President Muhammadu Buhari has sounded a note of warning to Nigerian leaders who have looted the nation’s treasury over the years to prepare for him if he is re-elected in 2019 for a second term in office.
Buhari, who spoke on the Voice of America (VOA) Hausa service programme today, Tuesday in Washington DC, promised to set up special courts to prosecute the looters, adding: “those who embezzle public funds should be ready to face the consequences.”
President Buhari stressed that by the time he starts the real fight against corruption, Nigerians will know that he is very serious about disgorging the looters of what they stole from the country’s coffers.
“Well, there is no any other measure other than to ensure that whoever is arrested is prosecuted for all to see. We should have had a lot more arrests and prosecution by now; EFCC has done a lot; they will investigate and send accused persons to court and Nigerians would be adequately informed.
“Those who are saying we have not done enough in that regard are right. What we don’t want is to take people to places where the judges may not be able to convict them appropriately.
Now we will select those who will dispense justice well and give them time and necessary evidence such as the bank balances and properties owned by individuals in comparison to their wages.
“They will be asked how to prove how they acquired the difference, otherwise, everything will be taken away and they will be prosecuted.” [myad]
The American President, Donald Trump has promised to send American farmers to Nigeria in a bid to develop the agricultural sector. He also promised to subsidize whatever the farmers would need in order to remove any obstacles in the new relationship between Nigeria and the United States as regards the agricultural sector.
Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State who was part of the Federal Government entourage to the United States in the just concluded bilateral meeting between President Donald Trump of America and President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria disclosed this to journalists after a meeting between the two leaders in Washington DC on Monday.
Governor Amosun said that President Trump repeatedly assured that he was going to send farmers from America to Nigeria.
“He kept saying that he will get farmers to come to Nigeria en masse and assist us and that they as government will subside them heavily so that they can come to Nigeria to assist us in our agriculture sector drive.”
On the meeting between Buhari and Trump, he said: “the meeting is very fruitful, very successful particularly if you take it from the angle that this is the very first African leader that President Trump will be receiving and it wasn’t just a meeting like that, it was deep rooted because I was part of the meeting. It showed what I will call the approval for almost what the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is doing.
“They followed what was happening maybe in the last few years. It was even them from their side that were reeling out all of those things that have happened to us as a nation and they recognise the fact that yes, things are tough and they appreciate the efforts of Mr. President. Of course, there is always room for improvement. They have shown commitment and they have shown general impression that they will support what we are doing.
“We are gaining a lot. Let me just give you two or three. One; in the area of security. They rightly said that not just selling those Tucano helicopters for us, they are going to follow it up with so many other assistance like training and what have you.
“Indeed as we speak, they are already in Nigeria assisting and they have promised to do more in the area of repatriation of our looted funds, they realized that yes it is taking time, they will assist us.
“But the one that I think Nigerians will be happy about is in the area of agriculture. They have now zeroed in on that aspect. Yes, the oil is there, they too realised that before we get it right we need to diversify our economy and President Trump has actually given his commitment that they will now zero in in the area of agriculture and they will see his they can help us.
“So if you look at the totality of why we are here, I think we have even achieved what we bargained for. Generally in all these three areas, he promised to help us particularly in fighting terrorism in Nigeria in security challenges that we have. They are assisting us in the area of the economy and of course in the area of fighting corruption, they are going to assist us as well. So all in all, they are supporting us.”
Also Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State thanked President Donald Trump for inviting President Buhari, describing it as timely as much was achieved during the meeting.
“The issue on the handling of security, especially the Book Haram, the issue of ISIS and even the local crisis that we have, the issue of farmers and the herdsmen and secondly the potential opportunity for investment in Nigeria coming from the US, so these issues were discussed on a round table.
“On the issue of security, you heard the President of the United States of America saying that issues that will even come in 2020, he wants to hasten them and start bringing some of them because of the handling of insecurity and he has also opened his mind to the potential investment from US to Nigeria.
“And with that kind of agreement and also his pass mark on the President performance especially in respect to handling of issues of insecurity and of course anti corruption, it means that we are going back encouraged and Mr. President is also encouraged that even outside the shores of Nigeria, people are commending the efforts his doing, that will encourage him to do more.
“To me I will say that the meeting is not only fantastic but I think it was successful for the progress of our country Nigeria.
Chairperson, House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje said: “The bilateral meeting between President Buhari and President Trump of United States was very successful. Nigeria as a country was able to intimate the United States of the fact that reciprocity for us is something that is of utmost importance.
“We spoke about diversifying the economy, we spoke a lot about security and the counter terrorism war and what Nigeria proposes to do with the counter terrorism war and the President of United States gave the commitment about working with Nigeria of course seeking greater collaboration.
“Speaking about reciprocity and Nigeria made her point well that we will be willing to reciprocate as far as the AGOA was concerned about the Nigeria agricultural product with the United States agricultural product.
“It was a successful visit and the good thing about it was that there was a commitment of greater engagement between both countries highlighting security, trade, creation of jobs on the average it was a good meeting.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated his call on youths in Nigeria to seize opportunities in agriculture, a sector of the economy he said is already proving to be the bedrock of the nation’s new economy.
