The Nation Newspaper

Tag: powers

  • ‘Legislators lack powers to summon judges’

    A rights’ group, Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), has faulted plans by the Senate Committee on Judiciary to summon judges arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS).

    It said the legislature had no oversight powers over judicial officers in line with the principle of separation of powers.

    In a statement by its National Coordinator Mr. Chinos Obiagwu, LEDAP said only the National Judicial Council (NJC) was empowered by the Constitution to discipline judges and justices of superior courts.

    The group said any interference by the legislature or the executive in the affairs of the judiciary would be unlawful.

    LEDAP said: “The 1999 Constitution, unlike the legal framework of past military regimes, has consolidated the independence of the judiciary and established the NJC as the only body responsible for management of the judiciary.

    “There are a lot of corruption issues and corrupt politicians in the legislature and executive, which should preoccupy the senators. The scandal arising from the padding of the budget, which has been going on for many years in the legislature with connivance of the executive, as well as bogus and secretive huge allowances and emoluments claimed by legislators are more damaging economic crimes against the people that the Senate should address rather than intimidating a few judges alleged to be corrupt.

    “There are several court orders directing the National Assembly to disclose salaries and emoluments of its members, and details of constituency allowances claimed yearly by legislators. It has refused to obey these judgments of the courts.

    “The legislators appropriate nearly a quarter of the national wealth to themselves and account to no one. Nigerian legislators, adjudged as the most corrupt and most expensive in the world, has no legal or moral right to superintend over alleged corruption in the judiciary.”

  • No need for emergency powers for economy

    Sir: The Democratic People’s Congress strongly opposes President Muhammadu Buhari’s bill to the National Assembly seeking emergency powers to tackle economy now in recession.

    Buhari claimed that the objectives of the emergency stabilization bill 2016 are to shore up the value of the naira, create more jobs, boost foreign reserves, revive the manufacturing sector and improve power supply.

    These are exactly the economic issues Nigerians voted President Buhari to effectively tackle with the executive powers conferred on him in the 1999 constitution as amended.

    Unfortunately, instead of taking governance seriously and diligently handle these and other crucial national issues, the APC-led federal government from the outset started playing to gallery and exhibited leadership fatigue to the shock of longsuffering Nigerians who expected change in their standards of living.

    Any attempt to give the President more powers will lead to tyranny and autocracy which is unacceptable in a democracy. Buhari did not seek extra power to crush Boko Haram insurgency and will not need emergency powers to revamp the economy.

    DPC has repeatedly called for an economic team made up of eminent Nigerians to proffer solutions to the dwindling economic fortune of the nation. Instead of doing this, the Buhari government allowed itself to be distracted by intra-party war over the leadership of the National Assembly etc.; it took the government almost what seemed like eternity to constitute the Federal Executive Council and present the 2016 budget with its purported padding.

    To make matters worse, the Central Bank of Nigeria has been having a field day with its policy summersaults that have confused local and foreign investors. Today the dollar is sold for N402.00.

    The government should sit up and do the right thing. Diversification of the economy is critical for the survival of our frail democracy and it starts with sound economic policies and actions.

     

    • Rev. Olusegun Peters

    National Chairman, DPC

  • Powers Buhari needs

    We need to think out of the box for the way forward

    A newspaper report says the Federal Government intends to send a bill titled “Emergency Economic Stabilisation Bill 2016” to the National Assembly seeking emergency powers for the president to carry out some radical reforms that have both executive and legislative components, to enable him address the country’s economic challenges. The emergency powers are to last for one year. According to the report, “the emergency powers that have the legislative components include the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act, procurement process and virement of budget allocations. The objectives of the emergency powers are to reflate the economy by creating more jobs, boost foreign reserves, ensure inflow of foreign exchange, strengthen the naira, resuscitate the manufacturing sector and get contractors back to site”.

    The report says that in view of the delays associated with the procurement process in the extant Public Procurement Act which takes at least six months; the president wants suspension of section 34(3) of the act to fast track the procurement process and award of contracts to do away with the administrative encumbrances. In the same vein, the president is looking at the possibility of selling and leasing out some of what the report calls non-core assets of the country to reflate the economy. About $50billion could be generated from this. There is also visa issuance that he wants facilitated as well as business registration.

    The report also says the president wants mobilisation fees to contractors raised from 15 percent to 50 percent. He also wants the counterpart fund expected from states to access the Universal Basic Education Fund reduced from the present 50 percent to 10 percent. This will free about N58 billion trapped in the fund for the states to improve education. The president is also said to be interested in ease of doing business by ensuring that people seeking to register their businesses get approval within seven days. The emergency powers will also entail the president authorising the use of barges to supply gas to power plants, instead of pipelines in the present laws.

    Even though the Presidency has denied that it was planning to send such request to the National Assembly, the report would seem like kite-flying to see how Nigerians would react to it if and when it eventually comes. Indeed, if President Muhammadu Buhari had not thought along this line, he should begin to do so immediately.

