Odigie-Oyegun, others mourn Onukaba (Read full details)

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APC National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, veteran broadcaster Tom Adaba and some personalities yesterday eulogised the late former Managing Director of Daily Times, Dr. Adinoyi Onukaba Ojo.

Odigie-Oyegun during a visit to Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, described Onukaba’s untimely passage as a great loss to the nation.

He said the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) received the news with grief.

The APC national chairman urged the government to improve security on the nation’s highways to rid the roads of criminals posing threat to lives and property.

According to him: “The circumstances that led to Onukaba’s death is a painful reminder of the need for improved policing of the nation’s highways.

“Onukaba’s death, who was an aspirant of the APC in the last governorship election primary in Kogi has left us with a great void.”

Also, Tom Adaba and a former acting governor of Kogi State, Abdullahi Bello paid tributes to the late journalist who they described as an associate and close confidant of more than two decades.

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Fidelity Bank’s ‘Get Alert in Millions’ promo winners get prizes

Eurobond: Re-lending withheld FAAC dollars to FGN?

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By Henry Boyo

IT is an open secret that Nigerian’s economy is being systematically and deliberately raped as often canvassed in this column, what is obvious is that Nigerians have become poorer despite bountiful revenue and heavy debt accumulation over the years.

The above is the title of The Guardian Newspaper editorial  of March 2nd  2017. It is uncanny that we now celebrate the capacity to borrow back our own money. Please read on.

“The Federal Government has borrowed US$1 billion via a Global Medium Term Note or 15-year Eurobond that became effective on February 14, 2017. It was 780%  subscribed at a fixed coupon rate of 7.875%. Issued in the United Kingdom, the Eurobond has been listed for trading on the London Stock Exchange’s regulated market. The bond is also expected to be listed on The Nigeria Stock Exchange for trading on the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange.

 

International interest

Credit for stoking international interest in the issue has been attributed to the road show held abroad that was graced in person by Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, minister of Finance, Senator Udo Udoma, minister of Budget and National Planning, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, Dr. Abraham Nwakwo, director-general, Debt Management Office (DMO) and Mr. Ben Akabueze, director-general, Budget Office. Although the Eurobond bears the tag of $1 billion, the lump sum payment realised by government was much less.

The undisclosed difference between the received lump sum and the bond value represents upfront fees and sundry negotiated charges payable in dollars to Nigeria-based financial institutions (albeit with significant foreign interests), namely, the lead co-fund managers of Citigroup Global Markets Ltd and Standard Chartered Bank, both of which have Stanbic IBTC Capital as financial adviser.

So the roadshow which took place abroad won Nigeria-established fund managers whose solid reach to numerous international investors in such bonds should be taken for granted. The roadshow was therefore uncalled-for. Additionally, bearing in mind the undisclosed cost to Nigeria of the roadshow which was in scarce forex, the Federal Government collected under $1 billion in February 2017 and signed away coupon rate and redemption costs of the bond amounting to at least $2,117.5 billion by February 2032 out of its guaranteed multi-billion dollar receipts from oil exports. Clearly, the Eurobond was effectively a risk-free bounty or dash with return that dwarfs LIBOR.

No wonder the offer was oversubscribed by some six times. But why is the FG celebrating the handing over of the stranglehold on future public sector receipts to private investors as “a demonstration of the strong market for Nigeria appetite and indicative of the confidence by the international investment community in Nigeria’s economic reform agenda?”

It should be noted that Eurobond subscribers and secondary bondholders may come from different countries including, strange but true, Nigeria. In both categories of investors will be found, possibly in the majority, Nigerian individuals and institutions which are inundated with forex which they did not directly generate but still find themselves in a position to deploy for subscription readily available forex hoards obtained from the inappropriate but routine CBN auctions of wrongfully withheld Federation Account dollar allocations.

Now, did FG need  Eurobond? The question is answered in the negative by the high likelihood that Eurobond was open to what may be aptly termed incestuous subscription (whereby withheld FAAC dollars turn out to form a part of the invested funds).

It is puzzling that such possibility escaped the organisers or promoters of the Eurobond roadshow at all. In the circumstances, participants in the roadshow, who happen to be the apex fiscal and monetary decision makers, individually and collectively, professionally and politically have not served Nigeria well by embracing the Eurobond and suchlike borrowings as a solution to the so-called forex scarcity (which is artificial as will be seen shortly) facing the country.

Being current holders of public offices that have existed since independence (excepting the DMO), the apex decision makers on fiscal and monetary matters are both answerable for and bound by duty to correct any inherited policy mistakes whether they arose from acts of commission or omission.

 

Accordingly, the top fiscal and monetary officials should shed forthwith the toga of being ciphers holding office for the spoils which they wore to the unwarranted Eurobond roadshow, wake up to the respective statutory responsibility that they hold in public trust and correct the mistake made by their predecessors in 1971 upon the demise of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates.

