The Nation Newspaper

Tag: policy

  • Don seeks research-based transport policy

    Provost of the Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM), Ikeja, Prof Babatunde Solagberu, has urged the government to conduct thorough research into the various aspects of the society before formulating policies.

    He said this while delivering the university’s 53rd inaugural lecture on Ojo campus. It had as theme: ‘Of broken bones and broken dreams; a bone carpenter to the rescue.’

    Solagberu said his research linked major causes of road transport injuries (RTI) to human factors, followed by vehicular factors, with the least being environmental factors.

    He said: “Human beings are the largest contributors to the problems.

    “We did a research published in the Pan-African Medical Journal. Eighty five per cent of the problems are caused by humans. We are the ones who won’t follow speed limit, will drink and drive, drive against traffic, work ourselves as if we were machine and be tired; then become sleepy and still be driving, instead of us to park and rest.”

    Solagberu, an orthopedic surgeon, downplayed seat belt policies, noting that other factors were more prominent in causing RTIs.

    “For vehicles, the two most common causes of RTI are burst tires and brake failure; and for environment, the two most common are pot holes on the road and broken obstacles. Now, where is seat belt in all of these? Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying seat belt is not important. But if you have 1,000 problems, you ought to have the most important and that is what I mean. Our road safety people should formulate their policies to follow good research,” he said.

    He called for more funding from government and the society for the medical institutions to maximise their potential.

    “It is not only government. There is a role for everyone to play. We can have non-governmental organisations; but the responsibility is more on government, because government is organised,” Solagberu added.

    He continued: “Funding is an issue. Lagos State government is doing a lot but it is still not enough. There are policies that can be made, collaborations between the ministries of health and transport, among others. The institutions that also produce the expert, 99.9 per cent of their funding is coming from government. That is a lot. I feel if a lot more funding is devoted into the system, more can be achieved.

    “We see about 1,200 patients in our surgical emergency room at LASUCOM. Thirty per cent of them are sent back because the spaces are full. So, we need to expand facilities. Research also needs to be funded. Most of what we have been doing, a lot of them are from our own pockets. But it is not only government, we too should organise ourselves.

    “There should be the Trauma Society of Nigeria that should have everybody interested in contributing to the development of the society involved, not only health experts. That way, we would have a lot of things to help reduce injuries because it is about promoting safety. What we are doing now is like mopping the floor of a leaking roof. We should do a lot more and move out to prevent the injuries.”

  • Farmers seek policy tightening to tackle inflation, others

    Federation of Agricultural Commodity Associations (FACAN) President, Dr. Victor Iyama, has called for a comprehensive policy package that will help the exchange rate stabilise, foreign reserves replenished, and inflation reduced.

    In an interview, he noted that there was need for the government to improve the effectiveness of the macroeconomic stabilisation package to enable Nigerians have confidence in economic management.

    According to him, restoring macroeconomic stability is the immediate priority, but addressing causes of high inflation requires greater efforts on structural reforms.

    He added that agriculture can play a key role in the economic growth.

    For this to help, he said the sector needs restructuring to develop a more vibrant and diversified rural economy with sustainable agricultural growth, high value creation, food safety according to international standard, higher competitiveness and farmer income, and technology-intensive agriculture.

    According to him, there is need to  expand agricultural production by  improving seeds, building irrigation works, more efficient markets, and mechanisation and roads.

    He underlined the importance of investment in rural infrastructure, to increase agricultural productivity, rural development and growth, adding that these would help the government drive the sector’s growth.

    He explained that feeding the nation’s growing population requires targeted investments to unleash the productive potential of the agriculture, provide incomes and food.

  • MAN praises new CBN policy

    MAN praises new CBN policy

    Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) President, Dr. Franks Udemba Jacobs has praised the new Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy on “Foreign Exchange Sales to End Users”, which authorises dealers to dedicate at least 60 per cent of their foreign exchange purchases  to manufacturers, saying it will afford his colleagues the opportunity to determine the exchange rate of the naira to arrest its drift.

    He spoke to The Nation in his office in Ikeja while reviewing the state of the economy and the adverse effect of some policies on the real sector.

