Lagos — Potentially dangerous toxic wastes from the United Kingdom (UK) have been traced to Alaba International Market and Apapa, all in Lagos state.The wastes, according to Sky News investigation, comprise abandoned TV set, computer and electrical appliances, which are ordinarily meant to be recycled .The report said the wastes “are traced to Lagos port inside the container. We finally managed to track the television down to a shipping container.”

At Alaba Market, the report added that youngsters aged between 15 and 20 were seen scavenging for the valuable copper contained in the appliances.

It stated: “Because of the toxic nature of some of the components, the appliances should be recycled under strict conditions here in the United Kingdom.”

Commenting on the development, a UK-based non-governmental organisation, Greenpeace, confirmed that the young people working on such dumps often break apart the electronic items for parts, but in doing so are exposed to poisonous chemicals like mercury, lead and cadmium.

“We basically managed to track a TV going from the UK allegedly as second-hand equipment to Nigeria. When in fact we knew, because we gutted it, this TV, before it left the UK, we took all the insides out and put in a tracker device, which enabled us to track this old TV from the UK, through the recycler to Nigeria.

“Tonnes of toxic waste from municipal dumps in the West are being dumped illegally in countries like Nigeria and Ghana. Hundreds of thousands of broken items like TVs and computers are being sold to dealers on the pretext of re-use. Under EU law, such household appliances must be dismantled or recycled,” the charity group stated.

But Sky News reported that after being informed that e-waste collected by Hampshire County Council is being sent to West Africa, it teamed up with Greenpeace to investigate the claim.

According to Sky News : “Our team found an old television, noted its barcode and product number and, with the help of a qualified engineer, removed a vital working part, rendering it useless. We then inserted a satellite tracker into the television before taking it to the council’s recycling centre.

“The idea was to follow every step of the TV’s journey across the world via the internet before pinpointing the exact coordinates of its final destination. Filming undercover, we dropped our television off at a recycling site in Basingstoke which is managed for Hampshire County Council by a firm called Hopkins.

“They in turn sell appliances to a company called BJ Electronics. BJ bought our old television. We then followed the television to the BJ Electronics warehouse in Walthamstow, where BJ claim they test every appliance before selling them on to other companies for export.

“Our tracker showed our broken television was eventually loaded onto a shipping container at BJ’s warehouse then taken to Tilbury where it was exported,” the report said.

Greenpeace Campaigner, Mr. Erik Albertson, told Sky News Online: “What you see around us could be the remains of one of your old computers or a TV set. The problem with things like this is every now and then, a couple of times a week, they set them on fire and the contents of the chemicals will cause dioxins to escape.

“Dioxins are well known as one of the toxic substances on earth. They’re both carcinogenic and cause endocrine disruption.” Back in the UK, we told Hampshire County Council, Hopkins and BJ Electronics of our findings.

Hopkins refused to comment. BJ said they had done nothing wrong and were adamant they comply with all the necessary tests. Hampshire Council issued the following statement: “We are extremely disappointed to learn of the potential findings of the investigation.

Hampshire Council issued the following statement: “We are extremely disappointed to learn of the potential findings of the investigation.

“Our primary aim has always been to ensure that waste electrical items are reused wherever possible, and that only functional TVs and monitors are sent abroad. We do not condone the exportation of televisions that cannot be reused.

Abuja — The Federal Government yesterday denied involvement in Tuesday’s attack on the Presidential Palace in Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea.It also expressed solidarity with the people of the country and congratulated the Equitorial Guinea government for repellingwhat it called ‘cowardly action’, by criminal elements.Equatorial Guinea authorities had fingered Niger Delta militants in the attack launched on the country’s presidential palace Tuesday.

Speaking to State House Correspondents in Abuja yesterday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, condemned in very strong terms the attack by the suspected militant on the presidential palace of Equatorial Guinea and dissociated Nigerian government from the attack.

