₦airaland Forum

ivandragon:
the primary factor that caused low savings under the previous administration was fuel subsidy.

if Nigerians had agreed for subsidy to be removed then, we would have saved an extra $35b-$40b...

besides, you talk of logic... isn't it LOGICAL that when the cost of the raw material of a finished good reduces, shouldn't the cost of the finished good also drop? so why is the reverse the case with our PMS? it just goes to show that there are more variables in arriving at a decision than meets the eye.

furthermore, in the context of development, foreign reserves is a secondary factor. its what i call a 'variable', it is effective when other primary factors are reasonably addressed. what is the point of saving if infrastructure is terrible? for instance, you point to present savings & I say, why not build a large refinery? isn't buying PMS one of the drains on the savings? so what's the sense of saving when you would still use the savings to treat a problem you can eliminate by 'not saving' but investing...

that's the situation GEJ met & used the opportunity of high income to try to redress. Nigeria has a huge population - infrastructure deficit which dates back to the 70s when socioeconomic development stopped keeping pace with population growth, so the backlog is enormous & even if Nigeria had an external reserve of $150b without infrastructure, it would mean nothing in real development terms.

countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Russia have higher reserves than nations like US, Sweden, Canada... but which countries are most developed?


the drop in crude oil price affected things, sure, but a lack of clear focus & planning coupled with unstatemanly utterances made what would have been a manageable situation worse.

that the previous administration had corruption issues is not in doubt, but so did every administration before it & even this present one is on course to equal if not surpass that.

every administration will have its positives & negatives.

queencalipso:
I can't help but quote you, you made lots of sense..

ivandragon:
the primary factor that caused low savings under the previous administration was fuel subsidy.

if Nigerians had agreed for subsidy to be removed then, we would have saved an extra $35b-$40b...

besides, you talk of logic... isn't it LOGICAL that when the cost of the raw material of a finished good reduces, shouldn't the cost of the finished good also drop? so why is the reverse the case with our PMS? it just goes to show that there are more variables in arriving at a decision than meets the eye.

furthermore, in the context of development, foreign reserves is a secondary factor. its what i call a 'variable', it is effective when other primary factors are reasonably addressed. what is the point of saving if infrastructure is terrible? for instance, you point to present savings & I say, why not build a large refinery? isn't buying PMS one of the drains on the savings? so what's the sense of saving when you would still use the savings to treat a problem you can eliminate by 'not saving' but investing...

that's the situation GEJ met & used the opportunity of high income to try to redress. Nigeria has a huge population - infrastructure deficit which dates back to the 70s when socioeconomic development stopped keeping pace with population growth, so the backlog is enormous & even if Nigeria had an external reserve of $150b without infrastructure, it would mean nothing in real development terms.

countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Russia have higher reserves than nations like US, Sweden, Canada... but which countries are most developed?


the drop in crude oil price affected things, sure, but a lack of clear focus & planning coupled with unstatemanly utterances made what would have been a manageable situation worse.

that the previous administration had corruption issues is not in doubt, but so did every administration before it & even this present one is on course to equal if not surpass that.

every administration will have its positives & negatives.

PassingShot:
Cut the crap!

For the fact that our petrol is still imported doesn't make your analogy right.

Nigerians were right to resist GEJ to remove subsidy because he had already proved to be untrustworthy. There were already many corruption cases under his watch which he couldn't do anything about. So, why should we allow him to wake up on January 1st of 2012 and remove subsidy?

Now that Nigerians have a trust-worthy president/VP, it was allowed to be done.

ezenaija:
You are recommending the GEJ strategy which was condemned by economists with vision and which brought us to where we are today!
Releasing such amount will give us a temporary result because investors know that it's a cosmetic surgery. They will buy it up, wait and hold it, then sell it for over N500 because THE LOWER YOUR RESERVE, THE LOWER THE VALUE OF YOUR LOCAL CURRENCY AGAINST OTHER CURRENCIES.
Investors always BET AGAINST CURRENCIES OF COUNTRIES WITH LOW RESERVES,KNOWING THAT IT MUST DEPRECIATE. THAT'S WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING TO OUR NAIRA SINCE LATE 2013.

ivandragon:
you are the one that needs to stop being crappy...

is Nigeria presenting paying the same amount of subsidy you were paying then?

