4Play's Posts
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Corona22:Not sure how useful this is for you but my framework for understanding ethnicism is that it's a pathology that pretty much every Sub-Saharan African ethnic group possesses. Each ethnic group generally believes that they are the good ones and it's other ethnic group(s) that are ruining everything. Never mind that before colonialism redrew political boundaries, all ethnic groups were pretty much developmentally backwards relative to development strides outside Africa. So it's important to realise how commonplace this is, how this is something one can hardly be surprised by. Here is another insight, even if you had ethnically homogeneous states, this pathology will simply be chanelled into intra-ethnic strife. Talk of Igbo domination will be quickly replaced by Ijebu domination for instance, North/Yoruba marginalisation of Igbos will be replaced by talk of domination by Anambra, etc. The objects of hatred will change but the pathology of hatred won't change. Afterall, ethnic identities as they currently exist are just a construct that developed as a way to channel this mistrust. Before the British colonized Nigeria, each of these ethnic groups were engaged in major intra-ethnic wars. It brings me to the question of why this pathology exists. To a large extent, Africans are a low trust people who inhabit low trust societies. There is a concise Wikipedia summary of these concepts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_trust_and_low_trust_societies. Living in a climate of perpetual distrust, people see plots everywhere - GBV is running for Governor as part of an Igbo plot, Buhari is pursuing an Islamist agenda. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a magic solution for breaking the cycle of mistrust. What I advocate is that people try and focus on national challenges and how we can overcome them without resorting to solutions that invariably entail blaming the various ethnicities. How do we solve the problems of poverty, insecurity, corruption, inflation, etc? In addressing these challenges, the answers won't lie in tribal bashing. Unfortunately, the likelihood that Nigerians will grow out of our tribal-focused hate-mongering thought processes is very slim but you have to keep trying. |
tensazangetsu20:This. The next few years will discredit anyone who takes the reins in Aso Rock. We only experience significant economic growth in this country when there is a commodities/oil price boom which is unlikely to materialise in the next few years. The sole source of hope is that no one can be as bad as Buhari. |
XY23:I will argue that they have no choice but to cut spending and raise taxes. When tax revenue matches debt expense, you have to implement fiscal austerity. One way round it is to borrow even more from the CBN which is what has been happening in the last few years. But this fuels inflation and distorts the debt/capital markets. I think the best solution is that a major IMF loan will have to be taken to inject forex, lower debt expense (at least in the short-term), and restore confidence in the economy and amongst investors. Whoever won the presidency, the next few years will be tougher for Nigerians as the present government has left a few ticking time-bombs for its successor. |
Nigerian politics is about tribe/personality/religion. All these profiles posted, but no one will tell you what policy programs the elected governors will bring to the table. How is he different from past governors/his opponents? |
grandstar:I wish it were true but I don't believe that 8% growth per year growth for the next 8 years is achievable. In Nigeria, periods of strong growth often coincided with periods of big increases in global commodity (mainly oil) prices - the 1970s with the Arab oil embargo, the 2000s with China's entry into the WTO and oil prices going from a low $9 p/b in 1999 to circa $100 by 2011/12, and the 1960s post-independence boom with the discovery of oil deposits. It highlights that much of Nigeria's growth thus far is simply riding the tail winds of commodity rallies. I think the last 8 years has seen Nigeria dig a big hole for itself which is severely underestimated. Presently, tax revenues barely covers debt expense so the first task will need to be ensuring fiscal stability. I don't believe you are going to see a big uplift in taxes. People extrapolating from the Lagos experience in the immediate period from 1999 are being naive. Nigeria as a whole saw a big increase in tax revenues and GDP from 1999 as the economy's size went from $50bn to a peak of circa $570bn in 2013/14 and the country's economic capital benefited immensely from that. There is no reason to assume this, or anything remotely close, will repeat itself. You are right that deregulation of petrol and exchange rates will reduce the fiscal burden and the latter should boost non-oil exports (all things being equal). The reality also is that in the short run, it will cause a lot of adjustment pain by fueling even higher inflation which the CBN will need to counter by hiking up interest rates. So this monetary offset, if combined with more fiscal prudence (lower government spending and higher tax intake), will counter the growth boosting effects from deregulation. I can't see where you get your 8% growth from. My proposal will be to do the exchange rate deregulation first. Negotiate a huge IMF loan/debt rescheduling agreement with creditors to boost forex inflow, investor confidence and fiscal sustainability. We can phase out petrol subsidy by year 2 or 3. We then need to run a big privatisation effort with the ports, NNPC etc (the IMF will insist on this anyway). Again, this can boost forex inflow and investor confidence. The total net effects of the above won't boost growth immediately but it will begin to unravel some of the policy errors we have been making over the years. PS: One thing that scares me about Tinubu is that his one big idea for the economy is that we should print more money so we can spend more. That is utterly insane and there is not much else I can add on that. |
