₦airaland Forum

The next three months are going to be interesting , especially for the ADC.

Obi is unlikely to get the ticket. Those now endorsing Amaechi are strategically positioning him to be Atiku's vice. The biggest political mistake Obi made was joining the ADC. Atiku and his gang lured him in just to demystify him in front of Nigerians after his good outing in 2023, and make him a VP candidate at best.

Is it just me? This Amaechi hardly make any sense whenever he talks. He say unintelligible things, while rolling his owl-like eyeballs and dangling his protruding large tummy.

MaziObinnaokija:
If ATIKU nor gree RUN.... It is between I'm HUNGRY AMAECHI and AGBOTIKUYO 1.Make fem drag themselves

Atiku no run ke. That man must run. I have never seen any presidential aspirant more desperate than Atiku. The same Atiku, who as VP, wanted to contest against President Obasanjo in 2003, believing the Northern votes would propel him to power?

Presidential primaries must be concluded in just 3 months? Nice!!! The next few weeks must be interesting, especially in the ADC camp. I hope they are well-prepared for the direct primaries to select from Atiku, Obi and Amaechi. At least, Atiku will not bully other aspirants with dollars this time.

jmoore:
This is why Muslim Muslim ticket is having it's way and Christians remain relaxed.
Should your personal preference be more important than general preference?

The question is that how is the general preference determined?

The Muslims were uncomfortable with the previous date because it falls within Ramadan. Are the Christians fasting in January? If you travel home for Christmas, you should be back to your base by Jan. 16. Alternatively, you could transfer your voter's card to your village and vote there. Thankfully, we don't operate an electoral college like America. So, a vote in Oyo counts the same as one in Sokoto or Anambra.

jmoore:
Here are the presidential elections dates since1999

1. 27th February 1999

2. 19th April 2003.

3. 21st April 2007

4. 16th April 2011

5. 28th March 2015

6. 23rd February 2019

7. 25th February 2023.


So why has INEC fixed the presidential election to be held on January 16th 2027? A date when many Christians are yet to return to their base because of Christmas and new year celebrations?

Isn't this a calculated attempt to disenfranchise Christian voters?

I am a Christian and I don't feel the same way. In fact, I prefer the proposed Jan. 16 date. Anyone that knows he will be away around that time can vote in the village/town.

Nigerians are difficult to satisfy.

The provision for direct primaries in the electoral act hit them harder than the proviso on the e-transmission. It took them days to realize the banana peel the direct primaries could be.

The direct primaries will most likely destroy ADC before/after the primaries.

ThiefnubuBandit:
What a shame. Under the leadership of Gbola Tinumbu the political fraudster.

If it was Peter Obi that did this, watch how jobless APC online donkeys would've invaded this thread to insult their grand papa.

If your wife cheats on you, I know you would blame Tinubu

This is classless and shameful!!!

AMINDA:
Noted. We learn everyday. In the North, once you give you word, it is bond. Northerners do not say one thing and mean the other. How does he expect to Nigerians to believe his campaign promises if he can easily renege on them simply by claiming he is Yoruba man? He was in Adamawa praising Ribadu yesterday. I guess you will back in 2027 after the certain betrayal to claim that's the way of the Yoruba.

At least Tinubu has not betrayed Ribadu over the past 20 years of working with him. OBJ did not betray the North as a military man and a military Head of State. Forget about the betrayal nonsense.

How many times has the North betrayed other parts of Nigeria? How many times have the Fulanis betrayed various indigenous people of the North? Each time I hear "Sultan" or "Emir" in any part of the North, all I hear is betrayal, not conquest. Stop the pontification!!!

Even Buhari wanted to play a smart one on Tinubu and the SW APC in 2022. The North in 2022 still voted en masse for Atiku despite just concluding 8 years under Buhari.

Lastly, while El-rufai was vocal during the naira redesign, I am one of the people who felt that he never genuinely supported Tinubu. That partly explains why Tinubu performed poorly in Kaduna. In fact, Tinubu did better in Adamawa than in Kaduna. His worst performance or so in the North was in Kaduna. Yet, few weeks later, APC did very well in the state election.

