Dedetwo:


Per the highlighted, this is illogicality only found in Nigeria. What has terrorism got to do with Nnamdi Kanu's peaceful agitation for an independent nation?

Seriously? Someone caught on tape and video soliciting for arms to fight Nigeria? Na wa for Kanu's power of brainwashing sha. To declare the guy did wrong seem to be harder for some of you than even breathing.

Leopardd:
Biafra issue has a way of bringing the devil in Yorubas, even Onatisi can't hide it again.

We aren't worried a bit. Nigerians should be getting worried.

Till the end, and till Kanu is convicted, people like you will never show decency to support what is right and condemn the lunatic. Most Yorubas I know don't give a toss about Kanu. Yet he made us the number one enemy of Igbos and tried to instigate the prohibition and killing of Yoruba religious leaders in Igboland. Kanu made it clear the Yorubas should be seen as virtually chickens to be slaughtered if necessary. Excuse me then if most Yorubas, the victims of his hateful tirade, have taken this personally especially in the face of the incriminating silence from Igbo leaders and the refusal, such as you and others have displayed here, to show that you unequivocally condemn the hate mongering of Kanu. Dude, you are your own biggest enemy. Don't drag Yorubas into this because we never asked Kanu to hinge successful secession on the premise of waging war against us the Yorubas. Deal with what Kanu started that some of you tacitly endorsed with your refusal to come out and condemn Kanu and unequivocally distance yourselves from him.

Boeing777pilot:
The thing I find interesting is that the British government is yet to utter a word with specific reference to Kanu since he's a British citizen.

They usually offer consular assistance to nationals in situations like this.

Plus the regular calls for fair trial etc.

Absolutely nothing , nada, zilch from the home office.

Interesting.

Right now Britain is struggling with the terrifying reality of her own citizens going to join extremist terrorist groups to do unspeakable things. Condemnation of such development is very high in the UK currently and Britain would be called out for hypocrisy if seen to support Kanu's hateful incitement against Nigerians at a time the UK is trying to jail and prohibits more of her own domestic hate mongers . If you go abroad to preach hate then face the local consequences of your actions. That seems to be the message of the UK with their silence over Kanu. You cannot be condemning terror against your homeland and supporting such against others.

HiddenShadow:


And what should we do to the OBA of Lagos ?

You guys will never get it and you keep making silly and distractive comparisons instead of just simply dissociating yourselves from Kanu the hate-monger. Yorubas , including myself, dissociated themselves firmly from the offensive statements of the Oba of Lagos. Tinubu, Ambode and many Yoruba leaders decisively and swiftly disowned the Oba's utterance while making it clear that Akiolu's words were personal opinions not to be viewed as the position of Yoruba folks. Yet what did your youths, and even elders who should know better, do with the rabid and hateful noise of Kanu against the Yorubas and Hausa/Fulanis? They openly embraced his instigating hate speech against the Yorubas to the extent IPOB members even pledged to kill Yoruba pastors for Kanu if they stepped in Igbo land.

While this was going on your prominent leaders kept silent indicating to the world that they tacitly support Kanu. Please don't revise history here. We all saw Yorubas show decency to vehemently condemn Oba Akiolu's hateful rant against the Igbos whereas your leaders and even ordinary kinsmen let themselves down with how , by omission or commission, they allowed Kanu to become a malevolent demagogue who has now done serious damage to the image of the Igbos in Nigeria today. Start repairing the damage from your own corner. Next time don't ask silly questions about a Yoruba oba. Simply show decency and condemn Kanu, as most Yorubas did with Akiolu, if you are not indeed a closet IPOD who believes Kanu's rant that the Yorubas and Hausa/Fulanis are the enemies of the Igbo and should be exterminated in necessary.

seunmsg:
The Zoo is really dealing with the ipob thug leader. He will probably be spending the remainder of his miserable life rotting away in kuje prison. No matter the noise making protest by his fellow ipob thugs, the Nigerian judiciary would not be intimidated to free him.

The mumu dilector who can't even appoint a competent lawyer to represent him wants to lead an imaginary Biafra republic. He will have to do that from kuje prison now as he's not going home anytime soon.

Does he deserve less? It has gotten really personal for a lot of people because of the bile and hate Kanu peddled and was instigating others to key into. He did not stop at calling a legitimately elected President a paedophile and terrorist but went on to label the Yorubas and Hausa/Fulanis dispensable enemies to be killed if necessary yet his own ethnic group are most vulnerable because of how they are dispersed throughout Nigeria. What a selfish, egotistic and entirely sadistic megalomaniac.

