₦airaland Forum

The first question is? is the office of the first lady recognised in the constitution?, NO!!!!!!!!!!!
Why is this woman squandering our money and nobody is going to court? 32 aides to do what? did God create black man to be this crazy and wicked?
For crying out loud, her husband just unilaterally increased the pump price by 117% claiming we can no longer sustain the subsidy,yet he can sustain this profligacy.
How selfish and insensitive can this president be? His wife has all the comfort in Aso rock! what the heck is she going to do at Addis Ababa?
Fellow Nigerians, think!!!!!!!! these guys are not prepared to change their ways, they need to be kicked out.

i2j:
I've had similar experience in Nigeria some years ago during a visit. The problem is that there are not so many people who can be setting such good example. javascript:void(0);

The count of 1,000,000 starts with 1,2,3,4,5, set the good example, someone will follow suit, that person will set it somewhere else and another person will do the same. It's a chain reaction, that was exactly the same way almost all Nigerians got corrupted, we learnt it from each other.

The British colonial masters for the stupid amalgamation of the southern and Northern protectorate and for handing over to the least educated and least intelligent individual of the options we had.

May his soul rest in peace.
Lesson for all the so called nollywood stars, get regular medical check up.
Regulate the way you consume isi-ewu, pepper soup and liquor at joints, too much of them are not good for your health.
Being fat or protruding tummy are not evidence of good living!

Chei! God don get spokesperson. Person don dey send e-mail on behalf of God.
This is probably from one of the man-of-his-pocket fearing that NL posts and comments are enlightening more and more church donors, therby affecting church business.
BTW, how did he know that God's wrath has befallen NL commentators?

Which of the bible versions state specifically that you should pay 10% as tithe to your pastor?
So Bishop 'gbajeleti' Oyedepo, Chris 'abracadabra' Oyakhilome, T 'jibiti' Joshua and even pastor Adeboye are all donating the tithe to charity?
One only wonders where the money to pay for the private jets and expensive lifestyles come from?
Some people will be buried with their 'mumu', they even idolize these men of 'themselves' so much that they even fail to worship God any longer.

I am finally convinced that GEJ is really not in charge, he is clearly acting out some script! With the heaps of allegation against this Abubakar guy, the president still went ahead to appoint him as acting IG? Give me a break mr president, there should still be some smart guy in that police force, albeit lower ranking, even though the system must have done some damage to them. Are we up here for some quota system or merit in making appointments? These Abubakar is only a diploma holder, he is as good as an illiterate, can this kind of IG rise up to the technological sophistication required to combat terrorism? Meeeen! we keep falling into deeper pit!, i don tire to type sef, whatever!

Seriously guys, someone should help this guy seek justice. I suggest you post your story on Sahara Reporters, someone will see it and take it up. On my last visit to Naija, i was so scared whenever i see a police checkpoint ahead.

Mr president gave the Inspector General of police 24 hrs to produce the Boko Haram fugitive since last week, the 24 hrs has not lapsed by our dumb president's wrist watch?

Ignoramuses leaving dumb and silly comments. You all failed to stand up to issues that affect you when it mattered most. You're all shamelessly displaying your ignorance on the religions you are stupidly advocating for OR criticizing while less than 0.1% of the population are feeding fat on your common wealth. Most of you are just dogmatic in your beliefs.
Inspite of the record breaking number of churches and mosques in our God forsaken country, we are still one of the most corrupt nations of the world, we've utmost disregard for human life.
If you disrespct yourself this much online, one wonders what you'll do to yourself if you see each other live, and yet you are brandishing your religion as the best, WHAT ARE YOU LEARNING FROM YOUR CHURCHES AND MOSQUES? How are you guys any different from BH thugs? The fact that you are ignorant of other people's religion does not make it unacceptable, do not judge others.
What baffles me is, all of our corrupt leaders are either christians or muslims, has the teachings of these religions reflected in their actions?
GEJ goes to church every Sunday, Sambo's prays 5 times daily, at least his forehead is marked from touching the floor while praying, he attends Hajj every year, aren't all these the height of hypocricy?
You all should continue the 'internet tiger' and 'comment lion" and wait for how much it will help Nigeria in her present predicaments. Mschew!!!

