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Tag: Senators

  • Senators suspend PIB debate

    Senators suspend PIB debate

    • Seek copies of new bill

    Attempts to open debate on the new Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in the Senate failed yesterday as most Senators kicked against its second reading on the grounds that copies of the bill were not made available to them.

    They lamented that the usual procedure where copies of bills meant to be presented for debate on the Senate floor, were always circulated to members ahead of time,was not adhered to.

    Senate President, Bukola Saraki had already given the floor to the sponsor of the bill, Senator Omotayo Alasoadura (Ondo Central) to lead the debate before opposition mounted as the lawmakers shouted that they were yet to receive copies of the bill.

    Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who led the protest, said copies of the bill should have been circulated to all senators ahead of formal debate to enable them make useful contributions.

    Akpabio insisted that the bill entitled, “A Bill for an Act to Provide for Governance and Institutional Framework for the Petroleum Industry and for other Matters Connected therewith, 2016” should not be treated with levity.

    He noted that since oil and gas has remained the life wire of the country’s economy since independence, any bill aimed at revitalising the sector should be given the importance it deserved.

    Akpabio said: “Mr. President, I believe that we are discussing about the economy of Nigeria since 1960. The main stay of the economy of this country has been crude oil and therefore, the Petroleum Industry Bill is such an important bill that will affect people suffering in this country.

    “It will also affect the budget of the Federal Government that we are doing today.

    “It is not the kind of bill that we can stay here and gloss over and then allow somebody to do a lead debate without senators having the bill in their hands.

    “It is something we must study, come and make our own inputs, because we have to make sure that if that bill is properly done and then the President signs it into law, then it will help the economy of this country and it will also help to generate more income and enhance the living standards of Nigerians.

    “ I think it is an exercise in futility for my brother to do a lead debate when the bill is not circulated to senators.”

    Though Saraki said the bill was circulated last Thursday, he however ruled that the debate be stood down till today to allow for the circulation of copies of the proposed legislation.

    He asked Alasoadura to ensure that copies of the bill were circulated.

    Senator Kabiru Marafa (Zamfara Central) criticised the Senate for taking credit for the sponsorship of the bill.

    Marafa who raised Point of Order, noted that the bill was an Executive Bill. He insisted that it was wrong for the Senate to present itself as the sponsor of the bill

    Marafa said: “I come under Order 76, which reads ‘there shall be three classes of bills, namely, Executive Bill, Members Bill and Private Bill.’

    “As far as I can remember, the PIB was an Executive Bill, submitted to this chamber  as an Executive Bill, it was submitted wholly as one bill to be considered equally and thoroughly.

    “ To my greatest surprise, the presenter here is telling us that he has separated the bill into parts and pieces to be considered and I don’t know where he drew that authority from, because the executive has already submitted one bill and not part and pieces.

    “So, I want to suggest that the presenter brings the bill as presented by the executive arm of government.”

    Saraki told Marafa that so far, there was no bill on PIB from the executive before the Senate.

  • Senators shelve invitation of CCT chair

    Senators shelve invitation of CCT chair

    In a unanimous decision, Senators yesterday directed its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to withdraw a letter of invitation sent to Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Justice Danladi Umar over allegations of corruption against him.

    Investigation by our correspondent revealed that the Senators reached a consensus that the timing of the invitation, which has coincided with the ongoing trial of the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, was not in the public interest.

    A high-ranking Senator, who spoke in confidence, said: “At our session, we reached a consensus that we should direct the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to withdraw a letter of invitation sent to  the CCT chairman to appear on Thursday (today).

    “In arriving at these decisions, we took note of the fact that we have a very bad image in the public. The perception is that we are anti-masses; we oppose the anti-corruption agenda of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and we do not want anything good for the nation.

    “Some of us personally felt touched that our image was being battered by the conduct of some Senators who have chosen to take some steps which they believe will save the President of the Senate.

    “We all restated our love for Saraki but we spoke frankly and decided that his trial should run without inhibitions until justice is served.”

    In a letter of summons, signed by the secretary of the Committee, Freedom Odolo, the Senate asked Umar to appear unfailingly by 2pm on Thursday (today).

