Shehu GarbaThe Presidency has made it clear that protests against trusted aides of President Muhammadu Buhari would not change the way the President is doing his things.
Presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has asked the Presidency not to celebrate the ruling by the Presidential Election Tribunal yesterday over the controversial Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) server.
Leadership of the Southwest socio cultural body, Afenifere stormed Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja today, June 25 with five-point demands for President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, has educated the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar on the issue of court discretion vis a vis their request to be granted access to inspect the central server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in respect of the February 23 presidential election.
The tribunal, in a unanimous decision today, June 24 by a five-member panel of Justices, said the request could not be granted since the issue of whether such central server existed or not, is already a subject of controversy in the substantive petition that is challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election.
The Tribunal said that the fact that all the parties to the petition have joined issues on whether or not the said server was used for the collation and transmission of results of the election, granting the joint application by PDP and Atiku, would amount to delving into the main case.
According to the tribunal, allowing the application would amount to prejudging of “fundamental issues already raised by the parties on the substantive matter.”
The Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Mohammed Garba who delivered the lead ruling, held that the Supreme Court had on plethora of decided cases, warned that issue that formed the crux of a dispute before any court should not be determined at the interlocutory stage.
He held that the law bestowed the tribunal with discretionary powers to grant or refuse the application, saying “the court will be willing to exercise its discretion in favour of the Applicant, where there are reasons to do so.
“Such discretion must be properly exercised, judiciously and judicially. It follows therefore that the exercise of discretion is one of the strongest weapons of the court of law which must not be exercised in vacuum.”
Justice Garba said that whereas the petitioners maintained that results of the election were indeed collated and transmitted to a central server, on the other hand, INEC, said it was not in possession or aware of the existence of such server.
He held that since the other respondents to the petition- President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress, APC- equally challenged the existence of the server and urged the tribunal to uphold the result that was declared by INEC, acceding to the petitioners’ application, would prejudice the entire petition.
According to the Judge, allowing the petitioners to inspect the controversial server would amount to “resolving the disputed issue regarding the central server and electronic transmission of results of the presidential election” at the preliminary stage of the proceedings.
“It will not be expedient that the court should grant prayers contained in the application.”
Justice Garba said it would amount to “resolving the disputed issue regarding the central server and electronic transmission of results of the presidential election”, at the preliminary stage of the proceedings.
“The scenario will be unpalatable and will create the impression that the court has indeed recognised the existence of a central server and that the result was electronically transmitted. “The law is settled that the court should ensure caution while dealing with interlocutory application so as not to make any observation that affects the substantive case.”
The tribunal also declined the petitioners’ request to be granted access to data that were captured by all the Smart Card Reader Machines that were deployed for the presidential Poll.
Immediately after the ruling, the PDP and Atiku, via one of the senior members of his legal team, Chief Chris Uche, SAN, told Journalists: “the nation was looking forward to this ruling and it is one that is very pivotal to this matter. The Electoral Act itself empowers the tribunal to grant access such as this to the petitioners in order to institute and maintain a petition, and that is what we are asking for.
“Somehow, at this stage, the court has ruled. But definitely this is a matter we want to take higher to the Supreme Court to challenge this ruling because we strongly feel that section 151 of the Electoral Act entitles us to have access to these materials.”
On its part, INEC, through its lawyer, Usman Uztaz, SAN, said that its client is satisfied with the ruling.
“These are issues to be tried during the hearing; you cannot try them in piecemeal.”
The electoral body had challenged the request, arguing that contrary to position of the petitioners, it did not electronically transmit results of the presidential election into any central server.
The Commission told the tribunal that it was not empowered by the Electoral Act, 2010, as amended, to embark on electronic transmission of results.
While denouncing what it described as details of “a strange server” that was provided by the petitioners, INEC, maintained that the result it declared in President Buhari’s favour, “was a true reflection of what was collated.”
Also, President Buhari, through his team of lawyers led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, as well as counsel to the APC, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, urged the tribunal to reject the application they said was based “on speculation and conjectures”.
President Buhari argued that he was validly re-elected, having secured the majority of lawful votes cast.
President Muhammadu BuhariThe Presidency is celebrating what it called “a landmark ruling by the Presidential Election Tribunal,” on the issue of central server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Governor Nyeson Wike of River StateThe Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has formally declared free primary and secondary education in the state, directing State-Owned Primary and Secondary Schools to stop collecting fees and levies from students and pupils with immediate effect.
