On Tuesday, 18th july, 2005, the Government house, Umuahia the seat of power of Abia State government witnessed the presence of some angry but happy youths of Owaza in Ukwa West Local Government area of Abia State who came protesting with banners and demanding for true representation of their son at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Lodging their complains to the state government, the leader of the team said that they had come to intimate the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu (MON) of their wish and let him know that they will not accept antother person than an Owaza son at the NDDC, he continued that they came to Umuahia to meet with the governor sin he failed to honour their invitation, as it is said, ‘When mountain refuse to visit Mohammed, then Mohammed will go to the Mountain’. The president and secretary of the Owaza youths spoke of the need to grant them the request.

Chief Victor Ike Oye, Senior Special Adviser to the Governor- General Duties was present to represent the Governor who was unavoidably absent, he told the crowd that the Governor would have love to meet with them and address them but that they are with the right man since he is a confirmed Chief in Owaza community and knew the problems of the people to the heart.

He said that Governor Kalu represent a new face of a new Nigeria and Africa. He mentioned the fact that Owaza is the hope of the development of Abia State since they are the “Oil People” of Abia State and that he sees a new hope with the youths he is addressing. He mentioned the many reform programmes the government are putting in place and what they are doing to ensure that an Owaza son is represented at the NDDC. Speaking further, Chief Oye elaborated on the fact the Igbo’s are marginalized not only in their home but also in such places as State creation, Representations at Federal Government and in the Resource control. He insisted and is of the view that Nigeria states should be allowed to practice resource control policy since it was practiced during the agricultural days before the oil boom!

Chief Vicor Ike Oye, believed that the people’s due be given to the people also said that Justice will prevail and that their mission is of peace and good course. He said the Governor, Chief Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu is not sleeping, he is fighting to make things better for every Abia people and let ever people be represented and that is why his counter parts in Abuja are not in concord with him”

Finally he assured them of the governments determination to ensured that an Owaza son is in NDDC and that they message and complaints will be communicated to the Governor in due time and thanked them for the peaceful way their carry out their things.

Henry Ekwuruke reporting from Government House Umuahia Abia State Nigeria

Government’s determination to make Nigeria self-sufficient in food production, as well as position the nation as an exporter of surplus agricultural products, has yielded significant gains in the agricultural sector.

An assessment of the agricultural sector between 2003 and 2005 indicates that through a number of presidential initiatives there has been remarkable increase in food production.

Some key examples are:

• Increased rice production from 3.0 million metric tonnes in 2002 to over 4.0 metric tonnes by the end of 2004; while the import bill was reduced by 40 percent
• Increased production and national self-sufficiency in vegetable oil
• National self-sufficiency in poultry production
• Excess increase in cassava production, thus making Nigeria the largest producer of cassava with 41.853 million metric tonnes per annum (export of cassava began this year, 2005; while flour millers and bakers now incorporate at least 10 percent cassava flour in bakery production and confectionaries)
• Increase in yam production (with 31.40 metric tonnes per annum, Nigeria is the largest producer of yams)
• Increased cocoa production from 249,782 metric tonnes in 2001 to 281,837 metric tonnes in 2003.

To encourage improved farm yields this year (2005), the Federal Government has procured assorted fertilisers for distribution to farmers through States and River Basin Development Authorities at a 25 percent subsidy. 250,000 metric tonnes were distributed in 2004

Determined to play a prominent role in the attainment of United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Nigerian Government is taking key steps to ensure that it fulfils its responsibilities regarding the programme.

President Olusegun Obasanjo launched Nigeria’s first MDGs Report at a well-attended ceremony at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday, 20 December 2004.

According to the 70-page report, which was presented to a roomful of government officials, diplomats and donors, Nigeria has potentials for achieving universal primary education, ensuring environmental stability and developing a global partnership for development.

The report is the product of collaboration between the UN System in Nigeria, the Government, the National Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER), the academia, civil society and the private sector.

