The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the Federal Government will not tolerate the destruction of national monuments anywhere in the country for whatever reason.
Mohammed gave the assurance when he visited the site of a national monument, the 190-year-old Brazilian style building in Lagos.
The building, which was acquired and gazetted as a national monument by the Federal Government in 1956, was destroyed by some developers. The Federal Government and the developers have since instituted cases in court over the property.
‘’Because they wanted to develop this place, they have broken so many laws. Fortunately, this is a country of laws and we are ready to meet them in court and one thing I can assure you is that nobody can benefit from his own crime.
‘’I want to assure you that we will challenge them in court and we are going to get our reliefs and we will restore this building to its former glory. We have the picture, we will rebuild it,’’ he said.
Alhaji Mohammed said the monument, built by returnee slaves from
Brazil, is unique because it chronicled the historical, cultural and social relationships between Nigeria and Brazil
‘’It is like a living monument of our (slave trade) past. It was a monument that exhibited the Brazilian architecture at that time, which is rare to come by anywhere in the world. It is a remembrance of what our ancestors went through in slavery and how they triumphed, came back and showed that they were well-to-do. The important thing is that a people without history will perish very fast. This building was worth billions of dollars because it symbolised our past.
‘’No amount of skyscrapers can replace this history and all important monuments that have been demolished, and I want to assure you that nobody can profit from his crime. You cannot go to court now and say that because the structure has been destroyed, the land should go back to the owner.
‘’This is why I have come here with the (Lagos State) Commissioner of Police, who has been quite helpful. I want to assure Nigerians that we are going to pursue whoever has destroyed this place. It may take time, but the hand of the law is long.
Tag: Fed Govt
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‘Fed Govt will not tolerate destruction of national monuments’
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Group to Fed Govt: tackle criminals without bias
The Muslim Association of Nigeria (MAN) has appealed to Nigerians to stop the colouration of crime based on religious sentiments.
Its President Alhaji Sulaiman Yusuf said the Federal Government should punish offenders, regardless of their tribe or religion.
Yusuf said this at the first 2017 National Executive meeting of the association in Lagos.
He noted that herdsmen were first Nigerian citizens and should be prosecuted accordingly if they are found guilty in court of crimes.
The cleric said: “Let’s pay more attention to the issue of national security. During this hardship, we should not compound people’s problems. They should be free to go about their activities safely. The best way to address issues that we have around us is to be open-minded. We are Nigerians. Whosoever behaves well, we acknowledge them, whoever doesn’t behave well, we identify them as an individual or group and deal with them decisively. The moment you start bringing in religious colouration, you start having sympathy for people.
“Nigerians should see people as Nigerian citizens and if they are not doing well, we bring them out and deal with them, without necessarily bringing out the issue of religion. This is not palatable for us.”
He noted that citizens’ basic rights to life and security should be defended, rather than infringed upon.
“I think what government should do is that wherever you may be in any part of Nigeria, if you identify any group of people that are not doing the right thing, there are rights and obligations. We are citizens and we have the right to live. But you should know where your right stops. You don’t tamper with other people’s rights. So people need to be educated and properly guided. And if they are doing things that are wrong, we should stop them in time. Time is very important in anything we are doing. If you waste time, things will get worse. It should be recognised that you have no right to start killing people unnecessarily. They are people like you. They are not different. We are all made by God. You are not special in anyway,” Yusuf said.
The Muslim leader also called on government to step up efforts to revive the economy through agriculture and provision of employment.
Yusuf said: “Also on the economy, we still have a large number of unemployed youths out there. I think we need to do more to ensure that unemployed graduates have jobs to do. Idle hand is the devil’s workshop. People are crying of hardship every day and this has to be revoked.
“More should be done on our agricultural expansion programme to ensure that food is available for the citizens. We are happy with the collaboration Lagos State is having with Kebbi. More of such need to be done. We are not limiting these issues to Federal Government. The state and local governments also have their roles to play. They must buckle up this year and deliver as expected. People are waiting on these three tiers of government to deliver on their promises so that life can be better off for the citizens.”
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Fed Govt to buy N400m cars for ex-presidents
If the 2017 estimated spending by the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) is approved as proposed, the Federal Government will spend N400million on vehicles for former presidents/ heads of state.
