President Muhammadu Buhari arrives South Africa on a three-day State Visit. PMB is in South Africa following an invitation by President Cyril Ramaphosa, to discuss welfare of Nigerians, and find common grounds for building harmonious relations with their hosts.
Telecoms operators said on Wednesday that they would resist the plan by the Senate to pass a bill raising tax in the sector by nine per cent.
The Red Chamber on Wednesday began the process with the first reading of “A Bill for an Act to provide for Communication Service Tax (CST) as a veritable tool for economic diversification and for related matters.”
The bill is sponsored by Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (Bornu South).
The Communication Service Tax (CST) rate chargeable will be nine per cent for the use of the communication services.
If passed, the proposed tax will replace the 2.2 per cent increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) being proposed by the Federal Government as announced by Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed.
There were signals yesterday that the new law may pit the government against some interests.
Reacting to the ongoing process in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, the telecommunication operators yesterday warned against pushing through the bill. They described it as a fresh attempt to add to the burden of ordinary citizens.
The Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, warned that the bill, if passed into law, would lead to an increase in end-user call tariff.
ALTON is the umbrella body of MTN, Airtel, Glo, 9mobile and other GSM Service providers.
Adebayo said the value of N1000 recharge card would be less than the nine per cent of the tax, adding that the proposed tax will add no value to operators who will become collection agents for the Federal Government.
His counterpart in the ATCON, an umbrella for players in the sub-sector, said the tax would negate the government’s plan to diversify the economy.
ATCON Chairman Olusola Teniola claimed that it will be wrong for the government to tax the citizens out of existence.
He said the impact of the tax would be transferred to the final consumers when such tax was introduced in Ghana, it led to tariff increase, Teniola said.
He wondered if the new tax was directed at reducing the number of internet users in the country, adding that the move will certainly be counter-productive, he said: “We are a law-abiding corporate citizens; we will do everything within the law to resist the tax.”
But the Bill promoter spoke of its merits. Answering reporters’ questions yesterday, Ndume said the CST would encourage wealth distribution in ways that would not affect the ordinary citizens.
He said the proposed increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) by the government would have negative effect on the economy as it would not only affect the prices of goods and services but take them beyond the reach of the common man.
Section 1 of the Bill said: “There shall be imposed, charged, payable and collected a monthly Communication Service Tax to be levied on charges payable by a user of an Electronic Communication Service other than private Electronic Communication Services.
“The tax shall be levied on Electronic Communication Services supplied by service providers. For the purpose of this clause, the supply of any form of recharges shall be considered as a charge for usage of Electronic Communication Service.
“The tax shall be levied on the following Electronic Communication Services:(a)Voice Calls; (b) SMS; (c) MMS; (d) Data usage both from Telecommunication Services Providers and Internet Service Providers; (e) Pay per View TV stations, etc.”
On persons liable to pay the tax, Section 2 of the Bill said: “The tax shall be paid together with the Electronic Communication Service charge payable to the service provider by the consumer of the service.
“The tax is due and payable on any supply of Electronic Communication Service within the time period specified under sub-clause (5) of whether or not the person making the supply is permitted or authorised provide Electronic Communication Services.”
Section 3 added that the rate of the tax is nine per cent of the charge for the use of the communication service.
On the mode of collection and payment into the Federation Account, Section 4 of the Bill said: “The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) established under section 1 of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, 2007, shall be responsible for collection and remittance of tax, any interest and penalty paid under this Bill.
“The FIRS shall pay the tax collected together with any interest and penalty into the Federation Account.”
On the submission of tax return and time for payment, Section 5 of the Bill said: “All service providers shall file a tax return to account for the tax.
“The tax return shall be in a form prescribed by the FIRS and shall state the amount of tax payable for the period and any related matters that may be required.
“The return and the tax due to the accounting period to which the tax return relates shall be submitted and paid to the FIRS not later than the last working day of the month immediately after the month to which the tax return and payment relates.
“The FIRS may extend the period within which the tax return may be submitted and payment made on application in writing by a service provider, where good cause is shown by the applicant.
“The extension shall be communicated to the applicant in writing and shall state the circumstances under which the tax return shall be submitted for the particular period.
