With barely six months to the end of the administration, the Plateau State Government has sent a supplementary budget of N23.4 billion to the State House of Assembly for consideration and approval. In the proposed budget, supply and fixing of curtains, blinds, customised cutleries and other items at the new government House will be awarded to a foreign firm at the cost of N442,289,600. According to the estimates obtained from the State House of Assembly today, Road networks, purchase of official vehicles, and other projects at the new Government House at Little Rayfield, will gulp N4.2bn. Other items to be covered by the supplementary budget, are procurement of a Toyota Land Cruiser model vehicle for the Chief Judge of Plateau State at the cost of N25,625,675.68 and also the purchase of a Toyota Corolla for the Chief Registrar, Plateau State judiciary at the cost of N7,545,398,68. Also the completion of existing road projects all over the state, Office of SSG at the new government house and provision of infrastructure and office equipment at the new office of the Board of Internal Revenue is expected to gulp N13bn, while N1.5bn was budgeted to the State Water board The rest of the estimates computed and collated from all ministries, agencies and departments of government were put at N12,400,979,524. Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Olivia Dazem, said the budget is meant to complete the existing projects before the exit of the current administration, adding: “In view of the need to meet additional developmental efforts of the present administration in project execution, a supplementary budget in respect of some ministries, agencies and departments have become very necessary.” She said all the estimates were carefully and realistically computed and duly considered by the state executive council and that priority areas were given adequate attention in the proposed supplementary budget.
It was a drama in the senate today when members of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) roundly voted in favour of President Goodluck Jonathan’s request of $1billion (about N160 Billion) external loan to fight the ongoing insurgency in the country while the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) turned down the request. Subsequently, the loan request sailed through, via majority voice vote. The approval came today shortly after the chairman of the Senate Joint Committee on Finance and that of Local and Foreign Debt, Senator Ahmed Makarfi submitted the report of the committee. The chairman said that the loan request was not in cash but through the supply of military hardware to be paid for over seven years. He said the interest terms rate could not be indicated because it was the suppliers of the military hardware that would negotiate such agreement. “Also, the request is for a ceiling of $1bn and not that, at the moment, the whole amount would be utilised. “Government will procure on the terms stated, based on needs assessment of our security agencies.” The drama began from the moment the Senate President, David Mark; his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu and Makarfi asked their colleagues not to subject the report to a debate because of its security implications. But the Senate Minority Leader, Senator George Akume; Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi; and Babafemi Ojudu laboured in vain to frustrate the approval of the loan. Adetunmbi quoted relevant sections of the Nigerian constitution to argue that the loan request contradicted the Appropriation Act, and Fiscal Responsibility Act. He further argued that Jonathan should have requested for the loan through a supplementary appropriation bill. However, Makarfi clarified that Adetunmbi’s arguments were not relevant to the matter because the loan was not in cash. He said the National Assembly would be contacted by the executive for necessary appropriation whenever it was time to repay the loan in cash. Senator Mark therefore called for a voice vote to determine the approval or rejection of the loan. Members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the upper chamber voted in support while their counterpart in the All Progressives Congress (APC) voted against it.
Following a fresh attack by unidentified political thugs today on a High Court Judge in Ado-Ekiti, all courts in Ekiti State have been shut down indefinitely. A statement today from the state’s Chief Registrar, Mr. Obafemi Fasanmi, said the decision to shut down the courts was taken by the Chief Judge of the State, Justice Ayodeji Daramola, to safeguard the lives of judicial workers and litigants having matters in courts. “It would be recalled that on Monday, 22, some political thugs invaded the High Court Number 6 in Ado-Ekiti where Justice Olusegun Ogunyemi was presiding. “His sitting for that day was disrupted and aborted and the Judge had to be ferried away by a detachment of police officers after he had been harassed and chased around his office by the thugs. “Again today, Thursday, 25th September 2014, another set of political thugs in their hundreds invaded the High Court premises in Ado-Ekiti and in the process assaulted Hon. Justice John Adeyeye of the High Court Number 3 in Ado-Ekiti by beating him up and tearing his suit into shreds while the police officers on guard looked unconcerned and uninterested as judges, magistrates and other members of staff had to run for their dear lives, while court properties were either damaged or destroyed.” The statement said that the office of the CJ was not spared as some documents were also torn, adding that because of all these, the courts in the state would reopen when adequate security is guaranteed judges, magistrates, judicial workers, litigants and other users. Tension in the state has been on the rise since matters relating to the June 21 poll are being handled by courts.