A stakeholders’ forum was organised in January 2004, where 160 participants deliberated on, made inputs into and agreed on a draft report. The forum was organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the Office of the Economic Adviser to the President. The UN Country Team was part of the whole process, including the printing of the final report.

At the launching, Obasanjo commended the UNDP and other UN agencies for their support in the production of the report, but also called for more international commitment to make the MDGs achievable in Nigeria.

He said that Nigeria’s reform agenda and the investment in infrastructure and human capital were already yielding positive results in reducing food poverty, gender inequality and HIV/AIDS prevalence rates. He added also that more could be achieved with increased international assistance for expanded market access, foreign investment and debt cancellation for Nigeria.

Obasanjo also announced that an Inter-Ministerial Committee on the MDGs would be set up early 2005 to coordinate activities on and monitor progress of the MDGs in Nigeria.

The launching was held at the Council Chambers in the Presidential Villa and was attended by some diplomats, representatives of UNDP, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), the World Bank, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Department for International Development (DFID) and other development partners, as well as by the Ministers of Education, Health, Women Affairs and Water Resources, and Special Advisers to the President.

The ongoing Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme, which takes education to the grassroots, is one such programme that complements a salient goal of the MDGs. Every Nigerian, through this scheme, and regardless of age or gender, is entitled to basic education.

In Nigeria, there are 7.3 million children of primary age that are out of school, of which 64 percent are girls. To achieve the MDGs of universal basic education and ensuring equal educational opportunities for boys and girls, the Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria is implementing the UBE with support from the Department for International Development (DFID) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). DFID is providing a £26 million grant to education in six northern states to help Government with the scheme.

Nigeria’s determination to realise the MDGs is further demonstrated in Obasanjo’s speech at the International Conference on Financing for Development, which took place in Monterrey, Mexico from 18-22 March 2002.

Furthermore, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on 1 December 2004 took a decisive step when it officially endorsed MDGs to be met by 2015.

The approval followed the adoption of a memo containing its recommendations as well as a report of Nigeria’s growth performance in 2004 by Obasanjo.

Also on 8 December, the FEC approved N60 billion for the MDGs health scheme, which is designed to reduce infant and mother mortality rates in the country by two-thirds by 2015.

In all, the funds are expected to:

• Reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990-2015

• Reduce the infant mortality rate by three-quarters

• Reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS

• Reduce the incidence of malaria and other diseases

• Provide access to affordable drugs in developing countries.

Fourteen pilot states were selected from the six geopolitical zones to benefit directly from the health scheme.

The states were selected on the basis of not presently having World Bank/African Development Bank (ADB) funding and are shown to have a high prevalence rate in under-five mortality and in diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria. They include:

• Niger and Kogi (North-Central)

• Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto (North-West)

• Bauchi, Taraba and Adamawa (North-East)

• Anambra and Imo (South-East)

• Ogun and Ekiti (South-West)

• Edo and Bayelsa (South-South).

Already, N10 billion has been voted for the first phase of the project implementation, out of which three billion naira has been proposed in the 2005 budget.

Regarding the environment, DFID, in both Nigeria and Ghana, is supporting an economic assessment of the contribution of renewable natural resources to growth. This is being done in a way that simultaneously informs Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) processes and empowers poor groups to lobby for sustainable approaches. DFID also supports the Enugu State Government in developing the environment component of its State PRS.

Several other aid agencies are also emphasising the importance of taking environmental opportunities and risks into account when developing country policies and programmes. The World Bank, for example, is encouraging environmental mainstreaming in the PRS.

The MDGs is the result of the Millennium Summit held in New York in September 2000, during which all 189 UN Member States adopted the Millennium Declaration, which contained a group of goals and targets. Some of them were later refined through the “Roadmap towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration: Report of the Secretary General to the General Assembly” (A/56/326, September 2001), and have since become known as the MDGs. These eight goals are essentially centred on national targets for poverty, education, gender equality, and environmental sustainability, but also include targets for establishing an international trade and finance policy framework that favours development.

