₦airaland Forum

forgiveness:
No, that was mutual agreement between the President and governors.

forgiveness:
Who initiates it? The President. The same way the president solved local government autonomy.

forgiveness:
It's what I said earlier. How, only person can instigate that. The President.

forgiveness:
Stronger than President that controls and commands all the enforcement agencies. Hires and fires anyone?

No, it could be that that president has no political will to effect changes.

forgiveness:
How can some few people be more powerful than the President.

The President must have the willpower to effect changes.

Moreover, we must legislate a law that ensures government and private organisation have timeline to respond to letters, enquiries etc to checkmate the unnecessary delays in bureaucracy.

Maximum of 2 official working days shall be enough for a ministry or private organisation to respond to a request.

Just answer yes or no with the ministry or private organization letterhead paper and signature.

This will curb excess of some lazy and corrupt government officials.

I know of a ministry that has not responded to letter for almost 1 year. That's redundancy.

𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎: 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚'𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐮𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐒𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐎𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐣𝐨

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed that his administration's attempt to partner with Shell Plc to manage Nigeria's… pic.twitter.com/dSYguhYaKV

— Punch Newspapers (@MobilePunch) August 11, 2024

The Federal Government has paid workers of the moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company the total sum of N38.9bn as salaries and allowances in 10 years, Saturday PUNCH reports.

This is despite the inability of the company to produce a single sheet of steel since its inception.

The Ajaokuta Integrated Steel Complex, conceived in 1979, was developed to establish a Metallurgical Process Plant alongside an Engineering Complex and various auxiliary facilities.

The complex is meant to generate important upstream and downstream industrial and economic activities that are critical to the diversification of the economy into an industrial one.

On its website, the company said it directly employed about 10,000 workers at the first phase of commissioning while the upstream and downstream industries that would evolve all over the nation would engage no fewer than 500,000 employees.

Ajaokuta Steel Plant, aptly known as the Bedrock of Nigeria’s industrialisation, is more than just a rolling mill—it’s an Integrated Iron and Steel Plant.

It boasts four distinct rolling mills: the Billet Mill, the Light Section Mill, the Wire Rod Mill, and the Medium Section and Structural Mill.


The plant utilises blast furnace technology, which is the most prevalent method for steel production, representing about 70 per cent of global liquid steel production.

By 1994, the plant was estimated to be 98 per cent complete in terms of equipment installation.

While some units of the plant were operational at various times, 40 out of the 43 planned units had been constructed.

However, due to mismanagement, the project remains incomplete over 45 years later.

At the Russia-Africa Summit in 2019, former President Muhammadu Buhari and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on a revitalisation of the steel mill with Russian support and project funding from the Afreximbank and the Russian Export Centre.

But it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the agreement was abandoned.

In January 2024, Tinubu opened discussions with a Chinese steel company, Luan Steel Holding Group, to revive the Ajaokuta Steel Company.


That discussion has not yielded any results.

Despite its inactive status and reports of an ineffective workforce, the company continues to receive substantial annual budget allocations from the government.

Furthermore, the salaries of its employees are still accounted for in the government’s annual budget.

A breakdown of the company’s annual budget between 2014 and 2024 showed that it paid a total of N29.11bn in salaries and wages, and N9.8bn in allowances to its staff.

Further analysis revealed that the government disbursed N3.82bn for personnel costs in 2014, reduced marginally to N3.8bn in 2015, N3.55bn in 2016 and N3.84bn in 2017.

In 2018, an unverifiable number of workers at the company received a total sum of N3.76bn for salaries and allowances, N3.2bn in 2019, and N3.5bn in 2020.

The cost increased to N3.89bn in 2021, and N3.94bn in 2022 but dropped significantly to N1.22bn in 2023.


The company didn’t announce any retrenchment exercise during this period. The cost, however, increased by N3.07bn to N4.29bn in 2024.

