Tusky44: Okonjo disappoints me. Why plow so much in the sovereign wealth fund and then go borrow with heavy repayment interest? Are you pleasing the world bank & IMF? Anyway, Sanusi may be right but with GEJ as their boss, nothing can go right.

Regardless, we shall vote GEJ in 2015 - 2019 cos God sent him and his mission is to deal with SW & up North.

[b]

Nigerian Economy: the impending catastrophe - by Ola Kazeem 24 November 2011


Although the Nigerian economy has been officially growing at over 6% for the past 5 years, the poverty rate keeps increasing; youth unemployment has risen to an unprecedented 47% and over 80 per cent of Nigerian youth don’t have more than a secondary school certificate.

Infrastructure is collapsing with power generation hovering between 3,000 to 3,500 mega-watts, when Nigeria actually needs over 75,000 mega-watts to power its size. Out of over 160,000 kilometres of secondary and tertiary roads in Nigeria, with an average registered network of 4,000 kilometres per state, only about 10–15 per cent is paved. While a large proportion of this network remains in poor or very poor condition with only 15 per cent of federal roads in good condition.

[b]Sovereign Wealth Fund and the IMF agenda

A sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is a state-owned investment fund composed of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, property, precious metals or other financial instruments. Sovereign wealth funds invest globally. Some of them have grabbed attention making bad investments in several Wall Street financial firms including Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch. These firms needed a cash infusion due to losses resulting from mismanagement and the subprime mortgage crisis. Most SWFs are funded by foreign exchange assets. How does this fit into the Nigerian ruling class’s popular slogan of “Government has no business doing business”? If it is in the interest of the ordinary Nigerians, Government will have no business doing business; if it is in the interest of the rich and their Western backers, Government will have a very strong reason to do business.

The global economic crisis has dictated this dramatically laughable change of policy of the IMF/World bank towards the “third world” countries. The IMF is no longer satisfied with massive sales of public properties at take away prices in the name of privatizations; it is no longer satisfied with huge cuts in public spending that further impoverishes the majority of Nigerians; the IMF has conveniently added to these policies the Sovereign Wealth Fund; that is, it is asking Nigeria to ensure huge savings from the proceeds from oil and other social cuts, savings not for the purpose of investing in Nigeria because “Government has no business doing business”, not for the purpose of improving the life of the overwhelming majority of Nigerians because “Capitalism is a system for the minority against the interest of the majority (1% against the 99%)”, but savings for the purpose of investing in the western market. How laughable does this sound? The poorer countries should not invest in their own countries where there is urgent and desperate need to do so, but should turn around and invest in the rich western countries because they are going through a financial crisis; that is, the rich will be fed from the belly of the poor!

Revolution is inevitable

Obviously, the Nigerian ruling class is one of the most subservient to the dictates of the western powers, in the world. The IMF has a direct representation within the government in the person of Okonjo Iweala who will go to any extent to get the imperialists’ interests protected to the last. Along the path they have mapped out, the consequences are glaring! It will inevitably lead to an open clash between the overwhelming majority of Nigerians and the ever diminishing minority of exploiters. Egypt and Greece have provided an example of what is to come.

With their policies, revolution is on the agenda and there is no other possible alternative policy on the basis of capitalism. Only a social and economic system that focuses first on the interests of the majority and not on the profits of the few, can harness all the Nigerian resources, both human and material, and unleash the full capacity of Nigerians for the purpose of actualizing the full potential of the country. That system is Socialism and it is the only alternative to blood sucking capitalism. It is absolutely impossible to find a solution within a system that puts profit first before human needs, which judges the rationality of everything based on profitability, a greedy system that promotes greediness and turns man to beast.

Therefore the real enemy is neither corruption nor the mediocrity of the Nigerian ruling elites as such, but the dying system that breeds corruption in which the Nigerian ruling elite are mere appendages of the western powers. That is what the capitalist system is, especially in very backward countries like Nigeria. The alternative system is the only way out and this alternative is inconceivable without first booting out these degenerate servants of the imperialists.

Tusky44: Okonjo disappoints me. Why plow so much in the sovereign wealth fund and then go borrow with heavy repayment interest? Are you pleasing the world bank & IMF? Anyway, Sanusi may be right but with GEJ as their boss, nothing can go right.

