Borrowing rises under Jonathan- Punch

Culled from  the Citizen Newspaper of 02/01/013

Under President Goodluck Jonathan, the Federal Government has borrowed a total of N2.57tn.
Thus, the Federal Government’s debt profile rose from N4.18tn as of June 30, 2010 to N6.75tn as of June 30, 2012.
Jonathan was sworn in as Nigeria’s Acting President on February 10, 2010 following the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua and was later sworn in as the elected president on May 29, 2011.
Records obtained from the Debt Management Office showed that four months after Jonathan became Acting President, the total debt profile stood at N4.18tn (as at June 30, 2010).
However, by June 30, 2012; the debt profile had ballooned to N6.75tn.
This shows that within a period of 24 months or two years, the Federal Government debt profile rose by 61.48 per cent.
Analysis of the debt increment between June 30, 2010 and June 30, 2012 shows that the Federal Government borrowed an average of N107.08bn every month for 24 months or a total of N1.285tn per annum.
If the increment in debt profile is subjected to daily analysis, the Federal Government borrowed N3.52bn every day for a period of two years.
This debt profile is exclusive of the nation’s total debt portfolio as it is more difficult to determine the total indebtedness of the sub-national government – the state and local governments.
While the DMO put the external indebtedness of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory at $2.21bn (N344.96bn) as at June 30, 2012; their domestic debt profile could not be obtained as the data are being determined by the debt office.
As at June 2012, the states’ external debt profile constituted 36.7 per cent of the nation’s foreign indebtedness while the Federal Government accounted for 63.3 per cent of the external debt portfolio.
Although DMO has worked out the domestic indebtedness of the Federal Government as at September 30, 2012 as N6.34tn, the external debt profile of the date had not yet been determined.
The combined external debt of both the states and the Federal Government, which stood at N7.33tn in September, has not yet been split between the two tiers of government.
Debt breakdown
Analysing the local debt component by instrument showed that as at June 30, 2010, Federal Government of Nigeria Bonds known for short as FGN Bonds accounted for 63. 97 per cent (or N2.41tn) of the domestic debt component.
Nigeria Treasury Bills accounted for N901.02bn or 23.93 per cent while Treasury Bills accounted for N392.07bn or 10.41 per cent. Development Stocks, on the other hand, accounted for N220m or 0.01 per cent while Promissory Notes accounted for N63.03bn or 1.67 per cent.
For June 2012, FGN Bonds accounted for N3.71tn or 60.37 per cent; Nigerian Treasury Bills N2.08tn or 33.88 per cent; and Treasury Bonds N353.73bn or 5.75 per cent.
While the external debt profile increased by 18.03 per cent within the two year period, the domestic component increased by 63.48 per cent.
This clearly shows the trend in the past seven years. The government had shown a preference for borrowing from the domestic market.
Most of the domestic debts had not been tied to any specific project but had been raised to finance budget deficits.
Economist and Head of Research and Strategy at BGL Securities Limited, Mr. Olufemi Ademola, had attributed the increase in domestic debts to shortfall in revenue and the controversial oil subsidy expenditure.
What the Federal Government had done over the past few years was to show foreign debts the exit door and open the doors too large for domestic debts. That, however, may have been put on the reverse gear with recent developments.
Request for fresh loan
Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, had not hidden her preference for foreign borrowing as she had insisted that the Federal Government was crowding the private sector from the local debt market.
This means that with the Federal Government active in the local debt market, lenders would always prefer to lend to the government to the detriment of the private sector operators that also need money to develop their businesses.
Although Okonjo-Iweala championed the nation’s exit from foreign debt crisis between 2004 and 2006, since she resumed in government as the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, the Federal Government has become more active in the foreign debt market.
The Federal Government had recently presented to the National Assembly a plan to borrow $8bn from external sources for infrastructure development. The plan met some opposition from some members of the National Assembly.
Should it go ahead with the $8bn loan, the move will balloon the Federal Government’s foreign debt to $13.91bn.
While presenting the 2012 budget proposal to the National Assembly, President Goodluck Jonathan had lamented that the domestic debt has been growing at an alarming rate in recent years.
The clearest evidence of this is that in 2012, the Federal Government earmarked N560bn for debt servicing.
The president spoke of curtailing domestic debt but he also gave room for the government to accumulate more debt by saying that the debts should not go beyond 30 per cent of Gross Domestic Debt.
At the moment, the debt to GDP ratio is slightly less than 20 per cent. With a latitude of 30 per cent debt to GDP ratio, the government can add up to 50 per cent of the current debt level.
Nonetheless, the Federal Government still plans to borrow N633.85bn from the domestic debt market in 2013.
The amount proposed for servicing total domestic debt would increase to N543.38bn, reflecting the increment expected in the volume of domestic debt in 2013.