“A service provider who without justification fails to submit to the FIRS the tax return by the date is liable to a pecuniary penalty of N50, 000.00 and a further penalty of Nl0,000.00 for each day the return is not submitted.”
The payment of interest and outstanding tax, according to Section 6 of the Bill, “a service provider who fails to pay the tax by the due date shall pay monthly interest on the tax due at a rate of One hundred and Fifty per cent of the average of the prevailing commercial Banks lending rate as published by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“For the purpose of sub-clause of this clause (1) any part of one month shall be deemed to be one month. Subject to clause 6 (6) where the interest payable under sub-clause (1) is not paid within one month after the due date, interest shall be paid on the unpaid interest at the same rate and in the same manner on the unpaid tax.”
On recovery of tax, interest or penalty due, Section 7 of the Bill said: “A tax or penalty of any interest due under this Bill which remain unpaid after the due date may be recovered by the FIRS as a debt.
“An amount shown as the tax on a bill or invoice for Electronic Communication Service usage is recoverable as tax from the person who issues the bill or invoice whether or not – (a) Tax is chargeable on the Electronic Communication Service Usage; or (b) The person who issues the bill or invoice is a person authorized to provide Electronic Communication Service under this Bill.
“Where a body either corporate or unincorporated which is liable for the payment of the tax, of any penalty on interest that arises under the Bill, defaults in payment, in whole or in part after written demand, the directors, partners and the person in control of the body are jointly and severally liable to pay the sum due.”
“Where tax penalty of interest is payable and due under this Bill the FIRS may apply to the Court for an order that compels an individual or business – (a) from whom money is due or is accruing to the person required to apply the, interest or penalty, or…
“(b) who holds money for or on account of the person required to pay the tax interest or penalty to pay to the FIRS that money or so much of it as sufficient to discharge the tax interest or penalty payable and due.”
Capitalism is neither wicked nor cruel when the commodity is the ‘whore’ – blue-collar or brothel ‘whore.’ Nigeria is neither ‘doomed’ nor ‘forsaken’ when the national cake is shared among the loudest activists, shady politicians and public officers.
Profit is neither vicious nor impure when victims of multinationals’ exploitation are voiceless, impoverished host communities, and the bleeding heart rights activist, ‘social influencer’ or crusader-journalist eventually earns courtship and seasonal inducements by the transnational culprits.
Government is neither tribal nor unjust when the Igbo, Hausa, Ibibio, Tiv, Jukun, Yoruba, Fulani groups, to mention a few, have their lands and treasures forcibly splayed for kindred “activists” and “saviours” to plunder.
Values are neither degenerate nor effete when its the ‘emancipated’ youth having sex in a public toilet or unisex hostel on Big Brother Naija (BBN); sexual slavery becomes hip when ‘future leaders’ are presented as meat and body parts on the ill-conceived reality show.
When reality is different, let’s cut to the chase and blame government for everything. While we do so, let us remember to blame Muhammadu Buhari and his “under-performing” cabinet and cliques for our elevation of fatuity as enchanted condition.
We should blame government for our fancy pornography, the drab one too, while we conveniently forget that our erotica of the left-wing is the graveyard where our “woke” clans slither to die in eternal wokeness.
Dworkin was wrong to imagine that the Left cannot have its politics and whores. We are Leftists, or progressives if you like, and in our clan, politics and whoredom are in perfect sync.
Nigeria’s whoredom proliferates by her youth. The latter, having learnt to manipulate protest into performance, emerge as a rising political bloc. Dirty artifice, hitherto an exclusive preserve of questionable politicians, becomes the tool by which they renegotiate their claims to social spoils.
Yea, Buhari, no matter the frequency of his bursts of political savvy and implied strength, will never curry the favour of his most virulent critics. This, unfortunately, shall be his lot until push gets to shove a la 2023 general elections.
Nonetheless, Nigeria has got you and I to save her from the ravage of familiar predators, plundering her treasure trove for sport. Who knew pillage could be so elevated as recreation, and that coffer rapists could attain the honour of national heroes?
