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BIG STORY

Don’t Harm Our Future, Experts Warn As FG Plans More Loans

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The Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria and economic experts on Wednesday expressed concern about the high deficit in the 2022 budget.

MAN and experts including Prof. Pat Utomi in separate interviews with The PUNCH, warned both the executive and the National Assembly against endangering the future of the country.

Federal Government had on Wednesday said it planned to borrow more funds to finance the N16.45tn 2022 budget.

According to the government, the total money borrowed as of July 22 was ‘only 23 percent’ of the Gross Domestic Product.

The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed these to State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council at its meeting on Wednesday approved N16.39tn for the 2022 Appropriation Bill.

The meeting was presided over by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The minister said it was necessary that the government would continue to borrow to in order to fund developmental and infrastructure projects as it does not get enough from its revenues.

She noted that Nigeria’s revenues could barely accommodate services even as she emphasised that despite the concerns, its borrowings were still within acceptable limits.

The minister stated, “If we just depend on the revenues that we get, even though our revenues have increased, the operational expenditure of government, including salaries and other overheads, is barely covered or swallowed up by the revenue.

“So, we need to borrow to be able to build these projects that will ensure that we’re able to develop on a sustainable basis.

“Nigeria’s borrowing has been of great concern and has elicited a lot of discussions. But if you look at the total size of the borrowing, it is still within healthy and sustainable limits. As of July 2021, the total borrowing is 23 percent of GDP.”

Fielding questions, Ahmed justified the plan for more borrowing, arguing, “Government has been borrowing before this administration and continues to borrow and it is important that we borrow to provide developmental projects in the form of roads, rails, bridges, power and water for sustainable development in this country.

“If we just depend on the revenues that we get, even though our revenues have increased, the operational expenditure of government, including salaries and other overheads, is barely covered or swallowed up by the revenue.

“So, we need to borrow to be able to build these projects that will ensure that we’re able to develop on a sustainable basis.

“When you compare our borrowing to other countries, we’re the lowest within the region, lowest compared to Egypt, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, the very lowest, and Angola.

‘Increasing staff emoluments difficult to cope with govt funding’

“We do have a problem of revenue. Our revenues have been increasing. We just reported to the council that our revenues from non-oil have performed, as of July, at the rate of 111 per cent, which means outperforming the prorated budget.

“But our expenditure, especially staff emoluments have been increasing at a very fast rate making it difficult to cope with funding of government.”

She said government was doing a combination of cutting cost and increasing revenue to be able to cope with all salaries, pensions debt service, as well as capital expenditure.”

The minister said that council noted the changes in the 2022-2024 fiscal projections based on implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 and other necessary expenditures that should be accommodated in the 2022 budget.

She also disclosed the key assumptions and targets underlying the budget provisions including oil price – $57 per barrel; oil production – 1.88 mbpd; exchange rate – N410.15/US$; oil revenue – N3.15tn and non-oil revenue – N2.13tn.

Others include Federal Government’s Independent Revenue of N1.82tn; Total Projected Federal Government Revenue of N10.13tn; Debt Service of N3.61tn; Statutory Transfers of N768.28bn (including N462.53bn capital component) and Personnel Costs and Pensions of N4.69tn; (inclusive of N617.72bn for the 63 GOEs).

The rest are overhead costs of N792.39bn (inclusive of N451.0bn for the 63 GOEs); and Capital Expenditure (inclusive of capital component of Social Investment Programme, Capital in Statutory Transfers, capital of 63 GOEs, Capital Supplementation as well as Grants and Donor funding) of N5.35tn (inclusive of N647.08bn for the 63 GOEs).

“The resultant deficit of N6.26tn which will be financed by new borrowings of N5.01tn (of which domestic – N2.51tn and foreign – N2.51tn); drawdowns on project-tied Multilateral/Bilateral loans – N1.16tn; and Privatisation Proceeds of N90.73bn,” she stated.

On the approved 2022 Appropriation Bill for an aggregate expenditure of N16.39tn for 2022, she gave the components as the adjustments to the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework 2022-2024; Statutory Transfers of N768.28bn and Debt Service of N3.61tn and Sinking Fund for Maturing Debts of N292.71bn.

Others are Recurrent Expenditure (Non-Debt) of N6.83tn, inclusive of N350bn for the recurrent component of Social Investment Programme; and Aggregate Capital Expenditure of N5.35tn, inclusive of GOEs’ capital expenditure, multilateral/bilateral loan funded projects, Capital Supplementation, and Grants/Aid funded projects.

