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  • Burna Boy makes unforgettable Coachella debut

    Afrofusion sensation, Damini Ogulu, aka, Burna Boy delivered an unforgettable performance of his biggest songs at his Coachella debut on Sunday night.

    The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo club in Indio, California.

    It is one of the most famous, and profitable music festivals in the United States and all over the world. Burna Boy is billed to perform on Sunday night.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Burna Boy, dressed in an eccentric Burberry stripped-fringed jacket and trouser, jumped on stage to perform a medley of his songs.

    Read Also: Burna Boy to perform at New York’s Apollo Theatre

    The crowd sang along as he performed ‘Killin Dem’, ‘Dangote’, ‘On The Low’ among others and danced the popular Zanku.

    NAN recalls that Burna Boy had expressed his displeasure over the font size his name was written in on the Coachella poster.

    He referred to himself as an ‘African Giant’, asking the organisers to respect his status and write his name in a much larger font.

    He secured the most awards at the 2019 Soundcity MVP Awards, bringing home four plaques including ‘African Artiste of the Year’.

    He won the ‘Melody of the Year’, ‘Audience’s Choice’ and ‘Best Male MVP’

    NAN

  • Nigeria, Cameroon troops eliminate 27 terrorists

    Nigeria and Cameroon troops killed 27 Boko Haram terrorists in a joint clearance operations, destroyed gun trucks and recovered arms and ammunition belonging to the terrorists.

    Col. Sagir Musa, the Acting Director Army Public Relations, confirmed this in a statement on Monday.

    Musa said the troops’ encounter with the terrorists took place in the Northern part of Wulgo, Tumbuma, Chikun Gudu and Bukar Maryam villages.

    He said that no casualty was recorded on the part of the Nigerian and Cameroonian forces.

    Read Also: ‘Nigeria spends $1b dollars annually on fish importation’

    Musa listed items recovered as five gun trucks, five AK 47 rifles, one automatic revolver Galil rifle, one G3 rifle, two General Purpose Machine gun and two Anti Aircraft guns.

    He said others were four Rocket Propelled gun tubes, one PK machine gun, one M21 rifle, one locally made dane gun, five Rocket Propelled gun tube bombs and 1000 assorted rounds of different calibre ammunition.

    Also recovered from them were five AK 47 magazines, several links of 12.7 MM, one land Cruiser Buffalo, one Nissan GT, several motorcycles, one flag and a grinding machine, while one land Cruiser was destroyed.

    Musa said coordinated military operation was ongoing, especially in the fringes of Gombaru-Ngala and surrounding areas to deal with terrorists fleeing from the onslaught of the Multinational Joint Task Force.

    NAN

     

     

     

  • North under threats of bandits, say Northern elders

    NORTHERN group, Northern Elders Forum (NEF), has lamented that the region is under threats of bandits.

    It said while the region still lives under Boko Haram’s threats, large swathes of territory in the North have effectively become bandits’ land.

    The forum’s chairman and convener, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, stated these while addressing a news conference on behalf of the group in Zaria, Kaduna State.

    The forum, therefore, demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari should demonstrate higher levels of concern and sensibility to the plight of traumatised citizens, especially in Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Benue, Niger, Plateau and Taraba states.

    Abdullahi said: “Today, the North still lives under horrendous Boko Haram threats, a situation which has been aggravated by threats of banditry, kidnappings, armed robbery, marauding youth gangs, herders and farmers mini-wars, and seemingly overwhelmed or indifferent governments.

    Read Also: Breaking: Northern Elders endorse President Buhari

    “Large swathes of territory in our region are now effectively bandits’ land. Agriculture, our pride and national economic comparative advantage, the greatest employer of labour and leading contributor to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product is in ruins as animal husbandry, and crops and roots farming are in the throes of war and damage.

    “Our rural folk live in perpetual fear of attacks from sundry terrorist assailants without any reprieve. Our major highways and transportation systems are being abandoned as they have become death traps.

    “We see in all these the cumulative effect of a region whose economy and people, especially the youth, have been abandoned. A dangerous youth bulge is indeed a recipe for crime, violence and wars. We understand that poverty and under-development can create a brutish and violent society.

