I won’t devalue naira, says Buhari

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari said, Wednesday, in Paris, France, that he opposed a further weakening of the naira and openly endorsed the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s policy of restricting foreign-exchange trading.

The President, who was answering questions in an interview with France 24 broadcast, said: “I do not think it is healthy for us to get the naira devalued. The Central Bank is providing ample foreign exchange to essential services, industries.”

CBN has been under pressure from foreign investors to further devalue the naira. Nigeria had, last year, devalued the naira to N197 to the dollar from N160. The naira was further adjusted slightly in July to N199 to the dollar. As a result of the continued pressure on the naira, CBN introduced some measures to curb the excess demand for foreign exchange.

This, however, did not go down well with some of the foreign investors. After the crash of oil prices last year, the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, reacted to the naira’s drop to a record low in February by extending trading curbs and introducing bans on purchases of dollars by 41 items, which CBN said cannot access foreign exchange from the Nigeria market.

CBN, JPMorgan clash

The naira has since stabilized at the inter-bank market, but foreign investors, local businesses and even some members of CBN Monetary Policy Committee have complained that the naira is overvalued.

Reacting to these measures put in place by the CBN, JPMorgan excluded Nigeria bonds from its bond index.

Reacting to JPMorgan’s decision, CBN’s Debt Management Office and the Ministry of Finance, in a joint statement, said: “It will be recalled that Nigeria was included in the index in October 2012, based on the existence of an active domestic market for FGN Bonds supported by a Two-Way Quote System, dedicated market makers and diverse investors.

“However, in January 2015, JP Morgan placed Nigeria on an Index Watch as a result of their concerns in the operations of our Foreign Exchange, FX, market, namely lack of liquidity for transactions, lack of transparency in the determination of the exchange rate and lack of a fully functional two-way FX market.

“In our continuous bid to strengthen the Nigerian financial market and enhance our status as a preferred destination for investors, we took measures to improve the market.

Despite the fact that oil prices have fallen by nearly 60 percent in one year, which should expectedly reduce the amount of liquidity in the market, CBN ensured that all genuine and effective demands were met, especially those from foreign investors.

“On transparency, CBN mandated that all FX transactions were posted online in the Reuters Trading Platform so that all stakeholders can easily verify all transactions in the market.

In addition, the official FX window at CBN were closed to ensure a level-playing field in the pricing of foreign exchange. It is important to note that a functional two-way FX market already exists in Nigeria.

CBN justifies regulation

“However, given the high propensity for speculation, round tripping, and rent-seeking in the market, it became imperative that participants are not allowed to simply trade currencies, but are only in the market to fulfill genuine customer demands to pay for eligible imports and other transactions.

“In the light of this, we introduced an order-based, two-way FX market, which has resulted in the stability of the exchange rate in the interbank market over the past seven months and largely eliminated speculators from the market.

“Despite these positive outcomes, JPMorgan would prefer that we remove this rule, even though it is obvious that doing so would lead to an indeterminate depreciation of the naira. With dwindling oil prices, we believe that an order-based two-way market best serves Nigeria’s interest at the moment.

“While we would continue to ensure that there is liquidity and transparency in the market, we would like to note that the market for FGN Bonds remains strong and active due, primarily, to the strength and diversity of the domestic investor base.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Federal Government sees Nigeria and the interest of Nigerians as paramount. It will, therefore, only continue to take economic decisions that will impact positively in the lives of all Nigerians.”

President Buhari also said in the interview that markets were not being harmed by the delay in ministerial appointments, which he says will happen by the end of the month.

He said: “Work is being done by technocrats; they are there and they provide the continuity.”

The naira remained little changed at 199.05 per dollar on the inter-bank market at in Lagos.

800,000 women caught in VVF nightmare

Obstetric fistula, otherwise called Vesico Vagina Fistula (VVF), is a nightmare in the woman’s world. It is estimated that two million women suffer  from obstetric fistula globally.

