The Nation Newspaper

Tag: infrastructure

  • AU seeks investors for infrastructure repairs

    AU seeks investors for infrastructure repairs

    African nations plan to target more private investment in key regional projects to help address a lack of infrastructure that  is slowing growth and regional integration, a unit of the African Union (AU) said.

    Priority projects under the Programme for Infrastructure Development, which began in 2012, need $68 billion by 2020 and an additional $300 billion for those planned to 2040. The initiative, known as PIDA, has assisted in developing 16 priority trans-national projects so that they are now “bankable,” New Partnership for Africa’s Development Chief Executive Officer Ibrahim Mayaki said in an interview  in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

    “Fundamentally we need to attract the private sector,” said Mayaki, a former prime minister of Niger. “They were not interested in Africa 10 years ago, but even if the risk is a bit higher the returns can be much higher than what they’re getting.”

    The investment drive seeks to address deficiencies that leave 62 percent of Africans without access to electricity, less than 10 percent able to use the Internet and only a quarter of the road network paved. The result is “expensive infrastructure services, constrained industrial productivity, limited participation in global trade and holding back the competitiveness of production,” according to Nepad, a technical body of the AU leading efforts to improve transport, power and communications.

    The union will be encouraged to focus on infrastructure and PIDA during Zimbabwe’s one-year chairmanship that began Friday, President Robert Mugabe said in an acceptance speech. “We need to continue and perhaps redouble our current collective efforts in this sector,” he said in Addis Ababa at the AU. “The road and power projects that we’re developing are a positive step in our quest to improve the African infrastructure.”

    The African Development Bank will conduct feasibility studies for the 16 projects African leaders agreed in June. The Abidjan-based lender plans to attract an initial $3 billion in equity capital for the programme using a fund known as Africa50. Well-prepared African infrastructure deals may be attractive to investors including U.S. pension’s funds looking for high returns, Mayaki said.

    The top five projects outlined by Nepad are the Ruzizi III hydropower plant between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda; expansion of the port in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; construction of the Serenje to Nakonde road in Zambia; a gas pipeline from Nigeria to Algeria; and an upgrade of the railway from Senegal’s capital, Dakar, to Bamako, the capital of Mali.

    During its annual summit at its headquarters in Ethiopia last week, the African Union signed an accord with China for it to support efforts to improve transport links and industry as part of the organisation’s 50-year strategy to transform Africa by 2063.

    “This is a very grand and ambitious project but it’s also a feasible project,” Zhang Ming, China’s vice foreign minister, said at the Jan. 27 signing in Addis Ababa.

    The deal to improve rail, roads and aviation will enable China to access the resources it needs from Africa over the next decades, said Christie Viljoen, senior economist at NKC Independent Economists in Paarl, South Africa.

    “Any efforts to stimulate regional integration is surely aimed at enabling landlocked countries to export their commodities more easily,” she said in an e-mailed response to questions on Wednesday.

    State-funded Chinese rail projects in Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti are current examples of the type of work it’s pledged  to do with the AU, Zhang said. There are opportunities for all African nations and the continent, and other “international partners” can contribute, he said.

    A reliable indicator of China’s future commitment to Africa’s infrastructure development will come at next year’s meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, said Deborah Brautigam, the Director of the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University.

    “For quite some time the Chinese banks have been interested in financing cross-regional infrastructure projects, but these are difficult to coordinate,” she said in an e-mailed response to questions last week. “The AU can’t take out loans obviously, but it can provide a venue for discussions of interested stakeholders, who might be able to work out a cross-regional project and apply for funds.”

  • Bridging infrastructure deficit at a time like this

    Bridging infrastructure deficit at a time like this

    In less than a month, Nigerians will elect their President. The election is coming at a time the country groans under dearth of the critical infrastructure needed to develop its economy. Fears are rife that with  consistent poor budgetary allocation to capital projects and little attention on Public Private Partnership (PPP), turning the tide will remain a mirage, writes Assistant Editor OLUKOREDE YISHAU

    The last few months have been bad for crude oil. The price has kept dropping as though forces higher than it are pushing it down. This development has created a problem for the Federal Government. Aside the fact that it has reduced what is available to government for spending; it has also made difficult the benchmark to be used for this year’s budget.

    The Senate is considering using $40 per barrel as the benchmark, though the Federal Government made a proposal in the budget estimate pending before the National Assembly for approval.  Nigeria has changed its benchmark twice in the last few weeks, from $78 to $73 and lately to $65.

