The Nation Newspaper

Tag: FG

  • Ebonyi to FG: We have no land for cattle ranching

    Ebonyi state government, yesterday told Federal government that the State has no land for cattle ranching.

    The federal government had some days ago listed Ebonyi as among the ten states that have provided land for cattle ranch.

    But addressing journalists after the state Executive Council meeting, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Barrister Ikechukwu Nwobo told the federal government that there was no vacant land for cattle ranch in the state.

    Nwobo said “the state executive  council frowned at the news making rounding that the State has directed or provided for a cattle ranche in Ebonyi State.

     The highest organ of Ebonyi state is the state executive council and the state security council and any decision taken by this council is the last bus stop for the people and government of Ebonyi state. Whether the federal government  consulted us, we are not aware of that. The State Executive council has decided and made sure that there is no land for ranching in Ebonyi State.

    “We never provided land for ranching in Ebonyi State and it is still our position and that those  land they said is for ranching is for those Northern state that have always been doing ranching which have been gazzeted before now.

    “We have no idea that we were included in the ranching, we were not gazzeted. There is no land for any ranching in Ebonyin state and we are not aware that we are among those mentioned as ranching states.

    “The Ebonyi State through the executive council wishes to state that the government has not provided or released any land for ranching, it has no plan to  do that. The ranching programme being done by the federal  government does not include Ebonyi State and it has been redirected to those states in the North where the farmlands have been gazetted and have ranching ground which they will now revitalized”.

  • Fed Govt to build 94 ranches in 10 states

    •NEC okays N179b for 10-year plan

    Ninety-four ranches are on the way in 10 states prone to herdsmen/farmers clashes.

    The National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has approved a 10-year National Livestock Plan which will cost about N179 billion. All 36 state governors are members of the NEC.

    About N70 billion of the budget will disbursed between now and the expiration of  President Muhammadu Buhari’s first four-year tenure next year.

    The project is expected to take off in Benue and Nasarawa states any time from now.

    These disclosures were made by NEC representatives, including Governor Samuel Ortom, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Audu Ogbe, and the Coordinator of the plan, Dr. Andrew Kwasari, at a session with editors in Abuja.

    The session was facilitated by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) – a non-government organisation.

    Ogbe, who said “open grazing is no longer viable”, said cattle rearers would be the greatest beneficiaries in the next few years.

    He also said the Federal Government has no intention of seizing anybody’s land by force.

    A technical presentation of the NEC-approved plan, including the enumeration of the six key pillars on which the plan is built, was made by Kwasari.

    He said: “In addition to loss of human lives, it is estimated that Nigeria loses about $14 billion (N5.04 trillion) annually to herdsmen-farmers’ conflicts.

    “Domestic annual milk production in Nigeria is only 400 million litres, resulting in supply

    gap of about 700 million litres.

    “To fill these growing gaps, Nigeria spends a large amount of its scarce foreign exchange resource to import livestock products, with average of $480.6 million (N173.3 billion) worth of milk imports alone per year.

    “The National Livestock Implementation Plan is a mediation plan stemming from meetings and recommendations of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and the National Economic Council (NEC) in 2017 as regards state interventions following the incessant pastoralist-farmer conflicts.

    “We are going to have 94 ranches in 10 states. We have received 21 gazetted grazing reserves from seven states. Plan focuses on pilot intervention in the frontline states Adamawa, Benue, Edo, Ebonyi,  Kaduna,  Nasarawa, Oyo, Plateau, Taraba, and Zamfara.

    “A Ranch Design Plan has also been proposed in models of various sizes clustered in 94 locations in the 10 pilot states. We will have clusters  of 30, 60, 150, and 300 cow ranch models in a location within the donated and gazetted grazing reserves.

    “The total spending for the 10-year period is slightly in excess of N179 billion. Funding for the first three years of the pilot phase is about N70 billion.

    “The ranch is also designed as an integrated business which makes provision for (a) the development of commercial crop production to support livestock through the supply of quality fodder and other feed materials, (b) the formation of producers into clusters to create viable ranch herd sizes, and (c) creation of cooperatives to facilitate improved access to inputs, infrastructure, finance, markets, and support services.”

