Saturday, 30 November 2013

Re: Money-laundering Nigeria’s Future – Femi Aribisala could do with some facts

Vanguard News - Latest updates from Nigeria, including business, politics, entertainment, fashion, health, technology, naija lifestyle
Mr. Reno Omokri is Special Assistant on New Media to President Jonathan.

In an article published in the Vanguard of Tuesday November 12, 2013 and entitled ‘Money-Laundering Nigeria’s Future’, one Mr. Femi Aribisala made claims to the effect that the British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron, had asked Nigeria to account for $100 billion revenue which had accrued to the nation in 2012.
Let me say that Mr. Femi Aribisala was being economical with the truth when he said this. Nothing of the sort ever happened. Mr. Femi Aribisala may have been relying on false headlines carried by some opposition linked sites which have no basis in reality.

First and foremost, Nigeria is a sovereign country and the British Government would not intrude into our sovereignty. It would have been more honourable if Mr. Aribisala had carried out some due diligence from the British High Commission before making the false claim which he made. Be that as it may, let me again say that such an incidence never occurred. It is fictitious and it has no basis in truth.
Also, Mr. Aribisala also said: “President Jonathan went cap-in-hand to the Group of Eight industrial countries (G8) to solicit loans in international multilateral institutions for unspecified infrastructural industrial restructuring in Nigeria. The fact that his request was rejected outright tells me our President could not give satisfactory explanation to the G8”. This also is completely false and untrue in its entirety.
Nigeria is currently the number one destination for Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, in Africa for the year 2013 having racked up $20 billion in FDI in the last three years. Moreover, Nigeria’s credit worthiness is next to none in Africa, a fact that was attested to when both Standard and Poor’s and Fitch ratings (the world’s top ratings agencies) upgraded Nigeria’s economy in October 2012 and reaffirmed their rating in October 2013 when Standard and Poor’s rated Nigeria as having a “strong” and “stable” economic outlook. A few days after S & P gave this endorsement, Fitch rated Nigeria’s economy as “stable” with a BB- rating.
Mr. Aribisala did not provide any factual evidence for his claims which are quite puzzling as the world’s global financial institutions have affirmed their eagerness not only to provide loans for Nigeria’s government, but are even willing to fund the private sector. There has never been a time that Nigeria was rejected by financial institutions under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and if Mr. Aribisala has the details of such an occurrence, I would urge him to make such details known in specific terms which should include the nations or institutions involved. I know that he cannot offer such details because such incidences never occurred.
In fact, rather than condemn Nigeria, the British Prime Minister, whom Aribisala falsely cites as his authority, and his government have at various times in the last one year commended Nigeria’s economic performance.

For instance, during his speech to the Conservative Party on October 10, 2012, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron had this to say about Nigeria: “Yes, we’ve been hearing about China and India for years …but it’s hard to believe what’s happening in Brazil, in Indonesia, in Nigeria too. Meanwhile, the old powers are on the slide. What do the countries on the rise have in common? They are lean, fit, obsessed with enterprise, spending money on the future – on education, incredible infrastructure and technology.”
The above statement by Mr. Cameron completely contradicts the assertions that Mr. Aribisala falsely attributes to him. And that is not the only endorsement Mr. Cameron has passed on the Nigerian economy. During his state visit to Nigeria, Prime Minister Cameron spoke at the LagosBusinessSchool and said: “Which part of the world has seen its number of democracies increase nearly eight-fold in just two decades? Eastern Europe? No, it’s Africa. Which continent has six of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world? Asia? No, it’s Africa. Which country is predicted by some to have the highest average GDP growth in the world over the next 40 years? You might think Brazil, Russia, India or China. No. Think Africa. Think Nigeria”.
These are facts that I have listed and I must say that Mr. Aribisala should familiarise himself with that word. A person may be entitled to his opinions, but he is certainly not entitled to the facts.
As the pièce de résistance of his article on money laundering, Aribisala said: “It is also not possible to expect the Nigerian government to police itself. The government itself is the problem”. Again, Mr. Aribisala tried to paint a picture as if Nigeria has regressed on the issue of money laundering. Let me present him with some more facts.
On October 18, 2013, the Financial Action Task Force, FATF, removed Nigeria from the list of countries identified as jurisdictions with significant deficiencies in their Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism, AML/CFT, regimes. In doing so, the FATF said it “expressed satisfaction with the political will displayed by Nigeria in improving its Global AML/CFT compliance”.
Who are we to believe between the global institution charged with monitoring money laundering and one Mr. Femi Aribisala who offers up nothing but conjecture and gossip from online news sites with an ax to grind with the Federal Government?

