The Nation Newspaper

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  • Varsity autonomy and appointment of VCs

    Since 2009 when the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), won the battle for the university autonomy which gave the governing councils of Federal Universities power to appoint their vice chancellors, there has been restiveness on many campuses each time a vice chancellor is to be appointed.  The reason for all this is the politics that surrounds the choice of would-be vice chancellors. Apart from this, the perquisites of office are one major attraction to the highest office in the ivory tower in Nigeria. A vice chancellor earns as much as N1.8million per month. This is aside from the comfort that comes with the appointment while his professor colleagues in the departments earn less than N500, 000.00 per month. The thinking is that most professors’ interest in the office of the vice chancellor is driven primarily bythe lucre of office, all other considerations are secondary.

    The university autonomy as has been canvassed by members of the university communities will enable each university to handle the process of choosing its vice chancellor without government interference which to a rational mind is good for university administration. Part of the argument in favour of university autonomy is that staff members of the universities know who among them is capable of leading the system without trouble as they must have a working knowledge of such a system. And it took the federal government a lot of time before conceding this role to the university with the hope that it will work out well.

    But recent events at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile- Ife have proved otherwise. The process of appointing its vice chancellor has put a section of the workforce against the administration of the university. Specifically NASU and SSANU have kicked against the selection process that produced one of the deputy vice chancellors as successor to the incumbent. Their grouse is that the process was skewed in favour of the newly appointed vice chancellor. Among other issues, they argued that the governing council of the university did not follow due process as some statutory requirements of the university were not followed. The unions went to court to seek redress and the case was yet to be heard when the appointment was made. And since then, both academic and administrative activities have been paralysed on the campus while the union members are asking for the head of the incumbent vice chancellor.

    Many people have asked questions for the rationale to give autonomy to institutions that are funded by the government, especially the power given to the universities to appoint their vice chancellors. These are universities that depend on monetary allocation from the government on monthly basis but do not allow the government to be part of selecting who manages those resources allocated to them. What then is the meaning of political autonomy without economic autonomy? If these universities are able to stand on their own in economic terms, probably the political autonomy will make sense but in this situation where an investor has no say in who manages his investment is an irony of circumstance. This can only happen when the government lacks the will power to say no to the political brinksmanship of the academics.

    On the face value, there may not be anything wrong with university autonomy, provided the modus of operandi conforms to the rule. But is this feasible in our present society where corruption, especially moral corruption has become the order of the day? Everywhere you turn, there is corruption that one thinks that what drives the society is the pervasive corrupt practices. The university autonomy as a means of freeing the system from red-tapism and bigotry has been entrapped by the corruption in the system.

    Unfortunately, ASUU that fought and got the autonomy did not put any check and balance in place for the process of the selection of a vice chancellor. The governing council exercises enormous power in this process. It selects candidates, conducts the interview and declares the winner. There is no other organ of the university that has a say in the process. Possibly ASUU never envisaged a situation in which the power of autonomy could be used to feather some selfish interests. The university autonomy is good in intent but its practicability is fraught with human idiosyncrasies which make it possible for people to do whatever they like and go scot free.

    More worrisome is that a system that gives enormous power to a group without checks also encourages acerbic criticism from other members of the community. This is exactly what has happened at ObafemiAwolowo University, Ile- Ife, where members of staff have accused their governing council of the abuse of power of autonomy in the appointment of the new vice chancellor. They fault the process and blame the governing council for favouring one candidate over and above the others. They vowed not to allow the new vice chancellor to occupy the office; the incumbent vice chancellor who has some days in office has also been prevented from performing his official functions. It is like heaven broken loose on campus for two weeks running and there is no end in sight.

    To make matters worse, the government that funds the university has not done anything toward solving this problem as if the university is not part of its holdings. A proactive government would have nipped the problem in the bud by asking questions to arrive at a solution that will return normalcy to the system. What is happening in ObafemiAwolowo University provides a litmus test for the government to reconsider the university autonomy to appoint their vice chancellors. It shows that academics, like organisations in Nigeria cannot as of now manage the process of appointing who becomes the vice chancellor of their institutions.

     

    • Oripeloye is of the Department of English, ObafemiAwolowo University, Ile-Ife.

     

  • Mobilising capital market for Nigeria’s economic growth

    The capital markets could provide an alternative source of funding for Nigerian corporate enterprises and also for Nigeria’s infrastructure development. We see around us examples of countries that have made a decision to develop their capital markets and transformed their economies as a result. After the 1997-1998 Asian crises, many Asian governments took action to reform their economic policies and deepen their capital markets. The resulting development in their economies has been astronomical.

    We have made remarkable progress in recent years to build the capital markets in Nigeria. However, we still have a lot of catching up to do. The market capitalisation  as a share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013 was about 27% of GDP compared to 247% for Malaysia, 207% for South Africa and 112% for Brazil. Imagine where Nigeria will be if billions of US dollars were to be invested in building our power companies, a rail network connecting all regions of Nigeria, telecommunications, hospitals, schools and more. Nigeria would be a great place to live and do business.

    The question is whether we can create an environment that attracts that kind of money. My instinct as a Nigerian is to say – if others can do it, surely so can we! How do we make Nigeria attractive to private investors? To determine how to proceed we must first ascertain who we are competing against.

    A quick look at what other countries are doing reveals that we are not alone in wishing to attract international institutional investors.

    All over the world – countries are clamouring for the same investors and building their capital markets to create an environment that will be attractive to such investors. Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Rwanda. Even the countries in Europe that are way beyond our dreams in terms of economic development are planning to expand their capital markets by the establishment of a Capital Union that consolidates their respective attributes.

    To compete effectively against such strong competition we need a strategy that leverages the attraction of Nigeria as an investment destination and addresses the concerns investors may have about Nigeria.

    Attractiveness of Nigeria to investors.- The headline reason that investors find Nigeria attractive is our population dynamics. It is projected that Nigeria’s population will reach 413 million by 2050, overtaking America as the world’s third most-populous country. This creates an awesome picture of Nigeria of the future. Two remarkable issues stand out in this picture:

    • the first is that Nigeria is growing and will become a colossal market – a giant of a market where businesses will find a ready outlet for their goods and services and, as a result, the potential to flourish; a market that creates jobs for Nigerians and a market where wealth is generated for investors and Nigerians alike;
    • the second is the realisation that as our population grows so will our workforce; if we have workers contributing to pensions, – our pension funds could become titans among pension funds and be sought after worldwide.

