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Tinubu’s Economic Team’s Flawed, Say Experts

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Some economic experts have picked holes in the composition of the economic team set up by President Bola Tinubu, describing it as flawed.

Tinubu, on Wednesday, approved the establishment of the Presidential Economic Coordination Council (PECC) and the Economic Management Team Emergency Taskforce (EET) to tackle the prevailing economic challenges in the country.

The PECC is made up of President Bola Tinubu as Chairman and Vice President Kashim Shettima as Vice Chairman.

Other members are, President of the Nigerian Senate, Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and other relevant Ministers.

The council will also have some members of the organized private sector, joining for a period not exceeding one (1) year, subject to the President’s directive

They are Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Mr. Tony Elumelu, Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu, Ms. Amina Maina, Mr. Begun Ajayi-Kadir among others.

But economic experts who spoke with Daily Trust on Thursday said the composition was flawed, saying it was composed of stakeholders with vested interests.

A Professor of Economics and the Director, Centre for Economic Policy Analysis and Research, at the University of Lagos, Ndubisi Nwokoma, argued that a professional body such as the Nigeria Economic Society would have made a greater impact in the committee.

He said: “The composition of that team is somewhat flawed because these are stakeholders who all have interest in the economy. If you bring in people who have interest, they would protect their own interest; they would protect their own businesses.

“They would be thinking of policies that actually would favour them, nobody would go into a discussion that would work against him.

“I think bringing professional bodies like the Nigerian Economic Society, these are purely intellectuals, people that don’t have any stake who are not business men, who are just looking at the contextual issues and looking at the direction of government and find out where the government ought to take the economy to and what should be done to get there.”

He expressed concern that the country’s economy has been consumption based, saying: “In terms of where the economy should go, I think fundamentally we have gotten it wrong as a country, I think we need to look at the fundamental issues in terms of the structure of the economy.”

Also speaking, Professor Adeola Adenikinju of the Department of Economics, University of Ibadan and Vice President of the Nigerian Economic Society (NES) while hailing the composition of the committee as timely, however raised issues with its composition.

According to him, the committee is composed of largely government assisted people, who are going to benefit from the expected policies they are coming up with.

“Every government needs to have a body of experts to advise them on the efficacy of policies put in place and what are the new policies to ensure the economy works better.

“In terms of the composition, the intellectuals, the experts who are working in this area are not there. What you see are largely government assisted people who are interested in one contract or the other. So they are not going to be neutral in terms of the advice they are going to give. There is a likelihood that they would want to protect their interest. You don’t have lecturers; you don’t have the Nigerian Economic Society, who are on the intellectual side of the society,” he submitted.

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Tax Reforms: Ndume Mocks Tinubu, Says Bill Dead on Arrival

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The Senator representing Borno South Senatorial District in the National Assembly (NASS), Ali Ndume, has declared that the tax reform bills sent to the legislative arm of government by President Bola Tinubu are dead on arrival.

Ndume argued that the President should listen to the National Economic Council (NEC) and the Northern Governors’ Forum and immediately withdraw the bills.

“If it goes on like that, I can tell you that it will be dead on arrival. We don’t need to study the bills,” the unsparingly blunt lawmaker said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday.

Ndume, one of the longest serving lawmakers in the National Assembly, said the Federal government should be looking at ways to reduce the tax burden on Nigerians and not increase it.

“The general thing is that Nigerians are not willing to talk about or pay any tax now considering the (economic) situation we are in now,” he said.

“Nigerians are willing to pay taxes but they can only pay taxes when they can afford it. Right now, people are struggling to survive. Let people live first before you start asking them for taxes,” he added.

The senator said: “It will be fair to shut the bill down; it is the fairest thing to do”, indicating that he has started campaigning against the bills among his colleagues and he is getting good support to throw out the bills.

Ndume, a stalwart of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC),  said the Tinubu administration needs to reform itself and not increase taxes paid by Nigerians.

“What he (Tinubu) needs to do is to withdraw the bill, educate Nigerians and make us understand it. We are representing the people and the people that we are representing have already spoken.

“The governors, the traditional rulers have said that the bill is not good. So, the best thing to do is to immediately withdraw it.

“Right now, what our people are saying is that they don’t want VAT bill, they don’t even want to hear about it. That is why we are going to make it dead on arrival.”

The tax reform bills which have been sent to the National Assembly have faced scathing criticisms with the 36 state governors asking the President to withdraw the bills from the legislature.

However, the President insisted that the bills would not be withdrawn, saying that “inputs and necessary changes” can be made by the lawmakers.

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National Grid Suffers 10th Collapse in 10 Months

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The national power grid appeared to have collapsed again on Tuesday, reports The Punch

Checks confirmed that the grid lost power generation around 1:39 pm.

As of 1 pm, power generation was 2,711 megawatts, having previously peaked at 3,631 MW.

Earlier, power generation peaked at 3,934.77 MW around six o’clock in the morning.

However, between 2 pm and 3 pm, hourly generation dropped to 0.00 MW.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria confirmed that “the national grid experienced a partial disturbance at about 1:52 pm today, 5th November 2024.”

TCN spokesperson Ndidi Mbah said, “This followed a series of line and generator trippings that caused instability in the grid and, consequently, the partial disturbance of the system.”

She stated that data from the National Control Centre revealed that a part of the grid was not affected by the bulk power disruption.

“TCN engineers are already working to quickly restore bulk power supply to the states affected by the partial disturbance. Presently, bulk power supply has been restored to Abuja at 2:49 pm, and we are gradually restoring it to other parts of the country.

“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our electricity customers,” she said.

This is the 10th time the grid will collapse in 2024.

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Just In: EFCC Arrests Former Delta Gov, Ifeanyi Okowa

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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has arrested a former Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa.

The former governor was arrested on accusations of misusing funds derived from resource allocation.

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