Mr. Aribisala should note that under President Jonathan, Nigeria has made great progress in removing the veil on the sectors of the economy most prone to corruption. For instance, history was made on November 1, 2013 when the power sector was privatized. No more would Nigerians hear that the Federal Government pumped billions of dollars into the sector without commensurate returns. No! Those days are gone forever.
Finally, let me remind Mr. Aribisala of what the President said during his last Presidential Media Chat. He said if it was true that he was benefitting from the subsidy regime and that those who benefited from the fraud in the subsidy regime financed his elections then why would he want to bring an end to the scheme? If that were true, then surely he would want the scheme to continue!
It is such sincerity that the FATF saw and acted upon in removing Nigeria from its list and I hope the facts I have presented above would likewise help Mr. Aribisala remove the beam from his eye so that he can more clearly see the speck in his neighbour’s eye.

Mr. Reno Omokri is Special Assistant on New Media to President Jonathan.



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‘Yes We Can’ woman controls Nigerian finances

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By Stephan Richter
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Nigerian Finance and Economy Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala feels this is the time to deliver fundamental change to her country's economy. Photo: Reuters
On a day last month when the US government was still shut down and the streets of Washington were emptier than usual, it was a refreshing contrast to meet Nigeria’s Finance and Economy Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Okonjo-Iweala is clearly a woman on a mission. She is also a realist. She knows that on a range of critical issues, the stakes are very high for her and her fellow reformers in Nigeria.
From ongoing corruption to explosive population growth, much can go wrong with her country’s future. But the minister is clearly guided by a strong sense of being present at the creation of a new Nigeria.
Africa’s most populous nation faces big challenges, none bigger than youth unemployment, which is at levels close to the Spanish and Greek numbers.
But unlike in those two countries, staggeringly large numbers of entrants to the jobs market will need to find employment in Nigeria every year.
Nigeria may become the third-largest country in terms of population by the end of the 21st century.
To deal with that enormous challenge, the government has initiated a multitude of initiatives, such as promoting youth skills and entrepreneurship. Okonjo-Iweala, in particular, has seen to it that more of Nigeria’s oil money is swept into the government’s coffers.
The reason is simple: the oil wealth that Nigeria has must be used well. The country has large investment needs, not just in infrastructure, but also in education and the economy.
At a time when many in the West tend to pooh-pooh the virtues of prudent macroeconomic management, Okonjo-Iweala (almost) comes across as a fan of the Washington Consensus. And why not? Africa, long considered the world’s “sick man”, may be finding its way, even independently of the recent boom in commodities, says the minister.
A key part of the equation, she argues, is that in many African countries a healthy crop of technically competent and politically adept policymakers has taken the reins in the economic and financial sectors.
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan surprised his countrymen when he removed all fuel subsidies on January 1, 2012. Although a large oil producer, Nigeria imports about 85 percent of its petrol because of the frail state of its own refineries. The subsidies were thus a huge strain on the country’s budget.
As in many other countries where such support has been removed, such as Indonesia, strikes and demonstrations followed. But while reformers in such countries caved in, Jonathan compromised. He reinstated some subsidies, but is committed to their complete removal.
In order to get ahead on the long to-do list, Okonjo-Iweala is more than aware that this is a time when her country and others in Africa must put the pedal to the metal as regards economic growth. “Let’s not become complacent,” she says.
Nigeria’s 6 percent growth rate seems remarkable in comparison with global rates. However, when rapid population growth is factored in, it is not at all that impressive. Making real headway in positioning the country for a prosperous future would require Chinese-sized growth rates in the low double-digits, she says.
Her government is also relying more on the market and the private sector to help deal with some of Nigeria’s most vexing challenges, such as providing its energy sector with more capacity.
For all the progress, big issues remain. According to international statistics, Nigeria has the most school-age children who are not attending any school.
Nigeria accounts for 10 million of the 53 million such children globally, although the minister has data-related doubts about whether that dubious honour and the overall number reflect reality.
Even so, there is no doubt in her mind that education is the key to Nigeria’s future. Education also plays the key role in reducing the fertility rate. There is no better path to managing future population growth than keeping girls in school.
While Nigeria benefits handsomely from being well endowed with oil riches, the sector is coming under new forms of pressure. Corruption has long been a big problem in the oil sector, but now production is declining.
Increased domestic consumption may even endanger the country’s ability to export much oil in the future. That would seriously dent export earnings and the national budget.
That is not a prospect any finance minister could welcome. At the same time, Okonjo-Iweala is fully aware that relying on oil revenues is a big fallacy.
While it can provide crucial resources, “oil doesn’t really create any jobs”. It is mostly a capital-intensive industry and, given recent trends in the sector, bound to become ever more so.
The centenary celebration of the unification of northern and southern Nigeria in January 1914 is just around the corner.
Despite the deep-seated economic and political problems in the country’s north – especially related to Boko Haram, which has just been listed as a terrorist group by the US – Nigeria’s reformist government is trying to preserve its momentum. A key to success will be whether the country’s middle class keeps growing.
Income inequality continues to be a challenge, even though Okonjo-Iweala is quick to highlight that, on this key issue of moving gradually towards democratic equity, her country is performing better than Brazil and South Africa.
As economy and finance minister, she cautions against the simplistic enthusiasm of Western firms entering the Nigerian market. Many of them have a habit of just extrapolating population growth into (assumed) revenue growth and profits. It seems as if she perceives a certain amount of Western naiveté in this regard, a kind of replay of the once sky-high hopes Westerners had for penetrating China’s market.
Even if the day of the interview had not been one on which the US government was largely shut down, talking with Nigeria’s economy and finance minister gives one a distinct feeling of a person driven by a very clear-eyed can-do spirit.
Where others would just throw up their hands in view of the tremendous challenges, she is keen to persevere.
“If I hadn’t felt that this was really the time to bring fundamental change to my home country, I wouldn’t have taken the job when our president asked me to join his team,” she says.
* Stephan Richter is the publisher and editor-in-chief of theglobalist.com. Follow the Globalist on Twitter: @theGlobalist.
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Friday, 29 November 2013

