Weekend Economy

WEEKEND

INSIDE

Post-COVID-19: ‘Digital Nigeria’ Gathers Momentum As FG, World Bank Discuss Collaboration Page 4

06.06.20

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AfDB Approves New 5-year Strategy For Nigeria Page 5

ECONOMY

SAT U RDAY, JU NE 6 , 2020

FOR GOD, COUNTRY AND ENTERPRISE

ECONOMY No. 12

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Direct Fuel Subsidy Billions Can Transform Foreign Investments Nigeria’s Economy – Oil Marketers And Insecurity ..Page 4 Low grade, contaminated diesel floods market – NNPC Sustained Oil Production Cut Good For Nigeria’s Marginal Fields Bidding Round – AEC

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Kogi State: Confluence of Opportunities

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President Muhammadu Buhari (middle) and chief security officer (CSO), Idris Kazeem Ahmed, shortly after Juma’at prayer at the presidential villa in Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO BY REMI AKUNLEYAN

ECONOMIC CORRIDOR

Egypt Kicks Against Okonjo-Iweala’s Nomination For WTO Top Job

BY CHIMA AKWAJA, LAGOS

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igeria faces the risk of losing out in the battle for the post of director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as Egypt has kicked against the nation’s lastminute substitution of the candidature of Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah for that of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

According to a document sighted by NATIONAL ECONOMY yesterday, the country is at the risk of being disqualified for the contest as the rule bars substitution of candidate’s name after November 30, 2019.

Nigeria is expected to square it out with Egypt and Benin Republic in the election for the seat of director-general of WTO for the term 2021-2025 at the

election scheduled to hold in Geneva, Switzerland in 2021.

The other candidates for the election are Mr. Eloi Laourou of The Republic of Benin and Mr. Abdulhameed Mamdouh of the Arab Republic of Egypt respectively.

Nigeria had in a Note Verbal No.:146/2020 circulated to the all Embassies and Permanent Missions CONTINUES ON PAGE 5

PMB Reappoints Umar Danbatta As NCC Boss

..Page 7

Education And Development: Lessons From South Korea P. 15

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Weekend Starter

QUOTES FOR THE WEEK “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

– Winston S. Churchill “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”

– Herman Melville “The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.”

– Colin R. Davis “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”

– Henry David Thoreau Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.”

– Chris Grosser “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”

– John D. Rockefeller “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”

– Thomas Jefferson “There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.”

Rape: We Are Failing Women And Girls child.

The march was one of a number of activities ith the recent planned by campaignd i s t u r b i n g ers to raise awareness news around of sexual violence and the world, especially urge politicians to set with the rape cases in aside welfare to tackthe country and total le the issue and ensure violence against wom- police independence. en. The Nigerian rights “Children are dycampaigners took to ing, women are dying, the streets of the cap- enough is enough,” said ital Abuja on Friday Dorothy Njemanze, to protest and raise an organiser from the awareness about sexu- protest. al violence in the West Njemanze said she African country after and other campaigners a series of high-pro- were “watching every file rape cases. And step of everything they with careless measures (politicians) say and been taken, the #Jus- do on sexual based vioticeforUwa has trend- lence”. ed on social media in Nigeria’s most senior the last week after Vera policeman has ordered Uwaila Omosuwa, a the immediate deploy22-year-old student, ment of additional indied two days after she vestigators specially on was raped in a church gender violence desks, in the southern city of a Police Force stateBenin. ment said on Tuesday.

Over 200 protesters “This is set to marched around police strengthen and enheadquarters in Abuja, hance the capacity of chanting and holding the units to respond to placards that read “Jus- increasing challenges tice for all Nigerian of sexual assaults and girls and women”, and domestic/gender-based “No means no”. With violence linked with emphasis that the male the outbreak of the gender in the society COVID-19 pandemshould be educated on ic and other social ills sexual matters and not around the country,” it just focus on the female said.

BY ZARA SHENEW WITH AGENCY REPORT.

W

Put a grain of boldness into everything you do –Baltasar Gracian

WEEKEND

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SAT U RDAY, JU NE 6 , 2020

EDITORIAL

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OUR MANDATE To be the unmatched medium in presenting Nigeria’s

economic news and data to the public and private sectors in an authoritative, factual and analytical manner.

Commendable Progress On Ending Gas Flaring

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he federal government has shown determination to end what looked like an intractable problem over the years- gas flaring.

The issue of gas flaring is a scourge that has bedeviled the oil industry in the last six decades. Although the bidding rounds for harnessing flared gas has been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the agency responsible for ending the practice, seems intent on getting the job done.

Nigeria is among the top ten gas-flaring countries in the world, flaring some 7.4 billion cubic feet in 2018, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers; 313 million standard cubic feet, according to the ministry of environment.

As of 2017, Nigeria had about 178 gas-flaring sites out of 16,000 globally in 90 countries.

According to Bloomberg, gas flaring globally emits more than 350 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in a year.

The flared gas in turn results in the emission of 16.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

It is estimated that over $1 billion in revenue annually is lost due to flaring, which also adds to extreme environmental pollution in the Niger Delta region.

Apart from the financial losses accruing from flaring, the practice constitutes

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FOR GOD, COUNTRY AND ENTERPRISE health and environmental dangers. The health hazards are in form of cancers and lesions among others. While the environmental setbacks include pollution of land and water that in turn has crippled livelihoods from

loss of farmlands and fishing pots. Thousands are thus left to starve and to be beggarly.

To rein in these problems, government has been trying to commercialise the gas that is currently burned for local consumption and for

I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world – Rainer Maria Rilke

export. It is discovered that flared gas can be redirected for Amonia production, a vital ingredient in fertilizer production. These and more has led government to set a 2020 deadline to end gas flaring. A large part is planned for conversion to electricity to solve the country’s age long power problem. To that effect, Nigeria’s gas flare commercialisation programme was approved in 2016, and the DPR held a roundtable for companies wanting to bid on the opportunity to commercialise 96 gas-flaring points last February.

It takes strong will to confront a challenge that predates the country’s nationhood and one that is perpetuated by a very strong lobby group because of the financial implications; the oil companies would rather pay the penalties from flaring than convert machinery to purpose.

We ask the government agencies at the forefront of the gas programme, especially the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), to remain focused on carrying out this national assignment with a sincerity of purpose to the eternal wellbeing of Nigerians, especially those in the Delta region and the economic prosperity of Nigeria as a whole.

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LEAD-IN

Fuel Subsidy Billions Can Transform Nigeria’s Economy – Oil Marketers

BY EWHAN OMOYE, IJEOMA ABAJA AND PRECIOUS MORDI

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illions of naira spent annually on oil subsidy if deployed to the development of other critical sectors, is capable of transforming Nigeria’s economy, according to the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN).

Making the assertion during a webinar themed: “Downstream Petroleum Market Deregulation: Prospective Impact on Nigeria Economy Post COVID-19,” Chairman of MOMAN, Adetunji Oyebanji, called for the full deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector, adding that what government recently did was only to remove subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also called petrol.

He lamented that marketers were stampeded into losing over N10 billion due to reduction of petrol pump price from N145 per litre to N121 by the government.

The webinar was organised by Financial Energy Review in collaboration with Leadgrid Series.

Oyebanji, who is also the Managing Director of 11Plc, said the petroleum downstream sector was hard

hit by the twin challenges of COVID-19 and crash in global crude oil prices.

“Players in the market need to know when to stock and when not to stock products, because we may have lost up to N10 billion when those prices were reduced recently.

That doesn’t encourage investors,” the MOMAN chairman said.

He noted that the billions of naira being spent on fuel subsidy by government could be deployed to other critical areas which would help transform Nigeria’s economy.

He named the critical areas to include health care, education and infrastructure development.

The MOMAN chairman said: “While we welcome the removal of subsidy on fuel, we need clarity on government’s claim that the market has been deregulated.

“Many of the institutions supporting the former regime such as the Petroleum Equalisation Fund, Petroleum Subsidy Fund and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency are still operational.

“So there is a bit of confusion whether we have fully deregulated the sector or whether government just decided that they won’t pay subsidy anymore,” he said.

Mallam Kyari said that the corporation would continue to be guided by sound environmental policies and standards so that the NNPC does not harm the environment and the communities of creatures within its sphere of operations.

It said: “NNPC’s firm position on sustainable environmental practice is today reignited by the theme of the 2020 World Environment Day, which seeks to raise further awareness on conservation of Biodiversity.”

Low grade, contaminated

diesel floods market – NNPC The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has alerted the public on the prevalence of low grade and contaminated AGO, commonly called diesel, being offered at discounted prices in parts of the Country.

The warning was contained in a report by NNPC Retail Limited Managing Director, Sir Billy Okoye, admonishing motorists to be wary of the off-spec products, a release

by NNPC Group General

Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru, has said.

Meanwhile, Corporation has expressed its determination to adhere to sustainable environment practices in all its operations to safeguard biodiversity in the country. Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, made this known Friday in Abuja in his keynote address as part of activities to commemorate the 2020 World Environment Day celebration with the theme ‘Biodiversity’.

Sustained Oil Production Cut Good For Nigeria’s Marginal Fields Bidding Round – AEC The African Energy Chamber has urged the continent’s oil producing nations to support an extension of production cuts and ensure strict compliance, as this will provide an opportunity for African economies to stabilize, and for Nigeria, it will guarantee success for its Marginal Fields Bidding Round.

The Chamber noted that: “the crisis has brought landmark oil and gas projects to a halt across the continent and jeopardized thousands of African jobs.

Between January and May 2020, the rig count in Africa which had steadily been rising over the past three years suddenly dropped

Digital Nigeria through Digital Competency Framework and Digital Skills Development…”

N A T I O N A L ECONOMY reports that the World Bank Group had earlier this year after conducting an assessment of Nigeria’s economic potential which can be greatly maximised by leveraging on technology, had expressed its readiness to work with Nigeria to build a digital economy.

Shubham Chaudhuri, World Bank Group, Country Director, had noted in the executive summary of 2019 Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) Diagnostic Report on Nigeria, that the country was uniquely positioned to reap the benefits of the

digital economy.

Citing Nigeria’s 47% share of West Africa’s population with nearly 100 million (50%) under the age of 30, the report noted that despite the largest mobile market in Sub-Saharan Africa, supported by strong mobile broadband infrastructure and improved international connectivity; minimal fixed broadband infrastructure and connectivity in rural areas, yet a significant number of the most marginalized segments of the population were without Internet access.

The diagnostic argued that accelerating access to digital technologies would spur innovation, efficiency, and productivity, and as a result bring about

choice and opportunities for greater growth and inclusion.

The report further highlighted that many Nigerian citizens and businesses remain excluded from the digital ecosystem as a result of limited access to broadband and nonavailability of adequate devices (mobile devices and computers) to fully utilize the Internet. It also highlighted good progress in digital infrastructure, finance, skills, and entrepreneurship, among others.

According to the report: “Nigeria’s international connectivity (‘First mile”) is well developed with connectivity to highspeed.”

“To deliver on the 2030

aspirations of greater access to the digital economy and meet the bold objective of creating 100 million jobs in Nigeria, the country needs to increase investment in infrastructure, create an enabling regulatory environment for the digital economy to grow (e.g., regulatory enablers of DFS), pursue radical reforms that bring about improved skills and a more competitive digital job market, support publicprivate partnerships to stimulate and sustain demand for the use of digital platforms, and improve the current business climate to boost more investment opportunities.

“The World Bank Group stands ready to support Nigeria in pursuing context-

Kyari

by 46% as exploratory and development drilling activity was suspended or cancelled.

An extension of production cuts will provide the kind of economic opportunities that African oil producers need to recover.

“With a more stable prices environment, Nigeria can hope for a successful Marginal Fields Bidding Round, Angola can resume the drilling of key exploratory wells and realize its exploration push which has been in the works for two years, and South Sudan can continue its steady march towards peace and security. Meanwhile, smaller producers like Congo, Gabon or Equatorial Guinea can have a chance at regaining the ground they lost.

“Extending production cuts and ensuring compliance is in line with the African Energy Chamber’s Common-sense Energy Agenda and will minimize the impact of the ongoing economic crisis. More importantly, this is about ensuring that we preserve jobs for Africans and give our industry a chance to recover,” Nj Ayuk Executive Chairman at the African Energy Chamber said.

OPEC plans to host the 179th Meeting of the OPEC Conference and 11th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting via videoconference next week.

Post-COVID-19: ‘Digital Nigeria’ Gathers Momentum As FG, World Bank Discuss Collaboration

BY EMMANUEL OGBONNAYA

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he federal Government has held talks with the World Bank to discuss areas of collaboration in building a sustainable digital Nigeria, which is critical for repositioning the economy to align with post-pandemic realities.

Announcing the development on his twitter handle, Minister for Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, disclosed that a Virtual Meeting was held with the World Bank staff, from both the US and Nigeria on: “collaboration towards implementation of our National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a

Great things are done when men and mountains meet – William Blake

specific approaches that will prioritize key interventions in the five foundational elements and advance the digital economy in Nigeria to promote rapid growth, more and better jobs, and more accessible and higher quality public and private services,” Chaudri had said in the executive summary.

Dr Pantami recently hailed a policy backing the Right of Way charges announced by President Muhammadu Buhari, which was also in consonance with the resolution of the State Governors under the auspices of the Governors’ Forum to address the lingering issue of Right of Way (RoW) charges in a bid to deepen broadband CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

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LEAD-IN

Egypt Kicks Against Okonjo-Iweala’s Nomination For WTO Top Job

on Candidatures to officially inform the African Union Group in Geneva that

the candidature of Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah of the Federal Republic of

Nigeria has withdrawn and disqualified, and that Mr. Eloi Laourou of The Republic of Benin and Mr. Abdulhameed Mamdouh of the Arab Republic of Egypt are currently the only two endorsed African candidates.”

Egypt had highlighted that its government is undertaking consultation with The Republic of Benin with the aim of reaching a consensus on having one African candidate between the two countries.

According to Egypt, during the Ambassadorial Level Ministerial Committee on Candidatures meeting which held on June 4, 2020, the Office of Legal

resolution will go a long way in implementing the National Broadband Plan (NBP) which was launched by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, on the 19th of March 2020.”

He added that an increase in broadband access will have a positive impact on the economy of the various States as well as the entire country.

“One of the key benefits is the rapid growth

in the gross domestic product (GDP) of any country that increases its broadband penetration.

The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated the importance of broadband in supporting economies around the world,” he said.

Internet via five undersea international links.

Similarly, Nigeria is home to several high-growth digital companies that provide hopeful examples of the

country’s digital potential.

Lagos is a mature and active ecosystem with dynamic incubators, venture capital companies, digital startups, and private services via digital platforms. And the potential of digital financial services remains untapped despite the large share of unbanked population.

For countries like Nigeria, the Digital Economy offers opportunities, but also brings risks of being left

behind.

The World Bank also stated in its diagnostic report that broadband was a key enabler in harnessing the digital economy transformation, but added that improved digital connectivity can only achieve the desired transformational impact on economic opportunity and inclusive growth if combined with improvements in digital skills and literacy, the

coverage of digital identity schemes, and access to digital payments and other financial services, as well as digital support to start-ups and existing businesses.

“With such capabilities, the Nigerian economy can harness digital data and new technologies, generate new content, link individuals with markets and government services, and roll out new and sustainable business models,” the World Bank said.

developmental realities and opportunities shaping Nigeria’s political and economic landscape, including the post-COVID-19 period.

The statement quoted Mr Ebrima Faal, Senior Director for AfDB in Nigeria, as re-affirming the institution’s support for Nigeria’s socioeconomic advancement.

