The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Federal government

  • FG approves additional N2.99b for Calabar – Katsina Ala road

    FG approves additional N2.99b for Calabar – Katsina Ala road

    The Federal Government on Wednesday approved additional N2.99 billion for the rehabilitation and extension work on Calabar-Ugep-Ogoja-Katsina Ala Road.

    The Minister of State for Works, Bashir Yuguda, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja.

    According to him, the original cost of the project was N4.6 billion and the new approval of N2.99 billion would bring the total cost of the project to N7.6 billion.

    The new approval, he said, would extend the road from kilometer 48 to kilometer 76 and would be completed within 24 months.

    He said: “Council had at its conclusion 7 of 1st April 2009 awarded contract for the rehabilitation of Calabar-Ugep-Ogoja-Katsina Ala Road Section 1(Calabar -Ugep) in Cross River State. The ZIP was embarked upon in 2009 to address the deteriorating state of the road.”

    “The first phase of the project is aimed at addressing the heavily distressed sections of the road while other sections not captured in the original contract scope of works would be addressed when funds become available.

    “This is to ensure that government and the public get the full benefits of the investment made on the roads in terms of improvement in the level of service.

    “After deliberations the council ratified the President’s anticipatory approval for the augmentation of contract for the rehabilitation of Calabar-Ugep-Ogoja-Katsina Ala Road section1 (Calabar-Ugep) in Cross River State, in favour of Messrs Piccolo Brunelli Limited in the sum of N2,999,979,575.00 to N7,613,176,725.00 only. The approval was given following a memo by the minster of works.”

    The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, at the briefing, disclosed that all projects would henceforth be subjected to scientific analysis before inclusion in the budget for appropriation.

     

     

     

  • Expert urges govt, others to embrace local content

    The Federal Government and operators in the oil and gas sub-sector of the economy have been urged to take advantage of the abundant polymer materials in the country to halt the over $1 billion wasted through the importation of polymer into the country.

     This development will also avert further environmental degradation occasioned by the use of non-biodegradable materials for food packaging in the country.

    Prof Willis Harmon Ray of the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, United States of America (USA) made this call in Lagos at the annual lecture and Life Achievement Awards and Induction of new fellows of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE). With Engineering Opportunities and Challenges Related to Producing a Broad Range of Polymer Products from Oil and Gas as its theme, the lecture was held at the Main Auditorium of the University of Lagos, Akoka-Yaba. Prof Ray was guest lecturer at the event.

    Acccording to him, there were great opportunities to produce large quantities of a broader range of valuable polymers in Nigeria that would expand the domestic market, significantly reduce imports, and offer materials for the export market.

    He lamented that amid the abundant polymer materials in Nigeria, the country is currently spending over one $1 billion on the importation of polymer into the nation. Represented by the interim Dean, College of Engineering, University of Delaware, USA, Prof Babatunde Ogunnaike, said the country should take advantage of polymer materials to improve the economy.

    He said: “There are well-regarded and successful polymer production processes available for license that could be installed in Nigeria to take advantage of the large volumes of inexpensive oil, gas, and refined products available locally.

    “Creating and expanding the production of polymers would allow the expansion of the domestic polymer processing industry to provide more varieties and larger volumes of polymer consumer products for both domestic use and export. Nigerians must embrace the production of polymer materials.”

    Earlier in his address, NAE’s president, Prof Ayodele Francis Ogunye, said polymer production was becoming more relevant to the advancement of various sub-sectors of the nation’s economy. He therefore urged the Federal Government and stakeholders in the oil and gas industry to harness the abundant benefits in polymer production to the country’s advantage.

    The Academy honoured three of its elders with life achievement awards while 12 new members were inducted into the exalted class of fellows. Those honoured with life achievement awards include Engr.(professors) Gabriel Ayodele Makanjuola, Sikiru Adebayo Sanni and Engr.Guy Eboe Otobo.

    Those new fellows include former governor of Abia State and Chairmen, All Nigeria People’s Party, ANPP Engr. (Dr.) Ogbonnaya Onu, Engr. (Prof.) Michael Oladimeji Faborode, Engr. (Prof.) Joseph Atubokiki Ajienka, Engr. (Prof.) Joseph Olawole Shojobi, Engr. (Prof.) Lawson Olabosipo Asekoya and Engr. Yusuf Olanrewaju Sagaya.

