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Osinbajo Lists Buhari’s 57 Achievements In Two Years

Published

7 years ago

October 1, 2017

The Presidency on Saturday released a compiled list of achievements by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari over the past two years, all amounting to 57.

According to the released by the Vice President’s Office to mark the independence anniversary of Nigeria, security, results of initiatives on growth of economy, war against corruption, release of Chibok girls and more are top in consideration.

Below are the achievements as compliled by the Offie of the Vice President

57 Achievements Of The Buhari-Led Administration

SECURITY & RELATED MATTERS

Release of 106 Chibok girls, as well as over 16,000 persons in Boko Haram captivity.

Tackling insurgency, decimation of Boko Haram in the North East.

Recovering 14 local governments and territories previously under Boko Haram control in the North East, rebuilding lives of citizens there; about one million displaced persons in the NE have returned to their communities in two years of this administration.

Curbing the incidence of kidnap across the country. (Arrest of kidnap kingpins and dismantling of kidnap cells across the country)

Restoring morale of the Nigerian military; re-organizing and better equipping the Nigerian Armed Forces.

Purchase of 12 Super-Tucano aircrafts worth $600 million to aid the Nigerian military’s current operations in the North East.

Ensuring continued peace in the Niger Delta through consistent funding of the FG amnesty programme for ex-militants.

Introduction of an improved mechanism for distribution of aid to IDPs in the North East through the establishment of the Special Intervention Programme of the Federal Government. (Door-to-door strategy)

ECONOMY

Implementing the National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) to aid economic recovery, taking the country out of her worst recession in 29 years, despite fall in oil prices.

N1.2 trillion expended on capital/infrastructure projects nationwide, a milestone in the nation’s history.

Effective implementation of the Treasury Single Account, and increasing government revenue by over N3 trillion as well as entrenching transparency and accountability.

Implementation of the Bank Verification Number (BVN), thus tackling corruption by plugging loopholes for siphoning of public fund and tracking of illicit funds through multiple accounts

Ease of doing business: the Federal Government signed into law two bills from the National Assembly (Acts are the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act, 2017 (otherwise known as Collateral Registry Act) and the Credit Reporting Act, 2017) which has facilitated access to more affordable credit for Nigerians, fast tracked budget submissions and promotes Made-in-Nigeria products.

Establishment of the Presidential Quarterly Business Forum to enhance interaction and private sector participation in the development of the economy.

Institutionalizing E-governance setting the foundation for the creation of a truly digital economy.

Creation of opportunities for youths to leverage innovation in technology through the introduction of the Aso Villa Demo Day (AVDD) through which over N700 million has been disbursed to young entrepreneurs.

The revitalization of the Made-in-Nigeria campaign. (Emphasis on consumption of local products gain grounds)

Implementing reforms in the civil service which has led to the elimination of over 30,000 ghost workers, thereby saving the country billions of naira monthly.

Massive investments in agriculture, e.g, Anchors Borrowers Programme to improve local produce, improving fertiliser distribution and access across states through the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative.

Reduction in rice imports as a result of government’s policies that has encouraged massive rice production across Nigeria.

Improving transport infrastructure (rail and road); construction work ongoing on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, renovation of Abuja International Airport runway, completion of Abuja – Kaduna Railway among others.

Social Investment Programmes (SIP): N-Power Volunteer Scheme creating jobs for over 200,000 (and still counting) unemployed graduates in all the 36 states and the FCT.

SIP: Ongoing Government Enterprise and Empowerment (GEEP) Scheme; commenced in November 2016 in collaboration with the Bank of Industry, where soft loans ranging from N10, 000 to N100, 000 have been given to over 189,000 market women and traders across different states.

SIP: Home Grown School Feeding Programme, where almost three million schoolchildren have been fed, while tens of thousands of cooks have been engaged in their respective states.

SIP: Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme, under which about 25,000 less privileged Nigerians so far are now being funded with the monthly N5,000 stipend in 9 pilot States (Bauchi, Borno, Cross Rivers, Ekiti, Kwara, Kogi, Niger, Osun and Oyo). More beneficiaries are expected to be added in more states.

The establishment of MSMEs Clinics, a small Business support programme to support entrepreneurs and small businesses in different states.

Establishment of One-Stop-Shops to support policies on Ease of Doing Business.

The take-off of the 2nd Niger Bridge.

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Phasing out subsidy for petroleum products, elimination of fuel scarcity and queues in petrol stations.

Implementation of the FG Niger Delta new vision, a comprehensive road map to improve livelihood and social infrastructure.

Improved power generation nationwide adding $500million to Nigeria’s sovereign wealth fund and about $87million to its excess crude account.

The creation of the N30billion Solid Minerals Development Fund.

Encouraging the patronage of local contents and increasing export in agriculture.

Signing of Executive Order 001 which is the promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment – to ensure that public servants offer prompt service in a predictable and transparent manner, and sanction undue delays.
Signing of Executive Order 002 which is on prompt submission of annual budgetary estimates by all statutory and non-statutory agencies of the Federal Government including incorporated companies wholly owned by FG.
Bailout of cash crunch states; about N689 billion to 27 states of the federation to pay salaries in 2015.

