₦airaland Forum

still wandering why they sacked samson siasia...............

Received. Thanks boss

I've got another VIN boss see below

4T1BE46K89U909440

email:yclickii@yahoo.co.uk

Please its very urgent and I need to get feed back within the hour.

Thanks Boss (Sending Your Credit Now) (Visafone),

Got the report. Thanks as usual......

Kindly assist in checking the VIN's below

4T4BE46K59R102105

email:yclickii@yahoo.co.uk

Please its very urgent and I need to get feed back within the hour.

Thanks Boss (Sending Your Credit Now) (Visafone),

My brother.......many thanks .

Kindly assist in checking the VIN's below

4T4BE46K29R107956

4T1BE46K59U837953

email:yclickii@yahoo.co.uk

Please its very urgent and I need to get feed back within the hour.

Thanks Boss (Sending Your Credit Now) (Visafone),

Oga ...Thanks as usual....Your the man

Kindly assist in checking the VIN below

4T1BE46K89U371712

email:yclickii@yahoo.co.uk

Please its very urgent and I need to get feed back within the hour.

Thanks Boss (Sending Your Credit Now) (Visafone),

You've made a good point....But what you should note is that most people who buy second hand cars usually plan to sell off such cars in the future, hence one of the reasons why they would prefer a low mileage car.

For example I buy a car with a 40k mileage, use it for say 3 to 4yrs and in that time I add 40k mileage to it. Bringing the total mileage to around 80k. Selling the car will still be a lot easier and I would still be able to get a good price for it....

Guys/Bebs that attended Single Sex schools usually turn out to be great achievers in life. They are goal-getters, very serious minded(look around and check statistics).

This to me out-ways all other disadvantages.

Yeah Keep telling yourself that, say it a 100 times and it would probably begin to sound true.
Just absolute hugwash,

Is this not the Ghana that our public officials have been using as excuse/reason that we need to remove subsidy. Has Ghana now not toed the same line that we practically had to force our leaders to follow.

Fact is that you don't need to compare yourself with other countries, simple do what works for your own country.