President Goodluck Jonathan has assured the international community that next year’s general elections in Nigeria will be conducted in accordance with global best practices to further strengthen the country’s democratic institutions. At separate meetings with the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki Moon and the British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron before leaving New York late Wednesday, President Jonathan reaffirmed his personal commitment to making elections in Nigeria progressively better, freer and more credible. The President said that in keeping with his administration’s dedication to openness and transparency in the conduct of public affairs, international observers will be allowed to freely monitor the 2015 elections and affirm that the elections are as free, fair and credible as his administration has promised. He thanked Mr. Ban Ki Moon and Mr. Cameron for their continuing support for Nigeria’s effort to curb terrorism, insurgency and violent extremism within its borders, saying that the Federal Government will welcome even more assistance from Britain especially in the areas of intelligence sharing, anti- terrorism training and defence logistics. At a later meeting with the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Margaret Chan, President Jonathan expressed Nigeria’s appreciation of the support it received from WHO for the successful containment of the Ebola Virus Disease. Affirming that Nigeria was now Ebola-free, President Jonathan called for greater international support to ensure that the virus is also eradicated in other West Africa countries that it continues to ravage. “Nigeria is free of the virus now but we know that to be permanently free from it, we must remain vigilant and work with WHO and the international community to eradicate it completely from our sub-region and forestall the possibility of its re-emergence on our shores through migration,” he told Dr. Chan. President Jonathan also assured her that in spite of hindrances by insurgents, terrorists and violent extremists, the Federal Government remained fully committed to eradicating polio from Nigeria in the shortest possible time. Dr. Chan and Mr. Ban Ki Moon seized the opportunity of their meeting with President Jonathan to commend his exemplary leadership on Nigeria’s successful effort to stop the spreading of the Ebola Virus.
Former Vice President and chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar being presented to the public during his declaration to contest the 2015 presidential election under the platform of the APC at the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja on Wednesday.
President Goodluck Jonathan has admitted before the United Nations Security Council High-Level Meeting on the Threat of Terrorism to Global Peace and Security, that over 13,000 people have been killed by members of the outlawed Boko Haram in Nigeria, even as communities have also been razed, and hundreds of persons kidnapped, the most prominent being the innocent girls from Chibok Secondary School, in North East Nigeria.
The President who addressed the world body today in New York, the United States of America said that these are parts of the cost of fighting terrorism, which he said, are high.
He emphasised the urgent need for the world to act fast and stop the troubling new phenomenon of terrorists and foreign fighters attacking and trying to hold parts of sovereign nations.
President Jonathan said that the international community must also do more to support countries like Nigeria which are in the frontline of the war against terrorism.
“There is no doubt that foreign fighters have added a troubling dimension to this emerging phase of terrorism. From targeted attacks by Al Qaeda a few years ago, we now have mobile bands of thousands of terrorists sweeping across vast areas, destroying lives, and even attempting to hold territory. This is unacceptable; we must act now.
“We must capitalize on the commitment and evident determination of the Security Council to seek more innovative responses to the threat of terrorism and in particular to the growing menace of foreign fighters.
“The Council should be concerned about the existence of sources of arming and funding terrorists. Evidence has shown that Boko Haram, for instance, is resourced largely from outside our country.
“We must also commit to ensuring that countries which are in the frontline of this challenge, receive adequate support from the international community.
“Only by united action and firm resolve can we check this raging threat to humanity, and also build the enduring structures that will resist their re-emergence,” President Jonathan said.
The President told the Security Council that his Administration has continued to confront the menace of terrorism with unrelenting determination and that the Federal Government has also evolved initiatives to alleviate the plight of people in affected communities.
“Nigeria knows too well the destructive effects of terrorist activities. Over the past five years, we have been, and are still confronting threats posed by Boko Haram to peace and stability predominantly in the North Eastern part of our country.
“As daunting as the challenge may be, we have faced it with unrelenting determination, mobilising all the resources at our disposal to ensure that the scourge of terrorism is rooted out of our nation. In addition to our counterterrorism efforts, we have evolved initiatives to alleviate the plight of the population in the affected communities.
“These include a holistic effort through the Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE) which is aimed at providing immediate relief and fast tracking the infrastructural re-development of the region. It also has as a core goal, an integrated effort at achieving the de-radicalisation of potential terrorist recruits.
