Kim Jong Un says Pyongyang won't use nukes first

PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said during a critical ruling party congress that his country will not use its nuclear weapons first unless its sovereignty is invaded, state media reported Sunday.

Kim also said he is ready to improve ties with "hostile" nations in a diplomatic overture in the face of international pressure over its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. He also called for more talks with rival South Korea to reduce misunderstanding and distrust between them and urged the United States to stay away from inter-Korean issues, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
"Our republic is a responsible nuclear state that, as we made clear before, will not use nuclear weapons first unless aggressive hostile forces use nuclear weapons to invade on our sovereignty," Kim said in a speech carried by the KCNA.
He said that North Korea "will sincerely fulfill its duties for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and work to realize the denuclearization of the world."
The North is ready to improve and normalize ties with countries hostile to it if they respect its sovereignty and approach it in a friendly manner, Kim said.
At the congress, Kim also announced a five-year plan starting this year to develop the North's dismal economy and identified improving the country's power supply and increasing its agricultural and light-manufacturing production as the critical parts of the program, the KCNA said.
Analysts have anticipated Kim would use the first Workers' Party congress in decades to propose talks with rivals to exploit what he considers to be increased leverage as a nuclear power.
North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test in January and followed with a satellite launch in February that was seen by outside governments as a banned test for long-range missile technology, earning worldwide condemnation and tougher U.N. sanctions.
© Provided by Associated Press North Korea on Friday opened the first full congress of its ruling party since 1980, a major political event intended to showcase the country's stability and unity under young…
The North responded to the punitive measures, and also the annual U.S.-South Korean military drills in March and April, by firing a series of missiles and artillery into the sea. It also claimed advancements in developing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and combined them with threats of pre-emptive nuclear strikes on Washington and Seoul.
Analysts said that the North's belligerent stance might have been intended at rallying North Korean people around Kim ahead of the congress and also promote military accomplishments to the domestic audience to make up for the lack of tangible economic achievements to present at the party meeting.
South Korea has taken a hard-line approach to North Korea following its nuclear test and long-range rocket launch, shutting down a jointly-run factory park in a North Korean border town that had been the last remaining symbol of cooperation between the rivals and slapping Pyongyang with its own economic sanctions.
Seoul has also been in talks with Washington on deploying a sophisticated U.S. missile defense system in South Korea.
North Korea had spent the past months resisting talks with the South and threatening attacks against it, but Kim spoke with a different tone at the conference. He said "fundamentally improving" inter-Korean relations was an urgent matter for his government and also called for the South to "hold hands" with the North as a "companion" for unification, the KCNA said.
However, Kim stressed that the South must first employ practical measures to improve ties and throw out laws and institutional systems that have hampered them. He also said that the United States should no longer be involved with matters in the Korean Peninsula, and that if enemy forces "ignite the fire of war," the North was ready to mercilessly punish the aggressors and accomplish the "historical feat" of unification.
North Korea has long decried the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea as a buffer against possible aggression.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said ahead of the North's ruling party congress in Pyongyang that the priority of any future talks with the North would be its denuclearization.
___
Associated Press writer Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

2016 Budget: 5 quick changes Nigerians should expect in a month

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Sequel to President Muhammadu Buhari’s assent of the 2016 Appropriation bill into law, Post-Nigeria has gathered 5 ways the budget will perform in the next few months.

       It could be recalled, that in the last 11 months of the Buhari administration, many Nigerians have been subjected to serious economic hardship, with many demanding for the quick passage of the Budget, in order to ameliorate their sufferings.

        According to the All Progressive Congress-led, APC, government, the delay in the passage of the budget had affected Ministries, Departments and Agencies’, MDAs, capacity to deliver on the change mantra.

        However, with the recent assent to the appropriation bill by the President, Post-Nigeria gathered that the following will happen within one month of its implementation.

