₦airaland Forum

obicentlis:
Buhari is seriously at the cross road now on what to do.

If he finally deregulates the downstream sector, all of hailers will migrate to wailers.

If he continues with this secret subsidies, he will eat his vomit and a lot of people will come for him.


If he increases the pump price, that's the end of his govt because a lot of hailers will migrate to wailers.


In short, I pity Buhari. He caused his problems by over promises and over hyping by his followers, which I was.

The silly guy should have deregulated when crude oil was $30. We would have got used to the weekly price movement by now. And there would have been time for people to get it out of their system before the next elections. Now the guy is between a rock and a hard place. If he tries it now, the backlash will play into the hands of the PDP, who have suddenly found their voice.

Poor strategy from largely illiterate people in government.

chronique:
How many barrels a day, would dagote's refinery produce, to stop importation of fuel? Why do we just have fools at the helm of affairs?

About 650,000 barrels a day, which is double entire existing capacity of 4 refineries. And yes it should meet the entire national requirement.

Seems you are the f--l for not being informed of what is in the public domain. Read the papers and watch channels news once in a while dude!

PapaBrowne:
Because Dangote is building a refinery, you guys are having mouth.

Isn’t it a terrible shame that you guys(a whole federal government) cannot even repair a single refinery and yet one individual can build a whole refinery with his hard earned money.

This is the worst government in Nigeria’s history. They have nothing to show for 3 years of misrule so they look for things others have done and begin to lay claim. When they feel Dangote is not thier friend, EFCC will suddenly remember that his refinery was built on fraud or forgery or some other thing they can’t explain.

I'm not aware that the American or British governments own and /or directly operate any refinery. So yes, there is nothing wrong with dangote going into that space. The only issue is that there is no competition, but then we have given many people refinery license before dangote, but they all wanted to be lifting crude and make easy money. Not really to build a refinery. So whose fault?

authenticman:
@ the bolded, so if the marketers made above normal gains during period of lower crude price, good conscience demands that they accept the current price pending when we have full deregulation.

Who does business based on conscience? When profits are to be made, you do business. The moment business stops being profitable, you close it down. That's the reality.

Despite all the disparaging of Buhari in the comments above, the truth of the matter is that THE ONLY WAY we can have long term security of supply of PMS is for the thing to be FULLY DEREGULATED. It's a choice we have refused to implement as a nation from time immemorial, so blaming Buhari for it makes no sense. The truth is we had more fuel shortages under Jonathan and Obasanajo than we have had under Buhari.

In our hearts we also know the truth as citizens, but we prefer to put our head in the sand thinking that by some magic and fiat, government can keep the price stable even when crude prices are rising! And also without incurring subsidy? Impossible. No one can cheat the basic laws of economics. Our case is like that of calling a cow "Bros" so we can eat meat!

The government also knows the truth, but for the sake of politics and votes, they are afraid to do the right thing. The smart thing to have done when doing the silly price modulation was to have done full deregulation. At that time crude prices were USD30 and we could have used all this time to let the deregulation sink in. By now we'd have been used to it.

It makes far more economic sense to deregulated fully, remove inefficiencies, profiteering etc and rather pay an extra transport allowance to workers and work to improve transportation efficiencies.

And for those who shout about the additional difficulties that deregulated petrol will cause, in my view those are exaggerated. Food comes to the cities via trucks that use diesel, so no real impact. Yes transportation within cities are done mostly via petrol cars, but government could have a 5 year program to swap these for LPG powered cars which cost much less to operate daily. For the masses to we often say petrol will make them worse off. In my view also exaggerated cos most of the village folk use kerosene much more, which is also deregulated. For me a simple solution to help them would be to encourage use of gas. Because kerosene is all they know, no one has done the research and come to the conclusion that perhaps gas is a cheaper alternative. All they need is the upfront burner and small student cylinder of N10k

I suspect though that government thought it could ride the wave of low crude prices till Dangotes refinery was operational. Whether or not dangotes can operate the refinery at a profit selling petrol at N145 with crude prices at the current level remains to be seen. One key cost component - labour- will be priced in Naira and not subject to exchange rate etc, which will help with price stability, but the crude stock will always be benchmark against the USD price, even if he has to pay the naira equivalent for it.