    This picture is a glimpse of the Nigeria we could have in the future. But before we get lost in the dream let’s have a reality check and consider what will keep investors away.

    Concerns of investors – The three headline concerns are:

    • first, the perception, justified or not, that Nigeria is corrupt and has poor corporate governance, transparency and accountability standards. Investors losing their capital. As a result they either stay away or charge us a premium for investing here. The perception of corruption is hurting Nigeria financially;
    • second, investors are concerned about the lack of respect for the rule of law. It is important to them that they invest in an environment where there is trust and confidence that their business agreements will be honoured; and,
    • thirdly, there is concern is about security. Stories about kidnapping, blowing up oil pipelines, armed robbery and terrorism give investors reason to fear for their personal safety.

    What if we get our strategy right and attract the capital that will develop our economy? We will get a country that is prosperous, with a young and dynamic workforce that is engaged in building the economy and nationals that are respected and dignified.When I think of the type of life my fellow Nigerians could live could live – my heart beats faster with excitement.

    But what if we do not get it right and the investors stay away from Nigeria? The picture I see is scary. Over 400 million people living in chaos, everyday life a struggle, hundreds of millions of young people – ill-educated and unemployed, the few that are well to do living in fear of angry and volatile youths and poverty is the reality for a vast section of the population. This will be nightmare scenario.

    The second option must be avoided at all costs. It is critical that we do what is necessary to address the concerns of investors and encourage them to invest in Nigeria. If others can fix their societies surely, we can as well.

    How do we proceed?To compete effectively we must adopt a two-pronged strategy – (i) we must address the fundamental issues that are keeping our target investors away and will keep them away however great Nigeria’s potential as an investment prospect may be. The key issue here being integrity, and (ii) in anticipation that we succeed in fixing the fundamental issues, we must as well build a framework of incentives and processes that will incentivise and support the execution of capital markets transactions. Tax and regulatory incentives are typical.

    Progress made so far – A lot has been done towards creating a better environment for capital markets transactions. Various industry bodies such as SEC and NSE have adopted robust corporate governance codes that ought to become more widespread. The implementation of the 10 year Capital Markets Master Plan must be prioritised.

    Further step to take. As we make progress, it is important that we go on a public relations offensive and announce to the international community that a new Nigeria is evolving.

    The capital market investments we seek is within our reach. Integrity transparency and accountability is the key that opens the door. There are investors and experts willing to join us in the building process as part of a strategic alliance and we should use their support as a business arrangement.

    We all have been responsible for the current state of Nigeria – either as a result of our action or inaction. We must now take responsibility for creating the new Nigeria.

     

    • Uwaifo, a solicitor, presented the above at a recent two-day stakeholders forum, with the theme, “Realizing the Full Potentials of the Nigerian Economy through Proactive Capital Market Legislation”, organised by the National Assembly Joint Committee on Capital Market, in Abuja.

  • Kogi election: More rivers to cross

    Last week, the youthful Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello began a Hercules-like triumph in the series of judicial mines placed to test his validity as the number one citizen of the Confluence State. For some, the governor’s serial victory at the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal where his major petitioners suffered bloody noses is confirmation of Dino Melaye’s hypothesis of Divine involvement. At the inauguration of Bello on January 27 in Lokoja, the senator representing Kogi West had pulled a rude joke that though Kogi people voted for another candidate, God overruled them and voted for Bello. Thus, as Justice Halima, who claimed to be under malaria parasite’s attack threw out the petitions one after the other, many simple folks were convinced that God must have indeed, voted for Bello who was not even a candidate in the November 21, 2015 election. However, for others, the tribunal judgements are an added spice to Kogi’s reputation as a land where absurdities are normal – a theatre where nothing is impossible.

    They may be right. After all, the State has attained notorietyas the experimental guinea-pig for modern Nigerian politics and law. We do not need to go far to provide proofs of this fame. It is a pioneer on many fronts: First state where a governorship election was annulled by a tribunal and upheld by an Appeal Court. The first to be ruled by an Acting Governor; first to go through a re-run poll; it holds the record as the only state where two persons were sworn into office one as governor and the other as acting governor the same day.

    Even as you read this, at least two persons are still laying claims to the speakership of the state House of Assembly! MomohJimohLawal supported by 14 of his colleagues and armed with a High Court judgement insists he is the Speaker. But Imam Alfa, leading a group of five members is the one recognized as Speaker by the executive. And the mother of all oddities: the first state to produce a governor from supplementary election- a strange phenomenon under the Nigerian law and customs.

    The controversial and supplementary nature of the election that produced Bello as governor has been the bane of his mandate. The Kogi governorship poll held November 21 last year. It was however declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. As the votes poured in, and collation got underway, it was clear that Prince AbubakarAudu, then candidate of the All Progressives Congress APC and his running mate, James AbiodunFaleke were coasting to victory. They were leading their closest rivals, incumbent Governor Idris Wada and Deputy Yomi Awoniyi of the People’s Democratic Party PDP with about 41,000 votes having polled a salivating 240,000 votes to Wada’s 199,000 votes. However, a legal technicality prevented the victory from being announced on the spot.

    Some 49,000 votes, a little more than the margin of defeat were still outstanding. The Electoral Act, which moderates the conduct of all elections into public offices in Nigeria makes it mandatory that the yet to participate 49,000 registered voters must not be disenfranchised. Consequently, the Returning Officer invoked this legal provision and declared the election inconclusive. A new date for the conclusion was yet to be announced when news of Audu’s death filtered in.  The APC, the state under which the late Prince was winning the election, came in to claim all the votes leaving none for his rattled political patrimony.

    From a shaky start, the party went to its archive and awarded the disputed votes to Bello who came second in the primary that produced the fallen Audu. Fortunately, it had an ally in a restive and partisan Attorney General and Minister of Justice who admonished the party to bring a new candidate in the middle of an election. The supplementary poll that held on Saturday December 5, 2015 was a walk-over for Bello. He shored up the APC total votes to about 247,000 with his 6,000 supplementary votes and thus became the first person in humanity to win public office on the strength of a make-up election. When he was inaugurated in January, he did not have a deputy governor as Faleke who was retained on the INEC documents as running mate vehemently rejected the offer. He then approached the tribunal to agitate for his declaration as governor.

    It then appeared that Bello’s governorship was imperiled from the start. Faleke felt terribly short changed by his party and INEC. He reasoned that Audu had already won the election before he died; He urged the tribunal to compel INEC to declare him as winner since he was on a ‘joint ticket’ with Audu. In his opinion, the supplementary election was completely unnecessary and an illegality. The simple question he wanted the tribunal to answer was whether INEC was right in declaring the November 21 election inconclusive. The tribunal failed to answer that question but instead threw out his case for lack of merit.

