Nigeria: Victor Kwen Akomaye speaks about life as Mr. Runway

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Read Time:2 Minute, 47 Second

Victor Kwen Akomaye is the current Mr Runway Africa 2011. The Cross-River State born model was also among the finalists for Mr Nigeria World competition in 2010. He speaks to YNaija on his foray into full-time modelling.

Tell us how you were discovered?

I was discovered during a casting for a competition called Runway Dreams Model Search formed by Data Okorodudu of JD7. I heard about the show but I didn’t go for it. However, three days later I went to one of their rehearsals and met with 19 other new applicants.  The organizers decided to pick one person more and I was furtunate enough to be chosen. since then I knew I have a place in modelling, though I didn’t win the competition, I was among the top finalist.

How long have you nurtured the passion for modelling?

I’ve had passion for modelling from the age of 10. I Always wanted to walk in the middle of a box without fall off; I never knew I was working towards something I will be doing full time today, but it’s all God’s work (smiles).

Who are your inspirations?

I wasn’t inspired by a particular person but a lot of people who are doing well in their respective field of work.

Who are the designers you have worked with?

I’ve worked with Mai Atafo, Okunoren Twins, David Wej, JD7, B-side by Wale, Emmy Collins, James Brendan and loads of others I can’t remember.

After picking modelling as a career,what was your parent’s reactions like?

My family has always been supportive; they have always been there for me.

Do you wish to pursue other ventures in the fashion business someday?

I hope to be a fashion designer someday; keeping my fingers crossed though.

What are the challenges you face as a model?

A lot of challenges, like going for casting and not being picked.

What agency do You belong with?

I’m a confirmed Hues and Shades model and I’m proud to say it. They always see us through and cater for all of our needs in the industry.

What job has been your best yet?

The Arise fashion week has been my best job so far.

Can we know your statistics?

6ft:3 inches, shoulders 20, waist 33, trouser length  42, chest 40.

What is the best trick you’ve learnt from a make-up artist?

Always keep your lips wet.

Have you done anything as a model that you wish you hadn’t?

Shsss! it’s a secret can’t tell you, she might  read this some day (laughing).

Your thoughts on the modelling industry in Nigeria?

I think we  are  not given the chance to  be what we  are, and we don’t have any support.

How often do you work out?

I only do seat ups and road walks, nothing much.

Any advice for aspiring models?

Aspiring models should always focus. Please, don’t give up. If you’re dropped, always stand up.

Watch pictures of Victor here

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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High-Priced Mediocrities By Okey Ndibe

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Read Time:6 Minute, 16 Second

I wonder how many Nigerians read a report in the online edition of Next newspaper titled “Four African Countries Will Achieve MDGs by 2015”. One suspects that some Nigerians who didn’t see the report must wonder whether their country made the list of four.

Perish the thought!

Next’s account cited a World Bank report issued at the annual general meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It revealed that, of the fifty odd countries in Africa, only “Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Malawi will likely achieve most of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 or soon thereafter.” The document also gave credit to three African countries – Cape Verde, Rwanda and Zambia – for being among the 10 economies in the world that most improved the ease of doing business in 2010.

The Millennium Development Goals – for that’s what MDG stands for – are a set of objectives adopted by world leaders in 2000 with the aim of achieving significant improvements in socio-economic indices. The eight goals include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; the achievement of universal primary education; the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women; the reduction of child mortality and improvement of maternal health. In other words, the MDGs were conceived as a global tool for combating the scourge of disease and poverty. Each country had fifteen years to meet the goals.

Some countries went to work, determined to meet – or even surpass – the targets. These committed nations, with Brazil as a leading example, were fueled by the desire to transform their citizens as well as environments. Other countries – predictably Nigeria and the majority of African states – seem to have gone to sleep, determined to show up, not on the success lists, but on the rolls of the nations that can’t, won’t – or don’t care.

The difference is clear. On any score, the World Bank’s report is sobering, and shameful. The four success stories – the exception that proves the rule that African nations are still deeply mired in excruciating poverty – are products of “accelerated growth and progress on social indicators.” Four success stories in the midst of close to fifty failures is a portrait of abject failure. It’s no surprise that the World Bank implied that the four countries’ impressive showing served to highlight “serious development challenges [that] remain in Africa.”

