FG Partners International Agencies To Assess, Rebuild Northeast

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The Federal Government in partnership with international agencies are assessing the physical, social and economic impacts of the Boko Haram crisis in the Northeast.

Speaking at a workshop in Abuja, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on IDP’s, Mariam Masha, said this assessment is to enable the Federal Government develop short to medium term recovery strategies for the North East devastated by Boko Haram.

She said the Federal Government in conjunction with the World Bank, European Union and other international agencies are also putting together a collective vision and strategy on peace building and recovery in the North East.

The World Bank had earlier announced the allocation of 800 million dollars to the Boko Haram ravaged area to address poverty issues.

The UNDP Country Representative, Fatma Samoura, stated this in a meeting with government officials at the Borno State Government House.

The humanitarian, who is in Maiduguri for a 2-day visit said that the UNDP is interested in making contingency plans against the coming rainy season and issues around resettlement of the internally displaced in their original homes.

“We are going very close to the rainy season and with the rainy season comes epidemic outbreak. The UN would be ready to support all the government and local agencies’ efforts to prepare contingency planning to avoid the situation of last year where several cases of water diarrhoea was reported,” Samoura stated.

The Country Representative said that the UNDP is finding it difficult mobilizing resources for Nigeria in view of the crisis situation in other parts of the world which she said is costing traditional donors a lot.

She appealed for support from government at all levels, explaining that the humanitarian response plan at the moment is 10% funding as the country office has so far received only 24 million dollars out of the $248 million budgeted for northeast Nigeria for the year 2016.

Meanwhile, the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima wants donor agencies to do more to empower local people whose sources of livelihood have been lost in the insurgency.

About 157 displaced people live in makeshift camps in Maiduguri while nearly 1.6 million others have opted to live with relatives.

Governor Kashim said that the Borno State government is investing in Agriculture by empowering women living in the country side to embrace livestock farming as they return home.

The Governor listed illiteracy and extreme poverty as the underlying causes of insurgency, noting that the core issues must be addressed if the insurgency problem must end.

I Will Critically Review Budget Passed By NASS Before Assenting – Buhari

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President Muhammadu Buhari said on Thursday in Washington DC that he will critically review the 2016 Appropriation Bill passed by the National Assembly before assenting to it.

Speaking at a meeting with the United States Secretary of State, Mr John Kerry, President Buhari said that in view of the controversial alteration and padding of the budget proposals, he needed to review the appropriation bill to be certain that its contents tallied with the authentic budget proposal presented to the National Assembly.

“Some bureaucrats removed what we put in the proposal and replaced it with what they wanted. I have to look at the bill that has been passed by the National Assembly, ministry by ministry, to be sure that what has been brought back for me to sign is in line with our original submission,” the President said.

Declaring that his administration will continue to vigorously prosecute its war against corruption, President Buhari sought and received an assurance from Mr Kerry that the United States government would facilitate the repatriation of all stolen Nigerian funds found within the American banking system.

“It will greatly help our country if you assist us to recover all our stolen funds which we can establish to be within your financial system,” the President told Mr Kerry.

Acknowledging that the United States has been of great help to his administration in the retraining and re-equipping of the Nigerian Armed Forces that has resulted in the significant success already achieved against Boko Haram, President Buhari said that the Federal Government was now working very hard to restore full normalcy in the North Eastern states.

“Boko Haram no longer holds any local government area. We are reconstructing damaged facilities and preparing the police to take over and reassert civilian control over areas affected by the insurgency,” the President told Mr Kerry.

Responding, the Secretary of State said that he had been told that the stolen Nigerian funds were in “billions of dollars”.

“It’s not easy to hide that amount of money and we are pretty good in tracing them,” Mr Kerry assured President Buhari.

He said that relevant United States government officials would meet with the Chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to discuss further cooperation in that regard.

Mr Kerry applauded the Buhari Administration’s success in rolling back the Boko Haram insurgency, saying that the United States will continue to give Nigeria all possible support to ensure that the terrorist sect is finally eliminated as a threat to national and regional security.

The Secretary of State also praised President Buhari’s clear order that Nigeria’s Armed Forces must show greater regard for the human rights of persons in the theatre of operations against Boko Haram.

What Nigerian govt is doing to end fuel scarcity — Lai Mohammed

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The Federal Government is working to address the lingering fuel scarcity in the country, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said.

He said that the government was also working to address the challenges of epileptic electricity supply and inflation reducing the purchasing power of Nigerians.

