₦airaland Forum

grandstar:
Leave the Fintechs alone. It's a lame excuse.

Common sense dictates the Naira paid out to the recepient is backed by forex. The grammar of it entering or not entering the country is semantics.

It's the equivalent of saying the global forex market does not affect the value of your currency because it is electronically traded and involves a lot of leverage, that it is a Kalo Kalo market.⁰00⁰

The government must sit up and do its job. The CBN needs to increase interest rates to tame inflation which will instantly arrest the weekly slide of the Naira. This will restore confidence in the local currency and start an appreciation of it.

Next, it might be best the government pegs the Naira at the official market and defends that rate, which will reduce the gap between the official plate and the black market to between 2-3%. The official rate should slightly devalued so it can be a rate the CBN can easily defend and also make the country's products and services competitive.

Remittances sent through apps should be paid in Naira. If the Naira rate is stable, most people will be fine with it.

The problem with the above is that right now the government simply doesn't have the necessary reserves to defend a pegged rate. The only way out of this mess is to combine the interest-rate increases you've already mentioned with the announcement of a large-scale privatization program, as part of a larger program to rein in the size of the public sector. Even though any privatization program will still take a few years to complete, just the readiness to make concrete proposals would firm up foreign investor confidence, which would reverse the downward pressure on the Naira.

The other side to this story is the need to rein in public-sector demands for ever larger wage increases to cope with inflation, as this is already giving rise to a classic wage-price spiral. One advantage to the announcement of an ambitious privatization program (apart from the prospect of both bringing in badly needed forex while simultaneously reducing the government's expenses) is that it will put public-sector workers on notice that their positions are no longer secure enough for them to try holding the rest of the country to ransom through strike action. The NLC leadership may continue to foam at the mouth, but the likelihood of anything coming of their threats will be radically diminished.

I know Tinubu was badly shaken by the backlash when he announced the abolition of the petrol subsidy (which he never fully followed through on), but the fiscal situation left behind by Buhari was atrocious, and the changeover coincided with a sharp rise in global interest rates to make the already existing debt burden crushing, meaning no one is about to grant Nigeria fresh new loans unless Tinubu is willing to go to the lender of last resort, i.e. the IMF. Not only would doing so kill Tinubu's hopes of getting re-elected (given how negatively Nigerians view the IMF), but the reform program the IMF will demand would be far more radical. Tinubu needs to get over his fear of public opinion and put forward a program that will draw in FDI on a large scale, before events force far harsher medicine on him.

Birminghamvirgo:
Something is wrong with you... You're an Egba man from Ogun State, period! We Lagosians know ourselves.
Ogun State comprises different Yoruba sub-ethnic groups, same as Oyo, Ekiti, Osun, Ondo and Kwara states respectively...

Why is everybody taking this troll at his word? He's clearly not even Yoruba, let alone Egba. Anyone can claim to be from anywhere on the internet.

Rahkman:
you Proudly denigrating lagos indigenes,when this lagos indigenes begin selling all their lands to igbos now,you will start crying igbos are buying up lagos

And you're as gullible as they come for taking this troll seriously. What sane Egba man would ever claim his people aren't native to Lagos, even with areas like Abule Egba, Tinubu and Tejuosho all named after Egbas? And which Yoruba man would ever dare claim Aworis aren't native to Lagos Island? I haven't even started speaking about how much of Lagos state (e.g. Ikorodu) was carved out of Ijebuland to begin with.

The buffoon you're replying to is as "Egba" as I am a native of Mbaise, which is to say, not in a million years.

nairalanda1:
The alternative is, the Labour Party would start charging dues. Like, every member should pay N5000 monthly...

Like who go pay? You don't know Nigerians. Unless it would benefit them, dem no go pay.

So, alternative is to charge heavily for party tickets.

And this is the root of the systemic corruption in Nigerian politics. The only way to succeed in Nigerian politics is to either have deep pockets oneself, or to be backed by others with deep pockets. In the first case, for most the only way to attain to such personal wealth is by stealing as much as possible in every position attained while climbing up the political ladder, while in the latter case it means reliance on rich "godfathers" (almost all of whom got rich through some form of corruption) who will want healthy returns on their "investments" - returns that, again, are only obtainable through massive corruption.

