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Tag: poor

  • That the poor may breathe

    That the poor may breathe

    Are the poor a class to be treated like the devil, kept at arm’s length, helped only from a safe distance? According to a man of God, Pastor David Ibiyeomie, the answer is yes. We should assist the poor, but we should not allow them too close to us, he claims the Bible supports this stance. It is not the first time the pastor has stirred this controversy—and perhaps, for some, that’s exactly the point.

    Well, here is my take:In many nations, poverty is not just an unfortunate reality; it is a policy outcome. Poverty is not natural. It is engineered by decades of poor governance, skewed priorities, and institutional neglect. The air has grown thin for the poor, not because they do not work hard, but because the systems built around them are designed to profit off their exclusion.

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    Market traders, bricklayers, farmers, teachers, factory workers are the people who sustain economies with their sweat and strength. Yet, they are the first to suffer when subsidies are removed, when inflation hits, when salaries are delayed, or when governments “tighten belts” they never wore in the first place. They pay taxes but receive little or no services. They obey laws, yet their dignity is not protected by them. In the name of reform, they are asked to sacrifice. But how do you sacrifice what you’ve never been allowed to have?

    A mother walking miles to fetch water is a sign of systemic failure. A child hawking goods in traffic instead of learning in school is a victim of a broken promise.

    What the poor need is not pity. It is justice. Fair pay for honest work. Clean water. Accessible healthcare. Public education that teaches, not just babysits. Housing that shelters, not imprisons. They need their voices at the table where decisions are made. We need to widen the space, economically, socially and politically, so that the poor may breathe.

  • The poor as pawns in the game of politics

    The poor as pawns in the game of politics

    • By Goodluck Uguoji

    Politics is the refined art of playing chess with the poor as the pawns. The welfare of the poor is the mission of politics. There is yet no man who is so ambitious and so desirous of ruling his country or his fellow men and women who does not offer himself as a Robin Hood in the service of the poor. 

    The poor are the reference point. Ordinarily, they should be the reason and the excuse to do or not to do. They are a constant in the calculus of social engineering and political administration. Governments succeed because of the poor, and government fail because of the poor. The poor remain the major assignment of every government. 

    Every government puts its fate in the callused hands of the poor. And so the success or failure of every government is measured by either the happiness index or the misery index of the poor. A high happiness index is the best indicator of a good or popular government. 

    While a high misery index of the poor leaves a government an island unto itself, surrounded by the murky waters of public disenchantment, a high misery index just as Nigerians experienced in the last eight years, is often part of the grand scheme in the affairs of mankind. It provides the loamy, fertile soil from which saviours who were not born are instantly made. 

    In other words, a high misery index leads to changes in the hierarchy of actors. The poor makes everything possible. Without the poor, it seems pretty likely that, life itself would degenerate into a monotony, robbed of competitions realize or nurture ambitions. The poor make the rich and then promote him to be wealthy. The poor are the excuse for one set of rulers either toppling, by force of arms, another set of rulers or replacing them through the ballot-box.

    Even laws appear to be made mostly with the sole interest of the poor in mind. To protect the poor from being trampled underfoot by the rich is the end of social justice, which means that the man who has should not be allowed to destroy another who hasn’t. Laws ignore levels of material possessions in extending and protecting the frontiers of social justice. 

    Samuel Johnson put his finger on it when he said: “A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization and it is also the true test of a government which cares”. To care is to remember that the poor are therefore, battling with the armies of want. To care is to remember that no man’s mission in life makes sense unless and until it is anchored on the desire to save and serve the poor. To care is to remember that where a man ultimately ends up-in heaven or hell-in the hereafter, depends almost entirely on his attitude to the poor. 

    Thus, the poor are not only the reference point for the mundane, but also for many people. You save or lose your soul for what you do or fail to do for the poor. Wherever, you turn, you confront the poor. Taking care of the masses, the ordinary people and the man on the street is the challenge to all governments the world over. And a political leader who cares for the masses is one with a sense of history, as history is a judgment passed when either there is no more chance for an appeal or an appeal offered from a position of powerlessness. 

