Where Nigeria’s Power Roadmap Missed Road, By SKC Ogbonnia

May 21, 2015

Despite investing over $30 billion in the power sector in the past 15 years, Nigeria’s epileptic power supply has taken a turn for the worse in recent months. Today, the total electricity supply is less than 2,100 megawatts (MW) for a country of over 170 million people. As a result, citizens and businesses have resorted to the use of electric generators to the point where some industry experts are now placing the frontal cost, including imported fuel, as high as the size of the annual national budget. This mire has provoked a wide range of debates with a host of powerful voices overtly urging the President-elect Muhammadu Buhari to scrap the current power sector reform altogether when he comes into office. But any temptation to toe that line readily translates to a right cause on the wrong course. The problem is definitely not the policy by itself. The gospel truth that the highly celebrated “Road Map for Power Sector Reform” under President Goodluck Jonathan has simply missed road, but can and should be redirected.

The roadmap was conceived on a charming premise that deregulation and privatisation are twin catalysts for energy Eldorado. Although the Jonathan people pursued the power agenda with admirable zeal, little did they know that reliable service delivery in the power sector required more than mere theory. Yet, they marginalised a central theory on privatisation which clearly states that effectiveness, as well as efficiency, is contingent upon the environment. The industry naïveté is further exposed when considered that the committee on power would fail to recognise that any concept which advocates corporate profits at the crude expense of public interest cannot be ideal in this stage of Nigerian national development that an average citizen lives on less than one dollar per day.

The first main detour was at the juncture where political cronyism crossed the entire process. Major public electricity assets under the privatisation exercise were sold off at ridiculously below-the-market prices to a retinue of government cronies who not only lacked the technical capacities and expertise but also the genuine interest to drive home the power vehicle.

The United States of America offers a salutary experience. Due to the importance of electricity in human welfare and obvious complexities with privatisation, deregulation of the power sector in the US did not begin until less than 25 years ago. And despite what some analysts may view as its merits, only 16 out of America’s 50 states have seen sufficient benefits to exercise full deregulation of electricity.

Simply put, Nigeria is not quite ripe for deregulation and may seem to be in a paradox of sort. Yet, reversing the policy is a recipe for a colossal disaster and is thus no longer an option. Even as it is necessary to review where and how the roadmap missed its bearing, this piece is a blueprint to redirect the existing programme towards efficient power delivery.

By all indications, Nigeria’s power sector reform is fraught with difficult road blocks but none is more daunting than the fact that the policy implementation veered off by failing to steer the original direction of the roadmap. The first main detour was at the juncture where political cronyism crossed the entire process. Major public electricity assets under the privatisation exercise were sold off at ridiculously below-the-market prices to a retinue of government cronies who not only lacked the technical capacities and expertise but also the genuine interest to drive home the power vehicle. The most perilous mishap to the roadmap yet is that the implementation team placed all its eggs in one shaky basket.

Contrary to the dictates of the roadmap, instead of prudent diversification to alternative sources of energy, implementation has been concentrated on gas-to-power. Worst still, a vital link of the roadmap anchored through the Ministry of Petroleum Resources punctured an important component of the initiative on gas-to-power by abandoning the nationwide gas pipeline master plan initiated under President Olusegun Obasanjo, including the strategic East-North gas pipeline (CAP) from Calabar through Enugu and Ajaokuta to Kano. Today, not only is over 80% of Nigeria’s power to the National Grid generated through thermal plants, most gas infrastructure is localised in a volatile axis of the country. The result is that any illegal tampering of the gas pipelines in the area, which is sadly very often, is a nation in darkness.

The quickest way to remedy the situation is to defy the odds and provide adequate gas supply to the multitude of existing power plants in the country — and with immediate effect. Nigeria’s power problem no longer hinges on lack of power stations but failure to provide the plants with the abundant natural gas in the land. For instance, even though the country currently boasts of over 2 billion cubic feet of gas daily with a power generation capacity at about 6,000 MW, the total output is less than 2,100 MW. The huge drop is attributed to inadequate gas supply due to vandalism. According to Nigeria’s Ministry of Power, the sector has been losing close to 120 to 150 million cubic feet of gas per day (MMScf/d) in the last eight weeks along the Trans Forcardos (TFP) and Escravos-Lagos (ELP) pipelines. A mere 300 MMScf/d of gas loss at any point in time translates to a reduction of about 1,000 MW of power supply.

