Nigeria on the verge of bankruptcy, says Emir Sanusi – TheNigerialawyer

Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi 11 on Tuesday declared that
Nigeria is on the threshold of bankruptcy following unfavourable
economic policies such as subsidizing petroleum products and
electricity tariffs.

The former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who
spoke during the ongoing 3rd National Treasury Workshop organized
by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation holding
in Coronation Hall, Government House, Kano advised President
Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to cancel subsidy in petroleum
subsidy and electricity tariffs if the economy must stabilize.

According to him, “the country is Bankrupt and we are heading to
bankruptcy. What happened is that the Federal Government do pay
petroleum subsidy, pay electricity tariff subsidy, and if there is
rise in interest rates, Federal Government pays.

“What is more life-threatening than subsidy that we have to
sacrifice education, health sector and infrastructure for us to
have cheap petroleum.

“If truly President Buhari is fighting poverty, he should remove
the risk on the national financial sector and stop the subsidy
regime which is fraudulent.”

He insisted that Buhari must tell Nigerians the fact about the
economic situation and also act quickly on it because the nation is
already bankrupt.

According to him, “since I have decided to come here, you have
to accept what I have said here. And please, if you do not want to
here the truth, never invite me.

“So let us talk about the state of public finance in Nigeria. We
have a number of very difficult decisions that we must make, and we
should face the reality. His Excellency, the President said in his
inaugural speech that his government would like to lift 100 million
people out of poverty, it was a speech that was well received not
only in this country, but the world-wide.

“The number of people living with poverty in Nigeria are
frightening. By 2050, 85 percent of those living in extreme poverty
in the world will be from the Africa continent. And Nigeria and the
Democratic Republic of Congo will take the lead.

“Two days ago, I read that the percentage of government revenue
going to debt services has risen to 70 percent.

These numbers are not lying. They are public numbers. I read
them in the newspapers. When you are spending 70 percent of your
revenue on debt services, then you are managing 30 percent.

“And then, you continue subsidizing petroleum products; and
spending N1.5 trillion per annum on petroleum subsidy! And then we
are subsidizing electricity tariff. And maybe, you have to borrow
from the capital market or the Central Bank of Nigeria to service
the shortfall in the electricity tariff, where is the money to pay
salaries, where is the money for education, where other government
projects.

The Royal Father lamented that for 30 years, successive
governments have had this project called petroleum subsidy,
insisting that this is the right time to stop it so as to save the
nation’s economy.

Speaking during the workshop, the Accountant-General of the
Federation, Ahmed Idris noted that, “the overall objective of the
workshop is to promote accountability and transparency in all
facets of the nation’s public finance and management
architecture.

“It is expected that participants should appreciate that
accountability and transparency remain major watchwords for prudent
financial management practices and are, therefore, major
prerequisite for economic growth and development.”

He charged participants to strive towards identifying the
challenges to accountability and transparency the management of
public funds, improving independent revenue base and profile of
government, as well as proffering revenue diversification for
governments at all levels so as to cut down the cost of
governance.

In his address, the chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu identified corruption as
the bane of the country’s economic woes.

He warned public and private office holders to desist from
corrupt practices, stating that his office has zero tolerance to
corruption.

According to him, “transparency and accountability are twin
sisters of good governance. They are the tools to tackle
corruption. It is true that we can leave a good legacy.”

Magu, however, called on the Federal and state
Accountant-Generals to take the lead in the fight against
corruption, adding that they must insist the right thing must be
done in their offices.

In his address, Kano state Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje
who was represented by his Deputy, Dr. Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna said
Kano state was the first to establish the Treasury Single Account
(TSA) in its bid to fight corruption and block leakages.

According to him, the state also put in place, the Anti
Corruption and Public Complaint Commission to checkmate corrupt
practices of public servants in the state.

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NAF Graduates 20 Air Provosts Trained on Advanced Crime
Investigation

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has graduated 20 Provost Personnel
trained in advanced Crime Scene Investigation (CSI). The CSI and
Train-the-Trainers’ Course graduation ceremony took place on 21
June 2019 at the 057 Provost Investigation Group (057 PIG), Ikeja.
The graduands comprised 6 officers and 14 airmen/airwomen. The
Course was aimed at developing participants’ skills in forensic
methodology; evidence recovery in fingerprints, DNA and firearms
discharge; crime scene photography and security presentation on
evidence to support crime investigation. The training took place at
the NAF Forensic Crime Laboratory which was commissioned in
September 2018 as part of efforts of the Service to effectively
employ scientific approaches in all facets of its critical
competencies, in order to enhance security and discipline in the
Service.

Speaking during the graduation ceremony, the Air Officer
Commanding Logistics Command (AOC LC), Air Vice Marshal (AVM)
Adeyinka Olabisi, expressed appreciation to the Chief of the Air
Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, for his keen interest in
enhancing the capacity of Provost personnel to more effectively
carry out their duties. He congratulated the graduands and enjoined
them to put their newly acquired skills to effective use in curbing
crime and sustaining discipline across the NAF. AVM Olabisi also
commended the resource persons from Sustainable Crime Justice
Solutions United Kingdom for sharing their knowledge with the NAF
Air Provost personnel. The ceremony featured practical
demonstration of the skills acquired by the graduands.

