₦airaland Forum

We replaced an inept government with an even more inept government. Knowledge of the extent of the current government's ineptitude will accumulate overtime. When we had the buffoon GEJ as president, I can't remember any Western analyst who said he was inept barely 100 days into his tenure. His ineptitude only became common knowledge subsequently. Buhari will prove the same.

She is most likely the presidential candidate of some obscure party that has zero chance of success. Nigerians and our knack for self-promotion.

There are many presidential candidates in the last elections in Nigeria that no one remembers. She is that kind of candidate.

There is a certain lack of irony in the logic of the proponents of maintaining the Naira at its current rate. You have to ask the question what functional value a high exchange rate serves. If you think of it, high exchange rates facilitate importation. It's cheaper to import at 199 Naira to the dollar than at 220 Naira to the dollar. Therefore, an argument to maintain a higher exchange rate is functionally an argument to make it easier to buy foreign goods and services.

You can make the argument that stable rates result in stable inflation rates. However, if the ultimate objective is to attain economic self-sufficiency, inflation assists in rebalancing the economy because by making imports dearer, local production is stimulated. Therefore, the argument that one must not devalue is self-defeating.

This story and the reception to it on this thread demonstrates the gullibility of Nigerians and the incoherence of fervently held positions.

Take gullibility, how can you believe at face value statements of the military which are not independently corroborated? This despite all the broken promises which have dominated discussion in the last week.

How can one also believe in the efficacy of a military which we were led to believe is criminally underequipped? Here, you have a statement referring to close air support but isn't the airforce lacking in aircrafts?

In 3 months time, it will be like this thread was never created.

MEILYN:
Ohhh I feel like crying ...... I know Buhari to be a man of his words. I trust him and I know he is going to deliver with the help of Osinbajo, Fashola, Fayemi and the rest of APC team.

This is pure comedy!

Lai Mohammed is illustrative of the concept of "nominative determinism".

Nominative determinism (ND) is the theory that a person's name can have a significant role in determining key aspects of job, profession or even character.

[url]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism [/url]

There needs to be further banking consolidation in the sector. Unfortunately, the economy cannot support the numerous banks we have so bank mergers, which will mean heavy loss of jobs, are required.

They love to humiliate the "weak" in society. Those workers are not even paid on time. This is not to support lateness but the reality is that robbing someone of their dignity for something as minor lateness is beyond the pale.

Of course, it could be that they were threatened with disciplinary proceedings and they are simply begging for mercy but knowing Nigeria, I won't put it beyond a Governor to ask workers to kneel down.

nobeku:
I would love to beat you up but I have a problem with cruelty to dumb animals..

You realise you sound like a brain damaged offspring of rascally parentage? Now, can you subtantiate the truthfullness of the NgeneUkwenu comment that you approve of? Any links to prove him right will be much appreciated.

The hilarious thing is that the Accountant-General does not say that TSA has boosted revenues but that it will. Not surprising as it is yet to be implemented to my knowledge. The headline is not supported by the actual comments attributed to Alhaji Idris.

I wonder whether these are the official figures as not long ago, a Nairalander proclaimed that N630.98bn was shared for July 2015. See below:

So how do we explain this? In June, Nigeria’s three tiers of government met and shared the sum of N409.3bn after the Federal Account Allocation Committee met in Abuja to disburse gross revenues for the month of May. A month later, when they met again to share that of June, the total amount was N518.54bn – an increase of 26.68 per cent. When they met to share the gross revenues for the month of July, the gross revenue had increased by almost 22 per cent to N630.98bn.

https://www.nairaland.com/2515530/how-come-oil-prices-fell#36806165

The N511bn for July is also lower than the June figure of 518bn:

At the meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committe (FAAC), in Abuja on Friday, a total sum of N518, 542bn was distributed to the three tiers of government being federally generated revenue for the month of June.

http://www.tv360nigeria.com/video-faac-distributes-n518542bn-for-june-2015/

NgeneUkwenu:
Being honest to you, is not to admit the current progress under Buhari? Being honest to you, is to shout Biafra while hoping that Nigerian project fails?

You are a sadist! Move away!

Even your response to an accusation of dishonesty is laden with dishonesty. Where in my posts do you find support for Biafra? Are you a congenital liar that cannot help yourself?

NgeneUkwenu:
Let's not forget, PDP Under Jonathan Shared N211B only in May before they handed over power...