They are:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

• Achieve universal primary education

• Promote gender equality and empower women

• Reduce child mortality

• Improve maternal health

• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

• Ensure environmental sustainability

• Develop a global partnership for development

The MDGs, over a relatively short period of time, have gained tremendous currency, primarily in development circles but increasingly in related trade and finance circles. Many actors are now counting on the Goals to galvanise disparate and sometimes competing development agendas, and are imagining how they might become a powerful political tool to hold governments and international institutions accountable.

All current 191 UN Member States have pledged to meet the MDGs by 2015.
Thank you

In a move to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production, processing and export by 2007, the Federal Government on 21 June in Abuja launched a new variety of rice known as New Rice for Africa (NERICA).

Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Bamidele Dada, who performed the launching, put the yearly imports of rice in 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa at about six million metric tonnes, in addition to the local production of over 12 million metric tonnes.

This, according to him, indicates that while rice is an important staple food, there is a shortage of this crop in the sub-region. He further pointed out that over one billion dollars expended on rice importation alone could be channelled to other sectors.

The NERICA Dissemination Project is a multi-national project being undertaken by specific West African countries with potential upland rice production ecology. They include: Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra-Leone, Mali, Benin and Guinea.

NERICA is a variety that is disease and pest resistant, but has low input demand and a high yield capacity.

About 18 varieties of the NERICA exist, out of which one – NERICA -1 – has so far been officially released in Nigeria. Many lowland varieties have also been developed and released to farmers in Mali and Burkina Faso.

According to Dada, the NERICA Dissemination Project is being implemented in Kaduna, Ogun, Ondo, Taraba and Ekiti States, with an estimated 65,000 farm families benefiting directly from the scheme. Through increased productivity resulting from input from the families, the Project will go a long way in reducing poverty and boosting food security.

Based on the Presidential Initiative on Rice Production, Processing and Export, Nigeria is expected to:

• Produce six million tonnes of milled rice from 10.3 million tonnes of paddy by 2006
• Cultivate three million hectares of rice land to produce about 15 million tonnes of paddy or 9.0 million metric tonnes of milled rice by 2007.

Meanwhile, Commerce Minister, Alhaji Idris Waziri on 20 June in Abuja said that the policy on 10 percent cassava flour content in bread will commence on 1 July 2005, which is a shift from the earlier announced date of 1 January 2005.

Waziri, who stated this while receiving a delegation of traditional rulers, said that non-availability of cassava flour (arising from inadequate production) was responsible for the shift in date. He also estimated that about N28 billion would be realised from the initiative.

The Minister also requested that the traditional rulers provide land for the setting up of a cassava pilot project, which would have three components: farming, processing and training.

He described the presidential cassava initiative, which started barely a year ago, as successful.

Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, on 30-31 January hosted the Fourth Ordinary Session and first Mid-Term Assembly of the African Union (AU), at which a collective decision on the reform of the United Nations (UN) organisational structure was reached.

A committee of 15 African foreign ministers was subsequently formed to harmonise Africa’s position on the two permanent seats the continent is seeking within an expanded UN Security Council.

It is safe to say that every African country has an inalienable right to vie for any of the two seats, but a series of geographical, socio-political and economic factors indicate that the frontrunners in this regard are Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt.

Egypt, the largest and most influential Arab-African country, has played a stabilising role, especially in the North African region, and could argue its case by the sheer credence of its diplomatic successes, military power and excellent strategic friendship with the United States (US). However, questions have been raised on what appears to be its faltering democratic steps, tensions with its southern neighbours regarding the management of the Nile River resources, unease over its alleged participation in global terrorism and its lack of real influence in Sub Saharan Africa.

