Loomnie

Dr Okonjo-Iweala, the returning finance minister and new economy Czar (couldn’t resist that one) starts talking at about 4:30. She talks about agriculture, manufacturing, job creation and even Nollywood. I don’t yet have an opinion on her and her new team  -  it is much too early – but in a few months, one should begin to see beyond the platitudinous rhetoric.

Ever heard of the D8? They are Iran, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey. Their central bank governors and foreign ministers met in Abuja on Tuesday.

The aim?

to seek closer economic cooperation that would help protect the group from another global financial crisis.

The decision?

Under a draft Abuja declaration, the group proposed to combat corruption, ease visa procedures, expedite multilateral trade agreements and review the creation of an investment fund for use by member countries.

Trade between the eight countries is estimated at around $68 billion, or about 3 percent of global trade.

“It has become necessary to review and adopt common regulatory regimes to safeguard financial systems’ stability and forestall a reoccurrence of the recent experience in our various countries,” said Nigerian Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi.

Of course, Iran is part of them, so:

The proposed declaration also backs “peaceful uses of nuclear energy,” but does not specifically mention Iran’s nuclear enrichment activities.

IR people, what do you make of this?

Apparently, nobody knows.

Check this out:

The Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has described the records of the country’s crude production and export as unclear, saying that after 58 years of oil production, the country does not know exactly the quantity it produces.

Speaking at the presentation of a research report on the Nigeria Extractive Industry in Abuja weekend, Chairman of the Board of NEITI, Prof. Asisi Asobie, said despite all the inroads made by the country to expand operations in the oil industry, it had not been able to get operators to tell the truth about the actual oil volumes produced.

“After 58 years of producing oil, Nigeria does not know how much was being produced. It is regrettable that we have not been able to get oil companies to tell Nigerians exactly what they produce. The sector is shrouded in secrecy,” he said.

Read the full piece here.

The Nigerian president got back to the country in the early hours of Wednesday. It is reported that his flight landed in a well-guarded presidential wing of the international airport in Abuja. From an investigative report by NEXT, we learn that the acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, as the acting Commander-in-Chief, did not release the troops that went to secure the airport, and that he did not approve the guards that are currently guarding him.

Mr Goodluck Jonathan apparently called off the Wednesday meeting of the Federal Executive Council because of the uncertainties surrounding the return of the very sick president.

On the same day, the spokesperson of the president, Mr Segun Adeniyi, issued a press release that says that the vice president is still the acting president, until the president is fit to return to work:

After being discharged by the team of medical experts overseeing his treatment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua returned to the Presidential Villa, Abuja early this morning.

President Yar’Adua wishes to express his profound gratitude to all Nigerians for their prayers for his recovery, their exceptional generosity of spirit and their appreciation of the fact that all mortals are subject to the vagaries of ill-health.

President Yar’Adua is grateful to the Vice-President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, for competently overseeing the affairs of state in his absence.

The President also wishes to thank the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the entire membership of the National Assembly, the Governors’ Forum, the Judiciary, the Armed Forces and other security agencies, former heads of state and other eminent Nigerians for their roles in maintaining order and stability during his absence.

President Yar’Adua wishes to re-assure all Nigerians that on account of their unceasing prayers and by the special grace of God, his health has greatly improved.

However, while the President completes his recuperation, Vice President Jonathan will continue to oversee the affairs of state.

Everything reads pretty normal up to this point, right? Well, it turns out that the spokesperson who issued the press release had not even seen the president up till then. And when you read a headline like Turai Takes Over you start wondering what is really happening in the country.

Obvious questions: Is the president as fit and in the state of mind that the press release says? Who authorised the press release?

And, is Mrs Turai Yar’Adua, the wife of the president, really the one running the country? Did she make them release that press release in order to cover up the fact that her husband is very sick?

Let me try to answer those questions.

According to reports of the return of the president, the man is in a really critical situation. NEXT:

his critical condition has necessitated his continued stay in the Ford E-250 intensive care ambulance that picked him at the Abuja airport. He is expected to be in the ambulance until the intensive care unit that will receive him is retrieved by Julius Berger from Katsina and re-installed in House 7 within the grounds of the Presidential Villa.

If he is in that state then one would not be surprised that nobody is allowed to see him except his wife and his security guards. I don’t think that visitors are allowed in ICUs. This might answer the question as regards why nobody is allowed to see him. The fact that the acting president has not seen him might also be due to that. Remember, the Mrs Yar’Adua has not issued any public statement about the state of her husband’s health.

If nobody has seen him then the press release was probably written by the press office. The main information in the release, besides the part that tries to claim that the president said that he was recovering, is that the vice will continue acting as the president. The part where the report claims that the president asks Nigerian citizens to pray for him might be the work of a press office that is used to writing press releases on behalf of a president who has been in poor health for a long while. They are probably simply used to writing these sorts of things on his behalf.

Now to the issue of his wife taking over.

