Soludo to Okonjo-Iweala: N30tr missing under your watch

Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo has accused Finance Minister Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala of incapability, He said Okonjo Iweala brings misery to Nigerians with her economic policies.
According to him, under Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s watch as coordinating minister of the economy, over N30 trillion is missing.
He said: “Public finance is haemorrhaging to the point that estimated over N30 trillion is missing or stolen or unaccounted for, or simply mismanaged. ”
He challenged the minister to a debate on the economy.
Soludo threw the gauntlet in a reaction to the minister’s diatribe following his article on the state of the economy. It is tagged, ‘Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Missing Trillions’ Part 1. Soludo said calling for the debate with the minister is because Nigeria’s survival and prosperity is at stake.

BUHARI: 20,000mw Will be Deliver in my Four years of Presidency

The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday unfolded its power agenda should it presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, be elected.
The party plans to generate at least 20,000 megawatts (mw) of electricity in four years to surpass Nigeria’s consumption level of around 15, 000mw.
In a statement, the party’s Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO) expressed dismay that the Federal Government under President Goodluck Jonathan had only added 1.400mw to the national grid in four years.
The statement by Mallam Garba Shehu, the spokesman of the campaign, quoted Gen. Buhari as saying that while he will not run a witch hunt government, he will not hesitate to deal decisively with cases of impunity and corruption.  No probe of any government official, he added.
The statement also quoted Gen. Buhari as saying he is passionately concerned about the sorry conditions of our armed forces today who, despite huge budgetary allocations, have failed to effectively deal with manifest security threats, including the Boko Haram terrorism.
“What he said at every given opportunity is that he is keenly interested in knowing what has gone wrong, if any, with the army that he knew. When he has access to them as Commander-in-Chief, he will like to hear from his commanders what problems they are dealing with so that they can be solved,” Shehu said.
“In a democracy such as ours, all institutions of government, including the armed forces, are accountable. No country can achieve results in its counter-terrorism efforts when there is no transparency in the management of huge resources for the purpose. He (Gen. Buhari) will reinvigorate the armed forces and restore their rapidly evaporating morale,” he said.
The APC Campaign Organisation accused the PDP of wasting billions of naira on non existent power, managing to add a yearly average of 87 megawatts of electricity, showing a massive failure to substantially raise generation and distribution of electric power despite promises and cash infusion of between $16 billion and $20 billion.
Shehu said “nearly 16 years of PDP administration gave this country a miserly addition of 1,400 Mega Watts against the expenditure of more than $16 billion. That translates to 18.5 MW per annum”.
He noted that “this abysmal power production and distribution, with its attendant socio-economic implications, is the most irresponsible thing a government can do to its people.
It explained that the PDP has shown an “appalling lack of capacity to deal with just any problem confronting this country and the lack of vision and commitment to dealing with electricity supply was just one of the myriads of the others begging for attention.”
“The only conclusion to draw from this is that the PDP is more interested in feathering the nest of importers of generators than in the wellbeing of Nigerian citizens and their businesses.”
The organisation accused President Jonathan of massive corruption in the country’s agricultural sector, saying “President Jonathan has failed woefully in the agricultural sector, and all the self-praise of the administration on agriculture is simply a ruse”.
It maintained that whereas President Jonathan had promised in 2010 to make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice and wheat production by 2015, “the grim reality on the ground today is that Nigeria emerged as the world’s highest importer of rice in 2015, and a whopping $11 billion is spent annually by Nigeria to import rice, wheat, sugar and fish.”
The statement added that according to the former Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Sarah Alade, Nigeria as at 2014 spends $4 billion on rice importation – that is about N600 billion annually on the importation of 2.1 million metric tonnes of milled rice.
“This is after the Federal Government had approached the China Exim Bank for a loan of $1.2 billion for the financing of 100 large-scale rice processing plants with a total capacity of 2.1 million metric tonnes.
“The troubling truth today is that Nigeria is nothing close to self-sufficiency in rice production and what we have at hand is a close web of corruption where government cronies stumble over each other to get import licences for rice.”
“According to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, Nigeria’s wheat consumption as at year 2000 was about two million metric tonnes. But, by 2010, wheat importation to the country had risen to four million metric tonnes and Nigeria spends N635 billion annually on wheat importation.
“Five years into the Jonathan administration, Nigeria spends even more than we did in 2010 to import wheat; yet the government continues to brandish false achievements in the agricultural sector – a situation that is completely at variance with what President Jonathan promised Nigerians in 2010, saying that his government would make Nigeria save N635 billion annually on rice and wheat importation.”
The statement also faulted the government’s claim that local farmers now have unhindered access to fertiliser through the Growth Enhancement Scheme and described as “excessively labourious and technically difficult for the farmers to work through” are two bags of fertilizer throughout the entire farming season, “and government has not come out in one instance to tell Nigerians how much it receives as grants on fertiliser distribution to farmers from donor agencies.
“The government will want to give us the impression that fertiliser is being given to farmers free of charge. But we know that what subsists is a 50 per cent subsidy per bag of fertiliser. Our farmers are being shortchanged under this so-called e-wallet arrangement because of lack of transparency.
“We may be looking at another subsidy scam over fertilizer unless the Jonathan administration comes out clean to tell us how much it has received as grants over fertiliser and how it comes about the 50 per cent subsidy per bag of fertilizer.”
While dismissing President Jonathan’s claims of achievement in the agricultural sector, the organisation said that “throughout the periods preceding the Jonathan’s administration, the contribution of agriculture to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was at 7 per cent, while under the so-called transformation agenda of President Jonathan, agriculture’s contribution to the GDP has been consistent at 5 per cent – an all time low.
“In any case, food commodities are items Nigerians buy on a daily basis. If the Jonathan administration was sincere with the statistics it reels out on agriculture, why would the government buy pages of newspaper advertorials and TV commercials to force bitter falsehood of its achievements down the throats of Nigerians? The Jonathan administration has failed woefully in its agricultural policies and the facts are self-evident out there at those food stalls in our markets.
“In 2015, Nigerians know they spend far more to buy food than they did in 2010. That reality, in itself, is President Jonathan’s scorecard in agriculture.”