But the whole excuse of incessant vandalism of gas pipelines is roundly lame. The root cause of the problem is squarely a failure in leadership. The different conspiracy theories notwithstanding, any notion that a country like Nigeria — a nation of over 170 million people with an estimated 50% of youth unemployment — cannot guard the pipeline to the mainstay of the national economy in this stage of technological advancement is nothing but the continual tendency to give the dog a bad name.

There is a plethora of data to support the foregoing opinion but the mere fact that the country takes pride in awarding huge contracts to a barefaced militant cabal for the security of gas and petroleum pipelines is a compelling testimony of the failure in leadership. With a common sense leadership in place, besides a galore of technological advances in the surveillance industry, a common task force of army, navy, and a pool from the unemployed university graduates should be adequate to address the problem of vandalism pronto — even if it requires stationing armed guards at every pole throughout the breadth and depth of the pipeline network.

The second major recommendation is a two-pronged approach on gas-to-power. With the best intentions, the Roadmap has already raised power generation through natural gas to a commendable nameplate capacity of over 11,500 MW. Although some of the plants are still under construction, a good number are completed but yet to be connected to the pipelines or the national grid. Thus, the incoming Buhari government should begin by beaming its searchlight on why development on some gas powered plants is stalled. A case in point is Geometrix, the first indigenous private generating plant located at Aba. It is mystifying that this plant has been completed for years but hindered from coming on stream by a toxic mix of politics and private sector monopoly.

Perhaps renewable energy, such as solar, wind, biofuels, and traditional biomass should not be ignored

The next approach is to de-emphasise gas-to-power for the meantime and stake earnest resources on other sources of energy. De-emphasising gas-to-power is strategic. A careful implementation of such policy not only boosts power generation in different parts of the country, it will also help to overcome overdependence on natural gas and the unending chicanery with pipeline vandalism. Best of all, Nigeria will finally put into use other huge natural resources long abandoned because of indolent preference for oil and gas.

Thus far, though hydro power accounts for less than 20% of the generation to the National Grid, there is an appreciable number of hydro plants in the country. Currently, the hydro nameplate capacity stands at over 5,300 MW which, of course, includes the $7 billion 3,050 MW Mambila Power Station and others under construction. Similar to the agenda on gas-to-power, rather than building more hydro plants, efforts should be made to ensure that existing hydro projects are executed in a timely manner.

Perhaps renewable energy, such as solar, wind, biofuels, and traditional biomass should not be ignored, but the most logical alternative for serious public sector investment in power generation today is coal-to-power. Nigeria is globally ranked as the seventh largest in coal deposit. Like her counterparts in other countries, particularly South Africa, the United States of America, China, Indonesia, and Australia, Nigeria is overdue to join the comity of nations that generate power from coal. Unlike the typical hydroelectric power station that takes anywhere from six to eight years before coming on stream, coal-fire powered plants normally takes three to four years to build. This proposal is in line with the original Power Roadmap of 2010, which specifically calls for continued public investment in renewable energy and coal. It is also in agreement with Buhari’s election manifesto which promised immediate revitalisation of coal-to-power.

At least seven states are known with huge coal reserves in Nigeria with the potential to generate more that 5,000MW of electricity. Given the recent breakthrough in the discovery of clean coal technologies, now is the time to finally kick-start the much anticipated construction of the three coal-fired power stations capable of generating a combined nameplate capacity of 1,000 MW at different locations in Enugu, Kogi, and Gombe states. Seed money for the coal alternative can flow by blocking — for the time being — the proposed 1135 KM $5 billion Calabar-Ajaokuta-Kano gas pipeline (CAP) and craft ways to realign the $450 million in Eurobonds already raised for the project in favour of coal development. In addition, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) can also refocus current discussions to pump more money to the CAP through the International Finance Corporation (IFC) towards immediate investment in coal-to-power.