An example should be made of him because hate-mongers can lead the vulnerable and disenfranchised to do horrible things. Just look at the world today with how charismatic hate preachers ar turning many young people into murderers. Kanu is no different and should face the full wrath of the law. Don't firmly stop this Kanu version 1.0 and many would be encouraged to be the next Kanu as obtains under weaklings like GEJ. Buhari appreciates this about his people. PMB know that with Nigerians, a people used to lawlessness and impunity, you must apply a firm hand or wait to be overrun by citizens who naturally love misbehaving if there is no consequences for such.

Luvlydevin:
The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), yesterday, dismissed insinuation that it was championing the Biafra secession cause, so as to colonise the south-south geopolitical zone given its huge oil resources.
Reacting to a statement credited to Sagir Mohammed where he described the agitation for Biafra as a desperate ploy to colonize the south-south region and tap the crude oil reserves as its economic mainstay, MASSOB Leader, Uchenna Madu, in a statement said: “MASSOB can never be intimidated, disorganized or shaken because of some disgruntled, frustrated, confused, defeated people like Sagir Mohammed who in frustration, alleged that Ndi Igbo wants to capture and colonize the people of south-south with Biafra.
“MASSOB, Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, and Lower Niger Congress, LNC, with our affiliates in Diaspora are more determined, consistent and articulated for Biafra actualization not minding the cries of Sagir Mohammed and his likes. We are not in the Biafra struggle to colonize our south-south brethren but to decolonize them from Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba oligarchy who have held them captives for decades, subjected our brothers and sisters into slavery as was meted to Ndigbo.
“90 percent oil wells in Niger Delta were owned by these criminal parasites of northern oligarchy. Today, the Fulani are crying fowl because they have no stake again as Nigeria is in near collapse under the leadership President Muhammad Buhari. The people of eastern region are wiser now, formidable, united, focused and determined for survival, emancipation and independence of Biafra. Igboland is not locked as alleged by Sagir Mohammed. The people and land of south-east region are more developed individually than the entire 19 states of northern Nigeria,” Madu said.

To be honest this is getting really annoying and good igbos should begin speaking out as these groups, i.e MASSOB, IPOB et al, are really giving them a bad image as ungracious liars and a spitefully hateful people. It is only an irredeemably unreasonable person, in view of what is being revealed daily, who will pontificate that the present state of Nigeria is down to Buhari and not to Ali Baba (GEJ) and his forty thieves (Allison-Madueke, Dasuki, NOI et al) as alleged above in bold. If Nigeria is "near collapse" today then it is only IPOP and MASSOB liars who will not admit it is firmly the fault of GEJ and his incompetent and irresponsible looters.

The same madness, before the election, of continuing to see no wrong in GEJ when the entire world, to include the SS, has moved on is an unhealthy indictment of the mindset of these MASSOB and IPOB folks. lies upon lies plus a lunatic, morally reprehensible and dishonest zeal to back anyone they feel is giving the government of Buhari a hard time. Some people are travelling a dangerous road in my opinion and making things hard for themselves unnecessarily.

chubhiee:

That you elect to play the ostrich in the mist of current realities is pitiable. which petty and clanish president went on national television and argued that the bulk of his tenure will be used to politically settle the 97% that voted for him while the 5% can rot in Hades?

Which president threatened and rained fired and brimstone on grieving chibok mothers whose only crime was demand the return of their daughters?

Which president authorised the massacre of over 1000% citizens cos they failed to give burantai right of way?

Have you noticed the number of business shutting down and heading to other African countries?

Have you noticed the unprecedented number of sack letters sent out within the few months of this administration?

Do we have portable drinking waters yet? or light in our homes? talkless of getting fuel to power generators or kerosene to cook?

Have you considered the budget? and Buhari wants to start militancy in the creeks again?

Gbawe, be honest and tellme if we have ever had things this bad.

Of course an argument can be made for the notion we have never had things this bad but how can any reasonable person blame Buhari and the APC for this? This is why IPOB members and their sympathisers stand discredited these days. You seem incapable of reasoning logically and without sentiments borne of prejudice.

If you are not prejudiced you will agree it is not the fault of Buhari and the APC that oil fell from $110.00 under GEJ to $27.00 today.
If deep bias against a Northern President or the APC is not an issue with you then you will note it is the PDP, and most recently GEJ, that left us in very poor shape to tackle this austere period when , as a mono economy, our main export , i.e oil, is becoming worthless.

GEJ was too busy looting to even bother with rainy day savings despite his government earning the most of any Nigerian government in history courtesy of oil selling over $100.00 per barrel for a long period.

Despite being in power for 16 years (1999 to 2015) the PDP did not bother to diversify the Nigerian economy away from a disastrous dependence on oil. Successive PDP President paid lip service only to developing the SME sector. Critical infrastructure, like transport and power, remain redundant in Nigeria, courtesy of the PDP, when they should be driving socio-economic development and growth. I could go on all day and I have to ask if you are not ashamed trying to blame Buhari and the APC for this mess while you say nothing about the glaring culpability of GEJ and his PDP marauders.

