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Let’s get into it.
The president had a light bulb moment
The president believes that Nigeria will prosper if we “get infrastructure right”. According to the president’s tweets, this recent resolve has remotivated him to put infrastructural development at the top of his presidential bucket list. The idea, it seems, is part of why the Federal Government approved the 2020 budget increase earlier this month, from
At the time, the Senate agreed that borrowing might be a bad idea—mainly because, you know, Nigeria is already in a dogpile of debt—but, it seems that the new game plan is to borrow (more), and pay all of it back with the seed from our latest development strategy.
Is borrowing necessary?
Femi Falana does not think so. He suggests perhaps using the already recovered looted funds and the soon-to-be recovered looted funds, like the money these powerplants men are allegedly hiding. We’re already quite indebted and raw materials, Nigeria’s primary source of revenue isn’t exactly infrastructure-friendly when excessively consumed.
What’s the plan?
The president recently approved a 10 billion Naira budget to renovate the international airport in Enugu. Sanwo-Olu, the part-time Lagos State Governor, part-time pointer, part-time absentee father of the masses, has also recently declared a state of emergency on a couple of roads in Lagos.
Is it a swamp or is it a country?
Communities with natural resources in their lands are not happy with the way the Nigerian government is treating their environment. Punch reports that the solid material-producing communities, with support from the Federation of Nigerian Mining Host Communities, are demanding a review of laws that regulate the mining sector. At a meeting in Abuja, the representatives from Ebonyi, Gombe, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Plateau, Taraba and Zamfara; said that the government has neglected the protection of hosts and their communities. So basically extracting carelessly, neglecting the health or economic needs of the people and bringing zero revenue back into their communities.
They said they observed that the problems were as a result of loose mining laws, as well as “corruption, poverty and lack of effective monitoring of mining activities have put the environment and the health of the people in jeopardy”. You know, everything Ken Saro-Wiwa complained of in Port Harcourt.
In another corner of this catastrophic ring is the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, who claims (or admits?) that some governors have been conducting back-door deals with investors and foreign mining companies.
How are we doing with the oil thing, though?
After 40 years of searching, the government discovered crude oil in Benue State earlier this month. The expectation is that now, the big guys in Abuja would let the producing regions control manufacturing and keep the full value. This means other regions like Rivers State can perhaps finally get that cleanup they were promised two decades ago.
More on money stuff: taxes
One of the budget funding plans is increasing taxes. The government has hiked or reformed about 4 taxes in the last two months, all targeted at small business owners, civil servants, and—as I discovered when I was charged N50 for using my card at a fuel station—really anybody who uses a bank card in Nigeria.
The government has been eager with VAT increases, but they’re pretty chilled when it comes to implementing an increase in salaries. In April, the president approved the minimum wage increase (from 18,000 to 30,000) and agreed to bump up salaries proportionately, but negotiations are still on (6 months later) because the government can’t decide how to distribute and no one seems to be talking about how tax hikes will affect the overall standard of living.
As a professor at a University in Ogun state pointed out, it’s a lose-lose situation: by increasing VAT, the government is inevitably increasing the prices of goods and if nobody in the country can afford the goods, (read: civil servants), the country will be poorer and nobody can buy anything to provide the GDP revenue they’d need for infrastructural development (in short, we’ll all be looking at each other).
Meanwhile, the Central Bank Of Nigeria is in a battle with inclusion
The CBN reported that Nigeria’s financial inclusion rate has dropped by a little below 4% in the last 3 years. The metric used—a biannual financial inclusion survey—showed that 63.2% of Nigerians now have access to financial banks, bank cards and ATMs. The goal is to get more people into the formal financial system, but with this currently ongoing tax repression, where’s the incentive?
Let us shame all rapists
Sexual assault in Nigerian Universities is finally getting some of the attention it deserves. Abusive lecturers are getting fired, churches are denouncing accused lecturers who are also pastors and for the first time ever, the victim blamers are not the loudest voices in the room. Let’s hope it sticks.
All this is thanks to BBC Africa Eye’s Sex For Grades exposé, which opened the gates to a new phase of the discussions around sexual assault in Nigerian universities. As a result of the conversations that have developed from it, the documentary has also caught the attention of nonprofits, Ford Foundation and Gender Mobile Initiative, and they intend to see that these sicko professors stay checked forever. The two organisations have partnered to revisit and revamp Nigeria’s sexual assault policy and create a mobile app where students can confidentially report sexual assault cases.
Put their names on a public website and shame them, please. I hope we can extend this agenda, as we are still generally indifferent towards scandals like 12-year-olds getting raped by religious leaders. If not, maybe girls rallying against child marriage in Gombe can graduate to walking around with photos of sex offenders in their area.
Things we didn’t get into
Sowore is still in prison: The bail terms are still ridiculous. They’ve basically asked him to bring blood and two lion heads: 100 million Naira and two trustees with property in Abuja valued at no less than the aforementioned. His lawyers, a team lead by Femi Falana, will appeal this on the 4th of November; they’re hoping for softer bail terms.
Boko Haram: More people killed, over 800 soldiers buried.
Want to learn to fly for free? Be from Rivers State
Onitsha fire.
Recommended Reads
How bicycles changed the world for women: Bicycles meant women could get around; do more than cook and clean and wait. Men didn’t like that. It made the patriarchy more difficult to impose.
Ablism: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone who has a disability on the belief that one's own form is superior; discrimination in favour of able-bodied people. Nigerian hunchbacks depict how this discrimination has affected their lives and restricted their independence.
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