₦airaland Forum

Avigdor Liberman lashed out Friday at the South African government after it reacted angrily to Israel’s refusal to grant a visa to a higher education minister who was invited to an academic conference in the West Bank.

The controversy erupted after the South African minister of higher education, Blade Nzimande, was denied an entry visa into Israel by the Israeli embassy in Johannesburg.

Nzimande, a member of the South African Communist Party, was scheduled to arrive this weekend at Birzeit University for the opening of the Center for African Studies.

“The Israeli government is trying by all means to hide their atrocities against the Palestinian people, and minimize the number of people who can actually see what is happening on the ground,” Nzimande told South African media.

The minister said he believes Israel’s refusal stems from the Communist Party’s decades-long support for the Palestinian cause.

“The wild attacks by the South African Community Party against Israel following our refusal to allow the higher education minister to pass through Israel en route to the Palestinian Authority is hypocrisy,” Liberman said.

“It was only a few days ago that a violent, racist attack was perpetrated against foreigners in Johannesburg,” the foreign minister said. “There was also vandalism and destruction of property. The end result was many deaths and wounded.”

“As part of the rioting, South African police fired rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades at other migrants from neighboring African countries,” Liberman said. “These events and others prove once again that South Africa remains a country with serious problems of racism and violence.”

“That’s why it would behoove the South African government and the Communist Party to stop preaching morality and attacking Israel, which is a great democracy that is exceptionally coping with threats and terrorist elements while making maximal effort to preserve human rights and international norms of behavior.”

If South Africa was forced to contend with Israel’s security predicament, “blood would be awash in the streets there,” Liberman said.

“In this light, it’s no surprise that the Communist Party prefers the Palestinians over Israel,” he said. “It is a case of like attracting like.”


http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Liberman-lashes-out-at-South-Africa-after-Israel-denies-visa-to-Communist-minister-399089

Mogidi, I throw salute.

I thought they claimed Jonathan was withholding their state allocation. With the incoming government, one should expect the allocation to Osun and other APC states to quadruple. Please don't review or end this program, offer free housing to all, free food for the elderly and free wives to all unmarried men. Na una go tire.

Mogidi:
This is what I want to see in the present political climate. This election taught me one thing, the Igbos were right to demand their own country in the past, our SS parents failed to see the bigger picture.



No Surrender!!!

This is the message across many hearts in 2015. This, in mine opinion is the greatest achievement of Goodluck.

The awaken consciousness in the SS cannot be stopped, this election accomplished an almost impossible task. The road is long, the process will be costly, some might even pay with their lives, but more than ever before the people want liberty. No man on this planet will hold them back.

courage89:
Even more. Imagine the amount of money we've lost and continue to lose to subsidy, foreign exchange, employment and more.

You will be free by May 29 to find and spend this money.

That's the delusion of lazy people. Poverty go finish una, everywhere dey turn they see billions in the sky.

Leftist Government

Buhari’s government will be “clearly to the left” of Jonathan’s outgoing Peoples Democratic Party and may boost social spending, including on free school meals and care for the elderly, Fayemi said. The APC will be able to fund its plans by saving about 3 trillion naira ($15 billion) per year from plugging “leakages” and by improving non-oil tax collection, he said.
“This will be deployed to the power sector, to the social safety net,” he said.

Nigeria spends as much as $7 billion a year subsidizing fuel, an expense several economists criticize. Even though the subsidies create “artificial” pricing at gas stations, there’s no guarantee the APC government will cut them, according to Fayemi.
“In the short term, I don’t see us removing any subsidy,” he said.
While the central bank’s independence is key, the new government will probably want it to focus less on developmental agendas such as funding agriculture and small businesses and more on pure monetary issues, Fayemi said.
System Stretched

The regulator “has undertaken a lot more responsibility than I believe it ought to,” he said. “It has become a be-all-and-end-all institution. It makes for less accountability in the system when you’re stretched that thin.”
Ibrahim Mu’azu, an Abuja-based spokesman at the Central Bank of Nigeria, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail requesting comment.
Buhari captured 52 percent of total votes cast compared to 44 percent for Jonathan, a 57-year-old Christian from the south. The APC’s supporters have high expectations and they will quickly be disappointed if the party doesn’t fulfill its promises, Fayemi said.
“This excitement that we’re seeing is going to wear off if we don’t start delivering,” he said. “In six months or one year, the language will change.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-22/nigeria-s-apc-will-release-full-pwc-audit-on-state-oil-company

$7 billion in your dreams, you people should keep building your castle in the sky. By May 29, your story will change.

