A Government divided against itself: Ministers fuelling budget fight – Investigation.

BEHIND the lingering fight between the Executive  and the House of Representatives over the 2012 budget implementation are ministers and other heads of government agencies and departments, investigation by The PUNCH has revealed.
This is in addition to the fact that discreet complaints by top government officials to the lawmakers had initially triggered the anger of the Reps who on July 19 handed a September deadline to President Goodluck Jonathan to push the implementation of the budget to 100 per cent or face impeachment proceedings.
Sources at the National Assembly on Monday confirmed to our correspondents that top officials of the Jonathan administration were still complaining to lawmakers that they were not receiving enough fund to execute capital projects.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas, Sen. Nkechi Nwaogu, on Monday said there were still complaints of non-release of funds by the MDAs.
Nwaogu, who is a member of the Joint Committee that heard the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Thursday, however, said the complaints of non-release of funds by the MDAs and the minister’s claims that funds had been released would need to be confirmed.
She said, “We did not push the matter further because there is no way we can immediately confirm that the agencies have received funding as stated by the minister since we are still on break.
“When we return we will go and confirm during oversight. I want to believe that the minister is aware that she spoke on record and before the Senate.”
According to Nwaogu, Okonjo-Iweala informed the committee that agencies that had not received funds for their projects might be those whose projects were still undergoing due process at the Bureau of Public Procurement.
It was gathered that there had been communication between the MDAs and the National Assembly on budget implementation.
Investigations showed that the MDAs complained about due process, which did not allow for prompt release of funds.
At the Ministry of Finance, a source said on Monday that the MDAs were aggrieved and that they had been complaining to the lawmakers.
He however said the problem was caused by the procurement law because based on the procurement act, it would take a minimum of two months to complete the process of awarding contracts.
The source said, “A lot of money has been released but the procurement law is causing the delay in its utilisation and there is no way MDAs can speed up the process because if they do, people will complain that the process of awarding contracts isn’t transparent and an aggrieved party can sue such MDAs for violating the procurement law.
“We began the actual implementation of the capital aspect of this budget by April 1 and we have just done about four months. So we hope that most of the MDAs would have gone far with their contract process to pave the way for actual utilisation of the funds at their disposal.
“We are aware of the delay in awarding contracts and that is why we are working seriously to submit the 2013 budget by September so that its implementation can begin by January of next year.
Checks by The PUNCH have confirmed that many ministers and heads of government agencies had been briefing the lawmakers about fund releases to them since the Reps decided to breathe down on the Executive.
Findings however showed that many MDAs had received “massive release of funds” from the Ministry of Finance in the last three weeks and that activities at the different ministries have been picking up.
Our correspondents learnt that activities at the Ministry of Works headquarters in Abuja, in particular, had picked up as “contractors are being called to sign for their cheques.”
A lawmaker who craved anonymity because he is not the spokesperson for the House said, “Without the officials at the MDAs how do you expect us to be getting feedback on the performance of the Executive generally?
“There is nothing bad in a minister or head of government agency feeding the lawmaker from his constituency whether he is given fund to perform or not; it is not a matter of not being loyal to the President or being a mole. If at the end of the day, such a minister or whoever does not perform, nobody would remember that he was starved of fund while in office.
“The minister from my own constituency has been briefing me, there is nothing bad in that.”
It was learnt that the MDAs have been passing the buck of the poor performance of the 2012 budget to the Minister of Finance, Dr.  Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, accusing her of reluctance to release adequate funds to finance capital projects.
The agencies complained that although some funds were released, they were insufficient for the award of contracts as required by the Public Procurement Act.
The Act provides that contracts cannot be awarded unless there is sufficient funds provided for the execution of the contracts.
Leader of the  Senate, Victor Ndoma-Egba, who stopped short of confirming the  report, said complaints made to  any committee of the   Senate  were as good as being received by the entire Senate.
“If a committee of the Senate goes on oversight and receives a complaint from   an agency, it is the Senate that has  received the complaint and it will be necessary to act appropriately,” he  said.
On what the Senate would do after   receiving briefings  from  Okonjo-Iweala, Ndoma-Egba said the Senate would wait for   the report of the Joint Committee  before taking any further  steps.

