The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently shocked many Nigerians when its National Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, unfolded a 36-year electoral timetable which will cover all elections the Commission will conduct till 2055. It came in the midst of the ongoing dispute with the National Assembly over its 2019 general election timetable.

The INEC timetable had indicated that the Federal elections (Presidential and National Assembly) would take place on 16th February 2019 while the State polls (Governorship and State Houses of Assembly) would hold on 2nd March 2019. But the National Assembly while not altering the dates published by the INEC, amended the Electoral Act putting the National Assembly election first and the presidential poll last.

INEC’s publication of the long-term poll calendar in which the presidential election will come first is obviously an affirmation of its self-assumed power to fix the dates and sequence of elections without “interference” from the National Assembly even in the near future. It runs against the grain of the National Assembly’s own self-assumption that it has the power under the constitution to amend the electoral laws including the electoral sequences.

It is our strong belief that whenever there is a dispute between the National Assembly and the Executive Branch or any of its departments, agencies or commissions (of which the INEC is one) the Supreme Court should quickly be approached to resolve it. That is the role the constitution assigns to the Judiciary. Self-help of any sort, apart from smacking of impunity, could precipitate a constitutional crisis that could derail the 2019 elections.

In the matter of the 36-year timetable, the INEC Chairman put federal elections on the 3rd of February and State polls two weeks later on the election years. He believes that it will put to rest any uncertainty about the dates and sequences of future polls. He attributed this adoption to “best practices” in advanced democracies. This again, is a decision that should not be arbitrarily taken by any single body. There must be broad-based dialogue over it, and any decision to adopt this tradition must be reflected in our constitution. 

Even the United States which adopted “Tuesday after the first Monday in November” made that decision based on its economic, cultural and religious realities as an agrarian society. Today, arguments are building up in favour of a pragmatic attitude to election dates as the American society has changed drastically since 1845 when the decision for a fixed date for the general elections was taken.

Besides, the Electoral Act has always been tinkered with in every transitional period to accommodate new developments in the polity. If we are to adopt fixed dates for our general elections it is not the INEC or National Assembly alone that should make the decision. It is a matter for constitution amendment.

Vanguard

The Kremlin on Thursday termed Britain’s raft of punitive measures against Russia on the alleged nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent “absolutely irresponsible.”

“The position of the British side appears to us absolutely irresponsible,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

He added that Mr. Putin’s retaliatory steps would soon follow and he will choose the option that “most suits Russia’s interests.”

On Wednesday, Britain said it would expel 23 diplomats and suspend high-level contacts with Russia, with other measures to follow.

The announcement came after British authorities said Russia was “culpable” of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a Soviet-designed nerve agent called Novichok on March 4.

Mr. Peskov reiterated Moscow's position that Britain's accusations were unfounded and that the attack on Mr. Skripal had “all the signs of a provocation.”

“The accusations are not backed up by anything and have been voiced before any information about the used substance could appear,” Mr. Peskov said.

AFP

Recently, as part of measures to address infrastructure deficits and shore up its revenue base,  the Lagos State government came up with an amended Land Use Charge Law which imposes various charges on house owners in the state. No doubt, the ambitious plan of the government to make Lagos a mega city must come with a number of fundamental challenges. These challenges require pragmatic measures to tackle. The state has to create an enabling environment to boost local and foreign investments and generate funds for service delivery and good governance. As the nation’s economic hub, Lagos perhaps suffers most from the decades of inept political leadership in the country. Seamless rural-urban migration puts undue pressure on infrastructure, and any dislocation in its temperature tends to result in a societal disequilibrium in the country as a whole. However, in the quest to attain the ultimate goal of a mega-city, the government can ill-afford to discountenance the welfare of the majority of the citizens and other stakeholders who, right now, are up in arms against it over the new law.

However, because of the outrageous charges imposed on home-owners, the move has been greeted with public outcry in the state. By any standards, the fact that critical stakeholders like the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN), the organised labour and professional bodies such as the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) are currently remonstrating against the law means that there is a need for further engagement among all the interested parties in the state. This point was aptly captured by the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) in its reaction to the new law. According to the organisation, the lawshould havee been anchored on the basic principles of taxation, meaning that the government should have concluded the valuation exercise before adjusting assessment figures.

NIESV asked the government to undertake an upward review of the relief rates to accommodate provision for maintenance of cost and review the charge rate  to take cognisance of rental trends. It also asked the government to produce a Valuation List in each local government area for the public to see. Given the foregoing, there are valid grounds for believing that the opportunity for people to make meaningful inputs before the 2001 law was reviewed was not fully harnessed, thus giving leverage to those insinuating that the whole process was predetermined.