Once one understands the preceding, it becomes clear why those expecting any known figure in Nigerian political life to be "clean" are living in a dream world, no matter which party the figure in question might decamp to a given point in time. Yet again we see how the Nigerian love of false economies leads to disastrous long-term consequences. Nigerians refuse to pay for political activities out of their individual pockets, and end up paying far more through corruption, just as they hate paying their electricity bills and up spending far more buying diesel to power noisy, dirty "I pass my neighbor" generators.

greatness22:
Wole.... Nuff said.

How does this non-sequitur explain how "this administration" is responsible for a scam that took place in 2010?

Throwback:
The message Obi is passing is that he too would have spent the funds on something that does not address the hunger in the land.

The government has dedicated such funds to set up a structure that will generate and track records about those who are poor in Nigeria, which I reckon is to allow subsequent planning.

Obi is not interested in that, and complained that the National Library needs more funds and it is more critical.

So he has his own ideas, as the government have theirs.

Just as it was more critical to have Anambra public funds saved in his bank while Anambrarians who suffered his actions confirmed he was a wicked and visionless Governor.

If he becomes the President, let him spend public funds on his own ideas, while the critics then also suggest what better way things could have been done.

The bolded above is why I can never take Peter Obi seriously (even leaving aside his hypocritical posturing as a "saint" despite his manifest corruption). Either Obi criticizes without proposing any concrete alternatives - and no, nice-sounding generalities don't count - or when he does say something concrete, it turns out to be even more bone-headed than whatever it is he's criticizing! Even as far as tribal champions go, the SE can do far better than this third-rate intellect.

BALLOSKI:
Has privatization ever worked in Nigeria?

The above can only be the words of someone who never experienced the bad old days of waiting years for a single unreliable landline under NITEL.

nairalanda1:
The funny thing about this thread is simple.

Because I believe power must be sold at a profit, mockery results.

Well, for over 30 years we have fixed the price of power, and it has done nothing well for us.

Time we tried something different.

But the communists here, they don;t want profits, they want to seize the means of production.

And just like the communists of Eastern Europe, they buy into the old slogan "We pretend to work, and you pretend to pay us" - though in Nigeria's case it's the refineries and power companies pretending to work, while the Nigerian consumer is the one pretending to pay.

nairalanda1:
Thank you

But in a way, I understand them. Before 2011, I would have made the same arguments that the people I am arguing against here are making. Trying to understand in 2011, why government was trying to remove subsidy for the nth time...in nearly 2 decades, was what started a process that led to me understanding some things....

But the truth is, most Nigerians are poor. We really cannot pay for power at a cost reflective tariff, most of us. The problem is, if we keep paying for power at cheap prices, because of 'poverty' we won't get good enough power, because the sector won't make the profit needed to attract investment and improve things.

Why most of them are shouting at me, is because they want me to think of the poor. They think I am being that insensitive to say that Nigerians should pay for power at market price. In a way I am. But if I agreed with them, then at the end, I am saying that the sector should remain underfunded. And we still get no light.

But then again, GSM companies did not think of the poor. They charged sky high prices back in the day, and people blasted them all day long. Until the benefits kicked in, and prices came down due to competition...and more investment led to expansion. Today we have a thriving telecoms sector because we simply let them set their prices. Nothing to do with politics, just simply set their prices.

And many poor people can now use telecom services. When it was pnly NITEL, with government set prices, very few Nigerians could use phones.

I get what you're saying, but at the end of the day Nigerians need to understand that magical thinking is not a substitute for rational economic policies that lay the groundwork for faster long-term growth. I'm doubtful any of the Nigerians who think they're advocating for the poor by supporting economy-distorting subsidies would be quick to cry "think of the poor patient!" if faced with a medical doctor who has to amputate a gangrenous limb or cut out a cancerous lung, but at the end of the day the mindset is the same.

An economist who criticizes petrol subsidies and price-controls on electricity is no more likely to be doing so out of "hatred" of the poor than the doctor who orders a grueling course of chemotherapy is doing so out of malice towards a patient. In both cases, the personal preference of the experts would be to go the other way (all else being equal), but in both cases, sentimentality is not allowed to cloud the harsh realities about what is best for the patient, whether that be the Nigerian economy as a whole or patients with seemingly innocuous symptoms which considered altogether ring fire alarms in the medical experts.

