oziegbe2015:
If u ask me its not far from what hilary clinton said that this present nigeria president has supervised the looting of the oil and its sales proceeds. Its obvious us does not want its money to go to the CABAL, but would buy frm other countries where the president utilizes oil sales to the benefit of its citizen

WhiteTechnology:
I wonder how Buhari will achieve economic diversification when He and APC has rejected systems that makes our States LGAs and Private Sector the vanguard of national development.



Buhari will never eradicate corruption and poverty because he will never implement the following


Resource control

Fiscal federalism

Privatization

Political federalism

Decentralization of Nigeria

Restructuring of Nigeria

Institutions submitting their quarterly activities to public scrutiny


Which are the fastest route to economic diversification , citizenry prosperity and political stability

you are perfectly right. with poor oil price we ll be force to.

Buhari is not the Messiah


SW stop hanging to false hope

kilokeys:
The beginning of the End..


Agricultural Engineers like us can smile pretty soon..


i hope d oil crisis gets worse..

it would make us consume our barrels ourselves. reducing its price.

MarieSucre:
Gay What the blazes are you guys talking about. America cares more about having your economy in their grip. Mind you Saudi and Kuwait outlaws homosexuality. So honestly thats not America's excuse peeps. Its all about "da Benjamins" and hegemony people.

[b]25 November 2014

Falling Oil Price: Working People must prepare to resist Attacks

By Peluola Adewale

Ordinary Nigerians, whose daily life is like being in a frying pan with hot vegetable oil, should be prepared to resist any attempt by the government to fling them into fire. This is as a result of the decline in the oil price. The Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told the Financial Times that a sustained slump in oil price would necessitate more painful measures (Financial Times, London, October 27, 2014).

As the past experiences have shown, it is the working people and poor who did not benefit anything from high crude oil price that would be made to bear the pain of the slump. Already the Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has announced the plan to increase fuel price under the guise of the oil subsidy removal. This has been supported by all the state commissioners of finance.

However, given the propensity of the bourgeois politicians to sheathe sword and pretend to be pro-masses as elections approach, it is not likely that fuel price will be hiked in the immediate. This also explains why the government did not mention any overtly anti-poor measure when Okonjo-Iweala announced the plan to cut expenditure on November 16. But labour, socialist and pro-masses' organizations must be prepared to mobilize and lead the working people and youths to resist all the measures that would intensify neo-liberal attacks on the poor masses.

The oil price which for almost two years was stable between $100 and $110 per barrel has recently plummeted to around $80 with potential for a further decrease. Indeed for a period of about three months between August 1, 2014 and October 28, 2014 the average crude price by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) collapsed from $104 to about $82 per barrel. Besides, the benchmark American oil price broke below $76 a barrel on November 4, representing its lowest level since October 2010, before recovering a bit (New York Times, November 4).

Shale oil

This is as a result of development and use of new technologies such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking in the exploration and production of shale oil in the United States which has reduced its oil imports as the domestic production rises. For instance, the US has stopped buying oil from Nigeria, which used to be its fifth largest oil supplier, since July. According to the US Department of Energy this is the first time since records start in1973 that Nigeria has not exported a single barrel of crude to US-based refiners, the biggest consumers of the commodity from Nigeria (Financial Times, London, October 2). Ironically, it is the high quality of Nigeria's oil, sweet crude, which has knocked it out of the US market. It is of the same quality as the shale oil being pumped in North Dakota and Texas.

Nigeria has now increased its oil sales to the Asia's four largest oil importers – China, Japan, India and South Korea. This is said to have risen more than 40 per cent so far this year over the 2013 level. But China which has one of the largest reserves of shale oil is said to be also working towards production of the shale oil with new technologies. Britain and other countries in Europe which is currently the largest consumers of Nigeria's oil have also intensified the process for development and production of shale oil. All this will further cut the price and reduce the market for exports from the OPEC countries including Nigeria.

Reservoir for Looters

The Minister of Finance has said that the country through the excess crude account (ECA), which is the saving from difference between the oil price and the budget benchmark, has the capacity to withstand the effect of the continued fall in the oil price for two or three months. This account, which is purportedly meant for rainy day savings, is in reality a reservoir for looters. It is shared monthly between the federal and state governments, without budgetary appropriation, in addition to the statutory monthly allocation to all tiers of the government. In less than a year the ECA has been depleted from $9bn to $4.1bn without anything to show for it in terms of infrastructural development and social spending. It is not accidental that Nigeria is ranked the least on Human Development Index among the OPEC countries.

