₦airaland Forum

orisirisi

IFELEKE:
Is this one mourning or showing off?

He might have started as a show-off years ago, but it's now part of him. His colleagues in the university attested to it.

Sanusi on Debt relief:

Dr. Chu Okongwu, Simon Kolawole And Debt Relief: A Comment

By

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

LAGOS, AUGUST 8, 2005

lamidos@hotmail.com





I have read Dr Chu S. P. Okongwu’s article, “Debt Relief? Nothing to Celebrate”, published in Thisday Newspaper on Friday, July 22, 2005 and reproduced verbatim by the editors of The News magazine in their August 1 edition under the title “On the so-called debt relief obtained from the Paris Club”. I had followed various criticisms-ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous-of the recent announcement of the Paris Club Debt Relief package by President Obasanjo and his Finance Minister, but refrained from making a comment. However, Dr Okongwu’s voice is a weighty one that deserves consideration. Unfortunately, his intervention in this matter, while raising-or rather, restating-a number of intelligent and valid criticisms, ended up with dangerous arguments that merit a word of caution. These arguments have been compounded by other, more dangerous ones, written by ThisDay’s bold columnist, Simon Kolawole. I had thought that the Finance Minister’s intelligent response to Kolawole had addressed the major issues he had concerning debt relief. Unfortunately, I woke up this morning (8/8/2005) to read his back-page piece, rather uncouthly titled “Before I was Rudely Interrupted”, which was filled with so much economic nonsense presented as intelligent analysis I had to make this intervention.



Dr Okongwu needs no introduction. He is a respected economist with antecedents in the World Bank and he was one of the king-pins of the economic reform programmes of the federal Government under General Babangida, in which he served in many capacities including Minister of planning and of Finance. Along with Dr Kalu Idika Kalu (from the IMF), Olu Falae and Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji (the notorious “Triple A”), Okongwu was one of the blue-eyed boys of the three sponsors of what, thanks to Joseph Stiglitz, we now refer to as the “Washington Consensus Policies”, and these are the IMF, the World Bank and the Government of the USA. In other words, Dr Okongwu was directly responsible for Babangida’s structural adjustment programme with all of the consequences of that obnoxious policy package-including but not limited to the massive devaluation of the national currency, collapse of governmental due process and credibility, huge disparities in income distribution, sale of national assets to a vulgar emergent class empowered through what Karl Marx called “Primitive Accumulation”, the destruction of the economy’s manufacturing base and decimation of the progressive middle classes, etc. I have elsewhere articulated my criticism of SAP from a theoretical perspective and will not repeat those arguments here.



Nigerians must not be allowed to forget who Dr Okongwu is and what policies his ministry pursued. In a sense many-but not all-of the major policy thrusts of the present economic reform team are aimed at cleaning up the mess that this country was thrown into by Chu Okongwu and his peers. We must always bear this in mind, when those who were the most willing tools of international finance capital pretend to speak with an air of patriotism and commitment to the national interest against their hitherto patrons. As stated by President Obasanjo in his speech to the National Assembly, Nigerian leaders, particularly between 1985 and 1995 “…signed all sorts of agreements with outrageous interest rates, squandered loans obtained in the name of development, drew down on foreign loans without executing any jobs, and in other cases stole or wasted such loans.” Okongwu was a key member of the government responsible for all of this.



As mentioned earlier, Dr Okongwu’s piece started with some valid criticism. Along the same lines as other critics like frontline journalist Mohammed Haruna, Okongwu asked valid questions as to what exactly the Paris Club has promised, vis a vis what the President and his ministers have been announcing. There is a difference between an invitation to negotiate debt relief and debt forgiveness; the offer of possible debt relief “up to Naples terms” is inconsistent with the same offer “on Naples terms”. We are also not informed of the content of the Policy support Instrument the government is negotiating with the IMF and the stage of those negotiations. Clearly there are so many ifs and buts to the announcement, and Nigerians have a right to ask if we have in fact not been celebrating prematurely. The stock response from ministers so far has been that this is just about semantics but the deal is a done deal. Objections from Okongwu, given his inside knowledge of the World Bank and experience in dealing with creditors, give reason for pause. We need more clarification, preferably from the creditors themselves, and Government needs to give us more information on the “fine print”, any “attached strings” and, in general, the salient aspects of the agreement. (Dr Mansur Muhtar, Director-General of the DMO, has started the good job of explaining these details to Nigerians in his reply to Okongwu.) It has also not helped the President’s image that he has latched on to the seeming progress out of this impasse to justify his wasteful foreign jamborees. The performance convinced no one, and it was, to say the least, a display of political naivete and immaturity. Nigerians will judge for themselves if those trips were worth it, and making the tenuous link was totally unnecessary and counter-productive.