Their outstanding allowances will also be paid in this fiscal year because they are in the estimates, according to SGF Babachir David Lawal.
Lawal spoke yesterday when he defended the planned expenditure before the Senate Committee on Federal Character.
The Vice Chairman of the committee, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, asked why former presidents’ allowances had not been paid. Lawal said: “Fund for the allowances for former presidents was sufficiently covered in the 2017 budget, though not openly budgeted for in the proposal.”
Although the SGF did not disclose the total amount required for the payment of the arrears, he noted that the money was part of the N9.88 billion proposed by his office.
Lawal said the former presidents were due to have new vehicles, usually procured at the end of four years.
Besides President Muhammadu Buhari, there are seven former presidents and heads of State. They are: Gen. Yakubu Gowon, President Olusegun Obasanjo, President Shehu Shagari, Military President Ibrahim Babangida, Head of Interim National Government Ernest Shonekan, former Head of State Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and President Goodluck Jonathan.
The SGF, who was scheduled to appear before the committee last week, failed to show up.
He told the senators that his absence was necessitated by the urgency to condole with families of those bereaved, particularly the Sports Minister Solomon Dalung, whose first wife died.
He told the committee that his office proposed N9.882,782,935 billion for the 2017 fiscal year.
Of the amount, N3,408,763,591 is for payment of personnel costs and N3,781,628,226 for overheads, a figure which shows an increase of N2 billion as against the 2016 appropriation.
The amount proposed for overheads is for funding the programmes of other offices headed by the permanent secretaries in the OSGF. They are also programmes of political office holders such as the special advisers, and senior special assistants to the President.
Lawal’s office budgetted N2,692,391,118 for capital projects.
He said that funds appropriated for the office in the 2016 budget were grossly inadequate to meet some of its responsibilities.
The committee agreed with the SGF that 10 per cent release by the Ministry of Finance for the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation in 2016 was insufficient, particularly against the backdrop of what was proposed.
The amount, which according to them was insufficient, they said may be an indication that there is a problem between the Budget Office and the Ministry of Finance that must be tackled.
Hunkuyi, who praised the federal government for adequate releases to MDAs in 2016, said the committee would investigate the poor release to the OSGF.
”If it is a problem between finance and budget, we need to get at it and understand what it is. It is unlike this government to do that. We need to know what went wrong, where, who is in charge of that and remedy it,” Hunkuyi said.
Committee Chairman, Senator Tijjani Kaura described the request for more funding by the OSGF as “justified”.
He noted that the meeting was “aimed at understanding better the performance of previous budgets and proposal of this year’s budget”. -
Expert to Fed Govt: sensitise public on climate change
A Non-Governmental Organi-sation (NGO) Digital Environmental System Management has called on the Federal Government to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to sensitise the citizens to the effects of climate change.
Its Chairman Dr Samuel Adejuwon, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on that massive sensitisation of the public would aid the fight against climate change.
He said the essence of creating awareness at the community level was to educate the populace on specific climate change issues so as to enable them to take adequate precautions.
Adejuwon said: “We have to continuously create awareness, especially at the local level. Government has to put in more effort; there is no amount of awareness that can be enough. When we continue with the awareness, activities will be modelled along that line.
“Although, this is essentially the work of the Nigerian Metrological Agency and I believe they are making efforts. The Federal Ministry of the Environment can also chip in support. The Department of Climate Change, in particular, can collaborate with other government agencies and relevant stakeholders in staging the public awareness campaign. This awareness campaign will entail disseminating information to the local communities.
“If this method can be sustained in these communities, it will further help to reduce certain problems which the nation is facing today with regard to climate change.”
Adejuwon identified lack of funding as one of the reasons why Nigeria was delaying the implementation of climate change conference resolutions.
According to him, it will be difficult to implement climate change resolutions as long as the climate change department is given zero budget.
Climate change, he said, was a global phenomenon, adding, that some nations were experiencing more adverse effects of climate change than others. -
MAN: Fed Govt’s debts to pharmaceutical firms crushing
Emzor Pharmaceutical Group Chairman, Mrs. Stella Okoli, has lamented the huge debts being owed pharmaceutical companies by the Federal Government.
