Sunday 28 November 2010

16 days of activism against gender violence continues.




Nigeria: Stronger Women, Stronger Nations seminar on the 25 November at Amnesty International (17-25 New Inn Yard, London, EC2A 3EA) was an eye opener listening to the  works of  the women speakers and advocates as they tackle violence against women in their communities through their works. It is true what the say that a woman changes something, but women change everything. To know more about the works of womenforwomen International pls visit.


A good man brings out the best in a woman, appreciating her worth as a special human being. The 16 days activisim against violence against women continues, Men pls think about what you are bringing out of that woman in your life, family or any woman for that matter. Is it the best OR the worst in her? It is not too late to change. I duff my hat to the good men out there who have made good the women in their lives.





Thursday 18 November 2010

Promoting Smart and Responsible Investment in Africa by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

H.E. Vice Premier Li, Minister Xu, Mayor Huang, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
 Good morning.Thank you for inviting the World Bank here today to continue a decade-long tradition started in 2000 when the World Bank first supported the China Mining Congress in Urumqi. 

China’s mining sector has grown exponentially in the past decade and today is one of the largest in the world. China is now the world’s biggest consumer of minerals like iron ore, copper, aluminum and nickel. To satisfy its demand, China has to look abroad, and Africa is a key supplier.Therefore, let me talk about investments in Africa, speaking as the Managing Director of the World Bank but also drawing on my experience as former Finance Minister of Nigeria.

The Dynamism of Africa
For investors, Africa is an exciting place to be. I am glad that many of you are already there. The continent has tremendous investment opportunities given its natural and human resource abundance.

Pre crisis, between 2002 and 2008, Africa was already growing at 5 percent or more. Post crisis, Africa is projected to grow by 5 percent in 2010 and 5.5 percent in 2011, faster than the developed world as well as Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the Middle East. Today, Africa is among the front-runners in economic growth in the world.

China is part of Africa’s growth story. The economic relationship between Africa and China has been expanding rapidly. Chinese investment can be found in most African countries. One unofficial estimate suggests that more than 1500 Chinese companies have established branches in Africa.

Making Smart and Responsible Investment

From China we have interest and demand. From Africa resources and investment needs. The challenge is to make this marriage of mutually beneficial mining investments between China and Africa a lasting one.

Investment in natural resources is a peculiar kind of investment after all. Sunk costs are high and the assets are not mobile. Companies always have to operate within local communities. Discontent from communities or policy reversals by governments is costly.Investment in mining in Africa has a mixed history and we should learn from it. There are five principles that can be distilled from the past that can help you in making smart and responsible investment decisions. These principles are applicable to every investor working not only in Africa but also anywhere else in the world.

Align Investments with Countries’ Development Priorities

The first core principle is to make investments consistent with national development priorities. If you want a country to welcome you, think smart and think of the country’s overall development agenda. Ask yourself how your investment fits within the country’s overall development objective and strategy.

Above all, this means to create jobs locally. The only labor brought in from outside must be those people whose skills are clearly missing in a country. This is the path to help ensure governments fully welcome your investments as an integral part of their economic development agenda.
For this to happen, the host countries need to have credible development plans. So for the ministers here today from African nations and other developing countries, I hope you are armed with your countries’ development and investment plans, and are ready to work within them to identify opportunities consistent with your needs and priorities. 

Practice Transparency

The second and most critical principle in making a smart and responsible investment is transparency. It is my experience that  the best way to secure a stable environment for your investment is to enter into arrangements with host governments and local communities in a transparent and legally sound manner consistent with international norms.
This is also the best way to manage risks. Many of you are operating in some challenging markets. In the event of problems with the population or government, you want recourse to adequate legal support to resolve the issue. That can’t and won’t happen if transactions are mired in secrecy. You need to let the people know the scope and broad terms of your engagement. If the public doesn’t know what you do, they will turn against you as they do not see the benefits of the investment or when accidents happen.
My own country Nigeria may serve as an example. Dysfunctional relationships between the local community and oil companies led to disruptions in operations in the Niger Delta, and the cost of investment increased exponentially due to security issues.
The need for transparency is even greater when mining contracts are awarded in exchange for infrastructure and other investments. Today, many big Chinese construction companies are developing infrastructure projects in Africa. Some of them have proposed infrastructure investments to be backed by mineral resources.

We all would agree that support for infrastructure is much needed as the continent faces an infrastructure financing gap of USD31 billion a year. But investments in infrastructure in exchange for long-term contracts for minerals are inherently difficult to value. It is precisely in these cases that the agreements must be fully transparent so that citizens can form their own judgment on the basis of full information.

