04042019 - Nigeria 7 other nstions home to world's hungriest - UN

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18 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 IT is no longer news that our forests have become home to all sorts of criminals such as insurgents, terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, armed herdsmen, cattle rustlers, ritual murderers, armed robbers and other felons. Human beings who should live in human habits and leave the forests for wild animals have now taken up abode in the bushes to wage war on the rest of law-abiding citizenry. Years of wrong-headed leadership which lacked the capacity to harness the riches of the Nigerian commonwealth for the benefit of the citizens have forced a situation of virtual anarchy on the people. No one feels adequately protected when travelling the highways nationwide. Perhaps waking up to the menace at last, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Yusuf Buratai, has announced plans to “flush out” the criminals from no less than 14 forests in continuation Ridding our forests of criminals of its series of Operation Harbin Kunama. Buratai, outlining the challenges of combating insecurity in forests and protected areas, named some of the forests. They include Koyan Bana, Dan Sadau and Sububu (Zamfara); Pandogari and Kagara (Niger); Allagarno, Sambisa and Chingurmi (Borno); Gujba (Yobe), Rugu (Katsina), Lame Bura and Balmo (Bauchi). Buratai said apart from restoring sanity to these forests, the military operations are aimed at preserving the ecosystems upset by the forceful cohabitation of humans with wild animals which presents in form of deforestation, destruction of historical sites and despoilation of valuable tourism potentials. He even promised that the famous Sambisa Forest (which the Boko Haram Islamic terrorists have long made their abode) would be turned into a “historical site for tourism”. The most pressing task before us now is to remove these criminals from the forests. That is the primary job of the Army and the rest of the lawenforcement agencies. This initiative should actually be led by the President, rallying the support of the National Assembly, the various state governments and all our armed forces and the citizenry. It is only a combined effort ably led from the very top that can produce results. Such an ambitious plan must also contain strategies for providing soft landing for those who return to lawabiding humanity. Otherwise, we will spend valuable national resources chasing criminals from one forest to the other and getting nowhere. More importantly, we must persuade the nomads who live in the forests to settle down and ranch their animals for their own good and that of their animals. Leaving human beings to live in the wild and unaffected by the benefits of governance only helps breed violent criminals among them. Sanitising the forests cannot be a mere blind grab. It must be carefully planned and comprehensively implemented for it to bear positive results. Elections as soap opera By Emeka Odikpo “Let us uncover the Room, else the Holy Ghost will never get at us.” WITH these famous words Cardinal John of Toledo served the death knell of the longest running election in the history of the world. The papal election that happened from November 1268 to September 1271 gained notoriety as the longest election ever witnessed by mankind. Just two months short of three years was what it took 19 cardinals to finally elect Pope Gregory X. After two years of “inconclusive” elections, Cardinal John suggested the above mentioned action of removing the roof over the head of the electors. On their realising that cold weather alone might not do the trick, they added another measure; they reduced the diet of the Cardinals to bread and water. Finally the 16 remaining Cardinals (two had died of natural causes during the election and one had elected to flee) decided to appoint a committee of six of them to conclude the election. The appointed six completed the election within days of their appointment and all lived happily ever after. It must be a great relief to Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to know that he is still a long way from conducting the longest running election in the history of the world. Definitely, Mahmood’s INEC hold the record in modern times. They have been at this election(s) since February 16, 2019 and at a point there appears to be no end in sight. Many states are yet to have senators-elect that ordinarily should have emerged in the evening of February 16. Even House of Representatives elections remained inconclusive in several states. Of course Rivers State takes the Oscar in this drama. Rivers State voters waited for one and a half months after the elections were supposed to have been concluded, to know who their three senators-elect were. I love soap operas; especially the so called dreary Mexican ones. You can skip editions for six months and still meet the characters exactly where you left them. Sometimes, when they raise a knife to stab, be rest assured that the knife will remain in motion for the next six episodes before missing target. The restab will take another few months. It’s a sure fire way of engaging house wives in-between their chores. Our “lazy youths” who do no chores unfortunately join in watching for eternity these never ending series. Nollywood’s version of these soap operas are their Part one to Part six “epic films”. The flash back in Part four can show half of the entire Part one. An unusually dreary act that clearly indicate OPINION that their target audience are idle people. But somehow, it entertains