PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Jonathan's 2012 budget, appeal over subsidy, ASUU strike reported in Nigeria
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - President Goodluck Jonathan's budget of "fiscal consolidation, inclusive growth and job creation," his passionate appeal to Nigerians to listen to him on the need to remove the subsidy on petroleum products, the crippling strike by university lecturers and the emergence of the first female air force pilot dominated newspaper pages in Nigeria this week.
Although he did not mention subsidy in his budget presentation to the National Assembly on Tuesday, President Jonathan on Thursday revisited the issue when he declared that the "pains of subsidy removal will be temporary" and that "we cannot continue to subsidize with borrowed money."
The Guardian on Wednesday carried two stories on the budget, with the headlines
"Overhead takes 72%, as govt budgets N4.75tr for 2012" and "Reps caution Jonathan against selective budget execution".
According to the Guardian, the 2012 budget is based on the following assumptions -- Oil production of 2.48 million barrels per day, up from 2.3 mbpd for 2011; Benchmark oil price of US$ 70/barrel, a revision from US$ 75/barrel for the 2011 Amended Budget; Exchange rate of 155 naira to US$ 1; Projected GDP growth rate of 7.2%; and Projected inflation rate of 9.5%.
The tabloid said "bracing for a close monitoring of the 2012 budget to ensure its proper use for national development, the House of Representatives Tuesday advised the President against a selective implementation of the fiscal blueprint.
In a vote of thanks read by the House Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, after the presentation of the budget proposal, the lawmakers noted that the National Assembly would be more serious in its oversight function, with the aim of enforcing budget implementation.
The Nation, with the headline "Jonathan unveils N4.7tr Budget 2012", reported that the proposals showed Nigerians a glimpse into their economic well-being next year."
According to the Nation, "Low income earners will get a tax cut, cassava bread will displace flour bread on the breakfast table and waivers and concessions on rice importation will be thrown out of the window.
"But security will – apparently in the spirit of the times – get priority, with the government voting 921 billion naira of the 4.749 trillion naira government plans to spend next year. The proposal is an increase of six per cent over the 4.484 trillion naira appropriated for 2011."
It said curiously, Jonathan did not use the phrase “fuel subsidy withdrawal” as he explained his budget of “fiscal consolidation, inclusive growth and job creation."
However, in what was seen as a veiled reference to the combustible issue, which will surely see fuel prices rising, Jonathan spoke about his administration’s determination to conclude work on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
The Punch, saying "Jonathan ends fuel subsidy", reported that Jonathan on Tuesday technically ended the subsidy on petroleum products.
The President, who presented the budget estimates for 2012 to a joint session of the National Assembly, did not say anything about the controversial proposal to remove the subsidy on petroleum products. However, unlike the 2011 budget proposal, which had a provision of 240 billion naira for fuel subsidy, the 2012 has no provision for the subsidy.
The budget featured a 1.1 trillion naira deficit but the President gave no indication of how his government intended to finance the shortfall.
The Sun's headlines on the story were "Jonathan silent on oil subsidy", "2012 budget: Fulfill your budget promises, Mark tells Jonathan", and "No more half implementation of budget, Tambuwal tells Jonathan".
Thisday also ran the story with the headline: "No more half implementation of budget, Tambuwal tells Jonathan", while the Tribune ran the story under these headlines: "2012 BUDGET: Rice, bread, beer to cost more", "FG increases tariffs on wheat, rice", "Deregulates petroleum sector", and "Gives special concession to agriculture".
The Vanguard, reporting reactions trailing the budget, ran the story on Thursday under the headline: "Budget 2012, disaster waiting to happen, says NLC". It said that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has described the 2012 budget proposal as anti-people and a disaster waiting to happen.
This position was contained in a press statement issued Wednesday by the Acting General Secretary of the NLC, Comrade Owei Lakemfa, who accused the Federal Government of designing the budget to suit the interest of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and their local lackeys, saying that it is a declaration of war on the Nigerian masses.
According to Lakemfa, “A critical perusal of the year 2012 budget showed clearly that the present government has no intention to lead the country out of the present socio- economic crisis."
The NLC scribe further called on Nigerians to get ready for a general strike and street protests, adding that the NLC leadership would meet next Tuesday to deliberate on how to organise the protest. He also called on the National Assembly to reject the President’s budget proposal.
On the fuel subsidy removal, the Vanguard ran its story with the headline "Fuel subsidy removal, insecurity: Anarchy looms, say leaders of thought".
According to the paper, some leaders of thought in the country reviewed the rising wave of instability and insecurity in the country, government’s insistence on removing fuel subsidy, as well as the delay in restructuring the polity and returned a damning verdict: anarchy looms!