    Others are Engr. (Prof.) Joseph Olorunfemi Ojo, Engr. (Prof.) Adetokunbo Omokayode Denloye, Engr. (Dr.) Kisito Okpere, Engr. (Prof.) FunsoFalade and Engr. Jani Ibrahim.

  • Let not the ‘current’ crises go to waste

    Let not the ‘current’ crises go to waste

    The Federal Government of Nigeria on May 14, declared a state of emergency in three states north-eastern states. The comments I want to make are not directed to ‘fire brigade’ action. I am more interested in the perhaps less exciting subject of constitution making. And the angle from which I am approaching this matter is that Nigeria has been in crises right from the beginning. Certain individuals only recently were reported to have threatened ‘fire and brimstone’ should they fail to have their way in matters that concern all Nigerians. I refer the reader to the comments as contained in The Guardian editorial of Monday, May 13, under the title ‘Kuku, Asari-Dokubo and the limits of blackmail’. The comments responded to the threats made by these named individuals, “against the background of the fragility of Nigeria’s security today…” It was pointed out that, such threats that there won’t be peace in the land if so-and-so did not happen, is not new; that supposedly respectable persons had also in the past adopted the practice of blackmail.

    A lot of commentators point to constitutional imbalances as the cause of our crises and, in consequence, argue for a constitutional conference to address the problem. I agree with this conclusion, however, reject one thesis in particular, put forward in making the case for a new constitution. My interest therefore is to draw attention to one or more misconceptions that have attended the argumentation in favour of a constitutional re-balancing.

    The case for a national self-reflection of a fundamental sort indeed makes itself in the light of the on-going crises. Not intending to rehash the substantive arguments for a constitutional conference, I would nonetheless refer to some of the matters that have been adduced as grounds for it, and for negating it. I am in doing so rather inspired by this dictum of Francis Bacon that “Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion”. It would seem to follow that we should guard more vigorously against confusions. Whatever the case, the important point is really for the need for some vision on the part of our leaders. A clarity of vision requires first and foremost an understanding of where one is coming from and, secondly, where one wants to go. I wish in this regard to disavow some of the propositions put forward by Professor Ogundowole of the University of Lagos in his essay titled: ‘Conference of the sovereigns is inevitable’, in The Punch newspaper in May 8-9.

    The case for a properly executed conference for the purpose of instituting a sound basis for a stable and viable future should be made with the acute awareness that there are no easy answers to the task of building a modern political community. If there should be one single cause for the general malaise in Nigeria, I would put my finger on immorality, social and political. But then morality is an abstract concept, which, without more may not help us in our search for solutions to concrete problems. However, because ideas, it has been said, rule the world and, according to the philosopher Shelling, the only thing that infuses action with “energy and ethical significance”, the specific political-constitutional question(s) confronting us can only be approached initially abstractly. Political morality: what is it? An unavoidable question, which is to be considered in context.

    Constitutionalism as a principle, the idea of limited government or a government under the rule of the law is a derivative of the idea of political morality. A glaring example of a practice opposed to political morality is the case referred to above of certain individuals using blackmail to gain political advantage. The openness to negotiation and compromise and the preparedness for talks, coupled with the humility required to engage others in reasonable arguments, are the hallmarks of the practice of political morality.

    The argument is made that it lies within the province of the elected representatives of the people to choose to or not to deliberate about the all-too-familiar fundamental constitutional questions. In regard to this, it is worth emphasizing that whilst errors and confusions may be excusable, dishonesty is quite a different matter. Anyone capable of intellectual dishonesty and lacking a sense of personal integrity is not fit to hold a public office at any level of political life. The National Assembly’s claim to sovereignty is in respect to law making only; in like manner, the legitimate powers of the Federal Government and state governments are in respect to governance respectively of the Nigerian State and the states. But sovereignty as such, i.e. unlimited and unqualified, derives, as it is stated in the Constitution, from the peoples of Nigeria. The simple explanation (which most Nigerians can understand) why the National Assembly is not apt to make this new constitution is that the questions to be addressed are much more fundamental than the power to make laws, execute and adjudicate on them.

