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Tag: road

  • Govt assures angry residents of fixing bad road

    Youths from Umuapu and Umuagwo communities in Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State, at the weekend, barricaded the Port Harcourt/Owerri road to protest the bad condition of the road.

    They said the abandoned road, which was awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), was devastated by erosion, which cut it into two, thus isolating the communities from others.

    Youth leader Mr. Festus Chukwu said since the construction firm abandoned the road, people had died as a result of accidents.

    According to him, they blocked the road to attract the  relevant authorities, as all entreaties had been ignored.

    He called on the government to prevail on the NDDC and its contractors to rectify the failed portions of the road and complete the project to prevent further demonstrations.

    The state government has assured the people that the failed portion of the road would be rectified soon.

    Addressing the protesters, Deputy Chief of Staff, Government House, Kingsley Uju, regretted that the NDDC abandoned the work at Umuapu, resulting in the cutting of the road into two.

    Uju lamented that business had come to a halt because of the bad road but he assured the protesting youth that he would lead them on a protest if by next week, the NDDC and its contractor failed to act.

  • FERMA, police partner to secure Abuja-Lokoja-Okene road

    FERMA, police partner to secure Abuja-Lokoja-Okene road

    The Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) said it is collaborating with the Nigeria Police Force to combat crimes on the nation’s highways and enhance safety throughout the year.

    This is contained in a statement issued by the Public Relations Officer of the agency, Mrs Susan Chukwunwem on Saturday in Abuja.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Managing Director of FERMA, Mr. Gabriel Amuchi and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase had a joint inspection tour of the Abuja-Lokoja-Okene road.

    The statement said the joint inspection tour was aimed at identifying the black spots along the Abuja-Lokoja-Okene road, particularly the Osara Village, Iruekpe in Kogi.

    It said the notorious black spot (Osara Village), with over grown vegetation had been harbouring criminals, who incessantly unleashed their evils activities on innocent road users.

    According to the statement, Amuchi said the partnership between his agency and the Nigeria Police Force was a demonstration of government’s determination to ensure safety of roads users.

    “What is happening here is a very strong collaboration and because of hoodlums, we need serious security presence and patrol.

    “At the end of this clearing, we would improve visibility and sight-seeing and it is going to be a continuous relationship in other flash points.

    “We will need collaboration to commence work in safety places and the collaboration is in line with government directive to help Nigerians heave a sigh of relief,’’ he said.

    It quoted the IGP as saying that, “this stretch of road has become a source of security concern to us due to armed robbery and kidnapping attacks.

    “The Commissioner of Police in Kogi has been working tirelessly but the nature of the forest has given succour to hoodlums who always come out of the forest to attack people.

    “All other stakeholders are working tirelessly to ensure that we have a secured environment and the highways are also safe for travelers.

    “I decided to seek the assistance of FERMA to see how we can open a space here as part of our security prevention to ensure that the place is safe,’’ Arase said.

    He said that the ongoing vegetation control of the identified black spots would be a continuous exercise to enhance motorist visibility to deter criminal acts.

    The statement noted that the agency had commenced the monitoring of the right of way through a committee comprising of the Police, FRSC and the NSCDC, to stop further abuse of people’s right of way.

  • ‘Erosion threatening Uzuakoli-Ohafia Road’

    A member of the Abia House of Assembly, Mr Chibuzo Okogbuo has raised the alarm over the threat to the Uzuakoli-Ohafia Road as a result of gully erosion at Lohum.

    Briefing reporters on the phenomenon in his office, Okogbuo said that the erosion will cut off the road if urgent steps are not taken to check it.

    He called on the federal and state governments to take urgent steps to check the gully erosion to avert imminent danger and possible loss of lives on the road.

    He said that the erosion site in Lohum in Bende Local Government Area posed a serious threat to the lives of motorists plying the road, saying that the gully erosion had become a death trap.

    “My worry is that the deep gully, if not urgently tackled, may claim lives,” he said, and appealed to the relevant government agencies to initiate measures to check further deterioration at the site.

    “I wish to use this opportunity to appeal to the state and federal road maintenance agencies to quickly intervene to save the road from total collapse.’’

    The lawmaker described the road as very important, adding that it linked all the local government areas in Abia North senatorial zone.

    “This is the only good road that connects Umuahia to Ohafia so it will become a nightmare to travel to Ohafia from Umuahia if it is cut off,’’ he said.

    Okogbuo described gully as the major problem facing the entire local government area, saying that the Lohum-Isukwuato road, Itumbuzor-Ntalakwu road, Obibia-Bende road and Mkpa-Lohum road, among others, were also under the threat of erosion.

    “I know that there is an ecological fund for such problems, so I appeal to the state and federal governments to come to our aide,” he said.

     

  • Benue communities agonise over road

    Benue communities agonise over road

    When will the agony end in Agedam and Genger communities in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State? One of their most important roads, Shima Gyoh Road, has been in disrepair for over 10 years since contractors abandoned it.

    The bridge linking both communities have been destroyed as a result of the disrepair, throwing the residents into all manner of trouble.

    Three years ago, the state government began construction again on the Genger Bridge but the work was abandoned and it has remained that way till date.

    Many residents lamented the situation.

    Mr Matthew Zakari, a resident of Genger, said, “It really baffles me that things like this still happen in Nigeria. The abandoned road is a major setback in terms of attracting development to the community. I wish the state government can do something about it because without anything being done, more harm would be caused to those of us living in the area especially during this rainy season.”

    Pastor Onojah Ameh, of the United Evangelical Church whose church building is threatened by the bad state of the road, describes the dwindling fortunes that the church has had to battle with.

    “It has been a bitter experience for the masses living in these communities and especially the church building. The entire fence has been brought down by flood from the stream which leaves the church building under threat. It will be a thing of joy for the church and the entire community if the government does something urgently about this.

    “Because of the heavy water flow, [pedestrians and motorists] find it difficult to cross to church. This is not a good development.  So with prayers we are calling on the government whether federal or state to come to our rescue.”

    The dust generated from the untarred road has also brought members of both communities, children and adults alike face to face  with health hazards.

    Gabriel Abu, a graduate of the Federal College of Education, Obudu who resides along the untarred road in Agedam, bemoaned his fate.

    “The amount of dust we inhale during the dry season is too  dangerous to our health, not to talk of our various homes where we do what I call  minute-by-minute  cleaning, without which  one cannot stay in his or her home due to dust particles. Also since the bridge had also been affected, we cannot cross freely to the other side when we need to buy something”.

    Owoicho Obelle, a student of the National Evangelical Mission, Gboko, said, “At times, the road gets so bad I cannot even go to school because the water level is so high, making it impossible for me to cross over to the other side. I sincerely hope this present government gives priority to this road so that there can be a new lease of life for the people of these two communities”.

