₦airaland Forum

Worst economic crisis occasioned by Tinubu's calamitous economic policies

paramakina202:
Anything Biafra always bring unimaginable suffering to the people while Simon Ekpa chill abroad.

You mean that the Biafran Army shut down the Ngwa Road market, Aba?

People in Africa’s most populous nation are suffering as the price of food, fuel and medicine has skyrocketed out of reach for many.


Nigeria is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, with skyrocketing inflation, a national currency in free-fall and millions of people struggling to buy food. Only two years ago Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria is projected to drop to fourth place this year.

The pain is widespread. Unions strike to protest salaries of around $20 a month. People die in stampedes, desperate for free sacks of rice. Hospitals are overrun with women wracked by spasms from calcium deficiencies.

The crisis is largely believed to be rooted in two major changes implemented by a president elected 15 months ago: the partial removal of fuel subsidies and the floating of the currency, which together have caused major price rises.

A nation of entrepreneurs, Nigeria’s more than 200 million citizens are skilled at managing in tough circumstances, without the services states usually provide. They generate their own electricity and source their own water. They take up arms and defend their communities when the armed forces cannot. They negotiate with kidnappers when family members are abducted.

But right now, their resourcefulness is being stretched to the limit.

No Money for Milk

On a recent morning in a corner of the biggest emergency room in northern Nigeria, three women were convulsing in painful spasms, unable to speak. Each year, the E.R. at Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital in Kano, Nigeria’s second-largest city, received one or two cases of hypocalcemia caused by malnutrition, said Salisu Garba, a kindly health worker who hurried from bed to bed, ward to ward.

Now, with many unable to afford food, the hospital sees multiple cases every day.

Mr. Garba was sizing up the women’s husbands. Which source of nutrition he recommended depended on what he thought they could afford. Baobab leaves or tiger nuts for the poor; boiled-up bones for the slightly better off. He laughed at the suggestion that anyone could afford milk.


A man in a white coat silhouetted against a window with blue drapes puts on a pair of rubber gloves as he prepares to treat a patient.
Salisu Garba, a community health worker, treating patients at a hospital in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city, last month.
More than 87 million people in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, live below the poverty line — the world’s second-largest poor population after India, a country seven times its size. And punishing inflation means poverty rates are expected to rise still further this year and next, according to the World Bank.

Last week, unions shut down hospitals, courts, schools, airports and even the country’s Parliament, striking in an attempt to force the government to increase the monthly salary of $20 it pays its lowest workers.

But over 92 percent of working-age Nigerians are in the informal sector, where there are no wages, and no unions to fight for them.

For the Afolabi family in Ibadan, in southwestern Nigeria, the descent into poverty started in January with the loss of an electric tuk-tuk taxi.

Forced to sell the taxi to pay his wife’s hospital bills after the difficult birth of their second child, Babatunde Afolabi turned to occasional construction work. It paid badly, but the family managed.

“We had no thoughts about starvation,” he said.

Women in colorful hijabs and men in tunics and pants wait outside a white-painted hospital building.
Patients wait to be seen at the Murtala Muhammad General Hospital. The crowds are thinner than they used to be, as many can no longer afford the bus fare.
But then, he said, cassava — the cheapest staple in many parts of Nigeria — tripled in price.

All they can afford now, he said, is a few biscuits, a little bread, and for their 6-year-old, 20 peanuts a day.

A Country Built on Gas
Nigeria is a country heavily dependent on imported petroleum products, despite being a major oil producer. After years of underinvestment and mismanagement, its state refineries produce hardly any gasoline.

For decades, the national soundtrack has been the hum of small generators, fired up during daily power outages. Petroleum products move goods and people around the country.

Until recently, the government subsidized that petroleum, to the tune of billions of dollars a year.

Many Nigerians said the subsidy was the only useful contribution from a neglectful and predatory government. Successive presidents have pledged to remove the subsidy, which drains a hefty chunk of government revenue — and later backtracked fearing mass unrest.


A yellow tuk-tuk – an electric tricycle taxi – and a man on a red motorcycle cruising down a tree-lined street in Kano.
Nigeria is a country that runs on imported gasoline, which the government has long subsidized to the tune of billions of dollars a year.

Bola Tinubu, who was elected Nigeria’s president last year, initially followed through.

“It was a necessary action for my country not to go bankrupt,” Mr. Tinubu said in April, at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Saudi Arabia.

Instead, many Nigerians are going bankrupt — or working multiple jobs to stay afloat.

