The Nation Newspaper

Tag: template’

  • Centre unveils job creation template

    The Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies (CIAPS), Lagos has unveiled how it could help graduates land dream jobs.

    Its Director, Prof Anthony Kila, in a statement, said the centre’s new fast- track programmes for graduates have been designed specifically to address gaps identified by recruiters.

    He said CIAPS OBE Programmes “are Outcome Based Educational programmes built on research” adding “the inputs we get from dynamic organisations about their recruitment needs as well as their employment and development strategies is commendable.”

    Kila explained that many firms partnering the centre had expressed difficulties in finding the right kind of employees because many graduates are not work ready.

    He said CIAPS programmes by next month, would expose graduates to practical training in Media and Journalism, Business Administration, Production and Operations Management, Business Development, Project Management, Event Management, Banking and Finance, and Graduate Diploma for Senior PAs Executive Assistants.

    The programmes would also help young people and graduates familiarise themselves with the working environment as a fundamental part of their study, Kila added.

    Kila said the centre hopes to generate over 100 jobs through the scheme.

    However, he said selection of applicants would be stringent.

    In addition to good grades earned from the university or polytechnic, Kila said the applicants would undergo written assessments and verbal interview in which they must demonstrate “good imagination and creative thinking; written and verbal communication skills; ability and willingness to learn; sense of responsibility and ability to work in a team; resilience and stability; and integrity and respect for others’’.

     

  • Issues from Okotie’s roadmap template

    Issues from Okotie’s roadmap template

    These are trying times. And everyone agrees that only a revolution or a reform could restore the country and halt our current slide to the precipice. Rev Chris Okotie’s well-articulated views on the need for a new development roadmap highlighted in his article on his Facebook page said it all.

    As one Lai Ashadele wrote in his reaction to the Reverend’s commentary on Facebook: “succinct and proactive as the submission in A Roadmap To National Recovery are, the bulk of our leaders is made up of visionless people with corruption fully engraved on their bodies. To them, the clamour for a proactive leadership is a noise from the pulpit. Some of them agree with suggestions from people of Okotie’s class, although they have, by implication, been indoctrinated into the corrupt bracket to which a large percentage of them belong.”

    Don’t mind the new configuration of an opposition party; its human contents are the same with the current ruling class. Nigeria should revert to the parliamentary system. It is cost effective and allows free hand for zonal development, according to the hopes and aspirations of each zone. An alternative option is revolution, like the Arab Spring’s; or complete disintegration.

    Tough talk! Unfortunately, some of Mr Ashadele’s ideas may not fly because of our peculiarities as a multi-ethnic and disunited nation. Disunity, more than anything else, is the reason why the Arab spring-style revolution may be very difficult to actualize in Nigeria and not timidity as Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State said recently, while dismissing suggestions that the current dispensation is under threat of a revolutionary change.

    It should be reckoned that at the end of the new constitution review exercise, the final report of the majority views of Nigerians from the collation of votes nationwide on various contentious issues like terms of elected office holders, rotational presidency, immunity for public office holders state police, fiscal federalism, return to the parliamentary system etc, is that the new constitution may not be a revolutionary document after all, if the National Assembly adopts the report of the reviews.

    From the view expressed by a broad-spectrum of the Nigerian society, we’d continue with the present presidential system, perhaps with slight modifications. The parliamentary system, though cheaper to run, was rejected, perhaps because of our past bitter experience with it. Yet the changes we need are drastic and far–reaching and may not necessarily require constitutional amendment or dramatic changes in the governing structure. Decisions like reduction in government overhead cost, enforcement of fiscal discipline and effective implementation of federal character in the appointment into government jobs require strong incorruptible leadership, not necessarily constitutional changes.

    Some people have argued that even with our present faulty system, a bold, transparent and effective leader should be able to function with little encumbrance. Personal sacrifice by leaders has a way of percolating down to the populace as Rev Okotie suggested in this excerpt: “The reported donation of the President’s salary to charity is mere tokenism. Mr. Jonathan should shed weight; he has too many aides, about 130, according to an estimate, not counting those of his vice president, ministers, permanent and temporary secretaries, etc. The bureaucracy is top heavy at the centre. There are too many ministries and ministers. Each of the 36 or so ministries has a minister and minister of state.

    “The ministers have individual aides who, in turn, have secretaries, personal assistants, drivers, advisers, consultants and so on. No wonder personnel cost takes a large chunk of the federal budget. We do not, at this critical period, need more than 18 ministries, run by 18 ministers and 18 ministers of state. The MDAs should be drastically reduced. The states and local governments should also cue into this cost-cutting plan. We must save money from prudent management of national resources and show Nigerians that our leaders can actually offer sacrificial leadership in times of emergency like this.”

    Any strong leader can effect these changes, if he buys into them, but Jonathan, from his antecedent, lacks the political will to carry out reforms that could ruffle sensitive feathers. His handling of critical national issues from oil, the subsidy probe, oil theft, the banking reforms, PDP internal affairs and, most importantly, Boko Haram and related security issues have confirmed fears that our president is merely groping, not sure of what polices to pursue to tackle the daunting challenges he is facing.

    The latest indication of the president’s lack of firmness is his response to the Boko Haram amnesty request by northern elders. After initially rejecting amnesty for the violent Islamists, President Jonathan reconsidered his position only days later after the Northern Elders Forum met with him at the Presidential Villa to lobby for amnesty.

    But clearly, this kind of President’s flip-flop does not augur well for a nation that is anxiously seeking to rebuild and remodel through a Transformation Agenda. Presidential Jonathan must show he is fully in charge of Nigeria.