    Mr. ThankGod Chigozie, a businessman, also complained about how difficult it has been for him to  buy goods from the market.

    “This alone slows down our businesses and also the economy of this community is poor compared to other parts of the town. When we manage to cross to the market, on coming back, the commercial motorcyclists overcharge us because they have to take another route to our destination.”

    During the rainy season, the road becomes very bad for pedestrians and motorists. This has compelled area boys in the community to patching the road close to the bridge by trying to repair it in such a way that it will be manageable to ply on. A times, these area boys turn this service to a brisk money making venture where  one must pay a fee of either N50 or more depending on what the boys agrees on. This is restricted to only commercial motorcyclists since motor vehicles cannot ply the road as a result of the bad condition of the road and bridge.

    Due to the incessant and forceful collection of money in form of rendering help to those concerned, there have been clashes  between those area boys and motor cyclists known in the area as ‘hire men’. This often happens as a result of heated argument between the motorcyclists and the said area boys for refusal to pay the fee before crossing over to either side of the stream.

    Reacting to the development,  Terseer Liambee, a motorcyclist, who lives in Gboko-South lamented that the embarrassment received from the area boys sometimes is unbearable.

    “Some of us do not like carrying passengers who are resident in this area because the  area boys use to fight us and cease our motorcycle keys each time we don’t have money to give to them,” he said.

    Mr Dan Tavershima, who said he is an ND II student of the Akperan Orshi College of Education, Gboko but rides the motorcycle as a part- time job said it even got to a point where he was beaten up by the area boys because he refused to give them the N50 naira toll.

    A passenger on the route, Mrs. Iorzua Iorpuu testified to the brutal manner of the area boys in trying to extort money from the motorists.

    “The way these boys do misbehave and brutalize people is too bad. They do this every year when it’s raining season because there’s no one to stop them. At times when you stop a bike and tell the bike man you are going to Genger through Shima Gyoh road, they usually refuse because of the humiliation they get from those hoodlums”, she submitted.

    Our reporters however learnt that the police patrol team recently raided the place to arrest the area boys who reportedly fled leaving their work equipment behind which includesdigger, hoes, shovels, ropes and head pans. The Police team took these items with them since they could not lay hands on any of the said area boys.

    What could the government officials in the state be doing about the state of the Agedam and Genger road?

    Hon. Michael Injo Yina, the councillor representing Gboko North-West constituency, who spoke with The Nation on the reporter on the phone, said, “The Local government chairman is supposed to see that the project be completed.”

    Efforts to reach the Head of Department at the Zonal office of the State Ministry of Works in Gboko proved futile.

     

    • Idoko and Obelle are contributors to our CampusLife pages

     

  • PMB: The road not taken?

    Early last month, the international news agency, Reuters, reported on what it called “shadowy build up of oil in the Atlantic Basin”. A somewhat riveting account of the hordes of “homeless cargoes of crude turning into unintentional floating storage” in the absence of ready buyers, the report offers an interesting perspective to the raging fuel subsidy debate, the future of the hydrocarbon industry, as indeed, the overall economy itself.

    Of particular interest to yours truly was the report that six million barrels of Nigeria’s sweet crude from its May programme was stranded – some already loaded onto vessels – looking for buyers; the medium reported another 65 million barrels left of the June/July programme as doomed to the same fate, seeking salvation in some far-flung refineries!

    Trust Nigeria’s legendary immunity from shocks, we have since carried on as if the development – despite our near total dependence on oil – amounted to pretty little! And this at a time when, the treasuries of most states across the federation, laid waste by corruption and poor policies choices of their administrators, continue to shrink with workers and pensioners in several arrears of salaries and wages. Of course, we know that the federal government is exempt only to the extent that it has more money – far more access to slush funds – to play with than it can wisely and productively use.

    It is certainly no overstatement to say that the future is grim. With manufacturing and the real sector remaining comatose as the infrastructure remains essentially at Stone Age, it’s hard to see the end to the current steady descent into the abyss.  Today, the naira is on a slippery path with no respite in sight. Last week for instance, it traded for N241 to the United States dollars in the parallel market. Barely seven months ago, the same naira traded for N160 to the dollar. Now, picture this is a nation where just about every commodity – ranging from raw materials to finished goods – is imported and where the local manufacturer that could have stepped in to bridge the gap has been under a sentence of death from a whole gamut of inclement policies for as long as anyone can remember.

    I don’t think that Nigerians, as yet appreciate the enormity of the challenges let alone the extremely limited choices facing them at this rather difficult time. But then, I am not entirely surprised that not a few Nigerians still believe that we can continue on the current path while expecting a different set of outcomes. Yes, we can talk and hopefully deal with the different manifestations of corruption in our public institutions; there would still be the issue of what to do with some of the myths which under-gird policies.

    Today, one of the undying myths is that a bankrupted country can, simply because it is generously endowed with crude, retain the differential between the real cost and pump price of petrol and kerosene at humongous costs to the treasury, and also at a difficult time such as the nation is currently going through. A simple arithmetic will obviously tell the story better: At a net differential of N44.86 on every litre of petrol sold, we are talking of N1.794 billion daily reimbursements to a club of rentier marketers at the current estimated consumption level of 40 million litres of petrol only!

    Honestly, I had thought that by now, the era of an external body fixing a price for a product it does not produce would have been history. That was what I thought – at least until recently when President Muhammadu Buhari finally spoke on the subsidy issue. And what did the President say?

    Very little – and yet so much!

    First, the President said that he will handle the issue of subsidies on petroleum products with care. To quote the President: “I have received [a lot of] literature on the need to remove subsidies, but much of it has no depth. When you touch the price of petroleum products, that has the effect of triggering price rises on transportation, food and rents…That is for those who earn salaries, but there are many who are jobless and will be affected by it.”

    Then his submission: lack of security, sabotage, vandalism, corruption and mismanagement are the most serious problems of Nigeria’s oil sector, not subsidies! Finally, he directed the NNPC to review existing agreements for the swapping of crude oil for refined products. In so doing, the President did not fail to romanticise the past: “We have to go back to the good old days of transparency and accountability”!

    The issue of security, sabotage, vandalism, corruption and mismanagement is no doubt a living reality which the government must confront. However, I’ll say that overall the president’s message belongs to a different era. In the first place, while I may agree broadly with the President on the need to provide social safety for the poor and the underprivileged, I guess the myth has endured for far too long that cheap fuel – whether kerosene or petrol – comes close to being the most effective social safety net that our poor really need! Where is the evidence that the poor actually benefits from the daily spend of N1.794 billion on the petrol subsidy alone? Has anyone considered the option of direct cash handouts as substitute – since it is all about proving our love for the hoi polloi?