The malady persists by our psychology of youth participation in politics, which highlights a lust for instant gratification and unearned greatness. This explains why some youths, goaded by sycophancy and a false sense of self-worth made frantic gestures to become Nigeria’s president at the last general elections.
Their ambition had little to do with being visionary and competent for the job. It was arrant narcissism.
A curious form of what clinical psychologists would call maladaptive self-love seem to have crept up on the Nigerian youth. Little wonder hordes of youths, unquestioningly, submit as tools and canon fodder for violence and destruction, for a fee, at election time.
It also explains, perhaps, why otherwise promising youth would scorn morals and intellect, and submit as lab rats in the ongoing Big Brother Naija (BBN) experimental porn.
There is no gainsaying youth participation in politics thrives on the pursuit of material gain and status by circumventing the cycle of honest endeavour. Most youths are wildly exploitative, they lack empathy, and possess unrealistic fantasies concerning political and socioeconomic success.
A recent study carried out to examine personality traits and narcissism as predictors of pathological selfie among undergraduates of a federal university establishes narcissism as a major driver of neurotic lust for selfies among the university students.
A similar lust sprouts by the notion that young presidential candidates at the 2019 elections were simply bidding for face-time. “They know they cannot win, they only wish to register their presence en route the 2023 elections,” argued their apologists.
The argument also persists that many contested in order to land plum compensations or jobs in the cabinet of the eventual winner from the big parties.
Several young candidates at the 2019 general elections, no doubt, emerged to take political selfies; and this portends the most dangerous case of self-love, given that thousands of voters hinged their destinies at the mercy of their aberrant lust.
Another study reveals narcissistic facets in narratives of Nigeria’s advance fee fraud letters. The paper analyses a sample of 100 advanced fee fraud letters or Nigerian scams by fraudsters otherwise known as Yahoo Boys. Analysis of the scams highlight a Machiavellian/narcissistic approach of human behaviour and morality.
It presents scams as narratives that give us various perceptions about the youth in the present era. It draws a set of moral principles and values that are explicitly declared by fraudsters similar to the young candidate’s platitudinous chant.
A similar approach is adopted by many a Nigerian revolutionary and woke youth. To them, political participation and protest are simply facets and scenes in their performance theatre. Their strategy involves starting a ruckus until government drags them by force or persuasion to the negotiation board.
As soon as favourable terms are reached, they withdraw to enjoy their loot and ‘elevated’ status in silence. When confronted on their sudden silence, they will brazenly say: “When you are eating, you don’t talk.” It’s called table manners.
Activism, to them, is hardly about ideals. It’s an artificial construction, a performance to seduce karma’s fearsome power. To withstand providence’s scourge, they reinvent themselves as rights activists, advocacy-journalists, ‘social influencers, sociopreneurs, mediapreneurs’ – apology to such ‘practitioners’ plying honest endeavour.
Eventually, the shady among them, would get storm-tossed and drown in nature’s barbarous deep.
The duplicity within is what we should fear. It is the root of our predicament. And it thrives on narcissism.
Vicelich writes, that, narcissists “behave like four-year-olds: it’s all about them.” They don’t recognise personal boundaries, they hog conversations, crave constant validation and take criticism extremely badly.
“They want your attention, they need things right now – it’s all about instant gratification – and they really have an undeveloped sense of self,” she says, thus diagnosing the tantrums of many 2019 Nigerian aspirants.
They can be charming, flirtatious company too, notes Hinsliff, but they see others largely as extensions of themselves and can be controlling, cruel or critical of anyone they feel reflects badly on them.
Honest criticism wounds their fragile egos and they may become violent, broken or commit to drugs. Some simply commit suicide. This is, however, not an attempt to make light of the disconcerting suicide culture or its triggers and dangerous manifestations.
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter supply them with oodles of their ‘fix’ as measurable likes and shares.
In his Metamorphosis, Ovid narrates the story of Narcissus making it clear that he will live a long life “if he does not discover himself.”
Narcissus, it’s worth remembering, eventually died of loneliness and sorrow sprung from his distorted perception of self. He got destroyed by extreme self-love and maladjusted behaviour.
It’s about time millions of Nigerian Narcissi understood that the most underrated act of patriotism, even if built on self-love, is the ability, just occasionally, to get over yourself.
