₦airaland Forum

The Supreme Court;

The general public;

The Agents of Darkness;

Take note

What has Femi Adesina got to say about his immediate past employer's ordeal?

He was the Managing Editor of the Sun Newspaper before his current appointment.

He has been taunting Nigerians from the first day in his current job; calling NIgerians wailers etc.

It would be interesting to hear from him at this trying period in the life of his previous employer where he earned income for many years.

Why all this gnashing of teeth?

Is Buhari's Lagos - Ibadan train not increasing the South West's IGR again?

All you need is self esteem.

It's what many black people need.

You are focusing too much on your appearance and it's making you think very low of yourself.

Even if the whites relinquish the word white to you and adopt black for themselves today you won't still be confident. Your mind will still be looking for the negative meanings of color white.

It's your mindset.

If you can change your mindset from concentrating on very useless things as what people call you to what you can add to the world, you will begin to be happy with yourself no matter what name you chose.

You can only be limited by your mind. The earlier the black people know this, the better.

Black is just a color. And that is the color or word that has come to be associated with people of dark skin, most especially Africans.

What you are advocating is not different from what many "spiritualists" in Africa are telling their "clients" to do by changing their foreparents age-long family name before they can make progress in life.

It only serves a therapeutic or psychological purpose. Beyond that, it doesn't change who they are. After some time they will be back to the low self esteem-underachieving state of mind.

By focusing on doing what you do very well and making a mark, you would not only have disproved the naysayers, you would have changed even the socalled negative perception of your circumstances.

People who succeed and go ahead to change the world don't sit down brooding about the definition of colors. They don't even care.

Blackberry was one of the most successful, safe, business-friendly smart phone ever. The founders didn't even think of the definition of color black in any negative way.

Blackrock Inc is currently one the biggest investment management companies with over $6 trillion in asset under management. Again, the founders didn't pay much attention to any blackness in their name.

There are people who call themselves devils, wizards gladly. Thatcher, Bush, Stone, Laggard, Black, are some of the names that have been associated with very successful people in the world. No one cares about the meaning of those names. People focus on what they do and how they do it.

bilms:
Expanding Nigeria's Economy
ThisDay

Abdulrazaq Hamzat argues that expanding Nigeria's economy is the key to national prosperity.

‘’A 510billion-dollar GDP as at 2013 when we celebrated being the biggest economy in Africa is of course too small for 200 million population’’

The above is a profound statement credited to Mr Gbenga Olawepo Hashim, the 3rd force presidential candidate in Nigeria’s 2019 general election and if you ask me, nothing could be truer than this.

To say it bluntly, Nigeria is a poor country, a very poor country.

It should be noted that, due to the economic recession that affected Nigeria few years ago, the country's economy has gone below $500billion to a population of over 200million and that places our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capital to less than $2500.

In a lay man’s term, a less than $2500 per capital income means that the overall worth of a Nigerian citizen is less than $2500, approximately less than a million naira.

What this invariably mean is that, a Nigerian with about $2500 per capital income is more than 2 times poorer than a South African, who has about $6000 per capital income, 3 times poorer than a citizen of Gabon, who has over $7,500 per capital income, almost 4 times poorer than a citizen of Botswana, who has over $8500 per capital and more than 8 times poorer than citizens of Seychelles with about $17000 per capital income.

These are African countries we are talking about not Europe or America.

If we are to compare Nigeria to America, our citizens are 25 times poorer.

This is the reality of our situation and even if no dime is being stolen by corrupt people in the country, we would still remain a poor country.

Let me say that, we may debate the genuineness of the data from World Bank and International Monitoring Fund (IMF) due to its modalities, which many said doesn’t factor in some peculiar situations in Africa, especially its informal economy which is yet to be integrated into its main system, but until we provide a reliable alternative data, the current data stands unchallengeable.

Statistically speaking, Nigeria has the highest economy in Africa in terms of size, ahead of countries like South Africa and Egypt, just like United States has the highest economy in the world ahead of China and others, but citizens of Monaco, a very small country with less than 40,000 populations are 3 times richer than citizens of United States.

In actuality, American citizens, with about $64 GDP per capital income are about 3 times poorer than citizens of Monaco with about $166 GDP per capital. As a matter of fact, US citizens are even far poorer than citizens of unknown countries like Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Bermuda and Macau who have $162, $113, $98 and $90 respectively. Yet, this doesn’t take away the fact that US has the largest economy in the world, worth about $21trillion.

The point here is that, even if you have a large economy like Nigeria currently do in Africa, provided the value of the economy is grossly disproportionate to the population, your citizens would still remain largely poor and addressing such kind of situation requires creativity beyond just fighting corruption and blocking lickages.

Yes, it is good to fight corruption, it also good to encourage local manufacturing, but nothing would really solve our poverty challenge like a clear understanding of our reality and articulating realistic approach to meet our obligation of expanding our economy to a proportionate level with our population.

In short, expanding Nigeria’s economy is the only key to our national prosperity.

