freshcvv:

how many of una be "all"?

Do you know why Nigeria is not working? it's because we love to live in denial and also expecting luck to do the job for us instead of competency.

chucky234: I realised how incompetent the man is few months after he was sworn in and has since been trying to convince NLanders that the man is not competent enough to lead this country to the promise land but many of them are blinded by sentiment to see things the way they are,we have no choice than to plan towards 2015 abi wetin we go do.

Johndoe100: I really love the way the haters gather together and talk to themselves. Something like this:

Hater 1: GEJ is clueless:
Stvpid hater 2: Yes oh, the man no sabi at all
Hater 3: Who even elected him? Are you sure there was an election?
Hater 4: As you can all see, everybody of all shades of opinion agree GEJ is bla bla.

What is so amazing is you clowns really believe that you are representative of the Nigerian population. Over 70% are not Nigerian citizens, the rest are brain dead.

jmaine: Proudly Team GEJ . . . . Have never had doubt to regret voting, cos the precursors to growth are currently being laid . .e.g the power sector

Prof Corruption: Nigerians should look beyond this government. We should start preparing for 2015. GEJ will not transform overnight to a competent and effective leader.
He has failed!!!!!

Fresh Air!!!

Gbawe:

Indeed. It is just that most Nigerians are too emotional, bigoted, clannish, sectionally and religiously biased to note this. Nairaland, more than anything of recent, is what has opened my eyes to understanding that there are simply too many ignorant and emptily feudalistic Nigerians running around than is healthy or good for Nigeria.

Gather five economic experts to critique Nigeria's problems and offer solutions. Their submissions will be the same unresolved set of issues as has being stated in the past 4 decades and it will be obvious GEJ is doing exactly the opposite of what is required.

We all know Nigeria must refine it's crude optimally. Fuel subsidy could stay while serious effort is made to ensure optimal refining of crude is achieved ASAP. Of all the options, GEJ chose the one that will clearly only lead to failure. GEJ deliberately and corruptly capitulates to his AGIP friends like Otedola by conceding our refineries to probably the most corrupt and most inefficient Government parastatal in the world - the NNPC - for 2 years !!!! He then wants Nigerians to bear the brunt of his cowardice, obvious complicity and corrupt indebtedness to those ruining the Nation. Why do GEJ fans then become emotional when intelligent men , who understand totally that fundamental problems must gain uncompromising solutions, call him a failure?

How about the fact that virtually every economic expert in the world, including Okonjo Iweala when she was out of Government, has loudly declared that Nigeria's unacceptably profligate system of Governance is crippling our Nation? China, the most populous Nation in the world, spend nowhere near Nigeria's 70% recurrent expenditure figure !!!! It is a very fundamentally serious problem the right President would make the cornerstone of any attempt to reform Nigeria. Instead GEJ comes in and announces , to satisfy his many corrupt and surplus-to-requirement buddies, "leaner government not possible".

Our insincere federal structure nko? Any attempt to go there when big developmental profit can be reaped by a President who gets it right regarding this gigantic problem that leaves us 'swimming against the tide'? Big NO !!!

State Police, for our level of insecurity, only deserves a "Nigeria not ripe" dismissal from a President who is a responsive solutions provider?

How about the fight against Institutional and systemic corruption that is ruining every corner of Nigeria?

I could go on all day to show how GEJ has failed to address many, many fundamental issues but that is overkill for Nairaland where many are cretins who can't think and just prefer to come here to support other blindly and abuse those they hate blindly also.

Those foolishly talking of effectively one sector, i.e power, for GEJ's glaring failure in very many other areas are simply naive. They do not know how effective Nations are run. They do not understand that when leaders run away from fundamental solutions, failure everywhere is the eventual outcome. Failure everywhere , especially in fundamental areas, will eventually overwhelm pockets of success- which no Nigeria Government has being without.

There is no Government that does not have "good things" sycophants can point to. Yet Nigeria remains a parody of what a decent Nation should be. It will be so for a long time if we don't understand the fundamental issue to note that they are being ignored by a weak, corrupt and window-dressing President who, for savvy observers, is nothing but another 'puppet' opportunist and enabler of AGIPs,Oligarchs and "business as Usual" like many before him.

Gbawe:

Indeed. It is just that most Nigerians are too emotional, bigoted, clannish, sectionally and religiously biased to note this. Nairaland, more than anything of recent, is what has opened my eyes to understanding that there are simply too many ignorant and emptily feudalistic Nigerians running around than is healthy or good for Nigeria.

