Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has vowed to soon mobilize his men and officers for aggressive pursuit and collection of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to truly fund Abuja projects.
According to the minister, there are so many ways the ministry can adequately generate internal revenue, adding: “we are working on that, particularly land administration.
Muhammad Musa Bello, who fielded questions from newsmen at the inauguration and official commencement of OneWay Movement in the newly completed Southern Parkway road around the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) in Abuja, said that funding for Abuja and FCT in general is basically from three main sources, including Federation account, funding from federal budget and funding from what the FCT itself generates based on its internally generated funds.
“To a very large extent, we have no control over the very first two, the first one is constitutional, it depends on what monies the Federal Government gets based on its own income. The second one which is the federal budget- we have to share from a basket together with other Federal Ministries and obviously we have no control over that.
“But what we do have control is our internally generated revenue and it is very clear and I will also tell you now. At the highest level of the administration, we have decided that for us to truly fund Abuja, we have to work on our IGR and there are so many ways we can do that and we are working on that particularly land administration.”
On land administration, the Minister said the ministry is going to be firm in recovering debts owed the ministry. “We are going to be much more firmer with all those who have outstanding payments to make and have not done so. The laws are very clear, the power given to us by relevant laws are very clear and we are going to use them, the minister said.
“Secondly, we are going to encourage a much easier system of land titling so that everybody who has a property in Abuja will have them titled properly with the proper C.of O, particularly those that have properties in estates.
“Thirdly, we have a lot of leakages, many residents do not pay what they are supposed to pay, whether it is for waste collection or it’s for water consumed. This has to do with structural and systemic problems within the system and gradually we are working on them and we are going to leverage on ICT to make sure it is done.”
The Minister appealed to newsmen to enlighten the Abuja residents on the need to co-operate with the ministry and ensure that those who vandalize critical infrastructures are reported to appropriate authorities for appropriate sanctions.
“What I will appeal to you our partners in progress-members of the press is that this city is for us all. I want to appeal to you to partner with the FCT administration, do a lot of publicity on our behalf, try to make the citizens also appreciate that in building and developing a city, the relationship has to be very cooperative, let them support us, help us also to make sure that all those who are vandalizing critical infrastructure are identified, shamed and prosecuted because we can’t be everywhere and the security agencies can’t be everywhere.
So citizens also have to play their role. I think when we all partner along these lines, I have no doubt whatsoever, we will raise the necessary resources and they will be able to fund this city for all of us particularly those coming after us, that is our children and the young ones will be truly be very proud of us.
The Southern Parkway in Abuja Master Plan forms the major spine of the capital city and is one of the longest roads in Abuja and the first of its kind in Africa. From the Business Districts, it traverses all the four phases of the Federal Capital City with facilities like streetlights, recreational, cafes and underpass. It is designed to complement the Northern Parkway, the major arterial running across Mabushi.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced the deactivation of 2.2 million improperly registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards spanning all telecommunication networks nationwide.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Professor Umar Danbatta, in a statement in Abuja signed by the NCC Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Henry Nkemadu, said that the deactivation was in line with a President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive on strengthening security of lives and property for all Nigerians.
“We have since initiated the second phase of SIM deactivation based on the ministerial directive. As at today (March 8), we have completely deactivated the remaining 2.2 million lines on the networks.
“This is contrary to reports by a section of the media, suggesting that nothing has been done with respect to the issue of improperly registered SIM cards.
“Following the September 2019 ministerial directive, however, the NCC, within a week, intensified efforts by reducing the number of improperly registered SIM cards from 9.2 million to 2.2 million.”
The Executive Vice Chairman said that over the years, the NCC had worked with determination and through various policy initiatives to rid mobile networks of improperly or invalidly registered SIM cards.
According to him, the latest action would ensure that the over 184 million registered SIM cards currently on Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) networks had valid data that were traceable and not anonymous.