Is also quite interesting to see the daily assault on the Nigerian state by the western media stop. Suddenly AFP, Reuters, Aljazierra and CNN don't have anything bad to say about the Nigerian state and government.

The delusion of the average Nigerian/APC supporter is quite telling. Look at the numbers been branded here, $7B from oil subsides, saving $15 billion from leakages and increasing taxes, then spending N3T on social welfare programs. In 2015, someone is calling his government a leftist government.

I wish Nigerians Goodluck, you deserve what's about to hit most of you.

kettykin:
He has already told his blind followers to expect no magic ,you didn't factor in biological factors like the effect of ageing, effect of stress and fatigue of office.
But I am predicting he will spend half of the 4 years trying to settle internal squabbles between ACN, CPC, ANPP,former PDP decampees over sharing of national assembly positions, ministerial posts etc that is if the looming fight between Amaechi bloc and Tinubu bloc doesn't set the party on fire now that Amaechi ' eyes are getting clearer.

Amaechi has no bloc in the APC, the only thing he brought to the table was noise and loads of cash. Both are no more needed. Tinubu will soon ask him to return to his father's compound.

The other side seeks unity and patriotism now, unfortunately you cannot give what you don't have. They have sowed a seed in the Nigerian political landscape, they should watch it grow.

Doing everything possible to set Rivers state on fire, Amaechi we big pass you, this too will end with zero.

Nigerian President-elect Muhammadu Buhari’s administration will publish the full audit of the state oil company and expects it will need to repay the government more than previously recommended, his party’s policy director said.
Buhari’s All Progressives Congress believes the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. may need to refund more than the $1.48 billion stated in the highlights of a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP report released by the auditor-general in February, policy director Kayode Fayemi said Tuesday in an interview at his residence in Lagos, the commercial capital. Ohi Alegbe, a NNPC spokesman in the capital, Abuja, declined to comment.
“I have a figure that’s more than $1.5 billion that’s been talked about,” said Fayemi, a former governor of Ekiti state. “We’ve seen credible information that what PwC says is more than that. We will release the report. We’ll make it available to Nigerians as soon as we have full information on this.”
Former central bank Governor Lamido Sanusi was suspended by President Goodluck Jonathan last year after he alleged the NNPC hadn’t turned over about $20 billion of oil revenue to the government, which earns two-thirds of its revenue from the commodity. Sanusi, now the Emir of Kano, the West African nation’s second-highest Muslim leader, said last month that the issue wasn’t addressed sufficiently.
The oil company said the PwC report, which Jonathan’s government hasn’t published in full, absolved it of Sanusi’s allegations. It has started to refund the $1.48 billion, Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke told reporters on Wednesday.
NNPC Changes
The APC may also reorganize the NNPC, which regulates the petroleum sector and takes part in production through joint ventures with Royal Dutch Shell Plc., Exxon Mobil Corp., Total SA, Chevron Corp. and other companies, Fayemi said.
“NNPC will not be in the form or shape it’s currently in,” Fayemi said. “Some measure of unbundling will happen.”
During March elections, former military ruler Buhari, a 72-year-old northern Muslim, became the first opposition leader to oust a sitting president since the country’s independence from the U.K. in 1960. He will take power on May 29.

Buhari’s campaign focused on tackling corruption and Boko Haram’s insurgency. The Islamist group has killed more than 13,000 people, mainly in the northeast, since 2009. Nigeria is also battling graft, ranking 136th out of 175 countries in Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index, in line with Russia and Iran.

