₦airaland Forum

For our economy to grow we have to focus on local production for the consumption of Nigerians.

It is pretty straightforward to understand that import dependent economy is on its way down because the locals have to depend on loans for importation and with no commensurate local production to offset the loans they begin a downward spiral into economic slavery.

Being an export oriented economy on the other hand is bad but most people don't realise it because it is not as easy to understand as the case of importation.
An economy is made up of buying and selling but unknown to many people, one of the fundamental pre-requisites for a balanced market economy is that production as well as consumption must be local MOST of the time (say about 80% - 90%).

If an economy is dependent on exportation, then there must be another economy that is ready to consume what the export dependent economy is exportng. Since, all nations put their self interest first, in most cases the export dependent economy must agree to also become an import dependent economy which brings us back to the easy and straight-forward case of import dependent economies.

It happened to America and Japan and is already happening to china!

Another point to note is that if consumption is not local as in the case of Nigeria exporting crude oil, the seller becomes over dependent on the buyer and since the buyer's main interest is to be able to get the commodity at ever reducing prices, the seller is at risk of becoming bankrupt if he has produced inventory and the buyer refuses to buy.

Moreover, international trade comes with all sorts of fine print that most times it is global corporations rather than nations that profit for the major reason that nations do not usually have specific targets and even when they do a simple change of government can reverse their direction.

The reason why India, despite their huge population density is succeeding where many other developing countries are failing is that they decided to produce for local consumption and greatly limited their dependence on international trade.

Another potentially deadly point is that most buyers through corporations acquire stakes in the production of export dependent economies and publicly trade them on their stock exchanges! This produces what is known as absentee-ownership where the owner does not have any stake in the welfare of the workers nor the preservation of the community where the production takes place. The result is what is currently being experienced in the Niger delta. Note that the shareholders of shell petroleum corporation can simply divest if there is any trouble (and that's precisely what they've done) leaving the host community to suffer the consequences of their actions for decades! No militant is disturbing anyone in holland yet that's where most of the owners of shell are! it is the poor residents of the Niger Delta, who were not the owners or perpetrators of the crimes that have been left to bear the brunt.

This is a typical case of[b] Privatising gains and socialising losses[/b]!

It is not the critic who counts,
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled,
or where the doer of deeds could have done better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,
who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again,
who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions,
and spends himself in a worthy cause,
who at best knows achievement
and who at the worst if he fails
at least fails while daring greatly
so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls
who know neither victory nor defeat.

The question of how much of the problem was caused by Fashola may be irrelevant because whether Fashola caused it or not (and I don't think he did) the problem is here and we must fix it to survive!

I don't know if there is an agreement for the FG to pay Lagos state for federal projects implemented, but even if there is that would only constitute a temporary reprieve.
Nigerians should realise that borrowing to solve a problem only offers temporary reprieve and causes more problems in the future. We need to look for alternative ideas and solutions rooted in the idea that capital is not money!
Money can buy capital but capital is not money!

Capital can be aggregated by a joint consensus for example a community can choose to have some of its members take turns at vigilante groups rather than using money to pay for security guards. The community can pay them in other ways apart from money like food from the farmers in the community, shelter from the carpenters and some sort of community voucher programme whereby they can purchase goods and services within the community.

Money is a very convenient means of exchange but it is by no means the only means of exchange

@emiye
I should actually revise the "won't" to "may not".

The logic is as follows:
If Fashola is already complaining of lack of funds, it means that either he cannot borrow himself out of the situation or borrowing himself out of the situation is very inconvenient or difficult.
Fashola still has 3 years to go and since we know the problem of lack of funds can only get worse because the budget of most states including Lagos is usually financed by deficit spending or PPP, by the time the next governor comes along the problem will be much worse than it is.

The solution is legislation to break the cycle!

Lagos state accounts for 12% of Nigeria's international debt and I guess Fashola has borrowed to the hilt. He recently said that the reason infrastructural projects have slowed down is due to lack of funds. This is exactly what I predicted. The next governor of Lagos is in for a lot of trouble because he or she won't be able to borrow money and will thus be viewed as a bad person. There should be legislation restricting how much government can borrow to the amount that can be paid back within the same tenure! On deregulation! It may kill the average Nigerian if we deregulate. Deregulation is an IMF policy with the end game being complete globalization. Competition should be local! Local industries should not have to compete with foreign industries for the most part. It is inherently unfair! Deregulation destroys local content and enhances global trade! Those documents you referred to were created in part by the same financial goons that brought the global financial crisis on us, Its contents should come with a Surgeon General's warning! One last thing, I think Nigeria is in a better position that Ghana, South Africa and Angola - countries that are almost totally owned by foreigners "shudder". more than 90% of the citizens of those countries are suffering while the world focuses on the maybe 2% that are enjoying the benefits. The real beneficiaries of those economies are global banks and corporations! Nigerians should say no to IMF type deregulation!

