₦airaland Forum

Factfinder1:
Idiot tax master with zero economic sense... Na this old fool una been dey call first class accountant and master strategist.....Una stupid for this country sha.

If you weren't in such a rush to spew your puerile venom, you would have seen the following passage.

If you look at it, the law predates the Tinubu administration. It was enacted in 2015 and signed by Goodluck Jonathan. It is only being implemented now.

If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't be going around calling anyone else a "fool", considering how well you exemplify the concept.

Amayabor1:
You have a point. In saner climes, Buhari would have been under investigation by now. His govt really did this country dirty.

But Tinubu has also not also fared better. What has Tinubu done with all the monies borrowed by his govt? If people actually see what is being done with these monies, they wouldn't have any problem with the borrowing. They should be transparent and tell us specifically what these funds are being used for.

They are looting this country dry.

As corrupt as Nigeria is, the assumption that everything in the country can be explained on the basis of "corruption" is simply wrong. There is no need to resort to fact-free accusations of "looting" when there are simpler, well-documented explanations at hand. By far the biggest drain on the government's coffers is the petrol subsidy which is back in full force.

https://www.nairaland.com/8088289/tinubus-reinstated-fuel-subsidy-drain

Add in the huge cost of the electricity subsidies and it's no wonder this government has to borrow to merely stay afloat.

Satazaa:
Nigeria has been supplying and transmitting electricity to this countries for ages and there is virtually no record anywhere of how this monies are received or paid into the federation account for sharing by the three tiers of government, never, so if we can't see the money then stop selling to them because of our own enormous needs and TCN complete lack of transparency

The depths of ignorance on display here are truly shocking. How exactly is electricity that is generated and distributed by private power companies supposed to be ending up in "the federation account"? It's as if many of you can't even fathom the idea of private enterprise, and are still living under the delusion that Nigeria remains in the days of NEPA.

lorenzobanks:
Better that way. Still wondering the essence of giving your neighboring countries electricity while you dwell in darkness is absolutely foolishness. Nigeria is the market and should be the industrial hub and manufacturing clusters that our neighbouring countries depends on. So, we need more energy than any country in west Africa.

There is absolutely nothing foolish about it. Those neighboring countries actually pay market prices for the power they receive, so it only makes sense for the privately-run power companies to prioritise these fully-paying customers if they want to cover their own costs.

What is truly foolish is to expect highly indebted private companies to continue to domestically dole out underpriced power indefinitely while denying them even the opportunity to make up for some of their domestic losses by profiting from customers in neighboring countries. Where exactly are the profits of the power companies supposed to come from? Domestic users who regularly bypass meters rather than pay even unrealistically low prices? The highly-indebted FG, which itself owes the power companies billions of Dollars, and is already squandering what little is left from debt servicing on petrol subsidies (subsidies that most Nigerians can't even acknowledge as still being in place)?

99% of Nigerian commentary on this power topic is powered by nothing more than functional illiteracy and an over-inflated sense of entitlement. Nigerians suffer in darkness because Nigerians are unwilling to pay what it truly costs to reliably generate and distribute electricity. No amount of populist tinkering or "fighting corruption" will change this reality in the slightest, nor would Atiku, Obi or anyone else have had some magic wand to wave this economic reality away, whatever fantasies most of you might entertain.

ThiefnubuBandit:
Those who want a better life will still travel out of this hell-hole. 20,000 £ is more than 34 million Naira. And that is the least annual salary the poster wrote there. You dey whine? Which job wan pay a Nigerian youth up to 34 million NGN every year for inside Naija? Abi nah all these one-man business wey full everywhere?

If you work for 3 years, you will be able to invest in a business in Nigeria that someone residing in Nigeria will not be able to start with 12 years of working.

Posts like this one are meant precisely for ignoramuses like you, who assume everything costs the same in the UK as it does in Nigeria. Do you know what the average renting price for even a 1-bedroom currently is in London? More than £2,100 per month in central London, and "only" £1,750-£2,150 per month if you're willing to spend 2-hours commuting by train every day (and spending £15 on train tickets each time). Don't believe me? See for yourself!

https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/housing-and-land/improving-private-rented-sector/london-rents-map

Of course, after this you still have to pay council tax (£200/month), gas and electricity (£100/month), buy food (at least £200/month even if you never dine out), buy clothes, etc. £20,000 a year is starvation wages in the UK!

