It is Friday, March 24, and ZENITHBLOG.com has put together a review of the trending stories that made the covers of top Nigerian dailies today.
We begin with The Nation which bears headline: “SGF to reveal how Fake firms got N1.3b contracts”
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Many companies awarded contracts by the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) cannot be located, a senator alleged yesterday.
Senator Shehu Sani, Chairman, Senate adhoc committee on mounting humanitarian crisis in the North East, told reporters in Abuja that over 20 companies were involved in the phony contracts.
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Of the about N1.3 billion jobs awarded, the most controversial is the N220 million contract for the removal of wild grass and provision of 115 hectares of simplified irrigation in Yobe State, awarded to Rholavision Engineering Limited. The firm is linked to Lawal.
The Kaduna Central lawmaker, who described the development as “strange”, said that the inability of his committee to trace the addresses of the firms reinforced its desire to interact with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir David Lawal, who headed PINE.
The Punch continues the discuss with the headline: “Contracts awarded to 20 ghost firms – Senate panel
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An investigative hearing by the Senate on the alleged management of funds meant for the rehabilitation of the North-East, billed to hold on Thursday, had been botched by the non-appearance of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal.
The Chairman, Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Mounting Humanitarian Crisis in the North-East, Senator Shehu Sani, said the probe was not a witch-hunt against the SGF, whose office oversees the Presidential Initiative on the North-East.
He said this while addressing journalists after the plenary on Thursday, following a meeting with the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang.
Vanguard carries the report: “6 GENCOs generated zero electricity in 1 week”.
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The challenges bedevilling the power sector appear worsening as the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, through the daily operational report of the National Control Centre, NCC, yesterday, reported that six power generating companies, GENCOs, failed to generate power in seven days.
The report also indicated that the GENCOs lost about N7.73 billion in the last one week due to constraints of gas and water to the power plants. This, however, came along with a significant increase in power generation to 4,452.5 megawatts (mw) from a low of 3000MW, previous week, indicating that the remaining five GENCOs were able to ramp up output during the period.
This Day bears the report: “Babalakin Counsels Against Appointment of Senior Advocates to S’Court, Except…”
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A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Dr. Wale Babalakin, on Thursday faulted the proposed appointment of SANs and other lawyers to the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
“Such a privilege is for very exceptional people and there are very few around that make the mark,” he said.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, had invited the Bar to nominate lawyers for appointment as Supreme Court justices, following which the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) shortlisted nine persons, including six SANs.
But Babalakin, who delivered the 10th memorial lecture in honour of the late Kehinde Sofola (SAN), said the legal system should be structured in a manner that only very gifted lawyers aspire to judicial appointments, adding that it was the only way to provide justice according to the law.
Babalakin was of the view that lawyers who are appointed straight to the Supreme Court come once in a lifetime and are of exceptional intellect.
The Guardian carries the headline: “Investors in equities lose N2.3trn to bonds, others”
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The rise in the issuance of bonds and other debts instruments by governments and corporate organisations has taken a heavy toll on the fortunes of the equities sector. Market investors may have lost about N2.3trillion in recent years.
The preference for the bonds and debts instrument arises from the fact that returns on such facilities, which are loaned to governments or corporate bodies, are guaranteed for the fixed period of their tenure, unlike the stocks or equities which are exposed to the vagaries of market forces as they are traded daily.
For instance, the market capitalisation of quoted equities, which was put at N11, 237 trillion on January 5, 2015, stood at N8,842 trillion as at Tuesday, March 21, 2017, down by N2.3 trillion, while the All-share index declined by 8384.72 points or 32.8 per cent, from 33,943.29 to 25,558.57.
Overall, the practice has made government the biggest competitor of the equities market as its unrestricted floating of official bonds and debts instruments has rechannelled elsewhere funds needed to stimulate activities in the stock market.
Consequently, investors may choose to remain in the market and become poor, or divest in pursuit of the new investment fad called government bonds. Either way, the equities market is weakened as funds required to boost trading are being gradually crowded out by incessant bonds issuance by government.
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