The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Bala Ibn Na’Allah

  • NASS to Buhari: We pray you’ll continue to tolerate us as your `children’

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday got a loyalty and commitment pledge from an unlikely source: the National Assembly.

    Besides the pledge, Senators and members of the House of Representatives  prayed that God might bless Buhari with additional tolerance for him to continue to tolerate them  as his `children’.

    Deputy Senate leader, Alhaji  Bala ibn Na’Allah, representing  Senate President Bukola Saraki made the pledge when representatives of residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) paid Sallah homage to the President at the Presidential Villa.

    Na’Allah  said the National Assembly would keep supporting the vision of the Buhari administration for a greater Nigeria and claimed that  no administration since 1999 has received more cooperation from the legislature like President Buhari.

    He said: “Mr. President, I have the authority of each and every member of the Senate and the House of representatives to wish you a blessed Eid-el-Fitr in 2018 which we are celebrating today.

    Read Also: Buhari is hero of Nigerian democracy – Group

    “And I have the authority of each and every one of us to equally pledge our loyalty and commitment to work with you for the betterment of this country and to wish you more strength; to wish you more health and most importantly Mr. President to add additional degree of tolerance for you so that you tolerate us as your children.

    ““Let me seize this opportunity to say, for the record, that from 1999, when we started our democratic experience, to date  no president and I repeat, `no president and I say for the third term `no president has received the amount of cooperation from the National Assembly like you contrary to what is outside there.”

    The senator also thanked the president, on behalf of the National Assembly, over his decision to revisit and address the issue of June 12, 1993 presidential election, which was won by late MKO Abiola.

    President Buhari had, on June 6, in a statement declared that henceforth, June 12, be observed as Democracy Day in Nigeria and that some heroes of democracy be given national honours.

    The president fulfilled this promise on Tuesday when he conferred on late MKO Abiola the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (Posthumous),  Alhaji Baba Gana Kingibe and late Gani Fawehinmi were also conferred with Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger.

    Continuing, Na’Allah  said: “May I, on behalf of the Senate and the House of Representatives, again thank you for that bold steps you have taken in addressing the unresolved issue of the June 12.

    “You might have underestimated the effects of that singular act. But I will tell you, sir, you have achieved more than 75 per cent of what South Africa did with the Truth and Reconciliation Committee with this singular act.

    “You may not understand sir, but I’m sure in near future you will understand the value of that singular act.

    “Along that line, may I on behalf of the National Assembly implore our religious leaders to begin to think along the line of uniting this country.

    “God has brought together, we do not have any alternative, as far as we are concern we should continue to live as brothers and sisters.”

    Responding, President Buhari called on all Nigerians to work towards salvaging the nation from the shackles of past wrongs by sharing in the collective vision for a greater Nigeria and contributing individually to realize the goal.

    He urged all citizens to embrace the reality that Nigeria must exist and continue as one nation, noting that the country needed all its human and material resources to succeed.

    “We have no other country than Nigeria. We may as well stay and salvage it together,’’ he said.

    President Buhari told the gathering of religious leaders, traditional rulers, security chiefs and top government officials to start expanding the frontiers for development by sensitizing their “constituencies’’ to work harder for the collective good of the country.

    President Buhari also received women groups led by his wife, Aisha, President of the National Council of Women Societies, Dr. Laraba Shoda, and former Deputy Governor of Plateau, Pauline Tallen.

  • Saraki blames EFCC, others for FG’s inability to retrieve looted funds

    Saraki blames EFCC, others for FG’s inability to retrieve looted funds

    Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Tuesday blamed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-graft agencies for Nigeria’s inability to convince other countries to return looted funds back to the country.

    Saraki, who spoke at a one day strategic retreat on tackling the progress of Anti-corruption Bills in National Assembly, noted that many recovered assets were cornered by officials of anti-corruption agencies in the country.

    The Senate President, who was represented at the event by the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, said “Nigeria is finding it difficult to convince other nations to return funds looted from our treasury because of other nations’ exasperation over the management of returned assets.”

    He said: “Only recently, Mr. President inaugurated a committee to audit all assets recovered by various government agencies.

    “The National Assembly has been strident about the opacity shrouding the management of recovered funds, which in many cases get reported by the agencies that investigated and recovered them.