    He regretted that the policy reduced the contributions of the manufacturing sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

    On how the continuous slide of the naira could be arrested, he said manufacturers could stem the tide. He promised to advise his colleagues not to bid too high for dollars as the new policy has given them a strategic role to determine the value of the naira if managed properly.

    He said MAN has a duty to do this because if the fall of the naira was not arrested, importers of machinery and raw materials would be forced to close shop.

    While praising the new policy, Udemba said this was the first time the government was responding to the challenges of the sector, stressing that this was the only way comatose industries could be revived.

    Questioning the impropriety of the exclusion of 41 items from forex market, which he claimed harmed  the sector, he said it has destabilised the real sector and caused the folding of over 56 firms.

    The MAN boss said essential raw materials, which were not available locally, be removed from the list, noting that some products listed as finished products by CBN were actually raw materials for some firms.

    He made a case for the 96 finished products, which he claimed, indigeneous manufacturers  can produce to be included in the list of items not valid for forex to protect the local businesses and retain employment.

    Udemba asked that manufacturers with confirmed letters of Credit issued before the release of the circular on July 25, last year be given priority in forex allocation at the confirmed rate.

    MAN is canvassing the need for  the government to conclude the review of the Export Expansion Grant (EPG) to enable exporters of manufactured products to earn foreign exchange that will mitigate forex scarcity.

  • Govt urged to review import policy

    The Federal Government has been urged to review its import and economic policies.

    The call was made yesterday in Lagos by the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN).

    The scored the economic policy of the Federal Government low.

    Its President General Comrade Tony Nted Emmanuel said it was wrong for the government to ban importation of wheat, vehicle spare parts, and industrial machineries without considering availability and affordability.

    He said about 3000 of its members have been laid-off by shipping companies, terminal operators and logistic firms.

    He also claimed that the policy has sent 20 shipping companies out of the country as a result of dwindled balance sheet.

    He said: “As an import-dependent country, Nigeria cannot suddenly ban the importation of principal goods being generally consumed in the country.

    “A situation in which the importation of rice which has become our staple food is banned without ensuring local production is dangerous and does not serve the nation’s interest.”

    As a remedy, the union however demanded for a review of the ban. It specifically appealed to the Federal Government to reverse the ban on items such as wheat, vehicle spare parts, and industrial machineries.

    “Failure to do this will encourage smuggling, diversion of ships to neighbouring countries, idle ports, retrenchment of workers, unemployment and general loss of revenue to government,” he said.

  • Agric policy journal launched in Abuja

    An agricultural policy research journal has been launched in Abuja. It was launched by Agricultural Policy Research Network (APRNet), with support from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

    The launch of Nigerian Agricultural Policy Research Journal (NAPReJ) coincided with this year’s APRNet National Stakeholder’s Forum with the theme: “Making Agricultural Research Work for End Users.”

    The forum brought together members of the agricultural research community.

    APRNet President Dr. Anthony Onoja said: “There could be no better time to do this than now when the Federal Government is shifting emphasis to growing an agrarian-led economy to diversify the economy and shift it from heavy dependence on crude oil.”

    Onoja also noted that although there were national mechanisms and frameworks for linking agricultural research and various end users, research communication and user uptake of research was short of its potential. He highlighted the need for a reassessment of the current system to “identify missing elements and gap-filling interventions” that would ensure that agricultural research make more impact on decision-making process and enterprises.

    This year’s APRNet Forum Chairman, Prof. Yusuf Abubakar, and the Executive Secretary of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), pointed out that in Nigeria, the government and donor partners featured as the most dominant players and end users of agricultural research.

  • Ogbeh’s ‘low energy’ agric policy

    For want of a kinder description, one has elected to find solace in Trump-speak here. Of course we all know Donald Trump don’t we? The brash, swashbuckling presidential candidate of the Republican Party, his reputation and the sheer prospect that he might just end up in the White House continues to confound the world.

    But because even the devil has his day, let us borrow something from Trump to illustrate our point today. In the early days of his party’s primary election campaign, Trump had literally ‘slayed’ one of the prospective candidates, Jeb Bush, damaging his campaign mortally.

    He of the Bush dynasty that had produced two American presidents already, Trump had described Jeb as “a ‘low energy’ candidate who does not have the will to win the presidency.” Poor Jeb, a much younger man, lived under the rubbles of that verbal shelling until it became futile for him to continue in the race.

