The National Economic Council, made up of the federal and 36 state governments and their commissioners of finance has admitted that government at all levels have been collecting taxes against the Nigerian law. The government feels so guilty that it has now directed the Inspector General of Police to dismantle all road blocks’ mounted on highways for revenue collection.
Rising from a meeting presided over by Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja today, the Council agreed with the Ministerial Implementation Committee (MIC) on the harmonization of taxes that the 1998 taxes and levies Act is overdue for review.
The Council, whose resolutions were read to newsmen by governors Willie Obiano of Anambra state, Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe state and other top financial persons also agreed that there has been duplication of some taxes and levies at states and local government levels, noting that taxes and levies administered by some states are not backed by appropriation legislation. The Council equally agreed with recommendations of the Ministerial Implementation Council for the discontinuation of the practice of using non-revenue officials for collection of taxes and levies by states and federal agencies “as this is contrary to Section 2 of the taxes and levies Act.” The Council then directed that all states revenue boards should be empowered to automate their tax operations for effectiveness, process, and accountability thereby and reducing leakages.
“NEC directs the Inspector General of police to dismantle all ‘road blocks’ mounted on highways for revenue collection. NEC further resolved that the MIC committee should work with the following states Attorney Generals, representing the 6-geopolitical zones to incorporate the inputs and comments of the members of the council and report in the next meeting. “The Zonal representatives are as follows: Enugu for South-East, Lagos for South-West Bayelsa for South-South, Plateau for North-Central, Kebbi for North-West and Borno for North-East.”
The MIC report was presented by the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service on behalf of the CME/HM finance. Th MIC was set up following report of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to NEC on multiple taxation across the Federation at various levels and it’s effect on the Nigerian Economy. [myad]
Another nurse, Obi Justina Ejelonu, who attended to Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American Ebola carrier who flew to Nigeria on his way to attend a conference in Calabar, has died.
Justina was reported dead today in Lagos where she was returned and quarantined after fleeing the observation centre to meet her husband with whom they newly married, in Enugu. Her husband too is now under observation. Until her death, the outdpoken nurse was at the center of a campaign to get the Zmapp experimental drugs to Ebola victims in Nigeria. John Okiyi-Kalu started the Internet campaign a few days ago.
Meanwhile, the minister of health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu has clarified issues surrounding the Ebola disease in the country. The statement from the minister goes thus:
Nigeria has now recorded ten (10) confirmed cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). Out of these, four (4) have died and eight (6) are currently under treatment. (It is important to note that the number of confirmed cases remains ten (10) as at today and not eleven (11) as earlier announced this morning. We regret the error which arose from double counting in the process of communicating the additional death from the operational centre in Lagos to the Federal Ministry of Health). The fourth death recorded today was a Nigerian nurse who participated in the initial management of the index case.
The total number of persons under surveillance in Lagos is now 169. These are all secondary contacts as all the primary contacts have completed the 21-day incubation period and have been delisted to resume their normal lives.
Enugu State now has 6 persons under surveillance as 15 after complete evaluation were found not to have had contact with the nurse, a primary contact of the index case who became symptomatic and tested positive and is one of the 10 confirmed cases. The nurse who had been placed under surveillance in Lagos disobeyed the Incidence Management Committee and travelled to Enugu. At the time she made the trip, she was yet to show any symptom and did not infect anyone on her way as transmission of the disease is only possible when a carrier of the virus becomes ill. However, she has since been brought back to Lagos. Before the return journey, she had become symptomatic and had to be conveyed to Lagos with her spouse in special ambulances. The husband is not symptomatic neither is he positive for Ebola Virus Disease but has been quarantined given the intimate contact with her while in Enugu.
It is therefore important to emphasise that there is no Ebola Virus Disease in Enugu. All cases are still confined to Lagos State. Also, reports of Ebola Virus Disease in Abia, Imo, Akwa Ibom and Anambra States as well as the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja have all been investigated and none of them was found to be Ebola Virus positive.
On Monday the 11th August, 2014 the Honourable Minister of Health convened an Emergency National Council on Health (NCH) Meeting as Chairman, with the Minister of State for Health, the Commissioners for Health in the 36 States and the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. The meeting reviewed the state of preparedness of the country to contain the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease and resolved on actions to be taken.
In furtherance of the national containment efforts, President Goodluck Jonathan himself convened a meeting of the 36 State Governors and the Minister of the FCTA, Commissioners for Health and the Secretary of Health of the FCTA on 13th August. The meeting was briefed by the Minister of Health, the Project Director of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), and the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Nigeria. The Governor of Lagos State also briefed the meeting on the situation in Lagos. Each State of the Federation and the FCTA reported on the status of their preparedness to prevent and mitigate the disease through their Commissioner of Health and the Secretary of Health in FCTA. The vast majority of the States were fully prepared while a few others are in the process of completing all the requirements.
