INEC Chair: Buhari defends choice of Zakari, lambasts PDP

 

President Muhammadu Buhari

 

President Muhammadu Buhari has defended his choice of Amina Zakari as the acting chairperson of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, after the opposition Peoples Democratic Party demanded a reversal of the appointment.
The PDP had said that the appointment smacked of nepotism and accused Mrs. Zakari of demonstrating bias towards the APC in the past.
The party also said due process was not followed in her appointment by Mr. Buhari.
A statement from the presidency Wednesday dismissed the allegations by the PDP.
Mr. Buhari said he had constitutional powers to choose the head of INEC, and that Mrs. Zakari’s appointment was based on merit and sensitivity to gender equality.
The statement, signed by spokesperson, Femi Adesina, said allegations by the PDP were “falsehoods contrived by Mr. Metuh (PDP spokesperson) to unjustly denigrate a President popularly elected by Nigerians to undo the damage done to the nation by years of PDP rule”.
Full statement:
We have noted with regret, the latest tirade against President Muhammadu Buhari issued today by the PDP’s Spokesman, Mr Olisa Metuh.
Other than boring reporters at his press conference with a rehash of baseless allegations of inaction against the President, Mr Metuh clearly had nothing new to say apart from his charge of nepotism and partisanship in the appointment of the Acting INEC Chairman, which also lacks any factual foundation.
President Buhari certainly did not “overrule” Prof. Attahiru Jega in appointing Mrs Amina Zakari as the Acting INEC Chairman, as Mr Metuh alleged.
Prof. Jega’s purported handing over to another Commissioner cannot be construed as an “appointment” because only the President has the constitutional authority, which he exercised to appoint Mrs Zakari as acting Chairman of INEC.
Contrary to Mr Metuh’s allegations, President Buhari’s appointment of Mrs Zakari as Acting INEC Chariman was based entirely on merit, her vast experience in the internal operations of INEC and the President’s commitment to affirmative action in support of gender equality, because, apart from being fully qualified for the position, Mrs Zakari was the only woman among the six Commissioners considered.
Due Process was certainly followed in Mrs Zakari’s appointment. Mr Metuh’s spurious claims of her appointment having been influenced by “personal relationship with the Presidency” and a Governor in the North-West “to pave the way for the APC” at election tribunals should be disregarded by the public.
The allegations are nothing but falsehoods contrived by Mr Metuh to unjustly denigrate a President popularly elected by Nigerians to undo the damage done to the nation by years of PDP rule.
His claim that the PDP has rejected Mrs Zakari’s appointment is also laughable after he had admitted that the right and power of the President to make such appointments cannot be questioned.

Yemi Osinbajo, Another "Tunde Idiagbon" For PMB

Hussain Obaro


Editor’s note: “Tunde Idiagbonwas was Buhari’s backbone and the pushing force. Buhari never made any decision without Idiagbon’s approval,” claims Hussain Obaro, Naij.com constant guest author. In another contribution to the platform, Mr Obaro explains why it is so important that Yemi Osinbajo assumes Tunde Idiagbonwas’s role as soon as possible.


It’s no longer news that the main reasons Nigerians voted en masse for Muhammadu Buhari in the last presidential election were his firm stand towards corruption and no-nonsense disposition to all forms of indiscipline and administrative recklessness. Analysts have, however, opined that it was the late Major General Tunde Idiagbon who stood behind the war against corruption and indiscipline that Buhari had been given credit for. He was Buhari’s backbone and the pushing force. Buhari never made any decision without Idiagbon’s approval. The description of President Buhari as a lame duck with a sound assistant during the military regime was proved right by the events that unfolded after the inauguration of the present APC-led administration.
A clear evidence that General Tunde Idiagbon was the real head of state is what is currently happening in our national polity. Just like former president Jonathan, President Muhammadu Buhari seems overwhelmed and confused by Nigerians’ problems. It is now over a month since President Buhari was sworn in, and nothing has happened. Governance has virtually been brought to halt. No key decisions or major appointments have been made. I wonder how President Buhari intends to fight the “wars” without a cabinet of ministers who are supposed to be his foot soldiers directly implementing his policies and programs?
READ ALSO: Three Weeks Have Passed, Any Ministerial Appointments, Mr President?
 


