Nigeria Content Online

President Goodluck
Jonathan yesterday broke his silence on the controversial zoning
formula of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and insisted that the
ruling party never zoned the presidency to any part of the country.

He also denied allegations that he is using public funds to run his campaign.

Mr. Jonathan spoke
to journalists at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja, after
submitting his nomination form. He was accompanied by his deputy, eight
state governors, ministers, and former party officials. The large
entourage arrived at the secretariat at about 3.30pm in a white Toyota
bus. All the governors rode in the bus with him.

Mr. Jonathan, who
formally declared his intention to run for the presidency on September
18, said he decided to run because the party had never decided to zone
the position to either the south or the north. He added that the party
has no absolute control of the zoning of the presidency.

The president, who
assured that he would not go against the party’s constitution, asked
those insisting that the presidency was zoned to any particular section
of the country, why they showed interest in the job in 2003.

“This is the first time I have to comment on zoning,” Mr Jonathan said. “At the appropriate time, you will know a little more.

“But, either by
virtue of the PDP constitution, or in practice, the presidency of
Nigeria has never been zoned to any part of the country. It has never
been zoned, or maybe I would read some sections of our own constitution
too,” he said.

The president
admitted that the concept of zoning and rotation in the PDP
constitution exists to encourage power to move from one part of the
country to the other, but that it is not limited to the office of the
president.

He explained that
it is only after the president and the vice president have emerged in
an election that the party can now decide to zone positions of the
National Assembly.

“We will read that
section from the least office (from councillorship to the presidency)
to encourage rotation and the issue of zoning. PDP does not zone the
presidency, but PDP zones offices they have absolute control or
reasonable control over. The fact also is that the chairman of the
party, deputy chairman, secretary, these are offices that PDP has
absolute control over, and normally, PDP will zone.

“The office of the
President and other elective offices like Senate Presidency, Speaker,
and National Assembly Officers, PDP has reasonable control, as long as
we are in the majority. Those offices could be zoned. But, before you
zone those offices, the President and the vice president would have
first emerged,” he said.

Origin of zoning

Mr. Jonathan
recalled that in 2007, he had a meeting with former President Olusegun
Obasanjo, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, former chairman of the
PDP, Ahmadu Ali, the former national secretary, Ojo Maduekwe, and
former chairman of the Board of Trustees, Tony Anenih, where the zoning
of the chairmanship position, the Senate presidency, and other offices
were decided.

The president
further argued that, in accordance with the PDP tradition, if for any
reason an occupant of the office zoned resigns or dies, the replacement
comes from the zone from which the former occupants hailed from.

He cited the
example of the former chairman of the party, Vincent Ogbulafor, and the
former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Patricia Etteh, both of
whom were succeeded by people from their zones.

Mr. Jonathan
recalled that when he was drafted to run as vice president in 2007, the
PDP insisted that the position of the governor should be taken back to
the zone where his predecessor, Diepreye Alayiemeseigha, comes from.

He challenged the advocates of zoning of the presidency to explain why there are contenders for the position from the north.

“Those who are
arguing, especially those who are also aspirants, who are arguing about
this zoning, ask them, were they interested in contesting the
Presidency of this country in 2003? Were they interested in 2007?

“Of course, if by
our practice, PDP has a zoning arrangement that the presidency will be
in the North for eight years, then South for eight years, then North
for eight years, in 2003 no northern aspirant would have developed
interest.

“So, even in
practice, the PDP constitution, the one I read, I decided to read from
2001, to tell you that it is not a recent issue. It has been a part of
the party. The 2009 constitution, the current one, they lifted it
exactly, no word is altered. The process of zoning is not limited to
the Presidency alone,” he said.

He also argued that
if the party had zoned the governorship seat, Gbemi Saraki, a senator,
wouldn’t be thinking of succeeding her brother, Bukola Saraki, as
governor.

“Whenever those
people talking about zoning come to you again, ask them, especially if
they are fellow aspirants like me, ask them their political interests
in 2003 and 2007.

