₦airaland Forum

BMO hails military, Police over recent successes

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has hailed the military authorities, the Police and other security agencies over their successes in recent, frontal offensives to stem the tide of insecurity in the country.
BMO said this is a result of the obvious change in strategy, after series of security meetings presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, the group said that the success stories of the last few days are a consequence of proactive actions initiated by the President.
“It’s not even one week after President Buhari held an extraordinary meeting with Service Chiefs, heads of security agencies and ministers saddled with the responsibilities of overseeing security agencies and we are already seeing results on different fronts.
“What Nigerians heard was that the President issued a marching order for the security agencies to be ruthless with bandits, kidnappers and other criminal elements, but the swift manner that the military and other agencies have acted showed that new strategies must have been deployed.
“And because of the international dimension of the security challenge, especially in Northern Nigeria, President Buhari was in Chad at the weekend for an emergency regional security meeting involving about 29 countries
“It was a good opportunity for the President to seek international support for his quest to stifle supply line of small arms and light weapons to bandits and insurgents terrorising some parts of the country,” it said.
The group noted that it was gratifying that the military and the police have risen to the occasion by recording great feats in Borno and Zamfara states as well as the Abuja-Kaduna corridor.
This, BMO said, is a reflection of the new vigour the security chiefs are bringing to the efforts to check the spate of security challenges in the country.
it said: “Recent security updates from theatre of internal operations have shown that the strategies mapped out at various meetings are working and yielding results.
“We know that Fighter jets and helicopter gunships only a few days ago located and destroyed eight bandits' camps, including their logistics base in Kagara forest, killing several bandits in the process. This comes few days after a number of hideouts of the bandits in other parts of Zamfara were targeted by the Air Force.
“And in Borno, Nigerian and Cameroonian troops killed as many as 27 insurgents in a clearance operation in the Northern part of the state. The large cache of arms recovered from the terrorists may just be one of the largest weapons haul by soldiers fighting the war against insurgency. No fewer than 5 gun trucks, 2 anti aircraft guns, several General Purpose Machine guns, rocket propelled grenades and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition were recovered.
“The Police authorities, on their part, have launched “Operation Puff Adder” that only last weekend saw the operatives taking the battle to kidnappers in Akilbu forest along the Abuja-Kaduna highway and killing about 9 of them in the process.
“Also, three notorious kidnappers who abducted a Channels TV reporter Friday Okeregbe, in Abuja about a week ago, were arrested few days after those who kidnapped the director of the Lagos State Fire Service Rasaq Musbau and six others were picked up by a Police anti-kidnapping team".
BMO said President Buhari has acquitted himself well on the basis of the performance of security forces against banditry, insurgency and kidnapping in recent days. It also poured encomiums on the officers and men on the fields of battle.
"The nation appreciates the sacrifices of these gallant men and women who daily put their lives on the line in the interest of, and in protection of their fatherland. We believe the country is solidly behind them", the group said.

BMO REFUTES IMF REPORT ON MANAGEMENT OF NIGERIA’S SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUND

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has refuted the International Monetary Fund (IMF’s) ranking of Nigeria in the management of the sovereign wealth fund, without conducting an appropriate survey for primary data sources.

It will be recalled that the global financial institution had ranked Nigeria as the second from the bottom in its ranking of management of sovereign wealth fund.

Wondering how this could be, BMO reminded IMF that just a year ago the Director of Strategy and Communications of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, in an interview, listed Nigeria as an example of a well-governed sovereign wealth fund. “One would expect the International Monetary Fund to take a cue from her position”, the group said.

In a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, BMO said: "discerning Nigerians will reject the IMF ranking based on indicators like Transparency and Good Governance."

The Pro-Buhari group noted that the IMF report was sourced from the Natural Resource Institute and World Wide Governance Indicators, not even from the IMF, and therefore not reliable. “A situation where the IMF depended on secondary sources for gathering of data in ranking an important country like Nigeria is unacceptable.”

"How does the IMF expect Nigerians to take its ranking seriously when it relied on secondary data without conducting an interview with the management of Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority for information on the management of the sovereign wealth fund", the group wondered.

"The NSIA is structured in three separate investment funds; Stabilization Fund, Future Generation Fund, and Nigeria Infrastructure Fund. Two of those Funds are invested globally while the Nigerian Infrastructure Fund of the Sovereign Wealth Fund is being invested in the development of critical infrastructure like the second Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, East-West Road, and the Mambilla Hydro Project."

The group wondered how the management of these funds can be said not to be transparent enough, when evidence of Infrastructural projects funded by the Sovereign Wealth Fund abound in all parts of the country.

"What parameters did the secondary data source use in reaching such conclusions?. On Governance, Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority has a governing board which plays its supervisory role in the management of the Funds and the activities of the fund are transparent, accountable and verifiable.

N1.3 BILLION DEATH BENEFIT, N2.8 BILLION PRISONS REFORMS: BMO HAILS GOVT WITH HUMAN FACE

The approval of the sum of N1.3 billion by the Federal Government to pay backlog of death benefit to the next-of-kin of 497 deceased staff of 116 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) has yet again demonstrated President’s Buhari’s compassionate approach to governance.

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) in a statement signed by its Chairman, Mr. Niyi Akinsuji and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, said the payment of the benefits to the families of the deceased will bring succour to the families who lost their breadwinners.

“The payment of the outstanding death benefits is yet another proof that President Muhammadu Buhari is always conscious of the welfare of civil servants and all Nigerians, and would always implement programmes and measures that would enhance the well-being of the citizens of the country who elected him to manage their affairs.

“The 497 benefitting families could use part of the money to pay school fees, buy food, pay rent and clear pending bills as their loved ones rest in peace”.

BMO said it is significant that some of the death benefits which comprise life insurance payment, cost of transporting the bodies of deceased staff for embalment and funeral, are part of the conditions of service for Federal civil servants.

The statement added that the painstaking screening of 563 claims for death benefits by the next of kins of the deceased and the clearance of the eligible 497 for whom N1.3 billion would be paid, was conducted with sensitivity and respect for the late staff and their survivors in 116 MDAs.

BMO also welcomed the assurance given to the families of the deceased civil servants by Didi Walson-Jack, the Permanent Secretary, Service Welfare Office (SWO), Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) that payment of the entitlement would commence before the end of April 2019.

It will be recalled that the Pension Reform Act, 2014 (as amended) provided that every employer of labour with not less than five employees must insure them to a minimum of three times of their annual total emoluments.

In another development, the group also applauded President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for a holistic pursuit of prison reforms in the country, noting that before Buhari, prisons reform had received only lip-service from the Federal Government and this led to so many people languishing in prisons across the country unjustly.

“We therefore consider it laudable on the part of the Federal Government to have approved N2.8Billion for the digital monitoring of prisons in Nigeria.”

The project, according to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, is to ‘’ensure the digital connection and networking of all Nigerian prisons and make monitoring from the office of the Attorney General, the Police and selected courts easy.

“This is the right step in the right direction considering that at a point about 70% of prison inmates were ‘awaiting-trials’ and in some cases had overstayed the period their alleged offences would have attracted if they were convicted.

“We are also delighted that the move will lead to the decongestion of Nigerian prisons and that it demonstrates the Federal Government’s commitment to ensure that innocent people do not remain in prison unjustly.

“It will also help in the quick dispensation of justice as the relevant authorities, including the office of the Attorney General, the Police and the Judiciary will have first-hand knowledge of the happenings in the various prisons and act expeditiously to save the innocent detainees and ensure speedy dispensation of justice,” the group added.

*NEPZA working against direction of Buhari’s administration*

The vision of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is to make Nigeria the pre-eminent manufacturing hub in Sub-Saharan Africa and a major exporter of locally made products to West African sub-region, the rest of Africa and indeed the World.

To achieve this goal, Project MINE (Made in Nigeria for Export), a Presidential Initiative, under the supervision of the Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment was developed to establish “world-class” Special Economic Zones (SEZs) across Nigeria and boost the manufacturing of ‘Made in Nigeria’ goods for export, regionally and globally.

Project MINE was designed to achieve some very important economic goals that would put Nigeria on the world map. What were the objectives of Project MINE? To increase manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP to 20%, create 1.5 million new direct jobs and generate over US$30bn annually in foreign exchange earnings by 2025, amongst others.

It was no surprise that a lot of Nigerians were elated at the establishment of Project MINE but if the manufacturing sector was going to achieve this goal, it needed a vehicle to drive the laudable export agenda.

With many projects ongoing, funds could be sparse to achieve Project MINE, so the Federal Executive Council (FEC), Economic Management Team (EMT) and Project MINE’s Steering Committee (including various stakeholders) endorsed Project MINE’s implementation strategy to use a sustainable Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model to develop world-class SEZs across Nigeria.

It’s not the first time this PPP model had been used in Nigeria, other government units like Nigeria LNG, Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company Limited and Development Bank of Nigeria Limited have adopted similar PPP models.

To get the PPP into full gear, a special purpose public-private partnership (PPP) entity – Nigeria SEZ Investment Company Limited (NSEZCO) – was designed to enable institutional investors participate in Project MINE alongside the FGN, and to apply global best practices and processes to the long-term financing and development of SEZs.

In June 2018, the FEC approved NSEZCO as the vehicle for implementing Project MINE and for co-investment between the FGN, development finance institutions and other institutional investors. Given that NSEZCO is a PPP, it was incorporated at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), on 12 of June 2018 as a limited liability company under CAMA, with the FGN represented by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), holding 25% of the shares in NSEZCO at incorporation.

The remaining 75% shareholding was held in trust by A&O Secretarial Services Limited, the Company Secretaries, on behalf of Strategic Investment Partners including African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Bank of Industry Limited (BOI), Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and African Development Bank (AFDB).

With kick off in sight, the Federal Government released N14.3billion as its contribution. The money was domiciled in the account of Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA) for Project MINE but then something happened.

*What Happened With NEPZA?*

For some reasons, NEPZA established by Act No. 63 of 1992 as an agency of government with responsibility for licensing Free Zones and regulating the Free Zone Scheme in Nigeria felt the need to overstep its boundaries and scurry more powers.

The agency wrote the Senate Committee on Trade and Investment quoting quoted Section 2(2) in which it falsely claimed that NSEZCO was a privately owned company that was trying to take over the functions of NEPZA. The agency urged the Senate Committee to halt the transfer of funds from its account to that of NSEZCO, the vehicle for Project MINE, even when it is on record that the money meant for Project MINE was only domiciled in the account of NEPZA on the order of the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment.

But it didn’t end there; NEPZA also sought some interpretation from the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF). In a letter dated 30 October 2018 and titled, ““Request for Legal Advise On The Propriety or otherwise of a directive to transfer funds appropriated in favour of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority for the execution of some capital projects under the 2017 and 2018 Appropriation Acts respectively into a private company’s account” the letter was signed by Rt. Hon. Emmanuel Jime, Managing Director of NEPZA.

In the letter, NEPZA raised two issues for legal advise; (i) Whether the establishment of the Nigeria Special Economic Zones Company (NSEZCO) Limited to take over the functions of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority is lawful.

(ii) Whether it is lawful for fund appropriated in favour of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority for the implementation of some capital projects in the Free Zones under the regulatory mandate of NEPZA can validly be transferred into the account of a private Limited Liability Company without any prior amendment of the respective Appropriation Acts as well as the NEPZA Act.

*Response of the Attorney General of the Federation*

The response of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation was explicit to say the least. In responding to NEPZA, the office of the AGF broke down the functions of the NSEZCO and that of NEPZA, stating categorically that, “NEPZA letter sought the advice of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation on: Whether the establishment of the Nigeria Special Economic Zones Company (NSEZCO) Limited to take over the functions of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority is lawful?

“It is imperative to state unequivocally that the NSEZCO was not established to take over the functions of NEPZA. The mandates of both entities are distinct with little or no area of overlap,” the AGF responded in its letter dated 6th February 2019.

The AGF then went further to state that, two critical factors that implicated the need for NSEZCO and they are *operational efficiency* and access to *international capital market* with limited or no direct burden on the Federal Government in like manner as NLNG.

The use of NSEZCO to implement Project MINE is to facilitate the creation of commercially-oriented, efficient and effective institutions in line with international standards.

The AGF pointed that NEPZA had claimed that “The Authority (NEPZA) shall be the *only* (the highlighted word is not part of the enactment) body corporate, with perpetual succession and a common seal and may sue and be sued in its corporate name and shall be capable of acquiring, holding, or disposing of any property movable or immovable for the purpose of carrying out its functions.”

