Nigerian Newspapers
States stall new revenue allocation formula with outrageous data
A new revenue allocation formula may take some time to materialise because some states submitted outrageous data.
The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is filtering the data to enable it arrive at acceptable decisions, which will guarantee equity and fairness to all tiers of government.
The revenue allocation formula is: Federal Government (52 per cent); states (26.72 per cent); and the 770 local government areas (20.60 per cent).
A committee raised by the Nigerian Governors Forum, headed by the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), recommended a drastic reduction in Federal Government’s allocation.
The governors are proposing the following: Federal Government (35 per cent), states (42 per cent) and local governments (23 per cent).
Although derivation is 13 per cent, oil producing states may push for between 15 per cent and 20 per cent.
The six Houses of Assembly in the Southsouth are demanding an upward review of the derivation formula from 13 per cent to 50 per cent.
Also, the northern states, endowed with solid minerals, insist they ought to benefit from the 13 per cent derivation.
But a memo obtained by our correspondent revealed that besides lack of funds on the part of RMAFC, it may take a while before a new revenue formula is designed because of the attitude of some states.
The memo exposes outrageous data given by states to RMAFC, as they try to outsmart one another for more revenue.
In one of the suspicious data, RMAFC discovered that Kogi State has more internally generated revenue (IGR) than Lagos State.
Bayelsa State, with 27,437 hospital beds, has more beds than public health care facilities in Lagos, Delta, Oyo and Kano.
The memo reads in part: “As usual with any indices review exercise, states and local governments would attempt to gain undue advantage over others and, hence, are bound to provide the Commission with outrageous figures in their various submissions which necessitate verification and re-verification. To address such scenario, the Commission adopts data obtained from secondary sources to bring figures down to a reasonable level.
“This has been the experience in all indices review exercises carried out by the Commission since 1999. Although the verification was able to reduce some of the perceived outrageous figures, there are still areas that need to be addressed. The Committee may, therefore, have to consider adopting certain policy options to be able to conclude the review without necessarily undertaking any further field exercise.
“Accordingly, from the data, we have made the following specific observations under each of the verified factors and proxies:
“From the computed IGR effort, some states appeared to have very high internally generated revenue (IGR) efforts while others have extremely low efforts. The state that had the highest IGR effort was Kogi State with 438.89 per cent (present indices). This was followed by Cross River and Nasarawa states with 331.43 and 326.72 per cent respectively. The lowest IGR effort of 3.83 was recorded for Lagos State.
“Other states with low IGR efforts are Ogun and Osun states, which had 28.18 per cent and 33.37 per cent respectively. The cases were even more pronounced in the local governments’ data as some of them appeared to have well over 600 per cent IGR efforts. For instance, Kunchi Local Government Council of Kano State has as high as 688 per cent IGR effort.
“Other local governments with very high IGR effort include Gwer West and Makurdi Local Government of Benue State with 609 per cent and 554 per cent IGR effort respectively. There were local governments that had negative IGR effort. These local governments are Ewekoro and Abeokuta North Local Government Councils of Ogun State with -525 and -33 per cent. If this is allowed, it then means that their allocation from other factors would be deducted for their negative IGR effort.
“Perhaps, members may wish to be reminded, for the purpose of comparison, that in the current indices, the highest IGR effort for state governments is 277.80 per cent (2006) Jigawa State, while the lowest is (Lagos State) 23.48 per cent, and amongst the local governments, Oturkpo Local Government of Benue State is the one with the highest IGR effort of 374 per cent.
“On the number of hospital beds, Bayelsa State had 27,437, which was the highest number of hospital beds. It was followed by Delta and Lagos States, with 20,905 and 20,900. Taraba State had 6,555 hospital beds which was the lowest. It was closely followed by Oyo and Niger states, which had 7,541 and 7,974.
“With respect to the Local Government Councils, the cases were more alarming, with some of them having hospital beds close to those of some states. For example, Okpokwu Local Government Council of Benue State had 6,547 hospital beds and Ohimini Local Government, also of Benue State, were only slightly lower than the 6449 hospital beds of Taraba State. Abeokuta South and Odogbolu Local Government Councils of Ogun State had the lowest number of hospital beds of 51 and 57.
“The highest secondary school enrolment was recorded in Kano State with a total enrolment figure of 2,016,288 students while Katsina and Bauchi States had relatively high figures of 1,463,943 and 1,384,177. The lowest secondary enrolment figure was that of Rivers, with 135,332. Other states with low secondary school enrolment figures are Taraba (1,39,539) and Kaduna (239,102).
