News
Nigerians lambast accountant general, commissioners over UK workshop
- /home/naijuinz/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 27
https://naijablitznews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Oluwatoyin-Madein.jpg&description=Nigerians lambast accountant general, commissioners over UK workshop', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;" title="Pin This Post">
- Share
- Tweet /home/naijuinz/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 72
https://naijablitznews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Oluwatoyin-Madein.jpg&description=Nigerians lambast accountant general, commissioners over UK workshop', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;" title="Pin This Post">
Civil society and rights groups have lambasted the Accountant General of the Federation, commissioners of finance of the 36 states of the federation and other government officials for choosing to hold a workshop in the United Kingdom at a time when the economy is experiencing a major downturn.
The Office of the AGF reportedly held a workshop on Public Financial Management and International Public Sector Accounting Standards in London, UK.
Findings showed that the workshop was held at Copthorne Tara Hotel, Kensington London, from March 4 to March 9, 2024.
The workshop, titled “Public Financial Management and IPSAS,” brought together state commissioners of finance and officials from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
Over the course of five days, participants engaged in discussions related to IPSAS and its impact on accountability.
The workshop delved into other critical areas such as accounting and reporting in a hyperinflationary economy, as well as the challenges faced in public financial management implementation in Nigeria. Budget implementation challenges were also discussed.
Nigeria is grappling with a persistent foreign exchange crisis, which is worsening the challenges faced by businesses, especially manufacturers. This crisis has been prolonged, stemming from the government’s decisions to remove petrol subsidies and allow the naira to float.
The country is battling with high inflation that has eroded the purchasing power of consumers, aside from food shortage that has led to hunger protests in pockets of the state.
As part of his cost-cutting strategy, President Bola Tinubu recently reduced the size of his entourage and encouraged his team to do the same.
As part of the UK workshop activities, participants had the opportunity for a courtesy visit to the Nigerian High Commissioner in London. The sessions commenced daily at 10:00 am and concluded at 2:30 pm, with participants departing for their respective destinations on March 9, 2023.
However, some Nigerians and rights groups have criticised the AGF and the commissioners for being insensitive to the mood of the nation, saying such a workshop should have been held within the country to save costs.
A human rights group, the International Society for Social Justice and Human Rights, described the travel embarked upon by the Office of the AGF as needless and a waste of the country’s financial resources.
The Chancellor of the group, Jackson Omenazu, told the PUNCH on Wednesday that the decision to move about 36 members of the implementation committee of the agency who are also commissioners of finance for the 36 states to London showed how insensitive the public servants were to the economic plight of the country.
“This is the height of financial recklessness and insensitivity to the economic situation of Nigeria today. If it is a workshop as they have claimed, the accountant general can go for the workshop and come back to replicate the knowledge here to the other commissioners,” he said.
Jackson added that the journey was absolutely unnecessary and wasteful.
He said, “The journey is absolutely unnecessary for him to travel with the 36 commoners of finance. Looking at the cost of the travel and the economic situation Nigeria has found itself in today, there is no prudence in such a decision. We need public servants who will key into the situation of this country and salvage the country.
“It is cheaper to bring the facilitators to Nigeria to train the participants looking at the high exchange rate. The accountant general and the approving agency that approved the trip need to be cautioned.”
The Chairman of the Centre for Anti-corruption and Open Leadership and the President, Centre for the Defence of Human Rights, Debo Adeniran, said it was important to know the content of the courses the OAGF and his team had travelled to London to ascertain if they were readily available in the country.
While he did not chide the accountant general for the trip, he noted that the accountant general should have embraced a cheaper option of ‘training the trainers’ where if necessary only few principal officers of the agency would travel for the training and return to train others.
“Determining whether the journey was frivolous depends on the availability and accessibility of the courses they travelled for in Nigeria. The world is a global village and we want to know if the course can be readily assessed online here in the country. However, to save the cost of foreign exchange needed to travel to London, it would have been cheaper to go for ‘training of the trainers’ depending on the institution’s mobility,” he said
However, the Director of Press at the Office of the AGF, Bawa Mokwa, defended the trip, explaining the reason behind hosting the workshop in the United Kingdom.
