We must cut recurrent budget, Okonjo-Iweala insists

 Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has announced plans by government to shrink the number of government agencies and commissions in its bid to bring down recurrent expenditure, beginning from next year.

Okonjo-Iweala

Okonjo-Iweala, who delivered a keynote address at the 3rd Economic Policy and Fiscal Strategy Seminar, organised by the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa, CSEA, in Abuja, expressed shock that the previous government had let the level of recurrent spending to spiral against capital budgeting.

She said: “When I left the administration last time (2006), we left a recurrent expenditure level of about 66 per cent, which was even considered to be too high back then. However, upon my second coming this year, I was surprised to find that recurrent expenditure in the budget has risen to more than 74 per cent. This is unacceptable.”

According to her, the increase in the recurrent expenditure was made worse by the unreasonable increase in the number of Federal Government agencies and parastatals, even as she noted that the first step to cut down the recurrent budget was to drastically trim the number of government agencies and departments.

She said: “This government is resolved to reduce the level of recurrent spending to a reasonable degree, starting from the next budget. And we will do that by collapsing government agencies because we have so many of them, so many parastatals, commissions, committees, agencies, each one eating up a chunk of the budget, some duplicating each other.

“We are also doing biometrics which is yielding some interesting results where we’ve done it. This is the only country where ghost workers retire and become ghost pensioners and that’s what we are seeing. So, we are weeding that out and creating quite a bit of money in the process.

“When we reduce the recurrent expenditure, we want to increase capital because the phenomenon where our capital budget is so low, 24 per cent of the whole budget, it means we are not investing in the critical infrastructure that we need.

“We want to take the capital budget back on the trajectory it used to be back to 33 per cent by the end of this administration.”

The Minister pointed out that the nation’s overall debt to GDP ratio is quite reasonable. “We are about 20 percent which is very good but of that 16.4 is domestic debt and we want to watch that because its building up at an alarming rate and at high interest rate and people in the country don’t seem to worry.

“If it is external debt, everybody keeps screaming without looking at whether this is concessional or not but when its domestic there is a big complacency that you can just float bonds and all will be well. Well my message is no, all will not be well because when you rack up domestic debt you actually have to service it. It’s not like having external and you tell them I can’t pay in your own economy if you don’t pay, institutions, pensions fund all that they will suffer, the individuals and it will create a crisis of confidence in the government so we can’t afford that.

“So we want to keep the stock of domestic debt at a reasonable level around 16 to 17 percent of GDP going forward. It means we will still borrow but we are going to borrow at a declining rate.”

Okonjo-Iweala criticized the previous administration for its excessive borrowing and spending, which had little impact on the economy

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U.S. Senate legalises sex with animals

THE United States Senate yesterday approved a defence authorisation bill legalising sodomy with humans and sex with animals or bestiality. 

Only a week ago, Nigeria’s Senate passed a bill banning same-sex marriages and recommended a 14-year sentence for anyone convicted of homosexuality, defying a threat from Britain and the United States to withhold aid from nations violating gay rights.

But voting 93-7, the United States Senate not only repealed the military law on sodomy, it also repealed the military ban on sex with animals-or bestiality.

On November 15, the Senate Armed Services Committee was said to have unanimously approved S. 1867, the National Defence Authorisation Act, which includes a provision to repeal Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). 

Article 125 of the UCMJ is said to have made it illegal to engage in sodomy with humans and sex with animals. Specifically, it states: 

(a) Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration, however, slight, is sufficient to complete the offence. 

(b) Any person found guilty of sodomy shall be punished as a court-martial may direct. 

Expectedly, reactions have continued to trail the decision by the United States’ lawmakers in the country and other parts of the world, including Nigeria. 

In the United Sates, Family Research Council President, Tony Perkins, said the effort to remove sodomy from military law stems from liberal Senate Democrats' and President Obama’s support for removing the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.

‘It’s all about using the military to advance this administration’s radical social agenda,’ Perkins told CNSNews.com. ‘Not only did they overturn ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ but they had another problem, and that is, under military law sodomy is illegal, just as adultery is illegal, so they had to remove that prohibition against sodomy.’ Perkins said removing the bestiality provision may have been intentional-or just ‘collateral damage.’

Well, whether it was inadvertent or not, they have also taken out the provision against bestiality,’ he said. ‘So now, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), there’s nothing there to prosecute bestiality.’
 

Former United States Army Col. Bob Maginnis also reportedly said some military lawyers have indicated that bestiality may be prosecutable under another section of the military code of justice – the ‘catch-all’ Article 134 for offences against ‘good military order and discipline.’

But don't count on that, he said. ‘If we have a soldier who engages in sodomy with an animal, whether a government animal or a non-government animal, is it, in fact, a chargeable offence under the Uniform Code? I think that’s in question,’ Maginnis was quoted as saying. 

‘When the reader stops laughing, the reader needs to ask the question whether or not this is in the best interests of the government, in the best interests of the military and the best interests of the country? I think not,’ he said. 

He added: ‘Soldiers, unfortunately, like it or not, have engaged in this type of behavior in the past. Will they in the future, if they remove this statute? I don’t know.’

Perkins said there was no attempt to remove the UCMJ repeal provision from the bill, which Perkins had expected the Senate to approve.

