Posts Tagged ‘elections’

16 Apr

Flash: Zimbabwe Says Has No Money For Elections; Appeals For $132 Million Foreign Aid

Posted by newsbytesnow in News. Tagged: , , , , , .

Cash-strapped Zimbabwe is appealing for foreign help to fund presidential and parliamentary elections planned for later this year, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Monday.

“It’s self-evident that treasury does not have the capacity to fund elections,” Mr Biti told parliament.

He said the country needed $132 million for the elections, which veteran President Robert Mugabe’s party wants held as early as June.

However Mr Biti said the government would not borrow this money from local firms as it did for a March referendum on a new constitution, which paved the way for the polls to be held.

“This ministry of finance has no intention to emasculate the economy for this event, which will happen on one day. As far as we are concerned the international community must come to assist.”

Mr Biti said that, on top of an appeal for funding through the UN, the government recently wrote to South Africa and Angola to ask for loans for the elections.

South Africa’s cabinet has approved a $100 million loan for budgetary support following discussions in September last year, the minister said.

He admitted that “all is not well” with Zimbabwe’s economy, which is battling to recover from a decade-long downturn marked by galloping inflation which at one point peaked at 231 million per cent.

This has since stabilised with year-on-year inflation going down to 2.8 per cent in March, according to the national statistics agency.

While the economy is growing — at five per cent last year — public finances remain in disarray.

In March the government collected a total of $241 million in revenue against a target of $301 million. Exports since January stood at $689 million while imports for the same period totalled $1.7 billion.

“We are already under pressure. We are being suffocated even before we include the elections of 2013,” Minister Biti said.

He said the government received no revenue from diamond mines in January and February and only $5 million in March against a target of $15 million.

“If there was honesty from diamond revenue we would not be asking for money from anyone for the elections,” the minister said.

Long-time rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s camp has accused Mugabe’s ZANU-PF of pocketing diamond revenues.

“We essentially raped the economy for the referendum,” Mr Biti said adding that the funds borrowed for the elections could have been lent to companies to increase production.

Some companies that had closed at the height of the economic woes reopened following the formation of the power-sharing government, but production has remained low.

Zimbabwe is expected to hold elections at the expiry of a power-sharing government formed four years ago by President Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai.

There is no agreement yet on the date of the elections. Mr Mugabe wants them before June 29, while Mr Tsvangirai wants the elections later in the year to allow for reforms to ensure a fair vote.

Courtesy AFP

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15 Apr

Flash: Chavez Heir, Nicolas Maduro Wins Venezuela Election By Tiny Margin; Opposition Calls For A Recount

Posted by newsbytesnow in News. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Venezuela’s ruling Socialist Party was returned to power by the slenderest of margins this morning, as the appointed heir of the late Hugo Chavez won the country’s general election by less than two per cent of the vote – prompting calls for a recount from the opposition.

The victory left Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver and union activist, in power, but severely weakened after a delivering a much poorer than expected performance that analysts have warned could open the door to factional in-fighting in the coming months.

Despite his narrow loss, the result was a huge boost for the youthful opposition leader Henrique Capriles, 41, who was heavily defeated last October, losing by 11 per cent to the charismatic Mr Chavez who died last month after 14 years in power.

Within an hour of the result being declared, Mr Capriles gave an impassioned speech declaring “the fight is not finished” while adding that he would not accept the result “until I’ve counted every vote in Venezuela”.

Mr Capriles said his campaign tally of votes came up with, in his words, “a result that is different from the results announced today.”

This time around Mr Capriles ran an aggressive campaign, attacking the legacy of “El Comandante” which he said had delivered sharply rising inflation, spiraling murder rates, food shortages and, in provincial cities, increasingly frequent power cuts.

The attacks appeared to have hit home, with the Mr Capriles’s Justice First party narrowing the gap with the ruling Socialist Party to 1.5 per cent; Mr Capriles lost to Mr Maduro by just 235,000 votes compared to some 2m that was his margin of defeat to Mr Chavez.

