BRITAIN has listed the use of Nigeria’s oil wealth for the benefit of the citizens and a crackdown on the dumping of fake products in the country as among its major expectations from the Federal Government.
It said the expectations were informed by Nigerians’ repeated requests that the country’s oil and gas resources be used to better their living conditions and that the damage being done the local economy by fake goods from abroad be tackled.
The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Bob Dewar and Baroness Linda Chalker, raised the twin issues at separate events in Abuja.
While Dewar said his various encounters with Nigerians had shown that they were desirous of better use of the country’s oil wealth by the government to improve their living conditions, Chalker warned that if the Federal Government failed to tackle the problems counterfeit products posed to the economy, it might never be able to revive its dying industries.
Dewar spoke on Wednesday night at a grand reception to mark the birthday of the Queen Elizabeth of England in Abuja while Chalker, a former parliamentarian, expressed her fears during a visit to the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) yesterday.
At the event in honour of the Queen, the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu appealed to United Kingdom (UK) to return to the old days when Nigerians did not need visas to travel to Britain because their country is a member of the Commonwealth. He reasoned that since Nigeria is a prominent member of the body, Britain could invoke the initial understanding, which Commonwealth countries still enjoy.
The event held at the lawns of the Maitama official residence of the envoy was also to celebrate “the constructive partnership” between Britain and Nigeria. It was attended by the Minister of Interior, Gen. Godwin Abbe; Ekweremadu, Tourism and Development Minister, Adetokunbo Kayode; his counterpart in the Environment Ministry, Halima Tayo Alao; Senators Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, Sani Yerima, Adamu Aliero; Chief Solomon Lar, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, chairman, African Business Roundtable, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, and the British Minister of State for Justice, David Hanson.
Dewar said: “Ordinary Nigerians whom I have met in the various states I have visited around the country have expressed the desire to see better use of the oil and gas revenue and we are working closely at federal and state levels to help bring about such better use of the country’s significant resources – so that citizens can benefit from the education and health and other services and infrastructures such as power and roads that they wish for.”
As a toast to the growing desire by Britain to help Nigeria achieve its economic reforms, Dewar said the Lord Mayor of the City of London, representing UK’s financial and banking services, would visit the country soon “with an important delegation.”
Dewar said: “Your Excellencies, Nigeria is a key partner for the UK and one of Africa’s superpowers. Britain’s very close and warm relationship with Nigeria continues to be based on mutual respect. We are historic, long-standing and genuine friends. And our partnership builds on mutual interest and shared objectives across a very wide agenda in so many areas of real importance to our respective countries, as witnessed by our minister’s visit. And it is a truly honest relationship as befits true friends who know each other so well.”
He continued: “We are working hard to deepen further our practical co-operation, aiming to add value and quality. We believe we share interests in Africa and wider, working together for peace, human rights and democracy and to reduce poverty. In Nigeria, we believe the UK can make qualitative contribution to the achievement of the objectives of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and his government and of Nigeria’s federal democracy, not least in helping build links, institutions, integrity and compliance with values and standards of the international rules-based system.
We encourage and support Nigeria to take forward with determination, the campaign against corruption and for better governance and for electoral and economic reforms. Practical performance in these objectives will be important, not least in giving confidence to UK and other investors.”
Chalker, who also chairs a pan-African group of advisers, alleged that China was responsible for 80 per cent of the counterfeit products in the world market while India accounts for 10 per cent of such goods.
She put the yearly global loss from counterfeiting at $630 billion.
Chalker called for concerted efforts by law enforcement agencies in Nigeria to check the influx of counterfeit products into the country, adding that the Nigerian government should strengthen the operations of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Customs and the police to give the war against counterfeiting a boost.
She described the situation in Africa as very pathetic, stressing that $630 billion was lost yearly “to faking by manufacturers, high revenue is lost in the production of counterfeiting, the loss of revenue to ministries of finance is more than $1 trillion.
“The growth is very touching in Africa. Africa’s problem is border porous and weak Customs operations. Counterfeiting is the greatest danger to the society, 80 per cent of counterfeiting comes from China while 10 per cent of it comes from India. Law enforcement agencies should strive harder to eliminate the production of counterfeiting goods in the country,” she said.
The Director-General of CPC, Ify Umenyi, explained that the council had established working relationship with related agencies to check the problem of dumping of fake products in Nigeria.