TejuBabyFace set to wed Sept 1; opens up on wife to be,Tobi Banjoko.

Comedian and TV host, Olateju Oyelakin, popularly known as Tejubabyface will wed top model and former beauty queen, Tobi Banjoko on Saturday 1st of September 2012 at the Chapel of Light Interdenominational, Lagos State Secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja. Reception is at The Muson Centre in Onikan.

Their traditional wedding will hold on Thursday, 30 August 2012, at 10 Degrees Event Centre, Billings Way, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos.

In an interview with Azuh Arinze of YES! Magazine, Tejubabyface opens up on how he met his bride to be and why he decided to settle down with her. Read after the cut..


Well, I kept coming home and my house kept feeling empty. I kept leaving events and finding there was someone I would like to tell the story, but there was no one. I just kept feeling lonely. There was a space in my heart that was crying out for friendship. But may be more importantly was the fact that I started making mistakes. I started making mistakes that I had made before and I thought it was over. People I shouldn’t have been fraternizing with, women. I started making all those kinds of mistakes and I wasn’t getting better. There was a point in my life when I was so disciplined that for almost two years, I wasn’t with any woman. And that was when the *Teju Baby Face Show* was born. And I found that thereafter, I could not seem to replicate the same discipline, no matter how I tried. So, it occurred to me that some thing had to change. So, when you put the loneliness together as well as my inability to be disciplined any more, it was instructive.

I met Tobi for the first in 2008. We were holding an audition for ushers. I wanted to have a show, my 2008 show that was called *Comedy Meets Class*. So, we wanted classy ushers. And at the time she was on her last ushering leg. I can remember I walked into a room filled with about 40 hot women. And she just hooked my eyes immediately. That was the first time I met her. With each of the 39 other girls in the room that day, our eyes would meet at some point. But this one studiously ignored me. It was as if she made a declaration
that our eyes weren’t going to meet. And when I actually interviewed her for the ushering job, she didn’t seem to care. She said the money was too small and she left. So, when I saw her a month later at another job, and Iwent to chat her up. I can never forget, she told me, ‘Excuse me, please I’m working’. What she meant was you are disturbing me, and I got the message (Laughs). And so, I started to find out more about her, and I found she was what you can call a ‘good girl’. But you see, that’s not enough. What you asked me was what made me decide? A pastor asked me that question recently. Let me use this word. When I told my father, when my father asked me, this girl you are serious about, what does she do? I said dad, she is a
model. He said explain yourself. I said well, she was in the recent *Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria*. Now, when you tell parents that, they don’t think that the girl is bad. On the other hand, they form a certain world
view in that sense of the word. I had always said that the woman I would marry would be one who would be very beautiful. In 2010, we were trying to date first of all and we hung out after about three months, so we didn’t date again until 2011. We tried to date in 2010, but it didn’t happen. My fault oh! In each of the time we tried to date, there was never any point in time where I had to do any convincing. In fact, on our first date, she came to my house and we needed to go and buy groceries so that we could cook together. And I remember we were walking across the street when I saw a Mercedes Benz, G-Class. And I pointed and said that’s my dream car. And this girl said, on our first date o! ‘Don’t worry, we will have it (Laughs). And I looked at her, then she blushed. And said no, no, no. That’s not what I meant. She has always been like that!


Before she came along, I was panicking; panicked as to how I would marry. Because you see, I was getting older, and there was nobody out there I wanted to marry. I really panicked. If I look at the list of everybody that I have met in the past years, they didn’t seem to be anybody that I wanted to marry. And I thought to myself that if I lived for thirty something years and I haven’t found a woman, what are the chances of me finding her next year, or in the next two or three years. And she just came along, and solved that problem. I am not marrying her because she's beautiful or because she makes me feel somehow. I am just comfortable with her. We are supposed to be married. It’s just like that.

 by Linda Ikeji

40-foot container crushes car on Anthony bridge; kills three.