It also means that what is in the account at present is $2bn short of even the IMF recommendation as the fiscal buffer for decline in oil revenue. The ability to build up the ECA up to recommended level, given the continued decline in oil price, commercial scale oil theft and official looting of the account monthly in the name of sharing, is seriously in doubt. The budget benchmark of the 2014 budget is $77.5 per barrel.

It should be however stressed that even a huge fund in the ECA is not a buffer against more neo-liberal attack on the masses. On the basis of capitalist neo-liberal policies, it is clear that Jonathan government will not commit public resources to infrastructure development and basic needs of poor working people, more so now there is slump in the oil revenue.

Besides, the run-up to 2015 elections means that official looting will reach a fever pitch. The bourgeois politicians are dire need of petrol dollars to outspend rivals for patronage and electoral manipulations. This also means that there will be agitation for more voracious sharing of the ECA by the state governors in order to have more public loot to fund their return to office or emergence of their proxies.

All this has meant that the government response to falling oil price will be more attacks on the working people. As the William Wallis of the Financial Times wrote, a sustained slump in world oil prices would necessitate either greater borrowing to finance the deficit, or budget cuts (Financial Times, October 28). Either way it is the masses that will be at the receiving end.

"We will have to look very hard at recurrent expenditure, and identify overlapping agencies. When the price is heading down everyone sees the necessity but that doesn't stop them hating you," Okonjo-Iweala said.

The share of the recurrent expenditure in the annual budget is outrageous. It is for instance 76% of the 2014 budget. It is the outrageous, jumbo pays of the top government functionaries, which are said to be among the highest in the world, that accounts for the huge recurrent budget at the expense of capital expenditure every year. But to the Minister of Finance the reason for the rise in 2014 recurrent expenditure is the pension implication of increase in salaries of civil servants in 2011. With such mindset the target of any cut in recurrent expenditure and "overlapping agencies" will be pensioners and workers, and definitely not the over-bloated top government functionaries who live as leeches on the collective resources. Already, Oyo state governor Abiola Ajimobi has warned that "most states may not be able to pay workers' salaries let alone carry out other development programmes." Labour must resist attacks on jobs, wage and conditions of workers as well as pension, and rather demand significant cut in the jumbo pays and hangers-on of the top government functionaries at all levels and the democratic control of allocations, funds and projects by elected representatives of workers, relevant professionals and communities.



Subsidy for casino market

Incidentally, 24 hours after the Financial Times published the warning of belt tightening to Nigerians by Okonjo Iweala as a result of drop in revenue, there was report in the Nigerian newspapers of the gazetteing of a five-year VAT exemption for commissions on transactions at the Nigeria Stock Exchange. This is a subsidy for casino market.

The stock market is essentially a casino with NSE acting as bookies that collect commission or cut on the bet whether players lose or win. This tax exemption is in addition to a debt forgiveness of about N22.6bn the government earlier granted to stock brokers who borrowed the so-called margin loans at banks to gamble on stocks. It should be recalled that margin lending contributed to collapse of some banks which has attracted up till date over N3 trillion of bail-out funds in various forms.

Sadly, many ordinary Nigerians who were lured into gambling den lost their life savings to the collapse of the stock market in 2008. Besides, it took six month of ASUU and closure of universities before the government, which freely gifted private banks N3trillion, was forced to give N200bn to universities. The subsidy and bail-out fund to the stock market, which hardly creates real values especially at the secondary market, is to gratify the Jonathan government's obsession for vainglory and false impression of robust economic activities.

Nigeria is perhaps accurse with the most virulent specie of the parasitic capitalist ruling elite. This explains why the country does not have functional and adequate refineries despite being the continent biggest oil producer and having huge resources at its disposal. Worse still, the country's four refineries operated at an average of 10.46 per cent of their combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per day in June, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (Punch, November .

Besides, since 2002, the government has issued licenses to 18 private sectors to build refineries. Till date none of the refineries has taken off. The importation of refined oil products which guarantee quick and super profits explains the lack of investment in the refineries.

For a Working People Alternative

Labour and pro-masses' organisations must demand the investment of public resources on building of new refineries and comprehensive repair of the existing ones side by side with the democratic control of the projects and their operations, when they come on stream, by the elected representatives of workers and relevant professionals. As against the planned increase in fuel price, there must be demand for lowering of the price given the fall in crude oil price and the concomitant decrease in landing cost of the imported fuels. It should be recalled the major argument for the fuel price in 2012 was the high price of crude oil in the world market.

The trade union leadership must also demand a new minimum wage as the inflation has already eaten up the current wage. It should be recalled that the new minimum wage had been introduced before the hike in fuel price in January 2012. Unfortunately, the labour leadership has not done anything serious to enforce even the full implementation of the current minimum wage.

