11042019 - INSECURITY: Senate condemns killings; insists on State Police

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16—Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2019 SENSITIZATION: From left— Chairman of the occasion, Mr. Rasaq Okulaja; representative of Director General, Standard Organization of Nigeria, SON, Mr. Charles Nwagbara; Deputy Managing Director, Sinoria Company Ltd Mr. Jackie Dai Hui; Corps Commander, FRSC, Mr. Yerima Ramalan and Deputy Comptroller, Nigeria Customs Service, Mr. Muhammed Babandede, during the SON sensitization forum on ease of doing business in Abuja. 2020 gov polls: APC may lose Edo if Obaseki is fielded, group warns party leadership By Ikechukwu Nnochiri BENIN CITY—THERE is tension in the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Edo State, ahead of the 2020 governorship election in the state as a group under the aegis of Concered Progressives of the Edo State APC, CPEAPC, warned the National leadership of the party against fielding a candidate that will not lead the party to victory. The group lamented that the APC under Governor Godwin Obaseki has made the party "so unattractive and divided," warning that the party requires a candidate that will reconcile and unite party members. In a statement signed by its Coordinator, Mrs Jessica Imade, recall that "when Comrade Oshiomhole was governor of Edo State, the party was united, people were happy because they were given that sense of belonging. The current governor who was unknown to many was able to be made governor due to Oshiomhole's goodwill. "But today, he chased politicians away and made the party so unattractive. This group intends to fight for the soul of Edo APC so that we will not repeat the mistake we made in 2016 when Oshiomhole made Obaseki governor. "We will ensure that only the right politician emerges as candidate of the APC so that contracts are given to Edo people and not foreigners or those caring Edo revenue board warns scratch card dealers By Alemma Aliu BENIN CITY—THE Edo State Internal Revenue Service, EIRS, has cautioned scratch card dealers who engage in sharp practices urging them to desist from such practices or face sanctions. It also charged them to monitor their agents for effective service delivery. Some revenue scratch card dealers engaged the services of transport unions to sell revenue scratch cards to commercial transport operators. EIRS, in a press statement yesterday signed by its Head, Corporate Communication, Courage Eboigbe and made available to journalists laptops at Osadebey Avenue. Oshiomhole begged almost all the politicians in Edo to help make Obaseki governor but today they said politicians are thieves. "It is laughable to see that those who quandered the election funds are endorsing the governor so as to cover their shameful acts. All these people in- frowned at this development which it said is preventing authorized dealers from retailing their purchased cards to commercial transport operators. They also cautioned card sellers not to convert themselves to revenue collectors adding that only authorized revenue collectors were to collect revenue by imputing the codes on scratch cards purchased by each operators dealers to cluding the governor lost their wards and Local Governments in the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections so they have no moral rights to talk about a second term unless they are saboteurs in APC that wants to hand over the state to PDP," it stated. generate revenue electronically. The statement also read that "no transport union or association are approved dealers; there is no exclusivity in the dealership scheme, dealers should operate only in approved areas." EIRS stated that "it would not hesitate to withdraw any dealership whose agents are found to be in contravention of the rules or harassing other authorized dealers or their agents.” U.S. puts 37 Chinese companies, schools on red-flag 'unverified' list THE U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday that it is adding 37 Chinese companies and schools to a redflag list of “unverified” entities that U.S. companies should treat with caution, according to a notice in the Federal Register. The list, which takes effect on Thursday, also includes six organizations in Hong Kong, four in the United Arab Emirates, two in Malaysia and one in Indonesia. One company on the list is the Aisin Nantong Technical Center, a Chinese subsidiary of a Japanese auto parts manufacturer. Another is Beijing Bayi Space LCD Materials Technology Co Ltd, which has received patents for highend screen technology. Several other of the companies named specialize in precision optics, electronics, machine tools or aviation. The listing means that the U.S. companies will treat the organizations with caution, said Kevin Wolf, a former assistant secretary of commerce for export administration. Being put on an “unverified” list means that U.S. suppliers to the unverified companies and schools can no longer use license exceptions to, for example, sell products to repair goods that were sold previously but instead will have to get a new license, said Wolf, now at the law firm Akin Gump.(Reuters) Uber plans to sell around $10 billion worth of stock in IPO - sources UBER Technologies Inc has decided it will seek to sell around $10 billion worth of stock in its initial public offering, and will make public the registration of the offering on Thursday, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. An IPO of this size would make Uber one of the biggest technology IPOs of all time, and the largest since that of Chinese e- commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd in 2014. Uber is seeking a valuation of between $90 billion and $100 billion, influenced by the poor performance of smaller rival Lyft Inc’s shares following its IPO late last month, the sources said. Investment bankers previously told Uber it could be worth as much as $120 billion. Uber most recently was valued at $76 billion in the private fundraising market.