The Award for FIFA best men's player was announced yesterday, October 23rd. Cristiano Ronaldo was announced as the winner, beating his nemesis, Messi and Neymar to the coveted prize for the second year running.

Nigeria, however, do not agree with the general sentiment of the footballing world.

Gernot Rohr and John Obi Mikel, coach and captain respectively of Nigeria's Super Eagles, both opted for Lionel Messi.

Do you agree with them?

lalasticlacla, mynd44

The alarming plausible situation captioned is of pertinence in view of pro-Biafra secessionist leader Nnamdi Kanu's absence in court this week. It has been a month and three days since Nnamdi Kanu was last publicly seen or heard of. Nnamdi Kanu's disappearance occurred on September 14th, the day of an alleged raid by the Nigerian military on his residence in Umuahia.

The raid captured on video and according to various narratives, saw Kanu's home riddled with bullets both inside and out with at least 26 reported killed including the Kanus' dog called Jack. Independent recordings have shown bodies strewn. There was no formal media presence because ahead of the assault, the Nigerian military first raided journalist posts, beat them up and smashed all their equipment to bits. [Read: https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-41244065 ]

Since the raid, Kanu, his parents and several of his family members have never again been seen or heard from. They have been reportedly killed or abducted alive by the Nigerian military. A forensic analysis of a video from Kanu's home during frightening the military raid detected a voice that sounded like his within the bombarded building at at least two points in the recording [Listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPcwluG8r2w ].


Naij video displayed bullet holes right in the walls of Nnamdi Kanu's room [Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FTnAy-A5xY ].

The plausibility of their murder and a secret mass burial cover-up comes up due to the precedence of identical behavior by the Buhari administration.

In December of 2015, after a similar raid on Zaria's Shia minority Muslims by the military under Commander in chief Muhammadu Buhari, hundreds of Muslims killed at over 5 different locations were secretly mass buried in the middle of the night to "conceal the crime." The Kaduna state government itself made a late confession to this crime when it opened up on the military-state secret mass burial of 347 Nigerian youth at the Mando cemetery. [See: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/201615-kaduna-govt-says-347-shiites-killed-by-nigerian-troops-given-secret-mass-burial.html ] The confession came in April, after ENDS.ng and Amnesty international had discovered and exposed the Mando mass grave and government cover up.

Again, PremiumTimes has an exclusive report of another secret mass burial by the Buhari administration which took place in Onitsha in 2016 after a massacre of pro-Biiafran agitators. This time the bodies of about 100 youth were reportedly secretly buried in a military grave yard. That report is captioned, " SPECIAL REPORT: How the Onitsha massacre of pro-Biafra supporters was coordinated — SSS operative ."

Based on the multiple cases above, it becomes necessary to inquire if once again the Buhari government's extra-judicially perambulating military has secretly murdered and secretly buried the Kanus.

*Why The Rush To proscribe IPOB?*

The hurried designation of Kanu's IPOB as a terrorist organisation with the Nigerian military and eastern state governments making several blunders in their anxiety, also piques curiosity. Why was the Nigerian government in such a hurry to proscribe IPOB? Was it to intimidate and suppress legitimate public inquiry into the happenings of September 14th at the residence of Nnamdi Kanu?

After several embarrassing blunders, the Buhari government succeeded in proscribing IPOB at the fastest rate any organization has ever been proscribed in Nigeria's history. Even most deadly terrorists like the Fulani militants who kill and average of 1000 Nigerians a year, are still concealed and condoned by the Buhari government that proscribed IPOB within days of its "illegal" military operation and raid on his residence. It must be noted that constitutionally the Nigerian military has no role in civil law enforcement, crime control; is not authorised to make raids and has no handcuffs, and obviously no role in making intra-state arrests. The Nigerian constitution only gives the military a role secondary to and in support of the civil authorities (police).