The fact that President Buhari may have no idea of what governance is all about and how to be a responsive leader is evident as far as he has refused to assume responsibility for the APC. It has resulted into a breakdown of law and order in the National Assembly causing huge embarrassment to the country in the eyes of the international community. The plans of a self-serving cabal in the APC to install their cronies as leaders of the National Assembly, even against the existing laws and the Constitution, are already sending wrong signals to Nigerians and the friends of Nigeria.
The much quoted and celebrated phrase from the president’s inaugural speech “I belong to everyone, and I belong to no one” turned out to be a mere political statement not to be taken seriously. Buhari is still being tossed around and forced to align with the decisions of the cabal in the APC. Obviously, governance is already grounded, because Buhari doesn’t yet have an “Idiagbon” to guide him. Muhammadu Buhari has failed to realize that to be president is to take full responsibility of everything including the party, especially now when some of the APC leaders are portraying themselves as a bunch of power-drunk, self-serving and autocratic cabal. The president should have prevented this mess from the beginning by assuming leadership in the party and personally ensuring the party discipline by accommodating diverse opinions, pacifying diverse interests and giving all sides a sense of belonging. These would have botched the activities of the cabal that has hijacked the party and currently make orders from their Lagos abode.
The time is ripe for the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, to break from the grip of this APC cabal and step out of the political shade. The onus now rests on him to act fast in order to salvage the APC administration from collapse. Prof Yemi Osinbajo needs to become a “Tunde Idiagbon” who will always guide the president and Nigerians to the Promised Land. There is the need for the vice president to genuinely belong to everyone and belong to no one as his expertise in law, science and clergy is highly needed to bring this government back on track and ensure that change is delivered to Nigerians.
Yemi Osinbajo, Another "Tunde Idiagbon" For PMB
Hussain Obaro for Naij.com

Hussain Obaro is a writer motivational speaker and public affairs commentator from Ilorin, Kwara state.

Amina Bala Zakari appointed as acting Chairman of INEC.

INEC National Commissioner, Amina Bala Zakari has been chosen to take the place of the Chairman.

Reports say that INEC National Commissioner, Amina Bala Zakari has been appointed to take the place of Professor Attahiru Jega whose tenure in office as INEC Chairman expired today.


Amina Bala Zakari was born on June 23, 1960

2.She is from the Kazaure Local Government Area of Jigawa State

3.She attended the prestigious Queens College in Yaba, Lagos.

4.She earned a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) degree in Pharmacy from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria in 1980.

5.She was appointed a National Commissioner of INEC in 2010

Only Buhari’s letter, not Oyegun’s, can be read in Senate – Na’Allah

Premium Times

 

Buhari writes Senate, seeks approval to a

The Deputy Leader of the Senate, Bala Ibn-Na’Allah, says only a letter from the president of Nigeria can be read on the floor of the Senate or the House of Representatives.
Mr. Na’Allah told journalists in Abuja on Tuesday that it was the reason the purported letter written by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress to the National Assembly was not and will not be read at plenary.
“A lot of people do not understand; as a member of the National Assembly, the moment you step into the National Assembly, you either take the Bible or the Quran; and then you subscribe to the oath of allegiance and then take your oath of office.
“The oath of office says that you will uphold, protect and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Law and then the Rules of the Senate.
“Outside these three documents, (a) senator does not have any leverage to do anything; there is no other document outside these three.
“And then if you carefully look at the rules of the Senate, the only letters that can be read on the floor of the House should a letter from Mr. President.
“And that is the convention not only in Nigeria, but in all other parliaments all over the world”.
He stressed the need for Nigerians to understand the workings of democracy before making attributions unknown in democratic circles.
Mr. Na’Allah, however, said that the party could influence its members in the National Assembly and at the state level through the various caucuses, but not by imposition.
“I have not seen any issue here; it is just that people are trying to overheat the polity without knowing what the process is all about”.

EXCLUSIVE: Joda Committee to Buhari: Merge debt-ridden Arik, Aero, others to form national carrier

