₦airaland Forum

Kobojunkie:
ROFL . . . . . .


Well, the Nigerian businessman in America is not only contributing to development world over, sending money back for the upkeep of family and friends in Nigeria(thereby boosting the Nigerian economy) but also aiding in developing the world by supporting policies that effect change in the world !

Right, there are multiple ways to contribute. All with varying degrees of efficacy, I suppose. Sending money back home is one. Being on the ground opening up a business is another. Volunteering or whatever is a third.

Dis Guy:
+10

I you come back here to start a transport business or bottled water factory, are you developing Nigeria or just starting your own personal business

if you come back to lecture or treat patients without getting paid then yea i will say you are contributing to the development of the economy  

Err, the former is probably more useful to the economy than the latter. If you start a business, you are employing labor, buying inputs, etc. This sounds more sustainable and useful to me than a guy spending 1 week doing a service trip.

Anyway, people who start personal businesses imo contribute to the development of Nigeria.

Kobojunkie:
Obligated or not, you are no better than the next man who chooses NOT TO go back. You are no more Nigerian than the next man who has found peace wherever he is and understands he does not have the wherewithal to save Nigeria or his 'ancestral home'.

Right, I'm not claiming to be better than anyone else. It is sort of a personal matter for me, not something to brag about or play games/politics with.

Really nice pictures.

Thanks Becomerich!

There is no such law. But for me, my ancestors have lived in my town for 200+ years. So I feel I have obligations.

You are right though, everyone is free to make their own choice.

Groundnut never gave them an overwhelming economic advantage. It made them as wealthy (per capita) as the Eastern region.

But there has never been a time where the lion's share of Nigeria's wealth came from the north. So I don't understand the relevance of this groundnut example.

Interesting. Thanks for typing it out.

Looks like a juicy thread. i'll have to skim through it later.

Kobojunkie:
That the Government continues to fail at this does not then mean the responsibility should fall on the shoulder of those who do not live in Nigeria.

Kobojunkie, I see your point, but for me I don't think I can just abdicate responsibility to the government.

If your ancestral town is wracked by chaos/unrest/poverty, will you just shrug your shoulders and say, "Not my concern, this is the government's job?"

I feel a responsibility. But at least personally, it isn't that easy to return. Not right now, anyway.

That part I don't agree with. It doesn't make sense, if you think about it.

4th or 5th largest economy in in sub-Saharan Africa.

More than Ghana, Kenya, etc, etc.

You are right. We are a bit hypocritical in this matter.

Me personally though, I'm not against immigration so long as it is orderly and the immigrant respects the laws of the land he moves to.

I think he is fast becoming my favorite Nigerian editorialist.

Anyway, enjoy:
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I laugh, of course, anytime I remember this story. A young man inherited his father’s troubled shoe business. He immediately reduced the prices of the shoes by half and doubled staff salaries. Needless to say, the business went under in no time. It is impossible to understand this business model! The more I think of the crisis the Nigerian government has got itself entangled with over the new national minimum wage, the more I remember this story. At a time advanced economies were making painful cuts to public expenditure, at a time Nigerian government officials were complaining about the “heavy burden” of “fuel subsidy”, we decided to increase the wage bill. Is there something the government knew that we didn’t know?

Now before you bring out the gun to shoot me, hear me out: I have no problem with increasing minimum wage. Nigerian workers are poorly paid. Their salaries can hardly settle their basic bills. I have no problem with increasing salaries of workers, especially the civil servants. It is my conviction that until we get a well-motivated civil service, governance will continue to suffer. All the policies and programmes being put in place will go nowhere if the human beings that will implement them from day-to-day are not motivated, committed and competent in the discharge of their duties. Poor pay cannot motivate them. So I need to make that fact very clear.

My grouse with the new minimum wage, however, is the economics of it. When the increase was announced, we were battling with dwindling oil production and, invariably, dwindling oil revenue. Without oil money, we are dead as a nation. So I kept asking myself: how can revenue be falling and expenditure be going up at the same time? How would the government fund it? Are they going to borrow? Are they going to print money? To make matters worse, the members of the National Assembly started doubling and tripling their own allowances about the same time. Based on what? Increased economic productivity or expected oil windfall? For me it was unbelievable. But politics prevailed.

I was doing a programme at the University of London last year when President Goodluck Jonathan announced the new wage. In the UK, the new coalition government had embarked on massive cuts to public expenditure, including even sensitive areas such as healthcare and security. I was asking myself: the UK economy is the world’s sixth largest and it is largely based on productivity. How come the UK government was cutting costs while my own country which produces next-to-nothing was increasing its own costs? Does it make sense? Had the Nigerian government done its calculations before embarking on this project? Did the officials sit down with a calculator before jumping into making a promise that they now say is very difficult for them to keep?

Speaking at the weekend, the governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, said his state collects an average of N2.2 billion monthly as statutory allocation. It has over 30,000 workers. The wage bill is N1.6 billion and government still has to implement projects in its 25 local government to keep the people happy. He asked: “In a situation where about N1.6 billion is used to pay salaries – while a paltry sum of N600 million is left for capital projects and payment of overhead cost to MDAs – the payment of the new wage will further task the state to its limits.” At what stage did he realise it? Where were the governors when the National Assembly was passing the new bill?

