The Association of Water-well Drilling Rig Owners and Practitioners (AWDROP) has urged the government to tackle illegal drilling operations of Asian drillers in the country, which it said has caused ecological danger and is threatening their profession.
The National President of the association, Mr Michael Ale, spoke yesterday during the extra-ordinary emergency meeting of AWDROP, with the theme:”Impending dangers in drilling activities in Nigeria”, held at Grand Serene Hotel, Ibadan.
The National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Ondo State has warned missionary organisations and government agencies against the use of their vehicles for conveyance of illicit drugs, especially Indian hemp.
The state commander, Ibrahim Abdul, said vehicles belonging to religious organisations and government agencies were often used to carry illicit drugs.
Abdul said a large plantation of Indian hemp was recently destroyed by NDLEA officials.
According to him, the agency arrested 30 persons for various alleged drug offences in various parts of the state.
The state commander said the agency would monitor all government vehicles henceforth.
The Edo State Government said yesterday it had uncovered a plot by “anti-democratic forces” to start high-profile killings ahead of the March 28 and April 11 general elections.
The objective, the government alleged, was not only to sow fear in the minds of All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters but to also make the state ungovernable for Governor Adams Oshiomhole.
In a statement in Benin, the state capital, by Information and Orientation Commissioner Louis Odion, the government said: “The new evil agenda is akin to the one unleashed in 2012 ahead of the governorship election in which the Principal Private Secretary to the governor, Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde, was brutally murdered. Till date, the killers are yet to be brought to justice.
“On the latest hit list are key figures in the administration, APC leaders, a vocal palace chief as well as journalists considered too independent-minded and unwilling to file fabricated stories to promote the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“To achieve this, hard-boiled cultists, who were contracted to attack and vandalise the Edo House of Assembly quarters last year, have again been recruited and given mobilisation running into millions of naira and other logistics support from Abuja early this week through a local cleric-politician.
“The destabilisation scheme is conceived, funded and directed by a group of PDP leaders based in Abuja alongside their underlings in Edo State in the cold calculation that once the teeming supporters of Comrade Oshiomhole were frightened away, the PDP would then dominate the Edo space.
“The vocal palace chief being targeted, we gathered, is the Esogban of Bini Kingdom, Chief David Edebiri, who is also the leader of the influential Benin Forum. The PDP leaders were said to be uncomfortable with Chief Edebiri’s unrelenting criticism…”
PDP disowns anti-polls leaflets
Is an interim government on the cards?
Yes, the All Progressives Congress (APC) said yesterday.
It alleged that the Federal Government and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had started a clandestine campaign, lobbying emirs and other opinion leaders to accept an Interim Government from May 29 —the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration’s terminal date.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation Mohammed Adoke has said an interim government was not being considered because it is not in the Constitution.
The APC claimed that the PDP was scheming against elections because of the fear of defeat.
The PDP, APC alleged, is behind the distribution of leaflets in Gombe, the Gombe State capital, at the weekend, warning people against voting in the elections.
In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC said:
‘’It is an open secret that their emissary is touring the North, meeting with Emirs and others to push for an interim government. It has also been revealed how they plan to use the National Assembly to seek tenure elongation. Never before has a sitting government been this desperate to avoid elections. This election phobia by a sitting government is a first in contemporary history.’’
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday accused President Goodluck Jonathan of being behind the shift of elections, saying the President wants to go the way of former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, who shifted elections many times until he felt he was in a position to win. When the election was eventually held, Gbagbo lost, but he refused to handover until he was disgraced out of power.
The elections were rescheduled from February 14 and 28 to March 28 and April 11.
The APC insisted yesterday that the PDP is “mortally afraid” of the general elections, “sponsoring the circulation of leaflets urging the people of Gombe to stay away from polling booths on election days or they will be in trouble”.
The APC said “even the attack on Gombe on Saturday was suspect, wondering how Boko Haram insurgents will drive on the highway from Maiduguri to Gombe in a convoy of many vehicles without being spotted or stopped at the myriad of military checkpoints dotting the area”.
It described as “curious that the Boko Haram terrorists, who have never mentioned the elections in their regular videos on YouTube, have suddenly started campaigning against the conduct of elections”.
The party also noted that the local government elections in Yobe, one of the hotbeds of the Boko Haram insurgency, went without any incident in 2013, indicating that there has not been a systematic campaign by the insurgents to attack voters.
