Half a million Nigerians displaced by Boko Haram will get an $80 “token” to help start over

displaced

QUARTZ AFRICA/ As the Boko Haram terror group has rampaged through Nigeria’s northeast in recent years, more than two million people have fled their homes, pushed into makeshift camps away from the violence. Due to congestion and a lack of funding, camp residents have suffered from hunger, a lack of facilities, and disease outbreaks. In some cases, the camps have also been targets of suicide bombings by Boko Haram.

 But as the Nigerian army retakes territory from Boko Haram, the hard work of reintegrating the displaced has begun. Ahmed Satomi, head of the emergency agency in Borno State—which has been most affected by Boko Haram’s attacks—says half a million households will share a $42 million grant from the World Food Programme. Distributed evenly, that means each household will receive around $80, Satomi said.
 This “token” will encourage the returnees to “start up something that would enable them cater for their families to alleviate their suffering,” he added. The emergency agency will also seek to “empower” the formerly displaced by offering training in new skills and support for entrepreneurial ventures.
After years of living in fear, normalcy appears to be returning to parts of Nigeria’s northeast, particularly Borno. Last month, El Kanemi, a soccer team in Nigeria’s top division based in Maiduguri, the state capital, played a match at its home ground for the first time in three years, previously thought to be too risky given Boko Haram’s propensity to attack large gatherings. The return of more people to Maiduguri has also resulted in something of a real estate boom. An $80 “token” isn’t a lot for people who have lost everything to Boko Haram, but it’s a start.

Massive oil theft by pirates costs Nigeria $1.5 billion every month

A rescued Panama-flagged Maximus vessel at the Naval dock yard. It was supposed to be a U.S.-led naval training maneuver off the coast of West Africa when real-life drama intervened, with pirates taking over an oil tanker and turning the exercise into a rescue mission. Navies from the United States, Ghana, Togo and Nigeria tracked the hijacked tanker through waters off five countries before Nigerian naval forces stormed aboard Saturday Feb. 20, 2016, amid a shootout that killed one of the pirates. (Photo: Sunday Alamba, AP)
A rescued Panama-flagged Maximus vessel at the Naval dock yard. It was supposed to be a U.S.-led naval training maneuver off the coast of West Africa when real-life drama intervened, with pirates taking over an oil tanker and turning the exercise into a rescue mission. Navies from the United States, Ghana, Togo and Nigeria tracked the hijacked tanker through waters off five countries before Nigerian naval forces stormed aboard Saturday Feb. 20, 2016, amid a shootout that killed one of the pirates.
(Photo: Sunday Alamba, AP)

Irina Slav, OilPrice.com /

Depressed oil prices, rampant corruption, and pipeline vandalism are only parts of Nigeria’s oil problem. It’s now losing a massive 400,000 barrels of crude daily to pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, an amount equal to the entire daily export capacity of its Forcados terminal.

Overall damage from piracy, theft and fraud for Africa’s largest oil exporter is estimated at some $1.5 billion a month, according to U.S. deputy ambassador to the UN, Michele Sison, citing a Chatham House report.

Attempts by local governments and the UN to put a stop to piracy have met with some success, but the practice continues — shifting location and adapting to new security measures, so now the UN Security Council is calling for a comprehensive framework of measures aimed at eradicating it.

Since 2014, says the UN, Gulf of Guinea piracy has increased at an alarming rate.

Two pirate attacks on April 11 affected seven countries. The cargoes came from Nigeria, Turkey and Greece; the ships were flying Maltese and Liberian flags; and the 8 missing crewmen were from the Egypt, the Philippines and Turkey.

In the first quarter of this year alone, there were six recorded pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, and six attempted attacks. Nine of those were off the coast of Nigeria, while one was off the coast of Côte d’Ivoire, and two were within the territorial waters of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Last year, there were 100 similar incidents in the Gulf of Guinea, according to the UK’s ambassador to the UN, Peter Wilson.

Dealing with the pirates requires an international effort, and particularly a coordinated effort by those countries near the Gulf of Guinea. There isn’t much Nigeria can do on its own. Without a major overhaul of intelligence sharing and local law enforcement collaboration and training, the piracy scourge will continue to worsen.

Nigeria has thrown its lot in the fight against pirates, but it has too much on its plate already. Plagued by low oil prices, pipeline vandalism and stalling reforms at its state oil company, the country has more than enough to worry about in addition to losses to pirates.

