17102019 - FG cuts travels, estacodes for ministers, other officials

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Core agenda for Diaspora Commission 18 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019 With the recent turn of events around the world, the relevance of the Nigerian Diaspora Commission, NID- COM, Establishment Bill signed into law on June 30, 2017 by Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as the Acting President, has continued to be justified. As expected of any sample population, these Nigerians are showing their true colours – the good, the bad and ugly. It is estimated that over 15 million Nigerians live outside the country’s boundaries, particularly in the Western world (Europe and America). On the good side, Nigerians have been cited as the most educated immigrant group in the West, having signed their golden signatures across the professions due to their high education quotient. It is also established that Nigerians remit at least $23 billion (N8.3 trillion) into our local economy annually, which is at least 80 per cent of the 2020 Federal budget presented to the National Assembly last week Tuesday by President Muhammadu Buhari. Besides, our students and professionals are breaking old records and setting new ones in all fields of knowledge and human endeavour. If we can find a way to link up productively with this group as the Indians do, Nigeria’s development will be greatly boosted. On the other side are those who are giving Nigeria a bad name; those who have made the Nigerian passport highly suspect. These are the fraudsters, crooks, drug dealers, human traffickers and gangsters. They are also giving their foreign counterparts a big run for their money, to the detriment of our national image. Thousands of Nigerians are languishing in foreign jail houses, and many are on death row. In many African countries (especially South Africa) Nigerians are regularly targeted for xenophobic violence and hostile attitudes by indigenes and law enforcement agencies. The failure of our numerous embassies and high commissions to connect with the needs of both segments of our Diaspora communities makes the establishment of NIDCOM a welcome idea. By its core mandate, NIDCOM is to connect directly with the Nigerian Diaspora Organisations, NIDOs, worldwide and advise governments at all levels on the best ways to get the best out of Nigerians living abroad while proffering solutions that will minimise the impacts of the bad eggs. In doing its work, the NIDCOM must see all Nigerians living abroad – the good and bad ones – as Nigerians first and foremost. The blunder of ethnic profiling committed by some top officials of NIDCOM when some Nigerian criminals were apprehended by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, FBI, must not be repeated because it widened our ethnic divisions. The Nigerian Diaspora communities are more united than their homebased counterparts and this must be encouraged and emulated. The blunder notwithstanding, NID- COM must ramp up efforts to build a productive bridge to our Diaspora communities. OPINION Social media, fake news and a botched presidential wedding BY TAYO OGUNBIYI IT is no longer news that the muchhyped social media-induced ‘wedding of the year’ between President Muhammadu Buhari and Hajia Sadia Umar Farouq, the current Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management is nothing but a hoax. Recall that social media promoters of the said event had made elaborate plans for the nuptial. Colorful invites had been produced and carefully distributed via the social media to selected guests. In order to give the event a presidential touch, the Aso Rock Villa mosque was chosen as the preferred setting for the ‘wedding’. Notable Imams and other charismatic clerics were placed on the red alert to officiate at the ‘wedding’. However, as near perfect and elaborate as the plans for the ‘wedding’ were, its social media sponsors committed a major blunder that made a mess of all the efforts they have put into the whole venture. They failed to secure the consent of the groom and the bride. How awful! No event planner that worth his salt does that. So, the wedding turned out to be yet another social media scam. From the outset, the President’s men had clearly denied knowledge of any such event. Also, the would-be bride, Hajia Farouq, had vehemently disclaimed the whole arrangement. In order to really demonstrate that her husband was not part of the entire phoney affairs, wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, who was on vacation outside the country, is back at the villa. Her return to the rocky lodge has, at least for now, signified that there is no vacancy in the ‘other room’. But then, the fact that Hajia Buhari had to hurriedly find her way back home to protect her grip on the ‘other room’ is a proof of the far-reaching damage that fake news engenders. What if the First Lady was yet to fully complete her business abroad? Without a doubt, the social media accelerates conversations in a more interactive way that makes communication more effective and worthwhile. It takes communication beyond the limitations of the traditional media, which most often delivers content but doesn’t permit readers, or as the case may be, viewers or listeners, to participate in the formation or development of the content. In short, social media offers an opportunity to be seen and be heard without any restriction, which the traditional media does not give. Today, our world has been radically transformed courtesy of the social media. Information dissemination is now faster and easier while genuine business transactions can be promoted through the medium for a vast global market. Certainly, the social media has made our world more exciting. But then, that is where it all stops. The social media has unfortunately become an avenue for the display of unconcealed acts of boundless social madness. In the social media, there is little or no regard for the truth. Indeed, the advent of the social media has given rise to the incidence of fake news. A few years back, fake news was not a familiar term, but globally it is now seen as one of the greatest threats to democracy, security, free debate and