    The fall in revenue, which has led to austerity measures being introduced, is comint at a time the country has been unable to rein in the oil thieves– a big drain on financial inflow.

    Significantly, in the face of this dwindling revenue, the dearth of critical infrastructure cannot be in dispute. It is a problem Nigerians contend with daily.  The poor power situation, the deplorable condition of poor the roads, and others are demons the people deal with. Users of some of the terrible roads, such as the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway have horrendous experience navigating one bad portion or the other.

    The Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway has been awarded to the Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), but the failure of the Federal Government to properly fund the project has forced the company out of site. Unfortunately, at the receiving end are commuters, who face the harrowing experience to cross the six-lane road because the pedestrian bridges that are supposed to mitigate their pains have been abandoned.

    The 27.5-kilometre Apapa-Oshodi Expressway has suffered the same fate in the last four years. The repair contracts awarded to Julius Berger and Borini Prono in 2010 have been stalled due to paucity of funds, forcing the contractors in-and-out of their apportioned sites.

    The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has proposed the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) arrangement to the rescue.

    Speaking at a training programme organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Abuja on PPP, the minister said the PPP remained the way to go.

    Her words: “To fund infrastructure, Nigerian needs about $14 billion every year out of which $10 billion should come from the federal level and currently the country’s spending on infrastructure is about $6 billion. So, there is a big gap that needs to be filled. That is why PPPs are very important to Nigeria at the moment.”

    Dr. Okonjo-Iweala added that the PPP model should be improved to ensure that “it suits the country’s needs, delivers clear benefits without leaving us with difficult problems.”

    She has an ally in the Director-General, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Mr. Emeka Ezeh, who saw the PPP as vital to addressing the country’s huge infrastructural gap.

    Ezeh, who spoke at a roundtable on infrastructure delivery, said:  “We need to build strong infrastructure without any compromise for it to work. We cannot keep building and repairing the same roads over and over again.

    “For the country to progress from where it is in terms of the economy, we must put in place the right infrastructure in the transport, agriculture, technology, mining and housing sector.”

     

    The PPP question

     

    From time to time, governments at all levels have used the PPP approach to address the challenge. One of such projects is the domestic wing of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MM2). The facility redeveloped under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model, was recently rated as the most functional airport in the country. The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) has described it as a legacy project.

    A project management consultant, Aderanti Dairo, said: “MMA2 is a very good example of a PPP arrangement that has worked and has shown that if the government is serious about closing the infrastructure deficit, PPP is the way to go. It has really been a resounding success, which no one can deny. PPP is sure the way to go.”

    State governments, such as Lagos, Rivers and Cross River states, have also used the PPP.  In Lagos, the Lekki-Epe Expressway was built through the PPP. The Eko Atlantic project, which is sitting on what used to be known as the Bar Beach, is being implemented through the PPP. The Lekki-Ikoyi suspended bridge was also built through PPP. A new sea port and airport around Lekki are also being worked out through a PPP arrangement.

    The Rivers State has used the PPP to carry out social facilities, such as the ClinoRiv Hospital, transportation, housing, entertainment and some other city development projects.

    A report by Brookings, a United States-based non-profit research organisation, said: “One approach frequently offered to potentially break the logjam is to use contractual agreements between governments at all levels and the private sector to design, build, operate, maintain and/or finance infrastructure.

    “Whether repairing, upgrading, or augmenting an existing asset or building new, the intent is to leverage private sector financial resources and expertise, improve project delivery and to better share responsibilities and costs between the public and private sector.”

     

    Hurdles to cross

     

    But, there are hurdles to cross for PPP to work. Experts have blamed government’s inconsistency for the slow progress of PPP in the country. Government agencies, according to them, do not respect agreements. Court orders are also not obeyed.

    The Chief Executive Officer, Cowry Asset Management, Johnson Chukwu, explained that “to incentivise the private sector to go into PPP arrangements, the government has to ensure that contract terms are respected and policies are consistently implemented.”

    He added: “The greatest disincentive to private sector involvement in PPP schemes is inconsistency of policy implementation and the lack of respect for contracts. The other source of encouragement would be in the provision of critical monopoly resource at discounted rate to the private sector partners in the PPP scheme. Such resource could include land, exclusive rights, etc.”

    A public affairs commentator, Godfrey Ekanem, said the Federal Government has not encouraged the PPP to thrive with its inconsistency.

