Subsidy 101: Q &A on Subsidy.

A lot of discuss have made rounds on the way forward. A lot of us are ignorant on what subsidy is. Some have opined that subsidy is a mirage, some believe it exist, other are not just sure what it is. This thread https://www.nairaland.com/2334266/where-r-those-protested-subsidy/2#34111749 is inspired by the discussions I had with smart guys like shiftmarket baralatie, ohzee, wirinet on what subsidy. I learnt alot from them, I would also want to learn more from other well informed economist in the house. The following are the Q & A section we had

rolchi:


@gohome you have spoken so much to the gladness of my innermost hearts. Don't spend all your energy talking to these fellows. Even our Lord Jesus said so..."you will always have the poor with you".

Some uneducated fellows whip up sentiments with "poor masses". But these poor masses where alive and doing fine buying a litre of fuel for 1000ngn in Lagos recently.

AWAY WITH THIS SUBSIDY!

Once more, you have spoken well...I read every letter of your comments!

Thank you. I am getting tired already. Because 9 million people with a budget the same as yours can afford it doesn't mean we can.

The UAE is 8 million migrant and 1.4 millions citizens. Budget is in excess of 4 trillion Naira. Economy is so diversed that only 4% of oil revenue go to Dubai city budget. If AkwaIbom gets 4 trillion annually, let me see how it won't be Dubai with free fuel.

i really do not know how to explain to these guys that we cannot afford it. No country with a population of 150 million plus pay subsidy on PMS.

Let them keep hiding under masses. Borrowing money to enrich few rich men. Sometimes I feel like disowning this country. People you try to help are the same people killing you.

We really need God blessings

wirinet:


The analysis was done using wrong parameters and premises. Nigeria own the basic raw materials for making petrol and petroleum products - Crude oil. 450,000 BPD was set aside to take care of domestic requirements, which is not subject to international market price. Nigeria OPEC quota is about 2.2millionBPD, our current production is put at about 2millionBPD, so nothing stops us from removing the 450,000BPD for local consumption. The actual cost of the 450,000BPD will just be exploration, drilling and transportation cost, which should not be more that $20 per barrel. Since we are unable to refine, nothing stops the government from contracting the refining of the refineries abroad and transporting the crude to the refineries and transporting the refined products back into the country.


In the alternative, nothing stops the Federal Government from putting the refineries in order. It is we the masses that makes excuses for government that government cannot run refineries. If we come together and demand that the refineries must work, the refineries will work.





That is where i disagree with you, deregulation does not lead to efficiency in an inefficient market. Yes, refining margins are very small, that is why i insist that petroleum products should not be left at the hands of the private sector - whether refining or marketing. Availability of cheap fuel must be a fundermental government responsibility as it affects every facet of our lives. Shell, BP, Total, etc cannot and should never be interested in refining, their expertise and interests lies with exploration and exploitation of crude not just in Nigeria but the world over. They are satisfied with the huge margins they make in the 40% they make from all sales of Nigerian oil. If Dangote refinery is ready he can negotiate with NNPC on how much he will buy crude oil, but he must never be subjected to international price since the crude is obtained locally. Besides that should not affect the 450,000 BPD that is meant for the Nigerian people.

Fuel can be cheap, Fuel is very cheap in UAE and most of the Arab countries. Nigerians cannot afford to buy petrol at N220/litre. The cost of transportation of people and goods would sky rocket, most homes burn about 4 litres a day in their generators to get a few hours of electricity. Most businesses from telecommunications to manufacturing to banking depends on diesel. The inflation would be unbearable. The pressure on the Naira would be tremendrous. Devaluation of the Naira would make nonsense of the N220 in no time, as we buyimport our fuel in Dollars. All these while minimum wage will still remain at N18,000.

If you feel we should be paying N220/litre for petrol, how much do you think the minimum wage in Nigeria should be? And how much do you think the various governments can afford?



I do not know about NESCO, but Ikeja Distribution Company is horrible. The power situation is horrible and they still have horrible practices like the old NEPA, like high bills, non supply of meters, carrying of ladders up and down, etc.

Like i said earlier critical industries like power and education should not be left in the control of the private sector. It is even a threat to National Security.

450,000 for domestic consumption does not fall from the sky. You have to produce it. It cost 30 dollars per bbl to produce it. Depending on the oil price, you will likely lose 9 billion dollars a year. This is minus the so called subsidy. With an infrastructural decay that needs hundreds of billions to solve, you want to pay subsidy? You are in a country where the government expenditure per person to tax is the highest in the world and you want to still pay subsidy. Your economy (mass transit, banks and industries) runs with diesel not PMS.

What is the population of the UAE? You are 170 million boy. It is not affordable.

Your budget is a mere 4 trillion. Guess what the budget of New York City with 8.9 million people alone is 15 trillion. Your government is poor, it needs money from anywhere. Help it.

Help it create a level playing field to unlock new opportunities. If we show investors we can buy fuel at 200 to 250 naira a liter, you will see them come. We then will be talking about 200K direct jobs easy and another 5 million indirect jobs.

Your country is poor. You need to start paying 30% tax so your government can run your country.

Buhari will not pay a dime on PMS subsidy. Petrol will sell at 1.1 dollars per liter. Unless he wants to throw away 9 billion dollars (465000 bbl) another form of subsidy. You won't die. My grandma in the village buys petro at 210 per liter, food are transported via diesel, mass transit is via diesel, industry via diesel. Nothing will happen

shiftmarket:

Maybe I was not clear enough. I will rephrase. Grant licenses to companies that want to build refineries in Nigeria. One of the challenges I have heard is that until they are assured that they can sell their product at the prevailing market price they can not build refineries. So why not allow them build and give assurances that if they chose to sell to outside markets that they are free to.