    Even more ludicrous is the presidential directive to the NNPC to review existing agreements for the swapping of crude oil for refined products.

    Here is an institution we are all agreed is a bastion of fraud; whose corpse we all wished interred; the same institution is being unwittingly given a fresh breadth of life – to do exactly what it has always done – with expectation of different results! Haba!

    Why not simply dismantle the infrastructure that has proven to be so amenable to fraud? Where are thebeautyful Nigerians that would do the job? Will the President bring them from the moon? And where is the big picture – a return to the ancien regime in which the national oil corporation plays the godfather and the bureaucrats’ god? And where will the funds come from – the same empty treasury that has been a source of lamentation?

    And where does private investment fit in all of these? Are you going to ask them to bring in their money under the hazy circumstances? Think of this as the hard choice that the Buhari administration is called to make. It’s not easy – if you ask me; the choice, to put it mildly is limited! Will he? Can he?

  • Ambode assures of early completion of Mile 2-Badagry road, others

    Ambode assures of early completion of Mile 2-Badagry road, others

    Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode yesterday assured Lagosians of his administration’s determination to complete the Mile 2-Badagry Road Expansion project in quick time.

    Governor Ambode who gave the assurance when he inspected the Mile 2-Badagry road expansion works, which is being expanded to a 10-lane way, said the contractor working on the project will be mobilised to ensure its completion.

    He said: “What we have come here to do is to specifically ensure that the contractor here is mobilised. It’s also important for us that the contractor takes it as a major priority.

    “The Mile 2 Badagry Expressway is very important to all of us and like we said, it’s a project that we must finish. It’s a project that I would like to be completed within the shortest possible time, so I’ll like to see greater work done on the road project itself.”

    On the Blue Line Light Rail project, the governor said efforts will be made to ensure that the Mile 2 to the National Theatre Corridor is completed soon.

    “We should be able to put to use whatever has been done from Mile 2 to Marina. Immediately they commence work on the road project from Mile 2 towards Badagry, once we pass the aspect of Okokomaiko, we should be able to do the Blue Rail from Mile 2 to Okokomaiko,” he said.

    He urged the contractor to increase the pace of work on the project just as he assured them of government’s readiness to address the challenges they might be encountering towards completing the project.

    “What we expect is that notwithstanding the rain or whatever, the immediate mobilisation should be done and then the contractor should also increase the pace of work. That’s what we’ll like to see and wea also wish to let you know that whatever it is that are encumbrances to completing this project, we’re all going to sit down to make sure that we alleviate the sufferings of our people,” he said.

    The governor who later inspected the Badagry Deep Sea Port project assured that the state government will give adequate support to the initiative just as he assured the communities within the location that their interests will be protected.

    He said the Sea Port, on completion, will be the biggest in the African continent.

    “The land space for the Deep Sea Port is over 1000 hectares of which we have just been told that there’s going to be a free trade zone and then a container terminal that we are going to have here.

    “We already know that the investors have done the best they can. We have Mearsk in the bouquet of investors who have signed on to this project and what that means for us is that we are going to have the largest cargo container port in Africa, situated in Badagry.

    “That means a lot of us in terms of employment. It means a lot for us also in terms of new settlement like it has been said, we hope that in the next two months, we’re coming to start this project here,” he said.

    He said he personally came to see the project, stating that it is part of his promise to bring development to the communities in the axis.

    Harping on the need to complete the project, he said the state government will ensure that the 12 communities expected to be resettled as a result of the project are duly compensated.

    He said aside the Deep Sea Port, the state government will utilise the tourism potentials and side attractions notable within the axis.

    “Like you have also been told, this project is 500 metres away from the ‘Point Of No Return’ which is also a tourist attraction for us; so we have decided to protect that particular place to make sure that tourism is also complemented in this project.

    “With a Deep Sea Port project like this, it means that there would be new settlements in Badagry, new towns and the standard of living is positively affected by this kind of project.

    “That is why we want to appeal to everybody including every Lagosian, before I came here, I inspected the Mile 2 Badagry Expressway Project which is a 10-lane project. There is no way we want to do the Deep Sea Port project here if we do not finish the Mile 2 Badagry Expressway project.

    “I just want to assure you that simultaneously, those two projects will start in earnest and then we will use that to create jobs for our people and also increase the GDP (gross domestic product) of the Lagos economy and strongly within the next four years you will see a dramatic change in this axis of Lagos,” the governor said.

  • End of the Road for ‘fake’ mobile policeman

    End of the Road for ‘fake’ mobile policeman

    The saying, ‘every day for the thief, but one day for the owner of the house’, became a sad reality for Mr Ochocho Mathew, a former mobile policeman who was nabbed in Warri, Delta State, recently for impersonation and illegal duty.

    For four years, the ‘police corporal’ went about garbed in well-starched uniform with matching well-polished boots and posed as a mobile policeman even though he had since left service. Armed with his uniformed marked F/No. 255038 and the two chevrons marking him as a corporal, Ochocho continued to work as ‘policeman’.

    But he got to the end of his road on the wrong side of the law on Thursday, June 25, when a patrol team attached to the Quick Response Squad, a special police force in Warri, accosted him and a consignment of equipment around the NPA Expressway during an ‘escort duty’.

    “He was escorting a Ford Transit vehicle conveying equipment from Lagos to Warri, but we suspected that there was more to the man than the uniform he was wearing and the identity card he showed us,” a member of the squad who arrested him told our reporter.

    Police Public Relations Officer, Delta State Command, DSP Celestina Kalu, said the Ford Transit van with Reg. No. (Lagos) EPE 790 XH, was loaded with a fairly used Mikano SP 20 generator and a Denyo Daw-18083.0 KVA welding machine.

    “The said vehicle was being escorted by one Ochoche Matthew ‘m’ who was fully dressed in police uniform with F/No. 255038 and Cpl. rank. The said Ochoche Matthew claimed to be a serving policeman attached to No. 20 Squadron, Police Mobile Force, Lagos.”

    When he was accosted by his ‘colleagues’, it was gathered that Ochoche tried to talk himself out of trouble by feigning anger at their lack of understanding and disrespect for a fellow policeman on a german-german (extracurricular) assignment.   But rather than being cowed, the team insisted on taking him and the consignment to the QRS Base, located on Ogunu Road, Warri.

    At the base, Ochoche turned his charm offensive on the Commander and Officer-in-Charge, QRS, Alkali Lamido, a Superintendent of Police, assuring him that he was a genuine officer who was doing the escort job just to make some extra money. It was learnt that the no-nonsense Lamido insisted on getting to the bottom of the matter, particularly because he suspected that even if Ochoche was a genuine mopol, he was on illegal duty.

