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Plateau lawmakers to account for N880m allowance

Twenty-two members
of the Plateau State House of Assembly have been quizzed by
anti-corruption officials over how they spent N880 million in two years.

The lawmakers
reportedly received N20million each in 2007 and again in 2008 as
“constituency allowance,” and are now being quizzed by investigators of
the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission
(ICPC). “The lawmakers were guests of the commission since last week as
the commission’s investigators took them in batches,” said Folu
Olamiti, the Media Consultant to the agency. “The last batch of eight
was attended to yesterday.” The commission began investigations after
it received a petition from “concerned elders of Plateau State” who
complained that none of the lawmakers executed projects for which they
received the money. The ICPC officials will also be looking into
whether the contracts were inflated, how the contracts were awarded to
determine whether there was competitive bidding, and whether or not the
contracts have actually been executed. Investigators would be going to
the contract cites.

Illegal allowances

Salaries and
allowances of state legislators, as well as other elected public
officials, are by law to be determined by the Revenue Mobilisation
Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). The approved amount as annual
constituency allowance for state legislators according to the RMAFC
website is 50% of their basic salary which amounts to less than N400,
000. The annual N20million being received by the Plateau State
legislators as constituency allowance is not only higher than the
approved figure, but is higher than the approved total package
(salaries plus all allowances) the legislators should receive.

Mr Olamiti explained that the commission would be finding out if the
“legislators violated any law by approving such an amount for
themselves.” A source at the anti-graft agency said “there is no doubt
that they collected the money, what we want to find out is whether they
utilised the money they received for the purpose it was meant.” The
source confirmed that although the lawmakers collected the allowance
again in 2009, the ICPC may not include that in its investigations
because “they (the legislators) could claim that the 2009 contracts
were still ongoing.” Collection of illegal and unapproved allowances is
not limited to Plateau State legislators. Members of the National
Assembly are believed to receive between N35million and N48million as
office running cost every quarter. Following statements credited to
former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the ICPC last week asked the clerk
of the National Assembly to furnish it with the vouchers and slips of
all payment made to federal legislators since 2007.

ANPP to decide fate of leaders

ANPP to decide fate of leaders

The future of the
present leadership of the All-Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) hangs in the
balance as the party convenes its National Executive Committee (NEC)
meeting tomorrow.

Sources said
yesterday that the meeting was convened by members to show their
disapproval of the committee, led by Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, the National
Chairman of the party, and its handling of party affairs. The crisis
erupted after the current executive committee nullified the party’s
“caretaker committee clause.” The clause would have created a temporary
committee to run the party while it was on vacation until the current
executives’ tenure expired on September 6. Following the move, party
members gave the executives seven days to call a meeting, in line with
the party’s constitution. “When the deadline expired last week, the
party’s state chairmen, vice-chairmen, and other members called the NEC
meeting,” said a party member who spoke under condition of anonymity.
“From their body language, they are not willing to go and so that is
why we have decided to call the meeting.”

Party insiders also say members who are dissatisfied with its
affairs are “filtering away.” “Due to the behaviour of the executives,
the party has lost prominent members to other parties,” said the
source. “Instead of attracting new members, the old members are leaving
and it is not good enough for our party.”

Oyo teachers strike unreasonable, says Akala

Oyo teachers strike unreasonable, says Akala

The Oyo State
governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, on Wednesday condemned the recent strike
by the state chapter of the National Union of Teachers (NUT).

Describing the
strike as unreasonable, Mr Akala, while speaking to correspondents at
the Murtala Mohammed Airport 2 (MMA2), Lagos said that the employees
are aware that they will go back to their job, but still went ahead
with the industrial action.

“The only thing is
that we should try as much as possible to be reasonable in this
country,” he said. “You (workers) know you are going to come back to
work, why do you have to suffer our children for no just cause?”

Two months ago,
primary and post primary school teachers in Oyo State embarked on an
industrial action, which lasted for seven weeks following agitations by
the workers for the implementation 27.7 per cent of enhanced Teachers
Salary Scale (TSS).

The strike was, nevertheless, called off on Tuesday after the state government responded to the yearnings of the teachers.

Mr Akala, however, expressed satisfaction with the teachers’ resolve to end the strike.