From the general complaints and objections to the law and the response of the state government, it is clear that the bone of contention remains the percentage of increase, which many perceive as arbitrary and anti-people. Some have also said the law undermines the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in seeking to deprive local governments of their primary role, especially in revenue generation for their upkeep and sustenance. Opposition to the law is also premised on time-tested economic theories on inflationary trends, as both property owners and tenants will bear the domino effects of the new law. Aggrieved stakeholders believe that the tax would lead to increase in the general cost of living, especially as it affects food, transportation and accommodation and could compound the existing challenge of job losses and general insecurity

While the state government must not deviate from the social contract it signed with the electorate, those agitating against the LUC should accept the olive branch offered by it for dialogue. The law cannot be said to be cast in iron, and it is salutary that the government is willing and ready to engage all stakeholders on the grey areas in it. The government, we believe, appreciates the imperative of peace and stability in consolidating growth and development. It will thus be preposterous to create a climate capable of driving away investors and compounding the pains of the impoverished citizens, especially workers.  High net worth property owners and companies, in trying to evolve coping strategies, are bound to transfer the effects of a harsh tax policy to workers. The obvious communication gap that has resulted in the current impasse should be tackled. The issues should be resolved amicably and without further delay.

Tribune

Before commencing on his recent five-nation African tour, sacked U.S Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson delivered a lecture at George Mason University, Virginia on the outline of the vision and issues of Africa-U.S cooperation.

Among many other issues, he admitted that “Chinese investment does have the potential to address Africa’s infrastructure gap,” but added a curious caveat that “its (China) approach has led to mounting debt and few, if any jobs in most countries”.  Not only does this fly in the face of reality but leaves one wondering if Tillerson was adequately briefed on issues of China-Africa cooperation.

In June 2017, a prestigious U.S –based global managment consulting firm, Mckinsey&co issued a report of its elaborate filed research on China/Africa with a title of “Dance of the Lion and Dragons: How are Africa and China emerging, and how will the partnership evolve?”

 On page 40 of the highly rated report,it observed that “a walk through China factory or construction site almost anywhere in Africa will confirm what our research finds,” that “Chinese enterprises overwhelmingly employ local workers. At the more than 1,000 companies we surveyed, 89 percent employees were African, adding up to more than 300, 000 jobs for African workers. Scaled up across the more than 10,000 Chinese firms in Africa, these numbers suggest that Chinese-owned business employ several million Africans.”                                                           

Continuing, the report said “private companies and SOEs across industries in the eight countries we studied had majority-local workers. In trade, for example, the workforce is 82 percent African, in manufacturing, its 95 percent African, and comparing public and private enterprises, SOEs employ an 81 percent African workforce, and private enterprises employ a 92 percent African workforce.”

According to Mckinsey&Co, “the reason for the bias toward local labour is not hard to understand; employing Africans leads to lower overall cost,” and referring to one Chinese construction company supervisor it interviewed, the report quoted as saying that “even though Chinese workers tend to be more productive, it is now five times more expensive to bring a Chinese worker to Africa than it is to hire locally.”

This report of a foremost and prestigious American consulting management firm would not have escaped the attention of the meticulous and intelligent Tillerson, and his horde of advisers in the U.S state department. For why Tillerson chooses to disparage facts in favour of ideological hankerings is best known to the former oilman who is not at all, a stranger to Africa in his “former life,” as he put it at the George Mason University speech.

 Hawking outright lies to tarnish China-Africa cooperation is not new and hardly makes any impression in Africa. In 1991, a former U.S deputy assistant Secretary of State for human rights in a New York Times report accused China of using convict labour in the Republic of Benin and later it was picked up by the British Daily Mail report in 2008. Without any foundation in fact, the report was a sheer fabrication and evidently did not harm soaring China-Africa relations.

As he sees it, Africa by the year, 2030, will represent about one-quarter of the world’s workforce. And by the year 2050, the population of the continent is expected to double to more than 2.5 billion people – with 70% of them under the age of 30.” And secondly, according to him, Africa is experiencing significant growth. The world bank estimates that six of the ten fastest growing economies in the world this year will be African,” and narrowing it down to Nigeria, Tillerson said that “for context, by the year 2050, Nigeria will have a population larger than the United States and an economy larger than Australia’s,” and added that “to understand where the world is going, one must understand that Africa is a significant part of the future.

