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Tag: The Senate

  • Senate to pass 2018 budget before end of December 

    Senate to pass 2018 budget before end of December 

    The Senate on Tuesday raised hopes of passing the 2018 budget before the end of the year. It has however raised the $45 oil benchmark price to $47 just as the document passed the second reading.

    It has given its committee on Appropriation up till December 19 to submit its report on the N8.612 trillion estimate submitted by the executive arm on November 7.

    Consequently, the lawmakers have adjourned plenary session till December 9 to consider the report from the Appropriation committee and other standing committees.

    The various committees are to engage the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government on their budget estimates during the short break.

    Speaking on the passage of the second reading of the budget, the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki urged the various committees to work within the December 19 deadline.

    He enjoined the MDAs to comply with the Senate’s timetable and to respect invitations that would be extended to them to come forward to defend their budgets

    “This is not time for excuses for Ministers or Heads of parastatals to be traveling and not be able to attend their budget defence.

    “We do not have the time. This is a very short timeframe, therefore, I expect all MDAs to be able to respect our invitation and be there on time so that the committees can wrap up and be able to present their reports by the time we come back on Tuesday, December 19”, Saraki said.

    Saraki also hinted of the probability of the Senate holding a public hearing on the budget estimates simultaneously with the budget defence exercise.

    He said, “There will be a public hearing on the budget. We are looking at Monday, December 11. However, in the next few days, an announcement will be made to that effect”.

    The Senate had earlier in the day passed the 2018- 2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) with a raise in oil price benchmark from $45 to $47 per barrel

    The Senate’s joint committee on Finance, Appropriation, National Planning and Economic Development that worked on the MTEF had fixed the benchmark at $46 per barrel but was reviewed upward by the Senate in session.

    In collaboration with the House of Representatives, the Senate approved all other projected parameters for the implementation of the budget.

    The parameters are premised on 2.3million barrel oil production per day, N305 to a US dollar exchange rate and 3.5% GDP growth rate.

    Others are N5.79 trillion projected non-oil revenue and N1.699 trillion for new borrowings etc.

    The Senate, through a resolution, will insert a clause in the final Appropriation Act that would compel the executive arm to revert to the National Assembly for any expenditure that may be at variance with the approved benchmark.

    The resolution followed a motion moved by the Deputy Senate Leader, Bala Ibn Na’ Allah and which was overwhelmingly approved by the Senate.

  • Senate probes $16bn Egina oil project local content

    Senate probes $16bn Egina oil project local content

    The Senate, Tuesday, constituted an adhoc committee to investigate the local content elements and cost variations of the Egina Oil Field Project.

    Two other related Bonga South-West and ZabZaba projects are also to be investigated for the same purpose.

    The resolution followed a motion by Chairman, Senate Committee on Local Content, Senator Solomon Adeola and 18 others.‎

    The upper chamber asked the committee to include in the probe, a public hearing on the project and ensure there are no future changes to necessitate further variations of the project cost.

    Adeola‎ told the Senate that contracts were awarded to the various components of the Egina project.

    The Lagos West senator expressed concerns that many of the contractors handling the project were found to have engaged sub-contractors to provide various aspects of the project components.

    He said the Egina project was expected to comply with the provisions of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act of 2010.

    He said, “At inception, the project was estimated to cost 6 billion dollars but has undergone various cost variations that currently put its cost at over $16. 352 billion.

    “At inception, the project boasted of 24 million man-hours of work done representing 77 per cent of the work load for the project and equivalent to a workforce of 3000 persons on average over a period of five years. It is worrisome that over the life of the project, its cost components have been reviewed twice from the initial 6 billion dollars to 13 billion dollars and more recently 16.352 billion dollars.

    “Meanwhile, petitions have been submitted to the effect that monumental fraud and acts of disregard for the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act of 2010 abound on the procurement and contractual arrangements.

    “Egina project is located within the Oil Mining Lease (OML) block 130 and covers an area of about 500 square miles. It is developed by Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (24%) in partnership with CNOOC Energy Nigeria Limited (45%), Petrobas (16%), Sapetro (15%).

