₦airaland Forum

nesta007:
• Minister says new regime to save N16.5b monthly
• Labour mobilises for protest, meets today
Amid threats of protest by labour, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachiukwu, and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) have offered explanations on how the Federal Government arrived at N145 as the price of a litre of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol. They assured that the new price regime would block the drain through which government loses N16.5 billion monthly.

While the minister, whose announcement on Wednesday kicked off the new regime, said the price was based on foreign exchange conversion of naira to the dollar, the PPPRA put the calculations on its latest pricing template.

There were indications yesterday that the organised labour movement and its civil society allies may begin a protest against the new regime . The National Executive Councils (NECs) of both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) are set to meet today to deliberate on the outlook of the protest.

Kachiukwu, who spoke on a television programme yesterday, said government arrived at the new price by “a simple conversion of using foreign exchange at N285. That N285 is from nowhere; it is basically the secondary source that people buy foreign exchange from, versus the N320, which is the black market rate.

“If you convert it and throw it in, you will get about N141, N142 or N143. So there aren’t much of palliative elements left there for you to use. It is simply, ‘go out, find your product, your cost is covered, there is an opportunity for your efficiency to make money, come and deliver.’”

But according to the PPPRA’s pricing template, the cost elements include cost/freight, N109.01; lightering expenses, N4.56; Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) charges, N0.84; NIMASA charges, N0.22; financing, N2.51; jetty thru’put charges, N0.60 and storage charge, N2.00, which brings the landing cost to N119.74.

The landing cost is added to distribution margins, which are retailers, N6.00; transporters allowance, N3.36; dealers, N2.36; bridging fund, N6.20; marine transport average, N0.15; and admin charges, N18.37, bringing the total distribution charges to N18.37.

According to the PPPRA, the addition of the landing cost of N119.74 to total distribution margins of N18.37 gives a total cost of N138.11 per litre, putting the price at between N135 and N145.

Kachikwu justified the government decision saying, “We want everybody to be able to bring in the products. We want to achieve what was achieved in the marketing of diesel so that government will also not have intervention in petrol. Ultimately, we will let the market dynamics take place.

“In the past few months, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), imported the products largely subsidised, but the marketers took advantage and made excess profits. With this new system, they are going to start bringing in their own products and NNPC can sell its own products at its own price. So, there are no more opportunities for the short-term arbitrages unless those benefits in price come from your own efficiency

“What has happened is that we have provided an opportunity in the country for people to take advantage of government’s liberalisation policies and subsidies and make huge sums of money and this can have positive impact on the common man on the street.

“The reality is that if we let the environment free for people to operate you will be amazed at what will happen with pricing. I will almost take a bet with you that in six month’s time when you review this price, you will be amazed at what will happen to the N145 price.

“We discovered that queues would continue to happen until we address the issues. We do share sympathy and pains but as a responsible government, we must take decision to try and solve problems. We have come to see that if you free Nigerians to find sources of funds, they will find those secondary funds and import products, the burden on NNPC will reduce and the country will have peace and the suffering will go permanently.

“Extra earnings that NNPC makes through that avenue will be pumped into refineries, because our refining infrastructure are completely decayed. We mean well, Nigerians should please trust us. Give us support and you will be surprised.”

Also dwelling on the benefits of the new regime, the PPPRA said that government had been able to permanently eliminate subsidy payments, which was N1 trillion and had been able to save about N16 billion from April this year to date.

It noted that the current development would ensure 100 per cent FAAC payment on allocated 445,000 bpd and potential additional revenue stream, which can be tailored towards palliatives.

The agency said that even with the new price regime, Nigeria would remain one of the cheapest fuel markets in Africa and could even be lower, once competition takes effect, stressing, “Likelihood of smuggling to neighbouring countries will also be significantly reduced with the new price regime.”

An informed source told The Guardian last night in Abuja that the need for the labour movement to firm up mobilisation and contact and also the meeting of the two NECs were cited as the reasons the strike would not be called immediately.

Meanwhile, facts are now emerging on factors that influenced government’s decision to jerk up the pump price.
A policy document exclusively obtained in Abuja yesterday by The Guardian revealed that renewed insurgency and vandalism in the Niger Delta region which have drastically reduced crude oil production to 1.65 million barrels per day, reduction of money accruing to the Federation Account as well as crude volumes for petrol conversion, which is also impacting Federal Government foreign exchange earnings, were responsible.

The document read in part: “Renewed insurgency and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta has drastically reduced national crude oil production to 1.65 million barrels per day as at today, against 2.2 million barrels per day planned in the 2016 budget. Further reduction in income to Federation Account is also affecting crude volumes for PMS conversion and impacting foreign exchange earnings.”

