Economy

Nigeria: Reliance On Imported Foreign Food Fuels Hunger, Says FAO
Africa, Agriculture, Economy, Nigeria

Nigeria: Reliance On Imported Foreign Food Fuels Hunger, Says FAO

Nigeria and all the other developing countries of the world will continue to experience hunger if they fail to shift from depending on imported foreign food. This is the underlying conclusion tumbling out of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) seminar on achieving a world of zero-hunger. Going by what the experts say, making hunger history, will greatly depend on local food systems. Indigenous food systems and indigenous traditional knowledge have survived hundreds and sometimes thousands of years, therefore they may have some of the answers we are looking for, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said on Friday. FAO, an agency of the United Nations, considers indigenous and tribal peoples as fundamental actors in the fight against poverty, hunger and all other form...
Nigeria: Warring Executive, Legislature Close Ranks To Combat Natural Resources Theft In Nigeria
Economy, News, Nigeria

Nigeria: Warring Executive, Legislature Close Ranks To Combat Natural Resources Theft In Nigeria

Despite the festering cold war between the Executive and the Legislative arms of the Nigerian government, the two organs of governance appear to be finding a common ground to rally together once more. The menace of piracy and theft of natural resources in the country’s territorial waters is bringing them together. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, said in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city on Tuesday that the bicameral National Assembly will collaborate with the Executive to make new laws and strengthen existing ones in order to smash incidences of piracy and theft of natural resources in Nigeria’s territorial waters. Dogara, a stalwart of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) made this cherry deal public while speaking to a delegation from the Nigerian Ma...
Nigeria: Return Our Stolen Asset, Not Give Doomsday Prophecy On 2019 – Presidency to HSBC
Corruption, Economy, News, Nigeria

Nigeria: Return Our Stolen Asset, Not Give Doomsday Prophecy On 2019 – Presidency to HSBC

PRESIDENCY WANTS HSBC TO RETURN OUR STOLEN ASSETS, NOT GIVE US DOOMSDAY PROPHECY ON 2019 The Presidency wishes to make clear to all Nigerians, and particularly the global banking giant HSBC which said the second term of President Muhammadu Buhari would stunt the economy, that what killed Nigeria’s economy in the past was the unbridled looting of state resources by leaders, the type which was actively supported by HSBC. A bank that soiled its hand with ‘‘millions of US dollars yet-to-be-recovered Abacha loot’’, and continued until a few months ago to shield the stolen funds of one of the leaders of the Nigerian Senate has no moral right whatsoever to project that a “second term for Mr. Buhari raises the risk of limited economic progress and further fiscal deterioration.” Rather, ...
Nigeria: Buhari Replaces Adeosun with a Northerner
Economy, News, Nigeria

Nigeria: Buhari Replaces Adeosun with a Northerner

Following the resignation of Nigeria's Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun over the forgery of her NYSC exemption certificate, Buhari has replaced her with a Northerner, Mrs Zainab Shamshuna Ahmed. Read Also: Breaking News: Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun Resigns This is coming a few days after he replaced Matthew Seiyefa, a Southerner as the acting DSS boss  with Yusuf Magaji Bichi, a Northerner who had to be recalled from retirement to fill the position. Read Also: Breaking News: Buhari Appoints Another Northerner to Head the DSS Prior to becoming the new Finance Minister, Zainab Shamshuna Ahmed was the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning. She has held several positions including Deputy General Manager in charge of Corporate Treasury, Chief Finance Officer ...
Nigeria: Abuja Bound Train Crushes 52 Cows in Kaduna
Agriculture, Economy, Fulani Herdsmen, News, Nigeria, Security

Nigeria: Abuja Bound Train Crushes 52 Cows in Kaduna

The Kaduna state commissioner of police sunday confirmed that 52 cows were crushed to death by an kaduna-Abuja bound train. Addressing a press conference in Kaduna, police Commissioner Ahmad Abdurahaman said the incidence happened in Kasarami in Kagarko local government of the state. According to him, the command received a distress call of the accident and he personally led principal staff of the Command to the spot. “When we got to the spot we found out that contrary to earlier calls of insurgents attack, what actually happened was an accident involving cows. The Fulani Herdsmen who passed the night at kasarami asked if they could cross over with their cattle and were misinformed that there was no rail services on Sunday. “It was when they were half way that a fast moving tra...
Nigeria: God Has Used Buhari and Some of Us to Make Nigeria Work – Ngige
Economy, News, Nigeria

