Chelsea's Kante will let his football speak for him

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has praised new signing N’Golo Kante for his reserved personality, and has backed the France international to be a “fantastic” midfielder for the squad.

Kante left Premier League champions Leicester City for a £30 million move to Stamford Bridge earlier this month.

The former Caen midfielder has impressed new boss Conte during preseason training sessions, leaving the Italian convinced the 25-year-old will play a major role in his side this season.

“We are very happy to have N’Golo with us because he is a player who does not speak a lot, but just does his job,” Conte told reporters ahead of Chelsea’s International Champions Cup match with Real Madrid (3 p.m. ET, ESPN) on Saturday.

“He is in great shape physically. He is a player who keeps on running, someone who has great stamina and endurance. The people who know him better have all told me he has a fantastic attitude and a lot of energy.“He is a good guy, very humble and very keen to work hard, which is important to me. I have had a conversation with him to explain what I expect from him and he can become an important player in midfield, just like [Cesc] Fabregas, [Nemanja] Matic and the others.

“He does not talk a lot, but acts instead. It is not necessary for him to talk a lot. I think he might be a bit shy. I just need a few players who do the talking during the game. He just arrived at a new club and still needs to find his feet a bit. N’Golo can become a fantastic midfielder. He can still improve, maybe he can score a bit more.”

Budget Padding: The road to constitutional dictatorship

One cliché that has lately drawn interest among Nigerian newsmakers and observers is the controversial phenomenon of “Budget Padding.” Given the way Nigerians are wont to glamourise crimes, or take for granted issues thrown at them by the political class, it is not surprising that very few Nigerians have been able to interrogate the phrase to give a definitive meaning to it.

Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and the just sacked Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Rep. Abdulmumin Jibrin, recently refocused attention on the issue.

Jibrin had drawn the first blood a week ago after he was removed as chairman of the appropriation committee when he accused Speaker Yakubu Dogara and three other principal officers of padding the 2016 budget. According to him, his opposition to the alleged padding and other supposed malfeasances of the Speaker and his allies was the reason for his forced resignation as chairman of the appropriation committee.

His assertion, however, quickly drew the attention of critics who queried why he had to wait till he was removed from office before spilling the beans.

Taking a cue from the assertions of Rep. Jibrin, President Obasanjo upon a visit with President Muhammadu Buhari again took a direct hit at the National Assembly when he said that the Jibrin incident had again confirmed his past assertions that there were rogues and armed robbers in the National Assembly.

Obasanjo’s assertions undoubtedly drew from his experience of dealing with the National Assembly during his period in the Presidential Villa. In one case, he had an incumbent President of the Senate investigated and charged to court after he and some other members of the committees on education of the two chambers were indicted for soliciting for bribes to pass the budget of the Federal Ministry of Education.

However, what has shaken many friends and foes of the former president is the claim that the most brazen act of corruption in recent Nigeria history involving the legislature did not emanate from the National Assembly, but from the executive branch of government.

It was an irony of sorts for someone like Senator Adolphus Wabara who was himself allegedly offered double the amount to support the amendment. Wabara claimed he was offered double the normal N50 million even after he was indicted by the executive branch of government in the N54 million bribe for budget scam in the Federal Ministry of Education.The Third Term fiasco during which members of the House of Representatives supportive of the constitution amendment for a third term for the president and governors were offered N50 million apiece till date continues to be cited as the most repugnant act of corruption ever in the Fourth Republic of Nigeria.

A number of other principled legislators also refused the bribe and were to shine like stars in that dark period of licentious legislative lampoonery supposedly crafted by the executive branch. For their principled stances, they were denied return tickets and many others like Temi Harriman, the only House member from the ruling party from the South-South who fought third term, simply walked away from the ruling party.

Senator Joy Emodi for her opposition was made to confront the political treachery that has been symptomatic of politics in Anambra State in her bid for a return ticket on the platform of the PDP.

The Third Term project and the seeming acquiesce of the Obasanjo presidency to the fiasco remains in the view of many, including this correspondent, the major failure of the Obasanjo administration.