“If I win by one vote I win, if I lose by one vote, I lose,” Mr Maduro told his supporters defiantly as celebratory fireworks exploded over Caracas, however the result was a poor reflection on his campaign which had dwelled almost exclusively on the memory and legacy of Hugo Chavez.

Mr Maduro now takes power, vowing to continue the great “Bolivarian Revolution” even as the economy starts to show visible strain as a result of Mr Chavez’s 14 years of petro-dollar “socialism” that has splurged cash on the poor at the expense of long-term investment.

“We don’t want violence, we want peace,” Mr Maduro added in a long, rambling speech delivered in front of the mausoleum where Hugo Chavez is buried, “They (the opposition) want an audit, we welcome the audit … I formally request the National Electoral Commission to carry out an audit.”

Venezuela’s election authority said the results were “uncontestable”, but Vicente Díaz, the National Electoral Council director, said there would be a full audit of the vote, which is conducted with electronic machines, with each voter submitted to an electronic finger-print scan.

“Given the close electoral result and the fact that we live in a polarized country, I would like to request that 100% of the ballot boxes are audited,” he said. Under the constitution, the result can be subject to a referendum in two years’ time.

The results, announced shortly after 11pm local time, came after a night of tit-for-tat accusations from both sides as they waited fretfully for the final numbers to be formally announced.

Soon after polls, closed tensions flared when the Maduro campaign leaders hinted they had secured victory and encouraged supporters to gather at the presidential palace where Hugo Chavez’s supporters had traditional gathered to celebrate the late president’s victories.

The move infuriated the opposition who accused the ruling ‘Chavistas’ of trying to steal the election. “They are misleading their people and are trying to mislead the people of this country,” said Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, a Capriles campaign coordinator.

Earlier in the evening, also before results were formally declared, Mr Capriles had accused the ruling Socialist Party of plotting to alter the result of the election in a cryptic message sent out on Twitter.

“We alert the country and the world of the intention to try and change the will expressed by the people,” he said, without giving further details.

The allegation by Mr Capriles was only the latest in a litany of complaints against the ruling Socialist Party, which he accused of shamelessly abusing its power in order to ensure the election favours former president Hugo Chavez’s designated heir.

He accused Mr Maduro of “abusing power, abusing state resources” by appearing on television lavishing praise on the late president over the weekend, even though officially campaigning should have stopped.

Venezuela’s national election commission had “turned a blind eye” to the violations, he added, following earlier allegations that the ruling party had unfairly used vast amounts of government money, labour and other resources to win the vote.

As people queued to vote in the pro-Chavez district of Patare in Caracas yesterday cries of “Comandante! Comandante!” filled the street – again breaking rules against campaigning on election day – but without intervention from watching election supervisors.

Mr Maduro’s supporters rejected all the allegations, accusing Mr Capriles of being irresponsible and risking provoking violence and unrest in the tense hours before the result were finally declared.

“For a few days the ‘anti-Chavistas’ have been trying to create an absurd notion of fraud in an automated voting system, one that is recognized in the whole world as secure, trustworthy and transparent,” said Jorge Rodriguez, campaign chief for Mr Maduro.

David Smilde at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank predicted the victory would prove pyrrhic and leave Mr Maduro extremely vulnerable.

“It will make people in his coalition think that perhaps he is not the one to lead the revolution forward,” Mr Smilde said.

Courtesy The Telegraph

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5 Apr

A Must-Read: An Open Letter To General Muhammadu Buhari – Dr Dokun Adedeji

Posted by newsbytesnow in Articles, News. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

My Dear General,

I have tried to get to meet with you on many occasions as I have tried to write you but it has been difficult. I am sufficiently disturbed by all the happenings in CPC as well as the merger intentions with some other parties, to push my interest to seek some form of interaction. In order for you to appreciate my efforts, I spoke to Mallam El-Rufai and sent him a few texts and also sent a mail to Mr Rotimi Fasakin – all in a bid to reach you.