“In the implementation of the CSP, the Bank will also support Nigeria to address economic shocks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and oil price shocks.

“We will do this by focusing our interventions in sectors that will strengthen public

health infrastructure and accelerate efforts towards economic transformation and diversification of export earnings and fiscal revenues from oil,” Faal said.

The bank noted that the 2020-2024 CSP identified supporting infrastructure development and promoting social inclusion through agribusiness and skills development as key priority areas for Nigeria.

According to AfDB, these priorities have been selected to leverage Nigeria’s rich endowment of natural and human resources toward transforming the lives of its people.

It added that in this context the new CSP had been customised to support government efforts in confronting challenges and to foster long-term, socially inclusive development.

“Under the CSP, the Bank will deploy a combination of sovereign and nonsovereign financing instruments to support the two priority areas, including investment and institutional support projects, evidencebased analytical work in numerous economic sectors, policy dialogue and provision of advisory services.

“Special focus will be

put on supporting the Nigerian private sector, in terms of financing and advisory services, and on Public-PrivatePartnership (PPP) initiatives that enable innovative, long-term investment in energy, transport and water and sanitation.

“The Strategy Paper is the result of participatory consultations with a range of key stakeholders, both state and non-state actors as well as bilateral and multilateral development partners.

“The CSP is fully aligned with the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy, the High 5 priorities and Nigeria’s own Economic

Reform and Growth Plan (ERGP), as well as the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“As of December 2019, the Bank Group’s active portfolio in Nigeria comprised 61 operations, with a total commitment of about five billion dollars.

“Of the total active operations, 29 were in the public sector, with a commitment of two billion dollars (43 per cent) and 32 nonsovereign operations with a total commitment of three billion dollars, equivalent to 57 per cent of the total portfolio,” the bank explained.

FROM COVER

of the African Union, inform them of the withdrawal of the candidature of Ambassador Agah by President Muhammadu Buhari and its replacement with the name of Dr. OkonjoIweala.

However, the Permanent Mission of the Egypt to the AU in a Note Verbal No.: 081/2020 circulated by the Permanent Mission of Egypt to the AU yesterday, June 5, 2020, kicked against it and called for the disqualification of the candidate of Nigeria.

Egypt in the Note Verbal “requests the Ministerial Committee

Okonjo-Iweala

Counsel (OLC) gave its opinion regarding Nigeria’s nomination of a new candidate to the post of a WTODG in which the OLC highlighted that- from a legal point of viewsuch a nomination is not in conformity with the Executive Council decision EX.CL/ Dec.1090 (XXXVI).

Egypt has therefore requested that the OLC to circulate to the Members of the Candidatures Committee in writing its legal opinion regarding the conformity of Nigeria’s new nomination with Executive Council Executive Council decision EX.CL/ Dec.1090 (XXXVI) of

February 2020.

N AT I O N A L ECONOMY gathered that the Bureau of Candidatures Committee which met yesterday with the WTO DG selection as the only item on its agenda. They agreed to hold a Ministerial Meeting next week.

Meanwhile, in the meeting continues today (Saturday June 6, 2020), there is the risk that Nigeria will have no candidate on the shortlist, as some AU member states are of the view that the new candidate from Nigeria is deemed to have been submitted after November 30, 2019 deadline for candidate elapsed.

Post-COVID-19: ‘Digital Nigeria’ Gathers Momentum As FG, World Bank Discuss Collaboration FROM PAGE 4

penetration in the country and promote a Digital Economy for a Digital Nigeria.

The Executive Governors had resolved to adopt the 2013 resolutions reached by the National Economic Council (NEC) which agreed on a maximum RoW charge of N145.00 per linear meter of fibre.

As the minister noted: “implementing this

AfDB Approves New 5-year Strategy For Nigeria

By EWHAN OMOYE

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he Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved Nigeria’s Country Strategy Paper (CSP) 2020-2024, which builds on the successes and challenges of the 20132019 edition.

The bank’s Communications and External Relations Department in a statement yesterday, said the strategy was approved on May 27.

It stated that the approval also incorporated emerging

In cooking you’ve got to have a what- the-hell attitude – Julia child

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NEWS

Dockworkers Commend Buhari Over Reopening Of BUA Terminals

BY KAREEM UMAR ockworkers at the Rivers ports have commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his commitment to due process, which has led to reopening the BUA Terminals shut down last year by the Nigerian Ports Authority in a move challenged

by BUA at the time, and decried by maritime stakeholders.

The workers in their numbers took to the docks of Port Harcourt to thank key stakeholders for their timely intervention in the crisis between the BUA Ports and Terminals and the Nigeria Port Authority (NPA), which rendered business activities at the terminal B void.

Addressing the dockworkers at the rally, Comrade Waite Harry – a National Trustee of the dockworkers’ branch of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria praised the President for his commitment to due process, which ultimately led to the withdrawal of the notice of termination issued to BUA Ports & Terminals, in line with the concession agreement.

The government also directed both parties to resolve all outstanding issues in line with the concession agreement, discontinue the pending arbitration in London, and reopen the BUA terminals immediately.

According to Comrade Waite Harry, “this action has saved the jobs of many dockworkers whose only source of livelihood come from working here.

The resolution of the crisis has changed our status from being “prisoners of hope” due to untold hardship dockworkers faced over the inability of ships to berth at the BUA terminals. We must also appreciate the Management of BUA Ports & Terminals who continued to support us monthly throughout this period. We are happy that we can now return back to our work through this gesture by the FG which will also bring economic prosperity to the state and the nation in general.”

“I hope that all outstanding issues can now be resolved by both parties amicably”, he added.

It will be recalled that in 2019, the NPA issued a notice of termination to BUA Ports and Terminals, concessionaires of the Rivers Ports Terminal B in a move that BUA said was illegal and ran contrary to the concession agreement.

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Members of inspection team of Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and managing director, Ivvyjustin Innovations Limited, Mrs Obire Ogonnaya (4th left), at an event, recently.

OPEC Set For Talks On Extending Oil Reduction Deal Today T

BY EWHAN OMOYE

he Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allied oil producers are scheduled to conduct negotiations today, Russia’s Energy Ministry and sources in Vienna said.

The talks among the Vienna-based cartel and the Russia-led group of aligned countries, known as OPEC+, are expected to focus on whether

to prolong an oil output reduction deal that was agreed two months ago to raise global oil prices that had plummeted as the coronavirus crisis hit demand.

The talks were to be completed within a single day, with OPEC ministers to begin at 1200 GMT and OPEC+ counterparts to enter the talks, two hours later, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Friday.

“It is going to be a long and difficult night,’’ an undisclosed source, involved in the talks, was quoted as saying.

The talks via video link had initially been scheduled to take place a few days later, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ministers of the OPEC+ countries agreed in a videoconference in April to cut output by 9.7 million barrels per day for May and June.

Since then, the benchmark

price for European Brent oil has recovered from a level of around $20 per barrel to above $41.

An agreement to prolong the production curb seems likely, Commerzbank analyst, Eugen Weinberg, wrote in Frankfurt.

In addition, countries that had produced more than they should last month apparently agreed to uphold their commitments in the future, he said, pointing to Iraq, Nigeria, Angola and Kazakhstan.

ny offers services in production of hygienic products, industrial cleaning, pest control and fumigation, waste management and supply of water purification plants.

According to her, the inclusion of hand sanitizers to its available range of cleaning products was in response to the breakout of the coronavirus pandemic in the belief that most ailments, epidemics and diseases can be wiped out by observing proper hygienic practices.

The Managing Director commended SON’s efforts in helping to curtail the spread of the coronavirus through prompt provision of relevant standards and other quality assurance procedures.

She stressed the company’s willingness to ensure that its products continually conform to the requirements of relevant standards which informed the submission of samples to SON through the Presidential COVID-19 Emergency Opera-

tion Centre in the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) for assessment.

According to her, many non-governmental organizations have commissioned the company to produce the sanitizers for their use and distribution to the public.

The SON inspection team went round the factory from raw materials storage, water purification, through the production section to the packaging and the finished product storage sections where the production personnel explained in details the process, in-process quality checks and the finished products’ inspection usually carried out.

On-the-spot test was conducted by the SON team, following which the company was advised to conduct quality check on every batch of production as a demonstration of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and quality consciousness,

while also maintaining records of such checks for reference purposes.

Commenting on the outcome of the inspection exercise, the SON Team Leader, Mrs. Oyapidan commended the company’s management for its swift action in the production of hand sanitizers to help curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus to meet the increasing demand for the product in the market.

She confirmed that the samples received through the COVID-19 Emergency Operation Centre FMITI for assessment conformed to the requirements of ARS 1470:2019 - Hand Sanitizers (alcohol based) - Specification and advised the company on the need to continually produce to requirements of the standard so as to give customers’ value for money and ensure that the product is fit for the intended purpose at all times.

SON Provides Technical Support For Hand Sanitiser Manufacturer In FCT

BY IJEOMA ABAJA

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he Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has extended its technical support service towards fighting the coronavirus pandemic to Ivvyjustin Innovations Limited, manufacturers of alcohol-based hand sanitizers in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

A team of inspectors from the FCT Operations office led by Mrs. Ganiyat Oyapidan and accompanied by Mr. Sunday Igbabo conducted the inspection as part of SON’s quality assurance procedure to ensure that locally manufactured essential products required in containing the spread of the coronavirus conform to the requirements of relevant standards.

Receiving the SON Technical Team, Managing Director of Ivvyjustin Innovations, Dr. Mrs. Obire Ogonnaya stated that the compa-

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat – F. Scott Fitzgerald

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NEWS Runsewe Advocates Use Of Culture As Therapy Against Covid-19

BY IJEOMA ABAJA

D L-R:Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun (middle) flanked from left by executive director, National Primary Healthcare Development Authority, Dr Faisal Shuaib; and Dr. Adebimpe Adebiyi when a team of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 visited the Ogun State Governor’s Office at Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, yesterday.

COVID-19: BASG, Fertiliser Company Start Training 5, 000 Farmers On Farming Techniques

BY PRECIOUS MORDI

B

auchi State Government in collaboration with Oshakahind Fertilisers (OPC), has started training of 5, 000 farmers on new farming techniques under the COVID-19 projects.

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Sama’ila Burga disclosed this while declaring the training open on Thursday in Bauchi.

He said the training was under the project COVID-19 that would assist farmers learn modern farming techniques and get farming inputs at subsidised rates as a result of the pandemic.

Burga said the aim of the project

was to help farmers get genuine fertilisers and other agricultural inputs to get bumper harvest of their products.

“Under the COVID-19 project, 5, 000 farmers will benefit from the project, they were selected from three senatorial districts.

“There are 10, 000 sacks of fertiliser each farmer will get two sacks at the end of the training.

“The two sacks will be used on half hectare of land and will get what they use to get on three hectares,” he said The commissioner said the project would help to educate farmers on modern farming techniques.

“To ensure bumper harvest

through the provision of fertiliser and other farming inputs and as well produce takers that will buy the commodity from the farmers after harvest,” he said.

Mr Burga commended the OPC for opening a stock shop in all locations where farmers would find all that was needed to boost their farming activities.

He lauded the fertiliser company for the numerous assistance they have been rendering to farmers in the state.

Earlier, the representative of OPC Africa, Alhaji Idris Azare, who described the organisation as Africa best fertiliser company, said the programme was going on in 10 states.

“In Bauchi state, three local councils of Ningi, Alkaleri and Shira of the three senatorial districts of the state,” he said.

He said the fertiliser and farming inputs would be sold to farmers below the market price and pledged to take it to farmers’ farms after purchase.

Adamu said agricultural experts were trained to follow farmers to their farms and train farmers on how to use the fertiliser and other farming inputs.

He said that each agricultural expert was given a tablet for data capture of farmers and motorcycles that would assist him follow farmers to their farms.

Pantami and in line with the Nigerian communications act of 2003. Suleiman said Pantami urged the reappointed executive vice chairman to improve on the commission’s performance and also ensure compliance with federal government directives.

“In an effort to consolidate the gains made in the telecommunications sector in line with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the reappointment of Professor Umar Garba Danbatta as the

Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission,” the statement read.

“Professor Danbatta’s reappointment was based on the recommendation of the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), FNCS, FBCS, FIIM, in line with the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003.

“While wishing Professor Danbatta the best, the Honourable Minister directed him to significantly improve on the overall performance

of the Commission as well as ensure that adequate mechanisms are put in place to facilitate the implementation of all policies of Federal Government through the Ministry.

“Furthermore, the Honourable Minister enjoined him to ensure that the interest of telecommunication consumers, Nigerians and investors are adequately protected.”

In August 2015, Buhari appointed Danbatta to replace Eugene Juwah as executive vice chairman of the NCC. The office is for a five-year term.

in the 2020 budget as presented by Mr President was jerked up by additional N33 billion in the Appropriation Bill finally passed by the National Assembly.

In a statement signed by the head, communication unit, Janet McDickson, the Office said,‘‘the said amount or any other allocation aside the duly appropriated figure is not known to the Office. The Office

also wishes to state that aside the opportunity to defend its budget proposal before the relevant committees at the National Assembly as prerequisites for the passage of Budget, the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs has no power whatsoever over the review of the budgetary proposal. ‘‘As such, the responsibility of the Office over the years has been

limited to implementing the budget as duly approved and signed by the President, subject to release of funds appropriated for the different sub-heads‎. We therefore view the story and the insinuations therein as attempts to drag the Office into unnecessary controversies and would like to advise the media to endeavour to always cross check their facts before going to press.’’

PMB Reappoints Umar Danbatta As NCC Boss

BY EWHAN OMOYE

P

resident Muhammadu Buhari has approved the reappointment of Umar Danbatta as executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Uwa Suleiman, spokesman to Isa Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, broke the news in a statement on yesterday.

He said the reappointment was based on the recommendation of

SDGs Office Debunks Alleged Insertion Of N33bn Allocation In Budget

By PRECIOUS MORDI

T

he Office of Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (OSSAP-SDG) has debunked the news making the round that the allocation to the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals

Not failure but low aim,is a crime – James Russell Lowell

irector-general of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Otunba Segun Runsewe has advocated the use of culture as a therapy against Covid-19 pandemic.

Stressing the potency of culture to address all human challenges, he said that culture is the totality of the ways of life of a people and therefore could be employed to solve all human problems.

In his words, the NCAC boss noted that the same way Medical Doctors use theatre as a place to heal the sick, and Artists use the theatre to educate and entertain, culture is a theatre of the mind and soul.

He noted that when a body, mind or spirit suffers challenges, culture could be a tool for resolving such challenges.

Runsewe emphasized that there is a global health challenge today arising from the outbreak of Covid-19.

He said that to address this health challenge, we require a combination of medical solution and Cultural Therapy.

He recalled that when King Saul in the Bible suffered serious medical condition, he solicited the services of David whose musical instrument, the harp brought him to normalcy each time he was tormented by evil spirit.

He said that in, like manner, the Lagos State Government recently staged a musical concert at the isolation centre for people with Covid-19.

Otunba Runsewe pointed out that theatre, music, dance drama and songs which are elements of our culture could provide the necessary balm to speed up the healing of Covid-19 patients.

The NCAC boss revealed that in addition to all the Council is doing to assist in the fight against Covid-19, it will soon stage a programme titled Cultural Therapy in the Midst of Covid-19.

He explained further that in compliance with social distancing regulation, it will be a “drive in theatre” where audience will sit inside their vehicles and watch 8 man cast perform live on stage.

