The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigerians

  • Nigerians eager for dividends of democracy

    Sir: Can Nigerians confidently say that the change regime  has bettered their lots and that it has come to stay? Focusing the last one year of President Muhamadu Buhari in the saddle, the question is: has anything changed from the way it used to be?

    No doubt, President Buhari’s achievement in the last one year can’t be written off completely. Boko Haram’s activities have subsided largely, but these have been replaced by two other deadly killers – the Fulani herdsmen and the militants in the  Niger Delta. The introduction of Treasury Single Account through which the government was able to mop up N3trillion may be a good policy, but people are saying that it has not significantly improved the lots of the masses in the last one one year. Many Nigerians are certainly not comfortable with the President’s 30 trips in the last one year; in the opinion of many, there would have been a world of difference had the President devoted the same effort to  the economy.

    Going by the experience of the past and the symptoms of the present, one is tempted to say that it is hard to believe in the future of Nigeria. Nigeria in the  last 17 years have endured the rot in the  political system. The People’s Democratic Party,  PDP ended up their 16 years of enslaving Nigerians but thanks to the hand of  mercy from God who terminated their reign.  But here we are, one year into the new era of President Muhammadu Buhari, has anything changed?

    Expectations are high and the change mantra is not swinging into action; instead, it is a game  of hide and seek; it has been a show of power between the executive and the legislators. The budget of change has been comatose until few weeks  ago. From the delay in sending the budget to the National Assembly and when it was finally sent, it went missing; the padding and the rat stuff….

    Are we  really maturing or some people are deliberately playing on the intelligence of the masses?

    Things can no longer continue like this. The integrity for which the President is known must be demonstrated across every strata of government and the entire society. He must unite the country in respective of our religion,  tribe and political differences. Nigerians love for Buhari and the reason why he got the massive votes was basically centred on his ability to do the impossible by giving us the hope that the  previous leaders could not. Truth however is that things are not getting better; our daily bread is already slipping out of  our hands; tomato, Gari, beverages can’t be reached again. Instead of getting better, the president is saying Nigerians should  give him time and that he is feeling our pain.  We must enjoy what we have now and not in the grave.

     

    • Alifia Sunday,

    Ilorin, Kwara State.

  • Mr. President, very many Nigerians live in fear

    Dear President Buhari, in the light of the on-going Fulani herdsmen’s killings and destructions in many places in our country, many of us Nigerians are living in fear. In most of our rural countryside, our farmers and their families are afraid to do their accustomed work on the farms. Across our country, farms, the handwork and means of livelihood of our farmers and their families, are being destroyed by roving cattle. When farmers’ families go to sleep in the night these days, they are no longer sure whether their farms will be there in the morning, or whether the cattle herds would have wiped out everything during the night. They are no longer sure whether their villages will be allowed to sleep peacefully through the night, or whether the killer herdsmen will come in the dark, kill villagers, destroy and burn the houses, and rape the women and girls. Nobody is sure where and when the sudden attacks will come, or what the magnitude of the killings and devastations will be. State governments, local governments, and traditional rulers, all are unsure what to do to protect their people. One governor burst into tears when he saw the scene of rampage in a village in his state.

    The situation is desperate, Mr. President. As you very well know, we seriously need to improve agricultural productivity in this country. To that end, most authorities and leaders of our country have been trying to encourage our people to return to the land. Since you became president, you have repeatedly contributed your very influential voice to the call for agricultural growth. And you have made it a priority in your policies, plans and programmes. In many parts of our country, especially in most of our southern states, the return to farming is still very slow and very hesitant. But now, the Fulani herdsmen are scaring farmers away from the farms. A very major disaster is being enacted.

    In response to the disaster, a whirlwind of agitated comments and cries is sweeping through most of our country. To allow these fears and this whirlwind to continue is inimical to the well-being of this country. It could even wreck this country – and lead to its collapse. Mr. President, you must take steps without delay to bring this dangerous situation to a satisfactory end. We need to have a definitive and lasting solution. Merely ordering the Nigerian military and police to stop these herdsmen from attacking farmers and villagers, as you have done, is not enough. As long as these killer herdsmen remain, and as long as important questions about them remain unexplained, the wild and inflammatory speculations will continue to shake Nigeria.

    We Nigerians need, want, and demand, to have answers to many questions concerning this situation. Who really are these so-called Fulani herdsmen? From official and non-official sources, we are getting loads of information about their identity, about why they are behaving as they are now behaving, and about the sources of their strength.

    We are told that these people are ordinary nomadic cattle herdsmen. We are also told that the recent civil commotions in the Maghreb (especially in Libya) makes it easy to get sophisticated weapons in the Sahel parts of West Africa, as a result of which these herdsmen have been able to acquire even such highly sophisticated guns as AK47. But, how do ordinary nomadic herdsmen afford to buy expensive things like AK47 rifles? How are they able to train to use such sophisticated weapons?