“On primary school enrolment, Bauchi Local Government Council of Bauchi State had the highest primary school enrolment of 286,450 pupils. It was followed by Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State, with 220,685 pupils. On the contrary, two local government councils of Lagos State, namely Lagos Island and Lagos Mainland, had the lowest primary school enrolment figures of 2,087 and 3,298 pupils.”
On the way out of the data crisis., the memo stated: “The Committee may consider some damage control measures to address the problem. The alternatives before the Committee are:
“To adopt a maximum IGR effort that can be allowed for both states and local governments so that those that recorded very high percentage effort could be brought down to ensure that they fall within the acceptable limit while those states and local governments that have negative or very low IGR effort be allowed a minimum percentage IGR effort. This is to ensure that such states or local governments are not worse off in the current review process.
“Take the average of the IGR effort of the 2006 indices and that of the verified data.
“Take the IGR effort verified in 2012 as presented.”
Since the beginning of democracy in 1999, there has not been any constitutionally backed revenue allocation formula. The last constitutionally backed allocation review was in 1992.
The formula in place is only through Executive Order, not by the instrument of the National Assembly.
Section 162(2) empowers RMAFC to determine the nation’s revenue allocation formula.
The section reads: “The President upon the receipt of advice from the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission shall table before the National Assembly proposals for revenue allocation from the Federation Account and in determining the formula, the National Assembly shall take into account the allocation principles, especially those of population, equality of states, internal revenue generation, land mass, terrain as well as population density.
“Provided that the principle of derivation shall be constantly reflected in any approved formula as being not less than 13 per cent of the revenue accruing to the Federation Account directly from any natural resources.”
Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, in 2002, invoked an Executive Order to allocate the revenue as follows: Federal Government (54.68 per cent), States (24.72 per cent) and local governments (20.60 per cent).
In March 2004, the then Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, issued a letter modifying the Executive Order that increased state allocation to 26.72 per cent and reduced the Federal Government’s share to 52.68 per cent.
The commission, in September 2004, submitted a new formula to ex-President Obasanjo, who forwarded it to the National Assembly for consideration, in line with Section 162(2) of the 1999 Constitution.
The proposal with the National Assembly makes the following recommendations: Federal Government (53.69 per cent); States (31.10 per cent); and Local governments (15.21 per cent.).
Of the Federal Government’s allocation, 6.5 per cent is reserved for Special Funds, leaving the Federal Government with 47.19 per cent
The breakdown of the 6.5 per cent includes Ecological Fund (1.50 per cent); Solid Mineral Fund (1.75 per cent), National Reserve Fund (1.50 per cent) and Agricultural Development Fund (1.75 per cent).
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Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has recorded 62 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 165,110. The NCDC disclosed this on its official Twitter handle on Friday. “55 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria; Lagos-21, Yobe-19, Ogun-6, Akwa Ibom-3, Kaduna-2, Plateau-2, FCT-1, Rivers-1.” YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE COVID-19: Nigeria Recorded […]
Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
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Sourced From: Tribune Online
•Deploy more personnel as army chief vows to wipe out terror group
•Security beefed up at N’Assembly
Deji Elumoye and Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja
Abuja, Nigeria’s seat of power, is under a massive security cordon following threats of attacks by insurgents and the increasing wave of banditry in the contiguous states of Kaduna, Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger States, THISDAY’s investigation has revealed.
There has been a wave of kidnappings in the outskirts of the federal capital, notably Pegi, Tuganmaje and Kuje among others, which the police have battled in recent times.
The security situation in and around the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was heightened by the pronouncement of the Niger State Governor, Mr. Sani Bello, that Boko Haram fighters who he said sacked 50 villages in the state and hoisted the terror group’s flag, were about two hours drive away from the FCT.
Security has also been beefed up at the National Assembly as operatives, yesterday, thoroughly screened every vehicle approaching the National Assembly complex in Abuja.
The deteriorating security situation nationwide prompted the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, to warn that the 2023 general election may not hold, demanding the declaration of a state of emergency as well as the convocation of a national conference.
However, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, yesterday restated the Nigerian Army’s determination to annihilate Boko Haram.
But the Governor of Katsina State, Hon. Bello Masari, cautioned against declaring a state of emergency, saying doing so isn’t the solution to combat the security challenges facing the country.
The security of the nation’s airports was also in focus yesterday as the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) said there was no threat to them.
