The Nation Newspaper

Tag: usual

  • Yuletide sales: Not business as usual

    Yuletide sales: Not business as usual

    A few industries like rentals, events packaging, entertainment, hospitality and tours to mention just a few are all built around Christmas festivities. Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf in this report examines the prospects, opportunities and challenges with such businesses this yuletide.

    One week to Christmas, not many people know it is yuletide season save for a few people, especially those whose businesses depend on such seasonal sales to make brisk business.

    From fashion designers, hairdressers, furniture makers, textile sellers amongst others, Christmas season is peak period of their business.

    Checks by The Nation across major cities of the federation on the level of preparedness for the festive season was revealing as it was interesting.

    A visit to the Central Business District, Lagos Island was also quite revealing. The usual Christmas frenzy is missing. Beyond the blaring of music at strategic points, there is not much to show that the yuletide season is here unlike past years.

    Speaking in an interview with The Nation, Aare Fatai Odesile, Managing Director/Chief Executive, Grand Oak Limited, the company involved in the marketing of branded household wines and spirits by the Nigerian Distilleries, Supreme Distilleries and Allied Distilleries respectively,  said his company is duty-bound to arrange goodies for staffers, especially at the year end to show its gratitude over the period of 12 months.

    “I remember that I have a responsibility of putting smiles of people’s faces. Christmas is coming, my staff needs to be happy, and my consumers need to be happy. Somebody somewhere is expecting that carton, that bottle, that sachet of our products knowing that one has a responsibility not just to your staff alone. But to the consumers as a whole and of course, the shareholders, so that keeps me going. And when you are key to do some of those things and you are seeing the results, it’s also a motivation.”

    Christmas carol galore

    It is instructive to note that in keeping with the usual tradition at Christmas, some state governments and the organised private sector have set machinery in motion to commemorate the yuletide by in form of one activity or the other, chief among which is the Christmas party train.

    However, beyond Christmas carol not many are perturbed it’s Christmas. Speaking with a cross-section of respondents in Abuja, they confided in our correspondent that they are not really sold on the idea of celebrating the yuletide because the economy is anything but friendly to the pocket.

    A civil servant who simply gave her name as Ronke while commenting on activities built around Christmas, said: “A lot of Abuja people don’t know its Christmas at all, in terms of shopping frenzy and all that. And it all goes to show that all is not well. I don’t have much so no shopping.”

    Waxing philosophical, she said: “But to some people the grass is always greener at the other side. People who have much to spend now are those who have made very good money before now! We can only pray for better living o jare!”

    It’s the economy stupid!

    Last year, some of the big corporates spent less on PR and other related events no thanks to the parlous state of the economy.

    It is not any better this year, especially in the last quarter as most of them are operating on a low string budgets as they had to cut down on PR and brand merchandising spend.

    Speaking in an interview with The Nation, an integrated marketing communications expert, Mr. Okey Nwankwo said of the advertising spends by most banks during the yuletide. “I’ll say that it’s now more focused unlike before when the banks want to be everywhere. Of course, that‘s a function of the reality on ground, especially since there are no free funds to throw around. Frankly, there has been drastic reduction and decline of funds in marketing activities.”

    While attempting a comparative analysis of the PR spends for the last quarter of the year, Nwankwo said: “Things are a lot far better this year compared to last year when there was a lot of uncertainty in government, harassment by the anti-graft agencies. But now there appears to be some measure of stability. But it is not that it has reached the level because the treasury single account (TSA) took a lot of money out of the banks to the CBN.

    Most of the banks have now fully adjusted to the reality on ground, he said, adding: “You can see that this year most of the banks have been declaring profits. Things are improving generally. There is focused participation because the banks are now more selective unlike before. Of course, it is not peculiar to just PR alone because almost every other sector is affected.”

