Business and Economy (1142)
By Ruth Maclean/ New York TIMES: Crossing the Niger River, Inch by Painful Inch, Hour by Wasted Hour
Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.
ON THE RIVER NIGER BRIDGE, Nigeria — After two hours spent in gridlocked traffic trying to cross a bridge spanning the mighty Niger River, despair kicks in. We’ve not moved an inch. I fidget in the back seat. Will we ever make it to the other side?
After being stuck three hours — time mostly spent pondering why in Nigeria, the giant of Africa, this narrow bridge is the only major connection between two economically vital southern regions — acceptance arrives: This is where we’re spending the night.
People emerge from their cars and trucks to stretch, accepting it too. Half a dozen men drift to the curbside, to sit and joke. Women lean on the trunks of their cars and chat.
A man pushing a wheelbarrow bounces past, weaving his way between tanker trucks, yellow buses and vehicles piled with mattresses. His wheelbarrow is a grill, full of hot coals, its contents illuminated by a light clipped to the side. He stops, flipping the meat with tongs.
Low on gas, we kill the engine and open our windows. The smell of suya — spiced meat — drifts in.
Below us, the Niger, Africa’s third-longest river and what gave Nigeria its name, is invisible in hot clouds of exhaust lit by red taillights, its flowing waters inaudible over the noise of idling engines.
A driver calls to the meat seller. I’m about to do the same. Absorbed by the story I’m reporting on Nigeria’s merchants of false hope who promise, for a fee, to help families find loved ones who disappeared in police custody, all we’ve eaten today are a few bananas and peanuts.
But suddenly, we’re moving. Everyone races back to their vehicles. An enormous truck bristling with baskets zooms off as fast as possible, almost grazing the wheelbarrow grill. We’re off! But only for a minute. We get about 50 yards before grinding to a halt.
For all its 56 years, this 4,600-foot steel-truss bridge over the Niger has borne a heavy load, connecting the twin cities of Onitsha, a commercial hub, and calmer Asaba, where many commuters to Onitsha live despite the daily crossing ordeal.
Over the decades, countless truckloads of timber, palm kernels and rubber have passed this way. Every imaginable consumer good — lingerie, snails, motorbikes, toilet brushes, fluorescent mosquito nets, hub caps, paraffin lamps, iPhones — also trundles through, headed to or from West Africa’s biggest commercial market, in buzzing Onitsha.
Each year, goods worth $5 billion are traded at the Onitsha market, a state government agency said in 2016. It was home to Onitsha Market Literature, Nigeria’s pulp fiction industry, and key to the success of Nollywood, Nigeria’s multibillion-dollar movie business: 51 Iweka Road, one of the three biggest movie distributor networks, is in the Onitsha market.
In addition to all those wares, huge numbers of Nigerian travelers also depend on the bridge. Nigeria’s population, estimated to have crossed the 200 million mark, has probably quadrupled since 1965, the year the bridge was built. (Censuses are not often taken, so it’s impossible to know for sure.)
The jam we are stuck in on this November night is no anomaly. Every day, travelers and goods arriving from all directions are funneled toward the bridge, meaning most crossings are going to take hours. The trips are further slowed by security checkpoints on the approaches to the bridge.
This chokepoint over the Niger is obstructing progress in Nigeria’s entrepreneurial southeast, one of the country’s most prosperous regions.
But the dearth of bridges — and the dilapidated or incomplete state of much of Nigeria’s infrastructure — is a broad problem holding the entire country back, analysts say.
“It impacts the cost of doing business,” said Patrick Okigbo, a policy analyst who worked with Nigeria’s last government to develop a national infrastructure plan. “It impacts lives. If they can afford it, nobody travels by road anymore. If you can’t, then you go on a prayer.”
A mile downstream from the crowded scene on the Niger Bridge, invisible in the viscous night air, may lie an answer: another bridge, half built.
The Second Niger Bridge was originally proposed in 1978, and ever since has been used as a campaign promise by national politicians seeking the support of voters in the southeast. It took more than three decades for the work to begin, but finally the company building the six-lane bridge says it will be ready by 2022.
When done, it will be “a huge sigh of relief to all Easterners in this country,” says Newman Nwankwo, 33, a businessman based in Onitsha who often plans his whole day around bridge traffic. Either he tries to cross at the lunchtime lull between noon and 2 p.m., or he waits until Sunday.
He won’t even attempt the crossing unless he has at least half a tank of gas.
“If I don’t plan well and I meet traffic, I just relax here in the queue, putting my A.C. and music on,” he said.
Stalled on the bridge, I look around and imagine what all these people could be doing if their time weren’t being sucked away by these daily snarl-ups and the four-decade wait for another option across the river. Bridges cause traffic all over the world, but this one’s aging steel rivets seem to be under more pressure than any I have ever crossed.
