₦airaland Forum

Max24:
I appreciate your response and value it. I like people who argue issues intellectually not abuse because we all learn from it . The bottom line is making Nigeria better. Now ther is an important aspect of subsidy that nobody has addressed here. Part of the reason subsidy has to go is that in effect we are not just subsidizing ourselves. We are subsidizing all our West African neighbors or more. Are we Father Christmas? Can we sustain that? All those other countries are our fuel cheaply and developing over us since they are smaller and more manageable. We can't be penny wise and pounds foolish. As I speak to you, tell me any African country selling fuel at lower price than us - Ghana, SA, Egypt, Kenya, Coteviire. The effect is that we are attracting ants to ourselves for their own purpose while we think they love us. We will cry the day the fuel dries up and we have not developed alternatives. We need to be more businesslike in the way we manage our main resource. We should not waste it simply because we produce it. Like I said if we do, we will cry the day it finishes. Let our oil be like gold, let's not use it to play with anybody including our neighboring brothers

DeepSight:
My dear, look let me not waste time going through the philosophy of the matter - which I can see we will disagree on based on your posts with other people up there. I will only say that the IMF/ Bretton Woods prescriptions have been around for decades and have never worked in a single third world country. They have rather consistently destroyed lives and economies everywhere they have been implemented - so much so that it is obvious that the destruction of lives and the pauperization of populations is actually what those policies were deliberately designed for and history proves this.

As I said, let me not waste your time with arguing the philosophy of it - let me just go to the practicality. Let us assume you needed to remove subsidies, fine. No where in the world would you remove them in one fell swoop the way it was done in this country last year. That is unheard of. The spike in PMS price was over 200 per cent - and believe you me, I have researched this matter - there had never been such an increase in the price of PMS in a single day in any country in the world. Other countries which removed subsidies did so gradually over time in order to reduce the shock to the system. One does not have to be an economist to know that the ripple effects on the prices of other commodities will lead to hyper-inflation which is what has obviously happened. And there is no way that is good for the economy. If it must have been done, it should have been done in phases. Carefully managed phases.

Now as if that was not bad enough, you then proceeded to float the naira immediately at the same time. This was the biggest disaster of all. You have to understand a number of things. First is that an import dependent economy cannot afford to float or devalue its currency, That is a prescription for suicide. Because if you import everything you use, as we do, then you are spending USD all the time and if you devalue your currency then you will require more and more of your currency to procure less and less USD and that will finish you off in a vicious cycle - because the more USD you chase the more your currency will fall.

But it was not just this obvious principle that made it a disaster - what made it the greatest disaster is the fact that you are importing the said PMS you have removed subsidies from. You are paying USD for the PMS, and thus it stands to reason that once your currency falls, you will pay even more USD for that PMS and this is why the landing cost of PMS has become so high, that it is now obvious that the government is in fact still paying some subsidy to retain the price at circa N600 - because based on the exchange rate it should be over N1, 000.

Therefore by flloating the naira at the same time as removing subsidy, the FG actually defeated the purpose of subsidy removal.

The net result has been the death, destruction and unspeakable hardship which has followed. The truth is that these policies are ill thought out and they have never succeded in any third world country where they have been prescribed, and they frankly were not intended to.

Now, to adderss your question "what have we acheived through fuel subsidy since indpendence" - the answer is very simple and it is staring you in the face. Sometimes you dont know what you have until you lose it. The safety net that the economy had from this kind of devastation and hardship is what we acheived. Just compare the ecomony of a mere one and a half years ago to what obtains today and you will see the difference. That is what it is.

No economy can grow when you deflate it and take away the purchsing power of the people. Everywhere economies have grown, there has been an injection, and not a deflation. The devaluation of the naira accompanied with hyper inflation has made every Nigerian vastly poorer. And there is nothing positive about a pauperized population - let no one deceive you - there is no long term gain in such. It will only ever deliver death and hardship.