He explained further: “Our efforts received a boost, following the implementation of a September 12, 2019 ministerial directive that the NCC should compel service providers to block all improperly-registered SIM cards, pending when their owners regularise their registration.
“As at the time the ministerial order was issued, the commission, through its Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement team, had reduced the number of improperly-registered SIM cards on mobile networks in the country to 9.2 million, Danbatta.”
Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has dethroned the Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammadu Sanusi ll over what he called disrespect to the office of the governor and other government agencies.
The Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Usman Alhaji, who announced the dethronement on behalf of the governor, said the removal was with immediate effect.
He said that the emir’s action violated the part 3 section A-E of Kano state law, hence the removal.
He said the removal was in line with consultation with relevant stakeholders. He said a new emir would be announced in due course.
He urged Kano people to remain calm and go about their normal businesses.
Nigeria’s Federal Government has exited over 5, 781 N-power beneficiaries for truancy and absconding.
Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to President Mohammadu Buhari on Job Creation and Youth Employment, Afolabi Imoukheude, who broke the news today, March 8 when he addressed the beneficiaries of the scheme in Abuja, said that complaints received from the primary places of assignment of the affected beneficiaries over truancy and lackadaisical attitude were getting overwhelming.
He said that when such people were issued queries to explain themselves, most of them did not comply so government had to excuse them.
“When we get report of people who play truancy we usually place you on payment hold. In N-power you learn, work and earn. If you do not do the right thing and you are paid, you are stealing the money. Note that the funds are not mine but that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We have been receiving enormous complaints that a lot of you no longer go to work. The head teacher in your Primary Place of Assignment (PPA) is your Buhari and have the responsibility to teach, monitor and educate you.
“I have some good news for most of you, 5,781 of you have been forcefully exited out of the programme because of disciplinary issues. Perhaps you will begin to believe that states have authority over you. We also receive report of those who absconded and you know the terms and conditions attached to be an N-power beneficiary.”
He said that contrary to insinuations that ghost workers have taken over the scheme, registration processes are too strict to accommodate ghost workers.
“There have been so many insinuations around ghost workers in N-power. There is no ghost workers in N-power, there cannot even be because having conducted a physical verification and confirming those who come into the programme for them not to exist”.
«What happens to those who do not receive alert? It is because of validation and we try to contact you via phone number, email address to go regularise yourself with your bank and update your details.”
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and /Leventis Center for Integrated Agricultural Development and Training have entered into partnership to improve agro-allied businesses, especially training of Nigerians on agricultural practices.
Speaking when he visited the Leventis Foundation Centre today, March 8, at Yaba in Abaji Area Council, the minister of the FCT, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello said: “we will work with you closely because what you are doing here is great and it is going to be the foundation of what we all stand for, especially our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, who always says we have to eat what we grow and we have to grow what we eat”.
The minister said that Nigeria is now self-sufficient in a number of grains and have potential also to be self-sufficient in so many things, adding: “you have enough facilities to be able to provide fruits and vegetables for the entire Abuja city.”
He commended the passion of the Chairman, Leventis Nigeria, Ahmed Mantey, for the improvement of the training center, even as he stressed that the need for the school to enroll more students.
“The school was established to teach and develop our youth, men and women from all the six Area Councils and indeed across Nigeria. So, I think we have to think of tripling the number of people we have here because there are so many people who need the support.”
The Chairman, Ahmed Manteh, said that the Leventis Foundation will continue to work to promote sustainability in agriculture and food production in Nigeria and beyond through training, offered by the Foundation, on sustainable agriculture.
“Our approach has been to attract youth into agriculture and equip them with the necessary skills for producing food and for earning sustainable livelihood.”
Mantey assured the Minister of the Foundation’s dedication to providing quality training in agricultural businesses for people in the FCT while also commending him for exemplary leadership as demonstrated by the rehabilitation of the bridge at Ashara Wako and the road improvement works as well as ensuring that the counterpart funds that are due to the training institute were duly paid.