Now, President Buhari with just under two months in power increased the same by over 100% with the price of Crude in a free fall (41 dollars).

Bros, take it easy with the dishonesty. You have become a caricature of APC and I sometimes wonder whether you are some sort of PDP fifth columnist.

At least 56 persons have been killed in Nganzai town in Borno State in Nigeria’s volatile north-east region.

The Governor of the State, Kashim Shettima, confirmed the killing which occurred on Friday.

The killing was carried out by suspected insurgents, who had earlier attacked neighbouring Gudumbali and were repelled by the military before they moved to Badu village in Nganzai where they unleashed terror.

Governor Kashim condemned the attack and said that a committee had since been despatched to the area to assess the extent of the damage and conduct burial for the victims.

http://www.metronaija.com/2015/08/boko-haram-kill-56-people-in-borno.html

This is the banality of evil in Nigeria in full display. Since Friday, the main topic of discussion has been Buhari's appointments whilst many of the country's residents are focused on a cruder and more murderous existence.

POWEROFPEACE:
The importance of competence in a leader can not be overemphasize but were the various leaders comes from matters a lot to say the truth because of the complexity of the nation as regarding the numerous ethnic groups and tribes with different religion and believes. I think President Buhari may need to put this into consideration as it will bring peace to the nation.

Competence is also not a near exclusive preserve of people of Northern extraction. If it was, this 55 year old country would have turned out different as its governance since 1960 has been dominated by people of that extraction. Further, if competence was unevenly distributed in favour of Northerners, this would be reflected in the standard of governance in Northern state governments by comparison to Southern states.

Also, constitutional provisions enshrining the federal character principle are not a mere inconvenience to be brushed aside. The president derives his authority from the constitution and must abide by it in the execution of his duties. Proclaiming that he only trusts people from his region seems to wholly miss the point of what constitutional democracy entails.

blueButtocks:

Oga, the Nigeria of today is testament to the fact that the PDP method of governance was faulty, out-dated and was built on wrong notions of democracy.
Thus, APC and Buhari presented 'change'.

Change from the old ways to new and more efficient ways. Let's be honest, the current government has been quite transparent compared to previous governments we've had.

To the matter at hand, yes, I agree that his latest appointments might provoke some doubt about his tolerance/regard for the Southern region, even amongst his most ardent supporters. I will continue to plead for patience as I'm sure he'll achieve a balance in the long run

I often find this sentiment profoundly silly not because I have much regard for PDP but because of what it reveals about Nigerians' lack of perspective. PDP came into power in 1999, the Nigeria of pre-1999 was an odious calamity. You often find people who either don't remember the Nigeria of those days or were kids/young at the time and had no real knowledge of the actual state of affairs then, basing their analysis on the notion that PDP is the root cause of our problem. They do so because PDP is all they have known in their adult life.

Nigeria was messed up before PDP was formed, therefore, what is wrong with Nigeria transcends PDP. This is a 55 year old country which has been dysfunctional from the beginning. You can keep deluding yourself that regurgitating political characters from the past, so long as they are not PDP, is the path to a new beginning but that is the height of self-deception. I predict that we will be dissapointed just as we have been for 55 years. In 8 years time, people who are infants or teens today will proclaim that our problem is mainly attributable to APC. We will never learn.

fallout87:
For how long will you guys be saying this? Every single time you say it your Buhari shames you even more.

This man has picked only Northern people for every sensitive position!

Wake up! Watch him do the same again with the ministerial positions. Maybe he puts Bakare in a decent area.... maybe.

With ministerial positions, the constitution expressly requires that ministers be appointed from each state in the country so Buhari would not have any option but to appoint ministers from each zone.

The actual statements by Buhari do not match the interpretation or the thread title. Asking lawyers to defend clients in an ethical manner and to avoid manipulating the legal system is hardly the same as instructing lawyers not to defend clients against corruption allegations.

Threads like this illustrate that APC do not have the monopoly of lies and propaganda.

Lushore1:
Im sure you know how much oil price was when Gej was in power compare to now.

Hence my assertion:

If you believe that $20bn was stolen in an 18 month period, you have to believe that such amount, once we discount the fall in oil price, would now accrue to the FG.

GEJ left power in May 2015 and presided over almost a year of low oil prices. If he was stealing as much money as claimed, you would have expected to see a massive jump in revenues, and the attendant reduction in FG debt expansion, from June 2015. There is very little evidence of that and instead we seem to have continued on our borrowing spree.