Otherwise, President Obasanjo has remained almost head and shoulder above his successors.

Whether President Obasanjo or Jibrin or whoever, no one has been able to give a classic definition of the phrase, budget padding.

The seeming determination of the executive branch to force the term into the consciousness of Nigerians remains deceptive.

Given the provisions of Sections 80, 81 and 82 of the Constitution, the National Assembly cannot be said to have padded a budget that it has a right to work on. Stopping the National Assembly from padding, adjusting or shrinking the budget would inevitably make the legislature a rubber stamp. It would mean taking away its most important duty of controlling the purse and turning the executive branch into a dictatorship.

UN condems barbaric Boko Haram violence in Nigeria

Militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), has vowed to bomb more oil pipelines beginning from first week of August.

The group warned oil workers and foreigners still in the region to vacate or risk their lives.

The group which has claimed respon­sibility for recent spate of bombings of oil facilities in the region said it has had enough of the dishonesty and tricks of the Federal Government, as it claimed the peace talk or dialogue purportedly initiated by the Federal Government was a delay tactics to enable the gov­ernment take delivery of arms includ­ing drones expected to arrive by end of August from the United States.

“This whole thing makes us to won­der what kind of country is this? We can all see that President Buhari-led govern­ment is a fraud. They are not serious about any dialogue. But they make it look as if the Niger Delta Avengers are the ones not ready for dialogue.

“Mr. President, you can purchase all the drones in Europe and the United States of America, it won’t stop the Niger Delta Avengers from bringing the country’s economy to zero.

“The worst you can do is to kill poor innocent people which the military is good at, but you should know that the Nigerian economy will suffer, as you will not be able to export one litre of crude in the Niger Delta. Just intensify the oil exploration in the North East. As for the ones in the Niger Delta, forget about it because the Nigerian govern­ment won’t export a drop from our land,” the militants bragged.

But the military has read the riot act to the militants to desist from attacking oil installations or face the consequences of their criminal actions.

Commander of Operation Delta Safe, Rear Admiral Joseph Okojie who gave the warning in Asaba during a courtesy call on Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State vowed that the multi-service task force was prepared to tackle any criminal action within the Nigerian maritime area.

He said the military has the mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari to secure the waters in the Niger Delta region covering part of Ondo, Edo and the entire Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers as well as part of Akwa Ibom states against security and economic threats.

Meanwhile, the Concerned Militant Leaders (CML) has claimed responsi­bility for the attack on the Nigerian Na­tional Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipeline, which occurred on Monday, at Obotim Ikot Ekong village in Akwa Ibom State.

Also, the CML said the Liberian ship, which its “rugged sea warriors” seized on Tuesday, July 19, 2016, on Bakassi Peninsula Nigerian waterways, would not be released, adding that the vessel would be named after Biafra.

Spokesperson of the group, General Ben, stated this yesterday, while react­ing to the statement by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-General Tukur Buratai that the militants would be attacked, if government’s efforts to dialogue with militants proved futile.

General Ben claimed no active militant group has engaged the Federal Government in any discussion, warning that any individual who works against the collective agenda of the militants would regret his or her action.

Joji said by blowing up oil pipelines and destroying other key facilities that affect the economy of the Nigeria, the militants have declared war against the Nigerian state, and therefore should not be pitied.However, former Managing Direc­tor of the defunct Nigerian Airways, Captain Mohammed Joji said Buhari should not romance the militants by going into dialogue with them. He said government should engage them “fire for fire.”

Captain Joji said the militant group has not only inflicted incalculable pains on Nigerians, but also about to cripple the nation’s economy.

While lamenting that the activities of the Avengers was responsible for the scarcity of aviation fuel, the aviation expert said if the the ‘madness’ was al­lowed to continue, it would ground the aviation industry, which would in turn ground the economy.

“Fuel scarcity in the aviation sector is a sabotage by the so-called Niger Delta Avengers, so pipeline vandalism must be brought to a halt if the crisis must end.

“I am not an advocate of negotiations with a terrorist group. The Federal Gov­ernment should forget about democracy and go fire for fire with the Avengers,” he said.

