Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Sunday, 15 May 2016
Friday, 13 May 2016
DICON to Produce APCs this Year
By Senator Iroegbu in Abuja
The Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) has complied with the Federal Government’s approval of the establishment of Public Private Partnership (PPP) Units in Federal Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to drive industrial development and produce Armoured Personnel Carrier (APCs) before the end of this year.
To this end, the Director-General of DICON, Maj-Gen Bamidele Ogunkale, has officially inaugurated PPP Unit at the Corporation Headquarters with the support of Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) that organised a two-day training programme before its take-off.
In a statement on Friday by the DICON Public Relations Officer, Maj. Emmanuel Adeniyi, Ogunkale requested for approval to execute a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between the agency and PROFORCE Limited for joint designing and producing APCs for the armed forces and other agencies.
This, according to him, was a followup to the agreement reached at the 97th DICON Board meeting held at the headquarters, Kaduna, early this year.
He recalled that the Board had directed that all proposed JVAs should be forwarded to the ICRC for its technical input and in line with due process which dovetailed into the recent training programme packaged to broaden the horizon of DICON Management staff on PPP matters.
He further disclosed that the Chairman of DICON Board, Amb. Danjuma Sheni had earlier drawn the attention of the Corporation to a Circular which directed that PPP Units be established in the MDAs, adding that the recent inauguration was in compliance to that directive.
Ogunkale also explained that he invited the PROFORCE Chief Executive Officers to be part of the training package as the arrangement to partner with them had gone beyond secondary level, stressing that “before the year runs out I am optimistic that some APCs must have been rolled out”.
Wednesday, 11 May 2016
I Am More Interested In Repatriating Nigeria’s Stolen Assets Than Apologies – Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday said he is more interested in repatriating Nigeria’s stolen assets than any apology from British Prime Minister, David Cameron, following sour remarks ahead of the Anti – Corruption Summit in London.
He said this during a question and answer session with journalists after delivering a keynote address on “Why We Must Tackle Corruption Together” at a pre-summit conference of development partners, the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, Transparency International and other civil society groups.
The President said Britain should be prepared to hand over to Nigeria assets left by former government officials, as he has nothing to do with apologies.
He maintained that what is uppermost in his mind is the return of assets and funds stacked away in Britain and other countries back to Nigeria.
“I am not going to demand an apology from anybody from anybody. All I will demand is the return of assets.
“I have already mentioned how Britain really led and how disgraceful one of the Nigerian executives was, he had to dress like a woman to leave Britain and leave behind his bank account and fixed assets, which Britain is prepared to handover to us.
“This is what I am asking for, what will I do with apology; I need something tangible”, he said.
Mr Cameron was caught on camera telling the Queen that the UK would be greeting leaders of some ‘fantastically corrupt’ nations on Thursday and citing Nigeria and Afghanistan as one of those countries.
The Anti-corruption Summit that will begin in the UK on Thursday is expected to come up with a declaration that will make it faster to repatriate all stolen funds back to their countries of origin.
The Acting High Commissioner of Nigeria to the United Kingdom, Mr Simon Orga, said the declaration would remove all obstacles and bottlenecks that had impeded the repatriation of such funds.
Agreement will also be reached on the repatriation or extradition of persons that had looted their nation’s funds to ensure they faced trial.
Mr Orga expressed optimism that the summit would remove all impediments to the efforts of the Nigerian President to get all stolen money in the UK repatriated.
“At the end of the conference there will be a declaration and it will focus on all stolen wealth that are in the UK to have them repatriated.
“At the end of the conference there will be a declaration and it will focus on all stolen wealth that are in the UK to have them repatriated.
“It will be faster to facilitate the repatriation of the assets that are abroad and even the people behind it, leaving abroad could be extradited to Nigeria.
“It has gone beyond the shores of Nigeria and many world leaders already know the implication of fighting corruption and that is why they have conveyed the summit,” he told Channels Television’s correspondent, Chukwuma Onuekwusi.