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    The poor are always the grass in the field where the elephants do their fighting. Indeed, where would many millionaire or billionaire on the powerful be if they do not have the poor to cheat and to sabotage? 

    In truth, the poor are a conspiracy of the rich and the powerful. The poor perpetuate the comparative social advantages (the index for what one has made of his intelligence and opportunity and what another has not). If the poor disappear as a group, men and women would be hard put to justify their ambitions to be: to do.

    These hapless citizens are found in all the states of the federation. What distinguishes them from other Nigerians is their over-powering poverty, their state of helplessness and their irredeemable situation of an underdog. Usually, they are law-abiding; positively more patriotic and nationalistic than the next person. They discharge their civic responsibilities without any prompting. They sing hallelujah and hosanna when a new regime takes over power, thinking that salvation is here. But till kingdom come, their fate remains the same.

    Where others enjoy abundant supply of water in their homes, they walk more than 10 kilometres in search of water. Where others enjoy good roads and take such things for granted, they, regard them as luxuries. They cannot transport their farm produce to the markets.  

    Over the years, all succeeding governments in Nigeria, be it military or civilian, had pledged to improve the living conditions of the average Nigerian; so that they do not live the life of misery. But over the years, their living conditions, instead of improving, have continued to get worse. They cannot secure loan to engage in small scale businesses, because they do not have collaterals and they do not have the collateral to do so because they are poor. The government should appreciate the fate of poor Nigerians who are deprived, alienated and living like aliens in their country.     

    •Dr Uguoji writes from Akute, Ogun State.  

  • Remember the poor

    Remember the poor

    Lawmakers in the National Assembly are obviously not representing the people

    If our National Assembly (NASS) legislators are interested in learning any lesson, we would not be at this juncture again where we would be talking about the kind of vehicles they should be using, whether as official or personal vehicles. Unfortunately, as many of us have always argued, our politicians are largely taught nothing, learnt nothing.

    The House of Representatives had on Sunday, last week, admitted that each of the 360 lawmakers in the NASS would get a brand new Prado SUV worth N130m, totaling N57.6 billion. They claimed the cars are not personal gifts but the property of the National Assembly.

    They should go tell that to the marines! Where are the cars bought for their predecessors? This is a familiar story; a familiar excuse. One unfortunate thing about this insensitive and ungodly decision is that it is coming at a time the country’s economy is under very serious stress.

    Nigerians have always complained about our lawmakers living like oil sheikhs in a country reputed to be the poverty capital of the world, even when the economy was far better than it is today. How on earth can one explain a situation where our present lawmakers insist almost on the affluent lifestyle lived by their predecessors at a time like this, when the country’s currency is trading for over N1,000 to an American dollar?

    What makes the decision of the legislators the more shocking is that these vehicles are imported. Meaning we have to cough up huge forex to get them for our over-pampered lawmakers.

    Meanwhile, we have local vehicle makers in the country who even made representations to the NASS on the imperative of buying made-in-Nigeria vehicles. As if they needed that prompting.

    The founder of Nord Motors, a local vehicle manufacturing company, Ajayi Oluwatobi, put the matter succinctly, even if some of us may see it as self-serving.

    “The National Assembly buying foreign built vehicles at this time is dispiriting, especially when you consider that we are all trying to promote buy Nigeria to grow the Naira.

    “How can you represent Nigeria but refuse Nigeria, especially when some of us have shown you that we would offer similar top quality at a better price? Why do you want to be seen driving a foreign brand when a Nigerian brand can offer you the same quality at a better price?”

    Then, the clincher: “No automotive sector can become successful without the support of the government. The Tesla we see today is the result of years of support from the US government. We want to create jobs but export the opportunities to create jobs to other countries at every chance we get,” he said.