*Buhari's Defense of Boko Haram Against Military Murder*

Importantly, the after-the-event designation of IPOB as a terrorist organisation fails to prevent the legitimate inquiry into the events of September the 14th and demand for full police investigation into the actions of the Nigerian military on and around Nnamdi Kanu's residence. It is recalled that no one shouted louder against the extra-judicial killing of Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf, Buji Foi and other Boko Haram terrorists than current president Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari lamented against the brutal military action by the Jonathan government against Boko Haram. According to theNation , a current government affiliated editorial, in 2013, Buhari, then a northern elder statesman, decried Jonathan's military assault on Boko Haram, saying that they should not be killed but should be rewarded as Niger Delta militants had been[See: http://thenationonlineng.net/buhari-faults-clampdown-on-boko-haram-members/ ]. The report has never been denied by Buhari who recently honored Bamanga Tukur, the former PDP chairman who notoriously said that Boko Haram was fighting for justice and was another name for justice as reported in the Punch on May 16th of 2012.

Nnamdi Kanu is not a Nigerian known for uncanny skills at escaping capture. He has been captured and arrested and locked up three times already in his short life. Recently he so cheaply presented himself in a hotel in Lagos, making it a breeze for the Buhari government to arrest him. It is therefore easy to imagine that he was available at the time of the raid and was either abducted by the vengeful, Boko Haram primed blood seeking Nigerian military or killed by them on the spot.

The possibility of Kanu's assassination is again evoked based on how the Nigerian military dealt with the Zakzaky's according to their eye-witnessing surviving daughter, Suhaila. The Buratai military reportedly killed three of Zakzaky's sons pointblank in front of Zakzaky and wife Zeenat, when they were found in a room that survived the burning down of their home. Zakzaky himself was shot four times and his wife shot three times pointblank. Critically wounded, they were then further degraded, carted away in wheelbarrows. Therefore it is quite plausible the Nigerian military murdered Kanu and his family on sight and buried them secretly as happened in Zaria.

The Nigerian police in what can only be regarded as gross and criminal incompetence, left the raided home without cordon after the raid, thus jeopardizing a full in-depth investigation. We may likely never know the truth.

Dr. Perry Brimah.

The alarming plausible situation captioned is of pertinence in view of pro-Biafra secessionist leader Nnamdi Kanu's absence in court this week. It has been a month and three days since Nnamdi Kanu was last publicly seen or heard of. Nnamdi Kanu's disappearance occurred on September 14th, the day of an alleged raid by the Nigerian military on his residence in Umuahia.

The raid captured on video and according to various narratives, saw Kanu's home riddled with bullets both inside and out with at least 26 reported killed including the Kanus' dog called Jack. Independent recordings have shown bodies strewn. There was no formal media presence because ahead of the assault, the Nigerian military first raided journalist posts, beat them up and smashed all their equipment to bits. [Read: https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-41244065 ]

Since the raid, Kanu, his parents and several of his family members have never again been seen or heard from. They have been reportedly killed or abducted alive by the Nigerian military. A forensic analysis of a video from Kanu's home during frightening the military raid detected a voice that sounded like his within the bombarded building at at least two points in the recording [Listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPcwluG8r2w ].


Naij video displayed bullet holes right in the walls of Nnamdi Kanu's room [Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FTnAy-A5xY ].

The plausibility of their murder and a secret mass burial cover-up comes up due to the precedence of identical behavior by the Buhari administration.

In December of 2015, after a similar raid on Zaria's Shia minority Muslims by the military under Commander in chief Muhammadu Buhari, hundreds of Muslims killed at over 5 different locations were secretly mass buried in the middle of the night to "conceal the crime." The Kaduna state government itself made a late confession to this crime when it opened up on the military-state secret mass burial of 347 Nigerian youth at the Mando cemetery. [See: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/201615-kaduna-govt-says-347-shiites-killed-by-nigerian-troops-given-secret-mass-burial.html ] The confession came in April, after ENDS.ng and Amnesty international had discovered and exposed the Mando mass grave and government cover up.

Again, PremiumTimes has an exclusive report of another secret mass burial by the Buhari administration which took place in Onitsha in 2016 after a massacre of pro-Biiafran agitators. This time the bodies of about 100 youth were reportedly secretly buried in a military grave yard. That report is captioned, " SPECIAL REPORT: How the Onitsha massacre of pro-Biafra supporters was coordinated — SSS operative ."