This is my biggest fear, so I never drive close to a trailer. They are so reckless and their vehicles badly maintained.

The man you see in the photo above, plus two others in a Toyota Avalon car with registration number SQ 32 AAA, were killed around 7pm on Friday August 3rd on the Anthony Bridge, Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, after a truck hauling a 40-foot container suddenly slipped off the flat-bed and fell on their car

The driver of the Toyota and another man in the car died instantly, but not the one in the photo. He called for help for over an hour but the people around had no means to lift the container off the car. Even LASEMA couldn't help because the container was too heavy. The man eventually died.


Finally, four hours after the accident, a crane was brought to lift the container off the mangled car. The bodies of the three men were taken to Gbagada General Hospital.

by Linda Ikeji.

IGP ordered immediate transfer of all general duty police; says policemen collaborate with criminals.

 

Worried by the growing insecurity in the country and the inability of the police to curtail the ugly development, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Muhammed Abubakar, has ordered the immediate transfer of all general duty police personnel of all ranks in all formations  and commands, including Police Training  institutions, who had  spent more than two years in their present duty stations.
The order was contained in a police signal with Ref.CB:4092/FS/FHQ/ABJ/VOL.1/20 dated 2nd August, 2012 and signed by the force secretary, Assistant Inspector General of Police, Dan'Azumi J Doma, which was copied all Deputy Inspectors General of Police (DIGs), Assistant Inspectors General of Police (AIGs), zonal headquarters, commandants of police colleges and state Police Commissioners, among others, for immediate action.
According to the signal, which was obtained exclusively by the Nigerian Tribune on Monday, the IGP lamented that some general duty officers and other ranks had stayed more than 10 years in their present duty posts and as such some officers “tend to fraternize with criminals in their localities.”
He said, ''as a result of unhealthy familiarization they have been reduced to local land speculators, local politicians or get mixed up in family or chieftaincy tussles.''
According to him, ‘the above highlighted issues, to say the least, do not only adversely affect the efficiency and effectiveness of the Force in the discharge of its statutory duties, but limit the optimum utilization and deployment of personnel, as well as hamper their exposure on the various aspects of the profession.”
Following this development, the IGP directed that henceforth, ''the normal tenure of service for general duty police personnel of all ranks in all formations and commands, including police training institutions should not exceed two years'' except otherwise permitted by him.
In addition, ''the IGP directs that officers and men should not be repeated on the same duty post earlier vacated until it is absolutely necessary.''
Though the Force Public Relatons Officer (FPRO), Mr Frank Mba, could not be immediately reached for comments, a very senior officer at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, confirmed the story in confidence to the Nigerian Tribune, saying that it was part of the ongoing efforts to reposition the police for greater efficiency.
Courtesy Tribune

Over 2,000 PDP Members Defect To CPC In Nasarawa .

DONATUS NADI.

Ward chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nasarawa central ward of Nasarawa Local Government Area (LGA), Alhaji Baba Lawal , was among the over 2,000 other members that defected to the rival Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

It is ward the Speaker of the State Assembly, Alhaji Musa Ahmed Mohammed, comes from. Receiving the defector in a ceremony at the Central Primary School under the coordinating efforts of the Special Adviser to the governor on interparty relations, Hajiya Hajara Dan.

Former Minister  of Works, Dr. Hassan Lawal, who stood in for Governor Umaru Tanko Al-makura, welcomed the former PDP members to “a party that upholds justice and fair play.”

Clark, IBB Faceoff: Ijaw Youths Divided.

OSA OKHOMINA.

