Business News

President Buhari accuses Saraki and Dogara of holding Nigeria to ransom

@MBuhari has condemned the Senate President, @bukolasaraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, @YakubDogara for delaying the passage of the 2019 budget, causing Nigeria to miss the fiscal period.

Published

2 years ago

May 28, 2019

Fakoyejo Olalekan

President Buhari interview, President Buhari signs 2019 budget, President Buhari scores Saraki and Dogara low, Ajaokuta Steel bill, President Buhari congratulate First Bank, First Bank 125 years Anniversary, minimum wage, VAIDS, VOARS, Muhammadu Buhari, Rice importation

President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara for delaying the passage of the 2019 budget, thereby causing Nigeria to miss the fiscal period.

The legislative arm of Nigeria had passed the 2019 Budget in April 2019 during a plenary session led by Saraki. This was five months after President Buhari presented the budget to the National Assembly in December.

“I told them (Saraki and Dogara) how do they feel to hold the country to ransom for seven months without passing the budget. They are not hurting me, they are hurting the country. I rate them very low.
“To hold a budget for seven months cannot be justified if you really bother about your country.” Buhari said in an interview with nta yesterday.”

Reason for the late passage: The relationship between the leaders of the National Assembly and the Presidency has been less than cordial in the last three years. The frosty relation worsened after Saraki and Dogara both dumped the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) party to rejoin the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) last year. This, coupled with witch-hunting allegations, deteriorated the relationship.

Dogara Defends NASS: In a post published on the Speaker’s website, Dogara said the job of the legislatures is not to always agree with the Federal Government, as there isn’t any chamber in the world that does so. According to him, the budget is a sensitive issue that needs careful attention, so if the administration wants the January-December timeframe, then FG should ensure early submission of the budget to NASS.

“There is always a strain, this issue of budget, because it deals with high stakes-distributional issues as to who gets what, which part of Nigeria gets this and that, so it will continually be an issue.” Dogara said in the post.

Why this matter: Nigeria’s fiscal budget runs from January to December. However, it’s almost six months into the year and six months left to the end of 2019 and President Buhari just signed the budget yesterday after Senate passed it in April.

The delay in budget implementation could ground or slow operation in some ministries, thereby leading to the late execution of some vital.

More so, the Presidency will now have the perfect excuse to defend its failure to complete certain projects in 2019. It would simply blame it on the delayed passage.

What you need to know: Contrary to President Buhari’s claim that the budget was held for seven months, it was actually five months, because he presented the budget in December to a joint session of the National Assembly, which includes the Senate and House of Representatives.

Fakoyejo Olalekan

Olalekan is a certified media practitioner from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ). In the era of media convergence, Olalekan is a valuable asset, with ability to curate and broadcast news. His zeal to write was developed out of passion to shape people’s thought and opinion; serving as a guideline for their daily lives. Contact for tips: [email protected]

1 Comment

Humphrey Onaburekhan
May 28, 2019 at 7:27 pm
It’s really unfortunate that the common masses are always left to suffer the after effect of the fight between the executives and NASS. How on earth can they explain to the masses why a budget that runs from January – December is just being signed into law after six months.
Time is coming when the masses will react to these insensitivity of NASS. We cannot continue with this I don’t care attitude.
Reply

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Energy

TCN breaks transmission record again in 2021, hits 5,584.40 MW

The TCN has broken its transmission record once again, after hitting a record of 5,584.40 MW.

Published

8 mins ago

March 1, 2021

William Ukpe

FG set to create at least 5 million jobs for youths in the power sector – Minister of Power , Consortium of Western investors to inject upwards of $5 billion in Nigeria's renewable energy sector, Power: Nigeria's deal with Siemens - the birth of a new era?

The Transmission Company of Nigeria has announced it has broken its transmission record once again, after hitting a record of 5,584.40 MW.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Power, Engineer Sale Mamman in a social media statement on Sunday evening.

Sale tweeted, “A New National Transmission Peak and Maximum Daily Energy at 8:15pm on Friday, February 26, 2021.

“5,580.40 MW at 116,891.14 MW per hour.

“Impressive from everyone at the Transmission Company of Nigeria. We will do better for Nigerians.

A New National Transmission Peak and Maximum Daily Energy at 8:15pm on Friday, February 26, 2021.
5⃣,5⃣8⃣4⃣.4⃣0⃣Megawatts 💡⬆️ 🇳🇬
1⃣1⃣6⃣,8⃣9⃣1⃣.1⃣4⃣Megawatts Hour.
Impressive from everyone at the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
We will do better for Nigerians.
— Engr. Sale Mamman (@EngrSMamman) February 28, 2021

Energy

NNPC says it does not plan to increase ex-depot price of petrol

The NNPC has said that it has no plans to increase the ex-depot price of petrol in March 2021.

Published

2 hours ago

March 1, 2021

Chike Olisah

Crude oil market remains unpredictable- NNPC Boss

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that it has no plans to increase the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, in March 2021.

This was disclosed in a press release by the NNPC and signed by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr Kennie Obateru, on Sunday, February 28, 2021.

NNPC, in the statement, warned petroleum products marketers against engaging in arbitrary price increases or hoarding petrol, so as to avoid artificial scarcity and undue hardship for Nigerians.