Refineries do not have to be expensive. If u open up the market, 2 of us can come together and form an alliance and build a small capacity refinery as our power can carry and produce maybe 2 tankers a day and have a customer base of 2 or 3 petrol stations. Some other people do same while DPR monitors us strictly to ensure we comply with industry standard safety rules.

All those illegal refineries are already doing it. How do they do it. It can be remodelled and setup.properly

My dear it is what it is. Wishes are not horses. A cheap 60K capacit refinery will cost 3 billion dollars. Who do you think will invest 3 billion dollars in refinery with the playing field we have?

shiftmarket:


What stops Nigeria from selling only refined products or at least more refined product than crude. Let private individuals build refineries and start exporting the product. Is that also too hard?

It is hard. A refinery of 60000 barrel capacity will cost 3 billion dollars to build. It will cost more in Nigeria because of the cost of doing buisness in Nigeria is very high. Nigeria consumes 40 Million liters a day of PMS, we will need a 1.2 million bbl to satisfy our needs. Go figure. Have you looked at your income and budget? Where will the money come from? After completely satisfying our domestic consumption, then we can export.

wirinet:


You are being myopic in this your analysis, you are not looking at the bigger picture. This petroleum subsidy issue is mired in so much mystery and confusion that nothing definite can be known unless there is a forensic audit of NNPC and the whole process.
We need to know exactly how much fuel is consumed, how much it cost to buy from foreign refineries, how much it costs to ship to Nigeria, how much it costs to distribute to various depots and how much it cost to dispense in your cars.What are the costs of corruption and innefficiencies in the system, then we will be in a better position to debate whether we should retain subsidy or not.

This analysis has been done by so many Nigerians. It has been done by your neighbors, Ghana, Togo etc. It has been done by your felow African brothers like Kenya SA. The world bank too has done this shockingly. The Average Price (landing cost) of crude oil is +/- 1.1 dollars per liter. It can vary based on Transportation, grade of refine products and taxes.

wirinet:

Having said that, i am not a fan of deregulation in a critical sector like the petroleum sector. There is never deregulation in the real sense of the word in any country in the world, government always regulate to some extent all industries in order to prevent abuse, monopoly and to protect public interest. It is the degree of regulation we should be debating about. "Deregulation" is good in situations with efficient market economy with strong institutions, but had been proven to be disasterous in countries with inefficient or underdeveloped markets with very weak institutions. All you will produce is monopoly or Oligarchy and the masses being at the mercy of a few powerful cabals.

If you do not deregulate, you wont build efficiency in Nigeria. Refining margines are very small with the volatile oil market you have. Big players like Shell BP Total etc would not build refineries if you do not let you government hands off. When Dangote's refinery is ready he will sell to Ghana, Togo and the likes if your Govt does not hands off. Fuel is not cheap. it is 220 Naira per liter. Get use to it.

wirinet:

This is what we have in almost all sectors of the Nigerian economy that had undergone deregulation. This is why deregulated Diesel and aviation fuel will never be cheap and available. This is why DSTV, MTN, Etisalat, etc can charge the masses very high tarrifs with very poor services. This is why deregulated NEPA is worse than regulated NEPA. I can go on and on. Before Thatcher deregulated or privatized the British economy, she made sure that the public run enterprises were running optimally and efficiently and very efficient regulatory bodies were in place.

Sorry have to go now. will try and continue later.

Thats the good thing about deregulation.

MTN better than NITEL
DSTV better than NTA
NESCO better than NEPA.

If you choose to use NITEL because MTN service is not good, go ahead. If you choose to watch NTA, go ahead. If you choose to use NEPA instead of solar and inverter, or NESCO go ahead.

NESCO is an independent power company in Jos that supplies 24 hours light to its customer

shiftmarket:


Y u choose the option of insulting me in passing ur message beats me.

Sorry I said you talk too much. Sincere Apologies

shiftmarket:

If u have read all my dialogue with bara, I have always said corruption not subsidy removal is our (Nigerian) problem. Corruption shot up d value from 350billion in 1yr to 1.1T. It is those mysteries that must first be unravelled. Then we can decide and know the exact amount we are removing.

I will say it again. Corruption is one of the problems. Maybe the major problem, but it is not all the problem.

The best way to fight corruption is to totally remove what fuels the corruption. It is that simple. Also 100 billion, 350 billion, !1 Trillion, we do not have the money to pay for subsidy.

shiftmarket:

I supported deregulation in 1999, which to my mind is another name for subsidy removal but btw then and now no gained in the whole process. Simply frees up more money for politicians to steal. That is the issue Oga.

If you can trust them with 4 trillion annual budget, then trust them with 1, 2 300 billion. y dont you go collect the 4 trillion Naira because you dont trust them with it and put in your house. You want to waste 300 billion on petroleum subsidy and blame your government for infrastructural decay, No power, No light, external and internal debt, non payment of salary etc. You want your kids to be out of school, you want your wife to die in the hospital because you do not have good medicare, but you want to fuel your Gen in a leaking house? SMH

shiftmarket:

If subsidy removal is the only solution to scarcity why is diesel scarce to the extent that businesses were shutting down? Diesel is not subsidised and I believe u know that.

