New revenue formula coming!

Governors and other Nigerians who have been pushing for a new revenue allocation formula may have won a major victory.

Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) chair Elias Mbam yesterday said it will produce a new, equitable and just sharing formula early next year. 

Governors have been calling for a review of the formula which is largely skewed in favour of the Federal Government that, according to critics, has little to do, to the detriment of states and local governments.

The Federal Government takes 52 per cent from the federation account, leaving the 36 states to share 26.72 per cent. The 774 local governments get 20.60 per cent. 

The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) revenue panel headed by Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, has recommended a drastic reduction in the Federal Government's allocation. 

It proposes 35 per cent for the Federal Government, 42 per cent for the states and 23 per cent for the local governments.

The RMAFC also asked Akwa Ibom State to refund N10.91billion to Rivers State, following the recommendation of the committee set up to look into the Supreme Court judgment on disputed oil wells between the two states.

The RMAFC boss spoke in Abuja after receiving the report of the committee on the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Attorney General of Rivers State versus Attorney General of Akwa Ibom State and the Attorney General of the Federation.

Mbam described as desirable, a new revenue allocation formula for the country, saying his first action on assumption of office as RMAFC chair was to set up a committee on how to formulate a new revenue allocation for the three tiers of government.

He said the task of generating a new revenue formula involves looking into many documents, making consultations and going to the field to verify some of the indices.

Mbam said the monthly salary of a senator is N1.06 million. He said the remunerations due to federal legislators are in the public domain, having been published by the RMAFC. 

He said any senator who receives anything higher than this should be reported to the Clerk of the Senate, who is the chamber's accounting officer.

Receiving the report, the RMAFC boss said the plenary session of the commission would look into it passionately and implement it to the satisfaction of the stakeholders involved.

Committee chairman Alhaji Abdullahi Maiunguwa, who presented the report, said the committee set up on April 13, 2011 relied on documents, data and technical information provided by various agencies and institutions of governments related to the matter.

In the course of carrying out the assignment, he said the committee received data on the 86 oil wells attribution from the National Boundary Commission, in conjunction with the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation and their production data from the Department of Petroleum Resources.

He said the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation provided all the documents related to the 13 per cent derivation Fund during the period under consideration by the committee while the CBN provided information on interest rate to be applied for the purpose of the assignment.

Maiunguwa said the computation of the amount due to Rivers State covered April 2009 to April 2011, stressing that the committee found out that Akwa Ibom State would refund N10.910billion to River State.

This amount, according to him, is exclusive of the prevailing commercial interest to be charged as the committee is still awaiting the rate to be charged from the CBN.

Source:
The Nation

Hon. Patricia Etteh Was Never Guilty Of Contract Scam, As Outgoing Reps Apologise To Her!

The valedictory plenary by the House of Representatives turned into a session of restitution on Thursday, as representatives freely reminisced on their activities as lawmakers in the past four years.

The speaker, Honourable Dimeji Bankole and the former House committee chairman on Navy and Petroleum, Honourable Halims Ochuko Agoda, betrayed emotion during their valedictory speeches. Both of them paused as they fought back tears while reflecting on their past activities as legislators.

Former speaker of the House, Honourable Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, who started the sixth session of the House of Representatives, however, stole the show during the last session, as she absolved herself of blame in the financial scam which led to her exit from office in November 2007.

Etteh, who was the first senior member of the House to be recognised by the speaker, Bankole, to make a valedictory speech, delivered a speech on how federal legislators could live up to their constitutional responsibilities, contending that all lawmakers should always dispense their constitutional duties with candour, truth and sense of patriotism.

The former speaker went down memory lane to recall the scam over the contracts for renovation of her official residence and that of her deputy, Babangida Nguroje, and stated that she was never guilty of the allegations levelled against her.

The outgoing House committee chairman on Rules and Business, Honourable Ita Enang, assisted in putting the motion properly when he affirmed that neither record of the House nor any of its proceedings ever indicted the former speaker after investigations into the House renovation contract scam.

Bankole, in his own speech, was full of praises for the support which he said all his colleagues gave him, much as he commended the House of Representatives management for serving as a strong pillar of support for his leadership.

According to him, in the past four years, the House received a total of 482 bills and was able to pass a total of 187 bills, most of them coming from the executive arm of government and individuals.

Source:
http://urlred.com/7i5D3

MCKINNEY IN LIBYA

Website for this image

Brian drew our attention to the post entitled "MCKINNEY LEADS DELEGATION OF INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS TO LIBYA."



The following comes from: Cynthia McKinney in Tripoli.

"Tripoli sustained 22 to 25 bombings last night, rattling and breaking windows and glass and shaking the foundation of my hotel.

"I left my room at the Rexis Al Nasr Hotel and walked outside the hotel and I could smell the exploded bombs.

"There were local people everywhere milling with foreign journalists from around the world.

"As we stood there more bombs struck around the city.

"The sky flashed red with explosions and more rockets from NATO jets cut through low cloud before exploding.

"I could taste the thick dust stirred up by the exploded bombs.

"I immediately thought about the depleted uranium munitions reportedly being used here--along with white phosphorus.

"If depleted uranium weapons were being used what affect on the local civilians?

"Women carrying young children ran out of the hotel. Others ran to wash the dust from their eyes.

"With sirens blaring, emergency vehicles made their way to the scene of the attack. Car alarms, set off by the repeated blasts, could be heard underneath the defiant chants of the people.

"Sporadic gunfire broke out and it seemed everywhere around me. Euronews showed video of nurses and doctors chanting even at the hospitals as they treated those injured from NATO's latest installation of shock and awe.

"Suddenly, the streets around my hotel became full of chanting people, car horns blowing, I could not tell how many were walking, how many were driving. Inside the hotel, one Libyan woman carrying a baby came to me and asked me why are they doing this to us?

"Whatever the military objectives of the attack (and I and many others question the military value of these attacks) the fact remains the air attack was launched a major city packed with hundreds of thousands of civilians.

"I did wonder too if the any of the politicians who had authorized this air attack had themselves ever been on the receiving end of laser guided depleted uranium munitions. Had they ever seen the awful damage that these weapons do a city and its population? Perhaps if they actually been in the city of air attack and felt the concussion from these bombs and saw the mayhem caused they just might not be so inclined to authorize an attack on a civilian population."

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