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Trees are the lungs
of the earth; it can be assumed then Nigeria, which displays severe
cases of deforestation, is literally gasping for breath for lack of
oxygen. That Nigeria’s rainforests have been depleted to less than 10
percent of its size 50 years ago is not news.

What is left of our
forests are under threat, and many areas are degraded and converted for
other uses. This phenomenon is not restricted to Nigeria. Overall, the
United Nations surmises that 13 million hectares of forested land have
been converted every year over the past 10 years and most of this is
said to be for agricultural purposes.

In areas like the
Amazonia, most of the conversion has been for monoculture farms where
crops like soy are cultivated for animal feed and other industrial
uses. In South East Asia, the threat has been from forest conversion
into oil palm plantations for ultimate production of fuels for
machines. Indeed, the land uptake and the highly invasive oil palm
trees, make this writer wince whenever Latino friends insist on calling
the tree ‘palm Africano’ or ‘African palm’. A crop, whose origin is
Africa, is being introduced in environments where the locals view its
arrival with anxiety and at times anger.

In Nigeria, our
forests are threatened by logging for export and conversion into
plantations. It is said by some that we export logs and import back
into Nigeria as floorboards, furniture, or even toothpicks. As The
Economist noted in a recent issue, “clearing forests may enrich those
who are doing it, but over the long run it impoverishes the planet as a
whole.”

There was a
notorious forest gobbler who was well known for logging outside its
area of concession in the Omo Forest. Whenever confronted, the
operators of this company would plead that they simply got lost in the
forest. Interestingly, they always ‘innocently’ strayed into areas
where the bigger trees were.

The company’s
creative way of avoiding responsibility perhaps reached its crescendo
in the Cross River forest, after they found the Omo Forest too hot to
stay in. When community folks in Cross River began to complain about
this company’s activities, they recruited a bunch of community people
who supported the company and even staged a demonstration during which
they carried signs saying ‘we want factories, not monkeys.’ This
company was eventually kicked out of the forest by the Cross River
State government.

How about those
converting forests into rubber plantations? Chunks of the Okomu Forest
as well as the nearby Iguobazuwa forest have been at the mercies of the
Nigerian subsidiaries of a French multinational tyre company, as they
convert the forests into rubber plantations. Some people push the idea
that plantations are same as forests and that they provide same
services. Truth is that plantations are not anything near to being
forests; even the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United
Nations says otherwise. At a very fundamental level, a tree cannot make
a forest, even if you plant a million stands of that tree. The rise of
monoculture plantations have seen huge use of agrochemicals, including
pesticides that eat at the very heart of a forest ecology.

Plantations do not
have the sort of ground cover and undergrowth that forests have, and
cannot absorb as much carbon as forests do. Plantations do not provide
vegetable, medicinal, and other support to communities. Neither do they
provide the essential service of protecting watersheds as forests do.
We need not mention that bush meat is not found in plantations.

Time to ask questions

As Nigeria
celebrates 50 years of political independence, it is apt to ask if we
can easily find many 50 years old trees standing anywhere within our
borders. Some would likely be found in community-managed forests;
especially those ones designated as sacred or even evil forests.

The massive loss of
our forests cover should give us serious concern as we clink glasses in
celebrations that many Nigerians are unable to identify with because of
the sad and alienating records we have chalked up in various sectors,
including the environmental area.

As we celebrate 50
years of political independence, we may as well look back at the many
oil spills that have flooded the Niger Delta over the same period of
time. At 50, we should ask why half the population of Jigawa State
should be displaced by flooding and why water levels in dams in the
Northern parts of our country are not properly managed.

At 50 years, we
should perhaps place garlands on the necks of multinational oil
companies who had flared gas in the oil fields routinely over the same
period without care that we are daily choked and killed by the toxic
cocktail that they spew into the environment.

As we celebrate 50
years of political independence, we should track how we have fared in
all areas of human development. It is a good time to pause and ask if
50 years is not enough for Nigeria and other celebrating African
nations to pause and ask when they would have true socio-economic
independence.

As we celebrate 50
years of Independence, it is a good time to ask what are the ecological
agendas of those who wish to contest for the presidency and other
offices in Nigeria. The environment is our life, and we cannot afford
to have Honourables and Excellencies who do not care about ecology
beyond how to guzzle ecological funds and use them for electioneering
campaigns.

It should be a good time to look for a 50 years old tree anywhere it
can be found, sit on its roots, and think. If we cannot find such
tress, then we may stand before any sapling we find and promise to let
it stand for at least 50 years.

