₦airaland Forum

jarawa:
Governors are willing to pay the N614bn bailout handed out to 35 states as budget support facility and other monies borrowed to state governments. Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Governor, Kayode Fayemi stated this Wednesday night while fielding questions from newsmen during the forum’ s meeting in Abuja.

He said that governors have never been averse to paying any money borrowed them, adding that they do not want the banking or financial system to be in jeopardy.

He said that just as governors were ready to pay, they also had duties to ensure reconciliation of accounts as far as money owed by states was concerned. ” It is a storm in a tea cup when we read that governors are refusing to pay . We don’t have such an issue. We are ready to pay”, he said.

The background… Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, had recently said that they were plans to deduct from source the bailout handed out to 35 states as budget support facility. Speaking during a Public Consultation Forum on the draft 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework in Abuja, she said that deduction could commence in September 2019. The federal government gave conditional budget support facility to the states through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2017.

It was to enable states to meet their financial obligations to civil servants and pensioners. The money was provided at a nine per cent interest rate, with a two year grace period. Ahmed had said the repayment would be taken from the affected states’ allocations during the next Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting this month. She said the refund was not going to be treated as revenue to be used to fund the 2020 budget.

“It was a loan that was advanced by the Central Bank of Nigeria to the states,” she said. Ahmed said that because the payment was made by the CBN, the recovery process is for the loans to be deducted from the FAAC allocations of the states and remitted back to the CBN. Ahmed said the process would not require a consideration of the fiscal strategy paper (FSP) implementation, but to ensure the states stayed on the path of fiscal sustainability. “This will not be a condition for the deduction.

We will deduct direct at source and remit to the CBN,” she added. In a communique issued after the NGF meeting , the governors resolved to partner Transmission Company of Nigeria( TCN) to improve power supply nationwide. The Forum had earlier listened to a presentation by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which highlighted issues such as inadequate transmission and sought governors’ commitment to improve the power situation in the country.

The forum said it received a briefing on the status of the world bank assisted State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Program for results (SFTAS). ” The team from the World Bank assured the forum that all assessments now imply that states have improved in transparency ratings over the last quarter. “The forum also received, in session, the new Country Director of the World Bank, Shubham Chaudhuri whose tour of duty commences on 1st October 2019.

He replaces Ben Masoud after his four (4) year tenure in Nigeria, ” the forum said in the communique. The governors were also briefed by Governor Kayode Fayemi on the meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector General of Police on the unlawful invasion of some governors’ residences, in direct violation of the immunity of the Governors. The governors’ pledged to continue to collaborate with journalists on security particularly when they worked in hostile environments.

The Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) told the forum that the country should expect above average rainfall which has already resulted in severe flooding in several states. Governors in attendance at the meeting were Babatunde Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), Sirake Dickson (Bayela), Abubakar Badaru, (Jigawa), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), Emeka Ihedioha (Imo), Seys Makinde (Oyo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Aminu Masari (Katsina) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara). The Deputy Governors in attendance were those of Nasarawa and Kaduna states.

jarawa:
Traditional chiefs and leaders of Itele community in Ado Odo/Ota Local Government of Ogun State, yesterday resolved to end the town’s protracted internecine crisis following the intervention of former President, Olusegun Obasanjo. At a peace meeting held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, six newly installed Baales (traditional heads) in Itele as part of the peaceful resolution were presented to the former President.

A younger brother to Obasanjo, Chief Abraham Idowu Akanle, who represented him, told the new Baales, community leaders and some of the town’s indigenes at the meeting that Obasanjo had expended over N1 billion on the peaceful resolution of the crisis. According to Akanle, beside the huge amount of money the crisis had claimed, it had equally affected the socio-economic development of the community.

“Imagine if the huge amount of money my brother spent on resolving this crisis had been distributed among your town’s residents and indigenes, it would have brought greater development to the community. “So, I urge you to continue to maintain peace. And whoever says Itele will return to crisis, his home will not know peace,” Akanle said. He warned that anybody who foments trouble after the peaceful resolution would face the wrath of the law.

Earlier, Obasanjo, who briefly appeared at the meeting, told the community leaders that he was on his way outside the state for an urgent engagement. He said, “From today, no more litigation. We must move forward as brothers and sisters at Itele.”

A community leader and Osunba of Itele, Chief Samuel Olatunji Asorobi, disclosed that over N500 million had been spent on various litigations on the crisis. According to Asorobi, the crisis had over the years plunged the community into deplorable infrastructure, poor education and bad economy.

He applauded Obasanjo for taking the lead role in resolving the crisis, while urging those who still felt aggrieved to embrace peace in the interest of the community and its development.