Add Value
The third principle of smart and responsible investment is supporting the development of a value chain. Mining companies should not just come in to extract natural resources in a raw form and ship them away. This is colonial history. Today, they should establish some degree of processing adding value to the raw materials. This creates employment, develops skills, and leads to more buy-in from the local people.

Development in the mining sector also provides growth opportunities for other linked sectors. If all the associated services can be sourced to domestic providers such as domestic food production for miners, uniforms made from national cloth by local manufacturers, and domestic transportation services, it would put your investment squarely in the center of local economy.

Pay What is Due and Do What is Right
The fourth and very important principle is to pay what is due and do what is right. Investors must pay taxes and avoid falling into well known tax evasion techniques such as transfer pricing or bribes to a few high level officials. Bribe paying is not only abhorrent but is counterproductive in the longer term. Many developing countries need tax revenue to invest in their people – a move which will lead to easier investment for you, but for that to happen, you must pay your proper taxes and royalties. It is impossible to imagine today with all the mining going on in DRC, for example, that the revenue to GDP ratio is only 8 percent.  We owe the people of DRC more.

To do business in Africa, you don’t have to pay bribes. My good friend, and one of the most successful African businessmen, Mo Ibrahim, is a living proof of that. Mo was the founder of Celtel, which is now one of Africa's largest mobile operators worth some USD 10 billion with some 20 million subscribers in 15 countries. He can tell you that successful investments can be made with clean hands.In July this year, the U.S. finally passed the financial reform bill that requires oil, gas and mining companies to disclose payments they make to foreign governments. We hope other countries do the same.

At the World Bank, we are working with countries to encourage them to sign on to the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) principles. This requires they publish revenues from mining resources and agree to use these resources efficiently for the benefit of the people. Today, twenty African countries have signed on to these principles. When I was the Finance Minister in Nigeria, one of the key actions I took to restore people’s belief in their government was to work on a sound public financial management system and publish what the government earns and spends. Investors also benefit from the EITI guidelines on how to conduct transactions transparently and legally. I encourage you to support and sign on to EITI if your company has not already done so.

Engage with Local Communities
 The fifth principle is to engage with local communities and communicate your values. All of you here are familiar with the Corporate Social Responsibility concept. It is important that the communities in which you invest know that you care and that you have shared communal values. Many of you are building roads, schools, and hospitals as part of your investment plans. This is encouraging, and plenty of opportunities exist for this as it does help build community relationships and create a friendly environment for your business.
Ensuring workers and community safety is an important part of this agenda. Mining companies must operate with the highest safety and environmental standards. It is your company's reputation at risk if you ignore these standards. You must adhere to them and seek to establish them.  This is an area where the World Bank can assist. This brings me to the issue of collaboration.

Multi-stakeholder Collaboration
To achieve smart and responsible investments, we need multi-stakeholder collaboration. What do I mean by this? I began my talk by saying that I was proud to be here today to represent the World Bank’s decade-long support to the China Mining Congress. But we have more to celebrate as a group. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the close cooperation between China and the World Bank Group. Over the last three decades, we have worked well on multiple fronts making China one of the Bank’s biggest and best partners. The business community in China has also benefited from this long partnership. In the past 10 years, Chinese firms have won the most of international competitive bids worth over USD 20 billion for goods and services financed by World Bank loans and grants. This is a big opportunity for China and a strong point of its participation in a multilateral organization like the World Bank.

Over the years, China’s role has also evolved, and that comes with many opportunities, responsibilities and expectations. Today, China is the 3rd largest shareholder of the World Bank, and it has become a contributor to the International Development Association (IDA)—the World Bank Group’s fund for the poorest, and is working closely with us on the 16th replenishment. We have also been playing an active role in facilitating South-South learning and cooperation between China and other developing countries.
We have an equally long relationship with Africa and have physical presence in most African countries. Therefore, together I believe we can collaborate in the area of mining to ensure that your investments in Africa are smart and a win-win for all.

How can the World Bank Group support and facilitate your investments in Africa?
The World Bank can help lay the ground work for larger investments. Our work in Africa helps improve the infrastructure, governance and investment conditions of the mining sector. In the past two years, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group’s private sector arm, has invested in ten mining firms in seven countries. These investments are expected to leverage other investments in mining development.
We provide knowledge and guidance on country development plans and advise governments on how extractive industries fit in the overall economic framework. We promote transparent, legally sound, and effective transactions through global programs like the EITI.We also have expertise in community relationship building and we help establish better safety and environmental safeguards.
Last but not least, our Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) provides political risk insurance to investors and supports developmentally sound investments.