those that make it their staple. Mahmood Yakubu’s mimic of Nollywood could have been entertaining if it was not so tragic. Valuable lives have been lost at the altar of contrived incompetence. The authorities, including the Army, Police and even INEC itself pretend to be ignorant of even the vilest of actions. Until INEC senior staff realise that they owe a sacred duty to God and their community to be above aboard and be impartial arbiters, our elections will remain theatres of the absurd Starting from Lagos, on to Kano and finally Rivers State, human blood was splattered live on social media. Those who are paid to protect human lives, either participate openly in abridging the lives of innocent Nigerians or watch arms akimbo whilst thugs skin innocent Nigerians. That’s macabre entertainment. INEC somehow contrived a total show of shame in Kano. The social media is filled with vile tapes of alleged INEC staff and party officials discussing how many votes they will allocate to other parties. Despite these vile tapes, INEC of course did not deem it necessary to even make a rudimentary commentary on the allegations. The painful part is that INEC and the other agencies of government can so easily prevent all the bloodshed that happened. They can easily spare Nigerians the untoward drama. All they had to do was be impartial and let the party with the highest vote win the election. All they had to do was be firm and arrest and prosecute those that attacked innocent Nigerians and even more importantly arrest and prosecute their sponsors. Until these agencies get serious enough to know that protection of lives of innocent Nigerians is their primary duty and that collusion with petty tin gods for filthy lucre is the worst form of evil, innocent lives will continue to be wasted in Nigerian elections. Until INEC senior staff realise that they owe a sacred duty to God and their community to be above aboard and be impartial arbiters, our elections will remain theatres of the absurd. Affecting contrived helplessness by INEC and the agencies may well serve the powers that be, but the effect of these actions are felt by widows of the slain and orphans who lost their parents needlessly in what ought to be routine elections. •Odikpo is a legal practitioner
Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4 , 2019 — 19 IMF pressures FG to remove fuel subsidy •Urges increased social spending •Calls for banking recapitalization •Phasing out of AMCON Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has concluded its Article IV consultation with Nigeria and called for a removal of fuel subsidy. The Fund advocated that in place of fuel subsidy, the federal government should increase its spending on the poor, as a means of reducing poverty in the country. In a statement yesterday the IMF said “phasing out implicit fuel subsidies while strengthening social safety nets to mitigate the impact on the most vulnerable would help reduce the poverty gap and free up additional fiscal space.” They welcomed Nigeria’s ongoing economic recovery, accompanied by reduced inflation and strengthened reserve buffers but noted that “the medium-term outlook remains muted, with risks tilted to the downside.” The board members said that Monetary policy focused on exchange rate stability would help contain inflation but worsen competitiveness if greater flexibility was not accommodated when needed. “High financing costs, on the back of little fiscal adjustment, would continue to constrain private sector credit, and the interest-to-revenue ratio would remain high,” they said Poverty reduction The directors pointed out that “long standing structural and policy challenges needed to be tackled more decisively to reduce vulnerabilities, raise per capita growth, and bring down poverty.” They, therefore, urged the CURRENCY BUYING SELLING US DOLLAR POUNDS EURO FRANC YEN CFA WAUA RENMINBI RIYAL SDR DANISH RAND $94.70 3.05 2,374.00 18.00 $12.44 -0.07 $69.28 -0.09 $62.39 -0.22 306 306.5 307 403.155 403.8138 404.4725 343.9746 344.5367 345.0987 307.1364 307.6383 308.1401 2.7446 2.7491 2.7536 0.5033 0.5133 0.5233 423.4222 424.114 424.8059 45.5775 45.6525 45.7274 81.5913 81.7246 81.8579 424.116 424.809 425.502 46.0809 46.1562 46.2315 . 21.5908 21.6261 21.6614 CBN Exchange rate as at 03/04/2019 authorities to redouble their reform efforts in this regard. Eliminate Tax incentives On tax, they welcomed the authorities’ tax reform plan to increase non-oil revenue, including through tax policy and administration measures. The Directors stressed the importance of strengthening domestic revenue mobilization, including through additional excises, a comprehensive VAT reform, and elimination of tax incentives. “Securing oil revenues through reforms of state owned enterprises and measures to improve the governance of the oil sector will also be crucial,” they added. Exchange rates The IMF Directors urged ending direct Central Bank of Nigeria’s intervention in the economy to allow focus on the central bank’s price stability mandate. The Fund said, “Directors commended the authorities’ commitment to unify the exchange rate and welcomed the increasing convergence of foreign exchange windows. “They noted that a unified market based exchange rate and a more flexible exchange rate regime would support inflation targeting. Directors also stressed that elimination of exchange restrictions and multiple currency practices would remove distortions and facilitate economic diversification.” Banks recapitalization Directors welcomed the decline in nonperforming loans and the improved prudential banking ratios but noted that restructured loans and