GEJ might have proved untrustworthy then, fine, but was he not the one that drew Nigerians attention to the ills of subsidy & its attendant fraud?

was it not the same GEJ that gave us IPPIS, TSA, FoI & money laundering laws?

is it not the same GEJ that introduced BVN that has made it neigh on impossible for looters to hide their loots?

in your covulated mind, PMB is trustworthy. same man who claimed there was nothing like subsidy & still went ahead to remove it.

same man who within 6 months in office, $4.5b had gone missing;

same man who said he does not own a home in Abuja before elections, only for it to be revealed that he owns a multi billion naira home there;

same man who said medical tourism will end under him, but is quick to go for 'check up' in UK on the slightest whim;

same man who preaches 'grow local', but chooses to spend tax payers money just to rest abroad;

same man who padded budget. after all the noise, he takes his budget padders to cash office rather than sack them...

what has PMB done about issues of corruption going on under him? or petitions written about his cabinet?

you guys just keep clutching at straws to defend what cannot be defended...

ezenaija:
You speak out of ignorance.
The pressure on Naira is chiefly caused by
*Dwindling oil prices(oil being our core forex earner).
*Depleted external reserve(FOREIGN RESERVE, EXCESS CRUDE ACCOUNT was depleted from $65b to $30b by GEJ's govt inspite of 4years of oil boom @ average of $100per barrel and 2.2million barrels per day).
The price of oil began to drop in 2014 under GEJ which caused the governmebt then to warn us to prepare for the hardship ahead.
Oil prices dropped as low as $28 per barrel and export down to less than 1.5m barrels per day which reduced Nigeria's income and forex earnings by upto 70%.

In the past 3months,the gradual rise of oil prices,,export quantity and good management of the Reserve has seen it rise from below $25billion in Dec 2016 to $30billion last week.
With rising forex earnings, the government can now afford to ease off some tightened ends which if not tightened could have worsened the pressure on Naira.
THE RULES OF THE GAME IS SIMPLE:

HIGH FOREIGN RESERVE + RISING FOREX EARNINGS = REDUCED PRESSURE ON NAIRA
LOW FOREIGN RESERVE + LOW FOREX EARNINGS = INCREASED PRESSURE ON NAIRA

GEJ'S CRIME WAS TO EARN SO MUCH DURING OIL BOOM,YET FAILED TO BUILD UP THE RESERVE. RATHER HE LOOTED IT TO A LOW AND STILL BORROWED HEAVILY. THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE IN ECONOMICS ACCORDING TO ECONOMISTS

hydroking23:
Saying the previous administration had corruption issues is an understatement. Couple that with GEJs incessant and unguided spending we find ourselves where we are today. You keep referring to the fact that we were importing pms. Why didn't GEJ take all that extra money and ensure we had working refineries or ensure that the private sector can invest in building a refinery? Isn't that a failure on the part of GEJ? 5 years and our domestic production of PMS was non existant.

This same administration attempted to remove fuel subsidy but was unable to do so. But on the flip aide of that the amount of money being spent on subsidy was doubling and tripling every year under GEJ. It's only now that we've seen that during his tenure the corruption involved in the subsidy scheme was unimaginable. Don't forget about the funds withdrawn from the excess crude account which were never accounted for and the dollars that were passed around during the election, and people want to sit here and blame Buhari.

The system is gradually being rebuilt on firm and sustainable principles. Prudent savings to the reserves will allow more forex to be available, which will reduce the exchange rate (which we are seeing right now), increase foreign investment and improve our economic outlook. Increased spending on capital expenditure will put people back to work and improve our infrastructure deficit. The planned sale or revamping of our refineries, along with Dangotes refinery coming on stream will reduce our constant expenditure of our forex on a commodity that we will now be producing domestically.

GEJ had so many opportunities to set us on the correct path but HE DIDN'T. And to suggest otherwise is pure insanity.

ivandragon:
lol...

as is common with you PMB Social Media Idiots, too dumb to reason effectively...

you get hit with the reality & you get a brain freeze & resort to childish acts...

