News
2021 Budget Scales Second Reading In Senate
The 2021 Appropriation Bill of N13.08trillion, yesterday, scaled second reading in the Senate.
This followed a three- day debate on the general principles of the budget of “Economic Recovery and Resilience” presented to a joint session of the National Assembly, penultimate Thursday.
During the period, senators took turns to appraise the strengths and weaknesses of the Bill.
Some senators were particularly worried about the amount for debt service in the 2021 budget put at N3.124trillion and the proposal to finance the budget deficit through borrowing to the tune of N5.20trillion.
Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan, threatened to deny funds to ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government, that fail to adhere strictly to the 2021 budget defence timetable.
Lawan, who revealed that the budget defence would commence, next Tuesday, also said the exercise would end in the first week of November.
He pointed out that ministers were expected to appear in person for the budget defence, warning that ministers who failed to appear within the stipulated time frame would not get allocation for their ministry.
Lawan recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari, while presenting the Appropriation Bill to the joint session of the National Assembly, penultimate Thursday, had directed that ministers should come in person for the budget defence.
He noted early consideration and passage of the 2020 budget, which returned the country’s budget cycle to January – December, has significantly boosted the implementation of this year’s budget.
On funds generated by agencies of government, Lawan faulted the country’s low revenue earnings due largely to the failure of revenue agencies to remit all funds realized to the Federation Account after collection.
He advocated for improved revenue generation, collection and remittance methods as a way of increasing the nation’s revenue profile.
The 2021 Appropriations Bill, which passed the second reading, was referred by the Senate President to the Committee on Appropriations for further legislative work.
The committee, which is chaired by Senator Jibrin Barau (Kano North), was given four weeks to report back to the Senate.
Barau later told reporters that his committee has proposed to submit its report to Senate in plenary on November 3, 2020.
He spoke while outlining the timetable for the budget defence by MDAs at a press briefing.
Barau said the committee would adhere strictly to the timetable, and urged all MDAs to keep to the schedule.
Similarly, President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, said, yesterday, that the early consideration and passage of the 2020 budget which returned the country’s budget cycle to January – December, has significantly improved the implementation of this year’s budget.
Speaking, yesterday, in Abuja on the third-day debate on the general principles of the 2021 Appropriations Bill, Lawan said that the country’s return to the January to December budget cycle is a major achievement under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Ninth Assembly.
Speaking further, the President of the Senate said that the low implementation which characterised previous budgets has been significantly improved upon as evidence in the 2020 budget in which ministries have so far recorded between 50 and 75 percent implementation rates on capital projects across the country.
Lawan said, “In the last three days, we’ve witnessed submissions raising issues about the budget estimates presented to us by Mr. President. This is in continuation of our efforts to ensure the desirable cycle that we have taken the annual budget to (January – December) will be a legacy.
“This will be our legacy as the 9th National Assembly and the legacy of Mr. President.
“We have been able to do this together and there’s definitely a difference in the implementation of the 2020 budget compared to the others.
“Some Ministries and projects have received up to 75 per cent funding. There’s none that has received less than 50 percent.
“While this may not be exactly what we want, it is still an improvement and we will continue to urge the executive to implement the budget up to 100 per cent.
“But I believe that we have seen the benefit of passing the budget in good time, and this is something that we will continue to do.”
On monies generated by agencies of government, the President of the Senate who faulted the country’s low revenue earnings on the failure of revenue agencies to remit all sums to the Federation Account after collection, however, advocated for improved revenue generation, collection, and remittance methods as a way of shoring the nation’s revenue figures.
Lawan said, “Like all of us, I also have some observations. Firstly, I think our revenue generation, collection, and remittances need to be better.
“There are many agencies of government that are supposed to be generating revenues and they do so, but they don’t remit all that they are supposed to,” he said.
The Senate President announced that the relevant committees would interface on a monthly basis with revenue-generating agencies to evaluate their performance and device ways on how the same can be improved where they underperform or fail to meet revenue targets.
According to him, doing so would reduce the deficit contained in next year’s budget and subsequent ones, as well as reduce Nigeria’s dependence on loans to finance capital projects which the country direly needs.
He said, “When we are able to get more revenues, we will reduce the deficit, because this budget has a big deficit, and this is because we simply have no resources as of today and we need to have our infrastructure in place.
“So, the issue is for us to diversify the funding and finances of the projects. We may not do completely without borrowing, but we could do diversification of the sources of funding. We could go for Public-Private Partnership like many senators have suggested, so that we reduce the necessity to borrow.
“Whatever it takes, we have to provide infrastructure in this country, otherwise, we would never move beyond where we are.”
The Senate President while underscoring the importance of oversight by the National Assembly, harped on the need for the Federal Government to cut down on the cost of governance by merging some of its agencies.
“The responsibility of the National Assembly or Parliament is that whatever we appropriate is properly, economically, and efficiently applied. This is an oversight function that we must continue to do.
“Before we pass the 2021 budget, we should be able to know how much of 2020 has been implemented. This is because some projects need to be rolled over to 2021, and we need to know the extent to which they have been funded in the 2020 financial year.”