Speaking on Monday at Blair House, Washington DC after his White House engagements with President Donald Trump, the President, at a meeting the Chief Executive Officers of six American agricultural companies and their Nigerian counterparts including Aliko Dangote and John Coumantaros, again lamented the challenges of the country’s youth bulge, with “sixty per cent of the population below 30 years.”
He said the country must help the young people to plan their future and urged them to explore opportunities easily accessible in agriculture because, as he said, “agriculture is the future.”
While stressing that planning in Nigeria must take into consideration the factors of climate and a bulging youth population, President Buhari also promised the support of his administration in the promotion of skill development, innovation and entrepreneurship among the young population.
“We realized, rather belatedly that we ought to have been investing in agriculture. We are now aiming at food security because of our large population. Our youths, the ones who have gone to school and even those that have not, should go to the farm, to earn respect for themselves. Agriculture is providing jobs for millions of our citizens and we are doing well towards the attainment of food security and jobs. The media may not appreciate the work we are doing but we will shock them by the success we are recording.”
President Buhari welcomed the several investment proposals being put in place by the Americans and their Nigerian counterparts.
Among those brought up for discussions were the three million tons fertilizer by Dangote, the largest in Africa coming on stream in July, to be followed by another one to produce 1.4 million tons of the commodity; a large-scale modern seed production company, and weed and pest management and chemicals products companies by the Americans.
Similarly, the Burger King food chain with plans to integrate local farmers in livestock production; the Heinz tomatoes production, with backward integration of Nigerian tomato farmers; and another company coming to set up a local branch to facilitate merchandising of commodities, in effect establishing a link between the Nigerian producers and the global market.
A tractor manufacturing company, John Deer, also unfolded a plan for an assembly plant to produce 10,000 tractors in four years in Nigeria. They will all come with jobs for Nigerians.
In a second business meeting same day, President Buhari brought together Nigerian businessmen and their American counterparts from the U.S Chamber of Commerce and the Corporate Council on Africa, (CCA.)
The U.S Chamber, on behalf of its three million member-companies which included General Electric, Chevron, Proctor and Gamble and Boeing aircraft manufacturers, expressed happiness with improved security in the Niger Delta, reforms in the economy leading to ease in doing business, and the war the administration is waging against corruption.
Several of the oncoming plans were disclosed to the President who demanded concrete plans and an aggressive timetable for their actualization.
He envisaged that the investment schemes will lead to a lot of new opportunities for the Nigerian youth. [myad]
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and President Muhammadu Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari has described the controversial letter which former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote to him, advising him not to seek re-election in 2019 for a second term as insulting.
The President, who was answering questions on the Voice of America (VOA) Hausa programme today at the Washington DC in the United States of America said that he would not have bothered to respond to such insult but the mnister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed persuaded him to allow him (Lai) “to respond to the letter of insults released by Obasanjo.
“We spoke about it and I asked him not to respond but he refused and said he will just respond by stating the situation we met the country, where it is now and what was done in between and the monies we are getting.
“Recently, I had to come out and state that from 1999 to 2014, anyone who carries out a study here in America or Europe or India will know that we were producing 2.2 million barrels of crude oil daily at a price of at least $100 per barrel.
“In those 16 years of PDP rule, Nigeria was getting 2.1 million x 100 every day, every week, but when we came on board, the price fell to between $37 and $38 and hanged around $40/$50.
“I went to the CBN; the governor of CBN is here-and asked him how far and he said nothing was left apart from debts. I said but this is what the country made and he said yes, he knew, and I asked him where is the money? He told it was all gone.”
President Buhari said that his satisfaction was that Nigerians themselves knew that there were no roads or rail lines; there was no power, despite the billions of dollars spent.
“Only God will judge this thing.”
On what are the new things his is planning to do in his second term if he is elected, President Buhari said: “we have not even finished what we are doing now. Insecurity is still a problem. “The worst thing that Boko Haram are doing now to get small girls, hypnotize and put on explosive devices in them to go and detonate in Mosques, Churches, Motor Parks and Markets and kill people.
“However, they are not able to take over any territory now, although, even today, I read in some newspapers that Boko Haram are still holding territory. Well they may still be somewhere in Sambisa Forest, but the Nigerian Army have prevented them from coming out.” [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has made it clear that the bulk of the youths in Nigeria who he referred to as being lazy come from the Northern part of the country.
He said: “in the north for instance, most (youths) have not attended school or they abandoned halfway. If not because we have favourable rainfall in the past two seasons, most of them have no jobs, just idling away.
“People like them even if they go to the South for instance, what they will make will not be enough to even pay their (house) rent not to talk of feeding, clothing and transport back home.”
President Buhari, who answered questions on the Voice of America (VOA) Hausa service conducted by its correspondent, Aliyu Mustapha Sokoto today, Tuesday, in Washington DC, The United States of America, insisted that Nigeria presently has over 180 million people and that 60 percent of them are youths below the age of 30.
He said that his words had not been explained enough even as he chided the media, especially the print which he said “are simply doing whatever they like.