malware:No, but I have never expressed optimism that Obi, who was a PDP politician until they refused to give him a ticket, would make much of a positive difference in Nigeria. If he had won, my reaction would be same as it was on this forum when GEJ was elected in 2011 to the cries of "fresh air" and Buhari a.k.a "Mr Integrity" in 2015: you are bound to be disappointed. I am sure Lagos state government (who we are told is richer than almost all other states combined) did not, and still do not, provide basic amenities to most residents when Tinubu's tenure as governor ended in 2007. So what is all the optimism based on? How is Tinubu's government going to be different from the incompetent and corrupt leadership we experienced in the last 63 years? |
malware:My pessimism about Nigeria has been justified by reality. Blind optimism won't rescue Nigerians from the deprivation and insecurity 63 years of bad leadership has achieved. It won't put food on people's tables, clean pipe-borne water in people's homes, or give Nigerians access to good quality healthcare. It's people like you with your wishful thinking who need help. Like a mad man, you think doing the same thing all the time will lead to a different result. |
malware:Many people who are celebrating today also celebrated when Buhari won in 2015, claiming that life will improve significantly for Nigerians. Political fortunes/outcomes are contingent on the populace, but economic principles/logic don't care about your tribe/religion. If your government isn't good enough, Nigeria will continue being the world's poverty capital irrespective of the population's wishful thinking. |
People celebrating this development probably don't know Nigeria used to assemble the Air Beetle aircrafts in the 1990s. This was also celebrated at the time as a major development in acquiring manufacturing know-how. The Nigeria Air Force announced it will put its Air Beetle training aircraft into service again, which have been out of use for over a decade. The Air Beetle is a Van RV-6A; the only kit built aircraft that is used as a military training aircraft. Searching for a suitable trainer that could be assembled in Nigeria using local labour, the Federal Government settled on the RV-6A. Van’s produced 60 kits to fulfill the order and these were assembled in Nigeria, test flown and entered service with the Nigerian Air Force in 1989 as elementary training aircraft under the name Air Beetle. The air training school is based at Kaduna and the aircraft are assembled and maintained by Dornier Aviation Nigeria (DANA).https://nigerianaviation./2010/04/09/naf-to-resurrect-the-air-beetle/ |
So supposedly educated people are arguing that refraining from running up budget deficits/government debt is bad governance? I don't know if these are bad faith arguments driven by tribalism or are sincerely held. Nevertheless, I do remember the general opposition/disinterest in maintaining the excess crude account when OBJ and GEJ were presidents which suggests that there is a large cohort of Nigerians who believe that fiscal discipline is bad policy and government should always "share the money". Some of the more plausible arguments for less fiscal discipline tend to harp on the need for infrastructure investment. But fiscal policy should allow for sustainable long-run investment in infrastructure. Investment can only be sustained if debt stock/servicing is kept at prudent levels. There is a line of thinking that Nigeria needs significant infrastructure investment so spending towards this, no matter the costs, is rational. That's not the case at all as our experience from the infrastructure spending of the 1970s ought to have made apparent. We emerged from the 1970s spending with a heavy debt load that took us 2 decades to work off. In that time, we experienced a significant collapse in living standards, the IMF's SAP programme, currency collapse from parity with the dollar to 85 naira to $1 etc. |
A self-appointed football coach who was found guilty of abusing his position by sexually assaulting seven teenage boys has been sentenced to 15 years in jail.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11204897/Self-appointed-youth-football-coach-abused-seven-teenage-boys-jailed-15-years.html A football coach has been jailed after sexually assaulting seven teenage boys.https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/emmanuel-igwebuike-sex-attack-football-lambeth-putney-london-crime-b1025069.html |