    Tribunal chairman Justice Halima Mohammed held that since Faleke did not participate in every stage of the election, he lacked locus standi to bring the petition before it. It resolved that since the. election was declared inconclusive, the right to challenge its outcome had not accrued to Faleke. The tribunal declined jurisdiction to question the party’s internal process that led to the nomination for Audu’s replacement. It appeared that the tribunal spoke from both sides of the mouth. The question of what constitute ‘every stage’ of the election was left dangling. If Faleke was dismissed for not participating in every stage of the election, then what do we say about Bello? A man who did not participate in campaigns and the general election can hardly be said to have fared better under the law.

    After summarily dismissing Faleke’s case in the manner described above, the tribunal landed its hammer on its next victim, former Governor Wada of the PDP. Wada’s case was multi-faceted. He opined that since Audu died in the middle of a general election and not primary, the period allowed by law for the substitution of a candidate had elapsed. He argued that Bello who was used to replace Audu could not inherit the votes of a dead person. He alleged further that Bello was not even qualified to contest the election because he was not a registered voter in Kogi State and he went into the supplementary election without running mate. Finally, he brought a forensic report and expert to show that the election was rigged in favour of the APC. Again, his application was dismissed for lack of merit.

    Although Justice Halima graciously granted him locus standi, she said the load of scanned electoral materials brought by the forensic expert and which she had earlier admitted or marked as exhibit were ‘dumped’ on the tribunal. The tribunal was silent on Bello’s invalid voter’s card and held that he did not contest the December 5 supplementary poll without a running mate. She stunned listeners when she declared that Faleke who she declined locus standi a day before, was also Bello’s running mate for the make-up election! The tribunal held that the provisions of the law as it relates to substitution of candidate by a political party become invalid in an inconclusive election. The Wada case still left many unanswered questions. Can votes of a corpse be transferred to the living or they die with him? Between a party and a candidate, who own the votes cast in an election? What is the life span of the result of a primary election? Can a material presented and accepted as exhibit be said to have been dumped on a court?

    For now, Bello is salivating his victory and swimming in the euphoria of the moment. Whereas his admirers see the hands of God in his tribunal victories describing them as ‘legal wonders’, his traducers see them as ‘legal blunders’. Will the Kogi Governor truly be a cat with nine lives or just a flash in the pan? Only time and perhaps, the Supreme Court will tell. The good people of Kogi State and indeed all well-meaning Nigerians are eagerly waiting to see how this landmark riddle will enrich our jurisprudence.

     

    • Elesho is a public affairs analyst.
  • Between Nigerian banks and Chris Ngige

    Between Nigerian banks and Chris Ngige

    “Even if you are going to lay off, there is a way to declare redundancy,             
     there is a process. Section 20 of the labour act says it. You must call the           
    unions and discuss with them. You don’t just treat them as slaves in their           
    own country and you want us to keep quiet.”- Dr Chris Ngige

    So the banks have been laying off staff, in droves. Inevitable and predictable, one would say. Any attempt to clean up the financial system drunk on illicit funds, even at the macro level, and keep Nigeria to the narrow path will definitely rebound on a banking system whose substructure lies in quicksand. That is inevitable. Yet, we are only scratching the surface. Underneath, the rot lies much deeper.  Predictably too, the cowboys, who lay claim to ownership  of the banks have taken to the path of least resistance – send home staff whose wages, when added up, barely make any impact on the cooked bottom-line of these institutions.

    In many of the banks, Directors’ remuneration alone, not to mention other benefits and loans to entities in which they have interest, is more than the combined salaries and wages of all the Staff. You would think that banks that are sincerely keen on cutting cost will look at curbing the waste at the top, and not in pushing out the already marginalized people at the bottom. But that will be where the banks care for anyone and anything but their own insatiable greed.

    Understandably, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, last week intervened in a bid to keep the process of retrenchment, in line with the laws of the land. He was reported to have threatened a revocation of licences of the banks for violating directives he had issued. He is right, but also wrong. He is right to be concerned but is wrong to issue a threat that holds no water. If he had been properly informed, he would have realized that the rules he is throwing at the banks hardly apply to most of them. He would have realized the futility of his threat as most of the banks in question do not have in-house unions and are not bound by those rules.  Indeed, that is the problem. That is what should be of concern to the Minister. For without tracking back to the point where the rain started beating us, we would only labour in vain, in the present.

    Banking has almost, always, been borderline criminality. To put it mildly, what transpires in many of the banks, pretending to be legitimate enterprise, is bare-faced criminality.  Indeed, it did not start today but it was never as blatant as it has been in the last two decades or thereabout.

    Fast forward to the late 1980s and early 90s with the liberalisation regime of General Babangida and the open-house banking system that came courtesy of the new-generation banks, things changed. With all the good brought into the system by virtue of competition and massive adoption of technology, there were downsides to new-generation banking. Apart from the institutionalisation of greed as official creed in banking, it ushered in the era of complete disregard for labour laws.

    So, in telling the banks to follow due process, the Labour Minister might be right. Only that he is very late to the party, the train left the station way back. Too late in the day to be issuing directives to banks that had carefully guaranteed an emasculation of the workforce. What operates in terms of labour practice in many of the banks is barely different from what it was like in the sugarcane plantations of old. It is only another face of the legalised robbery pretending to be banking in Nigeria, where profits, so-claimed, are privatised and losses, so-declared, are socialised – passed on to the rest of us, so the big boys can continue to luxuriate, while fashioning new means at legitimising rogue banking.

    A million directives will not make a difference to a system rotten from the substructure. The banks simply don’t care about staff, customers, investors or the public. They only care about the books and how to cook them. Perhaps, soon, someone will make them care about what should really matter.

     

    • Simbo Olorunfemi works for Hoofbeatdotcom, a Nigerian Communications Consultancy.

    Tweet@simboolorunfemi

     

     

  • Corporate empathy

    Governor Ambode turns his birthday as a score against cancer

    The importance of corporate Nigeria to show empathy for the lives of the average citizen came into play last week during the birthday celebration of Akinwunmi Ambode, the governor of Lagos State. Rather than devote that day to the ritual vanities of drinks and food and other features of a jolly afternoon, the governor turned it to an adventure in kindness.

    Cancer was the fulcrum of the day, and the governor reified the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) as the beach head of the campaign. Those who attended were some of the mainstays of corporate Nigeria, including oil, construction, power and financial world.

