The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Ambode’s tip-off

    Ambode’s tip-off

    •More eminent Nigerians should emulate the governor

    Nigerians have witnessed how some governors helped accident victims or arrested soldiers and law enforcement officers for disobeying traffic regulations, especially in Lagos. But not governors giving tip-offs to the police on how criminals could be arrested: Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State did what looks novel when he informed the state police command of the activities of some suspected criminals who were arrested with 18 sacks of Indian hemp by policemen attached to the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command. The men were arrested at Oyingbo-Otto.

    ACP Olatunji Disu gave the suspects’ names as Quadri Jimoh, 23, Tajudeen Busari, 33, Ukara Udomma, 34 and Yakubu Mudashiru, 30. According to ACP Disu, “the police acted after a tip-off from Governor Ambode. We arrested a gang of narcotic specialists with 18 sacks of Indian hemp”. The ACP also said that information from members of the public will make the work of the police easier, adding: “We cannot do it all alone; we rely on hints from the people”. He was apparently referring to the information given by Ambode which led to the arrest of the suspects.

    Disu then added that the suspects would be transferred to the appropriate quarters – the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) – in spite of the protests by Jimoh and Busari that they were victims of circumstances. They claimed that they knew nothing about the hemp. Jimoh said he had gone out to buy some prescribed drugs for his wife, who is six months pregnant. On his way to the pharmacy, “I saw people running helter-skelter and I also ran with them. But I was arrested by the police”. Busari’s story was almost the same, as he said he was only passing by when he saw people running for their lives. He also ran “before the policemen intercepted me”.

    The other two suspects, Udomma and Mudashiru, were allegedly smoking hemp, although they said they were not hemp dealers. Mudashiru confessed that he regularly visits the home where the drug was found. Udomma said that he also went there to buy hemp “before I found myself inside the police net”. However, they identified a certain Olumide, who is now at large, as the hemp dealer.

    As it is now, four suspects have been arrested, with two of them directly connected to the hemp dealer and hemp smoking. The other two claimed to be victims of circumstances which they could argue before the NDLEA for possible reprieve from punishment. But the fact of the case is the tip-off that led to the arrest of the suspects. We commend Ambode for being pro-active by going out of his way to inform the law enforcement officers of the activities of the suspected criminals. We urge other Nigerians to take a cue from what he has done if we are to rid our society not only of narcotic dealers but also of other criminals.

    We agree with Disu that the police need information from the public to facilitate their work, but we can only hope too that the police disclosed the governor as their informant because of his privileged position. Otherwise, many prospective police informants would simply recoil to their shells if they know their identities would not be jealously guarded if they give information to the police. And this could hamper intelligence that would in turn impede effective policing.

  • Inhuman exploitation

    Inhuman exploitation

    •Nigerian couple enslaves man for 24 years in Britain!

    It could be considered as just another story of man’s inhumanity to man, but this doesn’t make it any less appalling and condemnable. Indeed, in a world of escalating evil, stories like this one should prompt further reflections on the values that separate humanity from beasts.

    How a British–Nigerian couple, Emmanuel Edet, a 61-year-old obstetrician, and his 58-year-old wife Antan, a hospital worker, enslaved Ofonime Sunday Inuk for 24 years belongs to the realm of the surreal. Inuk, now 40, was made to work “up to 17 hours a day” without pay for almost quarter of a century. He was forced to look after the couple’s two children, cook, clean and garden for free.

    The victim, who was 14 when the couple took him to the UK from Nigeria in 1989, told his sad tale in a UK court where he gave his evidence from behind a screen so that he could not see his tormentors. He had believed the Edets would pay him for his work as a “houseboy” and had dreamed of getting an education in Britain.

    The Edets reportedly changed the victim’s name and added him to their family passport as their son to facilitate his entry into the UK. The fraud was bad enough. It was worsened by the victim’s enslavement.

    It was evidently a bad case against the Edets. Harrow Crown Court found husband and wife guilty of cruelty to a child, slavery and assisting unlawful immigration.  Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Damaris Lakin described the abuse as “a shocking case of modern-day slavery which has no place in our society.”

