₦airaland Forum

erad:
Are people not suffering more under democracy? What exactly have we benefitted from democracy. Duplicity of positions and numerous people embezzling 'legally' at all levels. Do you think this whole banditry thing would be an issue under military rule?

While democracy has its advantages, it's not a system to force on a country. It's a system a country grows into and builds from the ground up according to the peculiarities of that country. If Nigeria had grown into our democracy, we definitely would be practicing regional government and not federalism like we have at the moment. Every region has its unique problems that needs to be tackled uniquely.

More often than not, it is worse under military. There are very few military success globally. In truth, a benevolent and smart dictator will get a lot done faster in a short time and may even fix security issues faster and better, but no guarantees. I have been monitorin the B/Faso fellow beyond propaganda , he seems to be getting a lot done better in terms of economy and infrastructure, but not necessarily in security. The other military crooks in Niger, Mali and Guinea are running the countries worse off than they met it.

Traore must have an exit plan, lest he becomes a nuisance after a while too, but he is doing better than the fellow he took power from, and the propaganda is way too much than reality, especially when you consider security is not any better than he met it.

Johnrake69:
BBC media propaganda war against Captain Ibrahim Traore is so clear.

I will like to see BBC coverage of the killings happening in Nigeria.

who ever reported that over 600,000 were killed due to insecurity in 1 year is not okay in the head.

And so? It is not necessarily a success if a state does not borrow, in actual fact, it may signify not enough leveraging for productivity. How can states with dearth of infrastructure for the most part state say they are not borrowing. The real question is borrowing to do what? Is it for productive asset? Is the revenue generated from within growing apart from Abuja's feeding milk ?.

Okechinwadike:
Lolz, see person wey de follow me the argue? For saying China is an oil producing country oga i don't think you reach to argue with. Good day

China produces at least 3 times what Nigeria produces daily. Not all oil producing countries are part of OPEC. China is producing close to 5 million barrels per day compared to Nigeria's 1.5 million barrels per day.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-record-oil-output-reaches-limits-whats-possible-2026-03-20/

Cheap talk, you had 8 years as governor. Where was the revenue spinner you created in your state?

Lanruze:
If PBAT is really 74, then it means he aged very fast.

He looks older than Olusegun Osoba and if Prof. Wole Soyinka decides to dye his hair he would look younger than PBAT.

Both Men are in their 90's.

Olusegun Obasanjo and Afe Babalola in their 90's also look more active than PBAT.

He must have been on some aging enhancing habits like smoking or drinking when he was younger.

Weak argument. No two people age same way. If you are not deceiving yourself. What are the odds you will see a 91 year old man that walks and looks like Wole Soyinka. I can bet most if not all of his class peers are dead. Nature and Nurture contributes to how we look. Some men will spot grey hair by erly 30's , get bald in their 20's, while some will not have a single grey strand approaching 50's.

There are better ways to dispute age, but not one off comparisons. Those individuals are outliers and they know. Many individuals in their 90's cant even go out anymore.

Professionals should watch their mental health; this one was losing it gradually that it was almost full blown madness.

Wispower:
How did a less educated man manage to keep exchange rate lower than over rated educated man? Subsidy was removed and Naira floated without a sound export status,
Stop defending undefendable, you're doing your work but do it with sense ok, under 2yrs your employer out borrowed his predisesso and you are not ashamed to defend your undefendable Boss

So in your very smart sense, Oil subsidy should be kept and Naira subsidised for a "sound export status" ? cho cho cho, no understanding. The system was bound to collapse, reason why they were printing naira enmasse in emfiele CBN to hide the rot.

Most largely due to naira depreciation. in dollar terms, we have less debt. Nigeria earns a lot of crude oil proceeds in USD , and we must ramp up crude oil production higher to at least 2 million barrels per day, while it continues its crude oil diversification drive.

Many of our debts are in USD, and if you convert to naira, it increases with depreciation in Naira. If Nigeria does not pay any debt and simply achieve a 500naira /usd , we will owe about half of the current amount.