In a related development, former minister of mines and steel, Chief Sarafa Tunji Ishola enjoined President Buhari to quickly summon an emergen­cy Council of State meeting to address the prevailing insecurity.

Ishola said the president should not wait until the insecurity in Niger Delta, the agitation for Biafra Republic in the South East and the continuous killings of innocent Nigerians by herdsmen, spi­ral out of hand before convening such a meeting.

“Allowing insecurity to persist beyond the current level may spell doom for Buhari’s administration, because the level of poverty in Nigeria today is just too high that people are only tolerating his administration temporarily.

“If he should allow Nigerians to run out of patience and revolt against his administration, that may spell doom,” the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain said.

The ex-minister explained that the president should not think the rising insecurity in the country was something he and his All Progressives Congress (APC) could solve alone.

“Buhari needs wisdom from former Heads of State and other elder states­men who have ruled this nation before him. So, he needs to call the Council of State meeting as a matter of urgency, with security matter as the sole agen­dum.”

Ishola noted that it would be a great error on the part of Buhari to think that the method he used about 31 years ago as military Head of State is what he would use now as civilian president.

“This is a democratic dispensation, you have to carry along critical stake­holders and also have listening ears, if not the insecurity will get out of hand. And if you are talking about diversifica­tion of the economy, tell me, which foreign investors will go to a country to invest where they are throwing bombs, kidnapping people and demanding huge ransoms?” he queried.

Niger Delta militants promise to blow up more oil factories

Militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), has vowed to bomb more oil pipelines beginning from first week of August.

The group warned oil workers and foreigners still in the region to vacate or risk their lives.

The group which has claimed respon­sibility for recent spate of bombings of oil facilities in the region said it has had enough of the dishonesty and tricks of the Federal Government, as it claimed the peace talk or dialogue purportedly initiated by the Federal Government was a delay tactics to enable the gov­ernment take delivery of arms includ­ing drones expected to arrive by end of August from the United States.

“This whole thing makes us to won­der what kind of country is this? We can all see that President Buhari-led govern­ment is a fraud. They are not serious about any dialogue. But they make it look as if the Niger Delta Avengers are the ones not ready for dialogue.

“Mr. President, you can purchase all the drones in Europe and the United States of America, it won’t stop the Niger Delta Avengers from bringing the country’s economy to zero.

“The worst you can do is to kill poor innocent people which the military is good at, but you should know that the Nigerian economy will suffer, as you will not be able to export one litre of crude in the Niger Delta. Just intensify the oil exploration in the North East. As for the ones in the Niger Delta, forget about it because the Nigerian govern­ment won’t export a drop from our land,” the militants bragged.

But the military has read the riot act to the militants to desist from attacking oil installations or face the consequences of their criminal actions.

Commander of Operation Delta Safe, Rear Admiral Joseph Okojie who gave the warning in Asaba during a courtesy call on Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State vowed that the multi-service task force was prepared to tackle any criminal action within the Nigerian maritime area.

He said the military has the mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari to secure the waters in the Niger Delta region covering part of Ondo, Edo and the entire Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers as well as part of Akwa Ibom states against security and economic threats.

Meanwhile, the Concerned Militant Leaders (CML) has claimed responsi­bility for the attack on the Nigerian Na­tional Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipeline, which occurred on Monday, at Obotim Ikot Ekong village in Akwa Ibom State.

Also, the CML said the Liberian ship, which its “rugged sea warriors” seized on Tuesday, July 19, 2016, on Bakassi Peninsula Nigerian waterways, would not be released, adding that the vessel would be named after Biafra.

Spokesperson of the group, General Ben, stated this yesterday, while react­ing to the statement by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-General Tukur Buratai that the militants would be attacked, if government’s efforts to dialogue with militants proved futile.

General Ben claimed no active militant group has engaged the Federal Government in any discussion, warning that any individual who works against the collective agenda of the militants would regret his or her action.

