₦airaland Forum

Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria, says late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was the best among those who intended succeeding him.
The former president asked those who felt he exercised poor judgment in choice of his successor to “wait for their time” and see if they would be able to perform better.
He said he could stand “before God and man” to show that he did his best for Nigeria. He was speaking on Wednesday during an interview with Channels Television at his residence in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun state. “With all the people that are available, for successor, what we came up with was about the best that, at that time we could think of,” he said. “Even if you take your son as your successor, you are not sure of what he will do when he gets there. Don’t ever kid yourself. “What do I know about any successor? What he presents. When he gets there he presents it differently. “We did our best, but if you say our best is not good enough, I will say, when it comes to your turn, do better.
Obasanjo said he had to turn down “a very corrupt person” who approached him for the job. “Is it the one that we know are corrupt that we will now go and take? No,” he said. “If I give the job to the corrupt, will I be able to defend myself before God and man?” Some of those who wanted to succeed him include his vice- president, Atiku Abubakar, Mohamed Marwa, Peter Odili.

source: https://www.thecable.ng/obj-refused-choice-corrupt-successor

I pray

lies

ok oo

stress

Don't know if this is the right place and if not it should be pushed to the right channel.

Don't know why the Southwest attach too much importance in postrating when greetings and whenever they see you not doing that, they conclude that you lack home training. to me l see it as stress postrating and when you dont do that, does it mean you are not responsible.

What's your take on it.

God help us all

noted

Lawyer and rights activist,
Femi Falana, has urged the
immediate past Minister of
Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
to tender an unreserved
apology to Nigerians over her
role in the unauthorised
withdrawal of $2bn from the
Excess Crude Revenue
Account.

Mr. Falana made the call in a
statement Monday, following
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala’s claim
that the withdrawal was
authorised by former
President Goodluck Jonathan,
reversing from her earlier
statement that it was
approved by the Federation
Accounts Allocation
Committee.

The former minister reactions
followed an allegation by the
governor of Edo State, Adams
Oshiomhole, that she
unilaterally withdrew $2 from
the Excess Crude Account.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala initially
said the claim was “totally
without foundation” as the
decision to spend the money
was discussed with states’
finance commissioners.

After the commissioners
denied giving such approval,
the former minister said the
spending was done on the
instruction of Mr. Jonathan.
On Monday, Mr. Oshiomhole
accused Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala
of using the money to fund
Mr. Jonathan’s re-election bid.

Mr. Falana queried the
legality of unilaterally
withdrawing money from the
account, even where it was
approved by Mr. Jonathan.
“Assuming without conceding
that the release of the
whopping sum $2 bn was
approved by the president, is
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala saying that
funds belonging to the three
tiers of Government could be
unilaterally withdrawn from
the ECA by the Federal
Government?”

“As the Coordinating Minister
of the Economy did she draw
the attention of President
Jonathan to the illegality of
withdrawing funds from the
ECA without the approval of
the states and the local
governments, the co-owners
of the fund?”

In spite of the alleged payment of $2 bn
for fuel subsidy in December 2014, fuel
marketers have continued to embark on
strikes over the alleged non-payment of
N200 billion subsidy money.

“The claims and counterclaims by the
former minister and the fuel marketers
calls for urgent investigation of the
mismanagement of the fuel subsidy
regime under the past government by the
Buhari Administration with a view to
exposing the monumental fraud that has
characterized the policy,” said Mr. Falana.
“In 2011, the National Assembly
appropriated the sum of N245 bn for fuel
subsidy. Without any amendment of the
Appropriation Act, 2011 by way of
supplementary budget, Mrs Okonjo-
Iweala unilaterally paid N2.5 trillion to
fuel marketers. Investigations by the
House of Representatives and the
Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission have since confirmed that the
bulk of the fund was paid to members of
a cabal who did not supply any fuel.”
“Was it the FAAC or President Jonathan
that authorized the World Bank expert to
engage in the fraudulent payment of over
N2 trillion to fake fuel importers?”