    Zenith Bank sets VI aglow at Christmas

    Of course, one company that has become a poster boy for what the Christmas festivities signifies is Nigeria’s foremost bank Zenith, which has continue to decorate the Ajose Adeogun street Victoria Island. Like the bank does every year and over the years, the street has turned to a tourist spot that attracts scores of people like the famous traditional New York Christmas decorations on 42nd street, and the Ice Rink on Fifth Avenue, Oxford Street London Christmas decorations.

    Last November, the Managing Director of the bank, Mr Peter Amangbo led other top echelons of the banks to commission the Christmas lighting decoration on Ajose Adeogun street, Victoria Island Lagos. When our correspondent visited the Ajose Adeolgun Street at the weekend, the magnificent stood out of the pack.

    Scenic beauty of the famous palace of Otunba Subomi Balogun

    Like Jim Ovia, one individual who pays a lot of attention to the environment, especially at Christmas is Otunba Olasubomi Balogun, Founder, First City Monument Group, including the First City Monument Bank. A visit to some of the banks was an eye-opener of some sorts.

    You can’t miss the ever magnificent crystal white palace of the famous grandmaster of the banking in Nigeria. The gigantic edifice which has a theme park right in front is already wearing a new look with glittering white designs which shines brightest at night given the neighbourhood a rather ethereal look. When our correspondent passed through the neighbourhood it was a sight to behold as a few bystanders and cabbies, especially the uninformed stole quick glances at the scenic beauty of the immaculate palace.

    Changing spending pattern

    Hitherto not many relied on second hand or hand-me-downs. But things are fast changing. Many people are buying low quality wares as opposed to buying quality for those who are buying at all. Speaking with Adisa Emmanuel, who sells at the flea market along Oshodi-Expressway, Lagos, he said: “More and more people are patronising the fleas market too. Why will you invest over N500, 000 to change your furniture when you can get fairly used ones for as low as N100, 000? It’s doesn’t make any economic sense given the parlous state of the economy.”

    A visit to some marts and malls within Lagos metropolis and its environs revealed that most of the stores stock up wares but only few buyers are approaching. The poor spending may be a reflection of bad economy.

    Speaking in an interview with The Nation, the branch manager, Addide Stores, Ladipo, in Mushin, Lagos, who simply gave his name as Ismail, said sales are just picking up but not on the uptick.

    According to him, “Unlike the previous years, once you’re approaching the middle of December, you expect that sales would have gone up but it is not so anymore. People spend more wisely now. They just buy what they need as opposed to impulse buying which is common during the festive seasons. Sales are not really great because the economy is still grappling with challenges here and there.”

    However, from available information some of the online portals involved in sales and marketing of fast moving consumer goods shows that some of them are making brisk business especially at this period of the year.

    In the facts and figures shred by Jumia, which prides itself as the largest online mall in Africa, the company said there were over 18.1million visits for the Black Friday Festival, which held few weeks back. Specifically, the company stated that item sold on the Big Bang Day was 174 per cent more compared to items sold during the 2016 BFF.

    Cheery news

    In the view of Emeka Achebe-Okosieme, Public Relations Officer, Association of Professionals Party Organisers and Event Managers of Nigeria (APPOEMN) the event industry is one sector hardly affected by the downturn in the economy.

    Speaking with The Nation, he said the last quarter of the year is arguably the peak period of their business with a lot of people and corporate planning big around the season.

    “The event industry I Nigeria keeps rising. The annual turnover is over N30billion, which is nothing compared to other advance economies like the UK, USA, which records much more in terms of bottom-line. But it is still s good starting point. This period of the year, of course, is when we experience more events and programmes because people tend to shift their major events to this time of the year and it is very strategic.”

    Also commending on the spending pattern and activities for this quarter, Prince Joseph Idiong, Director General/CEO, Association of Nigerian Exporters, Abuja, Nigeria, he told The Nation that this period of the year see a lot of deal signing and trade investments across the globe and Nigeria cannot be an exception.

    According to him, unlike other sectors, the export market operators are usually circumspect when it comes to this period of the year because of the anticipatory policy briefs that may be expected from the government. “Most of us in the export market hardly celebrate the festivities in the way it expected because we also it is a period of the year when policy briefs may change in terms of fiscal policies of government. So we normally observe the situation in order not to be taken unawares by government policies which may have dire repercussion for the sector. But all in all, it is a period most of us look forward to in terms of planning strategy meetings, conferences, trade exhibitions and all.”