During the 2019 presidential campaign, one presidential candidate that aptly expressed solid understanding of Nigeria’s economic challenge is Mr Gbenga Olawepo Hashim. The People’s Trust presidential candidate, after succinctly capturing the key issues with our economy went on to state that, “We want to grow the economy of Nigeria to become $4trillion in 10 years and that will put us at par with Malaysia, Thailand, as middle income economies and these were economies that Nigeria was ahead of in our early independence. “We are not setting standards like we want to become the United States of America; we just want to be in 10 years, where we were in 1960. “Nigeria needs a 4trillion-dollar economy to become a middle income economy, and we have set up a strategy to achieve this,’’ he said.

Did Mr Hashim really said he has a strategy to expand Nigeria’s economy to $4trillion in 10years?

If so, what is the current government doing to explore Mr Hashim’s $4trillion idea for Nigeria?

It is understood that the best ideas may not necessarily win an election, but obviously, we need the best ideas to build and grow the country.

Look at it from this angle, if Nigeria’s economy is expanded to $4trillion GDP in 10 years as proposed by Olawepo Hashim, the per capital income of a Nigerian would have gone up to about $20,000, thereby taking Nigeria out of the 3rd world category and very easily, we would have become the richest country in Africa, not only in terms of the size of our economy, but also in terms of wealth of individual citizens per capital income.

Additionally, it is important to note that, between 1982 till date, the average growth of Nigeria's economy is 3.8%, but currently it is only growing by 2%.

So, assuming the GDP grow by 5% annually which is very unlikely based on our current and historic growth pace, it would still take Nigeria more than 120years to a have $4trillion economy.

This is what Mr Hashim said he has a strategy to achieve in 10years.

To start with, how did Mr Hashim plan to take Nigeria’s economy to $4trillion in 10years? This should be the greatest subject of interest by those in government and all well-meaning citizens.

From the little we can pick based on his presidential campaign, he talked about an exclusive strategy to attract 5% annual global infrastructure funds to Nigeria, which he said is about $400billion.

If you multiply $400billion by 10years, that gives us exactly $4trillion economy in 10years and should our current GDP of about $500billion be added to this figure, Nigeria’s economy would have grown to over $4.5trillion in 10years.

To say it in a layman's language, Mr Hashim is proposing an idea that would almost double our current economy on annual basis forthe next 10 years.

If you ask me, the current managers of country should be eager to explore Mr Hashim's idea because, he is a reputable global investor in 4 continents of the world, namely Africa, Europe, Asia and North America and a personality of his caliber, who is an active player in the global economy should be able to provide greater insight into his proposed idea.

Assuming that we cannot attract 5% of the global infrastructure fund as proposed, we can at least work towards attracting 2% of the fund, which is about $160billion, almost 30% of our current GDP.

Let me conclude by saying that, the economic implications on peace cannot be over stated. The more our economy expands, the less insecurity challenge we would confront.

_*Abdulrazaq Hamzat is an Executive Director at the Foundation for Peace Professionals. He can be reached at discus4now@gmail.com*_

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/11/18/expanding-nigerias-economy/amp/

It is not GDP per capital

It is GDP per capita (without the L)

Is the US' GDP per capita $64?

uboma:
The right word is Corp Member.

CYBERWEAVER:
A graduate of Federal Polytechnic took it online congratulating herself with the Write up below calling herself the latest "Cuper" instead of Corp member... Though she just wrote her final exam today.
She Passes through school.

salisuammy:
It is not even "corper" but "corp member "

It's written as Corps Member

Corps not Corp

The s is silent when pronounced

National Youth Service Corps

awoluyi:
Almost all the comments concerning borders closure focus attention on rice and nothing else. Should everything be about stomach?
I remember Fela's record, "Jęun koku."
Intelligent and thinking people would have looked at the positive sides of this policy if there are any and at the same time highlight temporary hardships the policy may impose on the citizens.
It is unfortunate that some people are
checking their blood pressure on 3rd November because of what they will eat on Christmas day (25th December ).
Haha!

That should signal to you that the situation in the country is at the most critical stage.

When all the majority of the people think about is nothing but how to survive - where their next meal is coming from - it should indicate peril to any deep thinker.

The focus on provisions for 25th of December and the festive period is because it is, perhaps, the only time that a lot of people look foreward to for succour amidst failures and disappointments of the past years as a result of the economic downturn.

That is how human mind is wired. The mind begins to search for the faintest ray of hope for assurance when survival is being threatened. That is why Maslow put food at the base of all human needs.

If they can't eat rice daily because of cost prohibitions, they can at least make provisions for only Christmas day as advised by some "cut your coat according to your size" advocates.

Unfortunately, it is looking like the Christmas day rice is being threatened too.

AlphaStyles:
according to her it worked for China it will also work for us

I just dy look Dy laugh

Unfortunately, her type of opinion is quite popular among Nigerians, even within the intellectual community.

Many people have become sociopathic without any regard to human suffering all under the assumption that irrational suffering can somehow transform to good life after some years a la China.

ajl:
Technically China still doesn't allow a lot things into their country. From technology to religion and commercial products. They dictate the terms. And they do not have the mindset of playing "big-brother" to any lame-duck back stabbing countries. Their interests comes first.

You mean TECHNOLOGY is not allowed into China?

