₦airaland Forum

idupaul:
Despite sanctions and low oil prices Abacha grew the economy 4% steady every year and the naira never slid against the dollar at all. Compared to Buhari Abacha was a genius.

aarressa:
Aregbe The Champion...



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Jalapa01:
Africa's richest man and business magnate, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has advised the Federal Government on the solution to the current economic recession in the oountry.

Dangote said the Nigeriaa's government would do well to consider selling off the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) company, and other dormant but huge capital-generating sectors, and invest the proceeds in the economy.

He made this known in an interview with CNBC Africa.

According to him, this will bring the country out of recession before the end of the fourth quarter.

In his words, “The only way for us to get out of this recession is to make sure we move into action quickly; action by diversifying the economy quickly.

“If I had challenges in my company, I would not hesitate to sell assets, to remain afloat, to get to the better times, because it doesn’t make any sense for me to keep any assets and then suffocate the whole organisation.

“What we need to do now in my own thinking… we have a lot of assets to sell...continue reading at http://www.bookspen.com/dangote-advises-president-buhari-reverse-economic-woes/

aarressa:
See how Osun defeated the whole of SE?

rozayx5:


the disgrace is now international

goldedprince:
See pipu children oooooooooooo

myopinion2011:
Re: #Changebeginswithme; Mr President, Why Have You Refused To Change?


Mr. President Sir,

I want to at first register my apology ahead, if at any time in the course of this write up I sound offensive with my statements and assertions. For me you remain the GCFR of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to that seat all Nigerians owe a lot of respect. Besides, it is not my words alone, but voices from the Streets and Slums where I and most Nigerians belong.

Your Excellency Sir, your Pride, Dictatorship tendencies and vendetta mission coupled with your lack of economic blue prints and vision destroyed our economy. Your recent campaign of #changebeginswithme is a confirmation of the fact that; firstly, you are clearly not in touch with the current realities, secondly it is an unambiguous demonstration of the fact that you lack clue and economic vision cum direction to solving Nigerian problems.

I do not expect that you fill the pangs of this recession; neither do you ‘enjoy’ the pains Nigerians go through. You sleep and live in a posh house, in the most decent and secure environment in Nigeria. You wake up to meals of your choice, retinues of aides attend to your daily activities. So Sir, like many other past Nigerian leaders you don’t buy anything but get everything - courtesy, Nigerian tax payers’ money.
On your #Changebeginswithme campaign, I want to affirmatively tell you that Nigerians have changed; you are the one who have refused to change. You won your last election not because you were the most qualified Nigerian but because Jonathan had lost his re-election since Jan 1st 2012 when he remove PMS subsidy. Nigerians in their ignorance of the scam that abound in the process by the Cabals took to streets and vow not to return home until the pump price is returned, after then GEJ lost his good will. This same subsidy you flagrantly removed without prior notice and Nigerians did not object. What Change, Love and Support do you want again?

You came on board with your team, increased electricity tariff despite not having adequate of it; Nigerians did not complain. The worst of it all, you technically devalued the Naira which has led to double digits inflation, in the hit of this recession with goods and food items skyrocketing to an all time high. Yet Nigerians, still believing in you, have not taking to street. Sir, what manner of #changebeginswithme do you expect from us again?

Your Honor Sir, you are the one who have refused to change! You refused to change from your old ways of Pride, Tribalism, Nepotism, Religious bigotry, and Vendetta Mission. This has been driving your sense of judgment. You started, by making the most tribalistic, nepotistic, religious and ethnic driven appointments in the history of Nigerian as you assumed office. You know what? This first action of yours divided the country across tribal and ethnic lines and most unfortunately destroyed the party that brought you into power on the platter of gold. APC is dead!!! Hard truth to believe. What we have now is CPC, ACN, ANPP, nPDP. Can four parties control one government? Anybody might want to ask me how party issue affects the economy, then I will tell you that one of the reasons we have poor governance now is because there is no cooperation between those at the helms of affairs. CPC has the Executive, nPDP controls the Legislature; tell me the way forward? Party’s ideology should GREATLY influence governance just like other advance countries; the US and UK.