The minister made the remark on Wednesday in Abuja when he paid a visit to the corporate headquarters of Daily Trust Newspapers.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the visit was to engage the media on the policies and programmes of the Federal Government and get feedback on how people perceived those policies and programmes.

Mr. Mohammed said that the Federal Government was aware of the hardship these challenges posed to the people and urged them not to lose confidence in the administration President Muhammadu Buhari.

“This government is aware of the hardship, difficulties that people of this country are facing. We are not immune to it. We sincerely sympathise with the people.

“We know that this hardship is caused by the fuel crisis, challenges in the power sector and inflation which we are trying to rectify,’’ he said.

He said that the government had increased the supply of the petrol to five major cities: Port Harcourt, Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Kaduna to end the lingering scarcity.

He said that officials of NNPC had intensified their supervision of filling stations to ensure that no station hoarded petrol or sold the product beyond the official price.

He warned that strict penalties which include sealing of filling station, revocation of licence and selling petrol free of charge would be meted out to erring filling stations.

The minister, who said the “Change Agenda’’ of the current administration was real, urged Nigerians not to doubt the change mantra.

The Federal Government, the minister declared, was determined to implement the 2016 budget to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty.

“This administration intends to revisit and resume abandoned projects especially on infrastructure to reflate the economy.’’

He said that N500 billion had been earmarked for social intervention programme to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty.

He said that the federal government would provide employment to 500,000 graduates to be trained as teachers.

Mr. Mohammed said that the government had recorded successes in the fight against insurgency and corruption.

He commended Nigerians for taking ownership of the war to ensure the survival of their country.

Responding the Editor in Chief of the Daily Trust Newspaper, Manir Dan-Ali, said the minister’s visit would enable the media get clear picture and better understanding of government’s policies and programmes.

Greece Begin Movement Of Refugees Stranded At Port

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Greek authorities on Thursday began busing hundreds of migrants and refugees to accommodation in other parts of Greece from a port near Athens, where they spent weeks sleeping in the open and tensions flared over phone chargers and food.

At least 51,000 refugees and migrants who reached Greece from Turkey and are hoping to travel north to countries like Germany and Austria are stranded in Greece after Balkan countries closed their borders.

Nearly 6,000 people, most from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, were stuck at the port of Piraeus on Thursday, authorities said. Greece’s largest port lies about 12 km from central Athens.

By mid-morning, at least four buses departed for the port town of Kyllini in western Greece, some 280 km from Athens, where they will be housed in a former tourist complex. Families began gathering at the dock as more buses were expected to be deployed.

Other buses left for the cities of Ioannina and Larissa in northwestern and central Greece.

Under a European Union deal with Turkey, those who arrived in Greece from Turkey after March 20 will be held in camps and subject to being sent back to Turkey once their asylum claims have been processed.

Since arriving at Piraeus after landing by boat on Greek islands off the Turkish coast, most migrants and refugees there have been reluctant to move fearing they would be too far from the closed Greek-Macedonian border in case it reopened.

“I believe the first group to go to Kyllini will relay the message to the rest that it’s a decent place, and we won’t have a problem moving (more) people there,” George Kyritsis, a government spokesman, told Greek TV.

Scuffles have broken out at the port in recent weeks, where people live in tents and on blankets in the open, with poor sanitation and little food.

Windows were smashed and eight people were injured in clashes between groups of Syrians and Afghans on Wednesday night, the government said.

For every Syrian sent back to Turkey from Greece, one Syrian will be resettled directly to Europe from Turkey. The returns are set to begin on April 4, but neither side is fully ready, with officials scrambling to be able to make at least a symbolic start as new arrivals rise.

The government submitted a bill in parliament on Wednesday night to facilitate the implementation of the EU-Turkey deal and which incorporates EU law on asylum seekers. The bill is expected to be voted on in parliament on Friday night.

India Overpass Collapse Kills 14, Scores Feared Trapped

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An overpass under construction in the bustling city of Kolkata, India collapsed on Thursday on to vehicles and street vendors below, killing at least 14 people with more than 100 people feared trapped.

Residents used their bare hands to try to rescue people pinned under a 100-metre (110-yard) length of metal and cement that snapped off at one end and came crashing down in a teeming commercial district near Girish Park.

“The concrete had been laid last night at this part of the bridge,” resident Ramesh Kejriwal told Reuters.

“I am lucky as I was planning to go downstairs to have juice. When I was thinking about it, I saw that the bridge had collapsed.”

