₦airaland Forum

Almost 50 / 50. Does anyone have the breakdown?

I wish you favor in every aspect of your life. May you never struggle to get anything in 2012. Where others have failed, you shall succeed.

Well said aribisala. We need to remove sentiment aside and see the issue as it should be seen.

Can somebody tell me how fuel subsidy removal benefits IMF or USA.

@Gbawe, as I said earlier, you can continue insulting all you want and I won't bother doing same. I'd only like to clear the misconception from one of your posts. It reads thus: [Quote]Your jibe about "worthles fan club" just shows what an immature and bad-belle riddled brat you are for thinking I am concerned with any award. It must pain you that someone you clearly dislike is held in good esteem by others. I asked for no award but if my "worthless fan club" bothers you then hug a transformer my friend.[/quote]Just for the records, if u read my post, I was referring to "GEJ fan club" and not "NL politics section poster of the year" or "Gbawe fan club". I have absolutely nothing against that. You just went off on a tangent and reeled out insults for nothing as usual. SMH

BTW, congrats on your award.


@Topic,
Let's look at this from another perspective.

If we carry out a cost - benefit analysis of subsidy, can we confidently conclude that the benefits outweigh the cost? If not, why then should we continue with it?

Long overdue.

Next on the agenda: Smoke the boko rams out of their holes.

So political appointment is his own idea of job creation. Smh

@ xterra, your concerns are valid.

What if the govt decides to use a consortium of foreign agencies or a set of local independent consultants appointed by the public to monitor spending both at state and federal levels?

For ur second point, I think the following may be partly responsible:

1. Increase of local demand especially as we have to use gasoline to run our own generators and generate power. I am sure generator importation has gone through the roof. So also fueling for those generators should follow the same upward trend.

2. Increase in smuggling activities across borders underpinned by corruption in customs and other security agencies.

3. Greater FG commitment to meet up with supply and prevent queues at our filling stations. You will agree with me that the current government has done so much to ensure availability of refined petroleum products in recent times.

4. For this last point, I have no proof but many have cited it and I believe it could be true: Corruption amongst importers of petroleum products. These are they who allegedly import 1 million litres but connive with NNPC officials or whoever to quote say 2 million. Or those who berth at our port, register cargo, claim subsidy money but refuse to offload but rather go to Ghana or other countries where they sell at N150 per litre. Etc. As I said, I have no proof of these but people have made these allegations.

A combination of all these in addition to many other inefficiencies I may not know about could be responsible.

Nigeria cannot continue to live in a silo. The world is a global village. The sooner we realize the impact of global phenomena on our daily lives, and position ourselves accordingly, the better for us.

*Yawns*

Can anyone suggest ways in which the FG can make judicious use of money recovered from subsidy removal. Also, consider suggesting water-tight means by which we the populace can "police" the use of these funds.

Thanks in anticipation.

Good to hear that @Odunnu. If the mod has been stripped, I must commend y'all for that.

@jmaine, it seems u read my mind. Seriously I've tried hard to ignore it but I think I need to drop these lines:

Can somebody be this immature? We've been having a healthy debate for sometime now and then in comes the all knowing "saint" saying:

All GEJ supporters are dishonest
All GEJ fans are wicked
Bla bla bla!

Mr Perfect, focus on the topic and stop acting like a rabid dog. You hate GEJ; we have heard you. You can as well make your points without punctuating your arguments with convulsive and needless insults!

This topic is about fuel subsidy and not some worthless "fan club". You can continue the insults if you like. This time, I'll just keep mute so as not to derail the thread.

1st bros!

Yes this is NL test of integrity. I challenge the mods, supermods and almighty mod to name the official that was found rigging. You all keep saying the govt should be more transparent and EFCC should do this and that. This is your time to prove your integrity. Expose and sanction the official if you dare.

Sorry I meant "reduction in the inflated demand. . ." I'm mobile

@ soulfood, I strongly agree with you on the following:

[Quote]Nigerians are opposed to the "timing" of subsidy removal and not the concept of removing subsidy itself. What are the major reasons?

1. Lack of constant power supply to power businesses, industries and homes. At the present cost of fuel, the high rates of powering industries have made many of the multinational manufacturers to shift their head office to the same GHANA which of course boast of constant power. And then you want to remove subsidy in that kind of situation. The hardship will cause chaos beyond imagination. It will be a catalyst for reaction by the Masses. someone is about to cut off his own head. Impeachment/forced resignation is not far off. let he who has ears hear the word of the Lord. provide constant electricity before daring such.

