The Nation Newspaper

Tag: end

  • The world about to end?

    Do you remember that this world was supposed to come to an end on Friday, December 21, 2012? Yes, a big noise was made about this in the months, and even the years, before that date. And even though December 21, 2012 passed like all other days, the belief that the world will soon suddenly end has remained strong.

    And believe me, a whole lot of people are still preparing for it in very many countries.  And such people are taking countless ingenious and creative steps to ensure that they and their families would survive when the end suddenly comes.  The Noah of the time of the Biblical flood received instruction from God about how he and his family should survive. The would-be Noahs of today are adopting countless survival measures, based on the enormous store of mankind’s knowledge of technology.  Being a historian by training and profession, I am attracted to watching what these folks were doing – mostly in the technologically most advanced countries of the world.  Altogether, it is an awesome spectacle of man at his smartest, his most technologically savvy, his most foolish, and his most funny.

    The Noah of the Bible received his fore-warning from God that the world in which he was living was about to be destroyed.  So, where did our own folks in today’s world get their fore-warnings from?  From an endless number of sources. Many who are Christians claim that they got their warnings from God – from some special reading of some books of the Bible. Of such Bible books, the most popular with these folks is the last book in the Bible – the book of Revelation.  Very many claim that from reading the book of Revelation, plus of course other Bible books like Daniel and Ezekiel, they have come to the very certain knowledge that the sudden end of the world is just around the corner.

    But other powerful warnings of theirs come, not from the Bible, but from certain prophecies in more recent human history. Of these, the most authoritative, according to the Doomsday believers, is the calendar created hundreds of years ago by the Mayan civilization which existed in Central America, and which became extinct at about the beginning of modern times. The evidence available to us show that the Mayan civilization was very sophisticated in many things – especially in architecture, astronomy, astrology, and the reading of the stars.  For many years now, archaeologists and anthropologists have told the world that the  Mayan calendar is so highly sophisticated that it contains  correct records and predictions  of stellar happenings dating all the way back to 23,000 BC.  They have also told the world that this mysterious Mayan calendar stopped abruptly on December 21, 2012, the day of the Winter Solstice when the Sun annually stands at its lowest altitude above the Earth.  From this, many people conclude that the Mayan calendar includes the prediction that the world would come to an abrupt end on December 21, 2012, or soon after that.

    Human imagination quickly added a flood of other “prophecies”. An ancient North America people called the Hopi had a tradition which said that five words would be created in succession and that as each perished its successor would appear; that each would exist for millions of years and then perish, for its successor to appear. This Hopi tradition claimed that four worlds have come and perished, and that the fifth world, which would be the last world, is our present world which has been in existence for many millions of years and which is now due to perish. Believers in the Doomsday prophecies quickly added this Hopi tradition to their picture – as proof that the world is about to disappear.

    But there are many other prophecies – written prophecies attributed to known authors in our modern world. The greatest of these modern prophets is Nostradamus, a Frenchman who lived in the early 16th century. Nostradamus wrote down his prophecies, and today we have books of his prophecies in libraries across the world. Those who have studied his prophecies say that he clearly prophesied the coming of Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, the First and Second World Wars, the assassination of President John Kennedy, and many other events in our modern world. They also say that he prophesied that the world would end through a number of cataclysmic events – such as worldwide earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, enormous wars, and fires falling from the sky. He is said to have identified Napoleon and Hitler as the first and second Antichrists spoken of in the book of Revelation; and to have prophesied the coming of the third and last Antichrist not long after Hitler.

    Not surprisingly, the Doomsday people developed very fascinating scenarios of how the world would end. Their most interesting end-point scenario is that a large piece of blazing rock – an asteroid – from space would hit the earth. According to their fascinating calculations, an asteroid measuring about one mile by one mile by one mile, if it hit the earth, is sure to hit with 10,000 times the destructive power of the greatest atomic bomb that man has ever produced. Under the impact of such a devastating force, the earth would be so massively disrupted as to bring all life on the earth to an end. Its immediate impact would destroy all houses on the earth, and incinerate most of the earth’s surface. A thick cloud of dust and smoke would envelope the earth for many years, radically changing the earth’s climate. If there were human survivors, they would be very few and scattered, and they would find themselves in a world from which all signs of human civilization has disappeared. They would have to start all over to create the basic elements of human civilization.

