MONDAY 18TH OCTOBER 2021 by THISDAY Newspapers Ltd

Despite Tightening Gas Supply, Rising Prices, FG Says LPG Market Growing PPPRA: Domestic supply increased by 11,000mt in September Kyari pledges more transparency in NNPC’s operations Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja Despite soaring cooking gas prices, which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) recently

attributed to short supply of the commodity, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), yesterday stated that the market has continued to grow beyond

expectations. In a statement in Abuja, yesterday, signed by the General Manager, Corporate Services, PPPRA, Kimchi Apollo, the organisation

stated that Nigeria presently produces a major portion of the LPG consumed in the country locally, stressing that the so-called “Decade of Gas”, remains on track.

The “growth” in the sector, the PPPRA stated, was because of the “enabling environment created by the federal government through its programmes and policies

to attract investment into the entire gas value chain.” The PPPRA stated that its assessment of LPG supplied Continued on page 10

PDP Mocks APC, Says Crisis-ridden Congresses Explain Why Nigeria is in Conﬂict...Page 8 Monday 18 October, 2021 Vol 26. No 9688. Price: N250

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PANDEF Backs Kingibe, Says Nigeria's Unity Negotiable... Page 51

WSJ: How Nigerian Military Bought Back Anti-aircraft Gun from Kidnapping Gang Criminal gangs flush with ransom money, extorting governments Farmers sell land to free their children, incidence fuelling inflation NAF describes allegation of payments to bandits as ‘fake news’ Ugo Aliogo with agency report The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has described how the Nigerian military paid cash to buy back an anti-aircraft gun that posed a threat to President Muhammadu Buhari, who flew through the endangered airspace to his hometown, some 80 miles away.

The report alleged that kidnapping gangs that encamped in Nigeria’s Rugu forest had seized the anti-aircraft gun during a clash with a military unit. It stated that the ransom, almost $50,000 in crisp Nigerian bank notes, was paid to retrieve the weapon. Soldiers, intelligence officers,

THE MONDAY INTERVIEW M U S TA P H A

"I said, the presidency of Nigeria is there for the Igbo to take. But nobody has US: Nigeria’s North-east ever become the president of without negotiation. Humanitarian Crises, One of Nigeria Go and read the history of World’s Most Challenging Nigeria. You must come to Pledges continuous support in the negotiating table. But in fighting insecurity coming to the negotiating “Security and Development Chiemelie Ezeobi Summit”, during a session table, you come with what The United States Government on “US and Nigeria Security has described the humanitarian Assistance and Cooperation”. The summit was in crisis in Nigeria's North-east you are offering and you’ll as one of the world's most commemoration of the radio challenging and complex. station’s 10th anniversary. receive counter offer" Ibelli pledged the U.S. U.S Consulate Public Affairs Officer, Stephen Ibelli, disclosed this at the Nigeria Info 99.3 FM

Continued on page 10

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NEWS

Group News Editor: Goddy Egene Email: Goddy.egene@thisdaylive.com, 08033506821, 08097777322, 08074010580

FAYEMI'S 3RD YEAR ANNIVERSARY THANKSGIVING... L-R: Former Governor of Ekiti State/ Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Niyi Adebayo; his wife, Angela Adebayo; Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; his wife, Bisi Fayemi Bishop of Ekiti Catholic Diocese, Bishop Felix Ajakaye; former Deputy Governor, Prof. Modupe Adelabu; Nigerian Ambassador to Netherlands, Mrs. Eniola Ajayi; during the third year anniversary thanksgiving mass of the Fayemi administration, at St Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral, Ado- Ekiti...yesterday

MDAs Begin Defence of 2022 Appropriation Bill Today FIRS gets N17.8bn for miscellaneous expenses, N550m for light refreshments Deji Elumoye and Udora Orizu in Abuja Ministers and heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of federal government will today begin their defence of the 2022 Appropriation Bill for the respective MDAs before the relevant committees of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. This is just as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), one of the revenue generating agencies of federal government has been voted the whopping sums of N17.8 billion for miscellaneous expenses, N550 million for light refreshments, and N2.8 billion for staff uniforms in the proposed budget for the 2022 fiscal year. Just like in previous years, the budget defence expected to last till November 8, 2021, would have top officials of MDAs field questions from lawmakers in both chambers about their 2021 budget performance and 2022 estimates. As expected, the exercise would also be filled with a lot of drama and so many revelations, such as allegations of budget padding, some fictitious plans with outrageous budgetary allocations would be discovered in the MDAs budget estimates. The Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan and Speaker of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila had last week tasked the various Committees to be critical and question every overpricing items in order to cut cost. Also, the Chairman of Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Jibrin Barau had insisted that due diligence would be observed in the legislative process of the 2022 budget, even as the Committee would conduct public hearing on the budget to allow Nigerians ventilate their views. Speaking in the same vein, the Chairman of Hose Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Mukhtar Betara, at a meeting with members of the Committee to herald the budget defence had

warned that no funds should be moved from the recurrent component of the 2022 budget to the capital expenditure and vice versa unless where it becomes extremely necessary with some plausible justifications. The lawmaker also stated that it would bar erring MDAs

and allocate zero funds to them for either failing to implement the previous budget despite 70 percent releases or carrying out the resolutions of the House. In the N16.39 trillion 2022 Budget proposal presented before a joint sitting of the National Assembly

penultimate Thursday which passed through second reading last week, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has been voted whopping sums of N17.8 billion for miscellaneous expenses, N550 million for light refreshments, and N2.8 billion for staff uniforms for the year 2022.

In the proposal, the revenue generating agency of government would also ask the federal lawmakers to approve for them to spend N200m for sporting activities and N262.5 million as security votes for the Chairman, Alhaji Muhammad Nami. Like other issues that will

be raised during the Defence with the MDAs, in the final bill that will be adopted by the the lawmakers, they may likely increase the National Assembly's N134 billion allocation, which was decried at plenary last week by House spokesman, Hon. Benjamin Kalu.

Non-Interest Banking: CBN Orders Timely Disposal of Non Permissible Income James Emejo in Abuja The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued guidelines to the Advisory Committees of Experts (ACE) of non-interest banks (NIB) in supervising and monitoring the disposal of Non-permissible Income (NPI) by the institutions. The CBN explained that the move was part of efforts aimed at standardising the treatment and disposal of NPI by the NIB. The apex bank, in the framework noted that the NPI was not an object of ownership of the NIB and does not confer any ownership rights on it. The CBN in a circular addressed to all non-interest financial institutions (NIFIs) on the disposal of NPI, signed

by its Director, Financial Policy and Regulations Department, Mr. Chibuzor Efobi, stated that the NPI shall be put in a dedicated NPI account and shall not be commingled with the funds of the NIB. The apex bank added that the NIBs were under obligation to dispose of any NPI that accrues to it, pointing out that disposing the NPI to a charitable cause is regarded as proper disposal on certain conditions. According to the guidelines, a proper disposal would entail that the NIB does not stand to benefit from the charitable cause in any way, even if by goodwill. Also, the banks must ensure that the charitable cause does not give benefit

to any shareholder, director, ACE member or management staff of the NIB. The CBN specifically pointed out that disposal to the charity should not be constituted nor included as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility of the NIB. It stated that the disposal of the NPI directly by the NIB or through a third party was acceptable, provided it fulfils the conditions mentioned. The CBN added that whether the disposal was directly by the NIB or through a third party, the ACE should review the disposal ex-ante and ex-post to ascertain that the conditions mentioned. Also, the CBN stressed that the ACE should ensure that the NIB does not delay

the disposal of the NPI without justifiable cause, as any unjustifiable delay shall be tantamount to the NIB deriving benefit from the prohibited NPI. The apex bank stated: "In line with the CBN Guidelines on Governance of Advisory Committees of Experts (ACE) for Institutions Offering NonInterest Financial Services, it is part of the duties and responsibilities of the ACE to supervise and monitor the disposal of Non-Permissible Income (NPI) by the institution. "Non-Permissible Income is any income that accrues to the institution in a Shari’ah non-compliant manner, such as interest income, penalties for delayed payment of debt

obligations, or any income declared by the ACE of the institution as impermissible according to the Shari’ah." In 2015, the Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Alan Yarrow, during a visit to Nigeria, had said the United Kingdom was ready to offer expertise towards the development of non interest financing otherwise known as Islamic finance in the country. He said given that there were 88 million muslims with 39 per cent adult population which remained unbanked in the country, Islamic finance presented an alternative investment and business finance model for development of critical infrastructure as well as suitable for both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Saudi Arabia Removes COVID-19 Social Distancing Restriction Allows full capacity in mosque

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja Saudi Arabia has taken a move perceived as a step towards the restoration of the annual hajj pilgrimage that was disrupted for two years by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic had prompted the Kingdom to shut its doors to international pilgrims, including those from Nigeria, as a precaution against the spread of the virus that has

killed more than 4.5 million people worldwide and disrupted the economy of several countries, including international travels. But following a latest advisory on the pandemic that came into effect from yesterday, social distancing in the public was effectively dropped as a key COVID-19 nonpharmaceutical intervention measure. The country has also relaxed

the protocol on religious gathering by allowing a full capacity of worshippers into the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The Masjid al-Haram is one of Islam's holiest sites that could accommodate four million worshippers at its peak. From yesterday, Saudi Arabia also stopped the enforcement of compulsory use of face masks in public, except indoors, while large crowds were permitted to gather in all public places,

including restaurants, public transports, cinemas and wedding halls. The advisory on the reduction in public health precaution which was announced last Friday, would definitely alert Nigerian intending pilgrims to start making plans towards next year’s hajj which holds from July 7th to 12th, 2022 after this year’s pilgrimage was abridged largely due to the spike in the

virulent Delta strain in some parts of the world. About 70, 000 Nigerians missed the opportunity to participate in this year’s hajj. It was the second time Nigerian pilgrims would miss the annual pilgrimage as a result of the pandemic. The Hajj is a mandatory religious duty which physically fit adult Muslims are obliged to carry out at least once in their lifetime.

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NEWS

BABALAKIN MEETS THE MEDIA... L-R: Group Executive Director, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), Mr. Luqman Balogun; Chairman, Resort International, Dr. Wale Babalakin; Chairman, League of Airport and Aviation Authority (LAAC), Mr. Olusegun Koiki; and Head of Business Interactive, (BASL), Mr. Raph Uchegbu, during the media parley Babalakin held with Aviation Correspondents at Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA2), Ikeja...recently. KOLAWOLE ALLI

PDP Mocks APC, Says Crisis-ridden Congresses Explain Why Nigeria is in Conflict Exercises successful, ruling party congratulates members Chuks Okocha and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Sunday said the crises in 20 state chapters of the All Progressives Congress (APC), where parallel congresses were held on Saturday to elect state officers of the party, were a clear reason why the nation was in conflict. But the ruling APC has described the crisis-hit state congresses as successful and therefore congratulated its members for a good showing. PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, explained that the fractious congresses of the APC had shown how greed and lust for power by the partyleaders created crisis in all facets of the nation’s national life. The party described the APC congresses as a harvest of confusion in which leaders of the party engaged in physical, verbal and emotional assault against another, while using their thugs to unleash mayhem on party members with charms and dangerous weapons. "It is indeed despicable that a party that has the incumbent President of the country could not successfully conduct state congress, as their leaders were seen behaving recklessly and investing heavily in violence; a development that speaks volumes on why our nation has been under the heavy yoke of violence, division, bloodletting and acts of terrorism under the APC watch. "The outcome of APC congresses in many of the states has shown that it is a party that lacks leadership direction and internal cohesion; a party of unruly people, who are averse to peace, which explains why our country is reeling in crisis under the APC," the PDP said. The main opposition party said the APC could not guarantee or give unity, tranquility and progress to the nation. Instead, it said, "APC has continued to worsen the tension

in the country. It has continued to show itself as a party that is troubled from within and only waiting to implode at any time. "Nigerians should be wary of the APC. If the APC congresses turned out this bad, one can only imagine the type of mayhem that would characterise its primaries as well as their involvement in the general election." The PDP also said the APC state congresses presented an unprecedented scenario in the history of Nigeria, where a party, which produced the incumbent President, would have its ranks so torn down in shameful spectacle "Nigerians should make a correct interpretation of

the signal sent out by APC congresses, which is that the ruling party is a mere contraption and an inchoate body of desperate elements. Such a party cannot organise for the genuine development of the country. "Our party, the PDP is not however unaware of the efforts by the APC to inject crisis into our congresses but we commend the deft handling of issues in all our congresses to avert a crisis situation plotted by the APC. "It is clear that the APC cannot lead Nigeria to the promised land. It can only worsen the current uncertainty it has hitherto unleashed on Nigerians. "The PDP remains the

umbrella party that symbolises the yearning of Nigerians for unity, development, and security. The PDP is refocused to rebuild our national fabrics, reunite our people and chart a way forward for sustainable development in our country," it stated. Meanwhile, the National Secretary of the Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the APC, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, in a statement, described the parallel Congresses held in some states as mere naming ceremonies. He stated: "In adherence to internal democracy and the charge by the leader of our great

party, President Muhammadu Buhari that the party be returned to the people, card-carrying party members came out enmasse to elect executives, who will take charge of APC affairs accross the states for the next four years. "However, our attention has been drawn to reports of so-called and purported ‘parallel’Congresses. To borrow the phrase of one of our esteemed governors, such ‘parallel’Congresses are mere naming ceremonies." Akpanudoedehe insisted that the purported "parallel" Congresses are futile activities and very strange to the party, it's Constitution and the guidelines for the conduct of the state and

other congresses. The party noted that only exercises conducted by duly inaugurated state congress committees were recognised by the party. "The APC leadership will not hesitate to take adequate and lawful measures against any person or interest sabotaging the collective party's interest and efforts to achieve peace and unity in our great party," Akpanudoedehe added. He assured members that where contestations existed, adequate conflict resolution measures had been put in place to address them, saying the party has Appeal Committees for every Congress.

NDDC: Selfish Politicians from N’Delta Behind Delay in Board Appointment, Say Groups Threaten protest, issue seven-day ultimatum Deji Elumoye, Udora Orizu in Abuja and Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa Ijaw youths from the nine states in the Niger Delta region have accused those they described as selfish politicians including the ministers from the region, as being responsible for the delay in the constitution of the substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) The Ijaw youths under the umbrella body of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) worldwide, said delay was caused by the power struggle and open display of greed by the ministers over who becomes the Managing Director of the Commission. The IYC in a statement issued in Yenagoa, by its National spokesman, Ebilade Ekerefe, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to shun the alleged greedy ministers and politicians and immediately up the

substantive board of the NDDC. Ebilade tasked Buhari not to allow the ministers to undermine his efforts in the Niger Delta as well as frustrate the existing peace that the region had enjoyed for some time now. He said, "It has come to the notice of the entire youths of the region that these ministers and some high profile members of the National Assembly from the region are engaged in selfish battles over the choice of who mount the saddle of leadership in the NDDC. These politicians are trying to usurp the powers of the President to foist a board that will work for their personal interest and not that of the region." Ekerefe noted that the entire Ijaw nation was angry and disappointed at the conduct of the politicians and were ready to unveil their true identity if they don’t desist from their evil ways. "Is it not enough that President Buhari has refused to publish the audit report where their names and

that of their cronies are evidently visible as part of those who ferried away the development fund voted for the region under the NDDC despite calls from stakeholders to publish the report? “We are warning them that if they refuse to allow President Buhari set up the board with their unnecessary power tussles, the Ijaw youths will convene an enlarged meeting where their names will be read out and necessary sanctions served them. “These anti-Niger Delta elements should stop pulling resources together and wasting time and energy to lobby the presidency for their preferred choice. "While we are calling for the appointment of an Ijaw (a Bayelsan to be precise) as a substantive Managing Director (MD) of the Niger Delta Development Commission, some greedy vultures who live to feed fat in the rot taking place at the commission as a result of their personal greed and interest, are now using the

weight of their high profile political appointments to truncate the efforts, all in the suspicion that those who may emerge may not be their loyalists. “These deviant Niger Delta leaders who see the NDDC as their Cash-cow, and are now bent on doing anything to frustrate the president from appointing a substantive Board of the NDDC so long as top management officers, especially the MD, would not be stooge or pawn nominated by them to continue their siphoning of the Commonwealth of Niger Delta people and to fund the machinery of their 2023 political ambitions,” the IYC spokesman stated. In a related development, another group, the 21st Century Youths of Niger Delta and Agitators with Conscience (21st CYNDAC) has threatened to commence protest in Abuja, if the federal government fails to inaugurate the substantive board for the NDDC within seven days. The group which said it arrived

at the decision after an exhaustive meeting and deliberation at the weekend, queried why the affairs of the commission were still being run by a Sole Administrator after the conclusion and submission of the forensic audit. In a communique issued after the meeting and signed by its Leader, Izon Ebi, the group called on the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio to explain why the substantive board of the commission had not been inaugurated after weeks of the submission of the forensic audit report to the federal government. The Niger Delta group also demanded that the minister should go a step further to clarify and upholds his integrity on the bogus wealthy allegations of bribery and corruption levelled against him from the start of the forensic audit to this present moment, noting that the allegations were too wealthy to ignore if the forensic audit report should be taken seriously.

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PAGE TEN WSJ: HOW NIGERIAN MILITARY BOUGHT BACK ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN FROM KIDNAPPING GANG and mediators, who had visited the kidnapping camps, described a surfeit of munitions, which included more anti-aircraft guns acquired since the mission to buy one back. But the Nigerian Air Force, in a statement, described the report that it made such payment to armed bandits as “fake news.” “There is no basis for the NAF to pay bandits or any criminal elements that it has continued to attack and decimate in Katsina State (and) other parts of the North-west,” the statement said. It said despite the allegation, NAF conducted air interdiction in the area recently. The statement said, "The attention of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has been drawn to reports alleging that the NAF, through one of its personnel, paid the sum of N20 million to armed bandits operating in Jibia Local Government Area (LGA) of Katsina State in exchange for an anti-aircraft gun allegedly seized. "The report went on to state that the reason behind the payment was to retrieve the anti-aircraft gun which, it alleged, the NAF feared could be used against aircraft operating within Katsina State." NAF said there was no iota of truth in the allegation, adding that it is designed to cast aspersion on the service. It alleged, "The said report is totally false. It should therefore be taken as fake news and disregarded. Indeed, we ordinarily would not have responded to such baseless and utterly illogical allegation but for the need to set the record straight as well as reaffirm the NAF’s unflinching commitment to decisively dealing with the armed bandits and all other criminal elements." NAF stated further, "For the avoidance of doubt, it must be stated that there is no basis for the NAF to pay bandits or any criminal elements that it has continued to attack and decimate in Katsina State, other parts of the North-west as well as other Theatres of Operation in the country." However, the federal government did not respond to THISDAY’s request for comments. But the foreign journal maintained, “Criminal factions appear to be better equipped with larger-capacity advanced weaponry than national security agencies,” quoting a confidential internal report presented to the president in July. WSJ further alleged that over several months, the militant leader had agreed to part with the truck-mounted 12.7 millimetre anti-aircraft gun in exchange for the ransom. “His men had plenty more munitions,” he was quoted to have said. “I don’t need the army’s

weapons,” according to an officer, whose account was corroborated by another senior Nigerian official involved in the previously undisclosed mission, the report said. “If they don’t pay, we kill them,” a militant leader in Zamfara State, Shehu Rekeb, was quoted to have said in a phone interview. His men were herdsmen, he said, who had been mistreated by the state and subjected to arbitrary arrests. Once armed with machetes, they now have weapons on par with the military and collaborators inside the army, he was quoted to have claimed. More so, the report disclosed that in forests in the North-west, the loosely organised criminal gangs that raised funds by kidnapping school children were now flush with arms, cash and operating beyond the reach of an increasingly fragile state. In some instances, government officials in Africa’s most populous nation have been paying the gangs to return stolen weapons and kidnapped personnel, WSJ said, citing confidential documents and interviews with senior military officials, soldiers and independent mediators, and one of the gang leaders. The New York-based newspaper narrated how during one of the incidents, masked men emerged from the forest on motorbikes, surrounding a young intelligence officer clutching a cash-filled bag. It said, “An hour later, the officer, who declined to be

identified, was clasping hands with a leader of a diffuse network of criminals, whose campaign of kidnapping civilians—including hundreds of schoolchildren—has raised millions of dollars to build an arsenal of heavy weaponry they are using to wrest control of swaths of the north, including the president’s home state.” Nigeria’s government—still battling Islamic State militants in the North-east—refers to the lesser-known criminal groups in its North-west as “bandits”, the WSJ report said. It said several senior security officials described mass kidnapping for ransom as the country’s primary new security crisis. The report said one official, who had reviewed intercepts of bandit leaders’ communications, described how the militants spoke of accumulating weapons to defend themselves from rival gangs and from government-backed vigilantes and to conduct increasingly brazen operations against schools, villages, state officials and each other. “They’re settling scores… government cannot do anything,” one senior government security said. The bandits have seized more than 1,000 children from their schools this year. Thousands of schools have closed in a country, where half the population is under 18 and which has become home to the world’s largest population of out-of-class children Farmers have abandoned their land or sold it to purchase their children’s freedom, sending the

price of corn, rice and beans to new highs. Hundreds of villages have been deserted, after fighting that has left a quarter of a million people homeless. “My son has been captive in the forest for months,” said Bulus Kwoi, whose firstborn was one of 140 students abducted from Bethel Baptist School in Kaduna in July. “Please, will you give us the money to free them?” he appealed. Most of the bandits are from the Fulani ethnic group, a traditionally cattle-rearing society, whose herdsmen have been fighting for years with farmers over access to dwindling grazing lands. The report also alleged that more recently, some herdsmen had reorganised into kidnapping gangs, seizing everyone from villagers to prominent politicians. Last month, bandits raided a military training college in Kaduna State, north of the capital, killing two soldiers, grabbing more weaponry and kidnapping a ranking military officer, a major at the country’s national defense academy. Confident that they hold the upper hand, the bandits have called in to talk radio stations to boast of their weaponry and have invited journalists to photograph their stockpiles, WSJ reported. The Nigerian Police last month said they arrested three suspects in the kidnapping of students from Bethel Baptist School in Kaduna State. In the past three months, bandits have been blamed for abducting political leaders and

Catholic priests, and for regular killings of policemen. In July, the air force said a pilot was shot down over the Rugu forest after attempting an airstrike on bandit encampments there. The report said bandits were a distant priority for United States policy makers focused on Nigeria’s jihadist threat, though American officials said they had intercepted calls from suspected Islamist militants in the North-east, who were advising bandits in the North-west on kidnapping operations and negotiations. The Nigerian military opened a new offensive last month, bombarding forest encampments with airstrikes from US-delivered jet fighters. The government ordered cell phone reception suspended across four states, cutting off tens of millions of residents, as part of a military offensive that some officials claimed was succeeding. Villagers have paid bandits to not kidnap their children, intensifying a protection racket. Unable to defend communities, the governors of three northern states have told citizens to pick up weapons, fuelling a local business of fashioning muskets from scrap metal. “Hardly a day passes by without a person being killed or kidnapped. No single day,” Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Masari, had said. “It’s very important for the people to rise up,” he added. WSJ reported that the mission to buy back the anti-aircraft gun

began with a handoff from a high-ranking air force intelligence officer in Abuja: a black zip-up bag he alleged was full of N20 million. It was given to the young intelligence officer tapped to exchange it for the anti-aircraft gun the bandits had seized in an area, where Buhari frequently flew to visit his hometown of Daura. According to the report, “The officer flew to the town of Jibia on the border with Niger, where a dozen armed men emerged from the forest to meet him. They escorted him on motorbikes into thickening forest for hours, arriving at the home of their leader, a wiry man in his 30s, who collected the sack. “While the bandits began disassembling the antiaircraft gun and attempting to strap it to a wobbling motorbike, their leader aired a series of grievances against the state: Vigilantes had kidnapped his father, young men could no longer earn a livelihood rearing cattle, and airstrikes were killing civilians in his camps. “You are bombing us from the air,” he said. “You are killing our children.” His fighters were conducting reprisal operations against vigilantes and the army, which had helped them accrue a huge weapons stockpile, he said. Eventually, WSJ said, the bandits strapped the antiaircraft gun across two motorbikes and began to wheel it out of the camp. “They made it look so simple,” the air force officer said. “They made it feel casual.”

US: NIGERIA’S NORTH-EAST HUMANITARIAN CRISES, ONE OF WORLD’S MOST CHALLENGING government’s continuous support to Nigeria in the fight against insecurity. He said estimates by the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. think-tank, showed that more than 350,000 people had been killed in the North-east since 2009, while about three million people had been displaced across the Lake Chad Basin region. Ibelli further said the trail of death, destruction, and personal losses inflicted by Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa was immeasurable. He said the North-west also faced the threat of banditry, a type of organised crime that included kidnapping, armed robbery, murder, rape, cattlerustling, and the exploitation of environmental resources. According to the envoy, "These armed groups have terrorised communities, killed and displaced thousands, hindered socio-economic development, and threatened democratic governance. “There is also the farmerherder conflict worsened by climate change, rising populations, and competition

for dwindling resources. "Disagreements between pastoralist and farmers that may have once seemed manageable and isolated have escalated into large-scale disputes that have resulted in burned villages, stolen cattle, destroyed farm produce, and violence. "Illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing, oil bunkering, trafficking of weapons, narcotics, and people, as well as the on-going threat of Nigeriabased piracy and armed robbery at sea also pose a major threat to commerce, economic development and the environment for not just Nigeria, but the entire region." Ibelli said countering these threats was a common goal for Nigeria and the United States. He stressed that the US mission in Nigeria would continue to work in concert with the Nigerian government, fellow diplomatic missions, and civil society to address the multi-faceted dimensions of conflicts and armed violence in the country. He said the United States

Agency for International Development (USAID) "based in our Embassy in Abuja has the lead on coordinating the US government’s humanitarian response, as well as helping to rebuild the basic civil institutions essential to reestablishing civil and social life in the hardest hit states and areas of northern Nigeria. "As some of you may already know, the United States is the largest humanitarian donor in response to the North-east crisis, providing $1.45 billion since 2015 and supporting almost two million conflictaffected households. "Our Public Affairs Section at the Embassy in Abuja also oversees our Countering Violent Extremism messaging efforts and provides support to train a cadre of indigenous messengers best poised to reveal the falsity and vileness of Boko Haram and ISIS propaganda. PAS Abuja also awards grants in support of Nigeria’s response to the on-going instability in the North-west and North-central regions.

"Since 2017, Department of State and Department of Defense security assistance for Nigeria totals approximately $650 million. In addition to this assistance, the Super Tucano sale is valued at almost $500 million and remains the United States’ largest Foreign Military Sale in Sub-Saharan Africa." On the import of the summit, he said it provided a valuable forum for frank conversations on critical shared priorities, including security cooperation, humanitarian assistance, and stabilisation efforts. He said "without security, it is impossible to have the stability and environment that is conducive to robust economic development and capacity building.” While acknowledging the fundamental role of a free and independent media in a democracy, Ibelli said journalists helped ensure that citizens were informed and exposed to diverse perspectives on key issues, such as national security. According to him, "Well-

informed citizens make countries stronger, and the exchange of ideas is the foundation for accountable governance and development in addition to the economy. To this end, the United States will never rest in supporting initiatives that promote press freedom, access to information and freedom of expression." Ibelli described the United States as Nigeria’s partner of choice against insecurity, adding that a military response alone cannot lead to sustained peace. He stated, "Nigeria’s success does not just depend on its military effectiveness on the battlefield – it requires improvements to the economy, fiscal transparency, violence free elections, anti-corruption, antinepotism efforts, a welcoming business environment for investors, and governance off the battlefield as well. "In other words, a comprehensive, all of government response is necessary to build a better future in all parts of this great country."

unit now costs between N3,500 and N4000, while that of 12.5kg refilling unit costs between N7000 to N8000, depending on the part of the country the transaction is done. Meanwhile, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, has stated that the corporation remains committed to conducting its operations with transparency and accountability. This was contained in a statement by the spokesman of the corporation, Mr. Garba Muhammad. Speaking when he received, "The Sun Man of The Year Award,” in Lagos at the weekend, Kyari attributed the successes recorded by the management team of the NNPC to the, “freehand

and support” accorded him by President Muhammadu Buhari, who he said has never interfered with the affairs of the NNPC. “What we have done in recent years is to ensure that we take out all the opaqueness in NNPC. We also ensured that we represent Nigerians and work for them,” the GMD added. Speaking on the award, the Managing Director/Editor-inChief of The Sun Publishing Newspapers, Mr. Onuoha Ukeh said Kyari was honoured for his “doggedness and resilience” in the way he managed the operations of the NNPC during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, which saw the economies of many countries across the word struggling for survival.

DESPITE TIGHTENING GAS SUPPLY, RISING PRICES, FG SAYS LPG MARKET GROWING in September 2021, indicated that out of the 76,578.986 metric tonnes of LPG supplied nationwide, 49,453.081mt was locally produced while 27,125.905mt was imported. In the month of September 2021, it stated that the LPG data showed that 49,453.081MT was supplied into the domestic market by Algasco, Stockgap, NIPCO, 11 plc, Prudent, Greenville Natural Gas, PNG Gas, NPDC and Ashtavinayak Hydrocarbon Ltd with 66.58 per cent of the supply sourced from the NLNG, while 27,125.905 mt was imported by Rainoil, Algasco and Prudent. “It is worthy to note that the quantity of LPG sourced locally rose from 38,040.457mt in August to 49,453.081mt in September, while importation

reduced from 47,224.346mt to 27,125.905mt. “The marked improvement in local production reflects the success of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva in providing the right enabling business climate for the gas industry to thrive,” it stated. PPPRA stressed that policies and programmes such as the National Gas Policy (NGP), Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP), National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) and the Decade of Gas declaration were responsible for the quantum of investments in the gas industry currently. It listed some of the investments as the NPDC

Oredo Integrated Gas Handling Facility, Kwale Hub Gas Processing Plants (PNG, Ashtavinayak Hydrocarbon) Greenville LNG, Rivers State and the OSO/Bonny River Terminal project. “In terms of policies, the waiver of import duties on LPG production equipment as well as the zero VAT for locally produced LPG have indeed heightened the prospects of domestic investment in the sector,” the PPPRA said. In addition, it stated that the Pioneer Status Incentive (PSI) for some categories of LPG investments was also introduced, stressing that it remains committed to the development of Nigeria’s vast gas resources and strengthening the entire value chain.

In the last one year, the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), otherwise known as cooking gas, has been on the rise and has more than doubled in several parts of the country, a situation largely blamed on the scarcity of the product. Other factors that occasioned the rise included forex scarcity, naira devaluation and rising inflation, excessive arbitrary charges by government agencies as well as the newlyadded 7.5 per cent Valued Added Tax (VAT). Nigeria currently consumes about 1.2mmt of LPG, with the Nigeria LNG (NLNG) currently 450,000mt to the market, while marketers are left to import the remaining 750,000mt. A 6-kilogram LPG refilling

MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021 • T H I S D AY

MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

DISCOURSE Nigeria After Buhari: Healing a Divided and Traumatised Nation (2) the enormous challenges faced by the country. The ERGP, which was launched with fanfare as Buhari’s master plan to improve economic performance and social welfare by 2020, failed because it lacked a coherent vision and thoughtful strategic intent, was severely underfunded, and poorly planned and executed. Warning: beware the presidential contender who lacks vision and purpose – nothing matters without both.

