Nigeria’s total public debt stock is N21.725 trillion – as at the end of December, last year.

Debt Management Office (DMO) Director-General Patience Oniha, speaking yesterday in Abuja on the country’s Debt Management Strategy (DMS), said the Federal Government’s domestic debt at the end of 2017 was N12.589 trillion. The 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have a domestic debt overhang of N3.348 trillion.

The combined external debt of the Federal Government and the states is N5.787 trillion.

The new DMS, Oniha said, has brought about the restructuring of the debt portfolio, which “has resulted in reduction of debt servicing costs, lowering interest rates in the domestic market and an improved availability of credit facilities to the private sector.” The recent spate of borrowings the DMO boss said, is essentially “for financing capital expenditure and stimulating the economy”. “The funds injected through the borrowings strongly supported the implementation of the Federal Government’s budget, which helped the country to exit recession in 2017.”

The figures showed  that  Nigeria’s Debt Management Strategy is achieving its objective of reducing the ratio of Domestic Debt in the portfolio, with a target of 60% Domestic and 40% External, .

The composition of the Debt Stock as at the end of 2017 showed that External Debt was 26.64% of the portfolio, up from 20.04% in 2016. Domestic Debt was 73.36%, down from 79.96% in 2016.

The key benefits of the restructuring of the portfolio, Oniha explained “are the reduction of the Government’s Debt Service Costs, lowering of interest rates in the domestic market and improved availability of credit facilities to the private sector”. ”The DMO repaid N198 billion Nigerian Treasury Bills in December 2017 with the proceeds of Eurobond issuances and the DMO has continued further implementation of the strategy in 2018, with the issuance of the USD2.5 billion Eurobonds in February 2018, the proceeds of which is being used to repay maturing domestic debt, starting with N130 billion NTBs repaid on March 1, 2018.”

“The Total Public Debt as at December 31, 2017 represents 18.20% of Nigeria’s GDP for 2017. This shows that Nigeria’s debt continues to be sustainable and is well within the threshold of 56% for countries in Nigeria’s peer group,” Oniha stated.

Ms. Oniha assured Nigerians that the most important consideration for these borrowings was that the proceeds were being prudently applied to bridge infrastructure gaps occasioned by the decline in revenues.

She also promised that “the rate of increase of debt servicing would reduce, going forward, given the Federal Government’s attention to raise revenue through the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS), as well as targeted efforts to increase local production of some of the goods responsible for high foreign exchange demand”.

When asked to react to the advice by America’s former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that Nigeria should be wary of Chinese loans, the DMO boss said that Chinese loans were being to provide specific infrastructure projects, such as railways and re-modeling of various airports.

She also noted that Nigeria borrows from other countries , such as Japan, France, India and Germany, “based on Nigeria’s needs, interests and conditions considered favourable to the nation”.

Mrs Pniha said: “If the Americans have any offer, it should be put on the table.  It is not about de-marketing China.”

WHO OWES WHAT

• N12.589tr —Federal Government’s domestic debt at the end of 2017
• N3.348tr —The 36 states and the FCT domestic debt overhang
• N5.787tr—The combined external debt of the FG and the states

The Nation 

Aisha Yesufu, co-convener of the BringBackOurGirls, BBOG, advocacy group has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to stop game of comparison with ex-president Goodluck Jonathan.

This is in response to the president’s statement during his visit to Yobe on Wednesday.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday said his administration responded better than the immediate past government to the February 19 abduction of 110 students of Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State.

He said the former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration was slow with their response to a similar abduction in Chibok, Borno State.

According to Buhari, while his government swung into action immediately after the abduction, the last administration looked the other way when the Chibok girls were abducted in 2014.

Aisha in reaction said the Buhari’s visit was supposed to be a show of empathy to parents of 110 missing girls and not a show of comparison.

She urged the president to stop dragging level of incompetence with Jonathan.

On her twitter page, she wrote “President Muhammadu Buhari’s tour was supposed to be of empathy and condolence instead it has turned into show of incompetence.

