Politics

Experts Kick As 40 Presidential Panels Gulp N20bn

Published

1 year ago

April 11, 2023

Editor

Over N20bn was earmarked for presidential committees supervised by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation between 2015 and April 2023, findings by The PUNCH have shown.

Experts have frowned at the amount the current administration had spent on funding committees.

Speaking, Research Director, Centre for China Studies, Abuja, Charles Onunaiju, said although committees were ad-hoc vehicles to address evolving issues, most had only usurped roles belonging to existing agencies while failing to deliver results.

“We do not see what they have achieved in terms of results and service delivery. Committees, in my view, are supposed to be engaged on issues that are generally not expected or for whom we do not have statutory institutions or organs to deal with.

“But we have seen that some committees have become a hybrid, accountability processes are opaque and they are not held accountable under the traditional process.

“They have been, more or less, usurping roles of traditional government institutions. So, it is not out of place to see that they have gulped so much money and returned so little in terms of service delivery,” he observed.

A development economist and public affairs analyst, Aliyu Ilias, argued that existing ministries, departments and agencies could undertake some committee functions if given the room.

Ilias said, “There are no committees that a director in a ministry cannot spearhead. That is why we have special duties.

“You recall that the National Social Investment Programme was eventually transferred to the humanitarian ministry.

“These monies are uncalled for because you cannot put your hand to what they are doing exactly and they are meant to last for some time. So, it is better to pick from the ministries, departments and agencies.”

On his part, a foundation member of the All Progressives Congress, Osita Okechukwu, argued that the committees were essential ingredients of policy formulation.

“We cannot formulate policies in the marketplace. So, it is always more beneficial to society when the committees are primarily made up of experts in that area.

“That is why it becomes important to set up committees so that the policy in question will be reviewed upside down until the government says ‘this is the best model or strategy that we should use to pursue a given policy to achieve a given result’.

“It is as they say in the parliamentary language that most results are not achieved in the general house, but at the committee levels because a few good heads can bring up good ideas and present them to the general house,” Okechuwu said.

The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation could not be reached at the time of filing this report.

This came as the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), inaugurated at least 40 committees and councils to drive various government agendas, since assuming office in 2015

The committees comprise various sectors: education, health, security, the digital economy, and the civil service.

Most recently, the President inaugurated a 14-member Steering Committee on Petroleum Products Supply and Distribution management to address fuel scarcity, a 56-member National Advisory Committee on Women’s Economic Empowerment and the Presidential Transition Council to usher in a new government on May 29.

Others include the National Steering Committee of the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy, an 18-member Presidential Steering Committee on Alternate School Programme, the Health Sector Reform Committee with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as Chairman, the reconstitution of the Standing Committee on National Honours Award, a 17-member committee for the development of Nigerian football, amongst others.

In 2022, the President inaugurated an 11-member presidential committee on the national economy and a Presidential Steering Committee on reviewing the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System, the Treasury Single Account, and the Government Integrated Financial Management System.

In the same year, the President also set up a committee to consider the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in the Union’s eight-month faceoff with the Federal Government.

He also inaugurated the National Council on Climate Change, the Nigeria End Malaria Council, in line with the African Union Assembly Declaration for the Establishment of EMCs continent-wide.

On August 19, 2022, while receiving the Central Working Committee of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria at the State House, Buhari revealed that he had created a committee to harmonise salaries in the Public Service.

He also set up a 27-man Presidential Council on Digital Economy and E-government, the reconstitution of the membership of the governing body of the National Anti-doping Committee and the Presidential Committee on the Repatriation, Return and Resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons in the North-East of Nigeria.

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Politics

JUST IN: Ex-PDP Deputy National Chair, Oyedokun Defects To APC

Published

18 hours ago

May 16, 2024

Editor

A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun, has resigned his membership of the party and announced defection to the All Progressives Congress.

Oyedokun, a notable personality within the political circle in Osun State and beyond, said he decided to dump the PDP after consultation with his loyalists.

He said he would be joining APC, where his experience, efforts, and leadership roles would be valued and appreciated.

His resignation letter addressed to the National Chairman of the PDP through the ward, local government and state chairmen of the party obtained late Thursday further read, “As a functional member and leader of PDP (Ward 13, Jagun/ Osi-Bale Ode, Odo-Otin South Local Government, Osun State,) whose high electoral productivity and value have been credibly and positively acknowledged in my ward, across the local council, state and country-wide for the enhancement of the fortune of the PDP, I have the honour (though with pain) in announcing the renunciation of my membership of the party on principle, having observed that the ideals of we, founding members, had been sorely contaminated.

