The rentiers he referred to are powerful people who hang around government corridors looking to be awarded import licences to bring in rice and other commodities.

These people may be encouraging hoarding in order to create even more shortages in the hope that their friends in government will give them lucrative exclusive licences to import.

Mr Tinubu is a Lagos boy afterall. He is countering them one by one.

Consider this:

- One Emir publicly said his people were hungry and effectively chastised the President and openly embarrassedthe President's wife.

- A couple of days later, another one said he could no longer contain the anger of his people and that the President must do something.

- Just a few days later, the VP said the government would establish a Commodity board.

Can you spot what appears to be a coordinated attempt to bump the President into certain actions.

The VP has no authority to announce major economic policy on his own volition. A major economic policy involving the setting up of a Commodity board with potential for wide ranging consequences has to be debated, evaluated, and coordinated across several departments of government not least the Ministry of Agriculture, Finance, the Presidency etc.

A VP cannot just announce policy, and I think the President's rebuke about letting those in charge of economic policies do their job was targeted at the VP.

The VP needs to be careful. Mr Tinubu is ruthless.

Also, Southerners need to put their smart hats on and be able to read between the lines. In some ways, Mr Tinubu is battling influences who want things to remain as it is so their decades-long rentier interests are protected at the expense of the masses.

victorVIC1:


Misplaced priority

The country is going through a challenging phase but it is far from collapsing.

lilfreezy:
lmao. what happend to PH, uyo, warri? abi lagos na oil producing sate . commander in chief of nepotism. APC zobies una do this one o

The departments being moved are not involved in the regulation of crude oil production where the States you listed dominate.

The departments regulate the downstream oil sector which is dominated by Lagos. The downstream sector in Lagos is bigger than the rest of the country combined, especially with Dangote Refinery being in Lagos.

The vast majority of Nigeria's downstream resources are in Lagos, including the mighty Dangote refinery.

A couple of departments directly involved in their regulation can be in Lagos, close to the businesses they're regulating.

The headquarters remain in Abuja.

Perfectly logical.

Paraman:


It is expected to take months for upgrading units to be brought online, experts have said.

https://punchng.com/dangote-refinery-to-export-two-fuel-cargoes-report/?amp

'Upgrading units' - I guess that's for petrol.

So the refinery may not produce petrol for a some months yet. Hmm.

Someone from abroad told me yesterday that Nigeria will not benefit much from the refinery. My immediate interest was in another topic we were discussing so I didn't really press him to explain why he thought that would be the case.

But thinking about it now, I think the government will just end up paying same old subsidy to Dangote as the current pump price of around N650 is not going to cut it. Subsidy is here to stay.

So we are back to square one, with the only advantage being that the government will not be buying the petrol from him in dollars.

If Nigeria's wahala is too much, the man may even decide not to sell to Nigeria.

O ti lo o

gaby:
Borrow borrow...

I go come carry my hard-earned money lend to kleptos for 7-10 years when I'm not sure Nigeria will exist into 2025?

God forbid.

It is a good strategy for the government.

Part of the reasons for the current high inflation is that Mr Buhari's government printed way too much naira.

The current government has been trying to get some of the excess naira liquidity out of the system.

One smart way of doing it is through the issuance of long term bonds. The money that individuals, companies, financial institutions, pension companies and foreign investors use to buy the bonds will be taken out of their bank accounts, thus reducing the amount of naira in the system.

As more of that liquidity is taken out of the system, it will help to bring down the rate of inflation.

The government has to use several tools to combat inflation. Issuance of long term bonds is one of them.

If the return is at least 20%, the bonds should sell very well.

A lot of people have billions sitting in banks doing nothing, and they don't necessarily need the money now. Getting a guaranteed 20% per annum may be attractive to them. Not everyone is interested in calling mallam's to change billions into dollars.

Also, because inflation is around 30% today doesn't mean it will always be at that level or higher during the 7 year term of the bond. It may come down significantly.

Equally, most businesses don't earn guaranteed annual net profit of 30% 40% or above. Some do, but not all. In the current economic climate, running a business profitably is very challenging

Some people have money but don't want the extreme hassle of running a business in Nigeria. For these sets of people, a 20% net annual profit for lending that money to the Federal government is an attractive proposition.