Based on the multiple cases above, it becomes necessary to inquire if once again the Buhari government's extra-judicially perambulating military has secretly murdered and secretly buried the Kanus.

*Why The Rush To proscribe IPOB?*

The hurried designation of Kanu's IPOB as a terrorist organisation with the Nigerian military and eastern state governments making several blunders in their anxiety, also piques curiosity. Why was the Nigerian government in such a hurry to proscribe IPOB? Was it to intimidate and suppress legitimate public inquiry into the happenings of September 14th at the residence of Nnamdi Kanu?

After several embarrassing blunders, the Buhari government succeeded in proscribing IPOB at the fastest rate any organization has ever been proscribed in Nigeria's history. Even most deadly terrorists like the Fulani militants who kill and average of 1000 Nigerians a year, are still concealed and condoned by the Buhari government that proscribed IPOB within days of its "illegal" military operation and raid on his residence. It must be noted that constitutionally the Nigerian military has no role in civil law enforcement, crime control; is not authorised to make raids and has no handcuffs, and obviously no role in making intra-state arrests. The Nigerian constitution only gives the military a role secondary to and in support of the civil authorities (police).

*Buhari's Defense of Boko Haram Against Military Murder*

Importantly, the after-the-event designation of IPOB as a terrorist organisation fails to prevent the legitimate inquiry into the events of September the 14th and demand for full police investigation into the actions of the Nigerian military on and around Nnamdi Kanu's residence. It is recalled that no one shouted louder against the extra-judicial killing of Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf, Buji Foi and other Boko Haram terrorists than current president Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari lamented against the brutal military action by the Jonathan government against Boko Haram. According to theNation , a current government affiliated editorial, in 2013, Buhari, then a northern elder statesman, decried Jonathan's military assault on Boko Haram, saying that they should not be killed but should be rewarded as Niger Delta militants had been[See: http://thenationonlineng.net/buhari-faults-clampdown-on-boko-haram-members/ ]. The report has never been denied by Buhari who recently honored Bamanga Tukur, the former PDP chairman who notoriously said that Boko Haram was fighting for justice and was another name for justice as reported in the Punch on May 16th of 2012.

Nnamdi Kanu is not a Nigerian known for uncanny skills at escaping capture. He has been captured and arrested and locked up three times already in his short life. Recently he so cheaply presented himself in a hotel in Lagos, making it a breeze for the Buhari government to arrest him. It is therefore easy to imagine that he was available at the time of the raid and was either abducted by the vengeful, Boko Haram primed blood seeking Nigerian military or killed by them on the spot.

The possibility of Kanu's assassination is again evoked based on how the Nigerian military dealt with the Zakzaky's according to their eye-witnessing surviving daughter, Suhaila. The Buratai military reportedly killed three of Zakzaky's sons pointblank in front of Zakzaky and wife Zeenat, when they were found in a room that survived the burning down of their home. Zakzaky himself was shot four times and his wife shot three times pointblank. Critically wounded, they were then further degraded, carted away in wheelbarrows. Therefore it is quite plausible the Nigerian military murdered Kanu and his family on sight and buried them secretly as happened in Zaria.

The Nigerian police in what can only be regarded as gross and criminal incompetence, left the raided home without cordon after the raid, thus jeopardizing a full in-depth investigation. We may likely never know the truth.

Dr. Perry Brimah.

Help me out, thanks.

www.forumversity.com
Thanks.

Firstly, I am not starting a class on how to install a site like Wikipedia, I am in need of such class. Lol.

I am not looking to build another Wikipedia either. I am OK with the one already in force.

Now to my question: How do I install a multilingual wiki exactly like Wikipedia?

I mean, with a common index page where all available language wikis are listed (www.mydomain.org), then the language wikis (yo.mydomain.org, for Yoruba, en.mydomain.org for English, ig.mydomain.org for Igbo, sw.mydomain.org for Kiswahili, the languages I am interested in, for a start).