unity. Aside being a favourite term of President Donald Trump of the United States of America, fake news was also named 2017’s Word of the Year. Fake news is as wicked as terrorism. It divides the people. It poisons the mind of an unsuspecting public. It promotes falsehood and celebrates deception. Unfortunately, fake news spreads like wildfire on the social media; getting quicker and longer-lasting attention than the truth. For instance, a deep dive into Twitter shows that fake news was re-tweeted more often than true news was, and carried further. The outcome of a research led by Sinan Aral of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has shown that fake news diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information, and the effects were more pronounced for false political news than for false news about terrorism, At the end of the day, the victims of such misleading information are faced with the task of responding to issues that never really existed natural disasters, science, urban legends, or financial information. According to the research, it took the real news about six times as long as fake news to reach 1,500 people. On many occasions, the genuineness of information posted on the social media is suspicious. While the conventional media processes and scrutinises news gathering and dissemination and, thus, exer- Send Opinions & Letters to: opinions1234@yahoo.com cises control in addition to operating a feedback mechanism which gives room for refutation when practitioners erred, the social media affords faceless individuals the space to send conniving and spurious information. Sadly, promoters of fake news usually get away with it, since there is no compelling process or law to insist on confutation. The result is unlimited madness on the social media space. Someone with no concrete substantiation comes up with a carefully crafted fake story or video, puts it on the social space and before you could say Jack the whole space becomes animated, discussing and sometimes freely passing judgements based on the ‘strength’ of an unsubstantiated story. At the end of the day, the victims of such misleading information are faced with the task of responding to issues that never really existed. Sadly, some youth have become so addicted to social networking sites that you wonder if they do any other productive thing throughout the day. They spend hours using these sites, thereby harming their performance in other fields. Some of them have made a mess of their lives on the account of this uninhibited addiction to social networking sites. Thus, as valuable as the social media is, its abuse can be menacing. The use of a tool largely depends on the users. For instance, a doctor operates with a knife while a murderer could also kill with a knife. For users of the social media, especially the youth, the watchword, therefore, is caution. Though, it might not be feasible to impose barriers on the cyberspace, the fact that, unlike the traditional media, the social media have no gatekeeper should be of great concern to all well-meaning individuals. *Ogunbiyi is of the Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos
Smuggling: Nigeria needs to fix structural, institutional shortcomings — LCCI ... Says distributive trade estimated at N20trn THE Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI said unless Nigeria fixes the structural, institutional and policy shortcomings it will be difficult to put an end to the problem of smuggling. In a statement obtained by Vanguard yesterday, the Director General of LCCI, Mr. Muda Yusuf said: “There is need to fix the structural, institutional and policy shortcomings that perpetuate the phenomenon of smuggling and increases vulnerabilities.” He noted that some of these shortcomings include: “Weak institutional capacity to police the country’s vast borders across the country; Porosity of the nation’s borders because of the expansive nature of the borders stretching over four thousand kilometres of land borders and 853 kilometres of coastline; Failure to deploy technology to manage our borders and international trade processes; Weak productivity in the domestic economy which aggravates production and operating costs, thus impacting adversely on domestic prices and competitiveness; High transportation costs and weak domestic connectivity which affects domestic prices. "High poverty incidence which makes majority of citizens crave for cheap products, including food items; High and prohibitive import tariffs which creates daunting compliance and enforcement challenges for the Nigerian Customs Services and also perpetuates corruption; Foreign exchange policy which incentivizes imports and penalizes domestic production and exports; Unsustainable subsidy regime on petroleum products and high transaction costs; High charges, corruption, inadequate equipment at the nation’s ports making the cost of clearing cargo at the ports very prohibitive". According to him, Nigerians should not underestimate the contribution of trade and commerce to the economy of the country, adding that, the distributive trade sector accounts for about 15 percent of the nation’s GDP, which is estimated at N20 trillion. “Traders play a major role in the value chain of the real sector activities in the economy. The trade sector is perhaps the largest employer of labour in the Nigerian economy. Mean- Vanguard, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019 — 19 Wife of the VP, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo (Middle), Julius Berger AFP Sales Manager Mr Uchenna Uzoewulu and Exhibition Organizer Titi Ogufere at the AFP Stand, Made-By-Design Exhibition in Lagos. FG to create nationwide database for MSMEs By Yinka Kolawole The Federal Government is set to initiate a national database to capture all Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria. Chairman, Governing Board of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Mr. Femi Pedro said the database is to enable the government allocate $96.80 -2.85 resources to grow the sector with a view to 2,328.00 -17.00 reduce unemployment. Pedro made the $12.09 -0.12 disclosure at an event organised by SMEDAN to review the national CURRENCY BUYING SELLING US DOLLAR POUNDS EURO FRANC YEN CFA WAUA RENMINBI RIYAL SDR DANISH RAND By Naomi Uzor $63.43 -1.62 $56.77 -1.81 305.85 306.35 306.85 372.2806 372.8892 373.4978 341.0228 341.5803 342.1378 309.033 309.5382 310.0434 2.8168 2.8214 2.826 0.5009 0.5109 0.5209 420.0142 420.7009 421.3875 44.3644 44.4374 44.5104 81.547 81.6803 81.8136 420.6967 421.3844 422.0722 45.6608 45.7355 45.8101 . 