    Consumer Price Index outlook for Q4

    According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the inflation rate, measured by the Consumer Price Index, CPI has further dropped to 15.91 per cent in October from 15.98 recorded in September.

    According to the bureau, this is 0.07 per cent points lower than the rate recorded in September (15.98) per cent.

    It said the index made it the ninth consecutive decline or slowdown in the inflation rate, though still positive in headline year-on-year inflation, since January.

    According to the report, increases have been recorded in all the classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the Headline Index.

    The NBS said there was an average headline year on year inflation for the first five months of the year (January to May 2017) which stood at 17.45 per cent.

    It said average headline year on year inflation for the next five months of the year (June to October 2017) also stood at 16.01 per cent.

    The report further said the values indicated disinflation from June to date, compared to from January to May 2017.

    On a month-on-month basis, the report noted that the headline index increased by 0.76 per cent in October 2017, 0.02per cent points lower from the rate of 0.78 per cent recorded in September.

    The report said this development represented the fifth consecutive month-on-month contraction in headline inflation since May 2017.

    It said average headline month-on-month inflation for the first five months of the year (January to May 2017) stood at 1.54 per cent.

    The NBS said the average headline month-on-month inflation for the next five months of the year (June to October 2017), stood at 1.06 per cent, indicating disinflation from June to date, compared to from January to May 2017.

    It is the view of many analysts that some businesses are built around Christmas period for the simple reason that they generate sales more than any other period of the year. But whether such proceeds are well captured as part of the country’s gross domestic product is a matter for another day.

  • No more business as usual

    •Fed Govt must ensure that its agencies submit budget estimates to National Assembly

    As if to remind Nigerians of how far some agencies of the Federal Government are from grasping the basic tenet of law and constitutionalism, the Senate,  last week, announced a list of violators of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 (amended in 2011). The agencies – 38 in number – were found to have failed to submit their 2017 budget proposal to the National Assembly in line with extant law, for consideration and approval. Moving a motion calling on the agencies to do so within two weeks, it also ordered their supervising ministers to stop forthwith, all capital and non-essential expenditures for the current budget year, pending full compliance.

    That record number agencies would act so brazenly in defiance of the law is certainly revealing. More disturbing however is that the practices are being carried on under the direct watch of the executive branch.

    Section 80 subsection (4) of the 1999 Constitution (As amended) is of course clear on the mode of authorisation for public funds: “No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other fund of the federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly”.

    Section 21 (1) of the PRA is just explicit on how the agencies of government can go about the use the funds in their care: “The government corporations and agencies and government-owned companies listed in the schedule to this Act (in this Act referred to as ‘the corporations’) shall, not later than six months from the commencement of this Act and for every three financial years thereafter and not later than the end of the second quarter of every year, cause to be prepared and submitted to the minister their schedule estimates of revenue and expenditure for the next three financial years.”

    Subsection 2 of the Act goes on to say: “Each of the bodies referred to in subsection (1) of this section shall submit to the minister not later than the end of August in each financial year:  (a) an annual budget derived from the estimates submitted in pursuance of subsection (1) of this section; and (b) projected operating surplus which shall be prepared in line with acceptable accounting practices.”

    While subsection 3 states quite expressly: “The minister shall cause the estimates submitted in pursuance of subsection (2) to be attached as part of the draft Appropriation Bill to be submitted to the National Assembly.”

    The brazen anomalies, though unfortunate, have been with us since the advent of the fourth republic. Whereas successive Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) administrations ran the agencies, particularly the so-called cash cows like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) like fiefdoms engrafted to the presidency without any parliamentary oversight, and the apex bank like an island onto itself under a rather expansive definition of institutional independence, the result has been catastrophic for both the due process and the requirement for transparency.

