Lagos-Calabar rail project: Ashafa's shocking revelation!

Ashafa

The speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has taken on Twitter users over allegation that the National Assembly removed the proposed Lagos-Calabar rail modernisation project from the 2016 appropriation bill.

Twitting on the issue, the Speaker described the report as “barefaced lies”. He said there was no provision for the project on the budget, calling on those with contrary information to come up with evidence.

Reports of the project removal flooded the Internet on Sunday, triggering a widespread controversy. Many social media users blamed the lawmakers for allegedly replacing it with their constituency projects.     

Dogara, a conservative social media user, had earlier abstained from the online debate. He, however, delved into it in the early hours of Monday, making use of his Twitter page to give his position.

Social media activists had demanded an explanation from the Speaker on the decision to delete the project from the budget.  For instance, tweeting on @demola_ade77, one Alabi Ojo called on him to explain why the key infrastructure would not receive a deserved priority.

Responding to Ojo and others, Dogara said Nigerians had failed to ask the right questions. The masses, he said, should have asked whether the project was included in the expenditure template before attacking NASS on social media.

To a tweeter, who challenged the Speaker to publish the presentation of the Minister of Transport, Chibuike Amaechi, during the budget defence session, Dogara said, “Ameachi does not have any constitutional power to prepare a budget estimate and lay the same before NASS.”

According to him, those who claim the parliament removed or substituted the rail project may have got their information from the beer parlour.

The number four citizen in the country asked, “Who in the Presidency said so? The presidential spokesman or the Minister of Information?

“I guess (this is) from the beer parlour, as any reasonable man claiming so should have given hard evidence.”

He said the misinformation had nothing to do with the Presidency, but an intentional lie “meant to stir hatred.”                      

Dogara is not alone in employing digital tools to defend NASS against the allegation.  The Chairman, the House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has been on Twitter since Sunday, for the same reason.

In a series of tweets, Jibrin said, “The Lagos-Calabar rail was never captured in the budget that transmitted to NASS. How then did the NASS remove it? I actually find it shocking that even some national dailies made the removal their headlines. A little research would have helped.

“All they, those spreading the false information, needed to have done were to check the initial document sent by the executive… The Ministry of Transportation overshot its budget by N54bn. That is, by the time you add up the items on the ministry’s budget, you would still have a gap of N54bn. N54bn lying there without being allocated.”

Yet, Jibrin pointed out that the constitution gave lawmakers powers to re-allocate, remove, add or increase items on the appropriation. 

“The constitution is explicitly clear. The role of the President in the preparation of budget is to send estimates while NASS has powers to allocate, re-allocate, remove, add, increase, reduce or retain revenue and expenditure item.”

Senators Godwill Akpabio, Ben Murray-Bruce and other lawmakers from the South-South have been singled out for an online attack over the issue.

Murray-Bruce said, “The only reason behind the lie… is to set Nigerians against each other.”

Interestingly, the post by Chairman of the Senate Committee on Land Transport, Gbenga Ashafa, may have contradicted the position of other lawmakers. Posting on his Facebook wall on Monday, he said the project was not in the original document but that it was included in the supplementary copy Amaechi sent during ministerial budget defence.

He noted, “Amaechi did inform the committee of the omission of the Lagos-Calabar rail modernisation and indeed sent a supplementary copy of the ministry’s budget to the committee, which contained the said project.

“The minister noted that the amount needed for the counterpart funding for both the Lagos to Kano and Lagos to Calabar rail modernisation projects was in the sum of N120bn, being N60bn each. While the committee did not completely agree with all the changes made in the subsequent document, we keyed into the laudable rail modernisation project and found ways of appropriating funds for it without exceeding the envelope provided for the ministry.”

He said the disputed project was included in the document his committee sent to the Senate Committee on Appropriation, adding that the unallocated N54bn reportedly found in the Ministry of Transport’s budget was for Lagos-Kano and Lagos-Calabar rail projects.

Amazing story varsity graduates who choose to be fashion designers

Amarachi and Kehinde

Amarachi Agufobi and Kehinde Oluwafemi would never have probably known each other but for their passion for fashion design. While Agufobi studied Economics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Oluwafemi has a Higher National Diploma in Business Administration from the Lagos City Polytechnic, Lagos.