Effect of huge borrowing
In a telephone interview, President of the Campaign for Democracy, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, had said the increasing indebtedness was a sign that the nation’s resources were being mismanaged and portend a great danger to the economy.
She said, “Increasingly, we cannot meet all our obligations. As we are speaking, some agencies have not received their allocations. The increasing debt is going to have a skyrocketing effect on the economy; repaying of the loans.
“We are busy collecting loans that we don’t need and loans that are not properly utilised. It boils down to corruption. There is a cause to worry.
“It is not just that we are borrowing money but the money is not being well utilised. If our founding fathers borrowed this way, we would have gone into extinction by now.”
She cautioned against frivolous borrowing, adding that borrowed funds should be properly utilised.
Ademola, on the other hand, said unbudgeted expenditure for the funding of petrol subsidy consumed in 2011 by the country must have depleted the nation’s resources and thereby forced the Federal Government to the debt market.
He had said, “You are aware that the subsidy on petrol rose from less than N500bn in the budget to more than N2tn. The finance minister has also come out to say that the nation lost 20 per cent revenue to oil theft.
“Giving these losses in revenues, what the Federal Government had to do was to resort to the local debt market. Statistically, we are still okay. That is when you look at the debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio.
“However, generically; this is not good. It means that national debt servicing will continue to grow. The government will continue to pay higher for debt servicing. This will reduce the money available to be spent on other things.
“It also means that the interest rate will continue to grow. The average businessman will not be able to borrow at a good rate.”
Overall, he added, increasing interest rate would affect the profit that businessmen can make in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer, Fatrax Securities Company Limited, Dr. Wale Ositelu, said the level of debt was crowding out the real sector of the economy.
He said, “There’s a case to be made against the public sector’s growing borrowing requirement. As the Federal Government has borrowed more, it has seen an increase in the yield on its borrowing instruments. These increases in rates have increased the attraction of government debt instruments. However, it has pushed the private sector out of the business of issuing bonds, and diverted domestic savings away from the capital market to the money market.”
Ositelu said that it had become trendy for government to see nothing wrong with its borrowing pattern on the excuse that it was still within the globally acceptable limit of 40 per cent of the GDP.
The Managing Director, Sotice Investment Company Limited, Mr. Adedayo Toluwase, said increasing debt profile was contributing next to nothing to the economy.
He said, “The concern with rising debt profile is not really with the rising figures only, a major problem is that the loans are taken and not always used for capital projects or productive sectors of the economy. Nigerians will not have cared so much about the debt profile if government has shown in concrete terms, what it has achieved with previous loans obtained from both local and external creditors.”
Ositelu added, “The economy stands serious risk if the government continues like this. One of the implications of the present debt profile is that Nigeria may be sliding back to the years of debt overhang few years after it exited from the London and Paris clubs of creditors.”
National Assembly complains
Penultimate Wednesday, members of the House of Representatives committee on debts, aids and loans questioned Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda and representatives from other states over their foreign loan bids.
Yuguda is currently seeking a total of $171m foreign loan for the state out of the total package of $9.3bn which the Federal Government has proposed in the 2012-2014 Borrowing Plan.
His Kaduna State counterpart is seeking $234m loan to fund projects which include the Bi-Lingual Education Programme and the Urban Water Sector Reform Project. This is in addition to the state’s current debt stock of $182m.
Also featuring prominently in the league of foreign loan-seeking states are Lagos, Edo, Kaduna, Ondo, Yobe, Ogun, Cross River, Adamawa, Kwara, Niger, Enugu and Oyo. Credits sought by the state governments are part of the total loans captured in the 2012-2014 External Borrowing Plan of the Federal Government.
And like the governors, President Goodluck Jonathan has lately been bombarding the National Assembly with requests for approvals to secure loan facilities from different parts of the world. Recent requests include approval of the Senate for Nigeria to take a $1.6bn loan to finance a water supply project in Rivers State and for the execution of housing projects across the country. The loan, he said, would be financed by the African Development Bank.
The request is seeking the inclusion of $200m to finance a water supply project for Rivers State and another $300m for a low-income housing scheme, which will be financed by the World Bank to provide affordable housing for Nigerians. (Credit: PUNCH)

Adeboye predicts bigger disasters in 2013 unless…

Culled from the Citizen Newspaper of 02/01/013

General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye said Tuesday that Nigerian political leaders should learn from disasters of 2012 and take precaution soonest to avert bigger ones.