According to her, this represents 33 percent of the expenditure budget.

Ahmed said Buhari was intent on leaving improved agriculture production as a legacy, adding, “Currently, the agriculture sector contributes 23 percent of the GDP. We have a record of expanding the agricultural value chain; we’ve had very little or no processing in agriculture until this administration.”

“We now have a very large number of fertilizer blending plants, about 42, that are operating at full capacity. We also have a large number of rice mills that didn’t exist before.

“We have a lot of Nigerians that have taken up agriculture as a business, but apart from agriculture, the President is also rolling out rail lines, some of which had been started several years ago, have been completed.”

She added the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing had a provision of N388bn; the Power sector, N377bn billion; the Ministry of Agriculture, N98bn and the Transportation Ministry N189bn.

On the difference between the price of crude oil and the $57 benchmark for the 2022 budget, the minister said, “The crude oil price in the international capital market is not stable, it goes up and it comes down.

“Our assessment is that $57 per barrel is a safe zone to be in and we did this after extensive consultations with CBN, we checked the research work of the World Bank and other institutions, whose concern is investigating and researching on crude oil prices. But you know, the revenue in the budget for oil and gas is a function of the level of production as well as the price.

“We had suffered some setbacks in terms of the level of production, occasioned by the limits that the OPEC set. But thankfully, OPEC has changed our quota and that will also soon ramp up.

“In the event that revenues from oil and gas outperform the budget, there is always the safeguard that the excess goes into the Excess Crude Account.”

Commenting on the budget, a senior lecturer of economics at the Pan Atlantic University, Dr Olalekan Aworinde, said the government would continue to borrow, thus worsening poverty.

 

 

BIG STORY

Doyin Okupe Reacts To Peter Obi’s Viral Video, Says I Cannot Support Him Again

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Doyin Okupe, the former director-general of the Labour Party (LP) presidential campaign in 2023, says he “cannot support” Peter Obi again.

Okupe spoke on Monday during an interview with Seun Okinbaloye on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

He was reacting to a viral clip of Obi commenting on how the country’s economic situation offers little relief to people in the south-west, despite President Bola Tinubu being from the zone.

“Let us talk about what is happening today. Rice is about N100,000. We are not even sure where we are going to be. ‘It’s our turn’, ‘he is a Yoruba man’ — ask the people in Ogun, here is there any place you people buy bread cheaper?” Obi said in the viral clip.

The video generated mixed reactions on social media, with some supporting Obi’s comments while others criticised him.

Adding his voice to the criticism, Okupe described the former LP presidential candidate’s remark as an “insult” to people in the south-west.

He said Obi’s statement publicly demeaned the south-west, even though “eminent Yoruba people” had supported him during his presidential campaign in 2023.

“When Obi made that statement, it insulted us. I am a Yoruba man; I left everything and followed Obi.

“For the first time, Obasanjo left his circle of influence and deviated to support Obi,” Okupe said.

“I do not regret supporting Peter Obi. But now I cannot do it again. The reason why I did it was because we agreed that a southern president must emerge.

“I was approached that if a southern president must emerge, which zone must it come to? I said the south-east.

“If all these eminent Yoruba people supported you, why now bring us down publicly? It is wrong.”

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Lagos Muslim Cleric Bags Life Jail For Raping 14-Yr-Old Girl Inside Mosque

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Alani Rafiu, a Muslim cleric, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court for raping a 14-year-old girl inside a mosque.

Justice Rahman Oshodi delivered the verdict on Monday, after finding Rafiu guilty of child defilement. The cleric was arraigned on October 28, 2021, for having sexual intercourse with the teenager, but pleaded not guilty, leading to a trial.

During the trial, the prosecution, led by B. Boye, presented three witnesses, including the victim, who testified against Rafiu. The prosecution provided compelling evidence, including the victim’s testimony and medical reports, which revealed a calculated pattern of predatory behavior by the cleric.

Justice Oshodi emphasized that Rafiu’s actions were particularly egregious due to his position of trust as a religious instructor and family friend.

The judge stated that the gravity of the offence could not be overstated, as Rafiu exploited the victim’s vulnerability and betrayed the trust placed in him.

“The gravity of your offence cannot be overstated. You betrayed the trust placed in you as a religious instructor and family friend.

“Instead of nurturing and protecting a vulnerable 14-year-old child entrusted to your spiritual care, you repeatedly sexually abused her in a place of worship.