    The suspicion is being voiced in the media that some rich and influential Nigerian citizens have been supplying the herdsmen with these weapons, and training the herdsmen to use them. If yes, who are these rich and influential Nigerian citizens? What are these rich and influential Nigerian citizens trying to achieve?

    You, Mr. President, were recently reported to have revealed in an interview with CNN in London that some of these herdsmen are really Libyan militiamen, trained under Ghadafi, well-armed and well-trained fighters who fled southwards to West Africa after the fall of Ghadafi. If so, how did these militiamen become cattle herdsmen in Nigeria? Who gave them thousands of cattle to herd?

    You said in the interview, Sir, that these militiamen have become an Africa-wide problem. Why has the government of Nigeria never informed Nigeria about this problem? What steps has the Nigerian government taken to prevent the problem from coming into Nigeria or to expel it from Nigeria? If no step, why?

    Why have some prominent Fulani leaders been representing these militiamen to us as merely Fulani herdsmen and claiming Nigerian citizens’ rights for them – even though they must know that they are, in fact, extremely dangerous Libyan killers? Why have some Fulani spokesmen been threatening that they would break up Nigeria if these Libyan militiamen are thrown out of Nigeria?

    Do we now have the president’s word that Nigeria is under invasion by Libyan militiamen? And, what does the Nigerian government intend to do about that?

    A highly placed citizen from the Middle Belt, Governor Balarabe Musa, warned in 2014 that a new insurgency was in the offing – a new insurgency different from Boko Haram, better organized, better armed and much more dangerous than Boko Haram, and planned by some highly influential Nigerians for the purpose of achieving some major political objective in Nigeria. Are we now seeing part of that insurgency?

    Some Arewa North citizens have threatened again and again in recent years that the North would go to war rather than accept certain kinds of change in Nigeria. And they have also repeatedly assured us that the North is more ready for war than the South. In the background of these threats, there have been repeated reports in the media since 2012 that large quantities of arms are being illegally imported into Nigeria.

    Are today’s depredations by the Fulani herdsmen part of what these various members of the Northern elite have been threatening? Are the Libyan militiamen part of a mercenary army that some influential Nigerians have hired to wage war against some parts and peoples of Nigeria?

    Some Northerners are frenetically demanding “grazing reserves” for the herdsmen. Some are threatening that we Southerners will find ourselves in greater danger if we refuse to grant land for such grazing reserves. Some say that they will break up Nigeria if the herdsmen are refused entry into Southern Nigeria. We Southerners suspect a hidden agenda for these grazing reserves. What are the true purposes of the grazing reserves?  Are they designed by some people to house illegal armies of occupation in the states of the Middle Belt and the South, for the purpose of intimidating the peoples of those places? Are they meant to be jihadist instruments for forcible Islamization? Are they designed as weapons of one ethnic group’s conquest of Nigeria?

    Mr. President, you owe Nigeria clear, truthful, and statesmanlike answers and explanations on this situation. More importantly, you owe Nigeria policies and actions that will remove this horrible threat from our country – in the interest of the peace and existence of our country. We Nigerians pledge our strongest support to such policies and actions when you design and implement them. But delay is dangerous.

  • Protecting Nigerians from illegal bio-tech products

    In 2001, the federal government, under the auspices of the Ministry of Science and Technology,  developed a National Biotechnology Policy to promote biotechnology. The signing into law of the National Biosafety Agency Bill in April 2015 by former President Goodluck Jonathan enlisted Nigeria among the league of nations that legally practice modern agricultural biotechnology.

    The National Biosafety Act is crucial in the management of modern biotechnology in the country, and signing the bill into law allows the domestication of the technology in Nigeria and enables the nation to utilise this cutting edge technology to create employment, boost food production, eliminate hunger and ultimately enhance economic development.

    Biosafety means ensuring safety in the applications of modern biotechnology and use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). The signing of the biosafety bill into law provides the legal framework to check the activities of this technology locally as well as imported Genetically Modified crops into the country. It also provides an avenue to engage Nigerian scientists/experts from different fields to identify and pursue solutions to our local challenges.

    However, this development was received with mixed feelings as some Nigerians feel the nation is not yet ripe for the domestication of this technology, citing health and environmental concerns as their reason.

    Though no adverse effect has been recorded via the application of modern biotechnology in other advanced countries that are already utilising it, the federal government in its wisdom established a biosafety regulatory agency, the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), to ensure safe application of this new technology.

    The Act established the NBMA charged with the responsibility of providing regulatory framework, institutional and administrative mechanism for safety measures in the application of modern bio-technology in Nigeria to prevent any adverse effect on human health, animals, plants and environment.