    Zenith Bank founder Jim Ovia, who was announced to have parted with N1 billion to procure  cancer diagnostic and treatment equipment, evangelised this sort of kind heart from the world of business.

    But the CECP reeled out a slide presentation that demonstrated the depth to which the dreaded disease had eaten into the tissues of our health, and how many Nigerians die by the hour from such culprits as prostate, cervical, colon, breast, lung and brain cancer.

    The facts are chilling. What is more chilling is the ignorance that pervades the Nigerian society; such ignorance that compels some citizens to hide under pious and superstitious covers to deny the danger that confronts us.

    What is more daunting than these: 14 Nigerians die daily of prostate cancer, one dies every hour of liver cancer, and colon cancer snaps a Nigerian every other hour. Only one out of five Nigerians survives the disease.

    The advent of medical technology has made it possible for Nigerians to now understand that cancer, once seen as a western worry, has come to stay as a malignant burden on us. Poverty and the absence of even the rudimentary capacity to tackle the disease make us especially vulnerable.

    Other than the profusion of data from the CECP, the afternoon featured two key testimonials, one from a victim of incipient breast cancer and another with the early stage of prostate cancer. Both said they had treatments abroad, and both detected the disease early. They are now cancer-free.

    There lay the value of the afternoon. Governor Ambode said the point of his birthday was to rally the corporate titans to buy mobile diagnostic centres in his own domain of Lagos. Speaking with the ambition of giving each of the 57 local government areas a mobile centre, he however kicked off the modest drive for three mobile centres.

    Leading the campaign, he moved from table to table and pledges came from quite a few of the companies. They manifested glorious ostentation in unveiling their contributions to the noble cause. Although the governor wanted three, by the end of the event, at least four mobile centres were achieved.

    The mobile centre is expensive. Each of them is estimated at about $600,000 and, by the official exchange rate, amounted to about N100 million. Access Bank, the Chagouri firm, Alakija, some chieftains of the oil and power sectors pitched in generously in this all-important fight against the dreaded disease. We must note that in 2014, NIgerians spent $200 million to treat cancer abroad.

    The reason the corporate giants yielded some of their profits for this fight hinged on the governor’s enthusiasm. He applied the soft power of office. This is significant. Power of political office has great potential for public good. Doing good to the vulnerable among us is one of the high points of such virtues.

    The other reason was the pathetic story of the many Nigerians that die by the hour, and a sense of fragility of a system that lays itself bare before the aggression of the disease.

    We must also say that the platform of the CECP highlights the milk of human kindness that already exists in the corporate world. This negates the somewhat universal sense that our companies live only for profit, and lack a sense of civic empathy.

    We have seen companies do good in this country. But we must state that they have been more concerned with the public relations value of such open philanthropy than the essential benevolence of doing it. Hence, we have corporate bodies more willing to disburse money for civic engagements that play up the profanities like dance, music and festivities rather than causes like education and health care. We appreciate though that some have devoted some resources to education as we see in the light of literature. More needs to be done.

    Recently, the Labour minister, Chris Ngige, asked the banks to desist from further firing of their workers. As we have stated recently, it may be overreaching his hand for the minister to slam such a peremptory order. We also note here that corporate bodies must see themselves as an integral part of the society, including its sorrows, its sicknesses, its tragedies. Therefore, it must play a role in lifting that society out of its many melancholies.

    Companies need the society to thrive and profit.  They rely on the infrastructure, resources, security, government policies and popular goodwill to make profit. They are therefore investors not only in the material prosperity but also social well-being.

    The effort of Governor Ambode should blaze a sublime trail for other states. Lagos State is a big state, but others must face the incubus of this dangerously modern disease.

  • Assessing SEC’s strides in investors’ protection

    For the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under its Director-General (D-G), Mounir Gwarzo, bringing more local and international investors into the capital market remains a priority for Nigeria’s continued growth and development. The SEC D-G also prioritises investor protection and confidence building, which are instrumental in realising and sustaining the vision of the capital market under his leadership.

    The SEC under Gwarzo appears to be moving quickly to engender and sustain local and international investors’ confidence in the Nigerian capital market. From finding new investment opportunities to deployment of new technology to drive these investments, the SEC boss has surpassed stakeholders’ expectations. His vision to encourage more investment of pension funds in the capital market has been praised by stakeholders given the leverage and depth such funds would give to the market and the economy.

    Gwarzo has also spoken on maximum utilization of pension funds to ensure that the impressive pool of savings mobilised over the last decade was put to productive use for inclusive economic growth. The March 2016 data from PenCom showed that Nigerian Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) invested only 8.16 per cent of their assets in the domestically listed equities market and 1.24 per cent in foreign equities, which means less than 10 per cent of the total assets are invested in equities.

    The 9.4 per cent allocation means that Nigeria has the lowest allocation to equities by pension funds among peer markets. In contrast, South African pension fund invests 73 per cent of total assets in equities; Botswana (70 per cent), Namibia (66 per cent) and Swaziland (57 per cent) which have much smaller and shallower stock markets than Nigeria but allocate far more of total assets to equities. The world average for allocation by PFAs to equities is 42 per cent which is more than fourfold the level in Nigeria.

    Therefore, all stakeholders in the pension industry should reevaluate their current asset allocation and aim to improve it. This makes sense for asset safety and for ensuring PFAs beat inflation consistently.

    Nigeria’s PFAs cannot afford to continue allocating over two-thirds of contributors’ assets to Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) securities with the array of available investible products, especially in an increasingly inflationary environment.

    Even if the pension fund administrators were to invest up to the 30 per cent allowable limit of the pension funds in equities as approved by the National Pension Commission, it was still below the global benchmark of 42 per cent. Such investment would generate the necessary returns to provide sustainable benefits to contributors.

    The SEC under Gwarzo has also voted N5 billion as take-off grant for the National Investors Protection Fund (NIPF). It equally launched the board of NIPF, flagging off the special purpose vehicle that will compensate investors for pecuniary losses arising from the insolvency, bankruptcy or negligence of sundry capital market operators that are not members of a registered stock exchange.

    The NIPF has placed Nigeria within the elite group of countries with specialised compensation scheme for investors. Investors would now have a window to redress losses that arise from non-investment risks.

    While dozens of jurisdictions have functional investor protection funds run mainly by Exchanges and their dealing members, Nigeria is now among only a few countries to have a National Investor Protection Fund, to compensate investors for pecuniary losses arising from the insolvency, bankruptcy or negligence of non-broker/dealer capital market operators.

