TheNewsGuru

Tag: Nigeria

  • We are committed to indivisible Nigeria – British Government

    We are committed to indivisible Nigeria – British Government

    The British Government on Thursday reiterated its commitment to the attainment of progressive, prosperous and indivisible Nigeria.

    The affirmation was given by the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Paul Arkwright.

    Arkwright made this affirmation at a public lecture titled “‎Brexit: Lessons, Challenges and Opportunities for Nigeria”, at the Federal University, Lokoja, on Thursday.

    Speaking on the position of Britain on the groups pushing to break from Nigeria, the envoy ‎ said the UK remained firm in its support for one Nigeria.

    He noted that the unity of Nigeria should not be negotiable, stressing that the country will be better under one umbrella.

    “The strength of Nigeria is not in her money or oil but her greatest asset remains her well-endowed and resourceful people,” Arkwright said.

    He said Britain would support Nigeria in the areas of education and business development.

    He said, “We will strive to increase our market by encouraging more investments in Nigeria.”

    Meanwhile, the Presidency had revealed that the British Government will give the Federal Government information about Nigerians who own property in that country next year.

  • 2017 Budget: Nigeria needs $139 oil price to perform – Fitch

    2017 Budget: Nigeria needs $139 oil price to perform – Fitch

    Global rating agency, Fitch has said Nigeria needs the $139 per barrel oil price to balance its 2017 budget which was pegged by the Federal Government at $52.50 per barrel.

    The agency said this in a report on 14 major oil exporting nations in the Middle East, Africa and emerging Europe.

    The forecast break-even oil prices of other African countries, Angola, Gabon and Republic of Congo were put at $82, $66 and $52 per barrel, respectively.

    According to Fitch, Saudi Arabia needs an oil price of $74 per barrel; Bahrain, $84; Russia, $72; Kazakhstan, $71; Oman, $75; Azerbaijan, $66; Iraq, $61; United Arab Emirates, $60; Qatar, $51; and Kuwait at $45.

    It said even after cuts in government subsidies and currency devaluations, 11 of them would not have balanced budgets this year, including Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

    “Fiscal reforms and exchange rate adjustments are generally supporting improved fiscal positions compared to 2015, but have not prevented erosion of sovereign creditworthiness,” Fitch said.

    Only Kuwait, Qatar and the Republic of Congo have estimated break-evens that are below Fitch’s oil price forecast for this year.

    Kuwait at $45 per barrel traditionally has a low break-even because of its high per-capita hydrocarbon production and more recently its “large estimated investment income” from its sovereign wealth fund, Fitch said.

    Brent crude, a global benchmark, has averaged about $55 per barrel this year. It traded around $54.96 per barrel on Thursday.

    The rating agency said it “substantially” raised the fiscal break-even prices for Nigeria, Angola and Gabon from 2015 levels because of rising government spending.

    Meanwhile, the Nigeria LNG Limited has begun talks with potential buyers on new contracts for gas supplies from its first three production units at its Liquefied Natural Gas terminal, Reuters quoted a senior official of the company as saying

    Contracts for gas supplies from Trains 1, 2 and 3, which together produce nine million tonnes of LNG a year, are being discussed, said the official who requested anonymity. He was attending the Gastech trade conference in Chiba, outside Tokyo.

     

  • PDP managed Nigeria creditably well for 16years – Jonathan

    PDP managed Nigeria creditably well for 16years – Jonathan

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said the former ruling party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), managed the affairs of the country creditably well since 1999 when it took over from the military.

    Jonathan noted as well that the loss of the PDP in the 2015 presidential elections does not translate that the party performed woefully.

    The former president was on Thursday during a stakeholders’ meeting at Yar’adua Center in Abuja.

    He said it was not strange for the party to be experiencing difficulties because “every election cycle is a challenge to any political party”.

    The former Nigerian leader maintained that all over the world political parties lose elections not because they have failed but the electorate chose to experience another leadership.

    “We are proud to state that PDP had creditably managed the affairs of this country for 16 years,” he said.

    “There is no doubt that our party has in the last two years gone through some difficulties. However, in a democracy this is not strange in the life of a political party, especially after losing power to the opposition, like we did.