I have my domain name, hosting and other necessary stuffs ready, only the knowhow is holding me back.

I read this guide https://m.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Wiki_family , I have attempted some of the instructions, I don't seem to be getting it.

Please help me out, as multilingualism and collaboration is at the heart of the website I am attempting to set up.

Our languages must survive!

adewasco2k
Slyr0x
Sainttaobs
Copycracker

Join us at www.forumversity.com, let's build the most comprehensive, useful online universities community and resource.

First 200 active members get their names immortalized on the website's Pioneers' Page, forever...

Forumversity.com, building Africa's biggest student community...

Details here: http://www.forumversity.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=181

Source: http://www.forumversity.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=181


Which way for Nigeria's educational system?

The West African Examinations Council, WAEC, is currently conducting the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, WASSCE, in Nigeria and some other West African nations, like Ghana and the Gambia.

The "official cycle" is to have the various secondary schools across the nation prepare their students, based on the approved Syllabus, for the papers they registered to take, English and Mathematics being the compulsory subjects.

The exam period is to spread across a month, or more as the case may be. The whole thing is suppose to end with WAEC officially withholding some results and releasing some others (and with the latest updates coming from WAEC Office, after 60 days of the completion of the exams).

But, as with everything Nigerian, there is often a dark, "unofficial" twist to this.

Surely, a trending term at the moment, even on Google searches, is WAEC RUNS. this is not some term pulled out of the thin air, it is rather one that has being with us for as long as I could remember, and one which is a festering sore at the heart of Nigeria's educational system, nay its future!

I am too sad, maybe angry, to go on with a long epistle, so I will go straight to the point.

In the process of gathering information online targeted mainly at Nigeria students, for Forumversity.com, I came across a number of websites and Whatsapp groups with shocking offers, targeted at JAMB/UTME and WASSCE candidates.

In my amazement, I decided to check up the popularities of some of these sites on Alexa.com, and hey, they do have some decent traffic!

Now, WAEC is ongoing, papers that are scheduled to be written in the near future are already circulating, a day or two beforehand, live questions are uploaded to Whatsapp as teasers for get "runs subscriptions" from students.

I have already exited these Whatsapp groups, as my phone's battery is no match for their "on-steroid" rate of churning out posts, we no dey get light for area, but not before I saw pictures of questions uploaded before schedule.

Further Mathematics is supposed to be written on the 24th of March, 2017. Today, 22nd of March, 2017, there are uploaded pictures of the paper already being circulated.

Maybe I am falling for Photoshop images here, it is possible, but highly unlikely, in that the torrent of Whatsapp posts after the completion of the papers I saw uploaded confirmed that these papers had been indeed, leaked.

Check the picture and decide for yourselves.


Source: http://www.forumversity.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=181


Lalasticlacla, Fynestboi, Richiez

forumversity.com, the place to be.

Great day

...

The place to be, join us today.

Forumversity has a new look!

Check us out at www.forumversity.com, meet and interact with fellow university students across the nation.

Improve your grades, join an ongoing debate with fellow students, keep to date with happenings on university campuses, get help on your study challenges, start/join a tutorial, get admission news and updates, socialise, broaden your horizon!

If you are a student, then forumversity.com is the place to be!

Cabal letter.

Cabal post by a cabal op

This Jonathan look na confirm cabal look.

Menh, that look from GEJ get as e be...

Khaynet:



You're welcome Sir,

Maybe you could include a short description is what the site is about somewhere visible, I also do not see an about us page

OK, will do.

Khaynet:
I love your Site it's simple and beautiful.
but...

too much divisions I don't seen to get the concept, visitors aren't patient... they should be able to grab the concept in a glance

Many thanks, Khaynet!

As the name implies, forumversity.com is intended to be a comprehensive site (forum) for the university community.

And you are right, I guess I have to hide some of the sections till the website has enough traffic to warrant their addition.

Thanks again.

Good morning, all.

Your opinions are highly sort and appreciated in advance.

Hello webmasters, what do you think of www.forumversity.com ?

Just had it redesigned, I need honest reviews.

Thank you.