    And so there arose the people who call themselves Doomsday Preppers – that is, humans who are determined that if they survive, they would have some basic things with which to keep their lives going, and with which to start civilization all over again.  Believe me, these people are not kidding; they are very serious. Their preparations include many carefully thought-out measures. To be sure that if they survived they would have food and water to continue to live on until they could produce some crops, they have created underground food dumps in various locations and taught their families how to find the dumps. They included seeds in the dumps, as well as simple hand tools for scratching the earth and planting seeds. They calculated that other survivors who had no preparation and therefore no food or water might become desperate and begin to attack those who had such supplies. Therefore, a major part of each Doomsday Prepper’s preparation is to buy guns and teach his family how to use them. Many Preppers have built underground bunkers, or otherwise specially fortified homes, where they and their families would be able to live in safety until life becomes safer. Some groups have even formed companies or clubs to build large underground bunkers where small communities of survivors could live.

    Perhaps the greatest thing which demonstrates the mighty seriousness of Doomsday Prepping is an international seed dump built in the far north of Norway. Here, the inside of a mountain has been dug out to create a large frozen warehouse where millions of carefully preserved seeds from all over the world have been stored. Similar but smaller versions of this have been built in some other countries. The idea is that if Doomsday does come and everything on the earth is incinerated, the few humans who survive may find ways to take advantage of the seeds hidden in these secret warehouses.

    Well, we may laugh at these things. But, on second thoughts, we cannot but pay respect to man’s ingenuity, and man’s thoughtfulness about his future. Also, we cannot but wonder why we Nigerians – indeed why we members of the Black race in Africa – seem so unconcerned about our collective future, why we never seem to be able to make orderly preparations for our future, and why the prominent ones among us are invariably obsessed only with grabbing all power and all resources for themselves – without any concern for the group’s future? For instance, when we Nigerians came into possession of enormous revenues from petroleum, side by side with widespread predictions that petroleum was likely soon to fade out of the world economy, why did our leaders not use the revenues to prepare for our future in a serious, orderly and sustained manner? Why is such a disaster as this replicated in virtually all Black African countries? What is wrong with us as a race? Who, ultimately, are we?

  • Ghosts without end

    Ghosts without end

    • It’s high time the officials spawning ghost workers are prosecuted

    Just as well that the finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, has said what should rightly be said about the discovery of another round of ghost workers in the country’s federal civil service. According to the minister, those behind the payment to the ghost workers – the banks and ministries’ officials – are to be prosecuted. This is good talk.

    But we have to wait until the matter is pursued to its logical conclusion before commending the action because this is not the first time we are hearing of the existence of ghost workers in the civil service, whether at the federal level or even in the states. As a matter of fact, it is not unlikely that there would be many ghost workers even in the local governments; the snag is we hardly look in that direction because we often think there is not much to steal at that level.

    Mrs Adeosun who made the latest disclosure on the ghost workers when she appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance to defend her ministry’s budget said the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System were instrumental to the discovery. “As we speak now, we have about 23,000 that we need to investigate; those whom either the BVN is linked to multiple payments or the name on the BVN account is not consistent with the name on our own payroll.

    “If we are able to get everybody onto the BVN platform, we will be able to save a considerable amount of personnel cost”, she said.

    It is inconceivable that any worker in the country’s public service would still be collecting salaries without having BVN despite the massive campaign for all account holders to key into the platform or have restrictions placed on some aspects of the accounts. Definitely, something is fishy here. We cannot rule out collusion between some banks’ staff and some senior Federal Government workers if workers without BVN are still receiving salaries.

    It is regrettable that the country keeps losing huge chunks of money to the so-called ghost workers. But we must not stop at the point of lamenting why the nation has become a fertile ground to breed ghost workers, we must ensure that those responsible for such economic adversity are properly identified and prosecuted. This is the missing link since we have been hearing revelations about ghost workers. As with many other crimes, those involved are hardly punished. After the initial noise about the discovery, and the subsequent threats of fire and brimstone, nothing is heard on the matter again until another round of revelations is made.

    The Muhammadu Buhari administration should have no room for that kind of corruption not just because the economy is in dire straits and we need to track every kobo belonging to the government, but because there should be zero tolerance for corruption. There is no amount of investment we may make on technology to check the crime, if this is not followed by the appropriate lessons and punishment, those involved would continue to grow fat at the expense of the state.