In March, Nigeria pumped 1.677 million barrels of crude, which was a decline on the previous month’s 1.744 million. According to a Financial Times analysis, the decline is set to continue over the coming years, largely because the reforms at the NNPC, pledged by new president Muhammadu Buhari to tackle long-time corruption and inefficiency, have so far not yielded any actual results.

In addition to dealing with corruption, as part of the reforms, Buhari’s government planned to change the terms of the production-sharing agreements it has with foreign oil companies operating in the country. Oil majors with a Nigerian presence said at the time that such a move could deter investments and ultimately have a negative effect on oil revenues.

All in all, Nigeria has sunk deeper and deeper, and even a continued oil price rally would not be sufficient to prop it up as production continues to decline.

For June, Nigeria plans to export 1.57 million barrels of crude, for instance, compared with 1.6 million barrels scheduled to leave its shores in May. What’s more, its budget for 2016 had envisaged a daily output of 2.2 million barrels—an amount unlikely to be reached in the short-term.

Disputes between the NNPC and foreign oilfield operators are hampering normal output at more than one field. That’s in addition to the growing nervousness among international oil companies regarding Nigeria’s ability to ensure the stability of production and revenue sharing.

Vandals are responsible for an estimated 250,000 barrels in daily losses. Pirates are stealing at a rate of 400,000 barrels per day. That’s a 650,000-barrel shortage on the budgeted daily output. So–barring all conscious effort on the part of the Nigerian government—prices will have to rise more substantially than they have so far this year for Nigeria to feel any positive effect.

One year ago, Buhari promised to change Nigeria

Buhari still has adequate time to turn his fortunes around, but he must be wary of the kind of executive arrogance that undid Jonathan's party and government.
Buhari still has adequate time to turn his fortunes around, but he must be wary of the kind of executive arrogance that undid Jonathan’s party and government.

When Nigerians rouse from sleep on April 1, they will again head for filling stations to join the now de rigueur queues for Premium Motor Spirit.

By Fisayo Soyombo
By Fisayo Soyombo

This is no big news; queueing for hours at petrol stations has been the most recurring item on the itinerary of Nigerians not only for the past month, but also for the third spell in the past three months.

What is news is that when these same people woke up exactly one year ago, the majority of them trooped to the streets in jubilation. Three hours and 47 minutes into that day, opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari was declared president-elect.

But while Nigerians hailed Buhari as a Messiah of sorts, they forgot to remind themselves that no Nigerian leader, democratic or dictatorial, had ever succeeded in delivering socioeconomic prosperity to the masses.

Joy so often short-lived

There was something familiar about the sheer joy that was unleashed on the streets of Nigeria on April 1, 2015.

More than five decades ago, on October 1, 1960, when Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa accepted the symbols of Independence from the Queen of England and cheerily declared that he was “opening a new chapter in the history of Nigeria”, it was to the delight of millions of citizens.

Elites clutched at their radios as devout Catholics would the Rosary, listening as the sonorous voice of Emmanuel Omatsola blared from Race Course, Lagos: Nigeria is a free, sovereign nation. Pupils holidayed; and when they returned to school, they were served unusual rounds of sumptuous meals and handed lovingly petite green-white-green flags.

But for all of Balewa’s education and popularity in international circles, his reputation for championing northern interests did little to foster unity and stability in Nigeria’s delicate multiethnic set-up. Both power and life were taken away from him in a coup six years later.

When Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, after decades of torture at the hands of the military, the scenarios were repeated. Olusegun Obasanjo, a retired soldier who was on the throes of death in prison, was suddenly, miraculously handed democratic power.

Obasanjo had admitted that “the entire Nigerian scene is very bleak indeed, so bleak people ask me: where do we begin?” But he also promised to fight corruption, restore public confidence in governance, build infrastructure. Millions of overjoyed Nigerians believed him – the worst civilian government is better than the best military regime was the popular reasoning at the time.

In his book, This House Has Fallen, published a year into Obasanjo’s presidency, British journalist Karl Maier had written: “The government spends up to half its annual budget on salaries of an estimated two million workers… yet the civil service remains paralysed, with connections and corruption still the fastest way to get anything done. Up to 75 percent of the army’s equipment is broken or missing vital spare parts. The Navy’s 52 admirals and commodores outnumber serviceable ships by a ratio of six to one. The Air Force has 10,000 men but fewer than 20 functioning aircraft.”

Sixteen long years later, it is heartbreaking to see that these are still some of the issues dominating Nigerian political discourse.

Gloom of Buhari’s victory

Caveat: this is not an appraisal of Buhari’s reign – not yet. But some of his first words as president-elect back in 2015 were: “You voted for change and now change has come.”

Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency ended with a biting fuel scarcity that suffering masses felt would accompany Jonathan out of office. On the anniversary of Buhari’s victory, that scarcity they so despised is exactly what they’re grappling with. There are no noticeable improvements in erratic power supply, the unhealthy economy, the dearth of jobs. No “change”, really.

Buhari still has adequate time to turn his fortunes around, but he must be wary of the kind of executive arrogance that undid Jonathan’s party and government.

It is the same type of arrogance that made Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, declare in the face of the ongoing petrol scarcity: “One of the trainings I did not receive was that of a magician.” Only to tell prospective protesters days later: “Save your fuel, I am not going to resign” is dangerous.

That Femi Adesina, Buhari’s spokesman, told Nigerians a day earlier that: “If some people are crying that they are in darkness, they should go and hold those who vandalise the installations” betrays Buhari’s administration’s intolerance of criticism and suggests possible abdication of leadership.

Just in case Buhari has forgotten, in May, when he will have completed a quarter of his term in office, Nigerians will not only be carefully assessing the state of his “change” agenda, they will also be wondering if his party deserves to be retained in 2019.

Fisayo Soyombo edits the Nigerian online newspaper TheCable.

Enugu attacks: Southerners in Nigeria ‘have been targeted for decades’

Fulani militants are believed to carry out attacks mainly in Nigeria and CAR. In Nigeria, they mainly operate in the Middle Belt and attack primarily private citizens to gain control of grazing lands.
Fulani militants are believed to carry out attacks mainly in Nigeria and CAR. In Nigeria, they mainly operate in the Middle Belt and attack primarily private citizens to gain control of grazing lands.

By   | IBT/

Militants have been targeting southerners throughout Nigeria for decades, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Biafran government in exile (BGIE) told IBTimes UK. Emmanuel Enekwechi, head of BGIE since its creation in the US in 2007, made the comments just days after dozens were killed in Enugu state, southeastern Nigeria, amid fears herdsmen from the Fulani ethnic group were behind the atrocity.

The killings occurred at a time when attacks attributed to Fulani militants are on the rise in Nigeria, where pro-Biafran secessionist groups have accused the Fulani herdsmen of targeting Christians and southerners in a bid to “Islamise the Christian-dominated region”.

“We don’t have the details yet, of what happened in Enugu, but for my experience, thousands and thousands of Biafans [who inhabit southeastern Nigeria] have been massacred in the north,” Enekwechi said. “A very large percentage of Biafrans living in the north relocated to their homeland, but even then, you can see they are still being pursued and killed.”

Ending attacks by herdsmen a national priority

President Buhari condemned the attack in Enugu and called on security forces to bring perpetrators to justice. “Ending the recent upsurge of attacks on communities by herdsmen reportedly armed with sophisticated weapons is now a priority on the Buhari Administration’s agenda for enhanced national security and the Armed Forces and Police have clear instructions to take all necessary action to stop the carnage,” Buhari’s spokeperson, Femi Adesina, said in a statement.

“The President urges all Nigerians to remain calm and assured of his administration’s readiness to deploy all required personnel and resources to remove this new threat to the collective security of the nation,” he continued.

The killings occurred at a time when attacks attributed to Fulani militants are on the rise in Nigeria, where pro-Biafran secessionist groups have accused the Fulani herdsmen of targeting Christians and southerners in a bid to "Islamise the Christian-dominated region".
The killings occurred at a time when attacks attributed to Fulani militants are on the rise in Nigeria, where pro-Biafran secessionist groups have accused the Fulani herdsmen of targeting Christians and southerners in a bid to “Islamise the Christian-dominated region”.

Not a sectarian conflict

Framing the Enugu and similar attacks as a sectarian conflict could further deepen violence, David Otto, CEO of UK-based global security provider TGS Intelligence Consultants, told IBTimes UK.

It is not impossible for Fulani herdsmen to infiltrate Enugu to retaliate or defend their nomadic lifestyle and their cattle, but the danger lies in framing these attacks by so-called ‘Hausa Fulani herdsmen’ under sectarian terms or targeted killings against Christians or Biafrans, amounting to genocide attempts or ethnic cleansing,” he said.

“It will only add fuel to the situation. These types of violent land disputes have existed for decades – caused primarily by the mere lifestyle of Fulani Nomads and their grazing land in the Sahel region. The disputes have increasingly become worse because of the current land degradation in the Lake Chad region, forcing migration of Nomads with their cattle from the North to the Middle Belt regions. It is not uncommon for individuals, politicians, criminal groups or Islamic movements like Boko Haram to take advantage of the situation to achieve their own goals.”