President Muhammadu Buhari has acknowledged that the intellectual capacity of his second-in-command, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has helped in moving the country forward in many ways.
Buhari, in his congratulatory message to Professor Osinbajo as he celebrates his 63rd birthday anniversary, said that the intellectual capacity of the Vice-President has impacted positively on the overall accomplishments of Federal Government, most notably, in the economic and social intervention programmes.
The President, who spoke directly to Osinbajo on cell phone today, March 8, also praised the Vice President’s loyalty and dedication to the administration.
President Buhari joined family members, friends and associates of Professor Osinbajo in wishing him joyous birthday celebrations.
He also prayed God to endow the Vice-President with greater wisdom and long life to continue to serve the nation and humanity.
Gbagi women, representing a major tribe that lay claim to the ownership of Abuja before it was made Federal Capital of Nigeria, have turned breadwinners of their families by fetching water at N200 per day for some civil servants in Chibir, a suburb of Kuje Area Council.
Checks by Greenbarge Reporters showed that the women usually trek some distances to get water which they obtain and offload into drums of their customers for fees.
It is learnt that while their husbands relax at home for lack of anything to do as farming season has been suspended for lack of rains, the wives would be on their toes to fend for the families through any legitimate menial jobs.
It was gathered that some Gbagi men married to two or three wives each of who would go out to fetch water for sale to customers.
One of the Gbagi women who simply gave her name as Asabe, told our reporter that she enjoyed fetching water for sale to customers to be able to feed her family, including husband.
Chibiri, a suburb of Kuje in Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) lacks government provided pipe borne water.
The small settlement lies along Kuje-gwagwalada road.
A Chief Magistrate in Oyo State, Mutiat Adio, has been sentenced to imprisonment having been found guilty of stealing the sum of N22,375,913 from a commercial bank contrary to section 390(11) of Criminal Code, Cap.38, Law of Oyo State.
The charge was brought before her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibadan zonal office.
The convict, who is former Deputy Chief Registrar of the State High Court, was found guilty of one count charge of stealing.
Mutiat Adio was said to have abused her office as the secretary of a Cooperative Society of the Oyo State Judicial Officers by inflating the amount approved for loan facilities granted her members by the bank.
She was accused of converting the difference to personal use. The convict was said to be the facilitator of the loan totalling about N90 million.
Adio pleaded not guilty to the offence during her first arraignment on April 25, 2017. The prosecution, led by Dr Ben Ubi, called five witnesses while she called two.
After listening to arguments from the parties, Justice Olagunju declared her guilty of the offence and sentenced her to five years in prison without an option of fine. She was also ordered to refund the sum of N20, 935, 000 to the bank.
Mutiat Adio, was also on May 18, 2018, sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for obtaining under false pretences, a sum of N9.2 million from one Abiodun Olonade, a Nigerian resident in Ireland.
A storey building housing Keystone Bank Plc collapsed in the Palmgrove area of Lagos State today, March 7, with a person reportedly dead and others trapped under.
Report reaching us said that the building was under renovation when it caved in at 07.20 pm and trapped labourers working on the site.
Director-General of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LSEMA), Dr. Oluwafemi Oke-Osanyintolu confirmed the incident and said that efforts are being made to rescue the remaining victims who are trapped in the debris.
“Upon arrival at the scene, it was discovered that a single-storey building belonging to the Keystone Bank collapsed while being renovated. It was reported that a single male labourer lost his life from the incident. Recovery operation is ongoing.
“LRT, LASG fire, LABSCA and police are at the scene carrying out joint efforts to retrieve the remains of the victims.”
I don’t even know who I am. I don’t know why I look like me, I don’t know why I do things that I do but I believe that there is a governing power that controls everything. You see, I’m not a religious person either; I’m anti-religion and pro God. That is to show you that I think I know so little. People may think I know a lot, but I believe I know nothing at all, so there will be many questions you are going to be asking me that I will have no answers to.