Where do you people hear all these bizarre things from?

Or do you mean western technology companies?

maynation:
Maybe this is another point you are running away from.


Let's Nigeria have something to export too.
Maybe it's sachet water and paraga you want to import.






You are the one trying to compare two unrelated pictures(Current China and current Nigeria)
Where as it should be (China before border closed and Nigeria as she embarks on border closure) .

Stop talking about this current China please, from 1950-1970 China's border was totally closed down. I doubt you know this.

This is an extremely misguided opinion. China's policies in the period you mentioned was a total disaster. It led to extreme famine resulting in millions of deaths.

China's economic growth started when those archaic policies were reversed and massive foreign capitals began to pour in beginning from the late 1970s. China took advantage of western companies' aversion to higher labour/wage costs to lure capital to their country. Closing of borders in the period you mentioned was a complete economic disaster of the Chinese communist leadership.

Many Nigerians peddle half knowledge everywhere especially on economic success of other countries. This should stop.

maynation:
I beg to disagree. Nigerians have been wailing since time immemorial, it has nothing to do with the border closure. We have witnessed worse level of inflation in the past and here we are still doing fine. So don't judge with what some random folks say because there is never a time complaints ever stopped. Even why we Nigerians are adorning Trump with appraisals and commendations, some Americans are wishing he dies and disappears. So you can never satisfy everyone, but Oga do you know the number of ghanians' officials that have lamented and cried blue murder over this border closure?
Even their president isn't excluded, this shows how much negative effect it has inflicted on their economy.
Believe it or not, Nigeria will benefit a whole lot for closing her border.

You seem to be genuine about your expectations based on your comments, however, you still have a very long way to go before you reach maturity as your enthusiasm is more from the heart and not from the mind.

Someone wrote this beautiful piece below that might assist you if only you are as genuine as you sound here.

It is a comprehensive analysis of the situation that torches plethora of areas you probably have not considered or don't even know are important.


WE DON'T HAVE A RICE PROBLEM
~Tosin Adeoti

Please follow me carefully...

Imagine you are the head of a household of two children: Stephen and Stanley. Steve (28) is a promising young Architect who works at Ikoyi earning N100,000/month. Stan (17) is a non-bookish SSCE graduate who is still seeking admission into the University. They both live at home; your house. You have a car and the best car washer in the house is Steve. Stan is a lousy car washer and no matter how well you teach him, he just never measures up to Steve.

On a certain Monday morning, you have a morning meeting with some important people, and seeing that the car is very dirty with no car wash in sight, you have to choose between the two sons to wash the car: Steve, an excellent car washer but he needs to leave home as early as 5:00am, or Stan, an incompetent car washer but he has all the time in the world. Whom do you choose?

If you are like most people, you will choose Stan. Why? Because Steve is worth more to you (and himself and the family) going to work than he is as a great car washer.

If you understand this then congratulations for you now understand one of the key principles in economics -- Comparative Advantage. This concept refers to the ability (of an individual, group, organization, country) to produce goods and services at a lower opportunity cost than others.

Stan has comparative advantage in the washing of the car at that period over Steve. Lionel Messi may have other talents, but his comparative advantage is in football. The understanding of Comparative Advantage informs Singapore importing more than 90% of its food so it can devote and achieve its goal of being the world's leader in three things: financial services, manufacturing and oil refining (despite having no crude oil). Comparative Advantage is tremendously useful on a personal and career level as well.

Enough of the story...

-------

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH RICE?

You see...there is a lot of noise about Nigerians eating too much of foreign rice. One of the most baffling things about this rice issue is the amount of misinformation around it. Just this week, Customs announced that it had seized containers of rice and attributed it to gains on the War on Rice. Barely 24 hours later, the company whose containers were seized provided strong evidence of false declaration by Customs. This same week, there were reports that Vietnam sent a delegation to beg Nigeria to open the borders to rice. But several other news publications have revealed that the Deputy PM’s visit was to explore how Vietnam can help Nigeria with high-tech agriculture and how its experts can explore projects in agriculture. The Deputy, one of several PMs Vietnam has, is on an African tour and Nigeria is just one of the countries on his itinerary. Itineraries are planned ahead of time and it was merely a coincidence that his visit came at a point noise about the border closure is at its peak. There have been many other false claims/half-truths about India, Thailand, Ghana, etc.

The several misinformation are not only deliberately planted, killing people because of rice is now seen as a worthy sacrifice. You don't believe me? A few examples...

- Oct, 2019: A 22-year old was shot dead by a Customs officer for being a smuggler's 'informant' in Jigawa.
- Oct, 2019: Suspected smuggler was killed by Customs officer in Ogun state.
- Jan, 2019: Customs officer opened fire on a bus loaded with rice, killing an unarmed civilian in Lagos.
- Jan, 2019: Customs officer shot a pregnant woman (going to work) in Ogun in pursuit of rice smugglers.
- Nov, 2018: Customs officer opened fire in a filling station killing several people and injuring many others while raiding an illegal rice depot in Lagos.

