₦airaland Forum

honeric01: You mean Gaza belongs to Egypt and not Palestine before Israel stole it, then gave it to Palestine in 2005? i don't get it. before 1947, where was Israel and where was Palestine?

honeric01: Dude, it's best to be quiet if you know nothing about what's being discussed, how can you give what you don't own? Israel gave Gaza to Palestine? you mean someone can give you your own car?

Our current budget for defence has climbed slightly to just over 1% of GDP. With these statistics in mind, should we be spending more, or less? Does Nigeria exist among hostile neighbours or expecting an invasion to justify current or escalated levels of military spending? That is something that needs not only thoughtful reflection, but to be openly debated and some national consensus arrived at.

Let us now look more closely at the budget proposals for 2012. The Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces were allocated N326.354bn, consisting of N252.7bn as personnel cost, N39bn as overhead and N34.67bn for capital spending - i.e. for equipment, buildings and weaponry of all descriptions. The bureaucracy overseeing the whole defence establishment consisting of the Ministry populated mostly by politicians and civil servants, and the Defence Headquarters, where passed-over generals, admirals and air marshalls are warehoused, along with other officers and men will consume about N25.9bn of the budget, or about N342,000 to service each soldier, airman and rating in the Armed Forces. This is excessive and can be cut down, as little value addition is gained from this spending.

The Nigerian Army's 60,000 officers and men are distributed across five divisions and an elite brigade listed here in accordance with the order of battle in case of conflict (1) Presidential Guards Brigade, Abuja (2) 82nd Division, Enugu (3) 2nd Infantry Division, Ibadan (4) 3rd Armoured Division, Jos (5) 1st Mechanized Division, Kaduna and (6) Lagos Garrison now renamed 81st Division. The major equipment of the Army include battle tanks, reconnaissance vehicles, personnel carriers, Howitzers, field guns and rocket launchers, as well as anti-tank guns and surface to air missiles. A large percentage of these are aged and out of service, and need urgent updating and replacement. The total budget of the Army is N122.4bn, nearly a third of the total defence budget but only N5.77bn is for acquisition of equipment and weaponry, while N116.7bn is for recurrent needs. The average direct cost per head of our soldiers and men is some N1.61 million compared with between N7-10 million for the Air force and Navy (see below) indicating an urgent need to right-size the Army to free up resources for operational equipment, tools and training.

The "shocking" state of the Nigerian army has delayed plans for a military intervention in Mali, amid reports that it lacks the capability to fight on the frontline.

A senior source in Mali told the Guardian that a lack of training and discipline among Nigerian troops – who are being heavily relied on by regional bloc Ecowas to oust Islamists in control of northern Mali – is becoming increasingly apparent.

"The Nigerian army is in a shocking state," said the source, who has seen recent assessments of Ecowas's military capability. "In reality there is no way they are capable of forward operations in Mali – their role is more likely to be limited to manning checkpoints and loading trucks."

"The Nigerian forces lack training and kit, so they simply don't have the capability to carry out even basic military manoeuvres," the source added. "They have poor discipline and support. They are more likely to play a behind-the-scenes role in logistics and providing security."

The "shocking" state of the Nigerian army has delayed plans for a military intervention in Mali, amid reports that it lacks the capability to fight on the frontline.

A senior source in Mali told the Guardian that a lack of training and discipline among Nigerian troops – who are being heavily relied on by regional bloc Ecowas to oust Islamists in control of northern Mali – is becoming increasingly apparent.

"The Nigerian army is in a shocking state," said the source, who has seen recent assessments of Ecowas's military capability. "In reality there is no way they are capable of forward operations in Mali – their role is more likely to be limited to manning checkpoints and loading trucks."

"The Nigerian forces lack training and kit, so they simply don't have the capability to carry out even basic military manoeuvres," the source added. "They have poor discipline and support. They are more likely to play a behind-the-scenes role in logistics and providing security."

afam4eva: Who do we blame? Babangida?

Global Finance magazine is out with its annual report cards for the world's most influential central bankers.

The grades, which range from A to F, are based on banker's success in controlling inflation, fostering economic growth, and managing interest rates.

Other factors include the banker's ability to stand up to political pressure and influence government in a positive way.

In what's been an incredibly difficult economic environment, here are the central bankers who have had a steady hand on the wheel.

With kerosene selling at well above the official price, Ejiofor Alike questions the huge claims on kerosene subsidy by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation

In recent months, the Ministry of Finance and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) have put far-reaching measures in place to reduce the fraud and incidence on petrol subsidy to a sustainable level. However, these measures are yet to fully address the intended challenges as rising subsidy bills on petroleum products have continued to threaten government's capacity to execute capital projects for the benefit of the people.

