Nigeria Content Online

Created in 2004 by
the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo, the Excess Crude Account had
accrued up to $17.3 billion in 2007 and peaked at about $32 billion
from $5.1 billion when it was created.

In January 2009, the Excess Crude Account had a balance of $20 billion.

In February, the
Federation Account Allocation Committee recommended the sharing of $2
billion, after the state governors mounted pressure on the federal
government to share $4 billion.

In April, the National Economic Council approved $5.3 billion to fund the federal government’s power intervention.

Between June and
August 2009, $4 billion was shared by the government, after the state
governors went to court praying that the whole amount in the reserve be
shared.

Another $2 billion was shared to ameliorate the international oil price that was drastically reduced by global economic crisis.

Another $2 billion was injected into the economy as an economic stimulus towards the end of 2009.

In April 2010, $5.3 billion was released by the Accountant General Office.

In December 2010, $1 billion was approved by the president to be shared by the state governors.

The founder and president of the Oodua Peoples
Congress, Frederick Fasehun, yesterday, said his organization will
resist the rise of political dynasties which became apparent after the
primary election of all political parties in the country.

Mr Fasehun, while addressing journalists on what
he called “Wake up series: calling Nigerians to order,” also called for
a rallying point to preserve the sovereignty of the people from
impending loss. “Is democracy synonymous with the ‘Selectocracy’ that
now determines the emergence of parties’ candidates for elective
positions?,” he said. “How can we subject ourselves to being ruled by
those who us no allegiance whatsoever because of the prejudiced,
unfair, and undemocratic process by which they emerge? How does a
servant serve well who has not been mandated to serve and how do you
expect peace from a situation of social injustice?”

The fault

According to him, “the abuse of the wish of the
majority by party leaders is caused by the failure of the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) to resolutely stamp its feet on
the nation’s political landscape as a non-partisan regulator it is
supposed to be.” “Consequently, the obvious trend in the nation’s
politics is that of supremacy of godfathers rather than the wish of the
people,” he said. Mr Fasehun said that true democracy cannot be the
nation’s lot as INEC, which he described in its present state as a
“toothless dog that can only bark but not bite”, is already laying the
foundation for a new era of rigging through its “ongoing systematic
official disenfranchisement.”

“This goes to show that Nigeria’s problem is not
the militants, but the politicians who find it difficult to provide
good leadership and social justice,” he said. “Or what is corruption if
we don’t count godfatherism, selectocracy, and rigging as its
attributes? Is institutionalization of [political] dynasties a feature
of democracy?” He added that more Nigerians need to actively speak
against social injustice because “our prophets – Fawehinmi, Beko, Chima
Ubani, Bala Usman, Enahoro – are getting fewer in numbers but we pray
the echoes of their prophecies will soon produce a worthy leader for
our currently leaderless 140 million people.”

Way forward

Mr Fasehun advised INEC to find a way to sanction
all political parties that have compromised internal democracy and
produced unpopular candidates. He expressed his reservation against
political litigations and advised the electoral commission to “open a
Department for Direct Public Complaints, where aspirants robbed of
their candidacy can file an appeal and reclaim their due mandate.” He
proposed a strict sanction for any political party that has, at least,
ten percent of its primary elections disputed. He also advocated a
statutory provision that will compel political parties to reserve at
least one third of their total candidates for women.

The Excess Crude
Account (ECA) was created and sustained in controversy. Section 162 (1)
of the Constitution on Public Revenue stipulates that, “The Federation
shall maintain a special account to be called ‘the Federation Account’
into which shall be paid all revenues collected by the Government of
the Federation.” However, that did not dissuade former President
Olusegun Obasanjo from going ahead to create the Account in 2004. The
objective was to enable government transfer all revenues earned from
crude oil exports at a price above the budgeted benchmark price
indicated in the annual fiscal appropriation.

Illegal account

On face value, the
objective seemed altruistic, as revenues in the account were supposed
to be saved for the rainy day, to provide succour for government in
times of extreme difficulty. The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and
Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), which has the constitutional responsibility
to supervise and superintend over the allocation of government revenue
has consistently condemned the account as illegal and unconstitutional,
as all revenues are supposed to be pooled in the Federation Account to
be distributed among the component units of the Federation.