    “Nigeria has just emerged from a very challenging and harrowing set of elections. This experience should provide a strategic turning-point in the manner that political leaders respond to our basic national challenges.”

    Abdullahi added: “We hereby demand that President Buhari demonstrates higher levels of concern and sensitivity to the plight of traumatised citizens in the country, especially in the states of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Benue, Niger, Plateau, Taraba and virtually the entire North.

    “We demand for decisive, comprehensive and fundamental governmental action against poverty, under-development and insecurity.

    “Above all, we demand that President Buhari shows leadership and compassion, which are the reciprocal expectations of the Nigerian people from their President.

    “Should the citizens of the most populous black and African country and blessed with bounteous human and material resources be running away from bandits and criminals and become entangled in a causative web of crime, poverty, misery and under-development?

    “Without justifying the emigration of our people to other lands, we now see how and why our young men and women seek escape to Europe across the Sahara Desert to pursue menial jobs. We now painfully see how desperate Nigerians running away from home, become victims of xenophobic attacks in some countries.”

  • FRSC: driving against traffic on Lagos-Ibadan highway to attract psychiatric test

    THE Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) said any motorists caught creating additional lanes and or driving against traffic on the Lagos-lbadan Expressway will be booked for a psychiatric check.

    FRSC Lagos State Sector Commander Mr. Hyginus Omeje, who stated this at the weekend in Lagos, said erring motorists would also have their vehicles impounded.

    According to Omeje, one of the causes of the constant gridlock on the road is impatience and lane abuse by most road users.

    He said: “A good assessment of the road, which I have done severally, revealed that there is nothing wrong with the road. But everything is wrong with the users, who constitute a law unto themselves and willfully break all known laws of transportation.

    “Although, the road is undergoing rehabilitation and expansion, which has gotten to Magboro by MFM Church and at that point, lbadan bound traffic was diverted to share the lane with inward Lagos traffic.

    “The narrowing of the carriageway at the diversion point caused serious gridlock last week.

    “The problem is always compounded anytime motorists create additional lanes or drive against traffic, leading to crashes.

    “We are not interested in arrest, but to get the road free of gridlock. However, many motorists are creating a problem for us by creating additional lanes or driving against traffic, especially anytime there’s a breakdown.

    “We will soon start to book erring road users, who are compounding problems on that corridor,” Omeje said.

    The FRSC chief noted that impatience had caused so much chaos and harrowing experience for motorists on the corridor.

    He urged motorists to always maintain their lanes, saying that lane discipline and obedience to traffic law is required by all road users to ensure a free flow of traffic.

    Omeje said the construction companies from OPIC had put signage from 50 kilometres, 80 kilometres, and 100 kilometres per hour speed limit.

    “No spirit, no demon is causing anything on that road, but the attitude of the road users, which is underscored by impatience and lawlessness.

    “Our men are ready to enforce the law and to curb the excesses of people creating additional lanes and driving against traffic.”

    The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway is 127.6-kilometre long (79.3 miles) connecting lbadan to Lagos and also a major route to the Eastern, Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria.

    The expressway is the oldest in Nigeria and was commissioned in August 1978.

    It is also the busiest interstate route in Nigeria and handles more than 250,000 vehicles daily and constitutes one of the largest road networks in Africa.

  • Long fuel queues amid IMF’s call for subsidy removal

    Long queues have resurfaced at filling stations raising fears of fuel scarcity. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has since allayed such fears. Although there was improvement in supply yesterday, many outlets remain shut in anticipation of shortage. Assistant Editor EMEKA UGWUANYI examines the cause of this development.

    It all started with the speculation that there was shortage of fuel imports. Eventually, three days ago, many retail outlets were shut. The few that were selling had very long queues as motorists waited patiently to fill their vehicles tanks and buy some in kegs to keep as reserves and for domestic use, in expectation, the fuel scarcity will escalate.  Many of the filling stations that claimed not to have the product, it was later discovered, were only hoarding to sell at a higher price or to those that hawk fuel in gallons by the roadside, should the scarcity worsens. However, the stakeholders in the downstream especially the fuel marketing firms under the aegis of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) in collaboration with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) were able to bring the situation under control.