  • Senators have lost touch with reality – TUC

    Senators have lost touch with reality – TUC

    The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) on Tuesday said that the purchase of 108 Toyota Land Cruiser jeeps by Senators was a clear sign that they do not mean well for the country and have lost touch with the plight of the people.

    TUC in a statement signed by its President, Bobboi Bala Kaigama and Ag. Secretary General, Simeso Amachree, described as insensitive the decision of the senators to acquire the Land Cruiser jeeps after collecting car loans less than one year ago.

    The Congress said the act was that of criminality, especially after collecting loans for the same purpose and expressed concern that the senators are not disturbed by President Muhammadu Buhari’s efforts to revamp the economy.

    The statement said: “Where did such idea emanate from at a time the country is bleeding from all sides and seriously gasping for breath? This is obviously a pointer to the fact that our Senators mean no well for the country. They have lost touch with the plight of the people that voted for them.

    “Our politicians and their tradition of reaping where they did not sow. What would our Senators say they have achieved in the last one year? It is morally wrong and shameful for the Senate of the Federal Republic to attach so much importance to infinitesimal things like cars and houses at a time their counterparts elsewhere are making good laws and transforming lives.

    “We do not know of any lawmaker both in the Red and Green Chamber that had not got cars before they came to the National Assembly. Some have even been in the senate now for 12 years after serving as governors and lawmakers in their respective states.

    “Where lies the conscience of our Senators? How come they are not disturbed by the efforts of our president to revamp the economy? We are not going to let all these forces frustrate the effort of the Federal Government again, not any more.

    “We want the Senate to immediately furnish Nigerians and the world how they got money for the purchase of these cars without appropriation. We view as demeaning and laughable the explanation by Senate spokesperson, Aliyu Sabi.”

  • Senators to Buhari: enough is enough on budget row

    Senators to Buhari: enough is enough on budget row

    Reps advise President to sign now

    Buhari didn’t reject budget, says Presidency

    SENATORS yesterday advised the Presidency to come clean  on the 2016 Budget. It should admit its errors and President Muhammadu Buhari should sign the document “without any further delay”, they said.

    The upper chamber also asked the Executive to “stop engaging in surreptitious campaigns of calumny against the Senate in order to cover up its serial errors”.

    The Presidency tried to downplay the war of words on the all-important document, saying the time for the President to sign it had not lapsed.

    The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, issued a statement on the alleged removal of some vital proposals made by the Presidency.

    Abdullahi said the National Assembly “bent backwards to wring a coherent document out of the excessively flawed and chaotic versions of the budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly”.

    “While the executive is mandated to prepare and lay before the National Assembly a proposed budget detailing projects to be executed, it should be made clear that the responsibility and power of appropriation lies with the National Assembly.

    “If the Presidency expects us to return the budget proposal without any adjustments, then some people must be living in a different era and probably have not come to terms with democracy.

    “We make bold to say, however, that the said Lagos-Calabar rail project was not included in the budget proposal presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari and we challenge anyone who has any evidence to the contrary to present such to Nigerians.”

    Abdullahi added: “Since the beginning of the 2016 budget process, it is clear that the National Assembly has suffered all manner of falsehood, deliberate distortion of facts and outright blackmail, deliberately aimed at poisoning the minds of the people against the institution of the National Assembly.

    “We have endured this with equanimity in the overall interest of Nigerians. Even when the original submission was surreptitiously swapped and we ended up having two versions of the budget, which was almost incomprehensible and heavily padded in a manner that betrays lack of coordination and gross incompetence, we refused to play to the gallery and instead helped the Executive to manage the hugely embarrassing situation it has brought upon itself; but enough is enough.

    “This latest antics of this particular Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, is reckless, uncalled for and dangerously divisive.

    “Apart from setting the people of the Southern part of the country against their northern compatriots, it potentially sets the people against their lawmakers from the concerned constituencies and sets the lawmakers against themselves. This manner of reprehensible mischief has no place in a democracy.

    “We hereby demand from Mr. Amaechi a publicly-tendered apology, if he is not able to show evidence that the Lagos-Calabar road project was included in the budget. Otherwise, he should resign forthwith.