Another hour ticks by. We move a few inches.
People pass by, selling cold water and Coke. Where there is a go-slow, as traffic jams are known in Nigeria, vendor business blossoms.
Any movement is an on-again, off-again process. At one point when traffic starts forward, the driver in front of us is asleep. No amount of honking wakes him. Someone rushes over to shake him awake.
We go for 30 seconds. We stop for 30 minutes.
At midnight we make it across. It’s taken almost six hours to do three miles.
Leaving the bridge, we pass under a large sign on the Asaba side.
“Welcome,” it reads, optimistically, “to the land of progress.”
Ruth Maclean is the West Africa bureau chief of The New York Times.
Ruth Maclean is the West Africa bureau chief for The New York Times, based in Senegal. She joined The Times in 2019 after three and a half years covering West Africa for The Guardian. @ruthmaclean
By Ruth Maclean/ New York TIMES: Crossing the Niger River, Inch by Painful Inch, Hour by Wasted Hour
*A narrow, old bridge that connects two economically vital areas of Nigeria is a chokepoint stifling progress in Africa’s most populous nation
Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.
ON THE RIVER NIGER BRIDGE, Nigeria — After two hours spent in gridlocked traffic trying to cross a bridge spanning the mighty Niger River, despair kicks in. We’ve not moved an inch. I fidget in the back seat. Will we ever make it to the other side?
After being stuck three hours — time mostly spent pondering why in Nigeria, the giant of Africa, this narrow bridge is the only major connection between two economically vital southern regions — acceptance arrives: This is where we’re spending the night.
People emerge from their cars and trucks to stretch, accepting it too. Half a dozen men drift to the curbside, to sit and joke. Women lean on the trunks of their cars and chat.
A man pushing a wheelbarrow bounces past, weaving his way between tanker trucks, yellow buses and vehicles piled with mattresses. His wheelbarrow is a grill, full of hot coals, its contents illuminated by a light clipped to the side. He stops, flipping the meat with tongs.
Low on gas, we kill the engine and open our windows. The smell of suya — spiced meat — drifts in.
Below us, the Niger, Africa’s third-longest river and what gave Nigeria its name, is invisible in hot clouds of exhaust lit by red taillights, its flowing waters inaudible over the noise of idling engines.
A driver calls to the meat seller. I’m about to do the same. Absorbed by the story I’m reporting on Nigeria’s merchants of false hope who promise, for a fee, to help families find loved ones who disappeared in police custody, all we’ve eaten today are a few bananas and peanuts.
But suddenly, we’re moving. Everyone races back to their vehicles. An enormous truck bristling with baskets zooms off as fast as possible, almost grazing the wheelbarrow grill. We’re off! But only for a minute. We get about 50 yards before grinding to a halt.
For all its 56 years, this 4,600-foot steel-truss bridge over the Niger has borne a heavy load, connecting the twin cities of Onitsha, a commercial hub, and calmer Asaba, where many commuters to Onitsha live despite the daily crossing ordeal.
Over the decades, countless truckloads of timber, palm kernels and rubber have passed this way. Every imaginable consumer good — lingerie, snails, motorbikes, toilet brushes, fluorescent mosquito nets, hub caps, paraffin lamps, iPhones — also trundles through, headed to or from West Africa’s biggest commercial market, in buzzing Onitsha.
Each year, goods worth $5 billion are traded at the Onitsha market, a state government agency said in 2016. It was home to Onitsha Market Literature, Nigeria’s pulp fiction industry, and key to the success of Nollywood, Nigeria’s multibillion-dollar movie business: 51 Iweka Road, one of the three biggest movie distributor networks, is in the Onitsha market.
In addition to all those wares, huge numbers of Nigerian travelers also depend on the bridge. Nigeria’s population, estimated to have crossed the 200 million mark, has probably quadrupled since 1965, the year the bridge was built. (Censuses are not often taken, so it’s impossible to know for sure.)
The jam we are stuck in on this November night is no anomaly. Every day, travelers and goods arriving from all directions are funneled toward the bridge, meaning most crossings are going to take hours. The trips are further slowed by security checkpoints on the approaches to the bridge.
This chokepoint over the Niger is obstructing progress in Nigeria’s entrepreneurial southeast, one of the country’s most prosperous regions.
But the dearth of bridges — and the dilapidated or incomplete state of much of Nigeria’s infrastructure — is a broad problem holding the entire country back, analysts say.
“It impacts the cost of doing business,” said Patrick Okigbo, a policy analyst who worked with Nigeria’s last government to develop a national infrastructure plan. “It impacts lives. If they can afford it, nobody travels by road anymore. If you can’t, then you go on a prayer.”
A mile downstream from the crowded scene on the Niger Bridge, invisible in the viscous night air, may lie an answer: another bridge, half built.