According to him, “we are in solidarity with the people and the government of Equatorial Guinea as they confront this unfortunate threat and this unfortunate action and we hope they are able to apply the full force of law to deal with the elements that want to create problems. We send our message of solidarity and congratulate them as they were able to stem the attack”.

Asked to clarify if Nigerian militants were actually involved, the minister said: “So far, the investigation we have been able to carry out shows that authorities in Equatorial Guinea themselves are not certain about the identities of those people. But whoever they are, whether they are militants from the Niger Delta or they are mercenaries outside Africa, because we have also had speculations.

“This kind of act should be condemned and it is the latest wake-up call for countries all over Africa, but particularly countries around the Gulf of Guinea to work more closely to share information, to share facilities, to share our collective strength in order to confront those who wish to destabilise the region.

“We have the capacity to do so as countries of the Gulf of Guinea and already, there is a lot of progress in terms of the Gulf of Guinea Commission (GGC), a meeting had just been concluded in Luanda and what we need to do is to get more action out of those meetings to ensure that the actual operational details of what needs to be done to ensure that this is not just a zone of tremendous prospects and emerging prosperity of oil resources but should also be a zone of peace and security”.

Madueke also faulted the report that the government of Equatorial Guinea pointed accusing fingers at Nigeria as being responsible for the attack.”When you mean Nigeria , I am sure they did not say the government of Nigeria is behind the attack”.

Asked if the Nigerian government had begun investigations to ascertain the true identity of those involved, if indeed they were Nigerians, the minister said: “We are united with the government of Equatorial Guinea and indeed any other African country to confront any criminal elements on the continent that disturb the stability of the continent.

“If those criminal elements are from Nigeria, that is the more reason why we have the responsibilities to not only deal with criminal elements within our own laws but assist any other government that itself is also on the receiving end from that kind of criminality.

“You also know we are also facing challenges from Nigerians who have resorted to criminal actions as a way of not wanting to make a point. It is not like when somebody is a Nigerian; either is recruited or on his own he does the kind of thing that happened in Equatorial Guinea a while ago, that that Nigerian enjoys the support of the government.

“It is like saying that armed robbers in Nigeria, when they attack, whether Nigerians or foreigners, are doing so in the name of Nigeria. No, definitely not. The need for African government to work together to enhance the security architecture of the continent is strong, Nigeria will continue to do all that it needs to do in this direction as we send hands of solidarity, understanding and congratulations to Equatorial Guinea as they respond decisively; we appreciate that leadership on that matter of security. The security of Equatorial Guinea is also the security of Nigeria ” he said.

Government also said it was not in a hurry to send troops to Somalia, as the circumstances under which Nigeria committed itself to sending troops there had changed hence the delay in deploying the troops.Maduekwe pointed out that the situation had deteriorated far beyond mere peacekeeping and would require a peace enforcement mandate.

Lagos — The unabated crisis in the oil-rich Niger Delta has continued to take its toll on Shell Petroleum Development and Production Company (SPDC) and Nigeria’s oil revenue, as the company has been forced to shut in production of 180,000 barrels per day (“bpd) of oil following renewed attacks on its facilities.Suspected loyalists of Kitikata, a militant leader linked with the recent killing of soldiers in the Niger Delta region, yesterday invaded the SPDC’s Nembe Creek flowstation in Bayelsa State.

The Nembe invasion, which took place in the early hours of yesterday, occurred barely one month after heavily armed militants stormed the crude oil loading platform in Bonny, Rivers State and shot at several vessels, which were carrying out legitimate businesses in the area. SPDC spokesman, Precious Okolobo, has, however, denied any attack on the company’s Nembe facility, saying activities were ongoing.

But Shell’s Chief Executive, Jeroen van der Veer, confirmed at a London conference that the lost production was due to the heightened insecurity in the region.

Prior to the attacks on its facilities, owing to the escalation of violence in the region in 2006, Shell was producing about one million barrels of crude oil per day.

The attacks had reduced the company’s production to about 400,000 barrels per day.

The recent shut in means a further reduction in the company’s production, a development which translates to revenue losses for the country.

