The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NEC meeting

  • BREAKING: Shettima presides over NEC meeting at Aso Villa

    BREAKING: Shettima presides over NEC meeting at Aso Villa

    Vice President Kashim Shettima is currently presiding over the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting at the State House, Abuja. 

    Several key national issues, including insecurity and state policing, are expected to dominate the agenda.

    The state governors and several deputy governors attend the Council Chambers meeting.

    Among those in attendance is the newly appointed Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd), who is attending the NEC for the first time since his appointment. 

    Also present is Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, who recently defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Other governors in attendance include the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq (Kwara); Hyacinth Alia (Benue); Bassey Otu (Cross River); Monday Okpebholo (Edo); Uba Sani (Kaduna); and Alex Otti (Abia), among others. 

    Their deputy governors represent a sizable number of the states. 

    The National Economic Council, which is chaired by the Vice President and comprises all 36 state governors, the Central Bank Governor, and other key officials, meets periodically to deliberate on economic and developmental matters and to advise the President accordingly.

    Among the pressing issues on the table is the growing insecurity in parts of the country, particularly in Plateau, Benue, Zamfara, and Kwara states. 

    The council is expected to review ongoing security strategies and the status of state-level consensus on the establishment of state police.

    The last NEC meeting, held on February 20, saw the launch of the Nutrition 774 Initiative, a nationwide program designed to tackle malnutrition in all local government areas across the country.

    The outcome of the ongoing meeting is expected to shape federal and state-level collaborations in tackling insecurity, boosting economic growth, and enhancing governance in Nigeria.

  • Matters arising from APC – NEC meeting

    Sir: The APC National Executive Council (NEC) meeting which held on Tuesday is really an eye opener for all discerning democrats and others who wish Nigeria well. The meeting revealed the decay in the Nigerian leadership such that one is confounded on whom to trust in the many bands of marauders who call themselves political leaders.

    Let us consider the statement by minute which took place on the day.

    President Muhammadu Buhari took off like a jet fired for a space mission by announcing to his party compatriots the nonsensicality of contemplating a tenure elongation for the incumbent NEC members. He gave constitutional and commonsensical reasons for his stand in order to save the entire party structure and the nation from being plunged into turmoil arising from the folly of a band of myopic actors.

    However, due to fear of the unknown and outright lack of confidence in themselves and the very system that they represented, two Nigeria Senior Advocates, Rotimi Akeredolu and Muiz Banire contradicted the President’s logical and wise counsel.

    Here was where of the brightest Senior Advocate of the triad present, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo came to the rescue when he laced up the president’s position and wise counsel with case references. It was this that actually, not only doused the already roused tension, but also exposed our two Senior Advocates for what they actually are.

    Now for the lessons learnt; the meeting exposed the selfishness of the Nigerian political leaders. It exposed their cowardice in the face of real challenges and would rather want to take short cuts rather than follow due process to achieve success. It also exposed their lack of ideal and deep thinking about the repercussion of their actions or inaction to the people and further showcased their unholy banding together to the exclusion of the rest of us in governance and welfare.

    The best description of the meeting was captured by House of Representatives Chief Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa when he lamented the stand of Akeredolu and Banire for tenure extension: “It is unfortunate that the leader of the party and a sitting president based his opinion on constitutionality and you are dragging it on the basis of rationality. You people have exposed yourselves.”  This singular deduction, to me, is the political quote of the year 2018.

    I urge Nigerian youths in particular to take interest in this development and others in the country to weigh diligently before taking any role model. They must take their destiny in their hands by lawfully resisting counterfeit individuals who cannot progress or advance their future positively; failure to take wise counsel is a sure highway to disaster.

     

    • Joshua Niniola, <neyenike@gmail.com>

  • APC ‘won’t discuss tenure elongation at today’s NEC meeting’

    THE All Progressives Congress (APC) has ruled out revisiting the issue of tenure elongation of National Working Committee (NEC) members during today’s meeting at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.

    The party also ruled out possible discussion on the conduct of its national convention scheduled for June during the NEC meeting.

    It gave hint that those challenging the tenure elongation decision in court may soon be sanctioned in line with the party’s constitution.

    Speaking with reporters after the National Working Committee meeting, APC National Publicity Secretary Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi said, even though the timetable released made it clear that the party convention will hold in June, it was not part of the agenda for today’s meeting.

    He said there were only two items on the agenda for the meeting, which were differed during the last meeting because members requested for time to study them and make their inputs.

    He said: “We have the National Executive Committee meeting coming up on Tuesday at 11a.m. It is going to be a routine NEC meeting, which is a final leg of the meeting that was held last month.

    “If you recall after the NEC meeting last month, I told you that two issues were outstanding and that members asked for more time to study those issues. These are the issues of constitutional amendment and the True Federalism committee report. They are the two key items on the agenda for tomorrow’s NEC meeting.

    “If you look at the calendar that was circulated during the last meeting, we are going to have a convention by June and a committee will be set up to that effect. But no committee has been set up yet and it is not on the agenda for the meeting. In any case, such committee is not set up at the NEC meeting.”

