Nigerian government signs deal with U.S. electric company GE

The Federal Government and GE Energy, weekend, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, for a $10 billion to be invested in various power plants with combined capacity of 10,000 Megawatts, MW.

Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, insisted that the cost had not been padded or inflated in any way, as globally, it costs $100 million to generate 1,000MW of electricity.

Some sections of the media had reported that GE was constructing a 10,000MW plant in Nigeria.

But, at the agreement signing at the Nigerian High Commission in London, Prof. Nnaji, told journalists that GE only agreed to take up at least 15 per cent equity in each of the plants to be constructed.

He noted that GE's support was the highest expression of investment support for government's target to achieve 40,000MW generation capacity by 2020.

He said: "To have a company willing to work with us on delivering 10,000MW is a show of confidence in Mr President's vision. Even if the equity is one per cent, it is still significant because it will take us somewhere. And, with 15 per cent, Federal Government will provide the balance."

He clarified that government will not be involved in any of the projects, but will provide guarantees for the private sector participants.

According to him, "The local content will be huge because GE and any other foreign investor must have local partners."

Previous agreements

He explained that what government and GE had signed after a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja, was a series of general agreements for support in various sectors of the economy including power, transportation especially rail, and health.

"What we are doing is the culmination of a series of work done, some behind-the-scenes, and some in the open. With the meeting between President Jonathan and the Chairman of GE last month in Abuja, there was a narrowing of areas of focus for the country and GE to collaborate on specific areas of focus.

"Accordingly, GE developed MoUs specific to the various sectors, and today, the MoU we are signing relates to power alone."

Agreeing that $10 billion was very ambitious in the face of cash crunch at the international capital market, Nnaji said with GE's cash and government's bank guarantees, the projects will become more bankable, as investors can approach financial institutions to raise funds.

He noted that the relationship between the Nigerian government and GE was a long-term one, as the energy company has moved from just being a supplier of power equipments in Nigeria, to an equity investor.

Vanguard

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Nigerian government gives foreign airlines ultimatum

The Federal Government yesterday gave all foreign airlines operating in the country a 30-day ultimatum within which to dismantle the fare regime that sees Nigerian passengers paying higher fares than other passengers in West Africa.

Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah, who issued the ultimatum in Abuja last night, said the 30-day ultimatum would start today.

This came on a day the Ministry of Aviation also sought the cooperation of the National Assembly towards the enactment of a Passengers' Bill of Rights.

It could be recalled that in the wake of the impasse between British Airways and Arik Air regarding the denial of landing slots of the latter at London Heathrow airport, the ministry had, in addition facilitating the landing rights of Arik Air in Heathrow, waded into the huge fare disparity in the sub-region and demanded fare parity from British Airways, BA, Virgin Atlantic Airways, VA, and other international airlines operating in the country.

BA and VA had particularly asked for more time to conduct its own study on the alleged fare disparity, promising to report back to the Ministry last December.

But worried by the obvious delay tactics on the part of the two British carriers, Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah, weekend said any international airline operating in Nigeria which failed to dismantle the fare imbalance and other sharp practices within the next 30 days would be banned from operating in Nigeria.

She said: "We are seriously concerned and worried by the reluctance to restore parity within the region by the foreign airlines.

They have been using all kinds of delay tactics; this is unacceptable and will no longer be tolerated. Nigerian passengers do not deserve this kind of exploitation and we are willing and ready to stand up to their rights."

Oduah said Nigeria remained an important and lucrative route for the international airlines, warning that anyone not ready to treat Nigerians with equity and dignity would be barred from operating in the country.

"In the interim, we encourage Nigerian travellers to avail themselves of other competitive alternatives while we try try to address and resolve this issue once and for all," she said.

A source had told Vanguard that government's action was informed by the delayed tactics deployed by the British government on the need to resolve the issue of unequal fare regime of British carriers in their Nigerian operations, compared to what holds in other countries on the West Coast.

Government had always banked on the fact that once the two British carriers were made to toe the line, other international airlines would follow their footstep on the issue, especially considering the historical links between Nigeria and Britain.

Vanguard gathered at the weekend that the latest withdrawal of slots from Arik Air on its Abuja-London Heathrow operations, which led to the airline's suspension of flight on the route yesterday, further infuriated the government.

The British government had in the last quarter of 2011 asked the federal government to give it till December 31, 2011, to conduct a study on the fare regime of both British carriers on Lagos-London and Abuja-London routes, in relation to that of other countries in the sub-region, but failed to meet up with that deadline and called for an extension of time which, according to sources, was to enable it buy time while the two carriers continued operations unhindered.

The British government had begged for a negotiation in the heat of the row caused by the shabby treatment of Arik Air at Heathrow, when government threatened to shut down British Airways operations on Lagos-London route.

