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Tag: Abdulaziz Yari

  • Osinbajo, Saraki, governors meet in Aso Rock

    Osinbajo, Saraki, governors meet in Aso Rock

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday met with the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and some state governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara was also part of the meeting.

    The governors at the closed-door meeting included Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello and Adamawa State Governor, Jubrilla Bindow.

    President Muhammadu Buhari left Abuja on Monday for Morocco to attend the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), also known as COP-22, in Marrakech.

    Before Buhari’s trip out of the country, Saraki had met with him three different times within one week over his request for approval to get $29.9 billion loan.

    The Senate had recently rejected Buhari’s approval request for the loan.

    It also described the 2017 to 2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) forwarded by President Buhari for approval as “empty.”

    The MTEF is yet to be approved by the Senate.

    At the end of the meeting with Osinbajo on Monday, Saraki simply told State House correspondents: “Am sure the VP will issue a statement. But nothing of great alarm. It’s all for good governance, inclusion and collaboration with all arms. The states are here, national assembly executives just came up with ideas on how to make things work even better, that’s all.”

    No official statement on the meeting has been issued at the time of filing this report.

  • Recession: Governors back Buhari’s economic measures

    Recession: Governors back Buhari’s economic measures

    State Governors on Friday threw their weight behind the economic measures being introduced by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to bring the country out of recession.

    This was part of resolutions reached at extraordinary meeting of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) held at the old Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.

    Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, NGF Chairman and Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari said: “Also the governors resolved with a commitment to encourage the Federal government to continue along the line to bring the country out of recession.”

    On the issue of insurgents, he said that members resolved that it must be treated as a matter of national emergency

    According to him, the forum also agreed to activate the states task force on polio or the primary health care, which is to be led by the deputy governors.

    The governors, he said, also expressed their commitment to paying their counterpart funding towards polio eradication.

    He said that the governors are going to engage the Minister of Health in order to give urgent attention to eradication of Lassa fever in the country.

  • Zamfara killings caused by false alarm – Governor

    Zamfara killings caused by false alarm – Governor

    Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, on Wednesday said the murder of eight persons at Talata-Mafara in the state was caused by false alarm.

    A student of Abdu Gusau Polytechnic and seven others were killed on Monday over alleged blasphemy.

    A mob also set fire on the house of a man that tried to rescue the student.

    Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Yari described the act as unnecessary and act of devil.

    He said: “From the intelligence I heard from the security agencies, there was a fight between two students and I think one of them injured the other and started shouting that the other person abused Prophet Muhammed.

    “Other students came and beat the other boy who is Yoruba and from Kogi State. Some people are saying he was a Muslim and some say the boy was a Christian. They beat the student until he collapsed and thought he was dead.

    “Then security personnel requested help from one shop owner who then took the boy to the hospital in his car. When the students heard that the boy was still alive and in the hospital, they went to the hospital.  But the boy was rescued by the army in the hospital.

    “Then the students went back to the polytechnic and burnt down the shop of the person who gave his car to rescue the boy.

    “They went back to town again and as you know the police in the division don’t have enough men to contain the riot and before reinforcement came, the crowd threw tyre in the man’s house and burnt the house down.

    “That was how everybody in the house was killed and everybody killed in the House were Muslims and not like the rumours going around in the social media that Christians are being killed in Zamfara.

    “Infact the mob wanted to go and burn churches and attack non- Muslims but the security forces stopped them. It’s my home town and that’s where I live.”

  • Zamfara lawmakers’ impeachment process selfish – Governor

    Zamfara lawmakers’ impeachment process selfish – Governor

    Zamfara Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, on Saturday said the impeachment process initiated against him by the state lawmakers was personal, selfish and against public interest.

    Yari made the remark while fielding questions from journalists in Gusau, the state capital.

    “There has never been any bill brought to me by the House of Assembly that l did not assent to nor have l ever spent money without their approval,” the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted the governor as saying to journalists on Saturday.

    He said the lawmakers’ claim that he had refused to see them to discuss matters of public interest was untrue.

    Governor Yari explained that the legislators were unable to see him because they did not follow the “right channel.”

    “This failure of the legislators to follow the right channel led to the people of the state to suspect that the lawmakers were planning evil,” he said.

    Yari said he has cordial working relationship with the lawmakers.

    “As members of the same political party, we have always discussed the problems and prospects of our party and proffered solutions.

    “At the moment, the only challenge we have is that of security, which we are now adequately addressing with help from the Federal Government,” he said.

