₦airaland Forum

My question is, why does he have to say that africa is a jungle? 

Sun, 09 Oct 10:07:00 2011


A little more than a year after hosting a successful World Cup, South Africa woke up with a giant hangover after a failure to understand the rules saw them miss out on qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Coach Pitso Mosimane admitted he had changed tactics and played for a draw in Saturday's final qualifier at home to Sierra Leone, thinking it was enough to win the group and qualify for the 2012 finals.

However, South Africa actually needed a win to avoid being eliminated on head-to-head results between the three teams tied at the top of the table, but no one appeared to have studied the regulations correctly.

Despite playing out the draw, they were pipped by outsiders Niger, who qualified for the first time.

More embarrassingly, the Bafana Bafana celebrated their supposed qualification at the end of the scoreless stalemate in Nelspruit (pictured), thinking they had done enough to advance to next year's finals co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

"It's very sad for South Africa because the country deserves to be in next year's Nations Cup. I feel like I have failed," Mosimane told reporters.

The coach, who took over after the World Cup, was under the impression that goal difference was the determining factor to decide the group winners and when he was told that leaders Niger were losing in Egypt, he changed tactics and settle for a draw.

Niger had led South Africa by a point going into the final round of qualifiers on Saturday.

"Do you think I would have left (striker Lehlohonolo) Majoro on the bench and put on a midfielder if I knew that we needed a goal? It doesn't make sense," Mosimane said, before criticising the regulations.

"Africa is a jungle, my friend," Mosimane added. "The European and South American formats are so much better because everything is running smoothly, but it's very difficult to play in Africa".

However, Mosimane was not the only one to fall foul of a misreading of the rules.

The state-run African Broadcasting Corporation proclaimed qualification and the South African Football Association president Kirsten Nematandani even went on television to congratulate the team.

Reuters

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/09102011/58/world-football-blundering-south-africa-miss-africa-cup-nations.html

aurenflani:
To ICEZ - the brig gen is in that position b?cos you couldn't get the biafran job done - it was taken away from you hence you have to live to see many umaru's like him and could not do anything about it. slowpoke.

God punish you and your generations yet unborn. Bloody dog.

Abagworo:
I think the Plateau State Governor should be tried in court for the deaths of thousand of Christians and Muslims.I can remember when he arranged for the killing of Hausas during the Jos North election how some tribalists on Nairaland were praising him for forcefully declaring a loser victorious and massacre of Moslems.I said it that there shall never be peace in Jos again.The only way there will be peace is if the Governor is brought to book.Obasanjo sacked Dariye because of this same mistake and was able to control it for the rest of his tenure.

.


Please do not speak on what you do not know.

That is how they always lie to justify their killings.
why is Brigadier General Hassan Umaru in that position?

[/b]

Onyocha:
[b][size=18pt]Christian Youths In Jos Kill Several Muslims During Eid Prayers[/size]

JOS, Nigeria | Mon Aug 29, 2011 7:22pm EDT

(Reuters) - Gangs of armed youths in the volatile Nigerian city of Jos attacked Muslims as they gathered to celebrate the last day of Ramadan on Monday, killing a number of them and burning their cars, witnesses and the military said.

The city, which lies between the country's mostly Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south, has been a flash point for ethnic and sectarian tensions between the two faiths.

If the violence worsens or triggers reprisals, it may prove another major headache for President Goodluck Jonathan, whose security forces are already stretched by daily attacks from an Islamist sect in the northeast, which also claimed Friday's deadly bomb attack on the U.N. offices in Abuja that killed 23.

"The Muslim faithful went for their Eid prayers and on completion of the prayers they were trapped by the youths in that area," [/b]Brigadier General Hassan Umaru,[b] commander of the military Special Task Force keeping security in Jos, told Reuters by telephone.

"They burned some cars, quite a number a of cars. The number of people killed, I can't give that yet. We are still checking with local hospital sources," he added. He said there had been several deaths.

Witnesses said Christian youths set up road blocks and attacked Muslims as they gathered in Jos's Gada Biu and Rukuba areas, shooting a number of them dead.

[/b]A Reuters witness saw several bodies.[b] At least one was charred after being set alight.

Umaru said the youths had since been "pacified."

Nigeria has a roughly equal Christian-Muslim mix.

