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The Federal
Government is set to ensure that an effective gas policy is evolved in
Nigeria, considering that the country is fortunate to have one of the
largest gas deposits in the world which has been neglected over time,
especially for local use, the Vice President Namadi Sambo has said.

Mr Sambo made this
disclosure yesterday during a courtesy visit paid to him by a
delegation from the Nigerian Gas Association (NGA), led by its
Chairman, Charles Osezua, which was in the State House to brief him on
the just concluded Conference on Gas Development in Nigeria.

The Vice President
pledged government’s resolve to give all the necessary support towards
realizing this objective. He listed some steps taken by the government
to include construction of ten new thermal/gas power plants in the
country and the encouragement of private sector participation; the
drawing up of a gas master plan by government and the mandate given to
NNPC to commence a detailed study and designs of gas transfer.

He informed the
group that on November, 23, the President of the African Development
Bank will be visiting Nigeria to ascertain the areas where the bank can
support Nigeria.

He also pointed out
that on the 6th of December, the Islamic Development Bank will also be
in Nigeria for the IDB day and use the opportunity to examine
infrastructural projects in the country for the purpose of making
available cheap funds with long term repayment periods at low interests
rates.

Funds for growth

He further stated
that the China Exim Bank, Japanese Yen Credit, European Union and the
Common Wealth Business Council are other bodies interested in
supporting government’s planned development of the gas sector both
technically and financially.

Mr. Sambo
reiterated the administration’s resolve to support the development of
gas and its export sector in Nigeria in order to realize the roadmap to
improve power in Nigeria. “This is a viable project, the sum of N300
billion having been made available to be accessed via the CBN,” he said.

Mr Osezua commended
government’s intervention through the CBN funding to enable potential
power and gas investors access capital which hitherto had been a major
challenge.

He also observed
that it was crucial that infrastructural challenges, such as the North
to South gas pipelines network be worked.

Mr. Osezua urged government to review the licensing tenure and enthused that gas needs power and power needs power.

A group fronting
for Bukola Saraki, the Governor of Kwara State, has written the
Northern Leaders Political Forum (NLPF) asking it to narrow its search
for a northern consensus presidential candidate to Mr Saraki, who is
“young, yet fairly old.”

The Saraki National
Vanguard, which is spearheading Mr Saraki’s shot at the presidency next
year, upped its canvassing in a letter addressed to the leader of the
NLPF, Adamu Ciroma, arguing that such a choice will “marry the old
order and the new order.” “The dichotomy that has existed between the
retiring political blocks and the emerging blocks, Abubakar Bukola
Saraki could graciously and creditably serve to mend the bridge,” the
letter stated.

Mr Ciroma’s forum
has yet to reach a common agreement on the much talked-about consensus
candidate amongst the lot of Mr Saraki, a second term governor; former
military ruler, Ibrahim Babangida; former Vice President, Atiku
Abubakar; former National Security Adviser, Aliyu Gusau; and the only
female contestant, Sarah Jibril. Despite several weeks of meetings and
consultations, analysts are saying reticence on the part of the
candidates is leaving greater doubt about its workability.

The right mix

The Saraki National
Vanguard, in the letter signed by its national coordinator, Bodunrin
Oriade, said its candidate provides the needed qualities and he should
be chosen ahead of other contenders. “It will be recalled that as
chairman of NGF, Abubakar Bukola Saraki displayed an uncanny wisdom and
courage to weather the storm and tension that was generated during the
unfortunate illness of our late president, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua,”
it said, adding that the governor is “fresh and young, yet fairly old
and experienced.”

Mr Saraki faces opposition on his home front, with other groups in
Kwara State asking that he be dropped for non-performance while in
office as the governor. His supporters, however appealed to Mr Ciroma
and his committee to consider merit above other factors and select Mr
Saraki as a leader that will be “acceptable to Nigerians from all walks
of life.” “As the northern leaders convene to select a consensus
candidate for the number one job, we appeal to our elders, traditional
rulers, political stakeholders to be objective, broad minded and
courageous in nominating an individual that can truly be acceptable to
Nigerians across board. We believe Saraki is that person,” Mr Oriade.

The federal
government has approved the establishment of six new federal
universities, which will be spread across the six geo political zones
of the country in states where there are no federal universities.

Council also
approved the sum of N41 billion for the construction and rehabilitation
of eight different road projects across the six geo-politcal zones of
the country.

The minister of
information and communications, Dora Akunyili, who briefed journalists
after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting, which lasted from
10am to about 4:30pm yesterday, with 22 memos discussed, said the
council also approved $231.11 million for the procurement of direct
data capturing machines for the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) for voters registration.