    The coming in of the NBMA strengthens government’s position under a legal framework to achieve the important goal of using this technology as a tool. So, in actual sense the NBMA is the safety valve that the federal government has adopted to ensure that the practice of modern biotechnology in Nigeria is safe.

    The process of the development of the Biosafety Act followed a systematic public involvement from 2002 to 2015, and the National Biosafety Management Act 2015 prescribes procedures for the application of modern technology, risk assessment before the adoption and use of any genetically modified organisms, and penalties for contravening the Biosafety Act.

    Since its establishment in 2015, the NBMA takes its role as the biotechnology regulatory body very seriously and has already developed various regulatory instruments as well as laying down framework to ensure safe application of the technology in Nigeria.

    The agency’s activities include surveying, tracking and profiling of GMO’s in Nigeria; enlightenment of the public on biosafety matters; consultation with sister regulatory agencies for partnership; development and reviewing of national biosafety regulations and guidelines and capacity building and training of staff of the agency.

    Prior to the National Biosafety Law in Nigeria, there were GMO suspects which made their way into the Nigerian market through the nation’s porous borders from countries like America and Brazil, who are already consuming GMO products. But with the advent of the regulatory body, one of its first assignments was to issue a moratorium to such companies, individuals or institutions dealing in unapproved modern biotechnology activities in the country to formalise their dealings with it to ensure that they’re suitable for our environment and health system.

    To make sure this assignment is carried out effectively, the agency established a national biosafety lab for GM detection and analysis to ensure that all GMOs are properly analysed to prevent any adverse effect on environment and human health.

    Apart from registering GMO products in the country, the agency has also gone ahead to accredit qualified institutes to carry out modern biotechnology activities in the country.

    Five institutes have already gotten approval from the agency to engage in biotechnology activities; they include the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike; Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Zaria; Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA); National Cereals Research Institute Badeggi and the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Abuja.

    The agency has also shown its determination to ensure that Nigeria fully adheres to the tenets of the biosafety law which recognizes the complex issues to be addressed by central authorities in the judicious application of modern biotechnology.

    Biosafety Law defines offences and penalty for violation of the act; contains powers to authorize release of GMOs and practice of modern biotechnology activities and confers the power to carry out risk assessment/management before the release, handling and use of GMOs.

    It also covers all genetically modified organisms/Living Modified Organisms (LMOs) and products thereof including food/feed and processing, and socio-economic consideration in risk assessment.

    The agency has at various fora’s assured Nigerians that the law will also promote active commercialization of the research and development projects in our various universities and research institutes hence improving our economy as well as support the country to become one of the leaders in biotechnology, particularly in Africa.

    The NBMA has proven that it has the capacity to give Nigeria the desired holistic biosafety in a transparent manner, so that the nation can benefit from modern biotechnology maximally without compromising safety to the environment and human health.

     

    • Usman, a public affairs analyst, is based in Makurdi, Benue State.
  • ‘Nigerians spend N25b daily on food import’

    ‘Nigerians spend N25b daily on food import’

    Nigerians spend about N25 billion daily on foods import, the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has said

    NIRSAL  a subsidiary of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said about $623 million is equally spent yearly on catfish, most of which is smuggled, adding that the country has about 71.2 million cultivable hectares of land, with only about 34.2 million hectares currently under cultivation.

    NIRSAL said with this, it means the agriculture sector of the economy can employ 65 per cent of the population if government decides to go into full-scale agriculture.

    Speaking at the Three-Day Agricultural Value Chain Financing (AgVCF) training Workshop organised for bankers in Kaduna, its Executive Director, Arowosafe Jide, said the training became imperative due to distrust between the farmers and lending banks to finance agric projects.

    He said this was part of the reasons for over dependence on importation of what the country could actually produce if all professionals in the agric value chain can be sensitised and made to play their expected roles, especially now that government is shifting it’s attention from oil and gas to agriculture.

    Jide said, NIRSAL is building the capacity of bankers with a view to keying into the agricultural agenda of the President Mohammadu Bulgari’s administration.

    The report by NIRSAL showed that Nigeria loses about $623 million to dairy importation, $500 million on sugar importation, $4 billion on wheat importation, $2.2billion on cotton importation and $2 billion on rice smuggling annually.

    A participant and Regional Director with United Bank for Africa, Mr Danjuma Salihu, said the bank has been agric-friendly, adding that the lender is aware of the risk inherent in agric lending and how to mitigate them, adding that the training has further boosted the knowledge on loan disbursement to farmers within the  farming calendar.

    A credit analyst with Heritage Bank, Mr. Olukayode Oyebamgbose, said because of the change in government’s direction, many will be going into agric businesses.