South Africa, on the other hand, is Africa’s emerging economic and moral powerhouse, having successfully transited from apartheid isolation to a modern democratic and multiracial society with “something for everyone.” Like Nigeria and Egypt, it could easily be defined as a regional economic cauldron. Its former President, Dr Nelson Mandela is certainly one of Africa’s eminent elder statesmen and an influential authority figure on global issues. President Thabo Mbeki, alongside President Olusegun Obasanjo, is the intellectual and political force for change in Africa through the engine of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Recently, Mbeki also became active on the diplomatic front, striving to reconcile warring factions in the Ivory Coast, the Congo and other conflict spots in Africa. Unconvinced about his credentials, however, President Jacques Chirac of France has told the South African leader to first “try to understand West Africa” if he is to succeed in bringing peace to the Ivory Coast. This is an indirect admission, even by a European leader, that West Africa, where Nigeria has pulled off spectacular and enduring peace agreements between bitter rivals in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde and Sao Tome among others, requires delicate diplomatic skills.

The question, therefore, is: how truly representative of authentic African values is South Africa, given its sub structure of a White-led economy and a Black-dominated polity? Just emerging from a pariah status, its Cinderella story is not identical with the transformation experiences of many African countries and this identity crisis may deny South Africa the moral credibility to represent Africa.

Nigeria’s case for a permanent seat in the Security Council, however, is the most convincing. With a population estimated at 140 million, which is higher than its closest competitors (Egypt and South Africa) combined, approximately one in every four Africans is a Nigerian. Of these three countries, Nigeria also emerges as having had the most authentic African experience, thereby equalling Britain’s symbolism to European values and US significance to the New World.

Nigeria is Africa’s most prominent and consistent defender of African liberation, and served in that capacity even when battling imperialism and all forms of colonial oppression was considered foolhardy. It played a leading role in merging the Casablanca and Monrovia blocs, which paved the way for the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1962 and, later in 2002, its successor, the African Union (AU), currently chaired by Obasanjo. A rousing speech by the late General Murtala Mohammed in 1975, in which he declared that “Africa has come of Age,” quickly became the mantra for Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia and non-White South Africans as they struggled for social and politico-economic independence in the 1970s and 80s. Massive material and financial aid from Nigeria were constantly channelled into and ultimately guaranteed the success of various liberation struggles. It is for this reason that Nigeria rightly earned the status of a “Frontline State.” Also, in recognition of its stand against South Africa’s apartheid, Nigeria was appointed to permanently chair the UN Anti-Apartheid Committee until the inhumane system was disbanded in 1994.

Nigeria did not hesitate to nationalise the British Petroleum Company in the late 1970s to force the hands of British colonialists and minority white settlers in granting independence to Zimbabwe. It was also the first country to grant full diplomatic recognition to the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, which Morocco claimed as its territory. In each case the decisions harmed Nigeria’s national interests, incurring the wrath of Britain and Morocco, but Nigeria was determined to put the collective African interest above and beyond its own. The country also played, and continues to play, a prominent role in finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts in Africa, as well as alleviating the humanitarian crises that accompany these conflicts.

Nigeria’s strong belief in regional integration informed its decision to co-establish the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) through which it has invested immense human and material resources for regional economic development and conflict resolution. Through the ECOWAS Monitoring Group and defence force, ECOMOG, Nigeria successfully intervened in civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone and restored democratic normalcy in these countries while caring for millions of displaced civilians. In addition, Nigerian battalions have meritoriously served in several UN and African peacekeeping forces in the Congo, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Beirut, the Central African Republic, Liberia, Sierra Leone and other places.

Presently, Obasanjo is at the forefront of giving Africa a new lease of life. He chairs NEPAD’s African Peer Review Mechanism and the AU, and also serves as the Commonwealth Chairperson-in-Office. He has used his diplomatic clout to reconcile warring factions in the Congo, the Sudan, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia. His leadership role in Africa has engendered fresh dynamic relations with the West. Efforts to cancel African debts and link up the continent’s émigré workforce to contribute to development are also some of the salient gains of the Obasanjo diplomacy.