Finally please stop comparing the removal of subsidies in places like the UK with what has happened here. Not only are the subsidies not the same and the products being subsidized not the same, the entire picture is different. This is aside from the fact that no one was insane enough to remove 100 percent of a critical subsidy in a single day. Anyone who does that to his country is bent on destroying it.

cc nairalanda1 / kukutenla / kukutente23.

Botragelad:
I've been noticing a load of misinformation floating about, and I think it even made it onto the front page at one point. So, I'm just going to lift this(explanation below) straight from a source, not my own work, mind you and give a brief rundown of the whole thing.




It's quite straightforward, really, for those who can be bothered to read and do their own research without blindly following the crowd of misinformation.

Below, you'll find photos of her from when she was a youngster, as well as her record. And, might I add, she's had a few fight and come out on the losing end, too.

Since the announcement of fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, professional and ordinary citizens have shared many comments, thoughts and insights

Since the announcement of fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, professional and ordinary citizens have shared many comments, thoughts and insights on the advantages and disadvantages of subsidy removal.

The president said the fuel subsidy is gone because there was no provision for it in the 2023 budget and ever since, there has been panic buying and uproar from Nigerians.

Recall that this is not the first time there has been an attempt to remove fuel subsidies.

In January 2012, former President, Goodluck Jonathan attempted to remove the fuel subsidy but was not successful

The government argued that the removal of the heavy subsidy (1)would free up funds for other public services, including health and infrastructure projects, and the liberalization of the fuel industry would benefit the economy.

While the current situation is affecting Nigerians, it is important to create an avenue for enlightenment and this explainer will highlight some benefits of fuel subsidy removal.

According to the National Orientation Agency, (2)removing fuel subsidy in the country will stop corruption around what is known as the subsidy regime, which has made some individuals stupendously rich without industry. Now, this will bring about a resource balance and will be of benefit to majority of the populace.

(3)It will free up the humongous amounts paid out as subsidy, paving way for enhanced growth in critical sectors of national development. This means that other sectors of the economy will be developed and not just those perceived as critical.

(4)The subsidy removal will also put an end to the smuggling of Nigeria’s Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to neighbouring countries, which is an organised theft and diversion of the PMS aided by the country’s easily penetrated borders which affect the economy.

(5)This development will solve the problem of perennial fuel scarcity and the attendant hardship on citizens thereby stimulating responsible consumption and reducing waste as the prices become more market reflective.

(6)The fuel subsidy removal will curb the greed for higher profits and deliberate sabotage by a few players in the oil industry which will positively affect the economy of the country.

In the past, Nigeria pays N400bn monthly in fuel subsidy payments. (7)What the removal means is that the government will put that money to use in other sectors like education, health, and other infrastructural development.

This will strengthen the performance and outputs of the sectors the subsidy fund would be diverted to.

However, questions have been raised like “Will the price continue to rise?” this will be determined by the market forces and consumers will be protected by industry regulators and the consumer protection council.

Moreso, the benefits of fuel subsidy removal outweigh the continual payment of it , Nigerians will experience many inconveniences but the results will yield more positive outcomes for the people in the long run.

Some Nigerians who believe the removal is necessary hope to see results in a few months and expect ease on the current situation.

adamusuleiman1:
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-donated-to-kamala-harris-twice-as-private-citizen-2020-8

Quest7777:
Protests is not a Solution, but it's an indication that there are serious issues that need to be addressed by Govt.

The problems of Nigeria are beyond Obi or any single individual, as long as Tribal, Religious and Sectional interests are prioritised over National Interests.
Apart from those who believe Obi would have made a better President (arguable), the clamour for Obi was for Sectional interests - to give S/East sense of inclusiveness in National affairs.

Agreed, prices of goods & services in a free Capitalist Economy ought to be determined by forces of Demand & Supply, but the consequences in Nigeria would be dire for a commodity like Fuel.

