₦airaland Forum

richidinho:
You supporters of this corrupt enemy of the people are not smart all.

There is EFCc, ICPC, the police, the millitary, civil defence, and so many others

1. Many of the people in these agencies are corrupt so they are rarely effective in checking corrupt practices ie, fuel smuggling, price gouging by petrol stations.

2. Nigeria's borders run into tens of thousands of kilometres. If the government doubles the number of police, Customs, army, navy, air force etc, they still will not be able to effectively control the entire border.

3. Smuggling is only a small part of the justification for removing subsidy. The government was borrowing to pay for subsidy, yet the larger portion of the subsidy is being stolen by a few people.


Unfortunately, there is never going to be an easy time to remove subsidy without it impacting many hardworking people. I understand that. But it has to be removed, otherwise this country will go bankrupt with the consequence that even more people will suffer.

Venezuela, one of the other high-subsidy country is on the verge of total collapse. Last week, official inflation in that country reached 450%. For comparison, Nigeria 's official inflation is 22%.

One of the reasons for Venezuela's situation is that it refuses to remove fuel subsidy.

We don't want to find ourselves in Venezuela's situation.

I bought at N500 at one of their stations outside Lagos yesterday, which is the exact NNPC published price for that state.

I agree, all through the years, Bovas stations always sell at the official rate even in the midst of scarcity.

And their pump is usually accurate.

A rare honest business in Nigeria.

thegooddieyoung:
Is PMS sold at 490 in your area?

We are in for a long run indeed

I am currently outside Lagos state, and I bought for N500 yesterday and there was no queue, though most filling stations were closed.

FireUpNow:
Move on to where na? They should tackle the govt. You cannot take such decision without wider consultation

Party manifesto, pronouncements made during campaigning, and subjecting yourself to an election where millions of the voting populace vote for or against your program of action is the biggest form of consultation.

Mr Tinubu repeatedly made it abundantly clear in his manifesto and during campaigning that he intends to get rid of the subsidy.

People heard loud and clear, and still said, yes, we prefer you by voting to deliver his victory.

That means the majority of the voting population has given Mr Tinubu the mandate to remove subsidy. That is democracy.

By 2027, the majority can decide to change their minds and vote a candidate that wants to bring back subsidy.

But for now, subsidy is gone.

OChimex:
You think everybody can afford it like you do?
How can you pay someone 30k minimum wage a whole fu!..ck..ing month and expect them to buy fuel 490?
If you increase the fuel price by over 100 percent, then increase their salary same way so that they can afford that.
People striking are not business people, but people paid salary.
How do you expect them to survive?
Nigerian leaders are idiots.
In the US, fuel are sold by gallons (3.4 liters a gallon) Hovers around $2.9 to $4 depending on where you live. But the lowest minimum hourly wage in America is like $14.
So people can actually afford the fuel.

I agree that wages at the bottom end of the employment ladder are too low.

Minimum wage needs to be more than N30,000. Unfortunately, even if Federal government increases it, there is no guarantee that States will pay.

I personally call on all private companies and employers to increase wages by however much they can afford.

Afterall, an under-paid, barely-surviving employee is unlikely to have the physical and mental strength to perform at its best.

The government should also procure mass transit and smaller buses and distribute to transport operators at discounted rates to keep a lid on transport cost.

But, subsidy must go.

edungene7:
hypocrite but when Jonathan wanted to remove subsidy back then he was an omo ibo and ole karma is a bitch Tinubu must face the conscience of is actions

1. If Mr Jonathan had the will and strength of leadership, he would have stood his ground. He can't blame anybody for being a relatively weak leader.

2. If people did not want something 12 years ago. Does that mean they are bound in perpetuity never to change their minds, even if circumstances change? Was Nigeria spending 5.5 trillion in subsidy in 2011? Btw, I put in on record that I supported subsidy removal in 2011.

3. The people voted for subsidy removal. Mr Tinubu made it abundantly clear several times during his campaign that he would remove subsidy. Yet, people went out and voted for him. That means he has the mandate and consent of the people to remove subsidy. That's democracy.

4. Those who want to protest are free to do so, but they cannot overturn the democratic will of majority of the voting populace.

As long as NLC understands it is 'No work, No pay', they are free to strike.

The President said during campaigning that no matter the protest, subsidy must go.

I stand with the President.