You may wonder what my locus standi is to go to this extent. If you do ask this question, you will be right.

I am a Nigerian professional who has followed the trajectory of our nation and also, your track along our nation space – these many years. I must confess my adulation for you for many reasons – I consider you a good man that our nation needs to put her acts right and so help us occupy our rightful place in the comity of nations.

Let me assure you that many Nigerians who truly love this country feel the same about you. But , it will be foolish to think that those who have brought us to this humiliating pass will root for you. No, they will wish that this bazaar continues to enable them make a billing enough to give them succor and protection to their offspring.

In all the ‘elections’ we claim to have had, I had always voted for you even when my friends think I was wasting my vote! I preferred to waste my vote than contribute to the ‘victory’ of those who have stolen us blind and brought our development to a grinding halt.

Nigerians have chosen to direct an unfair scrutiny at you, your past period of stewardship and poured innuendos on what you stand for without affording the same scrutiny to the Lilliputians that have placed a stranglehold on our national destiny.

General, I thought CPC was ready to put its house in order to present a formidable front to tackle these termites in power but events since then have shown the short-sightedness of the men who surround you. Alas, 2015 is almost upon us and it will take a tsunami of sort to dislodge these vultures in power.

It is now the new song in town that CPC and you are working in tandem with some other parties to arrange a merger to capture power from PDP! And this is the kernel of my open letter to you Sir.

I would rather you do not become a President holding a poisoned chalice. I am struggling to see how you can work with many of these men for the reason of becoming President. I will rather retain a memory of who you are and what you stand for even in defeats than see you as President in the midst of these gang of power-grabbers and looters of our commonwealth.

I wish you stand above the crowd and retain your respect and integrity than become a President who presides over a brood of vipers. The men who surround you today are plastic and replicas of those you wish to dislodge. Pray, General, what is the difference between six and half a dozen?

Sir, please, let them not dismiss this my appeal to you with the wave of a hand that I am an emissary of the ruling PDP. No! Nothing can be farther from the truth, I am an independent who love our nation with passion and hates PDP and her friends with coats of many colors with equal passion. I simply desire the best for my country which cannot come through PDP or the band of vampires trying to climb upon your integrity and name.

Would have wished CPC had begun to work since 2011 and be not a part of this bandwagon of political termites. In the muddied pool are men who once bestrode the length of our nation with impunity as if tomorrow – which is today! – will never come. Their antecedents do not speak to a better future for Nigeria.

I do not envisage a party of angels; neither would I pride myself in the collection of these vermins who merely seek another opportunity to rape our unfortunate nation.

My dear General, your place is not amongst these men. I would rather you remain the epitome of integrity that you are and watch this drama play out.

This is my wish for you as I am willing to add that my advice is both unsolicited and so, open to dismissal. I will not be surprised but it will pain me to see you sacrifice your hard-earned reputation and diminish your stature with your engagement with many of these men who brought us this low.

You have fought gallantly but Nigerians in our foolishness have cast you aside. Let us rue the day we forsook you and chose the present band of carpet-baggers and marauders who are alien to honor and dignity. Our experience since they ‘won’ has been like giving gold to swine!

I assure you Sir, that soon and very soon, Nigerians will re-claim their nation from the clasping hands of these thieves and locusts.

I therefore plead that you remain on the right side of history and play no part in the unfolding drama of comedy and the shameful orchestra of opportunists euphemistically referred to as merger. Many of these men want to ride on your back to stardom and the opportunity to partake of the national bazaar on another platform. They miss power and its attendant spoils and appurtenances.

Please, General, stand aloof and retain your courage and untainted platform to speak for ordinary Nigerians who ask for nothing more than to be treated with respect and consideration in a nation that they call their own.

Do you not wonder why Pastor Tunde Bakare cries to high heavens about this unholy marriage of convenience and opportunism? You should worry sir, moreso, he was your running mate!

Nigeria and Nigerians deserve more than these men and women will offer.

