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Senate asks Buhari to dialogue with militants, rejects sale of national assets
Senate asks Buhari to dialogue with militants, rejects sale of national assets
By Soni Daniel, Henry Umoru & Joseph Erunke
ABUJA — THE Senate, yesterday, moved against last week’s recommendation of the National Economic Council, NEC, which asked the Federal Government to sell the country’s national assets.
The Senate’s position came on a day the Federal Government said no final decision had been taken on the matter.
NEC had recommended sale of the assets to raise capital to shore up foreign reserves and, by extension, bail out the country from the current economic recession.
The Senate’s decision is in line with recommendations of its ad-hoc committee set up to review its two-day debate, last week.
The committee in its report submitted at plenary, outrightly rejected government’s planned action, a decision which ran contrary to the position of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who had earlier backed government’s decision.
The Senate, in line with recommendation to that effect, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to, as a matter of urgency, prepare an Economic Stimulus Bill containing all the fiscal stimulus packages, investments and incentives designed to pull the country out of recession to the National Assembly for accelerated consideration and passage.
The committee in its recommendation of the sale of national assets which was, however, rejected, said: “Being a sensitive issue, it should be approached from a commitment to protecting the common patrimony of Nigerians by preventing the assets from falling into the hands of sharks, assets strippers and cannibalizers, while also guarding against the fuelling of further inequities in the society and polity.”
Other salient recommendations adopted by the Senate included urging the executive to ensure constant meeting of fiscal and monetary authorities for harmonization of all policies, particularly lower interest rates for genuine investors in the real sector as well as medium and small scale farmers and processors.
Dialogue with militants
It also recommended that the government must engage in meaningful and inclusive dialogue with aggrieved Niger Delta militants to avoid escalation of unrest in the region and ensure protection of Nigeria’s oil and gas assets. This, it acknowledged, was to facilitate increase in oil production and boost revenue therefrom.
To this end, the recommendation said the President should, as a matter of urgency, appoint a Senior Special Assistant, who should lead a team to coordinate government’s engagement with all stakeholders in the region, specifying that the team should include senators from the zone.
The Senate also adopted the recommendation urging the President to reconstitute Board of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and all other critical agencies, to ensure they operate in accordance with enabling laws.
To solve the age-long problem associated with saving for the rainy day by the Federal Government, the Senate adopted the recommendation seeking amendment of Section 162 of the Constitution to make it possible for the Federal Government to save money to that effect.
To ensure that the recommendations get to the President on time, the Senate also resolved that the report of all the 22-point recommendations should be personally delivered to the President by the Senate President.
After adoption of the resolutions, the Senate Chief Whip, Senator Olusola Adeyeye (APC, Osun Central) rose through Order 43 to emphasise that resolutions now adopted represented the corporate decision of the Senate, against individual submissions made by senators, last week, during the general debate.
No final decision yet — FG
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has said that no final decision had been taken on the issue of sales of the nation’s critical assets.
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, made the clarification while declaring open the 57th Nigerian Economic Society Annual Conference in Abuja.
Udoma confirmed, however, that the Economic Management Team had been working to put together a stimulus package to be raised from concessioning, advance payment for licence renewals, use of recovered funds and some asset sales.
The minister said the government was still open to contributions and was looking forward to receiving the recommendations from the conference as to how government could deepen and broaden reforms being embarked upon, aimed at restructuring the economy and changing it for good.
The minister said: “This is still being worked upon and is yet to be finalized, or submitted to FEC for consideration. To achieve this speedily, we are working to fast-track procedures through Presidential directives and legislation.
“As an example of the kind of funds we can generate from concessioning, we have a major company that has made a proposal to spend US$2 billion on the revamping of the existing railway line from Lagos to Kano and from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.”
Udoma urged Nigerians not to lose hope in the economy, but use the current economic crisis as an opportunity to make major structural changes needed to change the country’s economy.
“We must use this crisis to introduce measures that will truly diversify the Nigerian economy by ensuring that the non-oil sector generates enough foreign currency earnings to drive the economy , even without any crude oil earnings.
“Government must use this crisis as an opportunity to promote broader macroeconomic and structural reforms so as to mitigate supply-side constraints and diversify the productive and revenue base of the economy,” he said.