    “The essence is to contribute an estimated 20,000 barrels of oil per day to the Nigerian daily oil production from the planned 2018 commencement date and the oil field is situated at water depth of up to 1,750m. Meanwhile, engineering studies for the Egina Oil-Field Project began in 2008, with an approval of the National Petroleum Investment Services (NAPIMS) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

    “The Egina project was conceived as a deep offshore field comprising of a Floating Production and “Offloading Vessels (EPSO). It was also conceived as an Oil Offloading Terminal and Subsea Production Systems.’’

    Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, in his remarks said that the issue of cost variations and lack of adherence to the local content law, were paramount.

    Saraki charged the committee to take the investigation seriously, adding that the allegations were enormous and should not be treated with levity.

    Saraki, “I find it difficult to understand why cost variation will move from $6 billion to $16 billion in 10 years. Why such variations and when will the Federal Government ever get revenue on these fields.

    “If we allow this to go with the Egina project, other deep offshore will follow the same model and government will never get the revenue. The second issue is to ensure compliance with the local content law. The committee has the responsibility to turn in the report  as soon as possible. We do not want the report to linger on.

    “Please ensure you are done in three weeks so that by the time we resume we will consider the report and be able to address other projects that are going on,’’ he said.

    Chairman of the ad-hoc committee is Senator Solomon Adeola, while other members include Senators Godswill Akpabio, Tayo Alasoadura, Gershom Bassey, Kabiru Marafa, Philip Aduda, Albert Akpan, Ahmadu Abubakar, David Umaru, Chukwuka Utazi and Stella Oduah.

  • 2018 budget: Senators warn over Nigeria’s rising debt profile

    2018 budget: Senators warn over Nigeria’s rising debt profile

    Senators Thursday expressed concern over what they described as the ever increasing debt profile of the country.

    While Senator Solomon Adeola (Lagos West) asked the Senate committee on Local and Foreign Debts to look critically to determine the actual country’s debt profile, Senator Rabiu Kwankawso (Kano Central) said that the country must be careful not to fall into unnecessary debt trap again.

    Senator Sunny Ogbuoji (Ebonyi South) said that the debt profile of the country had been steadily on the rise.

    This is coming as the Senate Thursday put on hold consideration of the report of Joint Committee on Finance, Appropriation and National Planning and Economic Affairs on the 2018- 2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).

    Senate Leader, Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North) informed that the decision of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on production quota yesterday (Thursday) would guide the Senate to take informed position on some parameters of the MTEF.

    Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who briefly presided before Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki took over agreed and thanked Lawan for the information.

    The Senate resolved that the MTEF would be considered and passed on Tuesday, December 5, 2017.

    The lawmakers who raised issues with the country’s rising debt portfolio spoke when the upper chamber resumed consideration of the general principles of the 2018 budget.

    Adeola said, “I call on the committee on Local and Foreign Debts to critically look at the countries debt profile. The committee should determine and tell Nigerians the true profile of the country’s debts. How much of the debt service are we actually fulfilling. It is important that we know to guide us in our actions.”

    The Lagos West senator noted that it would have been better if the National Assembly was furnished with the budget performance of 2017 to enable members to make meaningful comparism.

    He also said that it is belief that the issue of virement for 2017 had died a natural death and would not come up again in view of the presentation of the 2018 budget.

    Adeola prayed the country to reconsider the number of agencies and do away with those that were adding no value to the country.

    On his own, Kwankwaso said that the Executive arm of government should be supported to maintain the prevailing stability in the Niger Delta region to ensure that the oil production quota is met.

    The Kano Central lawmaker said that he not in support of borrowing locally or from the international market except if it is absolutely necessary.

    His fear, however is that if care is not taken, the country may fall back into the debt trap especially if borrowed funds are mismanaged.

    Ogbuoji wondered why the 2018 budget was christened “a budget of consolidation.”

    He asked, “I don’t know what we are consolidating. Is it the 2017 budget that is barely implemented that we are consolidating. Are we consolidating incomplete payment of salary or salary that is not paid at all”

    The Ebonyi south lawmaker said that if 60% capital budget is rolled over to 2018 as being suggested, the budget would be further over bloated making it difficult for the country to find money to fund the budget.

