₦airaland Forum

The National Electricity Regulatory Commission on Wednesday said a court of competent jurisdiction has ruled that the bills of a previous tenant cannot be enforced on a new customer.

This was revealed by the NERC commissioner for finance and management services, Mr. Nathan Shatti, during a videoconferencing interactive session between customers and the NERC representative to answer all questions on meters and metering.

Shatti said that those who had “invested or spent money to procure a meter will get a refund or a compensation through a mechanism that the commission would come up with, and for those who are paying meter service charge, that would also stop at a point and then there would be a compensation to pay you back”.

“They would give you meters, maintain those meters and then in the process of their reporting to NERC, they will include those cost of meters as part of their regulatory asset base and get returns and then they will also get charges in the tariffs that they are going to charge customers just like the way it was being done previously.”

The commissioner assured that Nigerians do not have much to worry about as those who do not enjoy more than 12 hours of light per day will not be affected by the tariff hike. “Everyone is aware of the new price tariff as released by NERC especially the fact that we have broken it down into four different categories.

“All customers in whichever category you find yourself between the four categories will be treated fairly and equally.” he noted

While responding to the participants question on estimated bills, the Commissioner said “Kazeem had complaints about the Ikeja and Eko DisCos, I guess you are from Lagos.
“The complaint was majorly load shedding and I would not know the amount of load being shed but I think that is something that the commission has also noted and we will take it up with the respective DisCos.

“The next important point is estimated billing which is mostly being contested and by the time you now get a meter, the DisCos would want to migrate the bill to the meter just to ensure that you pay or they tell you that until you pay those bills you will not be metered.”

Shatti, however, commended the bold step that the President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Prof. Osinbajo administration has taken, he assured that the lingering issues would be resolved in the next 18 to 24 months and there would be a drastic change.

“Let’s continue to be patient while we do what we do right now but I can assure you that you will be able to get your meter in good time.”

“No one would be demanding that you pay for meters directly again,” he added.

Mr. Laolu the Senior special Adviser to the Vice President who was a guest on Channels TV's Sunrise Daily has stated that the ESP was a plan that was designed by the President who asked the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to head the Sustainability Committee, the report which was released in June and has since been approved by the President and FEC.

He also stated that it was purely coincidental that the Fuel and electricity hikes occured at about the same period and people should not have the impression that the government was trying to give with one hand and collect back with the other. The plan is not about a case of giving and taking back, rather Nigerians should try to have a better understanding of the ongoing process.

"Starting with the fuel price hike, sometime in March, there was a full deregulation of the oil sector and since oil prices were low in the international market, there was a corresponding decrease in Nigeria from about 140 Naira per litre to 125 Naira, as such going forward Nigerians can always expect these fluctuations or rising and falling oil prices because what we bring in is the refined petrol from the international sale of crude oil."

"Regarding the electricity tariffs, Majority of Nigerians would not be paying more and I can repeat that with full conviction and that is essentially because whoever is currently receiving below 12hours of electricity a day would not be asked to pay a higher tariff and if indeed you are, you need to let us know. Simply go and report the matter to NERC on their social media handles especially twitter and Facebook in order that the Presidents directives are enforced."

When asked what the Federal Government intended to do about Labour unions threatening to go on strike if the price hikes are not reversed, Mr. Laolu said, "Labour is made up of Nigerians, those of us in government are Nigerians, the people out there are Nigerians and this country belongs to every one of us. The reason why I am serving in this government is because I have a personal conviction that the President and his Vice Prof. Osinbajo have the interest of Nigerians at heart. If I wasn’t convinced or if I lost my conviction, about the commitment of those two gentlemen, I’m out the door."

"These are not people that would sit down and allow our people to be messed up and short changed. In negotiations we are going to show what the facts are and superior logic is what would prevail at the end of the meetings. The transparency and honesty and commitment is the confidence we have when negotiations start. Nigerians just need to know where we are coming from and where we are going to and that is why we are communicating these things."

"Without a doubt, these are challenging times for not just Nigerians alone or African countries for that matter irrespective of the set of data one wants to focus on as a matter of fact even Europe and America have recorded non flattering economic figures. It is based on this that we have come to the decision that we need to inject that 2.3 trillion Naira, to re-inflate the economy. As to how that might affect the rate of inflation among other things, most of the lending structures that we are going to be getting from the CBN is going to be very reasonable at about 9%. The most important thing at this moment though is that we need to put money in people’s hands and we have to do it urgently", He concluded.

who and who qualifies

FG To Roll Out ESP's Survival Fund Scheme Next Week - Laolu Akande

Mr. Laolu the Senior special Adviser to the Vice President on Channels TV's Sunrise Daily stated that the ESP was a plan that was designed by the President who asked the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to head the Sustainability Committee, the report which was released in June and has since been approved by the President and FEC.