Gather five economic experts to critique Nigeria's problems and offer solutions. Their submissions will be the same unresolved set of issues as has being stated in the past 4 decades and it will be obvious GEJ is doing exactly the opposite of what is required.

We all know Nigeria must refine it's crude optimally. Fuel subsidy could stay while serious effort is made to ensure optimal refining of crude is achieved ASAP. Of all the options, GEJ chose the one that will clearly only lead to failure. GEJ deliberately and corruptly capitulates to his AGIP friends like Otedola by conceding our refineries to probably the most corrupt and most inefficient Government parastatal in the world - the NNPC - for 2 years !!!! He then wants Nigerians to bear the brunt of his cowardice, obvious complicity and corrupt indebtedness to those ruining the Nation. Why do GEJ fans then become emotional when intelligent men , who understand totally that fundamental problems must gain uncompromising solutions, call him a failure?

How about the fact that virtually every economic expert in the world, including Okonjo Iweala when she was out of Government, has loudly declared that Nigeria's unacceptably profligate system of Governance is crippling our Nation? China, the most populous Nation in the world, spend nowhere near Nigeria's 70% recurrent expenditure figure !!!! It is a very fundamentally serious problem the right President would make the cornerstone of any attempt to reform Nigeria. Instead GEJ comes in and announces , to satisfy his many corrupt and surplus-to-requirement buddies, "leaner government not possible".

Our insincere federal structure nko? Any attempt to go there when big developmental profit can be reaped by a President who gets it right regarding this gigantic problem that leaves us 'swimming against the tide'? Big NO !!!

State Police, for our level of insecurity, only deserves a "Nigeria not ripe" dismissal from a President who is a responsive solutions provider?

How about the fight against Institutional and systemic corruption that is ruining every corner of Nigeria?

I could go on all day to show how GEJ has failed to address many, many fundamental issues but that is overkill for Nairaland where many are cretins who can't think and just prefer to come here to support other blindly and abuse those they hate blindly also.

Those foolishly talking of effectively one sector, i.e power, for GEJ's glaring failure in very many other areas are simply naive. They do not know how effective Nations are run. They do not understand that when leaders run away from fundamental solutions, failure everywhere is the eventual outcome. Failure everywhere , especially in fundamental areas, will eventually overwhelm pockets of success- which no Nigeria Government has being without.

There is no Government that does not have "good things" sycophants can point to. Yet Nigeria remains a parody of what a decent Nation should be. It will be so for a long time if we don't understand the fundamental issue to note that they are being ignored by a weak, corrupt and window-dressing President who, for savvy observers, is nothing but another 'puppet' opportunist and enabler of AGIPs,Oligarchs and "business as Usual" like many before him.

chucky234: I realised how incompetent the man is few months after he was sworn in and has since been trying to convince NLanders that the man is not competent enough to lead this country to the promise land but many of them are blinded by sentiment to see things the way they are,we have no choice than to plan towards 2015 abi wetin we go do.

Tisa: Lovely article but I doubt if GEJ will change, he (Gej) strikes me as someone that doesn't know what he is a president for, what he ought to do or even give a damn about the many many pains of the people he leads.

I voted for him whole heartedly even as people around me called me names in Lagos here for doing so and I desperately hope he will give me the reason to look them in the eye and count the many goods gej has done in 1yr however the shame I feel now as a voter that voted for him is second to none.

Is it so hard for him to know that his policies are pushing many more into poverty? Is it so difficult for him to know that nigerians don't always like accepting coins? His approval of the sanusi mad currency policy makes me see him as a monster. What happened to the last set of paper notes that were changed to coins? Can anyone tell me when last they held a N1coin? As at the time N1 n 50k were notes you could @ least buy tomtom with them, how much is tomtom today?

Gej has lost the confidence nigerians freely gave him, second only to the great Abiola. How gej gets to be this way is really beyond my reasoning cos it doesn't really add up. He owe nobody his electoral victory order than GOD and the nigerians that queued in the hot sun to cast their votes for him willingly, so which cabal or godfather is he trying to please?

Its all really sad. All my life I ve never seen a whole family man n his wife going to houses on the street they reside to ask for food for their kids cos they haven't eaten in 2days, both husband and wife were bankers sacked by Sanusi's witch hunt.

My prayer now is that GOD shd sustain Nigerians till gej tenure ends in 2015.

I hope those computer or internet attack dogs he employs will actually be truthful to themselves and their GOD and not be attacking people trying to tell the president the truth.