He continued, “Having admitted that the
withdrawal of the sum of $2 bn by her
was authorized by President Jonathan and
not by FAAC as she had previously
claimed Mrs Okonjo-Iweala ought to
apologize to Nigerians.”
“And instead of resorting to shifting
blame in this circumstance, the former
Minister should stop denying her
principal role in the gross
mismanagement of the neo-colonial
economy of the country.”


source: www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/186609-apologise-to-nigerians-falana-tells-okonjo-iweala.html

Dharniel:
no be so...

na so bro

I bliv

By Remi Adefulu
A member of the House of Representatives, representing Amuwo- Odofin Federal Constituency, Hon. Oghene Egoh has dismissed plots to remove Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, saying such would fail. Speaking with Daily Sun at the weekend, he hinged this on the fact that the Saraki/Ekweremadu leadership was a popular decision among Senators.
According to him, contrary to the wishes of certain interests outside the National Assembly, Senators and members resolved to elect leaders without towing to the wishes of vested interests.
Egoh dismissed insinuations that the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives are unpopular, stressing that lawmakers in favor of the present leadership out-number those against them.
According to the lawmaker, who was the former spokesman of the defunct National Republican Convention in Lagos State, this was the major reason other tricks were been employed to remove Ekweremadu.
“The battle of who becomes the senate president or deputy senate president is a battle they have lost. They don’t have the figure to remove Ekweremadu,” he declared. Continuing, the lawmaker tasked the APC to quickly find a way of resolving the National Assembly crisis, insisting that it’s party affair.
He hinged this on the fact that it would not be in Nigerians’ interest. Assembly to get to stuck due a crisis occasioned by personal interest of members of a party.
“I only hope they will be able to settle their problem because the National Assembly is a body that is maintained at heavy expense to both tax payers and income of the country.
“The National Assembly is a government on its own. For a tier that is supposed to support the presidency not to be able to take decisions that will benefit the country is unfortunate. “President Buhari is there, but he needs the support of the National Assembly to advise him and also do oversight functions, Anything that would prevent the National Assembly from carrying out those functions, Nigerians should condemn,” he stressed.
On the part of the PDP, he stated that the party was already adjusting to the role of an opposition to party as fast it could in all remifications. “When you look at the PDP, we are already playing the role of an effective opposition if recent events at the national Assembly is anything to go by. “Anybody under-rating the PDP now is deceiving himself or herself because the PDP lawmakers played a major role in ensuring those who lead the National Assembly, which is a major statement,” he concluded.
source: sunnewsonline.com/new/why-plot-to-unseat-ekweremadu-will-fail-rep/

Thank God

As govt begins payment of salaries
By Gbenga Olarinoye
Osogbo—Osun State workers yesterday ended their six weeks strike by signing a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the state government to put an end to the industrial action. Labour leaders at the end of the meeting with government representatives at the Governor’s Office in Osogbo decided to end its strike and called on civil servants in the state to resume work today. But Council of Academic Staff Unions of Osun State-owned tertiary institutions, CASUOSTI dissociated itself from the call-off by the NLC and the TUC, saying they are not part of the decision.
The union, in a statement in Osogbo, by its Secretary, Comrade Olusegun Lana maintained that they would continue with the strike as the problem of alleged mismanagement of their contributory pension scheme and deductions from their salaries were not resolved. The state government reportedly commenced the payment of backlog of workers’ salaries yesterday, starting with January and February, 2015 for state workers and March and April, 2015 for Local Government counterparts. Other ongoing payments included that of primary school teachers, balance of pensions for state government for November 2014, outstanding pensions for January-February, 2015 for Retired Primary School Teachers and March, 2015 Pensions for Retired Local Government Staff.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by the State government, the Joint Public Service Negotiating Councils (JPSNC), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), of Osun. Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Jacob Adekomi, who spoke on behalf of other labour leaders pointed out that labour, in ending the strike considered the parlous financial situation of the state arising from decline in monthly Federal Allocations and dwindling Internally Generated Revenue, IGR which originally led to non-payment of six months’ salaries. The NLC chairman added that government and labour therefore, agreed to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding MOU in anticipation of the various efforts to be put in place to end the delay in payments. Labour also added that the strike is being suspended to show appreciation to the state government’s commitment to the welfare of its workers, having in mind the need to collect data towards the completion of the critical verification exercise of workers and retirees in the entire public service. Adekomi stressed that committees will be put in place comprising government and Labour unions representatives who will embark on the screening exercise of all categories of workers and pensioners in the state. According to him, “The MOU we are signing today is agreed to by both parties taking due cognisance of the present parlous financial situation of the state on an interim basis, as a condition precedent to suspending the strike action. “Committees will be set up according to the MOU aimed at screening, determination of the actual wage bill, and workers in the employment of the state, the actual number and actual monthly pensions’ bills of both Local Governments’ and State Government Pensioners.” Unpaid salaries protests politically motivated— Osun NLC Meantime, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Joint Public Service Negotiating Councils JPSNC, and the Trade Union Congress TUC, in the state yesterday dissociated the unions from the recent protests embarked upon by a group of people in the state over unpaid salaries. The unions, after calling off the strike used the opportunity to condemn the protests and described them (protests) as being politically- motivated.
source: www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/osun-workers-resume-work-after-6-wk-strike/