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10 Richest Men Of All Time

The world has a lot of wealthy people who are excelling in their businesses and inspiring others to be like them. These people are not the focus of this article, but the 10 richest men of all time. Legit.ng brings to you a list of 10 richest men of all time, courtesy of money.com.

9. Jeff Bezos As at the time this list was compiled in 2014, billionaire businessman Bill Gates was number 9, but Jeff Bezos should take that slot since his net worth is now more than Gates’. Bezos is the founder of Amazon.

The American industrialist was born on January 12, 1964. He has a net worth of $147.4 billion.

8. Alan Rufus (a.k.a. Alan the Red) Alan Rufus was the nephew of William the Conqueror. He was said to have joined his uncle in the Norman conquest. According to Philip Beresford and Bill Rubinstein, Rufus died with £11,000. That would amount to $194 billion in 2014 dollars.

4. Akbar I Akbar I lived between 1542 and 1605.

He ruled the India’s Mughal Dynasty, which had 25% of global GDP.

5. Joseph Stalin Joseph Stalin lived between 1878 and 1953. He controlled USSR’s wealth, which had 9.6% of global GDP. Multiple economists nominated him as one of the richest people of all time because it was almost impossible to separate his wealth from the wealth of the Soviet Union.

10. Genghis Khan Genghis Khan of the Mongolian Empire lived between 1162 and 1227. He was a military leader. He was said to be generous with his wealth. According to scholars, Khan never hoarded his wealth.

7. John D. Rockefeller John D. Rockefeller lived between 1839 and 1937. He began investing in the petroleum industry in 1863 and by 1880 his Standard Oil company controlled 90% of American oil production. According to his New York Times obituary, Rockefeller was valued at about $1.5 billion. His wealth was equivalent to $341 billion in 2014.

3. Emperor Shenzong Emperor Shenzong lived between 1048 and 1085. He ruled the China’s Song Dynasty, which had 25% to 30% of global GDP.

6. Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie lived between 1835 and 1919, and he was worth $372 billion.

1. Mansa Musa Mansa Musa, who lived between 1280 and 1337, is the richest man of all time. The 14th century emperor of Mali was richer than anyone could describe.

2. Augustus Caesar Augustus Caesar lived between 63 BC and 14 AD in Rome. His wealth stood at $4.6 trillion. He was in charge of an empire that accounted for 25% to 30% of the world’s economic output and at one point, he held personal wealth equivalent to one-fifth of his empire’s economy. In 2014, that fortune was equivalent to about $4.6 trillion.

If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it; Every arrow that flies feels the attraction of the – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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BUSINESS Who Is The Richest Person That Ever Lived?

A

ccording to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, in 2018, Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon, took up the throne as richest man alive, having crossed the $150 billion mark and replacing Bill Gates, Co-Founder or Microsoft, who held the position for several years, and whose all-time high net worth was valued at just above $100 billion in 1999.

However, throughout history, there have been richer men. Yet sadly, no richer women. Taking into account inflation and the value of wealth held, Jeff Bezos actually sits much further down in the richest people ever list, with the likes of Genghis Khan and John D. Rockefeller taking precedence.

But who is truly the richest person that ever lived?

At an estimated value of $400 billion, Mansa Musa I of

Mali is the richest person who ever lived. Born in 1280, Mansa Musa was ruler of the Malian empire, and acquired the most part of his wealth from the production and trade of salt and gold; more than half of the world’s supply at the time in fact.

You’ve likely never heard of this ruler, unless of course you live in a country that was heavily influenced by his rule, which would be several African countries with Muslim heritage. Still today there are mosques standing that were built on the back of Musa’s immense wealth.

Dying in 1337, Musa left his huge amount of money to his heirs, who not only squandered the best part, but failed to protect the family worth just two generations down the line, when the empire was overturned in civil war and conquered by invading foreign nations. Musa was the tenth

Mansa of the Malian empire and ruled over the better part of what was previously the Ghana empire, today known as Mauritania and Mali.

His titles, surprisingly unrelated to his stacks of cash, include among others: “Emir of Melle,” “Lord of the Mines of Wangara,” and “Conqueror of Ghanata.” According to David C. Conrad’s “Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay,” during his rule, Musa conquered 24 cities and their surrounding districts, amassing wealth left, right and centre. On top of this, he was the world’s biggest gold producer and distributor, as gold was a highly sought commodity at the time, and an important indication of status and affluence.

TED Ed reports that in order to fulfill one of the five pillars of Islam, Mansa Musa made a 4,000 mile pilgrimage to Mecca, and spent silly amounts

of cash in doing so, as of course a Mansa as such had to travel in both style and luxury. TED Ed writer Jessica Smith says: “Not one to travel on a budget, he brought a caravan stretching as far as the eye could see.”

The 60,000 strong caravan was rumoured to have included 1,000 helpers, 100 gold-packed camels, endless musicians the Mansa enjoyed, and 500 or more slaves with golden staffs.

Alongside his heritage Musa’s assets are estimated to be worth an inconceivable amount, and although historians and economists have rounded said value to around $400 billion, according to Time magazine: “There’s really no way to put an accurate number on his wealth.” In fact, some believe that Mansa Musa’s incredible fortune may have been slightly exaggerated by his contemporaries, and that the Rothschild Family, the most successful banking family

in history, may be in fact the front runner for the richest person/persons who ever lived.

Nonetheless, this legendary ruler stands among the richest of the rich, and while today’s generations may have forgotten him, time remembers him through the many monuments, mosques and madrasas that he had built and still stand in Gao and Timbuktu, but more notably, the Sankoré University, which today is a fully staffed university with over 25,000 students and one of the largest libraries in the world at roughly 1,000,000 historical manuscripts.

Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are names we hear daily nowadays, and names we most associate with real billionaires, but these guys aren’t much in comparison to Mansa Musa, the richest person who ever lived.

Four things come not back : the spoken words; the sped arrow; time past; and the neglected Opportunity – Omar Ibn Al-Halif

– Credit: Bloomberg

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BUSINESS

BY RINA SAEED KHAN

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akistani scientists have successfully tried a simple solution to turn the pests into protein and income amid the worst swarms for decades.

As the biggest locust swarms for more than 25 years threaten India and Pakistan’s breadbasket regions, a pilot project in Pakistan offers a way to cull the crop-destroying pests without using insecticides that harm people and the environment.

Huge swarms darkened the sky in Jaipur in recent days; one resident of Rajasthan’s biggest city said it was like being “overtaken by aliens,” the New York Times reported. However, the biggest threat is to farmers and poor rural communities already hit hard economically

by Covid-19.

Pakistan’s eastern provinces were first overwhelmed in the winter. Fresh swarms are just beginning to take to air and are expected to grow until midsummer. Pakistan’s government approved a National Action Plan for locust control in February and airborne spraying of some 300,000 litres of insecticide is taking place.

Climate change has played a role in the locust plague.

It started after exceptional cyclonic rainfall moistened the “Empty Quarter” deserts of Saudi Arabia in 2019. Biblical quantities of locusts hatched and have been breeding ever since. The swarms were swept eastwards through Iran to Pakistan by seasonal winds.

After breeding in Pakistan’s eastern deserts, the locusts took to the air again in late winter.

Now, another generation has hatched, and crossed into India.

Imminent danger “Towards the end of May and in June and July, high level migration is expected,” warns Tariq Khan, director of the Technical Department of Plant Protection in Pakistan’s Sindh province.

Farmer Ghulam Sarwar Panhwar saw millions of the pests devour his cotton and moringa crops in just a few hours. “This was their second attack this month. With locusts attacking our crops during the day, bats attacking our mango orchards at night and coronavirus attacking us in our homes day and night, where do we go?” asks Panhwar, who owns two farms totalling 300 acres in the Hyderabad district of Sindh.

The pesticides used by the government are carcinogenic to humans and poisonous to

Pakistan Turns Locust

Bags of locusts collected in Okara district.

Image by Muhammad Khurshid wildlife, warns Sohail Ahmed, an animal biologist at the University of Agriculture in Peshawar. “No bio safe pesticide is being used at the moment. These chemical sprays are toxic for the environment and will affect humans, wildlife and livestock.”

Farmers in Sindh, Balochistan and parts of Punjab near Pakistan’s desert regions have already noticed changes.

“Already the parrots have died out due to the pesticides used in fruit orchards. I’ve noticed that the crows that used to eat the locusts have stopped coming,” says Panhwar, who fears the impact on the water supply, soil and crops.

Simple solution With the locust problem escalating, an innovative pilot project in Pakistan’s Okara district offers a sustainable solution in which farmers earn money by trapping locusts that are turned into high-protein chicken feed by animal feed mills.

It was the brainchild of Muhammad Khurshid, a civil servant in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, and Johar Ali, a biotechnologist from the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council.

“We were mocked for doing this – no one thought that people could actually catch locusts and sell them,” says Ali. Khurshid says they were inspired by an example in Yemen in May 2019. The motto in that war-torn country facing famine was, “Eat the locusts

NUMBERS

1.5bn The community’s locust haul averaged seven tonnes a night.

The project team weighed the locusts and sold them to nearby plants making chicken feed before they eat the crop.”

They selected Okara district, as it is a heavily populated rural area of Pakistan’s Punjab. They set up a three-day trial project in the Pepli Pahar Forest in Depalpur, where huge swarms of adult locusts were reported in mid-February 2020. The forest area was chosen as it was less likely to be contaminated by insecticide.

Popular idea Using the slogan, “Catch

locusts. Earn money. Save crops”, the project offered to pay farmers 20 Pakistani rupees (USD 0.12) per kilogram of locusts.

Locusts only fly in daylight.

At night, they cluster on trees and open ground without dense vegetation and remain almost motionless till sunrise the next day. Locusts are easy to catch at night, Khurshid says.

The community’s locust haul averaged seven tonnes a night. The project team weighed the locusts and sold them to nearby plants making chicken feed. Farmers netted up to 20,000 Pakistani rupees (USD 125) per person for one night’s work.

“On the first day in the field we had to send word out and around 10-15 people showed up,” says Ali. But word of the money to be made spread quickly, and hundreds of people showed up by the third day. “We did not even have to provide

“Economic growth is not only unncessary, but ruinous.” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn

them with bags, they brought their own on their motorbikes.

All we did was to weigh the bags and check that they were indeed full of locusts, and then pay them for their efforts.”

High protein Muhammad Athar, the general manager Hi-Tech Feeds (within the Hi-Tech Group, one of Pakistan’s biggest poultry breeders and animal feed makers), says his firm fed the bug-based feed to its broiler chickens in a five-week study.

“All nutritional aspects came out positive – there was no issue with the feed made from these locusts. If we can capture the locusts without spraying on them, their biological value is high and they have good potential for use in fish, poultry and even dairy feed,” he says.

There are an estimated 1.5 billion chickens being raised in Pakistan plus innumerable fish farms – all of which could

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Threat Into Chicken Feed

Community members use nets to collect locusts in Okara, Pakistan. Image by Muhammad Khurshid potentially buy high protein locust meal.

“We currently import 300,000 tonnes of soya bean and after extracting the oil for sale, we use the soya bean crush to use in animal feed. Soya bean has 45% protein whereas locusts have 70% protein.

Soya bean meal is 90 Pakistani rupees per kilogram (USD 0.5), whereas locusts are free – the only cost is capturing them and drying them so they can be sold as useable product,” says Athar.

Commercial interest The processing cost of drying and milling locusts is only 30 Pakistani rupees per kg (USD 0.19). As Pakistan imports soya beans, he sees substantial potential savings in foreign exchange costs too.

Right after the pilot study, the coronavirus pandemic forced Khurshid and Ali to put any further moves to scale up the project on hold, despite

interest from large-scale commercial operators.

Now that the lockdown has been eased in Pakistan, Ali says they can start again.

All that is needed is for the local community to collect the locusts and sell them. “There are so many jobless people because of the pandemic. They can all be put to work collecting the locusts and selling them,” he says. Furthermore, rice-milling firms now have spare summer capacity, as rice is usually milled in winter.

“It’s an out-of-box solution – it could easily be scaled up in our populated rural areas.

Yes, in our desert areas where locusts breed chemical sprays make sense but not in areas where we have farms with crops and livestock and people,” says Ali. “It’s a very good idea – the only missing part is the buy-back mechanism,” says Khan, who heads Sindh’s

We currently import 300,000 tonnes of soya bean and after extracting the oil for sale, we use the soya bean crush to use in animal feed. Soya bean has 45% protein whereas locusts have 70% protein Technical Department of Plant Protection. “Who will pay the local community for the locusts they collect? The animal feed industry needs to get involved.”

Urgent problem Khan cautions that while harvesting locusts suits populated farming areas, “In large desert areas we have to rely on chemical sprays.” He expects the swarms to carry on

multiplying till November, and believes an integrated approach is necessary.

“Since 1993 when the last large swarms of locusts arrived in Pakistan, the country has largely seen a dry spell. Locusts need soil moisture in the desert to thrive,” he says.

Since arriving from Yemen, the locusts have bred for three generations without a pause. They flew across to

Balochistan in 2019 and started breeding there. They entered Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last winter/spring breeding season.

According to Khan, the second breeding season that will last from May to November has started.

Pakistan’s official locust action plan funded the National Disaster Management Authority to procure insecticide and aircraft. “This is a coordinated effort involving the NDMA, the Ministry of Food Security and provincial agricultural departments and the provincial disaster management authorities. We have been spraying extensively in the desert areas in the locust breeding areas. You can’t eradicate locusts but you can control them,” he says.

Khurshid said that as massive locust swarms are expected from the end of May, the local communities should be encouraged to catch locusts through buyback guarantees as soon as possible.

The government, he pointed out, should both support and encourage private poultry and animal meal enterprises to buy the locusts and should stop spraying in areas where community-based locust collection is possible.

Ahmed advocates a strategy of mass netting. “Nets, which can be as high as 50 feet stretched across poles in the ground, are a one-time cost and they can keep catching the locusts as they come in multiple swarms,” he says.

Large scale development of indigenous natural pesticides like neem tree oil could also play a role as locusts will not touch plants sprayed with it, says Helga Ahmed, a veteran environmentalist based in Islamabad.

Useful lessons Pakistan’s example may be useful for India. There is usually some locust activity in western Rajasthan and Gujarat most years. But this year the spread has extended to eastern Rajasthan, and locust swarms have been seen in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. An unusually wet late winter season has laid the pathway for the locusts to spread, though a heatwave in central India may provide some relief.

“A single economy makes the constant adjustments necessary to facilitate trade impossible.” – Vladimir Bukovsky

Source-www.thethirdpole.

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WEEKEND FEATURE

BY PRECIOUS MORDI

N

asarawa State is one of the seven states that makes up the North Central geopolitical zone of Nigeria.

With its capital as Lafia, the state was carved out of the today neighbouring old Plateau state on October 1, 1996 under the military regime of late General Sani Abacha. Nasarawa State occupies a total land area of 27,137.8 sq km and it shares borders with the Federal Capital Territory Abuja on the West, bordered on the North Kaduna State, the South Kogi and Benue States and on the East by Taraba and Plateau States. According to the 2006 census figures, the state has a population of 1,869,377 with a population density of 65 people/sq km, its population makes up 1.3% of Nigeria’s total population.

The state has a diverse range of ethic groups each with its own distinct local dialects but Hausa language is common among the

Nasarawa: Solid Mineral Paradise people, they all have a similar history and share a cognate way of life and social ideologies.