I can give you links to dozens upon dozens of people across the country who have been killed via extra-judicial means in this 'War Against Rice'. Every week, there is a report about deaths of Nigerians in the hands of Customs because of rice, a lot of them bystanders.

There is no record that any Custom officer fingered in a murder case over rice is facing judgement. That’s scary. It means that any trigger-happy Customs officer can declare open fire on anyone based on what he thinks, and pin it on rice smuggling. You should be concerned. No one is safe under these circumstances.

-------

WASTE OF PUBLIC FUNDS...

We have not only lost fellow citizens to this fight, we have lost and are losing precious funds on this silly obsession on rice.

Last month (September 2019), the CBN governor announced that the administration has provided a total of N146 billion as loans to rice farmers under its anchor borrower program. In January 2019, CBN approved compensation for rice farmers over flood valued at N27.5 billion. If we assume these are the only funds spent on rice, we have a total of N173 billion spent on rice alone. But let’s stick with N146 billion going forward in this discussion.

One of the wisest men I know taught me to always ask the question, ‘compared to what?’. I have found it one of the most salient points in my adult life. So let's use it: If Nigeria has spent N146 billion on rice alone, how does it compare to other expenses in our national life?

In 2018, the federal government projected to spend N61 billion on education and N71 billion on health on Nigerians. As you can see, the funds spent on rice is more than the projected expenditure on health and education combined (146 vs 132).

Even worse, the 2018 budget performance is 55%. This means that even though the government said they would be able to earn N7.2 trillion, they were able to generate only N3.96 trillion. You can see that in reality, we have spent less than N132 billion on health and education, YET we have spent N146 billion on rice. Isn’t this ridiculous? Is rice more important than the education and health of Nigerians?

-------

BUT WE HAVE RICE?

But the end justifies the means, right? If we have spent so much on rice and Nigerians are blessed with abundant rice, it may be worth it. Now, let’s ask the next logical question: How have these funds impacted Nigerians?

The answer is, continuous price hike. 50kg of foreign rice previously sold for N13,000 is now been sold for up to N27,000 (107% hike), while the local variant, according to a report released yesterday by BBC, has risen 100%.

Nigerians are not just been killed, they are not just putting their funds into the pockets of a few farmers, they also have to live with higher and higher food prices. It’s unfair! This is one key reason Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world. We spend too much of our disposable income on food - arguably the highest in the world.

But why do we have to spend so much funds on rice production anyway? Because our soil is very bad for growing rice.

China has a yield of 6.5 metric tons per hectare of rice.
Brazil has 6.1 metric tons per hectare.
Vietnam has 5.41.
South Korea has 5.3.

Can you guess Nigeria's yield per hectare? 1.8, according to a report released by KPMG Advisory Services. A 2017 report by OECD puts it at 1.1. Nigeria is not in the top 70 countries in terms of yield per hectare of rice, according to IndexMundi, a global data portal.

Our rice yield is too low. You can imagine then that I was not surprised when I read in May 2019 that 3383 rice farmers have defaulted on a loan of N364m in Taraba. Not a single kobo has been repaid. This month, October 2019, another 113 farmers have been reported to have defaulted payment in Katsina State. They may have defaulted for many reasons, but can we really say that it is helping that our lands have poor rice yields? These farmers, according to reports, preferred to marry new wives and go on pilgrimages than waste their time on a ‘failed’ crop.

BACK TO COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE…

In other words, for all of the funds we have poured into the crop since our return to civil rule in 1999, we don't have much to show for it. It's obvious we have no comparative advantage in rice production. In truth, we have a long way to satisfy local consumption. In 2018, we produced 3.7 million metric tons of rice, while our consumption was 6.9m. The shortage of 3 million metric tons of rice was imported into Nigeria from places like Vietnam, India and USA. According to this report by KPMG, imported rice is not a barrier to local production. If anything, it complements local supply to satisfy the huge demand. Little wonder that with the ban on foreign rice, demand has outstripped supply and the resultant effect is increased prices.

A fundamental law of economics is that with increased prices, the incentives to sell increases, hence why smugglers will take all kinds of risks to bring in foreign rice. If a bag across the border is N5000 and they can bring it into Nigeria and sell for N24,000, they may well think it's worth the risk, don't you think? We have created the incentives and wonder why smugglers endanger their lives and that of others. It's self-evident. We have turned rice into cocaine.

What should we have concentrated on instead, and what should we concentrate on going forward?

What I find interesting is that despite our fixation on rice, we have crops we have comparative advantage in. Sesame seeds for example. For the past few years, sesame seeds have been our biggest agricultural export. After India and China, Nigeria is the largest producer of sesame seeds in the world. Some of you don’t even know what the crop looks like. That’s quite ironic.

I will list a few crops we can compete in...

- We are the sixth largest producer of Cashew nuts in the world.
- We are the largest producer of Cassava in the world.
- We are the 4th largest producers of Edible Aroids in the world.
- We are not just the largest producer of Yams in the world, 70% of all Yams in the world are grown in Nigeria.
- We are the 3rd largest producer of Millets in the world.
- We are the 3rd largest producer of Sorghum in the world.
- We are the largest producer of Shea Butter in the world.

I can list more, but you get my point.