The document also stressed that the resultant fuel scarcity created an abnormal increase in price, resulting in Nigerians paying averages of N150–N300 per litre as prevalent hoarding, smuggling and diversion of products, have reduced volumes made available to citizens

Nigerians have begun to adjust to the new realities of petrol price adjustment with many of the filling stations immediately adjusting their pump and price display to between N140 and N145 per litre.

Already, the six months old queue has automatically vanished at some filling stations about 24 hours after the announcement and marketers have immediately effected new prices and are magically selling from all pumps, as against the initial method of rationing.

The Guardian’s visit to Mobil, NIPCO, Forte Oil and Conoil filling stations along Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway showed that all were selling at N145 per litre, while Danco Oil at Iyana-Ipaja, was selling at N140 per litre.

Other stations visited were MRS, Total, and some NNPC stations, which were also selling at N145 per litre. All the visited fuel stations are in Lagos.

However about 40 per cent of the filling stations in the area of survey were still under lock and key while commuters were already paying higher fares as commercial transporters increased fares by about 100 percent.

http://m.guardian.ng/news/how-we-arrived-at-n145-price-for-fuel-by-government/

divinehand2003:
I will walk up to her and declare my undying love for her.
How can you battle with a fine girl like this? No one will.

wilcox:
Desperado 1 himself. I hail you o

NapoIeon:
the only way forward bro is leaving this jungle called nigger area anything less than that we're just fooling ourselves.
Thank God that the Nd people have seen who's the real enemy

Ogonimilitant:
I have been watching the activities of the Northern part of Nigeria of recent and most importantly what happened in Enugu few days back and my conclusion is that this people are bringing terror to our door steps.

This the time SE and SS should forget the past and form a strong union but dropping the name Biafra. The name puts fear in the life of average SS person.
I do not know the reason but it's a fact because I too have the phobia.

Most people in my region have realised the mistake both regions made in the past. We all have seen that Yorubas definitely have aligned with the north including Edo state.

The north will not be happy with this. The Union of both region is the only way we can survive being taken over by the north.
point of correction, Edo has never and will never align with the North. One man who is romancing with the North cannot decide for everyone in Edo state

May God save us.

Ooni:
My people the die is cast. The sun is about to set on our luck. We are not in trouble but trouble lurks. There is quietness, there is uneasy calm, there is peace. A negative peace that heralds the worst. The unity of our country is hanging in the balance, the country is tothering in uncertainty, the nation is on the brink, and in short, we are not sure of the future.

We yorubas have been the smallest political bloc since history but circumstances in our country have made it unnoticed. The Northern region consisted the NE, NW, NC the eastern region consisted of SE and SS while SW consisted of almost just the present six states.

We have always partnered with north to foist division on eastern region as a means of weaknening them and make our small region relevant in national affairs. We achieved this through post-war anti ibo propaganda and political sophistication. With that we got the northern controlled federal govt to direct most investment and infrastructure in our lagos, rendering those in the eastern region where resources are gotten redundant. Infact We yorubas are the greatest beneficiary of the united Nigeria economically especially, in lagos. And our continued existence and survival is dependent on the unity of Nigeria.

Fast foward to 2015, we voted a northern extremist. A man whose actions are bringing SE and SS together towards self determination. The unity we fear so much.

Now SE lawmakers are calling for a SE /SS summit which signifies reunion of former eastern region. More dangerous is the fact that ipob, massob and ibo elites are now singing the same song.

It also means we have been abandoned to our fate as we can either join north or decide our future alone for once.

My people what shall we do?


what you should do is to always align yourself (SW) with the SS and SE simple. SW are always aligning with the North. the South is nothing united because of the SW.

amtaken:
If at all there are missing Chibok girls, they should be in Emir Sanusi's palace.


they don't look like they have been in sambisa for two yrs. let's not deceive ourselves. I smell SCAM

Godjone:
you have located them, fine. But why not quietly go get them instead of announcing it first?

This is the reason i say burantashi is nothing but a praise-singer of buhari's government. They have started seeking for the hero crown even when the job is yet to be done.

Because the whole saga is a scam properly arranged to deceive. The girls shown recently were looking very healthy. they didn't look like those in the forest. they must have been kept away some where and now is the time to hatch a make believe plan that they have been rescued.
Smh

360frolic:
The Presidency has released information about the entourage of President Muhammadu Buhari's trip to China.

