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Peace Corps: Reps Demands IGP To Appear Before Them

The House of Representatives has insisted that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, should appear before it, to explain why he disobeyed subsisting court orders to vacate the headquarters of the Peace Corps of Nigeria located in Jabi Abuja.

This was even as the National Commandant of the Corps, Amb (Dr.) Dickson Akoh, averred that, there was a grand conspiracy against the Nigerian youths by those who engineered the decision of President Muhammad Buhari to withhold assent from the Peace Corps Bill.

The House Committee on public petitions, had penultimate Tuesday, ordered that the office of Peace Corps be unsealed, in line with the two recent judgements delivered by Federal High Court in Abuja, to that effect.

At its sitting on Tuesday, the committee said Buhari’s rejection of the Bill is a different issue from the court order asking the police to leave the headquarters.

The police has cordoned the place off since 28th February, 2017, despite two court judgements and the committee’s directive, asking them to leave.

Hon. Nkem Uzoma-Abonta, Chairman of the committee, said, following the change of venue for the Tuesday meeting, the committee will give the police “a benefit of doubt” and adjourn till March, 6.

He said while the police should leave the organisation’s headquarters, the IGP and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, should appear before it “and tell us why the court orders should not be obeyed.”

He added that failure of the duo to appear before it will make the lawmakers explore other options available to them and ensure they appeared as directed.

Meanwhile, the Peace Corps boss, Akoh, has expressed strong optimism that the last has not been heard about the Peace Corps Bill, which he said was purely for the youth empowerment.

The Nigerian Peace Corps (Establishment) Bill was overwhelmingly passed at the National Assembly and transmitted to the Presidency for assent on Wednesday, 27th December, 2017.

President Buhari, however, on Tuesday, transmitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives that he was withholding his assent on the Bill, citing paucity of funds and duplication of duties.

Addressing journalists after a House of Representatives committee meeting on Tuesday, Akoh accused the nation’s security agencies of working against the Bill.

He said the same persons who “fought” the Peace Corps Bill prior to its passage also advised Buhari against assenting to the Bill.

Akoh said: “The same people that opposed the Bill with the same content during the National Assembly’s public hearing, allegedly took the matter before the President, telling him that instead of voting money for new establishment, they should use it to boost money for their own activities.

“They had said it is a duplication of their functions but we made an advertorial in some newspapers to show the differences in the functions.

“Whatever they have done has not brought the situation to an end. The National Assembly may still take it up.”

The Commandant further said the organisation was in the interest of the vast majority of the youth, adding that “from what I am seeing, there is a conspiracy against the youth.”

“Let them (the youth) be jobless and be committing crimes and let these people have more money and jail them. I think that is the conspiracy.

“We have bills that have suffered similar fate and resistance and was later passed. So we have hope that one day, proper attention will be given to the bill,” he said.

Source DailyPost

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Nigerian Government Has Failed In Health Care Delivery - Minister

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Nigerian Government Has Failed In Health Care Delivery - Minister

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has said the reason the federal government is unable to successfully plan and coordinate health service delivery has to do with its weak governance structures, poor human resource capacity and inefficient core processes.

He also expressed sadness at the inability of the Health Ministry to demonstrate expected results and ensure value for money in the delivery of health services.

Adewole made this known while speaking at the opening ceremony of a retreat aimed at strengthening the Ministry’s budget process and the capacity of the Department of Health Planning, Research & Statistics, which was organised in collaboration with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Health Systems Consults Ltd in Abuja yesterday.

He said: “A few years ago when we came in, I was presented with a report on public financial management, which showed the health sector as the least performer out of sixteen (16) ministries.

“Relatedly, I observed, that the capacity to plan and coordinate health service delivery was weak. These issues undermine the Ministry’s ability to demonstrate results and ensure value for money.”

The Minister, who noted that citizens expected those charged with managing the health system to deliver on Universal Health Coverage (UHC), expressed the belief that a fundamental change in the approach to the delivery of health services that recognizes and addresses the drivers of underperformance is required

According to him, “it is imperative to assess and strengthen the capacity of the Ministry to effectively lead national health planning, policy development, and overall health sector coordination.”