    He said: “The way the Federal Government has carried on so far does not engender confidence. It needs to demonstrate seriousness and commitment. I was disappointed at the way the PPP on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was handled. The report of the ICRC shows clearly that Bi-Courtney has no fault in the delayed execution of the job. Yet, government terminated it and did nothing to mitigate its losses. This kind of development will make investors shy away from PPP deals.”

    The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is the country’s economic artery. After last year’s termination of the deal with Bi-Courtney Highway Services Limited, which is owned by Dr. Wale Babalakin, the Federal Government awarded the 127.8 kilometre road to Julius Berger and Reynolds Construction Company (RCC). While awarding the Lagos-Ibadan road contract last year, government assured that for the over the 48-month duration for the job, its funding would be included in the annual budget.  The N5 billion allocated to the rehabilitation of the Lagos–Sagamu section of the road in last year’s budget was just a drop in the ocean. The infrastructure bank is now raising money for the project to be seen through.

    In a report presented to President Goodluck Jonathan by former Head of State, Chief Ernest Shonekan, who heads the ICRC, Bi-Courtney was exonerated of blames in the bungled Lagos-Ibadan Expressway project. The commission noted that the project’s implementation was delayed due to various issues that were not addressed, prior to the execution of the contract. The ICRC identified some of the issues as approval for the design of the road, securing the Right of Way (RoW), financial model and environmental impact and social impact assessment.

    In line with Bi-Courtney’s claim, the report said that approval for a final design was granted on May 10, 2011, two years after the concession agreement was signed.

    The report noted: “It is evident that the scope of the work was not fully documented and outline design provided before the concession was awarded.

    “Without an agreed design and scope of works based on the grantor’s performance and output standards, there cannot be an agreed fixed cost for the project.

    “Without a financial model setting out the expected project costs and revenues, financing costs cannot be determined.

    “The cost of the project as included in the concession agreement was not based on the necessary studies (e.g. traffic forecast) required for the implementation of a road project through Develop-Build-Operate-and Transfer (DBOT) model.”

    A lawyer and public affairs commentator, Obiora Akabogu, said:  “The idea of PPP is welcome in an economy like Nigeria, where the government is presently handicapped because of the falling oil prices. The private investors are the people with the money that the government can leverage on to build infrastructure for the economy to move and for the people to enjoy, but the private investors must get the assurance that they are dealing with the right partner.

    “Every investment needs an enabling environment. The condition for an ideal PPP is consistency. The government must be able to live up to expectation with its contractual partner as part of that enabling environment.

    “Also, the local court must be able to dispense justice within a reasonable time where there are disputes. There must be standard and government can’t just double deal by terminating contract anyhow without recourse to the rules guiding such contracts, otherwise PPP will not be a success. You’ll only end up scaring away your brides, the investors.”

     

    The gaping holes

     

    The Vice President (West), African Association of Quantity Surveyors (AAQS), Obafemi Onashile, in a paper he presented at a workshop organized by the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), said the country has fallen well behind international benchmarks in infrastructure development.

    With an estimated total road length of 193,200 kilometers (paved 65,000 km and unpaved 128,200 km) comprising 34,123 km federal roads, 30,500 km state roads, and 129,577 km local government roads, Onashile said the cost of neglect of these roads implies a loss of network value of N80 billion per year and additional operating costs of N35 billion per year.

    In 2013, former Minister of Education, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, sounded a note of warning on the dangers of the poor state of infrastructure. She said over the next 10 years, about $14.2 billion must be spent on infrastructure.

    Mrs Ezekwesili said: “Indirect costs borne by firms to fill infrastructure gap in Nigeria amount to 15 per cent, whereas in China, it is five per cent; India 10 per cent and in Turkey which ranks 19th in the rating for major economies in the world, it is two per cent.

    “Little wonder stakeholders refer to infrastructure as the life blood of any economy, considering that no economy can grow and develop without a reasonable stock of critical infrastructure. Therefore, this presupposes that where infrastructure is inadequate or lacking, growth is affected and people’s standard of living is negatively impacted.”

    Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolemenen comment corroborate the large deficit claim.

    He said: “The infrastructure deficit is large and affects every sector. Investment in the road sector alone requires at least construction of 14,000-kilometre of new roads annually for the next seven years, apart from maintaining and rehabilitating the existing network as a matter of routine, which will require the average annual expenditure on roads to increase seven fold to nearly N750 billion.”