Your pride made you to make VERY reckless statements at some particular points in time which are not good and healthy for our economy. One of such is the 5% statement at the US Institute of Peace. That those that gave you 5% vote will also get 5% treatment. Mr. President, you goofed!!! Why that kind of statement after elections? Were you still campaigning? This statement is responsible for the renewed and increased agitations for self rule in the South East and South-South regions, for they are the ones who gave you 5% because of their Kinsman Jonathan. They cannot watch you treat them as second class citizens in the very country they claim to belong. You also forgot that one of these 5% people gave you Power voluntarily without recourse to force.

Imagine if you had extended a hand of friendship, and you disappoint them by making someone from either SS/SE your CoS/SGF and mirror the difference it would have made. Experiences have shown that the persons you can trust most is when turn your enemy to your friend and imagine the level of loyalty. But your refusal to #change is responsible for the lack of cooperation from these regions to move Nigeria forward with you, which has led to the destruction of oil facilities and installations. This has severely dealt with our economy after Billion of Dollars revenue shortfall, besides you spend more and over stretch the military personnel in trying to destabilize the so called Niger Delta Avengers and IPOB agitators, coupled with putting the Boko Haram in check.

Still on your refusal to #change and your erroneous believe that you are a saint, you made other reckless statements at your trip to the UN Summit last year, such as; Nigerians are very corrupt and that Nigerian Economy has being destroyed by PDP 16 years of misrule. One of the most unfortunate is the embarrassment you gave Elumelu and Co. in one of your visits. If you care to know Sir, you cannot develop the economy alone. You need the business community more than they need you. Your UN summit statements discouraged investors from coming into Nigeria. And the embarrassment you gave Tony Elumelu and Co. made other domestic investors run from you. The result Sir, is reduced Foreign Direct Investment, worst still investors withdrew their money from the economy. If you care to know, the Stock Market lost #1.732 trillions in your one year in office. Unfortunately and most embarrassing for us, the same Elumelu you treated with disdain, afterwards gave a lecture on Investments in Nairobi, Kenya with the US President Barack Obama present. Your duty as the Father of all include mobilizing all sections of the Country and all Sectors Of the economy for an inclusive economic growth and developments, above all portray your people and the economy in good light whether good or bad - Yorubas will say; eni ti o ba ta ara ile e lopo ko le rira lowon. Meaning if you despised your family members in public, others will join suit. They will also say; a ki n gbo buburu lenu abore. – if the great Seer says he sees doom what will the followers see?

Your lack of economic blue prints and unpreparedness made you to waist six months of our precious time looking for your ‘saint’ ministers. At the very time will needed brains to come together to faction out ways to improve the economy, you were there junketeering around the globe. All we hear from you again is another reckless statement that ministers are noise makers. And these noise makers you now expect them to bring good results after you have portrayed them as useless. A leader does no work other than to ‘mobilize and encourage’. He charismatically leads his followers and they gladly do the thinking for him. Now the so called ministers are afraid to give you ideas for unnecessary fears.

Your war against corruption has being that of vindictive mission and more of media trial to discredit your opponents than sincerity of purpose. Incredibly the economy bleeds for it. Obasanjo toed same path you are now but achieve nothing, only to have corruption fight back. No country across the globe can boast of totally exterminating corruption through your ‘crude’ means. What you don’t know is that abuse of office is part of human nature. So corruption will continue to live as long as human beings liveth. The best way to fight corruption is correcting the system by putting up institutional measures to curb the menace. Instead you run after your opponents and enemies, harass them, even to the extent of flouting court orders – your dictatorial tendencies. Yet you shield your associates alleged of corruption. #buratai saga, Danbazau, job racketeering by CBN, FIRS and budget padding among others have all being swept under the carpet. The most recent is the dollar racketeering by your ministers and top shots in the Presidency being alleged by a formal CBN Governor, the Emir of Kano Lamido Sanusi – no minister or Official has being fired yet. What we heard next was that FG wants to probe formal CBN Governors. The energy and vigor you are suppose to put in reviving the economy, you dissipate it on trivialities.