    In the specific instance, the respective agencies ought to have sent in their budgetary estimates in August 2016 – four clear months before the presentation of the 2017 budget by President Muhammadu Buhari in December last year. That is what the law requires.

    Given that it is now some five months since, the question then arises – why was the issue not brought up at any point during the period that the budget estimate was with the National Assembly? By passing the 2017 budget while leaving out this critical requirement, is the National Assembly then – as always – not as complicit in foisting the anomalies over which it now complains?

    We hope that the latest development signals a new beginning, particularly with acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, not only issuing an executive order outlining the timeline and procedure for government offices to submit their yearly budgets but directing the agencies to comply. The law envisaged no less; if anything, we expect that strict adherence to constitute the template, going forward.

  • Business as usual

    I am not happy. And I am almost certain that most Nigerians are not happy. In fact, as for many Nigerians, they are not only sad but confused. Seriously confused. I am not confused but very sad.

    I really do not know what to make of our present circumstance in the face of a National Assembly that is poised to foist business as usual mantra on the country. And I must quickly exonerate members of the National Assembly on the excuse that whatever may be happening in the hallowed chambers is not entirely their own making. It is the game they met on ground that they are playing.

    Millions trooped out in March and April yearning for change. And the change they wanted was not just merely substituting Jonathan with Buhari. It was not just substituting the PDP with APC. As far as Nigerians are concerned, and this has been proved several times, it does not matter who is leading them. Nigerians do not care whether their leader wore a heavy turban, an abeti-aja, a bowler hat or feathered cap. What they are interested in are provision of security, electricity, quality education, robust health care delivery, jobs, good roads and enhanced transportation infrastructure. They want also transparent leaders who, by personal example, will stamp out corruption which has defaced the nation and has made Nigerians disrespected all over the world.

    This piece is not concerned about who the leader of the National Assembly is or the procedure that produced him or her. Political parties and key players in the parties know how they do their thing. What is however crucial and critical is that Nigerians can no longer tolerate or endure the character of the previous legislatures in the National Assembly. Nigerians no longer have stomach for the kind of legislators that would rush over a hundred bills in less than 10 minutes after fritting away four solid years.

    A National Assembly is sometimes more purposeful and more powerful than the executive arm of government. I dare say that no executive arm of government can succeed without a strong and articulate and knowledgeable legislature.

    What we have got in Nigeria has always been a mixture of the good, very good, the bad, very bad, and the ugly, extremely ugly characters populating the National Assembly and the legislatures in various states of the Federation.

    There is no way we can separate the characters in our legislatures from the many ills that have plagued and continue to plague our polity. The simple oversight function which is a key component of the duties of a legislative assembly is criminally ignored. All that we hear are squabbles over salaries and perquisites of office.

    If state assemblies and National Assembly had been thorough in the mandatory oversight functions, all the stealing, looting, brigandage and gross misappropriation by the executive arm of government could not have taken place. But alas! The legislature and the executive have been arms in glove in perpetuating frivolous fraud in government.

    The cry now is about lipstick and powder allowance, or money for agbada, babanriga, coat and tie with bowler hat to match. National Assembly members are up in arms about their so-called wardrobe allowance. It does not matter if the wardrobe allowance is N1,000. The truth of the matter is that a government that has not been able to pay the minimum wage of paltry N18,000 to its workers should not be talking of paying for the dresses of their legislators. Were the legislators going about naked before they were elected into the house? Is it now a sin that the poor masses that voted them into power should now be burdened with providing clothing for them? It is immoral and ridiculous to be talking of wardrobe allowance.

    Whoever put the clause of wardrobe allowance in whichever law that created it should expunge it today! Today, not tomorrow!

    We knew that unless the reputedly no-nonsense Buhari put in place machinery that will trim the huge salaries and benefits of the National Assembly members, his government would easily be overrun by the gluttony of the assembly. As I wrote in an earlier article titled The Shape of Things to Come, old members of the National Assembly are too wealthy and too powerful for the majority new comers. When it comes to Ghana-Must-Go politics, the old members in the assembly will overrun not only their Johnny-just-come colleagues but the executive, if care is not taken.