    Speaking on the proposed constitutional amendment, Abdullahi said: “The purpose of bringing the issue of constitutional amendment to the NEC is to ensure members, who have issues to raise and opinion to canvass or perspective to share will have opportunity to do so before the final draft is adopted by NEC.

    “Once the final draft is adopted by NEC, you still have the convention, which has the final authority to adopt the amendments. All these are being created to give the various constituencies within the party the opportunity to canvass their views and their positions.”

    Abdullahi said the party is not surprised that some members decided to take the party to court after its NEC took a decision on a one year tenure elongation of leaders of the party at both the state and national level.

    He said: “Sanctioning such members is something we are looking at and if it’s a possibility because we have a responsibility to also protect the constitution of the party and to maintain discipline in accordance with the constitution.”

     

  • States seek take over of Federal roads

    States seek take over of Federal roads

    To revive the near total collapse of most federal roads across the country, states governors on Thursday urged the Federal Government to hand over such roads to them.

    This was one of the major resolutions adopted by the National Economic Council (NEC), chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    NEC comprises of the Governors of the 36 states of the Federation, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and some Ministers.

    Council members expressed concern over issues of roads construction, damage and maintenance and suggested that the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing should come up with strategies to regulate the weight of heavy duty vehicles plying the roads as this may be responsible for road damage and collapse.

    Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, while briefing State House correspondents after the NEC meeting said the Governors were disturbed by the state of the roads and urged the federal government to hand over the roads for repairs.

    He noted that already discussions were on amongst the states to collaborate with investors and fix the roads on Public private partnerships arrangement which will allow states toll such roads to recover funds expended on them.

    He said “We are highly concerned about the failure of our roads, even after fixing the roads, they would collapse with six months and we identified that the over loading is one of the major factor because in road design you take an axial load.

    “Most of the time you don’t use an axial load of more than 35 tonnes but we have noticed that a lot of our trucks carrying majorly fuel do 45,60,70 tonnes and that’s a major concern to state governors and we said that the minister for works and housing should come up with a strategy to regulate the weight of heavy trucks plying the roads which have been fingered as the root causes of road collapse.

    “The state governors are very much concerned about these failures, its being agitating our minds and we are thinking about strategies and we are soliciting that federal government give out some of the federal roads to states so that states can fix the roads through investors and toll the roads and we believe strongly that it will be more effective because the number of federal roads that is being handled by federal government there is no amount of budget that can fix it but if some of these roads are given out to state government and they maintain a handful of it and ofcourse the budgeted funds” he said

    Council therefore resolved that interested States could write to the President requesting approval for States to take over some of the Federal Roads to ensure proper and efficient maintenance.

    NEC also expressed willingness to take a wholistic approach on the issue of such roads across the country.

    He said “The Minister of Finance had earlier made a presentation on special accounts of the federation and gave us the closing balances.”

    It was revealed that Stabilization Account Balance as at 26 September 2017 stand at N4.354,300,295,64k

    Development of Natural Resources Account balance as at 26 Sept. stand at N84.693,588,214,54k, while Excess Crude Account balance as at 22nd of sept stand at $2,309,577,899.02

    “You know there was a gentleman agreement entered into between the Minister of Finance in the NEC and the 35 governors and Lagos is not participating and that is a programme we call budget support and the agreement was because of the down turn of economic challenges that endangers a number of states not being able to pay salaries”

    “So, we came to understanding that every month the total sharable revenue in the federation account any time it is less than N600billion then the Minister of Finance will give each state budget support, we concluded that in the last twelve months and that continued for the second year, states have done very well some states have been able to pay their accumulated salary debts and then also increase their commitment to infrastructure and generation of revenue”

    “From July that was not paid and in the month of August I think about seven states were paid because according to the minister other states did not comply with the set down rules, the most outstanding of that was the non remittance of virety from the states, so those seven states have been paid but more states have complied but we requested that those states that have complied should be paid.”

    “The good news is that in the month of September the shareable amount is N630billion so there would be no budget support for the states.” he said

  • PDP reschedules National Caucus, BOT, NEC meetings

    PDP reschedules National Caucus, BOT, NEC meetings

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rescheduled the meetings of its National Caucus, Board of Trustees (BOT) and the National Executive Committee (NEC).

    The information is contained in a statement issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, on Tuesday in Abuja.

    It said that while the party’s national caucus meeting had been rescheduled for March 6 at 7 p.m, the Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting would hold on March 7 at 11 a.m.

    It noted that the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting would also hold on March 7 at 2 p.m.

    “The leadership of the party deeply regrets any inconveniences that may be caused by this adjustment,” it added.

  • Osinbajo, governors meet at Aso Rock

    Osinbajo, governors meet at Aso Rock

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday held the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting with state governors and other members of the Council.

    The closed-door meeting in the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa started at about 11:30am when Osinbajo arrived the venue.

    The meeting, which is still in progress at the time of filing this report, is expected to deliberate on the remaining aspect of bailout for states, refund of money spent on Federal roads by state governments and updates on the investigation of excess crude account under last administration.

    The states whose governors were present when the meeting commenced are – Delta, Adamawa, Lagos, Zamfara, Kwara, Anambra, Rivers (Deputy), Plateua, Nasarawa, Kano, Bauchi, Sokoto and Ogun.