    Now, for want of a more polite description, one would take some liberty here to describe Agriculture Minister Audu Ogbeh’s recently released Agriculture Promotion Policy (2016 – 2020) as a ‘low energy’ document. The strategy document is nearly at variance with the realities of today.

    Though Chief Audu Ogbeh, a renowned farmer heads the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), the job of producing this document was obviously farmed out to consultants who simply made a ‘job’ of it as they are wont.

    And it’s difficult to love consultants. You know what they say about them: about borrowing your watch, telling you the time with much flourish handing you a fat bill? It must be the same scenario at the Presidency where ‘professional economic consultants’ have just concluded that the best way forward for the ailing economy is to grant the president emergency powers.

    By omission or commission, they seek to return Nigeria to dictatorship through the back door. How presidential emergency powers would translate to Nigeria earning more foreign exchange or drastically reduce her staple food imports has not been explained. But this is story for another day.

    APP 2016 – 2020 is frustratingly long on wooly prognosis and tragically short on solutions. For a PhD dissertation on Nigeria’s agriculture, it would probably earn an ‘A’ but for strategy a document take Nigeria from her current morass of food crisis and acute foreign currency shortage to sustainability, it is an ‘F’.

    What is wrong with APP 2016 – 2020?

    First, there is no urgency about it at all and Nigeria is in an emergency of sort: we need to stop food importation immediately; we need to earn foreign exchange. Last month before the Senate, Central Bank of Nigeria’s Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had lamented that forex demands for the importation of rice alone stood at $14 billion.

    Today in Nigeria, our basic salary cannot buy a bag of rice and finally, if rice import is banned outright today, an implosion may ensue in the polity almost immediately. All of this suggests a situation that is urgent and critical. It is the same situation for chicken and poultry products, milk and dairy products among others.

    In the light of this, one would expect an agric policy that is in line with these realities and that can galvanise the expedited production of these commodities.

    What must be done now While this document may be beneficial in the medium to long terms, there are a few things that must be done immediately:

    One: need for task forces on rice production value chain, poultry production value chain, dairy production value chain and fish production value chain, for a start.

    Task force on rice production value chain (call it a presidential task force if you like, I don’t think we need any emergency powers to do this). This team will monitor, support and coordinate all rice production, processing and marketing activities all around the country regardless of the ownership. It will ensure that critical presidential and institutional support and intervention reach the fields and the mills and even the silos and warehouses real time.

    They will work on the entire ramification of the rice value chain. Quarterly report is presented to a presidential committee headed by the president or his deputy. The task force itself is reviewed each year for a maximum period of three years. This way, we can achieve self sufficiency in rice production in two years flat.

    The task forces on poultry production, dairy production and fish production will work in nearly the same fashion. In two to three years, Nigeria can achieve self-sufficiency in rice, poultry, dairy and even fish production. The ultimate objective is to conserve ample foreign exchange by ending importation of these products.

    Other task forces on areas, such as agro-cooperatives and on reduction of harvest wastages may be looked into. Again because of the versatility and wide acceptance of such crops as cassava, maize, yam and millet, there may be a need to pay a special attention to their planting, harvest, processing and preservation.

    FMARD would continue to implement the APP in the medium and long term and to develop a system that would eventually meet and take over from the task forces at a juncture. Of course export cash crops would be among its major prerogative. Is it not criminal that some factories in Nigeria still import palm oil and raw rubber sap is taken out of Nigeria to Ghana to produce vehicle tyres that are shipped back here at exorbitant rates?

    What are the urgent actions required for post-harvest wastages in such fruits and crops like water melon, mangoes, oranges, tomatoes, yam and potatoes? The situation is urgent!

    In other words, APP 2016 – 2020 lacks the requisite adrenalin to attend to our immediate problems; it’s a ‘low energy’ policy.

     

    Zamfara 8: Low presidential umbrage

    Again and again, it happens and all we hear is tepid presidential assurances and nothing is ever done. When 74-year-old Madam Bridget Abahime was butchered in Kano on June 3, the president told us the action was “utterly condemnable” and that justice would be done if we maintained the peace.

    When Deaconess Eunice Olawale was slaughtered on July 9, it was the same refrain. Not one person have we seen detained or in the box.