A Developer and Managing Director, Eximia Realty Company Ltd, owners of Fiona Lawton Apartments Lekki, Mr. Hakeem Ogunniran has canvassed the need to re-engineer home design and construction to achieve maximum efficiency. He said the general trend of urban dwelling in leading cities across the globe since 2011 is that ‘the era of mac-mansion’ (big structures is gone) as a result of limited land supply and the spiraling construction costs.
He spoke at the ground –breaking ceremony of Fiona Lawton Apartments an upscale estate in Lekki over the weekend. He said: “ The reality on ground has made it necessary to optimize living and maintenance costs and this is reflected in the significant reduction in the average sizes of dwelling apartments in such cities as New York (39 square meters) London(46 square meters) Paris (36 square meters) and Hong Kong (15square meters)in the last few years”.
The former Managing Director of UACN properties said his objective is to create a unique and innovative platform to deliver real estate solutions by addressing emerging living models tailored to contemporary urban lifestyles.
On what informed his market segmentation, Ogunniran said: “Our deduction from empirical analysis is that there is a reasonably significant market for micro apartments designed to suit the Nigerian lifestyle preferences in Lagos and a few other cities. We are set to tap into that opportunity through our ‘uniquely crafted living spaces’ based on the concepts of ‘Compact, Comfortable and Convenient Dwelling’’. The dwelling units speak to the needs of discerning investors including young, upwardly mobile professionals and families who loathe commuting but are willing to trade size for proximity. We are happy to announce that we are greatly encouraged by the market acceptance of Kyrious and Fiona Lawton apartments – our first foray into our defined market segment”.
On the house type he said the estate is a gated community of between 48-60 apartments comprising of studios, 1 and 2 bedroom apartments (and 3 bedrooms on special request). He revealed that they are set to launch similar developments in Surulere, Ilupeju, Yaba, Ikeja, Ogba and Ikoyi in the next few weeks and months.
Furthermore, he said the developments are fully complemented by his company’s creation of ‘Home Ownership Ecosystem’ to tackle both the supply and demand sides of housing delivery. He also said he is ready to collaborate with Lagos State Government on any of her Public Private Partnership (PPP) on housing.
On some of the features he said they have playground for children, Communal Lounge for adults, Biofiland Water treatment plant, Wifi, Laundromat, CCTV and Controlled access to the estate.
On payment options he revealed that his organisation recently launched Kyrious Real Estate Multipurpose Society to ease the burden of home acquisition and financing for potential home owners.
Earlier the Special Guest and Commissioner For Housing, Lagos State Moruf Akinderu Fatai , noted the challenges associated with home ownership in Lagos but maintained that they are poised towards solving it with strategic partnership with the private sector.
He said: “The challenge of housing deficit is real but the current administration in the state is determined to implement policies that will make decent housing available for all irrespective of religious and ethnic inclinations”.
The election petition tribunal sitting in Jos, the Plateau State capital, has upheld the electoral victory of Governor Simon Lalong.
It said the petitioners, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship standard-bearer, Senator Jeremiah Useni, failed to prove allegations of electoral fraud beyond reasonable doubt.
The runner up in the Plateau governorship election, Senator Useni and the PDP had petitioned the court, claiming to be the winner of the poll, having scored the majority of the votes cast.
Senator Useni also claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was wrong to have declared Governor Lalong of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the election.
Reading the judgement, which lasted over four hours, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Halima Salami, said the petitions against Governor Lalong’s victory were not strong enough to convince the court to upturn the outcome of the March 2019 governorship election in Plateau State.
The Nigeria Institution of Surveyors (NIS) has agreed that the association have a need to do more on training, skill acquisition and ethical standards. They regretted that some unethical practice among members may have cost their clients some losses and is bent on addressing it with competitive training and welfare for members.
Chairman of Association of Private Practising Surveyors of Nigeria (APPSN), Akomolafe Ademola at the annual workshop of the Group held in Ikeja yesterday with the theme “ Professionalism on the Cross: Surveying practices and legal laws”, said the objectives of establishing the sub group of the institution is to afford members the opportunity of continuous development. He said the association has put in a place a robust strategy that involves maintaining a strong and cordial relationship with relevant associations and institutions.