Nigeria, the eighth largest crude exporter earns over 90 per cent of its foreign income from crude exports. The country had benchmarked its oil at $45 a barrel in the 2009 Budget and the new price of the crude, which stood below $36 per barrel yesterday is less than $9 above the budget target.

The upsurge in violence in the Niger Delta region has already reduced the country’s production to about 2.2 million barrels from 2.5 million barrels per day.

THISDAY had last Friday reported that oil producing companies operating in the region had suspended further redeployment of expatriate staff in the area pending when normalcy would return.

An official of Shell was last week quoted as affirming that the company had commenced preparations to evacuate its staff from the Niger Delta after a militant group issued a warning to quit the region or risk more attacks.

The spokesman had, however, stated that the company had no plans to leave Nigeria but that at the same time was not prepared to gamble with the safety and well-being of its workers and contractors.

A militant group led by Ateke Tom had accused Shell and other oil operators including Agip, the local subsidiary of Italian oil company Eni, and the Nigeria Liquefied National Gas Company of helping the Nigerian military to carry out attacks on the group’s camps in Rivers State.

The dreaded Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which threatened swooping attacks on oil companies in the region has issued a three-day ultimatum to Nigeria Agip Oil Company, (NAOC) and its sister company, Saipem, to vacate their operational bases in the region or face the wrath of the militia group.

The invasion of the multi-billion dollar Nembe Creek flowstation was said to have been repelled by soldiers on guard duties aboard the facility.

It was, however, not clear whether there were casualties during the incident, but THISDAY gathered that the gun battle with the attackers lasted several hours before the men escaped in their boats.

The armed groups were said to have left a letter chronicling a number of demands from the Shell management, prompting security agents to believe that the attackers might be local boys from the Nembe area.

The militants, in the said letter, had accused Shell of “being insensitive to the plight of the people of the area by refusing to implement agreements reached with them in various Memorandum of Understanding signed with the people”.

Part of their demands were that their militia group should be recognised by the SPDC management as a major interest group and must be placed on a stipend of N3 million monthly.

The Media Assistant to the Bayelsa State Chairman of the Niger Delta Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee, Alphine Ogoh, however, said yesterday’s incident was not an attack but that the militia group had gone to the platform to drop letter for SPDC.

Following the incident, the Joint military Task Force (JTF) has deployed more men to the facility to prevent another attack even as MEND has distanced itself from the operation.

MEND had earlier indicated its intention to resume hostilities along the creeks of the Niger Delta by ordering two Italian oil companies to move out of the region in three days.In an ultimatum sent through an e-mail message, the group warned the two companies to take its fore warning seriously or be ready for the consequences of any attack.

MEND, which some months ago suspended attacks on oil installations in the region, had alleged that the Federal Gover-nment, in collaboration with the Italian Government was planning to wipe out the freedom fighters in the region.

In Nigeria, new subscribers are signing up with mobile phone services at a rate of almost one every second. In Kenya, they can transfer money, get exam results and even find dates using their phones.African farmers can decide what crops to plant by checking prices at local markets using their cell phones. Physicians can help nurses in rural clinics diagnose patients by “telemedicine.”In this topical briefing, AllAfrica brings you news of the exciting developments in the fields of telecommunications, information technology and the Internet across the continent.

Lagos — Nigeria has overtaken South Africa as Africa’s largest telecom market with the highest subscriber base, Dr Ernest Ndukwe, Deputy Chairman, National Communication Commission, has said.Ndukwe stated this on Tuesday at the “Investment in Africa Telecom Conference” in Johannesburg.He said South Africa had maintained that lead up till January 2008.Ndukwe’s paper entitled: “Facilitating African Renaissance through Communications Infrastructure Development” was presented by Mr Abdullahi Maikano, Head Business Development at the NCC.

He said a recent report by Wireless Intelligence put the mobile subscriber base in Africa at 280 million users by the end of March 2008.”The African continent has surpassed North America in terms of mobile subscribers with U.S. and Canada polling 277 million users,” he said.Ndukwe further said the report listed Africa as the world fastest growing mobile market today with 38 per cent growth in 2007, which put the continent ahead of the Middle East with 33 per cent and Asia Pacific 29 per cent.

