Sack Jonathan’s last-minutes appointees, review contracts of last 18 months- Joda Committee to Buhari

The Ahmed Joda transition committee has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately terminate all dubious appointments made by former President Goodluck Jonathan in the last nine months, and review all contracts awarded by the administration in the last 18 months.

The committee said this is to help the new government sidestep ineptitude and waste, and scale up its revenue base.

The recommendations are part of a portfolio of swift steps Mr. Buhari must take within three months of assumption of power if he must save cost and “enhance liquidity”, the committee said in its 800-page report to the president.

PREMIUM TIMES reported it exclusively obtained volumes of the report, which contain extensive analyses of Nigeria’s key challenges, with suggested responses for the economy and finance, governance and social welfare.

The report details a list of prompt, medium and long term decisions Mr. Buhari must take, or authorise, within 30, 45, 60 and 90 days of taking office, to create immediate impact, reduce government liability, increase revenue and stabilise the polity.

For instance, to deal with crippling fuel crisis, and backlog of unpaid salaries by states and the federal government, the committee advised Mr. Buhari to “borrow immediately or use CBN (Central Bank)
advances” for salaries and fuel subsidies to “avoid chaos”.

For contracts, it urged the administration to “review all contracts signed in the last 18 months by FGN”.
“Non-strategic contracts that have not commenced or where no payments have been made can be cancelled,” the committee said, while also urging Mr. Buhari to negotiate exits for projects where mobilisation payments have been made but work not commenced.

That move will “save expenditure on non-strategic projects, and can free up cash flows for other vital initiatives”, the committee said.

The decision on contract is to be taken within 90 days from May 29, and should be handled by the Federal Executive Council and the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP.

At a time Mr. Buhari is facing growing criticism over his delay in making key appointments, and his  failure to lay out initiatives to assure a burdened nation of immediate relief, the Joda report provides a fresh perspective on preparations by the new government and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to confront some of Nigeria’s monstrous problems.

The committee said the president should review all appointments made by Mr. Jonathan in the last nine months, and “for strategic agencies requiring professional leadership, the government should terminate all appointments not based on merit”.

The Joda panel said such move will save costs associated with poor decision making by an incompetent management team, and must be delivered within 45 days of the new government.

That recommendation appears to take into consideration the last minute appointments by Mr. Jonathan after he lost the March 28 elections.

In less than two months, Mr. Jonathan, not previously given to readily hiring and firing, sacked dozens of top officials and replaced them before leaving office.

As further measures to check waste and increase efficiency and accountability, the committee urged the government to quickly implement a single bank account, to be called Treasury Single Account, and to commence full implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act within 60 days, and chase up any outstanding funds from all government offices.

This will curtail the “excesses carried forward from previous administration”, it noted.

The committee also advised the government to fully implement the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPIS, and Integrated Government Integrated Financial Management Information System across all MDAs within 60 days.

The two facilities were used by the past government to check thousands of “ghost workers” who drew billions of naira in salaries that ended in the pocket of fraudulent officials.

Despite its claim of saving more than N100 billion from “ghost workers”, the Jonathan administration failed to punish those behind the scam.

Claims by former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that the case had been transferred to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) alongside names of indicted officials, were repeatedly refuted by the anti-graft body.

But more than other proposals in that unit of the report, the committee paid greater attention to government contracts and urged President Buhari to be decisive in reviewing the deals.

The committee said the handover notes from the Jonathan administration showed aggregate contractor liabilities of N4 trillion as at April 2015.

Of that amount, the Ministry of Education owed the most at N1.2 trillion, followed by the  finance ministry which has N467.7 billion.

The committee warned Mr. Buhari that it would be irrational to rely on the purported huge balances the former government claimed it left behind.

First, it said, the numbers lacked key information to establish the authenticity of the contracts.
It made the following  observation regarding the claims by the former government regarding outstanding liabilities:
– The aging of these liabilities was not provided.
– A detailed list of contracts was not provided and therefore, some balances maybe double counted (eg contracts funded through debt maybe captured in both MoF and the contracting Ministry).
– Some balances may be disputed. Therefore, liabilities may change once settlement/judgement is reached.
– No documentation was provided to confirm if the projects were executed to the agreed specifications.
– Some contracts maybe cancelled or terminated”.
As a first step, the Joda-committee advised Mr. Buhari to establish an Inter-Ministerial Task-Force to review all outstanding contracts (and associated liabilities) across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies within three months.
“The mandate of this Task-Force is to confirm the existence of the liability and authenticate the accuracy of information provided in the handover notes,” it said.
“The Government should only recognise the liabilities verified and confirmed by this Task-Force.”