“We had two successful farming seasons, people went to farm and did very well, but no one is talking about that; only insults.”
On the military jets which the President recently paid to secure from the President Donald Trump government, Buhari acknowledged the understanding of the US government on the importance of Nigeria in Africa and the World at large.
He said that during Barak Obama era, Nigeria tried to get some jets to help it in the fight against terrorism in the north east but was denied, adding: “But as soon as President Trump came into office, he gave the green light and advised us to make funds available.
“He said the US will sell the jets to us; we had each approached Brazil and the UAE, but they told us that based on the agreement they had with the US, they cannot sell or give anyone these jets until the US agrees; but the Us refused at the time until the arrival of Trump who granted our request and gave us price.”
The Nigerian leader, who said that the sales of the jets was not agreements but discussions, frowned at the information being given that Christians are being killed in Nigeria.
“But what happened in the Church also happened in the South East and the North and they just say it is herdsmen that are killing them.
“Those making these allegations against the herdsmen know that herdsmen as we know them only carry sticks; going about with guns is a new thing and those making the allegations know that conflict between farmers and herders have a long history even before we were born.
“Therefore, it is wrong to say the conflict is between Fulani and Tiv or other tribe like in Taraba. What of Zamfara where more people were killed than in Taraba and Benue put together?
“People need to understand that it is mischief that makes people to bring in religion or ethnicity.”
On the issue of the degrading of Boko Haram in the north east, Buhari said that measures are being taken to increase the number of police officers and to equip them well.
“I have asked the Police to recruit 6000 more personnel and that they should recruit across the 774 local government areas in the country instead of going to Motor parks and markets to just pick people anyhow.” [myad]
Tuesday, May 1 is Worker’s Day all over the world and expectations are that questions will be asked of what Muhammadu Buhari, the President of Nigeria is doing to make life better for workers in the country.
I place a caveat here. I work for the President and I am paid for the work I do. This is to save the naysayers some trouble, using their energy to launch attacks when I say that President Buhari is the most-worker friendly administration this country has seen for a long, long time, if ever. Here is the evidence.
When he came into office in 2015, President Buhari met a plan literally cast in stone from 2014 for the retrenchment of thousands of workers by the previous administration. The basis of this, as was then stated is that the civil service was over bloated and the payment of salaries was giving them trouble. The plan was put on for the elections.
You recall that when he was presented with the interim report of the Ahmed Joda-led transition committee, the President-elect was shown a document in which 23 states had not paid their workers, in one or two cases for up to 12 months. He said this was a national emergency and would be treated as such.
The first thing the President did on coming to office was to stop the planned retrenchment. No retrenchment, he ordered, and charged everyone to go and pay them. When the economic recession deepened and the banks and oil companies began to retrench, he asked the Minister of Labour and Employment to stop it. If anyone refused to make a sacrifice as others were doing, they should be sanctioned.
To ease the tight liquidity situation in which the states were, he gave bailout loans through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), specifically asking them to pay workers and pensioners. In 2015, a Salary loan of about N338bn was disbursed to the states. He gave approval to the CBN to extend the repayment periods of their other loans so that they could have more money that they can use to take care of their workers.
Similarly, the huge, unpaid refunds due to the states from the Paris and London Club settlements for which the federal government overcharged the other two tiers of government that had remained unpaid since the Obasanjo years have been given an attention.
So far, two tranches, making about 50 per cent have so far been returned to them. In sum total, N1.75tn has been given to states as extra-statutory allocation known as bailout since the advent of President Buhari’s administration.
The President has also been paying attention to the accumulated problems of outstanding allowances, promotion allowances, earned- allowances etc. which have pitched unions in various sectors against the government. These are problems dating back to the years of the PDP administration. Already, three billion Naira has been paid and another eight billion is on the way.
In the forthcoming payments, government is particularly interested in alleviating the problems of ASUU and NASU staff in universities that refused to join the last strike action, and for which their mother unions excluded their members from the lists they submitted for payment.
Similarly, government appropriated N30 billion in 2017 and more will be paid under the 2018 appropriation for offsetting the backlog of promotion allowances; hazard and call duty allowances and so forth. In all cases, government has given instructions that allowances be paid directly into the personal accounts of beneficiaries, to avoid past practices of diversion of funds by ministries.
To ease the housing problems of workers, the administration has set up the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH), by which civil servants have started owning houses categorized as One Bedroom, for between N3-5 million; Two Bedroom, for N5-10 million; Three Bedroom for N9-15 million and Four Bedroom between N13-17million, the latter designed for public servants. All they are required do is to obtain an application for N1, 000 and apply. All states of the Federation are to benefit from this scheme.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has started commissioning these houses that have been completed in places like Kubwa and Lugbe in the FCT. Nasarawa, Cross River, Gombe and Lagos States are to follow.
There is also an on-going Federal Mass Housing Scheme, in two categories, one by the Ministry of Finance and the other by the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. The two schemes are running at a parallel and have both taken off.
The issue of the national minimum wage is now back as a top agenda of the administration. It has entered its final stages with public hearings held in the six geopolitical zones of the country between April 23- 30.
