The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigeria

  • Over 500 Nigerians jailed in Brazil for drugs – Ambassador

    Over 500 Nigerians jailed in Brazil for drugs – Ambassador

    Nigeria’s Ambassador to Brazil, Mr. Vincent Okoedion,  said there are over 500 Nigerians serving jail terms in Brazil for drug peddling and related offences, affirming that many  Nigerians are residing in the country without proper documentation .

    Ambassador Okoedion , who disclosed this in an interview in Brasilia while meeting officials of Air Air, who were in the country to secure traffic rights from the Brazilian authorities to commence flights.
    He said the high commission will continue to ensure that Nigerians in the country are engaged in legitimate business.
    He said, ” We have many Nigerians who are in prison in this country. The numbers of Nigerians who are in prison in this country are about 500, including men and women. it is the group that are actually the main concern of the mission’ because we know that prison is not the place where our people should be in Brazil and what more they are the majority of Africans in prison in this country.

    “So we visit them in prison especially during the festivals that are observed in this country like Easter and Christmas. We take to them essential items that they need like toiletries mainly. So they are the subject of on going discussions between the mission and the host government.We also hold meetings with the community to let them know that they should be law abiding and that the police would not go after them if they obey the law of the land. It is only when the police see them engaging in illegal activities that the police will harass them. And then we also know that we have to a credible community leadership or association. That way, it makes it easier for us to deal with them as a group. So we can work them through their leaders. So right now we are trying to organise elections both for Nigerians as a community and Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation .”

  • ‘Boko Haram members using fake military camouflage’

    ‘Boko Haram members using fake military camouflage’

    The Nigerian Army on Friday in Abuja decried the rate at which the Boko Haram insurgents have been using fake military camouflage to attack civilians.

    Maj.-Gen. Mobolaji Koleoso, the Chief of Civil- Military Affairs in the Nigerian Army, said this while briefing journalists on the security situation in the country.

    He said the Army had observed with dismay the illegal possession and abuse of military camouflage by the Boko Haram insurgents.

    “This trend is indeed worrisome, hence the need to enlighten the public to be cautious and report suspicious persons using illegal camouflage to relevant security agencies.

    “A recent exchange of gun fire with the insurgents in the North Eastern part of the country which resulted in a large number of causalities on their side showed that the insurgents were dressed in fake military camouflage.

    “For the unsuspecting populace, these insurgents would have been misconstrued as soldiers of the Nigerian Army,’’ he added.

    Koleoso explained that the army had been erroneously accused of heinous crimes on innocent citizens, “not knowing that the Boko Haram insurgents have been the perpetrators of this dastardly act.’’

    On the Daura attack in Katsina State, Koleoso said that the 35 Battalion of the Nigerian Army received a distress call at about 10 p.m. on Thursday and the troops moved into Daura to take charge of the situation.

    He said that in the ensuing firefight, two soldiers were killed and an officer was shot and wounded.

    According to him, two Boko Haram terrorist were killed, while three escaped with their vehicle but had an accident and died.

    “Some quantities of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were recovered, while the two Golf cars used by the terrorists, 10 AK47 riffles and a large quantity of ammunition were recovered,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the Army chief as saying on Friday.

    Koeloso said that some of the terrorists escaped with gun shots wounds and appealed to the public to report to the nearest security agency any person with bullet wounds.

     

  • Nigeria, Cameroon to boost trans-border security

    Nigeria, Cameroon to boost trans-border security

    Nigeria and Cameroon are to strengthen trans-border security challenges.

    The move followed President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration of state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, which share border with Cameroon.

    A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, said Jonathan yesterday received a special message from Cameroun through the Cameroonian Vice Prime Minister, Mr. Ahmadou Ali at the Presidential Villa.

    The statement reads: “The special message from President Paul Biya included an invitation to attend a summit on security and maritime safety in the Gulf of Guinea to be hosted by Cameroon.