He added that information and communication technology had been widely acknowledged as presenting opportunities for the creation of unprecedented economic growth in Africa.

“Most African governments have demonstrated the political will necessary to foster an environment conducive for investment in this sector,” he said.

Lagos — Nigeria’s troubled economy is at further risk as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) yesterday said it would embark on an industrial action to shut down crude oil exports from Rivers State.The action is to start from Monday unless the increasing spate of kidnappings in the Niger Delta is addressed, the union said.If the action takes place as planned, activities at the export terminal would be paralysed, a development which will lead to loss of billions of dollars in revenue for the country.

Nigeria, which has already lost some of its crude oil exports to militancy in the Niger Delta region, currently exports 1.8 million barrels of crude oil per day. This is some 400,000 barrels below the projected 2.2 million barrels of crude that ought to have been exported, depicting a reduction in Nigeria’s revenue for the fiscal year.

Nigeria earns over 80 per cent of its revenue from crude oil exports, which has dropped drastically from the all-time high of $147 per barrel to about $41 that is even below the projected $45 per barrel for the 2009 budget.

THISDAY gathered that the seven-day ultimatum, which was issued yesterday, was obviously in response to the killing by a criminal gang of an 11-year-old girl last week and the abduction of her 9-year-old brother as they were going to school in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Gunmen killed the girl escorting his brother to school and took away the boy, whose father is said to be an employee of Shell Petroleum Devel-opment Company (SPDC).

The father of the kidnapped boy was identified as Mr. Samuel Awolesun. The girl allegedly tried to resist the kidnap of the boy by raising an alarm.

According to agency report, PENGASSAN yesterday issued an ultimatum to the government to improve the security situation in the oil-rich region or face industrial action.

“We have given the government a 7-day ultimatum. We expect government to effectively improve security in the Niger Delta. We are mobilising our members and engaging management on why our services should be withdrawn from all upstream facilities until security is improved in the region,” PENGASSAN General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile, said.

Previous threats by PENGASSAN over insecurity in the past were withdrawn after negotiations with the Federal Government and representatives of oil companies.

Director General and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Dr. Mansur Ahmed, told THISDAY last night that he hoped that reason would prevail so that the issues could be resolved amicably.

“This is not the time to take that kind of drastic action. I am aware that some meetings are being planned. Whatever the issues are, they are going to be sorted out. PENGASSAN should give government sufficient time to address the issues,” he said.

On the implication of the planned action on the economy, Ahmed said that it would affect crude oil delivery.”It will worsen the economy; we are already losing a lot of output and we cannot afford to compound the situation,” he added.

There have been increasing cases of attacks on vessels in the waters off the Niger Delta, since the beginning of this year while criminal gangs masquerading as militants have continued to kidnap both Nigerians and expatriates, who are released in exchange for money.

Country Security Manager, Addax Petroleum Nigeria , Mr. Dennis Amachree, said at a recent conference in Abuja that the oil industry recorded 13 attacks within the first nine days of 2009.

Most industry stakeholders were unwilling to comment on the security situation in the Niger Delta.

However, a top official of Shell told THISDAY last night that if PENGASSAN is allowed to go on strike, it may worsen the implementation of the 2009 budget.

The battle for supremacy between the Senate and the House of Representatives over the leadership of the constitution review committee is about to shift from the precincts of the National Assembly to the Supreme Court, as some lawmakers head for the apex court to seek interpretation of certain sections of the constitution regarding the status of the two chambers.A group of members of the House under the aegis of the Faculty Board of the Initiatives announced yesterday in Abuja that it was going to court to seek interpretation of sections 4(1), 53(2) and 54(2) of the constitution, which provide for the establishment of the two chambers of the National Assembly.

The Senate and the House are claiming certain rights over how to steer the affairs of the National Assembly Joint Constitution Review Committee (JCCR), a disagreement that led the House members into pulling out of the committee. They also threatened to begin a parallel review of the constitution.