^{The two never intended to make anything serious out of their love fashion making. Yet, they had an undying passion to acquire basic skills in sowing long before their current status.}

^{As typical of the National Youth Service Corps members, their major preoccupation was securing good jobs. But for extra skills, they turned to Field of Skills and Dreams Academy, the famous Ikeja-based vocational skill acquisition and empowerment centre, for a short course in fashion design. The nine-month training coupled with the vast opportunity they have found on digital space has changed their life ambitions. Now, they are exploring the Internet, like a few other young chaps are doing, to promote their fashion labels.}

^{Their stories might not have caught the attention of CNN (at least not yet) as in the case of the Agege bread seller-turned celebrity, Olajumoke Orisaguna. Orusaguna broke the Internet when her photograph was taken by TY Bello. The photograph that trended for several days has earned the young lady a place in the highly-competitive showbiz.}  

^{However, Agufobi and Oluwafemi are currently relishing a moment of glory on the cyberspace as their photographs hit the cyberspace – thanks to the honour of their outstanding works by the Bank of Industry.  They emerged winners at this year’s BoI-organised National Skills Competition. While the Imo State-born Agufobi was crowned winner of the fashion designer category, Oluwafemi was declared the first runner-up in the same category. With both of them coming from the same training school, their names ballooned on the Internet.}

^{For weeks, Executive Director of FSD, Omowale Ogunrinde, who commended the ingenuity of the awardees, celebrated them on social media platforms. It is not only Ogunrinde that has celebrated the aspiring designers. Their co-trainees, friends and fashion icons joined the online ‘party’.}

^{Agufobi’s winning work, a white wedding gown with a touch of local fabric, has been trending on the Internet. The Economics graduate said the online photograph had, indeed, brought her fame, but more importantly made her to realise that she could depend on the digital space to build a profitable business.}

^{“I operate from a corner of my house. Now, I believe the Internet is large enough to accommodate my business. I have always believed that my passion will take me to places. But how to start has always been a challenge. There is no doubt that the Internet is the solution I have been seeking,” she said.}

^{According to her, the training, award and the online have given her a chance to fulfill a childhood dream – building an enduring business.}

^{Even with a university degree, she is not thinking of a job anymore but how she could create some. Listing the advantages of digital media, she said, any industrious person can earn a living without a paid job.}

^{Oluwafemi, on his part, said he looked forward to building a world-class virtual showroom and vocational centre. With no physical shop yet, his clothing label is already exploring the vast space on the Internet.}

^{Before the award, a few people had started patronising Oluwafemi. But with the honour, according to him, comes an online buzz that has showcased his talent in a manner he never dreamt. He said the unlimited opportunities on the Internet were enough motivation an ambitious youth needed to reach out.}          

^{“I thought I actually needed a job to fulfill my dreams. But I now know that I can be an employer of labour. All I need is modest financial resource for a start-up. The digital space has even reduced the cost of starting a new business. With a small shop, I can launch a portal where I can reach the entire world. This is where youths should be looking at to create jobs for themselves,” he noted.}

^{Oluwafemi is not only into design. He also operates laundry and related services. But a robust online platform, he said, was key to the survival of his big dream.}

Nigerian celebrities snub @WorldCancerDay

The World Cancer Day was widely celebrated across various social media platforms on Thursday, as people from different parts of the world engaged in discussions around cancer-related issues.

From Twitter, Yahoo to Google, the Internet users sustained the buzz generated by the event. Many Nigerians, who joined the discussion, advised their followers to adopt a healthy lifestyle and screen for cancer regularly in order to minimise the risk of getting the disease.  

But a critical group known as the Nollywood Female Stars, whose voices would have made a lot of difference in the cancer awareness campaign, considering their huge fan-base, stayed away from the social media segment of the event.

As of 2pm, when the campaign had already become a subject of attraction on the Internet, only Kate Henshaw, out of several Nollywood stars whose social media accounts were visited, had posted a comment on cancer.

Henshaw posted statements about campaign rallies organised by a medical centre on Instagram and Twitter, while she called on her fans to heed the call for regular screening.

“Cancer has killed many of our men and women. Enough is enough. Early detection through screening is key to prevention. Screen for breast, cervical and prostate cancers,” she posted on Instagram.

A large number of the actress’s colleagues, whose social media presence could have reminded millions of Nigerians of the danger they faced if they failed to screen for cancer regularly, shunned the campaign on the digital space.

