₦airaland Forum

Tell me why they shouldn't deny and backpedal now that they've caused the loss of livelyhood of their own kinsmen? The whole north is on lockdown and they're losing badly. Those who sponsor them are beginning to think again and are under pressure. Why shouldn't they seek ways to wiggle out of the mess even if it means lying? Besides, whether they carried out the attack wit their own hands or not, the attacks have been inspired by them as a direct consequence of their actions.

@DanKan, why is Boko Haram faceless? There is clearly an agenda hence the "facelessness". Even AlQuaeda was not faceless. They showed their faces boldly in videos, etc. MEND etc were not faceless. The agenda was clear. If boko haram wants it's words taken seriously, let them start showing their face to us. Dumb cowards they are.

Correction: This sect of boko haram did not carry out the attack. There are many different "boko harams". Besides, why should we believe the words of the murderous boko ram members? Why should we trust in their statement as though it's the gospel truth?

OP, people are more concerned about the well being of their bellies than the well being of the nation. It all points to lack of patriotism. If we are told to choose between the following:

1. FG shares 1million naira monthly to every Nigerian but no infrastructural development.
VS
2. FG increases taxes and embarks on heavy infrastructural development across the nation, plus 24hrs power supply in 2 yrs.

I bet you, even if FG is sincere about it, most Nigerians will go for option 1. Especially d man on the street today.

Ok land it at N135 in Nigeria and sell at N185 in Cameroun? In that case, it's still fair and square. The difference is that FG will not pay them any money. They can make whatever profit they like by selling in Niger or wherever. In fact importing into Nigeria to sell elsewhere has in a way created job or business opportunity for someone. It's still win-win for us.

I hope he doesn't cos this is our best shot at economic breakthrough as yet.
I will prefer if he offers more cuts in allowance of executives and increase minimum wage. I think he also needs to look very closely at Ben Bruce's transport plans.

The idea is not to punish any marketer. They are entitled to their profit. The problem is with the dubious ones and the smugglers who lift our subsidized fuel from Nigeria and take outside to Benin, Niger, Cameroun etc to sell at over 2x the price.

Do you know that is one reason why prior to 2009 we always had problems of fuel queues? It was like pouring water into a basket. We kept importing but couldn't find the product at our stations. FG then decided to bring in many more importers to flood the market but by solving one problem, they created another.

Also, the subsidy removal idea is not intended to just address smuggling. That is the smaller issue. The main focus is to utilize the money more efficiently. A little analogy. A farmer can plant in a farm by 2 ways.
1. Dispersal method: Here the farmer just throws seeds around the farm randomly. Some fall on stone (the rich), some on good ground (the poor) and some birds pick up the rest (smugglers). The yield u get from such method may not exceed 20%

2. Dig a hole, plant, and cover: In this method, the farmer diligently opens up the good soil, plants the seed (e.g. 2 per hole) and covers it up. By this, birds cannot pick them up easily and most of it is in good soil. The yield can be as good as 90%.

My people, subsidy removal and reinvestment is like going from planting method 1 above to method 2. We should be more concerned about how to make it work i.e. How to water and fertilize the seeds planted and ensure higher yield.

@Bandit, thanks for addressing that poster. I read d post but I simply ignored it because it's just a waste of time. As they say, "Empty barrels make the loudest noise".

Lasinoh is ridiculously on point!

OP, it is sad that you cannot tolerate others on a public forum. Even if you weep and gnash your teeth for 40 days and 40 nights, beaf will still be beaf. Why not counter his arguments word to word? Man up my guy.

The people on ground have confirmed Warri was calm and peaceful. If at all there were any protests, it must have been peaceful. Besides, even if you announce today that people should come out and protest for FG to give them free husbands and wives, some dumbasses will show up! What's d big deal. Truth is the pattern of protests speaks volumes.

North: Full blown protests in key areas
Edo: Subsidy protest turned anti-muslim protest
Bayelsa: People praying for the success of the policy!
Other SS: People going about normal duties.
SE: All man for himself. Time is money, why waste it on a futile venture?
Lagos: Full blown / Violent protests (Everyday na protest for Lagos b4)
Other SW: Peaceful protests.
Etc

I don't think the citizens of Enugu are complaining so why are we doing it for them? Besides I think's it's better to be caged than to engage in unnecessary destruction of lives and property especially with the security tension prevailing across the nation.

2buff, I like your analogy. Goodluck should have provided a softer landing. I knew it was going to be really hard to adjust. I think the reason for the "sudden" removal is more than what's on the surface. GEJ and co may have been trying to protect everyone from the greedy marketers but ended up "over protecting" us.

Thanks Arosa.

My proposal is here:
www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-841721.0.html

@OP, nice post. In fact, I made a similar suggestion here yesterday.

Here's d link:
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-841721.0.html

He who wears the shoes, knows where it hurts. When you get into a position of leadership, you find out that you have to strike a delicate balance between the expectations and the NEEDS of the led. I strongly believe in you Dr. Okonjo Iweala. Time will tell madam. Time will tell.

@Vitality, "gradually" is what Obj and IBB did but they never were able to hit the mark. We must do things differently to get different results. The argument I can support is that FG should have started rolling out its pallatives on time and ahead of the subsidy removal. They should have also done more public sensitization like they're are doing rather reactively now. The idea od building refineries before the removal would have taken us another 10 long years to achieve. I say, show your grievances, YES. But after all said and done, lets give FG this chance.

Ghanians have displayed far more maturity than Nigerians. We are acting like a bunch of spoilt kids.

Occupy high tension power line!
Occupy transformer!
In your face. Hahaha.

Fresh Air!

Protesters who don't want change can also oppose this move if they like.

Its better than to allow some foolish and misguided "protesters" hijack the process and destroy what he has labored to build.

Foolish protesters will always turn the situation against themselves. How will arson help their cause?

As I've always warned from time immemorial on this forum, a united "revolutionary movement" is not attainable in Nigeria because we are not one. Any such move will quickly degenerate into a tribal / religious war and we will forget whatever the fight is about and turn against each other. That's one of the reasons I've always been against this "strike". I blame NLC / TUC and the ignorant ones among us who cannot discern between when to draw the sword and when to sheath it. It's a pity.

The government also has its share of the blame by not properly carrying everyone along in this very important and epic transformation. I'll call it poor change management.

In all, I hope Nigerians will eventually come to terms with this new reality and find the wisdom to get the best out of this golden opportunity.

Well said DARA1234. Kudos

Huge fat lie! I'm watching other channels apart from NTA. Not even a flicker!

It's obvious we are looking for an excuse to act stupid with all these unfounded rumors flying around.

@Muami, that's the hard truth you posted right there.

Is this a protest against the muslims or against subsidy removal or both?

Pls help me tell them. I don't know what language to use again. Subsidy removal is a masterstroke for economic breakthrough even if it is painful. Nothing good comes easy. I urge everyone to focus on the other more pressing issues like how to ensure the benefits of the removal get to the masses and how we can solve our security problems.

Okonjo Iweala is right. Let's allow the nation move forward for once.

This line of action would have been very helpful in the northern states at risk of ethnic / religious clashes.

A friend just posted this on fb:

"Boko haram spokesman says it's in full support of the people's agitations; denies it will infiltrate and bomb protesters".

I'm still trying to find a source to this report online. If this is true, we really need to think again.