This stand was
supported by the Governors Forum, a meeting of all the 36 governors,
which declared that it was an illegal creation and that all money
accruing to government should be shared by all tiers of government and
not kept in any ‘‘illegal’’ account. This stand by the governors is not
entirely selfless as they wanted a ‘‘share’’ of the pie to fund their
own things.

As at 2008, when
average crude oil benchmark price was $108 per barrel, official records
from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF)
indicated that accumulated revenue in the ECA rose to N1,728.48 billion.

However, as at December 2009, the account had been depleted to less than N72.74billion.

As at December last
year, after the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) held a
secret emergency meeting in the twilight of last month to disburse
$1billion (about N150 billion) to the three tiers of government,
Minister of State for Finance, Yawaba Lawan-Wabi, said the balance in
the Account was about $3million,

Earlier in January
2010, $5.5 billion was withdrawn from the Account for projects in the
power sector under the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP). The
following month, another $2billion was approved by the then Acting
President, Goodluck Jonathan, from foreign ECA for projects to help
stimulate the economy. Another N23.23 billion was disbursed from the
domestic ECA for the settlement of the cost of petroleum products
supply subsidy by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

After the signing
of the 2010 Appropriation Act, total distributable revenue for the
first quarter of the year stood at N1.495 trillion. But, since the
allocation was based on the 2009 oil benchmark of $45 per barrel, the
figure was reduced to about N758.06billion, requiring about N736.985
billion from the ECA to augment. ECA balance as at May was about $4.393
billion.

In June, $2billion
was withdrawn from the foreign ECA, while N36 billion was taken from
domestic ECA for revenue to augment arrears for May. With the creation
of a new excess revenue account created to host all savings in monthly
revenue earnings in excess of a ceiling of about N365 billion pegged as
amount that could be shared by the Federation Accounts Allocation
Committee (FAAC), the balance in the dollar ECA was $3.2billion and
Naira ECA N29billion, while the new excess revenue account held a
balance of N40 billion.

About $179million
was paid in July, bringing the balance in the dollar ECA to
$3.54billion, while another N20 billion went into the domestic ECA,
raising the balance N53.9billion; N75billion was paid into the new
excess revenue account for the month.

In August, another
$2billion was withdrawn from the ECA, apart from $1billion withdrawn
from ECA as seed money for the take off of the proposed Sovereign
Wealth Fund (SWF). Additional $2billion was withdrawn from the ECA the
same month, bringing the balance to about $460 million, while the new
Excess Revenue Account (ERA) climbed to over N112 billion. With about
$387.2 million transferred during the month into the dollar ECA, the
balance came to about $1.16 billion as at last October, while about
N175 billion was transferred into the Excess Development Account (EDA),
and N31.2 billion into Domestic (ECA).

However, by
December, $1billion was withdrawn from ECA and shared to the three
tiers of government during a secret emergency FAAC meeting held on the
twilight of the year.

Northern youth
under the aegis of Arewa Youth Forum (AYF) said yesterday that they
will resist any attempt by politicians to turn them into militants
following the rising wave of insecurity in that part of the country.

They made this
known in a communiqué issued at the end of their meeting in Kaduna, it
was signed by AYF president, Gambo Gujungu and secretary, Alex
Baidi.“The northern youth have resolved to resist the gradual attempts
by politicians to transform them into militants of no cause thereby
compromising their future,” the group said. “That the northern youth
shall rise up to the greater call of a united Nigeria devoid of
regional or shallow and short term convictions.” The group said that
what is happening in the region portends a great danger to the
historically recognised and respected culture of tolerance and
political dexterity associated with the people.

It stated that all
personal and group political adventures must not be transformed into
regional or religious projects at the expense of national
unity.According to the group, the inherent values that gave the country
its strength in diversity is being tempted by misguided political and
religious events across the country, and warned that the supremacy of
the country must not give way to personal, regional, political and
other sentiments.

Governors’ effort

The AYF also
commended the efforts of the state governors in the region as well as
Vice President, Namadi Sambo in their bid to build a greater Nigeria
which will of course be a great benefit to the northern region. It also
called on government at all levels to reinforce mechanism of employment
generation so as to puncture the youth sector’s tendencies exploited by
some people.The conference however resolved to carry on the
sensitisation of the youth of the north to stand up and fight all
enemies of the region intending to compromise their future.“The
conference commended the government’s effort towards conducting
credible and called on all northerners to fulfill their citizen’s
obligations by registering and be tolerant with the process,” the
communiqué said.

