₦airaland Forum

bynat, come and read to be well informed about the transformation agenda especially as it relates to our economy...
Oga Seun, lalasticlala, and Obinoscopy...help the life of this thread and allow Nigerians to see & read the truth about our economy...

tomakint, Idumuose, atlwireles, Nigerianvenom, chukwudi44, priscaoge, tonte,
xcolanto, Sunnybobo3, biafranqueen, truckpusher, theassassin, jujuboy, jesusiscoming,
Brownlord, Mogidi, anonimi, noblezone, tit, ishiamu, firefire, babyosisi, blacktechnology,
datolee, Billyonaire, taharqa, ujoinme, uchidodo, publisher, gramci, Longeria, jmaine, Phockphockman

Trash.

These people don't run businesses. It's easy for them to just talk trash. Just check exchange rates. Smh

adorablepepple:
,like seriously?? pulease.......

did you read it??please summarise it.I no read nothing oh..

Uhmmm to be fair..he did well in d agricultural sector nd dats all...Dat wat he uses in campaigning...let's talk of energy..Bart Nnaji resigned cos generator importers was on he's neck nd mr.president too tried to please dem because they contributed to he's success...now they are busily donating again nd they keep saying d power sector will gtow...hows it gon grow?? By importing more generators?? We're doomed!!!

.

.

Whynotthetruth:
BY OUR REPORTER ON FEBRUARY 4, 2015

Let’s be fair, Jonathan has done well on the economy
BY SAM OHUABUNWA

There can never be a perfect leader. Most leaders do well in certain respects and fail in other respects. Also, we may never all agree, even on one area the leader has done
well or has not done well. It all depends on the criteria for assessment. As example:
For some people, a political leader has not done well except he has given them an appointment, a contract or put money in their individual pockets. He can kill himself,
but as far as they have received no personal benefit he is no good.
For some others, a political leader can only do well if he is from their ethnic enclave or he is from their political party. Therefore, he can commit ‘hara-kiri’ and they will
commend him because of their narrow and myopic prism of assessment. Of course, such assessment can be very biased and injurious. Nevertheless, it is their own
criterion for assessment. And yet for the enlightened others, they use specific and objective criteria to assess leadership performance. There maybe some colorations
and nuances, but that’s because they are human. And that’s why I am not really surprised by the recent comments on the economy raised by Prof Chukwuma Soludo and a couple of other distinguished Nigerians. On this score, I endorse Oby Ezekwesili’s call for a debate. That, to me is the civilised way to conduct a discourse or argument with the objective of presenting the facts, the figures and insights, demolishing falsehood or establishing the truth. I do not subscribe to name
calling or demonising of professionals or fellow Nigerians just because our views do not agree.
Not all Nigerians are gullible. Many have brains that work, processing all the information they receive, agreeing, disagreeing and throwing the rest into the garbage. In my many years of Economic advocacy as a leader in the Manufacturer’s Association of Nigeria (MAN), the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), I have been schooled by the professors, the practitioners and economic agents on what shows good economic management and bad economic management from the private sector perspective. It is from this standpoint that I want to justify my conviction that when it comes to the economy, Jonathan has done well, better than many.

Economic growth

In the years that Jonathan has been president, our economy has grown between six and seven per cent per annum. This is one of the highest growth rates in the world, bettered by China and a few other countries. This is the compounded growth rate that has driven us to become the largest economy in Africa and the 26th in the
world. If this is not a consequence of good economic management, please tell me what is. Even if it happened by ‘luck’, we must still give the credit to Jonathan’s
government. Because if the reverse was the case and the economy was in decline or in stagnation, as we had many years ago, we will still have blamed it on his poor
economic management. If a man can take the flack for failure, why must we deny him the right to take the credit for success?

Economic diversification

For ‘n’ years, where ‘n’ is not less than 30 years, we had complained that we had a mono economy, where oil was everything. But we were “shocked” to see that we
now have a fairly diversified economy, led by services at 52 per cent, where oil’s contribution to GDP has declined to 14 per cent from over 33 per cent in the hey days! And that even agriculture had declined from its dominant 42 percent to 22 percent because of growth in manufacturing, which has climbed from less than fur per
cent to about seven per cent and such services as telecommunications and entertainment taking up measurable positions on the GDP grid at 8.69 per cent and 1.42 per cent respectively. It is not yet déjavu as we still depended on crude oil and gas for about 70 per cent of national income until the recent crash of oil prices,
which has now moved our non-oil revenue to about 47 per cent of the 2015 budget proposals, bringing oil revenue to a healthier 53 per cent. If all this are not as a
result of sound economic policies, some of which were started by the previous governments, then tell me what is.

Macro-economic stability

For the last four years, Jonathan’s government has sustained economic policies that had created a stable macroeconomic environment. For the first time in ‘n’ years, our inflation rate dropped to single digit. This was a feat previous governments dreamt about but could never attain .Until very recently, the exchange rate remained very stable, operating within a narrow band. This made naira almost convertible and allowed Industrialists and importers plan inventory commitments with greater ease
and less apprehension. Even the interest rates had been trending down and for once in a long time, Farmers and some industrialists were able to obtain credit at single
digit interest rate or very low double digits.
This has happened, because Jonathan gave free hand to the professionals in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and those in the ministries of finance, trade and industry, national planning, etc to run with minimum interference. Additionally, he involved the private sector in the economic management team where they used real
market experience to balance academic economic theories. If this is not good economic management, please tell me what is. Some presidents in some countries have been voted out of office because they could not manage inflation!

