At Vanguard Economic Discourse: Soludo, Oshiomhole clash over forex

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THE long-drawn battle between the former governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, and the
former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Professor Charles Soludo, was rekindled at the Vanguard Economic Discourse held in Lagos yesterday.

Oshiomhole, responding to Soludo’s criticisms of the current foreign exchange policy which he said was opened to abuse, round-tripping and corruption, claimed that the same scenario was applicable in Soludo’s regime at CBN.
He specifically alleged that under Soludo, two first generation banks were given privileged allocation of foreign exchange just a day before the apex bank devalued the Naira, thereby, giving the said banks opportunity to make huge and quick profits from a new exchange rate.

Oshiomhole also lampooned Soludo’s pet programme, the National Economic Empowerment
and Development Strategy (NEEDS), saying that it failed.

However, in his response to the allegation, Soludo lamented what he saw as outright mischief or ignorance on the part of Oshiomhole.

He stated: “We have laid out the framework, the situation is there, millions of people are out of jobs, we can’t trivialise it with jokes and unfounded personal attacks.

“I am not going to dignify such with any response, but there is one I must respond to, and that is the point made by my good friend Adams Oshiomhole.

“I have to respond to that on a point of facts, two things, the first is that the NEEDS was for 2004 to 2007. For the record, I left office 2009, we are fond of, in this country, when you don’t have the facts you invent your own. I think we can have a debate someday about what NEEDS achieved vis-a- viz its target between 2004 and 2007. That is for another day. But I don’t want to get into that now.

“Second is when Adams made the point about exchange allocation to two banks. I think that is very specific that I need to respond to directly.

“Adams Oshiomhole has lied, that is the first thing; I didn’t say he misquoted anything; he has lied, and I want to state that for the record.

“At the turn of 2008 financial crisis, we had an option, we built the re serve to unprecedented level in Nigeria, and we had the liberty to defend the Naira.

In fact, I could have left office with Naira being less than a N100 to the Dollar, because we had watched

The post At Vanguard Economic Discourse: Soludo, Oshiomhole clash over forex appeared first on Vanguard News.

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Hundreds on Philippine streets as Duterte jails top critic…Read full details

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A supporter of Senator Leila De Lima (not pictured), a top critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, shouts slogans as they hold a rally outside the court building in Muntinlupa City, suburban Manila on February 24, 2017, where De Lima was brought by the police to report to the court of her arrest. / AFP PHOTO / TED ALJIBE

More than 1,000 people took to the streets of Manila on Saturday to protest Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs, following the arrest of his most high-profile critic.

The protestors massed outside the national police headquarters where Senator Leila de Lima was detained on Friday, in a demonstration against the alleged death-squad murders of thousands of drug suspects.

Demonstrators warned the Duterte crackdown could lead to a repeat of the military-backed dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, which was toppled in a bloodless “People Power” revolution 31 years ago to the day.

“We are taking the matter seriously. We are warning our people about the threat of rising fascism,” Bonifacio Ilagan, who led one of the protests outside the police headquarters, told AFP.

Ilagan, a playwright who suffered horrific torture over two years in a police prison under Marcos’ martial rule in the 1970s, cited the “culture of impunity” engendered by Duterte’s anti-drug crackdown.

Since Duterte came to power in July last year, more than 6,500 drug suspects have been killed by police and unknown assassins, according to official tallies.

The 71-year-old firebrand has not ruled out using martial law to prevent what he describes as the country’s slide to narco-state status.

Duterte, who ranks Marcos as one of the country’s best-ever presidents, last year allowed the Marcos family to bury the former leader’s remains at Manila’s Cemetery for Heroes, leading to large street protests.

In a separate demonstration Saturday, around 150 anti-Marcos protesters chanting “Exhume him” marched on the cemetery where his body is buried, but riot police stopped them near the gate, an AFP photographer saw.

Earlier in the day, police hosed down a group of at least 100 people protesting the drug killings, though no one was seriously injured, local news reports and television footage showed.

Street protests were expected to continue later with thousands of supporters of Senator De Lima set to join another rally.

De Lima was arrested Friday on charges of drug trafficking that she described as meant to silence her.

The former human rights commissioner said the arrest was an act of revenge for her decade-long efforts to expose Duterte as the leader of death squads during his time as mayor of the southern city of Davao.

An overnight vigil to demonstrate public backing for Duterte’s drug crackdown was also scheduled in Manila later Saturday, with organisers calling on a “million” supporters to turn up.