Conclusion
To conclude my remarks, let me reiterate the message I began this speech with. Africa is an exciting destination for mining and other investments. It is possible to invest securely and profitably for the long term. Just follow common sense: Align Investments with Countries’ Development Priorities; Practice Transparency; Add Value to the Country and its People; Pay What is Due and Do What is Right; and Engage with Local Communities.

There is a real opportunity for all of you to show to the world that your investments in Africa are good for you, good for the country, and good for the people. Your commitments are indispensable to achieve what President Hu Jintao called mutually-beneficial and win-win cooperation between China and Africa.

In Nigeria we have a saying “aka nni kwo aka ekpe, aka ekpe akwo aka nni. nwacha adi ocha!!” which translates to, if the right hand washes the left hand, the left hand washes the right hand, they will both be clean. If China and Africa could work together in a transparent and mutually beneficial way, I am convinced that when history is written, this collaboration will be a strong part of the economic recovery story post financial crises.   Thank you for your attention.


This speech was given by Dr Okonjo-Iweala at the 2010 China Mining Congress and Expo, Tianjin, China, on November 16, 2010.

Advocates for Reliable and Sustainable Electricity in Nigeria

If you viewed our infrastructure as a pyramid, electricity would be the base, the bedrock, the foundation upon which everything else depends. To understand the predicament we find ourselves in Nigeria without electricity, imagine inverting that pyramid to where everything from the base down is dependent on the unstable apex. "Na so e be for Naija"
No one needs to tell us that our leaders benefit enormously from the failing Electricity. In many occasions, I have consistently termed our PHCN as 'quasi-monopolistic quagmire' for the ceaseless harm it does to our economy and infrastructural developments. Where is this self-appointed giant of Africa, with no electricity to power its rapidly growing mobile industry and to light up its environment? Aside from their moments of junketing around Europe and America, no lesson learned by our venal politicians from their yearly extravagant trips to Hajj and Jerusalem, the Holy lands that speak for themselves in all ramification. Our crooked leaders are just too wicked to lead our society. Therefore, let's agitate for the privatization of PHCN in order to have a reliable and sustainable Electricity in Nigeria. One clever thing we should understand about privatization is that, if you don't supply me Electricity, you can't send me a bill and you can't take my money. After all, our politicians have some stake in our privatized communication sector and it is moving rapidly - One Nigerian owns two mobile phones. Another beauty of a privatized power is that, while you live in the South, you can purchase some Units of Electricity from any of the distribution companies in the North of Nigeria, without changing your electricity cables.

It would be hard to teach someone to smile, whoever attempts to teach someone to want to serve will blame himself, you can't teach personality. What we can do, however, is elect people with those qualities and they will lead us to a promised land.



Michael Adebayo Omidiora is a technology practitioner and a vast international speaker on the subject and presently a technology Grad Student at Helsinki University .

Saturday 13 November 2010

Myanmar's Suu Kyi - from housewife to democracy hero

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6AB28720101112


Reuters) - Aung San Suu Kyi, who went from English housewife to Myanmar's opposition leader and world famous political prisoner, is a powerful symbol of the struggle against dictatorship in one of the world's most oppressive countries.
Yet despite her steely determination in confronting the generals, the former Burma has moved no closer to democracy after 48 years of brutal military rule, holding an election on Sunday that the military junta's party won easily.
Detained for 15 of the past 21 years, the 65-year-old pro-democracy leader appears on the cusp of freedom.
Her latest term of house arrest expires on Saturday. Hundreds have gathered outside her party headquarters, but the country's reclusive military rulers have not indicated whether she will walk free or face yet another extension of her house arrest.
Slightly built and soft-spoken, she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and plays a crucial role in keeping world attention on Myanmar's military junta and its human rights record.
Known simply as "The Lady" by millions of her countrymen, she refuses to give up on the resource-rich country. "For me, real freedom is freedom from fear and unless you can live free from fear you cannot live a dignified human life," she once said.
Her National League for Democracy (NLD) won the country's last elections, in 1990, by a landslide, but has never been allowed to govern. After deciding not to contest Sunday's election, her party was disbanded by the junta.
She was due to be released on May 27 last year. That changed when an American intruder swam to her lakeside home just weeks before she was to be freed, claiming God had sent him to warn her she would be the target of an assassination plot.
She was sentenced to house arrest the following August for allowing the intruder, John Yettaw, to stay two nights, which was deemed to be an infringement of security laws.
She was last freed in May 2002 and immediately travelled the country to meet supporters, drawing huge crowds -- and increasing hostility from backers of the military government.
Then, on May 30, 2003, Suu Kyi and her convoy were, according to rights groups, ambushed and attacked by government-affiliated thugs. Dissidents in exile suspect more than 70 NLD followers were killed.
The military blamed the clashes on Suu Kyi and placed her under "protective custody" at a secret location, sparking international outrage and sanctions from the West and an unprecedented rebuke from Yangon's neighbours.
Since major surgery in September 2003, she has been confined to her home on Yangon's University Avenue, a prisoner in all but name, without the use of a telephone and with her visitors restricted.
"SECOND STRUGGLE"
Suu Kyi spent much of her life abroad before returning to her family's home on Yangon's Inya Lake in April 1988 to care for her ailing mother just as resentment of military rule boiled over into pro-democracy protests across the country.
She first spoke to crowds of protesters from the steps of the capital's historic Shwedagon Pagoda on August 26 that year.