Noah Udoffia

PRESIDENT BUHARI’S RECORD OF UNDERPERFORMANCE

s Nigeria sinks deeper into the abyss and politicians gear up for the 2023 race, the way Nigerians understand the Buhari tenure inevitably shapes how they evaluate and understand the field of potential candidates. In addition, shedding light on the dark side of the Buhari government will inform the country of what happened and why, if for no other reason than to pursue laws and policies to prevent the same thing from happening again. To examine the Buhari tenure, let’s begin with his election promises in 2015. To win, candidate Buhari rebranded and repackaged his image, selling himself not just as the best antidote to the nation’s numerous problems, but as its saviour and protector of ordinary citizens, arguing that by his policies, he will deliver a better, longer, and more prosperous life to ordinary Nigerians. Accordingly, he promised to unite the nation, keep citizens safe, “kill corruption before corruption killed Nigeria” and lift 100 million people out of poverty. The evaluation of President Buhari’s tenure is, therefore, inextricably bound up with the question of whether and to what extent his presidency mitigated corruption and advanced the wellbeing of long-suffering Nigerians. Will he leave the country better than it was when he took office in 2015? None of these should be taken to imply that President Buhari is the root of all evil afflicting the nation. The National Assembly is equally guilty. But as the man at the helm, the buck stops with him. Let’s put to bed the usual nonsensical rationalization that oil price collapse is to blame for President Buhari’s poor performance. Yes, part of the economic collapse can be attributed to decline in oil revenue. However, President Buhari borrowed massively to mitigate the impact of net reduction in oil revenues. Oh, by the way, great leaders thrive, not flop, in time of unforeseen crisis. Next, I summarize evidence of President Buhari’s underperformance: Unemployment has worsened. When President Buhari took office in 2015, only 6.4% of the general labour force in Nigeria were unemployed. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported 25% unemployment rate just before the pandemic setback (unemployment rate has increased to 33% in Q4 2020). Reducing youth unemployment, a major objective of Buhari’s presidency, has been a disaster. Even before the pandemic, the youth unemployment rate reached 54%. History will record President Buhari as having failed in this most critical objective.

The economy has nosedived. President Buhari’s signature economic plan—the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP)—to revitalize the economy after the decline in oil revenue, was proclaimed to be a fix for the economy. However, inflation was reported by NBS to be 16% in Q1 2020 – far higher than the “single digit” President Buhari promised. Real GDP growth (Q1 2020) was 1.87% vs. his goal of 7%—a 73% underperformance. Unemployment was 25% vs. 11.23% goal—a 123% increase above Buhari’s declared goal. His administration’s promises to diversify the economy away from oil failed. Nigeria remains a centre-led distributional economy. His promised economic miracles have not arrived. Poverty and economic inequality reign.

Data from the World Food Programme indicate that 75% of Nigerian kids go to bed each night hungry. In 2019, the NBS reported that over 83 million Nigerians live below the country’s poverty line of $1.05/day. Today, the wealth of a few has reached extraordinary levels while many can’t feed their families. A recent report by USID noted that 12.8 million Nigerians will require emergency food assistance this year, representing a significant deterioration of food security compared with 2014 before President Buhari was elected. His campaign promises to lift people out of poverty now ring hollow.

Nigeria is more divided and unsafe.

Buhari promised to keep Nigerians safe by vanquishing insurgency, reducing kidnapping, and resolving conflicts between herders and farming communities. Today, ISWAP is waxing stronger. Kidnapping gangs operate with impunity. Conflicts abound between cattle herders and local farmers. Insurgency and banditry have engulfed

Apathetic personality. Those who know the president well, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters, describe him as apathetic, a bystander, who often disengaged emotionally, and watches events pass him by. They describe him as insular, indifferent towards people, especially those he loathes. Case studies in presidential leadership indicate that apathetic personality of presidents play a critical role in shaping their policy decisions and how they exercise leadership. Apathetic presidents tend to care less about people and their suffering. Indifference has made President Buhari so disinterested that he hasn’t taken any significant action to relieve the chronic sufferings of citizens. Warning: beware the presidential candidate who lacks compassion and emotional intelligence. Liability of soldier-turned-politician.

For context, we must remember President Buhari’s history as the head of a military junta from 1983 to 1985, after taking power in a military coup d’état. What most conditions some Nigerian ex-military officers for political malfunction is their inexperience at ruling with compassion, consensus, and consent. They are inexperienced with the mutual concessions or the give and take required of democratic governance. Brute force or bullying is their weapon of choice. They get paranoid and repressive without it. Examples include Buhari’s lack of engagement with the National Assembly and state governors to seek consensus on critical national security issues; disregard for and violation of constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech as exemplified by his Twitter ban; his unwillingness to hold direct communication with the people; and overreaction to legal protests by citizens. The administration’s catastrophic mishandling of the #EndSARS protests shattered his administration’s democratic pretensions. Warning: beware the presidential candidate who is a soldier-turned-politician.

Buhari some Northern states. Misguided secessionist and separatist groups terrorize, kill and hold hostages in some Southern states. According to the UN, cumulatively, insurgency activities have claimed the lives of over 350,000 and driven 2.9 million people from their homes. President Buhari’s failure to deal with chronic insecurity and those who sponsor terror is a major fiasco.

virus, infecting every aspect of public life. Interpretation of findings from the most recent Afrobarometer survey of Nigerians, conducted in early 2020, shows that 92% distrust their fellow citizens. If the only person you can trust is yourself, then society cannot function. With distrust at the highest level, the tendency to vilify, blackmail, insult and demonize has become normative in national discourse.

Corruption has increased. Despite the promise to combat corruption, the level of corruption since taking office has increased, as indicated in the corruption ranking by Transparency International (TI). TI ranked Nigeria 149th (i.e., highly corrupt) out of 180 countries in 2020. Just before Buhari took office in 2014, the country was ranked 136 (i.e., less corrupt). Most Nigerians agree, and I concur, that President Buhari is not himself corrupt. He had a plan, but no political will to fight corruption among his own partisans. Because there is a code of honour among thieves, some members of the National Assembly watch silently as corruption has become a best practice.

In sum, the tragedy of the Buhari administration is that Nigeria is a miserable country for most of its citizens. The Misery Index is a simple measure of how the average citizen is doing economically. The most recent Misery Index, compiled by the respected CATO Institute, places Nigeria at #6 on the list of the 95 most miserable countries in the world in 2019 (reported in 2020). This sad position highlights the failures of the Buhari administration to mitigate insecurity, corruption, unemployment and inflation.

have declined. Human capital development remains extremely weak due to under-investment in education and healthcare as evidenced by Nigeria ranking 167 (i.e., very bad) of 174 countries in the World Bank’s 2020 Human Capital Index. Nigeria ranked 120 in 2014 before President Buhari took office. According to the federal budget office, funding allocation to education as percentage of national budget was 10.6% in 2014. It was cut to 6.7% in 2020, starving the sector of much needed funds to train the next generation of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, etc. required to innovate, grow the economy and create jobs.

My analysis considers two dimensions of leadership: the institutional and the individual. Presidential leadership is not performed in a vacuum but within certain constraints set by the institutional framework—rules of the political game which enable and constrain presidential behaviour. For this post-mortem, I focus on the individual and take the institution as a given. While no two presidencies are alike, I have identified a set of factors that make a president likelier to fail. Unsurprisingly, virtually all are present in President Buhari’s administration.

WHY PRESIDENT BUHARI FAILED: LEADERSHIP LESSONS FOR THE NEXT The education budget and quality of education PRESIDENT

National distrust abounds. President Buhari’s government has eroded any remaining social capital in Nigeria. Distrust has spread across the nation like—forgive the expression—a

Lack of vision and purpose. From the first day in office, President Buhari and his hand-picked loyalists were devoid of progressive ambition, lacking in creative ideas and, for six years, barely seemed to have any effective strategy on how to tackle

Disdain for political power sharing.

In our constitutional democracy the president must seek the cooperation of all branches of government to succeed in doing the peoples’ work. Unfortunately, President Buhari decided early in his presidency to go it alone, often abusing the presidential prerogative power of Executive Orders (Section 5), thereby undermining the exercise of legislative and judicial powers under the constitution (Section 4). The concept of political engagement, negotiation and compromise was lost on him. Our constitution granted President Buhari important institutional resources and placed him at the centre of the political decision-making process. But this strong autonomous presidential prerogative coexists with the separation of powers between the branches of government and the system of checks and balances, thus providing opportunities to resolve political conflicts and to adopt political decisions. But President Buhari failed to build multiparty governing coalitions and engage and negotiate on important national programs. Warning: beware the presidential candidate who is autocratic.

Weak and incompetent team. According to insiders, President Buhari is dismissive of ideas contrary to his preconceived notion of issues and solutions. People with real knowledge of policymaking are often excluded from the administration’s inner circle and hardly play any important roles in developing critical national policies. Rather, preference is given to the incompetent yes-men who often resort to embarrassing sycophancy, who are willing to abase themselves to prove their loyalty to the president. As a result, loyalty to President Buhari transcends considerations of good policy that serves the interest of the nation. Warning: beware the presidential candidate who is narcissistic. In summary, President Buhari failed to deliver on his election promises. He failed to unite the nation, keep citizens safe, mitigate corruption and lift 100 million people out of poverty. Finally, in Part 3, I offer a high-level strategic agenda for the next president to rebuild the nation.

MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021 • T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021

COMMENT

Editor, Editorial Page PETER ISHAKA Email peter.ishaka@thisdaylive.com

A CONVERSATION WITH THE FINANCE MINISTER Sola Oni raises some salient questions on the economy

was a Rapporteur at the National Workshop of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja on August 19, 2021. The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zeinab Ahmed presented a lucid and detailed paper on how the Nigerian Capital market had in the past enhanced economic growth and development and the need to further exploit such opportunities. I wanted to ask a few questions after her presentation but realized that she represented President Muhammadu Buhari to declare the Workshop open. Therefore, her address was like a priest’s sermon which cannot be questioned while on the pulpit. It is ex-cathedral because the priest is believed to be under the influence of the holy spirit. I knew that she might not be able to wait after the group photograph. But as a reporter, I needed to explore another option to engage Madam Ahmed on this rare opportunity before she leaves the venue. Barely three minutes of my waiting at the main entrance of the Conference Room, the minister, flanked by some of her aides surfaced. I said thank you for coming Ma, and your presentation was a food for thought. She stared at me and I quickly introduced myself and said but your brilliant presentation has put many of us in a quandary on the way the federal government underutilizes the capital market in fixing the economy. She was curious to hear more. Now that I have secured her attention, I became the focus of the minister and her team. I continued that over the years the federal government doesn’t consider stockbrokers’ communique after each event. I submitted that if government had implemented just 50 percent of the previous communiques, the Nigerian Capital Market would have accelerated double digit growth of the economy on sustainable basis. I stated that the principles that underpin workshops and conferences of Capital Market Operators, especially the Institute and Association for Securities Dealing Houses of Nigeria (ASHON) is the nexus between the capital market and the economy and how the market can be utilized by the government at all tiers to finance capital projects, in addition to attracting corporate, institutional, and individual investors into the market. I pointed out that the misalignment of fiscal and monetary policies undermines integration of the money and capital market to the detriment of the latter. I asked what the government is doing to create an enabling environment to encourage more participation of foreign investors, hedge funds, private equity firms, venture capitalists and pension administrators on the market. I raised the issue of incentivizing quotable companies across various sectors of the economy to seek listing on the securities market, equitable treatment for all operators of commodities exchanges, efficacy of devaluation of the naira in an environment of fragile export base, taming stagflation, forex scarcity, exchange rate volatility despite the Central Bank’s intervention, a big question mark on the high cost of governance, funding of the frightening budget deficit of N6.26 trillion, questions on the assumptions of the 2022 fiscal budget, ding-dong legal tussle on the Value Added Tax (VAT), mounting unemployment and restive youths, pent-up anger for neglect, resulting into perennial agitation of different professional bodies in Nigeria, little or no impact of all sorts of empowerment programmes to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, changing tactics of insecurity daily and a nagging issue of trust deficit in

I POINTED OUT THAT THE MISALIGNMENT OF FISCAL AND MONETARY POLICIES UNDERMINES INTEGRATION OF THE MONEY AND CAPITAL MARKET TO THE DETRIMENT OF THE LATTER

the government’s economic permutations and models as all these undermine the patronage of the capital market. I commended the federal government on its issuance of some tranches of Sukkuk Bonds vide the Debt Management Office (DMO). Although the bonds are always oversubscribed, with the quantum of money required for capital projects, why is the government not considering more aggressive infrastructural financing through the capital market, given the obvious benefits of revenue bonds, a self-paying debt instrument? I also reminded her about securitization of debts to fund budget gaps as part of the strategy to address the ongoing physical and spiritual attack on the government over its borrowing spree. Having noted that one of her aides was jotting my points, I urged her to also attend the Institute’s Annual Conference, scheduled for Thursday, October 28 and Friday, October 29 at Harbour Point 4, Victoria Island with the Theme: “Capital Market as a Catalyst for Economic Development and Sustainable Growth”, where experts will dragonize and proffer solutions, once again, to the factors that hinder the growth of Nigerian capital market and how the market can be leveraged for economic growth and development. Sensing her positive body language about the conference, I added that its objective is to build innovative conversations on “optimizing some elements of the capital markets to improve economic development and sustainable growth in Nigeria?” I was emphatic that the conference shall focus on review of the controversial Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as engines of economic growth and development, regulation and impacts of crowdfunding, unclaimed dividend, fintech evaluation and the capital market as the strategic forum shall produce a strong communique on the way out of Nigeria’s economic conundrum. But I politely noted that some market observers have expressed concerns that the planned partial privatization of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) may take ages to crystalize gong by the government’s lethargic approach to privatization of moribund state enterprises over the years. After almost 25 minutes, her aide that was taking notes looked unfriendly, a signal that I should round off. But I decided to risk the final comment. I said some analysts are wondering why the federal government downplayed the capital market in its economic planning, noting that some of the foreign loans, including Eurobond that the government was flaunting as cheap are more expensive than revenue bond and that Nigeria was running “Bubunomics” where high percentage of revenue goes for debt servicing with the risk of mortgaging the critical infrastructure to lenders. With fulfillment, I said, hope my humble observations shall find consideration and implementation space in the heart of the government. Her response has been non-verbal throughout. She smiled at any point she considered as commendation but stylishly frowned at others. At this juncture, she thanked me and said my observations were appreciated and would be given immediate attention. As she was calmly leaving with her aides, I suddenly realized that I was in a light trance, but a remarkable one. Oni, an Integrated Communications Strategist, Chartered Stockbroker and Commodities Broker, is the Chief Executive Ofﬁcer, Sofunix Investment and Communications.

THE 2022 APPROPRIATION BILL

The January – December budget cycle is gradually coming to stay, writes Boniface Chizea

he presentation of the N16.3 trillion 2022 Appropriation bill was made to a joint session of the National Assembly on October 7, 2021. The details for Budget 2021 it will be recalled was presented at about this time on October 8, 2020. With this development we expect that the National Assembly will conclude the approval process for the January to December calendar year cycle which is quite business friendly as most economic agents are wired for the calendar year for their planning purposes. We are pleased to note that this practice which has been bequeathed to us by this administration is being sustained as it will be on record as one of the administration’s legacy to impact the culture of budget preparation in the country going forward. Some other unique features of the Budget 2022 include the recall of the fact that this will be the last full year budget to be presented by this administration and therefore realistically there is not much time left for impactful developments to be effected. It is also impressive to note the fact that there was this constant referral to the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) assumptions as changes were made as we made progress with discussions on the budget. There was this consciousness that the budget was prepared based first and foremost on the assumptions which have been earlier approved as included in the MTEF. This is a welcome development as opposed to the situation in the past whereby one constantly wondered if the exercise of the approval of the MTEF was simply a hollow ritual. The president also gave assurance as part of his presentation that the Minister of Finance would do the budget breakdown and also present the Finance Bill; which is targeted at fiscal equity as

tax laws are progressively reformed making them consistent with best global practice highlighting in the process the tax incentives that would be made available in the fiscal year under consideration. This we must recall is also an innovation introduced by this administration. It is also on record that the recently enacted Petroleum Industry Act which has been under preparation for over 20 years made it possible to increase the budget size to the current amount of N16.39 tn, representing an increase of 19.7% on the 2021 budget. Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government were also mandated through the details of this presentation to mainstream gender issues which for most female members of the National Assembly was a good deal as this feature was highlighted as one of the high points of the budget as they were interviewed after the presentation. On a lighter note members were caught on camera dozing off despite the fact that the presentation was abridged due to COVID concerns! They were called out as their pictures were splashed in the print media but the only saving grace was that the mask made it difficult to discern individual identity. We identify with the objectives of the budget particularly the one that aims for the reduction on the level of insecurity in the land. The level of insecurity in the land is alarming to say the least and is stating the obvious to observe that Nigeria will remain an unattractive destination for as long as the level of kidnappings, rape, arson and general loss of human life remain unabated. It is therefore reassuring to note that the progress in this respect has improved recently following the delivery of Supper Tucano jets from America. The target of providing critical infrastructure is well thought out

as it is a sure driver for fast forwarding economic growth and development. The other objectives such as diversification of the economy, reduction in the level of poverty and efforts to reduce regional economic and social disparity are veritable work in progress. The budget includes a target to sell petrol at a price per barrel of 57 dollars up from 40 dollars used for the 2021 appropriation with a daily production rate of 1.88 million barrels per day. The current price of oil is above 80 dollars a barrel in the market. Therefore this assumption is very conservative which in itself is good as it is far better to manage surplus. But the deficit in the budget could be considerably reduced by, for instance, increasing the price of oil assumed for the preparation of the budget to say 60 dollars per barrel from the current 57 dollars per barrel assumed. The assumption on daily production is aligned with what the trend in daily production has been assuming that there will be no major disruptions due to unrest in the region. An inflation rate of 13% as well as an exchange rate of 410.15 have been assumed. What one does not understand is why the details on the rate of exchange is as exact as indicated! But the assumption on the rate of inflation might be difficult to realize against the backdrop of a free falling rate of exchange. It will be good if we can manage a growth rate of over 4% since at that level we might begin to witness some level of development if the population growth remains as projected at under 3%. The budget has an aggregate revenue of N10.13 tn. With N3.16tn. or 34.9% from oil sources and therefore the balance of N6.97tn. representing 65.1% from non-oil sources. It has a deficit of N6.25 tn.

Which is the equivalent of 3.39% of GDP. Which will be funded by fresh borrowing to the tune of N5tn. Which will be sourced equally from both domestic and foreign sources. This deficit is in excess of 3% of the GDP which is the threshold indicated by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007. But as the president explained we need to spend to resuscitate the economy following the slowdown imposed by the pandemic provided the expenditure is in areas such as essential infrastructure which has the potential to give a shot in the arm to the economy. Capital spend of N5.35tn the equivalent of 32.7% of the total expenditure has been earmarked. For us to catalyze faster growth there is need for us to achieve an improvement on the proportion of the budget spent under this budget head. Therefore the efforts to rationalize recurrent expenditure particularly personnel related costs remain veritable work in progress. Petroleum subsidy amounted to N714 billion as at the end of August, 2021. The nonfunctional refineries spent N8.33bn during the period up to August, 2021. It is estimated that the total expenditure on the refineries will be up to N66.6 bn. for the year. These expenditures are not sustainable against the backdrop of inactivity but it is interesting to note that there has been no budget provision in budget 2022 for such budget heads. Therefore the days ahead portend to be interesting. The president has promised during his presentation to safeguard revenues from oil and gas; ready to plug leakages. That is a battle which Nigeria has to win if we are desirous of rapid development as it is often proclaimed that corruption fights back if you gear up to take it on. Chizea is a management consultant

T H I S D AY • MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021

EDITORIAL THE CASE FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE There is urgent need to adopt a comprehensive social health insurance scheme

ost of the countries that have made appreciable progress in achieving universal health coverage (UHC) have also implemented some form of comprehensive governmentled health financing reforms. Unfortunately, despite a reform of the sector in Nigeria and the law already put in place, majority of the population are not covered by any health insurance schemes. This is perhaps because the scheme is driven by the executive at the federal level rather than by the three tiers of government and the private sector. Many of the states and local governments are yet to come on board. For the health of our people, it is important that critical stakeholders begin to address this challenge. In Nigeria today, hundreds of thousands of citizens die on account of lack of access to quality healthcare which a functional health insurance scheme could have guaranteed at all levels. Admitted that there can never be a one-size-fits-all ONLY A SMALL model for guaranteePROPORTION OF ing health insurance NIGERIANS HAVE PREPAID for the society, we however believe HEALTH CARE, AND that the trouble with THIS IS NOT RIGHT IF WE the National Health MUST KEEP A HEALTHY Insurance Scheme POPULATION (NHIS) is the systemwide inequalities in its implementation which has resulted in the lack of financial protection for the health care needs of most Nigerians. The main goal of the NHIS is “to facilitate fairfinancing of healthcare costs through pooling and judicious utilisation of financial resources to provide financial risk protection and cost-burden sharing for people, against high cost of healthcare.” This is done through various pre-payment programmes prior to falling ill. But a scheme that is voluntary in practice cannot guarantee proactive protection for the country’s

Letters to the Editor

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sick population. Former Health Minister, Isaac Adewole, once argued that the act establishing the NHIS needed a comprehensive review to make it work more efﬁciently for Nigerians. While we agree to the urgent need to strengthen the law governing health insurance with a view to getting wider participation and ensuring effectiveness, we do not agree that a review of the act should be concerned about the power of the governing board. The fact that other federating units outside the federal government do not participate in the NHIS makes it somewhat ineffectual. How to get the states and local governments, as well as private sector organisations enlisted in the scheme should therefore be the overriding objective of any attempts to review the NHIS Act.

I T H I S DAY EDITOR SHAKA MOMODU DEPUTY EDITOR WALE OLALEYE, OBINNA CHIMA MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR ISRAEL IWEGBU CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN MANAGING EDITOR BOLAJI ADEBIYI THE OMBUDSMAN KAYODE KOMOLAFE

T H I S DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE, ISRAEL IWEGBU, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU, EMMANUEL EFENI DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS SHAKA MOMODU, PETER IWEGBU, ANTHONY OGED ENGBE DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR ERIC OJEH ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR PATRICK EIMIUHI CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO TO SEND EMAIL: ﬁrst name.surname@thisdaylive.com

ndeed, as it stands with the NHIS, only a small proportion of Nigerians have prepaid health care, and this is not right if we must keep a healthy population. To therefore achieve the UHC which the country has signed on to, we are of the strong view that strengthening and adopting a comprehensive social health insurance scheme would have to happen and quickly too. We also believe that reforming the country’s healthcare ﬁnancing through a review of the NHIS Act is critical to achieving the objective. The effectiveness of a social health insurance in Nigeria would also be strengthened with the inclusion of the 36 states into the scheme and getting them to setup and manage their own insurance schemes in line with the provisions of a reviewed NHIS. The beneﬁts of a health insurance scheme that works in a country like ours are many. One, the idea of cashless treatment for those insured makes it imperative for them to get immediate treatment during sudden ill-health while the premium paid on health insurance is usually tax deductible. It is therefore important for the National Assembly to take into consideration all the factors that militate against the implementation of the NHIS Act and amend the law appropriately. Until we can extend health insurance to all citizens, the country’s push for UHC will be a mirage.

TO OUR READERS Letters in response to speciﬁc publications in THISDAY should be brief (150-200 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are well-written and should also not be longer than (9501000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer.

NIGERIAN LAWYERS MUST TAKE THE LEAD

etween 22nd and 29th October 2021, Nigerian lawyers under the auspices of the Nigerian Bar Association will converge on Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for its anticipated Annual General Conference.This year`s theme, “Taking the Lead”, is apt because more than ever, Nigeria stands in sore need of good leadership. In 2015, no sooner had Mr. Muhammadu Buhari assumed office after victory at polls in which Nigerians resoundingly rejected the PDP than he had Nigerian lawyers in his crosshairs. Proceeding rather sweepingly and misguidedly, he called out Nigerian lawyers for their roles in the many problems plaguing the country especially corruption. It was a harbinger of things to come. In 2016, in the dead of the night, a couple of Nigerian judges were roused from their sleep and their homes turned upside down by men of the Department of State Services. Till this day, no one from the DSS or from the executive has been able to successfully deny that the raid was nothing other than a sacrilegious attack on the Nigerian judiciary. In fact, in 2019, when Mr. Walter Onnoghen was forced out as Chief Justice of Nigeria by the kangaroo kinetics of the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the presidency, it became apparent that the attack on lawyers and the raid on judges was all part of a poorly orchestrated

campaign to rein in the judiciary. In 2015, as Mr. Buhari sought to unseat an incumbent president for the first time in the history of Nigeria, he was all over the place with his propagandists, waving an anti-corruption manifesto at Nigerians. Nigerians fell for the gimmick because under Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, corruption had become a policy of state. Like a cancerous tumor, corruption had metastasized, infecting every part of the country and dealing a deadly blow on Nigerians, and destruction to the country`s ethics and public property. The leprous fingerprints of corruption were in the failing health care available to children, in the dilapidated classrooms and impoverished teachers in public schools and largely in the swift descent of families down the steep slopes of poverty. In the sharp corners some members of the judiciary are favoured, and the lethargy in the National Assembly, corruption had left conspicuous marks. Corruption had caught on the fabric of the country like an indelible stain, portraying the country on the international stage as dirty and directionless. Because things were awful, Mr. Buhari was an easy sell. Today, the love story has soured into a horror story. There is in Nigeria as in every other country a court of public opinion. There the pulse of everyday Nigerians

is felt, and their views aggregated. In the court of public opinion, people freely share the experiences their expressions betray. In Nigeria, the dominant narrative is that political office holders violate the public till and then get lawyers to extricate them from judicial proceedings when they are put on trial. In Nigeria, a lawyer to a ‘thief’ is also a ‘thief.’ To its credit, the Nigerian Bar Association, the umbrella body of lawyers in Nigeria has in keeping with its motto which is “promoting the rule of law,” remained an unwavering defender of the rule of law. Whenever the Association has been able to put its internal wrangling aside, it has proved an unforgiving thorn on the flesh of Nigerian public officers with dictatorial inclinations. Lawyers by their training and experience most times find themselves in the trenches with the oppressed. From those trenches have come an instinct that flinches at the faintest expression of oppression. Now, as the country stands on the brink, assailed enemies on all sides, Nigerian lawyers must more than ever assume their responsibilities as defenders of the country. The law of which they are bastions and the temples of justice where they are ministers have always proven sure battlements against the gale injustice and oppression. Kene Obiezu, Keneobiezu@gmail.com

MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021 • T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021

Group Politics Editor NSEOBONG OKON-EKONG

POLITICS

Email: nseobong.okonekong@thisdaylive.com 08114495324 SMS ONLY

M O N D AY D I S C O U R S E

How Nigerian Youths Failed to Utilize Opportunities of EndSARS Protests Udora Orizu writes that Nigerian youths failed to utilise the opportunity of EndSARS protests to increase their visibility in governance

Buhari

Lawan

Gbajabiamila

Sanwo-Olu

his Wednesday, October 20, 2021 marks the 1st anniversary of the #EndSARS protest and Lekki shooting. Ahead of the anniversary, activists and youths have revealed a plan to stage peaceful protests in honour of the victims, who allegedly lost their lives at the dusk of October 20, 2020. The now defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad, popularly known as (SARS) was established as a special police unit in 1992 to tackle increasing incidents of armed robberies and kidnappings for ransom by criminal elements operating across Nigeria. Originally set up to operate independently in order to target criminal groups, the unit’s success hinged on its anonymity and mode of operation. SARS operatives conducted covert operations in plain clothes and unmarked vehicles to support police operations responding to community distress calls on armed robberies and other serious crimes. Over the years, however, SARS officials became implicated in widespread human rights violations and garnered a bad reputation for arbitrary arrests, torture, rape, extortion, unlawful detention, and extrajudicial killings. The notorious now defunct unit for decades enjoyed impunity for the continued use of torture and other ill-treatment to execute, punish and extract information from suspects. Several victims of the SARS made the news sparking, each time, a lot of indignation on

social media and sometimes protests. While the authorities made promises to disband SARS, the members continued to extort, torture and kill. The Nigerian government has failed to bring perpetrators to justice despite promises of police reform. This has continued to embolden SARS officials and other security personnel to operate with impunity. Enduring Years of Misrule Over the years, politicians have been taking a perceived laid back, amenable citizens on an unending ride. At differ-

ent fora some elites have lamented how their generation caused the country’s retrogression. In 2016, former President Olusegun Obasanjo warned that the country was sitting on a keg of gunpowder when it comes to issues confronting young people. Also in 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan, while flagging off his campaign for re-election declared that his generation had failed the country. He, therefore, charged the youths to spearhead the country’s future through hard work and dedication, stressing that

Nigerian Youths failed to utilize the opportunity of the ENDSARS protest to increase their visibility in governance across board because they remain adamant and reluctant to continue to push for changes in the way and manner in which the country is being governed considering the fact that they are the major drivers of development when it comes to socio economic, political and religious aspects of the country. Our youths must resist being used for political violence, religious and ethnic violence and stay away from any criminal activities

they were the ones to take the country to the moon. Again in 2017, former President Olusegun Obasanjo admitted that his generation failed in its efforts to take Nigeria to Eldorado. Obasanjo, who spoke in Kaduna during a one-day trade fair seminar of the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KADCCIMA), listed a number of factors inhibiting the nation’s growth and development. He said: “the generation before us gave us and our country independence. Whatever you like, say about them. The Awolowos, Nnamdi Azikiwes, the Sardaunas, Aminu Kanos, Tafawa Balewas, and others gave us independence, they were not perfect, and if you like, you can go on from now till tomorrow condemning what they did, but they gave us independence. These people and my generation laid the foundation for the democracy we enjoy today. Our democracy is not perfect, our democracy is a journey and not a destination, and we must continue to improve on it. My sons and daughters, what will your generation do? Condemnation is easy, but what will you do” And the Youths Rose in Unity Against Bad Governance However, in October 2020, in a historic move, Nigerian youths showed that they were fed up and wiould no longer tolerate bad governance.