Tackling poverty in Nigeria

Vanguard News - Latest updates from Nigeria, including business, politics, entertainment, fashion, health, technology, naija lifestyle

Once again, the Federal Government  came out hotly in self-defence over charges of worsening poverty rate in Nigeria.
The Country Director of the World Bank in Nigeria, Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly, had recently reiterated the already published figures that 100 million Nigerians live in destitution, another term for extreme poverty. In a sharp repartee, the Presidency, through the Chief Economic Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, debunked the claim.

He said with 112 million GSM lines active in Nigeria, the World Bank’s claim could not be correct, adding that most Nigerians could afford “a plate of food” for one meal, which he priced at N200 or approximately $1.25, the benchmark for measuring the poverty line.
In the first place, we consider the response from the Presidency as tepid and unconvincing. They did not provide adequate information to counter the assertion of the World Bank officer.
Secondly, the information used by the World Bank was a mere confirmation of the figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which earlier in the year alerted that in spite of favourable economic growth and performance, poverty rate jumped from 54.7 per cent in 2004 to 60.9 per cent in 2010. It had also added that while 100 million Nigerians lived in absolute poverty, 12.6 million were moderately poor in 2011.

We are very conscious of the fact that the President Jonathan administration is making a telling effort to reduce poverty through massive ventures into the agricultural sector. The regime has also instituted the YOU-WIN programme, aimed at growing new entrepreneurs and assisting them to create jobs. There is also the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), in which the Federal Government is also trying to create jobs through proceeds from fuel subsidy partial withdrawal.
But these are drops in the ocean, as the army of unemployed youth, which constitute the quantum of the poor, litter the Ngerian landscape. Some of them have broken bounds to engage in violent crimes, such as piracy, kidnapping, armed robbery, human trafficking and terrorism.
There is nothing to gain by engaging in empty arguments as to whether the figures quoted were correct. The message is clear: The scourge of poverty and increasing destitution must be tackled with every effort, and the time to start is now.

Nothing in this direction can be achieved unless the incidence of runaway corruption is curbed. The cost of governance must be brought down drastically. Let capital expenditure take lion’s share of budgets at all levels, rather than recurrent which takes as much as 70 per cent. This will free up funds for investment in the social sector for job and wealth creation.
Also the privatisation of power must be vigorously pursued to raise productivity of Nigerians. It requires more effective governance, across board to bring down poverty level in Nigeria.