It’s true, the report contained (the faintest) signs of progress. It found that the maternal mortality rate in Africa had declined by 26 percent between 1990 and 2009; even so, as many as 645 women per 100,000 still die during pregnancy and childbirth. It also noted a slight dip in child mortality and stabilization of HIV infection rates. The most dramatic positive showing is in the area of direct investment flows. In 2010, African nations – with estimated receipts of $21.5 billion – surpassed such investments that went to India.

Nigerians (as well as other Africans) ought to be outraged that their country did not make enough progress to earn a spot on the list of the few African nations that stayed awake to their responsibilities. Imagine the salutary impact that Nigeria would make in West Africa (and beyond) if it were to discover and embrace its mission – rather than persist in the prodigal habit of betraying it. Many Nigerians are jealous of Ghana’s steady, discernable progress.

If Nigeria were in Ghana’s position, then its strides would have energized not only its 150 million citizens but also millions from neighboring countries. The Nigerian president, governors, legislators, ministers, commissioners and local government councilors are in the top tier of the most highly paid officials in the world. The president, governors and some ministers stow away hundreds of millions of naira each month in the scam called security votes – funds that are frequently and easily pocketed because, as a rule, they are never to be accounted for. Members of the National Assembly – senators as well as representatives – cart await millions of dollars each year in the name of “constituency allowances,” another entrenched scam. And one hasn’t counted the billions of naira embezzled through such schemes as fraudulent or over-inflated contracts.

Yet, for all that they are paid and all that they steal, most Nigerian officials won’t even spare a decent hour in a day to spend thinking about their dispossessed fellows and to figure out how to solve the nation’s manifold crises. It is as if the country wastes its scarce resources on certified mediocrities, men and women so bereft of vision that they don’t realize how ridiculous they look in the eyes of the world – and for all their loot.

A Nigeria run by its least visionary and enlightened elements – men and women whose imagination is fixed on the size of their bank accounts – is in no shape to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. How is the country to reduce its health woes when hospitals are not just ill equipped, they are often not equipped at all? With Nigerian officials (and their families) skipping off to Europe, Asia or North America for medical treatment, who is left to think about the hapless condition of Nigerians beset by all manner of diseases?

I must illustrate with my home state of Anambra, a place where one man has instituted propaganda as the substitute for governance. A few weeks ago, former Commonwealth Secretary General Emeka Anyaoku and a few others gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the creation of Anambra State. Mr. Anyaoku, who chaired the event, was content to cheer Governor Peter Obi, describing him in superlative terms. Yet, Mr. Anyaoku knows – he must know – that doctors in the state have been on strike for more than six months in a dispute over modest increments in their pay. Is it not a scandal that any government would treat its people so callously, indifferent to something as critical as their health?

One wondered whether Mr. Anyaoku would be satisfied with the state of affairs in Anambra were he compelled to seek medical attention in the state? If enlightened Nigerians would not raise their expectations of those who govern; if they would not advocate for decent healthcare, better education and improved lives for all citizens; if they would not voice their outrage at a situation where the lowliest citizens are denied access to affordable medical care, then it is no surprise that Nigeria now lags far behind Ghana, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zambia and Malawi – and many more African countries – in measurements of quality of life.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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9/11 was staged: Iran’s leader: 2 planes couldn’t bring towers down

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Read Time:40 Second

WASINGTON (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that as an engineer he’s sure the twin towers were not brought down by jetliners.

Ahmadinejad, in an interview with The Associated Press, says it would have been impossible for two jetliners to bring down the towers simply by hitting them. he says some kind of planned explosion must have taken place.

Ahmadinejad stopped short of saying the United States staged the disaster 10 years ago. But he says there are questions the world should resolve, and noted there are doubters in the United States as well.

Ahmadinejad was denied his request last year to visit the site of the World Trade Center collapse. He says he’s not making another attempt this year. He’s in New York City for the U.N. General Assembly.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigeria police nab 2 students over gang rape

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Read Time:2 Minute, 42 Second

The police in Abia State Saturday arrested two suspects over the alleged gang rape of a girl said to be a student of Abia State University.

