The President of the Senate Dr Bukola Saraki has dissociated himself from the Offa Robbery Suspects contrary to claims by the Nigerian Police Force.

Saraki in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media & Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said that the allegation by the Police linking him with the suspects was baseless.

He called on the entire public to disregard the report trending online about his invitation over the robbery, stressing that “there is no way I could have been associated with armed robbery against my people”.

Below is the full text of the statement:

The attention of the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has been drawn to a story circulating online and apparently derived from a Press Conference addressed by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Moshood Jimoh, linking him (Saraki) to the Offa robbery.

Dr. Saraki will want the entire public to disregard this claim as a baseless allegation and another ploy by the Police to implicate him by all means. Let it be known that there is no way I could have been associated with armed robbery against my people.

“When the Offa robbery incident happened, I was the first top public official to pay a visit to the place and right there in the palace of the traditional ruler, I put a call through to this same Mr. Ibrahim Idris, the IGP, requesting him to make certain specific security arrangements as demanded by the people.

“Members of the public will remember that on May 16, 2018, I alerted the Senate about the information passed on to me by my State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatai Ahmed, over a plot by the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to frame me up by getting some suspected cultists arrested in Ilorin to implicate me.

It is believed that the timely leakage of the plot in that case aborted the use of the suspected cultists to implicate me. Now, it is the Offa bank robbery suspects that are about to be used.

“This plot is concocted to embarrass me and, in the mind of the IGP, it is his own response after his refusal to honour the invitation by the National Assembly, headed me, for him to come and offer explanations on the rampant killings and violence across the country.

“Like the earlier one, this frame-up will also fail as I hereby state categorically that I have no link with any band of criminals.

“As a person who has utmost respect for the rule of law and all constitutional institutions, when the invitation from the Police is formally extended to me, I will be ready to honour it without any delay.

“It is however sad that this abuse of the criminal investigation process aimed at intimidating and over-overawing the legislature, thereby obstructing it from doing its work, is a big threat to our democracy “, the Senate President stated.

Source: NAN

Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has urged Nigerians to disregard the allegation by the police linking him with the 5 April robbery in Offa, Kwara state.

Saraki, in a statement by his media adviser,Yusuph Olaniyonu, described the allegation as baseless and another ploy by the Police to implicate him by all means.

“Let it be known that there is no way I could have been associated with armed robbery against my people,” Saraki said.

“When the Offa robbery incident happened, I was the first top public official to pay a visit to the place and right there in the palace of the traditional ruler, I put a call through to this same Mr. Ibrahim Idris, the IGP, requesting him to make certain specific security arrangements as demanded by the people.

“Members of the public will remember that on May 16, 2018, I alerted the Senate about the information passed on to me by my State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatai Ahmed, over a plot by the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to frame me up by getting some suspected cultists arrested in Ilorin to implicate me. It is believed that the timely leakage of the plot in that case aborted the use of the suspected cultists to implicate me. Now, it is the Offa bank robbery suspects that are about to be used.

“This plot is concocted to embarrass me and, in the mind of the IGP, it is his own response after his refusal to honour the invitation by the National Assembly, headed me, for him to come and offer explanations on the rampant killings and violence across the country.

“Like the earlier one, this frame-up will also fail as I hereby state categorically that I have no link with any band of criminals.

“As a person who has utmost respect for the rule of law and all constitutional institutions, when the invitation from the Police is formally extended to me, I will be ready to honour it without any delay.

“It is however sad that this abuse of the criminal investigation process aimed at intimidating and over-overawing the legislature, thereby obstructing it from doing its work, is a big threat to our democracy “, the Senate President stated.

The police in a statement earlier today alleged that five of the ringleaders of the Offa robbery attacks mentioned Saraki and Governor Abdulfatai Ahmed as their armourers and financiers.

Source: NAN

Many Kenyans have taken to the streets to celebrate as the country become one of the global oil producers.

The country on Sunday flagged off the transportation of the first oil barrels.

President Uhuru Kenyatta led a host of local leaders to celebrate the feat that enabled the country to join Uganda as the only two oil-producing nations in East Africa.