"The specific sources that is funding the ESP are; from the 2020 budget where we got around 500 billion Naira and the rest would be from CBN lending structures and facilities and a few other concessionary international loans. This has managed to capture how this project would be funded very clearly and that is why we are now moving to the implementation phase."

"The Plan aims to within the space of 12 months; try to ameliorate the fallout of the impact of Covid19 on the economy by injecting 2.3 trillion Naira into the economy to prevent a bigger recession. There are several Initiatives and measures within this plan designed to help the Average Nigerian.
Specifically, I would like to talk about what we have for the MSMEs. From next week we are going to start the Survival Fund which is but one part of the plan and for all information as regards who qualifies Nigerians can visit survivalfund.ng"

From Next week, the site survivalfund.ng would be opened for Nigerians who have MSMEs, Nigerians who are Transport workers, artisans, plumbers, electricians, private school teachers, and all other kinds of categories that Nigerians can benefit from.

A good portion of the sustainability plan would be happening at the state level, for example we have 30 -35 thousand slots earmarked for each state to benefit from the payroll support. As for the Agric section you mentioned, we already have about 12 – 15 states that are in agreement to make additional land available to farming, so that the plan to bring in about 5million jobs is already making progress, Mr. Akande added.

"We have enumerated 5million small farm holders across the country already and the plan is that the bigger companies that did the enumeration would be getting a lot of financing again at very reasonable rates to provide them with equipments, seeds, fertilizer etc and at the end of the day to also off-take whatever it is that they produce and already we have a very robust plan for the Government to be the off-taker of last resort."

Vice president Osinbajo as always leaves his impact on the deliberations

An avid follower of Professor Osinbajo would know that the vice president never passes up an opportunity to mingle with everyday Nigerians and those resident in Ghana are not left out.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will, on Tuesday, hold a meeting with Nigerians in Ghana to discuss issues bothering on their welfare.


Earlier in August, Nigerian traders in Ghana had lamented the closure of their shops over failure to provide evidence of Ghana Promotion Investment Council (GIPC) registration.

According to the traders, the registration requires $1 million in foreign equity which they had found difficult to provide.

The incident happened two months after a building in the Nigerian mission in Ghana was demolished.


Over the past weeks, the two countries have been engaged in dialogue to seek solutions to the challenges.

In a statement on Tuesday, Laolu Akande, senior special assistant to Osinbajo on media and publicity, said although the vice president will represent President Muhammadu Buhari at an extraordinary summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the situation in Mali, he would also meet with representatives of the Nigerian community in Ghana.

“Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, leaves Abuja this morning for Accra, Ghana to attend an Extraordinary Summit of the Economic Community of West African States on the situation in Mali,” Akande said.


“Prof. Osinbajo who is representing President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, at the summit will join other leaders in the sub-region to discuss the political crisis in Mali and the security situation in the sub-region at large.

“The Accra meeting will form part of several efforts by leaders in the sub region to resolve Mali’s political crisis.

“While in Accra, the vice president will also meet with representatives of the Nigerian community in Ghana to discuss issues bothering on their wellbeing in the West African country.

“Accompanying the vice president is the minister of state for foreign affairs, Amb. Zubairu Dada.”

*To meet Nigerian community in Ghana today


Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, leaves Abuja this morning for Accra, Ghana to attend an Extraordinary Summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the situation in Mali.

Prof. Osinbajo who is representing President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, at the summit will join other leaders in the sub-region to discuss the political crisis in Mali and the security situation in the sub region at large.

The Accra meeting will form part of several efforts by leaders in the sub region to resolve Mali's political crisis.

While in Accra, the Vice President will also meet with representatives of the Nigerian community in Ghana to discuss issues bothering on their wellbeing in the West African country.

Accompanying the Vice President is the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amb Zubairu Dada.


Prof Osinbajo is expected back in Abuja today at the end of his engagements in Ghana.

The Buhari/Osinbajo administration is continually looking to find a lasting solution to the ongoing ASUU strike with respect to ensuring that students in tertiary institutions resume as soon as it is safe for them to do so, based on the recommendations of the Presidential Task Force on Covid19.

This was revealed by Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment while participating of Radio Nigeria’s weekly enlightenment program, Have Your Say. The Senior Advocate of Nigeria stated that ASUU must have something to hide else it would have asked its members to register on the IPPIS platform.

“The fact that all unions have signed up to IPPIS shows that the government is acting in good faith to rid the country of multiple salaries and ghost workers, so a situation where a single union would hold the nation to ransom is uncalled for as there seems to be things that ASUU are trying to hide.”