The Second Niger Bridge was originally proposed in 1978, and ever since has been used as a campaign promise by national politicians seeking the support of voters in the southeast. It took more than three decades for the work to begin, but finally the company building the six-lane bridge says it will be ready by 2022.
When done, it will be “a huge sigh of relief to all Easterners in this country,” says Newman Nwankwo, 33, a businessman based in Onitsha who often plans his whole day around bridge traffic. Either he tries to cross at the lunchtime lull between noon and 2 p.m., or he waits until Sunday.
He won’t even attempt the crossing unless he has at least half a tank of gas.
“If I don’t plan well and I meet traffic, I just relax here in the queue, putting my A.C. and music on,” he said.
Stalled on the bridge, I look around and imagine what all these people could be doing if their time weren’t being sucked away by these daily snarl-ups and the four-decade wait for another option across the river. Bridges cause traffic all over the world, but this one’s aging steel rivets seem to be under more pressure than any I have ever crossed.
Another hour ticks by. We move a few inches.
People pass by, selling cold water and Coke. Where there is a go-slow, as traffic jams are known in Nigeria, vendor business blossoms.
Any movement is an on-again, off-again process. At one point when traffic starts forward, the driver in front of us is asleep. No amount of honking wakes him. Someone rushes over to shake him awake.
We go for 30 seconds. We stop for 30 minutes.
At midnight we make it across. It’s taken almost six hours to do three miles.
Leaving the bridge, we pass under a large sign on the Asaba side.
“Welcome,” it reads, optimistically, “to the land of progress.”
Ruth Maclean is the West Africa bureau chief of The New York Times.
Ruth Maclean is the West Africa bureau chief for The New York Times, based in Senegal. She joined The Times in 2019 after three and a half years covering West Africa for The Guardian. @ruthmaclean
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, says Nigeria cannot afford another civil war because it will not augur well for the country.
Osinbajo said this at an interactive forum of All Progressives Congress (APC) Anambra governorship aspirants, organised by the state chapter of APC Patriots in Abuja.
“The thing about the kind of conflict in this part of the world, developing countries, is that it is usually a war without end.
“Everyone who thinks he has some monies stored up somewhere will eventually run out of money.
“Everyone who think he can go and hide somewhere, won`t even find a place to hide, at the end, everyone will suffer.
“Even if you don’t suffer, parents, children, young and old people and relations will suffer. We cannot afford a war in this country, we can`t afford it,’’ he said.
Osinbajo said the political elite must rise up to the challenge by speaking the truth and taking actions to address the situation in the country.
“I pray that our country will never know conflict, but I know that every conflict is as a result of elite failure to speak up the truth and tell the truth to their communities.
“At the end of the day, it is the political elite that determine what happens in every society, keeping quite could lead to a more dangerous situation,” he said.
The Vice President said that the elite could make a great difference just by the words they speak.
“If we don`t speak up against disunity, if we keep quiet and remain under the radar, the enemies of peace and those who want to promote disunity will have their ways.
“And when this happens, we will find ourselves running helter skelter,’’ Osinbajo said.
He, therefore, urged political elites in the country to always speak up and stand for the interest of the country and the general public.
Osinbajo assured the APC aspirants that the leadership of the party would ensure a level playing field for them at the primary election slated for June to ensure that the best aspirant emerged as the candidate.
He, however, charged them to work in unity and commitment to the party.
“No one politician can win an election all by himself. I also want to advise you against the winner takes all syndrome,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event was the first interactive forum of the Anambra APC governorship aspirants, aimed at preparing ground for the party’s victory at the Nov. 6 governorship poll. NAN
By AbdulGafar Alabelewe, Kaduna/ THE NATION
Three of the abducted students of Greenfield University, Kasarami Kaduna, have been found dead.
They were shot dead by bandits who kidnapped them.
Kaduna Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Mr. Samuel Aruwan, who confirmed the development, said their remains were found on Friday in Kwanan Bature village, a location close to the University.
Bandits on Tuesday night kidnapped unspecified number of students at the institution located at Kasarami village off Kaduna-Abuja Road in Chikun LGA.
They contacted family members of the kidnapped students and demanded a collective ransom of N800 million.
Aruwan said the remains of the students have been evacuated to a mortuary by himself and Force Commander, Operation Thunder Strike, Lt.Col. MH Abdullahi.
According to him, “In an act of mindless evil and sheer wickedness, the armed bandits who kidnapped students of Greenfield University, have shot dead three of the abducted students.
“The remains of three students were found today (Friday), in Kwanan Bature village, a location close to the university and have been evacuated to a mortuary by the Commissioner, Internal Security and Home Affairs, and Force Commander, Operation Thunder Strike, Lt.Col. MH Abdullahi.”
