The number of states is not the problem. In my opinion, Nigeria is simply not productive enough as a nation, simple. Even with the so-called 'restructuring', the country will still seriously struggle because it is not generating enough wealth to lift its citizens out of poverty. The states can't fend for themselves without federal allocation, and that won't change even if you decides to merge some of them today.
Many smaller countries like the Netherlands are generating more wealth annually (£300-billion euros) for their much smaller population than Nigeria is, (Nigeria is estimated to have made just a relatively paltry $370-billion in oil revenues since 1970 [oil is by far Nigeria's largest income earner] while the Netherlands is making more than that in a single year), so that tells you we are just not being productive enough in spite of our huge population. In that sense, one can be forgiven for saying Nigeria is just 'big for nothing'.
A LEBANESE Hamza Koudeih and two other suspected accomplices of social media celebrity, Ismaila Mustapha (a.k.a. Mompha), have been arrested in Lagos.
Koudeih was arrested at the weekend after a three-hour stand-off at his N1.8 billion luxury apartment in the 33-storey Eko Atlantic Pearl Tower, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Mompha, Koudeih and the others are suspected to be kingpins of a network of cyber criminals who laundered N33 billion through three firms.
His arrest by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), followed intelligence unearthed after Mompha’s arrest last Tuesday.
The Nation learnt that when the anti-graft agency’s operatives arrived at his luxury suite, Koudeih and his wife refused to open the door.
The couple also did not respond to appeals from the building’s chief security officer.
But the operatives, who had been monitoring the premises and had it surrounded, knew the Lebanese was inside. His cars were parked in the garage downstairs.
The apartment was fortified with triple reinforced fire-proof door and closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras and they could not gain entrance.
It was gathered that the EFCC investigators battled for three hours to break down the door using breaching tools.
When they gained access, they met his wife who claimed Koudeih had escaped through the window.
But Koudeih’s apartment is on one of the topmost floors of Eko Atlantic Pearl Tower, said to be the tallest apartment building in Nigeria.
“Our officials knew that he was still inside and they were even hoping to persuade him not to jump out through the window because it would be suicide,” EFCC Lagos Zonal Head, Mr. Mohammed Rabo, who confirmed the arrest, told The Nation.
But they did not find Koudeih in any of the rooms until they observed that a part of the ceiling in his bedroom had been artificially sealed.
They pushed it open and found Koudeih hiding in the ceiling.
Further search of his bedroom revealed a fire-proof safe containing different charms and talismans in calabashes.
According to the EFCC, the Lebanese admitted they were his “prayer objects”. Two luxury cars were also recovered from him.
Rabo said the commission was investigating Koudeih and his wife’s immigration status and the result was being expected.
He said it had been confirmed that they had Lebanese ancestry but it was not known if they had any other nationality.
The nationality of the two other suspects, he explained, was not yet known.
Rabo stated that local and international law enforcement agencies had indicated interest to collaborate in the investigation.
He said the operation that led to Koudeih’s arrest was “an offshoot of the collaboration between the EFCC and the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),” but that Koudeih was arrested based on “purely EFCC intelligence”.
Rabo added: “Actionable intelligence received from local and international law enforcement agencies had revealed that Koudeih and Mompha alongside their collaborators are high valued targets in Organised Cyber Syndicate Network (OCSN).
“Investigations have also revealed that Mompha uses a firm known as Ismalob Global Investments Limited to perpetrate about N14 billion money laundering while Koudeih also operate two firms namely: THK Services Limited and CHK properties Limited to launder about N19 billion.”
It was also learnt that the EFCC discovered 51 Nigerian bank accounts opened by Mompha for money laundering.
The commission also revealed that the five wristwatches recovered from Mompha at his arrest on Tuesday are worth over N60 million, rather than the N20 million earlier thought.
According to the EFCC, Mompha, “a premium and first-class customer of one of the popular international airlines, was arrested on Friday 18, October 2019 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on his way to Dubai Emirate following [a] series of intelligence reports received by the Commission.”
Kizz Daniel should just settle and make peace with his erstwhile label because they have him by the balls. But the guy isn't even smart at all. I wonder who his advisers are because they all deserve to be fired. How can you fail to trademark your stage name, not once but twice? Who does that? Smh.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has backed Nigeria’s closure of its borders with some neighbouring countries over issues bordering on illegal trade.
