The Senate has said it is uncertain when the 2018 Appropriation Bill will be passed by the National Assembly.

The legislature and the executive have been passing the buck on which arm of government is responsible for the delayed passage of the budget, which President Muhammadu Buhari laid before a joint session of the National Assembly on November 7, 2017.

“The budget process is on and I cannot tell you ‘this is the specific day it is going to end.’ All I can tell you specifically is that we are working very hard on it and we want to assure Nigerians that, at the end of the day, we will have a budget that will serve the purpose of Nigerians,” he said.

Sabi-Abdullahi also stated that he could not ascertain the level of response by the Federal Government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies whose heads were accused of failing to turn up for budget defence sessions being held by relevant legislative committees.

The Senate had on February 14, 2018 asked 63 agencies and parastatals under the Federal Government to submit details of their proposed 2018 budgets within one week or risk sanctions.

The upper chamber of the National Assembly had decried that while the President had complied with the law by laying the 2018 Appropriation Bill along with details of estimates before the lawmakers, the agencies of the government had disregarded the law.

Later on February 28, the Senate asked Nigerians to blame members of Buhari’s cabinet and the MDAs under their portfolios for the delay in the passage of the budget.

The lawmakers alleged that ministers and heads of Federal Government’s departments and agencies were frustrating legislative work on the budget proposals with their foreign trips and non-cooperation.

But the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Ben Akabueze, denied the allegation, stating that the National Assembly already had enough details to work with and pass the Appropriation Bill.

Punch

President Muhammadu Buhari’s passion for eradicating corruption from the body politic has witnessed a steady stream of recovered assets looted by public officials. Although the public has been at a loss about the benefits of these assets to the economy, Buhari cleared the air by spelling out a new policy to auction the loot. The President’s avowal renews the hope that those who steal public funds will not enjoy their loot.

In a move aimed at the jugular of corruption, the President told a delegation of local emirate officials in his Daura, Katsina State, country home that the government would sell off all unclaimed looted public assets. With public officials denying culpability when anti-graft agencies trace dubious assets to them, the Buhari administration has been left with no choice but to sell the assets and boost public coffers.

To concretise it, a new public agency would be established to manage and sell such assets, the government said. The legal backing is critical so that looters will have no room to reclaim the properties under any guise. However, by failing to put a definite timeline on the sales, there is a lacuna for owners of the seized assets to escape with their loot in the heat of the upcoming elections. We urge the government to quickly legalise the policy and sell off these assets before political jockeying distorts government’s noble intentions.

Sorely missing from the disclosure is the ownership pattern of the assets. This omission has created the impression that the government has something to hide. The public is demanding full disclosure, in line with Buhari’s election promise to divulge the identity of treasury looters. The public deserves to know the details, as this will strengthen their perspective about those sabotaging development by looting our collective wealth.

Not surprisingly, the anti-graft agencies are using a similar template, though with a slight variation. In 2017, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission recovered N473 billion, $98.2 million, £294.8 million and others, said Ibrahim Magu, its acting chairman. Although some of those suspects are not known, Diezani Alison-Madueke, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, forfeited N7.6 billion to the government via a court ruling in August 2017. She also forfeited two posh properties in Lagos worth $4.8 million to the government on February 28.

The EFCC has also recovered $43 million and other cash stashed at a property in Ikoyi, Lagos, by the former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke, and the flat itself.

Other assets, including 86 posh cars, a quarry and houses were traced to two civil servants. The case is in court awaiting final forfeiture. There are cases of looted assets by government officials, the wife of an ex-president and a former dictator, Sani Abacha.

In all this, the major concern is political expediency. This allows looters to regain their assets when a new government assumes office. This farce haunted the nation in 2013 when the then President Goodluck Jonathan pardoned a former Bayelsa State governor, the late Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who had been convicted of corruption and had his multi-billion naira assets seized.

Jonathan’s rashness beggared belief because Alamieyeseigha was still a wanted man for money laundering in Britain when the ex-president granted him the clemency. In 2015, a Senate committee heard how a former bank chief, who was also convicted of corruption, regained the multi-billion naira assets seized from her.