    “At different times, I have also been making efforts to reunite, reconcile and re-energise to become stronger, before the next election. I will like to point out that every election cycle throws up a challenge as well as opportunities for a political party.

    “A test to re-evaluate its performance, and an opportunity to reform its processes and programmes, towards rediscovering itself to become even more appealing to the electorate, in its next outing.

    “This obviously is the area where we have excelled. The fact that we allowed this process to take place peacefully, and freely handed over.

    “All over the world, political parties lose elections, not because they have entirely failed, but because, in most cases, the people who gave them power in the first place, have decided to hand it over to another party, in order to experience a different kind of leadership.”

    “This is not a forum for chest-thumping but it is important we highlight some relevant initiatives of past PDP administrations,” he said.

    “Our ideological commitment towards a private sector-led and people-oriented economy manifested in the great achievements we recorded in various sectors including communications, agriculture, public financial management and financial reforms, the financial services rail and roads infrastructure, as well as in the social services.

    “In agriculture, we revolutionized the sector by introducing programmes that encouraged more people, including the youths to embrace farming as a thriving business.

    “We also boosted local capacity for food production, thereby drastically reducing the prize of food stuff and food import bill.

    “That the PDP Government improved communication in Nigeria through the introduction of Global Systems for Mobile Communications (GSM) and the expansion of the nation’s information and communication technology architecture needs no gainsay.”

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the candidate of the now ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in the 2015 presidential elections, Muhammadu Buhari defeated the then incumbent president and candidate of the PDP, Goodluck Jonathan.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that after conceding defeat to Buhari, Jonathan peacefully handover power on May 29, 2015.

  • FG’s Economic Recovery Plan will take Nigeria out of recession if implemented – Economists

    FG’s Economic Recovery Plan will take Nigeria out of recession if implemented – Economists

    A Professor of Development Economics, Mrs Sarah Anyanwu, has advised the Federal Government to implement the just inaugurated Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020 effectively, to resuscitate the country’s economy.

    Anyanwu, Head of Department, Economics Department, University of Abuja gave the advice in an interview with newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja.

    She commended President Muhammadu Buhari for inaugurating ERGP, saying“ the country needs the plan to get out of recession so as not to prolong it.

    `The plan is very good for the country but the implementation is the most important thing as the country has produced so many good plans without implementing them.

    `We need political will to support those that will be implementing the plan and bring out the sources to do so.

    `We need experts to implement the plan, people that are knowledgeable about economy not politicians that are not informed about it.

    The government should put politics aside and look for experts to implement the plan and also people of integrity.

    “Economy is different from politics; we need people with brain and expertise because if the government wants to compensate people, it should be done under politics not in economy,’’ the don said.

    Similarly, an economist, Dr Aminu Usman expressed optimism that ERGP would move the country out of recession and probably put the country on the path of sustainable development.

    Usman, a lecturer at the Department of Economics, Kaduna State University, however, said the ERGP was announced without its implementation plan.

    “It is expected to impact on this year’s budget and we are already in April and yet the budget component of the ERGP is yet to be passed and signed into law.”

    “The plan should be developmental and not revenue earning focus.”

    “What we need is to lower corporate taxes but not to increase it,’’ he said.

    The don said the ERGP should promote local production and export but not to impose or increase excise duties.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that ERGP envisages that by 2020, Nigeria will make significant progress to achieve structural economic change with a more diversified and inclusive economy.

    The plan would deliver on five key broad outcomes, namely: a stable macro-economic environment, agricultural transformation and food security as well as sufficiency in energy.

    Other outcomes are improved transportation infrastructure and industrialisation with focus on Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.

     

     

    NAN

  • We are committed to eradicating bottlenecks of doing business in Nigeria – Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday restated the commitment of the Federal Government to create a prosperous nation that works for all citizens.

    Buhari made the commitment in his goodwill message to the opening of the second Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit, held in Kaduna.

    He said the creation of a prosperous economy would create sustainable jobs, stimulate economic activities and ensure national growth and development.

    According to him, the federal government will continue to support the private sector to provide the needed investment to drive national economic growth, ensure prosperity and stability.

    “That is why we launched a presidential committee to reduce the bottlenecks in doing business early in the life of this administration,” he said.