Joji said by blowing up oil pipelines and destroying other key facilities that affect the economy of the Nigeria, the militants have declared war against the Nigerian state, and therefore should not be pitied.However, former Managing Direc­tor of the defunct Nigerian Airways, Captain Mohammed Joji said Buhari should not romance the militants by going into dialogue with them. He said government should engage them “fire for fire.”

Captain Joji said the militant group has not only inflicted incalculable pains on Nigerians, but also about to cripple the nation’s economy.

While lamenting that the activities of the Avengers was responsible for the scarcity of aviation fuel, the aviation expert said if the the ‘madness’ was al­lowed to continue, it would ground the aviation industry, which would in turn ground the economy.

“Fuel scarcity in the aviation sector is a sabotage by the so-called Niger Delta Avengers, so pipeline vandalism must be brought to a halt if the crisis must end.

“I am not an advocate of negotiations with a terrorist group. The Federal Gov­ernment should forget about democracy and go fire for fire with the Avengers,” he said.

In a related development, former minister of mines and steel, Chief Sarafa Tunji Ishola enjoined President Buhari to quickly summon an emergen­cy Council of State meeting to address the prevailing insecurity.

Ishola said the president should not wait until the insecurity in Niger Delta, the agitation for Biafra Republic in the South East and the continuous killings of innocent Nigerians by herdsmen, spi­ral out of hand before convening such a meeting.

“Allowing insecurity to persist beyond the current level may spell doom for Buhari’s administration, because the level of poverty in Nigeria today is just too high that people are only tolerating his administration temporarily.

“If he should allow Nigerians to run out of patience and revolt against his administration, that may spell doom,” the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain said.

The ex-minister explained that the president should not think the rising insecurity in the country was something he and his All Progressives Congress (APC) could solve alone.

“Buhari needs wisdom from former Heads of State and other elder states­men who have ruled this nation before him. So, he needs to call the Council of State meeting as a matter of urgency, with security matter as the sole agen­dum.”

Ishola noted that it would be a great error on the part of Buhari to think that the method he used about 31 years ago as military Head of State is what he would use now as civilian president.

“This is a democratic dispensation, you have to carry along critical stake­holders and also have listening ears, if not the insecurity will get out of hand. And if you are talking about diversifica­tion of the economy, tell me, which foreign investors will go to a country to invest where they are throwing bombs, kidnapping people and demanding huge ransoms?” he queried.

Man City players are not overweight says Guardiola

Pep Guardiola denied dictating to his Manchester City players exactly what they can eat and said none were overweight, after Gael Clichy claimed the new manager had banned junk food and exiled out-of-shape stars.

Speaking in China, where City are on a money-spinning pre-season tour, the French defender told the Guardian newspaper and other British media that former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach Guardiola had wasted no time in laying down the law.

“You often hear managers say being healthy is really important. With him, if your weight is too high, you’re not training with the team. That is the first thing and you can hear it a lot, but for my part it’s the first time any manager has really done it,” Clichy said.

“So we have a few players who are not training with the team yet.

“He cut out some juice and pizza and all the heavy food is not allowed,” added the 31-year-old.

There has been plenty of attention paid to Guardiola’s new regime on and off the pitch since his high-profile arrival this summer, but the Spaniard denied taking a dictatorial approach with his players.

“The nutritionist is the boss. I’m not a chef. He decides what they have to eat,” he said, speaking in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, the latest leg of their stop-start China tour.

He also denied his players had returned to training out of shape: “No, they are not overweight.

“I want my players fit. For me that is important… I need to get my players absolutely fit.”

– ‘No holiday’ –

City’s pre-season preparations took a hit on Monday when their derby against Manchester United was called off because of the poor pitch at Beijing’s “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium, following heavy rain.

Guardiola, who will be under pressure to inspire ambitious City to silverware in his first season, now wants to get on with the business of playing football.

“We haven’t travelled here to China for just a holiday, we have travelled here to play games,” said Guardiola. “Maybe it’s a lesson for the people who organised the games. The pitch is the most important thing.”He revealed that the club were making a frantic push to line up an English Championship or non-league club for a friendly next week to replace the lost Beijing game.

