Welcome to zion's blog: October 2019

Saturday 26 October 2019

NIGERIA COULD EXIT ALL EMBARRASSING DEBTS IF IMPUNITY WASTAGES ARE BLOCKED!

ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER.

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System From a Godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church Kpeyegyi Abuja Nigeria {Vol. 8.NO 323. 20th October, 2019.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32). . PRAY & FAST EVERY WEDNESDAY TO STOP BLOODSHED IN NIGERIA!

NIGERIA COULD EXIT ALL EMBARRASSING DEBTS IF IMPUNITY WASTAGES ARE BLOCKED!

Antagonists who believed that Nigeria's 2020 Budget and subsequent ones would be very difficult to implement, have hinged their unfounded fears/arguments on three planks, that unless issues of debt management: i.e. external indebtedness/debt servicing, internal borrowings and the controversial petroleum products subsidy, are completely resolved favourably, the country might encounter another economic recession, whereas, these challenges have been adequately addressed in the Mid- Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), and the annexed Financial Document, which were submitted earlier by Executive to the National Assembly!

The Federal Government is aware that all of the budgets from 2019-2023, MUST serve as legal testaments that MUST be cast in iron to prove the credibility of the Change Administration of EIGHT consecutive years, because 2015-2018 budgets had served as the FOUNDATION STONES on which APC's legacies MUST be solidly built for posterity to judge the administration of the man who contested FOUR TIMES to occupy the much-coveted seat of the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria - the man, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR!

For the painstaking an discerning minds, the contentious issues which were meticulously addressed even when the Minister of Finance, recently addressed the media in respect of the breakdown, should no longer attract any further condemnation because Internally-Generated-Revenues (IGR's), should exceed budget assumptions especially as the crude oil bench mark at US$60 dollars and the Nigerian Customs Service, with the advantage of the closed borders should rake in higher quarterly revenues (which stood at N 311.2 billion, as at the end of the First Quarter of 2019), while Onne Port, Area 2 and Tin Can Island Port Commands have also reported a total of N81.1 billion naira, and N78.8 bn respectively (as at the end of the First and Third Quarters of 2019, respectively), to reduce the impact of debt-servicing and borrowings and mitigate deficits!
It is also very important to note that exploration, exploitation and extraction of the natural mineral deposits (available in large quantities in all States of the Federation), are being aggressively addressed and intensified by both the Federal and State Governments and through a concerted effort of bringing everybody (the locals and their foreign partners on board), revenues from this Sector, would exceed that of Crude Oil, in a very short while!
Fuel subsidy would eventually be cancelled when:
The nation is flooded with Refineries and petroleum products were no longer imported;
All forms of oil bunkering eliminate;
Road networks across the nation are in perfect conditions;
Public transportation of air, rail, roads and water ways are modern and digital like in other climes between 2019 and 2021.

DID NIGERIA BORROW MORE IN THREE YEARS THAN IN 30 YEARS?
It is not true that Nigeria borrowed more in the last 3 years than it did in 30 years! That must surely be part of the grand plan to discredit the Change Administration because, the nation's new attempt at democracy is only 20 years now -1999-2019!
Between 1999-2005, Nigeria's total foreign debt was US$35.916 billion when ex-President Obasanjo, successfully negotiated with the PARIS CLUB CREDITORS, to pay back in monetary transaction - the sum of US$18 billion dollars while the rest was forgiven? When Obasanjo exited office in 2007, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), held sway as the ruling party and accrued fresh debts to the tune of US$63.806 billion dollars by 2015, when it handed over to the APC which won the Presidential election! Nigeria's total foreign debt as at March, 2019, was US$ 68.4 billion dollars and nominal GDP reached US$114 billion dollars as at June, 2019!

Is the ruling party borrowing to pay salaries? No! All borrowings are channelled towards CAPITAL PROJECTS/INFRASTRUCTURES that are people-oriented and are identifiable unlike what transpired in past administrations!
It is a welcome development that the President had ordered a probe into the accounts of NNDC which had gulped trillions of naira from 2001-2018, with barely any tangible infrastructures to show for it!

THE TRUTH ABOUT NIGERIA'S DEBT BURDEN & EARNINGS!
Vice President, Prof. 'Yemi Osinbajo, said on 27th October, 2018, Nigeria's debt was US$73 billion dollars - a $N10 billion dollar increase from the N63 billion dollars, the APC Administration inherited in 2015, at the 9th Public Lecture of Sigma Club, at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, South West, Nigeria. He further said that the nation's debt in 2010, was US$ $35bn dollars; 2011, $41 bn dollars; 2012, $48bn dollars; 2013, $64 bn dollars; 2014, $67.7bn dollars; 2015, $63.8bn dollars; 2016, $57.8bn dollars; 2017, $70bn dollars; 2018, $73 bn dollars!

UNDISPUTED EARNING FIGURES DURING THE OIL-BOOM ERA ARE AS FOLLOWS: 1990-1998, a period of 8 years, $119.8 bn dollars; 1999-2009, a period of 10 years, $481bn dollars; and 2010-2014, a period of 4 years, $381bn dollars! Total earnings by PDP Administration between 1999-2015, was, US $ 862bn dollars in 16 years!

OUR POSTULATION: MULTIPLY US$ 862 bn dollars with an aggregate forex rate of N160 naira per dollar and get a whooping N137.920 trillion! DIVIDE this figure by 16 and get N8.62 trillion per annum earning, while annual BUDGET ASSUMPTIONS, never exceeded N4.5 trillion ($22.6 bn dollars), as per the 2015 Budget figures submitted to the National Assembly by ex-President Ebele Jonathan, before his exit! NOW, DEDUCT N4.5 trillion naira from N8.26 trillion, you get a balance of N4.21 trillion!! FELLOW NIGERIANS, WHERE DID THE MONEY DISAPPEAR? IS THE 3-YEAR-DEBT OF BUHARI MORE THAN THE 30 YEARS DEBTS OF THE MILITARY JUNTA/PDP PUT TOGETHER? YOU BE THE JUDGE!

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS: BLOCK ALL WASTAGES IN BOTH THE EXECUTIVE AND THE LEGISLATURE!
News have it that the President is taking measures to look into areas of wastages in government, beginning with the dispensing of ESTACODES (foreign exchange allowances paid to top public officers who travel overseas for official duties), many of who travel Business Class, which ripped off government coffers in millions of US dollars annually! Mr. President should not scratch the surface of the War Against Corruption in this SECOND AND LAST TERM, but ensure to keep his integrity intact by going the whole hog!

He should beam his searchlight on the following areas of wastages/leakages urgently:
All bogus, humongous, fraudulent allowances by the TWO ARMS - especially the LEGISLATURE! N5.5 billion for legislators exotic vehicles MUST be stopped - they should purchase locally- manufactured vehicles from INNOSON MOTORS!
Budget padding MUST not be allowed - not ever again - enough is enough! HOR Member Jibril Abdul Mumini's confessions of this heinous crime by the citizens representatives are still in the public domain!
ONE LEGISLATURE IS SUFFICIENT FOR NIGERIA! - (a) We members of the editorial board of the Zion B-BC Newsletter began the campaign and advocacy since 2013, and we have never stopped whoever cared to listen that, parliamentary duties should NOT only be on PART-TIME but that each State of the Federation and the FCT, should produce TWO representatives each - totalling 74 Certified Citizens, who would distinguish themselves righteously!
THE SENATE MUST BE SCRAPPED! It is long overdue for the upper house of the NASS to be locked and its keys thrown into River Niger! Nigeria's Senate of the of the FOURTH REPUBLIC from 1999, had served - with very few exceptions - as a CONFLUENCE OF GREEDY POLITICIANS (discredited ex-governors, expired civil servants, ex-Commissioners/Ministers, political jobbers, etc), who are sworn enemies of downtrodden masses who neither voted for them nor were even aware of their representation, to date!
Apart from a regular annual N150 billion for their allowances, they would always manoeuvre the Constitutional duty of oversight to corner huge sums of money as CONSTITUENCY ALLOWANCES illegally to swell their insatiable appetites for the love of money at the expense of the masses who die every day in the hands of terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers etc, and always had the guts to label Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world with 100 million who could hardly afford a meal per day, over 60% youth unemployment, over 13 million out-of-school children who roam the streets etc!

THE ADVOCACY IS GAINNING MOMENTUM! The argument that the President could not wake up one morning and annul the Sections of the Constitution that established the SENATE is very untenable! HOW LONG DID IT TAKE THE 7TH/8TH NASS TO PASS ABOUT 48 BILLS WHEN IT WAS CONVENIENT TO FAKE LEGISLATIVE PERFORMANCES? ANSWER: ONE DAY!!

President Buhari MUST make the bold move with the support of all patriotic citizens, send an EXECUTIVE BILL FOR THE SCRAPPING OF THE SENATE LIKE HIS SENEGALESE COUNTERPART WHOSE COUNTRY IS NOT FACING EMBARRASSING FOREIGN DEBTS and whose country is relatively at peace with a virtually contented citizenry! IF LEGISLATORS would not co-operate, the President could call for a REFERENDUM TO DECIDE THE ISSUE ONCE AND FOR ALL!

We are sure that all monies that would be saved from wastages from all of the above sources would be more than sufficient to take care of all INDEBTEDNESS, place Nigeria on a very sound economic footing and NIGERIANS WOULD DEFINITELY FORGET THE PAST, MOVE FORWARD AND SUPPORT LEADERS WHO WOULD EMERGE AS HEROES OF THIS OVERDUE PURGE OF A CORRUPTED NATION!
LET IT BE KNOWN TO ALL ELECTED POLITICIANS, POLITICAL APPOINTEES AND PUBLIC OFFICER- ESPECIALLY THE PROFESSIONAL CIVIL SERVANTS, THAT NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO STEAL ONE KOBO FROM THE TREASURY SINGLE ACCOUNT (TSA), BECAUSE ALL EYES ARE FOCUSED TO MONITOR, LIKE THE CCTV CAMERAS, & ENSURE THAT ALL DEPOSITS/WITHDRAWALS WERE LEGAL AND THAT NO ILLEGAL TRANSACTIONS WOULD EVER BE ALLOWED!
‘’And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword’’ (Lev 26:8).