While senators interpret the constitutional provisions to mean that the Senate is a senior partner in the legislature, the House members give the sections different interpretations to show that the two chambers are equal partners.

Dean of the group, Rep Eseme Eyibo (PDP, Akwa Ibom), in a text message to one of our reporters yesterday in Abuja, said the group is seeking for “simple interpretation to keep the records straight and deepen our democracy.”

But Eyibo clarified that the group is acting independently of the leadership of the House. “We’re not acting on behalf of the House of Representatives nor the leadership of the House, this is just part of our resolve to deepen our democracy,” he told Daily Trust by telephone yesterday.

Section 4 (1) of the constitution says: “The legislative powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be vested in a National Assembly for the Federation which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.”

Section 53 (2) gives conditions for a joint sitting of the two chambers thus: “At any joint sitting of the Senate and House of Representatives (a) the President of the Senate shall preside, and in his absence the speaker of the House of Representatives shall preside and (b) in the absence of the persons mentioned in paragraph (a) of this section the Deputy Senate President shall preside and in his absence the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives shall preside.”

But section 54 (2) says: “The joint sitting of both the Senate and House of Representatives shall be one-third of all the members of both houses.”

Eyibo said the Attorney General of the Federation is one of the defendants in the suit but that the Senate is not party to the suit. “We’re not suing them (the Senate), we’re just seeking legal interpretations of the sections raised above,” he said.

The bone of the contention in the JCCR is over the designation for Deputy Speaker of the House in the committee. The Senate wants him to be ‘vice-chairman’ while the House members insist on him being ‘co-chairman.’

A meeting between the principal officers of the two chambers is billed for tomorrow to try to break the deadlock.

But Deputy Majority Leader of the Senate Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) told Daily Trust by telephone yesterday that the Senate will not concede to the House.

“It is not the issue of conceding anything to the House. The Senate will be guided by the provision of the Constitution in all that we do. So I don’t think it is the issue of conceding,” he said.In spite of the crisis, the Deputy Speaker Alhaji Usman Bayero Nafada has asked Nigerians to participate actively in the amendment of the constitution by the National Assembly, saying that the country deserves to have a constitution that meets the aspiration of all Nigerians.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity Hammed Bello, Nafada said when the Coalition for Change visited him that “there is need for Nigerians to put heads together to produce a constitution which is people oriented.”

Abuja — Federal Government and Pfizer, which had sustained a legal battle over the death of some children in Kano State following alleged administration of vaccines on them, have agreed to settle the case instituted by the government against the company out-of-court.Pfizer is seeking to quash the report by a committee set up by the Federal Government to look into the activities of Pfizer in the controversial clinical test trial in Kano.

The committee accused Pfizer in that report of unethical conduct. The defendant was alleged to have in April 1996, under the guise of humanitarian gesture conducted clinical trial on some victims of meningitis in Kano , which led to serious post-medication effects.

Pfizer was accused of illegally experimenting its product, Trovafloxacin Mesylate (Trovan) on about 200 out of over 150,000 children afflicted with the bacterial meningitis outbreak.Those reportedly treated by the company ended up with adverse effects like deafness, muteness, paralysis, brain damage, loss of sight, slurred speech and death.

At yesterday’s sitting at a Federal High Court in Abuja , counsel to the Federal Government, Bankole Oyewole, told the court that the government was ready to settle out of court. He asked for more time to enable parties in the case settle the case out of court and the defendants in the suit did not oppose Oyewole’s submission. Justice Anwuri Chikere adjourned the case to the 18th of March for report of the settlement.

Abuja — On a day the Federal Government reiterated that the nation’s economic outlook remains buoyant, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has asked oil marketers to reduce the price of a litre of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, to N65. This represents a N5 reduction.In a statement signed on behalf of the agency by Yusuf Mu’azu, PPPRA said last night that the decision followed the downward trend in the prices of crude and refined petroleum products at the international market.

