The Nation Newspaper

Tag: civil society organisations (CSOs)

  • Budget: Stakeholders urge FG to allocate 10% to Agriculture

    Budget: Stakeholders urge FG to allocate 10% to Agriculture

    Participants of the Stakeholders Consultative Meeting on 2018 Agriculture Budget have urged the Federal Government to allocate 10 per cent of the nation’s annual budgets to finance the agricultural sector.

    They made the call in a communique issued at the end of their meeting in Kaduna; a copy of which was e-mailed to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday.

    The stakeholders said that the budgetary allocation, which was in line with the Maputo and Malabo Declarations on agriculture and food security, would boost the realisation of the benchmarks of the two Declarations for agricultural investment.

    They also said that buffer funds from sources such as Natural Resource Funds and Climate Resource Funds might also be considered, given the strategic importance of the agricultural sector.

    They called on federal and state ministries of agriculture as well as National Assembly Committees on Agriculture to monitor the execution of agricultural projects itemised in national budgets, using an adapted Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) results measurement framework.

    The stakeholders, however, recommended that in the 2018 agriculture budget, the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme should be retained, while the budget should be increased to address the inputs gaps experienced by small-scale farmers, especially women.

    They said that for agriculture budgeting and other policymaking processes in 2018 and subsequent years, a strategy should be developed to involve and mainstream the concerns of small-scale farmers.

    “For example, leaders of women farmers’ organisations and other smallholder farmers, vulnerable groups such as farmers living with disabilities, and civil society organisations (CSOs) should be invited to budget preparatory meetings before the release of Budget Call Circulars.’’

    The stakeholders stressed that agriculture budget for 2018 and subsequent years should be gender-sensitive and responsive by providing line items that addressed specific challenges which affected women farmers different from men, while avoiding the fusion of the budget for women farmers and other groups such as youths.

    They, nonetheless, underscored the need for the government to review all the unclear budget lines in the capital and recurrent aspects of the budget for clarity, appropriate size, efficiency and economy; adding that all inappropriate line items should be expunged or amended.

    As regards farming machines, the stakeholders said that instead of importing large machines, tangible efforts should be made to invest more in locally fabricated simple farming machines, which small-scale farmers could easily access and manage.

    They also underscored the need for the 2018 budget for agriculture and rural development to conform to the goals of the Agricultural Production Policy (APP) and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the Federal Government.

    “The existing Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework should be improved upon to align the APP monitoring, in line with the CAADP Results Framework and National Agricultural Investment Plan (NAIP),’’ they said.

    They urged the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the state Ministries of Agriculture and other MDAs should create a budget line to sustain the organisation of the stakeholders consultative meeting annually.

    “The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should work closely with National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to generate disaggregated agricultural data for sector planning,’’ they  added.

    NAN reports that the just-concluded stakeholders’ consultative meeting was aimed at generating discourse on the themes of the government’s agricultural policy, while facilitating citizens’ inputs into the proposed 2018 Agriculture Budget.

  • Meningitis vaccination is free – FG

    Meningitis vaccination is free – FG

    The Federal Government on Friday said vaccination for meningitis is free throughout the country and asked Nigerians not to pay for it.

    The Executive Director, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, said this in a statement made available to newsmen on Friday in Abuja.

    Shuaib therefore advised Nigerians to report any health centre or health worker who extorts money for the on-going meningitis immunisation to the nearest law enforcement agency.

    He said the attention of the agency had been drawn to a report of sharp practices by some health workers and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) extorting money unsuspecting and desperate citizens.

    He added that some health workers were alleged to have extorted money and other forms of incentives from members of the public before being vaccinated against Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM).

    Shuaib said that the vaccination against CSM, like other vaccination in the National Immunization schedule, is free by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

    “The Federal Government had spent billions of Naira to procure, store, maintain and distribute such vaccines to all parts of the country.

    “Under no circumstances should any health worker demand for money from members of the public for such services,’’ he warned.

    According to him, the vaccines’ preventable diseases are covered free-of-charge under the National Immunisation schedule which includes Bacillus Calmette Guerin – (BCG), Poliomyelitis and Hepatitis B.

    Others are Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus toxoid -(Pentavelent vaccines), Haemophilus influenza type B, Pneumococcal vaccines, Inactivated Polio virus vaccines, Measles, Yellow Fever and of course, Meningitis vaccines.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that sequence to the outbreak of meningitis in some parts of the country, the federal government had made available 500,000 doses of meningitis vaccines.

    The government is still expecting the delivery of additional 823,000 doses to curtail the outbreak.

    NAN also reports that residents of Kubwa, FCT-Abuja, have alleged that they were being charged N500 by vaccinators per person before receiving the CSM vaccine.

    Some residents who spoke to NAN said that they did not understand the rationale behind the fee, when the federal government had announced that the immunisation was free.

  • Sagay Committee blames judges for delaying corruption cases 

    Sagay Committee blames judges for delaying corruption cases 

    The Presidential Advisory Commission Against Corruption (PACAC), headed by Prof Itse Sagay (SAN), Tuesday blamed judges for the delay of high profile corruption cases in court.