Read more: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/obasanjo-expends-n1bn-to-resolve-crisis-in-ogun-community.html

jarawa:
The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has expressed satisfaction with the decision of the federal government to close the land borders with the neighbouring countries, describing it as the only way through which Nigeria’s anti-smuggling laws could be enforced. He stated this in Kano on Wednesday while briefing the press in his palace on the sideline of recent appointments into the National Economic Advisory Council by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He blamed the country’s porous land borders for high incidences of tax evasion, which according to him have been turned into escape routes from excise duties and tariffs as well as viable channels for diversion of petroleum products from the country.The monarch emphasized that closing the borders remains the only option for the country to resuscitate its agricultural sector and develop its economy. He said: “If you remember when the president came to Kano on official visit, I actually talk about closing the borders with the Republic of Benin.

I always felt that if you really want to enforce laws that you have against smuggling, you need to close borders. “You have petroleum products moving basically across the borders from Nigeria to neighbouring countries because of our fuel subsidies. You have goods coming in across the border using the port in Cotonou to avoid tax revenues in Lagos; so what happens is we don’t get the revenue from duties and tariffs and then we end up having the goods coming in anyway. “Closing the borders becomes indispensable because our neighbouring countries are not helping us to protect our economy. For instance, if you want to protect rice farmers, you have to impose heavy taxation on importation of foreign rice into the country.

“Therefore, any country that allows smuggling of rice into Nigeria through its borders is doing that at the expense of our farmers who could not withstand competition with foreign producers. Besides rice and other food items, you must also understand that all the illicit drugs get into this country through the land borders. “So sometimes it is important to take these difficult decisions so that we get the cooperation and collaboration of Customs officials across the borders. It is something that I wholeheartedly support. I think it is temporary and I think it will lead to improvement,” the monarch emphasised.

Commenting about the new economic advisory council, the Emir commended the president for choosing competent hands to serve in his economic advisory team, describing the team as first class group of professionals. “If you look at the kind of system we operate, if you look at the United States, every US president always has a council of economic advisers, and one of the reasons you have that council is you could want independent academics who are able to give you frank and honest advice on how to run the economy and address its problems.

“What the president has done is to follow that pattern to appoint a team of highly respected professionals to advice him and this time we have economic problems when we have fiscal issues when the global economy is facing some crisis; it is extremely important that the president has high quality advice so this is to me one of the best things the government has done for the country and this team is first class team,” he added.

Read more: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/i-wholeheartedly-support-borders-closure-emir-sanusi.html

jarawa:
The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has upheld the election of Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State and dismissed the petitions of the PDP and its candidate Umar Nasko for lacking in merit.

On the allegation by the petitioners that the Governorship election in 2019 was marred with intimidation, violence, vote buying among other act of irregularities, the tribunal says the petitions are unable to prove the allegations so adduced.

Read more: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/niger-tribunal-upholds-gov-bello-election.html

APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole Comrade Adams Oshiomhole is the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview with journalists, the former labour leader opens up on the real issues between him and Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State and the way out of the challenges in the state chapter of the party. Have you resolved your differences with Governor Obaseki?

This has been an issue I tried to avoid when I watched you talking about Oshiomhole’s faction and Godwin’s faction. The truth is that I don’t have any faction. Everybody in Edo State, particularly those of APC stock, are my people. We founded the party from ACN to APC. It hurts when people can’t make a distinction between policy positions and unhealthy debate about options in dealing with specific issues.

Let me start with the issue of the inauguration of the Edo State House of Assembly. I was governor when PDP had 16 members, and ACN then, had eight members, but we had to learn how to live with the reality that the parliament is in the hands of the opposition, so all we needed to do was to cultivate ways and means of playing up what united us as a people and getting the opposition to recognise that we were all elected; even from different political parties, but for a purpose; the sustainable development of Edo State. And we managed that until the people favoured us with majority.

Right now in Edo, we are obviously far more fortunate that all the 24 members of the house are all APC. So, no matter if there are differences about a preferred speaker, I don’t think this was enough for us to breach all the rules, regulations, customs and traditions that are well entrenched as regards to the simple straight forward matter of proclaiming a House of Assembly. When I see Nigerians taking sides on it, I just pity people who can’t make a difference between your personal affection or love for someone and dealing with issues of principles and law. Now, I remain convinced that it is not in the interest of our democracy for nine members at 09:30pm, which I understand the Supreme Court in another judgment has described as nocturnal hours, for an elected parliament to seek to secretly inaugurate a house so that a particular person can emerge as speaker, and in the process, you exclude 15 members of the house.

