Until a nation clearly defines what it wants, it just might never get it. Until we chart a course for ourselves, we might never know if we are on the right path or not. Nigerians have been complaining citizens right from Shagari, Buhari, Babangida, Abacha, Abdulsalam, Obasanjo, Yaradua and now Jonathan. You can be certain we will complain about the next man.

At every point in our history… the current government is considered the worst. So when are we going to start looking at real issues without emotions, when are we going start agitating for the right things and policies rather castigating everybody in power.

Unfortunately, things have deteriorated over time under all the leaders we’ve had and not necessarily just one…. Now how can we be sure we are on the path of recovery? No one man can fix Nigeria under one tenure but we have to be focused on the issues to ensure we are headed down the right path.

Unfortunately the politicians are aware of our heightened emotions and lack of vision and always tend to play on our intelligence. We need to start playing issues based politics. Now let’s look at our key issues as a nation at the moment

Unemployment, poor infrastructures, corruption, poor education, struggling economy and dwindling exchange rates, poor power supply, dysfunctional Nigerian system and most recently.. security. We all have to get to terms that there is no human anywhere with a magic wand to fix these issues. It is going to take time, take commitment and the collective efforts of all Nigerians because ours is a complex society.

To be continued

UNEMPLOYMENT – Today the FG is highest employment of labour and this is not sustainable. We complain of the high recurrent expenditure, yet we complain when FG intends to trim down its workforce and still expect the FG to employ more. The work of the FG is provide adequate and sustainable environment for private investors and individual to help drive employment. So it is improper to wake up and expect employment for all unemployed graduates but we can check to see if there is a plan for the future.

Personally, I think the current FG deserves some kudos for some efforts so far not because they have provided employment yet but the future is very bright for the job market. With a combined development of Agriculture, automobile and Oil & gas downstream sectors, unemployment can be cut in half.

The structure in place for Agricultural export for rural farmers with some embargoes on imported food forecasts good for that industry. The fertilizer program which was a looting structure for some men in power have been restructured and the farmers now get their fertilizers directly. Infact, considering our population and the export potential in addition to our fertile lands… Agriculture is the future of Nigeria. Lot of jobs opportunities abound in agricultural supply chain ranging from startup/planting, harvesting, processing, storage, packaging, transport, final sales, export etc. Some first world countries made it to the top with Agriculture as the major bane of the economy

The tariff increase of imported cars was a welcome development. The encouragement towards local vehicle manufacturer (Innoson) was a nice one. All of a sudden vehicle assembly plants are re-appearing again all over southwest. Nissan, Peugeot, Honda and even Toyota are racing towards completion of their assembly plant. In the next few years, this industry will be bigger than we ever imagined with significant employment opportunities and revenue generation to the FG. Opportunities abound throughout the supply chain starting from the assembly to the load-out then sales and servicing.

The next thing we need to push the government to do is to ensure that some if not all vehicle parts should be manufactured in-country… that alone will resuscitate our manufacturing industry. That is the issue based politics we ought to play

I blame the FG for not sensitizing Nigerian enough before the attempted removal of fuel subsidy in 2012. That was an ill-planned moved with the best motives.

However, I am certain it will be removed come June-2015 as promised. We need to educate ourselves on the ills and the corruption associated with subsidy. We were made to believe that there was a cabal sitting somewhere looting all the subsidy funds but that was not exactly true. There are sharp practices within the fuel supply chain but this cuts across from the independent marketer up until the tanker driver.

The reason why the cost per litre of fuel is same in Lagos and Sokoto despite the transport cost is because the FG subsidizes transport also. The importer at the port works with PPRA and other govt agents to inflate imported products, the transporter registers to deliver product in Maiduguri will take the transport funds for Maiduguri (over 500K) and finally drops his supply at Sagamu.

Nigerians are corrupt and any system not allowed to free market forces must face these challenges. The presence of subsidy has stopped investors from investing in the down stream sector Nigeria.

In less than one year after subsidy removal, I expect a minimum of 5 functional private refining stations in Nigeria. There are off the shelf refining modules that could be deployed immediately by investors. While laying of pipeline is ongoing to transport crude and finished products…. Use of road tankers can be deployed in the interim. At that time, we can push the govt to subsidize the cost of crude to the local refineries which will result in lower product prices at the pump (probably less than 97naira per litre)… That is the issue based politics we ought to play.

The petro-chemical industry is a massive market on its own capable of producing raw materials for manufacturing industries. At the moment, Indorama (Former Eleme Petrochemical Industry) is the only major petrochemical industry. I expect an exponential growth in the number of petrochemical industries in Nigeria once we start have the functional private refineries in-country. The business opportunities and employment potentials of the downstream is massive. All that is required is TAKE AWAY THE FUEL SUBSIDY and this government is committed to doing this.

This period of low global crude prices is the best time to remove the subsidy as the price of refined in the international market is almost equal to the current pump prices in Nigeria. And private investors can rush up their refineries before the global crude prices stabilizes and starts increasing again. Unfortunately, if subsidy is removed before the elections, politicians in the opposition will play on the emotions of naïve and illiterate Nigerians which represents about 70% of the voting population….. As such it has to be suspended till after the elections.

To be continued

POOR INFRASTRUCTURES

Our infrastructures have deteriorated over time, thanks to the uncaring attitude of our leaders past. Now let’s face reality, our infrastructures cannot get a face lift over night. Sometimes we tailor our expectations like Nigeria has an infinite budget but reality does not always reflect such. Our interest is to keenly look out for a government that has shown some commitment to restoring these decayed infrastructure.