    Regarding the question of the structure of Nigeria in relation to the constitutional question, I will for the sake of brevity restrict myself to only one issue raised in Professor Ogundowole’s essay. I agree of course entirely with the conclusion as it relates to the desirability of a properly convened national constitutional conference. However, I do shrink from the unmitigated focus on the nationality question. Problematizing national identities can only lead to uneasy relationships amongst different groups. My position is not to deny or erase ‘the reality’ of different nationalities, corresponding to different cultural, ethnic and other identities. The point to note is that most, if not all, modern states are characterised by a multiplicity of different identities, including that of ethnicity. It is the challenge of statecraft to seek to find the possibility of a common life amongst different peoples.

    In as much as I am strongly committed to making the case for a constitutional conference, I believe too in the imperative of the right culture of politics – the ideal of a political morality. There can be no substitute for it regardless of the unity or diversity of any nation-state. I assume that Nigerians want to live in and be part of the modern world. Modernity requires the capacity to be outward-looking and to assume different identities. Our politics must be able to transcend identity politics. If one should think that I am being utopian, I would be quick to raise my hand in acknowledgment. But I ask this – how else do you bring about any positive change through politics, without some sense of idealism – as opposed to some spurious realism.

    Professor Ogundowole has faith only in what he describes as the individuation of nation states. Taking this doctrine to its logical conclusion would mean that we ought to have over 250 nation states in Nigeria. He referred to the case of the United Kingdom, and is enamoured of the Scottish Independent Party’s drive for independence. However, some Scots are making the case for independence on grounds other than their scottishness, namely, economic and other arguments. A union that has lasted over 300 years could not have been a terribly dysfunctional and an unhappy arrangement.

    • Oti, BL, LLM, Solicitor, wrote from Manchester, England

  • Abuja celebrates amnesty

    Tor a time, it looked as though nothing else mattered at the nation’s capital.

    The prestigious Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja, was filled to capacity. Guests who turned up late had to endure standing. Representatives of the Federal Government as well as staff of the Amnesty Programme were in high spirits. Beneficiaries of the programme could not be happier.

    Hard work, determination and hope paid off in the end. Youths of the Niger Delta who once bore arms against the Federal Government and its facilities lay down their weapons and forsook agitation. They embraced rehabilitation, choosing to acquire skills. Today, many of them are pilots, engineers, skilled farmers, among others.

    The event left no one in doubt that the celebrators, the Federal Government and erstwhile militants, now preferring to be addressed as ex-agitators, came to celebrate the success of what was once thought to be a hopeless situation.

    Hours before the celebration of the fourth anniversary of the Amnesty Proclamation and third year of the implementation of the Amnesty Programme, at the prestigious Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja, the expansive hall was filled to capacity.

    Almost half of the hall was occupied, not by the staff of Amnesty Programme office or civil servants but the beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme.

    The Ijaw National Congress (INC) was fully represented, and it almost looked like it was the INC that was being celebrated when the Chairman, Amnesty Programme, who doubles as the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta, Kingsley Kuku, took the podium and invited contributions from each member of the Congress to the ‘struggle’. He went from how the journey started back in their school days to the Kiama Declaration, to the protests borne out of sheer determination, to the arrests and down to the success of the day.

    The event began with Lawrence Pepple, Head of Reintegration Department, who took the guests through how disarmament began with 20,192 persons, through 6,166 for the second phase before ending with the third and final phase of 3,64216.

    In highlighting the positive side of the Federal Government’s programme, Kuku said the country is enjoying peace that has boosted the Nigerian economy, adding that crude oil production now hovers around 2,6 and 2.3.8 million barrels per day. The volume of savings, according to him, translates to about N33.4b per day. Ironically, he noted the country needed about N4 trillion for its national budget but the region was able to provide an estimated N6.3 trillion last year.