Chief Awolowo was never permitted the opportunity to be President but his memory speaks of respect, adoration and adulation of a grateful people. I wish same for you General.

I can understand if this letter or this medium of presentation riles you, I have no other choice.

May Allah guide you right as you make a decision for this country. Thank you and please, do have a great day.

Your friend and Compatriot,

Dokun Adedeji

 

- Dr Dr Dokun Adedeji is an Human Resources Management practitioner and a Social Worker. He writes from Lagos, Nigeria (www.dokunadedeji.com (@dokunadedeji on Twitter)

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30 Mar

Flash: Kenya Supreme Court Rules Kenyatta Validly Elected President

Posted by newsbytesnow in News. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

Kenya’s Supreme Court has upheld the results of the March 4 presidential election which declared Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner.

Presidential candidate and opposition Raila Odinga has filed a complaint through his lawyers who argued before the Supreme Court that the election was marred by irregularities.

Today’s verdict translate to Kenyatta being sworn in as president early next month.

Kenyatta alongside his Deputy President-elect William Ruto are facing charges related to having helped orchestrate the 2007-2008 post-election violence, a charge they both have denied.

Ruto’s trial is however scheduled to begin late May while Kenyatta’s is expected to start in July.

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9 Mar

Flash! Kenya Election: Uhuru Kenyatta Wins Presidency By Slim Margin; PM Raila Odinga Says He Will Not Concede

Posted by newsbytesnow in News. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s founding president, won the presidential election by the slimmest of margins with 50.03 percent, provisional results showed, just enough to avoid a run-off after a race that has divided the nation along tribal lines.

Kenyatta faces trial for crimes against humanity. If he is declared president-elect by the election commission, which has still to announce the official result, Kenya will become the second African country after Sudan to have a sitting president indicted by the International Criminal Court.

In the early hours of Saturday joyous supporters of Kenyatta thronged the streets in his tribal strongholds, lighting fluorescent flares and waving tree branches and chanting “Uhuru, Uhuru,” television pictures showed.

Kenyatta’s main rival, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, trailed with 43.28 percent of the vote. A close adviser to Odinga said he would not concede the election and would launch a legal challenge if Kenyatta was officially declared the victor.

“He is not conceding the election. If Uhuru Kenyatta is announced president-elect then he will move to the courts immediately,” Salim Lone told Reuters, speaking on behalf of the prime minister.

Odinga’s camp had said during tallying that the ballot count was deeply flawed and had called for it to be halted.

To secure an outright win a candidate needed more than 50 percent of the votes. Kenyatta, the deputy prime minister, achieved that but with a margin of just 4,100 of the more than 12.3 million votes cast.

The first-round win, which must be officially confirmed by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), means Kenyans who waited five days for the vote result will not now face a second round that would have prolonged uncertainty.

The winner also needs to get at least 25 percent of the votes in 24 counties out of 47. This is expected to be confirmed by the electoral commission. The IEBC is due to announce the official result on Saturday at 11 a.m. (0800 GMT).

Odinga also lost in a disputed vote in 2007 that led to weeks of tribal killings. His camp has said any challenge will follow the rule of law and Kenyans generally have greater trust in the judiciary now than they did five years ago after reforms.

WESTERN TIES

John Githongo, a former senior government official-turned-whistleblower, urged the rival coalitions, Odinga’s CORD and Kenyatta’s Jubilee, to ensure calm. “Jubilee and CORD, what you and your supporters say now determines continued peace and stability in Kenya. We are watching you!” he said on Twitter.

International observers broadly said the vote and count had been transparent so far and the electoral commission, which replaced an old, discredited body, promised a credible vote.

Provisional figures displayed by the electoral commission showed Kenyatta won 6,173,433 votes out of a total of 12,338,667 ballots cast. Odinga secured 5,340,546 votes.

The result will pose a dilemma for Kenya’s big Western donors, with Kenyatta due to go on trial in The Hague accused of orchestrating the tribal violence five years ago.