(Reuters) U.S. lawmakers grill bank CEOs for the first time since financial crisis Chief Executives of some of the largest U.S. banks appeared before Congress on Wednesday, giving lawmakers their first opportunity to grill the lenders since the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Democratic lawmakers focused many of their questions on who the banks were doing business with, probing for answers about their Russian accounts and financing of gun manufacturers. The tone, questions and players were distinctly different from a decade ago, when lawmakers focused on banks’ ability to safeguard the financial system and avoid future bailouts. Among the CEOs on the panel, JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Jamie Dimon was the only one who headed his bank before the financial crisis. Still, bank executives got a few chances to flag hopedfor talking points like their positive contribution to the economy when Republican lawmakers quizzed them on more systemic issues.(Reuters)
Brexit blues in Great Britain BREXIT - the acronym for Britain exiting the European Union, EU - has become a longrunning saga dominating that Island’s political spectrum and has attracted media attention not only in Europe but the world over. Because of Brexit one prime minister and head of government, David Cameron, lost office in 2016. Due to the same reason, his successor, Theresa May, is now giving notice that she would vacate No 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the prime minister. In my recollection, no national emergency, not even the two world wars, had brought such havoc on the British cabinet. When the Conservative Party, under Ted Heath, took the United Kingdom into the EU in 1973 there were those in the party and many in the opposition that were against it. With time, despite overwhelming economic benefits to the Island, the critics, citing loss of sovereignty to the EU and the possibility of the country being awash with immigrants from poorer parts of Europe, became a fixture in the political firmament of the nation. Until David Cameron as prime minister decided to do something permanent about it by promising, during an election campaign, to put it to the country in a referendum to vote No and leave, or Yes and stay. Actually he promised two referendums; the other one was to clear the outstanding Scottish Independence matter. He led his party to campaign for Yes and stay votes for both Scotland to remain a part of the UK and also for the status quo to continue in the relationship with the European Union. He won the referendum on the Scottish Independence. However, the EU matter became a different kettle of fish. Voters can be fickle, you know. Against all expectations the majority voted No and Leave which finally consumed his exalted office as prime minister. After that definitive vote I wrote a piece for Sunday Trust of August 7, 2016, expressing sadness at the fall of David Cameron, whom I considered a great prime minister. I wrote: “I watched the fall of David Cameron, UK’s prime minister, on live television with sadness. After his triumph in the Scottish Independence referendum he appeared confident to win the EU referendum. However, as the votes were being counted, and they seemed to skew towards outing Britain from the EU, it was obvious to those familiar with the British political terrain that Cameron’s glittering career had come to the end of the road. But the end came sooner than even he expected. After the loss of the referendum vote on June 24, he declared that he was resigning and would leave by the start of the Conservative Party conference scheduled for October 2016. But matters seem to have gone out of his hand and just a few days later found him out of office. Many would say the prime minister was the architect of his own failure. For how could one explain having two heavy referendums within one parliamentary lifetime that promised no clear, likely, favourable outcome for the prime minister’s party? Even if it was an electoral promise, was there any compulsion to run them early in the life of the parliament? Where I come from in Borno, my folks would just shrug their shoulders and explain what had befallen Prime Minister Cameron as “hau”. This is a malevolent spirit in Kanuri mythology that afflicts a normally reasonable person, doing very well in the course of his life, to take an abnormal and unusual course of action that could lead only The implications of withdrawal from the EU was not quite manifest to the average British voter when the referendum took place to doom. To charge into a referendum holding a “Yes” banner to staying in the EU when at that time the whole of the continent of Europe was being swamped by the kind of refugees - mostly Asian, mostly Muslim - the average European is not kindly disposed to, amounted to a political suicide. Probably Cameron thought victory was within his grasp, but when even senior members of his Conservative Party, some serving in the front benches as ministers of his government, (Grove and Johnson) were rebelling and openly campaigning for a “No” vote, it was clear to us observers that Cameron was heading to the abyss. CBN: Emefiele’s one good turn deserves another By Abba Adakole PUBLIC offices are held in trust for the