₦airaland Forum

Four months after their inauguration, President Muhammadu Buhari will today meet members of his economic team amid a myriad of economic challenges. Among other issues, the recent economic decisions by the government, particularly the border closure policy and implementation of the Finance Act 2020 as it relates to the hike of the Value Added Tax (VAT) to 7.5% continue to take a huge toll on the citizenry.

Sources said this would be the first time the president will be meeting the members since their inauguration, heightening speculations that the members have not achieved much thus far. The members replaced the Economic Management Team headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Daily Trust reports that the president had on October 9, 2019, inaugurated the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) led by Prof. Doyin Salami. Dr Mohammed Sagagi is the vice chairman of the economic council while the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Development Policy, Dr Mohammed Salisu, is the secretary.

Other members of the 8-man council include former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo; Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr Bismark Rewane; Prof. Ode Ojowu, Dr Shehu Yahaya, and Dr Iyabo Masha. The key issue Nigerians believe should pre-occupy the president’s mind today is how the team could frontally tackle the lingering challenges in the economy. Former Chief Executive Officer of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Mustafa Chike-Obi, had tweeted on January 11 that, “it is now 4 months since the acclaimed Economic Advisory Council was announced by PMB.

We are yet to hear of any concrete policy directives or feel any impact from the EAC. I sincerely hope we hear from them before the 6-month timeline, so it is not seen as just another stunt.” However, Prof. Soludo confirmed to Daily Trust last night that they have been working. But when asked on the challenges facing their work, he directed one of our reporters to the chairman of the committee.

“If you want an interview on our work, better speak to the chairman of the committee,” he said. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba in a telephone interview with the Daily Trust expressed confidence in the ability of the EAC team to deliver. He explained that he was sure the team has been working behind the scenes.

..harps on community policing

Rising from a session with senators yesterday on security matters, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, urged state governors to take responsibility, saying those committing crimes have reasons for their actions. The IGP was at the Senate to brief the lawmakers on the concept of community policing. Addressing reporters later, the IGP said: “If it is lack of employment, if it is lack of education or those issues that will require intervention by the government, the state governors should take responsibility, local government chairmen should take responsibility.

Not that everything will be left to security agencies alone.” He said that there were plans to take policing back to communities. Adamu said while communities help in identifying the crime, the police would work with them to solve it. Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, after the session, said: “The police force must find a way to be more operationally proactive to protect the lives of the citizens”.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said claims by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), that President Muhammadu Buhari is winning the war against insecurity is misleading and mere propaganda. The APC had in a statement on Monday, faulted criticisms directed against the President, saying it was confident President Muhammadu Buhari would end insecurity in the country.

But the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said on Monday night that the ruling party’s statement was an attempt to allegedly deny the reality on ground. “The APC are just misleading Nigerians and doing mere propaganda with their incredible claims. What is happening today is the worst we have ever experienced as a country.

“Nigerians are being abducted and beheaded in their own country. For us, this is the worst it can be. We have never had it this bad. “So, when they say the President is winning the war against insecurity, we would like them to provide an evidence-based response devoid of falsehood and propaganda.

“It will interest Nigerians to know that when PDP handed over power to the APC in 2015, no local government was under the control of Boko Haram. “Our government succeeded in chasing the terrorists to the fringes of Sambisa forest and was on the verge of pushing them out completely when we handed over.

“Today, every part of the country is under threat of men who behead for fun; a novelty hitherto unheard of in our country. So if they say they are winning the war, help us ask them this simple question: which war?” he said.

They have been given too many opportunities to lead Nigeria right. But look where we are today? Since 1999, this country has been flailing about, lurching from one disaster to another mediocrity. Today, that mediocrity, under achievement and underperformance defines an otherwise great nation, Nigeria. We have spent untold trillions trying to fix electricity, roads and other mundane issues that other countries have since taken for granted. We have not been able to produce anything from scratch as a people. Between these two parties, they wrecked the nation. Yet people who should keep quiet in remorse, having eaten the future of the children of Nigeria regularly mount the rostrum and lecture the rest of us! Look at education.

These two parties have been raping Nigeria in an unending sick financial and mental orgy since 1999. The problems that the politicians promised to solve since 1999 when the military left, have only metastasized. From less than 6 million in 1999, the number of out-of-school children (mostly boys who carry bowls all over the place begging for an existence) has climbed to 13.5million by government estimates. A governor, Mr Ganduje, who claimed in 2017 that there were at least 3 million of such children in his state alone, now says they are 300,000. What has Kano done to reduce these numbers? Nothing. All over the country, we churn out graduates that have not been properly trained, but who excel only in dogma (repetition of other people’s ideas). We haven’t challenged our children to take this country over, simply because we cannot bear to see them excel.

