General
Low Budget Allocation Affecting our Performance—Aregbesola
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Ministry of Interior in Nigeria headed by former Governor of Osun State, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, has appealed to the National Assembly to increase its budget allocations to enable it to carry out its mandate creditably.
Mr Aregbesola, during an oversight visit to his office in Abuja by the House of Representatives Committee on Interior, said if this issue can be addressed, the coordination of paramilitary agencies under the ministry would be effective, leading to a more organised Nigeria with good security architecture.
“This is a very big ministry with a very small headquarters. We are working very hard with the resources at our disposal to ensure that we are able to fulfil those mandates that have been given to us.
“Recent events in Nigeria have heightened the need for improved funding of internal security,” the Minister, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr Shuaib Belgore, disclosed.
“For some years now, the ministry has had to work to deliver and coordinate the activities of her agencies with a really very low budget line. The result of that is that the coordination has not been as effective as it should be.
“However, there have been recent improvements and we will look forward to working with you and with your cooperation and guidance, to be able to have more resources to execute our mandate,” he said.
According to the Minister, in the 2020 fiscal year, the Ministry of Interior has been able to achieve about 95.69 per cent budget performance.
“For the year ended 2019, we had a capital appropriation of N721 million only for which performance was 100 per cent. The overhead was N350.8 million and the expenditure performance for that was also 100 per cent.
“On personnel, we had N2.96 billion for which performance was 99.7 per cent.
“Overall, the ministry of interior (headquarters) had a 99.75 per cent budget performance for the year ended 2019.
“For 2020, the capital appropriation for the headquarters of the ministry up till September 30, 2020, was N2.61 billion and expenditure performance so far has been 94.26 per cent.
“Also, N607.8 million was for overhead, with an expenditure performance of 90.14 per cent. For personnel, we had N915.3 million and we have 99.94 per cent performance on that.
“So far, for 2020, we have achieved 95.69 per cent performance,” the Minister told the visiting lawmakers.
He explained the inability of the ministry to conclude recruitment into the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) as well as the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), saying the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the exercise recently.
Mr Aregbesola, however, said that the ministry has concluded plans with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to conduct a Computer Based Test for candidates who have been shortlisted.
Earlier, Chairman of the committee, Mr Nasiru Sani Zango-Daura, who was represented by his deputy, Mr Emmanuel Ukpon-Udo Effiong, said the oversight visit was necessary as the nation prepares for the 2021 budget.
He said; “In preparation for the 2021 budget exercise, the House Committee on Interior resolved to embark on an oversight tour of all the ministries and agencies under its legislative and oversight jurisdiction to ascertain the level of implementation of their 2019 and 2020 appropriation.
“Following the receipt of your 2019 and 2020 budget performance reports, we communicated our intention for an oversight visit in order to have an on-the-spot assessment of the said implementations.
“The House Committee on Interior is here on a fact-finding and not a fault-finding mission”.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A former Chief of General Staff, General Oladipo Diya (rtd), has been reported death by his family.
The late military officer was the second-in-command to the late Nigerian Head of State, General Sani Abacha, from 1993 to 1997, when he was arrested for an alleged treason.
In a statement, Mr Oyesinmilola Diya said the former Military Governor of Ogun State died in the early hours of Sunday, March 26, 2023.
However, he did not disclose if the 79-year-old Odogbolu, Ogun State-born army general suffered from any illness before his demise.
In the statement, he only stated that further announcements would be made public in due course.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government of Nigeria has assured that it is ready to fulfil the Paris Agreement on Climate Change to ensure effective gender inclusion.
This was disclosed by Mr Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, during the inauguration and inception workshop of the project in Abuja tagged The Nigeria Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT), Just and Gender Inclusive Transition (JGIT) Project.
The project is aimed at helping countries to better assess the impacts of their climate policies and actions and fulfil their transparency commitments.
Mr Ngige said the objective of the inception meeting was to launch the ICAT Just Transition project and increase awareness among the national stakeholders for a better understanding of its implementation.
He said that ICAT, an International multi-stakeholder partnership of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), was supporting Nigeria in setting up Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) of a Just and Gender Inclusive Transition(JGIT).
The minister, represented by Ms Daju Kachollom, Permanent Secretary in the ministry, said Nigeria had signed a Project Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with the UNOPS, represented by the ICAT management.
According to him, the PCA is to firm up the process leading to the take-off and implementation of the project over a 12 months period.
“The objectives of the project, among others, include developing JGIT monitoring and MRV and ensuring it links with the sectoral MRV system.
“Another objective is to Enhance Transparency Framework (ETF) implemented by the Federal Ministry of Environment to achieve synergy, institutional memory, and stakeholder inclusion and cooperation.
“It will further enable a tripartite cooperation between government, labour, and employer associations to achieve a Just and Gender Inclusive Transition going forward with the implementation of the Paris agreement,” he said.
The minister said that the ICAT project would be implemented by a team of national experts and international ICAT consultants under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
On his part, Dr Yerima Tarfa, ICAT, JGIT Project Team Lead, said the initiative would help to increase the overall transparency capacities of countries and assess the contribution of policies and development objectives.
According to him, this is by providing appropriate methodological information and tools to support evidence–based policymaking.
Dr Tarfa noted that Nigeria was the largest economy and leading oil producer, and most populous in Africa.
“It faces the unique challenge of having to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels (petroleum, natural gas, and increasingly, coal) while responding to the unmet energy needs of its growing population.
“Nonetheless, Nigeria is turning this challenge into an opportunity by increasing the use of renewable energy, reducing its carbon footprints, and eliminating gas flaring.
“Nigeria’s National Determined Contributions (NDCs) is committed to a 20 per cent emission reduction by 2030 unconditionally and 45 per cent conditional, with focus on power and electricity, oil and gas,” he said.
The team lead said the highlights of the NDCs include ending gas flaring by 2030 and a 30 per cent energy efficiency level by 2030.
He said the inauguration of the inception workshop would provide the opportunity to create awareness and build a national cross-knowledge sharing that would provide a platform for key stakeholders to facilitate the implementation of the Nigeria ICAT JGIT Project.
He added that this would further set up an MRV of Just and Gender Inclusive Transition and its Roadmap for implementation in Nigeria.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
An appeal court sitting in Abuja on Friday upturned the judgment of the Osun governorship election tribunal, which removed Mr Ademola Adeleke as Governor of Osun State.
In January, the tribunal declared the former Governor of the state, Mr Gboyega Oyetola, as the authentic winner of the 2022 governorship election in the state.
While Mr Adeleke contested for the position under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Oyetola flew the flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Mr Adeleke was declared winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but Mr Oyetola, who contested as a sitting governor, approached the tribunal to dislodge the winner.
He argued that Mr Adeleke won through an electoral fraud, over-voting and his prayers were answered, as the tribunal upturned INEC’s decision and declared him the winner.
However, Governor Adeleke appealed the judgement and today, a three-member panel of justices held that the election tribunal erred when it ruled that Mr Oyetola and the APC proved their allegation of over-voting.
The appellate court held that Mr Adeleke was validly elected as the governor of Osun State and restored his mandate.