Devise ways of paying workers salaries – Buhari tells governors

President Muhammadu Buhari has called on state governors to consider, as a matter of urgency, exploring efficient means of gradually liquidating all unpaid salaries of staff, which have brought untold hardship to thousands of families.

Inaugurating the national economic council at the presidential villa Monday morning, ‎President Buhari also called on the states to also devise ways of increasing their revenue base in order to cushion the effect s of dwindling revenue from the federation account.

The national economic Council is made up of the 36 state governors, minister‎s of Finance and National as well as the Attorney General of the Federation.

Buhari inaugurates National Economic Council

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday inaugurated the National Economic Council led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

The PUNCH reported that the council, which has the 36 state governors and the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria as members, is saddled with the responsibility of advising the President on economic affairs of the country.

Buhari tasked members to come up with ways of liquidating outstanding salaries and wages across the country.

He restated his administration’s commitment to tackling insecurity, corruption and other social vices.

S’Eagles may not qualify for 2017 Nations Cup, Oliseh warns

Former Super Eagles Captain, Sunday Oliseh, has predicted the possibility of Super Eagles of not qualifying  for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations holding in Gabon.

Oliseh, writing on his blog, sundayoliseh.tv, based his prediction on the way officials of the Nigeria Football Fdfederation (NFF) are going about with the view to nailing Super Eagles captain, Vincent Enyeama, over his uncomplimentary comments on Kaduna.

“Let Nigeria leave side issues and player character and face pure football. Otherwise we might not be at the next Nations Cup again as participants but as mere spectators!” Oliseh said.

He faulted how NFF officials have been all over the place in their quest to nail Enyeama for his supposed “uncomplimentary remarks” about the choice of Kaduna for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Chad.

“The current much ado about nothing on Vincent Enyeama’s comments disagreeing with the decision to play an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Kaduna is taking a direction now which, we may once again regret as a nation,” he warned.

According to him, all these attempts would have been meaningful if the player (Enyeama) had refused to play the match because of the security fears he raised.

“Nigeria is returning from a painful situation of missing out of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations and barely has the qualifiers for the next edition started and an opinion of its captain is the latest thing to pounce on inorder to discredit a loyal servant in Vincent Enyeama. What is the hidden agenda this time? He asked.

Oliseh reminded that this was the same path the nation threaded in 2002 when in an attempt to discredit those of them that qualified the country for the 2002 World Cup and won bronze at the Africa Cup of Nations same year, branded them as mafia, undisciplined, for having the audacity to demand reimbursement of flight tickets to games to serve their fatherland.

“End result? Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup and the team had a free fall and still reeling from it till today.

“The love of fatherland and the repercussions are the only reasons why I feel I should share my fear with you all as we desperately need to be present at the next Nations Cup and do well.

He said that it might be difficult qualifying for the tournament “Without our best materials in good frame of mind and if you are unaware, Enyeama is definitely one of the indisputable world class players we can boast of today.

“Let Nigeria leave side issues and player character and face football. Otherwise we might not be at the next Nations Cup again as participants but as mere spectators,” he warned.

Aside Enyeama, the NFF is also on the trail of the coach Stephen Keshi, who is being investigated for allegedly applying for the Cote d’ Ivoire job while under contract with Nigeria.

Nigeria will face Tanzania in the next qualification September 6, 2015.

Dangote Eyes $10b from Cement, Petrol Exports By 2017

Aliko Dangote, President and Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, one of Nigeria’s most diversified conglomerates, at the weekend applauded the decision by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop sale of foreign exchange to importers of 40 identified goods and services that can be produced in the country.

Some of the products affected by the CBN directive to banks and Bureaux de Change operators include Rice, cement, margarine, palm kernel/palm oil products/vegetable oil, meat and processed meat products, vegetable and processed vegetable products, poultry –chicken, eggs, turkey; and private airplanes/jets, among others.

Addressing the media in Lagos, he assured that with the $9 billion Dangote oil refinery under construction in Lagos, expected to begin production in 2017, the group could rake in up to $10 billion in foreign exchange from exporting cement and petroleum products.

By 2017 also, he assured, “we (Dangote Group) would not go near CBN for forex.”

Dangote, Africa’s richest man, added that work is at advance stage on the Lagos-based petroleum products refinery whose capacity has so far been increased thrice even before it opens its doors for business.

The plant initially had capacity to refine 400,000 barrels of crude per day, before it was increased to 500,000bpd; before the latest upgrade to 650,000bpd.

He noted the need for local refining of petroleum products as it helps to conserve the huge forex spent on importation of such products.