    Meanwhile, it is these same lawmakers that would also tell us tomorrow that they are working in the interest of Nigerians. Just last Thursday, both the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, and Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, spoke glowingly at a retreat for members of the Senate on fiscal policy and tax reforms in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. They both pledged to work with the executive arm towards making laws that would promote economic development. I deliberately looked out for whether they would mention patronage of made-in-Nigeria goods as part of how they intend to restructure and grow the economy. There was nothing of the sort.

    Meaning they both understood the economic implications of their buying foreign SUVs.

    In the light of a decision like this, the government must understand why Nigerians would most times support Labour when they reject government’s excuses that the country has economic challenges, so, Labour should bear with the government. There is little to show that on the part of the people in the country’s leadership positions, particularly the NASS.

    Yet, it was not like this before. I remember some years back when I wrote a similar piece on the NASS, someone who was a legislator from either the old Ondo or Ekiti State wrote a piece in support of my position. If I was a kid in the First Republic, at least I wasn’t in the second, being an undergraduate then. Lawmaking as we knew it, even in spite of the imperfections of that era which eventually culminated in the overthrow of that republic, was by far more diligent  and godly compared with what we have been having, especially since 1999. Even the then National Party of Nigeria (NPN) that most Nigerians considered a den of robbers has proved to be more saintly than the political parties that we now have. That is why politicians can jump boat anyhow. Today they are in this party, tomorrow they are in that other party. And they are received with fanfare. The line of demarcation in terms of ideology is not even clear.

    When some of our older citizens that some of us have the privilege of rubbing minds with tell us the el dorado that Nigeria was in their time and keep lamenting and wondering how the country suddenly became this sorry pass, those of us the relatively younger generation keep wondering, ‘what are these people talking about. How can they be wondering’? But we now know better because those of us who also enjoyed the remnants of the el dorado that they bequeathed to us are also wondering how the little enjoyment we met evaporated before our very eyes. That is the Nigerian wonder for you.

    But we should not wonder far. Things became this bad because we stomached a lot of things like this aberration of exotic cars for NASS members. One question I always ask when writing on this vexatious topic is what are the NASS members producing that qualifies them for this affluence in the midst of grinding poverty?

    To say they need SUVs to function is bunkum, absolute rubbish. Those who occupied the seats they are occupying today before produced by far better laws for good governance. What Nigerians have been witnessing since this nonsense began with furniture allowance for NASS members in the Obasanjo era cannot qualify for law making to better the lots of Nigerians. And the only proof we need is the continued decline in the quality of life of the vast majority of Nigerians, in spite of the fabulous pay and pampering of the country’s lawmakers.

    It is better for our politicians, particularly the NASS members, to retrace their steps. Nigerians are no fools and even if they appear to be, it only seems so.

    How in this age will some people be justifying this kind of expenditure just because they have no one to call them to order? To try to justify this by saying Nigerians should look in the direction of other arms of government for the same extravagance and misapplication of public funds is vexatious. While it is true that government officials as a whole must live by example, it is not an acceptable alibi that because there is fiscal indispline in one arm, other arms must emulate that bad example.

    At any rate, I hope the legislators are not looking in the area of the judiciary because to compare that arm with the other two arms is analogous to comparing apple with oranges. We cannot compare our judges and other judicial officers with politicians holding public offices. The judicial officers are long-term or permanent public employees, with many of them serving for decades before attaining their present statuses. They cannot be compared with political appointees who in several cases start enjoying extraordinary privileges almost as soon as they assume duties. Like the NASS members, for instance. They are to get these SUVs even when they have not served for six months.  Where else are their counterparts so pampered?

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    Even in the executive, some of us are already feeling the impact of some of them who are barely three months in office.

    Meanwhile, these same lawmakers are among those shedding crocodile tears that the Naira is sinking. How does the national currency of people who cannot patronise their own home-made products have value? Value does not fall from the sky. Countries whose currencies have value worked at it. Their leaders lead by example and not by the do-as-I-say attitude of our NASS members.