    It will just be business as usual!

    The thrust of this piece is actually about the so-called Constituency Allowance. Legislatures are given huge sums of money to provide amenities for their constituencies. We hear the legislators boasting about boreholes, motorcycles, sewing machines and sundry articles for their constituents. What is the business of the legislator providing transformers and generators? What is the business of legislators providing blocks of classrooms? Are legislators contractors? Are they elected to steal the functions of the executive or to replace the Minister of Works?

    It is the greed and confusion in the polity that created room for this serious money guzzling anomaly. And once the legislators are bribed with these huge sums, they invariably turn blind eye on the looting that goes on in the executive and in the agencies of government.

    The Constituency Allowance must be scrapped.

    Quite frankly, what Nigerians wanted were part-time legislators that would be entitled to sitting allowance. And such part-time legislators are not required to meet for more than once in a month and 12 times in a year unless there is an emergency situation. Nigerians wanted legislators that have their own careers and businesses. Not jobless men and women who have turned political jobbery into money making venture.

    Now we have legislators who even employ about four or five advisers/assistants/bag carriers! All these frivolities are paid for by citizens who can hardly feed their families.

    Something urgent must be done to radically change the face and texture of the National Assembly and its sisters in the 36 states of the federation. Unless this is done, and done very quickly, the Buhari government will just be a continuation of the Jonathanian continuity. I must add that it will just be the continuation of the 16 years of looting, looting and looting. 16 years of incomparable waste.

    May this government, voted in with the greatest enthusiasm not end up as a disappointment and betrayal!

    Uncle Sad Sam taught us how to be sad!

  • The usual scapegoat

    Picture a severely skewed news story bearing the newspaper Daily Editor’s byline and the curious tag: “With political intelligence unit reports.” Picture how ridiculous it must be to witness the metamorphosis of presumed intellect into dimwittedness.

    As you read many more newspaper editors and their reporters are manifesting at the ruling class’ bidding and your bidding, into the stamen that lets down the azalea, the comforters that bring grief, the emissaries of needless hate we orchestrate.

    Today, tyranny attains ultimate refinement in the news columns; this brings to mind that memorable jest by Norman Mailer that “Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists.” Journalists are often the butt of the most demeaning jokes and premeditated put-downs in the social arena. Nobody thinks much of a journalist; in the eyes of big business and the ruling class, the journalist whatever his designation or job title, is the manipulable pawn and necessary evil that has to be courted and tolerated. In fact, very few journalists command the respect of the society.

    The descent and humiliation of the journalist however, begins in the hands of his employer; very few media today are paying fairly. Many are not paying at all and among the few establishments that pay, salaries range from N15, 000 per month at entry level to N70, 000 per month at managerial level. Just three media houses endeavour to pay fairly and across the three; journalists are oft treated as vermin by administrative/human resources and advertising staff. While just three newspapers may claim exceptionality in this respect, the reality is known to the government, big business, advertisers and general public that the Nigerian journalist is an endangered species, haunted by his employer and tormented by the public he serves. These sad realities lead to daily exodus of skilled and promising hands from journalism and a daily influx of quacks into the profession.

    This resonates badly for the Nigerian mob; the nation’s critical mob to be precise. Mob culture requires that he who would adorn the cloak of defender of the masses’ rights should be upright and flawless in character, work and personal ethics. Such admirable traits are rarely attributable to the Nigerian journalist manager and the press in general.

    The Nigerian mob, like every other rabble, seeks fulfillment of tyrant fantasies; such fantasies often vary between the destruction of an unpopular government, despot or worn-out civilization. Reality however, affirms the impotence of the Nigerian mob. The latter is continually tamed and kept on a leash by a ruling class that capitalizes on its obvious handicaps: its impulsiveness, insensibility to reason and judgment, poverty of soul and intellect, its irritability and overt sentimentality – which are undeniably characteristic of beings belonging to inferior forms of evolution, like savages and carnivores.

