How can any nation base the emoluments of civil servants on how much rent the government can collect from foreign companies mining natural resources in the country? If that is the case, the civil servants will be paid poorly or not at all depending on the marketability of the natural resources at any point in time. It is a very foolish, infact, the most foolish way to run a nation and that is why the minimum wage in Nigeria is one of the lowest in the world. From 1914 to 1956, when Nigeria had no oil to export, the civil servants were paid from taxes drawn from the economy and Nigerian civil servants' remunerations were similar to that of European civil servants and others around the world. Nigeria did not depend on oil so much until the latter part of the Gowon regime and during the second republic, states did not wait for allocations, hence corruption was more restricted to Alhaji Shagari's Presidency. Those who support that the nation should not change immediately from the dependence on crude oil sales as the main source of government revenue may think they are punishing the Niger Deltans or having one on them by sitting on their oil but obviously that is not the case because while trying to block others' prosperity, you wont prosper yourself and you may remain at 1 percent of your potentials while those leading you like President Buhari will be so rich from corruption they will not be able to declare their assets in public because of embarrassment. How does a man whose only business is 270 cows explain a one billion dollar fortune? That is the situation.

There were nations in this Nigeria area in the past, centuries ago, that achieved feats that modern Nigeria can not achieve in the 21st century due to lack of organisation. Those nations organised themselves via taxes and were not hypocrites, living a lie, led by fraudsters, murderers and liars, which made it possible for them to build their nations.

Are billionaire Pastors like Adeboye and Bishop Oyedepo going to speak up in favour of organising the country via taxation? No they will never, not because they dont know it is the right thing to do, since of course they visit other countries and know how things are run there. So it may be because they want to be the only ones collecting tithes, a form of tax which Adeboye removes from the salary of every employee of RCCG at source, be you a university lecturer, doctor or teacher and whether or not you are a RCCG member. They then use the tithes to expand their empires, assassinate dissidents and opponents, finance human rituals and etc. I dont know why they want the country to remain down, it may be because of the money they think is realisable from visa prayers, but that is myopic because a well organised nation will mean a bigger GDP and more tithes and offerings, the way they harvest it in Europe and North America that are highly tax organised, but evil people dont think that way. They prioritise evil. So the reason they are not speaking up may be sheer wickedness.

Ok

So this means if SS n SE are gone then no more salary for civil servants again? We r so so backward.

What has been the contribution of the Ministry of Agriculture in the 36 states of Nigeria? Even though everybody is shouting diversification to Agriculture, I have not seen farms owned by the ministry. All I see are men and women wearing suites and agbada in offices with well fitted aircondition.
If Nigeria is serious about agriculture, the state ministries of agriculture must own farms.

jamace:
What has been the contribution of the Ministry of Agriculture in the 36 states of Nigeria? Even though everybody is shouting diversification to Agriculture, I have not seen farms owned by the ministry. All I see are men and women wearing suites and agbada in offices with well fitted aircondition.
If Nigeria is serious about agriculture, the state ministries of agriculture must own farms.

Really its not about being serious about Agriculture but about organising the country to depend on taxation like all the nations built by our ancestors, then everything will fall into place. By PPP, the economy is over one trillion dollars a year and oil is not more than 30 billion dollars of that.

The awareness of free money is stronger than ever. Everybody is looking easy money. Nobody wants to go thru the uncertainty associated with growing a manufacturing outfit or agriculture business from scratch.

Sibrah:
The awareness of free money is stronger than ever. Everybody is looking easy money. Nobody wants to go thru the uncertainty associated with growing a manufacturing outfit or agriculture business from scratch.

But the only way a nation is built is through collectivization by the way of collecting money from workers in that nation, to do things together. That way, if there is no people, there is no nation. A government depending on crude oil sales don't care if Boko Haram kills everybody or not, they have nothing to lose or gain.

Lawani, you are correct in saying Nigeria should not pay civil servants with oil money but should pay them with taxes. I don't believe any prosperous nation does this.

The issue with your post is your belief that oil revenues should be left solely for the Niger Delta. I think this is very greedy of you and greediness on the part of our leaders is what makes them stupidly corrupt.