Psoul:
Removal of subsidy is one of the best things to do.
My problem is, will the government invest the N7.2 trillion yearly budget into Education, Health or Infrastructure?
They will still loot it.

I believe subsidy is around N5.5 trillion.

In addition to the spending areas you highlighted, remember too that government will have to use some of the saved subsidy money to pay down the huge loans past governments have borrowed.

Removing subsidy should strengthen the country's fiscal position, but the money saved will still not be enough to suddenly transform Nigeria. But it should help to.improve things a little.

LeoDeKing:
To start with, he has directed CBN to close the gap between official and parallel markets rate. (Unifying forex)

Once the gap is closed, you don't need to visit abokki for your forex. that's all.

Your statements are incorrect.

The CBN has no direct control over black market rates, so even if it makes the official rate N750 today, the black market rate will simply move to maybe N850. Will the CBN then move the official rate to N850 and perpetually chase black market rates? No.

What the CBN will unify is the two official rates operated by the government. Many don't know that under Mr Buhari, the govt operated two official rates. What the new government plans to do is unify the two official rates into one, and I think they will devalue the naira to between N650 to N700 to $1 without making too much noise about it.

Black market rate is completely different. CBN cannot do anything about it.

Official and black market rates will only unify and black market will cease to exist when the CBN is able to provide all the USD, Pounds, Euro etc that people and businesses need. Even in a best case scenario, that is unlikely to happen in the next 10 years unless there is a major geopolitical event somewhere in the world that sends crude oil price to $200 per barrel at a time Nigeria is producing about 3m barrels per day - a level of production the country has never achieved in its history.

As you can see, there are no easy ways out for Nigeria and the Naira.

There is going to be a tough period of payback for all the corruption and excesses of the last 20 years.

In the midst of it all, the black market will continue to exist.

But people thought this whole thing should be finished in 14 days.

If you have even been in a Nigerian court, you would be perplexed and frustrated by how lawyers make everything unnecessarily complicated and how most lawyers who appear in court are disorganised and not adequately prepared for their case.

Judges have to constantly teach them what to do, including some SANS.

Despite having may be up to 50 lawyers (SANS and non-SANS) in your team, you still end up filing a ton of documents that you know the courts will not accept

NLC can do zilch.

Subsidy is gone.

LegendHero:
It’s because SW is closer to the port.

President Tinubu should now urgently address the nation and let us know what modalities is in place to help the masses adjust by to this and what benefit they will derive from this Subsidy removal

People need to start feeling the impact of the help from FG ASAP.

There is no need to rush and any assistance should be limited in size. May be, allocation of new mass transit buses to States.

Otherwise the so-called assistance becomes another form of subsidy that the Federal government can't get out from.

The communist idea of distributing borrowed money to people as palliative must be avoided.

Nigerians must get off the subsidy feeding bottle.

There is no free lunch anywhere.

Borrowing to subsidise people's lifestyle is daft.

It's going to be tough for many, but doing nothing about the subsidy would have caused more pain in the long term.

Every state has DPR offices.

What is their job if they can't effectively monitor fuel stations in their territory.

And Governors too. They can use their powers to check the excesses of fuel stations, but some don't even bother.

Fuel subsidy must go in June.

Mr Sanusi did not say the government should merge the official and black market rates.

The government can't merge official and black market rates. It's not possible since the government has no direct control over the black market.

People don't appear to understand that the government operates 2 official rates. Those are the ones the new govt can and will merge. The rates will be merged and the naira will be devalued during the next few months so that the official rate will be around N670 - N700.

Black market will still exist, but if we are able to grow the economy and our foreign reserve significantly, the difference between the official and black market rates will reduce to N10 or less.

Whilst many were concentrating on election outcomes, the National assembly passed a law/took an action that effectively removed subsidy but many did not notice.

Subsidy is destined to end in May/June 2023.

As the new President said - subsidy is gone.

I dont know about this guy's N9 trillion, but there are several people worth over N1 trillion in Nigeria whose names we have never heard of.

If you know the amount of theft that goes on in government, and concentrated in just a few hands, you will not doubt my statement.

In the past 2 days, I have seen separate interviews on arise concerning the airline, and all 2 vociferous objectors of the airline project were from a particular part of the country.

The way the veins on one of the objector's neck was almost popping left me wandering why he took it so personal. On another program on the same station, another Prof was reeled out to viciously criticise the project.

Now, this lady insist, the airline must fail. I wonder why they are taking it so personal.

