Skip to main content

Nigeria Not Broke, Mismanagement Of Public Funds, Incompetence Responsible For Anti-people Policies —Falana

The Alliance for Survival of COVID-19 and Beyond has said that the claim by the Nigerian Government that the nation’s revenue had declined was false, fraught with inadequacies and figures that fail to reflect the country’s economic realities.

Femi Falana, Chairman of the group, in a statement on Thursday said gross mismanagement, incompetence and corruption was the reason for policies such as the electricity tariff increase and fuel hike that makes life burdensome for citizens.

He said, “Since the Federal Government has announced plans to switch from PMS to Compressed Natural Gas, the increase in petrol should be cancelled without delay. After all, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr Timpere Sylva, has assured the nation that CNG would be sold between N95 and N97 per litre.”

Femi Falana, SAN.


Minister of Finance and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, had cited revenue shortfall as reasons behind the government’s recent fuel and electricity tariff hike.

ASCAB, however, listed certain factors that puncture the government’s claim. 

“In the first half of this year, oil income distributed by the Federal Allocation Committee (FAAC) was actually 13% above that for last year and the level for the first quarter had been the highest for several years. However, other income, taxes etc, may have fallen due to the lockdowns and other disruptions from COVID-19. NEITI reported that in the first five months of this year, total government revenue was only 62% of the level agreed in the budget, but the revenue budgets are always over-optimistic.

“Oil income for future months will probably be higher than expected in the budget. Oil provides about half the Federal Government’s income. 

“VAT in July was higher than June indicating that other government revenue is also increasing after the problems with COVID-19.

“There is no good reason for us to pay more, especially as most other governments are spending huge amounts to protect their populations from the economic fallout from COVID-19. The Central Bank of Nigeria recently claimed to have made available to Nigerians the huge sum of N338 billion to cushion the harsh economic conditions in the country. But since the fund has been transferred to the pampered members of the ruling class, the CBN has refused to accede to popular request to publish the names of the beneficiaries of the huge fund,” the group said.

Politics

News

AddThis

: 

Original Author

: 

SaharaReporters, New York

Disable advertisements

: 

from 24HRSNEWS
via 24HRSNEWS



from EDUPEDIA247https://ift.tt/2FvJkPT
via EDUPEDIA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nigerian Academy Of Science Inducts First Female President

The Nigerian Academy of Science has inducted a professor of Parasitology/Epidemiology, Ekanem Ikpi Braide, as its 19th President on Thursday. In a statement issued by Oladoyin Odubanjo, the Executive Secretary of the Academy, Braide is the Academy’s first female President in 44 years of existence. It read, “Braide was a member of the national committee that achieved the laudable feat of guinea worm eradication in Nigeria. “She has a rich professional experience as a researcher and an administrator. In July 2010, Professor Braide was honoured by the President of Nigeria with the award of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) for her contribution to disease control in Nigeria. “She was nominated by the Honourable Minister of Health to serve in the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Health Sector Response (MEACoC-HSR). “Professor Braide served as Vice-Chancellor, Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) Calabar, Nigeria (2004 to 2009) and as P...
Post a Comment
Read more

NLNG Signs Letter Of Intent On Delayed Gas Expansion Project

The Nigerian Natural Liquefied Gas LTD has signed a letter of intent for the engineering, procurement and construction of its long held up Train Seven project. In a statement released by the company on Wednesday, it said that the $10bn project will be executed by a consortium of Italian firm Saipem, Japan’s Chiyoda and South Korea’s Daewoo. The statement reads, “The project will form part of the investment of over $10bn including the upstream scope of the LNG value chain, thereby boosting the much needed Foreign Direct Investment profile of Nigeria.” Managing Director of NLNG, Tony Atta, said in 2018 that the Final Investment Decision would be made in the fourth quarter of that year. This did not however, materialize. According to the release, the project will have a four to five-year execution time after the signing of the FID. The project is expected to add an extra 8 million tons per annum of gas to the 22 mtpa currently exported by the company. Oil News AddThis :...
Post a Comment
Read more

Former Maritime Agency Boss, Buba Galadima, Accuses AMCON Of Witch-hunt After Property Takeover

  A former Director-General of the Nigeria Maritime Agency, Buba Galadima, has accused the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria of witch-hunt after the agency took possession of his business and assets on Tuesday in Abuja. Galadima, an ardent critic of President Muhammadu Buhari, claimed that he did not borrow money or have unpaid debt with Unity Bank, which lodged a complaint against him and occasioned AMCON’s move on Tuesday. The properties taken over include House No. 15, Addis Ababa Crescent, Wuse Zone 4, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and House No. 4, Bangui Street, Wuse 2, also in Abuja.  Reacting to the situation, Galadima said, “This is an attempt to disgrace and break me down. This is injustice and an attempt to humiliate me. "But I am unbreakable and they can never silence me. They sacked me and over 50 people that sleep in the apartment. "We don’t know where to go. We will remain on the streets. We will remain on the streets until God provi...
Post a Comment
Read more