Before proceeding let me make a few clarifications. I am a strong critic of the Obasanjo government and in 2003 I went public with my endorsement of the Buhari candidacy. I believe the 2003 elections were massively rigged, the judiciary did not do Nigerians justice by upholding those results, and that the achievements of this government are far less than they could have been with better commitment and focus. However, criticism of government should always be fair, objective and principled. The economic reform team of this government is not perfect, and it has many flaws some of which I have discussed elsewhere and will still highlight below. However, that team is the one light at the end of the tunnel, the one hope that all hope is not lost for this country. Given our experience with Okongwu, Kalu and Co most Nigerian economists were skeptical as to the ideological commitment and patriotism of a team filled with World Bank employees and consultants. I was personally not convinced that Okonjo-Iweala could deliver. Over time my skepticism has given way to pleasant surprise, respect and even admiration and I will not shirk away from the critical responsibility of applauding the good even as we censure the bad.



To continue, Okongwu’s intervention ended up as a fierce criticism of the government for “being too eager” to pay the debt he incurred. He suggests, in a manner surprising for a man of his stature and reputation, that “no one in the international financial community really expects these …debts to be paid off” and if we did nothing the debts would “die by semantics”. He would rather that the huge oil windfall we have be kept, even though our history is that it will be wasted by the government or kept for the next crop of leaders to steal. Okongwu also refers to payment of arrears and past-dues as “up front” payments thus misleading the reader on an important component of all debt forgiveness. He does not see why we are “in a hurry” to free ourselves from the burden that has compromised our independence and mortgaged our future and he uses such uncomplimentary words as “scandalous” to describe the arrangement. He thinks that by doing this we are being made into “fools” even though SAP, the policy he championed, was the most foolhardy economic programme ever pursued by a Nigerian government.



The point is that to criticize the government for misrepresenting or exaggerating the commitment of the Paris Club is one thing, to deny that debt repayment-which is never painless-is desirable is another. Okongwu craftily combines both, and in this he finds able support in other Babangida associates like the journalist Muhammad Haruna and former Information Minister Tony Momoh. One wonders why it is that Babangida’s supporters are not happy that we are paying off this debt. Obviously many would prefer that we keep the national reserves for him, since we do not know what the price of oil swill be if he comes to power in 2007 as planned. For this reason alone we should pray that all debt be paid off even if it means emptying the reserves before the locusts return for a second helping.



Nigerians must understand that debt write-off and repayment is a bold political step for the governments of the West. Writing off the national debt is not a free lunch. The citizens of western countries are paying taxes to fund their governments, and those governments gave loans to a country whose leaders stole the money. We have not punished those leaders. Instead they are our national heroes, elder statesmen and community leaders. We have made them ministers and governors and given them national honours. We are planning to bring them back into office in 2007. Why should the American or European citizen pay taxes to fund the corruption of our rulers and profligate lifestyles financed by larceny of the treasury. If we think of this fact alone, we will understand why debt-relief, if it materializes, will be a major achievement of the Obasanjo government which even those of us who are not his supporters should have the dignity to acknowledge and applaud in the interest of the nation and our own credibility.



This brings me to Kolawole’s article referred to above, an obvious reply to Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s earlier protest at his writings. Kolawole is a journalist for whom I have a lot of respect but his latest piece was a great disservice to his intellect. Take the first, rather sensational thesis he put up: there is in fact no debt-relief, because “the whole external debt stock discounted at 4% p.a comes to about the same amount ($12b) the Paris Club requires us to pay now for the offer to be valid”. This argument was apparently given to Kolawole by one of his readers, described by him as “obviously a financial expert”. With all due respect this dense argument shows the opposite of expertise in financial matters. I will explain.



The Present Value of $29billion owed by Nigeria today is $29billion. Period. It is rather dis-ingenious to discount it over 23 years and arrive at $12billion. Think of it this way. If we do not pay off the debt today, we will owe the Paris Club $29billion. Assuming Kolawole’s rate of 4%, the creditors have an asset worth $29b paying 4% per annum over the next 23years on a reducing balance basis. If we pay $12billion today the creditors will have an asset that is just over 40% of the value of what they had, paying them the same rate of interest over 23 years. What Kolawole and his “expert” would have Nigerians believe is that the two streams are equivalent, which is the same as saying the $29billion is equal to $12billion. Now let us see where Kolawole went wrong. In his analysis he makes the implicit assumption that our $29billion debt stock will be interest-free for 23 years! That way, at the end of the period it will still be $29billion, the equivalent of $12billion today earning interest at 4%p.a over the period! In reality, as we know, this is not the case, and the future value of our debt stock is much higher that its present value. Using Kolawole’s own numbers-which I have not cross-checked for accuracy, by the way-as a base, we would say that if $12billion today is worth $29billion(i.e $12b times 2.416) in 23 years at 4%, then $29billion will be roughly worth $70billion over the same period at the same rate. So, using this logic, the creditors are giving up $70billion for $29billion over the tenor of the loans. And Kolawole says this is nothing!