Ignoramuses leaving dumb and silly comments. Y'all failed to stand up to issues that affects you when it mattered most. Y'all are openly displaying your ignorance on the religions you are stupidly fighting for/criticizing while less than 1% of the population are feeding fat on our common wealth. With the record breaking number of churches and mosques in our God forsaken country, we are still one of the most corrupt nations of the world, we've got an absolute disregard for human life e.t.c. The amazing thing is, all of our corrupt leaders are either christians or muslims. I saw the picture of GEJ kneeling infront of Pastor Adeboye for annointing the other time and i laughed. Continue the 'internet tiger' and wait for how much it will help your plight. Mschew!!!

All the Prelate is trying to say is, don't lead any kind of protest that will prevent the ignoramus church members from coming to church to pay 10% tithe that he lives on. Also, the church members may be more educated to figure out that they are been enslaved and maybe challenge the church's "monkey dey work, baboon dey chop" set-up. Imagine the Prelate talking about mediation between Govt. and the people, we all know what Oritsajefor and the rest goes to do at aso rock, collect their portion of the national cake and rubber stamp anything the Govt. does. Aside from corruption, religion as practised in Nigerian is our second biggest problem; pastors owning mansions, fleet of cars, multiple private jets while members wallow in abject poverty.

Boko Haram, do your thing here. These are the real enemies!

As i see the list presented by all, i just wish and pray that somehow they get arrested, we retrieve our stolen money from them and then pack them all in a sealed container and throw them in lake chad, half of Nigeria's problem is then solved.

Me i no come understand this Naija any longer, dem go reveal people crime openly and no authority go get liver go arrest them.
I think we may need to start making citizens arrest henceforth. I have always known that OBJ is the biggest thief of all. We shall definitely recover the loot from him too one day just like he did to his fellow looting Abacha family.

yampoo:
Diezani K. Agama was born on December 6, 1960 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. Her father was Chief Frederick Abiye Agama. She studied architecture in England and then at Howard University in the United States.[1] She graduated from Howard with a Bachelor's on 8 December 1992.[2] She returned to Nigeria and joined Shell Petroleum Development Corporation that year. In 2002, she attended Cambridge University for her MBA.[1] In April 2006, Shell appointed her its first female Executive Director in Nigeria.

Since 1999 she has been married to Admiral Allison Madueke (retired), one-time Chief of Naval Staff who was at various times governor of Imo and Anambra State.

In September 2011 Alison-Madueke was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Management Sciences by the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.

Alison-Madueke is the first woman to hold the position of Minister of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria, and in October 2010 she became the first woman to head a country delegation at the annual OPEC conference. She was also the first female Minister of Transportation, and the first woman to be appointed to the board of Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria.

On working in male-dominated sectors, Alison-Madueke said she warned the young women she mentored while at Shell to "change their mode of thinking.

In June 2008 Alison-Madueke was subject to a Senate probe after it emerged that as Transport Minister she had paid 30.9 billion naira ($263 million) to contractors between December 26 and 31, 2007. However, she has never been charged or tried for these allegations and has strongly denied any wrongdoing.

In September 2008 there was an unsuccessful attempt to kidnap Alison-Madueke at her house in Abuja.
In October 2009, the Senate of Nigeria indicted Diezani Alison-Madueke and recommended prosecution for the alleged transfer of 1.2 billion naira into the private account of a toll company without due process and in breach of concession agreement. However, the allegations have never been taken to law, and the Minister maintains her innocence.

A May 2010 report in Huhuonline.com noted that Diezani Alison-Madueke was both the Minister of Petroleum Resources and head of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. It claimed that she was using these positions to prevent a court-ordered lien being placed on an oil field operated by a company chaired by her husband, Retired Rear Admiral Allison-Madueke.

