Infrastructure
Lagos governor restructures works and infrastructure ministry
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has approved the restructuring of the State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure by re-establishing the Office of Works and Office of Infrastructure. In a statement released late Friday night, Lagos State Head of Service, Mr Hakeem Muri-Okunola, explained that the restructuring of the ministry was necessitated by the volume of work ahead of the present administration in the state led by Sanwo-Olu and the need to implement relevant structural reviews that would facilitate faster attainment of government’s policy objectives. The governor also approved the appointment of two new Permanent Secretaries in the Lagos State Public Service. They are; Arc. Adebayo Ayodeji Odusanya, who would serve as Permanent Secretary Office of Works, and Engr. Rotimi Idowu ...
DMO: Nigerian roads financed with Sukuk not repaying debt as planned
File Photo The Debt Management Office (DMO) has decried the country’s debt service to revenue ratio, describing it as a major issue of concern. Patience Oniha, the Director-General of DMO, said this in Abuja on Thursday at the fifth Budget Seminar (webinar) organised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The theme of the budget seminar was, “Financing Nigeria’s Budget and Infrastructure Deficit through the Capital Market.” Oniha stressed the need for infrastructure built with borrowed funds to generate revenue to service the debts. According to her, “We have done the Sukuk, for instance, but the government is the one servicing the debt of those Sukuk. “They (the debts) are not being serviced with revenue from those sources (infrastructure). “I think that when we are talking abou...
AAC disowns Omoyele Sowore as its chair
The leadership of the African Action Congress (AAC) on Wednesday said that the party’s presidential candidate in the 2019 election, Omoyele Sowore has been expelled by the party’s highest decision making organ and he is therefore presently unknown to the party. The party also in a petition to the Inspector General of Police claimed that the convener of the Revolution Now’s utterances and behavior have become a security risk and should be investigated by the security agencies before he plugs the country into crisis. Addressing journalists in Abuja, the National Chairman of AAC, Dr. Leonard Nzenwa said the letter by Sowore to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, claiming to be the Chairman of the party amounted to impersonation. Dr. Nzenwa, who is also the National Chairman o...
Minister: Suspension of international flights at Kano airport affecting our revenue
The Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, has said the continued closure of the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport is affecting the revenue of government. International flights into the airport were suspended in the wake of COVID-19 lockdown. When he received a high-powered delegation from Kano State, led by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, in his office in Abuja on Tuesday, Sirika lamented the effect of the suspension. He said it does not make economic sense for government to spend so much money, as it has done on the airport, and abandon it in the end. He highlighted the attendant degeneration of infrastructure, redundancy amongst operational staff, revenue loss, hardship on travellers, amongst others. The Minister promised that necessary steps were being taken for the resumption ...
NGA chief: Nigeria’s gas reserve can sustain West African market
Nigeria has abundant gas resources which, if harnessed, will meet the energy demand of over 350 million people and the industrial needs in the West African sub-region. According to the newly inaugurated president of the Nigeria Gas Association (NGA), Ed Ubong, “Nigeria, which ranks as the 9th largest gas reserve in the world and clearly the largest in West Africa, needs to develop this resource base and connect the existing local supply and demand with physical and virtual pipeline infrastructure, while also exploring closer integration of roads, seaports and rail infrastructure.” Speaking, at the just concluded NGA’s 12th International Conference and Industry Awards in Lagos last week, Ubong who is also the managing director, Shell Nigeria Gas Limited, however, advocated an improved inves...
Rivers governor: Good infrastructure reward for people’s resistance when army ‘tried to rig’ election
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has said the construction of eight flyover bridges in Port Harcourt alongside other critical infrastructure is in a mark of appreciation to the people of Rivers whom he commended for, in his words, having resisted ‘the Army and other security agencies [when they] tried to rig [the 2019] election’ in the state. Governor Wike stated this at the flag-off of the 802 metres long Orochiri-Wurukwo flyover bridge, made up of a deck span of 315m, north and south side ramps of 238 metres and 249 metres respectively, in Port Harcourt yesterday. ‘Why we are doing this is because you too played a role in bringing us to government. We also have to pay you back,’ the governor stated. ‘Remember during the last election how the Army and other security agencies tried to rig...