“In taking this step which is not even without due consultation with my teaming loyalists in the PDP, I have consequently decided to shift my allegiance to the All Progressives Congress (APC) where I believe my experience, efforts and leadership roles would be valued and appreciated.”

Oyedokun’s defection to the APC is coming at the time the aspirant he supported during the 2022 Osun governorship primary of PDP, Mr Dotun Babayemi is also moving to the national ruling party.

Osun APC said on Wednesday that Babayemi and his supporters would be dumping PDP and joining the party at a rally scheduled to be held in Osogbo on Friday.
PUNCH

Politics

Poll: APC Has No Sellable Candidate, Nothing To Campaign On – Edo Govt

Published

4 days ago

May 13, 2024

Editor

The Edo State Government claimed on Monday that the All Progressives Congress, APC, has no credible candidate for the September 21 governorship election.

This was an assertion made by the Edo State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare, at a press conference in Benin City.

Nehikhare also alleged that the party is using lies and propaganda as its campaign strategy.

According to him: “The only APC strategy for the governorship election is to resort to lies and propaganda. When a party takes lies and propaganda as an election strategy, it means it has nothing to offer the people. The party lacks people with character, capacity, and intellect.”

The commissioner who took journalists through a screened shot WhatsApp chat said: “What we have here is the official APC WhatsApp platform, their own people screenshot their discussion. One of them who has a conscience asks, is this the only thing we have?”

Nehikhare, who said APC is ashamed to campaign for its candidate, noted that, as of today, nobody had heard of what the party has for the state.

“All we heard is how they are going to help their paymaster, lies and propaganda that will not help the state,” he added.

He opined that lies and propaganda are not strategies the opposition party, like APC, can use to win the September 21 governorship election.

The commissioner, who warned against misinformation and fake news ahead of the governorship election, urged media practitioners to be neutral in matters concerning lies and propaganda.

He, however, noted that Governor Godwin Obaseki’s administration has a lot of achievements to market and sell its candidate for the election.

Politics

Defection: Edo Govt, Ex-PDP BoT Member, Idahosa In Verbal War

Published

4 days ago

May 13, 2024

Editor

Edo State government and a former member of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Board of Trustees, Charles Idahosa, on Monday traded words over the latter defection to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Recall that Idahosa resigned
formally resigned who had last month resigned from PDP, rejoined the APC on Monday in Benin City.

Speaking during his formal presentation to the APC in Benin City, he noted that he left the party four years ago due to internal crisis.

Idahosa added that he dumped the PDP because of what he described as the “damning deeds of the Obaseki-led administration in the last four years”.

He took a swipe at Obaseki for saying that PDP would win the forthcoming September governorship election with 80 per cent of votes.

“I thank God, four years later we all are wiser now. Like the Secretary said, I was a founding member of ACD, ACN and APC. The damage we did four years ago, the APC never remained the same.

“But I am glad we are back to the family. I was nominated to the Board of the Railway when I was in the APC. When I moved to the PDP, I wrote to resign my membership but it was rejected and showed my wide acceptance.

“At 71, I am not here to contest position with anybody, I am here to work. I want to urge APC to keep their eyes on the ball. It is not over until it is over.”

While lambasting Governor Obaseki for his comment that those leaving PDP have been given money, he noted that his greatest regret was not allowing the governor to resign after his first four years in office.

“When he came to beg me like a weather beaten chicken, how much did he give to me? Anytime he goes religious gathering he would say those leaving PDP have been given money.

“He came to me three times in my house to say he wants to resign, that he was tired of being governor but I appealed to him, telling him it was not about him but Benin interest.”

But in a swift reaction, the state Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare alleged that Idahosa was never a PDP member.

Nehikhare noted that Idahosa was also never a BOT member of the party, because the party in the state rejected his nomination.

He alleged that it was as a result of the rejection that he found his way back to APC.

“I heard that he claimed to be a member of BOT of PDP but I want to challenge him to tell us when he was sworn in as a member of PDP BOT. He was not a fit and proper person. Even though he was nominated he was shunned by the party.

“It was this that drove him back to APC which he never left in the first place. He was holding on to the board appointment which was offered him while in APC prior to 2020 governorship election.

“He has reached the end of his political career. He has nothing to offer any political party or any group he joins because he believes in bread and butter politics,” Nehikhare said.