WAY FORWARD FOR NIGERIA ECONOMY

2015 spells doom for the Nigerian economy which is beginning to have a toll on businesses, investment and the people of Nigeria. Buhari needs to reduce the cost of governance by 50 per cent. Though he and some state governors have announced a cut in their salaries and allowances, this is a step in the right direction.  However, he has to take it a step further and explore every legal means to get the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to effect the reduction of the emolument, salaries and allowances of all members of the National Assembly as well as those of past public office holders. It is important to state that Nigerians have to assist the President by mounting pressure on members of the National Assembly and every public office holders.

The monies that accrue as a result of saving 50 per cent will assist the president in meeting up with his campaign promises ‎some of which include tackling insecurity and unemployment, improving governance, and ensuring transparency and accountability among others. And while that is going on, government agencies that are critical to revenue generation such as Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Nigeria Custom Service, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, Nigerian Ports Authority etcetera must be audited, regulated, revamped and have improved oversight. This will ensure that corruption which pervades these agencies is curbed and every Kobo that is generated is adequately accounted for.

President’s economic plan needs to be robust and aimed at effectively tackling the problems that have bedevilled the Nigerian economy for a long time.‎ He needs to go beyond his economic policy as stated in his party manifesto and as presented to members of the business community during the election campaign.

The National Economic Council was recently inaugurated by Buhari as prescribed by the constitution‎. Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole and three others were commissioned to probe the last administration with respect to revenue disbursements, allocation and appropriation. This has led to claims and counterclaims between Oshiomhole and the immediate past Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. This is not the right approach considering the precarious economic situation that Nigeria finds herself after the Jonathan administration. This approach is against the spirit of Buhari’s speech at the inauguration of the National Economic Council in which he said that his administration was fully committed to embarking on sustainable visionary initiatives and programmes that would restructure and transform the nation’s economy‎.

The NEC has a mandate to advise the President concerning the economic affairs of the Federation, and in particular on measures necessary for the co-ordination of the economic planning and programmes of the various governments in the Federation‎. Suffice it to say, Buhari cannot rely on the advice of members of the NEC most of whom are state governors who currently have to address the economic problems in their states where their financial expertise and economic initiatives are being awaited by vast majority of their citizens.

Over four years after the inauguration of NEC under the Jonathan administration, we have seen what the NEC is capable of doing to the national economy.‎ Buhari, however, needs to constitute a very strong economic team that will work towards improving all the economic measures and indices of the country. Inflation rate should be single digit; unemployment rate should be reduced to less than 10 per cent. The rate of poverty should also be brought down from 70 per cent to at least 30 per cent. Our budget deficit should have a turnaround to surplus. This is actually achievable provided the President has the right economic team who will come up with interventions and initiatives with the ultimate goal of improving our economic indices and by extension provide a new lease of life for the Nigerian people.

Past administrations have paid lip service to reducing the rate of unemployment.‎ President should leverage on the successes recorded in the agricultural sector under the watch of the immediate past Minister of Agriculture and now president of African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina by expanding this sector and creating jobs under an agricultural youth empowerment program for the teeming unemployed youths in the country who are willing to be engaged and earn an income. Expansion of the mining sector and investment in public works/infrastructural development is capable of generating the needed employment that will help change the current rate of unemployment. These are some of the initiatives expected in the President’s economic plan.

Buhari also needs to focus on the capital market with a view to lowering the exchange rate at N230 to $1.‎ Reducing our deficit and ensuring a balanced budget is also capable of promoting investment in education and healthcare of Nigerians. All of these investments in educational initiatives, science and technology research as well as the expansion of the National Health Insurance Scheme have to be made for the long term in order to achieve the expected outcome.

The President in his economic plan has to have a short term, medium term and long term initiatives to ‎fulfil his campaign promises. One of the reasons why Nigeria remains underdeveloped the country still at the level of an agrarian economy; President Buhari must encourage the export of Nigerian products and strengthen the manufacturing sector. Though the initiation of a power sector reform is critical to the expansion of the manufacturing sector and it is amazing what would happen to the Nigerian economy if power is improved to support the manufacturing sector.