Former vice
president and presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), Atiku Abubakar said on Thursday that he and his team are ready
for dialogue, especially on the way to strengthen the party.

He, however, “vowed
not to succumb to any pressure and blackmail” over his reluctance to
congratulate President Goodluck Jonathan on his victory at the January
13 special convention of the ruling party.

Mr Abubakar in a
press statement signed by his media office in Abuja said he is
surprised that it has become a full time job of some people to force
his hand on the decision to concede victory to Mr Jonathan.

Speaking against
what he called the background of blackmail in the media by those he
described as “busy bodies,” the former vice president said the group
that put him forward for the PDP presidential primaries is prepared for
discussion but will not succumb to baseless propaganda against his
person and group.

“Instead of this
rigmarole by busy bodies, I believe that an appropriate response should
be to open a window for negotiation on how to strengthen our party for
the challenges ahead,” Mr Abubakar said.

He recalled that he
had informed the nation and his associates that he was consulting on
the outcome of the primaries and that whatever his position on the
presidential primaries was, it will be made available to the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Mr. Abubakar noted
that with his campaign organisation, having forwarded its misgivings
about the irregularities that attended the primaries, the media and
those hiding under their cover should be patient enough to await the
outcome of its resolution.

He added that, “it
amounts to blackmail to force a man to take any action without
evaluating its effects on his group, loyalists, associates and
supporters.” The former vice president urged those who feel strongly
about the situation to open discussion with his group on the issues
instead of the now familiar harassment against him by political jobbers.

“If those who have won the so-called victory are confident of the genuineness of their victory, they should go on,” he said.

Mr Abubakar also
restated his commitment to democracy, rule of law, credible elections,
national unity, political stability, progress and development of
Nigeria just as he reaffirmed his entire campaign team’s unwavering
commitment and loyalty to the PDP and its noble objectives.

Mr Abubakar had
lost the presidential primaries to Mr Jonathan by 805 to 2736 votes.
The third aspirant, Sarah Jubril polled only one vote.

Governor Adebayo
Alao-Akala of Oyo state, on Thursday, told his campaign team not to
underestimate the strength of the opposition as they work towards
ensuring his return to office in the 2011 elections.

The governor, who
addressed members of the Akala/Arapaja 2011 Campaign Organisation
during the inauguration of directors of committees of the organisation
and formal flag-off of his campaign for the governorship race, said
though he is sure of victory at the poll,still no stone must be left
unturned concerning their preparation.

He told the
campaigners to be ready to ‘‘kill an ant with the sledge hammer’’ as
they map out strategies. The campaign organisation, headed by Ademola
Ojo, former chairman of the Ibadan North Local government, has eight
committees to take care of all aspects of its activities.

Mr Alao-Akala
promised to always ensure that he discusses issues during his
campaigns, and not engage the oppositions in image smearing.“Surely, we
will meet obstacles. We will try and address issues and not involve in
frivolous debates or campaign of calumny. We will tell the people what
we want to do and what we have done,” he said.

Mr Alao-Akala boasted of possessing the richest credential among all
the contestants vieing for the governorship post,he revealed that his
long years in government and public service makes all the
difference.Alerting the team of the enormity of the work ahead, the
governor pointedly told them that the task might involve them, working
24 hours a day to get things done properly. He told members of the team
to work together as a team in order to achieve the goal.“I want you to
be seen as good team players and not to behave like Mr. Know It All.
Everybody knows something. When you are in the dark, make sure you
consult your colleagues who know better than you in that area,” he
admonished.

The Federal
Government has approved Arik Air as one of Nigeria’s private airlines
permitted to fly direct from Abuja to Istanbul starting from June this
year.