Hello. I've been a bit fixated on the 2016/17 Lexus ES 350 for some time now, with a 2018 purchase. What's the pricing like please?

gocac:
This would be the death sentence of Buhari's 2019 ambition.
Should there be 1naira hike in fuel pump price,
Then it is over and out for the APC led government.

Because, even the APC members themselves will cry like a baby, at the filling station.
For me i will not cry, because i have always know that this government is useless to me and my likes.

You can't cheat the laws of economics. If economics dictates that N145 is no longer economical based on the price of crude, then not much can change that - except we want to acknowledge that we will be subsidizing. The smart thing to do would have even to deregulate when the rude prices were so low. But the politicians who had just got into government were too scared to do so. That is the only solution. Dangotes refinery may make the price per litre a bit cheaper because at least his Labour cost will be in naira, and all transportation will also go out of the equation. but if crude prices should ever go to say usd 100, even he might not be able to break even at N145.

The only way forward is to deregulated the damned thing.

PDPGuy:
For me, Bianca Ojukwu, Chukwuma Soludo, and Peter Obi are easily the most sellable persons from the SE.

Bianca and Soludo would be the ‘safest’ choices because although they are both technocrats, they also do not have a cult of political followeship or a huge political machinery that could challenge a President Atiku.

Bianca is a lawyer and has a Masters degree in International Relations. She also served as Nigeria’s ambassador to Spain for three years, from 2012-2015. She definitely has the requisite intellectual capacity and executive/foreign policy experience to be part of the PDP’s presidential ticket.

Peter Obi and Soludo will be long shots due to their charisma and political machine in Anambra. As the history of Nigerian politics has shown, with the exception of OBJ, the running mate has always been someone who is quiet and unassuming eg GEJ, Osinbajo, Ekwueme etc.

Then, if Atiku decides to serve only one term, Bianca owould be in a great position to run for the presidency in 2023.

The fact that the she has a masters and was an ambassador doesn't in itself day much!!

ELgordo:
Omo na to release inside them 2

And 12 people liked this!! Disappointing!!!

ElPadrino33:
So being a Billionaire's driver for 20 years is stagnation ? The man and his family are probably living finer than most of you haters. I'm sure he doesn't lack anything

Dont mind them. Where are most of them working and how long have they been working there?

So Kola Abiola is still alive!! Where has he been all these days

Milllz:
All year they have been seizing bulletproof cars.

I’m yet to understand the rationale behind this or what makes the cars liable to be seized. I hope they’re not just trampling on the work of honest hardworking people like in the days of OBJ just to announce a 1trn Naira revenue.

Unless these cars are stolen, anyone who imports these expensive vehicles clearly has enough funds to legally clear them.

I don't get it either.

emmie14:
Why all these changes only during Christmas? While not after Christmas? . How does the removal of subsidies really affected the common people in Nigeria? The suffering and insufficiency is still the same. The problem of Nigeria with dilapidated refineries didn't start in 2012. Corruption in the presidency and NNPC is the problem in Nigeria including citizens who base their political analysis on religious and tribal sentiments. Not the policies of 2012.

Haven't we had fuel crisis at other times besides Christmas before!? The guy you quoted is saying the truth. I suspect that due to higher crude prices, the N145 does not pay most marketers again and they have stopped importing. It could be that for some reason they tend to slow down during year end to pay dividends. That's just a speculation though.

But we saw diesel come down to N150 when crude was around $40 and it recently went as high as N220 before settling again at N200. Why has diesel never been scarce in years? When you agree to pay the prevailing price for petrol, it will never be scarce. Same applies for electricity by the way.

luvinhubby:
Which perennial problem?
5yrs of GEJ witnessed no fuel queues despite selling fuel at ₦97

Nigerians last started experiencing fuel queues September 2015 till around March 2016 when Buhari increased pump price of fuel to ₦145 & we are still experiencing fuel queues with it.