The United States and other Western states warned before the vote that diplomatic ties would be complicated with a win by Kenyatta, whose running mate William Ruto has also been indicted by the International Criminal Court.

How Western capitals would deal with Kenya under Kenyatta and the extent to which they would be ready to deal with his government will depend heavily on whether Kenyatta and Ruto cooperate with the tribunal.

“It won’t be a headache as long as he cooperates with the ICC,” said one Western diplomat. “We respect the decision of the majority of the Kenyan voters.”

Both Kenyatta and Ruto deny the charges and have said they will cooperate to clear their names, though Kenyatta had to fend off jibes during the campaign by Odinga that he would have to run government by Skype from The Hague.

Kenyans hope this vote, which has until now passed off with only pockets of unrest on voting day, would restore their nation’s reputation as one of Africa’s most stable democracies after mayhem last time.

“FORGET THE PRESIDENCY”

The city of Kisumu, the biggest in Odinga’s tribal heartland and a flashpoint in the violence five years ago, was calm early on Saturday and there appeared little appetite for unrest, even if some believed the poll was flawed.

“I urge our candidate to forget the presidency and let the will of God prevail,” said cloth vendor Diana Ndonga.

As businesses in Kisumu began opening, Erick Odhiambo, another Odinga supporter said, “The vote was rigged and I’m not happy. Raila (Odinga) should battle it out in court.”

The test will be whether any challenges to the outcome are worked out in the courts, and do not spill into the streets.

Odinga’s camp had said even before the result that they were considering legal action, but said they would pursue it through the courts and the newly reformed judiciary.

That is a change from 2007, when Odinga said he could not trust the judiciary at the time to treat the case fairly.

Kenyatta’s camp had also complained about delays in counting and other aspects of the process. But many Kenyans said this race was more transparent than previous votes.

Turnout reached 86 percent of the 14.3 million eligible voters, in a nation where tribal loyalties largely trump ideology at the ballot box.

Courtesy Reuters

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2 Mar

Flash: Court Declare Jonathan Eligible To Run In 2015

Posted by newsbytesnow in News. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

An Abuja High Court yesterday declared the eligibility of President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2015 presidential election if he so desire.

Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi reiterated that since President Jonathan assumed office after the death of former President Umaru Musa  Yar’Adua in line with the “doctrine of necessity” as declared by the National Assembly and not through a bye-election, President Jonathan’s tenure of office as president began from May 2011 when he first took oath and was sworn into office as the elected president of Nigeria and not May 6, 2010 when he assumed office following Yar’Adua’s death.

A PDP chieftain in Zuba ward in the FCT, Mr. Cyriakus Njoku, had approached the court seeking for an order restraining President Jonathan from running in the 2015 presidential election.

Reacting, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stated that the ruling of the court “is a victory for democracy”.

The party through its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement, said the judgment has laid to rest debates on whether or not the President is constitutionally eligible to contest the 2015 election, adding that it now depends on the party and Nigerians to decide when the time comes.

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21 Feb

Flash: Mugabe At 89 Sees ‘Divine’ Mission To Still Rule Zimbabwe

Posted by newsbytesnow in News. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

Robert Mugabe said he had a “divine task” to lead Zimbabwe, shrugging off concerns about his health and fitness for office as he prepares for what could be one the closest election battles since he came to power in 1980.

Few Zimbabweans are ruling out victory for the 89-year-old Mugabe even though his country, once an African success story, is in a decade-long economic slump worsened by Western sanctions and more than four fifths of the population is unemployed.

Since Mugabe was forced to share power with his chief political rival after a disputed election in 2008, the economy has shown tentative signs of recovery.

Rampant inflation has calmed, the mining sector is buoyant and agriculture is picking up after turmoil caused by the seizure of farms from their white owners under Mugabe’s policy of black empowerment.

Mugabe, Africa’s oldest president, maintains that Zimbabwe’s difficulties stem from a Western plot to re-colonize it, a view that strikes a chord with his supporters, who see the sanctions as punishment for a justified campaign to wrest their country’s wealth from the hands of foreign corporations and the white minority.

