Fayose orders promotion letters to 45,000 Ekiti workers within one week

The Ekiti State Head of Service, (HOS) Gbenga Faseluka, has been given one week to distribute promotion letters to the over 45,000 civil servants who recently sat for qualifying interview and passed.

Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti gave the one-week ultimatum on Saturday to Mr Faseluka ion Ado Ekiti.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the governor gave the order at a news conference in Ado Ekiti.

He also said that his administration was set to fulfil an earlier promise of employing over 2,000 new hands into the state public service.

He said he would personally supervise and monitor the process of recruiting the new workers, so as to guide against any form of favouritism.

Mr Fayose said that those to be employed would cut across all the 16 local government areas of the state without applying political or religious attachment.

“In my administration; the people of Ekiti know my style, you do not need to know the governor, a big man or any member of his cabinet before you get what is due to you

“Once you are tested and deemed to be qualified, you will be taken without the so-called connection that is the norm in most places,’’ he said.

The governor, however, alleged that certain persons and political parties were attempting to buy no less than 200,000 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) yet to be collected by their legitimate owners.

He alleged that if they succeeded, they would use them to rig next month’s gubernatorial election coming up on July 14.

The governor appealed to those who registered but had not collected their PVCs to go for them to prevent any form of rigging.

However, Taiwo Gbadegesin, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state, denied the allegation.

He said that it was not possible to swap the smart cards for anyone whose name was not registered with it.

(NAN)

EXCLUSIVE: How Buhari plunged Nigeria into N2.7 trillion mess while spiting Jonathan

On Tuesday, a U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. gave judgment affirming a $6.59 billion arbitral award, plus $2.30 billion interest, against Nigeria.

The judgment was given after the country failed to show up in court to defend the matter.

The naira value of the amount came to about N2.7 trillion (at the Central Bank of Nigeria’s rate of N306 to one U.S Dollar).

Just as the judgment was handed down, PREMIUM TIMES became aware that the country would have paid less than 10 per cent of the $8.9 billion award if the Muhammadu Buhari administration had acted in line with the recommendation passed to it by the preceding Goodluck Jonathan regime.

But rather than take the recommended action, the Buhari administration scorned at the settlement agreement its predecessor signed with Process & Industrial Development Limited (P&ID), the engineering firm fighting Nigeria for breach of contract.

Official documents reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES show that a government negotiation team constituted by Mr. Jonathan successfully negotiated an out-of-tribunal settlement with P&ID and got the company to accept an $850 million payment, about 9.6 per cent of the $8.9billion award.

However, the present administration ignored that settlement and rather asked its lawyers to return to the tribunal to further contest the engineering firm’s claims.

The tribunal then ruled against Nigeria, awarding $6.6 billion in favour of the British Virgin Island’s firm.

The refusal to settle the matter for over five years attracted additional $2.3billion in accumulated interest at seven per cent per annum.

The fine followed a dispute over alleged breach of contractual agreement by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Officials familiar with the matter told this newspaper that the Jonathan government hammered out the $850 million agreement with P&ID a few days to the end of its reign.

It then transferred the responsibility of disbursing funds to the aggrieved company to the then in-coming government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“President Jonathan reasoned that since his administration was already a few days away from its exit on May 29, 2015, it was proper not to approve the payment of $850 million to avoid unnecessary suspicion,” one official said, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

A SETTLEMENT IGNORED

At a point during the tribunal hearing, counsel to the Nigerian government, Supo Shasore, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), gave a legal opinion that government’s defence for failure to discharge its obligation under the contract was “feeble and unsustainable.”

On August 11, 2014, the then Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, advised the administration to take steps to settle the matter out of the tribunal “with a view to significantly reducing the claims against it.”

At the end of negotiations on November 20 and 21, 2014, a government team recommended the payment of $1.5 billion to P&ID.

But Mr. Jonathan asked the team to press for reduction of the settlement amount. The team then achieved a further concession to about $1.1billion to allow for taxes, salaries and other remunerations to P&ID workers if the contract agreement had been executed.