It is not a defence of GEJ's regime: it was a very corrupt and inept regime. It's a refutation of the popular notion in Nigeria that our problem is primarily a corruption problem when it is far worse than that. Nigeria was messed up in 1998, before the PDP era, when minimum wage was 540 Naira per month or $6 per month at the parallel market's exchange rate. No amount of wishful thinking or sensationalist news articles such as this which attempts to reduce every problem to "blame Jonathan" will change that.

otr1:
Prove that Buhari knows about the agreement before now and I'll agree with you. Or isn't that what you think?
Failure to sign an agreement by the immediate past government (an agreement most certainly not known yet to Buhari prior to the notice) is now Buhari's fault.
You definitely think Buhari sees the paper on his table every morning, ain't it?
Have you confirmed that the papers are even anywhere to be found as we speak?

You are getting desperate. I am sure that you cannot prove that GEJ knew about the agreement either but I doubt you will find that exculpatory of him. To me the president's knowledge or ignorance is somewhat of a red herring in any case. If presidents are unaware of matters of vital national interest such as how the sale of oil to the country's biggest customer is conducted, then it is a damning indictment of their capability as president. For a president to have to rely on news stories on Nairaland and Daily Trust to inform himself on such matters suggests that neither he nor his advisers have got a good grasp of policy detail.

Now can you tell us the volume of savings and debt inherited by Jonathan and what he left behind?

Explain why Jonathan was borrowing to pay salaries and I'll tell you why Buhari had to borrow?

As we speak, the government is struggling with the available resources owing to Jonathan's mismanagement.

You made a wholly false assertion about GEJ inheriting virtually no debt and are now cravenly trying to slither away from your dishonesty. GEJ inherited a large debt, he added substantially to it and Buhari has continued in the same vein in his brief tenure by adding substantial amounts to the FG's debt load.

I always laugh at those who say the present Govt is struggling today because of the past Govt. GEJ has not taken the oil wells with him back to Otueke. If you believed the outlandish claims about ginormous amounts of money being stolen by GEJ and his cronies, it would follow that once GEJ left power, those oil revenues which previously were stolen would no longer be stolen. If you have any brain cells, you would recognise that this is entirely separate from the matter of already looted amounts. In a counterfactual world in which the looted amounts were not looted in the first place, it wouldn't make any difference to the FG's day to day revenues and expenditures. If you believe that $20bn was stolen in an 18 month period, you have to believe that such amount, once we discount the fall in oil price, would now accrue to the FG. Instead, we see the FG continue to borrow like nothing has changed. The coming years will provide a harsh dose of reality for you gullible Nigerians.

It does not matter if GEJ was personally corrupt, the important thing is that he allowed corruption to continue to flourish. It's a bit like the Shagari regime where the President was not personally corrupt, or at least to any significant degree, but turned a blind eye to it due to his weak ness and ineptitude.

otr1:
So in just 3 months in office, Buhari must have uncover every shady deal of the last administration? You certainly take Nigeria for a small retail shop
Who even told you the agreement papers is not in some toilets as we speak?
Now that the issue has been brought to notice, watch if Buhari will allow Jonathan's intermediaries to continue doing business with India on behalf of Nigeria.
If inheriting tens of billions of dollars on assumption of office with close to no debt and leaving that office 6years later with huge debts with close to nothing in the treasury (considering the fact that we made more revenue during his time and nothing on ground to show for it) is being exaggerated by a few media reports, then I pity anyone who would entrust even a kobo in your care.
Definitely to you also, stealing is not corruption.

Look at this obtuse straw man argument. There is nothing in my post that you quoted that explicity or implicitly claims that Buhari should uncover every shady deal within 3 months. It is said in this thread that the failure of Nigeria to sign an agreement is a symbol of corruption, yet that failure continues unpertubed and by implication, the alleged corruption continues as we speak. It is quite simple: if the lack of a signed agreement is bad, then sign it. If you can't tell whether it's bad or not because it's too early, then sensationally claiming that it is a sign of corruption is glaringly misleading as you are effectively contradicting yourself.