Subsidy removal has nothing to do with scarcity. PMS subsidy does not exist in 90 percent of the countries in the world, yet no scarcity. Why should it be scarce in Nigeria. No subsidy in Ghana, Niger, Togo, Benin, Kenya, SA, No scarcity. PMS is available worldwide if you want to have it at 1.1 dollars per liter. The only reason for Diesel scarcity is the fact that marketers refused to lift. If MTN refuses to give you service, Etisalat will. If OandO refuses to give you diesel, Capital Oil will. Deregulate the downstream sector is the only way. 3% of your budget goes to your National Assembly. Let them pass law and implement policies to guide against capitalism excess. Go and read about the meager between ATT and Tmobile.

ohzee:


I believe the reason that the price of diesel is high is because it is not lucrative to import it. The marketers simply ignore it and all rush for the beautiful bride called PMS because of the subsidy they will get from govt. This creates artificial relative scarcity of diesel and the price remains high.

Fantastic

Sibrah:
It all depends of the reputation of the government in charge. If issue of systemic corruption can be tackled by the sitting government then subsidy can go. That's to say If for example Buhari admin is ready to face the challenges of Diesel selling for same rate it sold for in 2012 Jan, when crude price was more than double it is now, then he can remove. If not removal of subsidy will only be a licence for the marketers to form a cabal and be the new government of fuel.

The price of crude oil is not directly proportional to the price of diesel. In other words if the price of crude oil is reduced by 40 percent, the price of diesel will only reduce by 5% or less The reason being diesel is a necessary by product from the very cherished PMS. It's prices are determined by refining margins amongst other factors. These margins are calculated from the composition of crude refined

The price of diesel has dropped in several countries but risen in others. From July 2013 to July 2014 (oil price peak), the retail price of diesel dropped by 3.6 percent in Germany. In Japan, prices increased by 9.7 percent during the same time. The United Kingdom had some of the highest prices for automotive diesel, reaching 1.93 U.S. dollars per liter in July 2014. Today in the UK, the price of diesel is 1.91 U.S. Dollars.

With all due respect do some reading and appreciate international commodity pricing. It's is not as simple as buying and selling tomatoes and pepper. The internet has a huge database base.

Sibrah:
If crude price is falling then why isn't diesel and kerosine reflecting this fall in price. Have at d back of ur mind that diesel is unregulated by our govt I.e zero subsidy.

Because the sector is not fully deregulated. The money these marketers get from PMS, they can afford to sell diesel to you at any price. You are lucky. If the sector is fully deregulated, you may buy diesel at 180 Naira per liter.

shiftmarket:


Am not sure I understand you but fact is the whole subsidy issue is shrouded in mysteries. Once the real position of things is known, Nigerians can now decide if they want subsidy or not.

Kindly explain why radio, TV stations, banks and telecoms are shutting down because of diesel. Or is diesel subsidised?

The subsidy issue is not shrouded in mystery. You have chosen to be ignorant. The average price of PMS around the world is about 1.1 dollars per liter. That's 220 Naira per liter. Poorer countries pay this. We produce 2.2 million barrels per day, rich countries like Russia US, China, India UK Brazil that produces up to 5 times more oil than we do pay this. Poorer countries like Haiti Angola Gabon also pay this. Even poorer and remote villages in Nigeria, burutu Nembe, mambila pay 200 plus for a liter. So what is the problem with it all gone? I'm 2012, sanusi and Iwealla with Allison went round TV stations explaining the steps to fully deregulate the downstream sector, no one listened. 65 Naira or nothing was the chant. I remember when Sanusi said the best way to put a fire out is to eliminate the source of the fire.

It was shame that GEJ and his ministers did not have the political tenacity to completely do way with this fire. Buhari seems to have it. He will remove it, fuel will sell at 180-220 per liter and there is nothing you will do.

shiftmarket:


OK. You have tried desperately to take us from the crust of our discuss. My first post says subsidy is not the issue in Nigeria at the moment, corruption is. I have said this at least 4 times.

Bringing the issue of government refineries vs private refineries is a different topic entirety. Pls stay on topic and teach ur students to do same.

Nigeria can no longer afford to pay subsidy on petroleum products full stop. Corruption or no corruption we do not have the money to pay. You have to let it sink in your head. We have an infrastructural decay that will take 200 billion dollars to fix, you have annual 'deficit' budget of less than 20 billion dollars of which 40 percent is used to fund lazy states and you want to continue to spend 25% of your the remaining budget to subsidize PMS?

Hope the apology below helps

You are the head of your house, and you have an annual budget of 100 naira. Rent in a dilapidated house is 20 Naira. School fees is 20 Naira. Transportation to work and school is 30 Naira. Fueling your generator is 30 Naira. Let say you want to start up a new business to increase your income and as such you need to save 20 Naira. You also need to move from your present apartment because the ceiling leaks water any time it rains, which will require you save an extra 10 Naira. You took a loan from the bank, and the monthly deduction is 10 Naira. You have relations that cannot run their family and they have come asking for money because the landlord is about to evict them from the house. In the middle of all these, Something happened and your annual budget is reduced to 50 Naira. Will you keep paying for fuel to light up your house while you cannot pay rent and your kids can not go to school?

Before you critic always put yourself in a leadership position and provide practical solution and stops the too much talk

Suleman Hasheem, the man trekking from Lagos to Abuja has received four separate royal receptions in Niger State. He arrived Bida five days ago and was treated to a royal reception by Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubukar. While there, he passed two nights before proceeding to the next town and soldiers had to be deployed to disperse a crowd of locals trooping in to catch a glimpse of the 33-year-old man.