The development, PPPRA said, “has brought the open market pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) below the current price of N70.00k.”

The agency said, in line with its statutory mandate, it had decided to substitute the fixed price with a recommended price in order to pass on the benefit of this drop in price to the Nigerian public.

“In this regard, it is recommended that all petroleum marketers take a cue on the open market reference price level for petrol – the average for the one-month period specified – from the PPPRA’s posted price on its website or as published in the national dailies.

“All petroleum marketers are enjoined to comply with this price immediately. The PPPRA, using its automatic price adjustment mechanism, shall be posting on its website as well as announcing and publishing in the media the indicative price of petrol on monthly basis.

“The PPPRA will continue to liaise with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to ensure that petroleum marketers do not engage in profiteering by selling above the upper limit of the open market price monitored by the Agency,” the statement said.

THISDAY had last month quoted the Special Adviser to the President on Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, as saying the prices of petroleum products would be reduced by not less 25 per cent, but the Group General Manager (Public Affairs) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, had denied the story, saying no such decision had been taken.

Egbogah had also said the reduction would gradually move from 25 per cent to 40 per cent to reflect the spate of the current fall in global prices of oil.

But Ajuonumah said Egboga was quoted out of context, maintaining that “since the Federal Government has subsidised the pump price heavily recently, the government is not in a hurry to tinker with the current domestic pump price. The subsidy has always been very heavy on the government, costing at times N500 million in one month. Any way the government can recover a little bit of the subsidy cost in view of the global market price of the crude, will be welcome.”

Meanwhile, the Federal Government said yesterday that despite the global economic crisis, which continued to deepen and takes its toll on many countries of the world, the nation’s economic outlook remained favourable.

Declaring open the Third Annual Microfinance and Microfinance/ Entrepreneurship Awards in Abuja, Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan said the economic growth was on track buoyed by the strong performance in the non-oil sector.

Jonathan, who represented President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, pointed to the fact the GDP growth rate grew from 6.2 per cent in 2007 to 8 per cent at the end of 2008.

“It is pleasure to know that Nigeria’s economic output remains favourable even in the face of the current economic global financial crisis. Our economic growth is on track, oiled by the strong performance of the non-oil sector. The provisional estimates of the Nigerian GDP growth rate for the end of 2008 is as impressive as 8 per cent compared to 6.2 per cent in 2007. We are looking up to what the figures will be in 2009,” he said.

However, the statistics reeled by Jonathan and his statement seem to contradict the realities on ground. For instance, prices of oil at the international market have maintained a downward streak since after the third quarter of last year, free falling from a high of $147 per barrel to somewhere below $40 per barrel at the end of last year.

Even while Jonathan churned out the favourable statistics and made encouraging statement, the negative effect of the economic crisis was not totally lost on him, as he told the gathering at the conference that everybody was aware of the global economic crisis and its effect on countries.

He assured that the Yar’A-dua-led administration was preparing to mitigate any likely negative effect of the crisis on the nation’s economy.

According to him, “we are all aware of the realities of the global economic crisis which is affecting many countries in the world. This administration has taken several bold and pragmatic steps to shield the economy from the negative effects of this global melt down. We have also set up the presidential steering committee on the global economic crisis made up of experienced professionals, who are expected to give greater efforts to the efforts to cushion the impact to the global economic recession.”

Abuja — Twenty-four hours after Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has warned that the energy policy of the new administration may spell doom for the Nigerian economy.He said Obama’s proposed vigorous search for alternative energy to drive the world’s largest economy poses “great dangers” for Nigeria whose economy is highly dependent on revenue from oil.Nigeria is the fifth largest exporter of crude oil to the US.

Soludo said although the global economic recession which began in the United States had started to take its toll on Nigeria in terms of the crash in the price of crude oil, declining revenue, depleting foreign reserves and pressure on the exchange rate, Nigerian banks remained “robust enough to withstand the shock waves hitting the economy”.