    Cause of the current scarcity

    The NNPC has been the sole importer of premium motor spirit (PMS) or petrol in the past few years as players in the downstream couldn’t import and sell at the regulated price pump price of N145 per litre. The NNPC as a state-owned organisation pays the shortfall that arises from subsidizing the product from the Federal Government coffers under the term “under-recovery cost.” Under-recovery, according to the NNPC, is the amount of subsidy the Corporation gains on behalf of the government for the importation and supply of petroleum products at a landing cost above the official retail pump price of N145 per litre of petrol. To industry analysts, there is no difference between under-recovery and subsidy. But because the Federal Government had said it has stopped payment of fuel subsidy but refused to deregulate the price of petrol, the NNPC adopted the under-recovery approach to be able to access public fund, which the private sector oil marketers cannot. Therefore, whenever there is a slight delay in NNPC’s fuel imports, it reverberates and the impact is fuel scarcity and that is what happened in this scenario.

    Read also: Disregard rumour of fuel scarcity, NNPC tells Nigerians

    As Nigeria is almost 100 per cent dependent on imported petrol for national consumption, issues arising from delays in the arrival of ships carrying fuel to some cargoes being off-specification. In the case of the consignment being off-spec, it is either the industry regulator, turns the vessel back to the place of import or the product would be blended to specification before being pushed out to the public for consumption. These issues occur often but because they are promptly resolved, the consuming public doesn’t get to know or feel it.

    According to the Executive Secretary, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) Mr Clement Isong, who told The Nation early enough on Friday that the scarcity that existed wouldn’t last beyond the weekend, said their members had enough stock. He said there was no scarcity and advised fuel consumers not to engage in panic-buying as what led to the gap in fuel supply and distribution, which resulted in the queues at fuel stations, was a minor operational problem. The problem, according to him, has been addressed and depots are loading 24 hours and whatever supply gap will be closed within the weekend. Companies that makeup MOMAN include Total Nigeria Plc, Conoil Plc, Oando Plc, 11Plc (formerly Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc), MRS Oil Nigeria Plc and Forte Oil Plc.

    Isong said: “All MOMAN members’ tanks have the product (petrol). There is no supply shortage. What caused the queue is a minor operational hitch. Whenever there is such technical issue and it takes up to 12 hours to resolve, it upsets supply and distribution chains and that is what happened in this scenario because it created backlogs of loadings that could have been done much earlier. However, the problem has been resolved. I advise the public not to embark on panic-buying as there is enough fuel. The gap in supply created by the technical problem will be closed within the weekend as our members are loading 24 hours through the weekend.”

    An official of one of the depots owned by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) who didn’t want his identity disclosed said the problem was a slight scarcity. According to him, during the election period, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) didn’t make enough fuel imports. As a result of that shortage in import, there wasn’t enough fuel to go round and the NNPC has ever since been rationing what it has in stock. He said for instance, “If 10 depots supposed to get supply from NNPC and only five depots were able to get at the end of the day, certainly there must be a gap and that is the reason you see queues at the filling stations. We have marketers that have paid for fuel in our depot in the past two to three weeks and they are yet to be loaded because of inadequate fuel but I believe that supply shortfall will be addressed soon. It is not something so serious, I assume it was a costly responsibility oversight on the part of the NNPC.”

    The National President of IPMAN, Chief Chinedu Okoronkwo, also confirmed the fuel scarcity was created by rumours. He said: “There was no need for panicking over fuel scarcity as virtually all the NNPC depots across the federation had fuel and were loading product to marketers. Marketers are currently loading petrol in Makurdi, Kano, Enugu, Aba, Yola, Suleja, Kaduna, Ejigbo, Mosinmi, Ibadan and other depots across the country. The shortfall in distribution was due to the slow pace of product importation and hitches at the jetty, which had been addressed. But the Federal Government is on top of the situation, there is enough petrol to go round. I have also instructed all our members to ensure adequate distribution of the product across the country.

    “I have also directed them to ensure the product is sold at the official price of N145 per litre. If there are any issues on distribution and pricing differentials, members should call the secretariat for further action. The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency’s (PPPRA) template has not changed, so no marketer should influence hike or sell above official price.”