To his critics, Mugabe’s land seizures and a drive to force foreign-owned firms to sell majority shareholding to locals has delayed economic recovery by discouraging foreign investment.

They say Mugabe, long admired as a liberation hero and pragmatic leader, has turned Zimbabwe into a basket case and squandered national goodwill by clinging onto power through ballot box rigging and intimidation.

The champion of African popular rule has looked increasingly to God to bolster his claim to leadership.

Addressing his staff at a party they hosted for him on the eve of his 89th birthday, Mugabe was serenaded by one of the country’s leading gospel singers and spoke of the solitude he has felt since many of his relatives and independence-era comrades died.

“Why is it that all my friends are gone and my relatives are gone and I continue to linger on? Then I say to myself, well, it’s not my choice, its God’s choice,” Mugabe said at the party late on Wednesday, which was attended by state media.

“This is a task the Lord might have wanted me to fulfill among my people,” he said. “I read it as a bidding of God… The bidding says you move forward ever.”

Tight race?
 
Mugabe says he wants to continue the liberation struggle and  consolidate black economic empowerment.

More than 4,000 out of an original 4,500 white-owned farms have been seized since 2000 under a program he says is aimed at correcting land ownership imbalances created by colonialism.

Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party has endorsed his candidacy for the presidential elections, which he and his arch-rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have agreed to hold around July.

“I hear a lot of people talking about a tight race, but with his record I just don’t see how Mugabe can win a free and fair election,” said 28-year-old Charles Simukai, who was selling fruit on the streets of the capital Harare.

He said Mugabe should have retired from politics to play an advisory role as a senior statesman.

Tsvangirai says ZANU-PF rigged and robbed him of victory in three major violence-marred polls since 2000.

Many Zimbabweans say the fragile power-sharing government that has held together since 2008 has helped to make ZANU-PF less autocratic.

However, Mugabe’s opponents say they expect ZANU-PF’s campaign to repeat underhand tactics used to secure past election wins, deploying war veterans and youth militia to intimidate voters.

Supporters of Tsvangirai say he enjoys the support of an army of new young voters who might be less intimidated by such methods.

“The general consensus is that you need a free and fair election for a real democratic outcome… but there is no consensus that Zimbabwe will get that,” said Eldred Masunungure, a political science professor at the University of Zimbabwe.

Questions over health

Mugabe has spent the last two days reorganizing the country’s electoral commission and discussing funding for his campaign.

Some officials in ZANU-PF’s politburo worry privately that he is taking risks with his health and want him to hand over the reins to a younger figure.

But nobody has openly challenged Mugabe – the result, to some, of a generous patronage system that rewards loyalty and his long-honed skills in outwitting potential rivals.

Mugabe appears fit and alert in public, but he is widely believed to suffer from ill health that could make it hard to cope with the pressures of the campaign trail.

A June 2008 U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks said Mugabe had prostate cancer that had spread to other organs. According to the cable, he was apparently urged by his physician to step down in 2008.

But ZANU-PF appears to have accepted that Mugabe has maneuvered himself into a position where he ends up president for life, a position that opponents say he wants as security against possible prosecution for rights abuses.

“What we have … is a president celebrating his 89th birthday while planning on how he can continue in power after so many years in office. That is not normal,” said professor Masunungure.

Courtesy VOA

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13 Feb

Flash! 2015: APC Unfolds Agenda Of Free Education, Eradication Of Corruption, Job Creation And More

Posted by newsbytesnow in News. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

About a week after four parties in Nigeria fused into one, ten governors under the platform of the newly-formed All Progressives’ Congress, APC, met in Abuja, yesterday, and picked zonal contact mobilisation coordinators for the country.

The announcement of the contact mobilisation committees was made after more than six hours of meeting by the ten governors at the Lagos House, Asokoro in Abuja.

