Buhari May Terminate Contracts, Sack Workers, Made By Jonathan In The Last 18 Months

June 29, 2015

President Muhammadu Buhari may terminate the appointments of all those who were employed by the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan, and similarly terminate the contracts awarded by the same regime in the last 18 months, if the recommendations of the Ahmed Joda transition committee report are to be implemented.

The committee recommended to President Buhari to immediately terminate all dubious appointments in the last nine months, and review all contracts awarded by the Jonathan administration in the last 18 months, saying that such measure would help the new government to sidestep ineptitude and waste, and scale up its revenue base.

It noted that the recommendations are part of a portfolio of swift steps which President. Buhari must take within three months of assumption of power if he must save cost and “enhance liquidity.”

The 800-page report, which contained extensive analyses of Nigeria’s key challenges, with suggested responses for the economy and finance, governance and social welfare, also details a list of prompt, medium and long term decisions which President. Buhari must take, or authorise, within 30, 45, 60 and 90 days of taking office, to create immediate impact, reduce government liability, increase revenue and stabilise the polity.

To deal with crippling fuel crisis, and backlog of unpaid salaries by states and the federal government, the committee advised the President to “borrow immediately or use CBN (Central Bank) advances” for salaries and fuel subsidies to “avoid chaos.”

It stressed: “Non-strategic contracts that have not commenced or where no payments have been made can be cancelled,” the committee said, even as it advised the President to negotiate exits for projects where mobilisation payments have been made but work not commenced.

That move, the committee said, will save expenditure on non-strategic projects, and can free up cash flows for other vital initiatives.

The decision on contract is to be taken within 90 days from May 29, and should be handled by the Federal Executive Council and the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP.

As part of the measures to check waste and increase efficiency and accountability, the committee advised the government to quickly implement a single bank account, to be called Treasury Single Account, and to commence full implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act within 60 days, and chase up any outstanding funds from all government offices.

The committee said the handover notes from the Jonathan administration showed aggregate contractor liabilities of N4 trillion as at April 2015.

Of that amount, the Ministry of Education owed the most at N1.2 trillion, followed by the finance ministry which has N467.7 billion.

The committee warned President Buhari that it would be irrational to rely on the purported huge balances the former government claimed it left behind, because the numbers lacked key information to establish the authenticity of the contracts. [myad]

Chelsea Top Goalkeeper For 11 Years, Petr Cech Joins Arsenal

Greenbarge Reporters

June 29, 2015

The 33-year-old Czech international goalkeeper who has made over 400 appearances during 11 years at Stamford Bridge for Premier League champions Chelsea, Petr Cech, has agreed to join Arsenal on a “long-term contract for an undisclosed fee.”

Petr Cech emerged, eleven years ago, from French club, Rennes, but has recently found himself playing understudy to Thibaut Courtois.

“I have the same commitment to football, the same motivation and the same hunger for success as I had at the beginning of my career, and I love the challenges brought by the top quality players you face while playing in the Premier League.

“When Arsene Wenger spoke to me about his ambitions for this club, and how he saw me as part of this team, the decision was clear.”

Arsenal manager Wenger said: “Petr Cech is a player that I have admired for a long time and I am very pleased that he has decided to join us.

“He has proven over many seasons that he is one of the outstanding ‘keepers in the world and he will add great strength to our squad,” the Frenchman said.

During his time with Chelsea, Cech’s haul of 13 major trophies included four Premier League titles and four FA Cups, as well as the 2012 Champions League.

In the same period, Arsenal had to make do with three FA Cup triumphs, including a 4-0 victory over Aston Villa in last season’s final.

Neither Wojciech Szczesny or David Ospina has been completely convincing between the posts for Arsenal, with many pundits believing Wenger needed to sign a top-class goalkeeper if the Gunners were to challenge for the Premier League title.

Prior to Cech’s move across London, Chelsea captain, John Terry said he would improve Arsenal, who finished third in the Premier League last season, by 12 to 15 points.

“If they (Arsenal) do get Pete, that will strengthen them for sure. He will save them 12 to 15 points a season.”

Arsenal finished 12 points behind Chelsea last season.

Former Gunners goalkeeper Bob Wilson, also speaking before the transfer was confirmed, was in no doubt of Cech’s quality.

“So, he’s 33 now, he still has five or six seasons of greatness in him and he is going to give Arsenal that assurance at the back that they really need,” Wilson, a member of the Gunners side that won the “Double” in the 1970/71 season, said.

“When a side wins the league it starts with the man at the back and usually when a side wins the league the goalkeeper usually has an amazing season.

“You know, people will look at the two who are there — Wojciech Szczesny and David Ospina — and the point really is that if you can improve your team in any way you’d be fools not to do it,” Wilson added. [myad]

Nollywood Actress, Chika Ike, Celebrates 6-Month Of No Sex

Greenbarge Reporters

June 29, 2015

Nollywood actress, Chika Ike is currently celebrating staying five months without sex. The divorcee actress took to her Instagram page to celebrate the milestone.