The government has continued to pay attention to service welfare with promotions being sustained throughout the public sector. The National Health Insurance Scheme is being reinvigorated and pensions being streamlined by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD.)
The public service is being re-injected with new blood with on-going recruitment exercises in the Immìgration, the police and the three branches of the Armed Forces.
In doing all these and many more, the message from President Buhari to workers and the labour unions is that they are seen and treated as partners.
Nigeria, the largest economy on the continent cannot be where it is today without the commitment of workers. The stock market continues to soar, the administration continues to score big on major rail, road and other infrastructure projects that are unfolding across the country, all due to the commitment and dedication of Nigerian workers.
On this day and always, the nation owes them a lot of gratitude.
Garba Shehu is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity. [myad]
The Acting Director in the Corporate Communications of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Isaac Okorafor has debunked the news going round that the head office building of the apex bank was gutted by fire.
Okorafor, in a statement today, Tuesday, said that what happened was what he called ‘a pall of exhaust’ in the building which passersby saw from far and mistook it for fire smoke.
“The CBN maintains a total security system that triggers safety alarms in the presence of smoke and so all fire engines and personnel received the alert only to discover that it was an unusual pall of exhaust.
“The affected generator has been rested and normal work has been uninterrupted, while the engineers are working to rectify the issues with the generator.”
The chief information strategist assured the general public that there has been no fire at the banks building.
The Chairmen of the Committees on Public Accounts in the National Assembly – Kingsley Chinda (House of Representatives, PDP Rivers, Obio/Akpor Constituency) and Mathew Urhoghide (Senate, PDP Edo South) – have both had cause to ask the respective Chambers of the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against President Muhammadu Buhari for allowing the withdrawal of $496 million from the Excess Crude Account, without prior approval of the National Assembly and/or appropriation. This has caused much partisan rowdiness in the National Assembly and an aborted clash between PDP supporters of Mathew Urhoghide and pro-Buhari APC stalwarts at the Benin Airport in Edo State. Impeachment is a serious and sensitive political process that could lead to the removal of the affected political leader from office. The primary issue is whether or not President Buhari has indeed committed any offence, any violation of the Constitution that should warrant his impeachment?
What constitutes the ground for impeachment is defined in Section 143 (2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution as “gross misconduct” and further in Section 143 (11) as (a) “a grave violation or breach of this Constitution”, or “a misconduct of such nature as amounts in the opinion of the National Assembly to gross misconduct.” The first ground for impeachment is literal and unambiguous and it would only need to be proven. The main allegation for now is that the President caused to be spent a sum of $496 million without the National Assembly or appropriation. Section 80 of the Constitution dealing with “power and control” over public funds refers. Section 80(1) establishes a Consolidated Revenue Fund into which “all revenues or other moneys raised or received by the Federation (not being revenues or other moneys payable under this Constitution or any Act of the National Assembly into any other public fund of the Federation established for a specific purpose) shall be paid into, but the more relevant reference is Section 80 (2) which states that:
“No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation except to meet expenditure that is charged upon the fund by the Constitution or where the issue of those moneys has been authorized by an Appropriation Act, Supplementary Appropriation Act or an Act passed in pursuance of Section 81 of this Constitution.”
In other words, the government is not allowed by the Constitution to spend any money that has not been duly appropriated for, or without due authorization. The inherent and oversight role of the National Assembly is clarified in Sections 80(3), 80(4) and Section 83 (1 -2). Section 80(3) is clear enough: “No moneys shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the Federation, other than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation unless the issue of those moneys has been authorised by an Act of the National Assembly.“ Section 80(4), for sheer emphasis it seems, reiterates the same point.
The operational word in all these Sections of the Constitution is “shall” – legally, this means “a mandatory order”. In a letter written to the National Assembly informing it of the expenditure of $496 million, without Appropriation, without a Supplementary Budget and without authorization, or even consultation, the President states that he granted “anticipatory approval.” He has no such powers under this Constitution. Nor can he seek protection under Section 82, which talks about authorization of expenditure in the absence of an Appropriation Act as is currently the case to wit:
“If the Appropriation Bill in respect of any financial year has not been passed into law by the beginning of the financial year, the President may authorize the withdrawal of moneys from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation for the purpose of meeting expenditure necessary to carry on the services of the Government of the Federation for a period not exceeding six months or until the coming into operation of the Appropriation Act, whichever is the earlier…”
Note this: “to carry on the services of the Government of the Federation…” Is the purchase of 12 aircraft part of the “services of government?”. We can argue over this but given a literal interpretation, the President is clearly in violation of the Constitution. Such authorization should be in respect of services already before the National Assembly. In the absence of this, the President should have consulted the National assembly and sought their understanding, and buy-in, before spending the money. Writing a letter after ignoring them and the Constitution is an afterthought that beggars the question. The President is also in violation of the proviso to Section 82 in the sense that the purchase of the aircraft is not contained in the 2018 Appropriation Bill. Since it is not there and the Appropriation Bill has not been passed, the President has no basis to say that he has spent money. Can the President spend money in the event of an emergency? Section 83 of the 1999 Constitution addresses this – he can but only with the authorization of the National Assembly as in s. (83(1) and through the vehicle of a “Supplementary Estimate and a Supplementary Appropriation Bill as in s. (83(2).”