This rigmarole strikes at the heart of Buhari’s proposal to sell off the looted assets. “…instead of what happened before, this time round, we will sell those stolen properties and the proceeds will be deposited in government treasury. If the money is in the government treasury, I will see who will come back after we left and reclaim them,” he said. This is a weighty statement; for us to tackle Nigeria’s systemic graft, this is needful.

Bringing looters to justice is critical for Nigeria to secure the cooperation of the international community in the fight against corruption. Developed countries can quickly recover loot but are rather slow in repatriating it.

However, Nigeria can boost the laborious process and gain the confidence of the United Kingdom, which has just started the implementation of its Unexplained Wealth Orders. It traces assets domiciled in the UK that were acquired in questionable circumstances.

Lodging the proceeds in the public treasury and sharing them among the three tiers of government are open to abuse. For all the financial stimulus and the Paris Club refunds, which the Buhari administration has doled out to state governments, many states still owe salaries. Allegations abound of how governors mismanaged the funds, which were not appropriated.

Perhaps, this is why the United States is withholding $500 million out of the funds looted by Abacha. Under the last administration, the World Bank advised Nigeria to devote some repatriated funds to specific projects, but that government still conspired to waste it on frivolities.

Therefore, the proceeds from the sale of seized assets should be targeted at specific projects that will benefit all. First, all recovered assets should be appropriated by the parliament. A caveat however: we stoutly oppose setting up a new agency to sell assets. It is totally unnecessary; existing agencies could do it instead of creating a new cost centre.

Proceeds of the asset sales can then be deployed to rebuild tertiary education, state of the art hospitals in each of the six geopolitical zones, reviving the river basin authorities or on expanding the power transmission networks. This measure resonates with the public.

Punch

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Niger State said it has uncovered a fake registration centre in Zungeru, Wushishi Local Government Area of the state.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Professor Sam Egwu, told Daily Trust on yesterday in Minna that the police, through a tip-off, invaded the centre and arrested the alleged culprit with many temporary voters’ cards.

Prof. Egwu said most of the fraudster’s clients were workers of a construction company who requested for voters’ cards or any document to ensure that they were duly registered to vote in the forthcoming elections.

“The suspect normally worked on the temporary voters’ card he obtained to produce new ones for unsuspecting clients,” the REC stated. 

He said the fraudster usually charged certain amount of money before issuing the fake cards.

He advised eligible voters to always visit designated INEC registration centres for registration, adding that the commission did not charge money for the exercise.

He said the suspect was undergoing interrogation by security agents.

The REC further disclosed that 10 new registration centres had been added to the state as a way of encouraging more eligible voters to register.

He said a total of 144, 406 eligible voters had so far registered in the ongoing continuous voters’ registration across the state.

DailyTrust 

The senator representing Nasarawa West Senatorial District, Abdullahi Adamu, has accused the Senate of taking decisions that are frustrating the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Adamu’s position was contained in a statement on Tuesday.

He said, “I believe we need to retrace our steps and reconsider our stand as legislators on matters of public interest. Our party, the APC, has the majority in both chambers of the National Assembly, yet we hold the executive prisoner of politics that are unhealthy for the polity. It is such a terrible irony that we sabotage our own government by refusing to do our part in support of the executive.

“Appointments requiring Senate approval are held up. The consequence is that the public has nicknamed the President and his administration ‘go-slow.’ The people gave us the mandate as a party to deliver. With our control of the executive and the National Assembly, there is no reason why the government cannot acquit itself and fulfil the yearnings of the people.

“Perhaps, while we are consumed with sabotaging the administration and stabbing one another in the back, we forget that in less than a year from now, we shall be required to seek the people’s re-validation of our mandate to sit in these hallowed chambers. What shall we tell them?”

The lawmaker stated that part of his “crime” was his stand on the amendment to the Electoral Act.

“Me and some of my colleagues were opposed to this amendment on the grounds that it is not the duty of the Senate to determine the order of elections. It had never been part of the Electoral Act and there is no need to deny the commission the right to do its duty as it deems fit. Happily, I am not alone in taking this stand. Some of my colleagues are opposed to it too,” he said.

When contacted, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi-Abdullahi, said Adamu was entitled to his opinion.