“This conduct is criminal and represents a profound violation of secular and religious principles,” he said.

Oshodi further held that the evidence revealed a calculated pattern of predatory behaviour, as the convict deliberately isolated the child, exploited her vulnerability, and bought her silence with money.

“The evidence revealed a calculated pattern of predatory behaviour. You deliberately isolated the child, exploited her vulnerability, and bought her silence with money.

“The physical and psychological trauma inflicted on this young girl is immeasurable. At an age when she should have been focused on her education and development, she was subjected to experiences that no child should endure,” the judge held.

Oshodi also stated that having carefully considered all the evidence before the court, there was compelling and consistent proof establishing that the prosecutrix was indeed a child below the age of 18 years at the time of the alleged offence in May 2021.

He said the evidence manifested through multiple sources.

Oshodi said, “When the prosecutrix testified before this court, she stated that she was 15 years old and 14 when the alleged incident occurred.

“Notably, she was still attending primary school then, explicitly saying she was in Primary 3.

“The prosecutrix’s educational level, being in Primary 3, at the time of her testimony, while not determinative of age, provides supporting circumstantial evidence consistent with her being a young teenager rather than an adult.

“The consistency of these multiple sources of evidence – the police and guardian testimony, the prosecutrix’s evidence, and circumstantial evidence – all converge to establish beyond reasonable doubt that the prosecutrix was 14 years old at the time of the alleged offence in May 2021.

“The defence led no evidence to contradict these age-related facts, nor was the prosecutrix’s age challenged during cross-examination of any of the prosecution witnesses”.

The judge said the prosecutrix provided a detailed, firsthand account of sexual intercourse with the convict.

“Her testimony was specific. She offered a detailed sequential account of the sexual assault. She testified that at the mosque (where the convict, whom she referred to as Alfa), isolated her. He would then lock the door, remove her underwear, and instruct her to lie on the floor.

“She explicitly stated that Rafiu would then insert his penis into her vagina. When asked about frequency, she confirmed this occurred three times.

“She further testified that these acts would result in bleeding, which the convict would have her clean with a handkerchief. Afterwards, he would instruct her to put her underwear back on before taking her outside,” he said.

According to Oshodi, this testimony provides a direct account of penile-vaginal penetration, with specific details about the sequence of events, location, frequency, and aftermath of the sexual acts.

“The prosecutrix maintained during cross-examination that this occurred three times, explicitly stating, “He had sex with me three times.”

The judge noted that the prosecutrix testimony remained consistent even when challenged about the timeframe, clarifying that these incidents occurred.

He said the medical evidence further strengthened the evidence of sexual intercourse. It reports that the transection found in the prosecutrix’s vagina was “consistent with forceful penetrative injury to the [prosecutrix’s] anus and vagina”.

Before passing down the verdict, Oshodi said, “What makes your conduct particularly egregious is your abuse of religious authority and the sacred space of a mosque to perpetrate these violations.

“Places of worship should be sanctuaries of safety and spiritual growth, not venues for the exploitation of children.

“The medical evidence and the prosecutrix’s testimony paint a disturbing picture of the physical harm you caused.

The bleeding she experienced and your callous provision of a handkerchief to clean up the evidence of your abuse demonstrate a shocking disregard for her well-being.

“This court must protect children from sexual predators and send a clear message that such conduct will be met with the full force of the law.

“The sentence must reflect society’s abhorrence of child sexual abuse and serve as a deterrent to others who might contemplate similar crimes.

“Therefore, I now sentence you to life imprisonment by section 137 of the Criminal Law. Furthermore, under sections 33 and 38 of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency Law, 2021, I order that you be registered as a sex offender in the Sex Offenders Register maintained by the Lagos State Government,” he held.

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BIG STORY

UPDATE: Minors Freed As Court Strikes Out Suit Against 119 #EndBadGovernance Protesters

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A federal high court in Abuja has struck out the suit against 119 protesters charged over the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest.

Obiora Egwuatu, the presiding judge, dismissed the case following an application by M.D. Abubakar, counsel to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF).

Abubakar had requested permission to take over and discontinue the suit.

During the session on Tuesday, Abubakar asked the court to allow the AGF to take over the charge.

This development comes just hours after President Bola Tinubu directed the attorney-general and law enforcement to release all minors detained over the protest.

As of the time of reporting, all the minors have been freed.

 

More to come…

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