    “Finally, by the provision of Section 81 (4) (a) and (b) of the constitution, the President is allowed to sign the budget and kick-start the implementation of the other areas that constitute over 90 per cent of the budget where there is agreement between both arms, even as we engage ourselves to resolve the contentious areas, if there were any.

    “We therefore maintain that even this contrived discrepancies are not sufficient excuse not to sign the budget into law.

    “We therefore urge President Buhari to sign the 2016 budget without any further delay.

    “For every additional day that the president withholds his assent from the bill, the hardship in the land, which is already becoming intolerable for the masses of our people gets even more complicated.

    “Certainly, as primary representatives of the people, we shall not vacate our responsibility and watch the people continue to suffer unduly.”

  • Dubious lawyers, senators et al

    SIR: A fierce battle is going on in Nigeria today between the agents of change and those for the maintenance of status quo. It is a fierce battle for the soul of Nigeria; between those who want their original country back and those who want to keep Nigeria as the conquered territory to be pillaged and milked with reckless abandon. It is war between truth and falsehood, between darkness and light, between reason and unreason, and between the brains and the brainless.

    I saw this dangerous war coming even before last year’s Presidential elections when it became obvious that PDP is gone. I alerted APC leaders to be prepared for it. It took the bizarre, the most outrageous, and the most treacherous betrayal inside the hallowed chamber of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by Senator Bukola Saraki and his gang for APC leaders to pay attention. Today the resultant effect of this betrayal is telling a big story in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria, laying ambush on this government’s monumental fight against corruption.

    In far away Panama, a consortium of lawyers using their law firm Mossack Fonseca have generated 11.5 million papers that linked government officials and looters across the world who siphoned money to Tax Haven in Virgin Island. This leak, the biggest ever in recent history has led to the resignation of the Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davio Gunnlaugsson. In Nigeria, one of the persons mentioned in the deal is President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki.

    Today, lawyers have been very busy searching for judges at all levels to help truncate Saraki’s case. Corrupt senators are not left out in this show of shame. From 81 right from onset, the number of senators following Saraki to CCT has reduced to 12 as at the last sitting. These senators are making a mockery of themselves and people they represent.

    In the oil industry the marketers and subsidy fraudsters are holding sway, griping Nigeria by the throat and ready to squeeze without caring a hoot. In the power sector the looters and their agents are working round the clock to reduce power generation to zero megawatt. If they are not pulling down transmission towers, they are busy blowing up gas supply to the power stations.

    Now I do not think President Buhari and his cabinet need to offer any more excuses. I do not think it is necessary now. What is needed is concrete and practical solution. President Buhari needs to use the enormous power of the presidency to do the needful. The economic saboteurs are so powerful, so rich and well connected and potentially dangerous to set the people against the President should he treat them with kid gloves. These people must be identified, crushed and defeated.

    Nigerians voted for President Buhari to fight corruption, stop the drift, restore hope and build a new Nigeria. I know that the President is doing his best and I also know he can do more. President Buhari must not fail. If he fails, Nigeria may not recover again. We must kill corruption or corruption will kill Nigeria.

    APC leaders must move now to help their President to succeed. This is not the time for blame games; this is not time to point accusing fingers, this is not the time to look the other way. This is the time for collective responsibility and concrete action. Let us fire from all cylinders now that we have a budget. Let Nigeria become a huge construction site. Let the power sector work. Let petrol flow endlessly for now. Let us secure Nigeria. Let the change begin with us now.

    Now we must protect power installation by all means possible. We must defeat saboteurs, fraudsters and enemies of Nigeria. Yes we must clear the Augean Stable for Nigerians to have breathing space.

     

    • Joe Igbokwe,

    Lagos.

  • Budget: Senators, Reps split over details

    Budget: Senators, Reps split over details

    •Principal Officers angry with Saraki, Dogara
    •There is no division among us’ –Senate Leader Ndume

    Like President Muhammadu Buhari, many members of the National Assembly, including some principal officers, are demanding from the leadership of the national legislature, details of the 2016 budget just approved.

    President Buhari is insisting on seeing   the details approved by the National Assembly before appending his signature to the budget.