“They are
interested in 2011, and they are still talking about zoning. I will not
do anything that is at variance with the constitution of the party,”
the president stressed.

State funds to run campaign

On the allegations
that he is using state funds to run his campaign, Mr. Jonathan said, “I
am a serving president. Most of my governors are facing the same
accusation. The fact is that you cannot use state funds to run campaign.

“All over the
world, we have electoral laws which stipulate how much an individual
can spend at elections. But, I have never used public funds to run my
campaigns. At the appropriate time, I will publish the details of my
campaign funds,” he declared.

Those who
accompanied the president include his deputy, Namadi Sambo, and eight
governors, all of whom were in the same vehicle with him. The governors
were Adebayo Alao-Akala (Oyo); Segun Oni (Ekiti); Liyel Imoke (Cross
River); Ikedi Ohakim (Imo); Ibrahim Shema (Katsina); Aliyu Akwei Doma
(Nasarawa); Isa Yuguda (Bauchi); and Sullivan Chime (Enugu).

Others in the team
were minister of police affairs, Maina Waziri; women affairs, Josephine
Anenih; former sports minister, Saidu Sambawa; special adviser to the
vice president on special duties, Isaiah Balat; former information
minister, Jerry Gana; chairman of Africa Business Rountable, Bamanga
Tukur; former resident electoral commission in Lagos, Isa Mohammed; and
the director general of Goodluck Jonathan/Namandi Sambo Campaign
Organisation, Dalhatu Tafida.

Two former national
chairmen of the PDP, Ahmadu Ali and Barnabas Gemade, as well as former
chairman of the PDP board of trustees, Tony Anenih, also came with Mr.
Jonathan.

The federal government yesterday said
it has commenced the auditing of all revenue generating agencies in the
country as well as the forensic audit of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as part of the present administration’s
effort to restore discipline in the management of public finances.

Minister of Finance, Segun Aganga, who
disclosed this at the inauguration of the Expenditure Review Committee
in Abuja yesterday, said other steps taken by government include:
strengthening the process for the inspection of exports, including
crude oil; introducing e-payment for the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS)
as well as establishing the Asset & Liability Sovereign Risk
management desk.

Financial discipline

He said the government is accelerating
the implementation of key public financial management reforms aimed at
enshrining greater discipline in the management of public finances,
improving the quality and efficiency of government’s spending, and
optimising the allocation of resources through the Annual Federal
Budget.

According to him, as part of
government’s public finance management reforms, his ministry and the
National Economic Management team (NEMT) had adopted a strategy to
refocus the country’s economy to deliver enhanced economic growth,
fast-track institutional reforms and implement fiscal/budget reform.

The bill establishing the Nigerian
Sovereign Wealth Fund, he said, would be submitted to the National
Assembly next week, pointing out that when passed into law, it will
serve as a catalyst for domestic and international investors to
participate in the effort to reduce the country’s infrastructure
deficit as well as form part of the fiscal policy.

Part of the success story, he said is
the implementation of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information
System (IPPIS) in 16 ministries so far, which has helped reduce the
number of ghost workers on government payroll by about 6,000, adding
the government is poised at extending the system to other ministries,
departments and agencies (MDAs).

Mr Aganga said the review of
expenditure in recent years indicated a disproportionate portion the
national budget was allocated to recurrent expenditure, a development
he described as quite unsatisfactory, given the country’s level of
socio-economic development.

“In 2007, 2008 and 2009, 67.79 per
cent, 69.42 per cent and 69.83 per cent of the Budget, respectively,
was spent on recurrent outlays. In 2010, based on the Amendment and
Supplementary Budgets, 66.4 per cent was allocated to recurrent
expenditure, compared to the balance of 33.6 per cent allocated to
capital spending. As a result, fewer budgetary resources may be
available for critical infrastructure,” he said.

“It is clear that if we do not deal
with the bloated level of our recurrent expenditure and overheads in
addition to seriously addressing the poor quality of our capital
expenditure, it will be difficult to have the economy we need to
achieve sustained double digit growth. We want to lay the foundation
that will accelerate our economic growth,” the minister declared.