Meteorological agencies have forecasted the rise in temperatures of up to 40 degrees across continental Europe this week, the highest since 1947 in parts of France and Germany.
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has vowed to bring down inflation to single digit and accelerate the rate of employment in the country.
The Governor, who rolled out his agenda, as he settles to begin his second tenure of another five years, having just being re-appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari and confirmed by the Senate, stressed that the priority of the CBN under his leadership is to preserve domestic macroeconomic and financial stability.
Another one, Emefiele said, is to foster the development of a robust payments system infrastructure that will increase access to finance for all Nigerians thereby raising the financial inclusion rate in the country.
The CBN boss, who spoke to news men today, June 24, listed other priority area is the determination to continue to work with the Deposit Money Banks to improve access to credit for not only small holder farmers and MSMEs but also Consumer credit and mortgage facilities for bank customers.
“Our intervention support shall also be extended to our youth population who possess entrepreneurship skills in the creative industry.
“This group deserve our encouragement. We shall also during this intervening period, encourage our Deposit Money Banks to direct more focus in supporting the Education Sector. Fourth, grow our external reserves; and fifth, support efforts at diversifying the economy through our intervention programs in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
“We are confident that when implemented, these measures will help to insulate our economy from potential shocks in the global economy.
“In my second term in office, part of my pledge, is to work to the best of my abilities in fulfilling these objectives.”
The full text of the press conference is reproduced here:
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen and thank you for your presence at this Press Briefing. You would all recall that on 05 June 2014; following my assumption of office as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, I addressed a similar gathering to share with you my vision for my first term in office.
It is in the same vein that we have called you again today to briefly reflect on our journey over the past 5 years, and outline our vision and policy thrust for the next 5 years.
But before I begin my remarks, please permit me to thank the Almighty God for giving me the opportunity to continue to serve our country again . I would also like to thank President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) for not only re-appointing me, but also for his support and confidence in the leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria over the past 4 years. I thank the Nigerian Senate as well for confirming my nomination. Finally, I thank the management and staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria, for their hard work and dedication, particularly at moments when the Central Bank and indeed the Nigerian people faced difficult economic conditions.
Whatever achievements the CBN recorded in addressing those difficult conditions, was indeed reflective of the collective efforts of the management and staff of this great institution.
In my remarks today, I will be speaking on our efforts towards promoting price and monetary stability, exchange rate stability, financial system stability as well as our efforts to spur growth through our development finance interventions. Thereafter, I will speak on my vision for the Central Bank of Nigeria over the next five years, which is primarily driven by the need to support continued growth and development of the Nigerian Economy.
You will recall that during my maiden address on June 5, 2014, I stated that my vision would be to ensure that the Central Bank of Nigeria is more people focused, as its policies and programs would be geared towards supporting job creation, reducing the high level of Treasury-Bill rates, improving access to credit for MSMEs, deepening our intervention program in the Agricultural Sector, building a robust payment system infrastructure that will help drive inclusion, in addition to key macroeconomic concerns such as exchange rate stability, financial system stability and maintaining a strong external reserve.
As is the case with most plans, although most of the goals we set were achieved, I would be the first to admit that everything did not happen as contemplated. The normalization of monetary policy in the United States and the over 60 percent drop in crude oil prices between 2014 and 2016, had significant adverse consequences on our economy and made us adjust our methods to ensure that we still implemented most parts of our vision. Given Nigeria’s dependence on crude oil revenues for close to 86 percent of our foreign exchange earnings and over 60 percent of government expenditure, the drop-in prices led to heightened inflationary pressures, depreciation of our exchange rate, significant drop in our external reserves, and eventually, a recession set in during the 2nd Quarter of 2016.
With concerted efforts by the monetary and fiscal authorities we implemented a series of measures which led to the recovery of our economy from the recession by the 1st Quarter of 2017. Building on these efforts, I am delighted to note that our external reserves have risen from $23bn in October 2016 to over $45billion by June 2019.
Inflation has dropped from 18.72 percent in January 2017 to 11.40 percent in May 2019.
Our CBN purchasing manufacturers index has risen for 26 consecutive months since March 2017, indicating continuous growth in the manufacturing sector, as a result of measures implemented by the CBN which has improved access to raw materials and finance for manufacturing firms. GDP growth has risen for seven consecutive quarters following the recession, and our exchange rate has appreciated from over N525/$1 in February 2017 at the BDC window to N360/$1. With improved inflow of foreign exchange, the exchange rate has remained stable around N360/$1 for the past 27 months.