Are you a sadist? If you really know the damage GEJ and the PDP did over the past 16 years, i.e their irresponsible looting and totally incompetent leadership of Nigeria, then you would not dare speak as if the APC caused the problem we are facing now or as if the APC can wave a magic wand to make everything fine in months. This is why everyone is getting fed up of you IPOB lads and sympathisers. It is almost as if extreme prejudice and latent ethnic hate for others will always lead you to defend what is wrong 100% of the time while you exonerate those ethnically affiliated to you of blame over Nigeria's current situation when they are virtually 100% to blame for our woes as is the case with GEJ. How can you honestly blame Buhari and the APC for the mess Nigeria is in today? Is it not like how Kanu and his IPOB wailers were running around claiming Yorubas and Hausa/Fulani are their problem yet they have nothing to say about damning evidence which shows that GEJ, along with complicit SE/SS leaders like NOI and Allison-Madueke, totally destroyed Nigeria with unconscionable corruption and gross incompetence. Na wa for you guys sha.

erico2k2:

Oga only if you know how many people are under his payroll. How many people he has lifted from darkness. Every tribe needs a Tompolo. No gentleman in leadership as far as Nigeria is concerned. .The gentlemanessential has made the Creek people backwards for time imo river.now they are standing up to aggressors you label them clueless.

Look, employing many Niger Deltans does not give Tompolo carte blache to commit crime and get away with it. Let him face his case and let others continue to run whatever he has set up that is beneficial for the people of the region. Every ethnic group does not need a Tompolo going into the future. We need impunity to stop and for folks to go about their business lawfully or face the consequences of doing otherwise. That way the "jungle" will evolve to be more like the nations we all admire and want Nigeria to be like.

chubhiee:

In your little mind you missed El Zaky and maybe Fayose.
The country is already a mess economically and more divided along tribal and religious line ever since your Apc and Buhari took over. blackmail and blame passing is now the last hope of Apc and Buhari while the nation is already crippled.

Next after bullying everyone to join Apc with efcc is to proceed and massacre the rest right?

It is not about everyone joining the APC. Impunity must stop. As simple as that. Do you enjoy how unruly Nigeria is with the like of Tompolo acting as if they are above the law ? Support what is right for once and stop rooting for criminals and anarchists. Also, you are a very dishonest chap as per the bold above. Every living creature under the Sun knows that it is the GEJ government that left Nigeria most dangerously divided along ethnic and religious lines. In fact the whole IPOB nonsense is the hangover from the inability of ethnic and religious bigots to accept that the Christian Southerner they worship clannishly (GEJ) legitimately lost an election to the moslem Northerner (Buhari) they hate passionately. Don't come here with your desperate revisionism abeg.

busomma:
Tompolo or whatever ur name is, stop arrogating to urself powers u never had. What made u think that u & ur Co criminals can withstand the mighty power of Nigeria when it's brought to bear on u? Don't forget u're not dealing with ur clueless kinsman but a full decorated retired general. U will easily be smoked out of ur den when he has time to handle ur nuisance.

Don't mind them. Same way they hyped and worshipped Kanu till the hateful fool thought he was invincible and could dare a legitimate President he ran around disrespecting with the tag of "terrorist" and "paedophile". Now Tompolo is their new local champion. I will just advise Government (Tompolo) to not listen to these praise singers. He should go and face his charges. As far as I know, loot recovery is uppermost on Buhari's agenda and those who cooperate and return stolen money willingly will get that taken into consideration. Try and be problematic like Metuh and rot in jail. These guys should simply return the billions because we need it desperately right now.

chubhiee:

Gbawe is leading the way to arrest and talk Tompolo into jail armed with long emotional epistle.

Keep watching. How many individuals have you lot made your champion who will defy Buhari and bring Nigeria to her knees? First you bet and lost on GEJ and his army of empty threat issuers like Edwin Clark, Asari Doku-orobo et al. You then placed all hope on Kanu and he is now totally demystified and fighting for his liberty. Una back Metuh to come out on top yet he is becoming more sober daily. ICC, the UK and other foreign champions' you pinned your hope on have no interest in associating with your troublesome behaviour. Tompolo is now your last hope. We will see how he fares with a President who believes, with every fibre of his being, that no individual or group should terrorise a nation and hold her to ransom.

IsraeliAIRFORCE:


Oh yes,
Comrade Gbawe is wiser and more accomplished than all IPOB in Nigeria and in the diaspora.

See a poor church rat comparing himself with IPOB. Wonders they say shall never end.

Get lost

Rant and rave all you want. The reality is that Buhari has demystified you guys and shown you to be nothing but empty chest-beaters and braggarts who only know to issue empty threats and impotent ultimatums. No one takes you IPOB wailer seriously any more and your only achievement has been to disgrace yourselves and then put decent Igbos under a negative spotlight because of one mentally unstable nuisance called Kanu. You IPOB clowns have set your ethnic group back no end because of the egotism and tribalism many warned you about.