A source told Vanguard weekend that government was no longer disposed to the delayed tactics being employed by the British government, especially in the light of the resurgence of Arik Air's problem at Heathrow earlier in the month.

Announcing a re-suspension of its Abuja-London flight penultimate week, Arik Air had said: "From the inception of the route in November 2009, Arik Air has been in a slot-lease agreement with a UK carrier, leasing arrival/ departure slots on the Abuja/ London route at Heathrow.

"At the end of the summer schedule (October 2011), the UK carrier that Arik Air was in the slot-lease agreement with for this route advised the airline of its intention to sell the company and began to wind down its contractual arrangements with Arik Air. Without these commercially arranged slots, Arik Air was forced to suspend operations at the start of the winter schedule (2011).

"Immediate discussions were held by the respective governments to resolve the long-existing and underlying anomaly in the BASA. As an abridgement, the UK authorities facilitated the temporary continuation of the commercial lease of these slots in support of Arik Air's Abuja/ London, Heathrow operation.

"This interim solution was only available up until 25th March (2012). Unfortunately,despite the best efforts of both governments, there has been no solution found. The situation remains as it was at the end of October 2011 with Arik Air having no landing/arrival slots after March 2012 thus forcing it to suspend the route.

Although Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah, could not be reached weekend to know what action government was taking in the next two weeks, sources at the Ministry said the operations of both British carriers might be shut in Lagos in the interim, in view of Arik Air's problems at Heathrow, and shut completely should the British government fail to respond to Nigeria's quest for a dismantling of the current fare regime which is unfavourable to Nigerians.

The Aviation Minister's aide, Mr. Joe Obi, had told Vanguard three weeks ago that though the British negotiating team on British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways fare structures appealed for extension of time, on the expiration of the December 31, 2011, deadline, which was acceded to, the Nigerian government would not wait indefinitely because of the urge with which Nigerians want the issue settled.

He also said the matter bothered on public interest which government was in a hurry to resolve in the

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Aviation is putting finishes touches on a proposed Passengers' Bill of Rights which it hopes to present before the two chambers of the National Assembly soon.

The ministry, which is very optimistic that the National Assembly will lend its usual cooperation towards the swift passage of the bill, believes air passengers will have a fairer deal once the bill is passed into law.

One of the salient provisions in the proposed bill stipulates that a passenger has a right to demand compensation if his or her flight is delayed for more than one hour, out-rightly cancelled or where a passenger is denied boarding without any reasonable cause.

Vanguard

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Nigerian woman sets all time trafficking record by ingesting 5 pounds of heroin pellets

 

A Nigerian woman set an unenviable world record for amount of ingested heroin ever recovered when she tried to smuggle five pounds of heroin in 180 pellets into the U.S. The previous record was four pounds of heroin ingested in 100 pellets.

Los Angeles Times reports airport authorities at the Dulles International Airport, say that 52-year-old Bola Adebisi ingested an incredible 180 thumb-sized pellets filled with heroin. Daily Mail reports airport officers became suspicious when she was questioned after arriving on March 14 on Ethiopian Airlines flight 500 from Adis Ababa.

Adebisi claimed she was visiting her brother in the U.S., but she was unable give details of her "brother" and his address. A routine pat-down showed that her belly was suspiciously rigid, and an X-ray revealed to astonished officials that she had in her stomach 180 thumb-sized pellets with a total weight of five pounds.

Los Angeles Times reports Steve Sapp of the Customs and Border Protection, said: “We were kind of shocked and surprised at the sheer number of pellets she ingested. We usually see men twice her size ingest about half of what she did.”

According to International Business Times, Adebisi broke a previous record for ingested drugs set on March 30, 2011, by another Nigerian man, 46-year-old Yomade Aborishade of Lagos, Nigeria, who was arrested for ingesting four pounds of heroin in 100 pellets.

The lady was taken to the hospital where overnight, she passed out all the pellets containing heroin worth an estimated 150,000 pounds.

Christopher Hess, director of Customs and Border Patrol for Washington D.C. said: "The amount of pellets and heroin this woman ingested is incredible, a serious health risk, and very troubling if these numbers become the new normal."

Authorities say drug mules often attempt to smuggle heroin and cocaine, and sometimes ecstasy by swallowing latex balloons, often condoms or fingers of latex gloves or other special pellets filled with the drugs and later recovered from feces. It is a medically dangerous way of smuggling small amounts of drugs and a mule can die if a packet bursts or leaks before exiting the body. Statistics from 2003 show over 50% of foreign females in UK jails were drug mules from Jamaica, with Nigerian women making a large contribution to the balance.