Reviews and recommendations

To address the imbalance, he said
government considered committee that would review allocations and come
up with recommendations, medium-term action plan and timetable that
would guide the decision by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the
issue.

Specifically, the committee was charged
with the responsibility of comparing trends in our government’s
recurrent expenditure outlays with those of other countries with
similar levels of socioeconomic development; rationalise it by
identifying the most viable efficiency-promoting measures, as well as
come up with an appropriate size of the public sector workforce.

Besides, the committee would propose a
framework for future public service remuneration (and overheads) to
ensure that wage adjustments are programmed to ensure equity,
affordability and propriety of wage policy adjustments; adopt measures
to curtail the proliferation of government agencies and membership of
international organisations, as well as consider viable cost-saving
measures to institute more efficient public expenditure priorities over
the medium-term.

The Committee, which has one time
Chairman of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), Anya Anya, as
Chairman, was given two months to prepare its report, including key
findings and recommendations as well as framework for its
implementation.

Other members of the 23-man committee include: one-time Head of Service, Ama Pepple; Chairman,

Federal Internal Revenue Service
(FIRS), Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru; Accountant General of the Federation
(AGF), Ibrahim Dankwambo; former Chief Executive, First Bank of
Nigeria, PLC, Jacobs Ajekigbe; Chairman, Accenture, Nigeria, Dotun
Sulaiman, and former Director General, Budget Office, Bode Agusto.

The Nigerian
Universities Commission and the British Council are partnering to boost
Open and Distance Learning education in the country.

This involves
training a select number of instructors from six Nigerian Universities
who will in turn build capacity of their ODL teachers in their
institutions.

Suleiman
Rahmon-Yusuf, Deputy Director, Open and Distance Learning at the
Nigerian Universities Commission said training the ODL instructors is a
project that the commission feel is so important to Nigeria from the
point of view of our perennial problem of inadequate access to
university education.

“This project is
aimed basically at bringing the status of distance learning in Nigeria
up to the standard of best practice,” he said.

“So this ODL
programme aims at building capacities for individual and institutions.
The teacher needs to have the skill which is required in using ICT and
new media. It is a series of capacity building workshop to train
academic staff of participating universities.” The selected
institutions are Universities of Ibadan, Lagos , Abuja, Ife, Maiduguri
and University of Nigeria Nsukka.

Mr Rahmon-Yusu who
spoke yesterday in Abuja during the 3rd train the trainer workshop for
ODL instructors in Abuja added that they have selected a group of
people called national trainers which we trained over the years and
there is evidence that people acquired requisite skills to be able to
deliver distant learning materials using modern media.

Amir Ramzam, Deputy
Country Director of the British Council said they are investing the sum
of 200,000 USD on the project. “We are supporting this initiative as a
way of increasing access to higher education among Nigerian youth,” he
said.

Steve Swethenby,
Director of Open University of the United Kingdom said millions of
students can benefit ODL but called for the rebuilding of higher
education sector in Nigeria.

“Few years from now
there will half a million students studying by this method. I am
encouraged by the quality I see. Very good academic ideas to provide
not a second best but super flexible education.” He equally wants
Nigeria to make good use of mobile phones in learning. This is known as
m-education.

“It is interesting for Nigeria for to take a lead in the educational
exploitation of mobile phones.” Mr Rahmon-Yusuf further said that
Nigeria cannot do without this weapon of mass instruction considering
that Nigeria has a higher education participation rate of only 8.1 per
cent this means that only eight out of one hundred Nigerians between
the ages of 18 and 35 are in higher education. “This is poor. It
involves extending education to hard to reach areas,” he said.

Ayoka Adebayo, the Resident Electoral
Commissioner for Ondo State, on Monday, indicted political parties over
the electoral debacle that left Ekiti State’s gubernatorial election
the only one still being contested in court.

