₦airaland Forum

Go and ask Madrid why they sacked Capello after he won the Champ's league.

Gubernatorial Election ----------------- ~ 31,000,000 valid votes cast --- ~ 44 %

“The National Assembly elections, the presidential election, the gubernatorial and state assembly elections conducted in April showed that voters’ turnout hovered around 35 per cent. This ugly scenario has implications for popular participation and governance.”

Ibime:
Nobody spent $200bln in 4 years. Nigerias yearly budget is about $27bln.

IT is the height of insanity to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result; right? That’s true only if you’re not in Nigeria.

The nut and bolt of our story is that Ajaokuta’s original patriotic effort as a state-led project for national industrialisation was aborted,

Zabaleta said the match in Abuja, Nigeria, was a waste of time.

“We were shown up throughout the game,” Zabelata told the Argentine news agency Telam. “It was hot, the pitch was bad, the grass was long—an uneven surface. Don’t even mention the referee.”

Nigeria, a nation of over 150 million people, generated only 2,000 megawatts of electricity this week. Ethnic, religious and political crises have claimed thousands of lives and displaced countless more. Maternal mortality is among the highest in the world. Not a single university in the country appears among the top 5,000 universities in the world. Infrastructure, where it exists is broken and neglected.

Yet, this year, government will spend more to subsidize petrol (about USD 5 billion) than on roads, education, health and power combined. This prioritization is symptomatic of the political economy of today’s Nigeria.

At issue is whether Nigeria remains a “Clique Democracy” or a real, people-driven democracy; whether the current leadership, sworn in again on Sunday has the character, vision and will to defy vested political and business interests to govern decently and grow the economy. Without a major change in the way our country is governed there is reason to fear that what should be Africa’s leading economy, will instead be courting disaster.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s first 18 months at the helm did not bode well. The politics of division has pitted northerners against southerners and Christians against Muslims to the point that obtaining the cohesion and social harmony necessary for economic development will be very difficult.

In the last 4 years, the administration led first by Umaru Yar’Adua, then by Jonathan spent over $200 billion of oil and non-oil revenues, including over $23 billion the previous administration left behind in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) – designed to create savings from revenues above the budgeted price of oil. There is little to show for it. No single major infrastructure investment or policy initiative has been concluded. About a third of that amount was spent under Jonathan’s watch. As Acting President and then President, he ran down the ECA to less than $500 million from the over $6 billion he inherited – sharing out the nation’s savings account to State Governors and traditional rulers to win their support for his presidential bid.

Not content with spending our savings, Jonathan borrowed massively. Nigeria’s domestic and external debts also increased rapidly. According to the Debt Management Office, our domestic debt rose from N2, 051 billion (US $14 billion) in 2007 to N3, 228 billion ($21 billion) by 2010 in the three years Yar’Adua was in charge. Jonathan ramped up domestic borrowing within a year to N4, 869 billion (US $32 billion) – borrowing a massive $11 billion in less than 12 months. Our external debt also increased from $3.719 billion at the end of 2009 to $5.227 billion by March 2011. No one can point to a new power station, seaport, rail line or interstate road completed.

Worse still, oil revenues for the year will not cover the salaries and running cost of the Federal Government according to projections in the 2011 budget. This is in a country where around 30 million people have no jobs. There is little or no investment in physical and human capital, even with very high oil prices the administration has enjoyed. The consequence is militancy in the Niger Delta, extremist violence in the north. Nigeria is now more divided – along religious and ethnic lines – than at any time since the civil war in the 1960s. Internal security must necessarily be the priority.

However, the Yussuffiya problem gradually become a matter of serious concern to everybody in Borno state especially the ANPP government which the sect members promised not to forgive because of the brutal and unlawful killing of their leader. That the crisis is will come to end following the inauguration of a new government remains uncertain, justifying why many insist that the incoming government has to stand on its toes and handle the matter as follows:

Government should come out and make an open statement asking the sect members to come forward and dialogue with it with the view to ending the crisis. Government should pardon all Yusuffiya members who have left home during the crisis to come back and re-integrated with their immediate families without any harassment by security agents or ridiculing by members of the public.

Government should make a public statement on the killing of some prominent members of the sect, and sent letters of apology to their families and also make arrangement through legislation to pay compensation to the families of late Muhammed Yusuff, Baba Fugu Mohammed and Alhaji Buji Fai. It may also in the name peace take up the responsibility of the families of these people for at least the next ten years, their feeding, education etc. That all Yusuffiya members detained in prisons waiting to be prosecuted are set free in the name of peace and this should make the end of all arrest and detention issue.

Government should set up a committee to look into the issue of paying compensation to all those who were affected during the crisis both sect members, security personnel and members of the public. The committee should also look into the issue of reconstructing the destroyed mosque of the sect at Goni-Damagari in Jere Local Government Area. While government agrees to commit itself to peace, all members of the sect are expected to remain calm and ensure peace in the state.

Government should also allow the sect members to choose three persons as their Imams and deputy Imams and go about their preaching and activities peacefully without breeching peace, security and law and order. Sect members should submit to government; list of those to be compensated and the amount involved for approval by government and modalities for their compensation.

agabaI23:
with $14 trillion debt

agabaI23:
Bush inauguration in 2005 $150 million
Obama's  $170 million (N25 billion)

We like comparing ourselves to the US so lets compare this.

What you should be worried about is the utilization. Most of it will go to security I guess.
The population of US is 307 million, Nigeria is about half of that.

That amount is 1/5th of that of the US 3 years ago.
What is the problem with that?

LadyT:
Im confused. Can we not produce all cement locally? Do we have such a high demand we have to import it?

coogar:
it's shocking bebe won a league title before cesc fabregas.

medjai:
Of the 40 goals, 10 were penalties, 11 were scored in dead rubber matches, i.e, when Barca had already won the league. . . freaking overrated player