Our railways were neglected for so long, many thanks to the current government for reviving that sector. The railway case is strategic because with a functional railway network across the country, the burden of large cargo containers, tankers and trucks on our existing roads is massively reduced. Our roads will last much longer if we had only passenger and transit vehicles plying them. I have seen people asking for fast train coaches and multiple rails but we need to realize that these fast trains cost billions of dollars which translates to very high fares too. Key thing is we need to get started and the funds generated from the current coaches can be used to upgrade the existing.

Our roads desperately need help, some work have been done by the current government but more can be done. But let’s face the facts, even when we had toll gates on our roads…the roads were in a total mess as the fund generated were entirely embezzled by those governments. It will be entirely unfair to the current government to rate it poorly on this. I have seen various lists of completed roads on the national dailies but I can particularly testify to the Lagos_Ibadan expressway which has been neglected for over 20 years. The Lagos-Benin expressway has seriously improved from what it was way back when it takes an average of about 7 or 8 hours from Lagos to Benin… however the Lagos – Ore portion is still begging for an uplift like its Ore-Benin counterpart. The East-West road after many years of politics is getting real attention. The second Niger bridge after many years of campaign promises is seeing real work.

I am not of any view that the current government deserves 100% accolades for fixing our roads but I will also be wrong to say they did nothing. If all the governments preceding current FG did as much as what they have done already, poor infrastructure would have been an ill in the past.

In summary, the rot in our infrastructures is over 40 years old, Current Government deserves some kudos but many more is still yet to be done and has to be encouraged to continue.

To be continued

PDP is playing a Politics of Dominance.


APC is playing a politics of Bitterness.

None of the party members are in for an issue laden politics

just here them......

All APC members are bunch of Jan*ja*weeds-PDP

We will Sweep Jonathan out of Aso Rock-APC

now tell me any issue related comment here?

Both leaders of the parties are sorounded by lousy politicians who egoistically careless of the nation's economy.

But weigh the two Gej vs Buhari, i go for the former when it comes to a slight issue related political comments

Seun, obinoscopy .....Help to educate Nigerians by moving to FP. Thanks.

POOR EDUCATION
As a country, I would think we have had our own fair share of leaders that placed significant emphasis on education. One would guess that maybe it is driven from the fact that most of them did not go through the formal system of education prior to Yaradua (I might be wrong on this). One of our biggest problems is illiteracy, it has given the politicians edge over us. This has been a huge strategy especially in northern Nigeria which has made them entirely dependent on the ruling class and very vulnerable. They are readily available to be adopted for terror and destruction. This is not exactly the case in the southern Nigeria which has made general awareness prevalent. If we can educate our Northern brothers, we will be halfway into solving our security issues and general productivity. I see the 100+ alamajiri schools in the north as strategic as well as the new universities and worthy of acknowledgement.

Some of the key actions required in the educational sector include increase of fund allocation to the education sector which we have seen under this Govt… but more is required. Set up committees to check effective implementation of funds rather than leave implementation to the Vice chancellors and execution councils.

Enough of the ASUU strikes!! It is a selfish strategy. Nigeria is the only country where people proceed on strike at their own discretion, spend as much time as they desire off work and still get paid. This is the height of mediocrity and unproductivity. We need to push our lawmakers to pass laws that forbids salary payments when people go on strike. If this happens, groups and associations will come up with creative ways of seeking government attention such as the use of social media, peaceful protests etc. This is the issue based politics we out to be playing.

We should stop playing into the hands of politicians who tend score cheap political points on strikes when we the Nigerian masses are the ultimate loosers. For everytime the medical association , ASUU etc goes on strike for demands that might or might not be feasible or unattainable by the FG…. The masses lose, people die, students spend forever in school, businessmen incur demurrages at the ports etc. Which strike has ever achieved the actual objective for which it set out in the first place in Nigeria? There must be an alternative to striking and we need to push for that NOW.


To be continued

All these posts are neither here or there. Jonathan is being voted out of office in a free and fair election.
Buhari will be the next President. All analytic models are predicting it. Nigerians actually want CHANGE.
Speak to people on the street, work phones and read the papers.

Adminisher:
All these posts are neither here or there. Jonathan is being voted out of office in a free and fair election.
Buhari will be the next President. All analytic models are predicting it. Nigerians actually want CHANGE.
Speak to people on the street, work phones and read the papers.

I am talking issues based politics Sir .... Discuss issues or move on.

Adminisher:
All these posts are neither here or there. Jonathan is being voted out of office in a free and fair election.
Buhari will be the next President. All analytic models are predicting it. Nigerians actually want CHANGE.
Speak to people on the street, work phones and read the papers.

...as usual: online news papers, internet etc-Buhari but forget to realize that grand Pa and Ma don't have time for this but are with their voters cards tied to their aprons...well by 15th February it will be done and dusted but i beg don't be violent after the announcement for surely Gej will still Carry the day.
And next know the issue at hand before posting out of point as the question at hand is between Gej and Buhari who plays better issue based politics

[size=20pt]GEJ until APC stops lying[/size]

Splashme:
[size=20pt]GEJ until APC stops lying[/size]

Even after GEJ, If Nigerians refuse to play issues based politics.... There is no hope.

Woman hold her head and cried cos her son had bludgeoned to death in the street and died from Buhari's Goons. Ah I know Seun was a good man. Never did a thing wrong ooh!