    Okoronkwo restated IPMAN’s commitment to supporting the Federal Government’s efforts on effective and efficient distribution of petroleum products across the country, adding that the Association had reached an agreement with other marketers for better synergy in making the product available in the country. “IPMAN which controls 80 per cent outlets has more advantage in distributing and dispensing in both urban and hinterlands in the country. In line with the Federal Government’s efforts at ensuring efficient petroleum products distributed across the country, IPMAN members have opted for seamless distribution of petroleum products,” he said.

    The Executive Secretary, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN,) said that NNPC distribution pricing had been a major issue for depot owners, adding that for now, no members had product in his facilities. Adewole said the price at which NNPC gives their members product and other charges make it extremely difficult for them to sell at regulated depot price. “It’s not profitable because we are getting it between N139 and N140 per litre with other additional charges, therefore, at what price do we sell it?

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  • Troops kill 27 Boko Haram terrorists, recover arms, ammunition

    Twenty-seven suspected Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT) were on Saturday killed by troops of Sector 1 Operation Dole and Cameroonian Defence Forces in Borno State, the army said Monday morning.

    The terrorists, according to army spokesman Sagir Musa, a Colonel, met their waterloo during an encounter with the troops carrying out clearance operations in northern parts of Wulgo, Tumbuma, Chikun Gudu and Bukar Maryam villages.

    Musa said the troops recovered five gun trucks, several motorcycles, five AK47 rifles, an automatic revolver galil rifle, a G3 rifle, two General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG), two anti-aircraft guns, four rocket-propelled gun tubes, a PK machine gun, an M21 rifle and locally made dane gun.

    Read also: Buratai commends troops over defeat of Boko Haram insurgents in Damaturu

    Others include five rocket-propelled gun tube bombs, 1,000 assorted rounds of different calibre ammunition, five AK47 Magazines, several links of 12.7mm, a Land Cruiser buffalo, a Nissan GT, a Land Cruiser destroyer as well as a flag and grinding machine.

    “There is no casualty on the part of the Nigerian and Cameroonian Forces.

    “Coordinated military operation is ongoing especially in the fringes of Gombaru-Ngala and surrounding areas to deal with the fleeing bandits running out from Multinational Joint Task Force’s (Op YANCIN TAFKI )  onslaught on their hideouts,” he said.

  • Falana, Jukuns raise alarm over unreported killings in Taraba

    THE Jukuns in Taraba State yesterday raised alarm over a series of killings by gunmen and suspected kidnappers in the southern part of the state within the last few weeks.

    Activist lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) and the Junkun Development Association of Nigeria, at a news conference at the  Falana and Falana law firm, Adekunle Fajuyi Way, GRA, Ikeja, expressed concern over the killings – many of which they lamented “go unreported”.

    The association’s National President, Bako Benjamin, said no fewer than 148 Junkuns abducted from their houses in the last few weeks are still being held in captivity by gunmen.

    He said there are other victims, who are Yoruba, Igbo, and other tribes, adding that the association could not give their names because they did not have them.

    Benjamin said the situation in Takun communities in southern Taraba  State is worse than what is happening in Zamfara State.

    “In the past, people get removed from their cars, if you are traveling in a flashy car on the roads and they take to the bush. But today, because people have avoided the roads, they go to houses and removed people from their houses and demanded for ransom and sometimes, even after ransom is paid, they still kill them.

    “As we speak, one Alhaji Mayo, who runs some filling stations in Takun, he was removed from his house, taken to the bush and they used his phones to call his family and demanded N200 million. They negotiated and after selling a lot of his property, they managed to raise N105 million, which they collected.

    “As if that was not enough, they told the wife to drive all the man’s cars to a location. They took all the cars and drove them away. Just yesterday (Saturday), the younger brother called and said they have been impoverished. The man is still with them in the bush in captivity.

    “A hotelier, Ahmadu Emmanuel, they wanted to abduct him from his house. He resisted, he was shot dead in cold blood. That was two weeks ago.