And he keeps accusing Okonjo Iweala

Gabriel Enogholase
BENIN — EDO State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has challenged the state governor, Mr Adams Oshiomhole, to explain to the people of the state what he does with the N500 million he collects as security votes monthly before asking council chairmen and councillors to suspend their security votes to enable them pay salaries of their workers. State chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, who addressed newsmen in Benin, yesterday, said that the governor had no moral justification to talk on accountability and transparency in Abuja when he cannot explain to Edo people how he has been spending the money he collects for security in a state that has no security challenge.
He attributed the financial crisis rocking local governments in Edo State to the state government’s financial recklessness and accused it of plunging the councils into a financial mess as a result of its spending of funds meant for them.
Fifteen of the 18 councils in Edo State are currently are owing workers’ salaries ranging from three to 10 months. According to Orbih, “the problem was not because the councils were not getting money from the Federation Account but due to the state government taking money meant for the councils every month. N212.278 billion was released to the 18 councils in the state between November 2008, when Oshiomhole assumed office, and April 2015.”
He said the move to stop the security votes of the council chairmen to enable council workers’ salaries to be paid was laughable and immoral. Orbih, who said the council chairmen earn between N1.7million and N1.2 million each per month as security votes, while the legislative arm of the councils earns about N1 million each as security votes, noted that the total monthly combined sum of N42 million was nowhere close to the over N500 million Governor Oshiomhole earns as security votes. Orbih, who also spoke on the flood and erosion problem confronting Benin City, said there was nothing on ground to justify the N30 billion facilities obtained from the capital market and the N5 billion received from the World Bank to curtail the erosion menace as many houses and property were lost to downpour last week in the state capital.