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to: facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

IN THE ASSUMED IMPERFECTION OF THE 2020 BUDGET, LIES ITS STRENGTH!

ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER.

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System From a Godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church Kpeyegyi Abuja Nigeria {Vol. 8.NO 322. 13th October, 2019.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32). . PRAY & FAST EVERY WEDNESDAY TO STOP BLOODSHED IN NIGERIA!

IN THE ASSUMED IMPERFECTION OF THE 2020 BUDGET, LIES ITS STRENGTH!

The 2020 Budget of Sustaining Growth and Job Creation was not so christened just for the sake of grammatical expression nor for appending a nomenclature but was a deliberate thought that speaks volumes of its righteous intentions to succour all patriotic citizens who must now enjoy sure dividends of sound democracy!

In four years and four months of the Change mantra, the nation went through the travail of the gold, silver or precious stone that must be baptized by the fuller's furnace to discard all dross in other to come out shinning and attractive for more valuable commercialization!

Going down the memory lane from 2015 when there was a change of guards, Nigerians cannot easily forget the chaotic social insecurity, an economy at the brink of recession coupled with an almost empty treasury that was bequeathed to the victorious All Progressives Congress (APC), which won the general elections in spite of the advantageous power of incumbency of 16 years by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)! Nigerians bore the pains and pangs during those years of economic hardship coupled with large scale insecurity which escalated with Boko Haram insurgency/terrorism in the North East, herdsmen/farmers clashes in the North Central and all forms of crimes and criminalities especially kidnappings across the nation AND still voted for continuity because they believed in the sincerity and faithfulness of the incumbent captain of the ship!
At several stages, the people had to bear scarcity of petroleum products - premium motor spirit (petrol), and kerosene, which became incessant an unbearable until the pump price was raised from N87.00 to N145.00 and did not protest - even when the organised labour incensed them; because of a determined resolution to support the new administration to block all loopholes created through the notorious and very infuriating scam called, "petroleum subsidy"! The President said at the 2020 Budget Presentation that good governance, inclusive growth and collective prosperity could only be sustained in an environment of peace and security. We could not agree more!

ECONOMIC PALLIATIVES IN THE 2020 BUDGET FOR ALL PATRIOTIC CITIZENS!
The 2020 Budget is the panacea to those several years of sufferings as it will provide the following palliatives:
Unlimited opportunities for all farmers, industrialists, manufacturers to freely sell their products - locally and internationally since local borders closure had provided the leverage! Prior to this period, the Nigerian market had been suffocated with foreign agricultural produce/goods from neighbouring West African countries to the detriment of Made-In-Nigerian products!
All farm produce and locally-manufactured products will continue to be exempted from the Value Added Tax (VAT), regime - which percentage should not be increased but closely monitored by faithful/righteous personnel with integrity.
The very rich and affluent should be made to pay more tax to alleviate poverty from the land!
The CBN cashless policy/banks charges and commissions should maintain status quo MUST not affect deposits/withdrawals of the 40% bank-friendly citizens to avoid heavy deposits in SEPTIC TANKS!
Education/Health's seemingly low appropriations will receive greater boost through allocations to Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), and Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), aside of their N48 billion/N46 billion, budget figures, and in true perspectives, these headings are not the exclusive responsibility of the Federal Government, which takes care of only TERTIARY LEVELS while the 774 Local Government Areas, the 36 STATES of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), take care of the PRIMARY & SECONDARY levels of Education/Health!
All ongoing capital projects (roads, bridges, etc,), will be prioritized and completed while it is planned that 16 roads and bridges would be added to existing ones to boost transportation of agricultural products from the rural to urban markets in commercial acceleration for gains and profits!
Outside of income (direct/indirect), taxes, government would lay greater emphasis on Internally Generated Revenue (IGRs), from agriculture, solid minerals, tourism, film industry etc, while it is strongly believed that the status quo of 5% VAT which would accrue at least a whooping N 4.7 trillion, (at GDP's 78%-80% of consumption expenditure), or more, if properly monitored by righteous agents of government, be maintained for sure results.
A general overview of the budget of Sustaining Growth and Job Creation reflects a determination by government to build on existing gains of the 1.9% economic growth and further reduce inflation rate to the barest minimum because its appropriation was evenly spread to touch all aspects of the mandatory social-economic activities of the people and simultaneously inculcate the culture of patronage of local products!

PDP CONTRACTED ECONOMISTS & SENATE MINORITY LEADER CONDEMN 2020 BUDGET!
But the PDP opposition detractors and their hired economists had never stopped to condemn the best of APC policies, and the 2020 Budget was not an exception!
They believed that the new budget was incompetent because debt servicing had swallowed one quarter of N10.33 trillion; that a large chunk would also go into recurrent, without considering the inclusiveness of the approved N30, 000, National Minimum Wage; while they also condemned the N2.4 trillion which would be borrowed to fund part of the budget assumptions - when compared with the 2019 figures! They also criticized the N3.32 billion allocated for foreign/local travels for the President and his Vice, which they believed was on the high side forgetting the high premium benefits that have accrued over the years to establish Nigeria as the economic destination of both Africa and the world!
Debt servicing/finance borrowing is global trend as no country, not even the United States of America, can even be self-sufficient without borrowing! For instance, the US Federal Budget deficit for fiscal year 2020, is $1.10 trillion, which occurred because government spending of $4.75 trillion, is higher than its revenue of $3.65 trillion! According to the report, US Fiscal Year 2019 Budget created a $1.09 trillion deficit!

BUHARI IS DETERMINED TO RESTORE BUDGET CYCLE!
UNTIL Tuesday 8th October, 2019, when President Buhari presented the earliest annual budget in recent times to the joint session of the 9th National Assembly (NASS), his APC Change Administration, found it very difficult to revert to the constitutional budget cycle of January to December calendar, courtesy of an inherited unfaithful Civil Service and an inordinately ambitious hostile Legislature which held sway between 2015-2019!
Apart from a total sum of N8.156 trillion estimated as IGRs in 2020, a finance Bill which proposed the controversial increase of VAT from 5%-7.5%, was also attached to the budget proposal on the assumption that a revenue estimate was expected from that source to partly fund the 2020 Budget.

FRESH COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATURE!
The two chambers have swung into action and are currently discussing the general principles of the 2020 Budget assumptions and would soonest, commence a second reading before breaking into Committees which will then invite officials of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), to defend the figures appropriated to them!
They have also promised the nation that, by the special grace of God, they would complete all deliberations on the new budget and pass it before they proceeded on break in December in order to restore the constitutional budget cycle of January to December!

IMPORTANT HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2020 BUDGET ASSUMPTIONS!
Total budget estimate is, N10.33 trillion or US.$33.8 billion dollars;
Capital expenditure, N721.33bn, which is 23% less than 2019 allocation;
Internally-generated Revenue (IGR), N8.155 trillion, to comprise (a) oil revenues, N2.64 trillion; (b) non-oil tax revenues of N1.81 trillion, plus other revenues of N3.7 trillion;
Debt Servicing, N2.45 trillion, about one quarter of the total budget;
Economic Growth of 1.9%.
Oil Benchmark: US$57 dollars per barrel;
Daily Oil Production, N2.18 million barrels per day (mbpd);
Foreign Exchange Rate, N305 naira per US dollar and
Budget deficit is projected at N2.18 trillion,

Others are, STATUTORY TRANSFERS: NASS, N125 billion; Judiciary, N110 billion; North East Development Commission (NEDC), N110 billion; Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCP) N44.5billion; Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), N11.79 billion; Niger Delta Development Commission, N80.88 billion (now under the supervision of the Ministry of the Niger Delta Affairs.

NON-DEBT RECURRENT EXPENDITURE: Personnel Costs, N3.6 trillion, an increase of N620.28 billion over 2019 Budget - to cater for the new national minimum wage as well as for an improved welfare package to the Armed Forces and Police; and an Overhead Costs projected at N462.6 billion.

CAPITAL EXPENDITURE: Capital projects were allocated N2.46trillion ( which embodied Statutory Transfers of N318.06 billion), but at 24% of aggregate expenditure, this provision falls short of the 30% recommended in the ERGP of 2017-2020. Other key capital expenditures include but not limited, to: Works and Housing, N262 billion; Power, N127 billion; Transportation, N123 billion; Defence N110 billion; Water Resources: N82 billion; Agriculture & Rural Development, N83 billion; Interior, N35 billion; Zonal Intervention Projects, N100 billion; Social Investment Programmes, N30 billion; Federal Capital Territory (FCT), N28 billion; Industry Trade and Investment, N40 billion; etc, etc.
WILL THE NEW NASS BE A RUBBER STAMP IN VIEW OF PROMISE TO RE-ACTIVATE BUDGET CYCLE? NO! BECAUSE GBAJABIAMILA SAYS: NASS HAS AUTHORITY OVER THE PURSE AND WILL BE VERY THOROUGH IN OVERSIGHT! WHAT'S THE INFERENCE?
PAST APC EXECUTIVE BUDGETS WERE ALWAYS PRESENTED LATE AND DELIBERATELY DELAYED BY THE PDP-LED NASS - NOT EARLIER THAN JUNE OF EACH YEAR - BUT THAT WOULD SOON BECOME A THING OF THE PAST! "Where there is a WILL, there, certainly will be a WAY!

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

TAX, TAX AND MORE TAXES: MUST GOVERNMENT RIDE A WILLING HORSE TO DEATH?

ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER.

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System From a Godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church Kpeyegyi Abuja Nigeria {Vol. 8.NO 321. 6th October, 2019.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32). . PRAY & FAST EVERY WEDNESDAY TO STOP BLOODSHED IN NIGERIA!