    Ordinarily, there should not be any serious cases of ghost workers, particularly in the Federal Civil Service after the introduction of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System by the former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Under her, about 46,821 ghost workers were identified in 215 of the federal ministries, departments and agencies, thus saving the government billions of naira.

    But alas! We have been proved wrong. We have now seen that no matter the technology deployed, we will still find ghost workers in our system. It seems we must stop deodorizing the issue simply by referring to the phenomenon as ‘ghost workers’ because this diminishes its toxicity. Ghosts cannot collect, let alone spend salaries. So, we must go after all those running the chain, from the bankers to their accomplices in the civil service, if we want an end to that type of corruption.

     

  • Good start, shaky end

    Good start, shaky end

    Marketing communication industry players hit it big during the elections. But after the polls, they started feeling the pains of the economic downtown, accentuated by falling oil prices. ADEDEJI ADEMIGBUJI writes.

    The year 2015 ended yesterday. Many players in the marketing communication industry appear happy that at least the year which started on a good note but ended poorly is over. For players in the public relations, advertising, media buying and experiential business, last year’s elections was a buffer for an industry that carried over the economic challenges the previous year on its shoulders.

    There were fears over dwindling marketing budget which was expected to affect the entire value chains of the industry such as newspaper, TV, outdoor, PR, experiential and advertising agencies. But the volume of political advertising turned the tide for the industry.

    According to the Group Managing Director, Prima Garnet Africa, Mr. Lolu Akinwunmi, major challenges of the year were related to the larger economy.

    He said: “The economy slumped as a result of declining demand for our oil in spite of the falling price. As a result, government was not making enough money and as the biggest spender, it could not finance the economy. This also affected the other sectors. Because of the huge cost of production and falling demands, many companies and service providers operated under capacity utilisation and at high costs that eroded their margins.”

    Noting that the advertising industry is not immune to the effects of economy realities, he said many clients cut down their budgets. “In a situation like this, the demand for advertising services slumped. Many clients cut back on plans and budgets. Many started buying media and other services directly. Several others began to owe their agencies. Agencies also started retrenching. Liquidity became a serious issue,” he said.

    Also, the Managing Director of The Quadrant Company (TQC), Mr. Bolaji Okusaga, said the year was strained as a result of macroeconomic realities. “The system is strained at the moment because of macroeconomic factors,” he said.

     

    Advertising regulation

    One of the areas that attracted so much attention was regulation. As a result of the elections, the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), among other communication regulatory agencies, could not curtail the excesses of players during 2015 elections. There were flagrant disregard for both self-regulation and government regulation. Though they were irked by some of the political advertising campaigns, APCON, Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria (PRCAN), Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAN) were helpless  even when it was clear that their members had violated their code of practice.

     

    Winners, losers

    After the boom occasioned by the general election, some agencies lost marketing businesses while some won new businesses. Chain Reactions, a top PR agency based in Lagos won a competitive public relations multimillion naira PR business. The PR agency, which moved its office to expansive space in Ikeja GRA,  from its former location at a street off Allen also in Ikeja, clinched the account with convincing strategies to handle the account. Chain Reactions, led by Israel Opayemi, took over the account from TQC after pitch among five top agencies -Chain Reactions, Xlr8, MediaCraft, The Quadrant Company and C and F Potter Novelli  Also, Brooks & Blakes, DKK smiled during the year after winning the juicy account of MTN, which has domiciled in Marketing Mix for over eight years.

     

    Treasury single account

    Earlier in February, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a circular directing all deposit money banks to implement the Remita e-Collection Platform. The Remita e-Collection is a technology platform deployed by the Federal Government to support the collection and remittance of all government revenue to the Consolidated Account domiciled with the CBN. This marked the beginning of the full implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) scheme in Nigeria.

    Despite the advantages of the system in curbing corruption in public sector in particular, most players handling government PR and advertising businesses complained about it affected their cash flows. Industry players, who confided in The Nation, said they could not meet some of their financial obligations as a result of the implemention of TSA.

     

    Expectation in 2016

    With tough business environment in 2015, there are fears that businesses will be tougher in the New Year despite the proposed 2016 budget which is expected to ease the burden. According to Okusaga, in 2016, clients will be shopping for value with “spend less, get more” becoming the mantra.

    “Agencies will have to not only become more creative but also more cost efficient,” he said.