    “One Sule Audu, a medical doctor, they abducted him too from Takun. They asked for N10 million. After they mobilised and tried and sourced the money and delivered, they switched off their phones. Another group used another phone to call the family and said, ‘where is the money?’. They said ‘we’ve given you the money’ and they said they must have given it to another group. Look, your man is with us, better go and look for another N10 million to secure his release. The daughter, who is also a doctor, just collapsed and she is still in a coma as we speak.”

    He listed other people abducted by from their homes as including one lawyer, Yagura Lena, who still being held after a ransom was paid; one Joy Ubadene, who is still in captivity and a member of the state assembly, Osia Aiyegbe, who was killed after a ransom was paid.

    “We are in deep trouble, far worse from what is happening in Zamfara. Our people no longer travel home and those at home have started leaving to join their families in Lagos. Except something is done urgently, the Jukun communities in Taraba would become extinct,” he said.

    Benjamin said commercial activities have grounded to a halt throughout Taraba.

    Benjamin and Falana urged state governors, together with the president, to take charge of the situation by setting up appropriate policing agencies.

    He lamented that state governors have abdicated their responsibility to the President, adding that is why the impression is being given as if what the country has is a federal police force.

    Falana said the 1999 Constitution (as amended) envisaged that police powers shall be managed by the president and the governors.

    “Between 2003 and now, the National Assembly has established Civil Defence Corps with powers to bear arms. In addition, the Prison Service, Customs, Immigration, and others are also allowed to bear arms whereas Section 214 of the Constitution says, there shall be only one police force in Nigeria.

    “So if the Federal Government sets up forces and other agencies that can bear arms, why are state governors shying away?” he asked.

    He noted that the President once expressed the fear that a state that cannot pay salaries cannot be allowed to arm young men and women.

    He contended that if the security of the country must be ensured, the salaries and allowances of security personnel for every state should be deducted from the source so that the question of not being paid would not arise.

  • Epic Masters victory: Tiger Woods completes miracle comeback

    After all the scandals, injuries,  surgeries and drama, Tiger Woods has won the Masters in 2019.

    Nearly 11 years after his last major victory — the longest drought in golf history — Woods won the Masters by one stroke with a bravura 70 final round, keeping his head while the best of the next generation of golfers lost theirs.

    Six golfers held at least a share of the lead over the day, five tied with only a handful of holes left. But as it was in 1997, so it was 22 years later: Woods walking off the 18th green to delirious cheers, another green jacket awaiting him — his 15 major win in total.

    “Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!” the crowd around 18 yelled, a comeback complete.

    The win brought an emotion rarely seen from Woods, who threw up his arms in triumph, unable to wipe the smile off his face. A fist pump. A scream. A massive hug from his son Charlie, who wasn’t born the last time Tiger won one of these.

    It was total euphoria at Augusta National.

    With all due respect to the vast talents of Brooks Koepka, Francesco Molinari and others, there are two storylines at every Masters: Tiger Woods, and everyone else. That’s not media bias or wishful thinking, that’s objective reality.

    Tiger draws the largest and loudest galleries, Tiger pulls in the biggest ratings, Tiger summons cheers at Augusta that don’t sound like anywhere else on earth.

    The difference in 2019 as opposed to recent history is this: Woods arrived in Augusta with his first legitimate chance to win in more than half a decade. He’d missed three of the last five due to health reasons, and he’d been irrelevant in the other two. Now, though, he’s as golf-ready as a 43-year-old can be, with another PGA Tour win in his pocket since last year.

    Woods remains the biggest story in golf, but not the only story. Koepka is riding a Tiger-esque majors hot streak — two of the last three, three of the last seven — and Molinari has punched Tiger in the face while winning both the British Open and the Ryder Cup over the last nine months.

    Thursday began under one of those classic Augusta skies, blue and deep and breezy, with the gallery buzzing and the birdies flying. This was one of those “future of golf days”, where Koepka and mad scientist Bryson DeChambeau took the early lead at -6. Right behind them: Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and the usual collection of leaderboard cameos. Molinari and Woods lurked further down the leaderboard at -2.

    Then came Friday, which was without question one of the strangest days in recent Masters history. Big names came out firing, and by the day’s end an unprecedented five major winners — Molinari, Koepka, Louis Oosthuizen, Adam Scott and Jason Day — shared the lead at -7.