    However, it emerged yesterday that the budget details are known only to a few members of the Appropriation Committees of both chambers.

    This has not gone down well with other National Assembly members who are shocked that some legislators are more favoured than others in the affairs of the legislature.

    The Nation gathered that many principal officers are angry with Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara for not calling the chairmen of the Appropriation committees, Alhaji  Danjuma Goje (Senate) and Jibrin Abdulmumin (Reps) to order.

    Senate Leader Mohammed Ali Ndume denied last night that there was any division among National Assembly members on the issue.

    After a delay of about three months, the National Assembly on March 23 passed the 2016 budget of N6.06trillion, down from the N6.077billion proposed by the executive.

    But President Buhari declined to assent to the Appropriation Bill because the details were not attached.

    Buhari said in the US that any time the details are made available to him he would scrutinize it line by line.

    Sources in the National Assembly said that most Senators and Reps were only given a summary of the budget   of the details.

    Attempts by Senators and Representatives all week to have the details failed, it was gathered.

    A principal officer, speaking on the issue yesterday said: “Senators and Representatives are split on the 2016 budget. As I talk to you, most Senators and Representatives have not been given the details of the budget. What the Appropriation Committee made available to each chamber was the summary.

    “Only a few privileged members of the committee or favourites have access to the details. So, the President was right in insisting on the details before signing the budget into law. He has the backing of some Senators and House of Representatives.

    “How can I be a Principal Officer without access to the details of the budget? Some of us are being reduced to passengers in the administration of the National Assembly.

    Another Principal Officer said:  “There is tension in our midst, we are becoming agitated too. You don’t run the legislature as a personal thing. What is personal about the budget that you are hiding from the leadership?

    “Some of us are worried that we are being treated like kids by the Appropriation Committees of the two chambers. Under normal circumstances, we are not supposed to be running after the committee chairmen.

    “Our position is that the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara should call Goje and Jibrin to order.”

    A high-ranking Senator said: “It is true that we don’t have the details but we are watching the development. Some Senators are unperturbed because they want everything to collapse.

    “This unhealthy politics on budget details may lead to a deeper crisis among us unless Saraki and Dogara act wisely in checkmating Goje and Jibrin.”

    A member of the House of Representatives said: “There is a lot of suspicion surrounding the budget details. I think the details are being used to fight a proxy war.

    “Whatever it is, the nation will be worse for it. It is actually absurd to ask the President to adopt the PDP model of signing the budget before getting the details. We agreed to do things differently this time around and the Appropriation Committees in the two chambers should adhere to the new era.”

    A PDP member of the House said: “If there is trust between the Executive and the Legislature, I don’t see anything wrong with the President in signing the Appropriation Bill into law without the details. This was the case in the last 16 years.”

    However, Senate Leader Mohammed Ali Ndume denied any division among the federal legislators on the alleged non availability of the budget details to some members.

    He said that if there were differences, they would have been sorted out at the harmonization conference of the two chambers.

    He added that because there were no differences, the two chambers passed the same version of the budget.

    Asked specifically whether Senators had details of the budget they claimed to have passed on March 23, Ndume said they did.

    He asked rhetorically: “How can you pass a budget without the details?”

    He noted that when President Buhari presented that budget, details of the fiscal document were included.

    He said that after the passing the budget, “the nitty-gritty of the details will be printed out and each page endorsed by the chairmen of the Appropriation Committees of the two chambers.

    He added, “This is a government of change and things are being done differently. During the PDP regime, the budget would be passed and sent to the president for assent without the details. The details of the budget would then be transmitted to the president later.

    “This time around, the president is saying that he cannot sign the budget without the details. It is not a big deal; the details of the budget will be transmitted to the president shortly.

    “The budget is about 1800 pages in three volumes. The chairmen of the Appropriation Committee of the two chambers will go through the details page by page and sign them. Some time you have to print out the copies for them to sign.

    “There is no division or differences whatsoever. Such difference would have been settled at the level of harmonization if there was any.

    “The details of the budget will be sent to the president. It will not take longer than necessary. The two chairmen are working assiduously. The president is saying before signing let me see the details. It is normal. The constitution is clear that the president can spend half of the budget before even signing it.”

