₦airaland Forum

Accountability, the way forward for our democracy.!

By Emma Ovukporie & Levinus
Nwabughiogu
ABUJA – Miffed by the uncounted
$20 billion, the House of
Representatives has Wednesday
issued a one week ultimatum to
the Minister of Finance and
Coordinating Minister of the
economy Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to
submit the report of the forensic
audit.
The mandate followed a
resolution, passed last week by
the House at plenary which
directed its Committee on Public
Accounts, otherwise called PAC, to
investigate the matter.
Chairman of the committee, Hon.
Solomon Adeola Olamilekan (APC,
Lagos) while briefing Journalists
on the matter stated that the
report “must include the Initial
Draft Report, the Executive
Summary and Management/
Internal Control Letters.”
Olamilekan noted that the
“condensed version” of the report
released to the public through a
press conference addressed by the
Auditor-General of the Federation
with the highlight that Nigeria
National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) should remit a minimum
of $1.48 billion to the Federation
Account had rather prompted the
demand for complete report.
He said: “Given the weighty
allegation of possible loss of $20
billion to the Federation Account
arising from alleged non-
remittance by NNPC through the
ministry of finance, it is curious
that the forensic audit was
commissioned and appointment
of auditors was made by the
minister of finance, an indictable
official, if allegation is proven,
without the involvement or at
least input of the Auditor-General,
whose office is eminently and
exclusively empowered for the
duty by the 1999 Constitution.”
He noted that “the report has
been unduly delayed and its
submission also side-stepped the
Auditor-General. It is a
professional best practice that
such reports first come in draft,
discussed, fine-tuned before the
release of the final report, usually
accompanied by the more detailed
Management Letter.”


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/02/missing-20bn-okonjo-iweala-gets-one-week-ultimatum-to-submit-forensic-audit-2/

kaboninc:
Old NEWS!

This is how you create FALSE news and spread it with so much ZEAL and PASSION. Common sense which is common, you don't have. And people like berem will come here to rant her support for block heads like you.

There is no current 'official' rate by either the CBN or YOU. The market has been liberalized, thus allowing demand and supply to determine the exchange rate. There's a window called the [size=15pt]Interbank Window[/size]. CBN has pegged the exchange rate of the dollar from that window.

There are so many dynamics going on here but because you appear to be DULL, I should save you the PAIN of understanding!

See the peeps above me most of them typing away their intelligence and broadcasting their IGNORANCE of the SUBJECT MATTER.

Like that diluminati and Adminisher!

Good thinking!!! Good product!!!

Another sourceless scrap!!! Anyway, thank God the amount was invested here in Nigeria and not investing in buying refineries in Malasiya, South Africa, UK, USA, etc.

I keep on loving this man, I really dont know why!!!
Good luck FGN!!!
Good luck Mr. President!!!!
And good luck to me!!!

The afrobeats legend. You will forever remain a legend and a hero!!!

abacusCm:
are we not regretting voting for Jonathan in 2011?GMB is our next president

ok, o!!!

PentiumPro:
Northerners are in trouble with GEJ.

I dont think so.

Why kill their brothers is what I do not understand. If they are bittered about GEJ, they should have bomb Otuoke now!!!

They are showing their anger over the defeat in Sambisza

In the same vein, The Guardian encountered another group of believers in the same North who would like Jonathan to complete his term in 2019 because of the likely consequences of defeating him at this time. However, another set of people believe that genuine democrats should not run away from facing facts of consequences of democratic struggles at this time. As a young intellectual from the North told The Guardian in a telephone conversation at the weekend, “why would the oldies talk about running away from consequences of defeating a candidate in a free and fair election? I think, that is a defeatist approach. If crisis emerges after the election, let the law be law, let law breakers face the wrath of the law. It is our culture of impunity that has brought us to this shameful valley where we have declined in almost everything and the only subject of debate in presidential election campaigns is how to fight stealing or corruption. It is a shame.

