₦airaland Forum

BrosPeter:
This is why Muslims keep ruling Nigeria, they always support their own.
Lalasticlala, Mynd44 come and see

And I always tell you folks that tribe and religion are the cracks any Nigerian will fall through when squeezed. This country just needs restructuring to save it. Although I have no sympathy with labour in this matter, but to give it a religious colouration is typically dangerous and the APC had better steer clear of such. They accused the GEJ government of religious politics, wither.

Heck....they are just lucky that the opposition PDP is still reeling from the mortal electoral blow and cannot mount a potent counter attack. I would say good timing this subsidy issue, just before the opposition springs back and with the fuel of general goodwill on reserve. I guess the opposition within the APC will be licking its chops. Interesting times ahead.

sallyopy:
that is the situation in the country now, a BASKET of tomatoes is now sold for between 25 and 35k. this will continue for some time because of the season.

No, this is way past seasonal. I understand we had a plague wipeout. All the same people should grow their own tomatoes. Its very easy if you can create the appropriate climatic conditions: dry heat.

juman:
Removing subsidy is necessary but the question is would there be regular availability of fuel?

I dont think so.

And why not. The market has be liberalised. Anyone can import and sell (with a price caveat). If we cannot do the simple task of importing then we cannot blame the government. There are no more excuses.

sorextee:
THIS COMEDY IS BECOMING INTERESTING. THERE WAS REALLY A COUNTRY..
LET THEM AT LEAST FIX THE RAILS, BEFORE REMOVING SUBSIDY.. I WONDER WHO ARE THE ONES ADVISING THE PRESIDENT.. BUHARI JUST DEY LIKE PHARAOH FOR BIBLE.. WE NEED A MOSES (AND AARON) to come and deliver us..

There is no more money to pay subsidy, period. What is wrong with you people. Isn't 35 billion dollars spent/wasted/stolen since 2011 not enough. Abeg, free the government and commend this great, timely move.

adami48:
was able to a staff of the hotel, and he said Bar Jimor Ibrahim has not been paying his tax for the past 10years now, a notice has been placed in the entrance for the past 3months

This Jimoh of a man is a pure con artist. They should give him another 3 months then auction the place.

Quakertellicus1:
Good point...BUT....thanks to the drop in crude oil prices....we no longer have the revenue to do subsidy.

Even under GEJ.... removing the subsidy would have led to savings. Now...we even need the savings even more.

So if we had the revenue we should have continued the subsidy. Which kain wasteful housewife you be. Chop and chop all. When it is gone, start to save. I don't get it. There is a reason the western world does not subsidize energy. Let us find out why. My guess is that petroleum products have such a high consumption to production ratio that it is not considered worthwhile. They prefer giving you cash instead. Just like college scholarships instead of free tuition.

Goke7:
for now, there is no opposition as pdp still see themselves as the ruling party, do you think an average pdp fan or member believe they are in opposition? This is the problem we have right now. what we have as so called opposition are bitter fellows who are trying to incite the masses against the FG.

They talked about islamic agenda, that's not working anymore

They talked about exchange rate or shortage of forex as if PMB determines the value of the dollar

They can't hinged boko haram on PMB anymore as they now use the fulani herdsmen attacks as if it started today

Fuel scarcity never happened under pdp they claimed

They are very happy with the pipeline bombings and complain about power at the same time.

We can't have quality opposition right now, reason they are called wailers.

Hmmm....making promises and evading them, double talk, criticising something and later embracing it is enough incitement. You don't need the PDP (still in disarray) to do that you guys are doing a good job yourselves.

What I am just pleased about is the fact that the market is accessible to all comers (what Fashola should do in the power sector for a limited time before midwifing mergers to create efficiencies) and should be kept so until private refineries come online. The backs of the cartel must be broken and foreign refineries should be encouraged to sell products directly to Nigerians perhaps by building onshore depots and tank farms themselves. The price will surely retreat.

I wonder why Dangote didn't start his refinery as early as 2003. Even he would have predicted this outcome and be selling gas today.

Vveni:
Deregulation is good but I'm not sure we are ready for it right now. Refineries are supposed to be all functional and several other palliative measures put in place first.

No sir, better late than never. You create a demand before a supply not the other way round. The reason why most government enterprises donot succeed is that they lack the fuel of free market to propel them. PAN was established long before Innoson but you can see that Innoson is walking in tandem with true market demands and will succeed whereas PPN produces cars then 'looks' for markets. What made GSM succeed was a ready market. Pre-subsidy removal there was no true petroleum products market, only a government distorted cartel playgroup.

