The Nation Newspaper

Tag: sustained

  • Sanusi prays for sustained peace, unity

    Sanusi prays for sustained peace, unity

    The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, yesterday  prayed for the sustenance of peace and unity of the country.

    Addressing the people of the state, shortly after he led the Eid prayer at the Kofar Mata Central Eid ground in Kano, Emir Sanusi stressed the need for the people of the state to also continue to pray for the peace and progress of the state and the country at large.

    He advised them to shun rumour mongering and acts capable of causing misunderstanding and ill-feelings, especially among the leaders of the state.

    The emir, who also prayed for bumper harvest in the state, however, advised unemployed youths to engage in useful ventures in order to be self-reliant and contribute to the development of the country.

    He also called on traders to reduce the prices of their goods in view of the economic situation in the country.

    “I want to use this occasion to call on the traders to reduce the prices to alleviate the sufferings of the people, as we expect bumper harvest,” he said.

    The monarch also urged Muslims to fear God in all their activities, reminding them that each and every one of them must give account of his or her deeds hereafter.

    Among  those that attended the prayer at the Kofar Mata Central Eid ground were  Governor Abdullahi Ganduje; the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Abdullahi Alhaji; Senator Kabiru Gaya; Senator Barau Jibril-Maliya; APC National Treasurer, Alhaji Bala Gwagwarwa; members of the state’s House of Assembly; members of the Emirate Council and other top government functionaries.

    Security was tight during the prayer as armed policemen and other security personnel were deployed in various Eid grounds and other strategic places in the area.

  • Bayelsa acting governor seeks sustained peace

    The Bayelsa State Acting Governor, Rear Admiral John Jonah (retd), yesterday, called on the Federal Government and stakeholders to sustain the peace in Niger Delta to guarantee economic stability in the country.

    Jonah argued that instability in the region affected all sectors of the economy leading to financial crisis in states and in the Federal Government.

    Speaking during the state’s monthly transparency briefing in the Government House, Yenagoa, the acting governor said states and the Federal Government desired oil price and production to remain stable to increase revenue.

    He said: “The Federal Government is not having it easy. They are expecting that towards the end of this year, if oil price remains stable, things will improve. We want oil price to remain stable and production to remain stable.

    “Nigerian oil market indicates incentives that you can get for businessmen to come inside. Once it is stable, it will attract more people. But once there is instability in the Niger Delta, it affects every other thing not just oil production but businessmen can’t come in an area that is unstable”.

    He said peace would also attract investors and industries to improve Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in Bayelsa, adding that the government will have less problem if it generates half of workers pay from IGR.

    “We are trying to get more from our IGR. But who are the people to pay. The industries are not there. We need peace for industries to come so that our IGR will increase.

    “Once we are able to get half of the salaries from IGR, we have stabilised. That is what the government is working on. But unfortunately, we are not there yet. We are working and the prospects are there”.

  • ACF: action okay but must be sustained

    ACF: action okay but must be sustained

    •Ex-Villa Chaplain faults agitation

    The North’s socio-cultural organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) yesterday lauded Southeast leaders for disowning the Biafra agitation.

    It described the Igbo leaders’ dissociation from the advocates of a divided Nigeria as a welcome development and called for the sustenance of that stand.

    ACF Chairman Ibrahim Coomassie, in a telephone interview with our correspondent however noted with displeasure that Igbo leaders were reacting “too late”.

    He wondered why it took take the Igbo leaders so long to disown the Biafra agitators.

    He said: “It is a welcome development and we hope it is genuine, because the leaders of the Igbo remained silent all this while as these people were having a field day, demanding this and that and not until Northern youths issued quit notice to the Igbo that they could react.

    “So, now, that the Igbo leaders have spoken, we are happy and we hope that it is genuine and it will be sustained.

    “The government should now watch out and ensure that the disowned Biafra agitators do not cross the line. If they cross the line and do anything stupid, then the government must quickly take action.

    “Their agitation so far is part of their rights of freedom of expression, but once they break the law, they must be dealt with.”

    Former Aso Villa Chaplain Rev. William Okoye yesterday disagreed with the agitation for a sovereign state of Biafra.

    Okoye, who spoke in Abuja during the mid-year Thanksgiving Service of his Church, urged the government to create a level-playing ground and encourage equity adding that these were the values that develop a nation.

    “I am an Igbo man. I don’t believe in Biafra and I don’t believe that we need to go back to the agitation of Biafra. I was a soldier. I fought during the war.

    “What is driving the agitation is because of the injustice being meted out to the people.

    “We are not just talking about justice for the Igbo but justice for everybody in the country.

    “Government should promote fairness and not to encourage mediocrity but equity; people who are qualified for something should get it irrespective of their religion and where they come from,’’ he said.

  • Why corruption fight must be sustained

    SIR: Majority of Nigerians are corrupt minded, corrupted and are defenders of corruption. They are selfish, partial and unjust. I find it very absurd when someone tells President Muhammadu Buhari to focus on the economy and not the fight against corruption.

    How do you move the economy forward when corruption is eating away at the economy? Is it impatience that is driving us crazy? We should be patient and cut this government some slack here because this is the first time I can feel a government that has the charisma to take the nation out the woods.

