The Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, has appealed to the citizenry to exercise patience as his administration works assiduously to rebuild Africa’s most populous nation.
The president’s appeal was contained in a press release after he had met with a delegation of Niger Delta Dialogue and Contact Group at the State House in Abuja on Thursday.
According to him beyond building Nigeria to become a nation that generations to come would be proud to inherit, under his watch Nigeria will also witness judicious utilization of resources.
“We intend to rebuild this country; so that our children and grand-children will have a good place they can call their own. A lot of damage has been done, so I want you to tell the people to be patient. We will utilize the resources of Nigeria with integrity and rebuild the country,” he assured.
He further disclosed that the Niger Delta Amnesty programme signed by the late president Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration was been studied with a view to determining what had been fulfilled, promising that whatever is left would equally be addressed.
He tasked local leaders like His Royal Highness, King Alfred Diette-Spiff, the Amanyanabo of Twon Brass, Bayelsa State, who led the group that met him to talk to groups in the region to maintain peace and calm as government works to address their plights.
He also sympathized with business people whose capital investment in the Niger Delta region was being badly affected due to insecurity. The traditional authority on his part reiterated that the group was made of peace builders, dedicated to peace and stability in the region.
Friday, July 1, 2016
China spends $80 billion on oil and gas in Nigeria
Chinese businesses have pledged to invest US$80 billion on oil and gas infrastructure projects in Nigeria, the country’s state oil company said.
The announcement of the Memorandum of Understanding follows a roadshow in China by Nigeria’s Oil Minister and chief of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu. The deals, NNPC said in a statement, involve everything from pipelines to refineries to power generation.
The West African country, which has traditionally been ranked as the sixth-largest oil producer globally, has recently run into serious trouble, and its oil and gas infrastructure are in need of a serious update, with none of its four refineries reaching peak production due to poor maintenance.
"Memorandum of understandings (MoUs) worth over $80 billion to be spent on investments in oil and gas infrastructure, pipelines, refineries, power, facility refurbishments and upstream have been signed with Chinese companies," said NNPC in a statement.
On top of the sharp oil price decline of the past two years, Nigeria has had to deal with a huge fraud scandal concerning the NNPC’s alleged failure to pay US$16 billion to the government.
The latest blow to the industry that contributes the most to GDP was the flurry of militant attacks on oil and gas infrastructure in the Niger Delta by an organization calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers, which vowed to bring the country’s oil production to zero through bombings of production and transportation facilities, in defense of the interests of communities living in the Niger Delta.
This zero production status has not been reached yet, but the organization has managed to cut output by 600,000 barrels per day, and is now calling for a referendum aiming to overhaul Nigeria’s political system. Meanwhile, the attacks prompted a temporary rally in international crude prices, highlighting Nigeria’s importance in benchmark price-setting.
The announcement of the Memorandum of Understanding follows a roadshow in China by Nigeria’s Oil Minister and chief of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu. The deals, NNPC said in a statement, involve everything from pipelines to refineries to power generation.
The West African country, which has traditionally been ranked as the sixth-largest oil producer globally, has recently run into serious trouble, and its oil and gas infrastructure are in need of a serious update, with none of its four refineries reaching peak production due to poor maintenance.
"Memorandum of understandings (MoUs) worth over $80 billion to be spent on investments in oil and gas infrastructure, pipelines, refineries, power, facility refurbishments and upstream have been signed with Chinese companies," said NNPC in a statement.
On top of the sharp oil price decline of the past two years, Nigeria has had to deal with a huge fraud scandal concerning the NNPC’s alleged failure to pay US$16 billion to the government.
The latest blow to the industry that contributes the most to GDP was the flurry of militant attacks on oil and gas infrastructure in the Niger Delta by an organization calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers, which vowed to bring the country’s oil production to zero through bombings of production and transportation facilities, in defense of the interests of communities living in the Niger Delta.
This zero production status has not been reached yet, but the organization has managed to cut output by 600,000 barrels per day, and is now calling for a referendum aiming to overhaul Nigeria’s political system. Meanwhile, the attacks prompted a temporary rally in international crude prices, highlighting Nigeria’s importance in benchmark price-setting.
By Irina Slav, Oilprice.com
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Chelsea celebrates John Mikel Obi's 10 years at the club
Mikel joined the Stamford Bridge outfit from Lyn Oslo of Norway in the Summer of 2006 after a controversial transfer saga with Manchester United also claiming to have signed him ahead of Chelsea.
The then 19-year-old Mikel made his debut for Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League on 12 September 2006, against Bulgarian club Levski Sofia. Mikel received many positive comments for his performance in the match.