There are other weaknesses in Kolawole’s argument. Debt is repaid from cash-flow and unfortunately for us in Nigeria, our cash-flow is dependent on a variable over which we have no control-the price of oil. Our capacity to repay debt is determined by the price of oil from time to time and indeed our debt crisis started when oil prices crashed in the early eighties. We cannot take it for granted that the high oil prices we are seeing due to an extraordinary international environment are sustainable over the long term. We had this situation during the first Gulf War with IBB in power. We all remember the circumstances under which the Nigeria correspondent of the FT of London was deported for asking questions about the windfall. We are yet to see the details of the Udoji report on those monies. If this government does not take advantage of the windfall and pay off the debt, as proposed by the likes of Kolawole and Okongwu, what is the guarantee that the next government will not just steal it the way the first windfall went?



A second flaw in the argument is the implicit assumption of low world interest rates. Not only did oil prices crash in the 1980s, interest rates sky-rocketed at one time reaching 22% in the US under Ronald Reagan. The annual debt service charge of $1billion we are looking at as affordable today could quadruple or quintuple if rates ever approach the 1980s levels. Now is the time to reduce the overhang and eliminate interest rate risk, while making sure that future contracts are properly structured with options such as caps and collars, or at least hedged against interest rate and third currency risks.



Kolawole’s piece also contained glaring errors of fact. He argues, with an air of authority, that “Nigeria’s Public Debt is 20% of her GDP” and compares this with figures from the US, UK, France, Switzerland, Japan and South Africa. Kolawole makes the strange argument that excessive debt is a sign of a robust economy and suggests that we should strive to be credit-worthy so we can borrow more, rather than repay the debt. The question whether debt repayment is one (albeit not the sole) component of sound economic policies that will lead to better credit rating is not addressed. In any case, the numbers given by Kolawole are simply false. We now all know that our external debt alone is in the region of $30billion. Total Public Debt is a combination of this number and gross domestic borrowing. We also know that our country’s GDP is less than $50billion. So how on earth can our public debt be “less than 20% of GDP”? The fact is that as recently as 2001 the Public debt was already around 120% of GDP and this number has only come down slightly due to the high oil prices and moderation in domestic borrowing and deficit-financing, resulting from improvement in the management of the economy. But most estimates would still place the ratio as somewhere in the 90s.



I can go on and on but will stop here. The point is that journalists and writers must respect the intelligence of their readers and understand that we read columns to be educated and not misled. This government still has a long way to go to convince Nigerians of its seriousness and sincerity. Ideologically, the naïve faith in the market, the lack of preparation for market failure, the urge to display the public sector as corrupt and pretend that the private sector is not equally corrupt-all of these should be exposed and criticized by progressive Nigerians. Economic policies aimed at reducing subsidies, unraveling the welfare state, widening income distribution inequalities and increasing the suffering of our masses to fuel obscene profiteering must be resisted. However, we ought to applaud debt repayment/cancellation, due diligence and increased transparency, a fight against corruption and drug trafficking, and those steps taken by the likes of Okonjo-Iweala, Mansur Muhtar, Nasir el-Rufai, Nuhu Ribadu, Oby Ezekwesili and Dora Akunyili to improve our image as a nation and reform the economy and society.



Those of us who criticize the government also have a burden. We must not mislead Nigerians, we must not fabricate evidence and, as they say, “give a dog a bad name in order to hang it.” To condemn debt-repayment, given all the damage done to the third world by debt is irresponsible. Okongwu, Kolawole, Haruna and Co should be big enough to rise above that.

Ogbologbo:
This is a very fantastic article. Dapito abeg where you get am? Where was the source?

This man has such a depth to him that it makes me wonder how he got anywhere in Nigeria's system. I find that intelligence and talent is more likely to be suppress in my country.

You've not seen anything. I spent whole weekend(night and day) reading Sanusi's over 30 write-ups and rejoinders to his write-ups sometime around May this year.
His articles are unputdownable. Name any field, from Economics to philosophy to politics to history to religion, he's there. He is vastly versed and wide read. How this guy combined his job as a banker with reading so extensively in the fields of philosophy, politics and history still dazzles me.