Availability of food and other necessities of life

It is easy to take things for granted when they are going well, but when they go wrong, we come to realise that certain things are more important than others.
People can find time to make an issue of the reduction in our foreign reserves, because we have plenty of food in the market. To be sincere, Nigeria has had an
abundance of food. Thanks be to God and thanks to a revamped agricultural environment. I am personally surprised that after the recent devaluation of the
currency, and some adjustment in the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), the prices of food items in the market remain fairly stable, keeping overall inflation much lower
than I had predicted, which indicates a higher proportion of locally produced food items. Does anybody remember 1984-1986, when we had to queue for food items
and other necessities, including soaps and detergents in Leventis Stores and other shops? The days of essential commodities (essenco) and import licensing, when
many companies including mine, downsized or closed down because they could not bribe to get enough import licence.

I am sure Nigerians have taken for granted the availability of petrol and diesel. In the last couple of years, except for occasional hiccups caused by striking workers
(NUPENG & PENGASAN), we have had almost hassle-free availability of petrol and diesel in virtually every nook and cranny of the nation selling at controlled and
deregulated prices, depending on your distance from Abuja or Lagos. What is more, the price of diesel began to come down, helping to reduce cost of production for
industrialists. I have lived in this country for long, and from the military to now, we have never had a better supply situation. Many times in the past, we have spent
valuable time running around looking for fuel and sometimes ending up with adulterated or foul fuel. I stand to be corrected. If all these have not happened
because of good economic management, then tell me what is.

Reducing unemployment

The growing unemployment in Nigeria hit the peak in 2010 following the global economic crisis, which caused a shrinking of the global economy. In 2011, unemployment rate in the general population was nearly 24 per cent with youth unemployment reaching nearly 50 per cent. But as today overall unemployment has
declined to less than 20 per cent (Actually about 15 per cent in the first half of 2014 according to National Bureau of Statistics) and youth unemployment has gone down
to less than 38 per cent. Though these changes may not look as dramatic as we would wish, they have occurred by two-pronged approach pursued by Jonathan –
supporting a revival of the agricultural, industrial, entertainment, and several other
sectors of the economy to provide opportunities for absorbing the youth from the private sector angle and the various efforts being made to create jobs in the public
sector, especially through the various safety net projects of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program (SURE-P). From the Community, Social Women and Youth Employment (CSWYE) Programme, over 180, 000 youth and women have been employed, over 10, 000 health workers (midwives, nurses and community health workers) have been employed, over 5, 000 youths have been trained through the Technical Vocational Educational Training in different skills and vocations and deployed to several industries, while 15, 000 have been employed by FERMA in road repairs and vegetation control, nearly 50, 000 hitherto unemployed graduates have been given jobs through the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) across the nation. The YOUWIN programme has enabled several young Nigerians (especially women) to receive grant from the Federal Ministry of Finance to set up new businesses through which they have employed other youths. The determined implementation of the local content law in the oil and gas and else where in the economy has created more jobs and more wealth for Nigerians. If these efforts to create jobs directly and indirectly that have led to measurable improvement in the
unemployment rate over the last four years do not amount to good economic management, then tell me what is.

Pro-business policies/ programmes

Jonathan’s government has introduced several policies and programmes that are supportive of businesses, especially local production. The pro-agric policies and
programmes are well-advertised, making it possible for a new generation of agric entrepreneurs (nagropreneurs ) to obtain loans at nine per cent in addition to unprecedented support to agriculture with a focus on developing the agriculture value chain. I already referred to the higher level of local food production, which has
helped to moderate inflation.

There is a new industrial revolution policy, which is
focusing on supporting local industrial output. We have seen unprecedented expansion in the cement Industry, which is taking the country to the level of self-
sufficiency in cement production with possibility of exporting the excess in the near future. Have we soon forgotten the cement armada spectacle where our ports were clogged with cement import from all over the world?

Like it or not, the local auto industry is coming back to life with the new National Auto Policy, which seeks to discourage unbridled importation of all kinds of
automobiles from all over the world. Many of the world ‘auto companies have started to invest in local production plants.

This industrial revival and upgrade is happening in many industries, including mine –the pharmaceutical – where the Federal Government has supported a number of local
manufacturers to obtain the WHO GMP certification in the last one year, which hitherto had been practically impossible.

The Privatisation and the deregulation policy, which Jonathan has been ‘forcefully’ implementing, has virtually transferred electric power management to the private
sector. Though the level of expected improvement has not been attained, we have brought the 15-year story of unbundling NEPA to a closure, with reasonable
expectation that new investment will flow to truly sort out our electric power needs, especially if government finally sells the transmission infrastructure. I believe the
deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector will be completed soon and the multiplier effect on the economy will be unleashed. I could go on and on.

Some people who are reading this and who may have joined the bandwagon of those who say nothing is happening in the economy or that Jonathan is clueless,
may be angry at me and may think that I am campaigning. But these are facts,which are verifiable. Yes, these may not be the best possible but we must
acknowledge what is the correct situation. Jonathan may have questions to answer concerning security or other issues, but on the economy, my verdict is that he has
done well, though could do better. My Bible says: “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, …that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter .”.May God have mercy.