“But we thank God that they (teachers) are back. We have given them what they want,” he said.

Meanwhile, the
governor also talked about the recent ban of the state chapter of the
National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) will bring a lasting
solution to the protracted crisis bedevilling the leadership of the
association.

Mr Akala declined
commenting on the developments after the proscription of the union by
his government, stressing that he does not care about whoever is not
comfortable with the ban.

“What I know is
that I’ve banned activities of NURTW in my state and that is all. I am
not interested in who is who; let them go and meet their national
leaders,” he said.

On August 8, Dotun
Oyelade, special adviser to governor Akala, in a statement, announced
the proscription of the union following series of crisis in the
management of the association, adding that all corporate activities
undertaken by the union in the state were hitherto suspended.

Condemning the
fracas in the union and the loss which it has cost the State, the Oyo
helmsman maintained that ‘lasting’ peace and quiet will be returned to
the association following the ban.

“It (the ban) will bring solution,” he said. “When they (union
leaders) are no more in power, that will be the lasting solution to the
crisis in the state.”

Ogun governor shuns public debate over N100b bond

Ogun governor shuns public debate over N100b bond

The governor of
Ogun State, Gbenga Daniel, has evaded a challenge by the House of
Assembly for a live television debate on the controversial N100billion
bond.

The lawmakers,
while ruling out the possibility of granting the governor’s wish for
the bond as a result of alleged loopholes in the documents backing the
bid, said if Mr Daniel is not satisfied with their position on the
matter, he should present himself for a public debate.

Reacting to the
challenge, the state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Sina
Kawonise, at a press conference held at Governor’s Office press centre
yesterday, said the lawmakers were trying to make mockery of the
governor, therefore Mr Daniel would not engage in such a debate.

“We will not drag
ourselves to gutter level. It is childish, a serious government should
not be part of the shenanigan. It is insulting to the integrity of
people of Ogun State. It is ridiculous. Assembly wants to make mockery
of serious issue,” Mr Kawonise said.

“Debate what? Who is to be the judge? We will leave people of Ogun State to judge them.”

The information commissioner said he was optimistic the current set of legislators will not be in the Assembly in 2011.

“All of these funny
characters in the assembly will not be part of history when the next
legislature comes into place, to grant the bond.”

He alleged the
lawmakers have an agenda to kill the ruling Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) in the state and move to another party.

Indebted to PHCN

In another
development, Mr Daniel said as a result of the poor financial status of
the state, the government is owing Power Holding Company of Nigeria
(PHCN) a huge sum of money that it cannot pay. He said the company has
since sent a letter threatening to disconnect power supply to a number
of government offices.

Mr. Daniel claimed that the State House is one of the premises marked for disconnection by the company.

FEC approves N89b for fertilizer procurement

FEC approves N89b for fertilizer procurement

The sum of N89.3
billion was yesterday approved by the Federal Executive Council for the
immediate procurement and delivery of fertilizers to be sold to farmers
at subsidized rates.

The contract, which was previously awarded to only four companies, has now been awarded to 30 companies.

This decision was reached at yesterday’s 28th session of the FEC meeting which was presided over by Goodluck Jonathan.

While addressing
journalists after the weekly meeting, the minister of state for
information and communications, Labaran Maku said the minister of
Agriculture, Ahmed Abdullah presented a memo to the council seeking
ratification for the award of contract to 30 companies for the supply
of 900,000 metric tons of various types of fertilizers, for
distribution to the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.

He said the council
considered the plight of the people and decided to subsidize the
product by 25 per cent, amounting to N22.227 billion. He said this year
there is greater participation in the supply process of the product.

Mr Maku said the
council also agreed that new roads be constructed, and others
rehabilitated across all the zones of the country at a cost of N65.3b
in order to reduce the problems of road transportation in the country.

The federal
government, on Wednesday, also announced plans to enact a law that will
compel it, state and local governments to roll out long term
development plans to enable Nigeria achieve its Vision 2020 targets, at
a cost of N32 trillion.

The Vision 2020 is
intended to make Nigeria one of the top 20 economies of the world by
2020 and the first phase of the implementation plan is from 2010 to
2013.