Regardless, we shall vote GEJ in 2015 - 2019 cos God sent him and his mission is to deal with SW & up North.

TRUTHTELA: [b]IMO, they should curtail how they WASTE public funds, both borrowed and locally generated. However, there's absolute NOTHING to show for all the money Nigeria made from crude oil sales and the BORROWED money. You can't be wasteful ( e.g Sambo's residence and Jonathan's feeding budget), and make any meaningful progress. If not Fed Govt, the State Govt's are in HUGE DEBTS, but, nobody is calling anyone to order, NO ACCOUNTABILITY whatsoever. My anger with Ngozi Iweala, is coming to serve Jonathan's govt, the PDP rogues has MESSED up her reputation, cos, she can't FIGHT or STOP them from being the THIEVES that they are. Any of her POLICIES that earned her THE GLOBAL REPUTATION she built, will fail in Nigeria, cos this is Nigeria, where what WORKS in sane societies will FAIL woefully here. If only she knew, and I have a strong feeling that very soon, SHE WILL RESIGN from this government, the HEADACHE is too much for her.

On Sanusi, IMO, he's just a religious BIGOT, that knows NOTHING and prefers to make headlines. If this president were to be HAUSA FULANI MUSLIM, Sanusi, will not be CRITICIZING him in this manner. He say things to IMPRESS his fellow Northerners (muslim extremist), e.g, when he told Financial Times of London, that "THE REVENUE SHARING FORMULA" is responsible for Boko Haram. Sanusi, say things that are IMPRACTICABLE, to SPITE Jonathan and impress Nigerians. E.g, saying that 50% of the civil servants should go. I can tell you that 99.9% of educated Northerners rely on civil service for any type of Job whatsoever. You barely see them in DEVELOP societies (Lagos, P.H, London) COMPETING for jobs. After graduation, its Abuja, (Govt Job). Sanusi, himself has wrecked the CBN, and what he preaches outside to the public, he doesn't practice it withing the CBN, he has hired people stupidly. If you want to SHAKE the Northerners, try DOWNSIZING the Nigerian civil service. Ngozi Iweala, did a little retrenchment during her Obasanjo, years, Omg, Northerners wanted to kill her (branding her a tribalist with an agenda). Sanusi, as a president tomorrow, won't sack 50% of the civil servants, cos he knows who will be AFFECTED (his kith and kin) the most. As a president, he will be WORSE than Jonathan, cos, I don't know Northern muslims to be PRUDENT, they're the most WASTEFUL ( money that they don't work for) people on earth. After LOOTING form the Fed. Govt they'll now INVEST and become prudent.

Finally, I view most of his POLICIES as RELIGIOUS ( ISLAMIC BANKING)driven. Northern muslims can't SEPARATE RELIGION from STATE and its a HUGE problem that has kept them BACKWARD.[/b]

Just like El rufai, becoming a SAINT overnite, simply cos Yar'adua and Jonathan DUMPED him. Odili's book revealed how that MIDGET ROGUE had been in bed with the BIGGEST THIEVES in the Nigerian LOOTING HISTORY, now, he has REPENTED. HISTORY and EVENTS will catch up with them all.

J12: She's right. Even the US states has a huge debt profile. Liquidity is all that matters.

J12:

She's been at the highest level of financial management for up to ten years(nationally and internationally). I don't think any other financial manager can perform better than her.

zikclassiq: I'm with Sanusi always. What does it profit a country to borrow money (which ends up in a few pockets) and no visible proof to show for it.
Both of them are right. It all depends on the situation.

cap28:

you left out one major fact - the US dollar is the world reserve currency which means that most international transactions are conducted in dollars, giving the dollar an artificially high value, also the US govt prints its own money which it uses to make up for any shortfall in revenue but extensive printing of their dollars (quantitative easing) has resulted in massive depreciation of the dollar which could result in many foreign coutnries looking for a way to exit from the dollar and form their own reserve currency - the BRICS are currently trying to do this.

Afro_Blue: Pick your favorite verse

Bible Verses about Usury

Exodus 22:25 ESV /

“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.

Ezekiel 18:13 ESV /

Lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.

Ezekiel 22:12 ESV /

In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God.

Ezekiel 18:8 ESV /

Does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man,

Deuteronomy 23:19 ESV /
“You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest.