    Meanwhile, it is the same people who are buying multi-million naira vehicles for themselves that would start pinching money and spending sleepless nights on calculators when it comes to paying minimum wage that cannot even take workers home.

    If there is to be any law making properly so-called, it should start with stipulating the kind of vehicles Nigerians public officials must use. After all, a time there was in this country when public officials could not use anything beyond Peugeot products by Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria (PAN). They did not die. That is where promotion of locally made products should begin.

     If our lawmakers say they need rugged vehicles apparently because our roads are generally bad, that is an indictment on their part. If they need bullet-proof cars for themselves, it is still self-indictment. Where then are the effects of the laws they have been making, even since 1999? These are all indications that Nigerians have been wasting money on unproductive money guzzlers called lawmakers. If they had made good laws, especially since 1999, our lot as a people would have been far better than it is today.

    As our elders used to say, a gourd without a neck is the one that will tell where to put a rope on its body (keregbe ti ko lorun, lo maa so ibi ti won ma sokun mo lara oun). This NASS should stop provoking Nigerians. Otherwise, a time would come when the people would remind them that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. I am not aware there is any member of the NASS that their people went to beg to represent them. People who cannot feel what their constituents feel have no business being in the NASS. It is because of ungodly privileges like this that the battle to get to the place has become do- or-die. Not because they want to serve the people. People who genuinely want to serve would not be running after exotic vanities when those who voted them into office cannot afford one meal a day.

  • Gap between rich, poor worries NLC

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has expressed concern over the widening gap between rich and poor Nigerians in accessing healthcare and other services.

    NLC President Comrade Ayuba Wabba made this known at the 10th National Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) in Abuja.

    The theme of the conference was: “Advancing national campaign toward good governance, poverty alleviation, health for all for development.’’

    The labour leader said in other countries, the rich subsidised healthcare for the poor, saying that the reverse was the case in Nigeria.

    “The inequality gap in health care services between the rich and the poor in our country is getting expanded whereas in other countries it is the rich that subsidise cost of care for the poor but in our country it is the poor that subsidise for the rich.

    “The conference theme is very important and strategic because there cannot be development when majority of the people are so impoverished; we cannot talk about development if workers salaries cannot even take them to their next bus stop.

    “We cannot talk about development when our pensioners after working for 35 years have a living that is difficult. What is central is for our system to bring about equity and fairness in all ramifications,” Wabba said.

    He, however, identified the existing situation as the factor responsible for the nation’s poor health indices as well as underdevelopment, stressing that the component of the conference’s theme is key to development of any society.

    According to him, some of the health indices like maternal, child mortality, disease burden, general health services and government can only achieve the desired goals when the system is working.

    He blamed the failure of democracy on the privileged few who corner the resources to themselves.

    Wabba said: “We ought not to be where we are, if we are able to do what is right.”

    The NLC chief flayed the disparities in salaries and tax payment, saying there is no justification for the lowest paid workers to pay higher taxes than the elected public office holders.

    Wabba stressed the need for the continuous review of workers’ salaries like that of political office holders.

    “If you are increasing the salary of members of the political class, you can look at the same percentage to increase the salaries of other workers because we create and promote wealth of our nation.

    “So, if we create wealth for the nation, we must be compensated,” Wabba added.

  • 665,655 poor, vulnerable families mapped in 26 states, says agency

    NO fewer than 665,655 poor and vulnerable households have been mapped in 26 states across the country to benefit from the Federal Government’s social intervention programmes.

    National Safety Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO) National Coordinator Mr. Apera Iorwa, who stated this yesterday, said the mapping of the poor and vulnerable families was the first leg in the Federal Government’s social safety initiative, which is aimed at pulling the poor out of poverty.

    Iorwa spoke in Lagos yesterday during the inauguration of the Lagos State Operations Coordinating Unit (SOCU) at the state’s Ministry of Economic Planning and Budgets.

