The World Bank has projected that Nigeria will bounce back from the current economic recession, and grow its Gross Domestic Product, GDP, by one per cent.
“Nigeria is forecast to rebound from recession and grow at a 1 percent pace while Angola is projected to expand at a 1.2 percent pace.”
This was contained in a statement which projected that the global economy will accelerate moderately to 2.7 percent in this year.
While forcasting that growth in oil-exporting countries will be weaker, the global financial institution stated that economies that are not natural-resources intensive will experience robust growth.
“Sub-Saharan African growth is expected to pick up modestly to 2.9 percent in 2017 as the region continues to adjust to lower commodity prices.
“Growth in South Africa and oil exporters is expected to be weaker, while growth in economies that are not natural-resource intensive should remain robust.
“Growth in South Africa is expected to edge up to a 1.1 percent pace this year.” [myad]
Leaders of the ex Niger Delta militants, captured under the Niger Delta Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), yesterday, had a meeting with the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, retired Brigadier General Paul Boroh where they vowed to soon expose those that have been behind pipeline bombing and vandalization in the region.
The meeting which had the sole focus of fostering peace and stability in the Niger Delta region, was said to be well attended by leaders, State Coordinators and members from all nine states that make up the Niger Delta.
A statement by the Media Consultant to Brigadier General Paul Boroh, Wabiye Idoniboyeobu said that the Niger Delta leaders present pledged their support for the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s Agricultural Empowerment Programmes.
One of the Leaders, Pastor Ruben Wilson, was quoted as thanking General Boroh for his unbiased coordination of the Amnesty Programme, saying that under Boroh’s watch, the Amnesty Programme has transformed from a political tool to a well coordinated reintegration platform for the repentant agitators in the Niger Delta region.
The Ex agitators were said to have unanimously resolved to protect the sovereignty of the country and expose anyone found vandalizing oil and gas installations within their communities, even as they expressed concern over the negative effect of such vandalisation on the environment and the mindset of investors.
General Boroh lauded the ex-militansts for their patience and perseverance, promising Federal Government’s commitment to improving the lives of all beneficiaries and youths in the region.
The Amnesty Programme had, in recent times, focused on training and empowering beneficiaries in agricultural activities and about 200 ex militants have been trained and empowered on Enhanced Agriculture at the National Biotechnology Development Center, in Odi, Baylesa State. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari will tomorrow, Friday, embark on two-African nation diplomatic journeys, one to Banjul, the capital of The Gambia, as a mediator in that country’s political logjam, and Bamako, the Malian capital to attend the 27th Africa-France Summit.
A statement by the special adviser to the President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina said that Buhari is scheduled to meet with President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia and the President-elect, Adama Barrow to continue the dialogue on the political situation in the West African country.
The statement said that Buhari will be joined in Gambia by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia and Chairperson of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government, President Ernest Koroma of Sierra Leone and the immediate past President of Ghana, John Mahama, who is the co-meditator of The Gambian mission.
It said that President Buhari will, on the same day, go to Bamako, Mali to participate in the 27th Africa–France Summit which is for Partnership, Peace and Emergence.
The statement said that the Summit is being convened by French President Francois Hollande and is aimed at strengthening cooperation between France and African countries in the areas of peace and security, economic partnership and development.
The Nigerian leader, according to the statement, is expected to reaffirm Nigeria’s commitment to global efforts on the war against terror and will underline the need for improved collaboration to address the menace of terrorism in the region. This is in recognizing the role played by France in the successes so far recorded in the implementation of the regional initiative against terrorism.
“President Buhari will use the opportunity of the summit to underscore the efforts government is making to improve Nigeria’s business environment to attract more foreign direct investment.”
The statement said that Buhari will be accompanied by Governors Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State and Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Interior and Defence. [myad]
The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has decried the way some state governments are using the federal government’s refund of over deductions from the state governments’ allocations between 1995 and 2002 to settle Paris and London Clubs loan, even as it asked the minister of Finance and the all state governors to publish the details of the payments.
The CNPP, which is the umbrella body of all registered political parties and associations in Nigeria, in a statement signed by its Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, said that it was immoral for states to receive the reimbursements and yet owe their workers salary arrears.
“We have observed with dismay that most states are still owing their workers several months of salary and pension arrears.
“It is immoral for State governors owing civil servants’ salaries not to pay now, having received huge amounts as reimbursements from the Federal Government.
