The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigerian news

  • Time to re-jig

    For an industry that has never been able to hold a candle to its peers on the globe, the level of de-marketing intrinsically woven into its operations must be truly astounding. Or how else does one classify the claim by the first vice president of Ship Owners Association of Nigeria, SOAN, Eno Williams, that one of his vessels gutted by fire about five years ago was still at the dockyard, following failure of his local insurers to settle the claims?

    Said the SOAN chief at the pre-event briefing for the group’s forthcoming event with the theme – Ocean Blue Economy for National Development: “The Nigerian Insurance Industry has not lived up to the billing in the shipping industry. I give you an example, this ship you are seeing here (pointing at it) got burnt while delivering a service at Chevron. As we speak, next month would make it five years this ship is still at the shipyard. The insurance would pay today x amount and tomorrow they would pay one little one here and so on, whereas if I had done it in London, they would simply issue a credit note to the shipyard”.

    Of course, caught in the web of their delay tactics or inability to pay claims as at when due, ship owners like other classes of insurers have since resorted to taking up insurance policies with the foreign insurance outfits, the result of which is the billions of naira annually carted away in offshore insurances.

    An old problem that Nigerians are only too familiar with; an individual or an entity takes up an insurance policy; something happens and the insured, thinking he has his asset covered wakes up to find that he has been sold a pig in a poke. First come the frustrating delays in the claims process during which all manner of invisible clauses are thrown in his face; and then at the point of payment, he is again tossed endlessly around because the insurance company – the supposed risk bearer – couldn’t come up with the funds to settle claims.

    We see two levels to the problem here. One is the palpable lack of capacity by local insurers; the other is regulatory inadequacy. Today, the industry reels under all manner of yokes – ranging from poor capitalisation to dearth of technical capacity by local practitioners. Whereas the former sets the limit on the value of risk that the insurer can carry (which in our circumstances is extremely low), the latter is the harbinger of the countless sharp practices that have come to define the industry today.

    Of course, there are also challenges directly linked to the poor shape of the naira in an industry where risks are more often than not denominated in major foreign currencies. To survive, many of the local insurers have been known to indulge in all kinds of anti-competitive practices prominent of which is rate cutting – a practice that directly impinges on their solvency and as we have seen, has put the entire industry in grave peril.

    As it is, what the industry needs now is a new lease. Already, the regulator – the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has taken a bold step in fixing new capital requirements for operators in the industry. Although the deadline fixed for June 30, 2020 is less than a year from now, we expect both the regulator and the operators to adhere strictly to the date. By then, life insurance companies are to have their capital bases raised from N2bn to N8bn, general companies from N3bn to N10bn, and composite insurance companies from N5bn to N18bn. The issue of adequacy of the capital bases at this time is at best moot; it is to us a starting point in the long journey to grow capacity.

    Next to this is the challenge of regulation. For an industry that thrives strictly on trust, we have seen the level of malfeasance by practitioners taken to an intolerable level in recent years. Beyond merely setting the rules, NAICOM must be seen to scrupulously enforce them. After more than 100 years since the industry berthed in the country, the country deserves more than what is currently on offer.

  • Loan defaulters

    For a very long time in the Nigerian financial sector, the biblical quote, “he who goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing” has never really carried the full weighty import with most bank debtors. They simply borrow from one bank, if for any reason they are unable to pay back, they simply brush off the bank debt recovery team and smile to another bank for more loans. Luckily for the chronic debtors, there are more than a dozen banks in the country, so their round robin game simply goes on while those banks struggle to serve other customers and oil the economic productive machines.

    The Bankers Committee seems to have decided to play the Achebe’s Eneke the bird that swore to fly without perching since the hunters tend to shoot without missing. It has directed that borrowers henceforth sign an asset seizure agreement with their banks, empowering them to seize all their deposits across the industry if they fail to repay loans.

    According to the (CBN) deputy governor (financial system stability), Aisha Ahmad, the committee is alarmed at the number of loan defaulters in the system who surreptitiously make it impossible for the banks to revitalise the economy, stimulate demand and serve the SME sector adequately.

    We commend this proposal by the Bankers Committee with the support of the apex bank, the CBN. It is an action a tad too late given the number of loan defaulters in Nigeria. In the past, there had been other measures aimed at forcing debtors to pay back, like threatening and sometimes even publishing their names in the print media, with the amounts they had borrowed. However, the debtors, most of who have grown thick skin and unperturbed by such publications had simply grinned and moved on and gone to other banks to borrow more.

    The often very rich individuals seem not to care about any of the past tactics adopted by banks to compel repayment. In a country where financial and or political power often signpost  recalcitrant attitude, especially when funds are involved, this proposed law must be effectively executed so that those who truly are credit-worthy in terms of readiness to repay loans are able to access bank loans so as to stimulate economic growth.

    However, the Credit Bureau whose job includes tracking debtors and the amounts to their names ought to have stepped into the gap before now to ensure that chronic defaulters do not take advantage of the weak system and jump from one bank to the other to collect loans without any attempt to pay back.

    While we commend the new measure being proposed, we advise that the other side of the coin might be that those chronic debtors might decide to move out their funds from the country or avoid banking their money altogether in order not to have them used to pay back their loans. We want the CBN and the Bankers Committee to continue to work on alternate ways of monitoring and evaluating the capacity of borrowers to pay back because the one under review can easily be circumvented.

    Most viable economies are propelled by the activities of well-funded SMEs through loans from banks. If therefore the SMEs continue to be on standby while chronic bank debtors continue to have a field day with loans, the lack of economic growth and social instability would continue to bog down the economy. We therefore suggest that more stringent and well monitored regulations in the banking sector must be employed to dissuade loan defaulters from accessing loans and denying genuine and responsible bank customers from accessing loans for their businesses.

