Equipment at Nigeria airports acquired over 30 years ago, FAAN MD tells Senate

                                            Inside Port Harcourt Airport

The Managing Director of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr Saleh Dunoma,

Nigeria: Aviation Ministry Funding Stopped After Oduah Left - Perm Sec

The Senate ad hoc Committee on Aviation which is chaired by Rabiu Kwankwaso (APC-Kano State) Tuesday, held a public hearing on Tuesday.

Heads of parastatals and other officials of the Ministry of Aviation led by the Permanent Secretary, Binta Bello, attended the hearing at the National Assembly.

Ms. Bello lamented the challenge of funding which she said was affecting the Nigerian aviation sector, particularly infrastructure at various airports.

Ms. Bello said,

Dear President Buhari, You Do Not Have to Appoint Ministers Without Portfolios!, By Ogaga Ifowod

If fair representation in government is the goal, then that is more perfectly taken care of by the legislature which, lest we forget, is an arm of the government! In any case, the mere appointment of an individual from a state does not in any way guarantee fairness to every individual or group inhabitant of that state. For instance, the Isoko people have never had a minister appointed from their midst in all of the 55 years of Nigeria’s independence!

In a short period of one week,

Ministerial appointee hands over at NEITI

The outgoing Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Zainab Ahmed, on Tuesday handed over the management of the agency to the Director of Communications of the agency, Ogbannaya Orji.

Mrs. Ahmed is one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial nominees confirmed last week by the Senate.

In her valedictory speech Tuesday,

Saraki: How the messy past haunts the moment

The tremulous pressure oozing from nooks and crannies against the Senate President, Bukola Saraki can pass him as one of the most disturbed Senate President Nigeria has ever had. History was. however, set to reckon him as such.

The son of late Abubakar Saraki of blessed memory who is a benefactor of his father’s political dynasty has unarguably played into the murky waters of Nigerian politics for sure.

His emergence as Senate President on June 29th had let loose hierarchy of demons who have refused to leave him alone to preside over Nigeria’s 8th Assembly, thus, he has been moving from one Court to the other, battling with cases and sometimes the National Assembly has to close down against legislative timetable because he must appear in person. That happened on September 16th and November 21st, when Justice Danladi Umar’s led Code of Conduct Tribunal asked that he be produced in person having lost injunctions at appeal court in an attempt to stop the Order, to defend himself.

None of these legal fireworks ever ended in his favour, thereby creating a woe situation of things for him. This has negatively affected his coordination of plenaries as the sagacity with which he is to manage the Assembly was yet to be seen.

For instance, on the 21st of September, 2015 when he had to unavoidably confront a litmus test of an envisaged stormy but controversial screening notably because of a well publicised Amaechi saga, expectedly, Saraki would have acquainted himself with relevant laws (Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended) and extant laws – Standing rules of the Senate which is an instrument used to coordinate legislative activities into a workable system. But to the consternation of all discerning minds, and in the face of stiff opposition to Amaechi’s screening by the minority leader, Godswill Akpabio, Saraki was bereft of invoking the necessary sections of standing rules so as to rule Akpabio out of order.

It was Senator Omoworare that later did the job, but before then, the red Chambers had become a theater of confusion before PDP Senators staged a walkout, something that never happened before.

It falls within the purview of this assertion that Mr. Senate President should retreat to read all relevant instruments, package himself psychologically and be in his frame of mind to traverse with precision the art and science of governing plenary.

Saraki’s trouble stand on tripod: (1) 13-count charges of corruption, false declaration of anticipatory assets and abuse of office where he enriched himself against public trust, (2) managing his opposition colleagues – the Peoples Democratic Party Senators on whose back he rode to Senate Presidency, and, (3) those of his APC households who prefer Senator Ahmed Lawan as Senate President to him. They swore to take his pound of flesh and to see him (Saraki) fall like an Iroko tree.