“A free and fair election that results in a crisis should be managed to teach lessons. If an election is conducted and the incumbent wins fair and square, why would anyone be fighting? And if an incumbent loses to an opponent in a free and fair election, how will the incumbent stay to stage-manage crisis and undermine peace in the country? I think we should not be analysing politics this way. We should learn to face consequences of our actions or inactions.”

In contrast, the APC that was instrumental in the fixing of the Tambuwal conspiracy against his party (PDP) in 2011 has chosen a candidate from Southwest as running mate to Muhammadu Buhari. So, if they win election, a Yoruba man will be number two. That itself is a factor in this presidential election campaign, which reminds us that Lagos and Abuja will always hate each other, especially in power and revenue sharing.

In the United States, where the presidential system of government is practised, it is often said that New York makes the money that Washington spends, a regular reference to the commercial value that New York, the Empire City represents as opposed to the spending profile of the nation’s capital. In 1988, New York Times outlined this in an article entitled, New York vs Washington: why they hate each other. Other factors that will determine outcome of the presidential polls

The Northern aristocrats

In its January 24, 2015 issue, The Economist, in a cover entitled, Education and class: America’s new aristocracy, quoted how Thomas Jefferson was drawing a distinction between a natural aristocracy of the virtuous and talented, which was a blessing to the United States, and an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, which would slowly strangle it.

There have been indications that there are “artificial aristocrats” in all regions in Nigeria and they are always tagged the elite that appear docile politically, but they are not in strict sense. They seek to influence outcomes of elections and thereafter seek to benefit when governments are formed. They have appeared in what the media used to call the “Kaduna Mafia” in military regimes. They now appear through membership of socio-cultural groups including Afenifeere, Ohanaeze, Arewa Consultative Forum, etc. They are everywhere even as some of them, masquerade as rent seekers and king makers, etc.

The Guardian gathered at the weekend that some of the aristocrats in the far North in Nigeria are still uncomfortable with the politics that has shaped and still shaping the emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) from Katsina State. It is said that though the grudges are largely muted, the elite who are supported by some traditional rulers are complaining that:

Buhari’s emergence will upset the original plan for 2019 that they have had their eyes on

Buhari emerged the same way Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was manifested in 2007. They are alleging that Asiwaju Tinubu brought him and he (GMB) is not a candidate of the northern establishment just as Obasanjo unilaterally ‘headhunted’ Yar’Adua who was generally believed to be unhealthy at the time and later died in office.

Some knowledgeable northerners are said to be worried that even if Buhari is not unhealthy (some say he is ill), he is already close to 73 and if he wins the election next month, he will be 77/8 at the end of the first term in office and so he may be too weak to continue into a second term. And so it is feared that if GMB cannot continue, the hawks in the APC may not allow the slot to be transferred to another candidate in the North.

The Guardian has confirmed that some of the privileged ones in the far North are part of the hidden agenda setters for the so-called Interim National Government (ING). It is said that the hawks for power for eight straight years in the North are of the same minds with some self-serving elements in the National Assembly that failed to get tickets for the next session of the National Assembly.

In the same vein, it has been revealed that some elements in the ruling PDP that are not sure of the outcome of the presidential election are reaching out to the reactionaries in the National Assembly and the concerned elite in the North that would not like a short-lived Buhari’s presidency, to concoct a democratic absurdity called the Interim Government.

These ING quiet campaigners are said to be worried, however, that the Buhari-for-president campaign has taken a life of its own and the artificial aristocrats may be helpless at the moment. Besides, it is understood that some governors in the APC-controlled states in the North share the sentiments of the concerned elite who think that Buhari is a ‘spoiler’ for the 2019 agenda. It is not certain yet how these concerned elite will swing their votes

In the meantime, even the president’s men are everywhere in Lagos and Southwest mobilising the old and the young on all fronts to get remarkable votes in Lagos/Southwest. Among the targets in Lagos and Southwest are Afenifeere/Afenifeere Renewal, Yoruba Elders Forum, factionalised Oduduwa People’s Congress (OPC), etc. Curiously, it has not been determined how many leaders of these socio-cultural groups mobilised in voter registration or even have their cards to vote.

