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Because it matters...Be inspired!!!: How David Mark doubled National Assembly budget

Because it matters...Be inspired!!!: How David Mark doubled National Assembly budget: By the time the curtain fell on the 7th session of Nigeria’s National Assembly in June, one of the most prominent characters of that era, w...

How David Mark doubled National Assembly budget

By the time the curtain fell on the 7th session of Nigeria’s National Assembly in June, one of the most prominent characters of that era, who retreated backstage as a member of the 8th session (after his party became a minority), is former Senate President, David Mark.

Mr. Mark, a retired army general, would be remembered for his ignoble role in deepening and institutionalising the culture of secrecy at Nigeria’s federal legislative body.

In 2003, total National Assembly budget was about N23.347 billion.

The next year, the figure rose to about N32.229 billion (2004) and then N55.422 billion in 2005.

Although the figure dropped to N39.810 billion in 2006, the allocations have remained on the upswing ever after.

Immediately Mr. Mark became Senate President in 2007, the National Assembly’s budget rose from N66.488 billion to a shocking N104.825 billion in 2008, before dropping marginally to N96.052 billion in 2009.

By 2010, while he was still in charge, the allocation had a geometric jump, skyrocketing to unprecedented levels to a peak of about N154.2 billion.

With the Nigerian public increasingly scrutinizing the spiraling annual allocations to the National Assembly, questions about why the lawmakers got so much, amid rising overheads in the national budget, became inevitable.

To block Nigerians from knowing details of how the National Assembly’s jumbo allocations are spent, and how much lawmaker’s earn in allowances, Mr. Mark’s leadership wrapped up the federal legislator’s finances in utmost secrecy.

In one master stroke of legislative brinkmanship, the National Assembly budget, hitherto open to public scrutiny, like those of all ministries, departments and agencies, suddenly became secret.

Details of the allocation were never made known, and Mr. Mark and his team resisted all efforts to pry it open.

By 2010, the National Assembly legislated to make itself member of an exclusive club of agencies whose budget details are never disclosed but whose finances are deducted en-bloc (first-line charge) via statutory transfers.

This group includes the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the National Judicial Council (NJC), the Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Public Complaints Commission (PCC).

Agencies in this group receive their annual budgetary allocations in bulk without providing breakdown of expenditure details.

Under Mr. Mark’s leadership, details of the National Assembly’s N150 billion allocations remained secret, despite public outcry against it.

For the first time in several years, the federal lawmakers agreed to cut their jumbo allocation by 23.3 percent to N115 billion in 2015.

Yet, details of how the fund would be spent remained secret.

Disturbed by the trend, the Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice (CENSOJ), Eze Onyekpere, citing the Freedom of Information Act and Section 48 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, demanded budgetary and expenditure details from both the National Assembly and the Federal Ministry of Finance.

When Mr. Mark failed to grant the request, Mr. Onyekpere went to court.

After several adjournments, the court, on February 25, 2014, ordered the Minister of Finance to oblige the civil society group with details of all statutory transfers.

But Mr. Mark and the finance ministry ignored the order.

The closest anyone got to knowing how lawmakers spend Nigeria’s hard-earned money was the indication given by Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and current Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi.

Mr. Sanusi had said expenses by the National Assembly accounted for about 25 percent of the total overhead cost by the federal government.

Apart from allocations for salaries and allowances, Mr. Sanusi said all other items packed under different sub-heads in the appropriation bill consist mainly of expenses on the personal benefits of lawmakers.

According to the former CBN boss, the National Assembly under Mr. Mark perfected a curious system of “retiring” the huge allocation.

“There is an entire structure within the National Assembly whose job is to prepare different receipts and vouchers to cover every item in the budget,” Mr. Sanusi had said.

A review of the details of the National Assembly budget for 2009 highlights some items the lawmakers spend their huge annual budget on.

Out of a total appropriation of N106.64 billion for that year, recurrent expenditure was N101.39 billion, or 95 percent, allowing just N5.25 billion for capital projects.

Under the recurrent, overheads accounted for N87.69 billion, or 86.48 percent, with personnel cost allocated N13.69 billion, or 13.52 percent.

Apart from payment of salaries and other fringe benefits, which takes an average of about N10 billion, Mr. Sanusi said the bulk of the allocations were shared among members according to pre-agreed formula after allocations for such items as constituency projects, budget tracking, software, hardware, implementation and monitoring; NASS equipment; judgment debt; renovation projects; general goods and non-personal services; general travels and transport (local and international) as well as general training.

Other provisions include general utilities; general materials and supplies; general maintenance services; security vote, consultancy and professional services; insurance premium charges; fuel and lubricants; contingency; NASS programmed activities, NASS law magazine; media and Public Relations as well as miscellaneous expenses.

Mr. Mark stepped down from the leadership of the National Assembly in June. He would most likely be remembered more for the lack of accountability under his watch.