The state Commissioner of Police, Bala Usman, who confirmed the arrests, said the suspects were being interrogated to establish if they were among the five persons that participated in the gang rape. He also confirmed that the suspects are students of the Abia State University, Uturu (ABSU).

According to him, it is too early to confirm if the two boys are among those that gang raped the girl, adding that it might just be a coincidence of names.

He, however, declined to reveal the names of the suspects, adding that since investigation is still going on, the police would not want to do anything that would jeopardise efforts to arrest all those involved in the incident.

He said their culpability or otherwise would be determined after they have been interrogated, adding that the police would make a pronouncement on the incident thereafter.

The ABSU spokesman, Mr. Acho Elendu, said he was not aware of the arrests.

He, however expressed optimism that the police would finally unravel the perpetrators of the crime which he said has caused the university embarrassment and generated national and international outrage.

The female student, whose identity remains unknown, was gang-raped by five boys on August 16 while her abusers recorded it, passed it round their friends, who then passed it round the ABSU campus.

The video recording was later posted on the Internet, triggering a wave of national and international rage.

The House of Representatives, after considering a motion on the incident last Thursday, asked the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, to investigate the matter and ensure that the rapists are brought to book.

The motion was sponsored by a former Chairman of the House Committee on Diaspora, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who described the incident as heinous, saying that the suspects were heartless in the manner they brutally raped the girl and celebrated their act.

She also expressed worry over the rising cases of rape in the country, adding that in most cases, the perpetrators always escape justice as majority of victims, out of fear of stigmatisation, do not bother to report to the police.

House Committee Chairman on Women Affairs, Mrs. Christina Alaaga, also condemned the incident, calling for stiffer penalties for offenders.

Also on the same day, Minister of Youth Development, Mallam Mobolaji Abdullahi, said one of the suspects had been identified.

He, however, expressed doubts that the suspects would be convicted based on the available evidence, adding: “more than 70 percent of the information we have on the rape will not be said here for obvious security reasons. But I can tell you we have information on it. The girl is not a student of Abia State University. She was raped in an off-campus residential area of students. This is law, if we cannot press for rape, there are other charges that we can press. I can assure you that justice will be done.”

Meanwhile, a women’s rights group has said it was making efforts to get the victim out of Abia State to where she can receive counselling and medical attention.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigerian customs seize shipment of explosives

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Read Time:1 Minute, 33 Second

LAGOS — Customs officials in Nigeria, buckling under a spate of bomb attacks blamed on Islamists, have seized an illegal shipment of materials used in bomb-making on a Chinese vessel, an official said Saturday.

They were found in a 40-foot (12-metre) container which was searched Friday at the port of Tin Can in Lagos, customs spokesman Wale Adeniyi told AFP.

The container had arrived in June at one of Nigeria’s busiest ports on the MV Sheng Shi which had sailed from the southern Chinese port of Huangpu.

The suspicions of intelligence and customs officials were aroused by inconsistencies on the waybill.

An inspection yielded industrial socket valves and rechargeable reading lamps, which was the declared content, but also “different dimensions” of materials used in making explosive devices, Adeniyi said.

“Some of them were like underground cables, moulds, wires.”

The spokesman could not say whether any detonators were found.

Adeniyi said no importer or agent has come forward for clearance and no arrests have been made.

In October last year, Nigeria intercepted a container with crates of rockets, explosives and grenades from Iran. The case stirred international attention as Iran is under a UN arms embargo over its nuclear programme.

Nigeria has in recent months come under repeated bomb attack — the worst of which targeted UN headquarters in Abuja last month.

A suicide bomber on August 26 made his way through a gauntlet of security at the UN’s main compound, forcing his way through the gate before ramming into the building.

The resulting blast blew out the building’s first two floors, killing 23 people and leaving 116 others wounded, some seriously.

It was one of the bloodiest attacks ever targeting the UN.

Authorities in Africa’s most populous country, with 150 million inhabitants, are under immense pressure to end the attacks and have reinforced security measures in several cities.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Strike looms at Nigeria Universities

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Read Time:2 Minute, 45 Second

Barring any last minute development, the non-academic staffers of Nigerian universities will embark on a week-long warning strike to express their displeasure over the non-implementation of an agreement it reached with the federal government in 2009.