“Can someone tell PMB he was not voted to drag title of incompetence with Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan? He should leave GEJ alone!”

DailyPost 

Myanmar officials say the time is right to have U.N. agencies become involved in the repatriation of Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh to escape violence against them.

Foreign Ministry Permanent Secretary Myint Thu said Wednesday that the offices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the U.N. Development Program responded last week to the government’s invitation with a proposal and concept paper, which are now being studied. A U.N. spokesman in Myanmar confirmed sending a note proposing how the agencies could help create conditions for the safe, dignified and voluntary return of the refugees.

Angela Merkel has been sworn in as Germany’s chancellor for the fourth time, almost six months since the national election, bringing to an end the longest power hiatus in the country’s postwar history.

She received 364 out of 709 votes in the first round of voting in parliament – nine more than required to gain an absolute majority, but also 35 fewer than if all the members of her next governing coalition had cast their ballot in her favour.

Merkel’s Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, who have agreed to re-enter a grand coalition together, have a total of 399 votes between them.

“A clear vote and a smooth start,” tweeted Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the new general secretary of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. “Now full steam ahead for Germany.”

As the chancellor received standing ovations, handshakes and bouquets of flowers from delegates across the political spectrum, she was watched over by her 89-year-old mother, Herlind Kasner, seated on the Bundestag’s gallery next to Merkel’s husband, Joachim Sauer, and long-term adviser Beate Baumann.

After the vote, the chancellor travelled to Schloss Bellevue to receive a letter of appointment from the president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, before heading back to the Bundestag in order to take the oath of office. The new cabinet meets for the first time this afternoon.

The pressure will be on the new government to immediately get down to business, after months of horse-trading and delayed decision-making. Merkel said on Monday her new government’s focus would be on integrating refugees as well as increasing state powers to extradite people who had no right of residence. She has also stressed the necessity of securing Germany’s borders, and developing policies to mitigate the causes of migration.

The grand coalition was initially seen as an unlikely constellation after the election on 24 September, when Merkel’s conservative alliance, the pro-business Free Democrats and the environmentalist Greens strove to create a so-called “Jamaica” coalition. But after those talks collapsed spectacularly, both the conservatives and the SPD came under pressure to revive the grand coalition, which has governed Germany for the majority of Merkel’s time in office.

Wolfgang Kubicki, deputy leader of the FDP, said of the result of Wednesday’s vote: “That was closer than we expected. It shows that the grand coalition is actually going to be a small coalition.”

Merkel received supporting votes from 91% of delegates in her three-party coalition, compared to 92% in 2013 and 89% at the start of her first term in 2005.

Merkel will have to find a way to win over unenthusiastic delegates not just among the Social Democrats, many of whom believe the party should have sought to reinvent itself in opposition, but also among her own Christian Democrats, where there is disappointment over the loss of the finance ministry to the centre-left junior coalition partner.

One CDU politician described the result as a “bad omen” for the coming term. “This coalition has had a bad start, not just because of the unfortunate coalition deal, and won’t last for three and a half years”, said MP Alexander Mitsch.

The reformation of the grand coalition means the far-right Alternative für Deutschland becomes the large opposition party in the Bundestag.

The Guardian

Sierra Leone will hold a run-off vote for president on March 27, the election commission said Tuesday, after the country's main opposition finished slightly ahead of the ruling party in the first round of voting.

Opposition leader Julius Maada Bio, from the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), took 43.3 percent of votes in the March 7 election, while Samura Kamara of the incumbent All Peoples Congress (APC) took 42.7 percent, the commission said.

The threshold to win in the first round was 55 percent, and results were slightly delayed by recounts in some areas.

The two parties have dominated Sierra Leone's politics and ruled alternately since independence from Britain in 1961.

Third party candidate Kandeh Yumkella finished with just 6.9 percent of votes despite his National Grand Coalition (NGC) party's hopes of an electoral breakthrough.

AFP

Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking has died at age 76, a family spokesman said on Wednesday.