“ASUU said they were not satisfied with IPPIS as it did not cater for some of their peculiarities and would rather set up University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS). The initial time span for this they could not state, after much pressure they decided on a year to which the federal government agreed on the condition that pending that time their members should register on IPPIS and when UTAS was ready they can all migrate to it, a condition that ASUU has since refused.” The Minister added.

Recall that ASUU themselves have accused the FG of underhand tactics by lamenting the imposition of IPPIS on ASUU members which had resulted in mutilation or outright non-payment of members’ salaries since February 2020, and that the problems that payment of salaries through IPPIS had caused justified ASUU’s preference for (UTAS).

The North East zonal coordinator of ASUU stated that “If government had faithfully implemented the 2012 NEEDS Assessment report which identified the intensity of the rot in the Nigerian public universities, by now the universities would have been more involved in COVID-19 testing and developing solutions.”

a house divided upon itself would collapse, these deliberations hopefully places the APC in a stronger footing especially as regards the upcoming elections across the country.

Festus Keyamo the minister of state for Labour has asked Nigerians to hold the striking doctors responsible for the deaths of their loved ones. He said this while fielding questions on Radio Nigeria’s weekly program; Have Your Say.

The honourable minister who made it known that the act of the resident doctors to go on strike was grossly irresponsible due to the fact that federal government had already met 6 of the 8conditions of the grievances and was still in negations for the other two when the doctors embarked on the strike, stated that the Federal Government is empowered by the ILO statutes to terminate the employment of striking essential workers and replace them.

“Nigeria is a member of the ILO and we are empowered by the ILO regulations to replace essential workers that simply want to hold the country to ransom or how else does one explain a situation where the federal government has been forced to cough up monies not budgeted for due to the advent of covid19 in respect of hazard allowance, PPE etc, yet doctors still went on strike”

“Hopefully they would call it off today following the successful deliberations we had that ran long into the night yesterday. How would they feel if other essential workers like the police and military were to go on strike and while doctors were being attacked by armed robbers they made a phone call only to be informed that the former are currently on strike and they should deal with the marauders by themselves?”

Strike action should be the last resort for any union. They should not be used as weapons of threat against the government. Dialogue is the way forward. For example JOHESU have given notice of their own intending strike and immediately after this program we would be returning to engage them in what promises to be a long and hopefully successful deliberation.

The Buhari/Osinbajo administration via the ministry of Labour is more than willing to meet with and engage all unions in meaningful discussions with regards to the welfare of their members.

The creation of 774,000 jobs by the Federal Government is an attempt to employ a thousand persons in every community that would be engaged in community service. The jobs are a temporary shift for three months with a stipend of 30 thousand naira per month. It is hoped that the skills learnt in this period could then be utilized by the participants going forwards.

While on Radio Nigeria’s weekly program; Have Your Say, the Minister for State, Labour; Festus Keyamo stated that he has asked the 20 man selection committee in each state to ensure that women are given a higher percentage in the final selections as women are nation builders and primary care givers in our community.

“Our women are usually the ones that can most readily multiply this income by engaging in petty trading to help support their families. Women are often more vested in the raising of their children and sending them to school while it is more apt to see our men using their incomes to consume burukutu (a local alcoholic brew)”

“No one is proud of the abysmal unemployment rates which are simply a consequence of the lack of will of previous governments to position the nation ready for the mass explosion of graduates with the influx of private Universities since the Obasanjo tenure.”

“The past is what it is, but having eaten our future yesterday, the time to plant for tomorrow is today and as such the Buhari/Osinbajo administration is fixated on improving our informal sector ie those jobs that which you do not see their adverts in newspapers via skill acquisition schemes that would lead to the beneficiaries themselves becoming employers of labour.”

“There are 500 line items in our current budget fixated on skill acquisition programs in various ministries and the biggest of these is the N-Power scheme that has begun enrolment for its third phase even as government is looking to absorb those that have just graduated in the month of July, into different MDAs.”

the spirit of entitlement prevalent in most Nigerians is one that should scare all and sundry. from the RICH folks owing AMCON in billions and the poor who would rather not pay back petty loans designed to continually help them grow their businesses but would rather sacrifice the goose that lays the eggs

The notion that victims or potential victims of sexual harassment are architects of their fate especially by their attitude, dressing, or willingness to be in a compromising place with their violators is wrong and should be resisted in every situation. The victim must always be seen as the victim and not to be blamed.


This was the views of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, in his contributions on Wednesday at a webinar on Anti-Sexual Harassment themed “Finding Safe Spaces for Female Students in Nigerian Universities”, organized by the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife. The event was based on the book authored by notable journalist and former presidential spokesman, Mr Olusegun Adeniyi, titled NAKED ABUSE: SEX FOR GRADES IN AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES.


