AjanleKoko:

It's interesting to see how this whole subsidy drama has panned out, when you look at it.
In many ways, the masses are the winners, even if they don't agree. Forget labour; they were always going to compromise anyway, and there was the ethnic card.

The government has committed itself to a few things: prosecution of the so-called cabal and its allies, signing the PIB (albeit in a docile state), and also the price change: 97 naira is still a helluva lot better than 141 naira.

I recommend we all lick our wounds and move on.

they are not prosecuting nada. last last it will be like the siemens bribery scandal, find a scapegoat to trot out.

the real villian is ms madueke. but we know nothing will happen. just some high faluting sanctimonoius noise

even the pib, i'm not holding my breath. is this not the gej administartion, which is only good for empty announcements?

oyb:

they are not prosecuting nada. last last it will be like the siemens bribery scandal, find a scapegoat to trot out.

the real villian is ms madueke. but we know nothing will happen. just some high faluting sanctimonoius noise

even the pib, i'm not holding my breath. is this not the gej administartion, which is only good for empty announcements?

Well, they never prosecuted nobody in previous administrations, and they had their share of monumental fraud as well.
OBJ was no different. He actually started this monster called subsidy. If Dizeani is the bad egg, she's only trying to make her own paper. Why set GEJ up to be the saint? Unfortunately or fortunately, everybody voted for him, so there we have it.

Personally, like I've always said, it's good that he is there. He'll do his 4 or 6, maybe 8-year shift, and move on. And we would have had someone who is neither OBJ nor from the north as president for a change. Who knows, he might even get one or two things right, like OBJ did?

AjanleKoko:

The government has committed itself to a few things: prosecution of the so-called cabal and its allies, signing the PIB (albeit in a docile state), and also the price change: 97 naira is still a helluva lot better than 141 naira.

Yeah, the government is not now know for committing itself to so much but rarely delivering on any.

I have no wounds to lick . . . once again, Nigerians have shown that they are not ready for change. I am not surprised but I hold out hope that one day they will be, only I hope it will not be too late then.

yes

Aah-aah.

Naija people get sense for once. Of course the election was funded by the subsidy fund. He paid off everyone to get into the hot-seat and has found out that financial favour for political clout is an expensive game. All of his financial recipients keep coming back for more, to maintain loyalty and obeisance of course.

PDP Governor
Jona, How now? It is that time of the month again, my broda?

JG
Aah ah. month don start again. Na wa o

JG rubs his head furiously in agitation. He leans back in his chair as PDP Gov inches nearer, smelling fresh fish soup.

PDP Gov
My people still love you, but I need naira to make dis a real love-fest!

JG
Bros, everything don finish, subsidy fund finish, foreign reserve, finish. I no get naatin!

PDP Gov
U better send ur wife sharp, sharp to Italy to earn money in Milan alley as election is coming O?

JG
Are you saying, what I tink u are saying?

PDP Gov
Yes. Dem Italian men go nak anytin.

Do you guys even think or is it poverty deluding your minds,, if they used the subsidy for elections why would they want to remove it? if i were them i would increase it and make petrol 20Naira so i can chop more, silly nigerians

^^^^^^I think you're guilty of that particular assertion you just made!

Ask yourself: Why does Govt want to remove subsidy?
Incase you dont know the answer, in simple Turainshi: Nigerians would PAY MORE for the same thing.

E.g: if subsidy was 70% and Govt reduces it by 50%, it means Nigerians [b[pay extra[/b] 50%, Govt saves extra 50%!

This implies that Govt makes a "SAVING", a saving of money that it would normally have expended to subsidize every liter of PMS

Previous Govts have always removed Subsidy (IBB did it, OBJ did it 7times in 8yrs or were you too young to experience when PMS was 70K/Liter?

Implication=> There was always a "SAVINGS" that was being financed by poor people.

IT IS THAT "PREVIOUS SAVINGS" THAT GEJ IS ALLEGED TO HAVE SQUANDERED, instead of using it to build infrastructures!!!

Now, Do you COMPREHEND?

