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Reps committee laments injustice against oil host communities

Lateefat Ibrahim
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The House of Representatives’ Committee on Host Communities says it will use legislative measures to correct the acts of injustices meted on oil producing communities in Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta region.

The Chairman of the newly created Committee, Mr. Dekor Robinson who stated this at the inaugural sitting of the Committee in Abuja said actions against oil bearing communities in the region has caused untold poverty and deprivation among people of the region.

Mr. Robinson described the manner in which the government and oil companies treated host communities as “gross injustice,” a situation he said the committee was created to address.

The lawmaker who expressed appreciation to the leadership of the House for creating the committee, a first in the history of the National Assembly, said host communities have felt little or no impact from their oil in spite of the fact that much revenues had been derived from them.

“Nothing to show for their God given wealth, their social life has been neglected, how can people so endowed have little or nothing to show for it,” he queried.

Mr. Robinson urged members of the committee to come up with ideas that would enhance the implementation of their work plan.

“The inability of the government to protect host communities is a violation of their rights. Such injustice had led to their water being contaminated and ejection from their ancestral homes coupled with absolute denial of their means of livelihood.

Mr Robinson added that Part of what the committee was set up to achieve was to enhance peaceful coexistence between oil companies and the host communities.

Lateefah Ibrahim

House drafts blueprint on security challenges

Mercy Chukwudiebere
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The House of Representatives has set up a committee to find solutions to the security challenges Nigeria is facing.

The 40-Man adhoc Committee would brainstorm and come up with a blueprint to be submitted to the President, which would address the security challenges.

The Speaker House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila  said the committee comprising 10 Principal Officers and 30 other members would come up with the document in the next three weeks.

He said; “Members would sit down for the next two to three weeks and come up with a comprehensive proposal to stem the tide of insecurity in the country.”

Security at airports

Meanwhile, the House has urged the Inspector General of Police and other Security operatives to beef up security at the Nation’s airports to prevent breaches.

It also urged the security agencies to ensure the release of the abducted people at the Kaduna Airport and fish out the bandits that carried out the unfortunate attack.

Adopting a motion sponsored by Musa Mohammed Pali, a member from Bauchi State, the Lawmakers also invited the Minister of Aviation to brief the Committee on Aviation on how the bandits gained entrance into the Kaduna airport and how to prevent future occurrences of the attack.

On 6th March, 2021, bandits invaded the staff quarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) at Kaduna airport and kidnapped about 11 people.

 

 

Mercy Chukwudiebere

FCT school principals pledge sustained training for members

Lateefat Ibrahim
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The Federal Capital Territory, FCT branch of All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary School (ANCOPS) has inaugurated new leaders that would be running the affairs of the body for the next four years.

 

The executives, who were drawn from both Junior and Secondary Schools across the territory, promised a robust system that would add more value to the schools.

 

Fielding questions from Journalists after he was sworn-in as the new FCT ANCOPS  President, Alhaji Adam Bello Gupa said his leadership would consolidate on the gains of the previous leaders.

 

He explained that a new template would be developed to capture all the programmes needed to move the schools forward.

 

Gupa said all members of ANCOPS would be trained both within and abroad to meet up with the educational current realities.

 

“We will continue with the good work,  where our predecessors have stopped to ensure that basic education is achieved,” he stated.

 

He said the principals would stop at nothing to ensure that members put in their best.

 

Gupa further stated that, “Capacity building for teachers, the training will be within the country and abroad”.

 

In his farewell message, the outgoing ANCOPS President, Abdulkarim Abdulrahaman said his leadership recorded achievements that would stand the test of time.

 

He called on them to work in unity, and project education activities.

 

The new president currently is the Principal Government Secondary School, Kuje.

 

Lateefah Ibrahim

American-owned businesses in Nigeria decline to N1.08trn in revenues

Nnenna Okoronkwo
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The American Business Council (ABC) has revealed that the revenues of American-owned companies in 2020 declined from N1.47 trillion in 2019 to N1.08 trillion in 2020.

This is according to a recent in-house survey – the 2020 Nigeria Economic Impact Survey. Dipo Faulkner, the President of the American Business Council who made this public, explained that according to the survey report, foreign currency access, implementation of policies by the government, heightened regulation in key industries were some of the key factors responsible for the decline in business activities in 2019 and 2020.

