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Adeboye Slams FG Over Border Closure, VAT Increase, Others
The General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has kicked against the closure of Nigerian borders with neighbouring countries and also condemned the proposed increase of VAT from 5 per cent to 7.5 per cent by the Federal Government.
The proposal, he said, would further increase the burdens on Nigerians.
Adeboye also said the proposed reintroduction of toll gates on Federal Government roads was insensitive.
The plan, he said, shouldn’t be considered at a time most federal roads were in pitiable condition.
The Federal Government, as far as Adeboye is concerned, should refocus its plans and programmes toward initiatives that would lessen the suffering and burdens of Nigerians.
He spoke, yesterday, at the special church service at the RCCG headquarters, Throne of Grace, Ebute-Metta, Lagos.
The programme tagged, ‘Arise’ attracted worshippers and traditional rulers led by the Alake and Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo.
He further pointed out the closure of borders to importation of rice was ill-conceived because it has made the stable unavailable to most Nigerians.
Adeboye said that the Federal Government should henceforth focus on initiating policies that would lessen the sufferings and burdens of Nigerians, because according to him, a nation at 59 is no longer young.
Such policies, he said, should have the capability to move the country out of doldrums, make her arise and pitch her tent with comity of nations.
Speaking through the Assistant General Overseer, Administration and Personnel, Pastor Johnson Odesola, Adeboye emphasised a lot of policies of government are not helping Nigerians.
He lamented many Nigerians were suffering when the wealth of their nation are just in few hands who have refused to let go.
The respected preacher also criticised how banks are fixing interest rate, which he described as one of the highest in the world, saying the development was making business environment unfavourable for Nigerians.
He bemoaned the condition of commoners, saying it was insensitive for the Federal Government to consider bringing back toll gates when the roads were in bad conditions.
Oba Gbadebo appreciated God for the 59th Independence celebration, saying that God has helped us a lot as Nigeria has remained one the federation that has remain strong and indivisible since independence in 1960.
He appealed to Nigeria leaders to consolidate on the success and achievements made so far in Nigeria by working for the interest of the people rather than their personal interest and gain.
He restated that leaders in position of authority are put there by God and will one day give account of their stewardship to him.
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Groups To Present Nigeria’s Security Crisis To UK Parliament
Two Nigerian charities based in the United Kingdom (UK) will submit a report on the current security situation in Nigeria to the UK Government and Parliament on March 19.
The report was developed by academics at King’s College, London.
It is to be presented at the UK Parliament by the two organisations, Ibironke Adeagbo Foundation (IA-Foundation) and the International Organisation for Peace Building and Social Justice (PSJ), UK.
The Chief Executive Officer of IA-Foundation, Mrs Ibironke Adeagbo, told newsmen in a telephone interview on Saturday in Abuja, that the report was meant to keep the UK Government abreast of the current security crisis in Nigeria.
She said that the report had detailed and analysed “the nexus between education and insecurity in Nigeria.’’
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and a former British colony, has been at the receiving end of relentless abductions of school children, mainly in northern Nigeria.
On March 8, some 287 school children were kidnapped in a school in North western Kaduna State and 15 more were abducted in Sokoto State days later.
The recurring abductions, which started since 2014, have forced about 20.2 million children out of classrooms, disrupted homes and forced millions out of their farms.
Adeagbo said that the report entitled “Illiteracy and Insecurity-an Unholy Marriage’’, highlighted and appraised the relationship between education and insecurity across Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT.
“Education has been a key sector hit both directly and indirectly with direct attacks on learning institutions and student populations with kidnappings, killings, destruction of infrastructure and sowing of fear.’’
She said that the report would also be presented to Nigerian envoys and diplomats in the UK, to make them to have better grasp of the security issues at home.
Adeagbo, who has been at the forefront of tackling Nigeria’s out-of-school children crisis, said that the report was being presented at a time Nigeria and the UK had renewed their Security and Defence Partnership Pact.
According to her, the pact seeks to address and eliminate all forms of terror and insecurity in Nigeria for the long-term benefit of the West African country and its former colonial master.
She said that the report presentation was also coming at a time when the Federal Government showed resolve to tackle the problems with the appointment of retired Gen. Ja’afar Isa as the Executive Director of the Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Commission.
Adeagbo said that government was beginning to act on the recommendations made by the foundation on how best to tackle the out-of-school children crisis.
On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of PSJ UK, Mr Ayo Adedoyin, said that the report also looked at the causes, trends and implications of the high rate of insecurity on the development of education at all levels in Nigeria.
According to him, the absence of peace has been a national tragedy and, particularly so in the Northern and Middle belt parts of Nigeria.
He said that the development had caused severe disruptions in various sectors of the Nigerian economy, including agriculture and transportation.
“This must be tackled comprehensively now otherwise, it will mess up our collective future,’’ he added.
Adedoyin said that the two charities would develop a “Draft Action Plan’’ to be presented to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Office of Nigeria’s National Security Adviser for implementation.
The Chief Executive Officer of Halogen Group, Mr Wale Olaoye, is also scheduled to make a presentation on the insecurity challenges in Nigeria during the report presentation.
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NDPC Investigates Alleged Privacy Breach At NIMC
The National Commissioner, Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Dr Vincent Olatunji, has ordered a full-scale investigation in respect of allegations of unauthorised access to the personal data of enrollees in the database of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
This was contained in a statement on Sunday issued by Babatunde Bamigboye, Head of Legal, Enforcement and Regulations, in NDPC.