My brother, now you are understanding the gist of the matter,

As Nigeria spirals into instability, historian and economic researcher Frederick William Engdahl argues a recent government decision to lift subsidies on imported fuel in the oil-rich nation bears the mark of Washington Consensus shock therapy.
In the article below, Engdahl explains his view.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its largest oil producer, is from all evidence being systematically thrown into chaos and a state of civil war. The recent surprise decision by the government of Goodluck Jonathan to abruptly lift subsidies on imported gasoline and other fuel has a far more sinister background than mere corruption, and the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) is playing a key role. China appears to be the likely loser along with Nigeria’s population.
The recent strikes protesting the government’s abrupt elimination of gasoline and other fuel subsidies, that brought Nigeria briefly to a standstill, came as a surprise to most in the country. Months earlier, President Jonathan had promised the major trade union organizations that he would conduct a gradual four-stage lifting of the subsidy to ease the economic burden. Instead, without warning he announced an immediate full removal of subsidies effective January 1, 2012. It was “shock therapy” to put it mildly.
Nigeria today is one of the world’s most important producers of light, sweet crude oil—the same high-quality crude oil that Libya and the British North Sea produce. The country is showing every indication of spiraling downward into deep disorder. Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier of oil to the United States and twelfth largest oil producer in the world on a par with Kuwait and just behind Venezuela with production exceeding two million barrels a day.
The curious timing of IMF subsidy demand
Despite its oil riches, Nigeria remains one of Africa’s poorest countries. The known oilfields are concentrated around the vast Niger Delta roughly between Port Harcourt and extending in the direction of Lagos, with large new finds being developed all along the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.Nigeria’s oil is exploited and largely exported by the Anglo-American giants—Shell, Mobil, Chevron, Texaco. Italy’s Agip also has a presence and most recently, to no one’s surprise, the Chinese state oil companies began seeking major exploration and oil infrastructure agreements with the Abuja government.
Ironically, despite the fact that Nigeria has abundant oil to earn dollar export revenue to build its domestic infrastructure, government policy has deliberately let its domestic oil refining capacity fall into ruin. The consequence has been that most of the gasoline and other refined petroleum products used to drive transportation and industry, has to be imported, despite the country’s abundant oil. In order to shield the population from the high import costs of gasoline and other refined fuels, the central government has subsidized prices.
Until January 1, 2012, that is. That was the day when, without advance warning President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan announced immediate removal of all fuel subsidies. Prices for gasoline shot up almost threefold in hours from 65 naira (35 cents of a dollar) a liter to 150 naira (93 cents). The impact rippled across the economy to everything including prices of grains and vegetables.
In justifying the move, Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi insisted that “The monies will be used in provision of social amenities and infrastructural development that will benefit Nigerians more and save the country from economic rift.”President Goodluck Jonathan says he is phasing out the subsidy as a part of a move to “clean up the Nigerian government.” If so, how he plans to proceed is anything but apparent.
The huge unexpected price hike for domestic fuel triggered nationwide protests that threatened to bring the economy to a halt by mid-January. The president deftly took the wind out of protester sails by announcing a partial rollback in prices, still leaving prices effectively double that of December. The trade union federation immediately called off the protests. Then, revealingly, Goodluck Jonathan’s government ordered the military to take to the streets to “keep order” and de facto prevent new protests. All that took place during one of the bloodiest waves of bombings and murder rampages by the terrorist Boko Haram sect creating a climate of extreme chaos.
The smoking gun of the IMF
What has been buried from international accounts of the unrest is the explicit role the US-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF) played in the situation. With suspicious timing IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde was in Nigeria days before the abrupt subsidy decision of President Jonathan. By all accounts, the IMF and the Nigerian government have been careful this time not to be blatant about openly announcing demands to ends subsidies as they were in Tunisia before food protests became the trigger for that country’s Twitter putsch in 2011.
During her visit to Nigeria Lagarde said President Jonathan's 'Transformation Agenda' for deregulation "is an agenda for Nigeria, driven by Nigerians. The IMF is here to support you and be a better partner for you." Few Nigerians were convinced.On December 29 Reuters wrote, "The IMF has urged countries across West and Central Africa to cut fuel subsidies, which they say are not effective in directly aiding the poor, but do promote corruption and smuggling. The past months have seen governments in Nigeria, Guinea, Cameroon and Chad moving to cut state subsidies on fuel."
Further confirming the role US and IMF pressure on the Nigerian government played, Jeffery Sachs, Special Adviser to the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, during a meeting with President Jonathan in Nigeria in early January days after the subsidy decision, declared Jonathan's decision to withdraw petroleum subsidy “a bold and correct policy.”
Sachs, a former Harvard economics professor, became notorious during the early 1990s for prescribing IMF “shock therapy” for Poland, Russia, Ukraine and other former communist states, which opened invaluable state assets for de facto plundering by dollar-rich western multinationals.
Even more suspicious is the manner in which Washington and the IMF are putting pressure on only select countries to end subsidies. Nigeria, whose oil today sells for the equivalent of $1 a liter or roughly $3.78 a US gallon, is far from cheap. Brunei, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia all offer their petrol very cheap to their people. The Saudis sell their oil at 17 cents, Kuwait at 22 cents. In the US gasoline averages 89 cents a liter.
That means the IMF and Washington have forced one of the poorest economies in Africa to impose a huge tax on its citizens on the implausible argument it will help eliminate corruption in the state petroleum sector. The IMF knows well that the elimination of subsidies will do nothing about corruption in high places.
Were the IMF and World Bank genuinely concerned with the health of the domestic Nigerian economy, they would have provided support for rebuilding and expanding a domestic oil refinery industry that has been allowed to rot, so that the country need no longer import refined fuels using precious state budget resources.The easiest way to do that would be to expedite a two-year-old deal between China and the Nigerian government to invest some $28 billion in massive expansion of the oil refinery sector, to eliminate need for importing foreign gasoline and other refined products.