    The minister said there was no going back on the creation of ranches, dismissing the insinuation that the government planned to seize land from owners or communities.

    He said the conflicts between herdsmen and farmers were not about anti-open grazing laws.

    His words: “So the conflict didn’t begin because the laws were passed. No, the conflict has been brewing but the laws were enacted in desperation by a state. Farmers went to the governor and complained, ‘they are killing us’, so the governor says, ‘let me pass a law’. If we did what we are doing now 20 years ago, we will not be where we are now.

    “The truth is that open grazing is no longer viable. We may not end it in one day, but it has to end and government has to help. This conflict is not peculiar to Nigeria alone; it’s happening in Argentina; it happened in  the U.S . in the 19th century, in Pakistan and others. So, this is what we should have started doing 20 years ago. We didn’t and that’s why we are where we are.

    “Lastly, the government has no intention of seizing anybody’s land. So, the idea that somebody is going to forcefully take the land is not true. In Fashola’s farm , there are Fulani residents there who speak Yoruba fluently.

    “One of them said, ‘we have found peace here’. They produce fresh milk for Friesland Capina. If you see the turnover of Friesland Capina during their annual turnover, you will be amazed. These are the issues.

    “The ECOWAS Treaty says free movement of human, animals and goods. We had a meeting with the ECOWAS ministers here. We are going to have another. We will tell them, ‘you must do what Nigerians want’. Roaming around is no longer an answer. We may have to shut our borders. How large is the Nigerian border space? 4037 square kilometres is the landmass from Sokoto to Badagry and from Borno to Calabar. Added up it’s plus 830 kilometres of coastline. Half of our borders are open . Should we build a wall? People wander in and out. So it is a very complex thing.

    “When we implement this thing, how do we prevent cows from West Africa marching in when they like with no respect for our tradition and cultures? These are the problems we face.

    In these ranches, we can then say nomadic education can work, the Fulani are in clusters. By 5am, they milk their cows and sell to the milk processing plants which will be installed there. They begin to realise that it pays to stay.

    “There is an experiment we did in Kano. The firm tried to settle a number of herdsmen in a location and they gave scholarship to their children. If your male child is in school, they buy your milk for N120 per litre but if your girl child is in school, they buy it for N140 per litre and believe me, every morning Fulani send their children to school while they milk their cows. They have to be in one place. So a lot of incentives will come and we will use the cow dungs to generate electricity.”

    Benue State Governor  Samuel Ortom said over 180,000 internally displaced persons were in eight camps in the state.

    He said:  “We have over 180,000 IDPs in eight camps and over 5,000 people living with relatives. We have had massive support from all over the world and this is attributed to the media, and I commend this.

    “ I believe that after this interaction, there will be more to do. The Presidency is not sleeping. They have devised various ways in giving us additional information to help us shape our opinions and also express our opinions on how best this challenge can be surmounted.

    “A committee had earlier been set up, headed by my colleague from Ebonyi and, unfortunately, he is not here. He and members of his committee visited Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Adamawa, and Zamfara states. Of course, they came back with a report, which was considered and far-reaching decisions were taken as to how they will summon this challenge.

    “I’d like to appreciate the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo for his able leadership and for helping us to come this far. People say from where I come that ignorance is darker than the night and so when you’re informed, you’re in a better position to represent issues properly.

    “For me, as the governor of Benue State and someone who has been affected by recent challenges of farmers and herdsmen, I must commend the media in Nigeria. You have done very well, and maybe for other states that have been affected as well, you have represented the issues well.”

    General Manager of Capital FM Mercy Njoku, said the engagement was  designed to enable the media to understand the herdsmen-farmers conflicts.

    She said: “It is important for the press to have a clear understanding of what is happening.

    “I know every media person wants peace, stability and development.

    We want a country where there will be peace, security and economic boom.”

  • FG to boost food production with automated irrigation

    The federal government has introduced automated irrigation technology to boost food security across the nation.

    The device would enable farmers irrigate farms with their phones.

