Category: Northern Reports

The Hydro Power-Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC) yesterday said communities around power-producing dams have been suffering neglect for close to 60 years.

The commission noted that despite sacrificing their lands, farms and houses the communities are yet to enjoy electricity from the national grid.

Managing Director of the commission, Sadiq Yelwa, stated these at the ongoing five-day training workshop on leadership and strategic management organised for management and senior members of staff of the commission.

The member-state of HYPPADEC include Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Kogi, Benue and Plateau.

Some of the communities are located around Shiroro and Kainji Dams, in Niger state.

He said: “We are aware that most of these communities have been suffering for the past sixty years since the dams were created.

“There are some communities that for the past forty or sixty years, even though they have sacrificed their lands, farms, houses yet are not enjoying electricity from the national grid.

Some workers of the Adamawa Specialist Hospital Yola have protested the alleged bad leadership of the hospital management.

The workers yesterday barricaded the main entrance to the hospital and demanded the sack of the Medical Director, Dr Wadinga Dauda as well as laboratory scientists who, the workers said, were employed illegally by the medical director.

The workers alleged that some members of staff had been made redundant by the medical director, who they said employed those who are not indigenous to the state to man the state-owned hospital.

The leader of the protesters Awwal Ibrahim Lau accused the medical director of operating parallel laboratories in the same health facility.

The medical director said whoever was laid off deserved such a fate.

“There is no double standard in managing the hospital. The management can no longer allow quack personnel or outdated equipment, hence the procurement of modern machines for optimal results,” he said.

Dauda accused the protesting workers of insincerity in their allegations.

Former Sokoto Commissioner for Finance Abdussamad Dasuki has formally handed over the Ministry to the Permanent Secretary, Dahiru Balarabe Abbas.

At the handover ceremony were the Accountant General, Umar B. Balarabe; Deputy Accountant General, Musa Mohammad Maccido; Director Debt Management, Murtala Umar Dogondaji; and Director Funds, Aliyu Abubakar Dange.

Dasuki who took over the affairs of the Ministry in 2019, resigned in March in compliance with the Electoral Act.

He recently returned from a foreign trip to formally hand over to the permanent secretary.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, the former commissioner extolled Governor Aminu

Tambuwal’s sterling leadership, which has placed Sokoto in good stead for rapid growth and development.

Dasuki, who is the Santuraki of Sokoto, said with the prudent management of the resources of the state by the Tambuwal administration, the laudable reforms executed by the finance ministry and the various Legacy projects across the state, Sokoto was better positioned to compete favorably for investments and to meet the aspirations of its people.

The former commissioner said he feels fulfilled that he was handing over a reformed ministry that played a key role in the various reforms executed by the Tambuwal administration.

He said with the reforms initiated and executed, the Finance Ministry was adequately prepared to continue to lead the way in the development agenda of the state government.

He recalled that at the inception of the Tambuwal administration, government finances were at the lowest ebb due to low FAAC Inflow, weak Internal Revenue Generation, abandoned and unpaid capital projects, and gratuity liabilities.

“It was these and many others that the government had to grapple with at inception,” he said, adding that the Ministry of Finance, whose sole responsibility is the management of public finance, disbursement, execution of financial policies and management of public debt and securities, was consequently saddled with the responsibility of reversing this ugly trend.

“Faced with these challenges, he said the Tambuwal administration came up with strategies to reform the public finance to ensure prudent management of resources, blocked loopholes in the state payroll and instituted a regime of transparency and accountability in public finance.

Dasuki said those reforms boosted the state’s cash inflow and paved way for the provision of developmental projects across Sokoto.

He said the reforms of the state finances also received recognitions from major institutions, including a grant of $33m in three years and expecting another $22m before the end of 2022 from the World Bank for the commitment to the implementation of the States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme following its impressive score in the SFTAS ranking so far, placing it among the top three states in the country to achieve such ranking.

Sokoto also emerged first among the 36 states and FCT in the paying taxes column of the Subnational Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) Baseline Survey as announced by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC). He also listed the enactment of the harmonized Consolidated Revenue Law of 2019, which has helped the state to raise its IGR by 97 per cent.

Other achievements of the ministry, according to Dasuki, include: continued automation of revenue processes; establishment of revenue codes for the state and all the 23 local governments; establishment of Single Treasury Account (TSA); Adoption of Cash Management Strategy; Adoption of Monthly Debt Arrears Clearance Framework on Contract and Gratuity payments; Establishment of SFTAS Secretariat; provision of utility vehicles, motor cycles, office furniture, ICT facilities and equipment; and construction of an ultramodern Revenue House and Complex.

