The Nation Newspaper

Tag: oppose

  • National honours: Belgore, NBA oppose amendment

    National honours: Belgore, NBA oppose amendment

    A former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Alfa Belgore, has opposed the removal of the exclusive powers of the President to award national honours to deserving Nigerians.

    Belgore’s position was supported by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), among other stakeholders.

    The former CJN, who is the Chairman of the National Award Honours Committee, also disagreed with the exclusion of serving public office holders from getting national awards, as proposed by the amendment.

    Belgore spoke yesterday at a public hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Governmental Affairs on two bills seeking to amend the National Honours Act.

    One of the bills seeks to subject the confirmation of any award on the National Assembly as well as powers to revoke it because of the misconduct of the awardee.

    The bill also seeks to prohibit serving public officers, elected or appointed, from being conferred with the award and increase the fine payable upon conviction from N100 to N1 million.

    Justice Belgore urged the lawmakers to shelve any attempt at stripping the President of the powers to award the national honours on those he deemed fit.

    “It is not done anywhere in the world. It is the exclusive of the President and not the National Assembly. I don’t think this amendment is necessary, because everywhere in the world, it is the prerogative of the President to preside over this award,” he said.

    The retired CJN also disagreed with the exclusion of serving public officers from the award.

    He said: “Why not? The award is meant to recognise those that are deserving and, if those serving merited it, they should so be recognised.

    “It is for recognition, and being so recognised would serve as an impetus for others to want to contribute their quota to nation-building.”

    The NBA aligned with Justice Belgore on the two issues. It noted that limiting the number of awardees to 100 would not be fair to deserving Nigerians.

    The association said the current 450 limit should be left open.

    But the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) agreed with the amendment that the powers to confirm the award should reside with the National Assembly.

     

  • Internet service providers oppose sale of 2.3GHz band

    Internet service providers oppose sale of 2.3GHz band

    Internet Service Providers (ISPs) yesterday kicked against the sale of the remaining spectrum in the 2.3 gigahertz (GHz) band. They insisted that it will compound the misfortune of operators within the band.

    Atel Ajha, chief operating officer (COO) of Spectranet spoke on behalf of two other operators, Mobitel and DOPC, at a forum organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on the ‘Best Option for Licensing the Remaining Slots in the 2.3Ghz Band’. He claimed that instead of selling the remaining slots to fresh operators, they (currently operating within the band) should be given the opprotunity to buy it.

    According to him, the standard practice all over the world is that operators in the band range are given 30 MHz, suggesting that guardband of between 2.3Ghz and 2.4Ghz should also be provided to take care of interference.

    According to him, the request is predicated on the need to extend service deployement to other states of the federation with superior technology and new customers’ experience.

    He warned that “Today’s planning must provide for future technology requirment,” arguing that the proposal of the NCC to open bid for the 30 MHz will unleash an era of “unfair competition”on the industry.

    Ajha lamented that there is no significant wireless operators in the country when in fact, globally, they are the ones that provide the primary network operations.

    He said international bandwidth rate is the country is one f the highest in the world, adding that when the country is compared with the rest of the world, its national long distance and metro network is also too exorbitant so is also the rental cost too.

    He fears that if another operator is licensed and that operator has infrastructure like interantional carrier licence as well as metro and national long distance fibre ownership may lead to cross-subsidy on ISP creating an “unfair competition” in the industry.

    In his opening remarks, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NCC, Eugen Juwah, said convening the forum in line with the NCC’s participatory regulatroy approach. “The objective of this forum, in line with the Commission’s policy of participatory regulation amongst other things is to provide an avenue for stakeholders and users of the 2.3 GHz band to discuss, technically criticise, exchange ideas and proffer options that will help the Commission in arriving at a decision on the licensing of the remaining 40 MHz bandwidth in the band for the benefit of all Nigerians.

    “This forum is very remarkable as we have in our midst highly respected presenters with decades of practical experience at their disposal to deliberate on options and challenges as it relates to further licensing of the band,” Juwah said.

     

  • Why we oppose sale of refineries -PENGASSAN

    FRESH facts emerged at the weekend as to why the oil workers’ unions are not favourably disposed towards the sale of the nation’s four refineries.