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Barely 28 years after, former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday lamented the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election, presumably won by the late philanthropist, Moshood Kashimawo Abiola. He blamed the cancellation on “bad belle”.
The election, adjudged to be most peaceful, credible and fair, was annulled by the military President, Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida.
Obasanjo said the annulment robbed Egbaland and Ogun State the rare privilege of having three of its prominent sons occupying the number one leadership position in the country at different times.
The elder statesman, who was referring to former Head of Interim National Government(ING), Chief Ernest Shonekan, himself, who governed the country first as a military Head of State and a civilian president, apparently noted that Abiola would have become the third, if the 1993 presidential poll was not annulled.
He spoke yesterday in Abeokuta after his investiture as a trustee of the Abeokuta Club, a socio-cultural organisation of Egba people of Ogun State, where Tokunbo Odebunmi, an engineer, is the president.
Obasanjo was honoured alongside the late Abiola, who was awarded a posthumous vice-patron of the club.
The former president, who noted that Abiola was his schoolmate at the Baptist Boys High School (BBHS) Abeokuta, said the late politician richly deserved the award bestowed on him by the Abeokuta Club.
Obasanjo said: “When Abeokuta Club was in the process of being birthed, things in Abeokuta were not as rosy as they are today. And the sons of Abeokuta, who were in Lagos, put their heads together in late Chief Sobo Sowemimo’s residence to think of what they could do to improve the development of Abeokuta as a city. I pay tributes to all those founding members, those who have departed this world and those who are still here.
“I want to thank the club for this honour being bestowed on me and the honour being bestowed on my school mate, MKO Abiola, which he richly deserved.
“Kabiyesi, the Alake (of Egbaland) alluded to it. Normally, when you win a cup three times, you keep that cup. Isn’t it? If not for bad belle, Abeokuta would have produced President of Nigeria three times, in which case, we should have kept it permanently.
“But be that as it may, we have a great heritage. And we should be proud of our heritage. On this note, I will say on this occasion, I thank the President, the patron and grand patron, members of Board of Trustees, the executive. I want to say this, I will continue to contribute my quota to the development and growth of this club and by extension, the development and growth of Abeokuta, of Ogun State, of Nigeria, of African and indeed the of world in whichever way I could.”
Also, Alake and paramount ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, while presenting the plague to Obasanjo, described Obasanjo and MKO Abiola as proud sons of Abeokuta.
He added that some “bad blood” didn’t allow Abiola to emerge President of Nigeria.
By Moses Emorinken, Abuja/ THE NATION
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has suspended its strike, which started on April 1, 2021.
President of the NARD, Dr Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, told The Nation the suspension was based on some good comebacks from the negotiations with the government.
He however gave the government four weeks ultimatum to meet their sundry demands.
He said: “The strike has been suspended. The government gave us some good comebacks from our negotiations.
“We had an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting an hour ago, and we decided to suspend the strike for four weeks.”
Details shortly…
By Samuel Oamen/ The Nation
The Nigerian Correctional Service has released the names and faces of 36 of the over 1,800 inmates that escaped from the Correctional Centre in Owerri on Monday during an attack by suspected members of the proscribed Indigenious Peoples of Biafra(IPOB).
The service released the names and faces on his official twitter handle
It said: “Faces of persons who escaped from Owerri Custodial Centre, Imo State.
Please note that more photographs of the Escapees on the way and efforts are on to get clear pictures for the black spaces.”
It said efforts were on to release more names and faces of the fleeing inmates for the public to assist in their re-arrest.
By Chinyere Okoroafor/ THE NATION
The National Universities Commission (NUC) on Thursday gave provisional licences to 20 new private universities.
The private universities were established and approved by Federal Executive Council.
With these newly approved varsities the total number of universities in Nigeria is now 193.
Below are the 20 new universities that were recently given licences
1.Topfaith University Mkpatak, Akwa Ibom
2. Thomas Adewumi University, Oko-Irese, Kwara
3. Maranatha University, Mgbidi, Imo
4. Ave Maria University, Piyanko, Nasarawa
5. Al-Istiqama University, Sumaila, Kano
6. Mudiame University, Irrua, Edo
7. Havilla University, Nde-Ikom, Cross River
8. Claretian University of Nigeria, Nekede, Imo
9. NOK University, Kachia, Kaduna
10. Karl-Kumm University, Vom, Plateau
11. James Hope University, Lagos
12. Maryam Abacha American University of Nigeria, Kano
13. Capital City University, Kano
14. Ahman Pategi University, Kwara
15. University of Offa, Kwara
16. Mewar University, Masaka, Nasarawa
17. Edusoko University, Bida, Niger
18. Philomath University, Kuje, Abuja
19. Khadija University, Majia, Jigawa
20. Anan University, Kwall, Plateau
By Adebisi Onanuga/ THE NATION
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Chief Mike Ozekhome on Wednesday described the appointment of the new acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Usman Alkali Baba as illegal and unconstitutional.
