₦airaland Forum

diluminati:
This should be stale now. When you keep on repeating this,
dont be like a fool who will never understand the foolishness of the wiseman
all the information is online for you to search and piece all the info together
or don't you know boko haram is PDP and PDP is boko haram = General Azazi?

call me anything u want all I know is that Buhari is the leader of Boko Haram. APC is the financier. If u are not comfortable with it you can go and die

Tell Buhari to call his foot soldiers to order and there will be no more War. Mtewwww

PICS FROM EDO PDP RALLY,

Hoodlums, suspected to be political thugs, have killed three persons in
separate clashes in the Ajegunle and Lagos Island areas of Lagos.
Our correspondent learnt that while one of the two victims in the
Amukoko, Ajegunle area was identified simply as Raimi, the deceased in
the Lagos Island incident was identified as Ahmed Igbagbo. The third
person had yet to be identified.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the thugs, who reportedly belonged to a cult
gang known as Campos boys, caused mayhem at Akindele and Apata
streets in Amukoko on Sunday.
Our correspondent learnt that two factions clashed in the area, and had a
gun duel during which Raimi was shot in the chest. A woman was also
reportedly shot in the buttocks.
Policemen from the Amukoko Police Division were said to have arrived
the scene to curtail the crisis, but residents said it was to no avail.
Speaking with PUNCH Metro, a resident on Akindele Street, who begged
to remain anonymous, said 12 other persons were injured during the
clash.
He said, “Our street boiled throughout yesterday (Sunday). There was a
clash between the Campos boys, and another group. They began to
exchange gunfire on the street. Raimi was shot in the chest and he died.
Twelve other persons were wounded and have been rushed to the
hospital.
“When they left Akindele, they moved to Apata Street and killed two
more persons. A woman who wanted to lock her shop was hit by bullets
on the buttocks.
The thugs are supporters of both the All Progressives Congress and the
Peoples Democratic Party.”
Another resident, who gave his name simply as Lukman, said political
activities in the area had pitched the thugs and suspected cultists against
one another, which was responsible for the mayhem.
He said, “Their fights bother mainly on money. They have been at
daggers drawn for some months now as a result of the coming elections.
Raimi was not even a member of the gangs, but they felt he was a threat
to their activities. The police should intensify security in this area.”
While the unrest in Ajegunle was on Sunday, our correspondent learnt
that Igbagbo was hacked to death in the Isale Eko area area on Friday.
According to a resident, Monsuru Sodiq, who claimed they were
returning from the APC presidential rally at the Teslim Balogun
Stadium, Igbagbo was hacked to death by political thugs on the
allegation that he stole a mobile phone.
He said, “We were all returning from the TBS. Around the Isale Eko
area, they began to shoot at people. We all fled in different directions,
but Igbagbo was not that lucky.
“They pursued him to a street and hacked him to death. They claimed he
stole a mobile phone and they wanted to punish him.”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Kenneth Nwosu,
confirmed that there were skirmishes in the Ajegunle area, during which
two persons were said to have died. He added that the police division did
not have the report.
He said, “There were skirmishes involving supporters of the same party
in the area, and unconfirmed reports have it that two persons were killed
in the skirmish. But we have no report of such at the police station.
“Normalcy has been restored in the area now. Meanwhile, visibility
patrols and discreet surveillance have been activated.”

In a skewed article dressed up as an innocuous assessment of the ongoing political campaigns by both the ruling party and the opposition, Prof. Charles Soludo finally broke the silence after over five years of avoiding the public eye. Many of the points raised in the article are typical of grudges hitherto suppressed for a prolonged period but that have finally bubbled to the surface or were perhaps forced out by a higher force.

The article published in the Vanguard newspaper of January 25th did not say anything different from what opposition sympathizers, armed with a hunger for power but with limited awareness or with a deliberate disregard for the current hard data, would be disposed to putting out. If this article represents Prof. Soludo’s ‘big idea’ and epiphany, it surely is too little and is coming too late to alter our perception of Soludo the man. For keener minds will see the article for what it is; a subtle act of self-worship by a glory hunter desperate to crawl back into relevance; a ‘me too’ submission by a man eager to update the public that he is now into ‘international’ engagements. The last time we heard from the former CBN governor was in 2011 when he was decisively defeated in the Anambra governorship elections by the amiable Peter Obi. Ex governor Obi has moved on to become the head of President Jonathan’s re-election campaign in the South East. But it appears that, judging from the content of the ex-CBN governor’s recent article, Prof. Soludo has not forgotten that humbling loss.

