Sorry for the error manny4life when using BB you cannot see the post you are responding on so you are prone to errors.
you should agree that budgeting 1billion naira for feeding for the presidency is very vague, unreasonable and unacceptable. Especially when the president would not be in aso rock for half the time.

If we had a serious national assembly, such unreasonable items would be thrown out.

Mammy4life,
Are you implying that the N1billion feeding budget of the presidency would be used to feed staffs of the EFCC,
BPP, BPE, Due Process Office, NEMA, NIPSS and the whole civil service?

That is the lamest excuse I had ever heard.

The money was said to the for food and drinks for the office of the president and the vice president.

I do not blame the NLC/TUC for backing down. The GEJ had blackmailed them with the use of force (with military take over of Lagos before even the broadcast) and the charging of the protesters and their lead with treason, coupled with the fact that the protest had been polarized along ethnic and religious lines. The conflict would have been bloody and people would have held the NLC and TUC responsible.

Forget the international community, they can easily be bribed with free oil, afterall, IMF and worldbank fully supported subsidy removal.

So running away to fight another day was the best course of action available to labour/TUC

I want people here to get something straight, calling for the impeachment of a president can never be an offense not to talk of it being treason. Or else any member or group of the legislature debating impeachment of the president or any governor would be liable for treason. My only grouse with Tunde Bakare was that as an opposition leader, he should have concentrated on the issue of subsidy removal being a bad policy and profering a better alternative, instead of politicizing the issue

I choose not to believe the story until the government comes out to confirm it. It Sounds it a badly written plot. How can a suspected terrorists in hand cuffs and probably leg chains run?

How can unharmed youth overpower armed policemen in a vehicle conveying a terrorist?

How did the youths know that the police and the suspect would be coming and so organize themselves in numbers to accost the car?

Why did the police need to take the suspect with them for their searches?

Why would the police need to take a terrorist suspect to pay a courtesy visit to a traditional ruler in the middle of an investigation.

Please someone should tell the script writers to write a better plot, they should stop insulting our intelligence.

Katsumoto,

I am sorry to say but you Igbos rush into conflicts without adequate planning and preparation. That was why because of a mare disagreement with Gowon over who should rule Nigeria, Ojukwu rushed into war without enough arms and ammunition, enough trained soldiers, without an airforce and most importantly without food. All a wise general would do is just prolong the war until supplies dry out.

Now if the Igbos want to fight again, how many men do you have? Even within the Nigerian army, what is the number of your tank and file? If you say you will start training soldiers, how long will it take? Will you train a soldier for a few months and exect him to go and defeat soldiers that had been trained for up to 5 years?

You do not fight wars on the spur of the moment, a lot of preparation is necessary.

Katsumoto,

Please perish that propaganda that Nigerian military is incompetent. Yes it is agreed that they are corrupt, but in terms of training, they have some of the best training in the world. In terms of infantry, apart from the British and maybe the Indians, I do not see other countries better than the nigerian army. please ask any army officer the amount of training they undergo in various countries.

Occultist,

All the Dokuba rantings are just emotional outbursts with no semblance of reality.

First there is no unity among the NigerDelta tribes, every other tribe distrust each other, especially the Ijaws who are renown for land grabbing. So even having a common front among the nigerdelta is not possible.

Then this is more an Ijaw struggle because GEJ is ijaw, if the president had been from another Nigerdelta tribe, I am sure Dokubo and co would not be ready to die for him. Just like Oghara youth were ready to die for Ibori.

Then most important of all, even if all the nigerdelta and the Igbos align together, they can not face a Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani alliance. It would be a massacre worse than the 1966 genocide. They do not have enough trained soldiers, military hardware including planes and international support to fight them. Remember the hausas have the full support of Britain and the Yorubas has lots of influence in the us.

Silibaba

If you think the Ijaws or any other NigerDelta tribe would join your Biafra, then you must be Living in dreamland.

The irony of Nigeria`s ethnic politics is that position to the highest offices is often given by other tribes. It is when they get there that their own people will support them and ready to die for them. Where was dokubo when Turai gave GEJ the job of newspaper reading? Where were the Igbos when Aandooka and co were using GEJ as decoration in aso rock. It was Yoruba protests that brought GEJ to power. Then there was no protest in the SS and SE, in fact most governors of the SS and SE including his home governor preferred a dead Yar adua to Jonathan.