Complete refund of Paris loan deductions to states (unprecedented).

Implementing the 2011 UNEP report for the ongoing Ogoni clean-up process after decades of oil spills and pollution.

Modification of the tax system so that it is more efficient.

Reforms in the airports (reconstruction of the Abuja airport runway and ongoing work at the Lagos airport).

Reforms at the nation’s seaports (Issues with cargo clearance at the ports addressed)
Improved duration (under 48 hours) for visa approval especially for investors.

Resuscitation of the nation’s refineries which are now working at 50 percent capacity for the first time in over a decade.

Eleven of the dead 33 fertilizer plants have been resuscitated while four others are to be revived shortly and this has profound impact on the ongoing revolution in the agricultural sector.

For the first time in more than 45 years, the Mambila Power Plant is set to take off with the allocation of $5.6billion for its realization and an expected 3,050 MW output upon completion.

Increasing external reserves to a 13 month high of $33 billion from $29.13 billion which has surpassed the ERGPs target of $30.56 billion despite global low oil prices and production challenges.

tion of the Joint Venture cash calls with oil multinational companies operating in Nigeria (For the first time in the history of the industry) which has led to savings of billions of dollars lost to fictitious contract payments.

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Release of N2 billion take off grant for the Maritime University as part of measures to address agitations in the Niger Delta region.

The new development bank of Nigeria (DBN) is finally taking off with initial funding of $1.3billion (provided by the World Bank, German Development Bank, African Development Bank, Agence Francaise De Development) to provide medium and long term loans to MSMEs.

ANTI – GRAFT WAR.

Improving Nigeria’s international image and regional cooperation with neighbouring countries in fighting insurgency.

Anti-corruption war: Prosecuting alleged corrupt public officers and recovering billions of naira of stolen public funds; the successful establishment of the whistle-blower policy.

Signing of Executive Order 004 – Voluntary Income Asset Declaration Scheme (VAIDS). This aims to increase tax awareness and compliance, and reduce incidence of tax evasion.

Signing of agreements with a number of nations to provide Automatic Exchange of Information.

Signing of the Extradition Treaty between Nigeria and United Arab Emirates (UAE) toward strengthening Nigeria’s anti-corruption campaign.
Establishment of PACAC – a think-tank that has provided leadership, direction and also built capacity of personnel in the fight against corruption.

OTHERS

Eradication of polio disease in the country.

The introduction of the One Primary Health Centre per ward programme of the Federal Government.

News

Kogi Assembly Urges EFCC to Remove ‘Wanted’ Tag on Ex- Gov. Yahaya Bello

Published

2 days ago

April 24, 2024

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In a recent session of the Kogi State House of Assembly, members passed a resolution urging the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to remove the ‘wanted’ tag placed on the immediate past Governor of the state, Yahaya Bello.

The resolution was reached during plenary on Tuesday, following a presentation by Jibrin Abu, the representative of Ajaokuta State Constituency.

Abu brought forth a motion titled, ‘A call to end all false, frivolous, fictitious, and far from the truth smear campaign against the former Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.’

Abu alleged that the anti-graft agency had been engaging in a witch-hunt against Bello, stating, “Kogi State, by allocation standard, is not rich so much so that N80.4b will be missing that the State will not be shaken to its foundation. This claim by the EFCC should be sanctioned and taken as laughable. Innocent Nigerians and Kogi State citizens that bought into the lies should by their personal volition withdraw their support.”

Former Deputy Speaker of the House, Enema Paul, echoed Abu’s sentiments, urging the EFCC to uphold the rule of law.

In his ruling, Speaker Aliyu Yusuf emphasized the importance of the EFCC operating within the boundaries of the law.

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He stated, “This House is not against the EFCC doing their job but they should do it within the ambit of the law and not in a Gestapo way. The country belongs to all of us, so we must respect the law and work with it.”

News

‘Catch And Kill’ Architect Details Trump-Boosting Scheme

Published

2 days ago

April 24, 2024

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TOPSHOT – Former US President Donald Trump, with attorney Todd Blanche (L), walks toward the press to speak after attending his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on April 23, 2024. (Photo by Yuki Iwamura / POOL / AFP)

In the 1990s, Donald Trump famously gossiped to the tabloids about — who else — himself, a headline-chaser who loved none other than to see his name in lights, or at least in the supermarket checkout line.

But those were Trump’s good old days, an era of clubs and models, long before he launched a bid for the US presidency and found himself needing to squash the lewd, party boy stories he once boasted about.

Cue David Pecker, the former publishing executive whose titles included the National Enquirer, and who on Tuesday in a Manhattan courtroom laid out the “catch and kill” strategy he carried out in a bid to support Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

In a then-secret meeting in August 2015, Trump and his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen met with Pecker to ask how he and his publications could “help the campaign,” the 72-year-old witness testified

Trump “dated the most beautiful women,” Pecker explained, “and it was clear that, based on my past experience, that when someone is running for a public office like this, it is very common for these women to call up a magazine like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories.”

