Nigeria Content Online

Why ANPP wants all elections conducted same day

The national
chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and former governor of
Abia State, Ogbonnaya Onu, has given reasons why Nigerians should
prevail on officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), and members of the National Assembly to allow elections into
various elective positions to be conducted in one day.

Speaking in Benin
City at the weekend, at a rally organised by members of the party to
galvanise the state chapter of the party ahead of the 2011 elections,
Mr. Onu also expressed the readiness of his party to merge with any
other opposition parties to form a strong coalition.

“I am sure many of
you will remember that we have been in office just for six weeks, but
we are moving and I am very happy that many opposition parties are in
agreement that we have to pool our resources together in order to
ensure victory next year. For the sake of the country, this is very
important for our dear nation.

“We are working
with other opposition political parties to come up with a coalition of
opposition political parties that will make it easier for us to win in
next year’s elections. Discussions are still at very preliminary
levels, and we will notify you as soon as we make substantial
progress,” he said.

Reducing cost

He said the
challenges that go with the conduct of elections in Nigeria are such
that should be aimed at reducing the cost of conducting elections so
that more resources would be channeled to repairing decayed
infrastructure across the country.

“Our call for
election to be held in one day is because we want those who occupy
elective positions to be those who enjoy the will of their people. What
we now have is staggered election that would take place on three
different days. It is designed to have a bandwagon effect and once that
happens, then many things will come as a consequence. One is that some
may even lose interest and may not even want to vote again,” he said.

“If you want to
look at the cost element; if you hold elections on the same day it is
very cost effective. If you look at INEC, it will make a lot of saving
because they will be conducting one, instead of three different
elections. If you look at political parties, they will make a lot of
savings because they will now look after one polling agent as against
three,” he further said.

Mr. Onu said that there are so many things his leadership is doing to strengthen the party.

“We have set up
National Contact Committee at the national level; at the state level,
if they have not done so, they will soon do so. And the major
responsibility of that committee is to ensure that all those who left
our party come back. We are also asking you people to come and join the
party,” he said.

Alao-Akala lacks popularity at home, says opponent

Alao-Akala lacks popularity at home, says opponent

Leader of the
opposition within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo state,
Lekan Balogun, has asserted that state governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala
lacks popularity in his hometown, Ogbomoso.

Mr.Balogun, one
time senator and Ibadan high chief, said in Ibadan on Sunday while
reviewing the last week’s anti-Akala rally in Ogbomoso that his lack of
appeal was one of the reasons why Mr Alao-Akala was opposed to the
rally staged by the opposition.

Describing the
rally as a success, Mr Balogun said it had put clouds to the governor’s
ambition to return to office next year as many people of the town are
equally aware of the governor’s bad performance and would not want him
to come back next year.

“Without the
meeting, we would not have known that the governor lacks strong
followership in Ogbomoso,” he said. “The experience made nonsense of
his often repeated allegation that the opposition to him is purely and
simply a localized Ibadan phenomenon; whereas, the governor is just
simply unpopular. In retrospect, it became obvious why the governor did
not want the meeting in Ogbomoso to hold at all.” Mr Balogun led other
party leaders,including former governor, Rashidi Ladoja; Senate Leader,
Teslim Kolawole Folarin; former Secretary to State Government (SSG) in
the state, Sarafadeen Alli and members of the PDP Implementation
Committee in the state led by their chairman, Yunus Akintunde, to the
rally.

Might is not right

Blaming the
government’s ‘might is right’ philosophy on the loss of lives reported
at the town before the rally, he said his group only got to know about
the incident through newspapers reports.

“Why should a
government bring out hoodlums to prevent the holding of a meeting
regardless the citizens constitutional right of association, freedom of
speech and movement, why? again, why should anybody be prevented from
using public places for lawful business? For instance, local government
halls, schools,these are public institutions that are collectively
owned and for which we should all have access for the purpose of lawful
transactions,” he said.

Mr.Balogun also
wondered why the governor would want to prevent those opposing his
second term ambition from holding rally in his town after doing same
for his own ambition at the homesteads of the said opposition.

“The governor had his so-called second term declaration a few weeks ago in Ibadan.

His faction is
known to have held meetings, rallies in Lagelu, my local government
area in not less than four or five times in the last one year and at no
time was there a threat to law and order,” he said.