To even say that Nigeria had "close to no debt" when GEJ assumed office beggars belief and exposes you as an ignoramus. If the debt left at the expiration of his tenure is so objectionable, why has the present Govt added susbtantially to it in the last 3 months?

agitator:
[size=16pt]I didn't know Diezani had been minister of petroluem for nine years, that woman should be stoned in her hospital bed. [/size]

That's the thing about these stories that I am trying to drum into these people's heads. We know that Diezani is corrupt but articles like this don't seek to provide illumination but to obfuscate matters and convey the impression that GEJ's regime stole all the money. Some of these practices were in place since at least the OBJ era and remain in place as we speak!

Jesusloveyou:
u mean, PMB should just sign what he has not see, is like u and 4play did not read d report, d high commissioner said they don't want to do business with intermediaries, that they would have sign $50b worth of crude oil, but because of corruption, that d money suppose to be paid directly to govt, d agreement can now be renewed when minister comes in,

So how do we, including you as an ordinary individual, know the failure to sign the proposed agreement is bad if the present Govt with all the resources at its disposal is yet to apprise itself of the contents and to satisfy itself that it is in the interest of Nigeria? That is my point about threads such as this and their sensationalisation. News is spun in a way to cast the previous regime in the most negative light.

Was Madueke corrupt? Absolutely yes. Does this news prove it and provide greater insight into her corruption? I don't think it does.

Jesusloveyou:
did anybody tell u, d money wil not be recover? Even d blind can see d corruption pattern of gej govt,

I am confident that the amount of money to be recovered will be so small that it will disprove some of the sums often trotted out as stolen such as the $20bn alleged to be missing over an 18 month period.

Take that $20bn claim for instance, as that is the most well known of all the allegations. Remember that GEJ was not in power for just 18 months but for at least 60 months. If we extrapolate from the $20bn, we will get at least $60bn stolen over the 5 years he was in power. Buhari will not recover even a tenth of that figure for the simple reason that nothing of that scale was actually stolen.

If the amounts being floated about were stolen and Buhari was keen to recover it, the entrance of Buhari into power would see a large flow of foreign exchange back into Nigeria. I am absolutely confident this will not happen.

otr1:
Just shut up already!
You expect Bahari to fix 6years mess in less than 6 months?
You think it's easy to recover the already looted funds stacked in foreign accounts?
Or would you rather they keep mute about it, just because the news distracts you?
Past government must be exposed for the fraud it is, because Nigerians deserve to know. Anyone not satisfied with it can commit suicide.
If shitting on the seat you left behind won't deter the person coming to sit on it, I wonder what will.
The corrupt foundation of Jonathan/PDP government must be destroyed and a better one put in place.
If anyone is being distracted by this news, it's definitely the legion of wailers.

Ah, the expected emotionally incontinent outburst. Your post does not seem to address the substance of my post. My view is that the scale of looting under GEJ has been exaggerated and that this will become apparent to Nigerians in future because the alleged loot will not be recovered to any sizeable degree. There is nothing in my post that claims that recovering loot is easy and should all be accomplished already.

This thread epitomises the exaggeration of corruption under GEJ's regime. If the failure to sign the oil agreement with India is an unconsionable symptom of corruption, why is the agreement unsigned as we speak? How many months does it take to sign this agreeement, the absence of which it is suggested amounts to condoning or perpetrating corruption?

I don't have sympathy for GEJ as an individual. He was criminally inept. He allowed underlings run riot by providing them the freedom to steal. He failed to address the Boko Haram menace displaying a remarkable insouciance to the loss of lives from terrorism. Overall, he was woefully unprepared to be President and conveyed a sense of discomfort throughout his era.

I am, however, utterly scornful of the perception management embarked on by the APC to justify the inevitable inability of the new regime to meet the expectations of Nigerians. To distract and justify its imminent failings, Buharists will continue to exaggerate the scale of corruption under GEJ and any minimal achievement of Buhari will be blown out of proportion.

The easiest prediction to make in social science is "more of the same". You can expect Nigerian governments of whatever hue to provide more of the same inept and corrupt leadership. With GEJ, corruption was the main albatross, with Buhari it is and will continue to be comical ineptitude.

socialmediaman:
It's as if your lips are stuttering trying to comprehend and find an explanation for the whole thing. You know what going through intermediaries mean, don't you? It means paying consultation fees on deals you could do directly. I'm not finding her guilty on this one though, I'd like to see her own explanation... Though we both know I don't think she's innocent.

I have a simple question for you partisan propagandists. You must have noticed that the High Commissioner was speaking in the present tense, why haven't we implemented the things he's requested like signing the agreement as I have noticed that Madueke is no longer in power?