T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021

MONDAY DISCOURSE

Yahaya

For the first time, the youths, through the #EndSARS protests realized that they can move against the government, get them on their knees and demand good governance. On October 4, 2020, a video went viral showing SARS officers dragging two men from a hotel and shooting one of them outside. The offensive video which led to humongous mindless destruction estimates all over the country at Trillions of Naira was later discovered to be fake. A few days later, protests erupted across Nigeria. On October 11, Federal Government announced that SARS has been disbanded. But it was the 5th time since 2015 that the Nigerian authorities pledged to reform the police and disband SARS. As such, ithe announcement on 11 October that the police unit had been again disbanded was viewed with skepticism. So the youths continued the protests demanding more than empty promises. On October 20, the youths who turned the Lekki Tollgate, Lagos convergence point to a picnic spot,; playing loud music, ensuring steady supply of electricity supply, food and beverages sustained by donors who also gave cash, continued the protest against police brutality, bad governance and poverty. By the third day, the youths had won a never-seen-before victory. The Nigerian government panicked and gave into all the initial five demands of the youths. President Muhammadu Buhari made a broadcast to plead with the youths. In different states, governors tried to engage the youths and open a channel of communication with them, but they rejected the suggestion to choose leaders to meet with government at the negotiation table, saying they had no leaders, thus allowing the advantage to slip out of their hands. Instead, the youths began to make other demands like ‘Buhari Must Go’, review of salaries of National Assembly members and resignation of the Inspector General of Police. By this time, hoodlums hijacked what was initially a peaceful protest. In Lagos, the nation’s commercial capital and epicentre of the protests, commercial activities were halted as the youths barricaded many public highways. In a bid to dislodge them, there was an altercation with security agents. The unarmed protesters were allegedly shot. Unsubstantiated allegations that lives were lost are rife. These were largely nstigated by a supposed live streaming of unconfirmed occurrences at the Lekki Tollgate made by a female Disc Jockey, Obianuju Catherine Udeh better known as DJ Switch, but dirisively called DJ Witch’, who has since escaped to Canada. The incident sparked global outrage and an investigation amid persistent calls for reforms. Reacting, the Nigerian Army while confirming that soldiers were deployed to the scene, however said they did not shoot live bullets at the protesters. Thereafter the government tasked all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to set up panels of inquiry to look into the dastardly act. But government’s response to the public outcry over police brutality and excessive force against protesters unfortunately further widened the growing distrust between it and the youths. Positive Take Out from the Protest The #EndSARS movement saw majority of

Alkali

marginalized youths participate in one of the largest demonstration movements since the country’s democratic transition in 1999. Their courage to pour into the streets, bare their mind on social and traditional media, not only galvanized fence-sitters to join the fray but spoke volumes of their determination to have their way the way. This has never happened before in the country. For over two weeks, the political class were running scared due to the demand by the youths for nothing less than a noticeable change in how Nigeria is being governed. The protest was not only a clamour for police reform, but also became a symbol of hope that the youths are no longer docile to the misrule by their leaders. The protest also brought about unity and showed freedom from the ethnoreligious tensions that plagued Nigeria’s security and political issues. Youths in all six geopolitical zones united around a common goal, which is an end to police brutality and bad governance. The protest further highlighted the need for more young people to exercise their civil and political rights to speak out against injustices and to demand change from leaders elected to serve their needs. Did Nigerian Youths Fail to Utilise the Opportunity of EndSARS Protest to Increase Their Visibility in Governance Across Board? A year after the nationwide protest, youths are still reeling from the shock and after effects of the government’s heavy-handed response. Also nothing seems to have changed as the police have continued to brutalize citizens, and even threatened to stop peaceful march scheduled to mark the first anniversary of the protest. Despite the impressive gains made by the youths during the protest, such as getting the President to disband the SARS unit, there’s still a question which lingers on the minds of many, and it is, if the youths failed to utilize the opportunity of the protest to increase their visibility in governance. A year later, young Nigerians still say they are still victims of police brutality and their demands for systemic changes have not been met. This shows that the wave of protests has given a platform to a section of the

Rafsanjani

country’s young population who are deeply dissatisfied, to not only dwell on the pains from the protest, but also focus on interrogating and reflecting on the regrets and lessons learned from it, with the aim to chart a better course that would inform organising for political, economic, and social leadership in a changing and dynamic world. Speaking to THISDAY on the assertion, that youths have failed to utilize the opportunity of the ENDSARS protest to increase their visibility in governance, the Executive Director Civil Society Legislative Advocacy centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani said he agrees that they have failed. His said, “Protests have been a part of every society’s transformation. From the protest that led to the freedom of America at the hands of Great Britain in 1775 to the protest that gave rise to civil Rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King in 1954. Other examples of protests that helped changed the course of things is the Arab spring that cut across the whole of the middle east starting from Tunisia, when a trader Mohammed Bouazizi set himself ablaze in protest of the injustice being perpetrated by authorities. “African nations are no exception when it comes to their own history of protests by the citizens. In all of these instances one thing is clear and which is the common feature of all the incidences; people are frustrated by the way the current systems of governance is governing them and they decided to come out en masse to express their anger and frustration in the hope for change and a better future for themselves and their families. The ENDSARS protest of October 2020 in Nigeria was nor an exception of many other protests that have been carried out in Nigeria or elsewhere in the world as it seek to address some key issues and concerns that were hitherto neglected by the government especially when it comes to the delivery of public services affecting the lives Nigerians. “The endsars protest is an extension of what can be termed as a continuous subjugation and brutality being carried out by the Nigeria security forces against the citizens of Nigeria. While there is no doubt that, there were some concerns on the part of the police force as regards to how they discharge their

By the third day, the youths had won a never-seenbefore victory. The Nigerian government panicked and gave into all the initial five demands of the youths. President Muhammadu Buhari made a broadcast to plead with the youths. In different states, governors tried to engage the youths and open a channel of communication with them, but they rejected the suggestion to choose leaders to meet with government at the negotiation table, saying they had no leaders, thus allowing the advantage to slip out of their hands

duties, there is no hesitation of the fact that some other critical factors played out in the procession of the protests. What started as peaceful protests eventually turned out to be violent and destructive, something that became injurious to the social, economic, political and cultural aspects of the country as a whole. But, more often than not, the endsars protest was meant to serve as a wakeup call to the various entities especially the ruling class as to the need for some form of structural reform in the manner in which the country is being governed. Many believed that the endsars protest has come more less as an elastic metaphor for so much that has been wrong in our system, and our society. “There is no doubt that, there are needs for the complete reform on how we run the affairs of the country, the endsars protest came to reinforce the fact that there are some serious concerns that must be addressed by governments at all levels, by bringing onboard all those concerned on the table to discuss issues pertaining governance. Because what we left behind was the idea of inclusiveness where all stakeholders, relevant groups and organizations are involved in making key decisions that commonly affect the entire society. “Unfortunately, some of the Nigerian youths failed to keep up with their commitment to ensure good governance is being delivered, but more importantly to make sure that government at all levels take the issues of inclusiveness seriously as the protest presented a perfect opportunity for Nigerian Youth to take part in the governance of the country so that Nigeria can have the needed change for a fully developed and mature democratic country. Society functions well when all members are partly even if not fully involved in key decisions by the government as this will bring more and more people closer to each other in the spirit of unity to achieve a common goal for the whole country. This will reinforce social cohesion among the various concerned groups and organizations, and of course youths and the government in order to work together to maximize the potentials that Nigeria is endowed with. Effective governance is at the heart of every democratic and civilized society and the way such governance is effected is by ensuring the social, economic, political and cultural unity of a people. The EndSars protest came to remind us that at the core of the society are structures that work in harmony with each other to bring the needed change and transformation of communities, states and the nation as a whole. “In conclusion and in response to the question at stake, I think the Nigeria Youths failed to utilize the opportunity of the ENDSARS protest to increase their visibility in governance across board because they remain adamant and reluctant to continue to push for changes in the way and manner in which the country is being governed considering the fact that they are the major drivers of development when it comes to socio economic, political and religious aspects of the country. Our youths must resist being used for political violence, religious and ethnic violence and stay away from any criminal activities. They should not be involved in anything capable of undermining the integrity of our country”.

T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021

THE MONDAY INTERVIEW

BOSS MUSTAPHA:

I’ve No Idea How I Became SGF A drive to the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, tucked right inside the Shehu Shagari Complex, within the Three Arms Zone, Abuja, presented a rather distinct picture of the nature of assignments the office is cut out for. Far-flung from the familiar hustle and bustle often associated with federal secretariats, the serenity here spoke volumes; although on a weekend, its character, it was said, never changes. With a visibly organised setting, including the human and material coordination of the office, Mustapha didn’t waste time with informal exchanges and with a businesslike mindset, gave the go-ahead for the engagement with THISDAY, which lasted a little over two hours. Excerpts: What’s your passion? Seeing this picture of you with a horse, one wonders what your passion is all about. I am passionate about keeping animals, particularly horses – racing horses. I have a few that I keep here in Abuja, and back home in Yola, I have quite a couple of the local breeds: the Sudanese, the Arewa. They are all racing horses. Do you hire them out? No. They go for competitions – local competitions. I also have horses in Kaduna – Pichoka. They are preparing for the race in Jaji, which is being organised by the armed forces sometime in November. You know, horse-racing in Nigeria used to come with a lot of royalty during festivities. That was then. It’s now gone to the scale of what polo is. It used to be much more in terms of colour than polo in those days. But after a while, polo took over and I believe that it is going to return and that’s what we are trying to do. Now, let’s get down to brass tacks. What is your job description as SGF, what do you do? Someone once said the position of the SGF is making tea for the president. Is that what you do? Well, the Office of Secretary to the Government of the Federation is a creation of our Constitution, the 1999 constitution as amended, particularly section 171, which provides for the authority of the president to appoint people to certain offices. The first on that list is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. Basically, the mandate of the Secretary

to the Government of the Federation is to coordinate government policies, monitor and ensure full implementation of those policies, programmes and projects. I also serve as the secretary to the highest policy-making body in the country, which is the Federal Executive Council (FEC), and also the Council of State. The membership of the Council includes the 36 state governors, the FCT minister, former Heads of State and former Chief Justices. So, those are the two most important functions. Also, the office is structured in such a way that we are the front-line advisor institution to the president. You seem to have a lot on your plate. Yes! So, will it be correct to say this office is the brainbox of the federal government? Whether brainbox or not, I will just say this is the office that provides the operational basis for the presidency. Technically, we provide the President with the secretariat to function efficiently and effectively. We also provide advisory support to the presidency and government’s institutions. The office is structured in such a way that you have to coordinate the activities of government from a wide perspective, because you are dealing with agencies of government, ministries, or institutions, etc. So, it’s really a mixture of a lot of things.

The job description you just reeled off is quite enormous. How do you coordinate? What’s the biggest challenge coordinating all the ministries, MDAs, etc. and ensuring everything is in sync? Yes, the skill you bring to the office is very, very helpful in your understanding of the responsibilities that are entrusted. One of the things that I know has helped tremendously in coordinating the office and also in ensuring that the contending forces do not fall apart is this: You see, in providing secretariat to the federal executive, we have 43 ministers, two have been dropped, so we have 41. If the president replaces the two, that will come back to the 43. They all come from different constituents with different needs and backgrounds. Your ability to coordinate that will be based on your strict adherence to extant rules and procedures. Once you do that, you will get a grip on what is happening. The other thing is that I have received tremendous support from the President and that has been a source of strength for me to do some of the things to ensure that the government machinery was not in any way impeded, and work in harmony – collaborate, ensuring that there is a smooth working relationship with all agencies of government. I also interface with the National Assembly on behalf of the government. The interface is very, very important in dealing with the

challenges of the office. It is better you do not underestimate the challenges. But try as much as possible to interface as often as possible, so that if the challenges are brewing, you’ll be able to deal with them before they manifest and become a problem to the administration. You came at a time the office was bedeviled with all sorts of allegations, and your appointment seemed to have turned the tide, stabilised things, while the image of the office has improved. What attributes did you bring to the office that have helped in reshaping public perception? The first thing I will say in this regard is truly, the confidence that the President has in my ability to man the office. I came with a modest ability of managing men and resources, having served in different capacities, and having been involved in the eyes of the public in different fora. He has been a great source of support and strength. This has helped tremendously, taking into cognizance the fact that this office, as you rightly observed, is the front office of the president. The ability and the tact you bring to the office in managing all tendencies have helped tremendously. You remember when I came in, the first thing I did was that I visited the National Assembly. That’s one area, where at the beginning of this administration, there was a very, very sour friction. I paid them a visit and I told them that we are all in this together. That it’s a partnership and shared Continued on page 21

T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021

THE MONDAY INTERVIEW

BOSS MUSTAPHA

Agitations for Power Shift Will Sort Themselves Out responsibility. We know that they are an independent arm of government, but there’s a dependency and we cannot promote that. This modest skill has helped me to also bring some harmony in the workings of government, because we have consciously come to realise that if we don’t work together, we will not be able to achieve much. Tell us, how did you get this job? I have no idea. I ascribe my appointment to God, who laid it on the heart of the president to appoint me at the time. But let me put it in context. In 2014 after the nomination of President Muhammadu Buhari, then a candidate, I was asked to be part of the campaign organisation and as the director of contact and mobilisation, my responsibility was to organise the campaign structure in terms of rallies, town hall meetings and logistics in terms of even movement, hiring aircraft, or hiring buses. It was such an all-encompassing responsibility. I will say that was the last time I got into close proximity of walking with the president, then candidate Buhari. And I was part of the management of the election processes. We eventually won and I was appointed the Managing Director of National Inland Waterways. It was from there that I was appointed secretary to the government. So, that’s why I said, I won’t in any way know who recommended me but as I said before, I ascribe the appointment to God, who laid it on the heart of the president to appoint me. Did managing campaign issues prepare you for this position? One, I have been in the political process for a very long time and served at different positions in party politics. At the time that we merged and became the All Progressives Congress (APC), I was a deputy national chairman. So, I had operated within the sphere of political influence to a large extent. But what is your relationship with your predecessor, Babachir Lawal? My relationship with all my predecessors is excellent. I will say from Chief Ufot Ekaette of blessed memory, who I served when I was winding down the PTF; I worked with him closely. If there’s one man that was prophetic about my life, it was Ufot Ekaette. When I was serving him, one day, he looked at me, this was around 2000 or 2001, he was so impressed with the way I took on that responsibility, called me and said, Boss, keep doing what you are doing; you have a great future in public service ahead. Did he see you rise to become the SGF? He was alive when I was appointed SGF. He was so excited. I even represented the government at his funeral. Babagana Kingibe, who came after Ufot Ekaette, is somebody that I was with at the Constituent Assembly in 1988 when I represented my constituency. He was appointed secretary of the Constituent Assembly that produced the 1989 constitution. After that, we were both in SDP. I was the chairman of the SDP in Gongola State (Adamawa), while he was our national chairman. We have had a long political relationship. Then Yayale Ahmed came. He is somebody I have known since 1988, when he was working in the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the late John Shagaya as minister. I think that was the first time I met him and we were very good friends and we had a harmonious relationship. Then Pius Anyim Pius, whom I have related with, and we have been very good friends. I’ve had very cordial relationships with all my predecessors that are alive. I have tapped from their wisdom, and from their wealth of experience. I consult them when I am at a crossroads and that has enriched my ability to administer this office. I have a very cordial relationship with all of them. The thrust of that question is, are you related to your immediate predecessor, Mr.Babachir Lawal? We come from the same community in Adamawa. We speak the same language. One of your major assignments has been to coordinate the national response to Covid-19 and for 19 months, you have led the charge at the Presidential Task Force. What are the challenges and can you say the worst is over now? Let me start by saying this is one of the most daunting experiences in the last 19 months – to run a national response to a virus that is unknown, unpredictable. It has been a daunting experience but I thank God. The challenge with the COVID-19 was the epidemiology of the virus, when it hit the world. It has been described as the most devastating virus so far. The truth about it and let me say it out loud and clear, the COVID-19 virus is not going away soon. It is here to stay. The question now is, what do we need to do to ensure that we are safe? What do we need to do to ensure that we remain here (alive) too? For me, that is the biggest challenge. You are dealing with something that is not going to go away soon. The second is the fact that the epidemiology of the disease was unknown when it hit the world, and that accounted for why every country and every community was having one form of restriction or the other, and resorted to all manner of formulae on how to deal with the virus. Initially, we had a challenge of technology and availability of testing

“Relatively, every political party will always want to go to their places of strength, because you can’t come into an election with a deﬁcit, you always want to come into an election, where you are visibly strong, so that whatever you get is an addition to the aggregate of the force that you collected on a particular plate. But I can tell you for sure that the north as abody has not taken any decision not to relinquish power” materials, because we needed to test to detect before you can put somebody into isolation and provide care. Everything about COVID-19 was important. None was homegrown. Technology was a major challenge. The availability of the garment, the PPEs that you need to use for the purpose of reducing the level of infection among health personnel was a challenge. Then came access to vaccines, and with access to vaccines came vaccine hesitancy. So you can see that we are in it for the long run. It is a sprint and a marathon. It was also such a fundamental need for us to try to balance lives and livelihood. It was a balance of the health of our people and the economy and the wealth of our people. That’s what confounded the entire world and as I said, it’s certainly not over. And I will not want to encourage anybody to think it is over, because there are many things that should be put in place to ensure that we keep protecting our people in the conscious realisation that it is not going away soon. Curiously, you haven’t contracted the virus, when many people around you have. How did you do it? Even my household was infected. All my four children, right under my nose. But God spared me and my wife. God was gracious to us, honestly. But one other thing that I kept doing was adherence to the safety protocols. Even at home, you’ll find me sitting down and wearing my mask. My children would say, ‘Daddy you are home and you are wearing mask’ and I would say, ‘Yes, I am home, but

that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t wear a mask. When they got infected, I moved them into the Isolation Centre so that at least, whatever I was telling the Nigerian people was what I practised in my home. They were there for over seven days. Even when they did the test and confirmed that they were negative, I insisted that they stayed another two days to do another confirmation test. Initially, there were concerns about your choice as the chairman of PTF as many would rather an expert in the field had led the charge. But over time, you seemed to have completely taken charge. At what point was this turnaround? The truth about it is that yes, initially when I came on stage, there was this feeling that what does he know about infectious diseases or even in the medical field? Why not an expert in the field, not just a general practitioner? But I think in the wisdom of the president, he felt that we needed to put up a robust national response that is multi-sectorial. And that is the advantage we had. We had the medical team, the experts were part of the presidential task force. But we also realised that there were other things that had nothing to do with the medical system. There were issues of diplomatic engagements; there were issues that were going to border on how we handled our education system; there were issues of aviation movements – in and out; there were issues of internal security. We graduated from health, the major health concern of our time, which is the pandemic that was declared by the World Health Organisation, gravitated towards the adverse impact on the

economy, which has completely compounded and confounded the world. The economy of the world will take a long time to recover. For us here in Nigeria, and elsewhere, we gravitated to the level of security concerns. COVID-19 tactically gave birth to #EndSARS. So we are dealing with these three major planks, viz. health, security and economy. It became obvious that a leadership that will lean towards just the medical concern will not be able to provide the robust national and international response – the one we’ve been able to provide. And I will always say it was in the wisdom of the President, when he set up the presidential task of COVID-19, he also set up a committee that will look at the adverse economic impact of COVID-19 and that was what gave birth to the economic sustainability plan. The committee was chaired by His Excellency, the Vice President (Professor Yemi Osinbajo) to look at what we needed to do to restart our economy, to provide palliatives for the people, to provide some source of succour for the people, because people were losing their jobs, especially, the daily wage earners. They couldn’t cope. The combination of all these things helped tremendously in giving me the ability to coordinate. In the list of ministers, I had Aviation, I had foreign affairs to deal with foreign engagements, I had the interior to deal with internal security matters, I had education, I had the environment along with the experts. Because we had this crack team of young men, who are knowledgeable in the field of infectious disease, the world found them attractive today. To begin with, Dr. Chikwe is with WHO today as a result of our response. He is the Assistant Director-General in charge of a new institute that was established to prepare the world for future pandemic. This came about as a result of the nature of his robust engagement on the platform of the Presidential Task Force. Dr Sani Aliyu is on the African Advisory Council, which is chaired by the South African president and several other international platforms that have been provided. This is part of the crack team we had along with their colleagues in the Ministry of Health. So, I believe strongly that, yes, there would have been a preference for a knowledgeable person that is a specialist but what in the wisdom of the president was needed was somebody that would have the political leverage of access. Because of COVID-19, I could see the president at any given time in the day. I could get in contact with him very quickly to receive direction as to the application and protocols and other guidelines that were issued. You remember when we started talking to the nation on a daily basis? We were reporting to him constantly as to what was happening, though a combination of that, we needed a leadership that would have access and would be able to create a multi-sectoral platform that would be able to give a national response. Nigeria has been poorly treated lately by some nations over vaccination, when clearly the country does not produce its own vaccines. Why is this so and isn’t it a function of poor diplomatic engagement on the part of Nigeria? The truth about it is that we have not been treated badly. We have received a total of 18,283,780 doses of vaccines, substantially as a result of bilateral relationships, out of which we have for the first doses, administered 5.2 million in total, and the second doses 2.5 million. So, the total vaccines that are available in our cold storage system is 10.5 million. Really? Yes, of the different brands of vaccines now, we have 10.5 million. There have been cases of vaccine nationalism, but as far as our country is concerned, we’re not complaining. There is no vaccine shortage. At the heart of what we are dealing with now is vaccine hesitancy. How do we get people to take this before they start to expire? In addition, we are expecting at least, between now and February of next year, 26 million doses committed by COVAX. This excludes the supply of J&J procured by the federal government. You know, that was the COVAX facility, which was put together by developed nations, and which they paid for. Vaccines were supposed to be sent out to developing countries. Our first source of vaccines came from that and they have continued to come. Then there’s the bilateral with governments of different countries on their own. Few days ago, we took a delivery from the US, we have also received from France. We’ve received from Canada, we’ve received from the UK and we keep receiving. So, we have also in the budget –supplementary budget – made provision for procurement from a facility being funded by Afrieximbank. Countries have been asked to state what it is that they needed on the loan that is being provided by Afreximbank. For that, I think the total consignment that we are expecting is about 52 billion doses. Oh, that’s a lot. Yes. Plus 26 million? Yes, 26 million from COVAX, which comes to us at no cost. The G8 and G20 have paid. So,I think Continued on page 22

T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY, OCTOBER 18 2021

THE MONDAY INTERVIEW

BOSS MUSTAPHA

Nigeria’s Loans are Repayable

˾ My Focus for Now is Our Government Finishes Well what you might be referring to are the protocols that have been put in place. But you can see that the protocols are not even for Nigerians alone. If a country puts up a protocol, because they’re trying to protect their people, they’re also looking at what is happening in your country. The latest coming from the UK. They have now said you can come into the UK if you are fully vaccinated without imposing any form of quarantine or self-isolation. By my release yesterday (last Friday), which will come into force on Monday, the 25th, we are also looking at what is happening globally, as to the processes that, if you are fully vaccinated from wherever you are, you can come in and do a day-two test after you have done a negative PCR test in your country of departure 72 hours. If you have been vaccinated or partially vaccinated or unvaccinated, you obtain a 72-hour negative PCR test before boarding or arrival. We demand that you go into isolation. You do a day-two test and you do a day-seven, though these are all protocols put in place so that you can reduce the rate of other infections of different variants, because the thing with COVID-19, some of the variants that will eventually show up might make nonsense of the vaccines that you have taken, and that’s why most countries are now going for a booster shot. How come Nigeria is not talking about the booster jab? Let’s get our people to take this one first. Let’s go to the ease of doing business in Nigeria. There are a lot of complaints about how difficult it is to do business in Nigeria. Even the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation alluded to it. Why is it that nothing is being done to ameliorate the situation, so that investments can come into the country? I can assure you that we have done a lot. Let me start. On the 18th of May 2017, when the Vice President was Acting President, the first Executive Order that was signed, Executive Order 01, was for ease of doing business. It was the first executive order in the life of this administration. The government appointed a special adviser on the ease of doing business to the president. We have, as of today, a committee that is set up specifically, to ensure the ease of doing business in Nigeria. So, everything that the government needs to put in place is in place. That Executive Order was very, very categorical. That all MDAs must publish on their websites all the requirements that are needed; all the taxes that we pay, and if an application comes in, within a certain period of time, you need to respond whether with a rejection or an approval. If we do not do that, at the expiration of that time, it is taken as you have granted the approval, and that has helped tremendously in moving the country forward. From the position that we were on the Ease of Doing Business index, we have moved from 146 to 131 in 2019. This is quite remarkable. From 170, where we used to be on the index of ease of doing business, as provided by the World Bank. So, I believe that a lot still needs to be

done. We need to get our MDAs to synergise and work in synergy. The problem with Nigeria is, we work in silos. The MDAs, as much as possible, have tried to ensure that they work uniformly, and they work as one body. It is totally ridiculous, if I’m coming to invest in Nigeria, I don’t even know what the investment environment is. I don’t have a one-stop shop, where I will make all the inquiries. And that was the essence for which the NIPC was established to be a onestop shop about investment assistance. All these agencies might not be working optimally. But I believe with a bit of concerted effort, with a bit of synergy, things would change. And that accounts for why we give milestones or we gave deliverables to the ministers when they were appointed. That was their ministerial mandate. As I said in my opening remarks, this is a performance bond between you and the president. You signed it. We got all the ministers to sign. We got all their permanent secretaries to sign. So, they do not escape responsibility saying, it is the political head that took the decision. We are taking small steps and making some progress. In actual fact, so much is being done, but I believe we need to do much more to attract direct foreign investment, because nobody will bring his money if there is a threat. Yes, we have regulations. The security situation is another factor. But all these are being dealt with. We understand that the issue of multiple taxation is a problem and it’s really killing businesses, particularly, the SMEs. But that is one price you pay for a federation. There are different levels and there are different players that are all in a quest to increase revenue earning. There are multiple taxes imposed, some either by government or communities or other bodies. So, it’s a major challenge. But I believe that the present leadership or the Federal Internal Revenue Service, along with the tax board is doing the best they can and they also acknowledge that it is affecting businesses. But you see, on the part of the government, one of the biggest steps that we took to ensure that we created some kind of comfort for medium and small scale industry, was the Finance Act of 2020. It has sort of relieved certain kinds of businesses from payment of taxes. That was all in an attempt to ensure that the tax burden is heavily reduced. But I think we can do better. Your party, the APC came to power on a threepoint agenda of tackling insecurity, corruption and revamping the economy. In your assessment, have you delivered on your vision and what are the challenges in achieving that? I would say we have delivered remarkably. We are not fully there yet and we keep reminding ourselves, even the theme for this conference,

we still reminded ourselves. The theme was enhance security, fight corruption, and transform the economy. So, no let up on that because those were the three important platforms on which the President was elected and I believe coming in out of the experience of the last two retreats, we’re clearly on the path of substantially meeting those objectives. Last year, when we had the second ministerial retreat, coming out of the inauguration of the ministers in 2019, when we did the nine priority areas, the level of attainment of successes in those areas was about 50%. In 2021, that was recently, it’s quite reflective of the progress that has been achieved. The evaluators, who are independent of government, adjudged that if we go at the rate that we were going, we are likely to get to about 90% level of success in attaining the three deliverables that the ministers have been given. So, I believe that we are on course, we are not fully there yet. We will continue with the momentum we are working with and that is to be able to record major successes in the coming year. There has been this diplomatic row between Nigeria and the UAE such that the two nations have not entertained any flights for some time. One, what really is the problem and two, what’s the situation now? We are making efforts to ensure that everything is resolved. On the Presidential Task Force Steering Committee, we have handed over that responsibility to the Minister of Aviation (Senator Hadi Sirika), because it’s an aviation matter. We have a bilateral air agreement with the UAE and also the Minister of Foreign Affairs is dealing with that aspect. They have been interfacing. What really happened was, you remember when we had to shut our borders and airspace, what most countries of the world did to protect themselves. Later, gradually, we eased up on the process. As Dubai was also easing up, it came up with another additional protocol to say that they will only admit passengers from Nigeria, on direct flights, if you are flying Emirates but if you have to go through a third country, like Ethiopia airlines, or Egypt or Qatar, you have to be quarantined in those countries for 14 days, before you get to Dubai. We felt that protocol was country-specific and discriminatory. It was on the basis of that, we said okay, you can’t come, because we have searched your website, we have looked at all your releases, this only affects Nigeria. So, it’s not just the issue, our national pride is there, because you can’t single us out for such treatment. If the world is acclaiming our response, you can’t single us out. My understanding is that it is a combination of

“That is totally untrue. The president is the most dispassionate person that I have ever met. People don’t know him. He’s given his life serving this country all through. As a military person, he fought during the civil war. He served in different parts of this country. He has friends all over the place and I know him as a leader that is very compassionate”

both health and business concerns – monopoly of the route as the other areas are cheaper and the aviation industry has suffered tremendously. So, everybody is trying to recoup whatever they can recover in the process. With that, we’ve had this continuous delay. But I think we’ve got it resolved now. There has been an interface between the Foreign Ministry, the Aviation Ministry, and the UAE authorities. The biggest challenge will come when the aviation globally imposes a vaccine mandate, because they’ve started contemplating that in some parts of the world, which caused our minister of aviation to speak on behalf of African Ministers of Aviation in a statement, saying, it was not acceptable. So Africans are going to be hard hit. We won’t be able to travel if we do not show evidence of vaccination. You won’t be boarded. So, that is also ongoing. It is compounding the issue. We are trying to navigate but I can assure you that very soon, the issue with the UAE will be resolved. What does the government intend to achieve with this new directive to its workers to get vaccinated or be denied access to their offices from December 1? Yes, we have issued a directive, we have made that pronouncement and we are going to follow up with an obvious service-wide circular from my office and the office of the head of service of the federation. One of the reasons we decided to take the step is to establish a safe working environment. And if you follow up the trends all over the world now, there is the issue of vaccine mandates. We’re almost getting there. But people are challenging that. Very soon, you will not be able to travel the world unless you produce evidence of vaccination. If you noticed, my release was very explicit. It’s either you produce the vaccine certificate or show evidence that you don’t have Covid, because one of the most important thing that you must do is to create a safe working environment; the second is to ensure we minimise any major outbreak, because the rate of transmission now is much higher than people think. Right now, in Abuja, the rate transmission is not what people think. It’s killing people. The third thing is that we want to sustain productivity of the workforce. If you have a major outbreak in that particular area, it means that you will shut down the establishment completely. That happened to me here. That was even at the peak of COVID-19, some staff caught it and we had to shut down, fumigate and do all sorts of things. Everybody had to go for a test. We want to contribute towards the general herd immunity. Do you know that for us to get herd immunity in this country, we must vaccinate about 70% of our population? And Nigeria is just about 5% or even less? Yes and this is not going away. Even in the developed world, it’s not going away, because to get to herd immunity, a medical certificate is provided to 70% of your population. So, we want to contribute to that. I want to lead by example. If the president says, get vaccinated, and you see him on television taking the jab, it is leadership by example. Some states have gone ahead of us – Edo and Ondo – to implement vaccine mandates for workers. So, we are saying that is okay. Those of us that are in the public civil service of the federal government, let’s get out first, so that we can meet all these five things that I’ve mentioned. In addition to that, I included the foreign missions, because of our experience in the UK. You remember when the President visited the UK recently, all the High Commission officials that came to him, had Covid? There was an outbreak in the mission. The mission had to be shut down, because of the outbreak. And some of the officials had something to do with either him or some of his officials. So, that’s the reason we added our missions, because government officials will continue to travel, they will continue to mingle with our officials, and interact with the high commission in the different countries. So, we want to be on the same page in terms of vaccination. So why is your government borrowing future generations into debt, because clearly, we can’t repay the debt as things stand now? We can repay this debt, because most of the borrowings were intended to develop infrastructure. And once you have the infrastructure in place, it is then you will be able to generate business. So, the payment of our loans isn’t as bad as you think. Our debt is not as much. If you look at the ratio, the debt to GDP ratio, we’re not doing badly. Most people will tell you that we have not even borrowed enough in relation to the size of our economy, and the resources available to us. And I totally agree. If we are borrowing for the purposes of building infrastructure, sustainability of the nation or to secure this country, which is very fundamental, I think it’s not out of place. But I totally agree that we should be careful. On how we deploy the resources borrowed, the truth is that, globally, it is a big challenge with Continued on page 23

T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021

THE MONDAY INTERVIEW

BOSS MUSTAPHA

Without Downplaying Insecurity, We Must be Thankful Nigeria is Still One resources. Every country all over the world, even the big majors are borrowing. Their borrowings are on a different scale compared to ours. Ours is just a child’s play. So, I think one of the things that I have always advocated for is the fact that we must make sure that we internally are able to generate resources sufficiently to meet our capital expenditure, overheads and our budgetary requirements. We would have to deploy mechanisms that will look at leakages within the system; we’ll have to look at indicators within the system. The resources that are realised are plowed back into the government’s treasury and used equitably for the development of the nation but we should not borrow out of proportion. I agree. Okay. Now, the budget is so big, there is a deficit financing in trillions of naira. So, even before it takes off, you can see how unrealistic it is. Why do we have this bloated budget? As mentioned by the president, when he submitted the budget, the 2022 budget is an evaluation of the performance of the 2021 budget, which is put at 60%. In terms of performance, we are hoping that we have a lot of potential to get the budget performance higher to about 90% before the end of the year. Because of the cash flow situation, the releases were kind of hindered but we have picked up. That is why analysis is 60%. We should be able to notch up to 90 per cent of the performance of the budget by the end of the year. The projections of 2022, I believe, were taken with an abundance of caution. We pegged the crude price at $57. But you know that is almost 83. Yes. But we picked it as though we know that it might not remain at that level. But the point is that if we are able to begin to produce our target by 2023, we intend to ramp up production to 3 million barrels a day; we’re doing 1.8 now or 1.7. That position is feasible. It’s feasible. We believe that we should be able to conclude our negotiation with OPEC. We should be able to read that and also address your concern. I also addressed a conference in the Niger Delta on the need for peace, because you need a peaceful atmosphere to be able to commit to meet that projection. Agitation for power shift has taken a life of its own. There was said to be a gentlemanly agreement in the APC at inception for power to rotate between the north and the south and that agreement is being trashed now. Is this true? The politicians have an innate ability to work the system out – and the party, and we’ve always done that and we got away with it. I can assure you that. Even this one, will sort itself out. But, for the people, it has become a matter of contention and agitation. Talk to any politician that you know, who understands the dynamics of this game, they’ll tell you that this matter will sort itself out, because every political party wants to win election. And they know what it means and what it takes to win election. They will balance it. Look, I was a part of 1993, when we got tired of the military rigmarole and we decided that, whatever they threw at us, we’ll win the war. It was a conscious decision by politicians. We took a decision. After Abiola emerged, we looked at it, I was even considered as a vice presidential candidate; we played around it and we resolved that we wanted to win election. If we could take that hard decision of having a Muslim-Muslim ticket and Nigerians didn’t mind. We went to polls and won. That’s why I said this is our stage, we will resolve it. Leave us. We won that election; beautifully won. I believe that whatever agreement the politicians have, when the time comes, they’ll sit down and resolve it. We need a Nigerian president. All these agitations for a sectional president will not catch fire, because I’ll always ask, if you have a president from your constituency, how does it affect you? If it’s not going to bring any money for the country and development to the region, so, how does that help you? The truth about it is that, well, the tension is coming closer for all these agitations to be there, but I can assure you that the right thing would be done at the right moment, so that the party would want to regain power. The opposition party would want to take power. They know how to strategise and take power, because we strategised and took power from them. So, they know what it is. I am very confident that this matter would be resolved on its own. How about the secessionist groups like IPOB that practically wants to break away? The truth about it is that it’s a matter of concern for everybody, that Nigeria has come to this. We have had the unfortunate experience of fighting a civil war and we survived it. And I believe that someday with a bit of engagement, with a bit of understanding, that it doesn’t pay any of us to go on its own. We should be able to resolve whatever the issues are, even with the current administration. All the outcry, I wouldn’t say there are no concerns, there are concerns, but you see, the only way you can address those concerns now, is not by taking arms against the state. Nobody wants to go through that experience again. I remember when Senator Rochas was the Governor of Imo State, I had cause to go and organise the Southeast and did zonal rally, and I said, the presidency of Nigeria is there for the Igbo to take. But nobody