Mr. Garba, the hospital worker, used to be solidly middle class, even though 17 family members, including 12 children, depended on him.

After shifts at the hospital, where he is setting up the first statewide ambulance service in addition to working in the emergency room, for which he is paid $150 a month, he heads to the Red Cross. There he occasionally receives a $3.30 volunteer stipend for helping tackle a severe diphtheria outbreak.

At night, he works at the pharmacy that he and a colleague set up. But few people have money for medicine anymore. He sells about $7 worth of medication per day.

Last year, Mr. Garba sold his car when the gas subsidies were removed, and now takes a tuk-tuk to work. Unable to power the generator, he reads medicine labels at the pharmacy by the light of a small solar lantern. He can only afford to buy rice and cassava in small quantities.

Life under the previous government was very expensive, he said, but nothing like today.

“It’s very, very bad,” he said.

It’s gotten so dire that there have been several deadly stampedes for free or discounted rice distributed by the government — including one in March at a university in the central state of Nasarawa where seven students were killed.

A man carries a heavy-looking sack past a petty trader’s stall offering baby clothes and toys.
The vast majority of Nigerians work in the informal sector, with no salaries, unions, or safety net. And because of skyrocketing inflation, many can no longer afford basics, like food.
Mr. Tinubu promised to create a million jobs and quadruple the size of the economy within a decade, but has not said how. The International Monetary Fund said last month the state has started subsidizing fuel and electricity again — though the government has not acknowledged this.

“There’s still very little clarity — if any — on where the economy is headed, what the priorities are,” said Zainab Usman, a political economist and director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Tapping Craze
A spate of new crypto-mining games that promise to generate income the more the user plays has people across Nigeria spending all day tapping on their smartphone screens, desperate to earn a few dollars.

People tap as they pray, in mosques and churches. Children tap under desks at school. Mourners tap at funerals.


A man holds a foldable smartphone with his left hand and taps on an image of a gold coin with his right.
Many Nigerians desperately hope that hours spent tapping on smartphone cryptocurrency apps will eventually earn them a bit of cash. One man, Rabiu Biyora, says he made millions of naira this way.
There’s no guarantee any of them will ever benefit from the hours they put in mindlessly tapping.

Then again, they can’t count on the national currency, the naira.

The government has twice devalued the naira in the past year, trying to enable it to float more freely and attract foreign investment. The upshot: It’s lost nearly 70 percent of its value against the dollar.

Nigeria cannot produce enough food for its growing population; food imports rise 11 percent annually. The currency devaluation caused those imports — already expensive because of high tariffs — to explode in price.

Nigerians can become paupers almost overnight. So they’re searching for anything that might hold its value — or ideally, get them rich.

“People are looking for me everywhere,” said Rabiu Biyora, the undisputed king of tapping in Kano, opening one of his five foldable phones to add to his 2.7 billion taps on the TapSwap app. “Not to attack me, but to collect something from me.”

A relaxed, businesslike 39-year-old followed everywhere by young tech-savvy acolytes, Mr. Biyora would only say that he made “over $10,000” from the previous tapping craze.


A man supervises a young construction worker as he installs a drawer unit in an office.
With the proceeds from his tapping, Rabiu Biyora is opening an office in Kano to promote and educate people on cryptocurrencies. Nigeria already has the world’s second highest cryptocurrency adoption rate.
He profits from everyone else’s taps, so he encourages them in posts on social media, and by providing free internet to anyone willing to sit outside his house. Nigerians don’t need much encouragement — despite the risks and volatility, Nigeria has the second highest cryptocurrency adoption rate in the world.

So every evening, struggling young men gather by Mr. Biyora’s home and tap.

Pleas for Help
In much of Nigeria, it’s normal to share with your neighbors and give alms to the poor.

Every day, people come to the gate of Kano’s Freedom Radio station to drop off sheets of paper containing heartfelt appeals for help paying medical bills or school fees, or to recover from some disaster.

A radio presenter chooses three to read out daily, and often a sympathetic listener calls in to pay the supplicant’s bill.

But lately the appeals have multiplied, and offers of help have dried up.

Good Samaritans used to come to the E.R. and pay strangers’ bills for them, Mr. Garba said. That rarely happens now either.

Still, Mr. Garba said, the number of patients coming to his hospital has almost halved in recent months.