“Three years ago, when the government had no single anti-retroviral drugs, they appealed to us (pharmaceutical firms) to please help produce anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS. We imported the materials and met the deadline; but till today, they have not paid us for the drugs. The government is owing pharmaceutical industry billions of naira over the last three years,” Mrs Okoli, also a Vice President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), said.
She lamented that through the MAN (Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group), several efforts have been made to get government to pay the debt, but it has not yielded any dividend. “We have gone to the Minister of Health, Minister of Industry and also the legislators. The energy that we have put in to get the money is much. We are patriotic Nigerians, so we do not want to take a wrong step that may have a negative impact on the future of pharmaceutical manufacturing and those that are studying pharmacy, or drug manufacturing in Nigeria. We should be talking of research; now is the time we need to move and get going,” she said.
Mrs Okoli said given the prevailing economic situation in the country, which has led some manufacturers to close shop and left several others to become cash strapped, there is the need for government to help manufacturers. This will entail the government and other regulatory bodies to work together for the common good of the real sector by ensuring that the industry is properly positioned to compete with its counterparts abroad and make sure that export is smooth.
“Manufacturing has become very difficult in this country; it is the job of the government to make sure that our industries survive. There are so many ways to help manufacturers, including through the government patronage and paying them promptly for jobs done,” she submitted.
She however said notwithstanding the situation, the future of manufacturing in the country is very bright because without manufacturing, “we are dead” as a nation. -
Fed Govt begins bond roadshow
Nigeria will soon meet investors before a Eurobond sale and plans to apply for a $1 billion loan from the World Bank once lawmakers approve this year’s budget, Finance Minister Mrs Kemi Adeosun has said.
“We are about to embark on the roadshow” for the dollar bond, Adeosun said by phone from the capital, Abuja, yesterday, without giving more details. She and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo previously said they want to raise $1 billion in what would be Nigeria’s first Eurobond since 2013.
The government hired Citigroup Inc. and Standard Chartered Bank Plc to organise the roadshow in the U.S. and London from today according to a person familiar with the matter. The notes and the World Bank loan will help plug a fiscal deficit forecast by the government to be N2.36 trillion ($7.5 billion) this year, Adeosun said separately to reporters.
President Muhammadu Buhari presented a record N7.3 trillion spending plan to lawmakers in December in a bid to stimulate an economy experiencing its worst downturn in more than two decades because oil prices have been crashing since 2014 and investors fleeing the country. Gross domestic product (GDP) probably shrank 1.5 per cent last year, marking the first full-year recession since 1991, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
While Nigeria sought about $4.5 billion of external funding last year, it only managed to borrow $600 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB), which will be used for power generation, roads, railways and ports. The government has struggled to obtain more financing as foreign investors and the IMF have criticised its currency policies, which they say have left the naira overvalued and led to a severe shortage of the foreign-exchange businesses need to import raw materials and equipment.
The naira trades around 315 per dollar on the official interbank market and fell to a record 500 on the black market this week as the dollar scarcity worsens.
The yield on Nigeria’s $500 million Eurobond due in July 2023 snapped six days of increases to decline by 1 basis point, to 6.89 per cent, by 8:41 a.m. in London.
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Fed Govt sets up panel to bring down food prices
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday set up a committee, which will suggest ways of reducing food prices.
The committee is expected to submit a report to the Council next Wednesday.
Minister of Information Lai Mohammed broke the news to State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting chaired by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.
With Mohammed were Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun and Minister of State for Aviation Hadi Sirika.
Mohammed said the government’s decision was based on its concern about the rising cost of food items.
He said: “FEC considered several memos and approvals were given. Council resolved to set up task force on food security. Government is quite concerned about the rising cost of food items and the fact that more often than not even when these products are available they are sold at very exorbitant prices.
“So, the government has set up a task force on food security to ensure that an end is put to the wastages that occur and with tons and tons of produce sitting down in the farms rotting or in the markets getting rotten.”