“I think politicians should do their
role first by enlightening their members,” she said while responding to
agitations by Ondo residents for her to be redeployed at a consultative
forum, organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), for state leaders of political parties in Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, and
Ondo States. The forum was facilitated by the International Republican
Institute, “a non-profit, nonpartisan organisation, that works to
advance freedom and democracy worldwide by developing political
parties, civic institutions, open elections, good governance and the
rule of law.” “I am not the one who invited thugs neither am I the one
that gave them guns,” she said, implying that she worked as Resident
Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti at gunpoint.

Free and fair polls

While advising political parties to be
fair and free, she made a bold claim that, in Ondo, her present
assignment, “Ayoka Adebayo will be free and fair to all the political
parties.” The forum, according to Adedeji Soyebi, an INEC’s National
Commissioner who represented the INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, is to
further engage political parties at zonal level. Mr Adedeji told the
gathering that INEC has procured completed the procurement process for
the voters’ registration equipment and has commenced the process of
recruiting 360,000 adhoc officials for the exercise. He said INEC has
also procured a software that will be used for the exercise. “The
significance of the new software, which is being rigorously tested, is
that it will tackle many of the lingering challenges that had
questioned the credibility of our voters’ register,” he said.

He charged the participants to “fully
take ownership of the electoral process” because INEC has only focused
its energy on making the process a foolproof system. “If you are to
consider people that will work the system, we will not even have
election because people are different and we are talking of party
agents, which may run into millions, INEC staff and others. What INEC
has done is to design a foolproof process,” he said. “The reason the
commission decided to engage Nigerians openly about the challenges
confronting it was a commitment to ensuring the ownership of electoral
process by ordinary people who through their contributions can make a
difference between what has gone before and what we are trying to do
now,” he said.

The INEC chairman, in his speech,
advised the parties to be wholly guided by the provisions of the 2010
Electoral Acts. Mr Adedeji, in the no-holds-barred interactive forum,
answered all the questions of the participants, who at the end of the
meeting, generally believe that it is now the responsibility of the
political parties to ensure the conduct of a credible election. “Now, I
believe INEC is ready to conduct a credible election, though there are
still a few issues yet unsettled but I think the ball is now in court
to play by the regulations” said Alatise James, the Lagos chairman of
the Action Party of Nigeria.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Lagos INEC Resident Electoral
Commissioner, Adekunle Ogunmola, said that the commission needed the
corporation and support of all stakeholders. Mr Ogunmola said that the
entire world was focusing attention on Nigeria and it was their
expectation that Nigeria would live up to the name “giant of Africa,”
by conducting free, fair and acceptable election.

The National
Assembly has agreed to postpone next year’s elections, as requested by
the Independent National Electoral Commission. It, however, warned that
it will not grant any further demands from the electoral body as it
prepares for the polls.

The lawmakers said
they view INEC’s latest appeal, that elections be moved from January to
April next year, as a challenge that will be met as Nigeria hopes to
attain credible elections in 2011.

“We are prepared
to go the whole hog to give INEC what it takes to do a good job. Let me
assure that we will always find solutions to what confronts us as a
nation,” the deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, said.

The electoral body
had requested that the elections be moved to April 2011, to allow more
time for preparations, and at a press briefing yesterday, the chairman,
Attahiru Jega, pointedly urged the National Assembly to find ways of
meeting the demand.

Last week, the INEC chairman admitted to NEXT that he can only guarantee a credible election if he is given more time.

Work to be done

The lawmakers yesterday met with the INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke.

The meeting was
attended by Mr. Ekweremadu; the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Dimeji Bankole; deputy Speaker, Usman Nafada; and
members of the constitution review committee of both chambers of the
National Assembly.

Mr. Bankole and
Mr. Nafada said while the National Assembly is prepared to “find
solutions” to the demand of the commission, further requests from a
body seen to be asking for too much may not be met.

“The National
Assembly has always responded to issues of the constitution and we have
proven that this year,” Mr. Bankole said at the meeting.

“This is just
another one, and we will come up with a solution. However, my advice to
chairman Jega is that after this presentation, we pray that we will not
have another presentation,” he said.

No suspension

The lawmakers rejected the option of suspending the Constitution until 2015, advocating for an outright change of dates.

