NIGERIA'S ROMANCE WITH CHINA, THE SECOND LARGEST ECONOMIC NATION, IS BEARING FRUIT!

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 5. NO 140. 17th April, 2016.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

NIGERIA'S ROMANCE WITH CHINA, THE SECOND LARGEST ECONOMIC NATION, IS BEARING FRUIT!

It may be too early to assess the rate of Nigeria's economic growth in the area of diversification from the sole crude oil foreign exchange earner to agriculture and solid minerals mining, but we can assure Nigerians that, a silent revolution by the new economic team is underway to replace oil monopoly and take the nation out of the woods! In November 2015, Nigeria was rated as the 22nd world's largest economy by International Monetary Fund, (IMF), yet classified as a poor and developing nation all because of the infrastructural decays of many decades and the mismanagement of the nation's finances through endemic grafts, but in spite of this gloomy picture there lies a bright light at the end of the tunnel with the strategic economic plans of this new administration!
Although a lot criticisms had trailed the several overseas trips of President Buhari since his assumption of office, we make bold to state that those trips were geared towards bridging economic deficit gaps through strategic feasible foreign loans and diversification through domestic resources to sustain the ongoing efforts to revamp the economy at a time when the global economic recession remained unabated in view of crude oil glut which resulted from the worst and lowest international prices ever experienced in 12 years! President Buhari just returned from China, which had invaded Africa's developing and under-developed countries on a rescue mission to set them free from self-inflicted poverty to economic viability through the template which catapulted them to becoming one of the current world powers and respected economic blocs - in fact, the second largest after the United States! Several bi-lateral economic agreements were signed between the two countries and efforts were made to quickly bridge the trade imbalance of 80 - 20 per cent  in favour of China, due to Nigeria's penchant for "CHINCO" export products, within a very short time to reverse the trend for massive Nigerian exports to China!

Dividends Of The 5-day State Visit.
Beijing signed agreements to develop infrastructure in Nigeria as part of a drive to deepen its ties with Africa and has offered a loan worth Six billion US dollars to fund infrastructure projects.
President Xi Jingping assured Buhari that there was huge potential for economic co-operation with Nigeria in oil refining and mining.
In view of this developments, Nigeria would soon commence issuance of the cheaper Panda bonds (mainly Yuan denominated) as against Euro bonds and Nigeria-China lopsided trades, which accounts for over 70% of imports into Nigeria would now be concluded in Yuan, while Nigerian traders and businesses, which import mainly from China would conclude their transactions in the Chinese currency, the Renminbi (Yuan), instead of the dollar!
Nigeria's opportunity to trade in the Chinese national currency, the Renminbi (Yuan), instead of the US dollar in a swap deal is geared to shore up investment opportunities that would favour Nigerian businessmen, educational and health care opportunities in China and also, a move to break the dependence of Nigeria on the dollar for international financial and business transactions!
Previously, over 90% of international trades and financial transactions between Nigeria and other countries of the world was done in dollars which exerted much pressure on the naira but CBN would now diversify a huge chunk of Nigeria's foreign reserve from dollars to the Yuan to perfect the agreement and ensure its free flow among the banks as one of the foreign exchange currencies that could be sourced from the foreign exchange reserves of Nigeria! This agreement on Yuan transaction which would create a window for the resuscitation of the Naira slump against the US dollar since January 2016, was signed between the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited and the Central Bank of Nigeria on 13th April, 2016, in Beijing, to include the currency into Nigeria's foreign exchange reserves, an indication that President was determined to transform Nigeria into an exporting and no longer a consuming nation and also a fulfillment of the promise to strengthen the Naira against the US dollar!
Yuan financial transactions is not new to Nigeria because in 2014, there was a move by the Central Bank to increase its Yuan foreign reserves to seven per cent, but in view of this present move by the Buhari Administration to break the US dollar jinx, the percentage might increase to over thirty digits for better international business leverage between Nigeria and its African peers!
Nigeria is now in league with other African countries like Ghana, South Africa and Zimbabwe and also Kazakhstan and Argentina which had integrated the Yuan into their financial markets which at this rate of spread, has become a most-likely replacement to the US dollar, not only in Africa, but globally in settling international trade deals. It is heart- warming to note that Nigeria would become the clearing house for Yuan denominated transactions for the whole of Africa following the agreement with the Chinese Government.