First, let us assume that she is just a very distraught wife who is able to call on friends of her husband to help secure the airport while her husband – not the president – returned. She obviously would not allow people to see her husband since he is in a critical condition. In any case, the country has an acting president so there is not much to worry over in that.

The second scenario is one in which she is the one calling the shots, taking charge of government, dictating to the Chief of Army staff about how many troops to release in order to secure the airport, and trying to stop Mr Jonathan from performing his duties as the acting president. If this is the case then it is absolutely the fault of those she lords it over that way. She is really nobody, just the wife of a very sick  man who is unable to act in the capacity of a president. If she can command the power she is claimed to be commanding then the so-called ruling elite are to blame for rolling over and letting her take control.

And that might well be the case. In many situations in Nigeria, if you want to curry favour with the boss you do not go to the vice, you go to the wife. Power is often seen as being embodied in the person who holds it. In order to have access to that power one needs someone who has unrestricted access to the Power. That is the wife. Which is why, in order to get the head of, say, a university department to do something one would be advised to talk to his wife.

So, maybe the wife is running the show in that way. Maybe people run to her for favour and she makes them do her wishes because she is the only one who has access to Power.

Whatever the case is, things are going to have to become clearer in the next few days.

And, oh, you are surprised that there has not been any outcry among the populace? Well, it is because nothing has changed in the country. Salary workers still get paid and things appear to be normal. It seems that the machine of government is better oiled than I ever thought.

So, apparently, the Nigerian president has decided to return home, only a few days after the vice president was named acting president. Interesting.

NEXT reports that the president’s ambulance arrived in Aso Rock, Abuja, the presidential ‘grounds’ about 4 hours ago.

See this Aljazeera report for some background to the story.

So, what happens to the acting president? Who will be ruling the country?

There seems to be no end to drama in Nigeria. It is amazing – and this has to be said over and over again – how much Nigerian leaders, in their confusion, have managed to sort of keep it together and get the state going. Somehow. The book on this period in Nigeria has to be written.

Let us wait and see how this develops.

Nigeria’s debt profile at the end of last year stands at $3.97 billion, the Minister of Finance, Mansur Mukhtar said yesterday at the beginning of a two-day public hearing on the loans and debt collected by federal and state governments organised by an ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives in Abuja.

Mr Mukhtar said out of the amount, the federal government owes $2.093 billion while state governments owe $1.85 billion.

From NEXT

Matthew Tostevin, Reuters editor for Africa, writes in the Reuters Africa News blog:

It now appears very unlikely that Yar’Adua will ever return to office, but that only intensifies the battle ahead of the election due by 2011.

According to an unwritten agreement within the ruling PDP party for rotating power between Nigeria’s regions, Jonathan would not be able to stand because he is from the south and the next term should still go to Yar’Adua’s north – although no doubt some of his aides will be wondering whether they really need to stick to that.

Most likely the fight for the PDP nomination will be among northerners and there is no shortage of contendors. But it also means it needs to be someone happy to serve only one term so that the presidency can return to the south in 2015.

Although the army has firmly insisted on staying on the sidelines so far (perhaps another good reason for the backslapping in Abuja), there is no guarantee it would if the transition turns out to be chaotic, corruption soars on a spending spike and there is no improvement in the irregularities that are anything but irregular when it comes to Nigerian ballots.

One also has to think about the machine that was ruling the country all the while Yar’Adua was not available. Is the new President Goodluck Jonathan going to be able to take charge of the machine? Is he going to be deferring to it/them? Those are going to be crucial questions in the next few months.

Yahoo! news:

ABUJA (AFP) – Nigeria on Monday signed a deal worth almost a billion dollars with a state-owned Chinese engineering firm to resuscitate part of its dilapidated railway system, the transport minister said.

The 875-million-dollar (588-million-euro) contract was signed by Transport Minister Ibrahim Isa Bio and the managing director of the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), Zhou Tianxiang, in Abuja.
The deal constitutes the first phase of the country’s railway modernisation plans.

As part of it, a railway track will be rebuilt between the administrative capital Abuja and the northern city of Kaduna — a distance of roughly 200 kilometres (125 miles) — over the next three years.

The Chinese government has granted Nigeria a concessionary loan of 500 million dollars for the project.
There are also plans to reconstruct a 1,315-kilometre track between Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub in the southwest and the northern city of Kano.

Once the pride of the nation, Nigeria’s railways have, like much of the rest of the country’s infrastructure, crumbled over the years.

Nigeria has a network of thousands of kilometres (miles) of narrow-gauge single track lines, covering nine of the country’s 36 states. Most of its locomotives broke down long ago.

The only passenger service still operating in the country takes two hours to link central Lagos with Ijoko, a small commuter town less than 30 kilometres (20 miles) away.

reports the BBC: Nigerian officials are reportedly planning to give 10% of the country’s oil revenues to people in the Niger Delta, an area plagued by insurgencies.