Apart from harbouring the largest and most educated lab

After decades of delays, hiccups and near misses, as well as investment running into billions of Naira, the announcement by Internal Affairs Minister, Dr. Mohammed Shata that February 18 is the "final date" for commencement of the National Identity Card project is a significant development. It is cause for cheer, since it hopefully represents some real progress at last. But there is good reason for caution too because the history of the ID card scheme is dotted with disappointments because of the failure of successive administrations to give flesh to high-sounding intentions. In the circumstance, the current administration which has refused to give up on the project despite strong opposition deserves some benefit of doubt and support of all well- meaning citizens to execute the project so that Nigerians can finally enjoy the many benefits. This is because the controversies which have trailed it over the years not- withstanding, the benefits are not open to argument.

As things stand, it is quite clear that progress has been made in terms of preparation. Sixty million citizens are expected to be registered within the first two weeks of the exercise beginning from February 18. The federal government, which initially had hired outside consultants to handle the publicity campaign, changed its mind and opted instead for the National Orientation Agency (NOA). The contract is worth N200m. Perhaps even more significant, the Naira equivalent of the total contract sum has been released. The Central Bank of Nigeria, it is expected, will also make part of the funding available to the manager of the project, after converting it to Naira.

There are also indications that SAGEM SA France, the major contractor has put necessary processes in motion in readiness for carrying out its responsibilities. These responsibilities include training and retraining employees recruited for the exercise and servicing the expensive and delicate high-tech equipment needed for the scheme which are located in the Directorate of National Civil Registration (DNCR), the hub of the entire project. Sixty thousand ad hoc workers recruited for the scheme are also in the process of receiving the backlog of four to five months of unpaid salaries. All in all, everything is being done to revive the ID card scheme, also known as the Citizens Registration Project following its suspension last year due to shortage of funds in the wake of disagreements with SAGEM SA which insisted on getting 60 per cent of the contract sum before starting field work.

As encouraging, as these developments are, the federal government and relevant agencies have an onerous responsibility not only to ensure that the commencement date of February 18 is kept but also that the programme is implemented to the letter. Doubts have been expressed as to whether Nigeria, at this point in its history, has what it takes to successfully conduct a complex exercise like the National Identity Card project. For instance, many citizens have asked if the relevant agencies are organised enough to do justice to the task. The logistical challenge involved in preparing a comprehensive data base of all Nigerians with accurate information on such details as blood group, height, state, ethnic origins, profession etc are indeed daunting. Unfortunately, there is little in our recent experience to suggest that we are totally ready for this kind of enterprise. The practical problems are further compounded by political ones. There are vast differences of opinion in the country about the need or otherwise of a project of this nature.

For instance, opposition from the Northern part of the country which was suspicious about the earlier plan to use the ID cards for this year's elections was one of the factors that delayed its execution. With the decision to move the project forward, that fear was addressed. But the second ground for the North's lack of enthusiasm :- that pervasive illiteracy may prevent the registration of many citizens from that part of the country remains. Given the nation's literacy rate which currently hovers around 47 per cent, other parts of the country are also affected. The possibility that foreigners, in connivance with dubious politicians will take advantage of our porous borders and register massively as Nigerians abroad the opportunity to participate in the project will certainly complicate things further. With the failure of the Nigerian state so evident in critical areas of national life, the success of the national ID card project cannot be taken for granted.

Despite the foregoing, giving up on the idea is no option. There is really no alternative to proceeding with the scheme. Our development as a nation will be largely dependent on how much information we have about ourselves. Without accurate information, it is difficult to confront poverty, infrastructural decay, a crumbling education system and the other challenges facing the nation. Without data we simply can't plan. There is also the fact that much smaller and poorer countries have successfully executed this scheme. If these countries can do it, there is good reason to believe that we can too. The fact that the necessary equipment which was procured at great cost to the nation is already in place is an additional reason not to give up. Even if the information gathered is incomplete, it would still be much better than the current situation of having no definitive statistics on the citizens of this country.

