The report that the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria has said that it has already begun to mobilise its members to resist the removal of subsidies is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Guardian reports that the year 2022 is loaded with a lot of expectations, especially the Federal Government’s planned removal of petrol subsidy.
With the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) becoming law, necessitating full deregulation of the downstream sector amid other sweeping changes envisaged in the oil and gas sector, the woes of Nigerian workers may come in torrents amid stagnated wage regime.
This comes as the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) said it has already begun to mobilise its members to resist the removal of subsidies.
The National President of the association, Dr Tommy Okon, said in Abuja: “We are engaging in advocacy and enlightening our members to let them know that where this government is taking us to must be resisted. Why is the government still pumping money into the electricity sector it claimed to have deregulated and commercialised? As I sit here, my grandchildren are owing because this government has over-borrowed to the point that we do not even know what we borrowed again.
“Any attempt at removing petrol subsidy is akin to living on ‘fantasy island’. The government is suffering from what I will call ‘policy abortion’. In this case, the government is foot-dragging on the payment of N30,000 minimum wage; epileptic electricity supply, no pipe-borne water supply and no efficient public transportation are social drawbacks that are affecting the quality of life of Nigerians.“
“Labour has the justification to go on strike of interest and strike of right. We can go on strike to force the hands of government on this matter if we are pushed to the wall,” he said.
The newspaper says that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has said Nigeria will experience unprecedented progress in the oil and gas sector this year, notwithstanding the challenges.
Towards the end of last year, President Muhammadu assented to the age-long Petroleum Industry Bill, creating a new opportunity for the industry.
Sylva noted that the new law presented an opportunity for cascading investment that would unlock the potential of the sector, adding that the current year will bring to reality opportunities in the nation’s hydrocarbon resources.
Barely a year to the 2023 general election, Sylva on his appointment in 2019, had promised the eradication of smuggling of PMS across Nigerian borders, the completion of gas flare commercialisation programme, increase of total production output to 3 million barrels per day and the reduction of the cost of crude oil production by at least five per cent.
Sylva also listed the increase of domestic refining capacity as well as the implementation of the amended deep offshore and inland basin production sharing contract as his key agenda.
The Punch reports that the World Bank has disclosed that Nigeria’s debt, which may be considered sustainable for now, is vulnerable and costly.
According to the Washington-based global financial institution, the country’s debt is also at risk of becoming unsustainable in the event of macro-fiscal shocks. The bank said this in the November edition of its Nigeria Development Update.
It said, “Nigeria’s debt remains sustainable, albeit vulnerable and costly, especially due to large and growing financing from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“While currently the debt stock of 27 percent of the Gross Domestic Product is considered sustainable, any macro-fiscal shock can push debt to unsustainable levels.
“However, the debt to the GDP in Nigeria is rising quickly, and the total stock of debt in absolute value has almost doubled between 2016 and 2020, and without a policy change is expected to reach 40 percent of the GDP by 2025.”
The bank further expressed concerns over the nation’s cost of debt servicing, which according to it, disrupts public investments and critical service delivery spending.
The newspaper says that following the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement, two Federal Government agencies have warned that Nigeria will become a dumping ground for agro products from other African nations if the country fails to introduce quarantine checks at all its airports.
The AfCFTA Nigeria office and the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service, both agencies of the Federal Government, warned that the seeming absence of quarantine checks at some points of entry into the country would lead to the infiltration of unwholesome products.
In separate interviews with our correspondent, senior officials of both agencies noted that for the AfCFTA to succeed in Nigeria, the adequate screening of agro-produce, which formed the bulk of the imports and exports, must be taken seriously.
The AfCFTA came into force on January 1, 2021 and Nigeria has been making moves to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the continental trade programme.
The Director-General, NAQS, Vincent Isegbe, said, “For AfCFTA to be successful, the quarantine service must necessarily be at all the entry and exit points across the country.
ThisDay reports that the Executive Secretary, HEDA Resource Centre, Mr. Sulaimon Arigbabu, has stated that adequate access and effective utilisation of climate information could address the challenges hindering farmers’ productivity by at least 50 percent.
Arigbabu stated this at a one-day workshop on developing a feedback framework for climate information in Lagos.
According to him, the essence of the workshop is to strengthen climate information service delivery in the country in order to build resilience in the Nigeria’s food system.
He said: “We have gone round a few states, we have had town hall meetings with various stakeholders and farmers in different states, research institutions, private sector and the whole idea is to share their experiences with having access to climate information.
“What we have realised is that so many farmers are still unaware of the extent to with Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMET) is able to provide this information as many are also now aware that there is a yearly prediction for climate information.”
He, however, lamented that NiMET’s capacity has not being optimally adopted and adapted in the nation’s Agric sector, saying that climate information is not getting to the farmers as at when needed.
The Sun says that the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has sought the Federal Government’s support to overcome the binding constraints to competitive manufacturing in the country.
The President of the association, Mansur Ahmed, made the appeal during the advocacy visit to President Muhammadu Buhari recently, where he enumerated the challenges confronting the sector to include, but not limited to, inadequate supply of forex, electricity, looming increase in tax rate, poor access to long term fund, low patronage of made in Nigeria goods, among others.
Applauding the president for the numerous initiatives, reforms and policies that have helped to steady the course of manufacturing, Ahmed added that government, however, needs to sustain the implementation of policies that have helped the economy recover fast from recession, survive the onslaught of COVID-19 and revive other initiatives that have suddenly gone quiescent.
He noted that MAN expects that government will continue to make manufacturing a centerpiece of its economic agenda and the enabler for upscaling national output, employment and wealth creation.
GIK/APA