Patrick Obahiagbon has referred to the removal of the petroleum subsidy as a self indicting admittal of the failure of governance. The annoying part is that as with other IMF supported policies it is a case of the poor subsidizing the rich! It is nothing short of evil! First GEJ opened the borders so that importers who are already wealthy can increase their wealth while the poor suffer miserably as a result of the destruction of local industries. GEJs excuse was that he wanted to save the money (import duties) being lost by the country. As usual no one can account for the purported savings!

Nigerians must actively reject all IMF policies.
Nigerians should demand that Okonjo-Iweala comes to debate her policies before an open panel the same way we had in the presidential campaigns because Okonjo seems to be the real force behind the removal of the fuel subsidy!

Okonjo and her mates were responsible for the global financial crisis! they did not see it coming and in the words of Nicholas Taleb, by giving them another chance to run our finances we are invariably asking a pilot who just crashed a plane because he didn't see what was coming to fly another one immediately!

NN24 or some other news channel should organize a public hearing where brillant Nigerians can debate, Reuben Abati and Okonjo Iweala on the removal of the fuel subsidy

@igbo2011

We also need to cut the government and their pay

You are absolutely right!

We do not need most of the ministries that we have.
The only perpetual government agencies should be those pertaining to security and regulation!
security: Police forces, intelligence agencies et cetera
regulation: financial regulation, regulation of specific industries et cetera
The perpetual government agencies should also be run professionally much like the way the CBN or the SSS is run!

Ministries like "Ministry of Agriculture", "Ministry of Sports" et cetera should be scrapped.

The government can implement an agriculture project without a ministry of agriculture!
Project teams rather than ministries should be set up to carry out projects!

the NFF is enough for football and the other associations for other sporting activities are enough!
The associations should be in charge of administering the infrastructure dedicated to their activities e.g. stadia

Special advisers are only needed on an ad-hoc basis and should therefore not be permanent and definitely will not require special offices!

All personal assistants should be paid out of the salary of the appointed official! If a minister decides to have a special adviser who also has a personal assistant then that minister is either totally incompetent for the Job or is an invalid in which case he should not be a minister or a government official.

@juman
Simply dividing the country may seem to be a solution to the problems we have but if we examine our current situation more closely we will notice that there are already factions inside the various parts.

For example, the Abia state govt. has said that they will obviously dismiss imo state indigenes on their payroll to make room for the abia state indigenes sacked in imo state!

We have the Jos Crisis, the Ijaw-Itsekiri crisis, the call for an Ijebu state et cetera. The call for secession will continue to break us down should we start the trend.

I firmly believe that every part of the country has its unique significance and we as a nation have a lot of problems because we most often only try to exploit the uniqueness of one region!

We need to stop this state of origin nonsense! Why should a man born and raised in Lagos be said to come from Abia state simply because his father was born and raised in Abia state?

Every Nigerian citizen should have equal rights everywhere regardless of where his parents are from.
The problem is however deeply rooted in the faulty African maxim that "blood is thicker than water".

There is no serious psychological difference between 2 people who were born and raised in the same place even though they are from different parents. In fact if 2 children born of different parents are raised by a third party they will grow to have pretty similar ideologies!

There is nothing inherently wrong with any part of Nigeria.

We have great people from the west and we also have great crooks from the west.
We have great people from the east and we also have great crooks from the east.
We have great people from the north and we also have great crooks from the north.

The real problem is that politicians from the various zones like to highlight what makes us different for their personal gain to the detriment of the populace.
We gain more together than we do apart, we are more alike than we are different. This is something no politician wants us to know!

The reason why for example someone says Tinubu is from Osun state is because that person wants to win the election!
The truth is that Tinubu is as much a citizen of Lagos as anyone born in Lagos because he obviously grew up in Lagos!

Let's come together as one against the current corrupt political class. Let us jointly protest their wanton greed and turpitude so that we may free our Nation from their deadly grip.

Life draws us towards mindfulness, Money towards compulsion. A mindful person will more readily see the capacity for mindfulness in others.

To solve the massive problems in Nigeria, we have to be mindful and thoughtful. We have to draw out counsel and ground breaking ideas through deep reflection and meditation.

The problems that assail us are not small, but no problem regardless of the size can trump the infinite capacity of the human mind especially when in cooperation with other like minds.

This is what happens when foreigners run large corporations.

Unfortunately, even our so called Nigerian companies employ indians!!! I was shocked to see that one of the managers at CHAMS is indian. Are we saying there is no Nigerian qualified enough to do what that indian is doing?

I love foreigners and I believe all human beings are equal but priority should be given to a country's citizens!

It is time for us to push for local ownership of most of our large organizations.

Foreign Direct Investment will only lead to more slavery!