Far too many Nigerians are quick to resort to ad hominems and to impugn the motives of those who oppose growth-destroying policies supposedly aimed at "the poor", without even trying to understand where the critics of said "pro poor" policies might be coming from. In my case, the entire point of my choosing economics as a path of study is precisely because I've been obsessed with one question since I was a teenager, namely "Why is Nigeria, and sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, so desparately poor, and why was the entire region proving incapable of emulating the East Asian countries which were already clearly escaping the same poverty trap 30 years ago?" If I hated or were even merely indifferent to the plight of Nigeria's poor, there were certainly more financially promising paths I could have followed, like going into law, or becoming a plastic surgeon in the USA ...

The frustrating thing is that after so many years of study, I finally reached a point where I could confidently answer the question that tormented me so much growing up, but now find that hardly anyone is interested in hearing the solutions, most of which are ultimately very simple. Not the politicians, who only care about winning elections and stealing to repay their backers, and definitely not the masses who subscribe to magical thinking and don't want to hear about making any kind of sacrifice for the future. Nigerians are especially guilty of this entitled mindset, thanks to that brief period between 1973 and 1981 when the country was flush with "Oil Crisis" Petrodollars, and both military and civilian leaders rained down "awuff" as if the good times would never end.

nairalanda1:
Better stop being a bully. It is not good for you.

But you won't listen to this old joker...

Good evening.

Honestly, you have the patience of a saint. So many Nigerians seem unable to respond to opinions they find disagreeable other than by pouring out invective and abuse. Nigeria's educational system is good at turning out people who know how to cram and pass exams, but it does an abysmal job of teaching the principles of logic and the basics of rational argumentation.

Ozommadu:
I should go and read your comment history say wetin happen

You didn't support buhari but you're supporting a Chicago cocaine pusher who forfeited a whooping $400k drug money to US govt? Someone who questionably had two bullion van in his house on the eve of 2019 election

Someone who spent 8yrs in lagos as a state governor with nothing in his name aside tax tax and tax with the so called blueprint he used to siphon money.

While tilumbu was supporting buhari what did you tell him

Thanks for confirming that you're just another barely literate tribalist with nothing of value worth saying.

Ozommadu:
So because tilumbu has failed,no other person can do it?? Isn't that your analysis??

Like you supported buhari for 8 wasted years even after seeing his incompetency in the first 4year? I don't have anything to say to you because we're in this together, I just hope you're doing better.

Meanwhile, in 2027 we're still voting clueless tilumbu because to you neither Atiku or Obi is better...o Di mma

If you bothered to even glance at my comment history, you'd have known that I was one of the harshest critics of Buhari from the very start of his presidency, and that I predicted even then that his time in office would be a total failure, amounting to essentially a "lost decade" for Nigeria's economy. That you didn't bother to do even this minimal amount of homework before dashing off your nonsense about how I allegedly "supported buhari for 8 wasted years" says all there is to know about just how much your rantings are worth.

Oh, and by the way, it's Tinubu, not "tilumbu". At least take the effort to spell it right if you want to be taken for more than yet another semi-illiterate tribalist with an axe to grind.

Kaiser20:
Why not contract Seyi Tinubu to handle the deal?
They should not give it to any foreign firms, Nigerians have talents

No, that's exactly how we got the power sector fiasco, with undercapitalized local buyers unable to endure years of losses from capped fees while making heavy capital expenditures. All you're suggesting is a pan-Nigerian version of the same "our pikin" mentality that has wrecked everything a Nigerian government has ever had a hand in.

We need to stop treating everything as a matter of handing out "juicy" positions to "our sons/daughters", and focus on service delivery. What matters isn't where the management (or ideally, buyers) are from, but how well they do at running the refineries efficiently while minimizing downtime. Even if they happen to come from Pluto, so be it.

Dobodobo04:
Lease or sell give preferred bidders flexibility.

If I’m an Indian or French bidder, I might want to try before I commit fully. Lease agreement would give me an incentive to test the facilities, test the market and once the market is proven, I can always go to government for outright full ownership.

Both options should be on the table. Only thing NNPCL should do is verify bidders with proven track record of running refineries and if satisfied, sell or lease for good profit into federal government’s account.

We need to start making profits on gov assets in Nigeria. No more waste.

There are two big risks associated with simply handing over management to the private sector without an outright sale.