The Nigerian joined during the Mourinho era when Chelsea boasted an African contingent that included Ivorians Didier Drogba and Solomon Kalou and former Ghana international Michael Essien.
Even though he started out as an attacking midfielder, the Portuguese manager was quick to reshape Mikel into a holding midfielder cast in the mould of Chelsea great Claude Makalele. 10 years on, Mikel has served Chelsea in the holding midfield role.
The club’s website on Mikel’s summary page wrote thus, ‘‘Despite the presence in our squad of arguably the greatest holding midfielder of all time, Claude Makelele, Mikel still made over 40 appearances in his first season at Stamford Bridge, and he has maintained a high level of consistency throughout his Chelsea career.’‘
Sometime during the ‘second coming’ of José Mourinho, there were strong reservations about his lifestyle outside of Stamford Bridge, and the club were reportedly considering offloading the player. Deals were announced but never materialized.
In his ten years stay with Chelsea he has won all available domestic club trophies including the Europa League and the prestigious UEFA Champions League. The only continental club trophies to have eluded him are the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA club World Cup.
He has worked with a handful of managers since joining, he played twice under Jose Mourinho, twice under Guus Hiddink as caretaker, Israeli Avram Grant (also as caretaker after Mourinho’s first exit).
He also served under Roberto De Matteo (as cartaker and substantive manager), he was around during Andre Villas Boas’ tenure, during Luis Felipe Scolari and Italian Carlo Anchelloti.
At the national team level, Mikel has played 75 games for the Super Eagles and currently is captain of the team, he has four goals to his credit and was part of the triumphant team that won the AFCON 2004 in South Africa under the late Stephen Keshi.
Kachikwu warns China against fraudulent oil deals in Nigeria
The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, says the era of discretionary sale of crude oil by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is now a thing of history.
Dr Kachikwu warned Chinese businessmen seeking clarifications at the Nigerian Embassy in Beijing about offers for sale of crude oil from Nigeria, that such offers are scam.
The Minister spoke at a reception organized by officials of the Nigerian Embassy in Beijing.
The forum provided an opportunity for officials of the embassy to seek clarification about the sale of crude oil in Nigeria following enquiries from Chinese businessmen who got fraudulent offers from Nigeria
He explained that only 11 companies were approved to lift crude oil from Nigeria following an open bid process and that the next bids will hold in April 2017.
He said that the use of discretion in the sale of crude oil by previous administrations led to corruption in country’s oil industry.
The Minister said that Nigeria is also investigating reported discovery of Nigeria’s stolen oil in China and appealed to Chinese businessmen who buy stolen oil to stop the practice because it encourages vandalism and militancy in Nigeria.
The meeting was one of the activities on the NNPC roadshow in China to seek investment for the repair and expansion of infrastructure in the nation’s oil industry.
Over 50 billion dollars memorandum of understanding for investment in the oil industry has been signed. One of the agreements is with China’s leading oil company, Sinopec
The Minister and his officials also signed an agreement with China’s largest securities and assets management company, Cinda Group
The company specializes in providing financial lifelines for big companies in the country
The roadshow for investment in the oil sector is also scheduled for India and gulf countries.
Former Foreign Affairs Minister Ojo Madueke passes away at age 71
Born on May 6, 1945, Madueke also served as Minister of Culture and Tourism and Minister of Transportation under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The Chairman of the PDP BoT, Senator Walid Jubrin confirmed this in a statement in Abuja on Thursday.
Jubrin said he was shocked to learn about the death of Maduekwe.
He said that the former Nigerian Ambassador to Canada passed on at a critical time when the party needed him most.
Jubrin said that he was waiting for Maduekwe come back from U.S., where he travelled to, so that they could put heads together to address the party’s leadership problem .
“I learnt with sadness and great shock about the death of this very devoted member of the party, a very dependable member and a very useful member with whom we have worked very closely together.
We have been trying our best to find a solution to this problem and it is so sad that Maduekwe died at a very critical moment.
It is sad that at this critical moment, Maduekwe had to go and we are definitely going to miss him and his ideas.
He meant very well for this party, he meant very well for the BoT.
He had very fantastic ideas on the way out for our party crisis.
Maduekwe has been national secretary of the PDP, he has been a Nigerian ambassador and so, we were utilizing his knowhow in BoT.
He did very well for the few months he was in BoT. I will never forget him.
I have lost a great partner,” Jubrin said.
He prayed to God to give members of the deceased family as well as PDP faithful the fortitude to bear this great loss.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)