Abubakar Bin Aliyu

For the sake of those with slow Internet and date bundle issues, I have transcribed the major parts of suspended Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s first interview after his suspension. He spoke to CNBC Africa. You can read the text below. On whether he was on notice with respect to his suspension: Well, I have been told by my office that a letter was received. As you know, I flew in this morning to Niamey along with other Governors of West African Central Banks to meet with the President of Niger and President of Ghana…Fortunately, I came in with my VP Sarah Alade whom I have been asked to hand over to. I have left the meeting to hand over to her. I have just met the Nigerian Ambassador to Niger who confirmed to me that the President asked him to inform me of the decision. On accusations of “various acts of financial misconduct and recklessness” he said: I don’t know what they are talking about. When I come back, I will see what those allegations are…I don’t think there i

Every year, the Federal Government submits a budget to the National Assembly for approval, the budget is usually welcomed with mixed reactions and this year is no exception. The total budget of N4.6 trillion is lower than last year’s N4.9 trillion. More than 70% of the budget is for recurrent expenditure, which means the budget is majorly to pay salaries and keep the government afloat and not necessarily for building capital projects. As a patriotic citizen I have gone through the proposed budget (thanks to the budget office website) and have decided to highlight some major/disturbing/interesting items in the budget. Firstly, I would like to focus on the State House (presidency) because the State House sets a precedent for others to follow. I would spare the readers the time by not repeating some words as they were repeated in the budget. There was outrage last year when the presidency budgeted N1billion naira for feeding in a whole year, but it was never removed from the budget. Ac

Getting a job in Nigeria over the years has become a near impossible task for the teeming youths produced from the many tertiary institutions scattered around our country. So bad is the trend that it has become ‘common’ (and maybe ‘normal’) to see people sit at home for over five years after graduation doing nothing. A lot of reasons have been given for this pathetic situation which we find ourselves, some of which are empty rumblings from a failed system, always eager to trade blames instead of accepting responsibilities. For instance, many employers keep saying that “most Nigerian graduates are unemployable”; is the student/graduate to be blamed for the failure of our educational system? How can a sixteen(16) year old undergraduate be blamed for the failures of a system that crumbled long before he/she was born? If our system is so bad that more than half of graduates of each academic year can’t find jobs, how about the ‘not so rich’ students who sojourn various countries in europe

Telecoms operators in Nigeria have, in the last three months, received serious warnings from the Federal Government over the quality of their services. STANLEY OPARA looks at the threats and the possibility of having the desired change in the system Telecommunications companies in the country, especially the Global Service for Mobile Communication operators – Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom and MTN – have not had it easy with the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, in rent times. The minister had in two major occasions threatened to sanction them for poor QoS. The most recent was the threat that operators would be barred from selling fresh Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards because of the high level of dissatisfaction from subscribers already on their networks as far as service quality is concerned. The first of these threats was issued in the last quarter of last year, while the other was issued just last week. But to a large extent, subscribers, who have con

Pulished on Saturday, 15 February 2014 ===================================================================================== Rabi’uth Thaaniy 2nd, 1435 AH (February 1st, 2014) is a Saturday that filled our eyes with tears, casted a grief in our hearts and gave us a sleepless night following the demise of a Zaria-based world class Islamic scholar named, (Shaikhul-Islaam) Abu-Abdurrahman, Muhammad Auwal Adam Albaaniy Zaria. The renowned scholar was assassinated together with his son and one of his four wives, by unknown gunmen on his way back home from his permanently fixed weekend Islamic circle where he teaches Saheehul Bukhaariy. This is a big loss to Zaria and Nigeria in entirety as the late Shaikh was a teacher, peace promoter, employer to many, human rights campaigner, philanthropist and to approximate it all, a serious Islamic Reformer. On this basis, I would like to extend my sincere condolence message first to Shaikh’s family, then all students of knowledge, supporters and the