    It is equally apposite for the banks and the apex bank to re-evaluate the interest on loans in ways that make it attractive and profitable to customers. In most cases, the huge interests on loans and the proverbial hidden charges sometimes affect the profit margin for bank customers and hamper their ability to repay. The idea of taking loans for business must be made to be mutually beneficial to both the banks and the customers.

    While the proposed system might seem admirable, the execution could be counter-productive because if the same customers decide to remove their money from the banks, the economy would be the worse for it. We therefore advise caution and a balancing of the punitive policy in ways that would not bring the economy on its knees. A lot of education and information management must be deployed for the overall benefit of the economy.

  • Anambra market prayers

    In the last one month or so, there have been developments within the markets in Anambra State that should be of more than a passing interest to all.

    At the end of July, the president-general of Anambra State Amalgamated Traders Association (ASMATA), Ikechukwu Ekwegbalu had announced the banning of prayers in all markets across the state. The reason he gave was that politicians had hijacked the exercise; “What we see now is extortion and conversion of the prayer sessions to political rallies”.

    Just last week, the state government threw its weight behind the ban. Why it took the government one month to come public on the matter remains a matter of conjecture. But a statement by the state commissioner for information and public enlightenment, C. Don Adinuba went at length to show why the prayers can no longer serve the best interest of the state by the way they are organized and conducted.

    In their narrative, they said evidence abounds that a certain preacher conducting regular prayers in the various markets in the state had created a culture of fear and was spreading rancour in the markets. They also accused the unnamed pastor of being in the habit of ascribing every failure to the spiritual wickedness and manipulation of family members and fellow traders.

    They were also no longer comfortable with the compulsory closure of markets for prayers every Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from morning till noon as it was depriving traders the opportunity to do their businesses. The government shared the complaints of traders that frequent closure was driving away their customers to markets in neighbouring states and even outside the country.

    To checkmate this trend, the government directed each market to decide on a day and time in a month to shut down and hold prayers while encouraging traders to hold their individual prayers. With the measures, the government envisages that all challenges thrown up by the previous order of conducting prayers in markets would have been stymied.

    It is good a thing the state government felt sufficiently worried by the mode, frequency of such prayers and the challenges they threw up that they had to intervene to restore sanity in the markets. All the reasons adduced for banning the prayers in the mode and frequency they were hitherto conducted cannot be faulted irrespective of the sensitivity of issues that impinge on the religious realm.

    Issues bordering on religion can be that sensitive and may have accounted for why the state government appeared to have shut its eyes to inherent challenges and dangers in allowing all markets to be shut for six hours in those three days just to enable traders pray. It is not clear whether that praying order and the shutting down of the markets had the approval of the government before they started being enforced by the traders’ union. It is also unclear how the unnamed preacher emerged to the point of monopolizing all prayer sessions in all Anambra markets.

    Though the state government did not explicitly indicate how the prayers evolved and the process leading to the selection of the offending pastor, the impression one gets is that it had been the sole responsibility of that pastor to hold prayers in all markets in the state. And the three days set aside for prayers were to enable him alternate and superintend over prayer sessions in the major markets in the state. How one pastor was allowed that kind of uncommon leverage in a state with diverse Christian religious denominations including animists and traditional religion adherents remains largely curious.

    But one fact that has emerged is that whoever allowed a single pastor to monopolize prayer sessions in all the markets for that long was vicariously responsible for the abuse the program suffered. Given the sensitivity of religious adherents to their peculiar modes of worship, allowing one pastor to force down on others his own worshipping prescriptions and prayer mode was a time bomb waiting to explode. One is surprised that it took that long before the government came to terms with traders’ dissatisfaction with the situation in the markets.

    It should not be a surprise that much of the complaints that trailed the activities of that pastor had their root in the incongruity in finding the right mix that satisfies the worshipping peculiarities of the various religious adherents he was ministering to. The pastor was accused of ascribing all misfortunes to the spiritual wickedness and manipulation of family members and fellow traders. This cannot go down well with a lot of people even as its capacity to create rift and bad blood among traders cannot be underestimated. He was said to be responsible for the frequent market closures and making a fortune out of it. He may not be alone in this.

    He cannot wield such awesome powers without connivance from highly placed officials either from within the markets’ union leadership or officials of the government. The state government should have gone a little further to unearth how the whole arrangement was conceived and nurtured. Such investigation will definitely expose all that went wrong with that contentious praying arrangement.

    Had consultations been adequately made in conceiving the prayer sessions, it would have struck the organizers to work out a mode of worship with appeal to sensibilities of the diverse denominations being aggregated to pray together. An inter-denominational prayer session involving diverse preachers would have offered a better option. Having neglected that vital consideration, it was a matter of time for the bubble to burst.

    It is little surprising that traders have had to complain not just about the propriety of frequent markets closures but the exploitation and fake prophesies of the pastor that had set families against one another and traders against their fellow traders. The antics of the offending pastor is neither entirely new nor is he alone in it. Many families have sordid tales on how fake prophesies from fake pastors and others in similar mould claiming supernatural powers inflicted incalculable harm amongst them. It is either that someone is holding your luck or there are ancestral curses from forefathers that are vitiating progress among members of the family for which that pastor has the supernatural powers to neutralize.

    I had in this column sometime ago, written about a particular pastor in Owerri, Imo State whose technology in attracting members lay in his claims to neutralizing ancestral curses. He produced an Igbo radio jingle of immense alliterative appeal which he constantly beams on radio stations urging his audience to approach his worship centre to have such curses remedied. You cannot but be attracted to his jingle: Ibibi abubu onu, Bibie abubu onu (neutralizing ancestral curses, neutralize ancestral curses). That has been his selling point. Only God knows how many of the gullible who flooded his worship centre had the touted curses neutralized. Only his visitors can say how effective the pastor has been in making good his claims and the turn around it has unleashed in their lives.

    Your guess is as good as mine. But one thing that remains certain is that the pastor does not neutralize curses for free. That is the nature of abuse religion has been subjected to in the hands of unscrupulous preachers and pastors.