More than 200 ethnic groups live side by side in the West African country. Though generally peaceful, Nigeria has seen periodic bouts of religious violence, with Jos in particular showing a tendency to flare up.

At least 80 people were killed in bombings there last December 24 and clashes between Muslim and Christian youths.

[/b](Reporting by Bello Buhari;[b] Writing and additional reporting by Tim Cocks; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/29/us-nigeria-violence-jos-idUSTRE77S6Q520110829

WHY DO PEOPLE HAVE TO LIE.

umechuma:
A newly-released Wikileaks cable has identified a training camp lead by religious extremists in Kano state, where Farouk Abdulmutallab, known as the “underwear bomber,” who unsuccessfully plotted to take down Northwest Airlines from Amsterdam to Detroit, may have received training.

The names of the alleged camp directors - Yakubu I. Kano, Ibrahim Maigari Ahmadu, and Gambo Othman (aka Dawoud) -- were included in a text message sent to U.S. embassy staff by cell phone by [/b]Mahmood Halilu Chiroma, a reputed brother-in-law of Gen. Buhari.[b]

Halilu Chiroma’s text message was sent two days after the attempted aircraft bombing in Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas Day two years ago.

The text message revealed how extremism was being nurtured by the group in Kaduna, and said the trio hid their operations under the guise of a women’s charity group called “Al ihsan summer Madarasa,” which targeted children of the elite who studied outside Kaduna.

When such students returned to their privileged GRA homes in Kaduna on holidays, “they organize them and hypnotize the brilliant ones by teaching them Islamic extremism,” the writer of the cable said.
The fundamentalist group even targeted the daughter of General Buhari for indoctrination into their views. The cable writer noted: “They attempted Gen. Buharis daughter but we kept it secret and we organized and tackle then, but they are after her to date," the message said.

The text writer also referred to a web chat room called Nigerian Muslim Network [/b]in which Abdulmuttalab was revealed to have burning desire for General Buhari’s daughter.[b]

With reference to Abdulmuttalab’s background, the writer said he was “groomed” by Yakubu Kano, Maigari and Sheik Gumi.

It was further noted in the cell phone message Abdulmuttalab’s extremist tendencies started early, observing that “he left a mark” in his British School in Lome (BSL), in Togo. For further information about that, he the writer gave the name of Mr. Ian Sayer, the school principal whom he said was in the United Kingdom. It is unclear if Mr. Sayer had retired at that point, or was merely on vacation in the UK.

The principal target of the fundamentalists was Dr Mahmood Tukur. According to the text, [/b]they managed to turn his daughter against him and she later married Ibrahim Maigari Ahmadu.[b]
http://saharareporters.com/news-page/wikileaks-cable-shocker-underwear-bomber-umar-farouk-abdulmutallab-was-obsessed-gen-buhari

Na Wa.

run far away!!!! do not say you were not told.

@OP

 no!no!no!no!no!no!no!no!

Please in the name of God, do not allow him go there.  

why should anyone want to kill this young man.

russellino:
After reviewing recent developments in the country, Abubakar said the Boko Haram sect was not responsible for the cases of bombings and violence in some states in the North, adding that the controversial Islamic banking is a fait accompli.[/b]At a pre-Ramadan meeting in Kaduna yesterday, Abubakar, who doubles as President of NSCIA and the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), said the forum would discuss issues affecting the Muslim Ummah (community) in particular and most especially the unity of the faithful in the country.

Sultan said: “Islam is a religion of peace,” but regretted that [b]non-Muslims do not want peace to reign in the country

@bolded -  

1. He is trying to affirm that BH are not responsible, then who is, since he knows and

2. he is blaming non-muslims for the lack of peace in the land.


I think this represents a major line in the sand. May God grant GEJ wisdom

But when he started his column in Thisday (about the yardua years), i thought he was out to tell the truth and nothing but the truth

Ivynwa:
I had lots of respect for Yar adua and was touched when he passed away but these bits of info are confirming that his family made a fool of Nigerians, for all we know he might have died out of the country etc
Kudos to the courageous persons that arose and saw that the law of the land was enforced. Right now I have no atom of respect left for them and their we-gotta-rule-forever friends and sycophants.

I said the same thing.

