The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, on Friday, gave necessary insight into his ministry’s activities and the plans of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration to improve power supply in the country.

Adelabu also urged Nigerians to be patient with him, saying that the positive yields of the reforms in the power sector will be visible and more importantly sustainable.

Below are the major highlights of the press conference.

– Before the tariff changed, the government subsidized 67% of electricity costs, rising even higher for generation alone.

– The estimated subsidy cost for 2024, before tariff adjustment, was approximately 2.9 trillion Naira.

– After the adjustment, the estimated subsidy cost for 2024 reduced to around 1.4 trillion Naira. This is a huge drop of over 50% in subsidies alone.

– The tariff increase came with a reduction in Band A feeders, with only 481 remaining out of over 1,000.

– Nigeria has around 12 million electricity customers.

– Only 15% of the total customers who are categorized as Band A customers accounts will no longer receive subsidies.

– Only slightly over 5 million customers are currently metered, leaving a gap of over 6 million.

– Subsidzed pricing will continue temporarily, with a plan to move towards cost-reflective pricing in three years.

– The tariff change is aimed at testing the concept of full payment for 20-24 hours of daily supply.

– The pricing adjustment aims to address liquidity issues and make investments in the sector more feasible.

– There are significant infrastructure challenges in the power sector, including obsolete equipment and vandalism.

– DisCos failing to provide 20 hours of supply to Band A consumers will face sanctions.

– DisCos has an incentive to migrate other bands to Band A to charge higher tariffs.

– Energy consumption management is crucial despite the poorly received ‘freezer’ example.

– Ongoing efforts include regulatory decentralization, renewable energy investments, and infrastructure improvements.

[NaijaNews]

The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has voiced its worries about the recent rise in electricity prices, highlighting potential threats to the long-term viability of businesses. 

In a conversation with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, ACCI President Mr. Emeka Obegolu expressed concerns that this increase would adversely affect businesses throughout different sectors of the economy. 

He noted the existing difficulties entrepreneurs and investors are grappling with and suggested that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), vital to the economic fabric, would suffer considerably due to the increased tariffs. 

• He stated, “Many enterprises are already struggling with reduced demand, supply chain disruptions, and financial constraints. The burden of higher electricity tariffs exacerbates their challenges and threatens their long-term viability.”
• “As advocates for the business community, we urge relevant authorities to reconsider this decision and explore alternative solutions that prioritise the needs of businesses and support ease of doing business.”
• “It is vital to strike a balance between ensuring a sustainable energy sector and mitigating the adverse effects of tariff hikes on businesses, particularly during these trying times,” 

New tariff will stifle innovation 

The president stated that the rise in tariffs would obstruct the ability of businesses to invest in new technologies and growth, and it would affect their competitive edge in local and global markets. 

He further mentioned worries that the increased tariffs, along with other economic hurdles like the elimination of fuel subsidies and the consolidation of foreign exchange rates, might exacerbate the challenges encountered by businesses. 

Backstory  

• Last week, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) increased the electricity tariffs for Band A consumers by over 300% from around N66 per KWh to N225 per KWh. The commission noted the hike only affect around 17% of the total electricity consumers in the country who receive up to 20hrs of electricity daily. 

[Nairametrics]

In the 19th century and even before, Bobriskys were lynched like common criminals. Their sin was their considered unusual sexuality. Until then, homosexual activities were classified as  “unnatural crime against nature” while sodomy got punished with, sometimes death. In comparison, Okuneye Idris Olanrewaju, famously known as Bobrisky, has suffered one of the mildest fates. Between 1877 and 1950, over 4000 of such lynching occurred. As recently as April 2017, Kenne McFadden, a black transgender woman who didn’t have experience of swimming, got drowned when she was pushed into the San Antonio River in Texas on account of her “nauseating” sexuality. That much was said in 2020 by Emily Lenning, Sara Brightman and Carrie Buist in their “The Trifecta of Violence: A Socio‑Historical Comparison of Lynching and Violence Against Transgender Women.” Writing for Critical Criminology, they said five months after the McFadden case, specifically in September, 2017, Ally Lee Steinfeld, a white 17-year-old transgender teen, also got brutally murdered. Her cruel fate was brought about by three teenagers. She was stabbed in the genitals, her eyes gouged out, her body set alight and her remains dumped “in a chicken coop near a mobile home park in Missouri.”

Two months later, in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, Sherrell Faulkner, a 45-year-old Black transgender woman, got cruelly beaten and then dumped behind a dumpster. 

Days after, the injuries she suffered led to her death in the hospital. Till today, Faulkner’s murderers have not been identified. The three cases, according to Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF) 2018, represented a tiny strand of at least 29 murders of transgenders that the United States recorded in 2017, ranked as the deadliest year for the Bobriskys in recent history. HRCF also reported that between 2013 and 2019, it tracked 157 cases of fatal anti-transgender incidents.

Perhaps this was what weird but hugely talented Nigerian singer, rapper and songwriter, Habeeb Okikiola, a.k.a. Portable, was referencing in Brotherhood, a short musical he did attacking Bobrisky recently? In the song, Portable condemned Bobrisky for morphing from “brotherhood to sisterhood.” While body-shaming the embattled cross-dresser as “a disgrace to brotherhood” and having ameoeba-shaped buttocks that looked like a clay pot worth only a pound – e wo idi e bi koko ponun kan – Portable asked that Bobrisky be stoned to death – “e le l’oko pa!”

Like Portable, from ancient times, the world has never hidden its hostility against people who profess sexual orientation different from its. Like, it says, can only be compared to likes – ohun t’o ba jo’hun l’a fi nwe’hun. The world even gave its anger towards homosexuality religious validation. Following this route, Italian priest, philosopher and theologian, Thomas Aquinas, condemned homosexuality as “unnatural.” The biblical book of Leviticus 18: 22; 20:13 is often cited: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination,” as well as Romans 1: 26 where biblical Paul hoisted up lesbianism for condemnation: “For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.”  

The Bobriskys come in various names and appellations. They are either bisexual, in which case, they are attracted to persons of both sexes; Butch, male and female who dress in stereotyped male ways; “In the closet,” because they do not disclose their gender identity; Femme, due to their acting and dressing in feminine ways; gays, for their attraction to persons of same sex and as LGBTQ, a sweeping categorization of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgenders and Questionings. Bobrisky is Nigeria’s own daughter of the historical Greek woman, Sappho, an Archaic Greek poet, who hailed from Eresos on the Island of Lesbos. Sappho was the first known woman “accused by some of being irregular in her ways and a woman-lover.” She is venerated by lesbians as the foremother, the near mythical prototype of people with queer sexual cravings. Lesbianism, the community of same sex women, was forged from Lesbos, the name of the island Sappho lived on. Bobrisky patterns her life towards Sappho and has become a controversial self-confessed transgender, LGBTQ personality and campaigner.

