'Delay is not denial' 🎺
Hi,
Naira is at a record low.
According to black market traders, parallel market value as of Friday the 15th of October was N570/$1
At the Investor & Exporter foreign exchange window, the local currency opened at 413.15/$1 on Thursday but closed at 422.07/$1.
In Today’s Issue
Government makes some questionable decisions
EFCC nabs ex-governor over theft
Presidential party ties to pass of failed governance as progress
New rules, old ways
Senate loosens grip on elections
After initially assigning the role to themselves, the members of the Senate has granted INEC the power to decide which election results to transmit electronically.
In July, the National Assembly passed the Electoral Act Bill with a clause that said electronic transmission of election results are not allowed without approval from the National Assembly and review by the Nigerian Communication Commission.
Obviously, no one with a brain was having it, so after much debate, the NA has 'reconsidered' and decided to pass the decision over to INEC.
This means INEC gets to decide the best way to transmit election results (manually vs electronically), which honestly still defeats the idea of transparency.
New tax rules are anti-business
In June, the minister of finance, Zainab Ahmed approved the Tax Appeal Procedure rules, which were created to improve the way Nigeria resolves tax disputes.
While most of the clauses are fine, The Cable reports a particularly troubling one:
“for an appeal against the tax authority, the aggrieved person will pay 50% of the disputed amount into designated account by the Tribunal before hearing as security for prosecuting the appeal”
This means that Nigeria's tax authority— the FIRS— could claim that a company owes N100 million in taxes. The company can appeal the decision at the Tax Appeal Tribunal but would need to pay N50 million — 50% of the disputed amount — as security before the appeal can be heard.
Basically, damned if you do, damned if you don't.
PwC called this clause “a bar to access to justice which is contrary to the constitutional rights of fair hearing and a fair trial”
KPMG agrees: "That discretion has been taken away from the tribunal as a fixed price has been set to somewhat favour the tax authority — all the time"
More on the Federal Government's... generous 2022 budget
Buhari and his Vice President, Yemi Osibanjo (remember him?) will spend N3.57 billion on feeding and travel expenses.
The feeding budget seems to have increased gradually each year. Premium Times reports that travel and feeding for both men cost the country N1.5 billion in 2019; N1.52 billion in 2018; in 2017, N1.45 billion; and N1.43 billion in 2016.
The president proposed N2.6 billion of the amount for his office, while N778 million was set aside for Mr Osinbajo’s office.
'Presidential' travels budget is N2.3 billion for the president: N775.6 million for local trips and N1.5 billion for international journeys. And the VP gets N778 million: N301 million for local trips and N476 million for international travels.
Guess the inflation is reaching their side.
Funds and fraud
Are Doctors getting screwed?
We usually curate news from credible news platforms (after reading multiple versions), but this seemed important.
Speaking of screwing over citizens, a popular post on Twitter accused the government of taking money out of their personal bank accounts of doctors in training.
Recall that resident doctors were on strike since the start of August, but called it off last week because some of the demands had been met and they wanted to give the government time to get to the rest.
One of their demands was for the FG to pay doctors in training via and uphold the agreement of the Medical Residency Training Fund
Punch reports that the FG started making the payments on the 2nd of October.
According to the tweet, the FG is now taking the money out of the accounts they already credited
But another tweet hours later says this isn't accurate: “FG didn't debit from Resident Doctors account. What happened was that some Doctors like Medical Officers who are not in training got paid the Medical Residency training funds (MRTF), so govt had to deduct it. Others have their money intact”
Note: this report is based on multiple recounts gathered on social media.
Athletes getting screwed
Nigeria’s women’s national basketball team D’Tigress rejected the Nigerian sports ministry's offer to pay them a fraction of years of funds owed.
Earlier in the week, the team called out the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) for treating them badly and owing them money. Apparently, the NBBF has also been eating sponsorship funds:
“President of NBBF, Musa Kida said that the federation does not owe any players allowances. This is far from the truth. The last time we checked, our allowances, bonuses, training grants and donations made by banks to players and officials and volunteers still have not been paid”
What they're owed: “$73,118 by the NBBF, $24,000 by the Ministry of Sports for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics grant and $100,000 from donations from 3 banks”
They threatened to boycott the 2022 games if their concerns are not addressed.
In response, the NBBF asked CBN to start a payment plan.
The players however refused to accept anything that isn't a lump sum of their earnings.
Is it really Nigerian politics if someone doesn’t say this:
Witnesses of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the ongoing money laundering trial against former Niger State Governor, Muazu Babangida Aliyu, and two others say the defendants embezzled N800 million with 80 cheques from the N2 billion Ecological Fund.
The Ecological fund was established to address Nigeria's environmental challenges (climate change, oil spills, agriculture etc) across the country.
A witness recalled that in 2014, he was approached by an account owner, I.D Sabin Investment Nigeria Limited, who dropped about 20 cheques for delivery to the bank manager in Minna.
He said the two government officials informed him that once the cheques were confirmed, the cash should be delivered to one of the accused, Umar Nasko.
Look how far we’ve come
According to the presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, Nigerians are not acknowledging the progress made in the almost 2 decades of fighting terrorism.
This week's 'progress’:
The Nigerian Army has (once again) claimed that they have killed the leader of the Islamic State West Africa Province terrorist group. The army has claimed to kill him a few times before so take that with a grain of salt.
The Zamfara house of assembly has suspended two lawmakers for allegedly supporting the activities of bandits in the state.
The suspended lawmakers are Yusuf Muhammad and Ibrahim Tukur, one of whom is suspected to have supplied information to bandits leading to the death of another lawmaker, Muhammad Ahmad.
And the other was seen rejoicing after the kidnap of another Speaker’s father, who died in bandits captivity.
Note: the federal government still refuses to name or persecute the 400 terrorist sponsors they claim to have identified.
Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) reports that in Benue, soldiers under the guise of hunting bandits are raping women, burning homes and assaulting older residents.
Residents report arson on clinics and schools by soldiers;
According to them soldiers invaded bars and looted alcohol, took over churches as their 'base'.
They also forcefully took cuts from local business earnings.
Read the rest of FIJ's investigative report here
COVID-19 vaccination is still happening
The United States (U.S.) donated another 3.5 million+ doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to Nigeria (Arise)
Primary healthcare clinics are also still administering the previous vaccine donations so if you haven't gotten yours, get to it!
Also, the Federal government intends to utilise public areas: churches, community parks etc. for vaccines soon so you might be able to get them next to your house.
Edo state, your governor is begging you. Get vaccinated and the Federal Government says by the end of November, all federal workers have to be vaccinated.
Note: So far the FG has provided about 10 Million vaccines for Nigeria's 200 Million people.
Other news this week
Veteran actor, Chinwetalu Agu has been arrested by soldiers for wearing a Biafran flag outfit. Reports say he was apprehended on the street in Anambra and taken to Abuja (Guardian NG)
Ekiti State governor signs mental health services bill into law (Punch)
The House of Representatives has warned that any ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that don't implement the 2021 budget risks losing their 2022 appropriations (People's Gazette)
Vaccinated people may be required to take 3rd shot (ChannelsTV)
A Kogi-based company, Ce Triple F Global Services Limited, has taken the Kogi House of Assembly to court for refusing to pay N15,780,920 owed to them. The company supplied electronics totalling that amount in 2016 and the House just refused to pay them (Punch)