Commending the
police for their response, the PDP leader noted that the state police
command ensured that the meeting was held peacefully and successfully.

Aero Contractors fit for flight operations

Aero Contractors fit for flight operations

Following
the recent air mishap and “fraudulent” text messages from unknown
persons faulting the air worthiness of Aero Contractors,the Nigerian
Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) over the weekend disclosed that the
airline is still qualified to carry on with its regular flight
operations.

Dispelling fears of
possible compromise in the safety of the carrier’s fleet, the
regulatory agency disclosed that it would not hesitate to ground the
airline should there be failing standards in the carrier’s flight
operations.

“That they are
flying should tell people that they are certified to do so; otherwise
their operations would have been grounded,” said Sam Adurogboye, media
head for the civil aviation authority.

Admitting that the
authority was aware of the recent incident involving the airline, Mr.
Adurogboye said that “Aero is fit to continue its operations.” Earlier,
Aero in a statement, disclosed that the regulatory agency gave it a
“clean bill” following a check on the carrier’s aircraft by engineers
from the authority.

Last week, a viral
text message condemning the air worthiness of two aircraft belonging to
Aero Contractors was sent to some passengers and media houses, alleging
that some officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN)
are aware of the airline’s degenerating safety standards.

Deceitful texts

The development,
which came after the carrier’s Boeing 737 aircraft had a technical
fault resulting in the emission of smoke in the cabin that scared
passengers and saw some of the travellers sustaining injuries, is
criticized by the carrier as being “the handiwork of disgruntled
competitors who are threatened by the success of the airline over the
last few months.”

When contacted,
however, Akin Olukunle,spokesman for the Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria (FAAN) disclosed that no official of the authority will speak
to anyone on issues pertaining the air worthiness of an airline, adding
that the text message was “deceitful.” “Whoever said he spoke to us is
not telling the truth,because it is not the duty of FAAN to comment on
matters affecting an airline,it is the regulatory agency that does
that,” he said.

On the issue of the air mishap, Aero disclosed that it is a globally
accepted rule in airline operations that no flight operation can be
conducted when a warning signal is detected, adding that it will not be
deterred by any blackmail from any source about its fleet airworthiness.

Mark criticises educational standard

Mark criticises educational standard

The president of
the Senate, David Mark, has criticised the poor educational standard in
the country, which has led to a very low global rating for the nation’s
universities.

The Senate
president expressed his concerns over the standard of the nation’s
universities over the weekend while addressing the audience at the 16th
and 17th convocation ceremony of the University of Agriculture,
Makurdi, in Benue State, where he was conferred with an honorary Doctor
of Science (D.SC).

Mr. Mark said
that education remains the bedrock of development in any nation. He
added that every responsible organisation and government must put
education first, if development must begin to take place in the nation.

He, therefore,
challenged the authorities of the universities to step up and bridge
this gap so that Nigerian graduates could be accorded the same respect
and status anywhere in the world.

“I am glad that
the executive secretary of the National University Commission (NUC),
Professor Julius Okogie, is here,” he said.

“We must do
something urgent to upgrade our universities, otherwise, we cannot
compete in this global environment of today,” he added.

On their part,
the Senate president said that the National Assembly will continue to
“lay a solid framework through effective legislation that would
facilitate and improve our education at all levels.”

He added that the
National Assembly will do its best to ensure that Nigerian universities
and other institutions of higher learning get their fair share of
funding needed to meet their needs.

President
Goodluck Jonathan, who was represented by the Agriculture Minister,
Sheik Ahmed Abdullahi, also promised to give education its pride of
place in his administration.

However, neither
the president, nor the Senate president made any obligating statement
with regards to what percentage of the 2011 budget will be allocated to
education sector or whether the government will increase funding to the
sector.

Increase food research

The Senate
president also expressed worries that little or no attention is being
paid by authorities and research institutions on food security in the
country.

He states that
food security – or insecurity – poses a major challenge like other
crimes that are being aggressively tackled by the federal government.
He challenged the institution to dwell more on research and
development, especially on food security.

“With enough
arable land, abundant human and natural resources, as well as
specialised institutions like this, there is no justifiable reason why
we cannot guarantee food security across the length and breadth of
Nigeria,” Mr. Mark stressed.

Nasamu Dakingari, governor of Kebbi State, and Pascal Dozie,
chairman, MTN Nigeria, were also awarded Doctor of Science (D.SC)
honoris causa by the university at the ceremony.