Silly policy. You cannot fund universities properly, you cannot feed your family yet you want to control their aspirations. Too much government always leads to corruption.

donhils:
Glo is always forcing others to do good. Remember the days of per minute billing?

but cannot match intent with performance.

donhils:
Do they have speed problems? Thought they have one of the fastest connections.

Best network by a country mile. The only network I exhaust data before well before expiry.

masseratti:
With all due respect sir,Gej had enough foreign reserve to back oil subsidy,PMB does not,the price of oil has changed,while am not holding fort for PMB ,they should not regulate the price of pms,no bench mark,let the licence for oil import be open for everyone,anyone,let everybody go to the back market to source for FX.

Trying to have your cake and eat it. Is your postulation not the reason why the Naira and the economy has gone south. Do you save when you have abundance or when things are scarce and tight? For your information poverty is not a lack of resources but a misuse of opportunity. We had a chance to save priceless forex but we blew it. If subsidies had been removed then even the high level corruption surrounding the past government will have been mitigated due to paucity of fluid funds to steal and pressure by an angered populace for better governance.

omenka:
First off, I'm a party supporter and not a Rep. Be clear on that.

Now, make no mistakes, I appreciate the hardship the citizens are going through but also know too well some bitter pills must be swallowed and sacrifices made if we desire to attain the record heights we aspire to as a country.

We all know that policy is unsustainable and some of us, in our private fora, supported the idea of its total removal even under the ex-president- the only misgivings being that the regime was fatally corrupt and any saving made thereof could easily be stolen in the blink of an eye.

How SURE-P was handled vindicated our position. It became a facade behind which the most obscene acts of corruption/theft were perpetrated- that much was confirmed by the Chairman Kolade Christopher himself who eventually threw in the towel in disgust.

We must admit there would have been a more propitious time to administer the pill but for the government to have had the balls to pull this off at a time like this suggests it's already had its back up against a reinforced wall through which it couldn't break.

What we are witnessing today are a cascading effect of the record plunge in oil prices- world oil majors have been feeling the pinch as well- most notably Venezuela. Even Saudi with her trillion dollar economy has been slashing subsidies, how much more Nigeria...

I have no doubt the president has the best interest of the country at heart and fully understands the consequences of his action. I'm confident savings made from this would be channelled into areas with real and measurable impact on the average Nigerian- it isn't gonna be another SURE-P regime. When this is done, our country men and women would eventually see the propriety of the policy and would even forget shiit even happened.

Ask yourself this- would we rather keep buying gasoline at about twice the official rate while "subsidising" it or officially deregulate while the price remain unchanged??

This stuff would pan out beautifully, I believe so.

Humble pie. Now we know how it is baked....after throwing away 35 billion dollars. They want to sell the refineries after making so much noise about repairing them. Slow, daft people, excuses, excuses, excuses.

deji68:
Fuel Subsidy cost Nigeria $35bn between 2011 and 2014. Imagine all that in our ECA and Reserves.....Amara Nwankpa

Can you imagine.

Silly boy. Is he aware that a lecturer and his entire family was abducted at UNICAL just a week ago. Lesson to others. Beware and be informed of your surroundings.

Dapsin2901:
No going back I remain APC

There's no where to go to. You have burnt all your bridges. You're now between a rock and a hard place.

Hengineer:
Exchange rate bro, the exchange rate has changed. As at 2012 January, it was N150 (or even less) to a dollar, today it is N320 and the importers would have to source their forex at this devalued rate.

Again, the N145 seems to be the upper cap set by the regulators to make sure unpatriotic independent marketers dont gang up and exploit Nigerians by making fuel scarce and increasing the price astronomically. From all indications, the NNPC would still sell fuel below N110 even with this development.

If deregulation had taken place then, we will have saved close to 3 trillion naira or its dollar equivalent. More importantly any price increases resulting from exchange rates will have been tracked like any other commodity. I will always tell Nigerians, inflation happens in every country in the world. Prices of goods and services will always increase. That is a given. What is different in iur case is that we seem to prefer jolts rather than creep. You can adjust to creep but jolts leave a bitter taste and a backlash than paralyses the economic system and prevents rational thinking. Why we let things rot to the point of catastrophic failure baffles me.

isnovic:
I have noticed GMB is always out whenever such announcement are to be made.

Deliberately absent, he should have personally made this announcement instead of handing over is responsibilities to a Junior minister for that matter.

