₦airaland Forum

OAM4J:
It baffles me that some people like you still think Boko haram is a Muslim or Northern thing. You might have a point when they were bombing the churches and areas mostly occupied by southerners. But for God sake those people killed here were Muslims and mostly from the North.

If we keep on with this silly notion that has failed us from getting solution by making it a Muslim, Northern or a political party problem which exactly is the card our commander in chief is playing, then we will never get a solution to this problem.

Life is life and life is sacred, whether it is of your kinsman or not, we should value it and all together feel concerned. The only crime those that died committed was being Nigerians and having a clueless head of government and C in C.

In a sane country, everyone will join their voices together, give their head of state an ultimatum to fix the problem or demand for his resignation.

It is happening in the North today, tomorrow it might be in your part of the country... Those who died today are not related to you, and I pray it never involves to any of your relatives before you put the blame at the right quarter and demand for real solution.

As for me our president and Commander in Chief has failed us; QED!

That's where both of us differ, what is happening today in NE/NW can never happen anywhere in the South. We had militants before, be it Nigerdeltan, Bakassi boys or OPC. The mixture on politics and religion, is the demon destroying the north today. Nobody can save them, but themselves.

cjrane:
I am only worried that we don't refine crude here at home. If we saved all the money from oil imports and subsidies, we will tolerate oil price of $15 dollars. The artificially high oil price though it benefited our economy, but if largely fed corruption because some people refused to allow our refineries work just to continue fuel importation. As the low oil price persist, we shall again come to our senses and begin looking for ways to build refineries at home rather than merely continue to import our own refined oil because the money is available

Honestly, I'm not worried about local refineries. Nigeria's problem is the percentage of government revenue produced by oil. That's a problem this country must correct. An economy of $522B with oil producing about 20% of that GDP, should not depend on oil to finance government spending.

kmariko:
The politics and economic policies of the "price war" is well understood. If the americans win it, they will virtually cement not only the dollar as the currency of the new century, but the will dictate the price of most products made on planet earth. Like any battle, there will be causalities and we the mono- economies will be the first.

There are no victories here for anybody. The American credit market is already signaling distress over the $1.5 trillion debts by Energy companies, with yields rising very quickly, because at these kinds of oil prices you are going to see producers go bankrupt.

maclatunji:
You know what you are going to do for us. Create a thread on how Boko Haram started and educate us on those they started attacking first. This is not something that you will be posting comments without facts about otherwise you become their accomplice in getting people killed because you refuse to put legitimate pressure on those who should tackle the problem.

I suspect you will not be able to do this because your intention is not to allow truth prevail but rather whip-up sentiments that cloud rational judgement of innocent people that can be harmed at any time as a result.

If you say things are well, then I say may things be "well" with you as you say.

It's rather clear you were born yesterday. I was born at night, just not last night. Look for people to blame for your boko haram problem, as long as you keep your blame to North eastern/western Nigeria.

You want facts, do your own research.

maclatunji:
Your lack of comprehension of the issues at stake here would be cute but when people get killed on a daily basis as a result, it is not.

That is the problem with alamjiris, you think others lack comprehension, when you sat and watched your wayward kids murder, other people's mothers, fathers, brothers, and sister for almost 30 year. Now its a comprehension problem.

Smart guy, solve your problem.

maclatunji:
I have to laugh at your comment because I really cannot cry.

Crying is your only choice, because your days of laughing have come and gone. In the words of Majek Fashek, you cannot plant yam and reap cocoyam.

maclatunji:
Once again another person blinded by primordial sentiments.

Give a competent leader half or President Jonathan's powers and double his number of problems and they will perform. Of course, this is apparently rocket science to you and your ilk.

#Pitiable

When people have a failed up bringing they blame outsiders for their problems. You are only reaping what you sowed. From all your noise its clear you have learnt nothing.

maclatunji:
The President is the "fall guy"? #Goodgrief

And what are you? The gladiator or perhaps Genghis Khan?

Goodgrief till you turn blue, tell your alamjiris to behave.

maclatunji:
I agree with you. It is the government that needs to respond effectively to terrorism not individuals. For as long as this President continues to deliver incompetence, we are in deep trouble.

Rubbish, the president is the fall guy for a failed state gov? Where is your Hisbad police again?

This is a market share war, the target are the North Americans. They forced the market down with excess production. OPEC is not the reason for the oil glut.The plunge in oil prices raises the risk of bankruptcy for U.S. shale players. This a business, their creditors are having sleepless nights already.

mikolo80:
wetin consign me , me i'm from kwara and my visa don almost come through and by his grace i go soon get my own farm so do whatever makes you happy

As a farmer already, welcome to the club. Let's stop the lie about the north and agriclture, is simply not true. ALL 36 states are farming states, in delta state, 50% of the population are farmers. They don't need a single item from any state to survive.

By Camillus Eboh and Julia Payne

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's finance minister said on Thursday that a significant portion of the billions of dollars drained from the oil savings account over the past two years was distributed to powerful governors instead of being saved for a rainy day.

Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer, is grappling with financial difficulties owing to a 30 percent fall in the price of oil since June, which has added pressure on the government's already depleted fiscal buffers.