Also importantly, labour leadership must show interest in all neo-liberal capitalist attacks including privatization, casualisation, high school fees, commercialization, etc and resolve to lead fightback. But the fight against neo-liberal attacks is not enough, it has to be linked with struggle to wrest power from the rapacious ruling elite. Indeed, the failure of the ruling elite is so egregious despite the huge oil wealth at their disposal that even the Guardian, a pro-establishment newspaper, has to make a scorching rebuke of "those at the helm of the management of the Nigerian economy" in its editorial of November 3. It writes, inter alia, "having exhibited incapability of bringing about a desirable outcome, those at the helm of the management of the Nigerian economy have done more than enough damage to the country. This should stop. Or they should quit."

They will not willingly quit; they have to be chased away. But there is no desirable alternative for the working masses in the APC. There are as anti-poor as the PDP. The labour, socialist and left organizations should mobilize workers, youths and poor masses for the formation and building of a fighting mass working peoples' party, with a socialist program, that could defeat all the anti-poor capitalist ruling elite at all levels and commit resources to basic needs of all and infrastructural development. Such a party, when in power, has to take into public ownership, the commanding heights of economy with democratic management and control by working people in order to mobilize adequate resources to finance social programs and development.

http://www.socialistnigeria.org/page.php?article=2635

[/b]

MissMeiya:
Because Americans want lower gas prices. Obama delivered. End thread.

[img]http://www.kappit.com/img/pics/201412_1844_hagaf.jpg_large[/img]

Gas is fucking cheap now. HALF. I said, HALF, what it was.

Seriously, some of you think the world revolves around Nigeria. If Nigeria wasn't my motherland, I wouldn't give a crap about it either.

Obama's Dream Realized, Nigeria's Nightmares Just Began By Toyin Dawodu

Forty years ago, a young Nigerian returned home from his studies in England with his hard-earned degree in engineering. Proud and ready to get to work building his country providing for his family, he accepted a job with Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, which was Nigeria’s national power company at the time. The young engineer was a true Nigerian. He was smart, he was bold and he had a huge vision for Nigeria’s prosperity that went beyond collecting a few bucks from foreign countries for Nigeria’s then newfound oil. Armed with his formal education and razor sharp mind, the young engineer laid out a plan for Nigeria’s prosperity, using crude oil as a way for Nigeria to create multiple revenue streams.

After six years working with ECN, he left his post to build the new industrial economy he thought Nigeria deserved. He wrote a plan to create a chemical industry based on using the oil as the raw material to create a chemical industry, a plastics industry, a chlorine industry and other materials that would come right from the Nigeria’s rich oil supply.

It was a brilliant plan that, if properly executed, would have set Nigeria on a growth path like the exponential growth we’ve seen in China, Singapore, and South Korea. But no sooner had he implemented the plan when the saboteurs began offering bribes for him to manipulate the cost of raw materials so third parties could essentially rip off the Nigerian government. When he refused, he was framed, nearly jailed and finally lost his company.


It’s a familiar story, isn’t it? We’ve seen the same thing and worse happen to a multitude of would-be leaders who have bright ideas and a passion for Nigeria but one fatal flaw – they have integrity. Leaders who can’t be bought don’t last as leaders very long in Nigeria. How many ambitious Nigerians have fallen victim to the greed and jealousy of visionless leaders? I don’t doubt it was these same devilish leaders who are responsible for Nigeria’s current economic predicament.

Nigeria relies on imports for ninety percent of its industrial raw materials. While we pump about two million barrels of oil a day, we have to import oil from Ivory Coast to provide petro to fuel our cars and generators. Ivory Coast doesn’t even have an oil well! Nigerian leaders have voted multiple times to use Nigerian resources to improve on Nigeria’s refineries, but soon the money disappears and the refineries remain unproductive.

So, what does that have to do with the American president, Toyin? Everything.

Three years ago, I wrote an article which I entitled Obama’s Dream is Nigeria’s Nightmare. In it, I warned Nigerian leaders that America would soon stop importing Nigeria's oil. At the time I wrote the article, Nigeria exported at least one million barrels of oil per day to the U.S. When Obama came into office, one of his dreams was to reduce America's dependency on foreign oil.

I believed he would achieve his dream and the impact would be detrimental to Nigeria, which depends on oil revenue for over 90% of its foreign exchange.