Now that it has passed, however, the Senate version will have to go to a conference committee, and Perkins predicts there will be several sticking points with the House.

‘The House in their version of the defence authorisation, reinforced the Defence of Marriage Act, saying that there is a military DOMA as well, prohibiting same-sex marriage on military bases. This is something the Department of Defence is pushing for,’ he said. 

‘And now this is an added concern, that sodomy has been removed, and as we have discovered, that bestiality-the prohibition against it-has been removed from the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So yes, the House will have problems with this bill,’ he stated.

In Nigeria’s anti-gay bill, anyone who aids or ‘abets’ same-sex unions faces 10 years in prison, a provision that is believed to be targeted at rights groups. 

The bill, passed last Tuesday, comes nearly a month after British Prime Minister, David Cameron, threatened to withhold aid from nations violating gays rights, sparking outrage in Africa where leaders interpreted it as ‘colonial’ display of power.

Homosexuality is illegal in most African countries based on remnants of sodomy laws introduced during the British colonial era and perpetuated by cultural beliefs.

In Nigeria, the anti-gay bill has been widely applauded, while the sex with animals has been condemned. The Catholic Bishop of Jalingo Diocese, Taraba State, Most Rev Dr Charles Hammawa, said it ‘is human insanity; it is unacceptable, that bill is improper. It is strange and outrageous. This is the same society that condemns crime and bad leadership. It is a pity. 

‘I don’t know what the world is turning into. The return to God is necessary. It is very sad news to hear. I pray Nigeria doesn’t copy such.’

For Pastor Wale Adefarasin, General Overseer of the Guiding Light Assembly, Lagos, he could not imagine that anyone or country would think of such a law. ‘Are you serious?’ he retorted, adding, ‘My comment is that I dey laugh.’  

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Niger Delta militants block Abuja-Lokoja highway

NIGER Delta militants, numbering about 1,600, yesterday blocked the busy Abuja-Lokoja Highway, protesting non-implementation of the Federal Government amnesty programme. 

The blockage brought vehicular and pedestrian traffic to a grinding halt for over eight hours before a combined team of Nigerian Army and Police Force dispersed the protesters.

It was learnt that the militants, who came in about 300 vehicles, were on their way to Abuja to register their grievances with President Goodluck Jonathan, but were stopped by the Kogi State Police Command at Jimeta Tollgate near the Murtala Muhammed bridge.

The Special Adviser to the president on Niger Delta Development Kingsley Kuku, told The Moment that the action of militants on Abuja – Lokoja ‘is a breach of order.’

The militants, however, insisted that they were protesting the Federal Government’s failure to keep to its terms of agreement between the two parties and warned that they would go back to the creeks to fight the government if there was no change in the situation. 

A man, who called himself as one of the militants’ leaders, General Ramsey, confirmed to journalists that the militants were on their way to Abuja to meet with the president to register their displeasure and also give four days ultimatum to the Federal Government over their ill-handling of the amnesty programme.

‘The government asked us to come out of the creeks and lay down our arms which we did, but since then, the government has not fulfilled their own part of it, but kept promising us.  While we have embraced the amnesty programme, the Federal Government is frustrating it by refusing to pay us and we don’t want to go back to the creeks or pick up arms,’ he said.

The 1,600 millitants were said to be all generals and commanders of their respective units who have foot soldiers under them, but have laid down their arms.

They said their foot soldiers are skeptical of their excuses and explanations given to them without tangible results, adding that the boys are alleging connivance with the authority. 

According to Ramsey, the militants had graduated from the rehabilitation training in December last year without being paid, adding that the government is fond of empty promises.  

‘We are giving four days ultimatum to the Federal Government to fulfill their side of the bargain. Our boys are angry and they want to go back to the creeks; we are tired of holding them back. So, we want Nigerians and the whole world to know that the Federal Government is frustrating the amnesty programme and the militants,’ he stated.

He stated that the police intercepted them at about 4 a.m. and were directed to go back to where they were coming from, saying their number was too much for a protest to Abuja. 

Ramsey, who spoke even while they defied the security to leave the highway, maintained, ‘we did not block the road; it was the police that blocked the road and prevented travellers from moving freely on the road. We are not armed; we were going to Abuja to register our grievances.’ 

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Amanam  Abakasaga, who confirmed the incident, said it was the police that intercepted the militants at the Jemeta toll gate.

The commissioner said the militants claimed they were going to Abuja to protest the non-implementation of the amnesty programme, but ‘we had to stop them because of the security implication and their large number,’ adding that he has succeeded in appealing to them to retreat.  

The blockage affected travellers coming from eastern and western parts of the country, as well as those leaving the Federal Capital Territory. 

The incident, however, attracted brisk business for traders living around the place as a satchet of pure water was sold for between N30 and N50 as against the normal N5 to N10.

Motorcycle operators, popularly known as Okada riders, had a field day, charging between N3000 and N5000 to carry stranded commuters to Lokoja, a journey that ought to have cost less than N100 on a normal day. 

The food vendors at under the bridge were not left out of the business boom as they called their colleagues at Kotonkarfe, a neighboring community, to rush to the scene with available foods for sale as the price had tripled.

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