₦airaland Forum

At Last! Nigeria Bows To Indians Economic Miracle http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php/content/view/11681/55
Written by Taju Tijani
Saturday, 07 March 2009
At Last! Nigeria Bows To Indians Economic Miracle

BY Taju Tijani


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On my visit to Nigeria last year, I noticed the changing landscape of the Murtala Muhammed airport and Nigerian society at large. I was confronted by hundreds of casually dressed Asians, locally called Indians, sweating under the sweltering sun, mouth babbling away into their mobile phones. The scenario is like a typical East and Southern African airports.

In Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Uganda and Zimbabwe such gathering of Asians is normal. But in Nigeria, this is a nightmare scenario. It is an ominous sign which portends doom for every Nigerian. Why? I have always regarded Nigeria as a fortress and quite understandably, impenetrable by the Indian ‘miracle’. We are clever, arrogant, educated, intelligent and hardworking.

We will never, like most East African countries and even Britain, allow our country to be run by Asians. That prospect makes hell look too real. The Vaswani case shattered all that and also exposed my naivety and ignorance. We have to accept that the history of Indian settlement across many countries of the world has never been a good one. The explosions of globalisation and their relative advantage in population have made them the most nomadic race on earth.

Among other minority races, the Asians are the most populous people in the western diaspora. And unlike the other races, they loathe the black race with intense passion. They are the most fixated of all known immigrants in the western world. Once they escaped the poverty and death of Calcutta, Mumbai and Delhi they never return home.

Consider these examples: Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji Island, Mauritius, Seychelles, Guyana, South Africa and United Kingdom. In all these countries, the Indians have ingratiated themselves through bakshish, an Indian word for bribery and corruption in order to warm their ways into corridor of power and through guile, false decorum and patience win power and eventually dominate the indigenous population.

Indeed, Asians do not distinguish between politics and business. They go into business to do politics. And politics is always the ultimate aim of their sojourn abroad. It is a tried and tested orthodoxy in the countries listed above. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, an Asian commentator on race issue in the UK, confessed in her book, ‘No Place Like Home’ that it was the Asian open racism against Ugandan Africans which led to their ignominious expulsion by Idi Amin from Uganda.

Further, she said that their arrogance and open display of wealth caused deep resentment among the indigenous black population.

She also revealed that many Ugandan Asians were brought up to believe that black people were savages. Infact, her father refused to speak to her until his death because she played Juliet against a black Romeo in a school play in Uganda!

In Britain, there is a terrible racial prejudice against blacks among Asians. Many older Asians brought an anti-black attitude with them when they were expelled from Africa. The Asian antipathy to black people may be a residue of the evil Hindu caste system which still classifies dark skinned people as ‘untouchables’.

For Nigerians, the greatest danger to our nascent democracy may not come through the usual white man’s mischief but Asian mischief. Already, the Hinduja and Vaswani brothers who were once probed for financial crimes in India and Europe, have wide ranging business interests in Nigeria. They are buying into our petro-chemical, PHCN, NITEL, banks, stocks, steel and other blue chip industries with questionable money. The Asian battle to woo and own Nigeria becomes a reality farce with the Vaswanis controlling 30 per cent of our commodity market.

With a deadly combination of money and gift the Vaswani brothers have bought our former military thieves, businessmen and politicians from top to bottom and in return the nerve center of our economic life was delivered to these buccaneering foreigners! Then from The Compass newspaper of 21 November 2008 comes this:




“NIGERIA may soon benefit from a $12billion (N1.404trillion) investments from India. Already, some businessmen from the Asian country are presently negotiating with Federal authorities on the possibility of citing many projects in the country. The Indian Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Anil Trigunyat, who broke the news in Abuja yesterday during a press briefing on the India-Africa Business Partnership Summit scheduled to take place between January 19 and 20 in Asok Hotel, New Delhi listed areas of interest by his country to include refineries, power plants, solid minerals, fertilizer plants among others. According to him, about 20 different draft agreements on some of the projects were in various stages of negotiation between relevant agencies and the Indian companies. He said that already, two power plants are being planned for the Niger Delta area because of the availability of gas to produce a combined 1,200mw of electricity, refineries with a production capacity of 180, 000 barrels per day at $5billion; and another $5billion fertilizer production company.