I have argued previously that the 1999 Constitution grants the President of Nigeria, enormous, if not excessive powers, but the framers of our Constitution did not extend such powers to cover indiscriminate spending of public funds, hence the combined effect of Sections 80 – 85 and S. 162 is to provide checks and balances against the possibility of anyone no matter how highly placed spending public funds, in a manner other than has been provided by the Constitution, no matter how well-intentioned he or she may be. So, President Buhari is prima facie indictable in the light of the first ground for impeachment as in Section 143 (11).
The second ground is a bit nebulous, for it speaks of whatever amounts to “gross misconduct” – “in the opinion of the National Assembly.” Virtually every Nigerian has an opinion, and where the opposition dominates the National Assembly, such an Assembly can form any opinion and remove a sitting President. My own opinion in this instance however, is that there are strong grounds even on this second score for commencing impeachment proceedings against President Buhari. These include and are not limited to: his government’s routine violation and complete disregard for court order and the rule of law, human rights abuses, and his regular de-marketing of the country and Nigerians in the international community, and his apparent lack of ability to provide strategic leadership. But the reality is that the National Assembly as presently constituted is dominated by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Nigeria’s democracy has not yet reached a level where the legislature will choose to act on a non-partisan basis. The APC may be four, five parties in one, and may be imploding but I do not see the possibility of a ruling party in Nigeria impeaching its own President.
To return to the first ground of impeachment, which stands more on terra firma, and not “opinion”, I also do not see the possibility of impeachment of either the incumbent President or any other President under the 1999 Constitution. The National Assembly has set up a Committee to consider the possibility of the commencement of impeachment proceedings – it submits its report tomorrow, Wednesday, May 2 – and there may well be some persons losing sleep over that in Buhari’s quarters, but there is actually no cause for alarm. The framers of Section 143 (1-11) of the 1999 Constitution did not really hope that any sitting Nigerian President will ever be impeached. The rules and procedure set out under that relevant Section are so cumbersome and tedious as to make impeachment impossible. The last time anyone tried to invoke Section 143 was under President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2002 – notice of allegations were served on the then President by the House of Representatives to which he responded – but in the end nothing happened. Nothing will again happen to Buhari this time around. He will not be impeached because the relevant Constitutional provisions in Section 143 are too windy.
One, an impeachment process is initiated when “a notice of allegation” is presented to the President of the Senate by “not less than one-third of the members of the National Assembly” accusing the office of the President or Vice President of “gross misconduct (s. 80 (2).” As at the time of this writing, no such notice has been presented. One-third of the entire Assembly (!) – that’s like wishful thinking. Section 143 (4) again presents this dilemma of numbers when it says, if the National Assembly decides to investigate the allegations, it can only do so if it is supported by “not less than two-thirds majority of all the members of each House of the National Assembly.” By the time we get to this stage, 21 days would have passed, and that is part of the problem with the rules of procedure on impeachment in Section 143. It would take at least six months or more for any Nigerian President to be impeached. The giver of the law created a problem here with numbers and also with time, and a bigger problem with the introduction of the judiciary into what should be purely a political process. In Section 140 (5), the judiciary is brought into the conflict, ensuring a possible clash among all three arms of government in the impeachment process. The Chief of Justice of Nigeria (CJN) is given additional seven days (28 days now in total) to “at the request of the President of the Senate appoint a Panel of seven persons who in his opinion are of unquestionable integrity, not being members of any public service, legislative house or political party, to investigate the allegation as provided in this section.” Section 143 is thus loaded, from 1-11, with so many make or kill, elimination tests, and this is perhaps the most critical. Can we really rely on the opinion of the CJN to select seven apolitical, non-partisan persons of “unquestionable integrity?” Where are those seven persons coming from? Heaven?, because no such persons exist in Nigeria. And should such seven persons be identified, there is nothing in this section barring interested parties or the Executive, and its agents from discrediting such persons. How many “unquestionable” Nigerians would even agree to serve on such a panel, if at all they exist?
Assuming a panel of seven emerges, the person to be impeached still has the right to be defended by legal practitioners of his choice. Thus Section 143 (6) is in pari materia with Section 36 of the Constitution which guarantees the right to fair hearing, but it is another bottle-neck which can go on for three months – (section 143(7) – or much longer by the time the lawyers exploit technicalities to prolong the proceedings. Section 143(7) (b) further presents a serious bottle-neck: the constituted panel must report its findings to each House of the National Assembly within three months of its appointment. Section 143(8) says if the allegations are not proven, then the process stands aborted, but in the event of either this or the opposite addressed in Section 143(9), the Constitution only asks for two-thirds majority to determine the fate of the affected political office holder, it says nothing about the procedure for removal, now mentioned for the first time as a consequential effect. To the best of our knowledge, the National Assembly does not even have such a procedure in place, except it will create an emergency one, because the full import of Section 143 has not yet been tested. Being a political process, stricto senso, the Courts are further estopped under Section 143(11) from inquiring into an impeachment process.