    The SEC has also played its part by providing the take-off grant for the initial operation of the NIPF. The entire capital market community would now have to come together to discuss details of how to contribute to continue funding for this critical market vehicle. For instance, since the 2008 financial crisis in which the Nigerian stock market lost about 70 per cent of its value, investor confidence had been eroded, creating apathy that still impacts the state of the market.

    The SEC has a dual mandate of regulating and developing the capital market and as such has put in place several reform measures to restore investor confidence and attract investors back to the market, with the NIPF as part of the investors’ protection mechanisms.

    The inauguration of the board of the NIPF completed a cycle of protection for investors that suffered losses due to inactions of capital market operators.

    The SEC D-G is also working closely with the Nigeria Judiciary to boost investor confidence in the dispute resolution mechanisms available in the capital market. Both the SEC and National Judicial Institute (NJI) are collaborating to ensure that the rights of investors are protected.

    The role and responsibility of the Commission as provided in the Investment and Securities Act 2007 included the powers to register, inspect, investigate, discipline and suspend any market operator. The Act also gives SEC substantial powers to make rules and regulations and also to impose sanctions on and enforce decisions against erring capital market operators or their sponsored individuals. The judiciary needs to understand the workings of the capital market even as the capital market also needs to understand the workings of the judiciary.

    The SEC is also helping the market to leverage on technological advancement to shorten trading cycle from four days to two days thereby blazing the trails as the only African market with such a timely cycle. The Commission believes that further reduction in trading and settlement cycle would translate into quicker turnover and improved liquidity for investors in the Nigerian stock market. Ongoing initiatives such as cash direct settlement, electronic dividend and full dematerialisation being implemented by the capital market stakeholders would enable the plan to be realised.

    Besides, for the first time in the history of any capital market in Africa, investors in the Nigerian capital market are now to get dividend payment within 24 hours through the electronic dividend (e-dividend) payment system. All these initiatives promoted by the SEC D-G are aimed at encouraging retail investors to participate actively in the Nigerian stock market as part of a long-term 10-year master plan for the development of Nigerian capital market.

    One of the strategies of deepening the market by the Commission is to target the retail domestic investors by implementing key confidence-building initiatives that would encourage the retail investors to invest in Nigerian market. It is only the domestic investor that, no matter the condition of the market, will stay with us. What we have been experiencing in the market is the dominance of the foreign investor where anytime they want to move out of the market they get out and anything they want to come in they do so.

    Seeing what was happening in the market, the SEC decided that the best thing was to get the retail investor, and the approach is not to go to them and be telling them to come back but to identify the issues.

    Again, once the e-dividend platform is fully operational the issue of stale warrant will become a thing of the past. The issue of travelling from one place to another to deposit the warrant will be a thing of the past. The issue of change of address will also be eliminated. The issue of unclaimed dividend, which is in excess of N80 billion, will also be a thing of the past

    The SEC under Gwarzo is also partnering with the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC) to establish a National Online Account Reporting Platform to make vital information such as audited and unaudited financial statements of quoted companies readily available to relevant stakeholders.

    The platform will among other things allow for online real-time access, cross referencing, historical auditing, planning and confirming tax compliance and government revenue assurance. Most importantly, it will serve as a single source for approved audited financial statements for both government agencies and authorised users.

    Gwarzo, who has pledged his commission’s support to the establishment of the platform appealed to FRC to make it easier for companies to get their audited reports approved by the council. He said that the complexities, which some companies were going through and the time it takes for FRC to make approvals, were making the companies to constantly submit their annual financial reports late to SEC.

    No doubt, Gwarzo has deployed his long years of experience to create greater visibility for African and Middle Eastern capital markets as well as ensure improved financial inclusion for all Nigerians.

    •Ume is a financial market strategist based in Abuja

  • Curbing the terror of Fulani herdsmen

    For many years, Nigeria has contended with more than enough societal infractions, all of which relate with threats to peace, security and most unfortunately life of innocent citizens.

    Most notorious of these has been the Boko Haram insurgency which has become a part of a world-wide terrorism that confronts many nations today, not even sparing the hitherto “impregnable” nations like the United States, Britain, France et al! The others include militancy, local militias, armed robbery, communal land conflicts, clueless assassinations, kidnappings and lately, in a fast tempo but worsening dimensions, Fulani herdsmen hostilities.

    To the glory of God, and also thanks to President Muhammadu Buhari’s initiatives since the ruling All Progressives Congress federal government came to power mid-2015, the Boko Haram arrogance and embarrassment is fast becoming a thing of the past.

    On the other hand, the festering Fulani herdsmen hostility has assumed such an increasing dimension that kid-gloves would be unable to halt it.

    Historically, the Fulani race are predominantly nomadic, a culture that perfectly fits into their tradition of cattle rearing, which they know how to do better than other tribes.

    Since Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914, this culture had never brought them into conflict with their host communities in other parts of Nigeria, the way that we now experience it, which is very unfortunate.

    This writer recalls with nostalgia how in those days, he and other young school children would visit the Fulani abodes in their communities to view cows at close range, especially when they were being milked in gaas (Fulani settlements). Such young “tourist” visitors were usually entertained with fura (boiled coagulated cow milk). We were never attacked by the Fulani hosts in those days! Neither did our parents and our ancestors confront them in their trade, because there was mutual respect in the prevailing symbiotic hegemony. In those days, the herdsmen would herd their cattle around for daily grazing far away from the gaas, painstakingly avoiding the farms and farmsteads of their host communities!

    Today, this conviviality is no longer the case. Instead, it’s been gory tales galore from one community to another. Numerous reports now abound of Fulani herdsmen’s invasion of communities in the dead of the night, burning houses, and unleashing gunfire from sophisticated weapons to maim and kill defenseless Nigerians as a “reprisal” for the latter’s challenge of cattle eating crops that they had laboured to cultivate for a living!

    In the pre- and early post-independence times, the herdsman would go about with only anchored arrows, sheathed swords and double-faced knives as defensive arms against rustlers and attackers. Nowadays, these crude arms have been replaced with sophisticated weapons like AK-47 rifles and pump action guns, as well as petrol in jerry cans, not for defence but for assault and arson! Where herders whose cattle destroyed farms were arrested and made to pay compensation, the herders soon staged reprisals by kidnapping such victims to extort multiples of fines as compensation. We have even had a case of elite kidnapping where a former Finance Minister and Secretary to the Federal  Government was kidnapped on his farm in Ondo State but later released after a ransom was obtained by his Fulani captors!

