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Bauchi Assembly okays N42.82bn 2020 supplementary budget
Bauchi State House of Assembly has approved Bauchi State Supplementary Budget Bill 2020 of the sum of N42,824,390,705.
This was done during plenary on Thursday presided over by the Assembly’s Deputy Speaker, Danlami Ahmed Kawule.
Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulkadir Umar Dewu, laid the report of the committee on the appropriation of the proposed supplementary budget before the House for deliberations.
According to the report of the committee, the supplementary budget sought additional funds to enable the state government to continue with its developmental projects.
The committee said the proposed supplementary budget would be funded from refunds from statutory and other sources to the tune of N12,824,390,705 and domestic loans and borrowings from financial institutions to the tune of N30,000,000.
The committee having thoroughly examined the fundamental factors which necessitated the presentation of the proposed supplementary budget 2020 recommended for its consideration and adoption.
Majority Leader of the House, Tijjani Muhammad Aliyu moved that the Supplementary Budget should undergo third reading and was seconded by the Minority Leader, Bakoji Aliyu Bobbo.
Upon approval by the members, the Speaker directed the Deputy Clerk of the House, Lamara Abdu Chinade, to carry out the third reading of the bill and it was subsequently done after which it was approved.
The report of the House Committee on Education on the Bill for a Law to Establish Oil and Gas Academy in Alkaleri was also laid by the chairman of the committee, Babayo Muhammad, representing Hardawa Constituency.
According to the report, the academy is crucial to the people of Bauchi State as the state has already joined the league of oil and gas producing states stating that the feat has not only added another feather to the Northern states but also boost the production capacity of Nigeria among OPEC countries.
The committee further observed that the objectives of the academy are in line with both national and international standards and when established, would go along way in providing quality training in oil and gas to the indigenes of Bauchi State.
The committee, therefore, recommended that the House should adopt and pass the bill into law and after the Speaker put the recommendations to voice vote, the members adopted them unanimously.
Tijjani Muhammad Aliyu, Majority Leader representing Azare/Madangala Constituency, requested the House to allow the Bill on the establishment of Oil and Gas Academy Alkaleri to undergo third reading and was seconded by the Minority Leader, Bakoji Aliyu Bobbo representing Chiroma Constituency.
The House unanimously approved the motion, thereafter the Speaker asked the Deputy Clerk of the House Lamara Abdu Chinade to carryout out the third reading following which the Bill on to establish Oil and Gas Academy Alkaleri is passed into law.
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Nigerians in diaspora fume over Trump birthright citizenship policy
Nigerians in diaspora fume over Trump birthright citizenship policy
Nigerians in diaspora have condemned the move by President Donald Trump to cancel citizens by birth as guaranteed in the American constitution, saying an executive order alone was not enough to amend a constitutional provision.
They argued that in the end, it would be up to the US courts and the Supreme Court to decide on the legality or otherwise of Trump’s move.
President Trump had signed an executive order on assumption of office, Monday, seeking to end the age-long citizenship by birth among many other orders that aimed to reverse the President Biden-policy era.
The executive order seeks to stop automatic U.S. citizenship for children born on American soil to parents who are in the country unlawfully or on temporary stay.
The Executive Order states that the federal government will no longer issue documents recognizing U.S. citizenship to children born to parents who are in the country unlawfully or temporarily. The order specifies that it will apply to children born in the U.S. after 30 days from the date of the order.
The order has drawn immediate legal suits with 22 Democratic states and some civil rights groups filing court actions to stop the implementation.
However, reacting to the development, Mr. Ralu Ajekwe, who resides in the USA, said though the move might have been contrived to protect the national interest, the key thing to be considered was the legality of the order.
“Is it in line with extant laws? Is an executive order enough to amend a constitutional issue? One thing I will tell you though is that a government exists to protect the national interest of the state, both in local and international relations.
”This means that it has to take a stand that aligns with its goals, values, and objectives. If Trump has banned citizenship by birth, the questions should be: What are his goals and objectives?; Does it align with the interests and values of the American people?
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” Are Americans happy with the policy? Does it lead to the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers?. If all the above is yes, then he is doing the right thing. Another thing I think we should look at is the legality of the policy,” he stated.