The assertion by the Indian High Commissioner is that Nigeria will not sign a long term agreement for its purchase of oil from Nigeria. This is now spun to mean that Madueke was stealing all the money. But now that she is gone, Nigeria has not signed the agreement and does not seem to have any present plans to. Hence, the Indian's threat that India will take its imports from elsewhere if Nigeria fails to abide by its wishes.

It is not remarkable insight to state that Madueke was utterly corrupt. However, this news follows a tiresome pattern where news is spun, if not downright fabricated, to foster the impression that the previous regime has stolen all the wealth. It seems to have become a means of distraction and to prepare Nigerians for the inevitability of expectations not being met by the new regime by suggesting that the old regime stole all the money. The problem with this tactic is that if all these gargantuan amount has been stolen, what stops you from recovering it even if just a fraction of it? If anything, the sensationalism raises expectations as people would rightfully expect that if the GEJ regime stole say $60bn, the Buhari regime would be able to recover atleast 10% of that. The failure to recover sizeable amounts of money will prove to be awkward in the future.

The problem with these stories is that of credibility. At no point was the loss of this town to Boko Haram admitted to by the military.

We are told the army is in the final phase of defeating Boko Haram but is it the same notoriously underequipped army and with what new weapons?

Truth234:
I didn't see where I stated average when quoting oil price, I simply said as I am typing. On the average oga, oil currently is $51 for 2Q crude oil was last at $60 price level over 3 months ago.

I still don't understand why you all don't see how bad is a 38.5 percent decline in exports compared with last quarter. That is almost 40 percent and yet this administration was able to record surplus of over 1.4 when last administration recorded 1.9 without exports deficit

What relevance is the oil price in August 2015 when discussing a report about oil revenue in the months of April, May and June 2015? In those 3 months, average oil prices were $60 so your contrast of the $105 per barrel price with today's price of $40 was an attempt to mislead because the contrast should be with $60.

What you people don't realise by clutching on to this oil price red herring is that non-oil exports have also declined. It was 224bn Naira in Q2 2015 according to this article. In Q1 2014, it was 735.9bn Naira:

The report stated that the total trade was dominated by crude oil exports which accounted for about N3.23 trillion, representing 81.5 per cent of total exports while the non-crude oil accounted for N735.9 billion or 18.5 per cent of total exports.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/nigeria-s-foreign-trade-increases-to-n5-51tn-in-first-quarter/186124/

The main reason we remain in surplus is that it is hard to get hold of dollars officially to import goods. The reality is there is an across the board detrerioration in our exports, both oil and non-oil. You can face reality or bury your heads in the sand and keep pretending that something is not seriously wrong with Nigeria.

arsetalks:
The point is there is a lot to celebrate in this figure. PMB achieved these figures with over 30% decline of the naira. Now use the current value of naira for the figures achieved under the jerk of an ex president and you will see how much of a mess we had to deal with under him.

You must compare all situations and circumstances if you must be a fair judge right?

I seriously don't understand what you are saying. People reacted to the misleading intepretation of the article which suggested that FG budget revenues was the same as oil export income. It is not. The FG is still borrowing like crazy:

The Federal Government is planning to sell N195.17bn ($981m) worth of three-month, six-month and one-year Treasury bills on August 5, the Central Bank of Nigeria has said.

In the same vein, the Debt Management Office has said that the Federal Government would borrow between N180bn and N240bn through the sale of government bonds in the third quarter.

http://www.punchng.com/business/money/fg-to-borrow-n195bn-via-treasury-bills/

Export income is not FG budget revenue and continues to plummet despite claims about "plugging leakages".

arsetalks:
Don't you realise that with this submission you are further indicting Gej the jerk? You yourself said there is a 38% due to a decline of the naira. Now assuming naira is 155 to a dollar as was under GEJ ( comparing like for like) will you still have a decline?

The 38% decline in pure profit is eroded by the decline in the naira assume the naira was same as it was under the jerk?

My friend give up. You are not making sense. If I export 160 million Naira worth of products when 160 Naira is equals to 1 dollar and later export 80 million Naira when 197 Naira is equal to 1 dollar. Exports have declined 50% in Naira but in dollar terms, which is the main gauge you should look at, the decline is circa 60%.

The fall in Naira shows the trade figures, as bad as it already is, is a lot worse than people realise.