The AGF further stated that in section 1(2), the NEPZA Act explicitly recognizes that an EPZ may be operated by any of three types of entities:
(i) public entity;
(ii) private entity; or
(iii) a combination of public and private entity.

The office of the AGF then raised a valid question in its submission, “If anything, the critical question is: were the provisions in the Appropriation Acts made for Project MINE or for NEPZA? The answer is unequivocal that the provisions were made for Project MINE. The funds were appropriated for the purposes of Project MINE, but domiciled in NEPZA at the specific request of the Honourable Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment.

*Money Domiciled in NEPZA should be appropriated to NSEZCO*

The AGF says another related question which ought to be answered is, is NEPZA the implementing entity for Project MINE? The answer is beyond doubt in the negative because the strategy for Project MINE requires a distinct vehicle that leverages the competencies of the co-investors in the vehicle, including sound governance practices and access to the international capital market to secure the success through sustainable performance. It is also needful to point out that Project MINE is not under NEPZA.

Finally, none of sections 2(2), 4(a) and 5(2) (a)-(c) of the NEPZ Acr individually or collectively give NEPZA exclusive rights to do everything relating to investing in, promoting and developing Zones inside Nigeria. If that was the case, then even Oil and Gas Export Free Zones will all be under the supervisory purview of NEPZA. Moreover, the focus of Project MINE is on Special Economic Zones – SEZs which is wider than EPZs that is the remit of NEPZA for purposes of regulation. SEZ is not coterminous with EPZ. Thus, it appears that NEPZA may have relied on a conceptual error.

AGF noted that the HMITI chose to collaborate with NEPZA in the furtherance of Project MINE. Against this backdrop, funding for Project MINE has been domiciled in NEPZA while NZESCO was in formation. In 2016, NEPZA was the domicile of the start-up grant from the President for Project MINE at the request of the HMITI. Project MINE was not a line item in the Appropriation Acts.

As a fact known to the management of NEPZA and the Budget Office of the Federation, all monies for activities of Project MINE were appropriated through NEPZA. The appropriations in 2017 and 2018 with respect to matters of Project MINE were only domiciled in NEPZA. They were not for purposes of NEPZA. NEPZA is not the implementing agency for Project MINE and the development of SEZs. Therefore, sums explicitly appropriated for SEZs under NEPZA are unequivocal indication of an understanding that NEPZA is the domicile for the appropriation and therefore should be stopped from denying this salient fact.

*NEPZA Flouting Presidential Order*
At the signing ceremony for the investment partnership between NSEZCO and its strategic investment partners on February 8, 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari said: “When we decided to continue with the implementation of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan of the previous Administration and launched our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan to fast track implementation, we had a vision of Nigeria as the pre-eminent manufacturing hub in Sub-Saharan Africa and a major exporter to our immediate West African sub-region, the rest of Africa and indeed the World. Special Economic Zones have an important role to play in achieving this vision. Special Economic Zones (SEZ) offer investor friendly incentives, world-class infrastructure and ease of doing business in order to attract local and foreign investment and have been used as a catalyst for rapid and inclusive development, job creation, industrialization and diversified export earnings in several countries.”

ATIKU CANNOT WIN BY SUBTERFUGE WHAT HE LOST AT THE POLLS (BEING THE TEXT OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE ADDRESSED BY THE HON. MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND CULTURE, ALHAJI LAI MOHAMMED, IN ABUJA ON THURSDAY, 11 APRIL 2019)

Good morning gentlemen, and thank you for honoring our invitation to this press conference

2. As you must have noticed in recent times, posters bearing the picture of former Vice President and the presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, with the inscription: ''THE PUKKA, H.E. ATIKU ABUBAKAR, THE REAL AND THE RIGHT'', have surfaced across major streets in Abuja.

3. The appearance of these posters coincide with the media report that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has hired a US lobbying firm to convince the United States not to recognize the re-election of President Buhari until the Supreme Court has ruled on the suit by the PDP presidential candidate

4. The posters and the hiring of US lobbyists, the latest of such by the PDP candidate, have triggered questions about what Alhaji Abubakar is up to. Is he starting a fresh campaign after the elections have been won and lost? Has he rescinded his decision to challenge the results of the presidential election in court, perhaps after realizing that the results he claimed to have obtained from the INEC back server are cooked? Is he now going for self-help? What really is Atiku's motive?

5. Gentlemen, we are aware of media reports that the PDP presidential candidate on Wednesday distanced himself from the posters that are circulating in Abuja. He also reportedly denied hiring US lobbyists, claiming tongue-in-cheek that the APC fabricated the report. If the media reports are right, it means that the former Vice President has suddenly realized the grave implication of his actions, hence has decided to beat a quick retreat before it is too late. As a self-avowed democrat, he should realize that the only lawful channel
for challenging the result of an election is through the courts.
Resorting to self-help, as he seems to be doing now, is an act of desperation and the consequences are dire.

6. There is no doubt that the PDP presidential candidate, out of desperation, is thinking of replicating the Venezuelan model right here in Nigeria. But he should realize that Nigeria is not Venezuela, and that the situations in both countries are not the same.

7. President Muhammadu Buhari won the Feb. 23rd 2019 presidential elections fair and square, with a margin of 3,928,869 million votes. The election's credibility was attested to by local and foreign observers.

8. There is no doubt that President Buhari's victory is well deserved. As I said at a different forum, it represents the triumph of the ordinary Nigerians over the elite. The election is a direct contest between ordinary Nigerians and the elite, most of whom are rent seekers. Of course, the ordinary Nigerians have won. This is not a surprise, considering the pro-poor policy of the Administration. Despite the antics of the naysayers, Nigerians demonstrated that they appreciate the giant strides that have been made by the Administration, whether in the areas of economy, fight against corruption or in tackling insecurity.

9. This is a government that has done so much with less in restoring decency and integrity to governance. Like the New York Times said, the re-election of President Buhari is a referendum on honesty. Of course you know that the policies of the Administration endeared President Buhari to the ordinary Nigerians: The government feeds 9.3 million school children everyday; 500,000 unemployed graduates have been employed under N-Power; 300,000 families are benefiting from the Conditional Cash Transfer; Interest-free loans of between N10,000 and
N100,000 under the TraderMoni and the MarketMoni Schemes, respectively, to small business owners;Pensioners who have been left in the lurch are being paid - ex-workers of the Nigerian Airways, NITEL and former Biafran Policemen; Fight against corruption is being institutionalized with a number of policies that include Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the Whistle-blower policy that has led to the recovery of huge amounts of money as well as property from looters.

10. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has the right to do whatever is lawful to challenge the outcome of that election. But he cannot get through the back door what he couldn't get through the front door. That will be a pipe dream.

11. If he believes hiring a foreign lobbying firm will advance his quest, we wish him the best of luck. But seeking US recognition as the winner of an election that he lost by almost 4 million votes is unconscionable. Recall, gentlemen, that after the result of the presidential election was announced, the U.S. joined other countries to congratulate President Buhari.

12. Let me read a part of the statement by Michael Pompeo, the US Secretary of State: “We commend all those Nigerians who participated peacefully in the election and condemn those whose acts of violence harmed Nigerians and the electoral process. We note the assessments of international and domestic observer missions affirming the overall credibility of the election, despite localized violence and irregularities. Going forward, the United States remains committed to working together with Nigeria to achieve greater peace and prosperity for both our nations.” I think that says it all

13. Yes, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has lost an election. But he will not be the first or the last person to lose an election, and he should realize that losing an election is not the end of the world. He has challenged the result of the election in court. That's just as well. However, he should not give the impression that he does not have confidence in the judicial process, which is what resorting to self-help implies. He should stop overheating the polity and quit trying to instigate a political crisis in Nigeria. No citizen, no matter how highly placed, is above the laws of the land. Enough is enough!

REVEALED: HOW NEPZA TOP OFFICIALS PLOT TO CORNER N42BN FG FUNDS, FRUSTRATE INDUSTRIAL SCHEMES

A deliberate plot hatched by some top officials of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority, NEPZA, to corner over N40 billion meant for the establishment of Special Economic Zones in the country has been unearthed, raising contrived dust over the Buhari administration’s plan to create Special Economic Zones targeted for the rapid industrialization of the country.

When recently the Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment, Dr. Okey Enelamah presented the ministry’s 2019 Budget details to the relevant Senate committee, questions where raised about the creation of a limited liability company with 25% FG interest, the retention of three FG officials as directors, and the allocation of government’s funds to the company.

But informed sources explained that the Senators involved were only acting on information provided by NEPZA officials to deliberately mislead them into concluding that the said funds belonged to NEPZA, and not to the limited liability company formed specifically for the purpose, ie the Nigeria Special Economic Zone Investment Company.

According to a top government official involved in what seems like a presidential review of the unfolding controversy, “the Federal Government adopted a model to speedily and rapidly develop the Special Economic Zones using a PPP model as was done in other countries like China and a number of African countries.”

Continuing, the source said, “the strategy involved the setting up of a limited liability company that included the FG and some institutional investors like African Development Bank, ADB, the African Finance Corporation, AFC, the Bank of Industry, BoI, AFREXIMBAMK, and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA in a 25% —75% FG and institutional investors ratio.

And to secure FG’S interest, three government officials were put forward in the interim as directors in line with the usual practice when such companies involving FG are set up.”

Said another industry source, “using government officials including aides is nothing to worry about since they are there to protect government interests at the take-off stage, pending when a proper board can be in place and the company ready to go full throttle.

Besides the people chosen as interim directors are those who are driving the project and are knowledgeable within the ministries involved being Finance on the one hand and Industry, Trade & Investment on the other.”

Besides, as is done elsewhere around the world, such government representative directors are not entitled to any beneficial interests in the company shares. “Bringing up the issue of these directors was simply a mudslinging attempt to mislead the public, but it has no fuel at all, considering that it is a global practice and the directors are interim and non- beneficiaries,” the source explained.

Investigations however revealed that the NEPZA immediate past Managing Director, Emmanuel Jime and the acting MD Engr. T.D Nongo, to whom Jime handed over, devised the entire plot to ensure that the N42B allocated for the development of the Special Economic Zones be controlled and disbursed by NEPZA instead of the Special Purpose Vehicle established by a Presidential directive straight from President Muhammadu Buhari’s desk.

But in order to ensure this, they needed support in the National Assembly. Said a top official of one of the investigating agencies of the government “this was how the top NEPZA hierarchy sold a carefully designed package of outright falsehood and suppression of relevant facts to the National Assembly and decided to smear the President’s plan in order to corner the funds and control disbursement of the money instead of allowing the limited liability company formed for that purpose to be in charge.”

According to that investigative agency source, “what we now know is that while Jime went to run for election in the last round of elections, for which he had to resign as NEPZA MD, the most senior officer to whom he handed over the reins of NEPZA is actually also one of the main fund-raisers/coordinators of his gubernatorial campaign.”

READ: Army wipes out Boko Haram terrorists in Damaturu

The source added that “therefore the campaign of calumny against the President’s industrial plan and against the Industry, Trade & Investment Ministry is being fueled by both Jime and Nongo. “At stake is the control of Project MINE”, – the name of the plan to speedily industrialize the country through the promotion of Made in Nigeria goods for Export, for which MINE is an acronym.

“They are both bent on controlling the N42B approved in the budget,” it was disclosed.

The NEPZA officials started with the argument that the agency is the one through which the FG can make investments in the Free Trading Zones.

So, the matter was referred to the Attorney-General of the Federation for legal advice. And it was after the AGF counseled that NEPZA was a regulatory agency and not the exclusive implementing agency for such projects that the officials, determined not to let go of the funds connived to develop a plot to smear the whole effort by raising questions and provoking sensational narratives around a model that is best global practice and that enjoys the support of major international institutional investors.

“If this were indeed fishy how do you think such institutional investors whose global operations depend mainly on their transparency and credibility be part of it, considering that the institutional investors are coming up with 75% of the money?, an industry source wondered.

Between the FG and the institutional investors, the investment company, the Nigeria Special Economic Zone Investment Company, NSEZCO, is expected to raise $500m in equity by 2023.

FOREIGN INVESTORS ARE WAITING
While many of the strategic investors have already signed on, the MINE project which the NSEZCO will be delivering has secured significant international partnerships already.

For instance Shandong Ruyi, the leading textile and garment group in China has already announced its commitment to invest $2B to the cotton, textile and garment industry for the Special Economic, (free trading) Zones the NSEZCO will put up in Abia, Kano and Lagos States.

Equally, CCCG Industrial Investment Holding Company, CIHC, of China, which is ranked 91st in Fortune 500 and is the third largest international contractor in the world, has also signed a letter of intent to invest in the forthcoming Special Economic Zone in Lekki, specifically in the areas of power, water, access roads and bridges.

