Nigerian government has Infrastructure master plan in place

A 30-year National Infrastructural Master Plan (NIMP) is currently being put together by the federal government as a coordinated approach for the development of infrastructure, President Goodluck Jonathan said Tuesday.

Jonathan, who spoke through the Vice-President, Namadi Sambo, in Lagos at the 70th anniversary lecture of the Island Club, also gave his administration a pass mark on the implementation of his administration’s Transformation Agenda, declaring that his government was on course.


According to the president, the absence of the NIMP had been the bane of development in Nigeria.
He explained that the Master Plan when ready would be implemented through three 10-year strategic plans, and six five-year operational plans and expected to guide the annual budgetary process commencing with effect from 2014. “NIMP provides the capital allocation framework, which identifies the required investments for infrastructural development, in line with the country’s growth aspirations. It also identifies and elaborates on enablers for implementation that would need to be put in place for successful execution. More importantly, the NIMP is in synergy with all other aspects of the Transformation Agenda and Vision 20:2020”

According to the president, in accordance with international best practices, a review of the Transformation Agenda was undertaken in May 2013, to take stock and re-strategising on the work-in-progress.

“’The review which covers the period May 29, 2011-May 29, 2013 was comprehensive and spanned all sectors of the economy. It also takes into account emerging developments in the global and domestic economy as well as the in-depth analysis of all aspects of our basic development objectives and priorities, while exploring the outlook and prospects for the second half of this administration. We presented the detailed report for information and assessment by all Nigerians in keeping with our mandate and campaign promises.”

Jonathan also declared that the mid-term review of the Transformation Agenda indicated that the country’s economy ws on the right track.
“The government has made considerable progress in the last two years at the macroeconomic and sectoral levels. Several reform initiatives have been implemented and significant aspects of the targets of the Transformation Agenda were achieved.

“In particular, the nominal GDP grew from $226.13 billion in 2010 to $257 billion in 2012, which translated to an improved global GDP ranking of the country from 44th position in 2010, to 36th position in 2012.”

He hinted that his government would ensure that the proportion of re-current expenditure in the total budget is significantly reduced in order to adequately invest in the future.


According to him, government had also introduced the performance management system, as a measure to benchmarking and holding public officers more accountable and ensure better effective delivery of services.


According to him, the aim of the transformation agenda is to achieve an all inclusive, non-inflationary growth, improve rural infrastructure, encourage large scale industries and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Others are to ensure fiscal consolidation, revitalise ailing industries, particularly in the manufacturing sub-sector, promote agriculture as a business and encourage local content strategies in key sectors such as petroleum, natural gas, power and other renewable energy programmes.

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Violence and corruption ruining Nigerian football league

The final 2013 Nigerian league table, showing home wins and away 
wins highlighted in grey. Photograph: Fifa

Notice anything curious about the league table above? It shows the final standings of the Nigeria Premier League, which finished last week. Kano Pillars became the first club in a decade to win back-to-back titles but look beyond that and ask yourself this: have you ever seen a starker difference between home and away results?

Ten of the league's 20 teams went through the whole season unbeaten at home, while no team won more than three away matches in the entire campaign. The runners-up, Enyimba, did not even concede a goal at home, winning 17 and drawing two of their 19 home games while winning just once away. The disparity between Gombe United's home and away form is even more striking: they managed to win 18 and draw one of their 19 home games, scoring an average of more than two goals per game, but away they lost every match, managing a grand total of four goals in 19 games. What is going on?

Enyimba's sweep of home clean sheets is unprecedented but the overall trend of home invincibility and away vulnerability is not new in the NPL, where travelling teams face perilous challenges relating to violent crowds, questionable refereeing and, indeed, travel itself. Arriving just before kick-off after long road trips, often on hazardous surfaces, is far from ideal preparation for players. And they do not always arrive. Last season two matches were postponed when first Sunshine Stars and then Wikki Tourists were robbed on their way to games. Mostly, of course, teams do make it to grounds – and that is when they must contend with fans and referees.

Referees must contend with fans too – for the men in the middle being beaten up is not so much a risk of the job as an inevitability. Wikki Tourists and Kwara United both had results overturned this season after particularly vicious attacks on officials at the grounds, while Enugu Rangers were ordered to play six matches behind closed doors for similar reasons. Those punishments were imposed after referees threatened a boycott and demanded bodyguards, though the officials relented after discussions with the League Management Company (LMC), which was set up last year to bring order to a league where violence, corruption and legal disputes between clubs are obscuring the performances of highly-talented, low-paid players (eight of the 23 Super Eagles that Stephen Keshi took to the summer's Confederations Cup play in the NPL).