    He said that it is worrisome that local debt profile is increasing rapidly.

    Ogbuoji said, “Consideration of the budget is beyond party lines. Anybody who thinks he is defending this budget is anti-Nigeria.”

    Saraki however explained that the budget was rightly christened budget of consolidation because the country has just recovered from recession “now is the time to build the economy.”

    Saraki said that question that would enable the Senate refer the budget to the committee on Appropriation would be put on Tuesday when the decision on MTEF would have been taken.

  • Senate seeks protection of Nigerians from Libyan slavery auctions

    Senate seeks protection of Nigerians from Libyan slavery auctions

    The Senate Wednesday asked the Federal Government to urgently investigate the number of Nigerians affected in the Libyan slavery auctions.

    The upper chamber also urged the government to immediately commence the process of repatriation and rehabilitation of Nigerians caught up in the despicable treatment and human rights abuses in Libya.

    The Senate which condemned in totality the current depravity and sheer animalism being exhibited by Libyans selling follow Africans as slaves resolved that the government should take all diplomatic steps to ensure that everyone involved in the inhuman act is held accountable to face the full weight of international law and justice.

    It prayed President Muhammadu Buhari to leverage on the ongoing EU/AU session in Abidjan to seek special discussion on Illegal migration in Africa.

    The resolution followed the adoption of a motion on “Urgent need to protect Nigerian citizens from the Libyan slavery auctions” raised by Senator Baba Kaka Garbai (Borno Central).

    Garbai in his lead debate noted with dismay the report of slave markets at various locations in Libya, where Africans and mostly Nigerians are auctioned as slaves, priced as merchandise and sold off like animals.

    The Borno central lawmaker said that he was sickened to observe a video available on You Tube which had brought about a global outrage witnessed the sale of 12 Nigerians for prices as ridiculous as $400 to $800.

    He noted with concern that the stone-age, inhuman and barbaric act is going on in the 21 century.

    Garbai acknowledged the on-going global outcry against the crime, several protests in mostly European countries such as Paris and Brussels while “we who are the most affected as these are our children, our brothers and sisters, our youths, are indifferent.”

    He recalled the report of a survivor who said that they were kept in unsanitary conditions, made to endure regular beatings, forced into labour in the fields with little or no food and some are killed in the process.

    He quoted the survivor as saying “It was total hell in Libya. For the Arabs (Libyan jailers), black skinned men are nothing but animals-animals are treated better, People who want slaves come to buy us and if you resist, they shoot at you.”

    He lamented that those affected are Nigerians “who are just trying to flee poverty and deprivation.”

    The lawmakers observed that “just this year, no fewer than 10,000 Nigerians have died while trying to illegally migrate through the Mediterranean Sea and the desert. Just recently we mourned the death of some Nigerians among the 26 young girls who died in the Mediterranean Sea.”

    He noted the report of Libyan officials that detention centers in the country are full and that they have only deported five percent of the 20,000 in the detention centers because of lack of response from the home governments of the migrants.

    He expressed worry that the government does not have the means nor the commitment to crack down on the perpetrators as their hands are full.

    The smuggling networks, he said, are killing, torturing, extorting and detaining migrants at will.

    Garbai said that he is aware that some other African countries such as Ivory Coast, have taken steps to protect their people from the despicable acts by bringing back their people home.

    The lawmaker who reiterated that the country’s constitution made the welfare and protection of citizens as the reason for government insisted that “we will be failing in our duty if we sit idle and watch any Nigerian being put into slavery.”

    For him “every Nigerian life matter.”

    All the senators who contributed to the debate agreed that urgent steps should be taken to address the situation in the interest of the image of the country.

  • 2018: Senate vows to implement 2014 National Health Act

    2018: Senate vows to implement 2014 National Health Act

    The senate has vowed to implement the 2014 National Health Act, especially the one percent of the consolidation fund.

    The Act stipulates that one percent of the consolidation fund be set aside for health.