Adewole said that a review of the budget formulation, execution, and monitoring practices within the ministry was a desideratum.

Accordingly, he said the journey to strengthen the process has commenced and all hands must be on deck to achieve this.

He said the leadership of the Ministry is fully committed to achieving that goal and gave assurance of proper guidance.

Source DailyPost

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Summary Of Major Headlines In Nigerian Newspapers Today 28th February, 2018

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Summary Of Major Headlines In Nigerian Newspapers Today 28th February, 2018

Good morning! Here is today’s summary from Nigerian Newspapers

1. Suspected herdsmen have rendered no fewer than 5,000 residents of Mbatoho Chile community, an Island close to Benue State Government House, of Makurdi local government homeless following a fresh attack.

The attack took place despite the commencement of Exercise Ayem A’ Kpatuma by the military to check the incursion of herdsmen into parts of Benue‎ State

2. The seeming frosty relationship between the Executive and the National Assembly is slowing down governance, President Muhammadu Buhari has said. 

The President, who spoke at the National Executive Committee meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC), however, said the government was working hard to resolve the differences between the Executive and the National Assembly so that the country can move forward.

3. A summit convened by the Eastern Consultative Assembly, ECA, in Enugu ‎was on Tuesday disrupted by pro-Biafra agitators.

It was gathered that the agitators made up of members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, the Biafra Zionists Federation, BZF, among several others, forced the event to an abrupt end.

4. Barrister Aisha Alkali Wakil, a North-East human rights activist, popularly called Mama Boko Haram, has revealed that Abu Musab Al-Barnawi-led faction of Boko Haram might be responsible for the abduction of Dapchi School Girls.

Aisha Wakil, a former member of the Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the northern region of Nigeria under the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan, had, in previous efforts, brought military officers and Boko Haram Commanders together during negotiations.

5. Suspected herdsmen Tuesday invaded Gwamba community in Demsa Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

An eyewitness told said the attackers stormed two villages in the community and opened fire on Tuesday morning, razing several houses, while the residents fled in different directions for safety.

6. President Muhammadu Buhari has explained why he rejected the bill establishing Peace Corps of Nigeria.

Buhari’s explanation, which was contained in a letter read during plenary on Tuesday by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara cited security concerns and financial burden of funding the organisation by the government as his reasons for rejecting the bill.

7. The All Progressives Congress, APC, national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Executive Committee has been given one year extension to be in office.

This decision was arrived at during the national executive committee, NEC, meeting of the party holding in Abuja.

8. No fewer than four persons were critically battered on Tuesday in Akaeze community, Ivo local government area of Ebonyi State following a clash between herdsmen and farmers.

Report says three herdsmen were left with head injuries, while one of the farmers received machete cuts on various parts of his body.

9. The Senate has explained the reason behind its move to amend Investment and Security Act (ISA) 2007 and enactment of Unclaimed Funds Bill 2018, saying there was so much benefit locked up in the sector, capable of boosting the economy.

President of the Senate, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, said it had been found that as much as N104 billion was locked up as unclaimed dividends in the capital market.

10. The Senator representing Benue North East in the National Assembly, Barnabas Gemade has faulted the reports in some quarters that the federal legislature gets larger chunk of the nation’s income.

The Senator, who revealed that the National Assembly gets only but 0.06 per cent of the national budget, wondered why those whose interest they were protecting through effective legislations were ones worried about their take home.

Source DailyPost

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Text Scandal Candidate Rejected By Arizona Republicans

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Text Scandal Candidate Rejected By Arizona Republicans

Former state senator Debbie Lesko won the GOP primary in a special congressional election in Arizona Tuesday night, The Associated Press reported. Republicans there rejected a front-runner who had been hit by scandal in the final days of the race to fill a seat vacated by a former congressman who had himself resigned in disgrace.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Lesko had earned 36 percent of the vote in the crowded primary, with former state Sen. Steve Montenegro well behind and nearly tied with former Donald Trump campaign official Phil Lovas, according to results published by the Arizona Secretary of State.