    One of the suspect’s kinsmen at the QRS Base, who was called in to help get the truth out of him, spoke with him for several hours, yet the suspect refused to budge or change his story. “He kept insisting that he was a mobile policeman. When he saw that that story was not getting him out, he confessed that he was merely on illegal duty. He even got angry that he was being embarrassed by his colleagues in Warri after passing through countless checkpoints from Lagos.

    “The OC made calls to various police units, including Falomo, where the man said he was serving until the breakthrough finally came when one of those he called, brought out Ochoche’s record. It was found that although he served with 20 PMF, Lagos, he was demobbed since July 18, 2011.”

    Reliable source in the force disclosed that Ochoche was removed from service after he refused a posting from Lagos to Akwa-Ibom state four years ago. “He disappeared and nobody heard from him until he resurfaced in Warri days ago,” the source added.

    Meanwhile, DSP Kalu said the suspect was arrested for impersonation and is undergoing investigation, while the vehicle and exhibits have been impounded.”

  • APC: Thorny road to reconciliation

    APC: Thorny road to reconciliation

    The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is grappling with the challenge of reconciliation imposed by the rebellion of legislators during the recent election of National Assembly principal officers. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU examines the hurdles to cross before a truce can be achieved between the party leadership and the recalcitrant legislators.   

    For the next three weeks, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will be battling with reconciliation. Its polarised leaders will be searching for solution to the self-inflicted crisis.

    Since the crisis broke out over the election of National Assembly principal officers, reconciliation has been a herculean task. Although the party, led by Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, accepted its fate, following the emergence of Dr. Bukola Saraki as the Senate President and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, contrary to its directive, the lawmakers compounded the crisis by also rejecting the party’s directive on the choice of other principal officers.

    According to party sources, neither the party leadership nor the National Assembly leadership is in a vantage position to initiate reconciliation because they are parties in the dispute. The meeting of the APC National Caucus was put on hold to avoid the escalation of the conflicts. Although the National Executive Committee(NEC) of the party will meet today, sources said the crisis would not be discussed.  “Any reconciliation or peace meeting, without the President presiding over it, is a waste of time. Only President Muhammadu Buhari can unite the party now. APC is terribly polarised,” he said.

    However, the President appears not to be in a hurry to do so. President Buhari, according to a top party stalwart, has expressed concern about the implications of the crisis for the party and his administration, after a sober reflection. He has not officially received Saraki, Dogara and other principal officers, who were elected in controversial circumstances. The President, it is believed, was particularly irked by the emergence of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, as the Deputy Senate President. In a bid to keep the National Assembly at arm’s length, President Buhari has postponed ministerial nominations, it was learnt.

    The genesis of the conflict was the crisis of confidence between party leaders, who subscribed to the doctrine of party supremacy, and chieftains who loathed what they have described as dictation from party leadership. The division is visible in the National Working Committee (NWC) and the NEC. Party leaders, including Odigie-Oyegun, his deputy, Mr. Segun Oni, former Interim Chairman Chief Bisi Akande, National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, National Secretary Mai Buni, Senators George Akume, Barnabas Gemade, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and some “men of the old order” believe that members should be subjected to party supremacy to instill discipline and order. They also believe that certain political traditions, which had nurtured democracy in some countries, including the United States, should be emulated. In their view, the minority leader in the National Assembly should automatically become the majority leader, following the change of government. Thus, they supported former Benue State Governor George Akume for Senate President.

    Akume has served the party meritoriously as the Minority Leader for four years. He is from Benue State. The leaders argued that the Christian minority in the Middle Belt should be rewarded for their bloc support for the APC. Therefore, they endorsed Akume, the former governor, who worked tirelessly for power shift in the Northcentral state.

    In the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila (Surulere, Lagos), has also served as the Minority Leader. Thus, the leaders believed that he was fit for Speaker, in accordance with traditions in mature democracies.

    However, according to Presidency sources, Buhari’s body language suggested that he did not want to endorse the former governor. Besides, the sources added, the President was sensitive to the complaints that Benue State has produced three Senate presidents-Dr. Iyorcha Ayu, Chief Ahmed Ebute and Gen. David Mark. “Having objected to the zoning of the Senate Presidency to the Northcentral, the President asked the party to consider the Northeast for the position. He was impressed by the bloc vote from the region for the APC, despite the insurgency. That was how Senator Ahmad Lawan from Yobe State entered the race as the candidate of the President and, ultimately, the party,” the sources said.

    Some chieftains also disclosed that Buhari confided in some APC leaders, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Gombe State Governor Danjuma Goje and Governor Abdulazeez Yari, that it would not be a bad idea, if Lawan was elected Senate President.

    A party chieftain, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Buhari was not indifferent to the pedigree, tendency and sentiments of candidates for  Senate President. He said the President even confided in the NWC that he wanted people without blemish as leaders of the National Assembly because of his anti-corruption programme. “Buhari made it known that he did not want anybody that has been tainted with corruption in his government,” he stressed.

    But, the move by the party to endorse candidates did not go down well with other aspirants. They, therefore, resolved to thwart the agenda. The NWC suggested primaries for the aspirants for Senate President, Speaker and their deputies. Saraki and Dogara kicked against it, saying that the National Assembly should not be under the influence of the party when choosing principal officers. Before the mock election, Saraki was said to have insisted on secret ballot. The party agreed. The mock election conducted by the APC National Secretary was boycotted by the supporters of Saraki and Dogara. But, the party went on with the exercise. Lawan and Gbajabiamila won. Saraki and Dogara rejected the result.

    Ahead of the inauguration of the National Assembly, former Senate President Mark had said that the PDP would not run for elections of principal officers. But, when the crisis broke out, the National Assembly PDP caucus retraced its steps. Up came Ekweremadu as an aspirant for Deputy Senate President. As the crisis was brewing, the dead caucuses in the APC were exhumed. Some party chieftains started to agitate for the “equitable” distribution of offices. They pointed out that the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) produced President Buhari, the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) nominated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) and the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) produced the National Party Chairman, Odigie-Oyegun. Therefore, they contented that the defunct New PDP should produce the Senate President and the Speaker. However, former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi cautioned them, saying that APC should remain a united fold, said the source.

    According to party sources, the propaganda orchestrated to stop Tinubu also blossomed. Some party leaders misinterpreted the party’s position as an agenda by the National Leader to foist principal officers on the parliament. “The former governors from the North disagreed. They formed a resistance, despite the explanation that Lawan was Buhari’s candidate. But, they continue to say that since Tinubu nominated the Vice President and the National Chairman, Lawan’s ambition should be shut down,” added the source.