    Reactions to the report have been mixed. For instance, some people are already saying that the president can still do something about the economy without asking for those powers. Perhaps this is true. For instance, does he need emergency powers to reduce the number of jets in the presidential fleet? Obviously, no. May be that is where to begin. Again, some say that some of the laws he is seeking to temporarily set aside have their purpose. But then, these laws (including the Public Procurement Act) were there in the Jonathan years when abuses took place in a manner we probably never heard of in the country. By the time the investigative agencies beam their searchlight on the oil sector, we will understand what I am talking about. So, the question is not necessarily about whether laws are there or not; it is more about how the laws are obeyed, especially at the very top.

    I guess some of these doubts would not have arisen if the government had shown a thorough understanding of the serious economic challenges a long time ago and had been seen to be working assiduously to tackle them, with results. Asking for such powers now is raising fresh fears, not necessarily because the president does not need them but because the massive enthusiasm that he would have got if this had come since is not likely to be the same today. And the reasons are not far-fetched. Things are not moving the way Nigerians expected. Indeed, it is because of a time like this that some of us had been warning that the government did not seem to appreciate the enormity of the task on ground given the slow manner it took off after its inauguration on May 29, last year.

    The election that brought the president into office was conducted on March 28, 2015 and there was no controversy over it as the then President Goodluck Jonathan swiftly conceded defeat on March 31, 2015, even before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) formally declared Buhari winner. The government had an unusual advantage of two months to continue preparations from where it stopped (if it had been making preparations at all in anticipation of victory at the polls) such that it should have hit the ground running. Many of us hinted at this a few months back.

    Unfortunately, the government kept foot-dragging even over a routine thing as appointment of ministers as if it had till eternity to do this, such that it took it six months after inauguration to constitute the cabinet. And when that was finally done, it was not something extraordinary. Most of the cabinet members were those that had been speculated would be appointed. There were hardly any surprises. Six months in the life of an administration with four-year tenure is a lot of time.

    One can imagine the hostile reception which the request would get from the National Assembly if it goes to the legislature. To put it bluntly, it would be difficult for the National Assembly’s leadership to cooperate with the executive in this matter. And if it would disagree with the president, it is not because of any genuine reasons except that it has its own agenda which is clearly at variance with legislative duties. That the Buhari government has not thrown the treasury open as it was in the past is enough grouse. Anyway, we should not dissipate energy on that.

    The question we should be asking is: does Buhari need the powers he is asking for? I am afraid he does. As a matter of fact, such powers are long overdue, given the dire situation the country’s economy is in and the need to urgently bring it out of the woods. Indeed, the request should have formed part of the first anniversary broadcast of the government in May, at worst.

    The government should stop playing the ostrich by denying that there is no such plan for emergency powers yet for something that is long overdue. I share the concern of those who genuinely feel for the country should we inadvertently give the president powers to nail us, even if he did not set out to do just that. That is why the president should be specific whenever he is sending the said bill to the National Assembly. We do not have to give him powers that would be too wide for him to manage and we would have helped in crowning a dictator.

    But we must be careful not to throw away the baby with the bath water, as the National Assembly did when they threw away constitutional amendments that we sorely needed because of Third Term in the Obasanjo years. There is nothing wrong in reducing counterpart funding for accessing UBE funds from the present 50 percent to 10 percent. The money had been trapped for years because many states could not afford the counterpart fund. I also do not see any reason why contractors should be mobilised with only 15 percent, especially at a time like this when banks are reluctant to give loans for obvious reasons. Moreover, what says we cannot use barges to transport gas for electricity supply when we are having challenges with piping of gas to the power stations? We all complain that improved electricity supply would go a long way in solving some of our problems and we do not want a system that would ensure steady supply of gas to facilitate this simply because of an extant law?

    With regard to the Public Procurement Act and award of contracts, we do not have the luxury of waiting for six months in a time like this for contracts to be awarded and started. Again, why should it take eternity to register a business enterprise or issue visa to tourists that we so badly need, when other countries are making a lot of money from tourism? We need all the foreign exchange that such people are ready to part with. My main worries are with virement, sale or lease of some ‘non-core’ assets, and waivers. These are areas where the National Assembly should ask all the questions necessary before granting the powers. Indeed, if you ask me, some of these extant laws are unnecessary and counterproductive.

    What we should have done was to fight corruption ab initio; and some of the fears that led us to enact some of these laws would have been taken care of. For instance, we would not have fears over waivers if we had done that and churches, some rich enough to fund some countries’ budgets, would not have been beneficiaries of waivers. There is nothing wrong in granting the president power to grant waivers for the procurement of essential items to propel the economy.

    My point is that we indeed shot ourselves in the foot with some of these laws and this is akin to a rain maker who caused rain to fall only to start complaining of the accompanying thunderstorm.  What is required in all of these is integrity. But, if we can vouch for the president’s integrity, can we do same for all his subordinates? This is a natural question. But that is the risk we must take in times like this because, as I pointed out earlier, even when these laws were in place, they were still subverted.

    What remains incontrovertible is that it has become obvious that we need some thinking out of the box to get out of our present peculiar mess. As President of the National Association of Nigerian Traders, (NANTS) Ken Ukaoha, a lawyer, said: “we need to do extra ordinary things if we must pull out this economy from the woods and that includes some of the things the president is seeking the National Assembly’s approval to do”. The big question is: do we want to eat omelet? Then we must be ready to break eggs. Laws are made for man and not vice versa. We should not be slaves to our own laws.

