₦airaland Forum

shymexx: I don't even have time for nl today but I need to tell you to shut the fvck up about oil. Just shut up! Your "oil" only subsidizes the North and the SE. Even without Ondo's oil - the SW contributes more to the FG than it takes back in return. Now add Ondo's oil and all the Ilaje and Itsekiri oil and gas in Delta - then you would know the SW is just as cheated as the SS in the Nigerian quagmire.

We can even go further and talk about who actually owns a big chunk of the offshore oil in Nigeria if all the regions were separate countries. Based on geography and territorial water - a big chunk of the offshore oil falls into Lagos and Ondo's territorial waters. So shut up about the darn oil!


Topic:

In as much as the story is just as truthful as Santa Claus' story, I know there might be Yoruba's out there who would rather have GEJ than anything Northern. Heck, there are tons of Yoruba's who don't even like Awolowo that much. There are even Yoruba's who don't like the Yoruba elites and politicians - they think they're the biggest problem to Nigeria and the Yoruba race. That's based on my own scholarship and interaction. However, when it comes to Yoruba interests - Yoruba's would always speak with one voice. But the people just go about it with different approaches.

PS: The Yoruba's I'm alluding to are REAL Yoruba's, not Isale_gan2 and Tomakint fraudulent and phony Igbotic/ragheaded Yoruba's. Not chameleons who can't claim their own ethnic groups.

taharqa: lol... So NNPC 'diverting' $49.5billion of its Crude Oil sales from d Federation Account, koo? I thought I even saw $49million initiali. So how much does Nigeria make in Sales of Crude Oil in a year or two, esp since they 'remitted' $15billion to d Federation Account according to this account?? And there was still money to run budgets- FG, States and LGAs??.... Abeg, make people learn how to talk lie well

Desola: You dey mind the forker?

The west decided that PDP had had its run of madness and decided to put paid to the evil party. We made that decision collectively and the rest is now history.

Let it be known to them that the way in which PDP was disgraced out of the west is the way Jonathan will be sent back to his creeks with his region and neighbouring region never smelling power again for as long as Nigeria continues to exist.

The west's 'NO' vote will hit jonathan like a tsunami.

Sam xiu lee: lol....couldn't stop laughing,the problem the SW have with uncle Jonathan is simple,they want him to deliver on his electoral promises and not give excuses,he was aware of boko haram before he asked for their votes,Jonathan has ruled them for 6 years nothing has changed,Awolowo was in office has a premier of the region from 1964 to 1960 yet no Nigerian president,dead or alive can match his legacies.
Most Nigerians,especially southerners,yoruba,edo,itsekiri,egun,urhobo,ikweris,ogogonis like uncle Jonathan for his personalities but they don't like his government.
BTW osun state was the only state in the southwest he didn't win in 2011.
Gej has being in power for six years and yet we can hardly feel his achievement in any sector,another four years will make it ten years,the longest serving President,pls he should make too, for another let's try someone else,he is just like IBB,Jimmy Carter a lot of people like them, but hate their regime/government.

Sam xiu lee: lol....couldn't stop laughing,the problem the SW have with uncle Jonathan is simple,they want him to deliver on his electoral promises and not give excuses,he was aware of boko haram before he asked for their votes,Jonathan has ruled them for 6 years nothing has changed,Awolowo was in office has a premier of the region from 1964 to 1960 yet no Nigerian president,dead or alive can match his legacies.
Most Nigerians,especially southerners,yoruba,edo,itsekiri,egun,urhobo,ikweris,ogogonis like uncle Jonathan for his personalities but they don't like his government.
BTW osun state was the only state in the southwest he didn't win in 2011.
Gej has being in power for six years and yet we can hardly feel his achievement in any sector,another four years will make it ten years,the longest serving President,pls he should make too, for another let's try someone else,he is just like IBB,Jimmy Carter a lot of people like them, but hate their regime/government.

