₦airaland Forum

By Oluwafunke Ishola

Ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations, prices of tomatoes and pepper have reduced by 55 per cent in most Lagos markets.

At Mile 12 and Iddo markets, a basket of tomatoes which previously cost N9,000 now sells for N5,000, while tatashe and chilli pepper cost N4, 500 and N4,000 respectively, as against N8,000 in November.

A jute bag of Onions sells for N17, 000 as against N28, 000, while a paint measurement of garri costs N650.

Mr Femi Odusanya, Spokesperson, Mile 12 Traders Association, told NAN that the prices dropped due to massive harvest of the items for the Yuletide season.

“Most farmers are harvesting their produce now leading to surplus and drop in prices of the items in the market.

“Our appeal to government is to mop up the excesses through preservation because prices will further drop until April when the produce will not be in season.

“We do not want a repeat of previous experience that we had much food waste due to our inability to preserve the excesses,” he said.

Odusanya urged government to take pragmatic steps that would encourage farmers to increase their outputs to boost food sufficiency in the country.

At Daleko Market, the price of a 50-kilogramme bag of rice ranged between N16,000 and N24,000 depending on its brand.

Mrs Yinka Okunola, a rice seller at the market, said that the prices of rice were high due to exchange rate of the Naira and non-availability of local variety in most markets.

“We do not have the locally produced rice in the market, and when available it competes favourably with the imported rice and forces a reduction in the prices of rice,” she said.

NAN recalls that the Lagos State Government had disclosed that it would commence the sale of its Lake Rice on Dec.15 at N13,000 for a 50kg bag. (NAN)

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/12/yuletide-prices-of-condiments-drop-by-55-in-lagos/


https://www.icampusng.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Mile-12-in-Lagos-iCampus-newspaper.jpg

fash78:
Folks this is my first posting on this thread.
I have the following degrees:

1. BSc Industrial Chemistry - Unilorin
2. PGD Chemical Engineering - Unilag
3. MSc Chemical Engineering - Unilag
4. MSc Petroleum Production Engineering - Robert Gordon University Scotland.
5. PhD Chemical Engineering - starting in 2017 by God's grace. - [i]I am considering a joint PhD program with Unilag and University of Alberta. I already got a Prof in Unilag willing to supervise me and a co- supervisor from University of Alberta.
[/i]
I will be following this thread closely to learn from folks who are presently studying towards their PhD degrees.

How does this joint PhD with 2 universities work?

The economy is tough right now no doubt, but I believe the prognosis is good.

Good day everyone,

This post here is a rejoinder to a topic started yesterday by a certain obiageli titled as above. This rebuttal is only my appreciation of the issues and not an attempt to put anybody down.
Here:

@obiageli and all

Three matters were the most important to Nigerians going into the elections last year:
a. Security viz a viz boko haram threat
B. Corruption, unchecked with impunity threatening to bankrupt and KILL the country and its people.
C. The economy

Now it's easy for people to forget where they were coming from with regards to these three areas. The govt of the day at that time was failing woefully in all the areas. Even people in the South had their hearts in their mouths for the threat of boko haram. Secondly, news of wanton stealing was making a turnaround hopeless in all spheres of our national life. Thirdly the inevitable downward spiral had begun with the finance minister warning as early as a year before election.

Most unbiased folks agree most people outside Borno can now sleep with their two eyes closed as far as boko haram's existential threat is concerned - a success of this govt.

Most unbiased people also agree that brazen corruption with impunity has been given a bloody nose. A larger success could have been achieved if the judiciary had been more cooperative. Thankfully that area too is getting a look-in currently. This success is ongoing.

The third area of the economy is understandably challenging and we hope for a turnaround soon.

Now do you call a govt or a man who has won, or is winning two of three battles a failure?

Understandably, people can now focus and make demands on the economic front only because they don't have to worry about boko haram's threat to their existence anymore!

How easily and quickly we forget!

Yes we have a right and a need to make demands. And Baba and his team need to double up on the third front- the economy, yes. But to say that Baba and the govt has failed or that we made a mistake is a bit uncharitable.

May the GOD Almighty help Baba and bless Nigeria.

---

@obiageli and all
Three matters were the most important to Nigerians going into the elections last year:
a. Security viz a viz boko haram threat
B. Corruption, unchecked with impunity threatening to bankrupt and KILL the country and its people.
C. The economy

Now it's easy for people to forget where they were coming from with regards to these three areas. The govt of the day at that time was failing woefully in all the areas. Even people in the South had their hearts in their mouths for the threat of boko haram. Secondly, news of wanton stealing was making a turnaround hopeless in all spheres of our national life. Thirdly the inevitable downward spiral had begun with the finance minister warning as early as a year before election.