Admonishing the members he said: “To ensure that our practice is robust , sustainable and rewarding and how to make it better, it is important that we practice ethically putting the interest and satisfaction of our clients in view but also working in line with set industry standards. To this end the APPSN and NIS established the Practice Monitoring and investigating initiatives to give bite to our monitoring and investigating initiatives. It is important to also to warn our erring members that the administration will in no way tolerate unethical practice of any type”.
Chairman, Lagos, NIS, Adeleke Adesina said they are poised towards sanitizing the institution . He encouraged his professional colleagues to be multi –disciplinary to serve the public more professionally adding that those who circumvent the law will no longer be absolved.
The Guest lecturer Barrister Ogbebor Osaretin encouraged surveyors to be multi tasking to ensure they deliver service to their clients. He said some clients have unfortunately lost their land as a result ignorance by some surveyors who were not diligent enough to get fact and figures about a particular land that is in dispute.
According to him when land is said to be in dispute are instances whereby two or more persons claim ownership of a parcel or piece of land, with each of them relying on his or her root of title to the said land, with a view to showing a better title than the other.
He listed 5 ways in which ownership or title to land may be proved as proof of traditional evidence;
ii. Proof of acts of ownership, acts by persons claiming the land such as selling, leasing, renting out all or part of the land, or farming on it or otherwise utilising the land beneficially such acts of time and numerous and positive enough to warrant the inference that he is the true owner;
iii. Proof of production of document of title which must be authenticated;
iv. Proof of ownership by acts of long possession and enjoyment in respect of the land to which the acts are done;
v. Proof of possession of connected or adjacent land circumstances rendering it probable that the owner of such connected or adjacent land would in addition be the owner of the land in dispute, may rank also as means of proving ownership of the land in dispute.
He advised that a surveyor who does not know the above will incur losses for his client underscoring the need for continuous education and skill acquisition.
He added that surveyors are the only professionals, statutorily empowered to carry out survey exercise on any parcel of land in Nigeria, with a view to determining its identity, location, size, shape, boundaries, area and description and to produce the plan thereof and should not for any reason shirk their responsibilities.
President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State and Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State on the affirmation of their victories in the March 2019 gubernatorial polls by the state Governorship Election Petition Tribunals.
Buhari, who is travelling with the two victorious All Progressives Congress (APC) governors to South Africa on a state visit, extended his goodwill to the duo on Wednesday shortly before departure from the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The President, according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, described the verdict of the tribunals as a victory for democracy.
He praised the people of Kano and Plateau states for maintaining the peace, and allowing due process of law to prevail by respecting the role of the judiciary in a democracy.
There was pandemonium when students of the Federal University of Technology, Minna (Futminna), in Niger State, tackled a tanker driver as a result of an accident that occurred around the school premises.
An eyewitness told CAMPUSLIFE that the accident occurred during the Students Union campaign in preparation for its election proposed to hold last weekend.
During the students campaigning to other campus at Bosso, the tanker driver was reported to have hit a student while trying to overtake another car. Trouble started when the tanker driver remained adamant despite that the victim sustained serious injury and was quickly rushed to a hospital.
“Instead of apologising to the entire students and settling the matter amicably, the driver fumed, saying’ ‘Is it not just one student out of many?’ The statement infuriated the already incensed campaigners who engaged the driver and the indigenes of the community,” the eyewitness said.
A student, who identified herself simply as Mariam, confirmed the recalcitrance of the driver.
She said: “When the incident happened, the driver did not feel sorry. This prompted the students to block the road, preventing other vehicular movement. Later on, other tanker drivers gathered and started all sorts of unfriendly acts.
“They (drivers) threatened to burn down the students’ houses around, that is where the indigenes intervened that they would not fold their arms while their fathers’ properties are being set ablaze, all because of the students.
“It was later on that they started fighting the students with knives, weapons and even entered the school to destroy properties and burned down two cars.”
Speaking to CAMPUSLIFE, another student Adetoro Opeyemi said: “A student was standing on one of the campaign cars, and a tanker was coming from behind the car. Upon seeing this, the student jumped down from the car and the tanker hit him, this later caused a leg injury.