    It is a well-known fact nationwide that numerous lives had been lost and countless houses touched on account of the escapades of Fulani herdsmen. The latest of these happened at Ukpabi – Nimbo, Enugu State when about 50 people were reportedly killed when their village was invaded in the night of Sunday April 24. In earlier multiple assaults on the Agatu community in Benue State, the number of lives lost reportedly ran into hundreds.

    Some common things in these attacks are the elements of reprisal, surprise and mostly nocturnal timing against unsuspecting citizens who in most cases were sleeping.

    This style obviously qualifies the attacks for classification as terrorism, which Nigeria cannot afford again. As current military efforts are taking Nigeria out of Boko Haram insurgency, we must do everything possible to ensure that terrorism by herdsmen (or any other group) is completely eliminated from our geographical space.

    The nation requires a double-prone attack to bring further attacks under speedy control (short-term solution), and ultimately eliminate them (long-term solution).

    The short-term solution is partly what the President has already directed, that both the military and the police establish presence in all the affected communities under attack. This is in addition to on-going pacification and reconciliation efforts by different arms and tiers of government.

    Good as these may look, they have an apparent inherent weakness, because only communities that had once been attacked would qualify for protection, and mediation.

    In a situation where the herdsmen act like terrorists, this approach could be both ineffective and inefficient, unless every Nigerian community would be simultaneously covered. Experiences of the inadequacy of this approach in Plateau State lend credence to this reservation, because this writer does not believe that we have the security manpower to cope with simultaneous protection of all the Nigerian communities. Moreover, if it is true that the attackers are herdsmen from outside Nigeria, efforts at mediation between presumed Nigerian Fulanis and the Nigerian victims would have been wrongly directed!

    The long-term, but obviously more effective and efficient approach is multi- pronged.

    First, which the federal government has announced, is to establish expansive cattle ranches, albeit compatmentalised in every state of the federation. Herdsmen settlements should be built within each ranch in the traditional patterns and styles of the Fulani. Nomadism should be allowed only within the confines of each ranch. Movement of cattle into and out of the ranches, and also to the markets across the nation shall be in trucks only. Physically driving cattle in the age-old nomadic way should be outlawed. Reason is that the practice is archaic and its continued practice would accentuate inter-ethnic disharmony over struggles for farming land and grazing territory.

    No state particularly in the south should losesleep over the establishment of cattle ranches because state ranches would principally complement each state government’s efforts in feeding its people. This would be in addition to being a veritable way to achieving self-sufficiency by the country. We must not perennially rely on trans-saharan supply of cattle to feed Nigeria.

    The additional benefits of this to the nation would be the possibility of introducing of research-based cattle feeds for faster cow growth, healthier beef and more nutritious and more abundant milk production. These would be complimented with the establishment of research centres and hospitals for the herdsmen and families as well as the herds’ in each ranch.

    In addition, modern city facilities like schools, recreation centres etc. could be provided to encourage the herdsmen and families to make a living there.

    Second, a programme should be established to encourage the Fulani herdsmen to ease out of nomadism, because that culture or tradition no longer has a place in modern times anywhere in the world. Nigeria currently imports a lot of our dairy requirements from other parts of the world where ranches are the centres of production. So, we also should change for this optimal approach.

    Third, it is important to mention that ranches developed as proposed here could, sooner than later, also become additional centres of development in Nigeria. The government through the research centres would be helped greatly in the development of improved varieties of cows to produce protein-rich beef and milk for the nation.

    Once established, and with an enabling law, trans-border herding of cattle by non-Nigerians could be eliminated for good. This would enable the country to keep away from our territory those non-Nigerian battle-armed Fulani herdsmen that herd their cattle along the West African belt under the ECOWAS trade protocol that is being currently abused and exploited.

    It is hoped that other West African, nay other African nations would take a cue from these innovations because of their potentials for economic growth and peaceful co-existence.

     

    • Chief Ologunde is chieftain of All Progressives Congress, (APC), Lagos State.

  • Reflection on Bayelsa State

    Bayelsa State is a quintessence of how crisis of social values is at the root of the economic underperformance of societies and nations. Speaking on television networks in the first week of this month, Governor Seriake Dickson ascribed his inability to pay the workforce in almost half a year to humungous debts accumulated by his predecessors. Many governors borrow massively from banks and issue to the accountant general of the federation an irrevocable standing payment order (ISPO) to deduct the loans from source and pay creditors. “I did not see what they did with all the monies they borrowed”, Dickson bemoaned. Though he did not reveal his predecessors who put Bayelsa in peonage, the list may include Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.

    If the list does indeed include Alamieyeseigha, then Dickson must accept responsibility for the state’s economic mess. Only last April, he organized a high profile state executive council meeting in honour of Alamieyeseigha, attended by former President Goodluck Jonathan and Alamieyesiegha’s widow, where he proudly announced the renaming of the state’s banquet hall and the road linking the state capital of Yenagoa and Alamieyeseigha’s hometown of Amassoma in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area for the late former governor. He also announced that a mausoleum would be built for Alamieyeseigha in ijaw Heroes Park. At the requiem service on April 19 for the former governor who was jailed for plundering the state (not Nigeria), Dickson called him repeatedly “a true hero”.

    The governor-general of the Ijaw nation, as Alamieyeseigha was fondly called, was one Nigerian public officer whose looting is fairly well documented. In 2010, seven years after he was impeached, the British government returned to Bayelsa State a whopping five million pounds stashed away in the United Kingdom by Alamieyeseigha who had been arrested in September, 2012, at Heathrow Airport for money laundering. Alamieyeseigha had purchased five properties in London, kept one million pounds in raw cash in his London home and left $2.7m in an account with the Royal Bank of Scotland. He also had houses in the United States and South Africa—all acquired while he was governor of one of Nigeria’s poorest states. While being tried in London in 2005, he escaped to Nigeria where he hoped that the constitutional immunity conferred on him as a governor would save him.

    Many Africans do not seem to appreciate the correlation between high ethical standards and economic development. A society which allows its people to indulge in massive corruption cannot develop economically. In 1958, the distinguished American sociologist, Edward Banfied, called attention to this reality through his seminal book, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society. Banfield did a study of southern Italy which is called the Third World of Western Europe because of its economic backwardness, unlike northern Italy which is as developed as any other part of the First World. The cultural values in southern Italy enable criminal organisations like the Mafia to reign supreme in cities like Sicily and Naples.

