Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is concerned about the impact of the destruction of government and private properties on the people and the state’s economy.

In his remarks at the Consultative Forum on Rebuilding Lagos held on Monday, Governor Sanwo-Olu stated that the October violence has led to the loss of billions of naira.

“The violence has no doubt set our economy back by tens of billions of Naira and impacted our confidence,” he told the meeting.

The governor added, “Beyond the physical and economic impact, there has also been the psychological damage; the fear, the terror, the helplessness that all of the victims have felt, the questions about how or where do we start from?”

According to him, the violence is the most widespread carnage Lagos has seen in decades and the level of destruction was worrisome.

“Every aspect of life and livelihood in Lagos was affected – government buildings offices, public monuments, and historical archives, public infrastructure like our BRT buses, and, very sadly too, private property and investments – malls, shops, small businesses, residences and many more,” Governor Sanwo-Olu told the forum.

He, however, noted that the state has found hope and great strength in the offers of assistance from various individuals and groups, which culminated in the constitution of the Lagos Rebuild Committee to coordinate the government’s efforts to rebuild and upgrade the state.

The governor stressed that following the violence, the state would bounce back and emerge stronger.

He said, “Here is a city that emerged from the most unpromising beginnings, out of the gloom of a sprawling lagoon and malarial swamps.

“By dint of hard work, entrepreneurial energy, and creative excellence, everything we see and hold dear today was built, over the centuries. In that time there have been setbacks and challenges of various kinds.”

“The most prominent ones include the Royal Navy bombardment of 1851, the Influenza epidemic of 1918, the Bubonic Plague of the 1920s, even the loss of Federal Capital status that many assumed would severely downgrade the state.

“Most recently, we also faced and defeated Ebola in 2014, and the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 – in both cases, Lagos was the Nigerian epicentre,” Governor Sanwo-Olu stated.

Those at the event include the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, among others.

SaharaReporters gathered that a fresh N9.2bn was traced to Fowler’s personal account from Lagos Inland Revenue Service and Alpha Beta scam in which a former governor of Lagos, Bola Tinubu, had also been mentioned.

A former Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Babatunde Fowler, on Monday returned to the Lagos office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for question over his involvement in alleged financial misappropriation under his watch.

SaharaReporters gathered that a fresh N9.2bn was traced to Fowler’s personal account from Lagos Inland Revenue Service and Alpha Beta scam in which a former governor of Lagos, Bola Tinubu, had also been mentioned.

Babatunde Fowler

Recall that the former FIRS boss was on November 2 invited for questioning by the EFCC over a N5bn fraud perpetrated in the agency under his watch.

Earlier, nine senior officials of the agency were detained by the EFCC over alleged multi-billion naira fraud in 2019.

Fowler was sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 after a query for worsening tax revenues since 2015.

He was also accused of a lavish lifestyle, bankrolling extravagant parties and concerts in Lagos, poor corporate governance structures at the FIRS, poor audits at the FIRS, high handedness in office, diversion of funds, brazen corruption and awarding contracts to stooges and cronies.

He was still being questioned at the Lagos office of the anti-graft agency as at the time of this report.

SaharaReporters

A viral video (above) shows a businesswoman lamenting the frustration she suffers in the hands of alleged officials of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Reactions are still being awaited from the Council Chairman, Abdulahi Candido.

A Federal High Court in Lagos State on Thursday, sentenced a 28-year-old man, Akeem Sanusi, to 18 months imprisonment for peddling 1.1kg of hemp.

Sanusi was charged with drug trafficking by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

Earlier, Jeremiah Aernan, who reviewed the facts of the case, tendered a written statement of the defendant, a drug analysis form, a request for scientific aid form, as well as a remnant of the narcotics as evidence.

Aernan told the court to convict and sentence the defendant based on his plea as well as pieces of evidence adduced by the prosecution.

In the charge, the NDLEA counsel narrated to the court that the convict was arrested on Sept. 17, at Ibesi in the Ikorodu area of Lagos, while trading on cannabis.

According to the prosecutor, the offense contravened the provisions of Sections 11(c) of the NDLEA Act, Cap N30, Laws of the Federation 2004.

Delivering judgment, Justice Chuka Obiozor sentenced Sanusi, after he pleaded guilty, NAN reports.

Justice Obiozor, however, gave the convict an option to pay a fine of N50, 000.