In a historic occasion held at Ngamia 8 oil fields in Lokichar, Turkana County in the north, the President flagged off four trucks ferrying crude oil to the Kenya Petroleum Refinery in Mombasa.

The crude oil is being ferried in an experimental programme Early Oil Pilot Scheme (EOPS).

The resource will be kept in Mombasa as the country looks for viable markets.

Each truck carried 156 barrels. Tullow Oil company targets producing at least 2,000 barrels per day.

Aware of the protracted disagreement on how the proceeds should be distributed, President Kenyatta warned of the curses that might come with the resource, but also promised that all concerns raised by local residents will be attended to.

The economies of countries that have failed to manage their resources have also suffered the ripple effect of a hungry and poor citizen. It is my hope and prayer that together we shall work so that such is not visited upon us, he said.

Without mentioning names, Mr Kenyatta said two countries have experienced the painful side of the mineral, saying the country would do everything possible to avoid similar situations.

The negative competition for oil and other natural resources has seen hitherto two peaceful countries go to war. It has seen brothers take up arms again each other as mothers bury their children with no hope for the future, he said.

Nigeria and Angola are countries where fights have erupted because of disagreements over oil proceeds.

I pray that we will view the discovery of oil and gas as a blessing that we will manage effectively and efficiently for the benefit of not just the present generation but importantly future generation.

I call upon our leaders to ensure peace and stability in the region to ensure any disagreements that might arise are resolved in an amicable and sustainable manner. I stand ready to work with all leaders to ensure that we achieve this.

Deputy President William Ruto said they would not turn away from the grievances raised by the locals.

You have a friend in us because we listen to you, Mr Ruto said.

He added that the government has scrapped the capping of the proceeds after listening to communitys concerns.

Petroleum and Mining Cabinet Secretary John Munyes said it is a momentous time for Kenya as it exports oil from East Africa; and that the economy will be emboldened by oil proceeds.

Turkana Governor Josphat Nanok emphasised the importance of putting in place a comprehensive law that would guide how money allocated to the county and the host community would be spent.

Read more:

Source: NAN

The All Progressives Congress (APC) is troubled over threat by Lagos chapter to sue the National Working Committee (NWC) for overruling the states congress conducted in the 57 council areas instead of 20.

Mr Abiodun Salami, the Assistant Publicity Secretary of the party, issued the threat during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) in Lagos.

He was reacting to the National Working Committees overruling of the main congress of APC held at ACME on May 19.

Another congress was convened at the same day by a chieftain, Mr Fouad Oki on the grounds that the ACME congress lacked legal basis as it was conducted based on wards in 57 council areas instead of 20 approved by INEC.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullah, had said that the party had begun work on Friday on the reports from the various appeal panels on the conduct of state congresses.

He said a meeting to resolve the issues had been held and that the Lagos APC faction loyal to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu which conducted its wards and local government congresses in 57 local council development areas had been overruled by the national leadership.

He said the state structure was, however, not handed over to Oki, who he said conducted his congress in accordance with the party laws.

He added that a five-man panel had been set up to dissect the constitutionality of the two congresses and that the panel, headed by the partys Deputy National Chairman, would begin sitting on Sunday.

Yes, we set up a panel to look at the issues in the Lagos chapter. Of course, we overruled those who conducted their congresses in 57councils because the Constitution only recognises 20 councils.

We could not have discountenanced those who conducted in 20 councils because that is constitutional .The issue in Lagos is about legality and constitutionality, he said.

Reacting, Salami described the NWCs decision on the main congress as mischievous, saying it was meant to scuttle things at the states chapter.

The spokesman said the chapter would challenge the decision in the court of law.

We will challenge their decision at the court because there is a Supreme Court judgement in favour of Lagos State on 57 councils.

We have been operating with 20 LGs and 37 LCDAs in Lagos before the formation of APC.

The decision is not only mischievous but a deliberate way to scuttle the party in Lagos State, he said.

Salami said the real congress was the one held at ACME in the presence of INEC and party officials.

He said the other congress lacked legal basis as no monitoring officer was present.

Salami accused Oki of double standards, saying the same person who was partys Vice Chairman (Central) when the party conducted council elections in 57 , councils was now complaining of illegality

Speaking to NAN, Oki said the decision of the partys NWC to overrule the ACME congress vindicated him and his group.

