The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Federal Govt

  • Lagos accuses Federal Govt of disobeying Supreme Court

    Lagos accuses Federal Govt of disobeying Supreme Court

    The Lagos State government has accused the Federal Government of flouting a Supreme Court verdict by putting up the implementation of tourism projects across  the states.

    The Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Mr Ade Ipaye, said the federal government violated the Supreme Court verdict delivered last year in a case between the Attorney-General of the Federation and Attorney-General of Lagos.

    According to him, the Minister of Culture and Tourism on March 4, informed the National Assembly that the Federal Government required N25 billion to implement the country’s Tourism Master-plan.

    The Director-General of Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Ipaye noted, informed the press about the tourism plans to be implemented in the states.

    According to Ipaye, the moves by the Minister of Culture and Tourism and NTDC Director-General were a negation of the Supreme Court order.

    Last July 19, the Supreme Court held that the Federal Government’s power on tourism matters, as specified in Item 6(d) of the Exclusive Legislative List (1999 Constitution), was limited to the regulation of tourist traffic’.

    “By this judgment, the Supreme Court has interpreted this as covering only the entry and exit of international visitors through visa and immigration regulations”. The Supreme Court, he further stated  concluded that regulation of tourism in Nigeria was a residual matter within the jurisdiction of state governments.

    Ipaye  quoted from the lead judgment delivered by Justice Galadima, where the Justice of the Supreme Court said:

    “In my view the Dictionary definition of “Tourist’ and ‘Traffic’ would accord to my own understanding of simple and natural meaning of the two words. The words ‘tourist traffic’ used in Item 60(d) of the second schedule of the Constitution, alludes to the ingress and egress of tourists from other countries. These are international visitors or foreigners.

    “In the light of the foregoing, the contention of the plaintiff that matters pertaining to the regulation, registration, classification, grading, of hotels, motels, guests houses, restaurants, travel and tour agencies, and other hospitality and tourism related establishment are matters within the Exclusive Legislative List, and cannot be sustained.

    “In effect, the Federal Government lacks the constitutional vires to make laws outside its legislative competence which are by implication residue matters for the state Assembly: the National Assembly cannot, in the exercise of its powers to enact some specific laws, take the liberty to counfer power or authority on the Federal Government or any of its agencies to engage in matters which ordinarily ought to be the responsibility of a state government or agencies.

    “Such pretext cannot be allowed to endure to the Federal Government or its agencies so as to enable them encroach upon the exclusive constitutional authority conferred on a state under its residual legislative power.

    Ipaye pointed out that tourism and cultural festivals that take in place in Lagos State, such as the Adamu Orisa, Black Heritage Festival, Lagos Carnival and New Year countdown were promoted and funded by Lagos State Government without any input from the Federal Ministry of Tourism and Culture or its agency.

    He expressed the fear that money allocated from the federal purse to support festivals may end up with states perceived as friendly, to the detriment of others.

    He urged the Federal Government to pay more attention to the Police and Prison Authorities, adding that poor funding of both federal institutions was putting pressure on state security and adversely affecting the criminal justice system.

    States such as Lagos, Ipaye noted, were already spending billions of naira to supplement federal agencies on security.

    He, therefore, advised the government to focus more on its core responsibilities instead of allocating funds to tourism, which is a local and residual matter for states.

  • IBM chief urges Fed Govt to fix power

    American multinational technology and consulting firm, International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, has urged the Federal Government to attend to the power needs of the country so that application of technological solutions to solve problems could easily fall in line.

    The General Manager, IBM West Africa, Taiwo Otiti, said if the Federal Government focuses on fixing the power deficit, so many other things will be alright.

    He said stability in the services offered by telecoms operators is vital because it is on their networks that services like e-transaction, mobile money and other forms of electronic payments ride. He added that seamless transaction may be wishful thinking if there is no constant power supply.

    “I think the main issue in telecoms is not just stability, majority of the cell sites are running on generators. So if the Federal Government can fix the power (sector), you will see a big transformation because if a generator goes down, the cell site also goes down and therefore, the nearest cell site which might be congested at that particular moment, your PoS (Point of Sale) is diverted to that one. So there are many issues. The major issue around it is power. If you fix power (the success of the initiative would be assured). It (power) has a big role to play in ensuring the success of the initiative,” he said in an interview.

    According to him, operators run cell cites on generators. This situation implies that once in a while, there will be hitches in services as the generators will need to be refuelled and serviced at a particular point in time.

  • Federal Govt seeks more investment in oil refining

    Federal Govt seeks more investment in oil refining

    Vice President Namadi Sambo said at the weekend that decreasing oil sales to the United States have provided the opportunity to create jobs by building refineries and developing markets closer home.

    Nigeria, a major member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), lacks refining capacity and depends on imported fuel to meet domestic demand.

    Nigeria’s position as Africa’s biggest crude producer is threatened by Angola whose oil output is at par with what Nigeria produces.

    For the first time since 2009, Nigeria’s shipments to the U.S. slid to 194,000 barrels a day in February, the lowest in more than 18 years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

    “Part of our policy now, as a result of this, is that we’re attracting more foreign direct investment in processing the crude oil in Nigeria,” Sambo said told reporters in Yokohama, Japan. “That creates more jobs, and it creates wealth within the country.”

    The U.S. is Nigeria’s biggest crude buyer, importing cargoes valued at 724 billion naira ($4.6 billion) in the fourth quarter of last year stated the National Bureau of Statistics. The U.S. imports from Nigeria rebounded in March to 376,000 barrels a day, according to EIA data published May 30.