1. It risks all sorts of government interference in the day-to-day running of the business. Suppose the managers decide it's time to trim their bloated workforce and institute objective performance monitoring, as opposed to the old "federal character" based system of tribal spoils standard in parastatals? How likely are top government officials to stand by and just let the managers do so, especially if it involves their "kinsmen"? Remember that the government still owns the company, and therefore has a veto over any management decisions.

2. It rules out all possibility of the managers raising capital to invest in the business. To raise funds, you either need to sell shares (all of which are still owned by government) or borrow, but no lender is going to approve a loan against collateral which isn't owned by the borrower. The last thing the Nigerian government can afford right now is spending billions more USD on these obsolete refineries.

hedonido:
My brain isn't fully developed enough to read between the lines and discern context. I can't help you.

But I assure you that hopeless, hatefully tribalistic ronu-minded nonentities like me who opposed Tinubu for irrational reasons would continue to suffer multidimensional misery. I've earned it.

Yes, you're clearly doomed to a life of impoverished misery, at the end of which you will go to your pauper's grave convinced that "ronu-minded nonenties" were to blame for all the problems which befell you in your sad excuse for a life. Nigeria's tragedy is that far too many of its people share your glaring intellectual shortcomings, ensuring that national political contests always turn into "tribal" struggles for supremacy instead of being based on idealogies and policy proposals.

Kenochi:
This is very good news,I salute the honesty of the NNPCL management for starting the process of full privatisation of all our Refineries
I have always stated that the last time any type of Refining was done in Nigeria was close to 15 years ago.All the personnel that know how to operate a Refinery are either retired or on their way out of the place. I have consistently maintained that the best policy that the Asiwaju Government can enact is to privatise at least two of the Refineries and I believe this is a step towards full privatisation
For those that will want to argue with this policy,my thoughts are as follows.
The people in NNPCL have already sold their soul,this is a company that has imported Refined crude oil in the past twenty years, they have mortgaged their conscience and they know that running a Refinery is hard work
They are used to short cuts and now that the Hardwork has come,they are not willing to do it

Let them give it to people who are willing to do the work,please check my signature for cheap properties with good titles around Ibeju Lekki Industrial Hub which comprises of Dangote Refinery,Lekki Deep Sea port and Free Trade Zone

I agree that full privatization would be best, but that's not what this proposal is suggesting. As far as I can see, all they're calling for here is for private entities to manage a refinery which will still be under full government ownership. That doesn't go anywhere near far enough in my view. They need to sell the antiquated white elephants and be done with them once and for all.

hedonido:
This is why I looked at anybody supporting Tinubu during the election cycle with utmost disgust. I only exempted hustlers whose support for him was based on the rational, realistic expectation of self gain (appointment, contracts, etc). Of course the vast majority of mostly Yoruba elements who supported him had no ostensible link to him, and thus did not have any realistic chance of personally benefitting from appointments or contracts or other similar gains. They only supported him for ethnic reasons and such. They essentially cut their nose to spite their face. Such self-loathing madness has lasting consequences. And in my school of thought, forgiveness is unforgivable.

That's why I made up my mind to cut off ALL of these bastards. As it stands I don't have a single (former) friend or associate who openly expressed support for Tinubu that I'm still in contact with. Some of them are slyly trying to sneak back into my good graces, but they always meet a cold rebuff. If you're not bringing business or deals worth multi millions or even billions from the horrible Tinubu you heartlessly supported, then what the Bleep would I be doing with you?

It is very very sad because we all knew it from the beginning that no average, neutralz enlightened Nigerian with a conscience would wish a Tinubu upon this country at a time like this. Now the expected is unfolding and it is only just the beginning. Why should anyone act surprised?

And here we see the sort of arrogant, hypocritical tribalist who exemplifies all the sins I've mentioned. By all means, keep indulging your delusions of grandeur about the "millions" and "billions" in deals you're supposedly contemplating, if said fantasies help you get through whatever humdrum existence has filled you up with so much obvious hatred.

N3TRAL:
I supported Tinubu because of the so called "track record" as Governor of Lagos State.

The picture is now clearer and it is very true that nothing remarkable has happened in Lagos from 1999 till date apart from regressive taxation that drives government revenue.

Development in Lagos has been driven and still inspired largely by the private sector, as it should be in a capitalist society, and everything government has done is nothing outstanding given the huge resources of the State.

