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Economy will bounce back soon – FG *Current pains expected – Edun
Nigerians have no need to despair, the Federal Government assured on Tuesday over the parlous state of economy, saying the policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration are yielding fruits, and that positive pictures of a complete rebound are already emerging.
Wale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Atiku Bagudu, Budget and National Planning, Yemi Cardoso, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor (CBN) and Zacch Adedeji, Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), all part of the President’s Economic Team, were at the House of Representatives on Tuesday, where they painted a positive picture of the economy.
Not only did the foresee an imminent drop in the high cost of living and inflation, they also spoke on the parlous fate of the Naira, Nigeria’s national currency against foreign currencies, particularly the dollar, saying it was only a matter of time for it to stabilise.
Edun, who said the current challenges in the economy were expected especially after the withdrawal of petrol subsidy, which would have left the country on the path to economic disaster, if sustained, assured that President Tinubu was committed to protecting the poorest and the vulnerable.
Hear him: “Where we are as a nation economically is a much better place than we were on the 29th of May 2023. Before the implementation of the 8-point agenda of the President began, we were in an unsustainable place in terms of the fiscal situation of Nigeria. We were on the road to economic disaster.
“We had expenditure which was wasteful and unsustainable by way of the subsidy. Not just on fuel, but the subsidy on foreign exchange which confused the incentive framework and people were changing cheap dollars in order to make instant profits. Of course, in turning back from that road, as we have heard, there will be dust.
“However, bold measures have been taken and there have been positive results. If we look at the finances of the government today, there have been benefits to the federation account; there has been a reduction in the consumption of petrol by about 20 million litres because there was smuggling apart from wasteful use of petrol.
“Likewise, there have been other benefits which have accrued as a result of the changes that have been made. However, there has been cost. Inflation has increased. The cost of living has spiked and right from the outset, Mr. President committed to making sure that the poorest and most vulnerable were not left behind. That is why the palliatives and the interventions have been rolled out.
“Mr. President made a commitment to confront, to engage and indeed to use state power to subdue the vested interests that had resulted in oil production and sales going down to as low as 1.25 mbpd. We have 1.65 barrels per day and rising. That is the quickest way to give relief. The governor of the CBN said that in 2011 we were virtually at 100 billion dollars a year from oil sales. Now we are on the way back up; 1.65 million bpd and rising.”
Edun, also spoke on the current effort to halt rising inflation, saying: “A large element is food inflation. In fact, food inflation accounts for 33 per cent of the consumer price index. So, when you attack food production, raise food production and bring down the price of food, you bring down inflation. You get the chance to bring down interest rates and there lies the road to investment. I was recently in Nasarawa and met all the stakeholders in the agricultural chain.
“They committed with confidence to a very good dry season harvest. We intervened in that sector, from fertilizer, from grains supply to funding for rice, maize, wheat and cassava to bring 400, 000 hectares under production. So, these are the steps being taken to bring inflation down to stabilize the economy and prepare for investment.
“There will be further intervention on behalf of the poor and vulnerable to assist with the cost-of-living rise, which is the inevitable result of having waited so long to turn the corner. Let us be confident, assured and calm that Nigeria has turned the corner in terms of its economic management and the way forward is up. At the same time, the poor and vulnerable would be assisted at every turn.
“I am happy to inform you that as of yesterday (Monday), the volume of transactions in our markets was over $844 million. This is the first time in many years that it has achieved this level. I acknowledge that despite these commendations, the concerns regarding the cost of living and currency rates remain.
“The urgency of the matter is not lost on us at the CBN and I want to assure you that we are working tirelessly with colleagues from across governments including the leadership of this House to bring lasting solutions.
“Governments around the world must grapple with rising fiscal pressures, necessitating a credible medium fiscal framework to effectively manage debt burdens. On the domestic outlook, we know that the Federal Government anticipates a 3.7 percent real GDP in 2024 slightly surpassing the estimated 3.75 percent in 2023.
“This optimism is backed by key government reforms and the expectation of improved prices and production which are set to drive economic growth. Inflationary pressures are expected to decline in 2024 due to the CBN’s inflationary targeting policy aiming to rein in inflation to 21.4 per cent aided by improved agricultural productivity and easing global supply chain pressures.
“A market-driven exchange rate was intended to create a stable macroeconomic environment and discourage currency hoarding. However, short-term volatility attributed to speculation has been an issue. To address exchange rate volatility, a comprehensive strategy has been initiated to enhance liquidity in the forex market.
“This includes unifying FX markets segments, clearing outstanding FX obligations, introducing new operational mechanisms for BDCs, enforcing the net open position limits and adjusting the remunerable standard deposit facility cap. We understand the economic costs of these developments, not just for the economy but also as they affect ordinary Nigerians.
“However, these costs are temporary and our decisions would address a lot of fundamental issues bothering Nigeria’s economic landscape. These measures will boost FX inflows, stabilise the exchange rate and minimise domestic inflation. Put simply, the exchange rate is determined by the dynamics of demand and supply for a product or service. In essence, the value of the US dollar is determined by the balance of US dollars entering the country and demand for the US dollar among Nigerians.”