In the last few days the following contributions from two eminent personalities have inflamed passions and been the topic of heated debate all over the country. The first came from Alhaji Lawal Kaita, a respected elder-statesman and a former Governor of the old Kaduna state on the platform of the defunct NPN. He was quoted as saying that “a northerner… must emerge President in 2015 or we will divide”.
The second came from Dr. Junaid Mohammed, a Second Republic legislator and a man that has held himself out as the unabashed spokesman of a small group of anti-southern and rabidly hardline conservative northerners over the last few years. He was quoted as saying that “there will be bloodshed if Jonathan runs in 2015″.
In as much as I have consistently and vigorously opposed the Jonathan Presidency over the last two years, there is only one thing that I abhor even more than the sheer ineptitude that I believe that the Jonathan administration represents and that is the sheer arrogance of some of those from the north whose opposition to Jonathan is not borne out of any desire for better governance but rather simply out of a deep desire for power to return to the north simply because they believe that that is where it was always meant to be and that that is where it rightly belongs.
Alhaji Lawal Kaita and Dr. Junaid Mohammed, who were both very vocal in their support of the annulment of Abiola’s June 12th 1993 election on the same grounds of ”northern rights and Fulani supremacy”, belong to that group and wholly espouse that school of thought. Their latest contributions to national issues are reflected in the two quotations that I have cited above and frankly all I can say is that these two gentlemen have really got a nerve. The arrogance of their words remind me of an assertion by another well-known northern elder who, just a few weeks ago when I paid him a visit in his home, said, in my presence and that of a number of others, that the ”northern christians are nothing” and that ”if push comes to shove and an election is fought their numbers count for far less than those of we northern muslims”.
Needless to say I, together with a number of others that were in that room, were utterly shocked by his submission. Clearly this elderstatesman, for whom I still have tremendous respect and affection, is living in the past. For the record let it be clearly understood and let no one be under any illusion about it- a rejection of or opposition to the Jonathan Presidency does NOT in any way mean that we will accept a return to the days of southern slaves and northern masters.
The sweet truth is that the days of the slave and the slave-master, the horse and the horse-rider, the master and the groveling servant and the ”poor husband of the north and rich wife of the south” (as Lord Lugard so aptly put it in 1914) are long over in Nigeria. They ended in 1999 with the ascension of President Olusegun Obasanjo to the throne and they shall NEVER return again. If Obasanjo did nothing else in the eyes of even his worst detractors he at least put a nail in that coffin.
He also managed to do the following- he kept Nigeria together despite the fact that at that time the country was on the brink of disintegration as a consequence of the deep alienation of the Yoruba, the aftermath of the June 12th 1993 annulment and the terrible hand that General Abacha dealt the Yoruba. He created a level playing field and ensured that ALL Nigerians, regardless of their religious faith or where they came from, were treated as equals. He broke the hold and power of the north over the military and established the basis for a truly Nigerian Armed Forces as opposed to a northern one.
He ensured that a Niger Deltan became Vice President and later President of the Federal Republic. He ensured that an Igbo man became a General Officer Commanding in the Nigerian Army (which was something that had not happened since 1966 after General Aguiyi-Ironsi was killed and since the civil war). He broke the power of the north over the oil sector, the public sector and the economy and he ensured that merit, rather than nepotism or ethnic bias, was the theme and life-blood of governance.
Under Obasanjo the north stopped being dependent on Federal Government appointments, contracts, largess and goodies and they stopped being indolent and parasitic. They were weaned off Federal government dependency and their addiction to Federal Government patronage and they were forced to work hard and to be productive like everyone else.
This worked beautifully for the north itself and for Nigeria generally and it was under this strict regime of hard work, merit, productivity and discipline that a new generation of northern leaders, most of whom were young, articulate, well-educated, well-informed, zealous, liberal-minded and capable reformers, were spawned and introduced to public office in the country.
These were all pluses for Obasanjo but today, with the sort of sentiments being expressed by a few people in the north, it appears that some want to take us back to the dark old days of ”I must have an Alhaji on my board of directors before I can get anything”. And God forbid that that should ever happen again. As the Americans would say ”we just ain’t going there”.
The two comments that have been attributed to Kaita and Mohammed, both of whom are prominent and respected northerners with immense influence, are not only deeply offensive and provocative to every southerner worth his or her salt, the Yoruba included, but they are also most unhelpful.
They remind me of some of the sort of things that some of our northern brothers were saying just after the annulment of the June 12th election in 1993 and throughout the period of the struggle against Abacha and the northern-controlled Nigerian military as it then was.
Let no one be in any doubt about one thing- The fastest way to unite the south and the Middle Belt and rally support for Goodluck Jonathan, no matter how bad he may be, is for northerners to talk like Kaita and Mohammed have done here. They must stop it forthwith. Love him or hate him, Jonathan has the right to run and we have the right to either support him or not to support him.
The suggestion that there will be bloodshed if he runs simply because he is a southerner or that the country will divide if he happens to win fairly and squarely simply because, in the minds of some, a northerner MUST rule at all costs in 2015 is completely unacceptable. It is also perfidious, intellectually dishonest, racist, shameful and utterly disgusting. Such sentiments will spark off a major conflict in this country if care is not taken and the issue will no longer be a Jonathan Presidency but rather a battle for southern rights.
If it ever comes to that some of us will have no choice but to stand with our people and damn the consequences. Hear me loud and clear- no matter what we will never allow this country to go back to the days of ”born to rule” and rather than allow that to happen we will simply scuttle Nigeria and divide her into two or more pieces before we all end up killing one another. A northerner can rule, not simply because he is a northerner, but because he is the best man for the job and because the majority of Nigerians from both north and south want him as their President. Ditto a southerner.
That is the only acceptable formula. They can take it or leave it. As long as I live the Yoruba nation particularly will no longer be slaves to anyone again, whether it be northerner, Igbo, Ijaw or anything else. The days of compromise and sleeping with the enemy are long over. The south has had a raw deal in the last 53 years of our national existence when compared to the north and even a calamitous Jonathan Presidency does not derogate from that fact.
The last people to be issuing threats to southerners, and I mean ANY southerners including the Jonathan crowd, are the core northern muslims who have held sway over the affairs of this country longer than anyone else in the last 53 years. If there is an alliance against Jonathan let it be based on the principle of equality of all peoples and the rights of all to equal opportunities including the right to rule Nigeria.
Any absurd notion about the so-called right of the north to dominate and perpetually rule and enslave others is rejected. That issue was settled long ago and not even a million Lawal Kaitas or Junaid Mohammeds can resurrect or restore such an intellectually barren and primitive philosophy.
Worst still if they try to do so no southerner worth his or her salt will align themselves with them. Fighting Jonathan is one thing but attempting to take on the whole of the south or denigrate her people is another.
If the north is serious about taking power back in 2015 they need to do three things. Firstly they need to silence and muffle the voices of the irredentists and Fulani supremacist dinosaurs in their ranks who still believe that Nigeria is an extenstion of Usman Dan Fodio’s heritage and property. Secondly they need to strongly condemn and disassociate themselves from the activities of Boko Haram and not ask for amnesty for such people. And thirdly they need to field a candidate that is either a liberal-minded northern muslim who is known and acceptable to the south or a northern christian that is trusted and acceptable to not only the south but also to the core muslim north.
Anything short of these three will spell doom for the aspiration of the north to regain the presidency in 2015 and it will result in another victory for President Goodluck Jonathan. A word is enough for the wise.