Mo gbe! check out this woman's antecedents and yet she was appointed as minister by the president and yet the same senate that previously probed her went ahead to approved her. Rotten Nigeria!

In as much as i agree that the minister is culpable. The EFCC should invite OBJ for questioning too! OBJ doubled as the Petroleum Minister for the 8 years he ruled. Only God knows the insane amount of money OBJ must have made from this fraudulent transactions. That scumbag need be brought to justice too!
Step down or resign no dey for Nigerians' political diary, they are shameless!

Like the rain-laden monsoon wind, the ongoing protests in Nigeria over removal of the so-called fuel subsidy certainly forebode an uncertain future, particularly for many in our unscrupulous political class. Anyone from this class who may still be thinking that the current scam democracy we are running will survive for long is in grand delusion.

Such a honorable may as well believe that the emerging modern history of Syria will end in Assad's favor. History usually doesn't write itself in favor of despots or insanely corrupt politicians. A country with annual economic growth of 7% but correspondingly poorer citizens like ours, cannot be expected to survive for long.

The spontaneity of the Occupy Nigeria revolts is a sign that the current Nigeria merely exists in a bubble.

Until it busts, the bubble will only be bobbing about precariously. Unless something gives.

That thing is the inevitable change that Nigeria beckons with its brand of irresponsible governance, year after year.

Nigeria would most likely hatch into modernity via any or a combination of the following three paths.

1. Occupy Nigeria Protests
Given the instantaneous eruption of the social insurrection, one would have expected that Nigerians would expend their pent up anger in streets of inferno razing down homes and properties of known corrupt leaders. Despite involving thousands of revolting citizens however, the protests have been
surprisingly peaceful though, as expected, police have killed and maimed dozens of protesters and would most likely kill more before the cock crows on a new day over Nigeria.

As is the standard response of the Nigerian government to social discontent, government has begun militarizing the cities by spitting out more kill-and-go soldiers to the streets than are protesters.

But it is not about some phantom subsidy stupid, it is about reckless looting of the Nigerian state.

It will not work, for monkeys to be doing the plowing and a few crazy baboons to be pillaging the harvests.

By these Occupy Nigeria protests, all in the decadent political class are on notice. The days of expensive democracy that brings no development to the people are treacherously numbered.

Government may deploy all means of repressions in its arsenal to intimidate, quell or kill its citizens out of the many freedom squares in the country till Babangida comes back to power, as long as kleptomaniac democracy rules, citizen anger will reign in the open. Repression will only be as effective as a bandage over an open wound. Anytime a typical mindless government expenditure or policy breaks, peoples' fury will flare. When 30% of national revenue is shared in an official con game that plays export/import abracadabra with our crude oil and up to 50% revenue is spent on recurrent expenditure, no one should expect any meaningful development for either the country or its citizens. Nor should anyone expect that Nigeria will remain a safe haven for looters and wreckers of our collective heritage.

Nigeria, welcome to your future. The child who forbids sleep for his mother will himself not sleep with both eyes shut.

The government of Nigeria has murdered sleep of its citizens and everyone is fully awake now.

Regardless of how the current batch of protests ends, the Occupy Nigeria uprising has begun a new era in the history of Nigeria.

It will continue in some fashion for a very long time to come.

Like eating the elephant, this new era of alternative followership will dismantle the existing culture of rot in our society, bit by bit.

2. Violent Revolution
Those who make peaceful change impossible, will make violent change inevitable.

It's either Occupy Nigeria breaks the egg and the chick hatches or a fire breathing dragon breaks the coconut and the water spills.

Going by how dirt poor majority of Nigeria's 160 million population are, Nigeria is not a rich country.

It cannot afford the kind of democratic system on which it is being forced to run.