    Its Executive Secretary Prof Bolaji Owasanoye said if judges strictly complied with the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, high profile cases would be more quickly determined.

    He spoke in Lagos during PACAC’s interactive session with the media and civil society organisations (CSOs).

    According to him, rather than being firm, some judges indulge lawyers who are out to delay cases for their clients by abusing the court process.

    Owasanoye said: “If you do a thorough analysis of the all the high profile cases that are hanging in court, they are not hanging because investigation was poor. It is because the suspects are manipulating the court system.

    “If you accuse me of corruption and I have a good defence, why should I want the case to go on for 10 years? I should be the one insisting on no adjournment. I would want my case quickly concluded so I can clear my name, but that’s not what you get.

    “So while there’s need for thorough investigation, we should understand that the reason corruption fight is slow is because of the high tolerance of the courts of the shenanigans of lawyers.

    “Once the judges stamp their foot and say: ‘I’ll not entertain an adjournment, this case must proceed,’ you will see a changes. We’ve seen those situations in this country before. We need to get the narrative right.”

    Owasanoye said corruption was thriving because Nigerians had become tolerant of it, adding the government cannot fight corruption without the public’s support.

    “For as long as we tolerate corruption, it’ll continue to thrive. We need to show our revulsion for corruption,” he said.

    Owasanoye said banks were part of the problem as they now help some ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to hide funds which ought to be in the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

    “They do this in the name of private banking. It is a violation of the law and attack on the government,” he said.

    Prof Sagay said those who complain of rights violation when they are arrested over corruption allegations ignore the fact that the rights of millions of Nigerians have been violated through graft.

    “There are social, economic and cultural rights. Each time billions of naira is looted, people’s rights to education, health, and social services are violated,” he said.

    Sagay urged Nigerians to join the fight against corruption as the consequences affect everyone.

    The eminent professor of law urged CSOs to do more to help rid the country of corruption.

    “CSOS of today have gone to sleep. For this fight to be effective, we need their support,” he said.

    He also urge labour leaders to join the battle and avoid being compromised.

  • 55 Nigerians stole N1.3trillion under Jonathan – PACAC

    55 Nigerians stole N1.3trillion under Jonathan – PACAC

    Fifty-five people stole N1.3trillion from the national treasury in seven years under President Goodluck Jonathan’s watch, the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) has said.

    The committee said Jonathan tolerated corruption, closed his eyes to graft while his administration fared worse than his predecessors in tackling official sleaze.

    In its report of activities from August 2015 to July 2016 presented to civil society organisations (CSOs) by its Executive Secretary Prof Bolaji Owasanoye during an interactive session in Abuja Thursday, PACAC said corruption brought Nigeria under to its knees under Jonathan.

    The report says: “His (Jonathan’s) tolerance of corruption was reflected in the sunset of activities of anti-corruption agencies under his watch and exponential increase of other vices no doubt fuel by corruption.

    “For example, it is widely believed that insecurity escalated because of the massive embezzlement of $2billion through the Office of the National Security Adviser under the leadership of Col. Sambo Dasuki, who allegedly diverted the money appropriated to fight insurgency.

    “The problems in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry reached zenith with multi-billion dollars subsidy scams while President Jonathan looked the other way.

    “At the same time, other vices spread like cancer – kidnapping, import duty waivers, financial recklessness, a profligate legislature, corrupt judiciary, etc. There was no single high profile conviction under his watch yet there were allegations of high profile corruption within his cabinet.

    “Jonathan’s legendary comment that stealing is not corruption underscored his perspective on corruption and remains a watershed in the history of anti-corruption crusade in Nigeria.

    “Under his watch, corruption brought Nigeria to its knees.”

    PACAC said using World Bank rates, one-third of the N1.3trillion allegedly stolen by only 55 people in seven years could have provided 635.18 kilometers of roads, built 36 ultra-modern hospitals in each state, built and furnished 183 schools, educated 3,974 people from primary to tertiary level (at N25.2million per child) and built 20,062 units of two-bedroom houses.

    The committee noted that while former President Olusegun Obasanjo established key anti-corruption agencies which led to high-profile convictions even though “his actions were not above board”, the crusade against corruption went comatose from 2007 “largely due to leadership deficit”.

    PACAC said corruption is Nigeria’s greatest challenge and is directly associated with the current economic decline, poverty rates, reduced life expectancy, mortality and deteriorated living standards.

    Owasanoye said due to corruption, a few Nigerians were richer than their states, while plea bargaining was abused as people who stole the country dry were given slaps on the wrist and asked to go home.

    He said PACAC has designed a Plea Bargain Manual which mandates custodial sentence for all those who plead guilty of looting after returning all they stole.

    Other strategy documents developed by PACAC and adopted by the government, he said, are a draft National Anti-Corruption Action Plan and Strategy Document, Corruption Case Management Manual (full and abridged versions), Corruption Information/Intelligence Sharing Protocol, and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Corruption and other Related Economic Offences.

    Others are the Strategic Communication Blueprint for FGN in the Fight Against Corruption, Assets Recovery Strategy Document, Framework for Management and Administration of Recovered Stolen Assets, Draft Bill and Explanatory Memorandum for the Establishment of Special Crimes Court, amongst others.