On April 29, 2015, P&ID agreed to the government’s final proposal to pay $850 million to settle the matter once and for all.

Although the government expressed discomfort over the $850 million settlement, wishing it was about $500 million or less, a payment schedule was agreed.

Initial payment of $100 million was to be made immediately after the Deed of Settlement are signed by the two parties.

Subsequent payments were to be in three tranches of $250 million every four months.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources at the time, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who raised the memo for President Jonathan’s approval, said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would be requested to provide funding for the payment.

However, on May 25, 2015 (four days to the end of his term), Mr Jonathan wrote back to the Minister and the group managing director of the NNPC, saying, “I cannot approve at this time. Please bring up for the in-coming government to consider.”

The directive was contained in memo No. PRES/88-3/MPR/813/158/NNPC/7 from the then president to Mrs Alison-Madueke.

The memo was a response to another, dated May 18, 2015, in which the minister sought the president’s approval to ensure immediate settlement of the matter.

Although Mr Jonathan, based on the recommendation of the minister, gave approval for immediate settlement of the matter, he however transferred the disbursement of the money to the then in-coming Buhari administration.

However, on assumption of office five days later on May 30, PREMIUM TIMES learnt that when the matter was brought before President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, they opted for a renegotiation of the entire deal.

Mr Shasore, who was the Nigerian government’s defence counsel, was debriefed. He was replaced by Bolaji Ayorinde, also a SAN, to continue the matter at the London tribunal. Both lawyers declined to comment for this report.

On December 23, 2015, the new government asked the tribunal to set aside the award completely.

But on February 10, 2016, the tribunal dismissed the application following hearings between July 22 and 24, 2016 to determine damages.

The tribunal ruled that the damage suffered by P&ID was the loss of net income it would have received if the Nigerian government had kept its side of the contract.

HOW THE BATTLE STARTED

On January 11, 2010, P&ID signed a gas supply and processing agreement with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources on behalf of the Nigerian government.

Under the terms of agreement, P&ID was to build and operate an Accelerated Gas Development project to be located at Adiabo in Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State.

The federal government was to source for natural gas from oil mining leases (OMLs) 123 and 67 operated by Addax Petroleum and supply to P&ID for 20 years to refine into fuel suitable for power generation in the country.

The lean gas to be produced from the wet gas was to belong to the government, while ownership of the residual hydrocarbons would be vested in P&ID as consideration for processing the wet gas to lean gas.

Initial volume was about 150 million cubic feet of gas per day, and eventually to ramp up to about 400 million cubic feet per day during the 20-year period.

However, P&ID alleged that after signing the agreement, the federal government reneged on its obligation after it opened negotiation with the Cross River State government for allocation of land for the project.

P&ID said the failure to construct the pipeline system to supply the gas frustrated the construction of the gas project, thereby depriving it the potential benefits expected from 20 years’ worth of gas supplies.

The company said several attempts to settle out of court with the federal government failed.

In August 2012, P&ID served the Nigerian government a Request for Arbitration.

The federal government argued before the tribunal that the failure of P&ID to acquire the site and build the gas processing facilities was a fundamental breach, as no gas could be delivered until this was done.

But the tribunal ruled that the Nigerian government’s obligations under Article 6B of the agreement were not conditional upon P&ID constructing the gas processing facilities.

The tribunal upheld P&ID’s application requesting damages for alleged breach of contract by government.

Two members of the three-man tribunal, Lord Hoffmann and Anthony Evans, held that P&ID’s expenditure and income should have been about $6.597 billion if the GSPA was duly performed by government.

Both officials said the award should be paid together with interest at the rate of 7 per cent from March 20, 2013.

The other member, who is Nigeria’s former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Bayo Ojo, in his minority ruling said although P&ID was entitled to compensation for the breach, its damages could not have been more than three years from the date of the alleged breach.

Mr Ojo said P&ID should not be paid more than $250 million as damages.