The country cannot afford a yearly presidency office budget of about N7.2 billion for overhead (or N20 million per day), N724 million for local travels (or N2 million per day, including weekends), N951 million for international travel (or N3 million per day), N1 billion for food (or N2.5 million per day).

This gargantuan waste of public funds may be possible in other countries, it is not and cannot be sustainable in poor Nigeria.

Nigeria is making revenues in millions of US dollars every day.

But senseless waste is the real reason Nigeria is broke, not because of some fuel subsidy.

It is the reason money is not available for development of the people and the nation.


It is the reason millions of Nigerians are forsakenly ignorant and mercilessly poor, toiling endlessly daily under the colossal feet of selfish and uncaring successive leaderships.

Over time, violent rebellion will be unavoidable. There are already two potential war fronts to ignite this - Delta militia and Boko Haram. Never mind the absurd western-book-is-bad nonsense philosophy of the latter, lack of development for the peoples of Nigeria is the root cause of newly
emerging warring groups.

While most in the political class of the country are busy bleeding the country to the bones, new bellicose groupings will be forming in the back streets of forgotten country sides. As vagabond politicians take their loot out of Nigeria to buy cynosure properties in the main streets of Dubai,
London and America, newly formed local insurgents will take their discontent into the abandoned alleys of our inner cities. In the end, there would be more belligerent citizen groups than our crude and under-developed military will be able to fight. And the bubble will bust.

All bets will be off and there will be no predicting which former honorable will be able to keep their ill-gotten wealth or fame.

3. Revolution by Patriotic Leaders
If we could find just one president who could die for Nigeria, perhaps getting the nation out of the woods might be rapid and less traumatic, and millions may live.

I have always viewed the depth of our rot so low as to require a war similar to the one Colombia waged to extricate itself from the grips of local cocaine power blocs back in the 80s. During that period, Colombia lost a series of newly elected political leaders (presidents, judges, governors, etc) who came in determined to retrieve the stranglehold of the drug cabals on their nation state. Italy did something similar losing a series of high judges who dared preside over the trials of fearful mafia clans.

Just a few good men/women. They confronted their national demons, saved their countries and emancipated their people.

This is exactly what Nigeria needs at this time.

Government system in Nigeria is currently looking every bit like an organized crime syndicate.

The things that ail Nigeria are past empty and dopey speeches or promises by leadership in our highest offices who are simply members of the Costa Nostra elite gang. Impunity is the order of the day.

Any honorable can commit any crime against the state and get away with it.

Politicians or public servants who loot blatantly hardly ever get dispossessed, jailed or even lose their national merit award.

Killers among them sometimes even stand for and win elections from behind bars.

The system has the most odious judiciary in cahoots; nobody is looking after the polity.

The citizens are utterly abandoned to grope through their lives without electricity, jobs, housing, water, medicine or food.

We have many in the leadership crop of the country who are plainly enemies of the Nigerian state. They started from nothing but dubiously ended up with our common-law properties and funds in their possession. Arrogantly, these exist above the law of the land and are mightily untouchable. They have infinite resources and would do anything and everything to prevent Nigeria from benefitting the largest number of Nigerians.

We need a few good leaders who would fight all opportunist cabals and
recover Nigeria for the larger good. Any candidate seeking election into our highest office at this point in our 51-year history ought to know that he could die on the job if he wanted to do the right things for the citizens who elect him/her.

We don't have the time anymore for presidents, VPs, governors, senate presidents, house speakers, LG chairpersons and collaborating high civil servants who would yell at us in speeches, bare their teeth in policies and in the end simply pat our problems on the head and leave us worse off than they met us.

We need a president who could hit the ground running, knowing exactly what to do.

We don't need a president who wants to solve all of our problems in four years, that would be both dumb and unrealistic.

Our number one priority is corruption. It is the most debilitating of all our national woes.

We need a president who could wage a relentless and intolerant war against corruption.