African countries will factor more and more into numerous global security and development challenges, as well as expansive opportunities for economic growth and influence.”

The Nigerian leader warned then, that “for too long has it been presumed that the African needs outside “experts” to tell him who are his friends and who are his enemies,” and affirmed that “the time has come when we should make it clear that we can decide for our self, that we know our own interests and how to protect those interests; that we are capable of resolving African problems without presumptuous lessons in ideological dangers, which, more often than not have no relevance for us, nor for the problem at hand.” Tillerson’s anti-China rhetoric is more likely to meet the same fate as former President Gerald Ford’s in 1976.

The fact is that Africa is open to partnership with any country or region in the world that shows respect to her. China-Africa relations is not perfect but is working and delivering tangible results. It is a work in progress and has established a mechanism for routine consultations and dialogue.

Through the mechanism of dialogue and consultation, instituted in the Forum on China-African Cooperation (FOCAC) both sides express their concerns and work through consultation and consensus to drive a process of mutual benefits and win-win cooperation.

China has also offered another meaningful platform and mechanism, the Belt and Road International Cooperation to engage global development and build a community of shared future for all mankind. The United States with her numerous advantages of a super-power, can leverage the Belt and Road mechanism to deepen her engagement to the core global developmental issues which are of concern to Africa, but whose neglect are the reasons for the security concerns which Washington seems perennially obsessed.

On the occasion of the Tillerson’s visit to Africa, Washington should burnish its solid Africa credentials afterall, it has a sizeable population of Africa-origin and engage more usefully in sectors that are mutually productive and meaningful to both sides. 

Former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak has admitted receiving US$100,000 from the state spy agency while still in office, reports said Thursday (Mar 15), after he faced a marathon interrogation by prosecutors over corruption allegations.

Lee returned home on Thursday after lengthy questioning as he became the last of the country’s living ex-leaders to be embroiled in a criminal inquiry.

He denied most corruption charges but admitted taking the off-book funds from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) via a presidential aide, Yonhap news agency said, citing a prosecution official.

Allegations of graft involving the conservative 76-year-old’s relatives and aides during his term have mounted in recent weeks as prosecutors investigate multiple cases of bribery amounting to millions of dollars.

The probe means that all four living former South Korean presidents have been convicted, charged, or investigated for criminal offences.

Lee spent more than 21 hours at the prosecutors’ office in Seoul from Wednesday morning, and did not reply to questions from journalists outside as he left.

“President Lee denied most of the charges,” the prosecutor was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.

“But he accepted some facts. For example, he acknowledges the fact that he received US$100,000 (106 million won) of the (1.7 billion won of secret) funds” Lee allegedly pocketed from the NIS, the prosecutor told Yonhap.

The news agency added that Lee refused to explain what he did with the US$100,000. He denies receiving the rest of the money.

A prosecution official contacted by AFP declined to comment on the report.

One of Lee’s former aides Kim Hee-joong has told the Hankook Ilbo daily that he himself delivered the US$100,000 to Lee’s wife in 2011 when Lee visited the United States.

Lee, who was head of state from 2008 to 2013, has previously denounced the inquiry as “political revenge” and said on Wednesday he hoped it would be the “last time in history” that a South Korean ex-leader was summoned for questioning by prosecutors.

“As a former president, I have a lot to say about this but I will spare my words,” he told reporters when he arrived for the interrogation.

Prosecutors are thought likely to ask a court for an arrest warrant for Lee in the coming days.

The allegations against Lee include claims that the Samsung Group bought a presidential pardon in 2009 for its chairman Lee Kun-hee, who had been convicted of tax evasion and given a suspended jail sentence.

Both Samsung and Lee have denied the allegations as groundless.

In addition to allegedly pocketing 1.7 billion won from the NIS, he is accused of receiving 400 million won in bribes from a lawmaker and embezzling millions of dollars from DAS, an auto parts company he is said to own under the names of his relatives.

South Korean presidents have a tendency to end up in prison – or meet untimely ends – after their time in power, usually once their political rivals have moved into the presidential Blue House.

Conservative Park Geun-hye was ousted last year over a massive corruption scandal that emerged in 2016, and the verdict in her bribery and abuse of power trial is due next month, with prosecutors demanding 30 years in jail.

Lee’s own predecessor, the liberal Roh Moo-hyun, committed suicide by jumping off a cliff after being questioned over corruption allegations in 2009.