In the beginning was the Tambuwal trouble for Jonathan, PDP

The president’s men have been battling the stigma of alleged marginalisation of the Yoruba nation by the present administration.

Trouble began on this score in 2011 when some chieftains of the then Action Congress (AC) who could see tomorrow and some opposition elements in the North combined efforts in Abuja to deny the Southwest the number four slot in the order of national precedence law. According to the 2001 Act, the Speaker is number four. The office was in 2011 retained and zoned to the Southwest PDP at the time, since the President hails from South South zone, the Vice President is from the Northwest, the Senate President comes from North Central, the Deputy Senate President is of Northeastern extraction, etc. But in a grand conspiracy that has haunted the PDP till date, the ACN elements and some PDP rebels from the North defied the party’s arrangement and voted for Aminu Tambuwal from Sokoto, a northwestern state. So, since 2011, the Southwest does not feature in the order of national precedent up to the number 15th position, the highest being the House Leader, Mulikat Adeola who was nearly removed last week following a Motion that was defused by the same Tambuwal who Chief Olusegun Obasanjo severally called “usurper”. Obasanjo had askedTambuwal to vacate the office in 2011 as soon as he was elected. The 2011 political rebellion in the House of Representatives generally believed to have been masterminded by very artful ACN chieftains including the strong man in Lagos, has since remained an albatross on the neck of the PDP and indeed the President.

Recently, at the Ooni of Ife palace where the President was a special guest to boost his campaign in the Southwest, he was quoted as regretting the politics that shaped retention of Tambuwal as Speaker. Both the Vice President and the Speaker are from the same (Northwest) zone just as the Deputy Senate President and the Deputy Speaker are also from the same (Southeast) zone. Emeka Ihedioha (Imo State, Southeast) was a fellow conspirator with Tambuwal (Northwest) that upset the PDP’s apple cart in 2011. The Deputy Speaker was to come from Northeast. In fact, while the predecessor to Tambuwal, Dimeji Bankole hails from Ogun State (Southwest) the predecessor to Ihedioha, Usman, Bayero Nafada, is from Gombe State, (Northeast). In other words, by condoning the Tambuwal challenge that has paid off for APC after all, the same is troublesome for PDP in Southwest and Northeast. This political conspiracy that was hatched and executed when the president travelled to New York for a United Nations Conference on HIV and AIDS the day the National Assembly was inaugurated, has today become a huge challenge in the Southwest, especially. There is a bigger challenge in the Northeast than political quota to fill. There is insurgency in the area.

At the weekend, it was gathered that more and more residents and people of Lagos “are jumping down from the fence where they have been sitting in as a knowledgeable analyst disclosed at the weekend.

It was gathered that quite unlike before, operatives from the headquarters of the ruling PDP in Abuja have been strategically supporting campaign efforts in Lagos as they are fully persuaded that this election will be lost and won in the Southwest and Lagos with the highest registered voter population of 5, 905,852,.

In this election, Kano is second to Lagos with a voting population of 4, 975,701. Kaduna is third with 3, 407,222 registered voters.

Meanwhile, our intelligence unit too has gathered that the think tank within the ruling PDP have reckoned that the more intensified the campaigns to capture Lagos for the first time in 16 years, the more the APC leader will recoil from the national campaign to concentrate on the weightier matter of the politics and economics of Lagos. The strategic planners in Abuja have been advertising impressions and perception that the strong man of Lagos politics has remarkable investments in Lagos and so he cannot afford to move ‘‘to extend political power to Abuja while enemies plant tares in his lucrative farm in Lagos,” as an insider put it to us at the weekend.

What is more, even some of the thinkers in Abuja are said to have earlier anticipated that when the campaigns to get Lagos from the Lord of the Manor get to denouement, he will see the light and negotiate to retain Lagos as it was said it happened in 2011. But so far, it was gathered, that has not happened and the strong man’s operations are noticeable in Lagos and Abuja in the campaigns. But we gathered that the Abuja people still have some glimmer of hope that “the Tiger of Lagos will still lose his tigritude, after all, when come comes to become” as another artful analyst told us in Lagos.