Mr Abebe Selassie, the Director of the African Department at the IMF, gave the position at a media briefing on the sidelines of the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Washington.
He was responding to a question on weather the closure negates the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
Selassie said although free trade was critical to economic growth of the continent, it must be legal and in line with agreements.
`On the border closure in Nigeria which has been impacting Benin and Niger, our understanding is that the action reflects concerns about smuggling that has been taking place.
“It is about illegal trade, which is not what you want to facilitate,’’ Selassie said.
He said the IMF was hoping for a speedy resolution of the issues as the action was already taking a toll on the economies of the country’s neighbours.
“We are very hopeful that discussions will resolve the challenges that this illegal trade is posing.
“If the border closure is to be sustained for a long time, it will definitely have an impact on Benin and Niger which, of course, rely quite extensively on the big brother next door,’’ he said.
On Wednesday, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said the borders were closed to curb illegal trading activities by Nigeria’s neighbours.
Ahmed said the closure would remain in force until the country secured the commitment of its neighbours to trade agreements and treaties signed with them.
Meanwhile, the IMF director said the AfCFTA was one of the most exciting policy developments in the region in recent months.
Selassie said analyses by the Fund showed that the initiative had a “tremendous potential to facilitate higher economic growth’’.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the IMF projected a region wide economic growth of 3.2 per cent in 2019.
Selassie said the “hard task’’ before African nations was making sure the AfCFTA was fully implemented “to facilitate the trade that we need to see between countries in the region’’.
The IMF director also commented on the continent’s high debt burden, especially from China, resulting largely from borrowing to balance budget deficits.
He explained that the Fund was not particularly wary of China, which he said “has been a very important development partner for many countries in sub-Saharan Africa’’.
“There are some counties that have borrowed extensively, and this is not just from China but from all other sources of financing either through Euro bond, domestic markets or other sources of capital.
“ Yes, there are countries that have borrowed beyond what they can quickly pay, but it is important that we get this story straight.
“China has been a very important partner for many countries and remains so.
“Our concern really is more about overall debt level, not just about debt but some other things.
“One is, once you have borrowed money to invest in infrastructure, health and education, it is important you are able to capture the rate of return on that investment so that the debt can be serviced.
“What you put the debt to and how effective the investment projects that you are undertaking is really the important part of the equation,’’ Selassie said.
He added that it was also important for countries to address their “tremendous development needs avoiding debts becoming unsustainable’.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Wednesday said the government is in the process of acquiring an estimated 32,000 hectares of farmland for rice cultivation in seven states.
Sanwo-Olu, who spoke in Lagos, on the occasion of this year’s Grand Finale of the World Food Day in Lagos, listed the states to include Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo and Kebbi as well as Lagos.
He noted that a key component in the food security programme of the state government is the 32-metric ton per hour capacity Integrated Rice Mill in Imota, which is expected to be completed and commissioned in the next seven months.
The governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Folasade Jaji, noted that when completed, the mill would ensure sustainable supply of wholesome rice at an affordable price to the populace in Lagos and help to reduce rice importation into the Nigerian economy.
He noted that the theme for this year’s celebration with the theme: “Our Actions Our Future: Healthy Diets for a Zero Hunger World,” spoke to the need for a collective action towards not only increasing food production, but also ensuring that adequate attention was paid to the quality of food being consumed.
Sanwo-Olu added that the theme aptly highlighted the state government’s efforts through the food security initiative and commitment to prevent the consumption of unwholesome food.
“Today, we are happy to join the rest of the World in celebrating this year’s World Food Day. This annual celebration being spearheaded by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, is about raising awareness on issues related to food such as poverty and hunger and to highlight efforts being made by governments, institutions, organisations and individuals to mitigate the negative effects on people,” he said.
The governor said that the only way to effectively fight poverty and hunger in the country wass to boost agricultural production and prevent post-harvest losses and wastage, which he said constituted a major threat to the achievement of food security objectives.
While noting that the use of Reusable Plastic Creates [RPCs] as alternative to Raffia baskets for the carriage of perishable farm produce is being promoted as a strategy to minimize wastages in the State, the Governor enjoined farmers and traders in the State to embrace this new initiative for improved profit.
“We have to imbibe the lessons learnt from the dwindling returns from oil to encourage family participation in farming so that most of our basic needs could be met locally and we would be independent of others to feed ourselves. We have also put this to practice in our schools where we have established different farming enterprises to train and teach the students in modern farming techniques,” Sanwo-Olu explained.