The inter-ministerial committee comprises the ministers of Agriculture – Audu Ogbeh, Finance – Kemi Adeosun, Water Resources – Suleiman Adamu, Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, Industry, Trade & Development, Dr. Okey Enelamah, and
Minister of Labour & Employment Dr. Chris Ngige.
The Offices of the Chief of Staff to the President and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, are part of the Task Force.
Mohammed said: “The important thing is to look at what areas of intervention the government can make. The intervention can be in the area of subsidy in transportation; that is being worked out but this goes to show that government is very much concerned about the rising cost of food price and we are responding to it.
“The committee hopefully is expected to report back to council next week and concrete actions would be taken. Clearly, government is concerned and is trying to do something to bring it down.”
Mrs Adeosun said a memorandum on the national tax policy was approved by FEC. Value Added Tax (VAT) on luxury items may go up to 10% from 5%, she added.
All tax laws requiring amendment are to be forwarded to the National Assembly.
Said the minister: “What the committee has shown is that we should look at actually increasing VAT on some luxury items. VAT of five percent. We have lowest VAT and whilst we don’t think VAT should be increased on basic items.
“If you are going to drink champagne you drink Champagne in the UK and VAT is 20%. Why should it be 5% in Nigeria. So they have made recommendations that we should pull out some luxury items and increase VAT on those items immediately.
“And I think that it is a very valid and sensible suggestion which we are going to talk to the National Assembly to see how we can implement it. But as far as basic goods are concerned, no. I believe it is only fair that when you consume luxury goods you should pay a little bit more. The National Assembly will decide the percentage.”
Sirika said that two memoranda were approved for the Ministry of Transportation.
He said: “One is procurement of coaches, two first class coaches. Two are for baggage and six for long distance economy class coaches, to improve upon this Kaduna airport project.
“This is to boost rail transportation on the Abuja- Kaduna standard gauge railway to improve on passengers and goods and also following the impending closure of the Abuja airport.
“This is to also compliment the other airport we are doing in Kaduna. This is to increase our capacity to handle passengers during this airport closure.”
Also approved was the memo on joint briefing offices in all 21 federal government airports in Lagos, Kano, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ilorin, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Jos, Yola, Calabar, Enugu, Owerri, Kaduna, Benin, Osubi-Warri, Katinsa, Zaira, Minna, Bauchi, Ibadan and Akure.
“And,of course, three aerodromes, namely Bonny, Excravos and Eket. These joint briefing offices will include the air automation and would co-locate the track-up projects, the total radar coverage, the air automation system, which includes the pilot briefing offices.
“These are prefabricated because during the remodeling exercise of those airports they were tempered with. So we thought we should just co-locate them in one area for efficiency and to safeguard against future relocations.”
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Reps to investigate telcos for shortchanging fed govt
The House of Representatives is to investigate telecommunications service providers (telcos) for fleecing the Federal Government of massive revenue through some unethical activities.
House Committee on Communications has been mandated to carry out a comprehensive investigation of activities of telcos, which lead to massive revenue by Federal Government.
The committee has four weeks to carry out the probe and report back to the House.
The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion by Tajudeen Yusuf (PDP, Kogi), who regretted the massive revenue loss caused by serial under-payments by the telecommunications service providers.
In his argument, Yusuf observed that over the years, Nigeria lost revenue from telecommunications service providers who consistently took advantage of certain regulatory loopholes to underpay the Federal Government.
According to him, despite its size, population and traffic of international calls, revenues to the Federal Government is low compared with countries as Ghana which generated about $143m between June 2010 and June 2012.
He said: “Considering the volume, values and traffic on each of those telecommunications service providers, the revenues generated by Nigeria through operating levy as well as income tax on profit paid by the firms have been grossly inadequate.
“It is however worrisome that the Federal Government receives only revenues based on what is declared by the telecom operators through their self-assessment and self-declaration mechanisms that are usually skewed in their favour.
“It is equally disturbing that the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) does not carry out appropriate verification of the volume of transactions done by these telecoms providers.
“It is alarming that sometime in April 2015, without NCC’s approval, the telecom service providers unilaterally increased the termination fee for inbound international traffic into their networks to N10 per minute from N3. 90k, which led to increased revenues for these firms without corresponding increase in revenues accruable to the Federal Government.