Having said that, Since so much hangs on success, the need for strategic thinking is paramount, might be wise to consider a phased approach based on segmentation of the population so that the project is not overwhelmed by sheer numbers. For instance, the project could flag off with the registration of professionals, followed by students and so on and so forth. Security should also be emphasized to reduce the infiltration of aliens to the barest minimum.

The June 18 meeting of the National Council of State and the nation-wide broadcast by President Olusegun Obasanjo, later in the day, did not in any way detract from the air of expectancy that pervades the entire society today. If anything, they were an affirmation that the preoccupations of constitutional experts, leaders of thought and analysts in the past few days, urging an expeditious re-evaluation of the foundations of our nationhood, are valid concerns of the polity, and that constructive engagement of relevant forces is indeed feasible.

The Council, comprising former Heads of State, the sitting President, all governors and others, unanimously approved a proposal by government for a comprehensive review of the local government system – its structure and roles and related matters. Pursuant to that, the President who, in his address, claimed that ``successive councils have grossly under-performed’’, has constituted an 11-member technical committee headed by Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Umaru Sanda Ndayako, to study all aspects of governance and to make appropriate recommendations for the review of the Constitution as would accommodate the restructuring of the local councils.

Gradually and assuredly, this, the State and a critical segment of opinion leaders are approaching a convergence, long cherished but elusive. A review of the Constitution to, among other things, exclude the third tier from the revenue allocation formula, as intended, is a remarkable step toward equity, the rallying-cry of all crusaders of true federalism. One hideous legacy of the dictatorial past, which generated so much disaffection among federating units on account of its manifest arbitrariness, shall have been obviated, some harmony restored, and a clearer conception of the nation’s ultimate goals secured.

The terms of reference of the technical committee, spanning all aspects of governance, suggest that issues hitherto canvassed as subject matter for a dreamt-of Sovereign National Conference (SNC) are on the cards. The envisaged constitution review would hopefully address the nagging issue of devolution of powers from the centre to the constituent parts, particularly the states. These political units have to be strengthened to operate effectively as the building blocks of our ideal federation. Popular expectation is that there would be a drastic transportation of items from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent List and individual states would be in a position to plan and develop their resources at their respective paces. That, precisely, was the arrangement the founding fathers of our nation bequeathed for a stable, prosperous polity. Nothing new.

As we commend this worthwhile initiative of the government, we have to emphasise that constitution review is a project of uncommon complexity and importance. The authorities have to deploy consummate skill and resources to ensure that at every point of the exercise, citizens are adequately informed and convinced about the desirability of the steps. Sovereignty, as the saying goes, belongs to the people. They have to be made to appreciate that the spirit of give-and-take is crucial, if we must discard the unwholesome and enervating a contraptions the military have foisted on the nation since their unfortunate incursion into governance 37 years ago. May our leaders at every level of society remain focused and dedicated as we forge ahead.

For more than five years now, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has been making trips around the world soliciting for debt relief for Nigeria, which has been under severe debt burden since the mid 1980s. On the domestic front, Mr President has led the country to embark on a well-articulated and comprehensive economic and social reform programme mainly captured in the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), whose main goals are wealth creation, employment generation and poverty reduction achieved in the context of a positively re-oriented value system.

Tremendous progress has been made in entrenching transparency, accountability and efficiency in public expenditure; the budgetary process has been fundamentally transformed and fiscal discipline has continued to improve over the past four or so years; new anticorruption agencies have been established and strengthened alongside the existing ones. Indeed, the Nigerian Government and the Nigerian people have over the past five years done all that is humanly possible, and have actually registered achievements towards establishing the economy on a path of sustainable growth despite the enormity and complexity of the constraints it faces. These achievements would have been considered unimaginable before 1999. Despite all these efforts and achievements, Nigeria’s creditors and development partners have failed to provide her with the needed support and encouragement, particularly, by granting the country some substantial debt relief to enable her progress on and consolidate the important economic and social changes it has introduced.

