Fellow Nigerians, for the benefit of our economy, our lives, our future, our jobs, our institutions, our reputation, and our sanity, we need to vote out Buhari.

The world is already leaving us behind while our president is still thinking of investing in cattle rearing, in giving us alms as social development, in enslaving us youths instead of giving us a vibrant economy, in killings its citizens and justifying it instead of securing our lives..

If Atiku fails.. we'll vote him out too. We'll continue the cycle until we get to where we need to get.

A serious government needs no advertisement, development needs no airbrushed pictures, a growing economy needs no verbal assurance.

Buhari has succeeded in destroying everything in his path including our institutions.

Enough is Enough

The #GiveUsYourLandorDie crew will be booted out next year

Inshallah!

November 3, 2018
’Femi Asu with agency report

HSBC and UBS closed their offices in Nigeria. The Central Bank of Nigeria said this in a report on Friday as it revealed foreign investment had fallen sharply from a year ago.

The CBN said foreign direct investment in Nigeria fell to N379.84bn ($1.2bn) in the first half of the year from N532.63bn ($1.7bn) a year earlier.
It did not give reasons for the banks’ closure.

The central bank said the outlook for the Nigerian economy in the second half was “optimistic” given higher oil prices and production but rising foreign debts and uncertainty surrounding the 2019 presidential election were drawbacks, according to Reuters.

Investor confidence in the country has been shaken since the central bank in August ordered MTN to bring back $8.1bn to the country, part of the profits the South African telecoms firm sent abroad

It did not give reasons for the banks’ closure.

The central bank said the outlook for the Nigerian economy in the second half was “optimistic” given higher oil prices and production but rising foreign debts and uncertainty surrounding the 2019 presidential election were drawbacks, according to Reuters.

Investor confidence in the country has been shaken since the central bank in August ordered MTN to bring back $8.1bn to the country, part of the profits the South African telecoms firm sent abroad.


A HSBC research note dated July 18 said a second President Muhammadu Buhari term “raises the risk of limited economic progress and further fiscal deterioration, prolonging the stagnation of his first term, particularly if there is no move towards completing reform of the exchange rate system or fiscal adjustments that diversify government revenues away from oil.”

The CBN also said three lenders failed to meet its minimum liquidity ratio of 30 per cent, without naming them.

It added that non-performing loans had dropped to 12.4 per cent as of June 2018 from 15 per cent a year ago, still a long way above its five per cent threshold.

“To further consolidate on the improvement, the Central Bank of Nigeria directed banks to intensify efforts at debt recovery, realisation of collateral for lost facilities and strengthening their risk management processes,” it said in the report.

Copyright PUNCH

https://punchng.com/two-global-banks-close-offices-in-nigeria

By Jideofor Adibe in Viewpoint

As we nudge towards the 2019 presidential election, and with many people predicting that it will be more bitterly fought than the acrimonious 2015 poll, there is something that is giving me some hope that the doomsday scenario may not materialize after all: it is Buhari’s increasingly softening rhetoric on former President Jonathan.

For instance when he hosted members of the Kannywood entertainment industry to a dinner at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, about two weeks ago, Buhari, after recalling his futile quests for the presidency between 2003 and 2011 (and becoming fourth time lucky in 2015),said he would continue to hold Jonathan in high esteem. “He (Jonathan) was in power as Deputy Governor, Governor (Bayelsa), Vice-President and President, all for about 10 years and he voluntarily accepted defeat and surrendered power to me,’’ he was quoted as saying.

In the triumphalism that quickly set in the APC camp shortly after it came to power, there was nothing to show that Buhari truly held Jonathan in high esteem or even respected that his conceding defeat saved the country from possible bloodshed that no one could have predicted how it would end. Rather there were attempts to ridicule or undermine that noble act by suggesting that Jonathan either had no choice but to concede or that he conceded out of fear. The political space was simply saturated with APC’s probe rhetoric and of how Jonathan’s government bankrupted the country’s treasury. Several of his associates were accused and found guilty of corruption charges on pages of newspapers and various social media platforms. I am not suggesting that a leader who committed crimes should be left free just because the leader conceded defeat. I am also not suggesting that Jonathan was innocent of the accusations. The argument has always been that there are better ways of punishing any crime and recovering any loot without humiliating a leader or giving the impression that such efforts at punishing suspected crimes are animated by vendetta.