I have always said you cannot build something on nothing. What is wrong us wrong.

I will continue to say that the constitutionally known local governments in Lagos is 20.

And INEC recognises 245 wards. Therefore you cannot put up any illegality and expect it to hold.

And if you look at their own congresses, you will see that they were full of contradictions and illegalities.

The reaction of the NWC cannot be clearer. That is what we are seeing.

We have a NWC that is committed to the Constitution, to the rule of law and the electoral act and that is why they are trying to put things right, he said.

Oki said he had been briefed that a committee was in the state to resolve the issues once and for all.

He, however, said he had not been invited, but hoped to be invited on Monday to defend his own congress. (NAN,)

Source: NAN

Lawyers acting for Donald Trump say the US president has the power to pardon himself if charges arise from the investigation into Russian collusion, but has no plans to do so.

The claim, made by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, came soon afterpublished a confidential memo from two other White House lawyers to special counsel Robert Mueller.

In it, Trumps legal team say the president could not be acting illegally to obstruct the investigation because the US constitution empowers him to, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon.

Part of Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is looking at whether Mr Trump sought to criminally obstruct it, in particular with the sacking of ex-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI director James Comey, says the.

Giuliani made several TV appearances yesterday, trying to distance Trump from plans to use his presidential pardoning powers to clear himself.

I think the political ramifications of that would be tough, Giuliani said. Pardoning other people is one thing. Pardoning yourself is another.

Former US attorney and CNN analyst Preet Bahara said it would be outrageous for a sitting president to pardon himself. I think if the President decided he was going to pardon himself, I think thats almost self-executing impeachment, he told.

Source:

Source: NAN

For several years, the world over, youths have been consistently referred to as the Leaders of tomorrow, giving hope to young people that one day, they would be at the helms of affairs of their various countries.

Truly, in most countries of the world, the youths are gradually becoming presidents, members of legislative houses and cabinet ministers, among others.

However, in Nigeria, prior to the signing into law of the Not Too Young to Run (NTYR) Act, the hope of any young man aspiring to the leadership position in the countrys polity was a herculean task.

Of the few young persons who managed to grab political positions, majority of them were either children of renowned politicians, sponsored by a god-father, who is an elder or very loyal to an older politician.

This, however, does not include the few that genuinely got the position because of their qualification, professional expertise and character.

In Nigeria presently, the least average age of people in political positions is 50 years.

Today, not content anymore with the way things are going, many young people appear to have become tired, realizing that they have only been tools to attain power, many young Nigerians are readying to challenge the older politicians at the poll.

Tired of waiting for a future that never comes, they have decided to seek elective office in 2019.

There are those whose only claim to seeking office is their age. Entitled, they feel since they are young and having been promised leadership positions for many years, then they should be given the chance to run for office freely.

However, oneman, Chinedu Onyeizu, does not feel he belong to the above category and is determied that even without the NTYR, he can join the race.

I know it will not be easy, he said. As a matter of fact, I do not expect it to be easy, but the time to act is now. The older politicians have failed us; we cannot keep sitting on the sidelines and be tools for their continuous hold on power.

But then, when you follow his lifes trajectory from such tough beginnings; how he finished secondary school with distinctions and graduated from the Federal University of Technology in Owerri, where he studied Petroleum Engineering, it becomes clearer the kind of person Chinedu is the kind that can surmount such modest beginnings and turn it into one great success story.

When Nigeria holds its next national election in 2019, Chinedu Onyeizu is hoping to represent the people of Abia South at the Senate.

Since his NYSC years in Bayelsa State in 2003, where his empathy for the poor and less privileged led to a humanitarian work that helped restore the sight of over 67 cataract-blind Bayelsans, its been one success story to another.

His desire to help the over 67 blind Bayelsans began with a relationship with a 75-year-old blind man. Normally many NYSC members before him would take the easier paths and do projects that didnt require much effort, but not Chinedu.

To restore the sight of the people of his host community meant he had to invite specialists from foreign countries.

Luckily he found an organization that does it free in the UK. But, he needed the state governments involvement; to help out with their transportation within the state and to ensure their safety in a region where militants are known to kidnap foreign nationals for ransom.