PassingShot:
I don't tolerate any insult from anyone.
Mynd44, Lalasticlala, Seun, this guy just called me an idiot.

ivandragon:
crossing out another person's comment is insulting...

saying someone is talking crap is insulting...

you think you are smart, but you are not...

ivandragon:
the primary factor that caused low savings under the previous administration was fuel subsidy.

if Nigerians had agreed for subsidy to be removed then, we would have saved an extra $35b-$40b...

besides, you talk of logic... isn't it LOGICAL that when the cost of the raw material of a finished good reduces, shouldn't the cost of the finished good also drop? so why is the reverse the case with our PMS? it just goes to show that there are more variables in arriving at a decision than meets the eye.

furthermore, in the context of development, foreign reserves is a secondary factor. its what i call a 'variable', it is effective when other primary factors are reasonably addressed. what is the point of saving if infrastructure is terrible? for instance, you point to present savings & I say, why not build a large refinery? isn't buying PMS one of the drains on the savings? so what's the sense of saving when you would still use the savings to treat a problem you can eliminate by 'not saving' but investing...

that's the situation GEJ met & used the opportunity of high income to try to redress. Nigeria has a huge population - infrastructure deficit which dates back to the 70s when socioeconomic development stopped keeping pace with population growth, so the backlog is enormous & even if Nigeria had an external reserve of $150b without infrastructure, it would mean nothing in real development terms.

countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Russia have higher reserves than nations like US, Sweden, Canada... but which countries are most developed?


the drop in crude oil price affected things, sure, but a lack of clear focus & planning coupled with unstatemanly utterances made what would have been a manageable situation worse.

that the previous administration had corruption issues is not in doubt, but so did every administration before it & even this present one is on course to equal if not surpass that.

every administration will have its positives & negatives.

obailala:
From your beautiful argument above, just a point of clarification in the bolded part of your message; the drop in oil prices and production levels is an elephant compared to the ant of poor policies and unstatemanly utterances.

To set records straight,

musicwriter:
Jonathan did not bring us to where we are today, everybody who have ever ruled this country did, including Buhari.

However, if the current administration know what they're doing we would not be in recession in the first place. Things may have been bad, but not a recession.

Releasing $10 Billion wisely would crash the dollar rate and it would be sustained. In fact, that's what they're doing now. They don't even have a choice.

ezenaija:
You speak out of ignorance.
The pressure on Naira is chiefly caused by
*Dwindling oil prices(oil being our core forex earner).
*Depleted external reserve(FOREIGN RESERVE, EXCESS CRUDE ACCOUNT was depleted from $65b to $30b by GEJ's govt inspite of 4years of oil boom @ average of $100per barrel and 2.2million barrels per day).
The price of oil began to drop in 2014 under GEJ which caused the governmebt then to warn us to prepare for the hardship ahead.
Oil prices dropped as low as $28 per barrel and export down to less than 1.5m barrels per day which reduced Nigeria's income and forex earnings by upto 70%.

In the past 3months,the gradual rise of oil prices,,export quantity and good management of the Reserve has seen it rise from below $25billion in Dec 2016 to $30billion last week.
With rising forex earnings, the government can now afford to ease off some tightened ends which if not tightened could have worsened the pressure on Naira.
THE RULES OF THE GAME IS SIMPLE:

HIGH FOREIGN RESERVE + RISING FOREX EARNINGS = REDUCED PRESSURE ON NAIRA
LOW FOREIGN RESERVE + LOW FOREX EARNINGS = INCREASED PRESSURE ON NAIRA

GEJ'S CRIME WAS TO EARN SO MUCH DURING OIL BOOM,YET FAILED TO BUILD UP THE RESERVE. RATHER HE LOOTED IT TO A LOW AND STILL BORROWED HEAVILY. THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE IN ECONOMICS ACCORDING TO ECONOMISTS

ERockson:
The result from new policy by Ag president Osinbajo has been positive resulting to the drastic fail in dollar, an evidence that Buhari is not competent to rule and it is his presidency that brought economic calamity to the country and not actually the stealing of the GEJ government.

obailala:
I marvel at this sort of reasoning, and this is the exact same school of thought that keeps insisting that the lack of savings of GEJ has nothing to do with our current predicaments.

You said releasing $10billion wisely?... of course even a toddler knows that releasing $10bn or even $20bn would improve the Naira but if I may ask, where is this $10 billion going to come from exactly seeing that the reserves were already well below $30 and forex inflow into the reserves had dropped massively?