Two years ago, Hasheem said, he made a promise to trek from Lagos to Abuja if Buhari wins the then-upcoming election, saying the purpose of terminating his journey in Abuja is where he thinks he could see the retired General and congratulate him. Hasheem, who grew up in Osun and Lagos, now lives in Ibadan where he is working with a construction company. He is currently in Suleja, Niger State, where he was also accorded a royal reception. Hasheem told Weekly Trust that his decision to embark on the mission was borne out of happiness he feels for General Muhammadu Buhari becoming a leader for the masses. He said in Bida four days ago that after 13 days of trekking, he had so far worn-out five pairs of shoes with a new pair just bought for him by a good Samaritan. He showed Weekly Trust the blisters on his feet, which made him pass two days in Bida, so as to treat himself.

Hasheem said before embarking on his mission, he ensured that he was financially equipped but to his amazement, up to the time he arrived Bida, he did not have to spend a single kobo from his pocket because of kind, generous receptions he has been receiving. More pictures below:


At the time of this report, Hasheem was said to still be in Suleja getting set for the final lap of his walk , en route Abuja.

1). Nigeria at the very minimum has played a role in helping to liberate nearly a 1/3rd of all countries on the continent. Nigeria has given more federal aid relief to other African countries than every single African nation put together.

2). Nigeria was the first person to go to South Africa's aid during apartheid, and acted as their biggest ally throughout their entire transition into a democratic state. They went far above and beyond than any other nation, and that is a fact. Learn your African history, please.

3). Nigeria not only granted South Africans tens of billions in aid, but sent an innumerable arsenal of military relief and supplies too. After apartheid ended Nigeria released several millions from her federal purse by offering Black South Africans to come school at the best Nigerian universities on full-ride scholarships.

4). Keep in mind education here is extremely competitive and expensive, but the government felt it to be more important promoting free degree attainment among indigenous South Africans at the expense of native Nigerians being denied merited admissions by their own country as a result.

5). Nigeria donated tens of millions to aid Zimbabwe's ANC ridding the country of an oppressive political party. It was called the South African Relief Fund (SARF), and it was entirely proposed and launched by the Nigerian government. In addition to to the donated millions, for many years we also included 2% of every Nigerian civil servant salary in this fund as well.

6). Nigeria gave $10 million to Zambia and supplied them with military hardware to stop Rhodesian raids in the country in support of their transition to national security.

7). Nigeria also sends the most Black soldiers on peacekeeping missions both inside and outside of Africa than other country in the world. We have never allowed a country's proximity to ours as a barometer for aiding or inaction. Despite the UN still shuffling their feet reimbursing us the tens of millions we've used in fighting the battles of other countries, Nigeria still continues deploying our soldiers to the foreign nations with little resources anyway.

cool. Nigeria spearheaded the creation of ECOMOG, the Economic Community of West African Peacekeeping, as an assured means of regional security. Despite ECOMOG being comprised of several member-states, Nigeria was the only country to contribute the monetary financing and armed forced for its maintenance.

9). Nigeria spent $7+ billion we of course will NEVER see again fighting Liberia's Civil War while every other West African country said they were "too poor". (Apparently too poor in resources to even offer a solution that was relative to their country too). Did the rest of Africa even know or care? Nigeria also housed Liberian refugees in urban cities during both the war and the war as well.

10). Nigerians died in Darfur trying to help stop genocide. Nigerians have died in Somalia tying to help stop terrorism. Nigerians have died in Sierra Leone fighting ethnic cleansing. Nigerians were dying in Mali keeping their government from being overturned by rebels, and many, many more we have advocated for with military assistance and financial support throughout Africa.

11). Under the Nigerian Technical Assistance Corp (TAC) program, we have sent our trained personnel everywhere from Ethiopia to Haiti, and still continue to do so. It is an international-volunteering service created by our government in the '80s to assist African & Diasporic countries in progressing their socioeconomic development.

12). The African Development Bank is comprised of three entities, one of which is the Nigerian Trust Fund. Nigeria is literally the only African country on the continent who can both receive and lend loans from the AfDB because we helped create and finance it to begin with, largely from our oil wealth to enrich everyone else. Nigeria still has the largest voting block in Africa, and it's because of this we've been able to give millions in developmental funding in Africa every single year since it's inception in the '70s.

13). Despite Nigeria's own problem with removing the food scarcity among her own citizens, we still have sent food aid we didn't even "have" to nations such as Zambia, Tanzania, and other African nations who have been caught in the wake of famine crisis and food shortages.

14). As long as Nigeria has been a commercial oil exporter we have always supplied our crude and natural gas to other African countries at a subsidized cost due to a principle of solidarity. Nigeria still continued to do so even after we found out that quite a few of you were illegally selling it back on the black market at near market rate. *side-eye*

15). Nigeria is a country that can't even provide electricity to all of her indigenes, and yet ironically we continue exporting liquified natural gas to generate the power-plants in other African countries while we routinely have their citizens snickering at the frequent outages seen in Nigeria. Yet if we started laughing at giving them pitch black hospitals we'd be wrong though...

16). Similarly, when Nigeria first saw the growing issue with Ebola they were the first country in the world to send aid by creating a multi-million ECOWAS Pool Fund for Ebola. Even when a Liberian "brought" ebola to Nigeria in the most horrendous, and malicious way imaginable, we still responded by sending planes full of hospital supplies and released an extra $1,000,000 in financial aid to Liberia in return.

17). Once Nigeria was declared Ebola free the country trained and sent 591 medical professionals to the three effected countries from the first volunteer group alone. This number is more than what the African Union was able to provide using every other country except Nigeria combined.

