Government’s resolve to remove subsidy on fuel, arrest of former governors over corruption allegations, the warning strike by non-academic staff union of universities (NASU) and a rare medical feat overshadowed all other stories in Nigeria this week. The Punch ran the story on fuel subsidy with two headlines — ‘FG to begin removal of fuel subsidy in January’ and ‘Subsidy removal: Labour, civil groups vow to resist FG’. It said in the first story that President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday conveyed to the National Assembly the intention of his government to begin the removal of fuel subsidy next year, saying so in a letter conveying his administration’s Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and a 4.8 trillion naira budget for the 2012 fiscal year (150 naira = US$ 1).
“A major component of the policy of fiscal consolidation is government’s intention to phase out the fuel subsidy, beginning from the 2012 fiscal year. This will free up about 1.2 trillion naira in savings, part of which can be deployed into providing safety nets for poor segments of the society to ameliorate the effects of the subsidy removal,” Jonathan wrote in the covering letter for the budget.
The President also said that the accrual to the contentious Sovereign Wealth Fund, as a result of the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy, would augment funds for critical infrastructure through the infrastructure window of the Fund.
In the second story, the Punch said ‘There was rage across the country on Wednesday as Nigerians, in groups and as individuals, reacted angrily to the planned removal of fuel subsidy beginning from January, 2012.
Labour and civil right groups as well as the opposition Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), condemned the Federal Government’s planned withdrawal.
The groups, including the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Campaign for Democracy and the Human Right Monitor, accused President Jonathan of implementing an agenda of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
They warned that the move would result in mass protests nationwide.
The Sun headlined its story ‘2012 budget: Finally, FG removes fuel subsidy, proposes N4.8tr’ with the riders ‘To freeze overheads’ and ‘To focus on power, agriculture, education, others’.
The Sun said the Presidency has indicated plans to remove the controversial fuel subsidy as from 2012 fiscal year, claiming that it was subsidising petroleum products by over 600 billion naira (about US$ 6.7 million) yearly.
If removed, critics of the fuel subsidy removal argued that the pump price of fuel may rise from its current 65 naira to between 120 naira and 150 naira per litre.
According to the Sun, the purported move to remove the fuel subsidy has come under virulent criticisms from prominent Nigerians who told government not to try it. Condemning the plan, former Governor of old Kadiuna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, said the decision would aggravate the poverty in the land.
His view was coming even as the former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Tsav, founder, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr. Frederick Faseun, and human rights activist and President, West African Bar Association, Mr. Femi Falana, said the planned removal was unwise and would compound the hardship being faced by the common man.
Meanwhile, oil workers under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Ptroleum and Gas Workers (NUPENG) held a moderate view, saying they were not completely opposed to government’s plan. Rather, they tasked government to make public how it would spend the money saved from subsidy removal.
State governors, under the umbrella Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), also backed the move, saying it was in the best interest of the country.
On the arrest of some ex-governors, the Sun headlined its story ‘EFCC arrests Akala, Daniel, Doma’, reporting that operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Thursday arrested former governors Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State, Gbenga Daniel, Ogun State, and Aliyu Akwe-Doma Nasarawa State over alleged misappropriation of public funds totaling 101 billion naira, while in office.
It said that the former governors have been moved to Abuja, where they will face gruelling interrogation by EFCC operatives.
Daniel, arrested in Lagos, is expected to explain how he expended 58 billion naira being funds allegedly meant for various projects in Ogun State while Alao-Akala would give account of how he expended 25 billion naira in Oyo State. In the same vein, Doma who was arrested in Lafia, the state capital, is being held for allegedly misappropriating 18 billion naira during his four-year tenure.
‘Ex-governors on the run as EFCC declares ex-Gov Goje wanted’, says the Vanguard which reported that there was strong indication that many former governors are on the run following intelligence reports that the EFCC will pick more of them in the coming days.
This came as EFCC declared former governor of Gombe state, Alhaji Danjuma Goje, wanted over allegations of mismanagement and diversion of over 52 billion naira state funds.
The paper said it learnt that some of the former governors who had earlier besieged Abuja for various reasons have hurriedly left the city.
The papers reported Monday’s take off of a warning strike by the non-academic staff union of universities (NASU) barely two days after the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) announced the suspension of its one-week-old strike.
This day, with the headline ‘NASU Begins Warning Strike Today’, on Monday reported that despite the public holiday declared by the Federal Government in commemoration of Nigeria’s 51st Independence anniversary, NASU members has said it will proceed on its planned seven-day warning strike.
The union, comprising of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), Educational and Research Institutions (ERI), said they would embark on the planned one-week warning strike Monday, in its quest to get the Federal Government to implement an agreement it had reached with them.
The agreement, Thisday gathered, bothers on the 65 years retirement age for its members, improvement in funding level of universities, as well as earned allowances and career structure for Technologists CONTISS 14 and 15.
ASUU’s warning strike was also over Federal Government’s failure to implement the agreement reached with it in 2009 on four-point issues.
The Tribune, reporting the story on the strike with the headline ‘Striking workers disrupt second semester examinations at UI’, said the University of Ibadan (UI) was, on Tuesday, disrupted, following the strike embarked upon by members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) over non-implementation of the 2009 agreements by the Federal Government.
Members of the union, in their hundreds, had as early as 8.00a.m, barricaded the entrances leading to the university, thereby preventing staff and students from getting to their offices on schedule. As a result, there was a long queue of vehicles trying to gain entrance into the campus.
‘Nigeria records first stem cell transplant’ was how the Guardian reported the rare medical feat in Nigeria. It said it was a major breakthrough last weekend, as Nigeria became the third in Africa, after Egypt and South Africa, to have a successful stem cell transplant where a sickle anemia patient had his cells replaced with those free from the sickle cell disease.
According to the Guardian, other category of patients that could benefit from the transplant include those afflicted with cancer who could lose composure after rigorous chemotherapy. Also patients with leukemia, thalassemia (a hereditary form of anemia that is caused by a dysfunction in the synthesis of the red blood pigment hemoglobin) and multiple myeloma could benefit from the feat.
Chief Medical Director of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Prof. Michael Ibadin, at the weekend briefed journalists that a seven-year-old sickle cell anemia patient who had suffered stroke was the first beneficiary of the transplant after he got a match from his 14-year-old brother.
He said the breakthrough was achieved through a collaboration with the University of Basel, Switzerland, where selected workers of the hospital, led by Dr. Nosakhare Bazuaye, were trained for one year.