    She said: “Not only did the defendants have total psychological control over the victim, but they also had control of his passport and identity documents. He was told by the Edets that if he left the house and reported matters to the police he would be arrested as an illegal immigrant and sent back to Nigeria. He believed this and felt trapped and completely dependent on the Edets…He was made to sleep largely on the floor in hallways despite there often being a spare bedroom in the houses where the family lived.”

    The Edets’ conviction and imprisonment for six years leave no doubt about how the society in which they live views their wrongdoing. Their punishment makes a powerful moral statement that should be endorsed by civilised humanity.

    Regrettably, given the Edets’ Nigerian roots, their beastly behaviour is bad publicity for Nigeria.  Nigeria doesn’t need negative ambassadors like the Edets. It is noteworthy that the local conditions which made it possible for the Edets to take Inuk to the UK as a “houseboy” still exist. Also, the practice continues till today. So, there is always the possibility of the kind of inhuman exploitation that the Edets’ case highlighted.

    What makes the Edets’ example particularly tragic and terrifying is that they betrayed their medical background, which should have made them more empathetic than their conduct showed. They had no excuse for what they did, and it was inexcusable.

    Inuk’s redemption is a positive ending.  Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Phil Brewer said: “Today the victim is living a new life in the UK. He has a job, a home with his own bed and freedom to move, and he is studying. While he will never fully overcome what happened during those 24 years, he is determined to make the most of the rest of his life…”

    Any decent society must continuously enforce civilised standards through the justice system. This case should serve as a lesson to local authorities on the need to focus more intensely on child trafficking and child abuse issues.

  • Anti-corruption war: Don’t trample on people’s rights

    Anti-corruption war: Don’t trample on people’s rights

    SIR: After watching how the immediate former DG of NIMASA was rearrested within the court premises and in the presence of his lawyers earlier in the week, I could not but recall Sections 34 and 35 of our constitution which talks about rights to dignity and liberty respectively.

    Today, many of us may ignore that fact that people’s rights are being abused in the course of fighting corruption because the victims are not our relatives. Nobody is against the anti-corruption fight of the current administration; all we are saying is that the law enforcement agents should know that an accused is presumed innocent until convicted by a competent law court. What is wrong in arranging all the crimes a suspect has allegedly committed and bringing all the charges against him once before a court of competent jurisdiction? Even if there are new discoveries while the case is pending before a court, is there no provision where the charges can be amended? When has Nigeria gone back to an era where citizens were afraid of being rearrested anytime over a matter that was thrashed by a court or a military tribunal?

    Gone are the days when suspects were tried on the pages of our newspapers. Our prosecutors should either bring all the charges against a suspect once before a court or amend the charges while the suspect is already being tried. This primitive way of re-arresting a suspect who is just granted bail should stop. How many bails have been granted to Sambo Dasuki? I am not saying any of the accused is innocent; all I am saying is that the principles of rule of law must be upheld in our country.

    Nigerians should be vigilant to draw a line between fighting corruption and violating the human rights of citizens. In stable democracies, prosecutors do not win a case by intimidation or psychologically bringing down the suspect; rather they win their cases by tendering overwhelming evidence against the suspect. Nelson Mandela in his autobiography, The Long Walk to Freedom, narrated one of his experiences in the hands of the apartheid government. He said there was a time they were illegally arrested and when the government realised that arraigning the freedom fighters would be fruitless against government’s plan to have them behind bars, the government simply declared curfew while Mandela and others were in prison. Thereafter, it ordered their release in the dead of the night and as the freedom fighters were coming out of the gate of the prison, they were rearrested for flouting the curfew imposed by the government!

    Such experiences are what you see in a draconian regime. Let every suspect be respected until convicted by a competent law court and such ‘convict’ remains innocent until he exhausts all his legal rights to appeal the judgment. Fighting corruption and respecting the fundamental human rights of the citizens are both important and none should be sacrificed for the other.

