APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that lawmakers have pledged not to serve as rubber stamp to the executive arm of the government in spite of the fact that President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress, yesterday succeeded in getting their anointed candidates elected to lead the National Assembly dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Guardian reports that President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, succeeded in getting their anointed candidates elected to lead the National Assembly, raising concerns about the independence of the second arm of government.
In an election presided over by the clerk of the National Assembly, Magaji Tambawal, the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, polled 63 votes to defeat former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, who polled 45 votes. Jibrin Barau from Kano State emerged as Deputy Senate President without any opposition.
In the House of Representatives, the party also had its way as Tajudeen Abbas won a landslide victory, polling 353 votes as against three votes scored by each of his two challengers, Ahmed Wase and Aminu Sani Jaji.
Both Akpabio and Abbas expressed their gratitude to President Tinubu and promised to cooperate with him in ensuring good governance in Nigeria.
Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, (APC, Borno) nominated Akpabio, while Solomon Adeola (APC, Ogun) seconded Akpabio’s nomination. After Akpabio had accepted his nomination, Senator Ishaku Agbo (APC, Adamawa) nominated Yari. Jimoh Ibrahim from Ondo State seconded it.
There was a slight disruption on the floor of the Senate as Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno) raised an objection to the nomination of Yari. He claimed that the Constitution and the rule of the Senate did not permit a non-ranking Senator to be elected as Senate President.
Senators Adeola, Ndume and others supported Monguno, while Yari’s supporters kicked. The clerk overruled the objection to Yari’s nomination as he declared that there was nothing in the Senate rule book and the Constitution that precludes a non-ranking Senator from becoming a Senate President.
The newspaper says that Nigeria’s oil production edged slightly, last month, to regain its leading position in Africa, while, yesterday, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pegged the country’s oil production in May at 1.2 million barrels.
Still far below the 2023 budget benchmark of 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) and OPEC’s quota of 1.8 million bpd, the figure provided by the global body, once again, differs from statistics revealed, yesterday, by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), which put daily production at 1.4 million barrel.
This came as TotalEnergies announced the Ntokon oil and gas discovery on Oil Mining Licence (OML) 102, offshore Nigeria. Amid uncertainties in the global economy, OPEC, in its Monthly Oil Market Report released, yesterday, maintained its position that global oil demand this year would rise by 2.35 million bpd or 2.4 per cent.
While NUPRC’s data show that Nigeria’s production stood at 1.18m barrels, with additional blended condensate (0.065m barrels) and unblended condensate (0.18m barrels), bringing production to 1.4 million bpd, OPEC put the figure at 1.2 million.
The development, however, showed improvement in production, which OPEC had reported as falling below one million barrels in April. OPEC had, in the report, expressed worry, saying: “There are rising uncertainties regarding economic growth in the second half of 2023, amid ongoing high inflation, already elevated key interest rates, and tight labour markets.
“Moreover, it is still unclear as to how and when the geopolitical conflict in Eastern Europe (Ukraine) might be resolved.” Yesterday, oil prices bounced back with about 3.55 per cent increase, after dropping on Monday by $3 per barrel. The rebound was linked to projected expectations of the U.S. Fed meeting.
The Punch reports that the Federal Government, on Tuesday, issued and signed licences for the establishment of two crude oil export terminals, capable of generating $11bn revenue annually for the country.
It issued the licences through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority to Belema Sweet Export Terminal Limited and NNPC Exploration and Production Limited in Abuja.
Speaking at the event in Abuja, the Chief Executive, NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, said the signing of the terminal establishment licences for the two crude export terminals would lead to the addition of more than four million barrels of oil capacity to Nigeria’s export storage.
“Our activities today are pursuant to the provisions of the PIA (Petroleum Industry Act), which has stipulated new provisions for the establishment of new export terminals.
“According to PIA Section 174(1) (a) ‘Except in accordance with an appropriate licence issued by the Authority, a person shall not undertake the following activities with respect to midstream petroleum liquids operations — (a) establish, construct or operate a terminal or other facility for the export or importation of crude oil or petroleum products.’
“The authority has processed and hereby approves Terminals Establishment Licences for: (a) NNPC Exploration and Production Limited to establish 2,179,747 barrels Crude Oil Terminal at Offshore Akwa Ibom State within the waters of the Exclusive Economic Zone Nigeria.
“(b) Belema Sweet Export Terminal Limited to establish a 2,000,000 barrels Crude Oil Terminal at 20 Nautical Miles of Kula Southern Part of Exclusive Economic Zone Nigeria,” Ahmed stated.
The newspaper says that the Federal Government is set to make about N124.26bn in a year from the imposition of a 0.5 per cent import tax on goods introduced in Finance Bill 2023.
The Finance Bill 2023 which was signed into law on 28 May 2023 by former President, Muhammadu Buhari imposed a 0.5 per cent levy on goods imported into Nigeria from outside Africa.
According to the law, a 0.5 per cent levy will be imposed on goods imported into Nigeria from outside Africa. It read in parts,
Nigeria imported N24.85tn worth of goods from outside Africa in 2022 according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. When a base tax of 0.5 per cent was applied to total non-African imports, it translated to N124.26bn. It remains to be seen if the 0.5 per cent import tax will be added to all goods.
According to the Federal Government, this revenue source will help it meet and ensure the sustainability of its obligations to multilateral organisations.
The Hong Kong Trade Development Council, in a blog post dated January 3, 2023, stated that the import levy may help Nigeria lower its public debt profile. It also noted that customers might be at the receiving end of the policy, with the cost of imported goods rising.
It said, “The import levy aims to lower Nigeria’s public debt, which ballooned from N39.56tn ($88.6bn) in December 2021 to N42.84tn in June 2022.
“While the import levy will boost government revenues, according to some experts it may also raise the costs of imported goods to end consumers, and so add to inflationary pressures which saw the inflation rate grow from 15.60 per cent in January 2022 to 21.47 per cent by November 2022.”
GIK/APA