    The national coordinator said NASSCO was happy that Lagos was finally joining other states across the country in mapping the poorest of the poor from its local governments for the purposes of intervention.

    The NASSCO Coordinator, who addressed top level government officials drawn from ministries of Wealth Creation and Employment, Youths Sports and Social Development, and Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) as well as the team leader from United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) Mr. Mohammad Okere, said besides the initial intervention of N300 million, the Federal Government ensured that the repatriated $850 million Abacha fund was domiciled and managed by NASSCO.

    According to him, NASSCO’s mandate was to generate from across the 36 states and Abuja, a credible National Social Register from where the poor and vulnerable members of the society can be mined for the purposes of any intervention that may be targeted at them by the tiers of government.

    “The major assignment before the SOCU officials is to coordinate the social safety nets programmes of the government aimed at lifting the poor and the vulnerable out of the nets of poverty. To achieve this, SOCU is to embark on the mapping of the state to generate a Social Register of the poor and vulnerable households, which would be escalated to the NASSCO office for inclusion into the national register.

    “SOCU would, using the data generated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), determine the poorest local governments in the state. It will take the affected local governments to identify the poor and vulnerable households, which would be uploaded to the national social register. The report would be generated along the three natural groups male, women and youths.”

    Iorwa said the vulnerable poor would have the access to enjoy N5,000 intervention fund transfer, while the youth would be open to skill acquisition and job employment opportunities that would push them out of the poverty net.

    Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget Olusegun Banjo said Governor Akinwunmi Ambode approved the establishment of the unit because of its obvious benefit to generate a social register that would lead to conditional and unconditional transfer to the poor and vulnerable segment of the people.

    He said the National Social Safety Nets has led to effective targeting of vulnerable households across the country, adding that the initiative had all elements of believability because it has the support of World Bank, UNICEF and other development partners.

    Permanent Secretary Ministry of wealth Creation and Employment, who was represented by Mrs. Lola Kaka, said the intervention would assist the state to achieve more in its strides to reach more vulnerable segments of its population.

    Lagos SOCU Coordinator Mrs. Olukemi Adedeji, who hailed Ambode for approving the unit, said her team was prepared to achieve the set targets and give the state a credible social register that would be transparent and reliable for planning.

     

  • Poor corporate governance killing Airlines , says AMCON

    The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Ahmed Kuru, has attributed the short lifespan of airlines in the country to corporate governance in the management of the airline business in the country.

    Kuru, who was guest speaker at the third edition of the Nigeria TravelsMart Colloquium organised by the Nigeria a Travel Market (NTM) highlighted major challenges of airlines and airports blamed the incessant collapse of airlines in Nigeria on lack of corporate governance and adequate regulatory oversight in the management of aviation business in the country.

    He also called on the Federal Government to concession the airports across the country as government have no business managing airports.

    He said it was high time the government, the regulatory agencies and practitioners realised the important role of aviation in the development of a nation. He said, “The aviation sector is a catalyst for the economic development of nations. It is a wheel that drives economic activities. It facilitates trade, tourism, boosts productivity in the economy, improves efficiency in the supply chain, it is an enabler for investments and can spur innovation. Critically, it is a source of quality employment. For these reasons, it is a strategic sector deserving of a careful plot to greatness if Nigeria is to occupy its rightful place in the comity of nations.”

    The AMCON boss whose presentation was themed “Corporate Governance and Airline Industry development in Nigeria,” also said that aviation regulatory bodies like the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) must develop the courage to insist that corporate governance is adhered to adding that the industry is riddled with thousands of airline businesses that have failed due to lack of corporate governance as most board of directors are represented by family relations such as father, mother, son who have no competence to manage a business as fragile and sensitive as aviation.

  • Why aviation investment is poor, by experts

    Interest rates and lack of choice for credit facilities are some of the obstacles militating against investments in  aviation, some experts have said.