“These are some of the critical and significant plans that few NEPZA officials are trying to scuttle, “ according to a government official aware of the presidential review of the controversy sparked last week when the Industry, Trade & Investment Minister briefed a Senate committee on the project.

Some of the Special Economic Zone projects are the much talked about Enyimba Economic City in Abia, the Lekki-Epe Model Industrial Park, Funtua Cotton Cluster, and several others being planned for Edo, Kwara, Sokoto, Ebonyi, and Benue States among others.

ONNOGHEN: ANOTHER WIN FOR ANTI-GRAFT WAR - BMO



Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen’s resignation is yet another victory for the fight against corruption, and an endorsement of President Buhari’s dogged determination to cleanse the judiciary of corruption and bad eggs.



The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) described the resignation as a triumph of good over evil and a plus for the President’s unrelenting fight against corruption.



“Despite the delays, the games, the politicization and the sentiments that were unfortunately thrown into the space, truth has prevailed in this matter”, the group enthused in a statement signed by its Coordinator Niyi Akinsiju and the Secretary Cassidy Madueke.



“Justice Onnoghen’s resignation has affirmed that this was indeed not a witch-hunt, neither was it a political matter as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and indeed many naysayers had made it look like.



“This has also put to rest posters that questioned the evidence that was put forward with regards to the former Chief Justice's malfeasances, abuse of office and failure to declare his assets.



“It is, to all intents and purposes, a fitting starting point for a cleansing operation that will be the hallmark of President Buhari’s second term in office.”



BMO pointed out that the former Chief Justice has brought too much shame and disgrace to the Judiciary and the legal profession that his resignation was long overdue.



“We are of the view that this resignation is not even honourable. It was long overdue, a man who by his own admission had stated that he breached provisions of the Code of Conduct by not declaring his assets as mandated by law, should have sent in his resignation months ago.



"But he gave opposition elements the opportunity to try to ridicule President Buhari as one who was out to emasculate the judiciary, so much so that the international community bought into the unfortunate lie.



“It was so bad that the UN Special rapporteur on independence of Judges and lawyers, Diego Garcia-Sayan issued a statement lambasting the Presidency based on the disinformation spread by the opposition in collaboration with their allies.



“We are however thankful to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Code of Conduct Bureau and the Tribunal for not relenting despite the pressure by the former Chief Justice and moves to subvert the process through technicalities. The CCB remained consistent and dogged even when fake news and false media narratives tried to castigate their hard work.”



The pro-Buhari group noted that despite Justice Onnoghen’s resignation, it would be ideal for the CCB and the EFCC to pursue their cases against him to a logical conclusion.



BMO said: “This would enable the suspended CJN defend himself in a duly constituted court and give President Buhari enough ground to justify his suspension if found guilty, rather than create room for opposition elements to suggest that Justice Onnoghen was forced out of office.

“It would also send a clear signal to other bad eggs in the Judiciary about the Buhari administration’s readiness to clean the augean stable.”

BMO TO ATIKU: SOLICITING VENEZUELA OPTION IS TREASONABLE FELONY

The security agencies have been urged to investigate the former Vice President Abubakar Atiku’s unholy romance with foreign bodies especially the United States of America, in pursuit of a mandate he never had.

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) also accused Atiku of seeking to destabilise the country in a bid to realise his failed ambition to be President.

This, it said, is the reason he had been lobbying the US authorities to recognise him as authentic President, even though he overwhelmingly lost the February 23 Presidential election to President Muhammadu Buhari.

BMO said in a statement signed by its Coordinator Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke that the step the former Vice President is taking is a treasonable act that has its dire consequences.

“We had in the past drawn attention to the desperation of the failed PDP Presidential candidate to rule Nigeria at all cost and it is becoming more obvious with his latest gambit.

“Not satisfied with pushing out cooked-up figures which he and his party claimed they got from the server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and are using as the basis of their legal challenge at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, Alhaji Abubakar is now using lobbyists in order to con the United States to his side.

“We at BMO are not surprised because we had raised an alarm even before the election that PDP elements had been preparing ground for what they called a ‘Venezuelan option’ by instigating the international community against the President Buhari-led administration, and by raising all sorts of false alarms.

“And now that news has filtered out that Atiku has hired some prominent American lawyers to lobby the US Congress and the Executive to recognise him as President, it beggars belief that a man who rose to the position of Vice President could be engaged in acts that amount to treasonable felony, especially as the legally authorised body in election matters, INEC, declared that he lost the Presidential election," the group said.

It also pointed that some of the measures being taken by the failed Presidential candidate to win American support is the ploy that he is the man to prevent 'genocide, poverty, corruption and strife' in Nigeria.

BMO said: “We have seen how banditry has suddenly threatened to spiral out of control in Zamfara State and some other parts of North-Western Nigeria almost immediately after the election. These are places that were relatively peaceful before and during the election and which also had a reasonable turn out of voters.

“It should not be a surprise that this spectre of violence is deliberately orchestrated and coordinated as part of a game plan to make the incumbent President look helpless and win US support for the failed PDP presidential candidate who is not even known to be popular in that part of the country ".

The pro- Buhari group urged the US authorities to guard against being used by unpatriotic Nigerians to work against an election that their representative in the country had hailed as largely free and fair.

It said: “Even though Ambassador Stuart Symington had, in the run up to the election appeared to show some sympathy for the opposition, apparently based on media reports that had been deliberately skewed to present the incumbent in bad light, he was fair enough to rate the election as reasonably credible.

“We also need to remind the Americans that the main local election observer group they funded, the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement (YIAGA) validated Buhari’s victory as declared by INEC, using a Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT) compiled by 3,030 observers.

“Aside from that, the European Union, UK, France and Russia have since congratulated President Buhari on his re-election with all of them hailing the process as credible and transparent.

“We now wonder why Atiku Abubakar would take his desperation to the extent of seeking a Venezuelan-style US intervention in an election that he lost overwhelmingly, and at a time he has filed a legal challenge to the outcome of the election".

BMO also urged Nigerians to be prepared to defend the mandate they freely and overwhelmingly gave to President Buhari in February.

SECURITY: WHY NIGERIANS MUST SUPPORT GOVERNMENT - BMO



There is need for Nigerians to support the various multilateral strategies of President Muhammadu Buhari in resolving the myriad of security challenges currently facing the nation.



According to the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO), in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, President Buhari and his Service Chiefs have orchestrated formidable and actionable strategies to combat the hydra-headed security challenges.



“This is clearly seen in the massive destruction and degradation of camps and logistics hubs of insurgents, bandits, and kidnappers.”



The group is of the opinion that the “Federal Government has closely studied the situation and taken careful and profound observations of the intricacies of the various scenarios before deploying intense and sustainable strategies to confront and tame these challenges.



“The Buhari-led adminstration has made huge investments in the procurement of platforms and security infrastructure with the sole objective of restoring peace, securing the country and making it a safe place for all.



“The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has launched a formidable state -of-the-art Geospatial Intelligence Data Centre (GIDC). Images acquired from this hub would further enhance the gathering of actionable intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in tracking the movement of these non-state actors and would then be shared with other security agencies to deal effectively with these crises.



BMO noted that, “the synergy between the security agencies is navigating the onslaught against the criminals in a coordinated manner. NAF air assets, such as the Air Task Force (ATF) for operation Diran Mikita led to a decisive and successful blow on the bandits by OWN troops. This happenend over the weekend in Zamfara State and 25 bandits were neutralized, alongside their logistics base.



“The Federal Government is not complacent, but is actively engaged in protecting citizens and securing the country as enshrined in the Constitution of the country which the President swore to uphold, BMO stated.



“In a follow-up action from various security briefs, a Presidential directive to the Nigeria Police Force on the need for a re-evaluation of the security architecture and operational strategies was executed by the Inspector General of Police (IGP). In conjunction with sister security and intelligence agencies, ‘Operation Puff Adder’ was launched.



“Puff Adder is a holistic operation, aimed at reclaiming lost territories, securing key flash points and flushing out criminals who pose a threat to internal security across the country. Further to Operation Puff Adder, the Federal Government, acting on actionable intelligence, placed an immediate ban on mining activities in Zamfara and other red zone states and sternly threatened to revoke the license of companies found to disobey this order."



The Pro Buhari group also called on the host communities, traditional institutions, youth bodies and other relevant stakeholders to cooperate with the security agencies and assist them with credible intelligence in this endeavour. “As inhabitants in these theatre of operations - they play major roles in helping to rout these criminal elements.”



BMO urged members of the public to be wary of fake news shared on social media with the sole aim of misinformation, creating panic and overheating the polity. It also called on the public to follow the active handles of relevant security agencies online, to access the right information and warned fake news purveyors to desist from these dangerous shenanigans.

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

PRESS RELEASE

HOW AN EFFECTIVE NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE CAN HELP HEALTHCARE DELIVERY IN NIGERIA, BY OSINBAJO

*Adds: Scheme Central in FG’s Next Level Plans

An effective National Health Insurance scheme remains the best panacea for the development of the health sector and an efficient healthcare delivery in the country, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

Speaking while receiving a delegation of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, in his office earlier today, Prof Osinbajo said, “We have a good opportunity to do something about the National Health Insurance; it is obvious that government, both Federal Government and State Governments, cannot adequately provide healthcare for almost 200million Nigerian people.”

Citing India as an example, he mentioned that India has the most privatized healthcare system in the world, with individual States being responsible for providing healthcare.

In addition, VP Osinbajo emphasized the need for “Doctors to be remunerated properly regardless of their location, either rural or urban locations. We must find a logical way of addressing this issue.”

Continuing he said, “We must ensure that the states pick up their own part of the responsibility of providing healthcare in their States. With the National Economic Council, NEC, there is the opportunity to talk to State governors and one of the things we do is to look at the human development indices, especially for Primary Health Care.”

“There are States that are simply not doing enough and we must ensure that they step up to the plate. States must be held to account because a lot of the responsibilities are theirs.”

But he emphasized that National Health Insurance is the key in resolving a lot of the financial problems in the Health Sector, adding that this administration has made the National Health Insurance central to the plans for the healthcare system in APC’s Next Level document.

Speaking earlier, the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, mentioned the ministry’s strides in achieving the Universal Health Coverage towards the expansion of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

He thanked the Presidency for the presidential assent of the Appropriation Act, which for the first time, approved the release of the 1% for the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, and disclosed that the Ministry of Finance has released the first quarter allocation of N13.7billion.

In addition, the Minister of Health said the Basic Health Care Provision Fund would also help in fast-tracking the development of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

In his own remarks, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Francis Faduyile, congratulated the President and Vice President on their victory at the 2019 Presidential elections. He also acknowledged the administration’s efforts in the health sector, which includes the signing of the Residency Training Act, the release of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, as well as the recently improved Cancer Centre in Lagos University Teaching Hospital.


Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity
Office of the Vice President
8th April 2019

Onnoghen: Shame on PDP, other witch-hunt choristers -BMO

The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should hide their faces in shame in the aftermath of the decision of the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen to tender his resignation over corruption allegations.

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) says this is because of the manner the opposition elements and their allies stood firmly behind a senior judicial officer that was facing serious charges and sought to make political capital out of it.

BMO said in a statement signed by its Coordinator Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke that President Buhari has proved that he acted in national interest by suspending the tainted Chief Justice.
“Nigerians all saw the manner PDP and its leaders, including its former Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, ran from pillar to post before the election in a bid to defend Justice Onnoghen.
“The party leaders even suspended their flagging Presidential campaign at that time for 72 hours! Just to be seen to be fighting perceived injustice, but discerning Nigerians knew they were playing to the gallery.
“They were quick to shout political witch-hunt to the high heavens and that was in spite of the overwhelming evidence which they insisted on not interrogating because the CJN’s suspension tallied with the wrong impression of a dictatorial government that PDP was keen on selling to the electorates in the run up to the election.
“We were also not surprised that another key PDP leader, the usurper Senate President Bukola Saraki, attempted to drag the Senate into it until the All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus which had a clear majority shot it down.
“We won’t also forget PDP governors in the South-South region in the hall of infamy, especially as they encouraged the man who was at the time the custodian of the nation’s law not to appear before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).“
“And now that Onnoghen has done what he should have done in the first instance rather than engage in judicial rigmarole, does it not amount to a smear on what is left of the character of these PDP elements.
“All these prove that PDP is still what it is-a party that supports and glorifies corruption,” BMO said.
It added that President Muhammadu Buhari also deserves an apology from a segment of the civil society who castigated him for suspending Justice Onnoghen on the basis of a valid order from the CCT.
The group said: “We at BMO have every reason to demand an apology on the President’s behalf from everyone, including the latter-day rights activists who were actually paid hacks, and the real ones who failed in their duties to hold people in government accountable.
“These are the people that used the traditional and social media to whip up enough sentiments that some members of the international community bought the lies and took the unusual step of upbraiding the Presidency in a move that amounted to interference in the country’s internal affairs.
“The positive take away from this is that those who made genuine mistakes in misreading the situation would now see President Buhari from our own perspective as one who acts always in national interest, no matter whose ox is gored”.
BMO also used the opportunity to assure Nigerians that the President would always act in the interest of majority of the people.