Care to read more of his writings, send me your email addy.

I have never seen a player more overrated than Mikel.

FASEUN AND THE NORTH'S MORAL DILEMMA



BY



SANUSI LAMIDO SANUSI


"The North" is angry. No reader of the Weekly Trust of Friday 29th December, 2000 with the blazing headlines "Controversy Over Faseun Release" is left in doubt of that fact. The Weekly Trust is the barometer of the North's political climes, the thermometer of its political temperature and the reliable mirror which reflects the most pervasive sentiments among northern people. For this reason, one is highly disturbed, since the anger of the north today is not only baseless, but likely to lead to long-term political disaster.

The greatest irony of the situation the government finds itself in is that it is the somewhat anti climatic result of its orchestrated exposure of proceedings before the Oputa panel. The objective of that soap opera was to reveal to Nigerians the extent of the brutality and ruthlessness with which our past leaders treated citizens. The result, at least as far as the Lagos sessions were concerned, fell far short of expectations.

For detainees like Mustapha and Bamaiyi, the sittings were more than an opportunity to stretch their legs and breathe the air of freedom, albeit fleetingly. At the end of the sessions, El-Mustapha left the populace with an image more of brilliance than of cruelty; Bamaiyi was a "democratic mole" in Abacha's government, whose support for complete withdrawal of the military from politics made him suspect in his own administration and a target of adverse security reports not to talk of his present predicament; Diya turned up like a complete nincompoop who planned a coup that failed from day one, who knelt and cried and begged like a baby and, to add salt to injury, denied before the world TV evidence of his disgraceful conduct; Adisa capitalized Diya's fibbing and captured some moral high ground: By conducting himself with an affectation of truthfulness, he was at least able to garner some of the respect Diya had lost, even if many were not inclined towards sympathy.

But by far the greatest coup of the sessions was that planned and executed to perfection by Bamaiyi. Out of nowhere, in his statements, the crafty general introduced a graphic description of his ordeal vis a vis that of OPC leader Frederick Faseun and succeeded in creating the impression that he was a victim of his "northernness" at the hands of a Lagos State Government determined to promote the interests of the descendants of "Oduduwa" against "Gambaris".

Bamaiyi's statement threw Lagos State Government on the defensive. The government has had to issue long Press Statements and take out paid advertisements to clear its name. The State Governor, Bola Tinubu, with characteristic haste, responded with Chicagoan ineloquence to what he saw as a personal swipe. About the same time, the governments of Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi States issued a joint statement condemning the continued detention of their "sons" (Bamaiyi, Abacha, Yakubu and El-Mustapha )while Faseun was released. The Kano State government followed suit. Sule Lamido, our foreign minister (in case you have understandably forgotten we have one) added his weight (or rather, weightlessness) to these voices (some say he is clairvoyant and has seen the president's new-year ministerial list). And now the Weekly Trust, the respected voice of the north has articulated this grievance and brought it up for public discourse. In the sudden emergence of this wave of sympathy the hidden hand of Abacha acolytes who benefited from the plunder of this nation's treasury and who continue to walk in the corridors of power can not be ruled out. Too many governors and ministers, federal and state legislators and party bigwigs fall into this category to be ignored. Yet, unpalatable as it may end up being, this attempt to turn the trial of Abacha et al into an "anti-North" agenda, or to turn those persons into heroes of the North and/or Islam must be exposed for what it is: a self-serving attempt at hoodwinking the North, and dragging it once more into the abyss of moral decadence, sacrificing the values for which it is known on the altar of myopic political goals. What are the issues?

First, there is no logical comparison between the OPC mayhem, for which Faseun is alleged to have some responsibility, and the crimes for which these characters are being tried. The Lagos mayhem is one of a pattern that has taken place all over the country particularly since Obasanjo came to power. There were similar occurrences in Sagamu, Kano, Kaduna, Umuleri, etc. The failure to stop these massacres and bring anyone to book is an indictment of the security apparatus of this government and evidence of the incompetence of our president as Chief Security Officer, Afolabi (the Internal Affairs Minister), Musiliu Smith (the Inspector General of Police), Bola Ige (Attorney-General) and the head of SSS. What the North, and the nation, are faced with is the stark incompetence of the man chosen by northern politicians as the messiah destined to lead this country to the promised land. The point here is that the Lagos mayhem and its aftermath can not be judged by any standards higher or lower than the mayhems in Kano, Kaduna, Onitsha and other parts of this country. In spite of the fact that religious groups played a role in the religious crises in Kaduna, for instance, leaders of CAN and JNI were not prosecuted for murder. This is the logical parallel to Faseun's case, not the case of Bamaiyi and Abacha. Indeed, were we to pursue a logical course of reasoning, what we should ask is why Ibrahim Coomassie, Abacha's Inspector-General of Police, for instance is still walking free inspite of the damning revelations of erstwhile Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Tsav.