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives may compel itself, to subject yearly national budgets to public scrutiny, it was learnt, yesterday.
The House is considering a Fiscal Responsibility Act Amendment Bill, 2020.
The Legislative instrument, sponsored by Rep. Benjamin Mzondu (PDP-Benue), seeks to alter the original law, to allow for estimates from the president to undergo public scrutiny before implementation.
The Bill, amends Section 11 of the Principal Act, to assert the phrase “open to the public, the press and any citizen, or authorized representative of any organisation, group of citizens, or community, immediately after the word shall of that section.
“Section 13 of the Principal Act, is amended in subsection 2(a) by deleting the word May, in the first line of that paragraph and replacing it thereof, with the word ‘Shall’.
“Section 2(a) of Section 13 of the Principal Act, is further amended by inserting the word communities immediately after the word citizens in the provision to that subsection.
“Section 49 Subsection 2 of the Principal Act, is amended to read as follows: ‘The National Assembly shall ensure transparency during the Principal Act preparation and discussion of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, Annual Budget and Appropriation Bill, by making consultations open to the public, the press and any citizen or authorized representative of any organisation, group of citizens or community’.”
The explanatory part of the Bill states that: “This Bill, seeks to amend the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 to make it mandatory for open consultations with the public and all interested Nigerians during the preparation and discussion of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, Annual Budget and the Appropriation Bill and ensure participatory and Inclusive Budget Process in Nigeria”.
The House, on Wednesday, referred to its Committee on Appropriations, estimates of the 2021 Budget, as presented to a Joint session of the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari, penultimate Tuesday.
Committees of the House, are expected to start receiving inputs from ministries and agencies of government, next week.
The Mayor of Housing, My-ACE China, has alerted the Governor of Rivers, Akwa Ibom, and Abia states to what he calls an emerging ‘Economic Triangle’ within their states.
Mr China, a real estate success strategist who has won numerous local and international awards, has thus drawn the attention of the governors of the concerned states to the emerging development and has urged them to intentionally accelerate the emergence of the economic triangle.
Speaking to newsmen in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital at the conclusion of his business trip to the state, Mr China, who is the managing director of the Housing and Construction Mayor Limited, said the envisaged economic corridor would compete favourably with the Lagos economic hub or even better.
He said: “Talking about ‘Economic Triangle’, the only place that can wrest economic power from Lagos is Akwa Ibom, Abia, and Rivers states axis or corridor. This corridor contains more than Lagos has, if they can be interconnected with smooth roads, ports, and if their blue potentials are unlocked. They will not only wrest power from Lagos but would be more lucrative.”
The investor who is behind the emerging Alesa Highlands Green Smart City in Eleme, near Port Harcourt, said the new ‘Economic Triangle’ has a bigger potential due to massive land assets with the corridor plus blue economy and the existing hydrocarbon industry.
Explaining, Mayor of Housing said Aba (Abia State) provides the biggest fabrication capacity in West Africa to supply goods to the Gulf of Guinea; Port Harcourt provides access to the Gulf of Guinea for off-taking Aba products, and the Uyo provides deep sea port at Ibaka and international airport facilities as well as forest reserves for massive agro-economy.
He said with sea ports in Rivers State and deep seaport in Akwa Ibom, and international airports in Rivers and Akwa Ibom, Aba can focus on adequate power supply and fabrication boom to supply a new booming market around the economic triangle.
By doing this, he said, jobs would spill out in huge quantities and more manufacturers would be drawn from all over Africa to boost the fast coming African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). He said Nigeria would thus have two major trade nodes in West Africa; Lagos and the PH/UYO/Aba triangle.
He said goods going to or coming from Chad, Niger, and the rest of Central Africa can head to the Lagos ports or to the Ibaka/PH ports zone in the new economic triangle.
He said with power supply made stable, good roads, excellent security system, and ease of doing business enthroned in the zone, the South-South and South East would become the biggest economic nerve in the near future.
Mayor of Housing called on governors of the three states to be intentional about the new corridor, put away political differences (if any), and create this corridor by agreeing on projects each state would execute with a short period of time so the states would be linked by good roads, communication, security, trade laws, concessions to investors, etc.
He remarked that northerners were already heading to the Onne Port in Rivers State to export goods, saying creating a commission to oversee the development of the ‘Economic Triangle’ would fast-track its emergence.
He observed that people of the three states are peaceful and usually preoccupied with zeal for economic prosperity, saying that if they are linked to such huge opportunities staring at them in the emerging economic triangle, they would totally shun violence and focus on prosperity.
Mr China insisted that the emerging economic triangle would form a big node not only into the Gulf of Guinea economic zone but into Africa because AfCFTA is about production, certification, market availability, and easy transport nodes by sea and air. He said the new economic triangle boasts of all the factors.
“They can only realise this by working together, through collaboration. One state cannot do it but a triangle of the three will create it through seamless interconnection, ports, industrial park, etc. The people will be the richest and internally generated revenue (IGR) will be the biggest in the country,” he said.
President Bola Tinubu has sent the names of 32 ambassadorial nominees to the Senate for confirmation, days after he sent the first batch of three names.