    The danger encapsulated in such false preaching was poignantly underscores by the Federal Road Safety Commission FRSC in its ‘ember months’ sensitization program last year.  The commission had while speaking on the theme ‘safe Driving, Safe Arrival’ told the public to stop believing the existence of blood-sucking demons that kill travellers on the roads during the yuletide as most accidents are caused by human factors.

    More fundamentally, the furore generated by the prayer sessions would have been averted had its authors paid attention to the distinction between matters of ecclesiastical and corporeal realms. Had the state paid heed to St Augustine’s allegory of the two cities-the city of God and the city of man, the current pass would have perfectly been averted. That is the message.

  • NDDC Board: Niger Delta governors missed it

    Following the dissolution of former NDDC board headed by Prof. Nelson Brambaifa of Bayelsa State and the naming of new nominees to the NDDC board by the president to be headed by Dr. Bernard Okumagba from Delta State on Wednesday, August 28, South-south governors reportedly met to reject the members-designate of the board announced by the Presidency.

    The gist of the rejection of President Muhammadu Buhari nominees according to Governor Dickson of Bayelsa State arose over the way and manner the appointments were made – although Governor Dickson would also contradict himself when he opined that “the aggrieved governors protest arose from the protests being staged by people and stakeholders across the nine member states of the NDDC”. For the avoidance of doubt, there is no known protest in the case of the Cross River State nominee, Knight Maurice Efiwat; instead there are wide jubilations across the state in celebration of his well deserved nomination.

    Their excellence are reported as saying that they were also embarrassed, because the president threw merit to the wind in the selection of persons that were nominated to the NDDC board, claiming that politics was the only consideration used in selecting members-designate contrary to the provisions of the NDDC Act.

    The call by the governors is not only selfishly motivated, but also mischievous, a deliberate attempt to hoodwink the federal government, the owner of the commission to pander to the states with a view to gaining double portions in favour of their PDP surrogates in their respective states. This is to the utter detriment of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC). After all, no one PDP state in the Niger Delta has thought it wise to appoint an APC member into the membership of its boards and parastatals at any given time; yet they wish to coast home the membership of the NDDC board.

    The governors are no doubt aware that the modus operandi employed by the federal government in the selection of member-designate is in complete agreement with section 2 of the Niger Delta Development Commission (Establishment, etc) Act Cap 86 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, Volume II 2004, particularly section 2 of the Act.

    The governors, if they do not set out to play politics and playing to the gallery, are no doubt aware of the clear and unambiguous provisions of the Establishment Act regarding the powers given to the president to make appointments to the NDDC board with only the senate to confirm such appointments in consultation with the House of Representatives not with the governors. See section 5(2) and section 12(1)(c).

    Thus, following the provisions of the Act, Abia State took first the chairmanship position, followed by Akwa Ibom State, Bayelsa and lastly by Cross River State. It was therefore thought that Delta State ought to take its turn, before a jump to Edo State, perhaps for the simple reason that if Delta State is to produce the position of the Managing Director of the NDDC and at the same time produce the board chairman, it would not speak well of the government, hence the exchange. It has to be noted that the use of the word SHALL in section 4 of the Act appears not to be mandatory, but permissive in context reading the sentence holistically.

    If perhaps the presidency in it search for stability and performance in the NDDC settles for a well known, tested, trusted patriot and technocrat like Bernard Okumagba from Delta State to be the new managing director, it then beholds on Edo State howbeit for a while to wait for its own turn. After all, in the Establishment Act in section 4, Delta and Edo States are listed as 4(e) and (f) respectively. It will make nonsense to logic if the chairmanship and the managing directorship come from the same state.

    It is important to avoid the generalization the governors are attempting to read into the matter by ascribing sponsored protest in Edo or Delta to be a protest across the whole of the Niger Delta which is not the case.

    A cursory reading of the NDDC (Establishment Act) will show that, it made no provision or reference to the governors of the nine NDDC states to nominate members of the NDDC board in any manner howsoever. If the understanding of the state governors is to mean the governors arrogating to themselves the responsibility of nominating members into the board in spite of the NDDC Act, then the point is missed because they have no role to play at all in the composition of the membership of the NDDC board.

    The only mandatory requirement in section 2(b) to the effect that “one person who shall be an indigene of an oil producing area to represent each of the following member state, that is (a) Abia to (ix) Rivers State.

    This present nominations of members show that the president has taken time to ensure that every member-designate selected into the membership of the NDDC Board come from the designated state making up the Niger Delta region apart from those enjoined to be appointed from other political zones. See section 2(b) of the Act.

    In Cross River State for example, the choice of Knight Maurice Effiwat cannot be a choice not well made of a technocrat, a retired Permanent Secretary, a consummate politician of proven integrity, with uncommon ability, vibrancy and capacity to deliver on the mandate of President Buhari to the NDDC.

    By extension, the same argument goes for both the nomination of Dr. Pius Odubu, a onetime deputy governor in Edo State as the chairman of the NDDC governing board, or question the nomination of the consummate technocrat, Bernard Okumagba as the managing director and chief executive of the commission. These are all proven and tested names in the South-south whose only rejection as nominees by the governors may be due to the fact that they are not PDP members.

    However, it is important to charge the president to quickly define the supervisory relationship between the NDDC as an institution and the Ministry of Niger Delta which came later in time. The relationship of the two in the last dispensation was shaky and not smooth. It must be noted from the beginning that NDDC is not an extension of the Ministry of the Niger Delta. Each has its own budget and functions.

    The new board has a responsibility to keep politics and in fighting away as to ensure that ongoing projects are executed properly.

    The governors of the nine Niger Delta States are urged not to distract the presidency for the good choices it made.

    Experience has shown that given the opportunity to nominate, the state governors will without minding public reactions go ahead to nominate their relations, town and village people, their girl friends and party affiliates.

