cooljude:
i can remember vivdly reading an article where SLS was defending his policy of defending the Naira with Nigerians foriegn reserve. Meaning they've been doing this but with the price of oil falling below the nations bench-mark, it was totally not sustainable. Look at other major oil producing countries like Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria must start to reduce her dependency on oil.

The mistake Nigeria made during those years was to completely defend the naira without making provision to spend some of our foreign reserve to finance the establishment of industries whose products we import.


If we had done so, the demand for dollar in order to import foreign goods would have declined due to the fact that we now produced them locally.

OLADD:


Friend, I am not here to launder the image of Mr. president or his party but as a citizen who tries as much as possible to uphold the truth(within the ambit of my human capacity), we owe it as a duty to hit issues on the nail with unambiguity. Sanusi as an astute economist and banker who prior to his appointment as the apex bank boss had held various managerial positions in the financial sector should not be caught in the web of unsubstantiated and ridiculous whistle blowing. It was disgraceful and appaling for a CBN governor( the no.1 banker of the nation) to accuse another government parastatal of unremitted funds without concrete figure and evidence to back up such claim. He did not only disgrace himself, he equally dented the image of the institution he governed. On the other hand, aside the oversight investigation carried out by a Committee of the Senate (made up of APC and PDP members) in which NNPC was exonerated of any financial impropriety, another internationally recognised Audit firm is currently undergoing a scrutiny of NNPC books. So, why not keep our fingers crossed and await the outcome of their audit. Be rest assured that GEJ will not sweep the truth under the carpet.

^^^

Fair point up there about the whistleblowing being a rather unedifying spectacle.

Correct me if I am wrong though - wasn't it an internal memo from Mr. Sanusi to Mr. Jonathan that was leaked? Was it originally for public consumption?

Do not lose sight of the fact that Sanusi's 'ridiculous whistleblowing', leaked or not, was what brought this matter to the public domain. If I were asked to choose between a staid central banker (who sees, hears and speaks no evil) and a shrill, squealing, rabble rousing, whistleblower of a central banker (who lets us all know about unspeakable wickedness in high places), I know which option I would pick. A ten billion US dollar 'reconciliation problem' is NOT a trivial matter.

More to the point - I do not attach any value to the so-called oversight investigation by senate members. The record of Nigerian lawmakers in public inquiries in the 4th Republic has been, to borrow your own words, 'appalling'. Anyone remember the Ndidi Elumelu led House Committee on Power? Anyone remember the Herman Hembe led House Committee on Capital markets?

Nothing short of a forensic audit by at least two well known audit firms and a (technically competent) ombudsman (not these discredited lawmakers) should be acceptable to Nigerians. And the audit firms and the ombudsman should sign a contract specifying very harsh penalties for them in the event of them being found guilty of having compromised their positions.

The tragedy here is that I cannot trust the present administration to carry out any of the measures I have outlined. For reasons that are obvious to all. That's why your childlike faith that the truth will not be swept under the carpet is so sad to behold.

Assuming of course, that this faith of yours is genuine and sincere.

Boss13:


What will the ordinary Nigerian say? I believe the criticism is just and equitable given the present situation of the economy. Our finance minister cannot tell us all is well and we look around, nothing is actually well. What has she done about unemployment since she was appointed. Is it not a shame. I told her on twitter that she should have ignore Soludo.

Soludo asked basic questions drawing references from publicly available statistics. She went ahead to criticise his person, comparing him to a failure. Is she not also a failure? Has she delivered on the economic promises the administration promised. It is also very funny that they were once colleagues and probably PDP members. Sanusi also criticised and he was also insulted.

We definitely tolerate rubbish Nigerians, we tolerate rubbish

My brother, chilax. If I should ask you, what is the present situation of the economy? Please tell us.

Our Finance Minister never told us that all is well. She did say in numerous fora that we are in a difficult situation compounded with our usual challenges.

Your Professor made false accusations and facts and needs to be corrected. Why was he using the percentage poverty rate for 2011 against 2015? Are you also not aware of the fall in poverty level as released by both the NBS and World Bank? Are you not also aware of the increased life expectancy?

Are you not aware of the reduced import bill for rice (which can be verified from the CBN)?