According to the governor, Lagos State is one of the participating states in the World Bank Assisted APPEALS Project aimed at enhancing the agricultural productivity of small and medium scale farmers and improved value addition along priority value chains.
djdutch: The Nigerian context is world class corruption-only thing stopping Lagos from looking like Kigali with world class roads,free wifi access and transport system. Nigeria leaders are kingpins of corruption in the world and can't be rivaled.
The Kagame you are hyping is probably just as corrupt as the Nigerian leaders you are comparing him to if not more so, since he controls every facet of Rwandan life. Under such circumstance who would dare to accuse him of corruption when it can cost him/her their life? Rwandans are not even allowed to publicly criticize him without paying dearly. Those that tried it in the past are 6-feet under today. Like I said before, since Rwanda and Kagame are your poster boys of utopia, why not kuku leave Lagos for the rest of us and go live under Kagame??
djdutch: The Lagos Of Rwanda is Kigali and no Nigerian city can rival it. Is it in terms of sanitation,24 hour electricity or road network?
Yimu. If one didn't know better he could be forgiven for thinking the Rwanda you are trying to project is utopia. At least you are free to criticise Lagos government for its lapses without going missing, a privilege that ordinary Rwandans dare not exercise against their government. If Lagos was a country it would control its own resources, ports and have more at its disposal to better manage itself, without even resorting to a dictatorship system like your glorified utopia where dissenting voices are stifled by the state. No state in Nigeria enjoys 24-hr electricity so quit making it sound like epileptic electricity is a uniquely Lagos state problem. If Lagos was sovereign it would have solved its electricity problems long before now. It would also control its borders to mitigate the insane influx of economic migrants flooding it for survival and better manage its economy and affairs. A million Kagames cannot perform any miracle as Lagos administrator within the current Nigerian context so go and sit your butt someplace.
djdutch: A sadistic dictator who does not own a private jet or have bullion vans delivered to his residence?GTFOH He is a sadistic dictator that provides 24 hour electricity to his citizens and world class roads, which Lagos can not provide despite receiving close to $10 billion dollars since 1999
Dude, no be by force. You are free to relocate to your utopian Rwanda.
djdutch: It is not more developed,but they have 24 hours electricity
Guy, you are a well known Lagos hater so your opinion isn't worth nada. How big is Rwanda relative to Lagos? Rwanda is ruled by a sadistic dictator in the person of Kagame who does not tolerate opposition (he assisinates his critics, including those that fled Rwanda because of his dictatorial and iron fist regime), and most of the country's budget is financed by foreign donors and international bodies. You can only bamboozle your fellow ignoramuses. Rwanda is making developmental strides but I repeat that it is still nowhere near Lagos in terms of development, and you can take that to the bank.
I think fertility limitation is the primary reason why most men choose not to marry their 'age mate', especially if the man has crossed Middle-age (45+).
Water transportation in Lagos is expected to accommodate between 500,000 to 1million passengers per day when fully operational and it is expected to decongest the roads.
Commissioner for transport, Dr. Frederic Oladeinde stated this while answering questions from reporters during an inspection tour of the Lagos State Waterways Authority, LASWA, in its office at Falomo, Lagos at the weekend.
For now the waterways carries only between 70,000 to 100,000 passengers which the commissioner said is quite low.
He assured that the state government is currently making a lot of investment in the sector to provide all the needed facilities and equipment and make it as safe as possible.
“We will make sure water transportation will be the next best thing in Lagos, water transportation is the next frontier for this administration and that is why we are pumping a lot of resources into the sector.
“We are investing a lot in water transportation, when you look at the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, he has prioritise water transportation as one of the mode that will take pressure off the roads and there is a lot of investments going in there.
“We are making it as safe as possible and I can assure Lagosian that it would be one of the attractive mode in Lagos; currently we are working with Coca Cola that has invested in clearing wreckages from the water and we will encourage more private sector participation.
Speaking on challenges confronting the agency earlier, Managing Director of LASWA, Oluwadamilola Emmanuel said the agency needs among other things an emergency and rescue system, that operators should be certificated and that there is need for capacity building for LASWA staff.
The administration of Governor Seyi Makinde has revealed that it would construct five new Model schools across the three senatorial districts.