Ozekhome contended Baba’s appointment negated provisions of Federal Character as enshrined in the 1999 constitution, as amended.
He stated this in a statement titled “Buhari’s Northernisation of Nigeria Police.”
The activist lawyer argued the President lacks the power to single handedly appoint the IGP.
He said the President can only appoint an IGP in conjunction with the Nigeria Police Council comprising Mr. President as chairman, all the 36 state governors, the chairman of the Police Service Commission and the IGP.
He argued the appointment of Baba, as the new acting IGP “is capricious, arbitrary, whimsical, unconscionable, illegal, unlawful, wrongful and unconstitutional.”
The senior advocate wondered why the President chose to ignore and disrespect the Federal Character principle enshrined in section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution.
He lamented the appointment DIG Usman Alkali Baba, a northern Muslim, as acting inspector-general of police, to replace Adamu Mohammed, another northern Muslim.
He said: “With Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, another northern Muslim as the minister of police affairs, the circle of policing in Nigeria is complete.
“Of course, Buhari controls the police by virtues of sections 214, 215 and 216 of the 1999 Constitution. It is the same situation with the ministry of petroleum resources and NNPC, the entire security architecture of Nigeria, and other key sectors and commanding heights of the economy.
“The illogical and puerile argument is always that the president only appoints people he can trust and that such persons are qualified in any event. That argument is insulting and insensitive to the intelligence, sensibilities and plurality of Nigeria.
“Can’t President Muhammadu Buhari for once, just for once, in his opaque appointments look beyond his religion and immediate and forsake sectionalism, cronyism, prebendalism, tribalism, favouritism, and act as a true statesman?
“Is he truly saying he cannot trust any of the other over 15 million Nigerians who voted for him, or that he cannot find any of them that is qualified to be made an IGP?”
More...
By AbdulGafar Alabelewe, Kaduna/ THE NATION
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has confirmed abduction of members of Anglican Church in Kaduna State.
The abductors, according to CAN, have already contacted the Church to demand N100 million ransom.
The Nation had reported female members of the Church were among 25 persons abducted during blockade of Kaduna-Kachia road in the early hours of Tuesday.
Confirming abduction of the Anglican Church members, Kaduna CAN chairman, Rev. Joseph Hayab, clarified that, of the 15 members of the Church on the journey, only four were whisked away by the kidnappers.
The CAN Chairman said other occupants of the bus fled into the bush during the attack and some of them sustained gun injuries in the process.
According to him: “My conversation with the Anglican church is they were 15 members in the bus but the others ran into the bush and others were shot and sustained injuries but the bandits took four persons; one old woman and three young ladies.
“They took a lot of people, they even contacted them (the Church) already asking for N100 million. That is what they said.
“It is a very sad thing nine people were killed and we are not sure of the number of persons kidnapped; that 28 that some people are quoting is an estimated number,” he said.
By Yusuf Alli, Abuja/ THE NATION
More than 130 choice assets have been bought with looted funds in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), by some ex-governors, ministers and senators.
These assets are among the over 800 traceable to Nigerians in the UAE, including top security and military officers.
Four areas have been identified through which the nation’s resources are looted.
These are Bribery and corruption, proceeds from commercial tax evasions, illicit activities engaged in by corporations and business ventures and proceeds derived from criminal activities.
The Nigeria’s oil and gas sector his belived to have contributed 92.9 per cent of the total amount in Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) .
But the chances of Nigeria recovering most of its looted cash are very low because of conditions attached to the release of such funds.
These highlights are part of a report on the “UAE component of the three country (Nigeria, UAE and the UK) comparative study of fixing Illicit Financial Flows,” which was submitted to the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa last Wednesday in Abuja.
The report, which was commissioned by an anti-corruption group, Human and Environmental Development Agenda,(HEDA), but researched and compiled by Prof. Gbenga Oduntan of Kent University.
Although the report did not reveal the identity of the Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) with the assets in Dubai, Chairman of HEDA, Olanrewaju Suraj, who spoke with The Nation on the telephone last night, said: “We have left it to, EFCC to unravel them. It is so sad that our funds are being looted and stashed abroad. We are not even talking of assets in the UAE identified with some military officers.”
The report, which was obtained by our correspondent, claimed that Nigerian Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and other corrupt public officers taken advantage of UAE’s soft system to launder funds.
The report said: “The sheer recklessness of a system which allows Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) including 34 Nigerian ex-governors to own 71 properties, seven senators to own 33 properties, and thirteen Federal ministers to buy and own 26 properties is apparent. In the circumstances this is a case of res ipsaloquitor- the facts speak for itself.
