₦airaland Forum

Trashy

The average oil price in 1999 when President Olusegun Obasanjo returned as Nigeria’s civilian president was $17.80 per barrel. Our official foreign reserves that year amounted to just $5.4bn. GDP size was $50.48bn which at then exchange rate of N92.69/$ was only N4.6trillion. Throughout Obasanjo’s first term, the highest oil price was $26.10 in 2000, with slight declines to $24.50 and $25.40 in 2001 and 2002. In spite of relatively low oil prices, Obasanjo grew FX reserves to over $10bn in 2001 before falling to around $7.5bn in 2002 and 2003. The exchange rate depreciated by 30% by 2002 falling to N120.97. On the policy front, the main economic achievement of Obasanjo’s first term was telecommunications sector deregulation which transformed Nigeria’s telephony and later internet/data sectors. No rational person will deny Obasanjo the credit for the over 150million active lines in Nigeria today. He also established the EFCC and ICPC. Obasanjo’s main political achievements in his first term were stabilizing our democracy and re-establishing Nigeria in the global community.

Obasanjo recorded more significant economic achievements in his second term, enabled by the arrival of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Charles Soludo, Fola Adeola and others into economic positions. The most important milestones were pension reforms, banking consolidation and the revolutionary Paris Club Debt Write-off. Okonjo-Iweala introduced the oil price rule that enabled the accumulation of “excess crude” savings in addition to our foreign reserves. The “Excess Crude Account” (ECA) starting from nil in 2003 was $24.36bn by December 2006 while foreign reserves were over $42billion totaling over $66billion of sovereign savings. In 2003 average oil prices were still below $30 per barrel and GDP size was only $76.64! It was only in 2006 and 2007 that oil crossed $60 per barrel. The effect of Obasanjo’s reform cabinet on FDI manifested for the first time in 2005 (not surprisingly AFTER (!) the Paris Club Debt Write-off as foreign investment jumped to $5.1bn and $7.7bn in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

Obasanjo’s policy failures were the neglect of the social sector as poverty and unemployment began to rise, and crony capitalism began to entrench its roots. Boko Haram and “Political Sharia” were also birthed under Obasanjo and the public sector began to expand in that era. The signal failure of Obasanjo was not to transform the power sector in eight years; but the irony (and redemption perhaps) was that he laid the foundations for reform through enactment of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act. On the political side, Obasanjo diminished the quality of our democracy with scandalous elections in 2003 and 2007, and his third term bid.

Late President Umaru Yar’adua was in office from 2007 to 2010. His reign was dogged by poor health and eventually cut short by his demise. He also had an economic challenge in the global financial crisis and great recession of 2008-2009. Yet average oil prices ranged between $60-100 per barrel during Yar’adua’s time in power, higher than under Obasanjo. Yar’adua drew down significantly on both the ECA and foreign reserves falling to $6.5bn and $42.3bn by 2009 (having risen to $20bn and $53bn respectively by 2008 a legacy of the Obasanjo cabinet). This depletion of reserves was part-justified as a result of the decline in oil prices during the global recession and part-unjustified because the Yar’adua government wasted substantial time reversing pro-market initiatives of his predecessor and stalling the power sector reforms in favour of an unrealistic $85billion government spending programme pushed by Rilwanu Lukman. Under Yar’adua and as a result of the global recession-induced oil price decline, the Naira was devalued from around N120/$ to about N150/$.

Yar’adua’s most important achievement was the Niger-Delta amnesty which restored oil production after the regime’s attempt to deploy military force failed.

President Goodluck Jonathan enjoyed the bounty of high oil prices ranging from about $80 in 2010 to over $100 per barrel between 2011 and 2014, when oil prices fell again. He initially built-up foreign reserves from $32bn in 2010 to over $43.8bn by 2012 before it began to decline to approximately $30bn by the time he left office in 2015. The ECA also fell to $2bn. As president, Jonathan bore ultimate responsibility for the non-accumulation of reserves during a period of high oil prices, but he can plead some extenuation-first he indeed tried to do so, in fact setting up a sovereign wealth fund to institutionalise same instead of Obasanjo’s illegal ECA, but governors stalled the process in court; the CBN refused to countenance even minor adjustments in currency value as imported consumption (and export of capital by corrupt officials rose); governors (again!) insisted on sharing the illegal excess crude account and persistently used it as political blackmail against the hapless president; and Jonathan and Okonjo-Iweala (who had returned as finance minister in 2011 under less-auspicious circumstances as I presciently warned back then) can argue correctly that they also tried to force savings through conservative budget oil price benchmarks, which the National Assembly consistently raised. Jonathan also bears, more directly, liability for the escalation in corruption, which will also have contributed to decrease in reserves. The biggest embarrassment to Jonathan was seeing fuel subsidies rise from an average of N1trillion to over N2trillion in 2011. In this case as well he tried to fix the problem once and for all through deregulating the downstream in January 2012 but political opponents opposed deregulation, which we have now been forced to adopt under worse economic circumstances.