Adebisi, according to MSNBC, will be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

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Nigeria in the top percentile of malnourished countries in Africa

Nigeria ranks among the top countries with high number of malnourished children in Africa, surpassing Ethiopia, Managing Director of the United States Agency for International Development, Tim Prewitt, has said.

He said this yesterday in Abuja at a forum of USAID/Maximizing Revenue and Key Enterprises in Targeted Sites (MARKETS) family nutritional support programme which started in 2008.

The MARKETS was to address food insecurity and malnutrition in orphans and vulnerable children households through direct distribution of food supplements and enterprise nutrition and homestead skills for care givers.

Prewitt said more than one billion people, nearly one-sixth of the World's population, suffer from chronic hunger, with 3.5 million children dying every year. He said the number of stunted children in the world will be 450 million in the next 15 years.

Speaking, the Programme Manager of the project, Bassey Archibong said that malnutrition in Nigeria is a growing problem which is strongly linked to social and economic issues.

Archibong said: "Nigeria has more malnourished children than Ethiopia. States in northern Nigeria have the highest numbers of malnourished children in the country. Also, orphans and vulnerable children whose families have been infected or affected by HIV/AIDS are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity and malnutrition.

"Nearly 1.2 million children in Nigeria are orphaned as a result of AIDS, and more others are vulnerable because their families are affected by HIV/AIDS."

He said that over 70,000 malnourished orphans and vulnerable children have been reached.

He said that care givers from orphans and malnourished children households who participated in the training, gained practical cross cutting skills in micro enterprise nutrition and homestead farming.

"As a result, participants now understand the relationship between income and nutrition, which is critical to ending the cycle of poverty and malnutrition. Sixty percent of participants reported savings for the first time while 77 percent of care givers now have homestead farms up by 24 percent from what it was before training," he said.

Daily Trust

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Nigeria's finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in the running for chief of World Bank

Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is to run for the position of the next World Bank chief, it emerged on Friday.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan made the announcement in Pretoria on Friday - the day nominations close in Washington for the top post of the international body.

"We are very proud as Africa and certainly this constituency to confirm that the Minister of Finance of Nigeria is going to be a candidate for the president of the World Bank," said Gordhan, ahead of a constituency meeting of the World Bank between South Africa, Angola and Nigeria.

Okonjo-Iweala is serving a second term as finance minister and has worked in a senior post at the World Bank for several years.

Gordhan described her as being "very experienced" and that she holds eminent academic qualifications.

"She would be a candidate of choice not just on the African continent but well beyond as well," said Gordhan.

The constituency meeting between South Africa, Nigeria and Angola forms part of the world body's three sub-Saharan constituencies out of a total of 25 constituencies. Gordhan's meeting with Okonjo-Iweala and Angolan Planning Minister Ana Dias Lourenco began yesterday.

Gordhan added that the G20 had made a decision that future processes for the selection of heads of international finance institutions like the World Bank need to be open, transparent, democratic and merit based.

"We believe that the candidature of Minister Okonjo-Iweala enables those that are going to make this decision in Washington to have before them an eminently qualified individual, who can balance the needs of both developed and importantly, developing countries; [and] also provide a new vision and sense of mission to the World Bank and its relevance, particularly to developing countries across the globe," he said.

South Africa and Angola have committed themselves to mobilise support for the Nigerian minister through the various bodies to which they belong on the continent. The countries will garner support for her candidature at next week's meeting of the continent's finance ministers in Addis Ababa, as well as at the BRICS summit where South Africa will encourage members to support her candidacy.

The World Bank is expected to choose its next leader before the Spring meeting in late April.

Asked about other nominated candidates, Gordhan said the US was expected to field a candidate later today.

"We've heard the name of a Columbian academic and former Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo and Prof Jeffrey Sachs has made himself available. There could well be last minute surprises that we are unaware of," noted Gordhan.

Okonjo-Iweala said she hoped the contest she faces will be merit based and that those nominated apply their best minds in the interviewing processes.

"I hope that the best candidates come forward. I consider the World Bank [as] a very important institution for the world, particularly developing countries deserving of the best leadership. I look forward to a contest of very strong candidates. Am I confident? Absolutely," she said.

She further noted that it would be premature for her to lay out her vision for the World Bank.

Current president of the institution, Robert Zoellick, announced in February that he will step down at the end of June.

Among some of the issues discussed by the constituency is the World Bank itself, the kinds of programmes with which it is involved and the extent of the programmes that relate to food and fuel crises, as well as the issue of sustainable development and the modernisation of the World Bank.

"We've been reflecting on how some of these programmes relate to our countries and the continent more broadly and how we could encourage the World Bank to find ways of becoming more relevant to promoting development on the African continent," said Gordhan.

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