AMINDA:
The water carriers have been activated to rewrite history. Elrufai has never, I mean NEVER being in the camp of Tinubu until the APC merger talks began circa 2013 or so. Even then, he was in the Buhari CPC camp. You all can keep burying your heads in the sand as long as this video exists.

El-Rufai Releases Video When Tinubu Was Begging Him to Work with Him…. Bro, politics m@d gan o 😭😂 pic.twitter.com/f8jMn7Eb3a

— Oyindamola🙄 (@dammiedammie35) February 17, 2026

I have no counterpoint to the first part of your comment.

As for the video, I laugh as a Yoruba man. You read too much into it, most Yoruba people will not read too much into it. It is more of a compliment or courtesy in our cultural context. I am perfectly being honest with you. El-rufai and his supporters might massage his ego with the video. That is not how a Yoruba man begs for favor if he needs one.

Some people will not be happy with this, especially those who have been feeding us with various conspiracy theories since the US bombed terrorists few months ago.

EDUECO:
If Nigeria's science education is not as bad as you wrote,then why do folks like
yourself run away to places like the USA or the UK? Nigeria's science education is very poor;you can't practise science(whether Medicine, Dentistry,Engineering,Physics,et cetera) in an environment with poor laboratories and inadequate equipments.

China is the greatest country in modern scientific innovations and China's industries have the highest level of efficiency.From primary to tertiary education level, China's science laboratories are up to date;and this has resulted to 'Made in China' goods which is found in every countries of the world.

If Nigeria's science education were as terrible as you and people like you describe, I would not have been able to complete my Ph.D. over here in the US because the knowledge gap would have been insurmountably wide. I know a guy who graduated from one of the first generation Nigerian universities with a bachelors degree in Elect/Elect engineering . He got his Ph.D. from my school in the US within four years without completing a masters degree. He currently works at Intel. There are many stories like that I am familiar with.

If our doctors were terrible as you described, hospitals in the UK, US, Canada would not be employing them. Oyinbo people are not that dumb. People's competence are constantly evaluated here.

By the way, Nigerians are not the only people studying in the UK, US and so on. Hence, correlating "running away" to universities in countries like UK, US with the low quality of Nigerian universities is not smart on your part. More than half of the graduate student population in the US are from China, Iran, South Korea and India. The Chinese are the most dominant foreign undergraduate students in the US. Even the Chinese president's child graduated from an America university. In fact, most of the elites in China send the children to study in the US. You don't have to believe me. Do your research and get back to me.


Could you tell me any original scientific innovation coming out of China? Just one! Most of what China does is to make cosmetic additions to the groundbreaking work from the West and Japan. I would not argue with you any further on this.

Lastly, I felt the need to respond to you because of the young Nigerian graduates that might be reading the comments on this thread. They should never be discouraged by the negative mindsets of people like you. With a good First Class or Second-Class Upper degree, they could get into top schools abroad, graduate and excel in those advanced societies.

Have a great week ahead.

EDUECO:
Science without adequate experimentation is equivalent to falsehood!

Can you boldly say science laboratories(including the Anatomy cadaver laboratory for basic medical students) in the University of Ibadan is modern and properly managed?

Can you boldly say the University College Hospital(UCH)in Ibadan has good laboratories (including the mortuary)and hospital facilities?

What if I tell you that the great China has overtaken the USA in terms of science and technology. I'm very sure you are of the opinion that the USA is greater than China in science and technology in 2026.

The level of mediocrity in pure science related courses in the Nigerian public universities is unbelievable.

Like I stated in my previous post, I am not saying all is well with our universities. However, I think it is exaggerated, especially for federal universities.

As someone with background in sciences, I agree with you about the dearth of good laboratories in our schools. That said, Nigerian graduates can still compete decently in many foreign universities.

I wasted a few years of my life in Nigeria because of comments like yours. Comments like yours do more to kill confidence in Nigerian graduates than trigger the government to spend more on education. When I got into a Ph.D. program in the US, I realized that I was not an outlier. I saw many graduates of Nigerian universities doing well and winning awards at top universities. I, and some Nigerians I know, have published at the top tier venues in our fields.

I am not a medical doctor, but I have seen many graduates of UCH, LUTH, ABUTH, UNNTH and OAUTH practicing at various big hospitals here. There are many stories in the news about Nigerian doctors leaving the country to various advanced countries of the world. Those stories are very true.