So many of you delude yourselves into thinking Britain's streets are paved with gold based on your simple-minded exchange rate calculations, only to find yourselves living a beggar's existence once you get there, not to talk of the long, cold dark winters and the near-total isolation you are bound to experience given the huge cultural differences.

youngrichnigga:
I thought he became a born-again and now owns a church he pastors

That would just be switching from one form of fraud to another, so he would still have been in the same line of business

Dennisochampa:
I no understand Nigeria...

Why can't we study the power supply structure of countries where power is constant and apply the same principles to our own power sector

Countries like united kingdom, power is 24hrs and does not shake... What are they doing differently that our government cannot adopt

The difference between countries like the United Kingdom and Nigeria is that the British, unlike Nigerians, are actually willing to pay realistic prices for the power they are supplied, enough for power companies to cover the cost of paying their employees, to spend billions of USD on new power infrastructure, and to buy fuel at international market prices.

When the Russia-Ukraine war started in 2022, international gas prices shot through the roof, and British consumers were almost immediately directly hit with the full impact. In Nigeria the government would have been laggardly in raising price caps, and even then it would have failed to raise prices sufficiently for the GENCOs and DISCOs to cover their operating costs (let alone to pay interest on their loans, talk less of making new infrastructural investments). The end result of this Nigerian "cheap power is our birthright" attitude is why so many of the DISCOs have gone broke, while the GENCOs are owed over $1.1 billion.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/673239-electricity-nigerian-govt-offsets-120-million-debt-to-gas-companies.html

Is it any surprise that nobody wants to invest in a sector where price controls guarantee they will lose tons of money? Giving individual states the freedom to get into the power business will do nothing to change the situation unless they are also given a free hand to set prices as they choose, and no Nigerian government has ever shown it has the courage to allow that. As such, Nigerians can continue to "enjoy" the cheap power they feel entitled to, even if that never amounts to more than a few measly hours of electricity per day.

Akwamkpuruamu:
Nonsense policy of fuel subsidy removal. Zero benefit to the common man but for political elites to have more disposable income

Nonsense rant from an economic ignoramus. If the subsidy had truly been removed, fuel would be selling for more then N1,000 per litre and there would be no shortages, queues or hoarding. The very fact that these same old maladies are occurring is proof enough that the subsidy regime is in place, so what are you subsidy-worshippers complaining about?

PHAYOL81:
Great. Please prioritize BADAGRY seaport and IBOM deep seaport construction with the money.

This is a foreign company's private investment, not some initiative of the FG. Neither the likes of you or even Tinubu himself get to decide where and how foreigners dispose of their own money. The other seaports you mention are free to go make their own pitches to potential foreign investors, but they will have to do so on the basis of how attractive they can make themselves as investment destinations, not by appealing to tribalism and "it's our turn" rhetoric in the usual Nigerian fashion.

CountinBlessins:
OMG!! Expanding Lagos port again? How about Calabar ,Rivers and Delta ports ?

Tinubu is not going to win a reelection in 2027.

Mark these words

What a ridiculous thing to say! This is a private investment! You think a conglomerate like Maersk factors petty tribalistic concerns like yours into consideration when deciding how to invest across the globe?

emkz:
Due to the historical squalor in Kogi State and the ostentatious lifestyles of Kogi politicians, I shared the following pain here on Nairaland about 5 years ago:



The issue is that Yahaya Bello was one of the youngest governors during his time. There was also Ahmed Salihijo, former head of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) fired along with his board for alleged corruption. Then there was Halima Shehu, former head of NSIPA who claimed to have transferred 44 billion naira agency funds to private accounts. Then there was Betta Edu who couldn't wait to win the Nobel Prize in early stage stealing.

Why do these young ones believe their call to public service is a call to be stinking corrupt?