    Onolemenmen believes government alone cannot fund this huge portfolio due to the limited financial resources, adding that government is exploring

     

    PPP to bridge the gap

     

    The Chief Executive Officer/Group Managing Director (CEO/GMD, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc, Mr. Paul Miyonmide Gbededo, told The Nation in a chat last year that basic amenities and infrastructure must be improved on.

    “We must be able to fix our power sector and the transportation sector as a whole. Our infrastructure level must be dynamic and functional to move goods around and help people create wealth. That is very important,” he said.

     

    Jonathan/ Buhari

     

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, last week promised to fix critical infrastructure in the country, saying that “electricity, good roads and standard education must be provided as quickly as humanly possible.”

    His Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Jonathan, has also promised to fix the deficit.

    Whichever way the pendulum swings, analysts believe the PPP question cannot be wished away and that when it is being done, government agencies must learn to keep to agreements.

  • Ekiti…stomach infrastructure turns controversial

    Ekiti…stomach infrastructure turns controversial

    MANY waited with bated breath for the Yuletide to come. They expected a Christmas with a difference following assurances from Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose that every family would have a fowl to kill, rice to cook and some money for merriment.

    The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in the Fountain of Knowledge State had in one his early broadcasts immediately he took the saddle on October 16, 2014, told his army of supporters that the birds were already being reared to meet the December 2014 target.

    Those who heard the promise wondered the possibility of nurturing a poultry bird to maturity within three months. Christmas was just a month and half away from October 16, 2014. The largess was to launch the ‘Stomach Infrastructure’ policy.

    Fayose, shortly after his inauguration at the Oluyemi Kayode Statdium, Ado-Ekiti, spoke of his plan to make ‘Stomach Infrastructure’ one of the cardinal policies of his administration. To him, ‘Physical infrastructure’ without ‘Stomach Infrastructure’ makes no sense.

    As a matter of fact, he promised to create an office of Special Assistant to the Governor on Stomach Infrastructure to effectively drive the policy and ensure that there is food on the table of every Ekiti person.

    Fayose also revealed during his inauguration that he had given directive for the commencement of the rearing of chickens to be distributed to the people of the state during Christmas which was about a month and half away.

    The governor took a step further during his maiden media chat known as “Meet Your Governor”, where he emphasized the importance of his stomach infrastructure policy as he promised to appoint ‘Assistant Governors’ in all the 16 local government areas to. The job of such officers is to take the policy to the grassroots.

    He said: “I will appoint Assistant Governors in all the 16 local government areas because everybody cannot personally reach me in Ado-Ekiti. The local people approach these Assistant Governors for assistance like cash and materials anytime they want to celebrate special occasions like weddings, naming ceremonies, funerals and other functions.

    “The Assistant Governors will be my representatives in the local government areas and they will process requests for assistance for onward transmission to my office.”

    Three months into his administration, the Assistant Governors are yet to be named. No thanks to the shrinking and irregular handouts from the Federation Account to the states.

    The Yuletide might have come and gone but the dusts kicked up by the governor’s goodwill will take more time to settle down as the gesture was viewed differently across the state.

    Offering more explanations on the Stomach Infrastructure mantra of his principal, Fayose’s  Special Assistant on Information, Youths and Sports, Mr. Lanre Ogunsuyi, described the policy as the governor’s immediate intervention to banish hunger from the land.

    Ogunsuyi said: “Ekiti people, who had adopted the 0-1-0 or 0-0-1 feeding formula because they could not afford three square meals, would appreciate what Stomach Infrastructure is all about.

    “What this means is that we are going to return our people to the path of development by first of all ensuring that there is food in their stomach and we will also make sure there is money in their pockets.

    “We are doing this because the people have been so impoverished so much that they cannot pay school fees, their utility bills and so on. So, we are going to revive their economy by making sure that artisans get jobs and workers’ salaries are paid on time. The multiplier effect of this is that the people would be prosperous again.”

    The governor made good his promise when on December 18, last year, he personally gave out rice, chickens and vegetable oil to residents.

    The distribution, which began in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, saw interested members of the public trooping out in large numbers to collect their Christmas package from Mr. Governor.

    Fayose said the gesture confirmed the importance of the people’s welfare to him as a person, adding that his administration would always strive to improve the welfare of the people “who, against all odds, returned me to office with a landslide victory, after eight years.”

    The governor explained that the poor financial status of the state would not deter him from reaching out to them because “I made a covenant with God that I will ensure that the people are liberated from the shackles of poverty.”