Or, is it some kind of fear of competition for Airpeace? Airpeace is a business and it can do well against any competition as it has been doing.

I have not really followed the Nigeria Air story much over the last few months, and I found it curious and laughable how the outgoing government rushed out a single plane on its last days in office.

I personally don't believe any Nigerian government should run any commercial business let alone an airline. But I won't sit in my house and start praying that it must fail That is extremism.

Nigeria is just such a weird place.

The ceremonial title 'National Leader' was created for Tinubu because of his unique status in APC.

He and Buhari were behind the creation of the party. Buhari became the president. Tinubu, the other giant in APC was thetefore ceremonially referred to as National Leader.

The unique circumstances that led to Tinubu becoming National Leader no longer exists. People like El rufai don't come close.

Also, before you can refer to another person in APC as National Leader, you will first have to remove Tinubu from that role.

That's not going to happen.

The legal profession in Nigeria has plunged new depth.

It would have been unthinkable in years past that a lawyer will lambast a judge in the open like this.

This feels like gansterism.

This lawyer's rant has a similar ring to the one by the man that went haywire on the plane.

Isn't this a diss song

If you are a pdp or Labour party supporter, this kind of song is hardly going to be music to your ears.

People need to support the President-elect's promise to bring people together and leave behind divisiveness.

In Nigeria, there's only the tiniest little chance of finding a suitable life partner that you can make a genuinely loving life with and live happily thereafter.

That's because, every facet of life here, ie. personal, professional, business and any other relationship you come into is almost always characterised by patent or latent mistrust, distrust, deceit, greed, lack of respect and decency, intolerance, bad faith, ruthless selfishness and so on.

Any expectation that a society which operates almost entirely on these flawed foundations can produce in large numbers individuals, whether male or female, of a character necessary for fostering mutually respectful, trusting, happy, and enduring marriages is misplaced.

You can't sow thorns and expect to reap oranges.

It all went wrong at the family unit. Nigerian boys and girls are not being brought up with the right values. By the time the average Nigerian chiild is in his/her mid teens, he or she's already disrespectful, deceptive, greedy, untrustworthy etc

Based on my personal observation of married friends and people around me, the vast majority of marriages are zombie marriages. The marriages are on auto pilot, years are going by, but absence of love, cheating, lack of mutual respect, intolerance, rudeness, coldness etc characterise most of the marriages.

Jennyclay:
MONEY
SEX
LOVE
ATTENTION.

If a man can’t give me enough of these 4 things I listed above in my marriage, I’ll gladly divorce him.

Fair enough as your personal choice, but making all 4 a red line seems rigid.

The amount of pressure you'll pile on a man to give you 'enough money ', ' enough sex' etc is unlikely to make for a good marriage however responsible the man is.

The man will constantly have to adjust to your changing definition of what is 'enough'.

So, if a man is responsible, decent, loves you, gives you attention, supports your ambitions, but doesn't give you 'enough sex' as you say, you'll divorce him?

Where is your love for him then. Where is the support and understanding that any number of reasons outside of a man's control can affect his sexual performance or interest at any given time.

And why should 'enough money' be a red line in a supposedly loving relationship where the man is trying his best.

This money-driven template and expectation for marriage is an unhealthy Nigerian peculiarity.

A concession is a right granted by an asset owner, usually a government, to a private company or a consortium of companies (the "Concessionaire") to do any combination of the following - design, finance, build, transfer, operate, and maintain an asset for a number of years - usually between 10 and 40 years (the Concession Period) in return for payments to the government.

A Concession can involve any combination of those elements stated above depending on whether it is a greenfield (not yet built) project, or a brownfield (exiting asset) project.

Examples of brownfield projects are the Kano and Abuja airports that are currently being concessioned.

Note that even when taking on an existing asset, a Concessionaire will usually bound by the Concession Agreement to invest large sums of money to improve and further develop the asset during the Concession Period. So, it is not risk-free for the Concessionaire.

At the expiration of the Concession Period, the asset is handed back to the government.

Alternatively, immediately prior to the expiration of the initial Concession period, the government may enter into negotiations with the Concessionaire with a view to extending the Concession period or basically granting a new Concession period.

If the Concession Agreement is done properly, it can be a win - win for the government and the Concessionaire.

yemmit90:
No, there is no need for amendments of constitution as it become useless after the adoption of regionalism. What presidency need is to override Legislature acts and deal directly with masses through Plebiscite.