    However, this was not included in the proposed 2018 budget recently submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the senate for consideration and approval.

     

    Details later…

  • Senate probes non – reinstatement of NDPHC GM

    Senate probes non – reinstatement of NDPHC GM

    The Senate has asked its committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to investigate the non-reinstatement of Mrs. Maryam Danna Mohammed as the General Manager (Audit & Compliance) of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), despite directive by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The mandate followed a petition by the sacked General Manager which was presented to the senate by Senator Baba Kaka Bashir Garbai (APC, Borno).

    Garbai while presenting the petition told the Senate that the petitioner who is one of his constituents in Borno central was wrongly sacked when the board of the company was dissolved in 2016.

    The lawmaker noted out of the 13 General Managers of the company, only the petitioner was relived of her appointment, “despite her meritorious service to the nation spanning 24 years in the power sector”

    He said that the petitioner started from National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA), to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and NDPHC.

    Garbai said the petitioner did not seek for judicial redress in any court of law,rather she wrote President Buhari, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo and now the Senate.

    He said, “Because she is not reinstated, despite the president’s directive, she is seeking the intervention of the senate in this matter. She is a law abiding citizen with unblemished and outstanding record of service to the nation.”

    Garbai laid the petition together with copies of  letters written to the President, the Vice president and the approval for her reinstatement by the President as conveyed in a letter by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.

    Mohammed was sack on June 10, 2016 following the dissolution of the executive management of the NDPHC via a letter by the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal.

    Out of the 13 General Managers of the company, only Mohammed was relived of her appointment as the dissolution only affected executive management members. Mohammed is not one of them.

    The sacked GM wrote to  President Buhari on June 28, 2016 complaining against what she tagged as  her, ” wrongful disengagement ”  Mohammed told the President that she was disengaged without committing any offence.

    “There are 12 other General Managers of the same status as me that were allowed to remain in their positions, obviously because they are staff of the company and not members of the dissolved Executive Management. This obviously makes the decision to disengage  me without committing any offence discriminatory and unfair, ” she said.

    In December, she wrote a reminder to the President, appealing that, ” given your globally acclaimed leadership qualities of strong principles, honesty, proven integrity, trustworthiness, good moral character and above all fear of Allah, I’m very happy that you will act on my plea.”

    Similarly, she wrote the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo who is the chairman of NDPHC, seeking redress, saying “there was no disciplinary reason or committee to which I have been subjected and found guilty before dismissal from the office.”

    Acting on the prayer of the sacked GM, the President mandated the Attorney- General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami to investigate the issue.

    Malami in a letter dated October 25, 2016 to the Chief of Staff; Abba Kyari said President Buhari had during a meeting with him approved the reinstatement of Mrs Mohammed.

    “Please refer to your letter reference No SH/DSD/COS/03/1/A/15 dated 1st July 2016 and our response Ref. No. MJ/DSD/ SH/ 22/ Vol 1/38 dated 7th September, 2016 on the above subject matter.

    “In this connection, I wish to convey to you, Mr. President’s approval vide a meeting with me on the 12th October, 2016 for the reinstatement of the staff (petitioner), Mrs. Maryam Danna Mohammed,” the letter personally signed by Malami reads.

    Over a year after the directive, Mohammed is yet to be reinstated. In the petition, Mohammed said she served the country’s power sector meritoriously for 24 years from NEPA to PHCN and NDPHC.

    “It is also instructive to point out that throughout my twenty-four (24) years of service to the country, I have never been found wanting in the discharge of my duties or was involved in any form of misconduct. Records are readily available to authenticate these facts,” she said.

    Senate President, Bukola Saraki referred the petition to the senate committee on ethics, privileges and public petitions chaired by Senator Sam Anayanwu (PDP, Imo).

    The committee was given two weeks to investigate the matter and report back to the senate.

     

  • Senate accuses CBN, NNPC, others of frustrating passage of 2018 budget

    Senate accuses CBN, NNPC, others of frustrating passage of 2018 budget

    The Senate Wednesday said that the refusal of key government officials to honour its invitation for the consideration of templates contained in the 2018 budget is hampering its plan to pass the budget before the end of December 2017.