“We know that it
is legislatively impossible to suspend a Constitution that is already
running,” the deputy Senate president said.

The decision means
that the current Constitution will have to be amended again to provide
new dates. This will also require the support of two-thirds of the
states Houses of Assembly. The lawmakers did not commit to any
particular date at the meeting, but later met with the commission
officials, where, according to Mr. Ekweremadu, the commission was asked
to submit a timeline that indicates how it arrived at the April date.

The commission is to return with the proposal on Wednesday.

“We want to ensure that there is no further extension of time,” Mr. Jega told reporters after the closed-door session.

He said the lawmakers supported INEC’s position that in the event of extension, the May 29 inauguration date be kept untouched.

While lawmakers
await the return of the commission on Wednesday, they will meet with
the 36 states legislature leaders and governors on Tuesday night, Mr.
Ekweremadu said.

He also said the
National Assembly will commence amendments procedures “immediately
thereafter”, receiving the position of the electoral body on Wednesday.
“We have committed ourselves to doing this judiciously,” he said.

Earlier, Mr. Jega
told reporters that contracts for the Direct Data Capture machines have
been awarded, saying the final contract will be signed later in the
week. He said further information on the deal will be released to the
public after the signing.

The Nigerian Bar Association yesterday warned that
results of the 2011 elections may be negatively affected if corruption
within the judiciary is not effectively tackled.

President of the NBA, Joe Daudu, said this at the
valedictory court session, in honour of Ikechi Ogbuagu as he retires
from the Supreme Court.

“One point is, however, clear, if the warning signal
raised on the issue of corruption is not heeded, jurisdiction may one
day be taken away from regular courts on election matters,” Mr. Daudu
said.

“Seats and offices have therefore been awarded
unmeritorious in the past. The desperation of most Nigerian politicians
knows no bounds. If electoral officials can be influenced to alter
election results, is it Judges and Justices that will not be sought
after for influence?”

Specifically, he said about two weeks ago, the Chief
Justice of Nigeria swore in two additional entrants into the exalted
bench of the apex court and commented on the growing accusations of
corruption levelled against the judiciary by some eminent jurist and
the bar leaders.

“I cannot and do not wish to join issues with your
lordship on the remarks you made thereon. However, when eminent jurists
such as the retired Hon Esho, Hon Akambi and many others charge that
the judiciary is getting irredeemably corrupt; such claims ought to be
taken very seriously.”

Mr. Daudu, said that the CJN served notice of
intention to bring the apex court to its full complement, saying that
it is a good step in the right direction.

“A situation where about 6 Justices will be appointed to the Supreme
Court bench I on behalf of the NBA enjoin your lordship to make history
by making appointments straight from the Bar (i.e. from the rank of
Senior Advocates) from renowned members of the academia, from the court
of Appeal and from deserving members of the rank of Chief Judges of the
High Court bench.”

The Progressive
People’s Alliance (PPA) has fixed its nomination fee for presidential
aspirants on the party’s platform in the 2011 general elections at
N500,000, and rolled out details of its primaries.

The party made this
known in a statement on Monday signed by its Director Mobilisation for
Youth Affairs, Ken Nze, who said the fee was an indication of interest
by aspirants to contest under PPA for an elective position. The fee for
the governorship elections goes for N200,000 while that of Senate
stands at N100,000.

The statement said
the amount payable for expression of interest for House of
Representatives was N75,000 while that for House of Assembly was
N25,000. The party also announced that it would commence its primaries
with the State Houses of Assembly elections on October 9, adding that
the date was in accordance with INEC’s timetable and schedule of
activities for the 2011 general elections. State House elections will
be followed by State House of Assembly Appeal Panels on October 10, the
statement read.

It added that the
primaries for governorship elections would hold on October 15, followed
by its appeal panels the next day in various states. While the National
Assembly primaries would begin on October 21 with the national appeal
panels on the following day, October 22.

The statement explained that presidential primaries for all states
and the FCT would hold on October 27, with the national appeals on
October 28. It added that the National Convention for the ratification
of presidential nomination would hold on October 29.