You all lost the plot when Kanu started anchoring his secession plot on a mission of fighting and killing Yorubas and Hausa/Fulani and you backed his lunacy when you should have spoken against it vehemently. I heard the guys ranting incoherently in one of his tirade about "blood moon" and I thought to myself how sad it is that it is this crazy mofo Igbo youths have chosen to follow all in the name of some perceived marginalisation when the fact is that it is all poor Nigerians, whatever their ethic group, who are marginalised by the thieving elites. For example, Dasuki shared the loot with Hausa.Fulani,Yoruba, Igbo et al. Yet did he give you and any IPOB youth a kobo? Did Metuh share even one kobo with you? You have not dealt with your many, many thieving leaders and misrulers in Igbo land yet you decided to elevate the Yorubas and Hausa/Fulani to your public enemy number one. Well, enjoy the damage you have done to your region and spare us the self-pity. You brought it upon yourself.

IsraeliAIRFORCE:



Yes, we (IPOB) are responsible for all problems in Nigeria and deserve to be hanged in gallows.

Poor Igbo children, women and youths, second genocide loading!

Stop this pathetic show of self - pity and ''victimisation'. IPOB are currently mocked because they cheaply succumbed to the brainwashing of Kanu to then go on an insane and megalomaniac mission of peddling hate against other Nigerians and threatening to destroy Nigeria.

If sincere you will admit the grave wrongs Kanu and his brainwashed IPOB followers did before pretending to be the aggrieved Party. You guys thought we are still in the days of weak presidents you threaten and cower. Sadly for you, Buhari will not blink and he will have no qualms dealing with anyone who thinks he/she is bigger than Nigeria.

KinkyAngela:
For staters, Jide Omokore is a Yoruba from Kogi state. Lets see if his people would hit the street on a '' leave am na our son'' solidarity protest

For where? Let them jail him for life and throw the keys away. Not one single.Yoruba person will defend his action or lament over his punishment.

I am all for the fight against corruption but these traffic-obsessed bloggers and desperado news outlet are not helping with their wild fabrications. It is impossible for Akpabio to have stolen and stashed $7.2 billion in the UAE. Yes corruption was pervasive under GEJ but it is not difficult to note that certain claims are just simply ludicrous.

SLIDEwaxie:
And u biliv this idiot who posted this nonsense?

I don't know how some Nigerians can be sooooooooooooo stupid and gullible. Even a 3 year old child can tell them the most senseless and preposterous lie and they will lap it up. Is this not how these fake bloggers lied, before the election, that Buhari said he enjoyed killing Igbos during the war and would do it again today? These people have no honour or conscience and their only interest is to cause chaos and disharmony with their lies.

BERNIMOORE:
Story for the Gods go to Osun river and tell the orisas that oil sold for over $100.00 per barrel, under Buhari now that oil is $27.00 per barrel...where is the change Gbawe are you Fasting? your name sounds like Gbawe! Alabelewe

No clue about what you are saying mate.

Tycoflu:
Op receive small sense in Jesus name. How much is crude in 2013 and how much is it now? If you dey give baby 50k when salary na 200k, will you still be giving her same if they cut your salary to 70k? You were created in God's imagine for crying out loud. Stop making mockery of you God given gift and put it to good use.

Thank you . So Aregbesola is as dense as the OP to expect the allocation he received under GEJ, when oil sold for over $100.00 per barrel, to be the same under Buhari now that oil is $27.00 per barrel? You are right that OP needs to receive sense.

Ioannes:
we haven't had a leader in so long. this is what happens when you leave an airplane to free-fall.

from the naira exchanging for $2 to #1 in the late 70s and early 80s to naira now exchanging for over #300 to a dollar, Nigeria has been raped and battered by rulers from the North, East, West and South of the nation.

i pray crude oil sells for 50cents/barrel before the end of this year.

whether we like it or not we must get our sh*it together in this country "by fire, by force".

oh, and to our bia*fran touts, you guys are going nowhere. we destroyed this country together, we will build it together. shikena.

True. This is why I laugh at those who say Buhari should "face" the economy and drop the anti-corruption fight. They don't understand that the fight against corruption is a necessity and not a choice !!! Because Nigeria is earning a lot less than it did, we simply need every kobo that can be recovered from looters. To that end the corruption fight then indirectly becomes an important part of the economic trust of this government. You cannot diversify our economy in days or even months. The SME sector can help immensely, if it were healthy, by limiting our economic exposure to falling oil prices but we ruined that as well and it will take time to develop e thriving SME sector capable of being able to provide many jobs, contribute significantly to GDP and deliver the business activities and cash to drive a nation.

