President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, in a move to
douse the tension over the 2016 budget controversy, fired the Director-General
for Budget, Mr Yaya Gusau, and announced a replacement in the person of Mr.
Tijjani Abdullahi. Also, Mr. Ben Akabueze was appointed Special Adviser to the
President on National Planning.
The two appointments take immediate effect.
President Buhari also appointed former House of Representatives member, Mrs
Abike Dabiri-Erewa as his Senior Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs and the
Diaspora.
Again, yesterday, the President sacked heads of 26
federal parastatals, agencies and commissions. The sack of the
Director-General, Budget Office and heads of other parastatals is coming on the
heels of President Buhari’s sack of some university vice-chancellors.
The President also, yesterday, approved the
immediate disengagement of 26 chief executive officers of some federal
parastatals, agencies and commissions.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation,
Babachir Lawal in a statement, said those affected in the gale of sack include
head of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA; Mr. Sola Omole; heads of
Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN; Voice of Nigeria, VON; News Agency
of Nigeria, NAN ; National Broadcasting Commission, NBC and the Petroleum
Technology Development Fund, PTDF. Others were New Partnership for Africa’s
Development, NEPAD; Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF; Nigerian
Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB; Federal Mortgage Bank of
Nigeria, FMBN; Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund; National Information
Technology Development Agency, NITDA and the Petroleum Equalization Fund. Also
on the list of those whose chief executives were sacked were Nigeria Railways
Corporation, NRC; Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP; Bureau of Public
Enterprises, BPE; Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA; Standard
Organisation of Nigeria, SON; National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration
and Control, NAFDAC; Nigeria Investment Promotion Council, NIPC; Bank of
Industry, BoI; National Centre for Women Development, NCWD; National
Orientation Agency, NOA; Industrial Training Fund, ITF; Nigerian Export-Import
Bank as well as the National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic In Persons and
Other Related Matters, NAPTIP.
The President also directed the most senior officers
in the parastatals, agencies and commissions to oversee the activities of the
organisations pending the appointment of substantive Chief Executive Officers.
According to a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on
Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the new DG Budget, Mr. Abdullahi, “is a
fellow of the Certified National Accountants of Nigeria, and a banker of repute
with experience in managing public finance, who will now replace the current
Director-General (Budget), Mr. Yahaya Gusau.
The new Director-General of Budget is expected to
work with the Minister of Budget and National Planning to efficiently deliver
on the mandates of the Budget Office of the Federation. According to the
statement, President Buhari has also approved the appointment of Mr Akabueze as
the Special Adviser to the President on National Planning. Akabueze who is the
immediate past Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget in Lagos State,
has worked in senior management positions in Citi Bank, Fidelity Bank, United
Bank for Africa, NAL Merchant Bank, Sterling Bank and BIA Consulting Limited,
among others. He is Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers; Fellow,
Institute of Credit Administrators.” Budget of controversy It will be recalled
that 2016 budget had sparked off controversy, with the legislature accusing the
Executive of padding and doctoring provisions made by ministries departments
and agencies of government.
The controversy deepened when the Federal Ministry
of Health disowned the budget proposal submitted on its behalf by the Ministry
of Budget and National Planning. Health Minister, Isaac Adewole, who addressed
the Senate Committee on Health during its budget defence session, said the
proposal drawn up by the ministry and submitted to the budget office had been
doctored and that “foreign” appropriations, different from what was submitted,
had been smuggled in.
“We have to look into the details of the budget and
re-submit it to the committee,” he said.
“This was not
what we submitted. We will submit another one. We do not want anything foreign
to creep into that budget. What we submitted is not there.” Earlier the Senate
had discovered a sum of N10 billion “questionably smuggled” into the budget of
the Ministry of Education for an allegedly questionable subhead.
A senior Presidency official told newsmen that a
“budget mafia” was responsible for the embarrassing allocations in the budget.
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