These are the views of a music legend, Bongos Ikwue when he granted interview to The Punch recently. Read the full text:
Without any warning, you left the music scene for construction business even before you became old, why?
I don’t know if the question is correct for I have always done something alongside music. Years ago I had my music centre at Fadeyi, along Ikorodu Road in Lagos. While I was doing music, I had my transport business going. So I have always done something alongside music, so it’s not that I left music for anything, instead, I left something for music.
You gave Nigerians so many beautiful and original songs, what inspired them?
I think inspiration comes from where none of us knows. You just woke up one day and found a lady and a man there as your mother and father. You might look like them or not.
We don’t know a lot of things; I believe that inspiration comes from the Almighty. And that is putting it very simply and mildly as it is a bit more complicated than that. If I tell you I know more than that, I will be fooling myself and even fooling you, for we don’t know a lot of things.
Your songs are soulful, how much influence would you say Isley brothers, Elvis Presley and Harry Belafonte had on your music?
Very little. But I like Elvis Presley, in particular. I know he liked singing a lot of blues and gospel songs. I remember one of his songs that I like so much, where he was talking to God Almighty, saying, ‘But this time Lord, you gave me a mountain.’
I was influenced by the people you named but there are other people that influenced me like The Temptations.
You formed the Cubana Boys along with friends even before you went to university, why did you not just study music instead of engineering?
I don’t know why I did a lot of things; that is the kind of questions I can never answer because I don’t know. I don’t even know who I am. I don’t know why I look like me, I don’t know why I do things that I do but I believe that there is a governing power that controls everything. You see, I’m not a religious person either; I’m anti-religion and pro God. That is to show you that I think I know so little. People may think I know a lot, but I believe I know nothing at all, so there will be many questions you are going to be asking me that I will have no answers to.
You dropped out in your second year, how did you come to that decision?
I have always taken my decisions myself and I don’t regret anything. At that time, that was the only thing I wanted to do. So I have never looked back and said, I wish I had done this thing this way.
At the time I left university, I was ready to leave. I don’t like to criticise things but we have such a false sense of many things.
What I’m saying is that there is so much that we don’t understand and we falsely believe that we know too much. That is why human beings are arrogant over nothing. For instance, your driver is standing in front of you with his hands in his pockets, and you are angry because he has his hands in his pockets. You forget that his hands and the pockets belong to him. If you are not arrogant, you will be quiet because that is his right.
There is nothing that should make you challenge your driver for doing that, but we become so arrogant and forget that pride is the most destructive thing in the world. We need to be humble because we know nothing at all.
You had beautiful and evergreen songs like ‘Still searching’, ‘You can’t hurry the sunrise’, ‘What’s gonna be gonna be’, ‘No more water in the well’ and ‘Cockcrow at Dawn’, which is your favourite of your songs?
There is a poet friend who was asked what his best poem was, he brought out a white paper and pointed at it. The interviewer said, ‘I cannot see anything. ‘The poet told the interviewer to look well and the man said he still could not see anything. So, my answer is that my favourite song is the one I have not written yet.
You had a wonderful band…
Which particular band are you talking about because I had a few.
I had the ‘Rooftoppers’ when I was in Kaduna. Then, I was playing at Hamdala Rooftop Hotel in Kaduna. So, I called my band the ‘’Rooftoppers’. Then I had ‘The Groovies’ but before all of these, I had ‘Cubana Boys’ when I was in secondary school in Okene and another one in university, so I had all kinds of bands.
I have ‘Double Express’ now because I started playing music at Double K Hotel.
So what happened to the bands?
We still get in touch. Some have grown old, some died long ago, while some drifted into different things in life, but I wish we could get together.
How much do you miss your old life, having shows, playing before large crowds, paparazzi and all that?