“ I know the one that’s always been a thorny issue is not only the service chiefs but the security agents. I always tell people that, go back and look at it. Under Obasanjo, under Jonathan, you’ll see that, there’s always been this tendency of people picking people that they know; that they can trust, because those are appointments that are at the discretion of the president” has ever become the president of Nigeria without negotiation. Go and read the history of Nigeria. You must come to the negotiating table. But in coming to the negotiating table, you come with what you are offering and you’ll receive counter offer. And I gave an example. Obasanjo was a very reluctant president, but when the political class saw that he was likely the person that could pull us from where we were, they went and brought him. Yar’Adua was an unwilling president. He was thinking about retiring to his home after his eight years of governorship in Katsina. But when the power brokers at that moment realised that, probably for some tranquility in the system, you needed someone with his character and mildness, they went and brought him. When Jonathan became President in 2011, Nigerians made him president on the streets of Lagos and Abuja and other places. When we formed the APC, it was an act of negotiation. The negotiation will get you where you are or want to be. I told them there. The skills that you have demonstrated in the industry, and trade and commerce, bring it to the negotiating table. But people blame the president for these agitations, especially, his politics and appointments concentrated in a part of the country. That is totally untrue. The president is the most dispassionate person that I have ever met. People don’t know him. He’s given his life serving this country all through. As a military person, he fought during the civil war. He served in different parts of this country. He has friends all over the place and I know him as a leader that is very compassionate. If you look at what he has done in the south in terms of infrastructure, and if you see the budget, even his north east does not have the level of investment that’s in the south. The second Niger bridge alone has taken all the money and other forms of infrastructure that are taking place in that part of the country. When people talk about appointments, the Constitution provides that there should be a minister from each state and those ministers are appointed based on their constitutional locations. I know the one that’s always been a thorny issue is not only the service chiefs but the security agents. I always tell people that, go back and look at it. Under Obasanjo, under Jonathan, you’ll see that, there’s always been this tendency of people picking people that they know; that they can trust, because those are appointments that are at the discretion of the president. I sit in this office and I can tell you statistics of people, who have been appointed from different parts of the country. Some states are doing catch up, some are far ahead. When they go to the statistics in the civil service,

some are far ahead, while some people are coming with just 200, 300, some are in thousands. So, because probably those imbalances are being corrected, you will think as if it is coming from a particular zone. But I believe the issue of equity can always be addressed; can always be brought to the table. Let’s discuss it and see how it can be addressed. But as far as I know this president, he has the largest heart in terms of accommodation and he is totally devoid of any extreme tendency. But it is also believed that some of these agitations are being fuelled by the assumption that the north is not willing to leave power and that the negotiation is ongoing. Negotiation with who? You see, that, we’ll always leave to the political parties to decide how they frame their candidature going into an election, because you can’t determine for them. Relatively, every political party will always want to go to their places of strength, because you can’t come into an election with a deficit, you always want to come into an election, where you are visibly strong, so that whatever you get is an addition to the aggregate of the force that you collected on a particular plate. But I can tell you for sure that the north as a body has not taken any decision not to relinquish power. And that brings me to the point that I just made about negotiation. At the time Abdusalami was leaving, the active factor in the body polity could have decided to say, okay, our tenure was truncated by Shagari not completing his second term. He came from the north. But the exigencies of those moments, prevailed on the political actors to go and look for somebody from a different region, to bring him and work assiduously for him to ensure that he won election the first term and the second term. So, sometimes when I hear some of the things, I say, well, probably people do not know and understand the dynamics of the politics of Nigeria, and they do not know the politician. No politician wants to be in the opposition. They know what to do to win. We’ll get around this. The issue of the North not wanting to leave power, there hasn’t been any decision as I know and I should know that the North wants to hold on the power. But the fact of the matter is that, the political parties would situate their candidature, where they think would optimally give them an advantage. Every political party will do that. In the states, they will do that; in the the local governments, they will do that. You want to situate your candidature, where optimally, you will have an advantage. You are from Adamawa, a state under the control of the opposition PDP. As a major figure in this administration, how tough can that be and in what areas?

I have said it several times that Adamawa is an APC State. In 2015, we had all three senators, we had seven members of the House of Representatives, PDP had just one member. We had two-thirds of the House of Assembly but as we approached 2019, a lot of internal squabbles came into the mix. When the party was merged, we needed time to blend and become one family and it’s not only Adamawa that suffered that fate. Bauchi was one too and a couple of other places and at the end of the day, we threw away our governorship. We lost other states: Zamfara and Rivers, because of these tendencies. Our inability to resolve the crisis aggravated the situation. But I can tell you that we are making every effort to ensure that we regain the state for the APC and I am confident we are going to do that. At the moment, two of the three senators in Adamawa are APC. Our gains are increasing by the day and if we can just remain one and stay true to serving the people, we will bounce back. Incidentally, you are also from the same state as the First Lady, Aisha Buhari. How have you managed this equally formidable force and still keep a calm demeanour? The First Lady is my sister. She calls me her brother. We have a very good working relationship and that’s one thing I always give to her. She’s very passionate about the downtrodden, the vulnerable, the girl-child. And if there’s somebody that is very anxious that we must succeed as a government, she is that person, because of the past experiences of how President Muhammadu Buhari had made attempts at getting to the presidency and succeeded at the fourth attempt. She’s passionate to see that he succeeds and that passion, sometimes, I mean, gets her out of the comfort zone, in pursuit of trying to ensure that we succeed. She’s very compassionate. She’s very passionate about the progress and success of the country, and I give it to her. There are very few people that are passionate, dearly love our country, Nigeria. And of course, my relationship with her is extremely important. And we are working together to ensure the progress of Nigeria. In the next few months, this administration will begin a gradual winding down as Nigeria enters the 2023 election cycle. What is next for you after leaving office as SGF? For now, my focus is to ensure that we finish well with the president accomplishing the task he set for himself. He wants to leave a sustainable economy, a peaceful and united country. So, tha is my focus. Not thinking beyond 2023, because the president is a firm believer in Nigeria, and I urge all of us that have had the privilege of working with him to ensure that we finish well. Will you run for the office of the president? Honestly, my preoccupation now is to ensure that we finish well. Finish very, very well to further reinforce that belief coming from the ministerial performance mid-term review, because of what I saw demonstrated. The problems are enormous like Ngozi and Adesina – all rightly observed – they are not insurmountable. We can surmount our problems and make Nigeria truly great. We are blessed as a nation in every facet of our lives. For now, that is the preoccupation. Beyond 2023, I leave it in the hands of God. NOTE: Read the full interview online on www.thisdaylive.com

MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021 • T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021

BUSINESSWORLD R A T E S MONEY MARKET

A S

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S & P INDEX

1 5 , 2 0 2 1

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Driven by CBN Intervention in Various Sectors, Inﬂation Rate, Currency in Circulation Hits N2.84trn

Darasimi Adebisi Following the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention across various sectors of the nation’s economy, currency in circulation reached an all-time high of N2.84 trillion as at September 2021. Currency in circulation is physical cash outside the vaults of the CBN, i.e all legal tender currency in the hands of the general public and in the vaults of the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs). Analysts attributed increase in currency in circulation to inflation rate, stressing that the CBN intervention in various sectors also contributed to physical notes in the country.

Speaking with THISDAY, The President, Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN), Dr Uju Ogubunka attributed hike in currency in circulation to weak infrastructures, maintaining that most Nigerians in rural areas are yet to adopt cashless means of transactions. Ogubunka said: “Most Nigerians are used to cash and it will take a while for full adoption of cashless Nigeria. Hopefully, in the next 10 years, we might start having full impact of the cashless policy of the CBN across the country. For now, many Nigerians still depend on the cash to transact businesses.” He said further that the eNaira project of the CBN may have a

positively impact on currency in circulation.. “Infrastructures may be a major drawback on the planned eNaira of the CBN. Think of access to Power, stable network, among others. Somehow, it will work, but will take some time to have the full impact stakeholders are expecting, ”he said. On his part, analyst at PAC Holdings, Mr. Wole Adeyey hinted that double-digit inflation rate is responsible for hike in currency in circulation for the month of September. He also expressed that most banks in Nigeria showed a significant rise in ATM withdrawals and this could be linked to increase

in currency in circulation According to him: “Many things may have contributed N2.84trillion in currency in circulation for September 2021. The inflation rate at 16.63per cent for the month of September is still high. The prices of goods and services have increased significantly in the market; hence people need to spend more money. “Also, the persistent depreciation of Naira in the foreign exchange market shows that people need more Naira to exchange for one US dollar. Also, data from most banks in Nigeria showed significant rise in ATM withdrawals and this could be linked to increase in currency in circulation. In addition, the increase in domestic credit

may have contributed to higher currency in circulation.” Commenting, Vice President, Highcap securities limited, Mr. David Adnori attributed hike in currency in circulation to money created by the CBN to finance federal government budget and intervention by the apex bank in some key sectors. In his words: “In my own view, the money creation by CBN through lending to banks as to assist them finance some key projects in the economy might increase physical currency.” In addition, analyst and finance expert, Mr Rotimi Fakeyejo hinted that excess liquidity in the economy in the “Ber” month has leveraged

growth in currency in circulation, stressing that Nigerians are finding it difficult to embrace the cash policy of the CBN. According to him: “The market currently is awash with excess liquidity and it is due to season of the year. CBN interventions in the foreign exchange and key sectors of the nation’s economy also are factors contributing to hike in currency in circulation in September.” He explained further that Nigeria is still more of a cash economy, facing infrastructure challenges. “Someone can blame infrastructure deficit to CBN’s good Continued on page 26

FG Seeks 50% Agriculture Contribution to GDP as Stakeholders Moves to Minimise EU Rejection of Produce James Emejo and Sonia Mayomi in Abuja The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammed Abubakar, has expressed optimism that with concerted efforts by of agricultural entrepreneurs, the contribution of agriculture to the Nigerian economy would increase exponentially from the current 23 per cent to over 50 per cent in the next 10 years.

It came as the federal government and stakeholders in the sector debate on how to limit the rejection of the country’s agricultural commodities in their international market particularly the European Union (EU). The minister said adding value to agricultural produce would ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within the next decade is actualised.

He spoke at the opening of a roundtable discussion with stakeholders in agro-preneur and food safety segment and award presentation as part of activities to mark 2021 World Food Day ceremony, themed: “Our Actions are our Future, Better Production, Better Nutrition, Better Environment and Better Life.” The engagement was organised by the ministry in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture

Organisation (FAO) to commemorate the 2021 World Food Day celebration. The minister said sharing success stories and accomplishments among operators in the agriculture value chain would serve as motivation to the teaming youth, “who are the future of the country to see agriculture as promising sector they could build a successful career. It is the involvement of entrepreneurs like you that would

provide innovative solutions to the immense challenges in the sector.” He assured that the drafting of the forthcoming National Agriculture and Technology Innovation Plan (NATIP) of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, would consider the report of roundtable discussion for possible inputs. He pointed out agriculture had a long-standing role in Nigeria’s economy with 70 per cent of the

population being engaged in the sector. Citing data by the National Bureau for Statistics (NBS), he said the sector contributed 23.78 per cent to GDP thus topping seven other sectors with the most contribution. Abubakar, however, noted that that agriculture has the potential to be a key driver of growth, job and wealth creation given the Continued on page 26

M A R K E T D ATA A S AT F R I D AY, O C T O B E R 1 5 , 2 0 2 1 FGN BONDS DESCRIPTION 12.175 FGNSB 10-OCT-2021 11.244 FGNSB 16-OCT-2021 10.296 FGNSB 13-NOV-2021 13.390 FGNSB 14-NOV-2021 9.091 FGNSB 11-DEC-2021

Price

Yield

BILLS Change (%)

MATURITY

OTC FX F U T U R E S

Discount Yield Change (%)

100.05

2.85

0.00

NTB 28-Oct-21

3.04

3.04 0.00

100.18

2.92

0.00

NTB 11-Nov-21

3.20

3.21 0.00

100.68

3.25

0.00

NTB 25-Nov-21

3.36

3.37 0.00

101.01

3.26

0.00

NTB 13-Jan-22

3.92

100.96

3.59

0.00

NTB 27-Jan-22

4.08

CONTRACT TENOR (MONTH) 1

Contract

Current Rate ($/₦)

NGUS OCT 27 2021 420.93

NGUS NOV 24 2021 422.38

NGUS DEC 29 2021 423.83

3.96 0.00

NGUS JAN 26 2022 425.28

4.13 0.00

NGUS FEB 23 2022 426.73

C Ps MATURITY

Discount Yield

Change (%)

CMBL CP XV 11OCT-21 UBNP CP VIII 18OCT-21 CMBL CP XII 31OCT-21 CMBL CP XVII 15-NOV-21 FSDH CP III 16NOV-21

6.27

0.00

7.91

7.93

0.00

4.14

4.16

0.00

5.16

5.18

0.00

6.52

6.57

0.00

MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

NEWS

ROYAL SIGNATURE…

L-R: Chairman, Nestle Nigeria, Chief David Ifezulike; Mrs. Ngozi Ifezulike; Chairman, SIMS Nigeria Limited Chief Simeon Eyisi; Executive Director, Human Capital Development, SIMS Nigeria Limited, Barr. Bernadette Eyisi; and Executive Director, Operations SIMS Nigeria Limited, Ike Eyisi, at the launching of Royal Signature Split ABAYOMI AKINYELE Unit Inverter AC in Lagos... recently

‘COVID-19 Experience Served as Opportunity for Operational Paradigm Shift, Higher Proﬁtability for Corporate Institutions’ Ebere Nwoji A renown insurer and former president, Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers, Feyi Soyewo, has said that the COVID 19 experiences had served as opportunity for a paradigm shift in the modus operandy of many businesses which in turn led to higher profitability. Soyewo, stated this while delivering an opening remarks as the Conference Chairman at the Annual Insurance Conference organised by the National Association of Insurance And Pension Correspondents (NAIPCO). The conference had the them: “COVID-19 Impact On Financial Inclusion; Opportunities For Insurance And Pension Sectors.” Soyewo, who is also the Executive Chairman, Prestige Insurance Brokers ltd, noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has helped corporate institutions to retool their operational strategies, leading to higher profitability and easier ways of doing things virtually and getting results. According to him, it was heartwarming that many individuals and business operators have taken the whole pandemic experience as an opportunity for paradigms shift in all undertakings. He said the theme of the conference could not be more apt than now, when the entire world was heaving a sigh of relief from the

Group Business Editor Eromosele Abiodun Comms/e-Business Editor Emma Okonji Aviation Editor Chinedu Eze Asst. Editor, Money Market Nume Ekeghe Senior Correspondent Raheem Akingbolu (Advertising) Correspondents James Emejo (Finance) Ebere Nwoji (Insurance) Chineme Okafo (Energy) Emmanuel Addeh (Energy) Reporters Nosa Alekhuogie (ICT) Peter Uzoho (Energy) Ugo Aliogo (Development)

ruinous impact of the pandemic. “It makes little news that the pandemic disrupted the usual work culture and affected every facet of human endeavors ever experienced in recent history, “Soyewo said. According to him, the financial services sector of which the insurance and pension sectors were critical players also had their fair share of the impact of the pandemic. The Insurance brokers’ chairman noted that for the insurance industry, aside from the long cessation of work, necessitating remote working conditions, the pandemic

led to the need to review rates and revisit some of the policy conditions and exclusions earlier permissible for some insurances. “I want to believe that the pension sector also had its own side of the pandemic which they would be able to relate to us more explicitly at this auspicious forum. We must all come to terms with the fact that change is the only permanent thing in life and those who are resistant to change would be changed by change ultimately, “the broker said. Soyewo commended NAIPCO for its very effective reportage of events, particularly relating to the

insurance industry adding that he had watched the association grow over the years . He noted that NAIPCO has continued to record phenomenal leap in its quest to create relevance for its members, as well as become a strong voice in issues of advocacy, particularly in the nation’s financial ecosystem. Also speaking, NAIPCO, Chairman, Mr Chuks Okonta, said that the conference, which was in its 6th edition, was one of those avenues through which the association contributed its quotas to the growth and development of the two critical

sectors it covers, which were; insurance and pension sectors. “Today, we, as journalists, are not only watching and reporting, but participating actively in reshaping the two industries and propelling them to growth. The last two years have been extremely hard for Nigerians, Africans and the world at large due to the invasion of the deadly coronavirus pandemic across the world and Nigeria inclusive rewrites the business environment template. “Human interface were limited, most operations went online and those who were not

technologically savvy were left in the dustbin of the past, as the world matches on with full speed. Though, businesses closed shops, people died and sources of livelihood shrank as a result of the pandemic, but it opened up several opportunities in other areas of businesses that may not have been explored if not for the Covid-19. Financial sector operations become more sophisticated as Face to face interaction went into oblivion, hence, projecting the human and machine interactions, “Okonta said. According to the NAIPCO

FG to Launch Made in Nigeria Barite, Mines Minister Receives NIMEP Project Reports Kasim Sumaina in Abuja The federal government will October 28 launch the made in Nigeria Barite which is in line with President Muhammadu Buhari led administration’s effort to diversify the nation economy through non-oil sector. Government, through the ministry of Mines and Steel Development has also received the preliminary reports of the National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project, NIMEP.

The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Olamilekan Adegbite while receiving the reports presented by the Director General, Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) and a contractors of the Project, Dr Warwick Crowe, in Abuja, said that the refined Barite will be launch soon precisely October 28, 2021 “about two weeks time.” Adegbite hinted that the federal government in 2018 initiated the National Integrated Mineral

Exploration Project, NIMEP, to de-risk the mining sector and provide Geo- Sciences data. He said that the project objective is to generate geosciences information in Greenfield and Brownfield settings through integrated exploration methodologies aimed at spurring the desired investment into the mining sector to generate foreign exchange, substitute for import, develop local industries, generate employment and create wealth along the mineral value

chain. He further added that the project was designed to take advantage of known metallogenic belts in the country for the exploration of gold, nickel, chromium, cobalt, rare earth minerals, lead-zinc, silver, copper, barite and ore resources. According to him, “The move would promote local production and attract investors and the ministry would solicit more funding for exploration projects in other mineral resources.”

Similarly, the Director General, Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), Engr. Abdulrazak Garba, while presenting the reports to the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, listed some key outcomes as the project winds down to its final stage. He noted that the project identified a gold trend and spanning about 7km long and 500m wide, with intersections of significant gold bearing veins (grades averaging 1-6g/t).

FG SEEKS 50% AGRICULTURE CONTRIBUTION TO GDP AS STAKEHOLDERS MOVES TO MINIMISE EU REJECTION OF PRODUCE country’s viable agro-ecological zones, youthful population and agro-industrial linkages as well as lift a sizeable number of the population out of poverty. He added that the 5.01 per cent of the Q2 2021 GDP increase was made possible due to the investments in food processing and manufacturing. He said it is on record that government economic diversification

policy to agriculture as alternative to oil and gas and the investment of agro-preneurs projected the country to become the largest producer of rice in Africa from 2019 and the first in cassava and yam production globally. According to him, Nigeria is also ranked the 14th in maize production and 4th in palm oil. He said,” Now we have notable domestic brands in rice

that are competing with foreign international brands. “The expectations we have in agriculture to take Nigeria to the promise land could only be achieved when our entrepreneurs take deliberate actions to invest in different value-chains. “The potentials across crops, livestock, horticulture and fisheries sub-sectors are enormous. He added that the ingenuity of

entrepreneurs would add value to crop produce and guarantee the revenue generation potentials of the sector. Also in his remarks at the occasion, Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mustapha Shehuri, reiterated the commitment of the ministry to support millions of Nigerian smallholder farmers who are working towards the attainment

of food security. He said the engagement would proffer solution to the challenges bordering on the country’s agricultural commodities rejection by the EU. He said, “The discussion should revolve around possible ways to improve global acceptance of the agricultural commodities for export without fear of rejection by international communities.

DRIVEN BY CBN INTERVENTION IN VARIOUS SECTORS, INFLATION RATE, CURRENCY IN CIRCULATION HITS N2.84TRN intention of making Nigeria a cashless society. The infrastructure that will make the cashless policy work is missing compared to what we have in Kenya,” he explained. The central bank in 2002 introduced the cashless policy to eliminate the amount of physical cash (coins and notes) circulating in the economy, and encouraging more electronic-based transactions (payments for goods, services, transfers, among others.) The CBN had reported N2.83trillion currency in circulation in January but it increased to N2.78trillion in February. It, however, moved to N2.81trillion

in March but close April at N2.80trillion and closed May at N2.79trillion. It dropped further to N2.74trillion in June and appreciated by 2.58per cent to N2.81trillion in July and closed August at N2.78trillion in August 2021. THISDAY had early this year gathered that currency in circulation hits all-time high at N2.91 trillion in December 2020. The data by CBN in December, however, revealed that currency in circulation gained 29.3 per cent and 9.4 per cent Year-on-Year and Month-on-Month growth respectively.

The CBN in a report had explained that, “The heightened uncertain outlook due to the lockdown encouraged more cash to be held by the public. This was evident from the increase in currency in circulation, compared with the level in the preceding month.” In his response, Chief Executive Officer, BIC Consultancy Services, Mr. Boniface Chizea said: “Ideally any economy with a model is able to estimate the optimal level of liquidity that will be adequate for its operations going by projected Gross Domestic Product. Liquidity levels in Nigeria should be under the purview of the Central Bank. But surprisingly it would appear

that what is being observed now is due to the activities of third-party elements. “With the attempts to jump-start the economy as a result of the pandemic lots of liquidity was injected under the Quantitative Easing protocols. And this has partly accounted for the inflationary spiral which according to the Bureau of Statistics has maintained an improving trend for the last six months currently standing at 16.63per cent. He added that: “The free-falling rate of foreign exchange has encouraged a lot of speculative activities with piles of Naira held at many silos in the country. Economic

agents are taking flights to dollar, which is a relatively stable currency. There are also lots of illegal funds making the rounds; as compatriots gear up for 2023 elections as horse trading assumes greater dimension. “A high corruption environment is also prone to excessive liquidity as illegal monies change hands as shady deals are concluded. All these factors account for the witnessed excess liquidity and the Central Bank has its work cut out for it as it must rise to the challenge of the maintenance of price stability. And we expect the situation to worsen as we approach elections 2023.”

T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021

BUSINESSWORLD

STATUS REPORT

United Capital Position to Deliver Shareholders Value

Darasimi Adebisi

nited Capital Plc maintained stronger profit and assets in the nine months ended September 30, 2021 unaudited result and accounts and may declare robust dividend in this year’s financial year. The company which is into provision of investment banking services, portfolio management services, securities trading and trusteeship recorded impressive results in half year ended June 30, 2021 and maintained such in nine months with profits and financial assets recorded a double-digit growth. The company in H1 2021 had recorded a after-tax profit of N3.1 billion as against N1.31billion recorded in H1 2020 to follow 2020 audited results that was impressive amid COVID-19 pandemic. Amid increasing profit in 2020 financial year, the company had paid shareholders a dividend of 70kobo per ordinary share of 50kobo each, amounting to N4.2billion. The dividend payout in 2020 financial year was on the heels of profit that accelerated by 57 per cent to N7.8 billion in 2020 from N4.97billion recorded in 2019. Total Assets had closed at N320.23 billion as at June 30, 2021, a 44 per cent increase when compared to N222.75 billion as at FY 2020. Its results for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 showed a profit before tax of N7.09 billion in nine months of 2021, compared to N4.12 billion in nine months of 2020, an increase of 72 per cent. United Capital’s profit after tax also grew by 72 per cent to N5.97 billion in nine months of 2021, compared to N3.46 billion in nine months of 2020. Annualized Earnings Per Share closed the nine months under review at 133 Kobo. (2020: 77kobo). This represents 72per cent growth year-on-year. With the impressive increase in profit, the United Capital recorded improvement in profitability margin during the period under review as Profit before Tax (PBT) margin increased by 7.32 percentage points to 62.60 per cent in nine months of 2021 compared to 58.33 per cent in nine months of 2020.

PROFIT AFTER TAX Also, Profit After Tax (PAT) margin increased, gaining 7.47 percentage point to 52.65 per cent in nine months of 2021 compared to 49per cent in nine months of 2020. The company had reported profitability margin in half year ended June 30, 2021 with PBT margin gaining 3.58 percentage points to

54.57 per cent for H1 2021 relative to 50.99 per cent for H1 2020, while PAT margin also improved, gaining 2.81 percentage points despite a higher tax charge of 16.0oper cent for H1 2021, relative to a charge of 15.62per cent during the same period in 2020. Key drivers to United Capital’s growth in profits include double-digit growth in gross earnings and management effective management of operating expenses amid double-digit inflation rate in the country. For the nine months under review, United Capital reported revenue of N11.33 billion in nine months of 2021, an increase of 60 per cent compared to N7.07 billion in nine months of 2020. Increase in gross earnings was driven largely by growth in fee and commission income that gained 112 per cent year-onyear to N4.77billion in nine months of 2021 from N2.25billion in nine months of 2020 and 43 per cent increase in Investment Income to N6.29billion in nine months of 2021 from N4.39billion recorded in nine months of 2020. From the loss & profit figures, United Capital’s operating Income rose by 64 per cent to N11.08 billion in nine months of 2021, compared to N6.76 billion in nine months of 2020.

OPERATING EXPENSES Operating expenses was modest at 44 per cent to N4.24 billion in nine months of 2021, compared to N2.95 billion in nine months of 2020, driven by growth in “Other operating expenses” and Personnel expenses. Other operating expenses grew by 61.13 per cent to N2.14billion in nine months of 2021 from N1.33billiion in nine months of 2020, while personnel expenses rose by 10.13 per cent to N1.31billion in nine months of 2021 from N1.19billion recorded in nine months of 2020. The interplay in the company’s operating expenses and operating income brings about decline in cost-to-income ratio in the period. The company continue to maintain improvement in operational efficiency as cost-to-income ratio for the period declined to 37.42 per cent in nine months of 2021 from 411.73 per cent in nine months of 2020, largely attributable to the impressive growth in revenue (+64per cent year-on-year) relative to operating expenses (+44 per cent year-on-year).

FINANCIAL RATIOS In the period under review, United Capital grew key financial ratio, driven by growth in profit & loss figures. For instance, return on equity closed nine months at 29.58 per cent from 18.91 per cent in nine months of 2020, while return on assets dropped marginally to 1.98 per cent in nine months of 2021 from 2.07 per cent in nine months of 2020. However, net assets close the nine months under review at 4.48 per cent from 4.07 per cent in nine months of 2020 as the Group’s Earnings Ratio closed nine months at 6.75 as against 4.33 in nine months of 2020.

BOOST FOR TOTAL ASSETS United capital crossed N400billion in total assets, driven by 90 per cent and 98 per cent growth in investments in financial assets and cash and cash equivalents. The group’s total assets rose by 80 per cent to N400.75 billion as at September 30, 20221, compared to N222.75 billion as at FY 2020. Primarily contributors to total assets are N86.15billion cash and cash equivalents as at nine months of 20221 from N43.42billion in 2020 FY as investment in financial assets moved from N145.15billion in 2020 FY to N275.96billion recorded in nine months of 2020. United Capital‘s total liabilities rose by 89 per cent to N373.86 billion as at September 30, 2021, compared to N198.32billion as at FY 2020. Growth in Managed funds contributed to the company’s total liabilities in the period. Managed funds rose by per cent to N289.8billion as at September 30, 2021 from N116.02billion it closed in 2020 financial year. In addition to balance sheet size, the company’s shareholders’ Fund rose by 10 per cent to N26.89 billion, compared to N24.43 billion as at FY 2020.

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE Commenting on nine months results, the Group CEO, United Capital, Mr. Peter Ashade in a statement said: “I am pleased to inform our stakeholders that United Capital ended the third quarter of the year with another outstanding performance. “We delivered an increased revenue of 60per cent year-onyear, PBT growth of 72pper cent year-on-year to N7.09b and

total asset growth of 80 per cent year-to-date. “During the period under review, United Capital successfully listed three series commercial papers worth N19.72 billion on the FMDQ Securities Exchange. “The CPs were issued under the company’s N50 billion commercial paper issuance program. This has further positioned us as a company to provide a wider range of wholesale financing solutions to our clients and complement funding base and support for all our businesses. “Another remarkable point to note was the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s reclassification of United Capital shares from Low Price Stock Group to Medium Price Stock Group in August 2021 driven by steady growth in the company’s share price over the past months due to our consistent impressive performance over the years. He, however, assued shareholders of the management push to maintain stronger performance in the last quarter of the year and beyond. According to him: “I want to assure our stakeholders that we are optimistic on sustaining this exciting performance in the last quarter of the year and beyond. “We remain focused on our transformation agenda and to continue to provide bestin-class solutions to all client segments. We are also committed to deliver superior returns as we seek to always delight our shareholders.” The company had secured the approval of FMDQ Securities Exchange Limited to increase the size of its existing N20 billion Commercial Paper programme to N50 billion. The validity period of the CP Programme has also been extended to October 18, 2022, the company said in a notification. United Capital’s in August disclosed that its Sukuk Fund has grown to over N1.5 billion after about a year when the fund was launched. Since it was founded over 50 years ago, United Capital has cultivated and sustained a heritage of excellence in the financial services sector in Africa. Its track record of transaction execution, industry leadership and client focus are unmatched. It has achieved this by providing top-of-the-line financial services, consistently demonstrating a commitment to execution, excellent service delivery and client satisfaction. Through the years, the Group has innovated with each season, and found smart ways to provide even more value to its clients by showing a spectacular ability to adapt to change.

T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021

BUSINESSWORLD

NEWS

MOWCA Election: Onyema Lobbies West, Central African Countries for Nigerian Candidate Eromosele Abiodun Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama has stepped up campaign moves forNigerian candidate in the forthcoming election of a new Secretary General for Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA), Dr. Paul Adalikwu. Sources at the Foreign Affairs Ministry disclosed to THISDAY that Onyeama activated talks through his ministry to about 15 countries in the West and Central African regions to support Nigeria’s candidacy at the 16th Extra Ordinary General

Assembly which comes up in Accra from November 16 to 18, 2021. “The minister has directed designated officials and our diplomatic missions to open talks with member countries of MOWCA. We won’t be engaging Guinea because the Heads of State of African Union and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suspended the country. Recent moves by the Nigerian foreign affairs Minister is a follow up on a previous attempt to mobilise support for Adalikwu, who according to

MOWCA Rules of Procedure, is the most qualified candidate at the earlier convened 15th General Assembly in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo where attempts to hold the election failed. Diplomatic sources added that while some countries had written in support of Nigeria for the number one position in the 46 year old body, the Ministry is opening interactions with countries that are yet to

express commitment in support of Nigeria. MOWCA Rules of Procedure provides provides that aside meeting other conditions , candidates should not be above 55 years at the time of filing their applications. While Nigeria’s Adalikwu met the age and other requirements, Guinean candidate Mamadou Diallo of Guinea was 60 and Katari Leon of Benin Republic was 62 as at when they applied.