    Others are – Yobe, Ondo, Imo, Niger, Borno, Benue, Taraba, Oyo, Ebonyi, Abia, Cross River, Kaduna, Osun, Edo, Kebbi and Kogi States.

     

  • NEC: Osinbajo, governors meet at Aso Rock

    NEC: Osinbajo, governors meet at Aso Rock

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and state governors on Thursday began the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The meeting started when Osinbajo, who presided over the closed-door meeting, arrived the Council Chamber at few minutes past 11.00am.

    Issues that would likely be discussed at the meeting include the report of a four- man committee mandated to investigate incomes and spending  from the Excess Crude Account and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) account from 2012 till the end of last administration.

    The committee which was set up during the last NEC meeting has governors Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Emmanuel Udom (Akwa Ibom)  and Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), as members.

    The meeting may also consider bailout for states owing workers’ salaries.

    The states represented at the meeting, which is still in progress, are – Cross River, Kaduna, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Kogi , Gombe, Delta, Kano, Lagos and Niger.

    Others are – Adamawa, Ondo, Sokoto, Yobe, Osun, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Kebbi, Oyo, Plateau, Taraba, Zamfara, Bayelsa and Abia.

  • Osinbajo, Yari discuss workers pay bailout ahead of NEC meeting

    Osinbajo, Yari discuss workers pay bailout ahead of NEC meeting

    NIGERIAN Governors’ Forum (NGF)   Chairman and Nasarawa State Governor Abdulazeez Yari was yesterday at the Presidential Villa, where he held a closed-door parley with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

    Their talk, it was learnt, centred on the modalities of the relief package approved for states by the Federal Government early in the month. The vice president and the NGF chair were believed to have discussed the modalities of the ‘bailouts’ which President Muhammadu Buhari approved about two weeks ago.

    Yari’s meeting with the vice president was ahead of tomorrow’s National Economic Council (NEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    It was learnt that governors may likely ask for more bailout at the meeting as some of the states have not cleared the arrears of their workers’ salaries despite the relief packaged for them by the Federal Government.

    The measures approved by the President include: the sharing of the  $2.1 billion 2014 Income Tax/Education Tax remitted to the Federation Account by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLGN) Ltd; a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)-packaged low-interest rate loans, ranging from N250 billion to N300 billion and the rescheduling of existing loans.

    Speaking with State House reporters after meeting with the vice president, the NGF chair said he came to find out the update on the agreement for the “bailout” to be facilitated by the CBN.

    According to him, he wanted to know how far the Presidency had gone with the CBN in sourcing the funds ahead of tomorrow’s NEC meeting.

    He said: “Anyway, we discussed the special intervention funds. In our last meeting with the President, we agreed in the NEC that there will be a special intervention from the federal for the states that cannot foot their salary arrears to their workers.

    “So, I followed up with the chairman of the NEC to know how far they have gone with the CBN. We have gotten…. and also the share of the money that is going to be shared to the three tiers of government.

    “Because this issue of unpaid salaries is not only for the states, even the federal government is suffering the same thing.

    “So, therefore, we follow-up to know how far they have gone with the CBN Governor and now we have gotten the brief but the CBN governor is out in Washington and immediately he comes back, we are going to take up the matter to see the end of issue of unpaid salaries to the workers.”

    On Boko Haram attacks, Yari said that the government was doing everything possible to counter the insurgents, prevent their bombs and dislodge their suicide bombers.

    He said: “You see, the issue of insurgency is something that is a problem of all. Now, Boko Haram members cannot be found in any forest, or in any local government among the occupied local governments in Borno, Yobe or Adamawa states. You cannot find them.

    “So, what we are now suffering is a kind of guerrilla war, checking the bombs, dislodging the suicide bombings and what have you. But to see a group of 100, 200 as Boko Haram members to confront with our military, they cannot be found.

    “The government and the security agencies are doing their best to ensure that peace is restored.

    “Therefore, we are working and now it is the responsibility of our government to ensure security of lives and property of the people. And the issue of Boko Haram is number one that Mr. President is discussing with the President of the United States and the support he is going to give Nigeria to ensure that the insurgency comes to an end.”

    On the lead poisoning in his state, Yari said it was aggravated by unemployment. The government, according to him, has organised miners into smaller groups to sharpen their skills in modern techniques to avoid reoccurrence of the disaster

    He said: “You see, the issue of lead poisoning in the past is about education. Our youths are unemployed and they are looking inwards to the resources at their backyards; how they are going to get employed. So, they are doing the mining without directive.

    “Since this happened in 2010, many international groups, friends and donors have been giving them supports like DFID, World Bank, World Youths Organisation, among others.

    “If these guys cannot stop the mining, we should find a way of providing a better mining technique, as safety mining techniques so that this lead poisoning will not happen again.

    “And we have been working tirelessly with these foreign supporters and lead poisoning has come to an end. “But, you cannot tell them don’t do it without giving them something to do. So, we put them in a kind of group and teach them the safe way of doing it and how to do it without being affected. So, the issue of lead poisoning is minimal or no more in the state.”