     

     

     

  • Does Buhari need emergency powers?

    Does Buhari need emergency powers?

    This paper, The Nation, reported on its front page on Monday, August 22, that, on the advice of his economic (advisory) team, President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking emergency economic powers to tackle Nigeria’s sluggish economy. An enabling economic stabilisation bill giving him wide emergency powers is to be sent shortly to the National Assembly for its deliberation and passage. The details of the enabling bill have not yet been made public, but the paper hinted that the emergency economic powers President Buhari is seeking will be sweeping and wide ranging, and could cover fiscal and monetary policies as well. The proposed emergency economic powers will be justified on the grounds that our economic recovery has been rather slow and that a shot in the arm, through emergency powers for the president, is now needed to move our country out of its recession speedily. The proposed bill will, of course, have an easy passage in the APC-controlled National Assembly.

    But I find the claim that the president needs extra powers to tackle our economic problems astonishing. It is perfectly understandable that his Economic Team, out of frustration with the sluggish economic recovery, should urge the president, who is just as frustrated, to seek wider emergency powers to tackle the sluggish economy. But are the new emergency and extensive powers being proposed for the president really necessary? Does he not already have all the powers he needs to move our country forward? Will the granting of such wide powers to the president by the National Assembly lead to a better management of the economy and turn it round? Will it create more jobs? I do not think so. In fact, I consider it dangerously delusional. It is a populist economic strategy that will attract some support from the public who, in their desperation, will clutch at any straw now in the hope for a dramatic transformation of the economy after decades of neglect and mismanagement. But I do not think that giving the president wider emergency powers and impunity over the economy now will produce any significant change in the economy. He knows he does not have a magic wand to accomplish that. The president has himself admitted several times publicly that there are no ‘quick fixes’ to the grave economic challenges facing our country and that more time is needed to tackle these challenges. In fact, in the absence of any clear and coherent economic strategy by the government, giving the president emergency powers now over the economy could be counterproductive and lead to more chaos and public frustrations with the management of our domestic economy. We should avoid having to act out of desperation.

    To start with, as is well known, Nigeria’s economic problem is really structural and deep seated. It has more to do with its over dependence on oil revenues and our failure over the years to make the necessary public investments to diversify our country’s economic structure away from its dependence on oil revenues which, recently, has fallen by over 60 per cent. It is unlikely that recovery from the decline in oil revenues will occur soon. There is a global economic recession and a consequent fall in the global demand for oil. Due to the insurgency in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s oil production has fallen from 2.2 billion barrels a day to only 1.5b. Its main competitors in oil exports, such as Venezuela, Iran, Angola and Saudi Arabia are in full production even when global oil demand is falling. So, wider economic emergency powers for the president will not lead to more oil exports or revenue for Nigeria, even if the Delta returns to normalcy.

    In addition, some of the nagging economic problems for which the president is being urged to seek wider powers can more easily be addressed by mere administrative measures. These include the delay in the granting of Nigerian visas for prospective foreign investors, the education fund, mobilisation funds for local contractors, and the existing procurement process. All these do not require additional powers for the president. Where it is necessary to amend the existing constitutional procedures to deal with these problems, this can be done by the Executive presenting the necessary amendment bills to the National Assembly, rather than by seeking new and sweeping economic powers for the president.

    For instance, in the case of mobilisation fund for contractors, it was reported that the president will be seeking to increase it from 15 per cent to 50 per cent. I consider this proposal an outright prescription for financial and economic disaster in our country. Many contractors will simply collect the 50 per cent mobilisation funds and walk away from the project. It will be difficult for the government to recover such funds from the contractors, particularly as most of the beneficiaries of such funds are likely to be party hacks who, in the first place, secured the contracts on the basis of party political patronage. In most cases the governments award the contracts as a means of funding their political parties. They are then obliged to turn a blind eye to the failure of these political contractors to complete the projects for which they received mobilisation funds. It is rare in our country for the government to take defaulting contractors to court for defaulting on contracts. The matter is simply swept under the carpet in view of the political stakes involved, and its potential for generating political scandals. As we have seen recently from the ongoing EFCC investigations into public corruption, the Jonathan PDP federal government fraudulently awarded a vast number of such phony contracts to its political supporters. This is a situation that must be avoided at all costs, as increasing the mobilisation funds of the contractors will not solve the problem of lack of financial accountability. It will make it worse. The existing financial rules regarding the procedure for the award of public contracts are quite adequate and should take care of the concerns of the government about the non-completion of public contracts.

    With regard to the existing public procurement process that the federal government is now seeking to change, it should not be forgotten that the current process was introduced to curb the irresponsible and corrupt manner in which public agencies were making procurements. The whole business was riddled with corruption leading to massive loss of public funds. The complaint now is that the procurement process is too long and that it is responsible for delays in the implementation of public projects. But the problem really is that applications for public procurements are usually delayed by the bureaucracy so as to stampede the procurement agencies into granting hasty approvals. In some cases lack of funds causes the delay in procurement. But there is no question that the existing procurement process has worked reasonably well. Large savings of public funds have been made by the insistence that due process be followed in public procurements. Scrapping it now and transferring the responsibilities to the president, or his designated officials, is likely to cause more delay and worsen public corruption in our country.