Most unbiased folks agree most people outside Borno can now sleep with their two eyes closed as far as boko haram's existential threat is concerned - a success of this govt.

Most unbiased people also agree that brazen corruption with impunity has been given a bloody nose. A larger success could have been achieved if the judiciary had been more cooperative. Thankfully that area too is getting a look-in currently. This success is ongoing.

The third area of the economy is understandably challenging and we hope for a turnaround soon.

Now do you call a govt or a man who has won, or is winning two of three battles a failure?

Understandably, people can now focus and make demands on the economic front only because they don't have to worry about boko haram's threat to their existence anymore!

How easily and quickly we forget!

Yes we have a right and a need to make demands. And Baba and his team need to double up on the third front- the economy, yes. But to say that Baba and the govt has failed or that we made a mistake is a bit uncharitable.

May the GOD Almighty help Baba and bless Nigeria.

GOD bless the president.

GOD protect the president.

PaulIdu:
Stupidity is the oil required to keep the Ponzi scheme machine going on perpetually and Nigeria has an abundance of it so don't be suprised if Nigeria eventually gets the record for the longest running MMM scheme

...and greed.

And yes maybe the bad state of the economy.
But one needs to ask where the money comes from.

Pls note that the analogy narrative is not OP's original property. Credit goes to 'anonymous'.

jerrywool:
Preach brother, Preach
E go soon clear for their eyes.

Yes we need to preach it because when half of the country's able bodied young men and women become money doublers and abandon real productive pursuits, all of us would bear the brunt.
Moreso, when it comes crashing, their anguish cry and wail would not allow us sleep well.

This MMM thing has blown the cover of many folks who lay claim to virtue and decency.
Make thirty percent every thirty days with no known investment, no trade nor any paid service rendered and these money doubling folks don't like to ask " where's the money coming from?

Pls stop and think.

The Muslims involved especially should repent ask the forgiveness of their Lord. This scheme is haram. Simple.

The Monkey Money Madness! (MMM)

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced that he would buy monkeys for N100 each. The villagers seeing that there were so many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at N100 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts. He further announced that he would now buy at N200. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to N250 but the supply of monkeys became so little that it took much effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch one.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at N500! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, his assistant told the villagers: ''Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that my OGA has bought from you, I will sell them to you at N350 and when my OGA returns from the city, you can sell it to him at N500''.

The villagers squeezed out all their HARD EARNED savings and bought all the monkeys. The most greedy ones among them even sold their lands to purchase many MONKEYS, hoping to make a huge profit without labor.

Then...

They never saw the man or his assistant. Only monkeys everywhere!

Welcome to MMM. The world of Monkeys!

Be wise

I can't see anyone shouting Christianization of Nigeria on this thread.

Here the country's V.P is on the altar of probably the biggest chuerch in the country, a day after hosting a body of apostolic clergy, but it's not big deal.

It is no big deal because we've always known he's a Christian and a pastor before becoming the VP.

But if this was the president, some bigoted rabble-rousers would have filled the air with some half-witted cry of islamization. Bigotry + hatred is lethal.

Were are the avengers? ?

The modify button is invented for a reason!

barackodam:
The former

Actually the former but without the 't' sound

May Allah preserve the scholars of the Deen and keep us on the Truth and Guidance.

The scholars have given a fatwa.

I, though, as long as there are alternatives to these achoolic perfumes, would rather choose to use the alternatives even if a bit more expensive or less effective.

BTW, can one also extend this argument to their use as preservatives in cakes, bread and other food items since no matter how much bread or cake one eats, one would not be intoxicated? Or that's over the top?

Anyway, my reference in this and similar matters always is the Hadith of Nu'man bn Basheer: alhalaal bayyin, walharaam bayyin, wabaynahuma umuurun mushtabihaat... Whoever avoids these doubtful matters protects his Deen... Ref Hadith 2 in Imaaam Nawawi's selection.

Wa-LLahu a'laam wahuwal musta'an.

Yes, it's good to be bold to speak truth to power. And the society needs such people.

Speaking truth to power though, is not the same thing as insulting people, especially those in authority.

This chap went beyond criticizing, crossed the line into outright insults and name mentioning - that's silly!

I dare any of you cheering him on to do same to your lecturers and VCs or your bosses at work. - mention their names and tell them their education is a waste and that they use the office's reputation and space as a brothel to sleep with girls.

Come back here to show us your commendation/promotion letters.

This chap was not brave, he was silly.

