Author: The Nation

Remilekun Oladokun

 

THE Nation management and staff members marked the end of 2020 with thanksgiving.

They were full of gratitude to God for seeing them and the 14-yer-old newspaper through a torturous year.

It was a year which COVID-19 dealt a devastating blow to our editorial and commercial operations.

At the height of the #EndSARS protests, arsonists set our Lagos headquarters ablaze, burning vehicles and causing significant damage to property and equipment.

Weekend Editor, Festus Eriye, noted the newspaper’s resilience.

The Nation ended the year by winning the prestigious Newspaper of the Year at both the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) and the Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA).

Eriye said it was a testimony of God’s favour.

He said: “This is the first time the paper will be winning the DAME and NMMA awards as the Newspaper of the Year since its establishment 14 years ago.

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“It was also unprecedented that we had 38 nominations and won 14 of them at the NMMA.

“Hoodlums attacked us during the #EndSARS protest and torched the building but, here we are today, still waxing strong.

“COVID-19 also threatened our existence, but we thank God that despite everything the enemies planned, the company is still standing firm.”

The Editor, Adeniyi Adesina, who won the DAME Editor of the Year, appreciated members of staff for their dedication and commitment to duty, especially during the pandemic.

He said the company looks forward to a better 2021.

Executive Director (Finance and Administration) Sunday Adeleke also praised the workers for their hard work.

He said 2020 began on a bright note with the company’s numerous welfare plans for workers, but lamented that it all became a matter of survival following the pandemic.

Adeleke, however, assured the workers that 2021 would herald bigger and better things.

Retiring General Manager (Training and Development) Soji Omotunde, who spoke on ‘Believing God’, urged staff members to believe in the Almighty despite the odds.

According to him, everyone should trust God because he alone can do all things.

The management and staff thanked Mr Omotunde for his dedication and service and wished him success in retirement.

Managing Director, Victor Ifijeh, especially appreciated God for protecting every member of staff during the pandemic and the attack.

He said God blessed the company with the best crop of journalists in the country, which is evident in the newspaper’s awards and global recognition.

He said: “We can do nothing if the Lord is not with us. We appreciate God for everything He has done in our lives in the last 14 years. It is God who has made everything possible.”

The Nation and its journalists showed class by winning 22 honours from 51 nominations at various local and international award events organised to recognise media excellence in 2020.

Sanni Onogu, Abuja

 

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has sustained a query by the Auditor-General of the Federation against the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA) over payment of N87billion for unexecuted contracts.

The money was said to have been paid for unexecuted construction works at the Maritime University, Okerenkoko, in Delta State by NIMASA.

Following the development, the Auditor General of the Federation in his 2015 audit report now being considered by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, recommended some of officials of NIMASA for investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

It was learnt that series of invitations extended to the management of NIMASA by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts chaired by Senator Matthew Uhroghide (Edo South) to defend their indictment in the 2015 audit report of the Auditor General of the Federation were not honored by the agency.

Following the refusal of officials of the agency to appear before the Committee thr Senator Uhroghide-led panel resolved to sustain the query which is due for presentation to the Senate at plenary.

Among the contracts not executed which the agency allegedly paid for are the construction of ship building facility and dockyard, maritime equipment and structure, ancillary buildings at Okerenkoko, Delta State was awarded to a company at a contract sum of N40.2 billion, construction of access roads, internal road network and drainages (work package B) at Nigerian Maritime University Okerenkoko was awarded on 7th January, 2014 to a company at the sum of N11.1 billion with a completion period of 18 months and another N36 billion contracts.

Others are, Construction of Administrative Blocks A1, N836,026,170.00, Lecture Rooms, A2, N1,729,854,640.00, Vice Chancellors Lodge & Staff Quarters A3 N11,711,090,610.00, Student Hostels, A4, (0% yet to commence), Power House – Power Sub Station A12, N151,445,250.00 (15% at Foundation Level), Perimeter Fence A13, N446,066,550.00 (0% yet to commence), Jetty & Ramp A18, N808,091,100.00 (5% bush cleared), Provision of Electricity Services and Connection of the University to the National Grid A19, among others.