“A 2012 report stated that Nigerians had invested up to $6 billion in real estate in Dubai over three years, including whole floors of apartment blocks.61 As bad as things are with respect to dirty money being funnelled into properties in the UK particularly in London, Dubai is qualitatively worse.”
The report attributed the rush to stash funds in the UAE by top Nigerians to the weak financial system and its openness to investors.
The report said: “The finding reached is that the shortcomings in the practices of financial and professional bodies of the UAE are deep, substantive and troubling.
“Corrupt Nigerian elite have managed to evade detection and massively invested into the UAE property market particularly in Dubai. As argued by Barnaby Pace, “We know that the criminal and corrupt set up bolt-holes around the world in which to stash their dirty cash, with Dubai being a favoured spot for many….”
“Dubai is also a preferred destination for trade-based money laundering (TBML –IFF) and political corruption money laundering from Nigeria, precisely because the city is seen as a soft touch for PEPs and their associates.
“There is deliberate orchestration to make Dubai an Eldorado for property investors looking for a place to store wealth considering that construction and real estate sectors in the UAE contributed 20% to GDP as of 2016.”
The report quoted a study as saying “There are not the same checks on the sources of money coming into Dubai as there are in London and elsewhere”
“The lack of qualitative and mandatory beneficial ownership reporting system exacerbates the UAE’s significant shortcomings in relation to the interaction between luxury property market and “Dubai and other Emirates in the UAE operate a more laissez faire philosophy and the UAE generally has shaped itself into a vast bohemian desert investment space.
“Bribery, corruption, illegal resource exploitation, and tax evasion are the main channels of IFFs especially in relation to Nigeria- UK relationship in the country’s extractive industries. Much more damage is done to Nigeria’s financial interest by other countries as well.
“Indeed Nigeria’s oil and gas sector contributes 92.9 per cent of the total amount of IFFs the country records yearly through companies and persons operating in the highly porous yet important sector.
“In stolen crude oil deals alone Nigeria suffered more than $12 billion in losses to the US between 2011 and 2014. Another $3 billion was lost to China and $839.5 million to Norway in the same period.
“The damage done from within by bureaucratic mischief is very significant as well. Unfortunately, there is also under-reporting of production volumes and oil lifting by the NNPC and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
“For instance, it has for long been known that the effective lobbying by oil companies is a large aspect of the stalled progress of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) for nearly 20 years now because “the oil majors have been particularly vocal on potentially losing tax exemptions as a result of this law”.
The report made some recommendations including a generation of PEPs annually by the Federal Government with their data shared with some international agencies and development partners.
It added: “A comprehensive list of Nigerian PEPs should be generated annually. This data should be shared with its development partners, particularly the UAE, and the UK.
“Extradition remains a highly useful mechanism for governments and Nigeria must do its best not only to retain the treaties it has presently but most work to develop even more.
“The task of tracing the foreign investment practices of Nigerian PEPs in this way will have to take on a historical perspective. For instance, a former military governor of Ogun State is identifiable as owning up to six properties with a total purchase price of over $2 million.
“Article 236 (1) of the Federal Penal Code deals with the offence of accepting a bribe as a public official. There are similar provisions targeting bribery of a foreign public official and this is of great significance in reducing the space for bribe offences internationally and particularly in the developing world.
“Private sector bribery is unlawful under Article 236 b (2) of the Federal Penal Code. Public servants are defined under the Law as any persons in a federal or local position, whether legislative, executive, administrative or judicial, whether appointed or elected. (Article 5, Federal Penal Code).”
It asked the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to evolve better ways of monitoring financial transactions of PEPs and other businesspersons.
It said: The CBN would therefore, need to take a more effective approach with targeted measures not only to negotiate instruments but also to engage in better monitoring of financial transactions of PEPs and other businesspersons.
“Looking at what we have discovered so far, the CBN has not satisfactorily established and performed its supervisory functions not only over banks particularly in the case of certain types of customers (e.g., non-resident or offshore customers, PEPs but there are also shortcomings in oversight in relation to Private Investment Companies (PIC), MNCs and shell companies; offshore entities; cash-intensive businesses and import or export companies).
“ The CBN must do better particularly in its role as an assessor of the adequacy of financial institution’s systems to manage the risks associated with senior local/foreign political figures, but it must do better in instilling an expectation of probity among corporate management and their ability to implement effective risk-based due diligence, monitoring and reporting systems.
“The imposition of sanctions against banks including prosecution of their employees together with the institution is an essential part of creating a better-disciplined national financial system that is less susceptible to mischief from within and without. The journey to a full grant of autonomy to the NFIU is not yet complete although credit is due to the country’s authority for the implementation of the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit Act 2018, which established the NFIU as an independent entity.”
Despite its recommendations, the report said the chances of recovering looted funds are very low.