The minister said the second phase is slated to start from 2014 – 2017 and the third phase, 2018 – 2020.

“In developing the Plan, close attention was paid to ‘what went wrong’ and ‘what do we need to do differently’”.

Upgrade of airport

Also, as part of the efforts to improve power situation at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA),

the council approved the augmentation of contract for the complete power upgrade at the sum of N7.7billion.

The contract
involves the complete replacement of the entire power infrastructure at
the 32 year old international airport, which includes the cables and
the generating sets.

Mr Maku said the
process commenced in 2009 at the cost of N5 billlion with N1 billion
appropriated for the project in the 2009 appropriation bill.

On how the airport
will be run while the overhaul is going on, the minister of aviation
Fidelia Njeze said “the power upgrade, especially the cabling will be
done in stages. I assure you it would not disrupt power supply in the
airport”.

Another approval
granted was that of the contract for the design, supply and
implementation of the Unique Taxpayer Identification Number (UTIN)
infrastructure and systems.

The contract is in the sum of $22.60million with a N40.60 million value added tax added.

The identification
number is to provide central database of all taxpayers and facilitate
tax administration by tax authorities. State governments have agreed to
contribute to the funding of the project.

It is an initiated
of the Joint Tax Board (JTB) which hopes to register all taxpayers and
issue personal identification numbers that will uniquely identify the
taxpayer.

Lagos restricts ‘okada’ movement

25/08/2010 nigeriang 3 comments

Lagos restricts ‘okada’ movement

The Lagos State
government, yesterday, announced a law banning motorcyclists, popularly
known as okada, from carrying pregnant women and children.

Babatunde Fashola,
the state governor, at the Stakeholders Forum on Motorcycle (Okada)
operations, said the ban which also includes road safety measures and
restricts the movement of motorcyclists, especially from all Lagos
bridges, will take effect from September 1.

Mr Fashola said the
move was for “the preservation of human lives and the safety of
property, and called on government agencies including the police,
traffic management agencies and state task force agencies to enforce
the law.”

Case for the underage and unborn children

Speaking on the ban
on the carrying of pregnant women and underage children, the governor
said, “The child has no say but our government has the right to stand
up on behalf of that child.” He also reiterated the need for crash
helmets and other road safety measures, saying that his government had
decided against placing an outright ban on commercial motorcycling
because of the service it provides the public and “for those who
provide these services as a means of livelihood.”

‘The danger of okada’

Also speaking at
the forum, Marvel Akpoyibo, the state police commissioner, said
okada-related accidents accounted for an average of 70 per cent of road
accidents in the state, between January and May this year.

Mr Akpoyibo, in his
call for appropriate measures in curbing the spate of accidents, said
further analysis showed that 14 per cent of okada-related accidents in
the state within the five-month period were fatal.

“Although a large
section of Lagos populace have come to regard commercial motorcycles as
a necessary evil, it has become imperative for government to
intervene…. To this end, stringent measures must be taken to curtail
the excesses of commercial motorcycle operators,” he said.

He, however,
identified “corrupt practices on the part of law enforcement agents, in
the issuance of vehicle and drivers’ licences, and dearth of
infrastructure and road signs” as some of the factors also responsible
for carnage on the roads.

Some stakeholders’ grudges

However, not all
the stakeholders were fully satisfied with the government’s decision,
as evident in the grumbling by the crowd during the forum, especially
regarding restrictions of motorcycles in some parts of the state.

According to Dansu
Alphonsus, a commercial motorcyclist in Ikeja, the banning of
motorcycles in some parts of the capital city will ‘indirectly ban him
from working’.

“I ply Ikeja area,
so by banning okada along Obafemi Awolowo way, Alausa, and Mobolaji
Bank Anthony way (all in Ikeja) will affect me too much; it’s like not
working again.”

“We should be
allowed to carry pregnant women also; it will not be good if they are
stranded where they cannot easily get transport,” he said.

Another commercial
motorcyclist, Joseph Oladoja, said the implementation of the law will
largely depend on government’s resolution to curb corruption in
obtaining drivers’ licences and other road usage permits.

