Car manufacturers petition Goodluck asking him to suspend import duty waiver

Car manufacturers petition Goodluck asking him to suspend import duty waiver MEMBERS of the Nigerian Auto Manufacturers Association (Nama) have written to the federal government asking it to cancel a new set of duty waivers granted to businessmen to import cars into the country. In July this year, the federal government plans to restrict the importation of used cars in a bid to spur the local manufacturing industry. As part of the programme, trade and industry minister Olusegun Aganga is wooing several manufacturers like Toyota, Nissan, Renault and General Motors, encouraging them to come and open plants in Nigeria. Second-hand cars known as Tokunbo's are big business in Nigeria with a total of $4.2bn spent on imports in 2010 and $3.4bn shelled out to purchase them in 2012. Traditionally, Nigeria's European diaspora have been very active in the sector, shipping cars into the country on a weekly basis, mainly from Canning Town on the UK. To arrest the trend and switch the focus to local manufacturing, the government plans to double the import duty on second hand car imports as from July. In what appears to be a dramatic policy reversal, however, the government has granted several importers one-year waivers to Nama's chagrin. In three separate letters written to President Goodluck Jonathan finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Mr Aganga, Nama said the import waiver would sabotage the government's new automotive policy. Arthur Madueke, Nama's executive secretary, who signed the letter, said it would also cause a loss of billions of naira in government revenue, as it will negate the new auto policy which seeks to create employment through local car assemblage and manufacture. Mr Madueke's letter read: “Protest and request for cancellation of one-year duty waiver concession to import vehicles into Nigeria. We seek to remind the government that barely six months ago, we rolled out the drums to congratulate the federal government on the monumental stride taken to advance industrialisation in this great country when it announced the National Automotive Policy. "Two months ago, President Jonathan launched the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan and the National Enterprise Development Programme, which represent the federal government’s initiatives to industrialise this country, diversify our economy and reduce the stranglehold of developed economies on our people. Nama regrets that sadly, certain elements in our society, in pursuit of personal wealth, are prepared to stop at nothing to scuttle our aspirations to develop as a nation.” According to Mr Madueke, Nama regrets that they had come to learn that the government had issued a letter of duty waivers to certain auto importers, valid for one year as from February 2014. He added that the project does not provide for any investment in the productive sector. Mr Madueke said that his members are prepared to meet the vehicular requirements of the World Economic Forum taking place in Abuja from May 7 to 9 without any request for a duty waiver. Nama requested the intervention of the president in getting the government to withdraw the said duty waiver letter immediately and cancel them. - See more at: http://www.nigerianwatch.com/news/

Abuja to host World Economic Forum on Africa next month amid tight security

Abuja to host World Economic Forum on Africa next month amid tight security NIGERIA is to host next month's World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa in Abuja in an event which the government wants to use as an opportunity to showcase its newly acquired status as the largest economy on the continent. Earlier this month, Nigeria was officially declared Africa's largest economy after figures showed that the country had a gross domestic product of $453bn in 2012 compared with South Africa's $384bn. Last year’s WEF on Africa was held in Cape Town, South Africa but this year's event will be used by the Jonathan administration to portray Nigeria as an investment-friendly country. Due to take place between May 7 and 9, African heads of state and business leaders with gather at the event to discuss ways of attracting investment into the continent. Already, the Nigerian government has pledged to deploy more than 6,000 police and soldiers to protect the summit. Coming on the back of a recent bomb attack thought to have been carried out by Boko Haram in Abuja in which about 75 people were killed at a crowded bus station, news of the security detail has angered local residents. Some of them have questioned why the government should give priority to ensuring no harm came to high-profile visitors while it was failing to guarantee the daily security of its own citizens. Ahead of elections next February, President Goodluck Jonathan is under pressure to contain the five-year insurrection, with former vice president Atiku Abubakar, urging the government to accept foreign help in fighting terrorism. He called on the Jonathan administration to use increased and improved intelligence methods to detect and pre-empt Boko Haram attacks. Local businesswoman Dorothy Ajunobi, said: “If the government can adequately protect participants to a forum, they should be able to protect Nigerian citizens or otherwise it will now be clear this insecurity in Nigeria is political.” Computer operator Ajayi Ademola, added: "They should protect us first and people will be attracted to come to Nigeria.” Finance minister Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said: “Our security planning for the World Economic Forum on Africa is already well under way and will be the largest security operation ever mounted in this country for an international summit.” She added that security personnel would secure an area of 250 square kilometres around the event. Visiting the scene of the bombing on Monday, President Jonathan implored Nigerians to be more vigilant and called the threat from Boko Haram temporary. Boko Haram militants are increasingly targeting civilians they accuse of collaborating with the government or security forces and it is estimated that the conflict has led to the death of more than 2,000 people in the past six months alone. - See more at: http://www.nigerianwatch.com/news

Security agents recover 121 of the 129 girls abducted by Boko Haram in Borno State