Finally, the incoming government should revisit the files on the below-the-market sales of national power assets, the role of banks in the process, the N193 billion owed to the banks by energy firms, and several billions extended to the private energy firms by the central government. Such approach will ultimately help to expose irregularities in the privatisation scheme, determine sincerity of purpose, and identify critical omissions towards efficient power delivery.

Dr. Ogbonnia is the Chairman of First Texas Energy Corporation. [myad]

EDITORIAL: Power Sector Collapse: Jonathan’s Parting Gift To Nigerians

Greenbarge Reporters

May 21, 2015

The curious irony that stares Nigerians in the face as President Goodluck Jonathan is set to bow out of Aso Rock, come May 29, is obviously the sudden shortage of fuel which they relatively enjoyed for the past three years, and above all, the comatose power generation across the country, despite the huge financial resources that had been pumped into it.
As a matter of fact, the nation seemed to be getting it right in the areas of power and fuel supplies, by the efforts of President Jonathan government, until shortly after the March 28 Presidential election that swept power from the hand of the ruling party to opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
Despite the sordid picture that has emerged, President Jonathan still argued recently that he had lived up to his campaign pledge to Nigerians to make the power sector a priority of his administration.
However, while the President might have gotten applause a few months ago for this pronouncement, but the sudden turn around to where we were in 1999 has brought a far different and negative perception by Nigerians, to the government’s intent. Indeed, it looks like Jonathan government and or the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are on revenge mission against Nigerians for voting them out in the March 28 Presidential election.
Even while President Jonathan had, at the inauguration of the Olorunsogo II Power Station in Ogun State, tried to assuage the pent-up anger of Nigerians by saying: “the interface between 100 per cent ownership of the power sector by government and 100 percent ownership by private sector will soon be over” and that in the next two years, “Nigerians can take power sector for granted like it is obtainable in other countries,” his minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo was singing a different tune.

Professor Nebo
It doesn’t seem to matter to Nigerians the words of hope that came from the President, knowing that he had never been short of such words, and that he always relied mostly on what his aides told him or told Nigerians on his behalf. This is against the background of the confusing state of affairs and pronouncements by him and his government officials since he mounted the power in 2010.
For example, in August 2011, the former Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji was quoted to have said that the government had the capacity to generate 6,000 megawatts, but was currently generating 3,000MW, even as he boasted that the Federal Government would improve power supply by increasing power generation from the current 3,000MW to 7,200MW by December of that year.
But, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Sheik Goni came up with his own version, saying that the government had set a target of increasing power generation to 40,000MW by the year 2020. Goni also said: “plans have been put in place to raise this capacity to 7,220MW by the end of 2011 and 14,018MW by the last quarter of 2013.”
This was even as Jonathan said in 2011, that his administration remained committed to the attainment of uninterrupted power supply in the country before the end of his tenure in 2015 which expires on May 29.
And, just eight days to the end of his tenure, and after five years in power, his promised uninterrupted power supply has taken a complete reverse side. Instead of steady, uninterrupted power supply, what Nigeria is going through is uninterrupted darkness, which is worse than before his coming in 2010.

To add insult to the injury, his minister of Power, Professor Nebo has been beating the familiar drum of the fact that pipe line vandals have been the main cause of the failure of the government’s power sector. That is even after so much money, over N150 Billion, had been committed not only into the power sector reform as part of the Transformation Agenda, but also the privatization processes.
It is on record that the 16 years in which PDP had ruled this country, starting from Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, late Umar Musa Yar’Adua and ending with Dr. Jonathan, Nigeria had spent $156 billion which is more than what Britain spent to add 30,000MW.
After spending so much on power for 16 years, what Nigeria has been able to get has been between 2,500 and 3,666.76MW. And even then, they are being told that they cannot enjoy that meager number of megawatts because of some vandals somewhere.