But fundamentally, Nigerians owe far greater allegiance to their Ethnicity than Nationality, and are not ready to unite to build a Nation.

I rest my case.

MSF says it is overwhelmed in country where 31.8 million people are suffering from hunger

An unprecedented number of children in northern Nigeria are suffering from acute malnutrition, aid workers in the country have said.

Nigeria has the “largest number of food insecure people globally” at 31.8 million, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization office in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri said.

Médecins Sans Frontières, which is working in seven states, said its facilities were so overwhelmed that children were being treated on mattresses on the floor. MSF said it admitted 1,250 children in April to an inpatient therapeutic feeding centre in Maiduguri, twice the figure for the same period in 2023.

Dr Simba Tirima, MSF’s Nigeria representative, said: “In all these places we’ve seen, at least in some cases, double what we saw last year or at least a more than 60% increase in the patients admitted. We have a crisis at hand. We have an emergency at hand, and those kids that are severely malnourished definitely need treatment.”

Severe acute malnutrition has also led to other conditions, such as tuberculosis and acute diarrhoea, and stunted children’s growth. More than 52,000 patients were diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition across seven states in 2023 and 2,693 of them died, according to MSF figures.

The reasons for the increase in malnutrition are well noted: food inflation is close to 30% as Africa’s most populous country is experiencing worsening food insecurity. A third of the country – amounting to more than the combined population of the UK, Ireland and Denmark – live on less than £1 a day.

Meanwhile, farmland has been abandoned in parts of the north because of gangs kidnapping, extorting and in some cases killing farmers. The Nigerian newspaper the Punch reported that 165 farmers were killed in the first three months of this year.

About 1.2 million people were displaced in eight states in central and north-west Nigeria by the end of 2022 because of violence, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration. In that same period, about 2.3 million others were displaced in the north-east, where jihadist groups such as Boko Haram continue to run amok.

The insecurity and economic instability have made food expensive. Food reserves in some villages have been depleted as there has been little or no growth in household incomes, some local people told aid workers.

In January, a report by the US Department of Agriculture and the Global Agricultural Information Network revealed that Nigeria had become the second country in Africa, after South Africa, to embrace genetically engineered corn.

A month later the government ordered the release of 2,000 metric tonnes of grains from the federal reserves, with the agriculture minister, Abubakar Kyari, saying: “Food security is national security”.

But aid organisations say millions of people are still at risk of famine as Nigeria enters the lean season, which is usually from June to September. The World Food Programme has already projected that 26.5 million people in Nigeria could face acute hunger by the end of this period.

Other experts say the position could deteriorate even before then and have called for immediate funding to save millions of vulnerable children.

“We’re not even in the middle of that lean season,” Tirima said. “We need other actors to come in. MSF is just one organisation. In fact, what we do is a drop in the bucket … we are nowhere near addressing the immediate crisis that we face.”

“A child who died yesterday of malnutrition is a tragedy,” he added. “A child who might die tomorrow because of malnutrition is preventable.”

omoredia:
Can u suffer from a defect that was not ur own doing? Can ur Toyota be damaged by someone other than urself?

omoredia:
The person that created my wonderful Toyota car is not responsible if it breakdown by using it irresponsibly. The same with all of God's creations. If we function as he expects and has specified then we will not breakdown.

omoredia:
Nice question. It's not from God. It can be from us or the devil but never from God.

omoredia:
There is not evil in God. Anything bad that will happen in ur life is never from God.

Matheusmartin:
...
Thats Danny my guyyy..

Be giving those oversabi Christians sleepless nights.
..


I don't know if there's a God or not.
But it's obvious it/he/she does not interfere in the affairs of men.
No special benefits whatsoever for believing in the existence of a God.

As a Nigerian,you'd still fail exams if u do not prepare well. You'd still fail interviews with no proper connections. You'd still fall sick, get involved in accidents that may even claim your life, get kidnapped and die gruesome death.