  • Senators, Reps promise more funds for rail

    Senators, Reps promise more funds for rail

    Things may soon start looking up for the 116-year-old Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), following a visit by members of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Land Transportation. The lawmakers promised to ensure that more money is given to the corporation for its ongoing transformation, writes ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

    FOR the immediate past Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Adeseyi Sijuwade, the visit of members of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Land Transportation was his last official assignment at the 116-year-old corporation.

    Until he lost his job last Tuesday, Sijuwade enjoyed the confidence of the executive and the legislature in driving the change at NRC. After a  tour of the corporation, the lawmakers promised to push for more funds for the corporation to sustain its ongoing transformation.

    The Senate panel Chairman,  Olugbenga Ashafa faulted the N4.5 billion earmarked for the NRC in the 2016 budget, describing it as “grossly inadequate”to meet the immediate needs of the sector.

    Ashafa said: “What can that amount do in one year, for a corporation with an overhead of N399 million? This is because the bulk of that sum is tailored towards personnel cost. For the record, NRC has a total of 9,700 employees.’’

    His House of Representatives counterpart, Aminu Isa, pledged the NRC’s achievements, assuring the corporation of the House’s readiness in making funds available for its capital projects.

    He said: “This corporation if given the chance, will do better. We as honourable members intend to intervene and see how we can greatly assist the NRC in this 2016 budget. I hope the corporation will be able to take us to the level where South Africa and Ethiopia are with their railway systems.”

     

    Away from the past

     

    Sijuwade pioneered the golden era  of the corporation, galvanising change and bringing back on track a sub-sector which had been comatose for decades.

    Detailing the successes of the corporation in the past seven years, Sijuwade said the NRC operated mass transit trains, intercity passenger trains, cargo trains, excursion and specialised charter trains across  the country.

    This is beside the proposed movement of petroleum products from Lagos to the North to strengthen railway relevance to economic growth, a development that would start anytime soon.

    For him, the railway is not only back on track, it is on its way to achieving greater feat and becoming the hub of government’s mass transit initiative.

    Faced with paucity of funds, indigenous engineers had innovated the production and fabrication of critical parts that has kept the rolling stocks on track.

    Sijuwade said over 300 coaches and 200 locomotives have been rehabilitated locally in the corporation’s bid to increase the fleet on its stock and ensure the coverage of more grounds.

    The icing on the Sijuwade years was the installation of Safe Train Control (STC) Centre, where all the trains on the NRC network could be monitored, controlled and directed, though computerised monitors.

    Expatiating on the STC, NRC’s Director of Operations (DoP), Mr. Niyi Ali, lamented that the project, a novelty, is 50 per cent completed and the optimisation of its benefits to the tracking, control and signalling operation of the corporation is being impeded by lack of funds.

    The STC implementation, which began last year, is, according to him, a modern railway signalling system which allows the corporation to monitor real-time movements of trains on the tracks, with the aid of the On Board Computers (OBC) installed on its locomotives.

    “With the STC, safety of our rolling stocks and passengers are greatly enhanced because we do not only have the opportunity to see all our trains as they move within all our networks, anywhere in the country, we can also control all our drivers, via the OBC and we can even stop a locomotive with the touch of a button if we see its driver is having difficulty bringing it under control.”

    A trial implementation of the project, he added, began last year.

    “The problem we have is funding. The contractor has not been paid for over a year. This is one of the projects being funded by SURE-P and since its demise, the project has slowed down. A lot of equipment has already been shipped in,” Ali said.

     

    The challenges ahead

     

    With the Sijuwade administration closed, it is the lot of Mr. Fidet Okhiria, his successor, to continue the march and sustain the tempo of the ongoing transformation.

    Okhiria, an engineer, is not on a strange turf as he was hitherto the Director Mechanical, Electrical, Signals and Communications of the corporation.

    The difference is that Okhiria, rather than obeying orders now, calls the shots.

    His major assignment would be to continue to galvanise the workforce and prime them to sustain the change. He is also to deepen the commitment to innovate and invent in the area of raising local content in rail maintenance.

    But, perhaps, his greatest challenge would be taking delivery of the standard gauge and speed train dream of the administration.