SECURITY agents have freed 121 of the 129 young girls abducted by Boko Haram terrorists from Government Girls’ Secondary School in Chibok in Borno State earlier this week after the Nigerian Army a successful rescue operation. On Monday, Boko Haram carried out a daring attack on the all-girls school, whisking 129 pupils away, although 14 managed to escape and alert the authorities. Following the abduction, the military Joint Task Force (JTF) mounted an elaborate rescue operation and Borno State governor Kashim Shettima, offered a N50m (£183,000) reward to any person who gave information that would lead to the student's rescue. Yesterday, however, the JTF confirmed that 121 of the girls abducted are now accounted for and only eight are currently still in the hands of the terrorists. Army spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade, said that the search for the remaining pupils will continue. Major General Chris Olukolade added: "More students of the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok have been freed this evening in the on-going search and rescue operations to free the abducted pupils. With this development, the principal of the school confirmed that only eight of the students are still missing. "One of the terrorists who carried out the attack on the school has also been captured and efforts are underway to locate the remaining eight students.” With 14 of the girls escaping on their own, and eight still unaccounted for, it is believed that the military freed 107 of the kidnapped students yesterday. On Monday, 14 of the girls were said to have made their escape when one of the lorries used in transporting them broke down along the road and they jumped down and ran into the bush. According to the JTF, military personnel are currently searching through the bushes in Borno State, using the tyre tracks of the vehicles used by the Boko Haram men. Senator Ali Ndume, the senator representing the region, said that surveillance helicopters have also been employed in the search patrol team. Governor Kashim Shettima added that the 129 students were confirmed by the school authorities as those that registered to sit for the West African Examinations Council exams. He said 50 parents have so far registered the disappearance of their daughters in the school and more efforts are being made to ensure that the girls are reunited with their families. “Some of the girls were courageous. They were asked to prepare a meal for all of those in the camp but they took advantage of that and bolted away when their captors were not watching and ran back to town," Governor Shettima added. - See more at: http://www.nigerianwatch.com/news

Presidency: Northern Governors Stance on Boko Haram Misleading"

Presidency: Northern Governors Stance on Boko Haram Misleading" The Obama administration has been advised to disregard the claim by the 12 northern states' governors who recently visited the White House, where they blamed President Goodluck Jonathan for the mounting insurgency and killings by the Boko Haram sect. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, gave the advice in Washington on Monday, saying that it was frivolous for the 12 governors to blame the Boko Haram insurgency on the best President Nigeria has ever had. Okupe, who addressed the media and a section of the Washington Diplomatic Corps at the National Press Club on various issues affecting the political space in the country, said it was both unserious and misleading for the governors to abandon the issue of shared experience and solution to counter terrorism and blame a president whose tenure was preceded by the activities of the terrorist group in the North. The presidential aide said one of the ways the president was fighting Boko Haram was through the introduction of massive education in the North inclusive of the Almajiri system which is meant to rehabilitate many young northerners whose idleness makes them easy recruits for terrorist groups such as Boko Haram. According to Okupe, over 10.5 million Nigerians are presently out of school and the Jonathan administration was doing all it can to get them back to the classroom with emphasis on the North-east geopolitical zone. Under Jonathan, Okupe said, the economy of Nigeria has never been this good since 1960, surpassing the World Bank's prediction in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). He said under the same president Nigeria’s foreign reserve had grown from about $16 billion to $42.9 billion with a rising Sovereign Wealth Fund, a robust Nigerian Stock Exchange, quoted as the largest in Africa, followed by South Africa and Egypt. He said these achievements had taken place in under three years of the Jonathan administration. Okupe chided the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi for deceiving the Nigerian public with his ever shifting figures which moved from $49 billion to $12 billion and then $20 billion. He asked his hosts if the chairman of the US Federal Reserve Bank would stay in office one minute longer than was necessary if he had fed the American populace with such deceptive figures, adding that there was a huge difference between a missing fund and one that was yet to be accounted for. He said Sanusi went on suspension because he presented a questionable and inaccurate 2012 audited account of the CBN which made the presidency to ask for the report of the 2013 audited account which he failed to present, prompting an investigation ordered by the president “and you cannot run an investigation with the CBN governor in office. That was why he was asked to step aside.” He reminded the audience that CBN governor was suspended and not sacked which was completely in order to save the nation's economy. Okupe asked the US audience whether it was acceptable for the US Federal Reserve Bank chairman to make such a mistake? Still detailing the achievements of the Jonathan administration, Okupe noted that the president has done well on infrastructure with 200 kilometers of road construction in every zone of the country and a comprehensive renovation of 22 airports in the country, inclusive of designs and beautification, improvement in safety, security and expansion of radar coverage. On agriculture, he told his audience that Nigeria was today the largest exporter of cassava overtaking Indonesia with an increase in rice production and a decrease on importation. According to Okupe, with the privatisation of the PHCN and transfer of ownership to private companies with 11 distribution and six generating companies, Nigeria’s poor power sector which had been ailing since the 1960s would experience the expected turn around in the not too distant future, with 10,000 megawatts generation by 2015. Nigeria’s Ambassador to the US Prof. Ade Adefuye, concluded the press conference by noting the current problems of the Jonathan administration, saying it was the result of years of bad government which cannot be solved in two or three years. Adefuye said the Jonathan administration cannot be blamed for the terrorist activities in Nigeria as some people would want to convince the world, rather he noted that Nigeria was paying the price for trying to integrate the countries of ECOWAS through its signing of several protocol agreements that include a free passage of goods and services, which is the only reason that terrorists can come from Chad, Niger, Cameroun, strike our targets and run back to these countries. The ambassador reassured his audience that the Jonathan administration was trying to repair the long inherited problems of Nigeria.