         The first is Naira appreciation: it could be recalled that the Naira within the last 2 quarters of 2015 was in a free for all fight, as it exchanged for a record N400 to the dollar, with analysts projecting N600 to the dollar before the year ends.

         Presently, the Naira is trading at N320 to the dollar at the black market, but with the passage of the 2016 budget and according to plans by the government to inject N350 billion into the economy, the Naira according to economic pundits will begin to gain strength.

          Another area the budget will impact positively, is in the area of inflation: Inflation as at October, November last year according to the National Bureau of Statistic, NBS, was pegged at 9.6 percent.

        Presently, inflation figures have hit double digits, the highest recorded so far pegged at 12.4 percent, with prices of goods and services beyond the reach of the common man.

       The assent of the 2016 budget is regarded as a great news and relieve, as financial analysts are predicting single digit in inflation figures within one month of its implementation.

          Post-Nigeria had reported that one of the reasons the economy collapsed few months into the Buhari administration, was due to cash crunch (shortage of liquidity).

         The assent of the appropriation bill will inject massive funds into the system, thereby making it easy for Nigerians to access funds to engage in the production of goods and services.

        The 5th, is that unemployed Nigerian youths will begin to have access to jobs, as companies, small business and construction outfits among several others, will begin to recruit in order to meet their demands.

          According to NBS, over 2 million Nigerians had lost their jobs within 11 months of Buhari’s administration

After 20 Years, OPEC Says Farewell to Saudi Arabia's Oil Supremo

An 80-year-old who rose from modest Bedouin roots, al-Naimi headed the ministry for almost 21 years, steering the world’s largest crude exporter through wild price swings, regional wars, technological progress and the rise of climate change as a key policy concern.

   “During my seven decades in the industry, I’ve seen oil at under $2 a barrel and $147, and much volatility in between,” al-Naimi told a gathering of the who’s who of the American oil industry in February in Houston. “ I’ve witnessed gluts and scarcity. I’ve seen multiple booms and busts.”
The departure of al-Naimi, who for years could move markets just uttering a few words, is the latest sign of how the country’s young Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is stamping his authority over oil policy. Khalid Al-Falih, chairman of Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the state-owned producer, will replace him as minister of energy, industry and mineral resources. Al-Falih is known to be close to the king and to Prince Mohammed.
© Ashraf Shazly/AFP via Getty Images Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, Saudi's oil minister, speaks during a press conference following a meeting with Sudanese Oil Minister in Khartoum on May 4, 2016.
   “Khalid has been integral to the current oil policy of Saudi Arabia and has worked very closely with the deputy crown prince,” said Jason Bordoff, director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University in New York and a former White House oil official.
Saudi oil policy is unlikely to change with al-Falih. If anything, Prince Mohammed has insisted that Saudi Arabia will continue to defend its market share and won’t agree to any oil output freeze to curb the global glut without the participation of other major producers.
“We don’t care about oil prices,” Prince Mohammed told Bloomberg in an interview in April. “$30 or $70, they are all the same to us. We have our own programs that don’t need high oil prices.”
Oil Policy

    While al-Naimi enjoyed a relatively free hand to implement oil policy under King Fahd and King Abdullah, his room for maneuvering seemed to have narrowed since last year’s accession to power by King Salman and the growing influence of his young son, Prince Mohammed.
At the April 17 meeting in Doha where producers discussed a possible production freeze to shore up prices, al-Naimi lacked the authority to complete a deal, according to his Russian and Venezuelan counterparts. The view of Prince Mohammed,who had insisted that no accord was possible without Iran, eventually prevailed and the talks collapsed.
Almost 18 months before, it was al-Naimi who pushed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to leave output unchanged. Rather than cut back to sustain prices near $100 a barrel, al-Naimi’s plan squeezed higher-cost producers, particularly U.S. shale-oil drillers. The strategy is showing signs of success: the number of active U.S. oil drilling rigs has dwindled by a record amount, shale production is falling and companies of all sizes, including Exxon Mobil Corp are cutting their investment. But Saudi Arabia itself has paid a great price, with foreign-exchange reserves plummeting and economic growth slowing.
The approach has also left OPEC in tatters, pitting wealthy Gulf Arab countries, including Kuwait and Qatar, against the cash-strapped nations like Venezuela and Nigeria. The cartel, once a mighty organisation capable of roiling the global economy by keeping oil prices high, seem to have become largely ineffective.