Section 143 of the 1999 is in our view, therefore, a jurisprudential nightmare. If we really want to prevent our Presidents from hiding under the Constitution to become tyrants, this particular section of the Constitution needs to be reviewed. The National Assembly should put in place standard rules and procedures to give live to the process in the need of activation of Section 143. The judiciary should also be removed from the process, as is the case in the United States. A compromised CJN would readily frustrate the process since his “opinion” is so important! Section 143 makes it difficult as it is, to remove a President, especially given our situation where there is so much emphasis on money-politics, political affiliation, ethnicity, religion and loyalty to the President and primordial sentiments. Some characters called elder statesmen and traditional rulers may even intervene to derail the impeachment process. The quality of legislators is also important: to protect and uphold the Constitution, we need people who understand that loyalty to the nation is more important than loyalty to the President or religious and ethnic sentiments. The present set of dancing, sleeping, singing, fibbing, cradle-snatching, compromised persons who end up in the National Assembly cannot do it.
The worst that they can do is to further damage President Muhammadu Buhari’s reputation. Mere talk about or the commencement of impeachment proceedings on its own, has negative political consequences, especially in an election season – even US President Bill Clinton did not fully recover from it although he was impeached but was not removed from office. The view has been expressed that the National Assembly should not bother to test Section 143 because this may have implications for the stability of the country in an election season, or that, well, President Buhari is almost completing his first term. I disagree. The responsibility to protect and uphold the Constitution must not be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency, even if all things considered, President Buhari needs not lose any sleep. [myad]
A discourse on rats and 2018 Hajj exercise last week made headlines in many online and mainstream media. Some news platforms drew a bleak picture of the doom about to befall Nigerian Muslim pilgrims due to rats attack whilst another group towed with caution querying whether the rodents may prevent same pilgrims from embarking on the holy journey. Thankfully enough, Nigeria’s minister of health quickly dispelled all fears with a single declaration backed by data that the rat attack has been ‘technically defeated’ and that they are at the stage of ‘operation final punch’ before declaring the outbreak successfully over.
Indeed with some papers running gloomy headers such as “Hajj 2018: Saudi Arabia Moves to Stop Nigerian Pilgrims “ and hurriedly copied by many online editions including on Reuben Abatti’s page, perhaps some intending pilgrims, especially those who have already paid might have begun experiencing cardiac freezes. This was evidenced by the frenzy of calls some NAHCON staff kept receiving from individuals seeking clarification. However, two principal officers swiftly laid the confusion to rest just when some Nigerians might have seen a cover to launch their political subterfuge. One of these principal officers is the chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NAHCON, Barrister Abdullahi Mukhtar Muhammad and the other is Nigeria’s minister of health, Prof. Isaac Folorunso Adewole.
In a stakeholders’ meeting held on Tuesday, 24th of April, 2018 in the Office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, NAHCON’s CEO expounded that traceable to media panic over Lassa fever outbreak late last year, the Saudi ministry of health resolved to take precautionary measures towards preventing persons, items or Lassa fever vectors from gaining entrance into the Kingdom in order not to endanger the lives of world pilgrims.
Barr Mukhtar who concurred to Saudi’s fear, affirmed that NAHCON would do anything humanly possible to ensure that no one with a suspected case of Lassa fever is allowed to make the pilgrimage to Makkah and that all agencies responsible for transportation of pilgrims have been mandated to screen their pilgrims’ luggage thoroughly against traveling along with rats, other rodents or contaminated items. The chairman described Saudi’s step as an ideal Islamic practice and one which NAHCON and the world of medicine identify as a safety precaution. Hence, NAHCON will fully collaborate with Saudi Arabia in maintaining this.
In his own submission, the minister of health quickly nailed the matter when he gave an update on the Lassa fever scourge declaring it almost over. He urged Nigerian media to adopt the habit of being positive in their reportage and giving government benefit of the doubt while reporting only substantiated information. He reassured that government was doing much to curtail the infection without making much media noise about it. He further disclosed that data from his ministry’s weekly update on Lassa fever showed only one new case of the infection being officially recorded in the previous week; an indication that the disease is at the verge of being curtailed completely for now because it tends to resurface during the dry season when infected rats invade our homes for food which they no longer find in the bushes during rainy season. However, this time around, he claimed that government is fanatically focused in bringing down the disease hence, the Federal Ministry of Health (FMH) had set up a Lassa fever monitoring task force entrusted with the responsibility of attaining and sustaining a total wipe out of the menace no matter the season. Members of this task force, created for diseases surveillance and control, have been trained to be vigilant and to hold any suspicious or rumored case as serious and in need of prompt action. He also reassured that members of the committee, equipped with necessary laboratory equipment and treatment drugs, have been going round the country sniffing for the disease and treating same because early diagnosis and treatment are crucial. In addition to the above, Lassa fever specialized centers for the purpose of quick response have been created in three areas identified as endemic points and in Gwagwalada, Federal Capital Territory, while isolation centers have been made mandatory in every specialist and teaching hospital across the country. The minister further added that as at March this year, World Health Organization, WHO, released a bulletin that for five consecutive weeks, the disease had been on a steady decline demonstrating that public health measures are proving effective.
