African press review 5 November 2015

Nigeria's "Baba Go Slow" prolongs long wait for the new government by holding a conclave with minsterial pen picks; Nigeria splashes out 2 billion dollars to settle oustanding subsidies to oil marketers; And tips about why South Africa can't afford eight new nuclear power plants.

We start in Nigeria where President Mohammadu Buhari seems to be playing with the nerves of his pen picks for the cabinet.

Vanguard reports that Buhari who has hinted over the past week that he will not necessarily hand cabinet portfolios to each of the 36 personalities screened and confirmed by the Senate has now summoned them to attend a 2-day retreat in Abuja which kicks off today.

According to the publication, it is Buhari himself who will chair the conclave, adding that the swearing in of the cabinet is likely to take place after the retreat.

There are signs that while Buhari is still to unveil his pen picks for key ministries, he didn’t waste time to begin his mission at the oil ministry which he decided to run himself. The Nation reports that he has approved the release by the state-owned Petroleum Company of 413 billion Naira (2.1 billion dollars) as subsidies to outstanding claims made by oil marketers.

A spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company told the newspaper that the measures are aimed at injecting additional volumes of Premium Motor Spirit to enrich product availability and to improve relations with downstream subsidiaries involved in the supply and distribution of petrol nationwide.

According to the newspaper, the decision was announced amid fears of petrol scarcity in Nigeria, sparked by the disclosure by the oil company that the country had just 265 million litres of petrol available and that it was setting up a 24-hour surveillance monitoring team to ensure a hitch-free distribution of petroleum products to arrest an impending scarcity and panic buying.

The Sun puts the outstanding debt which the Federal government owes marketers at 500 billion Naira.

Daily Sun investigations across major petrol stations revealed a chaotic situation as motorists scampered for the little fuel available, thus compounding the already worsening traffic situation.

In South Africa, Mail and Guardian gives solid reasons why the country should not build eight new nuclear power stations as vigorously driven by President Jacob Zuma’s government. According to the newspaper this has been an eventful year in the country, characterised by power cuts, parliamentary confrontations about wasteful expenditure and student fee protests.

As the newspaper points out, there has however, been a “massive elephant in the room” that has impacted all these issues but enjoyed surprisingly scarce attention. The idea vigorously driven by government, it explained is for the country to build nuclear plants with an expected price tag of one trillion rand.

This equates to 4 000 times the controversial costs to upgrade President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla residence and 400 times the shortfall the tertiary education sector will experience in 2016 because of the freeze in university fee increases.