Our debt, is not largely the problem at the moment, our income is where the most issue lies and we must increase it at a faster rate,at least times 5 in less than 4 years. In actual fact, we will/must borrow more for productive infrastructures. Only non productive countries should be scared of debt. Lagos state for example is not scared of debt, and they are the most indebted state in Nigeria, but they can relatively service the debt in an easier fashion than most others because of the income drive and get things done. USA is the most indebted country in the world, but the largest economy in the world as well.

Mosco100:
Even after adjusting it, their profits will still be far less than it used to be, cos their customers' willingness to pay higher is not there, since there's no increase in their own earning. This whole thing is a great tribulation.

There are too many variables that can influence profit in his kind of business. Even before fuel hike, there is still a possibility of loss of income. A man with no specific garage and just driving the tricycle or keke along the road to pick passengers may use up more fuel than revenue earned from passengers carried. 5,000 naira petrol is about 4 litres. he did not tell us if he stopped along the way to eat Mama put..... jokes aside, it is not just a problem of the fuel price hike,. Nigerians should now face the reality that fuel price is largely now off the hands of Government, and the price will continue to go up and down as far as crude oil price change and/or the value of Naira to a dollar changes.

Galactics:
Remi gate crashing gatherings where she isn't needed.

Even when NIgerian flag is clearly in the picture. Hatred makes someone blind to reason and fact though. Tinubu is the best civilian president we have had since 1979. Yes, i said that.

We dont have all the details, he may have drank beer from it, or drove his concubine to her house for free or he was just unlucky and driving empty in many of the trips and not lucky to pick passengers. That is the sad truth about business. Enough with the alarmist story. Most if not all transport owners adjusted their fare price to account for the fuel price hike.

I doubt it is 13 tons. That is like 250 number of 50kg bags of rice. Maybe 130 or 1,300 tons

"Are you coming to embarrass me?": That statement tells about the confusion and the high horse they climb when they steal billions they don't really need. What is special about you to embarass?. If they wanted to embarass you, your agbada would have been used to wrap you and bundled in to a prison van?

Kukutente23:
But you already acknowledged yourself that lagos disputed the 2006 census figures. What I'm pointing to you is that historically, no census in Nigeria has been devoid of manipulation and fraud.
I already told you that NIN is used by minors to register for WAEC and JAMB. Do you mean minors in villages in Nigeria don't write JAMB and WAEC? You mean rural dwellers don't have SIMs or bank account? You'll be shocked at how much NIN covered especially during the NIN-SIM and NIN-BVN linkages under Buhari. I can boldly tell you that at least 70% of Nigerians have NIN today because not having it is simply exclusion from some basic services.
And yes! Even newborns get NIN in today's Nigeria
And no, Nigerian minors are not 50% of the population. The median is at 18 because of the low mortality rate in Nigeria not because 50% are below 18. A country with mortality age of 55 years will see its median shift downwards than a country of 70 years mortality

The boldened suggest you don't know what median age of a country means. I explained that earlier. Most developing countries with large birth rate and death rate tend to have their median age around the 18 year old mark.
I did not say newborns don't have NINs, but it is not common. Many Nigerians don't do things except they can see an immediate benefit. I bet there are lots of people who register for voters card because they figure that will give them a benefit of a national ID card.

You talk about JAMB and WAEC to register for NIN, those policies were less than 5 years ago to force registration, same with applying for a travel Passport. I hope you also realise most of those applicants are also borderline minors and some even adults. If we define minors as 0-17 years. JAMB and WAEC applicants are about 16 years and above

lawani:
Minors may not be up to fifty percent though. I believe the number that registered for NIN will be around sixty percent of the population.

Then Sim registration, NIN stats and etc can be used to compare the population of different states.

I think the country's population is around 220 million

It may not be up to, it may be up to, it may be more than........

Sim registration, NIN stats and etc can be used to compare the population of different states

: I did not dispute it,they all have their weaknesses and peculiarities in making estimates.