    According to Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Chief Executive Officer/Commissioner Akin Olateru; Council, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) President Bernard Aliu and Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) Executive Chairman Captain Nogie Meggison, unless the obstacles were removed, investments in the sector would be slow.

    They spoke with The Nation in Lagos.

    According to Olateru, Nigeria’s poor credit rating, due to air accidents, prevent international financiers that can give long- term credit facility at single digit interest rates to those who wish to invest in the country’s airline business.

    Besides poor credit rating, Olateru, an aircraft engineer, said financial insitutions, whether local or international, were reluctant to grant huge loans to airlines because they lacked corporate governance structures.

    He said the environment, which appeared volatile, was also a disincentive to getting funds.

    He asid: “You have to look at the  environment. Who gives airline finance in air transportation business? Will the bank support you with finance.

    “We are at  such a disadvantage but I believe that we are on the right track and, over time, we will surmount all these problems.”

    Aliu said financial institutions were not funding or investing in aviation infrastructure in many African countries, including Nigeria, because of the risks of insufficient institutional, legal and regulatory enabling frameworks.

    The leader of the global aviation regulator said these factors were the major drawbacks militating against investments in airports across Africa.

    Aliu said countries with limited access to investment finances must ensure that critical airport infrastructure needs are included in the priority list of international public finance and assistance for development projects.

    According to Aliu, no financial investor in airport infrastructure is willing to commit funds, where there is policy somersault associated with regime change.

    He said global investors were seeking stable policy, regulatory and enabling environment where there is respect for agreements on airport infrastructure funding and the tenure of such projects for the investor to recoup his money.

    Aliu said: “No investor or financial institution wants to project their proposed returns based on eventuality, only to see those goal posts being moved by a government half way through a project after they have made their financial commitment.”

    He said until issues on uncertainties about investment in aviation infrastructure were resolved, African countries have to work out models that were sustainable  in closing the gap in airport facilities.

    His said: “The priority is for airport operators, in coordination with states, to clearly demonstrate where financing is required.This can be accomplished through gap-analyses of forecast demand, future capacity need and current infrastructure deficiencies.”

    He called on African countries to look beyond cost-recovery measures in the management of airports terminals by considering other ways of enhancing revenue  other than flights.

    The ICAO chief said revenue raised via passenger charges and taxes are often significantly outweighed by what a state will lose out in terms of more broad-based economic growth as a result of the dampened demand for air travel and air cargo shipments, which these charges lead to.

    Aliu said: “It is, therefore, important to complement aeronautical charges with a variety of non-aeronautical revenue.”

    He said many financial institutions have stopped investing in the sector because of frequent  government policies.

    This, he said, had become a disincentive to many investments in airport infrastructure and loss by a few investors who dared.

    Meggison said the poor performance of many domestic carriers discouraged financial insitutions from putting money into the sector.

    He said until there was review of multiple charges by various aeronautical agencies, the operating environment will remain stifling to push away investors.

    He said unless the government recognises the pivotal role aviation plays as a catalyst of economic growth, it must design policies that will make the sector attractive to investors.

    “Airline operators  have been screaming and complaining about the same issue over the years culminating  in  over 27 airlines going under in the past 25 years.

    “Stakeholders in the sector have consistently pointed out that with the huge capital outlay required for aviation investments and the attendant low returns, financial institutions must adopt a long term, single digit interest rate facility to  support the industry,”Aliu added.

    An airline chief, who spoke on condition  of anonymity, said the  interest regime of banks made it difficult for  airlines to either  borrow money, acquire or lease aircraft.

    He said: “The interest rate regime in Nigeria is not good for aviation. Take the over 20 per cent interest, you can’t do any business with that. So, we need to do something about it.”

  • ‘Over 14,000 Kwara poor get N5,000 monthly’

    More than 14,000 persons in Kwara State are receiving the N5,000 monthly stipend under the Federal Government Household Uplifting Programme, also known as Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme (CCTS).