“Students tried to stop the driver but he did not. After view minutes, he parked at a nearby filling station where the students rushed to him to explained what havoc he had caused. The driver’s reply got the students angry. Even though he escaped, all later turned to a fight between his fellow drivers, indigenes and students.”
“The crisis started around 1pm on (last) Thursday and was later resolved the following day,” he added.
Public relation office of FUTMinna Students’ Union Abdulrasheed Ibrahim, said it all happened when a driver hit one of the students campaigning around.
“But before we knew it later that day, the drivers and the villagers have already joined to fight the students and started destroying properties including cars,” Ibrahim told CAMPUSLIFE on phone.
He continued: “After the intervention of the government; the police came around and that worsened the whole thing. They were throwing teargas at the students which got many injured. Even the SU president and one of the vice presidential aspirants were wounded.
“As a result of this, all academic activities have been put on hold for now, and instructions have been given that the tankers parked around the school should be moved away. The school is supposed to commence the semester examination in two weeks time, and the managements does not want to alter academic calendar,” he concluded.
THAT morning, time appeared frozen for a while. Everything stood still and there was chaos everywhere. Both sides of the road were blocked. Those going to Lagos who were taking the right lane and those heading the same way but following the wrong way were stuck in traffic.
The situation was beyond the security agencies; they just looked on as motorists sweated it out in traffic that early morning. It was just 6.07a.m., and everywhere was locked down. Ascending the Long Bridge at Wawa was impossible as traffic stretched backward from there to MFM.
It was also impossible descending the bridge at the same point as those trying to ascend it the wrong way blocked oncoming vehicles. Policemen from the nearby Wawa Police Division shouted themselves hoarse as they tried to restore sanity. But the motorists did not budge. They were determined to have their way despite being in the wrong.
What happened around that corridor of the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway on Monday was sheer madness. All hell was let loose as motorists attempted to get out of the traffic congestion at the same time at all costs, but the more they did so, the more they compounded the gridlock. It was not something that should have caught the security agencies offguard because it all started on Sunday. They should have prepared for the Monday madness going by what happened the previous day.
Anybody who followed that road on Sunday would have foreseen what happened on Monday. I was prepared for it, thinking that by leaving home around 6a.m., I would not be caught in the logjam. I was wrong. By the time I hit the express around 6.06a.m., I knew there was trouble. I was not prepared for what I saw. My calculation was that I would have ascended the bridge before running into traffic. But I ran into traffic virtually in front of my home.
As I took my turn in the Lagos-bound traffic from Arepo busstop, I surveyed my surrounding; I had ample time to do that since we were not moving anyway. The drama on the other side of the road kept us busy as motorists blocking oncoming vehicles stood their ground. There would not have been any need for that if the security agencies had got their act right ahead of time going by what we were told before Julius Berger began work at the Kara/Berger axis last month.
They should have envisaged what happened on Monday and taken precautionary steps. Men and materials should have been stationed at both ends of the Long Bridge at Wawa long before dawn to stop any motorist from driving against traffic. As usual, they left everything to chance. You do not take chances in matters like this knowing full well the way many motorists behave at the slightest sign of traffic jam.
The presence of the police and road safety personnel would have deterred motorists from driving against traffic. There is no other time than now for them to make their presence felt more on that road, at least until Julius Berger finishes its work there. Traffic on that road is something that motorists have come to live with, but their pains can be eased, especially during this difficult period of its rehabilitation by Julius Berger. This can be done with the police and road safety personnel maintaining a 24-hour vigilance on the road.
The police and road safety personnel should not just appear on the scene when things have gone awry and think that they can perform magic. We have talked and talked about alternative routes to ease motorists’ pain without anything being done about the issue.
Rather than improve on the untarred route from Wawa that bursts out at the OPIC intersection, Julius Berger has dug a ditch across the road, making it unusable. If the place had been available on Monday, things would not have been that bad. Why did Julius Berger do that? We may never know as the citizenry and their wellbeing matter little to the government and its contractors in matters like this. So, I will not be surprised if that Monday episode repeats itself. It was the last day of September and it turned out to be the most memorable day of the month. A September to remember! You can say that again.
