The Nation Newspaper

Tag: sentiments

  • Beyond sentiments

    Beyond sentiments

    • Those crying wolf over relocation of some CBN departments as well as the FAAN headquarters to Lagos have no point

    So cogent and compelling are the reasons adduced for the decision to move some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN,) as well as the Headquarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), to Lagos, that the vehement opposition to this plan is difficult to comprehend. In the case of the CBN, the apex bank has announced its decision to decongest its headquarters in Abuja by deploying 1,533 members of staff to other facilities within Abuja, as well as to Lagos and other understaffed branches of the bank.

    Although the headquarters facility was constructed to hold an optimal capacity of 2,700 persons, no less than 4,233 staff currently work at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, with serious consequences for the structural integrity of the facility. At risk if the situation is not decisively arrested is the safety of the staff as well as the building itself. It is also pertinent to point out the health hazards that staff and visitors to the headquarters may be exposed to, especially due to overcrowding. Why should the CBN management continue to keep overcrowded staff at its headquarters when the organisation has underutilised facilities in Lagos and some other parts of the country?

    Those who have registered their opposition to the planned relocation of the CBN staff as well as the headquarters of FAAN to Lagos include the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and the Northern Senators Forum (NSF). The NSF said they were under pressure from their constituents to ensure that the proposed plan to relocate the affected staff and structures to Lagos is not actualised. On its part, the NEF expressed worry that the proposed relocation of the staff and some facilities of the affected institutions will have negative consequences both for the organisations and the nation itself.

    The NEF identified loss of talent, disruption in operations, reduced coordination, impaired economic development of Northern Nigeria and decreased confidence in the economy as likely consequences of the planned relocation of these facilities and staff. NEF does not tell us on what logical or empirical basis it arrived at its conclusion. For one, neither management of the two agencies has said that the proposed relocation will result in job cuts. Similarly, the fears of disruption in operations and reduced coordination are unfounded in an age in which marked acceleration in the development of Information and Communication Technology, (ICT) has made it possible for workers to coordinate and interact across vast spaces.

    In any case, only five of the 17 departments in the CBN are being relocated to Lagos. And these affected departments – Banking Supervision, Consumer Protection Department , System Management Department and Financial Policy Regulations Department – engage daily with financial entities based in Lagos. A former deputy governor of the apex bank, Dr Kingsley Moghalu, in a post on his X handle, noted that the CBN headquarters in Lagos was inaugurated 12 years ago but has remained largely underutilised. We agree with his view that with regard to health and safety, the decision to decongest the headquarters of the apex bank was logical, and more so because most of the affected departments

    deal with entities in Lagos.

    Read Also: CBN clears all airlines’ FX debts

    In a similar vein, a former governor of the CBN, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has denounced those opposed to the initiatives, saying that the relocation of the departments and staff would help the apex bank streamline its operations, reduce costs and become more efficient. It is difficult to dismiss offhandedly Sanusi’s allegation that children of politically exposed persons who were reportedly absorbed into the CBN as staff prefer their luxurious lifestyles in Abuja to the detriment of their duties at the bank.

    On its part, the Headquarters of the FAAN is being moved back to Lagos because no adequate arrangements were put in place in terms of office space and staff accommodation before the organisation’s movement to Abuja. According to a spokesperson of FAAN, “It was Ill-advised in the first place to move the headquarters to Abuja when there was no single FAAN building in Abuja to accommodate all of them at once”.

    In any case, nothing says all agencies in the country must have their headquarters in Abuja. For instance, the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has its headquarters in Lokoja, Kogi State and the National Inland Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has its headquarters in Lagos , among others.

    Thus, the relocation of some departments of CBN as well as headquarters of FAAN to Lagos has absolutely nothing to do with North-South rivalry, and those who seek to stoke the embers of North-South hostilities should move beyond sentiments and undertake a careful consideration of the reasons for the proposed relocations.

    It is good that the Federal Government has moved decisively to debunk the mischievous insinuations that there are surreptitious moves to once again make Lagos the Capital of Nigeria.

  • Eschew primordial sentiments, Bishop advises elite, interest groups

    A retired clergy, Archbishop Ayo Ladigbolu, has urged the political elite and interest groups to eschew primordial sentiments and support the policies of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

    Ladigbolu gave the advice today at a sensitisation programme in Oyo town.

    He said despite the fact that the country is abundantly resourced, there has been an absence of real development in terms of the quality of social existence and social relations of majority of the populace.