    • Dr Paul John,

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

     

  • Fashola’s roadmap

    Fashola’s roadmap

    •2,000 mega watts more; Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, 2nd Niger Bridge are priority projects

    The unveiling ,last week, of the short-term plans of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing by its helmsman, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, cannot but be regarded as a signpost of what to come. Though a mere blueprint yet, the timeliness of it and the depth and range of policy input as well as the choice of priority projects would seem like the encapsulation of the dreams and aspirations of majority of Nigerians.

    Covering three components of the new mega ministry, Fashola and his team highlight the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the 2nd Niger Bridge and the need to pump up power generation by 2,000mega watts in the next 15 months. Again, there is a caveat that the proposal and inherent time frames are subject to further approvals and availability of funds; it is most salutary that we have a concise roadmap that articulates our urgent needs and captures many of the things we yearn for.

    Some instances will suffice. In works, the rehabilitation and expansion of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, perhaps the busiest highway in the land, which had been much mishandled by previous governments, would resume immediately. The 2nd Niger Bridge, which links the north and west of Nigeria to the southeast and south-south and which is a subject of much intrigue and politicking, has also been ticked off as a priority project. All roads connecting states would be attended to as well.

    Although it was indicated that tolling might return on these federal highways so as to ensure regular maintenance, we believe many Nigerians would gladly pay a token to ply smooth, quality roads.

    On electricity, apart from a plan to quickly increase generating capacity, the blueprint explores an innovative approach that would allow power to be channelled to industrial areas across the country where need is most crucial. These high-end commercial consumers can in turn, pay a little more and help sustain the system.

    And on the housing end, there is a grand plan to build, in the short run, 40 blocks of houses in each state. This would comprise 12 flats per block making a total of 480 flats per state and a cumulative 17,760 across the country. Governors would be expected to partner this project which will not only provide accommodation but boost artisanal economy across the country.

    Here is how the minister captures the immediate impact of the project on the economy: “This will mean at a minimum of four doors and two windows (very conservatively) per home, a demand for 71,040 doors and 35,520 windows nationwide in one year. We will encourage these to be made in Nigeria…”

    “The demand for those who will make and fix the doors and windows, hinges, the wood polish and the paint and tiles suggests the onset of jobs and change for our artisans and workers who are the real builders of every economy.”

    The foregoing are just highlights but as can be gleaned, the inherent quality of thought is markedly different from what we have always had. For instance, for about 16 years, we were told that mass housing was no longer feasible, thus government did not have any mass housing unit to its name over this period. Instead, all sorts of mortgage schemes and private ventures were developed. But they were largely opaque arrangements and the houses were usually for the super rich. Now for the first time since President Shehu Shagari’s Second Republic, the Federal Government is poised to provide houses for medium and low income earners across the country.

    It is the same situation in the power sector which has bled the economy in the last one and half decades with little results to show. This short-term strategy carried out transparently and with accountability seems sure to usher desired results and galvanise the sector. As regards roads, apart from the flagship projects, the ministry has determined to start off with all the roads linking the 36 states and to give priority to near-completed projects.

    Again, as noted in the document that everything will depend on budget, it is noteworthy that while some other ministers are still plodding their way around their offices, Mr. Fashola and his team have already shown us the beautiful road ahead.

  • Unwanted cargoes

    Unwanted cargoes

    •It is inexplicable that items imported with public funds are left uncleared for years

    In a political landscape abounding with abandoned projects, the report of some 70 containers ordered by Jigawa and Delta states but abandoned at the Ikorodu Lighter Terminal (ILT) would ordinarily not rankle. Yet, the report highlights the scourge of criminal irresponsibility by those saddled with the function of public procurement, a phenomenon that has hobbled the nation’s development efforts.

    According to newspaper report, 50 containers packed with tricycles belonging to the Jigawa State Government, and another 20 containing building equipment, belonging to the Delta State Government, have been lying at the terminal for close to two years. To underscore the pervasive nature of the scourge, the report also fingers the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) as having turned the terminal into its warehouse, with its 100 containers loaded with electricity equipment. Indeed, acting assistant comptroller-general of customs in charge of Zone A, Charles Edike, on a visit went beyond bemoaning the situation to give the consignees up till December 31, to remove the overtime cargoes or forfeit them to the Federal Government.