From the intelligence gathered by our team, the campaign strategy has been deliberate: to prepare Lagos and indeed Southwest for the PDP’s presidential candidate and then win the governorship.

It was gathered that, that has been the reason the campaign slogan of the opposition in Lagos is anchored on “as they seek change in Abuja, there must be change in Lagos too.” Again, the specific objective of this strategy, according to The Guardian’s finding, is to weaken the resolve of so many who follow the genius of Bourdillon, Ikoyi who is also the arrowhead of opposition politics that has thus far shaped remarkable groundswell of opinion and impressions for change in Nigeria.

But it is understood that the Agbaje’s strategists too are well aware that the ingenuity and sagacity of the Grand Master of Lagos politics cannot be discounted just like that without paying dearly for it.

Since 1999, when this republic began, the ruling party has not made significant impact in Lagos State in any arm of government. Even in 2003, when the ruling PDP made remarkable inroad into the Southwest and, took over Ondo, Ogun and Ekiti states from the then ruling AD in the zone, Lagos State was saved by the acclaimed brilliance of the former accountant in Mobil Nigeria.

The Guardian has, however, gathered from weeks of comprehensive field operations that the followers of the APC leader in Lagos who it is said hardly trusts all the party leaders following Ambode’s campaign trains, does not take things for granted about the possibility of capturing Lagos this time. We gathered that a lot of work is being done from ward to ward in Lagos even as some influential Lagosians have joined the campaign of “Enough is Enough” in Lagos too.

Many observers on the occasion felt the Oba obtained some tacit approval from the APC leader for the revelation. Event on 4th December last year confirmed the deal between the traditional ruler and the APC supreme leader when Ambode emerged winner in a keenly contested primary in Lagos.

But The Guardian that has been following the campaigns keenly in and outside Lagos, has confirmed that the race in Lagos as a process will affect the presidential election’s outcome significantly. And this is how: the campaign managers and strategists of the main opposition in Lagos, the PDP, have not been focusing their messages on even the candidate, Ambode. They have rather frontally faced the leader of the party, Asiwaju Tinubu who is generally believed to be the man of the moment, the power behind the throne in APC.

Interestingly, the two major candidates in Lagos, Ambode (APC) and Agbaje (PDP) are Christians. Immediately after The Guardian publication (July 24, 2013) on the religious dimension to the guber race in Lagos, the powerhouse in Lagos reportedly met with members of its “inner circle” and took a decision to field a Christian candidate. The king makers manifested Ambode first at the 16 May, 2014 launch of the former Accountant-General of the State’s (Ambode’s) biography entitled, The Art of Selfless Service written by Maria Osoba.

It was incredible when the former Police chief and the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu at the book’s presentation mentioned Ambode as the likely and suitable successor to Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola.

According to the first class traditional ruler in Lagos who urged other governorship aspirants on the platform of APC to allow Ambode. “When the APC leader, Bola Tinubu chose Fashola in 2007 to succeed him, it was met with stiff opposition but today Tinubu has been justified. We see a similar character like Governor Fashola in Ambode.”

Change in Abuja vs change in Lagos

• Actors in campaigns difficult to track

• Lagos settlers as critical factors

• Will Lagos Godfather abandon ex-capital for Abuja?

• Lagos vs Abuja: Why they always hate each other

IT is getting curiouser and curiouser in Lagos as there have been early warning signals that the Lagos governorship election campaigns will not only be tough and very competitive but may, in fact, be part of the critical factors that will shape the outcome of the presidential election.

When two major political parties, the ruling APC and the opposition, PDP launched their campaigns late last year in Lagos, it was given that the ruling party that has been in charge of affairs of the economic capital of West Africa (as Nigeria Info FM Radio calls Lagos) was going to have an easy ride again.

First, according to our political intelligence unit, Alhaji Musiliu Olatunde Obanikoro was widely expected to be the PDP’s gubernatorial candidate in the only state that can survive without oil and Abuja’s monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting where federation revenue is shared among various tiers of government.

