BlackBox Nigeria

Indications have emerged that the Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode sacked all Boards of Parastatals and Agencies because of the need to give other people a chance since some heads and members of the boards have occupied their positions for about eight years.

The governor on Monday dissolved all Boards of Parastatals and Agencies constituted by former Governor Babatunde Fashola.

Affected by Ambode's decision are Remi Makanjuola, Chairman, Lagos State Security Trust Fund and its members; Rev. Solomon Adegbolagun, Chairman, Lagos State Chriistian Pilgrims Welfare Board and his counterpart in the Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board and its members, Oladisun Holloway, Chairman, Lagbus Asset Management and a former Commissioner in Fashola's cabinet, among several others.
‎

A top government source told P.M.NEWS that  there was no way Ambode could work with these boards as they did not fit into his plans to reposition Lagos.

Another source said "after all, when Fashola took over from former Governor Bola Tinubu, he dissolved all the boards constituted by Tinubu."

The governor had in a statement from the Office of the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Tunji Bello  approved the dissolution of all Boards of Parastatals and Agencies of Government with immediate effect.

According to the statement, parastatals not affected by the dissolution are the Civil Service Commission, Judicial Service Commission and the State Independent Electoral Commission.

While expressing the appreciation of the Governor for the modest contribution of members of the dissolved Boards, Bello wished them well in their future endeavours.

The statement added that constitution of new boards would be effected in due course.

P.M.NEWS gathered that more heads will still roll in Alausa as the governor is determined to purge the system of the old brigade.

Many of the heads of parastatals and agencies appointed by Fashola will soon be shown the way out to pave way for those who worked for the emergence of Ambode as governor.

Last week, the governor was said to have visited the Lagos Internal Revenue Service, LIRS and met the chairman of the agency, Tunde Fowler on seat.

Ambode was said to have asked Fowler: "Are you still there?" With the governor's rhetorical question, Fowler sensed that the game was up and quickly tendered his resignation.

Also the Chairman, Lagos State Public Works Cooperation, Gbenga Akinola was recently relieved of his job by Ambode, with the agency now merged with the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure.

Many heads of agencies have started getting set to leave office as the mass purge may sweep them off any moment from now

@blackboxupdate

A passenger, Mr. Ovuironye Mathew Dennis, travelling on-board a 6.45am Aero flight on Monday was caught while stealing about N350, 000 from a luggage belonging to an Austrian, Novotny Anton, another passenger on the flight.

Dennis,  31 with 1.65 height as captured in his temporary driver's licence and seating on flight seat No. 23C,  was spotted by a member of the airline's cabin crew when he removed the Austrian's bag from the cockpit as if he was changing his seat.
A The Nation Newspaper correspondent, who was on-board the flight, said the suspect was also caught with a wrap of marijuana.

The suspect had removed the bag from the cockpit where the Austrian sat, took it to his own seat, giving the impression that he was changing his seat and stole a sum of N150, 000 and 500 Euros belonging to the Austrian.

But he ran out of luck when a female cabin crew raised alarm, asked him to remain seated while he was trying to return the bag to the overhead bin before the Austrian could suspect any foul play.
"While trying to return the bag I asked him to seat down. But he became uncomfortable before the plane landed and the white man raised alarm that he couldn't find his bag," she said.

Immediately the plane landed at the Abuja airport, the Austrian couldn't find his bag and raised alarm, but the cabin crew member told him to check the bag with Dennis.

After the suspect was stripped naked, he told other angry passengers that he mistakenly took the bag in question for his own.

The Austrian later discovered that the sum of N150, 000 and 500 Euros had been taken from the bag.
Other passengers immediately descended on the thieving Dennis.

The money was later found on him alongside a wrap of marijuana.

@blackboxupdate

The dwindling resources of states and local governments suffered a 30.6 per cent fall from federation account allocation in April 2015 when compared with what the states got in the same period last year.

Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Economic Report for the month of April said that the total statutory allocation to the state governments stood at N153.45 billion in April 2015. This was 30.6 and 22.9 per cent below the 2014 monthly budget estimate and the level in the preceding month, respectively. The dwindling revenue of federal, state and local government is as a result of falling oil prices.

CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele

Giving insight into the poor financial status of states which depends on monthly federal allocation, the CBN report for April said: "The breakdown showed that at N119.27 billion or 77.7 per cent of the total, state governments' receipt from the Federation Account was below both the 2014 monthly budget estimate and the level in the preceding month by 29.7 and 30.3 per cent, respectively.

"At N34.17 billion or 22.3 per cent of the total, receipts from the VAT Pool Account was below the monthly budget estimate by 33.4 per cent, but exceeded the level in the preceding month by 22.2 per cent. Total receipts by the local governments from the Federation Account and VAT Pool Account stood at N88.91 billion at end-April 2015.

"This was lower than both the budget estimate and the level in the preceding month by 33.8 and 19.7 per cent, respectively. Of this amount, receipts from the Federation Account were N64.99 billion (73.1 per cent of the total), while the VAT Pool Account accounted for N23.92 billion (26.9 per cent of the total).

"At N735.07 billion, estimated federally-collected revenue in April 2015, was lower than the monthly budget estimate by 9.8 per cent. It was, however, higher than the receipt in the preceding month by 35.8 per cent. The decline in estimated federally-collected revenue (gross) relative to the monthly budget estimate was attributable, largely, to the shortfall in receipts from oil revenue during the review month

Fall in receipts from crude oil and gas exports

"At N286.24 billion or 38.9 per cent of total revenue, gross oil receipt was lower than the monthly budget estimate and the level in the preceding month by 36.8 and 21.5 per cent, respectively. The decline in oil receipts relative to the monthly budget estimate was attributable to the fall in receipts from crude oil and gas exports, occasioned by the drop in the price of crude oil in the international oil market."

The report further stated that "gross non-oil receipts at N448.83 billion or 61.1 per cent of the total revenue was above the monthly budget estimate and the level in the preceding month by 23.9 and 154.1 per cent, respectively. The increase in non-oil revenue relative to the monthly budget estimate reflected largely, the increased receipts from the FGN Independent Revenue.

Distribution among three tiers of govt
"It also said that of the gross federally-collected revenue, N307.45 billion (excluding deductions and transfers) was transferred to the Federation Account for distribution among the three tiers of government and the13.0 per cent derivation fund.

"The Federal Government received N146.49 billion, while the state and local governments received N74.30 billion and N57.28 billion, respectively. The balance of N29.38 billion was distributed to the oil-producing states as 13.0% Derivation Fund. From the VAT Pool Account, the Federal Government received N10.25 billion, while the state and local governments received N34.17 billion and N23.92 billion, respectively.

In addition, N33.53 billion and N9.49 billion were distributed as Exchange Gain and NNPC Additional Revenue among the three tiers of government and the 13.0 per cent Derivation Fund as follows:

"The Federal Government received (N15.37 billion and N4.35 billion), while the state and local governments received (N7.79 billion and N2.21 billion) and (N6.01 billion and N1.70 billion), respectively. The balance (N4.36 billion and N1.23 billion) was distributed to the oil-producing states as 13 per cent Derivation Fund.

"Furthermore, N6.33 billion was received by the Federal Government from the NNPC in respect of the eighth equal installment refund of indebtedness. Overall, the total allocation to the three tiers of government from the Federation Account and VAT Pool Account in the review month amounted to N425.14 billion, compared with N557.80 billion in the preceding month.

"At N452.38 billion, the estimated Federal Government retained revenue for April 2015 was above the monthly budget estimate and the receipts in the preceding month by 46.0 and 77.1 per cent, respectively. Of the total amount, the Federation Account accounted for 32.3per cent, while FGN Independent Revenue, others, VAT Pool Accounts, NNPC Refund and NNPC Additional Revenue accounted for 59.6, 3.4, 2.3, 1.4 and 1.0 per cent, respectively.