    Though he assured Nigerians that the youth will not return to militancy, Kuku took time to debunk insinuations that the reformed youths were involved in oil theft. He hinged his argument on the fact that Niger Deltans are too poor and technically disadvantaged to partake in the lucrative and highly technical illicit venture. He said the illegal trade was perpetrated by some highly placed Nigerians and their international collaborators, adding that the only Niger Delta indigenes that could be found in the circle would be manual labourers that have no real consequence on the illicit trade.

    “Oil theft is highly technical and capital intensive and there is no way you can find Niger Delta youths involved in it. These products are transported in vessels; no Niger Delta indigene has a vessel. Also, it is a supply and demand thing, meaning that if there is no demand, there won’t be supply. In other words, there must be international collaborators involved, Niger Delta youths don’t have such connections. In addition, where would Niger Delta youths have the resources to pay for demurrage running to months in many instances? Peasants can’t engage in such business and majority of Niger Delta youths are peasants,” he said

    He, however, assured that the menace would soon be a thing of the past as President Goodluck Jonathan has taken up the issue with his colleagues around the world. ”It is an international crime of demand and supply but the President is dealing with it because highly placed people in and out of Nigeria are involved, not our Niger Delta youths”.

    Kuku presented 22 trained pilots and instructors who graduated from the African Union Aviation Academy. All of them have been certified as CLPs (Commercial Licensed Pilots) including a 20-year-old Favour Odozor, who is the youngest pilot in the country. She was also presented alongside her colleagues. Fifteen out of 40 ex-militants who became gainfully employed after their formal training by the Amnesty Office were also in the hall as well as 25 ex-militants that also completed their Masters Degrees in various disciplines in the United Kingdom. Several trained ex-militants that have been offered formal employment in the private sector were also invited for the event.

    ”Four years on, the Amnesty Proclamation has generally met the desired goal, which is the stabilisation of security conditions in strategic Niger Delta. A total of 30,000 persons were enlisted in the Amnesty Programme. Of this number, 14,000 have been deployed to universities as well as vocational training centres both within and outside the country. Over 11,700 have graduated in various fields and several of them have been employed including 10 with the Nigerian Army and six with the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), 40 with the Century Energy Group, five with SAP Drilling Oil and Gas Ltd and 30 with the Proclad Group, Dubai, UAE,” Kuku said.

    The Presidential aide also reiterated government resolve to terminate the programme by 2015. He said though there is no going back on the exit date of 2015 for the Programme, Kuku however disclosed that the Amensty office would  complete the training of all enrolled ex-militants. ”Beneficiaries who are pursuing long-term educational programmes shall duly hand over existing Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) who are statutorily empowered to oversee scholarship and training programmes of the Federal Government”.

    Kulu said the Federal Government will pay a N65,000 monthly allowance to 30,000 ex-militants for the provision of critical infrastructure and impactful development projects in the region as contained in the Amnesty Proclamation to help stimulate economic growth of the region.

     

  • Unemployment, cause of insecurity, says C&S Movement leader

    Unemployment, cause of insecurity, says C&S Movement leader

    The Federal Government has been called upon to provide job opportunities for the unemployed youths in order to check the problem of insecurity bedevilling the country.

    His Grace, The Most Reverend Prophet (Dr) Samuel Adefila Abidoye, the Baba Aladura of Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Worldwide made the call when he paid a courtesy visit to the corporate headquarters of Vintage Press Limited, publishers of The Nation newspapers yesterday.

    He said the solution to the problem of insecurity in the country is for the government to tackle the problem of unemployment.

    He said: “The solution to the menace of armed robbery, kidnapping and Boko Haram is for the government to provide employment for teeming jobless youths.

    “The problem of insecurity has nothing to do with religion because neither the Christian or Islamic religion supports killing of innocent people, but if a man has a wife and children and cannot provide for them, what do you think he will do? The country has enormous resources to take care of the people, but many people don’t have food to eat.

    “If you make the leader of Boko Haram a senator today, he will drop the guns. That is to tell you that if people are gainfully employed, they would not take to crime.”

    He advised that the government could follow the steps of America and the United Kingdom by giving unemployment allowance to jobless citizens.