18). Nigeria gave $1,000,000 in aid each for the Hurricane Katrina & Haitian Earthquake tragedy. Nigerians in government had once forfeited one month's salary to help Guyana's civil service meet it's payroll. While people chastise Nigeria's overpaid political appointees, we have a long history of cutting percentages of their monthly salary to send as aid to Black countries both inside and outside of Africa in more immediate need.

19). Again, through Nigeria's Technical Assistance Corps (TAC), the country annually deploys thousands of trained medical staff to Caribbean & Pacific nations. There are many Nigerian volunteers working the health sectors in South America and in the West Indies as doctors and pharmacists, but also university professors and lawyers as well.

20). Nigerian political officials used their combined wealth to extend the legacies of Blacks by creating a scholarship program at Howard University for anyone majoring in African Studies. The idea was that future generations shouldn't have to take out large loans to get a degree on their own history, and to this day students are still able to apply for school grants by writing a simple essay.

1). Nigeria at the very minimum has played a role in helping to liberate nearly a 1/3rd of all countries on the continent. Nigeria has given more federal aid relief to other African countries than every single African nation put together.

2). Nigeria was the first person to go to South Africa's aid during apartheid, and acted as their biggest ally throughout their entire transition into a democratic state. They went far above and beyond than any other nation, and that is a fact. Learn your African history, please.

3). Nigeria not only granted South Africans tens of billions in aid, but sent an innumerable arsenal of military relief and supplies too. After apartheid ended Nigeria released several millions from her federal purse by offering Black South Africans to come school at the best Nigerian universities on full-ride scholarships.

4). Keep in mind education here is extremely competitive and expensive, but the government felt it to be more important promoting free degree attainment among indigenous South Africans at the expense of native Nigerians being denied merited admissions by their own country as a result.

5). Nigeria donated tens of millions to aid Zimbabwe's ANC ridding the country of an oppressive political party. It was called the South African Relief Fund (SARF), and it was entirely proposed and launched by the Nigerian government. In addition to to the donated millions, for many years we also included 2% of every Nigerian civil servant salary in this fund as well.

6). Nigeria gave $10 million to Zambia and supplied them with military hardware to stop Rhodesian raids in the country in support of their transition to national security.

7). Nigeria also sends the most Black soldiers on peacekeeping missions both inside and outside of Africa than other country in the world. We have never allowed a country's proximity to ours as a barometer for aiding or inaction. Despite the UN still shuffling their feet reimbursing us the tens of millions we've used in fighting the battles of other countries, Nigeria still continues deploying our soldiers to the foreign nations with little resources anyway.

cool. Nigeria spearheaded the creation of ECOMOG, the Economic Community of West African Peacekeeping, as an assured means of regional security. Despite ECOMOG being comprised of several member-states, Nigeria was the only country to contribute the monetary financing and armed forced for its maintenance.

9). Nigeria spent $7+ billion we of course will NEVER see again fighting Liberia's Civil War while every other West African country said they were "too poor". (Apparently too poor in resources to even offer a solution that was relative to their country too). Did the rest of Africa even know or care? Nigeria also housed Liberian refugees in urban cities during both the war and the war as well.

10). Nigerians died in Darfur trying to help stop genocide. Nigerians have died in Somalia tying to help stop terrorism. Nigerians have died in Sierra Leone fighting ethnic cleansing. Nigerians were dying in Mali keeping their government from being overturned by rebels, and many, many more we have advocated for with military assistance and financial support throughout Africa.

11). Under the Nigerian Technical Assistance Corp (TAC) program, we have sent our trained personnel everywhere from Ethiopia to Haiti, and still continue to do so. It is an international-volunteering service created by our government in the '80s to assist African & Diasporic countries in progressing their socioeconomic development.

12). The African Development Bank is comprised of three entities, one of which is the Nigerian Trust Fund. Nigeria is literally the only African country on the continent who can both receive and lend loans from the AfDB because we helped create and finance it to begin with, largely from our oil wealth to enrich everyone else. Nigeria still has the largest voting block in Africa, and it's because of this we've been able to give millions in developmental funding in Africa every single year since it's inception in the '70s.

13). Despite Nigeria's own problem with removing the food scarcity among her own citizens, we still have sent food aid we didn't even "have" to nations such as Zambia, Tanzania, and other African nations who have been caught in the wake of famine crisis and food shortages.

14). As long as Nigeria has been a commercial oil exporter we have always supplied our crude and natural gas to other African countries at a subsidized cost due to a principle of solidarity. Nigeria still continued to do so even after we found out that quite a few of you were illegally selling it back on the black market at near market rate. *side-eye*

15). Nigeria is a country that can't even provide electricity to all of her indigenes, and yet ironically we continue exporting liquified natural gas to generate the power-plants in other African countries while we routinely have their citizens snickering at the frequent outages seen in Nigeria. Yet if we started laughing at giving them pitch black hospitals we'd be wrong though...

16). Similarly, when Nigeria first saw the growing issue with Ebola they were the first country in the world to send aid by creating a multi-million ECOWAS Pool Fund for Ebola. Even when a Liberian "brought" ebola to Nigeria in the most horrendous, and malicious way imaginable, we still responded by sending planes full of hospital supplies and released an extra $1,000,000 in financial aid to Liberia in return.

17). Once Nigeria was declared Ebola free the country trained and sent 591 medical professionals to the three effected countries from the first volunteer group alone. This number is more than what the African Union was able to provide using every other country except Nigeria combined.

18). Nigeria gave $1,000,000 in aid each for the Hurricane Katrina & Haitian Earthquake tragedy. Nigerians in government had once forfeited one month's salary to help Guyana's civil service meet it's payroll. While people chastise Nigeria's overpaid political appointees, we have a long history of cutting percentages of their monthly salary to send as aid to Black countries both inside and outside of Africa in more immediate need.