Insensitive.

Hmmm.....noticed it too. Always absent when unpopular decisions are to be made, stormed out when Ministers asked for a rent raise leaving the Veep to carry the can. He's too much into this 'squeaky clean image' thingy. Politics is not like that. Every elected public servant MUST pass through the phase of exchanging power for popularity. Politics is the biggest oil trade. You cannot go through without getting stained.

tivta:
Someone in nairaland actually said since the budget has been passed into law, that dollars will fall, I just laughed at him

He should just wait till the Julius Bergers and Setracos start buying up dollars to execute their contracts and pay their expats who are presently on 'stood-off'....he never know anything. Most Nigerians are just dull.

Lilimax:
LIES!!!
This one na ice blocks from cold room or deep freezers. Period!
Una for show us the real rain fall where Ice block dey fall

For this kain whether wey dey hot like this for this obodo Nigeria...

Kai, kai, it is hot and humid weather that precepitates hail stones more than ordinary conditions. Geo 101.

Kai, humble pie. That's why it is not wise to talk too much when you know its not right. The Tam David Wests' of our time.....what will they say.....political privilege is indeed a cheque, once cashed loses value rapidly.

Quakertellicus1:
GEJ's people explained the thing so clearly back in 2012...they even convinced a fuel subsidy removal opponent like myself (since 1993!) that it made sense.

Problem is....all Nigerians saw was not the potential benefits....but the fact that we are now paying higher price for petrol.

You guys are just too slow on the uptake of things. It is good to be enlightened and not wait for worked examples of suffering to elevate your thinking. Now what is the next thing you guys are still fighting that you will be eating humble pie on in a few months or years down the line. Believe you me, there are plenty. Nigerians......sorry bunch.

Just wasting their time.

Primitive people.

But what I don't understand with Willie's bridge is, what are those steel towers and cables for when the bridge is not a cable-stayed bridge. Doesn't make much sense or is there something I'm not seeing.

Babalegba:
Impressive. Nigerians waking up at last

Impressive? Or just barking up the wrong tree.

Blitzeee:
There is need for us to thread slowly here:
1. Violence of high degree is being condoned, are there no other ways of holding people to their words other than destroying properties and livelihood of people working in the poultry.

2. People are now hungry due to the economic situation of the country and this hostility to rich men around them.

3. Some of this politicians will stop coming home and continue their abujalistic lives.

4. It may be a turn around for the politicians to start committing themselves to the promises made during the electioneering period

What promises can a Legislator make in this tax and spend economy when he doesn't control the pursestrings. Na law Gaya people go chop? The people are part of the problem and ignorance is the real monkey on their backs, not government.

What unfulfilled promises because I presumed their role was that of oversight and lawmaking only. They should vent their anger on elected executives who propose, budget and execute, that is Chairmen, Governors and President. Wetin concern Legislator with East-West rail line. Naija sef.

dannytoe:
What about the avengers, I hope their destruction will not reach there.

Na. These new ones are for the Ninja Turtles....

malton:
You fight for the interest of the Niger Delta by bombing facilities in the region, further chasing investors away from there.

Monies that should have been used in building new infrastructure will end up being used in rebuilding.

You put the lives of the people at risks and expose them to vulnerability.

Smart. Smart. Smart!

Stunted wizards!

They have seen the model Nigeria has used in times of peace. 40% to oil companies, 60% to government. And these two flash the cash in their faces then take it away to develop their countries, states and towns. Violence has improved some infrastructure in the delta and made a few billionaires along the way. It will be foolhardy to think this will end tomorrow and the status quo returned. Nigeria failed to do the right thing in the years of peace. Is this how other countries do it. We often quote just how many refineries are present in Texas, but do we care to find out the quality of life of the average Texan, how many oil barons and billionaires Texas has, how wealthy the residents of the Shetland island compared to the rest of the country.

It may shock one to note that for this tragedy to have been avoided today the south-south should have been the most densely populated region in Nigeria today, not the Lagos area. The south-south should have been the hub of business, enterprise and industry today. And the south-south should be producing the highest standard of living including the most number of millionaires per head of population in Nigeria, all because it accounts for 70% of our GDP. But the fact that all these are untrue shows the extent of misrepresentation of the Nigerian economy and the skewed policies we have held for decades.

I can't see the meeting of minds on this. The people of the Delta have come to a point of realisation, that nothing can persuade them to take peanuts or food scraps anymore. Its far too late in the day.