Notable stars who did not participate in the campaign include Tonto Dikeh, Genevieve Nnaji, Stephenie Okereke-Linus, Mercy Johnson-Okojie, Rita Dominique and Bimbo Akintola. Others are Monalisa Chinda, Ebube Nwagbo, Olufunke Akindele, Chika Ike, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde and Lilian Esoro.

Interestingly, a post from one of these stars could reach several thousands of Nigerians to whom global non-governmental organisations are making frantic efforts to spread the message of cancer.

For instance, Okereke-Linus has over 1.9 million Facebook followers, while Nnaji had 984,000 Twitter fans as of Thursday when the world needed her to key into the cause.      

Rather than donate their accounts for the cause, some of the actresses chose to engage their fans on issues of personal interest.

For one, Ike indulged her Facebook fans with photographs from her meeting with the Director General, the National Agency for Drug and Food Administration and Control, Paul Orhii. The photographs were captioned #newprojectalert.

On her part, Akindele was on Twitter to seek votes from her fans to enable her emerge Best Actress of the Year in the Africa Magic Viewer's Choice Awards event.

Other Nollywood actors also failed to key into the campaign and thus, show that they genuinely cared about their fans. Desmond Elliot, who is now a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Nonso Anozie and Mike Ezuruonye are popular social media users in the film industry whose accounts were not used to promote the campaign against cancer.

It seems that the entire Nigerian entertainment industry had a poor outing on #WorldCancerDay. Popular music stars shunned the important hashtag.

The likes of Ayo Balogun (Wizkid), Michael Collins (Don Jazzy) and Tiwa Savage, who individually enjoy a huge following on Twitter, could have reached several millions of people, if they had showed interest in the campaign.

#DiaMundialContraElCancer and #WorldCancerDay were the two leading global trends on Thursday. Both hashtags, which were dedicated to cancer awareness, were adopted by global figures and the ordinary people as the major social media communication code of the day.

Meanwhile, the Cancer Research Centre, based in the United Kingdom, has said that improvement in detection, diagnosis and treatment has led to a decline in the rate of cancer deaths in the UK by 10 per cent between 2003 and 2013.

Posting on its website, the Centre said, “The rate of cancer deaths has fallen and this is largely due to improvements in detection, diagnosis and treatments. Without these research-led advances, the rate of cancer deaths would undoubtedly have risen.”

 

Nigeria producing crude at a loss

With the international oil prices currently pegged at about $30, Nigeria may be currently selling its crude at a loss.

According to industry sources, it costs the oil companies between $25 and $30 to produce a barrel. When the cost of shipping and demurrage is added to the cost of exploration, the total cost is above $30.

Hence, there is a concern that the Federal Government may not be able to recoup the cost of production in coming years.

Ministries plans to spend N10tr on capital projects in 2016

But for the Federal Government's constraint, ministries, departments and agencies planned to spend N10 trillion on capital projects in the current year, findings revealed.

A source at the Budget Office of the Federation said the MDAs' capital budgets were shutdown by the zero-based budgeting model adopted by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Zero-based budgeting, as against envelope budgeting, is thorough, critical and performance-based. Ongoing projects are critically analysed with each minister justifying why a project needs to be allocated funds to. 

The source also noted that the current budgeting was rushed, hence there were many errors that the government later struggled to correct the errors. 

According to the source, the missing budget saga was part of the arrangement aimed at correcting the errors that were committed during the budgeting. 

See a copy of the #MissingBudget

There was an online controversy on Wednesday, as millions of Nigerians and foreigners mocked the National Assembly over the reported missing 2016 appropriation document.

An online media broke the “missing document” story on Tuesday, a development that attracted scathing criticisms from many stakeholders. Many described the ‘speculation’ as the height of mischief by the lawmakers.

In the early hours of Wednesday, a former aide of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, mocked the National Assembly on Twitter.

He satirically called on the organisers of the Gulder Ultimate Search to dedicate the next edition of the annual television reality show to searching for the “missing document.”

“In case you buy akara, corn, suya or anything that can be wrapped with paper, please check that the wrapping paper is not the #MissingBudget. I think the #MissingBudget should be the object of the next Gulder Ultimate Search,” tweeted Omokri.