The total amount for the contracts stood at N36 billion, according to the audit report.

The query reads in part: “The package was awarded at a total contract price of N36,839,747,931.00. The tendering process was found to be selective, in that the award of contract was based on a recommendation letter jointly signed by leaders of Okerenkoko Federated Community, Gbaramatu Kingdom and Warri South West Local Government Area in favour of the two preferred companies.

“It was observed that the sum of N5.5 billion had been paid vide PV. No. ZIB/EP/0358/14 of 16/04/14.

“During site inspection carried out on 30/7/15, it was observed among others; that apart from the gate house, which had attained 70% completion, (as shown in the table above), most of the jobs were still at foundation level.

“Project inspection visits undertaken by staff were generally misleading, as the reports submitted were not true reflection of the activities on ground.

“It was gathered that some of the staff collude with the contractors to submit false progress reports on the project.

“The Director General has been requested to justify the selective tendering process adopted in the award of this contract.

“Show evidence and justify in concrete terms, the commitment of the mobilization fee to project execution, contrary to what was met on ground during physical verification.

“In line with Financial Regulation 3104 (i) to recover and refund to treasury, the sum of N5,525,962,189.65 (Five billion, five hundred and twenty-five million, nine hundred and sixty-two thousand, one hundred and eighty-nine naira, sixty-five kobo) being irregular payment, furnishing recovery particulars for verification.

“The contract for the construction of ship building facility and dockyard, maritime equipment and structure, ancillary buildings at Okerenkoko, Delta State was awarded to a company at a contract price of N40,243,702,763.38 on 12th November, 2013 with a completion period of 36 months.

“Relevant documents such as letter of award and contract file were not made available during the audit despite repeated demands.

“As a result, I cannot confirm that due process was followed in the award of this contract. It was claimed that ‘there was a presidential approval’ for the project.

“However, presidential approval does not suffice for a Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval or Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) certification.

“The payment profile indicated that on 05/12/13, through PV. No. GTB/EP/13/0905, the sum of N6 billion was paid as mobilization fees.

“Meanwhile, as at the time of audit visit in July, 2015, though the contractor was on site, there were no structural, mechanical, electrical or ancillary buildings on site.

“The contractor explained that their fabrications are being done outside Nigeria and letters of credit have also been opened for the fabrication of the equipment for the dockyard abroad, this claim could not be authenticated at NIMASA.

“The inability to sight the BOQ and contract file made it impossible to ascertain the project content and confirm adherence to execution of this project.

“The Director General has been requested to:

Give reasons for not presenting the relevant documents relating to this project namely, letter of award, contract file and BOQ, for audit examination.

“Show evidence of compliance with due process in the award of contract by producing the FEC approval and BPP certification, for audit scrutiny.

“Show evidence and justify in concrete terms, the commitment of the mobilization fee to project execution, contrary to what was met on ground during physical verification.

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“In line with Financial Regulation 3104 (i), recover and refund to treasury, the sum of N6 billion being irregular payment, furnishing recovery particulars for verification.

“The contracts for the clearing of bush of 20 & 30 hectares of land at the ship building and dockyard, Okerenkoko Warri, were awarded to 2 different companies at contract sums of N160,523,900.00 and N221,542,418.00 in utter disregard to extant regulations which prescribe graduated payments beginning with mobilization.

“The agency paid the contractors at once through P.V. No. UBA/EP/13/0552 of 13/6/13 and GTB/NIMASA/ EP/13/0704 respectively.

“The payment vouchers which did not pass through normal checking processes were devoid of job completion certificates and other relevant attachments required for a valid payment voucher.

“During an audit inspection visit to Okerenkoko, Warri, on 30th July 2015, contractors on site confirmed that there was no bush clearing at all and that each contractor cleared the bushes on their own project sites.