Sabi-Abdullahi said, “He is a senator, I am a senator. He is entitled to his opinion, I am entitled to mine. Anything that we did not discuss in the chamber is not subject to my reaction. I am not here to react to whatever he has to say.”

Punch

Ondo governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, has declared that the tuition fees paid in some of the state-owned tertiary institutions can only purchase a pair of shoe and not enough to maintain them.

He urged the new Governing Boards of the four institutions in the state to improve funding in the schools through increment in tuition fee and endowment funds.

The Governor, who spoke on Tuesday at the inauguration of the boards, said the current tuition fees were not realistic and could not even maintain water supply in the schools.

The governor charged members of the institutions Governing boards not to entertain any fear, adding that they should be bold to make recommendations.

Akeredolu said: “The education of our people is important to us. It is not easy to govern uneducated people.

“What we pay as tution can buy a pair of shoe. The council members should look at it critically and advise us right.

“There is no other place in South West where they pay meager tution. People don’t want to hear it but we will say it, we are elected to take decision, and that decision we will take.”

A lawyer and right activist, Dr. Tunji Abayomi was inaugurated as the Chairman of / Pro Chancelor of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko.

Others are Dr. Tayo Fawehinmi, Pro-Chancellor/Chairman Ondo State University of Medical Science, Ondo, Prof. Akinbo Adesomoju, Pro-Chancellor /Chairman Ondo State University of Sciences and Technology, Okitipupa (OSUSTECH) and Chief Banji Alabi as Chairman, Governing board of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo (RUGIPO).

Femi Idris was also inaugurated as the Chairman of the state Local Government Service Commission.

DailyPost 

The #BringBackOurGirls movement has served the Federal Government a 7-day notice or it will commence a legal action for the “criminal negligence which enabled the abduction of #Dapchigirls”.

The group’s lawyer, Femi Falana stated this at a press conference on Tuesday, during its march to the villa to demand for the rescue of all citizens abducted by insurgents in the country.

Falana said the group was going to court to not only demand for the rescue of the abducted girls but to demand for sanctions of those responsible for the students’ safety.

“Having regards to the circumstances of the development in that part of the country it is intolerable that the same manner of abduction took place. Are we being told that there was no security for those schools in the northeast region?’ he queried.

“We are not just going to court to demand for the rescue of the girls; we are also going to demand for sanction because once you do not punish impunity, you are going to have criminality happen all over the place” he said.

The group had earlier issued a statement where it poses 14 questions relating to the abduction of the girls, demanding swift response from FG.

Also accusing the FG of incompetence with the abduction, the group queried why the military was withdrawn from Dapchi, on whose account and to whom did they hand over?

It also wondered how terrorists carried out their activity for hours unchallenged by FG forces wondering if there was connivance between the abductors and those in the military.

“Now we are being told that a committee has been set up by the same people, it can only be to cover up. So if you want to challenge what has been done by now we expect the government to have fired those who are responsible and those 14 questions are very genuine. Particularly, who withdrew the forces on ground? To who was security handed over to and if nobody can provide answers, then people have to sanction. So we are not just going to court to demand for the search for the girls, we are also going to demand for sanctions” Falana added.

DailyTrust 

Several persons have been confirmed dead after suspected herdsmen attacked Tse Igbe in Nyiev Council Ward, Guma LGA of Benue State.

Among those killed in the latest attack, DAILY POST gathered were one Christopher Unenge, a Catholic catechist and another villager identified as Ayem Mbakuughur.

The attack came barely 24 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari paid a condolence visit to the state where he promised to end the lingering crisis between herders and farmers.

Information gathered that the heavily armed gunmen, who stormed the village Tuesday evening, also razed down several houses.

“As we speak, the entire village is empty. Villagers have abandoned their homes for the herdsmen,” a source told our reporter Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, the police could not be reached for comment at the time of this report.

DailyPost 

Rtd Julius Maada Bio of opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) and Dr Samura Kamara of the ruling All People's Congress (APC) wil go for presudential run-off vote in two weeks' time having emerged frontrunners in the fiercely contested March 7 elections.