Kukutente23:
You see why I said you have to know the problems before you can proffer solution? Why don't you just Google Nigeria's 1963-64 census and see what transpired. Nigeria has never been able to carry out a census without allegations of manipulation. More importantly, Nigeria's growth rate is very suspicious because birth rates is known to decline as the people get more access to education but in Nigeria's case reverse is the case. Also, Nigeria has a weird population spread where the hinterland is more populated than the shoreside.
You only focused on voter registration which in itself still a pointer that Nigeria's population is not up to over 200m. At 93m, it means less than half are not registered to vote while the voting age is 18. Meanwhile out of 93m are the dead, those who migrated and those who are not eligible as we know that some Foreigners especially from Niger are registered to vote in Nigeria. If you look at the NIN which captures all Nigerians, the figure is 123m. Note that NIN by estimates should have captured at least 70% of Nigerians now. This is because you need NIN for WAEC and JAMB registration, to own a bank account, to own a SIM etc. So if 70% is 123m, it means our population should be max 160m.
As for population of kids, as I told you, Nigeria's birth rate is not realistic because even in the north, the present generation are not open to breeding like rats. So to claim that Nigeria's both rates is still at the same rate as the 70s is a big lie

It appears you only want to argue for the sake of it. why should i google 1963-64 census, when that was not the last census. The tangible baseline will have to be the most result census which was 2006 or else i can also google 1890's census. Whatever report must be on the most recent as that census determined the current 250 million calculation using 3% annual growth rate, which some may argue it may be higher than that. If you calculate 140 million at a growth rate of 3% annually, you will have over 250 million.

I did not discuss about NIN for obvious reasons, it is not well administered for the most part of the existence, they initially did not even allow minors to register until some few years ago. A large population of people still don't have it BECAUSE they mostly have no use of it(Minors are largely in this category), rural dwellers, illiterate population e.t.c. If the NIN becomes a tool to receive government benefit, watch how enrolment will skyrocket. Who registers a 2 year old for NIN except for passport registration, I don't even think they have partnership with Nigerian hospitals , e.t.c NIMC is a poorly managed and/or possibly underfunded agency .

Your other statistical baseline of SIM registration is also weak, as it largely excludes Nigerian minors who are about 50% of the population. Most kids do not have sim cards and dont try to start with one off examples.

Anytime you want to discuss population, keep it in mind Nigerian minors are about 50% of the population, that fallacy of failing to acknowledge that reality shows in your argument.

Kukutente23:
You didn't tell me why we seem to have an income problem according to you. You only listed some things you feel should help us generate revenue
Generating revenue shouldn't be bad if we don't have looters at the helm
But I've not seen this govt take any concrete steps to stem waste and corruption. Instead, govt wastage seems to be at an all time high. So you still need to explain why we have income problem before you tell me what's to be done to salvage it

If i tell you what you need to have food on your table, then i need not tell you why you are hungry.

Kukutente23:
First of all our census has always been corrupt since the colonial era. During the colonial era, people avoided census to evade taxation especially in the south
After independence, the focus became different, to establish your majority status, so, regions started inflating their numbers. That's been the case since 1963. That said, according to 2006 census, Kano is more populated than Lagos. I think Tinubu then contested it. The north keeps inflating its numbers. The south also returns the favour. So the baseline is faulty. But to know that we're not 200m it's very easy. Check out the number of voters on our INEC register. Check out the number of SIM, NIN and BVN holders. As at last year October, total number of NIN was around 123m. Active SIM was 224m. Registered voters stood at 93m. Of all the number, only SIM registration crossed the 200m mark and we all know that one individual can hold multiple SIMs and it's usually more the case than not.
So if INEC and NIN registration which can't be done multiple times has not hit the 200m mark, how can we claim to be over 200m in population?

Some of your argument is making my point. As at the 2006 census, Tinubu did a parallel census and arrived at 16 million i believed instead of 9 million, meaning it was alleged to be 7 million less than expected. I am not too carried away with conspiracy theory i can't prove about North and South inflating numbers. If you have a credible report to that effect, you can argue on that basis.

Registered voters can only accommodate at the earliest 18 years of age. I mentioned earlier median age in Nigeria at about 18 years, i.e half of Nigerians are below 18 years of age. A lot of Nigerians over 18 years did not register to vote for multiple reasons.