Your non- being receptive, a product of yet your pride is responsible for utter disregard of warnings and pieces of advice given to you on policy formulations by patriotic Nigerians such as Pat Utomi, Rewane, Charles Soludo among others. For example is the TSA issue. TSA is a good policy, but her implementation is bad. Why allow cash to ‘waste’ away in the CBN vault while the economy needs productive spending to move out of recession. Another one is the forex ban and restrictions on 41 items and the almighty devaluation of naira. Charles Soludo one of Nigerian finest brains in terms of Finance and Economy rebuked all of the above at a lecture in Lagos for Realnewsmagazine.net 3rd Anniversary in Nov. 2015. He said it categorically that these steps will implode the economy, worsening unemployment and poverty level. All theses prophesy are now very much with us today in less than a year. Instead of inviting him….. No I’m sorry, he is from the 5%.

Finally, I will say recession is a normal thing. What goes up must come down. That’s law of nature. When will have boom, we should also expect doom. Doom leads back to boom. Sir congratulations then! Just same way a bad Case makes a good Lawyer, a critical condition makes a good Doctor and that smooth Sea does not make a skilled Sailor, so does turbulent times makes historic presidents. Use this opportunity to ride to victory by imbibing the #changebeginswithme mantra.

Ben Afolami.
A Public Affairs Analyst and Strategist
Akure, Ondo State

ohenhen1:
Waste of money. Do we need a commitee for everything. ?

Benard94:
Send your answers with no e-war..

dmorf:
APC at Work

Deborahj:
President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigeria is “suddenly a poor country” due to significant drop in crude oil prices in the international market since his assumption of office.

Speaking at the state house in Abuja on Thursday while receiving Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and under secretary-general of the United Nations, Buhari said Nigerians are not feeling the extent o of the “severe shortage” because of his administration’s commitment to transparency and accountability.

“It has been a very difficult year for Nigeria,” Femi Adesina, his special adviser on media and publicity, quoted him as saying.

“Before we came to office, petroleum sold for about $100 per barrel. Then it crashed to $37, and now oscillates between $40 and $45 per barrel.

“Suddenly, we’re a poor country, but commitment to transparency and accountability is not making people know that there is severe shortage.”

Asking UNFPA to bear with Nigeria in any area where the country is not living up to its responsibilities for now, Buhari said exploding population and different cultural practices in the country provide fertile ground for research to organizations like UNFPA.

He thanked the UN agency for its commitment to saving lives in Nigeria, particularly of women and children.

On food security, Buhari said reports from the north-east were encouraging, as internally displaced persons had begun returning to their farmlands, with the guarantee of relative security.

Osotimehin, a former minister of health in Nigeria, reiterated UNFPA’s determination to promote health care facilities across the country, noting that reduction of maternal mortality is doable if the country pays more attention to access to health facilities, and the human resources to run them.

He also encouraged Nigeria to commit to providing resources for health care on a rollover basis, pledging that the UN would work with the country to provide humanitarian assistance not only in the north-east “but even extended to the Lake Chad basin.”



https://www.thecable.ng/nigeria-suddenly-poor-country-says-buhari

guyXander:
This he said really makes sense.
Please lalasticlala push this to front page.
This needs to trend and make sense to those who matter.

"Time to Revisit Redenomination
--

Nigeria is officially in a recession but that is not even the troubling thing. The more troubling thing is that our naira is very unstable especially after it was allowed to float.
B
It may take some time for the naira to stabilize or it may never stabilize. But one thing is clear, while the naira is going up and down it will affect businesses.

Businessmen will have difficulty planning because you need stability to plan. Foreign Direct Investors will be wary of Nigeria because they need certainty before they can invest.

Already several international financial institutions including WorldRemit have suspended money transfers to and from Nigeria.

The truth is that if we keep on doing the same thing, we will keep on having the same results. That is just plain commonsense.

We need to do something radical to change our situation for the better.

I recommend going back to the idea of re-denomination of the naira that was floated by the former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Professor Charles Soludo about eight years ago.

That idea was a brilliant one which had worked in Ghana and helped stabilise their currency and boost their economy.

Many Nigerians remember the Ghanaian cedi from the eighties as a very weak currency compared to the Naira. Many of us who are old enough used to laugh at that currency.

However, after Ghana re-denominated the cedi in 2007, the currency bounced back and became stronger vis-a-vis other major world currencies.