    The Organised Private Sector (OPS) was reported as being in support of the proposed emergency economic powers for the president. This is not altogether surprising as the business community, which was apparently consulted on the issue of the proposed emergency powers, tends on the whole to support draconian measures in times of economic recession. But I know from personal experience that it is a decision it usually regrets later as sweeping economic powers for the president may be detrimental to the real economic and financial interests of industry. It is no guarantee for speedy economic growth and has the potential of even dividing the business community. During the long period of military dictatorship in our country the military rulers virtually enjoyed unlimited and untrammelled emergency powers over the domestic economy. Institutional checks and countervailing forces against public corruption and the abuse of such wide powers were simply swept aside by the military. This trend which was inherited by the succeeding civilian governments accounts to a large extent for the economic mess in which our country now finds itself. The truth of the matter is that because of its lack of accountability, military rule set our country back by several decades. Vital decisions on investments in our infrastructure were not made. For instance, the introduction of import licensing by the first Buhari military regime was grossly abused by senior military officials placed in charge of the Import Licensing Committees. The import licences went to the wrong people who then sold them to genuine importers at highly inflated prices. Recently, President Buhari claimed publicly that one of the reasons his military government was overthrown in 1983 was that he was going to deal with this abuse by some of his senior military colleagues. When Babangida was in power, he too introduced and fraudulently granted import duty waivers to the wrong importers as well. These selective import duty waivers killed many local industries. The concern here is not that, if granted, PMB will himself abuse his emergency powers. Rather it is that his subordinates cannot be trusted by the public to ensure a fair and level-playing field under such emergency powers. Giving the president such sweeping powers over the economy could undermine our fledgling and fragile democracy and our economic rights. In any case even without additional emergency powers the President of Nigeria is powerful enough to steer the economy in the right direction without demanding additional powers which will, almost certainly, be abused to our economic detriment. He is one of the most powerful leaders in the world.

    But the most compelling reason for urging the federal government to have a rethink on the issue of emergency economic powers for the president is the suggestion that he should be directly responsible for determining monetary policy. This could justifiably be viewed as another negation of fiscal federalism in our country. Specifically, it was mentioned in the media reports that exchange rate adjustment strategy will come under the President’s purview. This has to be speculative as I cannot imagine a more dangerous prescription for our economy than the proposal to transfer the constitutional responsibilities of the CBN regarding exchange rate management directly to the president. It is this kind of currency manipulation by the leaders of countries, such as Venezuela and Zimbabwe that has destroyed their economies.

    The world, including Russia, China and India, has moved away, rightly, from excessive state control of the economy to a more liberal strategy based on the effective functioning of state institutions. Awareness of this positive trend is reflected in our more recent economic plans and strategy, such as the MDGs and vision 2020. State controls are often arbitrary and tend on the whole to discourage local and foreign investors due to their inherent economic flip flops and uncertainties. The spectacular economic transformation of countries, such as India, China and Brazil is sufficient illustration of the efficacy of a liberalised and market-based economy in achieving faster economic growth.

    Even in Africa, more and more countries are moving away increasingly from state controls to a free economy with the necessary adjustments. If maintained, the war against public corruption in our country will restore some economic sanity to our country. Instead of giving the president wider emergency economic powers, what the country needs are reformed state and public institutions that can be relied upon to function more effectively. A continuation of the reform of state institutions to make them more effective and efficient is what is needed, instead of resorting again to a command economy that has not served our nation well in the past. It will be a case of one step forward and two backwards.

     

  • Buhari seeks emergency powers to tackle economy

    Buhari seeks emergency powers to tackle economy

    President to meet Saraki, Dogara

    Bill to rescue economy ready

    President Muhammadu Buhari will be seeking emergency powers from the National Assembly to push his planned stimulus for the economy.

    The objectives of the action-plan on the economy, which is in recession, include shoring up the value of the naira, creation of more jobs, boosting of foreign reserves, reviving  the manufacturing sector and improving power.

    Government sources said the decision to seek emergency powers for the President was based on a proposal from the economic team headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The team reviewed the various policies so far introduced and how they have affected the economy.

    The economic team, it was learnt, gauged the mood of the polity and decided that unless there is an urgency which some of the extant laws will not permit, “the recession may be longer than expected and Nigerians will not get the desired respite, which is the goal of this government”.

    An executive bill titled: “Emergency Economic Stabilisation Bill 2016” is to be presented to the National Assembly when the Senate and the House of Representatives resume from vacation on September 12.

    In the bill, the executive will be asking for the President to be given sweeping powers to set aside some extant laws and use executive orders to roll out an economic recovery package within the next one year.