She briefed
alongside Godday Orubebe, minister of Niger Delta Affairs; Sanusi
Daggash, minister of works; Andrew Obadiah, minister of water
resources; Labaran Maku, minister of state, information, and
communications; Kenneth Gbagi, minister of state education; and Nuhu
Wya, minister of state power.

The approval of the
six universities, Mrs. Akunyili said, is part of a move designed by the
federal government to bridge the admission gap for Nigerian students.

“We talk about
quality, considering the fact that as at today, only about 10 percent
of qualified candidates have access to universities, and we want as
many Nigerians as possible to have access. Council approved this
because government of President Goodluck Jonathan does not only want to
improve quality, but also to improve access, which is as important as
quality,” she said.

Widening roads

When asked why the
government is making such a decision at a time when existing
universities are poorly funded, the minister said, “Establishing new
universities will not be lowering on standard in any way, we just want
to ensure that those places where they are a lot of Nigerians, council
approved today to establish one federal university in the six geo
political zones of the country in the states which do not have federal
university. In future, we are even going to have more.

“The Minister of
Education actually presented 44 universities; we deliberated that it
will be approved in phases, starting with the six universities,” she
explained.

Mr. Daggash put the
total amount of money approved for the eight different road projects
across the six geo-political zones at a cost of N41 billion.

The road approved
for construction and rehabilitation are the Apapa-Oshodi expressway;
Oshogbo-Ilesa road; Ijebu Ode-Ibadan road; Abeokuta-Ibadan expressway;
Ibadan-Lagere-Iremo-Enuwa-Ilesa By-pass; Ahoada-Omok u-road phase 1;
Ozalla-Akpugo-Amagunze-Ihuokpara-Nkomoro-Isu-Onicha road; Umuahia-Ikot
Epene road; Suleja-Minna road; and Otukpa-Oweto road.

For the second time
since assuming office, President Goodluck Jonathan has sent a request
to the national assembly for the approval of his outstanding borrowing
plan for 2010.

In a letter to the
Senate president dated November 4th , the President asked the lawmakers
to approve the loans, saying the money will be applied to critical
projects that will improve the living standards of Nigerians immensely.
The presentation of the president’s letter is coming just a day after
the lawmakers cried out that the nation’s loans are getting high.

The National
Assembly had in April partially approved the 2010 borrowing plan which
was forwarded to them alongside the 2010 budget proposal. It will be
recalled that out of the $5.22 billion loan amount proposed under the
2010 borrowing plan, $915 million – loan amount of the World Bank
negotiated projects – was approved by the lawmakers leaving out $4.31
billion from other donors.

“Consequent upon
netting out the loan amount of $915 million already approved and
removal of two pipeline projects, the proposed loans/credits
outstanding for National Assembly approval now amounts to $3.702
billion.” the president said in his letter.

The loans and
credits would be secured on concessionary terms with repayment periods
of 25 to 40 years and a moratorium of 7 to 10 years.

According to the
President in his previous letter in August, the borrowing plan is
segmented into three broad categories that includes projects that had
been negotiated, those that were being evaluated as well as the
pipeline projects.

“The loans would be
lent to the participating states on the same terms and conditions they
are obtained from the donor agencies under a subsidiary loan agreement
that would be executed between the states and the federal ministry of
finance,” the president explained in his letter.

2011 – 2013 expenditure framework

Meanwhile,the President also forwarded the 2011 to 2013 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) to the lawmakers.

The 2007 Fiscal Responsibility Act stipulates that the budget be
based on the MTEF which is to be approved by both the Federal executive
Council and the National Assembly before becoming effective. “The MTEF
was duly approved by the Federal Executive Council on September 8th ,
2010,” the president said in the letter accompanying the document.

The National
Assembly, yesterday appealed a Lagos high court ruling that the
constitution recently amended by the lawmakers is incomplete without
the assent of the president.

A Federal High
Court sitting in Lagos, presided over by Okechukwu Okeke, ruled on
Monday that the purported amendment to the Constitution remains illegal
until it is presented to the president for his assent and approval. The
court also declared the 2010 Constitution Amendment Act as null and
void, saying it would remain void until it is sent to the president.

However, counsel to
the National Assembly, Yusuf Ustaz Usman, in response to a suit filed
by Bamidale Aturu at a federal high court in Abuja, urged the court to
nullify the ruling delivered by Mr Okeke, saying the judge ruled in
error.

Mr Aturu however
told the court, presided over by Ibrahim Auta, that since a similar
matter has just being decided upon by a Federal High Court in Lagos, he
should invoke sections 295 (2) and refer the matter to the Court of
Appeal for interpretation, because of its urgent nature and to avoid
conflicting decisions on the same matter.

Mr Usman said he has no objection in sending the case to the court of Appeal for interpretation.

Justice Auta in his
ruling said, “I invoke section 295 of the constitution and refer the
matter to the Court of Appeal for interpretation” and subsequently
transferred the matter to Court of Appeal.