THISDAY’s investigations showed increased presence of troops, police, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) personnel and intelligence operatives at the three strategic entrances to the city notably, Keffi, Zuba and Gwagwalada.
More checkpoints were also mounted around Gwagwalada and Keffi.
THISDAY also observed increased intelligence deployment at the entrance and the borders of FCT with contiguous states.
Beyond the borders, there were more deployments and police patrols inside the city and increased intelligence deployments as well.
Security sources told THISDAY: “There are deployments here and there but they are routine. Alertness is key to a secure environment.”
It was also learnt that security agencies were involved in frenzied meetings throughout yesterday.
The meetings, coordinated by the office of the Chief of Defence Staff under the new joint operational strategy of the armed forces, were aimed at coordinating a joint response to possible threats of attack to the FCT.
“I understand the security teams have been meeting for some days now and if you look around you, you will notice that there are increasing patrols and numbers of security personnel. The threats are not been taken lightly,” a source said.
National Assembly workers, lawmakers and visitors also had a harrowing experience accessing the legislative complex due to heightened security in the area.
Security operatives thoroughly screened every vehicle approaching the National Assembly complex in Abuja, impeding both human and vehicular traffic.
The Sergeant-at-arm of the National Assembly and other security agencies supervised the operations, leading to huge traffic build-up inside the complex.
Legislative staff, visitors and lawmakers were seen patiently waiting for their cars to be searched so that they could go ahead with the business of the day.
Some staff and visitors at some point got tired of waiting and were seen alighting from their cars to trek from the gate to the complex.
Meanwhile, the ONSA has said there is no threat to the nation’s airports.
A statement by the Head of Strategic Communication, Mr. Zachari Usman, said the reports of threats to the airports were an internal correspondence of security threat assessment misconstrued as security threat to the airports.
PDP Demands State of Emergency
In a related development, the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, yesterday demanded the declaration of a state of emergency, warning that the 2023 general election might not hold if the federal government failed to tackle insecurity.
He called on the federal government to summon a national conference to address the spike in insecurity.
Secondus added that the national caucus of the party will meet today to discuss the state of the nation.
Addressing members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) in Abuja, Secondus said: “We are worried Abuja is not even safe. It is no longer politics. We got alert of plots to bomb and burn down our airports.
“We urge the federal government to declare a national state of emergency in security. There is the need to call a national conference to discuss the insecurity in the country.
“There may not be any election in 2023 in Nigeria due to insecurity. This government must listen to the people. The Buhari government should call a national confab to discuss security and state of the nation. It is no longer politics. This time we are not playing politics. Let’s keep politics aside and move the nation forward.”
He said the country had been grounded, regretting that there had been no matching response from the federal government.
Secondus said in the past, terrorism in the North was confined to the North-east, but with the report of Boko Haram occupying villages in Niger State, terrorism had spread to the North-central
“Herdsmen are also menacing in the West; gunmen causing havoc in the East; and the militants in the South; all killing, looting, raping, maiming and burning down homes. The situation is bad; Nigerians all over are living in fear,” he said.
The Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said the problem of Nigeria was outside of the PDP headquarters, while pledging the support of the Senate to the declaration of state of emergency in security.
Abaribe said he deliberately decided not to speak on the floor of the Senate but to allow the APC senators to speak so as to avoid being accused of giving a partisan colouration to the issue of insecurity.
He stated that only electoral reforms would give victory to the opposition party in the 2023 general election and ensure a democratic defeat of the APC-led federal government.
Also, the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, commended the NEC and the PDP leadership for their collective efforts at resolving the House leadership crisis.
The NEC meeting adopted the position of Secondus, calling on the federal government to convoke a national conference to discuss the state of insecurity in the country, according to a communiqué read by the National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan.
Army Chief Vows to Wipe Out Boko Haram
The army yesterday reiterated its commitment to wipe out Boko Haram.
Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, told reporters in Maiduguri, Borno State that Boko Haram had been defeated in many encounters and would continue to be defeated until it’s annihilated from Nigeria.
“We will take on Boko Haram decisively, and we are committed to the focus of the operations, which is the total annihilation of Boko Haram from Nigeria,” he said.
The COAS, who was visiting the headquarters of Operation Lafiya Dole in Maiduguri for the fifth time since his appointment four months ago, said the visit was to boost the morale of the troops, reassure them and listen to any issues affecting them.
Earlier, the Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj. Gen. Farouq Yahaya, lauded the visit, which he said had continued to boost the morale of the troops.
