₦airaland Forum

warrior01:
To Obiagelli and all Apc supporters, I can only say shame on you guys; you have been scammed and still, you guys won't learn

I had to come back to read this 'Covenant' again, since I was really disappointed with the denials. However, I observed that there is no place whatsoever throughout the whole writeup where PMB mentioned that he was going to achieve those pledge within 100 days.

The only place I find '100 days' is in the title of the post and not even in the title of the Covenant. When I juxtapose this with the Chatham House interview (which happened b4 the elections), then one may be inclined to believe that PMB never (personally) made a 100 day pledge.

The Tinubu propaganda machinery may have been responsible for this misinformation, and our lazy media houses swallowed this without proper scrutiny. It took a foreign media house to extract the true position from PMB.

kokoA:
Talking of Juicy agencies:

Governor of cbn : south south. (Delta)
GMD NNPC : South south (Delta)
Chiarman FIRS: South west (Lagos)
IG of police : South south (Edo)
Chief of Defence staff: South west (Ekiti)
Chief of Naval staff : south south (cross river)

Only slight problem there is that PMB did not make 2 (CBN & Police I.G) of those appointments.

southsouthman:
I tot this deal has been cancelled and all hailed Mr. President for it. Was the deal cancelled so that Mr. Presidents loyalist will be awarded the contracts. Please, I will appreciate anyone with useful information to educate me on this.

The terms of the former SWAP deals were not favourable to Nigeria. For instance, we were getting mostly PMS & DPK while other refined byproducts (like Naphtha, bitumen, etc) were never sent to Nigeria. Even the petrol & kerosine were not returned in appropriate quantities.

The idea right now is to renegotiate there SWAP agreements so the country can receive maximum value in refined products in return for the swapped crude.

@OP, my writeup will be long, so i'll be back l8r.

The policy will no doubt have unintended consequences. However, thats the nature of most fiscal & monetary policies.

Most banks have depended so much on public sector funds at the expense of the real sector.

At that price, its a miracle that the USD/NGN exchange rate has not collapsed below N250. If the price persists below $50 for long, then the govt will have a problem implementin its budget. The realistic options will then be either to issue more debt or allow naira to depreciate further.

Its a pity that we did not save during the season of high price and also did nothing to diversify our revenue base.

Reality Check!

holocron:
I believe you are right on the inflation since 1970, perhaps you may have exaggerated. It might be about half or maybe one-third. However, by the quantity of revenue lost via the oil scandals we keep hearing about, is it unreasonable to think that in actuality, the oil revenue available for government use all these time may be at this same $30?

I agree with you completely that there are a lot of revenue leakages. I have always maintained that, for the size of our GDP and population, an annual budget of $20B is way too small. SA with a smaller GDP and population manages an annual budget of around $100B.

Also, i dont think i exaggerated the $5 oil price. Infact, if you discount $30 today back to 1970 using an inflation (discount) rate of 6%, you'll get a value (PV) of about $2.

holocron:
The real question is: what was the price during the so called oil boom of the 1970s. What was it in the 90s up to 2000. Even at 30 usd it is still more than enough if the economy is judiciously managed.

Your analysis only considers the NOMINAL price of oil. Once u account for inflation, then the REAL price of $30 oil in 2015 might be equivalent to $5 oil in 1970.

Also, when you consider how much our population has grown since 1970, then you will observe that the oil per capita in 2015 is much lower than in 1970.

Obviously, $30 oil price is disastrous for a mono-economy like Nigeria. Let's hope the government will be responsible and proactive enough to diversify the economy.

Over N63billion per year. That is more than the annual budget of some states.

chukwudi44:
Wake me up when boko haram is eliminated or their attacks stopped

You re lucky GEJ is no more, else you would never wake up.

PDP spent over $20b and added less than 3,000MW in 16years, yet they were not failures.

APC will definitely add over 5000MW in 4years spending less than $5b.

“It is not good to just leave everything open-
ended; it is a strategy in the military to set target for any operation.

Not just a military strategy, it is a general management strategy to set targets for any objective.

chukwudi44:
Just one notice of meeting by Tompolo he rushed off to pay up their oustanding allowances!!!

How about i remind you that just the threat of probe has caused your Hero to go himself and also send proxies (in Emeka Anyaoku and Peace Committee) to PMB.

"FAMILY is not whose blood you carry. Its who loves you and who you love". I am a proper ND son, but i dont give a hoot about corrupt leaders who dont have my interest.

