₦airaland Forum

The federal government appears fed up with the claims of oil marketers as it has denied owning the group N200 billion.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala who disputed the debt figure said what the oil marketers are owed is about N131 billion based on Petroleum Pricing Products Regulatory Agency’s (PPRA) template.

The minister attributed the current fuel scarcity to the activities of a group of cartel determined to hold nation to ransom. She expressed surprise at the attitude of the marketers saying that “they were more liberal in times past even when their outstanding was in the region of N2.3 trillion.”

According to Okonjo-Iweala, “it has become a situation where we have a cartel that can ground the nation to a halt at will.

” I strongly suggest that the nation has to do something about it. It has been very stressful for four years, trying to cope with a group that controls a very important sector of a nation and they are small enough to organize themselves.”

This, she said “means that they can hold a nation to ransom anytime they want. And that is what is happening.”

” I remember when I came back as finance minister on August 17th 2011, the first thing that confronted me was this scandal of subsidies. By then more that N 1 trillion had already been paid. And we went through that whole thing and since then we cleaned up, restructured and trimmed down.

“You see that the amount we have been paying year by year diminished substantially to about N971 billion a year down from the N 2.3 trillion of 2011. We brought it from N 2.3 trillion to about N 971 trillion that has been in the budget each year. So, we made very substantial restructuring and changes to the whole process that brought the amount down for the nation. But yet we have to deal with this problem and the whole country has seen us trying our best struggling,” she said.

Okonjo-Iweala noted that oil marketers are a small cartel that are into no risk business based on template negotiated with PPPRA a long time ago which factored in exchange rate differential and profit margin guarantee.

According to the finance minister, “the template that governs their business is designed to cover all their costs plus a profit margin. That is PPPRA template which I have quarrelled with for quite some. So it is really no risk business for them. Or very little risk. I am not saying there is no stress. Of course, they have stress. But the risks are all covered by the template that was negotiated with PPPRA long ago. And it is actually that template that we have been quarreling with”.

That template she added “says that they must be paid exchange rate differentials, interest rates, profit margin quarrantee plus the principal amount they spent in the business.

” Based on that, the government is taking a full risk of their business according to this template. Even when we have revenue shortfall, any interest that accrues has to be paid by government. That is what was negotiated. So, they are in a no risk business and we have been pleading with them that if that is the case at least supply Nigerians with the fuel because at the end of the day the government is still paying for all of this. Why are you making Nigerians suffer? Why these long queues?”, she queried.

On Thursday last week, Federal Ministry of finance confirmed payment of N156 billion to oil marketers and put the balance left at N98 billion. The minister explained on Sunday that the balance has increased to N131 billion based on last figure obtained from PPPRA.

temitemi1:
GEJ my HERO! FAYOSE my ROLE MODEL!!

ASSBIFI: we‘ll insist on due process

The fall in the value of the naira, may soon start taking its toll on the banking sector as lenders may axe jobs to cut costs, especially on pay cheques.
Already, some workers in the banks have started looking inwards, exploring what they described as option B should the unexpected happens.

Some of them said economic realities are negatively affecting the bottom line of the lenders, fearing that their jobs were on the line.

Confirming this development, President, Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), Mr Olusoji Salako, said banks would look at what they could do to reduce their expenses, adding that job loss would be one of the first steps. He pledged to ensure that the banks follow due process in laying-off their workers and paying them off.

He said: “You know in Nigeria, we don’t have good temperament for economic summersault. If somebody invests and things are not working fine, the next thing is to remove people working with him. In other climes, people will persevere but here in Nigeria, people don’t persevere when it comes to such issue.

“We are, however, bracing and also monitoring the employers to ensure that if become necessary to lay off their workers, due process must be followed and people affected must be well compensated so that they can function in any part of the economy.”

He said though the economy has witnessed interventions by the government apart from the austerity measure, the common man on the street is feeling the pain ýbecause nothing is really working now.

He said: “The government is just trying to make money to pay salaries and nothing is left for any infrastructural development or any other intervention in the critical sectors of the economy. This is as a result of fall in the oil price.

“The question would be that when we have the price of oil rising in the couple of years back, what did we do with the excess money we made?

“We just squandered the money and you know anything that goes up must come down. If we have been managing our resources prudently, it is likely we would not have experienced this kind of problem. All we need to do is deep our hands in the excess crude account and use that as an intervention measure to augment what we have.

“Now, we are faced with the reality now that things will not be as easier as before and to worsen the situation every effort of government is to make the rich richer and the poor people poorer because if you have few dollars, you become richer in naira wise and the average who wants to anything will use foreign currency and will pay more.”

IsraeliAIRFORCE:
Is Fayose more notorious than Amaechi?

If nothing happened to Amaechi and all APC Governors running their mouth against President Jonathan then nothing will ever happen to Fayose.