    “They make us understand that they have been able to train 40, 000 local farmers, both retail and commercial. As bankers, they brought us here to strengthen our relationship with farmers on Financing Agricultural Value Chain,” he said.

    The participants said now that the government is serious with diversification of the economy, the CBN must ensure that it monitors all the people that eventually got the money to ensure that the money is not diverted to other uses because of the risk involved.

  • Pray for Nigeria, Monarch urges

    Nigerians have been urged to always pray and fast for survival of the country and its leaders, especially in this trying period of economic downturn so that through it all, we will come out a stronger and better nation.

    Gombe monarch, Abdu Buba Maisheru II, Mai Tangle spoke at his Palace in Billiri at the instance of his 15th year on the throne and Nigeria’s Democracy Day celebration.

    “As Nigerians, we should be praying for the leaders of this country, the chairmen, governors and the President; we should pity the President and pray for him more because he carries bulk of the load of this country.

    “That Nigeria will be peaceful depend on all of us. So we should be praying for God to help Nigeria; this is a season of prayer and fasting for peace, peace of mind, leaders, increase, good advises and God’s intervention wherever and whenever we see or feel the need for it, instead of running-down leadership.

    “Nigeria is a good country. Whoever says it is not does not know what he is saying,” said the traditional ruler

    He nevertheless called on government to have pity on the Northeast sub-region, particularly the victims of insurgency and help them rebuild the destroyed places as well help them stand on their feet.

    The royal father said it had been for him a successful fifteen years of peace, as well as total cooperation and support from the Tangale Chiefdom and called on the people to continue in that light.

    He told to them to continually strive towards enhancing their harmonious attitude and to always remember and consider home a safe haven for investment whenever God blessed them.

    On the incessant communal clash over farmlands between the Billiri and its neighbour, Mai Tangle absolved himself and his counterpart in the neighbouring chiefdom of blames, saying the lasting solution to the matter rested with the state government and the presidency.

  • Nigerians in Diaspora lauds Buhari, Kachikwu on Petrol Pricing

    The Nigerians in Diaspora Monitoring Group, has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari, for liberalizing petrol sales.The group described the action as the beginning of economic rebirth for
    the country. The group also said President Buhari and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, have carved niches for themselves in Nigeria’s history and deserving laurels for daring to do the right
    thing.

    A statement by the United Kingdom Coordinator of the group in Abuja, Adeka Onyilo, said: “The inherited rot that left Nigerians suffering on fuel queues was becoming an international embarrassment until President Buhari took the bull by the horn. “The cartel that acquire FOREX from government under the guise of importing petrol only embark on round tripping has been severed from the supply chain and should leave the government with some money to invest in other sectors that will touch the lives of citizens across board.

    “We however urged that the judicious and prudent management of the resources of Nigeria vested in the custody of the present government because this is important to the nation’s prosperity.” It further urged President Buhari and Kachikwu, to ensure that Nigerians who now have to pay realistic prices for petrol are not short-changed by fraudulent marketer who tamper with their meter to under dispense the
    product.

    “We further urge the Minister to enforce the price cap as reports indicate that some outlets still sell above the computed N145 per litre. Such development can only create the cover for those opposed to change to creep on the government and populace with another price hike or petrol scarcity citing the willingness of the people to pay more as excuse,” the group said in the statement.

  • ‘Fuel subsidy removal good for Nigerians’

    ‘Fuel subsidy removal good for Nigerians’

    Nigerians are coming to terms with the realities of the times. For the first time, fuel subsidy removal and the attendant price increase got widespread backing from all stakeholders, including labour and civil society groups. Aside a little resistance from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the support could have been total. This is a step in the right direction,if the nation is to attain its aspiration of becoming an industrial giant and member of the league of developed nations. EMEKA UGWUANYI reports.

    After over a decade of advocacy for the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, and removal of all forms of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government, Nigerians at last have accepted that the continued support of fuel subsidy is a mere postponement of the evil day.

    This understanding made last week’s subsidy removal seamless, even in the face of the anticipated consequences and hardship the citizenry knew they would go through in the short-term. But because the fact speaks for itself, the factors adduced by the government for removing the subsidy were faultless. The real sector operators, and their counterparts in the oil and gas industry, including the labour groups – Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) – as well as the majority of the public, gave their unreserved support to the decision.

    Subsidy over the years had encouraged corruption in the downstream operation and some unscrupulous marketers took undue advantage of the gaps in the subsidy programme to immensely rip-off the government and nation. There were all manners of sharp practices – diversion of subsidised imported fuel to neighbouring countries where pump prices are higher, and round-tripping of cargoes, which made government pay double shipments.