    Nearly two years ago, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) had, in its bid to free up the space, moved a total of 2,279 overtime containers from the Lagos Port Complex (LPC), Apapa, to the Ikorodu Lighter Terminal (ILT). The measure was said to have become necessary after the owners of the consignments failed to claim them long after the 90-day maximum period expected for their clearance. Now, it appears that the problem has merely shifted inland – away from the ports complex.

    The issue of the abandoned containers obviously raises a number of questions – all of them bordering on the failure of institutions of government. One of course imagines that Letters of Credit were duly established for the consignments. In the circumstance, the officials would have been duly notified of the time of arrival at the ports. That being the case, how come the officials neither bothered to track the movement of the goods nor make provisions for their clearance? Could it be that the relevant bills of laden were not despatched to the consignees or a simple case of official negligence – a case of the goods belonging to the government and to no one in particular? To the extent that the funds for the procurement came from the treasury, how come there was no oversight on the entire process?

    The story of the Jigawa containers merely underscores the challenge highlighted above. According to the spokesman of the government, Bello Zaki, the tricycles were actually ordered by the former administration of Governor Sule Lamido. While admitting that the issue of the containers was actually contained in the hand-over notes of the out-gone administration, he however insisted that the current administration in the state was only notified of the arrival of the containers in July. If we may ask, what is the job of the bureaucracy if not to handle routine tasks such as clearance and delivery of such consignments?

    We must say that the case of the defunct PHCN is even more inexplicable. Imagine that one of the most strident complaints by the PHCN was dearth of vital spares and equipment; now imagine that the very equipment ordered to ameliorate the situation could not be retrieved after arriving at the ports for whatever reasons. Some things clearly can’t seem to add up here. The situation, in our view, calls for a thorough investigation. We suggest that the Federal Government take immediate custody of the assets to prevent damage – assuming that they are not already damaged.

    As for the Delta State government, mum has been the word – which is quite surprising. If for nothing, we expect that the state house of assembly should take more than a passing interest in finding out the state of the assets purchased with taxpayers’ money; it should help shed light on why these consignments are left to waste at the lighter terminal. As representatives of the people, it is the least the legislators can do.

  • Edo’s abandoned vocational centres

    Edo’s abandoned vocational centres

    SIR: There are many abandoned vocational training centres in the three Senatorial District in Edo State. These centres were  constructed and made functional during the Ogbemudia tenure as military governor. However, successive governors abandoned the centres for their selfish reasons. Presently the centres are overgrown with weeds while some have been taken over for farming by individuals. For example there is the old mechanic workshop off upper Siluko Road that has produced very skillful mechanics in the community. This centre has long been abandoned and taken over by a certain individual for plantain cultivation. Ordinarily these centres were constructed for training of the unemployed youths in various skills. The centres need to be improved upon by also including ICT units, multi-purpose hall, workshop premises, classroom, hotel block etc. that will meet global challenges for vocational skill acquisitions as it is with Chinese and Lebanese skill contractors who now parade corridors of power for contracts. Edo State government should re-visit these skills acquisition centres and even construct more for the benefits of street hawkers; they need to create an enabling environment for them to gain requisite skills for empowerment.

    If the project is embraced with all seriousness, it is capable of churning out skilled manpower in the area of ICT, digital printing, welding, carpentry, tailoring, fashion designing, fishery, piggery farming and art work etc.

    When government takes the giant step to empower the youth, it will help to achieve peace in the state. The problems of kidnapping and cultism will drastically reduce.

    When youths are not gainfully employed, they become instruments of violence. Edo State youths are not only talented, but also have great potentials that could be harnessed for the socio-economic development of the state. It is important to empower unemployed men, women and youth towards improving their status especially making them better citizens. The state also needs to partner with well-meaning individuals, corporate bodies and all other youth-development agencies to support in the full development and smooth operations of youth centres.