It said: “The harsh reality is that Nigeria may never even find out just how many hundreds of billions of looted assets it has suffered over the decades and certainly since its independence as a sovereign state. The chances of having the losses restored in meaningful ways are extremely low.
“Sadly, even recent scandals with ample documentary trail have led to little or no asset recovery. The practice of some Western nations including the UK in insisting on exacting and retaining arbitrary sums as during asset recovery requests from weaker states is particularly abhorrent. Nigeria and other developing state have a duty to posterity to resist this practice.
“Similarly, the practice of demanding and attaching conditionalities outside the confines of international law to the return of illegally transferred wealth is abominable.
“These practices are not products of law and equity but are expressions of the asymmetries in international relations, which permit a certain group of privileged states to add insult to the injuries of weaker states in the sheer context of things.”
While receiving the report, the EFCC chairman, Bawa, said: “I want to assure you, that we are going to study the report to add value to those areas where it is within our mandate; we will look at it and ensure that justice is done.
“The country has been cheated for quite a long time, people saddled with the responsibility of governance in this country have succeeded in doing it selfishly by taking these funds out of the shores of this country.
“It is one thing for properties to be taken to the UAE and the UK, it is another thing that we here in Nigeria are ensuring that you don’t have the opportunity to take them out in the first instance. That is why we want to be proactive in our approach to law enforcement and the fight against corruption in this country.
“All the people that are taking these funds out of the shores of this country are not doing that alone; there are conspirators, engineers helping them, professionals are helping them, accountants and financial institutions are helping them. We are not trying to look at what happened before but we are determined the future will be better.
“And then of course part of our mandate to ensure that proceeds of crime are identified and repatriated for the benefit of all Nigerians. It is not an easy task, it is something that cut across jurisdictions.
“The UK and the UAE have their own laws, processes and procedures, but we have a lot of bilateral and multi-lateral agreements that we are signatories to; to discuss about issues of information sharing, investigation as well as repatriation of ill-gotten assets.
On February 5, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released a circular addressed to banks and other financial institutions with the directive that transactions in cryptocurrencies and facilitating payment for cryptocurrency exchanges were prohibited.
The CBN further instructed all banks and other financial institutions to identify individuals or entities that transact in cryptocurrency or operate cryptocurrency exchanges and close their accounts.
That CBN letter elicited varied reactions from the Nigerian public with many expressing concern about the potential negative effect it could have on the country’s growing cryptocurrency market and innovation in financial technology.
Some stakeholders supported the ban while others questioned the goals of the policy, which they saw as stifling the livelihood of young Nigerians using cryptocurrencies to escape poverty and unemployment.
The memo, however, created interest in some Nigerians who were hitherto unaware of the existence or workings of cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrency is described as a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange where individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger existing in a form of computerised database.
It usually does not exist in physical form like paper money and is not issued by a central monetary authority. It uses decentralised control as opposed to centralised digital and central banking systems.
The first decentralised cryptocurrency, bitcoin, was created in 2009 by presumably pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. In April 2011, Namecoin was created and in October 2011, Litecoin was released.
The most popular cryptocurrency transacted in Nigeria is Bitcoin, but others like Dogcoin and Ethereum are also dominant while more cryptocurrencies continue to be created from time to time.
Many youths in Nigeria have found transactions in cryptocurrencies profitable and rewarding, thus increasing its popularity.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are unregulated in many countries and their legal status is unclear. This implies that financial safety is really not guaranteed.
Converting local currencies to and from bitcoin, for instance, relies on informal brokers. Prices are usually volatile, and buying and selling are a complex processes that demand technical knowledge.
In 2017, the CBN had earlier warned that cryptocurrencies were not legal tender, and that investors were unprotected.
Findings reveal that Nigeria has accounted for crypto transaction worth N566 million dollars in the last five years.
According to the estimates, out of the top 10 countries for trading volumes Nigeria ranked third after USA and Russia in 2020, generating more than 400 million dollars worth of transactions.
Some stakeholders have urged the apex bank to revisit the ban on cryptocurrency transactions and see digital currencies as another tool for economic growth.
The Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) advised the CBN to carry out a comprehensive study on the workings of cryptocurrencies to check its excesses.
According to Laoye Jaiyeola, Chief Executive Officer of the NESG, though checking excesses in its transaction was a challenge that people were grappling with across the world, cryptocurrency has come to stay.
“Cryptocurrency transaction is a challenge that people grapple with all over the world. While we institute the ban, we should undertake a comprehensive study to understand how it works.
“We have been told that they can easily be deployed to fund criminal activities, but it has come to stay, and if we are going to allow it in future, we should start learning about it now,” he advised.
In July 2020, popular Nigerian social media celebrities, Ramon Abbas (Hushppuppi) and Olalekan Ponle (Woodberry) were arrested in Dubai by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on charges of fraud and money laundering.