Chase bastard Nigerians and their collaborators who are stealing and carting away our collective resources anywhere they may be found, on land and on the sea. Repatriate back our properties and subject them to the full extent of the law that is administered by a new reorganized judiciary. We need legislatures who will remember and look after downtrodden citizens who queue up as early as 5:30AM after Fajr prayers to vote at polling stations that don't open until 10AM, sometimes at noon, maybe even 4PM. We need leaders who would defend with their last breath, the territorial integrity of Nigeria and not compromise the security of our suzerainty over sleazy Chinese business dealings or wicked policies that pander obsequiously to the whims of international financial organizations. We need a leader(s) from any one or all tiers of our government structure who would champion a truly remarkable change in our lives and be ready to die in the process, if need be.

This is what we need at this time. Anyone seeking political powers over us should know and beware that leadership positions in Nigeria are now high risk positions. We don't need EFCC smokescreens, detestable attorney generals or incompetent alien national security chiefs. We need a leader or
leaders who are fearless of cabals, fearful of God and tenderhearted to the plight of Nigerians and their right to our common inheritance.

Moving forward, anyone who seeks the highest offices in our local governments, states, judiciary, legislative and executive arms of government, must seriously ask themselves if they are ready to die on the job.

If you cannot answer in the affirmative, then you are not fit for the job. Move on with your life, leave us alone.
http://saharareporters.com/article/wanted-patriotic-leaders-nigerian-revolution-qansy-salako

Beer parlor gossip, if na true, trust sahara reporter to don flash am. I hope it's true sha.

Can you ethnic bigots on NL now see that being bad has nothing to do with where polilooters come from. These pictures immediately remind me of the children of Abacha, IBB, Abdul-Salami, Saraki, OBJ, e.t.c  they all do these things. To those of you that believes there is nothing wrong with how he is wasting money, that can only be true if her mother isn't illegally acquiring wealth by virtue of her position as the petroleum minister. What an embarassment.

Chei!,, chineke, these people don kill us oooo! OMG, all of these crooks should be in jail, they have given enough evidence to be indicted. In an ideal country, this incompetent minister would have been relieved of her post and the Attorney general of the federation would have sued all involved crooks to the court of law. BUT the president that is suppossed to sack the minister stinks with corruption, the AGF is corruption personified, the House of Rep. holding the session themselves be "jagudas". Even if EFCC arrest them, they'll be let go since the damned EFCC is not independent. Which way Nigerians? The occupy Nigeria protest should immediately be refocused on corruption.

Did i hear any SErner complain? enjoy the new price? afterall it is wrong to be part of a rally to protest a Govt. policy that is meant to benefit the masses, enjoy the benefit of the subsidy removal.
Una neva saka! una go still put sand for water wak am instead of garri.

First of all,  i'm yoruba and I have nothing but admiration for SLS, just like i have for Emeka Anyaoku, Chinue Achebe e.t.c. What makes some of you guys assume that every Hausa man is somehow dumb and stupid? You call them stupid, yet the British handed over power to them, they have sinced ruled Nigeria for over 30 yrs (either by crook or by means), i know your first line of defense is, it was through coup d'etat, aren't there southerners in the military? They are not bold enough or too afraid to die.
I agree that illiteracy rate is higher in the North but any educated Hausa individual is equally as intelligent as any Nigerian.
Stop this ethnic bigotry nonsense, it's stupid! You are entitled to agree or disagree with SLS, he has made his point, and by far one of the few public official that says the truth most times.

Guys, i can assure you that effort is on the way to figure out who this retrograde "beaf" is, and he/she will be exposed, real name, address, fb acct., twitter acct., place of work (if he has another one aside from b.i.t.ch.i.n.g here on NL for GEJ Govt.), vehicle plate number e.t.c

I have maintained that what we should have protested for is for that damn constitution of ours be re-written to forestall profligacies like this.

What a shame GEJ, so, people are forcefully prevented from expressing their fundamental human right? So military on the street is your best option? Nigeria is about to collapse. And to you paid defenders of GEJ/PDP administration, shame on you.