I ask,what's that special benefit do believers actually get from their so call relationships with god

SpecialAdviser:
Tinubu: I will continue where Buhari stopped
Buhari: Support Tinubu he is doing well.
Presidency : Tinubu inherited bad economy from Buhari.
Presidency: Reward him with a new presidential jet
BATerians: Peter Obi is to blame
supporters: é pàtè òwò

Bobloco:
https://punchng.com/presidency-obi-clash-over-new-presidential-jet/

tobenuel:
Toh

Where is Helinues. him never wake up?

@OP that pinchure wey you use as illustration get as e be na

Nigeria is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, with skyrocketing inflation, a national currency in free-fall and millions of people struggling to buy food. Only two years ago Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria is projected to drop to fourth place this year.

The pain is widespread. Unions strike to protest salaries of around $20 a month. People die in stampedes, desperate for free sacks of rice. Hospitals are overrun with women wracked by spasms from calcium deficiencies.

The crisis is largely believed to be rooted in two major changes implemented by a president elected 15 months ago: the partial removal of fuel subsidies and the floating of the currency, which together have caused major price rises.

A nation of entrepreneurs, Nigeria’s more than 200 million citizens are skilled at managing in tough circumstances, without the services states usually provide. They generate their own electricity and source their own water. They take up arms and defend their communities when the armed forces cannot. They negotiate with kidnappers when family members are abducted.

But right now, their resourcefulness is being stretched to the limit.

No Money for Milk

On a recent morning in a corner of the biggest emergency room in northern Nigeria, three women were convulsing in painful spasms, unable to speak. Each year, the E.R. at Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital in Kano, Nigeria’s second-largest city, received one or two cases of hypocalcemia caused by malnutrition, said Salisu Garba, a kindly health worker who hurried from bed to bed, ward to ward.

Now, with many unable to afford food, the hospital sees multiple cases every day.

Mr. Garba was sizing up the women’s husbands. Which source of nutrition he recommended depended on what he thought they could afford. Baobab leaves or tiger nuts for the poor; boiled-up bones for the slightly better off. He laughed at the suggestion that anyone could afford milk.

More than 87 million people in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, live below the poverty line — the world’s second-largest poor population after India, a country seven times its size . And punishing inflation means poverty rates are expected to rise still further this year and next, according to the World Bank.

Last week, unions shut down hospitals, courts, schools, airports and even the country’s Parliament, striking in an attempt to force the government to increase the monthly salary of $20 it pays its lowest workers.

But over 92 percent of working-age Nigerians are in the informal sector, where there are no wages, and no unions to fight for them.

For the Afolabi family in Ibadan, in southwestern Nigeria, the descent into poverty started in January with the loss of an electric tuk-tuk taxi.

Forced to sell the taxi to pay his wife’s hospital bills after the difficult birth of their second child, Babatunde Afolabi turned to occasional construction work. It paid badly, but the family managed.

“We had no thoughts about starvation,” he said.

But then, he said, cassava — the cheapest staple in many parts of Nigeria — tripled in price.

All they can afford now, he said, is a few biscuits, a little bread, and for their 6-year-old, 20 peanuts a day.

A Country Built on Gas

Nigeria is a country heavily dependent on imported petroleum products, despite being a major oil producer. After years of underinvestment and mismanagement, its state refineries produce hardly any gasoline.

For decades, the national soundtrack has been the hum of small generators, fired up during daily power outages. Petroleum products move goods and people around the country.

Until recently, the government subsidized that petroleum, to the tune of billions of dollars a year.

Many Nigerians said the subsidy was the only useful contribution from a neglectful and predatory government. Successive presidents have pledged to remove the subsidy, which drains a hefty chunk of government revenue — and later backtracked fearing mass unrest.

Bola Tinubu, who was elected Nigeria’s president last year, initially followed through.

“It was a necessary action for my country not to go bankrupt,” Mr. Tinubu said in April, at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Saudi Arabia.

