01122020 - Why Nigeria's at mercy of terrorists — LAI MOHAMMED

8 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2020
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Biden set to appoint
Nigerian-born Adeyemo US
Deputy Treasury Secretary
NEW
YORK—U.S.
President-elect, Joe
Biden, is expected to name a
Nigerian-born lawyer, Adewale
Adeyemo, as his Deputy Secretary
of Treasury.
Media reports quoted unnamed
sources close to the Biden
transition team as saying
Adeyemo would serve under
Janet Yellen, who would be
nominated to lead the Treasury
Department.
Nicknamed Wally, the 39-yearold
has a Bachelor of Arts from the
University of California and Juris
Doctor from Yale Law School.
He served as the first President
of the Obama Foundation in 2019,
according to Wikipedia.
Under the Obama
administration, Adeyemo served
as Deputy National Security
Adviser for International
Economics from 2015 to 2016 and
Deputy Director of the National
Economic Council.
Wally is one of three people of
colour to be appointed to lead
Biden’s economic team after his
first round of appointments was
criticised for lack of diversity.
Cecilia Rouse, an African
American economist at Princeton
University, is set to be named as
Head of the Council of Economic
Advisers.
An Indian-American, Neera
Tanden, a former Senior Policy
Adviser to both Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton’s presidential
By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA—THE Caretaker/
Extraordinary National
Convention Planning
Committee of All Progressives
Congress APC said yesterday it
has concluded arrangement for
the commencement of
membership registration and
revalidation by December 12.
Chairman of the committee
and Yobe State governor, Mai
Mala Buni, in a statement issued
in Abuja yesterday, said the
decision was taken after
campaigns, will be appointed as
Director of the Office of
Management and Budget.
The team will inherit a U.S.
economy that has been
struggling as a result of the
coronavirus pandemic.
Born in Nigeria, Adeyemo was
raised in California where he
obtained a bachelor’s degree
before proceeding to Yale Law
School for his legal education.
Before his appointment into the
Obama administration, Adeyemo
worked as an editor at the
Hamilton Project, then served as
senior advisor and Deputy Chief
of Staff to Jack Lew in the
United States Department of
Treasury.
He later worked as the chief
negotiator for the Trans-Pacific
Partnership and also served as the
first chief of staff of the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau
under Elizabeth Warren.
In 2015, he was appointed to
concurrently serve as Deputy
National Security Advisor for
International Economics and
deputy director of the National
Economic Council.
He went on to become the first
president of the Obama
Foundation.
According to Politico, Biden is
also expected to name Cecilia
Rouse, an African American
economist at Princeton
University, to lead the Council of
Economic Advisers.
World AIDS Day 2020: US invests
$6bn on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria
By Victoria Ojeme
UNITED States, U.S.
President’s Emergency
Plan for AIDS Relief,
PEPFAR, said yesterday it has
invested more than $6 billion on
national HIV/AIDS response in
Nigeria alone since 2003.
The theme for this year’s World
AIDS Day is ‘Resiliency in HIV
programming in the Context of
COVID-19’.
According to the statement
made available to journalists,
PEPFAR said more than one
million, women and children were
currently on HIV treatment in
2020 alone:
The statement read: ‘’In
Nigeria alone, PEPFAR has
invested more than $6 billion in
the national HIV/AIDS
response.
‘’More than 8.2 million
people have received HIV
counseling and testing
services; more than 1.2
million pregnant women
received HIV testing and
counseling toward prevention
of mother-to-child transmission
of HIV.
‘’Approximately 1.2 million
people living with HIV received
support to improve quality of life,
including TB/HIV care services
and; about 1.3 million orphans
and vulnerable children received
care and support services
‘’Equally important, PEPFAR
supports Nigeria in the critical
areas of policy development,
human capacity development,
and overarching health systems
strengthening, including
provision of state-of-the art
laboratories and pharmaceutical
warehouses, to enhance
Nigeria’s health systems to tackle
not only HIV/AIDS, but other
diseases.
