₦airaland Forum

eGuerilla,

You are absolutely correct. And you also got the names of the bank and the key buyer of the yacht right.

Someone commented about Mr Igbokwe who was answering questions in an online interview. He probably thought he was doing the right thing by saying it was bad business. He misdirected himself.

This man is a spokesman of a party, not a party to the transaction. I know about the transaction. I was privy to documents he could not have seen as a party spokesman.

And if you are familiar with the politics of Lagos, you will know that the buyer, Mr Afikuyomi left ACN for ANPP (I think), and as such was no longer in the inner circle of Mr Tinubu and many top ACN Chieftains. So the idea that Lagos State would put their money in his business is laughable.

Unquestionably, most of our politicians are corrupt, but very often assets credited to some of them are simply not theirs.

The other day, I read on here that Mrs Jonathan was building a massive hotel in one of the Niger delta states. I was sceptical.

Most of the things they say Mr Tinubu owns are simply not his.

Sorry, this is way longer than necessary, but with nairaland, it is sometimes necessary go long.

I was very much involved with the Yacht in question - right at the highest level. I had meetings with very high level officials of the bank that financed the purchase, and as such had access to tons of real and genuine information and documents concerning this yacht. I know the names of the owners, and I was on the yacht up to a few weeks before it was sold.

I can tell you a lot about this yacht.

BELOW IS THE 100% TRUE STORY OF THE YACHT!

______ The 'Princess' Sunborn yacht hotel was constructed around 2002 by Sunborn International Finland.

______ Sunborn International placed and managed the Yacht in London docklands up till 2007 or thereabout.

______ Around 2007, a Nigerian team made up of a former AD - turned PDP (?) Senator and his partner bought the yacht.

______ Purchase price was ridiculously above true market value and transaction was financed by a local bank (name withheld).

______ By & large, the loan was secured on the yacht itself! No other security!! - very common amongst banks during the Soludo bubble.

______ The Senator was able to use his lingering contact with ACN govt in Lagos, to get the then Lagos State commissioner
for tourism to throw govt embrace around the project on the basis that it would boost tourism and raise Lagos's international profile.

______ On the day the yacht arrived in Lagos, thousands of Lagosians and several state officials and the said commissioner were there before TV cameras smiling and basking in the glory of this new toy that would catapult Lagos's international standing to new heights.

______ Unfortunately, by the time it arrived Lagos, the owners had spent so much buying it, they had nothing left to run it. And the bank would not lend a kobo more! To make matters worse, the two buyers fell out over how to take the business forward.

______ Few months passed, then years. Now the yacht was becoming so badly degraded that it risked becoming a health hazard.

______ With AMCON on the rampage, and rumour sipping out about the shoddy nature of the financing of the yacht purchase, the financing bank, wanting to avoid public embarrassment, decided to exercise its right to sell.

______ By mid-2012, the bank put the yacht up for sale.

______ The senator protested placing warning notice in some national newspapers against anyone buying. But he couldn't pay the bank what he owed it, so the bank paid no attention.

______ After several months on the market, the bank found an Asian buyer. The Yacht was quietly towed out of Lagos I believe on boxing day 2012 with most people getting wind only after the yacht was out of Nigerian waters.


Based on what I know, the yacht cost around N4.5 billion, but the bank got back less than 20% of that money.

Moral of the story

1. Lagos State did not invest one kobo in the yacht and so Lagosians have lost nothing
2. Tinubu had nothing to do with this yacht
3. This was a private project that failed largely because of financial incapacity, greed and infighting between two owners
4. The big loser was the lending bank which got back a fraction of what it lent and has no prospect of getting more from the debtors.

I don't see the need for comparison - two great men, different circumstances.

I admire Mandela for his maturity in handling the transition to self rule in his country.

In contrast, when I look at where we are today in Nigeria, with all the trillions that these politicians have at their disposal, the achievements of Awolowo were and remain simply unbelievable.


Going through Akure township during the last governorship elections in Ondo, I remember seeing election posters of Mimiko and Akeredolu each with Awolowo's pictures inset - both claiming to be the genuine Awoist! Lol. No other politician in Nigeria has a name that wins elections more than 30 years after leaving public office.

For me, Nigeria's greatest ever administrator. A truly brilliant and unforgettable man.

PointB: Yeah right!. They should rather pretend so that all will be well and dandy. No wonder the country is so warped and stunted, when you have people smiling at you while concealing innate hatred and malice deep in their heart. Sorry dear, I'll rather know what you think about me than the superficial show that is common among the SW. Arthur Eze is an old man, by his reckoning. When do you want him to say it it way he feels, in his grave? Awolowo killed Igbo people and cheated them of the money; every Igbos know this, and most Igbo say it. Yorubas should come to terms and deal with it, simple!

