nigeria Police Force through the office of the Deputy Inspector-General Force Criminal Investigation Department.
Dr. Mailafia was invited to appear today (Monday) in Abuja for an interview but he didn’t honour the invitation as his legal team said such invitation is strange and alien to Nigeria’s extant laws and procedures.
Speaking with journalists in Jos on Monday, on behalf of the legal defence team, Yakubu Bawa said the said invitation which came as a photocopy is being challenged in the court and all relevant parties have been served.
According to Bawa, “Dr. Obadiah Mailafia granted an interview for a local FM radio station in Lagos on the 9th day of August, 2020 on issues related to internal security of Nigeria. His interview focused on the incessant killings and ethnic cleansing in his homeland of Southern Kaduna and nation- wide insecurity.
“Consequent upon the said interview, the Department of State Security Services (DSS) Plateau State Command on the directive of the DSS Headquarters, Abuja invited Dr. Obadiah Mailafia through his employer, National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru to appear before the Command on the 12th August, 2020 at 1200hrs for interview, investigation and interrogation.
“Dr. Obadiah Mailafia honoured the said invitation, on the 12th day of August, 2020. I accompanied him to the DSS office in Jos. On that very day he was interrogated, profiled and his statement was recorded. The crux of the invitation was for him to make retraction of the comments he made during the interview at same time to apologize. I personally objected to the said instruction issued him by the DSS officials.
“However, Dr. Obadiah Mailafia was cajoled and coerced by the DSS to address the media of his interface and interaction with them. According to the DSS officials it was an order from the Headquarters for him to do so.”
Speaking further, he added, “Eventually Dr. Obadiah Mailafia addressed the media on his invitation and interaction with the DSS officials. After the media address, I was instructed being his counsel to provide a surety for him to be released on bail. I provided the surety, after fulfilling the bail conditions Dr. Obadiah Mailafia was allowed to go home that very day after 6hours of interview.
“In the same vein, Dr. Obadiah Mailafia was re-invited to appear before the DSS Plateau State Command on the 17th August, 2020. The Surety and I accompanied Dr. Obadiah Mailafia to the DSS office, Jos Plateau State Command that day. Similarly, he had another interaction with the Director of the Command for about forty(40)minutes after which he was allowed to go home.
“It is sad to note and to our greatest shock and consternation on the 21st August, 2020 another letter of invitation was served on Dr. Obadiah Mailafia at his residence by the Nigeria Police Force through the office of the Deputy Inspector-General Force Criminal investigation Department, Abuja requesting him to appear on Monday 24th August, 2020 for interview.
“In the light of the above, as his legal defence team, we approached the High Court of Justice Plateau State and filed an action for the enforcement of his fundamental rights to personal liberty and fair hearing at same time challenging the said invitation served on him by the office of the DIG Force Criminal Investigation Department, Abuja.
“We are praying the Honourable Court to declare the said invitation letter as unconstitutional, unlawful, illegal, ultra vires with no legal effect whatsoever. We are equally seeking the Court to restrain the Nigeria Police Force from inviting or requesting him to appear before the DIG Force Investigation Department Police Headquarters, Abuja since the DSS had assumed investigation in the case and the investigation is ongoing. The case is now fixed for hearing on the 11th September, 2020.”
The Media Campaign Council of All Progressives Congress, APC, for the Edo Governorship election has apologised to the Benin Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, BENCCIMA, over a report that misrepresented the proceedings of a meeting between the Chamber and its candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.
The council, in a retracted report, had erroneously quoted the President of BENCCIMA, Dr. Helen Atekha Odemwingie, to have endorsed its candidate at an event organised by the associations that make up the Organised Private Sector, OPS in Edo State last week.
In an apology released on Sunday, Chairman of the Media Campaign Council, Mr. John Mayaki, clarified that the debunked endorsement claim was reported by an overly enthusiastic communication campaign staff, who has since been queried for the miscommunication.
He apologised to the President, Mrs. Helen Atekha Odemwingie, and the Chamber for any embarrassment caused by the erroneous report.
He said: “On Tuesday, August 18, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu met with associations that make up the Organised Private Sector, OPS, in Edo State, including the Benin Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, BENCCIMA.
“At the meeting, he discussed plans and programmes in his election manifesto, the SIMPLE agenda, to revive the industrial sector of Edo State and boost trade and commerce, especially in communities neglected by the incumbent administration despite their economically viable resource potentials.
“Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu characteristically made a dazzling presentation and earned the commendation of the representatives of the associations based solely on his highlighted plans and his thorough understanding of the issues related to the state’s economy and surrounding data.
“It was this commendation, made without any partisan consideration as it is a well-known fact that the OPS does not adopt candidates or display political bias, that the campaign communication staff assigned to the event misunderstood, and consequently misreported, as an endorsement.
“Based on the goodwill of our party and the intellectual and political strength of our candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, our campaign has been satiated with endorsements, almost on a daily basis, from local and international groups of great repute.
“We, therefore, have no reason to deliberately manufacture one.
“The error, though unfortunate, was unintended. The staff in question has been queried and asked to repeat the training offered at the start of the campaign to all communication staff on ethical and factual reporting, in line with the high standards of our campaign.
“We tender unreserved apologies to Rev. (Dr.) Mrs. Helen Atekha Odemwingie and the Benin Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, BENCCIMA.”
• PDP: Shutdown aimed at stopping disclosures at ongoing investigations
The decision of the leadership of the House of Representatives to suspend over 30 ongoing probes by standing and ad hoc committees was largely caused by COVID-19 scare and five other factors, according to an investigation.
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are also said to have inundated the House leadership with complaints of alleged high-handedness by committee chairmen.
Other untoward allegations against some committee chairmen and members similarly went to the House leadership.
Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila and other leaders, sources told The Nation, were worried that the committee instrument was being abused by some members, prompting a stay of action on all the probes on August 19.
No official explanation was given at the time.
The Peoples Democratic party (PDP) yesterday deplored the suspension of the probes and claimed that the action was meant to stop further disclosures at the hearings.
