The report of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, titled an ‘Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland’ underscores in more eloquent terms the level of environmental neglect and degradation inflicted on the people as a result of hydrocarbon exploration and production, however what it failed to state in more explicit terms is that the Ogoni is on the brink of extinction.

In her maiden address to journalists on Wednesday, 24/08/2011, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister for Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, alerted Nigerians that Nigeria’s domestic debt was about N5.2 trillion ($33bn), while external component is about $5.3bn. In other words, at today’s exchange rate of N152=$1, Nigeria’s total debt is over $39bn; that is about $4bn above ‘crisis’ level of $35bn in 2006, when we were stampeded to part with almost $18bn from a healthy reserve base of over $50bn. As at August 2011, our current debt burden exceeds our ‘paltry’ reserve base of about $33bn, but surprisingly, our ex-IMF President assures us that “Nigeria is in good shape, as the debt profile is only 20% of Gross Domestic Product”.

Nigeria expects the first significant iron ore production next year from its Itakpe iron ore deposits as it looks to reduce its dependence on oil and gas revenues, Dr Olusegun Aganga disclosed in Australia over the weekend.

The Leadership of Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) led by Charles Chijide has once again failed in its bid to truncate the Corporate Social Responsible (CSR) initiative by Billboard World Magazine to the Out-of-Home (OOH) industry tagged, ‘Brand As King’ award.

“Let me say this first, the whole thrust of what the President wants for now is the creation of jobs. So, everything that we do in terms of pushing the economy has to be geared at how we can have true job growth in the economy”. Dr Okonjo-Iweala, Federal Minister of Finance, August 17, 2011 at Aso Rock, Abuja.