Following continuous increase in its production capacity, foremost cement manufacturer, Dangote Cement Plc ( www.Dangote.com ) has finally ended the era of Nigeria’s dependence on importation as the company exported 0.4 million tons of the product to other countries in 2016.

In its 2016 full year audited results presented on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos yesterday, Dangote Cement sold 8.6 million metric tons of cement outside Nigeria, which is 54 per cent more than what was sold in 2015.

The export is significant given that the nation used to be a net importer of cement. As at 2011, Nigeria was one of the world’s largest importers of cement, buying 5.1 million metric tons of foreign cement at huge expense to the country’s balance of payments.

The company’s Pan-African cement plants continued to perform well, contributing significantly to its turnover and profitability.

While presenting the results, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Onne van der Weijde, assured the investors of better returns on their investment in the Dangote Cement.

The new year has started well and we expect much higher profitability in Nigeria in 2017, even though we may not see the volume growth we achieved in 2016
According to him: “The new year has started well and we expect much higher profitability in Nigeria in 2017, even though we may not see the volume growth we achieved in 2016. I am confident that we will deliver an even stronger performance in 2017 as we increase market share and extend our reach across Africa.”

The economic challenges notwithstanding, Onne revealed that Dangote Cement achieved sales and revenue growth of 25 per cent and consolidated its position as Africa’s leading producer of cement.

While sales from Nigerian operations increased by 13.8 per cent to nearly 15.1 million metric tons at a growth rate far higher than the country’s GDP, which fell in 2016, its total revenue leaped by 25.1 per cent to ₦615.1 billion.

To the delight of the investors, Dangote Cement earnings per share increased by 4.5 per cent to ₦11.34 and the dividend payout to the shareholders also increased significantly by 6.3 per cent to N8.5 kobo per share.

It would be recalled that Dangote Cement is Africa's leading cement producer with nearly 46 million metric tons’ capacity across Africa. It is a fully integrated quarry-to-customer producer with production capacity of 29.25Mta in Nigeria; Obajana plant in Kogi is the largest in Africa with 13.25Mta of capacity across four lines; Ibese plant in Ogun State has four cement lines with a combined installed capacity of 12Mta and Gboko plant in Benue state has 4Mta.

The company has also concluded arrangements to build new factories in Ogun State (3-6Mta) and Edo State (6.0Mta). Through its recent investments, Dangote Cement has eliminated Nigeria's dependence on imported cement and has transformed the nation into a net exporter of cement serving neighbouring countries.

In addition, the company has invested several billion dollars to build manufacturing plants and import/grinding terminals across Africa. Its operations are in Cameroon (1.5Mta clinker grinding), Congo (1.5Mta), Ghana (1.0Mta import), Ethiopia (2.5Mta), Senegal (1.5Mta), Sierra Leone (0.7Mta import), South Africa (3.3Mta), Tanzania (3.0Mta), Zambia (1.5Mta).

https://m.thenigerianvoice.com/news/245830/2016-dangote-ends-nigerias-cement-importationexports-04m.html

Epic!

lalasticlacla

South Africa Police on Monday said no fewer than 100 people ransacked shops in Johannesburg overnight, in the latest wave of looting incidents in South African cities.

'We are following up on leads and we are expecting to make more arrests,' police spokesman Brig. Mathapelo Peters said.

She said she did not know the nationalities of the shopkeepers and police were waiting for owners to come forward, so that they could open cases of violence and damage to property.

Similar incidents have taken place in Pretoria this month, but police have been reluctant to characterised the attacks as being directed against foreigners.

Anti-immigrant violence has flared sporadically in South Africa against a background of near-record unemployment, with foreigners being accused of criminal activity and taking jobs from locals.

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba on Friday acknowledged violence had flared up against foreigners this year, saying that 'unfortunately, xenophobic violence is not new in South Africa.'

On Friday, police fired tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse marches by hundreds of anti-immigrant protesters in Pretoria, after mobs looted stores believed to belong to immigrants.

More than 150 people were arrested.
Also, a Reuters witness said doors and windows were smashed in, and food and other items were strewn on the floor in stores believed to belong to immigrants in Jeppestown, an area in the central business district.

