Nigeria Content Online

President Goodluck
Jonathan will, Tuesday next week, present the 2011 budget estimate of
N4.56 trillion to a joint session of the National Assembly.

In a letter to
leaders of both chambers, dated December 8 2010, the president asked
the Speaker and the Senate President to let him address a joint session
of the national assembly at noon on Tuesday next week.

At the Federal
Executive Council meeting last Wednesday, the government approved a
budgetary proposal of N4.56 trillion for the 2011 fiscal year. The
figure is 10.27% less than that of 2010, but fits into the 2011-2013
Medium Term Fiscal Frame.

Wednesday’s
approval signifies the commencement of the implementation of the
2011-2013 Medium Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF) and Fiscal Strategy Pare
(FSP), the revenue and expenditure frameworks of the government as
agreed to by FEC.

According to the
these documents, the 2011 budget will have an increased non-debt
recurrent expenditure compared to the 2010 budget. The recurrent
non-debt expenditure increased by 6.77% to N2.849 trillion with major
increase in personnel cost and lower overheads.

Recurrent
expenditure has been on the increase in recent years and this trend
might persist in the medium term as the wage increase for civil
servants, medical personnel, university lecturers etc. is fully
implemented.

“To manage this,
the Government is to set up a Committee to rationalise recurrent
expenditure.” Notwithstanding complaints by policy makers, the capital
expenditure decreased by 38.6% to N1.083 trillion. Statutory transfer
is lower at N179.78 billion, while debt service recurrent is also lower
at N517.07 billion.

Return of joint sessions

In addition to the
budget, the president also forwarded a bill to establish the Nigeria
Sovereign Investment Authority which he said will “build a savings base
for the future generations, enhance development of the infrastructure
sector in Nigeria, assist fiscal stability in certain circumstances and
for related matters.” The budget presentation is coming late, but if
successfully presented to a joint session of the national assembly, it
will mark a return to the traditional method of budget presentation
which was discarded last year following the inability of both chambers
of the Assembly to agree on a venue.

Since 1999, the president had always addressed a joint session of
the legislators in the larger House of Reps chambers but last year the
Senate insisted that the address take place in its chambers.

The Commissioner of
Police for the Federal Capital Territory, John Haruna, and his Lagos
State counterpart, Marvel Akpoyibo, have been transferred on the orders
of the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim.

The development
followed the disappearance of some of the Direct Data Capture machines
imported into the country for the registration of voters for the 2011
elections, on Wednesday at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport.
Mr Haruna has been redeployed to Lagos State to take over from Mr
Akpoyibo, who has been asked to report at the Force Headquarters for
further directives.

However,
spokesperson for the Nigerian Police, Emmanuel Omore, has denied
knowledge of the redeployment. “I am not aware of the transfer and I am
yet to see any signal to that effect,” he said. A senior police source,
who did not wish to be named, confirmed that “the signal for the
movement has been signed and will soon be served administratively.” The
source further said that the two commissioners already aware and have
even started networking in their new stations. According to him, Mr
Akpoyibo may likely proceed to the National Policy and Strategic
Studies, Jos, for a course.

The DDC machines were brought into the country via cargo aircraft
early in the week and kept in a store before the disappearance on
Wednesday morning.

The All Nigeria
People Party (ANPP) yesterday said it was withdrawing its members
serving with the federal government as the party puts an end to its
participation in the government of national unity.

The national
chairman of ANPP, Ogbonnaya Onu said the National Executive Council of
the party has directed all its members in the federal government to
withdraw immediately.

Mr Onu, who
recently took over the leadership of the party, had said the ANPP,
under him, will likely pull out of the arrangement entered into by the
former leadership of the party under Edwin Ume-Ezeoke.

“Our great party
has reviewed its position and has come to the conclusion that in the
best interest of our dear country, the new All Nigeria Peoples Party
should no longer participate in the government of National Unity,” Mr
Onu said. “The party therefore calls on all its members who are holding
one position or the other, as a result of the Government of National
Unity, to withdraw their services and return home. Also, in any state
of the federation where there is any such relationship, out great party
wants those affected to take similar action.”

Mr Onu, who said
there is a bright future for the party, added it has reclaimed its
identity as the leading opposition in the country and a party to watch.

He said that in the
last two months he has visited 20 state chapters of the party and will
visit the remaining states. During the visits, he met with religious,
community and political leaders.

Mr Onu said that
since the new leadership assumed office, defections from the party have
reduced considerably and has ceased as of now.

“It is instructive
to point out that as I speak more and more people have been defecting
to our party from other political parties, especially from the ruling
party.”

Bright future

He said the ANPP
has commenced discussions with other opposition political parties who
share similar conviction with the party to ensure that it is successful
in the next general elections.

“Make no mistake
about it; Nigerians deserve and want change for the better. To defeat
hunger, poverty, disease and illiteracy, we are asking other opposition
political parties to work with us so that change can take place,” he
said.

Members in government

The party decided,
along with the Progressive Peoples Alliance to serve in the federal
government after the 2007 election when it nominated. As at today, the
party has two ministers in the PDP government. They are the Minister of
State for Finance, Yabawa Lawan Wabi and the Minister of State for
Foreign Aaffairs. The ANPP also has two advisers – Chineme Ume-Ezeoke,
Special Adviser on Civil Society matters and Ebute Ayuk, Coordinator,
Informal sector.

The three governors of the party – from Borno, Yobe and Kano States – attended the NEC meeting.

Former National
Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Audu Ogbeh, will head
the Presidential campaign of Nuhu Ribadu, former Chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), NEXT has learnt.

