The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ministry

  • Ministry orders dredgers to disregard Appeal Court’s ruling

    •Group criticises waterways authority’s stance on Lagos ultimatum

    THE Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has ordered dredgers in Lagos State to disregard the Appeal Court ruling, ordering them to stop work.

    Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Mohammed Abass frowned at the way Lagos State officials have gone about allegedly distorting the pronouncement of the Appeal Court on the matter.

    Abass, in a statement yesterday, revealed that the ministry’s legal officers were studying the judgment of the Court of Appeal relating to the particulars of the case in question, in the interim.

    His stated: “The attention of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development has been drawn to a recent ruling of the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos and several reports ascribed to various officials of the Lagos State Government regarding a purported stop work order issued to duly licensed dredgers operating in the state.

    “While our legal officers are studying the judgment of the Court of Appeal relating to the particulars of the case in question, in the interim, we wish to ask all duly licensed dredgers to disregard the stop work order issued by the Lagos State Government and to continue about their lawful operations.

    But, a civil society group, Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM) yesterday faulted the call by the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) on operators in the sector to disregard a seven-day ultimatum issued on them by the Lagos State Government to comply with the relevant laws.

    CPPM described it as embarrassing, disgraceful and capable of leading to anarchy.

    The state government, following the judgment of Appeal Court, which upheld its powers to legislate on intra-inland waterways within the state, had called on operators in the sector, especially dredgers and boat operators, to comply with relevant laws governing their operations, failure of which sanction would apply.

    NIWA, on the other hand, issued a statement calling on dredgers and other operators in the sector to ignore the ultimatum issued by the state government.

    A statement signed by CIPPM Executive Chairman Mr. Nelson Ekujumi said its members were disturbed and embarrassed by the attempt of the NIWA to violate the constitution by disregarding and interpreting to suit itself, an unambiguous judgment of a court, which is a law and thereby undermine public peace and safety.

    The statement said: “We condemn in strong terms NIWA’s irresponsible resort to self-help, disrespect for the rule of law and instigation of waterways operators to defy an existing law as exemplified in the Court of Appeal judgment of July 18, 2017 delivered by Justice Hussein Mukhtar, who ruled that: “it is hereby held that the Lagos State House of Assembly is competent to make laws in respect of the intra inland waterways in Lagos State, except the inter-state waterways declared as international or interstate waterways under item 5 in the 2th Schedule to the National Inland Waterways Act”.

    It added: “Therefore, we are scandalised that instead of focusing on its appeal to the Supreme Court against the Court of Appeal judgment on the matter of which the date of Sept 18th, 2017 has been fixed for hearing, the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has taken the illegal and unconstitutional steps of undermining public order by attempting to usurp the functions of the judiciary which is an illegality.

    “In view of the above, we at CPPM are hereby calling on NIWA to refrain forthwith from its assault on the constitution and await the judgment of the Supreme Court on its appeal, failure of which they should be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order on our waterways in Lagos State.”

     

  • 10.5m Nigerian kids out of school, says ministry

    10.5m Nigerian kids out of school, says ministry

    THE Federal Ministry of Education yesterday lamented that 10.5 million out-of-school children are roaming the streets in Nigeria from 20 million globally.

    With this figure, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Shade Yemi-Esan regretted that Nigeria remains the only country with the highest number of out-of-school children.

    Dr. Yemi-Esan, who was represented by Dr. Adamu Hussaini, spoke  at the opening of the 62nd National Council on Education (NCE) meeting in Kano, with the theme “Inclusive education creating quality learning opportunities for all: Implication for concurrency in education in Nigeria”.

    The permanent secretary said there was need to take immediate action to remedy the unpleasant situation.

    She said: “Considering the fact that of the 20 million out-of-school children in the world, about 10.5 million are in Nigeria. It is sad to note that Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.”

    She categorised out-of-school children in Nigeria as including the girl-child, almajiri-child, children of nomadic pastoralists, boy-child drop-out, area boys, children of migrant fishermen and farmers, children living with disabilities, and children displaced by insurgency.

    “Although the last few decades have witnessed a steady growth of both governmental and donor-driven education interventions to address the problem of access to quality education, our society is still confronted with the stark reality of low attendance and low attainment and completion rate among the marginalised and vulnerable groups.

    “No nation can achieve economic prosperity without a sound, inclusive and functional education system. The security and stability of the country to a large extent, depends on its ability to provide functional education to its citizens. The key to successfully address unemployment and social vices lies in the provision of inclusive quality education for all,” she stated.

    Kano State Deputy Governor and Commissioner for Education Prof. Hafiz Abubakar said the theme of the meeting was apt and timely, adding that “the theme is equally important in view of the fact that Nigeria is among the nations that are committed to the implementation of the SDG at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015.”