people. Therefore, occupiers of public offices are the golden fish that have no hiding place. It is thus instructive that they should justify their appointments by demonstrating competence, accountability, discipline and leadership. These virtues approximate the essence of every successful public office holder. It is in the context of the above parameters that economic analysts and public affairs commentators have, in recent times, been giving appraisals of the person of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele and his era at the head of the apex bank’s command-room since stepping in the saddle on June 3, 2014. One such analysis that was agreeable to me and reflected my views was published on the back page of Leadership newspaper of Thursday, February 21, 2019 titled: “Deconstructing Emefiele, CBN’s Command- Room Guru” wherein the writer noted how the American media raised the profile of astute economist and former chair of the US Federal Reserve Board from 1987 to 2006, Alan Greenspan, to a point that several observers likened him to a “rock star” whereas he was ordinarily subdued in his public appearances. The interesting contrast with Emefiele is that the media in Nigeria had not extended a similar favour to CBN’s Emefiele. But, that seems to have changed in the last two months. Emefiele has understandably been enjoying a rave review of his first tenure as CBN governor in the media. Such reviews of his era and achievements could either recommend him for tenure renewal or for posterity’s positive judgment. Emefiele has unarguably brought over three decades of both theoretical and practical experience from top-flight academic and hands-on banking arenas to the complex, fluid turf of central banking. In Buhari’s change administration, Emefiele has been able to call on these governance skills to successfully drive CBN’s command room. He can, in the next level, keep fidelity to the major regulatory objectives of the CBN, to wit: maintaining the external reserves, promoting monetary stability and a sound financial environment, and acting as a banker of last resort. At a bankers’s dinner in Lagos, last year, he reportedly alluded to a number of recent developments that had markedly impacted emerging market economies, including Nigeria. One such development was the rising global interest rate due to sustained monetary policy tightening stance in the United States and other advanced economies. According to him, “This has consequently heightened fragilities, imbalances and vulnerabilities in emerging markets. The Fed fund rate was raised steadily to 2.25 percent in September 2018 with a forward guidance for one more hike before the end of 2018 and three more in 2019. Similarly, the Bank of England raised its policy rate in August 2018 for the first time since 2008. Some emerging market economies, including India, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey have also raised interest rates in response to that shock. “Consequently, Nigeria witnessed significant outflows of capital from emerging markets, which led to immense pressures on exchange rates, FX reserves, and sharp losses in the capital markets. Even Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Turkey and Russia have depreciated their currencies significantly due to this shock. There have also been uneven fluctuations in the international prices of commodities including crude oil, gold, cocoa, etc. “In fact, a critical dimension shaping this tumult is that the global economy has experienced profound geopolitical and trade tensions. These include strains between US and China, US and Iran, Russia and Western Powers and more. These have unquestionably impacted the dynamics of global trade. Also, these were exacerbated by rising tendencies Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2019 —17 17 To me it was a great error of judgement and Cameron paid for it dearly. British party politics is cruel to leaders who lose elections. A leader who loses an election doesn’t just lose face, he must go ahead to commit a political suicide or what the Japanese would call a political harakiri (self-annihilation), and should he hesitate the party would rally round to assist him to do so. It is always done in an orderly, gentlemanly fashion. This is what happened to Jim Callaghan when he lost to Margaret Thatcher in 1979, John Major when he lost to Tony Blair in 1997 and Gordon Brown when he lost to Cameron in 2010, to cite a few examples. That was the scenario that unfolded after the “No” votes triumphed in the referendum. We watched in amazement Cameron making his resignation speech while speaking directly to a beleaguered country, in front of No 10 Downing Street that morning. In a matter of hours, party members, particularly those who shared the front benches with him in the parliament, threw their hats into the ring to contest replacing him as party leader and prime minister. To his relief, his close working colleague, Theresa May, Minister of Internal Affairs, who faithfully toed the Party lines to campaign for the “Yes” vote in the referendum, won the contest. Theresa May started on a high note but it has been one disappointment after the other. In March 2017, Prime Minister May triggered Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon signalling the start of the procedures of quitting the EU. The following month she called for a snap general election hoping to strengthen her hands in the Brexit negotiations. It was disappointing as she even lost the majority her party had in the parliament. To be able to form a government she had to cuddle up to the Democratic Unionist Party, known hard-liners, who would be