    This great work by Banfield practically faded from the radar screen of many western scholars until in 1997 when Francis Fukuyama published his second book entitled Trust: the Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity in which the polyvalent intellectual argues that the difference between poor and rich societies is the difference in the levels of social capital. By social capital, Fukuyama means the stock of values like honesty, loyalty, integrity and trust. He calls societies with a substantial stock of these values high-trust ones and societies where the reverse is the case low-trust. The examples Fukuyama cites for explaining why many nations in the Third World cannot build big businesses which outlive the founders and their families and consequently contribute significantly to national economic well-being are arresting, but beyond the scope of this essay.

    As a new millennium was about to dawn, Harvard University organized in 1999 a symposium to interrogate the powerful place of cultural values in societal and national development. Papers delivered at the symposium were published the following year in a book edited by Lawrence Harrison and Samuel Huntington entitled Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress. In a penetrating introduction, Huntington, author of the magnus opus, The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order, provides a glimpse into why Southeast Asian nations like South Korea and Singapore have recorded fantastic progress, despite the absence of natural resources, but not African countries like Ghana, in spite of the superabundance of resources like cocoa and gold. Writes Huntington: “South Koreans valued thrift, education, organisation, and discipline. Ghanaians had different values. In short, cultures count”.

    Despite its low population and relatively sparse population, Bayelsa receives one of the largest allocations from the federation account every month because it is a leading oil-producing state. Still, it owes workers for several months. In contrast, a state like Anambra which receives almost an infinitesimal amount from the federation account and has a large population and a huge workforce, not only pays workers before month end but even increases salaries, employs more workers and continues with the construction of a large number of roads and state of the art aesthetic bridges. Why wouldn’t Bayelsa be in financial doldrums when Dickson insists on holding up Alamieyeseigha as a role model in a state with personages like Larry Koinyan, Gabriel Okara and Mrs T. K. Agari, among numerous others who can hold their ground anywhere in the world intellectually and morally? It should come to no one as a surprise that the incidences of contract padding and ghost workers in Bayelsa have been proved to be the worst in the whole country since Dickson, compelled by the ongoing economic crunch, began to check several leakages in the state’s treasury.

    The terrible crisis of values is not peculiar to Bayelsa. A major public housing estate in Abuja is named for Ibrahim Abacha for dying on a presidential jet on January 17, 1996, while frolicking with his girlfriend. The Kano State stadium is named for Sani Abacha, a pathological buccaneer, with the millions of dollars he looted still being returned to Nigeria, 18 years after his death. In Anambra, the military regime changed Achalla Road in the capital to Prince Arthur Eze Avenue, after Eze had received $110m and a huge naira component from the African Development Bank for rural water supply and rural electrification in old Anambra State and the building of an industrial development centre in Awka but did practically nothing. Eze took over the chairmanship of Premier Breweries, the biggest industry in Anambra State and third largest brewery in Nigeria, and ran it aground.

    In typical Nigerian fashion, President Jonathan awarded him a high national honour.  About two months ago, the University of Nigeria at Nsukka bestowed an honorary doctorate on him.

    It is a shame that most Nigerian public officers do not know the close relationship between values and economic development. Worse, our universities are steeped in a profound moral cesspool.

     

    • Adinuba is head of Discovery Public Affairs Consulting.

  • Enugu’s quest for economic diversification

    It is public knowledge that agriculture was the mainstay of the country’s economy before the discovery of oil in Nigeria. Since the discovery of oil, Nigerians and successive governments played down agricultural activities to the detriment of the nation’s economy.

    It is shameful that a country like Malaysia touted to have taken palm-nuts from Nigeria so many years ago is today the world’s major producer of palm oil. For several years of oil boom, Nigerians over-depended on imported food items to survive, with little or no manufactured exports in return. Also government’s policies on imported food items were neither here nor there, considering that it was never protective and supportive of local production.

    Successive governments at all levels had consistently paid lip service to diversification of the country’s economy before now.  They usually rush to Abuja on monthly basis to collect handouts called monthly federation allocation. This was the practice in government’s circle and corridors of power since the discovery of oil in the Niger-Delta region until recently when the global price of crude oil suddenly crashed.

    With the unprecedented crash and the renewed militancy in the Niger-Delta, the country’s economy is in dire straits. The only way to revive and sustain the economy is through diversification into agriculture and other sectors. If there is any appropriate time for our leaders to put on their thinking caps, it is now.

    So far, only a few states are taking concrete steps to diversify their states’ economy in line with the federal government’s economic diversification agenda. Enugu State is one, not just through policy statement, but by implementing policies and actions that will sustain the agenda. Its first step to demonstrate a commitment in that direction was during its International Investment Summit which held from April 12-14.

    At the summit, agricultural processing was one of the major identified 10 key sectors that the governor, IfeanyiUgwuanyi presented to the investors.    The agri-business players and investors at the summit were presented with the ample opportunity to explore options at developing the agricultural sector in the state through Public Private Partnerships, as well as privatisation and commercialization of government agriculture enterprises.  The summit and its major theme were indicative of the importance the state government attaches to revival and development of agriculture in the state. The plenary, held under the theme; Agribusiness as a Viable Business Platform, had in attendance international investors, agribusiness players, exporters and players from within and outside the shores of Nigeria. Speakers commended the government’s effort, embraced the agricultural potentials of the state and expressed readiness to partner with the government in developing the sector.

    The governor made it clear that his government was seeking to commercialise agriculture in the state as part of its development plan for the sector.  It was discovered that major crops that are viable in the state which offered potentials for investment and commercialisation include; palm oil, rice, cassava, cashew, vegetable fruits, and livestock production.

    Subsequent to the summit, the governor has apportioned 750 hectares of arable land across the state for commercial agriculture. The communities that benefitted include Ogbeke – 50 hectares, Oduma–50 hectares, Ogulogu– 100 hectares, Akpugo-Eze – 50, Owo– 50 hectares and Nnewe–100 hectares.

    Others are Ikem – 50 hectares, Agkuibeje –50 hectares, Oghu–50 hectares, EhaAmufu –100 hectares, Obimo– 50 hectares and Amangunze –50 hectares.

    Contractors have commenced work diligently to clear the lands, after which the land would be segmented into three-hectare plots for allocation to youths and women to undertake commercial agriculture in the state.

    In addition, the government has packaged soft loan for the would-be-beneficiaries of the programme, and purchased 20 tractors with complete sets of implements for each of the tractors at the total cost of N175.3 million.