And this is without even trying. We have not spent funds to increase yields via serious R&, investment in equipment, etc. We could easily be the largest producers in some of these crops if we so desire.

The hullabaloo over rice is seriously misguided. Lives are being lost on a weekly basis, scarce revenue are being pumped over a crop we would do well to continue to import, and the high cost of this stable food is driving more and more Nigerians into poverty. And it saddens me as our intellectuals continue to fall for and propagate the misinformation about rice.

We don't have a rice problem; we have a problem of knowing what our priorities should be.

QuotaSystem:
Where did it say he will sell to Nigeria in USD?

What effect will the consequent fall in demand for USD for importation have?

Therein lies your answer.

You still dont understand.

Crude oil is traded in US dollars. The IOCs will sell crude oil to Dangote in dollars. Dangote refinery must present dollars to oil companies to buy crude oil (raw material) to refine. How will there be fall in demand for dollars when a single company must be ready to pay dollars in exchange for 650,000 barrels daily?

Check the report very well, it says Dangote will sell to Nigerians at import price. You are deliberately inputing " where did he say he will sell in USD?" to satisfy your narrative. It doesn't change the well laid down fact that Dangote will buy crude oil in dollars.

Your optimism is not based on science but false assumptions.

Apart from freight cost, which will now be through pipeline and tankers instead of ship and barges, the advantage is not much as you are celebrating. It is always better to be cautious of impact of something you don't have understanding of to avoid disappointment.

QuotaSystem:
A bit disappointing, but not unusual for mega-projects of this magnitude.

This is going to have a huge positive impact on our Naira exchange rate, because the millions of dollars wasted importing fuel daily will be saved, significantly easing dollar demand with the consequent effect on prices.

Aliko Dangote must also be made to repatriate a good part of his forex (earned from exporting refined products) back to the country (as current export guidelines require) as this will further boost our reserves and economic standing.

An exciting development for Nigeria worth looking forward to.

The impact on exchange rate is not as significant as you are painting it. You have been told several times that your wishful thinking is a figment of your imagination. This is how you people started jubilating over the 4 refineries that they said are working in full capacity, which are not even producing anything right now.

It is better to base your optimism on fact and not fiction.

Oil is traded in dollars. Dangote will buy crude in dollars. From the report, he will also sell to the local market at import price. Wherein lie the monumental impact on the currency exchange rate?

Perhaps the only advantage you should jubilate over is the reduction/elimination of freight cost.

Dangote said some weeks ago that he would invest 60% of his family wealth in safer jurisdiction (foreign currency) because of the volatility in naira.

Yusufnairaland2:
I am very conversant with Tejuosho Market in Yaba and it's emptiness. however my assessment of Seyi's govt is not from the stand of an opposition but of a Citizen and indigene of Oyo who's mostly concerned about the long-term sustainability of His programmes. At the moment almost all government agencies are running one Pro-bono service or the other. Ibadan is littered with free this, free that, ofcourse government is established to provide welfarist services but my concern is the Long-term Sustainability.
Good morning Sir.

It is concerning.

But you have chosen the wrong thread to express your concern.

This one is not a free service as you can see. The market will generate funds that have not been generated previously. Instead of aiming at realizing the costs of constructing the market in "one year or six months" as initially planned, it can now be spread over a given period at a reduced rates.

Yusufnairaland2:
I hope all of this is sustainable at the longrun. Seyi have been running a largely socialist government. More or less a father Christmas type of govt. Increasing expenditure without a corresponding increase in revenue. I just hope it all sustainableq...

Look at this another way.

The market was abandoned because of exorbitant rent. This means that the traders didn't pay a dime to government. This means that government's projected revenue from these stalls is nill.

Also, the traders spread their wares on the road. This means that motorists are prevented from moving freely. This means that huge revenue is lost to traffic snarl. This indicate that businesses suffer loss of taxable income that should go to government.

Again, the disruption of vehicular movements on the road causes government to deploy law enforcement agents to "deal with" the traders in a military jackboot fashion. The cost of mobilizing the security agencies for the enforcement is borne by government.

In all the above analysis, no income comes to government but increasing expenditure.

Raising IGR by the government should not be an avenue to kill or impoverish the people from whom the IGR will be derived. Capacity of the people to pay tax is as much important function of government as sending out FEROCIOUS TAX COLLECTORS to terrorize the people.

Clutching at straws to explain away the newly minted World's Poverty Capital trophy that they just earned for Nigeria

The excerpt you uploaded clearly stated the successful diversification of the economy from Oil and Gas sector into services and telecoms in the period you are trying to point attention to. It also noted the propelling of Nigeria into the Africa's largest economy.

It noted the income inequalities of the era as alarming. But inequality is a serious concern all over the world and which even the author himself partly attributed to Dutch disease that plagues resource rich countries.

How the author came about the figure for unemployment is unclear. However, according to more credible data, the highest youth unemployment rate ever is 38% in 2018 while the lowest youth unemployment rate is 11.7% in 2014. Indeed, the lowest unemployment rate in Nigeria is 5.10% in 2010 while the highest on record is 23.1% in 2018.