According to Dangote “38 per cent of forex is spent on importing petroleum products,” adding that with its increased capacity, the refinery can satisfy 100 per cent of the nation’s demand and still leave some for export.

“Our export would translate to $10 billion in revenue,” he added, arguing that government may still need to subsidise sale of crude oil to refineries in the country for them to operate profitably.

Dangote said most of the refineries in sub-saharan Africa are operating at a huge loss, and that the only ones that are profitable today are those in Cote D’Ivoire and South Africa.

Agreeing with those who want subsidy of petroleum products removed to save Nigeria from further haemorrhage of its external reserves, Dangote noted that when this is done, the fund would be channeled into other areas of national need. He said that although the price of petrol may initially rise to N110 per litre, it would eventually drop to a market determined level, as the importers move to drive volume and remain competitive.

By the end of this year, Dangote Cement plants across the country would operate on coal, he assured instead of gas which is problematic. He also said that the factories would be emission-free despite the conversion to coal, which the country has in abundance.

The group’s Senegal cement plant, for example, he said, “operates on coal and there is no emission… it is very clean. Running on coal by our study is cheaper than gas,” recalling that “in 2005, we were paying $1 (for gas), today it is $4 and industries in Lagos are paying $7.”

While explaining that his decision to invest outside of Nigeria is driven by the need to diversify, Dangote assured that “by 2017, we would have (cement) plants in 17 countries.”

Still on the CBN directive, he agreed on the need for Nigerians to patronise locally made goods, as it would ensure that over time, such ‘substandard products’ would improve significantly in quality for the good of the economy.

“As we patronise locally made products, they would keep improving,” he stressed.

Fielding questions, he insisted that there is noting wrong with the rice grown in the country, stressing the need to encourage agriculture, even as he wondered why Nigeria would import “raw sugar with so much land and water in the country.

“My greatest concern is that in the next four and a half years, we (Nigeria) are going to be over 200 million people so many mouths to feed.”

The industrialist however expressed fear that the decision could put enormous pressure on black market operators who sell forex and are patronised by ordinary citizens who would not ordinarily qualify to purchase foreign currency from banks and BDCs.

He also used the occasion to call for a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that is inclusive of both the rich and the poor and all strata of the society.

Nigeria Loses N1.825tr Yearly To Apapa Gridlock –Experts

If there has ever been a time when the federal and Lagos State governments need to tackle the perennial traffic gridlock on road network in Nigeria’s port city- Apapa, Lagos, it is now.

Experts estimate that the gridlock that makes almost the entire stretch of the Apapa-Oshodi road, linking the Murtala Mohammed International and Lagos Domestic Airports, impassable on a daily basis due to the long queue of fuel tankers, costs the nation’s economy about N5 billion daily in man-hour losses.

According to Dr. Emeka Enebeli, a maritime expert and President of Apapa Club and Prof. Bamidele Badejo, a former Lagos Commissioner for Transportation, the situation has heightened inflation in the country as businesses attempt to pass on the man-hour loss to consumers.

Neither the Federal nor Lagos State Government has been able to proffer answers to why the Apapa traffic gridlock has become intractable over the years, despite all manner of committees set up over the years to address the menace that is gradually crippling businesses in Lagos, the heart of Nigeria’s economy.

In a chat with Daily Independent, Enebeli wants haulage trucks off the road and some of their cargoes put “on the rail and others on the water, then the traffic situation will be solved.”

He also urged government to set up a Presidential Committee to decongest Apapa roads as well as the ports. The committee, he observed should not include civil servants, but journalists, lawyers, transport experts to fashion a solution to the traffic menace.

“Lagos economy is losing N5 billion daily already because nothing is moving. Businesses are trapped in the traffic,” Enebeli told our correspondent.

Keen observers of events in the area recall that before 1985, over 85 per cent of cargoes coming through the ports in Lagos were moved by rail, while the 15 per cent were freighted by road. At the time, Lagos had a population of 5.8 million.

Over the years, cargo throughput has more than quadrupled just like the population, which was estimated at 21 million last year.

In 2014, a total of 5,541 ocean going vessels bearing 147,852,920 gross registered tonnage (GRT) called at Nigerian ports. Of the 86,603,903 metric tons of cargo discharged in Nigerian ports; Liquefied Natural Gas shipment accounted for 21,679,330MT.

General cargo trade recorded 14,502,263MT, while dry bulk stood at 9,843,199 metric tons. Refined Petroleum was 20,736,699 metric tons. Laden Container Throughput was 1,063,380 TEUs. Empty Container Throughput was 790,586 TEUs. This shows that Nigeria remains a significant hub of containerized goods in the West and Central Africa.