Interestingly, there was a mild drama on Twitter on Wednesday when a Qatar-based tweeter, Nasser Al-Saadi, urged Nigerian social media users to leave him out of the “missing document” palaver and channel their questions to the appropriate authorities.

Al-Saadi got into ‘trouble’ because of his Twitter handle – @nass. As Nigerian tweeters dismissed issues bearing on NASS, which had started trending since Tuesday, their tweets flooded the foreigner’s timeline.

     ‏

“My mention is on fire at the moment. Salute to people from Nigeria.

“Nigerians are asking me about their missing budget.

“Dear people of Nigeria, it is too late in #Qatar and I need to sleep. Take a break and start ranting tomorrow,” the tweeter said.

“@Nass, you have to change your Twitter handle. Otherwise, our National Assembly and its members will force us to continue to flood your timeline,” responded a Nigerian.

The Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, had dismissed the report, saying the document was not missing.

In a comment posted on the Senate’s Facebook page, he said, “The budget cannot be missing. The budget will be in custody of both chambers of the National Assembly. It cannot be stolen. It cannot be missing. Once the budget is before the National Assembly, it has become the property of the National Assembly.

On the visit of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to President Muhammadu Buhari after the report went viral, Ndume said, “Saraki's visit to the Villa is for Senate to know the President's priority. We want to see how we can fast track the passage of the budget before the end of February. What is before the Senate is a proposal; once the president signs it, there can be no amendment. We can turn the budget upside down, it cannot be missing.”

Despite the lawmaker’s denial, many Nigerians continued to criticise the National Assembly over the issue. Some people described it as the height of official negligence.

One Devine Prosper wrote, “Our lawmakers have disappointed us. We don't need Ndume’s make-up story; they all deserve to be recalled.”

On its part, Akolo Anzaku described “the loss” as connivance between the parliament and the executive to tinker with figures on the document. He, however, noted that Nigerians would not be fooled, especially as they had already taken note of the content of the Appropriation Bill.

Many commenters had also queried the proposal; especially the amount budgeted for the maintenance of the Presidential Villa. The critics said the figures did not show that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration was ready to deviate from the perennial waste confronting the nation’s development.

As of Wednesday, there was online circulation of the soft copies of the bill. Those who posted them urged the National Assembly to visit the Internet to gather its pieces, supposing it was no longer in either executive or legislative official files.

As laughable as the advice sounded, that some Nigerians had already downloaded and kept copies of the yet-to-be approved document seem to underscore the level of vigilance among digital media users.   

Dogara in 'trouble' row for using escorts in church

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has defended his decision to attend church services with armed security operatives attached to him.

Dismissing online complaints that his decision amounted to abuse, Dogara, on Wednesday, called on those not comfortable with the presence of his security details at church services to ask the Federal Government to withdraw them.

Inasmuch as he remained the Speaker, the lawmaker told his critics, he would always go to church with the operatives.

“The day Dogara goes to church, he will have no security. At the moment, it is the Speaker and not Dogara that you see,” he noted in a tweet.

According to him, his official status demands that he goes everywhere with the full complement of security. 

Distinguishing between his person and the office, he tweeted, “The Speaker must always have full complement of security wherever he goes but not Dogara. The nation provides security not Dogara. Tell Nigeria the Speaker needs no security.”

His critics, had earlier in the week, bombarded him with questions on why he attended church services with armed security personnel. According to them, the decision is an abuse of his official privilege and a demonstration of unbelief in the power of God to protect him even in His presence.

“Whether you are a Speaker or not, you do not need security escorts to go with you to a house of God; except, you have unbelief,” Fadipe Adeoye, a self-acclaimed social critic, tweeted at Dogara.

“Why do you have to go to church with armed security men? Does that not mean that you do not feel safe in the house of God? One Dayo Aiyetan asked.

Tweeting on @abneroke, another social media commentator said the abuse of official facilities had become a disturbing feature in Nigeria’s public sector. Abner Oke said the only way the government could check the practice was to compel office holders to pay for official facilities whenever they use them for personal assignments.

However, some fans of the Speaker have stoutly defended his decision on the matter. Some of them, in fact, encouraged him, noting that religious houses in the country have become increasingly unsafe.

This not the first time Dogara would face a social media backlash with critics on issues relating to religion. Critics attacked him last year when he claimed in Jerusalem that the Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose’s prayer helped him to win the speakership race.