Dont come here and run your mouth before thinking, even if you think it is "cool on Nairaland" to pass insults!
THINK FIRST.

Lastpage!

No matter how you view this issue, i still believe the president should be held responsible. The last time i checkt Nigeria constitution, it is an impeachable offence to spend more than what has been budgeted for a project. If the cabals and NNPC taught they could increase their loot from the treasury during GEJ tenure which has made them skyrocket 300b to 1.3tn, then something is wrong somewhere. GEJ understands better.

There is no proof to back this up but. The indicators are there. How did Subsidy Payments Jump from N420B to to N1.4T (as well as consumption jump from 25M Liters/day to 35M Liters/day) in one year.

I don't care about the explanation but it does not make sense. This should automatically trigger an investigation in any circle.

My take on it is that the people responsible for this mess indirectly funded his election campaign machinery. He cannot persecute them so he chose the easy option - We paying for it.

Though I support deregulation, the manner in which the Govt went about it was wrong, Govt should lead by example.

If they want to cut waste, they should start with themselves- Plugging all loopholes & investigating Fraud. The Govt in my opinion did not did neither.

People are not fools, we could see through all the lies.

Before the April,2011 election,I didn't believe Prof. Pat Utomi and ex-EFCC chairman,Nuhu Ribadu when they accused GEJ of spending N100 Million a day from the government purse for his campaign.But now,I believe they were been modest at the time,seeing how much was alleged to have been spent on fuel subsidy,I wouldn't bet against him spending a Billion naira per day during the PDP primaries and his campaign trips to all the 36 states.Apart from the approved budget of N250B by the National Assembly for oil subsidy in 2011,another unapproved N1 Trillion(N250B X 4) was spent in the same year when this sum can subsidized fuel for the next 4years.Don't get me wrong,I'm in support of FS removal but I believe it should be done in a much more sensible way without people being punished unneccesarily.

People should just prepare themselves for another round of protests soon.
I have a strong feeling this government is going to try Nigerians yet again, and soon.

^How so? It will be quite a while before the petrol prices climb. What else could possibly try the masses as this? Please share your suspicions.

Excellent write up, Im starting to believe that the money from subsidy was used to finance election. As much as i hate PDP its a shame that GEJ is bringing the party down because of his selfish agenda. I will still give credit to whom its due, Saraki who is in the same party with was the one that brought the fuel subsidy issue to light and he was even there to call him to order to listen to the people during the strike to return to N65, Time will tell sha

Rad1cal:

Heard Wale Tinubu , Asiwaju crony in OANDO also funded that big election party. He was the biggest beneficiary of the fraudsidy

Tinubu, Otedola, Dantata etc are private businessmen.
But Jonathan is supposed to watch out for us so that businessmen do not cheat us
He has the Police, Army, Navy, Airforce, SSS, NIA etc are all under him
So what is this lame excuse that he cannot bring these "criminals" to justice

Or why would criminals be travelling with a honest president to Australia and wherever
Show me your friends and I will tell you !!!

BetaThings:

Tinubu, Otedola, Dantata etc are private businessmen.
But Jonathan is supposed to watch out for us so that businessmen do not cheat us
He has the Police, Army, Navy, Airforce, SSS, NIA etc are all under him
So what is this lame excuse that he cannot bring these "criminals" to justice

Or why would criminals be travelling with a honest president to Australia and wherever
Show me your friends and I will tell you !!!

Abegii, make we hear word,

The same Police, Army, Airforce, SSS , NIA etc that acts as accomplices to this fraud

Are the same peeps you are preaching about,

Without substantial evidence against this Importing fraudsters, how do one hope to get a conviction against them ?

It's like chasing an armed robber in a market place, how do you expect to catch him with so many obstacles along the way ( in our case, the market square is the endemic corruption in the society)

Clearing the conduit pipe of this fraudsidy was one of the surest way of identifying what went amiss

Is it a question or are you confirming?If it is a question then you know the answer but if you are confirming what we already know-no work done.

