Tuesday 28 July 2015
Photo of Toyin Saraki at EFCC office today
Wife of Senate President, Toyin Saraki was a guest at the
EFCC Head office in Abuja earlier today where she was interrogated for
seven hours on allegations of money laundering. She is expected back at the EFCC office tomorrow July 29th
for further interrogation. Mrs Saraki was accompanied to the EFCC
office by some Senators including Dino Melaye, other politicians and her
supporters.
Ooni of Ife, Oba Sijuwade dies at 85
Coco shows off growing baby bump (photo)
"I will reveal the gender of baby & how pregnant I really am on our talkshow,@iceandcocotalk on Aug 3rd! I think you'll be a little shocked" she tweeted yesterday
Obama comes for African leaders who have refused to leave power
"I am in my second term. Its been an extraordinary privilege for me to serve as President of the United States. I love my work but under our constitution I cannot run again. I actually think I am a pretty good president. I think if I ran I could win. But I can't. So there is a lot that I will like to do to keep America moving but the law is the law and no one person is above the law. Not even the president. And I will be honest with you.
I am looking forward to life after being president. I wouldn't have such a big security detail all the time. It means I can go take a walk. I can spend time with my family. I can find other ways to serve. I can visit Africa more often. The funny thing is I don't understand why people want to stay so long especially when they have got a lot of money. When a leader tries to change the rules in the middle of the game just to stay in office, it risks instability and strife as we have seen in Burundi. Sometimes you hear a leader say well I am the only person who can hold this nation together. If that's true, then that leader has failed to build their nation. You look at Nelson Mandela. Madiba like George Washington forged a lasting legacy not only because of what they did in office but because they were wiling to leave office, transfer power peacefully. Just as the African Union have condemned coups and illegitimate transfers of power,the AU and other strong voices can also help the people of Africa ensure their leaders abide by term limits under their constitution. Nobody should be president for life" he said.
Female Minister under Jonathan stole Trillions — America
Oshiomhole, who was on the entourage of President Muhammadu Buhari to the United States, said Nigeria had in Buhari a President who talked with confidence unlike “a President that is blabbing and is not sure of what the issues are.”
He said, “The PDP destroyed the country. I mean from the lips of American officials; senior officials of the State Department said one minister under PDP cornered as much as $6bn.
“The America official said even by Washington’s standard, that is earth-shattering.
“So, the PDP is a party that presided over the liquidation of our nation, destroyed all our institutions, converted the Armed Forces commanders to use them as if they were political thugs, converted the Nigerian Television Authority to a party megaphone, destroyed the Department of State Services, went after opposition as if we were rabbits to be pursued into our holes, compromised even student unions and destroyed everything that you can think of, and elevated religion to a state affair.
“Under the party, Israel became a place you visit every week; they placed pastors against mallams, placed the North against the South, the East against the West, just to retain power; elevate Obas and Obis with dollars.
“You guys (journalists) were reporting dollars that were changing hands; when the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was spending much more money than is available to the Federation Account.
“We are a very patient people. If we were not a patient people, anybody wearing the tag of PDP ought to feel very unsafe because you are all victims — all of us here.”
He added, “Mr. Johnnie Carson, who was the Assistant Secretary of State, when we visited him in company with Senator (Bukola) Saraki, then as the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum — that was at the eve of President Obama’s first visit to Africa — and we went to complain, ‘why is Nigeria not on the list?’
“What he said, for me, was quite instructive compared to what he said last week. Then I was present when he said ‘you know, we, who see ourselves not just as friends of Nigeria, each time we think there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is time to encourage Nigeria to build on it, you would wake up the following day under President Jonathan to find out that even the tunnel had been removed'."
He spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Ex Akwa Ibom gov, Akpabio announced as Senate Minority Leader
Gbajabiamila Wins At Last: Emerges House Majority Leader
After a long struggling, running into weeks, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila who lost the position of House of Reps Speaker to Yakubu Dogara by just 8 votes, has emerged the Majority of the 8th House.
