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Vanguard, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2022 — 7
:Vanguard News
:@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
VISIT: From left, Minister of Tourism from Gambia, Mr Hamat Bah; Minister of Information and
Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Secretary General, United Nations World Tourism Organization,
UNWTO, Mr Zurab Pololikashvili; Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Minister of Tourism
from Sierra Leone, Mrs Memunatu Pratt and Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr Obafemi Hamzat,
during a courtesy visit to the governor, at the Lagos House, Marina, yesterday.
FG targets $33,000 per capita income
in 2050
By Emma Ujah,
Abuja Bureau Chief
& Emmanuel
Elebeke
THE FEDERAL government
has set a target of $33,000 per
capita income by year 2050 from
the current level of $3, 500.
The Minister of Finance,
Budget and National Planning,
Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, disclosed
this at the opening of the ongoing
Nigerian Economic
Summit yesterday.
She said: "I am pleased to
inform you that the draft Nigeria
Agenda 2050 is being finalised
and will be launched soon.
"The plan seeks to increase the
country’s per capita income to
$33,000 by 2050 and place
Nigeria among the rank of Upper
Middle Income Countries.
"The plan will be implemented
by successive governments
through six, 5-year medium-term
National Development Plans
and Annual Budgets.
"The Nigeria Agenda 2050 has
a moral imperative to lower the
poverty and unemployment rate
significantly as this is the only
way we can ensure sustainable
broad-based growth"
According to Mrs. Ahmed, the
government will renew the social
contract with Nigerians and
encourage the citizens to pay
their taxes to enable it fund
programmes and projects.
She said the federal
government would consciously
design programmes and projects
that would attract Diaspora
Nigerians to invest at home.
Mrs. Ahmed added that the
administration was focused on
unlocking the economic
potential of the non-oil and high
employment generating sectors
to achieve sustainable and
inclusive growth and
development.
Laws inhibiting devt
for review —Agba
Earlier in his address, the
Minister of State for Budget and
National Planning, Clem Agba,
said the administration would
review 18 laws and 10 policies
considered as obstacles to private
sector businesses.
He said the National
Development Plan 2017-2025
paid particular attention to the
diversification of the economy,
among others.
"The NDP 2021-2025 has a
unique objective of establishing
a strong foundation for a
concentric economic
diversification, implying that the
economy had already been
diversified but the focus of the
plan is to deepen the
diversification effort within the
sectors, such that each sector
could substantially increase its
contribution to GDP and create
more jobs.
"Volume III deals with the
legislative imperatives identified
as binding constraints to plan
implementation and has
identified 18 laws and 10 policies
that constrained plan
implementation over the years.
" A Technical Working Team,
TWT, comprising the Office of the
President on Ease of Doing
Business, relevant Ministries,
Departments and Agencies,
MDAs, and a renowned legal
firm has been set-up to review
these laws and policies, with a
view to enriching plan
implementation,'' Agba stated.
Nigeria we need
—Dozie
In his Keynote address, one of
the founding fathers of NESG,
Mr. Paschal Dozie, said "the
Nigeria we need must be truly
federal, not just in name but in
reality.''
He said the Exclusive and the
Concurrent Lists should be
reviewed to enable
By Adesina Wahab
LAGOS—PARENTS, under
the aegis of the National
Parent Teacher Association of
Nigeria, NAPTAN, and students
under the National Association
of Nigerian Students, NANS,
have called on the federal
government to tread softly and
not allow the issue of the
payment of salary of lecturers
degenerate to another industrial
action.
Their calls came against the
backdrop of plans by lecturers,
under the Academic Staff Union
of Universities, ASUU, to embark
on rallies and declare a lecture
free day in protest against the
payment of haf salary to them by
the government last month, after
resuming from an eight-month
strike.
“NAPTAN, through the
National President, Haruna
Danjuma, in a chat with
Vanguard, said since the
lecturers had continued from
where they stopped in the 2021/
2022 session, they should be paid.
“"The government should do
the right thing. They should pay
the lecturers. We all know that
decentralization of government,
with a real federal system, as
obtained in other federal
governments.
He said the federal
government should depersonalise
institutions to make
Nigeria more attractive to
domestic and international
investors.