If you say she criticized him, what will you say about Soludo's piece?

Lets call a spade a spade!

BlackTechnology:


The mistake Nigeria made during those years was to completely defend the naira without making provision to spend some of our foreign reserve to finance the establishment of industries whose products we imported.


If we had done so, the demand for dollar in order to import foreign goods would have declined due to the fact that we now produced them locally.

Which foreign reserve is to be spent? The forty something billion dollars?

kaboninc:


Nigeria is not the only country experiencing this currency devaluation.

That is exactly what i was telling Ilun. I like as this election is fiercely contested hopefully without violence. It would make the party sit-up and also Nigeria needs to strengthen her institutions.

agabaI23:
Let me add that
1. He signed the the memorandum of understanding with Brazil that permitted the export of crude to be refined outside before importation for local consumption(March, 1984)
2. When he came into power, the exchange rate was 76k to $1 and when he left just 20 months after, it was 89k to $1 which represents 17% depreciation. The rapid depreciation was due to the decree that prohibited the bringing in of forex into the country so that their was scarcity of forex and a large volume of naira wAS CHASING AFTER THE UNAVIALABLE DOLLAR
3. He forced many businesses to close shop by insisting that they sell at loss, the famous price control measure. Soldiers were sent to monitor sales and force compliance
4. Over 70,000 graduates were without job. That sounds like almost the entire graduates in the country as at then because we do not have many Universities like today and such low number of graduate turn out.
If he cannot provide job for 70,000 graduates as a military dictator who had over all power to do so, how can he provide jobs to the millions of youths now? Remember the naira was superior to the dollar as at then even though it is artificial superiority because, a net importing country has no back up for its currency.
5. Buhari sacked 30,000 soldiers because he wanted to cut cost.
6. Buhari proscribed NANS and imprisoned the leaders
I can go on.

Tell me what Buhari achieved? Tell me what he is bringing to the table.

1. Lie. What Buhari regime signed with Brazil was 'Counter-trade agreement'. At the time, there was oil glut, so low price and no buyer. In addition, opec severely restricted the quota of its members. In order to circumvent these constraints, govt signed counter-trade agreement with some countries including Brazil to exchange oil for needed goods. Not refined fuel as you alleged. Kaduna refinery was brand new then and warri and port-harcourt 1st refineries were all working at full capacity. Nigeria wasn't importing fuel in the 1980s. Infact, the port-harcourt 2nd refinery was built strictly for export under IBB.

2. Until under IBB, forex was strictly government affairs. It was not introduced by Buhari. Infact to import under Shagari, you must first get import licence from the minister of trade. What buhari strictly enforce was exportation of forex - which means you can only carry what you legally and truthfully collected as PTA or BTA. It had always been in force before buhari regime but sacred cow (politicians) could abuse the rule. Remember Fela case.

3. I don't know how old you are but if you are old enough, you would have heard of Price Control Board introduced even before Shagari regime came in 1979. In addition, when oil price fell in 1982, Shagari regime introduced 'austerity measures' including empowerment of the then Nigerian National Supply Company - an agency of government to be responsible for importing essential commodities (called 'essenco' then) like rice, cooking oil, sugar, tyres etc for distribution to Nigerians at controlled prices. As usual, the ruling NPN topshots hijacked the thing and used Indian companies like Inlaks to hoard the commodities in warehouses once imported by NNSC. Unluckly for them, buhari took over a year later and sent soldiers to force open the warehouses to auction the hoarded goods after wide publicity which always led to essenco long queues in the early days of his administration.
The process got sanitized later and with the help of counter-trade agreement, essenco became available even in big super-markets like leventis and utc at controlled prices. They were also directly distributed to civil servants and cooperatives.

4. Buhari was in government for less than 2 years. If the entire graduates in the country were unemployed during his short tenure, what were those graduates doing during the oil boom that preceded the regime up to a year before he came in? You are just parroting illogicality may be because you were not born then. Nigerians felt the effect of the austerity measure more under Shagari than under buhari and let me tell you, unemployment as known today was not on wide scale then. Many people still got jobs even under Shagari austerity talkless of buhari.