Tuesday 9 November 2010

THE RISE OF NIGERIANS FOR NIGERIA! Delivered at the Future Awards town hall meeting 10-11-2010,Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 50 Hoxton Square,London N1 6PB.


Whether we like it or not, the future of Nigeria is on our shoulders, yours and mine!


Many of us here are supporters of various international football clubs and it’s not uncommon to here slogans like “Blue for life”, “Gunners for life” from us the African supporters of these clubs. But we rarely hear the slogan, “Niger for life”
How many of us have that same zeal, show that same passion we dedicate to our football teams to our dear country Nigeria, that come what may we shall see the Nigeria that we only dream about come to pass? I doubt if many here tonight.
And this is not a criticism of you if you don’t, afterall what really can be pointed to, that Nigeria has given or made of one? Nothing Really!  
But like my intro states, whether we like it or not, the future of Nigeria is on our shoulders, yours and mine! Nigeria cannot get better if you and I in this room haven’t resolved to see it become better, and that is regardless of the diehard issues we face as a nation.
It is time for Africa to rise as a whole, and Nigeria to rise again as the giant of Africa!  It is not coincidental that just last month we celebrated our golden jubilee as a nation, in addition that, in the book of  Leviticus 25vs 10-13 & Luke18 vs3 -5 where God refers to jubilee as liberation and us repossessing all.
Look all around you, the world is changing.
Some think it is stupidity, some say it is bravery, the appointment of a twenty year old in Brazil as commissioner of Police. In France, there has been ongoing protests, about the retirement pension and the people are not pleased about this latest reformation by their president Sarkozy,
Then in Italy,protesters take to the streets against a new refuge site in a community who already says they suffer illnesses from the one there. They are reminding, Berlusconi of his campaign agenda, to deal with the waste product of the country
In Britain where we are, we can look at the coalition government even in their differences, going tough together, with the biggest spending review cuts ever, the exchequer 33 years old George Osborne, says it is to reposition the future.. The lesson of this legacy is that it has been boldly made by, young dynamic leaders with vision coming together to disagree and agree, as they face the future of Britain, whether they will sink or swim, they are taking the bull by the horn.
Africans must rise for the advancement of Africa, even this fundamental truth was said by the ex prime minister of Britain, Tony Blair that “Africans must stand for Africa”. In Haiti, Cholera outbreak is killing people in their droves. In all of this I want to challenge Africa, that it is only from within that people can sort out the continent of Africa, there is just how far, the developed world can take us, the west does not have to spell this out to us, no one call do it for us than ourselves. The continent of Africa is looking for visionaries to redeem it from its captivities, and who else but the young, the future leaders seated here today! I put it to us once again, whether we like it or not, the future of Africa, the future of Nigeria, is on our shoulders yours and mine.
Regardless of sex, age, tribe, God has given the young people, vision, passion and energy that can never be taken from you. You are not a number, you are a visionary Nigerian, capable of rewriting history. Start thinking in those terms not just the material or artificial stuff, think ahead, think of the future what history will write about you and I.
The young has to think of debating, analysing and presenting its vision and leadership skills which will lead to audience, platform, influence, negotiation and a win -win situation. The times we are in is crucial, it must begin now; The rise of Nigerians for Nigeria! The rise of Africans for Africa!
 Thank you.

Delivered by Abimbola Junaid, a social change campaigner, Ambassador for Peace, Universal Peace Federation and the Founder, of Arise Nigerian Woman Foundation, a one stop social change agency for Nigerian women ambassadors and volunteers of rebuilding Nigeria.

For more info visit www.abimbolajunaid.org & www.arisenigerianwoman.org.