    • Chief (Barr) Eteng, a legal practitioner writes from Calabar.

  • A stitch in time …

    The recent accident involving an articulated vehicle and a BRT bus was unfortunate and avoidable. Several of such accident happened in different parts of Nigeria on daily basis. Many lives have been lost and several properties wasted. How long will our governments, employers of labour and other stakeholders in the Transportation industry continue to fold arms without taking and encouraging proactive actions to stem the evil tide in Nigeria? The UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011 – 2020) is ending next year without a pass mark in the accomplishment of the five pillars. It is sad!

    As an experienced driver trainer once engaged to train 32 Dangote trailer drivers and trailer drivers in two other companies in Nigeria, I can confidently say here that over 80 per cent of the drivers of articulated vehicles (Tankers, Trailers, etc) know very little or nothing about :

    • Vehicle Dynamics (the forces that operate on a vehicle in motion) particularly, the operation of Kinetic Energy on the trailer when it is loaded and speeding, the operation of centrifugal force on the trailer when steered or making a turn, inertia, traction, brake management, etc.
    • Personal Energy Level which determines the drivers’ mental and physical fitness to drive.
    • Fatigue and Drug Abuse (most of the drivers don’t know the detailed impacts of sleep debts on their health and driving. In a bid to meet targets, they use different types of psychoactive drugs thinking that it will keep them awake and active for long hours without adequate pre-drive sleep.
    • Lane management and the Right of way.

    The inadequacy and corruption in the Driver Licence system is also not helping the situation. Many of these drivers acquired their driver licence without any form of training while some of them don’t even have driver licence.

    The employers of the drivers should be responsible for the professional training and retraining of their drivers with a duration of not less than three whole days. The employers should also avoid setting targets that can force the drivers to over work at the expense of their health and fitness.

    Driving is the most complex job globally because it involves the highest number of body organs to operate and the work environment change frequently. The eyes, ears, nose, brain, hands, legs, neck, and even mouth are regularly engaged in the art of driving while the weather and road conditions keep changing as the journey proceeds. These series of driving activities put a lot of pressure on the drivers. It requires the right training and regular  re – training for drivers to be able to coordinate the three duties for effective and safe vehicle control.

    Until all the drivers of articulated vehicles are subjected to compulsory and comprehensive professional training and annual refresher training coupled with effective traffic law enforcement, Nigeria will continue to experience the high rate of accidents involving articulated vehicles.

    A stitch in time saves nine.

  • NAICOM gives wake-up call to directors

    The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has given a wake-up call for board directors, saying the low level of corporate governance oversights in the insurance sector remains worrisome.

    The Acting Commissioner for Insurance, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM)  Sunday Thomas, who spoke at the Conference for Directors of Insurance Companies at Oriental Hotel, Lagos, said the failure of corporate governance in the  past, has played a prominent role in the death and distress of most corporate organisations the world over, including Nigeria.

    He said NAICOM would continue to introduce new reforms and initiatives in line with international best practices in its march towards achieving the full potentials of the industry, saying the industry has under performed in Nigeria, given its potential, and the fact that its contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at less than 1 per cent, was abysmally low especially when compared with other sectors in the financial services industry.

    Thomas said he was convinced that once “we can successfully navigate this corner, we could be on our way to entrenching a financially solid, vibrant, viable and active insurance market that would bring about not only an increase in penetration but a substantial increase in the industry’s contribution to GDP,” adding that this will also simulate accumulation of long-term funds for infrastructural financing, job creation and an improved Return on Investment (ROI).

    He said: “It is long overdue that we make changes in the right direction. Successful economies are characterised by a strong investment culture of which the insurance industry plays a vital role. So we literally need to re-energise the insurance industry and commence playing our key roles in boosting and growing the sector.

    “The position of the Board of Directors is key in achieving a high level of efficiency in an institution’s corporate governance structure. Over the years, the Commission has made attempts at entrenching good corporate governance culture in the insurance sector. The development and issuance of Corporate Governance Code in 2009 and the Market conduct guidelines in 2014 are among efforts of the Commission in this direction’’.

    Thomas said there was need to emphasise that the primary role of the board, either in a private or public entity remains “the oversight of management to ensure that corporate goals, vision, mission and values of the entity are strictly upheld at all times. The board is also expected to ensure the financial soundness and general well-being of the organisation by monitoring the management to guarantee effective and efficient deployment of human and capital resources for the overall benefit of all stakeholders. The observance of this role has been lacking in some of our companies and that has contributed in no small measure to the challenges facing  them today.

    “It is our firm belief that members of the board can effectively perform their roles without necessarily interfering in management functions. It is the desire of the Commission to work with all stakeholders, including members of the Board of Directors to reverse this trend. It is imperative for me to remind the directors that their companies are in the business of insurance primarily to settle genuine claims made by policy makers. In all policy formulations of the board, I am appealing that the prompt settlement of claims be given  high priority,” Thomas said.

  • Of reciprocity and capitulation

    Whatever you think of the bullish swag of present-day United States under President Donald Trump, you can’t deny that the country makes modest headways with throwing its elephantine weight around some bit. It’s nothing off the fly therefore for Trump’s America to leverage strong-arm options against hurdles posed by others to getting its way.

    The mission mantra of the present leader is to ‘Make America Great Again (MAGA),’ and he has carried on in a default mode of paying back any perceived smack against American citizens or national interest with a ferocious body slam. You can’t blame him to the extent that this tack serves his ends. Actually, such mode aligns with the Yoruba axiom – I’m not sure if other Nigerian tongues have equivalents – about dissuading an impetuous nose tamp with a retaliatory heavy whack.

    It is this philosophy of governance that underpins tariffs the US has so far imposed on some $250billion worth of Chinese goods, of which China has meted back with tariffs on some $110billion US products. The tariffs war avowedly aims at encouraging American consumers to buy American by making imported goods more expensive, and it is yet escalating.