    If the incident of street hawkers, beggars, commercial sex workers, and other social miscreants which add to social and security  problems of the state are to be addressed, then government should do something fast by re-instating and re-visiting vocational centres that were abandoned and improving centres with latest equipments.

     

    • Femi Bello Owinje,

    President, Edo People in Disapora,

    Europe.

     

  • Jonathan’s silence

    Jonathan’s silence

    •In view of the deluge of allegations involving corruption in his era, the former president owes it to Nigerians to explain his role

    In the past month, Nigerians have been besieged by a surge of sleaze. The panel, led by Air Vice Marshal John Ode, has unearthed stories of alleged corruption in high places.  It has revolved around the office of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, involving about several billions of naira.

    The narrative has evolved as a theatre of accusations and recriminations, about full-throated defences, protestations of innocence, explanations hiding under veils of technicalities, half-confessions overcast by shadows of regret, epistolary flourishes marked by aggressive assertions and the bandying about of figures.

    Whether during arrests, or through supine visages in court or defiant poses on newspaper pages or electronic media, the persons involved in this still unfolding drama have further desecrated the cathedral vista of government office. They have brought the dignity of public service down to a farce of thieving.

    Many persons were on the take. Many contracts defied the minimal rules of civilised transactions. The money disbursed in the name of national security fulfilled any imaginary purpose from online fantasy to religious ecstasy.

    What is baffling in this cacophony of iniquity is the inscrutable silence of the principal actor in the regime: ex-President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. To be fair to the former Nigerian leader, he uttered a rebuttal on the onset of the allegations.

    Hear him: “I did not award any $2 billion contract for the procurement of weapons. Where did the money come from?” he asked at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in the United States. Showing how he felt about the welter of allegations, he said, “Sometimes I feel sad when people mention these figures.”

    President Jonathan also adverted to figures cited by the President Buhari Muhammadu administration after a visit to the U.S barely a month after he assumed office.  “When the president paid official visit to the US, there were some figures that were mentioned that I don’t believe.” He referred to “$150 billion American money” reported to be missing, adding rhetorically, “and Americans will not know where it is?” He felt the allegations were not pelted at his administration.

    This was November 19, 2015. In the flush of the first few days of the allegations, ex-NSA Dasuki also presented an exterior of innocence and victimisation. He issued a statement that seemed sturdy and beyond reproach. He said he was made NSA on June 22, 2012 while the allegations dated from March 2012. He explained that “all contracts and accruing payments were with the approval of the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces. Once the President approved, the NSA paid.” He added that “there was due process for every purchase in line with regulations guiding arms procurement for the armed forces.”

    He noted further that “Nigerians should note that all the services generated the types of equipment needed, sourced for suppliers most times and after consideration by the Office of the NSA, the President will approve application for payment.”

    He boasted that “I am ready for trial on all the allegations in order to prove to Nigerians that I did nothing untoward.”

    Weeks after though, the picture seems to have changed. Its web has enveloped quite a few politicians, business men, the media, etc. Confessions have erupted from the lips of some of those who collected money direct from the Office of the NSA. For instance, the former chairman of the African Independent Television, or AIT, confessed to collecting the sum of N2.1 billion. His son defended the contract by saying former President Jonathan and former Vice President Namadi Sambo were present at the moment of approval. Was that what the NSA characterised as due process? Another absurd part of the story was the confession and revelation that N4.6 billion was disbursed to a former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, for religious purpose. The president of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN, Nduka Obaigbena, confessed to receiving N670 million as compensation for newspapers that suffered damages when the military impounded their products last year, and also for the bombing of his office building in Abuja by Boko Haram insurgents in 2012.

    Ambassador Bashir Yuguda, a former minister of state for finance, said he dished out N100 million each  to leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) across the country, but the drama spun into an absurd light when some denied, including Bode George. George said the sum was inflated while Jim Nwobodo knew about the disbursement not from Yuguda but from party chairman Adamu Muazu. He claimed that when it fell on his laps, it was N500 million and he distributed it to the five governors of the southeast.