The traditional occupations of the people of Nasarawa state as everywhere in Nigeria is hunting, farming, wrestling, blacksmith, pottery among others. Ethnic groups in Nasarawa state include Afo, Agatu, Akye, Alago, Baribari, Bassa, Egbira, Eggon, Fulani, Gade, Gbagyi, Gwandara, Hausa, Jukun, Kanuri, Mada, Ninzom, Arum, Rindei, Yeskwa and Tiv. It has 13 local governments and these are Awe, Akwanga, Doma, Karu, Keana, Keffi, Kokona, Lafia, Nasarawa, Nasarawa-Eggon, Obi, Toto, and Wamba and there are 29 languages spoken in the state, the major ones being: Agatu, Basa, Eggon, Gbagyi, Gade, Goemai, Gwandara, Ham, Kofyar, and Lijili. The state nicknamed the ‘Home of Solid Mineral’ is made up of plain lands and hills measuring up to 300ft above the sea level at some point. Ever since the creation of the state, it is one of the top tourist states and houses some of the beautiful hills and unique natural lake with its splendid magnificent landscapes and sites and fabulous highlands.

Agriculture is the mainstay of economy in the state with the production of varieties of

crops throughout the year. The main occupation of the people of the state is farming and crops cultivated include rice, maize, bambara nuts, groundnuts, cowpea, sorghum, guinea corn, Shea nuts, beans, soybeans, asha and millet. Cash crops like melon (egusi), cassava, cotton and yam are not left out. Production of minerals such as salt is also a major economic activity of the state, Nasarawa State is the producer of the largest proportion of salt consumed in the country.

The Home of Solid Minerals is

“Economic growth is not only unncessary, but ruinous.” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn

also endowed abundantly with various mineral resources unlike other states in Nigeria. Mineral resources like coal, aquamarine, columbite, sharp sand, marble baryte, bauxite, gold, tantalite, gemstone, clay, glass sands and limestone, which are mostly mined by artisanal miners. The three major geological components that makeup the geology of Nigeria, namely, Basement complex, younger Granites and Sedimentary rocks are all pronounced in the State. All known minerals that occur in the Nigerian geological

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environments have remineralised in Nasarawa State.

The state houses numerous breathtaking views and beauty with array of hills and rocks that dot the state’s landscape.

At the top of these hills awaits a wonderful spectacle of the state.

Some attractions of the state includes the Farin Ruwa Falls which is reputed to be one of the highest falls in Africa, the Farin Ruwa is just as striking as the Victoria Falls and Niagara Falls, the Salt Village which produces naturally iodized salt from the lake located near it, Captain Maloney Hills, the famous Mada Hills and Rukubi Hills, Eggon and Ava Hills and Caves, Peperuwa lake which is an elongated natural lake and is home to aquatic creatures like water ducks, hippopotamus, geese, fish and manatees, the Dyeing pits and Calabash carving site which is one of the oldest dyeing pits where traditional in various sizes and

designs are woven and dyed. Other famous exciting sites in the state are Umaisha Riverbank Resort, Keana Salt Processing center, Hunku lake, Numan Rocks, Hunki Ox-Bow Lake, Akiri warm spring, Ara rock, Doma dam etc. The state also has a cultural and historic well known event called

the Sharo festival which is celebrated after Ramadan.

Progressively, education and civilization has changed the general lifestyle within the Emirate. There are sizeable numbers of public and private schools within the city. The state has a College of Education in Akwanga, Federal polytechnic Nasarawa, College of Agriculture

in Lafia, Isa Mustapha Agwai I Polytechnic Lafia, Nasarawa State University, Federal University of Lafia, Bingham University Karu, NACAP polytechnic Akwanga, Command secondary school Lafia, Command secondary school Rinze, Vocational And Relevant technology board, and many primary and secondary schools.

Some attractions of the state includes the Farin Ruwa Falls which is reputed to be one of the highest falls in Africa, the Farin Ruwa is just as striking as the Victoria Falls and Niagara Falls, the Salt Village...

“A single economy makes the constant adjustments necessary to facilitate trade impossible.” – Vladimir Bukovsky

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NIGERIA ON MY MIND

roducing and presenting a LIVE TV programme on any channel is fraught with potential nightmares because spending days in the week gathering pre-production materials could stand the programme on it›s head if there is breaking news of significant tragic or positive dimension that makes it imperative to dramatically change the direction and programme content. In such cases, you may just be faced with few days to create a fresh content and raise the bars of the production value. I encountered such hectic production pandemonium during the apocalyptic 911 TWIN TOWER attacks in New York during the Presidency of George W. Bush by the late Osama Bin Laden and his crazy gangsters from Afghanistan. I had literally concluded the production narratives of a special episode of my now rested Saturday Talk Show focusing on President Obasanjo›s perceived interference in National Assembly affairs under the former speaker, Umar Ghali Na›aba. That during during the hot season of serial impeachment saga. The entire world›s permutations took a serious dive into a holistic discourse on Terrorism. I remember taking a roasting from a US embassy Diplomat who lambasted me through my programme›s phone-in platform for daring to caution the US not to fight head-on with miscreants who wanted to die as heroes on their way to heaven. In their minds ofcourse.

The follow up programmes of that singular attack on US Homeland took about 5 episodes of the programme. The democratic programme to curtail President Obasanjo›s executive rascality in the National Assembly eventually aired after a long wait.

Planning this week›s column took nearly a similar turn as I had planned a comprehensive 2-page column on His Excellency, EL RUFAI, the actively restless Governor of Kaduna state. I chose to do a Special Focus on him as an astute Administrator, devoid of political talk for this week. My choice of the Kaduna state governor is born out of my deep respect for his administrative, leadership, managerial acumen and dexterity. As the Minister of the FCT, Governor El Rufai showed the uncanny stubbornness and specific focus that strong leaders pocess in getting the job done. He also put up a solid worldclass performance as the DG of the then BUREAU FOR PUBLIC ENTERPRISE, BPE under president Obasanjo. I am a regular visitor to kaduna state because of my nationwide NGO brand, Youths Empowerment for Justice initiative. I was in Zaria on a scheduled meeting with the Emir of ZAZZAU, Alhaji Idris Abubakar to discuss the possibility of providing his emirate with a Borehole and empowerment for the youths, women and widows. I am in deep touch with our members across the local government and wards in the state led by our Northwest zonal coordinator, Hadiza Yakubu. The Deputy Director of YEJI›S FARMERS COOPERATIVES and DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION are all from Kaduna state. These leaders and members are completely at home and satisfied with their state Governor›s performance in office. Everyone points to the Governor›s sense of humility and candour. I call it spiritual humility in service of his people.

His fearless intervention in the Governor Ganduje›s quest to dethrone the former Emir Of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi is the mark of a man that takes the bull by the horn in tackling life›s challenges with a bullish dispatch. Baring last minute change of

With

Robert Opara

WhatsApp only 08139193479

Foreign Direct Investments And Insecurity circumstances, I hope to bring a special focus on the person and character of the governor next week Saturday.

Nigeria has really come of age in terms of our status as an economically viable and credible Diplomatic Powerhouse in the committee of nations. The likes of the former Finance Minister, Okonjo Iwala, AFDB›s Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the UN General, Alhaji MohammadBande and Hajiya Amina J. Mohammed, the current UN Deputy SecretaryGeneral have driven Nigeria to the apex of international recognition and respect. The coalition of international support for Dr. Akinwumi Adesina›s fight to keep his job in the AFDB against the Donald Trump›s administration to push him out for the so called corruption charge against him albeit he has been exonerated by the board of AFDB. This is a pointer to Nigeria›s giant status in the world. It is a paradoxical irony that Nigeria parades worldclass Diplomats, worldclass Nigerian billionaires in the Forbes billionaire club like Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola, Pascal Dozie, etc yet we find it difficult to attract longterm investment into the Nigerian economic space.

Not that we lacked some investments especially in the critical areas of widening our teledensity population straight from our moribund Nitel era. But compared to our size and potentials as a nation, the investment that streamed in from the GSM penetration, the investment is miserably

How many hospitals in Nigeria can truly meet the international standards? Can we really think that the rest of the world community will take Nigeria serious about allowing their country men and women to invest in Nigeria with the low level infrastructure, power outage,insecurityetal?

Life is like a ten- speed bike.Most of us have gears we never use – Charles Schulz

low stipend compared to our sheer size as a nation. The million dollar question is what concrete roles are our Diplomats in the UN, our club of billionaires, accredited Nigerian Ambassadors around the world, Nigerian Export Promotion Council, Mr President and his economic Advisers playing to attract concrete FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS to Nigeria?

Or are we not the same country borrowing billions of dollars from nations and 3rd party development agencies? If we are a creditworthy nation, why is the government not leveraging the same channel to attract formidable investments into Nigeria.

Nigeria›s unemployment population is a ticking bomb. The present flashes of violence in the US may not necessarily be the result of the callous murder of a black man by the police. It is a spillover of anger of the staggering recession, unemployment and mismanagement of governance by President Donald Trump.

But does Nigeria tick the right boxes that may attract Foreign Direct Investment at this moment in our development efforts?

Have we devoted an appropriate percentage of our national budget to develope world class infrastructures across Nigeria? Have we done enough to develop our medical tourism for the medical health of our foreign investors? Have we done enough to attract investment from China in spite their partnership to develop our railways?

Have we done enough in the areas of roads network development to attract Foreign investments? Does Nigeria›s tax regime meet international best practices? Is our criminal justice administration system good enough to protect foreign investment in view of the alleged judicial corruption that is awash in the local and international multimedia platforms? What about our state of fragile insecurity prevalent in our states and communities in the country.

How is the government and the national Assembly tackling the menace of wanton destruction of properties, astronomical rise in cases of rapes, murder, armed robberies and kidnap rampant around the nation.

South Africa makes deliberate efforts to build worldclass hospitals and offers premium health and life saving packages.

The country records more than 500,000 visitors annually from all parts of Africa on MEDICAL TOURISM. Their advanced infrastructure and worldclass medical technology is also matched with highly proficient medical doctors that recognises their roles as the ambassadors of their medical tourism that saves lives. India, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia are countries that make deliberate efforts to develop medical tourism as a life saving revenue basket of their countries. How many hospitals in Nigeria can truly meet the international standards? Can we really think that the rest of the world community will take Nigeria serious about allowing their country men and women to invest in Nigeria with the low level infrastructure, power outage, insecurity et al?

The common recurring decimal in these nations quest to develop classic infrastructures is that they are open to deploy their best brains, putting putting round pegs in round holes. But in our perchance to ensure the so-called geopolitical balance and quota system we largely tend to deploy our worst 11.

My take in these grammar here is that Mr. President needs to declare a state of emergency to fix Nigeria urgently before the next general elections in Nigeria.

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ECONOMIC CORRIDOR Education And Development: Lessons From South Korea S With Kirk Leigh

Tel: +2348023943970

outh Korea’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2019 is a whopping $1.6 trillion, representing 1.4 percent of global growth. For an emerging economy, that’s a decent performance. It beats The size of Nigeria’s economy four times while boasting one of the best Human Development Index (HDI) Scores globally.

Key to Korea’s development is education. total expenditure of the Asian country on educational institutions for all levels was the third highest among OECD countries, about 8% of GDP in 2011, compared with 6% on average for OECD countries overall.” Is it any wonder then that the country is among the top flight?

Nigeria in contrast has spent only $48 billion on education in the last 44 years, according to Intelserve yet “Nigeria’s educational system is in assorted crises of infrastructural decay, neglect, waste of resources and sordid conditions of service. The country has over 10 million out-ofschool children. That’s the highest in the world. Another 27 million children in school are performing very poorly. Millions of Nigerians are half-educated, and over 60 million – or 30% – are illiterate”, according to the conversation, an online platform.

Korea had an arrangement whereby they send students to acquire education abroad after which they return to pass on what they have learnt to others at home.

But perhaps the most strategic thing about their education, as is the case with other advanced countries is that Universities exist in an echo system comprising them, research institutions and industry.

This system highlights the place of research/science and technology in the advancement of the economy.

In Nigeria, university research is near nonexistent. Where they exist, they are often substandard for lack of funding and serious enquiry and are mostly confined to shelves. The country’s research institutes, which were set up to research into specific areas of growth are struggling for legitimacy for lack of funding and

attention. It is interesting to note that Nigeria has a road research institute yet its research is never consulted by government let alone the private sector. It is almost the same story with the Cocoa Research Institute, NIFOR, PRODA and many more.

Unfortunately, whenever we hear of any Nigerian at the forefront of any scientific or technology breakthrough, we also find out that they are based abroad and their research, the product of the system that encouraged and nurtured them, are for the progress of those societies.

Phillip Emeagwali , described by CNN as “a father of the Internet” and Jelani Aliu, designer of the Chevy Volt, for General Motors are excellent examples.

America is a superpower mostly because it encourages research and scientific enquiry and conducive for folks like Emeagwali and Aliu to pursue what has come to be known as the American Dream. As of 2014, it had 578,802 patent applications, second to China with 928,177 patents, according to Wikipedia.

Government can demonstrate commitment to education by investing heavily in the sector, send thousands abroad to acquire skills that can be applied to growing several crucial sectors.

While South Korean exports are in demand worldwide, Nigeria’s products are struggling with standards. It was in the news about a year ago that over twenty Nigerian products were rejected overseas for their lack of adherence to standards; some have even become subjects of arbitration at the World Trade Organisation. Yet we have a standards organisation. What is also interesting is that destination countries have often taken time out to school our manufacturers on the standards required to have safe

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving – Albert Einstein

berths for their products. All of this would have been avoided if there was adequate research carried out to upgrade standards. Again, this is an offshoot of education.

Government can demonstrate commitment to education by investing heavily in the sector, send thousands abroad to acquire skills that can be applied to growing several crucial sectors. This used to be the practice. It can be revived.

But it is quite a tough task for an industry that requires a N2trillion investment.

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STATE IN FOCUS Kogi State: Confluence of Opportunities

BY JONATHAN EZE

K

ogi State is blessed with great human and natural resources, making it a confluence of opportunities.

The state is also the undisputed gateway between the north and south. This state stands in a strategic position making it the only state that shares boundaries with ten other states including Abuja.

A fertile arable land makes Kogi the largest producer of cashew, potential major rice producer, a respected fishing community among others as well as a bed of some of the most prolific solid minerals including coal, limestone, iron ore and tin makes it undoubtedly the confluence state.

The state is situated in the central region (Middle-Belt) of Nigeria and home to the largest iron and steel industry in Nigeria known as Ajaokuta Steel.

The state under Governor Yahaya Bello is making steady progress in development as affirmed by the World Bank and other rating institutions despite the neglects of previous administrations.

Extolling the virtues and administrative acumen of the governor recently, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo said: “Within a few months of Governor Bello in office, he approached me and presented to me a compendium, the New Direction

Blueprint. I must say that I found reading through it that it was both ambitious and farsighted.

“I’m also told that there is a thirty-twoyear infrastructure master plan being developed that would be passed into law to ensure sustainability. This long-term

Kogi State was created twentyfive years ago. It is usually referred to as a civil service state. Under this administration, we will no longer take that narrative because Kogi state is full of potentials

Bello thinking, giving deep roots, ensuring that plans are well thought out and sustainable is the way of the future,” he added.

The governor has also at different for a declared his intention to making the state commercially viable.

He once submitted that since the creation of the state over twenty-five years ago, the state still depends largely on allocations from the federal government to solve its needs.

Bello, however, said those days are over as his government has begun taking steps that would make the state economically viable.

“Kogi State was created twenty-five years ago. It is usually referred to as a civil service state. Under this administration, we will no longer take that narrative because Kogi State is full of potentials.