    Nigeria got a dose of this cocktail Tuesday, last week, when the United States embassy kicked in a new visa issuance fee for non-immigrant visas in B, F, H1B, I, L and R categories that Nigerians will henceforth secure to enter America. The new fee, tagged reciprocity fee, was necessitated by higher fees being charged US citizens for Nigerian visas. As it turned out, the heavy sleigh of hand served America’s cause by jolting the Nigerian government out of 18-month dallying on considering a review. Only as at the time of writing this piece, the US had not backed down on its retaliatory swing, and we must hope it does so, pronto!

    The new reciprocity fee slammed on Nigerians is besides the cost of visa application, known as the MRV fee, which all applicants pay at the point of putting in their visa request. A statement by the embassy said effective from Thursday, August 29th, Nigerians applying for tourism, student and business visas will not only pay the N59, 200 application fee, but will top up with $110 (N40, 700) as reciprocity fee when such visas are to be issued, bringing the total cost to N99, 900. Applicants seeking the L1 visa (work permit) will pay an extra N112, 100 if approved, while the H4 category (dependency/spousal visa) will attract extra N66, 600. Both the visa application and reciprocity fees are non-refundable.

    The new fee applies to all Nigerians putting in US visa requests from any part of the world, and whose applications get approved. Applicants who are denied visas would need not to pay the reciprocity fee. The embassy adopted an exchange rate of N370 to $1, which happens to be higher than rates currently prevailing at both the official and parallel markets. It added that the new fee “can only be paid at the US Embassy or the US Consulate-General (and not) at banks or any other location.”

    But the embassy also made clear the new fee was warranted by the diplomatic principle of reciprocity following from Section 281 of United States Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), and after nearly two years of failed engagement with the Nigerian government. The referenced law requires that US visa fees and validity periods be based on standards applied to American citizens by respective foreign government.

    ”The total cost for a US citizen to obtain a visa to Nigeria is currently higher than the total cost for a Nigerian to obtain a comparable visa to the United States. The new reciprocity fee for Nigerian citizens is meant to eliminate that cost difference,” the embassy statement said, adding: “Since early 2018, the US government has engaged the Nigerian government to request that (it) change the fees charged to US citizens for certain visa categories. After 18 months of review and consultations, the government of Nigeria has not changed its fee structure for US citizen visa applicants, requiring the US Department of State to enact new reciprocity fees in accordance with our visa laws.”

    Barely 24 hours after that measure by the US, the Nigerian government slashed visa fees charged the country’s citizens. Interior Minister Rauf Aregbosola ordered that Nigerian visa fee be reduced to $150, effective from last Thursday – same day that the reciprocity fee being imposed on Nigerians was to take effect.  Americans until then paid $270 for single-entry visa, additional $160 for consular services, $100 for administration fee and $10 as ‘processing’ fee.

    A statement by the minister’s spokesman said: “The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammad Babandede, has been directed to implement the decrease in Nigeria’s visa charges on US citizens with effect from Thursday, 29th August, 2019.”

    The statement acknowledged that there were “engagements with the United States Embassy on the issue and in the aftermath, a committee was set up to conduct due diligence in line with the ministry’s extant policy on reciprocity of visa fees.” It added that the committee concluded its assignment and submitted a report, but “issuance of authorisation for its recommendations was delayed due to transition processes in the ministry at the policy level.”

    By its timing, nothing was left in doubt that the Nigerian government’s hurried backtrack on high visa fees for US citizens was forced by that country’s ‘reciprocity’ snarl. And to some extent we should acknowledge the government’s sensitivity, through the agency of the Interior minister, to fresh discomfiture of Nigerians applying for US visas. But the calibration of its response last week just didn’t look good for our national pride. The government was widely shown to have been coerced out of slumber; hence, ‘Nigeria / FG bows to pressure’ or slight variations to the same semantic effect headlined reports on the cutback in visa fee.

    Truths can get self-affronting, but they must be told for good health and sanity of society. Thus, the thinking that ab initio informed unilaterally high price of Nigerian visa is curious, as the country holds the short end of the immigration stick. For instance, in the event of reciprocity, what is the net gain to Nigeria from high visa fee when Americans applying for Nigerian visas are a mere handful compared to throngs of Nigerians daily seeking entry into the US? Besides, a constantly avowed objective of the Nigerian leadership is to vigorously promote foreign investment and tourism in this country. Nigerian visas are essential to facilitating that objective, and it is puzzling how high visa fee adds up to the equation.

    An allied if tangential factor in the present context is the reciprocity of visas’ validity periods. Single entry visas have straightforward instantaneous validity. But most multiple entry visas issued Nigerians by the US have two-year validity, whereas that same country issues five-year (or longer) visas to other nationals even within Africa. The validity cap for Nigerians thus is apparently a reflection of the cap that has been applied by the Nigerian government for this country’s visas. And you well could ask: to what reciprocally beneficial end for citizens?

    Beyond the policy elements though, which may have a long history in our nationhood, the reciprocity fee imposed by the US last week highlighted a tendency of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency to dawdle even in situations that crave earnest action. Many have argued that such tendency informed the long durations it took the President to constitute his cabinets, both in his first term and lately in the present second term.

    As pertains to the visa issue, granted a new helmsman assumed the saddle in Interior ministry only some two weeks ago. But the engagement for fee review reportedly had been underway for 18 months – long before the former cabinet was dissolved and a new one constituted following the 2019 general election. By all means, this matter could have been resolved before getting to the present juncture. The lesson going ahead is that a stitch in time, as they say, always saves nine.

    • Please join me on kayodeidowu.blogspot.be for conversation.

  • Nissan unveils 2020 GT-R

    Nissan has launched a revamped Nissan GT-R to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the very first model.

    Updates include new turbos, suspension changes, styling tweaks and a return of the Bayside Blue colour after an absence of 17 years.

