₦airaland Forum

If govt reverts back to 65 naira for the 120 naira pricing to commence by 1st of march ,we are just doomed .b/c from now we would be buying pms even at 200 naira bc scarcity will hit the roof and the already increased prices of goods will never come down . Let's be wise ,let the 120 start now if at all NLC is accepting march date . Labour don kill us .

Inside ASO ROCK: Gov't to agree for N65 but to commence at N120 1st of March, 12. On 15 minutes break!

reaknig news:

The Nigeria Labour Congress has resolved to stick with its earlier position that the federal government of Nigeria revert to the old price of petrol or face continuation of strikes, mass rallies and oil production shut down. No Going Back On N65. This was not labours position ,it was by the CSO's(civil societies organization)without lab our they have no backbone . So let's wait for the meeting

Labour /FG meeting now in progress .we can guess the out come since bothe parties shifted grounds. 100 naira .work resumes on monday

Pls make una take am easy for all these rumour .E don too much .

Hope all the senators are inside .

@Hollandis ,you people know only how to criticise ,what do u do and what do u work ? Why don't you go and restore our glory ,let us watch you will still condemn Ken.yeye people .Mikel has tried in his career at chelsea.Give him that credit.Yeye critics .

I strongly believe that no reasonable police man will fire a bullet at non violent protesters .Let the protesters try as much as possible to be peaceful,violence does not in any way make the protest better rather it portrays the protesters as unserious and not law abiding .Together we will make nigeria better.

If we like let us make the fuel 20 naira a litre ,the wrath will still be there if the cost of governance,wicked corruption ,is not checked .we should be fighting for a sovereign national conference to decide the way we want to live as a people .we are not matured enough for the kind of system we operate in terms of governance .ours is the most expensive democracy in the whole world .nigerians should be wise.subsidy is not the issue.

@dadaic ,u dey watch old programme being replayed .Meeting is ongoing as we speak . In the next few minutes the strike will be called of ,I see labour and govt settlinh some where around 100 naira .But the fear is how will labour demobilize the hijacked protesters.

El rufai is the biggest fool .

Tunde Bakare is the worst idiot I have ever seen . I do strongly believe he must have an element of madness in him judginh from the way he goes about his activities .Even his fake prophecies . Nigerians are such a gullinle pple to even allow such an idiot come to the public to open his rotten mouth and talk . We are finished .

I used to have some respect for El rufai ,but with this stuff ,I now know he is a big fool and no wonder he is being accused of deep corruption as regards the allocation of lands in abuja to his family members and gross mis managing of FTC funds .

Dadaic,how did u acquire ur cash ? Or are u among the looters?

Beaf,u are just right.The truth is that majority of the people are in support of the susidy removal ,though its going to be tough now ,but we must push ahead as a nation .In my office 80 percent of the workers are pro subsidy removaal.The protests cum strike can't be sustained .Things will deffinitely get better .

All these protests is just an opportunity for criminals and miscreants to unleash their plans on the people.pls be vigilaante .

Where is Massob !

Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (SLS) responds
to some Internet Inquiries on fuel subsidy and wrote: If you will
patiently read this mail to the end you will understand my position. I
won't be able to repeat everything I have said over the past few years
on fuel subsidy, but in summary; Fraud like theft thrives not only
because of the existence of greed and benefit but of opportunity.
Place yourself in
the shoes of the average nigerian "businessman" or
"entrepreneur"-polite euphemisms for rent seeking parasites.

You establish an elcee for importing 20,000MT of PMS and the PPPRA
says this is at a landed cost of N145 for example per litre. So u know
that for every litre in that vessel you will get at least N85 as
subsidy. Now you have a number of "possiblities":
1. You can off load 5,000 MT and bribe customs and other officials to
sign papers confirming u offloaded 20k MT. Then do the same across the
chain with a paper trail showing you delivered 20k MT to a tank farm,
and maybe even that u transported it to Maiduguri entitling you to a
share of the price equalization fund. Maybe for N20-N30 per litre u
bribe all those who sign the papers. The 15k MT you take to Benin or
Ghana or Cameroun and sell at market price thus makin an additional
"profit" of N55/ltr on 15,000MT!

2 you can just forge documents and have them stamped without bringing
in anything and collect the subsidy-PPPRA pays based on DOCUMENTS.

3 you can bring in the fuel, load on tankers, sell some at N65N some
at 80 some at 100 some across the land borders.

You can do all this and no one can catch it or prove it because
somebody was paid to sign off on docs. And with a high enough margin
there is too much temptation to be resisted and firepower for bribing
officials.