He said that there could be more devastating natural disasters like flooding if necessary precautionary measures are not taken soonest to avert such calamities.
He spoke at a cross over service to usher worshippers into the New Year at the Redemption Camp, Kilometre 23, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
His warning is contained in his annual prophecy release.

He said that the New Year would be one of a year of signs and wonders and generally, God says this year will be better than last year.

According to Pastor Adeboye before the middle of the year, many Nigerians will have reason to say hope rising, adding however, that prayers and supplication be intensified.

He told the crowd of worshippers that God spared the lives of certain individuals in the country last year because of intercessory prayers of the saints, noting “the prayers of some of you minimized death of prominent Nigerians last year, don’t stop praying.”

Speaking on the prophecies for individual Nigerians, Pastor Adeboye said, “No matter the darkness around you, your star will shine brighter.

“God says, He will speak peace to your storms; Certain individuals have been stagnated for sometimes, the reasons for your stagnation will become known, will be addressed and will be eliminated, therefore progress will follow.”
Continuing on the individual category, Pastor Adeboye said in many senses of the word, this year will be of completeness.
On the international platform, the cleric said prominent world leaders need a lot of prayers so as not to die in office.
In addition, he said prominent Church leaders need prayers against planned scandals, even as he said that weather conditions may get worst, much worst, unless prayers are intensified.

But there is a cheery news when Adeboye said: “We should expect a major breakthrough in medicine this year,” concluding that nations who pass unholy laws will have a taste of divine fury.
Earlier in a brief sermon titled; “Preparing for a year of signs and wonders”, he outlined certain principles to enable one tap into heavenly reservoir of the miraculous.
According to him, this year will be a better year than the just ended one, maintaining that the principles must include praise and worship of God, putting God first before any other consideration; evangelism; control the fullness of your joy, pointing out that one who is close to God can control even the weather around him.
Adeboye was very particular about the praise of God as a veritable tool for signs and wonders, noting that one can pray, study the Bible in silence but no one can praise God in silence.

The congregation applauded when he said: “You can never praise God quietly”, stressing that praising Him comes from a heart of gratitude and it’s not quietly.

“If they say we are crazy for shouting Hallelujah in our environment and wherever we find ourselves, then that is a good kind of craziness,” he stated, adding that nobody says thank you to his benefactor with his mouth closed.

While assuring worshippers that 2013 is a year of doors, Adeboye said it is one thing to enter into a New Year and it is another to have a brand new beginning, hence he enjoined every Nigerian to live right with God who only has the capacity to give of His limitless bounties and guarantee all round peace and calm every

Fiscal cliff: US House of Representatives passes deal

Culled from the Citizen Newspaper of 02/01/013

The US House of Representatives has passed a Senate-backed deal to stave off a “fiscal cliff” of drastic taxation and spending measures.
The deal, passed in the House late on Tuesday by 257 votes to 167, now needs to be signed by the president.
There had been intense pressure for the vote to be passed before financial markets reopened on Wednesday.
Some House Republicans had wanted to amend the bill to add more spending cuts, but dropped this idea.
In the event, 172 Democrats and 85 Republicans voted in favour of the bill, which raises taxes for the wealthy, but delays cuts in spending for two months to allow a wider agreement.
The bill was passed in the Senate in the early hours of Tuesday by 89 votes to eight after lengthy talks between Vice-President Joe Biden and Senate Republicans.
The “fiscal cliff” measures – cutting spending and increasing taxes dramatically – came into effect at midnight on Monday when George W Bush-era tax cuts expired.
The 1 January deadline triggered tax increases of about $536bn and spending cuts of $109bn from domestic and military programmes.
Economists had warned that if the full effects of the fiscal cliff were allowed to take hold, the resulting reduction in consumer spending could have sparked a new recession.
The compromise Senate deal extends the tax cuts for Americans earning under $400,000 (£246,000) – up from the $250,000 level Democrats had originally sought.
In addition to the income tax rates and spending cuts, the package includes:

• Rises in inheritance taxes from 35% to 40% after the first $5m for an individual and $10m for a couple
• Rises in capital taxes – affecting some investment income – of up to 20%, but less than the 39.6% that would prevail without a deal
• One-year extension for unemployment benefits, affecting two million people
• Five-year extension for tax credits that help poorer and middle-class families

Why the North is opposed to PIB bill – Senator Abba-Ibrahim

Culled from the Citizen Newspaper of 02/01/013

North is opposed to the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) because it is offering additional monetary provision for oil producing communities.
To the people in the North, the communities are already getting enough from extant laws which would make additional 10 per cent envisaged for them in the PIB an over kill.
The chairman, Senate Committee on Housing, Sen. Bukar Abba-Ibrahim (ANPP-Yobe), who spoke at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, described the PIB lopsided.
The North, Abba-Ibrahim said, is particularly opposed to the clause in the PIB, which is asking for additional 10 per cent revenue for oil producing communities.
He said: “Derivation is only one out of seven sources of revenue for the oil producing states. They have the Federal Government’s take home, the NDDC with over N500 billion being projects only in oil producing communities, and they also have the Niger Delta Ministry with over N400 billion Federal Government grants in the name of amnesty and oil companies doing social corporate responsibility.”
Adding another 10 per cent to the already existing revenue generators for the zone, the Senator, would be unfair.
“Adding another 10 per cent to all these seven sources, I don’t know how you are going to have peace where resources allocations are so skewed to one side and unfair,’’ he said.
Abba-Ibrahim said this addition in the PIB was unacceptable and suggested that the money should go into the treasury so that every Nigerian could benefit from it.
“Nobody planted or farmed oil, it is God who put it there and it will not last forever. It will get to a point where the oil will finish and another natural resource will come up and every Nigerian will benefit from it,’’ the senator said.
The lawmaker added that the North is also opposed to the PIB because of its failure to make provision for the exploitation of other minerals in other parts of the country.
According to him, “We have over 800 million tonnes of limestone in Gulane, Fune and Guljimba local governments of Yobe, but as a state government, you cannot go and exploit, it has to be done by the Federal Government.’’
Despite this hardline position, he believes that the bill will be passed if the fears of sections of the country was properly addressed.  He said the bill when passed into law would sanitise the Industry and address corruption.
Speaking on the security challenge in the country, Abba-Ibrahim said that although dialogue might not be the only solution, it remained the best solution.
“I am not saying it is the only solution because there are many ways to solve it, but I believe that dialogue remains the best.”

