By Funmi Falobi / Senior Reporter, Lagos

Corruption is the bane of Nigeria’s development and has denied the common Nigerians the dividends of democracy. As a matter of fact, Nigerians have called on the government at all levels to curb corruption in the country in order for the nation to grow socio-economically with positive impact on its citizens.

Recently, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe during his 90th birth luncheon hosted by the service chiefs and the public commission, had described Nigeria and its citizens as corrupt.

Not taking the remark lying low, the Federal Government last Thursday reacted by describing Mugabe’s statement as “unstatesmanlike and dishonourable.”

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Martin Uhoimoibhi addressing  the Zimbabwean Head of Chancery, Stanley Kunjeku, said the Federal Government was deeply concerned that a sitting President whose country Nigeria had assisted immensely during its liberation struggle and had enjoyed cordial relations with, could take “considerable time to vituperate about Nigeria, reflecting what we considered to be a strong aversion for our country.”

Mugabe, while addressing the delegates at the occasion, had said Zimbabweans were now almost behaving like Nigerians who, according to him, have to be corruptly paid for every service. Continue reading “Mugabe and corruption in Nigeria”

By Chukwudi Nweje / Assistant Features Editor

Late Professor Festus Iyayi

Now that a Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) report has indicted the convoy of Kogi State Governor Idris Wada as being responsible for the death of Professor Festus Iyayi, a one time President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in November last year, what happens next?

This seems to be the question puzzling the minds of activists. The former President of ASUU died in an accident involving the bus he was travelling in and the convoy of Kogi State Governor, Captain Idris Wada along the Abuja – Kogi highway. One of the pilot cars in the governor’s convoy, a Toyota Hilux vehicle which was conveying six police details had crashed into the bus in which Iyayi and other activists were travelling, killing him instantly.

The late Iyayi was travelling to Kano for the National Executive Committee meeting of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which was then deliberating on how to end the six month-long strike that plagued the university system last year.

It will be recalled that the nature of the injuries noticed on Iyayi’s heart area after the accident had fuelled speculations that he might have been shot in the chest region, implying that he might not have died as a result of the accident alone.

Nevertheless, the FRSC report obtained through the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act by human rights lawyer and activist, Femi Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and made public disclosed that the Kogi State Governor’s convoy was responsible for the November 12, 2013 accident which led to the death of University don.

The FRSC report, dated March 21, 2014, dismissed weather or vehicle conditions as probable causes of the accident, stating that the driver of the Toyota Hilux pick-up van in the convoy was the cause of the accident. It also stated that the hole in the late Professor Iyayi’s chest which led to his death was caused by metal piercings from the bus he was travelling in alongside other persons who survived the car crash.

According to the FRSC report, the driver of the Hilux pick-up travelling “on a high but determined speed South-bound of the road, deliberately failed to return to and stick to his lane of travel.  Contributing to the injury severity was speed, the direction of impact and one of V#1’s (Iyayi’s vehicle) body reinforcement materials which pierced through the heart area of the fatal injury”, the report read in part. Continue reading “Festus Iyayi: Outrage as FRSC indicts Gov’s convoy”

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has urged the Federal Government to address the endemic corruption bedeviling the country.

This came on the heels of the summoning of the Zimbabwean Head of Chancery, over remarks credited to President Robert Mugabe, which depicted Nigerians as very corrupt people. Mugabe was reported to have said Nigerians are corrupt people when he hosted service chiefs on his 90th birthday. Continue reading “Fight Corruption, Not Mugabe – CACOL Tells FG”

Culled from www.premiumtimesng.com
Published: April 9,2014

The president says limiting election financing is not realistic.

Election monitors and anti-corruption activists have launched a blistering attack on President Goodluck Jonathan over his comment Monday advocating new laws to ease existing regulation on election expenses, either by completely removing spending ceilings, or by setting higher limits.

Speaking at the presidential villa while receiving the report of the National Stakeholders’ Forum on Electoral Reform, a group headed by a former senate president, Ken Nnamani, Mr. Jonathan said existing limits on election expenses are not “realistic”.