I have more questions and observations to make before I reach my conclusions today. How was the N18,000 national minimum wage agreed upon? Did the governors, lawmakers and the president sit down to calculate how much it would cost? Did they compare the cost with the revenue profile of each tier of government? How was the government planning to fund it? In a fiscal state—a state that is run like proper business—these questions would have been asked and answered satisfactorily before an announcement was made to the public. In advanced countries, when politicians are making promises during campaigns, they tell you how they are going to fund their proposed projects—by raising taxes in certain categories or closing down certain expenditure centres, or some other measures. Many a times I hear Nigerian politicians promise free education, free healthcare, free lipstick and all what not and I ask myself: have these guys counted the cost? The truth is that because Nigeria depends on resource rents from oil, we don’t have to think hard to look for money. We simply hope oil will continue to sell above $100 per barrel so that government expenditure can keep ballooning.

For instance, I would expect a governorship contestant to say: “I will give university scholarships to 1000 students every year. It will cost N1 billion. I will raise the money by reducing the number of vehicles in the fleet or by cutting down on phone bills.” Now that would make sense. But to just promise 1000 scholarships in the hope that crude oil price would go up or that federal allocation would increase is nothing but nonsense. It is even very wrong to base increasing wage bill on an oil windfall. In my lifetime, I have seen crude oil sold for $8! It has also sold for $147! From the height of $147 in July 2008, it was selling for $40 in 2009. If oil price had not bounced back, we would have been in a total mess by now because we had piled up public expenditure in response to high crude oil prices.

Having said this, I would like to move to the question: what is the way forward for the workers and the government? I have been hearing many suggestions which I would like to summarise thus. One, the governors are being advised not to honour the agreement. Some are even raising the issue of “true federalism”, that all states should not be compelled to pay the same thing. I think we are making a mistake here. National minimum wage has nothing to do with federalism—it is a universal practice. The U.S.—our federalism poster boy—has a minimum national wage of $7.25 per hour. That is the minimum. States are allowed to pay above that benchmark. In fact, the state of Washington allows for a minimum of $8.67. It is a universal practice. I would not advise the governors to jettison the agreement. That would create more crises than it would resolve.

A second option is that states should start sacking workers so that they can manage to pay within the resources they have. If you pay 30,000 workers N1 billion under the old package, you can pay 15,000 workers the same N1 billion under the new package. Nothing gained, nothing lost. Well, creating unemployment, for me, will not solve the problem. You’ve only transferred the problem to another part of the economy and the ripple effects may be worse than envisaged. I must quickly add, however, that the civil service is certainly bloated. A department with two cars will have 20 drivers! That’s nonsense. I support a fit, trim civil service structure that will be efficient. Deadwoods need to be flushed out. If you have ever had anything to do in a government office, you would understand my point. Even the toilet keys cannot be found, despite 25 cleaners being on the payroll! However, it would be wrong to tie wage increase to “right-sizing” (the euphemism for retrenchment). I will never support that. Any restructuring must take place in a different context at a different time, certainly not in the heat of this crisis.

Another option, which is my preferred choice, is that governors should cut down on their ridiculous expenses. And, goodness, there are zillions of them! Contracts are senselessly inflated, many of them haphazardly executed; security votes run into billions (despite the huge votes for security agencies which are never accounted for); the population of special assistants and special advisers and senior special advisers must dwindle; foreign trips and chartering of aircraft must be sliced considerably; jumbo allowances must be sacrificed; and loopholes and leakages in state finances must be plugged. In addition, governors must drive up non-oil revenue by strengthening the internal revenue drive. We are living in a fool’s paradise where we think we don’t have to pay for anything. Just bring the oil money from Abuja and share. We don’t want to pay NEPA bills, water rate, toll, nothing. That is not how it is done in the countries we admire.

My conclusion: governors must pay the new minimum wage by being creative.
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(see the rest here: http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/the-new-minimum-wage-fiasco/95572/)

Yeah he is still with the Hornets.

Err, they aren't doing that well. Fears of Chris Paul leaving in 2012. They made the playoffs though, lost in the 1st round to the Lakers.

Okafor might be traded later especially if CP3 leaves and they decide to rebuild the team. But he doesn't have any control over it.

^-- wow

COMPAQ:
LG's should be scrapped in Nigeria. I don't recall in the last 10years of my existence in this country seeing ANY project done by an LG!!!!

I actually disagree. I think they should be empowered, and take on some of the duties currently done by the state governments.

I wouldn't mind seeing 40% of the resources going to LG.

Basically, the same arguments being used by the states for more money from the FG ("states better able to affect the people than the FG" also apply for LGs vis-a-vis states.

lol

Err, it seems to me that the lack of competitiveness and low yields of Nigerian farms is a bigger issue.

Raise the quality and yields of Nigerian rice and then you can compete against imported rice.

North has oil, just not commercially viable to extract it, I thought?

Anyway, you should be somewhat skeptical that it is Daily Trust quoting a government guy telling you that the north has oil.

This is one of those "put your money where your mouth is" sort of things. If there is commercially viable oil there, nobody will be reporting it in the newspapers, instead we will hear about Shell extracting it.

As they say, talk is cheap. Government will lie about viability for political reasons, but private businesses (like Shell) will not.

Thank you, Mr Falana.

Keep it secular, and I have no problem with it.

However, this I sort of question:

At the same time the attention of the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Bishop Ayo Oritsejafor should be drawn to Exodus 22:25: where it is written “if you lend money to one of my people among you who is poor do not be like a money-lender: charge him no interest.”

The Bible also says:
[quote="Mark 12:17"]Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." And they were amazed at him.[/quote]This I think is the more relevant passage. Banking belongs to Ceasar (secular authority), and shouldn't be made religious. If you want to lend money privately to your uncle/cousin/best friend and charge no interest in keeping with your religion, that is your prerogative. But at a national level, as regulated by "Caesar" (the federal government), we cannot blindly use Exodus 22:25, the Koran, or any other religious text to design a banking system.