Tag: Senate

The Senate has directed the authorities of the Nigerian Navy to reinstate an officer it dismissed 13 years ago.

Lt. Yahaya Yakubu, was said to have been recommended for dismissal in 2001 after he was allegedly found guilty by a Naval Court Martial over alleged conspiracy and stealing of 5, 800 litres of diesel.

Yakubu, a 1994 a Marine Engineering graduate of the Nigeria Defence Academy, according to a Senate Report on the issue, was serving with the Eastern Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy until his dismissal.

He was said to have been imprisoned for 11 months before the verdict of the Court Martial  was ratified by the Nigerian Navy Board.

Not satisfied by the judgment,  he challenged the ruling  at the Court of Appeal in Calabar.

The Appellate court, according to the report of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition that investigated the issue,  reviewed the judgment, raised areas of concern and rendered the whole proceedings of the court martial, a nullity.

For example, the appellate court was said to have noted that the members of the General Court Martial did not only violated the right to fair hearing, they did not take oath or sign the Judgment.

Consequent upon receiving the Court of Appeal judgement, the Nigerian Navy sent a letter to Yakubu that his dismissal had been converted to retirement because his services were no longer required.

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, noted in the report that since the appellate court’s verdict was delivered in his favour, Yakubu did not revert to the Nigerian Navy until 2011 when he petitioned the Senate.

The Senate passed yesterday the N4.69 trillion budget estimates for this year.

It increased by N53 billion the financial plan presented to the joint sitting of the National Assembly on December 19, last year by Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan.

The House of Representatives is expected to take its turn to pass the estimate today.

Thereafter, the differences, if any, will be harmonised before the bill is presented to the President for assent.

The report of the Joint Committee on Appropriation and Finance titled: “A Bill for an Act to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, the total sum of N4,695,190,000,000 only, of which, N408,687,801,891 only is for statutory transfers, N712,000,000,000 only is for debt service and N2,454,887,566,702 only is for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure while the balance of N1,119,614,631,407 only is for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure for the year ending 31st December, 2014” was moved by Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Ahmad Maccido (Sokoto North).

The passage of the Bill followed a clause-by-clause consideration of its provisions by the Senate in the Committee of the whole.

Maccido in his lead debate, noted that the Appropriation Bill contained the estimates of revenue and expenditure of the Federation for the 2014 fiscal year.

He said a Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) component of the budget, N268,370,000,000.00 for 2014, did not form part of the aggregate budget figure of N4,642,960,000,000.00 contained in the Bill laid before the National Assembly.

“This has, however, been captured in the final compilation of the Bill,” Maccido said.

In preparing the details of the 2014 Bill, according to Maccido, “the Committee adopted a benchmark price of $77.50 per barrel of crude oil”.

“The Committee also adopted the Executive proposal of crude oil production of 2.3883 million barrels per day (mbpd) and an exchange rate of N160 to US$1.”

The Appropriation Committee chief observed that the 2014-2016 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, upon which the 2014 budget was based, just like the previous editions, would require refinement and re­tooling both in procedure and process.

He added: “A major issue here is in the planning required and the engagement processes with all stakeholders which will have added effective value to the budget process, with obvious multiplier effect on the economy.

“The drop in oil production volume as reflected in the budget estimates of the past two years remains a disturbing phenomenon. The obvious reason has been traced to the obstruction to oil production as a result of pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft.

“The appalling state of budget implementation in the country is still a worrying recurring decimal for our economy.

“Unspent funds that are rolled over into the economy only make a mockery of development, which is a dire necessity across the nation. Government must be seen to be taking steps to improve on this.

“The 2014 Budget, which is described as one of job creation and inclusive growth, deserves to urgently rise to the occasion to defend itself, in view of the yawning gap between employment created and the army of the unemployed.”

There was a mild drama when Senator Ahmad Lawan (Yobe North), through a point of order, observed that though lawmakers complained about the N2billion intervention fund proposed for the Northeast states, the amount was passed as proposed.

Senate President David Mark replied that no change could be made in the report before the Senate.

Mark said further representations would be made to the executive to remedy the situation.

The Senate President also urged the executive to ensure that they adhere strictly implementation of the budget as passed.

He said: “I hope the Executive would work as hard as we have done and make sure they strictly implement the budget as passed.”

The budget’s highlights are: Statutory Transfers – N408,687,801,891.00, Debt Service – N712billion, Recurrent Expenditure – N2,454,887,566,702.00, Capital Expenditure – N1,119,614,631,407.00, Aggregate Expenditure – N4,695,190,000,000.00, SURE-P – N268,370billion.

The approved budget also contained N373.53billion for Education, N314.34billion for Defence/Ministry of Defence/Army/Air Force/Navy; N295.561billion for Police Formation and Commands; 214.946billion for Health, N145.021billion for Interior and N106,321billion for Works.

It also included Presidential Amnesty Programme N63,281billion and N7billion for the National Dialogue, among others.

Members of the House of Representatives suspended plenary yesterday for two hours and locked themselves in a room for a crucial meeting over the 2014 budget.

The all-parties meeting was convened by the leadership of the House to persuade members to pass the N4.642 trillion 2014 budget today, ahead of a proposed two-week Easter break.

The meeting, which began a few minutes past 10 am, lasted till 12:40. Members emerged from the meeting, some with smiles; others with frowns on their faces.

The closed- door meeting caused yesterday’s plenary to begin at 12:45pm instead of the usual 11:am.

The N4.6 trillion budget has gone through second reading on the floor of the House and committees have worked on it after sessions with the MDAs under their watch.

The Speaker of the House, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, eventually persuaded the members to agree on passing the budget today, “ in the interest of the nation” after contentious issues surrounding the budget was sorted out at the closed-door meeting, a source said.