I swallowed the lie that "he works with the best technocrats". Cardoso, Edun and the rest do not have answers to Nigeria's fiscal and monetary policies crises. They're the average corporate ladder climbers and not as good as Mrs Iweala and Soludo who led the best economy that I have witnessed in my lifetime.


The Ex-Governors who misappropriated public funds are now in charge of the National Government and there's no redemption in sight.


It isn't too early for a candid mind to resolve that it would be backs and forths with no solution to the epileptic power supply, our weak security architecture and the depreciating naira at the end of the tenure.

Your comments here are much more cogent and fact-based than the one you started the thread with, or the follow-up in which you insinuated (while carefully avoiding being explicit about who you were referring to) that Yorubas prefer northerners to people from the SE - which is rich with irony, given how many of the comments responding to this thread have been by the usual tribal warriors from that region gleefully mocking your "road to Damascus" experience or indulging in childish gloating.

Perhaps you ought to reflect on the possibility that any apparent lack of fondness for the SE you might be seeing just might stem from the unrelenting hostility, arrogance and hypocrisy of so many who claim that region as their place of origin (as witnessed on this very thread). The fact is that one hardly ever sees Hausas expressing such malicious intent towards people from the SW, and it is beyond reason to expect people to love those who seem to hate them intensely, despite millions of the group expressing said hatred having lived in their millions amongst the people they despise for decades, all the while unmolested and allowed to prosper. That said group seems to hate the northerners as much as it hates people from the SW is hardly any kind of redeeming feature.

Now, returning to the points you've made above, I agree with you that Cardoso has yet to prove himself being close to fit for the role of CBN governor, and I said as much on here, on the very day his appointment was announced. A good CBN governor needed to be someone with a strong economics background, as well as the backbone required to hike interest rates as needed no matter what Tinubu or other politicians might have wanted. Cardoso clearly lacked both qualities, which was why I foresaw he would be a failure in the role. It's clear that Tinubu has lost all appetite for serious reform after the backlash to his half-hearted effort at abolishing the petrol subsidy (which is still in place no matter what they say to contrary), so the last thing he wants is a CBN governor who is determined enough to bring down inflation to cause serious economic pain. Anything even slightly controversial (like deregulation of the power sector, or privatization of money-pit "parastatals" ) has been put aside for meaningless "palliatives" and other such measures to appease the masses. The consequence is that Nigeria's economy is now doomed to another 3 years of lackluster growth as we wait for the next electoral cycle to begin.

Having said all the above, what you need to ask yourself is not whether supporting Tinubu was the right thing to do, but whether any of the alternatives would have done better. Neither Atiku nor Obi have magic wands they could use to wish away the pain from abolishing the petrol subsidy, but they would still have been forced to start their terms by doing so, as the alternative was Nigeria defaulting on its foreign loans, and then being shut out of the financial markets for decades. Where would the funds have come from to offer more meaningful "palliatives" to appease the public wrath?

In addition, there is the question of whether either Atiku or Obi have shown themselves in word or deed as being even an iota more principled, honest or intelligent than Tinubu, and the answer is a clear NO. Atiku made his fortune by abusing every one of his public offices to award himself favorable concessions, while Obi refused to pay salaries or maintain roads for months on end, so he could skim the interest from parking the funds in a bank he had a share in, a sin he compounded through his theft of security vote funds (for which he was nabbed red-handed), his use of public money to prop up a brewery he controlled (by using his parents as fronts), and his opening of an offshore account in a foreign tax haven 4 years into his governorship. That was bad enough, but then look at how both men have pandered to the public at every turn since losing the election - neither has been honest that Nigeria was headed for serious short term pain no matter who won. I won't even get started on the reality that Obi could never have passed any legislation or got a single appointment through a NASS in which both the House and the Senate are controlled by the APC (and therefore, by Tinubu).

Please continue your criticism of Tinubu (criticism he richly deserves), but you don't do your argument any favors by giving it a tribal coloration suggesting he's in office because Yorubas are somehow particularly guilty of tribalism. If they were, Obi wouldn't have won in Lagos and Atiku in Osun, even as 90% of the SE gave their vote to a man they themselves called a "do-nothing" mediocrity while he was governor. If anything, it's the relentless, mostly baseless, and very clearly tribal nature of the attacks on Tinubu emanating from certain quarters which makes it harder for Yorubas to hold him to account. If the loudest voices against Tinubu are motivated purely by tribalism without regard for political ideology or personal records, what do Yorubas have to gain by abandoning their own for someone else's tribal champion who has nothing to offer beyond skewing appointments to his own "kinsmen"?

