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The economic danger signals are here, let us act now
Occupy Nigeria was a novel experience in Nigeria. It has come and gone but the memory will linger in the minds of Nigerians for a long time to come. It has opened the eyes of those governing and the governed to a lot. A clear message was passed to Nigeria leaders that it is no longer business as usual. Those in power now know that the people can hold them accountable. From the federal to the local government, people now know they can collectively call leaders to account for their stewardship.
Equally, Nigerians demanding for government functionaries to account for their actions and inactions must also come to terms with the fact that they owe the nation some responsibility. The Nigeria state also has the right to ask its citizenry to show some level of responsibility. The government will soon begin to demand for Nigerians to pay appropriate taxes. Occupy Nigeria was made possible because every Nigerian felt the pain of the increase in the pump price of petrol. If it was not the direct pain, the action of government would have passed as one of those things.
This has been so Nigerians have lived on rents from the resources called oil for a long time. Look at what is happening around the world, Nigerians are endangered species. Oil which is the mainstay of the economy is in jeopardy globally. The Americans have vowed to find an alternative to this depleting resource. Many researches are going on to replace oil as the engine of western technology. The Obama administration has committed huge resources to this. It is not that there is no alternative to oil as such but those available are not price-competitive.
Already, research into electric cars is on and some have been tested and very soon, electric cars will come on stream. As soon as they are commercially viable and their uses are price competitive with the use of fossil fuel, the demand for crude will plunge. This will take a toll on the resources coming to oil-exporting countries like Nigeria. Those who gathered at the Ojota Liberation Park had just the pains of the subsidy removal as their focus; beyond the pain is the economic future of all Nigerians.
Besides, bio-fuel has long been discovered but the choice of using product meant for feeding the ever growing population of the world has set the limit for its commercial usage. But soon who knows when it will add to the ever increasing alternative to petrol. It may be the very first. These are taking away the market for fossil fuel.
What the Occupy Nigeria did not also note is the fact that more oil is being discovered across the globe where crude was not found before. In places like Ghana, Gabon, Guinea, Congo and many others, crude oil has been found in commercial quantity. As more oil is being found, the supply is for the same market, very soon, there may be a market glut for crude and the price of the commodity will respond to economic law of demand and supply. Where supply outstrips demand, price will fall. The implication of this is that countries producing crude who are not members of the OPEC cartel will want to flood the market with their oil output as there is no restriction on them as to the volume they can produce for the market. If this happens in the near future and the Nigerian economy remains as it is today, Occupy Nigeria will be a child’s play as resources available to the country will be so lean that the Buhari import licensing regime will not save the country.
Already, the World Bank has warned that developing countries should brace up for a growth slowdown stemming partly from Europe’s debt woes, as it sharply scaled back its estimates for expansion. “Europe appears to have entered recession, and growth in several major developing countries (Brazil, India and to a lesser extent, Russia, South Africa and Turkey) has slowed. What this means is that demand for crude will plunge in the coming years and the amount of resources coming into the country will drop considerably, then it will be difficult for the government in power at that time to make any adjustment.
The World Bank has predicted that the global economy will expand by only 2.5 per cent in 2012 and by 3.1 per cent in 2013, well behind the 3.6 per cent growth for each year that the bank had projected in June. Developing countries’ economies will continue to outpace those of richer, developed countries. But the World Bank also lowered its forecasts for growth in these countries to 5.4 per cent in 2012 and 6 per cent in 2013.
That was down from previous estimates of 6.2 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively for growth in developing countries. “The downturn in Europe and weaker growth in developing countries raises the risk that the two developments reinforce each other, resulting in an even weaker outcome,” it said. It also cited failure so far to resolve high debts and deficits in Japan and the United States and slow growth in other high-income countries, and cautioned those could trigger sudden shocks. Again, political tensions in the Middle East and North Africa could disrupt oil supplies and add another blow to global prospects.
The World Bank pointed out that since last August, risk aversion to Europe has shot up and “changed the game” for developing countries that have seen borrowing costs escalate sharply coupled with decrease in capital flow. “No country and no region will escape the consequences of a serious downturn,” the World Bank said. Nigerians, let us all learn and plan for the future before it is too late.
A new technology transfer agreement between the Nigeria–China Strategic Partnership (NCSP) and the Presidential Implementation Committee on Technology Transfer (PICTT) is expected to open more job opportunities, improve local skills, and expand access to advanced technology for ordinary Nigerians.
In a press statement reaching Vanguard on Friday, the MoU aims to strengthen industrial development, support local content, and create clearer pathways for Nigerians to benefit from China’s growing investments in the country.
PICTT Chairman, Dr Dahiru Mohammed, said the partnership will immediately begin coordinated programmes that support local participation in infrastructure and industrial projects.