Others include harmonizing state civil service database; sanitizing the state civil service salary and pension by linking BVN to personnel management data; provision of adequate manpower and ICT facilities for the salary department; training and retraining of staff for better output and performance; and implementations of N18,000 and subsequently N30,000 minimum wage and CONPCASS salary scale of tertiary institutions for civil servants, thus emerging as the only state in the Northwest that has been consistent with the payment of new minimum wage and with zero salary and pension arrears.

Dasuki also listed the enactment of Fiscal Responsibility Agency Law 2020 and constitution of its board; migration from Cash Basis Accounts to IPSAS Cash and later Accrual Basis ISPAS; and monthly payment of subsistence allowance to both foreign and local students and also cleared arrears of tuition fees.

The former commissioner thanked Governor Tambuwal for the opportunity to serve at the helm of affairs of the finance ministry for three years, adding that he is confident that the achievements recorded by the ministry has placed Sokoto on the front row of states that has reformed their finance sector for optimal performance.

The Mohammed Hayatu-deen Campaign Organisation has described the proposed shut down of domestic flight services by airline operators as disturbing and disheartening.

A statement by its director-general, Senator Isa Galaudu, quoted Hayatu-deen as saying the reason for the lamentable situation is the escalating price of aviation fuel (jet fuel A1) from N190 to N700 per litre.

“This represents more than a 250% jump in price at a time when NBS is reporting official inflation of 15%.

” The Hayatu-Deen Presidential Campaign Organization is of the view that this deplorable outcome is another symptom of an economy that is in dire need of rescue from the claws of subsidy agents.

” The economy is fast approaching failure because of neglect and living in denial of policy makers at a time when industry wide passenger revenue growth is increasing due to the risks and hazards of rail and road travel.

“As a consequence of this, airlines should be making more money and reinvesting in seat capacity,” Hayatu-deen was quoted as saying.

Hayatu-deen said this was not the case because of pricing distortions and the consequences of a dysfunctional subsidy regime.

“It is not rocket science to know that jet fuel represents 40% of the direct operating costs of airlines. Therefore a 250% increase in the price of this input has completely eroded the thin margins of airline operators.”

Hayatu-deen advised the government to embark on a two-pronged approach to mitigate the cataclysmic and systemic risk this development poses to an already fragile economy afflicted by enormous power shortages.

He said: “First is the immediate need for a massive increase in supply by an import intervention to push down prices and stabilize the market. The other being a more fundamental and strategic move to address the structural imbalance of the industry. He said this would entail fast-tracking the revamp of the moribund refineries and accelerating the commissioning of the private refining capacity.

“These together with an efficient review of the failed subsidy system will bring down prices whilst simultaneously increasing output of refined products including jet fuel, diesel and PMS thus bringing the industry into full and dynamic equilibrium.”

Hayatu-deen said Nigerians were already feeling the weight of excruciating economic and social problems, and they do not deserve to be placed under additional unbearable stress.

A massive crowd of Kano youths yesterday called on Senator Basheer Lado to contest the 2023 Kano Central senatorial seat against a former governor of the state, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau.

Lado, a businessman, was elected Senator for the Kano Central Senatorial District of Kano State between 2011 and 2015 when he lost a re-election bid to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso -another former governor of Kano State.

On May 27, 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him as the Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIB); a position he left in September last year.

Kano youths under the auspices of ‘Kungiya Rama Alheri Ga Masoyi’ wing of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kano State chapter, yesterday vowed to return Senator Lado to the National Assembly, according to them, “for quality representation.”

Addressing journalists in Kano shortly after a rally at the City Square, Kano, leader of the group, Malam Aminu Dan Giwa said: “Senator Lado’s towering and impactful achievements, while serving as a Senator, defined quality representation in a participatory democracy which, perhaps, explained why we want him back.

“He did 103 constituency projects while in the 7th Senate, covering health, education, infrastructure, welfare and many other empowerment programmes,” Dan Giwa said.

Dan Giwa added: “Today, we have declared as the date to celebrate this quintessential democrat whose tenure transformed the lives of students, farmers, transporters, traders, artisans and many other vulnerable groups within the senatorial district.”

The convener stressed that after a series of robust consultative meetings and intense dialogue with critical stakeholders, “we have resolved to mark May 5 of every year, starting from today (yesterday) as annual Gadar Lado Day.

He said: “During Lado’s tenure as senator representing Kano Central, he influenced N3 billion Kundila Flyover Bridge where we are standing now, which the Kano citizens have named Gadar Lado (Lado Bridge).

Dan Giwa stated that “informed by the philosophy that encourages appreciation, we openly express gratitude and support our leader who has positively touched our lives, hence, we celebrate and declare support for him (Senator Bashir Lado) for the Kano Central Senatorial seat 2023.”

In a chat with The Nation yesterday in response to the call by Kano youths to unseat Senator Shekarau, Senator Basheer Lado pledged to answer the clarion call. He said he has no option than to do what his people have asked him to do.