After the South embraced democracy in the 1990s former dictator Chun Doo-hwan and his friend and successor Roh Tae-woo were handed sentences of death and life imprisonment respectively for their involvement in a 1979 military coup and for receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes from businesses.

Both their sentences were reduced on appeal, and they were eventually pardoned and released after serving about two years each.

ChannelNewsAsia

Recently, the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NEC) met in Abuja and gave party executives a life line for one year, which will expire by June, 2019. But Chief Edet Etim, the APC leader for Akwa Ibom and Cross River States in Lagos State, describes the action as unacceptable and unconstitutional.

What is your take on the tenure elongation granted to APC party executives across board?

It is a surprise to me. As a bonafide party member who has suffered along with others to build the party to a level of national reckoning, I frown against this developments and I am sure, majority of our party faithful and indeed Nigerians who are keen in the development of our democracy are not in support of this decision.

To be very honest with you, this is not the type of change we promised Nigerians. But I am sure President Muhammadu Buhari and our national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu have genuine intention for the people of Nigeria but the cabals are bent on tarnishing the image of the party most especially those that defected from other parties to join APC. They are the ones taking major decisions now and their actions are affecting the running of the party and the national government.

Is there a way out for this?

I want to use this medium to advise the national leader of the party and the president to reconsider the decision and call for the need to conduct the national congress to elect party executives from the wards to the national level so as to elect fresh leaders that will take the party to greater heights. I want them to disband the cabal and not impose them on the majority of our party faithful.

These cabals do not know what is happening in the wards, chapters and states level. Therefore, there is the need to inject fresh blood into the leadership of the party, which is very imperative so that it will not be difficult for us during election time and campaigns. Let them know that it is the grassroots that suffer for the party as foot-soldiers and not the Abuja cabals. Let them look beyond Abuja cabals and see how the genuine members can be integrated for optimum result during elections. The cabal are selfish and think of themselves only.

Should Buhari reshuffle his cabinet too?

Yes, it should be noted that during the Obasanjo and Jonathan regimes, cabinet reshuffle was a regular exercise, sometimes two or three times before the expiration of a term. But the APC federal government has not reshuffled since the appointment of the present cabinet members. It is unfortunate that some of the ministers still in the cabinet are openly being accused by Nigerians as being corrupt. These set of persons by now should have been shown the way out and probe for corrupt practices by relevant institutions of the government.

The current fuel scarcity has dragged on for several months, what do you think should be done to avoid future occurrence?

I am convinced of the ability of our national leader to deliver on the assigned responsibility and we are indeed very lucky to have chosen him for the job. I want to appeal to him to visit Akwa Ibom State that is currently embroiled in party crises with factions now in litigation at the federal high court in the state.

In my interview with your reporter published in the Daily Sun of 24th February, 2018, I did say the then ACN during the 2011 general elections won the Uyo House of Assembly seat and the federal House of Representatives even when the national government was controlled by the PDP with Ebele Jonathan as the President and Godswill Akpabio as the governor. But with the defectors from other political parties especially from PDP to APC, the party could not even win a councillor seat in subsequent elections.

That really exposed the bad intentions of the defectors to our great party. It is a well-known fact that a child brought from outside by a woman to her new husband is always the problem of the family. Let us beware. But I can assure you that if the reconciliation committee is going to do a nice job in Akwa Ibom and put our house in order, we will definitely win the 2019 election.

Sun

It is a good idea that the Senate President, Dr. Olusola Saraki, has sent the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on Security to travel to Zamfara and investigate the recent killings in that State. The attacks on Birane Village in Zumi Local Government Area are widely reported to have claimed more than 40 lives.

The Senate President explained that the investigation became necessary to assess the extent of the killings and the Committee should report back to the Senate plenary this week.  Senator Kabiru Marafa, who represents Zamfara Central constituency and was instrumental to the investigation had called for on-the-spot assessment.  He had earlier raised an alarm over the seemingly endless spate of killings and other kinds of criminal activities in Zamfara State.

The Ad Hoc Committee on Security was the Senate’s idea of an organ through which it can review the security structure of the country and assess how well the system is working.  It is chaired by the Majority Leader, Senator Ahmed Lawan.  We appreciate the Senate’s concern although it appears like a decision that came too late. 

We urge the Senate Security Committee to see their assignment in Zamfara State as just the beginning because the bloodshed in the land has become a daily scourge, and it is not confined to the North Central or North East regions. 