“Economic growth is not only unncessary, but ruinous.” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn

“Our geographical location, natural water bodies, variable vast and arable land, human capital solid minerals are great potentials. I refer to Kogi state as the solid mineral capital of Africa. All these potentials will remain so long as we continue to see Kogi State as a civil service state and nothing is done,” he said.

Bello expressed his administration’s commitment to replacing the barriers of ethnicity, religion and class differentials with bridges for a one-united Kogi state.

Also, a former Minister of Solid Minerals and the current Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Kayode Fayemi, at the time urged the state government to identify more resources and partner industry players for greater benefits.

He stated: “Due to the very rich geological formations in Kogi state, there is the opportunity for more largescale cement companies to get involved in mining in the state. Currently, a large team of geologists from the ministry are scattered across the country, including Kogi State, aiming to identify additional carbonate resources and preliminary reports already indicate that Kogi’s potentials in this regard may be bigger than previously known.

“There are opportunities for Kogi State to partner with private sector players to exploit the vast value chain of mining in the state.

“Kogi State, in partnership with private sector entities can invest in beneficiation plants that encourage the expansion of mining activities within the state, thus creating jobs and economic opportunities for indigenes,” Fayemi said.

Recently, the electoral tussle instituted by the PDP on the last governorship election went in favour of the governor.

The governor said the landmark judgment affirming his victory is a validation of the people’s mandate and an added impetus to his drive to do more for the good people of Kogi State. He lauded the tribunal for

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STATE IN FOCUS

being upright and just and thanked the entire citizens of the state for support and prayer.

The governor noted that with the majority ruling of the Tribunal dismissing the petition of PDP candidate Musa Wada, the rule of law once again came to the defense of democracy by affirming the collective will of the people which

Due to the very rich geological formations in Kogi State, there is the opportunity for more large-scale cement companies to get involved in mining in the state. Currently, a large team of geologists from the ministry are scattered across the country, including Kogi State, aiming to identify additional carbonate resources and preliminary reports already indicate that Kogi’s potentials in this regard may be bigger than previously known

was expressed on the 16th of November, 2019 when a vast, compelling majority of the electorate cast their votes for him to serve them for a second term.

Describing the judgement as most comprehensive of outstanding thoroughness, reason, and stretch on the many issues presented before the tribunal, Bello noted that the judiciary remains the last hope of common man.

He said whatever partisan side one might take on the ruling of the tribunal, all must come to terms that the day was a bright day for the administration of justice in Nigeria. He restated his firm resolve to continue to work for the good of the people of Kogi State, adding that he would not let them down. While calling on all Kogites to join his administration in moving the state forward, Governor Bello reiterated his resolve to continue to run an all-inclusive government.

The governor is also a philanthropist going by the support his wife, Mrs Rashidat Bello enjoys. Asides being the first lady of the state, Rashida run an NGO - Rashida Bello Foundation with focus on capacity building, skill acquisition, healthcare support, women and child rights advocacy, moral and ethical support, societal reformation, educational support and career enhancement.

She has, through her NGO, mobilised health equipment worth millions of naira for some clinics in the state. She also runs a women’s empowerment foundation which seeks to empower women, youths and the vulnerable economically through education or learning of trades and supporting them in establishing their own businesses, delivering quality healthcare to the people at the grassroots and generally improving the health and economic status of women, youths and the vulnerable.

Be not afraid of growing slowly, Be afraid only of standing still – Chinese Proverb

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BRANDS

HYUNDAI

BY ZARA SHENEW

C

hung Ju-yung, The founder of Hyundai Motor Company. He was born in North Korea in 1915 as the eldest son of a poor peasant family. At the age of 18, he set off for good to Seoul with the hopes of finding a better life .

Success did not come immediately.

He worked in various jobs, such as railway constructions, work dock and book-keeping. His first experience as an entrepreneur came in 1938 when he started his own rice store. But because of the policies of the Japanese occupation forces, he was forced to close the business a year later.

Mr Chung later went into business preparing trucks for the U.S. armed forces.

He then later went into the engineering and construction business eventually building multi-billion dollar mega project around the world.

His first venture into the shipbuilding business legendary. Despite his lack of experience in shipbuilding business, he persuaded his customers to give him an order of millions of dollars. Now the company he started is the largest shipbuilding company in the world.

By sheer force of efforts and creativity, Mr Chung built business that that helped

make Korea the economic power house that it is today. From humble beginning, he rose to great height . But even remained disciplined, lived simple and worked hard.

In his final years , he turned his effort towards thecreunification of Korean. This son of a farmer set to open avenue of communication between North and South Korea government and between the people, north and south. In private talked with leaders, in cross-border business ventures and in grand gestures such as returning 1000 cattle back to North Korea, helped bring hope back to the most cherished goal of reuniting the Korean people. It may well be that this final act of kindness and concern while acting as an ambassador of peace, may be viewed by history as Mr. Chung’s greatest achievement.

Mr Chung had many great philosophies that he lived by, but the one that we should all remember is is “ it is failure rather than success that teaches us invaluable lessons - it is not necessary to remember one’s success . That should be remembered by others instead. Rather, we should remember our losses and failures for those who forget their failures will live to fail again “.

After venturing into many businesses, Mr Chung finally established Hyundai Engineering and Construction in 1947.

Chung was awarded lucrative contract

Chung Ju-yung Korean leader Park Chung Hee and was eventually able to acquire the Hyundai motor Co. and the Hyundai Electronics industries Co., among other firms as part of his business empire.

According to Forbes, the current market capitalisation of Hyundai as a company is 20.1 billion dollars .

Hyundai is currently selling in 193 countries across the world , in Nigeria for instance , Hyundai has hinted they would officially lunch into the Nigeria market Hyundai-kona, an electric car, the first electric car in Nigeria.

Hyundai is now one of the top 100 most valuable brands worldwide.

If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it; every arrow that flies feels the attraction of the earth – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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BUSINESS

Alice Walton,

Heiress To Walmart Inc

BY IJEOMA ABAJA

A

lice Louise Walton, Daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton and Helen Walton, is an American heiress to the fortune of Walmart Inc. I’m September 2016, she owned over US $11 billion in Walmart shares.

Alice graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Arts and Sciences from Trinity University in San Antonio,Texas.

She entered the world of finance and economics with her first job as an equity analyst and money manager for First Commerce Group . She worked as a broker for E.F. Hutton, started an investment bank “Llama Company”and headed investment activities as the vice chairperson for Arvest Bank Group.

Walton was always interested in art , she would often paint watercolors on coming trips with her mother. Her love and interest in art led to the Walton family foundation developing the Crystal Bridges Museum is American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The Walton Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization, founded the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art 2005 and opened in 2009 in the Walton hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum was founded to celebrate American art and to educate. The museum is unique in design and incorporates the beauty of nature in its design to compliment the

nearby Crystal Bridges natural spring.

It features valuable American artworks, a 50,000 volume library of art reference material and sculpture and walking trails.

Alice Walton,know as a philanthropist and has volunteered for many charitable causes.

Wal-Mart controversies The wealth of the Walton family has cost much discontent with workers at Wal-Mart. Workers have called for higher than minimum wage and have protested their low pay. In light of the fact that the Wal-Mart family receives millions in dividends from their WalMart stock, the feeling of much of America is that they should provide better for the employees.

Wal-Mart is the largest grocery retailer in the United States and has one of the world’s highest market value.

Sam Walton refused to contribute to charitable causes other than donating for education. This caused much unrest and the Walton family gradually began donating to more charitable causes since Sam Walton’s death.

Alice Walton’s love of American art has been questioned by some skeptics in the art world. In 2005, Alice purchased Kindred Spirit by Asher Brown Durand from the New York Public Library.

The $35 million painting was created in 1849 and is an American classic. It was donated to the library in 1849 by Julia

Bryant, daughter of poet William Cullen Bryant. Other artworks purchased by Alice for the museum include works by Winslow Homer, Charles Wilson and Edward Harper. Alice also purchased a collection at Sotheby’s auction that belonged to David and Rita Freed with a $20 million value Her attempt to quit smoking inspired her to purchase a painting reminiscent of an earlier painting by John Singer Sargent

by Alfred Maurer which depicts a full length woman smoking and another painting by Tom Wesselmann title “smoker”.

Alice has been involved in troubling accidents. She even ran over a 50year old in 1989 who dies from her injuries, she had multiple accidents while driving when she’s intoxicated.

According to Forbes as of May 2020 she was ranked as one of the richest woman in the world and the 9th richest person in the world with net worth estimate of $5.5billion .

Despite her active philanthropy and controversial issues, Alice Walton has managed to keep her persona mostly private. Without being too public, Alice has been able to mostly live her life of privilege and wealth under the radar.

Although many have criticized her use of her wealth to get out of certain situations, Alice Walton remains a key factor in the Walton family’s philanthropic ventures which supports education, economics and the environment.

Four things come not back: the spoken word; the sped arrow; time past; and the neglected opportunity – Omar Ibn Al- Half

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WEBINAR FEATURE

Ory Martins, Principal Partner, Nigeria Real EstatePartners(NREP)andtheCEOofBoing Luxury Estates Limited

Temi Alade-Mustapha, Fellow, Institute of Chartered Economists of Nigeria

Rev (Surv.) Ugochukwu Chime, is the Immediate Past President, Real Estates Developers Associate of Nigeria (REDAN)

Esv (Sir) Rowland Enyinna Abonta President andChairmanoftheNationalCouncil,Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers

COVID-19: Investors Should Consider Low And Medium Housing – Experts

BY JAMES AKINSELOYIN

E

xperts in the Real Estate industry in Nigeria have projected that the sector would speedily pick up immediately after this novel pandemic is over. The Real Estate gurus made the assertion recently at a Webinar organized by Boing Luxury Estates.TheWebinar, which paraded the top echelon of the Real Estate sector was held last weekend. They unanimously agreed that low and medium housing needs of the people should be of interest to any discerning investor after the pandemic.

Speakers at the well - attended virtual gathering included Esv (Sir) Rowland EnyinnaAbonta, Fnivs, Mrics, Rsv, who is the President and Chairman of National Council of Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers; Rev (Surv.) Ugochukwu Chime, immediate past President, Nigerian Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria and Chairman, Copen Group.

Others are: Ory Martins, Principal Partner, Nigeria Real Estate

Partners (NREP) and the CEO of Boing Luxury Estates Limited, a property development company; Temi Alade-Mustapha, Fellow, Institute of Chartered Economists of Nigeria; lead Consultant, Money Mathematician, and Investors Network and Arch.

Patrick Elikwu, FNIA, is the Past National Public Relations Chairman, Nigeria Institute of Architects. He is also Principal Partner, Pelicon Associates.

In his presentation, Sir Abonta stated that Real Estate sector is the only sector that guarantees safety of investment in whatever capacity the investment is made, as it assures the investor of the appreciation in the value of his property within a short period of time. And most importantly, this is the sector that create employment opportunities. According to him, as the world recovers from this pandemic, the Real Estate sector around the world would be in the forefront in the economic recovery process.

“Recently, in the US, the National Association of Home Builders of America stated that the Real Estate sector would

provide the most gainful employment for the people. This is because the demand for more conducive accommodation is on the increase. Also, we have many people working in the sector – there are marketers, developers, architects, etc. There are also huge demand for the low and medium income housing as it has been predicted that there are more babies on the way because of the lockdown.” He stated.

Other opportunities in the Real Estate sector are Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country when roads and other critical infrastructure are being constructed.

Immediate past President of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, (REDAN) and Chairman Copen Group, Rev Ugochukwu Chime, in his projections also maintained that there would be more demand for secured houses. According to him, people are now conscious of where they live, taking into consideration the location, security and the community. The recent lockdown made people to know their neighbours.

“People are now selling their houses and moving into gated Estates/ communities. People also desire bigger homes in terms of capacity and functionality. Therefore, there will also be greater demand in the Real Estate industry” he said.

Speaking on his post Covid – 19 projections, CEO, Boing Luxury Estate, Mr. OryMartins stated that Nigeria will not be an exception in the scheme of things as the pandemic has altered our way of lives in so many ways. Government, he said needs to look inwards and reinvent the wheel and start producing those things that we have not been producing within the country.

“Less and less people will look into China now. We have to package our building materials facilities, our agricultural produce and make it attractive to our citizens first and possibly, we can begin to export them” he maintained.

For Mrs Temi Alade –Mustapha, she strongly advised individuals and corporate organizations to have financial goals which they should strive to work towards.

And also, people should focus on the way forward by investing in themselves, set goals generally, invest in viable businesses and more importantly, invest in Real Estate as it is the only guaranteed investment of all times.

Arc. Patrick Elikwu advised the people generally not to wait for any white collar job, rather that they should make frantic efforts to be job creators. Those who don’t have skill in the Real Estate sector are advised to get one and market such skills aggressively. There are many opportunities in the industry. You can choose to be a Real Estate marketer, advisor, developer or

Nothing is harder on your laurels than resting on them – Anonymous

an agent.

According to him, the essential thing is to be good at what you do. Once you are able to stand out, you become that professional that everyone wants to relate with, you become that go-to-person in the industry and ultimately you create a name for yourself.

In achieving top of the mind awareness in the minds of prospects, 3 elements of the sales process must be embraced. These are products, personality and the company. You must the product you are marketing like the palm of your hands. When talking to clients about your products, you should have all the information handy. You should be able to take clients on a journey about your products and services.

Equally very important is your personality. What kind of person are you? Are you very knowledgeable about your products, are you a smart person? Are you a goal –getter or just living to get by.

Your personality goes a long way in determining if a client is going to buy from you or not.

The third element in the sales process is the company. What is the credibility of the company you are promoting or you are working for? What’s their tract records in the industry where they operate. If all the three elements in the sales are top notch, then you can be rest assured that the sky is your limit in your marketing efforts.

The Webinar is the second in the series where industry experts come together to cross fertilise ideas on how to make the Real Estate industry in Nigeria better than what it is and to make people see the inherent opportunities in the sector.

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SUCCESS

How Entrepreneur’ Habits Can Translate Into Long-term Success

BY EWHAN ELLA

A

s we all know being an entrepreneur, you need to understand what an entrepreneur means and also how to go about it . Being an entrepreneur is also a lifestyle which requires strength,because starting or owning a business is not easy , it is actually a long-term process with so much trials .

As an entrepreneur you need to have passion and vision .One thing you must take note of as an entrepreneur what works for one person might not necessarily work for another, but the aim and goal is to create and maintain healthy routines in Oder to become a successful entrepreneur.

Successful entrepreneurs build their routines on daily, weekly and monthly methods.

Entrepreneurship, May not be rosy all the time, sometimes it might become really stressful and unexpected events might sweep you off your feet.

The following nine habit will assist you as a beginner.

Becoming A Successful Entrepreneur: 9 Habit To follow • Ability to plan ahead It is important as an entrepreneur to plan ahead because you won’t have to worry about what will happen tomorrow, next week and even a month time.As an entrepreneur it is very important that you table out tasks, schedule meetings and appointments. planning is all about bringing the future into presence. Planning brings less stress , spending less time and even money .when you do this you are prepared to tackle up the next day activities without much stress .

these people, do and make sure they’re aligned with their goals.

Ensure they’re developing both personally and professionally.

If their family or home life is out of sync it’ll effect their performance. Ask questions and deep dive into what they dream about in their hearts. All this matters alot.

• Keep Track of Your Progress I figure out that the best way to keep a daily journal.Set out what your achievements are,write down your priorities, focus on your effort .. All of these can help keep track on your business .

Find some system for yourself that works. Keeping track of your days, weeks, months, thoughts, ideas, dreams and perceptions is If you’ve never kept a journal

before.when you do this you’ll find that it’s a very enjoyable.