Instead, many Nigerians are going bankrupt — or working multiple jobs to stay afloat.

Mr. Garba, the hospital worker, used to be solidly middle class, even though 17 family members, including 12 children, depended on him.

After shifts at the hospital, where he is setting up the first statewide ambulance service in addition to working in the emergency room, for which he is paid $150 a month, he heads to the Red Cross. There he occasionally receives a $3.30 volunteer stipend for helping tackle a severe diphtheria outbreak.

At night, he works at the pharmacy that he and a colleague set up. But few people have money for medicine anymore. He sells about $7 worth of medication per day

Last year, Mr. Garba sold his car when the gas subsidies were removed, and now takes a tuk-tuk to work. Unable to power the generator, he reads medicine labels at the pharmacy by the light of a small solar lantern. He can only afford to buy rice and cassava in small quantities.

Life under the previous government was very expensive, he said, but nothing like today.

“It’s very, very bad,” he said.

It’s gotten so dire that there have been several deadly stampedes for free or discounted rice distributed by the government — including one in March at a university in the central state of Nasarawa where seven students were killed.

Mr. Tinubu promised to create a million jobs and quadruple the size of the economy within a decade, but has not said how . The International Monetary Fund said last month the state has started subsidizing fuel and electricity again — though the government has not acknowledged this.

“There’s still very little clarity — if any — on where the economy is headed, what the priorities are,” said Zainab Usman, a political economist and director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Tapping Craze

A spate of new crypto-mining games that promise to generate income the more the user plays has people across Nigeria spending all day tapping on their smartphone screens, desperate to earn a few dollars.

People tap as they pray, in mosques and churches. Children tap under desks at school. Mourners tap at funerals.

There’s no guarantee any of them will ever benefit from the hours they put in mindlessly tapping.

Then again, they can’t count on the national currency, the naira.

The government has twice devalued the naira in the past year, trying to enable it to float more freely and attract foreign investment. The upshot: It’s lost nearly 70 percent of its value against the dollar.

Nigeria cannot produce enough food for its growing population; food imports rise 11 percent annually. The currency devaluation caused those imports — already expensive because of high tariffs — to explode in price.

Nigerians can become paupers almost overnight. So they’re searching for anything that might hold its value — or ideally, get them rich.

“People are looking for me everywhere,” said Rabiu Biyora, the undisputed king of tapping in Kano, opening one of his five foldable phones to add to his 2.7 billion taps on the TapSwap app. “Not to attack me, but to collect something from me.”

A relaxed, businesslike 39-year-old followed everywhere by young tech-savvy acolytes, Mr. Biyora would only say that he made “over $10,000” from the previous tapping craze.

He profits from everyone else’s taps, so he encourages them in posts on social media, and by providing free internet to anyone willing to sit outside his house. Nigerians don’t need much encouragement — despite the risks and volatility, Nigeria has the second highest cryptocurrency adoption rate in the world.

So every evening, struggling young men gather by Mr. Biyora’s home and tap.

Pleas for Help

In much of Nigeria, it’s normal to share with your neighbors and give alms to the poor.

Every day, people come to the gate of Kano’s Freedom Radio station to drop off sheets of paper containing heartfelt appeals for help paying medical bills or school fees, or to recover from some disaster.

A radio presenter chooses three to read out daily, and often a sympathetic listener calls in to pay the supplicant’s bill.

But lately the appeals have multiplied, and offers of help have dried up.

Good Samaritans used to come to the E.R. and pay strangers’ bills for them, Mr. Garba said. That rarely happens now either.

Still, Mr. Garba said, the number of patients coming to his hospital has almost halved in recent months.

Many of the sick never even make it. They can’t afford the 20-cent bus ride.

The Presidency has reacted to a report published in the New York Times criticising the Nigerian economy as facing the worst trajectory in a generation.

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, responded on Sunday to the report by Ruth Maclean and Ismail Auwal.