Mr. President, Nigerians are really hurting, give human face to ur policies.

GOD reigns.

Gbawe:

There is no Government that does not have "good things" sycophants can point to. Yet Nigeria remains a parody of what a decent Nation should be. It will be so for a long time if we don't understand the fundamental issue to note that they are being ignored by a weak, corrupt and window-dressing President who, for savvy observers, is nothing but another 'puppet' opportunist and enabler of AGIPs,Oligarchs and "business as Usual" like many before him.

abdulkayus:

hey guy, i tuale for u, bt it seem stil some nincompoop will nt c to dis, dey hav been blinded in supportin GEJ wholeheartedly, its nt dat us we hate GEJ, infact we love, bt we are only sayin d truth and he shld listen to d truth. CIAO

Okoli: Nigeria's muddled fiscal architecture

By Ikechukwu Okoli


THE present fiscal state of Nigeria is beginning to query the very essence of a public sector. Why do we really need a public sector? To answer this question, if one starts from the basic premise that the composition of our common wealth (or output) should be in line with the needs (or preference) of individual households, why may not the entire economy be left to individuals? Alternatively, putting it a little differently, why is it that in a supposedly democratic setting, a substantial part of the common wealth is skewed in favour of few enclave group - the public sector? The operation, and functioning of our public sector, especially the fiscal structure that it has created, however, merits a second look.

[b]In every human society, scarcity imposes the need for choice and prioritisation in the use of resources. Among all available mechanisms and tools for the control and management of public resource, the yearly budget and fiscal plan of a country stand out. No doubt, maintaining a sound fiscal position is a challenge for any government. Nonetheless, for a developing country like ours, where development priorities are clear and incontestable, the case is slightly different. The responsibility for coordinating, and prioritising resource bids, assessing and giving justice to the full economic effect of revenue sources and expenditure policies, and the ability to extend the time-horizon far enough to capture relevant near-future consequences, have not become so complex a task as to warrant the magnitude of fiscal crisis we find ourselves in presently.


Firstly, the current mix between recurrent and capital expenditure of Federal Government over the past few years is a serious source of concern. The current share of total expenditure out of which recurrent spending has continued to maintain a share of over 70 per cent over the past four years significantly negates the very core of the state's obligation to the economy. No nation can effectively allocate resources to meet her priorities; achieve substantial level of resource (labour, land, capital etc) utilisation and subsequently increase the resource endowment of the state in order to increase output and employment when the bulk of its common wealth is spent on catering for a growing bureaucracy. This scenario is even made worse by the plethora of wasteful and unjustifiable expenditure items populating the overhead of many ministries, departments, and agencies of the Federal Government.


Perhaps unaware of the magnitude of such wasteful expenditure or the need to cut down on the wastage, the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy conceded to the fact that recurrent expenditure could be cut by only five per cent - six per cent within the medium term of four-five years. In a forum organised by ThisDay Newspapers during the yearly meeting of the World Bank and IMF in Washington last September, she disclosed that, "what we try to do is a four-year plan to bring down the recurrent expenditure from 74 per cent to 72 in 2012 and by the time we finish in 2015, it should be under 70 at about 69 to 68 per cent". The actual total share of recurrent expenditure in the 2012 budget is 71.5 per cent.[/b]


Secondly, it is a recognised fact that public borrowing is the second most important source of public revenue. It is different in nature from taxes, since all borrowings from the public will be repaid. Repayment will normally require the raising of resources in future when the time comes. It is on the ground of the obligation to repay that it is normal to regard public borrowing as merely an exercise of "fund raising" for the government while taxation is the "income proper". This is a common practice both in the developed and developing countries since expenditure is rising at a much faster rate than the income that comes through taxation. A country like Nigeria requires massive resources that will facilitate the development process such as will build up the repaying capacity of the public authorities.


[b]However, what we have had in recent times in Nigeria is the growing size of both public borrowing and debt service to a magnitude that even exceeds capital expenditure. The result is that public borrowing is used to finance recurrent obligations of the government. This is done in contravention of section 44(a) of the Fiscal Responsibility Law, which state thus "the proceeds of such borrowing shall solely be applied towards long-terms capital expenditures".