According to him, “the victim must always be seen as the victim. There cannot be an excuse, especially given the power configuration between students and lecturers, that the victim could have somehow invited the abuse upon themselves. I think it is an important consideration to be made and we must not allow that notion to persist.”


Advocating stricter punishments for rape offenders especially in situations involving lecturers and their female students, Prof. Osinbajo said “there cannot be an excuse especially given the power configuration between students and lecturers that the victim could have somehow invited the abuse upon themselves. I think it is an important consideration to be made and we must not allow that notion to persist.”


Continuing, the Vice President said “there is also the comparison sometimes made between demanding bribes for service and sex for grades. Sometimes people will argue that a bribe is a bribe and there is no reason why the punishment for sex as the currency of the bribe, should be stricter than an ordinary bribe.”

Referring to Adeniyi’s book, Prof. Osinbajo said developing and adhering to a set of ethical codes of conduct for conversations and interactions involving lecturers and students in universities would greatly address the problem.


He said: “to ensure that both faculty and students are sufficiently clear about the issues and rules, there is a need for a code of conduct or ethical guidelines based on best practices in appropriate student/lecturer interactions.


“It is important that these are clearly defined in ethical guidelines that are contained in some documents that people can refer to and see. It is important both for the lecturer and the student that there is some reference to some code of conduct.”


Speaking further on ways of resolving issues around sexual harassment in Nigerian universities, Prof. Osinbajo said the search for answers to creating safe spaces for female students in universities must begin from the question of why is it that such an evidently rampant crime is so under-reported?


According to him, “there are obviously many cases of people who share their anecdotal experiences without necessarily reporting to the authorities. I think the answer is clearly that this low reportability is on account of the fact that many victims do not feel confident that they will get redress, or that they will be treated fairly or that they will not be visited with the same fearful consequences that were the subject of the demand in the first place.


“The fear that they will neither get a sympathetic nor understanding hearing, let alone justice, and that they will end up suffering the same consequences the predator had threatened would occur if they did not submit to their demands. Then there is, of course, the shame and stigma that could attend speaking up.”


“I think that in ensuring that we create safe spaces, we must do at least the basics, which is providing the support and resources they need to report abusers. Every institution must make it easy for victims or potential victims to report perpetrators to trusted formal structures or secure channels created specifically for the purpose of resolving such cases,” the Vice President added.


Prof. Osinbajo also recommended the adoption of a mandatory “well thought-out whistleblower process emphasizing confidentiality, professional legal and medical help for victims or potential victims.”


Dignitaries who also spoke at the webinar besides Adeniyi, the Guest Speaker, included the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege; the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq; the First Lady of Ekiti State, Mrs Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi; and the Vice Chancellor of OAU, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbode.

Meanwhile, in another development, Prof. Osinbajo has underscored the synergy between the legislature and the executive in supporting policies and programmes of the administration especially those geared towards boosting the nation’s economic base.

The Vice President stated this on Wednesday at a virtual Citizens’ Dialogue on the Green Imperative Project. The Green Imperative Project is a bilateral initiative between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Brazilian government to develop Nigeria’s agricultural production base through a mechanization programme that is spread across the 774 Local Government Areas in the country.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the one-year ministerial performance review retreat in Abuja on Tuesday, Buhari asked the “Nigerian elites” to judge him fairly, and that ministers should vigorously defend the government.

He said he has done more with little resources compared to the previous administrations when oil sold at a higher rate.

“I have charged all of you to defend the government vigorously and not allow any irresponsible and politically motivated statements to keep spreading falsehoods about this government,” he said

“Information to the public should be better packaged; go on the offensive, we are proud of our achievements and we should blow our own trumpets.

“I want the Nigerian elites, please encourage them, to judge us fairly… the average production of oil in the country, from 1999 to 2014, was 2.1 million barrels per day (and) sold at an average price of $100.

“When we came, it collapsed to $37, $38 per barrel, you know it. And the militants were unleashed on the administration, and the production went down to half a million barrels per day.


“I want you to please reflect. What was the condition of the infrastructure then, in spite of those earnings? The roads, the rail is dead and there was no power, up till now no power; where does the money go?”

‘I AM BEING CALLED ‘BABA GO SLOW”

Buhari added that contrary to what obtains when he was military head of state when people were detained at will, he is “trying to follow the system” in fighting corruption,

“Now, I’m being called ‘baba go slow’,” he said.


The president further directed the release of funds for implementation of the federal government’s N2.3 trillion economic sustainability plan and for capital projects in the 2020 budget.