Are you aware that in the last 6-7 months of GEJ, this exact policy of releasing forex from the CBN into the market was implemented and exactly this $10bn you talk about was spent defending the Naira between Nov 2014 and May 2015?... The reserves dropped from about $38bn to $28.6 bn but what happened?... The Naira still crashed from N160 to N220/N230 to a dollar because even the $10bn released by the CBN wasnt still sufficient. Now this was when oil still averagely sold above $60 and production was still up to 2.2m barrels daily. I dont need to remind you that oil price eventually dropped to $28 and Nigeria's production level for the whole 2016 averaged at less than 1.4m barrels.

Oh yes, everyone knows the Naira would appreciate if the CBN breaks its vault and starts distributing dollars, but with reserves below $30 (about $23 just few months ago), is that the same reserves you suggest the $10bn should have been taken from?

ezenaija:
You speak out of ignorance.
The pressure on Naira is chiefly caused by
*Dwindling oil prices(oil being our core forex earner).
*Depleted external reserve(FOREIGN RESERVE, EXCESS CRUDE ACCOUNT was depleted from $65b to $30b by GEJ's govt inspite of 4years of oil boom @ average of $100per barrel and 2.2million barrels per day).
The price of oil began to drop in 2014 under GEJ which caused the governmebt then to warn us to prepare for the hardship ahead.
Oil prices dropped as low as $28 per barrel and export down to less than 1.5m barrels per day which reduced Nigeria's income and forex earnings by upto 70%.

In the past 3months,the gradual rise of oil prices,,export quantity and good management of the Reserve has seen it rise from below $25billion in Dec 2016 to $30billion last week.
With rising forex earnings, the government can now afford to ease off some tightened ends which if not tightened could have worsened the pressure on Naira.
THE RULES OF THE GAME IS SIMPLE:

HIGH FOREIGN RESERVE + RISING FOREX EARNINGS = REDUCED PRESSURE ON NAIRA
LOW FOREIGN RESERVE + LOW FOREX EARNINGS = INCREASED PRESSURE ON NAIRA

GEJ'S CRIME WAS TO EARN SO MUCH DURING OIL BOOM,YET FAILED TO BUILD UP THE RESERVE. RATHER HE LOOTED IT TO A LOW AND STILL BORROWED HEAVILY. THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE IN ECONOMICS ACCORDING TO ECONOMISTS

GenBuhari:
Osinbajo has always been in charge of economic policy.
So you may as well argue that he was to blame for the Naira crash to start with.

ivandragon:
again, in your haste to paint PMB in white, you have let insanity becloud your analysis (in reference to your last sentence).

1. first of all, I have no arguments about corruption under GEJ, he can hung from the balls for all I care.

but you lot seem to start your 'existence' from 2010.

in 1978, over $2.8b went missing under just OBJ & saint PMB;

in 1992, IBB alone 'maradonaed' $12b

between 1993-97, the Abacha family alone, looted over $8b. in that period, saint PMB 'mismanaged' over N350b & even said Abacha was not corrupt!

by 98/99, Abdulsalam purportedly went away with over $6b alone;

between 99-2006, $16b NIPP funds went missing under OBJ, Siemens & national ID card matter, over N500b works money vanished. within 1 month, over N1trn approved by FEC few months to the end of his tenure went missing...

so why does GEJ take the most vile heat on corruption issues?

Where exactly did I paint Buhari white? GEJ takes the heat because he was the most recent Leader. He could've raised issues of corruption against Obasanjo the way Buhari is against him. He didn't because he was never serious about fighting corruption. All the scandals you listed what did Obasanjo or GEJ do about them? Nothing! Plus in most countries there are statute of limitations laws, I'm assuming that if Nigeria also has these laws then that would make prosecuting these past leaders difficult.

for part b of your first analysis, who granted Dangote license for his refinery, or at least started the process? GEJ believed more in private investment hence his reluctance to build new refineries by govt that has shown gross inability to manage same. where was the extra money when Nigeria was heavily subsidising PMS?