19). Again, through Nigeria's Technical Assistance Corps (TAC), the country annually deploys thousands of trained medical staff to Caribbean & Pacific nations. There are many Nigerian volunteers working the health sectors in South America and in the West Indies as doctors and pharmacists, but also university professors and lawyers as well.

20). Nigerian political officials used their combined wealth to extend the legacies of Blacks by creating a scholarship program at Howard University for anyone majoring in African Studies. The idea was that future generations shouldn't have to take out large loans to get a degree on their own history, and to this day students are still able to apply for school grants by writing a simple essay.

1). Nigeria at the very minimum has played a role in helping to liberate nearly a 1/3rd of all countries on the continent. Nigeria has given more federal aid relief to other African countries than every single African nation put together.

2). Nigeria was the first person to go to South Africa's aid during apartheid, and acted as their biggest ally throughout their entire transition into a democratic state. They went far above and beyond than any other nation, and that is a fact. Learn your African history, please.

3). Nigeria not only granted South Africans tens of billions in aid, but sent an innumerable arsenal of military relief and supplies too. After apartheid ended Nigeria released several millions from her federal purse by offering Black South Africans to come school at the best Nigerian universities on full-ride scholarships.

4). Keep in mind education here is extremely competitive and expensive, but the government felt it to be more important promoting free degree attainment among indigenous South Africans at the expense of native Nigerians being denied merited admissions by their own country as a result.

5). Nigeria donated tens of millions to aid Zimbabwe's ANC ridding the country of an oppressive political party. It was called the South African Relief Fund (SARF), and it was entirely proposed and launched by the Nigerian government. In addition to to the donated millions, for many years we also included 2% of every Nigerian civil servant salary in this fund as well.

6). Nigeria gave $10 million to Zambia and supplied them with military hardware to stop Rhodesian raids in the country in support of their transition to national security.

7). Nigeria also sends the most Black soldiers on peacekeeping missions both inside and outside of Africa than other country in the world. We have never allowed a country's proximity to ours as a barometer for aiding or inaction. Despite the UN still shuffling their feet reimbursing us the tens of millions we've used in fighting the battles of other countries, Nigeria still continues deploying our soldiers to the foreign nations with little resources anyway.

cool. Nigeria spearheaded the creation of ECOMOG, the Economic Community of West African Peacekeeping, as an assured means of regional security. Despite ECOMOG being comprised of several member-states, Nigeria was the only country to contribute the monetary financing and armed forced for its maintenance.

9). Nigeria spent $7+ billion we of course will NEVER see again fighting Liberia's Civil War while every other West African country said they were "too poor". (Apparently too poor in resources to even offer a solution that was relative to their country too). Did the rest of Africa even know or care? Nigeria also housed Liberian refugees in urban cities during both the war and the war as well.

10). Nigerians died in Darfur trying to help stop genocide. Nigerians have died in Somalia tying to help stop terrorism. Nigerians have died in Sierra Leone fighting ethnic cleansing. Nigerians were dying in Mali keeping their government from being overturned by rebels, and many, many more we have advocated for with military assistance and financial support throughout Africa.

11). Under the Nigerian Technical Assistance Corp (TAC) program, we have sent our trained personnel everywhere from Ethiopia to Haiti, and still continue to do so. It is an international-volunteering service created by our government in the '80s to assist African & Diasporic countries in progressing their socioeconomic development.

12). The African Development Bank is comprised of three entities, one of which is the Nigerian Trust Fund. Nigeria is literally the only African country on the continent who can both receive and lend loans from the AfDB because we helped create and finance it to begin with, largely from our oil wealth to enrich everyone else. Nigeria still has the largest voting block in Africa, and it's because of this we've been able to give millions in developmental funding in Africa every single year since it's inception in the '70s.

13). Despite Nigeria's own problem with removing the food scarcity among her own citizens, we still have sent food aid we didn't even "have" to nations such as Zambia, Tanzania, and other African nations who have been caught in the wake of famine crisis and food shortages.

14). As long as Nigeria has been a commercial oil exporter we have always supplied our crude and natural gas to other African countries at a subsidized cost due to a principle of solidarity. Nigeria still continued to do so even after we found out that quite a few of you were illegally selling it back on the black market at near market rate. *side-eye*

15). Nigeria is a country that can't even provide electricity to all of her indigenes, and yet ironically we continue exporting liquified natural gas to generate the power-plants in other African countries while we routinely have their citizens snickering at the frequent outages seen in Nigeria. Yet if we started laughing at giving them pitch black hospitals we'd be wrong though...

16). Similarly, when Nigeria first saw the growing issue with Ebola they were the first country in the world to send aid by creating a multi-million ECOWAS Pool Fund for Ebola. Even when a Liberian "brought" ebola to Nigeria in the most horrendous, and malicious way imaginable, we still responded by sending planes full of hospital supplies and released an extra $1,000,000 in financial aid to Liberia in return.

17). Once Nigeria was declared Ebola free the country trained and sent 591 medical professionals to the three effected countries from the first volunteer group alone. This number is more than what the African Union was able to provide using every other country except Nigeria combined.

18). Nigeria gave $1,000,000 in aid each for the Hurricane Katrina & Haitian Earthquake tragedy. Nigerians in government had once forfeited one month's salary to help Guyana's civil service meet it's payroll. While people chastise Nigeria's overpaid political appointees, we have a long history of cutting percentages of their monthly salary to send as aid to Black countries both inside and outside of Africa in more immediate need.