Many of the sick never even make it. They can’t afford the 20-cent bus ride.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/11/world/africa/nigeria-economy-strike.html

Appletek:
After using a 10 years to study a 4 year course, that failure who receives advice from mad men showed a University Certificate with a Sunday date.

I marvel at your audacity to tell barefaced lies, falsehoods, and propaganda.

kedeojo:
Which north, they are just playing him. The north can't vote another southerner for president in 2027, if they decided not to support Tinubu which is not even possible, they will rather vote for Atiku. Atiku said he will still run, because he his fit. If you people are smart, you should know he is ready to run again. That he is meeting with Obi to form alliance, is a ploy to deceive him to go back to pdp and the north will now support Atiku. If Tambuwa has close to Wike then and even wike support for him in 2019 can leave him at eleventh hour, then you should no that they just want to use Obi. Wike even donated 500m to sokoto government for the burnt market and even construct a road in benue state. He didn't stop them for abandoning him when he needed them most.

Leave Obi alone

Mindlog:
They should use Tinubu to market their candidate.

That will be worse

IgboArePigs:
I hate Osu

Your Monika says it all

Your heart is filled with hate, and I pray you don't get consumed by it.

Godons1:
What has Obaseki don in his 8 years as Governor? Show me Obaseki's projects. No mention FG projects, NDDC projects, Ministry of Nigeria Delta projects and Federal lawmakers constituency projects.

So Edo voters will vote the APC and set their state 20 years backwards just to spite Obaseki

Bibby98:
Edo voters would still vote APC to spite obaseki just as they voted obaseki to spite Adams Monday no just dey campaign na just to spoil obaseki name and palace this palace that them no get any blue print

You mean that the Edo voters would want to vote the APC and set their state 20 years backwards just to spite Obaseki

onuman:
Ohaji-Egbema has never been part of Ikwerre in Rivers state.
One Egbema part conscripted into Rivers state has remained a minority and marginalized. Who wants to be a minority in his/her state?
The man sponsored to write this has pocketed his money from his sponsors.

Honestly, the whole thing is just something else

Ohaji is in Orlu senatorial zone as we speak and someone with some access to the media is ranting about being forcefully subsuming in into Orlu state, How?

seunmsg:
I won’t even blame the lawmaker. No political office holder in the SE who saw how a terrible governor like Peter Obi was transformed overnight to a messiah and best thing since slice bread will ever want to perform.

To be relevant politically in that region, just go about abusing the president, support Ipob, identify as an Obidient, talk more about Lagos and the SW than your own region and keep shouting Igbo marginalization. Thereafter, keep all the money meant for your constituents and give them crumbs like this. In the next ten years, they will say you performed more than Gbajabiamila, Akpabio and Tajudeen Abass put together.

I am not holding brief for the lawmaker but describing the bold are performers is quite funny

It seems anyone with a political office is a performer to you.


You have really lost it all, Seunmsg.

Funflipper:
You guys should learn how to read the signs. It means Tinubu is on the right track otherwise Obasanjo won't wear that cap.

Right track to where?

seunmsg:
I have some already. Thought you might need one as well.

Get some more seunmsg 

At least when your children and their children see that cap, they will know that you played a huge role in the enthronement of the worst regime to have ever emerged in the history of this country. A regime that brought nothing but hunger and starvation from day one.

Nice2023:
I heard the guy has not even won the election,that they have already shared all the post among themselves.

Sharing posts to loot the entire state dry

I pity the people of Edo State if they allow the APC to snatch their state.

Nice2023:
Don't mind them...just like I told my friend yesterday from edo state,don't ever vote APC candidate especially now that they have their man on the sit at aso rock,I told him they will regret it if the APC should ever win Edo.

The worst thing that can happen to the people of Edo State is for them to allow the APC to win. It will be a double tragedy for them.

helinues:
They should consult you about executive order from the presidency?

Which kind of yeye Labour union be this?

Why did Tinubu then set up a tripartite committee to negotiate the minimum wage with NLC/TUC? 

He could have just sent what he feels is a starvation wage as an executive bill to the National assembly without the labour union input.

seunmsg:
You won’t be here crying if you did not find the thread interesting. Should I get you a Tinubu cap?

You need the cap more.

seunmsg:
So, hit or miss? Let’s have your opinion.

For me, it’s a big hit. Looks perfectly good on him.

Out of the mirades of issues bedeviling this country occasioned by Tinubu's calamitous economic policies, it's a cap worn by Obasanjo that deserves a thread by you.

Seunmsg, you have practically lost it all.