    The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), which is the brain behind the project, said the technology uses satellite to determine locations in longitude and latitude.

    Minister of Science and Technology Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, explained the government is using its space science technology beyond sending people or satellites to space but to better the lives of citizens.

    Onu spoke in Abuja, stating the technology is the first indigenous automated irrigation system in the country.

    He added that the agency is also working in the areas of artificial intelligence and robotics to make sure not just agriculture but all sectors of the economy benefit from the technology.

    According to him: “Space science and technology is not just what a lot of people think, like just sending someone to the moon, it is far more than that.

    “What this is doing for us is that we can now have agriculture all year round and using solar to power the irrigation system, it will help make young people show interest in farming since they can now make money by farming several times a year.

    “By this we are going to make farming more attractive and more technology is on its way.

    “We are assuring Nigerians the National Space Research Development Agency is ready to do more.

    “We are working in the areas of artificial intelligence, robotics to make sure that not just agriculture but all sectors of our economy benefit from technology.”

    Director General NASRDA, Prof. Seidu Mohammed, explained the technology has been tested on different soil types and it equally takes care of various crop varieties.

    He said: “We make use of signals from navigation satellite to determine locations in terms of longitude and latitude.

    “This has been tested on different soil types and it also takes care of various crop varieties.

    “It is able to create a perfect intervention in agriculture. It makes agriculture smarter, precise and enable the young ones go back to agriculture.

    “It is a product that operates in three months, you can be at the comfort of your home and irrigate your farm, you can go to the farm to irrigate it and also be automated in such a way that on its own, without you doing anything, it waters it at a particular time and soil moisture level.”

    He added: “When the system is set between 8am and 9am for instance, the system constantly checks the condition of the soil and reports on the screen ones the soil moisture gets below 15percent, it triggers up the pump and irrigates the whole farm and once the soil level gets to 50 percent it shuts down, we don’t have to physically be at the farm.”

     

  • ‘FG must first resolve existing legal hurdles, de-annul the annulment’

    Dr. Soni Ajala, an Abuja based legal practitioner, spoke to Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, on the legality of the awards and the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day

    LET me start by saying that the politics of the issue of the posthumous award of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) must not be muddled up with the core legal issue of the politics of the award.

    Much as all patriotic Nigerians applaud Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari, for the bold step of recognising the supreme sacrifice of Chief MKO Abiola as the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, there are landmine legal puzzle that cannot even be cured by administrative publication in the Federal Government Gazette by the Hon. Attorney General of the Federation as directed by President Buhari.

    I seriously share the sentiments expressed by Senator Ike Ekweremadu at the floor of the Senate on Thursday, June 7, 2018 when he attempted to sensitize the hallowed chambers on the complex legal issues intertwined in the gesture of Mr. President in bestowing posthumous award of GCFR on Chief MKO Abiola and the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day.

    Lest we forget, the presidential election conducted by the National Electoral Commission under the able leadership of Professor Humphrey Nwosu on June 12, 1993 was annulled by a decree, duly promulgated by the National Defence and Security Council (NDSC) presided over by the Military President Ibrahim Babaginda on June 26, 1993. This historical legal instrument is very well to the knowledge of the presidency of today as it is open secret that the presidency of the day has one of the finest minds in the legal firmament of contemporary Nigeria.

    Therefore, the unsettling question to dispassionate legal analysts  of the web of legal issues thrown up by the gesture of President Buhari in bestowing posthumous award of GCFR on Chief MKO Abiola and the declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day is thus; ‘Can something be placed on nothing and it’ll be expected to stand?

    By lexical and legal connotations, the word ‘annulment means void, completely erased and never existed. By necessary implication of the subsisting decree of the National Defence and Security Council (NDSC) promulgated in 1993, de jure, there is no valid basis for the actions/gestures of Mr. President as what is/was annulled remains annulled until de-annulled.

    Lest we forget, there was also an order of the FCT High Court, Abuja made on June 15, 1993, restraining the National Electoral Commission from announcing further the result of the presidential election. There is/was no appeal against the said order of the FCT High Court. Therefore, the said order subsists as it is trite that an order of a court, no matter how irregularly it was procured, remains valid and in force until set aside either by the court that made the said order or by a superior court.

