Former Vice President and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has advocated the creation of more employment as a solution to incessant migration of Nigerian youths to other countries, with all the dangers involved.
He also recommended what he called ‘inclusive government’ that does not engender crisis which he said will stem the ill-fated migration of Nigerians.
Atiku Abubakar made the recommendation today, Sunday, to mark the United Nations International Migrants Day.
The PDP chieftain said, in a statement by his media office in Abuja, that the major driver of migration, which at times are ill-fated like in the case of Libya, is the search of better life and opportunity.
Atiku laments the current situation in the country where three million jobs, according to the NBS, are being lost annually in the last two years, adding that such situation had complicated the already bad unemployment.
“Millions of our youths have been rendered jobless and, with no prospects of opportunities, they are compelled to take the suicidal flight.
Atiku, who holds the traditional title of Waziri Adamawa, advised governments at all levels to create the enabling environment that will attract and sustain investments that will create jobs for the army of unemployed.
“The chances of a young person with a job and opportunity at home taken a suicidal flight in search of a better life will become an exception and not the rule.”
He emphasised that migration is caused by poverty and insecurity in the original countries of the migrants, stressing that governments in Africa, including Nigeria to create an environment conducive for economic progress and employment generation.
According to Atiku, a fair and inclusive government would spread available opportunity to all citizens and encourage those with entrepreneurial inclination to start businesses and factories to absorb the teeming population of the unemployed, thus making unbridled migration unnecessary.
The former Vice President, however, appealed that “migrants should be treated with decency because they are humans, in apparent reference to the harrowing experience and stereotype which migrants are being subjected to all over the World over.
He said that migrants do not usually choose to migrate if it were not unpleasant social, economic and political conditions in many countries that forcefully uproot them and turn them into such condition.
These are the people, he said, that are seeking new homes, security, employment and a better future.
Atiku called on all stakeholders to find ways of dealing squarely and in a humane manner, with the challenges thrown up by the reality of migration in the contemporary World, even as he regretted that one of the worst forms of maltreatment, which a migrant can experience, is the large-scale enslavement of young and helpless Nigerian and African migrants in Libya which recently drew global attention.[myad]

The management of Dangote Group has not hidden its fight with BUA company over limestone mining in a boundary town of Oguda/Ubo in Okene Kogi State, saying that BUA is stealing its Mining Lease No. 2541 through illegal mining resource.
The Executive Director of Dangote Group, Mr. Devakumar Edwin, who spoke on the matter, expressed sadness with what he called ‘media war,’ that has been instigated by BUA against his company on a matter that is already pending before the Federal High Court, Benin Division
Edwin said: “Dangote Group validly acquired its interest and mining title in the disputed Mining Lease No. 2541 from AICO Ado Ibrahim & Company Ltd sometime in 2014. AICO itself had applied to the Mining Cadastre Office and Ministry of Mines and Steel Development for the said Mining Lease No. 2541 located in a boundary town of Oguda/Ubo in Okene Kogi State in 2007. The Ministry in exercise of its power under the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007 granted and issued to AICO ML. No. 2541 for the renewable period of 25 years effective from 1st February 2008 and to expire on 31 January, 2033. Thus AICO by virtue of the said grant, became vested with the legal title over ML. No. 2541. In 2014, the Dangote Group approached AICO and indicated interest in acquiring AICO’s stake in ML No. 2541. In 2014, AICO in exercise of its right under the Mining Act, applied to the Ministry for the transfer of its title in the ML No. 2541 to Dangote Group. AICO and Dangote Group equally paid all the transfer and statutory fees demanded by the Ministry.”
He further explained that:” By a letter dated 05 February 2016, the Ministry wrote to the Managing Director of the Dangote Group to convey the approval of the Ministry for the Transfer/Assignment of ML No. 2541 from AICO to Dangote Group with effect from 03 February 2016. Following the successful transfer of ML. NO. 2541 to Dangote Group, the Group became the holder of the Mining Lease No. 2541.”
He said that even BUA, in its process in Court, acknowledged that these illegal mining leases which it claimed were granted in 1997 were temporary mining leases.
Edwin recalled that the then Minister for Solid Minerals under Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime, Dr Oby Ezekwesili sometime in 2006 waded into the dispute and invited the managements of Edo Cement Company Limited and AICO Ado Ibrahim & Company Limited for a meeting and that in the course of the meeting the then Minister again queried the legality of Mining Lease Nos 18912 and 18913 and the power of the Governor of Edo State to grant such mining leases.
“At the end of the Meeting, the Minister declared the Edo Cement’s Mining Leases Nos. 18912 and 18913 illegal and declared the mining site open for interested investors. Given that AICO’s then existing Mining Lease No. 17825 was yet to be renewed even though application for renewal was pending, AICO in 2007 (under the Mining Act, 2007) applied for the fresh Mining Lease No. 2541 and the Ministry granted it in 2008 without any objection from Edo Cement Company” Edwin said AICO, who sold the right to Dangote, continued its mining operations in the Mining Lease No. 2541 undisturbed until BUA Group acquired Edo Cement Company Limited and resuscitated the dispute again.
Edwin further revealed that it was the attempt by BUA to encroach on AICO’s mining title in Mining Lease No. 2541 that prompted AICO to write to the Ministry in 2015 complaining of BUA’s encroachment.
He said: “The Ministry after investigation in the same 2015 by the letter dated 21 January 2015 wrote to the Chairman of BUA Group directing BUA to stop mining within the ML. No. 2541. It was this same letter from the Ministry that prompted BUA to file a Suit at the Federal High Court Benin in 2016.”
Edwin said: “It is therefore appalling that BUA Group in the midst of these overwhelming facts will still want the public to believe that Dangote Group is after its business when in actual fact BUA has been the one mining illegally in Dangote Mining Lease and attacking its officials without any justification… The crocodile tears being shed by BUA in its cry for help and open letter to the President is most laughable and a total distraction from BUA’s continuous illegal activities within Dangote’s ML 2541 aimed at depleting and exhausting the limestone reserves in order to sabotage Dangote Group’s legitimate investment.”[myad]

