NO PETROLUEM SUBSIDY PAID IN JANUARY

No subsidy Paid in January— Kachikwu ON FEBRUARY 3, 20166:46

By Michael Eboh, Emman Ovuakporie & Johnbosco Agbakwuru

 ABUJA—THE Minister of State for Petroleum/Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. Ibe. Kachikwu, yesterday said the Federal Government did not pay any subsidy on petroleum products in January 2016. THE GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM COMPANY [NNPC] DR EMMANUEL IBE KACHIKWU WITH JOURNALISTS DURING HIS WORKING VISIT TO KADUNA REFINERY ON WEDNESDAY. PHOTO:OLU AJAYI. DR EMMANUEL IBE KACHIKWU He also stated that the country would save $1 billion (N200 billion) from the newly introduced Direct-Sale-Direct-Purchase, DSDP, arrangement in Nigeria’s crude oil for products transaction which is to commence next month. Kachikwu stated these when he appeared before the House of Representatives’ Ad-Hoc Committee set up to investigate the NNPC’s offshore processing and crude swap arrangement for the period from 2010 to date. He explained that the DSDP was adopted to replace the Crude Oil Swap initiative and the Offshore Processing Arrangement so as to introduce and entrench transparency in the crude oil for product transaction by the corporation in line with global best practices. The Direct Sale-Direct-Purchase alternative allows for the direct sale of crude oil by NNPC as well as direct purchase of petroleum products from credible international refineries. Under the old order, crude oil was exchanged for petroleum products through third party traders at a pre-determined yield pattern. Kachikwu stated that the DSDP option eliminated all the cost elements of middlemen and gave the NNPC the latitude to take control of sale and purchase of crude oil transaction with its partners, adding that the initiative would save one billion dollars for the Federal Government. He said: “When I assumed duty as the Group Managing Director of NNPC, I met the Offshore Processing Arrangement (OPA) and like you know, there is always room for improvement. “I and my team came up with the DSDP initiative with the aim of throwing open the bidding process. This initiative has brought transparency into the crude-for-product exchange matrix and it is in tandem with global best practices.” He further stated that the DSDP initiative whittled down the influence of the minister in the selection of bid winners as it allowed all the bidders to be assessed transparently, based on their global and national track records of performance before the best companies with the requisite capacities are selected. Need for introduction of DSDP Commenting on the need for the introduction of the DSDP, Kachikwu maintained that the policy was aimed at reducing the gaps inherent in the OPA and the losses incurred by the NNPC in the past. He stated that the new arrangement would help the NNPC grow indigenous capacity in the international crude oil business and generate employment opportunities for indigenous companies that were selected. He added that the DSDP initiative gave other government agencies, such as the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and Nigeria Extractive Industry and Transparency Initiative (NEITI) the opportunity to be part of the bidding process in order to engender adherence to due process. Misgivings by some agencies Speaking on some of the reported misgivings by some federal agencies over the alleged non-transparent nature of past crude-for-products exchange arrangements, Kachikwu assured that the reconciliation process was ongoing and that going forward, the ministry would deploy technology to track cargoes and trans-shipment at the reception depots in order to forestall any incidence of round tripping. The NNPC had in November, said it had discontinued the Offshore Processing Arrangement, OPA, and had replaced it with Direct Sale-Direct-Purchase (DSDP) programme. The NNPC had also stated that the replacement of the OPA with the more efficient DSDP was aimed at enshrining transparency and eliminating the activities of middlemen in the crude oil exchange for product matrix. To this end, the NNPC withdrew the call for commercial bids issued to 44 bidders, made up of 34 international firms and 10 indigenous companies, earlier shortlisted.
  http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/02/no-subsidy-paid-in-january-kachikwu/