What obviously played out regarding Amaechi, was conflict of interests that eventually define Saraki’s loyalty and for doing what he did after all were said, he deserves to be applauded.

Standing between the devil and deep blue sea, Saraki’s plea and show of magnanimity to the camp of Lawan to sooth Sword was continually seen as an aberration and the body language of the way he is treated. But the Saraki we know will not succumb to the coward’s alternative by throwing in the towel Midway.

Once again, the Appeal Court has thrown out his case “suo motu”, and said the Code of Conduct Tribunal has jurisdiction to try him. He might have not envisioned as at 2003, that trauma would be waiting in the wings on account of those weighty allegations been pounded by CCT. What he should stop doing at this moment is not the retinue of Senators on empathy once he is to go to the Tribunal, for mere empathy has no impact on the force of law in trial of this matter, but to get set to defend himself so as to maintain the integrity of office he currently occupies.

He should let go the impression of putting number three man in the dock which used to be considered as an aberration and a sacrilege in the past, but brace up with the reality of today’s change mantra where administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 has criminalised false declaration of assets.

MTN Nigeria fined $5.2-billion

Seven months after a dramatic election that toppled Nigeria’s government, the world is still waiting for a clear economic policy to emerge in Africa’s most populous country. But its shocking decision to demand a $5.2-billion (U.S.) fine from a cellphone company is offering some early hints of change.

The fine has triggered turmoil and stock losses at MTN Group, the South African cellphone giant, which is frantically struggling to get the size of the Nigerian penalty reduced. It also sheds light on the stern disciplinary attitude of President Muhammadu Buhari, the retired army general and former coup leader who won the March election.

Mr. Buhari still has not named a finance minister or settled key questions about Nigeria’s embattled currency. The country has slumped to its slowest growth in a decade because of falling oil prices.

But, as the biggest economy on the continent with vast oil wealth and a population of nearly 180 million, Nigeria remains a fascinating target for foreign investors, who see it as a potentially important consumer market in the future.

That is why so many investors have been rattled by Nigerian regulators’ stunning announcement that they had fined MTN $5.2-billion for failing to cut off unregistered SIM cards. Few people doubted that MTN had violated the regulations, but the sheer size of the fine caused an uproar.

MTN, the biggest mobile phone company in Africa, with 62 million subscribers in Nigeria alone, has seen its stock plunge by about 25 per cent since the fine was announced last week. On Monday, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange suspended trading in MTN shares for several hours because the stock was being hammered by reports that the company had agreed to pay the entire fine. The company denied the reports, insisting it is “engaging” with the Nigerian government to reach a “mutually agreeable” solution.

Nigerian officials have expressed concern that criminals or terrorists could use MTN’s unregistered SIM cards – numbering more than five million – as a way of evading police surveillance. The huge fine is seen as evidence that Mr. Buhari’s highest priority is not the economy but national security and the battle against the Boko Haram terrorist organization, which has killed thousands of civilians with bombs and bullets in recent years.

The MTN fine, along with smaller ones against two Nigerian banks for violating banking regulations, is also seen as an indication that Mr. Buhari will demand strict enforcement of regulations that were often ducked in the past. Nigerian officials have accused MTN of ignoring repeated warnings to deactivate all SIM cards that were not properly registered with the photos and fingerprints of the owners.

Corruption and lax regulation have long plagued Nigeria, allowing revenue to leak from official channels and keeping most of its people poor while a politically connected elite became rich. But the crackdown on MTN suggests Mr. Buhari wants to run a tighter ship. He has already moved to take tougher action on corruption in the oil industry.

“This is a government that won’t tolerate business as usual,” said Dianna Games, head of a Johannesburg-based business advisory firm, Africa@Work, and a specialist in Nigeria’s economy.

“This is a wake-up call to investors. It’s a very strong lesson for MTN and other companies that the government won’t tolerate these violations of regulations.”