    “An ad-hoc committee of the Senate, which is investigating some administrative infraction in the executive has discovered that many properties recovered from fugitive from the law, have not been accounted for by the investigating agency.  This gives global community great concern about the commitment of Nigeria to the anti-corruption drive.”

    The Chairman of Senate committee on Anti-Corruption, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, in his opening remarks stated that Nigeria’s struggle against entrenched corruption is a global concern.

    The Enugu North lawmaker expressed dissatisfaction with the suspension of Nigeria from the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units especially at a time Nigeria has made anti-corruption a cardinal policy of government.

    Utazi noted that there is no doubt that the suspension greatly impedes the fight against corruption in Nigeria.

  • Senate won’t cede its constitutional powers to executive – Saraki

    Senate won’t cede its constitutional powers to executive – Saraki

    Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said on Thursday the Senate would never surrender its constitutional powers to the executive arm of government under any guise.

    Saraki noted that even when the upper chamber bends backward to accommodate issues such gesture should not be misconstrued to mean weakness or misinterpreted to mean that the constitutional powers assigned to the Senate do not exist.

    The Senate President was ruling on an Order raised by Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, on whether or not the National Assembly has powers to alter the Appropriation Bill as presented by the Executive.

    The Senate, Saraki insisted, would continue to defend the Constitution and ensure that its actions are covered by the Constitution at all times.

    Na’Allah drew the attention of his colleagues to a statement credited to thy Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who said the National Assembly erred to have altered the 2017 Appropriation Bill.

    Osinbajo was quoted as saying the National Assembly has no right to introduce new projects or modify those contained in the Appropriation Bill.

    The acting President also expressed disappointment in the legislature for delaying the passage of the 2017 Appropriation Bill which he signed on Monday.

    Osinbajo said: “I am sure that we understand not just how to do it right, but to get it done in good time.

    “This last budget, the President presented it last December. Despite the assurances that it will be passed in by February, it was not passed until May.

    “As it turned out, we were quite disappointed that it spent a bit of time before it was approved. And thereafter, we had to go into negotiations with the National Assembly in order to get it right.

    “Now, there are these two broad issues about who can do what. The first report is about who can do what. When you present budget to the National Assembly, it is presented as a bill, an appropriation bill.

    “And secondly, do not introduce entirely new projects and all of that or modify projects. This is something that we experienced last year and this year again. It now leaves the question about who is supposed to do what.”

    Na’ Allah, who brought up the issue said, “I want to make a personal explanation on the media reports credited to the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, to the effect that the National Assembly does not possess any power to alter the budget submitted to it by the Executive. I offer explanation that we have operated this Constitution from 1999 to date.

    “I am sure that everybody who knows me knows that I have some limited understanding of the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I have also had the privilege to work with the Acting President while I was practicing in Lagos as a lawyer.

    “We did a lot of things together. So, he is somebody that I know so much, that I will rather believe that what was alleged to have been said could not have been said by him and even if he spoke on the matter, he was misquoted.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, this same Constitution we operated from 1999 to date has section 80, and the title of section 80 is “Power and Control over Public Funds.”

    “I read: All revenues or other monies raised or received by the Federation not being revenues of other monies payable under this Constitution or any Act of the National Assembly into any other Public Fund of the Federation established for a specific purpose shall be payable to and for one consolidated fund of the Federation.

    “Two says: No monies shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated revenue Fund of the Federation except to meet expenditure that is charged upon the Fund by the Constitution or where the issue of those monies has been authorised by an Appropriation Act, Supplementary Appropriation Act or Act passed in pursuance of Section 81 of the Constitution.

    “Three: No money shall be withdrawn from any public funds of the Federation other than the Consolidated revenue fund of the Federation unless the issue of those monies has been authorised by an Act of the National Assembly.”

     

  • Senate probes irregular migration of Nigerians across Sahara, Mediterranean

    Senate probes irregular migration of Nigerians across Sahara, Mediterranean

    The Senate Wednesday asked its joint committee on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora to investigate the rising cases of irregular migration across Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

    It also urged the Federal Government to strengthen National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP) and the Nigerian Immigration Service to take effective measures towards preventing the trafficking in persons and illegal migration.