Ezekiel 18:17 ESV /

Withholds his hand from iniquity, takes no interest or profit, obeys my rules, and walks in my statutes; he shall not die for his father's iniquity; he shall surely live.

Leviticus 25:37 ESV /

You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.

Deuteronomy 23:19-20 ESV /

“You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

Luke 6:35 ESV /

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

Jeremiah 15:10 ESV /

Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me.

Proverbs 28:8 ESV /

Whoever multiplies his wealth by interest and profit gathers it for him who is generous to the poor.

Leviticus 25:36 ESV /
Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you.

Proverbs 22:7 ESV /

The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

Leviticus 25:35-37 ESV /
“If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.

Psalm 15:5 ESV /

Who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

Nehemiah 5:1-13 ESV /

Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.” There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.” And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards. Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.” ...

Acts 2:44-45 ESV /

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

Matthew 25:27 ESV /

Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.

Isaiah 1:1-31 ESV /
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. ...

Psalm 15:1-5 ESV /

A Psalm of David. O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

Nehemiah 5:1-19 ESV /
Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.” There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.” And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards. Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.” ...

Deuteronomy 15:7-11 ESV /

“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

Leviticus 25:1-55 ESV /

The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. ...

Matthew 25:1-46 ESV /
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. ...

Isaiah 10:1-34 ESV /
Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey! What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth? Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! ...

Psalm 22:1-31 ESV /
To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. ...

Luke 19:23 ESV /

Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’

Matthew 21:1-46 ESV /

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” ...

Malachi 3:1-18 ESV /

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. ...

Isaiah 50:1 ESV /

Thus says the Lord: “Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.



Jesus drives the money-changers from the temple

[img]http://3.bp..com/-5lkSAKwSrvs/TvirfAG8QgI/AAAAAAAACkA/pZDYVmhperE/s1600/images-jesus_temple.jpg[/img]

Your point being? Ok, just what is ur point exactly

Remii:

Why then did she encouraged OBJ to pay whooping $35b off

J12:

Get your facts right man.

vanstanzy:

Your point being? Ok, just what is ur point exactly

Remii:


Nigeria agreed to pay the Paris Club $12.4bn (£8.2bn) in exchange for the remainder of its $30bn official debts being written off.

Are you happy now, lol

Afro_Blue:

I don't think I owe you the dignity of an explanation if you aren't aware of the perils and history of getting into debt to the banking class(Shylocks).

But I will post my favorite verse on the topic.

Proverbs 22:7

The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.


Put your thinking cap on and see if you can figure out how it corresponds to the subject matter.

Hey bro, whats wrong with u? I beleive u stole my line, the above bolded.
Anyway thanks for the summary, that was what i wanted. Clever ehn? Cos to tell u the truth i didn't read ur lengthy post.

hypeman: However, what's the point of borrowing and accumulating more debt when there's absolutely nothing to show for it - except her fat lips These clowns will run an already poor country into the ground with their wastefulness... Paris club or China/BRIC - what difference does it make? Isn't this the same woman who committed the greatest financial blunder in history by paying off a debt that we shouldn't have been paid off in the first place?? She's a fraud!!

This woman exemplifies why education, overly-stacked CV, and experience are somewhat overrated...

J12:

The dollar still remains the international reserve currency. The demand for the dollar is still high and will continue to be so. The BRICS economies can't change that fact.

J12:

6 billion or 12 billion?
Anyway, it was a good we thing we paid because we were favored by the "Naples Terms". It was a good bargain.

hypeman:
Oh well, if pigs don't have lips - then she's got a pig's mouth...
And she was also the reason why all the other African countries' debts were also forgiven, no??
You're a numbnut!!

0lumide:

Nigeria also has an account with JP Morgan that our finance minister said she doesn't know who opened it.

cap28:

how can the demand for the dollar remain high when its value is depreciating on a daily basis

do you think china will continue to amass trillions of dollars that continue to depreciate ? not only that america is using the money it borrows from china, japan and some western european countries to keep building up its military machine - in other words china by being america's biggest creditor is indirectly helping america to keep financing its military machine - how long will china keep on tolerating this rubbish from america?

cap28:

a good bargain to give away $12 billion of your foreign reserves when argentina (a richer country than us) that owed $6 billion to the same creditors paid nothing?

and did you know that we had already paid over $35 billion of the principal amount - that $12 billion was payment in respect of the interest only.