In his contribution as a
panelist, economist and banker,
Mr. Atedo Peterside, noted that
the nation is being held hostage
by what he described as "riggedproperity"
by a few elite.
According to him, those in that
class are less than one million
people but they have
imporverished the multitude of
ordinary Nigerians.
Mr. Peterside regretted that
based on data released by the
National Bureau of Statistics,
NBS, at the end of 2015, 68
million Nigerians were in full
employment but noted that as
at end of 2020, the figure of
Nigerians in full employment had
fallen to a mere 31 million.
He lamented that very few
Nigerians have access to the
exchange rate at the official rate,
adding that those with such
access do not represent the
generality of Nigerians.
Peterside also condemned the
fuel subsidy which had continued
to put pressure on the nation's
fiscal position.
According to him, those who
are involved in the massive oil
theft are those in government or
their cronies.
He wondered how many
Nigerians have the capacity to
bring in ships into the country
and load crude oil and take it
away from the country, without
the government stopping them.
Ogbu urges FG to
pay attention to
education
Also speaking, Prof Osita Ogbu,
former National Economic
Adviser, charged the
government to pay more
attention to social infrastructure
(education and health).
He said the Nigerian public
education system had been
abandoned by those in
government because they had
no personal need of it, as they
send their children to private and
foreign schools.
He said though physical
infrastructure remained critical
to development, the nation could
not afford to abandon social
infrastructure, stressing that
doing so would be counterproductive
to national
development.
By Levinus
Nwabughiogu
ABUJA—THE House of
Representatives, yesterday,
urged the federal government to
make an urgent request for
supplementary budget of N100
billion or more for Ecological Project
Office, EPO, as intervention fund
to execute the programs of the
agency nationwide.
It also mandated its Committee
on Appropriation to make provision
of N200 billion in the 20023
appropriation year, for the
Ecological office in the Presidency
for flood preparedness, mitigation,
response, recovery and relieve
packages.
It equally asked that N5 billion
be released into the already
created special ecological fund
account of each state of the
federation and FCT to mitigate the
effect of flooding that recently
ravaged the entire nation.
The resolutions came on the
heels of a motion, titled "Need for
Strategic Planning and Funding
to Prevent the Reoccurrence of
Flood and Erosion Disasters in
Nigeria in 2023 and Beyond",
moved at plenary under matters of
urgent public importance by Henry
Nwawuba and Ibrahim Isiaka.
Presenting the motion,
Nwawuba expressed worry over
the recent flooding incident that
ravaged the country, saying the
warning by the authorities was not
heeded.
He said in the view of another
one predicted by the Nigerian
Metrological Agency, Nimet,
another round of flooding was
imminent next year, asking the
authorities to take proactive
measures.
"We pay deaf ears to the sound
and presence of risks associated
Don't let half salary issue degenerate to another strike,
NANS, NAPTAN tell FG
some time has been wasted, but
since there is an effort to bridge
the gap one way or the other,
nothing should be done to
truncate the process again.
“"Lecturers and students would
only need to forfeit some holidays
and as parents, we don't want
anything to rock the boat again.
Parents are looking forward to
their children finishing their
studies and for them to reap the
fruits of their labour. The issue of
personality clash or ego should
not be allowed to push education
into another crisis situation, "he
said
“NANS, in a statement by the
Southwest Zone Coordinator,
Adegboye Olatunji, Deputy
Coordinator, Alao John and
Public Relations Officer,
Awoyinfa Opeoluwa, said steps
being taken by the current
administration at the federal
level are not showing it gives
priority to education.
"Just as Nigerian students are
finally able to smile after the
suspension of an eight-monthlong
ASUU strike, the Federal
Government deemed it wise to
pay half salary to members of the
Academic Staff Union of
•As ASUU stages protest •CONUA to
discuss issue at maiden NEC meeting
Universities This ill-advised
action if allowed to stand will not
only set a bad precedence but
ruin the already tattered morale
of our lecturers and further
weaken the already debilitated
trust between the said union and
the government.
"Ironically those directly
appointed and being paid from
our commonwealth to oversee
Education and Labour matters
namely; Mallam Adamu Adamu
(Minister of Education); Dr. Chris
Ngige (Minister of Labour and
Employment); and Festus
Keyamo (Minister of State for
Labour and Employment) made
meagre contributions to the
development. As a matter of fact,
we have it on good record that
Dr. Ngige particularly was willing
to crash the entire sector just to
bring ASUU on its knees and
massage his own fragile ego.