    Besides, some APC leaders from the Northeast believed that Lawan’s emergence as the Senate President may jeopardise their ambitions. For example, former Vice President Abubakar from Adamawa State is eyeing the Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman. There are speculations that he will also run for the President in 2019. Goje, who has resented Tinubu’s influence, wanted to contest for the Senate Leader. Also, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, Baba Jiga and Kashim Iman-all from Borno State-are struggling for the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF). “They are all from the Northeast. So, if Lawan was picked, they were all out,” said the source.

    When the President returned from Germany, concerned leaders urged him to intervene in the crisis. It was suggested that the APC should not go for the inauguration of the National Assembly as a divided house. But, the situation was getting out of control. Ahead of the inauguration, President Buhari had sent the proclamation letter to the Clerk of the National Assembly, who is perceived to be  close to Mark and PDP senators. Suddenly, the PDP caucus bounced into reckoning because the rank of APC leaders was divided. A party chieftain, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “PDP senators said they will work with Saraki, if he picked Ekweremadu as his deputy. Those supporting Saraki were in this dilemma when the Vice President sought audience with the senators. But, he was ignored by the lawmakers.” Another source said that Saraki was also able to convince former President Olusegun Obasanjo to support his bid.

    The dust raised by the emergence of a bi-partisan leadership in the Senate had not settled when, in flagrant disobedience to the party’s directive, the Senate elected Senator Ali Ndume as the Senate Leader and Senator Ibn Na’Alla as Deputy Senate Leader. The move to take a similar step led to confusion in the House of Representatives. Also, the senators and House of Representatives members rejected the directive of the party on the selection of Chief Whips and Deputy Chief Whips. In fact, the Senate President and Speaker refused to read the letter of the APC National Chairman on the matter on the floor of the House. APC had endorsed Akume and Gbajabiamila for the positions of Majority Leaders.

    The President, according to sources,  felt betrayed by some party leaders who allegedly fuelled the festering crisis by supporting the senators who rejected the party’s directive. “This has led to some forms of mutual suspicion, mistrust, distrust and confidence. In fact, I suspect that the crisis is an eye opener for the President. These events may shape the next critical steps he will take, especially on appointments and the anti-corruption war.”

    The National Assembly has adjourned sittings till the last week of this month. During the three week-break, the Senate President and Speaker are expected to reach out to aggrieved leaders and stakeholders, who are bitter about the affront on the party leadership.  A member of the APC National Executive Committee (NEC) said that Saraki and Dogara are buying more time to consolidate. “During this break, the plan is to send powerful emissaries to the President and other aggrieved leaders so that they can put the past behind them. The fear is that, having ignored the party’s directive on the selection of the National Assembly principal officers, they may be excluded from making contributions to ministerial nominations. The Senate President and the Speaker will promise to give concessions to the Lawan/Akume and Gbajabiamila/Mongono camps during the composition of National Assembly Committees. But, the problem is that trust has been eroded.”

    He added: “The bi-partisanship leadership of the National Assembly has implications for the APC. The Deputy Senate President is from the minority party. In the absence of the Speaker, someone from the minority party will preside. Automatically, the Senate President is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitution Amendment. He is the representative of the National Assembly in the ECOWAS Parliament. He receives the budget on behalf of the Senate from the President. This is the greatest problem for the ruling party now.”

    To end the crisis, party chieftains have suggested some solutions. These include the resignation of Ekweremadu, fresh election for principal officers and the sustenance of the status quo in the spirit of unity and understanding. All these options have implications.

    A party chieftain, who reflected on the crisis, said the solution lies with the President. They said, although reconciliation is difficult, it is not impossible “The President must call a meeting of stakeholders where there will be concessions and chieftains will elevate the interest of the party above narrow, personal interest,” he added.

  • Ibeno monarch to Akwa Ibom govt: fix our road

    The Paramount Ruler of Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Owong Effiong Achianga,  has urged Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel to revisit the abandoned Eket-Ibeno road.

    He said completing the road was one of the governor’s pre-election promises to the area, saying the people face untold hardship daily by  on the road.

    He spoke in his palace during the week:  “Ibeno remains the major revenue base of the state” and appealed to him take more than a passing interest.

    The monarch also dismissed the allegation of fraud leveled against him in the disbursement of the N1.3 billion oil spill palliative fund given by ExxonMobil to cushion the effect of oil spill in his domain.

    The Paramount Ruler described the allegation as a total blackmail aimed at disparaging his office, adding that such attack could be the handiwork of mischief makers and non indigenes of Ibeno.

    He said the recent palliative fund was paid to E&T Consultant, with the brief to expend the cash to improve social infrastructure, including education and other life-touching projects.

    The monarch dismissed as unfounded, report that restive youths in his domain were spoiling for war over the alleged mismanagement of the funds, recalling that he had been using his office as the traditional ruler of the area to attract peace and other incentives to the people and urged his subjects to disregard such incitement.

    Achianga, a successful fisherman and contractor to some oil companies including Chevron, Addax, Total E&P, Conoil and NDDC, said he had attracted jobs and scholarship to no fewer than 60 Ibeno youths and craved for peaceful environment for more developments to thrive in his domain.

    Meanwhile, youth leaders under the aegis of the Ibeno Youths Council

    Forum (IYCF) dissociated themselves from the reported impending violence in the area over the disputed funds. The President, Comrade John Bassey David and others expressed confidence in the monarch’s leadership style so far, adding that such funds have been properly managed to impact positively in the affected communities.

  • The road to financial difficulties for states

    The road to financial difficulties for states

    More than one-third of the 36 states of the federation owe workers’ salaries in arrears. No thanks to dwindling statutory allocations from the Federation Account, which have compounded the headaches of the governors. The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) is going cap-in-hand to President Muhammadu Buhari for a bailout. If that fails, the Federal Government should pay what its owing states. Assistant Editor Nduka Chiejina takes a look at how the states ran into financial barbed wire.

    A number of reasons account for the inability of states to pay workers’ salaries. Allocations from the federal purse are falling as crude oil prices tumble in the international market. besides, there are oil theft in some parts of the country, the declaration of Force Majeure at the Bonny terminal and lack of creativity on the part of governors to develop new ways of generating funds internally, outside of the monthly handouts from the Federation Account.

     

    Reason crude oil prices drop

    It is no longer news that global oil supplies exceeded demand, thereby driving down prices. A major factor for the development was the explosion in United States (U.S.) oil production to almost nine million barrels per day and expected to hit the highest levels in four decades next year.

    The struggling economies in Asia and Europe reduced oil consumption. China, one of the world’s largest oil consumers, has been having economic challenges, which have resulted in its demand for oil being outpaced in Asia by India, a country with its own share of financial difficulties as well. Saudi Arabia also cut the price of its crude supplies to the U.S, which has further propelled the sell-off.