  • Governors to attend vacation programme in Germany

    The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Abdulaziz Yari, on Wednesday night said the governors received presentation on their vacation programme slated for Germany.

    Speaking to State House correspondents at the end of the NGF meeting, the Zamfara governor said they were briefed on trip by the Germany Ambassador to Nigeria.

    Yari said the governors were also briefed by South African Vodacom on health, agriculture and other areas of partnership.

    He said: “As usual before any National Economic Council (NEC) meeting we used to sit down and look at what the agenda is going to look like for the meeting. So we deliberated on that and we also received some presentations from the Germany Ambassador on our trip to Germany for vocation programme as well as the South African Vodacom.

    “They also made presentations to us in the area we are going to partner such as health and agriculture.”

    Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, said: “It was quite an extensive presentation, especially on the health sector.

    “In due course, they will provide us more information on how we can benefit from it,” he stated.

  • Zamfara Assembly moves to impeach Yari

    Zamfara Assembly moves to impeach Yari

    … Lists six offences committed by governor

    Zamfara State House of Assembly on Wednesday listed six impeachable offences allegedly committed by the state Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, saying the infractions prompted the lawmakers to consider impeachment proceedings against him.

    A statement issued in Gusau by the Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Alhaji Mannir Gidan-Jaja, accused the governor of misappropriating billions of naira from the state coffers.

    The Assembly listed the money allegedly misappropriated to include N11 billion bailout fund, N1 billion agricultural loan released to the state by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and “corrupt abuse of local government funds.”

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the lawmakers also accused the governor of failing to remit funds deducted for pensions and gratuities to pension fund administrators as provided by law.

    According to the statement, the governor had also ignored the House resolution not to appoint Alhaji Murtala Jangebe as Chairman of the state Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).

    It said the Assembly had passed a vote of no confidence on Jangebe after discovering that he allegedly misappropriated over N1 billion belonging to the board in 2014.

    The statement accused the governor of frequent foreign trips which have had negative impact on the day-to-day running of government.

    The lawmakers condemned the arrest of the Speaker, his deputy, Majority Whip and supporting staff of the Assembly by the Department of States Security (DSS).

     

  • Governors seek audience with Buhari over dwindling economy

    Governors seek audience with Buhari over dwindling economy

    The 36 states governors have resolved to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari towards finding a way out of the deteriorating state of the Nigeria economy.

    According to them, they are struggling to meet up with expenditure especially payment of salaries due to dwindling monthly allocations caused by falling crude oil prices in the international market.

    Speaking with journalists at the end of their meeting held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, early Thursday, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) also backed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over the N2.1trillion fine slammed on MTN.

    The governors insisted that the service provider must pay up in full.

    Reading the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the Chairman of the Forum and governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, said states could no longer bear the N18, 000 minimum wage that was imposed on them when oil sold for $126 per barrel as against its present cost of $41 per barrel.

    He noted that the way out of the situation was the diversification of the economy with adequate attention given to agriculture and mining.

    He said: “We resolved that we must look at ways to enhance revenue generation and at the same time look at ways to cut our overhead costs more especially the political office holders’ salaries and other overhead expenses.

    “The situation is no longer the same when we were asked to pay N18,000 minimum wage, when oil price was $126 (per barrel) and continued paying N18,000 minimum wage when the oil is $41 and the source of government expenditure is oil, and we have not seen prospects in the oil industry in the near future.”

     

  • Buhari not to blame for Nigeria’s woes, says Yari

    Buhari not to blame for Nigeria’s woes, says Yari

    Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari at the weekend declared that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot be blamed for the present woes the country has found itself.

    According to him, what Nigeria is going through is partly a reflection of the global economy, which adversely affected the international prices of oil.

    Despite the drop in prices of oil, he said that President Buhari has done well in managing the Nigeria economy in past five months.

    The governor, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, said that only Nigerians who were aggrieved because of ministerial nomination and other appointments could be unhappy with Buhari.

    He said: “They all should understand how Buhari emerged as president and the situation he met on ground on the issue of economy which is the global issue. Despite the fact that the global leaders are trying, to mention economic recession, but there is bad signal and they are managing it at the top level but in the actual sense, this recess we are in now is more than that of 2008 because China is experiencing very slow production, Brazil, Argentina.

    “The only country that is doing well is America and India, so, there is significant drop in GDP globally except America and India. So, it is not about Buhari,” he added.