First City Monument
Bank said on Wednesday it is on track to securing a $70 million loan
package from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World
Bank’s private-sector arm.

Chief Executive
Ladi Balogun told an investor conference the loans — $50 million of
straight debt and $20 million of convertible debt — should be
confirmed within the next few days.

Nigeria’s foreign reserves dropped to $35.66 billion as at Monday, the lowest level in over four years.

The
reserves, which peaked at $62.24 billion in mid-May 2008, have
fluctuated ever since due to huge withdrawals by government. The last
time the reserves stood near this level was around April 2006.

The
latest figure, which closed at $36.54 billion last month, signifies a
net withdrawal of $880 million (N132 billion). This is in addition to
the savings that would have been done during the period, especially
with oil selling at over $70.

The
Central Bank (CBN), at the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting held
in Abuja at the beginning of the month, expressed concern that huge
spending in an election year and implementation of new salary structure
in the civil service may create inflationary pressure in the economy.
The MPC subsequently raised the benchmark interest rate from 4.2
percentage points to 6.25 percent.

No devaluation

Lamido
Sanusi, the Central Bank governor, said recently that the regulator
does not intend to devalue the naira. This reassurance came after the
naira had depreciated for two weeks consecutively, dropping to its
lowest level in 13 months on Monday.

According to Mr. Sanusi, the CBN would continue to meet genuine demands for foreign exchange.

“The
Committee would continue to monitor developments in the market to
ensure that measures are taken to eliminate speculative demand and
exchange rate volatility,” said Mr. Sanusi, at the end of the MPC
meeting.

He,
however, attributed the increased demand for foreign exchange to
dividends remittance by some companies and enhanced importation of
refined petroleum products, due to the Federal Government sovereign
debt instruments.

Analysts
at FSDH Research, a financial services and research firm, however,
blame the drop in the value of the naira on the huge demands which were
not met by the Central Bank.

“We
expect the CBN to increase the amount of foreign exchange on offer in
order to douse the rising demand for foreign exchange and to ensure
that the value of the naira remains stable and within the limit of
three percent.”

Depleting reserves

Samuel
Nzekwu, former president of the Association of National Accountants of
Nigeria (ANAN), said the steady depletion of the foreign reserves has
far reaching effects on the economy.

He
said the depletion may invariably lead to depreciation in the value of
the local currency, which can equally send early warning signals to
Nigeria’s trading partners.

“It
is not a good omen, although it is not bad if we were using the
reserves to develop infrastructure. In this case, we don’t know what
the money is used for.

“We
know election costs a lot of money, but you cannot hide under election
to spend money anyhow. Unemployment is rife, armed robbery and
kidnapping have become the order of the day. My problem is that we do
not even know what the CBN is doing. They come up with different
policies every day,” he said.

He
noted that the excessive spending by government, which has led to the
near exhaustion of the Excess Crude Account (ECA), will inevitably lead
to inflation.

The ECA, which stood at over $20 billion in 2007, is now about $500 million.

The Nigerian Stock
Exchange was established in 1960 as the Lagos Stock Exchange. The
Exchange started operations in 1961 with 19 securities listed for
trading.

The first National
Development Plan (1962-1968) was launched. During this period,
investments in the country rose to about $45 million, with the
manufacturing sector was contributing 11 per cent to the GDP. Today, it
contributes only about 5 per cent.

On July 1, 1965, the first series of bank notes were replaced with new notes to commemorate the republic status of the country.

On 6 July 1967,
Civil war broke out due to the resolve of the Eastern part of the
country to secede to form Republic of Biafra. More than one million
people died in the war while oil production output was disrupted during
the period, leading to drop in Nigeria’s revenue.

In 1968, the
Central Bank of Nigeria issued a new set of bank notes to forestall the
usage of illegally withdrawn notes from the CBN branches in Enugu, Port
Harcourt and Benin during the civil war.

In 1971 Nigeria
joined OPEC and the oil boom, which began in 1973, elevated the country
to be one of the prominent members of the oil cartel.

The Nigerian
Enterprises Promotion Act was passed into law in 1972, was aimed at
stimulating entrepreneurial activity by Nigerians in the more modern
sectors.

1973 – CBN issued Naira notes replacing the Nigerian Pound

Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) was introduced in 1976 in order to enhance agricultural development and food security

In December 1977,
the Lagos Stock Exchange became The Nigerian Stock Exchange, with
branches established in some of the major commercial cities of the
country.