French superstar Paul Pogba has been accused of asking a witch doctor to cast a spell on PSG's Kylian Mbappe.https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/news-paul-pogba-accused-asking-witch-doctor-cast-spell-psg-superstar-kylian-mbappe-jaw-dropping-details-alleged-blackmail-emerge-reports?key4=skfootballfb France Info have provided new revelations from police sources this Sunday night in the extraordinary developing story involving France World Cup winner and Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba, who has notably informed police investigators that his brother, Mathias, has been part of a concerted effort to blackmail him for €13m.https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2022/paul-pogba-tells-investigators-that-his-brother-is-part-of-a-e13m-blackmail-attempt/ Daily Post Nigeriahttps://dailypost.ng/2022/08/28/i-didnt-ask-witch-doctor-to-charm-mbappe-my-brother-is-involved-pogba-speaks-on-blackmail/ |
Looks like photoshop. Is he smoking on the plane, unless it's a private plane it's unlikely you can light a cigarette whilst flying. |
Their main hope is that Buhari will use federal power to fix the results in favour of APC candidates but Buhari has nothing to gain from such actions. |
If IPOB had beaten Ike Ekweremadu to an inch of his life, he might not be in trouble today as he would be too scared to travel abroad. |
A man and a woman have been charged with conspiring to arrange to bring a child to the UK to harvest organs, the Metropolitan Police said.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10945317/amp/Man-woman-Nigeria-charged-conspiring-harvest-organs-child.html
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topboss:Is watching child porn supposed to be a mark of being black? |
Cptflint: Russia’s flagship cruiser Moskva has sunk in “stormy seas” while being towed to a port in the Black Sea, the Russian defence ministry has announced.https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/14/russia-moskva-cruiser-sunk-stormy-seas-defense-ministry |
Russia’s flagship cruiser Moskva has sunk in “stormy seas” while being towed to a port in the Black Sea, the Russian defence ministry has announced.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/14/russia-moskva-cruiser-sunk-stormy-seas-defense-ministry |
seunny4lif:That's fine, but you can't be claiming that you have taken a city and destroyed the people defending it when there are large numbers of armed units still fighting against you. This is like Buhari "technically" defeating Boko Haram. An untrue claim cast doubts on subsequent claims. |
DoctorOlasDesk:The state has no chance of economic growth if armed gangs are running around imposing economic blockade every Monday. ESN was supposed to combat Fulani herdsmen. Shutting down Onitsha market for example every Monday does nothing to tackle herdsmen. If anything, you need Igbos to prosper to have the resources to defend themselves. |
babyfaceafrica:The problem is that "Mariupol has fallen" has been a recurring claim for weeks now only to announce in the last few days surrender by significant numbers of uniformed armed Ukrainians in the last few days. If Mariupol fell weeks ago, where were these Ukrainians all this while? I have no doubt that the Russians will fully take over Mariupol but their account of events is very suspect given their inconsistencies. |
AchalugoNwa:Buhari is a symptom of the way Nigerians reason and behave, not the cause of it. |
Karlovych:Here you go: Pope John Paul II has expressed renewed opposition to the possibility of war in Iraq, saying the use of military force had to be the "very last option".http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2654109.stm This is very simple, just because the US does wrong things doesn't mean everyone should do wrong things. Russia's invasion of Ukraine isn't justified because US invaded Iraq. |
OakPearl:Nielsen Holdings rose sharply because it is being sold. The stock will eventually stop trading: March 29 (Reuters) - Nielsen Holdings (NLSN.N) on Tuesday agreed to go private for $10.06 billion in a sweetened deal with private equity firms led by Elliott Management and Brookfield Asset Management , days after the TV rating firm rejected a bid from the group. |
gambia:Separation doesn't solve our problems and substitutes a set of problems for another. The main problem is that Nigerians, like in many sub-Saharan African countries, have no recent history of demonstrating the capacity to develop a modern state. There is no shared institutional memory and habits we can draw from. Even if you assume that the process of separation will be efficiently executed (highly unlikely), the resulting states will still be bedeviled by underdevelopment and strife. |
"Brave warrior" based in Finland. Sometimes it's the Nigerians abroad or with capacity to move abroad that do the most to pour petrol on an ongoing inferno. |
Very cruel and counterproductive for Ukrainians. It will discourage Russians from surrendering if they hear this is happening. |
Is getting it right voting for someone like Buhari twice and enduring the continued impoverishment and insecurity which has marked the country's existence since 1960? It's funny how in Nigeria, astute political decision making is seen as the ability to get "our son" into power when 62 years after independence, the country's residents lack basic amenities that European countries achieved in the 19th century: regular electricity, pipe-borne water, universal education and healthcare. Nigeria has a long way to go. |
But when America invaded other countries they were all mute