It would be recalled that after a long separation from her ex husband, Tony Eberiri, the Nollywood screen goddess filed a divorce suit at an Abuja High Court in July, 2013 and she has since then moved on with her life.

The actress, who was recently linked with a top lawmaker in the country wrote thus: “Hi Guys! I must say it’s not easy being celibate… Five months and still counting….wow!! I’ll be in bed all day, Hugging my pillows…. Lol.” [myad]

Governor El-Rufai Appoints Female As Chief Of Staff

Greenbarge Reporters

June 29, 2015

Governor Nasir El-Rufia of Kaduna State has appointed a female member of All Progressives Congress (APC), Hadiza Bala Usman as his Chief of Staff.

Hadiza Usman, has worked for the APC under different capacities and had served under a number of committees. She was the Administrative Secretary of the Buhari Presidential Campaign Organization and member APC Strategy Committee, among others.

Similarly, during the gubernatorial campaign of El-Rufai, she was Director of Finance in the Campaign Organization, and later the Kaduna State APC Campaign Council.

Hadiza Usman was also one of the brains behind the campaign for the rescue of the over 200 kidnapped Chibok Girls in Borno state. She started the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls which went viral on the social media. [myad]

Stuck In The Mud, By Dan Agbese

Greenbarge Reporters

June 29, 2015

I welcomed APC as the cure for our political headache. Now it has become our political headache. When I look up, I see my hands up in the air in despair. It does not feel good.
The party appears to be offering itself as an offensive disappointment to the millions of its supporters who believe in it and its leadership. It has so far proved inept in handling the leadership crises in the national assembly. It caused the crises in the first place. We are all victims of the ineptitude. An anxious nation is on tenterhooks. If a party cannot enforce discipline among its members, it cannot build cohesiveness and offer a united front in tackling the problems the people and the nation face – and expect President Buhari, more than anyone else to have the courage and the commitment to tackle them.
Some of us may find what the party is doing to itself at the national assembly amusing. We gotta laugh only to cry. It threatens to cripple the progress we have made so far with sixteen years of unbroken civil rule under our belt. If you can afford to laugh at that, then your sense of fun is in a free fall.
The sight of the honourable members of the House of Representatives going at one another last week did not bother me. Italian legislators were quite good at this sort of thing. Flying chairs and flying fists were part of the legislative fun, Italiana.
The house members added comic relief to the sad saga in the national assembly. It was not the first time that they settled their argument that way. Ask Senator Dino Melaye, former member of the House of Representatives. Nigerians who are old enough would remember the pictures of honourable members of the Western House scrambling through windows for dear life in the first republic. The rule appears to be that if it takes fisticuffs to settle a legislative argument, then give the fists a chance. If it takes a few broken heads and torn clothes to make our lawmakers honourable men and women, then so be it.
The honourable members whose clothes were torn to shreds have nothing to worry about. They have a dress war chest at public expense. Yes, we feed them; we house them; we provide them with state of the art cars, we clothe them and we put oodles in their pockets. It is the way the cookie stands.
So, what exactly is happening to APC, the party in which the nation has invested its hopes in legitimate changes that would at least begin the delicate and tortuous process of rebuilding our nation? The answer begs not to be ignored. Within only one month of taking over, the green field of hope is turning into the brown colours of a dim future for the party and its millions of supporters. Everyone can see that the party is riven because no one seems to know any longer who is driving it. Its leadership is shaky now at best.
All right, Chief John Oyegun is the national chairman of the party but I wonder who listens to him. The members of the party in the national assembly treat him with contempt. Senate president, Dr Bukola Saraki, would not even condescend to read Oyegun’s letter to his colleagues in the national assembly in which the man conveyed to the senators the considered thinking of the party in the sharing of leadership positions in the senate. I wonder what name we have for this. Legislative arrogance?
Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu is the national leader of the party but like Oyegun, he is sidelined and similarly treated with contempt by the honourable members elected on the platform of the party.
Their treatment of President Buhari is not pretty either. They make the man look detached from the realities and the crises his party is going through that threaten to either cage him or cripple him or both.
The legislators are clearly questioning the right of their party to give them legitimate instructions on how it should go about its business. It would be difficult to find anything more disappointing. This is not, in my view, a dawn in legislative independence. In their macho ambition to assert their so-called independence, the APC members of the national assembly appear to forget that political parties, being the only legitimate platforms for elective offices, are the primary custodians of the democratic culture. All cultures are nurtured. What the honourable members do to their leaders today have implications and ramifications well beyond these times. It may, if not properly handled and checkmated, force the party to look into the water and see the unpleasant face of its uncertain future staring back at it. The word doom pops up. [myad]

Buhari Is Cleaning Up The Mess Into Which PDP Threw Nigeria – Femi Adesina

Greenbarge Reporters

June 28, 2015

Special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Femi Adesina has said that what the President in the last 30 days has been doing is to clean up the socio-economic and political mess into which Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) 16-year old government had thrown Nigeria.