Nigeria: God Has Used Buhari and Some of Us to Make Nigeria Work – Ngige

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige on Sunday said Nigeria would have been in ruins if President Muhammadu Buhari was not elected to pilot the affairs of the country in 2015. Ngige who spoke with journalists in Onitsha, Anambra State, said the All Progressives Congress met the country in tatters when it took over from the Peoples Democratic Party about three years ago. He expressed surprised that Nigerians were not “clapping” for Buhari for reviving the economy of the country from what he called a state of comatose. Reminded that the general feeling was that Buhari had failed in areas of security and economy, Ngige said “Don’t just talk about that. We are wonderful with the economy; nobody, I mean no person would have done better than this present government in t...
Africa: Africans Deserve to Know Details of Deals their Leaders Sign with China
Africa, Economy, Nigeria

Africa: Africans Deserve to Know Details of Deals their Leaders Sign with China

China's footprints are all over the African continent, signing deals with many countries. However, the finer details of China-Africa loans are often kept secret. There are concerns that African countries are mortgaging their natural resources as collateral for the loans. The China-Africa deals ought to be transparent, and the public has the right to scrutinise the agreements. The news of China taking over Sri Lanka’s port and 15000 hectares of land on a 99 year lease recently raised questions and debate on the African continent about the kind of agreements African presidents are signing with China. The deal which has raised eyebrows was signed between two state firms, Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and China Merchants Port Holdings. The South African parliament, led by the minority...
Opinion: Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s Response to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo
Economy, News, Nigeria

Opinion: Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s Response to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo

My attention has been drawn to a letter written to Premium Times in response to an essay on restructuring authored by me. Faced with an avalanche of public condemnation for his 360-degree turn on the concept of restructuring, it is understandable that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has written to Premium Times to douse the tension his comments created. However, in doing so, the Vice President should not attempt to revise history by saying that he spoke against ‘geographic restructuring’. I have been in the forefront of the discourse on restructuring since the 1995 Abacha Constitutional Conference and to the best of my knowledge, there has not been any term like ‘geographic restructuring’. It is a strange concept, not only because it is not what the restructuring debate is...
Opinion: Chris Ngige Fights for Oppressive Multinational ExxonMobil Instead of Oppressed Nigerians Workers Femi Aribisala.
Economy, Justice, News, Nigeria

Opinion: Chris Ngige Fights for Oppressive Multinational ExxonMobil Instead of Oppressed Nigerians Workers Femi Aribisala.

The message Chris Ngige delivered to ExxonMobil loud and clear is that it does not have to be subject to Nigerian laws. It can operate here in Nigeria as a law unto itself. Last week, I complained that 860 Nigerian workers at ExxonMobil (Nigeria) are being treated like orphans in Nigeria; their home-country. They have fought this injustice with fortitude and resilience in the courts for 18 long years, during which 171 of them have died along the way (one more since last week). In court, ExxonMobil denied that the workers are its employees. It claimed instead that they are “SPY Police” in the attempt to circumvent its lawful commitments to them. The Nigerian workers, on the other hand, maintained they are directly employed by ExxonMobil and, therefore, should be treated as ExxonMobil ...
Opinion: Open Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on the State of the Nation – Timi Frank
Economy, News, Nigeria

Opinion: Open Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on the State of the Nation – Timi Frank

Dear Sir, I write this letter to you, Mr. President, with all sincerity and humility, as it is my very first letter to you since your emergence as President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of our great country, Nigeria. I would first of all like to use this opportunity to formally apologise to the immediate past President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, for all the tantrums and mistreatment orchestrated by me against his person while he held sway at the helm of affairs of our great country. Indeed, I and many others may have misunderstood Jonathan’s silence for weakness and thus pushed harder to malign his person and portray him as a weak leader. Having achieved the Change Agenda, it is now crystal clear, that the change we had clamoured for is not the change w...