The call on Africa to look inward and jettison ideas from the West, if it must develop is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Guardian reports that Africa has been told to look inward and jettison ideas from the West, if it must develop. Making this known yesterday were eminent personalities at the 30th anniversary of the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation and the posthumous birthday of the late sage, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo.
They said that values, which came as a result of the continent’s association with the imperial West, were at variance with “our socio-cultural environments”.
Held virtually, the lecture, which was titled, ‘Values for Africa’s Development’, attracted participants such as former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon and former President of Ghana, John Mahama.
Other participants include: His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar; the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Achebe; former governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Dr. Josephine Soboyejo; Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal; Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi; Minister of State for Health, Olorunimbe Mamora; former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and former Governor of Ondo State, Segun Mimiko. While describing Awolowo as a visionary and transformative leader, who pursued and demonstrated that leadership was not a rocket science, Gowon said the unparalleled contribution of Awolowo to the building of a strong, united Nigeria remained an outstanding legacy.
He said the late sage, as a Federal Commissioner for Finance, contributed immensely to the prosecution of the 30-month civil war, which was fought solely to keep Nigeria one.
The newspaper says that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has expressed satisfaction with the level of interest in agriculture and the impacts the sector has recorded in the last six years, saying the bank is playing a central role in the sector to create jobs and drive growth.
Emefiele, while addressing journalists during an inspection tour of the palm plantation at Odighi village in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State, at the weekend, wondered what would have happened to food prices without the foresight in revamping the sector.
The CBN governor expressed delight that the bank has assumed a pivotal role since 2015 upon the pronouncement by President Muhammadu Buhari that “we produce what we eat and eat what we produce”.
He said the different interventions were aimed at repositioning the sector to create employment opportunities as well as grow the gross domestic product (GDP). Emefiele was visibly elated with the strides being recorded in the production of maize and cassava and expressed optimism that in the next twelve months, palm produce harvests would have commenced.
The Punch reports that the scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, has refused to abate despite claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited that it has been releasing hundreds of millions of litres of petrol to address the situation.
In its latest weekly national PMS evacuation report for February 21 to 26, 2022, seen on Sunday, NNPC said it evacuated an additional 381.88 million litres of petrol during the period.
About a week ago, the oil firm stated that it distributed a total of 387.59 million litres of PMS from February 14 to 20, 2022, in its bid to bridge the petrol supply gap.
But despite its claims, the queues for petrol in filling stations that dispensed the commodity on Sunday remained massive in Abuja and neighbouring Nasarawa and Niger, as well as in many other states.
Queues formed by motorists were seen at the Nipco filling station along the Kubwa end of the Kubwa-Zuba expressway in Abuja. In Zuba, Niger State, motorists besieged the few outlets that sold petrol, forming long queues.
The newspaper says that the International Monetary Fund has said that countries that have very close economic links with Ukraine and Russia are at particular risk of scarcity and supply disruptions.
It added that poor households across the world would suffer from the increase in food and fuel prices, as the Ukraine-Russia war persists.
The Washington-based Fund said this on Saturday in a press statement, which was titled ‘IMF Staff Statement on the Economic Impact of War in Ukraine’.
The statement read in part, “Countries that have very close economic links with Ukraine and Russia are at particular risk of scarcity and supply disruptions and are most affected by the increasing inflows of refugees.”
The PUNCH had reported that Russia is among Nigeria’s top 10 import trade partners between the third quarter of 2020 and the corresponding period in 2021, with a total import trade value of N993.38bn.
The IMF Executive Board further lamented the tragic loss of life, human suffering, and the ongoing massive damage to Ukraine’s physical infrastructure, adding that over million refugees were in neighbouring countries. According to the statement, the economic consequences are dire for the world, as there is a surge in energy and commodity prices.
The Sun reports that the country’s domestic gas demand has dropped by 318 million standard cubic feet(scuf) of gas per day, Daily Sun findings has revealed.
A document released by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) indicated that Nigeria’s new Domestic Gas Demand Requirement (DGDR) has hit 4.482 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day.
But latest industry statistics as revealed by the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr.Mele Kyari, at the 15th Oil Trading and Logistics, OTL, Africa Downstream Week in Lagos, had put the country’s domestic gas demand at 4.8 billion scuf of gas in 2020.
The drop in gas demand may not be unconnected with the movement of some companies out of Nigeria over poor infrastructure, especially electricity.
A World Bank Enterprise survey reported 322 private firms closed down in Nigeria between 2009 and 2014 due to stifling business regulations, corruption, and political environment.
The Director of Economic and Statistics Department, for Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria, Oluwasegun Osidipe, was once quoted as saying 196 manufacturing companies shut down their operations between 2015 and 2017 due to the biting recession.
ThisDay says that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation have announced a partnership to develop the Aig-Imoukhuede Public Sector Performance Index.
The index seeks to measure the impact of the public sector on the overall productivity and economic growth of the Nigerian economy and on the wellbeing of Nigerian citizens.
A statement at the weekend, disclosed that on March 3, 2022, the NBS and the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of the index
“The index will measure the impact that public sector activities have on the overall productivity and economic growth of the Nigerian economy and on the wellbeing of its citizens.
“The index is being developed by the Foundation in partnership with the Governance and Institutions Policy Commission (GIPC) of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), as part of its work to facilitate the transformation of the Nigerian public sector,” it disclosed.
Present at the signing ceremony, which held at Abuja, were the Statistician-General of the Federation, Dr. Simon Harry, the Chairman and Executive Vice Chair of the Foundation, Mr. Aigboje and Mrs. Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede, as well as senior officials and staff of both organisations.
GIK/APA