The leaders, under the banner of National Consensus Group of Project Nigeria, warned that mass revolts were imminent in the country if the state of affairs remained unchanged.
The group’s spokesman, Mr. Wale Okunniyi, said in a statement that except Nigerians took their destinies in their hands by compelling the government to respect their will, the country might be plunged into a surprise extra legal intervention.
He said the eminent leaders’ group, driven by senior citizens like Prof. Ben Nwabueze, SAN, Alhaji Maitama Sule, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, Dr. Lateef Adegbite, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, Labour and civil society leaders among others, were disappointed at the present state of affairs in the country, orchestrated by system and leadership failure.
"Mass action imminent in Nigeria - Okunniyi" was the headline in the Tribune, with the riders 'Over insecurity, removal of fuel subsidy, instability and national conference'.
The Tribune quoted a spokesman for Pro-National Conference Organisation (PRONACO), Olawale Okunniyi, as having said these on Sunday, in Lagos, during his fifth end of the year review on the state of Nigeria, where he announced the first ever Anthony Enahoro Legal Commission Memorial Media Briefing holding on Thursday in Lagos.
In the course of the week, the Nation ran five stories on subsidy, under the headlines "Gowon to Jonathan: don’t remove subsidy now", "Fix refineries before removing subsidy", "Students to Jonathan: let subsidy be", "Why fuel subsidy must go now, by Jonathan" and "Fed Govt to NLC: don’t heat up the polity".
According to the Nation, opponents of fuel subsidy removal may have lost the battle, with Jonathan insisting that his mind is made up on the combustible issue but former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon has warned that the government should pull the brakes.
Nigeria’s infrastructure should be revived before such a step is taken, Gowon said. And the President disagrees, saying posterity will judge him than see Nigeria grounded.
If subsidy is not removed, Nigeria will be broke within the next one and a half years, Jonathan asserted.
Gowon also asked Jonathan to repair the refineries before the removal of fuel subsidy, saying that fuel subsidy should be withdrawn with minimal pain to the people as he called for an end to importation of petroleum products.
Under the headline: "Students to Jonathan: let subsidy be", the Nation said Tuesday’s meeting between the Federal Government delegation, led by the President, and the leadership of University students ended in deadlock as the students insisted that subsidy removal is anti-people and gave the government one year to prove itself before it could count on their support.
The students, under the umbrella of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), said the problem in the oil sector is that of system failure.
According to Ebiloma Abdulahi, a former NANS president, who attended the meeting, the students told the President that there is a system failure and until that is corrected and other things put right, Nigerians should not be made to face the hardship that subsidy removal will bring on the people.
The Nation also quoted Jonathan as saying that fuel subsidy must go and that Nigeria cannot continue to borrow to fund its economy But he explained that the idea is not to inflict pains on Nigerians.
Under the headline "Gowon, Oshiomhole, others give terms for fuel subsidy removal", the Nation said the controversy on the plan by the government to remove fuel subsidy raged on at the weekend with former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole and other top Nigerians offering varied insights into the issue.
For Gowon, the Federal Government may decide to implement the policy after fully reactivating the nation’s refineries, while Oshiomhole and a former member of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Nimi Bariagh-Amange, disagreed over the processes initiated by the Federal Government toward the proposed removal of the fuel subsidy.
Oshiomhole, through the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, said though huge resources were being expended by the Federal Government to convince Nigerians on the need for fuel subsidy removal, the proposed plan may remain provocative to the people if a more logical argument on the removal of the subsidy and increase in petroleum prices were not presented by the administration.
Senator Bariagh-Amange insisted that the position of the Federal Government on the removal of the subsidy was right and a clear revolution against the few involved in sponsoring a protest against the proposed policy that would improve the economy and allow the revamping of the existing refineries in the country.
While the Punch headlined its story on subsidy as "Pains of subsidy removal will be temporary – Jonathan", Thisday called it "Jonathan: We Can’t Continue Subsidy with Borrowed Funds".
The Vanguard, reporting developments in the continuing university lecturers' strike, headlined its story "Deadlock in ASUU-FG talks, open invitation to chaos – NLC".
It said the NLC has expressed grave concern over the impasse in the talks between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government over the 2009 agreement on the funding of universities and revitalising infrastructural deficits in the educational system among others.
It said the failure is an open invitation to chaos as the ongoing nationwide strike by ASUU enters second week.
Reporting the same story, Thisday newspaper headlined it: "NLC Decries FG/ASUU Deadlock over Agreement".