Second, Abacha, Mustapha and Bamaiyi are held for specific murders or attempted murders of Nigerians. For northerners who are Muslims, it is important to remember that Kudirat Abiola was a devout Muslim wife who abided by Allah's injunction on standing by her Muslim husband at all times. She was murdered in cold blood. One of the cases being investigated is the murder of Shehu 'Yar Adua, a Muslim, and chairman of the Islam in Africa Organization, through what is suspected to be injection of murderous substances into his system. In any event, Islam respects sanctity of life, Muslim or non-Muslim. These and other dastardly crimes were committed by, or on the orders of, people who lack a fear of God and whose hunger for power and ill-gotten wealth knew no bounds. They were not acts committed in the name of the North or Islam, in the interest of the North or Islam or in keeping with the moral standards of the North or Islam. Not one of their accusers has insinuated that their act reflects the values and political strategy of northerners and Muslims, unless one were to give undeserved hearing to the vacuous soliloquy of Lam Adesina , Oyo State’s tribalistic Chief Executive. The governors of "Shariah States" who now support these suspected criminals do so in gross violation of the clear guidelines of the Qur'an and the Shariah they claim to implement. The Quran explicitly enjoins Muslims to be steadfast in justice, true witnesses to God, even against themselves, their parents and close relations, rich or poor.

Finally, the attempt to make these suspected criminals the substance of a "Northern" issue constitutes evidence of political insomnia. The reason the north is in its present political predicament, out of power and seemingly boxed in by enemies weakened and marginalized, is precisely the activity of these persons when they were in power. The silence of the north at that time made it possible for those who, in the best of times, could never seriously aspire to leadership, to capture the moral high ground. The North's path back to power does not lie in moral bankruptcy, but in a return to the path of moral rectitude. The first step is to wash our hands off these characters and allow them to face the fate Allah has written for them, and work with other Nigerians to ensure that never again, from the north or anywhere, shall a group of people visit upon families in this country the suffering visited upon many innocent Nigerian families by Abacha, his family and their security men. It is only in this way that we can affirm our own lack of complicity in those actions and denounce those who seek to paint us all as thieves and murderers. Those politicians who were part of the system and benefited from those crimes must have the courage to speak as individuals, not as spokespersons for the north or Islam.



This is the only path of sanity.





The writer is a manager at United Bank for Africa, Lagos

This was an article written far back 2001 by Sanusi in defence of Fasehun. He took the north to the cleaners for insinuating that since OPC's Fasehun had been released, the north's Bamaiyi and co were unjustly languishing in jail. Sanusi disagreed with Sokoto, Kebbi,Zamfara and Kano states govts saying their comparison of Fasehun and Bamaiyi was null and void.

. . . Make I run comot b4 mrtarajji come bak

Did Fasehun read Sanusi's comments on Hausa/Fulani too? If he hasn't, I can get him some. I have over 30 of Sanusi's articles on  my system.

Then he will know Sanusi's attack on bad leaders transcends tribe.

Northern agenda

Gani is irreplaceable. Gani was the only activist in Nigeria that was never involved in any scandal, true or false.

[quote author=Black_Revo link=topic=319796.msg4490279#msg4490279 date=1252233537]Keyamo and Ribadu are the likely candidate[/quote]Keyamo? I doubt. Ribadu is not an activist.

Inna Lilahi Wa Inna Ilaehi Rajiun.
Saw ds on NL. Gani the law, the father of the poor, the voice of the voiceless, the megaphone of the oppressed. Farewell Gani, omo Alhaja Munirat, oko Ganiyat.  

Tears from Jarus' eyes.

LOL @ fidelio's advice.

Ok, let me attempt to send that thread to Peterside and see if he's ready to comment on the knocks and kudos Nairalanders gave him.

MY LASTEST EXCHANGE WITH DELE MOMODU
Dear Nairalanders,
Sequel to the request here that I get their messages across to DM, I sent him this mail:

Dear Dele,

Although, I'm also not much of your fan, I must commend you for responding to my mail despite your tight schedule as a publisher and columnist.

I personally do not see anything wrong in your ovation, my concern is what you write in your PENdulum column. I disagree with you on most issues, and most recently the issue of Sanusi's bank reforms, while I recognise your entitlement to any opinion.