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Pigs with edited genes show resistance to costly virus

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PHOTO:PETA

A novel but controversial technique known as gene-editing has produced pigs that could be resilient to an often fatal virus that costs European farmers $1.6 billion per year, researchers said Thursday.

The process involves cutting out a small section of the pigs’ DNA, using a method known as CRISPR/Cas 9, according to the report in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

Tests of the pigs’ cells in lab dishes showed complete resistance to two major subtypes of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), a disease that can cause pneumonia in young pigs and fetal death in pregnant sows.

“Laboratory tests of cells from the pigs with the modified CD163 gene have confirmed that this change in the pig’s DNA blocks the virus from being able to cause infection,” said the report, led by the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute.

The next step is to expose these actual pigs whose genes have been edited to the virus, to see if it makes them sick.

“Genome-editing offers opportunities to boost food security by reducing waste and losses from infectious diseases, as well as improving animal welfare by reducing the burden of disease,” said lead researcher professor Alan Archibald of The Roslin Institute.

“Our results take us closer to realizing these benefits and specifically address the most important infectious disease problem for the pig industry worldwide.”

The latest study is different from prior research removing CD163 – which also resulted in pigs not becoming ill — because only a small section of CD163 that interacts with the PRRS virus is deleted from the genome.

According to Ian Jones, professor of virology at the University of Reading, the approach is an “interesting” way to combat a virus for which there is no vaccine.

“The authors have removed part of the virus receptor, the cellular doorway the virus uses to initiate infection. If the virus can’t get in then disease is prevented,” said Jones, who was not involved in the study.

“The drawbacks of this approach are that all commercial stock would have to be bred to include this mutation, which takes time and public acceptance, and there is always the worry that the PRRSV virus would mutate to use a different receptor and so gain access by a ‘backdoor.'”

Further studies should “help address whether this is likely or not,” he added.

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Dollar, Asia stocks track global losses on US uncertainty

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PHOTO:AFP

The dollar came under more pressure Friday and Asian markets saw fresh losses after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin lowered US growth expectations and appeared to temper Donald Trump’s belligerence towards China’s currency policy.

While New York’s blue-chip Dow index hit a record tenth successive all-time high, the Trump-fuelled global rally is showing signs of petering out with analysts suggesting the exuberance about hoped-for spending and tax cuts may have been overdone.

That appeared evident after Mnuchin forecast three percent growth by the end of next year, warning that the effect of certain measures would take time. That compared with the four percent Trump promised on the campaign trail.

In an interview with CNBC, Mnuchin also appeared to wind back on his boss’s earlier threats to call China a currency manipulator, easing concerns about a possible trade stand-off between the world’s top two economic powers.

Stephen Innes, senior trader at OANDA, said in a note the comments “have left investors dangling about the US administration currency policy as there appears to be a subtle shift in the Trump administration’s rhetoric”.

The comments overshadowed his promise to push through tax cuts by August, and pursue deregulation on companies and banks.

“One reason the market is reading a great deal into (Mnuchin’s) views is the proximity of the comments to President Trump’s speech before a joint session of Congress next Tuesday,” Innes added.

– Peso rebounds –
The dollar tumbled to 112.67 yen in New York and while it made some inroads Friday, the unit was still well down from the levels around 113.50 yen earlier in Asia Thursday.

It remained wedged below 113 yen Friday, while the pound extended past $1.25 and the euro dallied with $1.06.

High-yielding currencies also pushed ahead, with the Australian dollar up 0.2 percent and South Korean won 0.4 percent higher.

Mexico’s peso surged more than one percent to 19.70 to the dollar, levels not seen since just after Trump’s November 8 election win as the country’s leaders stand up to the new US administration’s threats over trade, a border wall and immigration. The peso is up 10 percent from record lows around 22 touched last month.

A visit to Mexico by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to meet its leaders also calmed nerves after Trump’s hardline rhetoric on the country.

“Traders and investors are seeing the effect of the Mexican stance in tempering the US administration’s overt aggression and making a determination that the worst fears they held for the peso and the Mexican economy were overblown,’ said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at CFD and FX provider AxiTrader.

Asian equity markets extended the previous day’s losses. Tokyo’s Nikkei ended 0.5 percent lower as the stronger yen hurt exporters, while Hong Kong was down 0.4 percent and Sydney 0.8 percent off.