Quite the opposite—the criminal cabal inside the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and the Government making huge profits on the old subsidy system are suddenly making double and potentially triple more to maintain the old corrupt import system, and, of course, to sabotage Chinese refinery construction that could put an end to their gravy train.
Cutting their nose to spite the face…
Rather than benefit ordinary Nigerians as the IMF proclaims to want, the elimination of the subsidies has further pauperized the 90 per cent living on less than $2 a day, according to Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Nigerian Central Bank governor. An estimated 40 million Nigerians are unemployed in the country of 148 million.
Because transport costs are a significant factor in delivery of food to the cities, food price inflation has soared along with costs of public transportation for the majority of poorer Nigerians. According to the Nigerian Leadership Sunday, “prices of commodities which shot up as a fallout of the fuel pump price increase have refused to come down.” Everything from street vegetable sellers to carwashes to roadside photographers are feeling the shock of the rise in fuel prices. Unemployment is rising as small businesses fold.
The argument of the IMF and the Jonathan administration is that by freeing fuel prices, funds would be available to more social services and rebuilding Nigeria’s “infrastructure.” Both the IMF and the government know it would have been far more economically viable to replace the current corrupt system of importing refined gasoline and fuels with investing in rebuilding Nigeria’s domestic refining capacity.
Son Gyoh of the Nigerian Awareness for Development organization asks, “Would it not be more expedient to pressure government to service the refineries to full production capacity, given the implications on overhead and competitiveness for local industries?”
Gyoh pointed to the source of the problem: “Why have successive governments left the refineries in a state of disrepair while spending huge on subsidy? Is there any chance that the savings from subsidy withdrawal will go directly into rehabilitating the refineries? Does deregulation imply NNPC will no longer operate a monopoly in importation of refined petroleum product, or is this lobby a self-serving lifeline to continue its monopoly? ” He concludes, “In any case, there is good reason to doubt subsidy removal will solve the fuel scarcity problem as the cabal will only regroup to change tactics, a fact Nigerians are only too aware of.”
After Nigeria partly nationalized its oil sector in the late 1970s, it also took control of Shell Oil’s Port Harcourt I refinery. In 1989, Port Harcourt II refinery was built. Both refineries fell into serious disrepair after 1994, when the Abacha military dictatorship cut the “take” of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company NNPC from domestic sale of refined oil products such as gasoline from 84% to 22%. That caused a cash crisis for NNPC and a halt to refinery maintenance. Today only one of four refineries operates at all.
What developed since was a system of NNPC importing foreign gasoline and other refined products for Nigeria’s domestic needs, naturally at a far more expensive cost. The price subsidies were to relieve that higher import cost, hardly a sensible solution but a very lucrative one for those corrupt elements in the state and private sector making a killing, literally, off the import process.
NNPC criminal enterprise
The IMF is well aware of the real cause of Nigeria’s fuel industry problems. A Nigerian legislative committee examining the sources of the industry’s problems recently released a report documenting that at least $4 billion annually is taken from taxpayers in fuel industry corruption with the state Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) at the center. According to the commission, “every day, fuel importers drop off 59 million liters of fuel. The country consumes 35 million liters daily. That leaves 24 million liters of oil available for smugglers to export, paid for by government fuel subsidies. This costs the Nigerian people roughly $4 billion yearly, according to Reuters.”
The Nigerian government has said that the 7.5 billion dollars spent yearly on fuel subsidies could be used to provide desperately needed infrastructure. But they omit any mention of the rampant siphoning off of $4 billion of oil by black market smugglers, reportedly with connivance of high NNPC government officials, to sell to neighboring countries at a hefty profit. The refined imported fuel is reportedly smuggled into neighboring countries like Cameroon, Chad and Niger where petrol prices are far higher, according to Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Deputy Governor of Kano State.
China as IMF target?
One major geopolitical factor that is generally ignored in recent discussion of Nigerian oil politics is the growing role of China in the country. In May 2010, only days after President Jonathan was sworn in, China signed an impressive $28.5 billion deal with his government to build three new refineries, something that in no way fits into the plans of either the IMF, or of Washington, or of the Anglo-American oil majors.
China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) signed the deal to build three oil refineries with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), in the biggest deal China has made with Africa. Shehu Ladan, head of NNPC, said at the signing ceremony that the added refineries would reduce the $10 billion spent annually on imported refined products. As of January 2012, the three Chinese refinery projects were still in the planning stage, reportedly blocked by the powerful vested interests gaining from the existing corrupt import system.
A report in China Daily last November quoted Nigeria’s Olusegun Olutoyin Aganga, the minister of trade and investment, that Nigeria was seeking added Chinese investors for its energy, mining and agribusiness industries. Last September on a visit to Beijing, Nigeria central bank governor Lamido Sanusiannounced his country planned to invest 5 per cent to 10 per cent of its foreign exchange reserves in China's currency, the renminbi (RMB) or yuan, noting that he sees the yuan becoming reserve currency. In 2010 China's loans and exports to Nigeria exceeded $7 billion, while Nigeria exported $1 billion of crude oil, Sanusi stated.
Until now Nigeria has held some 79% of her foreign currency reserves in dollars, the rest in Euro or Sterling, all of which look dicey given their financial and debt problems. The move of a major oil producer away from dollars, added to similar moves recently by India, Japan, Russia, Iran and others, augurs bad news for the continued role of the dollar as dominant world reserve currency. Clearly some in Washington would not be happy with that.
The Chinese are also bidding to get a direct stake in Nigeria’s rich oil reserves, until now an Anglo-American domain. In July 2010, China's CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation) won four prospective oil blocks – two in the Niger Delta and two in the frontier Chad Basin, with plans to become core investor in the Kaduna refinery, and construction of a double track Lagos-Kano railway. China’s oil company, CNOOC Ltd also has a major offshore production area in Nigeria.
The IMF and Washington pressure to lift subsidies on imported fuels is at this point in question, as is the future of China in Nigeria’s energy industry. Clear is that lifting subsidies in no way will benefit Nigerians. More alarming in this context is the orchestration of a major new wave of terror killings and bombings by the mysterious and suspiciously well-armed Boko Haram. This we will look at next in the context of Nigeria’s recent transformation into a major narcotics hub.