Chukwuma Soludo: Why I joined Anambra governorship race
Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, says he is in the governorship race of Anambra to make the South-East geopolitical zone an island of prosperity. Newsmen report that Soludo will run for the Nov. 6 poll on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). In an interaction with newsmen on Saturday in Awka, he said the South-East had become largely unlivable despite the solid foundation and infrastructure laid down by leaders for the region’s development. Soludo described the South-East as a “tiny poor place that must begin to turn into a Promised Land. “For you to create a livable society comparable to any other place, it requires a crusade for all and it must happen simultaneously in the South-East,” he said. He said Anambra had been relative...
How ICPC is combating corruption in MDAs, stopped diversion of N189 billion personnel cost
File Photo In the past few years, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other-Related Offences Commission, as part of its statutory mandate, has been conducting systems study and review of ministries and organisations in the federal public service. The overall objective of a system review is reform of the systems and procedures of public agencies with a view to identifying and eliminating, preventing, blocking and obstructing opportunities for corruption. To achieve this, the exercise targets detecting areas of vulnerabilities, actual weaknesses, leakages and corruption risks and to recommend ways of strengthening these systems and removing the discretionary gaps and such opportunities for both individual and institutional malfeasance on public resources. In addition, the review also targe...
How ICPC is combating corruption in MDAs, stopped diversion of N189 billion personnel cost
File Photo In the past few years, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other-Related Offences Commission, as part of its statutory mandate, has been conducting systems study and review of ministries and organisations in the federal public service. The overall objective of a system review is reform of the systems and procedures of public agencies with a view to identifying and eliminating, preventing, blocking and obstructing opportunities for corruption. To achieve this, the exercise targets detecting areas of vulnerabilities, actual weaknesses, leakages and corruption risks and to recommend ways of strengthening these systems and removing the discretionary gaps and such opportunities for both individual and institutional malfeasance on public resources. In addition, the review also targe...
Ex-APC chairman speaks on ‘crisis’ in Ebonyi chapter
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State, Eze Nwachukwu, has refuted media report about leadership crisis in the state chapter of the party. Mr Nwachukwu, who is the commissioner for Inter-Governmental Affairs in the state, is the immediate past chairman of APC in the state. “It has become expedient that I react to the publication alleging leadership crisis in our great party over the appointment of Okoro-Emegha as chairman, Caretaker Committee of APC in Ebonyi. “I am the immediate past chairman of APC and the emergence of Okoro-Emegha as the current chairman, caretaker committee is a welcome development and it followed laid down legal and constitutional provisions of our party,” Mr Nwachukwu said on Saturday at a press briefing in Abakaliki. Continuing, the forme...
President Buhari hailed for sacking service chiefs
An environmental activist, Chief Sheriff Mulade, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for relieving service chiefs of their positions and appointing their replacements, saying the development showed that the president has a listening ear given the growing agitation from Nigerians for a change of guard in the nation’s security architecture. This was as he called for the urgent restructuring of the country following what he referred to as “the mismanagement of the nation’s resources, as well as the endless marginalization of the South-South region of the country.” The peace advocate, while reacting to the president’s action, at a media conference in Abuja, expressed optimism that the action would bring improvement in security management in the country. Mulade, who is the National Coordin...
Bauchi, Benue governors reconcile in Port Harcourt
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on Tuesday, brokered a truce between the Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom and Governor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Mohammed in Port Harcourt. The conflict was resolved following the intervention of Governor Wike and his Adamawa State counterpart, Governor Ahmed Fintiri. Briefing journalists at the meeting, which held at Governor Wike’s private residence at Rumuepirikom, Governor Mohammed said the outburst between him and Governor Ortom over herders/Fulani profiling was regrettable. “We don’t mean to divide the country, to divide our people. We are still friends and brothers and that we will move forward because most of those issues are fully resolved. “I want to seize this opportunity to tell Nigerians that whatever misconception that is there, th...