Ijaw Youths were yesterday divided over the faceoff between the national Ijaw leaders, Chief Edwin Clark and former military president General Ibrahim Babangida on the Boko Haram insurgency.
   Clark had alleged that Boko Haram is sponsored by northern leaders, including former military president General Ibrahim Babangida.
While the Ijaw Youths, under the aegis of the Ijaw Peoples Development Initiative (IPDI), through its National Coordinator, Comrade Ozobo Austin described as ‘face saving’ and “weakling” the defence of  General Ibrahim Babangida and other northern leaders to the accusation of Chief Edwin Clark,the State Secretary of the Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO) and a prominent native of Bayelsa State, Comrade Morris Alagoa, argued that the allegation levelled by the Ijaw leader against the Northern Leaders was ‘tribal sentiment’ and that President Goodluck Jonathan was shying away from his responsibility as the Commander-In-Chief  of the armed forces and president of the nation.
Speaking on the development yesterday in Yenagoa, Comrade Alagoa said though the Ijaw leader’s comment was not new, “the way it came out was wrong. It has too much ethnic coloration. I think the Ijaw leader is doing what he is doing because an Ijaw son is the President and handling issues of terrorism.
“The Ijaw leader should know that the same Jonathan and other security agencies announced that they knew those behind the terrorist attacks. But Jonathan is handling the issue with kid gloves and not hitting hard as a President should.Our Chief is not a security agent and if the President is leaving the gap on the matter to the detriment of the people,surely the statesman has no option but to fill the seemingly vacant position of authority.”
In its position, the group known as the Ijaw Peoples Development Initiatives (IPDI), argued that: “The North hates the truth and whoever stands for truth cannot be their friend.
“What is now wrong if Papa Clark said IBB should be arrested or said IBB is a boko haram sponsor? I want  the north to be reasonable, I charge them to go back and read Papa Clark statement once again maybe they may hastily get him wrong.”
IPDI insists that  Clark believe in one Nigeria that is why he is worried.” I was forced to react when some northern leaders, Kaita Mohamed and Dr. Junaid Mohamed used abusive words against our national leader. When a learned person write he do not abuse but he speaks the fact, but only people of low reasoning does so”.

Petroleum Minister Says Oil Reserve Can Grow To 40bn By 2020.

AGENCY REPORT.

Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, Minister of Petroleum Resources, says the nation’s oil reserve could grow to 40 billion barrels by 2020 with daily production capacity of four million barrels.
Alison-Madueke, represented by Mr Andy Yakubu, the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said this on Monday at a three-day annual conference and exhibition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in Lagos.
Alison-Madueke, highlighting the strategies to be implemented to achieve growth in the nation’s economy, said that the Nigerian deep and shallow waters have the capacity to increase the productivity level.
She said that this could generate additional one million barrel per day within the next few years.
Alison-Madueke said that it would also contribute to the global supply of oil and gas, if it could be achieved before year 2020.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the conference was “The future of Oil and Gas: Right Balance with Sustainable Stakeholders Participation”.
The minister said that the aggressive reform embarked upon by the Federal Government would reposition the oil and gas industry.
She said, “Critically, the current Nigerian crude oil reserve is over 36 billion barrels and a production capacity of about 2.5 million per day.”
The minister said that these had made Nigeria the high supplier of crude oil, adding that the opportunity should be used to increase the country’s production capacity.
Alison-Madueke said that if the oil and gas sector was further exploited, “it shall provide the much needed increase in revenue, employment generation for our youths and further increase in the growth of other sectors of the Nigerian economy”.
She commended the efforts of the society toward addressing some issues that were very crucial to the industry.
The minister, commenting on the deregulation of the downstream sector, said that it would lend a helping hand to the investors since it would guarantee the recovery of their investment.
“There is no doubt that the deregulation of the industry is going to help investors because it will guarantee their investment.
“The deregulation of the downstream, particularly as it affects kerosene and petrol are very critical to return on investment,” she said.
Sir Ikechukwu Okafor, the SPE Chairman, said that the conference would provide a forum for healthy dialogue and purposeful engagement between the stakeholders on the future of oil and gas development.
“The aim is to stir our members and the general public to embrace and promote environmentally sustainable development of oil and gas in Nigeria,” he said.