The three unions, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and Non Academic Staff Union of Universities, Educational Research Institutions (NASU), cited issues in dispute over which it is embarking on the warning strike to include; the 65 years retirement age, improvement in the funding level of universities, earned allowances and career structure for Technologists Contiss 14 and 15.

The unions also seemed angered by the alleged manner in which the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu treated them when he failed to turn up at a scheduled negotiation meeting last week Thursday.

Briefing journalists yesterday in Abuja, the president of NAAT, Mr. Abdulateef Jokomba, who spoke on behalf of the three unions, alleged that the amendment of the universities (miscellaneous provisions) Act 11 of 1993, if allowed, would have further decimated the various groups in the university system, hence its rejection.

The unions therefore issued the federal government a September 30 deadline to sign the version of the law that takes the concerns of all the stakeholders in the education sector into consideration, else it will embark on an unprecedented strike action.

According to Jokomba, “We have, as law abiding unions, written to the Government of the Federation copying the National Assembly and other key agencies of government that should the bill remain unsigned by 30th September, 2011, and other contending issues raised remain unattended to, members of the three unions – NAAT, SSANU and NASU – shall commence a nationwide seven (7) days warning strike from 3rd to 9th October 2011 as a prelude to a total and indefinite full-blown industrial action.”

The aggrieved three unions also said, in the agreement signed with government, there is a proviso that whenever there is a general wage review, that of the varsity workers must be reviewed alongside.

They regretted that since the minimum wage law was signed into law, neither Nigeria Universities Commission ((NUC) nor the Ministry of Education has called them for a meeting on how to implement the wage for the benefit of their members.

He said, “The various unions’ agreements has a proviso in the agreements that whenever there is a general increase in public sector’s salaries and allowances, the remuneration of non-academic staff shall be correspondingly increased. The minimum wage approved for Nigerian workers commenced in August 2011. Expectedly, the unions should have by now been invited for necessary briefing. Neither the Federal Ministry of Education nor the National Universities Commission (NUC) has spoken on this.”

Also, the president of SSANU, Samson Ugwoke, called on eminent and goodwill Nigerians to appeal to the Federal Government to open a credible line of discussion saying. He stated that, “Government should not dare us this time because we are fully mobilised for this strike. We will not surrender until all our demands are met. This is the time to appeal to government on this issue before 3rd October when the warning strike will commence and then the full-blown strike.”

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Shell Nigeria oil sales to end with operator deal

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Read Time:3 Minute, 53 Second

ABUJA, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Shell’s (RDSa.L) Nigerian oil block sales are heading for a messy conclusion due to a tussle over who operates the fields, sources close to the deals said, highlighting the complex nature of doing business in Africa’s largest energy industry.

Shell along with foreign oil major partners Total and Eni have agreed to sell their share in four onshore oil blocks which Shell operates in the Niger Delta wetlands but they need ministerial approval.

Deals for the blocks, one of which attracted a bid of over $1 billion, have already been agreed and a 10 percent deposit paid. These payments triggered a 180-day window for the deals to be completed, the first of which expires at the end of this month, according to sources involved.

State-oil firm NNPC, which owns the majority stake in the blocks, is at loggerheads with the buyers because it says its subsidiary will take over from Shell as operator of the fields once the deals are completed.

But some buyers of the blocks are not willing to complete the deals if NNPC is the operator.

A consortium led by Poland’s Kulczk Oil Ventures agreed a deal for Shell’s block OML 42, while independent energy firm Eland Oil, in partnership with Nigeria’s Starcrest, has agreed to buy OML 40. Niger Delta E&P and Petrolin won OML 34 and Conoil, owned by Nigerian billionaire Mike Adenugu, picked up the biggest block OML 30.

Financial backers will not want to lose their initial funding, in one case topping $100 million, while NNPC and Shell will want deals to go through to realise financial returns, so a compromise should be found.

The likely scenario is that NNPC becomes the “operator” of the blocks and then farms out the development of the fields to another firm. This could be the buyer of Shell’s share or another contractor and potentially a host of other companies in between, sources close to the deals told Reuters.