In addition, Mr. Trigunyat disclosed that another Indian firm has just arrived in Nigeria to negotiate for the resuscitation and management of abandoned steel projects. He stated that the January summit being packaged in Nigeria by African Theatrical Project would enable members of the Nigerian business community to meet their Indian counterparts and discuss more areas of possible collaboration. Already, India has made a $100million bilateral line of credit available to Nigeria, which will afford businesses opportunity to import from the Asian country in addition to the $200 million issued to ECOWAS businesses. The Deputy High Commissioner also said that some of his country's banks are preparing to open their branches in Nigeria, while Nigerian banks also exploring the possibility of extending to his country. Currently, Indian companies are the second largest employer of labour in Nigeria outside the Federal Government, he said, adding that the summit, which was instituted in 1927 by the late Sir Mahatma Ghandi would further enhance trade and cultural relations between the two countries”.


The weepy part of the Indian story is this. After 48 years of independence from colonialism, Nigeria is today owned and controlled by few Indian businessmen whose reach, influence and power could grind our economy to a halt. A spineless, tottering black African superpower brought on its knees by idol-worshipping Indians. How many Nigerian goods and factory products find their way to India? Aside from our oil, the answer is zilch, zero, odo, nating!!! Take this.

In 30 years time, our grandchildren will be slaving away for Indians. And they are lawless, notorious slave drivers! One cannot pretend not to feel particularly alarmed when millions of Nigerians rely on Vaswani operation for daily survival. For instance, if you eat salt, spaghetti, fish, ride or see any of the following brands of cars: Volkswagen, Hyundai, Honda, etc you have been Vaswanised. This grim scenario reminded me of Idi Amin’s Uganda of 1970s. Although, initially they were indentured labourers through British settlement, Idi Amin’s vision to encourage economic liberalization for foreign investors led the Asians to his door in droves.

In Nigeria, like Uganda of old, the Asians are now on the rampage, pillaging, accumulating and controlling our rulers with money and sometimes women prostitutes of Indian origin. The profound lesson of I learned through the massive strangulation of Uganda’s economy forced me to send an open letter to President Yoweri Museveni in 1997 rubbishing his humiliating apology and entreaties to UK based Asians to return ‘home’ and help rebuild Uganda.

I reminded Museveni that the idea that Ugandan economy could only lift off through the injection of Asians’ presence, money and expertise was a monumental insult to the highly qualified Ugandans in the Diaspora. Museveni, like other buffoons scattered across black Africa, may have found my letter amusing and irrelevant. Let me plead on behalf of Nigerians in the Diaspora that our economic destiny should be saved and spared from the dangers of monopoly in foreign hands.

We need to shield Nigeria from being seized by Asians as happened in many other developing countries. More than ever, we need to defend our democracy from Asian economic assault through strict monitoring of their interest in our domestic economy, tight immigration regime, taxation accountability, denial of participation in local politics, denial of citizenship, lengthy jail terms for economic crime and corruption. Also, there should be a fast track deportation for any behaviour that seeks to subvert our collective economic destiny. Only last December, the notorious trio of Sunil, Haresh and Mahesh Vaswani were declared wanted by the EFCC for defrauding Nigeria of over N4bn. They fled immediately. Femi Babafemi, EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity tepid response was to say that “this time around we are ready for them”. Immediate subtext of his statement is that they had been defrauding and taking us all for a ride on countless occasions.

In East Africa, West Indies and the UK, the Asians have abused the spirit of laissez-faire and integration so much that they are now the monstrous Frankenstein that brings disaster to its creators.

Alaba must be shut down - Keke Ogungbe http://odili.net/news/source/2009/mar/6/400.html

By Our correspondent

CEO of Kennis music, Kenny 'Keke' Ogungbe has come out hard on the piracy epidemic plaguing record labels and music makers in the country.