    He however said players should not rejoice yet over the proposed budget as many factors would determine whether the good times are here or not. He said: “2016 budget is still pretty much a wish as opposed to a planning document. How realistic is the crude oil benchmark at $38 a barrel with oil projected to hit $20 in 2016? Where are we going to be be able to raise about N3 trillion in non oil revenues from? If government is proposing to borrow N2.2 trillion with domestic debt accounting for N900 billion of this, how will government debt instrument be priced? What is the implication of that on interest rates? We need to answer these questions before declaring the 2016 budget a “buffer”.

    On the other hand, Akinwunmi said for 2016 a lot will depend on the new government’s economic plan. The draft budget with the National Assembly, he believes, will rejuvenate the industry.

    “From all indications, the government plans to run a big budget of about N6 trillion. Nearly N2 trillion will be deficit financing. The key objective of the budget is to reflate the economy and kick start activities. This is good for advertising because when the economy is reflated then commercial activities and production should be revived. This scenario will require advertising and marketing services. This should be good for the agencies. Overall, the prognosis for the ad industry in 2016 looks good,” said Akunwunmi.

  • End of an era – Aregbesola

    End of an era – Aregbesola

    Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, described the death of Chief Mrs. Awolowo, as the end of an era.

    In a statement by the Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, the governor joined the progressive family in mourning the glorious exit of a matriarch.

    He described Mama Awolowo as a solid pillar beside the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo when he was alive.

    According to the Governor, Mama stood by her husband during his lifetime and even after his demise. “They set examples for politicians when they were here with us. The couple typified the best of what politicians should strive to be in their families in our society.”

  • How not to end Boko Haram

    How not to end Boko Haram

    Barely one month after he appointed his new service chiefs, President Muhammadu Buhari in August set a three-month deadline for the defeat of Boko Haram. In the first flush of excitement after they were picked to lead the military, the service chiefs themselves openly acknowledged that the November deadline was achievable. There was great enthusiasm, new military equipment, additional motivation, and the violent sect was so degraded as a fighting force that nothing seemed unrealistic about the deadline. A wary but eager public cottoned onto the Buhari timeline notwithstanding the failure of several deadlines issued by former president Goodluck Jonathan, deadlines that failed woefully, repeatedly and embarrassingly. Like many other things with the Buhari government, such as electricity supply and fuel availability, which seem to be responding positively to what has been described as his body language, many Nigerians are joyous with hope that the Boko Haram deadline would yield to the president’s sorcery.

    There are chances the high hopes could be realised, and the war and the sect would both be extinguished. The Buhari government has also talked of his plans, together with a part of the world community, for the post-war reconstruction of the northeastern part of Nigeria ravaged by the sect’s nihilistic and murderous war. Having secured a humongous and seemingly disproportionate number of votes from that blighted region, President Buhari, it seems, is not being hypocritical in disclosing his huge plans for the Northeast. Though the plans are yet to be fully spelt out, they appear real and will receive the president’s best backing and energy.

    So far, however, the government’s plan to bring the Boko Haram phenomenon to an end is based on two planks: to defeat the sect militarily, and to rebuild the war-ravaged region. As appropriate as these measures are in dealing with the menace in the Northeast, it is doubtful whether they are sufficient to extinguish the sect or prevent other sects and subversive groups from undermining the peace and security of the country. Boko Haram did not start in 2002 as a violent sect, even if it had the potential. It contained seeds of radicalism in its bowels, but it did not start out radicalised. While it was undeniably Islamist in structure and content, notwithstanding what the mainstream Islamic bodies embarrassed by the sect’s activities have said, it nonetheless distorted and perverted Islamic doctrines. Boko Haram’s militancy, radicalisation and ideology grew out of their experiences and encounters with the nation’s unsophisticated security forces and lackadaisical and undiscerning government.

    If the sect withers before the firepower of the military, and its foot soldiers are depleted by the rebuilding and reconstruction of the Northeast, it is only a part of the necessary conditions for delivering peace to the region. In all President Buhari’s talk of peace in the region, he has emphasised military action, for which he has set a deadline, and economic regeneration, for which he gives the impression he and the world are prepared. But neither he nor anyone else, including the perceptive Governor Kassim Shettima of Borno State, has talked copiously of or emphasised the injustice that was done to members of the sect, nor even of the extrajudicial murder of the late Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf. The sect had in the past seized upon the extrajudicial murder of their leader and members to spurn previous offers of dialogue and peace. It is not now clear how the government hopes to ignore those state killings and hope any peace would endure. Peace must be based on justice, and yes, even criminals need justice delivered along civilised lines.