Recovery Efforts
Part of the measures we deployed to support the recovery include tightening of the monetary policy rate in order to rein in inflation; we also created an Investors and Exporters Window which allowed exporters and investors to inflow and sell their foreign exchange at the prevailing market rate. In order to reduce our reliance on the importation of items which could be produced in Nigeria, we restricted access to foreign exchange on 43 items, while deploying our intervention funds to support growth and productivity in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. These measures helped to support the attainment of our monetary policy objectives such as a reduction in the inflation rate, stability in our exchange rate and improved accretion to our external reserves.
Financial System Stability
As some of you are aware, the drop-in commodity prices affected a good number of banks given their exposure to the oil and gas sector. Unfortunately, these resulted in an increase in Non- performing loans of our banks. As a result of risk management measures embarked upon by the CBN, capital adequacy and liquidity ratios of our commercial banks are now above the prudential level.
Capital Adequacy Ratio for the banking industry improved from 11 percent in June 2017 to over 16 percent in May 2019 and liquidity levels have also increased by over 20 percent within the same period. In addition, the ratio of non-performing loans in the banking system has reduced from 15 percent in June 2017 to 9 percent in May 2019, due to concerted efforts by the CBN and the DMBs, although more work is being done to moderate NPL levels to the maximum prescribed level of 5 percent. Our financial institutions are well positioned to perform their intermediation role, which will ultimately help in supporting the growth of our economy.
Access to Credit and Developmental Finance
As part of the goals set in 2014, we increased our development finance interventions in order to catalyze growth in critical sectors of the economy. Our objectives were driven by the need to increase investments by MSMEs as well as spur consumer spending, as these factors would have a positive impact on GDP growth and employment. Furthermore, our development finance efforts were driven by the need to reduce our reliance on revenues from crude oil.
At a point in our nation’s history, Nigeria survived on revenues from the non-oil sector, to the extent that we were a dominant exporter of agricultural produce into the global market. Some of these products include, Cocoa, Groundnuts, Cotton and Palm-Oil. Our focus in agriculture supported the raw material needs of our industrial sector and created employment opportunities for millions of Nigerians. Regrettably, the discovery of crude oil and the increasing reliance on crude oil revenues led to a severe downturn in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, while also exposing our economy to the vulnerabilities that normally accompany an increased dependence on a single commodity for survival. For example, if Nigeria had maintained its market dominance in the palm oil industry, which stood at 40 percent in the 70s, we would be earning above $20 billion annually from cultivation and processing of palm oil today.
This would have provided a sufficient buffer for our nation following the drop in crude oil prices. Our situation is further worsened by the unpatriotic activities of some unscrupulous individuals and businesses who embarked on massive smuggling and dumping of goods that can be produced in the country thus leading to the demise of our agricultural and manufacturing sectors and hence the attendant high level of unemployment.
Fellow Nigerians, we have a responsibility to reverse the current ugly trend
where any external shock affecting oil producing countries bring us to our knees.
To correct this trend and as part of our intervention programs, we launched the Anchor Borrowers Program, which has improved access to finance for over 1m small holder farmers, who are leading our efforts to improve cultivation of agricultural commodities, such as rice, tomatoes, fish, cotton and palm oil. The Anchor Borrowers Program also enabled agro-processors and manufacturers to source their inputs from local sources, rather than relying on the importation of these items. We also deployed other intervention facilities such as the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme, and the Real Sector Support Fund. These funds were used to channel single digit interest loans through our Deposit Money Banks and other Participating Financial Institutions to beneficiaries to support improved growth in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. The effectiveness of these interventions in supporting the growth of our local industries, has been supported by our FOREX restrictions on the importation of items that can be produced in Nigeria.
We also embarked on measures to discourage smuggling of restricted items into the country, by imposing restrictions on the use of financial institutions in Nigeria by identified smugglers, as their activities undermined the growth of our local industries. These measures are aiding our efforts to support local cultivation of goods in areas such as cotton, rice, palm oil etc.