Nigerians are too negative. Please don't misunderstand me, I am not saying that all is well. All I am saying is that things are not as terrible as some of you make them.

As for your comparison of China to the US in the area of science, I disagree. The US is still above China. In fact, I still rate Japan ahead of China in science and technology. There are ideas in scientific research community that are termed groundbreaking. Most of such are still coming from the US, Japan, Germany, Canada and so on. China is good at making incremental and cosmetic improvements to groundbreaking ideas coming from the US and other countries. They also spend too much cyberattack effort stealing confidential ideas from the US and other advanced countries.

MadamVanessa:



Forcing lies on people's throat. This past glory school wouldnt want to give up. This is not 60's , 70's 80's and early 2000 that you people were all and all , attaining unimaginable feats. In this present dispensation a lot of schools has emerged and has relegated and pushed this glorified school to abyss . This lies can only be meaningful to the gullible but we that know, knows better.

EDUECO:
You're definitely right!

Nigeria's public universities practise false or low grade science and technology; and that is why Nigeria is no where in the world in terms of scientific innovations.

Just go and see the laboratories where future medical doctors and scientists are trained in Nigerian public universities. The laboratories are below world standard.

Some Nigerians enjoy trashing Nigerian universities.

Having studied in Nigerian federal universities and earning a doctorate in the US, I can say that Nigerian universities are not as terrible as some people make them out to be. I am not claiming that everything is perfect but Nigerians are often too hard on the country’s university system.

You would be surprised at the accomplishments of recent graduates from Nigerian universities in top American universities and research institutions. During my graduate studies, I never felt like an outlier in classes filled with students from the US, China, Iran, India, Europe, and elsewhere.

I read the article a couple of days ago, and I am not impressed by it.

China and the Chinese people are the most intellectually dishonest people in the world and that didn't start today. They fake their way up.

In my experience, research papers from many institutions in China often raise concerns about transparency and reproducibility. They are notorious for faking experimental results, and reluctant to provide insightful details about their methods. In many cases, the results are not reproducible. When you are lucky to reproduce their ideas using the descriptions provided in their papers, the results you obtain are usually different from what were stated in their papers.

By contrast, I generally feel more confident in research work from universities in the US, Germany, France, UK, Canada, Australia, South Korea and Japan than any from the Chinese universities.

An interesting portion in article posted by the op is quoted below:

ponziponzi:
And a study has suggested that Chinese researchers have been boosting their citation rankings by citing one another more often than western researchers tend to cite other westerners.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/us/harvard-global-ranking-chinese-universities-trump-cuts.html

Obviously from the quoted article, Chinese researchers are intentionally citing themselves in order to boost their citation rankings. Citation rankings is one of the most important metric for ranking universities and research institutions in the world. What the Chinese are doing is to manipulate this metric in their favor.

The Chinese are very good at studying any system and finding ways to game such system. With all the hype around China today, there are hardly any groundbreaking and revolutionary technological idea coming out from there. They are only good at making incremental and cosmetic improvements to original ideas coming from US, Europe and Japan. They also spend a lot of cyberattack effort on stealing ideas from research institutions and companies in the West, Japan and South Korea.

I would rather have my Children study at Harvard than Zhejiang University. Even the Chinese president's child graduated from Harvard. In fact, when Trump recently wanted to ban students from China from studying at the top US universities, the Chinese president had to quickly step in.

PulaPower:
The bedophile in White House happened to America schools..

The decline of this nature doesn't just happen within a year. Even without Trump ever being president, the result would have been the same.

OredoPikin2:
They all have seen that the Muslim Muslim tickets was just a deception.
Obi/Elrufai ticket or Obi/kwankwaso will defeat Tinubu squarely rigging or no rigging

The average illiterate Northerner with his transistor radio is far more politically aware that most of you. It was the reason they formed alliance with Zik, made him president, only for him to realize that he didn't have any executive power. The executive power resided with Tafawa Balewa, the prime minister.

The average Northerner knows more than most of your Ph.D. holders in the South that the VP position is constitutionally empty, and it is only useful if the president die in office. So, you can't cajole them with some Obi/Elrufai, Obi/Kwankwaso ticket. Rather, you could get them with Atiku/Obi ticket.