Indeed, one of the minister’s strongest arguments was that if the Lassa fever outbreak had reached an epidemic level as being depicted by the Nigerian media, WHO would have since imposed a travel ban into and out of the country or would have at least issued a travel warning to persons wishing to visit the country. But none of these has happened so far.
Despite the positive development, the FMH in conjunction with NAHCON are not leaving anything to chance. Dr. Ibrahim Kana of the FMH and coordinator between the health ministry and NAHCON disclosed this much when he outlined proactive measures already put in place to safeguard health of pilgrims before and during their return trips from the holy land; and to assure the Saudi government that Nigeria is taking the Lassa fever fear with the seriousness it deserves. Towards this end, medical screening for this year’s Hajj will commence early and will go beyond the normal sugar and high blood pressure tests. After screening which will begin at ward level, another will be held at departure points in the presence of representatives of WHO and those of the Saudi ministry of health wherefrom a certificate of health clearance will be issued to the persons. This certificate will be presented to the Saudi authorities at the arrival point. If on the other hand a pilgrim is detected with fever, Lassa fever shall be suspected until proven otherwise. This will ensure that only physically fit Nigerians make the pilgrimage. Similarly, he disclosed that a meeting was held between his ministry, State Pilgrims’ Welfare Boards (SPWB), National Aviation Agency (NAA) and airline operators where they all resolved to work towards the same objective. On their part, SPWBs promised to thoroughly screen pilgrims and their baggage and to report any suspicious case to health workers. They will determine that contaminated items or suspicious foods are not carried out of the camps. The airline operators also resolved to disallow anyone showing signs of fever from boarding their aircrafts and will not charge for such persons “no show”. The health workers on their part will henceforth begin a nationwide awareness program highlighting the relevance of hygiene in the fight against Lassa fever and on the need to report any fever cases promptly. All channels will be deployed in doing this including use of posters, handbills, environmental health workers and use of town criers where necessary. In all, Dr. Kana emphasized that information sharing is key. He expressed optimism that if these proactive plans are properly followed, Nigeria will win Saudi Arabia’s confidence as it did in the case of Ebola.
President Donald Trump of the United States of America has described Nigeria as an “amazing country” even as he gave a hint of the possibility of his visit to the country.
President Trump who spoke when he received President Muhammadu Buhari in audience at the State House today, Monday, said: “well, I would like very much to visit Nigeria. It is an amazing country. In certain ways, I hear from the standpoint of the beauty of a country — there’s no country more beautiful.”
The Nigerian President acknowledged President Trump’s mild gesture about Nigeria’s beauty, but did not immediately say whether he would invite him to Nigeria.
The last sitting American president to visit Nigeria was George Bush, who came in in 2003 for discussions with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
President Trump rejected demands that he should relax his stringent immigration policy to allow migrants from poorer country, saying the U.S. is operating “a stupid” immigration policy that has made it the butt of jokes across the world.
The American strong man received President Buhari in his first meeting with a leader from sub-Saharan Africa at the White House. The two leaders emphasized the need to improve trade, technology and human rights records. [myad]
President of the United States of America, Donald Trump has described terrorism now trending in many parts of the world as ‘a hot bird’ “and we are going to be stopping them.”
Trump, who had an audience with his Nigeria’s guest, President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House in the US today, said that his discussion with Buhari later in the day would centre on terrorism: “that is terrorism here and terrorism all over the world.”
He expressed worry over what he called “a very serious problem with Christians who are being murdered, killed in Nigeria. We gonna be working on that problem, and working on that problem very very hard because we can’t allow that to happen.”
This was even as Trump assured his host that his government had very much decimated ISIS and that much has taken place over the last twelve months.
Responding, President Buhari expressed gratitude to the US for the physical presence of its military instructors that went into Nigeria’s institutions and train the officers, “and go to the front in the North East to see how they are performing as a result of the training given to them.
“The commitment of the United States to get rid of terrorism across the world, we have had first-hand experience of that, and we are very grateful for it.
He also thanked the US for agreeing to give Nigeria the air craft “we asked and the spare parts. Certainly, security is the main issue now.”
On the problem of the cattle rearers and herders in Nigeria, President Buhari said that it is a very long historical thing, explaining that the normal herders before now, never carried anything more than a stick and occasionally a machete to cut down foliage and give it to their animals.
“These ones are carrying AK 47. So, I don’t think people should underrate what happened in Libya. Fourty three years of Gadaffi, people were recruited from the Sahel. They were thought nothing other than to shoot and kill. With the demise of Gadaffi, they moved to their countries and their regions and they carried along with them, the only experience they have and training, using weapons. And that is what is aggravating the situation.”
President Buhari assured his host that his government is doing its best to ensure that it stops cross border and to get the proliferation of small arms weapons in the regions checked.