“I also enjoin ministers to ensure that funds released are utilised efficiently and transparently in implementing the programmes and projects under the line priorities areas of government,” he said.

“On behalf of the people of Nigeria, I demand uttermost levels of performance, deliverables and results. I look forward to a result orientated year with tremendous benefits that will continue to change the lives of our people positively.”

Punch newspapers have a degree in headline distortion to the point that it becomes fake news.
So sad

Performance review is a term most common in Nigeria amonst Bankers. The very dreaded MPR. It serves to ensure that the humoungus pay being earned is justified and it is great to see that the nation is emulating World Best Practices by holding the first performance review of ministers in this Administration.

At the event, Buhari, who was represented by Vice-President Yemi osinbajo at the ministerial retreat, said one of the effects of deregulation which his regime adopted at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown in March and when global oil prices collapsed was that PMS prices would change with changes in global oil prices.

Explaining the increase in fuel price, Buhari said when global prices rose, it led to increase in the price of petrol locally.

The President said, “There are several negative consequences if government should even attempt to go back to the business of fixing or subsidising the PMS price.

“First of all, it would mean a return to the costly subsidy regime. Today, we have 60 per cent less revenue, we just cannot afford the cost.

“The second danger is the potential return of fuel queues – which has thankfully, become a thing of the past under this administration.

“Nigerians no longer have to endure long queues just to buy petrol, often at highly inflated prices.

“Also, as I hinted earlier, there is no provision for fuel subsidy in the revised 2020 budget, simply because we are not able to afford it, if reasonable provisions must be made for health, education and other social services.”

Buhari, however, assured Nigerians that his regime was mindful of the pains that higher prices meant, saying their sacrifices were not being taken for granted.

He said, “We will also remain alert to our responsibilities to ensure that marketers do not exploit citizens by raising pump price arbitrarily.”

‘FG spent N1.7tn to supplement electricity tariffs’

Buhari also said he was disappointed with the services of the nation’s power distribution companies.

He said his regime had spent N1.7tn to supplement tariff shortfalls. This he said could no longer continue.

“Let me say frankly that like many Nigerians, I have been very unhappy about the quality of service given by the Discos, but there are many constraints including poor transmission capacity and distribution capacity."

“I have already signed off on the first phase of the Siemens project to address many of these issues.

“Because of the problems with the privatisation exercise, government has had to keep supporting the largely privatised electricity industry.

“So far, to keep the industry going we have spent almost N1.7tn, especially by way of supplementing tariffs shortfalls.”

He said the hike in electricity tariffs would be based on improved power supply.

“The NERC (Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission), the industry regulator, has approved that tariff adjustments had to be made but only on the basis of guaranteed improvement in service.

“Under this new arrangement, only customers who are guaranteed a minimum of 12 hours of power and above can have their tariffs adjusted.

“Those who get less than 12 hours supply, or the B and D and E customers must be maintained on lifeline tariffs, meaning that they will experience no increase. This is the largest group of customers.”

Buhari said his regime had also taken notice of the complaints about arbitrary estimated billing.

Accordingly, he said a mass metering programme was being undertaken to provide meters for over five million Nigerians, largely driven by preferred procurement from local manufacturers – creating thousands of jobs in the process.

The President added that the NERC had committed to strictly enforcing the capping regulation which would ensure that unmetered customers were not charged beyond the metered customers in their neighbourhood.

“In other words, no more estimated billings,” the President declared.

Buhari described as coincidental the timing of the adjustments in price of petrol and power tariff.

“It is important to stress that this is coincidental in the sense that the deregulation of PMS prices happened quite some time ago, it was announced on March 18, 2020 and the price moderation that took place at the beginning of this month was just part of the ongoing monthly adjustments to global crude oil prices.

“Similarly, the review of service-based electricity tariffs was scheduled to start at the beginning of July but was put on hold to enable further studies and proper arrangements to be made.

The President said his administration adopted a N2.3trn Economic Sustainability Plan to mitigate the effect of the economic slowdown.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, in his welcome remark, said the retreat would help the government to address the country’s current economic challenges, and consolidate on achievements.


He said as of September 2, 2020, a total of 282 memos had been presented to the Federal Executive Council, out of which 191 had been approved.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlDodfwg4pE

An invitation is what it is. There's not much to be added to it. To think that this same tale will be told multiple times is baffling

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said that the corona virus was somewhat a blessing in disguise especially for the judiciary seeing that it fast tracked the process of e-filing of all previous case files.

He also added that the computerization of court proceedings over the years, the endorsement of virtual court proceedings by a Supreme Court ruling is wise as it has saved “our system of justice another catastrophic round of technical decisions around the constitutionality of virtual proceedings”, among other issues.