Our understanding of life is to live our own lives to the fullest, and eat the future of our children. Whether we are talking about health, education, security, the environment or any other index that makes life livable for citizens, Nigeria has only regressed since 1999. When there was an election that paved way for an opposition party to come in at the national level in 2015, many rejoiced. But these ones have proven to be worse – in corruption, nepotism, distraction, manipulation, mediocrity, disdain for the rule of law, and what have you. So what is the use of these two political parties? What is their benefit to Nigeria since they have no plans for our future? It is easy to focus on the present and neglect the bigger picture. It is true that the All Progressives Congress (APC) government has deliberately gone after other arms of government and destroyed institution in brazen displays of arrogance.

The party supervened, over the midnight, raids of judges’ house, DSS invasion and violation of the courts, and the international embarrassment that was the political removal of a Chief Justice of the Federation. It is true that they have lied over and over, deceived the people, usurped our freedoms and sold us into slavery through their dalliances with their foreign friends. Nigeria presently owes close to $90 billion and they have vowed to take even more, and never to look inwards to see what we could do to finance and build our projects. It is true that the APC government has never bothered to work on the unity of this nation.

They rode in by dividing the people, they can only sustain themselves by continuing to divide the people. There are no nationalists on the horizon right now. No elder statesman or woman who is painting for us a vivid picture of why this country is great together, or working to ensure the justice and equity upon which peace will be established. What we have is self-obsession, then tribal and religious politics. The president sees nothing wrong in granting a presidential jet to his daughter. He travels all over the world with huge entourages at our expense, treating himself in foreign hospitals while telling us lesser mortals to stay and die in the dysfunction that is Nigeria.

He sends all his children to university abroad while asking others to pull their children back into schools into which he has not invested anything. The definition of hypocrisy and phoney-ness couldn’t have been clearer. Ministers now draft their children as special advisers and assistants and draw freely on the taxes of those of us struggling to provide value through our little businesses, to largesse because a politics of superiority and winner-takes-all is at play.

We can’t ban China trips – Lai Mohammed No Nigerian infected in China The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has assured that Nigeria has the capacity to detect and respond to the coronavirus if it is imported into the country. The coronavirus, a deadly new virus which originated in Wuhan, China, has killed more than 170 people and spread to several provinces in the country as well as other countries. Thousands of people have been infected.

The origin is suspected to be a food market that “conducted illegal transactions of wild animals” in Wuhan. Speaking yesterday at the inauguration of the inter-ministerial and multi-sectoral committee on the novel coronavirus in Abuja, he said: “While the risk of importation exists, we can assure Nigerians of the nation’s capacity to detect, assess and respond to this and other public health threats at the point of entry.” The minister said as at yesterday morning, 9,700 confirmed cases of the virus had been reported mostly in mainland China and about 100 cases in other parts of the world.

While maintaining that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared the virus a public health emergency of international concern, he said two case alerts were received in Africa but the Ivory Coast case tested negative while the Kenya case was not clear yet. “There have been no confirmed cases in Africa but the potential has been clearly demonstrated,” he added.

Ehanire said the meeting was convened to discuss strategies for the prevention and importation of the coronavirus into Nigeria and the joint response in the event its identification in the country to ensure its containment. He said the federal government had approved N71 million to increase services of the Port Health Services unit of the Federal Ministry of Health , adding that the unit was currently implementing measures at all legal borders to prevent importation of the virus.

He said the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had activated a “Corona virus preparedness group,” and would activate its incidence command systems for the virus once a suspected case was recorded in the country. He said the NCDC was also working closely with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other partners to establish testing capacity at its reference laboratory in Abuja or abroad if need be.

The Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the government would not ban Nigerians from travelling to China because of the outbreak. “Right now we are working together at an Inter-ministerial level to be able to contain the epidemic. What will do is to give travel advisories, that if it is not very essential to travel to South East China, do not make such trips. But you know it is very difficult to ban people from traveling,” he said.

He said the Nigerian Embassy in China had confirmed that there were 16 Nigerians in Wuhan and that it was in touch with them, saying that none of them had indicated any intention to come home yet.

President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration’s goal of providing a safe and secure nation with policies and programmes that will bring prosperity to the masses is achievable if all Nigerians put their differences aside and work together in the spirit of cooperation.

Buhari said this yesterday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, during a courtesy visit by the 2019 National Productivity Order of Merit Awardees. According to him, the task of nation building is an enormous one. The president, who said citizens must endeavor to become more productive, added that it was only through increased productivity that a big and prosperous economy could be created.