And this is why I have never taken seriously all those calls for "youth" in politics, as if the "youth" were any better than those they were seeking to replace. Are they not all Nigerians, with the same "I chop, you chop" Nigerian mindset? If anything, younger Nigerians seem even more criminally minded than the elders they complain about, given how "yahoo yahoo" has exploded in popularity over the years.

Sctests:
An agbado muslim don open mouth... Bulabans do not have the brain-power to determine who is intelligent or not. You've been getting scammed like buffoons since 2015..

This entire thread can be treated like an IQ test, one on which you and all the other advocates of this nonsensical claim have performed woefully. Given that every human language has tens of thousands of words, any two languages will have some words which sound alike purely by coincidence!

If you and your ilk weren't so stupid, you could have done a simple Google or Wikipedia search, which would have informed you that Igbo is a Niger-Congo language, while Hebrew is a Semitic language, which is part of the Afro-Asiatic superfamily. Guess which other major Nigerian language is Afro-Asiatic? Hausa!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hausa_language

Yes, Hausas - who your religiously bigoted remarks betray disdain for - have a far stronger claim to relation with the Hebrews than you Igbos ever will, but they don't feel the need to push the issue because they don't suffer from the intense inferiority complex that drives you to associate yourself with Israel on the flimsiest of bases, even though anyone who has studied linguistics can clearly see the strong resemblance between Igbo, Edo and the Yoruba you seem to hate so much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volta%E2%80%93Niger_languages

If Igbo and Hebrew are related on the basis of a few far-fetched resemblances (most of which have already been shown to be lies), it will be interesting to see you explain away the hundreds of genuinely similar or identical words in Igbo and Yoruba.

https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-similar-words-in-the-Igbo-and-Yoruba-Languages

nairalanda1:
No, better that states raise.the money via taxes and investment and more taxes.

Plus reducing federal government 45 percent is going to leave a lot of ministries unable to function.. millions of Nigerians rely on such ministries working

The money has to come from the states.

I think your previous comment gets at a more fundamental issue, which is that Nigeria has too many "feeding-bottle" states which would have no business existing if they had to rely on their own internally raised revenue for even half their expenditures. Providing security is the core function of government at any level, and if a governing body cannot raise the funds to fulfill this primary mandate, of what use is it?

Nigeria's "federalism" is a mostly phony and empty exercise, which functions mostly to funnel oil revenues to "states" whose primary purpose is to dole out welfare under the pretence of public sector "jobs", while allowing various tribal elites the chance to gorge themselves on the fruits of stealing FG funds handed to them in the name of their "kinsmen". This ridiculous state of affairs will persist as long as there is "free" oil money to dish out from the center, and as long as most Nigerians believe they are owed an expansive state without needing to pay for it through taxes - even if this big state can't perform a function as basic as keeping law and order.

socialmediaman:
You could’ve simply taken the information, thanked me, then kept quiet.

You should have taken your own dumb advice, instead of exposing yourself as having an IQ below 70.

HellVictorinho6:
their ambition is to enslave as many nigerians as possible and bury them in poverty



the constitution is perfect to them since it gives them power to run political parties 4 selfish reasons


thatz why nigeria has the highest number of people including farmers suffering from multi dimensional poverty.

This is nonsense. Who are the elites drawn from if not the masses they are supposedly trying to "enslave"? Nigeria is hardly pre-revolutionary France with an inbred hereditary caste - most top Nigerian politicians are just 1 or 2 generations away from membership in the masses, and the greed, selfishness and short-sightedness you see in the Nigerian elite is perfectly representative of the average Nigerian's mindset. Nigeria's elites are selfish and clueless because most Nigerians are selfish and clueless!

socialmediaman:
the US government provides subsidies on electricity to lower the cost of production for companies, and electricity costs to consumers

So what? It doesn't disprove the point that the more government interference, the bigger the scope for corruption.

Just because there's more room for corruption doesn't mean corruption will always occur, but countries like the USA have stronger institutional checks on corruption than a basketcase like Nigeria. In the USA the judiciary and the legislature are truly independent of the executive, the states have real autonomy (as they don't depend mainly on federal handouts), and enough voters care more about corruption than mere tribal and religious allegiance (millions of Trump-supporting dimwits notwithstanding).