We also sought to improve access to credit for MSMEs given the critical role they play in supporting the growth of our economy. Poor access to credit has been highlighted as a significant constraint to the growth of MSMEs. Moreover, given the impact of the recession, it was more important to restart the flow of credit to MSMEs to enable them engage in productive activities that would support growth. As part of efforts to support this objective, we created a N220bn MSME funds, which has been critical in supporting the growth of MSMEs in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
We set up the National Collateral Registry and supported the passage of legislation governing the activities of the National Collateral Registry and the Credit Bureaus. These measures have helped to encourage the flow of credit to SMEs by allowing them to provide movable assets as collateral in order to obtain finance from banks, relative to the previous process which required that they provide fixed assets. So far over N400 billion worth of assets have been registered in the collateral registry by MSMEs. The activities of the credit bureaus are also reducing the risk encountered by banks in lending to businesses, as it has helped to identify credit worthy borrowers.
These two initiatives contributed to the improvement in Nigeria’s Doing Business Scorecard in the World Bank’s 2017 Doing Business Rankings of 180 countries, as Nigeria moved up by 24 points from 169 to 144.
Payment System
Conscious that over 40 percent of eligible Nigerians in 2015 lacked access to financial services, we embarked on a couple of steps to improve access to finance.
Through initiatives such as the Shared Agent Network Facility(SANEF) and the launch of our policy on Payment Service Banks, which enables non-banks to provide limited financial services, we sought to encourage the use of technological tools in improving access to finance for people who live in underserved parts of the country. We also set up a payment services management department solely dedicated to enabling the build-up of a robust payment systems infrastructure, while seeking to contain the risk to the financial system that could emerge from the use of digital channels. As a result of our efforts, the total volume of retail electronic payments has witnessed a threefold increase over the last five years. New financial access points are being created in parts of the North East and North West as a result of measures deployed by the Central Bank to extend financial services to the underserved in our rural communities.
Salary Bailout
The drop-in commodity prices and the resulting effects on government revenue, led to a severe drop in the earnings of most states in the country. Over 34 states incurred huge salary arrears and were unable to provide essential services, which led to the decision by the National Economic Council in June 2015, that the CBN work with Deposit Money Banks to provide support to state governments. In order to avert prolonged hardship in states, we provided an assistance program to states, which helped them to settle their overdue salary and pension obligations. These measures helped to ease some of the budget difficulties faced by state governments between 2015 – 2017.
It also provided enough cushion for states to begin to develop plans to generate revenue from alternative sources in an attempt to make the states economically viable.
Challenges
While these results are reassuring, I think it’s fair to state that our task of building a stronger economy is far from complete. The pace of GDP growth remains fragile and is below the rate of our annual population growth at 2.7 percent. The recovery of our economy from the recession has not resulted in a significant reduction in our unemployment rate. We are yet to see a substantial increase in credit to the private sector by our financial institutions.
The unexpected drop in crude prices given its impact on our economy also derailed our attempts at achieving some of the steps outlined in our vision such as bringing down the rate of T-Bills and in reducing the unemployment rate.
Our inability to address these challenges only served to reinforce our view that the CBN must continue to play an active role in supporting the growth of our economy, and redirect our emphasis on sectors that have the ability to support improved wealth and job creation for Nigerians such as the agricultural and manufacturing sectors.
Downside Risk to Growth in the near to medium term
Beyond our domestic challenge of high unemployment and subdued growth, our economy is faced with 3 external events, which have the ability to affect our growth trajectory over the near to medium term. First, rising trade tensions between the United States and China, United States and Mexico and subdued growth in the Eurozone as well as other emerging economies such as China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey, are affecting the outlook for global growth in 2019 and 2020.The World Bank according to its latest report, projects that global growth will decline to 2.6 percent in 2019 from 3.0 percent in 2018, as a result of the above-mentioned factors.
The second external challenge that may emerge from rising trade tensions and a potential slowdown in growth in advanced and emerging economies, is the impact it could have on capital flows to emerging markets. The risk of sudden stops and reversals of capital flows has increased as some investors weigh the benefits of investing in safe assets in advanced economies relative to assets in emerging markets.
Third, we are also witnessing rising volatility in the crude oil market occasioned by the rapid increase in the supply of shale oil by the United States, which has seen its production rise from 9 million barrels in 2017 to over 12 million barrels today. The rise in US production continues to put downward pressure on crude oil prices, despite restrictions on crude oil output by OPEC members and sanctions by the US on the purchase of crude oil from Iran and Venezuela.