IamAsiri:
You didn't answer the question.

Raped to death and burnt? What kind of ideology is this for crying out loud?

You're giving the original commenter far too much credit by referring to what he wrote as an "ideology". In truth, all you're seeing is a diehard misogynist seizing upon a rare opportunity for him to publicly express his most sick and hateful fantasies under the guise of (pretend) moral outrage. In a better organized society, this psychopath would be under close observation for an eventual progression from merely fantasizing about hurting women to acting on them and turning into a full-blown serial killer.

I hope none of you rejoicing on this thread were among those pointing to Sanwo-Olu's recent victory as "evidence" of the supposedly irredeemable "corruption" of the Nigerian judiciary.

https://www.nairaland.com/7967676/supreme-court-affirms-sanwo-olus-election

I'm sure such double-standards and hypocrisy are beneath you fine, upstanding ladies and gentlemen ...

Farrason:
It's obvious where your mind is focused on as that is not the only line written. If you can not comprehend such a short paragraph, I doubt your level of understanding, hence I owe you no explanation.

In other words, explaining your own verbal diarrhea is beyond your limited intellectual powers, so you're now resorting to a weak effort at evasion.

Farrason:
God has not made you Judge or Jury over anyone. Every one can comment online and every one is responsible for their comments on this matter. Be wise and let God handle His business.

Bible already told us that God can not be mocked!!!
Shalom.

What on Earth has a documentary exposing TB Joshua's criminality got to do with "mocking" God? Are you so gone in your worship of the dead man that you identify him with God?

SIONKPO1:
Same Chief Executives beat traffic lights ,the soldier did wrong but it's wrong to treat him like a common civilian and make use of harsh words.
Military men has sacrificed alot for this country and are poorly paid

What a lot of nonsense. Soldiers are every bit as bound to obey the law as "civilians", a fact that would be more apparent, had so many years of military dictatorship not conditioned the likes of you to think them above the rest of they used to so arrogantly call "bloody civilians".

Nobody is forced at gunpoint to join Nigeria's all-volunteer armed forces, and those serving who are disappointed to find khaki doesn't grant them special rights above their fellow countrymen are free to leave the service once their terms are up.

ivolt:
Most of you don't even understand what she did.
The money was not carted away, that is not how politician's steal.
Money to be stolen is obtained via bogus contracts not direct transfer.

The money was lodged in a private account to generate interests to be shared later.
This is why I see EFCC just wasting its time "investigating", there is no punishment for
lodging government money in private account, you will have to prove that the intent
was to convert such to personal use.

No, there is no such burden of proof. Diversion of public funds into private accounts is by definition illegal, for the very reason you describe - it's an easy avenue for self-enrichment by skimming the earned interest. This is the same reason why Peter Obi is justifiably called a brazen criminal, because he ran the very same scheme during his years as governor, but managed to get away with it through a combination of immunity protections while in office and "tribal" solidarity once out of it (with many of the very same "kinsmen" who condemned his inaction while governor suddenly switching to singing his praises once he'd stepped down).

Betta Edu is a thief, just like Peter Obi is a thief, but unlike Obi, she can't count on millions of "kinsmen" to shield her from accountability.

Deadlytruth:
. This is exactly the comment I wanted to make on seeing this topic on Front Page.
The fact that the youngest of all the ministers just appointed is the first to be nailed for sleaze should be enough evidence that this recentl fixation with cumpulsory youthful takeover of power is baseless and that age bears no correlation with ability to govern well.

You have to see the issue through another lens. The reasoning behind all the clamor for "youth" is not because those screaming about it are concerned with good governance, but because they feel it's past time they had "their turn" at the feeding trough. That "turn by turn" mentality is all there is to it, as truly public-minded Nigerians are as rare as hen's teeth.

stagger:
What does a tribe of a person have to do with a person's actions? Did you not do social studies in school? Did you not study the agents of socialization as part of your social studies?

Where did tribe come into the picture after the primary agents (family) and secondary agents (schools, religious houses, mass media), or the tertiary agents of socialization (prisons, drug/alcohol/gambling counselling groups)?

