Tag Archives: One Year

EU Split One Year After Merkel Migrant Offer

Posted on by
26

One year since Germany controversially opened its arms to Syrians fleeing war, the EU has tightened the borders of “Fortress Europe” but remains deeply divided over how to share the refugee burden.

Angela Merkel justified her decision at the time by saying that the biggest migrant crisis since World War II “did not reflect well on Europe”, yet other countries furiously accused her of opening the floodgates.

Since last year when one million migrants entered the continent, the EU has successfully shut the main Balkans route, while a deal with Turkey has massively reduced numbers reaching the Greek islands.

However the bloc’s flagship scheme to share out refugees around the bloc has been an embarrassing failure — meeting just two percent of its target — while deaths in the Mediterranean have actually risen this year.

Yves Pascouau, director of migration at the European Policy Centre think-tank, told AFP that the “idea of cutting migration routes, in terms of realpolitik, has worked effectively.”

But the deal with post-coup-bid Turkey is “fragile” and “we have still not succeeded in overcoming the divisions between member states” on sharing out migrants and on reforming asylum rules.

Read More:

http://guardian.ng/news/eu-split-one-year-after-merkel-migrant-offer/

One Year In Office: NOI Poll Rates Buhari

Posted on by
1

Nigerians have given President Muhammadu Buhari 64 per cent average in its overall job performance rating after one year in office.

The latest polls results by NOIPolls Limited released on Monday revealed that President Buhari’s approval rating between June 2015 and May 2016 ranged from his highest of 80 per cent in October 2015 to the lowest of 42 per cent in April 2016.

NOIPolls regularly conducts periodic opinion polls and studies on various socio-economic and political issues in Nigeria.

Compared to one year ago, the poll said 44 per cent of Nigerians now believe the country was currently moving in the right direction under President Buhari, against the opinion of 37 per cent of the sample population that said the country was moving in the wrong direction.

Only 19 per cent said the country was neither moving in the right nor wrong direction.

Further analysis of specific indices of the study showed that Nigerians rated as average at 55 and 47 per cent the president’s performance on corruption and national security respectively, while 14 per cent rated very poorly his performance on job creation and handling of the economy (21 per cent).

On the most important issue(s) the administration should focus its attention on over the remaining three years, the poll said Nigerians identified unemployment (21 per cent), power (17 per cent), and the economy (16 per cent) as top priority areas.

Details of the findings based on geo-political zones indicated that the North-West and North-East geopolitical zones with the highest proportion of respondents gave the president 81 per cent each, while the South-South and South-East zones accounted for the highest proportion of respondents who disapproved the president’s performance with 35 per cent each.

The report said the average overall approval of 64 per cent by respondents cuts across all age groups, with more male respondents (67 per cent) approving his performance than female (60 per cent).

On why they approved or disapproved the president’s job performance, the result showed that the open-ended answers, particularly in May 2016, cited the improved security (31 per cent), the fight against corruption (17 per cent) and the president’s good intentions (16 per cent), among other reasons.

On the other hand, those who disapproved the president’s performance cited the worsening economy (30 per cent), the unrealized expectation for change (29 per cent) and the increase in prices of goods and services (21 per cent), to mention a few.

On recommendations for the most important issues the administration should focus on in the remaining three years, 21 per cent of Nigerians said unemployment; 17 per cent rooted for power/electricity, while 16 per cent were in support of economy.

Other categories included food and agriculture (11 per cent), education (nine per cent), and security (seven per cent), among others.

Credit: PremiumTimes

Aso Rock Security Operatives Lament One Year Unpaid Allowance- Report

Posted on by
Reply

Some security operatives attached to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, are currently groaning under heavy debts as a result of the stoppage of their special allowance referred to as the Risk Cautious Allowance, according to Punch.

They have not been paid the monthly allowance since May 2015 when the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari came on board despite repeated promises made to them on the issue.

The security officers include those of the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Services, the Nigerian Intelligence Agency, the Federal Road Safety Commission and the Fire Service among others.

Some of the security operatives, who spoke on condition of anonymity on Tuesday, lamented that they had not been able to meet their various financial obligations because of the development.

They said despite this, authorities of the Presidential Villa kept introducing additional security measures that further tasked them daily.

A policeman said that because of the non-payment of the allowance, some policemen, who could no longer afford increasing transport fares, had converted their beats to temporary homes.

“It is not easy! We can no longer cope with the increase in transport fare. Policemen are now passing the night at their beats. In the evening, you can go to Gate 4 and 5 among other spots in the Villa to confirm this,” he said.

Another operative, a soldier, said they were feeling the brunt of the non-payment of the allowance more because most of them were junior officers who collected far less than N50,000 monthly as salary.

“I could not pay the school fee of my daughter last term. Another term is starting soon. Most of us are junior officers with less than N50,000 as salary. We always augment our salary with this small allowance but they have denied us of it,” he lamented.

Another security operative said it was not fair for the authorities to remain silent in the face of the growing disquiet over the issue.

He said the right thing to do was for them to address the operatives on efforts being made to pay them and when the payment would be done.

He added that the last they heard on the matter was when the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, directed all operatives in the Presidential Villa to fill some forms running into about five pages.

He said not satisfied with the arrangement, heads of about two security agencies asked their men not to fill the forms.

Credit: Punch

Nigerian Stock Market Loses N2.354tn In One Year

Posted on by
1

The market capitalization (equities only) of the Nigerian stock market has shed a total of N2.354tn in the past year.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange, in its fourth quarter 2014 Fact Sheet, put the market capitalization at N11.478tn; but at the end of trading on Friday, it stood at N9.124tn.

This, therefore, represents a 20.5 per cent drop in the stock market value.

The market had been on a decline for the greater part of this year due to various factors.

In January alone, the renewed dumping of shares by investors at the stock market over uncertainty in the political landscape led to a dip of N1.16tn in the market capitalization of the Exchange in the first three trading days of the year.

Trading on the NSE in 2014 had closed with a decline of 16.1 per cent in the market capitalization, which resulted in the stock market opening 2015 on a bearish note.

The NSE All Share Index, which stood at an average 34,657.15 points in the last quarter of 2014, has fallen to 26,537.36 so far this year, according to NSE statistics released on Friday. This represents a drop of 23.4 per cent.

This trend has further shattered the dreams of the Exchange to stabilize and further grow the market capitalization.

The Chief Executive Officer of the NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyema, had in the early part of this year said that his self-imposed target of achieving $1tn (about N197tn) market capitalization by 2016 was no longer feasible.

Credit: Punch