The tribunal said damages were calculated as the present value of 20-year income, minus certain capital and operating costs incurred from building and running the refining facility.

And considering that the award was unpaid since 2013, accumulated uncollected interest at 7 per cent per annum would be about $2.3 billion as of March 2018.

Although the federal government challenged the award, P&ID said Nigeria was bound by a treaty to pay up, having waived its right to immunity as a sovereign nation when it signed the agreement.

On March 16, 2018, P&ID in its application seeking enforcement of the award said “The final award is governed by such a treaty — the New York Convention. So, Nigeria’s status as a foreign sovereign does not deprive the court of jurisdiction to confirm the award,” the company said.

When contacted for comment on the story, presidential spokesperson, Laolu Akande, said his boss would rather prefer the Attorney-General to talk about the matter.

Asked to confirm if the VP actually directed that the agreement for the payment of $850 million be set aside in 2016, Mr Akande said he should be given some time to get more details. He was yet to get back at the time of publishing this story.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, said the government was doing something about the case. He did not provide further details.

The Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, did not answer calls to his telephone when PREMIUM TIMES called to seek his comment for this report. He also did not respond to text and WhatsApp messages sent to him.

Premium Times.

Nigerian govt realises N550 billion from privatisation of assets

The Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Okoh, says about N550 billion was realised from the privatisation of some of federal government’s 142 assets that had been privatised or commercialised.

He said this on Thursday in Abuja at a news conference on the organisation’s work plan and other initiatives for 2018.

Mr Okoh added that Nigeria made 7.8 billion dollars as Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) from privatisation and commercialisation of 53 enterprises in the past 18 years.

He, however, said that not all the reforms translated into a sale or cash,

“For the assets that are just commercialised and not sold, we will not see a proceed figure as some were commercialised while some were concessioned.’’

According to him, about 37 per cent of the enterprises that have been privatised or commercialised are not doing extremely well.

This, he noted was due to macro-economic issues, fiscal problems and other issues.

He said discordant policies fundamentally affect industries, adding that access to capital, especially debt to drive the working operations on a daily basis are priced out of the profitability framework of the enterprises.

“We are not abandoning these enterprises but looking at how to address the issues that are affecting effective performance of the enterprises.

“I believe that if those enterprises were not privatised, they would have still been in the same problem, so it is not the privatisation that caused the non-performance but the business environment both from the macro perspective and the micro issues,’’ he said.

On the challenges in the power sector privatisation, Mr Okoh said there was an on-going review of the gaps in the sector.

He said that the review was essentially aimed at addressing the fundamental flaws, which includes issues around enumeration of the customers.

The director-general said enumeration and metering should address the issue of pricing and revenues in the system.

According to him, the Power Sector Recovery Plan (PSRP) provides some kind of counterpart funding of one billion dollars from the World Bank to help in the provision of some of the needed assets.

The director-general said that the organisation was not in any running battle with Distribution Companies (DISCOs), but in a collaborative effort because the BPE is a member of its board.

“We want to help address the challenges in the downstream sector of the electricity industry.

“We do not take an antagonistic position against them because we believe that these are key business challenges that they are facing,’’ he added.

Mr Okoh recalled that about N330 billion was paid as compensation of the entitlement of about 49,000 workers when the sector was privatised.

He stressed that privatisation was not a callous way of depriving workers of their entitlements because those factors were considered before the institution was privatised.

On privatisation of oil refineries, Mr Okoh said the BPE believes in rehabilitation rather than selling them off to get scrap value now.

“Through the present initiative of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, we are able to rehabilitate the refineries, not with government resources, but private sector resources which is what is going on now.

“Over the years, we have budgeted tons of money for Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) that did not turn anything around.

“If a private sector investor is coming into that sector and he is bringing his money for the rehabilitation, you better be sure that he will get that rehabilitation done because if he does not he will lose his money.

“The whole programme is about private sector investors providing the rehabilitation funds directly to the original refinery builders who would rehabilitate the refineries.

“Over a period of time, the investor through the improvement in the products that are refined would be able to pay himself out,’’ he said.