At an investigative hearing recently, the lawmaker representing Kogi Central, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, took up the Sole Administrator of the Steel Company, Summaila Akaba, on several workers collecting salaries from the N4.2bn appropriated for personnel costs in the 2024 budget.


She said being an indigene of the area and desirous to get the steel company revamped and working, she made unscheduled visits to it and hardly found 10 people.

The lawmaker lamented further that despite spending money on personnel costs, no steel had been manufactured and no mill rolled.

She said, “The sum of N4.2bn was appropriated for personnel cost in 2024, but from several visitations I’ve made to the complex, hardly were 10 people sighted to be around or doing anything.

“So, who are the workers collecting monthly salaries from the appropriated N4.2bn?”

In the 2024 budget, the National Assembly increased budgetary allocation from N4.45bn in the proposed 2024 budget to N5.18bn in the approved version for the dormant Ajaokuta Steel Company.


This is an increase of N730m as the Federal Government plans to revive the moribund steel plant, which has been dormant for over 42 years.

At a briefing three months ago, the Minister of Steel Development, Shuaibu Audu, stated that the government was at an advanced stage of raising more than N35bn required to restart the Light Mill Section of the Ajaokuta Steel Company.

He also said data on technical analysis and evaluation by experts indicated that the government required between $2bn and $5bn to revive the Ajaokuta steel company within three years.

However, experts insisted that the best option was to privatise the company for effective maximisation of its potential.

Waste of resources – Economist

Reacting to the payment of workers, an economist and researcher, Paul Alaje, said it amounted to a waste of the country’s resources, calling for a public-private partnership to revamp the company.

Alaje, who is the chief economist at an economic development research firm in Lagos, SPM Professionals, said, “It is wastage. But the truth is that labour has to be paid. It is not their fault that the place isn’t working. It is the government that doesn’t have work to give them.
It is the work of the employer to provide what labour will do. But when the employer is laid back, there is an issue.

“That is why the Federal Government needs to engage in public-private partnership immediately or allow the foreigners who started the projects to partner with the Federal Government for the completion of the Ajaokuta steel mill.

“The billions of naira spent were not just in Ajaokuta, I imagine they are spending tens of billions to pay salaries in four refineries that are not working. How can you pay people for not working?

“We lose hundreds of millions of naira at different offices of government to people not working. It is not that they don’t want to work, but there is no work for them to do.

“I will not support a total disposal of the Ajaokuta steel mill. I will support a situation where we partner with the private sector. We can do 60-40, or partner with the foreign company that started it.

“The best thing to do is to move the workers at the company to agencies in need of workers, but that will also mean that there are no more eyes on Ajaokuta steel mill. Some of the fixed equipment will disappear overnight. Why can’t we make it work? Some people are in the steel business in Nigeria. Can’t we give part of the shares to them?”

Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, a professor of Economics at Obafemi Awolowo University, Osun State, Abayomi Adebayo, said paying such an amount would translate to throwing the country’s scarce resources into the drain.


He added that the Federal Government should rather terminate the workers’ appointments and stop paying them salaries for work not done.

He said, “Anytime you are paying a worker that is not producing anything, you are throwing your money into the drain. It’s simply a drain on the Nigerian economy and a manifestation of absurdity in governance because if you know that the place is not functioning, why not terminate the appointment of the workers there?

“They have to rationalise the staff. You can’t continue to pay people who are not working because so many issues about that job are not yet resolved. I can’t understand why somebody will continue to pay like that.

“It’s a show of irresponsibility. It’s a show of the fact that they don’t have the love of Nigeria at heart and some of the workers would have found their way out of the country and be working elsewhere. It shows how much we love our country.”

DANGOTE
PRESS STATEMENT

CLARIFICATION ON CRUDE SUPPLY

Our attention has been drawn to media reports alleging that the Dangote Refinery has backtracked by acknowledging that NNPC supplied about 60% of the 50 million barrels we lifted.

To clarify, we have never accused NNPC of not supplying us with crude. Our concern has always been that NUPRC is pushing but IOCs are not following the instructions to enforce the domestic crude supply obligation and ensure that we receive our full crude requirement from NNPC and the IOCs.