In a conversation with The PUNCH on Wednesday, he emphasised that the workshop was an annual event held regularly.
According to him, the event was held in London because the facilitators are based in the UK.
He also stated that the event was approved by the National Economic Council.
“It is an annual event. The OAGF members present at the meeting are sub-committees of Federal Allocation Account Committee. Members of the implementation committee are commissioners of finance of the 36 states,” he said.
“They usually go to the UK to do it annually because the resource persons are resident in the UK and they implement it to the letter,” he added.
Also, an economist at Lotus Beta Analytics, Shedrach Israel, said it was not economically wise to spend the country’s scarce forex on such travels, noting that the AGF should have either opted for a virtual study for the team.
“The government has said it will cut down cost of governance but what has happened is contrary to the initiative of reducing the cost of governance. We are living in a digital world. Do people have to travel to workshops? they don’t need to necessarily travel to be trained.
“The problem with most of our government agencies is that they budget more for recurrent expenditure instead of capital.
“It is not economically wise to transport such a high number of people to London to-and-fro looking at the high exchange rate. We must do all we can to make the naira improve its value,” he said.
BUA Cement Plc has distributed agricultural inputs valued at over N108 million to 211 farmers from its host and resettled communities in Sokoto State under its Resettlement and Sustainable Livelihood Restoration Programme.
The initiative is targeted at farmers affected by the company’s quarry operations and is aimed at restoring livelihoods, improving agricultural productivity and supporting food production.
Speaking at the distribution ceremony, the Managing Director of BUA Cement Plc, Engr. Yusuf Binji, said the programme reflects the company’s commitment to sustainable community development and economic empowerment.
Represented by the Assistant Director of Corporate Services, Alhaji Sada Suleiman, Binji said the intervention was designed to help resettled community members rebuild their livelihoods through agriculture.
“We believe that supporting agriculture is one of the most effective ways of empowering rural households and improving their economic well-being,” he said.
According to him, the company is focused on creating sustainable opportunities for affected communities beyond compensation and resettlement.
He added that the intervention would help improve beneficiaries’ incomes while contributing to increased food production in Sokoto State and across the country.
The company’s Director of Health, Community, Safety and Environment, Engr. Ali Gumel, urged beneficiaries to make effective use of the farm inputs, noting that they had received training on their proper application.
He said the company expects the inputs to translate into higher crop yields, improved household incomes and sustainable agricultural development.
Also speaking, the Programme Manager of the Sokoto State Agricultural Development Programme (SADP), Alhaji Abubakar Danmaliki, described the initiative as an example of effective collaboration between the private and public sectors in promoting rural development.
He said the programme would support farmers in recovering from the challenges associated with resettlement while boosting agricultural output.
Danmaliki added that beneficiaries would continue to receive extension services and technical support to encourage the adoption of improved farming practices.
The company’s Social Performance Specialist, Alhaji Rabiu Maska, said the package included NPK, urea and liquid fertilisers, improved maize, sorghum, cowpea and groundnut seeds, as well as pesticides, herbicides and other farm inputs.
According to him, the intervention was tailored to meet the farming needs of the beneficiaries and improve their harvests.
Some of the beneficiaries commended BUA Cement for the support, describing it as timely in view of rising production costs.
They pledged to utilise the inputs for the intended agricultural purposes to maximise the benefits of the programme.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has emerged victorious in all the 24 chairmanship seats and 240 councillorship positions contested in Saturday’s local government elections in Gombe State.
Chairman of the Gombe State Independent Electoral Commission (GOSIEC), Abdullahi Garba Talasse, who announced the results on Saturday in Gombe, declared that the ruling party won in all the local government councils and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) where elections were conducted.
Talasse described the successful conduct of elections in the newly created LCDAs as a milestone in the state’s democratic development, noting that Gombe had expanded from 11 local government councils with 114 councillors to 24 councils and LCDAs with 240 councillors.