The City players arrived in Shenzhen on Tuesday and were given scorching late afternoon workouts, and again Wednesday, as they dusted off the disappointment of the cancelled Manchester derby.

Guardiola said he had been enjoying putting the City squad through its paces and assessing the quality at his disposal.

“Every manager has his own ideas,” he said. “But it’s impossible to achieve even one victory if the players don’t want it. They are comfortable with the challenge and they are trying to understand me and I am trying to understand them as soon as possible.”

The heat in Shenzhen remains as it was in Beijing – baking – but there seems little chance of any similar heavy downpours.

So City have been able to get on with the business at hand –- getting match ready for Borussia Dortmund, who breezed past United 4-1 in Shanghai last Friday.

Guardiola’s men can expect much of the same Thursday from last season’s Bundesliga runners-up in front of what is expected to be a sell-out crowd of around 40,000 at the Shenzhen Universiade Stadium.

The Spaniard revealed he had been singling out his midfielders for extra work when it came to tracking back to help the defence.

Midfielder Fabian Delph, who joined his boss to meet the press before Wednesday’s workout, said City’s players knew what they were in for when Guardiola signed on.

“If you can’t follow the regime, you fall short,” said Delph.

National Assembly to get 2017-2019 MTEF in October- Punch

The Medium Term Expenditure Framework for 2017-2019, which is the document that will guide the preparation of the budget for that period, will be ready and submitted to the National Assembly by October, the Federal Government has said.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, disclosed this on Monday at a stakeholders’ consultative forum with civil society groups on the 2017-2019 MTEF.

Udoma explained that due to the volatile nature of crude oil in the international market, the Federal Government would be using a conservative figure as the benchmark oil price.

The benchmark figures are $42.5, $45 and $50 per barrel for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 fiscal periods, respectively.

The exchange rate upon which the budget is to be anchored, according to him, will be pegged at N290 to the dollar for the period.

He said, “Demand and supply factors are expected to keep crude oil prices low in the medium term compared to the period prior to mid-2014. We are considering a conservative oil price benchmark of $42.5 per barrel for 2017, $45 per barrel in 2018 and $50 per barrel in 2019.

“We estimate oil production to be 2.2 million barrel per day for 2017, 2.3 million barrel per day in 2018 and 2.4 million barrel per day for 2019. We have pegged the exchange rate for 2017, 2018 and 2019 at N290 to a dollar.”

The minister also said that from the 2017 fiscal year, the government would use recoveries made from misappropriated funds to finance the budget.

He said a significant increase in non-oil revenue receipts was being expected owing to the fact that the economy would experience gradual recovery.

Udoma stated that the Federal Government would propose a total sum of N7.41tn as distributable revenues in the 2017 fiscal year, while N7.85tn and N10.16tn were the revenue projections for 2018 and 2019, respectively.

He said, “A significant increase in non-oil revenue receipts is projected due to a gradually recovering domestic economy and government’s expected improvement in Federal Inland Revenue Service tax collection efforts. Company Income Tax is projected to increase from N1.79tn in 2016 to over N1.86tn in 2017 and beyond.

“Value Added Tax collections are to increase by about 42.4 per cent in 2017. Operating surpluses projection has been moderated downwards for 2017 and thereafter a modest growth. Customs collections are projected to moderate downwards for 2017 and thereafter a modest growth.”

On progress so far made in the 2016 budget, Udoma said out of the N6.07tn budgeted as total expenditure, the Federal Government had so far released the sum of N2.1tn.

He added that out of the projected revenue of N1.043tn from statutory revenue for the first half of the year, only N646.34bn was realised, while N52.570bn was realised from VAT from a projection of N99.12bn for the same period.

Out of the N2.1tn so far spent, the minister said debt servicing gulped N598.6bn; statutory transfer, N175.68bn; pension and gratuity, N79.18bn; and personnel cost, N891.31bn, among others.

He added that the sum of N253bn was released for capital projects.

Some of the representatives of the civil society groups, who spoke at the event, called on the Federal Government to learn from the mistakes made with the 2016 fiscal document.