At the meeting, which was presided over by Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, were the governors of Ekiti, Kayode Fayemi; Ogun, Ibikunle Amosun; Oyo, Abiola Ajimobi; and that of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. Others in attendance were Adams Oshiomhole of Edo; Rochas Okorocha of Imo; Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara; Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa; and Kashim Shettima of Borno State.

At the end of the meeting, the governors declared that they were pleased with the name APC adopted by the merger committee as it captures the spirit of cooperation and compromise that they all espouse and underscores the imperative of rescuing Nigeria from decay.

The APC governors in a communiqué read by Governor Tanko Al-Makura, announced that the party would give priority attention to the promotion of radical social economic and political reformation of the country.


In particular, the party said its priority programmes would be agricultural development, job creation, free education, affordable healthcare, infrastructural development, adequate power supply, eradication of poverty and corruption and rapid technological advancement and industrialisation.

They declared: “We shall pride ourselves as social democrats that are committed to organise our society based on the values of justice for all and individual freedom where everyone’s basic needs are fulfilled.”

At the meeting six governors were named as zonal contact and mobilisation committee coordinators. They were: Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe for North-East, Tanko Al-Makura for North-Central, Abdulaziz Yari for North-West, Rochas Okorocha for South-East, Adams Oshiomhole for South-South and Kayode Fayemi for South-West.

The committees are expected to mobilise support for the APC across the political, social, religious, ethnic and professional interest groups in the country.

Responding to questions as to why he was not present when the APC was formed last week, Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole said that he was not available and had made it known to his colleagues that he was not around at the time of the merger.

Oshiomhole stated that given the intent and purpose of APC, it was natural that he should pitch his tent with the party and that he was fully committed to its cause.

The governor said that Nigeria needed a strong and veritable opposition platform to move the country forward and provide enduring opportunities for Nigerians to achieve their ambitions.

Oshiomhole said: “What is in vogue now is that we should work together to move Nigeria forward and create a platform of progress and development for all Nigerians to excel. That is why I fully endorse what the APC stands for and what it is out to do for Nigerian and Nigerians.”

Reacting to a question, Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, declared that there was no question that the All Progressive Grand Alliance members were with APC and that he was not worried about the few persons who were trying to stay back from joining the new party.

Okorocha boasted: “Let me say emphatically that there is no division at all about where the real members of APGA are. As far as I know, the real members of APGA are with APC and Nigerians are aware of that.”

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos said that the issue of party logo, manifesto and flag were being handled by the party and that at the appropriate time; all the issues would be fully sorted out by the respective organs.

Fashola, who likened APC to a marriage, pointed out that the marriage had already been done but the certificate can be issued later. The governor said, “APC is a done deal. Whatever remains now is like a certificate of marriage which can be issued any time but we are already married.”

Courtesy Vanguard

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11 Feb

Flash! Impending Economic Crisis As A Result Of Over-Dependence On Oil: Naira Could Retreat To N191/$1

Posted by newsbytesnow in News. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

The current cosmetic growth of the economy occasioned by current robust oil prices may just become very disastrous if expectations by analysts turned reality in 2013.

The fact that politics is likely going to drive the economy beginning from this year is one sign that the heart will rule the economy instead of the brain.

Also, expected downturn in the oil and gas market as a result of America’s oil independence and other expected events in the global arena seem to support an economic crisis if prudence was not applied.

Top on the list of factors that could threaten the country’s economy is the fact that Nigeria’s economy is still highly oil and gas-dependent. As such, external and domestic balances are vulnerable to exogenous shocks.

Currently, it is evident that global commodity prices continue to determine economic destiny, even as potential Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is still far in excess of real GDP.

Perhaps, a constant factor which is a major fear is the fact that subsidy still exists and is very pervasive. The result is that corruption remains a cankerworm of the economy.

Bismarck Rewane, chief executive of Financial Derivatives Company is worried about, “whether these will ignite a real recovery, or stave off deflation or a recession.”

Rewane told his monthly audience at the Lagos Business School (LBS) that in 2013, politics will drive economics as the race for 2015 began in 2012.