Republican candidate and former Arizona state Sen. Debbie Lesko, right, celebrates with former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer as she claims victory in the Congressional District 8 seat during a campaign party at Lesko's home in Glendale, Arizona, Tuesday night. Ralph Freso / AP

Flanked by former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, her most prominent supporter, Lesko thanked supporters who had gathered at her home and told reporters she was looking forward to the general election in April. “This is so sweet,” she said. "We’re going to have a party in April."

Montenegro conceded the race at a sports bar in Goodyear, Arizona.

Republican Trent Franks left Congress last year after admitting that he had put female staffers in inappropriate positions, including requesting they serve as surrogate mothers for his children.

Last week, the election to replace Franks was rocked when Montenegro, whom Franks had endorsed, got tangled up in his own scandal involving a junior staffer.

Several prominent Arizona Republicans called on Montenegro to withdraw from the race after text messages leaked to local media showed that Montenegro, a Christian minister, received a topless photo of a woman during a year-long flirty relationship.

Montenegro denied the relationship was inappropriate or ever got physical, and said he cut off contact with the woman and informed his wife when she sent the nude photo. But the relationship may have been enough to cost Montenegro the race.

Lesko will now face off against Democrat Hiral Tipirneni, a physician who also won her own primary Tuesday night, in the April 24 special election. But Republicans are heavily favored to retain the conservative district, even with the wind at Democrats’ backs this year.

The outcome will have some Arizona Republicans breathing easier, since they feared the possibility of a Democratic upset with a Roy Moore-like candidate on the ballot if Montenegro had won.

Source NBC News

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Cabinet Reshuffle: The Tip That May Put SA Into Chaos

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Cabinet Reshuffle: The Tip That May Put SA Into Chaos

© Leila Dougan

Editor’s note: The opinions in this article are the author’s, as published by our content partner, and do not represent the views of MSN or Microsoft.

Three South African provinces are currently experiencing extreme drought, and most major metropolitan areas are facing water restrictions. Water may not be as sexy as land, but it is going to become one of the hot-button issues of the next few years countrywide. As Parliament heard on Tuesday, however, the national Department of Water and Sanitation is in frightening disarray its condition compared by MPs to the worst-run State-owned Enterprises. New Minister Gugile Nkwinti is inheriting a mess which the country cannot afford to let slide further. By REBECCA DAVIS and SUNÉ PAYNE.

"The truth is, we don't have a department."

That's how Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) chair Themba Godi summed up the state of the Department of Water & Sanitation following a disastrous appearance by water officials on Tuesday.

It was the third time that the department had been called before Scopa to account for its financial mismanagement, and on this occasion the committee had had enough. Scopa, Godi announced subsequently, will be opening a criminal case against the department.

The criminal proceedings relate to a R2.9-billion overdraft which the department may have illegally obtained from the Reserve Bank, but this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the department's financial quagmire.

Officials came to Parliament with a 77-page double-sided document detailing irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure over the 2016/2017 period alone.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is already investigating tender irregularities involving Limpopo's Giyani Emergency Project, which has seen a budget of R502-million explode to over R3-billion due to dodgy contracts.

The R26-billion Lesotho Highlands Water Project, meanwhile, is the subject of a separate investigation by the SIU and the public protector, following reports that former Water Minister Nomvula Mokonyane had delayed the project to benefit a particular contractor.

Scopa members wanted answers on "a whole range of matters related to irregular expenditure", Godi told Tuesday's meeting – and failed to receive them.

So inadequate were the responses from officials – including acting director-general Sifiso Mkhize and deputy director-general for infrastructure Zandile Mathe – that at one stage the meeting broke down altogether, with officials whispering to each other.

"It can't be that [officials] choose to sulk and then MPs must sit in a corner," complained ANC MP Vincent Smith.