All these actions will give you the best chance for building a reliable cash flow .

• Build up your routine Ability to create and build your routine concerning your daily life is very important,as humans we all have that very important routine.Take short breaks,end your workday the same way everyday.

Successful entrepreneurs build their routines on daily,weekly and monthly methods. As an entrepreneur having no routine or structure is much more draining mentally , physically and emotionally . So it’s important u build up your routine as an entrepreneur.

• They spend as much time on relationships as the business.

There is something about successful business depends on who you know,as much as what you know .The ability and determination to bring up win-win relationship with peers , potential partners and competitors abiding entrepreneur from -short term flashes .

• They never gave up, despite some major setback Life of as an entrepreneur is what you make. when a set back arises , it arise in multiple and it’s left for you to make challenges that comes your way . As an entrepreneur you can’t let setback put you in a bad situation and make you feel like business isn’t for you.As an entrepreneur you should never give up.

• The founder talks about

• Encourage Your Team As an entrepreneur no matter the level of success you should encourage your team.

There should be a working spirit as a team in the organization or firm. working on various projects, co-workers share ideas and opinions that can help grow what ever project at hand.

Gather your team members and try to encourage them and also be a part of their lives help them when necessary.

Make time to encourage

Life is like a ten-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use – Charles Schulz

lesson learned, not excuses A successful entrepreneur is always ready,prepared and able to learn from challenges,other than trying to find someone to blame.

• They surround themselves with positive people As an entrepreneur it’s important to surround yourself with positive people . Success doesn’t occur in a vacuum .Great entrepreneurs have a habit of selecting who are more smarter than they are and provide complementary skills.

• They proactively replace their current offerings Now when the revenue starts flowing . It can increase firm performance and provide new opportunities for creation on business-to-business market.

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BUSINESS CULTURE

Don’t Be Carried Away

By Romanian Superstition

BY CEES HARMON

R

omania’s most valuable exported products are automotive parts and accessories (9% of total) followed by cars (7.1%), insulated wire or cable (5.3%), refined petroleum oils (3.2%), electrical or optical circuit boards and panels (also 3.2%), seats and chairs (2.4%), new rubber tires (2.2%), corn (1.8%), wheat (1.7%) then mobile phones (1.6%). On the other hand, one of Nigeria’s major imports is hides, which Nigeria is a major producer of.

The above listed exports and import of Romania make a natural trade relation between Nigeria and Romania. It’s good, therefore, to have good knowledge of Romania as a potential investor.

Romanian (limba română), the only Romance language spoken in Eastern Europe, is the official language of Romania. The name Romania comes from the Latin word ‘Romanus’ (meaning citizen of Rome), dating from 106 A.D. when the Roman Empire took control of the country (then known as Dacia). The language retains a significant number of features of old Latin and also contains words taken from the surrounding Slavic languages, as well as from French, German, Greek and Turkish.

English is now the country’s second

language, particularly with the younger generation and in the larger towns and cities, although French and German can also be useful.

Romania is a hierarchical society; age and position are respected, and titles are very important and denote respect.

Romanians are formal and reserved, and although always polite, they seldom move to a first-name basis with people outside their extended family or very close friends until they get to know them over time.

In Romania, people are addressed by their professional or academic title together with their name, or “domnul” (Mr.) or “doamna” (Mrs. or Ms.), followed by their family name. Friends may address each other using this title plus the first name, whereas only close friends and family members use the first name without the title.

Initial greetings are formal and reserved. A firm handshake with good eye contact is normal. However, one should only shake hands with a woman if she initiates the gesture. Some older Romanians may kiss a woman’s hand when meeting them (although foreign men are not expected to do so). Close friends may kiss each other when they meet, kissing twice, once on each cheek starting with the left. However, your Romanian friends will decide when your

relationship has reached this level of intimacy. In the meantime, always use a person’s title plus their surname until invited to do otherwise.

Business etiquette Romanian business culture is formal and hierarchical, and business is still governed by a great deal of bureaucracy.

Romanians place great importance on courtesy and respect for older or more senior people, and meetings tend to be quite formal, often dominated by the senior decision maker, and decisions rarely questioned or challenged by those of lower rank. There is little small talk or informal discussion. One should not ask for personal information as Romanians value privacy.

Meetings In Romania, punctuality is considered a strength when doing business and it is important to arrive at the appointed time, or even a little earlier. If you are going to be late for any reason, it is important to call ahead and apologise for the delay. Due to the heavy traffic and lack of parking spaces, it is advisable to allow plenty of extra travel time. Punctuality is common in many new companies and those operating in the international arena. However, when dealing with staterun companies, you may be kept waiting.

There is often a strict seating protocol, so wait to be told where to sit. Do not remove your suit jacket without permission until the most senior-ranking Romanian does. Then expect to spend time getting to know people before discussing business. Although this a process which cannot be rushed, once a relationship has been developed over time, it will be with you personally, not with the company you represent, so if you leave the company, your replacement will need to build their own relationship.

Therefore, introduce your replacement if you are able.

Communication styles are direct and frank, but also sensitive and courteous, with care being taken not to offend. Straightforwardness is valued in Romania. You will likely require an interpreter when dealing with traditional firms, although an increasingly large number of English speakers work in newer organisations, particularly those with international business.

Presentations Presentations should be factual and easy to understand, including facts and figures to back up your conclusions.

Avoid making exaggerated claims – Romanians prefer to conduct business with people who are honest and do not

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance,you must keep moving – Albert Einstein

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BUSINESS CULTURE brag about their accomplishments or financial achievements. Always avoid confrontational behaviour and highpressure sales tactics. As above, make use of an official interpreter if appropriate, and do not assume all attendees will necessarily have a good command of English.

Business etiquette Romanians consider themselves as trustful business partners and they are very serious when speaking about business. They are professionals; many of them are holding MBA degrees in prestigious universities abroad. They are aware of the international business practice and they are studying the particularities of the potential partner before first meeting. Romanian business men pay respect to the foreign partners and expect to be treated in the same way.

Gift giving In Romania, when invited to a business meeting by a Romanian partner, arriving with a small gift is considered polite. The gift does not have to be very expensive (up to 100 Lei). Should the guest be a foreigner, the recommended gift is a traditional object from the visitor’s country. These gifts are considered a sign of international cooperation and are usually opened immediately.

Business dress code The dress code is dictated by the formality of the business meeting. For a formal meeting, where business is to be discussed between people that have not met before, it is important to present a highly professional image. A conservative style would be most appropriate, in the form of a tailored business suit with elegant tie or accessories. For women, skirt length should be at or below the knee and jewelry should be elegant and discreet.

In a more casual setting, such as a business lunch, outfits can be more relaxed and tend towards the business casual style. Casual business attire may include jacket and jeans for men, and a suit skirt and blouse or knee-length dress for women.

Smart casual would be the most casual form of attire that you would need on

a business visit and would mostly be appropriate when sightseeing or dining out in a casual situation.

For ceremonial or highly prestigious social events, there will be a very specific dress code that must be followed and you should pay attention to the invitation or ask your host, to ensure that you are dressed appropriately. In general, it is recommended to avoid wearing flashy colours or outlandish outfits, earrings, hair dyed in striking colours or extreme styles, or excessive use of perfume.

Romania is one of the most superstitious countries in the world. As a foreign investor, you are likely to be bemused by some of Romania’s superstitions. Don’t be carried away. Get to know the people, the local customs and the traditions, and you’ll likely discover the country is a wonderful mix of warm culture, amazing stories and quirky beliefs. The country’s folk culture is just as captivating, filled with superstitions that are a part of daily life for Romanians. Discover some of the beliefs that only Romanians can really understand.

Money superstitions: We use money every day to buy food or pay our rent, but we also receive money when we’re paid for the work we do. So, how to know if today you’ll receive or give money? This Romanian superstition says that if your right palm itches, then you’ll receive money. On the contrary, if it’s your left one, beware…you’ll be giving money today.

Itching superstitions: The ‘itching superstitions’ can be also related to your nose, in which case you might be slapped or believed to have lied to the person you’re talking to. If your foot itches, it means that you will soon travel.

Bad luck superstitions: It happens often that we forget something at home and then want or need to return to retrieve it.

But if you’re Romanian, you would never do so, because it is bad luck. Also, aside from being irrational to open an umbrella inside the house, Romanians see this as another trigger of bad luck. So wait to be outside to do it.

Seven years of misfortune: Misfortune in Romania comes in different forms. And if you break a mirror, bad luck comes in ‘big doses,’ as you’ll have seven years of mischance.

Family fights: How can you tell what will happen at your next family reunion? Look for those who have spilt salt on the dining table, then get ready…there will be a fight in the family.

When you can’t stop hiccupping: Have you wondered why you hiccup? In Romania, hiccups are a sign that somebody is thinking or speaking about you – and they will only stop once you guess who it is.

You may never get married if…: If you want to get married in Romania, then don’t sit in the table corner. Doing so means you’ll never marry.

Be careful with your handbag: Another money-related Romanian superstition says that, if you let your handbag on the floor, you will certainly lose money.

Rain is a sign of good luck: Don’t be sad if it’s raining on your wedding day as, according to Romanian superstitions, this brings good luck and wealth.

Offering flowers to a Romanian: If you want to offer flowers to a Romanian, be careful of how many flowers you give.

Even numbers are for the deceased, so you might want to choose an odd number of flowers.

Black cats are bad luck: If a black cat cuts your path, it means you will have bad luck. So if you see one in front of you, you may just want to turn around and choose another way.

Don’t share your bottle: If you share your bottle with someone, whether it’s water, juice or alcohol, always be sure to drink the last sip. The contrary means the other person will not only get the last of your beverage, but will also steal your loved one!

Pieces of glass are good luck: Breaking glasses may be annoying, but the Romanians think this actually brings good luck. In some regions, at weddings, the bride and groom throw two glasses on the floor. The more pieces that shatter, the more luck and happiness they’ll find together in life.

13 and its curses: 13 is usually a bad luck number, but if it’s a Wednesday or a Friday, then it’s even worse – you should expect to have a day without accomplishments.

Be a fortunate wife: As a bride, your wedding day should include many things… you should wear something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue in order to spend a beautiful day and to avoid having bad luck during your

Ever tried.Ever failed. No matter. Try again.Fail again. Fail better – Samuel Beckett

marriage.

Dropping your food means…: If you drop a piece of food, that means someone is hungry, usually, the person whose name starts with the same letter as whatever you’re eating.

Be careful what you wear for Easter: Most of us wear beautiful, fancy clothes for family celebrations. But if you want a year full of luck, you should definitely think about wearing new clothes for Easter.

When someone gossips about you: If your ears are red, it means someone is idly talking about you.

Horseshoe, a sign of prosperity: A horseshoe is a sign of wealth and good luck. During the Mărțișor celebration in March, many people buy a Horseshoe Mărțișor to bring them good fortune.

FACT BOX Romania is one of the best places in the world for 4G speed, occupying an impressive fourth place out of 78 nations, according to OpenSignal.

Users in the country can expect speed of 35.61 Mbps, on average, compared to just 21.16Mbps in the UK

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COMMENTS Century Group – An Emerging Energy Powerhouse

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n African proverb once told me by a wise man goes thus – if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.

This is exactly the guiding Philosophy that continues to guide and direct the phenomenal growth trajectory that is Century group a growing and very influential player in the sector.

In better positioning itself, Century has built a strong ideological foundation leaning on the very precise and clear ten nets of value driven growth as an ‘intrinsic component of value creation and which also can be used as an indicator for potential longevity. Eric Kutcher, Olivia Nottebohm and Kara Sprague in a 2014 Article published by McKinsey& Company titled ‘Grow fast or Die Slow’ holds this view.

The ken Etete led Century Group guided by these strong and affirmative ideological vision have succeeded in building one of Africa’s major Energy platforms’ as can be evidenced with the Group being the first company in Africa to predominantly focus on floaters. Century has been able to offer cost effective ‘derisking’ solutions to clients in a period when options are limited and incentives for production are scarce.

Falling back on its vison for partnerships and sustainable growth, Century has built a worthy partnership with Bumi Armada Berhad (BAB) a Malaysian owned International offshore energy facilities and servicing Company which has amongst oth-

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ers aided it to attain very strong mileage in the market space. This can better be evidenced with the emergence of Century as a leading African Indigenous Firm transmuting from a major Service provider to a formidable Asset owner. Today, with the effective partnership with the aforementioned BAB, Century is competing excellently in the tanker space within the African Markets.

Furthermore, the partnership has taken advantage of the local content policy to become a crucial Player in the Floating Platform Storage Output (FPSO) – (Perkassa& Perdana) deals in Nigeria.

In better positioning itself, Century has built a strong ideological foundation leaning on the very precise and clear ten nets of value driven growth as an ‘intrinsic component of value creation and which also can be used as an indicator for potential longevity

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Mr Etete in a recent discussion averred to the fact that, ‘it all started on Sloan Street in London in 2006 with the birth of Bumi Armada Nigeria and BAB’s first two FPSO (Perkassa & Perdana) deals in Nigeria.

According to him, BAB gave Century opportunities to showcase its capabilities under reasonable terms and were flexible to respond to the realities of the Nigerian oil and gas tanker needs and resources. Today, ‘we own two of our own and again BAB has a hand in making that a reality’. He concluded by stating that ‘The Management of BAB despite contractual differences were objective, civil, transparent and practical in considering the interests of all; for this, I am humbled’.

Century Group and its partners according to Etete are showing that in business, growth and speed anchored on revenue is not always an indication of success. Successful corporations are those which transcend generations and empower people to achieve something profound and new. Organizations can go farther when they collaborate and look beyond the immediate business rainbows to support each other genuinely.

BAB, an Asian company has done a great service to Africa by promoting a company with global focus in providing innovative solutions. With a unique and mutually respectful relationship like this, this partnership will surely have a lot more to achieve together thereby deepening expectations and showcasing to global markets they very strong positives embedded in a value driven growth trajectory amongst serious partners.

– Joseph Edgar is an Investment banker and co-founder Hamilton and George Advisers Ltd.

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OPINION

Evading The Looming Food Scarcity: A Panacea For Africa

BY ABRAHAM JOHN ONOJA

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ith 75% of the world’s poor in rural areas and most of them being dependent on farming, agriculture must be part of world economic growth More than 60 percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is smallholder farmers, and about 23 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP comes from agriculture. Yet, Africa’s full agricultural potential remains untapped. With 75% of the world’s poor in rural areas and most of them being dependent on farming, agriculture must be part of world economic growth, poverty reduction, and environmental sustainability (UNDP, 2012).

The coronavirus pandemic has become a setback for many businesses, in achieving their target, nevertheless agriculture remains critical to achieving global poverty reduction targets and it is still the single most important productive sector in most low income countries, often in terms of its share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and almost always in terms of the number of people it employs. In countries where the share of agriculture in overall employment is large, broadbased growth in agricultural incomes is essential to stimulate growth in the overall economy, including the non-farm sectors selling to rural people. Hence, the ability of agriculture to generate overall GDP growth and its comparative advantage in reducing poverty will vary from country to country. The majority of the poor and food insecure in Africa live in rural areas,

and most of them depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. To support broad-based poverty reduction and food security in Africa, smallholder agriculture must be a central investment focus.

According to the World Bank 77.7 per cent of Nigeria’s land is arable and capable of producing key (cash) crops, including beans, sesame, cashew nuts, cassava, cocoa beans, groundnuts, maize (corn), melon, rice, millet, palm kernels, palm oil, plantains and rubber, amongst others. Nigeria also has quality manpower to complement the fertile land mass and drive the Sector, judging from her teeming population of able-bodied youths.