From this point, it became a slippery slope of challenges. Government officials that normally should be excited became stumbling blocks; with almost everyone wanting something in return before they could offer any assistance.

Helping to restore the sight of those blind Bayelsans taught me something very important. I learned doggedness and that when you want something, if you persevere, you will eventually get what you want, Chinedu said.

Having been stonewalled by difficult government officials and feeling frustrated, Chinedu kept pushing. His persistence eventually paid off on the last day when the specialists arrived at the Port Harcourt International airport and were on their way to Bayelsa.

Someone linked him with former Nigerias president, Goodluck Jonathan, who was at the time the deputy governor of Bayelsa. Jonathan granted his request for transportation and security. The rest is history.

After NYSC, in 2004, Chinedu joined the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) gas research group as a research associate, and for three years worked on innovative ways to harness Nigerias Deepwater stranded gas resources.

During this period, he developed a method to convert flared natural gas to hydrate balls and also proposed an innovative means of transporting the gas balls to shore for re-gasification and electricity generation.

It is no surprise that in 2006 he went on to win the Best Young Engineer in West Africa Award for developing a geospatial model for oil spill tracking in Nigerias oil-rich Niger-Delta region.

The award was given by UK based PennWell petroleum group, organizers of the Offshore West Africa Conference.

In 2007, Chinedu joined Chevron Nigeria as a Petroleum Engineer, and during his time there, he worked in eight upstream petroleum asset development units, and led many multi-functional teams across the globe.

He was also assigned to manage several multi-million dollar projects for the organization; and in 2012, he was selected to represent Chevrons mid-Africa business units in Louisiana USA, Gulf of Mexico, to lead her upstream workflow transformation project.

Nine years after joining Chevron, in 2016, and in an act of selfless service to Nigeria, Chinedu left the high paying job to search for a permanent solution to Nigerias frequent fuel scarcity and distribution problem.

This drive to help solve one of the countrys pertinent economic challenges led him to MIT where he was selected as a Sloan Fellow and in his research, again, suggested actionable recommendations that could solve Nigerias fuel distribution problems.

His recommendations was published on the July 2017 edition of MITs expert blog, and passed on to the government for consideration.

The next year, in 2017, Chinedu co-founded an Africa focused think tank and strategy consulting group called Afri-PERA. The company works with national and regional governments in Africa to solve their policy and development challenges.

These days he spends his time on the board of Rhino Group of Companies and the Chinedu Onyeizu Foundation, COF, while remaining an active member of the International Society of Petroleum Engineers and represents Chevron on the Global Production and Operations Award committee of the organization.

You will agree that all these are no easy feat for a small-town Aba boy whose early education was under mango trees.

Onyeizu is not only young; more importantly, he is vibrant, and a good replacement to the current old, recycled politician whose track record at the Senate has been poor, selfish representation.

From his humble beginnings in the village of Abayi Umuocham, Chinedu Onyeizu has shown that with persistence and an understanding of urgency, anyone can be anything they set their mind to.

He said, There is no greater achievement to giving back to an Aba that made me what I am today. I am proudly an Aba boy. Aba has given me so much and it is only proper that I give back.

Also, his campaign Manager and long-time friend, Mr. Ojo Maduekwe, maintained that listening to Onyeizu, one gets the feeling of a man whos had to surmount challenges in all that hes achieved in life; beginning from his early school years in Nigeria.

According to Maduekwe, this culminated in him going abroad to further his education in some of the best higher institutions in the world, such as the Harvard Kennedy School, Heriot-Watt University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He said, Born and raised in Aba, Abia state, Chinedu began his education in a village primary school at Abayi Umuocham. When he told me during our conversation that they were taught only Mathematics and English and that classes were held under mango trees, it sounded like something made out of folklore.

Absolutely not; this is not those tales by moonlight kind of stories; this is real. I schooled in the village and we had our classes under mango trees. This is the kind of humble beginning that was my childhood, he assured me, chuckling.

As we rounded up the meeting, Chinedu seemed to remember something vital.

Before I forget, Bayelsa also taught me something about urgency. The future might be tomorrow, but the time to act is always now.