Bassey Udo

President Muhammadu Buhari on Day One at Presidential Villa

The Buhari administration may be considering merging all debtor airlines in the country into a national carrier, capable of serving the West and Central African regions, with Nigeria as the regional aviation hub.
That is part of the recommendations by the Ahmed Joda transition committee, which submitted its report to President Muhammadu Buhari about two weeks ago. Volumes of the report were exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.
Six of Nigeria’s leading domestic airlines are currently bogged down by huge debts totalling almost N130 billion, forcing them to turn to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) for a lifeline.
In 2014, the Federal Ministry of Aviation gave the debt portfolio of five of the airlines with AMCON at over N190 billion. The amount excluded sundry debts to aviation agencies like the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), suppliers and other institutions.
The ministry said it arrived at the huge figure after a comprehensive audit of the operations of all the domestic airlines.
Details of the audit findings, the Ministry said, showed Aero Contractors’ debt stood at over $200 mn (N308 bn), with 60% of its equity already taken over by AMCON, while Arik Air has been in debt to the tune of over $600 mn (N924 bn); IRS Airlines, $55 mn (N84 bn); Chanchangi Airlines, $55 mn (N84 bn), and the now bankrupt Air Nigeria owing about $225.8 mn (N347.7 bn).
In 2012, Arik, Aero, IRS, Bellview, Chanchangi, Afrijet, Albarka, Caverton, Continental, Air Nigeria and Savannah, were at the verge of going under when AMCON waded in with a N132billion lifeline, saving in the process over 7,000 staff from being thrown into the labour market.
Aviation industry experts told PREMIUM TIMES at the weekend that some of the airlines that were still grappling with working capital challenges recently approached AMCON again with a multi-billion request for a bailout to enable them settle accumulated aviation fuel bills to oil marketers.
The Joda committee advised President Buhari to consider a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement that would involve all airlines currently with AMCON, as part of the Federal Government’s contribution to a national carrier project.
The committee recommended the decision be carried out in six months.
The committee said this will increase government revenue from the sector, reduce capital flight, expand the local aviation industry and create more employment opportunities to the people.
The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), the report said, should work with the Ministries of Aviation, Finance, Industry, Trade and Investment to implement an aviation-focused PPP framework that would create the environment for the development of aviation infrastructure, procurement and upgrade.
The committee, which noted poor utilization as one of the key challenges in the sector, said about 75 percent of passenger traffic were generated from three airports – Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja, while over 90 percent of the revenue earned came from Lagos and Abuja.
To ensure a realistic capital base for domestic and international airlines for sustainability in accordance with global best practices, the committee said the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) should in the next three months consider the upward review of capital requirements for airlines to N2.5 bn (domestic) and N 5billion (International).
Within the target period, the government would undertake the immediate repairs and upgrade of passenger facilities, including air-conditioning systems, luggage conveyor belts, passenger tunnels, to improve customer experience, increase revenue, and improve the safety of travelers, it said

EXCLUSIVE: Joda Committee to Buhari: Sack Jonathan's last minutes appointees, review contracts of 18 months.

Ini Ekott

Chairman of Transition Committtee, Dr Ahmed Joda, President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice Chairman Doyin Salami, APC Nartional Chairman Chief John Oyegun during the final presentation of report of Transition committee to the President at the defence house in Abuja

 