But Nigeria has the highest prevalence of VVF in  the world, with 800,000 women living with the  problem and about 20,000 new cases occurring annually. It could even mean death.

Statistically, 90 percent of these cases go untreated. This implies that about 55 women are infected by VVF  and 18,000 cases  are untreated daily.

VVF  is an abnormal hole between the bladder or rectum and the vagina characterized by continuous and uncontrollable leakage of urine and/or faeces following childbirth. Obstructed labour without timely intervention is by far the most common cause of obstetric fistula.

With these great numbers of women suffering from this health nightmare, it indeed becomes a phenomenon that must be addressed.

The scourge has reached a stage where all well-meaning individuals need to rise up to tackle it.

Surprisingly, as critical as the situation is, majority of Nigerians are ignorant of VVF. When it happens to their colleagues or relatives or even wives, they see it as a sign of punishment from the ‘gods’, or a consequence of promiscuity.

This development propelled a celebrated Nollywood actress, Stephanie Linus, and the Fistula Care Plus Nigeria, with the support of the Federal Government and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to premier a movie, ‘Dry’, to narrate the ordeal faced by women, majority of whom are from the northern part of the country.

The movie reveals child/early marriage, religion beliefs which prevent pregnant women from accessing medical care (antenatal) and the obnoxious African culture that forces them to resort to the use of traditional way of delivery, as major causes of VVF.

‘Dry’ is a movie based on the true story of Zara and Halima who find themselves in the same cultural trap regardless of their backgrounds. They struggle to give meaning to their lives.

Speaking during the premier at Silverbird Cinema in Abuja, the country manager of Fistula Care Plus Nigeria, Dr. Habib Sadauki, and Linus stressed the need to improve on primary health care system in the country.

Sadauki said; “We are at a critical time in Nigeria, where we can make even greater impact so that more women living with fistula can be treated. We also must help prevent fistula from happening in the first place.”

Linus explained that women were going through a lot in the country, but sometimes people pretend not to see their situations, stressing the need for a collective effort to address the problem.

According to her, the culture has relegated women to the background, takes away their voice and right to life as human beings. “The culture has made them to be like objects of exchange for wealth/money, sold into slavery for sexual pleasure and baby making purposes”, the actress stated.

“When your childhood, your innocence is taken away from you, you can never get it back. Allow them to be children, let them grow up, so that they can make positive decisions about what happens to their body, what happens to their lives, and they will become more productive.

“Give them access to education, good medical care and when you give them all of this, you know you are building women, who are sustainable  and can also be able to take care of the family.

“We have all the fantastic laws that we need to be enforced, we need the parents to play their roles; we need the medical part of it, doctors and hospitals to also play their roles.

“We ourselves need to change our perception of things, of cultural practices that are not moving us forward as a nation; even women are also to be blamed. We are complaining about men, but we are also causing the problems for  our own fellow women; so all of these people need to be aware.

“The first point of action is to bring it to the table; we don’t want to keep it in the background, because it is never going to solve any problem. It is not good to deny or pretend that we don’t have such in our society, but we are bringing it to the forefront, so we can talk about it and move forward especially in this 21st century.

“It is not only in Nigeria, it happens across Africa, across Asia; it is a world problem and that is why we want to shine enough  search light, and that also it is not a northern thing, something you can find it across Nigeria”.

Do u know that 30% of Nigerian children are stunted due to inadequate nutrition

Prof. Ngozi Nnam, the National President, Nutrition Society of Nigeria, on Wednesday said 37 per cent of Nigerian children are stunted due to inadequate nutrition. Nnam said this in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the 45th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the society in Lagos.

“It is a well-known fact that nutrition is the driver of development. “Any country that has her citizens in adequate nutrition is more likely to develop better. “Average Nigerian child is suffering from malnutrition, so we need to ensure that Nigerian children who will be the future leaders are in state of adequate nutrition.