TAX, TAX AND MORE TAXES: MUST GOVERNMENT RIDE A WILLING HORSE TO DEATH?

[In commemoration of Nigeria’s 59th Independence Anniversary.]

It is true that the Nigerian government is backed by law to collect taxes from its citizens for the purpose of fulfilling social contracts in governance but the legal document did not insinuate in any form that official taxation should be exploitative or punitive against the governed!

With the recent flurry of fresh taxation of virtually every aspect of social life: first, it was the government's plan to increase Value Added Tax (VAT), from 5% - 7.2%, because Nigeria's VAT levy was the lowest in the world! But the protagonists of the new tax drive did not bother to carry out painstaking researches to discover the enormous economic advantages that accrued to the citizens in climes with higher VAT! With the current 5% VAT regime, can past and present administrations point to any benefits that have accrued to vast majority of the populace of which government is the sole beneficiary?

A value added tax (VAT), is a consumption tax placed on a product whenever value is added at each stage of the supply chain, from production to the point of sale. The amount of VAT that the user pays is on the cost of the product, less any of the costs of materials used in the product that have already been taxed.

In Nigeria, VAT is payable on goods and services consumed by private concerns, business entrepreneurs, government agencies etc! However, some agricultural produce/fertilizer, pharmaceutical/medical equipments, including commercial vehicles/ spare parts, diplomatic baggage, etc, were exempted from VAT!

NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF NEW VAT REGIME!
The fact remains that although government would enjoy buoyant revenue to cater for various strategic infrastructures and other special intervention programmes through the tax increments if such funds were managed by righteous officials; but on the other hand, products and services that are not VAT exempted would attract serious inflation that would further deflate the purse/purchasing power of the average income earner as they would purchase what they could only afford! By implication, the formal sector of the economy - especially the SMSE's will suffer significant patronage which in turn will be counter- productive for an economy which is consumption-driven!

An Investment Researcher, Mr Robert Omotunde, in a radio interactive programme, stated that Nigeria's GDP as at 2018, stood at 78% of consumption expenditure adding that if government taxed that percentage at 5% VAT, the country should have earned N4.7 trillion in VAT, but that it got only N 1.2 trillion instead! It is obvious that the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) should waste no time to advise the President against the imminent danger posed through the proposed VAT increase as it would produce human vultures ready to predate the common patrimony!
Nigeria should expand its TAX NET to the RICH and the AFFLUENT and also to non-oil revenue base in order to spare the poor masses of further economic agonies!

TAX SHOCKER FROM CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA (CBN)!
And while the organized Labour Unions/masses, Civil Society Organizations/NGO's who hold the short end of the stick expressed resentment and outright condemnation over the proposal, a SECOND SALVO was released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), through a tax shopping list which would fleece the 40% bank-friendly citizens through new tariffs on deposits/withdrawals - manual or electronic transactions at unbelievable percentages! According to Governor Godwin Emefiele, CBN's new policy on increased tax collections was introduced to ensure greater financial inclusion for increased economic growth and that only 5% of bank customers would be affected! Is CBN not contradicting its CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PORTFOLIO?

LEGISLATIVE INTERVENTION SHOULD HOLD SWAY NOW!
From all indications, it is very unlikely that the Senate which must review the VAT Act Cap VI LFN2004 (as amended), would assent the planned increase by government in order to avert further hardship on the meagre income of the poor masses, in spite of the fact that the Federal Executive Council (FEC), meeting of 11 September 2019, approved the increase for its consideration! In Nigeria, governments at Federal and State levels, are empowered to tax several items, commodities and services as stipulated under Legislative Powers of the Second Schedule - Parts I & II - Exclusive/Concurrent Lists. There are 68 "controversial" items on the exclusive list under the purview of the Federal Government and Sections A-L in Part II, which are exercisable by both Federal and States Government.
* The National Minimum Wage was yet to be implemented nationally - except by Kaduna State which paid its workers the agreed amount at the end of September, 2019! WHY PUT THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE BY FORCING ADDITIONAL VAT AT THIS AUSTERE TIME?
* Who would VAT favour - rich or poor? Definitely, the RICH who have more than sufficient funds to shop anywhere all the time!
* Must government become taxaholic on the poor masses rather than the rich and the affluent who are pathetic tax dodgers and tax evaders? NO!

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 states without ambiguity in Chapter II Section 2 (a) (b) (c), as follows: (a) " sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives its powers and authority." We will stop there for brevity!
Section 24 (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) & (f), of the same Chapter also clearly spelt out Duties of the Citizens; but for the purpose of this work, we will restrict our analysis to (f), which specifically urged the citizen: "to declare his income honestly to appropriate and lawful agencies pay his tax promptly." Are the Nigerian affluent TAX-FRIENDLY? NO!

THE GREATEST ASSET OF ANY NATION IS ITS PEOPLE!
Nigeria is not an exception to this global conception which classifies the people as power house, engine room, workforce, the golden goose that lays the golden eggs etc, etc; from whom governments derive not only their POWER but also their LEGITIMACY and MUST therefore handle them with the greatest care and treat them with utmost respect and dignity! Governments should never forget that a people could make or mar the nation's development, peace, economy etc, depending on the kind of leadership that navigates the ship and the economic team at the helm of affairs!

TAX DRIVE NET SHOULD BE SPREAD TO CATCH MILLIONS OF RICH EVADERS!
Statistics have proved that only 40% of Nigerian taxable adults actually fulfil this constitutional obligation, while the very rich and wealthy form the bulk of evaders whether it is direct or indirect! DESIGNATED CONSTITUTIONAL TAXES: VARIOUS FORMS OF TAXES IN NIGERIA - INCOME TAX, VAT, BANK TAXES, COMPANY TAX, ROAD TAX, PORTS TAX, ETC, SHOULD NOT BURDEN THE POOR ALONE!
*WHAT ABOUT THE PROPOSED RE-INTRODUCTION OF TOLL GATES ON FEDERAL HIGHWAYS WHICH WOULD BE COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE AND TANTAMOUNT TO DESTRUCTION OF THE GAINS AGAINST CORRUPTION, KIDNAPPINGS, ARMED ROBBERIES, VIOLENCE, BLOODSHED AND TERRORISM IN NIGERIA?
*MULTIPLE TAXES BY FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS IN NIGERIA MUST BE ABOLISHED BY THE BRAND NEW ECONOMIC ADVISORY COUNCIL (EAC)!
*SIX NIGERIAN BILLIONAIRES CAN ERADICATE POVERTY IN THE NATION! Whistle Blowers should come to our rescue and fish them out! After all, they made their billions from this great country!
*CAUSES FOR DESPERATE TAXATION; DEFECTIVE CONSTITUTION, SOURCING OF MONTHLY FUNDS FROM FEDERATION ACCOUNT BY STATES; DELIBERATE REFUSAL BY GOVERNORS TO GENERATE FUNDS INTERNALLY (IGR's); FAILURE TO EXPLORE & EXPLOIT NATURAL RESOURCES THROUGH EXTRACTION - OUTSIDE OF CRUDE OIL!
*AJAOKUTA STEEL INDUSTRY, KOGI STATE – ESTABLISHED IN 1979, HAS BEEN ABANDONED UNTIL THE VERY RECENT RUSSIAN INTERVENTION – WHICH HAS REQUESTED FOR URGENT ESTABLISHMENT OF A SEA PORT AT LOKOJA, NIGER STATE AND RAIL LINES TO TRANSPORT HEAVY IRON PRODUCTS FROM THE PLANT TO OTHER LOCATIONS FOR INDUSTRIAL PURPOSES AND EXPORT!
*ALL EFFORTS MUST BE HARNESSED BY FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS TO GENERATE FUNDS FROM NATURAL RESOURCES IN ORDER TO RELIEVE THE POOR MASSES FROM TAX OVER-BURDEN!

CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER!
New Tax ID: FG directs CBN, others to synergise with the Joint Tax Board. The Federal Government has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Interbank Settlement System, the National Identity Management Commission to cooperate with the Joint Tax Board in the release of relevant individual records! What does this mean to the Nigerian taxable adult? The end of multiple taxation on his meagre take-home-pay is in sight!
WHO SAYS PRESIDENT BUHARI'S APC GOVERNMENT IS NOT ON COURSE? When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. (Prov 29:2)

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

NIGERIANS HAD SUFFERED INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION THROUGH PERPETUAL BAD LEADERSHIP!

ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER.

((Looking at Nigeria's Political System from a Godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church Kpeyegyi Abuja Nigeria {Vol. 8.NO 320. 29th September, 2019.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32). . PRAY & FAST EVERY WEDNESDAY TO STOP BLOODSHED IN NIGERIA!

NIGERIANS HAD SUFFERED INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION THROUGH PERPETUAL BAD LEADERSHIP!

Institutional corruption in Nigeria deepened during the military junta of late General Sanni Abacha, whose administration in 1994 embarked on a gargantuan plan to shore up the Oil and Gas Upstream Sector through the construction of the Bonny Island Natural Liquefied Gas Project but became scandalous when bribe monies exchanged hands to influence speedy inflation of contract cost to about $6 billion US dollars by officials of the contractee - a US-based crude oil drilling consortium group of companies - known as HALLIBURTON, which area of specialty was drilling services.

Many public figures including legal practitioners were fingered to have collected large sums of US dollars running into $182 million, of bribe monies but not one person had been prosecuted till date while their US counterparts, including top government officials who benefitted in the scandalous deals were promptly arraigned, found guilty, fined or sentenced to prison accordingly, and made to forfeit their loots which were more than $150 million!

The consensus of public opinion is that the dearth of good leadership had been the bane of the Nigerian masses who continuously lived in POVERTY in the midst of PLENTY, even during Obasanjo/Yar'Adua/Jonathan administrations!