The Vice President stated this on Thursday at a webinar on media coverage of virtual court proceedings in Nigeria, organized by the Gavel International Limited.

According to Prof. Osinbajo, “we are at a point where at least we know that virtual hearings are legal. This means that the Supreme Court is satisfied that appropriate means can be found to ensure that hearings are public and that the press and indeed members of the public can access the proceedings.

“I think that an opportunity that this offers us is to get rid of this issue of technicality as much as possible. And I am so pleased that the Supreme Court did not even hesitate in saying that virtual proceedings are legal. It is really a breath of fresh air considering the ways that we tend to magnify the issue of technicality to the point where you wonder where justice is.”

Continuing, the Vice President said “I am hoping that the opportunity we have in virtual proceedings will also be an opportunity to dispense with several of the unnecessary technical rules that we have in our adjectival law, laws of procedure, evidence and all that. And hopefully, we are able to get to the heart of trials and the heart of the matter such that we are buck down unnecessarily by technicality.”


Read more : https://www.chronicle.ng/2020/09/osinbajo-commends-supreme-courts-virtual-proceedings-ruling/

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, met with a second Northern Governor today in person of Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State over security issues in Kano state.

Ganduje, who spoke with State House correspondents afterward, said he came to brief the vice president on efforts being made to address the challenges.

He said that military was putting in its best and was being supported to keep criminals away from the Falgore forest.

“Just to brief him about the security issues in Kano State, especially pertaining to kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery, and other criminal activities in the zone.

“I submitted a report to him that it is all well; we are managing; there is high coordination of the security agencies in Kano; they are working very hard.

“The only problem we have is the Falgore Forest for which we are providing infrastructure for military training in order to prevent the bandits from colonising that particular environment.

“We are working very hard on that; so, briefly, that is what I have come to discuss with him.’’

He said that the vice president was happy and felt encouraged by the report.

On the Kano Economic City, he said that Kano was a megacity; therefore, commercial activities must be encouraged.

According to him, all the markets in Kano are filled to capacity, hence the need to expand to other places.

“So, to create a new economic city is the answer; it has reached an advanced stage; there are so many facilities there.

“ Apart from the shops there, there are mega-hotels, there are banking halls and also there are trailer parks and so many other things that you expect to see in an economic city.

“ The work has reached over 70 per cent; so, we are happy; even the drug sellers are being allocated a place there to avoid selling drugs indiscriminately.

“You know the Federal Government’s policy on drugs now; and those who are in corporate business, there is premises for them.’’

Ganduje also spoke on the N880 million recently distributed to the 44 councils in Kano state for the renovation of primary schools.

He said that the main essence of that programme was to encourage community participation in the development of education in the state.

The governor said that his administration had designed a package for direct labour, rehabilitation, and renovation of schools.

“ Now, we have created what we call education promotion committees and we have given them N20 million each with identified schools to be renovated, with the scope of work to be undertaken.

“ We have given them three weeks to complete that project; so that they will come and report and our supervisors and engineers will also give the same report.

“ Then, they will also invite the well-to-do indigenes of the local governments; they also will provide their own contribution.

“ We are expecting, after the completion of the report, they will tell us how much they have been able to gather from the indigenes of the local governments.

“Then, we give them another money and they go back again; you know we have declared education to be free and compulsory from basic to secondary education; so, we have to involve community participation,’’ he said.

The governor said he was excited that the state had been paying its counterpart funding for UBEC and up to date with it.

According to him, the state has an education trust fund drawn from five percent of its Internally Generated Revenue, five percent of statutory allocations of local governments, and two percent of all contracts.

https://guardian.ng/news/kidnapping-banditry-ganduje-briefs-osinbajo/?

when someone is the chief Security officer of a state and he says... "I trust Osinbajo would be able to help" its his words we take to the bank, not those of pessimistic unbelivers because the VP is a fixer of all that is entrusted to him by the President.

greatly articulated

hopefully this would yield great rewards in vocational training

Some northern youths-under the auspices of the Youth for Peace in Nigeria, have hailed Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, saying his contributions to the country are invaluable.

In a statement on Monday, they said Osinbajo enhanced the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), with his inputs and loyalty.

“It is tough to find a man with such an intellectual prowess matched with unalloyed patriotism and fierce loyalty to his boss.

“We have keenly followed his steadfastness and moves since he joined government and must say we are more than impressed by his outputs.