k

sos

k

I hope her achievement surpass dt of Jega

By Jude Opara
CERTAINLY, the exit from office of the
immediate past Chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof.
Attahiru Jega, last month, marks the end of
an era, which many analysts say the electoral
body recorded a mileage in the conduct of
credible elections.
It was the first time an INEC chairman
conducted two general elections (2011 and
2015), widely considered as credible.
Before the advent of Jega in 2010, the public
image of INEC was at a very low ebb given
the controversies that trailed the conduct of
the 2007 general elections by the professor
Maurice Iwu-led commission. The poor
conduct of the 2007 election overshadowed
the innovations that Iwu initiated.
Ahead the 2011 general polls, it was very
evident that any electoral umpire that worked
hard to strengthen the process would be
highly revered. Many Nigerians over the years
had linked some of the seeming intractable
challenges facing the country to the nation’s
faulty electoral system, arguing that if power
really comes from the people, any elected
officer will work hard to improve on the living
standard of the people.
The game changer
Jega began by cleaning up the voters’
register, which hitherto had contained names
of even well known foreigners as part of the
Nigerian electorate, a clear underlining of the
fact that elections in Nigeria could have been
anything but free and fair. But due to the
short time before the 2011 general elections,
the register was only cleaned-up with the
removal of some multiple registrants as well
as names of well known foreign celebrities.
The 2011 elections were adjudged as one of
the best conducted elections in the history of
the country.
The next line of action was the registration of
voters for the 2015 elections through what
was known as Continuous Voter Registration
(CVR) exercise. At the end of the exercise,
68.8 million voters were registered.
Most of the seeming innovations for which
INEC under Prof. Jega thrived like the use of
the Direct Data Capture (DDC) machines for
the registration of voters were initiated by
his predecessor, Prof. Iwu.
However, Jega introduced what politicians
now referred to as the ‘game changer.’ The
Smart Card Reader (SCR) machine which
worked alongside the Permanent Voters Card
(PVC) was what many analysts believe
reduced to a significant level the incidence of
electoral fraud in the 2015 general elections.
It is a well known fact that most politicians
loathed the introduction of the Card Reader
especially when it became clear that it was
going to take care of multiple voting and
ballot stuffing which used to be major
features of our electoral system.
The short-comings: However, the device
either by omission or commission did not
checkmate the incidence of child-voters. In
some parts of the country, the rate at which
children who were clearly under the
constitutional voting age of 18 participated
in the last general elections was very
alarming.
Many of those who believed that it was not
really Uhuru with Jega argued that it was
either the former chief electoral umpire was
biased to have allowed that to go unhindered
or that he was incompetent because the
children had a smooth ride through all the
stages of the election- registration of
voters,verification, collection of PVCs,
accreditation to vote and actual voting on
Election Day.
One area many people especially the staff of
the commission believe that their former boss
performed very poorly is in the area of staff
welfare. Apart from the fact that it took a lot
of time for allowances and other sundry
claims to be paid, there was no form of salary
enhancement.
“Let me tell you that the only thing I can say
despite the fact that Jega himself was always
bragging with it, is that he managed to
sustain the hazards allowances which Prof.
Iwu approved for every staff during elections.
Staff welfare was rather poor under Jega and
this is probably due to the fact that he came
with a negative mindset that INEC was
corrupt,” an INEC staff told Vanguard.
The issue of staff welfare especially the junior
ones which used to be a cardinal policy of
INEC under Iwu was jettisoned by Jega even
as at today. The Commission had in 2008
commenced the construction of staff
quarters for the junior and inter-mediate
staff at Aco Estate, along the Abuja Airport
Road but till now nobody has added another
block on that project.
Allegations of favouritism
The last -minute directorate promotion
exercise which Jega carried out on the eve of
his departure from the commission is still
causing ripples among the concerned staff. A
reliable source at the Commission alleged
that Jega who left office on Tuesday June 30
had on Friday June 26 approved the
promotion of some staff without due regard
to the existing Federal Character principle
and even guidelines he issued himself.
According to the source, the Commission had
came up with a policy that for anybody to be
promoted to the directorate cadre, such a
person must have passed the promotion
examination which was conducted many
times. However, after the exercise most of
the people who did well were denied
promotion while other criteria that were not
specified were used to promote some of
those who were elevated.
“They told us that due to the fact that there
were limited openings for promotions that
the examination would be used as a criterion
to promote people. We were informed that if
there was a vacancy in your state or zone that
the person who scored the highest mark shall
be promoted but curiously all these were not
observed. In fact I can say that except for one
or two states, the guideline was observed in
breach and that is already causing a lot of
disaffection in the Commission.
Denial of promotion
“For example, I know of a Deputy Director
who scored 75 per cent in his state but the
person that was promoted had 66 per cent.
Also in another North Central state, the
person who came first with 76 per cent was
denied promotion while someone who scored
59 per cent was promoted. In fact, this
approach has left some deputy directors in
the same position for over 10 years. It is very
wrong for people to be stagnated because of
favouritism.”
The former INEC boss who has since returned
to the classroom at the Bayero University
Kano (BUK) was further alleged to have
favoured some staff from certain parts of the
country to the detriment of those from other
parts.
“They are promoting some people using
criteria that are different from some others.
For example from the North-East and North-
West, somebody with even less than 50 per
cent will be promoted whereas those from
the South-East and North-Central will not be
promoted even with 70 per cent and then you
will now be answerable to a man who is
inferior to you intellectually because of where
he comes from. This certainly is breeding bad
blood because it is daylight assault, many
people are hurting,” source lamented.
Urgent tasks before Amina