As it is, the Nigerian government is the biggest employer of labour and this is truly sad for anyone who appreciates that this is an expensive and retroactive aberration. There is so much stacked against us that it is even depressing to begin talking about it. I personally just want the current government to educate Nigerians better about the challenge the nation is facing so that people know not to expect quick or miracle fixes because it is irritating watching some charlatans speak as if we have the economic ability and power to defy global reality when we are a mono economy with our main expert and income earning becoming more worthless and less demanded daily.

@OP.

Great post. What you stated below is exactly what I have been telling nairalanders for the past few days especially our numerous pretend professors of economics who have been tripping over their own shoelaces talking of "fiscal and monetary policy" and such jargon as if those can magically rescue a currency and economy in the doldrums because its main export is now worth around 75% less than it sold for not too long ago. Nigerians simply do not understand that we do not have anything going for us economically that can aid the recovery and prosperity some want to see. Sadly, for pragmatically honest Nigerians, it is now about austerity, downsizing, belt-tightening and very modest expectations for the foreseeable future. We f**ked ourselves because our over-reliance on oil means we failed to plan and therefore planned to fail. Nigerians cannot then ignore hard facts and global reality to childishly expect water from a stone.

I know and it amazes me that there are Nigerians who actually think there is some magic POLICY that can make the naira strong in the near term. If my economics and my understanding of the way the world works are right, then that is as far from the truth as Jesus Christ is black.

The simple fact of the matter is that apart from oil that accounts for over 90% of our revenues, we really don’t have much of an economy. We hardly produce anything, we import even toothpicks, so exactly what policy is going to be implemented that will turn Nigeria into a top exporting economy in the near term?

grandstar:
The write up was written by an economic illiterate.

Mr.Economic Guru, why not enlighten us then? Let us drink from the fountain of your knowledge. The floor is yours. Do not disappoint us.

@Post.

Omenka said it all. Under GEJ a strong Boko Haram was profitable and beneficial to many individuals and for many reasons. It is not the same under Buhari where control of all processes is much tighter and there will certainly be punitive consequences for abetting terrorism. This is a bad time to be a sponsor of Boko Haram because you will certainly be punished if caught.

DaBullIT:
Used and dumped

Abi. Of what use is all the noise metuh was making before the elections when we warned him that power is transient and that him and his thieving compatriots would be in trouble if PDP lost? Karma is indeed a total b*tch.

TheGoodJoe:



You people keep saying all this shifting blame talk. It is impossible for a government that is largely dependent on Crude Sales to florish after such drop in the crude price. It is a fact. If Okonjo Iweala was a reasonable person, she would know her decision to turn a blind eye to the massive corruption practices under GEJ would harm the Nation.

The woman was a complete disaster and a major accomplice to the worst looting in the history of Nigeria. Painting such a devil as an angel is terrible.

I have no doubt the present Government will turn things around. Even with the falling crude price, I still expect this government to shine through it. It is just a rough patch created by Iweala and co.

Good will bless you ojare. You are 100% correct when you say "It is impossible for a government that is largely dependent on Crude Sales to florish after such drop in the crude price". That is the crux of the matter and it is what we are trying to explain to theses armchair critics who keep expecting miracles and asking NOI back. The article below, hosting the comment of expert economic analysts, is from 2014 when NOI held sway and oil sold at $68.00 per barrel. It warns us not to expect any swift recovery at a time conditions were much more favourable than they are today. If the outlook was very bleak back then, and NOI led us into that gloomy storm, what is she coming back to do now oil is $27.00 per barrel global demand for Nigerian crude is falling?


http://www.wsj.com/articles/nigerias-tumbling-currency-a-victim-of-falling-oil-prices-1417535209

Nigeria’s Tumbling Currency a Victim of Falling Oil Prices
Highly Oil Dependent Economy Feeling the Pinch
Nigeria’s currency has fallen to record lows as the country is hit by its dependency on oil, the price of which has tumbled 40% since June.
REUTERS
By PATRICK MCGROARTY, DREW HINSHAW and JOSIE COX
Updated Dec. 2, 2014 2:20 p.m. ET
3 COMMENTS
Nigeria’s currency tumbled to a record low on Tuesday, hammered by falling oil prices that have weighed on Africa’s top economy as it heads toward an election.

Nigeria overestimated oil prices this year by a wide margin—and is now suffering. Economists fear weak oil prices may prevent Africa’s most populous nation from hitting the 7% growth the International Monetary Fund has forecast for this year.

“We’re a substantial way from the economy even starting to think about being able to recover,” said Nitesh Shah, an analyst at ETF Securities in London. “The government’s options are limited.”

Oil and natural gas make up almost all of Nigeria’s exports and 80% of government revenue, according to the IMF.

As Brent crude prices have slipped 40% since June, to $68 a barrel, the wheels have begun to come off Nigeria’s economy.