2. The inability of Nigeria to refine crude oil at the maximum capacity resulting in importation of about 80% of our daily petrol needs. if we are going to remove subsidy and we are importing that amount of petrol, who rally determines the pricing? If the pricing is determined by the same cabal government claim are responsible for our present situation, what is the guarantee that they would not ignore the sufferings and shoot price into the sky cause of high demand in Nigeria? If we are going to remove subsidy, lets fix the existing refineries to refine at maximum capacity. even if we don't build new ones yet.

3. Lack of convenient alternative transportation means and bad road network. Let's have rail, let's have low energy cars and buses. let's have good roads.[/Quote]

The approach the FG is taking is a much more painful one. By removing the subsidy NOW, we will be forced to jump start all 3 points you listed.

-Refineries will flourish and competition will drive down prices.

- The inflated demand (due to vices like smuggling) will help reduce importation.

- People will be forced to go for more energy efficient systems bearing in mind the high cost of energy.
Furthermore we can save our children the headache by removing it NOW and enduring the pains.

All these in addition to the points made earlier including strangling the smuggling market and creating jobs from the influx of refineries etc.

The single most adverse effect of removing it NOW is inflation as many have rightly pointed out. It will be nice if we can think up suggestions to help mitigate against that.

Well done for your insightful contributions.

This doesn't come as a surprise to me. Corruption has eaten deep into our society. However, I think u should proceed with caution.

@EzeUche, I think partisan politics has a lot to do with the topic. The reason is that it will be very difficult or near impossible for a PDP led SW to allow such statements as this go unchecked. Even if it slips through to the media, they will shoot it down. But in this case, SW is in the hands of the opposition and they can afford to pretend that they didn't hear nada.

I believe it is a complex mix of all issues raised so far and more. This crises is being fuelled on all fronts. The political angle, the religious angle, the international terrorism angle, global arms deal angle, economic warfare angle, oil price angle etc all mixed together and flourishing because of our inherent weaknesses as a nation. This complex set of problems needs a complex set of solutions.

Sorry, my post above should read ACN and not CAN.

Tinubu's / CAN's complete control of SW politics has made the job even easier. That's part of the reason CAN has swallowed Edo State and is seriously strategising for Delta State. ACN would love to be in countrol of (at least) everything west of the River Niger.

@sleek and koruji, your points are well taken. There's a lot of sense in them. Well done.

Now we can see how NL presidential poll was rigged in favor of the "Weeping Emir of NL polls". Lol

Supported!

Compare socialism. Socialism  is an economic system characterized by social ownership[dubious – discuss] of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises, common ownership, direct public ownership or autonomous State enterprises.

Socialist economies are based upon production for use and the direct allocation of economic inputs to satisfy economic demands and human needs (use value); accounting is based on physical quantities of resources, some physical magnitude, or a direct measure of labour-time.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

I think we have been practicing so much of socialism for 50 years and it has failed us woefully. It's time to move over to capitalism. Socialism favors things like NEPA, NITEL, NNPC and of course the subject matter: subsidy. Capitalism on the other hand brings in players like MTN, GE, Mobil, Dangote etc. These are the real "growers" of the economy.

@ sleek, I don't think capitalist ideas are bad for us.

Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category. There is general agreement that elements of capitalism include private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit or income, the accumulation of capital, competitive markets, voluntary exchange, and wage labor. The designation is applied to a variety of historical cases, varying in time, geography, politics and culture.

Economists, political economists and historians have taken different perspectives on the analysis of capitalism. Economists usually emphasize the degree that government does not have control over markets (laissez faire), and on property rights. Most political economists emphasize private property, power relations, wage labour, class and emphasize capitalism as a unique historical formation. Capitalism is generally viewed as encouraging economic growth. The extent to which different markets are free, as well as the rules defining private property, is a matter of politics and policy, and many states have what are termed mixed economies.

Capitalism gradually spread throughout Europe, and in the 19th and 20th centuries, it provided the main means of industrialization throughout much of the world.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism

I guess I am a capitalist by the definition above.

The northern elite have failed their people. They have enslaved their minds with religion and culture (almajiri syndrome) and hijacked all the wealth for themselves and their generations (the Abachas and the IBBs). The worst part of it is that they think the wealth of the entire nation belongs to them. That is the major cause of all our problems today. The born-to-rule mentality. Unfortunately for them, recent happenings in the country will keep them further from the wealth because Nigerians will no longer be taken for a ride and do nothing about it.

Split the country and let everybody go home happy. That is the only permanent solution.

The turmoil has moved from the Mediterranean towards the Atlantic and we are in the centre of it all! Oil, blood and fire: a dangerous mix indeed. God help us!

As long as we don't recruit boko ram members along with them!

@Mbatuku, it seems u have some inside information. Can you give us more details?