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (2015, 47), the umbrella term used to describe the Bobriskys of this world, called transgender, refers to “… people whose gender identity and expression does not conform to the norms and expectations traditionally associated with their sex at birth. Transgender people include individuals who have received gender reassignment surgery, individuals who have received gender-related medical interventions other than surgery (e.g. hormone therapy) and individuals who identify as having no gender, multiple genders or alternative genders. Transgender individuals may self-identify as transgender, female, male, transwoman or transman, transsexual, hijra, kathoey, waria or one of many other transgender identities, and they may express their genders in a variety of masculine, feminine and/or androgynous ways.”

Homosexuality, cross-dressing or lesbianism is as old as humanity. The holy writs seem to abet the cruelty and violence that humanity has inflicted on these creations of God. While some antiquities tolerated their sexual fates, others visited their wraths on the offspring of Sappho. Well-known lesbian Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at San Diego State University, Christine Downing, in her Lesbian Mythology, suggests that lesbianism is a grueling life of isolation, confusion and terror. This was her conclusion while re-casting Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso’s myth. Naso, simply known as Ovid, had told a story which has almost become a global lesbian epistemology. Heroine of the story, Iphis, born female, desired to be male. Her mother had hidden her gender from her father, a poor Cretan peasant who badly wanted a male child. Iphis’ mother was in despair in her pregnancy until the goddess, Isis advised her to deceive her husband about the child’s gender.  At age 13, Iphis fell in love with the most beautiful girl on the island called lanthe. Raised as a male, there was confusion, making her mother cry to the god, Isis. As Iphis and Ianthe walk home one day, Iphis’ features suddenly change to a man’s and “the boy Iphis gained his own Ianthe.” Downing apparently retold this story to reduce the tension of horrific encounters of the children of Sappho.

Bobrisky leapt into the news again recently. He/she had been named winner in the ‘Best Dressed’ Female Category of popular Yoruba actress, during the premiere of Eniola Ajao’s Beast of Two Worlds, Ajakaju movie premiere. Scalding criticisms erupted on social media. Bobrisky’s choice sparked uncomplimentary reactions. Not even Eniola’s immediate apologies on her social media handles and reversal of what she declared was a stunt gone sour were enough appeasements. A few days later, the EFCC arrested Bobrisky, charging her to court for mutilation of Nigeria’s currency totaling N490,000. He/she was immediately convicted, ranking it as one of the Concorde supersonic airliner -speed convictions ever given by the Nigerian judiciary. We hope the Nigerian judiciary and the EFCC will give the Kano State government-filed criminal charges against the immediate past governor and APC chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, same expeditious trial. Kano had resorted to trying Ganduje over alleged $413,000, N1.38bn bribery during his governorship and had assembled 15 witnesses to testify against Ganduje.

In a country where mutilation of the national currency is an off-the-cuff weekend pastime of the elite and the political class in Nigeria, it was obvious that a deeply religious, conservative, African-centric animosity against unusual sexuality was fighting back. When stunned about how odd events fit into one another to form a mesmerizing wonder, Yoruba will say Ó jọ gáté, kò jọ gàté, ó fi ẹsẹ̀ méjèèjì tiro. It is similar to the case of a limping masquerade (atiro) who enters the “Igbale”, where masquerades remove their mask regalia –ago. If an agbada-clad, limping person now walks out of the Igbale immediately, it shouldn’t be difficult to situate who the atiro was. No one needed to be told that the masquerader, like the nightingale – the beautiful Awoko bird – had shed its quills. Such is the wonderment and clinical precision of Bobrisky’s lynching. A highly religious Nigeria was obviously taking vengeance for Bobrisky’s sexuality audacity.

Some scholars have said that, until about half a century ago, lesbianism or gay relationship was a nonexistent phenomenon in Africa. According to them, per adventure it even ever did exist, it was an aberration imported from the West. Anthropological researches have however proved that the existence of same-sex sexual practices predates the now in Africa into before, during, and after colonialism. The practice was however disparaged. Dobrota Pucherova said this much in her “What Is African Woman? Transgressive Sexuality in 21st-Century African Anglophone Lesbian Fiction as a Redefinition of African Feminism.” Africans saw lesbianism as an example of a woman’s corruption, moral depravity and even madness. Pucherova uses the Kenyan Rebeka Njau’s novel, Ripples in the Pool (1975) and Ghanaian Ama Ata Aidoo’s Our Sister Killjoy (1977) as affirmation of this thesis. In Njau’s novel, the protagonist, Selina, gets infatuated with her husband’s younger sister. She was cast as exhibiting “predatory sexual desire” toward the two siblings. The book consigns Selina’s behaviour into the trash basket of egomania and a damaged personality. It also suggests that Selina makes use of witchcraft to control her victims. No wonder she ends up murdering the young girl and her male lover. Aidoo’s Our Sister Killjoy sees same-sex as less predatory. In it, a German housewife becomes obsessed with Sissie, the Ghanaian protagonist. Marija’s obsession is painted as a measure of moral degeneration reminiscent of post-Holocaust German society. All these and other African literature openly thematized lesbian desire, showing however that black women are victimised through patriarchal control of their sexuality. An example is Monica Arac de Nyeko’s short story, Jambula Tree, which is the first East African text to do so.

Last week was Easter, a sacred day in the annals of world Christianity. Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service’s (FIRS) communication agency would not allow the day to go by without marketing its tax portfolio. So it put out the brilliant, catchy and arresting phrase “Jesus paid your debts, not your taxes.” This brilliance and mental ingenuity should earn any student of PR a Distinction. Not Nigeria’s churchpreneurs. They saw it as reckless audacity operating on the same dangerous Fahrenheit as Bobrisky’s. I haven’t heard the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) lament the danger in the current obnoxious hike in electricity tariff. That won’t make Bola Tinubu know that CAN is a combination of Christian principalities. On FIRS, CAN reached for its ancient pouch immediately. It brought out those archaic, boring refrains of “offensive” “derogatory” and “religious harmony.” I have been struggling to find a difference between CAN’s obvious intolerance and a similar one that happened in Kaduna in November, 2002. Twenty one year old Isioma Daniel, who worked for the Thisday, had written on a Miss World contest Nigeria was to host. She off-handedly and harmlessly suggested that Prophet Mohammed might have approved of the contest and probably wished to marry one of the beauty queens. Hell was let loose. The newspaper’s Kaduna office was burned down. Hundreds of people were reportedly killed. The ensuing riots lasted for several days, prompting the organisers of the Miss World contest to relocate it to London to protect further lives from being lost.

One thread links our Bobrisky demonization, CAN’s hypocritical anger and Islam’s pesky religiosity. It is called intolerance. I referred to the witch-hunting of same sex people as “our” because, if today, Bobrisky offers his/her hand to me for a handshake, I will shudder. I am almost too sure I will refuse it. My refusal will not be strictly me in action. Rather, it will be centuries of culture, religion and our collective aversion to change which have bored deep roots in me. These three hate change. Their mantra is, as it was in the beginning, so shall it be. Static as a statue.