‘’Part of the strategy of the PDP and the Jonathan Administration is to depopulate perceived opposition strongholds through all sorts of dangerous measures, and this scaremongering, supposedly by Boko Haram, fits into that strategy. They are also the unseen hands behind the advertisement by faceless groups, urging Muslims to vote for Muslim candidates. It is in line with their exploitation of religious and ethnic fault lines to divide Nigerians,’’ the party said.
The APC said the alarm raised by Mike Omeri, the Coordinator of the National Information Centre, that some female suicide bombers may strike at polling units during the elections, also fits into the PDP/Jonathan Administration’s opposition stronghold depopulation strategy.
‘’It is now very clear to Nigerians that the PDP-led Federal Government does not want the forthcoming elections to hold, because it is guaranteed a shellacking. First the government sponsored a campaign to postpone the elections because of low PVC distribution. When they realised the number of PVCs collected was growing and that their argument might no longer be tenable, they suddenly used security as an alibi, abandoning their earlier push for the election shift on the basis of low PVC distribution.
‘’After they succeeded in forcing the postponement, they launched another campaign for the PVCs and the Card Readers to be jettisoned in favour of TVCs, because that will allow them to rig, if indeed the elections proceed in spite of them. Those campaigning against the use of PVCs and Card Readers have forgotten that Ghana successfully used the same technology in its last elections, and that it is not rocket science,’’ the party said.
The party urged President Goodluck Jonathan not to plunge Nigeria into a crisis or give the country the Gbagbo treatment, all in pursuit of personal interest at the expense of national interest.
‘’The plot that landed Ivory Coast under Laurent Gbagbo in hot water, and for which Gbagbo is currently cooling his heels in a holding cell at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, was not as elaborate as that being pushed by the PDP and the Jonathan Administration. That is why we are urging them to tread softly and save Nigeria from crisis.
‘’We know Nigerians have seen through the games being played by the PDP and the Jonathan Administration. Nigerians and the entire world know those who are behind the election postponement, the myriad of court cases seeking to disqualify our presidential candidate, the ongoing efforts to depopulate opposition strongholds, the devilish advertisements seeking to use ethnicity and religion to divide Nigerians, the campaign to jettison the PVCs and Card Readers in favour of TVCs as well as the tenure elongation and interim government options.
‘’That is why we are calling on all lovers of democracy to be vigilant in the run-up to the rescheduled polls, and for them to insist that nothing but the holding of the elections will be acceptable to Nigerians,’’ it said.
•APC campaign flays Fed Govt on N76b botched CCTV
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, General Muhammadu Buhari, has assured that his government will cut out wastages and run a lean as well as efficient administration.
The envisaged administration, the presidential candidate said, would enable funds to be made available for “capital and development projects to assure prosperity for all Nigerians.”
A statement by the Director of Media and Publicity of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO), Mallam Garba Shehu, said an APC presidency would deepen a viable free market economy in the country, stressing that businesses would enjoy marked differences in the environment for undertaking their activities.
The statement said citizens in business, foreign investors and young entrepreneurs under the APC presidency will enjoy equal incentives and friendly business and investment climate.
“It is envisaged that this will help them to participate and engage in productive economic and entrepreneurial activities geared towards the resuscitation and revamping of the nation’s economy and its capacity to generate millions of direct and indirect job opportunities for our teeming citizens,” the statement said.
According to Shehu, APC’s national economic policy will support and insist on diligent implementation of the yearly budgets to guarantee accountability and transparency in public resources management.
“Gen. Buhari recognises and appreciates that the world has changed with market-based economy being the norm in an increasingly competitive global village. He knows for a fact that no nation can exist in solitude and ignore the global trend; not even Russia and China, let alone Nigeria.
“Make no mistake about it, the Buhari/Osinbajo government will run a market based economy; but with clear and unambiguous regulatory framework and effective enforcement mechanism with zero-tolerance for corruption,” the statement indicated.
He added that in line with the party’s manifesto, an APC government will implement custom and import duties that support the prosperity of both indigenous and foreign investors and industrial development in the interest of job creation and the enhancement of citizens’ purchasing power.
He said: “We shall liberalise government’s incentives to the business community and ensure that few business interests do not enjoy undue advantages against majority of our entrepreneurs to the detriment of the national economic prosperity.”
On corruption, the campaign organisation said that the envisaged Buhari government would draw a line and look forward, stressing: “We shall plug all loopholes of wastages of our commonwealth and discourage money guzzling ventures, particularly in the oil sector, electric power and pension.
“The essence is to conserve resources for the massive infrastructural renewal needed to drive our economic and social system and generate massive employment for our jobless masses.”