Reference:
This is a very easy situation.... simply stop the funding. How can a sub-establishment decide how it is going to be run. If colleges request for payment autonomy that is tantamount to financial independence and the government should stop that illegality by withdrawing funding, simple.

I have said it countless times, college education is not compulsory anywhere in the world and in a country like Nigeria struggling with a run away population and limited resources, it simply cannot be free. Universities need to be completely autonomous.

I suggest government ptivatises them. Identify trusts or what we call co-operatives and transfer all assets to them to run including a viable 'pay-off', seed money to keep them running for a while, while they adjust to new realities.

Universities are in reality, business centres where all folks, all society, invest in education and research and reap skilled labour and solutions to everyday challenges. It is not primary school education for basic literacy.

If we treat them like America treats its Harvards, Princetons and MITs or Britain treats its Oxfords and Cambridges then we begon to get the same results and begin to attract serious investment for both human and capital development. We treat our colleges now like grade schools so they are.

They are not talking about free education now.

They are talking of how to include earned income due to lecturers in a government payroll system called IPPIS. This system is a centralized automated payroll platform running on parameters of income earned.

The lecturers have issues with it because their peculiarity has not been considered. For instance, some lecturers go to other schools to teach on Sabbatical, as external examiners, part-time lecturers and so on. They have to be paid. Their payment currently is captured on the host university payment system.

The new system will not capture their work because the host university's authority to pay would have been transferred/ceded to the automated IPPIS sytem.

Now, government is not denying these earned income, they fully acknowledge them and the rights of the lecturers to earn them. But they are saying that IPPIS is so inflexible that those income would have to be paid through some other means.

Why can't they adjust IPPIS? If what they want to do is eliminate waste why introduce another means outside IPPIS to pay earned allowances? Is that not creating another avenue for waste and confusion?

Additionally, by the law of the Nigerian government itself, professors' retirement age is 70 years. But on IPPIS, retirement is pegged at 60 years of age or 35 years in service as applicable to the core civil service of which lecturing is not part. The lecturers are asking government to recognize that too as it concerns them. They have offered to help with the necessary adaptation on the system.

Do you get it up to that point?

Now, are you saying Harvard and MIT and Princeton universities' lecturers don't get paid? Or are you saying the lecturers don't have input in the reforms in those universities?

University in reality are not business centres. If they were, you would have seen Harvard and MIT listed on the New York Stock Exchange or Oxford and Cambridge on London Stock Exchange.

Much of the funding of Harvard is from generous endowments from its very successful alumni pool. For a school established in 1636 it is no surprise that it will outperform Nigerian schools in fund raising.'

Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are public universities which are still subsidized by the UK government. And they have complete autonomy - from government political influence etcetera. Much of their funding come from research grants.

Using tuition fee as a weeding tool to control access to education because of socalled run away population is defeatist. Such a strategy is flawed and potend danger for a country whose only successful products apart from oil and gas are the skilled human capital.

Going by trend and years of migrantion pattern, it is safe to say that more than 60% Nigerian migrants are university educated which enables them to quickly assimilate into their host countries and start earning income. Their annual remittances back into country is one the financial pillars still preventing the country from total collapse when all else is failing fiscally.

Nigeria is not the only country with big youth population desiring to have university education. India is successfully turning that particular challenge into a big advantage for their country.

pfadom:
Why will selfish ASUU subscribe to the IPPIS when most of their members work in one or more other universities or polytechnics as associate or part-time lecturers.

I know some of the fulltime staff of UI and OAU who also lecture at FUOYE, any of the state or private universities. This IPPIS would not allow duplication of names.

How do you think some selfish ASUU members would support this heinous act of selfishness and sabotage?

In your mind now, you have exposed one big secret that no one has heard of.

But, what they are doing is not illegal. They are not doing it in secrecy. Government is aware of it.

They are fully in line with their appointment framework. Some of the programmes need those experienced hands to get accreditation from government agency.

Also, some are on Sabbatical leave which they spend in another university as visiting lecturers. This goes on worldwide. It is the peculiarity of the profession, which the Accountant General himself acknowledged in this report, if you read it well.

The issue in contention is how to capture the payments of these LEGAL duties in the "new" electronic payment platforn being introduce by government. That is what they are talking about as you can see in the report.

People get paid when they work, ok? IPPIS is not meant to purnish people and take their legitimate income away but to weed out waste in the system, ok?

Another issue is the retirement age of a professor. It is one of the issues that ASUU fought for over decades in order to stabilize the Nigerian university system. That is one of the reasons the academics is still holding on despite the massive brain drain threatening to turn Nigeria into intellectual desert. The legitimate concern is why it is difficult for government to adapt these peculiarities in their payroll system.

Other issues are similarly recognized by government.

If the government already recognizes all these legitimate issues, why the unnecessary propaganda? If the aim is to curb waste and not for a different agenda against intellectual development, why can't government obey its own laws?

King44:
alaye this policy is working now the local rice is available in the market no one would deny the issue with it is the quality if the gvt us serious it will be fixed besides industries should spring up in SW especially kwara cos the stones n colour of some type of local rice ehn nor be here but it taste good

Your own way of assessing working policies is different from mine, with all due respect.