All witches must be hunted!

chukwudi44:
Starting with GEJ while sending OBJ as a peace mediator to Guinea Bissau might mean Nigeria would have to depend on sugar cane and cocoa to pay her bills.

Similar threats were made should GEJ loose the elections. Threats were also made should PMB cancel the contracts of militants.

You overrate your militant leaders. They gained so much from the last govt. Right now they have so much to loose, so they wont want to incur the wrath of this administration.

GEJ exercised his prerogative of refusing to probe any past government. PMB should be allowed his prerogative to make his choices.

“We need to set the goal or purpose of the war against corruption in order to fashion out an appropriate response

“For example: do we want our money back or do we simply want to jail the looters?

We want Both!

We must begin to behave as if we have no oil at all.

This is clearly the most strategic and intelligent thing to do.

I just hope they mean it this time, and not the mouthing of 'diversification of economy' we have been hearing for the last 16 years.

forix4u:
I keep asking, what does declaring of asset has to do with leadership? Does it stop our leaders from siphoning and looting our treasuries?

Strictly speaking, Nothing! The only problem is that the President and his party promised Nigerians that he will declare his assets publicly. It is a campaign promise which I expect him to fulfill.

I supported the president wholeheartedly and quite frankly, I have zero doubts about his ability and commitment to Transform/Change this country. However, if he cannot HONOR HIS WORD on a minor issue like this, I will begin to have some reservations.

I hope he follows the path of honor and does the right thing. Goodwill can be lost quite easily - just ask GEJ.

Giving a breakdown of the loan and how it was utilised, the minister said $500m was used for the expansion of four International Airport Terminals in Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt; $500m for the Abuja Light Rail project; $984m for the Zungeru Hydro-electric power project and $100m for the Galaxy Backbone project

By the ex minister's own account, the past government had received and disbursed over $2.08b for the aforementioned projects. I am not exactly aware of the status of all the projects mentioned. However, judging by the status of work on the Abuja Light Rail project so far, I can say that most of the funds had been diverted to private pockets.

There is a fundamental flaw in Bishop Kukah and the OPs argument, and that is to try to differentiate PROBE from INVESTIGATION. Taking a look at my dictionary again, I find that Probe means "an investigation, especially by a legislative committee, of suspected illegal activity". Another definition puts it as "to search into or examine thoroughly; question closely;". How a highly educated and respected man as Bishop Kukah tries to distort words just to achieve some questionable purpose is beyond me.

The president is already 'Too Slow' by the high expectations of most Nigerians, for which the President has argued that he is taking his time so as to make the right decisions. Why then will Bishop Kukah believe that the president is not going to follow due process in investigating and prosecuting people?

I was hoping to read about an alternative approach or policy from his critics. Even Ben Bernanke went beyond the traditional mandate of Inflation Targeting to introducing Quantitative Easing all in a bid to create liquidity and expand credit.

There has been a lot of misunderstanding or misinformation regarding the recent CBN policy on ATM withdrawal limits. The following are some clarifications in this regard:

1. This limit does not apply to the withdrawal of naira from ATMs within the country. The limit for withdrawal of naira is set by the individual banks in line with the bank’s corporate operative procedure.

2. The limits are applicable only to holders of Naira denominated cards. Hence those who have dollar (or other foreign currency) denominated cards do not have limits on their transactions.

3. The limits are only applicable to ATM Cash withdrawals abroad. The limits are not applicable to PoS and online purchases.

4. The daily withdrawal limit is now $300, while the annual withdrawal limit has been reduced from $150,000 to $50,000

---
Though there are no limits on PoS and Online purchases at the moment, it should be noted that the Bank already has plans in place to introduce limits on naira debit cardholders’ spending abroad. The bank has argued that this might become inevitable due to inadequate foreign exchange to pay for rising amount of these overseas spending.

The Bankers' Committee have also stated that due to the significant difference between the official exchange rate and the parallel market, there exist an arbitrage opportunity for smart people to withdraw dollars abroad (at the official rate of N199) with their cards and then bring the cash back to Nigeria to sell at the parallel market.

http://thenationonlineng.net/cebih-confirms-50000-annual-atm-withdrawal-limit/

“Before the government goes borrowing, they need to find out why revenue is so low, given that our GDP is supposed to be high”.

I have always maintained that our Revenue is too low given our population and GDP size.

To put things in perspective, South Africa with a GDP of $350b and a population of about 45m has an annual budget of about $100b. Nigeria with a GDP of $500b and a population of over 170m has an annual budget less than $25b.