The Privatisation
and Commercialisation Act of 1988 put the country on the path of
creating efficiency in public enterprises and reducing the role of
government in the economy

In 1979, the N1, N5 and N10 notes had the portraits of three Nigerians – Alvan Ikoku, Tafawa Balewa and Herbert Macaulay.

Austerity measures
introduced by government of Shehu Shagari in 1982 to reduce government
expenditure and stimulate a private sector

Structural
Adjustment Programme by Ibrahim Babangida in June 1986 to restructure
and diversify the productive base of the economy so as to reduce
dependency on the oil sector and imports. SAP was one of the conditions
for accessing the IMF loan despite its rejection by Nigerians after an
intense national debate.

In order to
mitigate the negative impact of the SAP programme, the government
established the Urban Mass Transit Programme in 1988; People’s and
Community banks in 1989/90; Directorate of Food, Road and Rural
Infrastructure (DFRRI) in 1986; a reflationary budget package in 1988;
the 1991/1992 relief package for public sector officers; the reform of
the civil service; and Better Life for Rural Dwellers’ Programme in
1989.

The Nigeria Deposit
Insurance Corporation began operation in 1989 through the promulgation
of Decree No. 22 of 15th June 1988. Between 1991 and 1996, the NDIC had
taken over management and control of 24 distressed banks.

The N100 note, with
the portrait of Obafemi Awolowo was issued in December 1999, while the
N200 note, with the portrait of Ahmadu Bello, was issued in November
2000.

In 2003, the
government liberalized the telecommunications sector with the granting
of license to private operators of global system of mobile
telecommunications (GSM). This led to huge investment inflow in the
sector and the tremendous improvement in Nigeria’s teledensity. Today,
over 70 million Nigerian have access to telephone.

July 6, 2004,
Chukwuma Soludo, then Central Bank governor commenced consolidation of
banks with a December 31, 2005 deadline for banks to shore up their
minimum capital to N25 billion from the previous N2 billion.

This led to the reduction of the number of banks from 89 to 25.

In 2005, Nigeria paid $12 billion to the Paris Club of creditors in exchange for a debt forgiveness of over $32 billion.

On August 14, 2009,
Lamido Sanusi, the current CBN governor, injected N620 billion into
eight banks in the country following the negative impact of the global
financial crisis which resulted in the withdrawal of huge sums of
foreign capital out of the country.

Compiled by Stanley Oronsaye and Oluwaseyi Bangudu

On the eve of
Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary, the Index Committee of the
Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has removed Oceanic Bank International,
Total Nigeria, and Mobil Oil Nigeria from the NSE-30 Index, which
represents the 30 most capitalised equities.

The Exchange, in a
statement on Thursday, said the Index Committee, which was set up to
monitor activities of the most capitalised stocks, agreed after due
deliberations, to remove the affected companies because they could not
rank among the current most capitalised equities.

“The Index
Committee held its quarterly meeting to review and rebalance the NSE-30
Index,” the statement said, adding that “new entrants and exiting
equities have been agreed on during the deliberations.” The committee
replaced the affected stocks with Ecobank, Ashaka Cement, and Cadbury
Nigeria. Ecobank, during the second quarter, was removed before it
bounced back.

The NSE-30 Index is
a price guide that measures the returns on investment from the change
in market value of stocks, in terms of their liquidity, capital
appreciation, and depreciation.

Market watchers say
this development will encourage all quoted companies to improve their
performances in order to rank in the most capitalised category.

However, a stockbroker, who would not like to be mentioned, said he sees more blue chip stocks “falling” from the NSE-30 Index.

“All is still not
well with the petroleum sector. Even the banking sector, in spite of
the recent reform, is still struggling to survive. So, I see more blue
chip companies falling from the list,” he said.

Index appreciates

Meanwhile, at the
close of trading this week, the NSE-30 Index appreciated by 23.11
points or 2.43 percent, to close at 976.80 basis points. Also, the NSE
All-Share Index, a market measuring parameter, appreciated by 361.50
points or 1.61 percent, to close on Thursday at 23,050.59 basis points,
while the market capitalisation of the 199 First -Tier equities
increased to N5.65 trillion.

A turnover of 1.1
billion shares, worth N10.5 billion in 21,572 deals, was recorded this
week, in contrast to a total of 971 million shares, valued at N8.36
billion, exchanged last week in 28,629 deals.