He said the commission worked closely with the State House of Assembly to secure the legal backing required for elections to be held in the LCDAs.
“We did not struggle for the enabling law in vain. Today, we have successfully conducted elections across the 24 councils and LCDAs, which is a significant achievement for the state,” he said.
The GOSIEC chairman attributed the poor showing of opposition parties to their limited participation in the polls.
According to him, the African Congress (AC) fielded candidates in only three chairmanship contests, while the Democratic Liberation Alliance (DLA) contested in six councils.
He added that the New Nigeria People’s Movement (NRM), Youth Party (YP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) each sponsored candidates in three chairmanship elections.
For councillorship positions, Talasse said AC contested in eight wards, while DLA, NRM, YP and ZLP each fielded candidates in 11 wards.
“That explains why some parties recorded zero votes in several areas because they did not participate across all the councils and wards,” he said.
Talasse explained that although chairmanship results were declared at the various local government collation centres, the commission considered it necessary to present a statewide summary to journalists, observers and the public.
“From the results before the commission, APC has won all the 24 chairmanship seats and all the 240 councillorship positions,” he declared.
He commended political parties, election observers, civil society organisations, security agencies and other stakeholders for contributing to the peaceful conduct of the elections.
The GOSIEC chairman also appreciated party leaders, government officials, non-governmental organisations and other guests from across the country who monitored the exercise, describing their participation as crucial to the success of the electoral process.
Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has attributed global warming to human greed, selfishness, and reckless exploitation of the environment, warning that such actions continue to disrupt the natural balance of the ecosystem.
Obasanjo made the remarks in Kano during an event organised in honour of former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Abubakar Mahmoud, and his Environment and Sustainability Initiative and Trust Fund.
Speaking at the event, Obasanjo acknowledged the reality and growing impact of climate change, stressing that human activities remain a major driver of global warming.
“God created our world in balance, but we, as human beings, out of selfishness and carelessness, have done more harm than good to our environment, and we need to do more in the safekeeping of our environment,” the former president said.
Obasanjo also revealed that he has personally planted more than 3.5 million trees as part of efforts to combat climate change, stressing that protecting the environment is a collective responsibility and a global public good.
The Kano State Government commended the initiative and pledged its support to ensure its sustainability.
The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Dahiru Hashim, described the initiative as a significant step towards environmental protection and sustainable development.
“In recognition of this laudable initiative, the Kano State Government has approved the donation of 10,000 seedlings for the Mahmoud Environmental and Sustainable Trust,” Hashim said.
In his remarks, Abubakar Mahmoud said the initiative seeks to promote environmental sustainability and preserve the ecosystem for the benefit of both present and future generations.
“I started a small project that has grown into something quite formidable, providing protection to villages around and to preserving various species of plants,so what we are trying to do is to continue with this legacy,” he said.
The event attracted several dignitaries, including the vice presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Rabiu Kwankwaso, former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, officials of the Kano State Government, and other stakeholders.
Participants at the event called for deliberate and collective action to address climate change and environmental degradation.
Pastor flogs 13-yr-old girl to death over alleged N30, 000 theft
BUA Cement distributes N108m farm inputs to 211 Sokoto farmers
NCC unveils incentives for local smartphone production
-
Foreign4 hours agoVenezuela’s earthquake death toll hits 1,430, ‘worst in 123 years’
-
News4 hours agoLagos Begins Unique ID Registration For Public, Private School Students
-
News4 hours agoNDC Vice Chairman, Assembly Candidate, Others Defect to APC After Court Nullifies Party Registration
-
News4 hours agoOyo Gov Lifts Curfew in 10 LGAs, Reassures Residents on Security
-
News4 hours ago‘My Wife Sent Love Messages To Her Lover, Threatened Me With Knife For Dating Two Of My Church Members’
-
News15 hours agoJust in: Police rescue five abductees in Ogun
-
Metro4 hours agoPolice Rescue 11 Abducted Farm Workers In Edo After ‘Gun Duel’ With Kidnappers
-
Entertainment4 hours agoFamily Announces Funeral Programme for Late Actor Kola Oyewo