Nigeria, whose economy surpassed South Africa in April as the continent’s largest, has striven to generate revenue beyond oil. Recent years saw promising growth in booming telecommunications, banks, hotels and other service businesses.

But to sustain that growth, businesses say they need bigger ports, more highways and fewer blackouts that crimp factory production and curb tax revenue. A weaker naira will make it more expensive to build that infrastructure.

The naira slumped to 186.9 to the U.S. dollar, traders said, extending a slide that has shaved more than 10% off its value this year.

Many African countries are paying the price for counting on one commodity to drive their economies. Growth has stalled in oil-rich Angola. Falling copper prices have dented growth in Zambia. Lower iron-ore prices were hurting Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone even before the Ebola epidemic made things far worse.

ENLARGE
President Goodluck Jonathan, standing for re-election, has come under pressure to avoid unpopular spending cuts. As a result, the current budget of nearly $30 billion is hardly $1 billion leaner than last year’s, but the decline in oil prices has choked revenue.

In October, Nigeria—which spends a fifth of its budget on its military—borrowed an additional $1 billion to buy helicopters, fighter jets and other equipment to combat Islamist militants. On Tuesday, the insurgency Boko Haram bombed a market in one city and raided police barracks in another.

In November, the government submitted a revised budget that proposes spending cuts based on a new average oil price of $73 a barrel. But even that price could be “overly optimistic,” warned the central bank governor, Godwin Emefiele.
‘We get used to high oil prices and assume it’s going to be there forever.’
—Ken Iwelumo, former investment banker
Nigeria isn’t the only big oil producer with a wilting currency. Russia’s ruble has shed nearly half of its value against the dollar since May. Norway’s krone has dropped 17% since then, and the Canadian dollar is down 5%.

[size=14pt]But Nigeria is particularly vulnerable. Unlike its peers, it didn’t save while oil prices were high. A public fund that contained $20 billion in oil proceeds when crude prices first surged past $100 a barrel in 2008 had shrunk to $4 billion as of November.

“We get used to high oil prices and assume it’s going to be there forever,” said Ken Iwelumo, a former investment banker who now farms catfish in Nigeria.
[/size]
Economists say oil prices could stay low for months. The 12-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, who collectively pump more than a third of the world’s oil, agreed last week to maintain a target of producing 30 million barrels a day.

Meanwhile, the country’s power-privatization program has hit snags. Investors say they can’t improve supply until the government invests $1.5 billion a year to replace a rusted-out grid of power lines.

Nigeria’s All-Shares Index fell 1.8% on Tuesday, extending a drop of almost 18% this year.

In November, Nigeria’s central bank tried to support the naira by limiting sales of the U.S. dollar. When the naira continued to drop, the central bank bought the Nigerian currency to pump up demand, traders say. The bank’s foreign-exchange reserves shrank by $2 billion and the selloff continued.

Last week, the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by one percentage point to a record 13%. It also lowered the naira’s target trading band to around 168 against the dollar from 155 previously.

The naira is still trading outside that target. Fresh dollar sales by the central bank did little to stop its slide, traders say.

“Things are happening too quickly, too suddenly, too sharply for the average Nigerian or even analysts to process,” said Bizmark Rewane, managing director of Lagos-based Financial Derivatives Co. “We do not know what will happen.”

MayorofLagos:


Lmao! Its amazing that everyone keep touting her experience as an asset. What really is her experience? She failed in her first tenure as finance minister. She came back and failed again....and these riffraff, panhandlers are asking for her return. To do what...fail a third time? Do Ibos want me to do a mythbuster on NOI...it wont be sweet, I promise you. Lets just leave her intact with her skeletons, no need for revelations.

Gbawe, iwo loko won....bring your bulala out and whip these freaks abeg. Lol.

Indeed. The fact is that NOI failed so spectacularly under GEJ to the extent she will now be first choice of any organisation that has an exploitative agenda towards Africa. Their thinking will be that "if you can f**k up the biggest black nation that badly then we can trust you to help us plunder your fellow monkeys". Anyone who has experience of living or working in the west will know there is always an agenda of using the black man to infiltrate and undermine his own. What NOI supervised under GEJ shows she does not give a toss about Nigeria or Nigerians. This will make her attractive to many profit-obsessed organisations who will see "ruthless achiever" rather than accept she is an unscrupulous woman who is very comfortable with nation-crippling corruption and sleaze.