Prof. Soludo set out in his article to discredit the current government’s economic management records by twisting facts and drawing ridiculous parallels. Ordinarily, seeing that we are seemingly in an era of ultra-liberal politics where Nigerians enjoy the full rights and privileges of free speech, one would be tempted to ignore Prof. Soludo’s submission as just another opinion piece. But one is constrained to put out a rejoinder because a little misinformation in our current climate is too much misinformation. And although the government is yet to issue an official response, this one by a private citizen will seek to examine, paragraph by paragraph, the misrepresentations in Prof. Soludo’s article.

- Comparing Melons and Water Melons
Prof. Soludo’s reference to Shagari’s government failure to check excessive borrowing and frivolous spending by the different tiers of government, and his equation of same with the current administration’s approach, shows that he may be out of touch with the times. The global economic environment and the current government’s policy responses to that environment are markedly different from the Shagari era. For one, while President Shagari had no stoppers in place to control borrowing by the different tiers of government, the current administration has a coherent policy that streamlines the borrowing process for federal and state governments. It is Known as the Medium Term Rolling External Borrowing Plan, a policy which requires that borrowings to be undertaken by the federal and states governments within a three-year planning framework be transparently shown with the aim of focusing borrowings on priority projects and reducing borrowings for non-priority projects. Another plan called Medium-Term Debt Strategy limits both domestic and foreign debt exposures of the government. So now, more than ever, the government has taken deliberate steps to control the debt burden.

Also, the increased spending carried out under this administration is focused on critical infrastructure to support the diversification of the economy. Prof. Soludo’s position seems to favour pilling up foreign reserve to shore the value of the Naira. This is unsustainable short-term thinking which will do little to help the economy should the oil glut persist, as Russia learnt quite quickly following its initial attempt to defend the Ruble as the falling oil price combined with economic sanctions to hit its economy. And the glut is expected to persist given the prevailing oil supply and political situations in the international market which are markedly different from what Soludo believes he presided over as CBN governor.

- ‘Not One Penny Added’
The claim by Prof. Soludo that the foreign reserve did not increase at any point under this administration cannot be further from the truth. It is true that Soludo left behind $45Bn in foreign reserve at the end of his tenure as CBN governor. But much of the reserve was depleted during the short-lived President Yar’adua administration as a result of the global economic crunch such that when President Jonathan came into office in 2010, he inherited $32 Bn in foreign reserves from the Yar’adua regime. The current government grew the foreign reserve to a peak of $50Bn in 2013. So although the foreign reserve now stands at $39Bn since part of the foreign reserve was used to fund infrastructural development, it is simply not true that ‘not a penny’ has been added to the foreign reserve under this administration.

Prof. Soludo’s comparison of oil earnings in the President Obasanjo regime and President Jonathan regimes reveals his penchant for half-truths. His claim that the average monthly crude oil price under the current administration has been over $100 is a lie put forward to give force to his smear campaign. The data is available for any interested person to verify for himself but Soludo has intentionally cooked up figures to suit his plan of discrediting the government. Or how else does one explain a situation where a former CBN governor applies a wildly overestimated figure for a data even when a simple visual observation would reveal the inaccuracy of that estimate?

- Picky About Data

Prof. Soludo takes his mischief to an unimaginable height, for a man of his standing, by pronouncing that a government has performed woefully in 2015 because the 2010/2011 NBS data for the incidence of poverty and unemployment and future projections on those data are unfavourable, even when readily available recent data show otherwise! By implication, Soludo is arguing that the incidence of poverty for Nigeria in 2015 is much higher than the scary estimated 71% figure in 2011. This is an outright lie. A July 2014 World Bank Report for Nigeria using more recent NBS data puts the incidence of poverty at about 33%of the population.

It is also instructive to note that Soludo conveniently forgot to point out that the dollar exchange rate of the Naira depreciated to around N180 in the run up to his exit from office. It is this kind of selective use of data that sets apart a mischief maker from neutral commentators. And Prof. Soludo’s article leaves one in no doubt where he belongs.

- Obasanjo or Jonathan: Who Wore it Better?

The comparison between Obasanjo era growth rate and the President Jonathan era growth rate exposes that Prof. Soludo doesn’t take into much consideration the impact of the global recession on economic growth. With a sustained 7% growth rate at the current time when countries like china are cutting back on their growth forecast and Greece, Italy and South Africa are floundering, Nigeria remains in the group of countries with an admirable growth rate. Another issue that may have escaped the professor’s notice is the differences in policy priority in the Obasanjo era and in this era.