He said it was a better deal for government because in future, after amortising payments that were due to the investor, they then return an asset of a better value that could be sold, privatised or commercialised at that time for better value.

He, however, said there was no plan to sell off the 49 per cent shares government owned in the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).

“We are enjoying the dividends so much that government sees it as one of its best investments so far and the dividends from that particular investment come in billions of dollars and add to the revenue base of the government.

“The pipelines and depots are part of the assets in the downstream sector that we are presently looking at privatising and they are presently undergoing a strategic review on the best approaches to go.’’

He listed some of the transactions and initiatives the bureau was presently undertaking to privatise or commercialise.

They are: privatisation of the Afam Power Plant, which should be concluded between December 2018 and first quarter of 2019.

Others are restructuring and recapitalisation of the Bank of Agriculture, partial commercialisation of three selected national parks and re-concessioning of the Lagos International Trade Fair Ground.

The BPE was created through the Public Enterprises (Privatisation and Commercialisation) Act 1999, to diversify the economy and strengthen the private sector as Nigeria’s engine of growth and economic driver.

(NAN)

June 12: PDP, activists react to Buhari honouring Abiola

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the national honour proposed to be conferred on late Moshood Abiola, by President Muhammadu Buhari, reeks of hypocrisy and political desperation ahead of 2019 presidential election.

The announcement was made on Wednesday night in honour of Mr Abiola, who won the annulled presidential election of June 12, 1993. Mr Abiola was arrested in 1994 while struggling to claim his mandate from military dictators at the time. He died in custody in July 1998.

Kudirat Abiola, one of the late politician’s wife, was amongst those who died in the struggle for implementation of his mandate by the military. She was killed in a suspected assassination in 1996 in by suspected elements of Mr Abacha’s junta in Lagos.

The military junta led by Sani Abacha accused Mr Abiola of declaring himself president, a move it saw as treasonable felony and kept him in perpetual custody until his death, which came a month after Mr Abacha himself died of suspected cardiac arrest.

PDP, in a statement by its publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, alleged that the president’s action merely seeks to use the name and person of Abiola to gain political capital and not out of genuine reverence and recognition for him.

The opposition party says it sees Wednesday’s announcement as shocking as it recalled the president never associated, either by words or actions, with Mr Abiola. It said Mr Buhari was not also sympathetic to the Abiola family when Mr Abiola’s wife, Kudirat, was “gruesomely” murdered by the agents of a government which Mr Buhari served.

“It is therefore a sign of political desperation for President Buhari to seek to use Chief Abiola’s name as a tool to sway Nigerians in less than twelve months to an election where he, (President Buhari) is seeking a second term.

“It is also shocking that the respectable grave of Abiola can be dishonoured by granting a posthumous award on him along with someone who denounced the June 12 mandate and preferred the company of his (Abiola’s) traducers.

The party claims “Even those who now masquerade as change agents were opposed to the naming of University of Lagos after Chief Abiola.

The party said if the president genuinely wants to honour Abiola, he should do so by ending all “anti-democratic proclivities of his administration and allow for the rule of law and respect for our constitution”.

In their reactions, pro-democracy campaigners on Wednesday welcomed the Buhari administration’s declaration of June 12 as Nigeria’s new Democracy Day.

“This is a well-received development,” said Yinka Odumakin of the Campaign for Democracy. “President Buhari has affirmed our longstanding believe that June 12 is Nigeria’s Democracy Day.”

Mr Odumakin said even though the timing of the announcement was suspect, Nigerians should see its substance.

“It is another election season where political moves and gimmicks would be in the air,” Mr Odumakin said. “But the declaration of June 12 is what we are really happy about as a victory for the country.”

Mr Buhari also pledged to award Ngeria’s highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, GCFR, on Mr Abiola. He also announced the award of the second-highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, GCON, on Gani Fawehinmi, a pro-democracy campaigner, rights activist and legal practitioner. Mr Fawehinmi passed on in 2009 at 71. The same GCON honour was also announced for Mr Abiola’s running mate in 1994, Babagana Kingibe, now a key ally of President Buhari.