A person's "tribe" does not determine a person's actions - most people of any "tribe" won't be criminals, no matter how the data is sliced. Having said that much, it's naive to pretend that "tribe" (or to be more precise, ethnicity) has no influence on how likely a person is to commit a particular sort of crime vs. another, not to speak of where that crime is likely to be committed.

It's important not to sweep such glaring associations under the rug, as doing so makes it impossible to discuss why the associations exist, and what could possibly be done about them. For instance, what meaningful discussion could there be of all the clashes between herdsmen and farmers throughout the country (and much of the rest of West Africa) if it were forbidden to note that the herdsmen tend to share a common ancestry, with all that implies about their cultural norms regarding land ownership and property rights?

The reality of crime in Nigeria is that the numbers of participants in the various types of crimes committed differ drastically by ethnicity, and that this has been so since the 1970s at the very latest. Worse still, the impact of these disparities has wider ramifications than just making certain groups feel embarrassed: witness the raging methamphetamine epidemic in a certain part of the country, all discussion of which has been stifled on here to spare the fragile egos of certain tribal champions. One could say the same about grave desecration, oil bunkering, fraud and many other sorts of criminality.

It's one thing to crack down on people seizing on these crime stories to merely fling tribal insults, but it's going too far to suggest all mention of tribe is now verboten. It means we as Nigerians will be unable to discuss sociological realities which are certainly not going unnoticed abroad. See, for example, the following papers on the subject.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4006522

https://www.unodc.org/pdf/transnational_crime_west-africa-05.pdf (from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, no less).

https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2871445/download

What is to be gained by refusing to acknowledge what even the United Nations has picked up on, other than sparing the egos of some people with "tribal" chips on their shoulders?

Danjikanbauchi:
oga shut up, northern Muslim governors have been using state funds to build mosque and marred off almajiris.

And here we see a sterling example of the inanity that passes for "reasoning" amongst so many barely literate Nigerians. So because "northern Muslim governors" have been allegedly squandering state revenues on wasteful projects, southern Christian governors should also be committing the same sins of misgovernance?

Ola9ja23:
That should generate IGR for the state government and create employment opportunities for the youth

Kudos

And how exactly does this monumental steel and concrete edifice do either of the things you mention? All I see here is a gigantic white elephant that will suck down even more public revenues for years to come, right up until it ends up derelict or eventually demolished, as is the typical fate of all such projects. The building will need constant maintenance of its roofing, electrical wiring and plumbing, it will need security guards to prevent thieves from breaking in and ripping out everything they can possibly sell, it will need to be covered by insurance, it will need to have electricity bills paid ... I could go on nearly ad infinitum. If renting it out to the usual "prosperity gospel" charlatan "prophets" would be enough for all of these costs to be covered, wouldn't private entrepreneurs already have stepped into the breach by funding the construction of such buildings without government intervention?

This gigantic albatross reminds me of the Yamoussoukro monstrosity built by Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Ivory Coast some years back. It's just another pointless money pit whose primary purpose is to allow large-scale embezzlement of funds while fooling a bunch of gullible Africans who mistake big, shiny buildings for a leader supposedly "working", as if buildings by themselves ever cured malaria, educated anyone or provided paved roads and potable water.

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/25/world/yamoussoukro-journal-for-a-great-white-elephant-a-new-lease-on-life.html

CameroonPepper:
You have no retort.
You lost.

Dumbo.

Whatever helps you sleep at night, rancid-breathed, brain-dead troglodyte wastrel that you are. Go jump off the closest bridge and spare the rest of us your pathetic existence.

CameroonPepper:
I am a foul-mouthed, low-IQ nincompoop.

There, I've edited your gibberish for clarity. Abusive bottom-feeders like you are the reason why Seun badly needs to implement a block button on this site.

qtx:
It shows gross incompetence and inefficiency on the part of both the presidency and the national assembly. Those Halima lapses should have been discovered before her name was sent to the national assembly for confirmation, and the national assembly should have made their own findings Should the presidency fail, they should have done the right thing.

No kudos to anyone for wasting our time and resources to hire and fire in just two months.

Critiques like yours (which is both valid and to the point) are the exact reason why those suggesting Tinubu fired her out of tribal motives are talking nonsense. This whole situation hardly does him any credit, as he's the one who put her forward in the first place!