Embarrassing Military

The military’s failure to defeat the militants is an “embarrassment” and it will be “re-professionalized” after a government audit of spending, Fayemi said. Buhari told delegates at a conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress in February that he would investigate how the military spent $32 billion over five years.
“Democratic control of the military is significantly lacking,” Fayemi said. “The leadership will change.”
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and largest oil producer, has been battered by the 47 percent fall in Brent crude prices since a one-year peak in June. Economic growth will slow to 4.8 percent this year, about half the average of the last 15 years, according to the International Monetary Fund. The naira has weakened 17 percent against the dollar in the past six months, more than any of the 24 African currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

Leftist Government

Buhari’s government will be “clearly to the left” of Jonathan’s outgoing Peoples Democratic Party and may boost social spending, including on free school meals and care for the elderly, Fayemi said. The APC will be able to fund its plans by saving about 3 trillion naira ($15 billion) per year from plugging “leakages” and by improving non-oil tax collection, he said.
“This will be deployed to the power sector, to the social safety net,” he said.

Nigeria spends as much as $7 billion a year subsidizing fuel, an expense several economists criticize. Even though the subsidies create “artificial” pricing at gas stations, there’s no guarantee the APC government will cut them, according to Fayemi.
“In the short term, I don’t see us removing any subsidy,” he said.
While the central bank’s independence is key, the new government will probably want it to focus less on developmental agendas such as funding agriculture and small businesses and more on pure monetary issues, Fayemi said.
System Stretched

The regulator “has undertaken a lot more responsibility than I believe it ought to,” he said. “It has become a be-all-and-end-all institution. It makes for less accountability in the system when you’re stretched that thin.”
Ibrahim Mu’azu, an Abuja-based spokesman at the Central Bank of Nigeria, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail requesting comment.
Buhari captured 52 percent of total votes cast compared to 44 percent for Jonathan, a 57-year-old Christian from the south. The APC’s supporters have high expectations and they will quickly be disappointed if the party doesn’t fulfill its promises, Fayemi said.
“This excitement that we’re seeing is going to wear off if we don’t start delivering,” he said. “In six months or one year, the language will change.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-22/nigeria-s-apc-will-release-full-pwc-audit-on-state-oil-company

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JingoOAU:
remain deaf and dumb till eternity....poverty stricken rodent infesting everywhere with imbecilic attitudes...your Nigerdelta region minus PH is just a conglomerate of glorified villages

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JingoOAU:
See this nonentity blabbing with his anus...since your Nigerdelta is so blessed, we expected that it should have been the Dubai of Africa.....ur forefathers mortgaged your future and your children's children future by embezzling everything.....

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JingoOAU:
And you forgot to tell us that Bayelsa is the least developed state in southern Nigeria....mentiona ny tangible development in the whole of Bayelsa despite its huge allocation....mumu dey worry una

Least developed as compared to where in the South? Since when is bayelsa your problem? Carry your highsense and waka pass. I don't have time for poverty sicken rodents on this forum

babestella:
Not possible, what happens to states that doesn't have ports and other federal projects to benefit from?

Those states are free to ask for whatever they can get from the federal government. My region seeks to reduce the presence of the federal government.

jazzydee:
We shall see time reveals character, Time will reveal the character of APC. FYI PDP do know how to lose we lost all our offices gallantly, and with honour, congratulated the purported winners and stepped aside peacefully.
Nigerians voting public have taken note, they know that party that has refused to concede defeat and are busy fighting even when INEC has announced results. APC is colluding to steal the mandate of Rivers, Akwa Ibom etc

The people of the southsouth will survive without the support of the centre, we have our state governments and they will use our resources judiciously to develop our region.
We only hope that Buhari will address all the problems of the north and SW we hope he gives them all the political positions in the country, and gives them a part of the FG allocations so they can pay salaries eg Osun state etc. and make all their unviable and parasitic states/region viable so they will no longer be lured into insurgency and extremism.