    But we expected all that. What we didn’t expect was an enthusiastic security guard becoming part of Masters lore by slipping and sliding right into Woods’ ankle while trying to hold back a vicious Augusta gallery. Woods hobbled for a moment but ended up birdieing the hole, and CBS promptly memory-holed the footage.

    Saturday was King Kong, Godzilla and Mothra all elbowing for space, with Tony Finau sneaking in there among them. Molinari, who once caddied next to Woods at a Masters, put distance between himself and the field with the relentless, mechanical precision of an avalanche. Woods and Koepka kept pace, and Finau snuck in with one of the three 64s on the day.

    With ugly weather on the way, Augusta National moved tee times up — way, way up — almost six hours earlier than normal, splitting the field into two and tripling up the pairings. So, there wasn’t much time to meditate on what a Masters Sunday with Tiger Woods in sight of the lead might mean to history before the leaders teed off.

    Early on, Molinari seemed invincible, running his par streak to 49 holes and, as of the sixth hole, posting a three-stroke lead on the field. Molinari’s dead-eyed stare and clinical perfection — plus the fact that he had history against Woods — seemed to bode well for his chances, and ill for everyone who wanted to see Woods win his first major since 2008.

  • Govt, World Bank discuss $1b power sector loan

    The Federal Government and the World Bank Power Sector team yesterday met on the possibility of Nigeria accessing a $1 billion Performance Based Loan (PBL) from multilateral institutions.

    Finance Minister Mrs. Zainab Ahmed dropped the hint at a joint news conference with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele at the end of the 2019 World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings in the United States.

    The minister cleared the air on fuel subsidy, saying removing it is not on the cards. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been advocating the removal of fuel subsidy to free more money for infrastructural development. The Federal Government believes doing so will increase the burden of the poor.

    Mrs. Ahmed said: “We met with the World Bank Power Sector team and discussed the way forward on the proposed $1 billion PBL. We agreed to bring relevant MDAs together to ensure that we advance this operation in a timely manner. We will also discuss the Country Portfolio Performance of Nigeria, which currently stands at $9.8 billion, with the Nigerian Country team at the World Bank and how we could manage the portfolio for optimum results.”

    She spoke of plans by the Debt Management Office (DMO) to issue N15 billion Green Bond to fund agriculture, power, health and water amenities to make life better for the people, saying the Green Bond will be the second one and would be used to finance agriculture, power sector – mostly solar projects – as well as some projects in the water sector.

    She pointed out that the projects for which the funds will be applied “must be green. They must be projects that are not contributing to carbon dioxide emissions to the society. The first green bond issuance was successful and all the projects that were scheduled to have been financed have been done and the projects are at various levels of completion.”

    On fuel subsidy, Mrs Ahmed said there was no plan by the government to remove fossil fuel subsidies. “We are here to discuss with the global community on various policy issues. One of the issues that always come up, especially in the IMF Article IV is how we handle fuel subsidy.

    “So, in principle, the IMF would say fuel subsidies are better removed so that you can use the resources for other important sectors, which is good advice, but in Nigeria, we do not have any plans to remove fuel subsidies at this time because we have not yet designed buffers that will enable us remove the subsidy and provide cushions for our people.

    “So, there is no plan to remove fuel subsidy. We will be working with various groups to find out the best approach, if we have to. We discussed this very frequently at the Economic Management Team but what is the alternative? We haven’t yet found viable alternatives. So, we are not yet at the point of removing fuel subsidies.”

    On Brexit, Emefiele attributed ongoing Brexit controversy in the United Kingdom (UK) to immigration and trade opportunities.

    The CBN governor said: “I would say that though Britain and Nigeria have trade relationship, but it is not as strong as what we have with China and the United States (U.S.) For instance, China is Nigeria’s largest trading partner, followed by the U.S. And I had imagined that Britain comes quite low on the scale.

    “So, if you look at that, you would find that, in my view, there is not going to be any adverse consequences on Nigeria, but we are reviewing it to see the implication, which I expect, would naturally be positive.”