The NLC has said the deadlock in the on-going negotiations between the Federal Government and ASUU over the 2009 agreement is an invitation to chaos in the already deteriorating education sector.
The lamentation by NLC, however, came same day the union called on Governor Oshiomhole of Edo State to intervene in the ongoing strike action by the union to broker peace with the Federal Government.
NLC, in a statement issued in Abuja, lamented that the government is dragging its feet over an agreement on the funding of universities and revitalising other infrastructural deficits in the educational system.
The union added that the deadlock revealed that the Federal government was not serious in tackling the deteriorating standard of education in the country.
ASUU is currently at loggerheads with the government over sustained massive funding of education, including allocation of a minimum of 26 per cent of the annual budget of government to education, condition of service, university autonomy and academic freedom.
Also during the week, the papers reported Tuesday's boat mishap at Mgboudohia waterfront, a suburb of Port Harcourt, the capital of the South South Rivers State, indicating that the victims may have received a mass burial.
Tragedy struck Tuesday night as 30 persons drowned when their passenger boat capsized in the area.
An eye witness, who preferred anonymity, said at about 9.00 pm on Tuesday, the boat, carrying about 40 people capsized and about 10 persons, including a one-and-a-half-year-old baby, were immediately rescued and taken to a nearby hospital.
On the poor electricity generation in the country and moves to improve the situation, the Sun screamed "BIG SHAME -- Ghana now to sell electricity to Nigeria".
The report in the paper said Ghana’s ruling government has concluded plans to begin export of electric power to Nigeria and other West African countries by 2015.
The country’s Vice President, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, who unfolded the plan in Accra, on Tuesday, said the government has already embarked on extensive expansion of power infrastructure to enable them achieve the project.
Mahama explained that a key motivation for the investment was that Ghana presently has competitive advantage in the area of power supply over other neighbouring countries, including Nigeria, which is still grappling with massive power deficit for its estimated 150 million citizens.
The Tribune said "Power generation drops by 1,080 MW as Egbin shuts down", reporting that power generation in the country dropped by 1,080 megawatts on Tuesday, due to the shutdown of the Egbin Thermal Station.
And on a good note, the papers reported the emergence of Nigeria's first Female Fighter Pilot.
She is Blessing Liman, a 25-year-old from Kaduna State.
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) at the weekend commissioned her along with 126 others who completed the Direct Short Service Course 2010/11 Cadets of 325 Ground Training Group at the NAF Base, Kaduna.
Liman said she was very excited and proud to make history.
-0- PANA VAO/BOS 17Dec2011
Although he did not mention subsidy in his budget presentation to the National Assembly on Tuesday, President Jonathan on Thursday revisited the issue when he declared that the "pains of subsidy removal will be temporary" and that "we cannot continue to subsidize with borrowed money."
The Guardian on Wednesday carried two stories on the budget, with the headlines
"Overhead takes 72%, as govt budgets N4.75tr for 2012" and "Reps caution Jonathan against selective budget execution".
According to the Guardian, the 2012 budget is based on the following assumptions -- Oil production of 2.48 million barrels per day, up from 2.3 mbpd for 2011; Benchmark oil price of US$ 70/barrel, a revision from US$ 75/barrel for the 2011 Amended Budget; Exchange rate of 155 naira to US$ 1; Projected GDP growth rate of 7.2%; and Projected inflation rate of 9.5%.
The tabloid said "bracing for a close monitoring of the 2012 budget to ensure its proper use for national development, the House of Representatives Tuesday advised the President against a selective implementation of the fiscal blueprint.
In a vote of thanks read by the House Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, after the presentation of the budget proposal, the lawmakers noted that the National Assembly would be more serious in its oversight function, with the aim of enforcing budget implementation.
The Nation, with the headline "Jonathan unveils N4.7tr Budget 2012", reported that the proposals showed Nigerians a glimpse into their economic well-being next year."
According to the Nation, "Low income earners will get a tax cut, cassava bread will displace flour bread on the breakfast table and waivers and concessions on rice importation will be thrown out of the window.
"But security will – apparently in the spirit of the times – get priority, with the government voting 921 billion naira of the 4.749 trillion naira government plans to spend next year. The proposal is an increase of six per cent over the 4.484 trillion naira appropriated for 2011."
It said curiously, Jonathan did not use the phrase “fuel subsidy withdrawal” as he explained his budget of “fiscal consolidation, inclusive growth and job creation."
However, in what was seen as a veiled reference to the combustible issue, which will surely see fuel prices rising, Jonathan spoke about his administration’s determination to conclude work on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
The Punch, saying "Jonathan ends fuel subsidy", reported that Jonathan on Tuesday technically ended the subsidy on petroleum products.