Bagudu, on his part, maintained that the government had been holding a series of meetings aimed at addressing these challenges, adding that the allocation of 39 per cent of the budget to capital projects was strategic, and for now, efforts were geared on revenue collection strategies.
Adedeji, who said the government was working to bring more people into the tax net to enhance revenue generation without increasing taxes, added: “For 2023, the target for the service was set at N10 trillion. Through the efforts of all of us, we achieved N12.3 trillion.
“This came about because of the bold decision taken by Mr. President by rectifying the distortion in our economic parameters, the removal of subsidy and the wonderful work also being led by the central bank in the unification of the exchange rate.
“This has had a serious impact in the last seven months of our collection because of the rates we use and because the waste from subsidy payments were curtailed. So, we have overperformance from both the VAT collection and company income taxes because of those that are dollar-based. We have the target for this year based on the approved budget to collect N19.2 trillion which is 7.2 trillion more.”
Watching, last week, the “ceremonial” unveiling of the statue of Chinua Achebe held at Ogiidi, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, my first reaction was instant curiosity, then followed with one or two questions.
First, – when did Chukwuma Charles Soludo start celebrating excellence in people instead of pulling them down? Who has he celebrated before now?
Second – what would Ugobelunenuoji, Ndigbo’s gift to the world, have said, if he were still here with Soludo on earth, or if those who planned that project and actually attended that event, had contacted him in the spirits to seek his approval?
I asked these questions, given what we all know about the literally giant – the author of Things Fall Apart – that epic that has mesmerised the global audience since making its debut some decades ago, especially after reading There Was A country – his last intervention before he left to join Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Akwaeke Abyssinia Nwafo Orizu and the rest of his Anambra greats.
For those in doubt, go back and read what Achebe wrote in that last hand-down, interpret its essence and situate it with the picture you have about Soludo, the man that undertook that project, before arriving at what you think would be the countenance of the recipient of that supposed “honour.”
But you don’t even have to go far in re-reading that last drop-off. In the case you find it too tedious or the book is not readily available, just use your phone, search Achebe’s reaction to national honours award on google or any other search engine on the internet and see the result.
Okay, you probably don’t know how to go about it! Let me fill you in a little bit. Twice, this man was offered awards of national honours by two different Presidents of Nigeria and twice he threw it to their faces.
Don’t forget, that award is not moi-moi! It is what some Nigerians would give half of their fingers willingly to get and some desperate cravers, actually pay mouth-watering amounts in cash or kind to get it.
Why? Simple! As a recipient, you not only stand out among your peers and in national reckoning, but flashing that medal alone grants you access to exclusive privileges in many quarters. At airports, government offices, institutions and other public places, you get the highest Very, Very Important Personality (VVIP) treatment, by force of convention and law.
Now, you know what that means to the average Nigerian, who is so craving of distinct social stature that he has a generator called – I better pass my neighbour. To some, it is everything. This is what Achebe denounced, not once, but twice.
In rejecting the first offer of the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) he had this to say: “I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom. I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance, of the Presidency.”
That was in 2004, when Anambra was consumed or submerged in a cataclysmic eruption of blitzkrieg carried out by political bandits, with the same President Olusegun Obasanjo, who offered him the award, believed to be looking the other way, if not complicit.
Then, in 2011, the government tried again, this time by President Goodluck Jonathan, Obasanjo’s protegee only to get the same response of the award thrown at his face, when Achebe, retorted once more in a terse letter: “The reasons for rejecting the offer when it was first made have not been addressed let alone solved. It is inappropriate to offer it again to me.”
Now, the question – what has changed either at the federal level or in Anambra to inspire this latest attempt by Soludo? Would the Achebe the world knows, approve the mfoto and mmegheri that have defined the circus show of shame called Soludo’s outing in the last four or five years now? Would he look at Soludo and say daalu, nwannem or would he derisively dismiss him with a similar rebuke delivered to Satan by Jesus Christ – away with thee?!
Here is the thing! If Soludo were any other, outside being the most intellectually-gifted in the Nigerian corps of governors today – his case would have been mitigated by virtue of pleading ignorance. But a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), a former university teacher, and a globally-acclaimed scholar, whose pedigree earned him the position of an advisor to top global institutions, could not be ignorant by any means.
Therefore, his throwing-in with the charade and wickedness of the central government in power in Nigeria today, could only be deliberate. His approval, support and rationalisation of President Bola Tinubu’s not only insipid, clueless and impulsive outing that has made Nigeria the poverty capital of the world, but one decked in impulsiveness, brazenness, brashness and impunity make it even worse.
Now, this is the issue! Achebe, rejecting such awards when things were better, at least with the standard of living of Nigerians, would probably puke at the prospect of Soludo’s new offer, especially being hands and legs in full support of today’s more parlous situation.