    Sambo is in Japan for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, the largest African development forum outside the continent.

    Angola is poised to overtake Nigeria as the continent’s top producer of crude as oil thieves sabotage pipelines in the oil-rich Niger River delta. Nigeria pumped 1.87 million barrels a day in May, the same as Angola, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Both belong to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

    International producers including Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. (CVX), Total SA (FP) and Eni SpA (ENI) — in joint ventures with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. – pump about 90 per cent of the country’s output.

  • ‘Why Federal Govt should institute fresh case over Bakassi Peninsula’

    With the expiration of the October 10 deadline set by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the review of its judgment delivered in 2002 on the Bakassi Peninsula, various interest groups have put forward arguments for the Federal Government’s institution of a fresh suit against the Republic of Cameroun.

    The ICJ had on October 10, 2002 based on the Anglo-German Treaty of 1913 where the Queen of England gave the territory to Germany, then colonial masters of Cameroun, ruled that the Bakassi territory belonged to Cameroun.

    This decision, according to a group, Bakassi for Public Information (D’BSCM) at a national dialogue on ‘citizens perspective on the resolution of the Bakassi crisis’, organised by PRONACO in Lagos, was reached because certain historical issues which constitute new facts were not canvassed before the court.

    D’BSCM advised the government to approach the IJC based on the fundamental principle of the critical date as well as the principle of ‘uti possidetis’ which is the sacrosanct of state boundary at the declaration of independence.

    Those present at the event were Director General, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Prof. Bola Akinterinwa, Chairman, Bakassi Support Group, Sen. Basil Hanshaw, House of Representatives member, Amb. Nkoyo Toyo, Chairman, June 12 Coalition, Baba Omojola, research expert, Mr. Emmanuel Doh, President, Arewa Consultative Youth Forum, Alhaji Shetima Yerima, member, Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon. Adijat Oladapo, wife of the late Gani Fawehinmi, Ganiat, and constitutional lawyer, Mohammed Fawehinmi, among others.

    The group which urged the Federal Government to file a suit against Cameroun at the ICJ, revealed that the latter never owned Bakassi before its independence of January 1, 1960 along the Thompson-Marchard Treaty of 1931.

    Doh, who is the group’s researcher, said there are two Cameroons with frontiers or boundaries fixed by treaties between Britain and France in 1919 and 1931 which were inherited at the declaration of independence.

    He said going by Article 16(1) of the O.A.U. declaration of July 21, 1964, in Cairo, Egypt, where “all member states undertake to respect the existing boundaries at the time of independence”, it was fraudulent for Cameroun to claim ownership of Bakassi.

    “The facts and law here are that, historically, politically, geographically and legally, there are two independent and bicultural Cameroons which are the French Cameroun and the English Southern Cameroon. The two legally separated Cameroons were class B United Nations (UN) trust territory with equal status, separate trusteeship agreement and separate administering authority.”

    He said the Millnar-Simon Treaty of 1919, between France and England divided Cameroun into two separate territories after Germany was defeated during the First World World, and recognised the boundary between the French Cameroun and English Cameroon running southward from boundary pillar 1, in Lake Chad to 138 into the Atlantic Ocean.

    Doh said: “The boundary was more than 600kms east of the Peninsula which excluded Bakassi from the French Cameroun territory and did not form part of the Thompson-Marchard Treaty.

    “By an England Order-in-Council in 1946, English Cameroon was divided into Northern and Southern protectorates which formed a part of the northern and southern English UN Trust Territories of Nigeria.

    “While the Northern Trust Territory was administered by the government of the northern region of Nigeria, the UN southern Cameroon Trust Territory was administered by the government of eastern region of Nigeria.

    “The English northern UN trust territory became part of Nigeria at independence while the southern territory had already become self governing in 1954 by an order of Queen-in-Council.

    “The 1931 boundary accepted by the ICJ as the definitive boundary between Nigeria and the Republic of Cameroun at independence did separate the land boundary of the Republic from that of the Southern Cameron, but in tracing the boundary from Lake Chad, the ICJ failed to run through to the last pillar, 138, in the Atlantic Ocean which clearly shows that Southern Cameroon with Bakassi Peninsula is to the west of the boundary separating it from the Republic of Cameroun.

    For Akinterinwa, although the ICJ and Green Tree Agreement (GTA) have stated that the Peninsula belongs to Cameroun, the people themselves have denied being a part of Cameroun and have also rejected a resettlement from their ancestral lands.

    He said since the country is faced with a difficult situation at the moment, the UN should be approached for the implementation of the GTA’s provision on the maintenance of the people’s culture, language and tradition.

    “Bakassi people are simply saying that they have not been well treated by the Cameroon government that has flaunted the GTA. Since the whole ceding of the Bakassi was predicated on colonial agreement which I think was all fraudulent and bearing in mind that land in Africa belongs to the people and not government, it is only wise for the people to be allowed to choose where they want to belong to.

    “The international community can be approached based on the people’s need for self determination and need to protect their rights in accordance with the GTA. Article 3 of the GTA provides for the protection of the rights of the people of Bakassi in compliance with all international conventions on the fundamental rights of people,” Akinterinwa said.

    Hanshaw decried the dehumanising treatments being meted on Nigerians at the Peninsula, even as he called on the government to act urgently to stop Cameroonian soldiers from flaunting the GTA.