The advent of mobile telecommunications in the Obasanjo era had the effect of ballooning economic growth at a rate that can hardly be duplicated by any other sector in the same timeframe. Nigeria’s policy priority at this time is rightly the development of the critical infrastructure neglected over many decades because of a lack of the political will to invest in sectors of the economy which would not yield instant gratification, in the form of higher growth rates, that the government of the day can point to and thump its chest in the fashion that Prof. Soludo has done about the economic growth rate in Obasajo’s tenure in his article. Thankfully, this government doesn’t seem to be growth-hunting at the expense of developing the critical industries which will have multiplier growth effect on other sectors in the future.

Prof. Soludo’s stance on the employment generation efforts of the government easily catches one’s attention. He pointed out that a country like Greece experiences high unemployment despite the availability of relatively modern infrastructure. While this is true, one must bear in mind that Nigeria struggles with such basic infrastructure that even a marginal improvement in its infrastructure will smoothen a good part of the bottle necks which the Professor mentions in his article. In other words Nigeria is operating at a far lower infrastructure threshold than Greece and therefore still has the opportunity to benefit from the low hanging fruits of infrastructure improvement as far as job creation is concerned.

There is surely some economic dislocation in the Nigerian economy as Prof. Soludo raised in his article. But that dislocation is not a product of poor policy decisions by the government, but is rather a temporary disorientation created by an accelerated diversification process which has focused resources on key projects which will reduce the economy’s vulnerability to oil price shocks. Things will smoothen out soon as many programmes take root and Nigerians are better positioned to benefit from these programmes.

- Much Ado About a Jobs Board

The Professor took a swipe at the President’s constitution of a Jobs Board, a move that should ordinarily illustrate that the government views the issue of unemployment as deserving of a state of emergency declaration. Of course the Job Board is only an additional move by the President Jonathan administration besides the numerous other policy initiatives that have certainly added more jobs to the Nigerian economy than the shambolic NAPEP formulated under Prof. Soludo. Some 1.6m new jobs were estimated to have been added in 2014 as a result of innovative programmes such as YOUWIN, CSS, GIS and SURE-P. Even more jobs will be created in agriculture, power, transport and automobiles in the coming years. So when President Jonathan promised 2 million jobs, he was making a conservative promise. We can choose to juxtapose the current unemployment statistics which has been blown up by graduates of the hundreds of new universities which were non-existent in Soludo’s time. In Soludo’s time as CBN governor, in addition to the problem of questionable data integrity, tens of millions of unemployed and unsuccessful university applicants were hidden away as ‘students’ and kept off the unemployment statistics. The current government’s crime, as Prof. Soludo sees it, is that it is opening more universities and giving even more access to people that will end up creating an unfavourable unemployment record.

- Soludo’s Way: Talking Two Different Things at Once

Prof. Soludo’s article also criticizes the government for spending on critical infrastructure and criticizes former governor Peter Obi for saving money in one breath. This disposition shows that Soludo’s position has more to do with his personal grievances with personalities in President Jonathan’s camp than it has to do with his sincere disagreement with the government’s policies. In any case, at least Soludo hints that a government that piles up foreign reserve in the face of pressing infrastructural challenges is preparing to ‘democratise poverty’.

This government actually pursues a policy that takes care of the immediate economic concerns as well as the future ones. That is why the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) was set up under this government to set aside money to fund development projects in periods of unfavourable oil prices. Our SWF stands at $2.5Bn and recently received an improved rating by the world-acclaimed Sovereign Wealth Institute, making it a joint 2nd alongside top SWFs of the US, France, Brazil and South Korea, from its previous 33rd position. The SWF in its current form is a more progressive arrangement than the illegal Excess Crude Account (ECA) which was formed during Soludo’s time as CBN governor.

As Alan Greenspan, the famous former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, noted, economics is not an exact science and it is usually difficult to get economists to agree on the precise actions to be taken to solve an economic problem. One can therefore imagine that while all economists are fully in agreement about the need to protect our economy against plummeting oil prices, building consensus on the means to do so is another matter. Indeed, piling up foreign reserve to defend the Naira is a short-term approach which is not sustainable in the face of the global economic realities.

- The Road to Sustainability is Full of Thorns

The structural changes in the global oil marketplace call for a more sustainable approach to economic management than the traditional foreign reserve argument which Soludo has put forward. For although shoring up our foreign reserve would allow us to artificially fight back foreign exchange pressures in the short term, it is not a sustainable solution in itself as the Russia experience showed. A stronger scenario for Nigeria would be one in which the economy is diversified away from oil to cushion the effect of crude oil price volatility in addition to the traditional foreign reserve approach.