Nigerians have been treated to so many macabre dances on this issue of power supply that they have no choice than to simply resign to their fate even as the government makes fun of itself.

In fact, the government put so much emphasis on vandalisation of gas pipeline by unknown criminals that one would think that it is the vandals that are in charge of the government. For a government that controls all the security apparatus and other legal operative systems to be crying like baby, about some inconsequential criminals, is to take ridiculous wailing to the level of bereavement.

The question that immediately comes to mind is, of what purpose people like Alhaji Mujahideen Asari Dokubo, Chief Gani Adams and others were given millions of Naira contract to provide adequate security for the pipelines? What sense does it make to inject so much money into the security system on the pipelines and they are still being vandalized, thereby constituting a headache for the government?
As a matter of fact, all these boil down to the fact that the Jonathan government has emerged as the government of shifting goal posts, shifting dates, inconsistencies, speaking from all corners of the mouth at the end of which it gets itself confused and confused the rest of us, and above all, it is the government of ‘come and chop.

Indeed, it is unfortunate that just when Jonathan’s government should be beating its chest as having right the wrongs in the power sector that has defied all solutions in the past; and even in fuel supply system, it is about to leave Nigeria and Nigerians even worse than it met them. That is aside from billion of naira and dollars thrown in all directions on the same subject; the huge money that obviously have gone down the drain.

We in Greenbarge Reporters may not be far from the truth to say that throwing Nigerians into darkness and onto the streets looking for fuel, as the citizenry have witnessed in the last few weeks, is a deliberate action by some sadists in the government to make life unbearable for them.

If this is part of the parting gift the Jonathan government would hand over to Nigeria as it made to take its exit, it is too bad. [myad]

Man Freed After 13 Years In Prison

Greenbarge Reporters

May 20, 2015

Justice Kayode Ogunmekan of a Lagos High Court has discharged and acquitted a security guard, Abubakar Zibo, who has been in prison custody for 13 years.

Zibo was found not guilty of the murder of his friend, Charles.

Delivering judgment in the case, Justice Ogunmekan held that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the allegation of conspiracy and murder leveled against him as required by Section 1 of the Evidence Act, 2011.

The case, which was first started by the Lagos State Coordinator, Legal Aid Council, Mrs. L.Y. Salau, was later handed over to Mrs.. Grace Adenubi.

The judge held that it was trite law that the burden of proof in a criminal case was on the prosecution, adding that where the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, the defendant must be discharged and acquitted. [myad]

Anenih Quits As PDP Board Of Trustees Chairman, Asks Jonathan To Wear The Crown

Greenbarge Reporters

May 20, 2015

Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih, has called it quits.
In a one-page letter he signed and sent to President Goodluck Jonathan, dated May 20, 2015 and titled: “Notice of my decision to step down as Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party,” Anenih said his decision would enable President Jonathan to effectively assume the chairmanship of the BoT.
The letter reads: “Your Excellency will recall that in a conversation I had with you a few weeks ago, I had offered to step down from the office of the Chairman of our party’s Board of Trustees and proposed to hand over to you as its new Chairman in a ceremony that would have taken place on the 23rd of May, 2015. I had also repeated this position in our subsequent meetings.
“As a follow up to the above proposal and in view of the current state of affairs in our party, I have decided to formally put my offer in writing to enable you effectively assume the Chairmanship of Board of Trustees or approve a process that will enable any other member of the BoT who is considered competent, to assume the position.
“Kindly accept therefore, this letter as notice of my decision to step down from the position of Chairman of the BoT of our party with effect from today, the 20th of May, 2015.
“I am happy to inform you that, I remain a loyal foundation member of our great party and will continue to pray for the prosperity of Nigeria, our party, and for you and your family.
“Your Excellency, kindly accept the expression of my highest regards.”

[myad]

Cardinal Okogie To Buhari: Beware Of Wolves In Sheep Clothing, Sycophants, Political Jobbers

Greenbarge Reporters

May 20, 2015

The Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Cardinal Anthony Okogie has advised the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, to beware of those he called wolves in sheep clothing, sycophants and political jobbers as he set to assume office on May 29.