"We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today," professor Hawking's children, Lucy, Robert, and Tim said in a statement carried by Britain's Press Association news agency.

"He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years."

Hawking defied predictions he would only live for a few years after developing a form of motor neurone disease that left him confined to a wheelchair.

"His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world," the family said.

"He once said, 'It would not be much of a universe if it wasn't home to the people you love.' We will miss him forever."

AFP

Mauritian President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim has refused to resign, vowing to fight allegations that saw her embroiled in a financial scandal, the presidency said in a statement Wednesday.

"Her Excellency Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, having nothing to feel guilty about and able to provide corroborating evidence, rejects any idea of resigning," read the statement.

It was issued less than a week after the prime minister announced she had agreed to step down.

Pravind Jugnauth, the prime minister, told reporters last week Gurib-Fakim would resign after 12 March after the celebration of the country’s 50th anniversary.

Gurib-Fakim, a chemistry professor, was appointed to the largely ceremonial post in 2015, as the island nation’s first female president.

She denied any wrongdoing and refunded all the money in question.

Reuters

Ex-Abia State Governor Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to convince Nigerians of his anti- corruption war by probing former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the multi-million naira he allegedly wasted on power projects.

He said Buhari should arrest Obasanjo for Nigerians to believe he is fighting corruption.

Kalu said: “Unless Buhari arrests Obasanjo, anti-corruption war has not started.”

He spoke yesterday in Abuja while delivering a paper on the topic: ‘Culture, Economy and Good Governance: The Nigerian Experience’, at a quarterly public lecture organised by the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO).

Kalu dismissed his trial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as political, saying it was one of the consequences of his fight against Obasanjo’s third term agenda.

Said he: “I was the first governor to make his account public. That EFCC is trying me is political and it is because I fought the third time agenda of Obasanjo. If there is opportunity tomorrow to fight third term, I will fight it. If President Buhari wants to be president for life, I will never support him again. The people knew my account in Abia is open and transparent. The US, UK and China know and they give me red carpet each time I am in those countries. That is a statement of fact.

“In fact, I am stronger to fight corruption than President Buhari because he is not fighting it well. I am stronger to recoup people’s money and return it to them. I am a creator of wealth at any level from when I was in the university. If any court pronounces that I am corrupt, I should be jailed. A corrupt politician or a judge is like an armed robber.”

Kalu said restructuring had become a terminology by politicians, instead of advocating true fiscal federalism, which involved transferring responsibilities from Exclusive List to Concurrent List for effective governance and in the true spirit of a federation.

“I have lost my airline, oil block, commercial bank to the government. So, I don’t have anything to lose again. I am an activist now because I’m not afraid to say anything, as I have nothing to lose again,” he added

“Has the herdsmen/farmers conflict helped to grow investment in agriculture? Has it attracted any foreign investor to the sector? Will it attract any? How does our attitude towards settler ethnic communities help us to grow our local economy?”

The Nation

They say he is now a visiting and senior mentoring scholar of E-Governance and Strategic Government Studies at Southern University, Baton Rouge in Louisiana, United States of America, for which reason he now qualifies to be addressed as ‘professor.’ Only last year, he bagged a doctorate in law from the University of Abuja. That’s quite a leap- from doctorate to the professoriate in less than a year! But I don’t suppose Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, intended his apparently well-intentioned statement about the military not being gone forever to be taken as a professorial declaration that brooks no questioning.

Yes, Mr. Ekweremadu did warn at a session on the floor of the Senate that the Nigerian military is not too long gone from governance as to have forgotten it was once in charge of the affairs of this country. The military could still stage a comeback if the present class of political leaders continues in their self-destructive ways that can barely tolerate opposition views.

What the distinguished senator (all our legislators are distinguished anyway) is in effect saying is that his colleagues ought to be careful in the way and manner they manage our adolescent democracy in which political leaders randomly hound one another and employ their powerful positions to make life difficult for their colleagues, including members of the same party. This or it would be the fire (or is it the military?) next time. Is that your meaning, Mr. Deputy President of the Senate? Yes, Ekweremadu has clarified that he was only out to warn against an avoidable peril. And I suppose many would agree with him. I’m talking here of those charitable enough not to read ulterior motives to his utterance.