A close aide of Mr.
Ribadu who confirmed this stated that the choice of Mr. Ogbeh is
“because of his demonstrated integrity, vision for Nigeria and ability
to garner broad support for the candidacy of Mr. Ribadu.” Mr. Ogbeh
joined the Action Congress in 2006 alongside former Vice President,
Atiku Abubakar. Seen as one of the political leaders in Northern
Nigeria, Mr. Ogbeh left the PDP following his fallout with former
president, Olusegun Obasanjo.

He was ousted as
PDP Chairman in January 2005 following his public criticism of the
former President over the latter’s handling of the Anambra saga between
the then Governor Chris Ngige, and his estranged ‘godfather’ Chris Uba.
Mr Ogbeh, who was Chairman of the PDP from 2001 to 2005, had condemned
Mr. Obasanjo for not calling Mr. Uba to order and stopping the carnage
and destruction that went on in Anambra state during the crisis.

He was a member of
the nine-man committee of the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF)
which chose Mr. Abubakar as consensus Northern aspirant for the PDP,
though he reportedly voted for the Kwara State Governor, Bukola Saraki.

Ribadu to Kick start Campaign

Indications also
emerged that Mr. Ribadu, who has chosen “A New Nigeria is Possible” as
his campaign slogan, will commence his full campaign on December 15
when he is expected to hold a formal declaration.

Mr. Ribadu will
challenge two other aspirants for the ticket of the Action Congress of
Nigeria. They are Usman Bugaje, the national Secretary of the party,
and Attahiru Bafarawa, the former governor of Sokoto State.

Should the ongoing
discussions between the ACN and the Congress for Progressive Change
(CPC) also come to fruition, Muhammadu Buhari, former military ruler and sole Presidential aspirant of the CPC will also be a contender for the ticket.

Bisi Akande, the
outgoing national Chairman of the ACN had earlier confirmed the ongoing
negotiations between both parties. While the ACN wants an outright
merger of both parties to create a stronger party, the CPC wants an
alliance that will see both parties present a single presidential
candidate.

Chido Onumah, the director of communication of the Ribadu Campaign Organisation confirmed to NEXT that Mr. Ogbeh would head Mr.

Ribadu’s campaign
while stating that other political parties and prominent personalities
had also declared support for the aspirant.

“Our campaign is
targeted at the average Nigerian, the man and woman on the street. That
is why we are accepted not just by the traditional politicians, but by
the millions of apolitical Nigerians. However, our ongoing
widespread consultations led to the choice Chief Ogbeh who has shown
himself as a man of courage who stands by the truth, as the Chairman of
our campaign organisation,” Mr. Onumah stated.

The power outage
that paralysed operations at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport
in May this year was caused by the poor management of the airport, the
Senate has said.

The report of the
Senate Committee on Aviation, led by Ayim Ude (PDP Ebonyi state),
reveals that the power outage at the airport and other infrastructural
decay at the airport were primarily technical failures caused by lack
of funds.

The report says
the poor funding was as a result of a N17 billion debt owed Federal
Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) which the management of FAAN has
been unable to collect due to “flagrant disregard for all known
business decorum, rules, regulations and best practices.” Following the
report, the Senate on Wednesday asked the federal government to “carry
out a total overhaul of the management of FAAN in order to deal with
the corruption and incompetence in the operational system of the
organization.” The report, which was adopted by the Senate on
Wednesday, detailed how the alleged managerial failure at the aviation
authority led to a series of facility decay at the airport, resulting
in intermittent “embarrassing” breakdown of facilities at the airport.

“There is no gain
saying that our airports are embarrassments to Nigeria,” the Senate
President, David Mark, said, “Apart from the building being an
embarrassment, there are too many things that go wrong with our
airports.” According to the report, the aviation authority has seven
categories of clients including the government, handling companies,
active airlines, dormant airlines, oil companies, and concessionaires
(general and management). It says these clients collectively owe the
agency N16.777 billion.

While the
government is owing FAAN N1.405 billion, active airlines and dormant
airlines owe N3.02 billion and N2.794 billion respectively. Handling
companies owe N1.136 billion and oil companies owe the least N415.787
million.

Ghost companies

The report also
published a list of 26 companies that are management concessionaires
handling internally generated revenue collection for FAAN. These class
of companies owe FAAN the highest amount, of N5.534 billion.

“None of these
management concessionaires had bank guarantees while most of them
neither have Memorandum of Incorporation nor detailed contractual
agreement with FAAN,” Mr. Ude said. “Of all the concessionaires that
did business with FAAN, only 35% of them were properly documented.”
Meavis Nigeria Ltd and Bi-Courtney Ltd are among the 26 management
concessionaires of FAAN, but they claimed that FAAN’s allegations that
they owe N1.3 billion and N856.98 million respectively as outstanding
revenue collected and not yet remitted to FAAN are untrue.

However, the
Senate recommended that the federal government should direct FAAN to
“dispense with the services of Meavis ltd since it was unable to add
value to FAAN’s revenue profile… in the interest of airport
development and administration in the country.” The Senate also urged
the aviation minister to present the seven-year old dispute between
FAAN and Bi-Courtney on the concession agreement to the Federal
Executive Council.

Poland’s
parliament is getting its first ever African lawmaker, a teacher and
Christian pastor from Nigeria, who has lived in Poland for 17 years and
proven himself a popular local leader.

John Abraham
Godson is a councilman in the central city of Lodz. The 40-year-old
will fill a seat in the national parliament, vacated by a fellow
lawmaker from the Civic Platform party.

That lawmaker,
Hanna Zdanowska, was elected mayor of Lodz on Sunday. Godson was her
runner-up in the 2007 parliamentary elections.

He said Monday that he feels honoured and believes it is a “historic moment” for Poland.

As a lawmaker, he plans to support technological innovation in Poland and bolster ties with Africa.

His swearing-in is expected in the coming weeks.