Rad1cal:

Abegii, make we hear word,

The same Police, Army, Airforce, SSS , NIA etc that acts as accomplices to this fraud

Are the same peeps you are preaching about,

Without substantial evidence against this Importing fraudsters, how do one hope to get a conviction against them ?

It's like chasing an armed robber in a market place, how do you expect to catch him with so many obstacles along the way ( in our case, the market square is the endemic corruption in the society)

Clearing the conduit pipe of this fraudsidy was one of the surest way of identifying what went amiss

Your armed robber analogy is inappropriate
Govt does not license armed robbers. But it licenses fuel importers.
While the armed robber is not known, these guys are known. If I am chasing Otedola in a market place, I know it is Otedola I am chasing
Why did the government license construction firms to import fuel?
Only about 12 out of over 100 licensed importers met the criteria set by the government
You think these guys are the opponents of Jonathan

If a President suspects that businessmen in an industry are defrauding Nigerians, he does not make them his closest companions, travel overseas with them, accept donations from them (or perhaps help him stash loot away), and make them members of economic management team

Or are we going to disband the Nigerian army or stop recruiting soldiers to "Clearing the conduit pipe" when we discover that some soldiers have corrupted the recruitment process

By the time Gej leaves Aso rock, the rat in the church will be richer than NIGERIA! Trust me.

@Betathings

You are very right. Do we say because armed robbers loot banks then people should keep their money at homes to prevent further attacks on banks? When you have fools, morrons, bastards, rogues, imbeciles, oloriburukus etc etc in power, what you will always get is miss governance, all are experts at prescribing the wrong drug to an ailment.

http://247ureports.com/2012/01/oil-subsidy-what-president-jonathan-knew-about-the-n1-76trillion-payment/

It baffles me why these people don't go to court to clear their names

"Explaining the surge, the source pointed to the personalities within the 28-member billionaire PCC as directly responsible for the surge from N245billion to N1.7trillion. According to the source, shortly following the formation of the PCC, Sayyu Dantata, a member,  through his company, MRS Oil submitted a N225billion oil subsidy request for payment, Femi Otedola, through his company, AP, submitted a N105billion oil subsidy request for payment, a ‘mysterious’ construction company by the name Pinnacle Construction also submitted a claim for N300billion – during the same period.

It was during the same period that Stella Odua Ogiemwonyi who was one of the leaders in the Jonathan campaign organization filed a claim that she had spent her own personal money to the tuned of N5billion – for the maintenance of the campaign secretariat.  Stella Odua Ogiemwonyi is the Chief Executive Officer of Sea Petroleum and Gas. Interestingly,  her company submitted claims for oil subsidy payments in excess of N5billion. Her claim was approved and paid.

Cursory inquiry confirms that a significant percentage of the claims submitted by the members of the PCC were fraudulent. The fraudulent oil subsidy claims freed the President’s ability to spend in a manner deemed unprecedented by informed experts.

On March 16, 2011, the campaign released N55million to a media company [name withheld] for a single advertisement slot. By March 31, 2011, the campaign paid N7.3billion in advertisements. On March 28, 2011, it donated one car and one bus to each of the 36 chapters around the country and the FCT – along with a cash donation of N14million to each chapter [totaling N518million]. In monetary terms, its equates to a little over N1billion. Between April 12 and April 15, 2011, the campaign disbursed N107billion.

When approached regarding the sourceof the exobitant spending, the Director of the Neighbor to Neighbor Initiative [the main NGO funding and managing the Jonathan campaign], Mr. Mike Omeri stated the donations came from online contributors.

Comparing the yearly trendings of the oil subsidy claims submitted from 2006 to 2011, highlights the anomaly  in the oil subsidy claims between March 2011 and August 2011. In 2006, subsidy claims was submitted for 26.9million liters of petrol for the amount N200billion, in 2008, subsidy claims was submitted for 33.4million liters of petrol for the amount N630billion, and for 2010, subsidy claims was submitted for less than 33million liters of petrol for a little over N600billion.

And so it begs the question, What the President knew about the N1.76trillion subsidy payment."