The President, who presented the budget estimates for 2012 to a joint session of the National Assembly, did not say anything about the controversial proposal to remove the subsidy on petroleum products. However, unlike the 2011 budget proposal, which had a provision of 240 billion naira for fuel subsidy, the 2012 has no provision for the subsidy.
The budget featured a 1.1 trillion naira deficit but the President gave no indication of how his government intended to finance the shortfall.
The Sun's headlines on the story were "Jonathan silent on oil subsidy", "2012 budget: Fulfill your budget promises, Mark tells Jonathan", and "No more half implementation of budget, Tambuwal tells Jonathan".
Thisday also ran the story with the headline: "No more half implementation of budget, Tambuwal tells Jonathan", while the Tribune ran the story under these headlines: "2012 BUDGET: Rice, bread, beer to cost more", "FG increases tariffs on wheat, rice", "Deregulates petroleum sector", and "Gives special concession to agriculture".
The Vanguard, reporting reactions trailing the budget, ran the story on Thursday under the headline: "Budget 2012, disaster waiting to happen, says NLC". It said that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has described the 2012 budget proposal as anti-people and a disaster waiting to happen.
This position was contained in a press statement issued Wednesday by the Acting General Secretary of the NLC, Comrade Owei Lakemfa, who accused the Federal Government of designing the budget to suit the interest of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and their local lackeys, saying that it is a declaration of war on the Nigerian masses.
According to Lakemfa, “A critical perusal of the year 2012 budget showed clearly that the present government has no intention to lead the country out of the present socio- economic crisis."
The NLC scribe further called on Nigerians to get ready for a general strike and street protests, adding that the NLC leadership would meet next Tuesday to deliberate on how to organise the protest. He also called on the National Assembly to reject the President’s budget proposal.
On the fuel subsidy removal, the Vanguard ran its story with the headline "Fuel subsidy removal, insecurity: Anarchy looms, say leaders of thought".
According to the paper, some leaders of thought in the country reviewed the rising wave of instability and insecurity in the country, government’s insistence on removing fuel subsidy, as well as the delay in restructuring the polity and returned a damning verdict: anarchy looms!
The leaders, under the banner of National Consensus Group of Project Nigeria, warned that mass revolts were imminent in the country if the state of affairs remained unchanged.
The group’s spokesman, Mr. Wale Okunniyi, said in a statement that except Nigerians took their destinies in their hands by compelling the government to respect their will, the country might be plunged into a surprise extra legal intervention.
He said the eminent leaders’ group, driven by senior citizens like Prof. Ben Nwabueze, SAN, Alhaji Maitama Sule, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, Dr. Lateef Adegbite, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, Labour and civil society leaders among others, were disappointed at the present state of affairs in the country, orchestrated by system and leadership failure.
"Mass action imminent in Nigeria - Okunniyi" was the headline in the Tribune, with the riders 'Over insecurity, removal of fuel subsidy, instability and national conference'.
The Tribune quoted a spokesman for Pro-National Conference Organisation (PRONACO), Olawale Okunniyi, as having said these on Sunday, in Lagos, during his fifth end of the year review on the state of Nigeria, where he announced the first ever Anthony Enahoro Legal Commission Memorial Media Briefing holding on Thursday in Lagos.
In the course of the week, the Nation ran five stories on subsidy, under the headlines "Gowon to Jonathan: don’t remove subsidy now", "Fix refineries before removing subsidy", "Students to Jonathan: let subsidy be", "Why fuel subsidy must go now, by Jonathan" and "Fed Govt to NLC: don’t heat up the polity".
According to the Nation, opponents of fuel subsidy removal may have lost the battle, with Jonathan insisting that his mind is made up on the combustible issue but former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon has warned that the government should pull the brakes.
Nigeria’s infrastructure should be revived before such a step is taken, Gowon said. And the President disagrees, saying posterity will judge him than see Nigeria grounded.
If subsidy is not removed, Nigeria will be broke within the next one and a half years, Jonathan asserted.
Gowon also asked Jonathan to repair the refineries before the removal of fuel subsidy, saying that fuel subsidy should be withdrawn with minimal pain to the people as he called for an end to importation of petroleum products.
Under the headline: "Students to Jonathan: let subsidy be", the Nation said Tuesday’s meeting between the Federal Government delegation, led by the President, and the leadership of University students ended in deadlock as the students insisted that subsidy removal is anti-people and gave the government one year to prove itself before it could count on their support.
The students, under the umbrella of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), said the problem in the oil sector is that of system failure.