MadamExcellency:
I am sorry for quoting your comment in the first place. Be that as it may, please never quote my comment again in your life with this or similar stupid question.
You think everybody on Nairaland is ignorant, deluded and mischievous as your class.
Get lost and dare not quote my comment again.

Get a life! Internet big madam.

So madam, where is the infrastructural development by GEJ?

MadamExcellency:
Lagos State under Fashola was doing quite well and yet never saved but borrowed beyond record, which means no one saves for another when there is need for infrastructural development begging for attention.
Secondly, your figures are all wrong.

So madam, where is the infrastructural development by GEJ?

Why do some people hide behind a finger? Is it deliberate self-deceit or just chronic lack of cognition?

Yaradua in 2 yrs took the reserve from 42 billion to 68 billion.
GEJ in 4 yrs with crude price averaging 100 dollars per barrel fritted it all away!
Even with oil at 50 dollars last May he had to borrow to pay salary.

GEJ and co laid the sad foundation for the present challenges but you lot shout: dullard! dullard!

If you cant understand this clear fact, you're either blinded by hate or sadly ignorant.

Simon gave each party it's blame.

Double post

Simon Kolawole: Buhari Didn’t Inherit A Healthy Economy From Jonathan. Let’s Get That Straight


http://www.africanliberty.org/simon-kolawole-buhari-didnt-inherit-a-healthy-economy-from-jonathan-lets-get-that-straight/

Simon Kolawole: Buhari Didn’t Inherit A Healthy Economy From Jonathan. Let’s Get That Straight

JULY 24, 2016 BY EDITOR



If you were a lover of reggae music in the 1970s, you would certainly know “Time Hard”, a hit song by The Pioneers, the Jamaican three-man band. “Everyday,” they sang, sonorously, “things are getting worse.” That song was released in 1972. At the time, Nigeria was producing two million barrels of crude oil per day and selling at an average price of $1.8 per barrel. We were not yet oil-dependent, so the revenue was basically a bonus. By 1974, oil was selling for $11, six times the 1972 price, and our stomach ballooned. We became helplessly hooked on petrodollars. The only song Nigerians could be singing was: “Things are getting better.” The Pioneers would not sell.

But their song still became very relevant in the early 1980s. Average oil price fell from $34 in 1981 to $32 in 1982 and $29 in 1983, meaning serious trouble. Oil boom had sent us into an expenditure overdrive and overkill. We had taken on massive projects, importing recklessly and accumulating debts like medals. Our foreign reserves began to sink as we struggled to import basic food items, such as rice and milk. President Shehu Shagari tried to stay afloat through a “stabilisation plan” that cut spending, reduced imports and hiked duties. After the 1983 elections, the government could no longer pretend. The economy went berserk. Things fell apart.

This is 2016 and the symptoms persist. In fact, our economy has been on a downward spiral since late 2014 when oil prices started plunging. It became more pronounced in 2015, and it appears we are now breaking records as we wake up everyday. Are The Pioneers singing in the background? The naira is officially at its worst since it replaced the pound as national currency in 1973; oil production has plunged from 2.2mbpd to probably its lowest in 10 years; FX reserves are going south; inflation has gone wild; and we are just awaiting figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to confirm that we’re officially in a recession — first since 1987.

There are four points I would like to highlight as we discuss the state of the nation this morning. One, we cannot deny the fact that the crash in the price of crude oil is what got us into our current gridlock. We classically got carried away by the recent oil boom and failed to learn our lessons. Now history is mercilessly repeating itself. Two, Buhari did not inherit a healthy economy, contrary to whatever the critics say. Three, Buhari may not have been quick enough with his response to the economic crises since he assumed office, but there are no easy answers. Four, and this is the one that scares me silly, we may be in for a prolonged drought.

Here we go. My first point. If Buhari inherited crude oil price at $80 per barrel, with production levels remaining at over 2mbpd, the story would certainly be different. We have to face that fact without sentiments. The exchange rate, both official and parallel, could still be below N200/$1; our reserves would still be fairly healthy because of the war chest; and — with subsidy — petrol would still be less than N100 per litre. Prices would stabilise. Foreign investors would likely remain attracted to us and the stock market would be bubbling. In other words, the relative growth we have enjoyed over the years owed largely to high oil prices.

Indeed, President Goodluck Jonathan was unable to build robust reserves in the time of boom — and this is very significant. Under President Olusegun Obasanjo, the highest price oil sold for was $60, and production was less than 2mbpd for the most part. He parted with $12 billion to settle foreign debts, and still left FX reserves of $43 billion, out of which $9 billion was excess crude savings. Under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, oil went up and down, hitting $147 per barrel at some point, and sinking to $31 at its lowest. With that, Yar’Adua raised FX reserves to $62 billion by September 2008 — the highest in our history.