    The 2020 GT-R is on sale now for £83,995, with first deliveries in November.

    The updated GT-R’s 562bhp twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V6 petrol engine gets new turbochargers.

    They don’t increase the engine’s power but they do improve its responsiveness at low revs and its efficiency by around five per cent. Gear shifts in R-Mode are improved by 0.15 seconds.

    Nissan has tweaked the electronic suspension to improve the GT-R’s ride and cornering performance.

    Improvements should also provide more precise steering.

    Nissan has implemented a new brake booster that should improve high-speed braking and make it feel more controlled.

    Other changes include new exhaust manifolds that allow easier servicing, a new titanium exhaust muffler and burnished blue exhaust tips.

    Changes to the styling include new 20-inch alloy wheels with 20 spokes and the replacement of the ivory leather upholstery option with a new grey leather interior option.

    The Bayside Blue colour was retired when the R34 model of the GT-R was retired in 2002.

    The colour made its official return appearing for the GT-R 50th Anniversary model, announced earlier this year.

    Just 18 of those were allocated to the United Kingdom, making it a very rare sight on our roads.

  • ‘Funding safer skies is key to AfDB’

    Funding and collaboration among African countries is key to delivering safer skies on the continent and for its air transport sector to deliver as a catalyst for economic development. The Chief Executive Officer/Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Akin Olateru, says to acieve this requires a mix of capacity development, right equipment, processes and systems. He spoke with select aviation reporters. KELVIN OSA OKUNBOR was there.

    What has changed in the agency since you came in 2017?

    I will start by saying this. Whatever you think, whatever you feel, all the actions you take in life are majorly influenced by two things: first, your beliefs and second, your values. These two components in a way shape our decisions in life and, in turn, shape our lives. That is life. When I came in, in January 2017, AIB was at its lowest ebb. I inherited disgruntled staff, a poorly-funded agency. An agency of government you can say, in terms of performance, scored below 35 per cent. Today, I stand tall because of our achievements since we came into government.

    When I came in, we had to work on our beliefs and values. On the human elements or human capital, we did a lot and part of the improvements we made in our human capital was training and retraining, changing the mindset of our investigators.

    We moved away from our individualistic way of doing things to a group way of doing things, training them to know the effect of good team work.

    How have you leveraged team work and collaboration to enhance capacity development ?

    These are one of the key things we concentrated on. In doing that, we needed the assistance and support of great institutions around the world. It makes sense to learn from the best and we approached some nations, institutions at that time. I stand today to tell you that the United States Government has been our greatest ally and greatest supporters through the National Transport Safety Bureau (NTSB). They have been in reality a major pillar of support. They have supported us with everything humanly possible through the Managing Director then, Mr. Dennis Jones, who has been to Nigeria to train our investigators with his team. The US government through the Safe Skies for Africa programme supported us immensely. We have other nations who didn’t believe in us. I really sincerely want to thank the US government, especially the NTSB and, most especially Mr. Dennis Jones, who is a gift to the world. He has been a major pillar of support. Without them, maybe, we won’t be where we are.

    How many memorandum of understanding did Accident Investigation Bureau sign with other countries?

    Today, we have nations signing Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with Nigeria, believing in what we do and want to emulate us, want us to support them. They want us to work with them, they want to share from our experience. We have South Africa, we have Saudi Arabia, we have Gabon. Tshere are talks ongoing on partnership with these nations. Currently, we have signed an MoU with France, Benin Republic, Sao Tome and Principe and in the next one month, we will be signing with Saudi Arabia. These are great nations. But to me, you must have something sellable; you must have something they see in you that they admire in you before they want to sign an MoU with you.

    What is the infrastructure profile of the Bureau ?

    In terms of infrastructure, you will agree with me that there are four key elements to that irrespective of the industry or the sector. The four major components are human capital, infrastructure, equipment and systems processes and procedure. You need to score seven and half over 10 in each of these components. It takes time to build all these four key elements. Today, I can tell you in terms of equipment, AIB is one of the best in the world. I thank the Senator Hadi Sirika, the past Minister of State for Transportation, now Minister of Aviation, for his belief and support for making it happen. We are rated among the first 10 in the world in terms of equipment and capabilities. Our flight safety laboratory in terms of equipment, we are rated one of the best. In terms of infrastructure, we are rated 7/10.

    What is the human capital component like in the Bureau ?

    In terms of human capital, we have over 30 well-trained investigators in Nigeria. The whole of West Africa has no fewer than 30 investigators. So, you can understand the number. In terms of systems and processes, we are rated 8/10. We are independent. This is one thing that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) calls for nations to have accident investigation bureau that is independent of the civil aviation authority and that was passed by the parliament in 2006 through the Civil Aviation Act 2006, which gave birth to AIB.

    When will AIB be multimodal in terms of accident investigation?

    We are working on the possibility and the approval of AIB going multimodal. Going multimodal means we are going to be investigating not just the air accident, we are going to be investigating rail accidents, we are going to be investigating marine accidents and road accidents. We are joining nations around the world who operate this multimodal system of operations.

    How did this come about ?

    Last year, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved our proposal – the new draft bill for AIB. Before the Senate went on recess, this bill is already in the Senate and hopefully, before the end of this year, this bill will be passed and that would make AIB Nigeria one of the top nations that do multimodal. We have reviewed just two months ago, we reviewed that to take care of all those gaps.

    If you stay stagnant, the world will go past you. I came in January 2017, if you count the number of reports we have released, they are all on our website. AIB, since 2017, has released 58 per cent of the total number of releases done since the creation of the agency since 2007. In terms of release of final reports, we have done 58 per cent. The main reason AIB is set up is to investigate accidents and serious incidents and to come up with safety recommendations to prevent future occurrence. If you don’t release those reports on time, you are doing a disservice to the entire industry because there won’t be lessons to learn. How do you prevent the reoccurrence? By the time you are issuing your safety recommendations, may be four or five years later, the airline may not even be in operation. When I assumed office, I said no report will go beyond 18 months except in an extremely special case, which we have not had.We are like the backend of the operations unlike the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) that is visible. We influence safety through the backend. Our work is extremely important because we are the only institution that can investigate NCAA to see where there are lapses or gaps and to proffer safety recommendations to NCAA on how to do things better.