Take for instance our cultural and religious perception of child-bearing and polygamy. For centuries now, Africa venerated procreation almost to a point of deity. Whoever brings forth a child owns this world – “Olomo l’o l’aye” – our mothers proudly sang. In Africa, barren women were stigmatised because women were seen as procreation vehicles called motherhood. In the bible, Peninnah scorned Hannah’s barrenness. Our mothers, who, due to no fault of theirs, couldn’t bring forth children, were witches. In earlier centuries, some cultures abetted barren women being stoned to death by scorners. Today, the world has re-interrogated the whole corpus of child-bearing. Couples willingly decide they don’t want to be encumbered by it. Is it really true that Olomo l’o l’aye? Great men and women have traversed this world without bearing children. Their corpses were not fed to the swine. Nor are we told that child-bearing is a passport to the hereafter. We have had parents who gave birth to children but died miserably, due to their abandonment by their children.

Today, there is a huge traffic back to where we were before the advent of colonialism. Soon after Britain and its Middle East allies came with their Bible, Quran and guns, we abandoned our centuries-old medicine, dressing and culture. Now, Africans are going back to those same abandoned roots, apologies to Lucky Dube. One of such is polygamy. Last week, Bassirou Diomaye Faye was inaugurated as the fifth Senegalese President, flaunting his two wives – Marie Khone and Absa. I could see the west squeeze its face like excreta beaten by rain. The hypocritical west flushes monogamy and homosexuality down the throat of the world while abhorring our ancient practice of polygamy. Reproached in high places as Faye just did, monogamy and its icing of hypocrisy are getting perforated. The truth is that the stringent rules of monogamy have destroyed more homes than they built.

We must interrogate every teaching and dogma of religion, culture and society and hold on to those that will assist us live quality lives. That is what existentialist philosophy teaches. Today, churchgoers are asking questions about the stupendous wealth of the Daddy G.Os and the poverty of the congregants. We must not be slaves to them, nor be their mannequins. While upholding values that will strengthen humanity, we must also show respect for otherness and recognize individual human rights. What is Jesus’ business with FIRS’ quest to bring more people into its tax net? Parodying Isioma, if Jesus were here today, He would recommend a national honour for the fellow whose brilliant idea birthed that FIRS line. Why drag Jesus and Mohammed into this needless pettiness? What should infuriate a sensible human being about Mohammed enjoying Miss World? Why should we be captives of dogmas? Why should we allow the bigotry of CAN and zealotry of Islamic fundamentalists drive our thinking? Religious charlatans and their naïve accomplices merely make their enemies the enemies of God. If CAN has been slumbering and needed to talk by all means, couldn’t it dig a hole like that old Yoruba fable of Alade’s friend, who couldn’t stomach the confided secret of Alade growing a horn on his head, who then dug a hole, inside which he shouted, “Alade has horn on his head!” –  Alade hu’wo? From that same hole grew a tree and whenever anyone bought a flute beside it, the rhythm sprouting off the flute was: “Alade hu’wo.”

Earlier, it was society’s view that people like Bobrisky were suffering from psychological disorders. Or that homosexuality was an abnormal condition. Science has since discovered that many atimes, the Bobriskys may be prisoners of their biology and psychology. Research has shown that you do not choose to be gay, bisexual, or straight. And that homosexuality is a natural and normal sexual orientation, expressions of human sexuality. The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its radius in 1973, and with it the stigma of mental illness that had long been associated with the children of Sappho. Why do we demonise those who, like accidents of birth, have no say in the kind of sexuality they are imposed upon by nature?

Do I agree with Bobrisky’s open flaunt of his/her sexuality? No. I think one’s sexual orientation should be a private affair. I also advocate that children of Sappho deserve pity from society and should be clinically lured out of their natural affliction. I also think that, if dug deeper, Bobrisky’s untapped major infraction against the law may just be that she has turned her cross-dressing into a commodity. EFCC should openly admit that it is acting the script of a vindictive, homosexual-hostile Nigerian society in lynching Bobrisky. Singling him/her to face the wrath of the law is akin to the lynching treatment given homosexuals in the early centuries. Currency mutilation is a fad which very few Nigerians are not guilty of as charged, from Bola Tinubu, to the lowest Nigerian. An orgy of celebration on the social media has since followed Bobrisky’s lynching by the law. It reminds me of a hunter who proudly hoists the decapitated head of a buffalo as a symbol of his masculinity.

Do you want to live and work in the United States of Nigeria as opposed to the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Would you rather be a citizen of USN rather than FRN?

I ask that question because there is a renewed clamour for the renaming of the giant of Africa from its present identification as the Federal Republic of Nigeria to a new one, the United States of Nigeria. The current wave was triggered by Africa’s Optimist-In-Chief and President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, in his brilliant lecture delivered at his investiture as winner of the Obafemi Awolowo Leadership Prize 2024.

I used to be bothered by appearing to be a blind copycat, especially if there was another way of presenting something that was not totally new. Follow the beaten path or create a new one? Most times, I opt to be as original as I can be without necessarily trying to reinvent the wheel. So, when the issue of renaming Nigeria re-emerged in the marketplace of public discourse, I was quite interested in steering the discourse towards more enduring territories than a mere copying and domestication of another country’s name.

What’s In A Name?
Some people have asked, what’s in a name? They argue that there’s no intrinsic value to a name and that any name is as good as any other. Of course, Shakespeare disagrees. In his play, Romeo and Juliet, he asks, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”
By extension, following that argument, no matter the name you give to Nigeria, the country will still be what it is.

For our collective sakes, we should all be eager to prevent the discussion from degenerating into the usual pedestrian level of naming for naming’s sake. The change of name suggested by Dr. Adesina is but one of the items in a long list of ingredients required to make the Nigerian developmental soup of our dreams.

Adesina argues that Nigeria must dream. Like many analysts of the African condition before him, he links the destinies of Nigeria and the African continent together in a symbiotic relationship. He argues that we must start by unleashing our full potential while managing our challenges. We must make poverty history in Nigeria and, indeed, in Africa.

He argues that, “What is not acceptable or sustainable is an Africa that imports 70-80% of its medicines and produces just 1% of its vaccines. The health security of Africa’s 1.4 billion people cannot be subjugated to global supply chains or the generosity of others.”
Disclosing that over the last seven years, AfDB had invested over $8.5 billion in agriculture, which had impacted 250 million people, Adesina declares that the transformation of rural economies must be structural, systemic, strategic and comprehensive.

Not surprisingly, he advocates education and housing for all. He points out that, “Nigeria accounts for 15% of the total population of out-of-school children, according to UNICEF, with over 10.2 million at the primary school level, and 8.1 million at the Junior Secondary School. This is not a gold medal Nigeria should be proud of… I firmly believe that their future lies in a rapidly developing Nigeria, and Africa, that is able to generate quality jobs with competitive wages and a decent quality of life for millions of youths. That is why the African Development Bank Group and partners have provided $614 million to Nigeria for the i-DICE program to support the development of digital and creative enterprises, which are expected to create 6.3 million jobs and add an estimated $6.4 billion to the Nigerian economy.

Specifically on housing, Dr. Adesina notes that, “In Nigeria, 49% of the population live in slums, according to data by UN-Habitat. That is a staggering 102 million people! That is 152% of the population of the United Kingdom, 392% of the population of Australia, 268% of the population of Canada, 150% of the population of France, and 1,020% of the population of the United Arab Emirates. Right here in Lagos, a UN-Habitat assessment shows 70% of the population live in informal settlements or slums.”
Adesina decried what he called “the opprobrious policies that seek to upgrade slums”. In his view, “There is nothing like a 5-Star Slum: a slum is a slum. Urgent actions are needed to support mortgage financing and refinancing and use of innovative financing structures to raise long-term capital for closing the housing deficits.