    Giving an overview of the meetings, Mrs. Ahmed said they provided an opportunity to review developments in the global economy, examine emerging and associated risks. They also offered potential policy menu to ameliorate the situations, going forward, she added.

    The meeting noted the slowing down of the global economy with a revised global growth from 3.3 per cent in 2019 to 3.6 per cent in 2020, mainly due to the heightened trade tensions, tightening financial market conditions, softening industrial activity, dampening global investment, monetary policy normalisation and geopolitical tensions, such as uncertainties over Brexit, all resulting in policy uncertainty.

    In terms of fiscal policy, Mrs. Ahmed said government debts to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratios had reached unprecedented levels and this limits the capacity of some of these countries to provide countercyclical policies; consequently, potential growth remains subdued in most of these countries, partly as other factors, such as aging populations, declining birth rates and raising barriers to immigration weigh in.

    Mrs. Ahmed said the key takeaway was that the IMF requested for a mandate to pursue some negotiations with governors for temporary financing options for ensuring that the Fund remains adequately resourced by maintaining the current resource envelope through borrowed resources.

    The minister said this arose partly due to the delay in completing the 15th general review of quotas, adding that while governors endorsed this position, “we called for an ambitious timetable for the 16th General Review of quota which should result in increased quota shares for dynamic economies in line with their relative positions in the world economy while protecting the voice and representation of the poorest members.”

    Mrs. Ahmed said: “I issued a statement calling for normalisation of trade relations among the contending parties and called for concerted efforts to support multilateralism and avoid protectionist sentiments.”

    She said Nigeria used the Spring Meetings to showcase what the government had been doing in human capital development.

    The minister said: “We have set up an inter-ministerial working group with representatives of the state governors and are currently piloting some initiatives in health, education and, of course, you are all aware of the social safety nets programmes of the Federal Government where we have 15 million people already on the register.

    “The World Bank Group was pleased with our efforts and promised to offer some assistance. Nigeria endorsed the Coalition Principles as one of the founding members.”

  • Electricity cable, transformer theft to attract 10-year jail term

    If the Senate adopts the recommendations of its Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, the theft of electricity cable and transformer may attract 10-year jail term.

    The committee also recommended a jail term of seven years or a fine of N2million or both if anyone connects or disconnects electric wire to, either the electricity meter or to the public power supply lines.

    The 10-year jail term is without an option of fine for offenders.

    The committee, which submitted its report last Thursday, recommended a jail term of 10 years, without an option of fine, if someone is found guilty to have conspired, counselled or accepted to procure or to hold in custody, stolen parts, components or pieces of public power equipment.

    The Chairman of the committee, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South), listed the power equipment to include electric cable, transformer, high tension wire, power console, electrical insulators, among others.

    The committee also recommended that any person who wilfully and/or unlawfully “destroys, damages or removes any electricity distribution lines or anything connected therewith, or otherwise prevents or obstructs the distribution of electricity through the distribution, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N5,000,000 or imprisonment for a term of at least five years or both.

    According to the committee, those found guilty of using a tampered meter, current reversing transformer, shorting or shunting wire, loop connection, by-passing a meter, or deploy any other device or method to use public electricity should also be jailed for seven years or pay a fine of N2 million.

    The Power Committee report, which may be considered this week, also said anyone who tampers with, cuts by any means, or causes any other person to disrupt the supply of public electric power, if convicted, shall be sentenced to imprisonment term of not less than five years or a fine of N500,000, or both.

    The committee asked the Senate to consider and pass the Bill for an Act to amend the Electric Power Sector Reform Act  No. 6,2005 to prohibit theft of electricity, theft and destruction of electricity supply, infrastructure and prescribe appropriate penalties for violations, and for other related matters, 2019(SB.496).

    It said the Senate should approve a five-year jail term or a fine of N500,000 for any person that obstructs, confronts, fights, assaults or causes bodily injury to power company personnel.

    The committee recommended a three-year imprisonment term or a fine of N250,000, or both for any person who taps, makes or causes to be made any connection with overhead, underground, or under water lines or cables, or service wires or service facilities.

    It said: “Any person, who wilfully destroys, injures or removes equipment or apparatus of a licensee commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period of not less than five years and not more than seven years.”