Pray! Would Achebe, for instance, as an Anambra man, approve Soludo’s current unmerited attacks on Peter Obi, given the nuances surrounding it? Would the Ugobelunenuoji, sanction a government, whose staffers rampage the streets, practically crippling citizens with pestles, breaking the spines of others, stripping young women to their birthday suits in the display of raw power as the world has seen of Soludo’s Anambra?
Too bad that he is no longer here, hence the ill-motivated attempt to harvest his name, “boasting the privileges of their high offices.” That is why death is such a terrible thing. Otherwise, would Soludo attempt such an insult on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie? Let him try and see what he gets.
Meanwhile the effigy in question is not even Achebe in anyway. It reflects not only a bad job but the bad mind-construct of those who erected it. The world knows what Achebe looks like. No need saying it that at the appropriate time, it would be pulled down and a proper statue that reflects the image and personality, erected to bestow TRUE HONOUR to the icon. Enough said!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
Venezuela’s ousted president Nicolas Maduro and his wife will go on trial in the United States in June 2027, a court ruled Wednesday, after the US military captured them in a stunning nighttime raid in January.
The former leader, 63, and wife Cilia Flores have been held in a Brooklyn jail for more than seven months after pleading not guilty to federal drug trafficking and firearms charges.
American commandos snatched the pair from their compound in Caracas on January 3. The lightning operation combined naval, air and ground forces, deposing the strongman who had led Venezuela since 2013.
During a roughly 20-minute hearing, Judge Alvin Hellerstein set the trial date for June 1 next year following a joint request from prosecutors and defense counsel.
Maduro, dressed in a beige prison uniform and wearing glasses, did not speak during his third US court appearance other than to say hello to the court as he entered.
Flores, wearing the same outfit with her blonde hair tied back, sat a few feet from him with the couple flanked by their lawyers.
Protesters with signs reading “Free President Maduro” gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse waving Venezuelan flags, while opposing demonstrators held placards calling Maduro and Flores “dictators.”
Judge Hellerstein also on Wednesday set a November 17 hearing devoted to defense motions, including a challenge to the legality of how Maduro and Flores were captured.
Maduro himself has said he was “kidnapped” and described himself as a “prisoner of war” back in January.
Since Maduro’s capture, Venezuela has been led by his former vice president Delcy Rodriguez, while the United States effectively controls the country’s oil exports, with proceeds going into special accounts overseen by Washington.
US prosecutors allege that Maduro used state power to protect and promote illegal drug smuggling, and that he allied himself with cartels to ship tons of cocaine into the United States.
Maduro has denied the four counts he faces: “narco-terrorism” conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices as well as conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Flores has similarly pleaded not guilty to the three counts she faces: cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
The United States in April allowed Venezuela to pay for Maduro’s and Flores’s legal defense, something previously barred by US sanctions.
The couple had sought to have their cases dismissed on grounds that blocking the funding violated the US Constitution’s right to counsel of one’s choice.
Maduro also faces a civil case in the United States after the families of five young men slain in Venezuela alleged that he ordered the extrajudicial killings as part of a wider pattern of state violence.
The complaint filed last month states that Maduro had an elite security force called Special Action Forces, or FAES, execute the men between 2017 and 2020.
It says the victims were among thousands killed under Maduro’s command by units including FAES, which dissolved in 2021 after complaints of human rights abuses including from the United Nations.
During his 2013-2026 presidency, he was widely accused of using political repression to cling to power. Both of his re-elections, in 2018 and 2024, were rejected as fraudulent by numerous countries, including the United States.
Maduro was expected to seek immunity in the civil proceedings as a head of state, The New York Times reported.
In what seems a major irony, the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), an institution that ought to be the bastion of law enforcement, has been named as topping the culprit’s list in habouring ghost workers – a phenomenon in which public funds are funneled into private pockets due to payroll padding.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), which made the revelation, indicates that no less than 908 ghost names were uncovered across several federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), with the NPF most guilty.
Announcing a recovery of about N942 million allegedly paid out through the fraudulent payroll scheme.
Musa Aliyu, Chairman ICPC, who disclosed that the discovery followed an investigation launched in 2024 after the commission identified irregularities in pension payments, explained that the probe exposed widespread payroll manipulation, with fictitious names allegedly inserted into government salary systems to syphon public funds.
Stressing how some senior public officials enrolled relatives and associates on government payrolls and diverted the salaries for personal use, he cited one case in which a suspect allegedly placed the names of his wife, son and mother-in-law on the payroll while also collecting the salaries of 12 other workers.
Referring to how investigation report, covering at least 50 federal MDAs, unravelled the scams with the Nigeria the police recording the highest number of suspected ghost workers at 570, he named other affected institutions to include the National Water Resources Authority with 80 ghost workers, the Federal Ministry of Works with 56, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with 24, and the Ministry of Defence with 19.
Also on the list, were the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment each recorded 17 ghost workers, while the Federal Ministry of Health had 15 and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had 12.
He further disclosed that the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Ministry of Interior were also implicated in the investigation, although the commission withheld the number of affected names in those institutions as inquiries continue.
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