Edichaj's Blog

Babachir Lawal, The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, disclosed that the federal government have not paid former Presidents and ex-Heads of State including Goodluck Jonathan, Olusegun Obasanjo and Shehu Shagari allowances since January this year on Thursday this week while playing host to the members of the Senate Committee of Federal Character and Intergovernmental Affairs, which was led by Senator Tijjani Kaura in his office. According to Lawal, the former leaders have not been paid due to funds not being available for the service-wide votes for salaries of former presidents. He said; “There is a department responsible for the payment of former Presidents. Presently, funds are not available in service-wide vote to do that. We are aware there was a protest in Bayelsa State that the former President (Jonathan) was not paid and we have explained that he is not the only one affected. “Others affected are the interreligious council, traditional rulers’ council and so...

The Federal Government spent about N3 trillion to import petroleum production between January 2015 to April 2016, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its latest petroleum import data released at the weekend. Specifically, the country imported N570.6 billion worth of petroleum products between January and April this year while the country consumed about N2.4 trillion products in whole of 2015. The NBS report, identified the products to include Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), Automotive Gas and Oils (AGO) and Household Kerosene (HHK) respectively. A breakdown of the value spent on petroleum imports showed that the country consumed N431 billion of PMS from January to April this year; spent N118 billion on Automotive Gas Oil and N20 billion on House Hold Kerosene during the period under review. Besides, despite the relatively low cost of fuel at some filling stations, which has reduced to about N140 per litre around the country, petrol still se...