(NAN)

The recent upwards increase in petrol pump price, from N158 to N168, has been attributed to the announcement of a possibility of having a vaccine for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic soon.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, disclosed this while addressing State House Correspondents on Monday, after briefing President Muhammadu Buhari in his office at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The Minister also assured that Nigerians would get used to the deregulation of the pump price petrol just as they have become the case of kerosene and diesel.

According to him, diesel and kerosene are even more important to the ordinary citizens than petrol, which he said is mostly used by the elite.

He explained that trucks that move food produce from one part of the country to another use diesel while kerosene also used by most of the Nigerian masses has since been deregulated.

He said: “Look at it, a situation where diesel has been deregulated long ago, a situation where kerosene has been deregulated long ago, and these are what the poorest people in Nigeria interact with more. Why do I say that?

“If you want to transport food from the north to the south, it will be by trucks that are run by diesel, not with petrol. Those trucks that transport food from the north to the south are usually run by diesel.

“Kerosene is the preferred fuel at the lowest level of our society. These have been deregulated long ago. So, what is the problem with deregulating petrol, which is mostly used by the elite?

“Let us be fair to this country, let us be fair to the poor people in this country.

“If we have deregulated what they were using, then there is actually no reason why we should continue to subsidize petrol. I feel so. That’s my personal feeling.”

By Professor Ben Nwabueze, SAN,

In this piece, Elder statesman and legal icon, Professor Ben Nwabueze, SAN, writes on the state of the nation, how the constitution is being subverted and why and how Nigeria’s democracy can be deepened.

On subversion of the EFCC Act and the Constitution
Section 2(3) of the EFCC Act provides that “the Chairman and members of the Commission other than ex officio members shall be appointed by the President and the appointment shall be subject to confirmation of the Senate.” It needs to be emphasised that it is the appointment, not the nomination, that is subject to Senate confirmation, but an appointment made by the President, while valid in a formal sense, is not complete until it is confirmed by the Senate; it is at best inchoate, and Senate confirmation is needed to complete it and make it fully effective or, putting it differently, it (the appointment) is not completely constituted without the Senate confirmation; until it is so confirmed, the appointee cannot begin to act.

The statement by the Vice-President that “(Ibrahim) Magu will be EFCC chairman as long as Buhari and I remain in office” is thus a manifest subversion of section 2(3) of the EFCC Act. Magu was in fact kept as EFCC acting chairman for four and half years without Senate confirmation; his tenure of the office for those years is illegal, a gross manifestation of personal rule.

Subversion of the constitution
In all the cases under the Constitution where the approval of the Senate is required for a proposed appointment by the President, the approval is a condition for the validity of the appointment; the appointment cannot take effect without the approval. The deployment of any members of the armed forces on combat duty outside the country must be approved by the senate in advance (s.5(3)(b).

The appointment of various categories of public officers requires the prior or subsequent approval of the senate to be effective. Three formulas are employed. In the case of ministers, the president first makes nominations which, if confirmed by the senate, are then finalized by formal appointment by the president (s.147(2). The Senate must make a response to the nominations within twenty-one days of receiving them or else the appointments will be deemed to have been made (s.147(6).

It seems that this provision is satisfied if a nomination, without being confirmed or rejected, is merely returned for more information. For the second category of officers, ambassadors, high commissioners or other principal representatives of the country abroad, it is provided that their appointment by the president shall not take effect unless it is confirmed by the senate (s. 157(4). The appointment is first made by the president but its effect is postponed pending the senate’s approval. The third formula permits an appointment to be made in the first place by the president with immediate effect, subject to subsequent confirmation by the senate.

It lapses in the event of the senate’s rejection. This relates to appointed members of the civil service commission, electoral commission, judicial service commission, national population commission and police service commission (s.157(2), the auditor-general (s.80[1]), the chief justice of Nigeria (s.211(1), justices of the supreme court (s.211[2]), president of the court of appeal (s.218(1), and members of the code of conduct bureau (5th Sch., para. 16[2]).

It is provided that where any authority or person has the power to make, recommend or approve an appointment to an office, such power shall be construed as including the power to make, recommend or approve a person for such appointment, whether on promotion or otherwise, or to act in any such office (s. 277[2]). The power given to the president to appoint an acting auditor-general (s. 80[2])is thus subject to senate approval like the substantive appointment itself. The provision does not, however, apply to the appointment of a person to act as Chief Justice of Nigeria or president of the court of appeal, because of the specific provision that, without the approval of the senate, it shall cease to have effect after three months (ss. 211[4] and [5] and 218[4] and[5]).