“More worrisome is the spate of controversies surrounding the refund, as some states now claim they are yet to receive the reimbursement, while workers at both the state and local government levels were left without their sufferings ameliorated by their state governors.
“We are amazed that these same state governments that are owing their pensioners and workers received Presidential bailout funds for the purpose of settling the salary arrears, which they eventually pocketed.
“The CNPP is now disturbed that from the body language of most of our Governors, the over deduction refunded to states may go down the drains just like the President Buhari’s bailout funds they received.
“If the Federal Ministry of Finance does not want to be seen as collaborators in ongoing corruption at state levels, which led to nonpayment of salaries in the first place, the details of payment to each state must be published on newspapers and on their website for worker to be able to hold their state government accountable.
“In the same vein, we demand that all state governors publish the details of the reimbursement as they received from the federal government.
“As a recent report put it, only three states, namely Lagos, Enugu and Rivers are paying salaries as at when due, which is not good for a society where majority of the citizens are suffering as a result of increasing hardship on the land.
“We read in the newspapers that some state governors were lobbying the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, not to publish the details of the refunds given to them.
“If true, it shows the said governors are anti people, wicked and must be named and shamed by the Finance Minister,” the CNPP said.
President Muhammadu Buhari had early December last year, approved a total of N522.74 billion to be disbursed to states as reimbursement for over deductions on the external debt service. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the reconstitution of the Executive Management of River Basin Development Authorities under the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.
The appointments are with immediate effect. They are:
ANAMBRA-IMO RIVER BASIN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (AIRBDA):
Rev. Michael Nwabufo — Managing Director
Engr. (Dr.) Michael C. Nwachukwu–Executive Director, Engineering
Dr. Nweze B. Obasi — Executive Director, Agricultural Services
Dr. Benjamin Aneke — Executive Director, Planning and Design
Mrs. Ngozi C. Uche –Executive Director, Finance and Administration
BENIN-OWENA RIVER BASIN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (BORBDA):
Engr. Saliu O. Ahmed — Managing Director
Engr. (Mrs.) Modupe V. Olalemi – Executive Director, Engineering
Agbetuyi O. Bamidele — Executive Director, Agricultural Services
Olumese E. Charles — Executive Director, Planning and Design,
Akinya Folorunsho Samson – Executive Director, Finance and Administration.
“I have no conflict-of-interest provision as president. I could actually run my business and run government at the same time. I can run the Trump Organization—a great, great company—and run the country. I’d do a great job.”
These were the expression by the American President-elect, Donald Trump when he held his first press conference today.
Trump who actually wants to hand the management of his business over to his two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, who were standing to his right onstage, along with their sister Ivanka, who will step down from the Trump Organization to move her family to Washington, discussed the pharmaceutical industry and the auto business.
Trump said that he will not divest his financial interest in his company, claiming that he will pay it no mind as president.
“(My two sons) are going to be running it in a very professional manner. They are not going to discuss it with me,” he said.
Later in the presser, he said that when his time in office is over, he hopes to discover that his sons did a good job. And if they don’t, he will give them his signature reality-television line: “You’re fired.”
He pointed to a stack of manila folders set up on a table just to his side—six sloppily arranged files and papers that allegedly contained hundreds of documents he had signed in order to turn over control of his company and avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest.
After only about 20 minutes behind the microphone and only several questions from the press, Trump brought up Sheri Dillon, a tax attorney who has helped the president-elect determine how to comply with ethics standards, to read a statement.
“He directed me to design a structure for his business empire that would completely isolate him from the management of the company,” said Dillon, who also helped build protections that would assure the American people that Trump is not exploiting the office of the presidency.
That structure includes Trump stepping away from all management roles within the Trump Organization.
Dillon stated that the Trump Organization will not make any foreign deals for the duration of his administration, but his sons will be able to make deals domestically.
An appointed ethics adviser, who was not named, will be required to sign off on all new deals that his sons choose to make before they go forward. She also stated that Trump has canceled all pending deals—about 30 or so—and gotten rid of his stock holdings.
In addition, she explained that Trump will not talk to his sons about the business, and the only information he will receive on the health of the business will be generalized reports on profits and losses and what he reads in newspapers and sees on television.
The Trump Organization’s social-media accounts will also be completely separate from Trump himself and the office of the president.