    Not left out were uniformed personnel who also went home with their own share of the largess.

    Buy the time the curtain was lowered on the distribution, about 80,000 birds and 100,000 bags of rice had been shared out in a state inhabited by more than two million people.

    Teachers in public schools- though on Christmas vacation – had their own package sent to schools. The head teachers/principals had taken delivery of the consignment for onward distribution.

    Apart from the creation of distribution points in the 16 local government areas, collection centres were also created in the markets to ensure that no section of the society was left out.

    A beneficiary, Mr. Idowu Jewoola, who resides in Ado Ekiti, said he was thrilled receiving the largesse from the governor which he described as a “rare privilege”.

    Jewoola said: “The governor himself handed over to me rice, chicken and money. This is a rare occurrence here and you can see that everyone is happy and appreciative of Fayose.

    The stomach infrastructure train also moved to Ikere-Ekiti, the second largest town in the state where people also turned out in their numbers with the beneficiaries praising the gesture.

    Mrs. Eyitayo Adekola, a resident of Ikere-Ekiti, said the gesture confirmed Fayose as a man in touch with the grassroots.

    Another beneficiary Gabriel Aluko, a student, saw the rice and chicken as extra to the slash of tuition at the state-owned university.

    But the rare gesture has its own share of controversies.

    Besides the fact that some unscrupulous residents took undue advantage of it to get double and triple rations, many returned home from the distribution centres frustrated. Many secondary school teachers said three of them would have to pair to get a chicken.

    At one of the distribution points, Fayose embarrassed a desperate would-be beneficiary. He sent him out of the queue for having the effrontery to queue up for rice after receiving “a handsome financial assistance” from his office few days earlier.

    There were also complaints in some public schools that the number of chickens allocated to them fell short of the number of staff on the payroll.

    The Nation learnt that 17 chickens were allocated to each of the public primary and secondary schools in most parts of the state.

    A teacher, , who pleaded for anonymity  in one of the secondary schools in Ikere-Ekiti, told The Nation that sharing 17 chickens in a school with staff strength of 94 teachers became herculean.

    In some schools, many teachers just did not see the rationale in spending more than what they could use in buying a chicken in their community on transportation for the chickens. Many said they were not impressed with the size of the chickens which they considered as “not big enough”.

    The Nation gathered that in a particular school, many of the chickens died because the intended beneficiaries did not show up and there was nobody to feed them.

    A local government official, said although he got rice and chicken, but that he would have loved that the two-month arrears of salaries being owed council workers were paid.

    “This would empower me to buy myself the best of Christmas gifts,”  the council staff said.

    The gesture also became a bone of contention between the ruling party and the main opposition in the state.

    The APC accused Fayose of throwing overboard the various empowerment programmes initiated and implemented by his predecessor, Dr. Fayemi for stomach infrastructure that has turned Ekiti people to beggars.

    Taking exception to the brickbat, the PDP accused the APC of hypocrisy. It said  leaders of the opposition party also reached out to their supporters at Christmas.

    “It is hypocrisy at its peak to do what you abuse someone else of doing,” PDP Secretary  Tope Aluko said.

    He went on:  “They abuse us for providing immediate succour for our

    people. They described stomach infrastructure as an insult to Ekiti people. They said it does not add value to the people; it diminishes their self-esteem, it diminishes their sense of self-worth and it denigrates what politics ought to be about.

    “After condemning the concept, isn’t it rather too late that the APC people are just realising that poverty should be addressed by providing immediate succour because poverty is poverty; it knows no religion and it has no tribal mark; and it affects everyone of us?”

    The APC State Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, berated the Fayose administration for treating Ekiti people as beggars.

    In a statement, Olatunbosun said: “The governor has turned Ekiti people to beggars by giving them handouts in form of kwashiorkor-infested chickens not bigger in size than ailing pigeons.”

    He said Ekiti people have now seen the deceit of a man who claimed to be the friend of the common man with his callous attitude to the same people he claimed to love at a time they should be happy.

    Olatunbosun said: “Governor Fayose gave two ‘congos’ of rice and miserable palm oil not up to a  litre – all totaling N700 –  to each worker that the governor had earlier deducted N2,000 from his salary for Christmas gift.

    “This is in contrast to Governor Kayode Fayemi who empowered the people through agriculture, cooperative and employment and apprenticeship schemes involving over two thousand youths, which  helped the people to earn a living and made them happy for four years as against Fayose’s tokenism as Christmas gifts.”