Savvy Minister

     Al-Naimi presided over a golden oil age for Saudi Arabia and OPEC. The cartel’s oil revenue soared almost 10 fold during his tenure, to $1 trillion in 2014, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. He was also an astute diplomat, and with the support of his long-time No. 2, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman -- an older half-brother of the deputy crown prince -- al-Naimi bridged differences with Iran and Venezuela in the late 1990s, orchestrating a series of production cuts that lifted oil prices, eventually sending them above $100 a barrel.
Whenever OPEC gathered at its Vienna headquarters, al-Naimi drew the biggest swarm of journalists. Reporters tagged along each day at dawn for his habitual jog, or in later years speed-walk, on the Austrian capital’s downtown Ring Road. A few words from him during those walks could move oil markets and beyond, swaying currencies and Wall Street.
"When he talks, everybody in the market is listening because he has a track record of delivering on any promise,” said Noe Van Hulst, the former secretary general of the Riyadh-based International Energy Forum. “He is the most credible voice within OPEC and in the market.”
Al-Naimi has said he’d like to devote more time to his other job, chairman of the science and technology university in Saudi Arabia, an institute that studies and prepares for a post-hydrocarbon world. He was also appointed adviser to the royal court on Saturday.
“The problem is the harmful emissions we get from burning coal, oil and gas” he said on Feb. 23 in Houston. “The solution is to work on technology that minimizes and ultimately eradicates harmful emissions. Some don’t accept this view, but I have faith in technology.”
Al-Naimi’s Rise
Al-Naimi began working at age 12 as a clerk for the Arabian American Oil Co., the forerunner of Saudi Aramco, climbing through the ranks to help the company expand beyond producing raw crude and into processing oil overseas and distributing refined products. He was promoted to president in 1984, the first Saudi to hold the post, and was named chief executive officer four years later. The government selected him to lead the ministry in August 1995.
For most of his tenure, al-Naimi was an advocate of keeping crude prices at levels acceptable to the U.S. and other importers. He often disagreed with counterparts from Iran and Venezuela, who sought higher prices by limiting supply. He worried about choking off demand.
As oil began falling in the summer of 2014, al-Naimi had an unsettling flashback to three decades earlier, when Saudi Arabia was the industry’s so-called swing producer, adjusting output to defend prices. His predecessor, Ahmad Zaki Yamani, decided in 1983 to push OPEC to cut back as producers outside the group pumped more. That, Yamani theorized, would increase prices.
The results were catastrophic: oil collapsed to $7.90 from about $40 as non-OPEC supplies expanded. Saudi production dropped by almost two-thirds in 1985, to 3.6 million barrels a day from 10.3 million in 1980.
It was a lesson that shaped al-Naimi’s response to the more recent collapse in crude prices, triggered by the surge in U.S. output.
“I saw how prices fell, so we lost on output and on prices at the same time,” he said at a March 2015 conference in Riyadh, about the experience of the 1980s. “We learned from that mistake.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Nayla Razzouk in Dubai at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net, Wael Mahdi in Kuwait at wmahdi@bloomberg.net, Javier Blas in London at jblas3@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nayla Razzouk at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net, Edward Dufner

1,700 years ago, the mismanagement of a migrant crisis cost Rome its empire

© Provided by Quartz "The end of all humanity, the end of the world."

On Aug. 3, 378, a battle was fought in Adrianople, in what was then Thrace and is now the province of Edirne, in Turkey. It was a battle that Saint Ambrose referred to as “the end of all humanity, the end of the world.”