I'm glad that it was GEJ that granted Dangote the license for his refinery. It took him 5 years to grant one man one license. Yet you complain about Buhari taking 2 years to roll our his economic restructuring plan. The height of hypocrisy indeed! What about the refineries that are already on ground? The extra money is current being found in the houses and bank accounts of people who servef under GEJ

b. cost on imports was tripling because your economy was expanding, simple. as a child, when you were growing, were you eating less as a 10 year old than when you were say... 5 years old?

You absolutely wrong here. The cost increase of importing fuel had little or nothing to do with the expanding of the economy. Look at the figures found here http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/05/fuel-price-hike-nigeria-wasted-n10trn-subsidy/:

"The breakdown shows that N816.554 billion was paid between 2006 and 2008, N3 trillion between 2009 and 2011 and N690 billion in 2012,” so based on your premise Nigeria was in recession from 2011 to 2012 because the money used decreased exponentially, right? The facts and history disagree with you.

are you talking about the same excess crude account that governors insisted should be shared? lol...

Yes, and it's apparent you forgotten why they said it should be shared. Money was being taken out with nothing to show for it. They had every right to ask for their own share since the GEJ felt he could eat alone.


c. what firm & sustainable principles? a regime that is still 'planning' to come up with an economic plan almost 2 years after winning elections & being sworn into power? Planning takes time. But it's better than waiting 5 years for the approval of one license to build a private refinery. And if you think waiting 2 years is long what about the people in Ogoniland who waited since 2011 for GEJ to implement the UNEP Report. More planning I assume.

the present savings is a political statement, something to point to as an 'achievement', but has no developmental relevance in real terms of development. OBJ did same, he saved, but what infrastructure did he leave behind?


I'm guessing you have never taken a course on economics if you attribute the rising forex reserves as mere political posturing that has no relevance in terms of development. Foreign investors use a country's foreign reserves as an indicator on whether to invest or not. Rising reserves shows that we are prime for investment as displayed in the high demand for the Eurobond Nigeria just floated. Plus in times of recession or oil price reduction a high level of reserves can help cushion the blow as we saw executed by Yar Adua. Where did he get the money to bail out the banks in 2008/2009 Reserves silly...

Dangote refinery... who laid the foundational plan for that? whose policy gave room for what APC is trying to beat its chest for today? or you think Dangote just woke up on 1st June 2015 & started building a refinery?

That "foundational plan" sure took long to execute.. 5+ years to be exact. Yet you're complaining about it taking Buhari/Osinbajo 2 years to roll out a plan that is supposed to turn around an economy as vast and robust as Nigeria. The height of hypocrisy indeed!

GEJ should have done better, agreed, but blaming him solely is the height of hypocrisy...

ivandragon:
crossing out another person's comment is insulting...

saying someone is talking crap is insulting...

you think you are smart, but you are not...

PassingShot:
I hope you learn a lesson. Behave well when you return.

musicwriter:
Jonathan did not bring us to where we are today, everybody who have ever ruled this country did, including Buhari.

However, if the current administration know what they're doing we would not be in recession in the first place. Things may have been bad, but not a recession.

Releasing $10 Billion wisely would crash the dollar rate and it would be sustained. In fact, that's what they're doing now. They don't even have a choice.

kernel501:
It was Jonathan, now is Osibanjo. Who held him against picking his cabinet for 6 months, causing rumors in financial sphere? Obasanjo ...hahhahah. London President is highly incompetent.

Just imagine within weeks of his exit, calm and economic stability is gradually gracing us again.

#BabaLondon.

malel1:
U are a slow poke, do u think if ur PMB was still in office that this dollar thing will fall? Watch when he comes back what will happen to dollar again

ezenaija:
You speak out of ignorance.
The pressure on Naira is chiefly caused by
*Dwindling oil prices(oil being our core forex earner).
*Depleted external reserve(FOREIGN RESERVE, EXCESS CRUDE ACCOUNT was depleted from $65b to $30b by GEJ's govt inspite of 4years of oil boom @ average of $100per barrel and 2.2million barrels per day).
The price of oil began to drop in 2014 under GEJ which caused the governmebt then to warn us to prepare for the hardship ahead.
Oil prices dropped as low as $28 per barrel and export down to less than 1.5m barrels per day which reduced Nigeria's income and forex earnings by upto 70%.