The minister said government’s plans to achieve all these were contained in the Strategic Implementation Plan, which will be expanded into a more comprehensive medium and long term plan, as a successor plan to the country’s Vision 20:2020 Plan.
Made in Nigeria goods
He said further: “The Federal Government has been working with state governments through the National Economic Council, to engender alignment of policies.
“We also organised a retreat with them to share ideas, information and knowledge. We have also been reaching out to the private sector, to academia, to professional bodies, to civil society and other stakeholders.
“As part of efforts in this direction, government is currently collaborating with the private sector to launch a “Made in Nigeria” campaign, with the intention of encouraging quality production and massive consumption of Made in Nigeria goods and services.
“We should encourage the branding of Nigerian products by self-regulatory industry bodies such as wine makers have in France. ‘Made in Nigeria’ should become a badge of quality. As the quality of our goods and services improve, both local and international demand for them will increase.”
According to him, high local demand will give Nigerian producers the platform to explore the export market.
“There is no doubt that one of the fastest routes to grow our economy and to create jobs for our teeming population is by pursuing export-led growth. This strategy also holds high promise of adding to our foreign reserves and further stabilising the Naira.
“We are convinced that this is capable of delivering desired results and potentials for exports to increase foreign exchange earnings and shore up foreign reserves”, he added.
Nigeria, strongest economy in Africa — Adesina
Speaking after being conferred with the Fellowship of the NES, the President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, dispelled the speculation that Nigeria was in debt crisis, insisting that Nigeria remained the strongest economy in Africa.
While admitting that Nigeria has a revenue problem, he, nonetheless, said the country was a very resilient one, with a very resilient economy.
According to him, this is why AfDB will continue to support its growth aspirations.
He applauded President Muhammadu Buhari for securing the country’s borders, noting that without secured borders, a country’s economy would not thrive.
With appreciable success recorded in the security sector, Dr Adesina said government should also give dedicated attention to the economy.
The Senate’s position came on a day the Federal Government said no final decision had been taken on the matter.
NEC had recommended sale of the assets to raise capital to shore up foreign reserves and, by extension, bail out the country from the current economic recession.
The Senate’s decision is in line with recommendations of its ad-hoc committee set up to review its two-day debate, last week.
The committee in its report submitted at plenary, outrightly rejected government’s planned action, a decision which ran contrary to the position of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who had earlier backed government’s decision.
The Senate, in line with recommendation to that effect, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to, as a matter of urgency, prepare an Economic Stimulus Bill containing all the fiscal stimulus packages, investments and incentives designed to pull the country out of recession to the National Assembly for accelerated consideration and passage.
The committee in its recommendation of the sale of national assets which was, however, rejected, said: “Being a sensitive issue, it should be approached from a commitment to protecting the common patrimony of Nigerians by preventing the assets from falling into the hands of sharks, assets strippers and cannibalizers, while also guarding against the fuelling of further inequities in the society and polity.”
Other salient recommendations adopted by the Senate included urging the executive to ensure constant meeting of fiscal and monetary authorities for harmonization of all policies, particularly lower interest rates for genuine investors in the real sector as well as medium and small scale farmers and processors.
Dialogue with militants
It also recommended that the government must engage in meaningful and inclusive dialogue with aggrieved Niger Delta militants to avoid escalation of unrest in the region and ensure protection of Nigeria’s oil and gas assets. This, it acknowledged, was to facilitate increase in oil production and boost revenue therefrom.
To this end, the recommendation said the President should, as a matter of urgency, appoint a Senior Special Assistant, who should lead a team to coordinate government’s engagement with all stakeholders in the region, specifying that the team should include senators from the zone.
The Senate also adopted the recommendation urging the President to reconstitute Board of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and all other critical agencies, to ensure they operate in accordance with enabling laws.
To solve the age-long problem associated with saving for the rainy day by the Federal Government, the Senate adopted the recommendation seeking amendment of Section 162 of the Constitution to make it possible for the Federal Government to save money to that effect.
To ensure that the recommendations get to the President on time, the Senate also resolved that the report of all the 22-point recommendations should be personally delivered to the President by the Senate President.
After adoption of the resolutions, the Senate Chief Whip, Senator Olusola Adeyeye (APC, Osun Central) rose through Order 43 to emphasise that resolutions now adopted represented the corporate decision of the Senate, against individual submissions made by senators, last week, during the general debate.