Investigation however revealed that the House took the step for the following reasons:
“Covid-19 scare;
“constant complaints by Ministries, Departments and Agencies of high-handedness by committee chairmen;
“growing inter-committee rivalry;
“overlapping of functions;
“proliferation of committees without deriving powers from the floor; and
“arbitrary extension of committee timeline beyond six weeks
A top source said: “We received intelligence report that some of our members who had Covid-19 infections/ symptoms had been attending public hearings because of sitting allowance.
“A few others had been secretly keeping COVID-19 manifestations to themselves and they had participated in committee activities as if all was well. We decided to put the interest of all members and Nigerians coming to the National Assembly above any other thing.
“The safest thing was to suspend all committees’ activities so that all members would have time to rest and those with Covid-19 symptom could have time to treat themselves.”
The source also said the House leadership was “disturbed by constant complaints of high-handedness by some chairmen of the standing and ad hoc committees.
“In fact, the committee instrument is being abused in a manner that some MDAs have not been able to do anything other than to appear before committees. We opted to apply the brakes to avoid the House reputation being dragged in the mud.
“We believe the committee activities ought to be better managed than the case at present.”
A principal officer said: “We have uncovered inter-committee rivalry and overlapping of functions between Standing Committees and Ad Hoc Committees.
“This development is also creating division in the House to the discomfiture of our leaders. We cannot continue to operate in this uncoordinated manner.
“In the House alone, we have more than 30 ad hoc committees investigating some MDAs and companies outside the standing committees saddled with such responsibilities.
“For instance, there was an ad hoc committee investigating DSTV and others on high subscription rates in the House of Representatives with Standing Committees on Information and Communication. This is creating bad blood.”
“It has reached a ridiculous stage that some ad hoc committees just sprang up in the House without deriving powers from the floor. There was no House resolution that such ad hoc committees be set up.”
A ranking House member said the leadership acted on the complaints of some members who were worried that things were getting bad.
He said: “Some ad hoc committees had exceeded their timelines of either four weeks or six weeks, and they continued to operate without recourse to the floor for extension of their sitting period.”
Some members were allegedly getting more distracted by committee assignments which they have accorded priority.
At press time, findings confirmed that the House leadership was working on “strict regulations for the conduct of the committees.”
Another principal officer said: “We will fine-tune the committee system before we return from recess. I can assure you that things will change.”
Announcing the suspension of the probes on August 19, House Leader Alhassan Ado Doguwa, said: “The Leadership of the House of Representatives recently met and resolved that henceforth all activities of standing and ad-hoc committees be put on hold while the House is on its annual recess.
“Accordingly, all standing and ad hoc committee chairmen are hereby directed to suspend with immediate effect all committee meetings, public hearings and other engagements until the House resumes from its annual recess.
“The Clerk of the House should also ensure strict compliance with this circular by all committee clerks and other relevant staffs of the House of Representatives.”
He was silent on why the House decided to put committees’ activities on hold.
PDP chides Reps for halting probes An unimpressed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday kicked over the suspension of the various investigations.
The party, in a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, asked Speaker Gbajabiamila to stop circumventing the statutory duties of the House and desist from obstructing the fight against corruption by the legislature.
The party described the shutdown order by the leadership of the House as a clear example of corruption fighting back from within the government circle, which it said must be condemned by all Nigerians.
It said: “It is clear that the shutdown directive is targeted at frustrating revelations from ongoing investigations on the $500 billion foreign loan from China, particularly as it relates to the mortgaging of our nation’s sovereignty to China.
“This is in addition to the investigations into the humongous corruption in government agencies including the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), the N300 billion unremitted revenue to the federation account as well as allegations of corruption in government earnings and the expenditure in Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDA’s) under the APC.
“It is therefore unfortunate that under the Gbajabiamila-led leadership, the basic responsibility of the House of Representatives, which is its oversight on the executive, has just been maimed through a forced holiday on the members of the respective committees and their Chairmen.
“It is equally distressing that the APC leadership of the House of Representatives is breaching parliamentary rules, practices and procedures to shield APC leaders and their cronies who have been fleecing our nation.
“Our party therefore holds that any parliament that deliberately frustrates its statutory responsibility to call the activities of the executive to question has lost the essence of its own existence. The leadership that led it into such constitutional suicide must be held culpable.
“Indeed, never in our parliamentary history has committee activities been suspended or shut down on the ground of holiday or suspension of plenary.
“For us in the PDP, it is shocking that the APC leadership of the House of Representatives could by any consideration shut down, its legislative investigation, which is exclusively vested on it under sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), on the guise of being on break.
Such an action is calamitous to our democracy.”
The PDP however commended members of its caucus and other minorities in the National Assembly for standing against corruption and striving to ensure that the APC did not sell Nigerians into slavery with its reckless foreign borrowings.
It urged its lawmakers not to be “deterred but continue in their assignments as they are only answerable to the Nigerian people.
“The PDP therefore charges the Hon. Gbajabiamila-led APC leadership of the House of Representatives to immediately reverse itself as Nigerians expect nothing but seamless investigations without unnecessary interferences and incursions.
“If the Honorable Speaker is inclined towards allowing the covering of corruption, against the purpose for which he was elected to lead the House, then he should take a bow and step aside.”
A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, who was sacked from office over allegations that he misappropriated funds, Babachir Lawal, tells HINDI LIVINUS that the party risks losing the next presidential election if some things are not done
Some members of the All Progressives Congress, including Mamman Daura, a nephew of the President, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), have said competence and not zoning should be the key determinant for the President’s successor in 2023. What do you think about it?
You said some senior members of our party, but I am not aware that Mamman Daura is a card-carrying member of our party. Ideally, Daura is supposed to be considered as an elder in the North on account of his age and achievements in public service. On that basis, we accord him a level of respect to the extent that his comments will carry weight.
But since he has never contested any position, either in the party or in government, we will not take his comments on zoning very seriously. My own inclination is to take it as a personal opinion. The issue of zoning is a very critical component of the Nigerian entity. Zoning is not entrenched in the APC constitution nor is it in our (Nigerian) constitution but a political party is in the business of politics to win elections.