Okay, so the man said his mind.

But, how about a President that sits there and behaves as though he agrees with that comment.

He should be a unifying President.

The remark about Awolowo and the Yorubas is so bad.

Even if you hold this sort of view personally, there are certain things that are just not to be said in public.

If Jonathan was a decent man, he could have taken to the mic (even if it's shortly before he left the event) to express displeasure at that comment, and apologise on behalf of everyone present. Obama or any other leader worth his salt would have done that.

For the President to sit down smiling sheepishly like a buffoon is remarkable.

How did we as a country get to this low low point?

So sad.

Obiagelli: i love the way you table your arguments, simply brilliant. I hope you make more contributions here.
@ topic i doubt the number of votes Amechi would bring in as vice president, like it's been said above igbos would most likely vote gej except Apc wins anambra and chooses rochas as it's VP thereby selling the igbo presidency agenda for 2019.

Thanks. I do contribute, but in the past few months people have become so angry and abusive about anything and anybody they disagree with that I prefer to watch from the sidelines most times. It is a very intimidating environment now.

On Okorocha...I agree that if APC wins Anambra, that will be a major breakthrough for the party in the SE, and will increase the likelihood of an Igbo VP. All in all, I think the Buhari/Fashola combination will edge it at the end of the day.

Desola: Excuse me mam, sorry to interrupt this conversation but I wanted to let you know that I am a long standing admirer of yours.

Thank you.

Aww...nice. At the risk of turning this into a mutual appreciation society, I like you too but I do 'fear' when you threaten to visit folks at night. Honest, it scares me. Lol

Katsumoto: @ Edo Girl

I disagree with the choice of Ameachi as VP on the following grounds

1. He doesn't have a large amount of supporters. Most voters in Ameachi's region will vote GEJ anyway; so what leverage does Ameachi have?

2. A more competent administrator should be VP to Buhari. I don't see why Fashola should be overlooked on the basis of religion. June 12, a muslim/muslim ticket won against a Muslim/Xtian ticket.

No question that Amaechi won't bring as much votes as Fashola, and in my view a Buhari/Fashola ticket remain the most formidable option for APC. I also think Buhari/Amaechi can be a veritable second choice.

A muslim/muslim, particularly one with Fashola on it, is not an issue for most Christians that I know. Right now, people just want a solid leader who will fight corruption.

I understood that there was little corruption during his time. False?

Also, I am not aware that his government used flogging as a tool to punish erring masses. Yes, it may have been used by some quasi-military agencies and the police, but we have the same today.

Don't police flog people now? And the army publicly humiliating civilians? I tell you of a recent (well, a few months ago) event where the army team on the road block between Owo and Akungba apparently forced a 'poorly dressed' lady to bring her t*ts out to be fondled by the Okada guy ferrying her. I understand the Ondo State University (Akungba) girl was dressed for a party on a weekend, and the army thought her dressing was distasteful, and her punishment was that depraved humiliation. We happen to leave in a society with peculiar values. We can't peg everything on Buhari.

NB: Just to confirm that the incident about the army was relayed to me by a relative. I can't vouch that it happened.

It's fair to say that Igbos will probably vote overwhelmingly for GEJ again. Most people know and accept that, so, Igbo votes are not part of the calculation in a Buhari/Amaechi combo, nor truth be told, will it be in a Buhari/Fashola paring.

As for Buhari, I agree he has some flaws, but I take comfort from the fact that as an experienced leader, he will know that pushing the country in one extreme direction or the other will imperil unity even further. I also know that when all is said and done, the constitution has a lot of inbult defences against a wantonly autocratic Presidency.

What entices me to Buhari is that he holds out that prospect, that hope, however small, of a Nigerian President who will genuinely fight corruption. For me, that is the most important quality I desire in the next Nigerian leader.

GEJ is painfully incapable, so he is certainly not an option for me. Sorry.

I always thought all the APC needed to do was give us Buhari/Fashola, and 2015 was done. Since I don't listen to what most of these discredited 'Christian leaders' say, I am certainly not one Christian that would be misled into believing a Christian must be part of the ticket.

But looking at it again, a Buhari/Amaechi doesn't sound bad. Nothing to do with religion, but I think a lot of people in other regions wouldn't mind this combo. Amaechi has won and continues to win sympathies as a victimised, yet strong personality.