The central bank devalued the naira by 8 percent on Tuesday because it was running out of forex reserves with which to defend the currency.

The Excess Crude Account (ECA) had around $9 billion in December 2012, but it has since fallen to around $4 billion, Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala noted in a speech to capital market authorities. Most of the falls occurred during a period of record high oil prices, when oil savings are supposed to accrue.

Okonjo-Iweala said some of the money had been needed to cover revenue lost due to outages caused by oil theft and pipeline vandalism, thought to drain hundreds of thousands of barrels a day.

"Some of it (the ECA) was then legitimately used to offset revenue shortfalls arising from quantity shocks and to narrow the fiscal deficit," she said. "But against our advice, significant portions were also used to augment monthly allocations," to local and state authorities.

"States argued that rainy days were already at hand and in fact (the rain) was already pouring, so the money needed to be used right away," Okonjo-Iweala said.

Nigeria's oil revenues are the source of around 80 percent of government spending and are distributed each month to the three tiers of government: federal, state and local.

Money from oil sold over and above the finance ministry's benchmark price is in theory deposited into the ECA, which can later be used to protect against oil price shocks or to plug the deficit.

However, there are disputes about who should control this money, and state governors often argue the central government is hoarding the money and should distribute more to them.

The president, being the country's most powerful person, can usually have the de facto last say on how ECA funds will be distributed.

President Goodluck Jonathan, approved two dispersals of $1 billion last year to state governments.

State governors are some of the country's most powerful people and their support is crucial for winning presidential elections -- President Goodluck Jonathan faces re-election in February 2015.

State governors requested $2 billion from the ECA this month to complete projects and provide security ahead of the February elections. [ID:nL6N0T91BH]

The request has not yet been approved.

OPEC DECISION ADDS PRESSURE

Demands from local governments for more funds are likely to intensify in the run-up to the election, but the falling oil price means government finances are likely to be squeezed further.

The government has already revised down its assumed oil price for next year's budget to $73 a barrel, from $78 a barrel. But OPEC's decision on Thursday not to cut output has put further pressure on the oil price, potentially worsening Nigeria's problems.

Okonjo-Iweala said on Thursday that government plans to review tax incentives and waivers and plug customs loopholes while also increasing surcharges on luxury goods, should raise 480 billion naira ($2.7 billion) over the next three years.

She also said the government planned to save 160 billion naira by weeding out 60,000 "ghost workers" from the payroll, although she did not give a time frame.

(1 US dollar = 174.5 naira)

http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-says-too-much-boom-time-oil-savings

mikolo80:
ordinary flood in lokoja beans price rise to 500 per congo and still you refuse to believe,toh ignorance is kukuma bliss

My friend keep your beans from Lokoja. Anything else.

mikolo80:
hyftllttth

Correct, take a trip to a market in Agbarho, Sapele and Warri. Your tomato and Onion are bad market. That is the problem you have in Nigeria, too many lies about the North and Agriculture that never was.

mikolo80:
tomatoes onions maize yams beans rice in fact its only cassava and palm oil i know from south kai guy which market you de buy food from

beans, rice, maize and yams, we produce enough in our area. Tomatoes and Onions are not important to our meals.

North and agriculture, the biggest lie told in Nigeria. Go to your local markets tomorrow in your city or town and count how products in your market come from the north.

egift:
And my question again, what happens to us in Nigeria if oil price reduces further? Will we see reduction on Fuel Pump price OR will it increase because the government is earning lesser from the sales of Oil?

Is our local market a free market or a government controlled market. You cannot reap where you did not sow.

Omooba77:
USA has no direct access to Iraq,Afghanista.....

I'm lost, don't understand

OPEC wants oil to go as low as $40 / barrel, Canada , US can not Frack, use Tar sands and continue to flood the market with oil. OPEC will hurt the N American oil industry by pricing them out of the market. $60.00 oil works for OPEC. Not for the US new methods of deep well drilling fracking etc..

Expressions:
ok, tell that to the political e-warriors

You don't have to worry about the e-warriors. They are inconsequential.

Abagworo:
What about Obasanjo that started with 16Dollar per barrel? Maybe the size of government has increased in the past 15years.

Correct, Obj started with $15, he added more layers of governments, that was needed, plus democracy created several other layers and more cost. Just compare the size of the civil service alone to what it was in 1999.

Expressions:

Who do we put the blame on

Blame the market.

Abagworo:
At least when oil gets to 10 Dollars we will start appreciating some of the false allegations against Abacha who was able to execute so much capital projects and keep the Naira stable with oil hovering between 9Dollars and 15 Dollars per barrel but yet accused of stealing billions of Dollars.

False allegation? Oga park well. The size of government in 1999 is probably 10% of what it is today. Yes Abacha stole billions and his family has admitted such, with all their out of court settlements.

slimfit1:
Well I wear a size two pant when I should have being wearing size 4.

As long as it fits and that's what your wallet can afford. There is nothing wrong with it.

slimfit1:
Tell them to prepare to sell those public jet they said was private.

Abi, governments must cut their coats according to their sizes.

There is one cure for all oil price cries, tell your state governor to raise taxes in your state. Or cut spending to march their monthly welfare cheques from Abuja.

I don't see why people are all up in arms. So without oil you people cannot survive