    When the pump price of petrol was N86.50 per litre, Nigeria’s fuel was the fourth cheapest in the world after Saudi Arabia ($0.23) per litre, Algeria ($0.30), and Malaysia ($0.44). Even at N145 per litre, which is ($0.73), Nigeria’s fuel is still cheaper than those of its neighbours. For instance, Ghana sells $0.92 per litre, Cameroon ($1.11), Chad ($0.79), Togo ($0.83) and Niger ($0.93), which made diversion a booming and lucrative business. Although Nigeria’s fuel is still cheaper compared to its neighbours, the disparity has been bridged considerably.

    It is also for this reason that some analysts urge the government to remove all forms of bridging provision for fuel to any part of the country to discourage diversion. According to them, as long as any form of subsidy exists, Nigeria will continue to subsidise neighbouring countries whose pump prices are higher because marketers will continue to divert products. They noted that in the United States, gasoline (petrol) is cheapest in Texas because it produces and refines oil. Similarly, products will be cheaper in oil producing and refining states of Nigeria, and in case of importation, fuel will be cheaper at areas closest to the ports.

    They noted that if a marketer takes a truck from Lagos to Jigawa, Maiduguri or Enugu State, after factoring in the cost of bridging, it would make no sense to divert it, but with the current bridging cost of about N18 per litre, diversion will still be lucrative.

     Why government stopped subsidy

    According to data from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and its arms, despite the huge imports, which cost the country N16.4billion monthly, petrol prices remained high as marketers disregarded compliance with the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) ceiling price of N86.50k per litre. The document said pricing trend in the past one year demonstrates that citizens in areas other than Lagos and Abuja have consistently paid 20-50 per cent more for fuel purchased at the pumps, adding that survey by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicates that apart from the Federal capital and Lagos, citizens continue to pay for fuel at an average price of N150 per litre.

    The survey established that subsidy benefits only a few urban- metropolitan and few higher income groups, as opposed to the larger citizenry. Expectedly, market trend indicates that the pump price of N86.50 per litre for petrol does not assure marketers of over-recovery if crude oil price continues to trade above $40 per barrel, which makes the price template unrealistic in view of market realities.

    It said: “Currently, 80 per cent of the downstream operators are still unable to carry out their business due to unavailability of foreign exchange (forex) at the prescribed Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) rate. PPPRA’s pricing template, as approved, only recognises prevailing CBN interbank rate which averages N197 to a dollar in this year’s first and second quarter import allocations.  Investigations revealed that the alternative source of forex available to marketers is the autonomous market rate, which averages N285 to a dollar in 2016.

    “Therefore, to explain the prevailing high prices in certain states, marketers who source forex independently of CBN in order to carry on participation in premium motor spirit (PMS) supply will continue to sell at prices that enable them achieve full cost recovery. As such, the false assumption that the current ceiling price adequately covers cost needs to be addressed by providing marketers, an alternative to the primary forex market (CBN). The consequence of disregarding this solution will lead to the unsustainable development of NNPC maintaining the role of sole supplier to the detriment of federation revenues.

    “For a Corporation known to be inefficient and unprofitable, NNPC maintains 100 per cent responsibility for fuel importation at subsidised pricing using crude oil as a means of exchange. Estimated loss to NNPC is approximately N12.5billion per month. To sustain supply, NNPC extended its crude source for products importation from outside the traditional refinery requirement of 445 barrels per day for petroleum products imports, to the use of federation cargoes further reducing the ability of the government to earn forex,” petroleum ministry sources said.

    Besides, at an import bill of $600million per month for PMS, CBN’s liquidity to support the importation of PMS is challenged in the face of dwindling crude oil for exports. The limited crude oil output caused by renewed vandalism and sabotage of oil infrastructure in the Niger Delta leading to loss of 420,000 barrels per day, and increased participation of NNPC in products supply continue to imply limited ability to earn forex for the federation and potential crippling of the economy. The solution is immediate reduction of this crude to products control by NNPC in order to free up crude for federation revenue. Also the movement of marketers to the autonomous forex market will make available approximately $600 million of forex via CBN to be used in other sectors of the economy.

    At the last count, the government was subsidising a litre of petrol with N13.79, partly why some states fail in their fiscal responsibilities. Besides the fact that subsidy was growing as crude price goes up and there was no provision for subsidy payment in the 2016 budget, the only way out is to end subsidy.

    The sourcing of forex from the primary market (CBN) was responsible for the unavailability of forex marketers and their inability to open letter of credit, a situation that compelled them to stop product importation, thereby imposing over 90 per cent supply on NNPC since October 2015 as against the past where NNPC supplied 48 per cent of the national requirement. But with the dwindling revenues for the government on account of low oil price, NNPC does not have the resources for and is not designed to meet this increase in supply, the situation resulted in the over 60 days fuel scarcity witnessed before subsidy removal.

