THE ALTERNATIVE
Let me start this piece by congratulating former President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida on the marriage of his daughter, Halima, to her beau, Auwal Abdullahi.
It goes without saying that the wedding would be the talk of Nigeria for aeons to come because of the kind of crowd it pulled.
In case you missed the news, let me inform you that no fewer than thirty private jets landed at Minna airport last weekend on account of this wedding that locked down Nigeria!
Thirty private jets. I do not even know what to exclaim! This is more than wow! Gosh does not even come close to the exclamation I wanted to express when I first read of this private jet convention in Minna! Gobsmacked is the only that comes close, but even it does not quite capture the reaction I had.
Thank God former President Goodluck Jonathan, who was amongst the wedding guests, does not have a private jet, because that would have been the major topic of the day. The propaganda loving All Progressives Congress would have capitalised on that to rubbish Jonathan. Lai Mohammed would have been hyperventilating with excitement at the character assassination possibilities if such had been the case.
But the lesson Nigerians may want to take from this is that few, very few of those who arrived Minna in private jets have any sort of productive business venture that generates and sustains jobs in Nigeria.
Yes, there were a couple of folks made rich by oil and gas at the Minna private jet convention, but these are not people that did anything constructive, productive or job creating that gave them wealth. Some were given oil blocks or allocations, others were given allocations to import petroleum products. Even a monkey would prosper if given such oligarchic opportunities. But how does that sort of business create jobs or adds value to Nigerians?
Others amongst them are government contractors, supplying sundry items to the various governments at federal, state and local government levels. They are basically suppliers. They buy and resell to the government. But how does that sort of business create jobs and adds value to Nigerians?
Yet, they have private jets, private jetties, private yachts and even private body guards!
Nigeria has one of the lowest, if not the lowest, tax to GDP ratio in the world. In a country of 190 million people, only 214 individuals in the entire country pay tax of 20 million naira or more. This is according to the very latest official figures from the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Norway has a population of just 5.2 million people, yet they have more than 100 times the amount of people paying tax of $65,000 or more (the equivalent of 20 million naira).
But the story does not end there. Norway has never had a private party or private wedding or any private celebration that attracted 30 private jets!
The funniest thing is that Norway gives Nigeria financial aid every year!
We have a political and economic elite that are so rapacious and parasitic and who only think of what they can suck from Nigeria and could not care less that they are surrounded by some of the poorest people in the world according to official figures from the 2016 United Nations Human Development Index released on the 21st of March, 2017.
Norway is number 1 on that list. Nigeria is 152 out of 188 nations. Libya (102) and Iraq (121) both of which are war-torn nations, outrank Nigeria. But most embarrassingly, Syria that has been enmeshed in probably the worst humanitarian crisis the world has seen in at least 10 years also outranks Nigeria (149)!
And almost all our elites are involved in this. President Muhammadu Buhari likes to be seen as the only good person in Nigeria but we have not forgotten so soon how, according to Daily Trust (which also happens to be the President’s favourite paper) his own daughter, Zahra Buhari, received pre-wedding gifts worth 47 million Naira from her then suitor and now husband, Ahmed Indimi. This same Ahmed Indimi likes to fly in private jets, pictures of which dot Nigeria’s social media landscape. I can assure you that Ahmed Indimi is not one of the 214 Nigerians who pay tax of over 20 million Naira.
Yet right there in Indimi’s Borno State, right there in Maiduguri where their palatial family house is a sprawling tourist attraction, there are millions of Internally Displaced Persons without food to eat and medicine for their ailments. Perhaps it is this sort of wickedness that Mohammed Yusuf saw and which made him conclude that Boko (book) must be Haram, if it can make people so oblivious to the suffering around them.
It is this same Indimi family that likes to marry and be married to Nigeria’s high and mighty (President Ibrahim Babangida was also once their in-law via the marriage of Mohammed Babangida, his first son, to Rahama Indimi).
Many Nigerians are not aware that if you isolate Borno State from the rest of Nigeria, that state becomes the poorest region on planet earth BAR NONE!
Borno has the highest unemployment rate in Nigeria and the second lowest primary school enrollment rate in Nigeria. What has her private jet-loving, high and mighty-marrying elite done to change that?