    Buhari will be seeking powers to:

    • abridge the procurement process to support stimulus spending on critical sectors of the economy;
    • make orders to favour local contractors/suppliers in contract awards;
    • abridge the process of sale or lease of government assets to generate revenue;
    • allow virement of budgetary allocation to projects that are urgent, without going back to the National Assembly.
    • amend certain laws, such as the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act, so that states that cannot access their cash trapped in the accounts of the commission because they cannot meet the counterpart funding, can do so; and
    • to embark on radical reforms in visa issuance at Nigeria’s consular offices and on arrival in the country and to compel some agencies of government like the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the National Agency for Foods Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and others to improve on their turn around operation time for the benefit of business.

    The extant law on procurement does not allow contract award earlier than six months after decision. Part of this is a mandatory advertisement of the contract for six weeks. The economic team has found this to be unacceptable, given our present circumstance.

    Although the president has the power to order the sale or lease of any government asset to raise cash, “the procedure is cumbersome and long”. The draft bill is meant to ease the process. The government source said about nine government assets may be leased or sold to generate around $50billion to shore up the nation’s foreign reserves and the value of the naira against the United States dollar.

    The source said: “Nigeria may be broke at the moment but we are not a poor country, given our assets and capability.”

    About N58 billion is trapped in UBEC’s coffers because the states cannot access it as a result of the key condition, which is the payment of 50 per cent counterpart funding. The government is seeking an amendment to the law so that states will pay only 10 per cent as counterpart funding.

    The objective is that state governments will have access to cash to develop education. This will facilitate creation of jobs since contracts will be awarded for the projects.

    As for contract awards, the government, by the provisions of the law, cannot mobilise contractors with more than 15 per cent of contract sum. This is considered to be undesirable by the economic team given the pace the government wants to move in turning the economy around and in the provision of critical infrastructure. The bill will seek to allow the government to mobilise contractors with 50 per cent of contract sum.

    The move to get government agencies to fast tract their operations is to enable foreign investors to come into the country without the current bottlenecks.

    Consular offices will now be expected to make visas available within 48 hours and visitors, especially tourists who intend to pick up visas at the entry point, will be able to do so.

    Time wasting at the airport with duplication of agencies screening incoming passengers is to be eliminated. Those leaving the country should go without hassle.

    For the power sector, the government plans to truck gas from source to the power plants to enable them get what they need for generation.

    A government source said: “This may be more expensive but it is a price to be paid for Nigerians’ comfort”.

    It was learnt that President Buhari will engage the leadership of the National Assembly before their resumption to solicit support for the bill’s quick passage.

  • ‘National Assembly has powers to legislate for Kogi’

    ‘National Assembly has powers to legislate for Kogi’

    A member of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Zakari Mohammed, in this interview with ADEKUNLE JIMOH, says the National Assembly has the constitutional right to take over the functions of the Kogi State House of Assembly, pending the resolution of the crisis.

    How is the House of Representatives handling the crisis over the crude oil swap?

    In the month of January, this year a colleague of ours brought up a motion on the alleged misconduct in the handling of the crude oil swap. At some point, Nigeria had issues with the provision of fuel for its citizenry and became cash-trapped. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), according to the narrative we got, was owing marketers and it must provide premium motor spirit (PMS) and other related products for the usage of Nigerians. That was when the swap arrangement came. The crude oil swap is like trade by barter arrangement. We have crude and give it to marketers; they take it outside Nigeria and return it as a refined product.

    Worldwide, it is not a misnormer. Countries do it when there are issues. The other alternative is what they call crude in exchange of refined products. At any rate they adopted the oil swap and there was a lot of anomalies. One of the companies called Duke Oil, a subsidiary of NNPC got the contract to do swap and it used to collect 445,000 barrels of crude oil daily. The company believed that it did not have the technical capacity to handle such a transaction and it decided to involve some other marketers. At some point, it was going on very well. Between 2012 and 2014, the agreement expired; and when the agreement expired, the sane thing to do it to renew it. We discovered that, between that period, the crude of Nigeria was taken away without a valid agreement. Even though they said that they had written to the then petroleum minister for the approval of either president or federal executive council, but unilaterally, she approved an extension.

    For now, we have interrogated former GMDs, the former petroleum minister, former PPMC’s heads, former MDs of Duke Oil, oil marketers and the only people we have yet to take on are customs, ports authorities and Prince Haruna Mommoh, who was in charge of PPMC between the time Dizeani Alison-Madueke was the petroleum minister.

    We are expecting them, at least, we have dispatched letters to them. With that, we will be winding down so that we can compile our report. The committee has set out that it will not witch-hunt anybody, but where we find out that there are infractions, we will definitely make sure that we recommend appropriately. So far so go we have been getting on well. We have seen the reactions of Nigerians on what we will do with that. The assurances I have for them is that we have a mandate by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to investigate and expose corruption.

    For the purposes of investigation, the dramatis personae must make themselves available for us to interact with them to know the rationale behind certain decisions they took while in office.  As we saw so far the crude oil agreement was skewed more in favour of the marketers as against Nigerians. Any how we will not say anything that is judgmental now.

    Why the shortfall in the allocation to the education sector in the 2016 budget?