…insist on rehabilitation, proper maintenance

Oil workers’ unions have rejected moves by the Federal Government to privatise the four refineries in the country. They based their grouse on the grounds that it was contrary to national interest.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, in a joint statement yesterday said they would resist the sale of the refineries controlled by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

The refineries, located in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna, with a combined refining capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, have been plagued by poor performance and frequent breakdowns. The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison Madueke and the Bureau for Public Enterprises have confirmed the privatisation plans.

The oil workers said that government had advertently underfunded the refineries and deliberately refused to carry out turn-around maintenance, TAM, and supply crude to the refineries, just to sell them to their cronies. PENGASSAN President, Mr. Babatunde Ogun, advised that instead of opting for outright sale, the government should adopt a modified solution tailored towards the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, model.

He accused the Federal Government of not considering available options and rational rule for such lucrative business deals before the decision to sell the national assets. The PENGASSAN president, who was speaking against the backdrop of the plan to privatise the four refineries by 2014, insisted that the workers would “fight the government’s plan till the last pint of blood in their veins.”

Ogun urged the government to deal with pipelines vandalism that had been hampering the supply of crude oil to the refineries and carry out TAM for them to bounce back. He noted that the issue had been on the front burner since the ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime when the government through the Bureau for Public Enterprises, BPE, hastily sold the refineries.

“The proposed sale of the refineries is against the overall national interest and in the interest of the few who are lurking around the corridor of power to milk the country dry. “How can a country be selling all its national assets all in the name of privatisation? For whose benefit are such sales?” Ogun said.

He recalled that the late President Umaru Yar’Adua reversed former President Obasanjo’s decision, promising to carry out TAM on them to ensure that they were not sold as scraps.

