Imports must not be stopped.

There needs to be competition.

6. NOT LONG AFTERWARDS, you threw a tantrum over the government's policy of allowing importation of diesel. You came on TV (again!) to accuse the government of not supporting local industries. My first reaction when I heard your criticism was, yes, the government should support Dangote and stop importation of diesel. But the more I thought about it the more I became convinced stopping diesel importation would be a bad idea. Competition is in the public interest. If imports are stopped, and some unfortunate incident happens at Dangote refinery that stops production for a few weeks or months, what do we do. Even if you disagree with further imports Mr Dangote, would it not be better for you to discuss your concerns with the federal government and quietly accept their decision, however frustrating it is. Afterall, they are the government - they have the final say on policies. You chose instead to announce to the public that the government was not supporting local industries by not giving you the exclusive right to supply diesel in the country. For many years, the ERISCO tomatoes paste gentleman called for previous governments to ban importation of packaged tomatoes from China. Did those government's agree? Did the government ban import of vehicles to favour INNOSON? Are both companies not surviving? Before rice imports was stopped, was there not a big price difference between local and imported rice. The moment government stopped imports, did farmers and distributors not increase price of local rice significantly? Mr Dangote, the government probably assessed that if they ban diesel imports, you will increase your price and the country will be at your mercy. MR DANGOTE, WHY SHOULD YOU BE TREATED DIFFERENTLY FROM ERISCO AND IVM. WHY ARE YOU POLITICISING A SIMPLE GOVERNMENT POLICY BY GOING ON A CAMPAIGN ON TV TO PAINT THE GOVERNMENT AS BAD AT A TIME OF HIGH TENSION IN THE COUNTRY.

7 A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO, you were on TV again with another tantrum. This time you stepped dangerously close to showing your political motive. You said '...I know the public are on our side'. On your side in what exactly, Mr Dangote? So you are daring the government to a contest in the court of public opinion? This is what politicians do. Not business people. At least not the richest man in a country. Mr Dangote, as I said earlier, I have personally not seen any reason to believe the government is mounting a concerted efforts to stand in the way of Dangote Refinery. For what gain. Like I listed above, the President even took steps to remove some of the perennial obstacles in the industry, and you are/will be a big beneficiary of those steps. Your grouse appears to be that the exclusive right to supply diesel must be given to you. If the government has said no, accept and move on. I have no doubt that you can still compete in the market and succeed.

Trying to unfairly drag the government into public disaffection because you can't get everything you want is unfair and smacks of a misplaced sense of entitlement.

Nigerian politicians, of whatever party, do not like to be challenged as you now appear to be doing. I advise you to go back to focusing on your business. Please draw on the experience of Mr Adenuga, the Glo gentleman in the hands of President Obasanjo. Infact, if Nigeria's palaver is too much (most people in business in Nigeria know what you're going through), please leave them and sell your goods abroad.

Mr Dangote. I like you as a business man. Get back to doing what you know best. Leave politics for politicians.

All said, I believe the government official/appointee that alleged that Dangote 's diesel is of poor quality needs to be sacked. Whether or not his statement is true.

I have always been an advocate for free enterprise as I believe this is the best way to improve living standards and prosperity in society.

As a result, I have always had time for hardworking, successful, business people like Mr Dangote.

However, recent developments concerning Dangote Refinery and its much publicised challenges have given me cause to write here to sound a note of caution to Mr Dangote.

Mr Dangote, you are becoming political. This is not going to end well.

1. When concern surfaced a few months ago about the currency for selling crude oil to local refineries, the President intervened and mandated that NNPC may sell crude to refiners in naira. YOU ARE THE BIGGEST BENEFICIARY OF THAT POLICY.

2. The President followed up (I'm not sure which came first) with a series of Executive Orders to ease some of the systemic arrangements that have strangulated crude exploration activities for decades. YOU ARE/WILL BE A BIG BENEFICIARY OF THE EXECUTIVE ORDERS.

3. However, some weeks back, you appeared on TV to castigate the CBN for devaluing the naira - a key government policy enacted more than 8 months earlier. Elumelu, Femi Otedola, Adenuga and others like them do not come out publicly to attack key government policies. If they didn't like a policy, they kept their discontent from the public space. But you, in an unprecedented act of public intervention in politics, directly attacked the CBN and therefore the government. But during 8 years of Mr Buhari's dual foreign exchange rate policy that ruined the economy and contributed to the reason for the current government devaluing the naira, you did not say anything. MR DANGOTE, WHY DID WE NOT HEAR PIM FROM YOU UNDER PRESIDENT BUHARI? Is it true, as we read in the media that you were a big beneficiary of that anti-people policy of the Buhari administration. You and others that I mentioned above all have access to the corridors of power and can raise concerns directly with the CBN Governor, and I suspect, in your case, even the President. Afterall, we see you guys taking pictures with him on your various visits to Aso Rock. Instead of discussing your concerns directly with the President, you chose instead to intervene publicly. ŴHAT IS YOUR MOTIVE MR DANGOTE. TO INSTIGATE PUBLIC OPINION AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT?