Nigeria’s new start is in danger of derailing – Financial Times

President Muhammadu Buhari submits his budget for 2016 to the Senate chamber (file photo)
President Muhammadu Buhari submits his budget for 2016 to the Senate chamber (file photo)

Nigeria’s journey from bankrupt, pariah state to Africa’s largest economy helped to fuel a surge in optimism about the continent over the past 15 years. Now there is a danger that its latest troubles will trigger a bout of despair. As one seasoned investor puts it: “Nigeria, with help from South Africa, is killing the African story.”

Part of that story was hyperbole — notably the broad-based nature of the continent’s revival. While there was a boom in services, investment flows and an expansion of the middle class, growth in many states was largely jobless, and underpinned by soaring world prices for commodity exports. This was especially true in Nigeria, which still depends on crude oil for more than 90 per cent of hard currency earnings and typically around two-thirds of state revenues.

Since the fall in oil prices, the cracks in Nigeria’s economy have quickly reappeared. Starved of fuel, electricity and foreign exchange the economy is grinding to a halt. Businesses are laying off staff in droves.

In turn, confidence in President Muhammadu Buhari, elected a year ago on a wave of hope, is evaporating. There are no easy answers to the dilemmas his government faces. Many were in the making long before he won elections, promising to crush corruption, invest in infrastructure and create jobs.

The challenge is exemplified by the fuel crisis — the worst in living memory. Because state-owned refineries have been mismanaged for so long, Nigeria relies on imports of fuel. This is one reason Mr Buhari is so reluctant to devalue the naira currency — fixed at an unrealistic level against the dollar, which does not fluctuate with Nigeria’s changing fortunes. The resulting distortions have eroded the commercial case for importing fuel and created a gaping spread between parallel and official exchange rates that encourages the very corruption Mr Buhari has vowed to stop.

Devaluation would be no panacea. It would hasten the depletion of foreign reserves and push up the pump price of petrol, unless government resumes paying subsidies it can ill-afford. The elimination of the subsidy might, on the other hand, trigger riots.

It is a tough choice and an even tougher political environment to make it in. Nigerians are impatient for the gains they voted for and have little appetite for further pain. Mr Buhari squandered an opportunity to act early on when he enjoyed the goodwill of the public. But the painful measures required to set Nigeria’s economy on a sustainable growth path become no more palatable the longer he delays.

Without investment Nigeria will neither continue growing nor diversify from its crippling dependency on oil. Yet no investor will put money into an economy at one exchange rate, knowing that to take it out again might require losing a third of its dollar value.

This week, China has offered help with a currency swap, and the promise of $6bn in infrastructure loans. The terms of these deals are not yet clear. But they could go some way towards plugging an $11bn budget deficit. The danger is that, together with the modest recent rise in oil prices, China’s help will encourage Mr Buhari to defer the tough decisions once again.

The president wants to eliminate the wasteful patronage on which venal elites have thrived and create an economy more dynamic in creating jobs for the masses. These are laudable long-term aims for which his government has yet to articulate a convincing strategy. In the meantime, however, the short term is pressing. No economy can survive without fuel, electricity or foreign exchange.

Chart shows Nigerian President’s Gasoline Price Fix Isn’t Working

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Paul Wallace   |  Bloomberg

President Muhammadu Buhari insists that removing a price cap on gasoline, which usually requires costly subsidies, would only hurt Nigerians. But they are already paying more since his government can’t police the system and most marketers, struggling to import refined fuel amid a shortage of dollars, are passing on higher costs to customers. While pump prices are meant to be 87 naira a liter (or $1.69 a gallon), they rose to 135.69 naira a liter in March, the highest level since the country’s National Bureau of Statistics began compiling such data in June 2014.

Uncertainties over President Buhari’s secret alliance with radical Islamic leaders

Guardian News | Houston, TX

Nigerian President Muhammad Buhari 0n, November 23, 2015 met with the Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in Tehran, Iran.
Nigerian President Muhammad Buhari November 23, 2015 met with the Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in Tehran, Iran.

There are ambiguities over a speculated secret collaboration of Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, with unspecified major Muslim leaders to make Nigeria a major Islamist state. International Guardian sources reveal that Buhari’s 2011 and a part of 2014 presidential run were actually sponsored by some radical Muslim leaders who were guaranteed of Buhari’s victory and promised that Nigeria would be delivered to their fraternity in his tenure.