Ogun explained that even the controversial Kalu Idika Kalu-led National Refineries Special Task Force also recommended TAM or rehabilitation of the refineries for them to work in a safe and reliable manner.

“Why is the government proposing sale of these national edifices without doing the needful to ensure that the refineries work at their optimal capacity? Nigerians and the general public deserve to know more on the desperate reasons for the spate and row of proposed privatisation, even when the selfish motives of these proposed national assets sales can spell doom for the country,” the president said.

He, however, suggested that the refineries should be stand-alone entities, independent of the NNPC or the proposed NOC as in the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, while the board of management of each refining company should be fully responsible for its success and failure.

According to him, those that are planning to sell the refineries and their cronies planning to buy them should emulate Alhaji Aliko Dangote and establish their own refineries instead of waiting to corner the nation’s common investment interest for their own selfish interest.

The union leader also advised the government to grant incentives for the development of private refineries alongside the existing ones, adding that a framework should be articulated that would make available required crude for effective functioning of local refineries.

“There is need to incentivise and/or compel IOCs to refine an agreed percentage of crude oil in the country. A suggestion is to tie upstream licensing to downstream investment and private ownerships of jetties should be encouraged,” he said.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, had told Bloomberg TV Africa in London last week that the four refineries would be sold by the first quarter of next year.

President Olusegun Obasanjo had initially approved the sale of the refineries during his administration but his successor, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007 reversed the sale of the refineries for lack of transparency in the transaction.

However, President Goodluck Jonathan in November 2012 recommended that the refineries should be sold due to inadequate financing and sub-optimal performance.

It is uncertain, however, if the Federal Government would take into consideration the right of first refusal, which was granted business moguls, Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola, who bought the Port Harcourt refinery in 2007, but was reversed by the late Yar’Adua. Should the government factor this in the transaction, new prospective bidders would have to contend with both of them.

BPE’s Head, Public Communications, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, however, said the privatisation plans were currently at the preliminary stage, where the blueprint of the policy would be decided. “We are working with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Ministry of Petroleum Resources on the privatisation of the four refineries.

“We are just in the preliminary discussion with them and very soon, we will make public the work plan for the privatisation processes, including the engagement of advisers to advise us on the transaction.

“Once the work plan is fine-tuned, hopefully by the end of the year or early January next year, the work plan as well as the schedule will be unveiled to all stakeholders, including the media,’’ he had said.

emorse: What is this one saying? Have you compared your Nigeria to her West African neighbours yet?

delight03: if they declare arewa republic as u suggest,what wil be the fate of igbo people who hav bedn living in the north fof years

jp philips: You are right when you said that private people own refineries in other climates but it doesn't change the fact that refinery is a strategic national asset in Nigeria.
Nigeria's economy is resonating around oil and refining is one of its life wires, also, do you phantom the national crises that ensue when there is shortage of petroleum products?

The end of the road like i told you before is that the people who can afford it are likely going to be foreigners who don't have your country's interest at heart, even some indigenous companies who may afford it will source funding abroad.

Also consider the position of foreign politics, immediately the US sanctioned Iran's oil, all the Allies of the US complied, that means that if Iran didn't have NIOC (being their local oil company) their oil business has ended which you and I know is the main stay of their economy.

that is what will happen to you when you privatize all your critical national assets.

let me remind you that NIOC (National Iranian oil company) can be likened to our NNPC, today it has become their saving grace.

Privatization is not better than JVA and PPP, NNPC holds majority stake in SPDC, while shell (the private company) is the operator, that way, they bring in their world class operation standard, state of the art technology and for over 55yrs, they have ensured Nigeria is exporting oil.

It is a silly economic policy to sell off ALL your critical national assets in the name of privatization.

Under a US sanction, all the foreign companies will halt operations, now when you have foreign companies in charge of Power, foreign in charge of Aviation, Banking, insurance, foreign companies in charge of refining, foreign companies in charge of oil production, foreign companies in charge of ordinary water, what do you have?

just one sanction and all these companies pack up or there is a melt down like the 2008 saga, Nigeria will literary shut down.

my model is this; privatize telecom by bringing MTN but keep Nitel
Privatize power but keep NEPA, NEPA can Own a majority stake in the power sector while Manitoba brings in their world class experience to keep it afloat.
privatize The downstream by licensing Orient and co but keep PRCN, you never can tell what will happen to the economic dynamics of the world.

