Okorocha: Nigeria does not need 109 senators and 360 reps

Rochas Okorocha, senator representing Imo west, says Nigeria does not need 109 senators and 360 members of the house of representatives.

Speaking at plenary on Thursday, Okorocha said the number of lawmakers from each state should be reduced to cut the cost of governance.

He said the number of senators from each state should be reduced from three to one while each state will have only three members in the house of representatives.

“What (are) three senators doing that one senator cannot do?” Okorocha asked.

“Here, we have three senators per state. Over there,(house of representatives) over there, we have 360 eligible human beings. This country must begin to make sacrifices and cut down the cost of governance.”

Okorocha said he does not know what the current senate is doing different from the eight senate and previous ones.

“And if what we are doing today is similar to what we did in the 8th senate be rest assured the product will be the same,” he added.

He also told Senate President Ahmad Lawan that he pleaded with him “just two days ago to change your style”, adding: “If you change your style, you will get a new result.”

“Let’s proffer solutions and not create more problems for the executives. They are waiting for us. What do we have different to show?” the senator asked.

“The summary of what we have been talking about is money, we don’t have enough funds to support the needs of Nigerians, to create jobs and put food on the table of the common man.

“This problem arises from the fact that we depend on only one source of income which is crude oil, which consists of over 50% of our revenue and 90% of our foreign reserves, ad this oil is static.

“We should look inwards. Let us cut our clothes according our materials not our sizes. The budget of Nigeria is cut according to our size not the material available, and according to the solution.”

- THECABLE

Ezekwesili reveals real reason for attacking Buhari’s govt

Former minister of education, Oby Ezekwesili has given reasons for criticizing President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

Ezekwesili lamenting about the state of the nation under president Buhari’s administration, said her criticism was not based on a personal level but against ‘bad governance.

The former minister explained that she speaks up against the present government because of the state of education, health care system and welfare of Nigerians.

According to her, “the government took an economy that was already on the precipice and crashed it so severely and yet refuses to own the consequences of the disaster it created.”

On her Twitter page, the former minister wrote: “On a personal level, I frankly have no business advocating against bad governance in this country as if it affects me most.

“So I also could have taken the easier path of unlooking, like most of my peers do in Nigeria.

“I gladly made this Choice and everything that comes with it.

“So when some say, ‘Na only you the condition of the country dey pain? Why can’t you just leave these matters alone and ignore’ , I remind them that being silent is a choice and so is speaking up.

“We all must individually make a choice. Choose yours in peace.

“Daily I see extremely poor families that can barely feed, have health care and educate their children. They are left praying and hoping that someday, the country will turnaround. No level of personal comfort one has can survive the desolation of too many others.
 I thus Speak.

“A government took an economy that was already on the precipice and crashed it so severely and yet refuses to own the consequences of the disaster it created.

“Instead this government keeps fumbling from one weird Policy to another. It is Not Sustainable,no It is not.

“Not even Socialist Soviet Union nor then Communist China went this far in the range of horrific policies that now dots the economic landscape of our country, Nigeria.

“Nigeria Customs invading a hotel? This level of ceaseless flow of bad policies is not sustainable. No.”

- DAILY POST

Bishop Oke claims Osinbajo knows those behind his ‘N90bn scandal’

The founder of the Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Bishop Wale Oke, has said Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo informed some Christian leaders that some cabals were behind the N90bn election fund scandal involving him.

Oke disclosed this yesterday while receiving the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ, at the Covenant Arena, his church, in the Agodi area of Ibadan.

The Presiding Bishop noted that when the news of the N90bn illegal funding went viral, some christian elders visited Osinbajo.

“The VP did not only deny involving himself in any sleaze, but used the opportunity to inform us that some cabals were behind the allegations,” he said.

The renowned cleric, however, noted that Nigerians must learn to reward committed, loyal and patriotic citizens in a positive way and at the same time, expose people who were corrupt.

“The VP is always reaching out to Christian leaders on the need to support Buhari. Osinbajo is loyal to a fault.

“So, those plotting his downfall through orchestrated campaigns should fear God,” he added.

- DAILY POST

CACOL condemns FG’s plan to re-introduce Toll Gates

The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) has decried the Federal Government’s proposition for the reintroduction of toll gates to bridge funding gaps for road repairs.

CACOL, in a release by its Executive Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran and issued by Adegboyega Otunuga, the Coordinator of CACOL’s Media and Publications, said “We recollect what the then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime stated when he scrapped toll gates on our highways nation-wide late in 2003 and implemented on 1st of January, 2004, to the effect that they (The toll-gates) had not only outlived their usefulness and constituted inconvenience to motorists, but also encouraged corruption.

“That exercise of dismantling the toll-gates across the country, reportedly cost Federal Government over N2bn (Two Billion Naira) tax payers’ money. We therefore wonders how much of additional tax payers’ funds that ordinarily should be used in easing their current socioeconomic problems, especially their suffering of travelling by those roads that were in dilapidated state for long by giving them free fuel vouchers for their endurance, rather than further extorting them.

“The fact of the matter is that tolling means second or third taxation on the citizens as the roads are being repaired and rehabilitated from the pool of tax already contributed by same citizens, one way or the other while the rate payable on value added tax (VAT) on all goods and services in the country has, only of recent, being proposed for an increase from five (5) percent to seven point two (7.2) percent.

What this clearly shows in today’s Nigeria is the fact that, ‘the beautiful ones are yet to be born’ as far as leadership that addresses the suffering and frustration of majority Nigerians is concerned. But some of us within the Civil Society circle are not altogether surprised by the process that gave birth to an outcome of this debilitating and anti-poor policy being vigorously pursued by a known hater of the poor and a pseudo-Capitalist!

“In retrospect, here is a Minister of Works, who for four (4) years superintended over the degeneration and degradation of the roads and was only waiting for the right opportunity to impose more hardship on the people like he did when presided over the affairs of Lagos state

“Instead of him to upgrade and expand the existing infrastructure in Lagos to accommodate the mega population that conferred the status of mega-city on that state, he started to implement policies and programmes that would easily frustrate the poor out of the state.

“Now that we ought to persuade Nigerians that had either been frustrated out of the country or made to commit suicide or taken to criminality to have a rethink and join in the task of positively rebuilding the country, it is when the Minister of Works wants to compound their woes.” The body said.

It added, “Aside the time, nay, man-hours and resources wasted at toll gates as we have it on Lekki road in Lagos; the queue at the plazas portend grave danger to life and property of road users as such bottlenecks could be prone to devastating road accidents, especially with fuel tankers or attacks by terrorists and insurgents.

The body advised President Muhammadu Buhari to devise a way of sampling opinions of end-users or those were likely to be at the receiving end of the policy before finally deciding on implementation.

- PM NEWS