    Renewed insurgency and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta didn’t help matters as it drastically reduced national crude oil production to 1.65 million barrels per day from 2.2 million barrels per day planned in the 2016 budget, further reducing income to the Federation Account. “In the absence of available forex lines or crude volumes to continue massive importation of PMS, it is clear that unless immediate action is taken to liberalise the petroleum supply and distribution, the queues will persist, diversion will worsen and the current prices will spiral out of control.

    “Subsidy removal will free out private marketers and any Nigerian entity willing to supply PMS to source for their Forex exchange and import PMS to ensure availability of products in all locations of the country.  All products will be sold within the recommended PPPRA price band to be reviewed periodically and PPPRA and DPR will be further empowered to ensure level playing ground, strict compliance with market rules by all stakeholders and consumers,” the document said.

    Last year, N1 trillion was spent on subsidy and between April and last week when government announced the removal, N16.5billion has been spent. With the removal of subsidy, these funds will be directed to other sectors, and proceeds from the 445,000bpd will be judiciously used.

    There will also be adequate availability of fuel across the country as hoarding, smuggling and diversion  will  be drastically reduced or eliminated. Investors will be encouraged to come and invest in building of refineries and retail outlets. Estimated $2 to $3 billion investments are expected in the refineries and retails this year with the removal of subsidy.The exercise will create about  200,000 new jobs and prevent potential loss of about 400,000 jobs in existing investments.

    It will enable government to provide funds for the construction of social and infrastructural facilities such as power generation, security, education, and healthcare, among others needed in the country.

    Organised private sector’s position

    The Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr. Muda Yusuf, said government’s decision to liberalise the petroleum downstream sector was inevitable given the acute resource constraint that the country is currently facing. “The overregulation of the sector and the subsidy regime had put enormous pressure on government finances and on our foreign reserves. It was evident that the policy choice was not sustainable. The review is in the long term interest of the economy and the people.”

    Yusuf said petroleum subsidy management has been characterised by serious transparency issues for several decades. According to him, there are two components of the subsidy phenomenon. The first is the actual subsidy, which is the differential between the pump price and the landing and other costs of fuel. The second, which is  more disturbing, is the blatant corruption inherent in the fuel subsidy regime.

    “For several years, the Nigerian economy suffered severe bleeding from this phenomenon; with subsidy payments in the one trillion naira threshold, and even more. In an economy with huge deficit in economic and social infrastructure, it was simply scandalous. It is in the overall interest of the economy and citizens for it to be discontinued.

    “One of the positive spin-offs, will be the free up of resources for investment in critical infrastructure such as power, roads, the rail systems, health sector, education sector, among others,” he added.

    The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) said it was pertinent to note that deregulation with the influence of government in pricing is not good for the economy. NACCIMA in a statement signed by its National President, Chief Bassey Edem, said: “We therefore, counsel that government should allow market forces to determine price instead of fixing a ceiling of N145 per litre. Accordingly, we counsel that the DPR and PPPRA be restructured and merged into one regulatory body for better monitoring and efficient service provision.”

  • Nigerians don’t present malaria cases on time

    Nigerians don’t present malaria cases on time

    Dr. Festus Uriri, a medical doctor at the Military Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, speaks on the persistently high rate of malaria infection and death, the apathetic attitude of Nigerians towards the disease and the need to take it more seriously.

    Why is malaria suddenly resistant to drugs?

    When you talk of an organism being resistant to a particular drug, number one, it has to be due with abuse of that drug; I mean people using it too regularly without recourse to doctor’s prescription. If you’ll recall, in those days, we used chloroquine and it was very effective in treating malaria. But when it was becoming less effective, we introduced quinine for resistant malaria. With the advent of modern medicine, we came into the age of ACT, Atemisinin Combination Therapy. It’s actually a combination therapy. This combination has to do with artemether and Lumefantrine in different proportions. In some, we have them in single dose while in some; we have them in double dose. Another reason for the parasite resisting the drugs is the use of substandard anti-malarial medications. Some dealers will just go out to countries where they manufacture these drugs and deliberately instruct them to lower the standard. If for instance Atemisinin, Lumefantrine combination is supposed to be 40, 80; they will tell them to make it 20, 40; but they will write 40, 80 on the drug to deceive people. This is cheaper on purchase and naturally earns them more profit in terms of monetary returns, but it gave malaria an edge. If you want to talk of malaria medication that you will guaranty you result, they’re actually expensive. Take for instance, paluta. The original paluta originally was about twelve thousand naira and above. But now you can get paluta of three thousand five hundred dollars. So it depends on where these drugs are being produced and where they’re coming from. There are some that cannot enter some developed countries but which you’ll find everywhere here. And this is causing a lot of resistance from the organisms. The scenario is the same with antibiotics.