When President Buhari came on board, he made some efforts to re-open the Halliburton case and prosecute anyone indicted and while Nigerians are patiently, another foreign Irish company, P&ID, is about to scandalously steal a big chunk of Nigeria's patrimony to the tune of $9.6 billion US dollars by hook or crook through legal gymnastics!

THE FOREIGN P&ID SCARE!
It is however gratifying to note the haste and urgency with which President Muhammadu Buhari, assembled a team of high-level legal experts, professional/crack law-enforcement chief executives and top-notch technocrats, to aggressively confront the World Press and British Business arbitration Courts, to appeal a controversial and unacceptable $9.6 billion-dollar judgement in favour of a virtually faceless portfolio investment firm, which was poised to fleece the nation of its life-long critical assets!

Like a jolt out of the blues, Nigeria came under the threat of a foreign company, known and addressed as, Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID), which was in August 2019, granted leave by the UK's Business and Property Courts to enforce a 2013 award against Nigeria by a three-member arbitration tribunal which relied on the Arbitration Act 1996 (England and Wales and the Nigerian Arbitration and Conciliation Act 2004).

P&ID had instituted legal action against the Federal Government to claim that amount of money which represented a huge chunk of nation's foreign reserves, when plans were the highest peak for Nigeria to take an exalted place among the 20 most-economically-viable global countries, by the year 2020!

At the head of the Nigerian delegation was, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, supported by the Inspector General of Police, Chairman of the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Minister of Information and Culture, Governor of the Central Bank Godwin Emefuele and a host of lawyers, which did not waste time to place the nation's side of the story in proper perspective to the entire world and within four working days, secured, a stay of execution over the said botched contract judgement!

The very refreshing breaking news filtered from London on Thursday, 26th, September 2019, that a UK Commercial Court Judge granted Nigeria's request to stay execution of a 2013 judgement which favoured Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID), to seize Nigeria's assets worth $9.6 billion US dollars over a Wet Gas contract breach! However, Nigeria will have to deposit a security sum of $200 million US dollars, to the court within the next sixty days a sum which the country's lawyer said was comparable to the budget of the Nigerian Navy.
Prior to this development, concerned Nigerian citizens - at home and the Diaspora, became jittery following a sudden move by the Irish Gas Company to execute the said judgement which could have swallowed about 20% of Nigeria's foreign reserves with unpleasant consequences to the nation's economy and government's social contracts, according to Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed!

In 2010, P&ID approached a UK Business and Property Court for arbitration over the breach of the Gas contract award and eventually got the controversial judgement in 2013, for an award of payment for damages in the sum of $6.6 billion dollars, by two members of the Tribunal, while the third member, (a Nigerian Judge), ruled that the petitioner deserved not more than $250 million dollars! Nigerians are yet to be informed about the entire process that led to the judgement which was not appealed by the Nigerian legal team (if any), since then!

WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN 2010 AND 2019?
The 2010 controversial contract was awarded to the Irish Portfolio Investment Company, incorporated in the British Virgin Island, by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Administration headed by President Ebele Jonathan, and from all narratives, the contract was shrouded in much secrecy within the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Towers where it was signed, sealed and delivered without the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC)! Although the Change Administration of APC under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari, took over governance in 2015, not much of the said botched contract and judgement in favour of P&ID was revealed in the public domain until now!
WHO INTRODUCED P&ID TO NIGERIA? Investigations are still on to unravel how the foreigners infiltrated Nigeria's economic space!
WHO ARE THEIR NIGERIAN PARTNERS & BOARD MEMBERS? None!
WHERE IS THEIR HEAD OFFICE LOCATION AND BRANCH OUTLETS IN NIGERIA? General T. Y. Danjuma's Offices in Taraba & Abuja?
WHAT WAS THEIR STAFF STRENGTH IN NIGERIA IN 2010? No staff outside Messrs.Michael Quinn & Brendan Cahill, who allegedly stole the Gas Contract IDEA from retired General T. Y. Danjuma!

DOES P&ID POSSESS ANY TRACK RECORD IN PROCESS/DEVELOPMENT? The company's website claims that it is an engineering and project management company led by a Michael Quinn & Brendan Cahill, who had over 30 years experience of project management and execution in Nigeria!
WHAT LEGAL STEPS DID THEY PURSUE IN NIGERIA BEFORE APPROACHING THE UK BUSINESS & PROPERTY COURT? The whole process looked like a premeditated plot between some Nigerians in position of authority and those foreigners who virtually had no identifiable critical assets in Nigeria! So it was convenient for them to institute legal action outside of Nigeria shores - a conversant terrain where they could influence judgement in their favour!

WAS NIGERIA SUBPOENAED? DID NIGERIA HAVE A LEGAL TEAM AT THE HEARINGS? YES!
WAS IT TRUE THAT P&ID PROCURED THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES OF A NIGERIAN EX-CHIEF JUSTICE TO FLEECE NIGERIA? YES? OR YES!
WHISTLE BLOWERS MUST WAKE UP! NIGERIANS MUST MONITOR AND "FOLLOW THE MONEY"!

CONCLUSIONS: Nigerian delegation must not leave any stone unturned! They must be thorough and win the case against foreign invasion on Nigeria's economy! Outside of Police and EFCC, NASS should institute an ad-hoc committee to investigate and add flesh and unravel all mysteries surrounding the botched contract!
P&ID was ready to settle for $850 million dollars on May 3, 2016! What informed the change of heart and why was their no response from Nigerian Government'? Nigerians must know the whole Truth! Former Defence Minister retired military General, T.Y. Danjuma, who has claimed previous association an intimacy with P&ID, through past business consultancy, would definitely be an asset to the urgent inquiry that must be instituted by President Muhammadu Buhari NOW! TODAY!

All culprits - local and foreign must be brought to justice while Siemens and Halliburton fraudulent scandals must also be re-visited that TRUTH may prevail and justice may be meted on all culprits involved!

This battle against foreign predators and their Nigerian collaborators over the citizens common patrimony must be won fair and square! Corruption in all its ramifications must die completely and buried in this year 2019 without fail for a brand new economically-viable and flawless country to emerge!

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

OSINBAJO IS A CATALYST, TESTED, CERTIFIED & ABOVE POLITICS OF CALUMNY!

ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER.

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System from a Godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church Kpeyegyi Abuja Nigeria {Vol. 8.NO 319. 22nd September, 2019.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32). . PRAY & FAST EVERY WEDNESDAY TO STOP BLOODSHED IN NIGERIA!

OSINBAJO IS A CATALYST, TESTED, CERTIFIED & ABOVE POLITICS OF CALUMNY!

TWO strategic economic thrusts in the month of August, 2019, by President Buhari: first, declaration of Nigeria's attainment of food security/immediate ban on forex allocation for food importation through the Central Bank of Nigeria (on the 13th), ; and second, partial closure of the nation's northern border with Benin Republic due to massive smuggling activities, especially of rice (on the 20th), were no doubt, positive ideas of government to boost patronage of locally-made products; and which the newly inaugurated Economic Advisory Council (EAC), must advantageously employ as a starting point to further deepen the execution of the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP)!
The body will be required to advise the President on economic policy matters, fiscal analysis, economic growth and a range of internal and global economic issues in collaboration with relevant cabinet members and head of monetary and fiscal agencies and will report directly to the executive President unlike the disbanded Economic Monitoring Team (EMT), chaired by the Vice President, Professor 'Yemi Osinbajo, with a view to achieving quicker implementation and eliminate bureaucratic bottlenecks in this second and last term of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)!
Although, the EMT under Osinbajo's watch performed creditably, in spite of the self-inflicted economic recession foisted on the nation by the failed PDP 16 years of woeful administrations, ulterior motives have been adduced to the President's move by government detractors who believed that Osinbajo was being sidelined by the Presidency "cabal" which would not want him to succeed his principal in 2023!

VP Osinbajo is constitutionally Chairman of the National Economic Council, current Chairman of the Governing Board of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA); National Boundary Commission, the Border Communities Development Agencies and the Niger Delta Holding Company - a limited liability company owned by the three tiers of government; but it was being alleged that the President was planning to strip him also of his brain-child passion known as the Special Intervention Programmes (SIP), which comprises of the Trader Money Scheme; N-Power/School Feeding programmes and others, while some of Oshinbajo's aides had been transferred out of Presidential Villa and seconded to MDA's!

All of the welfare programmes previously under the VP's purview/supervision are expected to be transferred to the newly-created Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, headed by Sadiya Umar Faruk, according to the allegations!

Without losing sight of the President's core mission to provide adequate security, actualize successful economy and destroy institutional corruption, this second term aggressive moves within three months of inauguration could safely be interpreted to mean only one thing; a determined General who MUST win the battle at all costs by deploying his arsenals in the right directions under a unified command! The Presidency is ONE, because both the President and his Vice were elected with ONE TICKET!

TEMPORARY BORDER CLOSURE IS YIELDING POSITIVE RESULTS!
Nigerian borders were not normally shut except for very logical reasons which have to do with all forms of sabotage that border on infiltration of the economy: through illegal importation/exportation of foods, beverages, goods/services; or with security: smuggling of dangerous weapons, illegal immigration, terrorism or external war! The Federal Government was not unmindful of economic saboteurs, whose sole ambition was selfish aggrandizement through illicit trades and gains in collaboration with unfaithful ECOWAS neighbours and was poised to destroy their structures/cartels where they existed by destabilizing all their nefarious activities with the combined efforts of security agents at the land border posts, sea and air ports!

The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), bloc which could not call its saboteurs to order, were mostly concerned with the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Act of which Nigeria is a signatory rather than the welfare and economic prosperity of the Nigerian people whose fundamental rights were being trampled upon through the criminal dumping of banned foreign goods and products on the nation! They strongly believed that Buhari's stringent measures would not prevent smugglings into Nigeria but insisted, through its Parliament for the re-opening of the borders which had remained shut for over TWO MONTHS and promised to support a co-ordinated fight against the menace! But President Buhari told a delegation of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), on Friday, 20th September, 2019, in Abuja that the border closure was yielding positive results/dividends!