    A reaction by one Dr. Stephen Ogbudu to Rev Okotie’s piece hit it right on point: “President Jonathan needs a willing team to salvage Nigeria from the decay of the past and the present. What we need today is a national rebirth; not rebranding. I bleed inside of me and ask when can we do away with greed and put our nation first? Let us stop blaming Jonathan. He does not have the guts.”

     

    •Effiong wrote from Lagos

  • New template for aviation investors coming

    New template for aviation investors coming

    The Federal Government is set to introduce a new arrangement for potential investors in the provision of aviation infrastructure as part of plans to consolidate its master plan in the sector, investigations have revealed.

    Part of the new arrangement is setting a timeline as well as funding options and credit guarantee for the investors in airports nationwide, a source hinted last week.

    Under the new arrangement, any concession or lease rentals as well as other retail offerings that will be offered for private sector involvement must meet the conditions spelt out by the government under the watch of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

    The new terms of engagement, according to investigations, is coming on the heels of the incidence of legal tussle between FAAN and some concessionaires that have sealed deals in the past that have gone awry.

    The concessionaire agreements signed between FAAN and some firms have become subject of litigation and controversy following disagreement between the authority and the firms to review the details of the deal in line with contemporary business practices.

    The Managing Director of FAAN, Mr George Uriesi, told The Nation: “Well, we are doing this right and doing the right things. We are not doing anything for myself, or the minister. We are doing what is right for the business. Any concession agreement that we strike is done the way. It is done elsewhere in the world.

    “And so, the criteria are clear, the business expectations are clear, unlike in the past . We are not doing anything with anybody unless we have evidence from the banks that they are funding the project and the money is there. This will be from the day you sign the agreement and the day you start construction is perked on a timeline, which is six months.”

    If any investor does not start within that period, which was stipulated in the agreement, the deal is no longer tenable. The new arrangement is that from the day you start construction, we will follow up to ensure the timeline is observed fully.

    The new arrangement is such that under normal circumstances, if there is default, by the concessionsire, penalty kicks in . There is no question of saying the thing has been concessioned to somebody in 1998 or so when you have not done anything.

    The new rule is that you do not need to sign any agreement with FAAN, unless you have the money. From now on, six months after signing any agreement , you have not started any construction , the agreement will be cancelled.

    I am convinced the message is getting clearer now that nobody is going to come into FAAN and do any business just because they know somebody in FAAN, we have gone beyond that level.

    You must have a business proposal on paper that meets our criteria, and now have very stringent criteria , in accordance with the global airport standard. If the business proposal is sound and could earn money for FAAN, we will sign you on . This is about giving opportunity to every investor. It is not going to be business as usual.”

  • 2013 Budget: ‘National Assembly ignores template’

    2013 Budget: ‘National Assembly ignores template’

    The bickering surrounding this year’s budget has intensified, with the Federal Ministry of Finance accusing the National Assembly of ignoring the template used in formulating the budget.

    A senior official of the ministry told The Nation that there was no way the Executive could implement the budget passed by the National Assembly.

    The source said the Executive expected the lawmakers to ensure that some minor adjustments were made to the budget, but was shocked to discover that the Legislators went outside the brief to pass a budget that cannot be implemented.

    The ministry, the source added, had demanded that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) should submit their 2013 budget templates, to see if it tallied with what the National Assembly passed.

    The reconciliation of the MDAs’ templates, the source said, was what delayed the President’s assent of the budget. However, “when the ministry found out that the deviation from the template was huge, the ministry, through the Budget Office, reported the discrepancy to the President, who, in turn, returned the budget to the National Assembly last week.”

    It was gathered that the budget is caught between the hard line positions of both the Economic Team, led by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and members of the National Assembly who hold a political view of the budget.

    The source said the ministry was ready to implement the budget after its passage by the National Assembly on December 20, last year if not for the discrepancies.

    A hint that the budget may have run into trouble was given by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, in Abuja last week.

    Addressingreporters, Sanusi warned “that the 2013 budget oil price bench mark, which was increased from $75 to $79, would pose side risks to inflation and, therefore, constitute pressure points for inflation.”

    He said the apex bank “will act appropriately if government actions put pressure on inflation.”

    Members of the National Assembly had on Thursday, December 20, last year, okayed a N4.987 trillion for the country’s budget. This was an increase of N63 million from the initial budget proposal of N4.924 trillion submitted by President Goodluck Jonathan a month earlier.

    A breakdown of the budget showed that N387.976billion was appropriated for statutory transfers; N591.764billion went for debt service; N2.386trillion was earmarked for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure and N1.621trillion was approved for capital expenditure.

    The source at the Ministry of Finance said the Budget Office was worried over the delay of the budget, since the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) had closed government’s spending on December, 31, last year.

    This delay in executing the budget, he said, would affect the rate of implementation of the budget, which might trigger another face off between the Executive, particularly the Ministry of Finance and the National Assembly.

    A circular to Administrative and Accounting Heads of MDAs and the Presidency, by the AGF, Jonas Otunla, last year advised that “all the cash books should be balanced latest by the close of work on Friday, December 28, 2012.”

    This was the first time in many years that the AGF would rule-off cash books and extract the cash book balances from MDAs on December 31 of the year.

    In the past, this action was carried out between December 20 and 25, a development that had seen many civil servants spending money after the books had been closed.

    In the circular, the AGF directed the MDAs that all entries into the Departmental Vote Expenditure Allocation (DVEA) Books, Ledgers, Mandate Summary Registers and Imprest Accounts, shall be concluded on Friday, December 28, 2012, while all MDAs on GIFMIS/TSA will have their accounts closed automatically on – line real time basis by the Treasury.