Achuwa1:
If NOI didnt perform she wouldnt be getting all the international awards u see under her kitty & she even served under 2 different regimes because she was gud at what she does,,,
so u apc e-rat should tell ur president to focus on governance & stop junketering around the world to borrow money from islamic countries & stop signing agreement with the arab gulf tht will plung our future generation into bondage in the future.
Nigeria has become a mess under pmb coz his govt doesnt have focus but only fighting opposition in the name coruption & havent even raised up to 10billion in the fight against corruptiin since inception in office,which shows all the publicized figures in the media are all big lies

Oh lawd !!!! The excuses in defence of NOI do not get more senseless than this. Is it not obvious to you that what the IMF or world bank want from an economist will not be what a mono economy like Nigeria will want from the same economist? Who told you guys NOI is unattractive to pro western organisations that thrive by throttling the potentials of the "third world" so they retain their 'developed nations' status? There are salesmen who thrive cheating unsuspecting members of the public for a living yet these sort will never be out of work as long as they are good at what they do in a world where some prioritise the need to make money at all cost above everything else. Nigga, the west will always love 'tools' like NOI and will always attempt to subdue and frustrate the Nkrumahs, Awolowos, Lumumba, Sankara et al. If a mafia hitman is always employed then that does not mean he is an asset to society. It simply means he is good at killing people and serving his master.

bloodykiller:
[s][/s]



we shall continue with the brutal criticism we leant from you guys because do me i do you even God go understand.

Bro, you have my blessing to do this. Let us just hope you have our resilience and 'dedication to the cause' because you have another three years and 4 months of doing this. Should Buhari and the APC come good then you will become a very tired grandfather practising your "do me I do you" in futility

MayorofLagos:


Anywhere you put Ibo without supervision it ends in ruin! There are track records to prove it, from 1960 till today.

If Ngozi wants to.come back and assist its fine but she will be under the supervision of Kemi Adeosun.

Is this cool?

. On a serious note, NOI is a certified failure who supervised a period in our history when we earned record income from oil yet the greatest looting of Nigeria's commonwealth occurred totally removing the positive economic effect such earnings would ordinarily have if available to improve the lot of the people. If we want to convince the world we are a banana republic and a joke nation then the quickest way to do this is to bring NOI back to serve under the current government in any capacity.

fallout87:


Is it the finance ministers job to diversify the economy or the jobs of the lazy Governors who were taking oil money to go buy properties in London and dubai?

You're they one who needs to receive sense

Your argument is merely emotional so I am not surprised it is highly ignorant. It is the job of every finance minister to find ways to raise non-oil revenue, i.e diversify our mono economy, and indeed Adeosun makes this her priority. Even NOI touted this publicly (see below) but we all now know she succumbed to helping GEJ and co loot Nigeria while supplying the "robust economy" lies to fool the world even when we had started to borrow to pay salaries. Tragic you guys continue with the sadistic defence of the failure called NOI.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ed7107d8-8c57-11e5-a549-b89a1dfede9b.html#axzz3yDsYYnoI

November 16, 2015 3:25 pm
Nigeria’s finance minister makes non-oil revenues top priority
Maggie Fick in Lagos

Nigeria's new minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, smiles after taking an oath of office during a swearing-in ceremony in Abuja, Nigeria November 11, 2015. Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari swore 36 ministers into his cabinet on Wednesday, five months after his inauguration. Buhari won March elections after vowing to crack down on corruption in Africa's biggest economy and top oil producer. He has been criticised for waiting until September to name his ministers at a time when the economy has been hammered by the fall in oil prices.


Nigeria’s new finance minister said raising non-oil revenues was her top priority, as the slump in oil prices continues to take its toll on Africa’s biggest crude exporter.

Kemi Adeosun, a 48-year-old British-born accountant, was sworn in last week by President Muhammadu Buhari nearly six months after the former military ruler took office — a delay that led some critics to complain of a policy vacuum in Africa’s larger economy.

She told the Financial Times that stricter enforcement of earnings collection from federal agencies and more diligent bookkeeping were the types of “micro” issues her ministry would focus on to mitigate the effects of crude prices that remain below $50 a barrel.
Her message chimes with what Mr Buhari told his new cabinet colleagues at a retreat before they were sworn in: pare down the costs of running government ministries through simple cost-saving measures such as cutting travel and the number of vehicles in convoys.
“Forget about oil — we don’t control the price of oil. That’s not where our problems lie,” Ms Adeosun said.
For years, Ms Adeosun explained, a mindset of “we have oil” meant Abuja had practically given up collecting the right amounts from other state bodies, as she rattled off a list of federal agencies she says had habitually under-reported their revenues. “Because of oil, we’ve ignored everything else,” she said.
She added that she had already begun “drilling down into the details” with ministry staff to assess how much “parastatals” — state-run or affiliated agencies — remit to the government.
She also praised the lack of pomp and circumstance at the ministerial swearing in ceremony, a sharp contrast to state ceremonies of past governments. “The programme was a piece of paper, that’s it,” she said.
Ms Adeosun was most recently finance commissioner of Ogun state, where she focused on improving fiscal oversight at state institutions. Before that she worked for Chapel Hill Denham, a Nigerian investment bank. Until her mid-30s she lived in London, where she worked for PwC in the global risk management department.