Economic diversification is the current government’s approach to finding a lasting remedy to the oil price volatility problem. That is why the government is investing huge resources in agriculture and building the supporting infrastructure in irrigation dams, rails, roads, power plants, to strengthen the manufacturing sector. But Soludo chose to call such vital spending a waste of resources in his article. He was quick to point out that the built-up physical infrastructure does not match the levels of borrowing, conveniently forgetting that the ongoing efforts to contain the insurgency in the North East constitutes a major area of government spending that is not readily available to be ‘sighted’ by critics.

Government policies are already bearing fruits and the oil glut provided just the right opportunity to test the robustness of some of these policies. Despite the depreciation in the Naira’s exchange rate, the prices of basic food items have remained steady. So for ordinary Nigerians, the dollar exchange rate of the Naira remains a distant construct if the prices of their everyday items remain unchanged.

- Strong GDPs Can Carry Heavy Debt … Well, Literarily

Prof. Soludo acknowledges the well-known position that excessive concerns about debt-GDP ratio should not stop a bourgeoning economy from securing the loans that it needs, especially when the ratio is as low as Nigeria’s (The empirically established safe Debt-GDP ratio is 60% but Germany, Japan, US and India maintain a debt-GDP ratio of above 76%,225%,101%, and 67% respectively). He is however concerned that Nigeria is a mono product economy that is vulnerable to oil price shocks with a questionable debt profile and the debt-GDP ratio. But he does not take into consideration that the contribution of oil to Nigeria’s GDP has shrank and the non-oil contributors of Agriculture, Telecommunications and Entertainment are increasingly making bigger contributions to Nigeria’s GDP. Even manufacturing is on the rise as evident from 2014 data. Perhaps Prof. Soludo deliberately opted to use outdated data in his analysis to score cheap points in his discrediting campaign. It is therefore pointless attending to his accusation that a government which is still in office has incurred ‘abandoned capital projects littered all over the country’ valued at $50Bn.

- A See-through Veil

Keen observers will see through Soludo’s mischief despite his best efforts to hide his true intentions. For one thing, the ‘strong’ economic team under former President Obasanjo, which Soludo so praised in his article, had as its pioneer leader, the current sitting Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. And the debt pardon that was achieved under President Obasanjo was spearheaded by the same Dr Okonjo-Iweala. So Prof. Soludo’s attempt to lecture the current team on the benefits of a ‘strong’ economic team and the significance of the debt pardon for Nigeria’s future must come with some discomfiture to even his closest friends.

Overall, the submission reveals Soludo as a man desperate to put out his word in the run up to the elections like many entities have done, including former President Obasanjo, MEND, and Boko Haram. He seems eager to remind us of his records in office, many of which we would rather forget. Or would one want to remember the shambles that government that Soludo was a part of left behind in the power sector after squandering $16Bn? Would one want to remember the tens of billions of dollars worth of abandoned projects, most of which had been funded, left behind by the Obasanjo administration of which Soludo was a key player? How can one quickly forget the mess that Soludo left behind in the banking sector which Sanusi had to deal with when he took over as CBN governor?

- Look Everyone, it’s Jacob!

As CBN governor, Soludo connived with bank CEOs to milk the economy and render us vulnerable to the global recession. By the time Sanusi took over, a big chunk of the Foreign Reserve saved under the Obasanjo regime had to be deployed to safeguard our economy. And many banks, which had been making tens of billions of Naira in paper profits and with CEOs winning ‘awards’ and hobnobbing with Soludo, had to be taken over by the government to avoid a massive economic crisis. Is that the kind of record that anyone with any decency left in him and with an independent mind will like to remind us about? It could easily be the case that this article isn’t coming from someone with an independent mind, but from someone prodded to put out something damaging by an old master who he owes a favour. And Soludo’s far milder remarks against the opposition give away the possibility that the entire article was coerced out of him by an old master and written for the oppositions’ benefit. We know who Prof. Soludo’s old master who is also sympathetic to the opposition is, don’t we?
- See more at: http://www.thewhistleng.com/voice-of-obasanjo-hands-of-soludo-a-rejoinder-to-prof-chukwuma-soludo-by-daniel-essien/#sthash.8zD748yr.dpuf

abeg this people should stop lying, Lagos have not finished paying #18,900 minimum wage, they are talking of increasing to #40,000. people should better open their eye because these desperado can do anything for power. those calling for APC should also be ready to pay a very high tax than what we have now. change is a process and #GEJisit

Am a GEJ supporter, I respect him because of his humbleness and gentility. He is a silent transformer. His strength is his quietness.