Just as I suspected, the U.S. has significantly decreased imports of Nigerian oil. At the start of 2014, the U.S. was importing about 100,000 barrels of oil a day from Nigeria. That’s a 90% drop from the million barrels a day the U.S. was importing just a few years ago. According to an article published in the Financial Times, the U.S. Department of Energy did not import a single barrel of crude to U.S.-based refiners in July, for the first time since 1973. Today, the price of oil has dropped from $100+ per barrel to just under $75. Raul Pal of Global Macro Investor estimates if the dollar remains strong, crude oil could go down to $30 per barrel “and stay there for a while." Can you imagine what that kind of price drop would do to Nigeria? Life in Nigeria is already difficult. What will happen if the nation loses 66% of its revenue?

Now, consider the alternative. What if that young engineer had been allowed to realize his vision? Nigeria would be able to export other industrial raw materials like petro chemicals, oil derivatives, and plastics instead of being dependent on one commodity it can’t even control.

When I first sounded the alarm in 2010, I warned Nigerian leaders about President Obama's plan to wean the country off foreign oil. Some rather clueless Nigerians argued that if the U.S. does not buy our oil, other nations will buy it. But they failed to realize that the economic toll America’s dependence on its own shale oil would make on the oil market. The change could depress oil prices longer than Nigeria is able to withstand, especially since Nigeria does not have any other export revenue sources besides crude oil.

Even despite Nigeria’s imminent plunge further into the abyss, I don’t hear any Nigerian leaders talking about a plan for our future. None of the people currently vying for office have mentioned this disaster waiting to happen. No one has a bold new vision for Nigeria, not even one that is better than the one the young engineer came up with forty years ago. Where there is no vision, the people perish. And hope is founded on visions. No vision, no hope.

In 1961, John F. Kennedy said within ten years, "America should put a man on the moon and return him back to earth." Just by speaking those words into existence, Americans were inspired to venture into previously uncharted territories in space exploration, technology and computer science. The results have been world-changing. His words, no doubt, served as the hope on which the World Wide Web was built.

Well, when Obama stated in 2009 that one of his goals was to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, it propelled the whole country into a new paradigm that opened doors for policies and technologies that created fracking which unleashed oil buried deep in impenetrable rocks for centuries. Now, for the first time in America's long history, America is now exporting oil. Thanks to a visionary leader. Thanks to free enterprise. Thanks to policies that unleashed entrepreneurs.

In Nigeria, all the oil and the ground where it exists belong to the government. In American, the oil and the ground where the oil is buried belong to the people who own the land and they have the freedom and the right to explore as they see fit as long as they do so lawfully. That is why Nigeria's oil is a nightmare to the people whose ancestors have owned and controlled the land for centuries while in America, the oil has been a blessing to the land owners whose ancestors have owned and controlled the land for centuries. That is why the Nigeria state of Bayelsa has billions in oil reserve but is languishing in poverty, while the U.S. state of North Dakota has billions in oil reserve and is prospering.

In Nigeria, oil is used as a weapon of Mass destruction, while in America, oil is used as a weapon of Mass Prosperity. In Nigeria, everywhere there is oil, there is extreme pollution, huge joblessness, hopelessness, and poverty. There is no electricity, no running water, no plumbing and no functioning schools. Every Nigerian is suffering from the curse of living under the boot of a bad leader. Recently, the “Honorable” Minister of economy was quoted as saying, "The Nigerian Government must adjust to permanent oil price shock.” Really? Madam Minister, it should not be a shock, the writing was on the wall for a long time. The state governors are scrambling to pay wages, because 90% of their revenue is derived for oil money handed over to them by their masters in Abuja. Since they don't have to think about developing or growing their economy, they are now sitting ducks for the impending devastation from the drop in oil revenue. If only these honorable men and women leaders had seen the writing on the wall, or listened to the alarm when I raised it four years ago. Even if they heard the alarm, it's typical of Nigerian leaders to ignore such warnings anyway. They are too busy stealing. Now the nightmares are here. Even the Federal government is worried. Nigeria’s progress has to start with a dream, a vision, and a decision by its leaders to do what is right.

It starts with the dreams and visions of the people who are bold enough to support and vote for incorrigible leaders who put the welfare, security and prosperity of its people at the forefront. So now in the face of falling oil prices, the downward spiral of the Nigerian currency, falling revenues, and the dwindling of foreign reserves, I hope our leaders can help us to wake up from the nightmares Nigerians have been living for decades.

Vote, Nigeria, but don’t just vote for “a president.” Vote for a visionary leader.