Reacting to the PDP assessment of President Buhari in his 30 days in office as contained in a statement issued earlier today by the national publicity secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh, Adesina said that Nigerians had teamed up to uproot an administration that had brought the country to her knees, and was about to tip her off the precipice.

“And Nigerians have resolved that never would they allow any government to divide them along regional, religious and ethnic fault lines again.

“The Buhari administration is naturally contemplative because there was absolutely no rhyme or reason to the way PDP ran the country, particularly in the immediate past dispensation. That is why the Augean Stable is being cleaned now, and it requires scrupulous and painstaking planning. Across all sectors, our national life was devalued, and it takes meticulousness and sure-footedness to repair all the breaches. This, the Buhari administration will deliver.”

Metuh had asked Nigerians to join hands in prayers for the government, so that things would begin to move, but Adesina responded that what he did not know is that Nigerians had long formed such coalition and that they are hands in hands, leading to victory to President Buhari in the March 28, 2015 poll.

To Metuh’s saying that people around the President are conniving with bureaucrats to siphon money from the treasury, Adesina said: “This must be deja vu, as it was the pastime of the immediate past administration, and the enormity of the sleaze will be evident when stolen money, to the tune of billions of dollars, is recovered, and returned to the national treasury soon.

“In the process of time, after all that is being planned by the current administration has matured, and bearing fruits, Nigerians will be able to determine who is serving them acceptably, and who has taken them for a ride. It is just a matter of time.”

The President spokesman said that Metuh and his masters can only rue the missed opportunities to make salutary impact on the lives of Nigerians, adding that they have a long road of regrets to travel. [myad]

I Will Confront Boko Haram To The Last Man, Buhari Vows: Condemns Latest Attacks

Greenbarge Reporters

June 28, 2015

President Muhammadu Buhari has made it clear that his government would never tolerate blackmail from members of Boko Haram, even as he assured that the nation’s security forces would confront them to the last man.

President Buhari who condemned in the strongest language, the latest Boko Haram’s attacks on Borno and Yobe communities extended his sympathy to the families of the victims.

A statement today in Abuja, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Malam Garba Shehu, quoted the President as saying that he was deeply touched by these mindless incidents of violence on innocent people during the month of Ramadan.

In what appears to be one of his toughest expressions of outrage, President Buhari reminded the terrorists of his uncompromising resolve to tackle them with all the resources at the disposal of his government.

“Make no mistake about it: this government is ever determined to discharge its fundamental duty of protecting the lives of its citizens from physical threats from any groups bent on creating chaos, confusion, and on destroying social and economic life of the people.”

Describing terrorists as “cowards who lack any moral inhibition and any iota of humanity to reason compassionately” warned that they would not find Nigeria a safe haven, because “they would be “hunted down without mercy and compromise.”

He reassured Nigerians that security would be tackled by his administration with vigorous determination.

According to President Buhari, the terrorists are enemies of everybody, and enemies of humanity everywhere, explaining that no sane people who believe in any god would be destroying the lives of innocent people in cold blood.

Buhari insisted that the Boko Haram terrorists don’t represent any religion, adding that the pattern of their indiscriminate violence against innocent people shows that they represent nothing else but anarchy and devilry.

The President also called on Nigerians to show more vigilance and be alert to the presence of suspicious people around them, adding that “the terrorists are enemies of religion and humanity.”

He explained that “no true believers in any God would target worshipers, holy places, or people who are fasting and other innocent Nigerians.” [myad]

Nobody Loves President Buhari More Than Me, Senate President, Saraki Claims

Greenbarge Reporters

June 28, 2015

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has made it clear that no one loves President Muhammadu Buhari more than him, even as he confessed that he quit his presidential bid in the 2015 election for the President.

Saraki said that he contributed immensely to the emergence of Buhari as President and contributed greatly to his victory in the presidential election held on March 28, 2015.

The Senate President, who spoke to select journalists in an interview in Abuja yesterday, also denied having plans to dump the All Progressives Congress (APC) due to the ongoing crisis in the party over his leadership of the Senate.

“I was the first person that stepped down his political ambition, once General Buhari announced that he was going to contest the presidential election. And since then, prior to the period of election, I worked tirelessly to support his emergence.

“Even some of my friends who are not supporting me now are doing so because I did not support them in their presidential ambition and that I supported President Buhari. That is why I find it funny that the same people are now claiming to love Buhari more than me. It is a very funny world.