Constitutional Lie
As a columnist who has closely followed and analysed the Nigerian condition for several decades, I have no doubt that the most crucial of the five variables for re-engineering a new Nigeria is the decentralisation or unbundling of the grotesque unitary structure imposed by the military at the onset of their misadventure into governance in 1966. Before that time, Nigeria was governed on the basis of a constitution peacefully negotiated by representatives of the people. Today, the current Nigerian constitution is the holiest lie in the country’s legal superstructure because everyone knows that the clause, “We, the people…” actually means, “We the military…”

Dr. Adesina points out that democracy is more than the right to cast a vote. It is the right of citizens to hold governments accountable for improvements in their welfare. He laments the situation where most Nigerians have been forced to constitute themselves into private local governments on account of the fact that they provide electricity for themselves via generators; repair roads in their neighbourhoods; provide boreholes for drinking water; and, we may as well add, provide their own security.
The sensible way out is to revert to an idea which informed the negotiations of the founding fathers of Nigeria at independence — and which served us well until the military rudely intervened — decentralise governance to constituent parts in order to provide greater autonomy.
Adesina’s belief in a new Nigeria is predicated on his conviction that, if things were done differently, the giant of Africa would be able to sing a new political and developmental song in the nearest future: “There is a compelling need for the restructuring of Nigeria. Restructuring should not be driven by political expediency, but by economic and financial viability. Economic and financial viability are the necessary and sufficient conditions for political viability.”

Restructuring
It is in the spirit of restructuring, of building the Nigerian pyramid from the bottom up, that Adesina’s call for the renaming of the country as the United States of Nigeria should be understood. What we have at the moment is a Unitary State of Nigeria disguised as a federal republic. A lie told in any language or vernacular, will always remain a lie!

Providentially, the National Assembly is in the process of amending the 1999 constitution in the midst of calls by several sub-national groups for an adoption of the report of the Constitutional Conference of 2014 or even a reversion to the original 1963 Republican Constitution. No matter the perspective of politicians on the matter, all agree that the current system is fraudulent and cannot lead Nigeria to its deserved place among the comity of nations.

If, in addition to restructuring or reversion to the originally negotiated constitution of Nigeria, our political engineers reach a consensus on renaming the country as the United States of Nigeria, you won’t find me among those bleating ‘Nay!’

Banyana Banyana head coach, Desiree Ellis believes there is still plenty to play for in their 2024 Olympic Games qualifier against the Super Falcons of Nigeria.
The reigning African champions lost 1-0 to Nigeria in the first leg at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja on Friday night.

Asisat Oshoala converted from the spot two minutes before the break after Chiwendu Ihezuo was fouled inside the box by Noko Matlou.
Ellis’ side were outplayed by the Super Falcons in the keenly contested encounter.
The gaffer is however optimistic her team will turn things around in the second leg.

“Look, we said it was going to be a tight game but we are hopeful of overturning this result in the second leg,” Ellis was quoted by Safa.net.

“We are still in the game. We created a couple of chances, a penalty decided the match but the game is not over. I thought in the second half we raised our game a lot and created good chances and could have equalized.

“Maybe we could also have gotten a penalty at the end when Jermaine was fouled but I’m very proud of the team and we will take it back to Pretoria.”

[Leadership]

DECADES back, in those giddy days of military rule, David Mark, one of the top military brass, was reported as saying that telephones are not for the poor. Mark was the Minister of Communications whose duty was to make telephones available, accessible and affordable for all. He failed and to mask his failure, he blurted out the embarrassingly outrageous statement that telephones were not for the poor. Truly, in that era, the telephone was a status symbol. You found telephones with and in the homes of the rich. The magical box was stationary and usually sat majestically in a conspicuous place in the sitting room, unlike the handset of today called the mobile phone because it is truly mobile.

Also, in those days, it was a symbol of status if you had a neighbour or family member with a phone at home or in the office, where you could go to receive or make a call. I remember those were the days when NITEL was king and everyone had to flock to their offices in select areas to wait in long queues and for long hours to make calls. In those days, too, calls to some destinations could only be made at specific periods of the day, some at midnight, because of network problems. It was easier in those days for a camel to pass through the eyes of a needle than for a poor person to make calls within the country, not to talk of international calls! You are not an ordinary person if you have someone abroad who can call you or that you can call.

Those days are far behind us now! Gradually, we began to have hand-held telephone sets. Or, better still, mobile phones that could be carried about in one’s car or bag. I remember my 090 Mobitel luggage of a phone when I was the editor of PUNCH newspapers. Only three of us had it in the entire organization – the Chairman, the Managing Director and my humble self. It was expensive making calls those days. I remember that I once was in charge of processing bills emanating from those Mobitel phones. After this came the revolution of GSM, which demystified hand-held or mobile phones and every Tom, Dick, and Harry could own phones. This radical change took place within a generation and David Mark himself witnessed it. He witnessed the poor owning phones.

On many, if not all fronts, life can be made more abundant for all and sundry; only that the leaders are not minded to do so. And they mask their failure or indifference in terms that give the impression that it is a tall order achieving such milestones. The fact, however, that Millennium Development Goals are set with datelines shows that these goals are achievable. Other nations achieve them; why not us? Water for all; housing for all; education for all; eradication of this or that; putting an end to open defecation, etc are some of the MDGs that have been set and that have been achieved in varying degrees elsewhere. Why not also here? There is hardly any goal set that is not achievable. Failure to achieve them is, often, evidence of failure of leadership. There is nowhere this is more evident in this country than in the area of power generation.

Apart from security of life and property and making food available to the people, power supply ought to rank next in the order of priorities. Even those two are helped by the availability of power. God made no mistake when He made light His first creation. “And God said, let there be light, and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). Before then there had been darkness, gross darkness. And just like Jesus Christ said, man works in the day (when there is light or power supply); night comes (darkness/power outage) when no man can work. Only God knows how much Nigeria has committed to power generation since its inception as an independent country in 1960. Since the beginning of the current Fourth Republic in 1999, the quantum of funds purportedly committed to power generation has been counted in billions of dollars. Yet, the more resources we commit, the less power we generate. The more we look, the less we see. Power generation, which is commonplace elsewhere, has become rocket science here.

And that failure has affected everything down the line. The quality of life is affected. The economy takes a beating. Cost of power generation is one of the major reasons why businesses are relocating from Nigeria. With that comes loss of revenue and loss of jobs, accentuating poverty and its attendant corollary. Little development and progress can be made in the face of epileptic power supply. Huge sums of money is wasted on the procurement and maintenance of generating sets and fuel to power them. The inconveniences involved apart, its effects on the environment are massive. High cost of doing business here affects cost of products and services, making businesses that operate here less competitive when compared to others in climes where power supply is more stable.