“We are honoured, we are grateful, we are encouraged by those visits. You provided us guidance, logistics and other things we required. We are most grateful for those visits,” Yahaya said.
State of Emergency Won’t Solve Security Challenges, Says Masari
Katsina State Governor, Hon. Aminu Masari, has, however, said declaration of a state of emergency won’t solve the security challenges facing the nation.
Masari, who spoke yesterday with journalists after meeting with the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari at the State House, Abuja stated that he was against the recent call by the House of Representatives for the declaration of a state of emergency in the security sector as it would not solve the problem.
According to him, declaring a state of emergency will not achieve the desired effect as the security structure and personnel to be used to execute the emergency are already overstretched in a bid to safeguard lives and property.
Sourced From: THISDAYLIVE
The government said that no worker should stay back beyond 6:00 p.m. within premises of buildings undergoing construction.
The post Insecurity: Lagos bans occupation of abandoned buildings appeared first on Premium Times Nigeria.
Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria
By Olasunkanmi Akoni
The people of the South East region have been urged to explore the power of negotiation and mutual settlement in the face of ongoing killings and security challenges in the zone because the east can not afford another war at present.
Stakeholders from the South-East geo-political zone made the remark on Thursday, at the unveiling of the book, “Igbo, 50 years after Biafra,” written by Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Drainage Services, Joe Igbokwe, held at Ikeja G.R.A.
Speaking at the unveiling of the book, the chairman of the occasion, Mr. Cutis Adigba,
urged the people of the South-East to learn to build bridges across the country, so that they can realise their ambition of producing the next president of Nigeria.
Adigba urged leaders from the zone to discourage the move and agitation by some youths in the South East to go to war and secede out of Nigeria.
Also read: Banditry: Disregard viral video, Niger State gov’t urges residents
He said that Igbo have always found it difficult to rule Nigeria because they refused to build bridges across the six geo-political zones that made up Nigeria.
While describing the agitation as uncalled for, Adigba noted that after two decades that Nigeria returned to civil rule, the Igbo has predominantly identified with only one political party.
He maintained that remaining in one party can not advance the cause of the people of South East and cannot make them realise their objective of producing an Igbo man as president.
He maintained that the publisher of the book, Igbokwe played politics outside his state, so that the Igbo race can be integrated with one another race.
Adigba said the failure of the Igbo to reintegrate with other ethnic nationalities politically was responsible for the retrogression of the race in Nigerian politics.
Igbokwe, also addressing guests on the occasion, maintained that the Igbo are not advancing politically because they refused to be integrated into National politics, lamenting that, despite their success in business, they are not successful in playing politics at the national level.
Corroborating Dimgba, Igbokwe noted that there was the need for the Igbo people to stand up and build bridges so that their objective of producing the next president of Nigeria could be realised.
According to him: “I have decided to raise my voice, I hope my people will hear me while trying to quell the effect of the war, our people are spoiling for another war, mayhem is being unleashed in Igbo land, and there is palpable fear.
“Those who could speak have lost their voice, mindful of the consequences of their actions, I am calling on all Igbo leaders to speak up because all actions carry consequences, consequences of the silence will be too dastardly to sustain.
“Those silently supporting the wild wind should be careful or else they hand over to their children,” he said.
Igbokwe urged those spoiling for war to jettison their plan and embrace dialogue, urging them to learn from the South West region that despite the challenges faced after the annulment of the June 12, 1993, election, they did not go to war, and the region had the opportunity of producing two of her sons for presidential position in 1999.
“You have to build bridges to become president of Nigeria, but it is unfortunate the Igbo are burning bridges.”
Speaking at the event, Chief Uche Dimgba who is the coordinator of Igbo in All Progressives Congress, APC in Lagos, described Igbokwe as “a Frank, fearless and reliable leader, who based his views on issues and stand by his opinions, and we the Igbo have confidence in him and believe he can lead us aright.”
“He is a leader we Igbo believe in and we will follow him. If he can serve all the governors produced in Lagos State since 1999, he is a better man to follow because he possesses all the experience that can be of benefit to Igbo both at home and in the diaspora.”
The post Attacks on S’East: We must explore all options of negotiation — Stakeholders urge Igbo appeared first on Vanguard News.
Sourced From: Vanguard News
Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
Military, Police Ring Abuja to Forestall Boko Haram Attack
UFC: Usman gets N584m after beating Masvidal
Insecurity: Lagos bans occupation of abandoned buildings
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