“We salute Osinbajo as a detribalised, national icon, an incorruptible leader with a humble disposition,” the National Coordinator of the group, Yahaya Muhammad, said.

https://punchng.com/northern-youths-hail-osinbajo/

the people's champion

if there is an enterprising youth in whatever field that is not drawn to the personalty of VP Osinbajo, point him out that we might tango... Always making policies for our benefit since 2016... Prof Osinbajo for President

while many thouth he was folding his arms, they are not aware that he has been asidiously working in the region through an NGO since 2001. Kudo's to Prof Osinbajo.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo declared today at the 60th NBA Annual General Convention that he has been in communications with community and religious leaders in the affected regions of southern Kaduna as well as the State Governor over the spate of killings in the area.

Describing the killings as mindless abd heartbreaking, he noted that it had already been in existence long before this administration. The VP, has been involved in relief work in the area since 2001, through an NGO called “Macedonian Initiative”.

Prof. Osinbajo was optimistic in stemming the tide of the killings especially now that a military base has been established in the area with constant air patrol by the Nigerian Air Force as well as the mobilization of 500 Mobile Policemen.

Prof. Osinbajo said that to effectively and permanently deal with the situation: we will not sweep the major underlying issues which include ensuring justice, fixing marginalization & prosecution of those responsible for the murders, under the carpet.

Vado:
Mp3 audio. I would like to hear his views on CAMA. Nonsense.

while no one can force you to see the light, but visit his twitter handle and then you might be enlightened as to his position on CAMA.
PS: it's @ProfOsinbajo

Going by figures being bandied across the globe the -6% contraction of the ecomy recorded in Nigeria compared favorably with the 20% recorded in the UK and the percentage in the US is even twice that. The second largest economy in Africa, South Africa is ecpecting anything in the range of 20% - 50%. But the economy like politics is local and we can only be judged by the impact on the common everyday Nigerian.

I think it is too early to say whether we have succeeded in turning the pandemic into an opportunity but I must say the pandemic itself presents an opportunity and we, as a government have seen it as such,it is an opportunity to do so many different things. First of all, even just in scaling up our medical response and our capacity to be able to respond to pandemics now in the future.

As you know we know we use to have 4 modular laboratories, now we have 64. We have lab capacity for far more ICU beds, about 300, several other bed spaces and hospital capacity which is considerably high today but we also in terms of improving capacity on the medical side alone. you will see that at a point we were worried about just the capacity to provide oxygen, now, we have several facilities for oxygen and even oxygen production in Nigeria and we are able to do much more even with our capacities in the hospitals.

We now have about 7,190 beds, we have about 20,000 health workers that have been trained on infections and control. We have over 4,000 oxygen delivery equipment and accessories nationwide and we also been able to provide a minimum of a billion naira to each state just to improve their capacity. Lagos State alone had about 10 billion. So just in terms of improving medical capacities, a lot have happened but that’s in the medical or healthcare side.

On the economic side, talking about the Economic Sustainability Plan, this has provided yet again another opportunity for some of the serious concerns that we have on the economy. I think for us as a government, one of the key worries that we had was more for how this will affect jobs. Job production and job sustenance and I think that what we saw was a problem, a very big problem with the informal workers and people who had to work day to day for their survival and what we tended to see there was that people like; tailors, artisans, event planners, decorators, makeup artists, hairdressers, barbers, printers, souvenirs dealers etc were in trouble.

We needed to address the concerns that they had and because these people depended on an ecosystem that had collapsed with the COVID19 pandemic and that asides the big industries like the hospitality industry, of course occupancy rate in hotels to 10%. Even private hospitals experienced problems because people avoided private hospitals and the same as aviation and we know all the problems associated with that. Of course we are concerned about those holding these jobs which is why we put in place what we described as a survival fund which will cater for artisans, 42,000 across the state for a start and that will be in the form of support for artisans, we also have a pay roll support scheme which will support person especially private school teachers for example and then small businesses who employ up to and not more than 50 percent persons.

At the moment we are at the process of compiling that data and the criteria has been set already. That committee is headed by the minister of state for trade and investment and the vice chair is Mrs Ibukun Awosika the Chairperson of first bank. So they are basically looking at the criteria for giving out this pay roll support and also other support scheme that we have.