4. Shortly afterwards, you came on TV again to castigate the CBN for raising interest rates. You said it would harm businesses. You said no one is going to borrow at over 30% interest rate to set up businesses or expand existing ones. I was surprised by a couple of things. 1) that you didn't know that in a high inflation environment, a Central bank has to increase interest rate in order to control inflation. I learnt this in high school economics, and that principle continues to be taught today in Havard, Cambridge, in Nigerian and other universities across the globe. No alternative method has been found to be as effective in controlling inflation. Surely, as a no doubt, clever and successful businessman, you too must know this. SO WHAT WAS YOUR MOTIVE FOR COMING TO TV (again!) TO ATTACK MR TINUBU'S GOVERNMENT. The American central Bank raised interest rates to very high levels between 2022 and 23 due to very high inflation, we did not see BILL GATES or other American billionaires coming on American TV to attack the US Central Bank. Why? Because they know raising interest rates was the right thing to do.

5. ANOTHER COUPLE OF WEEKS LATER, you were on stage at an international symposium abroad and announced to the world that a cabal in Nigeria, which you said was worse than the international drug mafia was putting obstacles in the way of Dangote Refinery. So, Mr Dangote, you travelled all the way abroad to announce to the world that the image of your country as a crime-ridden, ungovernable, and chaotic entity is true. Are there more economic cabals or mafia in Nigeria than India, Pakistan, USA, Brazil? Have you ever seen the richest man in India, who recently hosted a much-talked about wedding for his son travel abroad to lampoon and cast his country India in such bad light as you did to Nigeria? MR DANGOTE, I ASK AGAIN, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?

And Bangladesh, which used to be an extremely poor country, is now even doing better than India economically in many areas.

The thing is, the Internet has opened the eyes of billions of poor people around the world to what is happening in so-called 'sane' countries in a way that was not possible 10 or 15 years ago.

Citizens eyes have 'opened'. They are now impatient with politicians. The lies that politicians used to tell no longer wash.

Bangladesh is making tremendous progress towards becoming a middle- income country. Yet, its Citizens are not happier than when the country was extremely poor just a few years ago.

Citizens around the world just want to fight their governments. People are frustrated. For whatever reason. They just want to protest. They want to destroy.

People want vengeance against politicians for everything that has happened in their countries. Even things that happened 30, 40, 50 years ago. They don't care. They have had enough.

Unfortunately for politicians, they can't find a miracle anywhere to solve the myriad of problems.

That is why citizens in countries that are supposedly making progress are just as unhappy and frustrated.

I had always wondered why this woman was always in the news.

I assumed she was just a trouble maker.

All of that changed when I watched her on TV last week.

At the end of the session, I concluded she was being harassed because she wasn't playing along with politicians who want money shared to them.

Mr President. Please listen to, and protect this woman by all means.

She is a victim.

So even World Bank officials are part of the corruption.

They take 40%. Chai.

The people who say the country is gone may be correct afterall.

Edygrin:
Lol. If the north wanted to protest, they would have been protesting already. All these statements they're making is nonsense, these ones just want to cash out.

You want to protest and you're behaving like labour union, press release here and there. Una never hungry reach to protest.

All sorts of would-be protesters have issued over 100 press releases during the last few weeks.

Yet, still no protest to be seen anywhere.

Serious protests are usually spontaneous. When you plan and over plan, it just shows you're not ready or serious.

She's just trying to score a cheap political point, so she can tell her constituents that she spoke about the matter in the Senate.

There is a process and procedure to how government works.

If a fire breaks out in a market in Kabba, can Kabba people leave their local government and Kwara state government to demand that Federal government rebuild the market?

The FCT has its own budget allocation. The woman should approach Mr Wike's office.

I get the impression Punch just criticises the government for criticism sake.

When Mr Tinubu came to power, oil production was around 1.1m barrels.

In just over 1 year, production is now at 1.7m barrels. That's at least 50% increase. Very impressive.

Note that President Buhari, a retired military General could not achieve even a fraction of these gains in over 5 years.

Now, Mr Tinubu is pushing the armed forces to continue to push to 2.2m barrels.

That will give us another 500, 000 barrels. But that will still be less than the highly impressive 600,000 barrels that we gained since Mr Tinubu's government came to power.

So how can Punch turn around to say the action of the President is belated.

We just don't appreciate any effort in this country.