For me, the fight against corruption will get strong fillip when we remove the power of discretion and patronage from these sectors through privatisation and deregulation . Since we deregulated telecommunications, corruption in that sector has died and been buried. That is more effective than sending 10 Managing Directors of
NITEL to Kirikiri. Not that I am opposed to punishing the guilty, I am saying that corruption in power is in ‘coma’ now and that in oil and gas will soon be gasping for
breath when we fully deregulate the sector. When we bury the ‘big’ corruption in these sectors by these policies that take the power of discretion from public
servants, we can easily deal with ‘smaller’ corruption in government bureaucracy and the private sector.

The level of policy inconsistency and flip-flops we used to see in the economy in the past has significantly declined, creating more confidence and attracting more investments into the country with Nigeria receiving the highest Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI) in Africa in the last two years or so despite slowing down in oil and Gas and the Security scare not withstanding .

I could go on and on. I have said nothing about the massive investment in rehabilitating major highways and rail lines in our country. Last December, I travelled to Kwale from Lagos in five and half hours and travelled by rail from Port Harcourt to Imo River. The last time I did that was in 1992. The trains are running again and the long delayed major road projects like the East -West Road, the Abuja-Lokoja, Benin-Shagamu, Onitsha-Enugu-PH, Kano-Maiduguri and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway are all nearing completion with significant portions now open to traffic.

Have I said anything about the miracle of remodeling 18 Nigerian airports in one season, with most of them fully completed. The impact of good roads and other
modes of transportation to any economy are too obvious for any further elaboration.
Some people who are reading this and who may have joined the bandwagon of those who say nothing is happening in the economy or that Jonathan is clueless,
may be angry at me and may think that I am campaigning. But these are facts,which are verifiable. Yes, these may not be the best possible but we must
acknowledge what is the correct situation. Jonathan may have questions to answer concerning security or other issues, but on the economy, my verdict is that he has
done well, though could do better. My Bible says: “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, …that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter .”.May God have mercy.
• Mazi Ohuabunwa is former chairman of Nigeria Economic Summit Group.....

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=103150

If I slap you

....and yet our naira is N220 to a $. Done well indeed

All those achievements were made possible by one thing....the rise in oil prices during this time.

If oil prices had been below $50 per barrel for the last five years.....none of the ''great strides'' would have happened.

Whynotthetruth:
bynat, come and read to be well informed about the transformation agenda especially as it relates to our economy...
Oga Seun, lalasticlala, and Obinoscopy...help the life of this thread and allow Nigerians to see & read the truth about our economy...

tell that to the marines and blue sea.

DEVIL PUNISH ALL EBELE JONATHAN SUPPORTERS,.............

You mean like this one here?

Promhize:
Soludo is like a stubborn misguided child. Nobody destroyed his political ambition, he destroyed whatever little chance he had himself.

It is funny how he is so trying to sound like technocrat when he is no longer one.

There are thousands of internationally recognized indices to support and show that the economy is doing well.

The base of the whole epistle he wrote is that, this administration the did not save, placing on the blame on the executive and the FG, such a myopic view from a pained man.

Even Russia with all its mighty reserves is suffering badly from drop in oil prices

well looking at it from the economic perspective, I think Soludo is some hiw right. Before we comment , I think we need to go through that article and analyze it deeply. Let's keep sentiment aside here. Let's stop this bullying or calling him different names .
The big question is, how strong is our economy? How well has the government performed economically? How many jobs did this government provide for our youths and graduates? As I'm writing this over 5 graduates came into my office today looking for a job even if it is a driver , they don't mind.
Was it not during president GEJ tenure that crude rose to its highest price selling for 120 per barrel. What did they do with the excess sales? They shared it among themselves and the governors. The masses are suffering. Some of us ate indomie noodles as dinner not because we want to but because we have no choice.
Believe it or not there's gonna be an economic austerity this year. Be ready and be prepared for the famine economically. Dollar now sells for 210 and if crude oil should fall below 40 dollars, then expect another devaluation.
APC and PDP are yet to outline their economic plans for us. How do they intend to get us back on track economically?
I am even sick and tired of reading articles telling us how bad our economy is and none has a solution to this crises rocking our economy.
My fellow nairalanders let's keep party, political , religion and ethnic difference aside and let's build a strong nation called Nigeria. Unity is what we need and we the masses have to come together and stand as one. All these politicians (apc and pdp) have no plans for us.
we need to plan for ourselves.

GEJ is really that bad to allow Abba Moro still be a serving minister after defrauding jobless youths. He is really that bad to increase his feeding budget from N1bn in 2014 to N4bn in 2015. He is that bad to stay mute when hus wife was indicted in a $13m money laundering case with EFCC. He is really that bad to allow Dieziani use N10bn on private travels. He is really that bad to have spent $30bn on revamping power yet no giant achievements has been made. He is really that bad to have increased our external debts from $26bn to $70bn. He is really that bad to have spent N968bn as security budget yet nothing has been achieved against the fight for insurgency. He is really that bad to have stayed mute on the missing $20bn exposition by the whistle blower, Sanusi Lamido. He is really that bad to be budgeting N2bn to build VP residence while ordinary Nigerians are homeless. He is really that to be spending N10bn on 11 presidential jets, when he should be more prudent to have max of 2. He is really that bad to have allowed $15m to be swept under the carpet in the illegal arm deal at South Africa, where the names of the Nigerians involved are still shrouded in secrecy but the name of the Israeli was exposed. He is really that to have attended the Organization of Islamic Countries meeting when no president in Nigeria has ever attended such. He is really that bad to have stayed mute on the scam $470m cctv contract deal in FCT, yet no surveillance camera is working. He is really that bad to have said stealing is not corruption. He is really that bad to have said "how much did Jim Nwobodo stole, money that can't buy a Peugeot" (why would a sitting president commonise stealing of public funds, even if it's N1, it shouldn't be stolen because it's should be a call to service and not an avenue to redefine comfort). He is really that bad to have allowed to pension scam thief go with a little punishment. He is really that bad to have pardoned ex-convicts like Bode george, and Alameyghsia. He is really that bad to have not even find a major road like the east/west road which connconnects the south south region. He is really that bad to allow an overinflated budget of N117bn for the 1.5km 2nd Niger bridge yet Lagos state government built the 1.3km Lekki-Ikoyi bridge for N29bn. GEJ is really that bad to allow Tompolo own a warship, and Asari and Boyloaf issue war threat, yet they haven't been arrested. He is failure to have used his cohorts to aattempt sweeping the issue of the alleged missing N30tn under the carpet.