Though it said this is in line with the 2018 intervention project in conjunction with Federal Government-Universal Basic Education Board, OYOINSIGHT.COM recalls that Makinde had condemned the idea of model schools last year.
This was stated today by the Chairman of Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (OyoSUBEB), Dr. Nureni Aderemi Adeniran during a prequalification exercise for the 2018 FGN-UBEC/OYOSUBEB intervention projects held in Ibadan.
Makinde had, while accepting his nomination as governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate on September 30th, 2018, said bemoaned the dismal state of education in the state.
Condemning Oyo’s 26th position in the 2018 WASSCE Results, Makinde said “It is clear for all to see that building a few so called model schools when all the schools should, in fact, be model or asking the international community for meaningless solar systems for secondary schools only magnifies the obvious failure of the present administration. It is a pointer to the systemic failure to stem the uncontrolled free fall in the sector in terms of infrastructural decline, inadequate staffing and learning materials and motivation of both staff and pupils. Our well thought out alternative plans will be in the public domain very soon.”
Adeniran added that the projects would be awarded to qualified contractors among the 76 applicants who applied for the pre-qualification exercise.
The beneficiary schools, Adeniran further explained, would be Methodist Primary School, Bodija, in Ibadan North Local Government Area; St. Paul’s Primary school, Yanbule, in Ibadan North East Local Government Area.
Others are Methodist Primary School, Arowomole, Ogbomosho South; Community Primary School, Airport, Ona-Ara LGA and Muslim Grammar (Jnr) School, Odinjo, Oluyole Local Government Area.
Adeniran affirmed that the present administration would ensure equity, fairness and objectivity in the award of these contracts. “The anomalies observed in the award of contracts by the last administration through awards of 64 and 72 projects to a single contractor is a thing of the past, as our administration is guided by fairness, equity, transparency and accountability”, he said.
He commended Governor Seyi Makinde for his bid to enhance education delivery and access to basic education in the state.
Dr. Adeniran noted that this is made manifest through the Governor’s immediate intervention in the education sector through budgetary increment of the sector.
He also reiterated Government’s determination to terminate payment of legal and illegal fees in public schools, adding that the newly introduced extra-mural classes for JSS3 and SS3 students would improve the academic performances of the students tremendously. The event was witnessed by the State coordinator, UBEC, Dr. Lydia Gbagi, representatives of Oyo State’s Due Process office, Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Civil societies and contractors.
tollyboy5: so you guys can create a thread about your state and still your two so-called son and senators came all the way to lagos to deprive us of our own political post. one yoruba propaganda kee all of una there including tinubu.
Will you stfu if you have nothing tangible to contribute instead spreading saliva all over this thread. FYI, I am neither from Ogun nor Oyo, but I have properties and businesses in both states (factories that employs labour in both), therefore I am entitled to be concerned about what happens there. Carry your partisan bile comot if you have nothing sensible to say.
helinues: Firstly, you do not have to go into aggressive ways just because you wants to proof a point.
Secondly, is inviting the investors not form of diversification? Does that requires huge amount of money?
Apologies if my comment came across in an offensive tone. At the end of the day we are all after the same thing, which is the betterment of Ogun (and by extension Oyo). The truth of the matter is that governor has his work really cut out because he has debt to service, pay salaries of N9-billion which the state doesn't have by the end of every month (after you remove N7-billion IGR debt still full ground yet he still has to somehow find money (most likely by either borrowing or partnering with private sector) to execute infrastructure. So at the end of th day, even though Ogun IGR is second to Lagos in SW, it still can't meet its obligations because it's wage-bill and other gbeses is more than its IGR.
helinues: Must Ogun be waiting for IGR to develop the state? Can't we diversified? Agriculture, housing, Technology, Research even in sports self.
Ogun state have produced the best Radio presenters yearly upon how disorganised the state is..
We have the potentials only if Abiodun can think out of the box
This is a very unintelligent submission, I am sorry to say. You need investors to diversify the economy simply because government's resources (money) are finite (has limits/it will never be enough). It is investors that will set up mechanised commercial farming with their own money which will in turn create jobs that would employ the teeming youths because government cannot employ everybody (private sector is supposed to be the largest employer of labour). It is from the revenues of the business and their workers salaries that government gets its IGR (the highest component of states IGR comes taxes from companies' income and their workers/staff salaries, go and verify it), which means with more people working, the more money state government can bring in as IGR.