AMAECHI ON THE WAR ON CORRUPTION

Chike Okonkwo 1 hr · More clarity has been provided as to why the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, stopped two directors in his ministry and that of the Ministry of Finance from departing for China last week on their originally scheduled flight, causing a disruption in the first meeting slated for the Nigerian delegation and the China Exim Bank in Beijing. The disruption led to a verbal exchange between Amaechi and his counterpart in the finance ministry, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who did not hide her displeasure over the fact that her directors missed the first meeting with the Exim Bank of China. Ministry of Transportation sources told THISDAY yesterday that Amaechi and his team were about to depart for China from Abuja onboard Emirates Airline, when he discovered that the flight ticketsof the directors from his ministry had been paid for by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), one of the interested contractors in the railway and airport rehabilitation projects. Uncomfortable with the notion, the minister was said to have disapproved and asked his directors to disembark from the plane, insisting that they should not go on the trip on the bill of a contractor, who was an interested party in the business that was billed for discussions with the China Exim Bank. “The minister was livid and could not comprehend why he would be flown on an official trip by an interested contractor. So the minister gave the order immediately for everyone to disembark from that flight,” one ministry source revealed. While the directors from the transportation ministry where disembarking, Amaechi was said to have sighted two other directors from the Ministry of Finance on the plane and after making enquiries, discovered that the same contractor had paid for their trip too. Angry over the fact that top civil servants were being induced by a contractor, Amaechi immediately asked the directors from the finance ministry to disembark also. But in taking the decision, since the Ministry of Finance was not under his supervision, Amaechi was said to have called Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to seek his endorsement to prevent the finance directors from proceeding on the trip on sponsored tickets. The vice-president was said to have given him the go ahead, reinforcing Amaechi’s position that nobody must go on the bill of any contractor. The ministry source said Amaechi then asked his ministry to immediately bear the entire cost of the trip on Lufthansa Airways, including those of the finance directors, adding that a decision was taken that the finance ministry would reimburse the transportation ministry when the delegation returned from China. Curiously, on getting to China, Amaechi was said to have discovered again that the same contractor had made provisions for their hotel reservations – another gesture the minister declined and asked everyone to be responsible for their hotel bills, while he sought the understanding of the hotel management to let them settle the bills after their stay. But a furious Adeosun, who had no clue why Amaechi had delayed her directors from making the first meeting, had accosted her colleague in the transportation ministry in Beijing. She was however said to have accepted his explanation after Amaechi informed her why their departure had to be delayed, more so given the fact that he had the express permission of the vice-president to do so.

Buhari Magazine: The Buhari Magazine is Back and Better !!!

Buhari Magazine: The Buhari Magazine is Back and Better !!!

The Buhari Magazine is Back and Better !!!

After a period of exactly five (05) years today, The Buhari Magazine is back and promised to be better. It was suspended for security reasons. However, we are convinced that we can operate now without any hitch. The platform is dedicated to General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) and other selfless Nigerians for their patriotic conducts. It is noteworthy, that the blog has no personal or political link with GMB nor his party All Progressives Congress (APC)- Abdul B/Kebbi

Protect your votes, Buhari urges Nigerians- The Sun, 09/01/2011

source:http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2011/jan/09/national-09-01-2011-014.htm

Protect your votes, Buhari urges Nigerians
From ABDULLAHI SHU’AIBU, Lafia
Sunday, January 09, 2011



Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), General Muhammadu Buhari, has urged Nigerians to be prepared to protect their votes during the April 2011 polls.

General Buhari, who stated this on Friday in Lafia while receiving a CPC gubernatorial aspirant, Alhaji Tanko Al-Makura, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), however appealed that Nigerians should not take the law into their hands but rather be law-abiding.

The former head of state also appealed for massive turnout during the voter registration exercise, which begin from January 15.
While commending Al- Makura for leaving PDP, Buhari called on the people of Nasarawa State to vote for him during the governorship election in the state.

He said only CPC could change the lives of the people of Nigeria hence the need for people of the state to ensure that they vote CPC. On his part, Alhaji Al-Makura promised to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people if elected.

He thanked Buhari for coming to the state and promised to give him bloc votes from the state during the presidential election.

CPC Ratifies Buhari as Presidential Flagbearer-THISDAY 5/01/2011

source:http://thisdayonline.com/

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) yesterday night formally endorsed the former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as its presidential candidate for the 2011 general elections.

In his acceptance speech shortly after his ratification, Buhari said he decided to dump his former party, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) because of the unprincipled behaviour of its leaders during the 2007 general elections.

He described yesterday's convention as a momentous one, which has paved the way for him to offer himself once again to serve Nigerians.

He expressed worry that after a dozen years on the leadership saddle, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has failed to leave up to the expectations of Nigerians hence the clamour for change.

I am humbled by the spontaneous support I have received from the people since we began the election campaign, he said. On why he chose to leave the ANPP and form the CPC, Buhari said the leadership of ANPP between 2003 and 2007 exhibited unprincipled behaviour and act of betrayal against his presidential ambition.