Bamigboye revealed that this investigation is a further regulatory measure to be taken by NDPC in the wake of public concerns over reports of illegal access to personal data of enrollees by a shadowy entity called XpressVerify.com.
It would be recalled that prior to now, NDPC has been engaging with NIMC on fostering adequacy of data protection.
To this end, NDPC held a training with relevant officers of NIMC early February, 2024.
Bamigboye said this is one in a continuum of measures being put in place by the Federal Government to ensure data privacy and protection.
“We note that NIMC has initiated internal investigation and it has immediately given full assurances of cooperation with NDPC to get to the root of the allegation and to review existing mediums through which any entity may lawfully verify the identity of enrollees on its platform.
“Furthermore, NDPC will work with relevant agencies to audit the trails of the alleged unauthorised data processing and monetisation of same, and those who are found culpable for violating the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 will be brought to justice.
“The National Commissioner further directed that preliminary findings of the investigation should be made public within seven days,” he said.
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Stakeholders Raise Concern As Nigeria’s Inflation Rate Rises To 31.70%
The challenge of spiraling inflation and how to stem the tide has been central to stakeholders engagements in recent times.
According to analysts at CardinalStone Finance, an investment house, the rising inflation pressure indicates that Nigeria remains within the top 10 countries with the highest inflation reading in Africa.
The analysts said that a material jump in prices of food stuff like rice, was a consequence of the increasing depletion of food reserves and incessant insecurity issues in food-producing parts of the country.
The Tide’s source reports that Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 31.70 per cent in February from 29.90 per cent in January.
This is according to recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The NBS said that the February headline inflation rate showed an increase of 1.80 per cent compared to the January headline inflation rate.
It said that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 9.79 per cent points higher than the rate recorded in February 2023, which was 21.91 per cent.
“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in the month of February 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year ( February 2023),” the NBS said.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also warned that 8.0 per cent of Nigerians are at a high risk of food insecurity if the current inflationary trajectory persisted.
The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Yemi Cardoso, said that the leading factors driving inflationary pressure in Nigeria included rising cost of energy.
Cardoso said that high fiscal deficits and lingering security challenges in major food -producing areas were also responsible for the high inflation rate.
He said that the apex bank had initiated a raft of inflation-targeting frameworks in its monetary policy measures.
He said that this informed the decision by the CBN to further raise the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 400 basis points to 22.75 per cent from 18.75 per cent.
According to Cardoso, the move followed the success recorded in slowing down inflation in the past using the same mechanism.
Stakeholders, however, believe that the removal of petrol subsidy, closely followed by the decision to float the Naira were largely responsible for the spiraling inflation.
According to Okechukwu Unegbu, a past president of the Chattered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), President Bola Tinubu already took some sensitive policy decisions even before appointing the CBN governor and the finance minister.
“Floating the Naira was a major error that has exacerbated inflationary trend and caused the people so much pain,” he said.
Unegbu urged the government to fix the economy by looking beyond the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in selling its crude oil.
He also advised that the government should ignore economic prescriptions by the World Bank and IMF and produce indigenous solutions to the nation’s economic challenges.
“Nigeria should do something about pricing its oil in Naira. We should leave OPEC, price our oil independently.
“If inflation can be addressed; if we produce more food, things will improve. It will also address the issue of “dollarisation of the economy,’’ he said.
A renowned economist, Prof. Ken Ife, said that the CBN adopted inflation targeting as a basis for further tightening monetary policy rates, an indication of how serious government took the country’s rising inflation.
Ife, however, said that the support from the fiscal authorities was crucial to achieving monetary policy results.
“The CBN says it is going for inflation targeting, but there should be more support from the fiscal authorities because a lot of the issues with the economy are not really monetary.
“We have N500 billion going for social intervention annually, the money does not go into the productive sector,” Ife said.
He said that the import dependence nature of Nigeria’s economy was a major fuel to the inflation and weak Naira in the foreign exchange market.
According to him, not much has changed in terms of the structure of the economy over the years.
He said that Nigeria was part of an international division of labour, which confines it to the provision of raw materials and consumer of finished products.
“Any attempt to add value to our exports is usually met with stiff resistance.
“When a country is import dependent, it becomes so vulnerable to any external, global headwind, and it affects the economy
“The mortgage crisis in America and the Russian-Ukrainian war affected us because we are import-dependent. What we have is imported inflation,” he said.
Dr Chijioke Ekechukwu, an economist, said that while many countries were having their inflation rate reduced month-on-month, Nigeria’s inflation rate continued to rise because of volatile exchange rate regime.
Ekechukwu said that standard of living had dropped to the lowest ebb while the country’s external reserve was being eroded by inflation.
“Cost of living has become increasingly unbearable, crime has taken over the entire country, and investors are afraid to venture into the country.
“Companies are shutting down and leaving the country and jobs are lost every day.
“The government has to be very decisive as a matter of urgency to remedy the ailing economy by ensuring that the exchange rate improves to less than N800 to the dollar.
“The exchange rate must be stable to enable planning and to restore confidence in the economy,” he said.
Ekechukwu said that every possible avenue should be explored to diversify the country’s export base.
He advised the Federal Government to ensure that the country’s crude oil sales met the OPEC quota of 1.8 million barrels per day.
“The Federal Government should also ensure that revenue from crude oil sales came in on a daily basis through the CBN, “ he said..
He said that such a step would provide the country with enough liquidity to check inflation and other economic challenges.
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