Press Release
7th April, 2019

BUHARI ADMINISTRATION REMAINS COMMITTED TO DEVELOPING NIGER DELTA - VP OSINBAJO

*Says Maritime University poised to become Centre of Excellence, as Institution celebrates 1st Matriculation ceremony
The Nigeria Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State, is proof of the unwavering commitment of the Buhari Administration to the development and progress of the Niger Delta.

This was stated by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, during the University's maiden Matriculation ceremony, which held on Saturday, April 6, at its take-off campus in Kurutie, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State.

Prof. Osinbajo, who was represented at the event by Mr. Edobor Iyamu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President, on Economic matters, Office of the Vice President, noted that President Muhammadu Buhari "is a man of his words and he has made that clear over and over again with regards to the Niger Delta, in the last four years."

It would be recalled that the take-off of the Maritime University was actualized under the Buhari administration following the commencement of its operations in 2017.

The take-off of the Maritime University is in fulfilment of the Buhari administration’s commitment to develop the Niger Delta in line with its New Vision for the region.

The Vice President's speech, which was delivered by Mr. Iyamu, highlighted the determination of the Buhari administration to change the narrative of a region that had been neglected in the past.

He said, "The seriousness with which we view the Niger Delta informed the series of unprecedented engagements that resulted in the comprehensive development Plan known as the New Vision for the Niger Delta; with the goal of ensuring that the huge resources of the Delta are put to work for the good of the people of the region.

"That New Vision has guided us every step of the way, and is what has helped propel the Ogoni Clean Up to fruition, and helped birth this University in which we are gathered today."

Congratulating the management and staff of the University in his speech, Vice President then urged students of the institution to become excellent ambassadors of this University.

"I congratulate you all on the commemoration of this milestone occasion, the inaugural matriculation ceremony. Congratulations also to all of the matriculating students. As the pioneer set of students of this landmark institution, you are all standing on the threshold of history, and we rejoice with you," he noted.

"We have a vision that the Maritime University will come to be known around the world as a Centre of Excellence in Maritime matters, and a repository of expertise and knowledge on the Niger Delta," he added.

The Vice President further noted that the Federal Government is focused on developing the human capital of the Niger Delta in different sectors, noting that in the near future, the region would not only be known for its oil and gas potential, but also in the quality of its human capital resources.

"These and more are examples of how we are walking the talk in the Niger Delta region, which we view not in terms of its past, but in terms of its potential. And this is a potential that is not limited to oil and gas, but is actually focused more on the development of human capital. We are confident that the Niger Delta will sooner than later come to be defined, not by crude oil, but by the quality of its human resource, the abundance of its agriculture, its rich cultural potential, and so on," he added.

He also noted the ongoing Ogoni Clean-up/remediation efforts, the establishment of modular refineries in the Niger Delta and the Presidential Amnesty programme that has helped to maintain the peace and stability on the region, and the Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme, aimed at ending gas-flaring in the region.

"And while the remediation is ongoing, there are also a lot of efforts aimed at ensuring that affected communities enjoy basic amenities like clean water, and that jobs and training opportunities are extended to them.

"Our Modular Refinery Programme is another important cornerstone of the New Vision for the Niger Delta. There are currently four modular refineries at different levels of completion, across the region.

"The Amnesty Programme has continued to receive funding and support from the Buhari Administration, because we understand just how important it is for the young people of the region. We will continue to ensure that it delivers on its mandate and responds fully to the needs and yearnings of the beneficiaries.

Prof. Osinbajo noted that the long-term impact of the administration's Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme, would not just improve health and the environment, but also increase economic opportunities as it would "create jobs and wealth for citizens and communities in the region."

The Nigeria Maritime University commenced full academic activities for the 2017/2018 academic year in April, 2018, with a total of 370 students spread across 13 undergraduate programmes in three Faculties, namely: Transport, Engineering and Environmental Management.

Earlier, in her address, the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Ongoebi Maureen Etebu, described the occasion as an epoch-making moment, praising the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for providing the fertile environment for the institution to come into being.

Etebu said the university is a ship set to sail, as the school now boost of three vibrant faculties.

The matriculation ceremony was held for all in-takes from the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 academic sessions.

The occasion was attended by the Acting Governor of Delta State, Barr. Kingsley Otuaro; representative of the Hon. Minister of Education; the Pro-Chancellor/Chairman of the Governing Counciil, Nigeria Maritime University, Chief Timipre Sylva, Director-General/CEO, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, top government officials, traditional rulers from Gbaramatu Kingdom, amongst others.

Another highlight of the well-attended ceremony was the presentation of cash awards to some high-flying students, who have excelled in their respective course of studies, since the inception of the institution, with CGPA of 4.5 and above.

Released by:

Arukaino Umukoro
Special Assistant to the President,
Communication Projects/Niger Delta,
Office of the Vice President,
Federal Republic of Nigeria

7th April, 2019

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
PRESS RELEASE

VP OSINBAJO ATTENDS 25TH NATIONAL COMMEMORATION OF RWANDAN GENOCIDE IN KIGALI


Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has departed Nigeria to join other world leaders and top dignitaries to participate as a Special Guest in the ceremonies marking 25th National Commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi holding today in Kigali, Rwanda.

Some of the activities lined up for the event include the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the Wreaths laying ceremony and Lighting of the Flame by the President of the Republic of Rwanda and Special Guests.

April 7, 1994, marked the beginning of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda perpetrated by the Hutu extremist-led government.


In 2003, the United Nations General Assembly officially proclaimed 7 April the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The Vice President is expected back into the country later today.


Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
7th April 2019

BANDITRY WILL BE DEFEATED SOON -- PRESIDENT BUHARI REASSURES NIGERIANS

President Muhammadu Buhari has reassured Nigerians that ending banditry remains a key priority of his administration and he would do whatever it takes to ensure the country's security system confronts these public enemies with merciless determination.

Reacting to the recent spike in reported incidents of banditry and kidnappings in some parts of the country, President Buhari while condoling all those affected by the unfortunate events, described himself as one of the unhappiest leaders in the world.

"How can I be happy and indifferent to the senseless killings of my fellow citizens by bandits? I am human and I understand the pains of the victims and their families who have been traumatized and impoverished by constant ransom demands by bandits", the President said empathetically.

"The politicisation of tragedy reveals the darkest sides of our primitive politics. Almost every week, I summon my security chiefs to get an update on the strategies being devised to defeat these mass murderers.

"There is no issue that dominates my mind every 24 hours like security because, as an elected President, protecting the citizens of my country is one of the primary functions of my administration.

"I constantly listen to our security personnel in order to understand their problems and needs, and I have never hesitated to attend to those needs in terms of motivating and equipping them to respond effectively to our security challenges.

"It is therefore ridiculous to suggest that I am indifferent to these killings.

"I have ordered rapid and robust deployment of troops to all the areas currently under attack from bandits and we are determined to tackle this challenge ferociously until these remorseless killers are crushed and utterly defeated," the President said.

President Buhari called on communities where banditry is active to support and cooperate with the security agencies, particularly the recently launched Operation Puff Adder to battle bandits and kidnappers.

The President said it was regrettable that bandits have informants within some communities and utterly reprehensible that certain communities have signed protection deals with bandits at the expense of other communities, thereby creating complications and frustrating government's intervention

He appealed to communities to report suspicious movements of the bandits into their areas within the shortest available opportunity, especially considering the fact that intelligence is critical to detecting, frustrating, neutralising and defeating the criminals.

Garba Shehu
Senior Special Assistant to the President
(Media & Publicity)
April 6, 2019

PAY YOUR TAX WILLINGLY- BMO TASKS NIGERIAN ELITE



An appeal has gone to the Nigerian elite, especially high-net worth individuals, to be more patriotic and desist from shirking in tax payment, under whatever guise.

Making this appeal the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) said it is not proper for these “eminent” Nigerians to wait for the tax authorities to coerce them to perform their civic responsibilities.

In a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, BMO said that the elite need to pay their taxes willingly and voluntarily rather than having to be coerced.

“We have a situation where people who are some of the greatest beneficiaries of government, regardless of party affiliation, are reluctant to pay taxes and levies on assets they have locally and in other jurisdictions.

“This has led the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to twice approve amnesty and immunity for defaulters who are willing to voluntarily declare those assets within a time frame, after which they would be liable to criminal prosecution and other punitive measures.

“The first was at the onset of the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) of which a sizeable number of wealthy Nigerians took full advantage of the amnesty window and for which the authorities realised N30billion.

“It also led to a five million increase in the number of tax payers in the country’s tax database which stood at twelve million before the introduction of VAIDS.

“And now, the government has made a similar offer to Nigerians with undeclared offshore assets under its Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularization Scheme (VOARS). It is almost certain that high net-worth individuals would take advantage of the immunity package to shield themselves from tax penalties on such assets,” it said.

In all these, BMO noted that the Buhari administration deserves commendation for coming up with creative initiatives to raise Nigeria’s woeful tax-to-GDP ratio to a level that is comparable to that of other countries.

This, the group said, is because it is the first administration in recent years to consider appropriate measures to improve on the country’s tax receipts.

“It is no longer news that Nigeria’s abysmal tax-to-GDP ratio, which stands at 6%, is one of the worst not only in Africa but also in the rest of the world in spite of the lifestyle choices that Nigerians are known for. Even Ghana that many are quick to compare to the country has a 16% tax-to-GDP ratio.

“And like President Buhari once said, it is not a thing of pride that a country with people who are so competitive and driven, would be one of the lowest performers in tax receipts especially among the elite.

“Is it not laughable that official records show that only about 214 Nigerians pay more than N20m in tax every year with all of them based in Lagos? How about a situation where fewer than 1,000 people pay N10m or more in tax annually? Yet this is a country with a demand for high end products and was in fact ranked as the biggest market for one of the world’s most expensive champagne!”BMO said.

The group also cautioned opposition elements against concocting and pushing false and inaccurate narrative on the Buhari administration’s move to ensure that high net-worth individuals regularise their offshore assets and pay the necessary taxes.

“We at BMO are surprised that leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said they are seeking more time to study the government’s amnesty package for Nigerians with offshore assets. This is a bit shocking considering that the party’s spokesman is used to attacking policies of the Buhari administration without fully comprehending them.

“We however know that a party that is pushing for a return to the status quo ante would find a way to attack the Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularization Scheme without a thought for the benefits that would accrue to the Nigerian state”.

BMO further urged wealthy Nigerians with assets abroad to key into the initiative and not view it as a punitive action targeted at the elite.

ONNOGHEN HAS FOULED THE TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, AND MUST NOT BE TREATED WITH KID GLOVES - BMO



The failure of Justice Walter Onnoghen (suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria, (CJN)) to declare his assets and thus breaching the Code of Conduct expected from Judicial Officers, among several other malfeasances and breach of the Money Laundering Act, are too grave to be treated with kids gloves, the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has stated.



The group in a statement signed by Niyi Akinsiju and Cassidy Madueke, its Coordinator and Secretary respectively, noted that the offences that are being prosecuted and that have been petitioned against Justice Walter Onnoghen have tainted the sanctity of the judiciary and are not matters to be played with or treated with levity.



“Justice Walter Onnoghen is alleged to have outrightly failed to declare some of his assets. In fact, he declared only salary accounts but failed to declare accounts where he had funds that were far above his legitimate earnings as a public officer.



“There is also no evidence that he ever declared his assets since his appointment as a judicial officer from 1989 up until 2016. This is an outright breach of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers under the 1999 Constitution. And is the least expected from a man who sat at the pinnacle of Nigeria’s Judiciary, and who should ordinarily be the one to mete punishments to others who commit such breaches.



“The ‘Chief Justice of Nigeria’ is also alleged to have had money that he could not reasonably explain the source, but which were lodged in various accounts operated by him. He had over 1.7 Million Dollars in his dollar accounts which he conspicuously never declared.”



The group went further to highlight that the receipt by the Justice Onnoghen of pecuniary gifts from various lawyers who had cases in his court breached the Rules of Judicial Conduct which outrightly prohibits Judges from receiving pecuniary gifts from lawyers who had cases before them.