    Okhiria would be charged with  charting the strategies aimed at synchronising all the land modes for effective and seamless interconnectedness a necessity in the mass transit initiative of the Buhari administration.

    The new helmsman would be faced with the challenge of raising the workforce of about 10,000, and managing same effectively.

    The NRC’s workforce might increase exponentially if the government’s ongoing transformation in the railway matures.

    The Minister said the Abuja-Kaduna standard gauge line would  generate over 250,000 jobs.

    Okhiria would have to be extra sensitive to avoid darts that might be thrown on his path by those who were driven by nothing other than political consideration to sabotage his focus and mandate. The new helmsman as a career officer may well be aware that the forces that had ensured that the NRC remained prostrate are still well and kicking.

    How he put the opposition that would rage against his administration of the corporation would determine how long he would survive on board.

  • Senators disagree on Boko Haram’s strength in Borno State

    Borno senator yesterday said Boko Haram controls about 50 per cent of Borno State contrary to the claims by the Federal Government that the sect has been degraded, weakened and unable to launch attacks.

    Senator Baba Kaka Garbai (Borno Central) spoke to reporters at the weekend during a visit to Dalori village where 65 persons were reported killed last week by the insurgents.

    But Senate Leader Ali Ndume (Borno South) disagree with him.

    According to Garbai, the military and Boko Haram have full control of three local governments in Borno State and share control in the remaining 21 local government areas.

    Garbai, who was in Dalori to donate cash and material, to the people said: “I feel highly demoralised, devastated in the sense that this is the village we visited during the election and they were going about their normal business.

    “They actually got the signal a few days before the attack that the insurgents were likely to attack them, they reported to the constituted authorities but nothing was done. I will like to appeal to the military to intensify their effort in ensuring they beef up security around the villages and communities that share borders with Maiduguri metropolis. It is very important and more so that this place is porous, there could be attacked from any direction.”

    He added:  “It is a wrong assumption that most of the local governments in Borno are recaptured from the Boko Haram. In reality this is not true. Apart from Maiduguri Metropolis, Bayo and Kwaya Kusar, these are the three local government areas under full control of the government where the military and police are maintaining law and order.

    “Mobbar, Abadam and Kala Balge are 100 per cent occupied by the insurgents. There are some local governments that are partially occupied by the insurgents especially as the local government secretariats have been liberated but their hither lands are still controlled by the insurgents.”

    He said Konduga was liberated but still has many communities in the local government area under the insurgents.

    “Though Gwoza town has been liberated, there are six wards in Gwoza local government area still occupied by the insurgents.

    He advised: “We should not live under the illusion that Boko Haram are decimated or weakened, these are not reality and neither a true reflection of the reality. The reality is that most of the local government areas in Borno are partially occupied by Boko Haram.”

    He said it is not adviseable to begin reconstruction, rehabilitation and relocation in the troubled areas for now.

    He said: “If the people are moved back to their homelands you are making them vulnerable to attack. Unless you provide maximum security and return of law and order in these areas, relocating these people would be endangering their lives.”

    But Senate Leader Ndume  said a lot has been achieved in the battle against insurgency.

    He also said it was not out of place to begin the reconstruction, rehabilitation and relocation of the destroyed communities.

    He told reporters in Maiduguri yesterday: “I still have confidence in our military; I still want to believe that our military is on top of the situation. What is happening these days is the issue of intermittent suicide bombings and desperate attacks by the insurgents because their supply routes have been cut off and they attack in other to get supplies. They have been carting away foodstuffs in attacked communities.”

    He said the reconstruction and relocation should still continue in spite of recent attacks. He however admitted that if not immediately, at least the preparation should not be set aside.

    The Senate Leader while arguing that the insurgency is waning, said the recent setbacks are not limited to Nigeria, insisting that United States and recently France have come under isolated terrorists attacks.

    He said the people of Gwoza, his hometown, are ready to return home, insisting that arrangements have already been concluded for the movement.

  • Governors, senators storm Abia for Gov Ikpeazu’s mother’s burial

    Governors, senators and other top dignitaries, yesterday witnessed the internment of the remains of the mother of the governor of Abia State, Deaconess Bessie Ikpeazu, in Umuobiakwa community, Obingwa council area of Abia State.