Paraman:
Some of the statement by the minister was unnecessary, especially the part he asked what the governor's are doing with their allocation.

The governor's can't achieve meaningful things because of the high inflation, everything has gotten more expensive.

It is a legitimate question.

You don't pay salaries or pension
You do very little infrastructure
Basic health centres are not funded
You don't do anything to encourage farming in your state (especially Southern Governors)
You do nothing to help fight insecurity in your state.

All people see are hilux, land cruisers, and a long entourage of officials running up down.

Most state governors are doing absolutely nothing. Many Commissioners don't even have anything substantial to do. Everything starts and ends at the Governor's office.

The Governors are completely left alone to loot while citizens focus 100% attention on the Federal government.

As long as that continues, nothing will change.

During Buhari's government, Nigeria, through the CBN, was spending according to some estimates, more than $12billion per year to maintain 2 exchange rates N440, and I think N570 to a dollar.

That $12 billion dollars was effectively a subsidy.

By the time Buhari left, Nigeria had just about $3.5 billion in its account. It is from that amount that we have to pay our debts and pay for imports of goods.

As you can see, Nigeria no longer had the $12 billion dollars required to keep naira/dollar rate at less than N600. So the current government had no choice but to give up on trying to subsidise the naira.

If Atiku or any other candidate had won, they would have had no choice than to follow the same path.

It is like buying a BMW when you had money. If you no longer have money to maintain it, what do you do, you give it up. No be so?

Your friends and neighbours who see you taking Okada will call you stupid for giving up such a beautiful car. But, younno longer have know what they don't know - you no longer have the money to maintain the car.

This is exactly where Nigeria is at present.

codemaniacs:


they are targeting Nigeria's political system and total control of Nigerians..

what it means is they will now be able to freely deploy soldiers to Nigeria and build U:K owned soldier barracks and bases of operations all over Nigeria.

Oh please.

UK law firms are not an arm of the UK government.

The idea that the UK can forcefully deploy soldiers and build UK-owned barracks in Nigeria is preposterous.

UK doesn't have the power or the means to do that.

The most powerful country in the world, the USA, asked to station its military in Nigeria to help combat ISIS and other terrorists in the Sahel. Nigeria declined. The US went to Niger instead.

Nigeria is not a small country. A country of over 200 million people no be beans.

The US can't push Nigeria around let alone small, broke UK.

nedekid:
Can anyone explain how this will be beneficial to Nigerians? As I did not see the part where Nigerian lawyers will reciprocatively practice in UK courts.
Lawyers in the house should kindly enlighten us.

1. Nigerian lawyers have been able to practice in the UK for a long time by writing a simple test called the Qualified Lawyers Transfer test. Even without the test, you can still practice, just that you have to inform prospective clients you are a 'Foreign Lawyer'.

2. UK law firms that set up office in Nigeria will primarily be targeting commercial/business/cross-border transactions. 99% of their work willl be office based. It is unlikely you'll see them wearing a robe and appearing in a court, even though though they might be able to do so.

These people are not coming here to handle Chieftancy, land, election matters, or Mr A ran away with my wife type of cases etc

They will be targeting big transactions.

This is positive in some ways

1. Lawyers from Nigeria and other Common law countries have been able to practice in the UK for decades. All you have to do is write the Qualified Lawyers Test (QLT). Most newly qualified lawyers from Nigeria can pass the test at first attempt. It is not difficult at all. Once you pass, you will be inducted as a Solicitor of Supreme Court of England and Wales, and be given a practising certificate. That's it. You can practice like any other British Solicitor. You can complete the whole process within a few months.

All these years that Nigerians have been able to do this, Nigeria did not have a reciprocal simple route for UK lawyers to practice here and there was no histrionics from the UK side.

2. Having global UK firms like DLA Piper opening their own office here will give foreign investors confidence that the same firm handling their matters in Hong Kong, London, New York, Paris etc will handle their matters in Lagos/Abuja Nigeria. Many large foreign companies prefer such seemless arrangement.