“Justice Onnoghen received several gifts, ranging from a luxury car worth 7 Million Naira to a deposit of $30,000 from lawyers who had cases before him.”



BMO further criticised Justice Onnoghen for maintaining suspicious relationships with lawyers who had serious cases in his court, noting that such conducts created perceptions of bias which is against the Rules of Judicial Conduct.



The group noted that Justice Onnoghen failed to maintain the minimum standard of decorum expected from Judicial officers.



“The many infractions of Justice Walter Onnoghen are so grave, they have fouled the temple of Justice.



“It is even most unfortunate that this man was sitting in the highest Judicial office of the land. He has embarrassed the legal profession and brought shame and disdain to the judiciary.



“We must not treat this matter with kids gloves. We expect the toughest sanctions to be meted out to him. What Justice Onnoghen has done does not deserve mercy but serious punitive and corrective sanctions that must send a clear message to other members of the Bench, while assuring Nigerians that the Judiciary still remains the last hope for the common and even uncommon man.”



The group called on Nigerians to support President Buhari’s fight against corruption, as he has dared the near-impossible and is successfully ridding Nigeria of corrupt elements and restoring trust and confidence in Nigeria’s justice system.

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
PRESS RELEASE

FG’S GOAL IS TO MOVE NIGERIA INTO TOP 100 ON 2020 WORLD BUSINESS INDEX, SAYS VP OSINBAJO

*Recounts FG’s efforts in reforming Nigeria's business environment

“In the past three years, Nigeria has implemented more than 140 reforms to make doing business in Nigeria easier. The World Bank also reported in 2018 that 32 states of Nigeria improved their Ease of Doing Business environment led by Kaduna, Enugu, Abia, Lagos and Anambra states.

“In 2019, PEBEC set a goal to move Nigeria into the top-100 on the 2020 World Bank Doing Business Index (DBI). To achieve this, we will be pursuing the continued implementation of reforms across all indicators, including the implementation of legislative reforms, specifically the passage of the new Companies and Allied Matters Act and the Omnibus Bills; the expansion of the regulatory reform program which started with NAFDAC and NAICOM; and now to include other regulators; the establishment of a National Trading Platform for ports; and the concession of our major international airports.”

Below is the full text of the Vice President’s remarks:


REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, VICE PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE 2ND PEBEC AWARDS, HELD AT THE STATE HOUSE BANQUET HALL, ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019


PROTOCOLS


It really is a pleasure to be here this evening to celebrate the phenomenal successes of the PEBEC and especially the reforms, but more importantly to recognize specially some of those who made it all possible. Our incredibly selfless and committed private sector partners and the sterling performance of many in the public sector.

In the past three years, Nigeria has implemented more than 140 reforms to make doing business in Nigeria easier. Some of the successful reforms include the ability to:

- Reserve a business name within 4-hours

- Complete the registration of a company within 24 hours online

- Apply for and receive approval of a visa-on-arrival electronically within 48hrs

- File and pay taxes online

- Access specialised small claims commercial courts in Lagos and Kano states.

The World Bank also reported in 2018 that 32 states of Nigeria improved their Ease of doing business environment led by Kaduna, Enugu, Abia, Lagos and Anambra states.

In 2019, PEBEC set a goal to move Nigeria into the top-100 on the 2020 World Bank Doing Business Index (DBI). To achieve this, we will be pursuing the continued implementation of reforms across all indicators, including the implementation of legislative reforms, specifically the passage of the new Companies and Allied Matters Act and the Omnibus Bills; the expansion of the regulatory reform program which started with NAFDAC and NAICOM; and now to include other regulators; the establishment of a National Trading Platform for ports; and the concession of our major international airports.

PEBEC has now commenced the fourth 60-day National Action Plan (NAP 4.0) on Ease of Doing Business. NAP 4.0 is running from the 1st of March to the 29th of April, 2019. It aims to deepen the reforms delivered over the past 3 years and drive institutionalization of the whole reform process.

We have highlighted key action items in all of the focus areas to ensure that they do not unravel, and to ensure we drive sustainability. Some of the targets achieved in the last NAP 3.0 include:

- Driving registration for utilization of the National Collateral Registry to facilitate access to credit for SMEs

- Clearance of all pending NAFDAC registration applications to improve efficiency; and

- Creation of a strengthened single joint cargo examination interface in all airports & seaports for import and export to reduce the time spent at the ports.

NAP 4.0 will focus on initiatives such as

- Enforcing compliance with SLAs across all indicators/focus areas,

- Driving the passage of the CAM Bill 2018 for improved effectiveness of company law in Nigeria (and as you have heard, what we are waiting for is the signing into law of the bill)

- Enhancing efficiency in the small claims court, and

- Enhancing the application and approval system for visas on arrival, to mention a few.

The Council will continue to work extensively with all MDAs, the National Assembly and other key stakeholders. All of us who have been involved in this incredible journey will agree that it has been both exciting and fulfilling even if admittedly sometimes frustrating. But that is the way of progress.

I congratulate you all for the great successes and thank you all for keeping faith with our joint vision. In particular we must commend the National Assembly for the great efforts they have made in ensuring the passage of very strategic and important bills. We must also commend our private sector partners who have contributed immensely to the technical output of the EBES through the secondment of professional staff to the secretariat.

Let me specially mention the KPMG Professional Services, Deloitte, Procter and Gamble, Banwo & Ighodalo, Aluko and Oyebode. The NBA-SBL was also particularly instrumental in the drafting of the omnibus bill. About 40 law firms worked pro-bono towards this effort. Our nation is truly grateful to you.

We must also specially commend the Hon. Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okey Enelamah, for his focused and forthright leadership, and the incomparable and tireless Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, and her team.

To the rest of us, I think we have demonstrated that the work of creating a world class environment for commerce will be done by like minds in the Nigerian private and public sectors, and these are the exceptional ladies and gentleman such as yourselves who form the PEBEC family. Well done, everyone,

Thank you and God bless you all.

Released by:

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
4th April, 2019

Fake News: Osinbajo Never Said Kogi Govt Will Be In Trouble


Vice President Yemi Osinbajo never said Kogi State government will be in trouble if he had died in a helicopter crash, transcript of his goodwill message has revealed.

Newspaper and online platforms had published reports that Prof. Osinbajo had claimed that the Kogi State Government would be in trouble if he had died in the helicopter crash.

Speaking at a special thanksgiving service at the Banquet Hall in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, Prof. Osinbajo thanked God for his live and for surviving the crash.


God is truly worthy of praise and thanksgiving. It is impossible to thank Him enough. I and my family, and so many of us here today have so many reasons to thank Him.

Occasionally, my wife and I reflect on how unlikely our journey here is. She frequently reminds me that all she wanted was a quiet life as one of the many families of academics living on the university campus. That was all that I promised, and that’s all that she really expected, but here we are.


If someone had said to me in 2013, “you will be campaigning across the country; attending rallies and that you would win the elections and become the Vice President of Nigeria”, I would, because I am generally polite, have said amen, but in my heart, I would have said what a crazy chap!

Anyone who knows how difficult it is to campaign for Local Government Chairman and win, will understand how difficult it is to accept that merely because someone said so, that you would be elected into any position. I’m sure many of us here today, also celebrating the success of the elections, national assembly members and governors-elect also, would accept that except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain who build it. It is impossible to know the outcomes of anything. It is the Almighty God who brings about the wonderful phase that we celebrate and thank Him for.

I realize that I have no special qualification to be here or to have enjoyed such an incredible promotion. Psalms 75:6 says for exaltation comes neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South, all the exaltations comes from God.

Psalms 75:7 says but God is the Judge; He puts down one, and He exalts another. I want to thank the Almighty God for exaltations. I want to thank Him also for all of us here present, and those believing God for exaltations. I believe the Lord God Almighty would promote you also in Jesus name.

On the 2nd of February 2019, God gave me and members of my family, friends and colleagues, even further reasons to know that if not for His mercies, we would have been consumed. We were going to Kogi for a two-day campaign tour, and then our helicopter crashed as we got in to land at Kabba. You know how it is when things happen, everybody becomes spiritual; everybody becomes a prophet, people saying why and how?

I remember in the split second when the incident occurred, for a second, there was absolute silence and nobody said anything. It was my brother who started shouting Jesus Jesus Jesus! But for a moment, there was complete silence in the helicopter.

On reflection, it occurred to me that if we had died, that is what would have happened, complete silence, nobody saying a single word. A few minutes later with all of the activities, all of us got out of the helicopter without a scratch. God is surely worthy to be praised!


I reflected over the various problems that would have occurred; the smaller problems would have been the rumours, how did it happen? Who did it? Why did they do it? With the way we are, I just felt sorry for so many people who would have been involved in conspiracy theories of things they knew absolutely nothing about. But God delivered them too because they would have had to explain themselves.

We bless the name of God that He not only wrought such a great deliverance, but that He did it in such a way that only He could take the glory. We give all the glory to Him!

I want to thank everyone who has supported in so many different ways, all through the campaigns and elections, so much support and prayers, so much love and kindness. I pray that the Almighty God would be kind to you also, you will never lack in support, you will never lack in care and affection, you will never lack the genuine prayers of those who want you to succeed in the mighty name of Jesus.

I pray that all of us will travel in aircrafts and the Almighty God will always deliver. It is by His grace that we are delivered. It is not by anything we do or we are careful not to do.

I recall that there was a gentleman who was talking about how it is always good to exercise, but another friend of ours reminded him that there was a particular gentleman who we all knew very well, who died while exercising. So I think that all we can depend on is the sheer grace of the Almighty God.

So we praise the Almighty God and I want each and every one of us who believes that the Almighty God is worthy of praise, shout one mighty halleluiah!

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

PRESS RELEASE

GOD’S GRACE DELIVERS, NOT HUMAN EFFORTS – VP OSINBAJO

REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE SPECIAL THANKSGIVING SERVICE AT THE BANQUET HALL, STATE HOUSE, ABUJA, ON MARCH 31, 2019.

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God is truly worthy of praise and thanksgiving. It is impossible to thank Him enough. I and my family, and so many of us here today have so many reasons to thank Him.

Occasionally, my wife and I reflect on how unlikely our journey here is. She frequently reminds me that all she wanted was a quiet life as one of the many families of academics living on the University campus. That was all that I promised, and that’s all that she really expected, but here we are.

If someone had said to me in 2013, “you will be campaigning across the country; attending rallies and that you would win the elections and become the Vice President of Nigeria”, I would, because I am generally polite, have said amen, but in my heart, I would have said what a crazy chap!

Anyone who knows how difficult it is to campaign for Local Government Chairman and win, will understand how difficult it is to accept that merely because someone said so, that you would be elected into any position. I’m sure many of us here today, also celebrating the success of the elections, national assembly members and governors-elect also, would accept that except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain who build it. It is impossible to know the outcomes of anything. It is the Almighty God who brings about the wonderful phase that we celebrate and thank Him for.

I realize that I have no special qualification to be here or to have enjoyed such an incredible promotion. Psalms 75:6 says for exaltation comes neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South, all the exaltations comes from God.

Psalms 75:7 says but God is the Judge; He puts down one, and He exalts another. I want to thank the Almighty God for exaltations. I want to thank Him also for all of us here present, and those believing God for exaltations. I believe the Lord God Almighty would promote you also in Jesus name.

On the 2nd of February 2019, God gave me and members of my family, friends and colleagues, even further reasons to know that if not for His mercies, we would have been consumed. We were going to Kogi for a two-day campaign tour, and then our helicopter crashed as we got in to land at Kabba. You know how it is when things happen, everybody becomes spiritual; everybody becomes a prophet, people saying why and how?

I remember in the split second when the incident occurred, for a second, there was absolute silence and nobody said anything. It was my brother who started shouting Jesus Jesus Jesus! But for a moment, there was complete silence in the helicopter.

On reflection, it occurred to me that if we had died, that is what would have happened, complete silence, nobody saying a single word. A few minutes later with all of the activities, all of us got out of the helicopter without a scratch. God is surely worthy to be praised!

I reflected over the various problems that would have occurred; the smaller problems would have been the rumours, how did it happen? Who did it? Why did they do it? With the way we are, I just felt sorry for so many people who would have been involved in conspiracy theories of things they knew absolutely nothing about. But God delivered them too because they would have had to explain themselves.

We bless the name of God that He not only wrought such a great deliverance, but that He did it in such a way that only He could take the glory. We give all the glory to Him!

I want to thank everyone who has supported in so many different ways, all through the campaigns and elections, so much support and prayers, so much love and kindness. I pray that the Almighty God would be kind to you also, you will never lack in support, you will never lack in care and affection, you will never lack the genuine prayers of those who want you to succeed in the mighty name of Jesus.