Nigerian Judas Kicks Against Chinese Loan to Nigeria!
Ayodele Fayose needs no further introduction as an enemy of the State of Nigeria! He has never had respect for constituted authority and was always quick to pour vindictive and verbal abuses on elder statemen and even on the incumbent highly respectable and dignified personality of President Muhammadu Buhari whom he swore would never win a presidential election in Nigeria.
In a strongly-worded letter dated 12th April, 2016, Fayose requested Chinese President, Xi Jingping, to cancel the US 2 billion dollar loan being purportedly sought by the Federal Government in view of the fact that "Nigerians were totally opposed to increment of country's debt burden which was already being serviced with 25% of Federal Government's annual budget." One copy of the letter was delivered by Fayose's aides to the Chinese Ambassador in Nigeria while another copy was taken by him (Fayose), to China, to be delivered personally to the Chinese President!
He also said that some of the projects which included the Lagos-Calabar (Chinese-partnership) rail project, for which the loan was being sought, were not captured in the 2016 Budget for which a total sum of N1.84 trillion was needed to execute; adding that he was concerned about the great debt burden that would be transferred to the economy by 2017 when the country would begin to service additional debt to be incurred in 2016 which only portrays insincerity in the fight against corruption!
The Governor alleged that hundreds of millions of British pounds in foreign aid to Nigeria to combat Boko Haram insurgency was diverted to fund "a witch-hunt" against opposition politicians and that the future of Nigerians should not be mortgaged by an autocrat in the person of President Buhari "who has travelled outside of Nigeria for 28 times in ten months of assumption of office at a cost of 50million US dollars!" We are not surprised at Fayose's vituperations against President Buhari because he was opposed to a righteous government being part and parcel of the corrupt Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP), 16 years administration which allowed for free embezzlement of government funds and we know that in a matter of the next three years, would lose his immunity and face the pending fraud case against him in the law courts! "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation."(Romans.13:1-2).
President Buhari is the anointed of God and on special mission to clear the Augean stable in Nigeria; he is a spiritual moving train which no human power can stop until he arrived divine destination! An enemy of Nigeria and Ekiti poor masses like Fayose would promise "stomach infrastructure" but renege, collect with the connivance of the State Assembly, a whooping sum of N19.6 billion of naira in Bank Loans within SIX MONTHS of assumption of office as governor for basic infrastructure, social amenities and payment of backlog of workers salaries but veered into elephant projects to build an International Airport and flyovers of several kilometers in a poverty-stricken State whose workers and pensioners are virtually living from hand to mouth, while the patriotic President of the Talakawas travelled round the world to seek succour for his friends and would never rest until they were nourished nurtured and pacified! The day of reckoning and judgment is closer than Fayose thinks, who was one of the political jobbers who almost destroyed Nigeria's economy through massive institutional corruption believes, when the Almighty God will "give every man according as his work shall be." (Revelation. 22: 11-12).

Divine Rescue Of Nigeria's Economy Is Paramount!
Though neither China, nor the United States, will be the Messiah that would rescue Nigeria from its economic challenges, all the economic gains traceable to the President's overseas journeys in the last 10 months and credited to sound economic judgments of the economic team, Nigeria with resilience will overcome all pressing trade obstacles with all the agreements already in place in no time! However consultations for divine direction for subsequent international contacts must be sought and confirmed spiritually at all times and Mr. President's very senior aides starting with his Vice, should be deployed to represent him according to the "doctrine of division of labour", while he handled the most exigent matters. (Exodus:18:14-27).