    We cannot ignore former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her confession. She wrote that the sum of $322 million was approved by President Jonathan before she conveyed the princely sum to Dasuki for the war on terror. The minister who claimed a regime above board has not explained how the sum was disbursed and why she raised no eyebrows while our soldiers starved and died in spite of the large allocation.

    What this shows is that this is no more a fairy tale series of allegations. From the confessions, it is clear money passed from the office of the NSA, and princely sums at that. It refutes the NSA’s claims that they were unleashed on the war on terror, given the purposes for which some of the money was disbursed. Why, for instance, would a former governor collect N4.6 billion for spiritual reasons?

    It is also questionable if these sums passed through the due process. Where were the certificates of incorporations of the companies, particulars of directors, tax clearance certificates from 2011, letters of award of contracts, invoice of supplies or services, evidence of payment so far and outstanding balances, personal income tax clearance certificates of directors, etc.?

    The presences of party bigwigs in this unfolding narrative revealed that national security may have been the bogey man for this liberal shower of corruption. Is it true as some of the confessions have implied that national security was a guise to funnel slush funds for political campaigns?

    What this betrays is a fundamental cankerworm in our body politic, and this is not restricted to the PDP. The perception of public funds as the entitlement of the power-that-be has turned our patrimony into a battleground. Any party or person in power uses the advantage of public funds to energise political campaign, pay off loyalty and overwhelm the opposition.

    Now, the former president denied the allegations at the beginning, probably hoping the matter would die like a suffocated cat. But since the damning revelations, outcries of condemnation and sighs of disgust in the civil society, the principal player of the era, President Jonathan, needs to come clean about what he knows. If he knew nothing, then he was not in charge. But how could such huge sums of money move out of the government coffers without the knowledge of the chief accounting officer in government?

    When he said he did not “believe” it, did he mean it was a lie or he wondered if it was true. If a former president spoke in such terms of ambiguous indignation, we have reason to wonder how he governed the country in about six years.

    That is why he ought to unveil a methodical defence of all the allegations, even if the president is not willing to put him in the dock.

  • Subsidy: Rethinking a N7 trillion caper

    Subsidy: Rethinking a N7 trillion caper

    •It’s time now to rethink this aberration

    We must admit upfront that we have been a long term canvasser for some subsidy in the sale of petroleum products in Nigeria. Our main ground has been that, first, Nigeria being one of the largest oil producing countries in the world but with a largely poor population should never turn her people over to the vagaries of market forces. In other words, Nigerians should never pay the same price for refined petroleum products as consumers in non-oil producing countries.

    Based on the fore-going premise, we had argued that subsidy could only be withdrawn consequent upon the establishment of viable refineries and petrochemical complexes. This means that the country would have eliminated the importation of most petroleum products. Recall that we were rather vehement on these positions during the January 2012 ‘fuel subsidy’ protests. Recall also that crucial to the terms of ‘settlement’ of that crisis was the promise by the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to build four green field refineries before the end of its tenure.

    Today, three years gone by, no sod was turned anywhere in the land for the construction of any of the refineries. Nigeria, therefore, missed the opportunity to set up crucial infrastructure in the oil sector at a period when the price of crude oil was over $100 per barrel and she earned huge revenues from oil sales.

    Price has crashed to below $40 per barrel today; Nigeria’s foreign exchange earning has crashed with it yet she still depends largely on imported petroleum products. She is therefore caught up in a double jeopardy of not earning enough foreign exchange for massive imports of petroleum products yet stuck with subsidising the products.

    We therefore think that the time must be now to rethink the entire subsidy regime with a view to either scrapping it in phases or in one swoop. It must be noted that the costs of the subsidy has become too enormous that government’s continued bearing of it is untenable and indeed, would amount to sheer fool-hardy.

    We also hold this position in the light of the recently released World Bank Economic Report on Nigeria which states that the Federal Government has spent about N6.9 trillion on petroleum products subsidy in the last five years. As had been noted on this page in the past, the ills of Nigeria’s petrol subsidy regimes are as numerous as they are injurious to the economy. Besides, the common people may have long ceased to enjoy the benefits supposedly accruing from the subsidy.