The Eastern Roman emperor Flavius Julius Valens Augustus—simply known as Valens, and nicknamed Ultimus Romanorum, (the last true Roman)—led his troops against the Goths, a Germanic people that Romans considered “barbarians,” commanded by Fritigern. Valens, who had not waited for the military help of his nephew, Western Roman emperor Gratian, got into the battle with 40,000 soldiers. Fritigern could count on 100,000.

It was a massacre: 30,000 Roman soldiers died and the empire was defeated. It was the first of many to come, and it’s considered as the beginning of the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476. At the time of the battle, Rome ruled a territory of nearly 600 million hectares, with a population of over 55 million.

The defeat of Adrianople didn’t happen because of Valens’s stubborn thirst for power or because he grossly underestimated his adversary’s belligerence. What was arguably the most important defeat in the history of the Roman empire had roots in something else: a refugee crisis.

Two years earlier the Goths descended toward Roman territory looking for shelter. The mismanagement of Goth refugees started a chain of events that led to the collapse of one of the biggest political and military powers humankind has ever known.

It’s a story shockingly similar to what’s happening in Europe right now—and a it should serve as a cautionary tale.

According to historian Ammianus Marcellinus, in 376, the Goths were forced to leave their territories, in what’s now Eastern Europe, pushed south by the Huns, in Marcellinus’s words, “a race savage beyond all parallel.” The Huns, Marcellinus writes, “descended like a whirlwind from the lofty mountains, as if they had risen from some secret recess of the earth, and were ravaging and destroying everything which came in their way.”

It resulted in terrifying bloodshed, and many of Goths—like many Syrians and others displaced by war—decided to flee.

They decided that settling in Thrace, right across the Danube river, was the best solution; the land was fertile, and the river would provide defense to keep the Huns at bay.

© Provided by Quartz

That wasn’t free land—it was in the Roman empire, under the rule of Valens—and so Fritigern, who was leading the Goths asked to “be received by him as his subjects, promising to live quietly, and to furnish a body of auxiliary troops if any necessity for such a force should arise.” Rome had a lot to gain from this. Those lands needed cultivating, and more soldiers were always welcome by the empire. “By combining the strength of his own people with these foreign forces,” Marcellinus writes of Valens, “he would have an army absolutely invincible.”

As a sign of gratitude to Valens, Fritigern converted to Christianity.

It all started rather peacefully. The Romans put in place a service not that different from a modern search-and-rescue program. “Not one was left behind,” Marcellinus writes, “not even of those who were stricken with mortal disease.” The Goths, “crossed the stream day and night, without ceasing, embarking in troops on board ships and rafts, and canoes made of the hollow trunks of trees.” Marcellinus recounts that “a great many were drowned, who, because they were too numerous for the vessels, tried to swim across, and in spite of all their exertions were swept away by the stream.”

It was an unexpected, unprecedented flow (some estimates say up to 200,000 people). Officials in charge of managing the Goths tried to “to calculate their numbers,” but determined it was hopeless.

Traditionally, the Roman attitude toward “barbarians,” though autocratic, had been pretty longsighted. Populations were often sent where the empire needed them the most, with little regard to where they wished to stay; however, there was a strong push toward assimilation that eventually turned foreigners into citizens. Descendants of immigrants would routinely be seen in the high ranks of the military or the administration. The recipe that kept the empire safe from the attacks from other populations was simple: allow them into the empire and make them Roman.

But things eventually changed. The military officials who were in charge of provisions for the Goths—an ancient version of support offered to migrants arriving in Greece or Italy—were corrupt and profited off of what was meant for the refugees. The starving Goths were forced to buy dog meat from the Romans.

Marcellinus has no doubt: “their treacherous covetousness was the cause of all our [the Romans] disasters.”

The trust between the abused Goths and the Romans was broken several times before Adrianople, and the Goths went from wanting to become Roman to wanting to destroy Rome.