The Federal Government is set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Island of Jersey and the United States to repatriate looted assets. To this end, the federal cabinet yesterday asked the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to sign tripartite assets sharing agreement on behalf of the country to repatriate additional $321m (N116.04bn) looted by the Late former military Head of State, Sani Abacha.

Malami, who briefed State House correspondents after a seven-hour first FEC meeting in 2020 chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari, said the funds would be used to finance Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Abuja-Kano Expressway, and the Second Niger Bridge. He said the MoU expected to be signed next week would also cover assets or funds recovered from James Ibori, Diezani Allison-Madueke, and Kola Aluko among others.

He said: “It is in line with that spirit of aggressive recovery of looted assets that the office of attorney general has been pursuing the recovery of looted assets. We have overtime been discussing with other jurisdictions including Island of Jersey and the United States among for the purpose of the repatriation of looted assets connected to Abacha family, Diezani Alison-Madueke, Kolawole Aluko among others.

“It is within this contest that we have now come to terms with this jurisdiction – Island of Jersey, United States of America and indeed Nigeria by way of negotiating for the repatriation of a sizable assets.

“As it is, we have concluded on the understanding that the sum of $321 million will be repatriated in due course inclusive of James Ibori assets as well. “So, we are hopeful that by next week, we will sign the agreement for the looted assets. The assets that are going to be repatriated is located and in the custody of Island of Jersey.

But the United States of America came on board because it has obtained an order for forfeiture against the assets, considering that the medium of exchange used in the looting the assets is the US dollar. Arising from that, the three jurisdictions will naturally be factored into the repatriation processes. “So, the amount upon signing the MoU will be remitted from the Inland of Jersey within a number of days agreed upon. Within 28 days, the money will be repatriated from the Island of Jersey to the United States of America.

And thereafter within 45 days, it is agreed by the parties that the United States of America will make the necessary arrangement for the eventual repatriation to the Nigerian state. “This is where we are. The council has looked into the negotiated MoU that is expected to be signed that will now lay foundation for the eventual repatriation of the money.

The council has graciously approved the execution of the agreement. The council instructed the attorney general of the federation to be a signatory to that MoU in preparation of the repatriation of the funds.” When asked about the figure of the amount to be repatriated attached to each individual mentioned, Malami said: “The immediate figure for repatriation as relates to the agreement expected to be signed next week is $321 million. The $321 million expected to be repatriated is attached to Abacha and is named Abacha loot.

“As it relates to James Ibori, expected amount is €6,863,977.12. But the repatriation of same is being negotiated and processed. On the sharing agreement, the minister said, “America and the Island of Jersey are simply entitled to administrative cost, associated with the management of funds.

So, $10 million was indeed what was earmarked to the two countries and the balance of $321 million is coming to Nigeria.” Speaking on the difference between this Abacha loot and the one linked to the Swiss authorities, he said: “That of the Swiss authorities was $322 million and has been fully repatriated and applied in the funding of the budget over the time. So, this is distinct and separate amount.”

GamalNasser:
How many years will it take the Buhari govt to build a 1000 bed hospital

Scientists in Australia have become the first to recreate the new coronavirus outside of China in what they have called a “significant breakthrough”. Doctors said the copy could be used as “control material” for testing and “will be a game changer for diagnosis”. That could involve an early-diagnosis test which could detect the virus in people who have not displayed symptoms.

Researchers at a specialist lab in Melbourne, Australia, said they were able to grow a copy of the virus from an infected patient. The sample was sent to them last Friday. “We’ve planned for an incident like this for many, many years and that’s really why we were able to get an answer so quickly,” said Dr Mike Catton of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.

According to the BBC, the discovery will be shared with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the hope it may help efforts to diagnose and treat the virus. Scientists in China have also recreated the virus and shared its genome sequence, but not the virus itself. Chinese authorities have said the virus – like a normal flu – is able to spread during its incubation period.

But the WHO has said it remains unclear whether it is contagious before symptoms appear. “An antibody test will enable us to retrospectively test suspected patients so we can gather a more accurate picture of how widespread the virus is, and consequently, among other things, the true mortality rate,” said Dr Catton.

“It will also assist in the assessment of effectiveness of trial vaccines.” According to the WHO, the incubation period can range from two to 10 days. The outbreak has killed 106 people in China and infected close to 6,000. There are at least 47 cases confirmed in 16 other countries, including in Thailand, France, the US and Australia. No deaths have been reported outside China.