THE EAC MEMBERS ARE SEASONED AND GLOBAL-QUOTED AND TESTED ECONOMISTS!
The Chairman of the 7-member Presidential Economic Advisory Council is Prof. 'Doyin Salami and Dr. Mohammed Sagagi, Vice Chairman; Dr. Mohammed Salisu, Secretary; other members of the crack economic team are Prof.Charles Chukwuma Soludo, former Governor of the CBN; Mr. Bismack Rewane, a renowned business economist,; Mr. Ode Ojowu, a former presidential chief economic adviser; Iyabo Masha, former International Monetary Fund (IMF), Country Representative for Sierra Leone. Though not recognised by the Constitution, EAC will influence the President to take immediate and decisive actions this time around. They will hold monthly technical sessions as well as scheduled quarterly meetings with the President but the chairman could meet with Mr. President at short notice over pressing/urgent matters!

URGENT EXPECTATIONS FROM EAC!
According to a Public Finances Analyst, Mr. Olusegun Lemo, Nigerians would expect the new advisory body to urgently analyse current indices in respect of fiscal/monetary policies as they affect the economy viz: Gross Domestic Product (GDP), rate @ 2.85%, annual GDP growth @ 1.94%; unemployment rate @ 23.1%, inflation @ 11%; interest rate that the CBN recently held @13.5%, cash reserve ratio @ 22.5%, and Public Finances Crude Oil is $70 bpd. in order to shore up revenue that would address the masses unfriendly TWO DIGITS ratings of unemployment, inflation and interest rates to enable government to lift 100million Nigerians out of poverty annually from 2019 and in subsequent years ahead, since government administration is a continuum!

TWO OTHER SWEEPING CHANGES IN QUICK SUCCESSION!
Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita was suspended indefinitely on 19th September, 2019; for her to be investigated over allegation of over a bank account deposit of N3 billion naira contract scandal by EFCC/money laundering financial crime linked to her through her assistant while she was a Director in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. She has been replaced by Dr. Folashade 'Yemi-Esan, with immediate effect!
Chairman of the Presidential Investigation Panel on the Recovery of Public Property, (SPIP), Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla, was suspended on 21st September 2019, to face investigation by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, in respect of alleged certificate forgery and extortion perpetrated while in office as head of the ad hoc body!

AFENIFERE DESCRIBES OSINBAJO'S OFFICE AS IRRELEVANT, REDUNDANT AND INCAPACITATED!
The Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has faulted President Buhari for inaugurating the Economic Advisory Council (EAC), to replace the Economic Management Team (EMT), being headed by his Vice, Professor 'Yemi Osinbajo. They claimed that the move was to render the second-in- command moribund, though his principal unequivocally stated that EAC would address mounting economic challenges with a view to attaining Nigeria's position among the first 20 economically-viable countries by the year 2020 and also achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's), by the year 2030! The group also insinuated that the development was a Northern agenda in a permutation, to sideline Osinbajo and by extension the South West, ahead of 2023 Presidency, which is rotational between the North and the South!

During the first term when Osinbajo held fort as acting President for President Buhari who had health challenges, and no lacuna was noticed as he discharged the duties of the two men creditably, Afenifere did not allege any discrepancies in the hierarchy! Afenifere must be reminded that both men are regarded as associates in the Constitution!

We disagree with the myopic, nepotic and tribalistic position of Afenifere and their ilk’s who forgot that President Buhari acted within executive/constitutional rights and powers which allowed him to deputize his Vice or the Ministers or any other officer in the public service of Nigeria to act on his behalf as he felt appropriate in the process of diligent exigencies of services, according to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, Chapter vi Section 148(1)! Positioning Osinbajo for presidency in the 2023 General Elections is nothing short of sheer absurdity and a political miscalculation deliberately posited by Afenifere to heat up the polity!

Serious-minded Nigerians have no time for idle minds which would rather read negative meanings to every move of a determined APC Government which would stop at nothing but stamp an indelible mark of economic laurels in the sands of time for a country which global highly developed countries almost ran aground through an avalanche of horrible negative reports BUT would support the new drive to make this nation economically-viable by the 2020!
Nigeria will surely achieve this enviable status with the duo of BUHARI AND OSINBAJO in the saddle and in perfect control of the SHIP to the shame and detriment of the detractors! Whosoever God hath blessed, let no man curse!

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

ATIKU'S PERSISTENCE COULD IGNITE FRESH DESIRE FOR JUSTICE AT THE COURTS!

ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER.

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System from a Godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church Kpeyegyi Abuja Nigeria {Vol. 8.NO 318. 15th September, 2019.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32). . PRAY & FAST EVERY WEDNESDAY TO STOP BLOODSHED IN NIGERIA!

ATIKU'S PERSISTENCE COULD IGNITE FRESH DESIRE FOR JUSTICE AT THE COURTS!

The over eight-hour land-mark judgement of Wednesday, 11th September 2019, at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, Abuja, by a five-member panel of eminent, articulate and proven jurists of the Nigerian Bench, headed by his lordship, Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, which gave a resounding victory to President Muhammadu Buhari, has sent a very strong judicial signal to appellants, that electoral disputes/litigations could never be settled in the courts of public opinions, social media or pages of newspapers but in Constitutional Courts of competent jurisdiction, legally constituted for such duties!

But before that judgement which dismissed all prayers of the petition "in its entirety", the major litigant, Atiku Abubakar, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), candidate, in his characteristic desperation, wrote to the President of the Appeal Court on 5th September, 2019, on the need not to allow his petition to be caught up by constitutional timeline since the Tribunal had on 21st August, 2019, reserved judgement after the petitioners and respondents - INEC, President Buhari, and his Party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), adopted their final written addresses!

However, when the deed was done, head of the opposition PDP legal team had no choice than to eat the "humble pie", acknowledged the professionalism, thoroughness, legal prowess and outstanding conclusions of the cohesive team of the legal luminaries, who were united to dismiss in entirety, all of the three prayers sought by the appellants to nullify the victory of the winner of the Presidential Elections of 23rd February, 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari, and declare the runner-up, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as winner in his stead!

RUMBLINGS BY PETITIONERS BEFORE THE D-DAY!
Weeks before the D-Day, PDP in frenzied desperation to sway public opinion in favour of Atiku Abubakar, the social, print and electronic media was orchestrated with all manner of postulations that negative reports by international observer groups, which alleged electoral malpractices, vote buyings, ballot boxes snatchings, security agents interventions at polling stations etc, should sway judgement in favour of the candidate who lost woefully!
Their three-pronged appeal was predicated on the following planks:
That the election was marred by irregularities;
That Atiku received more votes than Buhari and:
That the president did not have a secondary school certificate, a basic requirement to contest the election. PDP said it would appeal against the ruling at the Supreme Court!
President Buhari, according to the results released by INEC, garnered 61% of the votes as against the 41% of Atiku Abubakar at the 23rd February, 2019, election but that the 35.6% turn-out of the electorate was lower by 8.6%. compared with the 44% in 2015, and Atiku rejected the results hours after Buhari was declared winner with a promise that he would challenge the results at the Appeal Tribunal while his Party described it as a "direct assault on the integrity of our nation's justice system"!

*Contrary to PDP's stand, Rivers State Governor, Nyesome Wike, congratulated President Buhari for his second victory over Atiku through a live broadcast because, he would not pay the nocturnal visits to Aso Villa like other opposition governors and party stalwarts - though he neither liked the President nor his policies!

SUMMARY OF THE LAND-MARK JUDGMENT THAT WOULD STAND THE TEST OF TIME!
The Jury was very painstaking in reading out the judgement through the lead Judge who initially decided pre-trial applications which favoured Atiku and his lead counsel before advancing into the main prayers of the appellants. The lead counsel's name which were abbreviated in some documents were accepted as genuine while ATIKU WAS DECLARED AS A BONA FIDE NIGERIAN AND NOT A CAMEROONIAN AS ALLEGED BY THE RESPONDENTS!
With analytical precision, one after the other, all arguments raised by the petitioners: from the crime of perjury in a sworn affidavit; to the existence of an INEC website/server; alleged electronic transfer of results through Card Readers to INEC's central server; vote-buying; criminal intervention by security agents (especially soldiers and policemen), to support electoral rigging by the APC; malpractices through ballot boxes snuffing/snatching at the polling booths with the connivance of policemen, etc, etc, were all succinctly treated without giving any room for ambiguity or controversy!

The lead Judge, Justice Garba, who took over from President of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa, who was initially rejected by the PDP, for probable vested interests, adduced and quoted copiously from a plethora of decided cases ranging from the lower courts through to the Apex court in a manner of a jurist who knows his onions and conversant with extant laws in the terrain of legal jurisprudence! The English definitions of some contentious words were not left to doubt as the learned judge employed the Webster/Oxford and other dictionaries to lend credence to the judgement!

And the "coffin" of the judgement pronouncements which did not favour Atiku Abubakar, was finally nailed by two other distinguished judges of the panel, who further buttressed the conclusions of the lead judge on the prayers in respect of Perjury and Vote-Buying, which were unsubstantiated by neither evidences nor witnesses by the petitioners, according to the law!

ALL FIVE JUDGES DISMISSED THE APPEAL IN ITS ENTIRETY, STRESSED THAT THE ONUS OF PROOF RESTED SQUARELY ON THE APPELLANTS WHO FAILED TO PROVE THEIR ALLEGATIONS BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBTS!