Why should indian firms be running arguably the largest call centre operation in Nigeria?
Why should foreign firms be the largest processed food producers in our own country?

We need to put more pressure on our government to reduce this slavery!!!

For other suggestions on how to make Nigeria better check out the following thread:
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-764430.64.html

@GenBuhari

we have to come up with an intelligent way to prosecute the "enemies of development".
There will always be enemies of development and there is no way we can remove them all.

We will most likely have to move on inspite of all the enemies of development.
We will have to organize ourselves to create change inspite of the activities of our enemies.

I believe that no enemy is greater than the combined resolve of Nigerian youths. We are stonger than them

@maclatunji
thanks. I believe there are similar groups on facebook like the "Fix Nigeria Group" and the "How can we make Nigeria better" Group.
It is imperative that we organize ourselves on all media possible to bring the desired change to Nigeria.

(CP-Africa) - South Africa has been invited by China to join the group of four of the fastest growing emerging economies in the world, Brazil, Russia, India and China, the BRICs, Reuters reports. The country which is Africa’s top economy was invited officially today by China’s foreign minister according to a statement released by South Africa’s minister of international relations and cooperation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. South Africa applied to join BRIC at the G20 meeting of the world’s leading economies in Seoul in November.

According to 2009 World Bank estimates, South Africa is the world’s 31st largest economy. With South Africa’s addition, the BRICs will now be spelled the “BRICS.”

The term “BRIC” was originally coined in 2001 by Jim O’Neill, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

BRICS is just a nomenclature invented by brilliant investors who are trying to exploit the people of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRIC nations got to where they are because they turned down IMF structured foreign investment and chose instead to focus on building their own economies.

When IMF and the investment community say an economy is growing what they mean is that the claims they have to that economy's labor, land and natural resources are growing! It means they can now bet more money on the nation!

Money value is an illusion.
We should say no to foreign investment because the investor is KING! the borrower is SERVANT to the lender!

We can organize ourselves! we are the ones who have true capital - Land, Labor and Natural Resources. We should organize our capital to develop ourselves!

No great nation was ever developed with foreign investment. That's a statement that IMF seeks to obscure in the minds of everyone.

The term “BRIC” was originally coined in 2001 by Jim O’Neill, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

BRICS is just a nomenclature invented by brilliant investors who are trying to exploit the people of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRIC nations got to where they are because they turned down IMF structured foreign investment and chose instead to focus on building their own economies.

When IMF and the investment community say an economy is growing what they mean is that the claims they have to that economy's labor, land and natural resources are growing! It means they can now bet more money on the nation!

Money value is an illusion.
We should say no to foreign investment because the investor is KING! the borrower is SERVANT to the lender!

We can organize ourselves! we are the ones who have true capital - Land, Labor and Natural Resources. We should organize our capital to develop ourselves!

No great nation was ever developed with foreign investment. That's a statement that IMF seeks to obscure in the minds of everyone.

Check out the following topic to view and contribute to a more detailed discussion on ways we can make Nigeria better.
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-764430.32.html

BRICS is just a nomenclature invented by brilliant investors who are trying to exploit the people of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRIC nations got to where they are because they turned down IMF structured foreign investment and chose instead to focus on building their own economies.

When IMF and the investment community say an economy is growing what they mean is that the claims they have to that economy's labor, land and natural resources are growing! It means they can now bet more money on the nation!

Money value is an illusion.
We should say no to foreign investment because the investor is KING! the borrower is SERVANT to the lender!

We can organize ourselves! we are the ones who have true capital - Land, Labor and Natural Resources. We should organize our capital to develop ourselves!

No great nation was ever developed with foreign investment. That's a statement that IMF seeks to obscure in the minds of everyone.

Check out the following topic to view and contribute to a more detailed discussion on ways we can make Nigeria better.
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-764430.32.html

Nigerians should organize mass demonstrations to protest the amount of vacations and paid leaves that senators enjoy!

NGOs concerned with governmental change should get ready to organize protests to push for certain changes in the proposed constitutional amendment process.

Check out the topic at the link below to view and post more suggestions on how to make Nigeria better.
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-764430.32.html

It's good to know that a growing number of people at beginning to understand the enormity of Nigeria's problems.

However, succumbing to despair and giving up is not the way to go. If we think we cannot change Nigeria then we can't.

@italkalot, You have outlined the challenges that a good president will face if he or she tries to make Nigeria better but judging from the Arab spring, if regular nigerians, decide to change Nigeria, there is little or nothing that any nation can do!

The only regime that has managed to stay is syria and since president Jonathan is the direct opposite of the syrian dictator, we have a good chance of success.

The first step is to come up with ideas on how to make Nigeria better, debate and refine those ideas with like minds and then organize to implement the refined ideas.