    The conventional wisdom in Nigeria concludes that troublemakers are deserving of the punishment they get, no matter how the punishment is procured and administered. But it was pigheaded to carry out extrajudicial murder in the early stages of the disturbances, and it is still unethical to suggest that on account of the heavy economic losses suffered by the country, and the killing and maiming of military personnel, and the painful abridgment of governance in large parts of the Northeast, those who fomented the rebellion deserved the arbitrary punishment meted out to them. What sets a society apart from bloodthirsty anarchists and fanatical sects is the ethical standard by which civilised communities are judged. Boko Haram militants engaged in extraordinary and deplorable bloodletting. The rest of the society could not descend to that abysmal level of indiscriminate killings and hope to be regarded as superior to the sects. It took more than two years for the trial of the policemen who summarily executed the Boko Haram leader in 2009 to begin. The trial has still not been concluded more than six years after the state murder was committed, and about four years since the four or five police suspects were first charged in court.

    Because the government itself embraced no fundamental conviction on the issue of extrajudicial murder, and because it reluctantly charged the offending policemen in court and accompanied the sham exercise with no diligent prosecution, it opened the floodgates for scores of other extrajudicial and revenge killings by the military. These unlawful acts in turn prolonged the war, turned it into a vicious and deathly struggle, and led to the partial ostracisation of Nigeria. In March 2013, Dr Jonathan insensitively confused the Boko Haram insurgents with the victimised indigenes of the states affected by militancy, and then warned the indigenes, whom he accused of collaborating with the sect, of the dire consequences of killing even one of his soldiers. After that, the crisis simply took a turn for the worse. It is only in the last one year or so that the military began to recognise it needed different and sensible methods to combat Boko Haram, one that involved winning the confidence of the local populace, making them partners in the war, and recognising belatedly that both troops and victims shared a common destiny and national security objective.

    President Buhari talks fulsomely of winning the war in three months, a deadline the military has echoed and adopted with relish. He has promised reconstruction of the Northeast, and the people of the affected states are eagerly looking forward to the economic revival of their lands. These are laudable, achievable goals. But greater efforts must be applied to deliver justice to the hundreds killed extrajudicially, including the late Boko Haram leader, Mallam Yusuf. Nigeria is a nation of laws. Criminals, even if they are caught red handed, must be served justice according to the law. No more, no less.

    To underscore the point that neither the Buhari government nor the ones before it had emphasised the issue of justice, the country’s security forces in their everyday dealings with citizens have simply refused to imbibe the culture of lawful law enforcement. Torture, state killings not backed by law, and other rampant abridgement and abuse of the rights of citizens routinely take place at police stations and within the precincts of other Nigerian security establishments. It is abuses such as these that sometimes lead to hardening of criminals and their predilection for wholesale subversion. When President Buhari talks of winning the Boko Haram war in the shortest possible time, and reconstructing the Northeast economically, let him also show understanding of the sect’s dynamics and the general dynamics of criminality and revolt by reflecting on the place of justice in the peace equation. More, let him in fact begin redesigning the architecture of justice such that, according to the provisions of the constitution, he will be sworn to defending the rights of every Nigerian. That is the only way to truly win the Boko Haram war and lay its many scary ghosts to rest.

  • ‘Boko Haram can end in three months if…’

    ‘Boko Haram can end in three months if…’

    Retired Archbishop of Lagos, Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie yesterday said an end to insurgency within three months was possible if the right equipment was available.

    He stated this at the Tamandu Barracks in Lagos, during the silver  jubilee to mark the Priestly ordination of an Army Chaplain, Colonel Charles Ireogbu.

    He however noted that there were factors to be considered if the service chiefs were expected to deliver on the insurgency deadline given by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Okogie said that aside equipment, training of the soldiers as well as determination and prayers could also end terrorism in the country.

    “Three months will be possible provided the equipment is there and functioning, if the soldiers are well trained and ready to fight,’’ he said.

    At the event was the General Officer Commanding, (GOC), 81 Division, Major General Isidore Edet, as well as other senior officers and men of the division.

    In his remark, Iroegbu who said he was proud to be an army officer, said it was fulfilling for him to serve his country in that capacity.

