Mr Tony, a retiree, planned to use his gratuity, plus his life savings and a high-interest loan to start a family business. His goal is to use the business not just to sustain him but to provide employment for his two sons who have been jobless since they graduated four years back.
Though Nigeria produced an estimated 170 trillion cubic feet of gas, more than 70% is flared off. After Russia, Nigeria flares the most gas in the world. Between 2012 and 2020, Nigeria flared over 1.5 billion standard cubic feet of its natural gas. During the process of flaring gas within those years, about 82 million tonnes of CO2 was emitted. For the quantity of CO2 emitted, Nigeria Gas Flare Tracker estimated that ideally, oil companies engaged in gas flaring should pay about $3.2bn as a penalty. That’s 1.152 trillion naira, which is enough to cover for the coronavirus induced 1 trillion naira intervention by the Central Bank. It could have cushioned 77 percent of the 1.5 trillion naira cut that the 2020 budget is witnessing.
I have read a variety of fascinating narratives from former participants of the National Youth Service Scheme. While many of these narratives were expressed with considerable positivity, I believe that the positivity is not intrinsically connected with the perfection of the scheme but are drawn through a long journey of disappointment, frustration, and then acceptance of the reality of ‘national service’. Even the most well-crafted narrative I read did not completely mask the failures of the scheme in welfare provision, organization, and perhaps in fulfilling the ultimate reason for which the scheme was established.
The federal government is currently rethinking the 2020 budget to respond to the shocks stemming from ongoing global oil price crisis. The 2020 budget bench-marked crude oil price at $57/b but, as of now, the price is $38, could slide further. The crisis is triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak, which has affected demand from the world’s second-largest economy, China, and, of course, the associated price war by Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Nigeria has about 38bn barrels of unexplored bitumen resources weighing about 42.74 billion metric tonnes. It ranks 6th in the list of countries with the most bitumen wealth. Nigeria’s untapped bitumen can be found Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Rivers, and Balyesa States. Geologically, Nigeria’s bitumen reserves have close similarities with the bitumen reserves in Canada and it is envisaged if Nigeria’s bitumen would be extracted, similar methods as have been used in Canada would be adopted. In view of this, similar impacts are envisaged between the two countries.
Boko Haram Islamic insurgency began in 2009 when the jihadist group started an armed rebellion against the Nigerian government. Since 2011, Boko Haram Islamic insurgency has resulted in about 37,500 deaths making it the most deadly extremist group according to the Global Terrorism Index. Attacks and casualties have been rising and in 2019 alone, insurgents caused at least 750 security force casualties. Literature suggests that the original Boko Haram Islamic insurgent group has split into different factions and at least two factions of the terrorist group have been identified.
President Buhari’s body language beckons every revenue it can get. From the pose that upped the VAT rate to birth the Finance Bill, to the frown tightening the border, plus the wonderful “bata dance” with China for loans and, the unrelenting gulp of domestic loan via bonds.
The Minister of Petroleum, President Buhari has failed to disclose about 11.43 Trillion naira remittances made by international oil and gas companies between 2014 and 2018. An analysis by DATAPHYTE has shown that at least $37.46 billion has been remitted by oil and gas companies from Europe and Canada to government entities in Nigeria. The proceeds between 2014 and 2018 convert to ₦11,425,208,946,053 at an exchange rate of ₦305 to $1.
Every year, only one out of four secures admission into a tertiary institution in Nigeria. By one, I mean over 1.4 million young Nigerians.
In the 2019 SDG index, Nigeria ranked 159th among 162 countries compared in terms of their achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Nigeria’s performance score of 46.4 is just a little above the score for the Central African Republic, a country sitting at the lowest rung of the index.
Most Nigerians have a superficial perception of mental health. The majority consider mental disorders as physical manifestations of violence and extreme irrational behaviour. They less understand it as a mental condition that may affect only the mood or an individual. Or the thinking process and behaviour of a person. This uneducated outlook poses the first and major barrier to diagnosis and therapy.
55 million cases of malaria are reported yearly at health facilities across the country, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) 2018 Malaria Report. By implication, more than one in every four Nigerians seeks treatment for Malaria in a hospital every year. Malaria is Nigeria’s deadliest disease and it causes about 300,000 deaths annually in the country, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control revealed. Malaria also accounts for 60% of outpatient visits to health facilities, 30% childhood death, and 11% of maternal deaths in Nigeria estimated at 4,500 cases.
Public perception of mental health in Nigeria is still very poor. In a survey by the African Polling Institute (API), Nigerians revealed that the major causes of mental illness are drug abuse, sickness of the mind, and possession by evil spirits. This is in sharp contrast to globally accepted causes of mental health illnesses.
My trip from the FCT to the Southwest last December was largely uneventful. A day before, I had called Akeem, a trusted cab driver, to pick me up at my residence at 5 am the next day so that I could join the first vehicle leaving Abuja for Ile-Ife, which was my destination. Ordinarily, at 5 am, I could have easily hailed a cab just a few metres away from my residence but of the series of security reports on the escalating growth of petty and violent crimes in Abuja made me choose the more costly alternative.
The Budget Office of the Federation has released Nigeria’s approved budget for 2020. According to Premium Times, the appropriation bill, which aims at sustaining growth and job creation, was expeditiously passed thereby restoring the Federal Budget to a January – December budget cycle. It is the earliest approved budget since Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999.