According to the Presidency, the feature story, titled ‘Nigeria Confronts Its Worst Economic Crisis in a Generation’ and published on June 11,https://www.nairaland.com/8126901/nigeria-confronts-worst-economic-crisis
reflected the typical predetermined, reductionist, derogatory, and denigrating way foreign media establishments have reported on African countries for decades.

Onanuga stated that due to the ‘misleading’ slant of the report, the government needed to clear up some misconceptions conveyed by the reporters regarding the economic policies of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, which took office at the end of May 2023.

He noted that the report painted a dire picture of some Nigerians’ experiences amid the inflationary spiral of the last year and unfairly blamed it all on the new administration’s policies.

He argued that the report, based on several interviews, is at best jaundiced, portraying all gloom and doom without mentioning the positive aspects of the economy or the amelioration policies being implemented by the central and state governments.

Onanuga emphasized that Tinubu did not create the economic problems Nigeria faces today but inherited them.

“As a respected economist in our country once put it, Tinubu inherited a dead economy.

“The economy was bleeding and needed quick surgery to avoid being plunged into the abyss, as happened in Zimbabwe and Venezuela,” he noted.

He explained that this context led to the policy direction taken by the government in May/June 2023, including the abrogation of the fuel subsidy regime and the unification of the multiple exchange rates.

Onanuga highlighted that Nigeria had maintained a fuel subsidy regime for decades, which consumed $84.39 billion between 2005 and 2022 from the public treasury, in a country with significant infrastructural deficits and a high need for better social services.

He also alleged that the state oil firm, NNPCL, had accumulated trillions of Naira in debts due to unsustainable subsidy payments.

He noted that when Tinubu took office, no provision was made for fuel subsidy payments in the national budget beyond June 2023.

“The budget itself had a striking feature: it planned to spend 97 per cent of revenue servicing debt, with little left for recurrent or capital expenditure. The previous government had resorted to massive borrowing to cover such costs.”

Onanuga further explained that like oil, the exchange rate was also subsidized by the government, with an estimated $1.5 billion spent monthly by the CBN to defend the currency against the unquenchable demand for the dollar.

“This low rate led to arbitrage and failures to fulfil remittance obligations to airlines and other foreign businesses, drying up foreign direct investment and investments in the oil sector.

“To address these issues, Tinubu rolled back the subsidy regime and floated the naira on his first day”, Onanuga said.

Despite initial challenges, Onanuga noted that some stability is being restored , with the exchange rate now below N1500 to the dollar and prospects for further appreciation.

He cited a trade surplus of N6.52 trillion in Q1, as opposed to a deficit of N1.4 trillion in Q4 of 2023, and renewed interest from portfolio investors as indicators of improving economic confidence. Loans from the World Bank, AfDB, and Afreximbank are also contributing to Nigeria’s renewed bankability.

Onanuga highlighted efforts to control inflation, especially food inflation, through increased agricultural production and state-led initiatives to sell food at lower prices.

“The Tinubu administration has invested heavily in dry-season farming and provided incentives to farmers

mikywonder:
They swear for Una
Are u guys not tired yet

fergie001:
SOURCE

coputa:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/06/5-countries-that-recently-changed-their-national-anthem/amp/

0001Lagos:
Tinubu and shetima alone spent N8.64 billion naira in 3months but don't have minimum wage to pay Nigerian workers

What a wicked and useless president

Celestialsword:
https://dailytrust.com/tinubus-silent-and-unreported-achievements/

firearcher:
I followed the case closely. The verdict is most likely going to be reversed on appeal but that can take a year or more. The case is weak and convoluted but Trump was most likely going to be convicted by jurors picked from a 90-95% democrats area.

In the meantime, he will be tagged convicted felon by the democratic ahead of the election which I think is what the democrats want. Its a political game, and the left hate Trump intensely that they will do anything to destroy him and justify it. To them he is Hitler and Stalin rolled together