19). Again, through Nigeria's Technical Assistance Corps (TAC), the country annually deploys thousands of trained medical staff to Caribbean & Pacific nations. There are many Nigerian volunteers working the health sectors in South America and in the West Indies as doctors and pharmacists, but also university professors and lawyers as well.

20). Nigerian political officials used their combined wealth to extend the legacies of Blacks by creating a scholarship program at Howard University for anyone majoring in African Studies. The idea was that future generations shouldn't have to take out large loans to get a degree on their own history, and to this day students are still able to apply for school grants by writing a simple essay.

1). Nigeria at the very minimum has played a role in helping to liberate nearly a 1/3rd of all countries on the continent. Nigeria has given more federal aid relief to other African countries than every single African nation put together.

2). Nigeria was the first person to go to South Africa's aid during apartheid, and acted as their biggest ally throughout their entire transition into a democratic state. They went far above and beyond than any other nation, and that is a fact. Learn your African history, please.

3). Nigeria not only granted South Africans tens of billions in aid, but sent an innumerable arsenal of military relief and supplies too. After apartheid ended Nigeria released several millions from her federal purse by offering Black South Africans to come school at the best Nigerian universities on full-ride scholarships.

4). Keep in mind education here is extremely competitive and expensive, but the government felt it to be more important promoting free degree attainment among indigenous South Africans at the expense of native Nigerians being denied merited admissions by their own country as a result.

5). Nigeria donated tens of millions to aid Zimbabwe's ANC ridding the country of an oppressive political party. It was called the South African Relief Fund (SARF), and it was entirely proposed and launched by the Nigerian government. In addition to to the donated millions, for many years we also included 2% of every Nigerian civil servant salary in this fund as well.

6). Nigeria gave $10 million to Zambia and supplied them with military hardware to stop Rhodesian raids in the country in support of their transition to national security.

7). Nigeria also sends the most Black soldiers on peacekeeping missions both inside and outside of Africa than other country in the world. We have never allowed a country's proximity to ours as a barometer for aiding or inaction. Despite the UN still shuffling their feet reimbursing us the tens of millions we've used in fighting the battles of other countries, Nigeria still continues deploying our soldiers to the foreign nations with little resources anyway.

. Nigeria spearheaded the creation of ECOMOG, the Economic Community of West African Peacekeeping, as an assured means of regional security. Despite ECOMOG being comprised of several member-states, Nigeria was the only country to contribute the monetary financing and armed forced for its maintenance.

9). Nigeria spent $7+ billion we of course will NEVER see again fighting Liberia's Civil War while every other West African country said they were "too poor". (Apparently too poor in resources to even offer a solution that was relative to their country too). Did the rest of Africa even know or care? Nigeria also housed Liberian refugees in urban cities during both the war and the war as well.

10). Nigerians died in Darfur trying to help stop genocide. Nigerians have died in Somalia tying to help stop terrorism. Nigerians have died in Sierra Leone fighting ethnic cleansing. Nigerians were dying in Mali keeping their government from being overturned by rebels, and many, many more we have advocated for with military assistance and financial support throughout Africa.

11). Under the Nigerian Technical Assistance Corp (TAC) program, we have sent our trained personnel everywhere from Ethiopia to Haiti, and still continue to do so. It is an international-volunteering service created by our government in the '80s to assist African & Diasporic countries in progressing their socioeconomic development.

12). The African Development Bank is comprised of three entities, one of which is the Nigerian Trust Fund. Nigeria is literally the only African country on the continent who can both receive and lend loans from the AfDB because we helped create and finance it to begin with, largely from our oil wealth to enrich everyone else. Nigeria still has the largest voting block in Africa, and it's because of this we've been able to give millions in developmental funding in Africa every single year since it's inception in the '70s.

13). Despite Nigeria's own problem with removing the food scarcity among her own citizens, we still have sent food aid we didn't even "have" to nations such as Zambia, Tanzania, and other African nations who have been caught in the wake of famine crisis and food shortages.

14). As long as Nigeria has been a commercial oil exporter we have always supplied our crude and natural gas to other African countries at a subsidized cost due to a principle of solidarity. Nigeria still continued to do so even after we found out that quite a few of you were illegally selling it back on the black market at near market rate. *side-eye*

15). Nigeria is a country that can't even provide electricity to all of her indigenes, and yet ironically we continue exporting liquified natural gas to generate the power-plants in other African countries while we routinely have their citizens snickering at the frequent outages seen in Nigeria. Yet if we started laughing at giving them pitch black hospitals we'd be wrong though...

16). Similarly, when Nigeria first saw the growing issue with Ebola they were the first country in the world to send aid by creating a multi-million ECOWAS Pool Fund for Ebola. Even when a Liberian "brought" ebola to Nigeria in the most horrendous, and malicious way imaginable, we still responded by sending planes full of hospital supplies and released an extra $1,000,000 in financial aid to Liberia in return.

17). Once Nigeria was declared Ebola free the country trained and sent 591 medical professionals to the three effected countries from the first volunteer group alone. This number is more than what the African Union was able to provide using every other country except Nigeria combined.

18). Nigeria gave $1,000,000 in aid each for the Hurricane Katrina & Haitian Earthquake tragedy. Nigerians in government had once forfeited one month's salary to help Guyana's civil service meet it's payroll. While people chastise Nigeria's overpaid political appointees, we have a long history of cutting percentages of their monthly salary to send as aid to Black countries both inside and outside of Africa in more immediate need.

19). Again, through Nigeria's Technical Assistance Corps (TAC), the country annually deploys thousands of trained medical staff to Caribbean & Pacific nations. There are many Nigerian volunteers working the health sectors in South America and in the West Indies as doctors and pharmacists, but also university professors and lawyers as well.