If Buhari had listened to the advice of little-known fellows like us and privileged reconciliation and nation-building over strong arm tactics and vengeance, his government would perhaps have been lessfiercely resisted than it has turned out to be. Those who called for a different form of politics and rhetoric against the former President for the sake of deepening our democracy and sustaining a putative culture of losers willingly handing over to the winners were blackmailed as ‘wailing wailers’ (note the triumphal undertone in the onomatopoeia). Those opposed to Buhari borrowed the same simplistic template he used to assess Jonathanand the PDP and reduced metrics for assessing his own government to the simplistic binaries of competence versus incompetence; good versus evil and cosmopolitan versus irredentist.

I believe the lesson is not lost on Buhari. True, Buhari had in the past paid ‘respect’ to Jonathan for conceding defeat. However given the barrage of probe rhetoric and allegations of humongous sums constantly said to have been seized from his aides, it was difficult to believe that Buhari truly believed in what he said. Now that the blame game has run its course and boomeranged, I am inclined to believe that Buhari now realises that had he adopted a different rhetoric and politics on the Jonathan government, things would have been different in terms of opposition to his government.

I believe there are lessons we can learn from the Buhari government’s mistakes in its early years in office in the way it dealt with the Jonathan government and apply the lessons in the conduct of the 2019 presidential campaign:

One, a government sets the tone which critics use to interrogate it. For instance, a government that responds to criticisms politely will concomitantly invite polite interrogation of its policies. In fact a government that eschews the use of harsh words to condemn critics will also make it difficult for critics to use harsh words to evaluate it. If Buhari extends his new-found ‘affection’ for Jonathan to key opposition leaders, especially Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate, we are likely to see a largely decent campaign. True, election campaigns will always be tantamount to wars without bloodshed, but if the leaders use respectful language on each other, it will turn out to be like two boxers who hug each other before the sound of the bell for the first round, and still hug each other at the end of a brutalcontest in which one fighter has been battered into submission. If you resort to the dirtiest language to de-market your opponent, be rest assured that the opponent will pay you back in kind. What goes around, they say, comes around.

Two, Buhari can set the tone of a decent 2019 campaign by making complimentary remarks about Atiku or inviting him for one or two state functions so that supporters of the two leaders will see that their disagreement is not personal. Key aides – for both the Buhari and the Atiku campaigns – could be taught to precede their criticisms of the other candidate by conceding some achievements to the opponent. In the Law of Defamation, this is called ‘fair comment’. I believe once the Buhari team does this, the Atiku team will not want to appear as the uncivilized party and will most likely key into the same template, and the nation will be better off for it.

Three, some of Buhari’s supporters talk of the advantages of incumbency they have over the opposition (money, use of the security forces etc). This is largely true but also a double edged sword for them. For instance given Buhari’s brutal dictatorial past (the worst in our history except for Abacha’s), the opposition could easily turn such advantage against the government by for example playing up a legitimate use of the security forces to instil law and order during election as evidence that Buhari has relapsed into his authoritarian past and once again endangered the country’s hard-earned democracy. In this era of social media, this could be played up from different angles, and the plethora of human rights activists, already suspicious of Buhari’s democratic credentials, could readily buy into it in a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. Essentially therefore it is in Buhari’s interest that the 2019 campaign is conducted in a manner that will not be exceedingly acrimonious because the advantageous tools conferred on his government by its incumbency will lose their legitimacy if the election becomes so acrimonious that people feel the country will trip from the precipice that seems to have become its comfort zone.

Four, if Buhari is announced as the winner of the election and the opposition thinks the election has been rigged, (especially if the margin in the declared victory is slim), Buhari will come under pressure. Precisely because Buhari never conceded defeat in the past – even when he had no structures outside the North or bothered to campaign outside the North – there are debates on whether Buhari will accept defeat if he loses. A way of giving the opposition assurance and also assuring Buhari that his election will be accepted as legitimate if he wins is to get the two leading candidates to commit publicly that if a certain number of the election monitors declare the election as substantially free and fair (or otherwise), it should be accepted as so.

Five, we should also realize that elections are anarchic in societies like ours and that the phenomenon of sit-tightism (leaders who refuse to accept defeat or quit when their constitutionally allowed tenures are up) is high in Africa because of the pervasive fear that the victors will use state machinery to victimize the losers. Buhari government’s treatment of Jonathan and people it felt did not vote for Buhari did nothing to allay such fears (witness Buhari’s 97 per cent and 5 per cent statement and the regime’s extreme demonization of Jonathan). Under sucha circumstance, those who are contesting contest against Buhari know it is not going to be a cup of tea for them if he wins a second term and Buhari and his supporters also know that the ‘Jonathan treatment’ awaits them if they lose. Following from this, there isan urgent need to break this cycle. One of the options will be for the National Peace Committee to get the two leading candidates to publicly commit in writing to a set of ethical conduct before, during and after the elections. This should include a commitment from both leading candidates that there should be no witch hunting of the losers after the elections.

https://www.thecable.ng/buharis-new-affection-for-jonathan-and-the-2019-elections

afroniger:
But Tinubu is not contesting for Presidency against Buhari or Atiku. Tinubu is NOT wanted in America for any crime. He can go to America at will. When will Atiku go and collect his U.S visa??

