Connect with us

News

Exit of oil majors, multinationals, blessing to Nigeria – Uzodinma

Published

on

“Are they what you call investors, people who have no regard for our environmental laws? Are those investors? People who are into double standard; applying different applications in other countries, applying degrading applications in Nigeria. Is that what you call investors? Please if we don’t take our destiny in our hands, we will be doomed for it.”

These were the exact words with which Hope Uzodimma, Imo State Governor assailed some of the Nigerian oil majors for engaging in double standards during their operations in Nigeria, all but saying that their exit from the country would not be missed, because they were never genuine investors in the first place.

Uzodimma, a guest of Sunday Politics, a current affairs programme on Channels Television, while reacting to the exit of some major companies from Nigeria, which has become a major phenomenon in recent months, particularly railed against oil firms like Shell, Mobil, Chevron and TotalEnergies for feasting on Nigeria over the years without much in return.

Ostensibly defending the scenario which particularly worsened during the government of President Bola Tinubu, he said it was so because the President, stopped the firms, he described as “cabals and deities” from benefiting from disparities in foreign exchange and fuel subsidy payments.

Advertisement

Shell, which said to have been active in Nigeria since 1937, recently announced an end to its over 50 years of operations in the onshore sector of its oil exploration and production, saying it would now concentrate offshore, a development which Uzodimma, appears to find unimpressive.

Hear him: “Let’s take the oil and gas industry for instance, is there anywhere in the world you go, and you see any filling station, you want to refill your car and you don’t see Shell, Mobil, Chevron, Total? How many of them are operating filling stations in Nigeria? Why are we isolated, and you call them real investors? Why have they taken to offshore operations, abandoning onshore operations if they are genuine?

“You go to Houston, landing Houston Airport, you see oil locations, you see vegetables planted all over there, habitable for human existence. Fly to Warri, as you are landing at Warri Airport, look at oil locations. Look at the sea, all the fishes, nothing existent, no fish there. The environment is degraded to a criminal level.”

Emphasising that companies leaving Nigeria were not investors but those who were benefiting from the cabal system, and no longer doing so, because of the seriousness of the present government to plug the holes, especially in the foreign exchange market, and petroleum subsidy, by pretending to be importing fuel when they were not importing anything.

His words: “Again, it is a blessing in disguise because the more they leave, the more opportunities the indigenous companies would have to participate. There is no rocket science. No foreign investor, who is comfortable in his country wants to leave his country and come here.

Advertisement

“And at the same time, the good investors who are Nigerians, who have been denied opportunities to practise and invest, they now have opportunities to do so. I think the earlier the artificial and fake investors leave, the better for Nigeria.”

Share this story:

News

BREAKING: Death penalty for fake drugs! *NAFDAC to push new law at NASS

Published

on

Those peddling fake and substandard drugs in Nigeria should be ready for the hangman’s noose, if the thinking of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), becomes the new law.

Mojisola Adeyeye, Director General of the body, who said on Friday that no other form of punishment is fitting enough, gave instances of where the application of such dangerous substances in form of health drugs, had led to fatalities.

Advocating that only stiff penalties would deter peddlers especially when deaths of children became involved, the NAFDAC boss, who appeared as a guest on The Morning Brief, a breakfast programme on Channels Television, said: “Somebody bought children’s medicine for N13,000 or something like that, another person was selling about N3,000 in the same mall. 

“That raised an alarm. Guess what? There was nothing inside that medicine when we tested it in our Kaduna lab. So, I want the death penalty. Because you don’t need to put a gun on the head of a child before you kill that child. Just give that child bad medicine.”

Advertisement

Advocating that the National Assembly and the judiciary to make the proposal a reality, adding that the agency was open to partnering with lawmakers and other stakeholders on the matter, she added: “You cannot fight substandard, falsified medicine in isolation. The agency can do as much as it can but if there is no deterrent, there’s going to be a problem.

“Somebody brought in 225mg of Tramadol that can kill anybody, fry the brain and you give a judgment of five years in prison or N250,000. Who doesn’t know that that person will go to the ATM and get N250,000? That is part of our problem.

“There are no strict measures to deter [people] from repeating the same thing. We can do as much as we can but if our law is not strong enough, or the judiciary is not strong enough to stand up, we’re going to have a problem.

“So, our judiciary system must be strong enough. But we are working with the National Assembly to make our penalties very stiff.  But if you kill a child by bad medicine, you deserve to die. We have a lot on our plate in stemming drug peddling.

“Withe about 2,000 staff members nationwide and limited funding, NAFDAC is constrained in carrying out its activities. So, when it comes to staffing, you’re right on the point. We are short-staffed and I am hoping things will be better.”

Advertisement

Share this story:
Continue Reading

News

Give us electoral offences tribunal to take care of heist – INEC  

Published

on

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday, made a fresh push for the creation of an electoral offences tribunal, to curb the cases of attacks on the Nigerian democratic system.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, told reporters at the commission’s first regular quarterly consultative meeting with the media that the tribunal had become important owing to the backlog of electoral offence cases.

He said: “A major obstacle to the speedy dispensation of justice in this regard is that electoral offences are not time-bound as is the case with post-election offences through the tribunals. Furthermore, they are solely prosecuted by the Magistrate and State High Courts in the jurisdiction where the alleged offences are committed,” the INEC chief told the gathering.

“No priority attention is given to such cases as the courts deal with a variety of other cases. Consequently, electoral offences are carried over from one General Election to another which may sometimes affect the diligent prosecution of the cases. It is therefore imperative to renew our call for the creation of the Electoral Offences Tribunal that have a specific jurisdiction and limited timeframe for the speedy dispensation of cases.”

Advertisement

Bemoaning the delay in the justice delivery system, citing the conviction of a returning officer in Akwa Ibom after six years in court, the INEC boss, said: “The recent successful prosecution of a Returning Officer in Akwa Ibom State is a case in point.

“The Commission has been diligently pursuing the case which arose from the 2019 General Election. In this particular case, it took nearly six years to achieve the successful prosecution at the trial court.

“Through our collaboration with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) cases involving 774 alleged offenders from the 2023 General Election are being prosecuted. So far, successful prosecutions have been recorded in Kebbi and Kogi States while our collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on vote-buying has yielded similar results in Lagos, Kwara, and Gombe States. Yet, many cases are still pending.”

Advertisement
Share this story:
Continue Reading

News

Again, terrorists attack Sokoto, kidnap 10 worshippers at a mosque

Published

on

A mosque in Bushe community, Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State, fell into the hands of bandits on Friday, after which 10 worshippers including the Imam were spirited away, adding to growing cases of terrorist attacks.

Channels Television reports that the gunmen invaded the mosque on Thursday while worshippers were performing their early morning Subhi prayer, quoting residents as saying that the gunmen had been molesting the people of the community for some time now, even with the presence of security agents.

Ahmed Rufai, spokesman of the Sokoto State Police Command, who confirmed the attack on Friday, said the police authorities were working with other security agencies to rescue the abducted victims.

A member of the Sokoto State House of Assembly, representing the Sabon Birni B state Constituency who also confirmed the attack, commended the security agencies for their timely intervention.

Advertisement

Share this story:
Continue Reading

Trending