Trump will still hold on to illiquid business assets, including his golf clubs, resorts, hotels, and deals that bear his name, presumably including Trump Water, Trump wine, and Trump Tower. “President-elect Trump should not be expected to destroy the company he built,” Dillon said. As for the possibility of setting up a blind trust—a suggestion ethics experts have hailed as critical for removing the appearance of conflicts—she said that is not feasible. “President Trump can’t un-know that he own Trump Tower.”
As for the Emoluments Clause, a portion of the U.S. Constitution that prohibits a president from accepting gifts, presents, and financial backing from foreign governments or entities, Trump’s lawyer argued that it has never been interpreted to apply to fair-value exchanges.
In her reading of the law, this means that foreign-government officials staying at a Trump-owned hotel in order to curry the favor of the president or his children would not violate the Constitution because “paying your hotel bill would be . . . a value-to-value exchange.” Still, she said, Trump will donate foreign-government payments made to his hotels to the U.S. Treasury “so that the American people will benefit.”
The plan, as it is, does little to substantively tame the ethical violations that could set fire to the office of the presidency once Trump takes office. He still stands to financially benefit from his businesses.
His sons and daughter will also still stand to benefit. To suggest that his children, whose opinions he valued enough to place on his White House transition team, will not discuss his business with him at all is tenuous at best, and also requires the American people to take the family at their word that, in private, they will not discuss the family business. As for the ethics adviser, it is unclear who this individual would be, what their qualifications are, and how the public will know that this person remains independent.
While the Trump Organization will not be making foreign deals under the new structure outlined Wednesday, the domestic deals it will continue to pursue remain problematic. It is not hard to see how developers could make deals with the Trump family in order to gain access, court, or get in the good graces of the president.
The incentive to patronize and conduct favorable dealings with Trump properties will remain as strong and, on its face, as ethically problematic as ever.
If anything, it appears that Trump’s plan to have his businesses donate their profits from representatives of foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury makes the Emoluments issue more complicated and troublesome.
This interpretation of the law is a narrow one, certainly. And because one Trump lawyer reads it as such does not mean that the rest of the U.S. government and courts will interpret it the same way. (Dillon did not say whether the plan had been presented to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, or whether the agency had given its approval.)
The plan does little to address most of the more worrying conflicts of interest that threaten to undermine the incoming Trump administration. It remains unclear how Trump will handle the lease for his newly built Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., which is leased from the Government Services Administration. The lease states that it can’t be held by an elected official. But this decision is to be determined by the head of the G.S.A., an individual whom Trump will appoint once in office. Other Trump appointees, too, will be asked to make critical decisions affecting Trump businesses. The attorney general put forth by Trump will be in charge of investigations into Deutsche Bank, an institution to which Trump is $300 million in debt. The head of the I.R.S., also a Trump appointee, will be in charge of an ongoing audit into his tax returns, which he has still not released.
The tax returns, Trump said in the press conference on Wednesday, don’t matter to the American public. “I don’t think they care,” he said. “I won. I became president.” As of now, it hasn’t yet mattered to the American electorate—at least the 46.1 percent who voted for him—nor have his supporters called on him to account for the web of opaque business ties that will continue to line his pockets in office. If it did, perhaps he would have actually taken steps to address them. [myad]
“No amount of blackmail will make the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) allow a practice whereby our farmers and industrialists who have invested heavily and employed our youths in the production of Nigerian made rice, fish, industrial starch, palm produce, wheat, tooth pick, wines, etc would be made to close their farms and factories again.”
The Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, who was reacting to an allegation of corruption leveled against the CBN by Nigerian Wailers, said that the Wailers are paid agents and would fail in their bid to distract the government from its focus.
Okorafor who spoke to the Economic Confidential said: “The allegations are totally false and fabricated. Such a thing is not possible under the new forex system. It is not enough to make wild allegations. Those who are paid agents of selfish interests and the enemies of the Nigerian economy will fail in their bid to distract the CBN and the Federal Government from their focus on the diversification of the Nigerian economy away from import and crude oil dependency.
“What these charlatans and hirelings want are basically twofold. First they want the CBN to give out the nation’s scarce foreign exchange to their sponsors to import all manner of foreign goods and dump them on our markets thereby frustrating the good work our own farmers and manufacturers.