    The deputy governor, who was represented by Special Adviser to the governor on education, Mallam Bakere Ado Useni, stated that in Kano, “the state government, therefore, made it imperative and draws up clear policy guidelines on inclusive education that will provide guidance for all relevant stakeholders”.

     

  • Ministry, CBN to develop Financial Literacy curriculum

    THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is working with the Federal Ministry of Education to develop a new curriculum on Financial Literacy, which will be introduced to public and private schools in the country, its Director, Consumer Protection, Mr. Fada Banon, has said.

    Speaking at a sensitisation fair organised by the bank at the Three Star Hotel in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital, Banon said the curriculum was aimed at exposing Nigerians to financial discipline at a young age and educate them about financial regulations.

    The director said the bank hopes to, through the new subject, reduce fraud, financial abuses and damage to the naira by the public.

    During a question- and-answer session, most of the participants made up of farmers, small scale entrepreneurs and pupils, decried the attitude of the commercial banks in the state for poor service and uninformed charges.

    A member of staff of Jigawa Polytechnic, Musa Shuaibu, complained that the Automatic Transaction Machines (ATM) in the state only paid a maximum of N20,000 at once.

  • Ministry targets $27b contribution to GDP by 2025

    The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development will contribute 27 billion dollars (about N9.7trillion) to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025, it was learnt yesterday.

    The ministry stated this in its Road Map in Abuja, adding that the contribution would be achieved in three phases.

    It said the phase one was to stabilise the sector and rebuild the country’s market confidence between 2016 and 2018.

    According to roadmap, the second phase will focus on establishing Nigeria as a competitive African mining and mineral processing centre from 2016 to 2020.

    The ministry said the third phase would will enable Nigeria compete in the global market for refined metals and minerals from 2018 to 2030 in addition to selected ore exportation.

  • Bayelsa ministry decries low local govt revenue

    The Bayelsa Ministry of Local Government Administration on Wednesday decried the dwindling revenue accruing to the councils, resulting in their inability to pay workers’ salaries.

    Commissioner for Local Government Administration Dr Agatha Goma told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that local government workers were being owed nine and half months salaries.

    Goma, in a statement on Wednesday, said the state had received from the Federal Account, the sum of N1.11 billion accruing to the eight local governments for the month of June 2017.

    According to her, the money is insufficient for the councils to meet their salary obligations to local government.

    “After the statutory deductions of N70 million for pensions, staff training, and bailout repayments of N16.28 million, the net allocation amounts to N1.02 billion.

    “With a local government workers’ salary bill of N609.17 million and primary school staff salary of N648.73 million, amounting to N1.26 billion, there will be a shortfall of about N233.2 million.

    “This means that without some assistance/support, the June 2017 federal allocation to the councils will not be able to pay the salaries of workers.

    “This also means that there will be no funds available even to administer the local governments. This has been the plight of the local governments since 2014, wherein the allocations have been far less than the wage bills.”

    The commissioner noted that persistent shortfalls had continued in spite of the intervention efforts by the present administration.

    The intervention, she said, included civil service reforms and other policies aimed at addressing the huge wage bills and other fiscal challenges.

    She applauded Governor Seriake Dickson for non-interference in the local government funds in the state and all the support he had provided in the form of policies, administrative guidelines and financial bailouts.

    The national headquarters of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) in June listed Bayelsa as the most indebted of 23 states with 16 months’ salary backlog.

    NULGE National President, Mr Ibrahim Khaleel, alleged that Bayelsa owed between 10 months and 16 months while Kogi owed between seven months and 15 months.

  • Labour accuses finance ministry, budget office of frustrating payment of arrears

    Organised Labour under the auspices of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria said yesterday that federal workers were being owed over N200 billion in the payment of promotion and salary arrears.

    It accused the Federal Ministry of Finance and Budget Office of the Federation of sabotaging the payment process approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Rising from its National Executive Council meeting in Abuja, the Association said it had decided to work in collaboration with the Nigeria Labour Congress to shut down the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office of the Federation for diverting money meant for payment of promotion arrears, salary arrears and death benefits to paying contractors.

    In a communique read by the FCT Secretary of the association, Mr. Ojemhenka Isaac, the association said it decided to picket the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office which the workers believe were subverting the express directives of the President to release funds to pay the arrears owed them.

    He said that a virement approved by the National Assembly to pay the outstanding arrears was diverted to pay contractors for some unknown reasons.

    President of the Association, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, who is also the President of the Trade Union Congress, told journalists after the meeting that the ASCSN, an affiliate Union of the TUC, was collaborating with the NLC to carry out the planned industrial actions.

    According to him, the picketing of the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office was the first step which would be followed by a strike, adding that the dates for both actions would be worked out later.

    Kaigama said the arrears owed the workers were not paid even when the President directed the Head of Service to work out the details with unions so that the payment would commence.