Among them are the immediate past chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmud Yakubu, an aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri (Delta), and former Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, among others.
“In two separate letters to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, President Tinubu asked the Senate to consider and confirm expeditiously 15 nominees as career ambassadors and 17 nominees as non-career ambassadors,” read a statement on Saturday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
In the statement titled, ‘Tinubu nominates 32 additional ambassadors,’ Onanuga noted, “There are four women on the career ambassadors’ list and six women on the non-career ambassadors’ list.”
“Among the non-career ambassador designates are Ogbonnaya Kalu from Abia, a former presidential aide, Reno Omokri (Delta), former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmud Yakubu, former Ekiti first lady, Erelu Adebayo, and former Enugu governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
“Others are Tasiu Musa Maigari, the former speaker of the Katsina House of Assembly, Yakubu N. Gambo, a former Commissioner in Plateau State and former Deputy Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission.
“Professor Nora Ladi Daduut, a former senator from Plateau; Otunba Femi Pedro, a former Deputy Governor of Lagos State; Femi Fani-Kayode, a former aviation minister from Osun State; and Nkechi Ufochukwu from Anambra State are on the nomination list,” the statement read.
Also on the list are former First Lady of Oyo, Fatima Florence Ajimobi, former Lagos Commissioner, Lola Akande, former Adamawa Senator, Grace Bent, former governor of Abia, Victor Okezie Ikpeazu, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, businessman, lawyer and Senator from Ondo State, and the former ambassador of Nigeria to the Holy See, Ambassador Paul Oga Adikwu from Benue State.
Among the nominees for career ambassador and high commissioner-designates are: Enebechi Monica Okwuchukwu (Abia), Yakubu Nyaku Danladi (Taraba), Miamuna Ibrahim Besto (Adamawa), Musa Musa Abubakar (Kebbi), Syndoph Paebi Endoni (Bayelsa), Chima Geoffrey Lioma David (Ebonyi) and Mopelola Adeola-Ibrahim (Ogun).
The other nominees are Abimbola Samuel Reuben (Ondo), Yvonne Ehinosen Odumah(Edo), Hamza Mohammed Salau (Niger), Ambassador Shehu Barde (Katsina), Ambassador Ahmed Mohammed Monguno (Borno), Ambassador Muhammad Saidu Dahiru (Kaduna), Ambassador Olatunji Ahmed Sulu Gambari (Kwara) and Ambassador Wahab Adekola Akande (Osun).
“The new nominees are expected to be posted to countries with which Nigeria maintains excellent and strategic bilateral relations, such as China, India, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, South Africa, Kenya, and to Permanent Missions such as the United Nations, UNESCO, and the African Union.
“All the nominees will know their diplomatic assignments after their confirmation by the Senate,” it read.
Last week, Tinubu sent three ambassadorial nominees for screening and confirmation.
The nominees were Ambassador Ayodele Oke (Oyo), Ambassador Amin Mohammed Dalhatu (Jigawa), and Retired Colonel Lateef Kayode Are (Ogun).
All three are in the pot for posting to the UK, USA, or France after their confirmation.
“More nominees for ambassadorial positions will be announced soon,” Onanuga revealed.
The Secretary to Rivers State Government, Dr. Benibo Anabraba, has reiterated that the administration of Governor Siminalayi Fubara remains committed to improving access to quality education at all levels.
Dr. Anabraba gave the assurance while receiving the Deputy Registrar/Zonal Coordinator of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Mr Ayanfemi Adeniran-Amusan in Port Harcourt during a courtesy visit.
He emphasised that Governor Fubara remains resolute in sustaining investment in the education sector to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
According to him, “We appreciate the work you are doing and know that our students are amongst the highest in ranking.
“His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, takes education very seriously. He is sponsoring the free registration of students for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in Government Schools.
“Also, Governor Fubara has approved the establishment of Computer-Based Test (CBT) Centres across the State’s three senatorial districts and the 23 LGAs. The project is intended to improve access to digital learning and examination facilities for students so that our children are at breast with digital literacy, a prerequisite for today’s students.
“We are currently working assiduously to get those centres, both mega and mini, across the three senatorial districts and the 23 local government ready in order to meet up with your deadline,” he said.
The SSG also conveyed the assurances of the Governor to WAEC on Government’s willingness in providing land for its Zonal Office.
Earlier, the Deputy Registrar/Zonal Coordinator of the West African Examination Council, Mr Ayanfemi Adeniran-Amusan, promised to collaborate with the State Government in matters concerning education development.
In another development, the Secretary to State Government, Dr Benibo Anabraba, also met with officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, led by the Assistant Director of Intelligence, Rivers State Command, Barr. Ikediashi Nwamaka.
The SSG while appreciating the Agency for its effort in the protection of vulnerable persons, also raised Government’s concern on the activities of orphanages and care homes in unwholesome practices such as child trafficking, abuse of underaged girls also known as baby-factory, and the lack of regulations on surrogacy.
He however assured that the Rivers State Government has already put plans in place towards legislation to regulate these acts against vulnerable persons, particularly women and children.
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