How Does The Budget Affect Your Economic Life?
No country can function effectively without proper sectoral allocation of government's expenditure for the delivery of social infrastructure except through a system of annual budgeting of accumulated revenues in its consolidated revenue account! The most important is the Federal Budget which signifies the direction which the federating States would go especially in Nigeria where federal allocations overshadow Internally Generated Revenues (IGR's) of the States!
The Federal Government must ensure even distribution of funds to education, health facilities, sports, housing,  power, energy, agriculture, industry, mining of solid minerals, defence, security, infrastructure etc. according to the enactments in the constitution.
In Nigeria, most citizens believed that corrupt and unimplementable Federal budgets ended with past administrations because none of those documents between 1999-2015 was ever implemented half way at the close of each financial year and unspent funds were never returned into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation! The Budget which is an annual financial document of statements and estimates designed by governments or corporate bodies to analyse income and expenditures of a previous year in comparison to the expectations in the coming year with a view to accommodating any foreseeable fluctuations, had remained an albatross and a jinx year after year in Nigeria!
For instance, the 2015 Nigerian Budget was prepared by a previous administration which virtually drained the coffers before the hand-over date of 29th May, of that year and without sufficient funds, made its implementation almost impossible; and except for some miracles, about half of the 2016 Budget would be implemented with borrowed funds!
Searchlight is usually beamed on the Federal Budget because of its enormous influence and impact on the citizens as a vehicle of economic investment and development in areas of tax evaluation, check on inflation and incentives through legal subsidies on goods and services, determination of foreign exchange rates for business entrepreneurs, and the stimulation and recovery from economic and trade recession as had been the case in Nigeria since 2014!
In the continuous absence of a Federal Budget in April 2016, unpatriotic Nigerian traders are having a field day of illicit gains from inflated prices of local and foreign food items without discrimination or sensitivity to the plight of their very poor fellow citizens while government officials folded their arms in complacency! The entrepreneur is uncertain of the survival of his business in view of the fact that he has no economic guidelines on government's new trade policies or the tax regime in respect of income taxes, imports and exports, customs and excise duties including foreign exchange allocations in the following year!
The Nigerian Electorate and the generality of the populace are in utter confusion and great anxiety as there seemed to be no bright prospects for them in view of the fact that the economy had crashed due to institutional corruption and the unprecedented sharp fall in international crude oil price, long before the All Progressives Congress (APC), took over the mantle of leadership on 29th May, 2015, in spite of the lying lips of former economic gurus!
Is it therefore not surprising that the 2016 Federal Budget which was transmitted to the National Assembly (NASS), in December 2015, is yet to be assented to by the President in the second quarter of 2016 because of a myriad of discrepancies of massive padding by "trusted civil servants", and the contest for supremacy of oversight functions between the Executive and the Legislature?

Who Has Greater Constitutional Powers Of Budget Oversight?
According the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, Section 81 (1) (2) the President shall cause to be prepared and laid before each House of the National Assembly at any time in each financial year estimates of the revenues and expenditure of the Federation for the next following financial year by presenting the heads of expenditure contained in the estimates in a bill to be known as an Appropriation Bill, providing for the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the sums necessary to meet that expenditure and the appropriation of those sums for the purposes specified therein.
In Section 81(4), the President can also initiate a Supplementary Appropriation Bill in any given financial year, if there was insufficiency of funds in the main appropriation and lay such before each House of the National Assembly for oversight and approval. The Legislature on the other hand has very wide powers in the oversight and scrutiny of every budget submitted according to Sections 80(1) (2) (3) (4) (a) (b), and 83(1) (2) and no expenditure could be made by the Executive without the expressed approval of the body of law makers.
However in an unenvisaged situation as the present imbroglio of delayed budget, the President has authorization of expenditure from the  Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, in default of appropriation for the purpose of meeting financial exigencies of government under Section 82 for a period not longer than six months or until the coming into operation of the Appropriation Act, which ever is earlier, provided such expenditures did not exceed the amounts in the appropriation of the previous financial year! It is evident that the tradition of checks and balances as entrenched in the Constitution has played out especially when it is evident that in spite of the Legislature's wide powers of oversight in the Appropriation Act it is only the Executive that can authorize the expenditure of appropriated funds!
It is therefore incumbent for both arms of government to always work in unison and not at cross purposes in spite of allegations and counter allegations of inclusions and exclusions of unappropriated items by interest groups on both sides that are flying around! The only people who suffer are the poor masses whom the so-called representatives in both sides of the divide claim to be protecting their interests as enumerated in earlier paragraphs!
ENOUGH OF BLAME GAMES AND ORGANIZED DECEITS BY THE AFFLUENT AND OPULENT IN THE LEGISLATURE WHOSE MEMBERS TOTAL ASSETS AND PROPERTIES TOTAL FIGURES, SUMMED TOGETHER, IS MORE THAN NIGERIA'S GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP)!

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066   g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.