    With these weighty issues, the controversy of whether Mr. President can bestow the award of GCFR posthumously on Chief MKO Abiola, when he is/was not a serving or past president pales to insignificance. After all, the then President Shehu Shagari, in 1982, conferred on Chief Obafemi Awolowo the award of GCFR. Again, the fringe issue of whether the National Honours Act, 1963 permits Mr. President to confer GCFR posthumously on persons other than dead military/fire service officers, is of no moment as there is no provision in the Act that expressly ties the hands of Mr. President from extending the national honours of GCFR, GCON, etc., and/or medals posthumously to persons that did not serve in the military/para-military. To any student of presidential constitutionalism, it is unarguable that the powers of the president are enormous subject however to the law and the sacred provisions of the constitution.

    Consequently, it is suggested that the National Assembly, which is the replacement of the defunct National Defence and Security Council (NDSC) has work to do pursuant to Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended to effectually give meaning to the gesture or more appropriately the noble intention of President Buhari as disclosed through the press statement issued on June 6, 2018 by passing a bill to de-annul the annulment of the result of the June 12, 1993 elections. This could either be by executive bill or individual bill of a senator of the hallowed chamber.

    On the other hand, the Hon. Attorney General should pick up the gauntlet to ‘disinfect the order of the FCT High Court, Abuja made on June 15, 1993, restraining the National Electoral Commission from announcing further the result of the presidential election held on June 12, 1993 that was generally believed to have been won by the visionary nationalist, Bashorun MKO Abiola.

    Instructively, President Buhari, under the 1999 Constitution as amended has no power whatsoever to waive a valid subsisting court order of a competent jurisdiction, nor does the power of Mr. President to grant clemency by any stretch of imagination extend to pick and choose which of the laws of the land to obey, including the June 12 election annulment decree, which until de-annulled by an Act of the extant parliament still has the force of law.

    Except the needful are done as explained here, all the noble intentions and altruistic gestures of Mr. President are prone to being decimated upon vehement legal challenge in court on the validity of the pronouncements of President Buhari on the June 12, 1993 election and Chief MKO Abiola as the law frowns at ‘placing something on nothing and expecting it to stand.’

    Furthermore and indeed very significant, even upon clearing the hurdles of the subsisting court order and de-annulment of the annulled June 12, 1993 elections, Chief Abiola cannot be recognised as former president of Nigeria as he never satisfied the mandatory provision of the 1999 Constitution that an occupant of the office of the president must subscribe and swore to an oath of allegiance. For now, that’s a legal impossibility.”

  • Obasanjo: only the guilty should be worried – FG

    The Federal Government has dismissed former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s allegation of frame-up and impending arrest as groundless and the concoction of a mind worried by guilt.

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gave the government response in Lagos today, saying the Buhari Administration will not be distracted by frivolous allegations from any quarter, especially those cleverly choreographed
    to divert attention from a widely-acclaimed presidential proclamation
    and to shore up support for a waning and egotistical cause.

    The Minister said the administration is too busy trying to clear the mess of 16 years and build on its unprecedented achievements over the past three years than to waste its energy and time on framing up anyone or dwelling on issues
    that are not grounded in fact.

    He said while those who have skeletons in their wardrobes should be afraid, even of their own shadows, innocent persons need not worry about any investigation, whether real or imagined.

    ”This administration will never engage in a frame-up of innocent citizens. That is neither in the character of President Muhammadu Buhari nor in that of his administration. Only the guilty should be worried. To paraphrase an African proverb, a man who has no wife cannot lose an in-law to the cold hands of death.

    ”The administration is also strongly committed to the tenets of democracy, including freedom of speech and the right to dissent. But we understand that those who, in their time, were untethered to those principles would find it hard to believe,” Alhaji Mohammed said.

    The Minister said it was curious that the frame-up and witch-hunt allegations came a day after a major presidential proclamation reversing some past acts of injustice was made, to the relief and acclamation of a long-expectant nation.