Nine persons cannot elect the speaker or deputy speaker on behalf of 24 members. Number two, it is also the tradition and the law that when you are elected by your various constituencies, the day of your inauguration, the proclamation is not a state secret to be shared by those who are favoured. The proclamation must be published; stating time and date. If there is any Nigerian who has followed inauguration in the 36 states and the FCT, particularly the last federal one, it is settled that the fact of proclamation letter must be communicated by the clerk to all the members-elect so that they can go there that day with their families and loved ones. Now, to try and do that at 09:30pm, even if it was done by my biological son, God will give me the courage to tell my son that this institution is governed by law.

Parliament is an autonomous arm of government, delete it and there will be no democracy. So I found it strange that because we pointed out what I thought would be obvious to every Nigerian, that first, some of the members of the nine out of 24 who are already in the minority, four of them on take, have said they were invited for an informal conversation with the deputy governor, then they were bundled into a waiting vehicle and driven to the House of Assembly. And they were forced to take oath of office against their wish. One of them was wearing shorts where he went to buy suya. These are facts, the people have spoken and they are still alive, they are still protesting. Then somebody says that because I am the national chairman of the party, I ought to turn the other way. If it is wrong in Bauchi, for them to do secret inauguration, how can it be accommodated in Edo State? For me, these are the issues. And it is much shameful that in this case, all 24 are APC members.

As a former governor who had the privilege of presiding over Edo State for eight years, I will tell you that there is little or nothing a government can do in the final analysis. I was there at the Government House, Benin, not too far away from Anthony Enahoro’s building where the parliament seats, and I heard that the parliament met and decided to change its leadership. And there is nothing I can do about it; it is their privilege thing to do. So, I did not really know what the issues were. So, that is not between me and the governor, anybody suggesting that it is between me and the governor is just being mischievous. It is about what is right and what is wrong. But we thought the issues were resolved when the governor visited you in the village during Sallah? The governor has slept in my house countless times before he became governor, and even after he became a governor.

He is my friend, he is my brother. But I am surprised that Nigerians don’t appreciate the fact that even as brothers, if I feel strongly that what my younger brother is doing is wrong, I should advise him quietly, and when I do, it becomes factional war, that impression is wrong. Secondly, the governor knows that there is no quarrel between us, because what could have caused us to quarrel, I consciously made decision from day one to avoid it. Namely, I was never going to decide for him who he pays and I was never going to suggest to him who he appoints. But is the governor on common grounds with you now? That is the issue; the last time we had a meeting with Governors Bagudu, Fayemi, El-Rufai and Niyi Adebayo, we all agreed that, given the division in Edo APC now, the way to go is to have an all-inclusive meeting. We need to meet in a room and resolve our differences and come out for people to know that APC is one; you cannot solve problem without talking.

The governors encouraged him to meet with me so we can arrange the meeting. In fact, the governors offered to accompany us to Edo State to hold meeting with all the groups so that we iron out our differences. Unfortunately, as we speak, the governor has refused to convene that meeting. We have to work now on how to get such a meeting on because there is no way to solve such a problem without reaching out to the aggrieved parties. Let me assure you that this governor is not under threat, it is those who are making money from the crisis, those I call merchants of confusion, they are only relevant when there is a fight. They are the ones that will tell the governor they want to impeach you.

But the governor should ask himself what he has done to deserve impeachment. But will you support him for a second term? Have we gotten there? Let us get there first. As it stands right now, has he told you, he is contesting? And has he told you I am opposed to him? He is allegedly being told he is going to be given the Ambode treatment? Who told him that? What will I gain if Godwin does not run a second term, is Oshiomhole going to run a second term? If I did what I did, whether he acknowledged it or not, but people know what I did to support him to be, what comfort will I have if he is terminated half way? What is Ambode treatment? But let me tell you, Ambode treatment is not the worst treatment we have seen in the APC.

What about M. Abubakar’s treatment in Bauchi. He won his primary, as a sitting governor, he lost the election. What about Adamawa State? Because of internal fighting the sitting governor lost. Although we are hopeful in both cases that the court will give us victory because we think we won the elections. So, the point to me is that tickets are not the issue in politics. I think the real issue in Edo State is what anyone that loves the governor (Obaseki) should do what we tried to do, what those governors tried to do by reminding him that a divided house cannot stand. And the house remains divided if we do not make conscious effort to bring everybody together. So, what I am doing is to encourage him and all our leaders to have an all-inclusive meeting of all APC leaders. Lock the door, speak truth to ourselves. What is simply happening is that there are people who think that their access to bread and butter will end if there is peace and so they encourage the governor wrongly.

I have had meetings before where I urged the governor to carry people along. Whether you like it or not, if there is one business where one tree cannot make a forest, it is politics. But do you think you will support him again as you did the first time? If we have this meeting of all the various tendencies within the APC and remind ourselves of what unites us, rather than what divides us working together wholeheartedly, everybody being given a sense of belonging, there is no reason why we cannot continue to defeat PDP and there is no reason why Obaseki cannot win election. But let me say, ev