Amechi visit to Lamido Unsettles Presidency

The Presidency and the PDP were yesterday unsettled following a secret meeting between Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido and All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council Director-General Rotimi Amaechi.

The meeting was held in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital,  between Saturday night and yesterday.
Lamido, who is PDP candidate President Goodluck Jonathan’s Northwest campaign coordinator, and the Rivers State governor were on the same side during the disputed Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) election.
It was learnt that Amaechi was in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital, on the invitation of his colleague. He arrived at the Jigawa Government House at about 9pm on Saturday.
A source said the two governors held talks late into the night at the Presidential Lodge in the Government House, where Ameachi passed the night. They met again at about 10:05am yesterday for more talks, which ended at about 11:30am.
After the meeting, Lamido, who wore a blue dress and a blue cap to match, drove himself in a Peugeot 206 car. He declined reporters’ question as he returned to his official residence.
Ameachi, who drove himself in a black Toyota Landcruiser with few escorts to the Government House, also declined comment on his mission.
When reporters approached him for his comments, he said: “You can see me driving. I’m busy, I can’t talk now. Good bye.”
Lamido is believed to be lukewarm towards the PDP presidential campaign.
He even gave conditions to join the team, saying the President must rein in the ex-militants and Chief Edwin Clark who have been beating drums of war in the name of support for Dr. Jonathan.
The ex-militants remain unrepentant, vowing to go to war should the President lose the February 14 poll.
The fears of the Presidency and PDP border on likely protest votes in Jigawa State against Dr. Jonathan.
But the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chief  Olisa Metuh, said the party had a feeling that Amaechi went to Dutse as part of consultations to return to the party.
He said all the governors and others who defected from PDP to APC were not feeling at home in the opposition party.
The Presidency and the PDP were “caught unawares” by Amaechi’s visit to Dutse.
It was learnt that the shock was more profound because Lamido did not hint Jonathan and Vice-President Namadi Sambo about what a Presidency source described as a “nocturnal visit” – about 12 days to the election.
A highly-placed source said: “ The Presidency and the PDP were jolted because the meeting between Lamido and Amaechi came barely few hours after the flawed rally in Kaduna State.
“In fact, at the Kaduna rally, Lamido, who is the zonal coordinator of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, was unusually silent and moody. We were all curious but we attributed his mood to campaign fatigue.
“Everyone is running helter-skelter to get in touch with Lamido on what actually transpired between him and Amaechi.
“But going by the fact that the nation is in election mood, we are suspecting that it might be about the presidential poll.”
A source in the party said: “We are suspecting that this are last-minute wooing of Lamido by the APC is for swinging of votes for the opposition during the presidential poll.

DOCUMENTARY: What President Jonathan and his Cronies are Keeping away from Nigerians

Sit Back and WATCH!

Obasanjo daughter, Iyabo resurfaces; blasts Fani-Kayode, PDP over Soludo’s article

For sometime now, former Senator Iyabo Obasanjo has not been heard in political arena of the nation since the imbroglio between her and her father, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in relation to later’s Open letter to President Goodluck Jonathan. Iyabo has now broken her silence, here, she chose to react to in Prof. Charles Soludo’s article on Nigerian economy and the heats it currently generating.

