A few days ago, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala, the finance minister, alerted
us to the fact that the nation would
soon run out of money to run itself.
She hid under the alibi of the theft
of crude oil, bunkering and pipeline
vandalism. But there’s more to what
the coordinating minister for the
economy was willing to divulge.
What she should have been very
straightforward about is the level of
barefaced stealing that is taking
place in all facets of the Goodluck
Jonathan government that could
soon kill all of us. But let’s even
discuss the oil theft, pipeline
vandalism and bunkering that she
talked about.
The first question any normal
person would ask is why we should
continue to experience oil theft and
pipeline vandalism after President
Jonathan has so scandalously
awarded the contract for pipeline
protection to militants and vandals.
Why should anyone be surprised
that the level of vandalism of oil
pipes under President Jonathan is
already threatening the survival of
the nation? There will certainly be
pipeline vandalism if you place the
pipelines under the “protection” of
vandals. That’s Common Sense
101. Even an idiot should know
that. And if you award contracts for
the security of our oil resources to
oil thieves, what do you expect?
What do thieves do anyway? The
answer to this is clear to everyone
except to President Jonathan, it
seems. The president is even lucky
that no one is accusing him of
complicity. At least not yet, but, if
this uncontrolled theft continues, it
will not be long before that starts
happening. The president has been
urging leaders of western nations to
come and help him fight the
criminals stealing our oil. Why
shouldn’t he then resign his office
and hand over the running of the
country to these foreign leaders?
Okonjo-Iweala said 400,000
barrels was being stolen daily.
Other credible authorities have put
the figure at more than 800,000
barrels on a good day for the
thieves. And it is clear that if
Jonathan does not wake up from
his long slumber, the amount of oil
stolen daily will surpass the amount
left to run the country.
I don’t even know whether
Jonathan understands the job
description of the office of president
of a nation. I cannot imagine how
someone can be president and yet
keeps asking other people to do the
job of president for him. That is
how, not long ago, Jonathan called
on General Muhammadu Buhari to
help him fix the Boko Haram crisis.
And now he is asking foreign
leaders to help him solve the
problem of oil theft, bunkering and
pipeline vandalism. Maybe the
president will soon call on APC
leaders to help him solve the
problem of massive corruption in
his government, which by the way
is the real reason his government is
running out of cash. Pipeline
vandalism and oil theft are surely
bleeding the economy but it is the
corruption within the Jonathan
government (which includes the oil
theft anyway) that has virtually
grounded the economy.
How would you not run out of cash
when N1.6 trillion has been stolen
in the name of fuel subsidy in one
single year, and, now that election
talk is in the air again, the whole
stealing process is about to start all
over again simply because nothing
happened to the thieves of the last
election season? And somebody is
surprised that Nigeria is running out
of cash? Why should the nation not
run out of cash when over N100
billion of pension funds has been
stolen and the federal government
appears to be protecting some of
the thieves? How won’t Nigeria run
out of cash when it has been
estimated that an average of $1
billion is stolen daily from the
nation’s coffers without
consequences? Until Jonathan
begins to define corruption as a
serious transgression against the
nation and its people, he is going to
drive Nigeria over the precipice. At
the moment, he does not think
corruption is a crime at all, and his
lips and body language have given
him away on the matter.
Whenever anyone attempts to talk
to him about the stinking corruption
around him, he gets visibly upset.
Not too long ago, in response to
those complaining about the
corruption in his government, he
declared that those who accused
his government of corruption were
more corrupt. That’s wonderful!
What that means in plain language
is that he accepts the fact that his
government is corrupt; but even
more troubling is what he didn’t
say: if he knows those who are
“more corrupt” than his government,
what has he done? On another
occasion, he declared that he does
not “give a damn” on a vital issue
regarding the fight against
corruption. And, as his own seminal
contribution to the art and science
of governance, he recruited a
militant who had been implicated in
the theft of oil and handed the
maritime security of the nation to
him without any hint of irony or
compunction. He then shared
pipeline security contracts to other
militants. And this man is surprised
that the nation is being stolen dry?
Sometimes, governance and
leadership is a simple matter of
common sense.
Maybe it is better for the nation to
finally collapse under the weight of
this free-for-all stealing that is
currently going on. Maybe, just
maybe, that is the trigger we need
before we finally experience our
own “Arab Spring”.

No salaries for Govt workers frm sept...Fresh air indeed

OP add where you got this article from

Leadership.....Monday column by Sam
www.leadership.ng/news/290713/nigeria-runs-out-cash

Corruption has impeded our monetary & fiscal policies & implementation. Why have they decided to destroy our Nigeria? May Peace depart from the culprits & their families.

What the hell is Sam Nda Isaiah (Buhari's former campaign director) saying...everyone admits we have a big oil theft problem, the president has met with security chiefs and niger delta govs thrise in 2 weeks over the isssue and set up a task force headed by the NSA and AGF to bring it under control....criticism should not be perfunctory but constructive

The country is bleeding to death. Cash ,blood and manpower

Amalgamation expires midnight 1 january 2014.

emk4lif: What the hell is Sam Nda Isaiah (Buhari's former campaign director) saying...everyone admits we have a big oil theft problem, the president has met with security chiefs and niger delta govs thrise in 2 weeks over the isssue and set up a task force headed by the NSA and AGF to bring it under control....criticism should not be perfunctory but constructive

Was oga jona asleep wen the oil theft grew or was he not aware till now that the federal Govt is about to collapse financially...oil theft did not start with Gej but Gej legalised illegality,accepted it and gave them free reign...His incompetence/trying to please his ppl mentality is the reason we are all in this wahala ...now they (gej nd his oil thieves) will finish wat is left of nigeria

Oil theft is a smokescreen. Seriously, what did you guys expect from Iweala, a world bank VP. If we can open our tribalistic eyes before its too late and boot these thieves out, we may still have hope. Otherwise we are going to look like detroit in a bit

birdman: Oil theft is a smokescreen. Seriously, what did you guys expect from Iweala, a world bank VP. If we can open our tribalistic eyes before its too late and boot these thieves out, we may still have hope. Otherwise we are going to look like detroit in a bit

Very true...it will be worse than detroit,cos atleast detroit may have the support of its federal govt and other states of the union...while in our case the federal govt is the one collapsing with no way for most states to survive....chaos looms

bappahman:
Very true...it will be worse than detroit,cos atleast detroit may have the support of its federal govt and other states of the union...while in our case the federal govt is the one collapsing with no way for most states to survive....chaos looms

i think outside investors will just come in and buy everything up on the cheap. That has always been the plan i think

birdman:

i think outside investors will just come in and buy everything up on the cheap. That has always been the plan i think

Exactly! People like Jonathan, Maduekwe, Patience, Alameiseigha, and co are ready to buy Nigeria with pnnies.

unfortunate

I hate to imagine what will happen if the fed govt fails to pay October salary