ATIKU'S LEGAL TUSSLES BEFORE 2019!
The PDP Presidential Candidate at the 2019, General Elections, former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, (1999-2007), suffered public disgrace/humiliation in the hands of his principal, Chief Aremu Obasanjo who accused him of alleged crimes of official corruption, aggrandizement and abuse of office during their second term, all in a bid to scuttle the ambition of the former from succeeding him in office and he (Obasanjo), succeeded!
Obasanjo instituted official panel of investigation and found Atiku guilty of impropriety in the handling of sales of Federal Government's critical assets, of which he was chairman; in his alleged involvement in a $500,000 bribery scandal involving a US Congressman, William J. Jefferson; and in the manipulation of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund, (PTDF), accounts, in other to castigate, reduce him to odium and unfit to further hold any public office - especially, his obsessive ambition to become the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria!

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, denied all allegations and got redress in over seven case which he instituted against Obasanjo and the Federal Government between 2006-2007, and was cleared by the Supreme Court as suited and qualified to contest the 2007 Presidential Election as the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), candidate, but lost to late President Umaru Yar 'Ardua!
Political observers strongly expected, Alhaji Atiku to institute legal actions of libel, slander, defamation of character, etc, against his boss years after they both lost the immunity shield, but that never happened; instead, Atiku sent emissaries to placate Obasanjo and subsequently travelled to personally beg for pardon and obtain assurances to shore up his dented political clout.

ATIKU HAS FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT OF APPEAL TO SUPREME COURT!
But in this trending matter, Alhaji Abubakar has the fundamental right to go the whole hog in the belief that he still had a good chance of upturning the verdict of the Appellant Court at the Apex Court!
Atiku, whose penchant for litigation had become obstinate is poised to proceed to the Supreme Court, which would finally arbitrate on the judgement of the Appeal Court and lay the case to permanent rest within the constitutional 90 days window allotted to the excercise from September 11, 2011!
Incidentally, the Abuja Presidential Appeal Tribunal judgement coincided with the18th anniversary of September 9/11 catastrophic terrorists bombings of the New York Twin Trade Center Towers, and other strategic government structures which humbled America, the most powerful global nation, which had won several battles ( civil wars, world wars), in its 233 years of independence! HE WHO THAT THINKS HE STANDS SHOULD BE CAUTIOUS, LEST HE FALLS! HERE LIES THE LITMUS TEST FOR ATIKU WHO STRONGLY BELIEVES HE WOULD NEVER LOSE ANY LITIGATION AT THE SUPREME COURT!

Atiku Abubakar's determination to further launch his appeal at the Apex Court for a final and logical conclusion should not be constrained that the outcome may further strengthen not only our DEMOCRACY, but also establish the much-desired foundation for STRONG INSTITUTIONS and become a REFERENCE POINT for future LEGAL JURISPRUDENCE!

"Whatever has a beginning MUST SURELY have an end!

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

SOUTH AFRICAN MINORITY WHITES ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS!

ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER.

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System From a Godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church Kpeyegyi Abuja Nigeria {Vol. 8.NO 317. 8th September, 2019.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32). . PRAY & FAST EVERY WEDNESDAY TO STOP BLOODSHED IN NIGERIA!

SOUTH AFRICAN MINORITY WHITES ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS!

The White minority South Africans who lost power to the majority Blacks in 1994, when the African National Congress (ANC), won the presidential elections for the very first time in the nation's history were never comfortable in defeat! It has been 25 years when fortunes were reversed, when the Enslaved legitimately took over the Masters tables and the once powerful and mighty task masters became the subservient in the equation; but as bad losers, had surreptitiously sponsored deliberate and regular XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS from Mandela to Ramaphosa, against African immigrants across the nation by applying the wicked and insensitive doctrine of divide and rule!

From prison to palace, late President Nelson "MADIBA" Mandela, proved to be magnanimous in victory, brushed aside the pains of 27 years of incarceration at the dreaded Robben Island, the massive slaughter of about 700 innocent SA SOWETO BLACK SCHOOL CHILDREN and an estimated 1,000 injured, on 16th June, 1976, for protesting against the "Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974, which forced all Black schools to use Afrikaans and English in a 50-50 mix, as languages of instruction!
He equally waved off crimes of Boers massacres of his fellow country men/women over trumped-up charges by consecutive White minority governments which were the worst kinds of racism/apartheid/xenophobia against fellow citizens of the same country! He forgot that the bestial act of that cold-blooded murder of school children precipitated a setback to child education/ mentoring and simultaneously created a deficit in the overall education sector for massive illiteracy to flourish! AND NOW, IT IS VERY EASY FOR THE WHITE BOERS TO EASILY MANIPULATE THE ILLITERATE AND JOBLESS SOUTH AFRICANS INTO XENOPHOBIA!

And when he climbed the podium on 10th May, 1994, Mandela in his inaugural speech, solicited that "bygones be bygones" but forgot to bequeath a bonding legacy that South Africans should remain eternally grateful to their African brothers/sisters especially governments of Nigeria, Congo, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Lesotho plus other African countries, which allied to put an end to the evil practice of "apartheid" with huge fundings and effective advocacies, and effected the desired democratic administration where the majority blacks eventually won the 1994 elections to break the shackles of bondage by White supremacists of several decades!

THE STORY OF APARTHEID: TRUTH MUST BE TOLD NOW!
BLACK South Africans must definitely have short memories! Once upon a time, THEY WERE NOT A PEOPLE and virtually had no citizenship because their WHITE TASK MASTERS burdened them with an everlasting servitude, treated them worse than second class citizens and yoked them as SLAVES in their fatherland where they had no respite and no one to rescue them but successive NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT AND ITS PATRIOTIC CITIZENS!
The story of Apartheid began in 1948 when the White-supremacist government of that dispensation introduced an inhuman and detestable policy of racial separation/discrimination purposely against the majority indigenous Blacks, who actually owned the land and successfully enslaved them until 1990, (42 consecutive and uninterrupted years of man's worst kind of wickedness against his brethren), when the MADIBA, President Nelson Mandela, who had been in the forefront of the emancipation of his great fatherland from colonial domination, was released from 27 years of prison incarceration and emerged through an overwhelming popular votes to become the first-ever Black SA President! Right from independence in 1960, successive Nigerian governments and its patriotic citizens condemned APARTHEID in all its ramifications and mobililized international support for a crusade against the obnoxious and very irratitating policy in which PETS OWNED BY WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS HAD SUPERIOR RIGHTS THAN THE BLACK CITIZENS!

Under the policy, Blacks were forbidden to dwell in cities and urban centres with their White counterparts; they must not ride in the same public transportation with the whites, must never share public toilet facilities, schools, churches etc, with the Whites because they were regarded as slaves and very inferior to their masters and MUST ALWAYS PRESENT OFFICIALLY-APPROVED IDENTIFICATION CARDS for employment unlike the Whites! South Africans owe Nigerians an everlasting GRATITUDE!
The present generation of South African blacks who lacked historical knowledge of past contributions of other African States to their liberation and independence, had continuously blamed their massive jobless woes (about 48%), on legitimate African immigrants who are engaged in honest businesses, instead of directing their venom on the Whites and the few RICH conniving-Blacks, who owned virtually all the thriving business in their country!
Xenophobia is synonymous to apartheid/racial insensitivity/bigotry/segregation/discrimination of an immense dimension that could provoke the kind of atrocities displayed through massive daylight destruction of valuable properties, lootings and killings of Africans by Africans for the umpteenth time on the streets of Johannesburg and Pretoria as they were ferried with BUSES FROM ONE LOCATION TO ANOTHER WHILE SA POLICEMEN, CONNIVED BY STANDING ALOOF!!
The White BOER minority which perpetrated APARTHEID (racial discrimination), through government machinery for decades (1948-1990), following de-colonization of SA territory, [though hidden in the background since May 1994, when Nelson Mandela became the first black President], still lay claim to a superior skin ego and also undue socio-economic headstart during the dark days when the SA blacks dwelt in squalor and abject poverty in their fatherland!

Whatever unfortunate pains/agonies/sorrows/losses, and collateral damages suffered by Africans through xenophobic attacks of the past or present, MUST be squarely laid at the doorsteps of all past and present South African presidents, including the "Madiba", who honourably bowed out after ONE TERM of five years but failed to educate their citizens on the need for unity and brotherliness with all African nations which supported them in their time of need!
Presidents Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, and the incumbent, Cyril Rhamaphosa, (believed to be multi-billionaires), cannot feign ignorance of the enormous contributions of Nigeria and their neighbouring African country during the painful/agonising years in the struggle against APARTHEID regimes of White minority!

ZIMBABWE'S NATIONAL HERO, ROBERT MUGABE SUPPRESSED WHITE SUPREMACISTS!
Late President Robert Mugabe critics would fault him for his solo effort of trying to put his country on the pedestal as a sit-tight for 31 years! But Mugabe fought the minority dominant Whites of the then Southern Rhodesia Government to a standstill until victory was achieved for him to take over the mantle of leadership in 1980!
From1980-2018 - ROBERT MUGABE who passed on at 95 on Friday 6th September, 2019, bequeathed a LEGACY OF SOUND EDUCATION to his citizens and earned for his country the credit of being placed as the only African country with the highest percentage of literacy! Mugabe was well educated. He was a teacher-turned-politician and had to his credit at least seven academic degrees. He did not only educate his people, he also empowered them through a deliberate agricultural revolution which transferred all Whites owned lands/farms to the rightful Zimbabwean black majority, who had been largely marginalized through racial bigotry of past White administrators! This true pan-Africanist would be fondly remembered for educating a people who do not believe in XENOPHOBIA!