This is where the Jonathan team loses the argument. Oil sold for between $70 and $120 during his first four years in power (2010-2014) before the downward slide to $50 in 2015, when he left office. If our reserve management was anything like what we had under Obasanjo and Yar’Adua (when, by the way, Professor Chukwuma Soludo was the CBN governor), Jonathan could have left at least $100 billion in the reserves. If Buhari had inherited such a hefty kitty, the naira would not be gasping for breath today. Clearly, our failure to build an FX war chest in the time of plenty exposed us to the infectious diseases we are battling with today.

Why couldn’t Jonathan build robust reserves? One, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former finance minister, kept crying that Nigeria was bleeding from oil theft. Nobody listened. Over 400,000 barrels were being stolen daily. Two, NNPC failed to remit billions of dollars to CBN coffers. The man formerly known as Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, then CBN governor, raised the alarm. We didn’t listen. Three, governors opposed crude oil savings, saying it is unconstitutional. Four, we maintained an artificial value for the naira for long, insisting we had “robust reserves”, but our appetite for imports was more robust. We failed to curtail the appetite because we were awash with dollars.

Our aggressive spending during the last oil boom is coming back to bite us. Instead of spending the oil wealth to deepen and regenerate the economy, we ran amok, bloating the civil service and turning political appointments to a sub-sector. The governors were hiring jets every minute to attend political meetings. Nigerians were buying jets like pure water. How many people were sending their children to foreign schools in 1999 compared to, say, 2014? We believed we had all the forex to buy the world. We totally savaged the economy. This is not about Jonathan alone — it was a national pastime: from councils and states to the colossal federal government.

My third point. Though Buhari did not inherit a wonderful economy, his ideological hangovers prevented him from acting on time to stem the tide. It’s like cancer. If you leave cancer stage one untreated, it gets bigger, and moves to stage two. Untreated, it gets worse and moves to stage three. And, finally, it gets to stage four where it has spread to other organs. The economy was probably at stage two when Buhari took over, but he felt chemotherapy would be too painful for the masses that elected him into office. Now the cancer is spreading and killing jobs and shredding the naira and shrinking the economy. That is the consequence of delayed adjustment.

My fourth and final point. Since we are still hopelessly sold to oil, and production is getting smaller by the day as a result of militant activities, I think The Pioneers will have to do a remix of “Time Hard”. Things will get even worse before they get better. You don’t transit from oil economy to industrial/service overnight. If we couldn’t do it in 40 years, I don’t expect us to do it in one year. Or even four years. Except oil recovers miraculously, this carnage will continue. Sadly, the bad situation is worsening because of socio-political tensions: the herdsmen, the Niger Delta militants and Biafra. Meanwhile, APC, the ruling party, is enmeshed in a civil war.

Where do we go from here? I honestly pity President Buhari. Despite shifting ideological grounds on the exchange rate and fuel price, the economy is still nowhere near recovering. The truth is that we are in a bad place and there are no easy ways out. It is a peculiar mess. The tasks he must face squarely now are critical. One, how do we first stabilise the economy and stop this bleeding? Two, where is the recovery road map so that the average Nigerian can hope for light at the end of the suffocating tunnel? Three, how do we ensure that if there is another oil boom, we will utilise it intelligently and finally escape from what I call the “petropathetic” syndrome?

It is very easy to point accusing fingers at Jonathan for mismanaging the economy or Buhari for not finding a quick fix, but maybe we should begin to look at the mirror as well. With oil boom, we were living false lives, holidaying in Las Vegas and holding weddings in Dubai with unearned or dubiously earned income, pretending to be rich when it was all a bubble. Now the bubble has burst. We can see clearly now. As Buhari seeks to reform the economy, we too must discipline our appetite and endure the inescapable pains of adjustment. Without another oil boom, recovery is going to be slow and painful. But in due season we shall reap — if we faint not.

Simon Kolawole is a writer and journalist and Founder/CEO of The Cable

Same is published here by this much respected and reputable source.

Nigella Sativa Concoction Induced Sustained Seroreversion in HIV Patient
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › PMC3847425

While fortunate people see hope and possibilities, sad and unfortunately ones see only gloom and doom.

I pray and hope the researchers and the public get the maximum benefits of the possibilities.

Freiden:
Another LAI MOHAMMED

adejaresalami1:
Piles of hallucinations....still can see some somewhat true sha.

Oh yes because it is not coming from your lords and masters in western universities.