Precisely because Nigeria lacks the strong institutions the USA enjoys, it has less room to tolerate government intervention in its economy. How exactly do you think the incompetent owners of the DISCOs and GENCOs got where they were if not for sweetheart deals made under GEJ's government?

IbeOkehie:


Human greed and selfishness are common human failings that can only be acted on when there's OPPORTUNITY to do so.

The cause of corruption in Nigeria is government ownership of economic resources & commercial companies, government payment of subsidies and government regulation of prices. That's it. Once all that government involvement is abolished, there will be very little opportunity for anyone to act upon their natural tendency to be greedy, wicked and selfish.

Evidence in Nigeria - telecoms, cement and broadcasting companies. Very little complaints of corruption in those industries because government has very little involvement in their operations.

Simple stuff, but somehow very hard for Nigerians to comprehend.

My thoughts exactly. Nigerians suffer from a strange mental block when it comes to understanding that the highly subsidized living they feel entitled to is at the root of the rampant corruption and slow growth they constantly wail about. The more government interferance in the economy, the bigger the scope for corruption.

Killerofpigs:
Why must Yoruba people always be the "exposer or promoter" of these news?

Why cant this Yoruba boy talk about his brothers that were killed by Fulani herdsmen?

Yoruba and interloping in other peoples business.

WAS BAKARE AND OYEDEPO not MUSLIMs before they converted to Christianity?

Haba !!

Imagine being so bigoted that you resort to bashing a man who is defending a member of your own tribe, simply because the man happens to be Yoruba! Hate-filled ingrates like you are the reason why "no good deed goes unpunished" happens to be a saying.

grandstar:
Oga,
Does free trade not imply it exports to generate forex? Have you ever picked a copy of The Economist in your life and read it? I am now certain you used "expo" to gain admission to read Yoruba.

I requested you name one emerging economy that uses import substitution policies as its primary mode for economic and all you can say is I'm delusional. Delusional is not a Yoruba word. You probably think it means 'very intelligent' in English. It doesn't

Stop projecting yourself unto me. You know absolutely nothing about economics.

I challenge you to mention 3 globally acclaimed economist that you admire

You will simply reply that "I'm delusional"

Now you know why I never bother to respond to the clown. There's no point engaging in an argument with abusive individuals incapable of even the most rudimentary reasoning.

Why does this bill stop at "geopolitical zones" which don't even exist in the constitution? Why not go all the way to demanding power rotation by state? Even better, why not make it "turn by turn" for every single LGA in the country, to be fair to all Nigerians who aren't from a "major tribe"?

This bill is utterly idiotic, an effort to advance mediocrity in the name of "unity". It deserves to die an ignominous death. Anyone who wants "zoning" is free to make such a choice at the ballot box. The last thing Nigeria needs is to further lower the already abysmal level of its political leadership by enshrining what is effectively a quota system for the top offices of the nation.

Namaster:
Weak move!

That is telling the owners that there will be no consequences for their negative behaviours. You can take actions that'll hurt the entire country and NOTHING will happen to you. That there is no consequences for doing somethin in illegal in Nigeria.

What exactly was "illegal" in the owners of these goods disposing of them as they pleased? What makes them "criminals" for deciding to sell what they paid for with their own hard-earned money wherever they could get the best prices?

If anyone is a "criminal" here, it is you, for thinking that your own financial difficulties justifies the seizure of other people's property for your benefit. It's not enough that the business owners already contribute to the nation by paying a massive share of the taxes (far more than the likes of you will ever pay), or that it's due to their risk-taking and foresight that you have access to markets full of goods from around the world, despite Nigeria's terrible transport infrastructure and rampant insecurity. No, they must voluntarily beggar themselves so you can have a few cheap meals, or else in your greed-addled mind they must be "criminals".

If you think it's easy as all that to run any kind of business in Nigeria, let alone a commodity business easily subject to theft, spoilage and adverse price movements, I suggest you start up your own business and feed yourself, rather than bad-mouthing others for not lining up to cut their own necks on your behalf.

senatordave1:
Goldman Sachs an international firm with repute is now questionable?