By this method, votes of masses decided everything and not that of highly corrupt law makers.

Any president that tries this your approach will be impeached before Friday prayers .

All northern members of senate and House of rep, including those from APC, will be against regionalism.

Northerners will never accept regionalism.

You can't blame them. In Nigeria, everyone tries to protect their interests.

Good man.

I like him.

It seems our tax - shy people have finally been cornered.

However, as with many weii-intended policies, in the real world, Nigerians will find a way to undermine this policy.

Afterall, you can get tax clearance from many states for less than N100k.

There are no easy ways to solve Nigeria 's challenges because there's always a loophole somewhere.

May be the sky is not falling on Nigeria after all!

2023 edition of the Annual Misery Index compiled by Steve Hanke, professor of Applied Economics at John Hopkins University, USA, has been published. The indexes are the sum of unemployment (multiplied by two), inflation, and bank-lending rates, minus the annual percentage change in real GDP per capita.

Below are the 20 most miserable countries in the world. It includes Ghana and South Africa, but not Nigeria!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/05/22/zimbabwe-ukraine-russia-uk-most-miserable-countries/

Nigerians who think this is the worst country on the planet should think again. Of course things are quite bad here, but I tell you, there are many countries in the world that are in much worse situation.

Ghana is in a mess. South Africa's currency fell to its lowest on record against the US dollar last week. Egypt's currency fell more than 50% last year alone. Turkey is a mess. In Lebanon, people have more or less abandoned the local currency. In Lebanon today, bread costs almost 50 times as much as it cost just 3 years ago - imagine a loaf you bought N400 in 2020 now costing N20,000. In Argentina, inflation is currently 103%. Their people now scrummage through waste bins searching for food. Their economy is a basket case. In Iran, protesters heads are chopped off everyday like chickens.

Even many traditionally rich countries are suffering. Many citizens of Canada, UK, France, Germany and many more countries are just managing to survive.

I am not saying we should be joyous o. I am just suggesting that Nigeria could have been in a worse situation.

Ghana's president is very presentable, speaks excellent english, sounds brilliant etc but look where his country has ended. So, it is not all about how 'intelligent' or presentable you think a leader is. Buhari who has been maligned and labelled as 'dumb' and accused of sleeping on the job appears to have been a small blessing to Nigeria in some respects, despite all his shortcomings.

Him 'doing nothing' as it is often alleged may have even saved us from the worst consequences.

I fear that the clamour for fast and big changes that we (including me) are all yearning for from the next government can become counter-productive. Mr Tinubu should please proceed with caution. Some of the proposed policies, like merging the multiple exchange rates into one may result in catastrophic surge in black market dollar rates. The new government should continue to manage the two rates and bring them together over a sustained period. It should not be done at once.

Removing 100% of subsidy at once could jolt the economy into a grievous inflationary spiral resulting in a collapse of the Naira. Subsidy should be removed in stages e.g 40%, 30%, 30% (or any other ratio) over a period of say 18 - 24months.

Gra gra doesn't run a modern economy o. Dont rush things Mr Tinubu. Economic theory is different from reality o.

Miserable List

1 - Zimbabwe 2 - Venezuela 3 - Syria 4 - Lebanon 5 - Sudan 6 - Argentina 7 - Yemen 8 - Ukraine 9 - Cuba 10 - Turkey 11 - Sri Lanka 12 - Haiti
13 - Angola 14 - Tonga 15 - Ghana 16 - South Africa 17 - Suriname 18 - Bosnia and Herzegovina 19 - Iran 20 - Rwanda

Lol

So the man in silly goggles is their leader.

Ok na.

MyMouth:
It's possible. Nigeria will sell crude to him at subsidized rate so he will at sell at reduced price.

'Subsidised rate'

Subsidy again.

We get out of one subsidy and immediately replace it with another corrupt subsidy

It not going to happen.

To the Op, Dangote will sell at a rate that is commercially profitable to him, so I believe his price will mirror to some extent what is happening in the international market.

Based on today's international market price of petrol, and without subsidy, Dangote's price is unlikely to be less than N350. May be even N500. If Nigeria refuses to buy, Ghana, and several African countries will rush it

Dey there.

Dangote has no obligation to do Nigeria a favour.

Besides, he has billions of dollars in loan to pay back. His lenders will not allow him to sell at underprice.

People should not put the solutions to Nigeria 's self-inflicted problems on one man's neck.