Some of you have a limited understanding of the political and electoral history of Nigeria. I am beginning to think I am arguing politics with some twenty-something-year-olds here.

givedemwotowoto:
Agbadorian don drop quote. What state in the core NW or NE have you lived in?

My brother, we don't need to call ourselves names. Let us analyze objectively.

I don't see how Obi will win the 19 Northern states ahead of Tinubu. I am not saying this as a BAT supporter. It is what it is.

Tribalism and Religion, even more than economic indices, factor significantly in how Nigerians vote. It has been like that before independence and it is still very present. It is the same reason Obi got 90% votes in the SE, Tinubu won the SW, and Atiku won the North despite the fact that Buhari (a Northerner) was just completing his eight years. That pattern is not peculiar to Nigeria, it is like that even in advanced democracies of the world.

Obi deputizing Atiku is the best chance for dislodging Tinubu in 2027, and Obidients must be ready to support the ticket like they supported him in 2023. Afterall, it is not bad to deputize an 81-year-old president . There is little guarantee that Atiku would complete his presidency, if elected. So, Obi could still become president the Jonathan way. I feel bad typing this, but it is what it is.

givedemwotowoto:
What Nigerians need now is a united opposition, and I believe Peter Obi leading that opposition (with support from Atiku, Tambuwal, Kwankwaso, El Rufai and others) will defeat the political structure of APC based on propaganda and so substance.

I doubt the understanding of some of you about Nigeria's political terrain.

Head-to-head, Obi can never defeat BAT in 2027, as long as Zamfara, Kano, Sokoto, Katsina, Gombe, Bauchi, Borno, Kebbi, and so on, are part of Nigeria. There is no way citizens of those states would look away from a Muslim-Muslim ticket to vote for Obi. Lame as it might appear, it is the reality. Mind you, BAT will perform better in the South in 2027 than he did in 2023.

The only presidential candidate that can break BAT in the North is a Northern Muslim. Therefore, if your obsession is kicking out Tinubu, the most realistic formula is Atiku-Obi or any other Northern Muslim presidential candidate running with Obi. The problem with that formula would be Obidients, who strongly believe Obi should be president. Many hard-core Obidients would kick against Obi being a VP candidate, and they may refuse to vote in the general election.

DeLaRue:
What a brilliant riposte.

KPMG were very unprofessional in their analysis, and are probably just bitter that the leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers Nigeria, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, was appointed to chair the Presidential Tax Committee.

For those not aware, there are 4 international accounting/auditing companies known globally as 'the big 4', i.e, the 4 largest auditing companies in the world.

They are Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG. KPMG is the smallest of the 4.

As an alumni of one these firms abroad myself, there was always mild rivalry. At times, 2 or more of the big 4 would chase the same client, and after several months of hard work, inevitably only one of the firms won the client's work. When my firm won, we celebrated (mildly) particularly if it was a big client. When we lose, the mood in the team was slightly down for a day or so, but we took any loss on the chin. Overall, it was a decent professional rivalry amongst the big 4. Nothing insidious.

All the big 4 firms have large offices in Nigeria. But trust Nigerians, what is mild professional competition abroad is being turned into an unprofessional, gutter, malicious, and insidious open fight by KPMG.

There is no way in the world that KPMG Netherlands would openly write to criticise work done by another big 4 firm on a highly political matter as the tax law is, in the manner that KPMG Nigeria did, particularly as the write up was shoddy, misleading, and probably targeted at discrediting Mr Oyedele, and indirectly, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Very unprofessional of KPMG. Probably explains why they remain the smallest of the big 4.

Thank you. I wanted to write something identical to yours.

anonimi:
What is stopping you from demonstrating your rumoured intellect by posting your national debt numbers in May 2015 and January 2026

I don't know you but from your long junk responses you post here, I could tell that I am way beyond your league.

Your responses show you to be below average intellectually, or dishonest.

Can you see anywhere in the previous post where I mentioned 2015 or PDP? Go back and read. My post was squarely on the current govt. You dishonestly started commenting about 2015 or PDP, which I did not even consider in my post. You are notorious on NL for going off-topic and posting any of the links you saved on your computer.

anonimi:
How can our debt reduce in dollars when Tinubu is borrowing more from external sources than PDP’s deregulation and privatisation experts? PDP politicians who gave us 16 years of prosperity, high employment productivity and low insecurity!