Check out the thread "Suggestions to make Nigeria better" to post ideas and debate the ones already posted.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-764430.32.html

You have a very perceptive mind therefore you should be able to easily pick holes in the ideas suggested so that those holes can be fixed thereby refining the ideas.

Thanks in advance.

@werepeleri and every other nairaland poster, Nigeria will appreciate your input too.

Nice one sir. We need solutions.

Please check out the post "Suggestions to make Nigeria better" to see ideas that can solve the employment crisis we have on our hands in Nigeria.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-764430.32.html

Capitalism's false promise: Freedom and prosperity without the burden of responsibility.

Nigeria must embrace a true market economy so that we are neither slaves and laborers (by exporting mostly raw materials) or overdependent on any other economy (by importing more than 10% of goods and services consumed)

Acting with critical consciousness creates immunity against propaganda and false promises

Employment:
No organization should be allowed to employ expatriates indiscriminately.

An organization must first prove beyond all reasonable doubt that no Nigerian capable of carrying out the task is available before an expatriate can be employed

Whenever an expatriate is employed, the organization must embark on a program of training Nigerians such that within 2 years a Nigerian can take over from the expatriate, This means that no expatriate can be employed for more than 2 years in Nigeria at a stretch doing the same Job.

Everyone employed in Nigeria must be paid in Naira! We cannot allow private organizations to increase the indebtedness of Nigeria for exclusively private gains!

divide what?

To ensure balance of trade, every importer of goods and services must be aligned with a corresponding exporter of goods
and services produced locally such that the net import must be equal to the net export.

imports and exports should be classified into raw materials, processed goods and services.

there should be balance of trade in all 3 classes.

Companies cannot cancel out their imports by exports in another class!

Too much exports of raw materials (makes us slaves)
too much imports of raw materials (makes us dependent)

Foreign exchange must be controlled tightly by the government. Bureau De Change orgaizations must be strictly monitored.
The organizations rather than the government should be responsible for creating the partnership.

If you reside in Nigeria then you'll know that a family man who earns N100,000 in Lagos will definitely be struggling to meet basic needs.

On the issue of minimum wage:
The problem is not that the minimum is N18,000.
What most people don't realize is that when the minimum wage is increased, the[b] highest remuneration (maximum wage)[/b] is also increased commensurately!

The highest remunerations include those of the ministers who already earn too much!

If instead of doing a simple increase, NLC agrees to a wage increase such that higher remunerations remain the same and all the wages lower than 18000 are increased to 18000 it will be easier for the various governments to pay.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king!

That the one-eyed man is king does not mean he is no more one-eyed!

My Imagination,

Chants by 50,000 Nigerian Students protesting in the premises of the National Assembly

We no go gree o, We no go gree
Ni-ge-rian Se-na-tors re-duce your mo-ney

Re-duce your mo-ney, Re-duce your mo-ney
Ni-ge-rian Se-na-tors re-duce your mo-ney

We must organize demonstrations and picket government houses until our demands are met.
The problem is that many people who want to take part in these demonstrations ae working class people who are struggling to fend for their families and thus are in no position to organize demonstrations

the onus lies on our university undergraduates for they are old enough to understand political issues and are free enough to organize protests.

Working class people can also work with students on the weekends and other free days to galvanize them into action.

The greater the diversity, the greater the potential for further innovation and the greater the greater the resilience of the system in times of stress and crisis. Genetic and cultural diversity are life's storehouses of intellectual capital and the building blocks from which it melds itself into new and more capable forms.
- David C. Korten

at any rate if members of the middle class in your own words can "afford a car, plan to buy one, send children to private schools, holidays abroad" then $7000 dollars is nowhere near the middle class income, at least not in Lagos, Abuja or Port-Harcourt.

And if the middle class is what you say it is then RenCap's survey is seriously flawed because by saying the middle class is growing, they are referring to the people who earn between $6000 and $7000 not people who can send their children to private schools or holidays abroad!

Ok, in that case you are right.

I was using the term to refer to a certain income median between the highest and lowest income earners which guarantees a pretty good life.
that's the way it's used when people say the american middle class was created by the introduction of managerial capitalism pioneered by Henry Ford and established by Alfred Sloan, and that's the way it's used when people talk of the obliteration of the middle class or the fact that the middle class is shrinking or non-existent.

On the issue of randomness!
Random sampling only gives usable results when the variables being considered are extremely few. e.g. when doing a biological survey (the variations between the biological make up of human beings are very little - we're pretty much the same that's why drugs work for most people)

However, in the case of economic surveys, random sampling will not yield usable results because the economic variations in the human populace are almost infinite!

Economic indices are based on hard facts from a large percentage of the sample space.
This is why economic indices usually come from government agencies like the department of labor who compute them from facts gathered from everyone registered with them!

That's why Opinion Polls that rely on random sampling MUST NOT be used for reliable economic indices.
In fact Random Sampling SHOULD NOT be used for computing economic indices.