.......Labour tells Tinubu

Members of the organised labour have called on the President, Bola Tinub, not to present any figure regarding minimum wage bill to the National Assembly without consulting them and members of the Organised Private Sector.

They also reminded Tinubu-led federal government that workers across all cadres in the country would demand payment of minimum wage arrears no matter how long it takes to sign the new minimum wage into law.

Joe Ajaero, President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and his counterpart from Trade Union Congress (TUC) Festus Osifo, disclosed this to journalists on Thursday on the sideline of the ongoing International Labour Conference at the Palais du Nation in Geneva, Switzerland

Daily Trust reports that the last national minimum wage law, which expired on April 18, 2024, after completing its five-year lifespan, came into effect on April 17, 2019, when the immediate-past President, Muhammadu Buhari signed it into law.

Speaking at the joint briefing, Ajaero explained that it was imperative for workers to demand payment of minimum wage arrears irrespective of when a new national minimum wage law is passed by the National Assembly.

The labour leader stated that labour expects the President to invite tripartite bodies to a meeting where the ability to pay will be discussed before arriving at a final figure.

He said, “We do not expect the President to present a final figure to the National Assembly without consulting with organised labour, employers, and state governors. Everyone will still come together to discuss before transmission to the National Assembly.”

Corroborating what Ajaero said, the TUC President added that even after transmission to the National Assembly, labour will continue to lobby and push for more in its bid to secure the best possible figure for Nigerian workers.

When asked about the exact figure inserted in the report submitted to the President, the leaders of the two labour centres denied knowledge of its full content, insisting that they didn’t append their signature to any report.

“Moreover, we have not seen the content of what has been submitted to the President. We will insist on seeing the content and appending our signatures to every page. We will not append our signatures to any page we are not comfortable with.

“As representatives here, we cannot specify the exact amount until we consult, review the offers, and determine what is fair for Nigerian workers,” Ajaero told journalists.

On his part, Osifo said the reason minimum wage arrears would be demanded was because of growing inflation on a daily basis which he said has impacted negatively on the Nigerian workers.

The TUC President said, “It took about two years to conclude the last minimum wage negotiation. That duration was due to fewer challenges compared to what we face now. Food prices are high, the Naira is devalued, and energy costs have escalated.

“Currently, urgency is paramount. We don’t have the luxury of time. Negotiations began in January this year, and we are already discussing sending a bill to the National Assembly for anew minimum wage law.

“Since April 18, 2024, Nigeria has lacked a minimum wage law. However, I assure Nigerians that labour will demand arrears payment, regardless of when the new law takes effect.”

https://dailytrust.com/minimum-wage-dont-submit-any-figure-to-n-assembly-without-consulting-us-labour-tells-tinubu/

........as Appeal Court delivers judgement


An Appeal Court in Port Harcourt has scheduled a ruling for (today) Friday, June 14, 2024, regarding a case filed by Martin Amaewhule, on behalf of twenty-six others, challenging the decision of the Rivers State High Court, which favored Victor Oko-Jumbo, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly.


Previously, Justice Dagogo Jack of the State High Court ruled in favor of Oko-Jumbo in a suit that restrained Amaewhule and twenty-six others from performing any legislative functions and vacated their seats as Speaker and members of the State House of Assembly.

An interlocutory injunction was also granted against Amaewhule and the twenty-six others, which has now been consolidated in the appeal.


The three-judge panel of the Appeal Court, led by Justice Jimi Olukayode-Bada, after hearing arguments from both parties on Thursday, announced their readiness to deliver a ruling on the matter and instructed all counsels to be present in court by 9 a.m. on Friday, June 14, 2024.

Should the Appeal Court rule in favor of Amaewhule, all laws and bills passed by him and the other members will be validated, and they will resume their legislative functions.

The affected lawmakers are loyal to the FCT Mninister, Nyesom Wike.


https://dailypost.ng/2024/06/14/rivers-assembly-pro-wike-lawmakers-know-fate-today-as-appeal-court-delivers-judgement/

meditator:
Obi, the Agulu fraud played more nonsensical role leading to the mess we find ourselves

You have really lost it all

Anyone that criticizes Tinubu automatically becomes Obi supporter

Godons1:
Make Goodluck Jonathan rest, we no dey vote Obaseki or his stooge, the PDP candidate.

Na APC we go vote for

Make Jonathan rest shey

Na so e happen for 2015, as una rest Jonathan, Nigerians don become restless