In another development, the APCPCO said the failure of the government to deliver on the $470 million (N76 billion) National Public Security Communications System Project in Abuja was an indication that the government was not serious about fighting insecurity in the country.
The organisation said the project, otherwise known as the CCTV Camera Project, which was supposed to help Nigeria shore-up its security, had remained shrouded in mystery, wastage and embezzlement of scarce national resources.
Lamenting the shoddy and inadequate delivery on the project which was designed to cover Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, Bayelsa, Kaduna and Kano in its pilot phase, the APC Campaign queried the “sincerity of the Federal Government in its battle against insecurity and corruption, when it could not deliver on a project that was supposed to use technology, which President Jonathan lately has a passion for, to make our cities safer like is the practise in other countries.
“It is heartbreaking that in an era that we are confronted by huge security challenges, especially as it relates to the insurgency, the Jonathan administration has failed woefully to deliver on the safe cities’ project after billions of our scarce resources have been spent, wasted or stolen on these phantom projects that have not added any value to the nation’s security asset.”
He said it was bewildering that the PDP-led government failed to report on the status of the Abuja CCTV Camera Project even after the House of Representatives ordered probe and countless petitions to the anti-graft agency.
“The PDP-led government owes Nigerians an explanation on the status of this project. This project must not go the way of several others, as it is too central to our security architecture to let some greedy persons to undermine it,” Shehu said.
The privatisation of the transport sector would soon begin, Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Benjamin Dikki, has said.
In a statement in Abuja, the bureau’s Acting Head, Public Communications, Mr. Alex Okoh, said the process would begin as soon as the necessary legal and regulatory frameworks were put in place.
According to the statement, once this is done, the transport sector will become a viable investment destination for investors from across the globe. It noted that the bureau was concerned with the viability of the transport sector because it was critical to the growth of the nation’s economy.
“We don’t want to repeat the mistake we made during the port reform. Before embarking on the reform of any sector, we will ensure that the legal and regulatory frameworks are in place.
“That is why for the transport sector, we have all the seven draft bills undergoing approval process by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), after which they will be transmitted to the National Assembly for passage. From the assurances we are getting from the various stakeholders, these bills will be passed soon,” the statement said.
The Federal Government is supporting banks, microfinance banks and Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) access to the N220 billion Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Fund, the Minister of Industry Trade and Investments, Olusegun Aganga, has said.
Speaking on a radio programme ‘Fidelity Bank SME forum’ sponsored by the lender, Aganga said government realised that commercial banks were not getting enough of the funds, and decided to set up a committee to work with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to make the fund accessible.
He said government has made some changes to the fund which has led to increase in terms of access to these funds. Aganga said that government is promoting access to finance and market by SMEs to boost the efficiency of the subsector even as state MSME Council is addressing hitches faced by the subsector.
He said that government also wants to see how to link innovation and technology to SMEs to make life easier for operators.
“For the first time in the history of this country, we have a government that is taking MSME as one of the most important sectors of this economy. We have a new programme called the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDP) which aims to remove all the barriers and work on what would enable businesses to grow. For the time in this country, we have raised it to the highest level.
We have an MSME National Council that is chaired by the vice president and has state governors, ministers and agencies on that council. The whole idea is to accelerate the development of this sector, harmonise, have better coordination and institutionalise the support we give to the sector,” he said.
He said government has reduced the cost of registering businesses for SMEs by 60 per cent today and as a result of that we have seen an increase by 52 per cent in MSMEs that are registering and moving from informal to formal.
“I encourage banks to support SMEs. It is not about buying treasury bills and bonds and making 10 per cent, you must be relevant to the Nigerian economy. You must play your role in terms of supporting the growth of the Nigerian economy, you must play your role in terms of job creation. That is the way that other countries are growing and our banks must do the same. Fidelity Bank has taken this to a different level,” he said.
Continuing, he said that government’s SME programme if allowed to run in the next four years, there would be a complete change.
He praised Fidelity Bank’s effort at supporting SMEs. “If you look at the record, the bank is among the top three in terms of banks that are supporting SMEs. Not many of them take that risk, so for a bank to take the risk to support the sector, everyone in the country should encourage them because the most important people in this economy are the micro, small and medium scale enterprises. Fidelity Bank is a good and strong partner of the government in supporting SMEs. In fact, that is why they were appointed as part of the Presidential MSME council,” he said.
The Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo said that the lender had at different times, brought different people to the Fidelity SME forum. He said it has gotten to a point where someone from the policy side was needed, and that was why the minister who has been very supportive of SMEs was brought to the forum. He said the forum corresponds with the federal government’s national development strategy.