Power Sector: Yar'Adua, Obasanjo and I
21 Jul 2011
By Foluseke Somolu

I write with regards to the column by Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi titled ‘Yar’Adua, Obasanjo and Power Sector’ which appeared on the back page of the 7th July 2011. [b]Segun mentioned that one major problem the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had was that his predecessor, President Olusegun Obasanjo did not give him a hand-over note, especially as concerned the power sector. While I confess that I do not know what form handover notes from one president to another takes (or should take) I am aware, however, that in the period between his election and the actual swearing in date, all government departments, ministries, parastatals, etc. made presentations to President-elect Yar’ Adua on their activities, structure, on-going projects, funding, what problems there were, etc. In addition to the presentation, they also submitted written reports, with then President Obasanjo in attendance and directing affairs. Questions were asked and clarifications made as necessary. I am not sure Segun had assumed duties at this time. Furthermore, shortly after resuming as President, apart from the presentation to him by Engr. Makoju, I, as coordinator of NIPP, also gave the new President a presentation on the NIPP. So I am convinced Yar’Adua had enough opportunities to get as much information about the sector as he would want, and to further continue to seek clarification as he needed.[/b]

President Yar’adua’s confusion as to the role of GE, as reported by Segun, did not need arise at all. NIPP consisted of contracts with companies in their areas of strength and comparative advantage. GE builds and sell generators and gas turbines and they were contracted to supply all the generators and gas turbines for the NIPP. They also had contracts to supply technical support for installation and commissioning to the respective Engineering-Procurement-and-Construction (EPC) contractors for all the power stations under the NIPP as well as the long-term service on the units.

Segun also gives the impression of apparent total confusion in the concept and implementation of the NIPP project, mentioning the non-availability of gas pipelines and gas, inadequacy of road bridges, etc. as examples. This is not the case. All these challenges mentioned are routine in power projects and are routinely overcome. In the case of NIPP, where gas pipelines and/or additional gas were required were identified before hand and contracts were awarded (or in the process of being awarded) for the pipelines when Yar’Adua got in charge. Negotiations were also held with NNPC and the oil companies and assurances were given that there would be gas when the power stations would be ready. Slips do occur when two parastatals are cooperating on a project. For example, Egbin power station was commissioned in 1986/87 almost two years before the gas pipeline from Utorogu to Lagos was completed. Something like this almost happened too when Olorunsogo (a.k.a Papalanto) was commissioned because the gas pipeline installation was still in progress, but NNPC were able to deliver gas from their pipeline feeding WAPCO’s cement plant at Ewekoro. And that arrangement remained in place for quite some months after that. The suggestion by Segun that a tanker was used to deliver LPG for the commissioning is preposterous. A typical NEPA gas turbine consumes an average of between ten and twenty-five million standard cubic feet of natural gas per day at a pressure well above fifteen bars. Use of tankers could not meet up with this rate of consumption and delivery pressure.

As for the inadequacy of some bridges to support the weight of turbine generators crossing over them and ferrying by barge having to be resorted to, again this is not such a strange situation and it is a problem that is being solved every time a power station has been built inland in Nigeria, beginning from Kainji (1968) through Shiroro, and Jebba (early 1980’s), Geregu (2006), etc. when railway was used where available, and some sections of road had to be improved and bridges reinforced to allow road transportation. Hard and fast provisions were not made in the NIPP contracts because the condition of roads and bridges change all the time and roads and bridges that may be okay or nearly so may deteriorate drastically between tender submission and contract award and implementation. Contractors are therefore usually wary about making firm commitments on such details. The provisional sums to meet such incidental expenses as these would entail were included in the contingencies sum in the funds approved for the NIPP project management which unfortunately was not released to the project team by the time the generators started arriving because of Yar’Adua’s hesitancy.

True, the gas turbines arrived well ahead of the site works completion. This was because there was a huge worldwide demand for gas turbines at the time the contracts were awarded and all reputable manufacturers all over the world had very long queues and tight delivery schedules. GE had a window in their manufacturing programmes at that time, and it was either we took advantage of it or be prepared to wait years to be served. If the disruptions of the Yar’Adua era did not take place, the units would have been delivered to respective sites where GE had contractual obligation for regular inspection and preservation pending their installation and commissioning instead of being left at the ports.

