Jonathan left N7trillion deficit for Nigeria, Joda, Buhari’s Transition Committee Chairman Says

Ahmed Joda, the Chairman of the transition committee put in place by President Muhammadu Buhari to interface with the former administration of President Goodluck Jonathan for a smooth handover of power on May 29, has stated that the former president left behind a N7 trillion liability.

This figure contradicts claims by officials of the administration that the country’s debt profile stood at N1.3 trillion.
Mr. Joda made the disclosure in an interview he granted the Daily Trust newspaper, published on Sunday. Mr. Buhari’s deputy, Yemi Osinbanjo, had said shortly before the handover of power that the new government would be inheriting a debt of $63 billion.

However, the former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, promptly rose to the defence of Mr. Jonathan’s administration, saying of the $63 billion debt, the administration only incurred $21.8 billion. She also said the $63.7 billion cited by Mr. Osinbajo included multilateral and domestic loans by successive federal and state governments since 1960.

Speaking on Sunday, however, Mr. Joda said, “We were told at the beginning of the exercise that the government was in deficit of at least N1.3 trillion and by the end people were talking about N7 trillion; everything is in a state of collapse. “The civil service is bloated and the military and police, if you are a Nigerian, you know what they have been facing for a long time; everywhere is in a mess and these things have to be fixed”.

Murray-Bruce advises Buhari to sell off presidential jets, appoint Minister for common sense

Newly sworn-in lawmaker who is currently using the social media to champion what he termed: ‘common sense revolution’, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, has again posted series of tweets where he advocated for President Muhammadu Buhari to dispose jets in the presidential fleet.

In the strings of tweets posted @benmurraybruce on Monday morning, the Bayelsa-born
businessman claimed that, “The Annual cost of maintaining Presidential Fleet (₦5.3 Billion) can pay for 10k NYSC Corpers to start a business at 500k each #commonse
He went on to urge President Buhari to sell off the country’s 11 presidential jets, insisting that maintaining them at the cost of ₦5.3 Billion per annum was antithetical to the nuggets of ”common sense”.

While urging Nigeria’s leaders to emulate President Joyce Banda of Malawi who discarded her nation’s presidential jet so she can as well board private airlines, the Senator queried: “Does it make #commonsense that our presidential air fleet is larger than the combined fleet of the Queen of England and the British PM?”

He further used his Twitter handle to throw up the need for a common sense revolution in the country, stressing that he wish President Buhari would appoint a minister for ”common sense."

Source: Dailypost

How Sultan of Sokoto made me Speaker – Dogara

Speaker,  House of Rep Hon. Yakubu Dogara

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, yesterday, dedicated his victory to the support and fatherly backing of the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III.

Dogara defeated his opponent, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, who was earlier elected by the leadership of the All Progressives Congres in the June 9 House of Representatives speakership mock election.
Speaking at a thanksgiving service held in his honour at the Church of Christ in all Nations (COCIN), Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi State, Sunday, the lawmaker said his victory wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the royal father.

According to him, “this victory that we celebrate here today won’t have been possible without God, the Sultanate and others across the country.
“For us who are Christian minorities in the North, we should acknowledge that this victory we are celebrating here today was made possible by the intervention of the Sultan and others. We should know that there is new thinking in the North.

“We owe it a duty to make sure we unite our own part of the country and other parts of the country.

Why Fixing Refineries Can Save Buhari’s Economic Plan

If reports at the weekend are anything to go by, the Transition Committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari, to among other terms of reference, advise his government on “quick fixes” which will result in tangible, visible and practical measures, has recommended that the country’s refineries should be privatised and fuel subsidies removed.

The recommendation is reform-minded and is in lockstep with several analysts, within and outside the oil sector, who for years have advocated the privatisation of the refineries and full deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector.

Even the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which was first drafted by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and sent to the National Assembly, provides for the deregulation of the downstream oil sector, privatisation of the refineries, and establishment of regulatory bodies responsible for enforcing the relevant sections of the legislation.

However, the recommendation to sell the refineries is not a “quick fix”. For one, the unions in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its officials who have abused the inherent loopholes in the subsidy regime, would move against it.

They were instrumental to the pressure that was brought to bear in 2007 on the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who reversed the sale of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries to private investors just before his predecessor left office. The same unions threatened again to embark on strike in 2013 when the Jonathan administration toyed with the idea of privatising the refineries.

A “quick fix”, by this we mean in the short to medium-term, pending the passage of the PIB, will be for Buhari to ensure that the refineries are functioning at 60 to 80 per cent of installed capacity so that at least 50 per cent of the country’s petrol requirement is produced locally. It is estimated that Nigeria consumes some 35 million to 40 million litres of petrol a day.