Government control failed to deliver the desirable results in the power sector. Civilians failed. Military, too, failed. Parliamentary system of government failed. Presidential system, too, has failed. Where, then, do we turn? Unbundling, as they called it, of the behemoth called NEPA also failed. Privatization and commercialization – everything we have tried has failed to yield the desired results. We get less all the time. Yet, customers have continued to pay more money for services not rendered. They pay to get light but get darkness in return. Yet, they are required again and again to pay more to get more of the same darkness. Another tariff review, always going upward and never coming down, defying Isaac Newton’s Law of Gravity, is in the offing again. How long?

The quantum of the new tariff increase is staggering; and there is no assurance of service improvement. Why pay through the nose for services you are almost certain will not be rendered? The statement that only Band A or the upper echelon customers will be affected does not offer enough assurance because, from experience, we know that the tariff increment will percolate to the other bands sooner or later.

Many of the federal housing estates built by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari to bridge the country’s housing deficit are unoccupied and rotting away across states, investigations by Daily Trust on Sunday have revealed.

This is just as many civil servants are lamenting that the cost of the houses are unaffordable.

Successive governments in the country had pledged to provide affordable housing for low-income earners.

The contracts for the construction of different categories of housing units were awarded in 2016 to 542 contractors for a sum of N27.488 million per unit.

Of the 6,022 housing units billed for construction in 46 sites across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), 2,864 are said to have been completed; while others are at various stages of completion.

While performing the groundbreaking ceremony of the civil servants housing estate in Apo Extension, Abuja, under the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) programme, Buhari had promised to build 5,000 houses yearly in each state for public workers for three years.

These included one, two and three-bedroom bungalows in states in the North- East, North-West and North-Central; blocks of 16 and 24 flats (condominiums) of one, two and three-bedrooms and bungalows in the South-South, South- East and South-West and the FCT.

Earlier this year, the ministry said it had audited the NHP, reviewed the allocation process and retained the prices fixed by the immediate past administration.

The fixed prices are N7.22 million for a one bedroom unit in a condominium block; N9.268 million for a one bedroom unit in a semi-detached bungalow; N9.148 million for a two bedroom unit in a condominium block; N12.398 million for a two bedroom semi-detached bungalow (type A); N10.833 million for a two bedroom semi-detached bungalow (type B); N13.246 million for a three bedroom unit in a condominium block and N16.491 million for a three bedroom unit in a semi-detached bungalow.

However, findings by our correspondents showed that many of the houses that were completed are still unoccupied as civil servants and low income earners, expected to benefit from the project, decried that the costs were beyond their reach.

Kwara

Many of the structures of the NHP’s estate, which was commissioned in 2022 by the then Minister of Iinformation and Culture, Lai Mohammed, are unoccupied. The estate consists of 48 units of two-bedroomd, 20 units of three-bedrooms; four units of one-bedroom and four units of three-bedrooms.

A resident, who simply identified himself as Mr Bunyamin, said: “They are just rotting away in the midst of lack of accommodation for many Nigerians due to the high price. A two-bedrooms flat is being sold for N12.5 million, N25 million for four-bedrooms, N16.5 million for three-bedrooms and N9.5 million for one-bedroom.”

Similarly, another resident in the estate, Mr Asare Max, said the cost of the houses was too exorbitant for low-income workers.

He said since the buildings were completed in 2017, they were painted more than five times before the commissioning, adding that some of the structures had started showing signs of damage.

Niger

In Niger State, our correspondent discovered that only few of the 80 units of the houses in the NHP’s estate were occupied. The estate, located at the Three-Arms Zone, Eastern Bypass, consists of four units of one-bedroom flat, 52 units of two-bedrooms, 20 units of three-bedrooms and four units of four bedrooms.

Some civil servants, who spoke to our correspondent, said they were interested in applying for the houses, but the portal was yet to be opened for prospective applicants.

Plateau

In Jos, the Plateau State capital, the NHP’s projects are unoccupied and deteriorating.

The state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Musa Ashoms, confirmed that the project was completed, but abandoned.

Ashoms said: “Yes, there is a federal government housing project located in Laminga village of Jos East Local Government of Plateau State. The project has since been completed and allocated, but unoccupied. Or, the project has been completed but not allocated. So, it is a completed project, but unoccupied.

“The housing project is a three-bedrooms flat, designed to be occupied by federal civil servants in the state. Now, these completed houses are fast deteriorating since they are not occupied.

“I hereby call on the federal government to, not only ensure these completed houses are allocated, but also occupied immediately, because houses not occupied deteriorate faster than the ones occupied”, he said.

 Kogi

In Kogi State, some of the houses at the federal housing estate along the Lokoja-Okene road at Crusher-Felele-Lokoja area of the state capital are unoccupied; while hoodlums have destroyed the facilities therein. The estate consists of one and three-bedrooms semi-detached bungalows.

One of the few occupants of Phase 1 of the estate, Kareem Aremu, said: “Many of the houses are empty because they have not been allocated to anyone. So, burglars continue to invade the estate and cart away fittings in some of the houses,” he said.

Some of the civil servants spoken to said the amount being charged per unit of the bungalows was far beyond the capacity of an average salary earner in the state. They said one-bedroom semi-detached bungalow costs N9.2 million.

“No civil servant or an average businessman can afford to pay such a huge amount to own a house in the estate. That is why most of the houses are still empty without owners,” a civil servant said.

He said the ministry recently issued a circular to prospective buyers to bid for the unoccupied houses.

Nasarawa

Many workers in Nasarawa State said they could not afford the cost of the federal housing estate located at Akurba in Lafia Local Government Area. The estate comprises 62 units of three-bedrooms detached bungalows (N10.1 million each) and 82 units of two-bedrooms detached bungalows (N9.2 million each).

A civil servant in the state appealed to both the federal and the state governments to “make the cost of the houses affordable to low-income earners”.

Benue

Just like in other states, the federal housing estate in Benue, located at Mobile Barracks-Adeke-Welfare road in Makurdi, was completed but largely unoccupied owing to “the huge costs”.

The Federal Controller of Works in Benue could not be reached as of the time of filing this report.

Kebbi

The NHP in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State capital, was commissioned by the former Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, but five years after, the houses are yet to be allocated.

When our correspondent visited the housing units located along the By-pass in Birnin Kebbi, few of the housing units’ apartments were found occupied by beggars; and some others by miscreants. The roofs of some of the houses had been blown away by windstorm.

Workers told our correspondent that they had been waiting for the Federal Housing Authority to allocate the houses.

“They always tell us they have not been given approval to allocate the houses to the public. Now, you can see the state of the housing units; it’s worsening by the day,” he said.

When our correspondent visited the office of the controller of housing at Aliero Quarters in Birnin Kebbi, he was said to have traveled out of town.

But a senior staff member in the state office of the Ministry of Housing said the delay in allocating the houses “is a national issue.” He, however, said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration had given approval for the allocation of the houses to members of the public.

“We started giving forms to people who are interested in the houses two months ago. We have taken all the applications to our headquarters in Abuja for approval so that we can begin to allocate the houses to lucky applicants,” the official who did not wish to be named said.

Jigawa

The federal government housing estate in Jigaw State, located opposite Jigawa Hotels Limited in Dutse, is unoccupied.