    He said: “The first prerequisite of good governance is that the average citizen must have an assurance or at least a near assurance of justice, fairness and equity in most of his or her relationships in the society, be it in the economic, political or social realm. It is in this kind of situation that the average citizen will have a stake in the stability and progress of the society as a stakeholder.”

  • There ‘ll be no sentiments in team selection, says Oliseh

    There ‘ll be no sentiments in team selection, says Oliseh

    Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh has said there won’t be sentiments when he selects his teams for games.

    The 40-year old says he will select only the most productive players irrespective of where they play.

    “We have the Nations Cup to prepare for, we have the CHAN to prepare for and we have the World Cup to prepare for,” he said.

    “There will be lots of games for everybody so we’re just going to move on along and try everybody out and try every player in each position and see how they can carry it out.”

    Speaking further, Oliseh added that if a home based player has shown more productivity against an overseas based counterpart, he will play the home based player.

    “If a player that is playing back home in the league here is giving more productivity than the one from abroad, he (home based player) will play because you want to win and I want to win, so there will be no sentiments,” Oliseh stressed.

    18 overseas based players have been invited for the game against Tanzania, and are expected to hit camp on or before the 31st of August, and will join the 21 home based players that have been training in Abuja.

  • Manu: Final selection will be devoid of Sentiments

    Manu: Final selection will be devoid of Sentiments

    Flying Eagles coach Manu Garba has said his final team  selection for the 2015 Africa Youth Championship(AYC) will be devoid of sentiments.

    The final team lists for the competition are expected to be submitted to CAF latest midnight of February 26.

    Twenty-eight players are in the provisional list, of which seven will be dropped – but it is expected that the bulk of the team will come from the 2013 U-17’s – but Manu has promised to make his selection devoid of any sentiments.

    “The selection we are going to make will not be fraught with sentiments, I can promise you that,” he began.

    “It is strictly going to be based on what each player has contributed since we started this process, not what they did in the past.

    “I know everybody probably thinks the team will be made up predominantly of the last U-17 boys, and even though that is possible, it will be because they deserve to be in the team and not because they played in the U-17,” he told sl10.ng.

    Genk of Belgium starlet Wilfried Ndidi has been included in the provisional list and is expected to make the final 21, although that will depend on the NFF securing his release on time.

    Chidiebere Nwakali is certain to miss out, after his club, Manchester City said he would not be released for the tournament, but it remains to be seen if Kelechi Iheanacho will make the final cut.

  • Our democracy polluted by sentiments, says Lamido

    Our democracy polluted by sentiments, says Lamido

    Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido has expressed concern about the nation’s democracy being polluted by sentiments.

    The governor, who spoke at the weekend in Dutse, the state capital, while fielding questions from reporters, regretted that lack of patriotism was threatening the country’s democratic growth.

    He spoke shortly after an emergency meeting with senior civil servants and political appointees at the state’s secretariat.

    “It is quite unfortunate today in Nigeria that whatever you say or you do, people would give it interpretation, based on parochial political sentiment with no consideration to its significant or otherwise,” he said.

    The governor, who tactfully refrained from reporters’ questions, noted that as long as Nigerians would continue to use selfishness and partisanship to judge issues, the nation would not develop.

    For the nation to move forward, he stressed, the society must be rational and people must become objective in their analyses and social interactions.

    Lamido refused to comment on endorsement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate General Muhammadu Buhari by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    He urged Nigerians to be patriotic by putting national interests above their personal interests.

  • Equities open on cautious sentiments

    Equities open on cautious sentiments

    Investors should not expect an exceedingly bullish market in the period ahead, though stocks could pose strong capital gains in the topsy-turvy expected to characterise the market trend till year-end.

    As the stock market opens today, most pundits will adopt cautionary approach than the overtly bullish disposition many expect the market to close around its current year-to-date return.

    The All Share Index (ASI), the common value-based index that tracks all equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and doubles as benchmark return index for the NSE and Nigeria, opens today with average year-to-date return of 35.47 per cent after it lost 1.0 per cent in consecutive declines that pervaded the three trading days last week.

    Many analysts have reechoed the tepid market outlook as equities struggle with profit-taking transactions and belt-tightening monetary policy changes.

    Analysts at Financial Derivatives Company (FDC), headed by Bismarck Rewane, said investors should not carry the optimism of the previous months’ performance to the coming months as the market might have exhausted the steam for such excited return.