'We've been stuck inside here until the police came,' Abdul Ebrahim, a Somali shop owner, said after emerging from his store, where a number of his colleagues had barricaded themselves.

'No one told us what they were looking for,' he added when asked why the mob had attacked his shop. At least one person was arrested.

The Nigerian Government on Thursday urged the South African government to put in place measures to end the incessant xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in that country.

Minister of State Foreign Affairs Khadija Abba-Ibrahim, gave the task in Abuja during a second summon to the High Commissioner of South Africa to Nigeria, Mr Lulu Aaron-Mnguni, on the issue.

The Ministry had on Monday, Feb. 20, summoned the South Africa High Commissioner over the matter.

Nigerian buildings, properties and places of worship worth millions of dollars were destroyed by South Africans on Feb. 5 and 18.

'The Federal Government strongly urges the South African government to take all necessary measures to protect the lives and foreigners living and working in South Africa.

'Furthermore, the federal government urges the South African Government to bring perpetrators of these deplorable acts of violence to justice.

'The ministry continues to urge Nigerians in South Africa to remain calm and law abiding, and be vigilant at the same time.''

'The Federal Government of Nigeria will strenuously work towards the protection of Nigerians everywhere, including in South Africa,' she added.

However, the minister said that no Nigerian lost their lives in the attacks contrary to reports in some media.

According to her, the reports that mentioned the killing of Nigerians in the xenophobic attacks are unsubstantiated.

'The ministry has not received the report of any death of Nigerian in the latest incidents of attacks against foreigners.'


https://m.thenigerianvoice.com/news/245787/south-africans-on-rampage-again-loot-100-shops-overnight.html

lalasticlacla, mynd44

At a town hall meeting in Umuahia, the capital of Abia state on Monday, the federal government apologised to residents of the South-East region for the spate of attacks carried out by suspected Fulani herdsmen .

A number of attacks on various farming communities in Enugu and other states in the South-East led to the loss of lives just as many of the perpetrators were never brought to book.

An attempt to organise a reprisal attack on a Fulani herdsmen community in Enugu led to the arrest of many youths who were briefly taken before a magistrate court before they were released.

Minister for agriculture, Mr Audu Ogbeh who gave the apology on behalf of the government on Monday, stated that he had also been a victim of the attacks as his farm was similarly invaded by suspected herdsmen.

Ogbeh stated that the federal government was working on modalities to put a definite end the menace of the herdsmen who he noted had no right to bear arms or to harass farmers.

Vanguard quotes the minister as having said, “The army or police cannot follow the herdsmen around, but the Government is doing everything to find a lasting solution. In a few months you will see the result.”

Ogbeh also expressed disappointment that successive Abia State Governments abandoned the 17, 000 hectares of palm established by the late Dr Michael Okpara, former Premiere of Eastern Nigeria.

Other ministers who spoke at the meeting anchored by Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, include Labour and Productivity Minister, Dr Chris Ngige; Investment Minister, Okechukwu Enelama, and Minister of State, Solid Minerals, Alhaji Abubakar Buhari Bawa.

Ngige in his contribution said that the Buhari administration had not abandoned the zone that the government was working on a number of dilapidated federal roads in the region. He similarly urged the state governor, Okezie Ikpeazu to work on the federal roads in his State and tender the bills for a refund.


https://www.olisa.tv/2017/02/fg-apologises-south-east-fulani-herdsmen-attacks-promises-definite-solution/

The quite outspoken former Central Bank Governor, now Emir, HRH Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, SLS II, as quoted in an article in DailyTrust of August 2016 captioned, "FG creating billionaires through forex – Sanusi," leveled some very strong allegations against the Buhari administration's central bank foreign exchange policies with grave impact on the nation's economy.