Okogie in a statement today in Lagos descried such characters in the Nigerian political landscape as those who jumped ship to identify with the winning party.

“Now that the euphoria of electoral victory is over and with some days to the handover ceremony, the president-elect should get to work and hit the ground running without further delay.

“He does not have the luxury of time. He should not be distracted by the litany of requests, demands, recommendations, unrealistic expectations, and open letters at his table and in the media.

“He should also be mindful of the promises and commitments he makes as he receives delegations from different states, various bodies and interest groups.

“He should be wary of wolves in sheep clothing, sycophants and all the political jobbers who jumped ship to identify with the winning party,’’ the statement said.

“Yes, he will listen to all but must evaluate the motives, intentions and the principles underlying the request being made.

“As William Shakespeare succinctly opined `give everyman thy ear but few thy voice. Take each mans’ censure but reserve thy judgment.’’

The cleric also advised the President-elect to strive to fulfil his manifesto, saying: “before the elections, General Muhammadu Buhari, during his campaign, promised to fight corruption, provide security and deliver on the economy. These are key areas that he must address with immediate alacrity.

“If he keeps to his words and pursue these three pillars of his manifesto to their logical conclusion, Nigeria will surely witness a tremendous growth and development in its national life.

“This will impact positively on infrastructure, public service, education, healthcare, power supply and foreign policy.

“He will not only succeed in steering the nation in the right direction, he will restore the lost dignity of government in Nigeria and deliver the dividend of democracy.”

Okogie reminded Buhari that expectations at home and abroad are high, and expressed confidence that though he is not a magician or miracle worker that would solve all of Nigeria’s problems in four years, but that he would make a great impact. [myad]

Jonathan Opens Up: Why I Avoided Conflicts After March 28 Election

Greenbarge Reporters

May 20, 2015

President Jonathan & VP Sambo in a group photo with African Ambassadors during a courtesy visit, State House, May 20.

President Goodluck Jonathan has finally come up with the reasons why he conceded electoral defeat and thus stemmed crisis in the country even before the result of the March 28 Nigeria’s Presidential election was announced.

“I have been involved in solving many problems in African countries for more than five years and I know the enormity and cost of conflicts, especially on the citizenry. We cannot afford that in Nigeria.

“If we were to have a political conflict in Nigeria, I am not sure the sub-region will be able to accommodate our citizens. My commitment is to always put the country before my personal ambition and that is what I have demonstrated.”

President Jonathan spoke today when he hosted, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, members of the African Ambassadors Group, who were on a farewell and solidarity visit to him.

President Jonathan, who said he would always be committed to strengthening democracy in Nigeria and Africa, said that his decision to concede victory was also to show example to the world that democracy can survive and thrive in Africa without conflicts.

“I believe that character matters in leadership. And it is not just about who becomes the president of a country, but somebody has to be there and the person needs the support of all to succeed. I made a choice to keep the country away from conflict.

“I have always advised other African leaders that we will need to have a country before we can have the ambition to become presidents. We don’t have to expose our people to deaths because we want to stay in power. Some people hold on to power, may be, for fear of the unknown.”

President Jonathan then emphasized the need for the global community and Nigerians to support the incoming government of President-elect Muhammadu Buhari, stressing that the new President will need the cooperation and commitment of the global community and Nigerians to effectively deliver on his promises to the people.

“The President-elect is not new to governance in Africa so I want you to show the same commitment to him as you have to me. The President-elect knows that our commitment is always to project Africa. I am urging you to extend the same warmth and solidarity you have shown to me to him.”

President Jonathan enjoined African leaders to encourage trade within the continent by building infrastructures and institutions that promote trade and relationships.

The President recalled working extensively for more than five years with other African Presidents to forestall crisis in some African countries, especially in the West African sub-region, and also leading peace efforts in some of the countries like Cote ‘d’Ivoire, Mali and Guinea Bissau.

responding, the Dean of Diplomatic Corps in Nigeria, Oubi Bochir, commended President Jonathan’s high sense of patriotism, statesmanship and transparency in the last general elections, saying that he won the heart and minds of all Nigerians and Africans after the elections.