MOWCA President and Transport Minister of Ghana, Hon Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, who took over at the 15th General Assembly held in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, has started moves to reform the body. Article 74 of the August 6, 1999 Rules of Procedure of MOWCA, states that every candidate aspiring to the post of Secretary General should fulfill the following criteria: “He shall

be a native and citizen of one member state, be aged 35 years at least and 55 years at most, be a university graduate or have an equivalent training, be proposed by his country of origin, have experience and competence in maritime transport, have excellent professional and moral references, have a mastery of one of the working languages, not be a citizen of the country holding the headquarters of the organisation.”

Inﬂation, Rural-urban Migration, Responsible for Housing Deficit Sunday Ehigiator Real Estate Mogul, Founder and C.E.O. Nedcomoaks Limited, Kennedy Okonkwo, has ascribed the high cost of housing, and housing deficit in Nigeria, to inflation and rural-urban migration, occasioned by Nigeria’s rising population. He made this known over the weekend during the official commissioning and groundbreaking ceremony of Citadel Views Estate and Capital Gardens Estate respectively, which are both located within the Sangotedo area of Lagos state. According to him, “There is a lot to do in Nigeria to improve infrastructural deficit, and housing deficit, and most importantly, if you put a good roof over a man’s head, you have given him an opportunity to have a better dream and a better perception of his future. “The issue of housing deficit will always be there. The reason is, if you look at countries like Canada, they are also suffering the same thing. As technological advanced as Canada is, they still have the same issue. “This is because, as population tends to increase, rural-urban migration increases, city centers continue to suffer lack of needed infrastructures such as housing to ensure that the common man has a roof over their head.” “High cost of land is another issue. If the cost of land is reduced, and the government isn’t allocating

them to speculators but directly to developers who actually need them, the cost of our precision reduces drastically. Then developers can sell at a much reduced cost. “It’s the cost that the developer buys the land that’s passed on to the subscribers. So when the government gives land at a reduced cost, it’s the same cost that would be passed on to consumers. It doesn’t also mean that issues such as rising inflation don’t affect the cost of housing, and the cost of materials has not gone up. “Cement that used to be N2,250 about a year ago is now N3,800. The cost of iron per ton about a year ago used to be N210,000, today it’s N430,000 per ton. So those costs are there, “he added. “Inflation is rising at nearly 20 per cent. Cost of funds is rising at nearly 22 per cent. These are challenges that we face. As much as this inflation exists, it will continue to hamper and impede our ability to provide seemingly affordable homes as a sector. “But as an organisation, we are committed to doing our best with the corporation of all the stakeholders in the industry, from the government to the populace, to the housing authorities, regulatory authorities, and even the private sector developers, opening up opportunities for collaborations, where we can bring forth the needed improvement that we need in solving housing deficit,” he said.

Victims Seek Prosecution of NBA Forex Trading Operator over Fraud Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt Victims of a failed forex trading scheme in Rivers state have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to mandate the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali to ensure the arrest and prosecution of Maxwell Odum over alleged fraud. The victims made this call during a peaceful protest to express their anguish at the palace of the paramount ruler of Elekahia community in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, traditional ruler of the suspect. Leader of the victims, Christian Agadaga, who spoke during the protest, begged the monarch to summon the alleged perpetrator, Maxwell Odum, the Chief Executive Officer of NBA Forex Trading and

Capital Investment Limited, and advise him to relieve the victims of their pains. He lamented that some of the victims have died over frustration and hardship. He said, “Nigerians from all works of life are disgruntled, some have died out of frustration, dome are in deep pain and hospitalised because Maxwell Odum, an indigene of Elekahia community has defrauded Nigerians their billions of Naira. “We also use this opportunity to call on Mr President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Mohammadu Buhari to shift a little focus on financial banditry, because Maxwell Wali Odum is a financial terrorist and bandits, he should be fished out, he (Odum) cannot be smarter than Nigeria.”

WORLD JUICE DAY…

L–R: Israel Danauta, Head, Legal / Public Aﬀairs and Corporate Communications, CHI Limited; Amaka Okwesilieze Nwaora, Event Speaker and Council Member, Nutrition Society of Nigeria; Toyin Nnodi, Marketing Director, CHI Limited and Patience Chima, Event Speaker and Chief Dietitian, Lagos University Teaching Hospital during the 3rd annual Chivita World Juice Day celebration in Lagos

Coca-Cola to Celebrate Customers for 70th Anniversary in Nigeria Leading beverage company, CocaCola, alongside its bottling partner, Nigerian Bottling Company Limited, has announced the launch of a new campaign, in celebration of its 70th anniversary in Nigeria. In a statement, the company said the campaign will play on its heritage and history in Nigeria with a host of exciting stakeholder engagements planned for the rest of the year. Managing Director, Coca-Cola Nigeria, Alfred Olajide said the celebration presents an opportunity to reminisce on the brand’s storied history in Nigeria and highlight the company’s plans for the future. “This milestone anniversary is a testament to the possibilities and opportunities that our great country Nigeria embodies”, he said. “Our success story is deeply woven into our 70-year journey of doing business sustainably in Nigeria while

creating shared opportunities for the communities we call home. It’s a heartwarming experience to have attained the consideration of our consumers and Nigerians in such a way that they yearn not just for the beverages we produce, but also for the ideals and values that Coca-Cola represents, ”he said. On his part, Managing Director, Nigerian Bottling Company, Matthieu Seguin, said: “We are also proud to be contributors to the growth of the Nigerian Economy. From 2007 till date, we have invested $1.7 billion in the country, and over the next 5 years, we will be investing an additional N560 billion or $1b in our operations across Nigeria. “This platinum anniversary celebration coincides with the launch of Coca-Cola’s new global philosophy, “Real Magic” which encourages everyone to celebrate the resilience and magic of humanity. Real Magic

marks the first new global brand platform for Coca-Cola since 2016 and is being launched alongside a revitalised visual identity, as well as a new perspective on the Coca-Cola trademark logo that will feature across Coca-Cola marketing and communication materials. “However, the incredible story of Coca-Cola goes beyond campaigns, profits and revenue. Over the years, Coca-Cola has taken the lead in good business, committing huge resources in laudable sustainability initiatives across its markets, especially Nigeria. Coca-Cola was introduced into the Nigerian market in 1951 and has since become the country’s premium beverage brand. With over 2,900 direct employees and eight manufacturing plants, CocaCola serves more than 40 million consumers in the FCT and 36 States in Nigeria. For over 70 years, the company has positioned itself as a

household brand unifying Nigerians both at home and in the diaspora while acknowledging the country’s rich and unique cultural diversity.” “The company will be celebrating 70 magical years in Nigeria with a slew of activities, starting with The Nigerians of Coca-Cola – a photo-blog series that seeks to tell the unique stories of Nigerians and how they have been impacted by the company’s initiatives. The passion to serve consumers and communities in Nigeria drives Coca-Cola’s commitment to creating a more positive and sustainable environment. “This commitment facilitates the company’s meaningful actions to control its carbon footprint and initiate environmentally sustainable projects that affect women, community development, sustainable packaging, climate change and financial empowerment.

COVID-19: AWEP Urges Women Entrepreneurs to Embrace Collaboration, Diversiﬁcation for Sustainability African Women Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP) Nigeria has urged women entrepreneurs to embrace collaboration and diversify their businesses to ensure sustainability. Speaking at the annual general meeting and conference of the group in Abuja, the keynote speaker, Steve Ogidan, stated that women entrepreneurs should focus on collaboration. According to him, expansion of the market not competition for the share of the market is the best way for women entrepreneurs to move their businesses forward. “It is no longer a question of gain-

ing customers. It is now a question of exploring and exploiting uncontested markets with opportunities for growth. Collaboration is key and in this age and time, no one can do it alone. Women entrepreneurs should focus on what they know how to do best, instead of trying to be everything to everybody, “he said. He also noted that the major challenge of enterprises in Africa is sustainability and ensuring businesses can run on their own in the absence of the owners or founders. He identified client retention; staff capacity building and effective

customer service as important for sustainability. Also speaking, the National President, AWEP Nigeria, Mrs. Angela Ajala said that diversification is vital for women entrepreneurs to scale their businesses. “Women entrepreneurs need to diversify their businesses. You cannot rely on one source of income. It is not possible. Look at what you are doing now? How can you cascade? Look at the value chain and see what other things you can incorporate into your business,” she said. Ajala highlighted the achievements

of the group in the last few years despite the global disruption occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. She revealed that through the group’s Mentoring hub and Business Advisory Clinic, positive impact has been made in terms of business growth of members. “In the past few years, we organised over 25 trainings to build capacity in different areas, as we realised that knowledge is power, and you can’t give what you don’t have. We provided access for members to have their products in top supermarkets.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

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GB Foods to Train 3,000 Small Holders Farmers

Gilbert Ekugbe

The GB Foods (GBF) has announced plans to train over 3000 smallholder farmers in the 2021/2022 planting season as a way of contributing its quota to food security in the country. According to the company, over a quarter of the farmers would be women in its bid to showcase the essential role that rural women and girls play in the food systems of the world. In a statement to join the rest of the world to commemorate the International Day of Rural Women (IDRW), tagged “Rural women Cultivating Good Food for All,” the firm said that in some regions of sub-Saharan Africa, women cultivated about 120 different plants alongside the cash crops that are managed by men. The GBF noted that according to statistics kept by Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development indicate that women in Nigeria account for 75 per cent of the farming workforce either as farm managers or suppliers of labor. The company called on the need to empower women through initiatives and structures that increase their capacity and overall

wellbeing are essential, some of which include access to necessities like water and medication; access to information and training that enhances operational and technological expertise. “Despite these easily identifiable factors to progress stated

The Executive Secretary/Chief Executive, Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, has said that the directorate has implemented measures aimed at ensuring that ineligible pensioners do not access any form of benefits going forward. She also said that the directorate was able to cut its payroll by almost 18 per cent or about 50,000 ineligible pensioners following a major field verification exercise, which took place between 2014 and 2019. She added that over 20,000 eligible pensioners who were hitherto excluded from the payroll were enlisted through the exercise while 18, 046 pensioners comprising of ex-workers of defunct and privatised agencies who had hitherto not been considered for pension were also enrolled. Ejikeme, said at the unveiling of the pilot phase of the “I Am Alive” confirmation project, that 312 war-affected police officers who were granted amnesty 2000 were paid their arrears and put on our payroll. However, she said the “I am Alive” solution which is a web-based software designed to

Manufacturer GB food, makers of Nigeria’s favorite Tomato Paste Gino, have constantly reinforced their commitment and appreciation of women,” the company added. According to the Corporate Affairs Director, GB Foods Africa, Dr. Teddy Ngu, “this is a step in

the right direction in support of all women, but more needs to be done to reach the entire country. We understand that there exists a myriad of challenges that face rural women and that’s why we’re also working to ensure access to potable water in all communities

in which we operate. So far we have constructed over 24 boreholes and restored an additional 10. What pulled on our heart strings was the fact that some of these communities had never had clean drinking waters— a basic and essential necessity of life.”

BUSINESS SUMMIT…

L–R: CEO, Shelze Professional Services,Mr. David Apaﬂo; Managing Partner, My Laywer Wey Sabi,Ms. Amaka Ezeala; Coverner, Lagos Bootcamp SMEs, Ayo Bankole Akintujoye; President JCI Atlantic - Abiola Ige-Akinyemi; Head of Human Capital, Letshego Nigeria, Mr Emmanuel Michael; Managing Partner, HillBridge Consulting, Ms. Ella George-Udukwu and Chief Brand Strategist, Black and Bold Communications, Mr ‘Jide Adeyemi during Junior Chambers International (JCI) business summit in Lagos... recently

PTAD Shuts Out Ghost Pensioners James Emejo and Sonia Mayomi in Abuja

above, it seems only a handful of organisations in Nigeria understand that the empowerment of women, especially those in rural areas is a key factor that drives food security and helps to eradicate poverty. In the past, and in more recent times, FMCG

enable pensioners easily confirm their aliveness from the comfort of their homes or neighbourhood using either a smartphone or a computer system- was another innovation and game-changer in efforts to rid the pension system of ghost pensioners and all forms of corruption under the defined benefit scheme (DBS). The PTAD boss said the directorate had decided to deploy the application in phases, starting with 50,000 pensioners cut across the four operational departments and the six geo-political zones, selected to participate in the pilot phase. The solution takes the pensioner through a three-step confirmation process that ends with a text message response. She said,”On the successful implementation of this pilot phase, we will deploy the application on a full scale at predetermined intervals on a continuous basis for all verified pensioners on the payroll. Kindly be informed that pensioners who are part of this pilot phase have been notified by PTAD via SMS. Pensioners who did not receive the SMS, should kindly note that they are not part of the pilot phase, and would not be able to gain access to the platform to confirm their aliveness at this time.”

PSL Capital Limited Rebrands, Promises Continued Excellent Service Delivery PSL Capital Limited, a leading indigenous broker/dealer firm, has completed a strategic rebranding effort as part of its accelerated company growth and renewal of its corporate vision. At the core of the rebrand is a change of the company name to Parthian Securities Limited and an update to the corporate logo and domain name. “Over the past 5 years, Parthian Securities Limited has cemented

its status as a market leader for securities trading in Nigeria and across Africa. It has experienced 30%+ YTD growth in client acquisition, tallying 1,100 customers across the country. This growth reflects the increasing recognition of individuals and companies that Parthian Securities Limited offers an easy and convenient platform for real-time trading of securities. The rebranding is part of the organisation’s strategy to evolve

its business and create a platform for new opportunities. Despite the name change, the corporate philosophy remains the same as the company looks to invest in new and innovative ways to bring the financial markets closer to participants in the Nigerian Capital Market. Over the past nine years, we’ve built a strong reputation for innovation and excellence,” said Oluseye Olusoga, Group Managing Director, Parthian Partners Limited.

Commenting, the Acting Managing Director, Parthian Securities Limited, Mr Ogunwale Kehinde, said: “We are excited about this change, and it marks a strategic pivot in our future direction as a business. While we remain committed to offering outstanding services to our amazing clientele, there is tremendous potential to grow, and this our new branding positions us to take full advantage of those opportunities.”

COVID-19: FG Disburses N58bn as Palliative to MSMEs

James Emejo in Abuja

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs. Maryam Katagum, has revealed that over N58 billion had been disbursed to beneficiaries under the MSME Survival Fund Scheme and Guaranteed Off-take Scheme (GOS) as part of the initiative by the federal government to ameliorate the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Specifically, she said N1.1 billion had been disbursed to businesses under the GOS which is the fifth track of the MSME Survival Fund Scheme. She said the amount represented 30 per cent mobilisation in respect of the delivery of products as at September 34, 2021.

Katagum, who declared the annual conference of the Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN) open over the weekend in Abuja, explained that the track had successfully taken off with 37,018 beneficiaries delivering various products ranging from foodstuff to basic household materials. The minister had in November 2020 unveiled the National MSME Survival Fund and the Guaranteed Off-take Scheme (GOS), both targeted towards assisting Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Both interventions which would gulp a total of N75 billion are core part of the N2.3 trillion Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP)

currently being implemented by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to help cushion the impact of the pandemic with a view to boosting the economy by saving existing jobs and creating new job opportunities. Speaking at the conference, attended by chief executives of ministries and parastatals under the ministry, Katagum also said that under the NESP, another N50 billion was allocated to the Export Expansion Fund/Grant under the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC). She said till date, 459,000 beneficiaries, under the Payroll Support had received between N90,000 - N150,000, representing three months salary. The minister added that under

the artisans and transport tracks of the schemes, 293,000 have benefited from one-off grants of N30,000 each while 82,000 businesses have received N50,000 one-off grants under the MSME Grants. The minister said the federal government had overtime, created platforms to improve access to finance for MSMEs in order to boost production, increase the value of trade, enhance the investment climate, foster innovation and entrepreneurship. This, she added, is in addition to the deliberate and pragmatic policies geared towards supporting and sustaining small businesses in the country, thereby equipping entrepreneurs to compete globally, especially under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA).

GSI, Special Tribunal to Boost Budget Deficit: Expert Backs NASS on Loan Recovery, Says Emeﬁele Privatization of Reﬁneries, Moribund Assets James Emejo and Sonia Mayomi in Abuja The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has said the bank’s policy on Global Standing Instruction (GSI) and the special tribunal for loan recovery which was provided for in the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, would both accelerate credit recovery processes and enforcement of collateral rights. He said these will also address the incidence of non-performing loans that had posed a great threat to the Nigerian financial system. Emefiele, spoke at a workshop for judicial officers on recent reforms to enhance the resilience of the Nigerian

banking and financial services sector – particularly the BOFIA 2020 He said the special tribunal for the enforcement and recovery of eligible loans was introduced in the Act to accelerate credit recovery processes and enforcement of collateral rights. He said supervisory observance had indicated that recalcitrant debtors had exploited the non-prioritisation of credit recovery matters in the Nigerian judicial system to frustrate debt recovery efforts by financial institutions. But he said CBN is currently informally engaging the key stakeholders in the judiciary to operationalise this provision. Represented by the CBN Deputy

Governor, Financial Systems Stability Directorate, Mrs. Aishah Ahmad, Emefiele said the BOFIA had further strengthened the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/ CFT) Framework by mandating regulated entities to comply with AML/CFT and cybersecurity regulations. Nevertheless, he said the Nigerian banking industry remained strong, stable and resilient and had continued to experience steady growth. He said despite occasional shocks experienced over the last decade, the industry has remained a strong instrument for economic growth and development through granting of credit facilities to the real sector.

Sylvester Idowu in Warri

An expert in Oil and Gas and Chairman of DAS Energy Services in Delta State, Mr Sunny Onuesoke has thrown his weight behind the call by Nigeria Senate on the need for President Muhammadu Buhari to privatize the four refineries and other moribund assets in the country as part of efforts to finance its budget deficit of N6.3tn. President Muhammadu Buhari, had recently said that his regime would finance the N6.26tn deficit contained in the 2022 budget with N5tn which his regime proposed to borrow from local and foreign sources. Speaking with journalists in Asaba International Airport, Asaba, Delta State, Onuesoke advised President

Muhammadu Buhari to listen to the advise of the Senate and experts on the need for internal revenue generation to reduce its spate of borrowing and high deficit financing. Onuesoke, who expressed worries that the N6.3tn budget deficit is just too large, explained that the only way for Nigeria to regain its economic glory is to avoid economic wastage by privatizing the four moribund refineries and other national assets that have become liabilities than assets to the nation. He recalled that despite guzzling billions in running costs for many years, the four refineries being run by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)remain in a sorry state, stressing that claims of turnaround maintenance and rehabilitation funded

by taxpayers’ money have not helped, rather, the fortunes of the refineries have consistently worsened. Onuesoke, also a former governorship aspirant on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State, traced the rot in the refineries to the incompetence of government in managing the refineries disclosing that a study carried out by the National Refineries Special Task Force (NRSTF) of 42 oil refineries operating in Africa in 2012, revealed that the four refineries in Nigeria recorded the worst performance in both efficiency and utilization capacity with an average capacity utilization of only 18 percent compared to 81 percent and 85 percent respectively for Egypt and South Africa in the period of 2006-2009.

T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021

BUSINESSWORLD

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LCCI to Boost Intra-Africa Trade with Lagos International Trade Fair Dike Onwuamaeze and Gilbert Ekugbe The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has declared that it would use the 35th edition of its annual Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF), to boost intra-African trade. The chamber also announced that this year’s trade fair, which would hold between November 5 and November 14, 2021, at the Tafawa Belewa Square, Lagos, would attract more than 200,000 visitors and 1,500 exhibitors from 16 countries. The Chairman of the LCCI Trade Promotion Board, Mr. Gabriel Idahosa, disclosed these at a press conference to announce the staging of this year’s trade fair. Idahosa said: “I am pleased

to inform you of our plans to host African businessmen and women in the “Africa Hall. “The objective of the hall is to bring exhibitors from all African countries under the same umbrella to showcase their goods, services, arts, crafts, regulatory services and particularly to promote Intra-African Trade. “We believe that Africans must grow trade and investment among themselves to give full activation of the AfCFTA. The LITF platform is a great opportunity to do this. In further pursuit of this objective, we will have the Africa Special Dayat the fair this year. Investment and trade promotion agencies of some African countries have shown interest in this.” He also said that participants

could book online while noise control and added that unwarranted noise would be eliminated in order to make the fair convenient for exhibitors and visitors. Some of the highlights of the fair, according to him, would include special days that would give exclusive opportunity to enlighten a choice audience with investment opportunities, unveiling of products and services and cultural display. He said: “We are particularly impressed with the current facelift given to the loading bays around the Fair venue. With this, our collaboration with various publicsector organizations in various key areas to improve exhibitors’ and visitors’ experiences will no doubt produce improved results.”

NCAA Threatens to Demolish Telcos Masts Nationwide Over N5.9bn Debt Chinedu Eze The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has threatened to start dismantling some telecommunication masts belonging to telecommunication companies, especially Globacom Limited in various locations across the country over failure for the network provider to pay N5.9billion renewal fees for aviation height clearance to the agency. A directive from the Nigerian government to some of its agencies and parastatals to go after debtors and defaulters and recover all the outstanding debts

owed may have spurred NCAA. NCAA in a statement claimed that it had severally written to Globacom for the payment for the debts but the network provider did not show any indication of willingness to pay the remaining debts. NCAA further alleged that it wrote Globacom on July 14, 2021, accusing the network provider of refusing to renew expired aviation height clearance certificate. In a letter dated October 4, 2021, titled: “Re: Illegal Erection of High Structures and Refusal to Renew Expired Aviation Height Clearance Certificates by Globacom Limited,” and

addressed to the Managing Director, Globacom, obtained by THISDAY, NCAA threatened that following the failure by Globacom to pay the required fees amounting to N5.9 billion, the regulatory agency had no choice but to commence the dismantling of the its masts across the country without further notice. “In the circumstance, having exhausted all avenues for a resolution of this matter, we are now left without choice but to apply the relevant sanctions, including the dismantling of all your non-compliant masts nationwide.

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MR UZOMA ONWUCHEKWA, whose picture appears above, is a former Managing Director of

SWEET AS CANDY CONFECTIONARIES and no longer works with the said organisation. Anyone who deals with him does so at their own risk. SIGNED: MANAGEMENT

SWEET AS CANDY CONFECTIONARIES

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MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021 • T H I S D AY

T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021

HOMES&DESIGN

KINGS TOWER , PRESTIGIOUS ADDRESS FOR FIRST-RATE BUSINESSES

MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

HOMES&DESIGN

Kings Tower: The New Podium for Top Players Sky View Towers Limited, the 15-storey Kings Tower promoters, designed the exquisite facility as a prestigious address for businesses looking to establish or raise their corporate presence in Lagos. The property market in Ikoyi has gone one notch up because of the iconic building. Bennett Oghifo writes he Kings Tower (formerly Kingsway Tower) is a 15-storey mixed-use building located on Alfred Rewane Road, Ikoyi, Lagos. This elegant tower that was designed by South African architects, SAOTA, and developed by Sky View Towers Limited, has 12 floors of office spaces spanning over 14,827sqm, two floors of retail spaces covering approximately 1,545sqm (total site area of 32, 800sqm), a basement and a parking podium (three above grade and one below grade) for about 343 cars. Other facilities include a restaurant and cafe. The iconic tower has already transformed the skyline of Lagos. The tower offers views across Lagos from every floor. Each floor gives your firm a premium space to raise your corporate presence in Lagos. In addition to the breathtaking design for the commercial office spaces, there is a high-end retail offering across two floors and 1,545sqm of space. Two rental units based on the ground floor of the building and spanning two levels are available as a restaurant and cafe with a terrace. Both spaces will appeal to restaurateurs looking for high-end exposure with the most impressive location in Ikoyi. Parking for 343 cars ensures safe and hassle-free access in and out of the building. Kings Tower exhilarates and inspires from the outside in. Located in the high-brow Ikoyi area, on

the main access road, Kings Tower is strategically placed with easy access to the Mainland, Victoria Island and Lekki. Its prestigious address on Alfred Rewane Road is at a major intersection, making it the ideal location.

FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS

The captivating architecture is not only evident from the outside of the building, with a mix of both glass and aluminium panels, but it is embodied throughout Kings Tower. The building has a dynamic design, enhanced by the gently curved curtain walls running along its main facades. The exterior skin consists of fixed sunscreen, while the interior skin is made of low-emission double-glazed windows. The fixed sunscreen is made of perforated aluminium sheets and equipped with LED lights that discreetly illuminate the facade and act as a sunscreen. Another key design feature is the coffered podium slab that curves up towards the corner of the building to create a sleek entrance. It also acts as a canopy extending over the sidewalk, creating a pedestrian-friendly space by the lobby. The entrance to the building opens on a double-height, glazed atrium lobby. The high ceilings open up into a

grand entrance of natural wood panels and Italian flooring, combining exquisite style and warmth, welcoming visitors into the 244sqm lobby with a 6.5m ceiling height. The awe-inspiring open space offices have the-floor-to-ceiling windows with incredible views overlooking Lagos. Starting from the third floor, every office has its own unique view, sparking inspiration every day. Undivided floor plans give firms flexibility with their space and design. Throughout the building, the floor plates are built around the central core, accommodating the elevators, restrooms and two fire escapes. The anti-seismic building structure ensures the safety and security of all its tenants in case of a natural disaster. Each floor is provided with flooring, a false ceiling with light fittings, telecommunications cabling, and air condition. The cooling system is highly efficient and more environmentally friendly due to a highly efficient HVAC system that maximises individual environmental control and double glazing with low E film. The office space is 14,827sqm; retail space is 1,545sqm; one to four tenants per floor from level three to level six;

around 300sqm minimum unit size; and 3.42m ceiling height on typical floors. On the last floor, it has a 4.80m ceiling height. Also available are the internet; intercom, VOIP-ready; DSTV; point-to-point radio mast; first-choice Italian sanitary fittings and fixtures; four-passenger Mitsubishi elevators, including one pressurised lift. The tower has disabled-friendly access; four stand-by generators modified to be smokeless and environmentally friendly, access control, with two metal detectors in the lobby. State of the art security and surveillance equipment maximises personal safety. Security-controlled areas such as basement parking, main entrance lobby, and specific common zones are accessed only with proximity access cards. It has a 12-hour stand-by maintenance team; smoke and fire detection, sprinkler and hose reel, firefighting systems as per British Security Standards. It has two firefighting systems and sprinkler systems, each on two pumps, one on duty, one on stand-by. In addition to the two fire escape staircases, they also have one pressurised lift against fire for firefighters in case of emergencies. Sky View Towers Limited has been in Nigeria since 1990 with several investments in the country. These investments include two residential developments, and their most recent commercial development, Kings Tower.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSSPECIAL

Editor: Obinna Chima obinna.chima@thisdaylive.com 08024557078

New Tax Tribunal Rule as Clog in Wheel of Businesses

The introduction of a new requirement for taxpayers to make 50 per cent deposit of disputed amounts to the Tax Appeal Tribunal may be a disincentive for businesses, writes Oluchi Chibuzor

icro, small, and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria were badly affected by the outbreak of the COVID-19, with some of them becoming

extinct. According to a survey by the Centre for Financial Inclusion (CFI), since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Nigeria, the number of employees in MSMEs declined by 51 percent compared to its high point the preceding year; and 80 percent of businesses have seen their profits decline. The data also showed MSME owners’ households were also in a precarious position as more than half of business owners said their households found it extremely difficult to cover their expenses from earned income. In addition, the report showed that food insecurity was also high among the MSMEs as one-third of respondents reported they or someone in their household had gone to bed hungry because there was not been enough money to buy food. In carrying out the survey, CFI interviewed 737 respondents, 55 per cent of whom were women. Two-thirds of the businesses in the sample were micro-enterprises (1 to 10 employees) while another quarter were sole proprietorships. Most business were well-established, with an average operating age of 13 years. There was a healthy mix of businesses, including grocers, school operators, and manufacturing businesses. “The data show that 64 of the 737 businesses in the sample shuttered their operations since COVID-19 arrived in Nigeria. Of these, 40 of the businesses closed because of government restrictions on their businesses. Since then, the surviving MSMEs have been employing a variety of coping strategies to keep their businesses afloat. For instance, in addition to the dramatic reduction in the workforce, owners are cutting employees’ hours and working longer hours instead. In view of the aforementioned challenges confronting MSMEs, analysts have described a section of the amended Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT) (Procedure) Rules, 2021, as additional challenge for MSMEs in the country. Specifically, the noted that the introduction a in the new law for taxpayers to make a

50 per cent deposit of disputed amounts to the TAT may discourage MSMEs from pursuing recourse from the TAT, thereby affecting justice. The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, had in June 2021, approved the TAT pursuant to her powers under Section 61 of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, 2007 (as amended). Indeed, the implementation of the new rules emphasises the federal government’s commitment to improving Nigeria’s tax landscape, which commenced with the enactment of Finance Acts, 2019 and 2020. The amendments to the TAT (Procedure) rules, which was the initial forum for formal tax adjudication in Nigeria, align with changes in global tax administration systems and would ensure that the TAT’s procedures are up to date and give taxpayers increased confidence in the system. The rules, which replaced the defunct TAT (Procedure) Rules, 2010, enables the Tribunal to deal justly, fairly and expeditiously with appeals and encourages and promote the settlement of disputes among parties. Some other changes beside the requirement for taxpayers to pay 50 per cent of any disputed amount into a designated account of the TAT as security for prosecuting an appeal, prior to commencement of appeals include: the modification of some old definitions, and interpretation of additional terms such as “appeal”, “notice of appeal”, “decision of the Tribunal,” among others; and recognition of service of documents or processes carried out by email or such other electronic means as the Tribunal may permit. Others include the recognition of virtual/ remote hearing of applications and delivery of rulings by the Tribunal; introduction of a six-month timeframe from the date of commencement of trial for the TAT to conclude and provide a decision; provisions for hearing of ex-parte and non-contentious applications in Chambers as well as summary appeal procedure for liquidated money demands. Although the TAT (Procedure) Rules, 2010 was effectively replaced, the Rules allows

for “anything done” under the defunct 2010 Rules to remain valid, as long as such is not inconsistent with the provisions of the new Rules, thereby grandfathering existing matters and ensuring a smooth transition.

ANALYSTS’ POSITION

Leading tax advisory firms, PricewaterCoopers (PwC) and KPMG, have described the TAT Rules 2021 as inconsistent with the Federal Inland Revenue Establishment Act (FIRSEA). They, however, noted that a fundamental change in the rules, as contained in Order 3 Rule 6, was at variance with similar provisions of the FIRS Act. The Order 3 Rule 6 prescribes that a taxpayer must make a security deposit of 50 per cent of any disputed amount prior to filing an appeal. Analysing the order in its Tax Alert published on its website, PwC noted that the provision was open to contention, adding that it was also inconsistent with a statute. “One area of contention is the requirement for the payment of 50 per cent of the disputed tax as a condition precedent to filing an appeal. “This provision may be challenged on grounds of inconsistency with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act 2007 since it is established that rules cannot override the provisions of an Act. “In addition, the provision may also be challenged on constitutional grounds where a taxpayer does not have the cash to deposit, as this would be a bar on access to justice,” stated PwC. The professional services firm also noted that the provision of Order 3 Rule 6 may be open to abuse by tax authorities, which may come up with unreasonable assessments in the expectation that a taxpayer will pay a 50 per cent deposit. On its part, KPMG also stated that the blanket requirement for taxpayers to make a 50 per cent deposit of disputed amounts to the tribunal may be an impediment to justice, as it erodes the right to fear hearing, and discourage taxpayers from pursuing recourse before the TAT. “This requirement also deviates from the

provisions of the Section 15(7) of Federal Inland Revenue (Establishment) Act that permits such deposits only in certain circumstances. “Further, there is a risk that the blanket requirement may make the TAT more litigious in its outlook and take it away from the less formal dispute resolution framework it was designed to be. “It may also increase the risk of tax disputes being resolved based on rules of court or technicality, rather than substantive justice, a weakness of the formal court system which the TAT is set up to provide,” stated KPMG. The firm equally noted that the role of Tax Commissioners was not the same as those of judges in the constitutional sense. It cautioned that the changes the new rules are envisaged to bring may revive the challenges to the legality of the tribunal and its encroachment on the constitutional preserve of the Federal High Court on revenue and taxation issues. KPMG therefore advised the finance minister to consider making the TAT Rules court-like, so as to ensure the tribunal continues to provide accelerated tax dispute resolution in a non-litigious way. “The Minister should, therefore, consider making the TAT Rules less litigious or court-like to ensure the TAT maintains its edge as a speedy and non-litigious tax dispute resolution forum,” KPMG’s Wole Abayomi stated. The implication of the new TAT rule is that businesses could get killed if the tax authorities decide to come up with any assessment they desire. And with the Tribunal as the only recourse open, the disputant is expected to pay half of the amount, even if it wasn’t owing that amount in tax liability. This, clearly erodes the opportunity for fair hearing and is in conflict with Paragraph 15 (7) of the FIRS Act. Therefore, the federal government needs to urgently review this aspect of the rule so that existing businesses in the country would not be suffocated and for it not to discourage potential investors in the country.