Also welcoming the development was Joe Okei-Odumakin, a rights activist.

Mrs Okei-Odumakin, wife of Yinka Odumakin, said today’s victory was appropriate for democracy as well as Mr Abiola, whom she said paid the supreme sacrifice for the freedom of all.

“The decision is accepted because we have been asking for the past 24 years,” Mrs Okei-Odumakin said. “Since 1999 when May 29 was declared Democracy Day, we have been kicking against it.”

Today’s decision, which she said is “highly noted and accepted”, would be even better appreciated if Mr Buhari could declare Mr Abiola a former president.

Although Mr Abiola won the election, he was never sworn in as president or so formally declared.

“We want a posthumous declaration” of Mr. Abiola “as a former president of Nigeria and we want his portrait to be lined amongst past presidents of Nigeria,” Mrs Okei-Odumakin demanded.

Several presidents since the turn of civil rule in 1999 have failed to declare June 12 Democracy Day despite frantic and regular agitations, neither did they confer Mr Abiola with the GCFR, which, although might not be an affirmation of his status as a former president, puts him in the same category of all presidents in Nigeria’s history.

The GCFR is received strictly for presidents, and Mr Abiola would be the first individual to be admitted into the tiny club of the holders. The GCON that was awarded to Mr Fawehinmi, however, is not that restricted.

Although it is seen as largely reserved for vice presidents, the honour had previously been conferred on private individuals, including Aliko Dangote and Mike Adenuga, two of Nigeria’s most-prominent businessmen alive.

Mrs Okei-Odumakin said the real test for Mr Buhari’s democratic credentials would be in 2019 when he would have to preside over an election in which he would be a contestant.

“Conducting a free, fair election is the best way to entrench democracy and immortalise” Mr Abiola, she added.

Ebenezer Babatope, a politician, said he welcomed the declaration of Mr Abiola as a posthumous holder of GFCR, but said the timing was “suspicious”.

In his take, Mike Igini, a rights activist and serving electoral commissioner, said his happiness could not be over-emphasised.

“This is one of the days I feel so elated,” he said. “That an injustice that has been going on for so long was finally put to rest by the president today.”

“Those who made May 29 as their Democracy Day have been put to shame,” Mr Igini said. “We have long condemned the celebration of Democracy Day on May 29.”

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo proclaimed May 29 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day to the consternation of June 12 activists, and rebuffed all demands for him to rescind the decision in favour of June 12.

Mr Igini said June 12 marked a watershed in Nigeria’s history and should not have been a subject of prolonged struggle to be dedicated the Democracy Day.

“We had a Muslim-Muslim ticket that people overwhelmingly voted in,” Mr Igini said. “The religion, tribal and other fault lines that had long torn us apart were resolved in that election.”

“Sadly, the military aborted that victory for democracy and I was detained with Ebun Adegboruwa and the late Bamidele Aturu in Benin over our struggle.”

“We thank God that everything is not in vain. I congratulate Nigerians,” he said.

He also demanded a posthumous designation of Mr Abiola as a former president and national monuments named after him.

“Either the National Stadium in Abuja or that in Lagos should be named after M.K.O. Abiola,” he said. “We thank the president for doing what those who came before him failed woefully to do.”

Source: Premium Times

Explain how you spent N252 billion allocations, group tells Fayose

The Ekiti Recovery Movement (ERM), an Ekiti State-based pressure group, has asked the governor of the state, Ayo Fayose, to account for a total N251.99billion which allegedly accrued to the state as federal allocation and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) under his watch.

The group also urged the governor to declare the actual wage bill of the state, which he claimed was N2.6 billion as against N1.8 billion which is reported to be the figure on all the documents from the office of the Accountant General of the state.

Addressing a press conference in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday, its Coordinator, Olalekan Soyombo, said available statistics from the Federal Ministry of Finance revealed that Ekiti had received an aggregate of N223.99 billion as allocation in the last 43 months after tax and debt deductions, querying why Mr Fayose had found it difficult to pay salary and pensions for the past eight months.