The controversy over how much had actually been expended on the NIPP did not need arise at all. Yar’Adua had access to all the people who would have given him the true picture if he would believe them. He should have known that telling the world (and Nigerians) that $10 billion had been expended on power projects and “there was nothing to show for it” would raise the type of reaction he got. There is a huge difference between $10 billion and $5 billion. And if the functional available generating capacity in the country was raised from about 1500MW (15 available generating units) in 2000 to 4000MW (36 available generating units) with constant daily generation above 3000MW from end of 2001 even right up to 2007 when Yar’Adua came, and contracts were in place and being implemented to raise that capacity to about 8000MW with corresponding reinforcement of the transmission and distribution networks to all states of the country under the NIPP, the $5 billion was more than justified. I find it difficult to see how all these could be swept off as amounting to “nothing to show for the expenditure that had been committed”. And this is more so when the bulk of the $2.2 billion for NIPP was in letters-of-credit opened by the CBN and still then largely not yet drawn down.

[/b]Segun claimed that “while Somolu was correct (in his assertion that only $5.1 billion had been spent) so was Yar’Adua who was talking about the general expenditure (a figure that turned out to be more than $10 billion)”. Now what is “general expenditure”? At my “trial” in the president’s office, after Yar’Adua had raised the poser “exactly how much was really spent?” and the Accountant General of the Federation, DanKwabo (current Governor of Gombe State) had given figures identical to mine,[b] the president appeared rattled before other people present – Minister of Finance, Permanent Secretary (Power), and some others – supplied the rest of the so-called general expenditure. These, according to them, included the amount spent by the oil companies on their joint-venture IPP’s (put at “not less than $2 billion”); the budgetary allocation to Energy Commission of Nigeria (put at “some millions of dollars”); and NEPA’s internally generated revenue (put at “not less than $6 billion). I was amused and angry at the same time. Angry that Yar’Adua was only trying to find out exactly how much had been spent after he had been making his explosive public statement, and amused that he believed those who came to his aid by supplying what were unsubstantiated and unaudited, and irrelevant (in the circumstances) expenditure figures. I wonder why they had not also included all the money Nigerians spend to acquire and run standby generators as part of the “general expenditure on power”.

I negotiated the power purchase agreement for Agip’s Okpai NIPP, the only joint venture IPP then actualized and in operation and knew the cost of their installation was about $500 - $600 million, and NNPC’s share of this cost (which at that time had not been paid) would only be about half of this figure, very far from $2 billion. Including the Energy Commission of Nigeria’s expenses was nonsensical and deliberate falsehood to say the least. The Commission is a research institute and had nothing to do directly with the power sector. Also just as ridiculous was the mention of NEPA’s internally generated revenue in the period which is normally spent to pay staff salaries and other emolument (pension, medicare), offices rental all over the country for marketing units and fault reporting centres, operation-vehicles acquisition and running costs, gas purchases and general maintenance of the system, etc. These expenditures would still have had to be met whether there were new facilities built or not. They are fixed overheads. It is like someone complaining that his under-sized generator cannot carry his house-load despite that he spends so much on maintenance and diesel. Until he buys a bigger generator or additional one, all of his house-load will still remain unserved.

Segun then added that Somolu intervened in a manner that created the impression Yar’ Adua had accused his predecessor of corruption in handling the NIPP. This is not true at all. [/b]First I did not make a public statement. I only wrote to the Chief Economic Adviser, Mr Tanimu Yakubu,[b] who had made a presentation when GE visited Yar’Adua that $10 billion had been spent in the power sector and there was nothing to show for it (similar to what Yar’Adua himself said) to tell him the records available to me did not support such assertion, and I supplied a list of all contracts awarded in the power sector by NEPA and the Presidency on NIPP which totaled $5.16 billion. [/b]THISDAY newspaper carried my letter verbatim after I was fired by Yar’ Adua (I don’t know their source) on 19th February 2008, and it is clear what I said or what impression I created by my memo.[b]

[b][/b]As for me making an apology for my letter, I did not make any. After all the people at my “trial” had supplied all their spurious figures of “general expenditure in the power sector” showing that the expenditure was “more than the $5.16 billion I had quoted, Yar’Adua then asked what I had to say, I told him I did not see the need for this meeting and that all I would have expected was a reply to my memo pointing out what other expenditures I might not have known about so we could examine their veracity. After all Tanimu and I were colleagues in the Presidency. This made all the people burst out with shouts of “hear what he is saying instead of apologizing”. But I stood my ground since I did not see what there was to apologize about and kept repeating my statement till the President then said the meeting was over and everybody dispersed. Yes I stayed behind to tell the president that it was unfortunate he felt embarrassed about the whole controversy but I assured him my memo could not have been the cause of any press controversy since it was an internal memo. Beyond that I offered no apology for my position. I could not have. There was nothing to apologize for. I knew I was right. The Accountant-General of the Federation confirmed I was right. Even Segun in his column said that much. Why then would I be apologizing?[b][/b]