One must persist in the present; only then will what we seek to achieve tomorrow happen.

Source: NAN

Nobel Prize winning anti-nuclear campaign group ICAN has offered to pay for the cost of the historic summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, including the hotel bill for the North Korean leader.

The offer comes after a media report that the cash-strapped North may have trouble bearing the cost of its leaders stay in Singapore and the large delegation of security and support staff for the meeting scheduled for June 12.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won last years Nobel Peace Prize, said it was willing to use its prize money to pay for any accommodation or meeting space needed to make the summit a success.

The Nobel Peace Prize included a cash prize and we are offering funds from the prize to cover the costs for the summit, in order to support peace in the Korean Peninsula and a nuclear-weapon-free world, ICAN official Akira Kawasaki said.

This is a historic meeting, and once in a generation opportunity to help establish a world free of the threat of nuclear weapons, Kawasaki told Reuters by telephone from Tokyo.

Kawasaki heads the Tokyo-based Peace Boat, one of ICANs 10 international steering groups.

The intention to spend the prize money is in line with the work the group has done to lobby for the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted by 122 nations but not any of the nuclear weapons states or North Korea.

Its not about paying for luxury rooms for the leader of the DPRK or anyone, thats not our intention, Kawasaki said. DPRK is short for the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the formal name of North Korea.

Kim Chang Son, the de facto chief of staff for the North Korean government, was seen at The Fullerton five-star hotel in Singapore last week during a visit to meet U.S officials to work out the logistics for the summit.

The Fullerton was North Koreas lodging of choice, the Washington Post has reported. The presidential suite may set the government back by at least 8,000 Singapore dollars ($6,000) a night, it said.

Kims trip to Singapore, which would be the furthest he will have traveled as leader, poses logistical challenges such as the likely use of Soviet-era aircraft to carry him and his limousine, as well as dozens of security and other staff.

Singapore, a small but wealthy Southeast Asian city-state, has said it would bear the cost of the summit to do its part to ensure a successful meeting.

The Nobel Prize award differs from year to year, and in 2017, the prestigious prize was set at 9 million Swedish crown ($1.02 million).

Source: NAN

Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed has refuted police allegations of sponsoring, funding, arming or otherwise supporting political thuggery.

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Dr. Muyideen Akorede in response to a Nigeria Police statement accusing him of sponsoring political thugs allegedly linked to the Offa Armed Robbery incident, Ahmed described the allegations as false.

Ahmed affirmed that while the state has empowered several youth groups under its acclaimed Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) scheme, the state government could not be held liable for how beneficiaries utilize the credit.

He urged the police to complete their investigations and charge the suspects to court soon in line with the dictates of the rule of law.

Below is the full text of the statement:

“Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed denies the allegations of supporting political thuggery or any other acts of criminality as alleged by the Nigeria Police or the suspects allegedly arrested in connection with the tragic Offa robbery. Neither has he at any time funded or provided arms to any individual or group in the state or anywhere in the country.

“To set the records straight, the Kwara State Government has a well known empowerment scheme under the Small And Medium Enterprises platform which is used to move women and youths groups into entrepreneurship. Consequently, several youth and women groups have benefitted from the scheme to date. However, at no point did the Kwara State government directly provide funds to any group known as Good Boys for any purpose.

“Similarly, if any of the beneficiaries chose to use the SME credit secured from the government to purchase a vehicle which was then alleged to have been used for an act of criminality, the Kwara State Governor and indeed the state government cannot be held liable for such actions since neither had prior knowledge of such intentions on beneficiaries’ part.

“The Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed also rejects the police allegation of arming and funding the suspects for political thuggery or for any other activity as false and unfounded as thuggery or any other form of criminality is neither encouraged nor supported by the state government or its agents.

“While refuting the alleged indictment, therefore, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed expresses the hope that the police will soon complete its investigations and charge the suspects to court in line with rule of law”.

Source: Daily Post NG

The Nigeria Police Force has made known the reason it summoned Senate President Bukola Saraki to answer to allegations surrounding his links to the armed robbers who raided banks in Offa in April.

It said five principal suspects, among 15 others paraded in Abuja in connection to the Offa robbery, indicted the senate president in their statements.