    According to the Financial Times of London, “oil futures (international market sales of commodities-oil) were hit especially hard by a decision by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) not to adopt additional measures to tackle oversupply issues. OPEC, the cartel responsible for one-third of global oil production, said it would keep its self-imposed output ceiling at 30 million barrels per day.

    “The announcement subsequently sent already-low oil prices down even further as OPEC’s maintained quotas will do nothing to lower overall oil output to a point that is consistent with global demand for the cartel members’ oil, which the International Energy Agency estimates at just above 29 million barrels per day for next year.”

     

    The extent to which prices has dropped

    Oil prices fell steadily throughout the second half of last year, declining from highs above $100 to threateningly below $50 per barrel. Oil prices dropped below $70 per barrel for the first time since May 2010 and have continued their decline, even in the past week. Brent crude dropped 37 per cent since June 2014 last year, and fell nearly 12 per cent in the wake of OPEC’s quota announcement. Similarly, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is down 34 per cent over the past five months and the oil price has dropped by roughly 12 per cent since last week too.

    Historically, the fall in crude oil prices is not new. Between 1999 and mid 2008, the price of oil rose significantly. It was explained by the rising oil demand in countries like China and India. In the middle of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2008, the prices of oil underwent a significant decrease after the record peak of $145 it reached in July 2008. On December 23, 2008, WTI crude oil spot price fell to $30.28 a barrel, the lowest since the financial crisis of 2007 to 2010 began. The price sharply rebounded after the crisis and rose to $82 a barrel in 2009. On January 31, 2011, the Brent price hit $100 a barrel for the first time since October 2008, on concerns about the political unrest in Egypt.

    For about three and half years the price largely remained within the $90–$120 range. In the middle of 2014, prices started declining due to a significant increase in oil production in the U.S., and declining demand in the emerging countries. By January 2015, the benchmark price of crude oil, both Brent and WTI reached below $50, with vanishing spread. A record dip below $44 for WTI (with Brent near $54) was reached at mid March 2015. The WTI price increased in the $60 (WTI) and $65 (Brent) region in the following months.

    In December 2013, the Federal Government said the country recorded a huge decline of N117.89 billion in gross federally collected revenue in the month of December as a result of “serious disruptions in production and lifting operations due to maintenance, vandalism of pipelines and Force Majeure declared at Bonny terminal.”

    The phrase, Force Majeure has become a common lexicon at the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings. Force Majeure means “superior force, chance occurrence, unavoidable accident”. It is a common clause in contracts that essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such as a war, strike, riot, crime, or an event described by the legal term- act of God (such as hurricane,  flooding, earthquake, volcanic eruption, among others), prevents one or both parties from fulfilling their obligations under the contract. In practice, most Force Majeure clauses do not excuse a party’s non-performance entirely, but only suspends it for the duration of the force majeure.

    Of course, the oil company(ies) operating at the Bonny Terminal relied on the activities of  the so-called vandals to institute the Force Majeure for almost a year, thus contributing to the decline in revenue to be realised by the country.

     

    Lack of funds

    By March 2014, states like Osun, Benue, Edo, Cross River and others have been having problems paying salaries. The Chairman of state commissioners of finance, who doubled as the Ebonyi Finance Commissioner, Timothy Odaah, told reporters after the March 2014 FAAC meeting in Abuja that state governments were advocating that “the subsidy should be removed so that every state or any member of the federating unit sharing from FAAC will take its own money and determine how to use it or grant subsidy to the level that it can afford.”  Odaah lamented that “subsidy is not solving the problem which it is meant to solve.”

    He noted that the “Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and majority of the Nigerian populace appear to have been deceived into clamouring for subsidy because of syndicated projects and programmes that were put in, especially with regards to easing transportation problem and likewise tariffs on power supply. But, you will discover that it is the average poor man that suffers.”

    To this end, Odaah stated that “a committee for subsidy has been constituted and it is to look into the impact of subsidy whether it should actually be alllowed, but I want to tell you that the resolution we took is that subsidy should be removed.”

    The committee he said “will formulate a letter that will be sent to the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) and we are going to brief our respective governors and we will inform the president. We know it will be very difficult, considering the critical period we are in.”

    Defending the proposal for oil subsidy removal, Odaah said: “There are some states that are fully industrialised and you have many industries and you use this subsidy in that particular place and the people who benefit more are those from the states that are industrialised because the fuel consumption of those industries which use more of the fuel subsidy unlike the states that are under industrialised.”

    On marketers of petroleum products, Odaah stated that the “marketers are not following the intention of the government because it has created a very big market for them in certain ways. This is because transparency is not coming up. There are some people that are eating from the subsidy to the disadvantage of others.

    “The resolution at FAAC, and that has been the position of the finance commissioners, is that the call should be made to the president so that he will have to review and reconsider the position of this subsidy and remove it.”

    To prevent a backlash, Odaah advocated for the “sensitisation of the average public in Nigeria and the labour leaders to understand that we were deceived because it is not really serving the purpose because many states are crumbling as subsidy payment has eaten so much into the crude reserves.”

    In March last year, the proceeds into the Excess Crude Account (ECA) stood at $3.5 billion because $1 billion was transferred and according to Odaah, “it is because certain approaches were followed otherwise by the month of April, you will be discovering a situation where the states’ allocation would have to be deducted to pay subsidy. And where is this subsidy going into?”

    However, “you will be better employed in the states, the sates will grow their own industry, there will be more employment compared to the situation where subsidy takes away much that could be used for the purpose of industrialisation, there will be no employment, no investment and the vicious circle of poverty will continue,” he said.

    The states claimed they ran into financial barbwire when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) increased the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) of public sector deposits to 75 per cent. Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Odaah took a swipe at the CRR policy. He expressed concern that “75 per cent of public sector deposits taken to the apex bank was a deliberate attempt to create artificial funds’ scarcity so that states, local government and even the federal governments cannot access bank loans because the interest rate would have gone so high and there is a plan by the CBN to raise it to 100 per cent. If that is done, it is an absolute artificial scarcity of funds created by a manipulated means.”

    As a result, “FAAC members,” he said, “are calling on the Federal Government to look at it and review it by bringing it down so that cash would be available because the cost of funds is growing too high and with that, states cannot meet up. You go to borrow from international organizations, it is not possible; you want to borrow within Nigeria, it is not possible; because even the facilities you accessed previously at 12 per cent, the banks are now raising it to between 25 to 28 per cent and by the time they push the CRR to 100 per cent, it would even become 50 per cent. So, whose interest is it serving? We see it as a solution that is designed only to confuse. That is one of the issues we took into consideration.”