WE ADVOCATE STRINGENT MEASURES BY NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT!
We join all Nigerians, from the Presidency/Legislature/Judiciary, including Nigerians in the Diaspora, to condemn the most recent SA xenophobic attacks which began from Thursday, 29th August, through Tuesday, 3rd September, 2019, and advocate for legal, economic, diplomatic sanctions against SA this time around - but We vehemently oppose and discourage any form of reprisals against SA interests or citizens in Nigeria!
On the legal plank, We support the suggestion that SA Government be dragged before the AFRICAN HUMAN AND PEOPLES RIGHTS COURT - based in ARUSHA, TANZANIA, to seek redress in the form of compensations for Nigerian victims in the unabated confrontations both in 2016 when 26 African immigrants, including Nigerians were killed and especially the18th February, 2017, reign of xenophobic terror which resulted in destruction, burning, looting of homes, workshops and properties of Nigerians - worth millions of US dollars, with professionally-documented evidences, authentic video footages, industrial experts/eye-witnesses reports!
Economic Sanctions: Trade between SA and Nigeria favours the former because its business interests in Nigeria spanning all areas of communications, industry, manufacturing, banking and commerce, are enormous; therefore, Federal Government should invoke economic sanctions against it without further delay! MTN which was slammed with a fine of US $5.2 dollars by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), in 2016, for impropriety in business transactions, and is yet to pay the in full, should be forced to pay with interests. Some Nigerians have even suggested that all SA business interests should be NATIONALIZED AND THEIR LICENCES WITHDRAWN immediately to send strong messages to the nation!
On the diplomatic front, most Nigerians opined that all relations with the HOSTILE NATION should be severed, that our High Commission and Consulate shut down, our ambassadors recalled, while all immigrant Nigerians repatriated! We will not support extreme measures especially when Nigeria's Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Information and Culture, have confirmed that no NIGERIAN LIFE was lost in the fracas but stand by our President's statement in the belief that there would be no future occurrence!
‘’And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise (Luke 6:31)’’.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

WHO IS NON-COMPLIANT TO THE "RULE OF LAW": EXECUTIVE OR JUDICIARY?

ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER.

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System From a Godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church Kpeyegyi Abuja Nigeria {Vol. 8.NO 316. 1st September, 2019.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32). . PRAY & FAST EVERY WEDNESDAY TO STOP BLOODSHED IN NIGERIA!

WHO IS NON-COMPLIANT TO THE "RULE OF LAW": EXECUTIVE OR JUDICIARY?

The fundamental rights of Nigerian citizens had assumed the derogatory pun as the "Ruse of Law", instead of the "Rule of Law" for various reasons ranging from injustices experienced by suspects during investigations of infringements of the law, prosecutions of offences, bail procedures, temporary remands at the correctional institutions and finally, the unrighteous role of the Judiciary which should serve as the last hope of the common man!

Rule of law should not be given a blanket criticism/condemnation when unfavourable to some persons or segments of the society because of its human rights value chain and the wider implication of its jurisdiction over every facet of human endeavour and MUST be recognized:
As the law which is fundamental, inalienable, and enforces human rights of the individual as stipulated in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended;
That it should be recognised like the purveyor of freedom which must be prioritized through righteous governance to ensure fair play, justice and equity to each citizen at every level of enforcement, investigation, prosecution and, or judgement;
That it is a system of law which guarantees innocence of individuals under investigation/prosecution until the contrary was proved at competent courts of jurisdiction;
That the law is applicable to all and sundry: litigants, appellants, accused persons, defendants, plaintiffs, respondents, the religious, the criminals, the rich/poor and all law-abiding citizens without exception;
And that in every true democracy, rule of law must act as the watchword to guide all socio-economic activities and establish the solid platform for crime-free societies where awareness and limitations of citizens rights are respected religiously!

CONTRAVENTION OF THE RULE OF LAW HAS COST NIGERIA TREMENDOUS BLOODSHED!
It is a decade down the line, (30th July, 2009 - 30th July, 2019), when the rule of law was denied to Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf, who was reportedly killed in police detention after his arrest and hand-over by the Nigerian Army for investigation/prosecution in respect of offences of unlawful assembly, violent attacks on worship places, contravention of public order, etc. Following the alleged extra-judicial killing, his lieutenants/followers swore to avenge his death through insurgency and all manners of brigandage which resulted in terrorist acts of suicide bombing and mass kidnappings for ransoms! Not less than 100,000 persons have lost their lives, while billions of naira worth of strategic properties lost to the avoidable calamities! If the rule of law was applied to Yusuf and his followers, in 2009, the nation would have been spared the agony of human and economic disasters that were still ongoing!

URGENT ADVOCACY IS NEEDED NOW TO IMPLEMENT RULE OF LAW IN ALL FACETS OF LIFE!
Who should then be the expert or best qualified to interpret the tenets of the Rule of Law and legal processes of Criminal Jurisprudence in Nigeria other than the practitioners under the aegis of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), whose affirmative submission at their recent 59th Annual General Conference held in Lagos between Friday 23rd to Thursday, 29th August, 2019, was a consensus vote that, "the rule of law must be entrenched and given the prominence it deserved as the priority policy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria!" Being an annual event poised to ensure clientele professional satisfaction, practitioners at the 2019 edition deliberated on the trending national discussion on the danger threatening smooth execution of citizens fundamental rights in respect all the "freedoms" as enshrined in Chapter IV, Section 33(1)46(1)(4)(a)(b)(i)(ii) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Current Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Barrister Paul Usoro, SAN, said during the Conference week that the ruling government of the All Progressives Congress (APC), could not be totally condemned for disobedience to the practice of rule of law, because in some cases, it was compliant.

The Chairman is also a beneficiary of the rule of law because in spite of being prosecuted for alleged money laundering fraud charge of the sum of N1.4 billion naira, he is presumed innocent and remains the Chief Executive of the body until the contrary is proven! APC was rule of law compliant in the case of el Zakzaki and wife, who were allowed to travel to India for medical treatment; it was compliant when the courts ruled that it had no candidates in the Rivers Governorship/Election and Zamfara Governorship/National Assembly Elections/State House of Assembly Elections, which ultimately favoured the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

VARIOUS COMPLAINTS AGAINST GOVERNMENT ON VIOLATIONS OF RULE OF LAW!
Legal practitioners. pressure groups, NGO's, CSO's etc, are quick to accuse governments at all levels of deliberate disobedience to courts orders and thereby violating the doctrine and the rule of law and by extension, the fundamental rights of several individuals! Although leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, (IMN), el Zakzaki and his are now enjoy bail facility, retired Col. Sambo Dasuki, who is facing charges of economic sabotage, money laundering, arms possession, in stilll in DSS custody in spite of many court judgements in his favour since 2015, because Government claims that NATIONAL INTEREST SUPERSEDES THE RULE OF LAW?

CULPABLE JUDGES AND LAWYERS!
In 2014, during a lecture titled "Nigeria at Centenary: A Nation in Bondage", a retired President of the Court of Appeal, in a very passionate indictment, claimed that the Judiciary was riddled with corrupt elements especially among those who called the shots at the Nigerian Judicial Council (NJC), and added that some dishonourable people, " not fit to be judges and senior lawyers, got into the system, made it the highest level of judicial career and subsequently frustrate the common man's quest for justice and equity" He also claimed that it was an open truth that both serving and retired judges acted as "arranges" or "couriers", who reach out to "purchase justice on behalf of crooked litigants”‘ and concluded that the problems with the Nigerian Judiciary, might be compounded or unresolved for a long time because "Nigerians naturally hate the truth and whosoever voiced the truth was marked for destruction"!
THESE REVELATIONS WERE MADE LONG BEFORE THE "STING OPERATION" CARRIED OUT BY THE DSS ON 8TH/9TH OCTOBER 2016, ON SOME JUDGES WHO HAD BEEN UNDER WATCH BY THE LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY!

Eight months after that operation, described as unheard of, unprecedented and unlawful by detractors of the WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION, even though they are aware that Judges were not above the LAW, one of the accused persons, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, was DISCHARGED AND ACQUITTED by his fraternal colleague on the BENCH following a "NO CASE SUBMISSION" by the defence counsel and was set free to go home to enjoy the sweat of his labours and RESUME AT HIS DESK for business as usual!
He was among the SEVEN Justices investigated after that STING OPERATION carried out by the DSS on 8/9th October, 2016.He and his wife Olabowale and Mr. Joe Agi, SAN, were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC), prosecutors on an 18- count charge bordering on criminal conspiracy to receive gratification in various ways contrary to Section 8( 1)(a) of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and items recovered from his home included the following: Large sums of money in foreign currencies; $121.279 US Dollars, 400 Euros, 110 Indian Rupees, £80 pounds sterling totalling several millions of naira and also TWO PUMP ACTION RIFLES!
During his trial at the law court, evidences were adduced that the Judge transferred N175 million in TWO TRANCHES in N90 million and N85 million respectively to a property company through a Nigerian Bank and was also admitted in evidence that a litigant standing trial before the Judge bought a car worth over N7 million naira for Mr. Ademola junior! That was not all, while the fate of ONE female Judge who was also on trial – Justice Ajumogobia, was yet to be decided, SIX Judges, who were about to be formally charged, were SUDDENLY RECALLED AND ASSIGNED TO DUTY POSTS BY THE NIGERIA JUDICIAL COUNCIL (NJC), who, arbitrarily decided that EFCC failed to file charges against them, months after their arrest and suspension!

WHAT ROLE HAS THE RULE OF LAW PLAYED IN ALL OF THE ABOVE? SHOULD CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE AND THE PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE TAKE ITS FULL COURSE WHEN NATIONAL INTEREST IS AT STAKE?

WHO DETERMINES WHAT CONSTITUTES NATIONAL INTEREST: EXECUTIVE OR JUDICIARY?
Defense of "National Interest" according to the Executive arm of government's understanding, constitutes total clamp down on clandestine initiatives/plans conceived and to be hatched by persons with ulterior dispositions in order to perpetrate criminal acts that could destabilize an otherwise peaceful environment with a view to causing confusion, danger, civil disobedience, anarchy or insurgency to innocent citizens, while the Judiciary believes that national interest should constitute total execution of the rule of law which would subdue and nip in the bud any form of disgruntled citizens insurrection!
Either way, both arms should unite to correct all existing flaws in the existing Constitution with a view to preparing the platform for a Constituent Assembly of eminent citizens who will fashion a BRAND NEW and unambiguous Constitution for Nigeria! "A house divided against itself shall fall!" A word is enough for the wise.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

MINISTERS WHO FEEL SUPERIOR TO CHIEF OF STAFF SHOULD TAKE A BOW AND EXIT!

ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER.

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System From a Godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church Kpeyegyi Abuja Nigeria {Vol. 8.NO 315. 25th August, 2019.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32). . PRAY & FAST EVERY WEDNESDAY TO STOP BLOODSHED IN NIGERIA!

MINISTERS WHO FEEL SUPERIOR TO CHIEF OF STAFF SHOULD TAKE A BOW AND EXIT!

DURING his first term in office, the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, was turned into a sort of "Mecca", because President Buhari had to play the neutral arbiter and father of the nation, always on hand to settle feuds between elected/political appointees who, in spite of designated powers, failed to appreciate their high pedestal! But this time around, he had given marching orders to checkmate the influx of the Toms, Dicks and Harrys, whom his Chief of Staff (COS), must now properly screen for appointments to avoid administrative distractions!
In a statement at the conclusion of a two-day induction retreat for 43 ministers-designate, presidential aides, and other top government functionaries, on Tuesday, 20th August, 2019, the President was very categorical that he would not entertain an extension for frivolities in his second term as he enjoined the ministers to hit the ground and work for the People of Nigeria, from whom they DERIVE THEIR POWERS to function!
"In terms of co-ordination, kindly ensure that all submissions for my attention or meeting requests be CHANNELLED through the Chief of Staff, while all Federal Executive Council matters be co-ordinated through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation," said the President unequivocally. He also urge the new ministers to engage and benefit from the experience of the older ministers and former governors in the cabinet, because FOUR years is "not a very long time"! The ministers were eventually inaugurated and assigned portfolios on Wednesday, 21st August, 2019, about THREE MONTHS into the new administration.
BUT most critics faulted the presidential directive and described it as high-handed, despotic and very unconstitutional as it has reduced ministers into serfdom/subjection of an oligarchic government!
Further in his address, the President confirmed that solutions that would address collaborative, purposeful and quicker results in actualising a more prosperous Nigeria in the areas of adequate security, macro-economic stability through agriculture and food security, the anti corruption war, industrialisation, energy security for petroleum products/electricity, transportation SMEs, human capital development for social inclusion, transportation, housing, financing and consumer credit facilities for a greater percentage of POOR PEOPLE, were fully researched/discussed at the retreat and must be implemented for them to access regular good/nutritional food, quality education for their children, including affordable healthcare for their families without delay!
He also assured Nigerians that solid foundations for progress had been established through the recapture of 18 Local governments previously held by Boko Haram in the North East while revamping of decayed infrastructures through investments in Road and Rail infrastructures, diversification of the economy from Oil towards Agriculture and Industrialization in spite of the sordid state of the economy and the huge legacy debts bequeathed to his administration in 2015, were pursued with dedicated/patriotic vigour!

THOSE who have criticised the seemingly derogatory directive to the ministers had freedom of expression but no rights to stop the President who, according to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chapter VI, Sections 147 (1) - (6) and 148 (1) (2) (a) - (c), possess the prerogative and absolute authority to hire whom to work with, dictate contract terms, conditions of service and duration! For instance, the President could, at any time during the "marriage", revise the terms, reshuffle the cabinet or even FIRE those performing below expectations without infringing "pre-nuptial agreements", because in the final analysis, ACCOUNTABILITY WOULD BE DEMANDED FROM HIM BY THE PEOPLE WHO VOTED HIM TO POWER AND NOT HIS APPOINTEES!

CHIEF OF STAFF SHOULD NOT BE MADE THE SCAPE GOAT!
Eighty-one-year old Abba Kyari, (OON), a two-time Chief of Staff to President Buhari, is no mean personality. He was educated at the Universities of Cambridge and Warwick, attended the Nigerian Law School, Lagos and International Institute for Management Development, (IMD), Harvard Business School and possesses a Masters degree; first appointed to the position on 27th August 2015 and his main pre-occupation was always to organize the daily presidential itineraries and ensuring that his principal was well-informed in advance to avoid administrative negligence or diplomatic blunders; and ensure perfect/ingenious security network within the entire presidential complex! He is naturally unassuming; he is a silent backstage worker whose immense contributions could not be wished away for good governance!
During his first tenure, he caved under much pressure from all directions of the polity; from appointed ministers, secretary to government, heads of service and parastals, political jobbers in the corridors of power, high profile contractors, captains of industries, organised labour, lobbyists, protesters, etc, etc., because it was the first term of his principal after a long break from martial governance! The President then, had to be very accommodative as he converted to a new trajectory in democracy but this time around he has barred them all from barging into the Villa as if it were a Village Square where the "baale" had no prerogative!

WOULD ABBA KYARI HAVE MERCY ON THE AGGRIEVED?
What would be the fate of the thousands of thousands of petitioners who can only communicate their president through the mails when the men of timber and calibre were barred from free access to the Aso Rock Office? We have it on credible authority that Mr. President was always oblivious to the pains of the aggrieved from one administration to another because documented petitions ended in COS trash bins - in most cases without any form of acknowledgement, even when the addressee was personalized! We want to believe that the presidential directive was a BLANKET CHEQUE to deprive aggrieved citizens from seeking redress from their CHIEF SERVANT who promised to cater for their welfare at all times!

THE BREAKDOWN OF THE CABINET AND PORTFOLIOS!
The list contained 14 former ministers, 29 new names consisting 7 females. The 14 ministers retained their portfolios - Federal Capital Territory, Labour and Employment, Education, Science and Technology, Health, Foreign Affairs, Water Resources; Finance, Aviation, Justice, Information and Culture, Works and Housing, Transportation. Osagie Ehanire (Edo State was) - was made substantive Minister of Health while, Mustapha Babs Shehuri (Bornu State) - was moved from Power, Works and Housing as Minister of State, to Agriculture and Rural Development, in the same capacity.

NEW MINISTERS: Dr. Ikechukwu Ogah (Abia State), Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development; Sharon Ikeazor (Anambra State), -Minister of State, Environment; Ambassador Katagun (Bauchi State), - Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment; Clement Ike, (Edo State) - Minister, Budget and National Planning; Isa Pantami, (Gombe State) - Minister of Communications; Emeka Nwajiuba, (Imo State) -Minister of State, Education; Muhammad Mahmood, (Kaduna State) - Minister of Envirionment; Sabo Nanono, (Kano State) - Minister of Agriculture and Development; Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi, (Kano State) - Minister of Defence; Ramatu, Tijjani (Kogi State) - Minister of State, Federal Capital Territory (FCT); Goddy Jedi Agba, (Cross River) - Minister of State, Power; Mohammed H. Abdulahi, (Nasarawa State) - Minister of State, Science and Technology; Zubair Dada, (Niger State) - Minister of State, Foreign Affairs; Sunday Dare, (Oyo State) - Minister of Youths and Sports; Maigarai Dingyadi, (Sokoto State) - Minister of Police Affairs; a brand new Ministry Sale Mamman, (Taraba State) - Minister of Power; Abubakar D. Aliyu, (Yobe State) - Minister of State, Works and Housing; Sadiya Umar Faruk, (Zamfara State) - Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development; a brand new Ministry.

FORMER GOVERNORS AND SENATORS: Ex-Governor Timipre Sylva, new Minister of State, Petroleum under the President; Ex-Governor/serving Senator George Akume (Benue State), Minister of new Ministry of Special Duties; Ex-Governor Richard Adeniyi Adebayo, (Ekiti State) - Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment; Ex-Senator, Gbemisola Saraki, (Kwara State) - Minister of State, Transportation; Ex-Senator, Adeleke Mamora, (Lagos State) - Minister of State, Health; Olamilekan Adegbite, (Ogun State) - Minister of Mines and Steel Development; 'Tayo Alasoadura, (Ondo State) - Minister of State, Labour; Paulen Talen, Ex Deputy Governor (Plateau State) - Minister of Women Affairs;

EXPECTATIONS FROM THE NEW SQUAD OF LUCKY MARSHALS!
They should take the assignment as an opportunity to serve Nigerians righteously NOT because it was their TURN to share the NATIONAL CAKE! Nigerians MUST watch and monitor them very closely - especially - former governors and ministers who are back in the saddle to continue where they stopped in the first term and might likely relax! Their first task is to ensure that Nigeria attained recognition as one of the 20 economically-viable country in the year 2020 and also achieve the lofty ideals of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), for African nations. Equally important is the fact that they MUST exhibit exemplary disposition: declare their assets on assumption of office, be content with their remunerations, avoid criminal tendencies through bribery and corruption and ensure they would not manipulate the Treasury Single Account (TSA), for illicit pecuniary gains!
RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTS AN NATION; SIN IS A REPROACH TO ANY PEOPLE. (Proverbs. 14: 34).

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

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Saturday 26 October 2019

NIGERIA COULD EXIT ALL EMBARRASSING DEBTS IF IMPUNITY WASTAGES ARE BLOCKED!

IN THE ASSUMED IMPERFECTION OF THE 2020 BUDGET, LIES ITS STRENGTH!

TAX, TAX AND MORE TAXES: MUST GOVERNMENT RIDE A WILLING HORSE TO DEATH?

NIGERIANS HAD SUFFERED INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION THROUGH PERPETUAL BAD LEADERSHIP!

OSINBAJO IS A CATALYST, TESTED, CERTIFIED & ABOVE POLITICS OF CALUMNY!

ATIKU'S PERSISTENCE COULD IGNITE FRESH DESIRE FOR JUSTICE AT THE COURTS!

SOUTH AFRICAN MINORITY WHITES ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS!

WHO IS NON-COMPLIANT TO THE "RULE OF LAW": EXECUTIVE OR JUDICIARY?

MINISTERS WHO FEEL SUPERIOR TO CHIEF OF STAFF SHOULD TAKE A BOW AND EXIT!

The Wedding Mascot Died! A must read!

Max Lucado.