For September, our requirement is 15 cargoes, of which NNPC allocated six. Despite appealing to NUPRC and their intervention, we've been unable to secure the remaining cargoes. When we approached IOCs producing in Nigeria, they redirected us to their international trading arms or responded that their cargoes were committed.

Consequently, we often purchase the same Nigerian crude from international traders at an additional $3-$4 premium per barrel which translates to $3-$4 million per cargo. We, therefore still insist that we are unable to secure our full crude requirement from domestic production and urge NUPRC to fully enforce the domestic crude supply obligation as mandated by the PIA. It is a law and they just need to comply.

Anthony Chiejina, Group Chief, Branding and Communications Officer.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has revealed that the country currently spends $600m on fuel importation monthly.

He stated that the high import bill is due to neighbouring countries, up to Central Africa, benefiting from the country’s fuel imports.

The minister stated this during an interview on AIT’s Moneyline programme, which was posted on its Youtube channel on Wednesday.

Edun explained that the situation was the reason President Bola Tinubu removed fuel subsidy, as the country does not know the exact amount of fuel consumed internally.

According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s petrol import was reduced to an average of one billion litres monthly after President Bola Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy on May 29 last year.

He said, “The fuel subsidy was removed May 29, 2023, by Mr President, and at that time, the poorest of 40 per cent was only getting four per cent of the value, and basically, they were not benefitting at all. So it was going to be just a few.

“Another point that I think is important is that nobody knows the consumption in Nigeria of petroleum. We know we spend $600m to import fuel every month but the issue here is that all the neighbouring countries are benefitting.

“So we are buying not for just for Nigeria, we are buying for countries to the east, almost as far as Central Africa. We are buying. We are buying for countries to the North and we are buying for countries to the West. And so we have to ask ourselves as Nigerians, how long do we want to do that for and that is the key issue regarding the issue of petroleum pricing.”

He added that the nation must take a decisive step to tackle step the problem as it impedes it’s economic growth.

Of great importance to the government, Edun said, is the welfare of the people, particularly the vulnerable.

One of the key areas of focus is ensuring food availability and affordability.

Speaking further in the interview, the finance minister clarified that the N570bn fund release to state governments was implemented last year December.

He said, “This actually refers to a reimbursement that they received from December last year onwards and it was a reimbursement I think under the COVID financing protocol but the point is that the states have received more money. They have received more money. Mr President has charged to ensure food production in the states.”

Edun also clarified that the recent decision to raise the maximum borrowing percentage in the Ways and Means from five to 10 per cent does not imply that the Federal Government tends to rely on the Central Bank of Nigeria financing.

He said the government had rather used market instruments to manage its debts.

The minister said, “We have not gone to the central bank to say, please lend the government money to pay its debt, to pay its salaries. That’s Ways and Means. We have not gone. In fact, we have used market instruments to pay down what we owed, and that is a very, very germane aspect of having a strong economy.

“It was raised to 10 per cent, but that doesn’t mean it will be used. It’s there as a fail-safe and just gives that extra flexibility so that if a payment needs to be made and there is a mistiming or gap in when revenue would come in and expenses, we can just draw it down briefly.”

He described the approval by the National Assembly as a fail-safe measure.

The minister added, “Sometimes it just gives that extra flexibility so that if a payment needs to be made and there’s a mistiming, there’s a gap between the time at which the revenue will come in and the expenses needed, you can just draw down briefly.

“So, the aim is to keep within the letter of the law, I think that’s the main point.”

He also said the welfare of Nigerians remained a key priority for the current administration, particularly ensuring food availability and affordability.

Edun said, “There is a concerted effort to ensure that we have homegrown food available. In the short term, apart from what is being distributed from reserves, there is a window that has been opened for importation because the commitment of Mr President is to drive down those prices now and make food available now.”

He assured all that the measure would not undermine local farmers, as importation would only be permitted after exhausting local supplies.