     

    Dwindling monthly allocations

    The total allocations to the three tiers of government for the month of February 2014 was N641.299 billion made up of N531.332 billion as statutory allocations to: Federal Government (52.68 per cent or N247.533 billion); states (26.72 per cent or N125.552 billion) and local governments (20.60 per cent or N96.795 billion).

    In the following month, out of the N530.095 billion statutory allocation, the Federal Government was issued a cheque for the sum of N249.084 billion (52.68 per cent), the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory got N126.339 billion amounting or 26.72 per cent while the 774 local governments shared N97.402 billion (20.60 per cent) among themselves.

    An in April,  the Federal Government got the lion share of  N249.060 billion, representing 52.68 per cent; states got N126.327 billion, representing 26.72 per cent, while local governments got N97.392 billion, amounting to 20.6 per cent.

    In May 2014, the net statutory allocation to the federal, state and local governments was N567.824 with the Federal Government pocketing N271.340 billion or 52.68 per cent, states got N137.627 billion or 26.72 per cent, local governments received N106.105 billion or 20.60 per cent.

    That same month, Odaah advised all tiers of government to brace for the possibility of the country losing the buyers of its crude oil.

    Odaah alerted of the possibility of the U.S. and China to stop their patronage. He advised all tiers of government to look inward towards generating revenue outside crude oil.

    For June 2014, a breakdown of the allocated amount showed that N582.93 billion was shared under statutory allocation, N66.414 billion under Value Added Tax (VAT) envelope and the balance of N71.04 billion was shared from excess non-oil revenue.

    In July, After deducting the cost of collection to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Customs Service,  the Federal Government got from the statutory revenue the sum of  N257.32 billion representing 52.68 per cent, the 36 states shared the sum of N130.51 billion or 26.72 per cent while the sum of N100.62 billion was allocated to all the 774 local government areas.

    The federal and state governments were locked in fierce negotiations on what to share for the month of September with the state governments forcing the sharing of N2.7 billion from the ECA.

    Midway into the negotiations, state commissioners of finance stormed out of the auditorium of the federal ministry of finance, venue of the FAAC meeting in Abuja to regroup elsewhere and review the offer brought to the table for sharing.

    The bone of contention was the outstanding debt owed by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the Federation Account and what to do with the proceeds of the ECA.

    A commissioner told The Nation after the meeting was deadlocked that the figure brought to the table was bad (inadequate and unacceptable to the states) and that the states were prepared to reject the figure from the federal government. He, however, noted that negotiations were on to arrive at a more acceptable figure.

    It was furthered confirmed to The Nation that the N2.7 billion from the ECA generated a lot of debate with the federal government team led by the former minister of state for finance, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, who canvassed for “the no-sharing option based on the view that the country’s savings should be beefed to mitigate any likely shocks on the economy.”

    However, the states led by their commissioners of finance opposed moving the amount into ECA on the grounds that their state governments “needed more funds to execute various projects and programmes as well as pay civil servants.” The state governments had their way and by this development, $4.1 billion was left in the ECA then.

    The state governments also demanded for full disclosure of the activities of the NNPC, especially, how much had been transferred to the Federation Account.

    At the end of a long drawn out meeting, the former minister told reporters what was shared for the month of September.

    According to Yuguda, a total of N603.529 billion was shared for the month of September, which was lower than the N611.767 shared in the previous month.

    The three tiers of government shared N463.779 billion, N65.102 billion from VAT, N30 billion as additional distribution from the NNPC, N35.549 billion from Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) and N6.330 as NNPC refund to the Federal Government.

    State governments later presented a proposal to former President Goodluck Jonathan, demanding for $2 billion from the ECA “to complete on-going projects and to fund coming (last) elections.”

    Odaah noted that “security matters and the coming elections required large amounts of money to execute and that the state governments were optimistic that President Jonathan as an understanding president, will favourably consider the proposal.”

    For the fourth month in a row, the amount shared by the three tiers of government from the federation account shrunk from N603 billion in September to N593.337 in October  last year. The decline amounted to N10.192 billion.

    For October, the statutory distributable revenue shared by the federal, states and local governments was N484.321 billion. About N35.549 billion was distributed under the SURE-P. The NNPC refunded N6.330 billion to the federal government and N64.137 billion was shared from VAT proceeds.

    The steady decline angered states and their anger was aggravated because the former Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had announced at the previous meeting that withdrawals will be made from the ECA to support the dwindling fortunes of the federation account but at the October’s FAAC meeting in Abuja,  not a kobo was withdrawn from the ECA to augment the shrinking fortunes of the other tiers of government, but N16.822 billion was transferred into the domestic ECA.

    By the development, there were  strong indications that many states were suffering from poor financial situations and may have difficulties paying salaries and allowances. There were fears that the 2014 Christmas celebrations will be bleak in many states.

    By November 2014, because of the continued drop in revenue, some states had demanded that the Federal Government should stop making further payments into the ECA and instead, share the money to all the tiers of government. The same demand was renewed in December.  By then, the state governments had started rushing to the capital market to raise funds to meet their financial obligations when it became clear that the Federal Government would not shift ground on the matter.

    The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) admitted then that it was processing requests from at least seven states to access long-term funds bonds to meet pressing financial obligations.

    Giving the sensitive nature of the requests, the SEC refused to disclose the states that approached it, but officials of the SEC were categorical in their stand that such bonds should not be used by the states to pay workers salaries.

    According to the some SEC officials, who spoke to The Nation on the sidelines of the Capital Market Committee Retreat in Abuja, “for state governments to succeed in raising funds from the capital market they have to come with bankable projects with prospects of generating revenue.”

    Such bankable projects that will likely scale the SEC’s hurdle for approval include infrastructure, real estate and such projects that can generate revenue for the states to pay back what they have borrowed from the capital market.

    A source at the Debt Management Office (DMO) also confirmed that state governments were “making overtures to raise long-term funds from the capital market but were not carrying the DMO along as required by law; the figures are very bad as a result of the continued fall in revenue.”

    The states, scrambled to raise these long-term funds because of the persistent drop in their monthly revenue occasioned by the drop in global oil price and the decision of the FAAC not to augment further shortfalls in monthly allocations to the three tiers of government, when it became apparent that there was a threat to the accruals in the foreign reserve and by extension, the ECA from where augmentation was accessed.

    The worsening economic situation has forced states under FAAC umbrella to clamour for a wage review for political office holders and their appointees. Befored Odaah served out his tenure, he said the time had finally come for all tiers of government to tighten their belts and brace for tough time.

    He said the option left for the states was to evolve survival strategies and stop the dependence on oil. One of such strategies, according to him, was the need for a downward wage review for political office holders to save more money to meet other demands.