Less than two years later, Marcellinus writes “with rage flashing in their eyes, the barbarians pursued our men.” And they took down the empire.

The migrants trying to get to Europe right now are not about to raise up in arms, and Europe is not—thankfully—the Roman empire. But this story shows well that migration has always and will always be a part of our world. There are two ways to deal with refugees: one is to promote dialogue, and inclusion; the other to be unwelcoming and uncaring. The second has led to disaster before—and in one way or another, is sure to do so again.

Ovation International: 20 Years Of Making A Super Brand By @DeleMomodu

Great things often start like a joke. There is no better way to depict the birth of Ovation International in London. As illustrated last week in the first part of these anniversary notes, I was on the run from the dreaded military regime headed by maximum ruler, General Sani Abacha. My involvement in the struggle for the revalidation of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election mandate which the people of Nigeria freely gave to Chief Moshood Abiola, landed me in big trouble. Unlike former President Ibrahim Babangida, it was impossible for anyone to express his innocence to Abacha. There was no negotiation. I just developed wings and took off pronto.

Specifically, I was accused of being one of the brains behind Radio Freedom (which later metamorphosed into Radio Kudirat) after the cold-blooded murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola. But truth is I was not a member of the Radio Freedom crew considered a huge menace to the dictatorial government. At least not at the stage I was initially accused.  The story of how I later joined the gang of highly dedicated and committed operatives of that ubiquitous pirate radio would be told subsequently.

Thus, having fled to England without any plans other than for immediate personal safety, I was in grave peril of expiring from human scourge, hunger, as I was jobless.  It was this fear of joblessness and its consequences on my family that drove me and my team to take the leap of faith that manifested in the production of what would become one of Africa’s most ambitious media projects. We were under no illusion that the journey would be easy. We knew the road would be rough. We expected funding to be the biggest threat to our existence for a long time to come. We needed £150,000 to start small scale but could barely raise about £20,000. With a shortfall of around £130,000, we would have to crawl slowly but steadily. A man who’s down should fear no fall was our attitude. Our options were few and limited. But we were determined to make the impossible possible. Thanks to my co-travellers Adedamola Aderemi, Olusegun Fatoye, Adeyemi Aderemi, Damilola Abiodun and Bayo Williams (of blessed memories) we were set for an epic journey.

The first and very crucial task was how to assemble a crack Editorial team. We decided to scout for and assemble a star-studded assemblage of writers. We succeeded in attracting the legendary writers and polemicists, Sonala Olumhense and Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, who were both working for the United Nations. We got the highly cerebral Ike Okonta. We found the flowery Alaba Yusuf. A Nigerian lady, Uzoma Umesi, wrote some great pieces. We got the experienced media gurus Richie Dayo Johnson and George Noah, our neighbours in highbrow Docklands where we domiciled our effervescent office. We secured the gist merchant Kunle Bakare to control Nigerian operations. We got my former boss and the Queen of celebrity reporting May Ellen Ezekiel Mofe-Damijo and the king of African movies Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD).
Everything appeared to be going well until suddenly, my former boss May Ellen had a fatal surgery and died in Lagos. I had spoken to her in the US and tried to straighten our ruptured relationship activated by my controversial removal as Editor of Classique magazine. I was happy we made up. She wasted no time in agreeing to be our Contributing Editor which I considered a great honour. Same with RMD who instantly agreed to support our dream. Little did I know it was going to be my last conversation with May Ellen.