The hmed Joda transition committee has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately terminate all dubious appointments made by former President Goodluck Jonathan in the last nine months, and review all contracts awarded by the administration in the last 18 months.
The committee said this is to help the new government sidestep ineptitude and waste, and scale up its revenue base.
The recommendations are part of a portfolio of swift steps Mr. Buhari must take within three months of assumption of power if he must save cost and “enhance liquidity”, the committee said in its 800-page report to the president.
PREMIUM TIMES exclusively obtained volumes of the report, which contain extensive analyses of Nigeria’s key challenges, with suggested responses for the economy and finance, governance and social welfare.
The report details a list of prompt, medium and long term decisions Mr. Buhari must take, or authorise, within 30, 45, 60 and 90 days of taking office, to create immediate impact, reduce government liability, increase revenue and stabilise the polity.
For instance, to deal with crippling fuel crisis, and backlog of unpaid salaries by states and the federal government, the committee advised Mr. Buhari to “borrow immediately or use CBN (Central Bank) advances” for salaries and fuel subsidies to “avoid chaos”.
For contracts, it urged the administration to “review all contracts signed in the last 18 months by FGN”.
“Non-strategic contracts that have not commenced or where no payments have been made can be cancelled,” the committee said, while also urging Mr. Buhari to negotiate exits for projects where mobilisation payments have been made but work not commenced.
That move will “save expenditure on non-strategic projects, and can free up cash flows for other vital initiatives”, the committee said.
The decision on contract is to be taken within 90 days from May 29, and should be handled by the Federal Executive Council and the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP.
At a time Mr. Buhari is facing growing criticism over his delay in making key appointments, and his failure to lay out initiatives to assure a burdened nation of immediate relief, the Joda report provides a fresh perspective on preparations by the new government and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to confront some of Nigeria’s monstrous problems.
The committee said the president should review all appointments made by Mr. Jonathan in the last nine months, and “for strategic agencies requiring professional leadership, the government should terminate all appointments not based on merit”.
The Joda panel said such move will save costs associated with poor decision making by an incompetent management team, and must be delivered within 45 days of the new government.
That recommendation appears to take into consideration the last minute appointments by Mr. Jonathan after he lost the March 28 elections.
In less than two months, Mr. Jonathan, not previously given to readily hiring and firing, sacked dozens of top officials and replaced them before leaving office.
As further measures to check waste and increase efficiency and accountability, the committee urged the government to quickly implement a single bank account, to be called Treasury Single Account, and to commence full implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act within 60 days, and chase up any outstanding funds from all government offices.
This will curtail the “excesses carried forward from previous administration”, it noted.
The committee also advised the government to fully implement the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPIS, and Integrated Government Integrated Financial Management Information System across all MDAs within 60 days.
The two facilities were used by the past government to check thousands of “ghost workers” who drew billions of naira in salaries that ended in the pocket of fraudulent officials.
Despite its claim of saving more than N100 billion from “ghost workers”, the Jonathan administration failed to punish those behind the scam.
Claims by former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that the case had been transferred to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) alongside names of indicted officials, were repeatedly refuted by the anti-graft body.
But more than other proposals in that unit of the report, the committee paid greater attention to government contracts and urged President Buhari to be decisive in reviewing the deals.
The committee said the handover notes from the Jonathan administration showed aggregate contractor liabilities of N4 trillion as at April 2015.
Of that amount, the Ministry of Education owed the most at N1.2 trillion, followed by the finance ministry which has N467.7 billion.
The committee warned Mr. Buhari that it would be irrational to rely on the purported huge balances the former government claimed it left behind.
First, it said, the numbers lacked key information to establish the authenticity of the contracts.
It made the following observation regarding the claims by the former government regarding outstanding liabilities:
– The aging of these liabilities was not provided.
– A detailed list of contracts was not provided and therefore, some balances maybe double counted (eg contracts funded through debt maybe captured in both MoF and the contracting Ministry).
– Some balances may be disputed. Therefore, liabilities may change once settlement/judgement is reached.
– No documentation was provided to confirm if the projects were executed to the agreed specifications.
– Some contracts maybe cancelled or terminated”.
As a first step, the Joda-committee advised Mr. Buhari to establish an Inter-Ministerial Task-Force to review all outstanding contracts (and associated liabilities) across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies within three months.
“The mandate of this Task-Force is to confirm the existence of the liability and authenticate the accuracy of information provided in the handover notes,” it said.
“The Government should only recognise the liabilities verified and confirmed by this Task-Force.”

Miracle in Abuja. A largely democratic and peaceful handover of power.

“THEY RIGGED AND rigged right until the very last moment,” says one Western diplomat of Nigeria’s March election. A variety of techniques were employed. First, the police and the army insisted on the election being postponed by six weeks, arguing that they needed extra time to ensure security. But most people believed that the delay was instigated by the ruling party, which feared it was at risk of losing and hoped that this would give it more time to buy votes. More blatantly, states around the Niger Delta saw ballot-box stuffing and submission of false counts, and across the country bags of cash were being handed out to prospective supporters. As a result the local currency, the naira, weakened as politicians converted it into dollars. These came in high denominations, taking up less space in the suitcases used to cart them about on the campaign trail.



To be fair, both sides were guilty of malpractices. Observers in the north say that supporters of the governing PDP were threatened, and many stayed at home. Some also reported seeing large numbers of children voting for the winning APC. All the same, the outcome broadly reflected the will of the electorate in what most observers said was the fairest election in decades—even though some informed sources reckon that a more accurate count of the vote would have delivered about 60% of the total to Mr Buhari, rather than the 54% he was officially credited with. So how did democracy triumph against the odds?