Any idea what Tinubu and APC have done to the $84 billion subsidy savings and his August higher revenue target, while he claimed to have stopped borrowing

You are well-known on this forum for posting long meaningless junks. What I would expect someone of a decent IQ to do is to post our national debt on May 29, 2023 and our national debt today in dollars.

The fact that your response to my previous post include the PDP years who were last in govt. 11 years ago shows you are not that intellectually there.

Kclawx:
What is the value of what you got then compared to now ? Let’s use USD for example. You got it when Naira was much stronger.

Validated:
Stupeid and nonsensical assessment by Thief Orji Kalu.

In 1999, when Thief Orji Kanu became governor of Abia, the US Dollar to Nigerian Naira exchange rate varied, with official rates around ₦82-₦92. By the time you left office, the $ was exchanging for $125. If we average your allocation at the average of $1 was N105, it means that you received 14 times what Otti is getting now.

So please mechie-onu and enjoy your loot in peace!

Nextjs:
Then how much was Dollar then?

All past governor of that state are attacking the current government

Yet, a few months ago, when Obi criticized the government for increasing our debt in naira, when in fact, our debt has reduced in dollars, you all cheered and supported him. Funny enough, in all my years, I have never heard Nigeria's debt quantified in naira before, until Obi did. It has always been in dollars.

I laugh at many of you who claim to be different from the current crop of leaders. You are not different, you are just angry that the people you want are not in government.

Obi is vying to be Atiku's VP; there is no need to deceive anyone.

I don't see Atiku as an ideologue or a principled individual, consumed with the love for Nigeria and convinced in Obi's capabilities to concede presidency to Obi. This is Atiku that has contested every presidential election since 2007, regardless of where the position were zoned. He is in the coalition to get the ticket. Obi knows this and he would gladly accept to be his VP, after he has been "dollar-defeated" in the primaries.

Oseloka, Tanko, Aisha and the rest know that Obi is likely to be Atiku's VP candidate. They are saying all they have been saying over the past few days to allay the fear and concerns of some skeptical hardcore Obidients. Once the primaries have been concluded and Obi "dollar-defeated", they would start changing their tune slowly and "encourage" Obi to be Atiku's running mate.

Once Obi "accepts" to be Atiku's running mate, we would start hearing things like: "Obi will be in charge of economy", "Obi will be the most powerful VP", "Atiku has agreed to do only one term" etc. .

In actual fact, the VP position is not really strong, even in America. Atiku would want to do more than one term, if they win. Their relationship might not last six months after the election, partly because Atiku would be surrounded by the Northern cabals and Obidients will not stay silent. They would give Obi all the credit for any positive thing under Atiku's administration.

Chai! I am seeing too far into the future.

FarahAideed:
He posted a 30 years comparison to deliberately hide Tinubu failure, why didn't he do a 10 year comparison? Why did he not even do a 3 years comparison? 10 years ago Lagos budget was almost 5 billion dollar today its 2 billion dollars and you crafty 🤡🤡 want us to celebrate?

Like I said, you are intellectually shallow and incapable of engaging in an analytical debate.

There is no state government, including Lagos, that has ever budgeted $5bn, in the history of Nigeria. It seems you don't know what $5bn is. In fact, in the no state government has budgeted $3bn.

You lied that Lagos state budgeted $5bn 10 years ago. See: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/ssouth-west/174739-fashola-signs-2015-lagos-appropriation-bill-law.html?tztc=1.

If you can show me a verifiable news source where any state government budgeted $5bn like you claimed in the history of Nigeria, I would send you 100k today.

There are many people like you here on NL, who do not career about any truth. All you see is politics.

jaxxy:
A minimum wage earner wasn't paying any tax in the old regime.

Show us how much tax the minimum wage earner paid in the old regime.

You are the one that should show me since you are arguing to the contrary. Many of you opposing the current tax law know nothing about the old regime.

FarahAideed:
He didn't state any fact , he is deliberately trying to mislead people..Lagos budget for example is a lot less than what it was 10 years ago if you factor devaluation

To a sane and intelligent mind, the op stated pure fact. Perhaps, you are too blinded by partisanship to see it.