The potential of agriculture to generate a more pro-poor growth process depends on the creation of new market opportunities that most benefit the rural poor. Nigeria is a vast agricultural country “endowed with substantial natural resources” which include: 68 million hectares of arable land; fresh water resources covering about 12 million hectares, 960 kilometres of coastline and an ecological diversity which enables the country to produce a wide variety of crops and livestock, forestry and fisheries products. Poverty in Nigeria is concentrated in rural areas, which are home to more than 70% of the nation’s poor. Development indicators for rural areas lag behind those for urban areas: incomes are lower, infant mortality rates are higher, life expectancy is shorter, illiteracy is more widespread, malnutrition is more prevalent, and greater proportions of people lack access to clean

water and improved sanitation services. It is necessary to attract investors to take a look at this sector, in a bid to curb the danger of food scarcity ahead, should the pandemic persist.

Food is a basic necessity which is needed by many and will continue to be demanded, no matter the crisis.Therefore, it is important that farmers be prepared to deal with diverse orders and even working with governments in order to satisfy a possible surge in food demand.

For now, and in the foreseeable future, the effect of the coronavirus to food production are minimal.

Therefore, what does this entail for the future of farmers in Nigeria?

This is the set time for those who will be in the position to feed the future,

Nigeria has a GDP of $446.543 billion (nominal, 2019 est.) $1.181 trillion (PPP, 2020 est.). For a nation with its potential and population, this is relatively small.

Encouragement of PPP in specific areas of production would also be a great boon to supporting the growth and development of the sector

to prepare for the market demands that will come with post-coronavirus in Nigeria.. Many jobs will be affected and the economy may take time to recover, the farmers will be opportuned to benefit from the crisis.

In addition, the agricultural sector may become one of the most lucrative employers which means, those seeking to recover from the COVID-19 financial crisis may need to adjust to a new normal of being in the food supply chains.

Proper application should lead to ensuring national food security as the foundation for a sustainable form of economic prosperity. This means government and corporate investments in the sector should focus on – promoting mechanized support for agriculture for commercial purposes – promoting industrial processing support policies to reduce the dependence on importation of finished products and shorten the trade lines from ‘farming’ to processed production – creation of agriculture support policies to incentivize local farmers and promote local dependence on locally grown produce.

According to Mr Akinwunmi Adesina (president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and previous Minister of Agriculture for Nigeria), agricultural industrialisation is the necessary ingredient to transform rural areas in Nigeria/Africa, from zones of economic misery to zones of economic prosperity.

Heavy investment in the sector has to be sustained and sustainable using inclusion, policy drives and

Not failure but low aim,is a crime – James Russell Lowell

technology. Routes to exportation should be made easier to encourage commercial inclusions. As he opined, agriculture is not a way of life, agriculture is not a development activity, agriculture is a straight line business.

As of 2017, Africa was spending €30 billion a year importing food. If nothing is done, that is going to reach €93.5 billion by 2030.

If the table is turned, this means that farmers and value chain entrepreneurs/ corporates in Africa have a chance of earning €50bn+ over the next 10 years. This means agriculture would help reduce Africa’s dependence on foreign aids and such to drive its own economic prosperity.

Nigeria has a GDP of $446.543 billion (nominal, 2019 est.) $1.181 trillion (PPP, 2020 est.). For a nation with its potential and population, this is relatively small. Encouragement of PPP in specific areas of production would also be a great boon to supporting the growth and development of the sector. Policies may appear draconian and would be met with resistance but over the long term it would prove hugely beneficial for food security and sustainability. Nigeria/ Africa’s economic future has been give a great opportunity because of this pandemic; an opportunity to achieve prosperity by leverage on own resources beyond external aids.

Long term trade contracts should be developed and executed. Commercial security is an important step in ensuring sustainability. Select cash crops should be given focus and support especially in food processing and production.

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AGRICULTURE

With Emmanuel Ogbonnaya Tel: +2347055692114 twitter: @MrOgbonnaya

The African Farmers’ Stories: Feeding Kenya

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any people are not aware of the work and dedication that goes into feeding a continent as large as Africa, and African Farmers Stories’ aims to profile farmers who are doing this important work, to understand what it takes to be an African farmer and the challenges they face.

Boniface Ojiambo is a young farmer from Kenya, involved in crop production, dairy farming, and bee keeping shared his experience with The African Farmers Stories series of the second Episode on Instgram . While working as operations officer for Youth Enterprise Development Fund (a state corporation that provides loans and development support for Kenyan entrepreneurs) and visiting agribusiness entrepreneurs on their farms, he realised real money was in agriculture. He could not access a loan from the Fund as that would be a conflict of interest, so he requested to use a small familyowned plot of 20 acres land to start farming. From an initial poultry farm with 10 chickens, Boniface now owns over 110 chickens with eggs incubated the traditional way, milk-producing cows with calves, and twelve beehives.

Speaking on challenges faced, he highlighted that of recruiting farm workers, especially since he is not always there. He emphasises the need to build a good relationship with employees by paying reasonable salaries, providing training and even salarydeductible loans. Along with proper background checks and seeking out people who are dedicated and have family in the area, these strategies have helped him build a strong employee force that have worked seamlessly on his farm for two years. Other highlighted challenges are the difficulty that many youths face in accessing government loans because the collateral required is twice that of the loan amount and in accessing a market for farm produce without employing middlemen, who take most of the profit.

In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Boniface notes that business has been seriously affected because customers are now afraid of contracting the virus through his workers during deliveries. He is

also restricted from visiting his farm in Makuru county, as movement out of Nairobi, where he lives and works, has been restricted. His farm is adapting to these challenges by increased sanitation and ensuring contactless delivery.

The biggest lesson he has learnt is that money lies not in sitting in an office for eight hours a day, but from what comes from the ground.

He believes agriculture offers real opportunities for growth, and is now thinking of quitting his office job to fully pursue it. He advices interested agribusiness entrepreneurs that it is possible to start small, especially with highly valuable crops, to always have a market before starting, and to be willing to talk to local farmers about best practices to maximise profit.

Thomas Owiny is the CEO and founder of Gem Farmers Centre with the mission to transform communities in Kenya by working with farmers to change their lives, empower them and create wealth. Thomas emphasises that agribusiness is the backbone of the Kenyan economy – it accounts for 65% of exports and employs a great deal of land in the country.

Gem Farmers Centre began by

drilling boreholes to provide water for farms, before moving into agroforestry within a network of farms in the northern and western regions of Kenya. Community engagement was carried out by tree-planting demonstrations and distributing 20,000 seedlings, before advancing to producing sunflowers and soybeans, as well as food crops.

The centre is also involved in the blue economy through cage fishing in Lake Victoria, to capitalise on the fishing industry that contributes 4.5% to Kenya’s GDP. The industry has been made more profitable by making it more organised, introducing fingerlings and through fisher-boat fish markets that allow produce to be more accessible to consumers. Thomas notes that working closely with government experts and technical institutions has allowed them to get the best output from all their enterprises.

On challenges faced, Thomas spoke on convincing young people that agriculture is a lucrative and worthy business, and not only white-collar office jobs, and the importance of referring to the industry as “agribusiness”. To this end, farmers are advised and guided from the stage of providing seeds

Great things are done when men and mountains meet – William Blake

up to the market level, in order to build a profitable business model.

He notes that the government’s interest in addressing food security, manufacturing industry, housing and health care in the country are all providing avenues for farmers to contribute positively by increasing crop production to feed the nation and keep them healthy, providing raw materials for the manufacturing industry and timber for housing projects.

Gem Farmers Centre also works closely with learning institutions to boost interest in agriculture, from kitchen gardens in primary schools to reintroducing courses in agribusiness and modern farming in tertiary institutions that help them generate income, such as the Nairobi Institute of Technology with over 150 acres of farmland.

The campaign to tell The African Farmers’ Stories was borne from the need to reduce food wastage at farm gate and factory floors amidst food shortage in urban areas in Africa.

– Join the conversation every Wednesday at 4pm on Instagram live and On Mondays 2pm on Twitter on @S4Africasmes.

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In cooking you’ve got to have a what- the-hell attitude – Julia child

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PATHFINDER

Alexander Graham Bell

The Brilliant Mastermind Behind The Telephone

BY ZARA SHENEW

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lexander Graham Bell was a Scottishborn scientist and inventor best known for inventing the first working telephone in 1876 and founding the Bell Telephone Company in 1877.

Bell’s success came through his experiments in sound and the furthering of his family’s interest in assisting the deaf with communication. Bell worked with Thomas Watson on the telephone, though his prodigious intellect would allow him to work on numerous other inventions, including flying machines and hydrofoils.

Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3, 1847. The second son of Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace Symonds Bell, he was named for his paternal grandfather.

The middle name “Graham” was added when he was 10 years old.

He had two brothers, Melville James Bell and Edward Charles Bell, both of whom died from tuberculosis.

During his youth, Bell was strongly influenced by his family and his environs.

Bell’s hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland, was known as the “Athens of the North” for its rich culture of arts and science.

His grandfather and father were experts on the mechanics of voice and elocution.

And Bell’s mother, Eliza, became an accomplished pianist despite being deaf, inspiring him to undertake big challenges.

Eliza home-schooled her son and instilled an infinite curiosity of the world around him. He received one year of formal education in a private school and two years at Edinburgh’s acclaimed Royal High School.

Though a mediocre student, Bell displayed an uncommon ability to solve problems.

At age 12, while playing with a friend in a grain mill, he noticed the slow process of husking the wheat grain. He went home and built a device with rotating paddles and nail brushes that easily removed the husks from the grain.

Young Alexander was groomed from a young age to carry on in the family business, but his headstrong nature conflicted with his father’s overbearing manner. Seeking a

way out, Alexander volunteered to care for his grandfather when he fell ill in 1862.

The elder Bell encouraged young Alexander and instilled an appreciation for learning and intellectual pursuits. By age 16, Alexander had joined his father in his work with the deaf and soon assumed full charge of his father’s London operations.

On one of his trips to North America, Alexander’s father decided it was a healthier environment and decided to move the family there. At first, Alexander resisted, for he was establishing himself in London. He eventually relented after both his brothers died of tuberculosis.

In 1870, the family settled in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. There, Alexander set up a workshop to continue his study of the human voice.

On July 11, 1877, Bell married Mable Hubbard, a former student and the daughter of Gardiner Hubbard, one of his early financial backers. Mable had been deaf since her early childhood years.

Abraham Bell Graham

Bell is credited with inventing the telephone; in all, he personally held 18 patents along with 12 he shared with collaborators.

businessman and by 1880 began to turn business matters over to Hubbard and others so he could pursue a wide range of inventions and intellectual pursuits.

Telephone On March 10, 1876, after years of work, Bell perfected his most well-known invention, the telephone, and made his first telephone call.

Before then, Bell in 1871 started working on a device known as the multiple or harmonic telegraph (a telegraph transmission of several messages set to different frequencies) upon moving to Boston. He found financial backing through local investors Thomas Sanders and Gardiner Hubbard.

Between 1873 and 1874, Bell spent long days and nights trying to perfect the harmonic telegraph. But during his experiments, he became interested in another idea, transmitting the human voice over wires.

With this success, Bell began to promote the telephone in a series of public demonstrations. At the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Bell demonstrated the telephone to the Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro, who exclaimed, “My God, it talks!” Other demonstrations followed, each at a greater distance than the last.

The Bell Telephone Company was organized on July 9, 1877. In January 1915, Bell was invited to make the first transcontinental phone call. From New York, he spoke with his former associate Watson in San Francisco.

In 1880, Bell established the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C., an experimental facility devoted to scientific discovery.

Later in his life, Bell became fascinated with flight and began exploring the possibilities for flying machines and devices, starting with the tetrahedral kite in 1890s.

In 1907, Bell formed the Aerial Experiment Association with Glenn Curtiss and several other associates. The group developed several flying machines, including the Silver Dart.

Other Inventions By all accounts, Bell was not a sharp

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat – F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Silver Dart was the first powered aircraft flown in Canada. Bell later worked on hydrofoils and set a world speed record for this type of boat.

Throughout his life, Bell continued his family’s work with the deaf, establishing the American Association to Promote Teaching of Speech to the Deaf in 1890.

Eight years later, Bell assumed the presidency of a small, little-known U.S. scientific group, the National Geographic Society which helped make the journal into one of the world’s most loved publications. Bell is also one of the founders of Science magazine.

He died peacefully on August 2, 1922, at his home in Baddeck on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. Shortly after his death, the entire telephone system was shut down for one minute in tribute to his genius.

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ECONOMIX

The Third Coming Of Milton Friedman, Maybe

BY KIRK LEIGH

Friedman was an advisor to Republican President Ronald Reagan and Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His political philosophy extolled the virtues of a free market economic system with minimal intervention.

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t took the genius of Ben Bernanke to get the world out of the Great Recession of 2008 but he and his team at the Federal Reserve Bank (FED) relied on the works of the father of Monetarism, the late Milton Friedman of the Chicago School who coined the term, stagflation.

The application of Friedman’s thoughts on the use of monetary policy in the 2008 recession is arguably the second coming of a man cerebral enough to counter Lord Maynard Keynes ideas on expansionary fiscal policy as panacea for a recessionary gap, the first being during his years as a professor of economics at the University of Chicago where he influenced a generation of monetarist including, Gary Becker, Robert Fogel, Thomas Sowell and Robert Lucas Jr. Even Raghuram Rajan, who was one time India’s Central Bank Governor and at another time, chief economist at the World Bank, is a disciple of Friedman’s.

The FED and indeed, the world has gone back to Friedman to mitigate the effects of the global recession occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic. That would be his third coming. Friedman had argued against Keyne’s highly revered and efficacious proposals on the use of fiscal policy to upturn a recessionary gap. Friedman maintained that an alternative and more effective tool is the use of money supply. This idea was latched on to by Ben Bernanke and later by the incredibly Hawkish Janet Yelle, also of the Chicago extraction to introduce the concept of Quantitative Easing, a bond buying policy that helped pump billions into emerging markets to get the global economy back on track.

But so far, the economic powers seems to be employing a combination of the two great ideas: The United States, United Kingdom and the European Union have applied varying degrees of stimulus to keep their economies going while their central banks have introduced bond buying programs.

Depending on the severity of the global recession, they will continue

to apply a combination of fiscal stimulus and money supply (bond buying) to mitigate the situation.

Whatever the degree of application of each idea, it looks clear that it is the third coming of Milton Friedman, father of Monetarism.

About Milton Friedman Milton Friedman lived between July 31, 1912 and November 16, 2006. He was an American economist who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy.

Friedman was among the intellectual leaders of the Chicago school of economics, a neoclassical

school of economic thought associated with the work of the faculty at the University of Chicago that rejected Keynesianism in favor of monetarism until the mid-1970s, when it turned to new classical macroeconomics heavily based on the concept of rational expectations.

Friedman was an advisor to Republican President Ronald Reagan and Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

His political philosophy extolled the virtues of a free market economic system with minimal intervention. He once stated that his role in eliminating conscription in the United States was his proudest accomplishment. In his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman advocated policies such as

Not failure but low aim,is a crime – James Russell Lowell

a volunteer military, freely floating exchange rates, abolition of medical licenses, a negative income tax and school vouchers and opposed the war on drugs. His support for school choice led him to found the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, later renamed EdChoice.

Friedman’s works include monographs, books, scholarly articles, papers, magazine columns, television programs, and lectures, and cover a broad range of economic topics and public policy issues. His books and essays have had global influence, including in former communist states. A survey of economists ranked Friedman as the second-most popular economist of the 20th century, following only John Maynard Keynes, and The Economist described him as “the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century ... possibly of all of it”.