Don't be silly. There were a number of fuel queues during GEJ's time. Especially in the Eastern and northern part of the country, but even in Lagos as well even if not very serious. Fuel supply in SE actually got better when Buhari came into office.

No ES350 or GS350?

I had hopes for Ezenwa's before, but the truth is that he will expose us at a world cup.

I support minimum wage increase only for the lowest cadre staff! Staff of NNPC, CBN, NPA, NCC and all these other agencies and parastatals that already pay decent salaries should not get ANY increase.

Also, a lot of staff should be sacked/retired, and what would have been used to pay them used to increase the salaries of the lowest cadre of staff in order to ensure that the FG wage bill does not increase in-spite of increase in minimum wage. However, all those to be sacked should be paid their gratuity/severance IMMEDIATELY!!

I would rather have a motivated and delivery focused staff strength of 25,000 who are paid well enough to live decently, pay school fees, buy an average car etc, than a staff strength of 100,000 who are mostly poorly paid, and have to beg visitors and customers for money and frustrate them to the point of dropping bribe and who refuse to use their intellect to work.

These are the types of people FIRS should be hunting down to pay personal income tax of 25%. If you check well this guy is not paying any tax.

If this doesn't tell us that we are the most eveil and corrupt nation on earth, I don't know what will.

Even if the officials stole the bag, what about the common man on the street selling it that complains that government is not working? Why can't he make a complaint to the police or EFCC.

The truth is that if 95% of people on Nairaland who make so much noise about corruption get into public service, they will also steal money. It's just how we have become wired in the country. We are mostly all without a soul!!

Even in private sector we are corrupt! We care only for ourselves and immediate family! We are really a useless nation!!!!

Why the hell does this guy have 3+ fully equipped police men guarding him

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/kano-emir-s-firm-dangote-nnpc-to-build-1-1bn-power-plant.html

After all the argument, this article doesn't suggest that it's the FG to build it. It's really a brainchild of Mobil producing in conjunction with Nnpc as JV partners. Means the design and costing would have been done by Mobil. FG doesn't have much stake other than to drop its share of the cash.

Now that's not still to say that it's not inflated, but I know for a fact that the major oil companies tend to overdesign.

I have seen a project costed by an oil major for one and a half times the cost of a smaller player.

All said and done, a few reasons why it Could still be genuinely overpriced.

Logistics - our ports, roads etc are so inefficient that is is really expensive to move equipment around. I saw a few posts comparing with Tanzania, but don't be surprised that Tanzania has a better port and road infrastructure than we do. After all, isn't conotnou port better than Lagos.

Beureacracy - our government processes are so slow and incompetent that any company working in Nigeria would price in the additional risk from delays caused by red tape.

Corruption in govt - to get your licence and permits, you need to bribe much more than almost everywhere else in Africa, not to talk of the world.

High use of expats. - Sadly we don't have people who can Utl lilies the highest technical and technological skills.

Security- the extra cost of security in Nigeria, especially in the Niger delta is very high.

Community-another major issue. Communities sieze equipment until marching ground is paid etc. Another significant cost.


High interest rates

Potential for devaluation of the naira that could impact the project.

There are probably a few more and the truth is that all of these could be a major risk to the project and it will all be priced into the project.

arinzeejikonye:
The cost is even better than that azura edo ipp,

Awarded at same $1 billion in 2014, for 450 mega watts

And Azura is private mind you!!

Obi1kenobi:
As always, not a surprise, he reveals the root of his weird fury.
Again, posting some comment on a forum while on the move doesn't entail that I have to spend my time rehashing online documents to bolster my argument. You're free to disagree with my claims and free to refute them (even though foaming in the mouth like a rabid dog while shouting "IPOB" doesn't count as a rebuttal) yourself, but as I already said, you're entitled to what you believe. There a million and one articles online critiquing the inflated costs of Nigeria's infrastructural projects, including from international observers. Whenever you can wipe the foaming dribble off your mouth and breathe normally, you can find them. I have no interest in indulging keyboard warriors today.