In the face of officials' claims not to have any detail on hand regarding the budget escalation of the Giyani project, IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa even offered to connect their laptops to wi-fi to enable them to locate the necessary documents.

"It's so embarrassing," sighed ANC MP Ezekiel Kekana.

The department was summarised by MPs as being "on its knees", with its condition comparable to the crisis at some state-owned enterprises. The ability of the department to continue to function without being placed under administration was also called into question.

Godi described the department's previous appearances before Parliament as consisting of "shameful lies", and pointed out that the effects of the financial mismanagement would be felt countrywide.

Related: Chief Justice Mogoeng warns ministers

"The reality is the people on the ground will be hit hard," he said. "Access to water should be escalated to national risk."

Casting a long shadow over proceedings even in her absence was outgoing minister Nomvula Mokonyane.

In reference to the fact that Mokonyane had on Monday night received a new Cabinet deployment to the Department of Communications, Godi said: "What came out of here today is a slap in the face of last night."

In a subsequent statement, Scopa said: "In reality, Minister Nomvula Mokonyane has left a department that has completely collapsed. It is worrying that she is now a Minister of Communications at a time when the South African Broadcasting Corporation is recovering."

During her tenure, Mokonyane refused to take responsibility for the crisis at the water ministry. She has blamed, variously: municipalities' inability to implement water projects and pay for them; overly bureaucratic legislation regarding emergency funding; under-performing directors-general, and political problems from Lesotho's side regarding the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.

Parliament has repeatedly expressed scepticism at these excuses, and also suggested that a revolving door policy operated at the department which led to the exile of those who fell out of Mokonyane's favour.

On Tuesday, Scopa members did not hide the fact that they have little faith in remaining officials. Godi suggested that it was imperative that new minister Gugile Nkwinti meet with the committee first thing, before Nkwinti could be "misled" by department officials.

Tuesday's meeting made it clear, however, that what the department urgently requires is an exceptionally high-performing, energetic minister to turn it around: the likes of a Pravin Gordhan, in fact, if Gordhan were not needed elsewhere (or everywhere).

Is Gugile Nkwinti the man for the job? On the basis of current evidence, some cynicism is allowed.

Nkwinti's lengthy ministerial tenure at Land Reform produced remarkably little of substance, beyond exacerbating political tensions around the issue to the point where the ANC's newly adopted policy of land expropriation without compensation seemed a foregone conclusion. Nkwinti here must be extended some leeway, given that he was presumably hamstrung by orders from above on such a politically sensitive matter.

But it would be hoped that the minister responsible for cleaning house in a dirty department would be squeaky clean, and Nkwinti may not be that. In 2017, it was reported that he had allegedly pocketed R2-million as part of a government land deal benefiting his business partner. Nkwinti acknowledged introducing the businessman to government officials, but denied anything untoward beyond this. Nonetheless, it's an unhelpful association for a man entering a department seemingly rife with suspicious contracts.

Beyond this, 69-year-old Nkwinti has the air of a man who is – to put it flatly – tired. Righting the ship at the Department of Water will require tremendous reserves of energy, drive, a pugnacious attitude and an openness to fresh ideas.

The water scarcity South Africa is experiencing is being shared globally to differing degrees, and the new minister will need to demonstrate an appetite for international ideas and solutions to a problem which has the ability to threaten every aspect of South African life.

Nkwinti is not known as a Cabinet superstar – and yet the condition of the Department of Water demands one. His appointment to the water portfolio, in fact, suggests that the extent of the crisis is not yet fully grasped. If Nkwinti does not act fast, the effects will become ever more difficult to ignore. DM 

Source MSN News

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South Africa Sworn In Ministers After Cabinet Reshuffle

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South Africa Sworn In Ministers After Cabinet Reshuffle

© Leila Dougan

Editor’s note: The opinions in this article are the author’s, as published by our content partner, and do not represent the views of MSN or Microsoft.