As late as March 12, Fulani herdsmen were reported to have brutally murdered four men in Enyanwuigwe Village in Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State and gravely injured two others forcing Governor Dave Umahi to predict a national war unless the Federal Government ends the killings as a matter of urgency.  The governor had invited the leaders of the Myetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria over the carnage and reminded them that the Izzi people were famed warriors. He also stressed that he has been suppressing the Izzi community’s urge for a reprisal.

On March 13, the scheduled mass burial of the victims of a massacre which had occurred on the day President Muhammadu Buhari was on a state visit to Plateau State was disrupted by a fresh massacre of 25 persons in Dundu Village in Kwall District of Bassa which occurred on March 12.  Eleven houses were also razed by the herders.  Among the 25 killed were three children and two women.  The Plateau Police Command confirmed the attack and the State Police Commissioner, Adie Undie, was said to have ordered a Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations), Taiwo Jebiyisu “to go to the scene of crime for an on-the-spot assessment.”

In spite of presidential orders, in spite of military slogans, the last was “Cat Race,” the killings have continued.  We believe that it will continue until the Federal Government truly determines that it must stop.  And as long as it goes on, the government is failing in its primary duty of protecting the life and property of Nigerians.

Sun

The dearth of credible data hinders transparency and accountability

It is shameful but rather typical that even when Nigeria was able to provide the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Country (OPEC) with some credible data, the country keeps none for its own reference. “I am ashamed we didn’t have data source on Nigeria. I think as we provide data for OPEC, we should address the question of churning credible data to be consumed in-country. It is a pity when students are looking for data we have to go to OPEC to get data about Nigeria,” said Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

Unfortunately, such concerns no longer seem an anomaly as the Nigerian oil and gas sector operates more or less in secrecy and obscurity. The dearth of data has remained a major challenge in accessing and in assessing the operations of the state-owned behemoth, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that is notorious for its institutional opacity. Indeed, for the entire gamut of the industry – from exploration to crude oil production to oil lifting, exports and sales – the data value chain is unreliable and weakened, giving rise to lack of transparency and rabid corruption.

It is also noteworthy that one of the most valuable oil block contracts, OPL 245 – an opaque contract better known as the Malabu Oil – was awarded by the NNPC. The contract, which is still a subject of headlines and litigations, has cost the nation several billions of dollars. All this merely confirmed what the London Economics wrote about the country’s oil industry some few years back: “Information about Africa’s biggest oil industry is an opaque myriad of numbers. No one knows which ones are accurate; no one knows how much oil Nigeria actually produces. If there were an authoritative figure, the truly horrifying scope of corruption would be exposed.”

That the lack of accurate data has made many to raise doubts on the accuracy of payments made by oil companies to the government with respect to tax and royalty is an understatement. Nigeria reportedly loses about N2.2 trillion annually to inaccurate measurement system adopted across all sectors of the economy, especially in the oil and gas sector. According to the CEO of Nigerco Nig. Ltd, Mr. Yagbagi Sani, Nigeria’s exact crude oil production is not correctly known based on the fact that calculation is usually done on estimates and comparison of temperature and pressure at the well heads. He added: “No one actually knows what comes out of the well and what happens between the well and tank farms.”

For decades, there have been efforts to address the institutional and regulatory framework weighing down the NNPC and indeed, the oil industry. The present administration vowed to redress the wrongs. It was also the need to bring integrity, transparency and accountability to bear on the operations of the problematic oil sector and indeed the entire economy that made the country to recently join the Open Government Partnership. But there cannot be openness in darkness and that is why availability of data is important not only to aid planning and research, but also for transparency and containing impunity.

When there are gaps in essential information – as there are today in the oil and gas sector– and the accuracy and validity of the data is widely questioned, it is easy to game such a system.

Thisday

Mass hysteria is spreading like a virus among air travellers and operators. This follows a series of incidents in the country’s aviation. From Akure to Port Harcourt and Lagos to Abuja, these mishaps are becoming frequent, creating a sense of panic among travellers. Although none of the incidents was fatal, it is crucial to put additional measures in place to avert a terrible disaster.

Having boasted an era of relative safety in the past few years, the alarm bells started pealing in November 2017, when a Medview Airlines flight could not land in Abuja following an outage. The aircraft hovered for about 10 minutes overhead. The spate of near misses continued in January when a chartered Nestoil aircraft with nine persons aboard lost its landing gear and two tyres during landing at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. It later skidded off the runway. It is a case of when it rains, it pours. Around 24 hours later, a Dana Air plane hit the fence of the NAIA with its left wing. Media reports stated that the aircraft damaged its wing as it tried to park after landing. These are scary incidents.