And for any political party to be successful, it has to take into consideration the diverse demography and political structure of its constituents. Don’t forget that our politics is built on some fundamental understanding, though not legal. First, there is the issue of religious balance. We want a country in which every Nigeria feels secure to live their life in a peaceful and prosperous manner in an environment created by the government. Any political party that ignores this is obviously digging its grave. Nigerians like to count the numbers of Muslims and Christians in the Federal Executive Council to see if there is balance.
And one of the things Nigerians have criticised about the security architecture is the fact that they see the top echelons of the security service as being predominantly dominated by Muslims. To that extent, Christians find faults in whatever they do. I suspect that most of the calls that the leadership of the security agencies should be rejigged is because Christians don’t feel comfortable with the dominance of one religion, especially as cases of insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, and so on, have soared and Nigerians have factored in the religious orientation of the perpetrators.
Two, politically, Nigerians want zoning in the polity. In states where the people are homogenous on the basis of religion and tribe, they tend to rotate power across the zones or blocs within the state. At the national level, it translates into North and South; that is the understanding and every Nigerian has come to accept it. That, however, does not mean that Nigerians do not believe that merits should count. But people who have merits are available in all parts of the country and are not localised to any geopolitical zone.
There are fears that the Peoples Democratic Party may field a northerner in 2023 and that it may give them an advantage if your party picks a southerner…
No! The PDP introduced the principle of zoning. Even the All Nigerian Peoples Party, the Congress for Progressive Change, and the Action Congress of Nigeria, which existed then but now defunct, never discussed zoning. The concept was largely successful because the party had elder statesmen like Adamu Ciroma, Alex Ekwueme, and Solomon Lar who could come up with a workable political structure acceptable to the generality of their party members when things got hot. Now, the APC has found itself in the same situation and has to toe that path, or else it will not win the next presidential election. To win the next election, the APC must apply the principle of zoning, though not clearly stated in the APC constitution. We believe by 2023, after the North has produced the President for eight years, the South should have a go at it.
Do you think that will be practical if the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, is again put forward by the PDP as its candidate? Don’t you think he will win by securing the majority of the votes from the North?
I am not thinking like that. Atiku Abubakar is from Adamawa State and is a northerner like me, but I will like to contest the basis of your statistics. The conclusion that the North produces the largest bloc vote is not true. The North-West geopolitical zone in the North tends to go in one direction all the time. The North-East tends to go in another direction. They have never voted along the same lines and we are not even talking about the Middle Belt.
If the South-West, South-East and South-South agree to vote for one party as they do in the North-West, the chances are that our so-called (northern) numerical strength may be challenged, and we may come off worst.
With Adams Oshiomhole and the APC’s National Working Committee’s removal and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s alleged presidential ambitions, do you think there could be divisions in the APC?
First of all, I want to declare that I am a Tinubu man. There’s no denying that there’s a Tinubu factor in the APC. Just like I was a Buharist and every time Buhari’s name was mentioned, I stood by it. But the crisis that started in the APC has nothing to do with 2023. It just had to do with the mismanagement of the party by those entrusted with that responsibility – namely the NWC.
We had a chairman that had deficiencies in management skills in a political system where everybody needed to be carried along. As much as possible, he was like Alexander the Great. In almost every state, because of his approach to politics and conflict resolution, there was crisis, even in states where the APC had no governors. So it got to a stage where everybody was fed up with having Oshiomhole as the chairman. However, there were some people who wanted Oshiomhole out more than the rest and members of the APC knew they had ulterior motives that were not altruistic, but majorly selfish.
Does the selfishness have anything to do with 2023?
Yes, like some governors who wanted to go back to the old days when they would sit down and decide what would happen and who got what in the party. Many within the party felt that as a former governor and labour leader, he would be able to stand up to the governors. We also felt that coming to that position with some affluence; he would not sell our party for pecuniary considerations.
But Oshiomhole, to some certain extent, did not give the governors one inch because he was autocratic or a dictator. And the governors who wanted to go back to running the party created a crisis. It got to a point when even those of us who ordinarily supported Oshiomhole later became disappointed because he so messed us up. But because those who wanted to throw him out were worse than him, we stood by him. They deployed all kinds of arsenal and Machiavellian tactics that no one after something good would be inclined to do. Some of us advocated for a ‘soft landing’ for him. Like every other human being, Oshiomhole had his weaknesses. He, however, started to change towards the end of his reign but it came too late. Those who wanted him out were more desperate. From my own observation, there is very little the national chairman of a party can do to impose a presidential candidate on their party.
Do you see Buhari supporting zoning ahead of 2023?
Buhari believes firmly and strictly in what is legal. Once you point out to the President that this is what the law says, he goes with it and other considerations won’t matter. I don’t know what he will do but it is only necessary that any leader, whose tenure is running out, ought to show interest in who their successor will be. Not for personal reasons but for the continuity of their policies and programmes. To that extent, even if Buhari is not inclined towards it. I will urge him to.
Do you think the President would support that power should move to the South?
When we were in the CPC, we got many votes but didn’t win. But there were other challenges; there was an unhealthy perception that Buhari was a religious bigot. He was also seen as someone who would be hard on corrupt persons and many groups didn’t feel they would be safe if he became the President, especially the Christian community. So we sat down as a strategic group and thought of what we could do.
Which bloc could give us the votes that could make Buhari to become the President? There was no other bloc other than the South-West bloc, which had the defunct ACN in control of states in the South-West as a regional party. This was done as far back as 2010, so we planned to have a merger before the 2011 general elections. But time ran out on us. The merger didn’t work. After the loss, we were encouraged to start the merger process again. I remember a letter from the chairman of the CPC Board of Trustees directing our committee to work with the ACN, only towards having a merger. It was when we read his letter for discussion that we decided that we should not restrict it to the ACN. We moved to include the ANPP.
One of our specific goals was to make Buhari the President. Tinubu was a colossus of South-West politics. If he had said there would be no merger, there wouldn’t have been any merger. By the time we went to the APC national convention, the North-West was not with Buhari. The North-West people were either for Atiku or Rabiu Kwankwaso; most of them, at least. The late Inuwa Abdulkadir and I continued to pile pressure on Tinubu, giving him the statistics. There was no point supporting a candidate that would not win the election. We told Tinubu that this man had 12 million votes, and that there could be two million votes for Atiku and four or five million votes for Kwankwaso at best, and that it would not translate to any electoral victory.