    “President Jonathan accepted the invitation, and said current global security challenges make it imperative for countries to cooperate maximally in order to protect their citizens.

    “As criminality and terrorism have risen globally, it is important for countries to cooperate maximally, in order to protect citizens.

    “President Jonathan briefed the Cameroonian Vice Prime Minister about the state of emergency declared in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States this week, and assured the special envoy that Nigeria would work with her neighbours to ensure security in the sub-region.”

    Jonathan thanked President Biya for the cooperation he has extended and the warm relations between the two countries.

    Ali told Jonathan that his country had identified members that would form part of the committee on trans-border security.

  • ‘How Nigeria loses millions of dollars to foreign oil drilling firms’

    ‘How Nigeria loses millions of dollars to foreign oil drilling firms’

    The Federal Government has opposed suits filed by three drilling firms against the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) challenging charges imposed on them over their activities in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

    It said it loses millions of dollars due to alleged refusal of the firms to pay charges.

    Transocean Sedco Forex, Noble Drilling and Pacific International Drilling filed the suits.

    NPA is the defendant.

    Two of the suits are pending before Justice Okon Abang. The third is before Justice James Tosho.

    NPA is claiming that under the relevant international agreements, the government has the right to prospect for mineral and other resources in the Economic Zone which is about 200 nautical miles from Nigeria’s shore line/coast line in the high seas.

    Based on the agreements, the government gave oil giants such as Mobil, Shell, Chevron, Total, among others, license to prospect for oil in the EEZ.

    The oil giants in turn engage the services of drilling companies, such as the plaintiffs, to drill the oil well for them.

    According to NPA, the rigs are usually brought in from abroad, and before they are moved to the EEZ, the drilling companies obtain temporary import permits to bring in the rigs as goods.

    This, NPA said, is to prevent the payment of import duties by the drilling companies.

    However, it said under the provisions of the Customs Act, the rigs should be discharged at regular ports before they are taken to the offshore drilling sites in the EEZ.

    The only exception is when the drilling companies obtain waivers to take the rigs directly to the offshore sites.

    NPA said that the drilling companies are supposed to pay compulsory pilotage charges, among other charges, to the Nigerian Government through the NPA if the rigs are brought to the ports before they are taken to their offshore drilling locations.

    It alleged that to avoid paying the charges which runs into millions of dollars, the drilling companies do not bring their rigs to the ports for clearance.

    But the plaintiffs said they take the rigs directly to their drilling location at the EEZ because they do not fall into the definition of cargo/goods which must be discharged at the conventional ports.

    They also argue that the Minister of Transport did not declare the EEZ as compulsory pilotage districts. Therefore, they will not pay the compulsory pilotage dues.

    Consequently, the drilling giants filed the suits challenging the NPA’s demands for the dues/charges in dispute.

    Meanwhile, NPA said Intels Nigeria Limited, using sophisticated equipment, was able to track and locate rigs belonging to the drilling companies working in the EEZ without payment of the above dues.

    It, therefore, demanded that the drilling companies pay the dues.

    NPA said there exists a law – the Compulsory Pilotage Order of 1996 – which declares the EEZ as compulsory pilotage districts.

    The Nation learnt that one of the firms has proposed to settle out of the court with NPA after being notified of the law’s existence.

    During proceedings yesterday, NPA’s lawyer Ame Ogie, applied for a trial date for the court to determine the legality or otherwise of the suit.

    He had earlier filed a motion urging the court to dismiss the action for being illegal.

    Justice Tsoho adjourned till September 18 for hearing.

  • ‘.35m firms don’t file tax returns’

    ‘.35m firms don’t file tax returns’

    The Federal Government yesterday expressed worry that about 350,000 companies have not filed their tax returns for some years.

    The Minister of State for Finance, Dr Yerima Ngama, expressed government’s concerns when he delivered an address at the opening ceremony of the African Tax Forum in Abuja. He noted that tax evasion by companies has resulted in the low tax to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio in Nigeria.