The Minister of
Aviation, Fidelia Njeze, said while speaking during President Goodluck
Jonathan’s meeting with the organized private sector (OPS) in Istanbul
that this follows a new negotiation on the existing Bilateral Air
Services Agreement (BASA) signed between Nigeria and the Republic of
Turkey. Mrs. Njeze said, “By June this year to be precise, Nigeria’s
side of the BASA would come into play. Good enough, Arik is now
collaborating with Turkish Airline in that aspect and by June, Arik
will start flying from Nigeria to Turkey and that would now fulfil the
Nigerian aspect of the BASA”. Prior to this new arrangement, Turkey was
the only beneficiary of the BASA arrangement with Turkish Airline
operating flights operations into the Murtala Mohammed International
Airport (MMIA), Lagos, at least three times in a week. Speaking further
on the government’s plans to remodel and build five terminal buildings,
at major international airports in the country, the Aviation minister
said, “we have done quite a lot in trying to improve on the ambiance,
that is the comfort. The ambiance is what the passengers feel and that
is what will engender confidence in the safety and critical equipment
we have put in place.” She noted that, “Nobody travels by sea or by
road from country to country it is by air and investors coming in, it
is what they see at the airports that will actually give them
confidence to invest in a particular country. And that is why
government is conscious of it, that we need to transform our airports,”
Mrs. Njeze said. She further emphasized that government cannot isolate
airport infrastructure development “from our Vision 2020 aspiration.
The need to transform our airports to me is key in our Vision 2020
aspiration. We must transform our airports because that will help
investors to really come and invest in the country”.

The Chairman of Arik Air, John Arumemi-Johnson, who was part of the
private sector delegation, in a chat with newsmen in Istanbul said he
was elated that Airline was selected to fly the Istanbul route and
assured Nigerians of the airline’s competence to deliver on its
objectives. Thanking Mr. Jonathan for approving the airline for the
operations, the Arik boss pledged his commitments to continue to
contribute his own quota to the overall development of the aviation
sector.

Following the
public outcry that trailed the killing of two persons by a riot
policeman in Mpape, a suburb settlement of Abuja on Monday, the
Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, has ordered a full scale
investigation into the incident.

He also directed
that a criminal suit be brought against the police officer that shot
the taxi driver and the lady passenger for parking in front of the bank.

Since after the
incident, soldiers have been drafted to watch over the bank. However,
NEXT’s visit to the area revealed that apart from the Zenith Bank,
other banks in the neighbourhood (AfriBank Plc,Oceanic Bank, Spring
Bank)that summarily closed for bussines after the incident, have all
resumed operations.

The Force public
relations officer, Olusola Amore, in a statement, described the
incident as “unfortunate”, and warned the public against taking the law
into their hands.

“It is regrettable
that miscreants, thugs, and other criminals used the incident to attack
the Zenith Bank in the area and set it ablaze,” Mr. Amore said.

He also said that
eight vehicles and one dispatch motorcycle were burnt down, and that
some arrests have been made in efforts to find the perpetrators.

The incident
started on Monday January 31, following the shooting of a taxi driver
and a lady passenger to death by a policeman attached to the bank.

The incident, which
almost got out of hand, also consumed nine cars belonging to the bank
and its members of staff, while the ATM machine was looted and set on
fire.

The victims were rushed to an undisclosed hospital, but later died, which triggered the riot and attack on the bank.

According to the Federal Capital Territory commissioner of police,
John Haruna, “the policeman at the centre of the crisis has been taken
into custody,” stressing that there were certain conditions that must
be met before firearms could be used, but these conditions were not
satisfied before the policeman fired his weapon.”

Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak has said he is willing to resign forthwith but fears the
country would descend into chaos if he did so.

In his first
interview since anti-government protests across Egypt began 10 days
ago, he told ABC News he was “fed up” with power, warning that the
Islamist Muslim Brotherhood party would fill any power vacuum if he
stepped down.

Speaking to ABC’s Christiane Amanpour, he vowed never to leave, saying:

“I would never run
away from this country. I will die on this soil.” He denied his
supporters were behind the violence of the last two days.

News of the
interview follows another day of violence in central Cairo, between
anti-government protesters with Mr Mubarak’s supporters. Stones were
thrown on both sides, and there has been some gunfire with one person
reported dead. The embattled president noted that it hurt him to him to
see “Egyptian fighting Egyptian”.

Meanwhile US state
department spokesman Philip Crowley has urged Mr Mubarak to move
“farther and faster” with the transition. Earlier Mr Mubarak’s newly
appointed deputy, Omar Suleiman, called for time to carry out political
reforms before presidential elections in September. He also warned
there would be a political vacuum if a proper period of transition was
not allowed.

Pro- and anti-Mubarak groups skirmish

Army tank moved
against supporters of President Hosni Mubarak as they hurled rocks at
anti-Muburak protesters in central Cairo, prompting cheers from
demonstrators battered by overnight fighting that killed six.