What about competition? when you licensed MTN and murdered NITEL, nobody competed with MTN till Glo arrived, meanwhile NITEL could have done the same job and increased the competition further leading to lower tarrifs earlier than we had it.

lastly, do you know that when Lehman brothers liquidated, they equally fried their over sees assets, you don't want Manitoba canada to liquidate and Enugu disco remains in darkness forever do you? It is not in anybody's interest to have so much foreign exposure, the 2008 meltdown should serve as an eye opener.

Jonathan's administration is known for "quick fix" approach to national issues and that will be the problem of the next generation just like he is cleaning up the mess of our past.

What about the issues surrounding the PIB on balkanizing the NNPC, have they been solved before selling off its subsidiaries? those are the real issues, the problem with Nigerians is that they don't know how bad Govt policies affect them till it touches their skin.

The big question is; Why do you need to create a problem trying to solve another?

kraftykc: Please read up on how much Diezani sank into these bottomless portals of corruption and you will see that this "ANNOUNCEMENT" doesn't mean shhit!
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/one-million-barrels-per-day-refining-capacity-target-illusion-or-reality-/156730/

This link shows the most recent attempt to gloss over the pigsty they call a corporation. The entire government is pathetic and all I expect from them is to die.

deepseel: Does it mean we should also sell d country to private investors since it is nt working? The truth is dis government is selling us away bit by bit. A government dt does not want to shoulder any responsibility, just keep watching as things unfold.

Kumalayer: Do u know how much mtn is getting out of we nigerians daily?,all in d name of dis privatisation,yet network problems still persist and hidden charges are countless,i hope dey wont start privatising our houses.

kobikwelu: how can you say the boldened??

okay..let me explain.....

Lets say in a country that has 20 refineries...one day these refineries decide to shutdown...what will be the effect on the country?
IT WILL BE UTTER CHAOS...

And in a place like Nigeria (even though we import more petrol than we refine locally) where basically all spheres of life depends on petrol...think of the effect....

Basically, NEPA, OUR REFINERIES....are our own strategic assets of National importance...

Another case..lets say in a war between two countries.....what are the major targets during the initial campaign?...REFINERIES, POWERSUPPLY, FOOD RESERVES...etc..

Elantracey: start tinkin about 2moro u really need to

kobikwelu: Though selling off our national assets of strategic importance is not my preferred option,

For now, i think it is the lesser of other evils.....

My concern is that these refineries should not all go to folks in the same Geographical part of the country...

this is to prevent a scenario in which these men may collude (maybe for political reasons) to hold the country hostage

femmy2010: ;DHope they won't be sold at a price lower than cost of a turn around maintenance I anticipate they would embark on a few months before it is sold.

Elantracey: ah know he wouldn't but he will want make profit as well moreover wat happened to d subsidy removed cant d fg use it to re-establish dis refineries n make it work 4 gud ah tell u nigeria will gain more instead of privatizin it. U were only able to name dangote,wat of others..we shouldn't just look at it presently we should look at d future also

simpleseyi: Yes, it is very good. Jonathan sold PHCN Ikeja Distribution Company to Obasanjo and sold Eko and Ibadan Distribution Companies to Abdulsalam, How much did Obasanjo and Abdulsalam earn thtoughout their military years and even as presidents to be able to afford to buy PHCN? Now Jonathan wants to sell Refineries to IBB, T Y Danjuma, Edin Clark, Atiku Abubakar and others, so that Nigerians will be left with nothing. Please when are they privatizing the air we breadth so that it will be properly managed by the "private investors" ? God is watching everyone on a 5D television.

Lilimax: Dangote bought one of the refineries during OBJ regime when they attempted to privatize them.
However, the late Yar'adua cancelled the privatization process and his money was refunded.
I may not see him bidding for it this time around?

oluwashaddow: I will prefer we do ppp instead of total privatization, it has done more harm dan good to us in d past,cos ppp will give us d opportunity to have a say n also control d domestic price of d products so dat our people won't suffer.......but come to think of it,didn't dis people promise us more refineries?

Greatpooss: Very soon, all ministries and government agencies will be privatised in the name of efficiency. I hope Dangote will be able to acquire the majority.

lertee: So who do we believe..lies everywhere.

Ayekotoo: Yorubas agitate through pen, paper and protest not via violence.