His was a thankless advice. Or so one supposes even when one also realises that there are ways politicians speak that only their likes can understand. We might need to approach Senator Ekweremadu to explain even further in very clear, unambiguous terms, what he means by his statement since some members of even his own constituency of lawmakers think he overreached himself with his remarks. That would, however, be another time when the present controversy has blown over. But hardly had the man finished speaking when consummate interpreters took the words out of his mouth and proceeded to give it every possible twist imaginable, with all boiling down to a simple proposition: an invitation to the military to start dusting, ironing and starching their khaki for a  take over of the polity.

Expectedly, this has set the alarm bells ringing and not a few have since upbraided the lawmaker for irresponsible utterance. They want some pound of flesh for what they see as an act of treachery to the democratic cause by someone they believe should know better than ‘heating up the polity.’ And Ike Ekweremadu has been at pains explaining that his words have been taken out of context. But would his attackers listen? Not even the military is listening. A statement from the Nigerian Army spokesperson, Agim John, chides Ekweremadu while pledging the allegiance of the Army, I suppose on behalf of the other arms of the military, to present civil authorities.

This must be the second time in recent months that the military would be compelled to deny rumours of a coup or an attempt to invite it back to the centre court of governance in Nigeria. Passing oblique remarks about the possibility of a military takeover would appear to be one way politicians try to put the scare on one another when they see some of their own as demonstrating tendencies for intolerance of opposition, conduct often to be found in a military regime. Why not go for the original rather than a mere copy, such remarks would appear to be suggesting. Rather than have a civilian pretending to be a soldier, why not invite the soldiers themselves? Of course, such statements often come with the clear undertones that opposition politicians won’t tolerate any recourse to military tactics by their kind. Otherwise there would be chaos and chaos would mean a breakdown in civil order which only a military regime could restore.

This is the unspoken subtext of Ekweremadu’s statement which was not, however, lost on his political friends, colleagues and other Nigerians. It is the reason many of them are scared out of their wits by such ‘open’ invitation to the soldiers. Not many in the political class could have forgotten too soon just what the current president and his ilk did to politicians of a past era, dragging them into detention and slamming multiple jail terms on them.

While Ekweremadu’s statement may appear innocuous, it is the nightmare it portends that his critics are scared of. Ekweremadu himself cannot honestly wish for the return of the military. He was apparently only issuing warning to some bulldozer governors and politicians who have turned the property of their opponents to targets of demolition; banned others from visiting their home states on pain of God-knows-what and sent security operatives hounding others. Aren’t these tactics of totalitarian regimes? the Deputy President of the Senate appears to be saying. But while it may be necessary for our politicians to tread cautiously, let the military not fool itself into thinking it is still such a welcome option even in a Nigeria that is in the throes of insecurity of the worst kind. What insecurity could be worse than that which permits the abduction of innocent school girls by a supposedly vanquished insurgent group?

Yet, this should not be grounds for another ‘corrective’ regime. Nigerians should by now know better than sending any invitations, direct or otherwise, to the military. A military that would accept such must be truly a reprobate institution. Which may explain the outrage with which the Army establishment appears to have received any hint or suggestion of such nonsense. Any such invitation must be based on the notion that the military is full of foolish officers and men. Such cannot be an organisation of people with any claim to intelligence. This must be why the Army considered the supposed call which Ekweremadu has roundly denied to be denigrating. If true, Ekweremadu cannot have any respect for the personnel of the military. The world at present has no place for adventurers in khaki or others of a military cast of mind even when garbed in embroidered agbada. No, Nigerians have no place for the military. We do not need a megaphone to announce this to the world. Even when our current politicians have shown themselves no wiser than their predecessors, perhaps even worse in terms of their preparedness for office, we are more than tired of taking a step forward and twenty backward.  We have no place for soldiers