I will subject all arms of government to routine audit — Peter Obi
Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, said on Wednesday that he will subject all arms of government to a routine audit if he wins the February 2023 presidential election.
- I will subject all arms of government to routine audit — Peter Obi
- NiMet warns North Central, South-eastern States to expect more flooding
- No plan to privatise TCN – minister
- Treasury’s Yellen says global economy faces headwinds, warns of geopolitical ‘coercion’
- UK government ‘won’t recognise’ Scottish independence whatever top court rules — political expert
He said this during his guest appearance at the 52nd annual conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
“As President, one of my priorities will be the rule of law and due diligence and promoting intangible assets, which are vital components of holistic security. This will also underpin public sector accountability,” he said.
“We will abide by the fiscal responsibility laws. All arms of the government will be subject to a routine audit. This is the only way to ascertain the veracity of procurement figures, recurrent and concurrent expenses, even constituency projects,” he added, to the admiration of the crowd.
The former governor of Anambra State spoke briefly on ‘Accounting As A Requisite For Sustainable Governance’.
According to him, incompetence accompanied by professional negligence in financial records totally changes the direction of intended development.
“If we cannot properly account for our finances, the country is finished,” he said, even as he charged accountants to do more to check and stop corruption in Nigeria.
Obi said he has designed a three-tracked plan targeted at achieving Goal 12 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“Second, pursuant to Goal 9 of the SDGs, our administration will from its inception continue to encourage investment in infrastructure, energy, transportation, irrigation, and telecoms to grow these and other sectors.
“We will expand the frontiers of financial inclusion to ensure that SMEs have greater access to credit to grow. We will work with financial institutions to improve their ability to identify credit-worthy borrowers and support inventory financing, which will help to unlock financing for SMEs dealing with high account receivables.
“All loans must be invested in regenerative projects. We shall pursue a drastic reduction in the cost of governance and corruption; improve the ease of doing business to attract foreign direct investment to jumpstart industrialisation; and when borrowing is unavoidable, it will be strictly for production,” Obi explained his flagship campaign intentions.
NiMet warns North Central, South-eastern States to expect more flooding
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) warned that states in the north central and south-eastern parts of Nigeria should get ready for more flooding.
Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu, the Director General of NiMet, stated this on Tuesday on the sidelines of the ongoing Hydro-meteorological status and outlook system (HydroSOS) in Abuja.
His advised corroborate warnings issued earlier by the Nigerian Hydrological Service Agency (NIHSA) which stated that the Ladgo dam in Cameroun would continue to spill till next month.
The NiMet DG, while speaking on the current flood impact across the country, explained that though flooding as a result of rainfall may have reached its peak, noted that as a result of the opening of dams and other water holding facilities could still touch states in north central and the south-east.
“You remember, we issued the forecast in February and we followed up with the monthly updates that we are going to have above normal rainfall in most part of the country.
“So in terms of the rainfall-induced floods, we have seen the peak, but remember we told you that this rainwater gets collected into the reservoirs and dams, and whenever they are filled, it gets filled.
“So on September 13, the Ladgo dam was released. Other dams were also released. So what we are witnessing now is riverine flooding. And from the information we are getting, we are going to see more flood,” he warned.
Read also: FG blames states’ failure for ravaging floods
No plan to privatise TCN – minister
Abubakar Aliyu, the Minister of Power, says that there is no plan to privatise the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). Aliyu urged members of the public to disregard statement on the issue.
He gave this revelation in a statement issued by Isa Sanusi, the Special Assistant (Media) to the minister in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to the minister, the Federal Government has no plan to sell or privatise TCN and no one in the government has made a statement of an intent to sell the company. This is according to NAN.
He said that TCN was a centerpiece in the Federal Government’s efforts to rejuvenate the power sector.
Aliyu said that the ministry of power was working with key stakeholders to evaluate, assess and upgrade the company to make it more efficient and transparent.
”As part of the repositioning of TCN, job opportunities are being created, as with the recently concluded ramp up of employment, contrary to claims that there is a plan for mass disengagement of staff at the company,” he said.
”The organisation has also been carrying out sustained capacity building by training and retraining of staff across all cadre for efficiency and service delivery.
”Transmission is a vital segment of the electricity value chain that constantly needs significant investment,” he added.
Treasury’s Yellen says global economy faces headwinds, warns of geopolitical ‘coercion’
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday said the global economy was facing “significant headwinds” and the United States was working to shore up its supply chains and guard against “geopolitical coercion” by Russia and others.
Reuters reported that Yellen told an event hosted by the Bretton Woods Committee, a booster group, that Washington was working to deepen integration with the countries it could count on, including many emerging markets and developing countries, while building in more redundancies in its supply chains.
“We know the cost of Russia’s weaponization of trade as a tool of geopolitical coercion, and we must mitigate similar vulnerabilities to countries like China,” Yellen said.
UK government ‘won’t recognise’ Scottish independence whatever top court rules — political expert
Scotland’s top law officer on Tuesday put forward a case for a fresh referendum on the country’s independence to the U.K’s Supreme Court, saying it was “necessary and in the public interest”.
According to Euronews, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain said: “The issue of Scottish independence is alive and a significant one in Scottish electoral politics.”
The issue of independence for Scotland has been rumbling since the last referendum in 2014 when the Scottish public voted against it.
However, following the 2016 Brexit referendum, members of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), which leads the devolved Scottish government, have said the case for independence has been renewed.
Bain cited the 2019 general election as a reason for a fresh referendum into Scottish independence, saying that a “majority of Scottish MPs were returned on a manifesto that supported a further independence referendum being held.”
Speaking to Euronews, Michael Keating, Professor of Politics at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland said, “in 2014, Scotland voted 55 per cent against and 45 per cent for independence.
“There has been a shift since Brexit because Scotland voted by a large majority to remain in the European Union so there has been a certain shift of people, who are in favour of staying in Europe, towards independence.
“There’s been another movement in the opposite direction, a small number of pro-Brexit people now are against independence but the big news is there is a strong connection between wanting to be in Europe and wanting to become independent and this means that support for independence is running at about 50 per cent,” he said.
Regardless of the legal position, Keating says that “politically, if Scotland voted for independence then that would be a political fact that could not be ignored”. But whatever the Supreme Court’s decision, “there will be no independence” as the UK government would not recognise a referendum.
“The longer term (question) is how long it can keep up this position, because governments have never denied that Scotland has a right to self-determination, and at some point they’re going to have to accept that there must be a mechanism for Scotland to exercise that right, and the referendum seems to be the only way to do it.”