The party leaders then appeared to be teleguided by the PDP. After our supporters were intimidated by the PDP thugs who snatched ballot boxes and forced the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to rig elections in a most blatant manner, the ANPP leadership still decided to join the PDP government and abandoned its supporters," he said.

He said the most painful thing was that when he tried to contest the matter in court the same ANPP leadership pulled out of the case mid-way preferring instead to wine and dine with the opponent.

According to Buhari, it was because the ugly experience he had with the ANPP that made him and some of the supporters to come together to form the CPC to chat a new course.

He assured that the main reason for forming the party was not to satisfy his personal interest but a desire to contribute in salvaging the country from years of misrule.

I will continue on this course whatever the outcome of the forthcoming general election will Our main task is to work hard to flush out the PDP from power," he added.

One of the major highlights of the CPC convention, which witnessed heavy security presence, was the election of new national officers of the party with the veteran journalist, Tony Momoh, being favoured to emerge as the party's national chairman.

Tags: News, Nigeria Decides Election 2011, Politics, POLITICS THISDAY

CPC CRISIS WORSENS BY DR TILDE

http://fridaydiscourse.blogspot.com/2010/12/trivial-6-cpc-crisis-worsens.html

Buhari Magazine: PTF-SHINING IN THE GLOOM (NEW AFRICAN MAGAZINE-JUNE 1998)

Buhari Magazine: PTF-SHINING IN THE GLOOM (NEW AFRICAN MAGAZINE-JUNE 1998)

PTF-SHINING IN THE GLOOM (NEW AFRICAN MAGAZINE-JUNE 1998)