“But it is going to take time, and the action by the United States in trying to see the end of ISIS has help us a lot because Boko Haram in Nigeria at one time made a statement that they were loyal to ISIS. And now that ISIS has virtually gone with the help of the United States, we are very grateful for that and we are sure that we are stabilizing the situation of security in Nigeria.
On Chibok girls who were abducted by Boko Haram in 2014, Buhari said that his government has recovered a lot of them even as he said that 100 out of 106 Dapchi School girls abducted also by Boko Haram had returned to their parents while four are died and one is still held in captivity.
“We are very grateful for the United Nations Organization that is acting in between us and the kidnappers and haven’t given up, we are trying to get all of them back to join their families and their schools.” [myad]
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The American President, Donald Trump has promised to send American farmers to Nigeria in a bid to develop the agricultural sector. He also promised to subsidize whatever the farmers would need in order to remove any obstacles in the new relationship between Nigeria and the United States as regards the agricultural sector.
Why Buhari Is Good For Workers, By Garba Shehu
Tuesday, May 1 is Worker’s Day all over the world and expectations are that questions will be asked of what Muhammadu Buhari, the President of Nigeria is doing to make life better for workers in the country.
I place a caveat here. I work for the President and I am paid for the work I do. This is to save the naysayers some trouble, using their energy to launch attacks when I say that President Buhari is the most-worker friendly administration this country has seen for a long, long time, if ever. Here is the evidence.
When he came into office in 2015, President Buhari met a plan literally cast in stone from 2014 for the retrenchment of thousands of workers by the previous administration. The basis of this, as was then stated is that the civil service was over bloated and the payment of salaries was giving them trouble. The plan was put on for the elections.
You recall that when he was presented with the interim report of the Ahmed Joda-led transition committee, the President-elect was shown a document in which 23 states had not paid their workers, in one or two cases for up to 12 months. He said this was a national emergency and would be treated as such.
The first thing the President did on coming to office was to stop the planned retrenchment. No retrenchment, he ordered, and charged everyone to go and pay them. When the economic recession deepened and the banks and oil companies began to retrench, he asked the Minister of Labour and Employment to stop it. If anyone refused to make a sacrifice as others were doing, they should be sanctioned.
To ease the tight liquidity situation in which the states were, he gave bailout loans through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), specifically asking them to pay workers and pensioners. In 2015, a Salary loan of about N338bn was disbursed to the states. He gave approval to the CBN to extend the repayment periods of their other loans so that they could have more money that they can use to take care of their workers.
Similarly, the huge, unpaid refunds due to the states from the Paris and London Club settlements for which the federal government overcharged the other two tiers of government that had remained unpaid since the Obasanjo years have been given an attention.
So far, two tranches, making about 50 per cent have so far been returned to them. In sum total, N1.75tn has been given to states as extra-statutory allocation known as bailout since the advent of President Buhari’s administration.
The President has also been paying attention to the accumulated problems of outstanding allowances, promotion allowances, earned- allowances etc. which have pitched unions in various sectors against the government. These are problems dating back to the years of the PDP administration. Already, three billion Naira has been paid and another eight billion is on the way.
In the forthcoming payments, government is particularly interested in alleviating the problems of ASUU and NASU staff in universities that refused to join the last strike action, and for which their mother unions excluded their members from the lists they submitted for payment.
Similarly, government appropriated N30 billion in 2017 and more will be paid under the 2018 appropriation for offsetting the backlog of promotion allowances; hazard and call duty allowances and so forth. In all cases, government has given instructions that allowances be paid directly into the personal accounts of beneficiaries, to avoid past practices of diversion of funds by ministries.
To ease the housing problems of workers, the administration has set up the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH), by which civil servants have started owning houses categorized as One Bedroom, for between N3-5 million; Two Bedroom, for N5-10 million; Three Bedroom for N9-15 million and Four Bedroom between N13-17million, the latter designed for public servants. All they are required do is to obtain an application for N1, 000 and apply. All states of the Federation are to benefit from this scheme.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige has started commissioning these houses that have been completed in places like Kubwa and Lugbe in the FCT. Nasarawa, Cross River, Gombe and Lagos States are to follow.
There is also an on-going Federal Mass Housing Scheme, in two categories, one by the Ministry of Finance and the other by the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. The two schemes are running at a parallel and have both taken off.
The issue of the national minimum wage is now back as a top agenda of the administration. It has entered its final stages with public hearings held in the six geopolitical zones of the country between April 23- 30.
The government has continued to pay attention to service welfare with promotions being sustained throughout the public sector. The National Health Insurance Scheme is being reinvigorated and pensions being streamlined by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD.)
The public service is being re-injected with new blood with on-going recruitment exercises in the Immìgration, the police and the three branches of the Armed Forces.
In doing all these and many more, the message from President Buhari to workers and the labour unions is that they are seen and treated as partners.
Nigeria, the largest economy on the continent cannot be where it is today without the commitment of workers. The stock market continues to soar, the administration continues to score big on major rail, road and other infrastructure projects that are unfolding across the country, all due to the commitment and dedication of Nigerian workers.
On this day and always, the nation owes them a lot of gratitude.
Garba Shehu is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity. [myad]