The good people of Auchi came out in their thousands to register their support for the re-election campaign of president Goodluck Jonathan. They can't wait to send APC packing from Edo state. Failbuhari 14th is on the way. I said it before that Edo is for PDP. this is Auchi

this is not april, silva should just shut up. buhari will not get 15 percent in the whole of south south

apc can lie, later they will come and refute their lies

Since buhari cannot attend channels tv's debate, mayb TVC should try and organize the debate. The truth is that before feb 14 buhari must debate.

Please what is APC afraid of, here in Lagos. Even the oba too na wa for this people o.

I commend the writer of this piece because it is balanced one, in summary what you have just told us is that we are moving forward. Imagine a Nigeria without Boko-Haram this government would have done more. But I personally this the government have also tried in the area of youth empowerment. I see a better Nigeria with Goodluck president .

This one never don, make una go cook am well. Aggrieved People Congress.
They want power by force na God go punish all of una

Amen

Seriously I can bet with anyone GEJ. Will win in Edo state, forget about what you read on papers, Edo's and Ishans are voting GEJ in mass

APC always bringing up propaganda and complaining.

OSHIOMHOLE'S COMMISSIONER FOR INVESTMENTS AND PPP,HON.DENNIS IDAHOSA BIDS WELFARE TO APC AS HE JOINED PDP!

Hear him:

" Your Excellency,you are a man we respect so much but we are confused about your position on the presidential elections. Your recent public statements is giving a lie to your famed objectivity and disturbing our conscience. President Goodluck Jonathan has done more than his predecessors in office and it will be a disservice to this nation to substitute him. I am not the only one who holds this view in your cabinet but I may be the first to voice it out and act accordingly. It is an honour serving with you but it will be a greater Honour for me to join you in the Transformation team of ensuring that President Goodluck Jonathan is returned for the good of our people. I hope that as other colleague commissioners subsequently join me in this quest,you will find time to reflect on the true state of things and toe the path of honour by supporting Goodluck Jonathan.

God bless Edo state!
God bless Nigeria!!

Oba Ghator Okpere!

Isei!"

WITH THESE WORDS,THIS HONOURABLE IDAHOSA OBLITERATED THE SHAMEFUL POLITICAL HARLOTRY OF THE OTHER IDAHOSA WHO SOME DAYS AGO IGNOMINIOUSLY JOINED THE JAJANWEEDIANS.

More commissioners expected to join the transformation Army!

This man can lie. That's how he has been deceiving people since 1998. Mr go and die

why buhari don't to debate

This man can lie. I remember wen he told us then in AAU that education is for the rich after increasing school fees from #18500-#80000 almost same thing Tinubu did to LASU, He also told a poor widow to go and die. He increased the touts in Edo state in d name of revenue generation, promised Ekpoma people water till date we've not see anything. Oshomole the game is up, no wonder our great OBA didn't deem it fit to visit ur Dying guest (GMD). EDO IS FOR PDP.

Not suprised .

He knows people won't understand 70% of what he will say hence the fear .

This man should just do us all a favour and step down. If you can't debate with the so-called 'clueless' GEJ, how do you intend to tackle the intellectually-tasking and complex demands of running a democratic country?

If he suspects any form of connivance, he should suggest that a more trusted body handle the debates. APC and co have been asking the PDP to forget the certificate issue and face real matters. Now the time to face real matters is upon us and they're looking for an escape route.

An illiterate is an illiterate no matter what, I met an APC fan saying "GMB till Sambo debates with Osibanjo", Now the guy didn't even talk about the main contender (Buhari ) because he knows What's up...

His supporters will back him on this, cause they don't want further disgrace after the "...I will stabilize oil price" incident.

IMAGINE Buhari ADDRESSING THE U.N GENERAL ASSEMBLY. **heart attack**

Audu Maikori

I watched Buhari’s campaign speech yesterday and I left feeling like I was listening to my father speaking to me- and that’s sort of natural. After all, he and my father are about the same age. Buhari is an awesome figure, very impressive in terms of what he stands for as a person . Indeed, I must tell a story – way back in 1998 during the perennial university strikes I was in Kaduna during one of the perennial fuel scarcity episodes. I was at the Ungwar Rimi filling station and had been on a line for 3 hours or so waiting for my turn to buy fuel. And if you can recall those days, fuel lines were like military camps and people were violent if you tried to jump the queue unless you were a friend of the petrol station manager or a soldier. And General Buhari drove into the area in his 505 looking for fuel and somehow people saw him and all of a sudden people started moving their cars out of the way to allow him drive up to fill his tank.