“"From all indications, if drastic
measures aren't taken, the
Federal Government and its
overpaid employee; Dr. Ngige
seem ready to bury the entire
educational sector.And if ASUU
choose to boycott work again as
a result of this ungentlemanly
Flood alert: Reps call for
supplementary budget of N100bn,
200bn in 2023 appropriation to
fight menace
decision, the government might
as well forget about tertiary
education completely.
“"As the leadership of Nigerian
students in the entire
Southwest, we demand that our
intellectuals and moulders of our
collective future be accorded their
deserved respect and their
dignity not be tampered with.
''In addition, procedure to pay
the remaining balance of their
remunerations should be put in
motion immediately, " the
statement read.
Meanwhile, the newlyregistered
Congress of University
Academics, CONUA, is set to
discuss the issue of salary and
others at its maiden National
Executive Council, NEC,
meeting slated for Obafemi
Awolowo University, Ile Ife,
Osun State later in the month.“
A member of the union told our
correspondent that the meeting
would also appraise
developments in the university
sector generally.
CONUA was registered by the
FG as another academic staff
union in the course of the recent
strike by ASUU.
with flooding, one thing is clear,
that they will surely occur whether
we plan for them or not.
''But, strategic planning and
adequate funding will help
mitigate the effects and facilitate
quick and better recovery of lives,
properties, economy and overall
environment. with the public
outcry of limited funds, reactive
response should be changed to
proactive response to increase
effectiveness of management and
reduce losses of life and properties.
"As far back as January 2022,
the Nigerian Metrological Agency,
Nimet, warned of impending floods
across most states in Nigeria,
especially flood prone areas and
could continue until the end of
November 2022 in many states
across the nation.
"In 2012, 32 of 36 states were
affected by flooding, with 363 people
killed, over 2.1 million people
displaced, about 7 million people
affected and a total loss estimate of
N2.6trillion recorded.
"In 2022, 33 of 36 states and the
FCT are affected, that is 92% of
the entire country, over 600 people
killed. Over 1.4 million people
displaced and over 2.5 million
people in need of humanitarian
assistance with over 60% of this
number being children.
"Nigeria appears to be unready
for climate change with ranking of
162 of 180 countries in the
environment performance index."
"The fact that the dimensional
impact of this unfortunate
situation are that we can expect a
food crisis, humanitarian crisis,
health crisis and revenue shortfall
in Nigeria come 2023.
"Most of the affected states are
agrarian economies which raises
concern about impending food
crisis, with 110,000 hectares of
farmlands completely damaged.
Olam rice farm submerged worth
over $15 million, 10 hectares of rice
farm submerged in Kogi State."
Visa issuance: Air Peace suspends
flight operations to Dubai
By Prince Okafor
AIR TRAVELLERS from Nigeria
to Dubai, United Arab
Emirates, UAE, in the coming days
will be forced to consider alternative
means of getting there.
“This came as Nigeria's
indigenous airline, Air Peace,
suspended flight operations to the
country indefinitely.
This is coming against the
backdrop of non-issuance of Visas
by the UAE government to
Nigerians.
Vanguard had reported that the
country's immigration authorities
last month announced a visa ban
on Nigerians without any reason.
The UAE government also
stated that all submitted
applications for vuisa to its territory
were rejected and fees nonrefundable.
Following the development, the
management of Air Peace stated
yesterday: "We hereby inform the
public, especially our Dubai
passengers, that effective from
Tuesday, November 22, 2022, we
shall be suspending our Dubai
operations till further notice.
"This is consequent upon the
persisting non-issuance of visas to
Nigerian travellers by the
government of the United Arab
Emirates and the accompanying
inconveniences.
"Air Peace has been operating
into UAE, even with the country's
recent travel restrictions, but given
the heightened hurdles Nigerian
travellers are facing in accessing
the country, it has become
imperative that we halt our
operations to that destination.
"We shall provide further
updates as the situation
progresses. Passengers whose
flights are affected by this
development can mail our Call
Centre to attend to their
concerns."