I hope that Boko haram will end and shekau and chibok girls recovered now that APC is in power.
I hope that Nigeria will start generating 100,000MW of power and 24 hrs electricity from may 29 2015
I hope that N1= $1 and that all unemployed youths will get the promised N5000 monthly unemployment allowance from April 2015.
I hope that corruption will end in Nigeria now that the anti-corruption czar has taken power, corrupt people like Tinubu,Atiku, Amaechi will be prosecuted and sent to jail to send a signal to nigerians that corruption will not be tolerated Under the new admin.
I hope that APC will stop making moves to steal the mandate that the people gave PDP in their states.
I hope that buhari will be the change that he promised Nigerians and more.
I hope and hope, but wishes are not horses!

For me am not optimistic about buhari/APC change for you cant give what you dont have. I never bought their change Scam for i minute, i never voted for it and will not be surprised or disappointed when it fails to arrive.
My Niger Delta region will move forward and thrive with our God given resources both human, natural and capital

Your last line is the message from the home region, we will excel than ever before. PDP or APC Nigerdeltans will always be winners.

jazzydee:
predicting that those political jobbers will decamp once dissatisfied is as concrete as predicting that tomorrow will be thursday. Its their nature

Nothing is impossible, it's just going to be very difficult.

onatisi:
I really wish I could tell u somethings here ,but it is all good . We shall rise again. We retreat today to fight again tomorrow .

Don't worry yourself, Nigerian democracy is growing, at the day's end is all about people having a better life. The PDP states will lead Nigeria by a wide margin in those indices as time progresses. Nobody will tell Nigerians before they know, government cannot feed your children or give you free money.

jazzydee:
Soldier come,Soldier go barracks remain. PDP and other political platforms are = barracks.

OBJ,ATIKU,and all the other PDP stalwarts, AD,ACN, ANPP,CPC etc that decamped/merged to form APC will soon be dissatisfied with APC once they see that buhari and tinubu will not give them the oil wells and perks they are looking/angling for.
They will decamp, return to barracks and strategize on how to destroy APC, Its just a matter of time.

I hope not, I pray they all stay in the APC till death do us part. The last supreme court ruling has made decampment for elected officers impossible. Let them stay where they are.

onatisi:
Tomakint , sheath your sword ,the battle is over and apc has won . There is nothing we can do about no matter how bitter we are ,we just have to live with it . The bitter truth is the next battle is not even for 2019 but 2023. Gej has caused an extensive damage to pdp that cannot be explained too much here and 4years can't and won't be enough to regroup and recover . Let sleeping dogs lie .

Quite to the contrary, PDP will become a more purposeful and ideological party, this will be great for the states where PDP holds power. We might not have the votes in 2019, but we will have all the money we need and leaders with an agenda to leave our enemies behind. Let me see APC perform their miracle, like I have always said, is now my turn to have fun

Mogidi:
Wow! Hear, hear!

The complaints are only just starting, we went through the same motion as supporters of GEJ, people thought we were paid posters.

Be ready to defend Buhari for 4yrs, drink plenty of "oriigin" for the task ahead.

That's it, they should be ready, nobody is intimidated by their president or mass media. We are here both online and on the ground.

OP, it will do you and others good, to stop opening threads like this. Politics is a contact sport, APC played it for us, between 2011-2015. If you are not ready to match their actions with their own playbook, give it up. Nobody seeks peace from them, let us see them do their worse. Stop crying over split milk, let's see them overrun us, enough of this nonsensical threads. Go home and prepare to meet their actions with equal and overwhelming reactions.

Some people refuse to use the brains God gave them. Amaechi will be a standing example for the rest of his life to all Nigerians. You cannot set your home on fire and expect your neighbour to provide you shelter. Now he has no friends at home and in the other camp, nobody places their trust on a Benedict Arnold...... So I don't blame the hand APC is dealing him, such is life. Nobody can love you more than yourself.


For those of you thinking we are mocking Amaechi, please be truthful to yourselves. 99.9% of you don't want the man near any sensitive government function, because you don't trust him. Just say the truth and shame the devil.

Kororugged:
Olodo!

Sai crowd

Give it some more weeks your messiah will give you people the true state of government finance in Nigeria. How you people fail to understand the basic financial numbers in this land is sickening to say the least.