Nevertheless Jonathan’s policy achievements were important-the establishment of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA); the revival and substantial completion of the power sector reforms; successful reforms in agriculture and trade; GDP rebasing and growth resulting in Nigeria becoming the largest economy in Africa at $510bn; and the exponential increase in FDI crossing $20bn in 2013 and 2014! Politically Jonathan enacted the Freedom of Information Act and ensured free and fair elections including the one that saw to his displacement in 2015! His main failing was his weak leadership which manifested in a festering Boko Haram insurrection and large scale corruption in his government.

By 2015, Obasanjo, Yar’adua and Jonathan all bore varying levels of responsibility for worsening poverty and unemployment as policy pandered to crony capitalists at the expense of the mass, even though Jonathan made modest efforts through Almajiri schools, “You-Win” and SURE-P programmes and investments in the education sector. The cost of governance also escalated with both the executive and legislature to blame.

http://opeyemiagbaje.zone/index.php/2016/08/24/nigerian-economy-since-1999-myths-lies-and-data/

lalasticlala

Lalasticlala & Dominique

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Karm16:
Any Yoruba that offers support this time around is a bastard. Imagine, Wole Soyinka that went to prison because he supported Biafra is being mocked by these ingrates. Yorubas who provided shelters for fleeing igbos were also mocked. Yoruba soldiers who fought on Biafra side were also mocked. So, kini anfani gbogbo iyen?

Don't worry.

When the herdsmen decides to visit you like they have done Enugu, you will understand.

MetaHuman:
if only you preached this when they attacked falaes farm and agatus.

I did..

MetaHuman:
I thought you people have nuclear bombs and warriors to destroy the zoo

Let us stop this Igbo vs Yoruba thing, this matter we have is a very serious one for every Southerner.

Firgemachar:
Y[s]ou are right bro!
They made the whole thing look like Yoruba sat idly by while aboookis attacked. Whereas the attacks were mutual.

They even went as far as regurgigating the same story all through the weekend.
Infact, the abookis even killed an ibo. Yet, it didnt matter to them.

Eventually, the Fulanis apologised on national TV.

Now it's their turn and they are peeing their pants.
What a shame!
RIP to the dead though.[/s]

Did the hausas come with AK 47s

obailala:
These stories cropping up everywhere are now ridiculous; it certainly means that the end is near for these fulani marauders and their age long atrocities.

We have been hearing 'End is near" for like forever now.

So what should we do?

Give this fool a medal?

macof:
of course that nonsense cannot even work in Ekiti. the land in Ekiti has owners and no way an Ekiti man that doesn't sell land to a foreigner to build on or farm will allow his land go to Fulani herdsmen

the Fulanis need to go back to fouta jalon if they need land so much

Southerners have always been killed in the north at the slightest provocation for many years now. Even when a cartoon was drawn in far away Denmark which is in Europe, the hausa/fulani will rose up to kill Southerners and destroy their properties.

A lot of Southerners have relocated from the north so that they can be allowed to have peace and many more over there are making plans to relocate to the South but what I don't understand is why these bloodthirsty demonic invaders from Fouta Jallon have pursued Southerners even to their own ancestral lands.

You stay up north, they gather and kill you when they start up their useless religious riots for very petty reasons.

You leave them and return to the South only to turn around and see AK 47 wielding fulani herdsmen still waiting to rape/pillage and kill.


We need a final solution to the fulani question in this country.

OrlandoOwoh what do you have to say to all these fulani madness

kekakuz:
[s]fulani killed jos people as if there is no government in nigeria,the murdered thousands in nasarawa as if nasarawa is not part of nigeria
the slayed hundreds in taraba but ofcos taraba is far
they slaughtered even muchmore in kwara state and the list goes on. north Central has been suffering from the hands of these dare devil but nobody gave a damn untill its too late.
fulani heard men are evil
they are the manifestation of devil on earth.
they don't forgive
they can't forget
you can't win them
you can't be prepared for their coming
they come in the night like a thief and wipe everyone out
then it's too late to retaliate
because they burnt your schoo mansions and civilization
if you are lucky enough to locate them, you burn their hut which is worth nothing compare to your loss
[/size[/s]]

People like you are the problem in the south, making it look like fulanis are spirits and not humans.

They can die like other men.

Stop all this show of shame trying to strike fear in the hearts of southerners.

We will rise as one and deal with fulanis such that the remnants of them will flee to Fouta Jalon with their tale between their legs.

let them continue..

SirShymmex, Please come give this dude some lectures.

MirabelArode:
All na wash!

The Southerners in the north can no longer be used to blackmail the entire south or SESS into refusing to retaliate killings. You've been killing them since the lugardian era so nothing new. What is new is that the river niger will turn red with you know who's blood as usual (Ref: Danish cartoon reprisal in Onitsha.and Aba) if you continue to ask for southern blood.