Other long forgotten issues are the N150m renovation of the VP lodge, N5bn rehabilitation for commercial sex workers, N7bn to build 2 city gates in FCT, N4bn to build first ladies mission house, and the presidency bought 200exotic cars for that event, where are they cars?

Poverty level in Nigeria has risen from 54% to 71%, youth unemployment from 9% to 50%, recurrent expenditure from 62% to 86%, national debt from $26bn to $70bn, whilst GDP growth has dropped from 11% to 6%, and excess crude account has dropped from $20bn to $2bn, petrol has risen from 65 to 87 temporarily (97), $1 has risen from N158 to N210.Nigerians want change. We demand accountability. We want a government that is ready to fight for the masses.

To hell with GEJ. If you fail to see that he is a failure, I will open your eyes to the obvious. He is a failure, even with 6years of oil boom he failed, now he wants to deceive us that he can perform in 4years in oil doom.

For me ... Jona try oh

bynat:
tell that to the marines and blue sea.

Is that your constituency

Upon all ur story. He is still confuused

Whynotthetruth:
BY OUR REPORTER ON FEBRUARY 4, 2015

Let’s be fair, Jonathan has done well on the economy
BY SAM OHUABUNWA

There can never be a perfect leader. Most leaders do well in certain respects and fail in other respects. Also, we may never all agree, even on one area the leader has done
well or has not done well. It all depends on the criteria for assessment. As example:
For some people, a political leader has not done well except he has given them an appointment, a contract or put money in their individual pockets. He can kill himself,
but as far as they have received no personal benefit he is no good.
For some others, a political leader can only do well if he is from their ethnic enclave or he is from their political party. Therefore, he can commit ‘hara-kiri’ and they will
commend him because of their narrow and myopic prism of assessment. Of course, such assessment can be very biased and injurious. Nevertheless, it is their own
criterion for assessment. And yet for the enlightened others, they use specific and objective criteria to assess leadership performance. There maybe some colorations
and nuances, but that’s because they are human. And that’s why I am not really surprised by the recent comments on the economy raised by Prof Chukwuma Soludo and a couple of other distinguished Nigerians. On this score, I endorse Oby Ezekwesili’s call for a debate. That, to me is the civilised way to conduct a discourse or argument with the objective of presenting the facts, the figures and insights, demolishing falsehood or establishing the truth. I do not subscribe to name
calling or demonising of professionals or fellow Nigerians just because our views do not agree.
Not all Nigerians are gullible. Many have brains that work, processing all the information they receive, agreeing, disagreeing and throwing the rest into the garbage. In my many years of Economic advocacy as a leader in the Manufacturer’s Association of Nigeria (MAN), the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), I have been schooled by the professors, the practitioners and economic agents on what shows good economic management and bad economic management from the private sector perspective. It is from this standpoint that I want to justify my conviction that when it comes to the economy, Jonathan has done well, better than many.

Economic growth

In the years that Jonathan has been president, our economy has grown between six and seven per cent per annum. This is one of the highest growth rates in the world, bettered by China and a few other countries. This is the compounded growth rate that has driven us to become the largest economy in Africa and the 26th in the
world. If this is not a consequence of good economic management, please tell me what is. Even if it happened by ‘luck’, we must still give the credit to Jonathan’s
government. Because if the reverse was the case and the economy was in decline or in stagnation, as we had many years ago, we will still have blamed it on his poor
economic management. If a man can take the flack for failure, why must we deny him the right to take the credit for success?

Economic diversification

For ‘n’ years, where ‘n’ is not less than 30 years, we had complained that we had a mono economy, where oil was everything. But we were “shocked” to see that we
now have a fairly diversified economy, led by services at 52 per cent, where oil’s contribution to GDP has declined to 14 per cent from over 33 per cent in the hey days! And that even agriculture had declined from its dominant 42 percent to 22 percent because of growth in manufacturing, which has climbed from less than fur per
cent to about seven per cent and such services as telecommunications and entertainment taking up measurable positions on the GDP grid at 8.69 per cent and 1.42 per cent respectively. It is not yet déjavu as we still depended on crude oil and gas for about 70 per cent of national income until the recent crash of oil prices,
which has now moved our non-oil revenue to about 47 per cent of the 2015 budget proposals, bringing oil revenue to a healthier 53 per cent. If all this are not as a
result of sound economic policies, some of which were started by the previous governments, then tell me what is.