According the final results of the presidential, parliamentary and local council polls released by Mohamed N'fah-Alie Conteh Chair of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) in Freetown Tuesday, Bio received 43.3% or 1.097 million of the votes, followed by Kamara 42.7% or 1.082 mllion votes.

Dr Kandeh Yumkellah of the National Grand Alliance (NGC) is third with 6.9% or 174,014 votes.

NEC Chair quoting the constitution said a second round will take place March 27 since none of the candidates obtained 55% of the votes in the first round.

Some 3.17 voters were registered in the with an estimated seven million population. Votes cast were 2.6 million and valid votes 2.5 million.

Following the announcement on Sunday of 75% of the processed votes, NEC at the instance of some political parties carried out vote recounts at 154 polling stations, while ballots of 221 polling stations were annulled because of irregularities

The winner of the run-off vote will replace outgoing President Ernest Bai Koroma of APC, as the country's 5th President.

This is the first time that Sierra Leone authorities would take charge of the electoral process since end of the country’s 11-year civil war in 2002, and the withdrawal of the UN Mission in 2014.

The United Progressives Party (UPP) on Tuesday said President Muhammadu Buhari's decline to assent to the ‎electoral bill sent to him by the National Assembly on election sequence showed that he was afraid of losing the 2019 presidential election.  

In a statement by its National Chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, the party explained that ‎the order of election as contained in the electoral bill ‎if signed into law would ensure that‎ candidates of various political parties win elections essentially on their personal merit and the popularity of their parties' manifesto.

"His withholding assent to this bill smacks of fear of losing the 2019 Presidential Election as well as the fear of his party, the All‎ Progressives Congress (APC) not benefiting from the bandwagon effect of a possible early victory if the presidential election came first.

"If the APC and President Buhari were confident that the record of their performance was impressive as they have often claimed, there should be no reason why this fear should be expressed in the manner of withholding assent to a bill that holds very strong promise to deepen and develop our democracy," the UPP said.

Daily Trust

Apparently, the more things change the more they remain the same in Nigeria.  After months of denying what most economists and financial experts had already known the Federal Government has finally admitted that N774 million per day or N24bn per month is now being spent to subsidise the importation of petroleum products.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, while lifting the veil over the badly kept secret by the Buhari administration also placed most of the blame on smuggling along Nigeria’s borders with neighbouring states. According to the narrative, which rings like a familiar tune from the much-discredited past administrations, the consumption of fuel had gone up from 35 million litres to 50 million litres in recent months.

That 42 per cent jump which should have resulted in massive security interventions and the arrest of some culprits has merely led to the wringing of hands by Nigeria’s security agencies – Directorate of State Services (DSS), the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and the National Intelligence (NIA). Instead of these bodies charged with security the vital economic interests of the nation swinging into action to deal with those diverting our imported petroleum products to foreign countries and causing hardship for Nigerians, the impression Nigerians get is one of a government totally helpless to halt this increasingly crippling economic sabotage.

One of the reasons that President Muhammadu Buhari gave for making himself the Minister of Petroleum Resources was that he wanted to sanitise the oil industry, especially the NNPC. Obviously, little has been achieved in that direction in view of the assertion by the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, that: “the NNPC stinks”, at a recent public hearing of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) attended by the NNPC GMD, Dr. Maikanti Baru and the Corporation’s top brass.

We had expected, as part of the “change” that the APC had promised Nigerians during the 2015 campaigns that by now the NNPC’s affairs, which have traditionally been shrouded in secrecy, would have been made more transparent. We had thought the Corporation would have been unbundled, privatised or made a more efficient state-run business like Malaysia’s PETRONAS and Brazil’s PETROBRAS. What we see, instead, is the retention of the discredited, corruption-prone model which the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit of the Corporation’s accounts in 2014/2015 had declared outmoded.

Unless we reform the NNPC, deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry and encourage the profusion of refineries in Nigeria, nothing will change. The Corporation will remain the cesspool of corruption. Fuel subsidy payments (whether real or imagined) will continue. Importation of petroleum products, fuel scarcity and the diversion of petroleum products to neighbouring countries will never stop.

We are still waiting for the “change” in the oil sector.

Vanguard