As regards the removal power, the President’s power to remove the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the auditor-general, the chairman and members of the civil service commission, the council of state, electoral commission, judicial service commission, national population commission and the police service commission is also checked by the requirement of Senate approval. Again different wording is employed in the three cases, but the effect of the provision relating to the chief justice and the chairmen and members of the named executive bodies is that the approval of the senate is a condition for removal; the president cannot remove without it.

The provision relating to the auditor-general says that he shall be removed from office by the president upon an address by the senate praying for his removal s. 81[2]). In all these cases the address of the senate praying for removal must be supported by a two-thirds majority of its members and be based on the ground of inability to discharge the functions of the office (whether arising from infirmity of mind or body) or misconduct.

What, then, is the rationale in a constitutional democracy for requiring senate approval for the appointment or removal by the president of certain important or strategic state functionaries, like the chairman of the EFCC?

On the democratic rationale for requiring Senate approval for certain appointments or proposed appointments “Checks and balances” is a device whereby in a constitutional democracy the legislative assembly is enabled to check the exercise by the president of the enormous power vested in him to appoint or remove important or strategic state functionaries. The device has not escaped criticism.

According to Professor Charles Mcllwain, the president’s election is a mandate for him to govern, and to choose his principal assistants. He has full responsibility for his choice, and that responsibility he owes to the electorate that gave him the mandate. Accordingly, his ability to create a working administration as speedily as possible should not be fettered by the interposition of senate approval.

“Among all the modern fallacies that have obscured the true teachings of constitutional history,” he says, “few are worse than the indiscriminate use of the phrase “checks and balances.” He maintains that the only restraints necessary for constitutionalism are the ancient legal restraint of a guarantee of civil liberties enforceable by an independent court and the modern concept of the full responsibility of government to the whole mass of the governed”.

The criticism misses the point about the purpose which senate approval is intended to serve. The conferment by the electorate of a mandate to govern in no way implies that the public should no longer be concerned about the way the mandate is exercised. It is of the essence of constitutional democracy that the light of public scrutiny should at all times be focused on the exercise of executive power by the president.

And for this purpose the senate is the “public eye” for ensuring that the appointment of the president’s principal assistants conforms to the standards of integrity, competence and national interest required for the efficient management of the nation’s affairs. Apart from the scrutiny of the character and suitability of the persons for ministerial and other strategic appointments, the check also enables the Senate to ensure that such appointments comply with constitutional provisions prescribing qualifications and disqualifications for such appointments, and that, as directed by the Constitution, it reflects the federal character of the country.

The president may well lose sight of these in a desire to favour friends or to satisfy pressure from party leaders. There is, of course, nothing in the Constitution to prevent the president from re-submitting a name earlier rejected or the senate from reversing an earlier rejection if it is satisfied, on the basis of fresh information, that the earlier decision had been wrong, but a reversal is not to be lightly made if the senate is to retain credibility with the public.

The requirement of approval by the senate of certain acts of the president tends sometimes to be misunderstood. Its effect is not to subordinate the president to the senate, for it neither divests him of discretion in the exercise of the power in question nor makes the function a joint responsibility.

The fact that an appointment can only be validly made with the approval of the Senate does not make the appointment the joint responsibility of the president and the senate. As the U.S. Supreme Court has held, the approval of the senate does not make an appointment; this still remains an act of the president and is also a voluntary act – see Myers v United States 272 U.S. 52 (1926); Mabury v. Madison, Cranch 13, 155 (1813).

Implications of keeping Magu in office without Senate confirmation
Ibrahim Magu was appointed by President Buhari as Chairman of EFCC in an acting capacity on 9 November 2016, and his appointment was sent to the Senate for confirmation but was twice rejected, based on an adverse report by the Department of State Service (DSS) which impugned his credentials as a person unfit for the appointment.

But instead of sending another person to replace him the Vice-President Professor Osibanjo, was reported to have said: “Magu will be EFCC chairman as long as Buhari and I remain in office.” Coming from an esteemed constitutionalist, this is an incredible thing to say. The statement amounted to a defiance not only of the command of the Constitution requiring the approval of the Senate for everyone to occupy certain important or strategic offices in the state (see section 147), but it is also a defiance of the decision of the Senate which twice rejected the appointment of Magu for weighty enough reasons. The statement is also a repudiation of the cogent reason, as stated above, for requiring Senate approval for important, strategic appointments.