Same applies to other areas you mentioned. Government's job is to ensure that the environment is condusive enough for the investors to come in and use their money to create jobs.
When the environment is conducive investors can even take some of the burden of building infrastructure from government by providing such in some instances even.
mrintellectual: Get more people out of poverty, and the same people who couldn't pay N3700 will gladly pay N37000, or even N370, 000.
That's my point, once people are still poor, and the tool to lift them out of poverty, which is education is not given to them, the cycle of poverty will continue.
See above my suggestions to Dapo Abiodun on how to reduce the number of poor people in the state.
It's every parents pride to send their children and wards to school, but education cannot be compulsory, if a fee is attached to it, in the public schools.
You premised your original comment on comparing Seyi Makinde's being supposedly more 'masses friendly' because in your opinion Seyi is giving his state 'free' education (which he has yet to tell us how he intends to fund and make sustainable because he has already borrowed N10-billion to cover shortfalls). Populism (which some like you mistake for being 'masses-friendly') makes leaders and their blind followers shy away from the real problems for the sake of short term gains. That was why I gave you facts about Ogun, Oyo and Lagos wage bill vis-a-vis their IGR. If you really meant well rather than turn this into a Oyo vs. Ogun thing, you could have went straight ahead to give your own suggestion on how you think Abiodun can improve the education system because frankly as it stands Seyi Makinde has not even done anything sustainable worth emulating for your comparison.
Free education depends on government subsidy, and only a government that can balance it is wage-bill vs. IGR/Federal allocation books (and still have leftover money) can toy with sustainable free education subsidy idea (which neither Ogun nor Oyo are qualified to do based on the analysis I gave earlier, and even if we are to compare sef Ogun has greater capacity to scale its economy than Oyo no thanks to its Lagos proximity).
The debt burdens from previous administrations that governed both Oyo and Ogun have made it so that federal allocations to both states will continue to dwindle, therefore both state governments should first of all as a matter for priority shore up their IGR to the point where they can cover their wage bills and still have leftover for infrastructure and other commitments without waiting for federal allocation, only then can they start thinking of subsidizing anything.
Let each state do what works for it. Instead of harping on 'free' education, what we should be concerned about is QUALITY education delivery, be it free or not. Ogun has the largest monthly wage bill in the country (even larger than Lagos'). Ogun monthly wage bill is over N9-billion naira monthly! Lagos' own is close to N7-biliion. Oyo's is just a little over N5-billion per month which its N2-billion average monthly IGR cannot even cover.
Ogun monthly IGR is averaging around N7-biliion per month which isn't enough to cover it's 9-billion wage bill, yet you are expecting 'free' education when even teachers can barely get paid monthly.
Unless IGR is dramatically improved, there's no way state governors will not borrow to pay salaries (like Makinde did recently when he borrowed N10-billion). Unless we tell ourselves the truth and trim some of the overbloated civil service, we will not make headway, particularly in the SW. Money to subsidize 'free education' has to come from somewhere.
lookingfly: you can say this rubbish because you're not in their shoes. Never pray to be in their position most especially those who have established themselves like that man who has stayed for 20yrs.
Are you ok at all? I said they are free to remain in SA and even die there if they so wish. What is wrong with that? It's their choice. Those that value their lives more than their properties have also made theirs so no Biggie.
During Biafra civil war, Igbos moved back enmasse to Eastern Nigeria simply because their security wasn't guaranteed elsewhere in Nigeria and no one could fault that. In that instance they even left their properties behind because they valued their lives more. Since those remaining in SA feel Nigeria is still worse off for them in spite of being unwanted and threatened by xenophobic violence, then I repeat that they're free to die there.
Eiya. Well, SA government has demonstrated that they can't/are unwilling to secure the lives and property of foreigners in SA, therefore any Nigerian still insisting on remaining in SA in spite of recent xenophobic attacks is free to die there. RIP to them in advance. Something must kill a man, right?
Choi! Gbege wan drop. . Well, the husband too shouldn't have gone to the press about their issues the way he did. They could have gone their separate ways without all the drama.
Sports › Re: Messi Equals Ronaldo Record Of Most Hat-Tricks Scored In La Liga History by afroniger: 4:50am On Nov 10, 2019
. Orere Elejigbo and Reincarnation were songs my mother played a lot while I was growing up.