3. Nigerian law firms have not particularly covered themselves in glory when it comes to corruption. Many of the international scandals surrounding large contracts where Nigeria's interests were traded cheaply to foreigners in return for bribes were drafted by Nigerian lawyers. Having UK legal firms here who are subject to the UK Bribery Act and who know how much costly and damaging allegations of bribery can be to their reputation is a good thing. Large international contracts involving Nigeria may be better handled on behalf of the country by a global UK law firm based in Nigeria than by Nigerian law firms who time and again have proven themselves ready to sell out Nigeria for a few dollars.

Overall, I believe people are right to ask questions about whether Nigeria is getting anything in return. That's for the government to answer. But, I personally believe this is a positive move.

No

After more than 50 years of grossmismanagement, Nigeria's economy needs deep structural changes. If the changes being put into place now cann resolve some of the problems, the economy will be better for it in the medium to long term.

I acknowledge that the reforms will, and is causing short term pain. I do not take that lightly.

All the regimes you mentioned above that you thought were good were charades.

Nigeria made so much money in the early 70s from bumper oil prices. Instead of investing in the economy, Nigerian government blew the money. We started living large. That was a huge missed opportunity.

Mr Shagari's government came into power in 1979. That was when we had the first large scale theft running into hundreds of millions of dollars by a single individual- read about Mr Umaru Dikko.

By the time Mr Babangida seized power in 1984 (?), the country had gone from the overflowing coffers of the 1970s to serious economic problems. IMF entered the picture to dictate what we needed to do. Read about Structural Adjustment Program (SAP).

Looking back, Mr Babangida turned out to be one of the better leaders in terms of infrastructure, but there was also big corruption.

We know there was looting during OBJ's era.

One of the worst periods of economic mismanagement in Nigeria 's history could be Mr Jonathan 's era. Nigeria earned the most money from oil in its history during that time, but 3 months to the end of his administration, Mrs Okonjo Iweala announced that the government was broke and they needed to borrow money to pay the salaries of federal civil servants!

Mr Jonathan's era marked one of the most corrupt in the history of Nigeria. The looting was unprecedented. Mrs Deziani alone allegedly made off with billions of dollars. Several others were not far behind.

The only regime to come close to or exceed that level of mass looting is probably Mr Buhari's. By the time he left office, not only had his administration borrowed so much, it had also pledged a big chunk of the country 's future oil earnings to secure loans, a significant amount of which was stolen.

Mr Tinubu could have followed the same path and cycle trodded by his predecessors by borrowing heavily to maintain fuel, currency, and other subsidies,m, and thus keep the population happy. But that would drive the economy into a future inevitable doom because more than 50 years of reckless and profligate spending and borrowing would eventually catch up with the country and everything would collapse, like Lebanon.

Instead of choosing the easy option, he has chosen to get rid of some of the deep-seated economic albatrosses around the country's neck. By sacrificing short term popularity for a greater long term public good, I applaud Mr Tinubu. He means we'll, and I pray his policies work as he expects.

Nigeria of the past 50 years has been like the people living so-called fake life on the island in Lagos. They live above their means and keep the charade of luxury life going through one dodgy dealing or the other. But eventually, reality catches up and it may be too late for them.

It may be necessary for Nigeria to take short term pain now in order to avoid total collapse of the economy in the future.

On this I stand with Mr Tinubu, and I encourage him to continue to listen to critics of his policies, adjust them where necessary, and continue to keep an eye out for the best advisers wherever they may be in the world.

We need a completely new security organisation made up predominantly of technology savvy , highly motivated young graduates trained abroad on intelligence gathering and surveillance. A small team of about 200 - 300 people should be sufficient. They'll operate from a single office and cover the whole country.

They'll operate outside the existing security structure (certainly not under the Police), be highly paid, have best-in-class modern surveillance, detect and suppress tools, including acccess to the best available surveillance drones, heat-seeking helicopters etc The organisation should be led by a small team of brilliant middle ranking military and police officers, and if considered necessary, be directly answerable to the office of the President.

Recruitment into the organisation should be based purely on merit.

The organisation will pass credible surveillance information to the military and Police for actioning.

We need to go high tech. The current Police model is not capable of addressing the problem.