    Speaking exclusively with The Nation, Comrade Babatunde Ogun, President, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), said the union opposed the outright sale of the refineries, because such a move will not augur well for its members.

    Noting that the oil and gas workers are not completely averse to privatisation, he, however, insisted that the government cannot sell its stake in the oil and gas sector for strategic and security reasons.

    He said: “An immediate sale without first carrying out a Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) is unacceptable. The privatisation cannot be done in less than three years time, considering all the labour-related issues, pension, severance, and so on. The sale of PHCN and NITEL is an example. So if you sell after three years, the new buyer uses another two years to make business decision and looks for funds and another two years for the TAM.”

    The Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu-led National Refineries Special Task Force had, a few months ago, advocated for the sale of the refineries within the next 18months thus saving the Federal Government the hurdle of fixing the refineries.

    But the Federal Government seems disposed to carrying out a Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) at the cost of $1.6billion.

    The TAM, which is expected to begin in early January, is scheduled for completion in October 2014.

    While reiterating the union’s commitment to the progress and development of the sector, Comrade Ogun said the sale of the refineries as proposed by the Kalu committee was not in the interest of the country.

    “Invariably, the committee didn’t want the country to refine crude in Nigeria for the next eight years. This is unacceptable. The TAM must start now without any further delay. Government only gives the contract to a reputable firm and a bank guarantee,” he stressed.

    On why most multinational oil companies operating in the country are yet to site their refineries as they have done elsewhere, the PENGASSAN boss laid the blame on the laws of the land.

    “Our law gave the companies that chance. The companies are owned by businessmen, but government can address this anomaly in the PIB. Any company producing 200k oil and above must have a stake in refinery in Nigeria.”

    Speaking further, he said, “The inefficiency is as a result of policies and tedious approval process. A new well-structured PIB will address that,” adding: “All these positions have been canvassed by both unions in the oil and gas sectors to the government. But government has been running from one committee to the other.”

     

  • Orji, Abia lawmakers oppose Kalu’s return bid to PDP

    Abia State Governor Theodore Orji, the three senators and House of Representatives members from the state yesterday kicked against the planned return of former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Orji led the federal lawmakers and other party stakeholders in the state to the national secretariat of the PDP in Abuja.

    They warned the PDP leadership against the consequences of readmitting Kalu into the party.

    A protest letter by the group, under the banner of Abia PDP Stakeholders, was submitted to the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

    The group explained that readmitting Kalu into the PDP would return the party in Abia State to the battlefield.

    The statement reads: “There is no one politician in the Southeast who excites as much resentment as the former governor among the elite and ordinary people. The former governor carries a huge credibility baggage; there are not a few Abians who accuse him of large scale squandering of their resources and the recrimination of politics from which the state is recently recovering.

    “In fact, the state government is seriously exploring the possibility of probing his administration to establish the truth of these allegations and to properly understand unexplained alleged fund diversion/misappropriation during his tenure.

    “His readmission would, therefore, significantly obstruct this objective and put the state government in an impossible ethical dilemma at this critical period in the political life of the party.

    “The overwhelming rejection of his political dynasty and popular opposition to his continued relevance in the politics of Abia State were the strongest incentives to uniting all factions and tendencies in the build-up to the 2011 elections.”

    The lawmakers and stakeholders explained why Kalu should not be allowed back into the party.

    According to the, they do not oppose defectors returning to the party for a level-playing field but there is a unanimity that readmitting any former member whose presence will cause disaffection or battles will be resisted.

    The statement added: “On the strength of our usually reliable intelligence gathering from his (Kalu’s) loyalists, his sole objective in seeking to rejoin the party is to use its platform to pursue his presidential ambition. It is a ploy that will escalate tension within the ranks of the party; he is coming not to build but to distabilise.

    “If Chief Kalu were allowed to return, he would do so with his loyalists in the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA). Where and how will they be accommodated? If they attempt to dislodge the existing structures, which are a product of a harmonised agreement among major interest groups and prominent individuals in the state, a violent struggle for power will ensue.

    “It was a similar struggle which caused the rift in Enugu State and eventually set the stage for the unceremonial exit of Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo as national chairman.”