“Just because you’re the ‘operator’ doesn’t mean the guys on the ground will have your logo on their shirt,” a source with one oil company involved in the bidding process told Reuters.

“It would be a disaster for some of these companies if these deals don’t go through and I’m sure a compromise will be made. There might be a few more layers and a bit less money at the end of the line but it will still be nicely profitable,” he added.

 

INCONSISTENT

The government says it wants NNPC to increase the amount of oil it operates and not give away rights to other companies.

But oil minister, Diezani Allison-Madueke, earlier this year signed off operating rights on three other onshore blocks OML 4, 38 and 41 shortly before leaving office. President Goodluck Jonathan re-appointed her after winning April’s elections.

Operating rights for these blocks were given to Seplat Petroleum, a company owned by two other small Nigerian firms.

Seven Energy, partly-owned by British firm Petrofac , was brought in to help operate the blocks through its Nigerian subsidiary Septa Energy. The operation of the fields may eventually be done by Petrofac, industry sources said.

The process for allocating who operates blocks and selling stakes in fields is inconsistent and was unclear to the buyers of Shell’s fields who have complained that they were led to believe they would run the projects.

Inefficiency and a lack of financing within NNPC has been acknowledged by Nigeria’s government, which has ordered a comprehensive audit. International watchdogs, Transparency International and Revenue Watch Institute, rated NNPC as the least transparent out of 44 national and international energy companies, in a report earlier this year.

Nigeria’s government says its ambition is to make NNPC a successful state-owned energy company like Brazil’s Petrobras and Malaysia’s Petronas but becoming operator in name, but not in practise, won’t get them to that goal.

While the oil ministry and NNPC has spent months involving itself in asset sales between other companies, new investment in the energy sector has stalled, mainly due to political wrangling over the Petroleum Industry Bill.

Nigeria has assumed oil production of more than 2.4 million barrels per day next year but without investment in new projects to replace reserves, production will soon begin declining.

“The problem for the industry is it has found itself bogged down in opaque details at a time when it has failed to clarify the big strategic issues of how it is going to manage a sector of such critical importance for the country,” said Antony Goldman, Nigerian oil and gas expert and head of PM Consulting. (Editing by James Jukwey)

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigeria should have been a producing nation by now – Abdurahman

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Read Time:8 Minute, 38 Second

Worried by the collapse of industries in the North, Alhaji Mohammed Abdurahman, a former Secretary of the Political Committee of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), in this interview with Regional Editor, HASSAN IBRAHIM, proffers solutions to the problem. Excerpts:

SOME concerned Northerners are disturbed that the Federal Government plans to grant waiver to an Indian firm to import cars into the country, they felt it could pose a threat to the only surviving auto assembly in the country, Peugeot Automobile Nigeria. What is your take on this?
Well, you see I can only brush this question on the surface in the light of the larger picture, the Nigerian interest. Nigeria has not gone any way that would indicate that it actually wants industrial development, we don’t produce, and we consume more than we produce. So, if you look at the Peugeot Automobile in the light of the amount of production that keeps it in the scale of balance of trade and our total development in terms of unemployment and so many of other things, you would really know why industries like PAN will not create any advantage for Nigeria. The focus of this present government with which I hold some solidarity, is to create job opportunities, to allow balance of scales in efficiency, to boost production so that we can strengthen our currency. You will find out that our currency have been manipulated, we had so many Central Bank governors that came with an agenda. We don’t have Central Bank governors that are apolitical, they make so much noise, run out of ideas and start bringing ideas that every social activist can criticise. Somebody who is interested in Nigerian development, somebody who cares about giving the better to the people and serving the people, would not come up with an idea of cashless society. What they read in textbooks, you know we do have textbook, arm-chair economists and textbook experts. Nigeria doesn’t need that. That is why I always advise a lot of people to listen to Professor Aluko. We were award winners during the NACCIMA AGM in Warri some years back. Two Nigerians they felt, we have paid our dues.