IBIKUNLE DARAMOLA
Air Commodore
Director of Public Relations and Information
Nigerian Air Force
……………

NAF Completes in-House-Maintenance of Aircraft

The enhancement of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) airlift
capability and operational effectiveness to confront various
security challenges in the country is part of the cardinal focus of
the present NAF Leadership. Pursuant to this imperative, the NAF
has, for the first time in its history, successfully completed the
in-country Periodic Depot Maintenance (PDM) of a C-130H aircraft,
NAF 917. This is taking place few days after receiving three L-39ZA
aircraft that were reactivated in-country to enhance the number of
serviceable fighter jets in its inventory. The acceptance ceremony
for NAF 917, which took place at the 631 Aircraft Maintenance Depot
(631 ACMD), Ikeja, Lagos today, 24 June 2019, also witnessed the
flag-off of the PDM of another C-130H aircraft, NAF 913. The local
reactivation of NAF 917, which was carried out by Messrs SABENA
TECHNICS of France in conjunction with NAF engineers and
technicians, involved extensive disassembly of the aircraft parts
as well as inspection, repair and overhaul of components, amongst
others. The involvement of NAF personnel in the reactivation was to
further expose them to every stage of the in-depth maintenance
process, with a view to building the NAF’s inherent maintenance
capabilities.

Speaking during the acceptance ceremony, the Chief of the Air
Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, stated that the
reactivation would impact on NAF efforts towards providing routine
support and combat sustainment for NAF as well as Armed Forces of
Nigeria (AFN) operations. He noted that the in-country maintenance
had not only resulted in substantial foreign exchange savings for
Nigeria but also marked the beginning of a new dawn in NAF’s
strategic plan to develop a robust capacity for in-country
maintenance and sustenance of platforms and equipment. The
successful execution of the PDM, the CAS said, had further
reinforced the NAF’s belief that, with the right attitude,
dedication and encouragement, the Service would make huge progress
and achieve success in human capacity development drive in support
of national security imperatives.

According to him, “the significance of today’s acceptance
ceremony can best be appreciated by acknowledging the critical role
of airlift in ensuring that logistics requirements of our troops
involved in various internal security operations are met within the
shortest possible time. The C-130H fleet, in particular, has been
one of the key fulcrums in providing sustainment to our troops
involved in ongoing internal security operations through airlift
and movement of troops, equipment, armament and other materiel. The
C-130H has also been critical to NAF response to emergencies or in
fulfilling Nigeria’s responsibilities to international peace
keeping operations and ensuring stability, not just in the West
African sub-region but also across the continent.” The CAS cited
examples of operations in which the C-130H played critical roles to
include ECOMOG operations in Liberia and Sierra Leone, airlift of
troops to Congo, Mali, Sudan as well as the recent success of the
ECOWAS Military Intervention Group (ECOMIG) operation in the Gambia
through airlift of troops and materiel to and from the theatre of
operation and a host of other peace keeping operations.

While appreciating the President, Commander-in-Chief of the
Armed Forces, President Muhammadu Buhari, for the priority
attention given to NAF’s efforts to maintain its platforms and
equipment as well as the support to acquire new ones, the CAS
emphasized that the in-country maintenance was to ensure the
transfer of technical know-how and experience from the technical
partners to NAF engineers and technicians. “This is in line with
our plan to build in-house capacity to ensure that we domicile the
skills and expertise required to carry out maintenance activities
in order to better support and sustain NAF air operations
especially in the face of competing needs for national resources.
This is also the main thrust of all our other aircraft maintenance,
reactivation and Life Extension Programmes as well as PDM efforts
being carried out in collaboration with other technical partners on
the Alpha Jet, L-39ZA, Mi-35P, EC-135 helicopter and C-130H (NAF
913), currently docked for PDM in this hangar. These efforts are
also in tandem with our Research and Development (R&D) drive
which has started yielding results in many areas such as local
fabrication of tools and spares, some of which were utilised in the
conduct of the recently conducted PDM”, he noted.

Earlier in his welcome remarks, the Air Officer Commanding
Logistics Command (AOC LC), Air Vice Marshal Adeyinka Olabisi,
expressed delight to finally witness a successfully executed
in-country PDM after previous attempts had failed. He remarked that
the acceptance of NAF 917 was a watershed in NAF’s long-term
aspiration to domesticate in-depth maintenance of the C-130H Fleet,
which was the strategic objective for the establishment of the
ACMD. He explained that during the PDM, which is a calendar
inspection conducted at 6-year intervals or after 5,000 flying
hours, 631 ACMD also witnessed the reactivation of unserviceable
hangar infrastructure and training of personnel in the use of some
special equipment, which had been lying idle in its warehouse since
the C-130H Fleet was delivered in the 1970s. Speaking further, the
AOC said the 301 Heavy Airlift Group, Ikeja made painstaking effort
to conduct comprehensive ground and in-flight acceptance checks to
certify NAF 917 safe for flight operations in accordance with
Lockheed Acceptance Checks Manual and international best
practices.

The CAS was later conducted on a tour and briefed on details of
project management process for the PDM of NAF 913 by the Pakistan
Air Force Technical Assistance Group. While in Lagos, the CAS also
commissioned some welfare projects which included a newly
constructed Crew Room at the 47 Engineering Wing of 631 ACMD as
well as a newly constructed Canteen for personnel at the 651 Base
Services Group, Ikeja, where he commended the Commanders for taking
the initiative and adding value to improve the welfare of their
personnel. He also inspected some vehicles and maintenance
equipment which were reactivated through innovative R&D efforts
at 631 ACMD. Dignitaries present at the ceremony included the
Commandant Armed Forces Resettlement Centre as well as the
representatives of the General Officer Commanding 1 Division and
Flag Officer Commanding Western Naval Command, along with many
other senior serving and retired senior officers.

IBIKUNLE DARAMOLA
Air Commodore
Director of Public Relations and Information
Nigerian Air Force