• Engr. Somolu, former Senior Special Assistant to Presidents Obasanjo and Yar’Adua on Power Sector Reform, and Coordinator of NIPP, wrote in from Lagos

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/power-sector-yaradua-obasanjo-and-i/95416/

If this is true, then i am dissappointed in Yar'adua. I always thought that he was a good guy.

ZE:
nothing will happen to the man. 90% of our problems in this country is fear.
when Rotimi Amechi stood his ground against the criminals who were making life unbearable in Rivers and other ND ststes what happened at last ?

They are asking for an islamic state. What happened in Rivers state is different.

Concept:
The Governor is sincere but that might change his lifetime to borrowed time, Shame to the Elders who are supporting the killing of innocent citizens. We need leaders that can die for what they believe not the compromising ones that are in the Government Houses and House of Assemblies.

the words in bold.

i just hope that he is being sincere.

redsun:
Brave!!That is what leadership is all about,you got to fight it out,it either you live rationally or you die

word.

I am sure the guy has said his last prayers.

This guy is brave.

By Chinedu Eze, Martha Eigbofeh and Michael Olugbode
17 Jul 2011


Borno State governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima Saturday called for the continued presence of the military in his state which is under the siege of terrorist attacks from Boko Haram.
He disagreed with the Borno Elders Forum and leaders of thought, comprising influential indigenes of the state, that the continued presence of soldiers on the streets of Borno has worsened the security situation in the state.
Rather, he said soldiers withdrawal would increase insecurity in the state.
He spoke in a state broadcast on a day former Lagos State governor and leader of Action Congress of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, attributed government’s inability to rein in Boko Haram to weak leadership.
Shettima’s broadcast was meant to douse tension over the raging controversy on the continued stay of the military in the state that has pitted the elders against the Joint Task Force that is overseeing the military operation to rout the terrorists from the state.
The elders had led the campaign for the withdrawal of the military over allegations that it had engaged in extra-judicial killings and rape.
The military, however, has denied the allegations, accusing its critics of fronting for the terrorist group that has killed thousands since it began its campaign against Western education and civilisation.
Shettima expressed regrets that those calling for the removal of the troops from the streets of Maiduguri failed to offer a better alternative to tackle the insecurity situation.
He said, “With no intent to denigrate nor question the motives of eminent personalities agitating for the withdrawal of the JTF from the state, I regret to note that none has offered a tangible, yet sustainable, alternative to fill the security vacuum that will be created in the event of the withdrawal of the JTF.”
He said the military authorities had agreed to issue a code of conduct and rules of engagement to the troops to protect innocent citizens.
While expressing sadness over the situation in the once peaceful state, he said poverty, lack of infrastructure, a poor educational system, unemployment, especially among youths, inept leadership and hunger, had encouraged the growth of radical organisations such as the Boko Haram.
Shettima said the targeting of innocent and unarmed civilians, regardless of their ethnicity, race and or religious beliefs, was alien to Islam.
He said Islam has never sanctioned the killing of non-Muslims or the destruction of peoples’ places of worship in whatever guise.
He said government would immediately compensate all the victims of the Boko Haram crisis, adding that a committee would be set up to compile a database on all victims.
However, Tinubu, in Lagos Saturday, said the situation in Borno would not have been this bad if government had been more proactive and alive to its responsibilities.
According to him, intelligence gathering is needed to fight Boko Haram and government has failed because of inept leadership.
He said the gap between the poor and the rich is enough to stoke disaffection, hate and violence, adding that government is not proactive in tackling the problems.
“We have to ensure that there is effective intelligent gathering but without undue interference in the fundamental rights of the citizenry and without abuse of power. We should not be firefighters all the time.
“We’ve had a system failure most of the time but instead of curing the disease we attack the symptoms. That is why we have recurrent problems in those areas,” he added.
Tinubu warned that those who are using religion to kill innocent people would spark a religious crisis in the country if not check on time.
He also defended the delay by Osun State governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, to constitute his cabinet, eight months after assuming office.
He said the delay had not affected governance, adding that the governor has been saving huge sums of money with the ingenuity with which he has been running the state.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/boko-haram-borno-governor-says-troops-should-stay/95173/

ponytail:
so Vimbai says if another Nigerian wins the show she will make sure other countries boycott bigbrother, I wish people would stop whining and put their money where their mouths are! If she is so anti-naija, she should return the t-shirt and remember her sentiments whenever she is praying with T.B. Joshua's picture.