    The upper chamber specifically named the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru and Controller General, Nigeria Customs Service, Hameed Ali as some of those who failed to honour its invitation.

    The Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Director, National Bureau of Statistics, were also listed to have refused to appear before its committee to provide information that would aid the Senate to pass the budget on time.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi raised the alarm at a news briefing yesterday in Abuja.

    Abdullahi said that the Senate is disturbed by a situation where heads of ministries, departments and agencies are invited by the Senate in relation to the 2018 budget without the government official honouring the invitation.

    He noted that the joint Senate committee on Appropriation, Finance and National Planning held a crucial meeting on Tuesday to consider the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) where some heads of key MDAs were invited to throw light on the MTEF.

    He said that CBN governor, NNPC GMD, Customs Controller General, Director DPR and Director, National Bureau for Statistics who were duly invited failed to honour the invitation.

    The Senate’s spoke person said that the zeal of the upper chamber to pass the budget before the end of the year was being constrained by the action of the key agency officials.

    He said that some agency heads decided to send lowly placed officers who cannot be held responsible for any resolution.

    Insisting that it is important that the government top officials honour their invitation, Abdullahi said that dispatching lowly placed officers to stand in for them does not help matter.

    He said that nothing could be more important than the annual budget of a country “but these people decided to stay away.

    Asked whether the development would affect passage of the 2018 budget before the end of the year, Abdullahi said: “We are reporting back to the people of Nigeria the hurdle we are facing in the process of trying to meet the target. For me, I cannot give you any concrete commitment. What we are doing is to report back to the people.”

    Abdullahi said: “We want to report that the Senate is disturbed by a new trend where heads or chief executives of critical institutions who should play a critical role in this budget process but who choose to ignore the invitation by the Senate to appear before it for deliberation.

    “Specifically yesterday when we had a deliberation, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning was around. But based on the discussion we were supposed to have, to look at the revenue projections which are the basis for the MTEF, I want to report here that the GMD of NNPC refused to show up. Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria refused to show up. The Comptroller General of Customs refused to show up. The Director General of the National Bureau of Statistics refused to show up. And the Director of DPR refused to show up.

    “The question to ask here is this: if the national budget is very important and all of us depend on the resources of the country to run our businesses, what other business could be more important than looking at this very critical assignment for this country.

    “When you decide to send a representative that is powerless; that cannot answer critical questions; that cannot provide critical insight, it is as good as not showing up. And some of them never even sent anybody to represent them.

    “It is important that we report this because, overall, the media will still come back to us asking what progress are we making and why are we slow in taking decisions. I must make this very clear. We are trying our best and we want to see what progress we can make but we are constrained by some of these types of decisions or actions by some chief executives from the Executive side. Let it also be said that some people are not giving maximum cooperation to the National Assembly for us to do our job.

    “For example, on the issue revenue projections, where there are shortages, we will look at the performance in 2017 to see what informed the projection for 2018. But where these people are not there, how do you get answers to the things that agitate your mind? We are worried about this development and we want to urge all those who are responsible for some of these critical assignments must begin to realise that when the National Assembly is calling them, it is a national duty; it is a constitutional duty and they must take it seriously.

    “It is in anticipation of these kinds of questions that we are reporting back to you. The hurdles we are meeting in the process; when the National Assembly seeks for answers from the Executive, I think we should get those answers. That way, the process will not be impeded. I cannot make any concrete commitment because as much as we have our own internal conditions that are within our control, we also have external variables that seem to be beyond our control. One of such external variables is what I am reporting to you today.

    “It is not pleasant that when we commit to do our job, somebody is summoned and there is no response or send someone who is as good as not coming. If we ask an officer (certain questions) and they tell us they have to go back to confirm (the facts), then you have not sent an officer. If you send an officer who has full authority, when we ask then to explain issues, they can; if we ask them to make commitments, they can make it.