F. William Engdahl, author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order

They call the Third World the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.
“It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,” the man next to me said. “Get up and do something about it.”
Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year’s Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.
“My name is Walter,” he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat.
I told him mine with a precautious smile.
“Where are you from?” he asked.
“Zambia.”
“Zambia!” he exclaimed, “Kaunda’s country.”
“Yes,” I said, “Now Sata’s.”
“But of course,” he responded. “You just elected King Cobra as your president.”
My face lit up at the mention of Sata’s moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S.
“I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,” he continued. “I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. SitekeMwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.” He lowered his voice. “I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off.” He smirked. “Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all—the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.”
“Are you still with the IMF?” I asked.
“I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We’ll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater.”
“No, you won’t,” I said. “King Cobra is incorruptible. He is …”
He was laughing. “Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick.”
QuettMasire’s name popped up.
“Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do.”
At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.
“Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said looking down.
From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably.
“That’s white man’s country,” he said. “We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia.”
I grinned. “There is no Lake Zambia.”
He curled his lips into a smug smile. “That’s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels—crumbs. That’s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get—Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World.”
The smile vanished from my face.
“I see you are getting pissed off,” Walter said and lowered his voice. “You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That’s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let’s for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?”
“There’s no difference.”
“Absolutely none,” he exclaimed. “Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they
were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same.”
I gladly nodded.
“And yet I feel superior,” he smiled fatalistically. “Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he’s a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend.”
For a moment I was wordless.
“Please don’t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.”
I was thinking.
He continued. “Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense.”
I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst.
“You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy,” he said. “When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.”
“That’s not a nice thing to say,” I protested.
He was implacable. “Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?”
I held my breath.
“Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don’t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.”
He looked me in the eye.
“And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don’t care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked—oh, I have a PhD in this and that—PhD my foot!”
I was deflated.
“Wake up you all!” he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. “You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them.”
He paused. “The Bwana has spoken,” he said and grinned. “As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.”
He tempered his voice. “Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god’s sake.”
At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand.
“I know I was too strong, but I don’t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.” He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. “Here, read this. It was written by a friend.”
He had written only the title: “Lords of Poverty.”
Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia’s literati—the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed—how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.
Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.