‘’Nigerian health systems were
put to the test this year. Our
accomplishments would not have
been possible without the strong
partnership and collaboration
with the Government of
Nigeria, at the federal, state,
and local levels.''
APC begins membership registration,
revalidation Dec 12
consulting with stakeholders,
including President
Muhammadu Buhari.
He said APC membership
registration and revalidation was
scheduled to hold from Saturday,
December 12, 2020, to Saturday,
January 9, 2021.
“All our members are, hereby,
invited to revalidate their
membership in their wards.
Similarly, prospective members
are also invited to take advantage
of the membership registration
process to join our party.
‘’The membership registration
VISIT: From left; Head of Lekki Operations - DUFIL Prima Foods Plc, Rajesh Gaggar; Ex-Nigeria Head of
State, Abubakar Abdulsalami; Magajin Garin Sokoto, Hassan Danbaba and MD, Lagos Free Trade Zone, Dinesh
Rathi at the courtesy visit by the management of Lagos Free Trade Zone to the former Head of State in Minna.
FG plans debt restructuring
By Emma Ujah,
Abuja Bureau Chief
A BUJA—FACED
with mounting debt
servicing obligations, the federal
government is planning to push
for debt restructuring.
The Minister of Finance,
Budget and National Planning,
Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, who gave
the indication while featuring on
a Nigerian Television Authority,
NTA, programme, yesterday, said
the current debt servicing
obligations were taking too much
of the nation’s resources,
N554m grass-cutting scandal: EFCC re-arraigns ex-SGF,
Babachir Lawal •Fixes Jan 20 for trial to start afresh
By Ikechukwu
Nnochiri
A Economic
BUJA—THE
and
Financial Crimes Commission,
EFCC, yesterday re-arraigned
former Secretary to the
Government of the Federation,
Babachir Lawal, before an Abuja
High Court at Maitama, over
alleged complicity in grass cutting
contract fraud to the tune of
about N554 million.
Lawal, who served as SGF
under President Muhammadu
Buhari between August 27, 2015,
and October 30, 2017, entered
fresh plea of not guilty to an
amended 10-count charge the
EFCC preferred against him and
six others.
The other six Defendants that
were also re-arraigned by the
and revalidation will take place
simultaneously in every Ward in
the country. The process of
distributing the membership
registration and revalidation
materials to all the states, local
governments and wards will be
concluded before December 12,
2020.
“We, therefore, appeal to our
states, local governments and
ward leaders to take all the
necessary steps to ensure
smooth and transparent
registration exercise. We will
continue to provide update of the
process on regular basis,”
Governor Buni stated.
especially at a time of low revenue
generation.
“We are looking forward to
restructuring our debts to reduce
our debt servicing obligations,
especially now that our revenues
are low,” she said.
Mrs. Ahmed did not give details
of the restructuring but noted that
going forward, the government
would focus more on local
borrowing and concessionary
loans.
In order to improve federal
government revenues, the
minister disclosed that the
administration would sell
some public assets that had
anti-graft agency, are; younger
brother to the former SGF,
Hamidu Lawal, Suleiman
Abubakar, Apeh Monday and
two companies – Rholavision
Engineering Ltd and Josmon
Technologies Ltd.
The ex-SGF was among other
things, alleged to have connived
with the other Defendants and
illegally diverted a contract the
Presidential Initiative for North
East, PINE, awarded for the
removal of grasses in Internally
Displaced Persons, IDP, camps,
to his own company.
Meanwhile, the Defendants,
who pleaded innocent to the
amended charge read to them
before trial Justice Charles
Agbaza, persuaded the court to
retain the bail conditions it earlier
handed them.
The defendants were initially
docked before the court on
February 12, 2019.
Their re-arraignment yesterday
followed the demise of the former
trial judge in the matter, Justice
Jude Okeke.
The trial had already
proceeded with EFCC calling its
witnesses, before Justice Okeke’s
death on August 4, 2020.