The estate, which is about 4km away from the Jigawa Government House, is being looked after by the officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to prevent hoodlums from vandalising its facilities.

The Public Relations Officer of NSCDC, Badarudden Tijjani, told our correspondent that the corps had an understanding with the FHA to be protecting the estate.

Civil servants asked the federal government to allocate the houses to people in order ensure maintenance of the facility.

Roofs blown off in Yobe, Bauchi

When our correspondent visited the mass housing units on Damaturu-Maiduguri road in the Yobe State capital, some of the houses had their roofs blown off.

The houses are unoccupied, but security personnel have been deployed there to prevent vandalism.

When contacted, the Yobe State Federal Controller of Housing, Attah Peter, said the estate had not been commissioned due to a windstorm that destroyed some houses.

He hinted of a plan for the Yobe State government to take over the estate.

Also, in Bauchi, some of the roofs of the completed houses at the federal estate, along the Bauchi-Kano road, have been blown off by windstorm.

Our correspondent reported that he noticed that Phase one of the housing project, which commenced in 2016, has been completed for over two years, but not yet commissioned.

Some residents of the state alleged that the sale of application forms for the houses had been moved to Abuja.

One of them, who is a teacher, Kamal Ibrahim, wondered why the federal government would allow such a huge investment to rot away.

The Chief Resident Quantity Surveyor of the Federal Ministry of Housing in Bauchi, Taiwo Samuel, told our correspondent that the process of acquiring the houses was ongoing.

He said a letter released by the ministry had asked anyone interested to go and obtain an expression of interest form which, he noted, many people did.

Houses sold to private individuals in Kano

In Kano, many houses in Phase one of the NHP located at Jaba, off Panisau Road, Fagge Local Government Area, which former President Buhari commissioned on April 7, 2022, are also unoccupied. The estate has 77 units of three-bedroom bungalows and 33 units of two-bedroom bungalows.

Some of the unoccupied buildings have shown some signs of dilapidation with roofs either blown off or damaged.

Muhammad Lawal, who serves as a “caretaker” of some of the buildings, said they were being sold to private individuals rather than civil servants.

He said a three-bedroom bungalow costs N16 million, adding that those who bought the property converted them into offices. One of the buildings is housing Docusoft Technologies Limited.

Houses completed, allocated in Borno

In Borno State, our correspondent visited the federal mass housing estate, located behind the Board of Internal Revenue Service, opposite Ramat Polytechnic,  Maiduguri, and found it completed and the houses therein allocated.

Houses allocated to Super Eagles players, others in Edo

In Edo State, houses at the federal estate, located at Idumwen-Ehigie, along the Benin-Auchi road, were allocated in April 2023 to beneficiaries, including members of the Super Eagles’ 1994 Nations Cup winners who are from the state.

Project uncompleted in Ekiti

The 70-housing units estate of the NHP in Ekiti State is still under construction.

The project is sited at Agric Olope, Off Ajilosun, Moferere, Ado Ekiti.

FG promises to subsidise costs

When contacted, Mark Chieshe, Special Assistant on Media/Communications to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, told Daily Trust on Sunday that the government was working to subsidise the costs, under the National Social Housing Fund.

He admitted that most of the houses were yet to be completed.

He, however, said the minister was working to resolve all obstacles causing the delay.

“The minister is committed to completing all housing projects and ensuring that Nigerians, for whom the houses were built, benefit from them. He is working hard to make sure that whatever issues that have led to projects not being finished are resolved, and the houses completed for Nigerians to benefit from them,” Chieshe said.

He said the ministry recently published an expression of interest that was sent out to the public for houses that were built under the NHP.

“Even though inflation has increased the cost of building materials, the minister still insisted that the houses be sold on the prices they were advertised years ago. The expression of interest was overwhelming and oversubscribed”, he said.

On the high cost of the houses, he said: “The houses that are built have different types of offtake plans. One is that people who have the money can pay outright for the houses. The second is the mortgage (option) which allows you to buy the house and spread the payment over 30 years, if you are to take the National Housing Mortgage Fund at a single digit interest rate.

“To qualify for mortgage, civil servants are not allowed to use more than one-third of their salaries to allow them take care of other living expenses.

“The challenge we are facing is that salaries of civil servants are low. That is why under the Renewed Hope of the present administration, there are plans to create and establish a National Social Housing Fund.

“We will source funding so that houses can be built and delivered for Nigerians. The reality is that most civil servants can’t afford N9 million mortgage. We are working on the Fund to see how these houses can be subsidised,” he added.

[DailyTrust]

Shylock foreign airlines are in trouble; they are gasping for breath for an exhilarating dawn of breath of fresh air for Nigerians flying the London route is here! At last, Nigerians can now fly to London and fly back without a gaping hole left in their pockets as a result of exorbitant airfare.

A Nigerian airline, Air Peace which, since berthing in the aviation industry, has adorned Nigerianess like a garb made this possible. Hate him or love him, you cannot take one thing away from Allen Onyema, the unassuming Anambra-born lawyer behind Air Peace: His fervent love for Nigeria and fellow Nigerians oozes from a heart that flows with milk of human kindness, a pure heart that knows no malice or grudges!

Allen Onyema

A man is a patriot if his heart beats for his country” – Charles. E Jefferson. No characterization best aptly describes Barrister Onyema’s persona as Jefferson’s.
When he sprang up Air Peace a few years back Allen had and still has “Love for Fatherland” as the sacred creed of his enterprise.
Onyema’s trajectory in the Aviation sector leaves no one in doubt that remaining true to selflessness, altruism and patriotism even at the risk of business and profit losses is natural to him.
For the Air Peace boss, the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians comes first; and then business and profit follow. This is no sloganeering. Barrister Onyema has lived up to this billing now and again and makes no noise about it.
We saw him do this when distressed and traumatised Nigerians were left at the mercy of horror and indignities in South Africa, Libya and Ukraine.

Putting profit aside, Onyema deployed his planes to evacuate them safely back to Nigeria without demanding kobo from anyone.
Air Peace’s recent audacious and successful foray into the London route despite vicious, debilitating aeropolitics strewn on its path by local and international nay-sayers in the aviation industry again says much about how the extra-mile Onyema can go to do good to his country and his fellow citizens.

Reminiscence of what an indigenous network provider, Globacom owned by the irrepressible board room czar, Mike Adenuga, did to the GSM industry in 2003 when he made a grand entry into it, Onyema’s Air Peace has demystified foreign airlines, broke their back and rescued Nigerians from mindless exploitation on the London route.
Recall that before Globacom stormed the GSM industry, foreign network operators which dominated the industry in Nigeria at that time sold their SIM cards as high as N30,000 and subjected Nigerians to an excruciating per-minute billing.

However, Globacom’s entry changed all that. At inception, it sold its SIM Pack for N10,000, N5,000 airtime inclusive. In effect, Nigerians bought Glo SIM cards for a mere N5,000 at that time compared to the cut-throat prices of the foreign GSM operators’ SIM packs.