It is important to ask how many long-term capital projects have been successfully executed by the Federal Government in the last four or five years. Submissions by 30 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government indicate that there are 6,294 ongoing projects, which, all things being equal, would require about N6.997 trillion to complete. With this magnitude of ongoing projects, and the governments' attitude of continuing to spread its resources thinly over many projects, it is hard to believe that any Federal Government project has been completed within the past four to five years. Yet, between March 2007 and March 2012 a space of five years, domestic debt alone has jumped from N1.866 trillion to N5.622 trillion, an almost N4 trillion increase. The question remains, where did all this money go? Which projects were getting all these borrowed money?[/b]


Another danger in this clutter of uncompleted projects is the glaring weakness in these projects to repay their cost of investment. There is no gainsaying that the Federal Government will continue to borrow to both complete these projects (if it wants to) and service and/or repay the already borrowed money. This is because these projects are simply not looking to produce any returns that may be used to repay their investment cost.


Thirdly, the ever-present monster of poor budget implementation has continued to muddle the already ridiculous state of our fiscal situation. The very poor capacity within executing ministries, departments, and agencies of the Federal Government to utilise budgeted funds is highly unacceptable. Between 2008 and 2011, the average spending capacity of MDAs has remained below 60 per cent. Issues ranging from inability to fully release funds due to shortfalls in realising financing items despite high oil revenues; inadequate capacity in MDAs to implement capital budgets; poor project planning and conceptualisation by MDAs and delays in passage of the annual budget all contribute to this inefficiency. The 2012 case is not looking to be different.


Again, the recent claim by the Finance Minister that the Federal Government has achieved 56 per cent budget implementation is in no small measure a ridicule of basic mathematics. With just N404 billion (out of a budget of N4,69 trillion) released so far (in the third quarter) out of which only N324 billion is cash-backed, which calculation was used by the minister to arrive at the announced 56 per cent? If the minister was rather referring to the implementation of the capital component of the 2012 budget, which is N1.39 trillion, N404 billion still does not make 56 per cent of the sum. So who is deceiving whom?


Fourthly, the continued refusal of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Minister of Finance respectively to prepare an Annual Cash Plan, and a Disbursement Schedule that is to be drawn from it according to Section 25 and 26 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, cannot be delinked from the current fiscal situation of the country. The cash plan is supposed to be prepared in advance of the financial year to set out projected monthly cash flows. The law also prescribes that the plan shall be revised periodically to reflect actual cash flows. The absence of these two documents has put cash disbursement and budget implementation at the discretion of the Minister for Finance and the Executive Council of the Federation. This has made selective budget implementation inevitable. The Executive Council of the Federation simply sits every Wednesday to decide who gets what and when, since there is no spending plan or template.


The attitude of many of our budgetary institutions in the area of fiscal management is simply making very clear and simple procedures appear so undoable. This development has the negative effect of continuing to reduce the quality of our public finance management and in turn, the gains that should accrue to the citizens of the country through public spending. This is certainly not the way to manage public resources.


* Okoli, a Public Sector Economist writes from the Centre for Social Justice, Abuja.

Gbawe:

Indeed. It is just that most Nigerians are too emotional, bigoted, clannish, sectionally and religiously biased to note this. Nairaland, more than anything of recent, is what has opened my eyes to understanding that there are simply too many ignorant and emptily feudalistic Nigerians running around than is healthy or good for Nigeria.

Gather five economic experts to critique Nigeria's problems and offer solutions. Their submissions will be the same unresolved set of issues as has being stated in the past 4 decades and it will be obvious GEJ is doing exactly the opposite of what is required.

We all know Nigeria must refine it's crude optimally. Fuel subsidy could stay while serious effort is made to ensure optimal refining of crude is achieved ASAP. Of all the options, GEJ chose the one that will clearly only lead to failure. GEJ deliberately and corruptly capitulates to his AGIP friends like Otedola by conceding our refineries to probably the most corrupt and most inefficient Government parastatal in the world - the NNPC - for 2 years !!!! He then wants Nigerians to bear the brunt of his cowardice, obvious complicity and corrupt indebtedness to those ruining the Nation. Why do GEJ fans then become emotional when intelligent men , who understand totally that fundamental problems must gain uncompromising solutions, call him a failure?

How about the fact that virtually every economic expert in the world, including Okonjo Iweala when she was out of Government, has loudly declared that Nigeria's unacceptably profligate system of Governance is crippling our Nation? China, the most populous Nation in the world, spend nowhere near Nigeria's 70% recurrent expenditure figure !!!! It is a very fundamentally serious problem the right President would make the cornerstone of any attempt to reform Nigeria. Instead GEJ comes in and announces , to satisfy his many corrupt and surplus-to-requirement buddies, "leaner government not possible".