The President's entourage will include some state governors as well as nine ministers. They are the Ministers of:

Agriculture- Audu Ogbeh
Water Resources- Suleiman Adamu
Transport - Rotimi Amaechi
Defence- Mohammed Dan Ali
Power, Works & Housing - Babatunde Fashola
Industry, Trade & Investment- Aisha Abubakar
Federal Capital Territory- Mohammed Bello
Science & Technology - Ogbonnaya Onu
Foreign Affairs- Geoffrey Onyeama


http://www.newshelm.com/2016/04/list-of-ministers-going-to-china-with.html

cc lalasticlala, mynd44

shamecurls:
When the Nigerian Israelites start supporting your course, your dooms day re certified and near. E.g- Jimi Agbaje, GEJ, Nnamadi Kalu, Dasuki and now Saraki.

Saraki has been nailed

AntiWailer:
Only Nigerians expect him to send a minister. Those other leaders too dnt have job i guess.

Very dunce wailers.

NobleAngell:
Well I think I kindaf agree with him that they differ. But stealing is a corrupt practice.

teadrake:
The day you started looking beyond propaganda, you're at liberty to see things the more. I believe, even if we're been fed with lies,we're bound to make use of our common sense, correct me if am wrong

https://media.premiumtimesng.com/wp-content/files/sites/2/2016/02/Okonjo-Iweala.jpg

"In the 2015 presidential election, the APC was more prepared for defeat than for victory. The party did not expect to win and clearly had no agenda for victory".

In a 1972 Hollywood film entitled The Candidate, Robert Redford acts as Bill Mckay, a political neophyte who is drafted out of the blue into a race for the U.S. Senate. With no chance whatsoever of winning, Mckay is given a free hand to say whatever he likes on the stump. Therefore, he tweaks the political establishment at every turn.

However, as a result of a series of unexpected developments, he keeps rising in the polls. By Election Day, he is neck and neck with his more seasoned opponent and the race goes to the wire. To everyone’s surprise, he pulls off an incredible victory and is elected senator of the United States.

The last reel of the film is on the night of his election. On hearing he has won, Mckay becomes flustered and confused. Victory was certainly not part of the plan. As media men gather, eager to get his reaction to his famous victory, he pulls his campaign manager into a room and asks him in consternation: “Marvin, what do we do now?” Before he can answer, the media close in on them, drag them out of the room and the film ends.

The satire of the film, which received an Oscar for Best Screenplay of 1972, is that while Mckay might have succeeded in fooling the electorate to vote for him, he did not have a clue what to do as a United States senator. It was all a bit of a joke for him, but then the joke backfired. He never expected to win and had no contingency plan for victory.

Groping in the dark

The Candidate could easily have been a made-in-Nigeria movie in 2015. To all intents and purposes, the opposition APC won an implausible victory against all odds. But in the presidential election, APC was more prepared for defeat than for victory. The party did not expect to win and clearly had no agenda for victory. This is what accounts for the cul-de-sac we now find ourselves in Nigeria. If anything defines our current predicament, it is that we have a government that, in the middle of an economic crisis, does not have a clue what to do.

The APC did not plan to govern. The party-members told Nigerians what mayhem they planned to unleash should they lose and what parallel government they would establish. But concerning government, they proffered no solution on how they would address Nigeria’s urgent economic problems. On the contrary, they made wild unrealistic promises that were totally out of kilter with the situation on the ground; promising to do extravagant things that could not even be entertained by previous governments in more buoyant climes.

How else can one explain the fact that, in the context of a drastic economic downturn, the APC came out with a “Father Christmas” manifesto, loaded with such pies in the sky as paying unemployed graduates, or giving cash handouts to the poorest 25 million Nigerians? Foolishly, Nigerian voters failed to determine where APC hoped to get the money for such largesse.

Because the APC was not prepared to govern, no agreement was reached beforehand by the legacy parties of the coalition about how to distribute the spoils of office. This provided the basis for the free-for-all fights that ensued once the election was over.

Because the APC did not expect to govern and was not prepared to govern, it took President Buhari five months to choose his cabinet. Five months of squabbling and in-fighting, while pretending to Nigerians that the delay was needed to find technocratic saints and angels. But the saints and angels turned out to be the same old “devil you know.” While the president dawdled, the economy went from bad to worse and investors voted with their feet; leaving Nigeria in droves.

Nigeria in sick-bay

We are now confronted with the fact that there is definitely a technocratic deficit in the president’s new crew. Needing to make up for the time we lost while the president kept everyone waiting, we have now discovered that the people he laboured to choose bring little or nothing to the table in terms of their capacity to address expeditiously the grave issues currently confronting the country.