5. I cannot contest your assertion that he sacked 30,000 soldiers because I was not aware and definitely was not widely reported in the press then which would be unusual given his not so cordial relationship with his chief of army staff (IBB). Even those who overthrew him did not list this as one of his shortcomings.

6. For the record, buhari never formally proscribed NANS. The chief of staff SHQ - Idiagbon always insisted that they would just not recognize the leadership of NANS whatever that meant. But given the experience of the previous obj military regime with NUNS which obj proscribed and NANS was formed under succeeding shagari civilian regime, it was understandable that a military regime would not be enarmoured with possible organized opposition.

cooljude:
That is exactly what i was telling Ilun. I like as this election is fiercely contested hopefully without violence. It would make the party sit-up and also Nigeria needs to strengthen her institutions.

This Administration is setting the foundation for a better, strengthened, transparent institution.

kaboninc:


Which foreign reserve is to be spent? The forty something billion dollars?

If Soludo and Sanusi had spent $2 billion yearly to establish businesses whose products constitute the bulk of our imported goods, the demand for dollars in order to import foreign goods would have declined or remain constant at pre 2007 demand.

BlackTechnology:


The mistake Nigeria made during those years was to completely defend the naira without making provision to spend some of our foreign reserve to finance the establishment of industries whose products we import.


If we had done so, the demand for dollar in order to import foreign goods would have declined due to the fact that we now produced them locally.

I agree that we have to develop our industrial capacity but if you look at the big economies, innovation and production came from the people for it to be sustainable. The government should be there to provide assistance inother for those people/individual to thrive. I hope this presidential debate would be issue based but most people had already made up their mind.

callmenow:


Thank you for giving me the opportunity to educate you. Fiscal policy is the way governmental expenditure and income influence the macroeconomics. Now what this means in Oshodi speak is how internally generated revenues (IGR), things like taxation and the capital expenditure affects businesses and even you and your household. you are also wrong about rebasing. In this context, there were economic activities that were excluded, as well as the fact that Nigeria's reference point is not in line with best practices. I personally believe that our economy is worth 1.3 trillion dollars, not the 500 billion that is vaunted. My reason? Most economic activities in Nigeria is unaudited and unheralded. Most beer parlour businesses don't pay tax. Onitsha and ABA does not generate much tax for state or federal revenues boards respectively. Yet in all the progressive countries, taxes forms the bulk of GDP accounting. I pay the full tax while in Europe, yet the people in my tax office in Lagos are always discouraging me from paying proper tax, by advising me to pay only #50000, and give them (settle) #50000 egunje. Yet I should be paying at least one million naira every year. I actually hate the whole business. But they tell me that everyone does the same. I plan to pay PROPER tax this year. Corruption therefore has kept our economy back.

A fiscal policy that leads to growth means government has been spending a lot to boost the economy.
Has that been NOI's policy

What kind of spending results in growth Recurrent or Capital or both and in what proportion

However this kind of expansion alone is NOT the policy per se after all the money has to come from somewhere .
So policy would entail a decision to spend MORE and the steps to raise that money .Or a decision to Spend less and

So if you say she has raised government revenue we can say she has a policy but how could she possibly do that..
1) Raising taxes
2) Collecting taxes more efficiently
3) Increasing revenues from other sources
4) Borrowing

Finally another component of fiscal policy is whether she balances the books

Like I said when I first quoted you she has been running a Budgetary deficit

In short her fisacal policy is to fund the budget at a time of record oil revenues by borrowing both locally and internationally.
Locally the government paper has a 91 day coupon of 13% THAT IS HER FISCAL POLICY
Some people may remember Sanusi's public response to attempts to discredit him in which he stated how the CBN had to deplete reserves to back the government's deficit, how he had to make specific payments for projects that were extra budgetary

What we see is a CONFUSED fiscal policy , on the one hand she is RUNNING A DEFICIT budget borrowing at 13% and on the other hand talking about saving in a Sovereign Wealth Fund SWF.