“Allahu Akbar, the
army and the people are hand in hand”, chanted protesters barricaded in
Tahrir (Liberation) Square, where 10,000 people on Thursday joined the
hundreds who had camped overnight. The Mubarak loyalists fled when the
tank turned its turret towards them, then regrouped nearby and resumed
throwing stones.

In Egypt’s second
largest city of Alexandria, thousands protested with anti-Mubarak
banners, one reading: “In all languages of the world, we tell you: go
out, Mubarak.”

In north-eastern
Egypt, around 4,000 people marched in Suez calling for Mubarak to step
down, while in Ismailia a crowd of 2,000 held a similar demonstration.
In Cairo protesters lined up small rocks to fight off attacks by
pro-Mubarak groups. “We are using these stones as a means of defence.
Yesterday they attacked us with molotov cocktails (petrol bombs) and
all we have to protect ourselves with is stones,” said Ali Kassem.

A Reuter’s
journalist saw protesters overpower someone they said was an undercover
member of the security services. Over a loudspeaker a voice urged:

“Don’t beat him.
Hand him to us and the organising committee and we will hand him over
to the army. The international media is watching us and saying we are
peaceful people.” Some protesters say the pro-Mubarak supporters have
been paid for by Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP). Mobile
phone operator Vodafone accused the Egyptian authorities of using its
network to send pro-government text messages to subscribers, without
clear attribution. One message sent on February 2 seen by Reuters
announced the location and timing for a pro-Mubarak rally. “If they
don’t want the president to go, okay, but let’s see whose voice is
louder…what I saw last night made me want to stay longer, it
strengthened my resolve,” said Ilham Farouk, a 27-year-old pharmacist
in a full face veil.

On Thursday the new
Prime Minister, Ahmed Shafiq, apologised for the violence and promised
an investigation. “As officials and a state which must protect its
sons, I thought it was necessary for me to apologise and to say that
this matter will not be repeated,” he told reporters. He promised an
investigation to find out “whether this was planned, was it
spontaneous, did someone direct it, (or) did a certain party encourage
it?” Algeria to lift emergency rule soon Algeria’s state of emergency,
in force for the past 19 years, will be lifted in the very near future;
official media quoted President Abdelaziz Bouteflika as saying on
Thursday.

Bouteflika also
said, at a meeting with ministers, that the government should adopt new
measures to promote job creation and that Algerian television and
radios, which are controlled by the state, should give airtime to all
political parties, the official APS news agency reported. Bouteflika
said protest marches, banned under the state of emergency, would be
permitted everywhere except in the capital. Political parties must
respect the law to ensure freedom does not degenerate into anarchy, APS
quoted him as saying.

The former Speaker
of the House of Representatives, Aminu Bello Masari, should be
prevented from being fielded as the governorship candidate of the
Congress for Progressive Change [CPC] in Kastina State, Yakubu Garba
Lado, a senator, has said.

Seeking an order
from the Federal High Court in Abuja to restrain the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) from accepting Mr. Masari, the
senator claimed that he won the primary election and should have been
presented instead of Mr. Masari.

Mr. Lado wants the
court to mandate the submission of no other candidate except him to
INEC as the party’s governorship candidate for the state for the April
2011 election.

Specifically, he
wants the court to mandate the electoral body to accept only him as the
candidate of the party at the 2011 general elections for which they won
their party primaries.

Mr. Lado also asked
the court for an accelerated hearing of the suit by abridging the time
within which the defendants may enter appearance and file their counter
affidavit, and written address to seven days, upon being served with
the originating processes.

However, the
presiding judge, Abdu-Kafarati, in his ruling on the exparte motion,
moved by counsel to the applicants, Rickey Tarfa [SAN], ordered that
the defendants be put on notice and adjourned the matter to February
11, 2011 for hearing.

The court granted
the applicants leave to serve all the originating and other subsequent
processes in the suit to all the defendants. He further granted an
order for substituted service on the defendants by serving same
processes through the office of the director of legal services of the
INEC.

Some of the
aggrieved members of the CPC listed as plaintiffs in the suit with no.
FHC/ABJ/CS/126/2011 included Abdu Umar Yandoma; Ahmed Sani Stores;
Aminu Ashiru; Murtari Isah; Muntari Dandutse; Gambo Musa; and Aminu
Turkur.

Others are Tijani Awalu; Umar Abdu Dankama; Sani Lawal; Shehu Ibrahim; Basiru Musa; Sanusi Ali, amongst others.