When I spoke to the house of reps I told them why I was suspecting
fraud. It starts from PPPRA "allocations" based on "capacity". You
will find a company like Mobil with capacity for say 60,000 MT and a
relatively unknown name with a capacity of say 90k MT. Red alert
number 1.

Although PPPRA is supposed to give license only to marketers with a
national distribution network you see names of companies where you
have never seen a filling station in their name.
I was a chief risk officer in UBA and in FBN for many years approving
loans so I know the name of every big player in every industry that
nigerian banks lend to as these are among the biggest banks in the
country. I see names on the list I don't recognise either from
portfolios. I looked at or industry studies over the years. Red alert
number 2.

I studied the papers presented to PPPRA in a short period in 2010 (I
won't tell you how I got them!). And I was surprised that on some days
over 10 vessels are said to have discharged cargo in lagos on the same
day-clearly the same officers stamping and "verifying" that the
vessels were SEEN. Is it really realistic that on the same day 13-15
vessels can discharge in Lagos? Red alert number 3.

Why was I interested in fuel marketing. Because the two sectors that
led to the near collapse of the banking industry were capital markets
and oil marketing. I am not giving any confidential info out as AMCON
MD has already disclosed publicly that two companies alone-zenon and
AP-owned by the same businessman owed the nigerian banking industry
N220b. And we all saw the amount of subsidy paid to those companies
published by BusinessDay.
So money had been taken, subsidy had been collected but loans were not
repaid, and we couldn't see the money either as product in tank farms
or in fuel stations or credit sales. So I became obsessed with trying
to understand how that industry operated and the more I saw the more I
hated it and I started the war against subsidies.
It is actually better to do a direct cash payout or add a line item to
salaries called petroleum support or transport allowance capped at say
N300b p/a than to keep paying it. It goes to pay middle men,
rent-seekers and corrupt officers and there is no amount of preaching
that will stop this fraud so long as the policy is so badly defined.
Everytime oil price goes up and everytime the naira is devalued and
everytime the quantity of imports increases the "subsidy" and thus the
"rent" increases and there is more gravy to go round. So every year we
"import" more and more and deplete our reserves, and the government
borrows more and more to pay for subsidy and the beneficiaries are a
smal group of marketers, govt officials and neighbouring countries
which get fuel without losing forex! And while a person who applies
intelligence can see what is happening you can't prove it in a court
of law. If the man says he sighted the vessel and it was 20kMT you
have to accept it. It was a year ago!

So for two years I have been convinced that this thing is a scam and
that it cannot be stopped because the entire controls have been
compromised. NNPC sells domestic crude, Pays whatever subsidy PPPRA
says and then gives the balance after JVC to the federation account.
And while fani kayode is right to speak up, the truth is that it was
obasanjo who first subverted the process by allowing NNPC to make the
deductions before paying into federation account. Because once money
goes into that account it is to be shared among 3 tiers of government
so strictly speaking the deductions have always been unconstitutional
as the FG was paying subsidy on behalf of itself and state and LGs
without their approval.

So yes, I am willing to take all the criticism and labels and be
unpopular but this has to stop and govt can find other ways of
alleviating pain. Iran removed subsidies and started cash transfers
directly to the poor. It is up to fiscal authorities to figure out
safety nets but from where I sit and what I know this decision is not
only correct but necessary and overdue. I also confirm that I have
revealed nothing here I haven't spoken about before in public and it
is just that Nigerians never listen!

I am not complaining about insults I am used to that. I just believe
that an insult is not an argument and when people resort to personal
abuse they have run out of logic.

But to then go beyond me and extend it to my dead grandfather and his
"descendants" ie my late father his siblings etc I think goes beyond
the pale. As a Nigerian-and as an economist- I can take a position on
economic matters and this position is one I have had for years even
before coming in to the central bank.

I have also explained the position on several occasions and criticised
government for not doing this before. In 2010 at a public hearing in
the House of Reps on the 25% saga I alerted the nation of what I
considered a potential big scam around subsidies and urged for its
removal. No one paid attention. The economics is very clear to me.
That it is unpopular is also understandable.

The British public is unhappy with Tory budget cuts. The Greeks went
on riot over austerity. Italian parliamentarians came to blows before
Berlusconi was thrown out of office. The US congress is yet to approve
Obamas tax increases.