It was a Yoruba man that imposed Jonathan as V.P, even though Jonathan or the Ijaw did not demand for it. The Igbos that had been crying for president for donkey years was overlooked.

Also OBJ was personal no grata to his kinsmen in 1999, it was after he became president that the hausas that installed him become the enemy of yoruba. why was Fasheun not ready to fight for OBJ while in prison or in 1999 before he became president.

The irony of Nigeria`s ethnic politics is that position to the highest offices is often given by other tribes. It is when they get there that their own people will support them and ready to die for them. Where was dokubo when Turai gave GEJ the job of newspaper reading? Where were the Igbos when Aandooka and co were using GEJ as decoration in aso rock. It was Yoruba protests that brought GEJ to power. Then there was no protest in the SS and SE, in fact most governors of the SS and SE including his home governor preferred a dead Yar adua to Jonathan.

It was a Yoruba man that imposed Jonathan as V.P, even though Jonathan or the Ijaw did not demand for it. The Igbos that had been crying for president for donkey years was overlooked.

Also OBJ was personal no grata to his kinsmen in 1999, it was after he became president that the hausas that installed him become the enemy of yoruba. why was Fasheun not ready to fight for OBJ while in prison or in 1999 before he became president.

Rumours have it that Jonathan is about to go tough on protesters, labour and their leaders. We about to enter a new phase in the conflict.

Beaf
Now you are talking. threats only exasperate the problem.

As I have always said the main problem of Nigeria is that of structure. With the present decree in the guise of constitution, no president can perform. we would continue to go round in circle until a system failure which would only benefit foreign powers, who would then have unfettered access to our oil.

Now the spead of the protests have always been the same. It organized, lead and started in lagos, then spread to major yoruba cities, abuja and its environs and then kano. then there would be some protests in benin and warri and some pockets in some other SS capitals. The SE is usually quiet. That has always been the trend In all riots or protests, whether SAP riots, IMF riots, Ali must go riots, June 12 riots and all other fuel riots or protests. So I want you to know that this protest is not personal.

The main reason for this is because the yoruba have a history of protests and riots, or the people show dissent that any other people, they have more civil society members, in fact most civil society groups are lead by yorubas. So naturally protests are usually started and lead by yorubas. Another major factor is higher institutions, protests are concentrated in areas with higher institutions because students form the bulk of protesters. And as you know lagos and the SW has the highest concentration of thirtiary institutions in the country.

In the north Kano has similar characteristics as those highlighted above and so is the most volatile.

So please stop seeing the protests as a tribal attack on Jonathan

If oil money determines who wins a war then Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other gulf states would be super powers. But Israel without oil can almost take them all at the same time. You are telling me that the Ijaws and the Igbos can take in the might of the Nigerian military because of oil money. Which oil money, what fraction of this oil money is in the hands of Ijaws?

Please as I said do not tribalize the issue, there is not where in the world petrol would double in price overnight without warning that would not have disasterous consequences. England or even any other EU country would burn if it is done.

You keep forgetting that an increase of a few naira led to bloody riots under IBB, oshiomole shut down Nigeria because of fuel increase during OBJ, so you should not expect GEJ to get easy ride on a 250% increase because he is IJaws.

Beaf and the so called niger delta militants should stop tribalizing the issue. GEJ could never have become president without support from the SW and the north, all the votes from the Ijaw and Igbo alone cannot make anyone president.

Ijaws and Igbos attempting to fight the SW,NC, NW and NE would be a suicide mission. This would be a declared war and not an armed protest like the one they did before where the military was not allowed to use its full might. Because of fear of being accused of genocide.

Reggie2

I am not denying the fact that southerners are being killed by boko haram or their copy cats. What I disagree with is that only Igbos are targeted and on a house to house basis. After all boko haram had earlier given an ultimatum for ALL southerners to leave.

I want you to see this as a southern problem and not an Igbo problem. The reason why more Igbos are being killed is because the Igbo man would stay and protect his business and property until the situation becomes too dangerous, while out Yoruba brothers would have taken off at the sound of Boko, before you even say haram.

I want you to realize that if a conflict breaks out, the Igbos would not be able to take on the Hausa- Fulani alone without the help of the Yorubas and other southern tribes. So do not alienate the other southern tribes who are also suffering at the hands of Boko Haram.