    The APC spokesman said that instead of Fayose to build on these laudable schemes, he had cancelled all the programmes, rendering the youths jobless and cancelled many promotions in the civil service and dismissed many workers for the offences they did not commit.

    He explained: “Fayemi last year paid civil servants 30 per cent of their salary as Christmas bonus. He also paid their leave bonus while their December salary was paid on December 18.

    “In contrast, Fayose has refused to pay civil servants their September salary even though he had collected September allocation from the Federal Government. Civil servants are yet to be paid as at December 22.

    “Last year, apart from the 30 per cent bonus and leave bonus, all offices in MDAs (Ministries, Departments and Agencies) were given gifts but all these have gone under Fayose as workers are now praying for their September salary let alone December salary or xmas or leave bonus.”

    He carpeted Fayose for making civil servants to go through harrowing experiences as many of them could not celebrate Christmas with their salaries “as many of them kept vigils at ATM points in banks till the wee hours of the Christmas day without receiving their pay”.

    His words: “Governor Fayose should ask Ekiti citizens how Fayemi added value to their lives for four years. He didn’t wait till Christmas to pay N10,000 to over 20,000 youths in volunteer services for four years.

    “He didn’t wait till Christmas before he paid N5,000 to 20, 000 elderly people in his social security scheme for four years in addition to feeding them with  both cooked and raw food all year round.

    “Fayemi trained over 500 youths under the Odua/Job Creation Agency Skill Acquisition scheme.

    “Under the Youth in Commercial Agriculture Development scheme, over 600 young farmers have been trained and this generated about 15,000 direct and indirect jobs with the YCAD beneficiaries becoming employers of labour rather than beggars to be given handouts as Fayose is presently doing to Ekiti youths.”

    Olatubosun urged Fayose to pay workers their entitlements and stop treating them like beggars, stressing that even though APC is not in power, each of the 177 wards across the state is receiving no fewer than 20 bags of rice from APC leaders to make the members happy while PDP leaders only take care of their families.

    He concluded: “From what Fayose is doing, he is deliberately encouraging poverty so that people can be subservient to him and we sympathise with Ekiti workers and people who have suddenly been inflicted with miserable conditions by a governor touted to be the friend of the masses.”

    The Stomach Infrastructure however sank deeper into controversy following the controversial transfer of the Mobile Police (MOPOL) Commander in the state, Mr. Gabriel Selenkere.

    Selenkere’s transfer was over his alleged refusal to allow his men line up in public to collect the Christmas largesse.

    The Nation gathered that Selenkere has since been transferred to MOPOL 45 in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The conventional policemen had lined up to collect their share of the gifts but when it was the turn of mobile policemen, Selenkere ordered his men not to collect the gifts in full glare the public which he believed could be implicative.

    His action was reported to have angered top government officials who saw his action as “rude, unfriendly and insolent.”

    A police officer who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, confirmed Selenkere’s transfer.

    He said: “It is true that he (Selenkere) has been transferred as confirmed by signals for his transfer. The issue of Christmas gifts shared by the government was part of it but you know he has many issues as well bordering on his line of duties.

    “It is true that he ordered MOPOL men not to collect the gifts and ordered them to go back to their bases despite the fact that the conventional police collected.”

    But the Special Assistant to the Governor on Stomach Infrastructure, Mr. Ayo Arowolo Fayose’s said the idea is not all about rice, chicken and vegetable oil alone. He said the government also intends to make micro-credit loans available to citizens of the state to empower them.

    According to him, the first batch of beneficiaries, who are market women, would soon be given micro-credit facilities to assist them in their businesses.

    He explained that this would breathe life into their businesses and stimulate the grassroots economy.

    Will the largesse be a regular bazaar or a one-off affair?  Can the 80,000 birds and 100,000 bags of rice distributed in Decembers 2014 sustain a population of more than two million for a year?  Can stomach infrastructure succeed without committing more resources to agriculture? Only time will tell.

  • Bishop promises ‘stomach infrastructure’

    The governorship candidate of the Accord Party(AP) in Akwa Ibom State, Bishop Samuel Akpan, has promised to end the biting hunger prevailing among the majority of the Akwa Ibom people, if elected governor.

    Speaking on what people should expect from him, Akpan said his government will implement ‘stomach infrastructure’ and fight unemployment by going straight into industrialisation.