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Nigeria: FG Threatens ASUU With Mass Sack

Daily Trust (Abuja)


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Photo: Vanguard
ASUU strike
Kano, Abuja and Zaria — The protracted dispute between the Federal Government and striking university lecturers took a new dimension yesterday when the Minister of Education issued a week's ultimatum to the teachers to resume work or be sacked.
Mr. Nyesom Wike, who addressed a news conference in Abuja, ordered vice chancellors to re-open all federal universities immediately, and said lecturers who failed to resume by December 4 will lose their jobs.
He also directed the vice chancellors to place adverts for internal and external vacancies to fill the slots that may arise from the firing of recalcitrant lecturers.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on strike since July 1, demanding the implementation of a 2009 agreement signed with the government.
That agreement provided for better funding for universities and higher pay for lecturers, among others.
Two weeks ago, ASUU chapters in the universities voted for the end of the strike after debating government's offer for phased implementation of the disputed agreement.
But instead of the national leaders to call off the strike, they wrote a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan demanding that the Federal Government should within two weeks begin injecting the pledged N200 billion into the universities.
ASUU further demanded that government should renegotiate the 2009 agreement by 2014 and the Attorney General of the Federation be made to be the signatory to the memorandum of understanding.
Government said these "fresh" demands were outrageous.
"It was becoming obvious that the union is taking the Presidency and Nigerians for a ride," the Minister of Education said yesterday.
"Government has reviewed the entire situation and come to the conclusion that the continuation of the strike action is an attempt by ASUU to sabotage all the efforts to address the issues.
"As a responsible government, we cannot allow the continuous closure of our public universities for this length of time as this poses danger to the education system, the future of our youths and national development."
He added: "Vice-Chancellors should ensure that staff who resume for work are provided with the enabling environment for academic and allied activities, any academic staff who fails to resume on or before 4 of December, 2013 automatically ceases to be a staff of the institution."
In a reaction to the minister's threats, ASUU president Nasir Fagge told Daily Trust yesterday that the union was awaiting a reply to a letter sent to President Jonathan.
He said the union had written to the president on the outcome of their national executive meeting which held in Kano to consider the government's offer over the strike.
"I don't normally take instructions over the media," Fagge said, referring to the instruction by Wike for the lecturers to resume or face the sack.
"We wrote a letter to the president through the minister on our position after our NEC meeting. So we are still waiting for him to reply to our letter. I will not want to react to what the minister said in the media because there are incidences whereby he denied saying what he was quoted as saying in the media."
But Fagge was apparently downplaying the anger of the lecturers, as some chapters of ASUU and individual teachers said they would not be intimidated by the minister.
Soon after the minister's news conference, the authorities of the University of Abuja announced the reopening of its campuses. It asked students to resume on Sunday.
But ASUU chairman at the University of Abuja, Dr. Clement Chup, said: "The school can go ahead and ask students to resume but we won't do any work; we won't teach them. It is not our responsibility to resume until ASUU decides.
"We're not afraid of that (sack). (The minister) can go to the motor park to recruit lecturers that will lecture the students. You can now see the insincerity of some people in government... . We dare them to sack us."
Chairman of the ASUU chapter at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Dr Mohammed Kabir Aliyu, told Daily Trust that the minister's pronouncements exposed him as being ignorant of the university system.
"The minister is ignorant... . He thinks the university is a ministry or a local government. It shows why we still have the problem. Most of them never went to the university and don't even know what a university is," he said.
A lecturer at the Bayero University, Kano, said: "It is an empty threat and as such we are not deterred. If they sack all of us where will they get those who will fill the vacuum? All the professors in this country are engaged in one institution or the other. Are they going to employ fresh graduates? And who will conduct interview for them?"
When contacted on orders for reopening universities, the head of ABU's public affairs directorate, Dr. Isma'il Shehu, said the university was not officially closed.
"ABU was not closed. Therefore, the university has been operating for all the months of the strike. We still have students in the hostels. Some of them are writing their projects or theses; they are accessing the libraries and other academic facilities," he said.
Meanwhile, Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, has ordered immediate provision of adequate security in and around university campuses nationwide.
In a statement, Police Force Headquarters spokesman CSP Frank Mba said the measure was designed to secure life and property in the institutions and provide enabling environment for lecturers, students and other members of staff to go about their lawful businesses without hindrance. The statement directed all Commissioners of Police to personally oversee the intensification of surveillance in universities in their states.
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No Plans to Sell Nigeria House in New York - Govt

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied allegations that the government was planning to sell the official residence of Nigeria's permanent representative to the United Nations in New York as alleged by media reports.
Photo: UN
UN compound in Abuja (file photo).