Macro-economic stability

For the last four years, Jonathan’s government has sustained economic policies that had created a stable macroeconomic environment. For the first time in ‘n’ years, our inflation rate dropped to single digit. This was a feat previous governments dreamt about but could never attain .Until very recently, the exchange rate remained very stable, operating within a narrow band. This made naira almost convertible and allowed Industrialists and importers plan inventory commitments with greater ease
and less apprehension. Even the interest rates had been trending down and for once in a long time, Farmers and some industrialists were able to obtain credit at single
digit interest rate or very low double digits.
This has happened, because Jonathan gave free hand to the professionals in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and those in the ministries of finance, trade and industry, national planning, etc to run with minimum interference. Additionally, he involved the private sector in the economic management team where they used real
market experience to balance academic economic theories. If this is not good economic management, please tell me what is. Some presidents in some countries have been voted out of office because they could not manage inflation!

Availability of food and other necessities of life

It is easy to take things for granted when they are going well, but when they go wrong, we come to realise that certain things are more important than others.
People can find time to make an issue of the reduction in our foreign reserves, because we have plenty of food in the market. To be sincere, Nigeria has had an
abundance of food. Thanks be to God and thanks to a revamped agricultural environment. I am personally surprised that after the recent devaluation of the
currency, and some adjustment in the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), the prices of food items in the market remain fairly stable, keeping overall inflation much lower
than I had predicted, which indicates a higher proportion of locally produced food items. Does anybody remember 1984-1986, when we had to queue for food items
and other necessities, including soaps and detergents in Leventis Stores and other shops? The days of essential commodities (essenco) and import licensing, when
many companies including mine, downsized or closed down because they could not bribe to get enough import licence.

I am sure Nigerians have taken for granted the availability of petrol and diesel. In the last couple of years, except for occasional hiccups caused by striking workers
(NUPENG & PENGASAN), we have had almost hassle-free availability of petrol and diesel in virtually every nook and cranny of the nation selling at controlled and
deregulated prices, depending on your distance from Abuja or Lagos. What is more, the price of diesel began to come down, helping to reduce cost of production for
industrialists. I have lived in this country for long, and from the military to now, we have never had a better supply situation. Many times in the past, we have spent
valuable time running around looking for fuel and sometimes ending up with adulterated or foul fuel. I stand to be corrected. If all these have not happened
because of good economic management, then tell me what is.

Reducing unemployment

The growing unemployment in Nigeria hit the peak in 2010 following the global economic crisis, which caused a shrinking of the global economy. In 2011, unemployment rate in the general population was nearly 24 per cent with youth unemployment reaching nearly 50 per cent. But as today overall unemployment has
declined to less than 20 per cent (Actually about 15 per cent in the first half of 2014 according to National Bureau of Statistics) and youth unemployment has gone down
to less than 38 per cent. Though these changes may not look as dramatic as we would wish, they have occurred by two-pronged approach pursued by Jonathan –
supporting a revival of the agricultural, industrial, entertainment, and several other
sectors of the economy to provide opportunities for absorbing the youth from the private sector angle and the various efforts being made to create jobs in the public
sector, especially through the various safety net projects of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program (SURE-P). From the Community, Social Women and Youth Employment (CSWYE) Programme, over 180, 000 youth and women have been employed, over 10, 000 health workers (midwives, nurses and community health workers) have been employed, over 5, 000 youths have been trained through the Technical Vocational Educational Training in different skills and vocations and deployed to several industries, while 15, 000 have been employed by FERMA in road repairs and vegetation control, nearly 50, 000 hitherto unemployed graduates have been given jobs through the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) across the nation. The YOUWIN programme has enabled several young Nigerians (especially women) to receive grant from the Federal Ministry of Finance to set up new businesses through which they have employed other youths. The determined implementation of the local content law in the oil and gas and else where in the economy has created more jobs and more wealth for Nigerians. If these efforts to create jobs directly and indirectly that have led to measurable improvement in the
unemployment rate over the last four years do not amount to good economic management, then tell me what is.

Pro-business policies/ programmes

Jonathan’s government has introduced several policies and programmes that are supportive of businesses, especially local production. The pro-agric policies and
programmes are well-advertised, making it possible for a new generation of agric entrepreneurs (nagropreneurs ) to obtain loans at nine per cent in addition to unprecedented support to agriculture with a focus on developing the agriculture value chain. I already referred to the higher level of local food production, which has
helped to moderate inflation.

There is a new industrial revolution policy, which is
focusing on supporting local industrial output. We have seen unprecedented expansion in the cement Industry, which is taking the country to the level of self-
sufficiency in cement production with possibility of exporting the excess in the near future. Have we soon forgotten the cement armada spectacle where our ports were clogged with cement import from all over the world?

Like it or not, the local auto industry is coming back to life with the new National Auto Policy, which seeks to discourage unbridled importation of all kinds of
automobiles from all over the world. Many of the world ‘auto companies have started to invest in local production plants.

This industrial revival and upgrade is happening in many industries, including mine –the pharmaceutical – where the Federal Government has supported a number of local
manufacturers to obtain the WHO GMP certification in the last one year, which hitherto had been practically impossible.

The Privatisation and the deregulation policy, which Jonathan has been ‘forcefully’ implementing, has virtually transferred electric power management to the private
sector. Though the level of expected improvement has not been attained, we have brought the 15-year story of unbundling NEPA to a closure, with reasonable
expectation that new investment will flow to truly sort out our electric power needs, especially if government finally sells the transmission infrastructure. I believe the
deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector will be completed soon and the multiplier effect on the economy will be unleashed. I could go on and on.