Our insincere federal structure nko? Any attempt to go there when big developmental profit can be reaped by a President who gets it right regarding this gigantic problem that leaves us 'swimming against the tide'? Big NO !!!

State Police, for our level of insecurity, only deserves a "Nigeria not ripe" dismissal from a President who is a responsive solutions provider?

How about the fight against Institutional and systemic corruption that is ruining every corner of Nigeria?

I could go on all day to show how GEJ has failed to address many, many fundamental issues but that is overkill for Nairaland where many are cretins who can't think and just prefer to come here to support other blindly and abuse those they hate blindly also.

Those foolishly talking of effectively one sector, i.e power, for GEJ's glaring failure in very many other areas are simply naive. They do not know how effective Nations are run. They do not understand that when leaders run away from fundamental solutions, failure everywhere is the eventual outcome. Failure everywhere , especially in fundamental areas, will eventually overwhelm pockets of success- which no Nigeria Government has being without.

There is no Government that does not have "good things" sycophants can point to. Yet Nigeria remains a parody of what a decent Nation should be. It will be so for a long time if we don't understand the fundamental issue to note that they are being ignored by a weak, corrupt and window-dressing President who, for savvy observers, is nothing but another 'puppet' opportunist and enabler of AGIPs,Oligarchs and "business as Usual" like many before him.

Godman_n:

Thanks for being sincere and objective. Next time try to follow all politicians to know their background so that you can vote right. I have always known GEJ and his record as a deputy governor and that was why I strongly opposed him during the election.

ifihearam:

People are commenting and you also want to comment whether is senseless or not. What record does did he have as a deputy governorspill it out or forever remain quiet.

Tisa: Lovely article but I doubt if GEJ will change, he (Gej) strikes me as someone that doesn't know what he is a president for, what he ought to do or even give a damn about the many many pains of the people he leads.

I voted for him whole heartedly even as people around me called me names in Lagos here for doing so and I desperately hope he will give me the reason to look them in the eye and count the many goods gej has done in 1yr however the shame I feel now as a voter that voted for him is second to none.

Is it so hard for him to know that his policies are pushing many more into poverty? Is it so difficult for him to know that nigerians don't always like accepting coins? His approval of the sanusi mad currency policy makes me see him as a monster. What happened to the last set of paper notes that were changed to coins? Can anyone tell me when last they held a N1coin? As at the time N1 n 50k were notes you could @ least buy tomtom with them, how much is tomtom today?

Gej has lost the confidence nigerians freely gave him, second only to the great Abiola. How gej gets to be this way is really beyond my reasoning cos it doesn't really add up. He owe nobody his electoral victory order than GOD and the nigerians that queued in the hot sun to cast their votes for him willingly, so which cabal or godfather is he trying to please?

Its all really sad. All my life I ve never seen a whole family man n his wife going to houses on the street they reside to ask for food for their kids cos they haven't eaten in 2days, both husband and wife were bankers sacked by Sanusi's witch hunt.

My prayer now is that GOD shd sustain Nigerians till gej tenure ends in 2015.

I hope those computer or internet attack dogs he employs will actually be truthful to themselves and their GOD and not be attacking people trying to tell the president the truth.

Mr. President, Nigerians are really hurting, give human face to ur policies.

GOD reigns.

blacksta: Laptops confirmation

jmaine: It's only a fool who thinks Fixing the power sector won't jump start the economy immensely Or do we need to spell that out to seeming dull brains

I also liken the clamor of state policing to those clamoring the usage of nuclear power plant to generate electricity . . .We are simply not politically and culturally mature for that yet . . .

The EFCC has commenced prosecution of the fuel subsidy scam offenders . .A stain on those who felt and vowed nothing of such will happen . . .Can remember vividly when you all spammed the board with article citing why the fuel subsidy prosecution won't proceed . .Ain't you supposed to be ashamed . .

You all appeared very silly after Okonjo clarified her true opposition on her budget implementation claim . .

Under the scale of preference . .What Nigeria is in dire need of right now is power and security . .it takes only a fool to think otherwise


If GEJ fixes power and our security challenges . . .You will appear extremely foolish & silly not to appreciate it

freshcvv:

Cry me a river, were you asleep prior to election time? remind me again, what prompted your voting for him?

Any merit-able reason for voting for him? any past achievements by him to have deserved a 4 years vote of confidence?