The banking
subsector was the most active during the week, in terms of turnover
volume, with 673.5 million shares worth N5.5 billion, exchanged by
investors in 12,225 deals. Volume in the banking subsector was largely
driven by activity in the shares of Stanbic IBTC Bank, Guaranty Trust
Bank, Zenith Bank, and First Bank of Nigeria.

Trading in the
shares of the four banks accounted for 388.25 million shares,
representing 57.65 percent of the subsector’s turnover.

The insurance
subsector, boosted by activity in the shares of Guaranty Trust
Assurance Plc and Intercontinental WAPIC Insurance Plc, followed on the
week’s activity chart with a turnover of 100.3 million shares, valued
at N94.1 million in 923 deals.

A total of 29
stocks appreciated in price during the week, lower than the 33 of the
preceding week. Nigerian Breweries led on the gainers’ table with a
gain of N5.38, to close at N74.58 per share, while Oando followed with
N2.95, to close at N59.95 per share.

On the flip side, a
total of 48 stocks depreciated in price during the week, higher than
the 47 of the preceding week. Total Nigeria led on the price losers’
table, dropping by N11.87, to close at N225.63 per share, while 7-Up
Bottling Company followed with a loss of N3.89, to close at N36.95 per
share.

Twenty-four hours
after the First Lady, Patience Jonathan, distributed bags of rice in
Abuja, security operatives are having a hard time keeping out a huge
mob from the venue.

The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) reports that the security operatives, comprising the
Police, the FRSC, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps,
were seen battling to keep people in the queue.

NAN reports also
that the mob was seen dashing across the road unmindful of oncoming
vehicles, while some just stood on the road and this caused a minor
traffic snarl around the area.

Kande Bulus, a
woman in the queue, told NAN, “We have been here since morning. They
told us yesterday that there was rice distribution here and we decided
to come and see if it is true.”

A man, Tega
Oghenekaro, who had a good command of the English Language, said he was
a graduate with no job and that was why he came to see if he could get
some rice.

“I came to see if I
could lay my hands on a bag or some portion of rice. I am a graduate of
Psychology from the University of Ado-Ekiti, but I’m currently
unemployed.”

The Federal
Government on Thursday reiterated its commitment to work towards the
country becoming self sufficient in cement production by 2013.

The Minister of
Commerce and Industry, Jubril Martin-Kuye, made the pledge at his 2010
ministerial news conference tagged, ‘2010 Ministerial Score Card’.

He said the country had no business still importing cement with its abundant natural human resources for cement production.

Mr. Martin-Kuye described cement as a resource-based product, where Nigeria had one of the greatest competitive advantages.

“We have no product that can beat cement when it comes to resources with the abundance of limestone.

Nigeria is
centrally located in the continent, and can export cement to the
western, eastern, and southern African countries. We, therefore, have
no reason to import dust from other countries,” he said.

The minister said
government’s sustained incentive to investors in the sector had
witnessed increased local production of cement, which stood at 8.3
million metric tonnes in 2009.

“It is expected
that when the new cement plants at Ibeshe (Dangote), Lakatabu
(Lafarge), and Ava Cement, Edo State, as well as the rehabilitation and
expansion programmes at the Ewekoro, Gboko, Obajana, are completed, the
local capacity for cement would increase tremendously,” he said.

On sugar production, Martin-Kuye said government also planned to attain 70 percent self sufficiency of local production by 2020.

Some Nigerians have
decried the slow pace of the nation’s infrastructural development,
saying that there had been little development in the sector, 50 years
after independence.

In separate
interviews in Lagos on Thursday, the citizens said the country had
nothing to celebrate in terms of infrastructural development.

Omeresan Adegite, a
former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria
(ICAN), advised the country to adopt international best practices to
ensure the growth of the various sectors of the economy.

“We need to adopt
the International Public Sector Statement of Auditing Standards
(IPSSAS) as part of its strategies to promote accountability, and
transparency in governance,” Mrs. Adegite said.

Ronke
Marquis-Bamgbala, a retired chief superintendent of police, said that
the crisis the nation was facing today was due to lack of foresight and
greed of leaders.

“I enjoin all eligible voters to use the coming elections to elect credible leaders,” she said.

Kazeem Afolabi, an entrepreneur, said, “The nation’s problem is not lack of ideas, but poor implementation.”