    ”Apparently, the impact of this proclamation was too much to bear by those who, through acts of omission or commission, helped to deepen the wounds inflicted by the blow of injustice that followed the annulment of an election that was widely acclaimed to be free, fair and credible, hence they felt the need for a red herring that will distract the nation.

    ”Added to that is the frustration brought about by the fact that the contraption they have so much hyped as a freeway to power has failed to gain traction. Faced with this double tragedy, even the strongest of men may begin to succumb to a figment of their imagination. They may start crying wolf where there is none,” he said.

    Mohammed said the unprecedented achievements of the Buhari Administration are also enough to cause sleepless nights, with the attendant symptoms that include phantasm, for those who had better opportunities to make the country great but floundered on the altar of narcissism.

    The Allegation by Obasanjo:
    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday cried out over allegations that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is planning to arrest him, saying his name is already on its security watch-list.
    Obasanjo alleged that the government is planning to arrest him over his hard stance against the government.

    In a statement by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo said he got credible intelligence that his name has been placed on the security watch-list and there is a plot to assassinate him.

    The former President however insisted that he would not be cowed into jettisoning his divine mandate to protect the rights of Nigerians.

    According to the statement, part of the ground design was to seize the former President’s international passport and then throw him in detention to prevent him from further criticizing the President.

    Obasanjo also said another plot being hatched against him was to cause the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to re-open investigation into the activities of his administration using false witnesses and documents.

    “This will be a re-enactment of the Abacha era in which Chief Obasanjo was one of the principal victims”, he added.

    “Ordinarily, we would not have dignified these reports with a response but for the fact that many of these informants are not known for flippant and frivolous talks.

    “This government has demonstrably exhibited apathy, and in some cases, encouraged by its conduct, daily loss of lives and property in many states of the country, the office cannot be indifferent.

    “We are currently in a nation where the Number Three citizen is being harangued and the Number Four citizen is facing similar threat within the same Government they serve.

    “There is a groundswell of our nationals that live in fear that they could be hounded, harassed, maimed or even killed as the battle for 2019 takes this worrisome dimension.

  • FG clears 140 contractors on Ogoniland clean-up

    The federal govern-ment yesterday said 140 contractors from 400 firms that indicated interest in the Ogoniland oil spill remediation exercise have been certified.

    It stated that the selected firms would be invited to present financial implication of the cleanup with expectations to get Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval by August.

    The Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jibril disclosed this during a briefing to commemorate 2018 World Environment Day (WED) at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.

    “We have more than 400 contractors who indicated first and we are done with the analysis. Preliminary figure is giving us a figure of about 140 that are prequalified.

    “These are the ones that when we finally get the figures, we would invite them to submit their financial duty and that process would continue in the whole of June-July and we hope that by August we should be able to get to the FEC to give approval for whatever remediation consultancy that we give,” he said.

    Jibril restated commitment of the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to realising successful cleanup and safe air quality.

    According to him, Osinbajo had signed an ESCO agreement to open an account in collaboration with partners for the Ogoni clean-up.

    Jibril said the Vice President, who intervened in issues of air quality and air pollution problem in Rivers State, already ordered the constitution of an inter -ministerial committee of all relevant agencies to address the issue.

    He identified 11 sources of pollution and stressed that the committee would work assiduously to address these issues to eliminate the sources and get a cleaner environment and a better air quality in Port Harcourt.

  • N17bn budget controversy: What FG, Okonjo-Iwela must do, by SANs

    SENIOR lawyers yesterday weighed in on the controversy surrounding claims by former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala that the National Assembly (NASS) arm-twisted the Federal Government to include N17 billion in the 2015 budget as election expenses.

    They welcomed the revelations and urged Okonjo-Iweala to make a formal, detailed complaint to the government, so that it can direct law enforcement agencies to begin an investigation.

    They said unless this is done, the revelations would have no effect whatsoever.

    Those who spoke included Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) Yusuf Ali, Ahmed Raji and George M. Oguntade.