Some people who are reading this and who may have joined the bandwagon of those who say nothing is happening in the economy or that Jonathan is clueless,
may be angry at me and may think that I am campaigning. But these are facts,which are verifiable. Yes, these may not be the best possible but we must
acknowledge what is the correct situation. Jonathan may have questions to answer concerning security or other issues, but on the economy, my verdict is that he has
done well, though could do better. My Bible says: “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, …that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter .”.May God have mercy.

For me, the fight against corruption will get strong fillip when we remove the power of discretion and patronage from these sectors through privatisation and deregulation . Since we deregulated telecommunications, corruption in that sector has died and been buried. That is more effective than sending 10 Managing Directors of
NITEL to Kirikiri. Not that I am opposed to punishing the guilty, I am saying that corruption in power is in ‘coma’ now and that in oil and gas will soon be gasping for
breath when we fully deregulate the sector. When we bury the ‘big’ corruption in these sectors by these policies that take the power of discretion from public
servants, we can easily deal with ‘smaller’ corruption in government bureaucracy and the private sector.

The level of policy inconsistency and flip-flops we used to see in the economy in the past has significantly declined, creating more confidence and attracting more investments into the country with Nigeria receiving the highest Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI) in Africa in the last two years or so despite slowing down in oil and Gas and the Security scare not withstanding .

I could go on and on. I have said nothing about the massive investment in rehabilitating major highways and rail lines in our country. Last December, I travelled to Kwale from Lagos in five and half hours and travelled by rail from Port Harcourt to Imo River. The last time I did that was in 1992. The trains are running again and the long delayed major road projects like the East -West Road, the Abuja-Lokoja, Benin-Shagamu, Onitsha-Enugu-PH, Kano-Maiduguri and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway are all nearing completion with significant portions now open to traffic.

Have I said anything about the miracle of remodeling 18 Nigerian airports in one season, with most of them fully completed. The impact of good roads and other
modes of transportation to any economy are too obvious for any further elaboration.
Some people who are reading this and who may have joined the bandwagon of those who say nothing is happening in the economy or that Jonathan is clueless,
may be angry at me and may think that I am campaigning. But these are facts,which are verifiable. Yes, these may not be the best possible but we must
acknowledge what is the correct situation. Jonathan may have questions to answer concerning security or other issues, but on the economy, my verdict is that he has
done well, though could do better. My Bible says: “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, …that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter .”.May God have mercy.
• Mazi Ohuabunwa is former chairman of Nigeria Economic Summit Group.....

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=103150

Nigeria has changed for the better o , for the first time in our history presidents and governors are being measured for their productivity via governance, Nigerians have changed and are more expectant than previous citizens , before now nobody cared about governance or productivity ..Now President aspirants are running around like yoyo to showcase themselves ..even the incumbent president normally stays in aso rock or go for one or two campaign in lagos or abuja ..and thats it ...i think this is a good sign of good thing to come . i hope the best wins ..

2009 - 1 dollar = 140/150 Naira. | fuel 65 Naira/liter..

2015 - 1 dollar = 200/215 Naira | fuel price 87/97Naira/Liter...




The economy us doing very well..

how does this economy put food on my table,pay my children school fees,provide employment and improve standard of living of Nigerians in general and not to set of corrupt politician.I think the writer need to re- examine his brain before writing on what he did not have knowledge about. thanks

Whoever typed this rubbish has lost touch with reality......... Nd that's FINAL

Hi Make clean income by checking this outhttp://www.cashripe.com/?id=ke... . Thank me later

0

Let's be fair also,by improved economy they mean their pockets, cos we Nigerians dnt c, na only to hear
still need change

Whynotthetruth:
BY OUR REPORTER ON FEBRUARY 4, 2015

Let’s be fair, Jonathan has done well on the economy
BY SAM OHUABUNWA

There can never be a perfect leader. Most leaders do well in certain respects and fail in other respects. Also, we may never all agree, even on one area the leader has done
well or has not done well. It all depends on the criteria for assessment. As example:
For some people, a political leader has not done well except he has given them an appointment, a contract or put money in their individual pockets. He can kill himself,
but as far as they have received no personal benefit he is no good.
For some others, a political leader can only do well if he is from their ethnic enclave or he is from their political party. Therefore, he can commit ‘hara-kiri’ and they will
commend him because of their narrow and myopic prism of assessment. Of course, such assessment can be very biased and injurious. Nevertheless, it is their own
criterion for assessment. And yet for the enlightened others, they use specific and objective criteria to assess leadership performance. There maybe some colorations
and nuances, but that’s because they are human. And that’s why I am not really surprised by the recent comments on the economy raised by Prof Chukwuma Soludo and a couple of other distinguished Nigerians. On this score, I endorse Oby Ezekwesili’s call for a debate. That, to me is the civilised way to conduct a discourse or argument with the objective of presenting the facts, the figures and insights, demolishing falsehood or establishing the truth. I do not subscribe to name
calling or demonising of professionals or fellow Nigerians just because our views do not agree.
Not all Nigerians are gullible. Many have brains that work, processing all the information they receive, agreeing, disagreeing and throwing the rest into the garbage. In my many years of Economic advocacy as a leader in the Manufacturer’s Association of Nigeria (MAN), the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), I have been schooled by the professors, the practitioners and economic agents on what shows good economic management and bad economic management from the private sector perspective. It is from this standpoint that I want to justify my conviction that when it comes to the economy, Jonathan has done well, better than many.