    “The governments of America and the United Kingdom give allowances to unemployed citizens. Our government can afford to be paying N10, 000 allowance to unemployed citizens with the enormous resources we are blessed with. I am a pensioner. I retired in 1958. It is unfortunate that pensioners who have served the country dilligently are not paid their pensions that is often not more than N5, 000 whereas some people steal this money. It appears that the larger the amount stolen, the lesser the punishment. If the country is truly for everyone of us, the resources should be enjoyed by all and not a privileged few,” he said.

    Speaking about the church, he said there is a tremendous improvement in the unification exercise, adding that his mission was to inaugurate Emmanuel District in Lagos State.

    “The church is divided into districts for administration purposes. A district comprises many branches ranging from 20 to over a hundred. I am here to inaugurate Emmanuel District. The unification of the church is not in doubt and this is evident in the establishment of the Moses Orimolade University in Omu Aran. We also have our Galilee on a 50- hectre land at Orileagbon which is between Ilorin and Ogbomoso,”he said.

    He eulogised the management and staff of Vintage Press Ltd for their commitment to reporting developments in the country.

    He condoled with Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola and his deputy, Ajoke Adefoluire, over the death of the late Abibatu Mogaji, the Iyaloja-General of Nigeria and mother of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    “ I appreciate the management and staff of this great newspaper. The paper is one of the papers that report events as they unfold in the country. I thank them for reporting in details what we talked about when we visited sometime ago and want them to do more.

    “I also want to congratulate Governor Fashola and his deputy for the wondeful work they are doing in the state and at the same time commiserate with them and the former governor of the state, Asiwaju Tinubu, over the death of his mother. We know that they would be touched by her death,” he said.

  • $2.9b for Onne Port expansion

    $2.9b for Onne Port expansion

    The Federal Government has approved a $2.9 billion “concession and development” plan to expand the Onne Port, in Port Harcourt to improve services to energy companies.

    Under a 25-year concession agreement signed with Deep Offshore Services Nigeria Ltd., the company will invest the agreed amount to build port facilities within six years and recover the cost from “boat services and other port charges,” Information Minister Labaran Maku, said yesterday in Abuja.

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s government seeks to boost infrastructure development by attracting private investments to road, rail and power. The country’s biggest ports in Lagos are currently run by private companies under concession agreements.

  • How strong must our federal government be?

    How strong must our federal government be?

    The point at issue is that there is a need to share ruling and sovereignty between federal and state governments in a multiethnic polity

    The title of today’s piece has arisen from the view by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Review of the Constitution (SCRC) that devolution of powers from exclusive to concurrent list together must respect the need to have a strong federal government that can hold the country together. The other possible title would have been since when has the country been falling apart? What the argument about having a federal bureaucratic leviathan to keep the country together appears to be set to achieve is to justify keeping most of the provisions of a constitution that had no input from citizens in the first place and about which citizens in large numbers have complained in their call for a new or people’s constitution. Most of what has been publicised as recommended amendments to the 1999 Constitution are basically Karounwi (just having something to talk about), rather than addressing the real issues.

    We said in this column several times in the past that the amendment exercise is likely to go the way of the Obasanjo Political Reform Conference: nowhere. The reason for the lawmakers to attempt amending the constitution has been sidelined in order to privilege the irrelevant and the redundant. All the talk about not creating new states, introducing a six-year term to replace the current renewable four-year tenure, begging for a special status for Lagos, and passing the buck on revenue by derivation to Revenue Mobilisation and Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) amount largely to beating about the bush. The concerns of those who called for sovereign national conference and for constitutional conference, both of which the National Assembly tried to pre-empt by insisting that its charge or mandate includes constitutional amendment may at the end of the amendment exercise be ignored.

    Citizens who have been clear on the issue that the present structure cannot be used to create a new and more benevolent structure for democratic and efficient federal governance now have reasons, after going through the recommendations from the SCRC, to beat their chests and say “Didn’t we tell you?”