“Secondly, they want the CBN to fold its arms and allow currency speculators to drive the naira down to a level at which it will be easy for their paymasters to buy up and take control of the Nigerian economy. They have even gone to the extent of making false allegations that some banks are having trouble just to trigger panic in the financial system. These will not happen. Nigerians have rejected these foreign agents. 26 states have adopted the CBN Anchor Borrowers Progrmme (ABP).
“Nigeria is set to be self-sufficient in rice, fish and wheat production. What happened during the past Christmas and New Year celebrations has proved this. It will be economically suicidal for the CBN to allocate our scarce forex to those who will engage in another escapade in senseless importation which will again discourage our local producers who have borrowed money to engage in agriculture and local manufacturing. It will be dangerous to our poor people in the rural areas and indeed to masses of Nigerian workers who are on fixed incomes for the CBN to allow speculators to drive the value of the naira to any level just for the selfish gains of the sponsors of these arrangee protests. We will not succumb to blackmail.
“Again, the issue of the CBN funding the Federal Government budget has been long addressed with clear figures which have been widely publicized. Let me once again state that the role of the CBN as banker to the Federal Government is to do exactly what we have done and within the limits specified by law.
“Or would the so called group want the CBN to withhold advances so that the government will collapse?”
The Nigerian Wailers had, in a statement, alleged wide-spread corruption in the administration of foreign exchange and illegally lending money to President Buhari’s administration to support the budget. [myad]
The Federal Government of Nigeria has cut all diplomatic relations with Taiwan and said that it will no longer recognise Taiwan as a country.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, who spoke at joint news conference with the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs in Abuja, said that Nigeria had withdrawn all diplomatic relations with Taiwan as a country and that Taiwanese office in Abuja would be shut down and relocated to Lagos.
According to him, Nigeria has communicated Taiwan and they are moving to Lagos as soon as possible.
“Taiwan will stop enjoying any privileges because it is not a country that is recognized under international law and under the position we have taken internationally, we recognize the people of China.
“Taiwan will not have any diplomatic representation in Nigeria and also they will be moving to Lagos to the extent that they function as a trade mission with a skeletal staff. Chinese Government does not oppose trading with Taiwan as long as there is no formal contact with the Government that will suggest recognition of Taiwan as sovereign country.”
According to him, China does not oppose relationship with Taiwan in the level of trade but not on government to government level.
The minister, however, said that Nigeria was not pressurized to take the decision, but that the development was a bit of anomaly on the side of Nigeria.
He said that Nigeria recognized the People’s Republic of China as country because Nigeria was one the leading African nations that fought for China to reclaim its seat at the UN Security Council from Taiwan.
He said that the step being taken was to right the wrong that one could not specifically say how it came.
“It was not very clear how it got into Nigeria system – an arrangement for the Taiwan for a trade mission.
“And in grating the right of the trade mission it did not accurately reflect the nature of relationship between Nigeria and Taiwan.”
Onyeama said that the country took the decision to remove any iota of doubt in the mind of the Chinese people.
He said on the issue of building trust, the international community had embraced one China and China is a member of the United Nations “and we don’t want to leave any doubt on the issue.” The minister stressed that Nigeria would adhere to it completely, saying that Nigeria as a nation, would do everything to realize the One China Policy as well as any effort that would promote the peace and well being of the People’s Republic of China.
According to Onyeama, China is one of the countries that have been in full support of reforms in the UN that would see Africa having two seats at the UN Security Council, as such deserved to be supported in her unification drive of One China. Meanwhile, China and Nigeria signed a joint statement and made same to the public today. The full text of the statement is reproduced here:
Joint Statement by the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
The Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are committed to strengthening the longstanding friendship and cooperation between the two countries to the benefit of their peoples.
The Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria reaffirm their respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria reaffirms that the one China policy is at the core of its Strategic Partnership with China.
The Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria recognizes that there is only one China in the world, that the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. The Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria reiterates not to have any official relations or engage in any official contacts with Taiwan, and supports all efforts made by the Chinese Government to realize national reunification.
The Government of the People’s Republic of China appreciates the above position and the recent measures taken accordingly by the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and reaffirms its commitment to actively developing China-Nigeria Strategic Partnership across the board. [myad]
The founder of the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Raphael Uwazuruike, has called the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu a “fraudster,” who is not genuinely interested in the Biafran struggle.