T H I S D AY ˾ MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021

BUSINESS SPECIAL

INTERVIEW

Aworinde: Why FG Must Expand its Tax Net Dr Olalekan Aworinde is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics, Pan-Atlantic University, in this interview he speaks about measures the government can adopt to shore up its revenue as well as to bring about stability in the forex market. Obinna Chima brings the excerpts: How important is a trade policy to any nation? hen you have a trade policy, the implication is that the direction as well as the volume of your trade will go to a particular country or a particular part of the world. This has a lot of implications on the forex market. It could be that the lack of trade policy is one of the reasons why we have been seeing the continuous devaluation of the naira. If you have a trade policy in place, the implication of that is that you will be looking at a situation of export expansion; that is trying to expand your expansion. That is because it is the expansion of exports that would bring in the forex earnings. The implication is that you are likely going to see a situation where the naira is stable, if you have more goods from your country being exported to other countries, because you will be receiving dollars in exchange. This improves the dollar supply. But in Nigeria today, the reverse is the case. We now have a situation whereby we now have more imports than exports, which is one of the reasons we have the constant pressure on the naira exchange rate.

Beyond that, what other measures do you think the country can adopt to stabilise the naira exchange rate and the forex market? Beyond the issue of trade policy, there are so many other ways to stabilise the forex market. This has to do with the expansion of exports, which is export diversification. When we say export diversification, we are saying the government should diversify into other sectors of the economy. Recently, we had a situation whereby the crude oil price nosedived and being a mono-product economy, it had severe impact on our economy. The proceeds from oil represents about 90 per cent of Nigeria’s total revenue. So, once there is a fall in crude oil price, it affects the Nigerian economy. In essence, what we are trying to say here is that the country should diversify into other sectors of the economy. Diversification could be all about encouraging SMEs to produce goods that can be exported. The country has a lot of resources. Look at cocoa, the groundnut pyramid, and several others. So, it is essential for government to motivate cocoa farmers in the west, support the groundnut in the north and other parts of the country. So if the federal government can start exporting these goods in large quantities, you will discover that it would put a downward pressure on the foreign exchange market. Aside the issue of trying to expand domestic exports, government can also sell its foreign exchange assets and buy our own currency. In essence, being the fact that the CBN is the major advisor to the Nigerian government, what they can do is to sell some of our foreign assets and buy the currencies of those countries. Let’s say Nigeria has a lot of assets in foreign exchange, we can then try to buy the currency of that country, for example, the US dollar. When we buy the currency of the US, you will discover that we denominate our investments in that currency, meaning that we have more dollars in our possession. So, once we have more of dollars in our possession, it would go a long way in taking away pressure from the naira. Aside from that is also the issue of the central bank, being the one controlling the monetary instruments in Nigeria, what they can also do is to increase interest rate. By increasing the interest rate, it would attract inflows into the Nigerian market. That

Aworinde

is because potential investors would always want to go to environments where they can have higher returns. So, once there is higher returns, the implication is that it would attract more inflows of investment. That would essence put a downward pressure on exchange rate. But the danger in this is that when you have high interest rate, it would affect domestic investors meaning that it would be difficult for them to get bank loans. Another thing they can do what I refer to as naira demonetisation. If the government can do that, it would help the naira to appreciate. And what do I mean by demonetisation, it is the act of stripping a currency unit of its status as legal tender. That is, we can the face of maybe the N10, N20 or even N50. This will dissuade the hoarding of the naira. So, once this is done and we have a situation whereby people no longer hoard the naira, you will discover that it would lead to an increase in the value of the naira. In essence, once there is demonetisation of the naira, it would curb money laundering and eliminate black money in the financial system. So, these are some of the things the government can do. Aside from that is also that they can reduce inflation, which would always have positive impact on the appreciation of the naira. Can you shed more light on the idea of selling government’s naira assets to buy dollar assets? I am not saying that we should move to a situation whereby there would be dollarisation of the economy. What I am referring to here is a situation whereby for example, the Nigerian government bought a lot of US government bonds;

the idea is that it would automatically lead to a depreciation of the dollar against the naira. And at the end of the day what the Nigerian government can do in that case is that by the time they buy the US treasury bills, the proceeds of that transactions would be brought back to Nigeria. A lot of countries have practiced that and an example of such is China, which over the years has been practicing that. What they do is that when they buy a lot of US treasury bills, when they sell it, the proceeds from that would go to the Chinese economy, which leads to an appreciation of their currency. So, how will the idea of demonetisation stabilise the exchange rate? It affects the exchange rate in the sense that what people have hoarded in their homes, the implication is that it is no longer useful to them and the implication is that it is the new currency that is in place that people would now start to use. That means that what they have kept is no longer going to be useful to them. And we have been seeing a lot of countries that equally did it and it had positive effects on their naira. Ghana is an example. There have been concerns about the country’s rising debt stock. But aside borrowing, how do you think the government can fund the huge deﬁcit of N5 trillion in the 2022 proposed budget? Let me start by saying that the Eurobond is also linked to buying the currency of a foreign country in the sense that at the end of the day, you will be able to bring the proceeds of that into the Nigerian economy. That is one of the ways. Aside from that, there

are different ways the government can finance its budget deficit. One of such is through government borrowing; it is either they sell government properties or it is either they print money. All of these have its own advantages and disadvantages. Of course, in terms of Nigeria’s debts, we are always being deceived. That is because when we talk about the sustainability of a debt, it is about solvency and liquidity. Emphasis has always been on the solvency without looking at the liquidity. Solvency in the sense that if you look at the percentage of the debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), they would tell us that it has not gone beyond the threshold. But, when we look at how liquid is our debt, the proportion of our revenue that is linked to debt, which is the debt-to-revenue. If you look at that, you will understand that we are not liquid. Recently, we were told that more than 90 per cent of the revenue that are generated by this government is used for debt service and that is dangerous. So, the issue now is that only about three per cent is now left for us. So, what are the other things that can be used in terms of our expenditure out? So, that is the danger in the use of debts. I am not saying debt is bad, but there is a lot of danger in it if we don’t look at the liquidity aspect of it. Now, aside the issue of debt, government can start to sell some of its properties so as to raise revenue. Of course, this will depend on the number of investments that the government has and also how appreciable are the investments. But another question is how well can it go. However, we must understand that this is a short-term alternative because you wouldn’t want to sell all your investments at once. Now, the last one which has to do with printing of money, studies have shown that when you have excess money in circulation, it would lead to an increase in the level of inflation. So, there would be a continuous increase in the prices of goods and services. The fact there is that if the monetary sector is growing, lets by five per cent, as a result of printing new money and there is no commensurate growth in the real sector of the economy, at the end of the day it would bring about inflation. That is because the total value of goods and services that are produced would not be commensurate with the volume of money in circulation. The truth of this, I can tell you is that the only way out is for government to expand the tax net. Tax collection remains the major revenue of the government. There are lots of people that are not taxed; Nigeria is under-taxed. Of course there some issues of double-taxation in certain cases, but I can tell you that a lot of people are under-taxed and a lot of people are evading taxes. So, if there are proper machinery in place so that people cannot evade taxes any longer, I can tell you that our borrowing will reduce drastically. A lot of people are not paying tax to the government. And even when they pay the correct tax to the government, there is high level of corruption on the part of some tax authorities which reduces the revenue the government generates. If you look at what is happening in the polity concerning the Value Added Tax, it is as a result of the fact that revenues that these state governments receive are not enough for them and they feel they are being cheated.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESS SPECIAL

PERSPECTIVE

Monetary Policy in CBN’s Bold Footprints Challenging Times in Education Sector Kelvin Gilbert

Mike Obadan

n light of my recent article on foreign exchange (FX) and the naira exchange rate, some interested readers have expressed the need for me to throw light on macroeconomic issues including aspects of monetary policy. For example, one reader wrote, “we hear many of these terms but can’t fathom them out … I do hope you might cover ‘MPR’”, that is, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) which tends to feature in its communiques after the bi-monthly Meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Monetary policy is one of the key macroeconomic policies which the Central Bank of Nigeria and other central banks deploy to solve macroeconomic problems that plague national economies including high inflation, low economic growth, high unemployment, and external payments disequilibrium. Accordingly, monetary policy aims to help a country to achieve the macroeconomic objectives of price stability, high rate of economic growth and employment and a healthy balance of international position. Monetary policy is very significant because it determines the growth of liquidity or money supply in the economy and its relation to the growth of production. It also decides on the volume of national credit and its distribution between the public and private sectors. Through monetary policy, decisions are made about the volume of money in circulation or money supply as to whether or not it is too much or too little. The volume of money supply in an economy has a direct relationship with the level of prices of goods and services. In the situation where the volume of national output cannot be increased and the rate at which a unit of money is exchanged in an economy (i.e, number of times that the average unit of money is used to purchase goods and services) or the velocity of money is constant, increases in the money supply will lead to a proportionate increase in the price level. Thus, if the monetary authority considers the quantity of money in the economy to be too much in relation to the growth of national output, and hence causing the inflation rate to rise, a decision will be made to reduce the money supply by tightening monetary policy through the use of various monetary policy instruments such as the MPR (increase by the CBN), cash reserve requirements (CRR) (increase by the CBN), open market operations (Central Bank sells securities in the open money market or to the public to reduce money in circulation), among others. On the other hand, if the volume of money supply is considered to be low or not enough to drive national production, then the above policy instruments will be used in a reverse manner, that is, monetary policy will be relaxed or eased in order to put more money into circulation. This means reducing the MPR and CRR, both of which should, other things being equal, encourage the commercial banks to lower lending rates, create more money / lend more money to investors and the public to finance more investment and consumption demand. Both of these are major determinants of national output. The central bank could also have put more money into circulation by buying securities from the public or open market. Out of the monetary policy instruments, the MPR has tended to attract more attention from the enlightened public to the extent of being speculated upon by some analysts before every CBN Monetary Policy Committee Meeting as to its direction in terms of if it would be increased or reduced. The MPR which evolved from the Bank’s discount rate of old, is a very significant interest rate which indicates the stance or direction of monetary policy as to whether it is tight or restrictive, on the one hand, and expansionary or easy on the other. It occupies a primacy position in relation to the other market interest rates in the economy. Increases or decreases in the policy rate are meant to signal the deposit money banks as to the desired direction of monetary policy by the CBN and hence the commercial banks should accordingly adjust their interest rates upwards or downwards. The monetary and financial conditions and nature of problems in the economy such as high inflation rate, sluggish growth, high unemployment and external imbalances elicit changes in the MPR and other monetary policy instruments. In other words, the MPR is not arbitrarily determined as some economic agents probably think. Rather, the state of the economy is an important consideration and specific factors such as the volume of money and credit in the economy, rate of inflation, economic growth rate, balance of international payments position, among others, are important influencers of the direction of MPR. When the CBN reduces the MPR, it desires to expand bank credit and money supply while an increase in the rate signals its desire to control the expansion of liquidity in the economy.

Emeﬁele In such situations, monetary policy makers are confronted with a balancing act, that is, the task of ensuring that expansion in domestic liquidity or a reduction of it is consistent with the authorities’ objectives for economic growth, inflation and the balance of payments. In the last few years, monetary policy making has been a very challenging endeavour for the CBN because of the nature of economic problems that the economy has had to grapple with, most of which problems other economies did not encounter, for example, stagflation. Most of the problems have derived from exogenous shocks. A highlight of the key problems is illustrative. First, is the phenomenon of two debilitating economic recessions in five years: first quarter of 2016 to the first quarter of 2017, and second and third quarters of 2020. While the first recession was triggered by the collapse of the world oil market, the second followed the coronavirus pandemic and the associated economic crisis. These recession periods were characterised by negative economic growth and high rate of inflation at the same time giving rise to the phenomenon of stagflation. The post-recession periods have been characterised by low and fragile growth rates. For example, positive growth resumed in the fourth quarter of 2020 but stood at 0.11 percent. In the first quarter of 2021, growth improved marginally to 0.51 percent but significantly in the second quarter to 5.01 per cent, year-on-year. During the trying periods, the fiscal and monetary authorities rightly prioritised growth and sought to spend the economy out of recession, thus necessitating huge injections of liquidity into the economy but with implications for monetary inflation. Second, other economic problems have subsisted in different degrees. The inflation rate, though decelerating, is still high at 17.01 percent as at August, 2021. It is the situation of low and fragile growth and very high inflation rate at the same time that has given rise to the very challenging phenomenon of stagflation in the country. Unemployment rate is high, especially among youths. As at the end of 2020, the overall unemployment rate stood at 33 percent while a very significant output gap exists. The external sector of the economy is riddled with numerous challenges: current account and overall balance of payments deficits, high exchange rates, uncomfortable external reserves position in the face of low accretion to the reserves, low foreign capital inflows, among others. On the domestic front, the government’s fiscal position has not improved much: low domestic revenue earnings due to challenges in oil production, high level of government expenditure, lack of fiscal buffers, increasing fiscal deficits which necessitate government borrowing – domestic and foreign. Because of the need to lift the economy out of recession in a period of weak government revenue and absence of fiscal buffers, the total public debt has increased to over N35 trillion as at the second quarter of 2021. The phenomenon of stagflation has made macroeconomic policy making very challenging for policy makers in Nigeria. In particular, monetary policy has faced a dilemma in terms of the direction of policy and the instruments to use. Use of the instruments under the circumstances without proper consideration results in risks. Nigeria’s stagflationary situation contrasts with the experiences of the advanced countries and Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs) during the coronavirus-induced global recession of 2020. In the face of the twin health and economic shocks, inflation in those countries never reached a worrisome level. NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com

t goes without saying that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the leadership of Mr. Godwin Emefiele as governor, has impacted Nigeria’s developmental strides more than any other in recent history of the bank. The apex bank’s intervention programmes in various sectors of the economy including the creation of a N100 billion targeted credit facility; N100 billion health sector intervention facility, Creative Industry Financing Initiative (CIFI), N1 trillion for the manufacturing sector and of course its legendary exploits in the agricultural sector through the Anchor Borrowers Programme, have all gone to show the commitment of the bank to the development of the country beyond monetary policy regulation. It is therefore not surprising that the bank has also stepped in to salvage the nation’s languishing education sector knowing that education is central to any development efforts. According to the World Bank, human capital development is integral to any country’s sustainable development and poverty reduction goals. Critically, education and knowledge capacity building are critical drivers of human capital development. Thus, investment in education is one of the bedrocks of society and helps determine the level of development recorded in an economy. The value of education in an economy cannot be overemphasized, as it helps shape both individuals and the broader society, and forms a huge source of economic value. Over the years, Nigeria’s education sector has suffered neglect of the worst order. In fact a review of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) data suggests Nigeria’s educational sector has suffered massive capital flight in the last 10 years. Specifically, using the CBN’s balance of payment statistics, Nigerians have spent a hefty sum of $28.65 billion on foreign education between 2010 and 2020. Needless to say that the high demand for dollars to pay these foreign educational institutions has affected the country’s foreign reserve (which currently stands at $33.39 billion), and contributed immensely to piling pressure on the exchange rate. According to data from Webometrics, the highest ranked Nigerian university is the University of Ibadan with a rank of 1,196 followed by Covenant University with a rank of 1,314. In other words, no Nigerian university is ranked within the top 10 per cent of universities globally. This may not be entirely surprising given that the funding of education at all levels is below the recommended benchmark by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Specifically, UNESCO’s benchmark for funding education is 26 per cent of the national budget and 6 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Nigeria’s budget for the education sector has averaged around 5.3 per cent of the budget which is in sharp contrast to the recommended target and continues to drop. From a GDP perspective, the figure paints an even more dismal picture, as the education sector accounted for 1.94 per cent of the real GDP in Q1 2021 and 1.86 per cent in 2020. According to data from UNESCO, about 76,338 Nigerians were studying abroad as of 2018, which is the highest recorded by an African country. From all indications, Nigeria’s persistent

“From all indications, Nigeria’s persistent level of underinvestment compared to global standards does not bode well for any effort towards improving the nation’s human capital index, nor will it address the seemingly insatiable demands for foreign education.”

level of underinvestment compared to global standards does not bode well for any effort towards improving the nation’s human capital index, nor will it address the seemingly insatiable demands for foreign education. The Nigerian education sector requires adequate funding as well as the willingness to build competitive value amongst its peers. It was perhaps in a bid to replicate the magic wand which has worked so well in transforming the Nigerian agricultural sector in the area of education, that the CBN under Emefiele delved into the education sector with different initiatives which if well implemented will place the nation’s tertiary institutions among the top 100 tertiary institutions in the world. Among these initiatives are the N63 billion Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Centres of Excellence in nine Federal Government owned universities across the country to enhance postgraduate studies in financial related courses and the Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES) to train and finance entrepreneurship ideas of Nigerian university graduates. Inaugurating one of the centres of excellence at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria recently, the CBN Governor, Emefiele said that the project was part of the apex bank’s intervention in education. He explained that the centres would be delivered in phases and the first phase, which comprised the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, University of Ibadan and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria had been completed and ready for use by the institutions. He said that the others, nearly completed, are those in University of Lagos, University of Port Harcourt, University of Jos, Bayero University, Kano and University of Maiduguri. Emefiele stressed that education and health were the bedrock of any nation’s development and there was the need to invest in them. He said that the centres, with 500-capacity auditorium, ICT facilities and e-Library, could compete with any business school globally. Emefiele said that when the centres become operational, programmes such as Forensic Accounting, Global Financial Market, Risk and Compliance Management would be offered at the centres. He assured the nation that the bank would get involved in the management of the facilities to forestall decay. The governor also disclosed that the bank would engage accounting specialists and practitioners working in central banks across the world to bring their wealth of experience to bear at the centres. On the entrepreneurship scheme, the CBN Governor said the partnership with universities would also provide a platform for building digital skills relevant to Nigeria’s developmental goals. According to the CBN Governor who was addressing the 35th Conference of the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU), the partnership was to create a paradigm shift among students of the institutions from the orientation of pursuit of white collar jobs to start up business as employers of labour across micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSME) sectors. “The focus is to instill a culture of entrepreneurial development among the youth prior to graduation, by supporting them with start-up capital for their enterprises,” Emefiele said. “This re-orientation is also critical to the recovery efforts to address job losses, low productivity and weak growth impacts of post-COVID-19 pandemic on the productive sectors of the economy and the fallouts from the dwindling oil revenues accruable to the country. “Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) portend great opportunities for addressing these gaps and accelerating the economic growth, leveraging on our vibrant youth populations. “To this end, the CBN is developing a Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES) to re-orientate, train and finance entrepreneurship ideas among our graduates. “The scheme is designed to support the development entrepreneurial mindsets and culture through the introduction of a platform that provides seamless access to affordable finance to graduates through innovative channels for participation.” There is no doubt that this bold step of the CBN in the education sector is not only well directed, but will indeed create a paradigm shift in the orientation of an average Nigerian graduate. t (JMCFSU JT BO FDPOPNJTU CBTFE JO (BSLJ "CVKB

MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021 • T H I S D AY

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FEATURES

Group Features Editor: Chiemelie Ezeobi Email chiemelie.ezeobi@thisdaylive.com, 07010510430

Sustaining Campaign for Equitable Protection of Civilians in Armed Conﬂicts For Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, the 2021 International Peace Day was an opportunity to reiterate their campaign for equitable and sustainable protection of civilians in armed conflicts. Chiemelie Ezeobi writes on the determined quest to institutionalise the Protection of Civilians policy

L-R: Mujidang Sitdang of CIVIC; Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), CISLAC ED; Jaiye Gaskia at the PoC media parley

he Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in conjunction with Centre for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) with the support from the European Union recently held a media parley in Lagos on "Rethinking and Canvassing National Policy on Protection of Civilian and Civilian Harm Mitigation in Armed Conflict". The reason was not far-fetched; most times, during conflict situations, civilian harm can come in form of death, injury, property loss (homes, businesses, livestock), civilian infrastructure damage (schools, hospitals, water treatment facilities), loss of livelihood and psychological trauma. Often times, civilians are caught in between crossfire, when they live in proximity to military targets, use of force at checkpoints and during raids, use of indirect fire in populated areas, use of inappropriate weapon systems, targeting errors or mistaken identity on the basis of faulty intelligence and lack of preparation for civilian presence on the battlefield. Therefore, it was to ensure civilian protection that CISLAC and CIVIC teamed up to champion this. Lamenting that the absence of genuine political will to realise accountability for conflict areas and other serious violations has deepened a culture of impunity, they noted that another challenge was that many policymakers and military practitioners equal civilian harm to ‘civilian casualties', adding that such a narrow definition of the term ‘civilian harm’ is troubling because it obscures other negative impacts of violent conflict on civilians like mental trauma, loss of livelihood, and displacement, among others. Objectives According to CISLAC Executive Director, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), the objectives of the parley was popularise and advocate for the adoption of the national policy on PoC-CHM to minimise and respond to victim, while learning and incorporating best and existing practices. This is why Protection of Civilians (PoC)

September 21 is devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples. He noted that at a time when conflict and violence has monopolised news cycles, CISLAC and CIVIC believe it is an inspiring reminder of what they can create together. According to him, "to promote the culture of protection on a day like this, we must first seek to understand the real essence why protection is fundamental. Respect for human right is an integral part of protection. "The third is to advocate for equality. We must promote human security over regime security. This is indeed at the heart of draft National policy on protection of civilian currently in the mills. Finally, on this note is to Embracing Peace promote economic and social stability. In his welcome address, Rafsanjani Protection is not only from physical harped on the need to embrace peace harm; it has a direct effect on livelihood at all costs. According to him, life is and access of social infrastructures." better in a world where peace exists and, "today, we look to those who have Protection of Civilians been peacemakers and peacekeepers to Harping on the need to protect civillearn what we can each do individually ians, CISLAC ED said "to be effective, to make the world a more peaceful security institutions must be politically place. Peace is possible where adequate accountable to the legitimate authorities protection from harm through deliberate of the state and to the democraticallypolitical solution is institutionalised". elected representatives of the people According to the ED, the International through external oversight. Day of Peace celebrated annually on " In formulating national security is important. Essentially, Protection of the Civilian population is a basic element of humanitarian law that states that all civilians and all those not taking part in the fighting must on no account be attacked and must be spared and protected. In fact, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols contain specific rules to protect civilians. Although the concept of PoC has been progressively introduced to a wider audience, however, within the framework of conflict operations, the full implementation of this principle is hindered by a number of shortcomings, such as the limited understanding of roles and responsibilities, and the lack of clear methods and guidelines.

We now know for instance that more than 2,000 persons have been victims of abductions since the beginning of 2021 alone, with more than 3,000 fatalities also recorded as a result of various mass atrocities engendered by violent acts of insecurity across the country in the same period. Hundreds of thousands have in turn been displaced, and livelihoods of millions devasted and destroyed

policies and priorities, the protection of civilian and civilian harm mitigation are also very fundamental. That is the real essence why we have gathered here today. "Protection of civilian allows for adequate accountability mechanism that pushes external agencies to regulate the use of discretionary powers, such as whether the use of force are applied in compliance with national and international law and ensure that the regime that promotes civilian is established." Principles of Protection of Civilian and Civilian Harm Mitigation Stressing that effective protection comes from a holistic balance with issues of governance, accountability, and integrity, Rafsanjani said protection within the security forces is key (to generating a coherent force with the will to face major security challenges and to being able to deal with breaches of conduct at the point of breach). " Focusing on security alone comes at the expense of accountability that cannot keep up with new equipment, systems, and practices. To avoid the pitfalls of civilian harm, there is an urgent need to adopt a policy regime that emphasises on train and equip measures, a thorough and joint assessment on capacity and integrity of forces can help manage any potential harm in any theatre of operations," he harped. Accountability For good protection regime within the security sector, which he said is a key enabler for wider progress, the ED noted that accountability in security and justice provision is related to protection from abuses, the ability for citizens to seek redress and hold providers accountable, and to the responsiveness and accessibility of provision itself. "Accountability helps build the confidence and legitimacy needed to overcome societal mistrust", he added. Role of CIVIC Commending the collaboration with CIVIC, he said they have worked collectively to

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FEATURES institutionalise an accountable system that is vibrant, robust and effective. "One of the expected deliverables for today would be to equip participants with clearer information to monitor track and report gaps within the protection framework, processes, practices and spending. "Let me also use this medium to emphasise that since the implementation of the project, CISLAC has worked closely with various Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) of government as well as CSOs at state and national level. Defence agencies and media in delivering on the project outcomes. This has led to the formation of various policy shifts", he added. Corroborating, Mujidang Sitdang of CIVIC said: "Driven by a passion to save and protect civilians through engagement with relevant armed actors, CIVIC has developed and implemented solutions to prevent, mitigate and respond to civilian harm and in advancement of the vision of a world in which no civilian is harmed in conflict. "In Nigeria, CIVIC have been working to promote these by engaging with key military institutions to influence their curriculum and reinforce the POC/CHM mindset. CIVIC has successfully trained over 2387 military personnel at training institutions and deployment centres, trained 663 deployed troops within Brigades in the NE, facilitated training of trainers for 93 military instructors, facilitated 19 meaningful dialogues and town hall meetings between the military, community militias, stakeholders and civilians that has further strengthened trust, coordination and led to an inclusive community driven protection of civilian`s strategies. "In addition, CIVIC has also trained communities in the northeast on the protection of civilian`s and empowered them to the point of establishing six functional community protection committees (CPCs), made up of 300 community members drawn from across host communities and camps that continue to facilitate appropriate engagement with key security agencies to advocate for their protection needs. "CIVIC has also trained 603 community militias including vigilantes, CJTF & Hunters on Protection of civilian`s principles to provide them with the basic knowledge on understanding civilian centred protection. Above and beyond this, is the several advocacy engagements with the push for the adoption of a Protection of civilians’ policy and bill that CIVIC has been working on with many of you in this room as its advocates. "When adopted, Nigeria will be the first country in Africa with such a policy that seeks to further safeguard its citizens from harm. Threats to civilians during conflict manifest in many forms. The concept of POC seeks to address the threats by mitigating harm, facilitating access to basic needs and contributing to establishing a safe and secure environment." Demands on the Media Noting that it was imperative to bring together the fourth estate of the realm to look critically at influencing political commitment towards National Policy on the Protection of Civilian and Civilian Harm mitigation in Armed Conflict, Rafsanjani said the role of the media in the defence and security sector is an issue that all must take very seriously considering the recent infrastructure weakness within our security architecture – absence of the community. Also speaking, Sitdang reiterated that the media has a role to play. He said: "As media partners and custodians of a very strong advocacy instrument, CIVIC urges you to explore mechanisms that will promote the adoption of the PoC policy and also engage in community education bringing to light the importance of civilian protection, putting your full weight behind the drive towards the actualisation of policies, laws and programs that will ensure a system where civilian protection is at its core. Continue to recognise, applaud and report efforts by security agencies and government that have protected civilians." Clariﬁcations on Responsibility to Protect, Citizens Right of Self Defence For Jaye Gaskia, Director Praxis Centre, given the precarious state of insecurity in

operations – as well as protecting civilians from the actions of other armed actors. Finally, he noted that while the policy is ambitious, it's achievable, adding that when security operations are not civilian-centric, with components of PoC and adherence to International Humanitarian Law, new root causes of conflict will be created because of harm by security forces either incidentally or accidentally and create an infinite circle of conflict instead of returning situation to normalcy.

CISLAC ED

Nigeria, including about the existential threat that it now poses to the country and to the people, the scale and the scope in terms of the incidences and its impact is not only staggering, but also truly mind boggling. Quoting statistics, he said: "We now know for instance that more than 2,000 persons have been victims of abductions since the beginning of 2021 alone, with more than 3,000 fatalities also recorded as a result of various mass atrocities engendered by violent acts of insecurity across the country in the same period. Hundreds of thousands have in turn been displaced, and livelihoods of millions devasted and destroyed. "In this context it is very easy to lose sight of some of the deeper issues of governance, or more precisely absence of governance that are at play. The responsibility to protect is clearly that of the state, and it matters little whether the harm and injury to citizens, and the fatalities suffered are the result of state action – that is the actions of state actors; or whether they are the result of the actions of non-state actors. "It is important that this fact be restated, and in emphatic terms, because, we are beginning to witness a dangerous trend, where state actors and state security personnel complain loudly [about civil society, citizens and the media], that whereas we are quick to condemn acts of violence visited on the citizens by the armed forces, security personnel, the police and other law enforcement agencies/ agents, particularly in the context of the drive against armed and violent non-state actor groups; we are reluctant to condemn, or are less strident in our condemnation of atrocities committed by non-state actors [so the allegation goes]. "Not only is this a deliberate falsehood, and narrative orchestrated by the state and its security personnel to deflect from their culpability, but it is also designed to play the victim, at the expense of the real victims, the long

suffering and traumatised citizens." Summarily, he posited that not only must the system aim at improving security, and preventing and punishing abuse; it must also be structured in a manner that also ensures and enables justice, including compensation, by the state for victims, regardless of whether the perpetrator of the abuse is a state or non-state actor. Advantages of the PoC Policy In his presentation, Julius Gaiya noted that the POC Policy encompasses all efforts made to avoid, minimise and mitigate the negative effects on civilians arising from military operations on the civilian population and, when applicable, to protect civilians from conflict-related physical violence or threats of violence by other actors, including through the establishment of a safe and secure environment. Apart from making Nigeria the very first country in Africa to have a policy and bill that underlines its commitment to civilian protection, he said the policy recognises – and builds existing best practices, which includes approaches that have been proven to be working in the northeast to address the crisis and improve the humanitarian situation. He further added that the policy document recognises – and builds upon existing laws, which is consistent with obligations outlined in domestic law, international law, treaties, and constitutional principles. Thirdly, the policy recognises that to be effective, there must be consistency across government as under the policy and draft bill, all Nigerian security operations will prioritise the safety and security of civilians and endeavour to minimise the negative effects of conflict on the civilian population. Also, the policy documents recognises that civilians must not be forgotten, thus, the policy and draft bill affirm government’s commitment to ensuring the protection of civilians throughout the planning and conduct of all security

In this context it is very easy to lose sight of some of the deeper issues of governance, or more precisely absence of governance that are at play. The responsibility to protect is clearly that of the state, and it matters little whether the harm and injury to citizens, and the fatalities suffered are the result of state action – that is the actions of state actors; or whether they are the result of the actions of non-state actors

Journey so Far In an interview afterwards, CISLAC Conflict Advisor, Salaudeen Hashim, who brought THISDAY up to speed with the journey so far, said if Nigeria goes ahead to institutionalise the PoC framework, it would become the first in Africa. Noting that "it is the mind of people that conflicts and wars begin and it is the mind of people that the solution also is harnessed", he said So, on a day that we celebrate International Day for peace, we believe that this strongly that the very strong campaign for the country to have this particular framework from the angle of solution because we are looking at not only physical harm but we are looking at the issue that borders around food security, livelihood and the issue that delve deeper into the conversation around access to humanitarian aid so all of these things out together will help us to be able to talk about the issue of equity, equality, inclusion and participation because the decision for this to happen does not only lie with the state, it doesn't like with every stakeholder both citizens and The state also has a huge responsibility and one of which is to ensure that they deliver on trust and confidence through but obviously, that is difficult. It is difficult because when you have a state that has failed consistently in delivering on mandate, harnessing confidence and trust is difficult. "But now, we have no choice considering that in the North-east, North-west, North-central and South-east and now South-south, there are emerging residual and consistent issues that borders around conflict. So peace is the only way out and the infrastructure for peace that we have now is actually embedded in this Protection of Civilians Policy. If that policy comes up on, it has enough ingredients to be able to underscore peace and peace building initiative that will allow every Nigerian to take ownership of the process. "Security actually is not virtual, it is about perception of the people, the people must actually first if all believe that the intent of the state is particularly driven towards protecting them. If the intents and perception is poor, then it means that the ownership of the process becomes difficult." On the journey so far for the PoC Policy, he said" "Currently, we have set up a technical working group that has now completed the draft policy and that draft policy will be represented at FEC at the end of the month. We have engaged with the Ministry of Justice by 28th of this month. We intend to have final session with the legal drafters in the Ministry of Justice who will now clean it up, look at all the gaps that are existing and of course make it ready for the Presidency and of course for the National Assembly. "The draft bill has also been finalised and it should be included on the other paper because the National Assembly just resumed. By next week, we hope that it will get onto the other paper then it can be mentioned in the house for its first reading. But one of the biggest ways which we pushed for this was that we organised a multi stakeholders event where we had other agencies like Ministry of Defence, Disaster Management Ministry, Police Affairs and they have all bought into the process. "We hope that by the time it is being presented at FEC that all of these ministries can now say look we are aware of this particular process and because we are aware of it, we consent. The National Human Right Commission has also played a very significant role so in all of this, we think that we have got the interest of all stakeholders both at the decision making level, at the community level and of course the awareness around the document is actually popularised."