Soludo, who gave these explanations at an interaction with the House of Representa-tives Committee on Banking and Currency, said the impact of the global economic and financial crisis would have hit Nigeria harder if the central bank had not initiated the consolidation of the banking sector two years ago.

He spoke to an obviously sceptical audience as most of the lawmakers kept prodding behind the economic policies of the apex bank.

He, however, said the Nigerian government must take urgent measures to diversify the economy especially towards agriculture since the crash in the price of crude oil in the international market may worsen if the search for alternative sources of energy begins to bear fruit.

Soludo said with the limited foreign trade finances being witnessed by Nigerian banks, credit lines may dry up for some banks and Nigeria may return to the scenario in the early 1980s when government at all levels was broke and unable to pay salaries.

According to Soludo, the recent downturn witnessed in the Nigerian capital market as a result of the divestment by foreign investors may subsequently lead to possible second round effects on the balance sheets of some banks and decreasing profitability, “but the banks are not significantly under threat and are not likely to witness large scale losses.

“With the Obama government proposing to invest heavily on alternative energy sources, there is a permanent threat to oil as mainstay of the Nigerian economy. Unless we take urgent steps to address the situation by also finding an alternative to oil as the mainstay of our economy, we might be back to the similar crisis we witnessed in 1982 when the price of oil crashed, government revenue declined and it became difficult for government at all levels to pay salaries. There was also the abandoned projects syndrome, increased import of almost anything until government was forced to place a ban on foreign currency trafficking because it was being abused,” he said.

Owing to the falling commodity prices abroad as well as declining freight costs, Soludo explained, Nigerian businesses may find increasing appetite for foreign and imported goods which will threaten the domestic industrial productive base.

Other threats include the fact that the declining oil price might be worsened by the militancy in the Niger Delta with its attendant shut-in of oil production and possible political pressure to spend the “excess crude” earnings.

He said although Nigeria’s foreign reserves currently stood at $52billion, the Nigerian economy like other economies of the world would be exposed to more risks if the United States dollar which serves as the global reserve currency begins to experience “spiral inflation” and triggers off a global currency crisis.

But Soludo’s testimony before the lawmakers was not all gloom as he announced that unlike in 1982, the Nigerian economy, though not insulated from the global crisis, was better prepared to withstand the shock.

He said with the debt relief effectively saving about $4billion in annual debt service payments, a banking sector consolidation that has increased competitiveness, robust external reserve, a liberalised and private sector-led economy, an active capital market as well as better fiscal and monetary policy regimes, the country has great opportunities to scale the hurdles posed by the global recession.

“The challenge we have is to get agriculture to boom. We have huge growth reserve to be exploited – about sixty per cent of arable land for agriculture remains fallow; solid minerals and gas are yet to be fully harnessed. Nigeria may continue to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) particularly in the oil and gas sector and portfolio inflows due to high returns on investment.

“Lower world prices will benefit Nigeria because of her large imports. This time, we should target strategic capital investment in sectors where input prices are depressed globally with lower freight costs. Our banks are Nigeria’s multinational companies and have become increasing dominant source of financing for the economy giving more credit to the private sector than the Federal Government and also supporting the state governments. Banks constitute the engine of the economy for the near term which must be guarded,” he said.

On the way forward, the CBN governor said that the apex bank would remain committed to stable exchange rate regime and monitor developments in the capital market as a stable exchange rate would continue to be a major shock absorber for the economy to maintain its internal and external balance.

Meanwhile, President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua has joined the world to congratulate the new US President.

Yar’Adua spoke through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, who led the Nigerian delegation to Obama’s inauguration.At the inaugural ball organised by Washington, DC-based NGO, “Africa Aspire,” President Yar’Adua, praised the “inclusiveness, solidarity and generosity” of the American system, which produced the first African-American president of the country.

The minister told the audience that the people of Nigeria and Africa rejoice with America on this historic swearing-in ceremony.

“We are proud that America gave this opportunity to the son of an African immigrant. We want to say in the same spirit that Africa supports Obama to succeed. His success is ours… Africa has taken a turn for the better,” he declared.