So what do we have now? Nigeria is a sick patient currently lying comatose in a hospital emergency ward. Her condition is critical. A surgical operation is urgently required. However, there is no doctor on duty. The night-nurse only works at the hospital in her spare time. In the daytime, she is the proprietress of a “mama put.” The other nurses are also part-time workers. They are a collection of cooks, tailors and groundnut sellers.

This raises grave concerns about the fate of the patient. What is going to happen to Nigeria? If we are not careful, this patient might not make it.

When President Buhari finally chose his ministers, he chose by his own account “noise-makers.” These turned out to be economic illiterates. Instead of putting together a coherent economic policy that will stop the free-fall of the naira and encourage monetary inflows to supplement the drastic cuts in our foreign exchange income, the government’s answer has been to do nothing but blame the past administration for everything. Its blueprint, if it has any at all, has been to ignore the economy and concentrate instead on anti-corruption propaganda while the president junkets around the world.

No economic blueprint

Before Lai Mohammed was appointed, Adams Oshiomhole was the self-appointed minister of Information. His job, was to attack Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former minister of Finance, at every turn. This assignment involved re-writing the history of the Jonathan years.

Okonjo-Iweala is a seasoned economist with vast technocratic experience. At one time, she was in the running for President of the World Bank. As minister of Finance, she had an economic blueprint for addressing Nigeria’s economic morass; something sorely lacking in Oshiomhole and his colleagues today. Since leaving office, she has been snatched up as Senior Advisor at Lazard.

Okonjo-Iweala stressed the need to reduce Nigeria’s recurrent expenditure. She insisted Nigeria could not afford the petroleum subsidy. She wanted its trillion naira leakages plugged. But Oshiomhole and his former labour union colleagues would have none of that. They mobilised Nigerians against her; so the hemorrhage continued. Okonjo-Iweala wanted Nigeria to save for the rainy day by establishing an excess crude account and a sovereign wealth fund where incomes above budget estimates could be saved.

However, Oshiomhole and his governor colleagues would also have none of that. They insisted all extra money earned must be shared and spent and not saved. They even went to court to force the minister’s hand. Now that the national oil cookie has crumbled, the same Oshiomhole and his misguided colleagues are holding Okonjo-Iweala responsible for not building sizeable foreign reserves in times of plenty.

However, nothing justifies Okonjo-Iweala’s earlier postures more than Nigeria’s present predicament. Indeed, what Nigeria desperately needs today is Okonjo-Iweala or an Okonjo-Iweala. We need a seasoned and experienced economist to head a team of hard-nosed economists to work out an economic policy to get Nigeria out of the woods. No such team exists today in the Buhari government. Instead of constituting an economic team, the president is appointing social media aides to help launder his image.

As a result, the naira is in free-fall and nobody in government seems to know what to do. It is now 400 to the dollar and the president keeps saying he is against devaluation because it will affect the masses. Somebody needs to tell Mr. President that the masses are already adversely affected. Everybody is raising prices, using the free-falling naira as excuse. It is not inconceivable that by this week-end, the naira might be trading on the parallel market at 500 to the dollar.

Big government

In many respects, Nigeria’s economic situation today is god sent. It enables us to do what we failed to do when the oil market was booming – downsize the government and transform the economy away from oil dependency. However, the tragedy of today is that we are saddled with a government that refuses to face reality. It refuses to entertain the harsh adjustments that need to be made.

The first economic blunder of this government was to bailout the states with salary arrears. The bailout did not address the fundamental issue of the insolvency of those states. It just postponed dealing with them. Since the bailouts are not grants but loans, with repayments to be deducted from the monthly allocations of the states, it means even less money will be coming to them now that there is far less money to share.

The truth is that most of Nigeria’s states cannot survive without government handouts. Better now than later, we need to re-visit the issue of Nigeria’s unrealistic states structure and face up to the fact that we cannot afford 36 states. Neither can we afford a federal legislature that gobbles up over N100 billion per annum. In addition, we can no longer afford a situation where billions of naira is spent every year just catering to the president.

Padded budget

One of the strange things about this government is that it refuses to entertain the need for austerity in the context of our drastically reduced income. Instead, it comes up with a bigger budget than when our economy was far more buoyant. Nigerians refuse to see the 419 in this. If you were earning six naira and your income drops to four naira, you don’t then decide to spend eight naira. This is what the economic illiterates currently running our economy are proposing to do in 2016.

The APC refuses to accept that after 16 years in the political wilderness, it has to make do with lean resources now that it is its turn to be at the helm of affairs. Therefore, it decided to pad the 2016 budget by basing it on oil selling at $38 dollars per barrel; when the commodity has already dropped far below $30. It has also decided to pad Nigeria’s reduced income with borrowed money.