T H I S D AY ˾ ͯͶ˜ 2021

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

Food Security: FG, FAO Sign $0.35m MoU to Boost Drip Irrigation James Emejo ËØÎ Sonia Mayomi ÓØ ÌßÔË The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has provided a $350,000 Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) to the federal government to help promote the drip irrigation system at selected irrigation schemes in the country. The Country Representative of FAO, Mr. Fred Kafeero, at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the organisation and with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, said the gesture aimed to strengthen sustainable and inclusive food and agriculture systems in the country. He said as a specialised agency of the United Nations, FAO had the mandate to ensure food security and nutrition in all its member countries across the world through sustainable management of natural resources including water. Drip irrigation or trickle irrigation is a type of micro-irrigation system

that has the potential to save water and nutrients by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either from above the soil surface or buried below the surface. Kafeero said the FAO remained committed to supporting the country’s economic diversification agenda and promotion of decent employment for youth and women in the agricultural value chain. He said by championing the implementation of Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs), the UN underscore the the importance of water availability and access in ensuring food security and nutrition among other benefits. The FAO country director, however, expressed hope that through the implementation of the TCP, Nigeria would be able to strengthen its agriculture and food systems by making them sustainable and inclusive while at the same time ensuring improved health and livelihoods. He commended the ministry for leading in the formulation

and implementation of the Water Resources Policy and championing irrigated agriculture for food security adding that this contributes significantly to the socio-economic development in the country. He said,”We believe this will bring more youths, smallholder farmers and other vulnerable groups to engage in the production of high value crops through the utilisation of cheaper and simpler food production technologies all year round.” However, responding to the gesture, Minister of Water Resources, Mr. Suleiman Adamu, commended the organisation adding that the cooperation was key to achieving its ministerial mandate of completing all priority ongoing irrigation and dam projects. Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs. Didi Walson-Jack, the minister said that the intervention would add between 20 hectares to 25 hectares of irrigated land to what is already in existence.

MARKET INDICATORS MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS

(MILLION NAIRA)

JANUARY 2021

Contributory Pension: Trustfund Moves to Tackle Uncredited Contributions

Money Supply (M3)

38,779,455.43

-- CBN Bills Held by Money Holding Sectors

1,039,129.55

Money Supply (M2)

37,740,325.88

Ndubuisi Francis ÓØ ÌßÔË

-- Quasi Money

21,779,302.69

-- Narrow Money (M1)

15,961,023.19

A leading pension fund administrator (PFA), Trustfund Pension Limited, has urged organisations in the public and private sectors to help check the rising cases of uncredited contributions under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), due largely to wronglyfilled remittance schedules on the part of employers. To stem the tide, Trustfund Pension at the weekend held a forum/interactive session in Abuja with employers of labour who were largely represented by pension desk officers. Speaking at the forum, the Head, Compliance, Trustfund Pensions Limited, Christopher Fakanlu itemised some of the recent challenges leading to rising cases of uncredited employees’ contributions to include duplicate personal identification numbers (PINs), PINS not in Trustfund’s database/other PFAs PINS, remittance schedules without PINS, over/under remittance, refunds

and invalid/incorrect PINS. Others are mismatched PINS, duplicate period, payment without schedule and remittances of retirees with regained employment. According to him, the forum was put together to actually sensitise employers on recent developments in the industry, adding that it was also an avenue to sensitise them on their responsibilities under the Contributory Pension Scheme and rise in the level of uncredited contributions we have. He said: “We have seen that most of the issues reside with the employers. So, we also put them together to sensitise them on the growth and also how to start reducing the level of growth we have in the uncredited contributions. “The growth in uncredited contributions has been an issue in the industry. However, what we have done as a pension fund administrator is to look at it as an issue and confront it, and

then in confronting it, we know employers have a role to play. How we can achieve this is by having a discussion with them.” He called on employers who subscribe to the Contributory Pension Scheme to support efforts by Trustfund to minimise the growth of uncredited and unreconciled contributions. The Natonal Pension Commission (PenCom) had in June 2019 revealed that based on PFAs’ returns, over N3.4 billion pension contributions were uncredited into state employees’ Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) as of May 31, 2019, adding that the age analysis showed that over 38 per cent of the amount had been outstanding for over one year. Fakanlu, who stated that the forum is an annual event by Trustfund to interface with employers of labour on trending issues affecting the CPS, added that the 2021 session was designed to address the rising cases of uncredited contributions.

---- Currency Outside Banks

2,364,871.13

---- Demand Deposits

13,596,152.06

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

7,414,275.50

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

31,365,179.93

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

42,916,586.63

---- Credit to Government (Net)

12,304,773.44

---- Memo: Credit to Govt. (Net) less FMA

0.00

---- Memo: Fed. and Mirror Accounts (FMA)

0.00

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

30,611,813.19

--Other Assets Net

3,892,112.74

Reserve Money (Base Money

13,264,585.14

--Currency in Circulation

2,831,167.19

--Banks Reserves --Special Intervention Reserves

10,433,417.96 317,234.17

˾ ÙßÜÍÏ ̋

Money Market Indicators (in Percentage) Month

March 2018

Inter-Bank Call Rate

15.16

Minimum Rediscount Rate (MRR)

FirstBank Reiterates Support to Start-ups, Innovators in Fintech Ugo Aliogo The Managing Director, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, has reiterated the commitment of the bank to continue supporting start-ups and innovators in the Fintech space by providing relevant data and infrastructure to enable them scale appropriately. Adeduntan made the disclosure at a virtual meeting on the bank’s FinTech Summit 5.0 event with the theme: Open Banking and it’s derivatives Opportunities in the Financial Ecosystem. He said that the summit was organised to create a global platform for conversations around the future of innovation in the financial services

sector and specifically in the financial technologies space. The FirstBank boss said that the objective was to contribute to the rapid evolution in the banking and financial services delivery angle of the economy. According to him, “The summit gives us a very good platform to hear from leading experts in the space; because open data, cloud technology, artificial intelligence and the way they operate together to create the right environment for innovation or evolution is becoming important. “For us, Open Banking demonstrates the practical fussion of these variables presenting potentials that can redefine product development, customer experience and overall value creation within

the financial services system. “With significant multiplier effect, not just for players but also for consumers of financial services products. The regulatory framework for open banking in Nigeria, as issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the rules and regulations which financial services can take place across the system.” The First bank MD hinted that NITDA and the data protection regulations are indications of regulation around open banking. He added: “We believe there is enough space for continuous innovation and for us as an economy to rapidly embrace this in the view to materially upgrading the quality of financial services in Nigeria.

Monetary Policy Rate (MPR)

14.00

Treasury Bill Rate

11.84

Savings Deposit Rate

4.07

1 Month Deposit Rate

8.82

3 Months Deposit Rate

9.72

6 Months Deposit Rate

10.93

12 Months Deposit Rate

10.21

Prime Lending rate

17.35

Maximum Lending Rate

31.55

˾ ÙØÏÞËÜã ÙÖÓÍã ËÞÏ ̋ ͯͱϱ

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE ˜ ͵

The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), Zaﬁro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

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Oando, Medview Airline, Others Fail to Submit Two-year Results on NGX Darasimi Adebisi Oando Plc, Medview Airlines Plc, among other listed companies have failed to submit over two-year audited result and accounts on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX). The Exchange disclosed that Oando, Medview Airlines, International Energy Insurance Plc, Thomas Wyatt Nigeria Plc, and Goldlink Insurance Plc have not submitted 2019 & 2020 audited

results to the market stakeholders, a post-listing requirement for companies on the NGX. THISDAY investigation revealed that most of the affected companies are faced with operational and regulatory bottlenecks, making it difficult to submit audited result and accounts on the Exchange. Specifically, Oando in July of 2021 entered arrangement with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to settle all

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matters subject of litigation, among others. The company recently had its 20018 Annual General Meeting (AGM). For Medview Airlines, the value of its shares on the floor of the NGX has not moved below or above N1.62 in the last two years. As at October 15, 2021, data obtained from the local bourse disclosed that the company recorded 0 trade and 0 volume

S E C U R I T I E S

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N )

within the period under review. Also, the airline has been among companies listed on the NGX’s free float deficiencies of 14.16 per cent. Chairman of the airline, Sheik Abdul-Mosheen Al-Thunayan, had blamed the performance on political tension and tight liquidity. Speaking with THISDAY, Chairman, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Boniface Okezie, said the SEC

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should be held responsible for Oando’s delay, stressing that the out of court settlement was best for capital market and shareholders at large. He said: “In the next few weeks, we are expecting the company to release audited 2019 results to the public. However, on other companies, we don’t know their problems. The management of NGX and SEC should intervene and find out their problems.”

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The NGX also disclosed that Capital Oil Plc, Staco Insurance Plc and Resort Savings & Loans Plc have not submitted three-year audited results, while PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc and Chellarams Plc have failed to submit 2021 audited results to the NSE. The Tourist Company of Nigeria Plc, Standard Alliance Insurance Plc, and Deap Capital Management & Trust Plc have failed to submit 2020 audited results.

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MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021 • T H I S D AY

MONDAY, ͹΀˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹ ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS

PANDEF Backs Kingibe, Says Nigeria's Unity Negotiable Describes those against idea as insincere, sycophants Likens Nigeria to forced marriage Deji Elumoye in Abuja Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), yesterday, lent its support to a submission at the weekend by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, that the unity of the country was negotiable. PANDEF also stressed that Nigeria’s unity was like a forced marriage. National Publicity Secretary of PANDEF, Hon. Ken Robinson, told THISDAY that PANDEF could not agree more with Kingibe on his assertion that the unity of Nigeria was negotiable. He stated, "Of course, Nigeria’s unity is negotiable, those who say the country’s unity is non-negotiable are being insincere and sycophantic. The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation is right, even the union between husband and wife can be negotiated. "Nigeria can be likened to a forced marriage. We were different nations and ethnic nationalities before being coerced into one country by the British. Sadly, Nigeria has been unable to transform itself into a true nation, even after over 60 years of Independence and self-governance. “The country has been bedevilled with a myriad of problems, mostly self-induced, and is still grappling with its national identity. And funnily, some individuals are suggesting the country’s unity cannot be discussed.” Robinson also discussed the issue of sectional economic leeching, saying, "The amalgamation was not only to reduce the administrative burden on them (the British) but was rather to allow the rich south to effectively subsidise the much less economically

prosperous north. “A scandalous portrayal of the amalgamation credited to Lord Lugard authenticated this fact. That it's a marriage between the ‘rich wife of substance and means’ (the south) and the ‘poor husband’ (the north), which would lead to a happy life for both. But the marriage is not working!" The forum further emphasised that the Federal Character principle, which was introduced to address the problem of lop-sidedness

and ethnic domination in the country was being brazenly infringed. Robinson said, "A look at verified figures of the Value Added Tax (VAT) generated and received by states in the country between January and August of 2021 further make bare the unimaginable levels of disproportionality, unfairness, inequity and injustice being perpetrated in Nigeria. "Zamfara State generates N75 million, gets N4.5 billion monthly; Kano, which

generated N24.492 billion received N4.082 billion, while Lagos generated N429. 203 billion and received the sum of N139.587 billion; Rivers generated N90.293 billion and received N 46. 270 billion." The PANDEF spokesman added that President Muhammadu Buhari would complete two terms of eight years as president in 2023, "and suddenly, some unpatriotic individuals and groups are saying the presidency should be open to all zones in 2023. And

that's capable of worsening the current bare threads of national cohesion, unity and all-around prosperity!” PANDEF further emphasised the need for Nigerians – North and South – to sit down, in mutual respect and love to discuss and adopt new "terms and conditions" for the unity and future of Nigeria. According to the group, "The disproportions, inequities, unfairness and injustices arising from the largely flawed constitution have to

be corrected. "We cannot continue in the way and manner we have been conducting the affairs in the last 60 years and hope to have a united, peaceful and prosperous country. "Let us remind the respected former SSG that it would be better to leave an abusive marriage than remain and suffer collateral, irreparable lose due to considerations of not being sure where you are going or the consequence of where you are going."

FIDAU PRAYER AND FINAL BURIAL CEREMONY... L-R: Son of the late Iya Adinni of Imekoland, Prince Gboyega Isiaka; Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun at the Fidau prayer and ﬁnal burial ceremony of Alhaja Kuburat Agbeke Isiaka at Imeko, Ogun State...yesterday

NDLEA Arrests Fake Police Officer, Soldier, 661 Others in Raid on Notorious Lagos Drug Joints, Others Michael Olugbode in Abuja A fake police officer and a soldier suspected to be fake as well as a youth corps member were among the 663 drug traffickers and users arrested when operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency

(NDLEA) raided notorious drug joints in Lagos, Abuja, Benue and other parts of the country. According to a statement from the agency, during the operation, assorted illicit drugs weighing over 153, 256.876 kilograms were either destroyed or seized in the past week.

It revealed that in Lagos, the notorious drug haven, Akala in Mushin area of the state was on Friday 15th October, raided by a combined team of 70 NDLEA operatives and 30 soldiers in a joint operation code named ' Operation Still Waters.' “No less that 27 suspects were

arrested while various drugs such as Cocaine, Heroin, Tramadol, Rohypnol and Cannabis, with a cumulative weight of 2,463.876 Kg were seized. “A day earlier, operatives also raided drug joints in Ojo and Maryland areas of the state where six persons were arrested

'Seven-year-old Children Now Abuse Drugs in Nigeria' Lions Club rebuilds wards at Karu Hospital Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja Amid concerns over the destructive impact of drug abuse in the society, a physician and the Chief Medical Director of the Karu General Hospital, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Dr. Osamuade Ojo, has said children as young as seven-years-old now indulge in illicit drug usage in Nigeria. He disclosed this as members of the Abuja Mega Lions Club have embarked on the completion of the psychiatric wards at the Karu General Hospital in Abuja, at the cost of N50 million. Ojo said as cases of drug abuse related ill health were growing, the country could only boost of between 300 and 400 psychiatrist doctors. Speaking at the Fund Raising

Dinner for the completion of the psychiatric wards at the Karu General Hospital held at the weekend in Abuja, Ojo lamented that the hospital was being inundated with cases of mental retardation arising from children and adolescents coming from within and outside of the Federal Capital Territory. "We have psychiatric wards, we have psychiatric nurses and we have resident doctors who are in training. I can tell you people come within Abuja and its environs to access our healthcare services. People also come from as far as Jos, Kaduna, Kano and so many other places to access our mental health care," she said. Ojo said government had been making efforts to curb illicit drug use among youths, noting that facilities to treat

and rehabilitate those already down with mental illness are not always enough. She said Nigeria has less than 300 to 400 psychiatrists presently working in the country. Ojo added: "Now we all know about drug abuse, it is no longer something that is hidden. Everybody is concerned about it and government is trying to control it. But even as we try to curb it, we need to provide treatment for the affected ones because drugs have damaging effects on the brain. "We are also talking about children here, children as young as seven years are abusing drugs and are being introduced to drugs and alcohol. We know that at that age, brain is still growing and if we do not do

something quickly to treat and restore it, that child's brain could be damaged forever. "In addition to this, we all know the link between drug use and crime. Drug abuse fuels crime in our society and so it is something that we really need to address." Ojo said the Karu General Hospital was probably the only government hospital in the FCT that has the personnel and facility to handle mental health care. She said the situation has placed enormous burden and pressure on the hospital facilities which can no longer take care of the numerous cases unless they are upgraded. According to her, the country currently do not have enough psychiatrists to adequately manage cases of mental health.

and different quantities of drugs seized. “This followed another raid of Alhaji Lasisi street, Idioro, Mushin as well as Okota in Oshodi-Isolo area of the state during which 12 suspects were arrested and over 165kg of assorted illicit drugs recovered. “In Ogun state, operatives on Friday 15th October, intercepted one Williams Esuabom along Ore- Shagamu expressway with 562.5kg Cannabis being conveyed in a Toyota sienna bus, while in Benue state, narcotic officers in a joint operation with soldiers raided Lafia park where six suspects including a youth corps member, Paul Ndubuisi were arrested with different quantities of drugs. This came on the heels of the arrest of a suspected fake soldier, Abel John along ApirMakurdi-Aliade road with 3.5kg Cannabis on Wednesday 13th October,” it added. According to the statement, in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, a suspected fake Assistant Superintendent of Police, Joshua Yusuf who claimed to be serving in Kano was arrested along Gwagwalada expressway while conveying 45.5kg of Cannabis. Furthermore, it stated that three suspects were arrested during raids in Dabba and Luku village, Kaiama Local

Government Area of Kwara State where over 64kg drugs were recovered on Wednesday 13th October. “In Ekiti state, NDLEA operatives in their numbers stormed the forest reserve along Uso Road, Ise-Orun LGA, where they destroyed over 150,000 kilograms of cannabis being harvested on 40 hectares of land during an operation that lasted more than three days. The operation, which began on Tuesday continued till Sunday 17th October. “In raids across other states in the country, no fewer than 615 suspects were arrested and illicit drugs with a total weight of 3394.2031 kilograms recovered,” it added. While commending officers and men of the Lagos state Command and their counterparts in Benue, FCT, Ogun, Ekiti and other parts of the country for their resilience and commitment to the war against illicit substances, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the Agency, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), was quoted to have charged them not to rest on their oars. He called for continued collaboration between the agency and other stakeholders especially the armed forces and other law enforcement agencies.

MONDAY, ͹΀˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹ ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWSXTRA

BIRMINGHAM 2022 COMMONWEALTH GAMES... L-R: Baton Bearer for the Queen's Relay, Miss Abaiola Jonathan; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sports, Ismaila Abubakar; President , Commonwealth Games Nigeria, Engr Habu Ahmed Gumel; Vice President, Prof.Yemi Osinbajo; Minister of Youths and Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare and British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mrs Catriona Laing,, during the presentation of the Queen's Baton for Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games at the State House in Abuja ...recently

Kogi to Nigerians: Ask EFCC in Whose Custody it Found its ‘Missing’ Money Demands investigation report The Kogi State Government yesterday dared the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to come out with the report of its investigations on the purported N20 billion bailout funds over which a Lagos High Court reportedly froze the state’s account in August. The state in a statement, insisted that the alleged sum of N19,333,333,333.36, which Sterling Bank had undertaken to the EFCC to transfer to the Central Bank of Nigeria did not belong to the Kogi State Government and that the state did not enter into any agreement, either with Sterling Bank or the EFCC, to return any bailout funds to the CBN as being portrayed. The EFCC had on Friday, withdrawn its suit seeking the forfeiture of N20 billion bailout funds. Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke granted the order of withdrawal sequel to a motion filed and argued by EFCC counsel, Kemi Pinheiro, leading Rotimi Oyedepo. But the government kicked against the withdrawal by the EFCC, challenging the anti-graft body to make public its investigation of the alleged bailout funds. To this end, in the statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Communication, Kingsley Fanwo, the state government accused the EFCC of hiding inalienable facts and embarking on a face-saving mission with its statement on the withdrawal. It also asked Nigerians to ask the EFCC in whose custody it found a part of the bailout fund said to have been dissipated. “It is our belief that the unceremonious withdrawal of the suit by the EFCC without informing the Court of the facts stated in paragraph 3 above, is a deliberate and face-saving effort by the EFCC which has throughout this episode engaged in very unprofessional and unethical conduct, all in a bid to ‘nail’ at all cost, the Kogi State Government and tarnish its image,” Fanwo said. He alleged that the EFCC violated an earlier order of the court, as it failed to report its findings to the court. “Rather it unceremoniously withdrew the suit, as it peddled falsehood to the court and the

public. “It is our belief that the unceremonious withdrawal of the suit by the EFCC without informing the court of the facts stated in paragraph 3 above, is a deliberate and face-saving effort by the EFCC which has throughout this episode engaged in very unprofessional and unethical conduct, all in a bid to ‘nail’ at all cost, the Kogi State Government and tarnish its image,” Fanwo said. According to him, citizens of Kogi State and indeed Nigerians at large should rather ask the EFCC to publish on its official platforms the report of its investigation as to the ownership of the said

sum of N19,333,333,333.36 and the whereabouts of the sum of N666,666,666.64, which they alleged had been dissipated. The state government further said, “Nigerians should further ask the EFCC whether a commercial bank could simply undertake to transfer a customer’s money from the customers’ account without the order of any court mandating such transfer or a forfeiture? “Nigerians also deserve to know what becomes of the criminal allegation that the EFCC made when it informed the Federal High Court that the sum of N666, 666,666.64 out of the N20, 000,000,000.00 bailout loan had been dissipated and

that same was being traced. "Nigerians would want to know if the EFCC has found the money, if so, in whose custody was it found? Have charges been preferred against the custodian of the said funds. "Or has the EFCC also abandoned that chase? Nigerians deserve to know the truth. “We have as of October 2019 fully disbursed our bailout funds and are already religiously repaying the loan to Sterling Bank Plc,” the state clarified. The government spokesman said how the EFCC could conceal all of these inalienable facts was not only curious, but misleading and unethical.

“Finally, while we reserve all our legal rights against the EFCC, we reiterate our demand for an unreserved apology from the EFCC as contained in our letter to the Chairman of the EFCC dated 6th September 2021. We hope the EFCC will honour the said demand as a step on the road to redemption as it tries to regain the trust of Nigerians and repair its rapidly deteriorating image,” Fanwo said. The state government had, as revealed in freshly published documents, sought further clarifications from Sterling Bank to drive home its innocence in the matter. The Commissioner said,

“Buoyed by the strength of our innocence, the Kogi State Government on 4th October, 2021, wrote to Sterling Bank, seeking further clarifications on the contentious account. The bank did not only reinforce their earlier stance that the account is a Mirror Account; it also made it unequivocally clear that the Kogi State Government has nothing to do with the opening or operation of the account. “All of these facts are in their reply received by the State Government on October 5, 2021. How the EFCC could conceal all of these inalienable facts is not only curious, but misleading and unethical.”

Ekweremadu: It’s Taken N'Assembly Over 10yrs to Adopt Direct Primary for Parties Deji Elumoye in Abuja Former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, yesterday said it took the National Assembly over 10 years to adopt direct primary for elective positions in political parties in the country. Ekweremadu told THISDAY at the weekend that the history of direct primary dated back to 2010, when then National Assembly tinkered with the idea of copying the United States mode of organising direct primary for their political parties. According to him, this led to the crafting of section 87 of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, which made provision for direct primary for parties and eventually

passed by the Seventh Assembly but President Goodluck Jonathan refused to assent to it before being reintroduced now by the Ninth National Assembly. His words: "The issue of direct primaries has been with us since 2010. I was at the Democratic Party convention in Denver, USA, in the year 2008. So, when we came back, we decided to review the electoral system to pattern it after the American system, because it has been working for them for years. Because we share the same presidential system, we needed to mirror their electoral process as well so that we can get some improvements. “We observed in America, their presidential primaries takes time and they move from state to state.

They do what we call staggered primaries. Therefore, when we came back, we said let’s see what we can do to review our electoral process to be able to conform to a presidential system. “So, we crafted Section 87 and stated in the first draft that Nigerians would conduct primaries through direct means. We passed it and it was gazetted, but the PDP government at the time felt that the political parties did not have any reliable electronic membership register. So, it would be difficult for parties to conduct direct primaries since they didn’t have a reliable electronic kind of membership registers. “We were asked to take it off. But instead of taking it off, we decided to redraft Section 87 (1)

to say that parties could either do direct primaries or indirect primaries. That was why some parties like the All Progressives Congress (APC), when they came on board, decided to do direct primaries in many instances and somehow it worked for them.” Ekweremadu, who is a member of the Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and ex-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review from 2007 to 2019, did not, however, rule out initial hitches, saying though reforms require time, patience, and tenacity, they ultimately pay. He said: “I am a pro-reform person. And if you are a proreform person, you have to

understand that sometimes reform doesn’t come easy. Sometimes, it takes time. It has to be gradual and it has to be steady. Since we have been able to introduce it and some parties have tried it and it worked for them, all we need to do is to set up machineries and ensure that we set up structures that will ensure that it works for everybody. “So, my position has always been that we need to do direct primaries. But we should be able to make sure that each party does electronic register that should be electronically verifiable. Because the APC has done it (electronic register) successfully and PDP is doing it now, I believe that if it is the law, other parties will follow suit.

NPAN Pushes for Self Regulation, Moves to Enforce Internal Ombudsman Dike Onwuamaeze The Newspaper Proprietors' Association of Nigeria (NPAN), has given a November 1, 2021, deadline for its members to constitute an internal ombudsman mechanism in their various organisations. The deadline, which was contained in a statement that was signed by the President of

NPAN, Mr. Kabiru A. Yusuf, and titled “Co-regulation, Not Government Regulation: Communique of the NPAN,” flowed from an executive council meeting of the association that was held on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, at NPAN’s secretariat, Maryland, Ikeja, Lagos State. Yusuf said that “steps are being quickened to empanel at the industry level, a workable,

quick and responsive system to address public complaints and concerns on missteps by the media and its operatives.” He said that the internal ombudsman would “ensure that the news organisation keeps to the canons of journalism practice and the code of ethics; mediate in conflicts stemming from internal or external pressures to keep news organisation honest

and accountable to the public for news reported.” He added that the internal ombudsman would also “ensure that the public's right to know is protected.” Yusuf said that the internal ombudsman would be guided in its discharge of duties by the code of ethics of the Nigeria Union of Journalists ((NUJ), the canons of journalism practice

as encapsulated in FOBAC, which stands for Fairness, Objectivity, Balance, Accuracy and Completeness. He also reaffirmed the commitment of the council to responsible journalism and emphasised its resolve to unfold a global ombudsman structure for the entire industry and the modalities for the same very soon.

MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021 • T H I S D AY

MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2021 ˾ T H I S D AY

FOREIGN DESK

COMPILED BY BAYO AKINLOYE

Russian Actors Back on Earth after Shooting First Movie in Space A Russian film crew are back on Earth after wrapping up scenes for the first movie shot in space. Klim Shipenko and actor Yulia Peresild left the International Space Station and landed in Kazakhstan - to be met by a crew filming touchdown scenes. The ISS shooting was not without drama - suitable for a film called Challenge. On Friday, the ISS unexpectedly tilted after a glitch in its thrusters, pausing filming. It was not thought to be part of the script. In a farewell tweet from the ISS, Peresild showed off a weightless hairdo likely to thwart conspiracy theorists who think it was all shot on Earth. The module carrying Peresild and Shipenko and cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy parachuted down to Earth at about lunchtime on Sunday in the Kazakhstan steppe.

US: Cambodia Not Transparent about Chinese Role in Naval Base Construction The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has released a survey of new buildings and a road in Ream Naval Base in Cambodia, showing that construction is continuing “amid concerns that the new facilities are being built to facilitate a Chinese military presence in Cambodia.” The October 12 report from Washingtonbased CSIS showed that there were three new buildings and a new road built, among other changes, during August and September. US embassy spokesperson Chad Roedemeier told VOA Khmer via an email on Thursday that the embassy is “aware of consistent, credible reporting that significant construction by the People’s Republic of China continues at Ream Naval Base.” “The Government of Cambodia has not been fully transparent about the intent, nature, and scope of this project or the role of the PRC military, which raises concerns about intended use of the naval facility.” The US embassy spokesman went on to say: “The Cambodian people deserve to know more about the project at Ream and to have a say in this type of military agreement, which has long-term implications for their country.” Cambodian government spokesperson Phay Siphan told VOA Khmer that the CSIS study is wrong and baseless. He said the Ream base is neither for the Chinese military to use nor for any country to use as its military base.

17 US Missionaries, Families Kidnapped in Haiti: Report As many as 17 American Christian missionaries and their families, including children, were kidnapped on Saturday by gang members in Haiti’s capital of Portau-Prince, The New York Times reported, citing security officials there. The Times said the kidnapping happened as the missionaries were leaving an orphanage in the crisis-engulfed Caribbean nation. They were abducted from a bus headed to the airport to drop off some group members before continuing to another destination in Haiti, the report added, citing local officials. Jennifer Viau, a spokesperson for the US State Department in Washington, said by email that “we’re looking into this.” The US Embassy in Haiti did not respond to a request for comment outside business hours. A spokesperson for the Haitian police said she was seeking information on the issue. The report did not give details on the missionaries or their church.

No COVID-19 Jab, No Pay for Workers, Says Zimbabwe Government Union leaders have angrily reacted to the Zimbabwean government’s announcement Sunday that workers who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 will no longer be allowed at work and will not be paid. This is seen as part of efforts to deal with high vaccination hesitancy in the southern African nation. Ndabaningi Nick Mangwana, Zimbabwe’s secretary for information, over the weekend told government-controlled media that all civil servants who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 would not be allowed to work come Monday. “There is no extension to the deadline of October 15, when civil servants are expected to all having been vaccinated, failure of which those who are not vaccinated would not be allowed to work. And further to that is the fact that those who are not vaccinated and those who are not working will not be paid because the thrust is that if you do not work, you don’t get paid,” he said.

Schoolteachers, who constitute the largest proportion of Zimbabwe’s civil servants, said the government’s Friday deadline was unilateral. Civil servants — especially teachers — have long complained about the lack of adequate protective equipment in classrooms to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Citizens Call for Military Coup as Sudan Crisis Deepens Opponents of Sudan’s transition to democracy took to the streets of Khartoum on Saturday to call on the army to take control of the country. Several thousand demonstrators gathered outside the presidential palace as the country’s political crisis deepens. Military and civilian groups have been sharing power since the toppling of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019. However, tensions have grown since a coup attempt attributed to followers of Mr Bashir was foiled in September. Since then, military leaders have been demanding reforms to the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition, a civilian alliance that led the anti-Bashir protests and formed a key part of the transitional government. The armed forces have also called for the replacement of the cabinet. However, civilian leaders say that the demands are part of a power grab from the armed forces. On Saturday, pro-military demonstrators chanted “down with the hunger government” and called for General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the armed forces and Sudan’s joint military-civilian Sovereign Council, to instigate a coup and seize control of the country. “We need a military government, the current government has failed to bring us justice and equality,” one protester told AFP.

Indian Rains, Floods Kill 8, 12 Missing At least eight people have died, and a dozen are feared missing after a day of torrential rains in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Rescue operations were underway on Sunday after heavy rains lashed the state the day before, triggering flash floods and landslides, the Press Trust of India (PTI)

news agency reported. The National Disaster Response Force and the Indian Army deployed teams to help with rescue efforts in two of the worst-hit districts, Kottayam and Idukki, where a dozen people are still feared missing. On Saturday, when the heavy rains began, television reports showed people wading through chest-deep waters to rescue passengers from a bus that was nearly submerged by the torrents flooding the roads. Officials said the intense rainfall has subsided, but they fear the death toll could rise as relief and rescue operations continue. Home Minister Amit Shah said the federal government was monitoring the situation in Kerala and would provide all possible support to the state.