Following the development,
the case-file was re-assigned to
Justice Agbaza for the trial to
commence de-novo (afresh).
Late Justice Okeke had on
February 13, 2019, granted the
Defendants bail to the tune of
N50 million each, with one surety
in like sum.
The court equally seized their
international passports, even as
it barred them from travelling out
been lying dormant.
She said the government
would strengthen its Public
Private Partnership, PPP, policy
with a view to giving private
investors more opportunities to
play greater roles in the provision
of infrastructure in the country.
‘’The proposed Infrastructure
Company (Infraco) would be very
useful in that regard,’’ she added.
Infraco, she said, would provide
a platform for private investors to
invest in infrastructure facilities
such as roads and rail lines.
According to the minister, the
federal government is working to
make it easier for mass transit
of the country without
permission.
Justice Agbaza slated January
20, 2021, to restart their trial.
Some of the counts in the
charge marked CR/158/19, read:
“That you Engineer Babachir
David Lawal while being the
Secretary to the Government of
the Federation (SGF) and a
director of Rholavision
Engineering Ltd, on or about the
7th of March, 2016 at Abuja in
the Abuja Judicial Division of the
High Court of the Federal Capital
Territory did knowingly hold
indirectly a private interest in the
consultancy contract awarded to
Rholavision Engineering Ltd for
the removal of invasive plant
species and simplified irrigation
to the tune of N7, 009,515.96
(Seven Million, Nine Thousand,
Five Hundred and Fifteen Naira
and Ninety Six Kobo only) by the
Office of the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation
(OSGF) through the Presidential
Initiative for North East (PINE)
and thereby committed an
offence punishable under Section
12 of the Corrupt Practices and
other Related Offences Act,
2000.''
“That you Engineer Babachir
David Lawal while being the
Secretary to the Government of
the Federation (SGF) and a
director of Rholavision
Engineering Ltd on or about the
4th of March, 2016 at Abuja in
the Abuja Judicial Division of the
High Court of the Federal Capital
Territory did knowingly hold
indirectly a private interest in the
contract awarded to Josmon
buses to be imported into the
country to reduce the cost of
transportation which impacts
heavily on the rate of inflation.
Mrs. Ahmed also stressed the
need for peace and harmony
across the country to enable the
economy exit recession quickly.
She said: “We must have peace
and harmony. Insecurity has
the potential of slowing down
growth.”
The minister said government’s
policy on Ease-of-Doing
Business would be sustained,
listing the items to include
reduction of taxes, duties and
levies to enable businesses
expand and hire more
workers, rather than close
down or sack workers, as
would otherwise, be the case.
Technologies Ltd but executed by
Rholavision Engineering Ltd for
the removal of invasive plant
species and simplified irrigation
to the tune of N272,524,356.02
(Two Hundred and Seventy Two
Million, Five Hundred and
Twenty Four Thousand, Three
Hundred and Fifty Six Naira and
Two Kobo only) by the Office of
the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation
through the Presidential
Initiative for North East (PINE)
and thereby committed an
offence punishable under Section
12 of Corrupt Practices and Other
Related Offences Act, 2000.
“That you Engineer Babachir
David Lawal while being the
Secretary to the Government of
the Federation (SGF) and a
director of Rholavision
Engineering Ltd on or about the
22nd August, 2016 at Abuja in
the Abuja Judicial Division of the
High Court of the Federal Capital
Territory did knowingly hold
indirectly a private interest in the
contract awarded to Josmon
Technologies Ltd but executed by
Rholavision Engineering Ltd for
the removal of invasive plant
species and simplified irrigation
to the tune of N258,132,735.00
(Two Hundred and Fifty Eight
Million, One Hundred and Thirty
Two Thousand, Seven Hundred
and Thirty Five Naira only) by
the Office of the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation
(OSGF) through the Presidential
Initiative for North East
(PINE) and thereby
committed an offence
punishable under Section 12 of
the Corrupt Practices and other
Related Offences Act, 2000.”