It became very clear that Buhari was going to win that primary election once Tinubu declared publicly his support for him and accepted that the South-West would vote for Buhari.
Between Wednesday and Thursday (before the convention), it was clear Tinubu and Bisi Akande were going to support Buhari and the North-West had no choice but to support Buhari, otherwise they were going to lose out. So if Tinubu had not conceded at that point, I think probably Kwakwanso would have won the presidential nomination of the APC. For that reason alone, you can see Tinubu’s contributions to the emergence of Buhari as President and his role in building the party.
Everybody knows Buhari had no money and he doesn’t play money politics. So he won his presidential primary election without spending money. Also, Buharists didn’t have money; they only had ideas, zeal and fanaticism. And politics requires money. Tinubu, who had his tentacles spread across the corporate world, was the only man who knew where and how to raise the funds needed. He was the one that reached out to all the ‘big men’ who were at the time scared of the then President Goodluck Jonathan. These were all rich men that depended on government’s patronage. But somehow, Tinubu was able to persuade some of them to support Buhari. We had so many experiences, Timipre Sylva (now Minister of State for Petroleum Resources) and I thought we could do it but found out we couldn’t until Tinubu came in and we won the election.
How did you manage to turn around the negative perceptions the public had of Buhari?
At the time, Nigerians saw Buhari as just a wood. He had no emotions. People weren’t seeing him as a loving husband and father, and doubted if he could be humane. It was Tinubu who brought in consultants from the US – the firm behind the successful execution of President Barrack Obama’s campaign. It helped to repackage Buhari to Nigerians. They came and started from the scratch; they did some research work for us. They told us where Buhari was weak and the messages needed to change the long held perception, using billboards and other campaign methods.
That was when you started seeing Buhari wearing a suit, and in Igbo, Yoruba and Kanuri attire. It was then people started to see Buhari as a family man with his beautiful daughters.
The strategy was to transform his image and show a humane, loving and trustworthy person. It helped us. At some point during our strategy sessions, the consultants asked us: why don’t you allow Buhari’s wife to come out so that she can be contrasted with Dame Patience Jonathan? When you do that, you would have won the election already, they said. She provided a contrast to the former First Lady.
Rallies don’t win elections. It is the underground work that wins elections. Almost the same thing repeated itself in 2019. Tinubu doesn’t like to take credit for what he does; he lives for politics, gets his money from politics and spends it on politics. He has no other interest except politics. The monies he spent out of his pocket that are unaccounted for outside of the party’s campaign finances, are quite enormous. I know this because he’s my friend and because I am also involved in the Buhari government. So when there is a crisis, I am the one whose duty is to run to the South-West.
Therefore, except we want to bring the wrath of God on our heads, which we don’t want, the party must create an environment that is free and fair for anybody who wants to contest, including Tinubu, to do so. Allow the delegates, who must have emerged through a similarly free and fair process, decide who they want to vote for. It will be our duty as ‘Tinubu’s boys’ that time to say, ‘Let us vote for Bola’.
By the way, what did we get from several years that the Presidency has resided in the North? Along that line, we have also had vice presidents who were northerners. We have had presidents who were northerners but for some reason, the system is not improving. Presidency from the North is like an albatross around our neck. We northerners can do with power going elsewhere so that at least, we can now complain. But you cannot be holding on to power while things are not working fine. Let us also be able to complain, especially those of us who play active roles in the country.
There have been problems between the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), and the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, people that should be working together to promote the President’s anti-corruption war. How bad do you think this is for the country?
Like the Bible says, the heart of man is desperately wicked: who can phantom it? The conducts of certain people, whether in government or not, is incomprehensible to a normal person with a decent character. Both of them are like my younger brothers. I have known Malami since I was in the CPC and only got to know Magu when I was in government. And I like his sense of duty and commitment to his job. That’s all I know about him. I don’t know however if there had been attempts to address these issues in another way before the options were exhausted and the issues resulted in the escalation of those differences.
What I consider painful in all this is that this government has fought corruption and committed all its energies and resources to fighting corruption irrespective of the parties the people they go after belong to. Some are politically motivated; some are not right. I would not be self-serving if I say take my own case, for instance. This issue has given the international community the impression that we are not serious about our anti-corruption campaign. When I was removed as SGF, the general outcry was that because of my closeness to Buhari, they wanted to weaken my flanks so that they could come after me.
But now in the case of Magu, the narrative is that corruption is fighting back. These are the impressions and the consequences of such conducts. Initially I had the feeling that the system would come after Magu, especially the press and the social media. If you are very discerning, you will know they are with him. The preponderance of opinions is in support of Magu’s position. The views being laid out are as if it is a witch-hunt. There are better ways to end Magu’s reign because no matter what anybody tells you, Magu tried. I used to joke that if you are a thief and you are caught by Magu, nobody can release you unless you cut off his hands.
Aliyu, a resident of Farawa Babban Layi in Mariri quarters of Kumbotso Local Government Area in Kano, was said to have been chained and caged after he was accused of drug abuse by his parents.
Mr Godday Idahosa, the Governorship Candidate of the Accord Party in the upcoming election in Edo, has defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Idahosa announced his defection on Friday at the Ogbona Ward 8 and 9 campaign ground in Uhiele, Esan West Local Government Area of the state.
He described Gov. Godwin Obaseki as a great man, saying that his developmental stride prompted his defection to PDP.
“I said by God’s grace that I can’t fight my people. When you are being fought outside, you run back home for refuge.
“Our governor is doing well. He is a great man and he deserves to be re-elected. Even the sun and moon will cooperate to work for his success. “In this election, my supporters and I are going to work for Obaseki. I am leading hundreds of my supporters to PDP today,” he said.
The Chairman, PDP Campaign Council, Mr Dan Orbir, who received Idahosa to the party, lauded his bold step, describing Obaseki and his Deputy, Philip Shaibu, as a perfect match.
