A High Court sitting in Bauchi on Tuesday restrained Governor
Mohammad Abubakar of Bauchi State from awarding a N4.5bn contract
under the state’s Universal Basic Education Board a few days to the
end of his tenure.
The presiding judge, Justice S. I. Zadawa, granted an order of
interim injunction in a suit filed by two plaintiffs; the Body of
Bauchi Lawyers of Conscience and the Bauchi Assembly of Youths
Political Actors.
The two plaintiffs had prayed the court to stop the defendants
from awarding the contract saying “it is an unprogressive action”
and a planned financial trap for the incoming administration of
Senator Bala Mohammed, who would be inaugurated as the next
governor on May 29.
Justice Zadawa in his ruling said an order of interim injunction
was granted to restrain the defendants from proceeding with or
awarding the N4.5bn contract or any other amount for that matter
pending the hearing and determination of the motion on the
substantive suit.
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Udoma: Nigeria to Achieve 7% GDP growth by
2020
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo
Udoma has expressed hope that the country can achieve 7% GDP growth
target.
Senator Udoma stated this on Tuesday in Abuja during an
interactive session with the press while giving an overview of the
achievements of the Ministry since the inception of this
administration in 2015.
Udoma said, ‘’The President has indicated that he intends to
stay focused on the implementation of the ERGP so as to ensure that
we can achieve the 3.0 % growth target for this year. It is my hope
that the seeds we are currently sowing will propel us to achieve
our 7% GDP growth target in the course of Mr. Presidents’ second
term”.
On the latest GDP numbers just released by the National Bureau
of Statistics on Tuesday, the Minister said that the performance in
the first quarter of 2019 is the strongest first quarter growth
since 2015, as well as stating that starting the year with a GDP
growth of 2.01% is encouraging because the first quarter of the
year often records the slowest growth in GDP.
He also said that the focus of the NEXT LEVEL agenda of
President Muhammadu Buhari will be on job creation for the teeming
youths of Nigeria.
He highlighted a number of measures the Ministry has put in
place to stop the economic decline that the country faced during
the early days of the Buhari administration.
These Include, the introduction of an expansionary budget in the
2016 fiscal year christened the Budget of Change, development of
the ERGP, implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the
Efficiency Unit within the Ministry of Finance and the Presidential
Initiative on Continuous Audit.
Other initiatives include the Whistle Blowing Policy, the
Integrated Payroll Personnel System (IPPIS) and the Investors’ and
Exporters Foreign Exchange window by the Central Bank of
Nigeria.
According to the Minister an important strategy the Ministry
embarked on in order to exit recession was to seek to reflate the
economy, this according to him was why they increased the capital
budget and budgetary allocations to capital expenditure- from 16.1%
in 2015 to 30.2% in 2016, 31. 7 % in 2017, 31.5% in 2018 and 26% in
2019- with priority given to the key execution priorities of the
ERGP.
He added that the Ministry of Finance was able to release, for
capital spending, the sum of 1.2 trillion under the 2016 Budget,
the sum of N1.58 trillion under the 2017 budget, and as at 8th May,
2019, the sum of NI.55 trillion has been released under the 2018
Budget.
He stated that the implementation of the ERGP resulted in the
economy exiting recession in the second quarter of 2017 and
returning subsequently to the path of growth with most economic
indices showing a positive momentum.
Signed
Victoria Agba-Attah
Director (Information)
Tuesday, May 21, 2019