“This transaction is a clear cut infraction of Financial Regulation 3104 (iii) which states that ‘a public officer who fraudulently pays money to a contractor for a job not executed shall be required to refund in full the amount wrongly paid and shall be removed from that schedule and the matter referred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for prosecution.’

“The Director General has been requested to: Explain the rationale behind operating at variance with government policy by making payments for these contracts once without the prescribed graduation of payments.

“Produce for audit scrutiny, all relevant documents relating to the award and execution of these contracts with concrete evidence of recourse to due process in the award of the contract and job completion certificates authenticated by site engineers.

“Recover and refund to treasury, the sums of N160.5 million and N221.5 million totaling N382 million being payment for un-executed contracts, furnishing recovery particulars for verification.”

Sanni Onogu, Abuja

 

The Minority Leader of the Senate, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to stop giving excuses in the face of obvious failures by his administration.

Senator Abaribe in a statement in reaction to Buhari’s broadcast on New Year Day, urged the President to stop referring to the past as reasons for his non-performance.

Abaribe said: “The legislature, particularly the minority caucus is ready to cooperate with the presidency in any sincere and genuine effort to tackle insecurity in our country and keep our people safe.

“Nonetheless, President Muhammadu Buhari must as a fact face governance and stop making excuses at every turn, especially his penchant at making references to 2015 as reasons why he fails to perform.

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“It does not end at making broadcast, but in exhibiting genuine seriousness in governance for all Nigerians.

“The President is elected to provide governance, by so doing he must be ready to proffer solutions, right wrongs where it exists and solve problems besetting the country in every facet and not always relapse to advancing excuses to explain away palpable failures.

“As for us in the minority caucus, we are willing as always to cooperate with the presidency in any sincere and genuine effort to provide good governance to Nigerians.”

Jide Orintunsin, Abuja

 

The National Chairman of African Democratic Party (ADP) Engr. Yabagi Sani has described the new year address by President Muhammadu Buhari as lacklustre, which has no grain of hope for a despaired nation.

Reacting to the presidential address in a telephone interview, the former ADP Presidential candidate wrote off the speech which he said has “nothing insightful” adding that the New Year address was as “flat as former speeches of Mr. President”

Sani who said Nigerians and the international community were disappointed by the address, observed that President Buhari failed to meet the yearnings of the people, stressing that the address failed to give any hope to the various challenges facing the country.

Sani was hard on the President for announcing plan to rejig the Security apparatus, when, according to him, all the Service Chiefs ought to have been retired to give room for fresh and more result oriented ideas by new officers.

Hear him: “the new year address was as flat as the previous ones. What Nigerians want to hear was that Mr. President has retired all the Service Chiefs and he had appointed new ones to energise the boys and take the battles to the doorstep of the insurgents.”

When told that the President announced plan to rejig the security apparatus, the ADP Chairman said, ” how many times had he been promising to rejig. What would have excited Nigerians and the international community is that he (President Buhari) tells us that he has retired the service chiefs and not planning to rejig.”

He maintained that insecurity is the main issue in the country that requires a well thought plan, stressing that insecurity is gradually running the country aground.

Read Also: Time to put smile on faces of the poor -Sani

“Insecurity is the most disturbing issue in the country. It is affecting so many things. Investment cannot come to the country, people are living in fear. Nigerians are no longer united because we a losing confidence in the ability of this government to govern.

“The responsibility of government to the citizens is security of lives and property as well as the welfare of the people. If government cannot guarantee these things, that government can hardly command the respect of the people.

“Today the three critical and fundamental areas of our national life are been attacked. The education sector is not functioning, our food security is threatened, as our farmers no longer go to farm for fear of being killed and the health sector is crippled by the Covid-19 infection.

“The truth is, both APC and PDP have failed the country. We need new hands to handle the affairs of the country. We are in a new age and we need new ideas thst can give hope and glavanise the people towards national development.”