“For instance, the
rider’s card which is supposed to be N800, we pay about N1,600 to get
it; the number plate which is N4,000 normally, we spend N6,000 to get
it, and this discourages most okada riders. It will be easier to
sanitise our roads if we also curb corruption in those offices,” he
said.

Courier services,
along with the okada riders, also stand to face major challenges as a
result of the new law, starting from next month.

Oladipo Akinyele of
Xpress Partners Limited, who spoke for Courier services in the state,
said their services “will be greatly affected by the restrictions
placed on motorcycles.”

“Our business
services people in core areas where it is only easy for motorcycles to
reach,” he said, in his appeal for a review of the law.

Mr Fashola,
responding to requests from the motorcyclists and courier service
owners, said his administration will look into the issues.

Bloody Sunday

Bloody Sunday

It
was that hour of Sunday, generally a work-free day, when many would be
in church praying for God’s favour; and presumably a good time to
travel as traffic was expected to be light. But all those permutations
failed Sunday 15 August in Lagos at the Berger bridge junction on the
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway when a speeding trailer (articulated truck) ran
into a convoy of vehicles held up at a police checkpoint, igniting a
fire, which spread panic and claimed scores of precious lives.

The event, on
account of its human-interest value and enormity of the loss, was
front-paged by many of the dailies, four of which we will examine. What
caused the accident, when, where, why and how many died were some of
the traditional queries tackled in the press reports in the effort to
help the reader understand the significance of the event. Although
there was near unanimity on the general details, the variations in
accounts speak of the professional vigilance and sensitivity of the
media houses in addressing the challenges of reporting.

Since none of the
reporters from these four papers witnessed the accident as it occurred,
they relied on accounts of ‘eyewitnesses’ to reconstruct what happened
before their arrival.

The problem with
eyewitnesses in emotionally stressful situations is that their accounts
can be coloured by the stress of the occasion and their prejudices.

From the headlines on Monday 16,

the papers sought
to convey the tragic nature of the event. ‘Bloody day in Lagos’, said
the Punch; ‘Day of Horror: Black Sunday in Lagos’ announced the Nation.
‘20 die in checkpoint tragedy’ asserted NEXT; while the Guardian
grouped it with similar tragedies: ‘48 feared killed, 20 vehicles burnt
in Lagos, Edo road tragedies’. All cast adequate headlines but the
Nation could have showed more racial or ethnic sensitivity to the use
of the adjective ‘black’ in qualifying that Sunday. Ours being a black
race we do not need to employ ‘black’ in any uncomplimentary context.

All were agreed
that the immediate cause of the accident was the trailer that rammed
into a commercial bus at a badly mounted/illegal police checkpoint,
leading to a conflagration, which wasted lives and property. The
Guardian, however, appeared undecided whether it was a trailer or a
petrol tanker. While it said on page 2 it was the former, it cited the
latter on page 14.

When did the accident occur?

“Around noon” (the
Nation); “around 11.27am” (NEXT), about 10am (Guardian). The Punch,
which said one of its correspondents “arrived shortly after the fire
broke out”, omitted the time. The testimony of Fadipe Idowu of the
Lagos State Fire Service in The Guardian that information about the
fire reached his office at 11.19am suggests that 11am would be a
useful, but not conclusive peg.

Where did it occur?
“On a bridge near the Berger area of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway”
(Punch; “between the Mobil Filling Station and Otedola Estate junction”
(Guardian); Shangisha bridge on the outskirts of Lagos (Nation); along
Otedola Estate, Berger Bus stop (NEXT).

On why it happened,
all speculated that the trailer’s brakes failed when suddenly
confronted by an unexpected checkpoint. The underlying anger of the
media against police checkpoint activities found vent in all the
reports. The Nation quoted Gift White, an ‘eyewitness’, who said: “The
policemen were stopping the trailer driver at the checkpoint and he did
not stop. They chased him until the man lost control and hit the
vehicles in its front. We hear they wanted to collect money from him”.

Isaac Ejuvwevwo,
who lost an SUV, also told NEXT that while held up by the checkpoint
traffic: “I just heard vehicles hitting each other behind me, then the
one behind me hit me, then I saw this trailer carrying sugar. The next
I saw fire…immediately I saw the fire, I and the other person in the
vehicle ran out. A little baby burnt in one of the cars, the parents
escaped”.