“We have created our own billionaires since 2015 from foreign exchange subsidy,” the emir said in a speech at 15th Joint National Council on Development Planning meeting held in Kano... "They got the dollar at N197 and price their goods at N300... For instance, when the CBN was selling dollar at N197 and people were buying at N300, if I sit down in my garden and pick up my phone I would have enough people to call in the industry to get 10 million dollars at officials rate and sell at N300 and make a profit of over N1bn and if I do that four times in a year, for doing nothing I would have earned N4bn." [Emir SLS II DailyTrust ]

Canvassing for the devaluation of the naira to approach its real value and diminish the corruption-favorable gap with the parallel market, the Emir further stated as relayed in DailyTrust:

“And people were telling us that this policy was to help the poor. We should not devalue because if we do the poor people would suffer...People that were profiting from this were the ones telling the government that if you devalue people would suffer; meanwhile they all got the dollar at N197 and price their goods at N300. The poor paid the price of the devalued currency and the rich schemed up the profits and it went on for one year and we talked and talked and talked. If the present administration continues to behave the way the immediate past government behaved, we will end up where Jonathan ended. You may not like it but that is the truth.” [Emir SLS II DailyTrust ]

It was an affirmation of a huge problem many of us had complained bitterly about which sat at the epicenter of the Nigerian economic recession. The former CBN governor called it the "foreign exchange subsidy." I had written strongly about it in April of that year in a piece titled " Like Jonathan's Subsidy Scam, Like Buhari's Forex Scam ."

The article introduction read: "The implication of these two government facilitated processes is virtually the same: Nigeria's cabal benefit and make billions while the masses wither and die."

Indeed Jonathan's fuel subsidy scam was no different from the forex subsidy scam that has been run by CBN governor Godwin Emefiele comfortably under the Buhari government. Both processes have had identical devastative impacts to the Nigerian economy while cementing the poor in deadly hardship. According to Reuters , in just a short 11 week slot examined between March and May of 2016, a single cabal, Aliko Dangote got $100 million dollars equivalent of government forex gift via this cabal forex subsidy racket.

Did Buhari know about this racket? It is impossible to tell. No one knows how much president Muhammadu Buhari knew while concerned about his ailment. How much news did his handlers give him and what spins did they put on it. Was he informed about public opinions? It is also impossible to quantify the effect the CBN nepotism scam exposed in a SaharaReporters release had on the president and if this influenced his tolerance of the apex bank governor's anti-people policies. What matters most is that for whatever reason, under Buhari's watch the CBN maintained several exchange rates favorable for the forex subsidy scam, until last week that is.

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has moved to slash the gap between the official rate and parallel market rate by forcing the bank governor to flood enough dollars into the system to offset demand pressure on the black market. Forever more, after an eventual new stabilized level, those who hoard dollars will have fears of Osinbajo's anti-cabal and pro-people and the economy stance, and the naira can be expected to never again depreciate the way it has been consistently while Buhari gave Godwin Emefiele a free hand and total autonomy.

*President Osinbajo while being the minister of the economy, has operated with hands tied as the CBN governor in the past took no orders from him and as Vice president he had to seek approval from the cabal at the presidency.

A WashingtonPost article praising the Acting President brought to recollection the fact that it was during another similar instance when Buhari travelled and briefly handed over power to Professor Osinbajo that the Vice president ordered the over due recommended devaluation of the naira as SLS II and many analysts including myself had repeatedly urged..

Buhari vented his displeasure about the Osinbajo-directed devaluation when he returned . Clearly while Buhari's approach was Emfiele's approach which maintained a wide disparity in the rates of foreign exchange for the privileged and the masses, professor Osinbajo's economics is the path that prevents corruption and subsidy for the cabal, with the official rate devalued to its actual value and enough dollars in the market to eliminate the forex subsidy gap. With a single rate, foreign investors are encouraged as they can extract their earnings in foreign currency at the same rates they invested it.

Asked about the cabal subsidizing policy and its advantage for the select few, president Buhari shrugged as he told Al Jazeera correspondent Martine Dennis, " those who can afford it can still afford it ."

Hopefully soon, all will be able to afford it on level terms. There is hope.

Dr. Peregrino Brimah

https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/245807/osinbajo-moves-to-killforex-subsidy-racket-run-under-buhari.html

lalasticlacla