Since the last press briefing, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Labour and Productivity have met with the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) to secure their buy-in on the strategy to contain the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak.
The private sector stakeholders and Foundations are also showing interest in containing the EVD outbreak and here today, there will be a special announcement by the Dangote Foundation.
It is also important to note the laboratories where specimen can be taken for laboratory analysis. They are:
a. NCDC Laboratory at LUTH, Idi-Araba Lagos
b. NCDC Laboratory at Asokoro, Abuja
c. Redeemer’s University Laboratory, Lagos-Shagamu Express Way
d. UCH Laboratory, Ibadan
Let me once again reassure Nigerians that the Government is working hard to ensure the containment of the outbreak. [myad]
President Goodluck Jonathan has directed that resumption of primary and secondary schools across the country be put on hold.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Youth and Students Matters, Jude Imagwe, disclosed this in Abuja yesterday.
But he did not state how long the students would be made to stay at home following the directive.
He said the President was wary of the danger of the disease to the nation’s future generation and as a result ordered that the schools remained on holiday till the country finds a way out of the outbreak.
“He advised that as a President he did not desire that our secondary and primary schools should be opened at this critical time because we have high population of young brothers and sisters who want to see themselves grow from primary and graduate tomorrow.
“We cannot have what it takes to have eye on each of these brothers and sisters, the future of this country in their classes,” Imagwe said.
Imagwe spoke at a one-day forum on Tertiary Institutions Students Health Insurance Programme organised by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and national Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Abuja. [myad]
Brazilian presidential candidate, Eduardo Campos, 49, has died today in a small plane that was carrying him and others as it crashed in Santos.
Agencia Brazil reports that Campos, who was a former governor died along with some people whose number is yet to be ascertained, as information about the crash is still trickling.
Campos had also served Brazil as a federal legislator from 1998 to 2003. [myad]
Leaders across the country converged on the Presidential Aso Villa, Abuja today to martial out strategies for the control and fight against the deadly Ebola Virus Disease. The meeting which started at about 2pm dovetailed into late evening, after which the Lagos governor, Babatunde Fashiola, the governor of Enugu state, Silver Chime, minster of Health, Professor, Onyebuchi Chukwu, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Nigeria and others briefed the newsmen. They disclosed that as part of the efforts to tackle Ebola, laboratories have been earmarked in some parts of the country to test the disease. The laboratories are located in Lagos, Asokoro in Abuja, Ibadan, the Redeamed University Lab on Lagos-Ibadan Express way just as more are to be opened in Enugu, Jos and Kano. The meeting also reinfrced the decision of the ministary of health to prohibit transportation of corpses from one state to the other and from another country to Nigeria, adding that there could be waver if the ministary is contacted and it satisfies that such corpses are safe to be so transported. They cautioned against being panicky about Ebola disease, observing that panick could be as deadly as Ebola itself, even as the meeting made it clear that medical officers would be well equipped with the best facilities as obtained in advanced technology to saveguard them. [myad]
The National Conference appears to be dividing along regional line, as the final report emanating from it has pitched delegates from North-central, South-east, South-south and South-west against their counterparts from North-east and North-west. The Southern delegates today openly accused their Northern counterparts of plot to sabotage the final consideration of the Conference reports.
The atmosphere at today’s plenary was saved from degenerating into full physical fights by the conference chairman, Justice Idris Kutigi leading to abrupt adjournment.
Immediately after the adjournment, southern leaders and their middle-belt counterparts held a press conference where they openly condemned plans by some elements to sabotage the huge successes recorded so far by delegates.
At the press conference, jointly addressed by Chief Olu Falae, representing the South-west, General Ike Nwanchukwu (rtd) representing the South-east, Chief Edwin Clark representing the South-south and Mr. John Dara standing in for North-central, the group dismissed the allegation brought against the conference leadership by some northern delegates, describing them as mischief makers.
They unanimously maintained that no individual or group inserted anything into the draft documents, as being rumoured by northern delegates.
“Those making the arguments and alleging smuggling in of draft constitution are mischief makers who are bent on keeping the country hostage,” they said.[myad]
Acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba has ordered immediate establishment of Tactical Operation Points (TOP) in selected states of the North East and North West as part of strategic measures lined up to contain the illegal movement of small arms and light weapons and other explosive materials.