    He explained further that when submissions on the issue were made to the government, it came up with the explanation that there was no budgetary provision to back payment of the arrears.

    Kaigama added that workers became agitated after several years when the government told them that a virement approved for that purpose in 2016 by the National Assembly had lapsed and could only be used for capital projects.

    He said: “The picketing would be done and I will lead it because this thing has taken so long. The idea of the payment of arrears of promotions, death benefits, first 28 days started as soon as the President was sworn in.

    “We wrote Mr. President, he responded positively and then directed the office of the Head of Service to sit with us and work out details.

    “The details were worked out through the MDAs and our representatives at the MDA level and submissions were made to the Office of the Head of Service.

    “That was done, then the National Assembly approved a virement but a chunk of money was earmarked for the settlement of part of these arrears.

    “But today, the explanation they are giving us is that the virement approved by the National Assembly has lapsed, that it is only capital projects it can accommodate, not overhead.

    “In fact, except the National Assembly intervenes now as we are going, there is a tendency now that even this year’s budget may not capture these issues. And that is why we have decided that enough is enough. We are going to picket where we know the problems are.

    “Mr President has directed. The delay we are having now is between Finance and Budget.

  • Reps reject N6b Communications ministry’s budget

    The House of Representatives Committee on Communications has rejected the N6.97billion  budget of  the Ministry of Communications for failing to provide satisfactory details of its 2016 budget spendings.

    For capital projects, the Ministry is proposing to spend N5.964billion, N742.880million  for personnel while N216, 880 million was proposed for overhead cost.

    For emphasis, the Saheed Fijabi-led Committee asked the Minister, Adebayo Shittu to provide a number of documents on projects, project locations, third party contracts, receipt vouchers for conferences,  trainings as well as nominal roll for the Ministry among others.

    The Committee said it will not consider the 2017 budget estimates of the Ministry until it embarked on an on-the-spot accessment of the projects contained in the 2016 budget document.

    The budget session began on a tense note when the Minister refused to explain the details of the budget saying the Permanent Secretary, Sunday Echono, who is the Accounting Officer of the Ministry was in the best position to respond to the specifics of the 2016 document.

    In his presentation, the Minister said contrary to what was on record, the Ministry actually received N3,095,437billion as against N4,912,735, 231billion that was recorded for it on Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS) platform for its 2016 capital expenditure.

    The breakdown showed that of the 48 new and one on-going projects, the Ministry recorded 100 per cent performance on capital budget release of N3,095,437billion that was fully accessed.

    For the year under review, N216, 791,496million was appropriated for overhead while N138,905,138million was released leaving a balance of N77.9million; N600,239,582million was also appropriated for personnel cost out of which N695, 877, 059 was released.

    Totally shocked about the finances of the Ministry, the lawmakers requested for explanations why money  released for personnel was greater than money appropriated.

    The Committee asked why N8million was spent on presentation at Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, while seeking  explanation on the procurement of computers for N12million.

    In addition, the Committee expreseed doubt over the  Ccapital expenditure item whereby N4. 9million was spent on  supervision of the an unspecified work.

    Construction of Information Communications Technology (ICT) centers in some parts of the country also came under scrutiny as the Ministry failed to execute any of the projects, claiming lack of funds.

    The Committee wondered why projects that benefit Nigerians directly were not prosecuted by the Ministry.

    Fijabi said: “With the document before us, there is a need for this Committee to oversight these projects because Nigerians have been  blaming the  legislature for not doing its job well.

    “Going forward, we have to look at the procurement process and on-the-spot accessment of these projects has become inevitanle.

    “In addition, the Ministry should furnish the Committee with its nominal roll, indicating old and new workers.

    “The provision of the details requested will determine how soon we will embark on the oversight visit and the consideration of the Ministry’s 2017 budget estimates.”

  • Reps order ministry, pharmacists body to eradicate quackery

    • Society advises members on registration renewal

    The House of Representatives has  mandated the Federal Ministry of Health and the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) to close all unregistered pharmaceutical shops and prosecute their owners.

    There is anxiety over quacks’infiltration of the value chain of pharmacy.This has resulted in increased fake drugs.

    In a statement, the House said it acknowledged the various pharmaceutical shops and the scope of their practice as well as the peculiar needs of each in terms of manpower, equipment and premises specification, expressing concern that some chemist shops are in some locations and buildings which lack basic facilities and, in many cases, are manned by laymen.

    “It is also common in cities and villages to see drugs displayed for sales in public places. Such public places include motor parks, open drug markets among others,” the House noted.