The Lagos Ports Complex (LPC) recorded a 36,969,456 GRT, showing an increase of 7.2 per cent over 34,466,291 gross tons achieved in the same period of 2013. But Tin can Island Port recorded a 17 per cent increase in the gross registered tonnage, achieving 50,011,289 gross tons in 2014 as against the 42,758,161 gross tons recorded in 2013.

APM Terminals, concessionaire of the Apapa Container Terminal in the Lagos Ports Complex, Apapa, alone, handled 650,000 twenty feet equivalent units (TEUs) in 2014, representing 53 percent of containerized cargo imports through Lagos.

All these cargoes are being moved road, coupled with the human traffic which has overwhelmed the roads that have become dilapidated, worsening the already bad situation.

Enebeli noted that the first thing that should be done is to decentralise the cargo system in Nigeria by spreading the cargoes to different ports.

For him, there no “reason why cargoes going to neighbouring countries in the West Coast should be moved on road. Put the cargo on even a 1,000 ton vessel and that takes about 120 trucks out of the road.”

By means of legislative Act, he believes government can direct that discharge of reefer vessels (frozen cargo) be done in Koko Port (Delta State), and  steel at the Port Harcourt port. By so doing, a significant chunk of the cargoes are removed from Lagos to ease the already chaotic situation.

He said the colonial masters used rail to move agricultural products 60 years ago, wondering why the country should find it difficult to do even more now. The worsening condition of Apapa roads, causing nightmarish traffic gridlock continues to take its toll on business activities within and around the port town from where government realizes significant portion of its revenue.

Access to Apapa, a port town in Lagos, hosting two of the busiest seaports in Nigeria has become a persistent nightmare for commuters, residents, port users and workers whose offices are located within the area, who now spend at least three hours to access the town either from Mile 2 or Ijora, the two main access routes which ordinarily take less than 10 minutes.

Indiscriminate parking of trucks and tankers on the roads, failure of portions of the roads as well as activities of policemen and other security operatives within the port city are blamed for the worsening traffic situation in the area.

Speaking at a separate interview, Prof. Badejo told our correspondent that “the traffic (gridlock) has ripple effects on the economy, as it brought about additional inflation because a container that takes about N85,000 to lift now goes for about N180,000 because of the cost implications of having to wait for hours. Nigerian railways have stopped operating from the port and what led to that decision is a mystery to me, because in 1985, the railway evacuated 85 per cent of goods at the port while road accounted for 15 percent.”

He expressed concerns “for security, safety, pilferages and robberies. So, if we are able to analyse social cost, there is need for drastic action to resolve the quagmire on that road.”

Residents of the area and other adjourning towns such as Festac and Amuwo Odofin also lamented the worsening traffic situation in separate chats with Daily Independent. According to them, for anyone to arrive at work in Apapa on time these days, he or she must leave home at 4.00am. On the average, workers arrive at their desks between 11 am and 12 noon, by which time they would be tired. Apart from that, by 3pm or 4pm, they close work to wade through the traffic. Many residents of Festac, Satellite Town and the Jakande Estate around the Mile 2 axis, are known to have relocated as part of efforts to arrive their workplace on the Lagos Island axis in good time.

In all, 56 tank farms (for storage of imported petroleum products) are in Lagos State alone, with 35 located along the Kirikiri Town-Trinity junction axis on the Wharf/Tin Can Island road.

This is where the condition of the road is most deplorable, causing extreme inconvenience to residents, tanker drivers and other road users, lamented Comrade Adebayo Atanda, Public Relations Officer, Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), an affiliate of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), recently.

It would be recalled that the Federal Government awarded a N6 billion-contract in November 2010 for the rehabilitation of the expressway. The contract involved the rehabilitation of the road from Km 0 to Km 15. While Borini Prono started from Km 0 and ends at Km 7 (Apapa-Tin Can Island Port to the Sunrise Bridge/Beach Land Estate junction); Julius Berger, took off from that point to Cele Bus-Stop (Km 7 to Km 15).

Whereas Julius Berger has pushed the rehabilitation work on the Oshodi-bound carriageway to an encouraging extent, Borini Prono seems to have gone to sleep.

Almost Five years after the contract was awarded, commuters and businesses on the Apapa and Oshodi-bound carriageways have tales of woe to tells as this portion of the expressway has gone from bad to worse, leading to the endless and life-threatening gridlock.

Perhaps, the solution to the gridlock that has defied several government intervention committees over the years may just lie in the redistribution of cargoes to various ports in the country, in addition to a sincere revamp of the rail system and inland water transport. The experts agree that the multiplier effects of the solution on the economy would indeed be mind-blowing.