This development prompted the Federal Ministry of Finance to institute a probe on the subsidy claims after the bills overshot the 2012 budget on subsidy. Though the PPPRA has reduced the number of participants in the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) scheme from over 100 to less than 39, the funds saved by the government from this measure is easily eroded by the subsidy incurred by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) alone.

A worrisome development is that a large chunk of NNPC's subsidy claims is on kerosene, which is not accessible in retail outlets at the subsidised price. Unlike petrol, which is sold at a uniform subsidised price of N97 per litre in most parts of the country, except in extraordinary circumstances, kerosene is not sold at the subsidised price of N50 per litre.

A recent committee headed by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank Plc, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, which verified arrears of 2011 subsidy claims observed in one of its report that for several years, the country had been incurring huge subsidy bills for kerosene, without any benefits to the citizens. The report further disclosed that two-thirds of the kerosene sold by NNPC between 2009 and 2011 was sold to depot owners and "middle men."

According to the report, these middle men sold the product to owners of retail outlets at inflated prices of between N115 and N125 per litre, leaving the consumers to pay higher prices above the N50 set by the government. Indeed, except on few occasions when NNPC mega filling stations have the product, no other filling station in this country sells kerosene at the subsidised price of N50 per litre. So, while NNPC is paid subsidy on kerosene it distributes to other marketers, the same product is sold at exorbitant prices in retail outlets.

Speaking recently at a forum organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, rightly stated that not all subsidy was fraudulently paid. "We really need to know the exact size of what was fraudulent and what was genuine. You cannot say that the entire amount was fraudulent because people had access to petrol at the subsidised price," she said. However, the same cannot be said of kerosene because while majority of Nigerians have access to petrol at subsidised price, the subsidy paid on kerosene did not reflect in the retail price of the commodity.

Removal of Kerosene Subsidy

Before he died, the late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua had removed the subsidy on kerosene through a letter signed by his then Principal Secretary, Mr. David Edevbie. The letter, which was addressed to the Minister of Petroleum Resources, had directed the minister to "eliminate existing subsidy on the consumption of kerosene, taking into account that subsidy payments by government on kerosene do not reach the intended beneficiaries."

But in a clear violation of the presidential directive, the NNPC was alleged to have shortly after the directive was issued, mounted pressure on the PPPRA and other relevant government agencies to be paid subsidy on kerosene. However, the various agencies, particularly the PPPRA was said to have resisted NNPC's moves until 2011, when the corporation paid itself over N310 billion as arrears of subsidy for kerosene imported between August 2009 to December 2011.

With this development, the NNPC, not only violated the presidential directive on the removal of subsidy on kerosene, it also ignored the PPPRA's authority as the regulator of the subsidy regime. The corporation neither sought for the vacation of the presidential order nor ensured that kerosene was sold at the subsidised price.

Abagworo: Each day, I learn something new about this man whom I grew up not to like. I am mad at him for toppling Buhari's Government and other things that followed till date but I cannot deny the fact that he is a genius[b][/b]. I'll like to know more about his regime and how such a wise man was unable to shape Nigeria well.

pelezico: Talk for yourself mate not Nigeria

Such evil would appear to be common in the UK (if you believe the news papers - i dont however....). what about the parents who killed their five children in a supposed arson attack - were they not white British or the Gran ma and boy friend who killed there gran child

People are becoming more depraved today

I thank God though that they were killed

Dis Guy: So the person using water, has a cleaner bottom; dirtier hands = 1-0
and the person using tissue has dirtier bum bum; cleaners hands= 0-1

the person using water will then use handwash to clean their hands = 1-0-1
the person using tissue will most likely walk off with no need to wash= 0-1-0

WATER No get Enemy jare!! purity

the day i tried this tissue business in college I was walking around like a Cowboy with bow leg!

Kobojunkie: But 14% is still horrible performance, no matter which way you try to cut it. The initial 56% number was way way way more manageable, at least when we assumed it was for the ENTIRE year, not realizing it was just her performance on a 4-month to 4-month plan she had going on.

The minister confirmed that while the recurrent budget had been fully implemented, the capital expenditure, which funds developmental projects, remained at about 14 per cent of the total capital.

Of the total N1.3 trillion capital budget, she said, N404 billion had been approved for release while N324 billion had actually been paid out (cash-backed). Of that figure, only N184 billion has been utilized by government ministries and departments.

The same figures had been credited to Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala in previous reports, but she told the lawmakers who mandated her appearance on Thursday, that the statistics available in the news media are largely misleading.

She said even when her office put out such figures in the form of press releases, “sections of the media still twisted them.”

She however reminded the senators the implementation schedule of the budget stood at just four months, having been signed into law in April. As such, she claimed, N404 billion of N1.3 trillion was fairly appropriate.