In the 80s, one Naira could get you over 40 cedis, but as of today, one cedi would get you 80 Naira. The table has been reversed! The cedi is now stronger than the Naira and Ghanaians are having the last laugh.

One dollar would get you 4 cedis today whereas one dollar could get you almost 400 Naira. But the main difference is in the stability. The value of the cedi remains strong and stable while the Naira is weak and unstable.

Ghana was not the first country to re-denominate its currency. Turkey re-denominated its currency in 2005 and it was a success in fighting inflation.

In fact, before their re-denomination exercise, Turkey suffered from hyper-inflation, but after the Turkish Lira was re-denominated and six zeroes were removed from the currency, their inflation reduced to single digit rates.

China has also re-denominated and their currency now competes with the dollar as a world currency.

Professor Soludo planned the same thing for Nigeria. The naira re-denomination he planned for would have taken two zeros from the Naira meaning that N10 would automatically become 10 kobo while N100 would become N1 and N1,000 would become N10.

The expected result of the re-denomination was that it would neutralize inflation because more currency would be in coins and just the psychological effect of that alone would drive down prices.

Also, one of the major reasons why a currency has or does not have value is the cost of printing it. With the re-denomination, the cost of printing the Naira would have gone down as less high quantity of high denominations of the currency would be printed and be in circulation.

Also, re-denominations immediately drives down the costs of handling cash and book keeping as well as other accounting costs.

The international consulting firm, PriceWaterhouseCoopers noted that the re-denomination of the Ghanaian cedi reduced the cost of doing business in Ghana by, and I quote, ‘reducing the time taken to input financial data and time spent by management in reviewing the same’.

Nigeria has a great economic challenge today. Inflation is now in double digits whereas it was in single digits last year. The purchasing power of the naira is losing value everyday. The naira is exchanging for the dollar at double the cost it did last year. Banks are firing their staff. Businesses are closing down.

If we continue to do the same thing, we will continue to have the same results. It is time to try new ideas.

Over 50 nations have re-denominated their currency. There is enough evidence of the success of this exercise. We do not have to reinvent the wheel. Let us learn from others and save our economy.

Was it not Einstein who said that doing the same things and expecting different results amounts to insanity? We can keep switching from the Dutch Auction System to the Modified Dutch Auction System to stopping the sale of foreign exchange to Bureau de Change and reversing that policy, but where would that leave us? Where has that left us?

And some of the policies we are putting out there just look to me like panic measures which cannot get us the results we are seeking.

Let us do the prudent thing and redenominate and then going forward there should be a convergence of the official interbank rates and the black market rates.

Once we have a redenomination in place, the next thing we will need is for the Central Bank of Nigeria to be truly independent. No more should anybody or institution, no matter how powerful, have a say or any influence on how the CBN directs the monetary policy of the nation.

The CBN governor must be allowed to take decisions without looking over his shoulders. If he is always being second guessed by the executive or by influential captains of industry, he will lose his gumption and his command presence.

This is what happened to Professor Charles Soludo after then President Umaru Yar’Adua intervened to halt his naira redenomination project on the flimsy excuse that Soludo did not consult with him.

Ideally, the CBN governor should consult with the CBN board and the Monetary Policy Committee and once decisions are taken at those meetings, the President should be informed first as a matter of courtesy and not for the purpose of seeking approval from him.

Ideally, it is the Senate that should oversight the CBN and that is why we get regular briefings from both the CBN and the Minister of Finance.

In America, their version of our Central Bank (known as the Federal Reserve), like many other central banks, is an independent government agency that is only accountable to the public through the United States Congress. Neither the US Federal Reserve nor its chairperson are answerable to the American president.

The result of this is that the monetary policy of America is completely divorced from politics. It does not matter whether there is an election or not, if the US Federal Reserve needs to take a decisive action, it takes it.

This same practice is in operation in almost all nations that have a stable economy. The only nations I can think of where the President interferes with the autonomy of the central bank are Venezuela and Zimbabwe, and looking at the state of their currency, I am not sure that is the route Nigeria wants to take.

My name is Ben Murray-Bruce and I just want to make Commonsense!"