    “For the budget, what we are trying to say is that it is serious enough for all of these chief executives to honour the National Assembly by their presence so that we can look at these issues critically. In doing so, they will be honouring the request by their principal and our overall President and Commander-in-Chief, President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Meanwhile Joint Committee on Finance, Appropriation and National Planning and Economic Affairs laid the report of 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper for consideration and adoption.”

    The MTEF and FSP are the plant upon which the budget estimates are built.

    Its adoption will pave the way for the consideration of the 2018 budget.

  • FG, Senate agree over agency to tackle cattle rustling, herders/farmers conflict

    FG, Senate agree over agency to tackle cattle rustling, herders/farmers conflict

    The senate has disagreed with the Federal Government over the Proposal to establish a national bureau charged with the identification and management of cattle, goats and sheep in parts of the country.

    The Senate said that creation of the bureau to identify and manage the animal would serve as a means to forestall cattle rustling as well as curtail conflicts between herders and farmers across the country.

    The proposal for the establishment of the bureau is contained in a Bill seeking to establish National Animal Identification and Management Bureau for the purpose of animal traceability, registration and identification.

    Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbe, vehemently opposed the proposal describing it as unnecessary.

    Ogbe who expressed his objection at a Public Hearing organized by the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, argued that already, there was a department in his ministry saddled with the responsibility for which the agency was being sought.

    The minister insisted that creating the proposed agency would render the some staff of his ministry redundant and serve as a duplication of the functions of department saddled with the duty.

    Senator Abu Ibrahim, who sponsored the bill countered that it is obvious that the ministry has failed to address the content of the Bill.

    Ibrahim added that from all indications, the ministry has no clear cut direction in tackling and bringing to an end, the perennial problem of cattle rustling and farmers and herders conflict which he said has assumed a threatening dimension in recent times.

    The lawmaker who pointing out that the Ministry of Agriculture last held a conference on curbing farmers, herders clash, cattle rustling in 2009, noted that there had been lingering rustling of cattle, herders, farmers clash, to which the ministry has not taken any action to contain.

    On the importance of the Bill, Ibrahim said that if it becomes a law,, cattle could be traced, while the bureau will solve a lot of security questions in the Nigerian meat industry.

    The lawmaker who stated that Nigeria has the largest population of cattle compare to other countries in Africa, lamented that “yet the business of livestock is still localized only within Nigeria because the bureau is not yet in existence.”

    He noted that the country has been denied of gross earnings, since it could not export meat to other countries for lack of meeting international standard.

    Ibrahim also lamented that Nigeria has not keyed into the Pretoria declaration two years after, hence, there was no proper recordings, identification and management of animals in Nigeria.

    He said, “In April 2015, Sub-Saharan African countries including Nigeria adopted a declaration in Pretoria, South Africa, on animal identification and recording.”

    He stoutly canvassed that animal related responsibilities be severed from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture for it to function effectively.

    According to him, the bureau would effectively tackle cattle rustling and check the menace of herdsmen/farmers clashes.

    He explained that animal live stocks could easily be identified, the location, and breed known, adding that they will also be traced for purposes of disease surveillance.

    “The challenge of herdsmen and farmers clashes would have been taken care of with the propose bureau. It also means that ownerships, location, breed and other information on animal would have been available for easy tracking if there is animal disease.” he said.

    Ibrahim who regretted that the ministry is only concerned about themselves and how to preserve bureaucracy, he warned that states are now making laws against open grazing, saying that the agency and the Bill could not have come at any better time than now.

    “If cattle are rustled, the owner can be traced through the microchip that is planted in their body. Stolen cattle can equally be recovered”, he said.

    The senator said that the law is already in existence in countries like Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda and Djibouti, which he said have less cattle than Nigeria.

     

  • Senate to begin 2018 budget consideration next week

    Senate to begin 2018 budget consideration next week

    The Senate will commence the consideration of the general principles of the 2018 Appropriation Bill next week, Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, said Thursday.

    Saraki who made the announcement in plenary said the consideration of the budget would begin on Wednesday, 22nd November 2017 and end on Thursday, 23 November, 2017.

    He asked senators wishing to contribute to the debate on the general principle of the money Bill to indicate by writing their names in the register.