File
Kenny Ogungbe



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The showbiz impresario, whose label, like many others, has been severely battered by the activities of the piracy mafia, says a lasting solution to the menace may not be found until the Alaba International Market, believed to be the haven of pirates, and the headquarters of the multi-billion naira piracy industry, is shut down.

Ogungbe voiced his recommendation on Wednesday March 4 while he was a guest on Today on STV. "If the current Minister of Information and Communication could shut down a whole market in Anambra (when she was the DG OF NAFDAC), because of fake drugs, then I see no reason why Alaba should not be shut," he said as the show came to an end.

He was responding to the presenter, Iretiola Doyle's question on the problems of piracy in the country.

Several entertainment industry executives have proffered different ways of getting out of the piracy quagmire, and the Copyright Commission continues to carry out regular raids on the market. But all the efforts have come to naught, as pirated CDs, DVDs and books continue to litter the streets; selling at cheap prices competing with original materials.

It is even more worrisome, according to industry professionals, that more of the pirates now double as legitimate marketers; and most times, labels who refuse to use their network have had their works massively pirated, to serve as a deterrent to others.

Meltdown depletes govts' monthly allocations http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/30379/41/
Written by Omoh Gabriel, Emma Ujah & Olasunkanmi Akoni
Friday, 06 March 2009












As FG, states, LGs share N446bn in Feb

LAGOS — As the global economic recession bites harder and the future of oil prices remain uncertain, the excess crude account has dried up as there was nothing in the account to share based on what the three tiers of government agreed on earlier.

Yesterday in Makurdi, Benue State, Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola, urged states to explore sources of revenue other than allocations from the central pool as a means of coping with the current financial meltdown, and advised the states to review their various policies in order to boost their internally generated revenue (IGR) to uplift the living standards of the people.

Also yesterday, Lagos joined its Ogun counterpart in announcing measures to cope with the crisis. At a briefing, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, his Budget & Planning colleague, Mr. Ben Akabueze and Special Adviser to the Governor on Taxation, Mr. Ade Ipaye, disclosed that Lagos State Government was suspending foreign trips by its officials and cutting off non-critical expenditure among other measures.

For the first time in several months, the meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee of February 2009 did not share any revenue from the Excess Crude Account. But the statutory allocation for the month fell short of expectation as the global oil price, a major source of revenue for the country dwindled below the budget mark thus leaving no accrual to the excess crude account.

Some states lost billions of naira compared with what they received in January 2009.
The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) shared a total N446 billion being the statutory and VAT allocations shared to all tiers of government at its February meeting. From the total disbursement of nets after deductions, the highest recipients are from the oil producing states with Rivers receiving N13bn; Akwa Ibom N9bn; Delta N7bn and Bayelsa N5bn. The highest recipients from non-oil producing states are Lagos N9bn and Kano N6bn.

The lowest recipients with less than N3 billion allocation each are Gombe, Nasarawa, Ebonyi and Ekiti States.
It will be recalled that last year, the CBN Governor Professor Chukwuma Soludo in Washington warned Nigerians saying that the amount saved from oil windfall in the country’s excess crude revenue account has been depleted and what is left will not tide the country over any financial downturn should oil price fall below the budget bench mark of $62 per barrel.

Financial challenges for Nigeria, by Soludo

Soludo had also said that the current financial and economic crisis portend some financial challenges for Nigeria as the prices of oil are on the downward trend.

According to him, much of the savings in the Excess crude account had been disbursed and what is left based on what the three tiers of government in the country agreed on will not be enough to make any significant impact on the budget if the prices of oil falls below the budget bench mark.

The CBN governor said the federation account committee agreed that N1trillion be set as the base for the savings and whatever is earned as excess revenue in any particular month that is above the one trillion mark, 80 per cent should be shared among the three tiers of government why 20 per cent is saved.