But the unexpected (to the opposition) happened on December 10 when one of the old allies of the Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu’s political family, Jimi Agbaje emerged as the PDP’s flag bearer.

The Guardian gathered from the battlefields in Lagos that the entry of Agbaje has changed the colour of competition for Alausa House in 2015. And curiously, inquiries have revealed that the ruling party in Lagos is not taking the Agbaje challenge as simplistic and meretricious, hence the very aggressive media campaigns on all platforms –digital and traditional.

In the same vein, the Agbaje’s campaigns strategists are said to be conscious of the fact that dislodging the APC from Alausa House in Lagos will be as difficult as forcing a stream to flow uphill. So they have devised a one-point approach: why change too is needed in Lagos for the city to survive and be a world-class commercial capital such as Hamburg (Germany), London (U.K), New York (U.S), Dubai (UAE). As we follow the two interesting, contrasting and intensive campaigns in Lagos, Agbaje who was initially fighting shy of using the ruling PDP as a unique selling proposition platform has suddenly regained steam and unusual momentum with his focus on catchword: “Vested Interest in Lagos”.

Anywhere he goes to campaign, Agbaje stays on the catchphrase, “Vested Interests” as the main trouble with development paradigm in Nigeria’s richest state.

The Guardian gathered at the weekend that the message has been resonating with a lot of interest groups in Lagos that at all time have had the reputation of having more absorptive capacity to digest contents of political events than most other parts of the country. There is no other city in Nigeria that is more cosmopolitan than Lagos, where an Igbo man has been Commissioner for Budget and Planning for more than four years. The Lagos State Publicity Secretary of APC too is Joe Igbokwe, from Nnewi in Anambra State.

Meanwhile, as the battle for change in Abuja’s seat of power intensifies and has been generating heated debates within the polity, the battle for continuity in Lagos appears to be hotter than expected, all in a bid to halt Agbaje’s powerful train. The Royalty in Lagos actually began the campaign shortly after this newspaper’s political intelligence unit hinted the reading public that this time around, Christians in Lagos would not allow continued marginalisation.

http://theguardianmobile.com/readNewsItem1.php?nid=43190

bankyblue:
this Yoruba man don collect alart come the talk LUBBISH

abeg go and sit down jor.

What if he is an ijaw man supporting, would you still say same thing? My problem is the tribal element.

Olaolufred:
[size=18pt]ONLY TOUTS GOT FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN ZOO'S KINGDOM.

OPC CRIMINALS ALSO LENDING THEIR VOICES.[/size]

What if the support is for APC?

By Clifford Ndujihe
LAGOS—FOUNDER of the Oodua
Peoples Congress, OPC, and
National Chairman of the Unity
Party of Nigeria, UPN, Dr.
Frederick Fasehun, has asked
Nigerians to brace up for years of
nightmares, if they fail to re-elect
President Goodluck Jonathan in
the 2015 polls.
Speaking at his Century Hotels,
Okota office, while receiving
Special Adviser to President
Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta
Affairs, Hon. Kingsley Kuku,
yesterday, Fasehun said Jonathan
deserves re-election on account of
his achievements since coming to
power.
He recalled the reign of the All
Progressives Congress, APC,
presidential candidate, Major-
General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd)
as military Head of State and said
he would not like to experience it
again.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/02/nigeriall-regret-if-buhari-wins-fasehun/

Good effort my President!!!

Another Sourceless crap.

LagosBoi2:
Mumu president

Instead Buhari will send you to jail for looting us dry

Is it in a millitary tribunal that the trial will take place or in a regular court with civillian lawyers? Or maybe, the constitution will be suspended and replaced with military decrees!!!

LagosBoi2:
Mumu president

Instead Buhari will send you to jail for looting us dry

Is it in a millitary tribunal that the trial will take place or in a regular court with civillian lawyers? Or maybe, the constitution will be suspended and replaced with decrees!!!

caselessogbuagu:
We don't need soldiers, we can be civilian JTF and protect ourselves.