Nigeria port operator stake to be acquired

Nigeria port operator stake to be acquired

China Merchants
Holdings International has agreed to form a joint venture that will buy
a 47.5 percent stake in a container-terminal operator in Nigeria from
Israel’s Zim Integrated Shipping for $154 million.

China Merchants
will own 60 percent of the venture, with China-Africa Development Fund
(CADF) taking a 40 percent stake after obtaining approval from Chinese
regulators, the Chinese port operator said in a statement.

China Development Bank owns CADF, a fund which supports Chinese enterprises in their investment in Africa.

Zim will record a
pretax gain of $120 million from the sale, its parent company, Israel
Corp, said. Israel Corp shares were up 3.0 percent in morning trade in
Tel Aviv.

Money

Government extends payment date for NITEL bidder

Government extends payment date for NITEL bidder

The Federal
Government, on Friday, demonstrated magnanimity by granted a 20-day
extension on the deadline for the payment of the initial big security
on the national telecoms carrier, the Nigerian Telecommunications
Limited (NITEL), and its mobile subsidiary, MTel.

New Generation
Consortium, which emerged the preferred bidder during last February’s
bid exercise organised by the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), was
given up to last Thursday to pay for the 30 percent bid security on its
$2.5billion offer.

Following President
Goodluck Jonathan’s approval early last month, for BPE to bring the
controversial privatisation to a close, the consortium was, October 25,
asked to pay the initial bid security of $750million (about
N112.5billion) within ten calendar days from the date of its receipt of
a demand letter conveying its acknowledgment as winner.

In accordance with
the provisions of the Requests for Proposal (RFP) issued to all bidders
at the inception of the process, the letter indicated that the payment
of the bid security would be a pre-condition for the issuance of the
formal offer letter for the Consortium to go ahead to complete the
acquisition process.

However, at the
close of business on Thursday, rather than the electronic transfer
document indicating payment, the Consortium showed up at the BPE with a
copy of the letter addressed to the National Council on Privatisation
(NCP) requesting for 30 days extension to enable it mobilise funds for
the payment.

Deadline recipe for failure

Chief Executive of
the consortium, Usman Gumi, in a response to inquiries on Friday, told
NEXT that the letter despatched shortly before the expiration of the
deadline on Thursday became necessary considering the long period it
took government to approve the conclusion of the bid.

“We have sent a
letter to the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) seeking for an
extension by 30 banking days of the deadline for the payment of the
initial 30 percent bid security, considering the negative impact the
long delay by government to take a final decision to approve the
conclusion of the transaction has had on the entire process,” Mr. Gumi
said.

“Giving only ten
calendar days for the payment of $750million is a recipe for failure.
No businessman would like to tie down his money to wait for over eight
months for government to take its decision,” he said, assuring that the
consortium is committed to realising the dreams of Nigerians as well as
the expectations of the Federal Government in the privatisation
programme.

A statement by the
BPE, conveying government approval of the bidder’s request had alluded
to the “consortium’s difficulty with concluding the due diligence and
compliance processes associated with the transfer of such huge funds.

According to BPE
spokesman, Chukwuma Nwoko, the consortium requested for “a 20-working
day extension to clarify all compliance and due diligence issues, and
also to remit the funds into BPE’s account.”

Extension approved in breach

NEXT investigations
reveal that government decision to grant the extension may have been in
breach of the stipulated bid guidelines issued at the beginning of the
bid process, which indicated that the winner would have to revert to
the reserve bidder in the event of failure of the preferred bidder to
meet the payment deadline.

However, followers
of the privatisation process accuse the NCP and BPE of double standards
in the application of its bid guidelines rules by accepting to
accommodate the interest of a bid winner who experience difficulties in
meeting a payment deadline as a result of delays caused by bureaucratic
hitches, when they had ignored similar requests in the past.

Observers cite the
instance of BFIGroup, the American bidder, which emerged the preferred
bidder for the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) in 2003,
but was disqualified after BPE accused it of failure to meet the
deadline for the payment of 10 percent of its $410million offer.

The company had
requested for an extension of the payment deadline, following a delay
by BPE to issue it the mandatory demand letter acknowledging its
emergence as the preferred bidder within 48 hours of the declaration of
the winner by the NCP.