Our Vision for the Next 5 years
Fellow Nigerians, few weeks ago, we held consultations with some banks and business leaders in the Private sector. We thank them immensely for their thought provoking ideas and counsel. We intend to sustain the pace of those consultations as this would act as barometer for measuring the progress being made in the implementation of our policies. Our assessment of the outcome of that deliberation shows that with concerted efforts, the challenges facing the country are easily surmountable.
Consequently, working closely with our fiscal authorities, we pledge to target a double digit growth by the next five years and at the CBN, we commit to working assiduously to bringing down inflation to single digit; while accelerating the rate of employment. Put succinctly, our priorities at the CBN over the next 5 years are the following; First, preserve domestic macroeconomic and financial stability; Second, foster the development of a robust payments system infrastructure that will increase access to finance for all Nigerians thereby raising the financial inclusion rate in the country; Third, continue to work with the Deposit Money Banks to improve access to credit for not only small holder farmers and MSMEs but also Consumer credit and mortgage facilities for bank customers. Our intervention support shall also be extended to our youth population who possess entrepreneurship skills in the creative industry.
This group deserve our encouragement. We shall also during this intervening period encourage our Deposit Money Banks to direct more focus in supporting the Education Sector. Fourth, grow our external reserves; and fifth, support efforts at diversifying the economy through our intervention programs in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
We are confident that when implemented, these measures will help to insulate our economy from potential shocks in the global economy.
In my second term in office, part of my pledge, is to work to the best of my abilities in fulfilling these objectives.
Macroeconomic Stability
On Macro-Economic Stability, over the next 5 years, with a key emphasis on supporting improved GDP growth and greater private sector investment, we intend to leverage monetary policy tools in supporting a low inflation environment, while seeking to maintain stability in our exchange rate. As a result;
innovations by Fintechs and Banks in a controlled environment, in order to assess its impact on the growth and safety of our financial system.
Through the credit bureaus, we will also leverage technological tools such as analytics in identifying and supporting farmers that have exhibited good credit behavior, in repayment of their loan obligations. This measure will improve their ability to source for financing from commercial banks.
We will introduce a non-oil export aspect to the anchor borrowers’ program, which will be focused on linking smallholder farmers to international buyers.
This will help improve access to credit for farmers and MSMEs, and it will also support the growth of their respective businesses.
accelerate improved investments by businesses, who seek to meet the demand of consumers. Improved consumer spending and investments by businesses will ultimately help to spur the growth of our economy and support our job creation efforts.
The Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, has cautioned corps members to be security conscious wherever they are posted to serve in Nigeria.
The Director General, who addressed the 2019 Batch ‘B’ Corps Members today, June 23, at the NYSC Orientation Camps in Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano and Yobe States, said: “you are your own number one security officer. Therefore, you must be conscious of your environment at all times.
Shuaibu Ibrahim said that the operatives of the scheme have maintained regular contacts with security agencies with a view to sustaining their support for the safety of the corps members, even as he advised corps members to avoid putting themselves in harmful way.
“The incident of kidnapping is becoming rampant, but you can only be kidnapped if you make yourself available. So, please, avoid risky engagements: avoid staying out late; do not attend late night parties, and if going out, always inform someone that is trustworthy.”
The Director General warned the corps members against embarking on unnecessary journey, saying that they must seek permission before traveling.
He also advised them to always disclose the true state of their health to enable the operatives of the scheme take appropriate steps to ameliorate their condition, adding that there is the need for them to acquaint themselves with the NYSC Act and Bye-Laws and to abide by their provisions.
“You must internalise the content of the Act and the Bye-Laws so as to avoid getting yourselves into trouble through avoidable infraction.
“Beyond the letters, also take time to understand and internalize the spirit of the NYSC Anthem and the oath of allegiance which was administered on you few days ago.”
Professor Babagana ZulumBorno state governor, Babagan Umara Zulum has suspended two medical doctors in the service of the state government for being absent on duty at the General Hospital in Biu local government area. The governor also suspended another doctor who tried to cover up for the absentee doctors.
The Governor had paid unscheduled visit to the General Hospital to obtain first-hand knowledge of their operations as part of his tour of all local government areas in the state.
“I have earlier stated that my administration will not condone the culture of absenteeism, indolence, indiscipline and nepotism in the public service.
“We are working for the people, not the people working for us. We must value their time and respect their resources therefore lack of punctuality will not be accepted.”
He said that prudent management of public funds, transparency and accountability will be the guiding principles of his administration.