There are 44 visa free countries where Southerners can do business, and they are all safer than hausaland and core north in general. So whoever decides that he can not survive without doing business in hausaland is on his own.

They've been warned severally. They still have time to get out now with their lives. Because for peace to reign with bloodsuckers, there should be a balance of terror.

Well said Mirabel.
Although I still will not support the killing of any innocent person.

Beremx:
I hate lizards especially the red neck ones. I saw a dead lizard on a path i always walk in my estate to the market. I have stopped following that path and instead I board keke napep to the market


the fear of lizard is the beginning of fear.

You change your route because of ordinary lizard Berem?

Lord have mercy!

abduljabbar4:
Oga do you know what you are saying? There are over 20 times more ibos in the north compared to the number of northerners in the south east. Don't start what you can't finish

He is from SS not SE.

abduljabbar4:
Criminals should be treated as criminals. If you start killing innocent northerners our people over here will definitely respond. Say no to violence but you stand to lose more

Whatever.

In the end, the country breaks up and we go our separate ways.

Although i will never support the killing of innocent persons like the demonic herdsmen are doing.

OgbonnaUbani:
Our Igbo governors are the real cowards.

I agree.

olapluto:
Oke-Ogun area is very tense now. On every radio station, it is Fulani this, Fulani that! I just hope the security operatives in Oke Ogun are capable of handling the looming show down.

The governor has to call the IGP and the president. I am very worried by the drums of war being beat by the locals. Who approved AK47 as standard herdsmen stick?

Nobody has been able to answer this question.

If a southerner is seen with even a locally made pistol then kirikiri all the way but fulanis move around with military grade riffles-AK47s.

Just imagine.

Beremx:
Ugwuanyi the weeping governor who says his people should fast and pray should take a clue from Ajimobi. In fact all southeast governors must speak up especially Rochas.

nice one Ajimobi

God bless you!

Dollyak:
Any appeal to Buhari is a fruitless exercise. Any subsequent actions by FG cannot erase his slow response (perhaps deliberate) to this Fulani madness. I hope Southerners and middle-belterns would be wise enough to vote a less biased, long sighted and more intelligent candidate in the next elections.

With the way things are going are you sure we can wait till the next elections?

It is people that are alive that vote.

Lalasticlala

Please tell those demonic herdsmen that there will be no free land for grazing.

omenka:
And if I criticise him, all your problems in life would be solved I presume.

I read a million times how you and your kind criticised Jonathan's government for all that was wrong with his admin. Bravo.

#KeepWaiting.

Criticise him and show that your have the interest of Nigerians at heart and not just buhari/APC.

Na wa oo.

Dollyak:
I am curious, why do you lots focus on this miscreants so much? Why does their opinion matter? Majority of die-hard Buhari supporters on nl are impostors who are either Fulani/Hausa or APC paid idiots. No reasonable person would support this acts regardless of where or which tribe they are from.

Not like I see them as important but just curious. It's so surprising.

If you know what the fulanis have done to the MB people you'll be as shocked as me as to why an omenka has never deemed it fit to condemn the president on his handling of this fulani matter.

omenka might be fulani though, I am beginning to doubt he is from Benue state.

omenka:
Come on bro. This aint right! Those are human beings for Christ's!

Gory sights there. This is terrible. Something drastic has to be done to put an end to this wanton barbarism. Life is simply too darn precious to be wasted in this manner.

Why are you yet to condemn the president is has not seen it fit to threaten these demonic herdsmen

Great news.

Abagworo:
[s]Wait for his 1st tenure to elapse before conclusion. Jonathan stayed 6 years doing nothing about it as well as Boko Haram and militancy. Boko Haram is already receiving the heat while that of militants is warming up. The next is the herdsmen crisis. I believe a lot of gains will be made in conflict resolution this period[/s].

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Pennsylvania:
There is no ethical justification for deliberately killing people. It is totally unacceptable.

My question remains: HOW LONG WOULD IT TAKE PRESIDENT OBAMA TO ISSUE A SPEECH ON A MASS SHOOTING IN AMERICA?

Buhari (for the respect of your office) President Muhammadu Buhari let your people know that they got a government. If it was Brussels, you'd have released a page long speech.

Human life is treated like Garbage in Nigeria!!! A Canadian Tourist was beheaded two days ago in Philippines and minutes later the Prime Minister of Canada came on air to address the Country and the international community!
This is the death of just ONE citizen oh!!!

We have a new kind of terrorism that has ravaged villages, destroyed farmlands & properties worth billions of naira, killed almost a thousand Nigerians in recent times, displaced thousands of families, and the Government refuses to declare WAR

You are an enemy of President Buhari if you refuse to criticize him on this one! State Governors, LGC Chairmen, and all elected public officials...The MONUMENTAL shame is also on you and your families!!!!!!

Funny enough, people like Omenka/Ngeneukwuenu have refused to criticise buhari on this demonic herdsmen issue.

At least we know Passingshot/Beremx/Obiagelli's stand on this matter even though they are buhari supporters