    These days, malaria seems to come with symptoms entirely different from what we used to know. Can you shed some light on this?

    The commonest symptoms for malaria are headache, bitter taste in the mouth, lack of appetite, generalised body weakness. Generalised body weakness can come in the form of sharp headache in the morning that will just come and go, and which may eventually become constant. It can also come in the form of muscle pain or what we call myalgia. And when you don’t receive treatment in time, the patient can start vomiting; he can start having abdominal cramps, abdominal discomfort, increased temperature. Now one of the major problems with malaria infection is that when the temperature rises to 39 to 40 degree centigrade especially in children, they can start having convulsion. And that is why we ask mothers to use water to sponge the children to lower their temperature.

    Statistics show that death rates from malaria, especially in the sub-Saharan Africa has persistently being on the high side, why is this so?

    First of all, people don’t present at the hospitals in time. This could be due to the economic situation in the country. A lot of people don’t even have money to eat; so when they’re sick, they go to the chemist on their street, who just mixes some drugs for them to take. By the time you see them in the hospital, the thing has got to a stage in which you really need to do a lot to get them back on track.

    According to the World Health Organisation, over 438,000 died from malaria infection globally last year, but Nigerians still largely regard it as a trivial disease. Why is this so?

    That is because malaria has lived with us for so long that it does not sound threatening to us anymore. If you mention something like HIV, you will see how people will cringe.

    A corollary to this attitude is the fact that people have adopted the habit of just going over to a chemist or pharmacist and purchasing an anti-malaria drug over the counter to swallow. What is your message for people in this category?

    We need to do a lot of public enlightenment on the danger of this habit and discourage it. We need to put jingles on TV and radio. The various local governments should organise their health workers to reach out to their neighbourhood and tell them about the devastating effects of malaria. All hands must be on deck if we really want to conquer malaria. The truth is that malaria is being taken for granted. People only decide to take malaria seriously when it has gotten to a particular level, which is very wrong.

    What steps would you recommend for someone who as much as suspects that he or she has malaria?

    See the doctor and do some investigations. The ideal thing is to carry out some investigations before beginning treatment, so that you can know the level of parasitimia in the blood.

    Recently, a young man died in a neighbourhood in Ikotun, and his neighbours were disappointed because according to them, they still saw him hale and hearty the day before. Does malaria kill so fast and suddenly?

    A lot of Nigerians have other health conditions that they may not want to mention. For instance a patient may come to the doctor in the consulting room and when you see the vital signs and tell him “Ah Oga, your BP is high o, you’re getting hypertensive,” the next thing you get is “I reject it in Jesus name.” Once you bring down the blood pressure and he gets out of that problem for which he came for consultation, such a person will never take his drugs again. And that’s why people in this part of the world die prematurely. In developed countries, the patient would rather ask, “What do I do?” So in the case of the man in question, I really don’t think it was malaria, although I don’t have the facts. He probably had some other ailment that he didn’t disclose or pay enough attention to. But be that as it may, malaria remains as lethal as ever.

    How deadly really is malaria? The fatality figures from WHO and even the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, NIMR is scary.

    If you ask me, that figure is even an underestimation, because it does not capture those people who die of malaria in the remote African villages. So people should take it seriously. And that’s why in the treatment of malaria, you have the profelaxis and the therapeautic. Profelaxis is prevention, and we apply this to the sickle cell disease patients more, because malaria is one of the commonest things that can precipitate crisis for them. For the average individuals, you can just decide that you want to be taking anti-malaria drugs every month or every two months, depending on how often you come up with malaria. The therapeautic is when the patient actually came down with malaria and you have to treat. People often wonder how come doctors hardly fall sick, but that’s because we adopt the prophylaxis method once we see the signs.

    The theme for this year’s World Malaria Day is “Ending malaria for good,” how realistic is this for Nigeria, say in the next ten years?

    If our government is committed, it is achievable in ten years. All they need do is work towards vaccination. There are vaccines for malaria, which have not been released probably due to the selfish reasons of the powers that be. You know most of the pharmaceautical companies are surviving on malaria drugs, so by the time they release the vaccines to the public, some of these companies would shut down.  So there is some kind of international conspiracy. In those days, we had problems with cholera, yellow fever, polio, even tetanus, but when the vaccines became available, the rate of infection lowered tremendously.

  • Fidelity Bank MD urges Nigerians to save

    Fidelity Bank MD urges Nigerians to save

    The new Acting Managing Director/CEO of Fidelity Bank Plc, Alhaji Mohammed Lawal Balarabe, has called on bank customers and Nigerians in general, to always save for the rainy day.