An aide who recently defected from the All Progressive Congress, and who worked directly with some Muslim leaders in Africa and Middle East to negotiate  support of Buhari’s campaign told our newsroom on strict anonymity that he was deceived into such mission, and that he was not briefed properly. “My impression was to raise fund – only to find out later that there were other deals made behind closed doors that I cannot just talk about now.”

It may be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari’s first practical foreign diplomatic move after his inauguration in April 2015 was  to grant a visa to a fleeing ‘ISIS Emir’, and a Lebanese fugitive, Ahmad al-Assir who was later arrested at the airport. He had changed his appearance by shaving his beards, and was trying to escape to Nigeria through Cairo with fake Palestinian travel document that had a valid visa, according to the Lebanese authorities. His arranged Nigeria’s escape swiftly raised questions about a possible collaboration of Assir with the Nigeria’s new regime.

Furthermore, in November, President  Buhari had visited Iran to attend the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), but according to the defected aide, it was actually an appreciation visit as well as a brainstorming meeting on how both countries could collaborate on  similar sectarian structures. Guardian gathered that Iran’s former President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who left office in 2013 was the one who initiated Buhari’s support in 2011 in a race that claimed hundreds of lives in sectarian violence following Buhari’s loss.

A Nigerian visa was granted to this fleeing ‘ISIS Emir’, and a Lebanese fugitive, Ahmad al-Assir. He was later arrested at the airport.
A Nigerian visa was granted to this fleeing ‘ISIS Emir’, and a Lebanese fugitive, Ahmad al-Assir. He was later arrested at the airport.

Buhari’s romance with Iran unfortunately hit a major snag when he accepted the invitation of the King, Salman Bin-Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia and that of the Ruler of Qatar, Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, both who allegedly supported his race against Jonathan. He secretly enrolled Nigeria in Saudi’s led coalition of Muslim countries against terrorism, denying such engagement. Months later, he finally admitted joining the partnership in an interview with Aljazeera, claiming “We are part of it because we have got terrorists in Nigeria that everybody knows, which claims that they are Islamic.”

Buhari in Saudi Arabia.... he accepted the invitation of the King, Salman Bin-Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia and that of the Ruler of Qatar, Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, both who allegedly supported his race against Jonathan.
Buhari in Saudi Arabia…. he accepted the invitation of the King, Salman Bin-Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia and that of the Ruler of Qatar, Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, both who allegedly supported his race against Jonathan.

Arab countries such as Qatar and the UAE indicated interests in the coalition, as well as Middle Eastern, Asian and African states including Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia and Nigeria. Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran and its allies Syria and Iraq were excluded from the alliance, despite the states sharing a common enemy in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Khamenei also lost interest with Buhari after the Nigerian military launched an attack on a Shia Muslim group in one of the country’s northern city, killing numerous members, and brutally arresting the spiritual leader Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife. Iran quickly issued a strong warning to Nigeria to release Shi’ite cleric and leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zazaky. Iran was at the time involved in a diplomatic brawl with Saudi Arabia following the execution of another renowned Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr,

The Nigerian Army Confirms a brutal arrest of this Shia Leader, Sheikh Zakzaky.
The Nigerian Army Confirms a brutal arrest of this Shia Leader, Sheikh Zakzaky.

Our newsroom reliably gathered that some Muslim countries which initially indicated interest in working with president Buhari are now slowing down to weigh options over Buhari’s inconsistency with foreign policy. “I believe they are still weighing his loyalty. He is not focused, and don’t seem to understand what foreign relations is all about. Muslim countries are a different politics, and trust is the key. He doesn’t seem to be trusted,” a former diplomat with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

arrives mecca
President Muhammadu Buhari prays in Medina in Saudi Arabia.

One of the Muslim countries solidly behind Buhari’s campaign is Morocco. “I know that some representatives from the campaign had a meeting with the regime during election, but I cannot speak on that issue,” an aide had confirmed to the Guardian during then election period in 2015. It may be recalled that the Moroccan monarch, King Mohammed VI rejected a request from the then President Goodluck Jonathan for a telephone conversation, saying it was an “inappropriate” move by the Nigerian leader to curry electoral favor just weeks before a crucial poll. A row thus erupted between both countries and resulted to Morocco’s recall of its ambassador to Nigeria.

After Buhari’s inauguration, however, the Moroccan Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Mostafa Bouh met with Buhari assuring that his country was ready for a renewed relationship with Nigeria. “The new relations is for the good of both Morocco and Nigeria. I am here to give the President- elect a message from the King of Morocco. The message is for greetings and best wishes from Moroccan people.”

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