Meanwhile Vimabai not so smart, we know she is not over the Karen thing cos she is still going on about it to anybody that she thinks will listen. Plus Vimbai is trying to take out Karen's support system - Mumba, Bernadina, Vina, Zeus. The girl sef!!!!

she is so out!!!!

CBN Set to Develop Its Own Poultry Farm
04 Jul 2011



Reports reaching us indicate that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has concluded plans to build its own poultry farm, which will, upon completion, be the largest poultry farm in Nigeria. This is in line with the latest direction of the CBN of becoming a diversified and profitable entity. To further this dual purpose of profitability and diversification, the new CBN poultry will supply the public with eggs and old layers. It will also supply chicken and eggs to the planned CBN hotel and conference centre. The CBN is confident of the profit potentials of its latest ventures as both the poultry and the CBN Hotel will rely on the long awaited CBN power plant for cheap power supply. Issues hampering the implementation plan for the CBN poultry were the delays caused by other stakeholders at the CBN who believe that hospital development is more lucrative. The poultry farm won out after a vigorous debate between the members of staff of CBN promoting it and those who thought that fish farming and cattle rearing were more promising. There is clearly a new creative impetus at CBN these days [b]and the staff members promoting the fish farming and cattle rearing ventures are confident that if they can demonstrate vertical integration, their business plans would be implemented next.[/b]So, you think that the above is far-fetched. Think again. Our CBN under Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has gone way off kilter. The main job of a central bank should be price stability and the related task of managing interest rates and the exchange rate. The CBN merely pays lip service to these fundamental primary tasks and therefore has failed woefully in these areas. The National Statistical released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on June 16, 2011 indicates that Nigeria’s inflation rate climbed to 12.4 per cent in May 2011. What this means is that the average farmer and civil servant just had their purchasing ability sliced to 87.6 per cent of their earnings. As you will see later, this is merely a start, as the policies of this CBN are definitely going to take us to territories of more than 20 per cent inflation rate. This is someone who was handed a CBN that had managed our inflation rates to below 10 per cent, during a period in which world oil prices were up to $145 per barrel. In addition, this CBN has by its own irrational statements and actions dried up credit for businesses from the banking sector. Additionally, with oil prices aided upwards by the Arab uprisings, our CBN has managed to maintain a fast dwindling foreign exchange reserves as a result of the poor management of the reserves by the CBN. Every month, the CBN governor promises that there will be relief on the foreign reserves and every month, the opposite is the case.

As you can see, our CBN should have their hands full in carrying out the primary functions of a central bank, but that is far from what they have been doing. We will not focus on the various political statements that the CBN governor has decided is his past time. Instead, we will focus on the actions of our CBN that have contributed directly in its failure to actually achieve the price stability that is its primary function.

In the past one year, starting in March 2010, our CBN has spent over N900 billion on the so-called Intervention Funds. These include the N200 billion Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme; the N300 billion Power and Aviation Intervention Fund; the N200 billion Restructuring/Refinancing to the Manufacturing Sector/SME; and the N200 billion Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Guarantee Scheme. Let us use the example of the Power fund. According to Lamido, it was set up to help finance badly needed power projects in Nigeria. Except that in light of the fact that most of the investments in the power sector are to come following the on-going privatisation process, there was no need to release the entire amount into circulation. However, what our CBN does is that once it announces the creation of these funds, it moves the amount to the Bank of Industry who deposits them with partner banks for onward accessibility to the lucky recipients. So if it takes another four years to disburse, the country is burdened with money in circulation that it did not need to be in circulation. This is the case with all of the intervention funds. CBN therefore has done more to spur inflation than any other government policy in Nigeria and economists like Henry Boyo have warned that CBN should look forward to inflation rates of 20 per cent or higher if it continues with these policies.