    Okonjo-Iweala, in her book Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines, said the N17 billion was besides the NASS N150 billion annual ‘standard’ budget.

    She revealed the blackmail and arm twisting tactics that characterised budget passing by the National Assembly during the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

    According to her, the National Assembly leadership forced the executive to part with N17 billion before the lawmakers could pass the 2015 budget at a time crude price had gone down drastically.

    Oguntade said: “These are very serious and weighty allegations that certainly warrant further probing and investigation.

    “To proceed, she (Okonjo-Iweala) will need to make a formal statement on the allegations and supply detailed particulars.

    “Whether she is willing to do this is another matter as I doubt any of the prosecuting agencies can act on the basis of what is contained in a book.

    “I hope she will do what is necessary to launch a new formal investigation, particularly the identity of the participis criminis.

    “If she is not willing to do so, then all her “revelations would have been in vain and of no purpose. No lessons would have been learnt and the extortion will continue unrestrained.”

    Raji, who welcomed the revelation, “for historical purposes”, lamented Okonjo-Iweala’s failure to alert the world sooner.

    Raji said: “However, if the highly respected former Minister and a World Bank Vice President found the alleged acts or demand by the then National Assembly reprehensible, illegal  and unacceptable, she should have alerted the world and resigned her appointment.

    “After all, her job was waiting for her at the World Bank. Had she done that, she would have assisted the system and thereby earned more honour.”

    But Ali laid the blame at the doorsteps of Nigerians who make excessive material demands of political office holders, thus pressuring them to accumulate more than their due.

    He advised the country to find a way to quell money politics as a long-term solution.

    Ali said: “All of us must make up our minds on the kind of government we want to run. For a society to be upright, it’s not about the leaders alone: the followers have a role to play too.

    “ We the followers must make up our minds that in our society, we don’t need this kind of occurrences.

    “But unfortunately, it is the followers that corrupt leaders in this country, because they make unnecessary material demands of the leaders and the expectations are too high. So, it puts political office holders and the elite under pressure to look for any way to pacify the majority who are always making demands.

    “The primaries that produce people to go into office, how are they conducted? Elections, how are they conducted? Until we stop this money politics we will remain in trouble.”

  • N5.5trn pension savings on loan to FG?

    •Workers’ savings toward retirement must be for failure-proof investments only

    Shortly after the warning from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) against avoidable borrowing by African countries, the Federal Government has been reported to have borrowed N5.5trn out of N7.79trn of contributions of workers from across the country towards their pensions. This is despite the fact that the same Federal Government is reported to have failed to pay its own mandatory contribution to the pension fund as required by law.

    To say the least, it is puzzling that a government that has been unable to pay its own side of pension matching funds feels at ease to borrow from it and with no pre-conditions from those trading with such funds. The Pension Reform Act of 2014 requires workers to pay eight percent of their monthly salaries and the government or employer to add 10 percent of the workers’ monthly emoluments.

    It is not unusual for countries to borrow from such savings, more so if such countries are already, like Nigeria, credit worthy to obtain loans from other sources—local and international. Leaving such funds idle while there are urgent capital projects waiting to be implemented may be bad economics as many pundits have argued. What seems to have been glossed over in the transaction is why a government that has been unable to pay its own contributions should be encouraged to borrow so much money so effortlessly.

    There is need for caution on the part of pension fund administrators (PFAs). It is good to trade with such money and grow the funds for its owners, but it is also important to do proper credit check and capacity for project implementation on the borrower, especially the government’s track records on rational management of funds put in its care.

    It is no brainer that the history of management of pension funds has been a narrative of poor performance in the past. Before the Pension Act of 2004, inefficient management of pension funds, especially the National Provident Fund (NPF) and failure of government pension scheme to meet its obligations to retirees were background reasons for the Pension Act of 2004 and  later to the Pension Reform Act of 2014 that mandates government to add 10 percent of workers’ salary to the eight percent of salary paid by the worker.