20). Nigerian political officials used their combined wealth to extend the legacies of Blacks by creating a scholarship program at Howard University for anyone majoring in African Studies. The idea was that future generations shouldn't have to take out large loans to get a degree on their own history, and to this day students are still able to apply for school grants by writing a simple essay.


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It's called a campaign for a reason which includes getting to know your potential voters and the common citizens on a very personal level. That is what true leaders do - they don't place themselves above their followers but rather on the sane platform in order to get to know then and understand their lives.

lilflipnerd:
Go n pick ur own best.

Okay

lilflipnerd:
UK is not nigeria's mate... We are Undeveloped Country.... UK is Developed Country.. Forget The Past Electorates and Try n Compare and Contrast the Present ones without sentiments who is the best

Who are the present electorates? And who is best.

chamboy:
The problem with us is we don't know the functions of a president. Go check js roadmap while in CPC. And below are the Major Functions of A President

If this is only want you want for a president, I am sorry I am not interested. What you stated is a figure head. It works in a system that is on auto run. If a goat is a PM of the UK, things will work. Nigeria is not the same. We are in a total state of anarchy. I need an intelligent president who can systematically dissect our problems and solve them. No more vague talk, no more guessing and hoping. We need the details. How are you going to solve our problems. What's exactly is to be done.

In the 80s, Buhari was the elite, GEJ was the masses, stack poor. Today, the stack poor is president and helpless with no clear directions and the elite claims he can change things without any clear mission statement?

My brother, no more sentiments, we voted OBJ out of sentiment, nothing happened, we voted GEJ out of sentiment, nothing happened, and now you want me to vote Buhari out of sentiment? You have to try harder

chamboy:
Thnk U sir, Am taking that step to Change by Voting Buhari, Buhari would serve as a Benchmark to Promising Honest People...

Is Buhari your best bet? What will he change? What are his qualities. How creative is he? Is he full of ideas? Is he a sure bet? Have you read his mission statement? If yes, what are the details? Don't we have better people in his party?

chamboy:
am highly disappointed in U Sir, how would Jonathan b less corrupt. I hate dis

I am so sorry to disappoint you sir

kenrish2:
for now there is no solution for Nigeria, becos all d Presidential candidates are all corrupt, so I advise all my fellow Nigerians to hang on in this trying tyms, look 4 a good way to help yourself live above poverty your future and success is in your hands, looking at the mentality of those in government u know DAT all they think about is their immediate family an to enrich themselves.

remember to stay safe so u don't fall Vitim of boko haram or ritualist becos tins are really getn nasty out here

That's the mentality our leaders have too. Jonathan, I bet you is probably better and less corrupt than most of us. The system just can't make him function. We need someone who can outsmart the system and deliver.

Nigeria is 62 on that list with just 32 Billion USD


http://www.photius.com/rankings/economy/budget_expenditures_2012_0.html

So true

1. I have alway wondered why we are still so tribalistic in Nigeria. I understand why PDP for example will put GEJ as a preferred candidate, he is incumbent. And in most places in the world, the parties think selling an incumbent president is as easy as ABC, performance or not. What I don't get is why the citizens have to vote for the said incumbent without satisfaction of his performance?

2. I also do not understand the reason why the opposition who keeps telling us that the incumbent is tribalistic have to also go tribalistic with their preferred choice of candidate giving current reality. NL'ders please answer

3. Everybody knows that the problem with Nigeria is too complex, that sitting with a third eye in our bedrooms, in the beer joint, in the office etc we can't even proffer workable solutions. It is difficult to fartom how this problems can be solved. I challenge N'lander to post solution to all our problems bit by bit instead of posting insults and complains.

4. In this light, we can all agree that we need extraordinary leaders to solve our problems. To vote properly as citizens, we need to hear people with extraordinary plans that are workable. We need to ask our leaders or leaders to be how they are going to solve our issues, from Power to corruption to bad roads etc. We do not want to hear the cliche that I will stop corruption. The deal here is how will you stop corruption, how will you diversify our economy. What are the details?

5. Brazil with almost the same population as Nigeria has a budget of 980 billion Dollars, guess what's Nigerian budget, more than 10 times less. Which leader will harness effectively harness our potential? Even if we stop the looting of the money we currently have, we would still be in a mess. We need to create more products in this country. We need to start thinking outside the box

6. We are in a conundrum. I say this because 70 percent of the people that will vote do not understand this problems. Bag of rice and clean stove is enough to sway their votes. Another 15 percent understand, but are to blinded by emotions. Tribal and/or religious sentiments. The remaining 15 percent would not be bothered and not vote. So who will move us forward? Again, it only has to be an extraordinary leader devoid of tribal sentiment, that will first of all educate the 70% such that they can understand current reality, eliminate all forms of -isms tribal, racial, sexism, and so on.

7. We have to succeed. We alone have to bring ourselves up. The West and the East naturally do not want us to succeed. They will naturally want to keep us perpetually poor , so we continue to be at their mercy. Japan broke loose along time ago. China just broke loose, Brazil is breaking loose. What are we waiting for? Old and senile leaders? Vision less leaders.

9. My dear youth our issues are systematic. lets us debate systematic solutions to our problem. Let's us look for leaders that can deliver. Our destiny is in our hands

10. From all this, I would love all of you to post your preferred president of this country Nigeria devoid of tribal and religious sentiments. Moderators, please support threads of N'landers that proffer solutions to the issues facing our dear country and not only Mr Nairaland or Miss Nairaland.