Can you guys chill!! Funny thing is both of you are correct. Yes contracts are inflated in Nigeria for corrupt reasons, but even if you exclude corruption, similar projects in Nigeria would cost considerably more than the equivalent in Europe cos we indeed lack efficient logistics, manpower, industrial base, manufacturing capacity etcs

Can you imagine the cost of clearing and transporting a turbine from Lagos to Kano? I could probably get the same turbine from Korea to UK in half the time and half the cost.

One reason why I like Lagos state. I don't recall seeing any abandoned project by LASg since Tinubu time till now. Okay one comes to mind now, the housing project at Ilubirin. But for the many projects that Lagos state government does, their rate of completion is quite high.

Total waste of money. Ibadan airport is not viable, even with a far larger missile class. It's now osogbo airport that will be viable!?

In my opinion, this is fake news.

Nigeria is officially finished,!!

For me a good match in 2019 would be Tinubu Elrufai or the other way around. The only issue is both are too big to be vice to the other, except the agreement is that the other goes for president after the other.

My next best duo if that one won't work is El Rufai Donald Duke. But the truth is that APC needs a strong northerner on the race to counter PDP's northern candidate. Cos the truth is that these aboki's will only vote for themselves enough en masse, except their is no northern candidate at all.

Blizzy9ja:
I commend the boys in the creeks for their boldness and gallantry. If the current status quo is not changed, then the pipes should go up in flames, you cannot borrow money to develope the north for the south to pay

I'm amazed that 64 people liked this! It just shiws how many if us are blinded by ethnic, tribal sentiments and how uneducated, semi illiterate and incapable of using out brains we are in this country!

First if all if the World Bank is funding something, how does the comment about using oil money of the south to develop the North e environment apply!!

Also how many people here have been to the north to see the level of deprivation there, not to talk of the north east post boko Haram! Trust me regardless of what Nigeria is going through, the south west, south east and south south is heaven compared to north east. So in terms of development, if we remove any sentiment, that is where World Bank should be focusing. Maybe it's because our media have done a poor job in covering the state of the North East, but if you remember pictures of famine ravaged kids in Somalia in the 80's,then you have an idea.

Let's use our brains for what it was designed for... to THINK, ANALYZE AND APPLY LOGIC in decision making for goodness sake.

If FG only owns 40%, is it really a game changer if they sell even all of their stake? After all, somebody already owns 60% and is the majority investor already.

LordAdam16:
Seems many of you can't argue constructively.

Here's my reply to another commenter making the same baseless comparison

"Amazon, Apple, Facebook et cetera are global corporations. The short form of what they do is that when they make sales, they forward the money to a low-tax jurisdiction where they often have tax arrangements with the country. Their country of choice is typically Ireland. And so avoid paying huge taxes in any country they operate in.

That's why Apple has more than $200b in off-shore accounts. If they moved that money to the US, the Feds would take at least 30% ($60b). And that's the reason why DT wants to reduce it to 10%, so most of that cash can be transferred back to the US.

Dangote's case is very different. It is a Nigerian company with 90% of sales occurring in Nigeria. He took advantage of a loophole (the pioneer status is not the main issue, it's using it multiple times for the same plants after the five years has expired). I'd defo do the same thing if I was in his shoes, as it is not a crime per se. Capitalism and morality as I said earlier don't mix.

But it is an unfair loophole and that's what the author of the OP is trying to argue. It is an unfair loophole that hurts the Nigerian economy.

There are many loopholes and shady practices like these in Nigeria and indeed all around the world. But if you read the article from start to finish, you'd understand that while other governments seek to block them as quickly as they can, the Nigerian government often acts in cahoot with the companies benefiting from the loophole against the interests of the citizens who they're meant to represent.

In business, something can be legal while still being wrong. If we say we should stop calling out things that are wrong because the law condones it, then we should just disband the government."

-Lord

So blame the government and don't blame Dangotes simple!! How much tax do you yourself pay? In all likelihood you are under paying cos only multinationals take correct tax from their staff.