When was the last time Tinubu visited the US?

Back to Daura

Nice and Easy

In spite of these huge budgeted sums, the soldiers at the end of the chain did not feel the effect.

The kind of looting going on in this administration eh..

Nigerians will be shocked when the exposition era will come

Apthiefs

This is exactly what Apc BMC agents are preaching. Since Buhari is poor not productive, they want everybody to be like him.

Poor and desolate like most of their supporters

Gandollar!

Abeg help me caption

Every single day, these Apc people will be spewing statements that make Nigerians doubt their reasoning

Are we stupid?

Or is it that we are too docile..?

These Apc guys should be careful o

Remember they asked us to stone them should they fail..

If these stupid statements continue, we'll very much consider that option

Nonsense

Lalasticlala


Mynd44 ..

Lalasticlala


Mynd44

Hmmmm

Caption

Lalasticlala

Mynd44

This man Buhari is the biggest hypocrite of the 21st century.

The Nigerian govt has not issued a single statement on the daily slaughtering of protesters here in Nigeria but he's more concerned about Palestinians.

This man keeps scoring own goal everyday.. We never finish the one wen you do, you dey do another one.

"Respect human rights"

See the one talking about human rights..

IPOB are not humans, Shiites are not humans, The middle belters are not humans..

Spits

FACTCHECK THREAD

We are getting queries on the statement by the Vice President that public debt stock rose by $10bn. Due to our recent work on expanding public debt, we will like to clarify.

The current rise of $10bn in public debt stock does NOT tell the full story. It can be MISLEADING. We have seen arguments explaining that the entire Federation borrowed only N3tn in three years since the debt stock rose by $10bn.

It is important to deconstruct the FG debt into EXTERNAL and DOMESTIC debt to get a full understanding for purposes of accountability. Please note that FG Debt Stock = External Debt + Domestic Debt. We will add links for private verification.

DMO figures showed that FG EXTERNAL debt alone grew from $7.34bn in June 2015 to $17.83bn in June 2018, that’s an additional $10.49bn in 3 years. This is FG EXTERNAL DEBT ONLY. Let’s consider FG domestic debt.

LINKS

June 2015: (link: http://dmo.gov.ng/debt-profile/sub-national-debts/1069-federal-and-state-governments-external-debt-stock-as-at-31st-december-2015/file)

June 2018 Link: (link: http://dmo.gov.ng/debt-profile/sub-national-debts/2543-states-and-federal-government-s-external-debt-stock-as-at-30th-june-2018/file)

DOMESTIC debt of FG as at June 2015 was N8.39tn while it stood at N12.15tn as at June 2018. That’s another increase of N3.76tn in 3 years. At an exchange rate of N305/$, that’s $12bn. This means the total increase in EXTERNAL and DOMESTIC debt is $22bn.

It is a public knowledge that the Naira was DEVALUED in recent years, and this act shrunk and expanded a lot of indexes. Those who put forward $10bn are comparing the wrong values without adding the important information that exchange rates for the times are different.

Public Debt Stock June 2015: (link: http://dmo.gov.ng/debt-profile/total-public-debt/54-total-public-debt-stock-as-at-30th-june-2015/file)

Public Debt Stock 2018: (link: http://dmo.gov.ng/debt-profile/total-public-debt/2529-nigeria-s-public-debt-stock-as-at-june-30-2018/file)

NOTE: The Exchange rate changed.

● See [Image 1]

NOTE: The Exchange rate of $ to 305.70 was used in converting the DOMESTIC debts to USD.

● See [Image 2]

In our observation, this administration (FG alone) borrowed $22bn in three years but due to naira devaluation GAINS, total public debt stock (for the entire Federation) increased by $10bn, which makes current claims TRUE.

We advise citizens to analyze data by properly checking public websites. However, it is true that public debt is now $63bn, grew by $10bn, because FG domestic debt in USD terms was $42.63bn in June 2015 and $39.75bn as at June 2018.

This does not mean that FG borrowed less DOMESTIC debt in 3 years. As we have shown above, the domestic debt of FGN grew from N8.39tn to N12.15tn from 2015 to 2018 respectively...