We decided our magazine was going to be a masterpiece crafted like a work of art, and sold as a timeless and ageless piece. Every issue was going to be a collector’s item. We were going to locate the best printers in England and cover as many African stories as possible. The production of the maiden issue was meticulously executed. We wanted to report the lives and lifestyles of rich and famous Africans. We decided that we would expose and promote authentic African stars who would not be given prominence on the covers of Hello, Ok, GQ, Esquire, etc. We chose a plush cover story and placed Mohammed Al-Fayed, the Egyptian luxury store king at Harrods, graciously on the front. We got Ike Okonta, a brilliant poet, to get lost inside Harrods, one of the most expensive departmental stores in the world and pen his dreamlike experience for our readers. His piece was titled JUST DREAM. The man could not buy a pin in Harrods.
The beautiful magazine started with GOOD DAY AFRICA by Sonala Olumhense. Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo sent a comprehensive report from war-torn Somalia and highlighted efforts of the United Nations at bringing peace to the nation. We had a panel of the best gossip poachers including Deun Solarin and Funmi Ayandokun. They compiled our juiciest snippets on the 100 Stormy Women in Nigeria. It was a compendium of who’s who. It was meant to cover a broad spectrum of society ladies and ignite an instant debate in high society. We succeeded.
The magazine was an instant hit. Our friends, Gbenga Olunloyo , Kayode Akinyele, Dayo Olomu and others, were marvellous in spreading the magazine to different parts of London. We lived like communists and worked and ate together. Funmi Akinyele cooked lunch for us regularly. My energetic wife was heavily pregnant and still had to keep company of our fist son. Exile was hellish but we were undaunted. Holding the first copy of Ovation was worth all the diamonds in the world. We were in Cloud 10.
We sent copies to the of Chairman of Harrods and we were surprised to receive a very powerful response from Mr Al-Fayed, titled AN OVATION FOR OVATION, and a basket of goodies including vintage wines and chocolates. The historic letter praised Ovation as a welcome positive development as opposed to the purveyors of negativity. The second issue of the magazine was even more dramatic. We got an exclusive access to the family of famous singer SEAL in Lagos. The foreign media had always seen him as a Brazilian. We got phone calls from the world media as soon as our special report put together by super reporter, Azu Arinze, who was then at Encomium magazine, hit the streets.
It was incredible receiving calls from the National Enquirer, the largest circulating tabloid in America (4 million copies weekly). The publication requested our permission to cull our SEAL story and even offered to pay us. We approved but rejected the offer of payment and settled for the bold acknowledgement of Ovation in their widely circulated paper. We secured the same deal with The Mirror in London and it gave us massive exposure. For a new magazine named Ovation, it was a loud ovation for us from the beginning.
We experienced the miracle of God everywhere we turned because we were able to capture stories that money cannot easily buy. For example, I was having a drink in 1996 with Nduka Obaigbena at The Dorchester, the posh hotel on Park Lane, when the celebrated boxer, Chris Eubank, walked in. Chris was such a flamboyant celebrity and I approached him for an interview request. He told me I needed to approach his media agents which I knew I couldn’t afford. But Nduka came to my rescue. In his usual never-say-die spirit, he lectured Chris on why he should support the laudable business of a Black brother. Chris fell for Nduka’s charms and agreed to a major photo-shoot and interview the following morning at The Dorchester. That was it. We got another scoop.
We soon shifted our focus to the extraordinary Ghanaian fashion designer on Saville Row, Ozwald Boateng, who made no fuzz in agreeing to an Ovation coverage. We moved from Ozwaild to the glamorous football star John Fashanu who was staying in St. John’s Wood and gave us exclusive access. We did so much with so little cash and we soon reached a cul de sac. We simply ran out of gas, perhaps to put it mildly. Several times we thought the end had come but God created ways where there were none. I will never forget three of such. Top on the list as always was Dr Mike Adenuga, my God sent benefactor in the days of tribulations. He never forgot to send his contribution for the three years I spent in exile and I’m eternally grateful.