    Expressing worry that some “spiritual and healing homes masquerading as worship centres or charity homes operate freely as drugs and medicines dispensaries, while some local manufacturers of drugs and medicines use all sorts of rickety vehicles to advertise and sell their drugs and medicines”, the House noted that these unprofessional ways of warehousing, distributing and dispensing of drugs and medicines serve as channels for the infiltration of quacks into the pharmacy profession and a major challenge to public health.

    “The infiltration of the pharmaceutical practice by unqualified persons and the attendant unprofessional services being rendered by these people have resulted to the death of countless number of innocent Nigerians, not counting the economic losses due to the supply and purchase of fake, expired and unwholesome drugs and medicine”, the House lamented.

    The House mandated the committees on health institutions, and healthcare services headed by Hon Abbas Tajudeen, representing Zaria Federal Constituency to ensure compliance.

    PCN Registrar, Elijah Mohammed expressed gratitude to the House, saying the resolution came at a time the Council stepped up its enforcement. He acknowledged that the House’s position would strengthen the Council’s resolve to flush out the quacks and help to restore normalcy to pharmacy practice.

    Also, the PSN has urged its members to renew their yearly registration with the PCN.

    According to its President, Alhaji Ahmed I. Yakasai, PSN and PCN have put in place a  system to quicken the process.

    He said the procedures would entail all pharmacists and pharmaceutical firms fulfilling the requirements of regularising their documents, before they were issued their Clearance Certificates by their state branches.

    ‘’The Clearance Certificates will subsequently be used to obtain Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) scratch cards to proceed with registration formalities,’’ he added.

    He said they would pay a building fee of N5, 000 as ordered by PSN.

    He noted that at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of PSN, the National Executive Council NEC directed that the the body should claim its Pharmacy House in Victoria Island, Lagos State and all its properties in Lagos and Abuja.

    Yakasai enjoined pharmacists to pay their practicing fees, warning: “No registered person shall practise as a pharmacist in any year unless he has paid to the Council in respect of that year, the appropriate practising fee which shall be due every January.”

    He said it was important to inform members of the consequences of defaulting.

  • Reps query purchase of 63 ambulances by ministry

    The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives at the weekend queried the purchase of 63 ambulances by the Ministry of Women Affairs without due process.

    Members of the Kingsley Chinda- headed committee were surprised that though the Federal Executive Council approved N458 million for the purchase of 63 vehicles, the ministry went ahead to buy only 39 vehicles for N558  million.

    The ministry then allegedly went ahead to buy 24 extra at N587 million.

    The committee grilled the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Obiageli Phyllis Nwokedi, over the fact that states that were listed as beneficiaries of the vehicles did not get them and that huge amounts were added to increase the number of vehicles purchased from 39 to 63 without appropriation.

    The committee questioned the ministry based on queries from the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (OAGF), spanning in 2010 to 2013 and wanted to know where the ministry got the extra funds for without virement or recourse to the National Assembly.

    The answer by Mrs. Nwokedi that the fund was sourced from the research and development vote was not acceptable to the committee.

    The OAGF in the audit queries also wondered what became of 21 vehicles out of those procured by the ministry.

    According to the audit queries, records allegedly show that only politicians and corporate bodies in the targeted states benefitted from the ambulances.

    The committee members expressed dissatisfaction on the conduct of the ministry, saying though the ministry claim to be in 13 states of the country, the list used for appropriation was not followed and the ones not listed were the beneficiaries.

    The chairman of the committee was not happy with the Permanent Secretary and discountenanced her claim that she is new in the ministry, saying governance is a continuum.

    The ministry was, therefore, requested to provide a full list of all the vehicles, their registration numbers and their distribution across the states.

    The ministry is also asked to provide the committee with an up to date asset register.

  • Disquiet in Ministry over ambassadorial list

    There is palpable disquiet in the Foreign Affairs Ministry over the ambassadorial nominee list sent to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari last week for conformation.

    Career civil servants in the ministry have faulted the selection process that threw up the 47 nominees, citing a number of infractions of civil service rules guiding the exercise.

    According to them, the rule stipulates that of the 109 missions, at least 60 should be reserved for career civil servants while the remaining 49 are reserved for political appointees.

    But the list of nominees from the ministry sent to the Senate by President Buhari contained only 47 names.

    Also, the rule also stipulates that career civil servant nominees must have at least 30 months in service before retirement.

    However, findings at the weekend revealed that some of the nominees have just 12 months left in service.

    “In some instances, junior officers were nominated above their seniors who are more qualified for the positions”, a source in the ministry said at the weekend.

    Some of the officers who were sidelined in the exercise complained that there was no input by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry in the compilation of the list.

    A few of the officers who lost the nominations to their junior ones alleged manipulation of the process by the selection panel and called for reconsideration of the list.

    “It is very strange that some of us who still have more than the stipulated 30 months in serve were deliberately sidelined and some officers who have between 12 and 13 months before retirement were nominated”, the source said.