This gives SA a budget per capita of about $2,200 while that of Nigeria is about $140. This can only be a result of Gross incompetence and Corruption from our Revenue generation agencies.

How does a country develop when it budgets only $140 (N28,000) per year for a citizen, with only N8,000 for capital projects. Vision 20-20-20 my foot!

:

Season of Accountability and Transparency! I feel sorry for those that will be indicted.

Season of Accountability and Transparency! With PMB and Kachikwu fully on board, I feel sorry for those that will be indicted.

The writer's economic analysis is very lopsided and full of glaring political bias.

If the writer knows anything about Central Bank Monetary Policies, then he would understand that such policies are usually a Balancing Act - where there is always a tradeoff. For instance, when a Central Bank increases interest rate to curb rising inflation, there will be those who will argue (rightly so) that such a move is bad for business and will result in unemployment. If the Central Bank, reduces interest rate in a bid to spur economic growth, there will be those who will argue (rightly so) that the move will lead to higher inflation, capital ouflows and weaker currency.

My point is that monetary policies are MACRO in nature which do not necessarily take into cognizance all the MICRO fluctuations in the economy, but rather they look at the BIG PICTURE. Another thing about monetary policies is that it takes times for the effect to fully transmit through the Real Economy.

The sad reality is that our Foreign earning is declining and likely to continue declining due to failure of past governments to diversify and industrialize the economy. The CBN is only acting as a backstop and taking responsibility for the failure of Fiscal Authorities (Government). It is not the mandate of CBN to diversify the economy or provide power or create employment. When fiscal authorities fail in their responsibilities, the Central Bank steps in to make sure things dont get worse and spiral out of control.

The CBN is, therefore, in a position where they could (1) Continue supporting all the importers at the expense of ultimately wiping out our Foreign Reserve or (2) Devalue the official exchange rate or (3) Stop some items from accessing official Foreign Exchange. They have chosen option 3 which is clearly not perfect and it has its downside, but this is more like the PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT which says that "When faced with two or more evils, choose the evil of lesser degree".

benodihe:
As it stands now,can one be able to open a domicilliary account here in Nigeria for international transaction? Because I know that for you to fund you dollar or euro mastercard or visacard account,you must fund it through tour domicilliary. Please enlighten me.

Yes you can still open a domicilliary account here in Nigeria. However, you will not be able to deposit cash dollars into the account, you can only fund the account through Bank Transfer.

Strong performance on all indices. I am, however, curious to know why the Pre-tax profit went up by 26% (from N57b to N72) while the Profit After Tax went up by only 13% (from N47b to N53b). Did they apply a different set of Tax Accounting?

When asked about his position on the President’s directive on the Treasury Single Account, Kachikwu said the directive was being considered.

“The reality is that to run an oil company, you’ve got to have funds to do it. If you don’t, you close down the corporation and the production system will close down.

“So, we are looking at how to merge the need for accountability and openness with the need to make sure that the industry itself survives. We cannot throw away the baby with the bathe water,” he explained.

Is Mr Kachikwu, by any means, suggesting that the NNPC may not obey the directive that all monies should go to the TSA?

I have a lot of respect for Mr Kachikwu, and even more respect for the man how appointed him, however, I hope that this idea he is mooting is consistent with Transparency and Accountability.

There has been a lot of misunderstanding or misinformation regarding the recent CBN policy on ATM withdrawal limits. The following are some clarifications in this regard:

1. This limit does not apply to the withdrawal of naira from ATMs within the country. The limit for withdrawal of naira is set by the individual banks in line with the bank’s corporate operative procedure.

2. The limits are applicable only to holders of Naira denominated cards. Hence those who have dollar (or other foreign currency) denominated cards do not have limits on their transactions.

3. The limits are only applicable to ATM Cash withdrawals abroad. The limits are not applicable to PoS and online purchases.

4. The daily withdrawal limit is now $300, while the annual withdrawal limit has been reduced from $150,000 to $50,000

---
Though there are no limits on PoS and Online purchases at the moment, it should be noted that the Bank already has plans in place to introduce limits on naira debit cardholders’ spending abroad. The bank has argued that this might become inevitable due to inadequate foreign exchange to pay for rising amount of these overseas spending.

The Bankers' Committee have also stated that due to the significant difference between the official exchange rate and the parallel market, there exist an arbitrage opportunity for smart people to withdraw dollars abroad (at the official rate of N199) with their cards and then bring the cash back to Nigeria to sell at the parallel market.

http://thenationonlineng.net/cebih-confirms-50000-annual-atm-withdrawal-limit/