Inspirer1:

I was surprised seeing it too, that road from Akure enroute Kogi is the most dangerous in the Southwest by my own assessment.

Akure to Owo seems quite safe. I think you mean Owo to Kogi, through Ikare or Akungba.

I passed that route last year. Parts of the route was so quiet, and just seemed perfect for kidnapping. I was not surprised to be told later that kidnapping happens there often.

I was told herdsmen were in all the forests around there.

The problem with that axis is it is boundary territory where South West meets Kwara, Kogi and Edo State. It is perfect for cross-border criminality.

The nearest federal security presence (police station) in that area is at least 30 mins away from any point. So when people scream that the President must do something, there's actually not a lot the President can do immediately to prevent these attacks. The Police will always react only after the event partly because we simply don't have enough police men, and the entire security system is outmoded.

We don't even have enough men in the military to fight insurgents in the North and also secure every square metre of land in the South.

There's a particular intersection at Ikeja Gra where traffic wardens do the same.

If the light is green when you proceed but turns red at any time during your transition into the road you're joining, you'll be accosted and stopped by a warden who will then accuse you of driving through red light!

It's no doubt a money making scheme.

Dangote refused to buy Nigerian crude oil in dollars. Is he buying from the US in naira? Op's assertion is certainly questionable.

Dangote can source crude from any country if the price is better. In any case Nigeria doesn't even have enough crude to supply Dangote at present.

As for government cronies trying to force Dangote to use their ship at unjustifiable prices, I am not surprised, afterall greed is second nature to many in this country.

Dangote should buy from wherever he likes.

Wow

That's a lot.

Prolonged strike will wraken the economy more, cause naira to fall.more, scare off investors and ultimately achieve nothing good.

There are no magic answers to Nigeria 's long term problems anywhere. The government is making some tangible changes which will take some time to deliver results.

mrvitalis:

So and you think the way not to be a net food importer is to reduce import of food?.

What about increasing export of food?

We should be doing both.

As a member of international trade organisations like the WTO, the government can't even ban most goods without facing punitive measures.

Nonetheless I am fully in support of government raising import duties to the highest levels permitted under international trade treaties for non essential food imports like wines and other drinks, olive oil, soya and other vegetables oils etc

The average Supermarket has several varieties of imported breakfast cereals. You want to eat cereals, no problem. Government should impose the highest import duty legally possible on things like that.

A commenter above even said that we can't grow oaths locally. So we didn't survive when we didn't eat oats? Oats was not even widely available in Nigeria until about 10 years ago.

Didn't we use to have yam and egg, beans etc for breakfast as kids in those days.

Like I said, you want non essential imported foods, no problem, just be prepared to pay eye watering price for them.

This is the approach the government should take to reduce imports.

immortalcrown:
State policies cannot override federal ones.

The question is, what are many of them doing with the money they receive.

In some States, there is absolutely nothing going on.

APC seems to be doing well in the latest elections despite the serious economic and security issues.

How is that happening?

No doubt, they'll wake up in the morning to attack and abuse those posting what is nothing but the truth.

Rostikol:


Our own is just to use cassava to soak garri and make eba. Finish!

In fact we have problems as a people.

We don't even produce enough cassava to eat, let alone have enough for industrial use or export.

Many of the people who complain bitterly of prices of food have never stepped foot on a farm. They will never farm and grow food. They'll rather be on social media asking government to 'do something'. How?

The government should import workers from Germany, India, America etc to come and grow yam, cassava and pepper for us?

People are just not serious.

Dollar is not our currency. Why are newspapers, organised media, and people on social media reporting every movement of another country's currency with minute by minute reporting, thus creating more panic buying and apocalyptic mass hysteria?

Are South Koreans, Indians, South Africans etc monitoring the dollar every minute like Nigerians do?

No, they're in offices, farms, factories producing more and more things to sell to unserious countries like Nigeria while Nigerians are on social media destroying their country.

Ok na.

I agree.

The government cannot print dollars.

People call on the government to 'do something', but in reality the government can only tinker here and there. Truth is, the government doesn't have a magical lever it can pull to increase the value of the naira.