Special Adviser to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr John Uwajumogu, said the deal will help attract high value investments that can stimulate job creation and strengthen Nigeria’s economy.
NCSP Head of International Relations, Ms Judy Melifonwu, highlighted that Nigerians stand to gain from expanded STEM scholarships, technical training, access to modern technology, and collaboration across key sectors including steel, agriculture, automobile parks, and cultural industries.
The NCSP Director-General reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to measurable results, noting that the partnership with PICTT will prioritise initiatives that deliver direct national impact.
The MoU signals a new phase of Nigeria–China cooperation focused on practical delivery, local content, and opportunities that improve everyday livelihoods.
EU regulators launched an antitrust investigation into Meta Platforms on Thursday over its rollout of artificial intelligence features in its WhatsApp messenger that would block rivals, hardening Europe’s already tough stance on Big Tech. The move, reported earlier by Reuters and the Financial Times, is the latest action by European Union regulators against large technology firms such as Amazon and Alphabet’s Google as the bloc seeks to balance support for the sector with efforts to curb its expanding influence.
Europe’s tough stance – a marked contrast to more lenient U.S. regulation – has sparked an industry pushback, particularly by U.S. tech titans, and led to criticism from the administration of U. S. President Donald Trump. The European Commission said that the investigation will look into Meta’s new policy that would limit other AI providers’ access to WhatsApp, a potential boost for its own Meta AI system integrated into the platform earlier this year.
EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said the move was to prevent dominant firms from “abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors”. She added interim measures could be imposed to block Meta’s new WhatsApp AI policy rollout. “AI markets are booming in Europe and beyond,” she said. This is why we are investigating if Meta’s new policy might be illegal under competition rules, and whether we should act quickly to prevent any possible irreparable harm to competition in the AI space.”
A WhatsApp spokesperson called the claims “baseless”, adding that the emergence of chatbots on its platforms had put a “strain on our systems that they were not designed to support”, a reference to AI systems from other providers. “Still, the AI space is highly competitive and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems.” The EU was the first in the world to establish a comprehensive legal framework for AI, setting out guardrails for AI systems and rules for certain high-risk applications in the AI Act.
Meta AI, a chatbot and virtual assistant, has been built into WhatsApp’s interface across European markets since March. The Commission said a new policy fully applicable from January 15, 2026, may block competing AI providers from reaching customers via the platform. Ribera said the probe came on the back of complaints from small AI developers about the WhatsApp policy. The Interaction Company of California, which has developed AI assistant Poke.com, has taken its grievance to the EU competition enforcer. Spanish AI startup Luzia has also talked to the Commission, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Marvin von Hagen, co-founder and CEO of The Interaction Company of California, said if Meta was allowed to roll out its new policy, “millions of European consumers will be deprived of the possibility of enjoying new and innovative AI assistants”. Meta also risks a fine of as much as 10% of its global annual turnover if found guilty of breaching EU antitrust rules.
Italy’s antitrust watchdog opened a parallel investigation in July into allegations that Meta leveraged its market power by integrating an AI tool into WhatsApp, expanding the probe in November to examine whether Meta further abused its dominance by blocking rival AI chatbots from the messaging platform. The antitrust probe is a more traditional means of investigation than the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s landmark legislation currently used to scrutinize Amazon’s and Microsoft’s cloud services for potential curbs. Reuters
The spouses and children of billionaires inherited more wealth in 2025 than in any previous year since reporting began in 2015, according to UBS’s Billionaire Ambitions Report published on Thursday. In the 12 months to April, 91 people became billionaires through inheritance, collectively receiving $298 billion, up more than a third from 2024, the Swiss bank said. “These heirs are proof of a multi-year wealth transfer that’s intensifying,” UBS executive Benjamin Cavalli said.
The report is based on a survey of some of UBS’s super-rich clients and a database that tracks the wealth of billionaires across 47 markets in all world regions. At least $5.9 trillion will be inherited by billionaire children over the next 15 years, the bank calculates.
Most of this inheritance growth is set to take place in the United States, with India, France, Germany and Switzerland next on the list, UBS estimated. However, billionaires are highly mobile, especially younger ones, which could change that picture, it added. The search for a better quality of life, geopolitical concerns and tax considerations are driving decisions to relocate, according to the report.
In Switzerland, where $206 billion will be inherited over the next 15 years according to the bank, voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected 50 per cent tax on inherited fortunes of $62 million or more, after critics said it could trigger an exodus of wealthy people.
Switzerland, the UAE, the U.S. and Singapore are among billionaires’ preferred destinations, UBS’s Cavalli said. “In Switzerland, Sunday’s vote may have helped to increase the country’s appeal again,” he said. Reuters
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