In a remark, the governor said that he had directed the Commissioner for Infrastructure, Mr John Inegbedion, to commence the process of building the road to Uhiele community.
“I want us to use this election to end godfatherism in Edo. Four years ago when I came to campaign here, this road was not built but I gave it a face lift.
“This means that l can construct more roads. “By the grace of God, when you come out en mass to vote PDP, you have contributed to the release of Edo from godfatherism.
“If we end godfatherism, I will be able to repair schools, build hospitals and provide youth and women empowerment.
On Wednesday, when the social media went awash with that news that Mamman Daura, a nephew of President Muhammadu Buhari, had been flown abroad for emergency medical treatment, there was a feeling of “not again” in the president’s camp.
It has now been clarified in a report by TheCable that Daura, son of Buhari’s elder brother, is not ill as reported but on a routine medical check-up in the UK.
Nonetheless, the president has lost key friends and associates in recent times that tongues are bound to wag on the depleting ranks of his inner circle.
Wada Maida, who died on Monday, was a quiet but influential figure in the Buhari camp who died a few weeks after Ismiala Isa Funtua, an in-law to the president.
The death of Abba Kyari, his chief of staff, is apparently the most devastating to the president partly because of the key role of co-ordination that he played in government.
TheCable chronicles the deaths.
ABBA KYARI: THE ENFORCER
Abba Kyari was the first person within the president’s inner circle to die in recent times, and his death shook Nigeria for several reasons: he was the chief of staff to the president; he died of COVID-19, the first prominent Nigerian to succumb to the disease; and he was a member of “the cabal” and was even seen by some as Nigeria’s de-facto president.
Kyari died on April 17 after battling coronavirus for about a month. He had tested positive for the virus after he returned from Germany where he led a government delegation to meet with officials of Siemens to finalise deals relating to the Nigerian power sector. In his tribute, Buhari described Kyari as “very best of us” and “my dearest friend”.
ISA FUNTUA: THE IN-LAW
The president was still mourning Kyari when Isa Funtua, another of his close allies, passed on. Funtua, who died on July 20, was another strong member of “the cabal,” and Buhari’s friend for many years. Like Buhari, he is from Katsina state while one of his sons is married to one of the president’s daughters.
Publisher of the defunct Democrat Newspaper and former president of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Funtua believed he is not just a member of the cabal, rather, “I’m cabal myself.” While condoling with Funtua’s family, Buhari said his late friend’s death “created a huge gap as Malam Funtua consistently stood by him in his political journey.”
WADA MAIDA: THE ‘SILENT’ ASSOCIATE
The latest of Buhari’s associates who passed recently was Wada Maida, who died suddenly after he slumped in his living room in Abuja, on August 17. He was a former spokesman of the president who served him as chief press secretary about 40 years ago when Buhari was the military head of state between 1983 and 1985.
Ever since then, he has remained in the president’s good books and was in 2017, appointed as chairman of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) board of directors. In his tribute to Maida, the president described the late media icon as “a very dedicated, hardworking and loyal professional for whom I have the deepest respect and admiration”.
The Nigerian Bar Association has withdrawn its invitation to Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, following protests from some lawyers.
The NBA said this in a tweet on Thursday via its Twitter handle @NigBarAssoc.
The tweet read, “The National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association at its ongoing meeting resolves that the invitation to the Kaduna State Governor, H.E. Nasir El-Rufai, by the 2020 Annual General Conference Planning committee be withdrawn and decision communicated to the Governor.”
A petition to stop the governor from attending the Annual General Conference which was started by a lawyer, Usani Odum, had garnered over 3,150 signatures on Change.Org as of 4 pm on Thursday.
In a separate letter titled, ‘Request to Withdraw the Offer of Platform at the 2020 Annual General Conference of the NBA to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai,’ addressed to the Chairman, Technical Committee on Conference Planning, NBA, Prof. Koyinsola Ajayi, some lawyers said the governor must not be allowed to speak at the conference.
The letter, which was signed by Silas Onu and Auta Nyada, listed 10 allegations against el-Rufai and his son, Bello, who is a Special Adviser to Kaduna Central lawmaker, Senator Uba Sani.
They faulted the NBA for inviting el-Rufai, citing his alleged poor human rights record and his inability to stop the killings, particularly in southern Kaduna.
The lawyers also referenced many controversial utterances of the governor, including a threat during the run-up to the general elections in 2019 that any foreigner that interfered in the poll would leave Nigeria in body bags.
The NBA virtual conference, which holds from August 24-26, 2020, is expected to have Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), in attendance.
Others expected to speak at the event include former Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, Governor Wike of Rivers State and a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili.
The theme of the conference is: ‘Am I a Nigerian – A Debate on National Identity, the Indigeneship-Citizenship Conundrum.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, yesterday decried the abuse of honorary degrees by universities in the country, revealing that he turned down 17 offers during his eight-year tenure as Lagos State governor between 2007 and 2015.
According to a statement issued yesterday by his Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Hakeem Bello, the minister made this known when the Committee of Vice-Chancellors/Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities paid him a courtesy visit.
The former governor, who said he stopped the award of honorary degrees in the Lagos State University (LASU), noted that honorary degrees must be conferred on awardees based on merit and not because they occupy political offices or command socio-economic powers.
“We said, look we are going to be different and for two or three years we did not award any Honorary Degree because truly the idea of Honorary Degree is an important building block of society and once we throw those blocks away or make them unviable then the purpose for it is lost.
“In my eight years in office I had 17 offers and I didn’t take one. I told them to wait until when I was out of office and if they still find me worthy they should then come back, and when I was out of office only one came back.
“The point I want to make is that we have to encourage our children to work hard. What have these honorees of the universities done to deserve the honour? What of those who have become undeserving, will you go back and tell them to return the degrees, that they don’t deserve it anymore?”
He also charged the dons on the need to come up with “an acceptable version” of the History of Nigeria.
“There is one thing you can do for Nigeria. Bring all these people together to start work on one acceptable version of Nigeria’s history. It is that version that can be thought in primary and secondary schools, because that is what is happening in other countries. They fought wars too but they have written one final version of their history. When you have written that final version it will be thought in our primary and secondary schools,” the minister added.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Tuesday told the Federal Government that the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, which it developed as an alternative to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System is read for integrity tests.