    Head of the programme Hajia Aminah Yahaya spoke yesterday in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin.

    According to her, the beneficiaries are drawn from 480 communities in the 16 local government areas.

    She said: “Every local government has 30 communities uniformly. When we multiply this by 16 councils, it gives us 480.

    “So, we have over 14,000 beneficiaries from the state so far. Of course, there is a plan to step up that number though we wouldn’t know when because we are not directly in-charge of targeting the beneficiaries.

    “Ours is to pay the beneficiaries. So, as soon as names are available, it will be shared with us and once it is shared, we will start payment.”

    Hajia Yahaya explained that as one of the eight pilot states, Kwara had started getting success stories from the beneficiaries as the money helped in changing their lives for better.

    “The programme is about uplifting the household; changing their situation from what it is for the better, and one of the strategies we put in place is forming them into groups.

    “We have what we call savings and group mobilisation training for all beneficiaries, where we teach them how to save from little, and most of them have been able to follow the example we gave.

    “With the coaching they got, some of them have gone into petty trading, but the petty trading did not just start like that.

    “In the group formation, they formed themselves into cooperative groups within a community and during every payment circle, they make rotational contribution among themselves. They inject this contribution into their businesses and they are telling a good story today,” she added.

  • Why Nigeria, others remain poor, by Jonathan

    wHY is Nigeria and other countries in Africa still poor? They are poor because their citizens have not added value to the natural resources they are endowed with, says former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    In his presentation titled: “Local content as a driver for technological development,” delivered at the local content conference in Houston, United States, Jonathan said the continent’s natural resources, forest and farm produce were exported raw and, by so doing, jobs and wealth were exported to other countries.

    According to him, the oil-rich Niger Delta region is characterised by activities around the petroleum industry, which remains the mainstay of the economy. Quoting the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), he said the industry constituted 8.69 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) last year, while crude oil export still brought in about 90 per cent of foreign exchange (forex) earnings.

    He said: “Nigeria, before the local content law, had remained to a large extent, a source of mainly primary commodities, hardly adding value to the natural produce and mineral resources the nation exported. The sector lacked indigenous players to exploit the industry’s massive value chain between exploration and the end products. Back then, about 90 per cent of the equipment and personnel found in the industry were procured from outside the country. The high technological and huge capital nature of the industry meant that the big oil players and their expatriate staff carried out most of the key functions.

    “There is no doubt that production and fabrication of equipment in the oil and gas industry deliver sizeable sustainable jobs. And until a few years ago, only the multinationals had the capacity to invest huge sums of money in the industry.  However, back then, two questions were pertinent: What percentage of this investment went into the local economy, and could we say that the oil industry had created the number of jobs commensurate with the income it was generating, particularly in the areas where these multinational companies were domiciled? All these pointed to the fact that a deliberate policy and paradigm shift was needed for rapid industrialisation in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria and in Africa.

    “My decision to sign the Nigerian Local Content Bill into law without hesitation was informed by my experience in China in 2000.

     

  • NYSC DG laments poor state of Ebonyi orientation camp

    Director General of the National Youth Service Corps, Brigadier General Brig.-Gen. Suleiman Kazaure has described the condition of the permanent orientation camp in Afikpo, Ebonyi state as deplorable.

    The DG stated this after inspecting facilities at the camp during a visit to the 2018 Batch “A’’ corps members.

    While noting that the camp was old and in need of total overhaul, the DG urged the state government to help in renovating the camp.

    “We are appealing to the state government to look into the state of facilities in the camp as it is the responsibility of state governments to maintain NYSC orientation camps in their states”.

    “Corps members would not be posted to areas such as communities in Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa States because of the security situation in those places.”

    The NYSC State Director, Mrs. Regina Iluebbey, thanked Kazaure for the visit, noting that it was not all corps members that have the privilege of meeting the NYSC DG during their service years.