    However, Odaah cautioned against pruning down the number of special/personal advisers and assistants to governors and the president as their appointments was a way of reducing unemployment.

    Another option was the diversification of state economies and less-dependence on oil to a point where oil would be a substitute and not the main stay of the economy, so that price volatility of oil would no longer be a shock to economies but a cause for little concern.

    The need for wages review, he said, was occasioned by the fact that the ECA is dwindling and the amount shared by the three tiers of government has also been on the decline for many months running.

    It was disclosed at the January FAAC meeting that the ECA accounts had been depleted to $2.45 billion from $3.1 billion within a month.

    Yuguda said N15.631 billion was deducted from the ECA to beef up what was shared among the three tiers of government for the December FAAC allocation.

    At the end of the meeting, N580.378 billion was shared by all the tiers of government as against N628.775 shared the previous month. To arrive at this amount, N474.400 was shared as statutory distribution among the federal, state and local governments; N73.466 billion from VAT; N10.551 billion from Exchange Gain; N15. 631 from the ECA and N6.330 refunded to the Federal Government NNPC.

    The minister noted that the country was in this sorry state because there was “a 12 per cent drop in crude oil prices from $87.8 million in October to $77.5 million in November, leading to $62.8 million loss in revenue and a 52 per cent loss in volume coupled with 31 per cent price drop, culminating in a total revenue loss from the LPG/NGL October sales all contributed negatively to the federation equity.”

    Yuguda  added: “The persistence of the Force Majeure declared by Shell since June 2014 and the shut down and shut-in of trunks and pipe lines at various terminals also impacted negatively on the revenue performance.”

    Sadly, non-oil revenue also dropped “due partly to the fact that the timeline for the payment of taxes by many companies is yet to fall due.”

    In April, the three tiers of government shared a paltry N388.339 billion compared to the N435.061 billion shared the previous month.

     

    Desperate moves for way out.

    A meeting of the 36 governors under the NGF with President Muhammadu Buhari is scheduled for tomorrow at the Aso Villa, seat of the Federal Government. On the agenda for discussion is the possibility of the President bailing out the states that are finding it difficult to pay salaries.

    Without a bailout, it will be difficult for many states to clear the   backlog of salary arrears as some of them will require more than a month’s allocation to pay the workers for one month. The monthly subvention from the Federation Account is barely enough to pay workers’ salaries in some states. Once the salaries are deducted, there is virtually nothing left for projects.

     

    President Buhari to the rescue

    The Federal Government can do little giving the fact that the country practices a federal system where all the federating units are expected to fend for themselves, at least. However, the Federal Government can appeal to SEC and the DMO to help the states raise long-term loans by guaranteeing the bonds. But, there must be an understanding that the benefiting states must adhere to strict prudential guidelines and transparent management of financial resources before they get the Federal Government’s backing.

    Sadly, the time the economic recession hit the states coincided with the country’s general elections when many state governors and key political actors were battling for their political survival, rather than exerting energies on how to save their state economies.

     

    How states got into trouble

     The states got into financial mess by not being proactive and not applying creative economic skill to save their states. Instead of devising ways and means of boosting the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), many of them sat back and waited for handouts from the monthly Federation Account.

    Some of states also failed to prioritise their needs. They embarked on building non-revenue-yielding projects such as airports with no commercial value, additional universities when existing ones had not been maximised, football stadium not utilised for most days of the year, bogus government houses and governors’ lodges in the Federal Capital City (FCT).

    Other unprofitable ventures include the sponsorship of rich and influential people to holy pilgrimages in Saudi Arabia and Israel; building duplexes and mansions as commissioners and legislators quarters even when they could not sustain 18,000 minimum wage and bought private jets for governors.

     

    States with high dept profiles 

    According to external debt figures released by the Debt Management Office (DMO), Lagos is leading other debto states with $1,169,712,848.65 (about N233.94 billion). The state had also borrowed N167.5 billion from the bond market. As of the last count, the debt portfolio of Lagos stood N40I.44 billion.

    Following dwindling oil revenues and their inability to boost their IGR, many states, in addition to obtaining loans and overdraft from banks, had approached the capital market in the last four years to raise funds. The amount of money they borrowed through the issuance of bonds has tripled over the period, rising to N673 billion from N298 billion in 2011.

    About 12 states have issued N375 billion bonds, surpassing the total bonds issued by all the states in the country since 1978. Lagos State is also atop the list of borrowers from the bond market with N167.5 billion. Rivers states, which recently launched a NI00 billion bond is second and Delta State with N50 billion is trailing. Others include Gombe (N30 billion), Ekiti (N25 billion), Niger N21 bilion), Bauchi (N15 billion) and Benue (N13 billion).

     

    Most indebted states

    Using the DMO’s external debt figures without adding domestic debts, Lagos tops the chart of 10 most indebted states in the country with $1.I7 billion or N233.94 billion debt, beating Kaduna  with N46.88 billion to a distant second; Cross River (N28.29 billion), Edo (N24.63 billion), Ogun (N21.83 billion), Bauchi (17.51 billion), Katsina (N15.79 billion), Osun (N14.81 billion), Oyo (N14.47 billion) and Enugu (N13.79 billion).

     

    Least indebted states 

    Leading the states with minimal exposure to multilateral and bilateral loans are: Taraba (N4.56 billion), Borno (N4.61 billion), Delta (N4.85 billion), Plateau (N6.19 billion), Yobe (N6.25 billion), Benue (N6.62 billion), Abia (N6.76 billion), Zamfara (N7.11 billion)and Kogi(N7.16 billion).

    If domestic debts are added, states like Taraba, Borno and Abia, that had not issued bonds will qualify as the least indebted.

    Abia State’s immediate finance commissioner, Dr. Phillip Nto, was quoted to have said: “When you collect bond, you are mortgaging your future because you pay over a long period of time.”

    The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently released the amount of money each state of the federation was making from their IGR efforts.

    The Bureau had to release the figures following the outcry over the non-payment of salaries by some states on the grounds of non-availability of funds.

    In the document entitled: “Details of Internally Generated Revenue in states” released by the NBS, it showed Lagos State collecting N276,163,978,675.95 in fiscal in 2014 as against N384,259,410,959.19 collected in 2013 to lead 22 other states which records of IGR were released.

    Following Lagos is Rivers with an IGR portfolio of N89, 112,448,347.58 in 2014 compared to N87,914,415,268.80 collected in 2013 fiscal year. Delta trailed Lagos and Rivers with an IGR portfolio of N42,819,209,025.24 in 2014 as against N50,208,229,986.91 in 2013.

    The NBS said the 2014 report would be updated as soon as other states submitted their IGR report.