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‘Fake news’ sells

Speaking under oath, Pecker, who sported a pink tie and slicked back hair, essentially confessed to trafficking so-called “fake news” to both his and Trump’s benefit, while simultaneously paying off several people whose tales had the potential to damage candidate Trump’s reputation.

He said “popular stories about Mr. Trump” as well as “negative stories about his opponents” would “only increase newsstand sales.”

“Publishing these types of stories was also going to benefit his campaign,” Pecker said. “Both parties benefited from it.”

Pecker offered a portal into the editorial practices of outlets like his own, which had no shame in paying for stories and focused far more on the cover than the content.

“We would do a lot of research to determine what… the proper cover of the magazine would be,” Pecker said.

“Every time we did this, Mr. Trump would be the top celebrity,” Pecker said, describing the magnate’s pre-politician days and pointing to his star turn as the top guy on his own reality show “The Apprentice,” and its celebrity-starring sequel.

In recalling Trump’s first campaign era, the prosecution presented bombastic headlines disparaging the Republican’s opponents, such as “Bungling surgeon Ben Carson left sponge in patient’s brain” and “Ted Cruz shamed by porn star.”

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Pecker said such ideas often came from or were shaped by Cohen, Trump’s then-fixer who is expected to be a star witness in the New York state trial.

But Pecker also said he wanted to keep his “agreement among friends” with Trump and Cohen “as quiet as possible.”

Among the times he said he killed a story regarding Donald Trump, it centered on a Trump Tower doorman who was peddling a false claim that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock with one of his former employees.

Pecker said he thought it was important to buy the story and keep it quiet for Trump’s benefit — as well as his own.

He said had the story been true, he planned to publish it “after the election.”

“If the story was true, and I published it, it would be probably the biggest sale of the National Enquirer since the death of Elvis Presley.”

News

In 2023, Report Finds 282 Million Faced Acute Hunger

Published

2 days ago

April 24, 2024

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Pedestrians and vehicles move along a road outside a branch of the Central Bank of Sudan in the country’s eastern city of Gedaref on July 9, 2023. (Photo by – / AFP)

Food insecurity worsened around the world in 2023, with some 282 million people suffering from acute hunger due to conflicts, particularly in Gaza and Sudan, UN agencies and development groups said Wednesday.

Extreme weather events and economic shocks also added to the number of those facing acute food insecurity, which grew by 24 million people compared with 2022, according to the latest global report on food crises from the Food Security Information Network (FSIN).

The report, which called the global outlook “bleak” for this year, is produced for an international alliance bringing together UN agencies, the European Union and governmental and non-governmental bodies.

2023 was the fifth consecutive year of rises in the number of people suffering acute food insecurity — defined as when populations face food deprivation that threatens lives or livelihoods, regardless of the causes or length of time.

Much of last year’s increase was due to report’s expanded geographic coverage, as well as deteriorating conditions in 12 countries.

More geographical areas experienced “new or intensified shocks” while there was a “marked deterioration in key food crisis contexts such as Sudan and the Gaza Strip”, Fleur Wouterse, deputy director of the emergencies office within the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), told AFP.

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Some 700,000 people, including 600,000 in Gaza, were on the brink of starvation last year, a figure that has since climbed yet higher to 1.1 million in the war-ridden Palestinian territory.

Children starving

Since the first report by the Global Food Crisis Network covering 2016, the number of food-insecure people has risen from 108 million to 282 million, Wouterse said.

Meanwhile, the share of the population affected within the areas concerned has doubled 11 percent to 22 percent, she added.

Protracted major food crises are ongoing in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen.

“In a world of plenty, children are starving to death,” wrote UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the report’s foreword.

“War, climate chaos and a cost-of-living crisis — combined with inadequate action — mean that almost 300 million people faced acute food crisis in 2023.”

“Funding is not keeping pace with need,” he added.

This is especially true as the costs of distributing aid have risen.

For 2024, progress will depend on the end of hostilities, said Wouterse, who stressed that aid could “rapidly” alleviate the crisis in Gaza or Sudan, for example, once humanitarian access to the areas is possible.

Floods and droughts

Worsening conditions in Haiti were due to political instability and reduced agricultural production, “where in the breadbasket of the Artibonite Valley, armed groups have seized agricultural land and stolen crops”, Wouterse said.

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The El Nino weather phenomenon could also lead to severe drought in West and Southern Africa, she added.

According to the report, situations of conflict or insecurity have become the main cause of acute hunger in 20 countries or territories, where 135 million people have suffered.

Extreme climatic events such as floods or droughts were the main cause of acute food insecurity for 72 million people in 18 countries, while economic shocks pushed 75 million people into this situation in 21 countries.

“Decreasing global food prices did not transmit to low-income, import-dependent countries,” said the report.

At the same time, high debt levels “limited government options to mitigate the effects of high prices”.

On a positive note, the situation improved in 17 countries in 2023, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine, the report found.