  • Electricity supply; have we come to our wit’s end?

    SIR:  At last, at long last, people are talking, people who should have been talking for years.  Everybody now seems to feel the pinch.  Power supply to the Nigerian people has become nightmarish, an embarrassment and a veritable threat to our rural and urban economy.

    The odds are heavily weighted against innocent citizens of our country.  From ECN (Electricity Corporation of Nigeria), NEPA to PHCN and now to the pretenders known as DISCO, Nigeria is slowly grinding to a screeching halt.  At first, it was epileptic power supply, later, unstable power supply and now in many areas of Nigeria, total blackout.

    The results? Flight of industrial and manufacturing companies to neighbouring countries; depletion and desolation of industrial activities and structures in industrial hubs – Ikeja, Ilupeju, Agbara and Ibadan in the South-west; Onitsha, Nnewi, Owerri in the South-east; Port Harcourt, Calabar in the South-south; Ilorin, Jos in the North East.  Without any doubt, the country’s skill and semi-skilled labour which need electricity for self-employment are lying idle on daily basis, throwing into the streets and creating new urchins who are otherwise respectable Nigerians.  And the story continues.

    Before the recent badly executed privatization programme of the Federal Government, power generation, transmission and distribution belonged exclusively to the government.  The complaint then was that power was inadequate and epileptic that public servants who ran the power sector were corrupt, inefficient and unpatriotic.  That government has no business in business.  And so the theory went on.  The result was to divide the country into spheres of influence for boggy capitalists and industrialists whose  major attribute was their capability to burrow themselves (like earthworms) in to the seat of power.

    The result is what we now have, complete blackout by DISCOS in vast  areas of their coverage, punitive measures by DISCO management , acting as an accuser, prosecutor and judges, and daring any citizens to challenge them.  Primitive and obscene measures against consumers, taking law into their own hands and above all, clamping on consumers, bills that are mere guess work.  I am not sure of any civilized society in the world where providers of essential commodity like power will assume consumption rate for large sections of the population who, through no fault of theirs, have no access to meters.

    The question thus arises, how did these exploiters get their authority for distributing power without responsibility for generation and transmission?  It is quite safe to say.  It is the Nigerian Character.  The power given to the distribution companies (DISCOS) are alarmingly oppressive that cannot even be found in one-party states. Wherein lies the competitiveness which the capitalist system embraces in the present arrangement? What financial obligations do the parties (Federal Government and distribution companies) owe each other that the consumer cannot even raise a finger?

    The issue now is that the Nigerian people are suffering and are being oppressed by pseudo-capitalists and opportunists who profited from the financial manipulations of past years. The nation needs to be saved. If power supply is upgraded and maintained at a higher level, unemployment which presently stands at 71% will drop below 50%. Why can’t we learn to take our destiny into our hands? The new administration should hurry up to the rescue in accordance with the popular belief in change.

     

    • Deji Fasuan MON, JP

    Isato, Ado-Ekiti.

  • NLC seeks end to indiscriminate waivers

    •African govts ‘should prioritise security’

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the Federal Government to review the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) so as to eliminate indiscriminate granting of waivers to importers who abuse such provisions in the Act.

     NLC faction President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, said the removal of such waivers would help boost manufacturing, as it would encourage the local production of goods  and address the instability in the foreign exchange.

    He said over the last decade, the Nigerian economy has grown impressively, but lamented that the economic statistics have never been in tune with the social reality, as unemployment and poverty soared to an unprecedented 23.9 per cent and 72 per cent, respectively in recent years. He added that it is apparent that the economy has grown without benefiting the people.

    He told The Nation that ending the country’s electricity woes, will require the new administration to develop a framework and strategy to deal decisively with smuggling as well as putting an end to counterfeiting made-in-Nigeria goods.

    “We demand a macro-economic policy regime that will address stability in the currency exchange regime, progressive tax administration and the management of the Customs and Excise duties in the manner that will promote local production of goods and services. We must bid goodbye to the destructive regime of duty waivers,” he said.

    Ajero urged President Muhammadu Buhari to concentrate his  efforts on expanding the frontier for job creation through value-added activities in agriculture, mining, mineral processing and industrial manufacturing.

    Ajaero pointed out that the growth and development of the real sector, and increased value addition in manufacturing, are critical for creation of  jobs, poverty elimination and for building a virile and sustainable economy.