In addition, Globacom also scrapped per-minute call billing and introduced per-second billing at cheap and affordable rates, a feat foreign GSM operators had claimed was impossible.
Globacom’s audacious and revolutionary steps were to put a stop to the hitherto unchecked exploitation of Nigerian subscribers by foreign GSM operators.
Like Globacom, Air Peace has given Nigerians a new lease of life. The indigenous airline has given Nigerians plying the London route a refreshing relief from harsh treatment from foreign airlines.
Before Air Peace entered into the London route, foreign airlines’ Econony class ticket costs were between N3.5m- N4m while Business class soared to N17m. However, with Air Peace pegging its Economy class return ticket on the route for N1.2m and Business Class ticket at N4m, foreign airlines have now been forced to slash their ticket prices drastically. Air peace has indeed freed Nigerians from the fangs of shylocks!

Remarkably, with the commencement of flight on the London route, Air Peace has finally eviscerated national and international conspiracies that have barred it from the route. It is noteworthy that the airline applied to fly the route seven years ago but obfuscations and vicissitudes inspired by high voltage, vicious local and international aeropolitics were deliberately thrown on its path.
Air Peace is not new to international routes. The airline flies to China, India, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, South Africa and other international routes which take longer hours to fly to and fro.
For example, Air Peace flies to China on Wednesdays, 14 hours going and 14 hours coming back, making it 28 hours of flying in one day and a half.
It also flies to India every week- 12 hours going, 13 hours coming back- and has undertaken 160 hours of flying within Nigeria every day for the past seven years without blemish, why then were vested interests in the aviation sector intent at keeping the Airline from the London route, a mere six hours flying time?
The answer is simple: A powerful local and international cabal feeding fat on Nigerians via outrageous London route air ticket was not ready to lose out!
Meanwhile, as far as the London route victory is concerned, Air Peace has become a pathfinder of sorts to other indigenous airlines as some of them like United Nigerian Airline, Ibom Air and Azman Air are now striving assiduously to join the route.

According to Dr Obiora Okonkwo, Chairman of United Airlines, like Air Peace, his airline will conquer and overcome local and international aeropolitics to join the London route.
“We will start very soon. I cannot tell but if it is left for us to start, we would have started yesterday”, an elated Okonkwo assured at an event to celebrate Air Peace’s London route triumph.
In all of these, credit must be given to Nigeria’s dynamic Aviation and Aerospace Development Minister, Festus Keyamo, SAN, for his numerous reforms and innovations in the Ministry which made Air Peace’s breaking of the London route monopoly possible. The Minister has sufficiently stamped his competence and has also justified his appointment by President Tinubu.
Air Peace and the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development have played their patriotic parts in ending the London route monopoly and the attendant negative economic implications, it is now left for Nigerians to play their part by patronising one of their own- Air Peace.

What should occupy the lips of Nigerians at this moment is how Air Peace crashed business class flight ticket to London from N17m to N4m and Economy class from N4m to N1.2m.
Let this unprecedented feat be on the lips of Nigerians, let’s shout and trumpet it even from roof tops and tree tops!
The onus now falls on Nigerians to prove that Air Peace fought for them. The airline is one of our own and is wholly Nigerian in its operation. For example, Zobo and kilisi were served in the airline’s inaugural London flight and I had no doubt that Nigerians can’t joke with an airline that factors in their fauna and flora in its operation.
I can beat my chest and predict that in a matter of time, Nigerians aboard Air Peace flights to London and other routes will savour Ofe Onugbu (bitter leaf soup), Ofe Owerri (Owerri special soup), Efo riro with Amala, Tuwo Masara and Tuwo Shinkafa, Afang and fisherman soup!

Osigwe, a social affairs analyst is the CEO of Fullpage Communications.

Arsenal star, Kai Havertz has singled out the club’s defenders for praise following the Gunners’ Premier League 3-0 win over Brighton on Saturday.

Havertz said what Arsenal defenders are doing at the back is outstanding after they recorded another clean sheet against Brighton to go top of the Premier League table.

He said how they defend the box is ‘incredible.’

Arsenal defenders include the likes of Gabriel, William Saliba, Ben White’s and Oleksandr Zinchenko.

“The attitude and work-rate of the boys is phenomenal and everyone put everything into that game – that is why we are successful right now,” Havertz said at his post-match interview after the game.

“The boys at the back, what they are doing is outstanding and everyone is involved in that. We try to get the ball high up the pitch, but how they defend the box is incredible.”

[DailyPost]

• Blame insecurity, interest rates, middlemen sabotage for prevailing high prices
• Lagos threatens to fine, shut supermarkets without products’ price tags
• Naira appreciation: We’re posting heavy losses, BDCs cry out

Economic experts are hopeful that the current high costs of goods and food will begin to drop by the end of the first half of this year.

But that is on the condition that the current momentum to energise the economy does not suffer any reversal.

A major player in the foreign exchange sector, the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), has appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to lower the dollar selling rate to its members in view of the massive appreciation of the naira against the dollar and other international currencies while the Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency directed supermarkets and grocery stores in the state to display prices on their products or risk being fined or shut down.

A combination of factors including fuel subsidy removal, insecurity in parts of the country that has forced many farmers off the land and shortage of foreign exchange are said to be largely responsible for the high cost of living.

The naira, which exchanged for between N1,150 and  N1,180 to the dollar as of December 31, 2023, crashed  to N1,400 in January and further depreciated at the black market to N1,950 in mid-February with many speculating that it could get worse. But the naira experienced a good fortune by the middle of March following a raft of policy initiatives by the apex bank to improve the transparency and inflows of the FX market.

However, the appreciation of the naira is yet to reflect on the prices of commodities as the market has not fully adjusted to the current realities in the FX crash.

Investigation by our correspondent across major markets, chain stores and retail outlets in parts of Lagos and other parts of the country, revealed that the prices of major commodities are yet to reflect the gains of the dollar crash.

The prices of perishable agricultural produce such as vegetable crops, grains, maize, wheat, bread, beverages, and fizzy drinks have shot up astronomically.

A market survey conducted by our correspondent showed that some brands of soft drinks packaged in pet bottles, which hitherto sold for N300 per unit from January till late February are now being sold at N350, while some of the branded malt drinks sell at N450, up from N400.

Some of the chain stores in Lagos and parts of Ogun State are not helping matters in the pricing of goods.

Some of them were found to change prices indiscriminately. There were instances when they altered prices of goods already displayed on their shelves within 24 hours.

Speaking to The Nation, Kabir Ibrahim, National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), said it was rather scandalous that the prices of commodities were not yet reflective of the gains recorded with the naira against the greenback.

“Ideally, if the Naira is firming up, the prices of all goods should come down and should show the increase in the strength and purchasing power of the Naira,” he said.

He added: “If prices are not coming down, it’s either that the whole thing is artificial or there is lack of education on the whole matter or there is fraud in it because that’s why we kept saying that some of these items should not be dollarised.”

Ibrahim, who is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Kebram Agritrade Limited, cited the price trajectory with some of the locally-sourced goods.

His words: “I recall talking about the price of cement the other day during a guest appearance in one of the national televisions, and I said that the price was unreasonably high because 80 per cent of the components are not bought with dollars.