    The two major religions Christianity and Islam condemn corruption in all its ramifications. Common sense agrees that corruption is evil. Whatever woes we are saddled with today (including those from our past) is as a result of corruption. Corruption has denied us (the less privileged) of all essentials of life: education, power supply, security, safety on our roads, health; just name it.

    Until we learn to stop sympathizing with bad and corrupt politicians just because we are from the same geopolitical zones, state, village, religion, tribe or even family, we will continue to support evil.  We must also learn to support a crusader to fight evil even if he is from a religion, section or party we dislike.

    As for Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti, it’s normal in a democracy to criticize the government when the need arises. However, meaningful and constructive criticism is what we need, not when it becomes so childish and incessant the way Fayose is doing it. Fayose should stay calm and observe things, as it may turn out that his staunchest of opponent or enemy can do something popular for the good of the generality of the people. It doesn’t impress people when they know that you make noise just to be noticed or for people to say he is tough and fearless. Fayose should know better.

    Let’s call a spade a spade. Those shouting of selective fight are just looking for excuse to discourage the crusade and are nothing but corrupt and corrupted. We must eliminate as much as we can, sectionalism, tribalism and religious sentiments in order to move forward. The corruption crusade must continue and well-meaning Nigerians must continue to support it and let the sponsored and paid critics and groups go on criticizing. Buhari is not one to be distractible anyway. Those being used to draw the hands of the clock backward should remember that their children and grandchildren will definitely ask them as posterity also will. The fight must be holistic meaning from top to bottom. The EFCC must also take the crusade to the states and down to the local governments. That means taking it to the grassroots as this is the only way to nip it in the bud, because some of our politicians always start from the local government up the ladder to the states and federal government.

     

    • Mohammed Jibril,

     Kawo, Kaduna.

  • ‘Improved power supply likely to be sustained’

    ‘Improved power supply likely to be sustained’

    Nigerians seemed to have witnessed improvement in power supply in the last few weeks. The said increase in available generation from 4,517 megawatts (mw) to 4,545mw within two weeks as announced by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), may have further confirmed that the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) is developing.

    The reason for the noticeable relative stability in supply is attributable to improvements across the electricity supply value chain, which include gas supply, reduced vandalism and upgrade of generation facilities by the new investors.

    Pipeline vandalism, which has been a major challenge to increased  output from the power plants, it was gathered, has reduced drastically since President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration came on board about one and half months ago. The frequency of pipelines vandalisation has reduced significantly, The Nation learnt.

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Joint Venture companies also confirmed that there have not been any incidents of vandalisation of pipelines in the past one month. This has resulted in increased and sustainable gas supply to the power sector.

    Besides, the result of investments made by the privatised successor companies, which unbundled the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), has started to manifest after one and half years the companies were handed over to them.

    For instance, Egbin Power Plc and Transcorp Ughelli Power Limited have added more than 1000 megawatts (mw) to the capacities they inherited at the time of handover.

    As at the beginning of this week, generation from Egbin power plant rose from 1000mw two weeks ago to 1016MW as against a maximum output of 500MW at handover. Sahara Power Group and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), owners of Egbin power plant and Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company confirmed that gas supply to the plant increased considerably. They said the improvement in generation was also due to continued investment and upgrade activities on the plant. They assured that the improvement in supply will not only be sustained, but improved upon adding of the six turbines of the power plant that are currently operational. “This is the first time the plant with installed capacity 1320mw is generating above 1000mw,” the firm said. Egbin’s Chief Executive Officer, Dallas Peavey said about N50 billion has been invested in the power company post-privatisation with continuing investment in new technology, innovativeness, professionalism and human capital development.

    The owners of Transcorp Ughelli Power Limited just announced that it has increased output from the asset from 160MW on takeover on November 1, 2013 to 635MW and plans to expand it to 2,200MW in the next three years.

    The Group Executive Director, Gas and Power, NNPC, Dr David Ige said the Corporation is making a lot of progress in the East-West gas pipelines. According to him,  as at the end of May, the Corporation was   supplying over one billion standard cubic feet per day (I bscf/d) of gas to the power sector, adding that by now the production could have risen significantly.

    Ige, however, noted that the Corporation’s expectations is that  it will make significant increase in supply by the end of the year, adding that cumulative production for domestic use is about  two bscf/d.

    He also said some of the available gas is stranded because some power plants are not ready and where possible, the stranded gas will be redirected to operational plants.

    “Over the next couple of months, Nigerians will see increase in gas supply and power. For example, we have gas at Gbarain-Ubie power plant; we have gas at Omoku, which is awaiting the power plant and we have gas at Egbema power plant. When you bring all these gas volumes together, we have close to 2bcf/d, but not all of these are in active generation today. It is either the power plant is not ready or the power evacuation is not ready.

    “On the western side of Nigeria, the Lagos pipeline is almost completed. We have completed and commissioned Lagos to Oben; completed Emure to Itoki and the line from the Benin end to Emure is progressing very well. The expectation is that before the end of August, the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline would have been completed. With all these on stream power supply will improve considerably,” he said.