Economic decisions-by definition-ALWAYS must involve a cost or an
opportunity cost since for them to qualify as economic they must
involve a choice in resource allocation among competing uses. An
enlightened debate is one that weighs the pros and cons of removing
subsidy and continuing with it.

Removing it has costs in terms of nigerians paying more for PMS-which
by the way is not the fuel for genrators, power plants, production
facilities, heavy duty goods transportation trucks and even luxury
buses.
It is fuel used by the middle class and car owners to drove around
town and from city to city not to employ workers and produce goods and
services. Diesel which is critical to manufacturing and employment
creation is not subsidized as the subsidy was removed years ago by
obasanjo. Nigerians said nothing then because it was blue collar
workers that got retrenched by factories.

Those speaking now on the internet and facebook and twitter and
newspapers are not workers but middle class elite who use PMS in their
smart cars so let's stop all the ideological pretence. This is not
about elite and masses but an intra-elite discourse.

I will summarise the issues and I write as a Nigerrian economist and
public intellectual not as a public servant:

1. I am a strong advocate for subsidies if they are for production and
not consumption, and if they benefit the poor and not middle men and
rent seekers. The US government subsidizes cotton and wheat farmers
and nigeria spends its reserves importing wheat from america and
keeping american farmers employed. The OECD countried pay subsidies to
cattle farmers. Today Promasidor imports powdered milk from New
Zealand and packages in nigeria using our foreign exchange while we
have cattle. WAMCO imports milk from the UK and adds water and tins it
and calls it "production" of Peak milk. We use our forex to import
petroleum products and keep refineries and jobs open in europe.
Meanwhile precisely because of market distortions there can be no
private sector investment in refineries since no one can make profit
seling at the regulated price unless we are going to provide private
refineries with crude for next to nothing. Certainly no one can
purchase crude at market price, refine it and sell at N65 without huge
losses so this explains why there are no private refineries.

2. what I mention above is at the heart of the problem with government
economic policy which needs to be changed. The economy since SAP is
one that supports imported consumption and not local production,
perpetuating dependency, non inclusive growth and insecurity. Why is
it that the economy is growing at 7pct annually but the people are
getting poorer. Because growth gains are not evenly distributed.
Personal income is skewed towards people in the oil industry,
telecomms, high finance, stock market, real estate and yes civil
servants and politicians who feed on corruption. We produce crude oil
but import petroleum products (today the UKs highest exports to
nigeria are petroleum products). We have a large cotton belt but
import textiles from china (thus keeping their subsidized factories
open and jobs in china). We are the world's number 1 producer of
cassava but import cassava starch from europe. We have a huge tomato
belt in kadawa, jigawa and chad basin but are the world's largest
importer of tomato paste-from China and Italy. We can produce rice but
we import rice from Thailand and India-most of it from grain reserves
that have been in stock for over 5

3. If above is clear then it is evident that this trajectory can only
lead to disaster. We will continue to spend our resources promoting
growth and employment in our trading partners. Terms of trade shift
against us, we can only have foreign reserves because by the good
grace of God we have Oil which will be exhausted soon and with new
discoveries may become so cheap it loses value. We don't create any
value added jobs as the only real production is peasant farming. Oill,
telecomms, finance and real estate are not employment intensive. So
everyone becomes a civil servant as the economy cannot create jobs.
Result? In 2012 budget out of a total N1.8tr recurrent expenditure for
the executive arm N1.6tr is on personnel costs not overheads. To
reduce this you have to cut salaries or pensions or retrench civil
servants. This is the classic trajectory of underdevelopment,
de-development and de-industrialisation.

4. For the above reasons I am a strong proponent of structural reform
and this begins from the fiscal framework. The limited resources of
government should be allocated to supporting production-especially if
we are running a budget deficit. We cannot keep borrowing to support
conspicuous consumption. To support a job creating economy we need to
fund power, transportation infrastructure, market infrastructure and
access, technical and vocational education etc. We need to build rice
processing plants, produce starch and cassava flour and ethanol,
process our tomato and milk locally, regenerate our textiles firms
(which used to employ 600,000 workers but now employ 30,000!), refine
our own crude etc. We cannot even begin to do this if 30pct of govt
expenditure is on fuel subsidy, if out of the balance 70pct is
recurrent spending, 10pct is debt service, 10pct goes to the niger
delta and only 10pct is capital expenditure. So it is about a
choice-what do we spend money on and how do we allocate resources?
5. We often compare ourselves to other oil producing countries like
saudi arabia. What are the facts? With a population of over 160m we
produce 2mbpd ie 1 barrel for every 80+ citizens daily. Govt share of
revenues if like 50pct of every barrel so it is effectively a barrel
for 160 citizens. Saudi Arabia with a 24m population produces over
8mbpd or one barrel for every 3 citizens. In fact in 2010 the nearest
OPEC country to nigeria in production per capita was Algeria with a
barrel for 30 and algeria is more gas than oil.