The mistake involves the CBN withholding Federation Account dollar allocations as so-called CBN’s external reserves and simultaneously substituting for budgetary spending by FA beneficiaries freshly printed purported naira equivalent. It is not naira equivalent because that step is economically synonymous with the apex bank proportionately financing the budgets of the tiers of government to the extent of withheld dollar allocations. The economy has reflected the adverse impact of the resultant excessive fiscal deficits since the 1970s.

Tragically, the so-called CBN’s external reserves (which even the FG is precluded from investing) are dissipated through auctioning in the guise of defending the value of the naira in a sham forex market. For the CBN, the naira proceeds from the dollar auctions are junk (money removed from the system for destruction). On the other hand, the auctions guarantee access to physical dollar cash (forming part of the withheld FA dollar allocations) to even elements that neither export any goods and services nor have legitimate economic use for foreign exchange.

The dollar cash acquired from the apex deposit money banks is put to abuses that are absolutely detrimental to the national economic objectives such as currency speculation, dollarization, smuggling, stashing away in foreign lands and so on.

The forex is also hoarded in domiciliary dollar accounts with no time limit which has created unconstitutional dual currency system with the naira playing the second fiddle. The limitless avenues of abuse include locking up hoards of dollar cash in private places thereby sequestering the forex from the working of the economy.

Through the Eurobond, part of the auctioned FA dollar allocations most probably formed the bulk of the subscription or forex funds re-lent to the FG at coupon rates payable in government’s future dollar earnings. The mistake of 1971 has simply finished off the economy.

It therefore amounts to shedding crocodile tears for the above named successor top fiscal/monetary officials to lament the self-created forex scarcity and multiple exchange rates. Along with their predecessors, they have nursed the baneful mistake for over 46 years. Is that a mark of rational economic behaviour on the part of the most populous black country on earth? The mistake of 1971 should cease.

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Musings over Tinubu’s presidential ambition

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By Ochereome Nnanna

ASIWAJU is hungry. No matter how he and his media aides want to twist the issue, the truth is out. Penultimate Saturday, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, with the full compliments of his political flunkeys and acolytes, stormed Akure the Ondo State capital, for the inauguration of his estranged political protégé, Barrister Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) as the new Governor of the Sunshine State.

As if on cue, a reporter asked him a lead-in question: “will you consider running for president in 2019?” Tinubu readily said yes, adding (according to media reports): “I will not brush aside that possibility”. This interesting piece of news, understandably, made the headlines and trended on the social media. The following Monday, Thisday newspapers, in its usual adventuresome approach to such political news, went to town, painting a picture of a Tinubu campaign platform that already features the names of possible Northern running mates, all of them Muslims like Tinubu.

The following day, Tinubu’s camp issued a rather panicky rebuttal of the Thisday report, saying he never indicated any specific office for his political ambition. Declaring his “loyalty” to Buhari whom he helped into the presidential seat, he affirmed that he would never run against the ailing Daura General. In other words, he would only run in 2019 (a) if Buhari is not available for a second term contest, and (b) if he is available and decides not to run. He did not declare what he would do if Buhari is available and unable to run but indicates interest in another Northerner stepping in to “complete the North’s turn”, which will likely stretch their turn to 12 years and put the presidency beyond Asiwaju’s reach.

I dare say (and please take note): if for any reason Buhari is alive but unable to run for a second term in 2019, he will not be able to go against an overwhelming Northern desire for another Northerner to replace him and complete their “turn”, no matter how “dearly” he loves Tinubu and the South west for putting him in power. We will return to this shortly.

For me, that Tinubu, whose shrewd political capacity has long been established, to even admit a presidential ambition in 2019 in the midst of grave uncertainties over Buhari’s health status is a great, deep insight into the seriousness of the situation. I do not think that if the President is “hale and hearty” as we have been consistently lied to, even by Acting President, Pastor Yemi Osinbajo,

Tinubu (with his profuse profession of loyalty to Buhari) would even remotely entertain a presidential run in 2019, let alone voice it out. He would have seen the need to dismiss the question out of hand. How can someone who is “hale and hearty” (Osinbajo), or “neither sick nor hospitalised” (Lai Mohammed) require such a frenzied call for prayers in mosques all over the North? Why would he require to “rest” indefinitely away from the presidential seat for which he contested four record times? Lies have a way of shaming its peddlers!

Let us even assume (as mentioned above) that Buhari, for one reason or the other, will not run in 2019; what are the prospects of a successful presidential run for Tinubu, whether on the All Progressives Congress, APC, platform or even on a new, expedient coalition platform? I dare say, (and take note again): his chances are slim because Tinubu is condemned to be a kingmaker but not king. If he tries to cross from one threshold to the other, he will meet nothing but tears, frustration and futility. I have my reasons for saying so.

Number one: our ugly geopolitical culture is not friendly or easy for a South West Muslim or a Northern Christian to emerge as an elected president of Nigeria. Qualification for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not based on merit.