Hopeless country, terrible people!!!!!!
God, i can't blame you, but why did i have to be born into a cursed country like this?

Jonathan, , you no well. 65 naira or nothing.

Arithmetic of Fuel Subsidy (by Wale Majaro)

The Nigerian government claims that Nigerians consume 34million L of petrol per day. Most experts disagree and give a figure between 20ML and 25ML per day. For this write up, I will use the government figure. The government has also said that N141/L is the unsubsidized pump price of petrol imported into Nigeria, with N131.7 the landing price and N9.3 as profit.

Now, the government has made claims of the refineries working between 30% and 60%, depending on whom you listen to. For the sake of argument, I will assume that our refineries don’t work at all (i.e. 0% Production). Thus, my calculation is based on 100% of petrol used in Nigeria being imported, the worst case scenario. If the refineries actually work at 60% as the government claims, they should be processing 270,000 bbl/day of crude. Each barrel of crude produces 75L of petrol. So, if the government is to be believed, the refineries produce 19.5 million L of petrol a day and we should therefore only import 14.5million L a day. My analysis will ignore this completely.

So here is the arithmetic, using the government’s own figures:

Daily fuel consumption/importation: 34million L
Cost at pump: N141
No of days in a year: 365
Total cost of all petrol imported into Nigeria = 34Mx141x365 = N1.75 trillion

Now, Nigerians have been paying N 65/L for fuel, haven’t we? Therefore, cost borne by the consumers = 34Mx65x365 = N807 billion

Cost of the subsidy borne by the government is:

Subsidy = Total cost of import – cost borne by consumers
= N1.75 trillion – N807 billion
= N943 billion

So, even if we believe the claim that we consume 34million L/day and we assume that the refineries don’t work, the government should still not have spent up to N 1 trillion on the subsidy in 2011. How did they manage to spend N1.3 trillion by October? Since N1.3 trillion was spent by October, then the bill for the full year 2011 (assuming a constant rate of consumption) is: N1.56 trillion!

What accounts for the difference between N943 billion and N1.56 trillion? This is a difference of N617 billion that the government cannot explain. Did I hear a government official claim that the difference is what goes to subsidize our neighbours through smuggling? Time for more arithmetic.

Using figures from Okonjo-Iweala’s World Bank, here are the populations of West African countries:

Nigeria: 158.4 million
Benin: 8.8 million
Togo: 6 million
Cameroun: 19.6 million
Niger: 15.5 million
Chad: 11.2 million
Ghana: 24.4 million
The total population of all our neighbours: 85.5 million

Now, let us assume that fully 50% of the petrol consumed in each of these countries is illegally exported from Nigeria. Let us also assume that each of these countries consumes petrol at the same rate the Nigerian government claims petrol is consumed in Nigeria. I have deliberately ignored the ff facts which show that petrol consumption in these countries will necessarily be considerably lower than consumption in Nigeria:


1.Some of these countries have stable electricity (eg Ghana) and thus do not depend on petrol-driven generators for power.
2.Ghana, Togo and Benin are much smaller than Nigeria, thus traveling distances will be smaller.
3.Niger and Chad are mostly desert and cross-desert transportation of goods/people is mostly by diesel-consuming trucks, not petrol-consuming cars.
4.Apart from Ghana, the car density in each of these countries is much, much lower than the car density in Nigeria. In Nigeria, there are 31 cars for every 1000 citizens. In Togo and Chad, you have less than 10 cars for 1000 people.
5.Ghana has started to produce oil and will very likely rely less and less on refined products smuggled from Nigeria, once the Ghanaian local refining capacity is built up.

Rate of petrol consumption in Nigeria = Total consumed/total population
= 34ML/158.8M people
= 0.21L/person/day

Rate of petrol consumption in neighbouring countries is assumed to be same as Nigeria = 0.21L/person/day

Petrol consumption by our neighbours = Rate of consumption x total population
= 0.21x85.5M
= 18.35ML per day

Now, we have assumed that 50% of the petrol consumed in each of these countries comes from Nigeria. This value comes to: 9.18 millionL per day.