Consequently, staff welfare and addressing
the injustice arising from Jega’s last-minute
promotions constitute the first major tasks
before the INEC’s Acting Chairperson, Mrs
Amina Bala Zakari. From information
available to us it is evident that if nothing
was done urgently to address this issue, many
of the staff will be working half-heartedly
and this will never be in the overall interest
of the commission and the country. People
must be seen to have been fairly and justly
treated no matter the part of the country
they come from.
Sources at the Commission have further
revealed that with the recent trend, some
states of the federation may not have space
for promotion in the next 10 years while
many staff may retire on account of either
age or year of service before they get to even
level 15.

Mrs Zakari could consider expanding the top
a little to create opportunities and also
encourage efficiency and effectiveness. For
instance, some of the departments that were
merged by Jega could be separated because
time has shown that they did better the way
they were before.

A classical example is the Voter Education,
Publicity, Gender and Civil Societies
department which used to have two separate
departments. In the past, there used to be
the Public Affairs Department headed by a
director as well as the Voter education and
Civil Societies unit headed by another
director.
Doing this will equally encourage
professionalism as thorough bred
professionals would be detailed to head these
departments and units

Mrs Zakari, the first woman to head the
electoral umpire in the country must take
staff welfare very seriously as anything to the
contrary may encourage truancy and INEC
being a sensible agency may not be able to
manage the after-effect of disgruntled staff
divulging vital information to unauthorized
people in exchange for money. The staff
must be allowed to form a Workers Union as
the continuous insistence on stopping them
may not augur well for the commission.


www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/inec-jegas-legacies-and-re-jigging-tasks-before-amina

most politicians are thieves and only thinks about themselves

Everything points to arraignment — EFCC official By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North ABUJA — FormeR Head of Service of the Federation, HoSF, Mr. Steve Oronsaye, yesterday, returned to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC’s custody ahead of possible arraignment. Oronsaye was arrested and detained by operatives of the anti-graft agency, Wednesday, but released late night and asked to turn in himself, yesterday. Vanguard learnt that Oronsaye was, however, asked to go home at about 6p.m., yesterday, and asked to report back to the commission today. A top official in the commission confirmed to Vanguard that the former top civil servant had been taken in, yesterday, and that every indication pointed to the fact that he would be formally charged before an Abuja Federal High Court. The official said: “Yes, Mr. Oronsaye is with our operatives preparatory to his arraignment. He was allowed to go yesterday after spending a long time and making useful statement to us. He was ordered to return to our investigators today and he reported around 10a.m. today (yesterday)” It was not clear if he would be arraigned today or not. Vanguard learnt that apart from being associated with the mismanagement of huge pensions funds, Oronsaye is being investigated over allegations by top Federal Government officials that he used his position as the chairman of the Presidential Standing Committee on Financial Action Taskforce to fleece the government. The anti-graft agency source said: “Oronsaye is also being interrogated on fresh allegations of monumental fraud and embezzlement of funds in the running of a Presidential Standing Committee on Financial Action Taskforce, which he chairs. “The committee is a policy advisory body to the President on the implementation of the AML/CFT. Oronsaye allegedly used it as a conduit to siphon and launder money. “This fresh lead is triggered by allegations by some members of the committee who claim that Oronsaye operated an illegal account in a first generation bank in the committee’s name without the knowledge of the members through which he has laundered hundreds of millions of naira.” The renowned bureaucrat has earlier been questioned in relation to the September 2014 damning 169-page report by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation claiming that Oronsaye mismanaged over N123 billion during his tenure as HoSF. The report, entitled “Special Audit of the Accounts of the Civil Pensions,” found Mr. Oronsaye guilty of allegedly presiding over the looting of the nation’s resources during

Source: www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/fraud-orosanye-returns-to-efcc-today/

now

.

hisss

k

rip

k

so how does all this nonsense better the life of a common naija man

this guy sef