A statement from the Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Frank Mba quoted the police boss as saying that the establishment of the operation points will frustrate the activities of insurgents and other criminals and halt further spread of violence in the country.
Suleiman was said to given his determination to track and mop up illegal arms trade and arrest the unchallenged movement of explosive materials by hoodlums and other unpatriotic elements.
The IGP who made it clear that the Police will continue to work in close collaboration with other security Forces in the land, vowed that the Force will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the citizens of Nigeria enjoy maximum safety and security in their own country, even as he appealed to the general public, particularly those in the North East and North West to cooperate with the Police for the greater safety of all.
He said that the new operational points will be manned by Policemen who have received adequate training in tactical operation and counter-terrorism and they are being established in various strategic locations, including highways in Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba states.
The IGP has charged all Assistant Inspectors -General of Police (AIGs) in charge of the Zones covering the affected states and all Commissioners of Police in charge of these states to ensure close supervision and constant reskilling of the personnel performing this special operation. [myad]
The terror groups in the North-East who now have a territory of their own on the Nigerian soil, as confirmed by various reports, added another woeful chapter to this country’s history when on July 3, they destroyed the national grid power-line that is supplying electricity to Borno State. But listen, that is not even the whole story. ThisDay newspaper, which amazingly tucked this important report titled “Terror Attacks Plunge Borno into Blackout,” deep inside its edition of Friday August 8th, said that the state had been without power for more than a month because the army says it is unsafe for engineers to venture out to carry out the repairs. Said the paper: “… an official of the Yola Electricity Distribution Company, who spoke anonymously in Maiduguri as he was not authorized to officially speak, said: ‘we had made some attempts to go there and fix it, as it will take not more than five hours to replace and fix the destroyed power-line from the National Grid.’ The soldiers however warned that it is very dangerous and suicidal for engineers and other facility support team to go to the site for repairs and fixing of destroyed power lines near the village.” As a consequence, the state continues to be in darkness and the company left to lament their continued loss of revenue. This is a good article and I hope someone in the Ministry of Defense will read and react to it. When I read it myself, what came to the mind was, am I reading this correctly? That the army cannot defend engineers and technicians for five hours so that the repairs can be made? This is incredible. This country has Africa’s best army by reputation. The army is the glue that held, and still holds Nigeria as one. Today, the army is fighting an international conspiracy against Nigeria and it is not an easy war. But never you forget that we fixed Liberia and Sierra-Leone and before then, Congo. The West African sub-region had remained more stable than the others because of what the Nigerian army could do. If this Borno story is true, the question then to ask is, where is all the billions of Naira going into funding of the army that won’t fix this problem? The Chief of Army Staff, General Minimah, a month ago, decried cowardice leading to desertion by soldiers. There is no better evidence of what he spoke about than this incident. This is cowardice or abysmal lack of leadership or both. Many have said it and it bears repeating that the Nigerian government needs to put the lives of our citizens in the North-East on top of its priorities. This single incident is illustrative of the worrisome indifference with which that sub-region is being treated. Indeed, the public and the world at large need no further evidence of how below the radar we have kept our countrymen and women in Borno, Yobe and the North-East generally. The problem, as I can see it is that we don’t even have a clear policy in the country in dealing with these challenges coming from security. This is worsened by the fact that the perspectives of the administration differ markedly in favor of those who live in Abuja and the South. When an incident, say a bomb explosion happens in Abuja, everyone in government – the Presidency, the National Assembly, the Police all rush to the scene and thereafter, the hospitals to console the victims. Even the media are complicit. This incident gets massive attention in the newspapers, radio and TV. By contrast, the horrors of the people of Borno and Yobe merely elicit sighs and condemnations in statements issued by press secretaries. They are treated like cattle and often crushed like ants by one, and sometimes both sides of the conflict. This is wrong. Government should not treat any section of the citizens as aliens or a forgotten people. Speaking to the paper on the hardship and effect of the continuing blackout on the more than three million people affected by it, a Professor of Economics at the University of Maiduguri, Dahiru Balami lamented that “all socio-economic activities, including cold chain stores for fruits and vegetables will come to a halt, with increasing losses of goods and sales revenues of marketers and traders, including the over 15,000 butchers in Maiduguri’s Monday market alone… (the outage) has not only destroyed the means of livelihood of three million residents, but the economic situation of vulcanisers and welders that constitute about 40 per cent of labour force will be made worse.” This is odd and unacceptable. The government of Nigeria, which needs the support of all citizens to combat groups that continue to carry out extreme acts of terror must change from their indifferent attitude towards the people of the affected areas. In addition to addressing the root causes that fuel crimes and insurgency such as poverty and inequality, they must equip the army and the police very well and have the security services look inwards for cowards in their midst. Those that can be helped, through counseling and psychological prop ups should be saved. Those that can’t be helped should be flushed out from their ranks. Jobs in the army and police should be reserved for our brave men and women, not cowards. [myad]
Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, described the allegation by Northern Elders that Jonathan’s administration is sponsoring insurgency to decimate the Muslim-dominated North as “preposterous, contrary to common sense, divisive and essentially a deliberate attempt to disseminate ‘hate mentality’ and cause mischief.”