Expectedly, the Police denied complicity.

Spokesman, Frank
Mba, told the Nation: “there was no policeman at that place before,
during and after the incident. That conclusion is hasty and
unnecessary”, only to be quoted by NEXT as admitting “that there were
some checkpoints along that road but denying, “that his officers might
have caused the accident”.

On the casualties,
the figures are understandably varied. Punch’s Sesan Olufowobi showed
some enterprise in physically counting some of the charred remains to
estimate that at least 40 people died and 25 vehicles burnt.

The narrations also
had some positive sides. Punch talks of a Bolaji Bello who picked up a
13 year old, who broke her leg while fleeing the inferno, and took her
to the hospital. The hospital treated her without demanding a dime. It
will be nice to know what has since become of the girl and it will be
nice to know what will happen to the fleeing policemen, who triggered
off the disaster.

While praying for
the repose of the souls of the dead, the media should appreciate that
although police checkpoints may not disappear in the short term, they
need to be better managed as platforms for security control, and not
extortion centres. True, much evil has happened at checkpoints; some
good too has come from them. I once had a stolen car recovered there.

Untitled

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Before this takes its toll

Before this takes its toll

Last
week, residents of the Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State
took to the streets to protest the plan by the state government to
impose tolls for passage into the Lekki area.

No doubt, the gut
reaction to this move would be support from the general public. An
peaceful attempt by citizens to protest oppressive or thoughtless acts
of government is most welcome in any democracy that hopes to thrive –
and on the face of it, this civil action is as basic as they come: a
people already finding it hard to maintain a comfortable quality of
life should not be made to bear unnecessary burdens.

However, this matter is not as cut and dried as it seems.

The state
government in April 2006 signed an agreement with Lekki Concession
Company (LCC) under the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) scheme for a
period 30 years; an agreement under which the company would upgrade and
expand the busy road and recoup its investment before handing ownership
back to the government.

The company is
presently test-running at the newly constructed toll gate, and
residents are already convinced that the toll will be too high and are
very reluctant to pay any sum for going to their homes and offices
anywhere on the 24km road.

This knee-jerk
response against paying levies for infrastructure provided is worrisome
even if understandable. For years, Nigerians have cried for private
sector participation in order to inject efficiency into public
infrastructure. True, government – at various levels – has seemed
intent on muddling up these arrangements where they have occurred,
whether with Virgin Nigeria or with the Bi-Courtney Group for the
Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal Two. But, in the case of the Lekki
road, there seems to have been a structured approach to the agreement,
especially when seen in line with the massive road construction efforts
of the Babatunde Fashola-led government. In many parts of the world,
where governments seek to provide basic services such as roads, water
and electricity, citizens have found that you have to pay a little
extra for the convenience. These extras include congestion charges,
council tax, vehicle tax, road taxes and others borne from an
understanding that in the final analysis, there is no gain without pain.

At the very least,
as with MMA2, Nigerians should be motivated by the fact that they know
the services they are paying for will be delivered.

This, of course,
does not mean that the government should abdicate its responsibility to
ameliorate and avoid hardship for its citizens where it can. To this
end we find Mr. Fashola’s comments on the day of the protest troubling.

The governor, who
was held up for hours by the protestors, finally showed up and
addressed them, even though they would not listen. However, his mien
was strange for a leader in a democracy. There was mixture of disdain
and condescension, surely unacceptable since these are people he is
answerable to.

“This protest is
not necessary,” he said. “This is a commercial issue, don’t turn it
into a political issue. I don’t think it is fair to paralyse this road;
people are going to earn their livelihood; children are going to
school.” There seems to a trend with Mr. Fashola where he thinks that,
as long as what he is doing is for the public good, he owes the people
neither explanation nor empathy. This attitude, should as a matter of
urgency be discarded. In a democracy, the people’s feelings matter, the
people’s opinions – however misinformed they appear – must count.

In any case, the
protesters have a point. Has the road been completed? Is the toll too
high? And what about the promised toll-free lane that is yet to
materialise even after a committee set up by the government reportedly
agreed to this?