There is no money-guzzler like the media. I was totally frustrated one terrible evening when Jimi Akinniyi, one of our most committed reporters, walked in and told me what could have been a powerful message from God. He said he had earlier met a friend of his, Gbenga Adesanya, who offered to help us with some money without being close to me. I was delirious. The other and major miracle came when my friend, Dele Balogun, a businessman and educationist in London, invited me to a home in Surrey to interview a prominent Nigerian politician, Dr Bode Olajumoke. I met a very simple and unassuming gentleman who picked his words slowly but assuredly. In the course of our divine interaction, he told me his wife loves Ovation to bits but they could see we were just struggling with it. I told him the whole truth and departed.
A few weeks later, I got a call from Dr Olajumoke and he said his mind has been with me since we met and he has been thinking of my challenges. He then asked what he could do to help and I responded that he should act as God directed him. He said he likes my personality and was ready to grant me an interest free loan. He asked for my account details which I faxed urgently. He redeemed his pledge and I was elated.
The loan improved our status but as usual with the media business, it was like the abiku child, it comes and goes. No matter how much you pumped in, it was bound to evaporate in little time. Not many people understood how this business works, but I like to describe it as the ultimate casino. You have to be a gambler of sorts to make appreciable impact and success in the media industry. There are just too many variables, especially if your operations are as humongous and international like ours. The loan soon evaporated and it became a ding dong affair as we barely scratched the surface. To my greatest surprise, Dr Olajumoke did not only write off the loan, he later gave me more to keep us going. He believed so much in our ability to compete with the best of the world.
Between 1996 and 1998, we worked assiduously to stay afloat. We were hit on the solar plexus several times by blows that would have felled a giant but we had become resilient to the vagaries of the industry and knew how to absorb the rude shocks. The fact that I could not visit Nigeria made matters worse. I had to depend on others for most things.  I was lucky that most of the people I turned to were willing to help but another man’s eyes can never be the same as one’s own eyes!
However, in between working on Ovation, I never slowed down on my political activities. I worked feverishly to attack the dictatorial and repressive regime of General Sani Abacha. I joined the Radio Kudirat team and ran the Yoruba segment. I went by the pseudonym Saliu Elenugboro, Eni Olorun o pa! I worked closely with the NADECO chieftains and spent any free moment I had with Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Tokunbo Afikuyomi. We were in the vanguard of the battle for the actualisation of the June 12 which was definitely won by Chief Moshood Abiola.
On June 8, 1998, General Sani Abacha was pronounced dead. It first started like a false rumour, the kind of which social media is now replete with, and I instantly dismissed the story.  However, I got a call from Chief Segun Osoba who confirmed the shocking news. I was soon invited over to the CNN studio around Tottenham Court Road for my comments on the late military ruler. I felt a tinge of somnambulism and was in an emotional state, totally confounded by the development. There were rumours that Chief Moshood Abiola would soon be released. And we were naturally expectant.
Then the big bang came on July 7, 1998 and I crashed to earth with a thud, filled with indescribable sadness, nay devastation, as reports that Chief Abiola had died suddenly and mysteriously ruled the airwaves. Ovation had to do a special cover as the authority on Abiola. It was titled GOOD BYE TO A GOOD MAN. The Magazine disappeared from the streets as it sold out as soon as it went out.
I knew it was time to end my life in exile…

