News
Nigerians boo World Bank chief on stage, for suggesting 15 years of more needed pains
Indemit Gill, Senior Vice President, World Bank Group, got a taste of the current feelings of Nigerians when his speech at a public function was punctuated with loud grumbling that nearly resulted to heckling for suggesting that Nigerians needed to endure another 15 years of their current suffering in the country.
A key speaker at this years, Nigerian Economic Summit, organized by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), in Abuja, Gill, an Indian nationale, had to pause for several seconds as his suggestion elicited immediate negative reactions from the audience, made up of mostly chief executives of various bodies, to underscore that the parlous situation in the country, is widespread beyond just the poor.
The World Bank boss, had started by advising Nigerian government to do everything in its power to protect the most vulnerable citizens in the county against hardships because their lives and the lives of over 110 million children depended on it.
Painting a gloomy picture of Nigeria’s economy, he had praised the initiatives taken by the government of President Bola Tinubu to reform the economy, referring to the removal of subsidy on petroleum products and floating of the nation’s currency, two key policies the people see as the source of their present excruciating financial and social pains.
But while the audience listened with rapt attention, it was at the point he said: “Nigeria will need to stay the course for at least another 10 to 15 years to transform its economy” that the rumbling started, making him pause to survey his audience, before continuing.
Amid the persistent echoes of muffled voices of apparent discontent, he hurriedly concluded his speech, saying: “So I don’t know if you’re agreeing with me or if you’re disagreeing with me. If it does that, it will transform its economy into an enviable one.”
He added: “Now, during the coming year, Nigerian policy makers have to do three things. The first is to prioritise non-oil drilling. This requires a competitive exchange rate, which Nigeria now has. Nigeria’s real exchange rate is at its most competitive in at least 20 years.
“This is a great opportunity for the private sector. To protect the poor and maintain competitiveness, the Central bank must stay focused on inflation. It should resist the lure of short-term capital inflows that might push up the Naira’s value too quickly and crib non-oil growth.
“It should rebuild foreign exchange reserves instead, as a cushion against oil price volatility.
“Again, I think Governor Cadorso (Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria) is doing many of these things, and he should be encouraged. The second is that every vulnerable household cope with is high inflation. The government is rolling out a large-scale targeted temporary cash transfer programme that has already reached between four and five million households. It should quickly extend this to 10 million households and perhaps more if necessary.”
Explaining that the government should, over the next few years, also install a cost-effective safety net to protect its most vulnerable citizens, financing it with some of the savings from fuel subsidy and exchange rate distortions, posited: “It has to make the economy more business-ready. And I think that the Chairman of NESG actually put out a very clear agenda of what needs to be done there.
“In the next 10 years, more than 12 million young Nigerians, both men and women, will enter the workforce. Generating jobs for them will greatly be facilitated by the private sector. And, it will be facilitated by large-scale domestic and foreign private investment in the non-oil sector.
“Attracting such investment means boosting the national power grid, improving transportation, improving security, and improving the rules and regulations and the enforcement of private enterprise. So failure would set back reform efforts across the continent, besides ruining the future of yet another generation.
“Nigeria’s elites, we are all elites here in this room, must unite to support these reforms to enabling a broadly prosperous and stable Nigeria, they will be making perhaps the most valuable and the biggest request to their own children and grandchildren.”
Gill who was full of praises for the World Bank team in Nigeria, described them as one of the best leaders, adding: “You have here an excellent country director. You have a top-notch team of economists, of energy specialists, operations staff, they have the expertise that is needed.
“Most importantly though, especially in difficult times, they have the experience that the moment demands. Many of these experts that you have here in the Abuja office are people who are veterans of similar reforms in places like Indonesia and many other places.
“You should take full advantage of that. But the one thing that struck me about our team here, as I prepared for this as I prepared for this visit, the most important thing that I learned about them is that they have great affection and admiration for everyday Nigerians. The Nigerian government and the people can count on their support 24-7 and this team will get all the support they ask for from the entire World Bank group.”
Fuel marketers across Abuja on Wednesday continued to sell Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, at old prices more than 24 hours after Dangote Petroleum Refinery announced a reduction in its ex-depot price, Vanguard is reporting.
The paper reported that its investigation, showed that major retail outlets were yet to adjust their pump prices despite the N75 per litre reduction announced by the refinery on Monday.
At the retail stations visited in Abuja, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Retail and TotalEnergies dispensed petrol at N1,335 per litre, while AA Rano sold at N1,350 per litre. AYM Shafa and Conoil outlets sold the product at N1,330 per litre.
The development comes amid growing public expectations that the reduction in Dangote Refinery’s gantry price would quickly translate into lower pump prices nationwide.
Explaining the delay, the President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Dr. Billy Gillis-Harry, said retail prices are influenced by several factors beyond refinery gate prices.
Speaking to Channels TV, Gillis-Harry said: “Prices reflecting at the pump are dependent on availability of the product, the other is the cost. The cost of purchasing the product and cost in terms of logistics, and preparing the particular petroleum to be delivered to the people”.