Money

FINANCIAL MATTERS: Global practice vs. local constraints

FINANCIAL MATTERS: Global practice vs. local constraints

The
press release at the end of the US Federal Reserve’s Open Market
Committee meeting last week did not surprise too much. The markets
underestimated the amount of freshly minted money that the Fed was
willing to throw at the sluggish US economy: US$500bn, instead of the
US$600bn announced. In the end, I think even this is an overkill.

As
far back as August this year, Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve
chairman, had presaged his organisation’s commitment to reinvest
principal payments from its securities holdings, while buying
longer-term treasury securities, as part of a process of fostering
“maximum employment and price stability” in the US.

Of
greater moment is the debate over how useful this policy will be. A lot
has changed since the Fed first massively eased monetary conditions in
the US in response to the Great Recession. US banks, for one, are back
to their profitable old ways. They may not be lending as much today as
they did pre-crisis, but that’s the consequence of a different order of
things, and not because their balance sheets are burdened. Having only
recently had their chestnuts so dramatically pulled out of the fire, it
would be foolhardy for any to return to the fireside as closely as they
got last time, just because the Fed’s say so.

The
problem, however, with much of the debate on the pros and cons of this
second round of quantitative easing, especially in the US, is how
arcane it has gotten.

On
the strength of this alone, I rue the day when authorities here would
cite the US’ example, as reason to do the same here. Not just is it
still not so clear amongst US policy wonks that this is the best way
out of the current difficulty, with employment creation in the United
States, you indeed get the sense that even with the Fed, the assurances
are not so strong on the correctness of this policy trajectory.

Rather,
having run out of ammunition, and confronting an intractable problem,
the monetary authorities in the US, unwilling to sit and twiddle their
thumbs while their corner of “Rome” burns, have decided to throw the
kitchen sink at the problem. It may yet work! In the United States of
America.

Not
here! Same symptoms, though: no jobs, no new investment in fixed
assets, inventory stock remains flat, and a restive citizenry. But with
this big difference: our economy is ticking at fairly decent pace –
7.4% this year, and another 8.6% in 2011 (if you believe government’s
number crunchers, that is). Again, all of the growth in our case is
from a pretty low base.

There
is an additional difficulty in all of this. Reference to practice in
places like the United States of America is regularly excused in terms
of the need to apply global best practices to domestic affairs. This
trend has strengthened of late, as sections of the diaspora, victims of
the global financial crisis, return home. It is difficult, as it were,
to live with the “from the pulpit” mindset of this class of Nigerians.
Harder still to persuade the “returnees” of the fact that the failure
of the Nigerian state is not the consequence of unfamiliarity with
“global best practices.”

Instead,
our leaders have made a conscious choice, and the terms of a social
compact implicitly accented to by all segments of the populace – an
agreement that spares the middle class and all other strata of society
above it the full burden of the consequences of our leaders choices –
makes it easy to live like this.

Moreover,
it is to the consequences of our preferred lifestyle that we must turn
in search of resolution, rather than to practice elsewhere. Urban
unemployment in Nigeria is put at 25%. It is somewhat higher
nationally. Amongst the most important (since it is the largest)
demographic group, the 15 – 25 years old, unemployment stands at 58%.

Underemployment
is not usually measured here, but anecdotal evidence would suggest that
it is a major worry. What passes for manufacturing is increasingly no
more sophisticated than the Asian sweatshops that were the butt of
western environmental and fair labour activists in the 70s and 80s.

In
other words, we have local constraints, whose effect on the economy is
more perverse, than the application of global practices to their
solution could be salutary.

Money

Influx of corporate results good for stock market

Influx of corporate results good for stock market

The Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index (NSE-ASI) had mixed performance through the week under review.

Ordinarily, prices
are expected to drop, but for the continued flow of corporate actions,
the resistance remains strong. NSEASI recorded three black days that
took 1.37%, and two black days that added just 0.40%. It actually had a
turnover of 1.586 billion shares in 28,169 transactions. Comparing the
opening index of 25,042.16 and the closing figure of 24,800.47, a
negative difference of 0.97% or 241.69 points is noticed.

The banking sector
dominated performance during the week with the 814.362 million shares
traded on its equities in 15,696 deals through the week. The said
performance was boosted by volume on the shares of Zenith Bank Plc,
Oceanic Bank Plc, Access Bank, and United Bank for Africa Plc.

