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NEWS
Sanctity of Truth
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
FG shuts NIALS offices outside Lagos, Abuja CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2
including direct entries. In the white paper, government accepted that the function of the Nigerian Institute for Education
Planners and Administrators ( NIEPA) be merged with those of the National Teachers Institute. It also accepted the recommendation that the
funding of the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria. Other recommendations accepted include that the Nigerian Film Corpo-
ration be commercialised from 2013 fiscal year but with government seed funding, that all offices of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
Amaechi (right) presenting a souvenir to Sylva
Sylva, a credible Nigerian, says Amaechi CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2
essential element to good governance – you can’t see a man who has betrayed his friends and you say make him governor or make him deputy. What have you done, you have empowered him to betray more persons including betraying the money you have left behind in the coffers. So, character should be an essential element in selecting our leaders,” he said. Amaechi congratulated those who, despite Sylva’s travails, remained true and loyal to him, recalling that as a leader, he had been severally betrayed, even abandoned by those he trusted most and urged the APC in Bayelsa State to close ranks and work together for electoral victory in the elections ahead. Meanwhile, no fewer than 4,000 thousand members of the APC in Abia State have defected to the ruling PDP. Announcing the defection of the aggrieved APC members to the PDP, the leader of the group and a former chieftain of the APC, Chief Maxi Ndukwe Adindu, stated that he left the APC because the party lacks internal democracy and cannot bring about the desired change needed by Nigerians. Adindu stated this
shortly after his return and declaration for the party held at the PDP Ogbodi/ Ezeleke ward secretariat. But the PDP, yesterday, took a swipe at the APC, describing the violence that trailed last weekend congresses of the party as an embarrassment to democracy, National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement, said: “It is an irony that a party that daily claims it is on a mission to rescue Nigeria could not even conduct its own congress.” He noted the tales of imposition, cronyism, thuggery and general disdain for the elementary principles of democracy allegedly witnessed at the congress. According the party, “the savagery witnessed in the exercise which came eight months after the registration of the party, offers a glimpse into the confusion and brutality that will be the order of the day if the APC is allowed to hold power in 2015. “A passer-by would have thought the so-called APC congress was a meeting of thugs as detailed hooligans took over the process on the directives of their party overlords and dealt harshly with members
who dared to contest for positions already appropriated to hand-picked stooges of the owners of the party. From Lagos to Borno, Rivers to Zamfara, the story is consistently the same; a tale of cronyism, thuggery, violence and general disregard for the principles of democracy.” In Abuja, Jonathan yesterday revealed that he was seriously embarrassed with the results of the 2007 presidential election that jointly produced late President Umar Yar’Adua and himself before the international community. The President, who spoke while receiving the outcome of the National Stakeholders Forum on Electoral Reform by former President of the Senate, Ken Nnamani, said because the election was presumed not to be fair, people kept asking him embarrassing questions when he travelled abroad despite the fact that the Supreme Court had upheld the result. He said it was at that point that he vowed that if he had the opportunity to oversee elections in Nigeria, he would do better than what was done in 2007. The President further faulted a situation where
restriction is being placed on campaign expenses, saying it is not practicable in reality. He said: “I was embarrassed when the international observers complained that there were certain breaches in the 2007 polls. “Even though after taking oath of office and the Supreme Court declared us winners, but each time one travelled abroad, people asked all kinds of questions that even got one angry. “That was when I promised myself that if have an opportunity to oversee elections in Nigeria, no other President or Vice President should suffer that can kind of harassment by the international community. “That is why the 2011 elections, even though I was candidate, I said nobody should manipulate elections for me. That my ambition and the fate of the country are two different things; the interest of the nation is much more superior than any other ambition and I kept faith with that. “At least, at the end of that elections, it was accepted by observers locally and internationally. And I promise that 2015 elections will be better.”
outside Lagos and Abuja be closed down immediately to ensure judicious use of available resources in line with government policy; that National Council of Arts and Culture be merged with the National Troupe and the National Theatre into one agency called National Council of Arts and Culture As approved in the white paper, government accepted that the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) be self-funding from 2014 while the allegation made by the National Boundaries Commission against the office of the Surveyor General of the Federation over the funding of two non-existent boundary demarcation be properly investigated. It also directed that the revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission to perform the function of Fiscal Responsibility Commission and that the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission’s enabling law be repealed and the functions of the commission be subsumed under Revenue Mobilisation And Fiscal Commission. With the development, RMAFC’s enabling laws will be amended to accommodate the functions of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission and the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission. While government accepted the management audit of the National Institute for Sports, but rejected the recommendation for an amendment in name and status of the Federal Civil Service Commission to the Federal Public Service Commission, it, however, accepted the recommendation of a single term of five years for the Chairman and members of the commission. It rejected the renaming of Code of Conduct Tribunal to AntiCorruption Tribunal. It further rejected the recommendation that Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission be subsumed under the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) for greater synergy. Other recommendations that were turned
down by government were recommendation of the merger of NTA, FRCN and VON into one body to be known as Federal Corporation Broadcasting of Nigeria (FCBN). Rather, it directed that NTA be fully commercialised by 2013. The white paper also shows that government rejected the idea of the abolition of Federal Character Commission but directed that the commission be strengthened to perform its constitutional role and functions. It further rejected recommendations that the Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission be located as a parastatal in the Ministry of Power and that the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) be abolished. Other recommendations rejected include that the law establishing the Border Communities Development Agency be repealed and its functions reverted to the National Boundary Commission It also rejected the recommendation that government should disengage from funding current expenditure of National Institute on Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) from the 2015 fiscal year and limit itself to certain essential capital requirement of the institute. Government also rejected the merger of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the National Refugees Commission into one agency to be known as the National Emergency Management and Refugees Commission and rejected the recommendation for the Debt Management Office to become an extra ministerial department in the Federal Ministry of Finance and be delisted from the office of the Vice President It also rejected the recommendation that the Act setting up Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) be repealed and be reverted to the Highways Department of the Federal Ministry of Works A recommendation that the enabling law of the National Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS be repealed was also thrown out.