The reasons given for Nigeria’s low rating by the transparency International corruption perception index by the government and the resolve of the House of Representatives to investigate the fresh $1.5bn approved for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery are some of the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Vanguard reports that the Nigerian government has said that Nigeria’s low rating by the transparency International (TI) corruption perception index was a result of the country’s opaqueness in doing business.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated this while fielding questions from State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber, presidential villa Abuja.
He noted that the present administration has initiated reforms to make it easier and more transparent to do business, especially in the port sector.
He said the issue of TI low corruption perception of the country was not necessarily about stealing of public funds, even as he contended that the group’s rating of Nigerian has not correctly reflected the government’s effort to curb corruption in the country.
Alhaji Mohammed said that the inconsistencies in scoring by TI over the years could be due to inadequate data, saying that the government is taking necessary measures to communicate relevant data on all sectors.
The newspaper says that one of the umbrella bodies of herdsmen in Nigeria, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, said yesterday that herders are facing many challenges from hostile host communities, including vigilante groups and other criminal elements who rustle cows in the country.
This came as popular Islamic scholar, Ahmad Gumi, insisted yesterday that bandits be granted amnesty.
According to him, the bandits will not let go of their arms if they are not assured of their safety and rehabilitation.
Spokesman of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Saleh Hassan, who stated this, said some displaced herders in the country, who were dispossessed of their cows, have ended up becoming bandits terrorising Nigerians, especially through kidnapping.
Hassan said it was unfair to label every herder a criminal, adding that it is sad that herders had been singled out for victimisation.
He said the herders-cum-bandits were fighting an economic fight of survival and not an ideological fight. According to him, states banning open grazing and chasing out herders from their domains are unknowingly creating crisis for themselves.
The Punch reports that the House of Representative has resolved to investigate the fresh $1.5bn recently approved by the Federal Executive Council to rehabilitate the Port Harcourt refinery.
The House will also be probing into the rehabilitation and maintenance exercises on other refineries in the country over the years.
At the plenary on Wednesday, the House unanimously adopted a motion of urgent public importance moved by Mr. Onofiok Luke titled ‘Motion on the need to ensure transparency and accountability in the rehabilitation exercise of the nation’s refineries’.
Following the motion’s adoption, the House mandated its Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to “carry out an investigative hearing and conduct a comprehensive audit of funds previously spent on the rehabilitation/repairs and maintenance of the Port Harcourt Refinery and other refineries in the country, and the key performance indicators therefrom.”
The committee is to also examine the performance bond, assurance, warrantees and guarantees put in place for operating and maintaining the plants after commissioning.
ThisDay says that the Nigerian government is considering ways to cushion the impact of fuel-subsidy cut as it weighs the possibility that the reform may stoke popular discontent, an adviser to the nation’s president, Mr. Zakari Ahmad, has said.
While those policies are being formulated, the state is continuing interventions that it says cost an estimated N744 billion ($1.8 billion) a year from 2006 to 2019 to maintain lower gasoline prices, an equivalent of about 10 percent of this year’s projected government revenue.
“There is broad alignment that deregulation is an urgent need. There is a clear understanding of the challenges that Nigerians face economically and government will be sensitive to that as we craft any implementation,” Bloomberg quoted Ahmad to have said.
Raising pump prices, let alone allowing them to move in line with international crude markets, is a risky proposition for Nigerian politicians.
Many in Africa’s largest economy, which also hosts the highest number of people living in extreme poverty globally, regard cheap fuel as their single dependable benefit from the country’s misspent oil wealth.
The newspaper says that African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a Joint Project Preparation Fund.
The initiative is expected to provide early project preparation financing and technical support services to public and private sector entities operating in Nigeria’s trade sector.
According to a statement obtained yesterday, under the terms of the MoU signed last month, Afreximbank and NEXIM would collaborate through the joint project preparation fund to unlock investments into sectors such as export manufacturing, agro-processing, solid minerals development and beneficiation services, as well as healthcare, information and communications technology, and creative industries.
The initiative would support public and private sector investors by providing technical and financial support services that would result in a steady pipeline of well-structured, bankable projects that Afreximbank, NEXIM and other financial institutions can readily finance.
The fund would assist the early development process of projects from concept stage to bankability by covering the preparation of feasibility studies, project development and advisory services and related costs.
The Sun reports that the Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh, has assured maritime stakeholders that the agency’s modular floating dock is in the process of being deployed.
The modular floating dock, acquired at an estimated cost of N50 billion by NIMASA will soon be in operations as the two top maritime agencies are facilitating its deployment.
Jamoh disclosed this during a visit to Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Hadiza Bala-Usman, at the NPA headquarters, Marina, Lagos.
“I am here to affirm that the modular floating dock has come to stay. We have concluded arrangements for its deployment and operation and date for its commissioning would be announced soon,” he said.
In an interactive after meeting with the NPA Managing Director, the NIMASA boss recounted the process of securing the NPA Continental Shipyard for the floating dock, and getting approval from the Federal Ministry of Transportation as well as the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC).
GIK/APA