Don't mind the ignoramus. Last year Goldman Sachs earned net revenues of $46.25 billion, which is more than an entire Nigerian state earned from oil in the same period!

https://www.goldmansachs.com/media-relations/press-releases/2024/2024-01-16-q4-results.html

The buffoon you are responding to, like the 160 other semi-literate buffoons who gave him a "like", is nothing more than an embittered tribalist who knows nothing about the world, and therefore resorts to wild conspiracy theories to explain away any news he doesn't like.

nairalanda1:
The problem with the police in Nigeria is simple...we are spending one tenth of what the city of New York uses to police 10-20 million people to police 220 million or more people.

Infact it is a wonder that we haven't degenerated into total anarchy.

As a result, the police is poorly equipped and poorly funded. And as for corruption...well, with limited funding comes opportunities for corruption.

Throw in the fact that we don't have a good system of records. Mind you, our records system has drastically improved compared to 20-30 years ago, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

Also, our universities are badly funded...which limits the abilty to provide good forensic people, good forensic services, and even research for better forensic methods.

State police won't improve the matter. It may give the psychologic image of more boots on the ground, but with most states being unable to pay salaries , or even pay improved minimim wage years after the thing was improved, I fail to see how they would fund and pay for a state police....unless they charged the kind of tax they do oversease at oversease tax rate. Nigerians would cry well well .

The problem with the Nigerian police system isn't just a question of money, but of accountability and familiarity with local conditions. Currently there is simply no way for local communities to hold the police to account no matter their misdeeds, which is why so many policemen spend most of their time soliciting bribes and shaking down anyone with a laptop in the name of prosecuting "yahoo" rather than actually trying to combat violent crimes that might put them at personal risk.

Then there is also the cultural factor to consider. Nigeria is one of the most ethnically diverse "nations" on the planet, which it compounds with its religious diversity. How can one expect policemen randomly shuffled around the country by bureaucrats in Abuja to learn the norms, history and relationships of the people amongst whom they are posted, so they can act with the necessary tact to solicit cooperation from the natives rather than needlessly stirring up hostility through an aggressive "Do as I say or else" style of policing?

Truly local policing - and by "local" here I mean at the LGA level - would go a long way to solving both of these problems, even without extra billions of Dollars to fund it. Police staff recruited locally from an area will find it harder to treat the same people they were raised amongst as mere cash-machines to be ruthlessly exploited, and if they know they will be subject to disciplinary oversight by local authorities that will also help to hold them in check.

What I don't support at all is the notion that policing should be at the regional or even state level, where it can easily be captured by politicians looking to build personal armies to intimidate rivals. Having said that, state policing would still be better than the regional equivalent, as it would be closer to the people and more subject to the checks I've already mentioned. The one thing that cannot be allowed to happen under any circumstances whatsoever is for governors to have any control over the police, directly or indirectly - that's not how it's done in any of the other federations Nigeria tries to emulate. It must be possible (and even reasonable) for governors to fear arrest if they engage in actions which fall outside the scope of the immunity granted by their office.

grandstar:
Lies.

The CEOs of both Google and Microsoft are both dollar billionaires

In addition, the CEO of Apple - Tim Cook - is also a salary earner. I don't know why Nigerians so readily give credence to whatever nonsense religious charlatans spout.

Kennitrust:
He introduced drugs business in Nigeria like his counterpart soyeka wole or what is he called, who introduced cultism in Nigeria

If this is true, why is it that the people he allegedly introduced to the business were nearly all your own kinsmen? Why are 99% of those in jail for this business in places as far afield as Brazil, Colombia, Pakistan, the Phillippines and Australia of Igbo extraction?

The constant attempt to deflect blame for this never-ending disgrace by bringing up Tinubu's name is as transparent as it is pathetic. Whoever did or didn't introduce the "drugs business" to Nigeria, it is simply indisputable that Igbos have a near-total domination of Nigeria's international drug cartels, at all levels from the losers who are paid chicken-change to swallow cocaine wrapped in condoms, to the local distributors, to the kingpins who have now started bringing in Mexican expertise to set up the meth-labs currently fueling an epidemic in the SE. Scream Tinubu's name all you like, but those facts won't change, nor will anyone else ignore them.

