– Babafemi Ojudu, vice chairman, Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service Looking at the 2014 budget proposal, it is more than 75 per cent recurrent and less than 25 per cent capital. What does it say about this country and our budgeting process? I think it says more than we are even aware of.…
Budget on the Altar of Politics
Despite public outcry on the need to cut the cost of governance, the executive and the legislature continue to encourage corruption through padding of national budgets It is not so difficult to see that the split in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the gale of defections in the National Assembly, NASS, are the…
Endless Wait for 2014 Budget
Threats to block executive bills, including the 2014 budget, by members of the opposition All Progressives Congress in the National Assembly may further worsen the economy A recent report by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, NBS, estimates that 54 per cent of Nigerian youths are currently unemployed, while the rate of unemployment keeps rising, from…
The World of Female Soldiers
An army patrol vehicle zoomed into the Army Headquarters, AHQ Garrison at Mogadishu Barracks in Abuja and the soldiers all disembarked in a typical military style, for a rest. The only female in the team also jumped down the vehicle and hopped into a ditch behind a building in the midst of her male colleagues.…
The federal government’s alleged ceasefire deal with Boko Haram collapses before taking off
Last Tuesday was an emotional day at the Government House, Maiduguri, capital of Borno State. Fifty school age children orphaned by Boko Haram militants in different parts of the city were brought to the Government House as recipients of government scholarship. Some of the kids narrated how insurgents stormed their houses and slaughtered their parents,…