Does this SWF give returns of 13%
I laugh at you juvenile remarks that you want to educate me. I did not ask you what fiscal policy is .Specifically I asked you what is NOI's fiscal policy which YOU CLAIMED has produced this record breaking growth. What you have posted is just absolute rubbish. You have no understanding of economics and should stay SILENT

A key dimension to fiscal policy is DISCIPLINE .So a deficit may be built into a budget but it is budgeted. What is different is when government exceeds budget regularly one of the key causes of inflation and overheating

cooljude:
I agree that we have to develop our industrial capacity but if you look at the big economies, innovation and production came from the people for it to be sustainable. The government should be there to provide assistance inother for those people/individual to thrive. I hope this presidential debate would be issue based but most people had already made up their mind.

Yes the people drive the economy but government sometimes has to initiate with the plan to privatize especially industries that have not taken root or deep root in the economy eg electronics, mechanical etc

Ikengawo:

Mrs Iweala or Jonathan never hated Sanusi. GEJ suspended him for making unproven accusations and working with the opposition but otherwise they worked closely with him day to day

Maybe you lack the information, For your information SLS provided concrete evidence that money wasn't coming back to the purse of the FG. SLS was suspended by GEJ for "financial recklessness" (donations made to to Al-majiri schools and some other ones according to them).
As a serving minister NOI didnt agree with SLS and the best she could do was to ask for the NNPC audit again but here we are where has that one led us to?

This govt certainly condoles rubbish! Thats very obvious and thats why i think we need a change in the way we do things in this country.

PDP and lies. You cannot separate the two.

We are tired of lies lies lies.

#GEJMUSTGO2015#.

2n2k:


1. Lie. What Buhari regime signed with Brazil was 'Counter-trade agreement'. At the time, there was oil glut, so low price and no buyer. In addition, opec severely restricted the quota of its members. In order to circumvent these constraints, govt signed counter-trade agreement with some countries including Brazil to exchange oil for needed goods. Not refined fuel as you alleged. Kaduna refinery was brand new then and warri and port-harcourt 1st refineries were all working at full capacity. Nigeria wasn't importing fuel in the 1980s. Infact, the port-harcourt 2nd refinery was built strictly for export under IBB.

Sir I go to Church and I don't lie. There is record

Brazil Wins Nigeria Pact
AP
Published: March 14, 1984

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 13—Brazil has won an international bidding contest to refine Nigerian oil this year, the state oil company, Petrobras, announced today.
The $1.2 billion agreement calls for Brazil to import Nigerian crude and return refined gasoline, jet fuel and diesel oil to Nigeria, a Petrobras spokesman said. He added that the accord would allow Brazil to reduce its idle refining capacity and earn a margin of profit.
Brazil imports about two-thirds of the one million barrels of oil it consumes daily, mostly from the Middle East. It buys 10,000 barrels daily from Nigeria.

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/14/business/brazil-wins-nigeria-pact.html
What does that mean to you? It is recorded in black and white

2n2k:




1. Until under IBB, forex was strictly government affairs. It was not introduced by Buhari. Infact to import under Shagari, you must first get import licence from the minister of trade. What buhari strictly enforce was exportation of forex - which means you can only carry what you legally and truthfully collected as PTA or BTA. It had always been in force before buhari regime but sacred cow (politicians) could abuse the rule. Remember Fela case.

Even now, you need import licence to go into exportation/importation? Why was Fela locked because he was found with dollars? You cannot clean an urgean stable with your tongue sir.

2n2k:


3. I don't know how old you are but if you are old enough, you would have heard of Price Control Board introduced even before Shagari regime came in 1979. In addition, when oil price fell in 1982, Shagari regime introduced 'austerity measures' including empowerment of the then Nigerian National Supply Company - an agency of government to be responsible for importing essential commodities (called 'essenco' then) like rice, cooking oil, sugar, tyres etc for distribution to Nigerians at controlled prices. As usual, the ruling NPN topshots hijacked the thing and used Indian companies like Inlaks to hoard the commodities in warehouses once imported by NNSC. Unluckly for them, buhari took over a year later and sent soldiers to force open the warehouses to auction the hoarded goods after wide publicity which always led to essenco long queues in the early days of his administration.
The process got sanitized later and with the help of counter-trade agreement, essenco became available even in big super-markets like leventis and utc at controlled prices. They were also directly distributed to civil servants and cooperatives.