I miss that a lot. There has to be a level of connection between artistes and the listeners or the audience and that is the most wonderful thing a singer or artiste wants. It is how people respond to what you do. You know with entertainment, judgment comes instantly unlike it is for an exam where you wait for it to be marked. You are marked as you are performing. There is a saying that a showman is as good as his last show. So you must take every show seriously. You might have Bongos 50 years ago, are you still Bongos today?
If you flash back your mind to those days, how does it make you feel now?
I tried to show my children what I looked like when I was much younger, but I couldn’t find it from old recordings because we are unable to maintain a proper archive in this country. TV stations should remember that history is very important and they must find a way to go digital to be able to preserve things that are happening now for the future.
So when I flash my mind back, I realise there are so many things that have been lost. I will like to see how I performed when I was much younger in Kaduna so that people can also see it. I may think it was wonderful but if I see it now, I may realise it was probably otherwise and it may help me to think in some directions.
I should be the one asking this question because I wish I could flash my mind back to those days and see, listen to, dissect and try to understand so many things.
You have daughters who also sing, why are they not doing it commercially or out there after learning from the best?
I wish one of them was here to answer your question because this question is directed at them. They may be my children but I don’t own them; nobody owns the child. You can only relate to your child like a friend. Maybe someday, you will get the opportunity to ask them that. And then it also depends on what you mean by commercial. Your definition of commercial may be different from theirs. Unfortunately, I cannot answer the question for them.
There was a time you said you had about 40 new songs not released, do you still plan to do anything about them?
As I speak to you, I have more than 40 songs that have not been released and I plan to release them. I still have the over 40 songs.
Do you think you can release all these before God calls you home?
I hope to release them as soon as possible. I told you earlier that I am anti-religion and pro God, so one of the songs is titled ‘Your God is my God’. I did not say ‘my God is your God’. It is more philosophical than religious. There is another one called ‘Mustapha and Christapha’, which I have taken to another level. There is ‘Wake up’, and I have many others. They are about life. There is no rich name in any history book; if you are looking for money, you are doomed because nobody has enough. You think that such songs are not commercial, but the deeper they are at this time, the better for me and my listeners.
How much has music changed in Nigeria compared to your time?
Well, the change is in the mind of the listeners and the definition of music. What do you think of music, is it the one you hear every day on the radio or is it the one that people don’t hear at all or the one you play to yourself in the house? What you call change, how did it come about? Is it as a result of what the media think people should listen to or is it that you don’t have any choice to make?
I think that in my days, there were very few FM stations and you had more time to listen. There were very few adverts given air time. All those things have helped into either disorganising or organising what you are looking for. But the ability to think straight to make a choice is grossly being contaminated. So many people are forcing people to listen to their kind of music. You don’t have much choice.
What do you think caused the dearth of highlife music and other types of music that had substance in the country?
So many things have happened. I remember that a long time ago, I was being interviewed by VOA and the interviewer said to me: Bongos, you don’t play any highlife music, you don’t play Nigerian music and I said, ‘Can I hear you one more time’, and he repeated himself. I said to him again, ‘Can you say that one more time’, and he said the same thing.
I said the highlife music (is done in) English words, what makes you think that suddenly highlife music is Nigerian. I said to him, they have washed the spirit out of our existence to the extent we don’t even know who we are anymore. We need to wake up from this slumber before we can go into any state of proper realisation of what we are, who we are, what we are doing and how we can find answers to the questions.
So was there highlife music or we thought there was highlife music? And from what I just said, in what language should highlife music be sung? Is it in Igbo, pidgin English, Idoma or Yoruba? See the confusion I’m talking about; we don’t even know what is happening and what has happened to us.
What current crop of artistes do you listen to or like?