Mr Soyombo alleged that it was so pathetic that the state had made an aggregate of N17.2 billion on an average of N400 million monthly under Fayose as IGR, lamenting that the governor allegedly kept the accrual secret.

“Putting the IGR and federal allocation together in the last 43 months, the PDP government has managed N251.19 billion, outside the Paris Club refunds, capital funds, 13 month budget support funds, excess crude oil among others that this government got under President Muhammadu Buhari’s government,” he stated.

“Verifiable facts indicated that the state wage bill is N1.8billion inclusive of political appointees on consolidated salary structure. This equals N77.4b only for 43 months. When you subtract the wage bill from the allocation and add to IGR, the state is left with N173.7billion.

“If we may ask, what then is making the state government to deny civil servants and teachers their salaries and wages in spite of all these huge resources?”

Mr Soyombo also berated the Fayose administration for increasing the tuition fee in Ekiti State University to N180,000 despite the prevailing poverty in the state, saying is smacked of insensitivity .

“At various levels, Ekiti State Deputy Governor, Prof Kolapo Olusola had been approached by many unions and professional bodies, to use his good office as the official superintending over the ministry to intervene on behalf of the students, but unfortunately they decided to embark on unlawful arrest and detention of the student leaders,” said Mr Soyombo.

“As we speak today, a lot of students have dropped out of school, because they can’t afford such humongous fee.

“It is even more disheartening that there is no functional scholarship and bursary facilities that could enable indigent students to have access to education like they did under former governor, Fayemi.”

Dispelling the allegations, the commissioner for information, Lanre Ogunsuyi, said the accusations by the group were unfounded, saying at no time did the government receive N3 billion as monthly allocation since Mr Fayose assumed office.

“Even at a time, we were getting as low as N1.5 billion when the wage bill was undulating between N2.5 and N2.7 billion. That is why we are paying in arrears,” Mr Ogunsuyi said.

“It is worrisome that the government has been spending over 90 per cent of the allocation on payment of salaries and pensions and the fact that the allocations were too paltry accounted for why we have been unable to pay up.”

On the state’s IGR, Mr Ogunsuyi said the government had not been running any secret account as alleged, saying that the governor would not have been able to execute capital projects if not for his prudent management of the resources.

“The governor was able to do all this through efficient and prudent management of our resources, I mean the ones we got internally and those from the federation account,” he added.

Source: Premium Times

More reprieve for 110 illegally sacked ABU staff

The National Industrial Court, Abuja, on Wednesday dismissed the preliminary objection raised by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in a N2.5 billion garnishee proceeding instituted by 110 disengaged workers of Ahmadu Bello University(ABU), Zaria.

Justice Haastrup overruled the submission of the central bank and held that when it comes to garnishee proceeding, the CBN is like any regular bank and not an agent of the government.

Mr Haastrup also ruled that the consent of the Attorney-General of the Federation was not required as the Attorney-General is also a judgment debtor in the suit.

The preliminary objection was raised when the court gave garnishee order on ABU’s account with the CBN.

Ekokoiesua Urua, CBN’s counsel, filed a motion challenging the court’s jurisdiction to garnish accounts of government agencies with them.

The apex bank also said that the Attorney General of the Federation’s consent needed to be sought before an account maintained by them can be garnished.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the appointments of 110 ABU workers were terminated in 1996, when the institution was run by a Sole Administrator.

They approached the court in 2012, after failure of the institution to implement the recommendations of various visitation panels, which recommended that they be reinstated and all their entitlements paid.

The court ruled in favour of the workers in 2015 and ordered the university to reinstate them and pay their entitlements, which amounted to N2.5 billion.

Non-compliance with the court judgment necessitated the garnishee order on the institution’s bank accounts.

The case was adjourned until June 21 for CBN to file an affidavit to show cause and for continuation of hearing on pending applications.

(NAN)