I am sorry go say, but this story sound like a fabrication. I am not saying Igbos (and other southern tribes) are not being killed by. Boko Haram, but to insinuate that igbos are specifically being targeted in a house to house and the media is not aware sound incredulous. This is the age of the internet for God sake. It sounds even fiction like to say the army is aware and providing security? To provide security for 20 buses would require at least 40 soldiers all well armed. Who deployed such a force. If you know how the army works, you would know that the a soldier cannot carry guns and ammunition without orders from superior officers. A soldier cannot even leave his base without permission.

To make the story ridiculous, it says they were moved to jos. That is like. Moving from frying pan to fire. Jos is the most insecure place in Nigeria. Where were they put up in jos, was it a refugee camp.

I appeal to people to stop using the internet to spread rumours capable of inciting others into reprisal attack on northerners which will lead to more reprisal attack on southerners, especially Igbos who constitute the most single southern ethnic group residing in the north.

^^^
Whether the marriage is fake or not, we should accept the fact that we are married and so attempt to make it work.

Splitting is not the solution because in this age of globalization, small countries are used as pawns by the big nations.

Size and population is the only other asset we have outside oil, without it we would just become another Kuwait.

See the worlds most powerful and industrialized nations (G8), they all have size and population. See what happened to the former breakaway republics of Russia, all of them are not doing well and have to depend one way or the other on bigger nations.

^^^
People are not hounding Ndigbo, people are just wondering why Ndigbo refuse to join the fuel subsidy protests, when they would be affected like every body else

Anti-yorub
Cool down, revenge and hatred can becloud your judgement.

First Boko haram did not say that they hate Igbos, they said they hate Christians, whether Igbos, yoruba, birom or even hausa Christians. It just happens that most Christians in the north are Igbos. And even lots of Muslims have been assassinated by Boko haram.

About the protest, whose is going to lead the protest and to whom? Maybe the SS should organize the protest against boko haram and then invite others to join.

You talked about impeaching OBJ, was the Igbos not the greatest supporter of OBJ? All govenors except Kalu supported third term.

As I said the igbos always support anybody in power.

^^^
You are not exactly correct, slavery was not profitable in Europe, but was still very much profitable in the US, especially in the agricultural south. They still had large plantations which needed slaves.

The war ended 40yrs ago, so the igbos should move on and stop using the civil war for all their troubles. Germany too less than 20yr to recover from the first world war to become a super power again and took less time to become an industrial power.

I doubt Biafra would have done better than Nigeria if they had succeeded, because the quality of leadership is not better than that of any other african country as is seen in the quality of their administrators and governors. They steal as much as other leaders from other tribes.

It is sad that the igbos have lost their fighting spirit because they were the first to riot/protest against exploitation by the British on 1927

The SE has not been known to oppose authority after the civil war. In fact they do not oppose the ruling power. Meanwhile, the SW and SS under its influence (former bendel state) has traditionally been in opposition to the ruling power (save for OBJ's second term). Even APGA is in the same shoe with PDP.

Another reason is that the Igbo man is usually loyal to the highest bidder, while the Yoruba man would collect money and still betray the the highest bidder and all others bidders.

Why can the black African thik holistically? What el rufai is saying is right, but under the appropriate conditions.

It is nonsensical to deregulate the oil industry without deregulating the whole power sector, because producing electricity depends to a large extent on oil and gas.
You cannot deregulate petroleum and regulate electricity.

That is why I wonder at the motives of our policy makers. If they fix electricity and we have adequate power, then at N7.50k per KWH, it w
ould make more sense to drive electric cars, buses and bikes.

^^^

The average for last year was $97.

Besides the government used a benchmark of about $65 and put the rest in a sovereign wealth fund.

Also the budget you are talking about is the federal governments share of the money, the state and local governments get about 45% of the total revenue

^^^
Sorry your figures are way wrong.

The price of oil did not average $100 per day last year, it fluctuates between $90 - $100.

The average production per day is around $2.2 - $2.4 million barrels per day.

The government share of the proceeds is between 55% - 60%, the joint partner companies take the rest.

The government also have to pay their own share in the joint partner arrangements

Well I do not blame you, since the government operate in secrecy and not provide information on its oil receipts, all we can do is speculate.

We borrowed it from our colonial masters - the British.

The colonial masters has been replaced by indigenous masters. We serve and worship them as masters while they ensure continuous flow of raw materials to the home country or countries while we buy back the finished products at exorbitant prices.

That is the reason Nigeria was create

That was why OBJ brought the monetization policy, but was quickly thrown out by yaradua/ Jonathan.