“Let us make it clear, that within the Nigerian and African context and the example your Excellency has set, there was no loser in the elections but winners. The President-elect by winning the majority of votes, and the incumbent in establishing a long lasting legacy by winning the hearts and minds of all Nigerians and Africans.”

Mr. Bochir, who is the Ambassador of Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) to Nigeria, extolled President Jonathan for making a single phone call that saved the country from political conflict, restored confidence in African democracy and left a benchmark for other countries to follow.

The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps was accompanied on the visit by eight other ambassadors from Cameroon, Liberia, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, South Africa, South Sudan, Namibia and Ethiopia. [myad]

7 Banks Fined $10 Billion In America, Europe For Foreign Exchange Rate Manipulations

Greenbarge Reporters

May 20, 2015

Authorities in the United States and Europe have fined a total of seven banks over $10 billion for failing to stop their forex traders from sharing confidential information about client orders and coordinating trades to boost their own profits.

Traders at Citigroup , JP Morgan , Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland, who described themselves as “The Cartel,” used an invitation-only electronic chatroom and coded language to manipulate the price of U.S. dollars and euros between December 2007 and January 2013, according to U.S authorities.

Four of the banks pleaded guilty to conspiring to manipulate the foreign exchange market.

The misconduct occurred after regulators had started punishing banks for rigging the London interbank offered rate (Libor), an interest rate benchmark.

Britain’s Barclays faced the biggest fine today with a penalty of $2.4 billion because it did not join in an earlier November settlement with British and some U.S. authorities due to complications with its regulator in New York.

Barclays sacked eight employees as part of its settlement and New York’s Superintendent of Financial Services warned that it was still probing the bank’s use of electronic systems for foreign exchange trading, which make up the vast majority of transactions in the market.

“Put simply, Barclays employees helped rig the foreign exchange market. They engaged in a brazen ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ scheme to rip off their clients,” Benjamin Lawsky said in a statement. “While today’s action concerns misconduct in spot trading, there is additional work ahead.”

Barclays had set aside $3.2 billion to cover any forex related settlement. Shares in the bank rose more than two percent.

Swiss bank UBS , which avoided a guilty plea over the forex debacle, pleaded guilty instead to one count of wire fraud and will pay a $203 million fine for its role in rigging Libor after its involvement in the forex scandal breached an earlier DOJ agreement.

Switzerland’s largest bank also had to pay $342 million to the Federal Reserve over attempted manipulation of forex rates.

The U.S. central bank fined six banks for unsafe and unsound practices in the foreign exchange markets, including a $205 million fine for Bank of America , which, like UBS, avoided a guilty plea.

UBS’s penalty was lower than expected and this contributed to a more than three percent rise in UBS shares to their highest level in six and a half years.

The global investigation into manipulation of foreign exchange rates has put the largely unregulated forex market on a tighter leash and accelerated a push to automate trading. Authorities in South Africa announced this week they were opening their own probe.

Transcripts of online chat rooms made public today demonstrated the clubby, audacious nature of the dealing desks with one employee at Barclays remarking, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” [myad]

Vice President-Elect Laments: Nigeria Has Been Reduced To Pauper Nation

Greenbarge Reporters

May 20, 2015

The Vice President-elect, Professor Yomi Osinbajo has lamented that Nigeria’s economy is in its worst shape in history even as 110 million Nigerians have been thrown into what he called extreme poverty.

Professor Osinbajo said today at the opening of a 2-day Policy Dialogue on the Implementation of the Agenda for Change, in Abuja that the nation’s local and international debt profile is currently US$60billion with a 2015 debt serving bill of N953.6billion, representing 21 per cent of the 2015 budget.

According to him, an estimated 110 million, out of the nation’s over 170 million population, live in extreme poverty while the largest chunk of the benefits of our national wealth accrues to a small percentage of the population.