According to him, downward price adjustments often take longer to reach consumers because marketers need to recover the cost of existing stock purchased at higher prices before restocking at lower rates.
When asked why increases in fuel prices are usually reflected immediately while reductions are delayed, Gillis-Harry said the dynamics of supply management play a significant role.
He explained: “It is mainly affected by whether the producer has additional resources or not at the time. Increases in prices are mainly caused by the need to restock. There must be that advantage pushing the price upward to be able to pay for new supplies.”
He further acknowledged that marketers generally seek to exhaust existing inventory before implementing lower prices.
“That’s the basic idea. But in petroleum, a mixture is involved, and loss is taken, though not in a way that affects the capital needed to restock,” he added.
Also speaking on the issue, energy analyst Olabode Sowunmi said fuel pricing in Nigeria is influenced by a combination of domestic supply arrangements and logistics costs, rather than crude oil prices alone.
He noted that although international crude oil prices remain an important factor globally, their impact on local petrol pricing is not always direct.
“Global price of crude oil is a factor internationally and not necessarily in Nigeria,” Sowunmi said.
Explaining that Dangote Refinery operates under arrangements that allow a portion of crude supply to be priced in naira, reducing the direct impact of international market fluctuations on local fuel prices, he said: “So basically the issue will have to be from the point of refinery to where it touches the final person. Logistics costs within the domestic supply chain remain a major determinant of the final pump price paid by consumers.”
Peter Obi, candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has given assignment to Nigerians to put all those aspiring to take up political positions in the country through the grill to ascertain their level of integrity, saying it was required as a sine qua non for the job they seek.
Obi, who has been a subject of discussion in the polity since the allegation of corruption was levied against him by Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesman of his campaign in 2023, over the conduct of the party’s primaries to choose candidates for the 2027 general elections, said the grilling must start with his own person.
A guest in an interview on a podcast with Rufai Oseni, a popular television anchor, the former Governor of Anambra State, stated that it was actually for this reason that he had now sworn to see the litigation he instituted against Okonkwo through.
His take is that the Nollywood actor should use the courtrooms to give all the details of bad behaviour, following his threat to expose him fully, after alleging that he was collecting money from aspirants in the said election for electoral favours.
Hear him: “The issue of taking Kenneth Okonkwo to court wouldn’t have arisen if he had stopped at those allegations. But he claimed he still has more he would expose about me in the future. So, I am very happy to take him to court so that he can expose me publicly, alongside other Nigerians. If any of them has any criminal allegations against me, they should bring them to court.
“Not just Kenneth, everybody should now say those things they know that is bad about me or I did that is wrong because it’s good for the system, it’s good for the society,” Obi said.
“So, if you know that when we were in primary school, this man was cheating or didn’t go to the primary school, didn’t go to secondary school, didn’t do, if you know this man has done something criminal somewhere, this is time to bring it up.”
For the umpteenth time, Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned about the dangerous implication of using state institutions, particularly the judiciary to destroy Nigeria’s democracy, saying it is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good.
Atiku, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), speaking on the heels of Tuesday’s verdict of the Court of Appeal, halting the de-registration order by the Federal High Court, insisted that judicial officers must not lend themselves to any act capable of undermining the nation’s democratic process.
The appellate court had ordered a stay of execution on the order made on Monday by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court Abuja, for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the ADC alongside four other political parties).
A totally scandalised Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, had taken umbrage, sparing no hard words in upbraiding the lower court judge, stating that his likes were unfit to sit on the bench.
In a unanimous ruling by a three-man panel, the court held that Lifu’s action was “the highest form of judicial impertinence”, stressing that the Supreme Court previously held that a judge who acted in such a manner.
Describing his conduct as the height of judicial rascality, the upper court, stated: “Courts are enjoined to protect their integrity. This Court has supervisory authority over the trial court.
“The decision of the lower court to proceed with the judgment despite the express order of this court is a brazen violation of the hierarchy of the court and the 1999 Constitution.
This court has the duty to invoke its powers in ensuring that its orders are obeyed. The application for a stay of execution is here yet granted. The enforcement of the judgment is stayed.”
Atiku, who hailed the position of the higher court, which restored his hope to be on the ballot as presidential candidate in the 2027 election, also noted the role of INEC as “significant.”
He said: “I welcome the Court of Appeal’s decision to stay the execution of the Federal High Court judgement seeking the deregistration of our great party, the ADC, and four other political parties. It is particularly significant that INEC itself initiated the application for the stay.
“The development reflects growing public concern over judicial contradictions and politically charged rulings within the judiciary. “Any attempt to undermine Nigeria’s hard-won democracy through judicial manipulation is a grave danger to the Republic. If our democracy suffers further injury, history will demand accountability from those entrusted with dispensing justice.
Outside ADC, Lifu’s order, also included: Action Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party (AP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), similarly slammed for allegedly failing to meet the constitutional requirements for continued registration and participation in elections.
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