    There are certain sub-heads such as the Unity Schools that the meal subsidy was slashed down. We have 104 Unity Schools and of the number, we have a population of 19,000 students. The meal subsidy’s proposal should be N450 daily- that means N150 per meal amounting to over N11 billion but it was reduced to about eight billion Naira. The implication is that their food might be reduced to about N80 per meal. How much will N80 do with what we have today? We at the level on the committee on basic education in the House of Representatives have approached the appropriation committee to make provisions for that shortfall.

    Why these misconceptions about the budget?

    I think some people are not doing their jobs very well. I cannot explain for them as I am not a member of the executive. But the story we heard is that civil servants were already working on the budget before ministers were appointed. When the ministers came in they brought some version and consultants engaged at some levels.

    The President has started taking steps to ensure that he goes into the crux of the matter. Budget is not a day’s job. It is there you will know whether certain heads are implementable or not. Padding is a relative term. For us in the parliament if a budget is brought to us we should be able to detect all these infractions. If it were the case of garbage in garbage out we wouldn’t have detected that. We want to bequeath an implementable document to Nigerians beyond our long grammar. Because a lot of things are calling for attention; the roads are in very terrible state; power supply shaky; education sector is in shambles. We definitely must make hay while the sun shines.

    Our case in Nigeria is like a patient in the emergency ward. He needs all the consultants available to revive him.

    What gave the NASS the effrontery to expose this anomaly in the budget based on the fact that the ruling party also has the majority in the assembly?

    Our parties are vehicles for us to get to the National Assembly. When you get into the National Assembly your people are more paramount than the parties and there is a country called Nigeria. For us we believe that we are a separate arm of government. When we see things that are not right we point them out, because keeping quiet would be a conspiracy of silence that would not help anybody. For instance, I don’t think the president will be happy if he eventually knows that certain things have taken place and we allowed them to go without raising eyebrows. It is not an effrontery we are just doing our jobs. NASS has three responsibilities of representation, over sight and the budget and of course the budget is our core responsibility. If we fail to do that we will be failing in one of our responsibilities. I can tell that the NASS is a very liberalized body. Unlike what people think, we have people who had paid their dues in their different endeavours before going to the National Assembly.

    Recalling each time there is interruption of the democratic setting it is the legislature that is the whipping boy. The judiciary will be there; the powers of the executive and the legislature would be fused together by the military heads. The only representation that you have is the legislature. In the executive the people only elect the president and vice president, others are appointees, who owe no allegiance to the people.

    What is the position of the House of Representatives on the Kogi State House of Assembly crisis?

    Kogi Assembly is a-25 member House. Five members have gone to revalidate their terms as they have issues in the court. So we have 20 members; five members sat and said they have sacked the speaker. Fifteen others are in the same place. I don’t want to dwell on technicalities. I am a member of the committee of the House of Assembly that went to Kogi State recently. We met with the Governor, Commissioner of police, director of DSS and the 15 members, but of course the other five refused to meet with us.

    But, the Nigerian Constitution is very clear, Section 11 (4) says when a state House of Assembly cannot sit for whatsoever reasons, the House of Representatives is empowered to take over the responsibilities pending the time the house can sit and make laws. Kogi state House of Assembly has not sat for three or four weeks and it is very obvious from our interaction that they are not ready to sit. And we cannot keep governance static.

    I heard some people went to court. I think some lawyers too, I sorry to say, don’t understand the provisions of the Constitutions. I watched one of their lawyers on television and I am totally disappointed. The lawyer even went further to say they stop the House of Reps from exercising their constitutional responsibility. I see that as a huge joke.

    One thing that is clear without any iota of ambiguity is that the NASS has the powers to take over the functions of the state house of assembly. We did that in the seventh assembly by taking over the Rivers state House of Assembly when a similar scenario happened.

    I appeal to elected representatives to be accountable to our people. Like I told them that we should leave the election mood and face governance. The fact that APC has not issued a statement should not be mistaken that the party is not ready for governance. May be the party wants the forces to play themselves our naturally. We are running fiscal federalism and Kogi state is an integral part of the country.

    What is your reaction to the alleged  question mark on card readers

    What we are going to do is to amend the Electoral Act to include card readers? I think that is what the Supreme Court is saying. They are talking law but you and I know that card reader was able to curb election violence in a greater deal. The Evidence Law we are using in Nigeria till about three years ago was the one of 1930s. Until we amended it in the last Assembly; the law is saying electronic evidences are not admissible in court. But we changed that in the last assembly saying that electronic evidences are admissible.

    Card readers for me, that is where the world is going. It is an issue for academic exercise. I think the judges want it in black and white that for the purposes of elections in Nigeria card readers should be used.

  • Nworuh powers Israeli club to cup semis

    Nworuh powers Israeli club to cup semis

    Nigerian striker, Jude Nworuh’s profile continued to rise in Israel after he scored the goal that took his team Bnei Yehuda to the semi-final of the Israeli Toto Cup on Tuesday.

    Nworuh scored the only goal of the game to give Bnei Yehuda 1-0 win at Maccabi Netanya in the 67th minute on Tuesday to qualify 2-1 on aggregate.

    The first leg at Bnei Yehuda ended in a 1-1 draw.

    The former Midtjylland forward has now scored five goals in all competitions for Bnei Yehuda since he joined them this summer.