He said that the nation’s dwindling oil revenues has made it difficult for two thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states to pay salaries, adding: “we are concerned that our economy is currently in, perhaps, its worst moment in history. Local and international debts stand at US$ 60 billion.

“Our debt servicing bill for 2015 is N953.6 billion, 21 per cent of our budget. On account of severely dwindled resources, over two-thirds of the states in Nigeria owe salaries.

“Federal institutions are not in much better shape. Today, the nation borrows to fund recurrent expenditure.”

Professor Osinbajo said that against the backdrop of a highly unequal society in which, by some reckoning, the largest percentage of the benefits of the national wealth accrues to a small group within our population.

He said that the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC) offers a vision of shared prosperity and socio-economic inclusion for all Nigerians that leaves no one behind in the pursuit of a prosperous and fulfilling life, adding that the goal of the policy dialogue is to interrogate the positions and propositions before a wider audience and to lunch a robust public conversation on policy directions and priorities that will help inform the incoming administration’s approach in the next four years.

He said that the forum exemplifies the sort of consultative and consensual approach to policy-making that the APC and the new administration intend to model in office.

The Vice President elect said that sessions during the dialogue would explore a wide range of policy priorities including the diversification of the economy in the wake of dwindling oil revenues.

In order to achieve this, he said, the administration intends to engender job-led growth through the revitalisation of agriculture in pursuit of job creation and food security, improving the regulatory frameworks in the most strategic sphere of economic activity.

Earlier, a former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Mr. Peter Mandelson, who represented former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, advised the incoming administration, to take advantage of its current level of public support to take hard decisions.

He explained that with the current state of affairs, the task ahead of the incoming administration was indeed a daunting one.

Drawing from the experiences of the Labour Party in Britain, Mr. Peter Mandelson said, the first rule of governance is “Be true to your word; be true to your mandate.”

He advised the Buhari-led administration not to be afraid to take hard decisions but that it must remain mindful of the timing of such decisions.

Mandelson also advised the administration not to attempt to do everything at once but ensure that things are done with proper planning along with a commitment to delivery. [myad]

Xenophobic Attacks: President Zuma Ignores Nigeria, Apologizes To Mozambicans

Greenbarge Reporters

May 20, 2015

South African President, Jacob Zuma appeared to have ignored Nigeria even as he went ahead today to apologized to Mozambicans for the recent outbreak of xenophobic violence in which at least seven people died and hundreds of migrants were forced to flee their homes.

In the attacks, many Nigerians in that country lost their valuables, including millions of cash and buildings.

Speaking at the start of a two-day state visit to Maputo, Zuma said the attacks, which included the murder of a Mozambican man captured by a press photographer “shocked us and disturbed us.

“I apologize on behalf of the small minority of South Africans involved in the violence. The Mozambicans are our brothers, our sisters, that’s like a family problem really.”

Rampant unemployment and poverty are seen as contributing to the violence by South Africans, who accuse migrants from Mozambique and other neighbouring countries of stealing their jobs.

Since the end of apartheid 21 years ago, South Africa has attracted millions of migrants seeking a better life in the continent’s most advanced economy.

Zuma pledged to address what he called “some of the underlying factors” to ensure that the attacks against foreigners did not erupt again. He did not elaborate.

While condemning the violence, South Africa has also cracked down in a series of raids in which 1,650 illegal immigrants have been arrested.

More than 400 Mozambicans were expelled on Friday and 427 others are slated to be deported soon. Zuma is in Maputo at the invitation of President Filipe Nyusi, with the visit set to focus on bilateral and regional cooperation. Mozambique is South Africa’s top trading partner in Africa, with two-way trade worth 43.9 billion rand ($3.7 billion) last year. [myad]

Emir Of Kano Takes A Royal Bow Before Alaafin Of Oyo

Greenbarge Reporters

May 20, 2015

Emir of Kano, Alhaji Mohammed Sanusi Lamido 11 takes a royal bow before his royal host, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi who recently returned from a royal vacation abroad… [myad]

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