04042019 - Nigeria 7 other nstions home to world's hungriest - UN

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40—Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 NASS leadership: There we go again! HERE he goes again’’ ‘Twas the defining phrase of the 1980 U.S. presidential election. Ronald Reagan, governor of California and the Republican presidential candidate deployed it dexterously in gibing his Democratic opponent, incumbent President Jimmy Carter. But it is a political phrase that concentrates my mind today as the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Comrade Adam Oshiomhole, huffs and puffs about the leadership of the nintth Senate. It is déjà vu because Nigerians have lived through the present situation where the executive arm of government arrogates to itself the exclusive right of deciding who gets what in the system. We will come back to the meat of the matter shortly. Suffice it to say that democracy is a universal concept and Nigerians didn’t have to reinvent the wheel when they threw away the yoke of military rule in 1999 and once again embraced Abraham Lincoln’s government of the people, by the people, for the people. In Montesquieu, the 18th century French political philosopher’s separation of powers concept espoused in his magnum opus, “Spirit of the Laws,” the need for the political authority of the state to be divided into legislative, executive and judicial powers, acting separately and independently, was brought into sharp focus. To limit the chances of any one branch usurping the core functions of another and to promote the liberty of the citizenry, Montesquieu said government responsibilities must be divided into distinct branches. Preventing power concentration limits the prospects of dictatorship and tyranny. John Adams, second U.S. President agrees. “It is by balancing each of these powers against the other two, that the efforts in human nature toward tyranny can alone be checked and restrained, and any degree of freedom preserved in the constitution,” he wrote. So, while the legislative branch is responsible for enacting laws and appropriating the money needed to run government, the executive is responsible for implementing the laws and the judiciary is responsible for interpreting the constitution and the laws. To avoid anarchy which will be the consequence of absolute separation of powers, Montesquieu moderated his view with the principle of checks and balances which creates a healthy balance when each arm acts as a check on the powers of the other two. Back to the issue at hand, the endless quest by the executive arm of government since the era of President Olusegun Obasanjo to foist leaderships on the National Assembly affronts the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances. In his desperate bid to dominate the political landscape, Obasanjo deviously manipulated the election of the president of the 4th Senate in 1999 leading to the dramatic upstage of Chuba Okadigbo by Evan Enwerem, former Imo State governor. But it was a pyrrhic victory. Enwerem was in office for only It is sheer power grab and a recipe for crisis for the executive branch to unilaterally foist leaders on the legislature six months before stepping on the axiomatic banana peels. But Okadigbo's ascendancy did not deter Obasanjo who wilfully reduced the Senate presidency to a game of musical chairs as he himself was sacked in August 2000 by 81 to 14 votes following an internal investigation into contracts awarded by the Senate leadership instigated by the presidency. In eight years of Obasanjo’s presidency, five Senate presidents - Enwerem (Imo), Okadigbo (Anambra), Pius Anyim (Ebonyi), Adolphus Wabara (Abia), Ken Nnamani (Enugu) - emerged from the South-East. With the exception of Okadigbo, the other four were foisted on the Senate by the executive. Most of them were also pulled down from their high perch by the machinations of the master puppeteer. The National Assembly suffered grievous instability. Nigeria was the worse for it. The House of Representatives did not fare better though the lawmakers in the Green Chamber were more robust in their rejection of such impositions. At the state level, governors reduced the state Houses of Assembly to mere rubber stamps. After winning the 2015 polls, APC decided to follow in the foolhardy steps of the PDP. But their imposition gambit backfired when the two chambers revolted by electing Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu president and deputy president of the Senate respectively while the lower chamber elected Yakubu Dogara and Yusuf Lasun speaker and deputy speaker. That revolt is what the APC apparatchik refer to as the 2015 mistake which they have vowed not to repeat in 2019; the most trenchant voice being Adams Oshiomhole, the national chairman. “This time around we must ensure that we have a leadership of the National Assembly that shares the vision of t h e executive,” Oshiomhole told newly elected members of the House of Representatives at the Shehu Yar’adua Centre, Abuja last week. “Although we speak of separation of powers, there is only o n e government and unless the various arms pursue the same agenda it is