The group had recommended a firm curtailing of lavish spending on election by politicians, and respect for the rule of law by political parties. Continue reading “Jonathan under fire for advocating unregulated election expenses bazaar”

Culled from www.newmailng.com

by Kayode Ogundele/ Lagos 0 Comments 09.Apr 2014

An anti-corruption campaign group, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) on Wednesday flayed the refusal of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke to respond to the query issued her by the House of Representatives’ Committee on Public Accounts.

The committee had written the minister demanding information on the controversial Challenger 850 aircraft chartered for her use allegedly by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

However, the committee while probing the alleged N10bn expenses she incurred in the last three years, discovered additional information that Alison-Madueke had in the course of the same period chartered other jets, including a Global Express XRS. Continue reading “CACOL flays petroleum minister for spurning NASS query”

Culled from Daily Independent

Monday, April 8th, 2014

By Chukwudi Nweje

Assistant Features Editor

IF the figures being reeled out by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) are indeed factual, then one could argue that the Federal Government is on course to realising the aims and objectives of the Financial System Strategy (FSS) 20:2020. Initiated in 2006 by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with all other Nigerian financial services regulators, the FSS 20:2020 is a visionary and an ambitious developmental programme designed to create an international financial hub in Nigeria as well as evolve a financial infrastructure to finance the country’s quest to join the top 20 economies in the world by the year 2020. It also aims to “drive rapid and sustainable economic growth” as envisioned by Vision 2020.

The NBS report released on Sunday by Minister of Finance and Coordinating minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, at an interactive session showed that Nigeria’s GDP grew by $149.3 billion or 41.4 per cent (N26.018 trillion or 48 per cent) between 2010 and 2013. In the three-year period, the size of Nigeria’s economy stood at N54.204 trillion (about $360.6 billion) in 2010; rising to N63.258 trillion ($408.8 billion) the following year; and N71.186 trillion ($449.9 billion) in 2012. According to the NBS report, the changes between the old and new rates “represent growth of 59.5 per cent in 2010; 69.13 per cent in 2011; 75.58 per cent in 2012; and 89.22 per cent in 2013 (forecast)”.

Incidentally, it also showed that with the economy, at $509.9 billion (N80.222 trillion) at the end of 2013, Nigeria has become Africa’s biggest, pushing South Africa with $370.3 billion to the second position.  The Minister of Finance further disclosed that the rebasing also showed that Nigeria’s economy is now far more diversified than previously thought, with new, previously un-captured, sub-sectors. She listed major growth drivers as agriculture, which alone contributed 24 per cent, as against 30 per cent in the 1990 data, while the services industry (comprising telecommunications, Information Technology, airlines) emerged the biggest with 50 per cent contribution. The exercise also revealed that Nigeria’s GDP makes it the 26th largest economy in the world. With the latest ratings, Nigeria only needs to move up six places again to realise its FSS 20:2020 target.

Nevertheless, the figures have generated some debate among analysts. Some of them have described the data reeled out by the NBS and the ministry of Finance as deceptive and a government propaganda. They argue that an economy like Nigeria’s which is import dependent and which has a very high rate of unemployment cannot be bigger than that of South Africa that is export driven with sound infrastructures.

For instance, Finance and economic analyst, and Managing Director of Lagos-based Financial Derivative Company Limited, Bismarck Rewane, in a chat with BBC described the revisions as “a vanity”. He argued that the figures mean nothing to the average Nigerian. According to him, the new figures will not make Nigerians “better off tomorrow. It doesn’t put more money in the bank, more food in their stomach. It changes nothing”.

Debo Adeniran, Executive Chairman of Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) agrees.  “There is virtually nothing to be happy about. What is the essence of Nigeria becoming the Africa’s biggest economy when it doesn’t translate to improved standard of living for the common man? What is the essence of the new GDP figure when it doesn’t translate to reduction of employment in the country?” he queried. He added that Nigeria was also rated as one of the poorest countries in the world by the World Bank, alongside countries that are either overpopulated or ravaged by war like Bangladesh, China whereas the country does not suffer such fate.

