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2020 Budget: Buhari To Repair State House Buildings With N4.5bn

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has a plan to spend N4.5 billion to repair State House buildings in 2020.

The Federal Government intends to spend a total of N58,446,014,724 in the presidency during the year, according to details of the Appropriation Bill he presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday.

A perusal of the document showed that of the amount, rehabilitation and repairs of State House office buildings alone will gulp N4.451 billion.

Rehabilitation and repair of residential buildings will cost N69,693,262, while a curious sub-head noted that rehabilitation and repairs of “housing” will take N10,575,702.

Chefs in the Presidential Villa will also in 2020 prepare food for the first family and their guests with cooking gas worth N18.5 million.

Fuel for generator has a vote of N45,678,552; refreshment and meals will cost N135,668,651, and welfare packages N240,730,180.

The president will also spend N91.6 million to purchase bullet-proof tyres for the many bullet-proof vehicles and plain vehicles in the fleet.

Further scrutiny of the document revealed that the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning will spend 43.6 per cent of the N9.4 trillion Federal Government’s main budget for the year.

The ministry will spend N4.1 trillion or 43.6 per cent of the MDAs vote made up of N748,602,309,977 for personnel; N3,063,398,998,775 for overhead; N3,812,001,308,752 for recurrent and N362,791,562,425 for capital expenditure.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) got an allocation of N2.749 trillion while N1.4 trillion was allocated to Service Wide Votes.

Other big spenders include the Ministry of Defence with an allocation of N878.4 billion; Interior, N254.8 billion; National Assembly, N125 billion; Police Affairs, N409.1 billion; National Security Adviser, N138.4 billion and the Ministry of Transportation, N135.6 billion.

Others are the Ministry of Power, N133.4 billion; Ministry of Works and Housing, N287.1 billion; judiciary, N110 billion; Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, N171.0 billion; Ministry of Niger Delta, N106.7 billion; Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, N444.2 billion; Ministry of Education, N652 billion; Ministry of Health, N427.2 billion and Aso Rock, N58.4 billion.

Apprehension In Bayelsa PDP As FG Drags Guber Candidate Before CCB On Monday

The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State is in a fix on how to handle a petition against its governorship candidate, Senator Douye Diri, over his failure to declare his assets before the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) while he served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Principal Executive Secretary in Government House between 2013 and 2014

Tribune Online investigations revealed that Senator Diri is expected to appear before the CCB on Monday 14th of October, 2019, in response to the said petition filed against him by an anti-corruption group known as the Bayelsa Coalition for Good Governance and Accountability.

Tribune Online further learnt that the PDP flag bearer has since been duly served the CCB summon through the clerk of the National Assembly, but that he has allegedly refused to acknowledge receipt of the summon.

According to a source in the PDP, “Senator Douye Diri was evading service. When the summon was sent to his governorship campaign office, nobody was willing to accept it. That was when the summon was sent to him through the Clerk of the Natiional Assembly and served.”

Confirming the development in a chat with newsmen, the Executive Director of the Bayelsa Coalition for Good Governance and Accountability, Mr Joseph Ambakederimo, who filed the petition said they filed the petition and that they have appeared before CCB to defend their claims in the petition.

Online media will be regulated in Nigeria – Lai Mohammed

Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, says online news platforms will soon be regulated.

The minister said this on Thursday in Abuja when he inaugurated a seven-man committee set up to implement reforms in the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

Mohammed said the reforms that will be implemented by the committee are recommendations approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said Buhari approved an amendment to the NBC act to enable it to license WebTv and radio stations, including foreign broadcasters beaming signals into the country.

“The terms of reference of the committee are as follows; To establish and publish a new regulation for the licensing of web and internet broadcasters/international broadcasters in Nigeria,” he said.

“To immediately commence work on all statutory, legal and regulatory framework for further legislative action on the review of the NBC act by the national assembly.

“To work out the modalities for a competitive and reasonable salaries, wages and other welfare needs of the staff of the commission.

“To establish necessary protocols for the establishment or appointment of professionals or technocrats (non-partisan personality) to run the agency, and appointment into the board of the NBC.”

The minister said the president also approved the upward review of fines from N500,000 to N5 million for breaches relating to hate speeches, and the upgrade of political comments relating to the same to ”Class A” offence in the broadcasting code.

“I have no doubt that this committee, which comprises highly-experienced professionals and administrators, will carry out a thorough job that will reposition the NBC as an effective and efficient regulator,” he said.

Members of the committee are: Armstrong Idachaba, NBC director of monitoring (chairman); Godfrey Ohuabunwa, acting chairman of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON); J.K. Ehicheoya, director, legal services, ministry of information and C
culture; Binta Adamu Bello, secretary, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON); Ibrahim Jimoh, director of administration, FRCN; Agbo Kingsley Ndubuisi, NBC board member and Joe Mutah, chief press secretary, ministry of information and culture (secretary).