Lack of funding constrains the LMC's ability to help referees in one crucial way: officials do not receive salaries from the league, rather they get "indemnities" that are paid before each match by the home team. At least, that is how the arrangement is supposed to work but referees complain that some clubs try to make payment performance-related. It is now common for away teams to seek to ensure balance before a game by offering to cover referees' indemnities too. "Sometimes the quality of refereeing can come down to which team offered the most generous expenses," a club official who did not wish to be named told the Guardian.

Even when referees are determined not to be influenced by payments, they must show even greater fortitude to ignore the demands of certain crowds. And even if they do, that is still no guarantee that the home mob will not get their way. "There was an infamous case several years ago when a referee, Dogo Yabilsu, awarded a penalty to Sharks at Kwara United and fans invaded the pitch," recalls the Nigerian editor of kickoffnigeria.com Colin Udoh. "Yabilsu was a colonel in the army and he took out his service pistol and chased the fans off. But Sharks were still afraid of what would happen if they scored so their player deliberately missed the spotkick."

Dolphins' players were equally intimidated at Kano Pillars a couple of seasons ago – so when the home side were awarded a late penalty several of them pleaded with their goalkeeper, Sunday Rotimi, a former international renowned for his penalty-saving prowess, to dive the wrong way, which he duly did.

Football does not, of course, exist in isolation. The sport is affected by problems that bedevil the country in general. That is true for corruption and funding difficulties, and also when it comes to political strife. Accordingly, north-east Nigeria, where the Boko Haram Islamist jihadist group operates, is an especially daunting away assignment – and not just because of the fear of being caught up in incidents such as the bomb attack that forced the postponement of last season's clash between Kano Pillars and Enyimba.

Supersport, the television company with the NPL screening rights, considers the region too volatile to send cameras to the home matches of sides such as Kano Pillars, El-Kanemi Warriors and Gombe United; and rival clubs claim that one of the reasons that none of those sides lost at home this season is because the absence of footage allows them and referees to get away with particularly outrageous abuses.

Northern clubs retort that their rivals are merely inventing excuses. It is never easy to know who to believe, a fact that the LMC discovered last month when the potential title-decider between Kano Pillars and Enyimba was abandoned following a pitch invasion. Enyimba refused to play on, claiming their players feared for their lives, but Pillars officials protested that their fans had simply been "jubilating" after their team scored a goal and pointed out that the pitch was cleared in under 90 seconds, the threshold at which a points deduction becomes mandatory.

The referees' report suggested officials felt the atmosphere was not safe for play to continue, but Pillars, who had been filming the match themselves, produced footage that appeared to show the referee trying to convince Enyimba players to come back on to the pitch.

Not knowing what to conclude, the LMC ordered the match to be replayed at a neutral venue. Pillars took a giant step to the title by winning 1-0, a "home" victory for which the club rewarded their players with the bonus they normally get for away wins – 40,000 Naira (about £155) – one of just three times all season that the champions earned that bounty.

The Guardian

US Senator apologizes for calling Nigerians scammers

A United States Senator, Ted Cruz, has apologized over his disparaging comments on Monday, October 21 in which he referred to Nigerians as scammers.

He also called for a peace meeting with Nigerian-Americans who have demanded that he retracts the derogatory remarks.

According to local American media, Cruz, while taking a political swipe at the computer problems of the Affordable Care Act in the U.S, made the comments.

“You may have noticed that all the Nigerian email scammers have become a lot less active lately.

“They all have been hired to run the Obamacare website,” Cruz was quoted as saying on Monday in Houston.

Nigerians home and abroad have strongly condemned the statement, while the Federal Government through the Nigerian Ambassador to the U.S., Prof Ade Adefuye, demanded an apology from Mr. Cruz.

But a letter on Sunday from the senator to leaders of the Nigerian community in Houston, Texas, where the comments were made, said Cruz “regrets any misunderstanding.”

The letter was signed by one of the aides of the Senator, Mr. David Sawyer, the South-East Texas Regional Director in his office.

The letter of apology reads in parts: “Earlier this week, Sen. Ted Cruz made a joke in which he used the term ‘Nigerian email scam.
”
“Senator Cruz regrets that it is unfortunate that we’re living in a time where just about every joke can be misconstrued to cause offense to someone.”

“Cruz has never, nor would ever use a blanket term in a derogatory fashion against such a vibrant and integral part of our community. This usage was never directed to the Nigerian community as a whole.

“To the good people of Nigeria – a beautiful nation where my wife lived briefly as the child of missionaries – no offense was intended.

“I am fully appreciative of the range of mutual economic and security interests that make Nigeria an important friend to the United States,” Cruz said apologetically.

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