READ: IPMAN threatens to sell petrol above ex-depot price

The statement from NNPC partly reads, “Contrary to speculations of an imminent increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) in the country, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has ruled out any increment in the ex-depot price of petrol in March 2021.

“The Corporation was not contemplating any raise in the price of petrol in March in order not to jeopardize ongoing engagements with organized labour and other stakeholders on an acceptable framework that will not expose the ordinary Nigerian to any hardship.

“NNPC also cautioned petroleum products, marketers, not to engage in an arbitrary price increase or hoarding of petrol in order not to create artificial scarcity and unnecessary hardship for Nigerians.”

READ: DPR warns against hoarding of petroleum products by depot owners, threatens sanctions

The statement further stated that the corporation had enough stock of petrol to keep the nation well supplied for over 40 days and urged motorists to avoid panic buying.

It also called on relevant regulatory authorities to step up monitoring of the activities of marketers with a view to sanctioning those involved in products hoarding or arbitrary increase of pump price.

READ: NNPC to raise around $1 billion for Port Harcourt refinery revamp

What you should know

The ex-depot price is the price at which depot owners sell petroleum products to retail outlet owners and petrol marketers across the country.
It is a major determining factor in fixing the retail pump price of petroleum products.
Since the increase in the global price of crude oil, there has been a lot of speculation that the retail pump price of petrol would increase to between N190 and N200 per litre as against the present N162 per litre, following the removal of petrol subsidy and the announcement of full deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry.

Coronavirus

COVID-19 Update in Nigeria

On the 28th of February 2021, 240 new confirmed cases and 2 deaths were recorded in Nigeria

Published

7 hours ago

March 1, 2021

Samuel Oyekanmi

The spread of novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) in Nigeria continues to record significant increases as the latest statistics provided by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reveal Nigeria now has 155,657 confirmed cases.

On the 28th of February 2021, 240 new confirmed cases and 2 deaths were recorded in Nigeria.

To date, 155,657 cases have been confirmed, 133,768 cases have been discharged and 1,907 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

A total of 1.49 million tests have been carried out as of February 28th, 2021 compared to 1.44 million tests a day earlier.

COVID-19 Case Updates- 28th February 2021,

Total Number of Cases – 155,657
Total Number Discharged – 133,768
Total Deaths – 1,907
Total Tests Carried out – 1,489,103

According to the NCDC, the 240 new cases are reported from 13 states- Anambra (85), Lagos (82), Osun (17), Ogun (10), Kwara (9), FCT (8), Kano (7), Abia (6), Ekiti(5), Borno (4), Edo (2), Bayelsa (2) Kaduna (2) and Rivers(1).

Meanwhile, the latest numbers bring Lagos state total confirmed cases to 55,646, followed by Abuja (19,115), Plateau (8,854), Kaduna (8,422), Oyo (6,708), Rivers (6,398), Edo (4,491), Ogun (4,277), Kano (3,716), Ondo (2,944), Kwara (2,875), Delta (2,539), Osun (2,326), Nasarawa (2,208), Gombe (2,031), Katsina (2,029), Enugu (1,998), Ebonyi (1,839), Anambra (1,615), and Abia (1,487).

Imo State has recorded 1,440 cases, Akwa Ibom (1,439), Borno (1,247), Bauchi (1,221), Benue (1,188), Niger (912), Ekiti (797), Sokoto (768), Bayelsa (767), Adamawa (762), Taraba (712), Jigawa (496), Kebbi (358), Yobe (268), Cross River (267), Zamfara (219), while Kogi state has recorded 5 cases only.

Lock Down and Curfew

In a move to combat the spread of the pandemic disease, President Muhammadu Buhari directed the cessation of all movements in Lagos and the FCT for an initial period of 14 days, which took effect from 11 pm on Monday, 30th March 2020.

The movement restriction, which was extended by another two weeks period, has been partially put on hold with some businesses commencing operations from May 4. On April 27th, 2020, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari declared an overnight curfew from 8 pm to 6 am across the country, as part of new measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19. This comes along with the phased and gradual easing of lockdown measures in FCT, Lagos, and Ogun States, which took effect from Saturday, 2nd May 2020, at 9 am.

On Monday, 29th June 2020 the federal government extended the second phase of the eased lockdown by 4 weeks and approved interstate movement outside curfew hours with effect from July 1, 2020. Also, on Monday 27th July 2020, the federal government extended the second phase of eased lockdown by an additional one week.

On Thursday, 6th August 2020 the federal government through the secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 announced the extension of the second phase of eased lockdown by another four (4) weeks.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State announced the closed down of the Eti-Osa Isolation Centre, with effect from Friday, 31st July 2020. He also mentioned that the Agidingbi Isolation Centre would also be closed and the patients relocated to a large capacity centre.

Due to the increased number of covid-19 cases in Nigeria, the Nigerian government ordered the reopening of Isolation and treatment centres in the country on Thursday, 10th December 2020.

On 26th January 2021, the Federal Government announced the extension of the guidelines of phase 3 of the eased lockdown by one month following the rising cases of the coronavirus disease in the country and the expiration of phase 3 of the eased lockdown.