I pray that all of us will travel in aircrafts and the Almighty God will always deliver. It is by His grace that we are delivered. It is not by anything we do or we are careful not to do.

I recall that there was a gentleman who was talking about how it is always good to exercise, but another friend of ours reminded him that there was a particular gentleman who we all knew very well, who died while exercising. So I think that all we can depend on is the sheer grace of the Almighty God.

So we praise the Almighty God and I want each and every one of us who believes that the Almighty God is worthy of praise, shout one mighty halleluiah!

Thank you.

Released by:
Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity
Office of the Vice President
April 1, 2019

My Allegiance Is Supreme - *Sen. Lawan*

One of the front line aspirants for the position of Senate President in the impending 9th Assembly, Senator Ahmed Lawan has declared that his allegiance to the National Leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is supreme.

Speaking to his supporters and associates in Abuja last night, Sen. Lawan reiterate his resolve to remain steadfast in obeying the directives of both Asiwaju Tinubu and the party chairman, Comrade Adam Oshiomole, who he described as the pillars of his campaign for the Senate Presidency.

"I should tell you that my allegiance as Senate President would be fully to Asiwaju and our party chairman. My allegiance to these two will be Supreme considering their strong devotion and support for my campaign for the office. I therefore urge all of you to remain prayerful as I'm confident that we've already secured the support of the two most important determinants of victory in the contest", Senator Lawan said.

Ahmed Lawan: Before PMB Crowns An Enemy, By Abdullahi Suleiman

As the lobbying and skimming for the office of the Senate President in the 9th Assembly begins, the news of President Mohammadu Buhari backing a certain Senator Ahmed Lawan is one that should worry any progressive-minded individual who loves President Buhari and wants him to be successful in establishing a lasting legacy.

Perhaps those who are marketing Senator Lawan to President Buhari only mentioned the fact that he is a ranking senator with lengthy years of legislative experience. They also must certainly have reiterated his deceptive simplicity as a unique selling point. But that is as far as the good side of Lawal goes. Yet, anybody who wants to be first and among equals, especially in a volatile and combustible place like the senate with 109 members, needs a lot more to succeed.

To begin with, President Buhari is being sold a dummy with the image created of Senator Lawan as an open-minded individual who will provide the necessary legislative support in order to accelerate government programmes and policies. The truth, which has been cleverly hidden from Mr. President, is that Senator Lawan is merely a front for his masters who see him as a competent instrument to hold in case they lose favor in the sight of the President. Senator Lawan is merely contesting for the Senate President position on behalf of both Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the APC Chairman, Comrade Adam Oshiomole.

Although this is one of the best kept secrets since after the re-election of President Buhari for second term; insiders who are privy to the thinking and plans of Asiwaju Tinubu have shared this information with a number of people believed to be close to Mr. President. Whether or not the information has reached the President himself is an entirely new issue. However, for the unconditional love some of us have for PMB; I have taken it upon myself to warn the Presidency of the danger ahead of its chosen path with Lawan.

Information I have gathered from reliable sources within Asiwaju Tinubu camp indicates that Jagaban is not feeling secure since after the election. He felt that his inability to impressively deliver the South West for APC in the 2019 presidential election has significantly lowered his standing before President Buhari. He also suspects that PMB may begin to disengage from him immediately after his swearing in for second term in May. The absence of President Buhari at the yearly Bola Tinubu colloquium held yesterday, 28th March, 2019, even though the event took place in Abuja; was cited by some of Tinubu’s close political allies as a sign that Buhari is beginning to show Jagaban the red flag. To therefore prepare for what my source called ‘the imminent war’, Chief Bola Tinubu has decided to place the control of National Assembly firmly in the hands of his longtime associate, Senator Ahmed Lawan.

Already, Tinubu has secured the backing and cooperation of the party’s national chairman, Comrade Adam Oshiomole who has taken it upon himself to play the devil’s advocate around President Buhari while at the same time marketing the candidacy of Lawan to as many members of the party’s NWC as possible. The truth, which I have validated from more than three of my usually reliable sources, is that Tinubu is in alliance with Oshiomole to plant Senator Ahmed Lawan as the Senate President as a plan B option in case President Buhari begins to show Tinubu cold shoulders.

In desperation, Senator Lawan, who has been in the National Assembly since 1999, first as a member of House of Representatives and in the Senate since 2007 to date; has pledged to serve the interest of Tinubu and Oshiomole, two southerners who will not be affected by any irresponsible act that Senator Lawan may perpetrate when and if he becomes the President of the Senate. For someone like Senator Lawan who has been in the Senate for almost twenty years without any verifiable benefit to his constituency in Yobe State; pandering to the dictates of Tinubu and Oshiomole would not be a challenging thing to do. Moreover, Senator Lawan himself has told his associates that if he succeed in becoming the Senate President; then all praises and thanks should go to Asiwaju Tinubu who has committed himself to getting him (Lawan) into that office since 2015.

Indeed, the Senate President position is zoned to the North East. But of what benefit will a Senator Lawan be to the zone if he is micromanaged by southerners? Again, it is not as if Lawan's long years in the senate have translate to deep experience; if one remembers that as Chairman of the 7th Senate Committee on public finance, all the financial atrocities that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as CBN governor alleged under Goodluck Jonathan was traced back to the same Senator Ahmed Lawan. What would therefore be the justification for a PMB whose singular trademark is integrity to now be seen openly endorsing and canvassing for a tainted man to lead the senate. This is not something I think President Buhari can justify either to himself or his conscience.

If President Buhari is looking for a strong character to manage the senate, he needs to look beyond an enemy presently disguised as friend. If for any reason Lawan becomes the senate president, then PMB must know that he has handed over the legislative arm of government to Tinubu to control as he deem fit. If that happens, I guarantee that it is a gaffe that President Buhari would come back to regret in no distant time. I pray God opens the inner eyes of the President and his men to see beyond the dummies that is being sold to them about Senator Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan.

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

PRESS RELEASE

WHAT WE MUST DO TO ADDRESS CHALLENGES FACING LEGAL PROFESSION IN NIGERIA, BY VP OSINBAJO


The adoption of a set of reforms that are hinged on reclaiming the traditions of virtuous ethics and entrenching personal and corporate integrity, among other things, are some of the requisites for addressing the many challenges facing the legal profession in Nigeria, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

The Vice President stated this in Abuja at the Body of Bencher Award Night where he was preferred to the prestigious rank of Life Bencher.


According to him, “the weaknesses that have recently been exposed in our profession, as disturbing as they are, have at the same time provided us great opportunity for deep introspection and self-assessment. This is an opportunity for reform and reclaim of that tradition of virtuous ethics; a tradition of moral inquiry and doggedness in the dispassionate and impartial application of law no matter whose ox is gored.

“Our professional practice and the courts must always measure up to the moral, ethical and statutory standards we subscribed to. Whether we sit at the Bar or on the Bench, we bear the responsibility for a fair and just society; a free, fair and impartial justice system that ushers in progressive reforms in governance and protects the social structure of our nation.”

Below is the full text of the Vice President’s remarks:


REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, THE VICE PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE BODY OF BENCHERS AWARD NIGHT HELD AT THE NATIONAL JUDICIAL INSTITUTE, ABUJA ON FRIDAY MARCH 29, 2019.
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It is a special privilege to be here at this special dinner with some of the brightest and best in our profession and many, whose contributions have decisively shaped the destiny of our profession and even our nation.

I would like to, first, commend this Body for the extraordinary leadership it has provided over the years. As the gateway for access into the Nigerian Bar and as the custodian of our ethics and values, this Body has borne the enormous responsibility of being the conscience, arbiter, judge and interlocutor for the legal profession and our administration of justice system.

I am deeply honoured to have been preferred to the prestigious rank of Life Bencher. It is humbling, but also exciting to be reminded that one still has more to offer. I owe gratitude to the remarkable men and women - teachers, mentors, partners and students, who have contributed to my professional experience. I accept this honour as a call to greater responsibility.

Perhaps, one should also seize this opportunity to salute all distinguished colleagues, seniors and juniors alike, who have internalised the application of the rule of law in the most difficult circumstances; stood for the helpless through advocacy; demanded transparency and accountability in all spheres; and pushed for positive reforms in the advancement of not just our system of justice, but also all the ramparts upon which our democracy is built, alongside our nationhood and common patrimony.

Today, our profession stands at a critical cross-road. Yet, the different possible paths that we could take have, to my mind, never been as clear as they are today. One path is the path of business as usual which of course means that we will face the extinction of our credibility soon enough.
The other is the path of renewal, the right path, a more courageous even if more difficult path.

The weaknesses that have recently been exposed in our profession, as disturbing as they are, have at the same time provided us great opportunity for deep introspection and self-assessment. This is an opportunity for reform and reclaim of that tradition of virtuous ethics; a tradition of moral inquiry and doggedness in the dispassionate and impartial application of law no matter whose ox is gored.

We owe the young and aspiring lawyers the duty to set the ground rules right and to lead by example. We also, as custodians of the law, owe our nation, at the very least, the duty to ensure the proper functioning of the justice system. Our professional practice and the courts must always measure up to the moral, ethical and statutory standards we subscribed to. Whether we sit at the Bar or on the Bench, we bear the responsibility for a fair and just society; a free, fair and impartial justice system that ushers in progressive reforms in governance and protects the social structure of our nation.

Our everyday practice of law has the potential to either strengthen or weaken our democratic values and institutions. The 'learned' that everyone ascribes to us, suggests amongst other attributes that we are- skilled not only in the art of our trade/calling, but also in the mechanics of a just society. That just society cannot be established by mere wishes or rhetoric. It can only be by deliberate action and sacrifice especially of those of us to whom our profession has so generously conferred membership of its highest body.

My Lords, distinguished members of the Body of Benchers: Our greatest debt at this point in our lives and careers is to the future. The future of this profession that has been so kind and generous to us and to this society that has yielded leadership at various levels to us. That debt is one which we must discharge faithfully. First by being worthy mentors to an ever growing number of legal practitioners, but more importantly by fearlessly insisting that the bedrock of justice and the rule of law is personal and corporate integrity.

I congratulate all the honorees tonight. An award from the most distinguished body of our profession is worthy of commendation indeed. I pray that you will go from glory to glory.
I thank you all.

Released by
Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
30th March 2019

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

PRESS RELEASE

AT NEXT LEVEL, WE WILL INCREASE OPPORTUNITIES FOR NIGERIANS TO LIVE BETTER LIVES, SAYS VP OSINBAJO


*Adds: …We will expand N-Power, School Feeding, TraderMoni, MarketMoni, Power, others

*Speaks about Tinubu’s rare leadership and doggedness
“At the Next Level, we will, of course, expand our social investment programmes; at the moment, the programme is the biggest of its kind anywhere in the African continent. It is a very important programme for us also because of the multiplier effect on agriculture and also in the distribution of the products and also those we employ as cooks.

“The same is true of our TraderMoni programme, a component of our Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), where we are giving money to the bottom of the trading pyramid in Nigeria.

REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE 11THBOLA TINUBU COLLOQUIUM THEMED: WORK FOR PEOPLE, AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE, ABUJA, ON THURSDAY, 28TH OF MARCH, 2019.

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We are here for the 11th edition of the Bola Tinubu Colloquium. This is a yearly development gathering where we try to question and interrogate some of the difficult questions on economic and social development, not just in Nigeria, but also across the world.

We do it in celebration of a man who has spent the last thirty years of his life in creative and catalytic public service. He has from his days as Governor of Lagos State, provided clarity of thought and pioneering vision in all aspects of governance.

He is not a lawyer, but there are few Nigerians who have provoked so many legal controversies and constitutional challenges, resulting in several landmark judicial rulings, especially in the area of federalism, and what today is loosely described today as restructuring.

Many of us know, of course, that he is not an engineer, but a lot of his vision is what is responsible for what we see today in Lagos. The BRT, the Lekki Industrial Zone, even the Eko Atlantic Project, a private project which he initiated as governor of Lagos state and of course, the reform in the tax system in Lagos.

Today, Lagos earns more in Internally Generated Revenue than 31 States of Nigeria put together. That reform began in 2001with the very innovative way in which he reformed the tax system and created an independent system - the Lagos Inland Revenue Service. Several African countries and States of Nigeria have engaged the LIRS as consultants for their own reform efforts.

How about electoral reform? In 2007, when our party, then the ACN, was rigged out of the elections in Osun, Ekiti, Ondo and in Edo state, Asiwaju invited me to his residence at Bourdillion. He said to me that the only way by proving that there were multiple voting is by going through the courts, i.e. proving that a few people simply thumb printed the ballot papers, dumped them in ballot boxes and they were counted in favour of the opposition.