The EFF on Tuesday scored a backhanded political victory when the ANC supported its call for a constitutional amendment for land expropriation without compensation, even as the governing party's amendments effectively watered down the original opposition motion. The historic moment happened on the 40th anniversary of the death of Robert Sobukwe, the founding president of the Pan Africanist Congress, whose motto remains "Izwe lethu (the land is ours)". The PAC was absent from the House. By MARIANNE MERTEN.

If a week in politics is a long time, then a year is an eternity. And the changing political weather wane was clearly visible with regards to land expropriation without compensation.

On Tuesday the EFF-sponsored motion for a constitutional amendment to make possible land expropriation without compensation, as amended by the ANC, was carried with 241 votes in favour and 83 against. A year ago almost to the day, a similar motion was rejected 261 against, and just 33 in favour.

Then in 2017 the ANC maintained it could not support changes to Section 25 of the Constitution, dubbed the property clause, because of respect for the Constitution, and the long-standing ANC practice of not having anyone else tell it what to do and how to do it.

Also read: EFF on land expropriation: 'No one will lose their house'

Or as ANC rural development and land reform committee chairperson Phumzile Ngwenya-Mabila argued:

"We are not going to be told what to do. We are not in alliance with anyone else. We are a ruling government… Expropriation of land should be done for public purpose and public interests, not for the EFF purpose and EFF interests. Secondly, expropriation without compensation is unconstitutional. We need to respect and uphold the Constitution as citizens of this country and, moreover, as members of this House".

Then President Jacob Zuma criticised his own ANC parliamentary caucus for not supporting a "black party" on this land issue in his address to the National House of Traditional Leaders.

On Tuesday the changed political optics and tone again came to the fore when President Cyril Ramaphosa told the National House of Traditional Leaders that land expropriation without compensation should be regarded "as an opportunity rather than something that is just negative… We should take it on our shoulders to resolve this original sin", calling on traditional leaders to represent their communities' interests. This echoes back to his State of the Nation Address (SONA) earlier this month, when land redistribution was situated at the heart of social justice and equity.

© Leila Dougan New Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has his first afternoon in the National Assembly on Tuesday 27 February, with a debate on land expropriation. Nene has returned to the Finance ministry after being fired by former…

But as always there's a spin to it, hinting at as yet unresolved differences within the governing ANC over land expropriation without compensation that had also bedevilled its December national conference.

And so Ramaphosa told traditional leaders that land reform also presented opportunities "where we can bring in a number of other partners, financial partners some of whom are willing to invest alongside ourselves as we move to reform land utilisation", before seguing into how the participation of youth in agriculture would boost production.

Hours later on Tuesday, newly appointed Water and Sanitation Minister Gugile Nkwinti, previously in charge of the rural development and land reform portfolio, acknowledged that the ANC had been "reluctant to do this" and that it had taken 23 years for the "very patient" governing party to come to this point. But the time was now:

"South Africa belongs to all who live in it and therefore all South Africans must share equitably…."

Or as Deputy Rural Development Minister Mcebisi Skwatsha said:

"Let us reiterate the principle is something we 100% agree and we will not turn back… We want to redress an historic injustice. We want to take everyone along in achieving an equitable society."

A couple of things happened in the intervening year.

One, the ANC December national conference resolved on land expropriation without compensation, albeit with the caveats that it must not undermine agricultural production or food security. With a binding conference resolution, the ANC would have had to jump through embarrassing political hoops to try to justify not supporting this EFF motion supporting the same principle.

Two, in the tumultuous political drama over President Jacob Zuma's exit from the Union Buildings earlier this month, ANC parliamentary rules fundis successfully argued that the governing party could support the EFF motion of no confidence, if it made it its own by bringing amendments. If that was an option, then – even if it did not come to that with Zuma's late-night Valentine's Day resignation – it could again be now on land expropriation without compensation.

It reportedly took much of Tuesday for ANC Deputy Chief Whip Doris Dlakude to sort out the amendments to get EFF buy-in. She got it from the opposition party, which has always offered the governing party its 6% electoral support for a constitutional amendment in favour of expropriation without compensation.