    The 26-year-old forward played for FC Midtjylland, Fredericia and Horsens (all in Denmark).

    Fellow Nigeria star Dele Aiyenugba was in goal for Bnei Yehuda.

  • Conflict of powers and interests

    The African wisecrack that when elephants fight it is the grass that suffers is the compass  for our safari today into the corridors of power globally. We  shall  look at events in Nigeria where the President of  the Senate is on trial on his asset  declaration in the past and   has  declared in open court that his trial is  political. We shall  draw an inference and lesson from that in the light of Nigeria’s presidential  system which operates on the concept of strict  separation  of powers. We  then  proceed to  Russia where the President received the Prime  Minister  of Israel in the Kremlin amidst global  concern that Russia had decided to step  up militarily  its support for the Assad regime in its fight against rebels and ISIS and  the import  of  that for the influx  of  refugees to  Europe. We  then round up on the role of  German motor  giant  Volkswagon  in   using technology to fool environmental regulators in the US on  diesel engine emissions tests and  the import  of that for global  corporate  governance  and ethics.

    The  trial Nigeria’s  Senate  President Bukola Saraki  took a very political diversion when he appeared in court and decided  when asked to take a plea of  being guilty or not, to embark on a very interesting tirade. He  declared that he had not been notified of the charges on his assets  which amounts to an accusation that he has not been offered a chance  of fair hearing and that he was on trial because  he  is the Senate President. I do not think he can be correct on both counts. First  he had sent his glittering array   of Eminent SANs to the courts  to stop the tribunal on various grounds but the courts did not agree with his lawyers arguments and did not restraint the tribunal  at least for now , from trying him.  So  on what grounds were his lawyers confronting the courts to restrain the tribunal  if he the client  who   gave them their briefs was ignorant  of the charges against him? Certainly  something is amiss  with his claim  of ignorance on the charges.

    Secondly Senator Saraki is the incumbent Senate President of Nigeria but he is not above the law either personally or officially. Nobody is, according to the Nigerian Constitution.  Nigeria operates a presidential system that has a legislature , an executive arm and the judiciary.  Saraki’s  trip to the court for his trial was a private one that concerned  his past as Governor of Kwara State. It  has nothing to do with his office as President  of Nigeria’s  Senate  a position he assumed this year  as an elected  member  of the  APC which  he  betrayed with impunity in the way and manner he got elected  as Senate  President. If  he  now  sees his trial as persecution by the APC government in power then  he is either  seeing shadows  or  developing a clear malady  of   massive  political  compunction and that in his case is to  be expected.

    Shakespeare  put the  situation succinctly  in Macbeth when  he said after the murder of King  Duncan by Macbeth that Macbeth has murdered sleep and  would  not  sleep  again. Obviously the Senate president is not aware  of an elementary definition of politics which  I learnt  in my first year  in the Faculty  of Social  Sciences in the great  University of Ife, Ile  Ife. The   definition  says – Politics  is Who  gets What, When and How. It  follows  therefore that the Senate President  should  ruminate  ponderously  on his route  to power  and the  opportunity cost  of  that,  to know if indeed the end justifies  the means. For  now he can  only sleep  with one eye  open as  he is on tenterhooks with Nemesis, which  is inevitable , retributive  justice  and Nigerians are watching his odyssey to  power in our senate with keen interest and unusual  vigor.

    Benjamin  Netanyahu’s  visit  to Putin  over military  aid  for the besieged President  of  Syria was a journey  born  out of sheer desperation on Israel’s  security in the Middle  East  given the  emergence  of ISIS. Funny  enough both Putin and Netanyahu  have a common enemy arising from sheer personality clash  and that  person  is the US  President  Barak  Obama.  Indeed  it is an open secret that  both  gentlemen  don’t get on with the US president  at  all .Netanyahu  is mad  at  Obama over the Iran Nuclear Deal which he thinks is a major threat to Israel’s  security but  Obama  is hell  bent  on seeing through. Putin is furious over  US  sanctions  on freezing the foreign  accounts of his close aides after he invaded Ukraine  and Putin felt that  was  a coup  to topple  his government and there  has been  no love lost between  the two  leaders although it has been rumored they  may  meet at next week’s UN General  Assembly  meeting.

    The  lesson  history  offers  on the spat between the leaders  of  Russia , US  and Israel is  to be found  in the role of  Germany under its present  Chancellor Angela Merkel  on the refugee crisis  and the influx  of migrants to Europe.  It  is simply  ironic   that  Hitler  used the Holocaust  to wipe out the Jews and  their  settlement in Palestine in 1948 has  been the cause  of Arab  hatred  for Israel ever since  and six wars  have  been fought over this.  Now  it is a German Chancellor  leading Europe in terms  of  kindness,  money  and  foresight to accommodate Arabs  fleeing wars in Syria  and  Afghanistan. You  may say Germany is  paying  for Hitler’s  madness  but  you  have  to admit that Angela Merkel has changed  the sovereign reputation  that Hitler  bequeathed  Germany since  the last World  War and  she  has  my admiration for  Germany’s  new  found humanity and  kindness as a nation.