The poster did not just post the figures in Naira, which we all know has suffered from devaluation and inflation over the past 25 years. The poster posted the dollar equivalent of those figures for better context. Myopic people like you make this forum less interesting, mature and engage, because you are not intellectually endowed to analyze data and issues dispassionately without having partisanship at the back of your mind.

advanceDNA:
Sir ......The assessment is not fair..it I because u are not critical in the first place or u don't care that why u can't notice
....classifying tax exempt pple at 66k in this current economy is deceptive and outrightly wicked....When u pple want to compare abroad to Nigeria...u will cherry pick to favor your evil govt....
ignorance...??
Look around you.....the cheapest rent in Nigeria is around 200k......1k can no longer buy a meal for a person, I have not touched bills,
..a 100k per month earner is dead not even poor and shouldn't be near tax with how the currency has been left badly depreciated...

Be critical and compare UK tax exempt to Nigeria....

again...mwhen u want to compare Nigeria to abroad u cherry pick....sir...do the pay u pple do these things?

did u compare our embezzlement rate to other nations like the UK and co......??
Did u compare the natural resources we have and our elites spend alone to theirs....?
u only want to compare what will put more money in the pocket of thieves .....sir..welldone

Someone just told 212billiion naira ..thats just one person, yahaya bello is there..just one person....emefiele is there...that just one person caught......and a host of others that were not exposed because u all know it's a syndicate behavior in Nigeria to steal money


Sir....u are just speaking English slogan....saying tax is vital for society to thrive is statement is for countries who have sane leaders and established system that actually utilize the taxes and other revenue for their pple...
Not pple who use tax payers money to pay terrorist, and enrich themselves...

..sir, I honestly don't get these justification of milking Nigerians when we know where the money will end up......
The fuel subsidy and currency gains have all ended in the pocket of the executives, law makers and judiciary....

There are 16 nations that don't pay taxes including Saudi thats an oil nation... Sir, why don't y'all provide justification with the current set of revenues before coming here to quote slogan......
Hello sir......tax is not for society build up in Nigeria ...it's is for embezzlement because the current collection is heavily embezzled..

Do you mean Nigerians should not pay taxes because government officials are corrupt? This is one of the most silly arguments I have heard from people. The fact is that a generally properly-taxed population are more likely to hold their government accountable. It is common to hear people in saner climes use the term "tax-payers' money" when being critical of their government's spending. This is a term that is alien to us in Nigeria because many people don't pay taxes.

By the way, your responses to my previous post are largely dishonest and carefully cherry-picked. I never compared our low tax collection rate to the UK or other advanced countries. I specifically compared it to other African countries. The last time I checked, Nigeria was 3rd or 4th from the bottom in Africa in tax collection rates.

Your response also show your ignorance of even the old tax laws that your earliest post implicitly support. If you want the current tax laws to be scraped, then the old law must continue. However, the poor people you pretend to care about pay more taxes under the old law. People earning as low as 400k pay taxes under the old law.

Like I have repeated on this thread, people like you are very ignorant and just want to oppose the new law just for the sake of it. Your opposition is not data-driven nor well-informed.

It is unfortunate that we can't debate issues on NL without people like you inputting politics into them. The fact that you think my analysis of this tax issue is driven by my political affiliation is unfortunate, and it suggests to me why you are opposing the new tax law in the first place.

FarahAideed:
Is that not still tax ? So why try to mislead people like the poor are exempted from tax

How am I misleading anyone? We all know that people earning 800,000 and below will not pay tax. The calculation is for people earning 840,000.

Under the previous tax law people like you are fighting to keep, people earning 400,000 per annum pay taxes. People earning 840,000 pay even far more than 6,000 they would pay in the new tax regime.

The problem with some of you is that you are ignorant of both the old and new tax laws. You are opposing the new one out of malice, ignorance and/or partisanship.

Otuegbe:
from the above, even the poorest people will pay tax.

Yeah, but very minimal.

If you are being honest with yourself, can you tell me the minimum wage earners are not paying taxes under the previous tax law? Like I said, many of you opposed to the new law do so out of malice or ignorance.