The immediate past President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has acknowledged that President Muhammadu Buhari is a statesman who has earned for himself, a special place in the history of Nigeria.

In a message to congratulate Buhari as he turned 75 today, Sunday, Dr. Jonathan said: “Your Excellency, you are a statesman whose place in history as Nigeria’s leader, at different epochs in our nation’s development journey, is guaranteed.” [myad]

Governor Ayodele Fayose has sent a congratulatory message to President Muhammadu Buhari on his 75th birthday wherein he wished him a long and healthy life.

“This is to congratulate Mr. President as he clocks 75. I want to thank God for his life and pray for good health in the service of our nation and that he continues to age with grace. I wish him the best. He represents us all and we owe him prayers and cooperation where necessary, just as we also need to criticize him too where necessary,” he said. [myad]

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has appealed to leaders and members of the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) to prioritize the speedy sharing of information between member states, in order to more effectively checkmate the activities of foreign vessels fishing illegally within our territorial waters.
The Nigerian Vice President, who addressed the 10th Ministerial Conference/Anniversary celebration of the FCWC in Abuja today, Friday, advised the six member-countries to deepen strategic cooperation, to harness the enormous fisheries potentials in the Gulf of Guinea for the benefit of their people.
Professor Osinbajo stressed that it is in the common and vital interest of the African countries to give the FCWC full support for the sustainable management of the fisheries resources.
“On the part of Nigeria, we will continue to play our role in the support of FCWC. In line with this, I am happy to inform you that we have paid almost about $200,000 of our debt to the FCWC this year.
I say the figure just to encourage everyone else, to toe the line of repaying debts as quickly as possible.
“The safety of Nigeria’s maritime waters is also of principal concern to us. To this end, President Buhari has approved the purchase of some patrol vessels for the Department of Fisheries, which will be managed in collaboration with the Nigerian Navy.
“These vessels will boost the search and rescue capacities of the relevant security agencies, deter illegal fishing, prevent illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing, and help secure our vessels at sea.
In the Northeast of Nigeria, terrorist activities of Boko Haram have devastated a fishing industry that has historically supplied much of West Africa.
“President Buhari earlier this year, approved the establishment of a Lake Chad Naval Base, to boost security, and fast-track the restoration of deprived livelihoods in that zone.
“The theme of this conference which is: “Investing for Growth and Sustainability for Fisheries in West Africa” is an important one, both in terms of sharing experiences and laying out our aspirations for the economic well-being of our people.”
Vice President Osinbajo shared some of the success which Buhari government had achieved in agriculture and investments generally4aying that agriculture and aquaculture in particular, is easily one of the most critical of the multiple engines that will help diversify the economies, and create jobs and prosperity.
“We have focused on agriculture as being the pathway for sustainable growth for our people, and providing much needed jobs for the hundreds of thousands of young people graduating from various levels of our educational institutions. We think that fisheries and the whole aquaculture economy, will supply what we need in terms of opportunities for several of these young people and there are several initiatives we are proffering which the Ministry of Agriculture has been leading in the past few months.”
He noted that the government is making efforts to reduce fish imports and increase local fish production, by encouraging the private sector to invest in aquaculture, adding that the effort is yielding positive results.
“Our domestic fish production in the last two years has increased from 450,000 metric tons to 1.1million metric tons.
This is no doubt regarding the result of the work we’re doing to encourage and enable investment in Nigeria. Our conviction is that Nigeria’s economic revolution must be led by private capital, and that government’s primary role is to create the enabling environment for commerce to thrive unhindered and this has greatly assisted our work in this respect.
“We have worked quite hard, to ensure that we create the environment for investments; small, medium-sized and large investments.
“We have worked at this especially in the last one year, by implementing a series of reforms that have earned us a place on the World Bank’s list of top ten most improved economies in 2017, from a business climate improvement perspective.
“These reforms range from simplifying registration processes for new businesses, to making it easier for investors and entrepreneurs to access credit, to implementing a visa on arrival scheme that takes just about 48 hours to process. We are also effecting reforms aimed at easing bottlenecks in our seaports, for the benefit of importers and exporters.
Many of these reforms are in nascent stages, we are working daily to improve and fine-tune them. We have realized that we need to have an enabling environment, not just for foreign investments, but in particular for local investments to thrive. It is when local investments thrive that foreign investors may then feel enabled and inspired to come in to invest. Our focus is ensuring local investments thrive through several of the initiatives we have introduced.
“I would like to reiterate the philosophy behind these reforms; Nigeria is open for business and investment. We would like to see investors take us up on this pledge. You’re very likely aware that there is a great deal of opportunity in Nigeria’s aquaculture industry – the size of our domestic market and our status as a gateway to West Africa together constitute a compelling business case.”[myad]