inflexible to some terms of the and incidences of protectionism, nationalism and anti-globalization - especially in the western hemisphere.” Consequently, Nigeria’s macro-economy experienced significant impulses over the last few years, which triggered the country’s GDP collapse into a recession with inflation spiraling to nearly 19 percent. The Naira- Dollar exchange rate hit peaks never seen before. Both unemployment and poverty also deteriorated. These adverse outcomes also revealed the country’s most worrying structural fault lines, to wit: the persisting sole dependence on oil and the inordinate size of the nation’s imports. CBN had to deploy seven carefully planned measures to manage the negative tensions of being an evolving player in the global village square, including, among others, fine-tuning the extant monetary policy, rejigging the external reserve management, stabilising the exchange rate management, introducing the Naira-Renminbi Currency swap, given the CBN’s policies and initiatives are yielding positive results toward full correction of the underlying imbalances within the Nigerian economy growing importance of the Chinese currency in global markets, and interventions in the development financing sector. Without a doubt, CBN’s policies and initiatives are yielding positive results toward full correction of the underlying imbalances within the Nigerian economy. The Ease-of-Doing-Business profile of the country is improving, courtesy of the CBN interventions. The establishment of the Credit Bureau and the National Collateral Registry, which improved access to credit in the domestic economy, had made significant contributions. Besides, the introduction of the withdrawal agreement. The truth of the matter was that the implications of withdrawal from the EU was not quite manifest to the average British voter when the referendum took place. When the market started reacting to the planned withdrawal with massive upheavals such as causing the British Pound to fall to its lowest level against the Dollar in 30 years and international companies started giving notice of relocation to mainland Europe, the reality started to sink in. Then filibustering started in earnest in the parliament. Even though prime minister May had painstakingly negotiated a withdrawal agreement with her colleagues in the EU, her colleagues in the British Parliament have made it impossible to see daylight. The Scots wouldn’t have it because they want to see a continued movement of people between UK and EU and also they prefer to remain in the single market. The Irish are vehemently against the negotiated agreement because they cannot contemplate a hard border with their kith and kin in the Republic of Ireland. It is probably only the English and Welsh that are supportive. An unkind onlooker would surmise that the whole thing has broken down to a tribal fracas. Theresa May had not been able to muster any tangible votes to implement the exit date of March 29, 2019. In fact, as I write now there is no firm date of exiting the EU. She had even offered to leave office if her deal could speedily be passed in the Parliament. The general impression in the Parliament is that it is her shambolic approach to the negotiations that had brought the country to this sorry pass. She is regarded as a dead duck anyway and even her party colleagues do not envisage her as part of the cabinet that would lead Britain after Brexit - whenever it happens. The ink is yet to dry on Brexit. Keep a date with this page. transparent I&E FX Window, which increased investor’s confidence and eased market sentiments, also boosted Nigeria’s Ease of Doing Business indicator. Emefiele’s CBN has also effectively managed the external reserves. Over the last few years, it has established and maintained the decisive withdrawal of subsidy for the importation of 41 non-essential commodities. Following the strict implementation of the policy, imports (fob) fell steadily from US$15.7bn in December 2014 to US$11.1bn in June 2016 and US$7.2 bn in June 2018. As it is, many entrepreneurs are taking advantage of this policy to venture into the domestic production of the restricted items with remarkable successes and great impact on employment even though The Guardian in its editorial of March 26, 2019 held a different view that the CBN had put Nigeria out of work by stopping fifth instant importers from accessing forex for textile products. But it did not elucidate further the ramifications of its argument. Over all, the CBN on Emefiele’s watch has given traction to key macroeconomic indicators and this has brought about the cyclical recovery of the economy since the 2016 recession, and short-term prospects. For instance, after five quarters of uninterrupted GDP contraction - beginning from 2016 Q'1 - the economy exited recession during the second quarter of 2017. This recovery has been sustained for five consecutive quarters. While the pace of GDP growth slowed from 1.95 percent in the first quarter of 2018 to 1.50 percent in the second quarter, short-term outlook remained good. According to reports, the Nigerian economy likewise witnessed 18 straight months of disinflation to 11.1 percent in July 2018, following a period of rising inflationary pressure that peaked at 18.7 percent in January 2017. Minor upticks, due to rising food prices, however, raised it to 11.3 percent in September 2018. Continues online •Adakole, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Kaduna. C M YK
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11042019 - INSECURITY: Senate condemns killings; insists on State Police

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