He disclosed that out of what was saved, the three tiers of government had agreed that the sum of $5.6 billion is to be spent on power, stressing that with the drop in the production level which has resulted in the drop of crude export as a result of the activities of the militants in the Niger Delta, part of the savings have been used to supplement the revenue allocation to the three tiers of government in months when available revenue falls short of the budget provision.

In a study carried by Vanguard in 2007 for the period 1999-2007 it was discovered that allocation to states in the six geo-political zones show that the South-South states where the oil producing states are received the highest allocation of N1.602trillion for both states and local governments in the zones. This was closely followed by the North West zone which had a combined allocation to the seven states and local governments in the area N1.182trillion. South West zone had a total of N952.239billion allocation to the six states and the various local governments in the zone.

North East zone followed with a total allocation of N789.210billion in the seven years this administration has been in power. North Central zone had a seven year allocation to both the states and local governments in the zone a total of N757.654billion while states and local governments in the South East had a total allocation of N625.620billion.

In the good oil boom years the Federal Government has received a total of N5.137 trillion as its share of the federation account in six years representing 45.9 per cent of the total allocation from the federation account. States, local governments and the federal capital territory FCT got N6.047 trillion during the period which represents 54 per cent of the allocation from June 1999- December 2005. This brings the total amount shared out from the federation account in the six years period to N11.185 trillion for the three tiers of governments.

This amount is the total net allocation to the various tiers of government in the country after allowance was made for total deductions from states for external and contractual obligations.

Babalola asks states to explore alternative revenue

Mr Babalola, who was the special guest at the Benue State Summit on the Global Economic Crisis held in Makurdi noted that the reality of dwindling oil money was too glaring to be doubted.

Highlighting the extent of the crisis on Nigeria, the minister noted that the crash of crude oil prices and the drop in crude production have put immense pressure on the Federation Account projections as well as the projections for all government programmes in 2009.

“Even the sharp reduction observed in the February 2009 allocations would have been more drastic if not for the depreciated exchange rate applied in the conversion of the oil proceeds. This situation calls for an urgent paradigm shift by all stakeholders, not only here in Benue State but nationwide. Superior resource management, quality expenditures and visionary leadership are sine qua non at this critical time.

“Any continued dependence on the Federation Account Allocation as a means of funding a state’s expenditures is unrealistic if electoral promises must be met. Therefore, the States must leverage the opportunities provided by the current global financial crisis to sustain and protect the social and economic gains made during recent years.”

Lagos suspends foreign trips, cuts down on non -critical expenditure, others

On its part, the Lagos State government has directed all ministries, department and agencies to look inwards and cut down as much as possible on avoidable and non- critical expenditure as part of measures to further checkmate the many effects of the current global economic recession on the state government.

Bamidele, who rolled out the measures adopted by the state Executive Council and Body of Permanent Secretaries, stressed that the move became necessary for all tiers of government to re-order their priorities in the light of prevalent world economic realities.

According to the commissioner, the following measures were directed to be taken by the state Executive Council:

*The immediate suspension of expenditure on frills such as gifts, T-Shirts, fez caps and other sundry public relations items.

*The suspension of non-essential international and local travels while travels considered essential must be approved by the governor.

*Running of all new foreign scholarships, although on going local and foreign scholarships will be maintained.

*Running costs of ministries, departments and agencies to be maintained at current levels, and

*The suspension of foreign medical treatment except in cases where medical treatment is not available locally

spot on poster.
We can only allow Igbo presidency if they agree to be the most educationally backward tribe , If Igbos are less economically empowered- with the lowest GDP amongst all regions, Igbo presidency is possible if we can only allow them to have the highest percentage of unemployed youths whose daily existence depends on the successes of their Chief, Igwes, and Obis. Nigeria can only allow Igbo presidency if there is a reversal of trend on women education- to have the least educated population of women. Igbo presidency could be attainable if there is 360 u turn on property ownership. It seems Igbos own alot of properties in Lagos and Abuja while at the same no Keffi man is allowed to buy a piece of land in Okigwe- imo state for his cattle business.