I was in Anambra once and the type of community spirit I saw there impressed me. They may not have a lot of private jets in Anambra, but in Anambra, they have community associations that give scholarships and business grants to those who are commercially inclined. There is NO poverty in Nnewi, one of the communities where this community spirit is most prevalent.
They build their own primary and secondary schools through community effort. I am dead serious. If you go there you will not believe your eyes! They have well-tarred modern roads that were built through their private efforts. All over Anambra, the various towns and villages copy the Nnewi model.
I daresay that there is more evidence of private and community development in Anambra than there is of any type of federal government presence. Anambra does not even have an airport! Borno does. Anambra does not even have a publicly built federal university! The only so called Federal University in Anambra, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, was built by the state government with contributions from private citizens and then compulsorily taken over by the military government of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida via Decree No. 34 of July 15, 1992. But in Borno, they have a massive federal university WHOLLY built with Federal Government funds.
If any state deserves to be poor from lack of Federal Government presence, that state is Anambra. If any state deserves to be rich by reason of the existence of Federal Government presence, that state is Borno. But Borno is poor while Anambra is rich! Why?
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are sponsoring immunisation and other medical interventions in Borno State. They are together the richest people on earth. Yet their life styles are nowhere near as lavish as Nigeria’s private jet-loving parasitic elite.
Both Gates and Buffet are known for their frugality. Both of them have shown more concern for Nigeria’s poor than any of the owners or leasers of the 30 private jets that converged on Minna last week.
In fact, Bill Gates has personally visited many of the poorest Nigerians and has administered vaccines to their children with his own hands!
If those thirty private jet owners or leasers could do in their communities what Nnewi people do in theirs, then most assuredly, Nigeria would not be in recession today.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon is worth $67 billion, Mark Zuckerberg is worth $55.5 billion. Both of them are young people who made their money by dint of hard work, yet none of these two billionaires had a wedding as spectacularly opulent as either Zahra Buhari’s or Halima Babangida’s wedding. Mark Zuckerberg actually got married at a simple ceremony in the backyard of his home in Palo Alto, California in front of 100 guests.
The British charity, Oxfam, recently released a report on inequality in Nigeria. According to Oxfam, the combined wealth of the five richest Nigerians, put at about $29.9 billion, could end extreme poverty in the country!
According to Oxfam, in recent years the number of millionaires in Nigeria has increased by 44% while the number of those living in poverty has increased by 69%!
And instead of the shameless Federal Government of Nigeria to appreciate Oxfam, not just for its years of charity work in Nigeria, but for this new report which distills the issues militating against Nigeria’s efforts to increase human development, it turns around to condemn the report and accuse Oxfam of ‘inciting’ Nigerians against her elite!
It is becoming clearer and clearer that Nigeria, as currently designed, can hardly produce young people with the mindset of Bezos or Zuckerberg.
You see, if we do not redesign Nigeria and ensure that the wealth of the nation is more equitably redistributed, we will find out soon enough that Nigeria, as it is currently designed, is designed to fail.
Nigeria has such a high unemployment rate because the wealth of the nation is trapped in the hands of carpetbaggers, rent seekers and influence peddlers who flaunt their wealth at the masses without even giving them token employment.
And it is not as if Nigerians are not willing to work. We are. Strive Masiyiwa, the Zimbabwean founder of Econet, famously revealed how stunned he was when he found out how willing Nigerians were to work.
When he came to Nigeria in 2001 and wanted to hire staff for his new company, Econet Wireless Nigeria, he advertised for jobs seeking people with telecommunications experience who had electronic engineering degrees and a minimum of five years relevant experience.
Mr. Masiyiwa, a dollar billionaire with experience working all over the world was stunned at the response.
Let me allow him tell his story because I cannot possibly tell it better than him.
“I came into the office to find postal bags, piled to the ceiling!
“I only want to see the applications from people who meet our requirements, and not from chancers who aren’t qualified,” I complained.
“Sir, these are the ones we have vetted.”
“What?! You mean there were more than this?”
“Thousands, sir.”
Then I came up with an idea: “Why don’t you separate for me, the most qualified academically. Set aside people with MBAs, and even PHDs.”