My brother, pls run o!!! When election wahala begins, politicians and thugs, no dey look your face o!!!

I removed SR as one of my bookmarks years ago. Even NL is more better than SR

[Mr. Olukolade, a Major General,
also said a number of terrorists
as well as truckloads of rice,
beans and other logistics meant
for resupply to the terrorists
operating around Baga have
been captured in the course of
the operation.]

A good way to starve them to death!!!

Good one, I see the possibility of rising oil prices again. Shale oil may take sometime before it will outsell crude oil.

Good one, I see the possibility of rising oil prices again. Shale oil may take sometime before it will outsell crude.

CRUDE oil prices closed up for
a second straight week on
Friday after another drop in the
U.S. rig count, pushing Brent
crude prices to a 2015 high
above $60 a barrel.
However, market skeptics
cautioned that the rally could
fade because supplies keep
coming.
Many traders and analysts
believe there is a global
oversupply of nearly two
million barrels per day of crude
oil.
They say little has changed
fundamentally to explain the
price rebound of the past two
weeks.
The number of oil drilling rigs
in the United States fell this
week to its lowest since August
2011, data showed on Friday.
But the market’s reaction was
relatively tepid compared with
the past two weeks when prices
spiked on declining rig counts.
“I think people are starting to
understand to a certain point
that, even if rig counts go
down, it’s not going to affect
production in the short term.
It’s going to take a few months
for that to happen,” said Tariq
Zahir, managing member at
Tyche Capital Advisors in Laurel
Hollow in New York.
U.S. crude inventories have
swelled to record highs of
nearly 418 million barrels,
government data showed last
week.
Brent settled the session up
$2.24, or nearly four per cent,
at $61.52 a barrel. It rose a six
per cent on the week and 15
per cent month-to-date.
Brent’s gains increased this
week after its front-month
contract switched on Thursday
at a premium.
U.S. crude CLc1 finished $1.57,
or three per cent, higher at
$52.78 a barrel.
Oil prices more than halved
between June and January as a
global glut pushed Brent from a
summer peak above $115 to a
near six-year low under $46.
“Naturally, when prices fall that
much within that short a time,
you’re likely to have a severe
rebound as well, though
speculators are possibly adding
more fuel on the way up now,”
said Phil Flynn, an analyst at
the Price Futures Group in
Chicago.
Some traders attributed
Friday’s strength to an
unexpected acceleration in euro
zone economic growth in the
final quarter of 2014.
The bloc’s largest member,
Germany, grew at more than
twice the expected rate.
Market bulls were also betting
that cuts in exploration budgets
will help mop up some of the
excess supply.



http://theguardianmobile.com/readNewsItem1.php?nid=42487

Thank God, my friends can now receive their salary. I know maybe it is because of election and the impending legal suits plus strike actions to follow. This would have put the nation into another chaos which the government is avoiding.
Good step!!!