Article By Anonymous

Thanks Boss,

Kindly assist in checking the VIN below

4T1BE32K43U647603

email:yclickii@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks Boss (Sending Your Credit Now) (Glo),

Thanks for the feedback. But am a bit apprehensive about just giving it to any mechanic, they might just mess it all up,

My top 10 best android apps are

1. Rainbow Six HD (Game app)
2.Do it Tomorrow (To do list app)
3.GO SMS Pro (SMS app)
4.GO Book (Book Reader app)
5.Juice Defender Ultimate (Battery saver app)
6.VPlayer (Video Player app)
7.Smart App protector (Security lock for apps)
8.SoundHound (Helps identify songs)
9.ES File Explorer app
10.Fora Dictionary (Visual and Audio Dictionary app)

These I love and find very useful on my android phone,

Hello Nairalanders,

I just acquired toyota camry, but the car came with tinted glass (non factory fitted). Does anyone now where I can get the glass film removed. Any Help would be most appreciated. I have been harassed by several police men already.

Thanks in anticipation

I have come to three conclusions regarding Beef,

1) He is being paid by nairaland creators to keep the threading interesting by posting controversial comments and topics. Hereby keeping people intrested and login on to NL

2) That he is a bored and lonely geek who catches his fun by raising controversy and arguments on online platforms

3) This I would live tor you nairalanders to fill in the blanks--------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the way sorry to all for going off topic

Abeg end this f**king thread,

Why is this even a topic, what's our business with what the US tells its citizen, abeg lets talk about more important things like fuel subsidy and its impact on our lives,

On a cool sunny afternoon in England, I had hoped into my car for a short ride to the city centre. The street was colourful with red and green decorations and large size banners beneath the glass frames of most shops announcing huge discount sales. The Shoppers dragging their huge buy from the xmas sales was another amusing sight. I glanced sometimes in admiration as I drove by. Suddenly I was pulled over by a Police officer who requested for my driver’s license. My heart beat skipped as I had a fast trip down memory lane; I have failed my UK driving test three times in a space of two years.
I handed the officer my particulars along with a Nigerian International driver’s license issued to me a year after my departure from Nigeria; it was my second year living in the UK. In an organised society like that, he could determine in a blink of his eyes who I was, my status in the country and how long I have been around. Upon examination of my documents, this conversation ensued:
POLICE OFICER: Do you realise that this license is only valid within your first year of staying in the UK?
ME: I didn’t know that.
POLICE OFICER: I am afraid I am going to have to issue you a producer as ignorance is not an excuse for breaking the Law.
ME: what is a producer office?
POLICE OFICER: It’s a warrant to produce a valid UK license at your local police station in 7day or face a court action.