“These are people that I was begging to leave the stage for Buhari to run since all of us are young. They are now the one going round to say that Saraki did not like Buhari but time will tell.”

This is Saraki’s first personal response to the ongoing crisis that is trailing his controversial emergence as the President of the Senate on June 9. Saraki had led a faction of APC senators, under the auspices of the Like Minds Senators, to defy the party’s choice of Ahmad Lawan as the Senate President.

In what many have described as a ‘coup’, the pro-Saraki group had allied with the opposition lawmakers in the Peoples Democratic Party to make Saraki leader of the upper chamber of the legislature in the absence over 50 APC senators.

Explaining what happened on the National Assembly leadership election day, Saraki said he smuggled himself into the chamber on the day the 8th Assembly was inaugurated when he became aware of an alleged plan to abduct and prevent him from standing for the Senate presidential election

The Senate President also defended his absence from the International Conference Centre venue of a proposed meeting between President Buhari and APC lawmakers on the day of the election.

He insisted that he did not receive any invitation for the meeting.

“As regards the meeting, on the morning of the inauguration, I didn’t finish meeting until 4am of that day and I had got information that efforts would likely be made to make sure that I didn’t get access into the chambers.

He said the plan before was that senators-elect should go to the Transcorp Hilton Hotel around 8:00am and 9:00am to proceed to the National Assembly.

The Senate President said he was, however, advised against going to the chamber at the scheduled time as there were plans to stop him from being part of the day’s proceedings.

Saraki said he got into the National Assembly Complex as early as 6:00am and stayed in a car in the car park from then till quarter to 10:00am. He noted that all through the period, there was no communication to him.

“So, anybody who said they spoke to me to go the ICC was not true because I didn’t even know what was going on. All I was monitoring was how people were arriving at the complex. It was at quarter to 10:00am that I got information that the Clerk to the National Assembly had entered the chamber.” [myad]

Otuoke University Vice Chancellor In Trouble; Asked To Refund Millions Of Naira Overpaid Salaries

Greenbarge Reporters

June 28, 2015

Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Otuoke (FUO), Bayelsa State, Professor Mobolaji Aluko is in trouble with the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, which has directed him to refund over-payment of salaries running into millions of naira.

The Commission also directed the Registrar of the university, David Suowari, to refund cumulatively the sum of N130,692.71 per month in excess of his due salary.

The over-payments were said to have been discovered during the commission’s visit to the institution on May 12, 2015 to carry out inspection of FUO’s remuneration practices vis-a-vis the extant government’s pay policy.

The VC and the Registrar were accused of appropriating certain allowances to themselves that were not approved by the government.

These concerns were raised in a letter from NSIWC to Aluko, signed for the Chairman of the Commission by the Director of Compensation, Chike Ogbechie.

The commission said: “The findings of the inspection in respect of your institution (Federal University, Otuoke) were as follows:

“The Vice-Chancellor was being paid total emoluments of N1,970,476.76 monthly, whereas he should not earn more than N922,810.23 if he were paid furniture allowance en bloc earlier, or N1,043,176.79 if he were being paid furniture allowance.

“Much of the difference was attributed to certain allowances which were not approved by the government.”

In the case of the Registrar, the commission said the Registrar was being paid N130,692.71 in excess of his due salary of N502,580.25.

The commission also said the university disaggregated its staff salaries, against government’s policy of pay consolidation.
The NSIWC, therefore, directed the university to stop “the wrongful practices” and comply with relevant rules and rates, adding: “we hereby direct the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar to refund the cumulative overpayments made to them.” [myad]

Kidnapped Kogi High Court Judge Freed, But Yet To Be Released To Family – Police

Greenbarge Reporters

June 28, 2015

The Kogi High Court Judge, Justice Samuel Obayomi, who was abducted on May 25, has been released by the kidnappers, after spending 34 days in their custody, but as at today, he is yet to be released to his family as the police have taken him to a safe place.

Obayomi, who is a resident High Court Judge of Ebogogo in Adavi Local Government Area of Kogi State, was abducted at about 8:45am on his way to the office by the gang, who were reportedly all dressed in black.

During the kidnap operation, the judge’s police orderly, Usman Musa, was shot dead on the spot while the kidnappers drove the judge away in his Toyota Yaris car. The gang later demanded N150m ransom for the judge’s release.

In protest against the continued captivity of the judge, lawyers in the state withdrew from court sessions. This was even as the state Governor, Captain Idris Wada, promised a bounty of N5m to anybody with useful information leading to the rescue of the judge.

Chief Judge of the state, Justice Nasir Ajanah also confirmed the release of the judge and expressed gratitude to God.

“We thank God for his release but I cannot give you more information than you already have,” he said.

It would also be recalled that before his abduction, the Judge had just been discharged from the hospital, after three months on admission, following his involvement in a fatal automobile accident. [myad]

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