Simply put it, you were one of those empty headed Nigerians who love to play to the gallery while sheepishly running after the crowd no matter the direction they are facing be it the swamp or the deadly fire.

Gbawe:

Indeed. It is just that most Nigerians are too emotional, bigoted, clannish, sectionally and religiously biased to note this. Nairaland, more than anything of recent, is what has opened my eyes to understanding that there are simply too many ignorant and emptily feudalistic Nigerians running around than is healthy or good for Nigeria.

Gather five economic experts to critique Nigeria's problems and offer solutions. Their submissions will be the same unresolved set of issues as has being stated in the past 4 decades and it will be obvious GEJ is doing exactly the opposite of what is required.

We all know Nigeria must refine it's crude optimally. Fuel subsidy could stay while serious effort is made to ensure optimal refining of crude is achieved ASAP. Of all the options, GEJ chose the one that will clearly only lead to failure. GEJ deliberately and corruptly capitulates to his AGIP friends like Otedola by conceding our refineries to probably the most corrupt and most inefficient Government parastatal in the world - the NNPC - for 2 years !!!! He then wants Nigerians to bear the brunt of his cowardice, obvious complicity and corrupt indebtedness to those ruining the Nation. Why do GEJ fans then become emotional when intelligent men , who understand totally that fundamental problems must gain uncompromising solutions, call him a failure?

How about the fact that virtually every economic expert in the world, including Okonjo Iweala when she was out of Government, has loudly declared that Nigeria's unacceptably profligate system of Governance is crippling our Nation? China, the most populous Nation in the world, spend nowhere near Nigeria's 70% recurrent expenditure figure !!!! It is a very fundamentally serious problem the right President would make the cornerstone of any attempt to reform Nigeria. Instead GEJ comes in and announces , to satisfy his many corrupt and surplus-to-requirement buddies, "leaner government not possible".

Our insincere federal structure nko? Any attempt to go there when big developmental profit can be reaped by a President who gets it right regarding this gigantic problem that leaves us 'swimming against the tide'? Big NO !!!

State Police, for our level of insecurity, only deserves a "Nigeria not ripe" dismissal from a President who is a responsive solutions provider?

How about the fight against Institutional and systemic corruption that is ruining every corner of Nigeria?

I could go on all day to show how GEJ has failed to address many, many fundamental issues but that is overkill for Nairaland where many are cretins who can't think and just prefer to come here to support other blindly and abuse those they hate blindly also.

Those foolishly talking of effectively one sector, i.e power, for GEJ's glaring failure in very many other areas are simply naive. They do not know how effective Nations are run. They do not understand that when leaders run away from fundamental solutions, failure everywhere is the eventual outcome. Failure everywhere , especially in fundamental areas, will eventually overwhelm pockets of success- which no Nigeria Government has being without.

There is no Government that does not have "good things" sycophants can point to. Yet Nigeria remains a parody of what a decent Nation should be. It will be so for a long time if we don't understand the fundamental issue to note that they are being ignored by a weak, corrupt and window-dressing President who, for savvy observers, is nothing but another 'puppet' opportunist and enabler of AGIPs,Oligarchs and "business as Usual" like many before him.

ezme: "The way things are in Nigeria today, the president is like [size=24pt]a man charged with leading an orchestra. To succeed, he must learn to back the crowd.[/size]"<-------#word

Ile-Ife:


Laptop or no Laptop, when an adult cries/whine like a baby online and points his finger at GEJ, i ask questions, i don't just attack GEJ. your problems existed before he became president.

It all started in January following the sudden withdrawal of fuel subsidy on the first day of the year. Not only was the timing inauspicious (with many still in their villages) there was also the question of trust since government officials had announced that the policy (which by the way I wholeheartedly endorse) would not commence until the second quarter of the year.

To compound the situation, revelations began to come from the probe of fuel subsidy payments in 2011 of how billions (in Dollar) of public funds were practically shared by some unscrupulous marketers and their government collaborators, all under President Jonathan’s watch. Then, on a rare interview on national television which was watched by many Nigerians (at home and in the Diaspora), he angrily proclaimed that he doesn’t give a damn about what people feel on his refusal to publicly declare his assets. With all these, the president frittered away enormous goodwill

But here is the greater lesson for President Jonathan: Asked on Monday how he took actor Clint Eastwood’s bizarre attack on him (characterised by an empty chair) at the Republican Convention, President Barack Obama said: “One thing about being president or running for president—if you’re easily offended, you should probably choose another profession.”