Seoul fell 0.6 percent, Singapore retreated 0.5 percent and Wellington 0.4 percent but Shanghai staged a late rally to end 0.1 percent higher.

“There are those out there thinking, ‘Well, markets have had such a big runup, it’s time to take a bit of money off the table,'” Shane Oliver, Sydney-based head of investment strategy at AMP Capital Investors, told Bloomberg News.

“It wouldn’t surprise me to see a bit of consolidation or correction, and maybe we’re starting to see signs of that.”

– Key figures around 0700 GMT –
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.5 percent at 19,283.54 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng: DOWN 0.4 percent at 24,013.42

Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,253.43 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0590 from $1.0579

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2562 from $1.2556

Dollar/yen: UP at 112.80 yen from 112.67 yen

Oil – West Texas Intermediate: DOWN nine cents at $54.36 per barrel

Oil – Brent North Sea: DOWN eight cents at $56.50

New York – Dow: UP 0.2 percent at 20,797.61 (close)

London – FTSE-100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 7,271.37 (close)

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Klopp irritated by Liverpool fans’ impatience…See full details

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Liverpool's German manager Jurgen Klopp / AFP PHOTO / Lindsey PARNABY /

Jurgen Klopp urged Liverpool’s supporters to show more patience with his team after arguing with a fan during the 1-1 draw with Premier League leaders Chelsea.

The LIverpool manager Klopp could be seen exchanging words with a fan standing behind the dug-outs after a first-half back-pass towards goalkeeper Simon Mignolet was met by a collective groan around Anfield.

Klopp said his side were committed to building play from the back and asked supporters not to allow their impatience to get the better of them.

“If we don’t play possession football tonight, it’s ping-pong,” Klopp told reporters after Tuesday’s game.

“We played high pressure, so Chelsea does it smart, plays a few long balls. If we do the same, you have a stiff neck after the game.

“So we had to play football and that includes sometimes you play a back-pass. And then I hear in this moment (shouts): ‘Why you play a back-pass?’

“Keep your nerve, please. It’s still football. I have no problem with emotion. I have much more emotions than I should have. But it’s in this moment (I think), ‘What do you want?’

“It was only one guy, by the way, that I made eye contact with. Blue jacket.”

The draw preserved the 10-point gap separating the sides, but meant Liverpool, who remain fourth, avoided four successive home defeats for the first time since 1923.

Chelsea took a 24th-minute lead when David Luiz’s quickly taken free-kick caught out Mignolet as he tried to organise his defence, the ball cannoning in off his right-hand post.

Georginio Wijnaldum equalised with a 57th-minute header before Mignolet atoned by saving a penalty from Diego Costa, awarded for a foul on the Chelsea striker by Joel Matip.

Klopp celebrated Mignolet’s penalty save by roaring in the face of fourth official Neil Swarbrick, but said the pair had later made peace.

– Arsenal next for Chelsea –
“It was a foul before in my opinion on (Dejan) Lovren, that’s what I was a little angry about,” Klopp said.

“No one can beat us, was what I said (to Swarbrick). Obviously that’s not true, but it felt for us like this in that moment.

“I was absolutely the wrong person to say it. I said: ‘Sorry, I was a bit excited.’ He said: ‘No problem, I like your passion.’”

Liverpool’s supporters felt Costa went down too easily after being caught by Matip, but Klopp said he had no qualms with the combative Chelsea striker.

“If I had played against Costa, I could never be friends — that’s how it is — but when you have him in your team it’s much more fun. He is a warrior,” said Klopp.

“What (Antonio) Conte is doing with Chelsea is outstanding, but Chelsea without Costa this season?

“He is not the nicest guy on the pitch, but I saw no real big incident.

“If someone tells me it was a dive, maybe I will be angry tomorrow, but that would be wrong decision what, number 27? But it doesn’t make it better.”

Despite Costa’s squandered penalty, Arsenal’s loss to Watford and Tottenham Hotspur’s goalless draw at struggling Sunderland made it a good night for Chelsea manager Antonio Conte.

“It is not easy to play against Liverpool in this moment after three defeats. It is not easy to play in this atmosphere,” said Conte, whose side sit nine points clear ahead of Arsenal’s visit on Saturday.

“I am very proud of my players for the personality they showed tonight. It is a good point, for sure.

“When you have a good chance with a penalty in the 76th minute then you think you could win and take three points, but Mignolet made a great save.

“Now it is important to recover well as we wasted a lot of energy because the game was intense and there were a lot of mistakes.”

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