    The President added that the committee’s task was to simplify the processes and procedures for starting and running a business, “so that the cobwebs of archaic bureaucratic and administrative tradition do not stifle initiative or exacerbate the cost of doing business.”

    Buhari noted with satisfaction that Kaduna State was also replicating the ease of doing business policy, adding that the move was a clear understanding of the responsibilities of sub-national actors in the quest for national rebirth.

    “If we succeed in making our state governments adopt to attracting investments, creating jobs, providing infrastructure and delivering much needed public goods like education, health and portable water, then we would have delivered a country that works for all our citizens, “he said.

    He further hope that the summit, with the theme `Making Kaduna the investment destination of choice’, would result in reliable partnerships that would promote economic prosperity for the people.

     

     

    NAN

  • Buhari doing his best to fix Nigeria’s challenges – Gowon

    Buhari doing his best to fix Nigeria’s challenges – Gowon

    Former Head of State, retired Gen. Yakubu Gowon has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari’s efforts in dealing with the challenges facing the country.

    Gowon gave the commendation on Tuesday after a closed door meeting with Buhari in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    “Let me tell you the honest truth, my coming here today is to welcome Mr President back from his (medical vacation) and to thank God for what He has done to ensure that he has his health back and able to return home.

    “The other thing is also to thank him very much indeed for ringing me from London to commiserate with me on the death of my sister.

    “So, this is really the purpose of what brought me here and then to encourage him to continue to do his work to the best of his ability, dealing with all the problems and day-in day-out you read in the press, of course, all sort of things happening.

    “May God continue to give him the continuous strength and energy to be able to deal with the problems of the country for the good of Nigerians.’’

    He expressed delight over the speedy recovery of the President, adding that he should not be distracted by few individuals bent on causing social unrest in the country.

    Gowon urged all Nigerians to continue to pray for the president’s good health as well as the progress of the nation.

     

    NAN

  • Japan donates US$3.5 million to WFP for Emergency Needs in Northeast Nigeria

    Japan donates US$3.5 million to WFP for Emergency Needs in Northeast Nigeria

    The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a US $3.5 million contribution from the Government of Japan to provide desperately needed food assistance to tens of thousands of internally displaced people in Northeast Nigeria.

    The funding allows WFP to deliver food to more than 160,000 people in Borno and Yobe States, where the Boko Haram insurgency has left many people severely food insecure, and experts warn of a credible risk of famine in some places.

    “We commend the Government and people of Japan for their continued contributions to WFP’s operations in Northeast Nigeria,” said Ronald Sibanda, WFP Country Director and Representative ad interim in Nigeria. “This generous contribution from Japan will help WFP continue scaling up its response to reach more families in the region with food and nutrition support.”

    Currently, some 4.7 million people are in dire need of food assistance in the three most conflict-affected states – Borno, Yobe and Adamawa – a figure that is expected to rise to 5.1 million by June.

    “This new assistance is part of Japan’s pledge made at the Oslo Humanitarian Conference on Northeast Nigeria and Lake Chad Region held between 23-24 February 2017 for humanitarian assistance in the region, and newly additional funding from the Emergency Grant Aid as a swift response to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s call for emergency humanitarian support,” said Sadanobu Kusaoke, Ambassador of Japan to Nigeria.

    “The government of Japan is committed to ensure that millions of people in dire need of food in northeast Nigeria do not go hungry,” he added. “It is expected that this funding will, in the interim, assuage the suffering of people in the affected states who are in a near-famine situation.”

    For four consecutive months, WFP has reached more one million vulnerable in northeastern Nigeria with cash-based transfers, food distributions and nutritional assistance targeting children under five, along with pregnant and nursing women. Indeed, WFP’s assistance increased in March to reach nearly 1.2 million beneficiaries, with plans to gradually scale up to reach 1.8 million people monthly during the coming lean season.

    WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.

     

  • FG gets 500,000 doses of vaccine from WHO to battle Meningitis

    FG gets 500,000 doses of vaccine from WHO to battle Meningitis

    Following the spread of Cerebrospinal Meningitis, CSM, in the country, the Federal Government has secured 500,000 doses of meningococcal vaccine from the World Health Organisation, WHO, to tackle the outbreak in Zamfara and Katsina states, while additional 800,000 units are expected from the British government.