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Africa: Five Observations From This Year's Mo Ibrahim Governance Report That Didn't Make the Headlines

African Arguments

 BY RICHARD DOWDEN
ANALYSIS
If I don't read it as soon as I have torn open the envelope, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation's annual report on governance in Africa usually goes to the top of the pile.
This year, I set aside the eve of Mo Ibrahim's annual conference to take a look, having forgotten that he had organised an enormous party the night before. It was held in Addis Ababa, and he brought over a Congolese football team to play the local Addis side in the national stadium. The match was followed by a concert with Beninoise singer Angélique Kidjo, Senegalese musician Youssou Ndour, and Ethiopian singer Jah Lude.
The stadium rocked all evening and the party went on late into the night. It's not easy to settle down and read the latest ratings on sustainable economic development after that. I have only just got round to studying the report closely. You can look at it here>>
Forgive me if you have already spotted these observations, but since the 'Africa rising' story seems to be sweeping all before it; I thought it important to draw attention to a different narrative that emerges from the Index.
No one disputes that African economies are growing, and some African countries are producing greater wealth. But does this mean Africa is soaring away and wiping out the poverty that has dogged it for so long? Are the fruits of the recent boom in Africa's commodities and a rise in the spending power of the middle classes creating a self-sustaining Africa? Is the wealth being invested in good infrastructure, health and education; or is it going to waste on vanity projects? Or is it simply stolen and exported by the small elites who own and run Africa? How governments use this new wealth is crucial to development.
Here are five insights from the Index that may not have made the headlines:
  • Compare 2012 to 2011. Out of the 52 countries (Mo Ibrahim's foundation does not currently report on his own country, Sudan, North or South) just over half, 28 to be exact, were better governed than last year, meaning that 24 scored lower than the previous year. As the resource boom begins to level off, it is essential that governments spend this money well to create a dynamic future. In almost half the countries that doesn't seem to be happening.
  • Countries where presidents have become dictators and ruled for more than a dozen years are overwhelmingly in the bottom half of all the indices, which include Safety & Rule of Law, Participation & Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity, and Human Development. The only exceptions are Uganda and Rwanda, but in the case of the former, development may be happening in spite of the government rather than because of it, and in the latter, deep political problems remain unaddressed.
  • Resource rich countries are all in the bottom half of the table with the usual exception of Botswana. Does this mean that having oil or copper or diamonds under the ground ensures that the country will be badly run? It certainly confirms the resource curse theory.
  • Islands are much safer than mainland countries and tend to be better run. In the personal safety rankings, Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, the Comoros and Cape Verde take the top places. The only mainland country to make it into the top six is Botswana.
  • Two countries, Eritrea and Somalia, are reported to be worse off than they were in 2000 when the Index was first produced. All the rest have made some progress. Some, like Liberia, have doubled their score in recent years, while others like Nigeria and South Africa have only improved in by a meagre one percentage point. Nigeria and South Africa's lack of progress is especially disappointing given that these two are the giant leaders of Africa. The third giant in sub-Saharan Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is second from bottom and has hardly improved at all in the past five years.
I also feel sorry for Somalia, which ranks lowest in all the governance tables, although perhaps that is because no government means no official figures. Parts of Somalia - Somaliland and Puntland, for example - are developing democracies, peaceful and relatively well run. But because the Index deals only with recognised nation states, Somalia's figures are not accepted.
In theory, governance - once a constitution is in place - starts with elections. Let the people decide. But in Africa that great line from Barbara Kingsolver's novel, The Poisonwood Bible, sums it up: "To the Congolese it seems odd that if one man gets fifty votes and the second forty-nine, the first one wins altogether and the second one plumb loses. That means almost half the people will be unhappy... and in a village that's left halfway unhappy you haven't heard the end of it. There is sure to be trouble somewhere down the line."
This is especially the case in countries that are divided by ethnicity. Ethnic identity is deeper and stronger than national identity in many countries. In most, ethnic support in elections means the winner must reward that support by spending money in the region. Elections become a simple numbers game, a competition between ethnic-based parties. The winner takes all, leaving great swathes of Africa unrepresented and often ignored by governments.
When did anyone in Africa sit down, read all the party manifestos and decide who to vote for on the basis of their national policies? To be fair, not many people do that anywhere in the world, but at least elsewhere voters and journalists note the promises their politicians make and make an effort to hold them accountable when they are in power. There has to be a new way of accepting and celebrating ethnic identity and interests in African political systems while ensuring that all citizens and regions are treated equally.
The Index is a great way of enabling citizens to hold their governments to account. What I would like to see is a compilation of responses by African rulers to the Index every year.
Richard Dowden is Director of the Royal African Society and author ofAfrica: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles published by Portobello Books. Follow him on twitter @DowdenAfrica

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