    What ground work have you done on the multimodal system you are proposing?

    When you look at accident investigation, the techniques are the same; whether it is marine or rail, the techniques are the same. How do we prevent future occurrence? When I said training, in the last one year, we have sent 30 of our investigators to Cranfield University to train on multimodal accident investigation. They are back in Nigeria. We have another two going in September to complete the cycle. We are working closely with the US NTSB. Singapore NTSB is working with us on this. As we speak, we have a relationship with NTSB, as some of our investigators go there for on-the-job-training, just to learn on the job, not just read books or sit in the classroom, but to actually be present with the US investigators to support us on that. Another thing you have to understand is that we will take on some rail staff from Nigeria Railways Corporation (NRC), the same thing with maritime and road and train them on how to investigate accidents properly. Those are the programmes we have in place to ensure we get there. It is not going to happen overnight. It takes time to build institutions. I can confidently say to you that AIB is a world-class institution.

    How comfortable will it be for AIB to investigate incidents or accidents in other modes of transportation when they don’t have FDR, CVR?

    Most ships have devices in the form of recording systems, but for cars, no. However, there are better ways to investigate car accidents beyond a recorder.

    I want to look at what your manpower will be when you begin with the multi-modal project? Will you be operating from the airport here?

    Currently, if you understand how we were set up, we have four office locations in the country. We are in Lagos, Abuja, Enugu and Kano. You don’t build Rome in one day. This will be a gradual process. We need to first of all utilise  the maximum of what we have first before we do a proper need assessment whether we are going to increase our point or we are good at four points, but these are decisions that will be taken in a later stage. I cannot really comment on that now.

    The Safe Skies for Africa Programme sponsored by the US Government in the past 21 years has finally come to an end. What do you think can be done among African nations to sustain this safety and security initiative?

    Today comes the end of our programme where we brought in African nations to join us in aviation safety programme sponsored by AIB in conjunction with Safe Skies Africa, which is a department of transportation and the NTSB. Unfortunately, the programme has come to an end. The US government will no longer sponsor the safe skies programme. It is very unfortunate. Africa has really benefited from this programme and I think we, Africans, should put heads together on how we can help ourselves. We have the African Development Bank (AfDB), which under corporate social responsibility can take up this programme to help Africans. When an aeroplane goes down, it does not distinguish nations.  This is why we owe it to ourselves, the whole world, to work together and strengthen aviation and make it a safer place to be.

    Why do you think the US Government decided to end the Safer Skies for Africa programme and how can AfDB come in?

    That is a very good one. I cannot speak on behalf of the US government on why they decided to stop sponsoring or funding the Safe Skies project for Africa. All I know is that we were told that the project has stopped. On AfDB, I make bold to say, this is my initiative of getting them to sponsor this project to the benefits of African nations. I had a meeting with Bernard Aliu, the President of the International Civil Aviation Organisaton (ICAO) two months ago in Montreal, Canada. I had a discussion with him on how AfDB can continue to be sponsoring this project through ICAO because AfDB will not just release money to AIB, it has to be an independent organisation, which is ICAO and it is not only for Nigeria, but to African nations.

    There will be another meeting in the next ICAO Assembly on the clear-cut modality to get this done. Talks are still on, on how to make this work.

    Earlier, you spoke about the various MoUs AIB has signed with some countries. Could you tell us what these MoUs tend to achieve?

    I will give you an example of the Sao Tome and Principe. The last accident that occurred in Sao Tome was ceded to Nigeria to investigate. We investigated that accident and the final report was released 12 months after the accident. That gave my investigators some kind of exposure. You need to understand what accident investigation is all about. There are no two accidents that are the same. They may look alike, but if you look critically, you will see that there are other things you need to learn as you go along. That is one thing strengthening your technical competence. Take France, for instance. France wants Nigeria to help the francophone African countries and their MoU is to look at how they can strengthen AIB either through training, equipment. Come November, there is training dedicated for our investigators from France to go to France and learn something. Don’t forget, when you talk aviation, France is one of the leading countries in the world. They have majority shares in Airbus and there are many activities in France. There is so much we can learn from France.

    Take Saudi Arabia, for instance; it is just because of the ongoing hajj, our agreement would have been signed because we have got ‘okay clearance’ from the Ministry of Justice to go ahead and sign the agreement. Saudi Arabia has some expertise that we need and they are happy to come to Nigeria to train our team on that.

    What area will the training address ?

    What they will be coming to train us on is looking beyond the Flight Data Recorder and the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). We have met; we have discussed everything on the CVR and FDR. You need to look beyond that and that can help to make your report much better.

    For the Republic of Benin, what they have signed is to say whenever there is an accident, we should come and help them. They don’t have anything on ground, so they told us, if we have training, we should please include them. We have an agreement with Gambia through Banjul Accord Group Accident Investigation Agency (BAGAIA). Today, we have helped Gambia to set up an accident investigation agency. We supported them in writing their regulations, the Act, the whole work. We even helped them with our Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). They came to Nigeria, they sat with us and we put them through. Today, it has been passed by their parliament. These are the kind of things we are doing to help them.

    Earlier, you said when you came on board in 2017, you met a bureau that was poorly funded. Is the bureau properly funded today?

    If you look at most government institutions, they are funded from the government coffers, but through the ingenuity of the past Minister of State Aviation, vis-a-vis the challenges of AIB at the time, we came up with a modality, which was more of a stop gap measure, a temporary arrangement to fund AIB’s operations through a special intervention fund. But, the permanent solution to that is once our bill is approved and that is when we are going to have a permanent solution in terms of proper funding.