FCE Kotangora graduates 10 sets at convocation •FG restates commitment to teacher education

    Provost, Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Niger State, Dr. Nathaniel Odediran (right), representative of the Minister of Education, Professor Monday Tommy Joshua; registrar, Mrs Aisha Bukar and the Best Graduating Student, Abraham Baba Zhiri (left), at the convocation of the college, last week.

    A cumulative 11,056 new graduate teachers representing 10 sets from 2005 to 2015 took part in the 26th to 35th combined convocation ceremonies of the Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Niger State, last Saturday.

   The provost of the college, Dr. Nathaniel Odediran, listed acute shortage of funds as one of the reasons for the prolonged delay in graduating the students.

    In his speech at the event, the executive secretary, National Commission for Colleges of Education, Professor Monday Joshua, expressed concern at the development, but said he was convinced the graduates are of good quality, given the monitoring the commission had carried out in the college in the past 10 years.

   The federal government, at the event, reiterated its commitment to teacher education because of its belief that no nation can rise above the quality of its teachers.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, said in his address: “It is a statement of fact that education can only thrive under a peaceful atmosphere, social justice and equity. It is, therefore, mandatory for all stakeholders to work assiduously towards ensuring qualitative teacher education in all our colleges of education in Nigeria.”

    Adamu Adamu noted that despite what Nigeria is going through at the moment in terms of insecurity, prevalence of corruption, kidnapping and child abuse, the incumbent administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is poised to move the nation towards greatness in all spheres of life.

NIGERIA-CHINA TRADE AGREEMENT: ANALYSIS OF SOME CRITICAL ISSUES BY OJONUGWA USMAN

From the collapse of the gold standard in the 1930s to the emergence of the Bretton Woods System of adjustable peg of the 1940s, which disintegrated in the early

                                                          DKINGJAY'S PHOTO

1970s, all countries around the world adopted dollar as international trade currency because of its relative stability and allowed exchange rate to freely float. Recently, the government of Nigeria had to enter into a trade deal with the government of China. This is because of the pressure on naira emanating from the unabated oscillations in the crude oil prices and the revenues of our dear country. The idea behind this deal is to make naira relatively strong internationally. The goods hitherto being imported from China with US dollar have to be paid with naira's equivalent. By this trade agreement, US dollar would not be totally eliminated in the trade transactions between the two countries. What this agreement means is that, instead of Nigeria’s business men buying US dollar from CBN through FOREX, they can now pay for those goods in Chinese Yuan through the CBN; meanwhile the prices are pegged to US dollar.

Now, one may be tempted to ask; of what benefit is this trade agreement to Nigeria? Would this deal result in a Mercantlist’s zero-sum-game of trade or will the Neo-classical economists’ positive-sum-game of trade postulations hold? The answers to these questions are very important. First and foremost, since about 70% of Nigeria’s imports come from China, it means that in the short-run Nigeria’s foreign reserves kept in US dollar would be significantly protected against depletion and consequently, naira would be stronger since the pressure against US dollar will tend to reduce. Secondly, the industries and other infrastructures that will be built as a result of the deal, would no doubt, generate employments. Thirdly, since the discount house for all the transactions of African countries with China is going be situated in Nigeria, there is a tendency for Nigeria to gain from the deal through service charges, taxes, employment generation etc.

However, the challenges that may be faced in this trade agreement are numerous. First of all, there is a tendency that in the long run, if Nigeria could not boost the domestic productive capacity, the trade will be unfavourable to Nigeria, hence prices of domestic goods would skyrocket and what is presently happening would re-occur. This remains the major argument of those against this trade agreement! Secondly, China is known for producing fake goods. Therefore, Nigeria could be come a dumping country for Chinese goods if Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) and other organizations saddled with the responsibility of regulating the standard of imported goods are not strengthened to work effectively. Thirdly, China is known for employing cheap labour. If Nigeria allows China to take over the productive force of the country, then Nigerian Labour Congress should stand firmly to set the minimum wage that should be paid to indigenous workers. Fourthly, would the ‘oligarchy’ in Nigeria and those around the world allow this to work? Actually, I have argued severally that development has not failed in Nigeria because the ‘power vested interests’ did not make any purposeful attempt in the real sense of the word. If you could remember, about 3 to 4 years ago when China attempted to remove its foreign reserves from US dollar, China lost a significant amount of its reserves through US manipulation of the supply of dollar. These world super-power countries hold the key to development!

To conclude this short article, I would use this opportunity to advise the government of Nigeria and its managers to be fully committed to development by continuing to pursue the development/growth –driven policies instead of prioritizing what is not development-driven. Recent economic literature have exposed the road-map of economic growth and development as practically seen in the growth miracles of South Asian Countries which should be our guiding principle.