    According to him, the current seven per cent contribution of taxes to the GDP indicates that many Nigerians were not paying taxes.

    Ngama said: “At the last count, about 350,000 companies have not rendered tax returns in the country. So, we need to strategise; we need to research and find out what could be done to improve tax rendition and tax collection, what could be done to encourage accounting for activities.”

    The minister recalled that “five years ago, 54 per cent of the businesses in the country were informal, but today, that has reduced to 46 per cent”.

    He, however, noted that more Nigerians now organise and register businesses better and adopt standard accounting principle.

    Ngama said there “is nothing the tax man would do unless the accounts are rendered. Of course, they can go and look at the level of activity, but we need to improve. It is in the interest of everybody and the businesses to pay tax”.

    The minister said since Africa is fast becoming a preferred destination for investors, there is need for a better tax coordination and harmonisation on the continent.

    He said the level of formality and organisation of businesses in Ghana is better than what obtains in Nigeria, adding that this has resulted in Ghana’s tax collection rising to 21 per cent of its GDP.

    Ngama said: “Tax collection in most African countries is about 10 per cent of GDP. But in Nigeria, the total tax collected is just seven per cent of the GDP. This shows that many people and companies are not rendering tax returns.”

  • ‘Provide soil map for Nigeria’

    The Federal Government has been told to provide a detailed soil map for Nigeria.

    A professor of Soil Science Abayomi Fasina, who delivered the 37th inaugural lecture of the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti, suggested that the Federal Government should assemble qualified experts to produce the map.

    He noted that the mandate to have such a map should have a strong financial backing while information gathered from the soil survey should be useful for sustainable land management for agricultural and non-agricultural purposes.

    Fasina, in his 76-page lecture entitled: “Can these soils sustain: The dilemma of a Pedologist,” urged the government to enforce proper land use regulations to keep prime lands for agriculture.

    He also suggested a general education and public enlightenment on land use planning in Nigeria, urging that the land use decree be modified to remove bottlenecks in conservation practices.

     

  • Nigeria set for explosive growth, says Utomi

    Nigeria set for explosive growth, says Utomi

    The prospects for the Nigerian economy is positive, Prof Pat Utomi has said.

    Utomi, who is Founder, Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL), and Director, Pan African University, warned that the country needs to do more to ensure government spending for the people in the area of job creation, skills, supply chains, investment and the quality of life.

    Speaking at a workshop in Lagos, Utomi said to achieve faster sustainable economic growth, with opportunities for all Nigerians to flourish, the government’s economic strategy should give clear priority to the approaches and policy levers which drive growth most effectively.

    According to him, Nigeria could become one of the biggest economies with wealthiest population if the government takes steps to empower the people, adding that Nigeria has all the necessary resources to become an economic force.

    However, in spite of its intrinsic natural resources, he said the economy still has to overcome significant barriers to realise its potential.

    Utomi said Nigeria faced several pressing issues such as high unemployment and weak economic growth.

    But looking forward ,he said the nation is capable of holding its own and in fact moving ahead of some of the other developed economies with the revitalisation of the capital market.

    Utomi urged the government prioritise agriculture for commercial purposes as it has led to the growth of the Brazilian economy. He said agriculture has great commercial potential.

    Faculty member,Lagos Business School, Dr Doyin Salami said the economy need to be competitive and for tasks to be solved successfully.He said the economy need to develop faster.

    In spite of the progress made in terms of Gross Domestic Product(GDP),he said concerns remain about competitiveness.

    Salami said the economy is hampered by low skills levels and poor transportation and other infrastructure.

    He said for the economy to remain competitive in domestic and international markets.

    Salami noted the existence of a skills gap,adding that this is affecting the ability of Nigerians to capitalise on high value opportunities in the economy.

    Efforts,he noted , have to be made to develop and match the skills needed within the economy.

    According to him, the weaker outlook for output growth means that the margin of economic slack is likely to be greater and more persistent.