I went into a new supermarket in Ikeja GRA a couple of weeks ago. I had never seen anything like it. There's not even a biscuit in the supermarket that is made in Nigeria. Virtually everything is imported.

When you write that we need to produce more of what we use and eat, and stop importing everything under the sun, people will attack you, and say all the blame lies with politicians. It is easier to find various types of imported Olive oil in the average Supermarket than it is to find our own palm oil. Some upmarket supermarket don't even stock palm oil, I guess because they feel it is local.

Ok o.

MasterTeeUSA:
I have advocated for decentralization of our electricity ...this issue should not affect a large expanse of people if decentralized well...You create stopgaps...get rid of National Grid nonsense.

Each of the 36 states can't have its own electricity arrangement. It's just not realistic economically.

That doesn't even happen in the US.

Even assuming each state has its own electricity, how will that stop a coordinated bringing down of electricity pylons given that in a lot of cases these pylons are located in deep forests.

Securing every pylon in Nigeria is clearly impossible.

The country is at the mercy of various interests who are prepared to undermine the country unless they have their way.

I suspect a lot of these things are being sponsored by certain people to destabilise the present government.

Some just wont accept a southern president who doesnt kow tow to them.

Brendaniel:


Oga it might just lead to Venezuela or Zimbabwe as long as corruption is still in governance and your government officials are living large on the nations funds...

I agree, corruption and 'living large' have been a permanent feature of all Nigerian governments going back several decades.

I actually think the current government are taking some steps to correct these ills. Will they eradicate it...of course not.

SoNature:
Bola Tinubu has given Yemi Cardoso the opportunity to practice his patchy-patchy voodoo economics! And as for the outcome, your guess is as good as mine! If Emefiele was bad, Cardoso is worse off!

No one who understands economics, and understands that the Nigerian economy was on the verge of bankruptcy when Buhari left, will agree with you.

immortalcrown:
.

But today in Nigeria, high import duty does not decrease the demand for foreign goods because consumers in Nigeria refuse to give up on foreign goods.

You think so, but that's not the reality.

There is a pain point at which demand for many imported goods will fall fast. People will simply start buying less and less of them. Whether that pain point is at N1500, N1800, or N2000 to a dollar, I don't know.

But the CBN will have the data. They know. If N1500 doesn't stiffle imports to the level they want, I suspect the CBN will not mind seeing naira close to N2,000 to a dollar.

In some ways, it is to the credit of Mr Tinubu's administration that it is willing to follow this extremely tough path to redirect the economy from import-dependence to greater local production. For a politician facing election in just over 3 years to follow a path that may not show positive results for a few years, is truly brave.

The Nigerian economy was heading for the rocks after over 40 years of mismanagement. Tough decisions are needed to correct long term over dependence on imports.

That naira/dollar pain point is the point at which local production of certain goods starts becoming more viable than importing the same goods. This should translate to us producing more of what we need locally. This will lead to more job creation, less pressure on the naira, and a stronger, more balanced economy in the long term.

But this approach comes with a lot of economic pain initially, as the country is witnessing now.

That's the theory o.

Whether things happen in practice like I stated above is a different matter, because Nigeria's situation often defy economic theory.

1. As a signatory to several international trade treaties, including those of WTO, we can't just wake up and ban goods import.

If we do, we will be in breach of the treaties we signed over the past decades. Countries whose goods we ban will sue us at the WTO, and if we lose, we face paying huge fines.

Until the case is determined, those countries can also retaliate and ban goods that we export.

So it's lose lose for Nigeria.

That was why Buhari couldn't ban importation of rice. His government only refused to provide foreign currency to those who wished to import rice.

Also, a Nigerian, Okonjo Eweala is the Head of WTO, and Nigeria must have lobbied other countries for her to be elected. How can the same country turn round and say it no longer believes in WTO, it wants to ban goods imports from other countries.


2. If you ban things like school fees, black market dollars will become hot cake, even more than it is now, and that will send dollar rate skyrockettting.

There are no easy solutions.

Everything is tribe, tribe, tribe.

So who is competent.

Mr Obi? Lol. Like he distinguished himself as Governor.

or PDP's Mr Atiku. So, you think having people like Dino in charge of the country would have been better