    That the lawmakers have shown a myopic understanding of devolution in a federation comes out of SCRC’s chairman’s statement that the exclusive list is congested, cumbersome, and unwieldy, and that “there is therefore the need to decongest the exclusive list by maintaining only items of utmost importance to the federation as a whole, while transferring items of concurrent interests to the concurrent list.” In the first place, the states are not begging lawmakers to shed load from the federal list to them, in order to have something to do. The point at issue is that there is a need to share ruling and sovereignty between federal and state governments in a multiethnic polity, which the authors of the 1999 Constitution had made up their minds to ignore.

    From the list of items SCRC has recommended for transfer to the concurrent list, there are three that are clearly stated: Prisons, Stamp duties, and Railways. Is this to be interpreted that all the other 65 items on the list are about the federation as a whole? If this assessment is correct, then the concurrent list will now have 32 instead of the 29 in the current constitution while the federal government will have 65 items instead of its original 68 items, until we are told in plain language how many new items are added to the exclusive list.What is ironical about the cosmetic amendments announced so far is that states can now include establishment and maintenance of prisons and prisoners on their list of functions while they have no hand in law enforcement, including enforcing laws created by state legislators and violation of which can create population for the prisons. Fingerprinting is still on the exclusive list while Prisons will go to the concurrent list, should the Senate have its way. How can such disjunction lead to efficiency?

    The complaint that the current constitution had created too many problems for smooth federal governance in terms of the sharing of powers between the national and state governments may be negligible in relation to the confusion that is likely to arise if and when the call by the Senate for autonomy to local governments is approved by all the relevant bodies. In effect, this would mean that state governments would have no supervisory function over local governments that are part and parcel of them. The highlight of giving autonomy to local governments is that civilian governments have succeeded in raising local governments to the level of federating units, a thing that successions of military dictators could not achieve.

    With respect to the Senate’s view on Fiscal Federalism/Derivation: “It is the Committee’s view that fixing the present rate to reflect prevailing reality should be an administrative responsibility vested in the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission,” there is the impression that the Senate conflates or reduces fiscal federalism to derivation. Derivation may be a part of fiscal federalism, but fiscal federalism is much larger than derivation, and there should have been some reflection of this understanding in the recommendations proposed by the SCRC.

    Wallace Oates, in his book, Fiscal Federalism, has said that the concept involves major devolution and fiscal decentralisation. This should include leaving to regions and states or provinces functions and taxation that can lead to efficient provision of goods and services to citizens, rather than keeping such powers and functions with a central government that has no direct constituents. The result of fiscal decentralisation is to increase citizens’ impact on political outcomes and political participation, and to accelerate development. Does SCRC believe that transferring three items to the concurrent list while retaining the principle of federal legislative supremacy on such items as well as avoiding entrenching the principle of derivation in the constitution would take care of the many issues that led to demands for re-structuring? Our senators need to know that we had a constitution until 1966 that clearly stated that derivation would be 50% of revenue garnered from exploitation of petroleum and other natural resources. It would have been safer to put such important information in the constitution than to leave it for a body made up of political appointees.

    It is curious that SCRC has not shown any interest in looking at the percentage of revenue that is given to the federal government and the many functions that the federal government is billed to perform, even when such functions are more efficiently performed at lower levels of government in other federations. In case our lawmakers still have time to look more closely, there are, apart from Prisons, Stamp duties, and Railways, many more items that are better left to the jurisdiction of states:a). Establishment and maintenance of machinery for continuous and universal registration of births and deaths; b). Construction, alteration, and maintenance of roads declared by the National Assembly to be federal trunk roads should be a joint responsibility of the federal government and the state such roads pass through;c). Fingerprints, identification and criminal records; d). Fishing and fisheries in general; e). Insurance;f). ports;g). Mines and minerals, including oilfields, oil mining, geological surveys and natural gas;h). Patents, trademarks, trade or business names, industrial designs, and merchandise marks;i). Police and security services;j). Professional occupations; k). Public holidays; l). Formation, annulment and dissolution of all marriages;m). Establishment of a purchasing authority with power to acquire for export or sale in world markets agricultural produce; n). Inspection of produce to be exported from Nigeria and enforcement of grades and standards of quality in respect of produce so inspected; o). Establishment of a body to prescribe and enforce standards of goods and commodities offered for sale; p). Control of the prices of goods and commodities designed by the National Assembly as essential goods or commodities; q). Registration of business names.