    He urged the government to develop immediate framework and strategies to deal decisively with the hydra-headed challenge of smuggling, electricity failure, faking and counterfeiting of made-in-Nigeria goods.

    “Also, our effort to develop as a nation may not materialise except we resolve the lingering energy crisis in our country. As we have seen, privatisation has not in any way improved the supply of electricity to industries and homes across the country,” Ajaero said.

    According to him, this has led to factory closures and impoverishment of Nigerians. “This therefore, demands special attention to address the challenges of electricity supply in the country in particular and, in the immediate term, apply accelerated solution for industrial power needs,” he said.

    In a related event, NLC faction President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has urged African governments to make the issue of security a priority, especially in the east and west of the continent.

    Wabba made the call at the opening of a two-day annual meeting of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Africa Human and Trade Union Rights Network.

    The theme of the meeting is, “Insecurity and Threats to Peace in Africa and the Migration Challenges in Africa.” Wabba said armed conflicts and insurgency in Africa had assumed a new and dangerous dimension that no country could be said to be safe.

    ‘It is true that insurgency in Africa, particularly in the West African Sub-region and some parts of East Africa, has affected a lot of workers. In Nigeria, we have lost teachers and health workers because most of them live in the rural areas.

    “Therefore, if there is an attack by these insurgents, certainly the workers will be on the frontline so, we have lost a lot of them. It is time for African leaders to stand to up in unity and collaborate to end this menace,” he said.

    He said insurgency in Nigeria escalated due to a lack of political will to respond to the issue effectively when Boko Haram started, while the military was not initially strengthened to respond effectively.

    Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Dr Clement Illo, said government had developed a migration policy that would address the challenges of migration in a more coherent manner in Nigeria.

  • Elumelu calls for an end to energy poverty

    Elumelu calls for an end to energy poverty

    “Providing access to electricity for schools, hospitals, businesses and industries is the single most impactiful intervention that can be made to transform the continent.  It has tremendous implications for job creation, health, food security, education, technological advancement and overall economic development,”

    African businessman and philanthropist Tony Elumelu who is the Chairman of Heirs Holdings and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation joined African economic and political leaders  in Abidjan to call for an end to energy poverty on the continent. The leaders came together in Abidjan under the umbrella of the African Energy Leaders Group (AELG).   The AELG was launched during the 2015 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The group brings together political and business leaders at the highest level to drive the reforms and investment needed to end energy poverty and to ensure sustainable fuel supplies on the continent.

    Elumelu is a founding partner and Co-chair of the AELG. Providing access for all Africans to reliable, affordable energy services and efficient appliances by 2030 is a key goal of AELG. The AELG objective of ensuring universal access to modern energy is in line with those of the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative run by the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative Kandeh Yumkella, one of the champions of the AELG. Mr. Elumelu pledged to support the work of AELG.

    “I am making a pledge to provide $150,000 over the next three years to support the operations of the AELG secretariat,” he said.  “I want to call on the governments of the member states of the ECOWAS region, and AELG members and partners to also step up with significant multi-year commitments to sustain the organization.”

    In 2013,  Elumelu committed to investing $2.5 billion in the power sector in Africa through President Obama’s Power Africa Initiative.     _UBA Foundation sponsors Empretec training for youth corps members.

  • How to end the crisis, by Ashafa

    How to end the crisis, by Ashafa

    The senator representing Lagos East, Gbenga B. Ashafa, has proposed some measures to get the All Progressives Congress (APC) out of the logjam arising from the National Assembly’s post-inauguration.

    Ashafa, who spoke following his earlier call for the collapse of caucuses and bridging of ranks within the family of APC senators in the newly inaugurated Eighth Senate, said: “We need to shed the bad blood that has accumulated as a result of the June 9 incident.

    “A flagrant disregard for party directives and a violation of relevant sections of the APC constitution is not a good way to start in this era of change.”

    He added: “Article 9:2 of the APC’s constitution, (Rules and Obligations) states that, ‘members of the party shall be obliged to affirm the party’s aims and objectives and conduct themselves in a manner that shall not bring the party to public odium and disrepute. Members of the party shall also observe the rules and regulations embedded in this constitution.’

    “Within the context of this provision, I believe that the National Working Committee of the APC can find a peace-building method to create a win-win situation for all aggrieved factions.

    “The party should embrace all and still ensure that the discipline and unity among its members is preserved.”