Press zooms in on results of Saturday’s governorship election, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The release of some of the results of Saturday’s governorship election and the suspension of the collation of the governorship election results in two states pending a review of the process of the contentious balloting in parts of the states dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Punch reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday released more results of Saturday’s governorship election with anointed candidates of some governors losing the poll.
All the results so far declared as of 10 pm on Monday indicated that the All Progressives Congress won the governorship polls in 15 states including Sokoto, Katsina, Jigawa, Gombe, Lagos, Kwara, Niger, Yobe, Nasarawa, C’River, Ebonyi, Ogun, Benue, Kaduna and Borno.
The Peoples Democratic Party on the other hand won Plateau, Bauchi, Oyo, Delta, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states while the New Nigeria Peoples Party emerged victorious in Kano.
The results of the election in Abia and Enugu States were delayed following the dispute between the Labour Party and the PDP over the results from some local government areas.
To resolve the issues, INEC suspended further collation of the governorship election results pending a review of the process of the contentious balloting in parts of the two states.
The newspaper says that the appointment of Jean-Marc Cordier as the head of the oil trading arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has raised diverse concerns among industry experts and operators.
Cordier would head NNPC Trading Ltd, a subsidiary of NNPCL, and this was announced in a statement issued in Abuja by the company’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Garba-Deen Muhammad.
The announcement, however, triggered resentments among analysts and operators on Monday, though other experts found nothing wrong with the development.
Energy expert and Chief Executive Officer, Sage Consulting, Bode Fadipe, said, “It is of concern to most Nigerians that at this time of our life we are still having a foreigner in such a strategic business enterprise in this country.
“The question many people will ask is that, don’t we have Nigerians who can manage that office? Are the expatriates now investors in the business or is it a joint venture that allows a foreigner to hold that kind of position?
“Has NNPC Ltd sold its shares to the public? To the best of my knowledge, it is still the Nigerian government that owns the shares in NNPCL. It is still owned by the government, so when did it start appointing foreigners to such a level?”
Fadipe said this was the first time he would see such an appointment in the national oil company, describing the development as abnormal.
“I think it is an anomaly. I don’t know what would have informed that kind of position, but I think it is a situation that calls for further interrogation,” the energy analyst stated.
But on his part, a legal consultant and energy law advisor, Prof. Yemi Oke, argued that under the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, NNPCL should be a going concern, as there were requirements under the law for appointments.
“There are other Nigerian companies that have expatriates as employees, all they need is to comply with the expatriate quota and show that there’s no local manpower skilled enough to man that particular office, due to the technical nature of the position,” he stated.
The Guardian reports that agriculture in Nigeria has an interesting history of ups and downs. Long before the discovery of oil and gas in commercial quantity, from the precolonial and colonial days to the First Republic, agriculture was the mainstay of the economy.
But when the Black Gold came along, successive leaders misplaced the nation’s priorities and progressively abandoned agriculture, textiles, mining, and other vibrant sectors that gave the country a competitive advantage over other countries.
Despite many years of neglect, agriculture remains the biggest employer of labour. Over 70 percent of Nigerians are engaged in the sector, though mainly at a subsistence level which the present administration is investing in. The contribution of the sector to the GDP is impressive too.
Between January and March 2021, agriculture contributed to 22.35 per cent of the total GDP. Nigeria has 70.8 million hectares of land area – with maize, cassava, guinea corn, yam, beans, millet, and rice being the major crops – and accounts for over 70 percent of yams produced globally.
Rice production rose from 3.7 million metric tons in 2017 to 4.0 million metric tons in 2018. But only 57 percent of the 6.7 million metric tons of rice consumed is locally produced leading to a deficit of about 3 million metric tons. To stimulate local production, the government banned importation in 2019.
As for cassava, Nigeria produced 59 million tons in 2017, making it the world’s largest producer (20 percent of global production). The economic potential is enormous, with high revenue yields from both domestic value addition and derived income as well as revenues for the government. With improved varieties and techniques, production is anticipated to increase.
Animal production has remained underexploited. Livestock mostly reared by farm families are the small ruminants like goats (76 million), sheep (43.4 million), and cattle (18.4 million). The ecology in the northern part of the country makes it famous for livestock keeping.
The newspaper says that parlous infrastructure, foreign exchange (forex) shortages, multiple taxation, among others have been linked to rising cases of firms being delisted from the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), especially in the manufacturing sector as investors at the weekend, charged the incoming government not to handle issues of the capital market with levity.
The investors urged the government to be committed to creating policies that would soothe the yearnings of operators in the sector and make the sector more competitive.
In addition, they urged the government to leverage the capital market for the provision of funds needed to finance energy, transportation and social infrastructure projects both at federal and state level, beyond the budget.
The investors, who argued that the outgoing administration witnessed the highest number of delisted firms, described this as a ‘colossal’ loss to the market and shareholders.
According to them, there is a need for the incoming administration to pursue vigorously the development of the manufacturing sector and enhance the productive capacities of the nation to boost the performance of listed firms.
They noted that if the manufacturing sector of any economy does not record significant improvement, companies operating in the environment would find it difficult to grow and make profit. And this would have a multiplier effect on the companies’ financial performance and share prices in the stock market.
Indeed, no less than 44 firms valued at almost N350 billion were delisted from the daily official list of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) between 2015 and 2022, constituting a huge blow to the capital market within the period.
Of the 36 firms between 2015 and 2019, 25 were forcibly delisted by the NGX over non-compliance with post-listing requirements of the exchange, eight exited voluntarily while three opted for a merger.
GIK/APA