JUNE 1998 COUNTRY REPORT NIGERIA

Development: PTF - shining in the gloom The Petroleum Trust Fund, headed by former President, Gen. Buhari, has confounded all its critics. As a development agency, it has succeeded spectacularly where all others failed. Pini Jason has the details. The one silver lining to emerge from the current heavy economic cloud must be the performance of the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF). In October 1994, General Sani Abacha hiked the pump price of petrol from N3.25 to N11 per litre, promising, with Decree 25, to set up a Petroleum Trust Fund to distribute the gains from the increase on social and infrasturctural projects. The board of the fund, headed by former Head of State, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, was eventually inaugurated on March 21, 1995. The Fund began with an initial capital of about N60bn in 1996. Its all encompassing mandate includes the rehabilitation of roads and waterways, educational and health institutions, providing textbooks and stationary, procuring essential drugs and vaccines, providing water supply systems, reviving crumbling agricultural sectors, connecting outlying areas to the national electricity grid, extending railways and telecommunications and ensuring consistent food supply. The huge budget and all-embracing mandate earned PTF some criticisms. Some dubbed it "the alternative government," accusing it of duplicating the responsibilities of other existing government agencies. There was for instance an initial conflict about who should be tarring which road, between PTF and the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. Yet, for once, other Nigerians began to hope that here was an agency that took its work seriously. The question was: could it carry out its entire mandate, or even a part of it? Everyone waited to see what would happen. Initially PTF awarded contracts for the rehabilitation of 12,000km of federal highways (including drainages) nationwide, and between 25-100km of urban road in major cities such as Gusau, Benin, Funtua, Zaria, Enugu, Kaduna, Aba, Lagos, Lokoja, and Port Harcourt. A N27.3bn contract was awarded for road rehabilitation in the first quarter of 1996. The sum of N1.328bn was awarded to 53 pharmaceutical companies for the supply of drugs, while the importation of vaccines cost N229.9m. As at December 31, 1997, funds available to PTF stood at N115.1bn. One thing even the most uncharitable critic of PTF will admit is that it has evolved a new way of doing things. This is true to its mission statement which is 'to establish and operate an open, modest and efficient organisation for the purpose of achieving the honest and timely execution of carefully designed socio-economic projects.' Right from its inception, the Head of State directed the fund to operate a lean bureaucracy. It depends therefore largely on consultants supervised by Afri-Projects Consortium, the management consultant to PTF. This policy has created jobs and boosted the confidence of Nigerian professionals such as architects, engineers and quantity surveyors. In many other ways, PTF has thrown a lifeline to dying sectors of the economy. Most of Nigeria's pharmaceutical companies were failing, and the foreign multinationals were divesting. But through its drugs procurement programme, PTF has turned the balance sheet of most of them into profit. Equipment and car leasing companies are also benefitting from the multiplier effects of PTF operations. Banks and insurance companies have also benefited. Nigeria has a history of contractors collecting mobilisation (advance) fees and not carrying out the contract. But not with PTF. Every advance payment up to N10m must be guaranteed by a PTF-approved bank, while other advance payments are covered by performance bonds issued by similarly approved insurance companies. This method, apart from increasing solvency through cash deposits, has created business for banks and insurance companies. One of the insurance companies that has benefited from PTF as a provider of performance bonds is The United Nigeria Insurance Company (UNIC), a composite insurance company which provides both life and non-life insurance. The total assets of UNIC stood at N979m while it grossed premium income of N916m and settled claims of N263m in 1996. With a staff of 552 spread all over its nationwide branch network, UNIC is today one of the leading insurance company in Nigeria. Another company that has done good business with PTF is IPWA plc, formerly International Paints (West Africa) Ltd. IPWA is today one of the biggest and most diversified paint manufacturers in Nigeria. The company product range spans automotive paints, building paints, industrial coatings and marine coatings. Others are packaging coatings, protective coatings and wood finishes. Most PTF contractors, specialist advisers and consultants lease and use computers, fax machines, printers and photocopiers. This has provided a new market for computer companies like Leading Edge Ltd., headed by Mr Tony Edoro, the managing director. Leading Edge is foremost in cloning computers with parts from diverse companies such as US Micro-Generation, IBM Direct, Merisel and Gateway. According to Mr Edoro, a widely experienced computer systems engineer, the advent of PTF has been good for Leading Edge. The company's turnover has grown from N50m in 1995 to well over N100m in 1997. Apart from energising several sectors of the economy, PTF is also setting the pace in another direction. In the words of Mr Salihijo Ahmad, of Afri-Projects Consortium, the twin objectives of PTF are to "rehabilitate infrastructures and reorientate the people." This the fund does through its insistence on transparency even though some critics still accuse it of lopsidedness in project execution and selection of consultants and contractors. In a country dogged by lack of transparency, PTF is the first, and perhaps the only public institution in Nigeria to publish its annual accounts. Last year, when he presented the annual report and accounts of 1996, Gen. Buhari promised to present the 1997 accounts before the end of the first quarter of 1998. He fulfilled that promise. The 1997 account of PTF shows that it disbursed N24.3bn on roads, N21.2bn on security, N7.8bn on health, and N3bn on other projects. Other disbursements include N2.2bn on water supply, N936m on food supply and N476m on education. It realised a total of N1.049bn from various investment activities. Reviewing the success story of PTF, Gen. Buhari said: "We have consolidated our execution of the take-off projects for the previous year and increased our intervention within the sectors. There is no doubt that the years ahead will witness even more intervention, as reports of some of the studies commissioned are received and project execution commenced." The fund has embarked on community education to sensitise and enlighten communities of its activities. The idea is to bring recipients closer to the objectives of the fund, so that they can participate in project identification and selection as well as eventual PTF projects in their areas. One aspect of the overall project that the public has raised an eyebrow over is the Armed Forces PTF. According to Gen. Buhari, PTF is under instruction to allocate 20% of its funds to the armed forces, and another 1% to the Federal Capital Territory. The allocation to the Armed Forces is probably a continuation of a practice that started during Gen. Babangida's time when he used to allocate excess revenue from the projected price of crude directly to the commanding officers. But what worries critics of PTF is that the military is not accountable to anyone regarding its utilisation of funds. Moreover, critics question the wisdom of allocating such a huge chunk to the military (who also usually takes the lion's share of the budget) over and above food supply, education and health. Apart from roads, the allocation to all other sectors does not add up to the Armed Forces PTF allocation. Nobody knows how long PTF, a purely intensive intervention agency, will last or whether there will be a place for such an agency under a democratic set up. That decision, Gen. Buhari said, will be up to Nigerians. For now his preoccupation is to rehabilitate infrastructure and reorientate the people towards a new, effective and efficient way of executing uninflated contracts without kickbacks and without consuming mobilisation fees. Said Gen. Buhari to PTF contractors: "If you perform well, you get a hand shake. If you perform badly, you get a handcuff." Copyright © IC Publications Limited 1998. All rights reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means or used for any business purpose without the written consent of the publisher. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained herein is as accurate as possible, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any consequences arising from its use. http://www.africasia.com/archive/na/98_06/abcr0604.htm