And so it happened that, for nearly four and half years, Magu functioned, albeit in an acting capacity, as chairman of EFCC without Senate approval. The implication, from the legal standpoint, is that the President and Vice-President who enabled him to so act and who defiantly stood by him while he was so acting are vicariously liable for his acts. Indeed, their liability is more than a vicarious one; by standing defiantly behind him for nearly four and half years while he did those acts, they are directly liable; it is as if they did the acts by themselves directly.

On INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu’s hand-over to acting chairman, Muazu pending Senate confirmation. We must appreciate Professor Mahmood Yakubu, a professor of History from Bauchi State for saving Nigeria’s constitutional democracy from emasculation.

Professor Mahmood Yakubu was reappointed chairman of INEC by President Buhari in October 2020 and his appointment expired on the 9th of November, 2020.

As he stated on 9th November 2020, “the renewal of my tenure as Chairman of the Commission has been announced, subject to confirmation by the Senate. Our work as election managers requires us to enforce the law, regulations and guidelines.

In doing so, we must demonstrate strict respect for, and compliance with, the Constitution of Nigeria and subsidiary laws. Consequently, it will be inappropriate for me to remain in office beyond today, 9th November 2020, without confirmation by the Senate and swearing to another oath of office as provided by law.

Pending the conclusion of the statutory process, the remaining National Commissioners have resolved that AVM Ahmed Mu’azu (rtd) will oversee the affairs of the Commission. It is therefore my pleasure to hand over to him in the interim.” Professor Mahmood must be commended for not perpetuating the illegality of elongating his tenure after its expiration without Senate confirmation.

Culled from vanguardngr

The Federal Government has begun the gradual phase-out of the Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER), with the take-off of the service-wide training for officers on Performance Management System (PMS) in Abuja.

The exercise is part of its commitment to enhancing service delivery in the public service.

The Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, made the disclosure at the opening of the three-day training at the Public Service Institute of Nigeria, (PSIN), Abuja.

The training is a partnership of the Office of the Head of Service, the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) and the Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG).

Yemi-Esan said the obvious limitations of APER gave rise to PMS, noting that the latter which is digitally-driven would help prepare all categories of public officers for goal and objective setting.

She said: “What we are doing today is a training workshop on the new Performance Management System that will replace the APER that has been used for years and has quite a number of limitations.

“One of the limitations we have seen is that it doesn’t really give any sense of reward or what the officer has done. And what we discovered recently is that officers just sit down and fill forms themselves with no clear objectivity and there is no appraisal whatsoever with the APER form. And the APER form is filled just once a year. So whatever you’ve done wrongly or rightly throughout the year sometimes can be missed. Again, APER is a paper-based appraisal.

“But the new Performance Management System that we are introducing now is a digital system and every officer will have to go online and fill in his/her target for the year.

“At the beginning of every year, the officer will agree with his immediate superior on a target based on the departmental strategy as well as the national strategy. So, the officer will be able to relate to the national goals.

“This is unlike sitting in the office and not knowing what the national goals are. We want every officer in the public service to relate with the national goals.”

The Head of Service while calling on participants to pay attention to key aspects of the training added that PMS will form part of the determinants for promotion of public officers in the future, saying, “in setting an objective for the officer, it must be related with the institutional goals, the departmental or unit goals and once we do that, there would be quarterly appraisals.

“The information is online and is also real-time. You don’t need to look for forms. When it is time for promotion, what the Director, Human Resources will do is to forward the summary of the individuals’ appraisal, and translate it to the Office of the Head of Service for onward transmission to the Federal Civil Service Commission. This will give every officer a sense of ownership and belonging that he or she is working towards the institutional goals,” she added.

Highlighting the importance of the training, the Head of Service noted that “institutionalising PMS is one of the key building blocks for repositioning the public service,” adding that the programme is anchored on “the principles of accountability, transparency, equity, and ownership and when fully operational, every individual, unit, department, and institution in the public service would be held accountable on a continuous basis, to ensure that national development goals are achieved.”

There were goodwill messages from notable personalities including Dr. Magdalene Ajani, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation, and Mrs. Titi Akinsanya, Vice President, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria, among others.