The insurance
sector was enhanced by volume on the shares of Lasaco Assurance,
African Alliance, and AIICO Insurance Plc, as it traded 259.754 million
shares on all its equities through the week.

Gainers and losers

A total of 33
stocks closed the week above their respective opening prices; 39 closed
in the red, while 130 stocks end the week on a flat note. Advancing
equities traded 566.498 million shares or 35.71% of market volume,
declining ones did 629.740 million shares or 40%, while the unchanged
stocks accounted for the remaining 390.185 million shares, same as
24.60% of market volume.

CORPORATE REPORTS

Intercontinental Bank Plc

One of the lead
bank ultimately declared by CBN as massively exposed to hang-over fund
in the stock market. Activities in the bank, in terms of operation and
profitability, are gradually looking up, but grey areas remain weighty.
In the recent interim Q3 statistics of the company, the massive decline
of sales revenue and negative shareholders’ fund should give concern to
shareholders.

In the review
period, Q3 turnover slashed 39.80% of N124.29 billion posted in
comparable Q3 2009 at current N74.82 billion. After accounting for tax
of N2.55 billion, Profit After Tax (PAT) stood at N10.19 billion,
revealing significant 106.3% recovery from loss after tax of N161.68
billion in Q3 2009.

Despite triple
digit growth in the bottom line, shareholders’ fund remains deep rooted
in liability at net loss of N368.88 billion. Total non-performing loans
to total loans and advances at the group level stood at 82%, against
76% in Q3 2009; while within the bank, it stood at 81%, compared to 75%
in Q3 2009.

Analysis on ratios
revealed that Q3 EPS now stands at 52 kobo, against loss per share of
832 kobo in Q3 2009. Price earnings multiple of 4.54 strengthen return
period of Intercontinental Bank. Net profit margin returned 13.6%
growth.

OBSERVATION: Deep
rooted negative shareholders’ fund is not healthy for stake holders.
Nevertheless, the massive drive in recovery of hang-up fund could
override the current shareholders’ fund position in the recent future,
especially with the AMCON set to start operation soon.

UAC Nigeria Plc

The conglomerates
group, UAC Nigeria Plc, provided its numerical numbers (results) for Q3
ended September 30, 2010. Cursory assessment on the figure revealed
abysmal performance. Turnover dropped lower by 11.59% against all
expectation.

In the same vein,
bottom line dipped by 19.23% at N3.74 billion. The current performance
conveys the possibility of lower full year gross revenue and PAT
against FY 2009. If this obtains, dividend payment may drop lower
against FY 2009 figure.

Additional analysis
shows that at Q3 EPS of 234 kobo, earnings strength has depreciated by
19.03%, when compared to 289 kobo in Q3 2009. Order ratio indicators
revealed lower growth in numbers; ROE- 10% and net profit margin –
10.07% against 12% and 11.02% posted respectively in Q3 2009.

OBSERVATION: UACN is a defensive stock and remains attractive for long term investors.

Money

60 Chinese firms exhibit at Lagos trade fair

60 Chinese firms exhibit at Lagos trade fair

The general
manager, Brightway International Exhibition Co. Ltd., Fa Frank, says 60
Chinese firms are to showcase products at the ongoing Lagos
International Trade Fair.

Mr. Frank told the
News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday, in Lagos, that their stands would be
opened to visitors and investors as soon as the Chinese pavillion was
completed.

“About 60 companies
from China will be at this 24th Lagos International Trade Fair and they
are coming with various products that Nigerians will not resist.
However, their presence at the fair is not for buying and selling, but
to look for distributors and Nigerian partners,” he said.

According to him,
reaching out to developing countries for trade relations in any form is
one of the priorities of the Chinese government.

Mr. Frank said that some of the companies would exhibit heavy duty trucks and household utensils, among others.

Money

Egypt central bank refuses to intervene

Egypt central bank refuses to intervene

The central bank
did not intervene last week to help the Egyptian pound recover from a
five-year low against the U.S. dollar, and is not targeting exchange
rate levels for the currency, the deputy governor said on Sunday.

The pound fell to
its lowest levels since June 2005, last week, against the dollar, but
rebounded on Thursday, after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would buy
$600 billion of government debt to spur the U.S. economy.

The pound slid to
5.7770 to the dollar, around 5 percent weaker than at the start of the
year. It is now trading around 5.7140 to the greenback.