This people did without compulsion – it was out of sheer respect of him, the man, the father figure- that was General Buhari, before he become Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF).

President Jonathan: Driving growth, making change happen
If Buhari was going to be allowed to run the country based on his ideals alone, I would probably change my mind (after I get past the age factor). But honestly speaking , governance is not strictly about a single personality – it’s a series of conversations around different interest groups and institutions and walking the fine line between your decisions based on personal interest or moral values and/or public interest- which usually means a politicized decision.

I feel that a General Buhari presidency, though well intended, will not achieve much due to the fact that he will try to purge Nigeria via old school methods which are no longer practical. He will be the face but the real machinery will be run by some of Nigeria’s most “pious” politicians – people like Tinubu, Amaechi , Atiku ,etc. The question is will they allow him to stop the business as usual environment they have benefited from to their detriment?

When he spoke about Sharia a few years back, which was seen as very inciteful, and how it was necessary in Nigeria, he spoke as a devout Muslim that he is – but the statement was so politically incorrect especially since you know that same Sharia implementation led to the death of thousands of man and women in Kaduna state alone in the early 2000s. The implementation of Sharia in Kaduna led to the division of Southern Kaduna from Northern Kaduna and the relocation of the people to Barnawa and beyond due to religious intolerance. When it comes to elections, I personally feel that we are asking a man who’s ways and actions are set to suddenly become dynamic and new and do so with the support of leaders who were not just part of the PDP’s alleged rot but were key players in it. Suddenly the are ‘born again” and old things are passed and have become “new”.

President Goodluck Jonathan is far from perfect but I see him continuing to make steady inroads especially in the area of the economic advancement of young people because the cliche is true – the youth are the future but the future is now and here!
Has he done well? In some areas yes but in security no. That’s the fact. I won’t go into the reasons why not but we should note that the rot in the army started many years before Jonathan and the insurgency only opened the cankerworm that was hidden because the need to protect Nigeria against a new age enemy hadn’t arisen in over 39 or so.

About corruption having worked around government for almost 3 years I now understand things I never quite understood. Most of the corruption in our country is usually attributed to government and the civil service which is true but we forget that they need collaborators in the private sector to successfully perpetrate these crimes. The best way to fight corruption is to build institutions and use technology to fortify them so they can reduce incidences of corruption- that’s the truth. You can’t tap an MTN line like we used to tap the box telephones at home in those days. You can’t pass the Lekki Toll Gate without paying N120 at the automated gates but the politicians can set up companies to surreptitiously buy the company that owns the gates (hope you get my drift) and that’s done at top level. You can’t also fight corruption if you tip a policeman at every checkpoint instead of taking the day off and ensuring you get your drivers license so we can stop the extortion – yes that too is corruption.

Why is budget implementation so poor? Because the National Assembly unduly politicizes the process leading to late passage of the bills (in 2013 it was in July / August same as 2014) so when projects don’t get delivered its mostly because of slow passage of the bill.
The other reason is that the appropriations committees can tamper with the budget how they like that’s why a project like the perilous Lokoja -Abuja Road which led to the death of many Nigerians took over 10 years to be completed because the amounts appropriated by the NASS was simply inappropriate to adequate fund the completion. It was only when the Sure-P Programme intervention came that the road was fast tracked (as most can testify) same with the railways , roads and bridges etc- why?

ecause the SURE-P funds were better insulated from tampering unlike many other projects approved for completion. There are now policies being put to change this to make execution more effective from the lessons we learnt via Sure-P on a federal level.
But I digress, I agree that GMB is a fine gentleman and leader but I also believe that if I did vote for him I would be doing so nostalgically not realistically because there’s a new Nigeria where people are earning a living off their talents and passions and creating a new middle class which was virtually non existent pre-GEJ and that’s the Nigeria I want to be part of…

Agriculture is becoming the new sexy and his administration has pushed it even more than Obasanjo (a renowned farmer did). No matter how I explain FB or Instagram or the global economy to my dad now he may not fully grasp it as a person below 35 would and I fear that I would rather move forward imperfectly than go back to the past in search of a non-existent Utopia.

This is just my view of things and I have taken time to state it and not berate GMB – it’s my vote , it’s my choice. Some will say that I vote for GEJ because of SURE-P. But honestly I do so because in him I see a man who is imperfect, struggling with his imperfections to make things better and I see room for improvement and change… in all fairness we are all sort of like that trying to get a better report card and improve on poor subjects of last semester. In the former I see an upright man of integrity and high discipline who doesn’t yet realize that one of his disciples may yet betray him because they don’t stand for the same ideals.
Audu Maikori is the CEO of Chocolate City Entertainment Company.

Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi How
Market?
You had every opportunity to be what you
wanted to be, but you chose to be want you
don't want to be - Campaign Director of
Buhari/Osibanjo!
Election is in 16 days time but the result is
already:
APC 0-11 PDP (5 SE & 6 SS states have been
captured 100%).
By the time we get to FailBuhari 14th, the
result will be APC 0-37 PDP!
The disgrace Buhari will receive from Nigerians
this time around will be unimaginable.
A man that couldn't change himself since 1983
wants to change a nation.
A man that couldn't safeguard the country and
his govt as he was easily disposed in a
bloodless coup (Palace coup) by Junior
Officers, wants to safeguard Nigeria.
A man that murdered democracy wants to
benefit from it.
A man that destroyed the Press wants to be
heard and supported by the Press.
A man that looted the country with Abacha and
Nigeria was rated as the most corrupt country
in the world is now shouting of corruption.
A man that is a product of corruption. impunity
and fraud wants to fight corruption.
A man that has no certificate, yet got enlisted
in the army and rose to the rank of Maj-Gen,
took salaries and still receiving pension, yet he
is crying of how corrupt Nigeria is.
A man that murdered some Nigerians, starved
the rest to death, but now wants to be paying
them N5, 000/month.
A man that has zero knowledge of Economics,
got the worst grade in Mathematics as shown
in his forged certificate, but wants to govern
Africa's largest economy.
A man that ruled with iron-fist for 20 months
with no legacy but wants to transform Nigeria.
A man that cannot obey the Rule of Law by
showing his certificate as demanded by the
constitution/Electoral laws, wants to rule and
uphold Rule of Law.
A tribal bigot that executed all the projects in
his region, leaving out other regions that
provided the resources.
A shameless and pretentious anti-corruption
fighter that sacked a govt citing corruption, but
locked up the Vice President in Kirikiri
Maximum Prison, yet left the President and
Head of Govt in his Palace.
A disillusioned man that believes he was born-
to-rule but not born-to-be intelligent.
A man that couldn't fix Nigeria when he was 42
years even as a dictator but wants to fix the
same country now he's 73 years under
democracy. WHAT A CLOWN!
Buhari is bad news, but as it happened in
2003, 2007 and 2011, so shall it happen in
2015!

Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu

The late sage, prophet and legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti in his album ‘beast of no nation’, famously described Nigeria’s leaders as ‘animals in human skin’. In the early 80’s when the album hit the airwaves, we used to dance and jibe to the undulating beat and rhythm of the song without really understanding the exact meaning of Anikulapo Kuti’s diagnosis of the character and psychology of Nigeria’s leaders. It wasn’t until later years when the veil was pulled from my eyes that I came to understand the import of Fela’ Kuti’s characterisation of Nigerian leaders as unconscionable animals and a set of sadists and psychopaths who in many ways are even worse than the animals he had graciously associated them with.

The characterisation of Nigerian leaders as heartless animals by Fela Kuti is self evident across the landscape, not in the least in the way the leaders treat the poor. The disdain, disregard and disrespect that Nigerian leaders have for the poor, and the oppression/ brutality to which they are subjected as a consequence is legendary. Across Nigeria a subtle war has been declared on the poor by the leadership who are ever so desirous to see all of them dead. There is nothing more revealing of the mindset of Nigeria’s unconscionable leadership and their death wish for the poor than the recent saga in Benin city where the Edo state Governor; Adams Oshiomole ordered the confiscation of the wares of a poor street trader and on being told by the trader that she is a widow, asked her ‘to go and die’. The fact that the street trader was a widow whose husband was late did not move the governor. It took strident public opprobrium by those who were shocked at the governor’s irresponsibility and according to Oshiomole himself, rebuke by his own children for him to offer an apology and appoint the widow to his cabinet together with some cash gifts.

But yet in spite of the apology and cash gifts, his true intent was already exposed. Oshiomole’s shameful treatment of the widow revealed the animalistic mindset of Nigeria’s leadership Fela Kuti famously referred to. The apology was only offered because of the stinging rebuke which was unleashed when the recording of the incident was published in the media. Had Oshiomole not been caught on tape and thus the outcry, he would never have apologised, nor compensated the widow. When in 2013, Governor Fashola deported some poor destitute from Lagos, career bigots like Femi Fani- Kayode and his depraved co, travellers tried to turn what was essentially another example of the disdain of Nigerian leaders for the poor into a tribal issue. But the facts and evidence of the case is clear, the only reason Fashola deported those persons was because they were poor and destitute. Had they owned properties in Victoria Island and driven around in flashy cars, they would never have been deported.