But if you care to take on my colleagues in Nairaland, I can facilitate this. We can open a thread/topic where you can answer all questions posed for you. Insultive and uncomplimentary posts will not be allowed. The dialogue is to be civil and for mature minds.

If you don't mind, get in contact with me and meet Nairalanders.

Regards,
Jarus of Nairaland

. . . and almost immediately he replied thus:

My dear brother,
Nice of you to get back to me,
You can be sure that my best friends are the youths of Nigeria. I'm aware that some of them may be too young to know me and my activities over the years. But I CONTINUE TO ENJOY INCREDIBLE SUPPORT from those who have taken the pains to check out my activities. I did not arrive here in one day. I'm ready to answer all questions, but would ignore character assassination that may not be relevant to our discourse.
I will never ignore an opportunity to inform our friends no matter how insultive they may be. Agba waa bura bewe o ba se o ri!!!
I'm ready, dear brother, when you are ready,
You can text me your number on +44795696xxxx[b], (number not completed for obvoius reason)
Best wishes to you and your family,

DELE MOMODU
London[/b]

If you have specific questions you want to direct to DM, send to me and I will get them across to him. I don't want to convince him to join Nairaland himself  as some people may go overboard and might lead to exchange of tantrums and it will be embarrassing to have news across the country that Dele and some people are exchanging vituperations on NL.

Let's see what we can do. . . .

ezeagu:
You see a burning building and you wait and look?

Ok. . .make i comot shap shap

Na wa o. See wetin ds thread don turn to.

Make I siddon dey look

nuzo:
The commonest and easiest way for a criminal to walk free or for charlatan to defend injustice in nigeria and win is to make his case tribal.

Exactly. Plus religion.
If a thief steals and is caught, all he needs do is to shout ". . . it's because i'm a Yoruba(or Ibo or Hausa)" or '. . . I'm being persecuted just because I'm a Christian(or Muslim)
The matter will completely change and you will find millions queueing behind him and the stealing case(even if what he steals is still in his hand) will be relegated to the background.

bboiabb:
o boy, who ever wrote this na correct pesin, infact, drogba is MASTER offside, he like 2 use offside 2 scoer goals, chaii, the kind thing where he dey do, ehh

Drogba don hit you?

alleno:
Administrator,

Beware, because of some stupid posts you have allowed, see what is happening.
People will start getting cautious now o! You should monitor this thing properly oga,

Bros, take it easy, don't be afraid, nobody will arrest you.

What is happening? Nothing is happening. This is the essence of forums like this. Nairaland is gradually becoming the reference platform for tabling national issues and the people being discussed need to know something is been said of them. It's no crime.

What's the point trying to criticize a person if he doesn't know. This is why I personally prefer to make my opinions known through pages of newspaper, rather than underground voice. I facilitated Dele's knowing what is going because I believe he needed to know what he has done wrong. I also wanted to get the thread 'ATEDO PETERSIDE KNOCKS SOLUDO' across to Atedo Peterside to see comments about his London speech, but I restrained from doing that because I know if he sees my surname, he will ask my brother who is very close to him, and I don't want bros to know about my NL activities.

So, dude, be a man! Dele Momodu will not beat you.

Wow. . . see self-foot-shooting.
Now we can see why he was so aggressive. He is a related party to one of the debtors

After sending him the threads that discuss him, Mr. Momodu replied this morning and gave me right to publish:

[b]Dear Jarus,
Many thanks for your mail.

My attention had been drawn to the hate attack on my person on Nairaland.

I can never join issues with fellow Nigerians who have the right to hate and attack people they disagree with it. And in particular someone they don't know obviously.

I wish all of you well in your chosen endeavours, and pray that God will crown your efforts with success,

I hope you'll kindly check out the OVATION INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE(LOUD FOR A PURPOSE) on Facebook and join the great things that God is doing in our lives, Just as there are a few people on Nairaland who wish Ovation dead, let's consider the over 7,000 fans of Ovation on Facebook, Their opinion counts as well. If 20 out of 100 disagree with our huge success in African journalism, that's a fair deal.

Our dream is to be a global brand, and God is supporting us definitely. That is why the OVATION FRENCH EDITION has maintined a beautiful office, where Nigerians are employed, in Cotonou, for over three years now. We also have our production office in Ghana where electricity is fairly stable to reduce our overhead costs, and to promote the best of Nigeria abroad. We opened a beautiful restaurant, HOUSE OF OVATION in Ghana, to cater to the unique tastes of Nigerian tourists and investors in Ghana. We have been worthy Ambassadors of Nigeria in over 60 countries, and we've been well-applauded for our breath-taking efforts.