You just talked about the proposition of a cashless society which the Central bank says would begin any moment soon. What is your view on this development?
It’s not about fancy talk. In fact, in the first place, the whole idea about cashless society should not be raised at a time like this, the enlightenment had not gone round enough because we are not sophisticated enough  in terms of information dissemination and the reasons. Another thing is about our business orientation, the business itself as a whole in terms of banking and business, nobody has cared about that. They have not addressed the issue of exchange rates in the banks; they have not addressed the issue of interest rates, and other issues. If you look at it as a whole, we are not organised at all as a country as far as allowing issues like funds in circulation and all that be an element of our growth but the problem is that every CBN governor comes in and tries to make a mark. Charles Soludo was an adviser on Economic Matters to the President. At that time we were all on the issue of Abacha’s loots, as he had taken a lot of funds from the system and they were lodged there in Switzerland, France and all these places. These intellectual mercenaries just came in and start telling us about what class, best practices, and methods they would use to turn the economy around but they only used them to mess up the entire economy. Each time the budget came around, you heard them doing IPO, those who were in government stole our money, stole our budgets and used them to buy money and put in the banks.

Look at it, why is it that those ideas and policies they are giving have not moved us forward if they were real?
Nigeria should have been a producing nation now, an industrialised nation. We are still deep into the Third World, we have not even found our feet and that is what the Jonathan government is looking at very seriously. The issue about the privatisation or public enterprises issue, we are looking at it again. It is going to be about competence and efficiency, not about giving what belongs to the whole nation to a few individuals. President Jonathan is interested in making sure that 90 per cent of our national wealth that is in the hands of 10 percent of the people should be spread out so that Nigerian economy would be in more hands and maybe, we can energise growth. Through that, because of commitment, because of efficiency, not because of individual people who feel they want to hold our nation in vice grip and make all the policies, with the budget as their own bidding. Government informs economy in Nigeria that means the private is handicapped. We want the private sector to inform government so that we would stop the situation where the government sneezes and the entire economic profile catches cold. That is why the whole idea of private public sector partnership came up but it was done wrongly. It’s selected people that fraudulently packed our national patrimony into their private hands in the name of privatisation and public private sector partnership.

How best do you think the government can come in to resuscitate industries, especially the textiles in the Northwest region?
Well, the whole programme, from Yar’Adua’s plan to reposition the textile industries, has been a case of putting the cart before the horse. We should look at the major ingredients of textile manufacturing, cotton wool. Cotton farmers and obsolete equipment, their equipment are absolete, if we don’t address these too, textiles would never come back. It means the smuggling elements, the smuggling institution would continue to prosper because nobody is going to produce textiles that would be used to fill up warehouses with people not buying. So if you look at the public in terms of demand habits and motives, they are talking about the design of the textile, the quality and so many other things. If we don’t address the equipment and we don’t address the cotton farmers, then forget textiles in Nigeria.
But most people have fingered smuggling activities as the major obstacles to the resuscitation efforts.

Smugglers are successful because the price they attach to the quality of the material is a better deal to the buyers. That is why they smuggle goods at cheaper rates. When Nigeria confronted the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria on the issue of smuggling of textile materials, he told us that it’s our own smugglers not Chinese smugglers, it’s Nigerian businessmen. He didn’t call them smugglers, he called them Nigerian businessmen, who went to China to order materials and that if there is any China man who brings in defective goods or substandard goods into Nigeria and he is caught, they would execute him. But when you look at it, the China Chamber of Commerce within China says that they produce at three levels. They produce sub-standard goods to meet the market demand; they have poor people in China. They have the world’s largest population. So if they produce things for their own country, they don’t even need to export to satisfy their people. They are not like Nigeria where our businessmen don’t care about satisfying the people. They just want an insane capitalism that we are practicing here. You must produce to a target market. They are producing to their target market at three levels. Medium, high and low so that all their people can feel served. The peasant farmer will have clothes to wear. So when our businessmen go there, they order from the 3 levels. As far as China is concerned, they have been absolved of any act of fraud or dumping and for God’s sake you can’t even call it dumping because our people are buying the goods. The standards for which our people want to talk about dumping don’t even exist within Nigeria, we are not producing to those standards and the per unit cost of production in terms of labour wages, and in terms of the cost of production is so high, they cannot even compete with the imported goods which they call dumping and smuggling. So we have to get things right, we cannot just shout on protection when we are not doing it right.