The Buhari administration would by adopting these solutions and through the development of both private sector and small businesses initiatives create the condition for economic growth. The President need not be deceived on the right solutions to Nigeria’s economic recession. ‎Though the President’s economic plan is yet to be unveiled as earlier stated; I believe these solutions would be valuable in shaping his economic direction. We can recover from the current economic crisis if Buhari diversifies the economy and repairs the refineries so that the impact of the drop in crude oil prices which is having a toll on the economy will be cushioned. It is up to the President to act and respond appropriately.

Buhari’s economic plan should also improve housing and home ownership for Nigerians.‎ This is quite important because many poor Nigerians have to go for many years without a mortgage plan and this is hurting the economy.
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Finally, Buhari must cut income tax, raise the minimum wage and develop transportation initiatives across the country. Exploring a light rail system across the country with the help of industrialised nations will go a long way in addressing Nigeria’s economic challenges.

Chineks wrote from Abuja

The Best Premiere Academy Lugbe, Abuja

The idea for attending a boarding school might seem somewhat obsolete, the benefits this type of education brings are undeniable: they promote independence, they offer a new perspective, and they bring together students from all over the world.

Boarding school: The term conjures images of small, immaculately kept, verdant campuses; ties, blazers, and gray skirts; Dead Poets Society, The Emperor’s Club, A Separate Peace, and Hogwarts; forms, traditions, and academic excellence—these are all ideas we associate with boarding schools (not to mention expense).

When parents choose to send their children to boarding schools, they’re choosing to send them to the most selective, competitive, and influential schools in the country. These are the schools that open Ivy League doors; these are the grounds on which lucrative social networks are built.

Is it any surprise, then, that the founder of Facebook—the world’s largest social media network—attended a boarding school?

There are scores of articles available on the benefits of a boarding school education, but this isn’t one of them. Instead, we look at various criteria in order to determine which boarding schools in Nigeria are indeed the very best.

One of the world’s leading independent day and boarding schools, premiere Academy Lugbe, Abuja offers stimulating, progressive education to young boys and girls. An institution which prides itself on its prioritisation of their students needs, a supportive learning atmosphere and a positive, ‘can do’ attitude, premiere Academy consistently produces graduates who are confident learners, critical thinkers and self starters. Theirs are the students with their hands up, using the microphone, seeking their teachers’ attention and making themselves heard.

The teenage students who graduate from these schools become our CEOs, our Nobel Prize–winners, our ambassadors, philanthropists, Olympians, and judges. They are the innovators, the pioneers in their fields.

We looked for schools that offer signature, specialized programs (as well as schools that are beyond solid in their approach to the traditional curriculum).

However, we also looked for schools that take a proactive approach to whole person development. There is hard work to be done out there in the wide world, and we appreciate schools that teach students to value hard work, both in and out of the classroom setting. Community service, chores, jobs—all of these contribute to instilling a work ethic.

Private schools by their very nature offer a different menu of educational programs than public schools are able to provide. This is just one of the reasons they appeal so strongly to parents and students alike.

Boarding schools are in the unique position to offer diverse academic programming led by teacher-scholars, many of whom hold advanced degrees in their subject areas. All of the schools on this list offer a beyond-solid academic program and rigorous graduation requirements. However, there is a difference in where students matriculate for college (and how many students per school matriculate at those colleges), and we consider this in our list.

A boarding school by definition is any school (usually private) that offers food and lodging to its students. However, it’s also much more than that: A boarding school is a thriving community of scholars, athletes, and artists. It’s common for faculty, staff, and their families to live right on campus and serve in coaching or advising capacities. All of this truly makes the boarding school a student’s home away from home.

Gone are the days when boarding school experiences were saved for the rich alone. OK, the price tag on most of these schools might lead you to double-take that statement. But many schools are seeking a diverse student population (in terms of multi-cultural students, as well as socio-economic backgrounds).