Members complained during the first and second readings of the N4.642 trillion Appropriation Bill about its over 70 percent recurrent /overhead and with meagre vote for capital/infrastructure, which stands at less than 30 percent.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) had flayed the budget proposal submitted by the Presidency to the National Assembly last December, on the high recurrent component and the deficit of over N1trillion.

The party, in the wake of the Rivers State crisis, said its members in the National Assembly should block the passage of the 2014 budget.

Though many members are of the opinion that most of the conditions given the Presidency by the party has been met, the leadership of the House was said to have this at the back of its mind when it convened yesterday’s meeting.

However, some members were alleged to have given a condition that passing the budget would be sequel to the payment of their quarterly allowances. They were said to have been pacified by the Speaker who assured them that it would be taken care of soon.

Many of the lawmakers were confident yesterday that the budget will be passed today following the resolution of their differences on the budget issue.

Yesterday, the Chairman of the House committee on Appropriations, Hon. John Enoh (PDP, Cross River), laid the budget report before the House

Speaker Aminu Tambuwal urged his colleagues to attend the sitting today to consider and pass the budget.

The Senate yesterday endorsed a 10-year jail term for anybody convicted of stealing or misappropriating pension funds.

It also stipulates N10 million fine to be paid by any pension fund administrator which fails to meet its obligations to contributors.

Convicted offenders would be made to forfeit the assets they acquired with the funds, the Senate proposed in a Bill to punish acts of malfeasance in pension funds.

The Bill proposes that each of the directors of a pension firm would pay N5 million fine, if found complicit.

This followed the consideration and adoption of the report of the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service on Pension Reform Act Cap P4, LFN 2011 (Repeal and re-enactment) Bill 2014.”

The Bill, which was read the third time and passed, also accommodates employees of private firms in the contributory pension scheme.

The passage of the Bill automatically repealed the Pension Reform Act 2004, thereby making it possible for every person who worked in either the public service of the federation, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), states or local governments and the private the sector, receive pension benefits as and when due.

The scheme covers private organisations with at least three or more employees.

The lawmakers, after an exhaustive debate on the Bill at its committee of the whole house, voted for its passage into law.

They urged President Goodluck Jonathan to assent to it as soon as possible.

The Bill, among others punishments, prescribes a 10-year jail term for anyone who misappropriates pension funds, besides refunding three times the amount embezzled by him or her.

It also stipulates that whoever attempts to misappropriate the fund, on conviction, would be liable to the same punishment for the full offence under the Act.

It adds that all the funds received as penalty by the Pension Commission would be paid into the Pension Protection Fund whose establishment was provided for under Section 82 of the Act.

Besides the payment of fines and serving jail terms, the Act also mandates anyone who misappropriates pension funds to forfeit to the Federal Government any property, asset or fund with accrued interest on the stolen money.

The Act reads: “Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, the commission may, in addition to the penalties stipulated under this Act, impose additional sanctions on the board, any director, management, manger or officer of a pension fund administrator or pension fund custodian that violates any of the provisions of this Act.”

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service, Aloysius Etok, who addressed reporters after the session, explained that only persons with 15 years’ cognate experience would henceforth be appointed the Director-General of the Pension Commission.

Etok said: “When the committee report got to the chamber on the first day of presentation of the report, the committee’s recommendation of a fit and proper person was rejected and 15 years of post-qualification was adopted.

“So, the post-qualification experience for the one who would be the DG of PENCOM is 15 years.

“In Nigeria, professional pension administration would be about 10. We are talking about cognate experience and not post-qualification experience.

“It’s because if you are talking about post-qualification experience, what about somebody who has 30 years’ post-qualification experience with two years cognate pension experience’? Is he better than someone with 10 years’ cognate experience in pension administration?

“So, having realised that we have slightly below 10 years’ professional pension administration experience possessed by anybody in this country, we decided that somebody might have had five years somewhere else and then have additional 10 years’ cognate experience in professional pension management. That would be a fit and proper person to serve as DG.

“So, the current situation as contained and accepted is 15 years post qualification experience for the post of DG PENCOM.”

The Senate decried yesterday the building of open drains on the multi- billion naira Abuja highways and the modern ring roads in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, said the development was not in tandem with modern global practices.

Ekweremadu’s comments followed the second reading of the N271.1billion FCT budget proposal for 2014.

Deputy Senate Leader Abdul Ningi, who gave a breakdown of the proposed budget, said N49.2billion was earmarked for personnel cost, N62.8billion for overhead cost and N159billion for capital projects.

Ekweremadu lamented the presence of open drains on the major roads leading to Abuja and the ring roads and urged the FCT authorities to address the architectural defects.

He said: “I am not an architect or an engineer, but I am sure many of you will understand what I am saying. I don’t believe it is a modern design to have these open drainages. Once it rains, you find that vehicles end up in the drains.

“We need to do something about it because it is very embarrassing in the 21st century to have this kind of design. Something needs to be done about it.

“This is very important because Abuja is not just a city for Nigeria. Every person in Africa considers Abuja as an African city, which they are all proud of. So, we must ensure that we maintain that status.

“We must also be sure that we are doing exactly what those people are doing, including Brazil that is developing a new city, Brasilia, Canberra in Australia, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

“They have moved their capital to a place outside the current capital, which is being well developed. Even within Africa, there is also a development in Cote D’ivoire in Yamassoukrou. But in all these, it seems to me to be a deviation on our part, in some aspects.”

The Deputy Senate President said the FCT administration was not doing enough to regulate the activities of private estate developers and the Federal Housing Authority.

He noted that the developers had been helping in developing the FCT, but that it appeared that they were not being well regulated, adding that most of the property they had developed were lacking in basic infrastructure.