Economic growth

In the years that Jonathan has been president, our economy has grown between six and seven per cent per annum. This is one of the highest growth rates in the world, bettered by China and a few other countries. This is the compounded growth rate that has driven us to become the largest economy in Africa and the 26th in the
world. If this is not a consequence of good economic management, please tell me what is. Even if it happened by ‘luck’, we must still give the credit to Jonathan’s
government. Because if the reverse was the case and the economy was in decline or in stagnation, as we had many years ago, we will still have blamed it on his poor
economic management. If a man can take the flack for failure, why must we deny him the right to take the credit for success?

Economic diversification

For ‘n’ years, where ‘n’ is not less than 30 years, we had complained that we had a mono economy, where oil was everything. But we were “shocked” to see that we
now have a fairly diversified economy, led by services at 52 per cent, where oil’s contribution to GDP has declined to 14 per cent from over 33 per cent in the hey days! And that even agriculture had declined from its dominant 42 percent to 22 percent because of growth in manufacturing, which has climbed from less than fur per
cent to about seven per cent and such services as telecommunications and entertainment taking up measurable positions on the GDP grid at 8.69 per cent and 1.42 per cent respectively. It is not yet déjavu as we still depended on crude oil and gas for about 70 per cent of national income until the recent crash of oil prices,
which has now moved our non-oil revenue to about 47 per cent of the 2015 budget proposals, bringing oil revenue to a healthier 53 per cent. If all this are not as a
result of sound economic policies, some of which were started by the previous governments, then tell me what is.

Macro-economic stability

For the last four years, Jonathan’s government has sustained economic policies that had created a stable macroeconomic environment. For the first time in ‘n’ years, our inflation rate dropped to single digit. This was a feat previous governments dreamt about but could never attain .Until very recently, the exchange rate remained very stable, operating within a narrow band. This made naira almost convertible and allowed Industrialists and importers plan inventory commitments with greater ease
and less apprehension. Even the interest rates had been trending down and for once in a long time, Farmers and some industrialists were able to obtain credit at single
digit interest rate or very low double digits.
This has happened, because Jonathan gave free hand to the professionals in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and those in the ministries of finance, trade and industry, national planning, etc to run with minimum interference. Additionally, he involved the private sector in the economic management team where they used real
market experience to balance academic economic theories. If this is not good economic management, please tell me what is. Some presidents in some countries have been voted out of office because they could not manage inflation!

Availability of food and other necessities of life

It is easy to take things for granted when they are going well, but when they go wrong, we come to realise that certain things are more important than others.
People can find time to make an issue of the reduction in our foreign reserves, because we have plenty of food in the market. To be sincere, Nigeria has had an
abundance of food. Thanks be to God and thanks to a revamped agricultural environment. I am personally surprised that after the recent devaluation of the
currency, and some adjustment in the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), the prices of food items in the market remain fairly stable, keeping overall inflation much lower
than I had predicted, which indicates a higher proportion of locally produced food items. Does anybody remember 1984-1986, when we had to queue for food items
and other necessities, including soaps and detergents in Leventis Stores and other shops? The days of essential commodities (essenco) and import licensing, when
many companies including mine, downsized or closed down because they could not bribe to get enough import licence.

I am sure Nigerians have taken for granted the availability of petrol and diesel. In the last couple of years, except for occasional hiccups caused by striking workers
(NUPENG & PENGASAN), we have had almost hassle-free availability of petrol and diesel in virtually every nook and cranny of the nation selling at controlled and
deregulated prices, depending on your distance from Abuja or Lagos. What is more, the price of diesel began to come down, helping to reduce cost of production for
industrialists. I have lived in this country for long, and from the military to now, we have never had a better supply situation. Many times in the past, we have spent
valuable time running around looking for fuel and sometimes ending up with adulterated or foul fuel. I stand to be corrected. If all these have not happened
because of good economic management, then tell me what is.

Reducing unemployment

The growing unemployment in Nigeria hit the peak in 2010 following the global economic crisis, which caused a shrinking of the global economy. In 2011, unemployment rate in the general population was nearly 24 per cent with youth unemployment reaching nearly 50 per cent. But as today overall unemployment has
declined to less than 20 per cent (Actually about 15 per cent in the first half of 2014 according to National Bureau of Statistics) and youth unemployment has gone down
to less than 38 per cent. Though these changes may not look as dramatic as we would wish, they have occurred by two-pronged approach pursued by Jonathan –
supporting a revival of the agricultural, industrial, entertainment, and several other
sectors of the economy to provide opportunities for absorbing the youth from the private sector angle and the various efforts being made to create jobs in the public
sector, especially through the various safety net projects of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program (SURE-P). From the Community, Social Women and Youth Employment (CSWYE) Programme, over 180, 000 youth and women have been employed, over 10, 000 health workers (midwives, nurses and community health workers) have been employed, over 5, 000 youths have been trained through the Technical Vocational Educational Training in different skills and vocations and deployed to several industries, while 15, 000 have been employed by FERMA in road repairs and vegetation control, nearly 50, 000 hitherto unemployed graduates have been given jobs through the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) across the nation. The YOUWIN programme has enabled several young Nigerians (especially women) to receive grant from the Federal Ministry of Finance to set up new businesses through which they have employed other youths. The determined implementation of the local content law in the oil and gas and else where in the economy has created more jobs and more wealth for Nigerians. If these efforts to create jobs directly and indirectly that have led to measurable improvement in the
unemployment rate over the last four years do not amount to good economic management, then tell me what is.