Local rice has been available in the market for eons - especially "Tapa rice" from Lafiaji/Pategi axis of Kwara with the same "stone quality".

What is currently the subject of debate is whether the local rice can replace foreign rice in fair competition without the government bringing down the roof indefinitely.

While you look at "industries springing up" from a passersby position, I look at scientific performance metrics. Anybody can access the CBN loan to "spring up" any industries anywhere, but when the time comes to service the loan and also make repayments, the story may not be the same.

It was not long ago that the CBN was appealing to "anchor borrowers" to repay their loans for others to benefit. As at February this year, repayments was just about 15% according to data from the CBN. Yet, they had proclaimed the success of the policy long before then.

Cassava was everywhere in Nigeria about a decade ago.

Ayodee2:
Bro just type Trump protectionism policy in your browser and you will understand better.

there's nothing like free trade anywhere in the world except in economics textbooks.

You are mixing issues.

Trump's trade war is principally centered on unfair trade practices of America's trading partners. China in particular placed restrictions on American agricultural products in the form of higher tariffs than America did on Chinese products.

Mind you, many of these products were hitherto produced in America (and other western countries) by American (and western) workers until the companies shipped their production lines abroad in the wake of higher labour costs in the west.

Trump is protecting economic sectors where America already has comparative advantages. These sectors are already existing and thriving.

Just like it took a generation of American economic shift to begin "in-sourcing" (a reverse of decades of outsourcing), it would take another generation of Americans to reverse this Trump's efforts.

Remember, what Trump is doing is imposing TARIFFS on foreign goods. You would still get to buy the products in the market but at higher costs. Because consumers will react to increase in price, Chinese manufacturers will be hard hit by low demand and these will have a devastating impart on their margin. Now, the implications include relocating the companies to countries outside China and even back to America as the case may be.

Nigeria's case is experimental with only wishful thinking and heavy loan from the CBN to farmers as motivations behind this rice thing. It won't take a new government 2 minutes in office to direct its energy and Nigeria's petrol dollars on another "political crop".

Babangida banned WHEAT importation in the '80s. Obasanjo dissipated so much energy of CASSAVA then that some people sold their possessions and took up bank loans to start cassava farming that they were told would replace crude oil in revenue.

Hamachi:
My dad lives in Cotonou, the border closure will hurt Nigerian traders more than our west African brethren, over 85% of motor spare parts, electronics and electrical items sold in west Africa are sourced from Nigerian markets, let our leaders think about that too.

Nigeria's leaders don't understand Nigeria's (non-oil economy). By simply "shutting our land borders", they'll be giving China an advantage over Nigeria in West Africa - with respect to trade.

Some are so dense, they won't understand this - even if you explain it to them.


Even the Oil Economy, dem no sabi. The Trans-siberian Pipeline project gave Russia a huge diplomatic advantage in Europe. It never occurred to Nigeria to build Pipelines all the way to Senegal & use Cheap Oil as a soft Power in West Africa. We left our EEZ for France to exploit.

It is the devil-may-care attitude that is even worrying. It seems they are prepared to burn down the whole house in order to kill a rat just to prove a non-existent point of "local rice production".

By the time the whole thing unravel they will blame someone or something else, but many businesses would have been forced into bankruptcy.

amaechi1:
Will you say same to Uncle Trump and Australian president when they closed their border to drowning immigrants? As if your stomach will announce to the whole world that you have eaten the so called "foreign rice"

You have chosen an inappropriate example for justification.

Trump's border closure would have been recommended for "illegal" cross-border cow herders instead.

But as you can see, the illegal herders keep trooping in unhindered.

Olami112:
We must eat the rice ,
I don't just understand Nigerian
And you will see most of this people rejecting this rice are parent who sent there children to school to study Agriculture science or so.
Instead of them to see this as an opportunity, they kept on rejecting opportunity.

So why do we have to study Agriculture in higher institution?
Sorry oh, is it a curse for Nigerian to always reject our own things
It is a curse for us not to appreciate our own
Anyone who did this for us is really bad person

It is called CHOICE.

Free human beings have a choice to buy or not to buy what they want..

They have the choice to consume or not to consume.

Most people who live in free countries decide on what to spend their money on.

Nigerians are no exception.

An average Nigerian just want a reasonable quality.

Many Nigerians will chose a "Tokunbo" phone charger at higher cost over some cheaper brand new ones in the market at a lower cost.

You don't force consumption on people.

The efforts being made on closing this and that borders should be directed at improving quality through regulations.

Rice is not the only crop they study in agriculture faculties in schools.

Rice is just one out of the several crops and animals.

When you use words like "must" for things that should ordinarily be something human beings use their own money to buy, then you are suggesting a North Korean/Cuban scenario.

Olivegreen:
You clearly dont know your religion. Religion is not just faith. Its faith and reasoning. None supercedes the other.
The bible is written in a lot of metaphors and has lots of hidden messages that only the wise can access. The passage about Sodom amd Gomorah is one of them. It should not be taken literally instead, it should be carefully studied to get the true message.

Hmmm?