    The resolutions followed the adoption of a motion entitled “Trans-Sahara-Europe migration crisis” sponsored by Senators Francis Alimikhena (Edo North) and Bala Ibn Na’Allah (Kebbi South).

    Alimikhena who led the debate noted that negative trend of migration by Nigerians and other African through illegal routes across the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea which has continued to result in colossal loss of lives.

    He also noted the definition of a migrant under the United Nations International Organisation for Migration as “any person who is moving or has moved across an international border or within a state away from his/her habitual placed of residence, regardless of the person’s legal status, whether movement was voluntary or involuntary, what the cause of the movement are and the length of stay.”

    The Edo North lawmaker said that the Senate should aware that Nigerians who embark on illegal/irregular migration find their route through Liyba, Morrocco and Algeria.

    He expressed worry that the International Organisation for Migration’s report 2016 revealed that the more than 5,070 people were estimated to have lost their lives on migratory routes around the world and the Mediterranean alone witnessed a record of 3,870 out of which 2,000 of the casualties were from the central Mediterranean route used by the West and North African countries and Nigeria alone has more than 1000 of the central Mediterranean casualties.

    Alimikhena further expressed concern that because of the involvement of many Nigerians in the irregular migration, the International Organisation for Migration made Nigeria and Iraq a case study in one of their researches, the result of which was mind-boggling.

    He noted that in addition to the tragic loss of lives, a substantial number of victims are not recovered and even those recovered are buried with at best a number and not a name.

    He said that it is important to emphasize that each unidentified migrant represent a missing person for a family who live in perpetual grief without certainty of the whereabouts of their loved ones.

    The phenomenon, he said, is aggravated by the activities of unrepentant human traffickers who deceive unsuspecting Nigerians with promises of leading them to greener pastures only to sell them as sex slaves and where possible, even harvest their body organs for money.

    He prayed the Senate to show determination to reverse the negative trend and inhuman treatment suffered by Nigerians migrants in the hands of Immigration officials in neighbouring countries.

    Most Senators who contributed asked the government to step up efforts to save Nigerians who might be deceived to toe the same line like those who lost their lives.

     

  • Chanchangi airlines chairman is dead

    Chanchangi airlines chairman is dead

    Amadu Chanchangi, Kaduna-based billionaire and Chairman of Chanchangi Airlines, is dead.

    He died along Kaduna-Abuja road while being transported to a hospital in Abuja in the early hours of Wednesday.

    The business mogul had been seriously ill.

    “He has been buried around 2pm Wednesday according to Islamic rites at the Bashama road cemetery,” family sources said.

    Among early sympathisers were Bala Ibn Na’Allah, Deputy Senate Leader, Mohammed Ali, former member of Kaduna State House of Assembly, among others.

    Na’Allah, Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, described the late Chanchangi as a man of peace and a shining example of a devout Muslim.

    “His contribution to the development of the aviation sector, more especially in the North, will remain indelible,” he said.

    He prayed to Allah to grant him eternal rest and the family, people of Taraba and Kaduna states, the fortitude to bear the loss.

    Chanchangi is survived by three wives, 33 children; among them is Rufai Chanchangi, a member of the House of Representatives.

     

  • Senate probes non- payment of judges’ salaries

    The Senate on Tuesday mandated its joint committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters and Finance to investigate the circumstances surrounding the alleged non- payment of salaries and allowances of federal judges for four months.

    The mandate followed the observation raised by Senate Deputy Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, that federal judges have not been paid their salaries and allowances in the past four months.

    Na’Allah, who described the alleged non -payment of judges as “worrisome and disturbing,” said it is the responsibility of the Senate to wade into the matter with a view to finding out the true position.

    The Kebbi South lawmaker said the Senate should not turn blind eye to the issue in the interest of the judiciary and the country.

    Urging the Senate to act fast to save the situation, Na’Allah said the committees on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters and Finance should be asked to go into the matter without further delay.

    He said that everything should be done to ensure prompt payment of the judges’ salaries and allowances.

    Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu who presided over the plenary, said Na’Allah approached him with the information.

    He noted that if the information is true, efforts should be made to pay the judges by government.