That is different from using soldiers to make sure that a shop owner sells a tin of milk he bought at N6 for N4 naira. Those items were not part of governments essential commodities. You know I am not lying but you wont want to accept it because your family shop did not close during the period.
See this link
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/03/world/nigerian-general-delivers-warning.html

agabaI23:
Even now, you need import licence to go into exportation/importation? Why was Fela locked because he was found with dollars? You cannot clean an urgean stable with your tongue sir.

I do not know the specifics of Fela's case . But now you are required to declare and if you don't declare you may have the funds seized under money laundering laws and in some cases even be jailed. This is the case in many countries.

VolvoS60:


^^^

Fair point up there about the whistleblowing being a rather unedifying spectacle.

Correct me if I am wrong though - wasn't it an internal memo from Mr. Sanusi to Mr. Jonathan that was leaked? Was it originally for public consumption?

Do not lose sight of the fact that Sanusi's 'ridiculous whistleblowing', leaked or not, was what brought this matter to the public domain. If I were asked to choose between a staid central banker (who sees, hears and speaks no evil) and a shrill, squealing, rabble rousing whistleblower of a central banker (who let us all know about unspeakable wickedness in high places), I know which option I would pick.

More to the point - I do not attach any value to the so-called oversight investigation by senate members. The record of Nigerian lawmakers in public inquiries in the 4th Republic has been, to borrow your own words, 'appalling'. Anyone remember the Ndidi Elumelu led House Committe on Power? Anyone remember the Herman Hembe led House Committe on Capital markets?

Nothing short of a forensic audit by at least two well known audit firms and another (technically competent) ombudsman (other than these discredited lawmakers) should be acceptable to Nigerians. And the audit firms and the ombudsman should sign a contract specifying harsh penalties for them in the event of them being found guilty of having compromised their positions.

The tragedy here is that I cannot trust the present administration to carry out any of the measures I have outlined. For reasons that are obvious to all. That's why your childlike faith that the truth will not be swept under the carpet is so sad to behold.

Assuming of course, that this faith is genuine and sincere.

Child like faith? That's a little bit derogatory and repugnant and I take serious exemption to it. Anyway, remember it's still under this "untrustworthy" Jonathan administration that the son of former PDP chairman and other PDP bigwigs were dragged to court for involvenent in subsidy scam and they are still under litigation. If Jonathan did not use his office to suppress their prosecution, I think he should be given benefit of the doubt.
Meanwhile, don't misconstrue my submissions for blanket endorsement of all the actions and inactions of Jonathan administration. He has had his ups and downs as a president but if his positives and negatives are placed on a wieghing scale, I can equivocally say he has done well as a president. I am one of those who detest corruption in all its ramifications but what I will not condone is unsubstantiated allegations fraught with political undertone. APC, the most vociferous accusers of Jonathan's govt are also enmeshed with corrupt practices. Lagos, for instance can be described as a nest of election rigging and financial misdeamenous and that informs why I will be last person to accept the party as a veritable alternative to the status quo. I rest my case here.

2n2k:



4. Buhari was in government for less than 2 years. If the entire graduates in the country were unemployed during his short tenure, what were those graduates doing during the oil boom that preceded the regime up to a year before he came in? You are just parroting illogicality may be because you were not born then. Nigerians felt the effect of the austerity measure more under Shagari than under buhari and let me tell you, unemployment as known today was not on wide scale then. Many people still got jobs even under Shagari austerity talkless of buhari.

He was in government for 20 months as a military dictator. What that means is that his words were laws. There no House of Assembly to withhold his budget. There was no senate to seek approval from before appointments. So 20 months as a military dictator, is more than 48 months in democracy. You want GEJ to clear unemployment in 4 years but GMB could not help just 70,000 when that was all we had and the dollar was inferior to the naira. Do you get that? GEJbtook over when the dollar was about 160 times the naira. Can you get it?

GMB was clueless you have to admit.

What he did, is to stop the rail project of the Lagos state government. Reason? he does not want to borrow. If he wins now, he will stop all the ongoing projects because with the dwindling oil price, we do not have much and he will not want to borrow.

He is talking about feeding students, but he stopped feeding in the universities when the population was small. How can he feed millions os school children?