THE cry came from the depths of her heart. “Why do they like to kidnap me?” Madam Beauty Uguoere Siasia asked no one in particular. She was thinking out loud. She answered the poser thus: “They said my son is a millionaire”. Is it an offence for someone’s child to be well to do?
I fear for Mama Siasia who kidnappers have now turned into ATM. They know that if they kidnap her, her son Samson will cough out any amount to get her back. For how long will she and her family live in fear of kidnappers? The first time they came for her in 2015, they held her for 12 days.
They returned for her on July 19 and kept her till Sunday before releasing her after collecting an undisclosed amount of ransom. At 80, she does not deserve this kind of treatment. What she deserves now is round the clock protection by the police. Will that be asking for too much? I do not think so.
To boost foreign exchange earnings for the country, stakeholders in the cocoa sub-sector advise that there should be genuine commitment to enhance the value of cocoa through value addition and expansion of commercial opportunities, writes DANIEL ESSIET.
Cocoa is essential to the livelihoods of 40 to 50 million people worldwide, including over five million smallholder cocoa farmers who grow the valuable crop.
For instance, the growing popularity of cocoa on account of its health benefits is driving the market.
Scientists have confirmed that cocoa is essential for the achievement of reduced inflammation and risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), better blood circulation and improved cholesterol levels.
Furthermore, increase in use of organic products due to their long-lasting skin care benefits has boost up the demand for cocoa beans in the cosmetics sub-sector.
According to Grand View Research, United States-based market research and consulting company, the industry is undergoing unprecedented growth in order to cater for changing desires of the consumers.
The impact of cocoa on the global economy is growing. Across the world, the industry provides millions of jobs and contributes significantly to gross domestic product (GDP) globally. The international cocoa beans market size is expected to reach $16.32 billion by 2025.
Among the abundant natural resources that may be found in Nigeria, cocoa stands out.
While cocoa is the nation’s best-performing commodity, growers are still reeling from price volatility, when bigger-than-expected harvests sent prices tumbling. The plunge hurt, cut incomes for thousands of farmers and served as a stark reminder of how vulnerable producers are to swing in international markets.
One of those affected is the Chairman, All Farmers’ Association of Nigeria (AFAN) Atakumosa West Local Government Area of Osun State. Olusoji is a cocoa famer. He has been in the business for more than 25 years. He farms on more than 20 hectares of land.
Income from cocoa, he noted, enables families to pay for their basic commodities, medicines and schooling for their children.
According to him, there are vast opportunities that farmers can take advantage of, adding that the key to the success of cocoa both in the domestic and international markets is in the quality of the beans and the workers who produce them.
For him, there is always a market for cocoa; sometimes not at its best price.
He then reeled off some of the challenges to its sustainability, which include the problems of climate change, deforestation and disease and some of the ways they were being addressed.
All the solutions he proffered point to one intractable problem. However, it has become almost impossible for the people of Osu dependent on cocoa to survive on the money they make from the crop.
OSU contributes to the total cocoa beans Nigeria offers the world chocolate market but the average daily earnings for a farmer are poor.
Demand for chocolate has been growing worldwide and it’s expected to continue on this path over the coming years. Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and Togo are the main cocoa-producing countries in West Africa.
Among the most important final destinations for Nigeria’s cocoa is Europe where more than 800,000 tons of chocolate are consumed each year. But the relationship between the chocolate consumers and producers has undergone a profound shift. When cocoa prices were high in the 1970s, the beans accounted for nearly half of the value of a chocolate bar.
Currently, producers receive around six per cent of the value of the final product. The rest goes to branded manufacturers who take roughly 44 per cent share and retailers who take 35 per cent. This is because the squeeze in the value of the commodity makes the situation of cocoa farmers ever more precarious.
Since 2016, the price for cocoa has fluctuated between $1,500 and $2,400 a ton.
Although there have been schemes to improve the quality of production and yields, experts believe that supply glut and subsequent fall in global prices from 2017 shows the danger of boosting production without pursuing value addition.