IYABO’S OPINION ON THE ISSUE IS AS SHOWN BELOW:
Professor Soludo’s article on the elections in Nigeria is the best writing I have read recently on the real situation politically and economically in Nigeria. The well-articulated response from Dr. Fayemi compared to the abuse infused response from Femi Fani-Kayode on the PDP side is a great example of the contrast of the status-quo compared to the alternative.
Whatever the case and I don’t expect miracles form APC but right now they have more thinking people than the PDP.
As a Yoruba person, Dr. Fayemi’s response is how we expect our educated elite to take up issues and not the mad ranting’s of Fani-Kayode. I agree with most of his premise but I do not think they (APC) can take up a massive public works program in a period of “famine” i.e. low oil prices. During the great depression when Roosevelt used public works to help provide jobs, it was the stock market that failed i.e. Government revenue was affected from tax income but income from exportation which was then mainly agricultural goods was not affected.
The government could use money from its coffers to create jobs and provide skills and training, which people could then use in the private sector. The best part of Dr. Fayemi’s response is that it is not elite focused. Nigerian governance as I saw it was not a democracy but an elitocracy. Govt of the elite by the elite for the elite and even if you grew up in near death poverty once you left those circumstances you forgot where you came from and concentrated on your immediate family and matters affecting the well-being of the elite.
Changing this perspective to make the elite understand that their wellbeing was in fact dependent on the wellbeing of the masses will be APC’s challenge. They are sourcing from the same pool of elite talent that every Nigerian government has to source from and it is this pool that essentially has to be different or we will find ourselves again at precipice as usual.
Iyabo Obasanjo DVM, Ph.D, a former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria wrote from the United States of America.

APC to boycott any BON-organised TV debates

The presidential campaign council of the All Progressives Congress [APC] has just issued the statement below indicating it would not participate in the series of debates being organised by the Broadcast Organisation of Nigeria [BON]. This was due to the biased of the organizations in the political affairs of the country.

Read full statement below:

“The All Progressives Congress (APC) will not be not be featuring in the ongoing electioneering public debates on national television and radio, being organised by the Broadcast Organisation of Nigeria (BON), because of the unhidden bias and campaign of calumny by some key organisers of the programme, against the corporate political interest of the party (APC) and its candidates.

“Garba Shehu, Director Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO) said in a press statement on Thursday in Abuja that the Nigeria Election Debate Group (NEDG) powered debate was fraught with fundamental errors from the outset, by wearing the toga of government control, especially being composed mainly of agencies and allies of the incumbent People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) administration.

“A salutary inspection of the composition of NEGD brings into focus the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), National Television Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and the Africa Independent Television (AIT, owned by a PDP chieftain). And going by the avalanche of inflammatory statements, misinformation and blatant lies being propagated by some of these media against our Party and candidates contrary to the Koffi Annan brokered Abuja Peace Accord, and the failure of these aggressors to desist and apologise, have left the APC Campaign with no option than to steer clear of any premeditated smear campaign that could be inimical to our prospective electoral success,” Shehu said.

The APCPCO spokesman further explained that the boycott by the APC should not be seen as disrespect to Nigerian voters, or an alibi for the party to dodge public scrutiny; but it must be viewed as an honourable right not to consent to any activity that could distract, demean, denigrate or derail the fast-moving train of the party.

“The APC is a party of progressive intellectuals, genuine technocrats, successful businessmen and women, and most of all eminent and courteous people of honour who would never condescend to the level of sadistic gutter propaganda, all in the name of political exigency and crass opportunism,” Shehu said.

He noted that that many Government-controlled media have clipped the wings of APC promotional advertisements on one excuse on the other adding that, until a court upturned their decision recently, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) shutdown some telecom portals for soliciting legitimate campaign funds from members of the public for APC.

“Aside, elements close to sitting President Goodluck Jonathan have commissioned series of derogatory and death threat advertorials against the person, family and associates of the opposition leader, General Muhammadu Buhari, to which the APC had sent letters of complaint to the Inspector General of Police, the Director General of State Security, Advertisers Practitioners of Nigeria (APCON), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the erring media that published or aired such offensive adverts or documentaries.

 “None of our letters of protest has been attended to by the authorities. So whatever the incumbent President wants to do with the instrument of state to harass members of the opposition into humiliating submission would not work. The APC/Buhari campaign is now a people’s movement. The more they try to rubbish it, the more popular we are with the populace.

“We are not shadow-chasers or moonwalkers. The APC is concerned mainly with the lack of unity and security in Nigeria; plus the growing decimation of lives, property and territory of our great country due to preventable insurgency; the slumbering economy; decaying educational system; absence of jobs; poor public health; and the cancerous institutionalisation of corruption in our national life. You can’t fool the people all the time. Nigerians will vote out their oppressors come February 14.”

Hmm! Funmi Iyanda London Apartment Burgled

Media Personality Funmi Iyanda, says she flew back into London last night, got home only to find her doors open and flat burgled:
“Yes l arrived london last night to find my flat burgled. Whole sliding door to patio and garden forced open. I’m fine. Police been great. Material loss can be replaced or forgotten. That’s all. Need to focus on writing my talk and sundry work. Smile Funmi. Life is,” she said.