Presidential adviser Emmanuel Egbogah told the UK’s Financial Times that the money would go directly to communities, bypassing powerful state governors.

Analysts say the government fears local officials would embezzle the money.

The plan is part of the government’s effort to stop militants from attacking oil installations in the delta.

Such attacks have been going on for years, but the government recently held an amnesty and claims to have persuaded a number of leading militants to hand in their arms.

The rebels say they are fighting for a fairer share of oil wealth for delta residents, but frequently resort to killing and kidnapping, and fund their activities by stealing oil.

Mr Egbogah told the FT the idea was for the benefits to “flow directly” to the delta people.

“Every community, whether blind or deaf or dumb, every citizen will say: ‘I own a part of this business.’”

The FT reports that the plans could see more than 50bn naira ($338m; £207m) diverted to the communities in its first year.

But the BBC’s Ahmed Idris in Abuja says the government’s proposals have a long way to go before they see the light of day.

He says it is likely to face stiff opposition from the regions outside the delta, because it would mean less revenue for them.

The allocation of Nigeria’s oil money is strictly governed by the constitution.

Ban the use of foreign products at official functions and in government offices:

Nigeria’s Daily Champion -The Federal Government on Tuesday imposed a ban on the use of foreign beverages at official functions and in government offices.

The ban covers tea, coffee, biscuits, fruit juices, water and soft drinks. President Umaru Yar’Adua gave the directive at the official launch of the Made-in-Nigeria products camapign in Abuja. Yar’Adua, who was represented by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, also directed that Nigeria’s foreign aid to other countries must utilize Nigerian products like “Nigerian assembled vehicles and Nigerian made blankets.

“Henceforth, all government contractors must give priority to the use of Nigerian products whose quality is certified by relevant regulatory agencies of government like Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and NAFDAC.

“All uniforms and boots of the armed forces; Army, Navy, Air Force, Police as well as para-military, Customs, Immigration, Prisons and Civil Defence Corps, Road Safety etc must be sourced from Nigerian manufacturers certified by SON,’’ Yar’Adua added.

The president noted that the policy measures were to boost industrial production, check imports and revive the nation’s ailing industrial sector.

He said that the campaign to buy Made-in-Nigeria products was one of the measures meant to counter the negative effects of the global economic crisis on the manufacturing sector.

Yar’Adua reiterated the government’s commitment to the revival of the industrial sector, particularly the textile industry that used to be the most vibrant of the economy.

“With a population of over 140 million people, Nigeria’s market is big enough to sustain a bubbling domestic industrial sector if only Nigerians look inwards at their local products.

“Unfortunately many industries had to close shop due to lack of patronage of their products by Nigerians.

“We mus, therefore, re-orientate ourselves to value what we produce in order to develop a strong and virile industrial base,’’ he said.

The president appealed to the organised private sector to demonstrate a high sense of consumer patriotism by following the footsteps of the government in their procurement programmes.

In his comments, Chief Achike Udenwa, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, called on the government to patronise Made-in-Nigeria products.

“For this campaign to succeed, a strong political will is needed to back it up by patronising Made-in-Nigeria products in government’s procurement programmes.

“This way, the general public will be sensitised to embracing the campaign,’’ he said.

Udenwa said that the nation’s leadership, including both the executive and the legislature, should buy and be seen to be using Made-in-Nigeria products.

He said the target of the campaign was to see that Nigerians valued and took pride in Nigerian products.

He said this could only be achieved if Nigerian textiles as well as other manufactured goods were used by Nigerians in their day-to-day lives.

The minister, however, stressed that the campaign was not about buying poor quality and sub-standard products simply because they are Nigerian.

He, therefore, called on the manufacturing sector to avail itself of the services of the regulatory agencies to produce quality products comparable with foreign ones.

Udenwa noted that the challenges faced by local manufacturers, especially high energy cost and dumping of foreign goods in the Nigerian

market had contributed greatly to the sorry state of the sector.

He said the government was working hard to address the critical infrastructure constraints, adding that it was important to confront smuggling and counterfeit goods that were destroying the economy.

He called on all the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Federal Produce Inspection Services (FPIS) to continue with their good works on standards.

In his remarks, Alhaji Bashir Borodo, President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), said the success of the campaign would be “victory’’ for the country.

“Nigeria is a great country and God has endowed us with highly resourceful citizens and abundant natural resources.

“The products that emerge from the combination of these two assets should therefore command our pride and our patronage,’’ he said.

Borodo recalled that MAN had started this campaign more than 30 years ago and had since then continued to carry out the campaign through various media and corporate representations.

He also noted that the association was facing challenges that hampers its success.

Such challenges, he said, included inadequate infrastructure, especially power, lack of patronage of Made-in-Nigeria products by Nigerians and a dearth of business friendly funding windows.

Others are bureaucratic bottleneck and failure of government services and utilities, especially at the ports and the huge influx of foreign goods.