President Muhammadu Buhari

 

My fellow countrymen and women,

 

First, I would like to thank and praise the Almighty who saw us through the year 2020 and has given us the opportunity to witness the start of another new year. We especially thank God because the year 2020 was one of the most trying years since our existence as a Nation.

2. This can also be said about all other nations around the world, due to the challenges posed on our collective humanity by the novel COVID-19 pandemic.
3. While acknowledging that 2020 was a very tough year, we saw this year put to test our national resilience and ability to survive these tough times and also gave renewed hope that we will again brave any storms that lay ahead in 2021 and beyond.
4. As we celebrate the opportunity before us in this New Year 2021, we must also acknowledge the passing away of our brothers and sisters who didn’t make it into this New Year. May their souls rest in perfect peace.
5. We must remember that we also celebrated the historic occasion of our sixty years as an independent and sovereign country on October 1st 2020. In the spirit of hope and gratitude, I would like to remind us again that as a country on the difficult journey to nationhood and greatness, we have confounded the many pundits at home and around the world who never gave the newly-born country that emerged unto the world stage on 1st October 1960 a chance of surviving much longer than a few years.
6. Yet, here we are, 61 years by the next anniversary in October, and not only are we here, we are standing tall in the comity of nations as one country united under the will of God and also actively growing that indivisible Nigerian spirit that has enabled us, year after year, decade after decade, to weather all stormy waters and emerge stronger and better where others have fallen and disintegrated. This nation, this Nigeria will survive and thrive.
7. In this journey to nationhood, we have experienced the highs and lows. 2020 indeed came with a lot of challenges ranging from security and economic issues across the regions to understandable protests that were mainly led by our youths and served notice to the demand for police reforms and accountability. This government heard, this government listened and this government is committed to fulfilling the five demands of our youths, fully understanding that we all wish well for Nigeria.
8. In the midst of all these challenges, I had initially pledged that as your elected President and Commander-in-Chief, I would ensure that these ongoing challenges will be faced head-on with renewed determination and with all the appropriateness and urgency required. Your voices have been heard and we would continue to listen to you, and all the key stakeholders who are committed to the unity of Nigeria to ensure that every region of this nation is safe for us all, while guaranteeing that the future is also secure for the coming generation.
9. I wish to also use this occasion of New Year to reaffirm my commitment to the people of Nigeria, especially the youth who need our collective encouragement and support. In securing this nation we need to secure the future of our youth.
10. Our young people are our most valuable natural resource, at home and abroad. Their ingenuity, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit is evident to all. Many of our young people are excelling in various spheres of life including sports, entertainment, information and communication technology, commerce and are globally recognized as achievers.
11. As a Government we are committed to actively engaging with the creative energies of our young people. In this regard, we will partner with the legislature to develop an enabling environment to turn their passions into ideas that can be supported, groomed and scaled across regions. This will create vast opportunities in fintech, agriculture, business process startups and in the entertainment industry.
12. The year 2021 will indeed be a year where we will work to reinforce the hopes of fellow Nigerians in the vision of a united and progressive Nigeria. This administration would continue focusing on delivering key strategic priorities under our “SEA” – (Security, Economy and Anti-Corruption) Agenda. Some of the key priority areas we would direct our attention and strengths to include:

ON SECURITY:

13. Re-energizing and reorganizing the security apparatus and personnel of the armed forces and the police with a view to enhance their capacity to engage, push back and dismantle the operations of both internal and external extremist and criminal groups waging war against our communities in some parts of the country.
14. In line with the current security challenges, we are facing as a Nation, I would like to reiterate the promise I made recently when over 300 of our boys abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara were successfully rescued by our security operatives.
15. The professionalism shown by our Security Forces and the collaboration from all stakeholders across both State and Federal Governments that led to the successful rescue of the boys is proof that Nigeria has the internal capacity to decisively deal with terror attacks on our citizens.
16. However, we recognize that we rapidly have to move to a more proactive and preemptive posture to ensure that these sorts of traumatic incidents do not become a norm. Our administration is fully aware of the responsibility we have to protect the lives and property of all Nigerians, and we will not relent in learning and adapting to changing threats to our national security and civic wellbeing.