    A committee was set up recently to find out how your recommendations assist with safety. Are you satisfied with that?

    I was the chairman of that committee to look into the implementation and effectiveness of those safety recommendations that AIB has issued since inception and we came up with the final result of 62 per cent of safety recommendations that were implemented. Partially implemented were 18 per cent and the rest were not. You need to understand one thing. Safety recommendations can be issued to an airline. For instance, there was a helicopter crash, the first safety recommendation issued to that company was a Bell Helicopter. Unfortunately, the company went burst even before the safety recommendations came out.Will you count that that was implemented? The answer is no. Some safety recommendations may not be implemented because of cost.

    What is the realationship with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority?

    For us and NCAA, I have had a meeting with the Director-General of NCAA, we have agreed on how to work on an MoU basis. We have sent in a proposal and we are waiting for his response because AIB and NCAA need to work together as a team on MoU that will guide our relationship. For clarity sake, I have read some things in the newspapers when somebody said NCAA doesn’t have to implement AIB’s recommendations. It is either the person doesn’t understand aviation or how things work from AIB’s perspective or just trying to be mischievous. I will tell you the process.

    What is the procedure adopted before accident reports are released?

    When we are done with our investigation, we send the final draft to NCAA, among other stakeholders, for their review and we give them 60 days to come back to us to tell us why they are not implementable. We don’t just issue safety recommendations for issuing sake.We give the stakeholders opportunity to comment. That is why we call it 60 days window. We are trying to shorten it to 30 days, so that our reports can be out on time. You can imagine you completed reports and you have to give 60 days; that is two months just for stakeholders to read, comment and get back to you. You need to trust AIB.

    We need to build a world-class institution so that when we talk, you will listen. This is what we have been doing in the last two- and-half years to make sure that AIB is a credible institution that everybody would listen when we talk. That is very important. It is the same thing all over the world. The US NTSB doesn’t have it in their regulations that if you don’t comply, they will send you to jail. We are making it easy, we work with you. We give you time to assess our recommendations and discuss with us if you think it is not right.

    What template do you intend to adopt in handling investigation of road crashes?

    On the road, I will give you an example that there is a crash and the vehicle somersaulted, which was caused by a huge ditch or pothole on the road and we issue a safety recommendation to Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to fix the ditch. We will work with FERMA, the same thing we are doing with NCAA. Once that pothole is fixed, this is how you can prevent all these needless deaths. People die every day on our roads. The problem is that nobody investigated anything, nobody checks anything, nobody says this is what we need to do to prevent future occurrence. We’ve heard of tanker fire accidents many times; have you read any recommendation on how to prevent it? These are the things we are going to fix. The people that don’t want to comply, it is either they don’t know or they just don’t want to comply. We found out more that people don’t just know.

    Some people think accident investigation is about witch-hunting, but it is not. It is about to help the individual airlines to make sure you reduce these bad images, you are not getting this bad press. If you stop having these reoccurrence, then you reduce the exposure to bad news. It is in the interest of everybody, including the flying public.

     

  • Equities record N1.46tr loss in eight months

    Equities showed a bit of resilience last month but still closed negative, pushing the losses over the past eight months to about N1.46 trillion.

    Average price depreciation stood at 0.69 per cent, a considerable recovery from average decline of 7.50 per cent recorded in July.

    However, the continuing price depreciation pushed the average year-to-date return for the eight-month period to -12.42 per cent, equivalent to net capital depreciation of N1.456 trillion.

    The All Share Index (ASI) – the common value-based index that tracks share prices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) – closed weekend at 27,525.81 points compared with 27,718.26 points recorded as July’s closing index, which doubles as August’ s opening index. The ASI had opened 2019 at 31,430.50 points, 17.81 per cent down from its 2018’s opening index of 38,243.19 points.

    The negative performance of the market in August further exacerbated the long-running bearishness at the stock market. Equities have traded mostly on the negative this year, declining in six out of the eight past months. The market also closed both the first and second quarters on the downside and already heading towards negative closing for the third quarter unless there is a major rally in this month.

    Aggregate market value of  quoted equities closed weekend at N13.391 trillion as against N13.507 trillion recorded at the beginning of last month. It had opened the year at N11.721 trillion. The seeming appreciation in the year-to-date performance of aggregate market value of all quoted equities was due to the unabsorbed boost from the listing of the two leading telecommunication companies- MTN Nigeria Communications Plc and Airtel Africa Plc.

    Based on market values, both the ASI and market capitalisation are correlated indices and without new listing or delisting, usually move simultaneously in the same direction. But the ASI is weighted, and as such adjusted for effect of new listing while the market capitalisation is a straight-line summation of share prices and issued shares. Thus, where the ASI and market capitalisation differ, the ASI is widely regarded as the true representation of the market condition.

    With a drop of 17.81 per cent last month, the continuing decline at the equities market implied that, on the average, investors have lost a third of their portfolio over the 20-month period. The continuing depreciation has pushed several stocks to their lowest prices in recent years and raised concerns about a repeat of the consecutive bearishness that had gripped the market between 2014 and 2016. The turnaround in 2017 had represented a fillip for the hard-pressed Nigerian investors.

    Investors had lost N1.75 trillion in 2014 and followed this with another loss of N1.63 trillion in 2015. Against the expectation that political transition and new government will quicken a rebound, equities closed 2016 with a net capital loss of N604 billion. Aggregate market value of quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed 2016 at N9.247 trillion as against N13.226 trillion recorded at the start of trading in 2014, representing a net capital loss of N3.98 trillion.

    FSDH Merchant Bank stated that declining crude oil price and fear of a possible global recession had negative impacts on the stock market. Analysts however noted that the depreciation has created good opportunities for investors, especially in stocks with strong fundamentals.