Monetarism, which he founded,is a school of thought in monetary economics that emphasizes the role of governments in controlling the amount of money in circulation.

Monetarist theory asserts that variations in the money supply have major influences on national output in the short run and on price levels over longer periods. Monetarists assert that the objectives of monetary policy are best met by targeting the growth rate of the money supply rather than by engaging in discretionary monetary policy.

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sports

Osimhen Sets The Record Straight Over Napoli Agreement

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ottenham and Chelsea have received a boost in their hunt for Lille striker Victor Osimhen as the Nigeria international has denied an agreement with Napoli is in place.

A host of Premier League clubs, including the London duo and champions-elect Liverpool, have been linked with a swoop for the 21-year-old international.

The player’s agent has spoken about interest in the young forward, stating that the Serie A side are the only side with ‘concrete’ interest in his signature.

That was followed by claims from Nigerian website Omnasports that an agreement with Napoli is in place but the player himself contacted the outlet to set the record straight.

“The news relating to my agreement with Napoli is false. I am surprised by these journalists who claim to be professionals,” he told Omnasports.

“Ignore this fake news on my account, when there is an agreement for my transfer you will know it directly from me.”

Any deal for Osimhen would be an expensive one as Lille are staunch negotiators, commanding a club-record £72m fee from Arsenal for winger Nicolas Pepe last summer.

Sports Editor Dapo Sotuminu

Ronaldo Becomes First Player To Earn $1bn In Career, Forbes Says

C

ristiano Ronaldo hit another first this week as the first team player to earn more than $1 billion in his career, Forbes reported.

The Juventus star earned $105 million before taxes over the past year, per Forbes, placing him No. 4 on the list of the world’s highestpaid celebrities. He sits behind Kylie Jenner ($590 million), Kanye West ($170M) and Roger Federer ($106.3M). Federer became the first tennis player to earn the top spot among all athletes on the list.

Ronaldo, 35, is only the third athlete to reach $1 billion in career earnings, joining Tiger Woods and Floyd Mayweather. Woods became the first “$1 billion sportsman” in 2009 and ranks No. 26 on this year’s list with $62.3 million in earnings.

Mayweather joined the club in 2017 and missed the top 100 for 2020.

Per Forbes, $650 million of his

career earnings are from salary while the other part is from endorsements.

He has a lifetime contract with Nike, which reportedly only Michael Jordan and LeBron James have in addition to Ronaldo.

Ronaldo topped rival Lionel Messi, who ranked fifth with $104m in earnings, per Forbes. The two won 10 consecutive Ballon d’Or trophies between them from 2008-18. Both moved down the list after taking pay cuts when their soccer seasons were cut due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Athletes rounding out the top 25: No. 7 Neymar ($95.5m), No. 9 LeBron James ($88.2m), No. 16 Stephen Curry ($74.4) and No. 24 Kevin Durant ($63.9m). Tennis star Naomi Osaka, 22, was the highest paid female athlete in the world, per Forbes, with $37.4 million.

She ranked No. 90 in the top 100 celebrities list.

Kobe Bryant’s Wife Vanessa Receives A Huge Inheritance Everton FC Star Buys obe Bryant and his daughter Gianna’s

K Durant Buys Shares Of MLS Football Club Philadelphia United

A

ccording to Sports Business Daily reporter Mark J. Burns, the source said that Durant bought a part of the equity of Philadelphia United Football Club (between 1% and 5%). His personal behavior is still a joint decision with broker Rich-Clayman.

It is reported that Philadelphia United is a major professional football league team, established in 2008, played two games this season, 1 tie 1 loss ranked 20th in the league.

deaths in late January 2020 felt like a tragedy to so many fans, who didn’t even know the athlete personally, which only means it must have been far worse for his family, including his wife Vanessa Bryant and their three other children, Capri, Bianka, and Natalia.

Although nothing can truly make the loss better, it was reported in late May 2020 that Kobe was worth $600 million at the time of his death, thanks to his basketball deals and his business investments, according to Extra TV. The Bucks star Yannis Adetokunbo (hereinafter referred to as the letter brother) announced “joining” the new American sports nutrition beverage company Ready Nutrition.

During the days when the NBA was suspended due to the New Crown Virus Pneumonia, most players dropped their basketballs and turned to careers of interest, like Paul George for fishing, Devin Booker for electricity. Jing, George Hill to the farm. The Bucks star Janis Adetokounmpo (hereinafter referred to as the letter brother) also

£30,000 Rottweiler Dogs To Prevent Burglars

announced his “new career” recently.

The Bucks star Yannis Adetokunbo (hereinafter referred to as the letter brother) announced “joining” the new American sports nutrition beverage company Ready Nutrition.

Unlike the identity of the spokesperson who previously cooperated with other brands, the letter brother has two identities this time-the investor and owner of Ready Nutrition.

Everton striker, Keane Jr., bought two Rottweiler protection dogs from dog training company Chaperone K9 for £30,000.

On June 3, Beijing time, from the British “Sun” news, after the news that the Manchester City striker Mahrez apartment was stolen and the loss was close to 500,000 pounds, Everton striker Keane Jr. spent 30,000 pounds from the dog training company. Chaperone K9 bought two Rottweiler protection dogs.

Previously, the dog training company named Chaperone K9 had provided guard dogs to many players such as Rashford, Pogba and Stirling, and posted two Rottweiler photos belonging to Little Keane on the Internet.

Romans would never have had time to conquer the world if they had been obliged to learn Latin first of all – Heinrich Heine

WEEKEND

ECONOMY

SAT U RDAY, JU NE 6 , 2020

Rashford £150,000 Customised Mercedes-Benz Big G Shines At Carrington Base

31

SPORTS

Manchester United forward, Rashford, recently drove a brand new Mercedes-Benz AMG-G63 worth £150,000 when he went to the Carrington training base.

From the British “Sun” news, Manchester United forward Rashford recently drove a new Mercedes-Benz AMG-G63 worth 150,000 pounds when he went to the Carrington training base. This customised luxury car looks like a tank.

This big G has a 4.0-liter displacement V8 engine that can provide it with 577 horsepower and can accelerate 0-100 kilometers in 4.5 seconds. Rashford is a luxury car enthusiast. At that time, he was a newcomer to the team. He drove an Audi RS4 sports car worth 60,000 pounds.

Before long, he changed to a MercedesBenz CLA 45 Couple sports car. After this, a Mercedes-Benz Kupei Coupe appeared in front of his house again. Immediately afterwards, Rashford bought another Land Rover that is essential for all players.

In addition to Rashford, Manchester United has recently replaced four other players in the Mercedes-Benz G, they are Daniel James, Wan Zika, Phil Jones and Luke Shaw.

Diego Costa Handed Six-month Prison Sentence For €5m Tax fraud

A

tletico Madrid’s Diego Costa has pleaded guilty to defrauding the Spanish state of more than €1 million (£813,000/$1,127,000) after failing to declare payments of over €5m earned from his 2014 move to Chelsea.

The striker was sentenced to six months in prison on Thursday, but Spanish law states that non-violent crimes with a punishment of under two years’ imprisonment can instead be resolved with a fine for first-time offenders.

In Costa’s case, the Brazilborn Spain international will fork out an additional payment of just over €500,000 on top of the missing €1m in order to fully satisfy the courts, with a failure to declare image rights also having come under the state’s microscope.

Costa left Atletico Madrid in July of 2014 after Chelsea

agreed to meet the forward’s £32m ($40m) buy-out clause.

A divisive figure due to his common practice of football’s so-called dark arts, Costa won two Premier League titles and a League Cup during his time at Stamford Bridge, bagging a respectable 59 goals across 120 appearances.

His exit from the Blues came in rather acrimonious circumstances, with then head coach Antonio Conte having sent the player a text message telling him that he was no longer part of his plans for the west London club.

Costa eventually secured a deal to the Spanish capital in 2017 - although not before going into self-exile in Brazil following his spat with Conte but he could not represent the club until the beginning of 2018 due to a FIFA-imposed transfer ban.

Ighalo Considering Nigeria Retirement U-turn

M

an Utd forward, Odion Ighalo, could be ready to represent Nigeria again after his revivial at Old Trafford, as he is considering coming out of retirement for the Nigeria national side.

The 30-year-old forward retired from international duty last year partly due to commuting issues from China, but is now contemplating a return following his rejuvenated form at United.

Ighalo initially quit the Super Eagles after he finished as top scorer at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt with four goals.

In total the United forward has scored 16 goals in 35 appearances since his full international debut for Nigeria in 2015, and he is now interested in making himself available for selection again.

“I am still thinking about returning to the national team,” Ighalo told Brila

FM on Thursday night. “But right now, I want to concentrate on my club career.

“I left the national team because of the distance between Nigeria and China, but now that I am in Manchester, you never can tell.”

The news comes just days after Ighalo signed a contract extension which will keep him playing for United until January of next year.

Ighalo’s original four-month loan deal expired last week with parent club Shanghai Shenhua keen to either sell the striker permanently or include an option to buy in another loan move.

However, after successful talks an extended deal has been agreed and Ighalo admits it is a dream come true to be staying at Old Trafford.

He added: “Playing for Manchester United is something I cannot explain and I will say it is my biggest achievement in my 15-year professional career in football.”

Akhator Sees D’Tigresses Getting Into League Of Top 10 In The World

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he last three years have been nothing but triumphant and prosperous for Nigeria winning back-to-back FIBA Women’s AfroBasket titles, competing at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2018 and qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

It has been a show of talent, mental toughness and ultimately power so strong that they remain unbeaten in Africa since stepping on court against Mozambique in their Group B opener on August 18, 2017 at the continental competition in Bamako, Mali.

They went into that tournament

as 42nd in the world and have since risen to 14th in a space of three years and according to power forward Evelyn Akhator, one of the team’s biggest assets and dependable players, they are aiming even higher at the upper echelons.

Speaking exclusively to FIBA. basketball, Akhator who was drafted

as a number three pick by the Dallas Wings in the 2017 WNBA Draft admitted that D’Tigress are hungry for more success. They want to take on the world and beat the best teams.

After all, getting to the top means displacing the best at it.

If no one believes them then

Traveler, there are no paths; Paths are made by walking – Spanish Proverb

Akhator would have to direct them to this year’s battle against the reigning World and Olympic champions USA who were on the brink of a loss if not for a last quarter rally that saw them snatch victory from the hands of the Nigerians who had led for three quarters and almost cruised to what would have been a memorable win.

32 WEEKEND WEEKEND

ECONOMY

ECONOMY

No. 12

S ATURDAY, J UN E 6, 2020

beyondthe

HEADLINES

WordsFrom TheLeaders Who SHAPED THE WORLD

N400

Whoever is careless with truth in small matters cannot be trusted in important affairs.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

21 Years Of Nigeria’s 4th Republic And Future Possibilities

BY ABDULRAUF ALIYU

D

emocracy is no easy mistress, and balancing out competing interests and meeting expectations is extraordinarily challenging for the Nigerian state, especially in the last 21 years since the inception of the Fourth Republic.

There is no doubt that the country has made some gains in some sectors, yet she keeps throwing around sub-optimal, unprepared or corrupt leaders whose performances in office are not only questionable, but also regrettable. This crop of leaders didn’t just fail in economy management; they also failed to manage our multi-ethnic and multi-religious society. They also haven’t been able to design and build inclusive political and economic institutions that are necessary for stability and prosperity. Rather, they succeeded in widening existing contentious fault lines that gave birth to insurgency, kidnapping, banditry, economic and social inequality as well as decline in citizen’s trust for the state.

It is, therefore, not surprising that our ranking on the 2019 fragile/failed state index by the U.S Fund for Peace deteriorated from 54 in 2005 to between 13 and 15 over the past nine years and largely in the Red Alert category with countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, Guinea, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, etc.

This gloomy result cannot be divorced from our inability to address problems such as factionalized elite, group grievance, economic decline, uneven economic development, human flight and brain drain, state legitimacy, public services, human rights and rule of law, demographic pressures, IDPs, and internal security problems among several others.

There is a common saying that “the seeds of the future lies in the present”. Nigeria’s future

can never be given, we must consciously create it. Hence, democracy day shouldn’t be a day of fanciful speeches, rather a day for reflection, a day that our political leaders should set aside to imagine the unimaginable and think the unthinkable. It is time to do away with the dominant logic of thinking that our democracy is still nascent. Some of the babies born 21 years ago are today graduates or taxpayers.

So as we celebrate this year’s democracy day, I took time out to reflect over the last 21 years while also imagining future of possibilities or scenarios for my dear country Nigeria. The three scenarios are as follows; 1. To each his own 2. The rise of the State 3. Together we can.

Scenario 1: To each his own In this scenario, Nigeria will continue on the same path that we are on today. Our pressing problems – unemployment, poverty, safety and security, and poor public health and education delivery – worsen. Our social fabric unravels as civil society

disengages and public trust in public institutions diminishes.

It is a scenario of “musical chairs” or “reshuffled elites.” It is triggered by the failure of our leaders across all sectors to deal with our critical challenges. This failure is the result of pervasive identity politics and weak, unaccountable leadership, weak capacity in government departments, and tightening economic constraints that are not dealt with realistically or inclusively.

Hence, an increasingly disengaged civil society as public trust in public institutions diminishes. The state is increasingly bypassed by citizens, resulting in unaccountable groupings assuming power over parts of society.

The gap between the leaders and the led widens. Citizens eventually lose patience and erupt into protest and unrest. The government, driven by its inability to meet citizens’ demands and expectations, responds brutally, and a spiral of resistance and repression is unleashed.

Scenario 2: The rise of the

State In the second scenario, the Nigeria state leads and manages the process of addressing our challenges. Citizens either support strong state intervention or are submissive in the face of a more powerful state.

This is a scenario where the state assumes the role of leader and manager. State planning and co-ordination are seen as central mechanisms for accelerating development and delivery to citizens, especially the poor, unemployed and vulnerable people. The ruling party argues that strong state intervention in the economy is in accordance with global trends, and the electorate, concerned about the impacts of the global economic crisis, gives the ruling party a powerful mandate. Strong state intervention crowds out private initiative by business and civil society. The risks of this scenario are twofold: one is that the country accumulates unsustainable debt; the other is that the state becomes increasingly authoritarian.

Scenario 3: Together We Can In this third scenario, our challenges are addressed through active citizen engagement, a catalytic state and strong leadership across all sectors.

This is a scenario of active citizen engagement with a government that is effective and that listens. It requires the engagement of citizens who demand better service delivery and government accountability.

It is dependent on the will and ability of citizens to organize themselves and to engage the authorities, and on the quality of political leadership and its willingness to engage citizens.

It entails a common national vision that cuts across economic self-interest in the short-term.

This is not an easy scenario. Its path is uneven – there is robust contestation over many issues and it requires strong leadership from all sectors, especially from citizens.

Our today already contains the seeds of all three scenarios and our possible future(s) will not look like purely one or the other, but I have drawn the three apart to see the opportunities and risks that each path poses for our country’s future.

A healthy democracy and strong socio-economic development require a healthy interface between an effective state and an alert and active citizenry. It is my belief that the nature of this interface will determine the future of our country. Nigerians are standing at a crossroads. Each one of us, citizens and leaders, must choose the kind of future we desire. Through the steps we take, we will create our future.

Happy Democracy Day! Abdulrauf Aliyu Independent Political Risk & Strategic Foresight Consultant aliyubadulrauf@gmail.com.

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