What do you think is the population of kids from 0-17 years in Nigeria. roughly from Neonates to Secondary school . It will be well over 120 million in Nigeria. Those 120 million Nigerians can not be captured on a voters register. Nigeria has about 30,000 secondary schools, tens of thousands of primary schools and kindergaten/creche e.t.c, factor out of school children.

Kukutente23:
What do you think is the reason for Nigeria's income problem?

The economy needs to be deepened to foster prosperity, and expansion of tax nets. Fruitless subsidies hampering investment as seen in the power sector have to be removed. Continuous encouragement of Foreign/private investors in vital sectors like Agriculture, Power, ports, mining, Education, technology , finance e.t.c and a renewed effort to Improve security. With more people having jobs, they must be ready to be taxed and not all these "wetin govt don do for me entitlement mentality wey i go pay tax" while they are also stealing money in their small cubicle like politicians. Government must tax prosperity of the people. There are many rich people that still dont want to pay tax under the guise of politicians are stealing money and a million and one excuses......

Kukutente23:
Nigeria's population is not up to 200m
Let's quit the deceit

So, if it was 140 million at 2006 census, 20 years after, it is still not 200 million in a large developing nation with illiteracy as high as 30-50% in some regions and massive teenage pregnancy and median age of about 18-19. Median age means half of the population is less than that age. Do you have any concrete evidence beyond cynicism?. Annual growth rate is about 3%, and average birth rate/woman is over 4 children. Death rate and emigration has done little to reduce the rate of growth.

Kukutente23:
Don't use America to justify the same borrowing you previously condemned. That's the exact definition of going round in circles.
I don't know in which country subsidy is wasteful. So many countries subsidise so many things for their citizens. Do you know that petrol price in Saudi has remained the same despite the war happening in their backyard? How come what others enjoy in their countries become haram in our country and some people now use brighter grammar to explain it away!!
You need to do your maths properly, the wage bill of states it's now less percentage of their revenue and that's due to th free increase allocation which is majorly due to naira devaluation. It's easy to see. Naira depreciated by over 300%. Minimum wage was increased by 110%. Minimum wage adjustment reduces as you go up the ladder. In fact, FG simply added a flat rate less than 20% to some cadres. The states adopted same template. So how can you say wage bill increased at the same rate with naira devaluation? The over 200% difference between former wage value and present value us borne by the earner not the payer.
The govt needs to spend more but the people need to be empowered to create wealth. You referenced US debts. The worth of the top twenty business in the US will pay off US debts while the top twenty businesses in Nigeria cannot even offset half of our debts. What this shows is that govt can only do so much but what sustains a strong economy is a virile private sector

Many Nigerians are quick to shout on the rooftop about crude oil wealth in Nigeria, and i am sure it is overrated based on our size. Ghana per capita has more crude oil wealth than Nigeria.

Saudi Arabia is producing about 10 miliion barrels per day and have a population of 35 million, the country with the number 1 religious tourism earnings in the world. They can afford some of these cheap subsidies way better. Nigeria has a significant income problem, the earlier most of you realise this, the better. Infact, Nigeria's income problem is worse than the corruption problem. Savings from subsidy is not a magic bullet that will suddenly fix all of our income problem, if we plan to build in almost geometrical progression our infrastructures.

Carazon:
Which year una do the census wey give una this 250 million population?

Well, the last time Nigeria did census was 2006, making it 20 years ago , it was arrived at 144 million people. So, a smart estimate is to use an estimated annual growth rate , which is about 4-6% for Nigeria.

Growth rate factors in immigration, emigration, birth and death, no country does census every year, not even vatican city, to the best of my knowledge.

Angola population is 38 million( lagos + ogun state population) vs Nigeria's population of 250 million.

It is cheaper to subsidise as they produce almost the same amount of crude oil daily with Nigeria.

i wish, it was 6,300 bodies.