    This time eight innocent Nigerians murdered with seven of them roasted right in their home and our president tells us again that ”it is barbaric and the law will take its course.”

    Not good enough at all. Where is presidential umbrage which requires that the IGP is summoned and given express orders to pick up all the suspects, put them in handcuffs and parade them the following day? Presidential umbrage would cause the police to expedite prosecution of cases like this to make one or two example of these murderers.

    But increasingly, government has shown that it has no interest in deterring some people from cold-blooded killings in the name of Islam. The polity will become a jungle when  government pushes the citizenry into having to defend themselves… that is where we are now. Zamfara is one case too many.

     

  • MLSCN kicks off e-licensing, presents policy agenda

    The Acting Registrar/CEO, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN), Mr Tosan Erhabor, has called on stakeholders of the profession to help the Council in achieving its mandate.

    He made this call at the third stakeholders meeting – the first since he took over the mantle of leadership of the Council after the murder of late Acting Registrar/CEO Mrs Olufunmilayo F. Omotuyi.

    While addressing the August gathering, he informed them that the meeting was called to present the protocol for inspection of medical laboratories in Nigeria as resolved during the stakeholders meeting in May 2016. It was also to present the tripod of his change administration, which he said is “a policy strategy for implementation hinged on tripartite agenda of Registration, Regulation, and Accreditation driven by 15 measurable cardinal points.”

    Erhabor told the gathering that his administration has already kick started its bottom-up approach in order to deviate from the norms which has given the Council a bad name in the past and key into the change mantra of the administration of President Muhammudu Buhari by kicking off the e-licensing for members in collaboration with IHRIS with effect from 1st August 2016.  With this according to him “members in good standing can now print their 2016 license in the comfort of their homes and offices” the procedure he said has been hoisted on the Council website: www.mlscn.gov.ng  This he observed “will go a long way in removing the bottleneck experienced by members in their quest to obtain their annual license to practic”.

    He intimated the house that a workshop aimed at re-orientating the staff on the change sweeping across the Council had earlier been organised to make sure they key into this mantra and have attitudinal change towards their job so as to render “qualitative service to the members of the Council, its publics and stakeholders”.

    He thanked the elders for their support during the trying period of the council which he tagged “the dark days, a period that will always bring bad memories in the history of the Council”.   He regretted   the unfortunate incident by lamenting: “if not the evil murderer she would have been in her home savoring her terminal leave in  the midst of family and friends and I will still be sitting here as the Acting Registrar/CEO being the most senior officer in the Council”, he said and prayed for the repose of her soul.

    He therefore asserted his management’s commitment in making sure the perpetrators of the dastardly act are brought to book by collaborating with the Security agents.

    The former Chairman Board of Council Prof Dennis Agbonlahor, who chairman the meeting, lauded the new management under Mr Tosan Erhabor, for the peace in the Council since the inception of his administration after the death of   Mrs Omotuyi, who  he described as “a martyr of the profession”.

    He promised that the elders of the Council will continue to support the management in its quest to achieve its mandate.

  • Fed Govt’s phoney agricultural policy

    SIR: The APC-led federal government has come up with its variant of policy direction on agriculture ostensibly to demonstrate in bold relief its belief in the long awaited diversification of the country’s comatose economy. It has turned a blind eye to abrogating the constraining federal laws that prevent the states from exploring and exploiting the mineral resources within their territory. Who is fooling who?

    Recently, minister of agriculture, Chief AuduOgbe exuberantly believed that the agricultural policy that would operate from this year to 2020 would position the country as self-sufficient in food supply with surplus for exports including raw materials that will enable economically advanced countries of the world make sophisticated use of the agricultural value chains which the Nigerian technology is yet to exploit.

    The agricultural minister should be pitied and excoriated for wasting the time and intellectual resource of the ministry’s staff in articulating the illusive agricultural promotion policy which is fit for the dust-bin. The supposed agricultural promotion policy is a well packaged brazen deception which is in line with the pseudo-federalism that gave birth to excessive centralization and bureaucratization that crippled governance.