According to police spokesperson Jimoh Moshood, one Ayoade Akinnibosun among the suspects and acclaimed leader of the robbery gang said they were political thugs of Saraki and Kwara state governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.

Moshood said at a press briefing in Sbujs on Sunday: “The Five (5) gang leaders namely; Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibukunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salawudeen Azeez, Niyi Ogundiran and some of the other Seventeen (17) suspects arrested for direct involvement and active participation in the Offa Bank Robbery and the gruesome killing of THIRTY THREE (33) innocent persons which includes (some pregnant women and nine (9) Police personnel) admitted, confessed and volunteered statements that they were political thugs of the Senate President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Sen. Bukola Saraki and the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Alh. Abdulfatah Ahmed.

“The Five (5) gang leaders further confessed during investigation that they are political thugs under the name Youth Liberation Movement a.k.a “Good Boys” admitted and confessed to have been sponsored with firearms, money and operational vehicles by the Senate President, Sen. Bukola Saraki and the Governor of Kwara State, Alh. Abdulfatah Ahmed.”

Source: Daily Post NG

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that the administration was on the right path in improving Nigerias business environment and diversifying the economy.

Osinbajo made the submission in an interview with the Financial Timess, where he also said that the federal governments investment in infrastructure would improve local manufacturing capacity, according to a script of the interview released by Mr. Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.

Osinbajo said that there had been a lot of damage to the environment in terms of business and others, but effecting the correction would take a while.

He said that the administration is barely three years old, but is focused on doing the right thing.

The moment you have the right people and you put the right structures in place, you can do a lot, and I think we have been blessed with an incredibly good team.

We wanted us to be much farther ahead in terms of manufacturing. But a lot of these things are also infrastructure constraints that cannot be developed overnight, which explains why we are investing heavily in infrastructure.

We focus a great deal on diversifying; agriculture, manufacturing; weve focused on trying to diversify as much as possible, and we think that that is the path to go. There is no other way of doing this.

And if you look at the figures, there has been tremendous improvement, even export of raw materials, agriculture produce, even manufacturing has improved. I think that we are on the right path. I am convinced that we are going to stay the course.

Akande reproduced the interview conducted by Mr David Pilling, the Africa Editor of Financial Times on Thursday, May 31 at Eko Hotels and Suites.

Below is the transcript

: First, the nature of the crisis, of course, even beyond low oil prices, we were also experiencing considerably reduced oil production. At some point, we were producing less than a million barrels of oil per day, that being the major source of revenue at the time. But I think that what we did during that period was also very important in bringing the strong outcome that we are seeing today.

In terms of corruption, I think that we were able to deal with grand corruption. By that, I mean the sort of corruption where you found huge sums of money missing from the treasury and all of that. And because we were able to control grand corruption, we were able to do more with far less. So, for example, we invested N1.3 trillion in 2016 on capital for the very first time in almost 10 years of the countrys economic history.

So, if we were able to invest more when oil prices at some point, were $50 or $60, than when oil prices were at $110, $114; especially on infrastructure and capital; Im sure anyone could say that there is something wrong with that. I think we managed to do far more with less.

: If you look at the different sectors, lets take agriculture, for example, we have recorded very significant growth in agriculture. We are looking to gain at least 3.6 per cent growth in agriculture. That is particularly important to us, because in thinking of diversification of our economy, agriculture is, of course, a fitting point, and we closed that gap. Take rice for example, we were importing rice in the order of about $1.6 billion a year, which is about $5 million every day. Today, we are down to importing just about two per cent of the rice that we consume. So we have at least, ramped up rice production, we are practically self-sufficient.

No, it is creating the right environment. For example, the Anchors Borrowers Programme was an important programme in getting people back to the farms, and also, which is one very part of this whole process, we supported the big millers in being able to increase a lot of the paddy rice that was being produced.

So there was a genuine effort to ensure that we are able to not just ramp up the production of rice, but also milling, and we found that the private sector responded to that, and we found the big millers, WACOT and others. Dangote is now investing about a million metric tonnes of milling capacity. I think that at this stage, agriculture has recorded significant improvement.