    Speaking at the sixth and last draw for the Fidelity Bank Save-4-Shelter promo draw  in Lagos, the bank chief said savings is the hallmark on which great economies are built and urged customers to embrace the culture.

    The bank chief, who phoned and congratulated the star prize winner, Ibedu Clara Ego, who won a duplex in Lekki, Lagos, under the Save-4-Shelter promo, said the redemption of the prize shows that the lender keeps its promises.

    “The Save-4-Shelter promo was conducted with high level of integrity. As a bank, we always keep our word; our promos always focus on things that add value to the lives of people and the society,” Balarabe said. He disclosed that the lender will soon unveil another new promo that would equally benefit its customers and create wealth for beneficiaries.

    Other winners during the draw were Enoche Christopher who won N2 million; Isaac Oladele, N1 million; Obiorah Godwin, N500,000; Grace Ejeh, N500,000; Ibrahim Aisha, N500,000. There were others that won consolation prizes.

    Also, the bank’s Executive Director, Shared Services, Mrs. Chijioke Ugochuwku said that what the financial institution is doing is to continue to encourage savings culture and appreciate customers that have been loyal  to the bank.

    According to her, ‘’It is our duty to make sure that people continue to save, even as we continue to perform our financial intermediation role.’’

    The draws were conducted with representatives of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC), and Consumer Protection Council (CPC).

    Deputy Director of the CPC, Joshua Nggada, lauded the bank for conducting the promo and the draws, with integrity and transparency. “The feelings and expressions from the winners showed the level of excitement and happiness the prizes brought to their lives and businesses. We want the bank to continue to uplift its customers,” he said.

  • Why are Nigerians paying for wasted energy?

    SIR: Globally, about 1.2billion people lack access to electricity according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Nigeria has a share of about 8% yet waste more than 40% of generated electricity. The energy deficit in Nigeria is glaring, so much so that it has stifled ALL meaningful economic development. Still, most businesses spent scarce resources paying for wasted energy. How can our products and services ever compete globally with such waste? Many businesses have indulged into sharp practices and cutting corners just to survive the harsh economic reality.

    While countries around the world have been investing in ways to boost energy efficiency, we keep deceiving ourselves in Nigeria believing that Renewable Energy Technology (RET) is now cheap with “this” ideology of very long-term benefit that is not bankable. The potentials of energy efficiency investment has been neglected so much in Nigeria because business owners and managers do not yet understand its value – how it can significantly improve profit margin and risk management through the bottom line. These potentials are ripe to be harvested because of our history of cheap energy and the legacy of stock of inefficient industrial equipments. Energy prices are now adjusting to international level because Nigeria can no longer afford to maintain costly energy subsidy, leaving companies exposed to significant energy price fluctuations.

    Everyone is seeking for ways to cut down their energy cost and or generate from a cheap source. Ironically, renewables does the opposite; even when the right policies are in place such as the Renewable Energy Feed-in-Tariff (RE-FiT), RETs still lead to an increase in the general price of electricity. The excitements of RETs are often short-lived in Nigeria at the consideration of cost. Have one ever wondered why most sellers and even promoters of RETs are still stuck with the conventional system? We must begin to tell ourselves the truth about sustainable energy development.

    Energy efficiency holds the greatest potential toward the reduction of Green House Gases (GHG) in Nigeria as compared with renewables. Nigeria has to get this priority right not just because of GHGs but for the interest of our overall sustainability in energy development.

    If the Nigerian government is so passionate about RETs, Small Hydro Systems (SHS) is a good place to start. SHS has lower investment risk, resources are locally available, technology can easily be localized and local jobs are created. Realistically, the government and by extension the International Finance Institutions (IFIs) must focus on innovative framework and Financial Instrument (FIs) that can create the enabling environment to scale up the adoption of Energy Efficiency (EE) and RETs . Such Instruments must be able to mobilize the greatest amount of private financing for the least amount of public funds thereby achieving maximum leverage. Every instrument must be designed to overcome specific technological barrier or risk. Without neglect to other forms of FIs, a well structured Partial Risk Guarantee (PRG) has proven to be very effective for some RETs in many low income countries with similar characteristics as Nigeria.

    Moving forward, priority has to be given to the recovery of financial resources lost through wasted use of energy in Nigeria. Energy Efficiency is the invisible power house for sustainable energy development, working behind the scenes to improve our energy security, lower our energy bills and move us closer to reaching our climate goal. Nigeria must focus on the elimination of energy waste through an aggressive energy efficiency programmes that will include demand-side-management strategies. This will not only improve supply but will also improve our grid stability and reliability which are the basis for the integration of RETs.

     

    • Chima Muoneke

    chima@schimaticblueenergy.com