Ms Adeosun is not the first finance chief to note that a near exclusive focus on oil, which accounts for almost four-fifths of government revenues, had been poisonous for Nigeria.
[size=14pt]Her predecessor, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, made a similar case at times during her tenure. But under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, weak oversight of oil revenues deprived the state coffers of many billions of dollars a year.[/size]
“I don’t want to say we’ve been indisciplined,” Ms Adeosun said. “But I’d say, when you have the money, you can be extravagant, flying first class instead of business [class], business instead of economy” — an acknowledgment that Nigeria’s finances are now much more precarious.
Referring to criticism from parts of Nigeria’s business community that she has considerably less experience than Ms Okonjo-Iweala, a former World Bank managing director, Ms Adeosun said her accounting background meant she had the skills to get her country’s financial house in order.
“In Nigeria we always talk about the macro issues, we always start from way up high. But we don’t pay attention to the micro ones. That’s now my job,” she said.
Mr Buhari has changed the way responsibilities are divvied up among the economic team in his cabinet. He removed the budget file from the finance ministry and gave it to the planning ministry, where he has appointed Udo Udoma, a former senator, as minister of budget and national planning.
Mr Udoma, who left his job as chairman of one of Nigeria’s largest manufacturing companies to take up the position, is joined by Okey Enelemah, the new trade, investment and industry minister. Mr Enelemah is the founder of African Capital Alliance, a Lagos-based private equity firm.

mekaboy:


You are rather allowing sentiments to cloud your reasoning.

You are watching foriegn investors withdraw from Nigeria, watching the naira fall, watching businesses collapse and people loose their jobs and you ask for patients .

You look at the budget in the midst of the oil prices and see how the govt decided to spend more on itself than when oil was higher under Gej. You are watching the stock market crash before your eyes and you are waiting for a miracle?

Look at this bigoted illiterate. The Nigerian economy is seriously troubled because of global challenges, mainly linked to drastically falling oil price, and any halfwit will know that Nigeria, as a mono economy almost entirely dependent on oil, cannot really expect superlative economic growth, strong currency, attraction and retention of foreign direct investment plus job security under this terrible downturn occasioned by our crippling vulnerability to oil price.

As one example, how can jobs be created in a period of economic downturn when Nigeria , as a mono economy almost entirely dependent on crude, has to finance itself on oil selling at £27.00 per barrel when not too long ago she was selling the same for over $100.00 per barrel? Nigeria is a nation where the government is the biggest employer of labour thanks to myopic military leadership, moribund SME sector and the corrupt 16 years of PDP rule. Even a child of 5 can see that government, struggling to even pay salary, will find it fiscally impossible to prevent job losses in a period like this.

Investors in Nigeria have no choice but to retrench workers and consider their option because of the overarching conditions , i.e devastatingly low national income and depreciating currency linked to falling oil price, the government has zero control over. Honestly Seun should consider deleting threads like these because I feel they are the creations of bigoted and sadistic minds. NOI would be in jail in many sane nations or facing the death sentence in China. To suggest she returns to her old job is just proof Nigeria has wicked enemy within parading as 'concerned citizens'.

tucky200:
[/s]
Trash [s]
Trash !

Indeed. Total bigoted trash. Only sadists and bigots will ask for the return of a woman who was to GEJ what Joseph Goebbels was to Hitler.

baby124:
Covetousness is a bad thing. Is this why Kemi is being attacked? Okonjo was there for 2 governments. Did Nigeria turn to Dubai? No more wuruwuru and jagajaga statistics. Get used to Kemi, she's not going anywia. Why crying for Okonjo? I thought she's busy with her many appointments. Or did she leave a fake file in Finance ministry that she needs to come and recover? Her time has passed, it's some one else's time now.

Don't mind them. NOI , after the facts and revelations, supervised the current mess we are in today and only sadists who want Buhari to fail, and ethnic bigots, will advocate for her return. She is a liar and an unscrupulous women who had no qualms deceiving the world about Nigeria's "robust economy" while every kobo was being looted under her nose and the wheels were falling off the Nigerian economy. To be honest, folks like the OP should think before they talk because many Nigerians are now very, very angry about what GEJ, NOI, Allison-Madueke et al did.

Holding brief for those folks and even clamouring for their return will only go to convince well-meaning Nigerians that some folks, while pretending to be Nigerians, do not mean well for Nigeria. What manner of insanity would lead anyone to ask for NOI to return? Why do we not then ask for Hitler to return and lead Germany or lobby for the return of Idi Amin et al? Some people have no shame and it is obvious they see everything from an ethnic viewpoint to the extent they will never denounce the wrongdoers from their ethnic groups however heinous their crimes. NOI was a very, very, very, very , very big fat failure under GEJ. That is an economic fact no one can spin.