Some customers of micro-finance banks, on Tuesday, in Abuja, expressed concern at the closure of the banks, urging the authorities to urgently refund their deposits.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had, on Friday, announced the closure of 224 micro-finance banks across the country. The CBN had revoked the banks’ licences on the grounds that they were found to be technically insolvent and distressed.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that E- Barclays Micro Finance Bank, one of the affected banks whose licences were revoked, was shut down. But the bank’s premises witnessed a large turn-out of depositors who were, however, unattended to by a handful of the bank staff available.

A customer, Robinson Idoko, told NAN that government should compel the banks to urgently come to the aid of depositors. “I have a savings account with E-Barclays,” he said. “I have N257, 000 in my account, and I didn’t open the account to take a loan from the bank. The purpose of opening this account is to save and pay for my shop, and the rent will expire by next month. I even paid in N35, 000 on Thursday, not knowing that the bank will be closed. Now, I don’t care if the government is closing the bank. What I want is my money.”

Another consumer, Friday Onuwu, said he operated his company’s account with the bank since a commercial bank disappointed him some years past. “I have a company account with the bank which amounts to over N1.187 million and on Thursday I even issued a cheque of N100, 000 and it was cleared,” he said. “You can imagine even their staff came to work today. But my problem is that nobody in the bank’s management has come to address or talk to us. This is really bad and I am really disappointed. We are not armed robbers; we worked for the money. Please, we want our money back.”

A staff of the bank, who did not want to be named, expressed dismay at the situation, arguing that the bank was not what the CBN claimed it to be. “I feel very sad right now,” he said. “Our bank is very strong and reliable. We have the capital base, the managerial skill, the manpower and the capacity. This is a big embarrassment to the bank. It came as a blow because as of Friday we were still paying our consumers. In fact, we paid over 600 costumers. The entire staff here are unhappy with government. This bank has undergone many stages before it got to this level.

Staff of CBN recently came to our bank and asked our staff questions, checked our cash control and even congratulated the bank. We are asking the CBN governor to let our bank be. Other mushroom banks are still operating, so why E-Barclays? We were being appraised monthly. The bank has above N100 million which was required by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) Act 2006.”

Some finance
experts have stated that Nigeria, contrary to general opinion, is in
fact a highly under borrowed economy, and needs to venture into
constructive borrowing for the right reasons.

“If we had a
purposeful government that actually wants to address infrastructural
displacement, then they must borrow” Ayo Teriba, managing director,
Economic Associate, stated at the firm’s 3rd quarter Economic
Assessment, held in Lagos on Tuesday.

Nigeria’s debt
profile rose in the 80’s to 160 percent of the nation’s real GDP,
before it finally fell to less than 20 percent in 2006.

“Right now, we are
not borrowing to invest; we are borrowing to pay pension allowances, to
get voters register and the likes. It shows the lack of vision on the
part of the nation’s leadership,” Mr. Teriba said, adding that though
United States remain the largest borrowing country in the world, all
its debts are domestic, because the people have confidence in their
government.

Nigeria’s external
debt rose in the mid 80’s because of the devaluation of the exchange
rate. In the process, the non public sector that had borrowed the
government funds lost value of their funds, which in turn led them to
lose confidence in borrowing government funds.

Judicious use of funds

Sunday Salako, a
member of the National Economic Management Team (NEMT), said the issue
is not about if the nation was over or under borrowed, but what the
borrowed funds are actually being used for.

“The question is
how are these funds being utilised? The issue is in the last four
years, how many roads have been constructed? How many roads have been
repaired? You can borrow money if there are issues you have that need
to be addressed with the borrowed funds, but not in a situation where
there is nothing tangible that is ready to be addressed.

“Look at South
Africa. Do you know how much they borrowed during the World Cup period,
but the result is evident, you can see it, not the type that you would
only read in papers and would not see physically. Yes, borrowing is
good if it is used to instigate economic activities, such as building
good roads, transportation, and power. But when these do not exist,
what then are we saying? No major road has been constructed in the last
four years or even more,” Mr. Salako said.

Last month, the
Debt Management Office (DMO) said it had pegged borrowing next year to
$7.1 billion, in a bid to control public borrowing and keep Nigeria’s
debt within sustainable porch.

The office, in a
report, said that the Net Present Value (NPV) of the country’s debt,
currently at 16.2 percent of gross domestic product, would crash to
about 2.2 percent, by 2020 and 0.9 percent by 2029, if effective debt
management practices are put in place.

Abraham Nwankwo,
director general of DMO, said with this forecast, total public debt is
expected to grow from $31.4 billion presently to about $38.5 billion
next year, to be sourced from both domestic and external institutions
in a 60:40 proportion respectively, in line with last year’s analysis.