More money was shared in January than December. The balance in the excess crude revenue account as at January 2014 dropped further to about $2.1 billion, as the federal, state and local governments shared N629.128 billion from statutory, Value Added Tax, VAT, and other revenue sources in January. The Accountant General of the Federation, AGF, Jonas Otunla, said the amount shared was about N47.630 billion higher than the distributions of the preceding month. The amount comprised of N503.685 billion for statutory distributions; N82.277 billion from VAT; N35.549 billion for the subsidy reinvestment and empowerment programme, SURE-P; and refund by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC of about N7.617 billion. Details of the monthly distributions on tier-by-tier basis showed that the Federal Government got N235.022 billion from statutory sources and N11.848 billion from VAT, while the 36 states got N119.206 billion from statutory distribution compared with N39.493 billion f

CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi Welcome to our live blog of Day Two of the investigative hearing by the Senate Committee on Finance into the alleged missing N8 trillion [$20 billion] oil money. 12:04 Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says NNPC has supplied documents from the PPPRA(Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency) showing how the initial outstanding $10.8 billion was spent. The minister however said the finance ministry had no capacity to validate the claims. As such, she said they need an independent forensic team to examine the documents. On the $20 billion- which includes a $6 billion which CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi, said should have gone to the federation, but the NNPC, through the NPDC, pushed into private pockets- Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said that will require an independent legal opinion to know who owns the money. 12:11 Finance committee chairman, Ahmed Makarfi, asked the finance minister: As the custodian of the federal government’s money, if you f

CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi Welcome to our live blog of Day Two of the investigative hearing by the Senate Committee on Finance into the alleged missing N8 trillion [$20 billion] oil money. 12:04 Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, says NNPC has supplied documents from the PPPRA(Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency) showing how the initial outstanding $10.8 billion was spent. The minister however said the finance ministry had no capacity to validate the claims. As such, she said they need an independent forensic team to examine the documents. On the $20 billion- which includes a $6 billion which CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi, said should have gone to the federation, but the NNPC, through the NPDC, pushed into private pockets- Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said that will require an independent legal opinion to know who owns the money. 12:11 Finance committee chairman, Ahmed Makarfi, asked the finance minister: As the custodian of the federal government’s money, if you f

Before attempting to digest what $20 billion is, it is important to mention what the $20 billion missing is not. $20 billion Nigeria’s income missing/looted is not all that was looted in just 19 months from the nation’s coffers. This sum is at best half the actual total figure that is looted from oil revenue and internal projects and bogus contracts. It is ‘crazy’ to realize that more than half the nation’s income is stolen by those in power and their handful of world acclaimed billionaire cabal co-conspirators. What is the value of $20 billion? $20 billion represents one eighth of Nigeria’s total oil derived income. That is one quarter of our yearly earnings. $20 billion equals 10 million $2000, that is one million $20,000! With $20 billion, every Nigerian individual, including the poorest in Bama and Baga and the old and dying in all villages, will get N10,000. With $20 billion, every single Nigerian can get 5 new pairs of shoes. With $20 billion, which these unconsci

It's been a while since I wrote this piece and revisited it today though the status quo remain the same. I Well as usual, Any mortal soul must taste the Axe of death, Dahiru Jubawo among my close friends amongst my students lost his Dad Last week Friday, after a long protracted illness, As expected, I went to pay him/his relatives a condolence visit in Jubawo (an Outskirt of Fufore Few Kilometers due east). The journey become adventurous immediately we set foot along Secretariat Junction, towards Gurin Road, One Dusty-noisy-smoky-lorry fully packed with load of parboiled rice from Gurin or Sabongari Fufore as usual to God-knows-where! suddenly the atmosphere changed to just like an aftermath of Nuclear Bomb (I never witnessed one though) as the lorry zoomed pass us, we are covered with dust saturated with half burned diesel fumes. In either Wuro kurori or Parda Alajire we saw a ghasty motor accident involving one Honda Car smashed and crushed on the roadside, I was in bad shape a