The Federal Government has reduced its capital budget for the 2015 joint venture oil operations by 40 per cent to $8.1 billion from the initial budget of $13.5 billion due to the slump in crude oil prices, sources at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said.
The Federal Government through the NNPC operates joint ventures with multinational companies, including Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total and Eni in the production of the nation’s oil and gas.
“The NNPC has informed the joint venture partners that this year’s capital expenditures will be cut down by 40 per cent from the initial proposed budget of $13.5 billion.
“The $13.5 billion has been the level that has been maintained in the past three years, but because of the drastic decline in oil prices that level cannot be sustained this year,” it added
According to Platts, NNPC did not comment officially, but under Nigeria’s joint venture arrangements, NNPC contributes about 60 per cent of the funding requirement, while the foreign firms provide the 40 per cent.
Initially, the government had proposed N1.22 trillion ($7.5 billion) to fund its share of the oil joint venture operations this year, with the foreign oil firms providing the balance of $6 billion.
“But since this budget was agreed in the last quarter of 2014, there have been drastic changes in the parameters considered by the partners.
“Oil prices have fallens sharply to around $40 per barrel from $80 when the joint venture budget was prepared, while general growth in the Nigerian economy has declined below six per cent from 6.3 per cent,” the NNPC source said.
Officials of the Western oil companies confirmed receiving NNPC directives on the budget cut, Platts said. “Even though the directive is for joint venture operations, it is generally expected. Oil companies have themselves been revising down their budgets in the light of the oil price slump,” an official said.
With the price of oil around $50/b currently, down by more than half from the middle of last year, Nigeria faces growing fiscal challenges as oil accounts for more 70 per cent of its revenue.
NNPC Group Managing Director, Joseph Dawha, had said that three deepwater offshore oil projects and one shallow-water were at risk of being delayed or cancelled outright because of the decline in oil prices.
IN Nigeria, we have all but resigned ourselves to the fate that public institutions cannot work; that government cannot do many things ‘alone’ anymore. That is why many public schools/institutions that were once glorious in the 50s-80s, are now dilapidated…and it seems okay that they remain that way. Old students of such schools raise money, cry to government about neglect, and even seek to take over management of the schools. Their efforts yield fruits for sometime then the schools slide back into disrepair.
As for private providers of education, they have, like other business owners, accepted that they have to provide their own power, water, security, fix the roads, and yet pay taxes because the government cannot just be relied upon.
However, the perception that government cannot be competent is challenged when our people visit other countries and see what their governments achieve with public funds. They see public secondary schools that compare with our universities in terms of infrastructure. They see systems that are well-managed and innovations being introduced by government to improve education service delivery. (I once read of a study in the Daily Mail of London that found that the British considered people with children in public schools as successful). They see secondary schools and universities that have survived for up to a century but are not run down. Then, they think again: ‘Why can’t this be in Nigeria?”
Actually, why can our governments in Nigeria not be responsible? Despite the harsh economic environment, the private sector has shown innovation and leadership that if transferred to public sector governance will do us a whole lot of good. Last week, I watched a feature aired on Galaxy Television about a fire that consumed the Great Nigeria House along Martins Street on Lagos Island two years ago. The Federal Fire Service had arrived in good time but could not put out the fire until it exhausted its water. The Lagos State Fire Service also failed. The fire had spread to four floors after burning for over five hours (from around 5.30am). It was the Fire men from UBA Plc that put out the fire. Their fire truck was equipped with a multi-level crane that automatically moved the firemen to fight the fire from any height. I felt sad. Was it that the bank was richer than both the Federal and the State governments? We know this is not so. But because we have not blocked the loopholes through which public funds get stolen, our public institutions are inefficient.
Many private companies have shown that our system can run properly if corporate governance is well entrenched. There are some institutions that you visit and hardly believe you are in Nigeria because things work, and people do not cut corners. Many of them are multinationals. But there are some indigenous firms that excel in this regard.
All the mission schools that were returned after years under the management of the state governments have been transformed under private management. Unlike government projects that are inflated, the private sector spends less on constructing buildings or procuring equipment, yet get better quality at the end of the day because they have to justify every hard-earned naira spent.
One government agency that has been praised for working well is the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), which ironically is funded by the private sector. The agency is responsible for disbursing the two per cent education tax levied on the accessible profits of private companies to public tertiary institutions. The money, which runs into billions yearly, is given as grants to public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to upgrade facilities, train teachers, and conduct research. Today, there is hardly any public institution that does not credit its infrastructural development to TETFund. Since the arrival of TETFund, the Federal and State governments hardly provide consistent funds to these institutions for capital projects any longer. The Federal Government even takes glory in funding universities through TETFund, even though it is not so.