    The news that the contributory pension fund has grown to N7.9 is reassuring, but it is imperative that the Federal Government is held to high standards before borrowing, and is properly monitored in its use of a fund designed to provide pension benefits to workers in their old age. The country cannot afford to face a crisis that may arise, should any wrong government action or inaction put the money in jeopardy. Put more baldly, workers will not take any excuse when it is ripe to harvest their pension savings.

    We are not comfortable with the situation in which the Federal Government has borrowed close to two-thirds of the entire savings. Admittedly, the country’s infrastructure is below what it should be, if it wants to create modern industries and move people, goods, and services in a way that can increase GDP and create employment for its teeming population. Promising to build the infrastructure cannot but be encouraging to any agency with funds to trade with—local or international.

    However, we urge the Federal Government to commit sincerely to using money borrowed from workers’ savings for their retirement with utmost care.  A time that several states are unable to pay workers’ pensions is not an appropriate time for the Federal Government to take undue chances with workers’ savings for economic and social security in their old age. There is also no better time for the government to pay its matching funds into the pension fund. If workers had not made the sacrifice to pay their own share, there would have been no such money for the Federal Government to borrow to capitalise its infrastructure projects.

  • FG loses $30b FDI to absence of PIB –Saraki

    •Says 2019 politics won’t affect passage

    Senate President Bukola Saraki at the weekend said that the federal government loses $30 billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to absence of the Petroleum Industry Bill  (PIB) yearly.

    He said the National Assembly will not play politics with the passage of the remaining components of the bills despite the pressure of the 2019 election politicking.

    He noted that the enactment of the law will create jobs for those that have been unemployed.

    He was represented by the chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Gershowl Bassey at the Oil &Gas Public Lecture Series “Abuja 2018” of the Institute of Oil and Gas Research and Hydrocarbon Studies.

    The theme of the lecture was “Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Governance Law & Global Investment opening in the sector.”

    Speaking on the importance of the bills, Saraki said: “This is not politics. It is about our country.

    “All the parties are interested in getting this thing done because of the lack of the passage of the PIB, we are losing $30 billion  Foreign Direct Investment every year.

    “The effects in terms of job creation are massive so we are losing jobs.”

    The Senate President insisted that it is about time for Nigerians to revolutionalise the sector for optimal service and delivery.

    The chairman of Council of the Institute, Prof. Akin Akindoyemi, noted the bills have failed to address the issue of ownership in the sector.

    According to him, the bill concentrates on the decentralisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and leaves out the critical issues of ownership.

    He called for the privatisation of the sector to give stakes to individuals and communities.

    He urged that the bills should address the issue of exploitation of communities by government and oil companies.

     

  • FG ease our sufferings please

    She Federal Government alongside the Governors in the states need to proffer immediate solutions to the pains and agonies the masses are going through. To the hard times Nigerians are facing we now hear unpalatable news of terror, anguish, sadness, kidnapping, bare faced wickedness and of hopelessness, such that, frustration is written on the faces of many people.

    Hops have dashed, thus, it has become clear to many people that there is no solution from man, but only solution to the numerous hardships facing mankind, is in Almighty.

    There is no doubt that most Nigerians are passing through tough times, enduring much pains and sufferings and even a lot-like-lack of electricity to power their homes, high cost of food stuffs, joblessness, a high poverty incidence and hunger, as all these have overbearing and negative multiplier effects on the people’s livelihood.

    Government should make some moves to salvage the situations and ensure that the nation is healed. Though we know that people who place their trust and hope in earthly authorities have had their  hopes dashed, and the numerous hardship and challenges that the world are experiencing today, are the fulfillments of the scriptures, but let the government play its role.

    Nigerians should not dwell in hopelessness to the point of seeking solutions to their problems in wrong quarters, as the situation demands divine intervention, also we need not shed innocent blood in our desire to make it in life.

    Nigerians should always respect constituted authority rather than wishing them evil, thus we should trust in God for the country to overcome its socio-political, economic and spiritual challenges.

    The federal Government should declare state of emergency on unemployment, as, governments at all levels, must put in place sound economic framework to tackle unemployment.

     

    • Prophet Timothy Abass Arabambi, Ibadan, Nigeria.