“We have also launched a Victims Support Fund which has already raised about 500 million dollars of the expected minimum of one billion dollars in direct support of the victims of acts of terrorism. This is in addition to the Safe Schools Initiative championed by Mr. Gordon Brown, former British Prime Minister and currently the UN Special Envoy for Global Education which is being rigorously supported by Nigeria’s Federal Government,” he said. [myad]
Former Nigerian Vice President, Abubakar Atiku has given a run-down of how the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo ran the government of Nigeria with him from 1999 to 2007. Speaking Wednesday when he declared his Presidential ambition on the platform of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar regretted that all the gains they made for Nigeria have been reduced to emptiness by the present crop of leadership. “As Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, I worked closely with my boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is also a passionate defender of Nigerian unity. We re-integrated our country into the international community following years of isolation; we professionalized our armed forces; we embarked on fundamental economic reforms articulated by an Economic Team, which I had the honour to chair. We focused on macro-economic stability and transforming critical areas such as banking, insurance, oil and gas, telecommunication, pension and the Civil Service. We created novel institutions that should lay the foundation for good governance and accountability such as the Bureau of Procurement (Due Process), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), SERVICOM, whose Golden rule is “Serve others as you would like to be served.” Atiku emphasized most of such achievements have now been turned into mere shadows of themselves. “We also paid off nearly all of our foreign debt which was crippling the country; we stabilized the exchange rate of the naira as well as interest rates, and reduced inflation. What needed to follow was for these macro-economic gains to be further translated into improved welfare for our people. With the reforms in the telecommunications sector we increased the number of functioning telephone lines from 200,000 at the inception of our administration to over 70 million by the time we left. Our reforms also led to an increase in the market capitalization of the Nigerian Stock Exchange from N400 billion to over N8 trillion by 2007 and to nearly N13 trillion by 2008. “We also handed over well-articulated master Plans for the development of multi-modal transportation system, including a contract for the modernization of the railways. We also commenced the implementation of the Gas to Power Master Plan, with a target of 26,000 megawatts of electricity expected to be delivered by 2015. “This is the story of the service of an administration, which I am proud to have been a part of. These achievements were made possible because of the vision, commitment and dedication of leadership.” Atiku made it clear that good leadership is what it takes to make good things happen. [myad]
Former Nigerian Vice President has narrated the story of his birth and early life which he said is similar to the story of many people of his generation. Atiku, while formally declaring his intention to contest the 2015 Presidential election on the platform of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), at the Shehu Musa Yar’aduda Centre in Abuja on Wednesday said that he was born in a southern Adamawa village to a nomadic trader and his wife who was a farmer. “I grew up as a shepherd and a farm boy. I was the only child of my parents. My father had to be imprisoned by Local Council authorities before he could allow me to go to school. “At 11, I lost my father and my whole world fell apart. With the help of my mother, other relatives and friends of my father, I pulled myself up from this doldrums and despair. I faced the future with uncommon confidence, hope and faith in God. “I am where I am today because I did not give up. I struggled to acquire a good education because the opportunity was made available. Most people never had a chance and their potentials were never discovered and their contributions to national development thus curtailed.” Atiku said that he is worried today that too many of the young people who could have improved their lives and that of this nation have not been getting the opportunities to do so. He said that the 20 years that he spent in the Nigerian public service, he was able to build a solid reputation for himself as a diligent, honest, hardworking and innovative staff, adding that he retired as an accomplished and fulfilled public servant. “That is what every Nigerian who had diligently served this country deserves and not dehumanization, humiliation and neglect.” The former Vice President said that he became politically active in 1987 because his imagination was captured by a leader, Late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who started with persistent determination and diligence to construct bridges of understanding and love across the ethno-religious divides inherent in our society. “He convinced all of us who were bold to defy the status quo to participate in his noble passion. We were convinced that it was the only way to preserve our national unity and establish a structure of peace necessary for national development. Even after his death, we have continued with renewed vigour to pursue this dream. “My politics have always been guided by the enduring values of fairness and justice, honesty of purpose, the pursuit of excellence, selflessness and the love for my country.”These values also characterize my conduct in business.” [myad]
Author of a biography of President Goodluck Jonathan in the person of Professor Matthew Uzukwu has said that he was moved to write the book to correct some distortions about the President. “For one, the opposition is fund of making derogatory remarks about him; that he is weak. That he is not governing the country well and in the cause of my research, I discovered most of that descriptions are not true. To me, even though I am not his spokesperson, in my view and many may think I’m biased, but I am coming from a point of objectivity, because I would have added the negative aspects as well if it were true. But he has performed creditably well in the economy and there are facts to back up his performance.” The book, titled: Moving Forward, was launched on Tuesday night at The Pierre Hotel, in New York City, United States of America. It was spearheaded by House 2 House organization, mainly to correct the distortions of his achievements and to deliberately reintroduce him to a larger global audience. Professor Uzukwu said that the book judiciously integrates the President’s personal narrative from his humble beginnings in 1957, in Otuoke in Ogbia local government area to 1998, just before the onset of his political career, with his professional narrative from his election in 1999 as Deputy Governor to his current full term as the President of Nigeria. According to Uzukwu, who is an adjunct Professor of Operations Management at Bowie University, Maryland, USA: “I found out that there are lot of misinformation about Mr. President and so I decided to research about the man and his life; to know his achievements and try to correct some of the distortions about him and I thought to add his personal story to it as well so that it will be a complete book.” In his remarks, the Chairman Board of Trustees of House 2 House Initiative, Dr. Reuben Jaja said it decided to take the message of the President’s performance to all communities in the country with regards to the transformation agenda and why he should be given a second term to continue.
