Author: Obayomi Abiola Benjamin

“Who’s running Nigeria?” blared a headline in this week’s The Economist, aptly summarizing the state of affairs in beleaguered Nigeria — a major oil producer and African economic powerhouse whose economy appears to be as stricken as its ailing leader. With Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in absentia suffering from an undisclosed illness, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics reported this week that the economy contracted 1.5 percent last year for the first time in nearly 25 years. Although Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is handling day-to-day management of the country, analysts say Nigeria’s mounting woes require steady leadership. Like most OPEC…

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said the recent appreciation of the Naira against other currencies was the result of its market monitoring and intervention. The acting Director, Corporate Communications of the CBN, Mr Isaac Okorafor on Thursday in Sokoto refuted the claim that the allegations by Mr Babatunde Gbadamosi on the illegal sales of foreign currencies at ridiculous rates was responsible for the change in forex policy. Babatunde Gbadamosi, a Lagos businessman and former governorship candidate, made allegations of racketeering against the CBN and favouritism in allocation of foreign exchange to cronies of the present administration. He accused the…

Despite our own personal failings and inadequacies, we expect our leaders to do everything right—from finding solutions to complex problems affecting our lives to having the charisma and prescience to rally millions of people around a perfect vision to saying the right things at the right time. When they fall short, as even the best of them occasionally do, journalists, whose duty it is to hold people in public office to account, do not always show mercy. That perhaps explains why, for eight years, between 1999 and 2007, I was an ardent critic of President Olusegun Obasanjo. But it was…

Dangote Cement Plc (www.Dangote.com) exported 0.4 million tons of cement to other countries in 2016, 54 per cent more than what it shipped in 2015. The export by Africa’s foremost cement manufacturer, has ended the era of Nigeria’s dependence on importation. News about the increased export was not the only one delivered by the company today. In its 2016 full year audited results presented on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos, Dangote Cement disclosed it sold 8.6 million metric tons of cement outside Nigeria, which is 54 per cent more than what was sold in 2015. The…

Indications have emerged that the Nigerian economy is on its way out of recession considering the 2016 overall and last quarter Gross Domestic Product (GNP) reports. A review of the recent GDP figures released today by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, show a contraction of -1.30% in the fourth quarter of 2016, translating into an estimated economic growth rate of -1.51% for the full year. Besides, the Nigerian economy actually performed better overall last year as the growth rate was higher with a contraction at -1.5% than the -1.8% predicted by the IMF. This raised the hope that the…

Fellow Nigerians, something major is happening in our dear beloved country and it is very positive. Every disappointment they say is a blessing. While we are very sad that our President, Muhammadu Buhari, has not been feeling too well for some time now and needs treatment and recuperation abroad, I now believe that God wants him to also have some time for sober and deep reflection. Someone asked me about two weeks ago, on Twitter if I have given up on the Buhari government? My answer was an emphatic NO! And the reason I gave was simple and straight-forward enough:…

A leading economist and financial derivatives analyst, Bismarck Rewane, has predicted that Nigeria will start to experience a ‘slow’ but ‘painful’ recovery process from the current economic recession rocking the nation in July 2017. He disclosed this while addressing the media on the state of Nigeria’s economy. Rewane noted that the government’s quest to increase the sources of revenue, increase the tax net, block leakages, and emphasize spending on capital projects will have a multiplier effect and have a trigger point on the growth the economy, which is a surefire approach to take any country out of recession. He said…

Economic and financial experts say it is uncertain that the latest policy action on foreign exchange introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria will work. The CBN had on Monday announced a new policy decision aimed at boosting forex supply to end-users in order to ease the pressure at the parallel market. Economists said the policy measure might not address the underlying problems affecting the forex market and the economy in general. The experts spoke in separate interviews with our correspondent on Wednesday. The Chief Executive Officer, Cowry Assets Management Limited, Mr. Johnson Chukwu, said, “The CBN’s new forex action…

Sen. Ahmed Ogembe (PDP,Kogi Central), has expressed optimism that the moribund Ajaokuta Steel Complex would soon be revived. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the firm, established about 40 years ago, has yet to resume  production of steel, with successful administrations not able to agree over whether to use the blast furnace technology or change it. Promises by various governments to resuscitate the firm into full activity had always come to nought. But Ogembe, at a meeting with Ebira People’s Assembly, on Thursday in Lokoja, gave an assurance that the firm would be brought to life. “We are…

Permit me to begin this contribution with an interesting and historically accurate observation made by the Vanguard Newspaper on 3rd February 2015. They wrote, “Between 1983 and 1985, Peter Onu of Nigeria was Acting Secretary-General of the OAU. At the 1985 Summit in Addis Ababa, statesmen like Julius Nyerere, President of Tanzania, lobbied for his election as substantive Secretary-General. However, there was a major stumbling block to Peter Onu’s candidature: his Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, was campaigning against him. Buhari claimed: “This generation of Nigerians and indeed future generations have no other country than Nigeria.” But when the crunch…