    Business indicators ,he noted point to a continuation of that weakness in in the manufacturing sector.

     

  • Nigeria’s imports from Sweden hits $825m

    The Federal Government has said that imports from Sweden to Nigeria has steadily increased over the years ,hitting $825 million in 2011/12.

    Foreign Affairs Minister Olugbenga Ashiru made this in Abuja known to a Swedish delegation led by the Minister of International Development Cooperation, Mrs. Gunilla Carlson.

    Ashiru described the relationship between the two countries as ‘’traditionally cordial and very strong’’.

    Pointing out the trade imbalance between both nations, the minister put the exports from Nigeria to Sweden in 2011/12 at $26 millions which he viewed as a huge drop from the $88 million recorded in 2010.

    He called for increased bilateral ties between the two countries for mutual benefits.

    “We assure you that we deeply appreciate our relations, and we’re looking forward to increasing our economic cooperation,” he said.

     

  • State of electricity supply in Nigeria

    State of electricity supply in Nigeria

    Fourteen years ago, when the PDP government came to power, we were told then that the installed capacity of electricity in Nigeria was 6,000 megawatts and that within a year, this would go to 10,000megawatts. The late Chief Bola Ige who was then one of the leaders of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and who was also popularly known as Arole Awolowo, some kind of khalifa or successor, was persuaded by many including my humble self to accept the invitation to join Obasanjo’s cabinet. The only reason for our suggesting to him to accept to serve in Obasanjo’s cabinet was that he was the only person who could give the government credence and credibility at least in Yoruba land. He accepted this offer reluctantly and he was then given the charge to revolutionize the power sector. On getting to the ministry, he found the whole place riddled with corruption, inequality of charges for power consumption between some institutions in the north and south and regular payment of riba to certain political groups and traditional rulers, but he decided to do his best to clear the augean stable. Six months later, he apparently stepped on people’s toes; he was fired and made the attorney-general of Nigeria from where he was brutally murdered a few years later in his own bedroom. Up till now, nobody has been arrested or charged for his murder.

    There had been many other ministers in charge of power and electricity since then, but it has been a story of motion without movement. A bright person like Prof. Barth Nnaji was brought in by President Goodluck Jonathan, only for him to be disgraced out and replaced by Prof. Nebo, former Vice-Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, as if he was born to be vice-chancellor in a country where there are other capable young people who could have been given a chance to serve.

    Fourteen years later, we are daily told that power generation has increased from 3,000megawatts to 4,000megawatts. This is after close to 50 billion dollars have been spent. Rather than progressing, we seem to be retrogressing. I am sure many Nigerians are confused. Our President says that by the end of 2014 which is next year, Nigerians who have generators would be giving them out free to others because there would be no need for them anymore. I say Amen to this. If this happens, all Nigerians would be ready to march to Abuja to ask our National Assembly to change the constitution and to declare Nigeria an empire with Emperor Gooodluck Ebele Jonathan ruling over us forever. In the meantime, all kinds of directors including recently a lady said that by December this year, we would have reached 10,000megawatts in power generation. The same week, the new minister, Prof. Nebo said that Nigeria actually needs 200,000megawatts in order for power to be stable. Then a delegation of Senators led by their President David Mark, went to the Mambilla Plateau to inspect the hydro-electric dam on which one billion naira had been spent and from which Nigeria was promised 2,000megawatts of electricity, but only to find that nothing has happened and that the one billion naira spent had gone into the pockets of some people without any road constructed to the site of the hydro-electricity dam, nor any clearance of the dam site.

    We also know that several Independent Power Projects (IPP) were started by Obasanjo in conjunction with some oil producing companies in Nigeria. Several of them were located appropriately in the Niger-Delta to facilitate access to gas instead of piping the gas across the country, and being subjected to sabotage by militants and other kinds of saboteurs. When these IPPs were started, we were told that this would boost generation within one or two years to over 10,000megawatts. We are all aware of the facts that when Umaru Yar’Adua took over as President, he suspended all these projects while setting up a so-called fact-finding committee to investigate spending on the power sector, the National Assembly under one Ndudi Elumelu also set up a probe committee on the same issue. This charade went on for about two years without any progress on the power sector. The National Assembly Committee’s itself then ended up in a cloud of suspicion and corruption and its members stole 100million naira for which they were arrested and taken to court for which we never heard anything again.