Nelson Mandela once said that “poverty like slavery and apartheid is man-made and can be eradicated by purposeful leadership”. He further opined that overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity, but rather an act of justice and the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life’. Chapter 2 section 14-b of the Nigerian constitution emphatically declares that “the security and welfare of the people/citizenry shall be the primary purpose of government”. In the same vein section 16-b of the constitution declares that the state shall ‘control the national economy in such a manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity’. Articles 9 and 11 of the 1966 United Nations covenant on economic, social and cultural rights states that every signatory state must recognise the right of every citizen to ‘social security, including social insurance’. Each state must recognise the ‘right of everyone, to an adequate standard of living, for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions’.

Thus, Whether from a personality like Nelson Mandela with an overwhelming moral authority, or from the Nigerian constitution itself or indeed from international organisations such as the United Nations to which Nigeria is signatory, it is sufficiently established that the primary purpose of government is the welfare of the citizenry. Mankind evolved from the ‘Hobbesian’ jungle and surrendered their freedoms to a state/government in exchange for the ‘social contract’ for which the state was to provide for the security and welfare of their subjects. The leaders at a minimum are supposed to invest massively in providing social amenities, opportunities and other such infrastructure and initiatives that can eradicate poverty and provide the citizenry with a decent and dignified life. Nigerian leaders cannot claim ignorance of the responsibility of leaders anywhere for the welfare of the citizenry particularly the poor and disabled. Not only is such responsibility clearly stated in the constitution from whence they derive their powers, they are most often globe trotters who have firsthand experience of social security systems comprising unemployment benefits, social housing, healthcare benefits, jobs, skills and vocational training, social welfare payments, enterprise grants and other social initiatives in the countries they frequently visit.

The problem of Nigeria’s bad leadership and their disregard for the poor is located in their psychology. A mindset that is constructed to believe that leadership/public service is not for the common good but for self serving purposes. To that end, the fundamental character and psychology of the collectivity of the Nigerian leadership is premised on massive looting, protection of elite interests and oppression of the poor. The sadism and evil psychology of these leaders is so bad that they actually consider their frequent trips abroad for medical treatment while a great percentage of the impoverished citizenry cannot avail of good medical care in Nigeria as part of the perks of their status. In the same vein, they believe the avalanche of police officers who guard them and the prison walls they live behind as a result of the insecurity the poverty and inequality they fostered in the nation has unleashed is part of their instruments of oppression and status. They hardly see the irony in jetting abroad for medical treatment while their own citizens lack functional hospitals, neither do they see the irony of being barricaded by police officers from their own citizens and living behind prison walls when adequate social investments that reduces poverty and creates opportunities for the citizenry would have give them the freedom to move around without a cordon of police officers as it obtains in other climes.

The ongoing war on the poor across Nigeria is driven by a psychology that locates power specifically in depriving and oppressing the poor. A negation of the fundamental principles for which government exists. This explains why governors Adams Oshiomole felt it would be better for the 'widow to die' and Fashola felt it was better for the poor to be deported. Like Fela Anikulapo declared, Nigerian leaders are animals in human skin, but even that description is too gracious for animals in spite of their limited scope still quite naturally provide for the welfare/security of their progenies and other such dependants within their social groups. Most animals also don’t kill at all or don’t kill their own kind. Animals are thus, more elevated than the reckless, lawless, murderous and irresponsible psychopaths that constitute Nigeria’s leadership who actually derive sadistic pleasure in seeing so many poor people and more pleasure still in oppressing or killing them.

Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu

Email: lawrencenwobu@gmail.com

http://www.nigeria70.com/nigerian_news_paper/war_on_the_poor_oshiomole_fashola_and_the_psycholog/632353

xreal:
Why do the Jona fans hate to hear the truth.
No one had said you don't work on the warf or on the sea.

The op had dared you all. Go to their train station
in makurdi, take pics and upload here - simple english.
No need to insult the op, op is not a fool, maybe Jona, who is fooling you.

APC HATE TO HEAR ANY GOOD THING COMES OUT FROM JONATHAN, WE WILL SEE HOW BUHARI WILL PRESIDE OVER UR ODUA AND AREWA REPUBLIC. LETS WAIT AND SEE