A day later, another postal bag of applications was delivered to my office. I was staggered!
There were thousands of people with qualifications in just this one discipline with MBAs and PHDs! Many had qualified in the best universities around the world. There were also GSM-qualified Nigerians working internationally, including in America and Europe, wanting to return home!
I was blown away by the qualifications. I thought to myself: “You can start almost any business or industry here. I wish investors would one day discover the wealth of this nation.”
Whenever I hear people talk about the wealth of Nigeria in terms of oil, I shake my head to say: “You have no idea what you’re talking about!”
The true wealth of Nigeria is its extraordinary human capital, and passion for education. Unleash that and no one can stop them!”
The funniest thing is that Strive Masiyiwa, a dollar billionaire who made his money from a productive industry like the telecommunications sector and who provided enduring jobs for literarily tens of thousands of Nigerians, does not live as large as many Nigerian elite.
No wonder that the exploitative carpetbagging elite of Nigeria chased him out of Nigeria!
Strive Masiyiwa is the antithesis of the exploitative Nigerian elite who epitomises at least six of the seven deadly social sins:
Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Religion without sacrifice. Politics without principle.
The only one they do not epitomise is Science without humanity because that involves work and intellectual and creative abilities which many of our elite lack. If it were cleverness and guile, they would supersede even the best!
Ango Abdullahi
Ango Abdullahi has no basis for saying that the North would not allow Professor Yemi Osinbajo succeed Muhammadu Buhari in 2019. The North does not decide for Nigeria. Nigerians decide for Nigeria.
What Ango Abdullahi seems to have forgotten is that it was Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu that God used to make Muhammadu Buhari President in 2015. If the Northern Elders Forum could have made Buhari President, they would have done so in 2003, 2007 and 2011 when Buhari tried unsuccessfully to become President.
Nigeria has changed. Unfortunately, people like Ango Abdullahi and Junaid Mohammed, who add very little value to Nigeria and exist only to make provocative statements should realise that should their words precipitate crisis today or in 2019, both they and those they represent will be the biggest losers because they have more to gain from a united and peaceful Nigeria founded on the rule of law than others.
Nigerians will famously remember Ango Abdullahi as the liar who said that money from the North was used to develop the oil industry in the South. His exact words in 2014 were as follows:
“It is the North that developed the present day oil industry in this country. It is Northern money; it is the Northern leadership that developed the oil industry.”
Since Ango Abdullahi purports to be a professor and since he is from the North, let me use the words of another Northerner who happens to be a professor to respond to him.
On Saturday the 6th of May 2017, Farooq Kperogi wrote thus:
That money from the North funded oil exploration in the South. Professor Ango Abdullahi actually repeated this lie recently. He said this, ironically, while exhorting Emir Sanusi II to “go and read history.” The truth is that not a dime of northern Nigeria’s money contributed to oil exploration in the Niger Delta.
When oil was discovered in commercial quantities in Oloibiri in 1956, Shell bore the financial burden for the exploration. Other Euro-American oil companies later joined in oil exploration. It wasn’t until 1973 that the Nigerian federal government acquired 30 per cent shares in oil companies. By 1973, Northern Nigeria had ceased to exist; it had been divided into states.
In any case, colonial records show that the biggest motivation for amalgamating northern and southern Nigeria was because northern Nigeria wasn’t financially self-sustaining and the British Imperial Government said it would never subsidise colonial administration anywhere in Africa. So Lord Lugard amalgamated the two regions and used the surplus from the south to sustain the north. It’s illogical to say that a region that wasn’t financially self-sustaining financed oil exploration in the Niger Delta.
It is a very sad day when a character like Ango Abdullahi is called an elder statesman. I think a better word for his ilk would be an agbaya! Professor (?) Abdullahi can ask Farook Kperogi to tell him the meaning of that word!
Reno’s Nuggets
Never marry just because plans are at an advanced stage. If there is doubt in your heart, call it off. Embarrassment is better than a wrong union. It is easier to change I don’t into I do than to change I do to I don’t. And be aware that the sexier the woman, the higher the maintenance. The lovelier the woman. The lower the maintenance. Sexy is expensive. Love is not. Finally, do not be moved by beauty. With fake hair, fake lashes and fake eyes, any girl can be fine. Focus on character. It has no fake. #RenosNuggets.
https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2017/05/20/a-wedding-that-showcases-all-that-is-wrong-with-nigeria/