Why not channel all oil into capital projects (infrastructure for power, water, transport, communication, health, education, housing, etc) rather than paying the civil servants or the Niger deltans. Think of the number of workers that would be employed to achieve all these projects.

But if government decides to right size the civil service, Nigerians would go on the streets protesting. The ex-president had the Steve oronsaye's report that would have dramatically reduced our recurrent expenditure but failed to implement it. The current president also has the report and is yet to implement it.


Nigeria as a country is very rich, but we have a culture of greediness that is keeping us back. I read the article in saharareporters on why fuel will remain scarce for much longer, and I became really sad at the degree of greed Nigerians display. We have the oil in Nigeria but we have to import fuel. Why?

In importing fuel:

We pay the foreign refineries money (creating employment for foreign workers) to refine the crude
We pay foreign banks interest for loaning money to our Nigerian banks
We pay our local banks interest for loaning money to our fuel importers
We pay our fuel importers money for transporting the fuel to Nigeria
We pay the fuel distributors money for transporting the fuel to the filling stations

All these just because some greedy people want to make an extra buck. How greedy and wicked can we be to our fellow countrymen?

trillville:
Lawani, you are correct in saying Nigeria should not pay civil servants with oil money but should pay them with taxes. I don't believe any prosperous nation does this.

The issue with your post is your belief that oil revenues should be left solely for the Niger Delta. I think this is very greedy of you and greediness on the part of our leaders is what makes them stupidly corrupt.

Why not channel all oil into capital projects (infrastructure for power, water, transport, communication, health, education, housing, etc) rather than paying the civil servants or the Niger deltans. Think of the number of workers that would be employed to achieve all these projects.

But if government decides to right size the civil service, Nigerians would go on the streets protesting. The ex-president had the Steve oronsaye's report that would have dramatically reduced our recurrent expenditure but failed to implement it. The current president also has the report and is yet to implement it.


Nigeria as a country is very rich, but we have a culture of greediness that is keeping us back. I read the article in saharareporters on why fuel will remain scarce for much longer, and I became really sad at the degree of greed Nigerians display. We have the oil in Nigeria but we have to import fuel. Why?

In importing fuel:

We pay the foreign refineries money (creating employment for foreign workers) to refine the crude
We pay foreign banks interest for loaning money to our Nigerian banks
We pay our local banks interest for loaning money to our fuel importers
We pay our fuel importers money for transporting the fuel to Nigeria
We pay the fuel distributors money for transporting the fuel to the filling stations

All these just because some greedy people want to make an extra buck. How greedy and wicked can we be to our fellow countrymen?

It is actually very rude of you to say I am greedy for oil when I have no oil well and I am not from the Niger Delta. The owners of the oil have been cheated for decades, yet they are not saying they don't want to share but leaving it for them remains a noble thing to do as a form of restitution which infact can not suffice in any way.

You say use the oil money for development, so what are they doing now? Please think more deeply about the matter and I believe you will realise that the only way out is to find a way to reduce oil dependency to like 5 percent of revenue and if that can not be done, then disband the country. Leaving the Niger Delta to control their oil before the oil era winds up is a good idea if the people in power are humane. Let the Niger Delta refuse the offer themselves. There was no time they agreed for anyone to take their oil.

Buhari's ineptitude makes matters worse

lawani:


It is actually very rude of you to say I am greedy for oil when I have no oil well and I am not from the Niger Delta. The owners of the oil have been cheated for decades, yet they are not saying they don't want to share but leaving it for them remains a noble thing to do as a form of restitution which infact can not suffice in any way.

You say use the oil money for development, so what are they doing now? Please think more deeply about the matter and I believe you will realise that the only way out is to find a way to reduce oil dependency to like 5 percent of revenue and if that can not be done, then disband the country. Leaving the Niger Delta to control their oil before the oil era winds up is a good idea if the people in power are humane. Let the Niger Delta refuse the offer themselves. There was no time they agreed for anyone to take their oil.

