This is the full video of Nigeria’s Vice Presidential debate which featured Vice President Osinbajo (APC) and former governor Peter Obi (PDP) among others. The debate took place yesterday.
https://youtu.be/_x83URSBUpE
Calling for Butiku – the Buhari and Atiku Debate; Jan 19 2019
Good morning Nigeria – the Vice Presidential debate which took place yesterday was solid. Now, we need to ask Mr. President (Buhari, the APC flagbearer) to confirm to debate Mr. Atiku (PDP flagbearer) on January 19. While debate is not overly correlated with capacity to offer good governance, yet it forces leaders to learn things and understand things they might not have bothered.
So, the only way to get them to spend time thinking about us (the people) and the economy is to ask them to debate. When that happens, they at least spend time to know Nigeria before they arrive in their duty posts.
To the three men, and two women on the podium yesterday, well done. Now, Jan 19th needs to happen. I want to watch Buhari and Atiku debate: Butiku.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, said on Friday night that he was keenly looking forward to next month’s presidential debate, moments after watching the vice-presidential debate in Abuja.
Mr Abubakar expressed satisfaction with the showing of his running mate, Peter Obi, at the vice-presidential debate at Transcorp Hilton Hotels.
“I watched with pride as Peter Obi laid out our vision to get Nigeria working again,” Mr Abubakar said on Twitter, adding that he cannot “wait for the presidential debate.”
Mr Obi sparred with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and three other running mates in the five-person debate last night, focused mainly on the economy for about two and a half hours.
Mr Obi was widely praised for demonstrating a good grasp of statistics, and Mr Osinbajo received commendations for his ability to focus on what his government had done as against what the PDP did in its 16 years in power from 1999 to 2015.
Although the debate organisers said last week they expected President Muhammadu Buhari to participate at the presidential debate on January 19, there has been no commitment from the president.
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Butiku? A very tall order, at the moment, just a dream. Buhari handlers would give more reasons why their principal may not be there, and less about why he should be there. Unfortunately, most of the electorates that could decide the election don’t watch TV often, let alone debates. So when you hear some politicians speaking very arrogantly about how they will beat the other party merciless, they know how the game is played.
Again, something curious happened, with respect to the other three vice presidential candidates; going by their performances, I am sorry to note that Nigeria doesn’t have any viable alternative to APC and PDP, at the moment, that’s just the reality for now.
But to shake the table small, it could be spectacular to have Obi and Osinbajo as presidential candidates, but this is Nigeria, where dreams are more precious than gold. We are down, but rather than looking up, we are looking for shovel and digger to dig deeper, and then remain in the hole…
Mr Buhari, over to you… Jan. 19!
My Interview with United Nations Environment – Ndubuisi Ekekwe
The United Nations Environment has run an interview I granted the global institution few days ago. The focus was measuring the earth to save the earth: yes, with precision agriculture we can at least understand what is happening to soils we farm.
For Ndubuisi Ekekwe, Nigerian founder of precision farming startup Zenvus, African farming must change because traditional practices keep many farmers trapped in a cycle of poverty.
“What we have been doing for generations has not worked so now there needs to be a paradigm shift to try something new that can turn farmers into business people rather than custodians of ancestral history and ancestral norms and dogmas,” he said.
“What will drive that change are new techniques, new procedures and new processes. We believe that precision farming is the separation between what was in the past and what we believe is going to be the future.”
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For Ekekwe, data is the key to success and represents the real value of precision farming.
“The reason we are destroying this earth is because no one is even measuring anything,” he said. “What precision agriculture is really doing is saying, ‘at least, let’s know what is going on’.”
Why Nigeria Needs Tax Innovation to Save Our Schools
When you finish from a Nigerian university, within months you are history. In top U.S. universities, they never forget: from helping you get discounts on insurance to better deals with car dealers, they keep supporting. I got this from my alma mater – it wants me to save on insurance, and they know that renewal comes in days!
And once in a while, they ask for a change. Yes, you can put in an envelope anything you can afford. And within weeks, they send you a document to help you deduct it during tax filing.
Simply, the universities thrive because the U.S. tax system motivates people to actually give. I have proposed that ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) can avoid incessant strikes if government can reform our tax system. That would push companies and people to become more generous to our schools.
Donation money given to schools is tax deductible because the schools are tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Service tax code. This is the key reason. If Apple or GM were to do the training in-house, the tax benefits will not materialize. They will still train the young people, but they cannot deduct that money. But by giving the money to colleges, they get the trained people and still get the deductions. This makes it easier when you need scale, beyond what you can have inside as staff for talent pipeline.
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The Nigerian tax system is not designed to support philanthropy. That is why we do not have a vibrant one. It does not mean that a nation must be rich first before its tax system can be engineered to stimulate philanthropy. ASUU can lead on that, through Tax Reform, and make it possible for individuals and companies to put money in the schools and get tax benefits. Sure, ASUU members may be busy, but that should not stop them from helping the government to revamp our tax codes to drive innovation.
Think about it: if Dangote Group gives Kano State University $1million today, it is largely pure business expense. But in U.S., that $1 million could technically save Dangote Group money if done smartly since it can deduct it thereby reducing its total business tax obligations. The implication is that people and companies give not just because they like giving but because you can use one stone to kill two birds: you do well, you also get well.
Nigeria needs tax reforms that would help education.
Central Bank of Nigeria Explains MTN, Bank Repatriation Fines with Timelines
We sincerely apologize to the Central Bank of Nigeria for our comments when the bank imposed fines on MTN and some banks over some foreign transfer transactions.
Yes, MTN Nigeria has another issue: now, it is coming from the Central Bank of Nigeria. The bank asked it yesterday to refund $8.13B (with B) which the apex bank said the mobile giant (allegedly) illegally repatriated. This is the CBN Letter to MTN (MTN-Letter-of-outcome-of-investigation).
Contrary to the statements from some of the entities, CBN actually gave them notices to defend themselves before going public.
He said a one-week deadline for MTN and the banks to reconcile their records and report back to the committee was not met. A fresh deadline also stretched to almost two months without the documents.
“At this point, we (CBN) could not wait endlessly for them. That is why we released the report to the public and imposed various sanctions totaling N5.87bn against the banks,” Mr Emefiele told PREMIUM TIMES.
“What CBN sought was a reversal of the transactions by MTN and return of the funds, because they were not finally authorised by the CBN, and follow due procedures in funds repatriation,” Mr Emefiele explained.
It is fake news to claim you woke up and read the fines on pages of newspapers when you had been given up to 2 months to come clean. I am truly disappointed that companies could manipulate words so devilishly.
From America to UK, everyone has been lambasting the CBN. But looking at the timelines, the banks and MTN had opportunities to have kept this saga private. But when they chose not, CBN went public. There was no malice on that as Nigeria is bigger than any company that operates in Nigeria. Personally, I apologize for accusing CBN of not showing tact to public companies.