21.4862 21.5214 21.5565 CBN Exchange rate as at 01/08/2019 policy on MSMEs in Lagos He stated: "This year, SMEDAN is embarking on a project very important to us and already has the support of the federal Government. We are starting a mass registration of MSMEs in Nigeria. We don't want to rely on surveys alone. "We want to have a database of every business so we can focus policies directly on different sectors and different goods in different parts of the country." According to him, the database will be available to lenders, funders, people who are ready to provide support, state governments, policy holders and policy makers. He added that the programme cuts across a wide range of vocational skills, including plumbing, masonry, welding, iron bending, auto mechanics and electrical works. Addressing the graduands, Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State promised to employ the 200 youths, who graduated from various skill acquisition in the Lekki Free Trade Zone. Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by Dr Tunde Sodade, the Managing Director of Lekki Free Trade Zone Worldwide said he was passionate about employing the youths. He said: "We will ensure that while, this is not to diminish the importance of security in the border management process. It is also true that neighbouring countries have been sabotaging government efforts to curb smuggling and check insecurity. The government has a duty to manage the situation and deploy appropriate responses", he stressed. review of the national policy on MSMEs guiding document would be ready and sent to the presidency for approval by the end of the year or by January next year at the latest. "We have already started but we are looking for more funding particularly from outside sources and we are putting together the parameters. Hopefully the registration should start by January. We are appointing consultants who would advise us as we do not have the resources to do this alone. So the consultants would drive the process for us and advice how to go about it," he said. Dangote graduates 200 youths in Ibeju-Lekki About 200 youths from Ibeju-Lekki community in Lagos State have graduated from skill acquisition programme organised by Dangote Petroleum Refinery. The programme, organised by Dangote Petroleum Refinery and facilitated by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), aims at transforming the society and providing employment opportunities for them. The skills acquisition all of you that graduated today, will be employed at the free zone because we believe that what you learnt will be useful for the development of the zone. I urge you all to be good examples to others and always demonstrate better character and integrity in what you do." In his remarks, Dangote Group Executive Director, Strategy, Capital Projects and Portfolio Development, Mr Devakumar Edwin said the initiative was a demonstration of Dangote Refinery’s commitment toward capacity-building and youth empowerment in the country. Budget 2020: Be guided by contract portal, FG tells procurement officers Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief The federal government has directed procurement officers in the various Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to be guided by the Nigeria Open Contract Portal (NOCOPO) in their award of contracts. The Director-General of Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Mr Mamman Ahmadu, gave the directive at the on-going workshop for the officers in Abuja. Stressing that the portal was designed to enhance transparency, accountability and increased citizens participation in the country’s procurement process, he said, ``The bureau in utilising improvements in modern technology developed NO- COPO which would ensure improved transparency, competition and accountability, prevent corruption and enhance active citizen participation in procurement, thereby ensuring better service delivery and improved ease of doing business. ``The technical session and group discussions are expected to educate participants on all the steps in creating procurement plans and records. ``It is expected that at the end of the workshop, participants will be well equipped and can prepare and submit procurement plans and records in line with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.’’ Also speaking at the workshop, the Director, Regulations, Database and Information Communication Technology, Dr Aliyu Aliyu, urged MDAs to key into the portal and take advantage of the latest technology in the discharge of their duties. He said: “This portal is the driver of open government partnership, which is a partnership between government and the civil society. Essentially, we are trying to make everything to be transparent so that everything the MDAs are doing could be seen by the citizens. So people can visit the portal and see what the MDAs are actually doing. Chevron, Pan Atlantic University conclude AWARES ’19 The Chevron Nigeria Limitedsponsored Advanced Writing and Reporting Skills program, 2019 edition, (Awares19), has ended at the School of Media and Communication, Pan Atlantic University (PAU), Lagos. The programme, which started in June successfully came to an end on in September, with many well-trained students equipped to become better professionals. Before leaving, the students expressed their appreciation to the managements of Chevron and PAU, promising to make their contributions to the development of journalism and society. Earlier, Mr. Esimaje Brikinn, General Manager, Policy Government and Public Affairs Department, tasked them to abide by the ethics of journalism. The Director of Professional Education, School of Media and Communication, PAU, Mr. Isaac Ezechukwu, also commended Chevron for sponsoring the students to participate in the programme.
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