Anything to get rid of the PDP. Anything!

GEJ's PDP is going...going...and gone come 2015!

Awon Ole buruku!

This woman is gone as the aviation Minister. It's only a matter of days or weeks.

The press's persistence and the threat of more revelations have scared Jonathan, as he simply does not know what more is going to be revealed.

The fact the NSA is part of the committee gives me a lot of comfort. Dasuki will not save this woman, trust me.

NSA's involvement also tells me Jonathan has given up on saving the woman. Once the Committee finds against her, and the full picture is revealed, GEJ will probably just ensure that she is not bundled into a black maria straight to the courts. That's all GEJ can do for her now.

I do not believe the Federal government has the power to direct State governments on how the latter enforce their constitutional right to levy and collect taxes.

This can only be done by law, through the National Assembly.

Terrible. How low can people get.

I honestly didn't understand all the excitements about this national dialogue of a thing. Whoever thought this was going to produce any tangible result?

As usual the people who got most excited about it all were Southerners. The Northerners didn't appear too bothered by it all.

And the reason for their quiet confidence?

They have the final say on how, when, and if any significant changes can be made to the current set up of the country. They have the majority in the National Assembly, and even if the National Assembly is bypassed, and the outcome of the national dialogue is put directly to the people through a referendum, the Northern voting block will absolutely pulverise the Southerners with their 'inbuilt' majority.

The way Nigeria is set up currently favours the North immeasurably. Those who expect Northerners to vote for that situation to be changed are naive.

Have you ever seen a Turkey vote for Christmas?

The only time a national conference of any sort will have any meaning is when things are absolutely on the verge of collapse and the Northerners come to the view that some concession is better than allowing the whole thing to collapse. Whatever people say on Nairaland, we are not at that point yet. Ok, I understand, the country is facing many challenges, but the fact remains that things have not yet reached the point where the Northern power brokers believe they need to make any concession.

It is only on the eve of a civil war that they will agree to any meaningful change.

Right now, all they need to do is sit back, relax, make one or two low level threats (lol) and watch GEJ and Tinubu (southerners ironically) trash themselves in the media.

With the trick they perfected in ensuring a majority in the National Assembly, the north has the rest of Nigeria in an arm lock!

Get your opponent in an arm luck and he would eventually be the one begging you to negotiate.

Didn't you guys watch wrestling when you were kids!!

Very selfish man. Senator Olujukokoro.

3% of a country's budget is spent on maintaining less than 500 people. What's left for the remaining 160 million?

Brilliant news, after the darkness of recent days.

My brother, like you, I am usually cautious about Nigerian newspaper, but you can find similar information in the Economist.

I think we both agree that we need to diversify. Of course oil & gas will continue to be important to the economy.

Nigeria is the second largest producer of liquefied petroleum gas in Africa, and the sixth largest producer in the world with over 3million metric tones annually. However, current per capita consumption of the gas in Nigeria is about 0.8kg/annum. This is the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa; lower than those of Nigeria’s West Africa neighbours who do not produce the product. Annual LPG consumption is in Nigeria for 2010, was put at 120,000MT, whereas, in Lagos alone, there is a potential market for 1,000,000MT annually. Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/07/natural-gas-importance-and-uses-2/

There you go about our per capita gas consumption. You see the problems we face in this country. You are an insider in the industry, yet you do not appear to be aware of the situation. For all we know, you could be a policy maker in the industry. No wonder the country keeps going around in endless circles.

I don't think I said anywhere that there is no potential for increased pas consumption. My argument is that real demand has been low, given the amount the country produces and was billed to produce. That's why I said, the multinationals are not going to sink in more of their money, hence why Brass (Bonny?) has not moved beyond train 2, and why they are pulling out of Olokola.

Perhaps you have different reasons as to why these projects have stalled.

Burying one's head in the sand and saying that all is well and rosy isn't going to get us anywhere. When other countries can see problems several decades ahead, we insist 'all is well and good.' Should we continue to produce gas, absolutely. Should we increase production when economics demand it, yes. Should we be looking to diversify our economy away from near-total dependence on oil. A bigger yes.

Bros, this is more about international energy economics than whatever your 'reliable source' at Brass tells you.

When the board of directors of an oil major meets in Texas or London to deliberate on whether to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a project in far away Africa, all they think about is what's in it for them as a company and typically, they are more interested in extracting and selling in the international market where they can get their dollars quickly.