    Leading the dignitaries were Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari; Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose; Cross River State governor, Prof. Ben Ayade; Akwa Ibom State governor, Chief Udom Emmanuel; Ebonyi State governor, Chief Dave Umahi and the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu.

    Other dignitaries who graced the event include Anambra State deputy governor, Chief Nkem Okeke, Senator Theodore Orji, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Chief Judge of Abia State, Justice Theresa Uzokwevernor of Anambra State, Dr. Peter Obi among others.

    Speaking at the occasion, Ekweremadu described death as a fulfillment of God’s design for man on earth, which was inevitable and beyond human remedy.

    He noted that the deceased lived a fulfilled life on earth and has gone back to her creator, and urged Governor Ikpeazu to strive to deliver more democracy dividends to the people of the state.

    In his homily at the funeral service, President of the Eastern Nigeria Union Mission of the Seventh Day Adventist, SDA, Church, Pastor Bassey Udoh, said the late Deaconess Bessie lived for the less-privileged and touched many lives.

    Udoh, who admonished the people to live worthy lives in order to be remembered for their good works when they die, commended Ikpeazu for the democracy dividends he had delivered in the state since he assumed office, and charged him not to relent.

    According to the cleric, “Mama Bessie Ikpeazu has done her part. She touched many lives; people should strive to do good and make a difference wherever they find themselves. Life is not about what you acquire. It is not about position.”

    He urged the bereaved family not to mourn like people without hope, and advised them to take solace in the fact that Mama Bessie lived an exemplary life while on earth.

  • These senators, again!

    These senators, again!

    Rather than kill Nigerians with tax that may end up being embezzled again, senators should think outside of the box to make up for revenue shortfall

    I felt so sad when on Friday I saw the headline in one of the dailies: “2016 Budget: Senators seek heavy taxation of Nigerians”. The senators’ argument is that since the government’s revenue projection on the2016 budget is being threatened by plummeting crude oil prices, it is better to augment the shortfall with taxation instead of borrowing as proposed by the Federal Government. Crude prices have dropped from the $38 per barrel adopted in the budget to about $27. We do not know if this would further plummet. So, there is sense in looking for a way to augment the shortfall. But, is taxation the answer? No, especially given the reasons by Senator Olusola Adeyeye, the chief whip, who led the debate on the matter.

    Senator Adeyeye wants us to return to the days of old when every adult was taxed. He says we should bring ingenuity to this. I do not know what that means because, even in those days, many people had rough encounters with the tax collectors. Things are harder now. How many adults have regular incomes that can be taxed now? There are no more farmers in the farms as ‘King’ Sunny Ade sang; as the child of the farmer of old has brought his father to the city to have a taste of the allures of city life.

    Senator Adeyeye added that: “Text messages cost N3.81 a page; if we add just N1 to a page of text message and we say that money belongs to government, we will make billions”. Apparently Senator Adeyeye and his colleagues must think Nigerians have short memory to have made such suggestion. The truth of the matter is that successive governments have made so much money off the people that we cannot even keep track off, hence some unscrupulous persons have taken advantage of this to enrich themselves, illegally. Even with specific reference to the telecoms sector, each of the initial operators paid money for their licences which the government promised would be reinvested into the sector. Was that promise fulfilled?

    The same goes for toll gates on our roads which the senator wants us to bring back. He said “we must install tolls on roads; but that is not enough: across the world when you park at any airport, you pay per hour; we must do what the rest of the world does”. Good talk. But which of these roads have we not travelled before? Once upon a time we had toll gates on some of our major highways but then, President Olusegun Obasanjo woke up one day to scrap them, citing corruption as reason why they had to go, instead of dealing with the problem. I admire Senator Adeyeye’s suggestion that we should “do what the rest of the world does”. Another good talk; but can we? Where else in the world that the senators are talking about that people would have money to buy arms to fight insurgency and that money would be shared and there would not be outrage? In Nigeria, some people are romanticising rule of law in a matter as grievous as this; a thing many elite thieves in this country had exploited to delay, if not permanently escape justice in the past. The senators should lead the way in making Nigeria do what civilised countries do.