2n2k:




5. I cannot contest your assertion that he sacked 30,000 soldiers because I was not aware and definitely was not widely reported in the press then which would be unusual given his not so cordial relationship with his chief of army staff (IBB). Even those who overthrew him did not list this as one of his shortcomings.

A little literature search will help you sir

2n2k:



6. For the record, buhari never formally proscribed NANS. The chief of staff SHQ - Idiagbon always insisted that they would just not recognize the leadership of NANS whatever that meant. But given the experience of the previous obj military regime with NUNS which obj proscribed and NANS was formed under succeeding shagari civilian regime, it was understandable that a military regime would not be enarmoured with possible organized opposition.

You don't want to know what means even when they were in prison. A military government said you are not recognised sir and you said you do not know what that means? There is God ooo.

They were arrested and locked up and so were doctors protesting the death bed the hospitals became. After 2 months, a military that had free reign did not change anything and you think he will do anything now?

GEJ has laid and is still laying the foundation. He has accomplished much too. Give him 2 more years and it will be manisfest. Be sincere!

So Sanusi was right after all okay. This Jonathan government is the FAKEST government in the history of Nigeria. A daily, living, breathing working lie.

That's soludo flaws but what about $20billion missing shii? She should also talk about it!

2n2k:



5. I cannot contest your assertion that he sacked 30,000 soldiers because I was not aware and definitely was not widely reported in the press then which would be unusual given his not so cordial relationship with his chief of army staff (IBB). Even those who overthrew him did not list this as one of his shortcomings.

A literature search will help too.
You might like to read this concord article of 1985 after he was overthrown.

omonnakoda:
I do not know the specifics of Fela's case . But now you are required to declare and if you don't declare you may have the funds seized under money laundering laws and in some cases even be jailed. This is the case in many countries.

Fela was sent to jail for money he legally bought for his bands tour. Defend that!

Like I said, you cannot clean an Augean stable with your tongue. We have records.

agabaI23:
Fela was sent to jail for money he legally bought for his bands tour. Defend that!

Like I said, you cannot clean an Augean stable with your tongue. We have records.

I am not a Buhari defender so I am not here to defend Buhari. I do not think it is right to play politics withh Fela's case specifically . However I do not know what you mean by "money he bought legally" can you expatiate??

OLADD:


Child like faith? That's a little bit derogatory and repugnant and I take serious exemption to it. Anyway, remember it's still under this "untrustworthy" Jonathan administration that the son of former PDP chairman and other PDP bigwigs were dragged to court for involvenent in subsidy scam and they are still under litigation. If Jonathan did not use his office to suppress their prosecution, I think he should be given benefit of the doubt.
Meanwhile, don't misconstrue my submissions for blanket endorsement of all the actions and inactions of Jonathan administration. He has had his ups and downs as a president but if his positives and negatives are placed on a wieghing scale, I can equivocally say he has done well as a president. I am one of those who detest corruption in all its ramifications but what I will not condone is unsubstantiated allegations fraught with political undertone. APC, the most vociferous accusers of Jonathan's govt are also enmeshed with corrupt practices. Lagos, for instance can be described as a nest of election rigging and financial misdeamenous and that informs why I will be last person to accept the party as a veritable alternative to the status quo. I rest my case here.

^^^
No sir. I refuse to accept your submission sir.

Ruling party chieftains and their offspring were charged for breaking the law in the administration of fuel subsidy. As you said, the matter is 'still under litigation'. I am sorry if my words will offend you sir, but I consider that phrase 'under litigation' to be a euphemism for 'stall the investigation until the noise has died down'. If after several months, the prosecuting authority has not been able to aggressively push a watertight case, then the government should be held accountable. After all, the police and the EFCC are agencies of the government, are they not? Why has there not been a successful prosecution and conclusion of the case, several months after arraignment? Why?

I am also very concerned with your comment about how Dr. Jonathan should be given the benefit of the doubt for not 'suppressing the investigation'. It worries me a great deal. This is a comment I hear often and it is troubling - it emphasizes the long journey ahead of us. Sir, we should be angling for a country in which Dr. Jonathan (or any president for that matter) could NOT suppress an investigation into criminal activity, whether or not he wanted to. That is the goal we should aspire to.