According to ASUU, the software for UTAS was unveiled and demonstrated to the Minister of Education and senior management staff of the Ministry of Education, including the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Abdulrasheed Abubakar, on Monday.
The national President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, made this known during a press conference held at the Gwagwalada campus of the University of Abuja, attended by almost all its national officers.
But Ogunyemi maintained that it would not suspend its ongoing strike until the Federal Government honours its 2019 agreements.
“It is our sincere hope that the government would not renege on its promise because the benefits of UTAS to the university system (both public and private) cannot be found in any other software in Nigeria today. Now that the union is close to meeting the government’s demand on an alternative to IPPIS, it is our sincere hope that the substantive issues in the ongoing strike action would be given the desired attention,” he added.
The ASUU president also lamented that five months’ salaries of their members at the University of Maiduguri and the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike are still withheld by the Accountant-General of the Federation on account of non-registration on IPPIS.
“Thousands of other academics across the Universities are suffering the same fate. So, while we counsel that government at both the federal and state levels must meet the Taskforce specified guidelines for reopening of educational institutions, we insist that all the arrears of the withheld salaries of our members in federal and state Universities must be paid immediately to pave for further discussion on the outstanding issues in the Memorandum of Action of February 7 2019,” he added.
– Wants FG to order the arrest of the COO of the company
There was heavy gridlock along the busy Yola Gombe road yesterday, as over 400 workers block the road leading to the only national motor Park in the Adamawa state capital Yola, protesting the molestation of female causal workers by the Indians working in Adama Beverages limited producers of Faro water and juicy owned by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
The protesting workers who carried placards accused the Indians managing the company for Atiku of molesting Nigerian female workers during working hours and massive sacking of Nigerians replacing them with Indians.
The workers who called on the ministry of labour and productivity to immediately wade into the inhuman treatment of Nigerian workers on their father’s land,said that the Chief Operating Officer ( COO) Mr, Francis Vazheparambbil, must be prosecuted inline with the Nigerian laws.
The workers carrying placards with inscription “Indians must go” ” we don’t want Indians” “we say no to causalization” ”we are not slaves” and many other inscriptions, lamented that Nigerian workers are treated in the company like during the days of slave trade.
The spokesman of the protesting workers Abdullah Maigida Bello who spoke on behalf of others said ” since the Indians came to manage this company they make us work like slaves in our own country with no comessurate income”.
“Some of us have been on causal list of the company for 12 years, what they do is disengaging and reengaging without paying”.Most of the permanent staff including some senior staff appointments were terminated without payment but were converted to contract staff by this Indians”. The COO is now bringing into country even during this pandemic his countrymen to replace Nigerians,”.
“The Group Chief Operating Officer Of Priam of Companies that manages Adama Beverages Limited, Mr. Francis Vazheparambbil,has succeeded in bringing Indians from his village to take over the management of the company as permanent staff while we Nigerians who are more educated and qualified were terminated and re-engaged as contract staff,” he stated.
He added,”Even some of the the jobs meant for junior staff and causals have been taking over by this unqualified Indians he brought.”
Also speaking, the chairman of Senior Staff Union of Food and Beverages Staff Union of Nigeria, Adama Beverages Limited Branch, Comrade Puke Jackson ,told journalists that some staff were giving quary for holding meeting that did not affects the production of the day.
“We came in as a union to intervene but the management seems to have taken a stand, this has been the problem since Indians took over the company, he has brought a lot of Indians to displaced us Nigerians who are better qualified.”
When journalists contacted, the Group Chief Operating Officer of the company Mr Francis ,he declined comment saying” I don’t have any business with the in Nigerian journalists ,”i will not talk to you people “.
Leaked Video: PDP Calls Out Presidency Over Oshiomhole’s Arrest Comment
…Charges Buhari to question Gambari
By Dirisu Yakubu
The Peoples Democratic Party national campaign council for Edo Governorship Election has called out the Buhari Presidency over a trending video allegedly showing former All Progressives Congress, APC, national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole and the Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Gambari discussing the “arrest” of unnamed persons.
The amateur video showed Oshiomhole walking briskly alongside Gambari, with the former Edo state governor saying, “Arrest…deal with and the whole will change,” while Gambari responded saying “we will go beyond…”
Addressing a press conference at the party’s headquarters on Tuesday, national publicity secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan said the arresting comment may not be unconnected with the September 19 governorship election in Edo state.
He said: “Nigerians were alarmed by the video in which Oshiomhole was seen emphatically urging the Chief of Staff to Mr President on the need to clampdown on certain unnamed Nigerians to achieve political suppression and submission ahead of the Edo election.
“Our national campaign holds that the presence and involvement of the Chief of Staff to the President and the fact that the discussion held within the precincts of the Presidential Villa has made the Presidency complicit and place a huge burden on President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Already, there is anxiety in the public space that the discussion between Oshiomhole and Prof. Gambari as captured in the video is an extension of discussions that must have held behind closed doors in the Presidential villa.
“The video has validated earlier revelations of plots by Oshiomhole and the APC governorship candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, to use compromised security operatives being mobilized by certain individuals in the Presidency, to arrest innocent Nigerians, including traditional, faith-based and community leaders on trumped-up charges, ahead of the Edo election.”
Ologbondiyan who doubled as the secretary, publicity sub-committee of the campaign council, further said the people of Edo state now know who to blame should things go wrong in the governorship poll.
“Nigerians and the people of Edo state now know those to hold responsible should there be cases of illegal arrests, assassinations and unexplained killings, sudden disappearances of prominent people, accidental discharge by federal security operatives and mysterious accidents in the course of this Edo governorship election.
“The PDP national campaign council on Edo governorship election charges President Buhari to reassure Nigerians by immediately ordering that Adams Oshiomhole and Prof. Gambari be pulled in for questioning over the video.
“Anything short of decisive action on this matter will further indict the Buhari Presidency especially coming on the heels of public anxiety over Mr President’s widely condemned comment on the use of security forces for elections.