    On  the contrary  Volkswagon has dragged   the  sterling   reputation  of  German engineering and manufacturing in the mud in the way  it admitted  side  tracking US Environmental  Regulation on diesel emission  tests on its  vehicles – all  well  known brands – and is to recall  thousands of  sold  cars  leading  to huge  losses. The  German  company  simply  outfoxed  the Americans  by putting in a software  that gives false  data  during testing only  to revert to normal  after testing .At  the end of the day  the German cars  were emitting 40%  Nitrogen above  what the UN Environmental  law  allowed.

    The  recall  will  cost  Volkswagon  a lot in terms  of money but  far more in terms  of  Corporate Image. The  board  of the car giant  has fired its CEO in  charge  at the  time  of the dishonest  act which  of course was a technological  feat  on its  own  merit. It  was   however  an innovation that was negative in that it was meant    to deceive  and that should  not  be undertaken  by  any company  worth its  salt not  to talk  of a global  giant  like  Volkswagon.  The  firing  of the boss  and the recall have restored sanity  and good  corporate  governance  and ethics and one  hopes  the  Germans   would direct their engineering prowess  in a positive  direction  like their Chancellor  is doing in purging  Hitler’s Germany of its bad image and portraying Germany  now  as the nation of hope and succor  for those fleeing war and violence  globally.

  • Lasun: no plan to strip me of my powers

    Lasun: no plan to strip me of my powers

    The Deputy Speaker, Yussuff Lasun, has denied that the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, is planning to strip him of some responsibilities.

    It was reported yesterday  that an Ad Hoc Committee set up by the Speaker had recommended that the Deputy Speaker ceases being the chairman of the Committee of the Whole House.

    However, in a reaction by his Chief Press Secretary , Wole Oladimeji yesterday, the Deputy Speaker said there was no plan by the Speaker, Dogara, to strip him of his powers.

    Besides, the report of the Ad Hoc  Committee had  neither been considered nor adopted by the House, he noted.

    It reads: “The House is constitutionally-empowered to amend its rules as it deems fit and the process is aimed at enhancing the activities of the House.

    “The Eighth Assembly set up an Ad Hoc Committee to review its rule, inaugurated by the Speaker with the Deputy Speaker in attendance and once the review is concluded, the report is expected to be presented to the House for debate before it becomes the new House Rule for the Eighth Assembly.

    “It should be stated clearly that this has not been done, so the rule being referred to as stripping the Deputy Speaker of his function by the Speaker is a figment of the imagination of the writers.

    “It must be stated clearly that the Speaker and Deputy Speaker have an uncommon bond that cannot be threatened nor broken by unsubstantiated reports, such as this, just as others before it.

    “The entire members of the Eighth Assembly is united and solidly behind the leadership they elected and no amount of sponsored reports can threaten the bond and unity that is now reigning supreme in the House.”

  • Crisis brews as Dogara moves to strip Lasun of powers

    Crisis brews as Dogara moves to strip Lasun of powers

    The House of Representatives may be heading for another crisis when it resumes from its recess on September 29.

    This is because the Ad Hoc Committee on Standing Orders  raised by the Speaker , Yakubu Dogara,  is set to reduce the powers of the Deputy Speaker, Yussuff Lasun.

    The machinery for achieving this purpose is near perfection, The Nation learnt, as the committee  has set the ball rolling in its report, which was laid before the House before it went on recess.

    In one of its recommendations, the committee proposed that the Speaker should preside over the Committee of Whole, which is responsible for consideration of reports on bills and investigative hearing as provided by the Standing Orders of the Seventh Assembly.

    According to the committee, Order 25 which provides that “the Deputy Speaker shall be the Chairman of Committee of the Whole House, save when the House goes into the Committee of Supply or Ways and Means,” should be amended.

    Order 25 (i) which deals with the duties of the Deputy Speaker, states: “In the absence of the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker shall perform all the duties and functions of the Speaker.”

    25 (II) further states: “The Deputy Speaker then shall be the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole House, save when the House goes into the Committee of Supply or Ways and Means.”

    The move to whittle down the powers of the Deputy Speaker is being seen by some as  part of a larger plan to reduce the influence of the Deputy Speaker in the Eighth House.

    According to a source, the underlying reason might not be unconnected with the belief that Lasun’s benefit in the Eighth House far outstrips his contributions to the Dogara project.

    However,  sources said some elements in the erstwhile Dogara camp might be the ones pushing for the move to push Lasun into irrelevance.

    Lasun appeared to hit the limelight with his emergence as the Deputy Speaker with a perception that he was little known in the Seventh House due to his being inactive.

    However, against all odds and the negative perception, Lasun’s handling of legislative matters on the floor of the Green chamber has left no one in doubt about his grasp of his legislative duties. In the just over 50 days of sittings, Lasun presided over a Committee of the Whole House as well as presiding over plenary in the absence of the Speaker to the admiration of his colleagues and observers.

    Dogara must have realised the qualities of his deputy as he delegated several assignments for Lasun to handle.

    It was learnt the report presented to the House before its six-week recess promises to be contentious and will not be taken lightly by Lasun and his supporters .