    He lamented that many in Akwa Ibom people were still suffering from abject poverty with most of them going about in hunger.

    This, to him, is a misnomer as the wealth of the state is concentrated only in the hands of a handful of people in government or those having access to them.

    The Accord Party’s candidate promised to distribute the wealth of the state through policies in such a way that will benefit the masses as against what is presently obtained.

    As part of his industrialisation programme, the Accord Party’s governorship candidate said his administration will build modular refineries at different locations in the state and open- up participation in the oil and gas industry so that indigenes of the state can take part and benefit from this God given blessings.

    He said the other angle to his industrialisation programme will be more agric- based.

    Asked to expatiate on the ‘stomach infrastructure’ and the pattern it will take, the Bishop said that remains the secret of his administration when voted into office but assured  it will contain the biting hunger prevalent among the majority in the state

  • Accord Party on ‘stomach infrastructure’

    Akwa Ibom State governorship candidate of Accord Party (A) and its leader in the state, Bishop Samuel Akpan, has promised to end the prevailing hunger among  the people, if elected next February.

    The Accord candidate spoke on what the people should expect from him, if he wins next year’s election and forms the next government in May, 2015.

  • BCI urges investment in infrastructure

    The Business Club Ikeja (BCI) has called on the National Assembly  to expedite action on the Development Planning and Project Continuity Bill to solve the problems of infrastructure deficit in Nigeria.

    The club has also called on the three tiers of government to make life more meaningful for Nigerians by investing on basic infrastructure that would boost industrial development.

    BCI’s President, Mr. sulaiman Tella spoke at the 22nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the  club.

    He said: “We are worried over the recent World Bank estimate that African Government s face infrastructural investment deficit of $93billion yearly, and therefore called for the quick passage of the Development Planning and Project Continuity Bill presently before the National Assembly as the Bill, when signed into law, will make it mandatory for every government in Nigeria to continue the implementation of projects initiated by the past administrations.

    “The Bill when signed into law will also make development planning compulsory for all tiers of g overnment in the country.”

    According to Tella, the BCI has presented position papers on how government should make life meaningful for the citizenly by ensuring that they provide basic infrastructure in all parts of the country.

    “The multiplier effects of availability of infrastructural facilities will be enormous as manufacturers in the sector of the economy would have an enabling environment to be used in the developmental efforts thereby keeping their factories running,” he said.

    “A lot of jobs will also be created by them for young men and women,” he added.

    The industrialist who argued that the liquidity problems experienced in the economy by BCI’s members, other manufacturers in other sectors and the public in the fourth quarter of 2013, which continued in early 2014 is still being experienced, said “We call on Government to inject more funds into system so that the much needed infrastructural development is given better attention across the federation.”

    On the recession, which is affectingentrepreneurs and manufacturers in the country, Tella noted that the activities of the club had been down played for sometime, hence the need to restrategise and reposition it to perform the objectives for which it was set up.

  • Govt needs N900b to develop infrastructure, says minister

    Govt needs N900b to develop infrastructure, says minister

    At least ,an average annual expenditure of about N900billion is required by the Federal Government to develop the road sector. This will adequately support economic growth at current rates and meet the vision 20:20:20, the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen has said.

    The minister who stated this during the Academy of Entrepreneurial Studies (AES) Excellence Club fifth Annual Chief Executives Dinner/Award’s Nite in Lagos also said  the government needed to invest on construction of at least 14,000km of new roads annually for the next seven years.

    Again, it will also have to routinely maintain and rehabilitate the existing national network of roads.

    Speaking on the theme: “Challenges of infrastructure development and funding”, he said the Federal Government plans to involve the private sector in the development of the Golden Triangle Supper-Highway, which, according to him, will link the commercial and industrial cities of Calabar, Port Harcourt, Kano and Lagos.

    This, he said, provides avenue that would speed up economic activity in the country as well as create job opportunities for many Nigerians.

    According to him, the government has adopted the approach to identify and work with the project partners and investors at an early stage through a competitive process.

    He said the government plans to undertake the project through a robust public private partnership initiative to be led by the private sector adding that it is working continuously to embrace the Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme in the development of infrastructure in the country.

    Onolememen agreed that physical infrastructure, such as roads, houses; power and water are essential for the growth of the economy but, however, noted that Nigeria has a large deficit adding that the infrastructure deficit exists in almost every sector.

  • Infrastructure deficit threatens Africa

    Infrastructure deficit threatens Africa

    Economist and former Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jim O’Neill, has said Africa needs to bridge the infrastructure investment deficit in the continent.