Pro-business policies/ programmes

Jonathan’s government has introduced several policies and programmes that are supportive of businesses, especially local production. The pro-agric policies and
programmes are well-advertised, making it possible for a new generation of agric entrepreneurs (nagropreneurs ) to obtain loans at nine per cent in addition to unprecedented support to agriculture with a focus on developing the agriculture value chain. I already referred to the higher level of local food production, which has
helped to moderate inflation.

There is a new industrial revolution policy, which is
focusing on supporting local industrial output. We have seen unprecedented expansion in the cement Industry, which is taking the country to the level of self-
sufficiency in cement production with possibility of exporting the excess in the near future. Have we soon forgotten the cement armada spectacle where our ports were clogged with cement import from all over the world?

Like it or not, the local auto industry is coming back to life with the new National Auto Policy, which seeks to discourage unbridled importation of all kinds of
automobiles from all over the world. Many of the world ‘auto companies have started to invest in local production plants.

This industrial revival and upgrade is happening in many industries, including mine –the pharmaceutical – where the Federal Government has supported a number of local
manufacturers to obtain the WHO GMP certification in the last one year, which hitherto had been practically impossible.

The Privatisation and the deregulation policy, which Jonathan has been ‘forcefully’ implementing, has virtually transferred electric power management to the private
sector. Though the level of expected improvement has not been attained, we have brought the 15-year story of unbundling NEPA to a closure, with reasonable
expectation that new investment will flow to truly sort out our electric power needs, especially if government finally sells the transmission infrastructure. I believe the
deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector will be completed soon and the multiplier effect on the economy will be unleashed. I could go on and on.

Some people who are reading this and who may have joined the bandwagon of those who say nothing is happening in the economy or that Jonathan is clueless,
may be angry at me and may think that I am campaigning. But these are facts,which are verifiable. Yes, these may not be the best possible but we must
acknowledge what is the correct situation. Jonathan may have questions to answer concerning security or other issues, but on the economy, my verdict is that he has
done well, though could do better. My Bible says: “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, …that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter .”.May God have mercy.

For me, the fight against corruption will get strong fillip when we remove the power of discretion and patronage from these sectors through privatisation and deregulation . Since we deregulated telecommunications, corruption in that sector has died and been buried. That is more effective than sending 10 Managing Directors of
NITEL to Kirikiri. Not that I am opposed to punishing the guilty, I am saying that corruption in power is in ‘coma’ now and that in oil and gas will soon be gasping for
breath when we fully deregulate the sector. When we bury the ‘big’ corruption in these sectors by these policies that take the power of discretion from public
servants, we can easily deal with ‘smaller’ corruption in government bureaucracy and the private sector.

The level of policy inconsistency and flip-flops we used to see in the economy in the past has significantly declined, creating more confidence and attracting more investments into the country with Nigeria receiving the highest Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI) in Africa in the last two years or so despite slowing down in oil and Gas and the Security scare not withstanding .

I could go on and on. I have said nothing about the massive investment in rehabilitating major highways and rail lines in our country. Last December, I travelled to Kwale from Lagos in five and half hours and travelled by rail from Port Harcourt to Imo River. The last time I did that was in 1992. The trains are running again and the long delayed major road projects like the East -West Road, the Abuja-Lokoja, Benin-Shagamu, Onitsha-Enugu-PH, Kano-Maiduguri and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway are all nearing completion with significant portions now open to traffic.

Have I said anything about the miracle of remodeling 18 Nigerian airports in one season, with most of them fully completed. The impact of good roads and other
modes of transportation to any economy are too obvious for any further elaboration.
Some people who are reading this and who may have joined the bandwagon of those who say nothing is happening in the economy or that Jonathan is clueless,
may be angry at me and may think that I am campaigning. But these are facts,which are verifiable. Yes, these may not be the best possible but we must
acknowledge what is the correct situation. Jonathan may have questions to answer concerning security or other issues, but on the economy, my verdict is that he has
done well, though could do better. My Bible says: “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, …that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter .”.May God have mercy.
• Mazi Ohuabunwa is former chairman of Nigeria Economic Summit Group.....

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=103150

my first question ..do you have electricity in your area ? ..( am not talking about generator or some funny inverter ) ..if you dont have then ur Jonathan has failed to deleiver what he promised 6 years ago

hazyfm1:
[size=28pt]WELL DONE MR CLUELESS GCFR[/size]

If i read one sentence from this thread let it not rain in Lagos this month

[size=28pt]SAI BUHARI[/size]

Pdp has started telling jonathan well wishes for his leaving of office come may 29th.
For that, i and my family decides to give him free ride to otuoke.

RicKyRichards:
These people don't run businesses. It's easy for them to just talk trash. Just check exchange rates. Smh

Bro, do you know who is Sam ohuabunwa Which people run business then if he's not among? Is innoson, dangote, otedola, adenuga, ovie, elumelu,Nissan, Peugeot, Volkswagen, annamcco,cantata, etc not happy with him? They gained so much from government policies and desire continuity...so who again isn't here?

mumumugu:
truth be told..he has done very well
but his effort is not good enough.

Very well = not good enough. NIGERIA I HAIL THEE!