    According to the World Bank: “The $35 billion cost of fuel subsidy during the 2010 – 2014 was a primary reason why Nigeria was unable to accumulate a fiscal reserve in the Excess Crude Account that could have protected the country from the recent oil price shock. Fuel subsidy obligations are expected to reach 18 per cent of all government oil revenues in 2015, and, if the current regulated prices are maintained, this is projected to increase to more than 30 per cent by 2018.”

    This is a scary projection. It is also noteworthy that in the years in review, the Federal Government had continually spent about one quarter of her total annual budget on funding subsidy at the cost of massive infrastructural development, including in the petroleum sector.

    Finally, the crash in crude oil prices would have naturally instigated a downward slide in the prices of refined products and perhaps an eventual elimination of subsidy. But this has not happened because of the free fall of the naira against the dollar; added to other costs of long haul importation, the story of subsidy remains the same with no respite either for the people or the government.

    We urge the government to take a combination of actions quickly. It must drastically eliminate the debilitating corruption in the oil sector; catalyse an aggressive construction of refineries and petrochemical complexes while at the same time, reviewing the subsidy regime with a view to eliminating it. This is the way forward.

     

  • A laudable step

    A laudable step

    •We support the Federal Government’s decision to reopen talks with China on rail and power projects

    Nigeria’s desire to reopen talks on the rehabilitation of vital rail and power projects in the country with the Chinese government is commendable. It is indeed long overdue. Major infrastructure – roads, rail and power – are in a shambles in Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer. The need to resume talks on these projects has become the more urgent with the continued fall in crude prices, Nigeria’s mainstay, which has seen oil prices crash from over $150 per barrel to a rock bottom low of about $38 in the past year. If Nigeria had not seen the need to look beyond oil before now, it cannot continue to remain blind to that option.

    Nigeria’s attempts to improve on its rail infrastructure have a long history. Unfortunately, the hopes had always been dashed due to one reason or the other. For instance, a N50bn contract that the country signed with the Chinese Civil Construction and Engineering Company (CCCEC) as far back as 1995 during the time of the late General Sani Abacha ended in crisis. The Chinese firm accused the local contractors that the Federal Ministry of Transport assigned the supply of track materials under the project of failing to meet their obligations.

    According to the CCCEC, some of the local contractors that performed supplied obsolete tracks.  On the other hand, local engineers with the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) asked the Federal Government to phase out the locomotives supplied by the Chinese firm because they lacked the required strength. This has been the fate of most other arrangements to rehabilitate and modernise the country’s railways in the last few decades.

    It is however good that the Buhari presidency has seen the need to resume talks with the Chinese for this purpose, even if under new terms that would see the latter provide a major chunk of the $20 billion (13.40 billion pounds) required for the projects. Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu who gave insight into the proposed projects said the 1,402-kilometre rail line linking Lagos in the west with Calabar in the east is of special concern to the Federal Government and this would be financed with a $12billion loan. The project had stalled since last year.

    Another rail project in the offing is the modernisation of the rail line connecting the southern commercial hub of Lagos and Kano in the north, which is expected to cost $8.3 billion.

    Talks are also expected to include the Mambilla hydro-electric power station, which has not been developed since 1982 when the idea was mooted. Like the rail projects, the Mambilla power projects had suffered several reversals in the past. On completion, the project is expected to add another 3,050 megawatts to Nigeria’s generating capacity.

    Indeed, a multi-faceted approach towards solving the infrastructure deficit appears in the offing given that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo too had earlier announced that a separate $25 billion fund would be set up to improve the country’s road, rail and power networks. There should be a dramatic improvement in both the rail and energy sectors if the government is able to see through these projects.

    These developments should be welcomed not only because they would connect different parts of the country by rail but also because they would provide jobs for Nigeria’s teeming unemployed youths. The Lagos-Calabar rail project alone is expected to provide about 200,000 jobs, for instance. Moreover, when completed, the rail projects will free our roads of unnecessary loads they now carry due to the lack of a functional rail system, thereby increasing their lifespan.