In a four page Notice of Appeal Suit No: FHC/L/941/10, Mr Usman urged the Appeal court to nullify the Lagos ruling.

“The honourable
learned judge erred in law in holding that the plaintiff has the locus
standi to institute the action,” Mr Usman argued.

He added that the
trial judge also “erred in law in holding that the Presidential Assent
is necessary in order to amend the Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria when Section 9 of the said Constitution is a special
provision which stipulates the conditions and procedures for the
amendment of the Constitution.” He urged the Appeal court to nullify
the ruling on the ground that the “trial judge violated the Appellant’s
natural and Constitutional rights of fair hearing when he failed to
consider the additional authorities submitted by the Appellant’s
Counsel which authorities were also served on the Respondent’s Counsel
far before the ruling/judgement was delivered.”

Work in progress

The lawmakers also
went ahead with the second amendment to the 1999 constitution with the
handing over of the clean copy of the document to the speakers of the
state Houses of Assemblies in the National Assembly.

Ayogu Eze, the
Senate spokesman argued that the Lagos High Court ruling has nothing to
do with the second alteration of the constitution.

“They (the courts) cannot arrest the process, they can only arrest the product,” he said.

Mr. Eze, who dispelled fears of the process heating up the polity,
noted that the process is “good for this test to go on because after we
have tested it and come to a crystallized decision; nobody is going to
revisit it in the future. We are setting line marks and these landmarks
are things that will benchmark our democracy and make our democracy
what it should be. It is a healthy development so far.”

Two of the
suspended members of the House of Representative; Ehiogie Idahosa (Edo
State) and Olugbenga Onigbogi (Osun State), were, on Tuesday, recalled
after more than three months of suspension. The duo, and nine other
members, were suspended for asking the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, to quit
on allegation of fraud.

The members had
asked for Mr Bankole’s removal, accusing him of misusing funds budgeted
for the House’s capital expenditure in 2009, which amounted to N9
billion. On June 22, an agitation for the Speaker’s removal led to
violence which left two members injured. The leader of the group, Dino
Melaye, and five are challenging the suspension in court.

The House announced
on Monday that it will review the orders on individual basis on
conditions that the affected members quit litigations, and tender
apology. Messrs Idahosa and Onigbogi, who were both absent during the
violent session, turned themselves in for internal probe by the House
Ethics and Privileges Committee.

Their excuses

Mr Onigbogi said he
was away in India on June 22, 2010 and was not part of the events,
while Mr Idahosa said he “now understood every house has rules.” Mr
Idahosa, who is serving his third session in the house, told the
committee that since 1999 he has been a member, saying “the house has
trained me, I have enjoyed it and it has supported and exposed me by
giving me capacity.” Both members apologized before the committee,
according to the report, and have withdrawn their court actions,
standing down their allegations that Mr Bankole misused the money. As
the reports came up for consideration yesterday, they were promptly
cleared, and asked to resume sitting today where they are expected to
tender a public apology.

Mr Melaye, Solomon Awhinawhi, Bitrus Kaze, Doris Uboh, Annas Adamu,
and Independence Ogunewe have retained their challenge in court, and
have denied allegations of leading for pardon form the house
leadership. They expect a ruling November 15, 2010. The committee said
three other members of the group, Gbenga Oduwaye and Kayode Amusan, and
Austin Nwachukwu, have waived their rights to court action and last
week offered to be investigated. Weeks after the suspension, the House
Ethics Committee, which also investigates corruption allegations
against its members, promised it will probe the N9bn charge against the
speaker. No reports have been made on that.

Two
members-sponsored bills have shown up at the National Assembly, again
seeking to allow political appointees serve as delegates at the
conventions of political parties, weeks after the Senate dumped a
similar bill and the House promised to do same.

The bill, sponsored by the 44 members of the
committee on Constitution amendment, was read the first time at the
Senate, on Tuesday, while the House passed its version, released for
the first time through a second reading.

The Senate’s bill is a milder version of an earlier
amendment bill, which was proposed by the Presidency but thrown out by
the Senators, who described the earlier amendment as “toxic” to the
Electoral Act 2010.

The new bill proposes that the Section 87(8) of the
2010 Electoral Act, which prohibits political appointees at all
government levels from participating as voting delegates at party
congresses, be amended to accommodate political appointees who are
elected officials of the party.

“No political appointee at any level shall be a
voting delegate at the convention or congress of any political party
for the purpose of nomination of candidates for any election, except
where such a political appointee is also an elected officer of a
political party,” the new bill proposes.

Even though the new bill negates the rule of the
Senate that any bill which was thrown away from the floor of the Senate
cannot be re-introduced until after six months from the day the bill
was rejected, the Senate appears keen on passing it.