Air travel is endangered without the rigorous adherence to standards. Bewilderingly, these near-escapes did not generate much sanction by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, the Nigerian Airspace Management Authority or the Ministry of Transportation. Thus, other incidents swiftly ensued. On February 8, the emergency door of a Dana Air plane fell off on landing at the NAIA, resulting in a cloud of tension. The airline lightly explained it away, saying that a passenger must have tampered with the door. This is ridiculous. Were there no airline officials around to prevent such?

The biggest scare was, however, at the Port Harcourt International Airport on February 20. It involved a Dana Air plane, which overshot the runway upon touching down. With no tough remedial action taken by the authorities, the affected airlines continue to fly. This is dangerous, considering the history of disasters in the Nigerian airspace in the not-too-distant past. On March 6, an Arik Air plane on the Lagos-Accra route declared an emergency after the pilot noticed smoke filling the cabin. The plane, however, landed safely at the Kotoka Airport, after which the airline said it was being examined by experts.

However, in the past few days, the Federal Executive Council, the House of Representatives and the Senate have intervened in the fiasco. The National Assembly has summoned FAAN, NAMA, NCAA and FAAN officials to come and explain their lethargic response to these incidents. The invitations will resonate if they compel these agencies to enforce global industry standards.

The public is apprehensive principally because air crashes occurred at a frightening sequence a few years ago. Dana’s Flight 992 crashed into the Iju-Ishaga neighbourhood in Lagos in June 2012, killing 153 people aboard. In reaction, the Federal Government banned the McDonnell MD-83 aircraft from the Nigerian airspace and suspended Dana’s licence, though it was restored that September.

Other horrific accidents included the one in December 2005, in which 108 passengers – mostly pupils of Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja – died when a Sosoliso Airlines flight from Abuja to Port Harcourt crashed on landing. It was a McDonnell Douglas plane. An ADC Airlines flight, which had a stopover, after taking off from Lagos, also crashed shortly after taking off in Abuja, killing 97 passengers aboard. Coincidentally, these crashes occurred at weekends. As expected, the accidents led to the winding up of some of these airlines.

The recurring mishaps recently suggest that the aviation authorities are weak in the enforcement of standards. Elsewhere, safety-conscious regulators would have suspended the operations of these airlines and conducted detailed investigations. To send out a strong message on violations, British aviation authorities fined commercial operators Ryanair and Easyjet £20,000 apiece for repeated slot offending, in which an airline intentionally operates flights at times significantly different from its allocated slots. Similarly, in December 2016, the European Commission banned Iran’s third largest carrier – Aseman – from the continent over safety concerns.

Therefore, the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, and the aviation agencies should save the country from a possible air disaster. It is time to make special efforts: comprehensive checks on all aircraft types are critical at these trying periods. This should include recertification of all airlines, if need be. The derelict infrastructure at the airports has to be fixed, starting with the perimeter fencing. Animals, touts and bandits exploit its absence to infiltrate the airports.

To achieve the minister’s goal of boosting the GDP through aviation, administrative restructuring, in which 21 senior FAAN officials were booted out last October, has to be done systematically and every department strengthened with competent hands. The approval to build airports that are not up to standard should be discontinued.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission will on April 3, 2018 commence the enforcement of its recently unveiled Meter Asset Provider Regulations, 2018, a policy that seeks to bridge the widening metering gap in the electricity supply industry.

It was gathered that the country’s metering gap had increased to about 4.74 million, as power consumers welcomed the new policy, describing it as a panacea for meter unavailability.

“The provisions of these regulations shall be enforced by the commission from the 3rd day of April, 2018.”

On Monday, The PUNCH reported a declaration by NERC that power distribution companies no longer had the sole responsibility of providing meters to electricity consumers.

The commission also announced the introduction of a new regulation that brought another class of operators in the power sector called Meter Asset Providers.

The Commissioner, Legal, Licensing and Compliance, NERC, Dafe Akpeneye, had explained that the MAPs would now take up the duty of providing meters to customers, among other functions.

Buttressing the objectives of the MAPR 2018, the commission stated that the main objective of the regulations was to provide standard rules to encourage the development of independent and competitive meter services in the electricity supply industry and eliminate estimated billing.

Other objectives are to attract private investments to the provision of metering services, close the metering gap through accelerated meter rollout, and enhance revenue assurance in the power sector.

On metering gap and obligations to power distribution companies, the MAPR 2018 stated that Discos were responsible for meeting their metering targets as specified by the commission from time to time.