I took the warrant knowing that I do not have a valid UK license, I was expecting the worst; a court summon. My friends advised me wait for it and just plead guilty on paper so there won’t be need to hold a court session. In a period of weeks I got summoned with a subpoena, to either plead guilty or not guilty. If I signed under guilty the maximum punishment will be melted upon me without me having to turn up in court. However I pleaded not guilty and consequently was summoned in court in a fortnight. Decision not to plead guilty was just so I can get a chance in court to explain myself. Did I forget to mention that I have been driving in Nigeria 9 years before this?
Then came the day, I turned up in court at the stipulated time, my case was called and my charges read. Once again I pleaded not guilty. Minutes later, I was given a chance to explain why I was not guilty in such a glaring case. This is my testimony:
‘I came into this country with no intention of driving about two years ago; however considering the very cold weather, I decided to get myself a car for warmth. Following to my decision was the advice to get an International drivers license which will be valid for a year during which I should have taken my driving test in the UK and secured a UK drivers license. I did exactly that and here is the License’. I tendered my Nigerian international Drivers License to a court that was obviously amused at my headiness and anxious to see how my testimony could turn the case around. Boldly written on the cover of my license was “VALID FOR ONE YEAR FROM THE DATE OF ISSUE”. Convinced that they observed the validity advice on my licence, I continued ‘The Police Officer had understood that the one year validity on my Nigerian Licence started counting on the date I entered the country and not the day the driver’s license was issued. If you consider my case based on his understanding, I will be guilty as charged as I have lived in the UK for over a year; however my home country has provided me a license which counts from the date of issue’. Continuing with my address to the court, I drew the attention of the court to my desire to be law abiding. I said ‘since I started driving I had tried to be in good standing with the law by making efforts to secure my UK licence, I had unsuccessful attempts as I failed a few times but have not lost hope. I am tendering a provisional licence, theory test certificate and three (3) practical test failed results to support my claim’.
The jury looked at all my evidence and said ‘the court will reconvene in 15 minute to give a judgement on this case’. We all left the court room and returned promptly. I was highly tensed at this time but decided within me that whatever decision the court takes, I know I have given it my best shot.
The Judge read his judgement, ‘we have considered all the evidence tendered to the court both by the police and the accused and have reached the following verdict: Mr. Nkeokelonye is a victim of a gap in the law; as a Nigerian visitor leaving in the UK, he has complied with all the law as given to him by his home country. However this law does not align with what is acceptable in the UK and as such has put him in the position he is today. He has also shown willingness to transit to a full UK licensed driver by taking driving test some of which he is yet to pass. Considering all testimony and evidence here today I declare the accused NOT GUILTY!’
I was shocked at the verdict, ‘did I just avert a possible 2 year ban from driving and a possible fine? I could not wait to tell everyone that cared to listen about my escapade with the Law; that was a day I will never forget, Yes! I felt like Denny Crane all week.

Lesson learned
As the excitement settled in, I travelled down the sweet memory lane to reminisce my victory; the way I managed to pull it off tickled me. ‘Could the Judge have been faced with two huge challenges? To either ‘do the right thing or to do things right?’ I wondered. Fortunately for me she chose the latter as she would also be right if she had pronounced me guilty as charged.
Doing the right thing or doing things right?
These two paradigms have longed influenced leadership, administration and governance styles for years. While both set out to achieve the same goal, they most often end up with divergent results. You must be wondering what the difference between these two is?
Doing the right thing; is a decision matrix which is administrative in nature meaning the choice of right and wrong is based on a set of predetermined rules. It does not give room for any mitigating circumstance and would not consider same in its judgement. On the other hand, doing things right is a more dynamic decision matrix which takes cognisance of pre-existing rules while considering mitigating circumstances and the role of process in its judgment. It’s a deep and responsive alternative which utilises the full change management procedures in executing its judgment.

Better put, capturing and killing the leader of boko haram is ‘doing the right thing’ capturing and interrogating with an intent to identify and bring down the network and then prosecute is ‘doing things right’. Banning the importation of textile and furniture in a bid to empower local industry is ‘doing the right thing’ doing the same thing after creating enabling environment and adequate capacity building for local industries is ‘doing things right’. Most importantly paying off our national debt by Olusegun Obasanjo and Okonji Iweala in the past administration is ‘doing the right thing’. Furthering on that by using the same fund to perfect our poor powers supply system, empower the middle class through job creation, improving overall national productivity and increasing output to service our debt would have been ‘doing things right’.
Efficient and responsive leadership is characterised by the ‘doing things right’ model. The question to our leaders then is: ‘in your good intents, are you looking to ‘do things right’ or to ‘do the right thing’?

A dimension in governance
When applied to Governance, this paradigm difference creates a visible parity between the performances of elected government office holders. “ In essence, political governance is about managing the state, establishing transparency and accountability to the people, and promoting a sense of nationhood. In ensuring responsiveness and accountability to the people, good political governance institutionalises fair, equitable and transparent electoral, political and public oversight systems and practices. Political representatives are elected to office and held accountable for the affairs of the state, leaders are encouraged to adhere to a code of ethics, and oversight bodies ensure that the rights and interests of the people are always safeguarded” – Pacific 2020 BACKGROUND PAPER