He then said to me that the only way we can do it is by somehow proving by forensic evidence that this is exactly what happened. I said to him that nobody has ever proved an electoral petition by forensic evidence; there is just no history of it. And I said what is, even more, is that there are over a million ballot papers, about 1.3 million ballot papers in all the States. So, how can you prove multiple voting? He said to me “Yemi, you have heard my view about this issue, just go and find a way of sorting this out.”

So I went to the UK and met with possibly the most experienced finger print expert in the entire United Kingdom, a gentleman called Adrian Forty, introduced to me by some of the Queen’s Counsels. When I told him the enormity of the problem, he laughed and almost fell off his chair. He said in almost 50 years of his experience as a fingerprint expert, he hasn’t done up to 4000 fingerprints, and now we asked him to do 1.3million fingerprints.

We parted that day which was a Thursday, and then he got in touch again on a Monday and said we should discuss further. Somehow, we designed a way and used a bit of technology. Most importantly, we got the number of fingerprint experts that have never been assembled before, and we hired 63 of fingerprint experts. 50 of them were from the UK Police. What was more interesting about that is getting the UK Police to support us was for Asiwaju to come all the way from Nigeria to the UK to talk to friends and people who he knew, to persuade persuading the UK authorities to allowususe UK Police.

In the end, they allowed us to use the Policemen in their spare time. We got 63 policemen working flat out for almost 6 months. We were able to put together, for the first time in the history of elections tribunal in the history of the world, we put together a solid forensic case that showed all of the places we were defeated was on account of multiple thumb printing. We also showed that for instance, you cast 20,000 votes, when we calculated the time to cast one vote, it is usually about 5 minutes but we discovered that our friends in the other political party were able to cast that number of votes in 5 seconds. All they were doing was simply thumb-printing booklets, as many as possible.

We demonstrated this in court, and one by one, we were able to get back the States that had been taken away from us. The only way that could have ever been achieved is surely not just by the vision, but by the determination of our leader at that time, the leader of the ACN. He showed the kind of leadership that was very rare and not only defining what he thought was thewayforward,but also supporting it in every way and backing it to the very end.

The last State that we finally won was Osun State, after almost 3 years of battling. One of the things that we would agree about our celebrant today is his dogged attitude and his refusal to accept no for an answer.

Ashiwaju also pioneered merit in cabinet appointments in particular. I want to emphasize this because a major draw back we have, as a nation, is the way we are blindsided into thinking that we can avoid merit and expect to achieve great things. We simply cannot avoid merit.

Ashiwaju demonstrated in the years when he was governor, that political appointments, especially cabinet appointments, should be based on merit. He looked for those that he considered the best possible material at the time regardless of where they were from.

For the first time in the history of Lagos State, we had cabinet members from other parts of the country, beginning with other parts of the Southwest. Rauf Aregbesola from Osun State, I from Ogun State, Arthur Worrey from Delta, Lai Mohammed from Kwara State, Dele Alake from Ekiti State, Ben Akabueze from Anambra State.

We also had the appointments of Judges from all over the country;JusticeOnyeabo, and Justice Sybil Nwaka were appointed Judges of Lagos State. There is no other State elsewhere in the country except in some places in the North, where we have seen the appointment of individuals from other States. Picking people for positions no matter what part of the country they are from is an important part of our story as a country. Every once in a while, I think that history gives us one or two persons who are gifted transformative leaders. I believe that our country has been gifted with this transformative leader, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I believe very strongly that this man's political trajectory has only just begun. He is a man who has tremendous giftings and God has great plans ahead for him.

I pray for you, Ashiwaju, that as your days so shall your strength, wisdom and favour be in Jesus Mighty name, amen!

Let me say a word or two about the Next Level. As you know, the expression Next Level itself is our political campaign slogan in this last election. And what we were saying was simply that there was a next phase to what our country has seen. There are many who will say that there were many things that were promised in 2015, which have not yet been realized. I think the best way of putting is to simply say that our country, for the first time is experiencing the type of leadership that is bound to lead us to where it is that we are purposed for ourselves as a government.

In my view, the honest leadership, leadership with the integrity of our president, President Muhammadu Buhari, is a very important component of getting anywhere at all in all of our development plans. I had said before at the last colloquium that Nigeria’s main problem is not the lack of ideas, it is not the lack of projects and programmes. It was most of the time, especially with the leadership in the past, it was a lack of integrity in leadership and corruption, in particular, was the reason why we were finding it difficult to make progress.

I explained that that’s why we earned $383billion in four years, 2010 – 2014, the highest ever in the history of our country, and yet Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was not done. Lagos-Kano Railway and all that is being done today, not done then. We cannot point to a single major infrastructure project that was completed in the 10-year period, despite the high earnings, including power.

So, a government coming after so many years of waste must be a government, first, that emphasizes fiscal prudence, a government that emphasizes integrity in public finance so that it would manage the little resources to achieve the maximum that can be achieved. And that is what President Muhammadu Buhari set out to do. As I keep saying, the president has never claimed to be an orator. He just gets things done.

It was under President Muhammadu Buhari that three of the four refineries that we have today were built when he was Minister of Petroleum Resources. 3500km of pipelines were built by him as Minister of Petroleum Resources in a three-year period. So, there is a track record, not of talking, but of just getting things done. And this is what we have seen in the past four years. That is why we were able to set aside money for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. And that is going on at present. That is why we opened up the first phase of the Lagos-Kano Railway that was commissioned a couple of weeks ago i.e the Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan phase of that project. The Itakpe-Warri Railway, now completed after 35 years of being on the books.

The Light Rail project here in Abuja started in 2005, budget after budget, never completed, but we completed it also at the end of 2017.

We now have that light rail from the airport to Idu here in Abuja, same as several other infrastructural projects. Mambila Hydro has been on the cards for 40 years. We have just put together resources to begin that project and we will complete that project.

For us, infrastructure is critical at the Next Level. You cannot have a situation where you have the kind of power situation we have today and expect transformative progress. That is why we are focused on power and other infrastructure. We are focused on fixing the infrastructure in the country and we believe that if we fix the infrastructure, the roads and the rail, and especially power, we will be able to make significant progress.

Today our rail project starts from the Apapa port so that we are able to clear the congestion in that port because the Lagos to Kano railway starts from the Apapa port. And we can start taking out cargo from the Apapa port using rail as an alternative means of transportation.
The same is true of agriculture; and we just heard our partners from Brazil talking about the next phase of our agricultural development and we are committed to that project because we believe that is what will transform the agro-industrial phase of our planning and that is what will transform agriculture in this country and create additional jobs.

It is not enough to have farmers everywhere; we need the refining capacity; we need the processing capacity and that is what our partnership with the Brazilians will provide for us.
On the reforms we are making in education and healthcare, today the emphasis is on digital literacy; the emphasis is on training our teachers to be able to train the next generation of children in school.

And we are focused on doing so using some of the methods we have described very comprehensively not just in theERGP, but in our Next Level document.

So, we are focusing on STEAM not STEM; we are focusing on training young people on digital skills, critical thinking and some other skills that are necessary for the kind of jobs that the 21st century will provide.

The same is true of healthcare, our focus on healthcare is on National Health Insurance because we cannot finance healthcare by the budget alone; compulsory National Health Insurance that will open the doors for financing healthcare for us.

Finally, we are talking again about our Social Investment Programmes (SIPs). At the Next Level, we will, of course, expand our Social Investment Programme; at the moment, the programme is the biggest of its kind anywhere in the African continent.

In our school feeding programme, we are feeding every day, 9.2 million children in public schools across 26 states. That programme is important not just from the point of view of providing nutrition for many of the young people in public schools, many of whom come from very poor parents and may not be assured of a decent meal a day. It is a very important programme for us also because of the multiplier-effect on agriculture and also in the distribution of the products and also those we employ as cooks.

The same is true of our TraderMoni programme, a component of our Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), where we are giving money to the bottom of the trading pyramid in Nigeria. It is a programme of the Bank of Industry where we give loans of N10, 000 to petty traders through their mobile phones and they get N15,000 when they pay back, then N20,000 and more up to N100,000.

The same is true of our MarketMoni which we give to traders in cooperatives. So far, we have over a million TraderMoni beneficiaries and about 500,000 MarketMoni beneficiaries and we intend to expand the scope of that.

We also intend to expand the scope of our N-Power programme which is our job scheme for young people. Young graduates coming out of school and some non-graduates. At the moment, we are engaging 500,000 of these young people and we pay them every month. Most of them have devices/tablets that contain training materials in enhancing their viability skills and also helps them to provide services to people who require them.

We intend to expand the programme; we must expand the programme because 1.7million people come out of school and are looking for jobs every single year, we are able to bridge that gap by engaging 500,000 of them as soon as they come out of school.

So, the Next Level promises to be exciting, though a bit challenging as possibly as where we are coming from. But as the President has said repeatedly, we have no other focus but the progress of this country. And we will ensure that step-by-step, we get to where it is that we promised to take the country.

I want to say to you all that the Next Level is for all of us and I urge that all of us cooperate to take us to this Next Level.

So, on behalf of the President, Muhammadu Buhari whom I represent here today, I want to wish Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, happy birthday and to thank you all for making out time to come to this event.

Thank you all.

Released by:
Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity
Office of the Vice President
March 28, 2019

The last 4 months really brought TraderMoni up close and personal to Nigerians at home, and even those abroad. This was because the main opposition party went to great lengths to describe the scheme as vote buying, alleging that the Vice President himself was doling out the said funds to the market women.

Now that the elections are almost over, the new rumours they are pushing around is that Prof. Osinbajo has suspended the scheme.

When stories like these start to make the rounds, one is initially tempted to just ignore, rather than help the ignorant drive up their traffic. However, when notable institutions like Punch Newspapers in the name of driving traffic to their site, decide to publish a story with such falsehoods and other absurdities, it becomes pertinent to exhume the truth for the people to see.

The notion that our media houses got fat on *brown envelope* journalism is well documented and as such, most of them don't really like the Buhari-Osinbajo stance of not "sharing the money".

Why that would now leave such deep-rooted institutions as Punch Newspapers and Thisday Newspapers to continually churn out stories with the aim of misleading the populace and smearing the person of the vice president is quite unreasonable and alarming.

Seeing as TraderMoni as a scheme was passed along side with its siblings MarketMoni and Anchor Borrowers Scheme, all were approved by the National assembly before their commencement, it will take more than the whims of the Vice President to actually suspend or stop the program.

What a lot of persons fail to realise is that the VP during his TraderMoni tours which seemed to coincide with the campaign season was only performing his duties as supervising minister to ensure that all federal government policies were being carried out as appropriate.

This is similar to the task he was again saddled with after the FEC meeting on the 20th of March 2019, to audit all policies enacted in the last 8 years and give a status report so that the federal government will know how to adequately move forward in the next dispensation.

So for final clarification purposes, TraderMoni which has never been suspended at any time since its inauguration, was approved by the 8th general assembly. It is fully handled by the Bank of Industry, and has since recorded 30000 new beneficiaries after the 2019 presidential elections.

The roles and powers of the vice president with respect to the scheme are only supervisory to ensure total compliance to the policies as stipulated and implemented by the federal government.

Behold, the Punch Newspaper used to be the toast of newspapers. Everyday people scrambled for Punch but not anymore. The quality of content as well as the sales of the newspaper has continued to dwindle. At the newsstands and even in traffic at night, you see Punch newspaper being peddled for prices as low as N100.

The once reputed newspaper is now a burden, both to itself and the reading public. For ardent readers of news, Punch Newspaper can never be your point of call if you want to confirm any story or news. Chances are that they will mislead you. Only yesterday, I read that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had halted his on-site assessment of TraderMoni.

I was taken aback for a bit. However, given my recent experience with Punch Newspapers, I sought clarification and authentication of this news. Two sources readily come to mind, Mr Laolu Akande, the spokesperson to the VP and Senator Babafemi Ojudu, the political adviser to the VP.

I scurried through their social media accounts, looking for confirmation of the news, alas, I saw Senator Ojudu’s reply which was short and straight to the point. The Punch Newspaper story was a hoax, click bait at most.

Journalism seems to be heading for the gutter with too many ‘Brown Envelope’ reporters and editors running amok. I pondered, how will an editor allow this to pass without verifying it? I hope Punch Newspaper will learn from this, not that they have learnt from many others, but I just hope, they will learn from this.

It’s time Punch Newspaper stay away from fake news. Indeed, there was a newspaper.