Perhaps TETFund needs to share best practices with other ministries, departments and agencies of governments at various levels so we can actually enjoy the dividends of democracy in education and other sectors. If other countries like Finland, Singapore, Malaysia and even India are getting it right in education because they are governed by leaders that the former Minister of Information, Mr Frank Nweke Jnr, described as insightful, dedicated and responsible, then we should take our time to identify such distinguished people and put them in positions of authority. After 50 years of independence, we deserve some respite from bad leadership and followership.
There is no excuse for the education sector not doing well, says Mr Frank Nweke Jnr, former Minister of Information and National Orientation.
Mr Nweke, who also served as Minister for Inter-governmental Affairs and Special Duties, said quality education is possible if it is given priority by the government – like is done in Finland, Singapore and many other countries.
He was one of the panelists who spoke at the 30th anniversary lecture of Greensprings School held at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos last Wednesday.
Nweke said quality education cannot happen by accident, adding that it takes deliberate policies and investments to make the sector work properly.
Using Mrs Lai Koiki, founder and Executive Director of the school, as an example, Nweke said the government can achieve great milestones in education if the right people are in charge.
He said: “If you have Nigeria investing less than – let’s say – one per cent of her GDP in education, how can you possibly see any change? You cannot see any change. It cannot be by accident. Nigeria cannot develop by accident. It must be, can only be, as a result of conscious, deliberate planning sustained over a period – with the outcomes clearly anticipated and improved upon on an ongoing basis.
“Government can do it if you have the right people in government. Governments in Germany have done it and are doing it on regular basis; governments in Finland are doing it on constant basis; governments in Rwanda are doing it on an ongoing basis; governments in United Kingdom, Malaysia and Singapore are doing it.
“So it is actually possible for government to do it. The notion that because it is public sector therefore it can’t work, for someone like me, holds no truth. I believe that it can be done. But you need serious minded right thinking people, who understand the value of education, to be in the driver’s seat, then it is going to work.”
The Guest Lecturer, Mr Daouda Toure, UNDP Resident Representative and United Nations Resident Coordinator for Nigeria, said education needs to be innovative to meet the needs of the 21st century.
Toure, who was represented by Dr Pa Lamin Beyai, UNDP Country Director, Nigeria, said: “We cannot solve 21st Century problems with 20th Century curriculum! Our un-reformed education system has served the colonial era and the immediate post-independence period. We must overhaul it completely to serve us in the 21st Century.
“Changes can also be made to the existing system through training and continuing education for teachers, review of the methodology, use of up-to-date learning materials, and adoption of pedagogical approaches.”
With mobile phones becoming more popular in Africa Toure added that educationists should think of how it can be used to educate young people.
“The UN mobile learning specialist, Steve Vosloo believes that, mobile phones could be the future of education across the continent. According to Vosloo, many African countries had greatly improved their education systems over the past 10 years. And yet, enormous challenges remain — shortage of teachers. For every child to have a quality education in 2015, sub-Saharan Africa needs to hire an estimated 350,000 new teachers annually. Vosloo recommends mobile phones as the solution to this problem,” he said.
The event featured a panel discussion in which the panelists advocated for innovative teaching and learning in line with the theme: “The future of education in an uncertain world: Re-defining Education in Africa”. The panelists were: Nweke, Mr Lere Baale, a member of Greensprings Board of Governors; Andrew Jedras, Member, AISEN Board of Trustees; Fidelis Nthenge, IBO Head of School Services; Olumide Olugbenle, Chairman, PTA, Lekki, and Sholape Tinubu, IB student.
Mrs Koiki said she started the school 30 years ago in search of a good school for her first daughter. She expressed joy that the school has achieved its mission and vision to raise globally-competitive children. Despite being from privileged homes, Mrs Koiki said the children have empathy for the less-privileged because they are exposed to community service projects as part of their curriculum.
She said the school, which now has a population of 2,300 pupils in its Anthony and Lekki campuses, has achieved great feats because it invests in teacher training and would continue to do so though its teachers are poached by other schools.
“New paradigms of teaching are being developed and teachers trained. That is where the bulk of whatever money we make goes into. We like to joke that other schools are just waiting to poach our teachers. But should we stop? We say No! Greensprings is about developing Nigeria. So if our teachers leave after we train them, we believe we are contributing to the educational development of Nigeria,” she said.
The programme also featured recitations and song presentation by the pupils, to the delight of the audience.