Add to that, the
mode of collection of the monies, as well as the apparent hurry in
effecting this (the collection of tolls is starting barely a month
after the gates went up) shows a reluctance to think this policy
through or even to engage people so that they can connect.

At the end of day,
both sides in this matter need to get off their high horses and
meaningfully engage each other to fashion out a system that is mutually
agreeable. Development will take pain and patience; and that truism is
applicable both to the concessionaires who seem a bit too eager to
recoup this investment at the expense of the people, as well as
residents of Lagos who need to come to terms with the fact that we
surely cannot conjure progress as a nation from thin air.

A case of mental courage

A case of mental courage

In 1811, the popular novelist Fanny Burney learned she had breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy without anaesthesia. She lay down on an old mattress, and a piece of thin linen was placed over her face, allowing her to make out the movements of the surgeons above her.

“I felt the instrument – describing a curve – cutting against the grain, if I may so say, while the flesh resisted in a manner so forcible as to oppose & tire the hand of the operator who was forced to change from the right to the left,” she wrote later.

“I began a scream that lasted intermittingly during the whole time of the incision – & I almost marvel that it rings not in my ears still.” The surgeon removed most of the breast but then had to go in a few more times to complete the work: “I then felt the Knife rackling against the breast bone – scraping it! This performed while I yet remained in utterly speechless torture.”

The operation was ghastly, but Burney’s real heroism came later. She could have simply put the horror behind her, but instead she resolved to write down everything that had happened. This proved horrifically painful. “Not for days, not for weeks, but for months I could not speak of this terrible business without nearly again going through it!” Six months after the operation she finally began to write her account.

It took her three months to put down a few thousand words. She suffered headaches as she picked up her pen and began remembering. “I dare not revise, nor read, the recollection is still so painful,” she confessed. But she did complete it. She seems to have regarded the exercise as a sort of mental boot camp – an arduous but necessary ordeal if she hoped to be a person of character and courage.

Burney’s struggle reminds one that character is not only moral, it is also mental. Heroism exists not only on the battlefield or in public but also inside the head, in the ability to face unpleasant thoughts.

She lived at a time when people were more conscious of the fallen nature of men and women. People were held to be inherently sinful, and to be a decent person one had to struggle against one’s weakness.

In the mental sphere, this meant conquering mental laziness with arduous and sometimes numbingly boring lessons. It meant conquering frivolity by sitting through earnest sermons and speeches. It meant conquering self-approval by staring straight at what was painful.

This emphasis on mental character lasted for a time, but it has abated. There’s less talk of sin and frailty these days. Capitalism has also undermined this ethos. In the media competition for eyeballs, everyone is rewarded for producing enjoyable and affirming content. Output is measured by ratings and page views, so much of the media, and even the academy, is more geared toward pleasuring consumers, not putting them on some arduous character-building regime.

In this atmosphere, we’re all less conscious of our severe mental shortcomings and less inclined to be sceptical of our own opinions. Occasionally you surf around the Web and find someone who takes mental limitations seriously. For example, Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway once gave a speech called “The Psychology of Human Misjudgment.” He and others list our natural weaknesses: We have
confirmation bias; we pick out evidence that supports our views. We are cognitive misers; we try to think as little as possible. We are herd thinkers and conform our perceptions to fit in with the group.

But, in general, the culture places less emphasis on the need to struggle against one’s own mental feebleness. Today’s culture is better in most ways, but in this way it is worse.

The ensuing mental flabbiness is most evident in politics. Many conservatives declare that President Barack Obama is a Muslim because it feels so good to say so. Many liberals would never ask themselves why they were so wrong about the surge in Iraq while George Bush was so right. The question is too uncomfortable.

There’s a seller’s market in ideologies that gives people a chance to feel victimized. There’s a rigidity to political debate. Issues like tax cuts and the size of government, which should be shaped by circumstances (often it’s good to cut taxes; sometimes it’s necessary to raise them), are now treated as inflexible tests of tribal purity.

To use a fancy word, there’s a metacognition deficit. Very few in public life habitually step back and think about the weakness in their own thinking and what they should do to compensate. A few people I interview do this regularly (in fact, Larry Summers is one). But it is rare. The rigours of combat discourage it.

Of the problems that afflict the country, this is the underlying one.