Video footage aired on TV channels showed a street scene with two auto rickshaws and a crowd of people suddenly obliterated by a mass of falling concrete that narrowly missed cars crawling in a traffic jam.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose center-left party is seeking re-election in the state of West Bengal next month, rushed to the scene.

“We will take every action to save lives of those trapped beneath the collapsed flyover. Rescue is our top priority,” she said.

Banerjee, 61, said those responsible for the disaster would not be spared. Yet she herself faces questions about a construction project that has been plagued by delays and safety fears.

A newspaper reported last November that Banerjee wanted the overpass – already five years overdue – to be completed by February. Project engineers expressed concerns over whether this would be possible, The Telegraph said at the time.

The disaster could play a role in the West Bengal election, one of five being held next month that will give an interim verdict on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nearly two years in power.

Indian company IVRCL (IVRC.NS) was building the 2-km (1.2-mile) Vivekananda Road overpass, according to its web site. Its shares closed down 5 percent after falling by up to 11.8 percent on news of the disaster.

IVRCL’s director of operations, A.G.K. Murthy, said the company was not sure of the cause of the disaster.

“We did not use any inferior quality material and we will cooperate with the investigators,” Murthy told reporters in Hyderabad where the firm is based. “We are in a state of shock.”

Borno State Government Rebuilds Dalori Village

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The Borno State government has commenced rebuilding of 825 houses destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgents in Dalori village late January.

The Borno State Deputy Governor, Usman Durkwa, disclosed that a state government committee responsible for the rebuilding of Dalori, chaired by him, was already making progress on the development.

The terrorists in an evening attack in Dalori, killed at least 65 villagers who were mostly women and children, as well as set the whole village on fire as they retreated to their hideouts.

More than 10,000 people were displaced as an aftermath of the attack, even as the Borno State government committed 100 million Naira for the rebuilding of homes.

The Dalori District Head, Tijjani Lawan, said that the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS) were dislodged from their hometowns across 20 local councils in the state, in a similar circumstances under which Dalori was attacked.

He added that the villagers opted to stay back in what was left of their town against the tradition of migrating to Maiduguri which is considered a safer ground.

One of the beneficiaries, Chiroma Modu, said they are happy with the turn of events, stressing that they are preparing to move on as the next farming season approaches.

“We thank God and we thank the government for giving us food and rebuilding our houses. We now have a place for our children and we are glad we did not have to migrate and be homeless,” she said.

Kaduna: El-Rufai Tasks Council Chairmen On Good Governance

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Governor Nasir El-Rufai has asked the interim council chairmen in Kaduna State to be good ambassadors of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC) in their respective areas.

The Kaduna State Governor gave the advice during the inauguration of the interim council chairmen of 23 Local Government Councils at the Government House Kaduna, northwest Nigeria.

He urged the newly sworn-in council chairmen to work for the grassroots in line with their party manifestos.

While cautioning them not to engage in religious or ethnic sentiments in performing their duties, Governor El-Rufai admonished them to use their new positions to unite the people of the state, and also provide good leadership for the residents.

He also warned them to be wary of the elements of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who he said would only want to pull them down, asking them to work only with change elements who are committed to making Kaduna State great again.

Congratulating the new chairmen on their appointments, the Governor reminded them of the difficult tasks ahead of them, since they are coming on board at the time when the resources of government is dwindling, asking them to perform and change the face of their council areas in spite of that.

He also warned them not to impose any kind of tax on the residents in their respective councils, saying that only officials of the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Services are expected to collect taxes and remit what is due to each local government.

Governor El-Rufai added that anyone caught collecting revenue in cash would be prosecuted.

Speaking on behalf of the newly sworn-in council chairmen, the Chairman of Giwa LGA, Abdullahi Garba, promised that they would deliver the APC campaign promises in the grassroots.

Meanwhile, the PDP has criticised the inauguration of the new caretaker chairmen which faults the appointment instead of conducting election into the 23 council areas in Kaduna State.

President of Kaduna PDP Youth Patriotic Front, Danjuma Seriki, lamented that the governor had failed to keep the promise he made during the 2015 governorship campaigns to conduct local government election within the first three months of his administration.

He maintained that by failing to conduct the local government election since assuming office, both Governor El-Rufai and the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission have violated Section 1(2), Section 7(1) and Section 8 of the 1999 Constitution which provides: “The system of Local Government by democratically elected Local Government Councils”.

The appointment of the new interim chairmen is sequel to the expiration of the previous ones who were appointed on July 6, 2015 by the Kaduna State Governor.