Sums are allocated for fake items, others are inflated beyond measure. Although civil servants have been made the sacrificial lambs for the budget mess, one wonders if a number of the inflated items were not camouflaged backdoor paybacks for APC’s dubious election campaign expenditures.

The hard choices we continue to refuse to make today will still come back to haunt us tomorrow.

2boiz:
Where d thief wan run go?
You don't av to run if u are ready to vomit wotever u are chopped.
It's onli dat u may av to spend few years @ Kuje.
But wait o, has anybody ever bin jailed by bubu? Pipu say na only Initial gra gra dem get

Sweetguy25:
I rate him a dismal 1.
Be deserves it.
1. He failed to appoint ministers for five whole months
2. He has not laid any solid economic policy even after six months
3. He's government is highly deceptive. Example, telling the public the government has won the war against terrorism while attacks continue frequently. Withdrawi
4. He's government is hypocritical
5. The only thing this government does is to pay salaries. No developmental project has been commissioned for the past six months

IyaIode:
The media chose to report false information, even Oby tweeted that the president didn't work out on them

kokoA:
Very funny. The other one came on a wheelchair, this one is on crutches.. crooks!

leke12:
All these pipu are inborn crooks, see dis kind pretence. I wish a death sentence for any corrupt politician

ezebunafo:
The money has been traced to the $2.1 billion meant for the purchase of arms and ammunition by a former National Security Adviser, retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki



The Accord party on Friday admitted it collected N100 million from the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, Tony Anenih, for it to support the candidacy of former President Goodluck Jonathan in the March 28, 2015 presidential election.
The money has been traced to the $2.1 billion meant for the purchase of arms and ammunition by a former National Security Adviser, retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki.
In a statement on Friday by its National Secretary, Hon. Nureni Adisa, Accord party said the money was passed to it through its National Leader and governorship candidate in Oyo State, Chief Rashidi Ladoja.
In the statement dated January 8, 2015, the party stated: “Our attention has been drawn to a newspaper report that the sum of One Hundred Million Naira was released to the ACCORD leader, Senator Rashidi Ladoja by Chief Tony Anenih, the (former) Chairman BoT of the PDP.
“We confirm that the sum of One Hundred Million Naira was given to the Party through our leader after series of meetings between the leadership of ACCORD and Chief Tony Anenih in preparation for the 2015 general elections.
“The following issues were discussed at the meetings:
The need to support the Presidential candidate of the PDP since ACCORD had no Presidential candidate.
The need to ensure that peace was maintained to enhance peaceful movement during periods of campaign, elections and after the elections.
The need for the PDP to support ACCORD campaign effort.
“Accordingly, the PDP (former) BoT Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih released the sum of One Hundred Million Naira for these purposes through our leader, Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja.
“The money released was accordingly used for the purposes as stated above.”

$2.1b arms scam: Ladoja collected N100m from Anenih for us to support Jonathan - Accord party -
http://theeagleonline.com.ng/2-1b-arms-scam-ladoja-collected-n100m-from-anenih-for-us-to-support-jonathan-accord-party/

diegwu01:
Whats all the Noise? the Petition by the Biased PDP Integrity Group in Rivers State is not New and wasnt hidden from Public.
EFCC got the petition and didn't see it or find it worthy of attention.
The EFCC receives thousands of Petitions daily from he wailers and other Pained by the Massive loss of GEJ,
The case is always same, most of the petitions are filed based on Hate and and Jealousy not on actual facts on Ground.

prettyboi1:
I don't know why Akpapio was invited. Point of correction, Akpabio was invited not arrested. Not everybody that goes to efcc is guilty. Efcc invites people to get clarity on situations too.

prettyboi1:
A lot of Nigerians don't understand how government works. The president is the head of the federal government... not state government. Now,the president's business is at the federal level. If the president sees anything that doesn't match up in federal documents,then he can decide to ask for those documents and the people involved to be probed. The word 'probe' in simple English means to understand, find reason why,inquire etc. Probing is not punishment like a lot of Nigerians think. Let me give another example...the defence students do for thesis,what the lecturers ask you can also be called 'probing'.
Now,that said,this letter in this picture is no evidence that Rotimi Amaechi stole that said amount,it is only a letter by a probably concerned group of people (as the case may be). Their concern doesn't necessarily make their accusations true,but this is where probing in Rivers state can possibly come in. The governor,Nyesom Woke can now research and investigate to find out if these allegations are true....if they are true,he can ask for more clarity by probing the last administration led by Rotimi Amaechi. After the probing,if any evidences of theft are found against Amaechi,he and other of such people found wanting in the investigation can be charged to court to go defend themselves. That's how it works,people.