According to an affidavit by the FBI, criminal proceeds from both Woodberry and Hushpuppi were converted into bitcoin, and will most likely be untraceable.
This further emphasised how convenient it could be for criminals to hide their financial crimes using cryptocurremncies.
All around the world, the decentralised nature of cryptocurrency that has made it an attraction for some investors has also made it a nightmare for regulators.
CBN, in justifying the ban, explained that cryptocurrencies transaction was devoid of proper regulation and prone to financial crimes.
Osita Nwanisobi, CBN Acting Director of Communications said that the directive was only a reminder of an earlier directive in 2017 banning cryptocurrency transactions.
He said that the anonymous nature of cryptocurrency, which made it prone to financial crimes, justified the ban.
“It is important to state that cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies issued by largely anonymous entities and secured by cryptography.
“Cryptography is a method of encrypting and hiding codes that prevent oversight, accountability and regulation,” he said.
He clarified that the directive on cryptocurrency was not unique to Nigeria as countries like China, Canada, Taiwan, Indonesia, Egypt, Morocco, among others have instituted similar restrictions on its transactions.
He said that such currencies remained illegal in Nigeria because they were issued by entities that were neither licensed nor legal.
Sen. Tokunbo Abiru, representing Lagos East Senatorial District, support the ban in transaction of the Cryptocurrency in the country.
He, however, suggested that major stakeholders on cryptocurrency transaction be invited to a public hearing to appraise its advantages and its excesses.
At a joint session of relevant Senate committees on Feb. 23, Mr Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor further explained reasons for restricting financial institutions from engaging in crypto transactions.
Emefiele gave the assurance that the directive was not inimical to the development of technology-driven payment system in Nigeria.
He said that the Nigerian payment system had evolved significantly over the past decade, boosted by reforms driven by the CBN.
“Cryptocurrency has no place in our monetary system at this time, and cryptocurrency transactions should not be carried out through the Nigerian banking system,’’ he said.
However, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, speaking at a recent CBN Bankers Committee Economic Summit, called for the regulation of cryptocurrency transactions in Nigeria rather than an outright ban.
Osinbajo urged the apex bank to develop a robust regulatory system to check such transactions.
“Rather than adopt a policy that prohibits cryptocurrency operations in the Nigerian banking sector, we must act with knowledge and not fear and develop a robust regulatory regime that is thoughtful and knowledge-based.
“There is no question that blockchain technology generally and cryptocurrencies, in particular, will in the coming years challenge traditional banking, including Central banking, in ways that we cannot yet imagine.
“We need to be prepared for that seismic shift. And it may come sooner than later,” he said.
Meanwhile, speaking at the 30th seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors in Abuja recently, CBN Deputy Governor, Adamu Lamtek, said the bank did not ban cryptocurrency activity in the country.
Lamtek said that CBN only prohibited transactions on cryptocurrencies in the Nigerian banking sector.
He said: “the CBN did not place restrictions from use of cryptocurrencies, and we are not discouraging people from trading in them. What we have done was to prohibit transactions on cryptocurrencies in the banking sector.”
The inauguration will mark the first-ever transition between elected presidents in Niger’s six decades of independence from France — a historic moment that has been widely praised.
But the Sahel country’s instability and insecurity have been deeply underscored in the runup to Friday’s ceremony.
In the early hours of Wednesday, after gunfire broke out near the presidency in the capital Niamey, the government announced an “attempted coup” had been thwarted — a “cowardly and regressive act which sought to threaten democracy and the state of law”.
The alleged coup leader is an air force officer in charge of security at Niamey’s air base and is being “actively sought”, a source within Niger’s security services told AFP on Wednesday.
Another security source said “a few members of the army” had been behind the coup but had been prevented from approaching the presidential palace by the elite Presidential Guard.
“Some arrests” were made, the source said.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was among worried foreign leaders, calling the armed forces “to strictly abide by their constitutional obligations”.
World’s poorest country
Bazoum, 60, is a former interior minister and right-hand man of outgoing president Mahamadou Issoufou, 68, who has voluntarily stepped down after two five-year terms.
Bazoum won a runoff vote for the presidency in February with 55.6 percent of the ballot, according to official results contested by his opponent, Mahamane Ousmane.
But his most formidable rival, former premier Hama Amadou, was banned from running because of a conviction for baby trafficking — a charge he has branded politically motivated.
Niger is the poorest country in the world, according to the benchmark of the UN’s 189-nation Human Development Index (HDI).
The West African nation has suffered four coups in its history, most recently a February 2010 putsch that toppled then-president Mamadou Tandja.
It has also been ravaged by repeated jihadist attacks, from insurgents who have advanced from Mali in the west and Nigeria in the southeast.
More than 300 people have been killed in three attacks in the west since the start of the year.
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