“Our campaign, however, wants the APC and Oshiomhole to know that their ignoble plots against the people of Edo state have come to nought as the people are at alert and will use every legitimate means available to defend they’re already expressed will in support of the candidate of our party, the PDP, Governor Obaseki in this election,” he added.
Vanguard could not verify the authenticity of the eight seconds video at the time of filing this report.
• Ministers, religious institutions, transport workers, women societies, CSOs get slots
• ’Oct. take off on course’
The wrangling over the 774,000 public works jobs initiated by the Federal Government might have been resolved with slots allocated to lawmakers.
Besides Senators and House of Representatives members, governors and ministers will also make nominations.
The process of recruitment which the National Assembly tried to halt, after a clash between Minister of State Labour and Employment and the joint committee of the National Assembly on Labour and Employment, is going on in all the states.
Political office holders have been allocated 15 per cent of the slots in the programme designed to employ 1,000 artisan youths from each of the 774 local government councils in the country.
Beneficiaries are to work for three months between October and December. Each will earn N20,000 monthly, doing public works as may be determined.
N52 billion has been approved for the project in the 2020 budget.
Giving a breakdown of the slots sharing, the Chairman of the Extended Special Public Work Selection Committee in Rivers State, Dr. Innocent Barikor, told The Nation reporter at the weekend that: “The programme has a guideline.
“The directive given to us is that every state governor has 40 slots of the job in each LGA; serving Senators have 30 each, members of House of Representative have 25 slots; a minister has 30 slots in every LGA in his state of origin, so I have nothing to do about it.”
The committee chairman added: “This job is for those that do not know about ICT. They are jobs for bricklayers, market women, hairdressers, among others.”
Kaduna State Chairman of the Selection Committee, Hajiya Hafsat Baba, said: “Thirteen per cent of the total number allocated to Kaduna is being shared among the elected and appointed political office holders from the state, while the eighty-seven per cent will be given to the people through a random selection committee.”
Fifty slots were allocated to the member representing Gwer East and Gwer West Constituency of Benue State in the House of Representatives.
NDE State Coordinator, Musa Sadauki, who is also the selection committee Secretary, wrote: “We are pleased to formally notify you that the Hon. Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo has approved the allotment to you of the 25 slots in each of the two LGAs in your Federal Constituency…”
Plateau State selection committee said it will soon roll out the recruitment modalities.
State coordinator, Rufus Bature, said the committee has held several meetings, and that application forms may be distributed as from next week.
Enugu State Chairman of the Committee, Chief Gbazuagu Nweke Gbazuagu, said the recruitment was running smoothly.
Keyamo who confirmed the slot reservations, said: “Yes, the figures are true. Fifteen per cent has been reserved for political officeholders. They also have constituents they represent.
“The slots for Senators and House of Representatives members are for the local governments within the constituents/catchment areas that they represent, not the whole state.
“It is a very, very small number if you consider that the slots are not up to 150 out of 1,000 per local government. So, you still have 850 per local government. You still have a large number reserved for Nigerians.”
The Katsina State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) protested the quota allotted to the association by the committee.
The chairman, Reverend Nelson Onyekachukwu, said: “Asking CAN to contribute only 20 people from each of the 34 local government areas in the state is grossly unfair to the association.”
The implementation committee chairman, Alhaji Musa Magaji, said the recruitment would be done equitably irrespective of religious or political affiliation, adding that CAN is just one of the groups to be accommodated.
The Anambra State’s Selection Committee head, Sir Uzoma Igbonwa, said the project would soon take off.
He said the traditional rulers sub-committee was yet to be inaugurated, but that those of market women, road workers, youths, CAN and Muslim group have all been inaugurated.
Lawmakers in Imo State have allegedly hijacked the forms for some local government areas.
An artisan, Elder Jacob Uwaleke from Owerri West Local Government Area, said: “We were told that lawmakers collected the forms on behalf of their constituencies but honestly I am yet to see it.”
Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, said the exercise open.
“There is no mystery about it. It is being done transparently,” he said.
Selection Committee Chairman, Okenze Obinna, said the form was available at NDE office.
“We have given the forms to all elected officials. The problem is that people think that the 27,000 slots to the LGA are inexhaustible, but I have not got any heartbreaking complaint.”
The 20-man selection committee inaugurated in Delta State has begun the recruitment process.
Chairman of the committee, Prof Kelly Ejemudo, said: “We already have slots allotted to political officeholders. Then we have interest groups.
“Our committee did not adopt the hard copy or electronic mode because some scammers may hijack it.
“Apart from the state committee, we have local government coordinators. We also have ward supervisors.”
Our correspondent learnt that 30 slots were allotted to each of the traditional in the eight councils of Delta Central.
For Delta South, 20 slots were reportedly allotted to the Olu of Warri.
Ijaw monarchs under the senatorial district reportedly got 10 slots per six local government areas, while royal fathers of Isoko ethnic nationality received 30 slots for the two Isoko North and South council areas each.
Traditional rulers in Delta North senatorial district were reportedly allotted 40 slots each.
The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) got 10 each across the 25 council areas; market women got 250 slots, 10 for each council area; youth organisations reportedly got 20 slots for each of the council areas, bringing their total to 500.
The state chapters of CAN and the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs were reportedly given “500 job slots each, 20 per LGA”.
The committee chairman in Oyo State, Mr Ope Salami, said they were yet to receive any mobilisation fund from the Federal Government for logistics.
He said the committee would announce when prospective applicants can approach their council areas to obtain the application forms.
In Ebonyi, the committee said it will conclude work on the list of those to be recruited by end of the month.
Its Chairman, Edward Nkwegu, said 13,000 persons are to be recruited from the 13 council areas.
The Senate insisted that the Directorate of Employment (NDE) should handle the recruitment.
Chairman Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, Senator Godiya Akwashiki (Nasarawa North), said the Senate’s position remains unchanged.
He said: “Before we went on break, we had a resolution. We did not say they should suspend the programme.
“Strictly, the law says that the NDE should implement the programme, that is, planning and execution, while the Minister’s role is that of supervision as far as the law is concerned.