Let’s pause here. Think about it again. Is it possible for 9.18 million L of petrol to be smuggled out of our borders and the government cannot do anything about it? The biggest fuel tankers in Nigeria have a capacity of about 36,000L. How many of these trucks do you need to smuggle 9.18 ML of fuel? 254! Our government is telling us that over 250 huge tankers pass through our borders everyday and they cannot do anything about it! Wow! Talk about incompetence! This in itself is an urgent security challenge – if you cannot stop 250 tanker trailers from crossing the borders daily, how can you stop importation of weapons or even an invasion by a foreign army?

But that is not all.

Let’s believe the government and assume that about 9.18ML is actually taken to our neighbours everyday and this is all subsidized by the Nigerian government.

How much will this translate to?

Difference between pump price before and after subsidy removal = N141-N65 = N76
Total spent on subsidizing petrol to our neighbours annually = N76 x 9.18ML x 365
= N255 billion

I have assumed that:


1.There are no working refineries in Nigeria.
2.Nigeria actually consumes 34ML of petrol per day.
3.Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cameroun, Niger, Chad all get 50% of their petrol illegally, from Nigeria.
4.Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cameroun, Niger, Chad all consume petrol at the same rate as Nigeria.

Yet, the government’s figures still don’t add up! There is N362 billion missing. This is the difference between N943 billion and N1.56 trillion, assuming N255 billion is wasted through subsidizing the rest of West Africa. The government should tell us what/who eats up this N362 billion ($2.26 billion).

These figures simply show the incompetence and insincerity of our government officials. The simplest part of the arithmetic is laid down below:


•NNPC crude oil allocation for local consumption: 400,000 barrels per day
•Assuming refineries work at 30%, 280,000 barrels can be sold on the international market. (Remember that I assumed that refineries don’t work in calculating our consumption, to give an absolute worst case scenario).
•Money accruing to FGN, through NNPC on the sale, using $80/bbl: $22.4m a day. Note that the true price is higher, as oil currently sells for $100/bbl and Nigerian crude sells at a premium to the benchmark Brent crude.
•Annually, this translates to: $8.176bn or N1.3trillion.

What does this mean? The government does not subsidize our petrol imports, at least not from the Federation Account. The same crude that should have been refined by NNPC is simply sold on the international market (since our refineries barely work) and the money is used to buy petrol. The 400,000 barrels/day given to NNPC for local consumption can either be refined by NNPC or sold to pay for imports. The “subsidy” should be funded with this money, not the regular FGN budget. If the government uses its regular budget for subsidizing petrol, then what happens to the crude given to NNPC for local refining, but gets sold on the international market?

Conclusion

Now that the petrol pump price has been hiked by over 100% and resulted in 100-200% increases in the price of transportation, personal electricity generation and foodstuff, what do I advise the government to do?