According to Ebiloma Abdulahi, a former NANS president, who attended the meeting, the students told the President that there is a system failure and until that is corrected and other things put right, Nigerians should not be made to face the hardship that subsidy removal will bring on the people.
The Nation also quoted Jonathan as saying that fuel subsidy must go and that Nigeria cannot continue to borrow to fund its economy But he explained that the idea is not to inflict pains on Nigerians.
Under the headline "Gowon, Oshiomhole, others give terms for fuel subsidy removal", the Nation said the controversy on the plan by the government to remove fuel subsidy raged on at the weekend with former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole and other top Nigerians offering varied insights into the issue.
For Gowon, the Federal Government may decide to implement the policy after fully reactivating the nation’s refineries, while Oshiomhole and a former member of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Nimi Bariagh-Amange, disagreed over the processes initiated by the Federal Government toward the proposed removal of the fuel subsidy.
Oshiomhole, through the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, said though huge resources were being expended by the Federal Government to convince Nigerians on the need for fuel subsidy removal, the proposed plan may remain provocative to the people if a more logical argument on the removal of the subsidy and increase in petroleum prices were not presented by the administration.
Senator Bariagh-Amange insisted that the position of the Federal Government on the removal of the subsidy was right and a clear revolution against the few involved in sponsoring a protest against the proposed policy that would improve the economy and allow the revamping of the existing refineries in the country.
While the Punch headlined its story on subsidy as "Pains of subsidy removal will be temporary – Jonathan", Thisday called it "Jonathan: We Can’t Continue Subsidy with Borrowed Funds".
The Vanguard, reporting developments in the continuing university lecturers' strike, headlined its story "Deadlock in ASUU-FG talks, open invitation to chaos – NLC".
It said the NLC has expressed grave concern over the impasse in the talks between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government over the 2009 agreement on the funding of universities and revitalising infrastructural deficits in the educational system among others.
It said the failure is an open invitation to chaos as the ongoing nationwide strike by ASUU enters second week.
Reporting the same story, Thisday newspaper headlined it: "NLC Decries FG/ASUU Deadlock over Agreement".
The NLC has said the deadlock in the on-going negotiations between the Federal Government and ASUU over the 2009 agreement is an invitation to chaos in the already deteriorating education sector.
The lamentation by NLC, however, came same day the union called on Governor Oshiomhole of Edo State to intervene in the ongoing strike action by the union to broker peace with the Federal Government.
NLC, in a statement issued in Abuja, lamented that the government is dragging its feet over an agreement on the funding of universities and revitalising other infrastructural deficits in the educational system.
The union added that the deadlock revealed that the Federal government was not serious in tackling the deteriorating standard of education in the country.
ASUU is currently at loggerheads with the government over sustained massive funding of education, including allocation of a minimum of 26 per cent of the annual budget of government to education, condition of service, university autonomy and academic freedom.
Also during the week, the papers reported Tuesday's boat mishap at Mgboudohia waterfront, a suburb of Port Harcourt, the capital of the South South Rivers State, indicating that the victims may have received a mass burial.
Tragedy struck Tuesday night as 30 persons drowned when their passenger boat capsized in the area.
An eye witness, who preferred anonymity, said at about 9.00 pm on Tuesday, the boat, carrying about 40 people capsized and about 10 persons, including a one-and-a-half-year-old baby, were immediately rescued and taken to a nearby hospital.
On the poor electricity generation in the country and moves to improve the situation, the Sun screamed "BIG SHAME -- Ghana now to sell electricity to Nigeria".
The report in the paper said Ghana’s ruling government has concluded plans to begin export of electric power to Nigeria and other West African countries by 2015.
The country’s Vice President, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, who unfolded the plan in Accra, on Tuesday, said the government has already embarked on extensive expansion of power infrastructure to enable them achieve the project.
Mahama explained that a key motivation for the investment was that Ghana presently has competitive advantage in the area of power supply over other neighbouring countries, including Nigeria, which is still grappling with massive power deficit for its estimated 150 million citizens.
The Tribune said "Power generation drops by 1,080 MW as Egbin shuts down", reporting that power generation in the country dropped by 1,080 megawatts on Tuesday, due to the shutdown of the Egbin Thermal Station.
And on a good note, the papers reported the emergence of Nigeria's first Female Fighter Pilot.
She is Blessing Liman, a 25-year-old from Kaduna State.
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) at the weekend commissioned her along with 126 others who completed the Direct Short Service Course 2010/11 Cadets of 325 Ground Training Group at the NAF Base, Kaduna.
Liman said she was very excited and proud to make history.
-0- PANA VAO/BOS 17Dec2011