Imagine a situation where an Igbo president is allowed, he will re-colonise the whole of Nigeria. Look at how they have colonised the whole of Nigeria with N20 that was given to them after the war. The fear of Igbos is the begining of wisdom. We just need them for some services like selling spare parts, electronics, buying and trading. they are illiterate traders who dont know how politics is played.

Pays Contractors N15b
From Nkechi Onyedika, Abuja http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article01//indexn2_html?pdate=070309&ptitle=FG%20Bars%20States%20From%20Awarding%20Contracts%20On%20Highways
UNDER a new policy unveiled yesterday by the Federal Government, state governments can no longer award contracts for the repairs of highways.

The policy abolished a system under which state governments award contracts for the rehabilitation of federal roads without federal government's input only to send the bills to it for refund.

The Federal Government also released about N15 billion for the settlement of part of the debts owned contractors handling various federal road projects.

Minister of Works, Housing and Urban Development, Hassan Lawal who disclosed this at an interactive session with journalists yesterday in Abuja said the amount had been disbursed to contractors who had abandoned various road projects to enable them go back to site.

He observed that after the directive given to the contractors a few weeks ago to mobilize to site, virtually all of them had responded. His words: "After we spoke with the contractors, I am happy to announce that quite a number of them have moved to site and they told us that they have confidence in the government of Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua. We promised them during our meeting with them that as soon as we receive our first quarter allocation, we are going to effect payment, and they assured that they would move to site based on our promise and they did. I am happy to say that as soon as we got our first quarter allocation, we kept our promise and as today, we have released the sum of N15 billion to various contractors that we owe. We are not claiming that we have settled all our encumbrances, that is far from the truth but I can assure you that we have done our best and they are so happy because if I owe you N10.00 and I am able to pay you N5.00, if you are responsible enough, you will know that if I had my way, I would have paid you completely. We on our own part are very happy. We are very happy that Mr. President directed that the first quarter allocations should be made available immediately and after that meeting, we had to report back to our principal and he directed that the money be released to us immediately and that we should endeavor to pay them as quickly as possible because of the rainy season because by the end of March or first week of April, it will start raining in some parts of the country."

On why they abandoned project sites, the minister said: "In most cases, the issue of contractors abandoning project site is a result of payment. And all of you are Nigerians and you know for the past two years or so, we have always had one or two problems with our budgets being passed on time.

"And this situation affects almost every sector of the society and the works sector is no exception. Perhaps that may go to explain a little bit why we have some little delays. And if you recall, on that we spoke with the contractors, we tried to let them understand our problems."

"We are essentially a developing society. Our democracy is quite young, so problems or issues between the executive and the legislature are bound to surface and resurface regularly. But the most important thing is that democracy has come to stay and we have gone beyond the period of experimentation."

Speaking on the Federal Government's new policy on road rehabilitation, Lawal explained: "I wrote a number of state governments telling them of the new policy of government and that is to transfer all state roads back to state governments. But what we have discovered for instance is that a road that passes through a state capital which is supposed to be, may be a federal road, some governors will award contracts for the construction of these roads without any input from the Federal Government, without any supervisor or engineer from the Federal Government and after constructing this, they do their bill of quantity, they award their contract, choose their contractor and at the end of the day, they send the bill to the Federal Government for refund. Now, this policy has been abolished by the Federal Government. From now on, each tier of government will be responsible for the roads that are so designated and so gazetted under its own responsibility."

The minister continued: "I don't think it is fair and proper to expect me as minister of works to fix state roads or to go and fix rural feeder roads in every nook and corner of this country simply because we are in the Federal Government. In the same vein, it is grossly unrealistic to expect the minister of agriculture and water resources to the remotest part of this country and start digging a borehole because they want to satisfy the people of that local government."

"Neither is it possible to expect the federal ministry of education to start constructing and rehabilitating primary schools in the rural areas of Nigeria. So what Mallam Umaru Yar'Adua is saying clearly and categorically and is asking all his ministers to adopt and implement is that each tier of the government must be alive to its responsibility as stated in the constitution."