  • FG sets up three committees for sale of 10 NDPHC plants

    FG sets up three committees for sale of 10 NDPHC plants

    The Federal Government through the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) yesterday set up three committees towards the joint sale transaction of 10 Niger Delta Holding Power Company (NDPHC) plants under the National Independent Power Plants (NIPP) project.

    The Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, disclosed this to journalists at the end of the meeting chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The three committees, he said, included Joint Evaluation, Joint Transaction and the Joint Technical Transaction, while a fourth committee will be set up to fine-tune the reports after the conclusion of the assignment of the three committees.

    He said: “At today’s joint meeting of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) and National Council on Privatisation (NCP), a joint memo was presented by the MD of the NDPHC and the DG BPE. The memo seeks approval for the formation of three committees that will be responsible for the joint sales transactions of the NDPHC plants.

    “Those committees are the joint evaluation committee of the NDPHC and BPE to evaluate the expression of interests and technical bids that will be submitted by the potential bidders.

    “We also have the joint transaction committee made up of the MD NDPHC as the Chairman and the DG BPE as the Co-Chairman and other members that will be selected.”

    “The third committee is the joint technical transaction committee which the Governor of Benue state was nominated to be the Chairman.”

  • ‘.35m firms don’t file tax returns’

    ‘.35m firms don’t file tax returns’

    The Federal Government yesterday expressed worry that about 350,000 companies have not filed their tax returns for some years.

    The Minister of State for Finance, Dr Yerima Ngama, expressed government’s concerns when he delivered an address at the opening ceremony of the African Tax Forum in Abuja. He noted that tax evasion by companies has resulted in the low tax to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio in Nigeria.

    According to him, the current seven per cent contribution of taxes to the GDP indicates that many Nigerians were not paying taxes.

    Ngama said: “At the last count, about 350,000 companies have not rendered tax returns in the country. So, we need to strategise; we need to research and find out what could be done to improve tax rendition and tax collection, what could be done to encourage accounting for activities.”

    The minister recalled that “five years ago, 54 per cent of the businesses in the country were informal, but today, that has reduced to 46 per cent”.

    He, however, noted that more Nigerians now organise and register businesses better and adopt standard accounting principle.

    Ngama said there “is nothing the tax man would do unless the accounts are rendered. Of course, they can go and look at the level of activity, but we need to improve. It is in the interest of everybody and the businesses to pay tax”.

    The minister said since Africa is fast becoming a preferred destination for investors, there is need for a better tax coordination and harmonisation on the continent.

    He said the level of formality and organisation of businesses in Ghana is better than what obtains in Nigeria, adding that this has resulted in Ghana’s tax collection rising to 21 per cent of its GDP.

    Ngama said: “Tax collection in most African countries is about 10 per cent of GDP. But in Nigeria, the total tax collected is just seven per cent of the GDP. This shows that many people and companies are not rendering tax returns.”

  • Banks owe Fed Govt N83b

    Money Deposit Banks are owing the Federal Government N83billion in unremitted taxes. However, 23 out of the 24 banks have, so far, remitted N77billion to the government over the past five years.

    Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Abudulmumin Jibrin, who gave the figures in an interactive session with officials of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), assured that the investigation should not arouse stir.

    He observed that the guidelines for the collection of the taxes were not specific, saying the issue would be addressed. “The Committee is inviting the Chief Executives of the 24 banks to appear before it next Monday but this should not ignite any kind of controversy.

    “We are not putting them under any investigation, except proven otherwise. But they are coming here for an interactive session. There is nothing sensitive with investigating banks, its just an exercise, and it will not have any negative effect on the economy.”

    In his presentation, Acting Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Kabir Mashi, said though the commercial banks have remitted N77billion to the government, additional N83billion was being expected from the banks.

    He dispelled any insinuation of any wrong doing, saying, “FIRS has a signed collection agreement with the banks, where the conditions guiding the remittances are well spelt out.

    “On the information from the tax audit unit on companies’ taxes since 2006 till 2012, we have audited 23 banks, and through the audit, we have a total additional taxes of N83b. But so far, the total payment till date is N77b