    “If we were selling at 102/110 and we were having 38 as production cost and over 70 were put in the basket for sharing, but today, we are selling at 46 and the Joint Venture partners are still taking 38 as their cost of production thereby leaving us with less than $20. So, how are we going to survive?

    “But we are still moving and thinking of how we are going to show that Nigeria has piloted change. So, the people of northern Nigeria or the entire Nigeria should look at this scenario because those in the global business know what the situation is and there is no magic. So, therefore I believe the President is doing well and he started very well.

    According to him, the Nigeria’s economy will experience a significant improvement as all the leakages are being blocked through the introduction of the Treasury Single Account.

    Stressing that Buhari came on board with many agenda, he said Nigerians need to give him time and the chance to do the work.

    “Definitely, he will deliver the campaign promises and at the same time, the issue of security, energy, productivity and discipline in the service, what he has achieved within the five months is remarkable,” Yari stated.

    Continuing, he said: “I have no idea that they are not happy because if anyone can say that, it should not be the north alone, it should be all Nigerians.

    “And I am surprised anyone will say he or she is not happy but maybe they are not happy because he did not consult them in the selection of who his ministers will be. But in general terms, he has done well.” the governor said.

    He also maintained that the NGF, which was crisis-ridden before his tenure, is now faring well under his leadership.

    He said: “Glory be to the Almighty who gave me the opportunity to be a chairman by the support of my colleagues and now, we are having one forum and it is a rallying point to all governors and a rallying point to the federal government in the issue of leadership of the governors and the federal government today.”

  • FG to ban rice importation in two years

    FG to ban rice importation in two years

    Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari on Wednesday disclosed that the Federal Government will ban importation of rice into the country in the next two years.

    He disclosed while speaking with State House correspondents at the end of a meeting on the new policy on agriculture and food sustainability at the Vice President’s conference room.

    The governor also said that ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration did not export any locally-produced rice from the country.

    He said: “We discussed how we can boost rice production in Nigeria and start thinking about how we are going to put policy in place on how rice importation will be banned in the country.

    “We have the potential; we have the human resources; we have the arable land to grow rice.

    “In the next two years, we will not need to bring rice from outside Nigeria. We are going to ban it.

    “It is only in Nigeria, a country of millions of people, that there is no food security.

    “We discussed the policy with the relevant permanent secretaries and CBN governor.

    “The policy is going to be in place and we gave our commitment that we are ready to support the government policy in ensuring that Nigeria becomes self-sufficient in food production in the next two years.

    “Nigeria is currently a major importer of rice. Now, the political will is in place to stop it. We in about nine states are going to be seriously engaged in massive rice production.

    “We are hoping that in the next two years, rice importation into Nigeria will be banned.  We are committed and the political will is in place,” he stated.

  • ‘ It’s illegal for states to hold councils’

    ‘ It’s illegal for states to hold councils’

    The Chairman of Nigeria Governor Forum (NGF) and Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari on Friday said it was illegal for state governments to withhold Local Government Council funds.
    While stating that no such unconstitutional breach was in practice in his state, he said that local governments could work together with the state and contribute towards a particular project.
    Yari spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
    He said: “This is a constitutional matter, section 7 has given power to the Assembly to manage finances of the state. And if you could remember, so many attempts have been made to the National Assembly to amend the section but it failed.
    “But the essence of joint account to my understanding as governor is not to hold the money. As the money is coming, as the constitution spells out, the House of Assembly has to oversee the administration and finances of the state so therefore, that is the meaning of joint account. If it is done properly, nobody should hold any local government money.
    “I doubt if there is any state that is holding any local government funds. But I think what used to happen in my own case is may be if we are having a development project, we vote together on percentage basis, maybe 60-40.
    “This is the only thing that could make a state touch the monies of local government otherwise all the monies to go the local government. So, no one as a governor has the right to touch local government money.
    “Although there are speculations that some states are holding local government money, maybe because there are no elections in those local governments. It’ is administrators, but constitutionally, it is the right of local government which must be exercised.” He added
    According to him, efforts by state ‎governments in the Northwest, particularly Kaduna and Zamfara to curb criminal activities and communal clashes between cattle herders and farmers were yielding good results.
    He gave as example recent arrest by security agents of cattle rustlers and recovery of stolen cattle in the area as the result of improvement in coordinated response to security threats in the region.
    He said: “We have been making serious intervention through the security agencies. Lastly, five front lines states Niger, kastina, Kaduna, Kebbi and Zamfara met with the GOC and other security agencies under the leadership of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai which we have made serious progress.