    It is good that the government has returned to the drawing board to reactivate the rail and power projects, but it should do so with its eyes wide open to avoid repeating past mistakes.

  • Budget 2016

    Budget 2016

    •Quite ambitious, but implementation is what will make the difference

    At  a hefty N6 trillion at a time of dwindling revenues from oil, the Federal Government’s Budget 2016 can truly claim to stand tall in ambition: Tall in its assumption of $38 dollars per barrel of crude oil as benchmark at a time of tumbling oil prices; and, tall also in its daily projection of 2.2 million barrels production.

    Aside that, the budget answers to the citizens’ craving for fast-track economic growth and diversification that only an expansionary fiscal regime can attain. Although for an economy ill- served by a most decrepit and dysfunctional infrastructure, a 30 percent allocation for capital spend would ordinarily be seen as far below par. However, when compared with the 2015 budget which originally projected aggregate recurrent expenditure of N3.971 trillion or 85.8 percent of aggregate budget (inclusive of SURE -P), and hence capital expenditure at 14.2percent of the aggregate budget (also inclusive of SURE-P) – to which has now been added the recently passed supplementary budget which are principally recurrent, a significant leap forward would appear to have been recorded.

    Beyond question, therefore, the budget as a statement of government priority, makes the case for the broad measures tailored to stimulate activities in the real sector, and to turn the tide of infrastructural decay at these particularly difficult times.

    As for implementation, the budget will certainly be challenging in a number of ways.  Topmost is where the funds to execute the ambitious budget will come from. In the environment of a much reduced revenue inflow from the traditional source – oil, government’s resolve to borrow to finance the budget obviously makes eminent sense.

    Of course, with oil prices currently hovering below $40 a barrel, the signs are far from reassuring just as we are under no illusion about the price of oil holding steady anytime in the immediate future. This is why we consider the $38 budget benchmark as somewhat unrealistic. The Federal Government and the National Assembly may wish to take a second look with a view to working out a more appropriate benchmark.

    Secondly, the auguries that we can actually sustain the output of 2.2 million barrels per day are also far from assuring. Much as the Buhari administration may wish to take some credit for bringing down the menace of oil theft, the challenge of maintaining a stable regime of production is still there; so is the challenge of getting the market to absorb entire output in a season of glut evidenced by the not-too infrequent reports of unsold cargoes of Nigeria’s Light Bonny. Given what we know of the complexities at these two levels, not even the Federal Government, it would appear, is in a position to offer guarantees. The twain challenges, in our view, are certainly serious as things are.

    But so is the lingering issue of fuel subsidy. Given its potential effects on price levels and the cost of living in general, we can understand the government’s reluctance to do away with the fuel subsidy, which is akin to literally throwing vulnerable Nigerians to the hounds of fuel marketers. However, it seems to us that there is hardly a better time than now for the government to weigh carefully the opportunity costs of retaining subsidy. In this, the facts to be borne in mind include, the paucity of funds from factors already highlighted; the nearly one trillion naira outlay annually expended on the subsidy – funds that otherwise could have been channelled into upgrading the infrastructure; and the excruciating pains forced on citizens with every cycle of induced scarcity.

    And as we have seen all too often on every occasion of fuel scarcity, whereas it is the ordinary citizens that suffer, the marketers somehow get paid their subsidy dues in the end. Indeed, citizens caught in the grip of their contrived scarcity are ever too eager to pay for fuel above the regulated price while the marketers, ready to cash in on the situation, end up collecting the subsidy twice. And if we may repeat the point that we have always made, the way to go is for the Federal Government to push more aggressively towards self-sufficiency in local refining.

    Finally is the issue of discipline in budget implementation. Given the farce that previous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administrations made of the budget process, Nigerians have justifiable basis to wonder if the Buhari budget would be different. For, in the final count, only when the goals set out in the budget  are successfully delivered would citizens make sense of the change the administration promised.