    Over the weekend, the Federal Ministry of Health issued a public advisory confirming 328 deaths from 2,524 infected persons in 99 local government areas in 16 states of the country. It was stated that a total of 131 samples had been confirmed in the laboratory, of which a majority are Neisseria Meningitides type C.

    Disclosing this in a statement, Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, said by Tuesday (tomorrow), there would be a meeting with the International Review Group of WHO to request approval for additional vaccines, as part of practical and medically certified efforts to stem the ugly incident.

    Adewole said the vaccines were procured through government’s initiatives, even as he assured Nigerians that the outbreak of Cerebrospinal Meningitis ravaging some states in the country would be nipped in the bud.

    “We have started working with all the affected states in specific areas of collaboration on massive awareness and sensitization, laboratory investigation and analysis, proper documentation and disease surveillance techniques through the National Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, and National Primary Health Care Development Authority, NPHCDA, which have been of tremendous support since the outbreak.”

  • Buhari can’t eliminate corruption in Nigeria – Dogara

    Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has said no one in Nigeria or the world at large can entire eliminate corruption.

    Dogara noted that any leader who thinks he/she can eliminate corruption should be thinking of wiping out the entire human race.

    Speaking in an interview with Daily Trust, the Speaker noted that even advanced countries still grapple with the fight against corruption.

    “And the issue of corruption itself is not something that can be eliminated completely. What you can do is to reduce it to the barest minimum, to a level that is almost seen as non-existent.

    “It’s not that corruption has been eliminated in the advanced countries we try so much to copy or speak glowingly of what they have been able to achieve.

    “We have seen this hydra-headed monster called corruption rearing its head even in elections of certain jurisdictions. Clearly, the signs are there, but our collective effort is that we reduce it to the barest minimum.

    “I lack the English word to describe anyone who thinks he would eliminate corruption. To eliminate it will amount to eliminating the totality of the human race. This is because no human being is clothed in perfection. All we can do is to reduce it to the barest minimum.

    “To eliminate it will amount to eliminating the totality of the human race. This is because no human being is clothed in perfection. All we can do is to reduce it to the barest minimum,” Dogara said.

  • Tension as FG confirms Meningitis claims 328 lives in Nigeria

    The Federal Ministry of Health has said that 328 deaths associated with Meningitis have been recorded in the country since November 2016.

    The Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Saturday by Mrs Boade Akinola, the Director, Media and Public Relations of the ministry.

    Adewole assured Nigerians that the ministry would curtail the outbreak of meningitis ravaging some states.

    “We have started working with the affected states on massive awareness and sensitisation, laboratory investigation and analysis, proper documentation and disease surveillance techniques.’’

    The minister added that ministry through the National Centre for Disease Control and National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), had been of tremendous support to the affected states since the outbreak.

    He said the ministry was in constant discussion with World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, E-health Africa and other international health agencies for supplies of vaccines and injections.

    “Through our initiatives, we have secured 500,000 doses of the meningococcal vaccines from WHO which will be used in Zamfara and Katsina states with additional 800,000 units from the British government .

    “By next Tuesday, there will be a meeting with the International Review Group of the WHO, where request for additional vaccines shall be approved, as part of practical and medically certified efforts to stem this ugly incidence.’’

    Adewole added that government was not relenting on the progress made, “as we have been assured of millions of vaccine doses through other notable and international donor agencies.’’

    According to him, Nigeria has always been bedevilled with the stereotype A of meningitis in years past.

    “This new outbreak is from a suspected new strain of the bacterial disease, Meningitis Stereotype C, of which the vaccine is not commercially available in required quantities.

    “The vaccine can only be shipped into the country by WHO only, if laboratory investigation confirms the existence of the strain type C.

    “Government is advocating for prompt diagnosis and issued directive to all federal medical facilities and PHCs to treat all cases of meningitis free of charge.’’

    The minister urged Nigerians especially residents of Katsina, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger, Zamfara and Jigawa states to seek early attention when discomforted with symptoms of Meningitis

    He also advised Nigerians to avoid clogging together in unventilated and over-crowded rooms.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that Meningitis is an inflammation (swelling) of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord known as the meninges. This inflammation is usually caused by an infection of the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

    It is usually caused by bacteria or viruses, but can be a result of injury, cancer, or certain drugs.