difficult for t h e executive to realise its purpose because legislative backing is o f t e n required for t h e executive actions,” he added. Oshiomhole then spelt out in clear terms what the lawmakers must do to be considered loyal party men and women. “We have the numbers to produce the speaker and we will produce the speaker, who must be a member of the APC. We have the numbers to produce the deputy speaker and we will use the numbers to produce the deputy speaker, who must be a member of the APC. We have the number and we must use the numbers to elect a House leader who must be a member of APC. We have the numbers and we will use the numbers to produce a chief whip and a deputy whip who must be members of the APC.” There is nothing wrong with that position. Even in the socalled mistake of 2015, with the exception of Ekweremadu, whose election as Deputy Senate president was an 'aberration', all other principal officers of the 8th Senate and even the House of Representatives were APC members. In spite of the constitutional provision that lawmakers shall elect from amongst themselves their presiding officers, the global norm is that the responsibility falls on the party with the majority. But the lawmakers must be allowed to choose such officers. It is insulting for the party leadership in the name of party supremacy or the executive to whimsically appropriate such responsibility. That can only lead to resentment and revolt as it is the case in the Ali Ndume challenge. APC’s penchant for politics of exclusion is the real mistake. It is sheer power grab and a recipe for crisis for the executive branch to unilaterally foist leaders on the legislature. APC’s 2015 mistake is not the fact that Saraki and Dogara emerged Senate president and House of Representatives speaker respectively. No! That was the necessary outcome of the real mistake – the incessant appetite to impose the National Assembly leadership from outside. Those who are favoured by such impositions will gloat but those holding the wrong end of the leadership recruitment stick will always kick as Ndume is doing now. Since APC has near absolute majority in both chambers, the wise thing would have been to allow the lawmakers to elect their leaders on the floor using their rules and regulations as a compass. If the party had allowed a free and fair contest in 2015, devoid of arbitrary exclusions, Saraki and Dogara may well have lost. APC under Oshiomhole is making the same mistake John Oyegun made in 2015 and the result may not be different. Even if the party succeeds this time in coercing the lawmakers to toe the nebulous party line, the victory may be pyrrhic.
Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 — 41 vanguardnews @vanguardnews @vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES 018773962, 08052867058 REFUND: NASS approved figures sent by Executive for Taraba, Delta states —SENATE ABUJA—The Senate has said that the letter by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Red chamber in which he claimed that National Assembly’s approval for refunds to Delta and Taraba state governments through the issuance of Promissory Notes, for projects executed on behalf of the Federal Government was different from what the Federal Executive Council, FEC, approved and the reports in the media over the issue were wrong and must have resulted from misinformation to the President by his aides. Yusuph Olaniyonu, Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to Senate President in a statement, yesterday, said that the “Senate approved the exact figures for Taraba and Delta states that was submitted to it by the Executive through the Ministry of Finance as stated on page 402 of a document entitled “Federal Ministry of Finance Submission of Federal Government of Nigeria Outstanding Liabilities to National Assembly, May, 2018. “The President had claimed in his letter to the National Assembly dated March 5, 2019 that “while FEC approved a total sum of N78, 601, 631, 430.16 as reimbursement to Delta and Taraba state governments, the National Assembly approved N90, 236,461, 031.36, which is higher than the amount approved by the FEC. “The Senate will like to clarify that the breakdown which the Executive through the Ministry of Finance submitted to the National Assembly showed that the outstanding liability due to Taraba State is N22, 254,062,330.08 while that of Delta is N67, 982, Naira depreciates to N360.55/$ in I&E 398, 701. 28 while the total for the two states is N90, 236, 461, 031. 36. “Therefore, the National Assembly approved the figures submitted to it by the Ministry of Finance as approved by FEC for projects executed on behalf of the Federal Government. At no time did the executive forwarded the figure of N78, 601, 631, 430, 16 to us and we do not know where the President got that figure from. “We have decided to make this clarification in order to set the records straight and disabuse the minds of the general public. We believe the President must have been misinformed and misadvised by his aides while writing the letter he sent on this issue to the National Assembly,” the Senate stated. The naira yesterday depreciated to N360.55 per dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window due to a 59 percent drop in the volume of dollars traded. Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative exchange rate for the window rose to N360.55 per dollar from N360.30 per dollar on Tuesday, translating to 25 kobo depreciation for the naira. The volume of dollars (turnover) traded yesterday dropped by 59 percent to $165.84 million from $405.12million sold on Tuesday. The naira, however, was stable at N359 per dollar in the parallel market. FEC okays N3.4trn promissory note to offset local debts, salaries •Approves N5.5b for 60,000 job creation programmme By Johnbosco Agbakwuru ABUJA —THE F e d e r a l Executive Council, FEC, yesterday, approved the establishment of a Promissory Note Programme worth N3.4trillion for the settlement of inherited local debts and contractual obligations of the Federal Government. Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber, Presidential Suspended Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Walter Onnoghen (left) appearing as his legal team closed the defence of his case before the Code of Conduct Tribunal at Jabi, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida. Villa, Abuja. She said: “Today (yesterday), at FEC, I presented a memo seeking the approval of council for additional financing, the sum of $6.8 million sought as a loan from AfDB to finance inclusive basic service delivery and livelihood empowerment integrated programme for the rebuilding of the North-East. “There was a previous facility which included coverage of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states, and some specific institutions were beneficiaries. But there is a Federal Science and Technology College in Lassa, Borno State that was one of the beneficiaries. But because of insurgency, it suffered severely. It could not be carried out because of the activities of insurgents. By Elizabeth Adegbesan “Now, what we are Continues from Page 5 trying to do is to go back to the projects, to this particular institution to make sure we are able to rehabilitate the institution and also undertake a complete skill, training and educational project that will mitigate against the challenges that the institution has had. The facility is a concessionary loan. “It has an interest rate of one per cent and it is payable over a 30-year period and it has five years moratorium.” Also at the briefing, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma said “One of the projects approved by FEC is the N-Power knowledge Multitrack Youths Empowerment Programme. Now, this programme targets 12,000 young Nigerians between the ages of 18- 25 years. It is meant to give them trainings as well as devices. “It will deliver to each of the 12,000 young Nigerians informed trainings which will enable beneficiaries build and imbibe Nigeria, 7 other nations home to world’s hungriest—UN Karlsen, made the remark in a statement, yesterday. He said: “Saving and protecting the lives of migrants and refugees, breaking the business model of smugglers and traffickers and providing legal pathways, while addressing the root causes of irregular migration and forced technical proficiency such as assembling, repairs, maintenance as well as technology skills and digital literacy across a wide range of electronic brands, products and technology which can be grouped into three areas namely, mobile devices, computing devices and commonly used electronic devices.” “It’s a programme that is open to all unemployed youths across the six geopolitical zones irrespective of the socioeconomic or educational background. It has a great to engage and train 12,000 youths across the six geopolitical zones of the country. “The contract for this displacement are at the very heart of the EU’s policy.” Karlsen statement followed shortly in Lagos after the 64th chartered flights bringing back voluntary Nigerian returnees, arrived in the county. Insisting that the EU does not want to stop migration, he said: “What we want to stop is dangerous, unprotected, was awarded to Messrs Softcam Limited working with the officials of Social Investment Programme. It is a nine month duration. It will cost N259,000 per youth for the training and N207,000 for the work tools, the kits, the equipment. The total sum of the ecology projects was N15.3 billion. On his own, the Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Mustapha Shehuri said the council approved N6.17 billion for augmentation of the contract for the construction of Ikot Ekpene border in Akwa Ibom State, Aba-Owerri Road, Section 1, Phase 1. Shehuri, said that the contract was awarded in 2012, but the augmentation had to come following some observations by the contractor. and exploitative forms of migration. Migration should happen out of aspiration, not desperation.” He noted that the EU was working in all areas of migration in Nigeria, including migration management, labour migration, irregular migration, return and reintegration, mobility and international protection.
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04042019 - Nigeria 7 other nstions home to world's hungriest - UN

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