The report of President Muhammadu Buhari’s 10th medical return trips from London, and 237 days of either treating or checking undisclosed ailments abroad in the last seven years is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Guardian reports that President Muhammadu Buhari returned to the country on Sunday night, marking his 10th medical return trips from London, and 237 days of either treating or checking undisclosed ailments abroad in the last seven years.
President Buhari’s medical tourism record, which is unprecedented in Nigeria’s history, as well, costs the country in medical bills and operating cost of the Nigerian Air Force One (NAF 001) airplane.
The Guardian estimate showed that the trips already cost between N1.1 billion to N5.4 billion in sundry operational costs, including fuel, landing and parking charges.
Stakeholders reckon that the presidential extravagance is fueling steady rise in the yearly budget of the Presidential Air Fleet (PAF) – contrary to President Buhari’s pre-2015 promises to cut running cost of presidential jets.
Indeed, the President has since 2016 been taking care of himself, religiously. Records show that between February 5, 2016 when he took the first vacation and on Sunday that he returned, there had been a total of 10 such visits to London with the President passing 237 nights.
The newspaper says that the Nigerian Navy, yesterday, arraigned 16 foreign nationals before a Federal High court in Port Harcourt over alleged oil theft. The suspects are facing a three-count charge of conspiracy, falsely pretending to be victims of maritime offences to evade lawful interception by Nigerian Navy Ship Gongola and attempting to deal in crude oil within a Nigerian exclusive economic zone without lawful authority.
The suspects, however, pleaded not guilty after the charge was read to them. Trial Judge, Turaki Muhammed, after listening to the prosecution’s application on the amended charge, ordered that the suspects be remanded in their vessel.
Justice Muhammed, who adjourned the case to November 15, to enable the remaining 10 nationals to take their plea, advised that they be allowed to see their lawyers and receive medical attention if the need arises.
Earlier, the prosecuting counsel, Abidenmi Adewumi-Aluko urged the court to allow the amended charges and ordered that the suspects be taken to the vessel, which the defence counsel, Udoka Ezeobi did not oppose, and was subsequently granted by the court before the adjournment.
The Guardian gathered that 26 Foreign Nationals were arrested onboard the MT HEROIC IDUN crude oil vessel at Akpo oilfield within Rivers State on August 7, 2022 by the Nigerian Navy.
The Navy said the suspects, mainly Sri Lankan, Indians. They were arrested after an investigation showed that they entered the Akpo oilfield without authorisation or clearance by relevant government agencies.
The Captain of the Vessel, Mehta Tanuj shortly after the court proceedings, told newsmen that he and his crew were innocent as they were just following orders from higher authorities.
He said: “We came to Nigeria on August 8. We had a misunderstanding at the terminal and the documents, which were supposed to be filed by the ship’s agents, but there were some misunderstandings relating to the document and in the night we had an incident with the vessel, which then we did not know was the Nigerian Navy. As guided by my higher authority and owners, we managed to take all the advice from them and on August 12, we were arrested by Equatorial Guinea Navy Ship and taken to Equatorial Guinea on August 14. We were there and later handed over to the Nigerian Navy.
“We have no misunderstanding, I and the ship crew, we are innocent. We were just following orders, which have been provided for us.” The Navy authorities said the brazen act of defiance to constituted authority by the Captain of the vessel necessitated the Nigerian Navy to invoke the collaboration of neighbouring Equatorial Guinea through the Yaoundé Architecture to arrest the vessel.
The Punch reports that the Nigerian Economic Summit Group has said that the Federal Government must grow Nigeria’s gross domestic product to $4.5tn to $9tn in the next 28 years.
Speaking at the 28th edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit themed, ‘Shared Prosperity: 2023 and Beyond’ in Abuja on Monday, Chairman of NESG, Asue Ighodalo, said Nigeria Agenda 2050 must focus on “turning Nigeria into the most prosperous black country in the world, with a GDP per capita that is at par with the OECD countries by 2050.”
The Nigeria Agenda 2050 was recently developed by the current administration to transform the country into an upper middle-income developing country with a per capita income of $33,000.
But Ighodalo said if the country took a clear economic path, “it would mean – just based on today’s OECD indices – that we would need to grow our GDP to somewhere between $4.5tr and $9tr – depending on whether we are able to remain at a population of around 220 million or continue to grow to the 450 million we have been projected to reach by 2050.”
He said the government must begin to build an economy that was 10 to 20 times bigger than the current $440 billion economic size and should target growing the GDP at over 15 per cent every year.
Nigeria’s current GDP growth rate has hovered between two and three per cent since 2015, with two recessions hitting the country in the last seven years. Unemployment in 2020 was 33 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, with inflation accelerating to 20.77 per cent in September of 2022 from 20.52 per cent in the previous month.
Ighodalo said the Federal Government must revisit the issues of fuel subsidy removal, review the exchange rate management policies, cut the rate of borrowings and focus on revenue enhancement measures without stifling the private sector.
He also urged the government to identify appropriate mechanisms for tackling inflation, especially food segment.
The newspaper says that the Debt Management Office has disclosed that it has been difficult for Nigeria to borrow from the international markets as global lenders and investors are shunning countries with Category ‘B’ economic ratings.
According to the Director-General of the DMO, Patience Oniha, Nigeria must gear up its revenue drive while looking for alternative sources of funds internationally. “We really can’t survive like this,” she stated.
Oniha, while appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management to defend the DMO’s 2023 budget, noted that the Federal Government had not been able to meet its external borrowing target, noting that it was now looking at lenders in the United States and Europe.
She said, “Where there is an issue is the new external borrowings. What was provided for in the 2022 budget is N2.57tn of new external borrowings and this, in naira terms at the budget exchange rate, is $26bn. The reality is that if it were before, by now we would have issued Eurobonds to raise the money and we would be in good business. But let us say from the fourth quarter of last year, the international capital markets have not been opened to countries like Nigeria. So, in 2021, there was about $6bn to raise. We raised $4bn for that one. But this year, it is $1.25bn.
“The international markets are not looking for countries with our ratings –B ratings. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, as you know, turned around things in the world significantly. So, inflation rates are high, interest rates are high and investors are saying there are a lot of uncertainties as to what will happen. There is a threat of recession. So, what they have decided to do is to put their money in the G-7 securities: United States, Germany, France, Japan, and so on. Those countries also issue bonds. So, that is where the investors are putting their money and rates have gone up significantly.”
Two global economic analysts and ratings, Moody’s and Fitch, recently downgraded Nigeria to Category ‘B’ economy.
GIK/APA