But the massive size of the MTN fine has fuelled allegations that the government is simply making a cash grab at a time when it lacks budgetary funds for its election promises. The $5.2-billion amount is equal to more than one-third of the Nigerian government’s total revenue in the first half of this year and it would wipe out MTN’s global profit for the past two years.

“The punishment doesn’t fit the crime,” Ms. Games said in an interview on Tuesday. “The issue is the unpredictability of it. The size of the fine seems shocking and unreasonable. Surely the intention is not to bankrupt one of Nigeria’s biggest investors.”

MTN gave investors some reassurance on Tuesday when it announced that Nigerian regulators had agreed to renew the company’s operating licence and operating spectrum for five years for a fee of about $94-million. The licence and spectrum had been due to expire in February. An MTN spokesman said the five-year extension was “a demonstration of confidence” from the regulators.

Despite the MTN turmoil, other foreign investors are still interested in Nigeria. At an Africa business conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday, an executive of U.S.-based Kellogg Co. praised the Nigerian market. “It’s a really diverse economy, not just driven by oil,” said Gerald Mahinda, managing director for sub-Saharan Africa for Kellogg, which recently invested $450-million in a Nigerian food sales company.

“Over the long term, you can manage the risks, because the returns on investment are so high,” he said.

African press review 4 November 2015

We start in Nigeria where the papers are speculating on the downsizing of President Mohammadu Buhari’s cabinet. This is after he reiterated that the economy cannot support 36 ministerial portfolios.

According to Vanguard, Buhari spoke his mind at a brief ceremony at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday, after receiving the list of confirmed ministerial nominees from Senate President Bukola Saraki. No date has been scheduled for the inauguration of the cabinet.
The newspaper reports that the President’s remarks have caused tension among the ministers-designate who have been hanging around Abuja and waiting for a call from the Presidency to come and assume office.
Meanwhile, a former minister of transport and aviation, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, took a swipe at President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday for declaring that Nigeria is broke.
Babatope, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), told Daily Sun that the opposition party and Nigerians were watching Buhari to see how he would handle the economy with all the “noise” the All Progressives Congress made during the 2015 general elections.
On the president’s intention to have ministers without portfolios, Babatope said the southern part of the country had been cheated through various appointments Buhari has made so far which were mostly in favour of the north.
In South Africa, BusinessDay has breaking news from Nigeria for MTN after Nigerian authorities announced the renewal of the mobile phone service provider's licence for another five years.
The paper says MTN stock rose 5% to close at R155.54 after Tuesday’s announcement. However, according to the paper, it is still caught up in a crisis over a $5.2bn fine from the Nigerian Communications Commission for unregistered SIM cards on its network.
MTN’s original licence was issued in 2001 and is due to expire in February next year. The five-year licence period is much shorter and could put further pressure on MTN in its single largest market.
MTN said it would have to pay a spectrum fee of $94.2m by the end of December and the licence was "conditional upon MTN fulfilling all its regulatory obligations."

Mail and Guardian warns that South Africa is in danger of becoming a radicalized society. That’s according to a column published by Mail and Guardian this Wednesday as the country comes to terms with the “no school fees” campaign.
The paper claims that are similarities between what’s happening today and the mood in South Africa in the 1940s – the results of which altered the country’s course, for the worse.
The Johannesburg publication holds in the article that “exclusivist nationalists” pursue a form of nationalism that is driven primarily by a keen sense of distinctiveness. They desire to elevate it at the expense of others. Radical actors locate their policy goals toward one pole of the policy spectrum and create polarisation. They express an urgency to achieve their goals, evident in an unwillingness to bargain or be patient.
For Mail and Guardian, moderates realise that inherent in democracy is a core tension requiring significant maturity – that of balancing. They also grasp that for the sustainable future of a democracy, it is imperative that certain ingredients come to the fore such as moderation, which recognises and accommodates differing political beliefs; pragmatism, instead of a rigid ideological approach; a measure of institutional and social trust; willingness to compromise; and civility, which implies a respect for other views.