To borrow MKO abiola's favourite saying, EGAN KO PE KOYIN MADUN, NO AMOUNT OF HATRED CAN CHANGE THE TASTE OF HONEY, Rather destroy my work, why don't you just do yours, and make it better than mine. The same energy being dissipated at killing Ovation can only produce a better magazine that can showcase the lifestyle of poor Nigerians. There is room for more magazines considering our huge population.

I give you the right, dear brother, to post my comment wherever you choose.

My love to you and your family,

DELE MOMODU
London[/b]

Much as I also disagree with him on many grounds, I plead with all nairalanders to thread softly with him. He appears concerned about our criticisms and I hope he will also learn one or two things.

Just saw this.

First, I need to make it clear that I do not support Sanusi because he's perfect or infallible. In fact, I have disagreed with him on one or two issues. I stoutly defend him to the extent that his actions appear right to me, and most times, they are. Two, I dislike it when people ignorantly criticize a person without knowing the person. Before I became a fan of Sanusi, I thoroughly researched him and formed opinion on his capacity. This is why I have taken it upon myself, on NL and beyond, to educate people on this man and make them shed their warped mindset that nothing good can come from him, simply because he's from a region not particularly known for producing the best brains, intellectually speaking. The only reason why some people hate SLS is because he is a northerner. They don't want to give him a chance.

Having said that, I need to restate that I don't follow or support anybody blindly.

Now to your poser, how about the unilateral printing of N420B?

This question pre-supposes I look at it from two perspectives:
1, The legality of the action
2, The economic implications

As far as I know, the CBN has right to print money if the need arises, and the need in this case is liquidity support. I'm not aware of any provision that says otherwise. This is done pursuant to it's statutory duties. It is therefore in order, from legal perspective.

It is on the economic implications that I have concerns. Printing and injecting such quantum of money into the financial system, without rise in real production, could generate inflationary pressure. This is a well-known, age-long economic principle. This expalins why many countries hesitate to exercise money printing option in times of dire economic situation.
However, in such state of liquidity strain, it is important to look at the other options open to salvage the situation. These are borrowing(debt) and quantitative easing.
The fact is all of them have short term effects, although most economies go for borrowing and then lending. I personally believe this is a price we have to pay as the whole thing is an evolutionary process.

[quote author=Xavier. link=topic=318495.msg4473054#msg4473054 date=1251965529]Mistakay

U took it right from my mouth.

Cant wait to see Jarus reaction to this new development.

Without doubt Jarus is an erudite, an articulate one at that. He is obviously well grounded in National and International economics and politics. He is one of those NLanders i usually read their last posts for the day before making contributions on the forum. Am itching to hear his view on the recent action of his mentor, SLS.[/quote]Yemmyse mi, emi ni kan tan!   Ma worry, ore ni wa, even though we are always at opposite sides of debates.
I no be eru-anything o. I don talk abi.

Carrying a cow on motor cycle. . . . I can't imagine this!

Other names for Zidane: Dean, Satellite,Baaba, Apari

Did someone say Adenuga has no pedigree C'mon people I think we sometimes need to do research beyond "pepper soup joint gist" and "biased Newspaper reports"

Just a tip ---That man Adenuga was the first person to ever ship to Nigeria car radios for vehicles that did not have them fitted from factory.

. . . nobody saw him then

That man will be a good mentor if you desire a "can do spirit"

The spirit that drove him to bid for Glo licence is enough to show his 'can do-ness', he lost 20million dollars in his first attempt as CIL, but came back again and bounced back with Glo.

If a governor starts a legal and political project and calls it “shari’ah”, and is able to recruit some scholars who support him, that does not make what he is doing to be Shari’ah. To conclude, let me restate here my position on these issues, which has been and will remain consistent come what may. I do not accept what is happening in some northern states today, where poor thieves are amputated and poor women are harassed for adultery by incompetent and thieving politicians to be Shari’ah, I will never defend it, and I will not stop criticizing it until the governors change. I do not believe that every Muslim minister is good and every non-Muslim minister is bad, or that we will have a good government if we fill it with Muslims. In any case I doubt that many Christians consider Obasanjo or many of the Christians around him as good examples of Christianity. I believe Obasanjo’s government has failed the nation in many respects, and that it deserves serious sanction; but I do not believe it failed because it has a majority of Christian ministers. Each person is an individual with personal virtues and vices, and we must be fair in our judgment of fellow human beings.

And a final word, for those who care to listen. There are people who can be cowered, bamboozled or intimidated by glorified almajirai. I am not one of them. Period.

. . . being the conclusive paragraph of an article Sanusi wrote in 2005.

Who will rid our journalism of 'story cooks' too?

We need more Sanusis pls!