That is serious question and you asked it very nicely. Some people will ask: which do you prefer? It is a difficult question to answer because I don’t want to say how much I listen to whom and don’t listen to whom. My statement would be grossly misunderstood. I think those you call current crop of musicians are thriving because they are playing what the people want to hear as a consequence of what the media houses have consistently played and made them believe. I like blues a lot and some people don’t know what blues means. If I say play me a blues song, they will play highlife or whatever. They will play anything western and call it blues, so there is so much confusion in the field.
But you listen to music, which ones do you see as good music?
I listen to music. For me, good music is a great song that can make you very unhappy and can make you very happy. It is the coexistence of the positive and the negative. If you are always dancing to music, then something is wrong with you. If you are always crying when you hear music, something is wrong with you. There must be a balance and the understanding of balance stems from the listeners. I’m a listener; if I’m listening to your music, what does your music do to me? Has it made me cry? Has it made me happy? Has it made me sad? Has it made me want to listen to you again? Since individuals are not the same, it is very difficult to take my answer as a universal answer. The only answer you can get from me is an answer that will confuse you more.
Where has Bongos been all this while?
I have always been around. I live in Nigeria, I spend a lot of time in Otukpo and sometimes, I go to Abuja, but I’m mostly in Otukpo. I’m very easy to find. They say, seek and you will find, knock and it shall open for you. A lot of people have not tried to find. So tell the rest how you found me.
You were recently ill, how tough was the period for you?
There is no period of ailment that is not tough for anybody. I had never had an ailment. I think I was hale and hearty for the first 60 to 70 years of my life and to suddenly fall sick and suffer a stroke was not easy. It is not an ailment that anybody deserves. It is a time of reflection; you know, a lot of people pray for long life but when they begin to get old, they are scared. If you are asking God to give you long life, you should know that you are also asking him to give you old age along with it because there is no long life without old age. And there is no long life without ailment.
You must accept growing old with dignity. You will also learn one thing from falling sick; that no human being is going to live in this world forever. Above all, despite your wealth, you will die and you are not going to take a pin along with you. When you know these things, it helps you to become humble.
Let me try and simplify what I’m saying so that people can understand it better. Supposing they give me all the wealth in Abuja and ask everyone to leave their houses for me, they mean nothing. I have realised that nobody owns anything. You are sitting in my hotel now, but it will outlive me because when I die, it will still be here. So we don’t own anything. You can deceive yourself and think you own something. So, develop a trinity, but not the Trinity we know, that is, God, the father; the son and Holy Spirit. There is another trinity which is dangerous. That is, I, me and myself.
If you are a contractor and you develop the proper trinity of us, you will know that every road you build is for us. When the builder dies, there are other members left. So, we need to grow into a state where the other person is the only important thing, not you.
What is your philosophy of life?
You know I did a lot of mathematics in this world. You are talking of philosophy. In mathematics, what did they tell you about zero? They say zero is nothing, I think that mathematics is wrong. For example, when you write one (1) and add zero to it, it becomes 10. With two more zeros, it becomes 1,000 and on and on like that. So how can you say nothing becomes something, that means something is wrong.
When you humble yourself to the state of zero and think you have nothing, that is when you have everything. There is power of zero. Zero is the power of God.
When would you describe as the best moments?
I have so many best moments; they come and go. But if you make somebody happy without knowing it, it is fantastic. If you deliberately want to make somebody happy so that you can make yourself happy, that is nothing.
On the other hand, what periods have been very difficult for you?
I have been thinking of that. How do you measure this thing? Supposing I punch you on the head and you become disoriented, you can say there is no God but does that put God out of existence? It is the brain that discerns everything. That is how confused we are.
It will be interesting to know how you wooed your wife. Did you sing for her, write poems or what?
Musicians hardly write something about themselves. Well, wooing my wife is a mystery, you cannot understand the chemistry.
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Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has vowed to soon mobilize his men and officers for aggressive pursuit and collection of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to truly fund Abuja projects.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has announced the deactivation of 2.2 million improperly registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards spanning all telecommunication networks nationwide.