Any one that watched the news over the past year will know there has been a 'war' on oil theft. The President's order is a continuation of an existing order, not a new order.

'...calls for calm...'

So he genuinely believes Nigerians are in turmoil because of him

What an ungentlemanly and sexist slap down by Mr Akpabio.

If a male Senator had made the same error as the lady Senator, would the Senate President have made the same remark. I doubt it.

Please correct people with respect, Mr Akpabio.

In fairness to the lady, she immediately accepted her error and, more impressively, did not appear to take offence at the Senate President's remark.

muykem:
Court might not grant stay of execution but rather prefer acceleration hearing because their tenure is already gradually winding down.

The application for stay of execution is at the High Court. Normally, this shouldn't take too long.

The appeal will be at the Court of Appeal. That is a separate matter, and the High Court has no influence on the timeliness of the Court of Appeal.

IfnobeGod20:

The appeal court will definitely grant the stay of execution because is within the right of the appellant, hence, Mr. Shuaibu has to wait till the appeal is heard and judgement deliver on it.

Incorrect.

1. Appeal Court has nothing to do with a stay of execution of a decision of a High Court.

2. Except for fundamental human rights cases and a couple of other circumstances, there is no automatic right to stay of execution. So, saying that '...the appeal court will definitely grant the stay of execution...' is incorrect. The same High Court that gave the original judgment will consider arguments, from both side's lawyers and then reach a decision on whether to stay execution or not. So, it is not guaranteed.

3. 'Mr Shaibu has to wait till the appeal is heard...'
Incorrect. From the moment the original court decision was read, Mr Shaibu was reinstated as Deputy Governor, and unless the court grants a stay of execution, Mr Shaibu will remain Deputy Governor.

Jorussia:
Except a stay of execution is granted by the appeal court, Philip shuaibu is the deputy governor of Edo State at present.please lawyers in the house,guide me if I am wrong.

The appeal court does not hear applications for a stay of execution of a judgement of a High Court.

It is the same court (High Court) that gave the judgement that will determine whether a stay of execution of the judgement is merited or not. Not the Appeal Court.

jayce232:
How many months is left to election that shaibu is even wasting his time? It will be more easier for the head of a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for Obaseki to allow shaibu be his deputy again. Shaibu ought to have known this

It is not in Mr Obaseki's power to determine whether Mr Shaibu is his Deputy Governor.

If the court says Mr Shaibu is Deputy Governor, he becomes deputy Governor.

Of course Mr Obaseki may not accord Mr Shaibu his Deputy Governor entitlements, but all the paraphernalia of government, including the Police, DSS, and the Federal government will have to recognise him as Deputy Governor.

Even if t is for a few months, and even if Mr Obaseki refuses to accord him his dues, history and official records will record that he was Deputy Governor.

His reputation and political standing will be restored. Mr Shaibu knows this. That is why this whole thing will be very important to him.

And of course, all his salaries and emoluments and pension (if applicable) will have to be paid by the Edo State government and back dated to the time he was wrongfully removed.

Beverlyjean:
I don't understand the rule of governance in this country.... state law makers impeach a deputy governor and the courts that are the interpreters of the law , decides to go against the law makers ....is that not crazy??

No, it is not.

It is called checks and balances. It is a fundamental principle of government. Without it, we will have unchecked Executive and Legislative rascality.

The Legislature (House of Assembly) makes laws.
The Judiciary interpretes the law.
The Executive enforces the law.
The Judiciary can also review and overturn the decisions of the Executive and the Legislature.

Macphenson:
I said it yesterday, the House of Assembly will appeal the ruling till Supreme court, by that time, their tenure must have expired.

The aim of applying for stay of execution and appealing rhe justment is just a distraction and to keep Shuaibu busy doing nothing while the elections take place.

You are wrong.

Appealing a case does not automatically stay the execution of a judgement you are appealing against, except in very limited cases including fundamental human rights cases.

So, filing a notice of Appeal in this case does not stop the execution of the judgment reinstating Mr Shaibu.

The 2nd application they filed, which is a motion for a stay of execution will be heard by the same Federal High Court that gave the initial judgement.

If the Judge handling the motion believes Mr Shaibu will lose the benefit of the original judgment if the execution is delayed (he probably will since the current State government will leave office in just a few months), the judge may refuse to grant a stay.

I personally believe there is more than a 60% chance that stay of execution will be refused.

Be that as it may, Mr Shaibu remains Deputy Governor.

Mr Shaibu is still the Deputy Governor.

An application for stay of execution is just that - an application.

The application, or more appropriately, the motion, will be argued by both sides before a Judge, and only if a Judge grants the stay, will Mr Shaibu revert to his status before the judgement.