In the past 3months,the gradual rise of oil prices,,export quantity and good management of the Reserve has seen it rise from below $25billion in Dec 2016 to $30billion last week.
With rising forex earnings, the government can now afford to ease off some tightened ends which if not tightened could have worsened the pressure on Naira.
THE RULES OF THE GAME IS SIMPLE:

HIGH FOREIGN RESERVE + RISING FOREX EARNINGS = REDUCED PRESSURE ON NAIRA
LOW FOREIGN RESERVE + LOW FOREX EARNINGS = INCREASED PRESSURE ON NAIRA

GEJ'S CRIME WAS TO EARN SO MUCH DURING OIL BOOM,YET FAILED TO BUILD UP THE RESERVE. RATHER HE LOOTED IT TO A LOW AND STILL BORROWED HEAVILY. THIS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE IN ECONOMICS ACCORDING TO ECONOMISTS

ivandragon:
the primary factor that caused low savings under the previous administration was fuel subsidy.

if Nigerians had agreed for subsidy to be removed then, we would have saved an extra $35b-$40b...

besides, you talk of logic... isn't it LOGICAL that when the cost of the raw material of a finished good reduces, shouldn't the cost of the finished good also drop? so why is the reverse the case with our PMS? it just goes to show that there are more variables in arriving at a decision than meets the eye.

furthermore, in the context of development, foreign reserves is a secondary factor. its what i call a 'variable', it is effective when other primary factors are reasonably addressed. what is the point of saving if infrastructure is terrible? for instance, you point to present savings & I say, why not build a large refinery? isn't buying PMS one of the drains on the savings? so what's the sense of saving when you would still use the savings to treat a problem you can eliminate by 'not saving' but investing...

that's the situation GEJ met & used the opportunity of high income to try to redress. Nigeria has a huge population - infrastructure deficit which dates back to the 70s when socioeconomic development stopped keeping pace with population growth, so the backlog is enormous & even if Nigeria had an external reserve of $150b without infrastructure, it would mean nothing in real development terms.

countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Russia have higher reserves than nations like US, Sweden, Canada... but which countries are most developed?


the drop in crude oil price affected things, sure, but a lack of clear focus & planning coupled with unstatemanly utterances made what would have been a manageable situation worse.

that the previous administration had corruption issues is not in doubt, but so did every administration before it & even this present one is on course to equal if not surpass that.

every administration will have its positives & negatives.

EngrKem:
U and buhari na the same

ivandragon:
again, in your haste to paint PMB in white, you have let insanity becloud your analysis (in reference to your last sentence).

1. first of all, I have no arguments about corruption under GEJ, he can hung from the balls for all I care.

but you lot seem to start your 'existence' from 2010.

in 1978, over $2.8b went missing under just OBJ & saint PMB;

in 1992, IBB alone 'maradonaed' $12b

between 1993-97, the Abacha family alone, looted over $8b. in that period, saint PMB 'mismanaged' over N350b & even said Abacha was not corrupt!

by 98/99, Abdulsalam purportedly went away with over $6b alone;

between 99-2006, $16b NIPP funds went missing under OBJ, Siemens & national ID card matter, over N500b works money vanished. within 1 month, over N1trn approved by FEC few months to the end of his tenure went missing...

so why does GEJ take the most vile heat on corruption issues?

for part b of your first analysis, who granted Dangote license for his refinery, or at least started the process? GEJ believed more in private investment hence his reluctance to build new refineries by govt that has shown gross inability to manage same. where was the extra money when Nigeria was heavily subsidising PMS?

b. cost on imports was tripling because your economy was expanding, simple. as a child, when you were growing, were you eating less as a 10 year old than when you were say... 5 years old?

are you talking about the same excess crude account that governors insisted should be shared? lol...


c. what firm & sustainable principles? a regime that is still 'planning' to come up with an economic plan almost 2 years after winning elections & being sworn into power?

the present savings is a political statement, something to point to as an 'achievement', but has no developmental relevance in real terms of development. OBJ did same, he saved, but what infrastructure did he leave behind?

Dangote refinery... who laid the foundational plan for that? whose policy gave room for what APC is trying to beat its chest for today? or you think Dangote just woke up on 1st June 2015 & started building a refinery?

GEJ should have done better, agreed, but blaming him solely is the height of hypocrisy...