    The tractors are to be given to young agricultural/engineering graduates to render tractor-hiring services to farmers, especially those farmers at the arable planting areas where commercial agriculture is being practiced, on a cost recovery basis for sustainability. The beneficiaries will be required to pay back the subsidised cost of the tractors and its implements over a period of six years.

    To ensure that the farm produce from these earmarked farms could be easily transported to the urban areas for sale, the state government constructed some major roads leading to these farms and other rural areas. This can be seen in the ongoing dualisation of Opi/Nsukka road, Achalla road, Orba road and other roads in Enugu North zone.  It is of note that the zone, which is made up of 80 percent agrarian communities has the agricultural and human potentials of feeding the South-east zone and beyond if given the necessary support.

    But unfortunately, these potentials have not been harnessed by successive governments in the state and national levels due to poor agricultural policies, high revenue from crude oil, resulting in neglect of the zone for too long. With the crash in crude oil price and governments anxiety to diversify the economy by reviving the agriculture, Enugu State government may have taken the lead by its concrete plan and efforts so far.

    The governor’s focus and pragmatic policies in that direction has not deterred or prevented government from attending to other state obligations like road construction, payment of workers’ salaries among others. Obviously, the Ugwuanyi administration understands the potentials of huge investment in the agricultural sector.   With that foundation, it should not be surprising if, in the years ahead, the state competes favourably with states like Benue, Nassarawa and Taraba in food production.

    Instead of relying solely on the month federation allocation to run the state as has always been the case, governors should take a cue from what their Enugu counterpart has done so far in the area of agriculture. Every state in the country is blessed with vast arable lands that have been left unused and unattended because of the availability of the crude oil proceeds. The advantage of what Enugu government is doing in the agricultural sector is that even if crude oil price rebounds in future, the state will have enough funds to develop other sectors of the economy.

     

    • Ugwuoda, a development expert wrote from Agani, Enugu State.

  • The 8th Senate and the challenges ahead

    On May 17, the 8th Senate under the leadership of Senator Bukola Saraki during a solemn session withdrew considerations for the Frivolous Petitions bill introduced months before by Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah.

    The bill was not an ordinary one. Since its introduction, it has generated heated criticism and disapproval from the public who saw it as a way of clamping down on social media critics, a restriction of freedom of expression and curtailing human rights of the people. Following the heated opposition, the Senate mandated its Committee on Human Rights and Legal Matters to review the bill.

    The recommendation of David Umar, chairman of the committee was unambiguous: it requested that the bill be withdrawn. Following a voice vote, that was what the Senate did.

    It is one year of legislative activism by the National Assembly and the upper chamber has come into focus of Nigerians with many comparing the achievements of the 8th Senate against its predecessors, in terms of bills passed and interventions it has made to further economic and social development in the country.

    While it will be modest to say the Senate has its shoulder high, it has also introduced a major dimension into governance, one which is usually not associated with the Nigerian political class –bowing to the public will.

    In the 8th Senate, the people of Nigeria remain king. Unlike what obtained in the past where public officials flagrantly ignore and disrespect the masses, the Senate has been able to repose a sort of trust and confidence between the public and the legislators. Indeed in this Senate, the leadership has encouraged inputs from the private sector into legislation and has robustly courted the social media community, the youths and even its most fierce critics.

    But this is not the only milestone that would define the first year of the 8th Senate. There are what commentators have described as the passage or considerations of game-changing legislation which is designed to move Nigeria into the centre of the 21st century.

    The Senate has shown and consistently too, that it is on the same page with President Muhammadu Buhari on the anti-corruption fight and the recovery of stolen funds. Acting within its legislative border, the Senate initiated an investigation into the issues of suspicious waivers granted by past administrations. It will be recalled that Nigerian manufacturers, civil society movements and other stakeholders had called for a review of the waiver regime.

    This 8th Senate had the balls and the political will to do just that and the revelations were staggering. A total of N447.42billion fraud was exposed in the duty waiver and concessions scam involving rice and other imported foods and automobile by different organs of government from 2011 to 2015.

    According to Adamu Aliero, the chairman of an Senate ad-hoc committee, in 2011 alone the country lost N78,489,941,114.74 to questionable import waivers. Others followed similar pattern:  In 2012, the federal government lost N128,538,453,758.99. Similarly, in 2013, the Senate report claimed that N46,056,265,355.78. In 2014, N87,654,744,360.22 and in 2015 alone, a total sum of N106,711,892,098.14 was approved as concession, waivers and grants to companies.

    ”Customs duty waivers and concessions have been used by the Budget Office of the Federation to entrench a very destructive patronage system to our economy, whereby very few operators in the economy were singled out for favours resulting to unfair competition in the system”, Aliero said.

    Consequently, the Saraki-led Senate urged the government to recoup N10.3billion from six companies that enjoyed rice importation waiver in 2014. This money when recovered will go a long way in providing the much needed dividends of democracy to Nigerians.

    Easing the burden of doing business in the country has been a major concern for the 8th Senate with different motions and intervention leading to the change in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy which allowed small business owners access to foreign exchange. That is not the only focus on the economy by the Senate; a probe led to the strict implementation of the Treasury Savings Account (TAS) which today has saved Nigerian about N20billion.

    Perhaps one single act of nationalism which directly impacts all Nigerians is the abolition of fixed charges in electricity tariffs.  In the past, Nigerians have complained about the ‘inhuman’ monthly fixed charge on their electricity tariff. The situation is made worse for the millions of homes using the prepaid meter.

    Senator Sam Egwu who moved the motion said: “The high tariff being charged by DISCOS does not make provision for payment of only electricity that is consumed even though bills are dished out… I am also concerned that even those that have the prepaid meters are being billed a fixed rate of about N700 a month irrespective of whether or not the person consumes electricity.”

    Consequently, the Senate President, Saraki, ordered the National Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC) to abolish the fixed charges.

    It is instructive to note that in its first year, 167 bills have passed first reading, 39 are in second reading stage while six are in third reading. To show its commitment to economic recovery especially as it affects the ease of doing business, the Senate is also set to review 54 laws affecting ease of doing business in Nigeria. In all, 162 motions were considered and resolutions which affect ordinary Nigerians were passed. Some of these are: Ban on Nigeria Agricultural export products by the European Union, flood and erosion disaster and landslide in some parts of the country.

    With the speed with which the senate has attacked its legislative duties, it is expected to work even more assiduously as it enters the second legislative year. And of course the Senate must ensure that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) counts among its achievements at the celebration of its second year in May 2017.

     

    • Adenuga wrote in from Abuja.