ON THE ECONOMY:

17. Our focus is on revamping the economy through the national economic diversification agenda that supports the primary goal of national food self-sufficiency. This has helped reduce the growing food related inflationary figures and have in considerable measure positively impacted our food security status during the long months of the pandemic lock down.
18. We are also currently rebuilding our national infrastructure base and, in the process, introducing transformation through the rehabilitation, modernization, and expansion of the railway system, national roads and bridges both in rural and urban centres, alongside the airports and seaports.
19. The reforms we have put in place in the power sector would guarantee increased efficiency in our drive to significantly expand the generation and distribution of electricity for use in homes and factories.
20. As an administration we are currently undertaking a series of special interventions designed to boost job creation and support the entrepreneurial drive of our youths.
21. With the recent opening of our borders, we expect that the pent-up demand of legitimate cross-border and international trade will boost the fortunes of the many small businesses and agricultural enterprises that depend on Nigeria’s trade and commerce.
22. The message to our West African neighbours is that Nigeria is once again fully open for those willing to conduct business in a fair and equitable way.

ANTI-CORRUPTION:

23. On the anti-corruption drive of our administration, we have recorded substantial gains so far and this year, we are committed to continuing along the path of eradicating corruption, through collaboration with all the arms of Government to effectively prosecute this fight.
24. While we would be working with the Legislature to enact laws that would strengthen this fight, we would also be looking at reviewing some of our laws which would ensure that this fight is more effective. On the part of the executive, we would ensure the diligent and timely prosecution of corruption cases, while appealing to the judiciary to ensure that corruption cases are dispensed with expeditiously.
25. The persistence of various forms of violence has meant that in the most affected parts of the country, the fabric of inter-communal harmony woven through years of investment of effort at building trust, mutual respect, and harmony has been threatened.
26. Insecurity as a challenge has direct repercussions on our national economic stability, growth, and development, setting us back at critical points through the destruction of public and private investments.
27. In parts of the country where chronic poverty, social exclusion, and disillusionment among sections of the youth were already a problem, the cycles of violence that have been unleashed by mindless groups like Boko Haram and others have thwarted the efforts of government to undertake the social policy and associated investments that could make a huge difference in the quality of life of our citizens.
28. I am aware that for some of our compatriots, the progress we have registered since the inception of this administration is not nearly as fast or as sufficient as they would wish. I do not begrudge them their views in so far as they signify a wish, in which we all share, for only the very best for our country.
29. Nevertheless, I call upon all Nigerians to carefully recall the circumstances of our coming to office, the facts on the ground and the resources at our disposal since 2015 with the accomplishments of this administration.
30. As a people, we have shown admirable resilience in the face of every adversity, an unmatched capacity to recover speedily from every setback, an unparalleled generosity of spirit when we resolve our differences, and a constant readiness to invest faith and hope in the destiny we share as a united country built on the diversity of its peoples.
31. It is these attributes that underpin the Nigerian spirit of “can do, will do” that gives me hope that we shall yet get to destination and fulfill our calling together, especially with the solid resolutions we are setting in this new year.
32. Keeping our country on a forward march is a duty which we all have and share. In this regard, keeping our country safe from a resurgent cycle of COVID-19 as this administration finalizes its plans to procure and efficiently and effectively distribute the COVID-19 vaccines, I urge you all fellow citizens to observe strict COVID-19 prevention protocols.
33. As your elected President, my pledge to you is the same as it has always been; I will play my part fully and without fear or favour. I invite all of us to do the same. It is what we owe to the founding generation of our beloved country and also to the coming generation. It is what we desire for national prosperity for all demands.
34. Long Live the Nigerian spirit of oneness, togetherness, and unity. Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I wish you a Happy and prosperous New Year.

 

May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.