With one barrel for 3 citizens dailt saudi arabia is able to provide
infrastructure, education, healthcare and social safety nets and have
huge savings. It can provide subsidised fuel at a total cost that is a
fraction of its savings and even export refined products. It is paying
for subsidies ouy od its fiscal savings and not borrowing to pay. We
are like a poor man with a rich neighbour. The neighbour buids a good
house, buys several cars, eat expensive food, travel abroad every year
and still have huge balances in sevral current accounts. Then you
choose to live that lifestyle and mortgage your house, take an
overdraft from the bank to finance it. Next year it is time to repay
the bank, u don't have the money so u go to another bank, borrow
enough to pay the first bank principal plus interest and also fund the
continuation of the lifestyle. It continues till u can't borrow
anymore and the bank throws u and your family out of your house and
you everything.

A responsible father would have long since faced reality and told his
family he doesn't earn as much as his neighbour and expectations need
to be moderated if they to keep their roof. Of course the children
won't be happy at not going to Hawaii for summer and having to take
public transport rather than own cars like their neighbour's children.
Maybe they will even abuse the father behind his back and call him a
miser. That is the cost of leadership.

Finally: removing subsidy is not a silver bullet that solves our
economic problems. And there is a huge trust deficit that government
has to address. Government needs to investigate subsidy payments and
punish any violations of extant guidelines. It needs to cut on
unnecessary and waste ful expenditure. It needs to fight corruption
and show seriousness in that. It needs to deliver on capital projects,
power and infrastructure including irrigation, farm-level storage and
agri-processing. These are all valid issues that are to be taken IN
ADDITION to and not in place of subsidy removal.

Since someone has decided to make insinuations about my grandfather I
owe it to him to defend his record. it was my grandfather as emir that
repealed an obnoxious rule started from the days of Emir Usman that
disenfranchised women from inheriting property. It was sanusi that
built the groundnut pyramids to the point where Kano NA was
contributing 40pct of the revenues of the northern region. It was emir
sanusi who built the Bompai Industrial Estate, and turned kano into
the industrial nerve centre of the north. He was acting governor of
the northern region, minister for pilgrim affairs, chief Imam of
friday mosque, judge and leader of the Tijjaniya order. As for his
"descendants" my father was one of the very first batch of 12
Nigerians recruited by the British to set up the foreign service in
1957 and he remained in public service and rose to be permanent
secretary before retirement. He set up in the 60s the research dept of
the ministry- the present NIA so he was the first external
intelligence officer in Nigeria. As permanent secretary he was the
architect of Murtala Mohammed's policy on decolonisation of Africa and
oversaw the independence of Mozambique and Angola and the final push
to liberate Zimbabwe and South Africa.

So yes Sanusi was not perfect. He was a feudal aristocrat. And my
father was not perfect. He was also a prince and priviledged to go to
Oxford and LSE. But please if you want to abuse my grandfather and
father kindly tell us what contributions your own grandfather and
father made to the people.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is the governor of Nigeria's Central Bank

BB wahala , Rumuor mongers ,

Nigerians are just happy people , once you can buy a cheap fairly used BB phone ,you can now type and circulate anything

Naija too much .

NLC ,TUC and other civil rights group should go and fight the gross casualization of the nigerian workers .

They should engage the government to create enabling laws to protect nigerian workers .

Virtually all the companies in nigeria operate with casual workers ,nigerians work for years and go home without any benefits ,
people work in inhuman conditions in most chinese and indian companies .People are sacked without any good reason .

What NLC is after is their own purse ,they are professional actvists ,driving big cars and jumping from one hotel to another in the name of holding meetings and congresses with workers dues and yet nigerian workers are suffering .

There is deep corruption within the labour unions ,Let the various labour groups present to us the account details of the dues being paid by unionised nigerian workers .

They collect money from the oil cabals to organise protests and as well turn around to seek favour from government .
Nigerians should be wise enough to ignore thier call for mass action .Let us rry to educate the uninformed populace that would be cajoled to come to the streets and waste their lives.Most of the executives of the labour unions have their families abroad and yet you profess to be a tru e nigerian .

Nigerians be wise please .