“Unlike some neighbouring countries, Nigeria does not have a well-structured platform to duely verify the transactions and declarations made by these telecom service providers with a view to correcting the anomalies in revenues remitted to the Federal Government.
“We should be concerned that due to the absence of an effective and efficient monitoring mechanism, Nigeria has lost humongous revenues because the huge traffic brought in at higher termination fee is usually credited as local calls and the service providers pay the Federal Government same rate as the rates from local calls.
“Also, it should be of concern that the service providers take advantage of the non-uniformity of data computed by NCC and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in terms of inbound termination calls into Nigeria by paying the Federal Government whatever suits them, thus shortchanging Nigeria of the appropriate revenues accruable to it.”
The motion was unanimously adopted when it was put to a voice vote.
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Fed Govt mulls fertiliser price slash to boost agric production
The Federal Government plans to slash the price of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) fertiliser to N5, 000 per bag to encourage farmers to boost agricultural production in the country.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who made this known to newsmen in Abuja, said the plan is to make food production easier and enhance profit for farmers in the country.
The minister said the government would take delivery of the first shipment of 800, 000 tonnes of NPK fertiliser from Morocco by January 27.
According to him, government wants the blending to take place everywhere in the country so that farmers can have access to fertiliser at the lowest possible cost.
A bag of NPK costs between N7, 500 and N9, 000 in the open market. But with the first shipment of phosphate from Morocco expected to arrive today in Lagos and then the blending done here, Ogbe said: “We are bringing the price of fertiliser to N5, 000 per bag.”
He explained that the government wants to ensure that every blender in the country who has the capacity will blend. “If we can bring the prices of fertiliser to N5, 000 per bag, food production will become easier and farmers will enhance their profit,” the Minister said.
He said this was why the King of Morocco (Mohammed VI) came to Nigeria and the reason why President Muhammadu Buhari visited Morocco. “The target we have is about 800,000 tonnes of fertiliser per annum from Morocco, but the problem we have is that we do not only satisfy Nigerians, our neighbours always come in and take a bit,” Ogbe said.
While noting that Nigeria cannot deny her neighbours entirely, he said “we have to satisfy ourselves first.’’
It would be recalled that indigenous conglomerate Dangote Group and the OCP Group of Morocco had in December 2016 signed an agreement to import more than two million tonnes of customised fertiliser into Nigeria.
The agreement was meant to boost fertiliser production and businesses in the country within the next three years.
The OCP Group is said to be a global leader in the phosphate and phosphate derivatives market.
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Fed Govt rehabilitates Kwalkwalawa-UDUS road for N129m
A 129 million contract has been awarded by the Federal Government for the rehabilitation of the six-kilometre Kwalkwalawa-Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto main campus road.
Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Abdullahi Zuru, who made the disclosure to reporters in Sokoto on Monday after inspecting the project said: “the contract was awarded to Messrs Tri-Dynamics Global Concept Ltd”, which has since commenced work.
“The project entails the total rehabilitation of the road and the work would be completed in six months.
“This work was influenced by a member of the House of Representatives representing Kware/Wamakko Federal Constituency, Alhaji Abdullahi Wamakko( APC-Sokoto).
‘’The work is being supervised by the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), assisted by Engineers from the university,” he said.
Zuru praised President Buhari and the Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Mr Raji Fashola for the gesture.
‘’This is a worthy example of a harmonious working relationship between the executives and legislatures. I am really impressed with the level of work and so far so good.
“The management of the institution would landscape the road upon its completion, to solidify it.
“But we will welcome more assistance from other lawmakers, corporate entities and other wealthy individuals,” Zuru said.
However, Zuru noted that the project would greatly bolster the academic and socio-economic activities of those plying the road.
He further disclosed that no fewer than 20,000 staff and students, as well as the residents of the neighbouring communities ply the road daily.
“Certainly, the project has made us to heave a sigh of relief sequel to its terrible state of dilapidation hitherto.
‘’The gesture is being augmented by the ongoing rehabilitation of the 6.5 kilometer Sokoto city to Kwalkwalawa road by the Federal Government.
‘’The road was devastated by flood in 2010 and the Federal Government awarded the contract thereafter,’’ Zuru said.