Speaking in the same vein, a diaspora Nigerian and a legal practitioner based in Canada, who declined to be named, dismissed the move, describing it simply as showmanship.
Nigerians in diaspora fume over Trump birthright citizenship policy
News
Abuja-Kaduna road: Infiouest not Infoquest awarded contract, active, says Minister Umahi
Abuja-Kaduna road: Infiouest not Infoquest awarded contract, active, says Minister Umahi
Minister of Works, David Umahi, has clarified that the contract for Section 2 of the Abuja-Kaduna highway was awarded to Infiouest International Limited, not Infoquest Nigeria Limited as stated in a Daily Trust report of Tuesday.
The minister stated this at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, stressing that the contractor given the project had the capacity to deliver.
Daily Trust had published the status of Infoquest generated at 22:21 (Monday, January 20, 2025) as showing inactive.
The firm was reported to have got “No objection” from the
Bureau of Public Procurement ( BPP)
for the rehabilitation of a section of the
road at N252.89 billion.
It reported a source familiar with the procedures and operations of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, as well as extant laws governing awards of contracts, as saying Infoquest had never paid tax and hurriedly registered as a tax-paying entity in the early hours of Tuesday.
“As of yesterday (Monday), there was no record. It was registered today (Tuesday) with all the details,” the source said.
But the minister also in a statement issued by his media aide, Orji Kalu Orji, said the ministry had no business relationship with Infoquest Nigeria Ltd, but has a contractual relationship with Infiouest International Limited.
He said Infiouest International Limited was “corporately active and is absolutely in compliance with all legal requirements and regulations set by the Companies and Allied Matters Act.”
The statement described the Daily Trust report of Tuesday as “mischievous”.
It said it was a deliberate orchestration to malign the ministry and undermine the efforts of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the administration in revolutionising road infrastructure development, and to “demarket the company that has proven capacity in road construction.”
It demanded a public apology to be published in at least five national dailies “for unjustifiably publishing falsehoods against the Ministry of Works.”
The statement said that the ministry was facing a coordinated onslaught of “falsehood, blackmail, and gang-up by adversaries to the policy of the government because of the ministry’s insistence on a new order of value for money, quality assurance, and best practices in project pricing and execution.”
He urged the public and the media to join in what he called “a desirable fight against national sabotage by some contractors”.
During his press conference, the minister described Infiouest International Limited as capable of completing the Abuja-Kaduna highway as the company had conducted several projects in the country.
“Some of its equipment is leased to Julius Berger Construction Company,” Umahi added.
“We want the public to know that we are facing a backlash. Corruption is fighting back.
“ut I want the public to know that our hands are very clean and those who are demarketing us, we have not collected any kobo from anybody, we are insisting that the taxpayers should have value for their money,” he said.
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Avoid confrontation with Trump, Bolaji Akinyemi tells Tinubu
Avoid confrontation with Trump, Bolaji Akinyemi tells Tinubu
A former Nigeria’s Minister of External Affairs, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, has advised President Bola Tinubu to avoid confrontation with Donald Trump, the newly inaugurated 47th president of the United States.
He also said Nigeria is not part of the focus of the 78-year-old most powerful president and that the country should not expect anything extraordinary from the Trump presidency.
Akinyemi spoke Monday night on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, on how to relate with the US president.
The former minister said Tinubu should devise means of dealing with Trump “even if he does things that annoy or step on the interests of Nigeria”.
“If I were President Tinubu, I would try to steer clear of antagonising him because there is nothing a bully likes better than taking on people who are not strong enough to resist him,” Akinyemi said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday.
“You know there is that African proverb that if you are not strong enough to take on a bully and you take him on, you are just even going to suffer more for it.
“That’s the advice I will give President Tinubu: try and avoid having a confrontation with him even if that means that he does things that annoy or does things that step on the interests of Nigeria. There are ways in which you could address his reaction without confrontation,” he said.
Prof Akinyemi faulted the inaugural speech of Trump as uninspiring, “shocking and depressing”.
The octogenarian said rather than rallying the world for peace, Trump took time to threaten the rest of the world with a bouquet of hostile policies including tacking back Panama Canal, renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, tariff wars, and others.
Akinyemi said the US president would “soon learn that there are repercussions to policies, to jingoism”, adding that the world is “in for a rough ride for four years” of the Trump presidency.
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