Staff members of
abolished agencies
to be redeployed •
Insists on no
funding for listed institutions
THE Secretary to the
Government of the Federation
(SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, has
directed the Coordinating
Minister for the Economy/
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala to immediately
restore the salaries of federal
government workers affected
by the implementation of the
White Paper on the Report of
the Presidential Committee on
Restructuring and
Rationalisation of Federal
Government Parastatals,
Agencies and Commissions.
The Guardian had exclusively
reported last Friday that based
on a Memo from the SGF to the
Ministry of Finance to cease
funding for the affected
agencies in the 2015 budget,
the Integrated Payroll and
Personnel Information System
(IPPIS), a platform that handles
the payment of government
workers centrally, had
suspended the salaries of
workers of such agencies.
Workers of such agencies
waited endlessly in January for
their salaries to come to no
end. And when it became
obvious that government was
not forthcoming, they
compared notes with their
colleagues in other ministries,
departments and agencies not
affected by the White paper.
Further inquiries at IPPIS
indicated that government had
deliberately suspended their
salaries.
In taking the decision, as The
Guardian reported, the
accountant general of the
federation, which manages the
IPPIS platform, relied on a
letter which the SGF wrote to
the Ministry of Finance.
As reported on Friday, the
letter dated November 13, 2014
was titled ‘Agencies, Parastatals
and Commissions that should
not be provided for in the 2015
budget’ with reference No:
SGF.12/S.11/C.9/T/3. In it,
Anyim Pius Anyim, directed the
Minister of Finance and
Coordinating Minister for the
Economy to stop funding the
affected agencies from the 2015
budget and the directive was
immediately copied the
accountant general of the
Federation on December 1,
2014.
The letter read: “Recall that as
part of the decisions of
Government in the White Paper
on the Report of the
Presidential Committee on the
Restructuring and
Rationalization of Federal
Government Parastatals,
Commissions and Agencies,
Government accepted the
recommendation that it should
cease funding the attached list
of Agencies, Parastatals and
Commissions with effect from
the 2015 Appropriation.
“Accordingly, I wish to request
that you take adequate steps to
implement these decisions by
ensuring that these Agencies,
Parastatals and Commissions
cease receiving Government
funding with effect from the
2015 Appropriation. Attached
herewith is a list of the
Agencies, Parastatals and
Commissions Affected.”
In response to the story, the
office of the SGF has now
drawn the attention of The
Guardian to another letter it
had written to the finance
ministry directing the
restoration of the salaries of
the affected agencies. The SGF
also insisted on no funding for
affected agencies.
The letter was entitled: ‘Re:
Agencies, Parastatals and
Commission that should not be
provided for in 2015 budget.’
It read: “I wish to refer to the
attached copy of my letter Ref.
No. SGF.12/S.11/C.9/T/3 of
November 13, 2014 in which I
requested for the cessation of
funding for some Parastatals,
Agencies and Commissions with
effect from the 2015
Appropriation in compliance
with the White Paper on the
Report of the Presidential
Committee on Restructuring
and Rationalization of Federal
Government Parastatals,
Agencies and Commissions.”
The SGF, Anyim Pius Anyim, had
then gone ahead to argue that
some of the agencies whose
staff did not receive salaries in
January 2015 had made
representation to that effect
and further explained that the
initial letter did not include
cessation of salaries.
Anyim told the Minister of
Finance: “It has become
necessary to clarify that the
decision in the White Paper to
cease funding for the scrapped
Agencies does not include
stoppage of their personnel
costs as the staff of the
Agencies are still bonafide
employees of the federal
government. I wish to add that
necessary steps are being taken
to redeploy the staff to other
Ministries, Departments and
Agencies by the Head of Service
of the federation in due course.
“Accordingly, I wish to request
that you kindly direct the
Accountant-General of the
Federation to restore the
payment of the salaries of all
the affected Agencies on the
IPPIS platform so as to avert
possible labour restiveness by
the staff.”
The letter dated February 5,
2015, stressed, however, that
funding for the affected
agencies remained suspended.
As reported on Friday, there is
growing anxiety among federal
government workers in Abuja
as the Presidency has
commenced the
implementation of the White
Paper on the Stephen
Oronsaye-led Presidential
Committee on the Restructuring
and Rationalisation of Federal
Government Parastatals,
Commission’s and Agencies.
The White Paper had thrown
out most of the
recommendations of the
Stephen Oronsaye-led
Presidential Committee on the
Restructuring and
Rationalisation of Federal
Government Parastatals,
Commission’s and Agencies.
Government, however,
accepted some of the
provisions of the report.
For instance, it rejected the
merger of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), the Independent and
Corrupt Practices and Other
Related Offences Commission
(ICPC), the Code of Conduct
Bureau (CCB) and renaming of
the Code of Conduct Tribunal to
Anti-Corruption Tribunal.
It approved the scrapping of
the National Poverty
Eradication Programme
(NAPEP) but preserved the Joint
Admissions and Matriculation
Board (JAMB) in its current
form. The Federal Government
also rejected the
recommendation for an
amendment in name and status
of the Federal Civil Service
Commission to the Federal
Public Service Commission. It
however, accepted the
recommendation for a single
term of five years for the
chairman and members of the
commission.


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