Globally, the market price of cocoa has been falling and the Programme Coordinator, Farmers’ Development Union (FADU) Victor Olowe believes that it was a major reason to add value to the nation’s cocoa beans.
While Nigeria’s influence on global cocoa supply is massive, it’s mostly limited to unprocessed beans.
Olowe said: “It was necessary to move from the sale of the raw cocoa beans to processed cocoa.
Overly reliance on the export of raw cocoa was at the expense of the value creation as it is destroying local value.”
Continuing, Olowe said: “Cocoa producers should invest in cocoa processing facilities to cut down on the cost of local processing and increase domestic consumption.”
As Nigeria processes cocoa at home, the Chief Operating Officer, the Centre for Cocoa Development Initiative, Robo Adhuze added that there are employment opportunities in the manufacturing of chocolate and butter.
Adhuze said there was good potential for increasing the export of processed cocoa rather than exporting only cocoa beans.
He said exporters needed to add value to the cocoa and much of that is done outside of the economy.
While Nigeria, like other West African countries, have been seeking fortunes in cocoa, what exporters sell mostly are unprocessed beans. This is because the European cocoa and chocolate industry traditionally imports cocoa beans as raw material.
Processing of cocoa and the purchasing of semi-finished products are traditionally done within Europe.
According to analysts, the European chocolate industry prefers to keep different processing steps under close control. The idea is to ensure quality management but, most importantly, to match consumer tastes in different markets.
Adhuze said a lot has not been implemented to get the cocoa industry back on track.
He lamented that Nigeria and other cocoa producers have long been at the mercy of traders who set cocoa prices thousands of miles away in London and New York.
He said chocolate manufacturing is a thriving business, in which big companies make high profits. While these companies are competing for ever higher market shares and higher profits, he said millions of cocoa farmers’ bear the costs by getting less and less share from the revenues. He said insecurity of farmers’ income is affected by volatile cocoa prices.
The consequences of price volatility, together with increasing production costs, he maintained, are economic insecurity and impoverishment for cocoa farmers.
The only way out of the price volatility, he explained, is to improve upon processing and local production.
Adhuze believes re-energising the cocoa sector entails building the capacity of farmers and providing them with high-quality planting materials.
The other factor is introducing sustainable farming methods in cocoa-producing communities.
He wants farmers to be trained in integrated crop pests and quality management, farm safety and child labour through the farmers’ field schools.
Aside from training, he said farmers need seedlings of improved cocoa varieties.
The clamour, according to him, is for high-yielding, disease-resistant and early-maturing seeds that can produce fruits within three years if the recommended agronomic practices are followed.
According to him, long neglect has affected transportation and storage infrastructure and left most of the farmlands fallow for the most part.
The President, Cocoa Farmers’ Association of Nigeria, Adeola Adegoke said improving cocoa production would benefit families of farmers.
And in a country where unemployment rate is more than 70 per cent of the working population, he was of the opinion that strengthening the position of cocoa as a cash crop will provide an opportunity for increasing employment and foreign exchange earnings.
Other stakeholders said it was not attractive to sell cocoa at a discount to local processors as there was ample demand internationally at premium prices.
Challenge
The primary reason many Nigerians do not patronise locally-made chocolates is because they are expensive and cannot be catered for by the ordinary man’s pocket.
Cocoa’s promising market
Despite negative impacts of economic downturn, analysts say the demand for cocoa in the food and chocolate confectionaries market will continue. Also the newfound application in cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry keeps the pace of gains for the market high.
The recent trends of using it as a raw material across diverse industries are also expected to give impetus to the cocoa market.
In a stable market, a ton of bulk cocoa has an average value that ranges between $3,100 and $3,500 per ton.
A Senior Lecturer, the University of Ibadan, Dr. Adeola Olajide called for concerted efforts to support cocoa farmers to improve their livelihood in the face of a number of social and economic challenges.
Dr. Olajide said the cocoa sub-sector is a major engine of economic activity, generating significant export revenue and providing livelihood for many farmers.
Future sustainable development of the sector, she noted, faces significant challenges, which include falling productivity, diminishing farmer incomes, poor physical infrastructure that obstruct access to markets and concerns over deforestation