He said, “So, one of the conditions for this importation will be that everything available locally in the markets or with the millers and so forth has been taken up. We will have auditors that will check that.”

He said these interventions seek to reduce inflation, stabilise exchange rates, and lower interest rates, thereby creating a conducive environment for investment and job creation.

Sefannova:
BROTHER IN KOGI ARE YOU ? AM FROM THERE

iwaeda:
Subsidy is gone -Tinubu
Fuel Subsidy Is Back-Obasanjo.
Nlfpmod, only people supporting this government can't see SUBSIDY is back.

Homes and businesses were left without electric supply most of yesterday due to a partial collapse of the national power grid, with generation falling by 60.15 percent to 1,255.78MW at 3pm from 3,151.74MW at 2pm.


Data from the National System Operator, NSO, showed that as at 6pm, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, was still battling to restore the grid as supply rose to 1,705.74MW.


The plants on grid according to TCN were Dadinkowa Hydro Plant (36.24MW), Delta Gas (360.00MW), Geregu Plant (85.00MW), Geregu Nipp (100.00MW), Ibom Power (69.00), Jebba Hydro (364.00MW), Odukpani Nipp (190.90MW), Okpai Plant (259.00MW), Omotosho Plant (170.40), Sapele Plant (71.20MW).

TCN confirmed the development, adding that restoration was ongoing at the time of writing this report.

The Catholic Bishops of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, weekend, expressed concern that the Federal Government’s reforms have not brought the renewed hope promised, while inflation, hunger and anger keep growing.

This was part of the communiqué they issued weekend, at the end of their two-day meeting, held at Sacred Heart Pastoral/Retreat Centre, Orlu, signed by the Chairman and Secretary, Most Rev. Lucius Ugorji and Most Rev. Augustine Echema, respectively.

The Bishops said: “Our nation, Nigeria, continues to face many social and economic challenges that are bringing untold hardship to our people.

“The reforms that were introduced at the inception of the current administration have not brought the renewed hope promised. Instead, inflation continues to skyrocket and hunger and anger continue to grow.

“Despite calls by the government for the people to sacrifice and bear patiently the hard times, there seems to be no corresponding example of prudent spending on the part of the leaders at all levels of government.

“It is not as if we want to join the bandwagon preaching doom and gloom for the nation, but the truth remains that for the last couple of years, we, as a nation, have missed the chance to build a strong nation, to elect leaders who have the capacity and the will to meet the needs of the people, to build a nation where the national interest overrides every tribal, political and religious division.

“We do not deny that progress has been made in particular sectors of national life; progress for which we all rejoice, yet many areas of work remain and the palpable fear is that there might be no redeeming future if things continue to go the way they are going at the moment.”

On the ongoing national hunger protest, the Catholic Bishops opined that the youths are right to be outraged by the worsening state of our nation.

“As long as many people are suffering from multi-dimensional poverty in the land; as long as there are people without the renewed hope that comes with opportunities for a decent livelihood; as long as the peoples’ income can no longer afford their genuine needs; as long as their votes cannot be guaranteed to effect a change in the behaviour of our leaders; Nigeria will continue to remain a restive nation.

“While peaceful protests are genuine democratic tools for expressing grievances, we believe that protests alone cannot resolve our current national problems. Moreover, a prolonged protest with a total close down of the country, even if peacefully sustained, might cripple our already fragile economy.”

While saying it has become imperative that Nigerians, as citizens of the same nation, undertake some soul-searching in the face of the intractable nature of our national difficulties, the Bishops also reasoned that “good governance and socio-economic stability will continue to elude us, if we collectively do not decide to strengthen our political institutions, if we do not improve transparency, efficiency, and accountability in all our public institutions.”

Continuing, the clerics said: “It will be naive for us to imagine that leadership alone can resolve all the issues that bedevil our country.

“The failure of leadership reflects equally the failure of followership. It is obvious then that both leadership and followership in Nigeria have responsibilities to fulfill, to move our nation forward.