    Despites it handicaps, the Nigerian mob conveniently picks on a scapegoat for its infinite timidity and cluelessness: the press. The journalist is expected to serve as the conscience and moral compass of the society, challenging the government and checking the excesses of the ruling class, uncompromisingly and selflessly.

    As utopian fantasies go, these are noble expectations of the journalist but the Nigerian mob ignores the cultural shift of the society from conventional morality to unbridled hedonism. It assumes, hypocritically, that the press will continually give it honest and developmental news even as every segment of the society strive to unmoor the journalist from his role as a crucial appendage of the nation’s critical mob. The public, comprising big business, the government, and civil societies among other mob segments, vilify any journalist or news medium that seeks to educate and engage rather than entertain and perpetuate their biased definitions of reality.

    Contemporary Nigeria embraces the emotional pageant that has turned news into paid publicity and mindless entertainment and the journalist in response kowtows to lusts and vanities of modern society. Beneath the mindless glamour and cultural decline however, an insidious reality festers in the death of hope and incandescence of tragedy. Prevalent socioeconomic tragedies necessitate the emergence and elevation among the citizenry of the bungling and sadistic, and the beginning of a differentiation cum tyranny of social grades.

    At the centre of the turmoil is the journalist whose fate is so critically bound with the country’s but he obviously does not know that hence the cluelessness, treachery and brazen recklessness that characterizes his work. Consequently, the Nigerian journalist manifests as an accident to society. He perpetually loses his grasp of the issues at stake; fundamentally hollow and benumbed to valor, he shamelessly resigns to the powers that be, blaming the tyranny of the ruling class and the proverbial ‘system’ for his inability to fulfill his professional and moral obligations to the society.

    Rather than pose a challenge to the system that domesticates and enslaves him, he chooses the easiest way out and plays junkyard dog to tyrant cabals and the predatory bunch constituting the nation’s ruling class. He assumes the role of a poseur and pretends to fight for the interest of the public. This sad charade is continually perpetuated across esteemed leader-writers’ polemics in foremost newspapers’ columns.

    The contemporary journalist trades in all manners of truths, deploying sophistry and shades of impressive fallacies in the interest of whatever social divide fulfills his lust for relevance and economic survival. I am a journalist and I shamefully acknowledge that my clan and I hardly epitomize hope to our world. Not yet. Rarely does our work signify hope, self-sacrifice or a promise of future honesty and gallantry in the interest of all. We can blame the society and advance all forms of isms and ostentatious arguments to justify our descent the steep slope of amorality and socioeconomic expediency; it wouldn’t excuse our treachery to our calling and the Nigerian citizenry.

    If Nigeria chooses to exist as a land of savages, it’s our responsibility to nudge her back on to the path of humanity and progress – for only in such clime can we positively evolve and prosper. Our failure as journalists indicates severance from a progressive and moral culture while we institutionalize bigotry, lies, depravity, base sentimentality and pitiful fantasies.

    The traditional, conscientious journalist is going extinct today along with true, dependable news culture because Nigeria obsesses and migrates to the pseudo-reality of the internet and reality shows. It is no doubt ironical that the masses would turn around to blame the press for not fulfilling its roles to the society.

    The only profiteers from the status quo are those skilled in the art of manipulation but this despicable band can rarely function without the support of the journalist hence the urgent need for the Nigerian press to retrace his steps. Journalism will thrive and Nigeria will prosper if we neglect the culture of the news spectacle to focus on progressive pursuits, like development and socially responsible journalism.

    It’s about time we stopped narrowing the debates and spotlight to the shenanigans and petty differences of the ruling class and instead aspire to serve as a true voice to the voiceless. There is no magical antidote to our decline and death as a crucial part of the nation’s critical mob.

    Real progress will manifest in the country when we start demanding that the ruling class march in virtual lockstep with promises they make. Whatever the tone and dialect of intellectualization that characterizes our news culture, posterity will judge us by how truthfully we fulfill our roles as conscience and watchdog of the society.