“Adequate nutrition will help their brains to be well developed so that they can contribute their own quota toward the nation’s building,’’ she said. Nnam, however, called on government at all levels to initiate policies that would improve the nutritional status of Nigerian child and also support breastfeeding. According to her, supporting breastfeeding in Nigeria is essential.

“It is estimated that if we can scale up breastfeeding, we will reduce malnutrition by at least 20 per cent.’’ She said that governments should support the society to ensure that children were breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of life.

“We want government at the centre to approve six months maternity leave for women so that they will have the opportunity to stay put and exclusively breastfeed their babies.

“It will also be good if fathers are given paternity leave so that they will give necessary support to mothers during this critical period. “I commend Lagos State Government for its initiative on this policy and hereby call on others to take this bold step by approving six months maternity leave. “Breastfeeding is cost effective and remains the perfect food for the baby with no added cost to the mother.

“It is also essential to note that necessary development of a child would be done during breastfeeding, once a child missed this, it may lead to permanent disability. “The disability may be in form of mental health or physical development and vital organs in the body,’’ Nnam said. She said lactating mothers do not need to have extra food for breastfeeding, adding that they only need to maintain their normal eating.

“Exclusive breastfeeding is also a way of fighting corruption, because when a mother exclusively breastfeed, she is not thinking of how to buy milk formula, which is expensive. “Money is saved on buying extra supplement because the mother would have stayed at home enough to give necessary food to her child, all these with no extra cost.

“Also, it is important to know that the quality of breast milk is the same regardless of standard of living or food intake, either rich or poor, the quality remains. “The only difference is in the quantity of milk and not the quality,’’ Nnam said.

I’ll pursue programmes that will empower women – Ambode

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, Wednesday, pledged that his administration will pursue programmes and policies that will empower women to be self-reliant, especially through the provision of financial facilities and capacity building. 

The Governor made the pledge at the opening ceremony of the 2015 National Women Conference, organised by the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO) with the theme, ‘Relevance in Economic Turbulence’.

He said the state government in recognition of its female population of over eleven million has continued to increase budgetary provision for women through the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, adding that his administration will continue in this line and create more platforms for women engagement.

He said his administration will establish more skill acquisition centres to equip women to take charge of their destiny and show their relevance in the present economic turbulence.

“The creation of our new Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment is to complement the achievements already made by the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA), he said.

Governor Ambode said his administration in recognition of the important role women play in the state, has already put in place policies to protect and secure them.

“This administration is committed more than ever before to uphold the rule of law and ensure that the law against domestic violence and abuse including rape against our teenage girls are brought to the fore. We are already on the right path in our battle against rapists and the need to protect rape victims”, he said.

The Governor said his government has embarked on a five-year maternal mortality rate reduction programme and an integrated maternal new born and child health strategy as part of efforts to revitalize the public healthcare system with a view to providing free maternal healthcare in all the communities in the state.

“We believe strongly that our women must be encouraged and properly enabled so that our nation can benefit more from their immense potential. At this critical moment of economic challenge, we cannot afford to leave our women behind. To do so, will be like a bird that attempts to fly with one wing”, he said.

Governor of Kebbi State, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, shortly before declaring the conference open, commended Mrs Ambode on her assumption of the leadership of COWLSO, which he said comprises of women who are committed to ensuring the success of their husbands in delivering the dividends of democracy to the people of the state. 

“Given the array of experienced and seasoned personalities that will facilitate the various sessions, I have no doubt in my mind that this edition of the conference will achieve the objectives of the organizers”, he said.

Earlier in her welcome address, Chairman of COWLSO, Mrs Bolanle Ambode, said the Conference was line with government’s vision of providing a platform for women to contribute positively to the development to families, communities and the nation.

She said the theme of the conference was a clarion call to women to be prepared and sensitive to the economic situation in Nigeria and the world.