If i am GEJ ,i for don revert back to 65 naira pms price ,bring back the cabal to continue the business ,after 4 years ,i carry my bag waka.

Naija people ,make una reason, nothing good comes easy oooo.

@KULUTEMPA,

I can see that you are a keyboard activist .

If are really an activist you wont be here online typing crap.

As far as i am concerned , this is nigeria,nothing is going to happen .There must be dialogoue .

You can as well go to eagle square and set yourself ablaze ,then we 'll know that you are serious .

The way the protests is going shows that thier is tribalistic ,religious and ethnic sentiments attached to it .

If a northerner was to be the president ,would the northerners be quick to respond in protests.

I doubt if we are one nigeria .

Lets wait till monday and see what labour will do .But i know that there is no alternative to dialogue .

Labour should rethink and go to discussion table wityh the governmnet .

I f even if the strike lasts for 100 days ,at the end there must be dialogue.

No pain ,no gain .

But mr ubani could not answer a question that was thrown to him ;what has NLC and TUC done to the civil servants in Nnpc ,dpr etc who they say is corrupt and cook up. Books for the so called cabal on subsidy manipulation ? Also the NURTW members hiked up pices by over 400 percent even though there was just 100 pecent increament on PMS,na we dey kill ourselves no be govt.

Make una go join protesters for street .online activists.yeye pple.

Seun/Moderators

I can see that there is a lot of propaganda going on in this online forum now as regards this fuel subsidy .

In as much as we must report issues across the country and beyond ,let us be reasonable enough to report facts and not falsehood.

I will also advise that people engage in constructive arguments and not just name calling .If you feel nigeria is so bad ,join politics and contest to change the situation and not sitting behind your key board .Talk they say is cheap .

Nigeria state is in a deep corrupt mode ,and requires patience and wisdom to navigate it out of the mess .GEJ is barely 7 months into his 4 year tenure .Let us allow him some time say 2 years .He is slow no doubt but i think slow and steady wins the race .

We shall get there ,we are suffering now for the future of this great nation ,lets not be selfish even unto the unborn generation .

I will be happy to see a future generation that would refer to us as having laid the foundation of what they are enjoying in the future.


May God help Us.

Now I see how selfish a typical nigerian is , even to his unborn future generation .Na God go come down from heaven come rule una ,e ven at that u pple might not even trust him .Subsidy removal has come to stay ,nigeria must get better ,may we might not enjoy it now but for the generations to come ,but the sacrifice must be made NOW!

Port -harcourt is very much calm .

Nothing dey happen .

Lets use our brains .

Stand up and fight against corruption and not subsidy .

Aluta Continua ,victoria aceta .

Portharcourt is very calm ,people are going about their normal businesses.

Do nigerians have the capacity to sustain a 1 week protest , ? No way .

We should be talking about the way forward now .The policy is alraedy in place .No going back .

Let us unite against CORRUPTION which is the main issue we should be fighting .Subsidy is a secondary issueas far as i am concerned .

NIGERIA ,GREAT PEOPLE ,GREAT NATION !!!!!!

My people ,let us be realistic ,this is NIGERIA .

Nothing ,i repeat nothing will happen if you are expecting mass demonstrations .I have been a union executive when i was in employed labour .

99 % of the executives are there for their personal gains ,TUC ,NLC ,PENGASSAN NUPENG ETC .

They will make so much noise and at the end of the day ,the central body will fail you .

Let us try and adjust to the new price ,very simple ,plan your self ,no more frivolous trips on your cars .If you are strong enough walk to your office and back .Curtail some excesses.No impulsive buying , and in all let us join hands and fight corruption , How you mat ask ?

JUST TRY AND DO THE RIGHT THING .DO NOT GIVE OR RECEIVE BRIBES .INSIST ON THE RIGHT THING .

BE TRAFFIC DISCIPLINED ,JUST BE A GOOD CITIZEN ,I CAN SEE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL,

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.

Bought fuel at 85 naira just few minutes after the PPPRA removed the subsidy.I'm in phc .

@Nchara,my brother u are very much in order ,bluetoot was hasty in his call for state of emergency by jonathan ,it simply shows his biased and haters mind towards the ibos ,in as much as no body supports ethnic violence we should also learn to be reasonable and eschew tribalism if we must remain one nigeria ,but the bitter truth is that a typical yoruba man has this deep hatred for ibos , reason? ;I don't know .
Nchara ,I support u full time ,only time shall tell.igbo nile ekeleem n'afo ohuru 2012.yagazie !!!