Macron Condemns 1961 French Massacre of Algerians French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday condemned as “inexcusable” a deadly crackdown by Paris police on a 1961 protest by Algerians whose scale was covered up for decades, disappointing activists who hoped for an even stronger recognition of responsibility. Macron told relatives of victims on the 60th anniversary of the bloodshed that crimes were committed on October 17, 1961, under the command of the notorious Paris police chief Maurice Papon. He acknowledged that several dozen protesters had been killed, “their bodies thrown into the River Seine.” The precise number of victims has never been made clear, and some activists fear several hundred could have been killed. Macron “recognised the facts: that the crimes committed that night under Maurice Papon are inexcusable for the Republic,” the Elysee said. “This tragedy was long hushed-up, denied or concealed,” it added in a statement. Algerian President Abdelmadjidn Tebboune said there was “strong concern for treating issues of history and memory without complacency or compromising principles, and with a sharp sense of responsibility,” free from “the dominance of arrogant colonialist thought,” his office said in a statement.

MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021 • T H I S D AY

NEWS

Open Grazing Can Lead to Food Shortage, Anglican Bishop Warns David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka Bishop of Ihiala Diocese of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Prof Israel Okoye, has warned that the insistence of the federal government to support open grazing may lead to food shortage in Nigeria. Okoye, a professor of Political Science in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, before he ascended to the seat of the bishop, stated this in a presidential charge he read, during the second session of the fourth synod of the diocese of Ihiala, yesterday. The former academic said the controversy about open grazing in Nigeria has become an unfortunate distraction from some fundamental issues on the economy, education, justice, equity, leadership and others, that needed to be addressed. He said: “Although cattle rearing are key features of animal husbandry, their politicisation and seeming treatment as national obligations have attracted objection and resentment. “The assumption that the constitution confers on cattle the right of movement along Nigerian roads and communities is untrue. Another errornous

stance is that cattle rearing is supported by the federal government, such that herders must be allowed to traverse any part of the country with their cattle as a guarantee for peace.

“Armed cattle herders now migrate with their cattle to any place of their choice, occupy forests without the consent of the government in charge, to graze their cattle

in people's farms, where they kill, maim and rape women with impunity. The widely held feet-dragging of the federal government in arresting the fast spreading dastardly acts

of the armed Fulani herdsmen engendered ill feelings among the affected populations," he said. Okoye said if this continued, it would hinder Nigerian farmers

from being productive, and also lead to food shortage, while lamenting that the activities of the Fulani herdsmen have totally corrupted the image of the Fulani people.

SPELLING BEE COMPETITON…

L-R: Vice-Chairman, Ifako-Ijaye Local Government, Laogs State, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Awoniyi-Akerele; wife of the Chairman, Mrs. Adejumo Fausat Hamzat; Leader of the Local Government Legislative House, Hon. Victor Onifade; Deputy Leader, Hon. Jelili Awotunji; and representative of the Oﬃce of Quality Assurance, Lagos State Ministry of Education, Mr. Kamardeen Tijani, during the preliminary of the 2021 Spelling Bee Competition in Lagos...recently ABAYOMI AKINYELE

NHRC-SARS Panel A'Ibom Police Arrest 139 Suspects in Three Months Resumes Sitting Today after Seven-month Break Okon Bassey in Uyo

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

The Independent Investigation Panel on Allegations of Human Rights Violations by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad and other Units of the Nigerian Police Force (IIP-SARS) is to resume sitting today. This is contrary to the insinuations in some quarters that the panel has fizzled out. A statement at the weekend by the Deputy Director, Corporate Affairs and External Linkages Department, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Ms. Fatimah Mohammed, said that the panel has gathered more momentum preparatory to resumption of sitting and is determined to continue to do justice to the total of 295 petitions it received. Mohammed said: “On the aforementioned date, the

11-Member panel chaired by Justice Suleiman Galadima (rtd) will listen to final written and oral addresses in eight petitions, which signals the conclusion of the cases and adjournment for the panel's report on them.” She noted that although the panel did not sit for about six months following some logistics challenges, but it had within the first four months when it commenced sitting concluded 55 complaints while 75 are in progress in different stages. “It sat last in March this year and had hoped to continue sitting after it declared two weeks Easter break but that did not happen, up until the set date on Monday, due to logistics challenges,” said Mohammed, who confirmed that "of the 55 concluded cases 22 were either struck out by the panel or withdrawn by the petitioners."

Akwa Ibom State Police Command has, for the third quarter of the year arrested 139 suspects across the state for various offences including murder, militancy, abduction, cultism, armed robbery, stealing, unlawful possession of firearm and vandalism among others. A breakdown of the number showed that 11 suspects were

arrested for suspected murder, 47 suspects for armed robbery and stealing, 10 for defilement and rape, 21 suspects arrested for alleged cultism, 16 for vandalism, 7 for kidnapping and abduction, 3 suspects for militancy and 24 others crimes including childing stealing. The Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the State Police Command, SP Odiko Macdon, disclosed this weekend at a parade of some of the suspects

at the Police headquarters, Ikot Akpan Abia, Uyo including a blind aged woman reportedly arrested with human skull. The PPRO, who stood in for the State Commissioner of Police, Andrew Amiengheme, said two suspected foreign militants and a Nigerian were arrested on September 13, 2021 with explosive. According to him, men of AIG Border Patrol Monitoring

Unit arrested the militants, two Cameroonians and a Cross Riverian while on stop and search operation along Okobo/Oron Highways of Akwa Ibom State. He gave their names as Adede De Black 'm' of Republic of Cameroon, Fombutu Tita 'm' of Republic of Cameroon and Bernard Mfam 'm' of Ikom LGA, Cross River State saying they have been charged to court.

Govs Urged to Intervene in Rising Prices of Cooking Gas Sylvester Idowu in Warri Chairman of Das Energy Services Limited in Delta State, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has sought the intervention of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) in the incessant increases in prices of domestic cooking gas. He said their intervention has become necessary to put an end to the suffering of the

masses. Onuesoke, who made the appeal while addressing journalists at the lamented that the rising cost of cooking gas in the country is taking its toll on Nigerians. He maintained that many homes are now resorting to alternative fuel sources despite the country being in a position to produce sufficient LPG to meet local demand.

While appealing to the governors to declare state of emergency on the spiraling increase of the commodity and seek solution to the stabilisation of the price, the expert in oil and gas lamented, “The masses are suffering. They battle with high cost of foodstuffs. They also battle with the means to cook them. This is nothing but double tragedy.

It wasn’t so some six years ago. They need to help the masses. The prices of various kilogrammes of LPG have surged more than 50 per cent, with a 12.5kg content selling for N7, 800 or more, rising from N6, 500 in less than a month,” he said. Onuesoke, a former governorship aspirant on the platform of the People's Democratic

Bungudu, has regained his freedom after 32 days of captivity in the hands of kidnappers. Magaji Rafin Bugudu, Alhaji Abubakar Sahabi, disclosed this in an interview with News

to thank everyone for their prayers and support during the trying period. Sahabi commended the efforts of the Zamfara and Kaduna state governments for their tireless efforts in securing

Kaduna for medical check-up before returning home; “we are comfortable with his health condition. “We salute the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) and Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders

Emir”. Sahabi said the emirate wished to plead with the public to respect the privacy of the Emir in the coming weeks as he receives medical attention and post-trauma management.

SERAP Sues Buhari, Others Emir of Bungudu Regains Freedom after 32 Days in Captivity over Plan to Monitor The Emir of Bungudu in Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in the safe release of the emir. Association of Nigeria Zamfara State, Alhaji Hassan Bungudu, yesterday, saying that He added that although the (MACBAN) for their support WhatsApp Messages Attahiru, Sarkin Fulanin the emirate and family wished emir was still in hospital in in facilitating the release of the

Udora Orizu in Abuja

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against President Muhammadu Buhari, asking the court to declare illegal and unconstitutional the plan by his administration to track, intercept and monitor WhatsApp messages, phone calls, and text messages of Nigerians and other people, which severely threatens and violates the right to the preservation of privacy. Those that were joined in the suit as respondents were Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), and the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed.

The suit followed the proposal in the Supplementary Appropriation Act signed in July 2021 to spend N4.87 billion to monitor private calls and messages. The amount is part of the N895.8 billion supplementary budget approved by the National Assembly. SERAP, In the suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1240/2021 that was filed last Friday by its lawyers, Mr. Kolawole Oluwadare and Mr. Kehinde Oyewumi, at Federal High Court in Abuja, sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining President Buhari and any other authority or group of persons from unlawfully monitoring the WhatsApp messages, phone calls and text messages of Nigerians and other people.

Eleven Die in Auto Crash in Kwara

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

Eleven people yesterday lost their lives in an auto crash along Jebba- Bode Sadu Road in Moro Local Government Area of Kwara state. The incident it was gathered was caused by wrongful overtaking by the drivers of the two buses on the road. It was learnt that the multiple crash

occurred around 6.30 pm at Onipako village, involved two vehicles. The vehicles involved in the accident are red colour Toyota Corolla salon car with registration number AAA 250 CB and a ash colour commercial Toyota Hiace bus with registration number LAP 179 XA. According to the State Sector

Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Jonathan Owoade, there were 26 people involved in the accident, 20 males and six females. He said that all the six females involved in the crash died. Owoade, who said that 15 people injured in the crash were males, added that they

suffered varying degrees of fracture and others. The FRSC boss said that the corpses had been deposited at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, adding the injured were taken to Jebba medical centre and Emmanuel hospital, Jebba. He said that his team controlled the traffic and later cleared obstruction.

MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021 • T H I S D AY

NEWS XTRA

FG to Upgrade Industrial Arbitration Panel to Commission Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

In bid to ensure more efficient and speedy resolution of industrial disputes, the federal government has announced plans to upgrade the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) into a permanent commission. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige disclosed this in his office, while receiving Federal Arbitrators from the IAP who paid him a courtesy visit on Friday. A statement signed by the Deputy Director Press and Public Relations at the Ministry, Mr. Charles Akpan, quoted Ngige as saying that the proposed commission would operate with its own bureaucracy. The Minister recalled that the IAP, which came into existence 40 years ago, gave birth to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN). According to him, it was because of the IAP that the federal government decided that there should be a gradation of the Labour Law to establish the National Industrial Court of Nigeria. Ngige added: “As at today, the hierarchy of industrial

dispute resolution is that we should start here if the people decide to come here to report. We can put up a Tribunal. We can put up a Board of Inquiry

if a strike has occurred. “If we cannot resolve the dispute here, we then go up to the IAP. If they are not satisfied at the IAP, then they go up to

the NICN. “So, it is the same ladder stepwise formation for the normal disputes. If it is interpersonal, it is State High

Court/ Federal High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. “More importantly, I want to inform you that in the

Labour Law review, which the ILO asked us to do, the IAP is targeted as one of the places we will review, to make it a permanent commission.”

PROMOTION INNOVATIONS…

L-R: President, Nigeria Association of Computing Students (NACOS), Mr. Olamilekan Abolade; Founder, Startup Arewa, Mr. Mohammed Ibrahim; Executive Director, Financial Services Innovators (FSI), Mrs. Aituaz Kola-Oladejo, and Special Assistant to the President on Digital Transformation, Mr. Osaretin Guobadia, during the FSI and NACOS Innovation Challenge in Abuja...recently

FG Targets $18bn FX Inflow FCT CP Warns against Extortion in Police Recruitment from Cassava Export Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The federal government at the weekend stated that when fully harnessed, Nigeria has the capacity to generate as much as $18 billion from the export of its estimated 45 million metric tonnes cassava products every year. The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Niyi Adebayo, who made the disclosure when he received the Chief Executive Officer of BKG Exhibitions, Mr. Ifeanyichukwu Agwu, noted that the country had not fully taken advantage of the much-sought-after commodity. The minister lamented that though a world leader in cassava production, Nigeria is currently not an active player in the

cassava trade in the international market, explaining that with the right collaborations the situation would improve markedly. He said: “Cassava and oil palm are strategic commodities in our quest for growth and development of the non-oil sector of our economy. Available statistics point to the fact that Nigeria is a leading producer of cassava with a production capacity of 45 million metric tons per annum, estimated at about $18 billion. “This accounts for a fifth of the world’s cassava production followed by Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, Ghana, Congo and others. However, though a world leader in cassava production, Nigeria is not an active player in cassava trade in the international market.”

The Commissioner of Police, FCT Command, Mr. Babaji Sunday, has warned criminal elements against extortion in the on-going police recruitment in the territory. Police spokesperson in the FCT, DSP Josephine Adeh, stated this yesterday in Abuja. Sunday called on candidates from the FCT to make all enquiries through the official contact of the recruitment process on 08100004507. He advised candidates

not to allow themselves to be deceived by criminal elements who might want to take advantage of the exercise to extort. He said the recruitment is absolutely free of charge and warned that anyone found wanting would be made to face the full wrath of the law. CP Sunday said applicants could check their recruitment status on the portal through www.policerecruitment.gov.ng. According to him, the portal

will be open from Monday, Oct. 18 to Tuesday, Oct. 26. “Candidates whose status show they are qualified for the next stage of the recruitment exercise will have access to their examination slip. “They are required to print out the examination slips, which must be presented on the examination date,’’ he said. The CP enjoined candidates to note that the recruitment examination screening would

hold on Oct. 29 and Oct. 30 at designated centres nationwide. He urged candidates to check their examination centres on their examination slips. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that on Saturday, the Force Headquarters and the Police Service Commission announced plans to conclude the 2020 recruitment of 10,000 constables into the Nigeria Police.

Police Rescue Twins, Workers of Traditional Ruler from Kidnappers in Kwara Hammed Shittu in Ilorin The Kwara State Police have rescued the six years old twins and other three personal staff of the traditional ruler of Owalobo of Obbo in Ekiti Local Hovernment Council Area of the state, Oba Samuel Adelodun, that were kidnapped four days ago by

unknown gunmen. The affected victims were waylaid along Osi and Ayegunle Road inside the Sienna Bus of the monarch. Since then, men of the state police command, vigilante, civil defence corps among others have swung into action in order to rescue the victims from the den

of kidnappers. A statement issued in Ilorin yesterday signed by the state police command Public Relations Officer(PPRO) Mr. Ajayi Okasanmi, stated that the rescue was made through the support of the families of the victims and the collaboration of vigilante and local hunters of the

area and the monarch of Obbo. The statement stated that, "The feat as usual, was made possible with the confidence reposed in the Kwara State Police Command, the support of the families of the victims and the collaboration of vigilante and local hunters of the area and the royal Highness the Owalobo of Obbo- Ayegunle.

Adogo Division, while on patrol duty along Adogo-Okene road, reportedly extorted the sum of N25,00 from a traveller while another was physically assaulted by one of the men in uniform. While condemning the incident, Dabban noted that the Police officers have been identified and detained at the

State Criminal Investigations Department., noting the command has commenced investigations The officers are ASP Isah Barnabas, Inspector Ifediegwu Godwin, Sgt Emmanuel Ochima and CPL Umameh Mathias who physically assaulted one of the travellers.

Seven Candidates Declare Interest in Akure South/ Police Arrest Three Officers for Extortion of N25,000 North By-election Fidelis David in Akure The battle for the Akure South/North by-election to fill the vacant seat at the House of Representatives has continued to gather momentum with over seven aspirants declaring interest to contest. The seat has been vacant following the death of the lawmaker, Omolafe Adedayo, whose death was announced on August 16, 2021, barely two years after he was sworn in as lawmaker. Contenders in the All Progressives Congress (APC) include former Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Sunday Abegunde; former State Commissioner, Mrs.

Omowunmi Ohwovoriole; Femi Fadairo, among others, who are yet to make their intentions public. For the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it was gathered that not less than five aspirants are jostling for the position. They include popular philanthropist, Mr. Babtunde Emmanuel Faro; former twotime state lawmaker, Kemi Adesanya and a former state Commissioner, Mr. Dayo Awude. Speaking with journalists in Akure, one of the PDP aspirants, Faro, expressed confident that his party would win the by-election, referencing the performance of the party in the last governorship election.

from Traveller in Kogi

Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja The Kogi State Police Command has arrested three police officers for extortion of N25,000 from a traveller after being physically assaulted by the officers This was contained in press statement signed by the State Police Public Relation Officer(

PPRO), William Aya, copy of which was made available to the journalists in Lokoja yesterday. The Commissioner of Police (CP)Idrisu Dauda Danban disclosed that the suspects were arrested in connection with a trending video where Police personnel attached to

Presidency Has Pledged Funds for Treatment of Cancer Patients, Says Bagudu Ismail Bayo in Birnin Kebbi Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to make funds available for the treatment of cancer patients in the country. A statement by the Governor's

Media Adviser, Mr. Yahya Sarki, said the Bagudu dropped the hint during the Walk-Away Cancer Awareness Campaign that was organised by his wife, Dr Zainab Bagudu. The statement quoted the governor as saying that "'for the first time in the history of

Nigeria, Buhari at the National Assembly pledged to make the funds for the treatment of the ailment available to patients in the country. "This is a happy story for all of us and all those critical stakeholders who relentlessly engage in the fight against the dreaded disease."

It added that under the presidential package, eligible indigent patients would be assisted. "Efforts are targeted at routing out the deadly disease from Nigeria, especially as it has remained a formidable health challenge in the country.

MONDAY, ͹΀˜ ͺ͸ͺ͹ ˾ T H I S D AY

MONDAYSPORTS Osimhen’s Late Winner Secures Napoli’s Eight Straight Serie A Win

Group Sports Editor: Duro Ikhazuagbe Email: duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com

0811 181 3083 SMS ONLY ONL

Ejuke grabs full points for CSKA Moscow, Chukwueze falls in first game NIGERIANS IN EUROPEAN LEAGUES Femi Solaja It was contracting fortunes for Nigerian players last night in European leagues as Victor Osimhen scored the lone goal in Napoli’s win against Torino just as Chidera Ejuke lifted his CSKA Moscow in another lone goal win against FC Ural. However, Samuel Chukwueze who is just returning from an injury that sidelined him for weeks, was on the losing side with Villarreal in the Spanish La Liga. In Serie A, Osimhen, scored a late 81st minute goal to help the Parthenopeans maintain their perfect start in the Italian topflight this season at Torino. With the game looking destined to end on a no winner, no vanquished note, the Nigeria international rose above his markers to head Elif Elmas’ cross past goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic in goal for

Victor Osimhen (in ﬂight) scored the lone winning goal against Torino yesterday to extend Napoli’s lead at the top of the Italian topﬂight

French Ambassador Fetes Nigerian Cyclists ahead World Championship Michael Olugbodein Abuja The newly appointed French Ambassador to Nigeria, Mme Emmanuelle Blatmann, has congratulated Nigeria's four representatives to the 11th World Track Cycling Championship for making history by being among the two African countries to qualify for the event holding at the Jean Stablinski regional Indoor Velodrome in Roubaix, France from October 20-24, 2021. Hosting the four cyclists as well as the Cycling Federation President and Secretary General, Engr. Giadomenico Massari and

Makpa Shammah respectively in her official residence in Abuja on Saturday, the Ambassador said their qualification which was the first time ever, "shows the rise of the sport in the country and the enthusiasm it generates among the youth and with improved active women participation". "This is a monumental event as it is the first time in its history Nigeria has qualified for the World Cycling Championship, of which only two African countries (Nigeria and Egypt) have qualified to participate", she said. Media Attache to the French

Embassy, Onyinye Madu said that though the Ambassador couldn't meet with the cyclists and CFN delegation as "she was currently in isolation having just arrived in Nigeria last week, she was represented by the Deputy Ambassador, Mr Olivier Chatelias and other delegates". According to Madu, the Ambassador "sent words of encouragement to let the girls know that she was proud to welcome these talented sportswomen and she wishes them good luck for the event (and) hopes they will climb the steps of the podium".

While Egypt is being represented by one cyclist, Nigeria will be represented by four namely Grace Ayuba, Tawakalt Yekeen, Ese Ukpeseraye and Mary Samuel. Roubaix is the third most populated city in the northern region of France and is a wellknown city in the cycling world as it hosts one of the oldest races called: "the Paris - Roubaix" which has taken place every year since 1896. This will be the 16th time that France has hosted the World Track Cycling Championships and the first time since 2015.

Torino. Heading into the match against the Maroons, the Naples based outfit had won all their previous seven matches in the Italian topflight in the 2021-22 campaign. That goal was Osimhen’s eighth in his last seven outings as Napoli remain at the summit of the Italian topflight on 24 points. Osimhen’s Super Eagles teammate, Ola Aina played all 90 minutes for Torino. In the Russian top league, Super Eagles new sensation, Chidera Ejuke, was the Horses hero as his second-half effort propelled Aleksei Berezutski’s men past their hosts. Ejuke scored CSKA Moscow’s only goal as they silenced FC Ural 1-0 in Sunday’s Russian Premier League outing. After a goalless first half, the Nigeria international put CSKA Moscow ahead in the 52nd minute. Fortunately, that proved to be the only goal of

the keenly contested affair as the Horses picked all points away from home. Heading into the encounter, CSKA Moscow had gone on a run of six matches without defeat – with their last outing a 0-0 home draw with Krasnodar. For the visitors, they were hoping to extend their unbeaten run in all competitions to six having defeated Ufa 1-0 away from home before the international window. After putting up an impressive shift, Ejuke – who now boasts three league goals so far – was subbed off for Viktor Vasin five minutes from full time. The Moscow based outfit have now climbed to fourth on the log having accrued 20 points from 11 matches, while defeat ensured Ural stay in 15th spot with just nine points. Ejuke saw off competition from captain Igor Akinfeev and Anton Zabolotny to be named as the CSKA Moscow Player of the Month of September.

Al Hilal Hold Wasteful Rivers Utd in Port Harcourt CA F C H A M P I O N S L E AG U E Nigeria’s representatives in the CAF Champions League, Rivers United FC, were held 1-1 by visiting Sudanese club, Al Hilal, in their first round, first leg clash at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt yesterday. The Pride of Rivers were wasteful in front of goal and missed several opportunities to score goals that would have made the return leg mere formalities. Yasil Mohamed open scoring for the visitors from Sudan at eight minutes before half time. Rivers United fought their way back and restored parity in 22 minutes from time when Mohamed Saeed inadvertently

put the ball into his own net. The reverse fixture will take place next Sunday at the New Suez Stadium, Suez. Elsewhere Ghanaian champions Hearts of Oak secured a 1-0 home triumph over Moroccan side Wydad Casablanca. Isaac Mensah’s first-half goal earned the Phobians victory in the first round, first leg fixture at the Accra Sports Stadium. Samuel Boadu’s men will head into next week’s second leg away from home with a narrow advantage, where the ultimate aggregate winners after two legs secure a ticket for the group stage of the competition.

Bayelsa Utd Secure Slim 1-0 Advantage over Tunisia’s CS Sfaxien CA F C O N F E D C U P

R-L: Deputy Ambassador of France, Mr Olivier Chatelias; CFN Secretary General, Makpa Shammah; President of NCF, Mr Giadomenico Massari (4th), the cyclists in Team Nigeria uniform include; Grace Ayuba, Tawakalt Yekeen, Mary Samuel and Ese Ukpeseraye and an unnamed embassy staﬀ at the event in Abuja...on Saturday

Bayelsa United gained a secured a slim 1-0 advantage against Tunisian club CS Sfaxien in the first leg of their CAF Confederation Cup first round tie at the Samson Siasia Stadium, Yenagoa yesterday. The hosts scored the decisive goal in the 59th minute of the keenly contested encounter. The Nigerian side fought hard to add to their advantage but were unable to breach the Tunisians defence for a second time. The visitors came close to equalising in the closing stage of the game but Bayelsa United’s defence thwarted all their efforts. The return leg will take place next week Saturday at the Stade Taieb Mhiri in Sfax. Earlier on Saturday, Nigeria’s other representative in the CAF Confederation Cup, Enyimba FC, snatched a 1-0 away victory against Senegal’s Dimaba FC

to kick start their continental campaign on a sound note. The Finidi George led People’s Elephant didn’t play like the away team but showed the stuff of a team determined to pick a silverware in a CAF club competition. Cyril Olisema who came in as a substitute slotted home the spot-kick awarded in the 84th minute to hand Enyimba the away win. The Nigeria side grew into the game in second half after the coach Finidi George made some tactical changes to the team. Orok was introduced in place of Esobe while Obioma came in for Victor Mbaoma. The second leg is slated for Enyimba International Stadium in Aba this weekend with the winner over the two legs moving into the group stage.

MONDAY OCTOBER 18, 2021 • T H I S D AY

Monday October 18, 2021

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MISSILE

Senate to FG “The deplorable state of the federal roads in Nigeria have become a national shame and an unnecessary embarrassment as scores of innocent people are kidnapped by bandits, robbed, mutilated and killed daily in avoidable accidents on account of bad federal roads. Poor funding and neglect had led to the abysmal state of roads in the country”” – Senator Gershom Bassey, lamenting the needless roads decay, calling President Buhari to declare emergency on federal roads.

OKEYIKECHUKWU EDIFYING ELUCIDATIONS

okey.ikechukwu@thisdaylive.com

Facebook Glitch and Our New Ecosystem

ike it or not, we live in a digitised, internet-enabled, ecosystem. It is facilitated by a deluge of new, and interconnected, devices, virtual services and magnetic fields. The magnetic fields are created and sustained by the new devises and gadgets that make our contemporary life possible and more comfortable. So, everything is now done in a zap of speed and expenditure of virtual energy. Thanks to science and technology, ours has become a fast-paced and impatient world that is focused mostly on quick results, rather than on meaning, purpose and long-terms perspectives. The demand for heavy data and its consumption has created several new communication and social networking highways that brook no interruption, or interference. The life we live today demands it. This is indeed a “talkative” and data-guzzling generation. That is why any disruption, such as the Facebook glitch, even if it lasted for only two minutes, would be devastating, with billions of dollars of business opportunities lost. So, the services and Apps on which billions of people depend cannot suddenly go kaput without creating unsettling ripples and waves. Of course, no one saw it coming. That is why lives and livelihoods got disrupted and businesses blanked out without warning and even some Facebook staff were locked out of their own offices. Like the confounded public, employees of the service provider could also not get on with their jobs and businesses. As the organization’s internal communications platform went under, as Workplace and related resources also were not forthcoming, Facebook and its family of apps, including Instagram and WhatsApp, were inaccessible for hours. The panic everywhere showed how dependent the world now is on these vital communications platforms; and also, how helplessly and hopelessly vulnerable we all are today. The truth is that the life we know today can go up in smoke at any moment. The last time we had a major Facebook glitch was in 2019. The result was a 24-hour shut down. It was then explained as “a technical error” that affected its site. This time around, we hear that it is due to changes to Facebook’s underlying internet infrastructure and the coordination of traffic between its data centers. True or not, these technical issues are not our concern here. Our business for today is to examine related challenges, no matter how far-fetched, that could leave the world in the very same situation in which Facebook left it for five hours last week. The other worry, though, is that the Facebook fiasco must be considered child’s play when compared with the things that one fears are yet to come – or are already here but without our knowing it. Taking the conversation further, especially in terms of the devices we need in order to service our tech-driven life and world, most sophisticated devices need high-frequency waves to provide the services we need. This includes television sets, telephone handsets, household items, hospital equipment and sundry communication devices. These pose clear dangers to our life and our health, because of their radiations. Each new development and advancement in sophistication, whether in the type and variety of devices, or in the number of innovative communication options and platforms, brings an upscale in our dependency

CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and corresponding vulnerability with it. The point to note here is that anything that could disrupt internet services has the potential to also disrupt our lives very comprehensively. It does not matter whether this is caused by a simple power outage, a temporary challenge with internet services, a solar flare, intersecting magnetic fields from our various gadgets or the understated effects of 5G technology. With the panic and shutdowns arising from the Facebook problem, we should now begin to think a little more deeply about what our world has become. We should also begin to look more closely at the advertised advantages of a virtual world, especially against the background of its being easily assaulted and undermined by some kind of Turnkey virus, glitch or challenge. This should nudge us to expand our understanding of the real dangers now facing us on all fronts, as well as how it is all likely to get worse in the coming months and years. Just think about it for a moment. Facebook is an organisation everyone sees as a robust platform for sundry digital facilitation of life. It offers Facebook messaging, livestreaming, virtual reality and other digital services. All its services put together gives Facebook power over “life and death,” so to speak, for

practically everything that makes our world of today possible, especially for the billions of people who depend on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp for their social networking and for their businesses. Any glitch here, therefore, is a potential ditch waiting to swallow up people’s lives and businesses for good. Considering also that most people use Facebook to sign into several other Apps and services, the domino effects of glitches or outages in internet dependent communication and services are too real to be merely imagined. Are there other things that can also shut us down in this way? Are we already in more danger than we fully realise from other things we are living with that are even doing substantial damage in every way as I write? I think the answer is yes. I invite our attention to an article that appeared on this page at the peak of the 5G controversy here in Nigeria. The piece, titled: “5G Controversy Needs Honest Science” was published on June 5, 2020. That article began thus: “It is a fact of science that everything on earth gives out a definite radiation. It is also a fact of science that what we call “matter”, like a table, or even our bodies, is just pure energy vibrating at a specific frequency. It is the frequency and rate of vibration that creates what we call shape, size, texture, etc. These particles also generate small electrical impulses, creating some sort of “field” around objects, even if only at a microscopic/atomic level for some of them. The human aura, for instance, is the result of electrical impulses, which continue from the subatomic level until they emerge as our electromagnetic field. What we eat, how we live and where we live can alter our aura significantly. So, using the term loosely if you like, electromagnetic fields are inevitable for all existents.” At the time this article was published, many had argued that the train had left the station in many parts of the world and that no one should bring up the matter. Others argued from the standpoint of molecular biology, but without taking into account the fact that their argument presupposed a radiation-free environment, within which we can correctly and objectively say that low-frequency waves of the 5G type are not immediately devastating in their effects. What happens in an isolated natural environment cannot be what will obtain

The point to note here is that anything that could disrupt internet services has the potential to also disrupt our lives very comprehensively. It does not matter whether this is caused by a simple power outage, a temporary challenge with internet services, a solar ﬂare, intersecting magnetic ﬁelds from our various gadgets or the understated effects of 5G technology

in an environment that is already “polluted” by several manmade magnetic fields that are all simultaneously overlapping with each other in our radiation-filled neighbourhoods, gadget-filled sitting rooms, cars and offices. Going back to the above quotation, it was actually only a perambulatory observation, laying the foundation for the major argument in the piece under reference, namely: That we have very little real control over most of the offerings of science and technology in our world of today. Just as we are now seeing with our internet-enabled and digitized world, the call in the aforementioned article was that “…everything pertaining to the 5G controversy should perhaps be examined within the wider context of an ecosystem that is actually a network of interconnected magnetic fields” As the issue with Facebook has made abundantly clear, we take too much for granted in our day-to-day lives. Would anyone have recovered so many files, pictures, and confidential materials if Facebook and its related platforms had reported a terminal inaccessibility – in other words if Facebook had announced that all its data was lost? Bringing the matter to the thoughts expressed in the referenced article, it was noted that “… radiations generally, and cosmic rays as well, can wipe off our data, make unusual changes in installed programmes, corrupt connecting systems and generally disrupt circuitry functions…Think, hypothetically, of all the cars manufactured between the year 2000 and 2019 suddenly stopping wherever they were on a particular day. Or of the Altitude Control System (ACS) of all satellites guiding our international flights losing every sense of direction and location and confusing the pilots. Think of how events from outer space of March 29, 1989 in Quebec created a national blackout and billions of dollars in losses. It made the U.S. Space Command to re-compute the orbits of more than 1,300 satellites. There have been many such incidents affecting thousands of such devises in space.” Worrisome, right? For those who ask: “Who has died because of these radiations from outer space that scaremongers keep talking about,” the above-mentioned article said: “Take a frequent flyer, or a regular long-haul flyer, for instance. He is inside an aircraft made of transmitters, receivers, satellite enabled navigational equipment, hundreds of smartphones, tablets, laptops and other devices that passengers loaded on the plane…yet exposure to even a small amount of certain electromagnetic frequencies can mean trouble for individuals who are predisposed to cancer. Why is it that frequent, or long haul flyers, are best advised to take the following steps to protect themselves from harmful electromagnetic radiations: (1) Use a good laptop shield; (2) Use a high quality headset to listen to anything; (3) Use a protective wallet, with radiation insulation, for smart phones; (4) Pregnant travellers should wear the Vest Anti-radiation Belly Band; and (5) Use anti-radiation blankets for infants and children. Food for thought, right? With the Facebook incident, we all stand somewhat dumbfounded. We stand convinced that everything we are sure of, including our records, pictures and even the platforms for carrying on our businesses, could disappear in one fell swoop. And there’s nothing anyone can do about it. We are now warned, or are we not?

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