So by and large we are tackling those issues, we are also looking at the bigger issues like how will we support aviation, the hospitality industry and these are big areas where we are looking for support. The first place, you are probably aware that the CBN has already put in place several mechanisms for ensuring that loans that have been taken by companies and by some of these big enterprises that I just mentioned that there is some succor for them in the form of restructuring of their loans and in some, monitor granted. I’m just picking the headlines of some of these efforts.

we are witnessing job losses but we intend to mitigate this with the Economic Sustainability Plan which would save current jobs and create new ones.
The three main Prongs are Agriculture where we are looking to cultivate 20000 to 100000 new hectares of land in cash and arable crops per state. we have now registered 5m farmers and GPS located them to their farm in addition to placing them under bigger farms like Olam to help anchor them and ensure that all their products are purchased with the Federal Government now acting as the up taker of last resort.

we also intend to construct 300000 houses across the 774 local governent we have and these would surely lead to the creation of labor. In addition to these, we intend to make these from mostly locally sourced materials and the firms to handle them would be young architects and building engineers who are currently out of work. The final leg of the tripod is rural electrification in which the government is looking to provide power for those in rural areas off the national grid with an initial target of 5million homes. the labor for this distribution and maintanance is espected to be around a million jobs and this is still aside the 774000 temporary jobs to be created for data collection across the local governments and road construction to farms, markets and ports.

The Senior Special Adviser to the President Public Affairs, Mr. Ajuri Ngalele declared among a host of other matters that the Administration of President President Muhamadu Buhari would amongst other things deliver an amendment to the electoral bill that would favour Nigerians as against the one designed by the 8th assembly to favour themselves and other politicians, long before 2023.

Mr. Ajuri stated this while fielding questions from the host and public on Radio Nigeria’s weekly informative program; “Have Your Say”. On the issue of policy implementation especially as regards to the last year, he was of the opinion that it is so far so good as no one could have envisaged a global pandemic, but the threat to our economy has been controlled due to prompt and fastidious policies and actions taken by the government.

“We have mitigated the economic impact of COVID-19 by the establishment of the Economic Sustainability Committee that in turn birthed the 2.3T Economic Sustainability Plan whose implementation is being chaired by Prof. Osinbajo. The aim of which is to jump start the economy and prevent it going into a full blown recession.”

“Other noticeable achievements include the restructuring of our fiscal calendar back to January to December and this it must be said is due to the close relationship between the Presidency and the leaders of both houses of Assembly. October 2019 also witnessed the signing into law of the deep offshore production bill which aims to improve revenue generated from oil by 500million to 1.5billion.”

When asked about the President’s pledge to bring out 100m Nigerians from poverty in 10 years, Mr. Ajuri said that the plans are already under way especially with regards to the Finance bill that was signed in January 2020 that excluded MSME’s with less than 25m worth to be excluded from paying Company Income Tax while those between 25 – 50 million also saw the percentage they are to pay halved.

On the fight against corruption, Mr. Ajuri alluded to high level meetings going on between the Executives, Legislatives and Judiciary as regards reforms to be put in place to actualize the Presidents lofty Ideas and hopefully they would soon make headway. One of such is the time taken to actually get verdicts on criminal and civil cases. He wants a time cap as that which was successfully implemented in the electoral process.

As for visible evidence, he clearly pointed out that while the sum of 1.28trillion has been recovered by (just) the EFCC in the last decade 2009 – 2019, the figures accrued from 2009 – 2015 is 280billion while the rest of the over 900billion occurred within this administration and the number of APC chieftains currently behind bars is further testament to their commitment to rounding out corruption.

Mr. Ajuri rounded up by asking Nigerians to divest from Politics at this moment and join hands to ensure that they are part and parcel of the policies of the Buhari/Osinbajo Administration.

The Senior Special Adviser to the President Public Affairs, Mr. Ajuri Ngalele while fielding questions from the host and public on Radio Nigeria’s weekly informative program; “Have Your Say” stated that;

“The third leg of the Osinbajo chaired Economic Sustainability Plan hinges on power generation and this brings us to rural electrification via the use of solar power. The manufacturing, distribution and maintenance of solar power panels in Rural Communities aims to provide power to 5million homes in the short term and 25 million in 6 years. Aside from the employment of about a million persons we intend to also help reduce wastages in our harvest by providing power for refrigeration, rural health care centers and Schools are to be powered as well.”

Still on power, in response to a question from the audience, Ajuri elaborated on the recent NERC pronouncement on the hike in power tariff. He stated that contrary to what was available in the past with blanket tariffs for all and sundry, the new regime would witness a consultation with the customers and they would then be charged based on the service they are getting. Furthermore, anyone currently receiving less than 12 hours of power supply would not witness any increase in their tariff.

“The government would simultaneously be looking to block the non metered loophole of estimated billing, which incidentally would also be capped to rates that the metered people within the vicinity are paying, by bulk purchasing 6million prepaid meters as well as employing a 1year waiver on the importation of prepaid meters by private organisations to help compliment government efforts.”

Mr. Ajuri rounded up the discussion on power by stating that the deal with Siemens was already unser way with the German giants having concluded an extensive forensic audit of our entire power system and the 20% counterpart funding to be sent directly to Germany to prevent any middleman fees being surcharged.