No final decision yet — FG
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has said that no final decision had been taken on the issue of sales of the nation’s critical assets.
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, made the clarification while declaring open the 57th Nigerian Economic Society Annual Conference in Abuja.
Udoma confirmed, however, that the Economic Management Team had been working to put together a stimulus package to be raised from concessioning, advance payment for licence renewals, use of recovered funds and some asset sales.
The minister said the government was still open to contributions and was looking forward to receiving the recommendations from the conference as to how government could deepen and broaden reforms being embarked upon, aimed at restructuring the economy and changing it for good.
The minister said: “This is still being worked upon and is yet to be finalized, or submitted to FEC for consideration. To achieve this speedily, we are working to fast-track procedures through Presidential directives and legislation.
“As an example of the kind of funds we can generate from concessioning, we have a major company that has made a proposal to spend US$2 billion on the revamping of the existing railway line from Lagos to Kano and from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri.”
Udoma urged Nigerians not to lose hope in the economy, but use the current economic crisis as an opportunity to make major structural changes needed to change the country’s economy.
“We must use this crisis to introduce measures that will truly diversify the Nigerian economy by ensuring that the non-oil sector generates enough foreign currency earnings to drive the economy , even without any crude oil earnings.
“Government must use this crisis as an opportunity to promote broader macroeconomic and structural reforms so as to mitigate supply-side constraints and diversify the productive and revenue base of the economy,” he said.
The minister said government’s plans to achieve all these were contained in the Strategic Implementation Plan, which will be expanded into a more comprehensive medium and long term plan, as a successor plan to the country’s Vision 20:2020 Plan.
Made in Nigeria goods
He said further: “The Federal Government has been working with state governments through the National Economic Council, to engender alignment of policies.
“We also organised a retreat with them to share ideas, information and knowledge. We have also been reaching out to the private sector, to academia, to professional bodies, to civil society and other stakeholders.
“As part of efforts in this direction, government is currently collaborating with the private sector to launch a “Made in Nigeria” campaign, with the intention of encouraging quality production and massive consumption of Made in Nigeria goods and services.
“We should encourage the branding of Nigerian products by self-regulatory industry bodies such as wine makers have in France. ‘Made in Nigeria’ should become a badge of quality. As the quality of our goods and services improve, both local and international demand for them will increase.”
According to him, high local demand will give Nigerian producers the platform to explore the export market.
“There is no doubt that one of the fastest routes to grow our economy and to create jobs for our teeming population is by pursuing export-led growth. This strategy also holds high promise of adding to our foreign reserves and further stabilising the Naira.
“We are convinced that this is capable of delivering desired results and potentials for exports to increase foreign exchange earnings and shore up foreign reserves”, he added.
Nigeria, strongest economy in Africa — Adesina
Speaking after being conferred with the Fellowship of the NES, the President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, dispelled the speculation that Nigeria was in debt crisis, insisting that Nigeria remained the strongest economy in Africa.
While admitting that Nigeria has a revenue problem, he, nonetheless, said the country was a very resilient one, with a very resilient economy.
According to him, this is why AfDB will continue to support its growth aspirations.
He applauded President Muhammadu Buhari for securing the country’s borders, noting that without secured borders, a country’s economy would not thrive.
With appreciable success recorded in the security sector, Dr Adesina said government should also give dedicated attention to the economy.
PATIENCE JONATHAN’S $15.5m: Ex-aide wants court to reverse companys’ guilty plea
PATIENCE JONATHAN’S $15.5m: Ex-aide wants court to reverse companys’ guilty plea.
By Innocent Anaba
Lagos— AN aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Waripamo-Owei Dudafa and one of his co-accused in an alleged $15.5 million fraud charge, Amajuoyi Briggs, yesterday, asked a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to reverse the guilty plea entered into by four firms, who were charged along with them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The firms, Pluto Property and Investment Company Ltd, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Limited, Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited and Avalon Global Property Development Company, pleaded guilty through their representatives.
They were represented by Friday Davies, Agbor Baro, Dioghowori Frederick and Taiwo Ebenezer respectively.
On resumption of yesterday’s proceedings, before Justice Babs Kuewumi, Dudafa’s lawyer, Gboyega Oyewole, informed the court that he has filed an application seeking to set aside the guilty plea of the companies.
Briggs’ lawyer, Tochukwu Onyiuke, also filed a similar application.