According to him; “These are parallel things. If Nigeria is the Africa’s biggest economy, what are the indices that the judgment was based on?  An average Nigerian citizen does not have access to the basic things of life like potable water, decent accommodation, good health care delivery among other things; life expectancy is below 50years; infant mortality rate is 78 per 1000 live births; under-five mortality rate is 124 per 1000 live births and Nigeria is the 7th highest infant mortality rate in the world. Nigeria boasts of the richest man in Africa and we also parade the poorest people in the world. One out of 7 poorest people in the world is a Nigerian.

“Basically, the new GDP does not translate to good living condition for the mass of Nigerians when about 80% are living below poverty line. As a matter of fact, out of that, more than 60% are actually living below $1 a day which means the country harbours the poorest of the poor. It is the mal-governance that allows the lopsided and the inordinate correlation between the economy growth and the per capita income. The economy of the country has been put in the stronghold of less than 1% of the population.”

Culled from ireports-ng.com

Posted date: April 07, 2014 In: Business, Latest, Politics, Press Releases | comment : 0

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has described the rebased Gross Domestic Product for the country which showed that the Nigerian economy had overtaken South Africa’s as the biggest on the continent as a facade.

The Federal Government while presenting the outcome of the preliminary estimates of the GDP, said that the country’s real GDP for 2011 and 2012 now stood at 5.09 per cent and 6.66 per cent, while the economy grew by 7.41 per cent in real terms last year.

Speaking on behalf of the Coalition, its Executive Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran noted that the new GDP is nothing to be happy about because it is not in terms of per capita income. Continue reading “Nigeria’s New GDP Figure Fraudulent- CACOL”

CULLED FROM DAILY INDEPENDENT

Monday, 7th April, 2014

By Chukwudi Nweje – Assistant Features Editor

Two weeks after President Goodluck Jonathan officially inaugurated the 2014 National Conference it appears the only serious business the 492 delegates have executed is resolving the voting consensus required to adopt a resolution.  When the Secretary to the Federal Government, Anyim Pius Anyim, released the report of the Senator Femi Okurounmu-led Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC) in January, he had noted that: “Decisions at the National Conference shall be by consensus; but where it is not achievable; it shall be by 75% majority…” The delegates have after stormy debates resolved that 75% majority, which represents three-quarters majority votes may be difficult to attain and have brought down the required votes to 70%. The other serious thing they have dwelt on is debating the President’s inaugural speech that is if there was any need to do that.

Two weeks and counting now, these two subjects, the delegates have rather spent hours arguing over frivolities.  If they are not arguing over sitting arrangements as if occupying the front row would make an argument more convincing or transform a bench-warmer or sleeper delegate into a vibrant debater, they are fighting over allowances for the chain of personal aides some of them brought along.   Now, the delegates are fighting over the feeding arrangement by the leadership of the confab. While some of them expressed disappointment about the poor quality of food, others said they wanted the food to be monetised to enable them to source for food outside the conference venue. A delegate from the South South, Mr. J.I Ebinum, had moved a motion to stop the secretariat from the provision of lunch for the delegates, arguing that the caterer handling the feeding services had failed to make enough food available despite complaints to that effect. When the Chairman of the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi, put the matter to vote, the delegates rejected the motion and trooped out to the restaurant to eat. Continue reading “National Confab and the difficulties ahead”

Culled from www.informationng.com

Posted by: daniel on April 4, 2014

Delegates at the on-going National Conference have been taken to the cleaners for complaining about the feeding arrangement provided by the leadership of the conference.

A group, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) described the delegates’ action as selfish, saying rather than focus on burning national issues that brought about the conference in the first place, they were busy dwelling on trivial issues.

Information Nigeria reports that some of the delegates on Thursday expressed disappointment about the poor quality of food, saying they wanted the food to be monetised to enable them to provide for their own feeding outside the conference venue.

The executive chairman of CACOL, Mr. Debo Adeniran, in a statement on Friday, stated that many of the delegates have forgotten the reason for the conference. Continue reading “Confab: Delegates Rejection Of Food Sign Of Selfishness, Says CACOL”