Related: Malema calls Lekota a 'historical mistake'

"We are happy with the types of amendments the ANC wants to make. This is not a party-political matter, but an issue of national interest," said EFF leader Julius Malema in closing the debate.

But those ANC amendments are key: they effectively water down the original EFF motion and introduce the ANC December national conference resolution caveats around agricultural production and food security and wide-ranging consultations. 

The National Assembly agreed it would no longer be an ad hoc committee to bring about the constitutional changes within 10 weeks, but the matter would go before Parliament's constitutional review committee for consideration over the next six months, by end of August. That constitutional review body is one of Parliament's less active and more subdued committees that does not sit very often.

The agreed-to amended motion has removed the paragraph that without such a constitutional change it was "practically impossible for those dispossessed of their land to get justice for injustices perpetrated against them". It also removed the EFF wording that expropriation without compensation was part of "a radical land reform programme", and substituted it with phrasing that stipulated such compensation-less expropriation would unfold "in a manner that increases agricultural production, improves food security and ensures that the land is returned to those from whom it was taken from", after wide-ranging consultations.

Through these amendments the ANC has saved political face, bringing an opposition party motion in line with its own policy resolutions and thus putting the governing party in charge of the process while it resolves the real, if glossed over internal differences on this issue and an at best lacklustre land reform track record over the past 23 years.

© AP EFF leadership (File image)

The historic parliamentary agreement has landed the EFF a political conquest – and allows it to claim, as Malema did afterwards, that the party has fulfilled one of the promises of getting its policy agenda onto the national platform.

"The EFF is proud it has fulfilled what it promised to do, the land will be returned to the people," Malema told journalists outside the National Assembly.

"There's nothing unconstitutional about it… We are using the instruments of democracy to achieve the founding principle of South African democracy."

For the EFF there is further political mileage. It has put the DA, which opposes land expropriation without compensation, on terms with regards to coalitions in key metros. A motion of no confidence in Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Mayor Athol Trollip will be brought on 6 April – a pregnant symbolic anniversary date from the apartheid government's hanged uMkonto weSizwe cadre Solomon Mahlangu in 1978, the arrival of Dutch colonialist Jan van Riebeeck's arrival in South Africa in 1652 and the formation of the PAC in 1959.

The tensions flared up already on Tuesday when, according to DA Eastern Cape leader Nqaba Bhanga, the EFF "would rather place their politics ahead of the needs of (metro) residents" by not supporting the municipal adjustments budget.

And there's more to come, according to Malema, unless the DA attitude changes. "If the attitude continues (in the constitutional review committee), Johannesburg will fall. If the attitude continues, Tshwane will fall."

Opposition parties are finding land expropriation without compensation a divisive issue after years of finding each other on a range of matters, and not just related to Zuma. Dealing with the Ramaphosa new dawn, optimism and public service in the interest of South Africa has both the DA and EFF back to the drawing board on how to deal with the changed dynamics.

The first indicators of ructions emerged in the parliamentary debate on Ramaphosa's SONA.

Tuesday's debate in the House, broadly speaking, showed the fault lines run as follows:

- The EFF supports expropriation without compensation, and so does the United Democratic Movement, while the DA doesn't on the argument that there's enough land for redistribution if that were to be done effectively;
- The IFP sort of follows suit, saying the starting point for land redistribution should be vacant state land that's immediately available, but it was happy with the constitutional review committee process;
- The Freedom Front Plus definitely was not, cautioning against unintended consequences, and,
- Cope continues to ask what would be done with the land that's expropriated without compensation and who would benefit.

What happened in the House on Tuesday goes beyond political or parliamentary niceties – it goes right to the heart of South Africa's body politic. Watch this space. DM

Photo: President Cyril Ramaphosa on the parliamentary precinct shortly after addressing the House of Traditional Leaders. This follows his announcement of a new Cabinet on Monday night. Photo: Leila Dougan

Ministers sworn in after Cabinet reshuffle

Supplied by Reuters

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