You think the masses didn't see how free they (opposition governors) were under Jonathan and can't accept anything less when APC takes over the center.

Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has said he is ready for dialogue with his opponents to bring peace to the state.

He also asked for forgiveness from those he might have offended, saying “nobody is perfect.”

Fayose spoke on Friday at a special prayer session organised for him by the Ansar-udeen Mosque, Atikankan in Ado-Ekiti to celebrate his recent electoral victory at the Supreme Court.

The 19 All Progressives Congress lawmakers of the Ekiti State House of Assembly have issued a notice of impeachment to the governor, citing eight impeachable offences.

The embattled Speaker, Dr. Adewale Omirin, had last week Thursday requested the state Chief Judge, Justice Ayodeji Daramola, to raise a seven-man panel within seven days of receipt of the letter to investigate Fayose and his deputy, Dr. Kolapo Olusola, over allegations of impunity, violence and stalking among other constitutional breaches.

Fayose said, “If they say someone has enemies, I’m number one in the world. But God has been merciful and has been helping me to overcome my challenges.

“I need your prayers because it will strengthen me more. I’m here in the mosque to thank God.

“All I want is peace. I have a constitutionally guaranteed tenure. A governor is judged by his achievements in office. All I’m interested in is to bring development to my people. My opponents know if I have a rest of mind I will achieve my objectives.

“All those I have offended should forgive me for the sake of the masses and orphans. They should know people gave me the mandate. Nobody is above mistake; they should forgive me.”

The governor said a lot of people in the state had been living in palpable fear of the unknown before the judgment of the Supreme Court.

“We are here to thank God and pray for peace. I’m appealing to those aggrieved to please allow peace to reign.

“There is no perfect man. They should allow peace to reign. All I want is peace that will energise development.

“Anything that can bring peace cannot be wished away. For me, I’m ready to accommodate everybody. Whatever they want we can sit down and talk.”

Earlier before leading the prayers for the governor, the State Missioner of the Ansarudeen Movement, Alhaji Liadi Adebayo, called on politicians in the state to settle their differences.

He canvassed for peaceful co-existence of the entire people of the State, irrespective of their political differences.

The Cleric urged residents to live together in harmony as politics was not supposed to be a do or die affair.

Wisepac:
.am not voting for any of them gmb nor gej.

.pls we the youths should go and think of how we can make a perfect nigeria for ourselves.


god bless naija.

ABEOKUTA – The hostility between President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Olusegun Obasanjo worsened Monday as the former President sneaked out from his palatial building in Abeokuta, immediately Jonathan arrived the state capital.

Obasanjo who was driven out in his black jeep and one security hilux van, shunned his main entrance and made use of his private gate through which he sneaked out.

Vanguard correspondent who was at Obasanjo’s house to cover the expected meeting between the two country leaders observed that, some security personnel who had been detailed at the former President house suddenly disappeared.
Source close to Obasanjo’s Hilltop mansion in Abeokuta had earlier confided in our correspondent said that President Jonathan was not in the Obasanjo itinerary for the day.

He also hinted that, Obasanjo jetted out around 2: 59p.m few minutes after the helicopter that flew the President to the state touched the ground.

Operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) who had earlier besieged the Obasanjo’s Hilltop mansion as early as 6a.m in anticipation of president Jonathan’s arrival also left the place at exactly 3: 10p.m when it became obvious that Jonathan was not coming to Obasanjo’s house.
Jonathan however, arrived the M.K.O stadium in Abeokuta at exactly 3: 50p.m and headed straight to the state box from where he later moved out to acknowledge cheers from the crowd who had thronged the stadium venue of the campaign as early as 7: 30a.m.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/01/obasanjo-refuses-see-jonathan-sneaks-ogun-state/

Emperor007:
This is no news for me. My family observed this on our own when we watched and observed him talk during the on-going APC campaign on TV.

He carries himself and talk like someone that's very tired / dizzy / seriously sick inside & being forced to address the public.

Though he's still not the change we want.
.

dabossman:
He is 72 for heaven's sake. Do you expect him to start jumping around dancing shoki? How does Pastor Adeboye carry himself these days? How did Mandela carry himself as President. At that age do you really expect him to be 100% fit?

Alleinad:
GEJ! GEJ! GEJ!
CHRISTIANITY! CHRISTIANITY! CHRISTIANITY!

eye4eye:
Right this down:

Buhari - All States in Northeast, Northwest, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Osun, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and 45% in Adamawa, 40% Taraba, 30% Ekiti, 40% Plateau and 30% Benue - totaling 28 million+ votes.


GEJ - All States in Southeast, Southsouth, Ondo, Ekiti, Kogi, Abuja, Plateau, Benue, Taraba, and 25% in Lagos and Oyo with 42% from Kaduna but still fall short with 21 million+ votes.