Buhari, are you alive?

Buhari, Are you alive?

Northern Republic of Nigeria. Northerners everywhere

Now the Northerners will want to claim supremacy over Nigeria.


I SMH for this joke called Nigeria.

There was a country called Biafra, and there will be a country called Biafra.

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Gbam

They want to cripple the financial system. Why not reduce their outrageous allowances

Picture.... or?

How much last?

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In case you dont know, I am not disappointed. It is in their gene. Igbos are the trailblazers of the Republic called Nigeria.

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osic:


what is the name of the health insurance you enrolled for??

Maayoit

DaddyNick:
As a young graduate who got a job with a starting salary of N60,000 monthly and you have a fiancee who is also a graduate and has a job of N40,000 monthly, do you guys think one can start a good home with this a raise a decent comfortable family in Nigeria?

I will answer you by first asking certain questions.

1. Where do you stay?
2. How flexible is your work schedule?

I think it is very possible to get married with that earnings.

As for health, you can enrol for health insurance independently. I did that for my wife. She put to bed recently though CS in Lagos and I did not spend up to 20k generally for the medical bills. And am not a Federal worker

Where Nigeria went wrong – Akinjide, Adebanjo Where Nigeria went wrong – Akinjide, Adebanjo ON APRIL 1, 20176:03 AMIN POLITICSCOMMENTS By Clifford Ndujihe


FIRST and Second republics Minister, Chief Richard Akinjide, SAN,has traced the genesis of Nigeria’s socio-economic and political problems to giving leadership positions to people who were not prepared for them. According to him, Nigeria would have fared better if the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo or Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, who he said were ready to rule, were allowed to assume power at Independence in 1960. Nwabueze, Akinjide & Adebanjo Akinjide, 85, spoke, on Thursday, via a documentary, at the 37th Centre for Values in Leadership, CVL Colloquium, in Lagos. The colloquium was in honour of Professor Ben Nwabueze, SAN and Chief Akinjide. Asked where Nigeria went wrong, Chief Akinjide, who was minister of Education in the First Republic, said: ‘’People who are in certain positions should not be in those positions. At independence, Zik and Awo were ready to rule but they were not given the opportunity. Those who ruled were not ready. If anybody tells you something else, don’t believe him.’’ Indeed, Dr Azikiwe (Eastern Region Premier) and Chief Awolowo (Western Region Premier) were at the forefront of the struggle for independence. Left to them, especially Awolowo, Nigeria would have gained independence in 1957 but Sir Ahmadu Bello (Northern Region Premier) disagreed, saying that the North was not ready, a move that delayed self-rule till October 1, 1960. At the end of the December 12, 1959 parliamentary elections, the Ahmadu Bello-led Northern Peoples Congress, NPC and allies won 148 of the 312 seats. The Azikiwe-led National Council of Nigerian Citizens, NCNC and allies won 89 seats while the Awolowo-led Action Group, AG and allies got 75 seats. Since none of the parties secured the 156 seats majority needed to form the federal cabinet on its own, an alliance was needed. Three options were on offer: NCNC/AG with Azikiwe as prime minister and Awolowo as president; NPC/NCNC with Bello as prime minister and Azikiwe as president; and NPC/AG with Bello as prime minister and Awolowo as president. At the end of the day, NPC/NCNC alliance prevailed. However, Sir Ahmadu Bello chose to remain as Premier of Northern Region and nominated his leutenant, Sir Tafawa Balewa, to become the prime minister and the nation’s head of state at independence. How we left the path to prosperity – Adebanjo Also speaking at the event, Elder statesman and an elder of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, who also fought for independence, linked Nigeria’s stunted socio-economic growth to the jettisoning of fiscal federalism that was practiced in the First Republic. His words: ‘’If anybody loves this country today, you must shout restructuring every time. We have been out of progress since the country was destructured in 1966. We had progress when the country was on federal system before we had independence and after independence. We had our trouble before we set on the path of federalism. ‘’This country started with Macpherson’s Constitution that was more of semi-federal. From 1952, it was not really a federal constitution, so we had problems. At that time, the ministers at the centre were sent by the various regions that constituted Nigeria. We only had three regions at that time. The Western region, Eastern region and Northern region. We have been having this awkward arrangement where a particular section of the country is bigger than the other zones. So Nigeria could not make progress. ‘’ Anyway, we started by having Macpherson’s Constitution, which gave us three regions. So we accepted it. At that time, there was no premier in the region. From 1952 to 1954, the most senior political official at that time was the leader of government business. So, when Awolowo won election in the West, he became the leader of government business; when Sarduana won election in the North, he became leader of government business; Azikiwe was leader of government business in the East. ‘’There was crisis in Western region when in 1953, Chief Anthony Enahoro moved a motion for Independence in 1957. The Governor-General then, Macpherson, said no member of his cabinet should take part in that motion or he would sack the minister. So, the ministers from the West said, ‘since we are representatives of the people, we cannot run but take part in that debate.’ ‘’Then, Oba Aderemi was the first minister from the West without portfolio. Those were the days we had real politicians, who loved and worked for the country, not people who are easily bought over. So, Aderemi said instead of sacking me, I will resign. So the moment Macpherson sacked the two other ministers, Aderemi resigned from the cabinet. ‘’As stubborn as Macpherson was, he called for fresh ministers from the West and Awolowo sent the same names that were rejected back to him and so there was crisis. He could not accept them and the cabinet could not be formed. So, that was what forced the colonial regime to summon the constitutional conference of 1954 to resolve the crisis. ‘’By the time the self-rule motion was moved in the parliament, our brothers from the North were so hostile and from their body language, we could understand where they were going. Their leader then said he did not want Nigeria but Chief Awolowo persuaded him. Then, Nnamdi Azikwe was an advocate of unitarism. The stand of Chief Awolowo was we could have one Nigeria in a federal system where every region can develop at its own space. And that argument was taken to the Constitutional conference of 1954 by Lyttelton. That was the constitution that created Federalism in Nigeria. ‘’At the end of that conference in London, Chief Awolowo was able to persuade Azikwe to become a federalist and of course, when they arrived at the airport, Azikiwe said that federalism was imperative. It was from that constitution that the federal system of Nigeria was established. There was no resource control then but there was derivation such that for every resource you brought, you got 50 percent. So the Western Region was very rich from cocoa, ditto the North with their groundnut, and the East with their palm kernel. ‘’That is where the economic development of the country comes in. There is no economic freedom without political freedom. With that system, we were able to do a lot of things. At that time, we had free education in the West and there was healthy competition among the regions for development. Awolowo built a stadium in the West, Ahmadu Bello built his own in the North, universities were built in the West and Ahmadu Bello built his own in the North. Farm settlements were built in the East, which were copied from the West. Throughout the time that Awolowo was in charge of the Western region, there was never workers’ strike because they were paid as at when due. Compare that to what is happening now that every governor runs to Abuja before he can do anything in his state. We have to return to that era.’’ Asked the way forward for the country, Adebanjo said: ‘’We are not being honest with ourselves in this country. Those who rule us and those who advise government are not honest. Our constitution is a fraudulent paper, Nigerians never sat down to write the constitution and yet it says ‘we the people… The older people will remember how our regions operated. Did this country not develop more than what we have now? ‘’Those ruling have corrupted the system and given us a fake population figure. They make us believe that the North is bigger than the South in terms of population. Nigeria’s problem is basically political. If we restructure and every region is at par, the country will develop. Nobody will be talking of Biafra today if the zone had been treated fairly. Our leaders should ask themselves why are people of the East asking for Biafra? Those with political power turned this country to what it is now. ‘’Will anyone from the South-South go to Abuja, see what is happening there and not go back home to carry arms? Let us stop deceiving ourselves, even if I am the one from that region, I will carry arms.’’







Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/04/nigeria-went-wrong-akinjide-adebanjo/

If Tinubu could achieve his current feat. Everything is possible...

Cc: mynd44
Lalasticlala

Seun

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Nigeria's "ailing" president Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly reduced his working hours since he returned from medical leave.

According to Voice of America, the development was likely to slow down the pace of economic reforms "advanced in his absence".

Quoting diplomats and government sources, the report said that the west African country leader was spending between one and four hours a day in his office to "conserve his energy levels".

"Things are slowing down, particularly on the economic front, which is a concern," a Western diplomat was quoted as saying.



Buhari, 74, returned to work a few weeks ago after nearly two months' medical leave in Britain.

During his absence, his office had repeatedly denied claims the leader was ill and insisted he was "hale and hearty".

But when he returned home, a gaunt-looking Buhari said he "couldn't recall being so sick since I was a young man" and described receiving "blood transfusions".

Reports indicated that Buhari was due to return to Britain for further treatment in April.

The nature of his illness has not been revealed.

Source: News24

http://allafrica.com/stories/201703280321.html

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Jayceon:
I believe your brain cells are dead

who is this fuul? Can't I express my views again? Your comment reveals your thinking pattern. Useless and cheap instigator

Nonsense. I believe America is over hyped

A 52-year-old man named Khalid Masood attacked the United Kingdom parliament - The attack which took place on Thursday, March 23, led to some deaths and injuries - Police say the attacker's step-father is a Nigerian - The terrorist's original birth name was Adrian Russell Ajao The Metropolitan police has revealed that the London terror attacker Khalid Masood’s original birth name was Adrian Russell Ajao. Read more: https://www.naij.com/1095469-breaking-police-terrorist-attacked-uk-parliament.html

Mine is Joseph.

His story shows that with discipline, determination, character and faith in God, one can succeed no matter the situation we find ourselves.