If it were, Buhari would never have qualified. More so, a Professor of Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, would not be his Vice President. Our warped geopolitical architecture puts the cart before the horse, which is why the nation never moves forward. Compare progress the nation has made in the one month when Buhari has been out of the way and the past two years when he was fully in charge: the difference is clear.

But it is not the fate of today’s Nigeria for the best hands to be handed the number one job. Even though there are numerous well educated, brilliant, nationalistic and enlightened North Muslims who can lead this country to greatness, they are never favoured because they don’t have deep religious and ethnic clout to pull out the millions of voters rooting for a “Mujahid” to capture the Nigerian Presidency for the North and enforce the archaic fancies of the defunct Sokoto Caliphate on the rest of the citizenry.

For a South West Muslim to make a meaningful presidential run, he would have to run a Muslim/Muslim ticket, and that will not sell in today’s Nigeria. Tinubu and Buhari tried to swing it for the 2015 elections, but because of its political “unbankability”, Tinubu had to step down and forward Pastor Osinbajo’s name as Buhari’s running mate. A South West/North Muslim-Muslim ticket will suffer a greater fiasco because religious intolerance has worsened since the days of Moshood Abiola/Babagana Kingibe all-Muslims ticket.

The need to balance a presidential ticket to accommodate tribe, religion and geopolitical sections has increased, and the North is very unlikely to “donate” a Christian Vice President to represent them! Any attempt by Tinubu to try and force through a Muslim-Muslim ticket will end in futility.

The more immediate impediment to a Tinubu presidential run in 2019 is the fact that the North, under our unofficial rotational orthodoxy, still feels very “entitled” to that position. Incidentally, the nation appears to concur that 2019 is still for the North.

In fact, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has already zoned its presidency to the North for 2019. I do not see how the North, with the APC controlling its 17 of its 19 states will concede to Tinubu’s South West (five states) with its turn not fully exhausted. The North is already feeling frustrated that what happened to the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua is again threatening to rear its ugly head. They are unlikely to tolerate any attempt by Osinbajo to continue in 2019 if the worst happens. That would be a re-enactment of the Yar’Adua/Jonathan situation all over again.

Because of its size and the determination of its people to dictate the pace of Nigerian politics and the fractious and weak nature of the Southern blocs, the North cannot be thwarted in its claim to power, especially when the claim is still reasonably justified as the 2019 occasion is. Being in charge of the Federal Government is too important for the equanimity of the North for them to tolerate the midway thwarting of their opportunity. It is only when we restructure the country that any qualified and competent Nigerian, no matter the circumstances of his birth and faith, can run for president and probably win.

And that brings me to the third reason Tinubu’s run for president in 2019 (or any time at all) may not work. I do not see how Tinubu will become the President of Nigeria and not push for restructuring and true federalism. He is quiet about it now because of his fear that pushing for it under Buhari could amount to playing with fire. Until Nigeria gets better, no one who is a known ardent advocate for true federalism and restructuring will emerge as the presidential flag-bearer of a political party (like the APC) which is massively dominated by the North.

I dare say (yet again): Tinubu must, like Macbeth, must remain a kingmaker. The moment he goes for the crown as Macbeth did, he won’t even go as far as Macbeth did. The ambition will be dead on arrival.But, of course, he can always try!

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Iyanya, TMC team headline business conference in U.S

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Iyanya

Singer Iyanya and top members of the Temple Management Company (TMC) are currently in the United States of America to headline an entertainment panel at the Africa Business Conference holding at the prestigious Georgetown University, Washington DC.

A letter conveying the invitation was signed by Adeleke Adegbulugbe, Head Partnerships/ Georgetown Africa Business Conference, Georgetown University, Mcdonough School Of Business.

The conference, which holds today will be hosted by Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business in conjunction with the African Studies Program under the theme; Time for Ownership: The Future of Business and Governance in Africa.

Femi Salawu, Media Executive, Temple Management Company, revealed that Iyanya and the TMC team left the country on Thursday, while adding that the singer will also leverage the opportunity to discuss with international partners.

The Up 2 Sumting crooner, who joined Mavin Records last year, is accompanied by Terfa Tilley-Gyado, Director of Communications, Temple Management Company, who will moderate on the entertainment and sports panel at the conference. Also joining them on the panel is Mr. Fela Oke, Head of Commercial at TMC.

Expected to attract business leaders and investors from across the globe, the conference will take place at the Rafik B. Hariri building on the main campus of Georgetown University.

“Leveraging the internet and digital platforms, Afrobeats and Nigerian movies dominate continental airwaves and many diaspora playlists. What has been the development of the music and film industries across the continent? This panel will also discuss the potential of commercialization of sports, “ Adegbulugbe said.

Currently in its second edition, organisers projected the Africa Business conference to bring together over 30 leaders from across Africa to discuss the developments of various industries – including banking, energy, healthcare, and entertainment.

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