From: http://www.premiumtimesng.com/

NEMA confirms 29 deaths in Gombe explosions

The National Emergency Management Agency on Thursday confirmed that 29 persons were killed in Wednesday’s attacks at two motor parks in Gombe.

The information officer of the agency in Gombe State, Umar Madigawa, in a message to our correspondent, said the explosion at Dadin Kowa motor park occurred at 7:15pm on Wednesday and that of Dukku motor park happened shortly after that, at 8:30pm.

He said 17 of the bodies recovered from the explosion sites were deposited at Federal Medical Centre, Gombe, and 67 injured persons taken for treatment.

At the Specialists Hospital in Gombe, according to him, 12 other corpses were deposited with 38 persons taken there to be treated.

He said 29 persons were killed in the explosions that left 105 injured.

No fewer than 40 persons were feared killed on Wednesday evening in Gombe State following three-bomb explosions at two bus station in the state.

Eyewitnesses told AFP that the first two explosions occurred at about 7pm at Dadin-Kowa Motor Park, the busiest bus station in the state.

The blasts suspected to be from Improvised Explosive Devices were said to have occurred minutes apart.

The third blast occurred about two hours later at Tashan Dukku Motor Park.

Sources said there was pandemonium as residents went searching in hospitals for their loved ones.

The Police Public Relations in the Gombe State, Fwaje Atajiri, confirmed the attack to The Cable but said the fatality figure had yet to be confirmed.

He added that the police had cordoned off the areas to prevent hoodlums from looting in the areas.

Atajiri “It is true that there were bomb attacks in the motor park but the casualty figure is not yet known. The injured have been taken to the hospital and the area has been cordoned off to prevent hoodlums from taking advantage of the situation to loot people’s property.”

Meanwhile, the governors of the Peoples Democratic Party under the aegis of PDP Governors’ Forum on Wednesday night in Abuja expressed concerns over the current spate of Boko Haram attacks in the North-East and asked the military to wake up.

The governors, after their meeting, expressed concerns that in spite of the security measures by the Armed Forces, the sect seems to be intensifying its attacks.

The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said even as they met, the Governor of Gombe State, Ibrahim Dankwambo, received a call over another attack in his state.

Emmanuel, while calling on the country’s Armed Forces to step up their operations, also lamented the state of the Internally Displaced Persons.

He said, “We actually call on the Armed Forces to step up their security measures to see how they can stem the tide of this menace.

“It’s really a thing of concern to the PDP government that in spite of all the efforts in the Armed Forces these guys are still proving to be more formidable.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/multiple-explosions-kill-40-in-gombe/

Buhari says will name cabinet in September

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's new President Muhammadu Buhari said on Monday that he will not appoint cabinet ministers until September, having taken office on May 29.

"Nigeria must first put new rules of conduct and good governance in place," Buhari wrote in an article published in the Washington Post on Monday. In the article, he outlined his plan for defeating the militant Islamist group Boko Haram and rooting out corruption.

Boko Haram has killed thousands of people in a six-year insurgency, during which it has attempted to set up a state adhering to strict sharia law in the northeast of Nigeria, Africa's largest economy.

Buhari held talks with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday as part of a four-day visit to Washington. Obama said Nigeria's president had a "clear agenda" for defeating the insurgents.

Since taking office, Buhari has replaced his defence chiefs and dissolved the board of the state oil company but is yet to appoint a cabinet, prompting questions from some in the Nigerian media.

"When cabinet ministers are appointed in September, it will be some months after I took the oath of office," wrote Buhari.

"It would neither be prudent nor serve the interests of sound government to have made these appointments immediately on my elevation to the presidency," he said.

EXPLORE YOUR FEARS

"What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it."
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Sokoto Suspends Headmaster, 20 Teachers for Asenteeism

The Kware Local Education Authority in Sokoto State has suspended the headmaster and all 20 teachers of Rugar-Liman Primary School in the area for absenteeism.

Also suspended was the Area Education Officer, for gross negligence of duty.

Alhaji Sada Haidara, the Education Secretary for the area, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Sokoto that the affected officers were suspended for one month and would forfeit their salaries for the period.

Haidara said, “I took the action on July 14 sequel to repeated unscheduled inspection visits to the school. In all the visits, I did not meet the headmaster, teachers or any pupil.

“There was nobody in the school, it was a security guard of a neigbhouring state government water project who informed me that lessons had not been going on in the school.

“The head master is always putting his telephone off, while the AEO was also suspended as he had failed in his duty to monitor the school.”

The education secretary said the local area supervisor and some teachers have been drafted to run the school on a temporary basis.

He warned that the LEA would take similar action against any staff found wanting.

http://www.punchng.com/news/sokoto-suspends-headmaster-20-teachers-for-absenteeism/