IS THERE ANY HONEST POLITICIAN IN NIGERIA

IS THERE ANY HONEST POLITICIAN IN NIGERIA
If you are in Nigeria and you have not done this before, try and do it right away. Just open a Nigerian newspaper near you. Go through its pages to find out how many people were described in that particular edition as “credible” politicians or “honest and selfless” Nigerians. You would be shocked to see the number of people that recklessly allowed them to be associated with such superb qualities even when they are fully aware that by what most people know about their character and vile history, it might even be considered a generous compliment to dress them up in the very opposites of those terms.
Now, I feel very highly insulted each time I see a public officer, say a Nigerian governor, who virtually everyone seems to agree deserves to head straight to jail once he leaves office due to his mindless plunder of the country’s resources, come out (before an election) to tell the world with sickening brazenness how his party would wage a successful war against corruption if elected into power! By allowing himself the revolting recklessness of uttering such an outstanding blasphemy, the person is only calling all of us fools who are incapable of using our brains. And the mere fact that this same odious fellow would automatically be rewarded with very ecstatic ovations from supposedly rational human beings who constitute his audience and who would also go ahead to give him their votes is one reason most people easily conclude that something is very horribly and disastrously wrong with Nigeria, and that we live in one of the most unserious societies on earth.
In Nigeria, anybody can suddenly become an “esteemed” and “respected “anti-corruption” crusader. Even if you have a very horrible criminal past, it would not matter. Somebody once boasted to me that the only way to effect lasting, positive change in Nigeria is to become a public officer, acquire boundless wealth by looting the treasury pale, and then with your enormous loot, seek to sanitize the system. Moreover, Nigerians are always interested in the present. The same Nigerians who had called you horrible names while you were busy criminally accumulating humongous wealth would start hailing you once you start attacking the incumbent regime. Soon, you will be crowned an “eminent statesman” or even the “conscience of the nation,” celebrated by all.
Now, to say that politics in Nigeria is largely about crude self-interests is merely to state (or rather restate) something that has since become all too obvious even to the worst hare-brained fellow out there. It is difficult to see today a Nigerian who is seeking public office whose eyes are not solely glued to the amount of money he is intending to cart away and the influence he is itching to peddle once he assumes office. But what is most heart-shattering is that there’s hardly any adult Nigerian who is yet to come to a full realization of this brazen fact; yet this same Nigerians still willingly and eagerly submit themselves as very cheap preys to the crude, unintelligent lies by these politicians that they are in politics to seek their welfare. Rather than look them directly in the face and dismissively call them shameless liars, Nigerians, most pathetically, still largely prefer to loudly demonstrate that they believe them (even when they may not) and troop out en masse to hail them as the new set of messiahs just arrived in town. Where was the deputy senate president when rampaging Fulani herdsmen attacked and razed down houses and killed innocent people in his region, he did not call for international community, where was the deputy senate president when pro Biafra youth were killed in his region, he did not call for international community so why is he writing to the united nation, America British just to protect his selfish interest. I wipe for naija
Comrade Chineks wrote from Abuja

Nigeria’s power generation ​will​ increase by 2,000​MW in 2016 – Fashola

The minister of ​p​ower, ​w​orks and ​h​ousing, Babatunde Fashola, says the power generation will increase this year by 2,000 megawatts.
This is contained in a statement sent to ​the ​News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja by Etore Thomas, an assistant director in the ministry.
According to the statement, Mr. Fashola made the statement while defending the ministry’s budget before the Senate Committee on Power and Mines.
It added that a lot had changed in the management of power in the country in recent times.
The statement said ​the ​distribution of power was no longer ​the ​government​’s​ business, but had been taken over by private companies.
It stated that government privatised power generation with transmission aspect being managed by Manitoba International of Canada at present.
According to the statement, the 2016 budget focuses more on the transmission, completion of on-going projects, refurbishing power plants and tackling gas supply issues.
The statement said if all these were addressed, the expected projection would boost electricity generation in the country.
It said the ministry planned to take its role as a policy maker seriously while agencies would be tasked more on implementation and execution of government’s agenda for the industry.
The statement quoted the chairman of the committee, James Manager, as saying “the ministry should think out of the box if it wanted to achieve its goals in the sector”.
The statement added that Nigerians would reap from the sacrifices they incurred in increase in tariff by enjoying uninterrupted power supply.
(NAN)