The journalists interviewing this liar and putting the report out should be arrested. How can someone keep giving failed predictions over and over , yet journalist keep going to publish his lies. It is obvious the journalists are receiving payment to disseminate falsehood.

hush15:
No... he is responsible. We know Nigerian politicians are incompetent but there is this layer Tinubu brings that even worsens it. His style of politics, you his zombies will call it loyalty but it is not. The Lagos you keep attributing to him is suffering from alot forget the face-lift. The day Lagos goes free from that man's grip, Nigerians will know Lagos is suffering. Lagosians are feeding on crumbs. That same politics he used to impoverished and put the state in bondage is being imitated on national scale and yes, it can happen. It is not impossible because, tinubu understands the average Nigerian is greedy and selfish and has weaponized that.

Ok, you can keep crying. Many of you duunnce castigate a C student and then only have a E or F student replacement. Lagosian are feeding on crumbs, meanwhile no other state looks progressive enough. Lagos has continue to initiate projects that are FG in scale, and one can noticeablely see improvement albeit not considerably fast enough, since i stop being a teenager, i learnt difference between ideal and reality.

Memphis357:
From Abacha to Now: Are We Watching Opposition Politics Being Silenced Again?

In 1998, under Sani Abacha, Nigeria had five political parties; the United Nigeria Congress Party, Congress for National Consensus, Grassroots Democratic Movement, Democratic Party of Nigeria, and National Centre Party of Nigeria.

But in reality, there was no opposition.

All five endorsed one man.

No competition. No resistance. No real choice.

Today, under Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we are told we are in a democracy. Multiple parties still exist on paper. But what is happening in practice?
• Opposition figures are defecting in droves
• Opposition parties are entangled in endless internal crises
• Political pressure and strategic alignments are shrinking the space for dissent

Let’s stop pretending this is normal.

You cannot have real competition when the opposition is constantly weakened, divided, or absorbed.

You cannot claim healthy democracy when alternative voices are struggling to stay visible, organized, or effective.

And you certainly cannot ignore the pattern:
A system where power keeps consolidating on one side, while the other side keeps collapsing.

This may not look exactly like Abacha’s era, but it is dangerously familiar in direction.

Back then, it was forced consensus.
Now, it looks like engineered dominance.

The method may be more refined.
The outcome could be the same.

A nation without a strong opposition is not practicing democracy, it is rehearsing control.

As 2027 approaches, Nigerians must ask hard questions:

Are we strengthening democracy…
or slowly surrendering it?

The opposition parties are not necessarily silenced, the opposition politicians reflect the quality of an average politician in Nigeria: Little to no principle. Stop blaming Tinubu for what is not his fault, except you are asking him to close the door to defection to his party so he can claim "defender of democracy". If another party is in the helm of affairs, most opposition party members will move to them as well , they may struggle to hold on for about 5 years, but by the 10 year mark of continuous national opposition,most will collapse and run to the ruling party.

The ADC is worst collection of strange bed fellows i have ever seen in Nigerian politics, even way worse than APC when it was birthed. They claim opposition, because their hands are no longer on the "apple pie" and wants to get back ASAP. Even the man who clearly lacks principles with a deceptive claim of "structure of criminality" is back with the worse of the worse.

tuoyoojo:
Pdp has been totally decimated

How the mighty has fallen

The once taunted biggest party in Africa

Omashey o

The wicked one has destroyed the party kpatakpata

He has no use to APC as it were, he can now be discarded as a piece of cloth if he pushes his luck too much

Hah, you have not been observing correctly or may be not analysing correctly, he is Wike's wing man and will be moving to APC. baring any unforeseen circumstances will be contesting and winning senatorial candidate seat under APC for FCT. Except any electoral act bar him from emerging , i doubt he will not.

Since trump's statement about Nigeria a country of particular concern, the spate of killings increased a lot.

At some point, prior to Trump "intervention" it was a consistent capture and killings of bandit leaders.

lamentor78:
Obi that has not secured party ticket is who you have prophesy for. APC have 31 governors and Obi that don't have a presidential ticket will get 70 percent, as how now.

31 governors AND counting.

They have started again. Somethings never change.