Much of the credit goes to Attahiru Jega, a soft-spoken academic who was put in charge of the independent electoral commission in 2010. His appointment came too late to influence the 2011 election, but he has spent the past five years cleaning up the voters’ roll and introducing electronic ID verification that makes it much more difficult to stuff ballot boxes. He has also proved to be stubbornly non-partisan, to the chagrin of many in the PDP.
Even Mr Jonathan’s sternest critics give him credit for stepping down quickly once it became clear he had lost
A second factor was the PDP’s sheer incompetence. With little leadership or direction emerging from Aso Villa, the presidential compound, the party had become so weak in government that it seemed incapable of defending its position. “They were too incompetent even to rig the election properly,” says one insider.
Third, many voters had become deeply frustrated with Mr Jonathan’s government and were desperate for change. Tempted by the ruling party’s bribes, they may have worked out their own moral compromise. As one observer put it, “people took the money and then voted their conscience.”
Last, across the country independent monitors kept an eye on the polling stations. Many took photos of the results recorded at each station and posted them on social media, making it difficult for officials subsequently to fiddle with the numbers. Others submitted results to a parallel vote count run by the Transition Monitoring Group, a non-government organisation. This flagged up instances of ballot-box stuffing by the PDP in the Niger Delta and helped limit its extent. It also encouraged the police and army to stay largely neutral, even as senior figures within the PDP tried to get them to take sides. Pressure from abroad, mainly America and Britain, played a part too.
Though Mr Jonathan’s presidency was in most respects a failure, even his sternest critics give him credit for stepping down quickly once it became clear he had lost, even before the final tally was in. In doing so he pulled the rug from under senior PDP members who were said to be plotting to try to keep the party in power. One plan was to try to kidnap Mr Jega to disrupt the count, according to Reuters, a news agency.
The democratic outcome, however tenuously achieved, sets an important precedent. Having spent the past 16 years under the rule of a single party, and most of its history before that under military rule, Nigeria has matured into a multi-party democracy that is not ruled along ethnic or religious lines. The PDP, for all its failings, was a largely national party. When it came to power in 1999 under Olusegun Obasanjo, it managed to unite the country’s north behind a president from the south. Mr Obasanjo, a Yoruba-speaker from Ogun state in the south-west of the country who had ruled as military dictator in 1976-79 before handing over to a short-lived civilian government, managed to win the trust of northerners.
North v south
Nigeria’s population is about half Muslim and half Christian, and for some time it was widely argued that the PDP was the only party that could overcome the country’s religious and ethnic divisions, not least thanks to its policy of “zoning” whereby the presidential candidates it nominated would alternate between northerners and southerners. The opposition, by contrast, was seen as dominated by northerners and Muslims, who are concentrated in the north and west of the country, and was divided. That changed in 2013 when the three biggest opposition parties joined to form the APC, offering policies slightly to the left of the PDP’s.
Yet despite the apparent victory for democracy, concerns remain. In his previous terms as a military ruler, Mr Buhari was no democratic pin-up. He banned political meetings and free speech, executed people for crimes that were not capital offences when they were perpetrated and sent whip-wielding soldiers onto the streets in a “war against indiscipline”. Mr Buhari has since said that he is committed to democracy, but many Nigerians fret that he may try to rule by decree. Before his inauguration he threatened to expel critical journalists from press conferences, but his party did a swift about-turn on that.



Even if democracy has now taken root at the centre, it has yet to establish itself in state governments, most of which are little more than the fiefs of their governors. State governors often control the party apparatus in their states and thus dole out seats in the assemblies to loyal followers, and the state assemblies that should hold the executive to account are often vehicles for patronage. Many local governments are still more of a mess. There may be a need for constitutional reform to make all levels of government answerable to the citizens as well as to clarify how powers are to be divided among states and central government.
The election also highlighted the urgent need for political reform, not least in campaign finance. Contesting elections in Nigeria costs a fortune. Rigging them costs even more, leaving presidents and state governors in hock to various “Ogas”, the local slang for big-man or godfather. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a long-standing PDP finance minister, recalled in her memoir, “Reforming the Unreformable”, that in the latter part of Olusegun Obasanjo’s second presidential term, in 2006, businessmen and party patrons asked her to waive a 50% tax on imports of rice. She reckoned such a waiver might be worth $1 billion to the importers and party funders, but would ruin many rice farmers who had been encouraged to plant by an import-substitution policy that included hefty tariffs. So she refused, and was kicked out of the finance ministry soon afterwards.
Keeping the Ogas at bay
The way Nigeria’s main political parties are run, too, needs to be made more democratic. Voters get to vote for one presidential candidate or another, but there is very little transparency over how each party selects its nominee. For the two main parties this is meant to be done at party congresses, yet there is talk of bidding wars as Ogas buy votes for their preferred presidential candidates. Once in office, politicians can dispense patronage to their supporters and influence legislation to benefit their Ogas. One solution might be to move to American-style open primaries in which voters elect their parties’ candidates directly. If overseen by an independent electoral commission, such primaries might make parties more responsive to voters and force them to come up with new ideas and policies. Nigeria’s recent election was fought mainly on perceptions of which candidate would be more effective and less corrupt, rather than on their policies or ideologies. But policies also matter, not least on how the government collects and spends money.