1.Revise the petrol price, not to N65, but to an amount which takes inflation into consideration. Cumulative inflation from 2008 to 2011 is about 27%. A new petrol price of N88 should be a reasonable sacrifice for Nigerians, while the government tries to build trust by sorting out the real issues of the midstream/downstream oil industry and cutting down the cost of governance.
2.Partner with the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the upstream oil sector to carry out the deregulation of the midstream/downstream oil sectors. Refineries are not very profitable compared to other areas in the oil industry; with profit margins ranging from 0-15% (this is why we don’t see companies queuing up to set up refineries). The government needs to give incentives to these companies to set up refineries in Nigeria, in the form of tax breaks, duty exemptions, crude price guarantees, etc. All agreements should be in place, with an enabling law, by September 2012.
3.The government has already shown and admitted that it cannot manage refineries. All new Greenfield refineries should use the NLNG model, where government owns enough equity to influence strategy in favour of the Nigerian people, but is not involved in the routine management of the company. This is the best way to get the best out of these refineries while protecting the national interest. The new refineries should come on stream by end of 2014.
4.Sell the existing refineries to the IOCs and stop spending taxpayers’ money trying to revamp them within the current structure. The IOCs have built and currently operate hundreds of refineries across the world, so refining is their bread and butter. ExxonMobil’s Torrance Refinery is over 80 years old, Total’s Port Arthur Refinery is about 100 years old – these companies know how to manage refineries.
5.The sale of the refineries should be carried out by September 2012. I know the refineries have been very poorly managed, so we should not expect to make tons of cash from selling them. The main advantages of the existing refineries to a buyer are the existing Brownfield facilities (roads, utilities, power), an existing pipeline distribution system and a skilled workforce. The IOCs should be mandated to revamp these new refineries to 70% nameplate production by January 2014 and 95% by January 2015.
6.Incorporate PPPRA into DPR by December 2012, with an appropriate legislation (I’m not sure whether this is already included in the PIB). Let us have one strong agency to monitor all activities, including product pricing in the downstream oil industry.
7.Balkanize PPMC and sell it off to private investors, again with the government retaining a non-controlling stake in the new entities. This should be done by September 2012, in parallel with the sale of refineries.
8.Increase the fuel price in Jan 2014, not by simply jacking up the prices, but by introducing a tax on imported products. The tax should be deducted at source when making “subsidy” payments to the importers. Jan 2014 is chosen because I expect the output from local refineries to improve to at least 70% within 1 year of operations by IOCs.
9.Introduce a law that any company that will be licensed to import petroleum products from July 2013 must either be currently running a refinery in Nigeria or be in the process of building a refinery in Nigeria (i.e. project has passed FID stage and execution contracts are signed). The total products each individual company can import must not be more than 20% of the company’s total refining capacity (existing + in construction) in Nigeria. This is the only way to break the importation “cabal”.
10.Immediately, start prosecuting all companies and individuals suspected of involvement in the royal mess that the fuel importation segment has become. Use the same vigour (or more) that was used in the 2009-2010 reform of the banking sector. Also, all companies and individuals suspected of involvement in the refinery TAM contract scams should be prosecuted.
11.Immediately, tighten the borders to minimize smuggling of petroleum products to neighbouring countries and sack/prosecute the relevant officials if smuggling remains a major issue. Our petrol will always be cheaper than that of our neighbours, especially if/when local refining reaches/surpasses local consumption. As every economist knows, products will always be cheaper in the source location than other places.
12.Set up petroleum product trading agreements for surplus products in Nigeria to be sold to neighbouring countries in a legal and transparent manner. All agreements should be in place by July 2013, well in advance of additional capacity coming on stream. These agreements will assure companies building refineries that there is an available regional market for them to legally sell products refined in Nigeria.

With all the above, “subsidy” will disappear by Dec 2014, but in a gradual process, ensuring no price shocks (such as the 100% increase of Jan 2012) re-occur and ensuring that the industry is actually sanitized. Of course, the government also needs to keep to its several promises of improving the power sector and revamping rail lines, two critical developments which will reduce our consumption of petroleum products significantly.

Good arguement Mr Governor, but how much of oil does your state produce or what does your state contribute to the revenue? if the answer is zero, then s.h.u.t.h.a.Zap.u.p! You are just shooting yourself on the foot.
I have maintained that all these 'local councils' called state just to steal money should be merged if they cannot sustain themselves. Let's go back to the six zones. The Federal Govt. should execute developmental projects directly at zone level, don't give the Governors the allocation any longer. Let them be aware of the zone's share of the allocation and be transparent with what the money is used for, then the Governors can audit the projects, shikena!

What baffles me is why they are just thinking of all these ideas when the fuel subsidy removal strike/protest started.
Something tells me they are just telling us what we want to hear, they'll never do anything.