“This was the position of both chambers of the National Assembly.”
On whether the NDE is implementing the resolution, he said: “I don’t know but that is the position of the Act establishing the NDE. That is the position of the law.”
“We are watching. We believe it is still in the preliminary stages, so there is no cause for alarm. It is too early for now because all of us are on break. So I will advise you to wait.”
House of Representatives spokesman, Benjamin Kalu, added: “It’s their job to recruit. That the Executive is doing the job does not mean the National Assembly is not having an input into the programme.
“The National Assembly will have input because there must be a way to accommodate the people we represent.”
Barikor said members of the committee would not allow any political party to hijack the scheme.
According to him, the committee was in talks with the Rivers State government following its decision to pull out of the scheme.
He said: “I believe that some level of misinformation is responsible for what had happened.”
Amidst liquidity crunch that has seen all the 36 states of the federation slash their 2020 budgets by over N3 trillion, the state governments may have to also sacrifice part of their tax revenue as reliefs to businesses and individual taxpayers in the country.
This, however, comes with a reward of $2.5 million for each state under the Federal Ministry of Finance Budget and National Planning (FMFBNP) World Bank’s $750 million States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme for Results.
This was the outcome of weekend’s virtual meeting held under the SFTAS Programme for Results, which was organised by the World Bank and the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF). Already, the move, which is aimed at engendering quick economic recovery, has seen some of the states introducing tax relief programmes to mitigate the unending toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses and individual taxpayers.
The relief programmes, which were initiated in states across the board, have focused on five main tax activities, including extension of filing and payment dates, tax moratoriums, waivers or reduction of penalties and interests over the extension period.
While some states are also offering rebates or discounts on taxes paid within a specific period, others are allowing the payment of taxes, fees and levies, among others, in instalments. In the same vein, states’ tax offices are now enabling filing and the issuance of tax clearance certificates electronically (online).
Various state governments had, in the wake of nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, offered tax reliefs to business operators and individuals to mitigate the effect on their businesses. Lagos State government, for instance, granted three months extension of deadline for filing of annual returns by business organisations.
This was for a period of March 31 to June 30, 2020. Later, the Executive Chairman of Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), Ayodele Subair, announced additional tax incentives as part of measures to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Lagos taxpayers.
These included instalment payments of outstanding liabilities to ease cash flow challenges; waiver of penalty for late payment of liabilities under pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) scheme that were due during the March to May lockdown; waiver of penalties due to late filing of 2020 annual returns (Form A); waiver of interest and penalty of outstanding tax audit liabilities from 2000 to 2015 for entities that present and keep to a structural payment plan that ends on or before December 31, 2020
Abia State government, on its part, granted 25 per cent waiver/discount on small scale industries/artisans (PAYE and all forms of personal income taxes/ direct taxes), who make payment for past three years arrears. Acting Chairman/ Chief Executive, Board of Internal Revenue, also announced 20 per cent waiver/ discount for payments in August 2020 and 15 per cent waiver/discount for payments in September.
The state government equally reduced tax clearance certificate (TCC), capital gains tax and payments for Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) for urban and rural areas. In Kaduna State, the board of internal revenue said taxpayers subject to presumptive tax would enjoy a four-month grace period, from June 1 to September 30, to enable them recover from the effects of the lockdown.
KADIRS executive secretary, Zaid Abubakar, said the incentives was in accordance with sections 95 (1) and 127 of the Kaduna State Tax (Codification and Consolidation) Law, 2016. “Penalties and interests that hitherto would accrue for late filing of returns have been waived for the period of the extension.
“Filing of Annual Tax Returns within the extended period shall be deemed to be within the statutory timeline and shall attract one per cent rebate on tax due,” Abubakar said. Private school owners also enjoy a grace period of six months, from April 1 to September 30.
The SFTAS experts at the webinar concluded that such waivers for businesses are no longer optional, but have become an essential element of governments’ stimulus-targeted packages to facilitate recovery for businesses which face liquidity crises, and individuals whose livelihoods have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
Incentivised by a new Disbursement Linked Indicator (DLI), eligible states will be rewarded with $2.5 million each in performance- based grants if they announce by 31st July 2020 and implement by 30th September 2020 a tax compliance relief programme for individual taxpayers and businesses to mitigate the COVID-19 impact. Incidentally, the state governments are themselves currently experiencing a liquidity crisis of their own; and with limited capacity to borrow, it has become imperative that they find a balance between granting tax reliefs and maintaining revenues at a sustainable level.
The extent to which government revenues will be impacted by these reliefs will depend on the type of relief that they grant and their ability to raise their tax efforts simultaneously, including offering incentives for greater tax compliance. Recall that the 36 states’ aggregate budget of N9.2 trillion earlier signed into law was recently revised by the individual states to N6.2 trillion as revenue dwindles.
The states rely heavily on the monthly allocation from the Federal Government and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to fund their budget. However, the slump in oil price means less money from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, while projections for IGR have also been shattered by the downturn in the economy.
The SFTAS virtual meeting gave state governments between July 31 and September 30 this year to implement the relief packages to qualify for the grant. The meeting was attended by participants from the 36 states of the country, including state commissioners for finance and Executive Chairpersons of State Internal Revenue Services.
A statement issued at the end of the meeting gave as condition for the grant, the publication of the tax reliefs on the state website and in national dailies to ensure widespread awareness amongst taxpayers.
“Furthermore, the state government should issue to their tax officials and collecting agents, guidelines for the implementation of the reliefs to ensure consistent execution by all and sundry,” the statement added.
Olanrewaju Ajogbasile, NGF’s SFTAS technical assistance, project, who addressed the meeting, promised that the secretariat will provide technical advisory to the states on the domestication of necessary reforms to meet the DLI and fiscal sustainability.
Ajogbasile noted that some states have followed the requirements of granting extension for filing 2019 annual returns and waiver for penalties and interests for businesses and individual taxpayers, others have gone further to waive other taxes, fees and levies for a specified period of time.
Business › 'Citation': Ibukun Awosika Makes Acting Debut In Kunle Afolayan Movie by Islie(op): 8:04pm On Aug 31, 2020