I have watched with great amusement and deep regret at the death of people oriented governance in the top leadership of this our country.
The issue of the ‘Lekki toll’ as sensitive as it is, is a classical example of a government which has adapted the [doing things right] approach to political governance. Tolling did not commence until a considerable amount of work had been done and we all had a taste of things to come. This made it possible for road users to appreciate the work done and even helped the government at the negotiation table. As palliative measure, an alternative route was created for those who cannot afford the toll. A similar example is seen in the Lagos state waste disposal model; it has slowly creped in on the people with many not even knowing the price of this service. Some day the government is going to stamp its foot on collection of waste disposal levies however unlike fuel subsidy, the response would not be that of rejection but rather that of affordability. Little wonder the romance between the people and the Government.
Many modern societies all over the world have adopted the ‘doing things right’ model as growing trend. I personally witnessed the abolition of smoking in public place in the UK; the government published a set date almost a year in advance and continually communicated this to the populace over time. Within this period, offices, high footfall areas, bars and restaurant where fitted with either a smoking shed or a smoking section as a complimentary alternative for those who cannot do without. All this happened amid huge media campaign against smoking in totality.
I think it is ludicrous for any government that claims to be people oriented to attempt changing a bad system without first carrying out detailed impact analysis, working out an acceptable alternative and engaging a robust change management process to helps ease the impact on its citizenry.
I listen today on NTA international as Ngozi Okonjo Iweala responded when asked, if she thinks the communication and timing of this removal could have been handle a lot better? She just kept rambling about how they do not have a choice but to go this way.
The governor of the apex bank Sanusi lamido Sanusi is a Nigerian I respect a lot in his commitment to sanitisation as seen in his handling of the Banking sector crises. We all know he is currently championing an intervention of creating a cashless economy which he has created so much awareness about. He has engaged all the banks and service providers to bring required infrastructure up to scratch and went even further to select a pilot location (Lagos). May I ask why did he not effect the daily withdraw cap on personal and cooperate banking first while the banks and other stake holders continue pursuing infrastructure and capacity building?
Why would a government take a decision that promises to benefit me in the long haul when the same decision will ensure that I would not survive to see this glorious day? Why would we inflict excruciating hardship on our young and vulnerable in the name of trying to save a future they might not grow up to see because of our wrong decisions today?
There is no better definition of Incompetence than that of a government which decided to work around a 1% corrupt Cabal and punish the 99% vulnerable who had no role in bringing the economy to its current position. President Barack Obama preaches taking from the wealthy 10% to empower the struggling 90% poor but our president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan “who had no shoes” has decided to go the other direction while making the same promises that characterised his corrupt predecessors.
Minister of finance Ngozi Okonjo Iweala in one of her interviews made reference, to Ghana’s removal of fuel subsidy on the 29th of December 2011; she forgot to tell us why there was no protest or demonstration by the Ghanaian populace. Could it be that the Ghanaian government adopted the ‘do thing right model? It has now clear that the administrative governance of ‘doing the right thing’ at the expense of any consequence has become completely unattractive to the occupied generation that has suddenly found their voices thanks to alternative media.
As silly as it may sound I am beginning to find the collapse of the Nigerian Economy an attractive alternative as this will mean that there is nothing left to be stolen. Maybe then the untouchable cabals will give room for those who have the interest of the nation at heart to come into governance.
Nkeokelonye Godson Madu

I listened to this woman and instantly lost all respect for her, Its unbelievable the rubbish that is coming out of her mouth. Her inability to see that this policy will kill the people she is saying they want to save, Telling us that infant mortality is high and the money from the fuel subsidy will be put into improving health care,
1) If children are born and there is no food to eat, that is equivalent to infant mortality
2) You improve health care, but people cannot afford to take themselves and their infants to the hospital , that is equivalent to infant mortality and paternal mortality,

I can go on and on picking holes in her argument.

What I thinks is happening is that NIGERIA IS BROKE AND INDEBTED, They have spent all our money and are desperately looking for funds to run the government, and the number 1 culprit is the president and his cohorts, no, They wasted our entire resource on last years stupid elections and are now running all over the place looking for funds, This will explain the reason why they are levying aviation, why they want to put back the toll gates, the New plate numbers, the new drivers license, more clearing agencies at the port, THESE PEOPLE ARE DESPERATELY LOOKING FOR MONEY