    Throwing more light on the announcement, Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi said that copies of the budget as presented by President Muhammadu Buhari, are being produced for distribution to senators.

    Abdullahi said that all senators should have been given copies of the fiscal document but for the voluminous nature of the budget.

    He said that the president presented two copies of the budget one for the Senate and the other for the House of Representatives.

    He assured that copies of the budget are already being mass produced and by next week debate would commence.

    On the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF) which is yet to be approved by the, Abdullahi said it would be considered alongside the budget.

    President Buhari on November 7 presented a budget of N8.612 trillion to a joint sitting of the Senate and House of Representatives for the 2018 fiscal year.

    The National Assembly is expected to pass the budget before the end of 2017 to enable the Executive to begin its implementation on January 1st, 2018.

  • Inconsistency: Senate re-positions NDDC

    Inconsistency: Senate re-positions NDDC

    The Senate Tuesday passed a Bill for an Act to amend the Niger Delta Development Commission Act.

    The upper chamber said that main objective of the amendment is to clarify certain provisions in the Principal Act and to provide for prompt remittance of funds due to the NDDC as well as penalties for delay or default.

    It said that it was observed that some of the provisions in the Act establishing the commission were ambiguous hence the need to clarify them.

    Apart of the amendment included the review of Section 2(1)(b) to ensure that the person to represent each state of the commission on the Governing Board of NDDC should come from an oil producing Local Government Area, not oil producing area as stated in the NDDC Act.

    The upper chamber added a new subsection to Section 4 of the Act to ensure the rotation of representatives within the oil producing Local Government Areas of individual member states of the commission.

    It reviewed Section 2(1)(f) to ensure that only the permanent secretaries are eligible for appointment to represent the ministries of Finance and Environment respectively in the Governing Board of NDDC.

    It reviewed Section 5(3) to ensure the word “same interest” in the provision refer to ‘same Local Government Area” in the case of a state or “same state” in the case of a regional representative.

    It created new subsection 14 of the Act to ensure compliance by contributors to the fund of the Commission, irrespective of any other law in force.

    It also reviewed section 14(2)(c) to ensure that the 50 per cent contribution from Ecological Fund of each member state is deducted during Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings and paid directly to the commission’s account.

    The passage of the Bill was sequel to the adoption a report on the bill by the Senate Committee on Niger Delta under the chairmanship of Senator Peter Nwaoboshi (Delta North).

    The bill was read for the first time on July 26, 2017 while senators deliberated on its general principles on July 27 and thereafter, read for the second time and referred to the committee for further legislative action.

    Nwaoboshi said that in order to reposition the NDDC for more effective service to the Niger Delta region, it had become necessary to review the Principal Act in order to rid its provisions of ambiguities.

    It also explained that with the clarification of some provisions in the bill, representation on the board of NDDC would henceforth, be clearly defined, noting that the financial burden of the commission would be reduced with the provision of new subsections to ensure prompt remittances to the commission.

    The Upper House noted that “with the strengthening of some provisions, the contributors that failed to fulfill their statutory obligation to the commission will be made to do so”..

    It added that “it is imperative to amend the Niger Delta Development Commission (Establishment etc.) Act 2000 so as to remove obvious impediments, particularly, in the area of funding and reposition the commission to carry out its mandate effectively”

    The Senate observed that the NDDC Act, 2000 had been in operation for 17 years and had never been reviewed, pointing out that the amendment was in consonance with the observations of senators while considering the confirmation of Presidential nominees for the Governing Board of the NDDC and debate on the general principles of the bill.

    The report says: “as a result of weaknesses of certain provisions and gaps in the Principal Act, some of the contributors have not paid anything to the fund of the commission till date, while others are underpaying by not declaring their total annual budget to the Commission.

    “This lack of payment by some contributors and underpayment by others has led to huge debts owed contractors by the commission”.

    The senate had on October 11, 2016 while considering the request of President Muhammadu Buhari for the confirmation of chairman and members of NDDC found that some of the provisions in the Act establishing the commission were ambiguous.

    The Senate mandated the committee to carry out a review of the Niger Delta Development Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act, 2000.