Aremugangan,
Over to you

Sky Blue:
I think you might be failing to see the bigger picture and perhaps the underlying reasoning as to why some might not be willing to embrace Sanusi. I found a brief interview with Sanusi about the Nigerian economy, financial sector, failing banks, etc to be interesting and informative. He sounded competent and knew what he was talking about which was quite promising. However I will not judge him by his words alone for actions and not words are the real test of convictions. Many infamous figures in history, the world over demonstrated eloquence and sagacity, the issue is actions, hence I believe based on his seeming intelligence he should be given room to act before we can judge or castigate him. He seems well qualified for the job.

Now the other edge of the sword and perhaps you would now understand how this goes beyond Sunusi Lamido. One has to wonder when idealism will actually birth concrete actions to back it up. The ideal would be getting the best man for the job and if someone said Sanusi was it I would not argue. Now why can't this be applied every single time? Why does it seem that idealism in that respect is always called for when it fits a specific agenda? I personally could not care less about where the person in the helm of affairs comes from as long as the job for once actually gets done but it would be disenginuous and perhaps even wicked to label people who rightly recognise the hypocricy of the federal government as tribalist. Since the federal government has been so hell bent on forcing Nigerians to accept the compromise of federal character why does it seem that they always change the position of the goal post when it would favour a particular section of the country? Is such a recogntion of the mediocrity and incompetence that the system of 'federal character' (along with quota system, zoning of presidency, etc) generally produces or is it just ethnic bigotry? If this idea of 'federal character' cannot be consistently stuck to then why is it not just abolished? You can now easily see how something as simple as this can raise even deeper issues and questions about the 'fundamentals' of the foundation of the nation which are marred with injustice.

Well said. At least you recognize Sanusi's competence but only find uncomfortable the manner they brought him to power.

I personally do not believe in this Federal Character thing. I believe the best man should be given the job irrespective of where he comes from, but in a very heterogenous nation like ours, it is almost inevitable, and more importantly, since it has been entrenched into the constitution, we have to live by it.

We therefore need to strike a balance between meritocracy and federal character. Whichever zone is going to produce candidate for a seat, let the best man from that zone be given the job.

On the issue of the key economic managers coming from Kano, I personally believe Sanusi is the best of them all. I wont mind seeing Shamsudeen Usman or Mansur Mukhtar removed from their posts to have Sanusi as CBN governor. I'm saying, without any reservation, that Sanusi, is as good as, if not better than , most of the folks we adore as whizkids in the South. If this guy had not been an 'aboki' he would have been hailed as a genuis like Soludo.

Once again, Sky Blue, I agree the process of his appointment violates the Federal Character principle, but this is not Sanusi's fault. He did not appoint himself.

Ibime:
Mike Adenuga who has long served as a conduit for a lot of IBB's financial mago-mago?


Oya, this is the Abacha appreciation thread.

Under Abacha, inflation jumped to 60%, civil servants were not paid, and democracy was stifled by machine guns. However, the Super Eagles were always well sponsored. The South Africa 1996 debacle notwithstanding, we must show appreciation for Abacha because he was the no1 football fan in Nigeria.

Similarly, I would like to laud the efforts of Rotimi Amaechi who has invested several Ghana must go bags into the progress of the Super Eagles, and currently heads the Presidential committee to ensure that Super Eagles qualify for WC2010. Pls dont mention the N500 bn that recently went missing from Rivers State coffers.

This is funny. 

More seriously, I am one of the very few people that believe Mike Adenuga got his wealth through hardwork, resilience and 'can-do' spirit. The truth is when you're rich to certain extent, you can't help dining with the presidents. But working to the extent of meeting President is itself no mean feat. This is political economy.
I don't have time to discuss this here, but the whole issue of Adenuga fronting for IBB is exaggerated.

I hold on to my belief.

Mike Adenuga Appreciation Thread

This thread is opened to appreciate the efforts of Dr. Michael Adeniyi Adenuga for his unwaivering support for Nigerian football.

Despite the frustration from goverment, especially the punishment meted to him by Obasanjo for not supporting Transcorp, the man has not relented in his efforts to uplift Nigeria's football.

His latest gesture is donating N35million to prosecute the game versus Tunisia this weekend. Remember, his company sponsors Nigeria's football supporters club. He also singly paid the salary of former national team coach, Berti Vogts. He has also bailed out national teams from precarious financial conditions in the past. This is not to mention his sponsoring the domestic league.

Mike Adenuga is a patriotic Nigerian, with the country's interest at heart, a pure altruist, not among the noise making donors.

Well done, Niyi; well done, The Bull.

Rashidi Yekini - Baba Yeco