    Perhaps the most laughable, even if annoying of the senators’ suggestions is that worker’s allowances must be taxed. “We must begin to tax allowances”, Adeyeye said, adding once again, for effect and rather to boot, that “Nigeria is the only country that shelters the bulk of the earnings of its workers and call them allowances”. And then asked, rather rhetorically: “You don’t want your allowances taxed?” a question he also answered himself, rather arrogantly and, if I may add, annoyingly: “They will be taxed because they MUST be taxed”. I wonder who made Senator Adeyeye judge over his own cause. This is the same National Assembly that was ignored by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on tariff increase and did nothing, now boasting that workers’ allowances “must” be taxed.

    Whatever gave them the impression that Nigerians can be slapped left, right and centre without expecting a reply. How much tax do the senators and National Assembly members themselves pay? I am not talking of what is in their so-called pay slips which a former House of Representatives speaker once displayed with glee when he visited this newspaper a few years ago; but when we quickly reminded him that we were not talking about his official earnings but the innumerable allowances not reflected in the pay slip, the gap-toothed speaker simply smiled and that marked the end of the story.  If the senators must be told, elected people have a responsibility to protect the interest of the electorate. Where they cannot, they should leave the people as they met them rather than add more to their yokes. Honestly, the senators have stirred the hornet’s nest and I wonder what the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is waiting for.

    Instead of first ensuring that we get what has been stolen from our very important thieves (VITs), we are talking as if we simply woke up overnight to realise that the country is broke and that the average Nigerian is the cause and should therefore cough up more money for the thieves to share again. If we must tell ourselves some home truths, the senators were part of the people that led this country to where it is today; not the hapless Nigerians that they want to tax out of existence. Some of them have always been recycled and have been senators since God-knows-when; so, such people cannot exonerate themselves from some of the problems over which they are seeking to make Nigerians the beasts of burden. If the Senate, as the upper legislative chamber had played its role as it should, some of the revelations we are having today about the arms fund scandal, which, for me is just a preamble of things to come, would have been detected by the law makers and checked before they became the festering sore that they have  become.

    Anyway, may be the senators have a point in asking Nigerians to bear the shortfall in the budget. The people seemed to have accepted their fate with equanimity. Since they won the gold medal of being the ‘happiest people on earth’ a few years back, they have remained their perpetual happy selves, unperturbed by anything. Nothing shocks them again. Lai Mohammed, information minister, was so worried last week that everybody has been going about his or her duty in the country as if nothing happened despite his disclosure that only about 55 Nigerians stole N1.4trillion in eight years. When you have such people to govern, the temptation is to continue pounding them until they show physical resistance. But this is dangerous.

    Our legislators should realise that when a goat is pushed to the wall, it fights back. The lawmakers should remember that taxation is one of the ways to easily make people angry, especially when it becomes excessive. They should remember the many protests that it had caused in the past, as in the case of the Abeokuta women’s protest which culminated in the abdication of the Alake on January 3, 1949. “As a matter of fact, not a few persons have argued that Nigerians are complacent even in the midst of massive looting of the treasury because the money being stolen is OUR money. They argue that when they steal MY money, Nigerians would be roused from their complacency.

    The scripture enjoins us to rend our hearts and not our garments; it is our lawmakers that ought to shed weight.  Their case is like the pastor who is getting fatter and yet advising his church members on the need to go lean. The senators are the ones who work on part time for four years and yet collect severance package that people at their level in the civil service look forward to in their entire life in service.  I do not know any other country where casual workers get so handsomely rewarded.

    These senators must think outside of the box and use their good offices to get money for the country, instead of insulting our sensibilities. Our problem is corruption and not inadequate taxation. As a matter of fact, if there is problem with taxation, it has to do more with the rich who know how to evade taxes. I would have loved to see our senators come up with legislation/s that would protect the average Nigerian from people who cannot live without stealing oxygen from the public till.

    They have to be careful though not to take Nigerians for granted beyond their coping capacity. Once that coping capacity breaks down, anything can happen. The senators should not allow Nigerians to see the upper chamber as a symbol of legislative tyranny and insensitivity.