Sorry for my error. My point on the oil resources is simple, no government should share any oil money. The federal, states, and local governments should pay their civil servants using tax generated from people and businesses just as other countries do. Oil revenue should be set aside solely for infrastructural development as this will develop Nigeria faster.

The issue with giving the Niger delta the oil resources and letting them manage it and share it with other Nigerians will never work in my opinion and would only lead to civil war. The sooner Nigerians move away from this idea, the better for us as a nation. It can be logically and morally argued that a greater share of the resources should be expended on the Niger delta, but outright ownership (even with the Niger deltans agreeing to share with the rest of the country) will certainly lead to war in the long run.

But funds can be looted without selling oil

trillville:


Sorry for my error. My point on the oil resources is simple, no government should share any oil money. The federal, states, and local governments should pay their civil servants using tax generated from people and businesses just as other countries do. Oil revenue should be set aside solely for infrastructural development as this will develop Nigeria faster.

The issue with giving the Niger delta the oil resources and letting them manage it and share it with other Nigerians will never work in my opinion and would only lead to civil war. The sooner Nigerians move away from this idea, the better for us as a nation. It can be logically and morally argued that a greater share of the resources should be expended on the Niger delta, but outright ownership (even with the Niger deltans agreeing to share with the rest of the country) will certainly lead to war in the long run.

I am not saying giving them the oil is a magical wand but it can be a form of restitution. When oil was discovered in commercial quantities in 1956, it was not under Federal control, it did not lead to civil war then and it can not lead to war now. The oil is insignificant and should not be minded that much unless by greedy people whose intent is treasury looting. I see your point but that money is too insignificant to be ceremonially set aside like that leading to embezzlement again. Take Osun for instance, if we say the population is 7 million, each person can afford 100 naira a day on average to give to government, including infants, beggars and the disabled. Some can afford 1000. So the state can easily generate 1 billion naira every day, if organised like Europe. That is the way to see things. I know people stealing the oil money may try to incite a civil war but it is our duty as concerned folks to disabuse the minds of people.

trillville:


Sorry for my error. My point on the oil resources is simple, no government should share any oil money. The federal, states, and local governments should pay their civil servants using tax generated from people and businesses just as other countries do. Oil revenue should be set aside solely for infrastructural development as this will develop Nigeria faster.

The issue with giving the Niger delta the oil resources and letting them manage it and share it with other Nigerians will never work in my opinion and would only lead to civil war. The sooner Nigerians move away from this idea, the better for us as a nation. It can be logically and morally argued that a greater share of the resources should be expended on the Niger delta, but outright ownership (even with the Niger deltans agreeing to share with the rest of the country) will certainly lead to war in the long run.

how pray tell.

trillville:
Lawani, you are correct in saying Nigeria should not pay civil servants with oil money but should pay them with taxes. I don't believe any prosperous nation does this.

The issue with your post is your belief that oil revenues should be left solely for the Niger Delta. I think this is very greedy of you and greediness on the part of our leaders is what makes them stupidly corrupt.

Why not channel all oil into capital projects (infrastructure for power, water, transport, communication, health, education, housing, etc) rather than paying the civil servants or the Niger deltans. Think of the number of workers that would be employed to achieve all these projects.

But if government decides to right size the civil service, Nigerians would go on the streets protesting. The ex-president had the Steve oronsaye's report that would have dramatically reduced our recurrent expenditure but failed to implement it. The current president also has the report and is yet to implement it.


Nigeria as a country is very rich, but we have a culture of greediness that is keeping us back. I read the article in saharareporters on why fuel will remain scarce for much longer, and I became really sad at the degree of greed Nigerians display. We have the oil in Nigeria but we have to import fuel. Why?

In importing fuel:

We pay the foreign refineries money (creating employment for foreign workers) to refine the crude
We pay foreign banks interest for loaning money to our Nigerian banks
We pay our local banks interest for loaning money to our fuel importers
We pay our fuel importers money for transporting the fuel to Nigeria
We pay the fuel distributors money for transporting the fuel to the filling stations

All these just because some greedy people want to make an extra buck. How greedy and wicked can we be to our fellow countrymen?

as greedy as we the ignorant voters allow them to be. it is the nature of the beast