However, an argument ensued when the EFCC lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, said that the court should focus on the business of the day which is to review the facts of the case involving the four accused persons that had already pleaded guilty.
Oyedepo argued that the applications were in breach of Section 271(b) of Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA and that it is only after the prosecution has reviewed the facts of the firms’ case that the court can intervene.
But the judge directed the defence lawyers to move their applications.
Oyewole in his application, argued that the application which was filed pursuant to Sections 274, 396, 477 and 478 of ACJA 2015 is seeking for an order setting aside the guilty plea of the representatives of the four firms for being a breach of judicial process.
He said the guilty plea was an abuse of the court process owing to the pendency of a suit filed by Mrs Patience Jonathan, against the EFCC, Dudafa, the four firms and Skye Bank, wherein she is laying claim to the ownership of the sum of $15.5 million, which the anti-graft agency claimed was laundered.
According to him, “the EFCC should have taken care of the issue of the person laying claim to the money before foisting a guilty plea on the court.”
Oyewole posited that one of the firms’ representatives, Taiwo Ebenezer, had also indicated in a statement that he has nothing to do with any firm, saying it was curious that that the same person can now come to plead guilty to an offence committed by a company he knows nothing about.
He maintained that he has a duty to file the application because it is a joint trial and that the guilty plea will definitely affect other defendants negatively.
BlackBerry to stop production of phones
BlackBerry to stop production of phones
BlackBerry announced Wednesday it would halt in-house production of smartphones, marking the end of an era for the once-dominant Canadian tech firm.
Ontario-based BlackBerry said it had reached a deal to outsource production of its phones to an Indonesian partner, and would instead concentrate on software and services.
Handsets with the BlackBerry name will be produced under license by PT Tiphone Mobile Indonesia Tbk, a statement by the firms said.
BlackBerry, which a decade ago was among the world’s largest smartphone makers, has seen its global market share slip to less than one percent as Apple and Android devices have dominated.
As the market shifted, BlackBerry has sought to refocus on software, including security applications, and the latest announcement takes the company out of the handset market entirely.
“We are reaching an inflection point with our strategy. Our financial foundation is strong, and our pivot to software is taking hold,” said chief executive John Chen, pointing to a doubling of software revenue in the last fiscal year.
“The company plans to end all internal hardware development and will outsource that function to partners. This allows us to reduce capital requirements and enhance return on invested capital.”
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company has made several efforts in recent years to find new customer niches as its smartphone handset sales continued to stagnate in the face of competition.
It had hoped its first Android-operating smartphone launched last year would help restore the company to its former glory.
But sales were lackluster.
Earlier this year, BlackBerry announced it was killing off its Classic smartphone with a physical keyboard — once the workhorse of the smartphone market — as part of a modernization of its lineup.
But the company has continued to bleed red, posting on Wednesday a US$372 million loss in its second quarter ending August 31.
Revenues also fell to US$334 million, from US$490 million during the same period last year. The company did not report details on its smartphone shipments.
– Rebooting BlackBerry –
Some analysts praised the decision to get out of smartphone sales, at a time when the worldwide smartphone market has turned relatively flat.
“The devices business has been a distraction for both BlackBerry and investors for a number of years now,” International Data Corporation analyst John Jackson told AFP.
The end is “good news,” he said, noting an uptick in BlackBerry’s stock price in morning trading.
Shares rose more than four percent to US$8.22 in New York at 11:00 am local time (1500 GMT). This price, however, remains far below a five-year high set in October 2011 of US$23.97.
Originally known as Research in Motion, the company introduced its first internet-connected devices in the early 2000s, and earned a dedicated following of “CrackBerry” addicts.
But its luster faded with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the large number of low-costs Android handsets that followed.
By moving out of hardware, BlackBerry can focus on its various business services such as messaging, cybersecurity and tracking connected devices.
Jackson said the move “should help investors, BlackBerry customers, and the company itself focus squarely on the software and services business which is fiercely competitive in its own right, but also the business that BlackBerry has been in all along.”
However analyst Michael Walkley at Canaccord Genuity said the new strategy has risks as well.
“We believe the lowered focus on hardware could have an adverse impact on its installed base of loyal BlackBerry hardware customers, potentially switching to new software and security solutions on competing smartphones over time,” he said in a research note.
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