Total expenditure

"At N155.52 billion, total estimated expenditure for April 2015 was lower than both the monthly budget estimate and the level in the preceding month by 60.2 and 26.3 per cent, respectively. A breakdown of total expenditure showed that the recurrent expenditure accounted for 88.8 per cent, while the capital expenditure and transfer components accounted for the balance of 2.8 and 8.4per cent, respectively. Non-debt obligations accounted for 43.7per cent of the total recurrent expenditure, while debt service payments accounted for the balance of 56.3 per cent. Thus, the fiscal operations of the Federal Government resulted in an estimated surplus of N296.86 billion."

According to the CBN "Nigeria's crude oil production, including condensates and natural gas liquids, was estimated at an average of 1.91million barrels per day (mbd) or 57.30 million barrels for the month. This represented an increase of 5.0 per cent above the level of 1.82 mbd or 56.42 mb recorded in the preceding month. Crude oil export was estimated at 1.46mbd or 43.80 million barrels. This represented an increase of 6.6 per cent above the level recorded in the preceding month.

"Deliveries to the refineries for domestic consumption remained at 0.45 mbd or 13.50 million barrels during the review month. At an estimated average of $59.55per barrel, the price of Nigeria's reference crude, the Bonny Light (37º API), rose further by 3.7per cent above the level in the preceding month.

"The average prices of other competing crudes, namely the U.K Brent at US$58.18 per barrel; the West Texas Intermediate at $52.82 per barrel; and the Forcados at US$59.88per barrel, also showed similar trends as the Bonny Light. The average price of OPEC's basket of eleven crude streams, at $55.61per barrel, indicated an increase of 5.7 per cent, but indicated a decline of 46.7 per cent, compared with the average of $52.61and $104.27per barrel recorded in the preceding month and the corresponding period of 2014, respectively "

@blackboxupdate

A member of the House of Representatives, Chief Joe Edionwele, on Monday, protested against the debate for pay cut for legislators, describing the proponents of the crusade as ignorant.

Edionwele, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party representing Esan West, Esan Central and Igueben federal constituency of Edo State, said some lecturers, bankers and oil workers were earning more than federal lawmakers.

While speaking to journalists in Abuja, the lawmakers said, "I think people are speaking out of ignorance. Even before now, I was one of those who believed the same thing. The records will be made public. We will ensure that the National Assembly does that, Nigerians need to know. The salaries we earn are not in any way close to what people speculate. People in the oil and gas sectors, banking and even lecturers earn more than us and the President.

"By the time we make it public, everybody will have peace. It will give you peace. One of my friends told me that the salary and allowances I will earn will be N40m. I told him if I get that for 10 months, I will resign. I can tell you that by the time it is made public, people will sympathise with us. Legislators should earn well so that they will not be corrupt during their oversight functions.

"The problem of this country is corruption. When people talk about pay cut, I laugh. How much are we going to get back from the pay cut? The corruption in this country is endemic. Look at the corruption in the oil sector; if we are able to sanitise that sector for instance, our problem will reduce. If we can know what we generate from different agencies, then we can have enough money to finance projects. Look at the governors and their security votes. Their votes are over bloated. Look at the number of cars governors use.

"You heard when Buhari rejected 253 DSS operatives. What are you doing with that number? There are so many things to cut down on. I am also glad that Mr. President said in spite of what the law says, he is going to be concerned about what happens at the local government level. The security vote of a council chairman for instance is N2m. What is a local government chairman doing with such money? Then a governor gets over N200m. Why should somebody then talk about a salary that is less than N1m?"

He said President Muhammadu Buhari would have no need for the 15 special assistants approved for him by the Senate.

He said the figure was unreasonable.

"Mr. President, for instance, just got an approval for 15 special advisers. What are they advising? We really do not need all that. Mr. President has about three bullet-proofs Mercedes Benz. Does he really need them? We must downsize in every sector. For instance, we should do away with the entertainment allowance. State Houses of Assembly enjoy it," he stated.