61 die in Cote d’Ivoire’s New Year celebration stampede

Culled from the Citizen Newspaper of 02/01/013

While the rest of the world entered the New Year with joy, it was not the case in Cote d’Ivoire Tuesday as no fewer than 61 people were reportedly killed and dozens more were injured in Abidjan, the capital.
This occurred as crowds that had gathered for celebratory New Year’s fireworks stampeded overnight.
Agency reports claimed that children were among the dead and the injured, while images broadcast by RTI television showed bodies stretched lifeless on the ground outside the city’s main stadium.
Piles of abandoned shoes and clothing could also be seen at the stadium, where soldiers and police were deployed, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
Besides, in South Africa, several unrelated fires ripped through informal settlements in Cape Town, killing about three people and leaving at least 4,000 homeless on New Year’s Day.
But the head of Cote d’Ivoire’s military rescue workers, Lt.-Col. Issa Sako, told journalists at the scene that 61 people died.
“Forty-nine wounded were evacuated” by rescue workers, he added. He said other injured victims had gone to hospital on their own.
Another rescue official had earlier said that about 200 people were wounded.
The flow of people at the stadium had caused a “very large crush”, Sako said. “In the crush, people were walked over and suffocated by the crowd.”
Witnesses said the stampede had broken out after the fireworks ended, though the cause remains unclear.
It erupted near the stadium’s main entrance, where security had set up tree trunks as crowd control barriers.
Visibly shaken children were among the roughly 40 wounded taken to an hospital in the wealthy neighbourhood of Cocody, in the north of the economic capital.
A mother named Zeinab who had taken two of her children to the stadium found one of them in the hospital, a small boy who lay on a bed in a groggy state.
Zeinab said she “hurt all over” and showed a journalist the scratches on her body.
“I don’t know what happened but I found myself lying on the ground with people stepping on me, pulling my hair or tearing my clothes,” she said.
She said she had been knocked unconscious and been pulled from the crowd by a young man.
The New Year’s fireworks, the city’s second in two years, had been touted as a symbol of national renewal under President Alassane Ouattara after the violent post-election crisis that tore the country apart from December 2010 to April 2011, killing some 3,000 people.
Ouattara had delivered an optimistic New Year’s message on Monday evening, saying the country had “possibilities like seldom before” ahead of it and promising it would soon reap the rewards of economic growth and development.
In respect of Cape Town fires, City Disaster Management Official, Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, said: “The cause of these fires has not been established, however it is alleged that they were caused by negligence by persons under the influence of alcohol.”
Authorities battled to put out the blazes that ravaged homes in the township of Du Noon and various sections of the notorious Khayelitsha slum late Monday and early Tuesday.
Fire and rescue services – including a helicopter – as well as emergency medical services and law enforcement agencies were deployed in the scenes.
But they could not prevent the blaze spreading and destroying hundreds of shacks and houses, cutting electricity and forcing the closure of major nearby roads.
“The gusting wind… has fuelled the spread of these fires that made it challenging for firefighters to effect fire suppression,” said Solomons-Johannes.
Disaster management teams supplied food parcels, blankets, baby packs, clothing and building material and trauma counselling to victims.
Cape Town authorities encouraged residents to take care with open flames when using electrical devices.
The use of gas burners, candles, lamps and paraffin stoves is common in poor areas throughout South Africa.

Lagos oilfield to start production in 2014

Culled from the Citizen Newspaper of 02/01/013

By 2014, oil is expected to be produced for the first time offshore Lagos State from the Aje gas and condensate field, which lies in Oil Mining Lease 113 in the Benin Basin, about 43 kilometres offshore Lagos.
The field is currently in the development planning stage, with first production expected in 2014, according to the United States Energy Information Administration’s website.
Aje field is expected to reach a plateau production of between 50,000 to 80,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. The water depth in the region is 3,000 feet.
Key shareholders in the field include Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum and Chevron.
Chevron was appointed as the technical advisor to the operator for the project and also assigned the responsibility of preparing a development plan for the field.
The OML 113 licence covers an area of 960 square kilometres and contains several prospects, including the Jubilee and Tweneboa fields.
OML 113 was originally known as Oil Operating Licence 309 and was awarded to YFP in 1991 to encourage the growth of the Nigerian oil industry. Following the successful discovery of the Aje field, the licence was converted to OML 113 in 1998 with a term of 20 years.
Aje was discovered by the Aje-1 well in 1996. The well encountered oil and gas over three zones of the Cretaceous Turonian age. It flowed at the rate of 60.2 million standard cubic feet of gas a day; 1,729 barrels of condensate a day; and 2,389 barrels of oil a day.
In 1997 an appraisal well, Aje-2, was drilled one kilometre east of the Aje-1 well. It confirmed the presence of oil and gas in the Turonian reservoir as discovered by the Aje-1 well and encountered a deeper separate additional zone of the Cenomanian formation.
A third well, Aje-3, was drilled by Transocean’s Sedco 709 semi-submersible rig in 2005. Although the reservoir quality was not optimum, the well encountered an oil and gas bearing column within the Turonian and Cenomanian reservoirs.
In the first quarter of 2008, another appraisal well called Aje-4 was drilled by the Transocean Deepwater Pathfinder drill-ship to carry out a complete appraisal of the field. Aje-4 well was drilled to assess the extent of the field and identify additional exploration targets. The well encountered hydrocarbon reserves in the main Turonian reservoir.
Drilling of the Aje-4 well confirmed the field contains a laterally extensive reservoir structure. The field was declared a commercial prospect in February 2009.
Appraisal of the field was based on 915km of 2D seismic data, 700km2 of 3D seismic data and an electromagnetic survey.
Aje is primarily a gas condensate field formed in a four-way dip closure trap. It contains gas and oil in the Turonian and Cenomanian reservoirs and an additional gas layer of the Albian formation.
Gross contingent resources of the Aje field are estimated at 380 million boe. Of this 28 per cent is oil/condensate, 20 per cent is Liquefied Petroleum Gas and 52 per cent is gas.
The field is planned to be developed as a subsea tie back to a floating, production, storage and offloading vessel.
A total of six producers are planned for the field. They will be connected to sub-sea wellheads and associated flowlines and manifolds in 320-feet water depth. The flowlines will, in turn, be connected to the FPSO through risers.
Produced hydrocarbons will be processed by the FPSO and exported through the West African Gas Pipeline or through a direct pipeline to connect to the Lagos gas infrastructure