    He spoke during the African Finance Corporation (AFC) conference on infrastructure held in Lagos.

    O’Neill said infrastructure in general has been estimated to have the potential to add an average of two per cent to Africa’s economic growth rate over the next decade as investment is brought to bear to bridge the deficit.

    He said Africa’s future depends on its policy makers doing the right thing. “That is working to create better governance, reducing crime, fighting corruption and delivering improved infrastructure. Infrastructure development is both a defining challenge and a standout investment opportunity for Africa and investors around the world,” he said.

    He said Nigeria is growing at seven per cent despite poor access to power; decent power could boost economic growth to 10 to 12 per cent adding that there is no reason why the country should not become one of the G20.

    The conference attracted more than 500 leading thinkers from government, academia, business and finance, fuelled energetic debate on both the opportunities and the challenges of the African infrastructure landscape.

  • ‘Lack of infrastructure hurting economy’

    Until Nigeria has a national quality infrastructure, she cannot join the league of other countries that have been accredited by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), the regulatory arm of International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), a Quality Management Practitioner and National President of Association of Systems Management Consultants, Mazi Colman Obasi, has said.

    He said at present, Nigeria lacks a national quality infrastructure, a system of institutions, which jointly ensure that products and services produced in the country meet predefined specifications. It also provides technical support to companies so they can improve their production processes and ensure compliance with regulations or international requirements.

    Mazi Obasi, who spoke against the backdrop of the ‘2014 World Quality Day,’expressed regrets that at present, Nigeria has no national quality infrastructure, and that until the country does so, she cannot be accredited by IAF to allow her enjoy the enormous and  invaluable benefits of having her own accreditation body.

    November 13 every year is set aside by the United Nations (UN) to celebrate quality. The purpose of the World Quality Day is to promote awareness of quality around the world and encourage development and prosperity of persons, organisations and nations. This theme of this year’s  World Quality Day is ‘Building a Quality World Together.’

    Obasi said that in line with global emphasis on quality, accreditation, which is one of the quality infrastructure institutions, is granted to countries by the IAF, and each country so accredited will now have its own national accreditation body that accredits laboratories, training institutions, and management systems for organisations-all to meet world quality standards.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Improving democratic infrastructure

    SIR: From the beginning of what seems an unending vigour of national progress in democracy, the country has experienced a turn-around in organization and management of electoral processes. We haven’t gotten it all right but the situation is not as hopeless as many have imagined. Few examples of mind shattering problems are given as: Must registration for voters be restricted to a given time? Should the registration be repeated all the time when election is close? Why must that time be close to election time? And, should we continue to have endless numbers of party with the same manifesto?

    Nigeria has failed to tell the time regarding the best of electoral practices obtainable around the world.  Every democracy is built on credible election. Credible elections are not natural resources like crude oil that could be dug from the ground. Credible elections are outcome of fail-proof planning that Nigeria has given little attention to. Resources are scarce as times are hard and the coming days will make it harder with shrinking national income. INEC might not get the normal allocation it is used to and the country needs better and credible election as democracy matures to global view. This mismatch might prompt a first order chaos difficult to resolve. For many years, Nigeria has craved participatory democracy to validate the quality of leadership. The most frustrating of all the barrier so far, is INEC registration.

    Technology has endowed us with so much to count on as blessings. These blessing have been looked down on as not vehicle for incorporation into smooth running of elections.  If voters’ registration is vital and critical and shouldn’t be despised in sensitive time as this, it should be given priority attention in next budget planning before resources deplete.

    Nigeria has numbers of experts ready to contribute to the validity of the country’s electoral processes. We haven’t given them fair chance to try their best for their country. The repetition in registration comes as another menacing affair which deserves consideration by national policy makers. If there are ways of cutting down cost in conducting one-time registration for all voters, it will be the best. The permanent voters card will be of little use if voters can’t vote in their respective location when it is time to vote. Some policies might have to change along the line though. These changes are necessary, considering the cost of conducting registrations for voter only to hand them glorified identity card.

    It would have been better if electoral laws allow citizens to convert available identity documents to a medium voting.  The best consideration will be to alter part of the restricting regulation that restrict voters and let them know it is time to vote anywhere they are. That is the time Nigeria can boast of enfranchising her vast populace. Good election is the best infrastructure any democracy can have.

    • Unekwu Peters Onyilo,

     Kogi State.