    “Macroeconomic events will shape investor behaviour. Declining inflation, a stable naira and interest rates at current levels bear favourable tidings for the market. However, we believe it is unlikely that the market repeats the strong bull run of H2’12. The gains of the year appear to have been made. There will be bright spots here and there but the market will stroll at a tepid pace,” FDC stated in its latest review made available at the weekend.

    Analysts at FDC noted the delicate mixture of surprises and disappointments that have greeted recent earnings reports by quoted companies, which have failed to prompt strong positive rally and activities.

    Economist and investment advisor, Sterling Capital Markets Limited, Sewa Wusu, said there were many variables that could adversely affect the stock market in the period ahead, leading to portfolio rebalancing in favour of the fixed-income market.

    According to him, the increase in cash reserve ratio for public sector funds to 50 per cent by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), will likely lead to increase in deposit and interest rates, which would enhance the attractiveness of money market instruments.

    He noted that high-interest rate in the midst of a tepid stock market will limit the inflow of funds to the capital market.

    In a preview of the second half, analysts at Investment One Financial Services Limited had described the outlook for the stock market in the second half as “neutral”, a reference to subdued performance.

    According to analysts, the equities market could benefit from above-forecasts earnings reports in the second and third quarters as well as stable macroeconomic fundamentals and attractive valuation of the Nigerian stock market relative to developing and emerging market peers.

    Analysts noted that renewed foreign investors’ appetite for the Nigerian market on the back of prolonged monetary easing in the United States could boost market performance.

    They, however, said the market performance could be undermined by weak inflow of external funds on improving economic fundamentals in the USA as well as poor corporate earnings that fail to meet market-wide expectations and end of year sell-off.

    Equities had consolidated their bullish rally in July as improved first-half earnings drove the market to a seven-month average return of 35.03 per cent. Equities closed the seventh month on a high note, trotting back to N12 trillion after adding N581 billion capital gains in July.

    Aggregate year-to-date return thus improved from six-month value of N2.45 trillion to N3.03 trillion by the end of July. After the downtrend in June, the market was particularly spectacular in July with a month-on-month average return of 5.08 per cent.

    Meanwhile, total turnover at the NSE last week stood at 1.1 billion shares worth of N9.10 billion in 17, 076 deals. Financial services stocks accounted for 856.03 million shares valued at N6.01 billion in 9,872 deals; representing 78 per cent of aggregate turnover for the week.

    The financial services sector rode on the back of strong demand for United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Sterling Bank, which boosted the contribution of the dominant banking subsector.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • ACF: Clark dividing Nigeria with ethnic, religious sentiments

    ACF: Clark dividing Nigeria with ethnic, religious sentiments

    The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) yesterday denied urging northern voters not to vote for other candidates except those from the region in the 2015 general elections.

    The forum said it was against what it called the seeming ethnic and religious sentiments of Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, which could divide the nation.

    In a statement yesterday by its spokesman, Anthony Sani, ACF said it has always made it clear that it does not encourage politics of religion and ethnocentrism.

    The forum explained that North’s candidates are free to solicit for votes from any part of the country.

    ACF also said it is against starting the campaigns for the 2015 elections now because it might derail the government.

    According to the forum, this is the same position of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    The forum’s Chairman, Alhaji Aliko Mohammed, reportedly said northerners would only vote for candidates from the region in the 2015 polls.

    The statement said: “I know the chairman as a patriot, a nationalist and a democrat. He would not say or do anything that can cause havoc to the unity, stability, harmony and peace of Nigeria.

    “He knows that a president who is elected by only a section of the country cannot reasonably be expected to bring Nigerians together and help them live up their synergistic potential. That is to say, a president cannot preside over a divided people and expects to succeed.

    “This explains why our chairman has encouraged exchanges of visits among sister organisations and fora across the nation, in furtherance of the spirit of dialogue, which is needed to dispel misconceptions and break barriers and build bridges to enhance the unity and stability of not only the North but also the whole country. This is because the strength and unity of the country come with trust and confidence as well as with a social contract.

    “Therefore, it would be uncharitable for anybody to interpret the remarks by the chairman to mean all northern voters must vote for only northern candidates, and all southern voters must vote only southern candidates in 2015.

    “This is because the chairman is in the know of the trite that such approach to politics can divide the country along regional lines, which contradicts what he stands for and promote: a united, strong Nigeria that is socially diverse, economically empowered and politically active…”