ClintonDal:
This op is quite senseless, I believe you're the one who lacks primary comprehension of spoken and written English. Full stop, comma and other punctuation marks gives some level of meaning and interpretation to words spoken or written. If you can read that line again I see a full stop after Buhari spoke about the Perm Secretaries then he started another sentence in reference to his campaign then ending the sentence by saying and I quote, " Whatever we did in the campaign, in fact we were saying rubbish and that made it very difficult for us. So i'd like the Op who believes he is well versed in English language to come explain for me how this last statement in anyway connects to what he said concerning the permanent secretaries. Thank you!

No, I'm not senseless.
LOL. You are talking about punctuation, come on, think! A journalist at The Cable wrote the article and used the punctuation as he deemed appropriate, not PMB.
Now we blame PMB and OP for punctuation used and not used by a journalist!

Oh! Or you listened to him (PMB) say those words with the punctuation?

Oluwamuyeewa:
O ga o
And you get pale for house so? Even if you don't have you sef go be papa one day..show some respect..if your dad ever get to become the president which I doubt will ever happen(pun intended)..how will you feel waking up up hear someone who have never been in the news call him an "old fool"
Smh

you shouldn't have bothered responding to that poster
some posts and posters are better ignored

Lilimax:
@ OP, what is your sole aim for this thread?
Can you cover up lies with lies
Mbanu!

Truth is very straight and will set you free.

I believe its folks that are compulsive and career liars that go about accusing everybody of telling lies. I don't think you are either.

Show me the lie in the OP if you are honest.

SamJed:
This is what he said...

“We had to cut down half the number of permanent secretaries and then do some cross postings. The permanent secretaries that were there for the past five, seven, 15 years the only thing that they know is how things were done in the previous years. Whatever we did in the campaign, in fact we were saying rubbish and that made it very difficult for us.


whether or not he meant that the apc were saying rubbish or that the perm. secretaries said it, the truth remains that with all that is going on now, all the apc's campaign promises were...




RUBBISH

you don't have to agree with the president or his party on their performance, but to twist his statements to serve mischievous purposes is indecency.
And anybody that believes a president, any president, would come out declare that he was saying rubbish in the campaign really needs to be pitied. Maybe in a light mood, yes. But seriously, come on, think again.

Do not incite against others with lies and half truths, it could turn full circle to come back at you.
What goes round comes round.

Earlier today (31st may), a certain topic appeared on this board titled "We Were Saying Rubbish During The Campaign" - President Buhari.
The OP posted 'The Cable' online news-media as his source and the thread was pushed to the front-page by some mod.
In fact, though, 'The Cable' never titled the article as the OP did, but rather as "I feel pity for Lai Mohammed" -says-Buhari

The part of the article that the OP picked on to spread the misinformation and aided by the mod that pushed it to the front-page is as follows:

“Most of the permanent secretaries were sent out because it was time for some of them to go and for others for one thing or the other. Because were not part of those 16 years this is where we found ourselves and this is no joke.

“We had to cut down half the number of permanent secretaries and then do some cross postings. The permanent secretaries that were there for the past five, seven, 15 years the only thing that they know is how things were done in the previous years. Whatever we did in the campaign, in fact we were saying rubbish and that made it very difficult for us.

“Things were even more difficult during the budget which you all know about. For somebody like me, for the first time I heard what is called padding.


Now it is either the OP and his army of co-travelers on that thread are challenged with comprehension or they are deliberately and mindlessly mischievous and seeking to incite against the president.

The statement of the president should be clear to anybody with a decent education and a claim to literacy that he was talking about the attitude of the perm secs who had spent several years doing things the old way and the only way they knew how. These perm secs could not care less about all the promises of change that the president and his party were making on the campaign trail. In fact to them -these perm secs and directors of MDAs - all the talk of change were all rubbish. He said this was the reason many of them had to be relieved and others were even bold enough to 'pad' the budget - something he (the president) had never heard of in all his years in public service).

Summary: "The permanent secretaries believed we were saying rubbish" Comprenez?

This without doubt is what the president was reported to have said. The obvious twist is either a deficit of comprehension skill or a deficit of moral decency. I suspect the latter, though.


May I also request that this 'explanation' thread also deserves to be seen by all by being given the attention necessary on the front page. Thanks, sir.

Shame on all ignorant but loud haters of decency!

Comprehension problem or mindless mischief!

The president was referring to the civil servants with entrenched interests in the MDAs. He said as far as these directors were concerned, they (APC) were only saying rubbish on the campaign trail because they (the directors) were determined to continued their old ways of doing things since it's the only way many of them knew.