Nigeria is a poor country with a weak industrial base. The major industry in Nigeria which dominate our economy bringing in over 90% of our revenue is the oil sector. This sector could only provide employment for less than 1% of employable Nigerians. This sector completely dominate the Nigeria economy in terms of revenue.

Other sectors are agriculture, telecoms, financial , small and medium scale industries, and trading. The financial sector represented by the banks and other financial institution do not dominate the Nigerian economy, they are a support sector providing support and services for the real economy. Infact the financial sector could only provide employment for less than 3% of Nigerians. The real sector that employs over 60% and provide food and sustenance for millions Nigerians is the small scale/ trading sector. Majority of Nigerians are involve in one form of trading or the other, its the real economy.

Markets in Nigeria is not just a place to buy and sell, its the life of the community.
The Ibo's has to understand , there is no state in the entire Nigeria, apart from Ibo's state, that is happy to see the Ibo's dominating their markets

@ Afam

I mean that they are more into technological development than other states.

Do u know that automobiles are made in Anambra.

I think the whole of Nigeria might rain curses on you for this joke or comedy your proposing. It is an expensive joke abeg stop am!!!

Local printing of N1,000 notes to start this year – NSPMC boss http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200903053544079
By Jonah Iboma
Published: Thursday, 5 Mar 2009
The country’s highest currency denomination, the N1,000 note, will soon be printed locally, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Corporation Plc, Mr. Ehi Okoyomon, has said.

Skip to next paragraph

File
Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola

Speaking at a media conference on Wednesday after a tour of the facilities of the corporation in Lagos by the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency, Okoyomon said that necessary preparation for the local printing of the currency had been completed.

He added that the vital personnel had been trained and the machinery for the printing of the denomination put in place for the printing of the notes.

Currently, the corporation locally prints all other currency notes including N20, N50, N100 and N500 notes.

Once the NSPMC achieves the local printing of all denominations of the country’s currency, it would be the first time for a long while that this had been done.

The Central Bank of Nigeria had in 2005 taken over 77 per cent controlling shares of the Mint in what the CBN Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, said was done as part of a strategic agenda to give the country have a robust financial system.

The takeover led to the restructuring of the Mint and the installation of new printing lines that was completed in 2007 with high security features. This was inaugurated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Since then the corporation has been able to print a significant percentage of the currency notes needed in the country.

Soludo said the takeover of the company had to be done because it was supplying less than 40 per cent of the currency needs in Nigeria. He added that as the only currency printing press in Central and West Africa, CBN was determined to ensure that it succeeded.

Meanwhile, the House committee has expressed displeasure at the continuous printing of the new electronic passports abroad, especially considering that the NSPMC had some of the best facilities in the continent to offer such printing services.

According to the Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency, Mr. Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi, the issue would be looked into by the National Assembly with a view to reversing the trend.

He expressed satisfaction with the facilities of the NSPMC and said it was regrettable that some government establishments were still printing some of their security jobs abroad.

He said, “There is no justification whatsoever, except maybe for the sake of costs, why ministries, departments and agencies should not be printing their security jobs with the NSPMC.”

He added that it was a mark of patriotism for MDAs to print their jobs in Nigeria.

He noted that with the facilities that the committee had seen, the Mint had the capabilities to be the flagship security printing press in West Africa

I am now going off to listen to Sunny Nneji's 'Oruka' (isn't he Igbo, hmmn, I think so!), After that, I'll listen to Ruggedy Baba (opomulero), then I'll play 'Kini big deal' my play list is getting longer.

Neither one of these lames have blown, they might be known in the South-East but if you ain't big in the SW, you won't blow all over the county stop lying to yourself.

Stop playing smart. Ngwa is not in NY or London where documents are well kept.
We have an appaling way of not paying attention to archives n stuffs in Nigeria.
If u go back to ur Uni in Nigeria today, i doubt they would be able to bring out ur transcripts.
So does that mean you never took those tests or exams??
Are you a vast bureaucratic that believes what is not on record does not exist??
Cannibalism is a standard practise in the EAST!!!!

Yes, because from your posts, you always support all Igbos blindly