The declaration by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday that the West African sub-region and indeed Africa were currently going through perilous storms as a result of political instability in some parts of the continent is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Punch reports that former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday, declared that the West African sub-region and indeed Africa were currently going through perilous storms as a result of political instability in some parts of the continent.
Obasanjo and Osinbajo, who stated this at the opening session of a high-level dialogue organised by the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa, bemoaned military incursion into the democratic regimes of some African countries.
The two-day event with the theme, ‘West Africa: Rising to the challenges of consolidating democratic governance’, was held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Obasanjo, who is the Chairman of CoDA, lamented that coup d’état, election fraud and political violence and instability had crippled the growth of Africa.
He condemned military takeover of democratically elected governments in some African countries.
The former President warned that democracy in West Africa and indeed Africa required urgent attention.
Osinbajo, while delivering his keynote address, stated, “This is a moment of peril for democracy in our region because we are navigating a perfect storm of adverse circumstances, a world economy that is reeling from recessional shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, price and supply disruption from the war in Ukraine, the emergency of armed non-state actors, and poor challenges associated with catering for the youngest population in the world.
“We must not allow our continent to become as it was in the cold war era. A fetter of proxy wars and great power conflict, we know from experience that this would result in a deepening or the recession of democratic values in Africa.”
The newspaper says that the Kaduna State Government said the evacuation of passengers trapped in the Kaduna-bound train from Abuja has been concluded this morning by security forces.
The Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Mr Samuel Aruwan, said this in a statement issued on Tuesday in Kaduna.
He said that officials of Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency and Nigerian Red Cross were part of the evacuation of the victims.
Aruwan said the passengers who sustained injuries and other fatalities had also been moved to hospitals. He disclosed that the passengers were evacuated from different hard-to-reach areas in forests and rocky locations in Audujongom, off the Kaduna-Abuja road.
“As stated on Monday, the Kaduna State Government is still liaising with the Nigerian Railway Corporation to ascertain the list from the passengers manifest for efficient tracking,” he said.
The Commissioner said Governor Nasir El-Rufai, who commended all those who participated in the evacuation process, appealed to the hospitals to attend to the victims diligently.
The Guardian reports that almost eight years into the All Progressives Congress-led government, the party, yesterday, continued its finger pointing at the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), accusing it of battering the nation’s economy.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who spoke on the administration’s achievements at a press conference, also scolded PDP for attempting to overheat the polity in its desperation to return to power.
But reacting in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, PDP dismissed the press conference as another anthology of lies, false and bogus performance claims by “the failed and rudderless APC administration.”
Mohammed said: “We are not under any illusion that they will stop their misrepresentation. No, because in their desperation to return to complete their demolition work on Nigeria, these folks will stop at nothing to paint us bad.
“But the good news is that Nigerians remain traumatised by their 16-year misrule, and will not return to ‘Egypt’ by allowing the ‘demolition gang’ back to office. In the meantime, let them present their 16-year stewardship in all the areas we have listed above and let Nigerians judge.”
The minister insisted his party should not be held responsible for the nation’s economic challenges. According to him, such indices are global trends and are not peculiar to Nigeria.
The newspaper says that the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has suspended operations along the Abuja-Kaduna route after terrorists blew a track and attacked a train Monday night.
“Efforts are ongoing to convey the passengers from the location and others that sustained injuries have been rushed to hospitals for urgent medical attention,” Aruwan said.
He said Kaduna State government is liaising with NRC to ascertain the list from the passengers’ manifest for efficient tracking to acquire an accurate inventory of all passengers and their actual status.
Aruwan noted that “security forces continue to comb the general area in additional rescue efforts.
“Emerging developments will be communicated to the public.”
The Nation reports that Nigeria’s infrastructure funding deficit will grow to $100 billion in the next five years, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), has said.
ICRC Acting Director-General, Michael Ohiani made this known when he received a delegation from the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) led by its Executive Secretary, Emmanuel Jime.
“We have a funding deficit of about $23 billion per annum, which will translate for instance in the next five years to about $100 billion, it is either we go through the national budget or we focus on the private sector as a means of raising funds.
“Interestingly, if we look at the transport sector, 25 per cent of the required investment which represents about $775 billion will come from the private sector, adding that there are clear infrastructure deficit which remains a big challenge and underscores the fact that we need to aggressively work on up scaling our infrastructure assets,” he said.
The ICRC boss stressed the need to use Public-Private Partnerships in bridging the infrastructure gap in the country, saying the PPP model should serve as “a strategy that could be deployed in the transportation of goods to reduce over reliance on trucking which damages road infrastructure’’.
Ohiani said the road transportation accounted for more than 70 per cent of cargo movement in Nigeria, stating that transporting goods “by road using trucks is fraught with various challenges, including accidents, breakdown of trucks, illegal parking, congestion, as well as the wear and tear of the road.
To address these challenges, he said the Federal Ministry of Transportation, through the NSC, was developing Inland Container Ports and Vehicle Transit Areas using the PPP model.
The newspaper says that the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has attributed the economic woes in the country to the 2015-2017 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, which triggered dip in revenue and significant reduction in foreign investment portfolio.
Emefiele added that apart from its impact on the crude oil prices, the containment measures adopted to control the spread of the virus significantly affected growth in other critical sectors.
He spoke at the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, yesterday, while presenting a convocation lecture entitled: ‘The role of Central Bank in managing economic downturns’, to mark the 40th anniversary of the university.
Emefiele, represented by the Deputy Governor, Corporate Affairs, Edward Adamu, said the apex bank has so far disbursed over N3 trillion to households, Small and Medium Scales Enterprise (SMEs) and small holders farmers to aid economic recovery.
Giving the breakdown of the intervention funds, the CBN governor said the Federal Government has disbursed N948 billion to 4,478,381 smallholder farmers to boost food production.
The CBN governor added that under the credit facility to help households and businesses that suffered significant losses during the pandemic, that the bank had disbursed N368.79 billion to 778,000 beneficiaries.
Emefiele noted that 648,052 households and owners of SMEs benefited from the Federal Government-driven policy.
GIK/APA