Senate President Bukola Saraki has lost so much in the power equation and is fast on his way to political extinction, he is also the biggest loser in the 2019 general election.

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) says Saraki is a perennial political schemer who has suddenly lost relevance and therefore frustrated.

In a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, BMO said Saraki’s comment that the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election will be short-lived can only be described as the ranting of a politically expired person.

“We consider the unpatriotic outbursts of Saraki as proof of a man who is frustrated after losing his political constituency as a Senator, lost his bid to maintain a political empire, as well as his attempts to impose his lackeys on the good people of Kwara state.

“It is on record that Dr. Saraki has, since the inception of the present administration, constituted himself into a cog in the wheel of the country’s progress by using his office as Senate President to undermine the efforts of the Buhari administration to reposition the country.”

BMO says that as a political schemer, Saraki has finally played himself into political irrelevance as his constituents have become wiser and given their support to the All Progressives Congress (APC). “Perhaps his political travails can be traced to the curse placed on him by his late father when the old political warlord saw the mean streak in his son, Bukola.

“We want to say without equivocation that Saraki is the biggest loser in the 2019 general elections, considering that he was rejected at every level starting from the unit, ward, local government, senatorial district and governorship elections, where his imposed candidates lost to the APC. It is also worthy of note that he ultimately lost as the director general of the Atiku presidential campaign.

"With his rejection by the Kwara people it is obvious that he is not a leader to be trusted, and has gone into political oblivion. He should therefore keep quiet and lick his wounds as a failed political schemer, and allow the country to move forward. While in the Senate and in his selfish pursuit for power, Saraki also betrayed his party PDP and the entire country.”

Contrary to the false publications by Punch online that the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo has suspended his Tradermoni tour, the Senator representing Ekiti Central and also the Special Adviser to the President on Political matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu has openly debunked the rumor currently being circulated by the media house.



According to him, "this is falsehood, a man (Professor Osinbajo) who for three months traveled round the country campaigning, in the course of which he was involved in helicopter crash, went through an election which is not even over as there are supplementary elections in six states this weekend".



"Mr President has also made him the coordinator of a Committee to audit all the projects embarked upon by this administration and yesterday he and the President were in the Federal executive Council meeting from 9.00am till 6.00 pm and you are condemning him for not going to the market", he stated further.



Senator Ojudu also noted that, "Some other men would have gone to seek rest in some far away land, this we have asked him to do and he said there is so much to do here".



While stressing on the selfless nature of Prof Yemi Osinbajo, he said "Be rest assured that Osinbajo will never abandon the people, whether in the market, on the street or on the farm.It is who he is, the caring academics , pastor and politician".



Finally, Senator Ojudu condemned the Punch newspaper for pushing out a false narrative and also losing its credibility over time as they're now recently more involved in propaganda.



He said, "Our Punch, the Punch we adore is becoming something else. May our gold not rot".

The FEC's approval of March 20th 2019 of N27.4bn for victims of flood disasters and insecurity in 14 states of the country did not come to many as a surprise.

Contrary to mischievous insinuations by the opposition that the PMB administration has worsened the poverty situation of Nigerians, the government has once more demonstrated it's concerned feelings to all Nigerians by way of providing them with succour aimed at improving their lives.

While N8.5bn is earmarked for victims of conflicts in Adamawa, Benue, Borno, Plateau, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara states, the victims of 2018 flood ravaged states of Adamawa, Anambra, Bayelsa, Benue, Delta, Edo, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto and Taraba will get N18.9bn.

The government deserves commendation for it's magnanimity expressed in these actions to supportfor Nigerians in distress to enable them resettle and resume economic and farming activities in their domains.

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

PRESS RELEASE

30,000 PETTY TRADERS HAVE RECEIVED TRADER MONI LOANS SINCE AFTER ELECTIONS


*With repayments, some have started collecting 2nd (improved) loans of N15, 000

Contrary to speculations in some quarters, the TraderMoni scheme and other GEEP micro-credit products (MarketMoni and FarmerMoni) – a component of the Buhari administration’s Social Investment Programme, are still very much in operation, Mr Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity to the President (Office of the Vice President), has said.

Mr Akande disclosed this in a progress report on the GEEP micro-credit products (TraderMoni, MarketMoni, and FarmerMoni).

According to him, “So far, a target of 30,000 minimum beneficiaries per state has been achieved in majority of the 36 states and FCT since after the national and state polls."


Besides, he added that "what the implementing agency has been doing since the last phase of disbursements is generating the balance of program funding while ramping up on the states with shortages."

“Consequently, disbursements have continued to happen in the states; for instance, we have had over 28,000 disbursements across 10 states since after the elections. Our priority is ramping up these numbers in the balance of states before we move to phase two of the program after detailed reviews and structural enhancements for larger scale. Under the Next Level agenda, Trader Moni loans will target ten million petty traders, a significant ramp up from the initial target of two million beneficiaries.

On the role of the Ministry for Industry, Trade and Investment in the implementation of the scheme, he said, “it is actively involved in the project.”

Mr Akande said, “that ministry is, in fact the oversighting Ministry of Bank of Industry, which is the deploying agency. The office of the Minister executes the GEEP program via the Bank of Industry.

“The governance structure of GEEP includes the office of the Vice President (National Social Investment Office), The Ministry of Trade and Investment, and the Bank of Industry.”

Speaking on measures adopted to enhance repayments, the Presidential Media Aide said GEEP has pioneered innovative solutions to drive repayment compliance.

“Working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), we successfully piloted the concept of the BVN as digital collateral; and we saw repayment go up significantly on the MarketMoni and FarmerMoni loans.

“For TraderMoni, beneficiaries can pay back at any commercial bank in the country just like a NEPA or WAEC bill; all they need to provide the bank teller with is their phone number. We also developed and successfully piloted scratch cards as a repayment option for beneficiaries who stay kilometres away from the nearest banks in their community. The cards are loaded the same way Telco recharge cards are loaded, thus requiring no new learning curve.

“This improved repayment received compliance to the extent that in January, the Bank of Industry began second level disbursements - disbursements of N15,000 - to beneficiaries in Lagos, Borno, Ogun and Oyo states for trader who had successfully paid back their first N10,000 loans,” Mr Akande disclosed.

According to him, “GEEP's vision (in the long term) remains to empower the over 30 million MSMEs in Nigeria with interest-free, collateral-free loans.”

The GEEP programme, a component of the Buhari administration’s Social Investment Programme (SIP) has since inception about two years ago, impacted many lives, improved living conditions and expanded opportunities for ordinary Nigerians to do petty trading as well as small and medium scale businesses.

Under the Trader Moni scheme, an initial N10,000 loan is given to petty traders and once they repay within six months, they can receive a new N15,000 loan and when they repay that they can get another N20,000 loan until they get as much as N100,000


Media & Publicity Unit
Office of the Vice President
21st March 2019

Reports by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and other reliable monitors of the Nigerian economy confirming a decline in inflation rate to 11.31% in February 2019, indicates that the robust economic policies of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari are achieving their planned goals.

The latest fall in inflation rates, the third in the last six months, has put more money in the pockets of Nigerians as they pay less for more consumables in their households, the Buhari Media Organisation(BMO) said in a press statement jointly signed by its Chairman, Mr. Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Mr. Cassidy Madueke.

“The continued downward trend of inflation rate in Nigeria from an annual average of 12.46 per cent in 1996 until now at 11.31 is indicative of the impact of the policies of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari designed to put the economy on a sound footing,” BMO said.

"The falling prices of food in particular affirm that the drive to boost agricultural production in Africa’s biggest democracy is yielding the desired result, especially the attainment of 98 per cent sufficiency in domestic rice production".

BMO noted that the findings by the NBS that the year-on-year food price level declined by 0.04 per cent to 13.47 per cent in February 2019, including prices of fish, bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, meat, vegetables, oils and fats and fruits, testify to the efficacy of the economic diversification drive of the administration in which the boosting of agriculture is a key pillar.

The group noted that farmers’ access to high quality seeds and other agricultural inputs with price support from the Federal and state governments through the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) for dry season farming, boosted yields from irrigation farms where grains and vegetables were grown and are being harvested in large quantities.



“The promotion and support of aquaculture to bolster domestic food production and the availability of inputs for fish-food production contributed in the downward trend of fish and other food prices", the group added in the statement.

Figures released by the NBS indicate that both the annual and monthly core sub-indices declined to 9.8% and 0.65% respectively in February from 9.9% and 0.81% in January 2019. This was mainly caused by a reduction in the prices of household appliances and materials.

The exceptional decline in the various elements of overall inflation, despite huge spending in a highly competitive election season, was attributed to the sound economic and fiscal policies being implemented by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the Federal Ministry of Finance, among others.

“The mopping up of excess liquidity in the financial sector by the CBN in order to reduce the amount of Currency in circulation and control inflation, contributed in achieving the goal of taming the monster of inflation,” BMO concluded.

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of measuring President Muhammadu Buhari by the insidious standard of past PDP Presidents who never pretended to be averse to electoral manipulation.
This, it said, is the reason the opposition party finds it hard to believe that President Buhari would not interfere in the March 23 supplementary elections in some States to favour the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
BMO said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke that PDP is used to having a sitting President manipulate the electoral process using the federal might, especially after winning Presidential elections.
“We have a party which has rigging and electoral manipulation ingrained in its DNA, and Presidents who never had second thoughts about foisting PDP candidates on Nigerians at re-run elections.
“Back then, it was unthinkable for the then ruling party to lose close elections after winning the Presidential election. That was when the words ‘bandwagon effect’ took root in the polity.
“So it is not a total surprise that a party whose Presidential candidate and his key campaign coordinators lost their immediate wards during the February 23 elections, would dismiss President Buhari’s assurances of a level-playing field for all parties involved in the forthcoming supplementary gubernatorial elections.
“The fact that PDP-era Presidents did manipulate the process to favour their party does not necessarily mean that this President would take that path of infamy", it said.
BMO also noted that the opposition party had never stopped accusing President Buhari of muzzling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) even when the Commission had consistently shown that it was truly independent.
It said: “PDP had been unrelenting in making all sorts of allegations against President Buhari but it conveniently forgot how INEC stopped the ruling party from presenting any candidate in Rivers state, and that it took a last-minute court ruling to prevent a similar scenario in Zamfara State.
“These are unprecedented actions by the election management body which could never have happened in the PDP era where the Commission acted more like a federal government parastatal.
“We at BMO have also seen how a number of decisions taken by the current INEC leadership have favoured the opposition, but PDP wants Nigerians to believe that President Buhari has the Commission at his beck and call".
On the election petition filed by the opposition party and its Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, the pro-Buhari group said the move would end up a wild goose chase because Nigerians never gave the PDP the mandate it claimed was stolen.
"They have the right to challenge the election outcome at the tribunal, but it would eventually be proved to be a frivolous petition", said the group.

Guber re-run: Buhari building a legacy of political correctness-BMO

President Muhammadu Buhari's non-partisan stance on the forthcoming supplementary elections in some States is a clear departure from what Nigerians had experienced between 1999 and 2014.
The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, that this is unprecedented and yet another reminder of the President's vow to leave a legacy of a robust and credible electoral process.
“It is unthinkable that a sitting President would issue a public warning to members of his own political party that they should not expect him to arm-twist the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to favour the ruling party in the March 23 supplementary election.

“Ironically, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had been vocal in accusing President Buhari of interfering with the Commission’s independence with a view to conferring undue advantage on the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“This is because the political class is used to the PDP-era situation where one man sits in the comfort of the Presidential villa and determines the fate of politicians across the divide with the active support of the INEC leadership.

“Only recently, a former Vice President who flew the party’s flag in the 2019 President election boasted on national television how he used his privileged position to stop the re-election bid of former Anambra State governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju, regardless of the wishes of the electorate!”

The pro-Buhari group also noted that it was embarrassing that any APC leader or member would expect the President to manipulate the process to ensure victory for the ruling party in any of the States where gubernatorial re-run elections are slated to hold on Saturday.

It said: “There is no party member who could have forgotten so soon that President Buhari had in the course of the political campaigns, told Nigerians to vote according to their conscience.

“And his advice to APC leaders in States where supplementary elections are holding to work hard to earn the peoples votes, shows that the President is a statesman who would not trade his integrity for partisan consideration.

“It would be ideal for them to heed the advice and go the extra mile to earn their victory on March 23, rather than expect the President to force INEC to allocate imaginary votes for them”.

BMO also urged members of the opposition to desist from heating up the polity with unsubstantiated allegations against President Buhari in the run-up to the supplementary election.

This, it said, is because the President has no reason to now go back on his pledge that INEC would be completely independent and be free from any interference throughout the elections.