It is important to consider some of the salient facts and circumstances surrounding Nigeria’s external debt:

• Despite Nigeria’s efforts at servicing the external debt, the country has been trapped in a vicious cycle of accumulation of arrears and penalties as it cannot afford to pay the full amount due each year, thereby leading to a growing debt stock beyond additional disbursements. For example, although Nigeria’s total external debt stock in 1985 was about $19 billion, between 1985 and 2004 the country had made debt service payments amounting to about $37 billion to all creditors including Paris Club creditors; yet as at end-December 2004, the debt stock outstanding to all external creditors was about $35.9 billion.

• This shows that Nigeria’s external debt burden is unsustainable in comparison to available resources and taking into account competing and compelling needs for the development of socio-economic infrastructure.

• Indeed, independent analytical studies by the International Monetary Fund over the past few years have led the organisation to conclude that Nigeria needs at least a 67percent debt reduction for her debt burden to be sustainable

• Debt Service payments encroach on resources needed for socioeconomic development and poverty reduction.

• Over the past five years, annual debt service payments have been multiples of budgetary allocation to education as well as to health.

• If Nigeria were to fully pay the debt service due each year over the next five years which amounts to about three billion dollars per annum, there would be very little left for capital expenditure taking into account that we also have to service the domestic public debt.

• Continued resource outflows through debt service payments will prevent Nigeria from achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which were set by the international community for the purpose of reducing poverty levels by 50percent by the year 2015.

• For 15 years up to 1999, Nigeria was under military dictatorship. This had devastating impact on the economy and social stability and places Nigeria in the same category as countries emerging from war and who usually receive debt relief.

• The restoration of democracy in Nigeria has been accompanied by a revolution of expectations from the people for improvements in their standards of living; if these legitimate expectations are not met because of the resource drain occasioned by unbearable debt service payments, the survival and consolidation of democracy would be threatened.

• Although Nigeria is an oil exporting country, it is not a rich country as wrongly held by many: oil revenue per capita per day is only 50 cents which is much lower than the poverty line defined as one dollar per day.

• Nigeria’s oil revenue per capita per day of 50 cents, compares very unfavourably with Iraq’s 2.4 dollars, Venezuela’s 3.4 dollars and Kuwait’s 27.3 dollars.

• Nigeria’s per capita income hovers around $300 making it among the poorest in the world and placing it among the group of debtor countries that are being provided with substantive debt reduction by Western creditors under the HIPC initiative.

• The UNDP Human Development index scores only Nigeria 40 percent, meaning that the country is among the most deprived in the world in terms of standard of living of its people.

• The G8 and the Paris Club have in the past, on a case by case basis, favourably considered and provided debt relief for countries which are economically better off that Nigeria. These countries include Poland, Yugoslavia, Cote d’Ivoire, Pakistan and Egypt.

• Recently, for Iraq, Western creditors have packaged a comprehensive debt relief of 80 percent of their total indebtedness, starting with an immediate cancellation of 30 percent of the debt stock.

• Nigeria has continued, on behalf of the international community, to play a lead role in peacekeeping and conflict resolution in Africa (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and Darfur) involving material costs worth billions of dollars, as well as enormous time and energies and priceless loss of lives of some of its troops.

Clearly, therefore, all nations and stakeholders concerned ought to reconsider the necessity and urgency in granting Nigeria debt relief.

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The 2004 World Tourism Day celebrations in Nigeria takes place in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Monday 27 September.
This year (2005), the State, which was chosen because of its emerging profile in the tourism industry, also plans to commission its five star Ibom Hotel and Resort, equipped with an 18-hole golf course.

The Akwa Ibom State Government has expressed its determination to organise a memorable Tourism Day fiesta. Information Commissioner, Mr Patrick Ekpotu said arrangements have been concluded for a hitch-free even this year.

The World Tourism Day, which was instituted in September 1979 by the Third Session of the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) in Spain, is celebrated every year on 27 September.