“It is to ensure our electorates are well informed that they should vote for performance should he decide to run. There are about 8,000 organisations that are asking him to run and they span from the south to the north, saying that Nigeria is better off today under his leadership and should be allowed to continue.
“We decided to take ours to another level because we believe that the diasporans have contributed enormously in supporting the nation’s economy. We are the only campaign
organisation that decided to write a book of our president so that people will know him better from his birth up to date.
“Our diasporans are intellectuals and they understand what the President has done and will help us share with the international community”.
At another event at the sideline of the ongoing 69th United Nation’s General Assembly, Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Canada, Chief Ojo Madukwe, has said that Nigeria’s economy will go beyond being among the top 20 economies in the world with President Jonathan’s continuation in 2015.
At a dinner organised by the Leadership centre in New York Tuesday night, Madukwe , who noted that good leadership should be celebrated said since 1999 Nigeria had moved progressively into the promised land.
He said, “But in every journey to the promised land, when a Moses commences, a Joshua completes. So, I believe that the progress we have made since 1999 shows that the leadership that a Moses provided to move us away from Egypt, take us through the land of the wilderness including tough decision that has to be taken because the journey through the wilderness is not a polite journey because of the tough decisions that has to be taken. “A Joshua has now come to finally take us to the promised land, and that Joshua is President Goodluck Jonathan. We are not just sighting the promised land we are about entering into it. Extraordinary things are happening in the power sector. If with 4,000 megawatt we are already a leading economy in Africa and the demand profile is 40,000 megawatts you can imagine what will happen if we can have 40,000. It means under President Jonathan the economy will be among the best in the world in the life time of even the older ones here. “We shall see Nigeria move beyond being among the 20 economies in the world to one of the top in the world. So, I want to salute the courage and the wisdom for the organisation and the mobilisation of those in the US. This is not just another gathering to sell a man and say nice things about a man in the office and then when the person goes, it goes with him. The transformation agenda, the dynamics of Goodluck Jonathan is a subject matter for continuous reflection long after he has served the constitutional two terms of which he has a right to and we the party has unanimously endorsed”.
In his remarks, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Senator Philip Aduda, who represented President Jonathan at the event, described as a general practise worldwide the endorsement of the President as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) sole candidate, saying there is nowhere in the world that a sitting president is denied his party’s ticket.
Aduda said what PDP did by endorsing the president as its sole candidate was to give him the first right of refusal, which, according to him, Jonathan deserves having done very well for the country, especially in the area of infrastructure. Aduda said, “I want to also thank the PDP leadership, from the national working committee to the NEC as well as the BoT for deeming it fit to endorse Mr. President. It is a general practise the world over that no sitting president as in the case of President Jonathan that would be refused the ticket of the party. He is supposed to be given the first right of refusal, afterwards he can carry on and the party did the right thing in giving him this right of refusal by endorsing him. “He has done very well for the country, especially in the area of infrastructure. Never has a president injected funds in the development of infrastructure like President Jonathan has done in the past few years. First, it was the privatisation of the power sector. What other past administration could not dare, the Jonathan administration dared it. The president ensured the unbundling of the PHCN and ensured that it was privatised, while the Transmission Company of Nigeria was also given on contract to be managed by Manitoba and a Canadian company to make sure that our transmission grid is taken care of”. Aduda also appealed to the media to send out only balance reports about the government in order not to create room for the opposition to mischievously project government in bad light. “As much as possible, whatever the media writes is either against the system or it makes the system better. So, there must be a balancing act to ensure that nothing but the truth is reported in order that the image of our country is properly placed in the committee of nations.” [myad]
Two members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have dragged President Goodluck Jonathan to a Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital, asking it to declare that the President is not eligible to seek for a re-election.
In the suit which was entered before the court by four Senior Advocates of Nigeria, the plaintiffs, Adejumo Mansouru Ajagbe (a member of the PDP from Lagos State) and Olatoye Wahab (a member of the APC from Osun State), also joined the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, as defendants.
The plaintiffs maintained that going by the 1999 Constitution (as amended), President Jonathan, having contested the presidential election twice, won and taken the oath of office and allegiance twice in respect that office, they argued that he could no longer present himself for election to that office the third time.
They specifically relied on the provisions of sections 132(1), 135(2)(a) and (b), 137(1)(b), 142(1) and (2) and the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Marwa and Nyako (2012) 6 NWLR (Part 1296) 199 at 306. [myad]
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It was a drama in the senate today when members of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) roundly voted in favour of President Goodluck Jonathan’s request of $1billion (about N160 Billion) external loan to fight the ongoing insurgency in the country while the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) turned down the request. Subsequently, the loan request sailed through, via majority voice vote.