Sir, I am calling you out on the comments you made in the second paragraph of your post. You cannot detest corruption and support the current administration (and its PDP predecessors). I fear the effects of that cognitive dissonance on your wellbeing.

Interesting choice of words in your last comments - in comparing the current government to the APC, you say that the APC is also enmeshed with corrupt practices. So why not pick from the other 9 (or is it 11) parties? Must your political choices be from these two parties?

omonnakoda:


I am not a Buhari defender so I am not here to defend Buhari. I do not think it is right to play politics with Fela's case specifically . However I do not know what you mean by "money he bought legally" can you expatiate??

You don't know what it means to get money legally in this country again?

agabaI23:
You don't know what it means to get money legally in this country again?

Guy if you have something to say please say it you said BOUGHT not GET. What is your point> Fela was jailed for a foreign currency offence and you say he BOUGHT it legally. What do you mean?. If you want to change story say so

Goodluck must be defended with our facts.

OLADD:


God bless you. God bless our country, Nigeria.

Seun:
It's hard for government to save in times of plenty in a democracy. The opposition will accuse you of not doing anything to help the people.

^^^
How do the Norwegians do it then?

Norway has warehoused its revenues from oil exports, buying up assets across several countries. All this done in boom periods.

Its just common sense. Which of course, raises the question: why can't we do it?

2n2k:


1. Lie. What Buhari regime signed with Brazil was 'Counter-trade agreement'. At the time, there was oil glut, so low price and no buyer. In addition, opec severely restricted the quota of its members. In order to circumvent these constraints, govt signed counter-trade agreement with some countries including Brazil to exchange oil for needed goods. Not refined fuel as you alleged. Kaduna refinery was brand new then and warri and port-harcourt 1st refineries were all working at full capacity. Nigeria wasn't importing fuel in the 1980s. Infact, the port-harcourt 2nd refinery was built strictly for export under IBB.

2. Until under IBB, forex was strictly government affairs. It was not introduced by Buhari. Infact to import under Shagari, you must first get import licence from the minister of trade. What buhari strictly enforce was exportation of forex - which means you can only carry what you legally and truthfully collected as PTA or BTA. It had always been in force before buhari regime but sacred cow (politicians) could abuse the rule. Remember Fela case.

3. I don't know how old you are but if you are old enough, you would have heard of Price Control Board introduced even before Shagari regime came in 1979. In addition, when oil price fell in 1982, Shagari regime introduced 'austerity measures' including empowerment of the then Nigerian National Supply Company - an agency of government to be responsible for importing essential commodities (called 'essenco' then) like rice, cooking oil, sugar, tyres etc for distribution to Nigerians at controlled prices. As usual, the ruling NPN topshots hijacked the thing and used Indian companies like Inlaks to hoard the commodities in warehouses once imported by NNSC. Unluckly for them, buhari took over a year later and sent soldiers to force open the warehouses to auction the hoarded goods after wide publicity which always led to essenco long queues in the early days of his administration.
The process got sanitized later and with the help of counter-trade agreement, essenco became available even in big super-markets like leventis and utc at controlled prices. They were also directly distributed to civil servants and cooperatives.

4. Buhari was in government for less than 2 years. If the entire graduates in the country were unemployed during his short tenure, what were those graduates doing during the oil boom that preceded the regime up to a year before he came in? You are just parroting illogicality may be because you were not born then. Nigerians felt the effect of the austerity measure more under Shagari than under buhari and let me tell you, unemployment as known today was not on wide scale then. Many people still got jobs even under Shagari austerity talkless of buhari.

5. I cannot contest your assertion that he sacked 30,000 soldiers because I was not aware and definitely was not widely reported in the press then which would be unusual given his not so cordial relationship with his chief of army staff (IBB). Even those who overthrew him did not list this as one of his shortcomings.

6. For the record, buhari never formally proscribed NANS. The chief of staff SHQ - Idiagbon always insisted that they would just not recognize the leadership of NANS whatever that meant. But given the experience of the previous obj military regime with NUNS which obj proscribed and NANS was formed under succeeding shagari civilian regime, it was understandable that a military regime would not be enarmoured with possible organized opposition.

just before you decide. Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammadu_Buhari