For instance, the Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Mr. Eze Onyekpere said, “We have all seen that the revenue projections for 2016 were over optimistic. This is why we are finding it difficult to get money to fund the budget, especially the capital expenditure.

“From 2017 onwards, we should be more empirical in our revenue forecast. Let it be more realistic so that there won’t be a deviation of more than minus or plus five per cent. This is because if we have more money, we can do supplementary budgets rather than have an overly optimistic revenue projections and at the end of the day, we are not able to fund our budget.”

The Governance Programme Manager, Actionaid Nigeria, Mr. Obo Effanga, reminded the government of the limited time it had to fulfil its electoral promises.

He said, “This administration has a four-year period and one year has gone already, and even the government has admitted that the last year will be given to politics; so, effectively, they have just two years left.

“And we are preparing the budget for one of the two years remaining; so, if we don’t make sure that this works very well, it means that we can only look up to 2018.”

Shame: As ambassadorial nominees unable to recite national anthem, plegde.

An unexpected drama played out at the screening of career ambassadorial nominees by the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs on Tuesday when three of the ambassadors designate could not answer elementary questions posed to them by the committee members.

The first nominee to be screened, Vivian Okeke, from Anambra State, failed in her recitation of the National Anthem.

In spite of several attempts, she continued to omit the last eleven words in the last stanza of the anthem, “to serve with heart and might, one nation bound in freedom,” before ending with peace and unity.

Also the nominee from Niger State, Ibrahim Isa, failed to recite the national pledge correctly as he also fumbled with the last stanza of the pledge.

When told by the committee to recite the pledge, he concluded by saying, “to defend her unity and integrity, so help me God,” instead of “to defend her unity and uphold her honour and glory, so help me God” which is the right wording of the pledge.

Jane Ndem, the nominee from Benue State, shocked the committee most when she failed the question posed by Chairman of the Committee, Senator Monsurat Sunmonu ( APC Oyo Central).

The nominee was asked to mention 12 out of the 36 states in the federation and their capitals, and she repeatedly mentioned Lagos and added Lagos as its capital.

Ikeja is the capital of Lagos State.

Surprised by her submission, a member of the committee, James Manager, interjected by asking, “Are you saying the capital of Lagos is Lagos?”

The nominee failing to get the drift of the question responded affirmatively by saying “yes, capital of Lagos State is Lagos because I even started my working career there,” which made the entire eight-man committee to burst into laughter.

Though newsmen were on hand to witness the embarrassing situation, Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Senate Matters, Senator Ita Enang, however, tried to cover up the embarrassing situation as he issued a statement denying the failure of the nominees, saying nothing of such happened.

Okeke, in her submission on difficulties being faced by the embassies, mentioned underfunding as the major problem crippling the nation’s embassies which, according to her, has turned to big embarrassment to staff of the embassies who are more or less squeezing water out of stone to run the embassies.However, the nominees made very good submissions in their responses to other questions in terms of policy statement.

Pressed further on his knowledge of foreign economic blueprint, the nominee explained succinctly how China got their economic prosperity right because their president at the time of their recession decided to shut its doors against import from other nations and was busy rebuilding China through domestic policy approach.

She also stressed that if Nigeria could configure its foreign policies with the interest of benefiting from resources abroad, it would help the situation immensely.

A total of 15 out of 47 were screened by the committee on Tuesday.

Senator Enang, in his rebuttal of blunders committed by some of the screened nominees, said the reported blunders were misrepresentation of fact.

The statement read: “Our Attention has been drawn to report by a section of the media that some Ambassadorial Nominees were unable to recite the National Anthem and Pledge while appearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs for screening today.

“May I state that the nominees were able to respond to questions asked them, and also recited the National Anthem and Pledge when called upon. As such, the report by the media is incorrect.

“Subjecting them to criticisms at this point over a situation which never happened in the first place is most unfair and uncalled for.

“Let me use this opportunity to appreciate the effort of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Monsurat Sumonu, and members of the committee, for the intellectual and thorough manner in which the exercise is being carried out.”