President Jonathan reveals that suspects behind Police HQ, UN house bombings have been arrested

The Culled from the Citizen Newspaper of 02/01/013

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday disclosed that the people who bombed Police Headquarters, UN Building, St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla and others have been arrested.
This revelation was disclosed when he alongside his wife Mrs. Patience Jonathan, his mother, some lawmakers, some members of the cabinet, senior aides among others, attended the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus Christ and New Year Service, held at the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Diocese of Abuja, All Saints’ Church, Zone 5, Wuse.
He reassured that the New Year will be better for the country, adding that his has laid solid foundations for the country’s critical sectors and that administration will continue to provide employment for young people and encourage entrepreneurship.
“The church’s prayers have been helping us to stabilise the country at the time of our challenges. There was time the country was drifting and everyone thought the country will not endure but the prayers rescued us.
“We have moved to another phase of terror, kidnapping and armed robbery but these are momentary challenges.
“I receive constant briefings on security daily though we don’t publish. Most of the terror suspects have been arrested. People may not know what our men in uniform have been doing; they have been doing a lot to check the situation.
“The people who bombed Police Headquarters, United Nations Building and St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla have been arrested. We will continue to improve on our security architecture.
“The new year will be better for the country. We have a huge population and we will continue to provide employment for our people and encourage entrepreneurship”, he said.
He blamed the various problems the country was facing on the attitude of Nigeria. “Is ambition to get rich over night that leads to robbery, kidnapping and all sorts of crime”.
In his sermon, the Primate of All Nigeria, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, titled: “circumcise your heart”, he  urged Nigerians to circumsize their hearts- the church, businessmen, civil servants and politicians at all levels.
He also challenged teachers and academicians as well as students who dress indecently on campuses to “circumsize their hearts.”
He told market women who sell fake products, petrol dollars and transporters who hike prices in festive periods, kidnappers, armed robbers and members of the Boko Haram sect to “circumcise their hearts”.
Okoh also advised young men who are in a haste to ride jeeps having graduated from school to be patient and circumsize their hearts.
According to him, traditional rulers, university authorities who sell doctorate degrees and titles to those who are not worthy of them also need to “circumsize their hearts.”
“To be regarded as uncircumcised means you are a godless person. Jesus demonstrated his circumcision by being obedient. We ought to be obedient to God’s laws.
“Circumcision as it affects us today means cutting of sin, corruption, bitterness and so on and so forth.
“As we enter the new year we should cut off certain things. I ask Nigerians clergy, business community who exploits people, civil servants who hide files, politicians at all levels, teachers who persecute girls for refusing to sleep with them, traders who sell substandard products, transporters who hike prices, petroleum product sellers who short change Nigerians, kidnappers, armed robbers and Boko Haram to circumcise their hearts.
“This is important so that in the new year we will build a nation that our children will be proud of.
“Those looking for opportunity to make money without working, young graduates seeking for contracts instead of a employment, who wants to ride a jeep. This is a deformity of the heart. It is a wrong lifestyle to start from the top. All of us Nigerians should circumcised our hearts.
“The Name of Jesus Christ must not be joked with else when you need Him to work for you and you evoke the name it will not work.
“To the President, the year 2013 will come with challenges, and you need the Name Jesus and once you bind that name around you, your victory shall be sure.
“Some of us have limit our lives to just money while God can give you a name, a promotion that is bigger than money. Nigeria shall rise up and walk in 2013.
“The year 2013 is a trackless sea, a desert. The guiding hand you have is that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. The most important thing for those holding high, low and oversized responsibility in the nation is to bind Jesus to yourself and it shall be well.
“God will be gracious to us as a people and to our nation Nigeria”.
The Old Testament lesson was read by First Lady, Mrs Patience Jonathan from Gen. 17: 9-16.
Also present to worship with the President were Minister of Police Affairs, Capt Caleb Olubolade (rtd) and Minister of state, FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, presidential aides amongst others.