Editorial

IN a related editorial last week, we drew attention to some of the utterances of Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, in which he downplayed the horrific devastation of human, plant and animal life caused by gas flaring in the Niger Delta. We warned that what is at stake is how to avert a looming catastrophe that cannot possibly wait for the Minister's proposed long-term solutions.

When I was on postgraduate study at the University of Ibadan in 1991, in line with my tradition, in the evening, I would go to The Seat of Wisdom Chapel to pray to close the day which began with morning Mass. Often, after praying, I would hang around the Church premises to savour the campus greenish scenery and the up and down movement of students.

"Ha. How time flies.. Another year don dey end be dat o." "You sound surprised. When a year starts, it must end. Me I no dey too worry myself about dat kin tin." "It was a tough year. But not quite what you will call annus mirabilis." "Anus mirabilis" "That was how the Queen of England described the year 1999." "An-us mirabilis. Every year in Nigeria is an-us mirabilis, my friend, if you understand what I mean. I can't remember when last a year ended in this country and the people had cause to celebrate. Na lie. Na so so gnashing of teeth. It is a miracle that we are alive"    

There seems to be no end in sight to the battered image Nigeria has suffered internationally with the release of another stereotype commercial in the United States targeting our country's infamous advanced fee fraud industry known as 419. The present commercials play on our Nigeria's perceived international reputation as scammers' haven. The commercial, released this week by Identity Guard, a United States Company safeguarding internet users in the US against online identity theft and currently playing on CBS, a frontline US television broadcast is also being circulated on the internet especially on You tube and other international television network.    

The Minister of Mines and Solid Minerals Development, Mrs Dieziani Alison -Madueke was in Beijing China recently where she addressed an Investment Forum and announced that the Government of Nigeria has approved a three-year tax holiday for new companies in the Solid Minerals sector. The companies are to commence payment of income taxes after three years beginning with accumulated tax liabilities of those previous three years. She also announced to that audience the reduction of company income tax from 35% to 30% and capital gains tax from 20% to 10%. Other incentives, according to the Minister, include import duty exemption on mining equipment and regularised repatriation of foreign capital.

  THE state of Nigeria's highways and the security of people and materials moved along them give cause for concern. The nature of deficiency and the extent of deterioration of these roads include, among others, unfilled pot-holes, flooded segments due to poor drainage, gutters and erosion damage and overgrown shrubs that block the view of motorists. The consequences range from accidents (some fatal), damage to vehicles (some irreparable), the loss of goods, traffic hold-ups and loss of man-hours in traffic hold-up. This also leads to a decline in the gross domestic product with a shrinking job market even as the contaminating effect of a deleterious global economy due to the on-going global financial meltdown takes its toll. This is not to mention the untold frustration caused by long hours spent in traffic hold-up and the consequent rise in blood pressure of sufferers, in some cases bringing about sudden death.