undercapitalized banks continue to weigh on financial sector performance. From left: Mr. Temitope Aladenusi, Chief Strategy Officer & Cyber Risk Services Leader, Deloitte West Africa; Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri, Managing Director/CEO, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc; Mr. Adetokunbo Omotosho, Managing Consultant, Infoprive Group and Mr. Ayokunle Adaralegbe, Chief Risk Officer, CSCS Plc during the maiden edition of Cyber Security Workshop organized by CSCS in Lagos. FSDH advocates strategies to raise VAT revenue by 218% By Babajide Komolafe FSDH Merchant Bank, yesterday, cautioned the federal government against the proposed hike in Value Added Tax (VAT) rate, even as it recommended measures for increasing VAT revenue by 218 percent. The bank, in its monthly Economic and Financial Market Outlook, stressed that the proposed increase in VAT rate to 10 percent from five percent will reduce h o u s e h o l d consumption and compliance with tax payments. Speaking at a media presentation of the outlook, Head of Research, FSDH Merchant Bank, Ayo Akinwunmi, said: “FSDH Research’s analysis shows that government can earn more revenue from the Value Added Tax (VAT) in Nigeria by developing strategies to increase household consumption and increase VAT compliance “The consumption data and revenue from VAT in the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) shows that the ratio of VAT revenue to household consumption averaged 1.07 percent between 2014 and 2018. The highest of 1.15 percent was recorded in 2014. This is significantly lower than the actual VAT rate of five percent “It is important to note however, that some household consumption items are exempt from VAT. Therefore, the ratio of VAT revenue to household that government may not necessarily be equal to the VAT rate of five percent. Union Bank grows pre-tax profit to N18.5bn By Nkiruka Nnorom Union Bank of Nigeria Plc has recorded 33 percent growth in profit before tax (PBT) to N18.5 billion for the year ended December 31, 2018. The bank’s financial report for the period released yesterday on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, showed that gross earnings fell to N145 billion from N168 billion in 2017, representing 11 percent decline over the one year period. Other highlights of the result showed that the Non-Performing Loan, NPL, ratio was down eight percent from 20.8 percent as at December 2017, while operating expenses grew by 12.4 percent to N75.0 billion from N66.7 billion in 2017. The bank’s customer deposit also rose to N857.6 billion compared to N802.4 billion in the previous year. The managing director, Emeka Emuwa, speaking on the result, said: “Our priorities in 2018 were three pronged: enhancing our productivity across board; tightening up our loan Oil prices: Supply, demand factors hinder upsurge — Analyst By Prince Okafor Despite crude oil production cut by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, to boost the prices of crude oil, fresh indications have emerged that the combination of supply and demand side factors are muting crude oil price rise to the target of $80 per barrel. This came as crude oil prices in the international market declined after hitting an all time high Tuesday, April 2, 2019 to $69.22 per barrel. Available statistics showed that Brent futures were down 15 cents to $69.22 after reaching $69.96, the highest since November 12, 2018, when they last traded above $70, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 15 cents to $62.43, having hit $62.99, the highest since November 7, 2018. This development might further affect the nation’s savings in the Excess Crude Account, ECA, as between January and February, 2019, the nation has continued to record negative growth in the ECA, with just $250 million in the account. Commenting on the development, a Cyprus-based FXTM research analyst, Lukman Otunuga, told Vanguard that, “While global growth worries are stimulating concerns over a fall in demand for crude oil, rising production from US Shale continues to fuel oversupply fears.” Lukman maintained that the ECA has the potential to rebound if Nigeria is able to achieve the 2.3 million barrels per day production volume target for the 2019 budget. “While the drop has been attributed to last-minute spending for election activities, it does leave the economy vulnerable to downside shocks. If Nigeria is able to diversify away from oil reliance to more sustainable sources of growth, the nation will be less prone to oil shocks.” portfolio (especially resolving key large exposures which drove NPLs up significantly at the end of 2017); and optimizing the bank’s capital and funding base. “I am pleased to report that we made significant strides in each focus area. Notwithstanding a depressed economic environment and a challenging operating landscape, our efforts to optimise productivity delivered results. Union Bank’s Group Profit Before Tax (PBT) is up 33% to ¦ 18.5 billion in 2018 from¦ 13.9 billion in 2017.”
Page 1 and 2: OLU FASAN STATE OF THE NATION Atiku
Page 3 and 4: Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019
Page 5 and 6: vanguardnews @vanguardnews @vanguar
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Page 15 and 16: HONOUR: Enugu State Governor and Go
Page 17: After the elections: The next level
Page 25 and 26: C M Y K Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4
Page 47 and 48: EMINENT statesmen from the North an
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04042019 - Nigeria 7 other nstions home to world's hungriest - UN

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