Metaphors? Seriously?

Read this

New Science Suggests Biblical City Of Sodom Was Smote By An Exploding Meteor - Forbes

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2018/12/04/new-science-suggests-biblical-city-of-sodom-was-smote-by-an-exploding-meteor/amp/

And then read this carefully

Sodom and Gomorrah Proved!

Recent scientific evidence corroborates an ‘impossible’ biblical miracle.

https://www.thetrumpet.com/18698-sodom-and-gomorrah-proved

If you do not like your country, you will likely not see anything good in it

If you do not like your country, you will escape from it - to safety in America.

How would Nigeria have been faring without the numerous legacies and reforms the PDP?

UdyOgwoUde:
For those quoting OP, he's referring to Nigeria system and not advanced countries.

What's the point of acquiring degrees when there is no 3% hope of getting a job after graduation?

Unless the system change, going to school nowadaysdays in Nigeria is just to fulfill all righteousness. Those that dropped their certificates for hustle are the wisest!

On the other hand, I'm not discouraging anyone.

He singled out some courses (he did not mean all degrees), though.

But then, taking your argument further, why do you bother to hustle when you have 97% chance of not succeeding?

bigpicture001:
Am very sorry about those misspelt words..i was in d car when I created that topic...doesnt mean I dnt know what am seeing

Now come to reality..dentistry in Nigeria is a course whose main employer is d govt...

if you studied economy, unemployment and wages..you would realize that most gainful and abundant employment is in the private sector...now private sector dont delve into the practise again cuz their is almost zero demand for its services....

Dnt just argue for the sake of it...see my moniker

Do you know what dentists do? Have you ever been to any dental hospital before?

Nigeria's current unemployment issue is already critical for every sector. Did you know that the unemployment figure of 20.9m from the NBS includes graduates of all disciplines? Do you realize that it also includes artisans and non-graduate blue-collar employments?

The NMA Abuja branch recently said many of their members are finding it difficult to get jobs, are you suggesting that Medicine and Surgery is useless too?

Your arguments say alot about your level of ignorance and perhaps your lack of capacity to express yourself.

bigpicture001:
You still dnt get me...dia is nothing wrong with studying the course and understanding it vry much..but if you would agree, almost all of he economics graduate are supposed to be epkoyed atiits "micro" and not its "macro" level..so at the micro level, they depend on coys to need their services

The problem now is that most enterprenuers dont feel te ned for a specialized planner..most assume the rles of economist nd also thier managers....

This is the reason most are nt employed...nd any coursettht lack employable capacity in give society hence becones useless...for you dts still goes up the ladder in the fild, its 70 percent in hope for employment in the academic field especially as a lcturer

Who taught you this?

Nobody underdeveloped Africa. It's nonsense. Africans' preference for socialism, which puts more emphasis on sharing than production is at the core of the economic problems.

Socialism appeals to the basic instinct of humanity, and Africans have been described as operating at the basic level - living only for consumption purposes. The average IQ of an African is unfortunately very low. Very, very low.

Nothing stimulates the brain. Only consumption and wild music and bright colors. If an African makes $2000 he is already thinking of how to "paint the town red" and his folks will come for him and lecture him on how to share their "patrimony equitably".

Europeans have been fighting wars to dominate each others for centuries. The strong have been messing up the weak for millennia. They are still doing it. But each time, even the underdogs never waiver. They concentrate on production.

emmahoney:
Please stop arguing with them. They always feel intimidated because they have NCE/B.EDU./PGDE.

You should know this:

THe only mind you cannot reason with is a closed one that is certain it already has every answer to every question.

They have indoctrinated them with lies during the course of their training that they are the masters and whoever does not have any educational qualification cannot impart knowledge.

They have been agitating for this for a very long time. Nursing Council of Nigeria actually fell for this campaign. At the moment to lecture nursing students a qualification in education is required. But trust me, it cannot work on us.

You know theirs teachers were trying to make them feel special and that has gotten into their head. Very soon they will say that lecturer should be submitting his or her lesson note (s) weekly.

I gat you bro.

You know there is wide ramifications of statements like this on Nigerian academics in the international scene. Things begin from very reckless statements and get picked up by outsiders for profiling.

They should be contented with using their degrees in education as a requirement for teaching A for Apple and for establishing schools. They should not go beyond what the law allows them.

Nursing lecturers should put their feet down and insist on the law. They should petition ASUU and let them take it up. A PhD is what the NUC says is the required degree for lecturing. There is no other degree that is superior to it.

DeRay98:
Go and look at old Universities prospectus when our university education was quality and you'll see that most if not the lecturers had PGDE as part of their educational qualifications.
That's foundation needed to be a quality lecturer who imparts sound knowledge to their students.
If that's no longer a common qualification in university teaching work force one need not go to far see one of the reasons for poorly educated graduates nowadays.

That's patently false. You are spreading a baseless assumption.

MOST lecturers do not have a PGDE as qualification; not before and not now.

Those who have are probably in the education faculties or for their personal reasons.

PGDE has never been a prerequisite for lecturing. Lecturing is not about ABC. Teaching is not the only thing lecturers do.