He noted that these factors were further compounded in 2020 by the disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant knock-on effect on the economy.

Chijoke Uwaegbute, a Partner at PWC and a key panellist who spoke on the figures, tasked the government to give close attention to the headwinds companies face in their operation in the country.

He explained extensively that in terms of full-time employment, the US companies underperformed as the figures declined from 18,500 in 2018 to about 14,000 in 2019.

Chijoke stated that on average, in a bid to positively impact the local manpower, the company spent about N32 million on a yearly basis on training with a minimum amount of N1.4 billion on training.

Among the few positives was the growth in indirect employment, which surged significantly as there were over 30,000 indirect jobs created during the period under review, while over 13,000 direct jobs were created.

The Deputy Political and Economic Chief, US Consulate, Merrica Heaton expressed her worries over the performance of these businesses in 2020.

She said, “When I first saw the data, I was a bit disappointed to see the decreases but hopefully, this will help us to look at where we really need to focus our efforts, and how we can coordinate and advocate with the Nigerian government to improve the investment climate and bring more US businesses and those that are here to encourage further investments.”

She explained that the decline is short-term, as it was driven by the pandemic, hence the challenge according to her is a matter of what we can do and how we can work with the US private sector here in Nigeria, and how we can improve the investment climate.

In order to resolve the issues of policy inconsistency and key drawdown in regulation which inhibited the performance of US businesses in 2020, she said that this is a time to work more with the government, as there is a positive economic impact from some of this collaboration and engagement.

She added that in terms of the women in the leadership roles, the ABC and the consulate can both be role models to the entire leadership, as they move to encourage more women into the leadership role.

The US-based businesses generated over N1 trillion in 2019 and spent N2.57 billion to expand operations in the last five years.

The companies also spent an additional N1.5 billion on CSR, from N1.9 billion expended in 2018, with a joint contribution of over N100 million to Covid-19.

Going forward the US-based businesses plan to invest about N2.37 billion in the country over the next three years.

Suzan O/NM

“Public-Private Partnership is panacea to infrastructure deficit”—VP Osinbajo

Mercy Chukwudiebere
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The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, says the only way to effectively address the massive infrastructure deficit in Nigeria is by Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement in one form or the other.

Professor Osinbajo stated this on Wednesday at the opening of a two-day retreat of the National Council on Privatization (NCP).

The retreat will, among other things, deliberate on the proposed amendment of the Public Enterprises (Privatization & Commercialization) Act 1999.

Citing statistics from Nigerian Integrated Infrastructure Masterplan (NIIMP) and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020 to buttress his point, the Vice President said that “Nigeria will require at least $2.3 trillion over the next 30 years to bridge this gap.

“The review of budgetary allocation for capital expenditure even over the past decade will show that government resources are completely insufficient for this purpose.”

Professor Osinbajo said that while government could take either commercial or concessionary loans for infrastructure development, it would be an additional burden on a usually considerably leveraged balance sheet.

He said: “There is a large pool of investable funds from both local and international investors for the development and maintenance of infrastructure…But these are only accessible where there is a business case to be made for developing public infrastructure.

“So, for both institutional and individual investors, there is far more comfort with lending or with equity participation where a private sector entity partners with a public authority owner of the infrastructure.

“This way  the public partner can play its natural role of a regulator (regulation and policy), leaving business to the private sector whose reason for being is business. So, for investors, PPP presents the best of both worlds.”

He urged participants drawn from the private and public sectors at the retreat to remain focused on the objectives of the meeting.

Professor Osinbajo also emphasised that developing a framework that would be attractive to investors should be topmost in their deliberations.

Attracting resources

The Director-General of BPE, Mr Alex Okoh said that the current economic environment required government to adopt innovative ways of attracting resources for infrastructure development.

Mr Okoh said an amendment of the BPE Act would among other things expand private sector participation in the Nigerian economy as well as attract more foreign capital to different sectors of the economy.

Mercy Chukwudiebere

Economic Council begins meeting

Mercy Chukwudiebere
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The National Economic Council, NEC, has begun its meeting for March 2021 with Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, presiding from his office at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Other members of the Council, including Governors of the 36 States and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, as well as co-opted members, are participating in the virtual meeting from their offices.