Uwazuruike said this in Owerri, Imo State, while responding to rumours that the federal government wants him to testify against Kanu in secret, saying that he was ready to testify against Kanu in the open.
Uwazuruike made it clear that the modern Biafra was his concept, describing allegations against him by Kanu’s group as idiotic, stupid and laughable.
“The modern Biafra is my product; I started it in 1999 and since that time I have been on with the struggle. Our late leader, Odimegwu Ojukwu gave me the franchise and I am the leader of the Biafran struggle today. Any other person involved in the struggle is working on my behalf.
“When I founded MASSOB in 1999 and started the struggle for Biafra, no Igbo man could summon the courage to mention Biafra. It was then considered as a taboo. Our people were cowards and could not mention Biafra until I started.
“When I started, nobody gave me a chance. I went through the hurdles alone. So Nnamdi Kanu is not the first Igbo to be tried for treason. I also stood before the same judge handling his case for the same charge of treason. He should face his trial like a freedom fighter and if need be die for the course.”
Uwazuruike said that Kanu was “a nobody” when he picked him up in London, where he was “practicing Internet fraud as his only means of livelihood.
“Kanu was homeless when I met him in London, I gave him the first money to rent an apartment after he was thrown out by the Ghanaian woman he was living with,” he said.
“When I met him (Kanu) in London he had no job and no certificate, he was into internet crime. So who is Nnamdi Kanu, it is you the journalists that are flaming him up as somebody, if not he is a nobody.
“The struggle continues to be alive as long as I agree. Even if Nnamdi Kanu dies today, the struggle continues. I cannot travel to Abuja to give evidence against Kanu masked, if I want to do that, I will testify against him in an open court, but I can’t do that; what do I stand to gain?”
A spokesman of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPBO), Emma Powerful, had claimed that Uwazuruike was promised oil wells by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, if he helped in nailing Kanu.
“Some unscrupulous elements in Biafra land are working with the Nigeria government and the DSS to hide under the screen to testify against Nnamdi Kanu,” Powerful said in a statement.
“IPOB intelligence unit across the country uncovered plans and names of those to be used by the federal government to testify against our leader Nnamdi Kanu.
“The Buhari government promised to allocate oil wells to Ralph Uwazuruike and his associates in crime against the leader of IPOB and Biafrans worldwide.
“To buttress our points, Raphael Uwazuruike and co were in contact with the DSS headquarters in Owerri and Abuja to perfect this heinous crime against humanity but right now they are in Abuja to compliment the whole arrangements to testify against the People of Biafra and our leader.” [myad]
Police have arrested the Publisher of Sahara Reporters, an online news medium, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, today, Wednesday. The police said that he was arrested over alleged threat to life and blackmail against a London based journalist, Lekan Fatodu.
Sowore was believed to still be undergoing interrogation in the hand of police at the Area ‘F’ command Ikeja as at 7pm today, Wednesday.
Report had it that he was picked up by policemen from his Lagos home following a petition by Fatodun, who in the petition which he addressed to the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, accused Sowore of publishing a story on alleged money laundry against him.
In the publication, Fatodu was alleged to be assisting Nigerian politicians to move money out of the country.
Police sources hinted that they were alerted yesterday evening of Sowore’s presence, consequent upon which they went for his arrest.
Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmos confirmed the arrest and said that she could not say if Sowore would be released later.
She said: “I confirm his arrest. He was arrested this evening over threat to life on Lekan Fatodu and blackmail. He is still under investigation.”
But Omoyele Sowore, on his facebook page said that he was attacked by Lekan Fatodu and his friends in Lagos and were taken to the CP’s office in Lagos.
After the police “intervened” soon as I was attacked by Lekan Fatodu and his friends in Lagos and were taken to the CP’s office in Lagos. ‘Turns out he was in on this, he pulled out a supposed petition written by Lekan from his hat after that he became very hostile towards me and ordered that we be driven to State CID, at Panti in Lagos. It is very obvious that this was planned between Lekan Fatodu and the police. They offered him unbridled support as he continued attacking me in the presence of the police. I could have been I am familiar with this style of the Nigerian police. We are now being driven to Panti in Yaba res of Lagos.”
Also Lekan Fatodu on his twitter handle @LekanFatodu wrote ‘BREAKING! I just got Sowore Omoyele of Saharareporters arrested for criminal defamation and blackmail and threat to my life and career.’ [myad]
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