“Today, cement in Abuja is sold everywhere at N7,500. That price is reflecting on the increasing strength of the Naira. Now again, if you go to the price of reinforcement steel, it is also coming down.

“So if the prices of rice and other food items are not coming down, it only means one thing: an act of sabotage. It is not the fault of the farmers that don’t have any of those commodities to sell now; it’s the middlemen and businessmen.”

The AFAN boss is however optimistic that once the farmers are able to farm during this season and reap bountiful harvests, this may have a positive impact on the supply of food for the rest of the year.

“You know the farmers have sold off all they had. In fact, the harvest season is off, we are now getting into the raining season. So, we have really got nothing to sell as such.

“Therefore, the government should now concentrate on the middlemen, the people who buy and hoard these items and bring them out in order to cause artificial scarcity. So, that is what we should concentrate on; not farmers.”

Echoing similar sentiments, Peter Sunday Adebola, the Managing Director Edgefield Capital Management Limited, an investment-driven company, said several factors may be at play and could possibly be fueling the soaring cost of commodities thus far.

Adebola, who also tied the high cost of goods to the nefarious activities of unscrupulous businessmen and middlemen deliberately sabotaging government efforts, said they are escalating the lingering food crisis.

“When we look at the components or the factors that are affecting the prices of commodities in the market, I want to believe that it is not only the exchange rate. Exchange is just one of the factors affecting the prices of commodities in the market,” he said.

The technocrat who heaved a sigh of relief that the planting season is here, said it was rather heartwarming to note that the government is making good efforts to end banditry in food producing areas.

“Hopefully, as we are getting to the middle of the year, we are supposed to see critical changes in the prices of commodities in the markets. By then, the prices would become moderate, even the imported food items would also come down since the exchange rate is going down.”

He was however quick to admit that there should be cautious optimism with the gains of the naira, noting that those managing the economy should not relent in their current efforts.

In the view of Prof. Abel Ogunwale, a professor of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho, Oyo State, insecurity is at the heart of the matter of the food crisis in the country today.

“Whether it is  Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo, Osun, Edo, Kogi, Delta, Benue, Kaduna, Taraba, Borno, Nasarawa, Zamfara, Sokoto, Anambra, Enugu, Imo, or any other  part of the federation,  farmers have not only become an  endangered species but have abandoned their farms, no thanks to the lingering problem of insecurity they confront on a daily basis.

“We have major problems hindering our food security from four perspectives. One is the issue of security threats vis-à-vis the situation in the Benue, Zamfara, Jigawa, Borno, Adamawa axis and even the borderline between Nigeria and Cameroon, and the other aspect is the Nigeria and Niger Republic issue,” he said.

The insecurity, he maintained, is as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency in parts of the north. “We have a lot of insurgency activities affecting those areas,” he said.

For Benedict Uwajue, a public affairs analyst, a combination of factors may be responsible for soaring food prices.

He said: “Unlike unscrupulous business elements in the society, if the woman selling vegetables she got at her backyard for N400, with the rate of transportation, if she still sells at N400, how would she take care of herself? Buy food, buy firewood or gas. Kerosene is more expensive than gas now.”

The cost of fuel, Uwajue argued, has major effects on businesses.

“Until energy becomes affordable and readily available, exchange rates won’t significantly affect the cost of goods in the market,” he maintained.

Lagos orders stores to display prices of goods

The Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency yesterday directed supermarkets and grocery stores in the state to display prices on their products or risk being fined or shut down.

The agency, in a public notice posted on the website of the Lagos State Government, warned supermarkets and grocery stores in the state against  non-disclosure of price tags on products.

It said its warning was meant to “ensure transparency and protect consumers from potential price exploitation as non-disclosure of price tags can lead to misunderstandings and inconvenience at the point of sale.”

It said absence of price tags is a violation of consumer rights and the Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency Law, stressing that without clear price tags, shoppers could not compare prices or make informed choices about their groceries.

ABCON to CBN: Reduce expensive dollar rate for BDCs

The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) in a letter to the apex bank said N1,251/$ rate sold to BDCs has become too expensive for operators following the massive appreciation of the naira against the dollar and other world currencies.

National President of ABCON, Dr. Aminu Gwadabe who signed the letter addressed to the CBN Director, Trade & Exchange Department claimed that naira’s speedy recovery, which was faster than expected, had made CBN’s selling rate to BDCs very expensive and difficult to offload to retail end buyers that are trooping to the undocumented forex operators for cheaper rates and avoiding the BDCs services

It expressed concerns that many BDCs which funded their accounts for dollar allocations were yet to receive their allocation of dollars to meet up the legitimate critical demand of their clients due to scrutinization of the BDCs documents for collections at the various designated centres  which  invariably made the BDCs vulnerable to exchange rate risk and significant loses.

The group insisted that with naira appreciating across markets, many BDCs which bought dollar at N1,251/$ would  lose significant income and capital should they sell at the current open  market rate of N1,235/$ and therefore the  need for the call for a further review downward of the applicable exchange rate for the period and subsequently to continue to enhance naira sovereignty.

“We discovered a worrisome development where many of our members who paid for dollar allocations at N1,251/$ with a margin of 1.5% are yet to receive their disbursement. This is happening in the face of prevailing open market rate of N1,235/$ which is lower than the authorised applicable exchange rate by the CBN to the BDCs,” ABCON  said.

The request is coming in the midst of the epoch history making achieved by the apex bank for the first time in the last 15 years for the unofficial market rates at N1,235/$ to be lower than the official BDCs applicable buying exchange rate of  N1,251/$ (plus 1.5 per cent margin) set for the BDCs by the CBN in its latest tranche of intervention.

Despite this development, ABCON lauded the CBN leadership for the recall of BDCs into the official FX window and steps taken by the apex bank to strengthen the naira against the dollar and other global currencies.

ABCON said the positive fallout of the CBN’s efforts to restore naira’s glory came faster than expected, reiterating its commitment to working with the apex bank to realise the objectives of government towards exchange rate stability and economic growth.

ABCON said its  forecasts in the ongoing market development indicated a willingness of the market to correct itself with a realistic price discovery as naira is forecast to continue to appreciate further across market with the increasing sources of foreign exchange inflows aided by the CBN policies

“It is in view of the above market developments that we write to appeal to your good selves for a readjustments and review downwards  of our funding rate of the last tranche (2nd bidding) from N1,251/$  further down to reflect current market rate discovery. This became imperative as it is only the consideration of the readjustment downward that will enable our members to upload their holding positions,” it said.

ABCON also requested that process of payments at the various disbursements centers be reviewed in the immediate time to a medium time automation to achieve enhanced timely payments while also observing the spot nature of our transactions.

The group further requested that based on the offer and acceptance rule, the approval of refunds to those that are yet to collect disbursement having funded their accounts as it is the market that determines the rate presently be considered going forward.

ABCON also requested that the apex bank introduce cut-off time for payments and collection of bids, adding that the current open ended system for payments and collection of bids does not make for effective administration and control of the process.

“Consequently, many of our members are jittery to bid/collect their bid for fear of losing money as the current market reality has the potential to force us to sell below cost price and antithetical to recent market price discovery,” the group said.

[TheNation]