One issue expected to feature prominently on the agenda of Thursday’s meeting of the Council is the distribution of the Covid-19, which was rolled out in Nigeria earlier this month.

Insecurity, especially as it concerns the spate of abductions of school children and insurgency in the north east of the country, is also expected to be tabled for discussion.

In February, the Council decided that concerted efforts would be made towards the immediate investigation, arrest and prosecution of all perpetrators of crime in the country.

Also at the meeting in February, which was the first physical meeting of the Council since the Covid-19 lockdown in March last year, the Federal and State governments recommitted to the protection of residents of all states in Nigeria.

It was resolved that all non-indigenous communities, religious and ethnic minorities within states’ jurisdiction would be protected by government.

Reports on the implementation of the resolutions are also expected to be presented at the meeting.

Decisions at the meeting will be released to the media later in the day.

 

Mercy Chukwudiebere

FG, Nasarawa to provide border security on gold mining sites

Emmanuel Ukoh
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The Federal Government is collaborating with the Nasarawa State Government to ensure security around areas known to have gold deposits along the border of Nasarawa and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Minister for Solid Minerals Development, Architect Olamilekan Adegbite, disclosed this when he hosted the Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule in his office in Abuja.

According to the Minister, the Federal Government has expended N15bn on minerals exploration across the country under the ministry’s National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project with tracts of gold deposits discovered between Nasarawa and Abuja.

He further disclosed that already the Federal Government is marketing the data gathered from the exploration project internationally with investors.

The Minister however raised concern over perceived illegalities associated with gold mining, especially banditry as is currently happening in Zamfara State, where the state government had to place a ban on gold mining activities.

Architect Adegbite said the Federal Government is taking adequate measures to prevent banditry and other illegalities along the gold sites on the Nasarawa/FCT border.

“We want to nip this in the bud, we don’t want banditry to come to Nasarawa and Abuja on the trail of gold, as is happening in Zamfara unfortunately.

“We don’t want a repeat of that in Nasarawa, so we are going to be working with security agencies and possibly including the military, to make sure that we prevent such occurrence in this axis,” the Minister said.

While thanking the Governor for his frequent visits to the ministry, the Minister said they have been discussing the matter with Governor Sule, stressing that the ministry is taking steps to prevent banditry in this axis.

Nigeria’s future in minerals

Responding, Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, thanked the Minister, as well as the Federal Government for undertaking the minerals exploration exercise across the country.

The Governor said his administration strongly believes that the future of the country is in minerals, not necessarily in oil and gas anymore, stressing that as Nigeria deviates from oil and gas gradually, the nation will be going into minerals.

According to Governor Sule, God has blessed Nigeria such that every state has one form of a mineral deposit or the other.

To this end, the Governor said his administration is working very hard to ensure the safety of the people, the safety of the mining site, as well as ensure that whatever activity going on there is being done legally.

Engineer Sule however expressed concern on the ongoing illegal gold mining activities in Uke, in Karu Local Government Area, urging the Minister to send a team to that area to find out the situation of things.

“There are very good companies in Nasarawa that are doing very good work, for instance, Kenyang Mining Company.

“We have just finished the construction of the road for them from Mararaba Udege. They are very excited. We have genuine, legitimate mining companies, that are serious investors similar to Kenyang and are working and we will continue to support them,” the Governor said.

Engineer Sule further appreciated the Minister for the good work he has been doing.

 

 

 

 

Emmanuel Ukoh

COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns will drop global economy output to $10trn – UN

Nnenna Okoronkwo
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A strong rebound this year would still leave the world down with an estimated 10 trillion dollars due to the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Although the global economy could expand by 4.7 per cent in 2021, it would nonetheless wind up “short of 10 trillion dollars,” about twice Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP), compared to if the pandemic had never happened.

“Last year, the global economy posted its sharpest annual drop in output since statistics on aggregate economic activity were introduced in the early 1940s,” UNCTAD said on Thursday.

While wealthy economies have proposed huge damage-limitation fiscal spending, such as the U.S. 1.9-trillion-dollar “stimulus package,” and while China returned to growth in late 2020, people in smaller and poorer countries are struggling, UNCTAD warned.