So, what would you recommend as solutions?
The latest trends in textile manufacturing are like printing journals, it’s like newspaper publication. The equipment are not large and they are swift, they do a lot of things at the same time and it reduces production cost. When the Sardauna, Sir Ahmadu Bello set up these machines in the textile companies in the North then, they were the modern things but now they are obsolete. They melt the machines and give it to the foundries, sell it to foundries and buy new ones, or stay out of the market.

Those in the textile companies, when they could have been able to create a depreciation aspect of their manufacturing toward exchanging the machines for more modern machines, they never did it.

They killed the textiles industries; they were buying houses abroad, living big like lords and were dictating the price of cotton to the farmers. So out of frustration, the farmers would plant cotton this year, and when the price is down they move into planting sorghum, groundnut and so on and they forgot about the cotton. Now the textiles industry merchants were no longer interested in the farmers because all these processes of foreign exchange and taking money out was okay for them if they imported the cotton. The farmers need to be taken care of if the textile industry is to be resuscitated and sustained.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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EFCC has reduced corruption in Nigeria – Jonathan

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President Goodluck Jonathan has assured prospective investors in Nigeria that they have nothing to fear about the possibility of losing their investments to advance fee fraud or any of the other related economic crimes as the country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has brought such incidents to the barest minimum.

The president who gave the assurance at the just concluded Nigeria Investment Summit and Exhibition in New York, USA said the anti-graft agency has done excellently well in the discharge of its mandate and still breaking new grounds to cleanse the system and make it conducive for local and foreign investments to thrive.

This is coming even as the Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Mrs Farida Waziri, declared in her presentation at the summit organised on the sideline of the 66th United Nations General Assembly by the African Business Roundtable in conjunction with Nigeria’s Mission in the UN, that the EFCC has successfully put in place relevant preventive measures to safeguard prospective investors from losing their investments to any fraudster.

While declaring that he is impressed with the performance of the EFCC so far, President Jonathan said “our investors can be rest assured that their investments are safe in Nigeria and fraudsters pose no threat again because the EFCC has almost eradicated the problem of advance fee fraud in our country.”

He said the Commission was also breaking new grounds in the investigation and prosecution of high profile graft cases, stressing that the major challenge of slow trial went beyond the EFCC but an issue for the judiciary to tackle.

In her presentation at the Summit where former British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair presented the keynote paper, the EFCC boss listed some of the milestones already achieved to instil a culture of transparency, and accountability as well as attract needed direct foreign investment that would help rev and stimulate the Nigerian economy to its full capacity.

According to her, “the supply side of corruption (the givers) have a big role to play in     dismantling safe heavens that provide facilities for laundering the proceeds of crime in their financial institutions. The damning 2010 report by the London based Global Witness chronicled how British Banks (HSBC,     RBS, NATWEST and USB) facilitated corruption in Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea. The international investment Community must therefore stand up against this.”

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Nigeria handed tough draw in Africa Olympic tournament

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Nigeria have been drawn against Senegal for the final Olympic men’s qualifying tournament for Africa in November.

The Dream Team will compete in Group B against north African giants Morocco and Algeria.

Hosts Egypt were assigned to Group A with South Africa, Gabon and Ivory Coast after Saturday’s draw in Cairo.

The top three nations at the tournament in Egypt will qualify for the 2012 Olympics in London.

The fourth-placed side faces a play-off against an Asian side.

Nigeria were the first African side to win gold at the Olympics in 1996 and their coach Austin Eguavoen admits but they face a tough task to qualify for the 2012 event.

“The draw is interesting. Like I have always said there are no minnows in African football,” Eguavoen told BBC Sport on Saturday.

“This is only a pointer that we should begin preparations in earnest. It would also give us a direction on the choice of Africa friendly matches to pursue.

“But honestly it’s an interesting draw.”

The top two teams in each group will advance to the semi finals before Africa’s representatives for the tournament are known.

The eight-nation event, which is also the African Under-23 Championship, kicks off in Egypt on 26 November.

Cameroon are the other African side to have won gold at the Olympics and they achieved their feat in Sydney in 2000.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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