Ayogu Eze, the Senate spokesperson, argued that the
new bill is not on the same subject matter as the executive bill, which
the lawmakers rejected a few weeks ago.

Automatic delegates

The insistence of the lawmakers to go ahead with the
bill, despite their rules, may be linked to another change the bill
will bring to the Act. The bill seeks to set the quality and membership
of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of all political parties in
the Act by introducing subsection 12 to section 87.

According to the bill’s proposal, the membership of
every parties NEC shall include presiding officers of the National
Assembly, who are members of the political party, and chairmen and vice
chairmen of standing committees, who are members of the party in both
the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are 55 standing
committees in the Senate and 85 in the House of Representatives. Going
by the proposal of the bill, the National Executive Committee of the
People’s Democratic Party, the largest party in National Assembly,
would have about 240 lawmakers as members.

Conventionally, members of the National Executive Committee are automatic voting delegates at party primaries.

“In our own view, any law that we will make to ensure
our party rule more democratically, to ensure that there is good
governance, to ensure that you pull in more voices to increase the
breath of consultation within the political parties themselves, that
law is a desirable law, because at the end of the day, the people you
are sending there are the representative of the people,” Mr. Ayogu Eze
said, justifying the amendments.

“In any case, most of the other political parties,
except a few in the country, already have member of the National
Assembly as member of their NEC. What we are doing is not new or
strange in that law,” he added.

The House’s version of the bill is sponsored by Cyril
Maduabum and Igo Aguma. The bill, according to its sponsors, targets
“inconsistencies” in the already amended Electoral Act. One of them is
the mention of the Independent Candidate in the document, even when it
was rejected during constitution amendments.

The bill is to also reconcile provisions made about
dates in the Act, as well as the constitution. But the final part of
the bill seeks to make all members of the National Assembly automatic
members of the National Executive Committee of their parties.

The committee, to be the highest making body of the
parties, is expected to provide for an easier decision on the choice of
the bulk of party delegates.

Mr. Maduabum has denied that the bill has ill
intentions. He said yesterday that the bill is not a “reincarnation” of
the one rejected by the Senate and is not out to destroy democracy. The
House promptly read the bill the second time on Tuesday without debates.

Disbursing the loan
in Gombe, the NDE Coordinator, Abdulkadir Madubi, said the facility
will enable the beneficiaries to start off their individual businesses.
He added that the beneficiaries had learnt various trades under the
directorate’s skills acquisition programme. Each of them received
N20,000 payable within three years without interest. The Chairman of
the Physically Challenged Persons Association of Nigeria, in the state
Ali Goro, commended the NDE for the gesture and gave assurance that the
recipients would use the loan for the stipulated purpose. The
beneficiaries had undergone a three-month training in bead making,
weaving, fashion design, leather work and knitting.

The strike was
embarked upon jointly by the academic staff of Kano State
Polytechnic,Sa`adatu Rimi College of Education, Aminu Kano College of
Islamic and Legal Studies as well as College of Arts, Science and
Remedial Studies. The Commissioner for Higher Education, Aisha Ismail,
stated that all the parties were able to reach an agreement to call off
the strike ‘‘based on mutual trust’’. She noted that in view of the
fact that Kano is the most populous state in the country, available
infrastructure in its institutions were over-stretched due to
increasing number of student’s enrolment. Ismail reiterated
government’s commitment to the provision of necessary facilities and
structures at the institutions, through various strategies, including
Public Private Partnership.

For allegedly
flouting the local content bill, the Nigeria National Fitters
Association (NNFA), an affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC),
has petitioned the Local Content Commission and Monitoring Board over
alleged contravention of the bill by oil companies in the oil rich
Niger Delta region.

The Delta State
zonal chairman of the NNFA, Morrister Idibra, who disclosed this in
Warri, shortly after the inauguration of the Udu/Ughelli South local
government central unit, accused oil multinationals of alleged
deliberate disregard to the local content bill.

Mr. Idibra said
Nigerian fitters have not failed in their job, but their major
challenge has been the influx of foreigners. He then called on the
commission to take action and sanction multinationals that refuse to
respect the bill. He said it is unacceptable for jobs that could be
done by local fabricators to be given to foreigners.

The newly
inaugurated chairman of the Udu/Ughelli South LGA, Sugarry G. Djukpan,
said the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), awaiting passage by the
National Assembly and the Nigeria Oil and Gas Content Bill, which
encourages employment of indigenous professionals in the downstream
sectors, are major development in the nation’s oil and gas industry.

Mr. Djukpan
expressed optimism that the bill would enable locals to be real
stakeholders in the management of natural resources found in their
locality, adding that locals should be allowed to participate as way of
developing their local communities and the entire nation.

He, however,
appealed to multinationals in the region to be more responsive and
ensure that the local content bill, which enables Nigerians to handle
local work in the industry, is not violated.