Even if the CBN should be the entity setting up these intervention funds (which it has no business doing), such funds should not be released out of the CBN until the recipients have fulfilled all requirements and are about to use them for productive activities. A cynic would say that the CBN should know this and that the only reason for releasing the funds so prematurely is to extend the period of playing the same deposit kickback game that the CBN governor has accused Nigerian government officials of playing with their public sector funds (where the partnering banks pay something to the originators of the funds placed with them as deposits). More importantly, when there is no oversight or accountability other than the CBN (a non-elected body) over the disbursement or spending of these funds, there is substantial room for significant corruption and bad practices. The speed with which the CBN has established these funds in the past one year during a period when the CBN governor was warning about the inflationary impact of the elections speaks to the suspicion that these funds were not primarily meant for the announced purposes. It is unfortunate that the CBN is the only entity in Nigeria that can spend public funds without a need for appropriation or such funds being earmarked in the corresponding year’s federal budget. Our constitutional requirement of budget and appropriation does not cover the CBN.

Last month, our CBN placed various advertisements in Nigerian newspapers and magazines inviting tenders for the design and management of its new project of building a hotel and conference centre in Abuja. Many people were relieved that this CBN has finally decided to start abiding by the Nigerian Public Procurement Act requirement of performing a tender for public procurements, which this CBN had not abided by in the past when it retained the services of advisers for its various activities. However, even people who believe that Abuja may need world-class hotels and conference centres are wondering why the CBN is the entity building one. A review of comments in various Nigerian chat rooms are negative, with many advising our CBN to focus on its set roles and leave property development to the likes of Tayo Amusan etc. [/b]One commenter in Nairaland even said that since our CBN has become a profit seeking entity, he should be allowed to buy shares of CBN, as he believes in the viability of this hotel and conference centre.[b] This is how ridiculous ordinary citizens of Nigeria now think our CBN has become.

It is instructive that one of the seminar acts of this CBN governor is preaching specialisation to the banks that he supervises. By proscribing universal banking, he has forced banks to focus on commercial banking and exit other areas and sectors of the Nigerian economy. Now that CBN is getting into real estate and other sectors, one is wondering if merely Sanusi was worried that the banks, with their deep pockets, posed bigger risks of competition for CBN in these sectors than Amusan etc. and therefore made sure to get rid of them as competitors prior to announcing CBN’s own ventures. Otherwise, why is focus important for commercial banks and not CBN?

It is sad, because many people were hopeful that Sanusi would maintain the stability that Soludo had fostered at CBN, but Sanusi has sadly been wrong as a CBN governor and disastrous for the Nigerian economy. He has failed to appreciate the limited role of a central bank in a country. Our CBN under him is failing in their primary functions of maintaining price stability and reserve management. Instead, our CBN’s own initiatives have been detrimental to these primary functions. The CBN needs to dial back and leave governance to the government, but focus on fighting inflation and its other primary functions. It needs to leave intervention funds to the appropriate ministries and the National Assembly. Finally, one is embarrassed to have to remind CBN that it should have no business setting up its own hotel, power plant or for that matter its own poultry farm.
Mr. Alewu is a lawyer/public affairs analyst based in Port Harcourt

Reports reaching us indicate that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has concluded plans to build its own poultry farm, which will, upon completion, be the largest poultry farm in Nigeria. This is in line with the latest direction of the CBN of becoming a diversified and profitable entity. To further this dual purpose of profitability and diversification, the new CBN poultry will supply the public with eggs and old layers. It will also supply chicken and eggs to the planned CBN hotel and conference centre. The CBN is confident of the profit potentials of its latest ventures as both the poultry and the CBN Hotel will rely on the long awaited CBN power plant for cheap power supply. Issues hampering the implementation plan for the CBN poultry were the delays caused by other stakeholders at the CBN who believe that hospital development is more lucrative. The poultry farm won out after a vigorous debate between the members of staff of CBN promoting it and those who thought that fish farming and cattle rearing were more promising. There is clearly a new creative impetus at CBN these days and the staff members promoting the fish farming and cattle rearing ventures are confident that if they can demonstrate vertical integration, their business plans would be implemented next.

I want to be a CBN staff.

See this useless weza, telling the girls that karen is not to be trusted.