    I think one of our writers should make our power sector a subject of a novel and I am sure readers all over the world would think they are reading fiction, whereas it is faction. What exactly is going on is beyond me. Our president in recent times has been to South Africa the country we are supposedly competing with for leadership on the continent. He would have found out that South Africa which is about a quarter or a fifth of Nigeria’s in population is generating about 15times of electricity as we are and is planning to increase its generation from about 45,000megawatts to 100,000megawatts within three years and would probably spend a tenth of the amount we have used in the last 14years only to retrogress from 6,000megawatts to 4,000megawatts. Apologists would say that the electricity infrastructure in South Africa was done by the Whites. By saying this, we confirm our inferiority complex. Shall we therefore invite white people to come back and take over rulership of Nigeria? It would be useful and desirable if either the President of Nigeria or his Minister of Power would come out and tell Nigerians the truth about our power sector. We don’t need the kind of recent information provided by the Vice President that the Jonathan administration has given a sum of 3.7billion dollars to the power sector this year alone, while almost immediately the new Minister of Power said Nigeria would need 100billion dollars over the next 10years to arrive at power Nirvana.

    We are all sick of this confusion and we are sick of our people dying of blown out generators and of generator fumes. If we cannot provide ordinary power in the 21st Century, then the reason for the existence of government becomes unclear, especially in a situation where individuals are generating more power than the state itself. We hope that recent privatization would alleviate the problems, and if it does, all Nigerians would celebrate this government.

     

  • Nigeria has most difficult business environment, says survey

    SOUTH African-based Omidyar Network Africa, in partnership with Monitor Group, has ranked Nigeria as the most difficult business environment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

    The report which was presented to entrepreneurs, investors and government officials in Lagos, listed inadequate electricity supply, lack of access to finance and infrastructural deficiency as some of the challenges militating against entrepreneurs in the country.

    The survey, which was carried out in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and South Africa, showed that Nigerian banks demand higher collateral from investors than every other country in the Sub-Saharan Africa.

    According to the report, 58 per cent of respondents believe that the physical infrastructure available in the country does not provide sufficient support for new and growing firms, the most negative result amongst benchmarked countries.

    It noted that inconsistent electricity supply across the country has resulted in backup generators forming a key part of any business assets, albeit at significant additional operating expenses.

    “In fact, only 12 per cent of respondents believe that new and growing firms can afford the costs of using the physical infrastructure available in the country. These findings highlight the impact of Nigeria’s well-documented infrastructural challenges on new business owners”, the report added.

    In the survey, challenges related to accessing finance drew mixed perceptions from both the demand and supply sides.

    The report stated that while many entrepreneurs bemoaned a limited supply of capital, financiers point out that many projects are not fundable.

    However, a press released by the Ernst & Young Research Institute, last week, stated that Africa is becoming more attractive to investors and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

    The statement signed by the Managing Partner of Ernst & Young Research Institute, Mr Mark Otty, said projects have steadily grown over the past five years in the continent.

    According to the statement, despite a fall in project numbers from 867 in 2011 to 764 in 2012, in line with the global trend, project numbers are still significantly higher than anything that preceded the peak of 2008. The continent’s global share of FDI has also grown from 3.2 per cent in 2007 to 5.6 per cent in 2012.

    It stated that despite the impact of the ongoing global economic situation, the size of the African economy has more than tripled since 2000.

    “The outlook also appears positive, with the region as a whole expected to grow by four per cent for 2013 and 4.6 per cent for 2014. A number of African economies are predicted to remain among the fastest growing in the world for the foreseeable future,” its said.