    The APC-led federal government is merely postponing the inevitable path for the sorely needed continued existence of the apparently fragile polity. It does not pay the leadership of the APC and more importantly the federal government to continue playing the proverbial ostrich by resisting the sorely needed fundamental restructuring of governance to enable the federating units [call them “states/grouping of states to be designated as regions] design policies, programmes and projects that are in tandem with the deep yearnings, aspirations, philosophy and world-views of their people. There is a limit to suppressing the inalienable rights of a people which the international communities and institutions abhor.

    Nigeria would have been rubbing shoulders with civilized and advanced countries of the world if the military had not truncated the fundamentals and sacred principles of federal system of government as practiced the world over. The long years of military’s spoliation and the untrammeled corruption and brazen sleaze cum impunity of civilian administrations have placed the country on a failed state status.

    In countries that practice true federal system of government, the sub-national units take care of ministries like agriculture since the climatic conditions of the federating units are not the same. The climate of the south is not the same with the north; therefore why should there be a common policy on agriculture? Of course it amounts to leading the people up the garden path if not plain naivety for the minister of agriculture to have come up with the so-called “Agricultural promotion policy 2016-2020”.

    Nobody who keeps close tab with the brazen discriminatory policies in this country would express surprise on the deceptive agricultural policy. There has been no need for operating federal ministries like agriculture and water resources [and many others like security, education, health, industry etc.] as the states are well placed to operate them. The hidden agenda from the military regimes in operating ministry of agriculture has been to funnel the totality of the annual federal budgets on agriculture to the northern parts of the country for the construction of dams and irrigation to create the false impression that it is the north that feeds the entire country. Provisions for dams and irrigations in the federal budgets were never made for the southern parts of the country on the claim that there are rivers in these areas. What of ministry of water resources? Local governments can conveniently operate the ministry as obtained in true federalism; but in this country, the federal government controls virtually all ministries and brazenly hijacked agencies like internally revenue service for the issuance of motor vehicle plate numbers and drivers’ license; what a shame!

     

    • Polycarp Onwubiko,

    Awka Anambra State.

  • ‘Policy marketing crucial to national development’

    ‘Policy marketing crucial to national development’

    Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) President Dr. Rotimi Oladele has underscored the importance of policy marketing in the  drive by the government to restore investors and citizens’ confidence in the economy.

    Oladele, who joined other speakers to discuss the imperative of “Leadership, policy marketing and repositioning of the Nigerian Nation,” at Brand Campaign Magazine’s fifth anniversary lecture in Lagos, said successive governments did not put in place the right policies.

    He said Nigeria is fertile for “unbaked, disorganised, rotten policies. The issue of policy marketing is totally neglected as far as policy is concerned,” he said.

    He said development was anchored on the rectangle of policy, law, regulation and infrastructure. “Once these are put in place, you do not need to preach to anybody to know what to do and when to do what is is right,” he said.

    Oladele, however, lamented that the country’s policy does not allow the nation to grow.

    He urged leaders to rethink Nigeria’s policies so that followers can change their mindset.

    Also, Brandish Magazine’s Managing Director, Mr. Ikem Okuhu said the lecture was aimed at awakening in Nigerians the need to begin to think, considering the shallow educational policy.

    The Marketing Mix Limited Managing Director, Mr. Akin Adeoya  said Nigerians should watch the lifestyles of the leaders they choose.

    He stressed that those who create value for the little they have should be preferred against those who are profligate in their lifestyle.

    The Brand Campaign’s Publisher, Mr. Akinwumi Dickson described the birth of the magazine as a child of circumstance that grew to become one of the leading brand magazines in the industry.

  • Tax policy ‘ll reduce SMEs’ burdens, says Fed Govt

    The Federal Government is developing a new tax policy that will open the country for business, Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has said.

    She said the new tax system will be easy to understand and reduce tax burden on small businesses.

    Addressing members of the tax review committee in Abuja yesterday, Mrs Adeosun said businesses react to tax policy and government is determined to ensure that the tax policy “sends the right message being that Nigeria is open for business and is encouraging businesses with a tax system that is easy to understand and comply with.

    “Areas of our tax code and laws that are in need of review will be addressed as part of this exercise, as will modalities for simplifying our processes and reducing the tax burden on small businesses.”

    Adeosun told members of the committee that the government was keen “to grow revenues and improve our tax collection; we are equally determined to ensure that our taxes are simplified. The task of growing tax revenue must be pursued with a human face and sustainability in focus.”