An Old Snapshot Of Nigeria
The Presidency had on Tuesday said Mr Cameron’s statement that Nigeria is a “fantastically corrupt” country is not reflective of the anti-corruption posture of the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
A spokesman for the President, Mr Garba Shehu, gave the response hours after a video of a conversation between, Mr Cameron, Queen Elizabeth, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby and the Speaker of parliament’s House of Commons, John Bercow was published online.
He said Buhari was changing all that was wrong with Nigeria, including corruption, stressing that the president’s efforts reflected in his selection as a keynote speaker at a pre-summit in London.
He said: “It (Cameron’s statement) is certainly not reflective of the good work that the President is doing. The eyes of the world are on what is happening here.
“The Prime Minister must be looking at an old snapshot of Nigeria. Things are changing with corruption and everything else. That, we believe is the reason they chose him as a keynote speaker at the pre-summit conference”.
Mr Shehu further commended the Archbishop of Canterbury for emphasising that President Buhari was not corrupt.
He said Nigeria cherished the good relationship between the two countries and that nothing would truncate the relationship.
Nigeria spends N14,000 daily to feed each prisoner
Nigerian government is annually spending N10billion for feeding of prisoners in the country, minister of Interior, AbdurRahman Dambazau has said.
With the country’s estimated prison population of 57,000, the government is roughly spending N14,000 for a three-square meal of each prisoner per day.
Speaking at a town hall meeting in Kaduna on Tuesday, Dambazau said his ministry is searching inward to see how it can harness some revenue sources in the sector to complement government’s efforts.
“It is unacceptable for government to be commiting N10 billion every year on feeding of prison inmates,” Dambazau said.
Tuesday, 10 May 2016
APC Structures Can Win Elections In South South – Etta, Ndoma-Egba
Similarly, former Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, also assured that the APC has the structures to win in any election in Cross River.
They gave the assurances on Tuesday in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar.
According to Eta the party is strong in Cross River and has the strength to win the forthcoming governorship elections in Edo.“We are on the ground in Cross River state. We have the right calibre of people who can win elections here at the appropriate time.
“The APC is grounded in Edo politics. It is poised to win and retain the governorship of Edo. Not because we are a garrison party, not because we intend to capture Edo.
“It is simply because we are campaigning on the accomplishments of our outgoing governor. So there is absolutely no problem. Yet people impugn all manner of conspiracy theories.
“The APC has not lost hold of Edo. Its hand is firmly on the handle. The result of the election will speak to this. Only the voters of Edo would decide.
“We have shown in Kogi. We had 28 aspirants and because it was fair, not a single person petitioned the party. And that is exactly what we will do in Edo.
“In the APC we have a right to hold different opinions. That is why we are progressives.
“In the conservative fold the only thing that puts them together is how to share the spoils of office,’’ Eta said.
Ndoma-Egba, who is member APC Board of Trustees, also said the party can win Cross River by avoiding what he called the mistakes of the ruling party, the PDP.
Besides, he said that the APC leadership needed to defeat the PDP by doing what is right and through proper establishment of party’s structure in the state.
“The PDP has given us a template of how not to be a political party. All we need to do is to avoid the mistakes the PDP has made.
“One of the biggest mistakes of the PDP is the issue of ownership of the party.
“The PDP lost membership of its party and the governors became the only members and owners of PDP and the only people who matter in the party, owners of the PDP,’’ he said.
He said that what made the APC strong was that the ownership of the party is embedded in the common members of the party.
“In APC ownership of the party must reside with the common members of the party like you and me. We must protect the ownership of the party.
“The second lesson we must learn from PDP is that impunity anywhere is not sustainable. There is nothing like doing the correct thing.
“The governors decide everything. Let us apply democracy in whatever we are doing in selecting our leaders at all levels. We must apply the rules and be fair to all.
“I call for the proper establishment of structure. It is our choice to win but whether to win or lose is our choice.
“We have to make that decision. I believe that we can win and I want us to win and we must win,’’ Ndoma-Egba said. (NAN)