According to him, the race will intensify in 2013 and will be won or lost in 2013, while 2014 will be a year for political consolidation.

“The economic outcomes will be a function of the trade-offs between the political war lords”, he said.

John Okolo, an analyst in Lagos said, the trade offs are the real worries for the economy. According to him, “this is because the trade-offs have never had any semblance of national interest. It has always been that of personal and very selfish interest,” he said.

Another economic monster staring at Nigerians is the fact that the country’s oil export and global price could face turbulence in 2013.

The warning signal is coming from the fact that, well known International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts United States of America (USA) oil sufficiency by 2020.

If US to becomes world largest oil producer ahead of Saudi Arabia, one of the reports by Ecobank expresses fears that Nigerian crude exports could face turbulence in 2013.

Rewane said even presently; Nigeria is experiencing difficulty in selling its oil to the spot market, saying there is decline/Reduction in cargo shipment. This is even as traders deem crude oil as over price.

On the other hand, oil theft, pipeline vandalism and unsold cargos pose threat to the budget assumptions of 2.53 million barrels per day (mpd) in 2013.

He said this could negatively influence the oil market, and in terms of price sweet crude and heavy crude prices could be reversed.

The FDC chief executive is afraid that Bonny Light crude could fall below $90 pb if USA further reduces import from Nigeria.

Kayode Ogun, a retired banker said if crude prices fell below $90, then the country’s external reserves would be in trouble, as the central bank would attempt to save the naira from it.

Rewane added that weakening refining margins in Europe and Asia’s increasing demand for Middle East crude could force oil prices down, even as USA cut of Nigeria’s crude import could also lead to difficulty in exporting total oil produced.

But the National Assembly is hell bent on increasing the 2013 crude oil price benchmark, even as the governors are insisting on their right to share the accrued Excess Crude Account (ECA) savings.

But Rewane said if oil prices fall sharply to $80 pb, there is likely to be adjustments to an expected decline in oil revenue that will lead to pre-election political responses.

He said possible responses would be democratic profligacy, democratic kleptocracy, democratic austerity, or autocratic oligarchy.

The postulation is that if the oil price falls to $90 pb from current $117 pb, oil revenue would fall by 38.91 per cent to $3.36 billion from $5.5 billion recorded in November 2012, and oil price decline to $80 pb should produce a decline in oil revenue to $2.57 billion.

But the real fear is that the decline in inflows to $3.36 billion would have a negative impact on the naira and could lead to a depreciation of the naira by 21.3 percent to N190.75/$, said Rewane.

According to him, assuming the external reserves was not used to support the naira and other variables remained constant, oil price decline of $1 pb could lead to the depreciation of the naira by 0.8 percent.

In another scenario, if the current oil price falls to $90 pb, Rewane said the naira could depreciate by 12.73 per cent to N177.26/$ from N157.24/$.

A further depreciation to N188.92/$ is expected if oil price declines to $80/pb. He said, in that instance, the expectation will be that the reserves will be used to support the naira, and that could imply a 7.72 per cent depreciation.

Thus, Rewane said, given that all factors influencing inflation remain constant while oil price declines, if oil price falls to $90 pb from current price of $117, external reserves should decline to $35.05 billion from current $45.57 billion.

According to him, oil price decline to $80 pb will lead to decline in external reserves to $31.16 billion, which is estimated to cover five months of imports.

Courtesy Leadership

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5 Feb

Flash! Just-In: 10 Governors Endorse Merger Between For APGA, ACN, ANPP, CPC To Form Mega Party

Posted by newsbytesnow in News. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

10 governors have today endorsed the merger talks between 4 political parties including ANPP, CPC, ACN and APGA to form a mega party.

The announcement was made by the Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha after a 5-hour meeting that held at the government house, Marina Lagos and hosted by Governor Raji Fashola of Lagos.

This is perceived by the parties involved in the merger to be a strategic move to wrestle power from the PDP in the 2015 presidential elections particularly.

Unarguably, the race for 2015 elections have been kickstarted officialy with this public endorsement.

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