If the motion for stay of execution is unsuccessful, Mr Shaibu will, in all likelihood, remain Deputy Governor until the current Edo State government leaves office since the Court of Appeal hearing and decision may not come until after the current government leaves office.

So the Minister changed a Federal government policy inside a hall. Just like that.

Chai

That goes to show that many government policies are made on the hoof without proper analysis.

Some of these Ministers don't know their left from their right.

Ok, everyone.

Good discussi.

Out of battery.

Have a good day.

OkCornel:


Oh really? Even the newspapers lied too?

Please name a credible newspaper that ever printed that N300 thing.

OkCornel:

Tinubu promised naira will exchange for 300 to the USD in the short term as of April 2023.

Absolutely nobody pressured him to make that pledge. What is the exchange rate today?

I don't believe he said anything like that. Don't believe everything you read on social media.

People will make fake headlines, impose it on newspaper front pages, change dates, and post it online, knowing many unsuspecting readers will believe the story is true.

If Mr Tinubu had said that, you can trust respectable media like Punch, Guardian, Vanguard, Arise TV, Channels would have been flashing the statement repeatedly to remind the President.

But the N300 claim has never appeared in any of the aforementioned media.

There is a reason for that - it is fake news.

Kobojunkie:
Care to name just one area your government is not slacking in? 🤔

2. By reforms, do you mean the many audio promises it is notorious for making every other week? 🤔

3. The Government created the hard times by way of its terrible decisions and its freehand approach to handling corruption. Hope has been swallowed up in the black hole that is this administration.

4. Get better on the same day the administration revealed that it had magically sent 20 trucks of rice to each of the 36 states in the country, this is less than a week after a government official had announced to the Nigerian people that the grain storehouses were empty?

Good reforms:

1. Removal of fuel subsidy
2. Merging of 2 official exchange rates
2. Local govt financial decoupling from States
3. Student loan
4. NNPC may sell crude oil in Naira to private local refineries
5. Many more.

I agree with you on rice distribution. Not going to make a difference, as too little. Just seems like a poor policy. It is unlikely to reach the people who need it the most.

Kobojunkie:
1. Why should the people of Nigeria allow him to continue to dig a grave for them when they can eliminate him(along with all those who have benefited from his ineptitude) and start over with someone else more competent and determined to make better decisions?

'eliminate him'

That's a terrible thing to say. Over what exactly.

Your scorched-earth approach is a recipe for disaster.

The government is slacking in some areas, but it is making significant reforms that will bear fruits in the not too distant future.

It is unfortunate that it is tough out there, but we must remain hopeful that the tide will turn.

Things can only get better from here.

@ Kobojunkie, you too produce something, anything, that Nigeria can add to other stuffs to export na, so the country can earn dollars.

Afterall, people in South Korea don't have two heads.

Naira is falling, Naira is falling, government MUST do something. Like what? Put machine in Aso Rock and start printing dollars.

Until everyone roll up their sleeves to contribute to this economy and stop threatening government, Nigeria is deceiving itself.

OkCornel:


Survival instincts should lead people to farms to be slaughtered by bandits? Or have their crops eaten by cows?

Are you not aware of these issues?

Where has agriculture thrived in the face of insecurity?

I understand the issue with bandits.

How about green areas within our compounds and community lands that are lying fallow?

By the way, I like you bro.

Despite your understandable anger at the current situation, your responses have been very civil throughout.

@ Kobojunkie, you too produce something, anything, that Nigeria can add to other stuffs to export na, so the country can earn dollars.

Afterall, people in South Korea don't have two heads.

Naira is falling, Naira is falling, government MUST do something. Like what? Put machine in Aso Rock and start printing dollars.

Until everyone roll up their sleeves to contribute to this economy and stop threatening government, Nigeria is deceiving itself.

OkCornel:
This thing is not rocket science. When the price of foodstuffs goes down, it will go a long way in reducing the palpable tension in the country.

Until then, best of luck expecting patience and reason with hungry Nigerians.

It’s just human nature, hunger triggers the survival instinct.

Many would say survival instincts should be leading people to go back to farming. Being on the Internet threatening government for not providing cheap beans, cheap tomatoes, cheap garri, cheap schools, cheap everything is hardly helpful.

Government is not going to start setting up tomato, okro, vegetable farms because its able bodied young people refuse to farm.

If you that is typing here throw some tomatoes seeds in your back garden and tend the plants, in 4 months you will harvest some tomatoes.

But everyone is waiting for government to provide solutions that the government can't provide.

Kobojunkie:
Too early to judge according to whom? I mean where do you lot pull these ideas out of for Pete's sake?

You can't turn the economy of a massive country like Nigeria around in 14 months.

These things take time.

Kobojunkie:
I don't give a flying fk about such things, mind you! 🤔

I'l let you be, madam.