From what OluFamous.Com gatherd, Gbajabiamila preferred to be majority leader than a mere deputy to the speaker. As Majority Leader, he is the chief coordinator of activities in the House.
Others who got positions as Principal Officers are:
Hon. Alhassan Dogowa as the Chief Whip, Hon. Baba Jibrin as the Deputy Leader and Hon. Pally Iriase as Deputy Chief Whip.
The South-East still got something - Deputy Minority Leader.
The announcement attracted laud ovation from members. Gbajabiamila's team forth a good fight. Kudos!
States to repay bailout loans from allocations
On Monday revealed that some state governors had started visiting the central bank to discuss modalities on how and when the funds would be released.
It was gathered that the CBN would release the package to the states as concessionary loans to be repaid over a longer period of time rather than the funds being given in form of a grant.
The Presidency said the implementation of the three-pronged financial intervention recently approved by President Muhammadu Buhari to support the states to pay their workers was now in progress.
The Senior Special Assistant on Media to the Vice President, Mr. Laolu Akande, said this in a statement.
Akande said state governments would start benefiting from the special intervention fund of between N250bn and N300bn in a matter of weeks.
He explained that planning meetings were currently being held between members of the Federation Account Allocation Committee and the CBN on the one hand, and between the central bank and commercial banks on the other hand.
A top official in the Ministry of Finance said that one of the criteria that might be used for the disbursement of the funds would be for the states to sign Irrevocable Standing Payment Orders guaranteeing the repayment of the loans.
He said while the deductions from the states’ statutory allocations might not be immediate, owing to declining revenue, it would be implemented as soon as the country’s revenue profile improved.
The source said,
This issue of bailout came directly from the Federal Government and it is an issue that must get the support of the CBN and other stakeholders for it to work. You will recall that what necessitated the CBN to intervene was because most states took short-term loans to finance long-term projects as well as service their obligations.
“So, once these loans are restructured, which is what the CBN is currently doing, they will be repaid and the only way that the funds can be recouped is to deduct whatever is their indebtedness as a result of the bailout from their allocations, but this may not be done immediately until revenue improves.”Another top official of the CBN also added that some state governors had been visiting the bank since last week to have further discussions on the modalities for the package.
The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, had on Friday, when asked about the modalities for the package, said that they were still being worked out.
He said while the funds would be given to the states in form of loans, the bank would meet with the governors and the commercial banks to restructure their expenditure and revenue profiles.
He also said the CBN would meet with the state governors to encourage them to diversify their internally generated revenues so as to boost their states’ revenue base.
Akande said the meetings of the stakeholders had focused on the details of the special intervention fund and the debt relief programme of the President for the states.
He said,
“Such meetings are reviewing loan profiles of the states, issues around restructuring of existing loans, including time span, and reconciling the figures. Already, it has been agreed that the existing state loans be restructured for 20 years, and regarding the bond option, the rates to be applied will be market-based but with a cap to make it affordable.
“Within weeks from now, the states are expected to start benefiting from these two other parts of the presidential intervention.” Akande said by extending the commercial loans of the states, the third part of the intervention would make more funds available to the state governments, which otherwise would have been removed at source by the banks.He further explained that to be able to offer the option to the states, Buhari brought the financial muscle of the Federal Government to bear by guaranteeing the elongation of the loans.
He said,
“Besides, the availability of the $2.1bn from the NLNG, which has now been shared to the states, was made possible because President Buhari set a new fiscal standard and tone that all monies generated should go to the Federation Account.
“Before that constitutional standard was upheld by the President, the NLNG dividends were going to other NNPC designated accounts.
“None of the three parts of this intervention would have been possible without the creativity and approval of President Buhari. It should be noted that the backlog of the salaries in some of the states went back several months before the President took office.”
Punch.
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