Kennitrust:
Tinubu's boys

Why do "Tinubu's boys" always turn out to be Igbo? Is he actually from Anambra state or something? You can keep deceiving yourself, but you're certainly not fooling anyone else ...

EreluRoz:
No, if he continues like this I'll ditch him come 2027 I see how people are suffering and it breaks my heart

The entire point of this article is that Tinubu is still diverting huge sums of money to subsidising petrol, and you're talking about "how people are suffering"? What would you be saying now if Tinubu had done the truly sensible thing by abolishing the subsidy altogether, and allowing the market to set prices?

This is why I said it was a mistake for Tinubu to not fully deregulate petrol importation and pricing once and for all. Now he's in the worst possible situation, still squandering vast sums on subsidising petrol to the detriment of all other priorities, while also still having to deal with an avalanche of idiotic criticism over the supposedly "cruel" abolition of a subsidy which is actually still in place!

aloziedaya:
Why is he saying that fuel is cheap? It's very very expensive looking at our minimum wage

Of what relevance is your minimum wage to the cost of producing refined petroleum, shipping it half-way across the world, and then storing it in expensive containers? The refining and the shipping are done on the international market in US Dollars, and the storage facilities are constructed using materials also paid for in USD. Even if your minimum wage was zero, these harsh realities would still remain, and the costs of getting that refined petroleum to you would still have to be covered in full.

It's the height of stupidity to think how much you personally earn can dictate the prices of things you want - such illogical ranting only speaks to the overblown sense of entitlement you and so many other Nigerians suffer from.

JimD:
Obi is wrong here. This was a long overdue step. But there should be a set target. After that target is met, they can gradually ease rates. There should be a revision of tax rates also and streamlined or digital taxation for the working populace. This in combination with reduced cost of governance, improved security and more mechanized farming will get the job done

Actually, there is such a target, but in my opinion it is still far too high - Cardoso is aiming for a 21.4% inflation rate.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/nigeria-central-bank-targets-inflation-decline-214-governor-2024-01-24/

A much more reasonable number would be in the 3-5% range, and to make this target more credible, the CBN charter could be amended to set this as its primary goal, which must be achieved over a fixed time range.

https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/basics/72-inflation-targeting.htm

Tareq1105:
So Obi, a trader and a philosophy graduate is more knowledgeable than those MPC members whose decisions have been applauded by experts like Prof Kingsley Moghalu and others on TV and Radio discussions?

Does Obi have access to all the information at the disposal of MPC members?

He that thinks he's wise is the most foolish.

I rarely respond to this kind of beer parlor advice from a brewer who must have taken some cups before speaking.

Usually Obi sticks to nice-sounding but empty generalities, which makes it hard for listeners to make meaningful assessments of his supposedly "constructive" suggestions. Today, for once Obi does have something concrete to say, and all it ends up revealing is that he has nothing upstairs!

Wanting interest rates to remain below the level of inflation while endlessly complaining about a weak Naira is nonsense of the highest order. Anyone who can entertain such foolishness has never heard of "interest rate parity"

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/interestrateparity.asp

another one of those "textbook" terms dismissed by boorish Nigerian know-it-alls (none of whom have ever read any of the textbooks they dismiss), but which every professional FX trader learns before stepping on a trading floor.

007Marvel:
You have to be better than those you criticize or dislike! Concluding that I'm from the East simply because I disagree with your ways shows a narrow-minded perspective. I am a proud Edo man, and I am wise enough to recognize that crime is not limited to any particular region in Nigeria; it is a societal issue.

Yeah, sure, that's why you brought up terrorism and grave-desecration, because of your "broad-mindedness". Again, I am 100% certain you've never uttered a peep of complaint whenever trolls have littered this site with their clearly tribalistic "ebi n pawa" nonsense.

AlabiKILLER2021:
E-BOLA Tinubus miscreants

Shouldn't you be singing Tinubu's praises then? How fair minded of him to reach across tribal lines to entrust Adinnu Felix Chinedu as his chief distributor!