Also mining, because of the focus on mining, growth continued through the recession and growth has continued even now

: We are trying to create the right environment for manufacturing, and for business generally. And we took time to focus on the business environment with our Ease of Doing Business initiative, and we worked on various areas, including access to credit, access to registration of title, company registration, taxation and all of those things.

We looked at all of the different areas in our Ease of Doing Business, with a view to making life easier, to creating the right environment for manufacturing and for business generally. And weve recorded significant growth and this we are seeing in the growth that we are seeing today.

Im sure you are familiar with how our World Bank rating went up and we were also considered one of the best reforming countries in the world.
Of course, there has been a lot of damage to the environment in terms of business and all that, but correcting that would take a while, dont forget that we (this administration) are barely three years old. And we are focused on doing the right thing.

: I think the one thing we wanted was for us to be much farther ahead in terms of manufacturing. But a lot of these things are also infrastructure constraints that cannot be developed overnight; which explains why we are investing heavily in infrastructure; rail, road and power, especially rail. This is the significant part of the investment that we are doing; concessioning the Lagos-Kano to General Electric, the narrow gauge, developing the standard gauge is important in terms of just movement of goods and all that. A lot of these initiatives would be a great help in moving goods.

: Nigeria has one of the most vibrant private sectors. Manufacturers associations, in particular, and several others felt that we shouldnt go into this without further consultations, and we wanted to know exactly what specifically in terms of negotiations that will follow the signing of the framework. And it was the Presidents opinion that it would be much wiser for us to suspend the signing until all of those engagements had been done to the satisfaction of the private sector. We work very closely with the private sector in practically everything that we have done.

For us, it is important to sit back, take a look at those negotiations first before heading into the framework, which is really what we are doing at the moment. So, where we are is that we are looking at the nitty gritty and we are trying to be sure how it is going to play for our private sector people, for industry, for trade, etc. We are not saying we are going to renegotiate the framework; the framework is already there. Our greater concern is for the specifics. And we are at a point where before we go into that, we will certainly make sure that we are happy with the terms and conditions.

: First of all, let me say that the nature of the security threats is asymmetric coping with it. And this is the same with countries all over the world; coping with terrorism is the sort of thing that most countries are grappling with.

I think that we are dealing with that as well. And my take is that the way we are going about it is the right way, in other words, we are working with partners in the sub-region to ensure that we are able to stem the flow of small arms for example.

We are also working on developing our local capacity. One of the strong initiatives that we are pushing is community policing; because a lot of the terrorism that you see are the sorts of opportunistic attacks that require local policing. And one of the strong initiatives that we are pushing is the whole question of the state police; more local and community policing, and we are working on those initiatives with the governors, like in the National Economic Council, which I have the privilege of chairing. We are trying to see how we can do more in terms of local policing, intelligence gathering, in order to be able to respond much more quickly to some of the threats that we see.

For example, in Benue State, we have deployed Special Forces now to several of the places where we have the disturbances. So, it is an ongoing engagement, and, as I said, asymmetric threat of this nature means that we just have to keep planning ahead as much as we can.

: If you look at the herdsmen/farmers clashes, it is a different type of problem (to the issue of Boko Haram) and it has to be dealt with differently. Note that this crisis did not start with the Buhari government. These clashes have been going on for years. I think we are at a point that we believe that the right response; our response, has to be robust to ensuring that we are able to keep communities safe, which is what is going on. We are doing that in various parts of the North central.

: I think that what we are doing is that we are managing our finances far better. Today oil prices are about $80 a barrel. Our reserves are at $47 billion, which is the highest in about 10 years, comparable to 2013 when oil prices were higher. So beside the Sovereign Wealth Fund, we have invested far more; weve almost tripled our investment in the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

I think the question about whether you spend or you dont spend is really more a question of how you manage the resources in the first place. For us, I think that the management of resources has been a strong point. I think we have managed our resources well. Which explains why we focus a great deal on diversifying; agriculture, manufacturing. Weve focused on trying to diversify as much as possible, and we think that it is the path to go. There is no other way of doing this.

And if you look at the figures, there has been tremendous improvement, in the export of raw materials, agriculture produce, even manufacturing has improved. I think that we are on the right path. I am convinced that we are going to stay the course.

Source: NAN