Developing countries are bearing the brunt of the downturn due to “limited fiscal space, tightening balance of payments constraints and inadequate international support,’’ leading to some of the largest personal income drops relative to GDP.

“Even a small downturn in economic activity can be devastating,” UNCTAD said, describing fallout from pandemic restrictions as predictably severe in developing economies such as the Philippines and Malaysia.

On Thursday, UNCTAD also upped its earlier prediction of 4.3-per-cent global growth in 2021, citing a possible “stronger recovery in the United States.”

In January, the World Bank said the global economy could grow by 4 per cent in 2021, while the International Monetary Fund opted for a rosier 5.5 per cent.

Suzan O/NAN

FG, Sokoto State begin anti-rabies campaign 

Nneka Oyibo Ukachukwu
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The  Sokoto State government in collaboration with Nigerian government has flagged off anti-rabies campaign to enlighten people on the importance of vaccinating dogs.

Speaking at the flagging-off ceremony in Sokoto, the Minister of Health Dr Osagie Ehanire, represented by the Chief Veterinary Officer of Nigeria, Dr. Olanitan Alabi, said that the exercise was part of the recommendations of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) that, at least 70% of dogs should be vaccinated annually for three consecutive years.

OIE explained that this would break transmission cycle of rabies and consequently eliminate the disease.

Ehanire noted that the disease thrived in low to medium income countries of Africa and Asia, affecting mostly children due to ignorance and that 70,000 people die of rabies annually.

He said the tripartite collaboration of WHO, OIE and FAO set an agenda for the eradication of dog mediated human rabies by 2030.

“In our effort to achieve this global target, the department of Veterinary and Pest Control Services sought for additional international support and OIE responded by donating 200,000 doses of anti rabies vaccine (ARV) to the country”, he said

The vaccines were distributed to states based on their reported status and number of reported cases.

The Sokoto State Commissioner of Animal Health and Fisheries Development, Professor Abdulkadir Junaidu, said rabies is deadlier than HIV/AIDS and Coronavirus because its victim hardly survives the disease.

International Day Against Rabies
According to Professor Junaidu, the vaccination campaign was part of activity to mark International Day against Rabies and to encourage people to understand the relevance of vaccinating their dogs.

He added that the state government had reiterated more commitment to support policies and programmes that will help to eradicate rabies disease.

Junaidu explained that the State will continue to compliment various efforts to end the menace by 2023.

“Rabies disease affects about 23% of people which needs to be tackled for sustainable health environment across Sokoto and the country in general”, he said.

The Commissioner however called for relevant stakeholders to sensitize people for timely vaccination of all dogs across the country.

The District Head of Gagi, Alhaji Sani Umar Jabbi, commended the organizers of the event and assured more support in enlightening the general public on the overall health benefits in Sokoto State.

 

Nneka Ukachukwu

UN Rights Chief agrees to Ethiopia’s request for joint Tigray inquiry

Olajumoke Adeleke
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United Nations Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet has agreed to an Ethiopian request for a joint investigation in the country’s northern Tigray region, where Bachelet says possible war crimes may have been committed.
Fighting between government troops and the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), has killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes in the mountainous region of about 5 million.
The United Nations has raised concerns about atrocities being committed in Tigray, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has described acts carried out in the region as ethnic cleansing. However, Ethiopia has rejected Blinken’s allegation.
Bachelet “responded positively” to a request from the state-run Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for joint investigations in Tigray, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman Jonathan Fowler said on Wednesday.
“The UN Human Rights Office and the EHRC are now developing an investigation plan, which includes resources needed and practical modalities, in order to launch the missions as soon as possible,” Fowler said.
Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that it was ready to work with international human rights experts to conduct investigations on allegations of abuses.
Amnesty International last month accused Eritrean forces of killing hundreds of civilians over 24 hours in Axum city last year.
Eritrea denied that, but the EHRC also described such killings in a rare acknowledgment from the Ethiopian side that Eritrean troops have participated in the conflict.
The United Nations and the United States have demanded that Eritrean troops leave Tigray.
Both the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments have denied Eritrean troops are in Tigray, despite dozens of eyewitness accounts and admissions that Eritreans are there from Tigray’s federally-appointed regional administration.

Edited by Olajumoke Adeleke

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