...DEVALUING exchange rate from N196.95/$ to N305.7/$ made the domestic debt in 2018 relatively SMALLER in USD terms

SCENARIO: It is like borrowing N1,000 in 2015 which is $5 at N200/$. If you borrow additional N500 at a new exchange rate of N300/$, you now owe N1,500 but you still owe an equivalent of $5.

Looking at the table above showed that Naira equivalent of the total debt has risen from N12.1tn to N22.4tn, a growth of N10.3tn.

It is important to classify debt into two categories considering that external debt will be paid in USD or other currencies while domestic debt will be settled in Naira. This also has IMPLICATION for debt SERVICING costs in the near term.

We also hope this “MARGINAL” increase in debt in USD terms does not unleash excessive borrowing by the Federation considering that public revenue in USD equivalent has also severely SHRUNK.

Also note that in the graphic above, states’ DOMESTIC debt rose from N1.69tn in June 2015 to N3.477tn in June 2018. Adjusting this for USD also does not tell the full story. States debt costs are deducted in Naira equivalent at prevailing “official” rates.

However, devaluation provides adjusted gains especially for monies earned in USD such as oil & gas revenues but losses for those earned in Naira such as CIT & VAT, when converted to USD.

We also see that many Nigerians have been on the wrong side of devaluation with income severely shrunk in Naira terms while those who export especially in the non-oil sector have seen relative gains.

We do not think acquiring debt is bad but we request more TRANSPARENCY on self-liquidating CAPITAL projects that such borrowings are tied to. We believe Nigeria should expand total revenue to at least meet its recurrent costs, in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

A part of our work is to provide more TRANSPARENCY to the numbers, demand ACCOUNTABILITY and seek CLARIFICATION from PUBLIC institutions when necessary. Thanks and Good Morning Nigeria.

https://twitter.com/BudgITng/status/1057182823474438144?s=20

Lagos state has gone far sha..

But for the benefit of the Atlantic City, other places need to be developed so that Lagos can be decongested. The population of people in Lagos makes it impossible to see the beauty of the City.

Lagos mainland is nothing but a pile of dirt.

Lagos Island is still spared but with the completion of the deep seaport, Lagos Island and Mainland will be competing on which is the dirtier

All in all

Lagos Amaka!

I'll really like to watch Obi and Osinbajo debate..

Channels tv, please do us the favour come January

I too like this man Obi, a man on his own terms.. AkaGum 1 of Anambra

Prof is exceptional too but given that he owes loyalty to the Oga of bourdillion, he's not really a role model for me.

Meanwhile Mr.FulaniHerdsmenAreLibyans is going back to Daura next year!

Inshallah!

By Dyepkazah Shibayan in On the GoThe Nation

Peter Obi, running mate to Atiku Abubakar, presiedential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says the period Nigeria is in calls for sober reflection and not for dancing “Shaku Shaku.”

“Shaku Shaku” is a popular dance step common among entertainers and young Nigerians.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo had said he is learning the dance step ahead of the 2019 general election.

Speaking with journalists at the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport in Abuja upon his arrival from Dubai on Monday, Obi said the Atiku team is spending its time thinking of how to create jobs and not learning how to dance “Shaku Shaku.”

“I have not had the opportunity of reading his comments as I haven’t seen the dailies. I know Vice-President Osibanjo is a gentleman and may not have made such a comment,” Obi said.

“However, while I am not against people dancing or learning how to dance ‘Shaku Shaku’, as I believe it is one of those things that is keeping our people going on in this very difficult times, I believe that the crossroads that we have found ourselves in as a nation requires sober reflection.

“For me in particular, this period calls for sober reflection not dancing or learning how to dance as there are many challenges facing our nation at the moment. Not the least being recently having our country named the world headquarters of extreme poverty with over eighty seven million people. Worse still millions more are losing their jobs, with four million by the third quarter of this year alone.

“Millions of Nigerians go to bed hungry not knowing where the meal for the next day will come from, hundreds of thousands risk death by crossing the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea to wherever they can make a living.

“These and other challenges are indicative of the dire straits facing us as a nation today. And these are what we on the Atiku team are spending our time with the best minds on how to start creating jobs and putting food on people’s table. We must get Nigeria to start working again for the good of everyone.”

https://www.thecable.ng/peter-obi-taunts-osinbajo-were-focused-on-how-to-create-jobs-not-learning-shaku-shaku

.

Let's hope this is not true

Maybe they forgot to remit the money, you know we have saints in all government agencies now