“We need proper leadership in the various sectors and cadres of our country, be it business, politics, public service, security agencies, and other essential services. All of these different sectors must come together as part of the same wheel of progress.

“Unfortunately, what has continued to elude us is visionary leadership. Ever since our independence, one regime after another, has started and abandoned its agenda, shown a lack of continuity, and promoted mediocrity and ineptitude in governance.

“The result is that today, the majority of our citizens no longer have faith in our leaders. We call on our current political leaders and elite to rise and inspire the nation, as well as earn the trust of the populace, with policies and programmes that will improve the standard of living, economic growth, stability, and a general rise in the standard of governance and governance structure.”

Referring to the recent judgment of the Supreme Court, on local government autonomy, the Bishops appealed to the state governments to speedily organize free, fair, and transparent local government elections.

“We hope that a functional local government authority will bring development closer to the people, and allow a more grassroots participation in the democratic process,” the Bishops reasoned.

They called on Nigerian citizens to make adjustments in the context of the hard times facing everybody, stressing that “adjustment will include saying no to all corrupt practices, being alive and awake to our rights and our civic responsibilities, saying no to every attempt to cow and intimidate the citizenry”.

Their words: “Here in the South East, where years of insecurity have impacted daily life and businesses, we call on our people to re-embrace that same indomitable spirit that was displayed by our people after the Nigeria-Biafra War.

“It was a spirit that refused to accept that our present challenges are beyond redemption, a spirit that recognized that the contribution of everyone is needed to build up the society from the bottom up. This will require qualities from everyone like a life of simplicity, moral probity, steadfastness, hard work, and solidarity.

“As Church, we share in the joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties of our people. As your pastors, we feel your pains and your struggles. We are deeply concerned about the fate of our jobless youths who see no hope in the Nigerian project.

“Many have been forced to leave the country for greener pastures; others are tempted to resort to crime or fetish and obnoxious ritual practices in the quest for survival.

“Our retired and elderly people are abandoned to languish without the support networks that should guarantee a dignified and happy old age. As a Church, we do not pretend to be an alternate government that has the responsibility to manage our Commonwealth.

“The Church has always intervened in the difficult moments of our national history to promote the spirit of solidarity among the people, and concern for the welfare of those at the margins of society.

“In the same spirit, we urge better-placed individuals in the society to embrace the challenge of making sure nobody is left behind to suffer in silence and to die in misery.”

The publisher of Ovation Magazine, Dele Momodu, has expressed concerns regarding President Bola Tinubu’s nationwide broadcast, stating that he failed to address the demands of ongoing protesters across the country.

In a nationwide broadcast on Sunday, the President addressed the nation amid #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests, which began on August 1.

Protesters have made several demands, which include a return of fuel subsidies, improvements in living standards, cuts in the cost of governance, reduction in electricity tariffs, and solutions to escalating insecurity, among others.

In a statement issued via his social media handle on Sunday, Momodu said he had little hope of Tinubu granting some concessions to the protesters, adding that he was shocked by the presidential speech.

The social commentator and politician stated that it would be difficult for Tinubu to change a winning formula that has worked for him ever since he was the Governor of Lagos State.

Momodu asserted that it was wishful thinking that the President was going to listen to the protesters and have mercy on hapless and helpless Nigerians.

He wrote, “Fellow Nigerians, good morning. After the long-awaited speech of President Bola Tinubu eventually came this morning, I’m sure most of you would be as stupefied as me.

“I must confess that I had little hope of Tinubu granting some concessions to the aggrieved Nigerians. As a man who has held an iron grip on Lagos State for the last 25 years, it would be difficult for him to change a winning formula that has worked for him ever since.

“Also, what did we expect his advisers to be telling him when most of them have been his most fanatical cronies from Lagos who have learnt never to challenge the master?

“So it was merely wishful thinking on the part of incurable optimists like me to think he was going to have mercy on hapless and seemingly helpless Nigerians.”