Let's continue this discussion on Twitter @1amazingtoyin or Facebook.

spenca:


Am sure you understand the concept of conspiracy theory

ttmacoy:
I can just imagine if some of the people posting all this nonsense here are invited to an interview with a company like mckinsey and they ask why do you think US oil imports has fallen recently, and they answer it's because US are punishing Nigeria for the gay laws. You will get the job on the spot. Lol

Nmeri17:


kk besha. hope yur queendom is in proper condition compliments of the season btw

Akbee:
Barack Obama is not a true son of Africa cos if he was he wudnt introduce foreign policies which are against the interests of blacks..we supported him during his first n second term presidential bids n he won.Thank goodness he hasn't got a chance anymore..infact,nobody wishes he was there.Americans r dissatisfied with him n so are our people too..black man black heartso they say.
the reason is not far fetched..
1.nigerian government prohibition of gay acts
2.Nigeria's position as the biggest economy in Africa.
3.The inability of the US government to exert influence on Nigeria like before.
4.Nigeria's image has bn tarnished to an extent that outsiders stl believe that nothing good can come out from us..
5.corruption..

if no 1 is reversed the us govt wud likely mk a u turn... HOWEVER,I see that as a blessing in disguise.. this has really tot our leaders a lesson that we shud not put our eggs in one basket.cudnt we av sought for an alternative buyer at the right time?
must we keep exporting crude oil at cheap prizes to other countries n stl buy the refined products at exorbitant prizes while our refineries can handle it..wl local production of petroleum products not provide jobs opportunities for the teeming unemployed masses?

spenca:


You are more ignorant than your post

vodkat:



Is US the only country that need oil, All the money from oil what did nigeria do with it. The gulf oil windfall where nigeria made billions of dollars what was done.

China dont have oil yet they have highest gdp

Do your research nigeria is too blame

UK never bought our oil, the buy from russia

Nothing like conspiracy just plain econmoics and nigeria has been overdependent on oil for economy.

U know ppl are working round the

prettyboi1989:

C dis joker, u jst one of dese I too know peeps here who don't know jack bout anything. Ya'll talk cos ya'll feel lyk talking weda it makes sense or not ya'll aint bothered. Do u knw wat shale oil is? Do u knw dat us has about 4.8 trillion barrels of shale oil deposits in its country? Us stopd importing oil from most countries because they can now produce the oil they need from shale. M sure ur ignorant mind has never heard of shale oil b4. The reason why us is still importing the oil in saudi arabia is because of its lower quality than the one extracted from nigeria. Oya I too know why do u think the international oil price dropped from 100dollars a barrel to about 66 dollars recently? Is it because of us's beef with nigeria? Its the us shale oil boom that made the international oil price to crash. Think na, nigeria out of the other important countries in the whole world will be what usa will be bothered about in the oil market? Nawa o, even opec (that's if u know wat opec is) is tryn to stabilize the international oil price. Go back to school kid cos u know nothing.

tellmoon:
If U ask me, I believe this is not unconnected with our refusal to sign the gay law... my thought anyway.

oziegbe2015:
If u ask me its not far from what hilary clinton said that this present nigeria president has supervised the looting of the oil and its sales proceeds. Its obvious us does not want its money to go to the CABAL, but would buy frm other countries where the president utilizes oil sales to the benefit of its citizen

fuckerholic:

Come to think of it are they doing us a favour by buying our oil which they still use ? Very soon they will have problem with Saudi Arabia being moslem nation and they will be forced to run back to us and maybe by then they must have lost their relevance.

Akbee:

what is the link between nepotism and american government buying our crude oil?
or do u av ur own version of the meaning of nepotism?
the basis of my argument is that the american government is yet to give reasonable explanation as to why they have stopped importing our crude oil.why have they only severed the crude oil trade link with Nigeria only whereas there have bn a reported increase in the volumes of crude oil imported from Saudi Arabia n Canada??
i don't no which school of tot u belong!

Osach:



This is nothing but a pile of bull shit.

Osach:



This is nothing but a pile of bull shit.

ttime:
Vision is everythn...
Relevance is golden.
We re jst beginin 2 witness d repercusion of dinin wit bigger cats...
If we must maintain relevance,... We DESPERATELY need 2 begin focusin on d future...
I learnt even Ghana is cuttin down power purchase 4rm NAIJA. U can't get AHEAD movin wit som1 gOin NoWhr.
NUCLER weapons= Japan
Political power\Military =Russia
Medicine\medi-care= India
Oil= MiDdle East
Technology=China
R& = USA...
We need 2 Identify our Unique Selling Point;
Thn we can build a Competitive Edge
God bless Naija

spenca:


All you just said there is nothing new in it , you are just trying too hard

Tocheagle:
WE DONT NEED THESE BACKSTABBERZ : IF WE LOOK INWARDS, WE CAN SHOCK THEM. This is happening @ a time when we're fighting insurgency. Lets Give china higher attention. And ignore this manipulative fooolz