Okupe reacted to the northern elders who yesterday President Jonathan up to the end of October to produce the Chibok schoolgirls abducted since April 14 by Boko Haram and end the group’s insurgency or forget the 2015 Presidency.
In a statement today, Okupe listed what President Jonathan’s administration has been doing to rescue the girls and end Boko Haram’s campaign of terror, pointing out that he does not need an ultimatum to do his work as President.
Below is the text of the statement:
“We read with deep concern the statement published in the media today by the Northern Elders Forum giving President Goodluck Jonathan a two-ultimatum on the Boko Haram Insurgency and the Chibok Girls abduction Saga.
“We wish to state categorically that President Jonathan does not require any threat or ultimatum from any group of persons to be alive to his responsibilities to the Nigerian People.
“The issue of Insurgency especially those ideologically based on Islamic extremism is a global phenomenon and requires tact, military capability, serious de-radicalisation techniques and community based counter insurgency programmes to ensure success.
“In these areas, the Federal Government is making progress:-
•We are improving on our operational capabilities and efficiencies by acquiring more advanced weapons and technologies for our military and security agencies.
•We have drafted more military personnel to the region to strengthen the fighting power of our armed forces.
•We are taking advantage of the offers from our international military and intelligence allies to assist in identifying key locations.
•We are working with our neighbours to secure the borders and limit the movements of the Boko Haram fighters, building on the agreements reached at the recent summits in Paris and London.
•We are deploying more resources to maximize operational efficiency, acquire more advanced and relevant weaponry and boost the general morale of our combatants. This is why the Government recently requested for an additional funding of $1bn.
•And the last piece in the puzzle is targeting the domestic and international funding, and stopping the money flows into the coffers of the terrorists.
•With all these efforts and the support of our allies, these steps will help fight the threat of the Boko Haram and move us closer to bringing the girls back safely.
“Lastly, the suggestion that the Government is carrying out any scheme to annihilate any section of the country for political gain is preposterous, contrary to common sense, divisive and essentially a deliberate attempt to disseminate “hate mentality” and cause mischief.
“President Goodluck Jonathan was voted for by an overwhelming majority of Nigerians across the board, and he will never promote any policy that is either divisive or inimical to the wellbeing of any section of the polity.
“What the country needs today is total co-operation, of all its citizens and stakeholders, with the Government and our military and the security agencies.
“We wish to assure Nigerians that in spite of this and many more distractions, the President is focused on continued successful executions of his transformation Agenda; and the guarantee of the security of lives and properties of the Nigerian people.” [myad]
Nigeria Army has warned against cowardly acts by its soldiers and their wives in a period of serious operation when the entire nation depends on them to address the security challenges. This is coming as spouses of the soldiers protested recently over deployment of their husbands to trouble spots as the war against Boko Haram hot up in the North East.
Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, said in a statement in Abuja: “The tension raised following the activities of a group of women who tried to disrupt activities in Giwa Barracks, Maiduguri, earlier today has been addressed. The situation had attracted media attention and elicited a lot of concern from well meaning Nigerians.
“Although the situation was quickly brought under control, the issues being raised by the women were clarified to them by the authorities of the 7 Division. It was pointed out that contrary to their belief, there has never been any attempt to relocate them as alleged.
“Furthermore, it was made clear that while the Army remains sensitive to the needs of the family members, it was not normal or proper for any Officer or Soldier to decide where he or she be deployed, neither will such demand be encouraged from spouses in a period of serious operation when the entire nation was depending on the Army to address the security challenges.
“They were however assured that no Officer, Soldier or unit would be tasked without the necessary means to accomplish their task. It was also stated that Troops were not being sent on operation without the necessary arms, ammunition and support as alleged. The recent operations at Bulanbulin and Damboa where terrorists were cleared without a single casualty on the troops was cited.
“The military authorities therefore reassure citizens that the situation has been brought under control, while appropriate action would be taken against any person found to be involved in the heinous and cowardly acts or attempts to demoralise or discourage the troops by preventing them from obeying lawful orders and command in defence of the country.” [myad]
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