Besides, the Nigerian govt interferes with domestic gas prices, and industrial and domestic use of gas is still relatively low in Nigeria. You probably live in Ikoyi where you are all wired up for gas, but when I drive round my area, I see people with their cans searching for kerosene. Very few people use gas in Nigeria.

To give you an example, if you produce 100 gallons of water and there is only market for 10 gallons (at poor prices), would you keep digging more water wells to increase production? And how many manufacturing companies in so-called Aba and Ogun state are 'wired up' to use gas? And where is the infrastructure to distribute the gas.

Of course it's good we have gas, but the infrastructure needed to grow widespread domestic use of gas is not there, and the oil multinationals are not going to wait around until our govt sorts itself out.

It's always amusing to here people say, my friend or a 'reliable source' said this or that. If your reliable source and the others at Brass had been any good at their job in the first place, we would not be left gasping for air when a foreign company pulls out of a project. Like the politicians, your source and his Brass co-workers are creaming off huge salaries and not contributing nothing to steer the country in the right direction.

It's all down to viability. Truth is LNG is yesterday's news. The world has moved on. Nigeria's biggest LNG project (Brass LNG)has been stuck in phase 2 (called Train 2) when it was planned to have 4 trains. The multinational oil companies are also involved in that project.

The price of LNG collapsed on the world market a few years back, and though it has improved a bit, new gas discoveries have been made in many more countries (including East Africa)thus meaning there are more supply sources. Paradoxically, much of Nigeria's gas can't be sold locally due to low domestic prices.

With LNG no longer in hot demand (as it was when Olokola and the other projects were planned), and no viable domestic market, any surprise investors are pulling back. Investors are hard-nosed profiteers. They are no mugs.

To compound LNG's problem, there is the phenomenon that is shale gas, which is reshaping America's (and soon the world's) energy market. With the discovery of shale gas, LNG prices in America are so low that if you got a ship-load of Nigerian LNG for free, and ship it to the US, by the time it arrives there, the cost of shipping alone will ensure that the 'free' LNG will still be almost as expensive as the current cost of LNG in the American market.

As far as LNG is concerned, OLOKOLA IS DEAD. It's not politics. The project, and others in Nigeria simply are not adding up anymore. What to do is to keep it alive for other industries, and the proposed Dangote refinery is a good step. It can become a cluster for allied petrochemical, plastic, and other industries. It can still achieve serious success.

What we should be doing as a country is seriously looking at rebalancing the economy away from its over dependence on oil. But when you have a political class whose sole desire is to loot, there is no hope of any such rebalancing happening. They are simply not interested.

Ever wondered how much energy, resources, and valuable time this Presidency was spending on Amaechi and PDP's political machinations in Anambra? You get it! Their own personal financial considerations are far more important to them.

Ilesha - Akure > badly needs dualisation.

Akure - Benin > No dualisation needed. I travelled on that road 3 weeks ago. The only busy part is between Akure and Owo, which with the exception of a few spots remains ok. From Owo to Benin, again the road for the most parts, in good shape, though a couple or so spots are really bad.

I see zero point in dualising Owo - Benin. Very few vehicles ply that road.

There are things to dislike about Mugabe, but I am not one of those who buy all the negative British and American propaganda about him.

I was speaking to an MDC-supporting friend in Harare yesterday, and she said Mugabe's land grab was absolutely essential, even though the resulting economic sanctions have been ruinous to the economy. Remember, until just over 10 years ago, whites, who represented about 3% of the population controlled almost 80% of the country's most fertile land. Land that their colonial fore fathers seized forcefully from local peasants, killing several thousands in the process.

Remember too that Britain considered Mugabe a staunch ally until the man started talking about returning lands to the native Zimbabweans who had no land to farm on. Then suddenly, the Western press turned against him with propaganda, comparing him to Hitler and all sorts.

And guess what, Zimbabwe had, and despite the sanctions, continue to have the highest literacy rate in Africa. And if you go to Harare, you will be pleasantly surprised by how developed, reasonably orderly, and lovely the city is.

Yet, with all the oil money pouring into the Nigerian govt coffers, what do we get? A country that is practically unlivable.

I remember walking alone, on several occasions, from Faculty of Arts all the way to Moza at 2,3, 4am without ever thinking I was at risk. And I would encounter other lone walkers along the way. Ife was such a safe colony.

Wonder what things are like now.

Nonsense. Most Yorubas are instinctively indifferent to the Federal govt. It's been like that since the early 60s. They are happy to get on with their own stuff. Action Group? UPN? ACN? The facts are there.

Count me in. Would happily vote for Buhari/Fashola. Or any other decent combo.