The Shadow cabinet of Nigeria calls on the Nigerian government to hold the South African government accountable for the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians by some angry South Africans.



The South African government's response to these malicious and inhumane acts is currently unacceptable and not drastic enough to arrest the violence being carried out on Nigerians in South Africa. We express our displeasure even more because of the inadequate and unacceptable explanation to the people of Nigeria and the government as well!



We call on the Federal Government to make it very clear to the South African government that those who have lost their properties must be attended to with utmost urgency and also to prevent the irrational and puerile acts from spreading further!



The Shadow Cabinet task the FG to make it very clear to the South African government that such unprovoked attacks would no longer be tolerated. This is to ensure that this would be the last of such unholy attacks.

The South African government must be reminded that during the rallies of Nelson Mandela in his fight for freedom, he and his supporters boycotted the buses of the white men and walked to Johannesburg. As such, boycott and suspending of South African businesses in Nigeria would not be out of place if such doltish attacks ever repeat themselves.


A situation where someone watches on helplessly as what he/she has tirelessly worked for goes up in flames calls for action, and we expect the current administration to make it clear to the South Africans.


Thank you and God bless!

Signed:
Eze Munachino Obinna and Oke Umurhohwo for Shadow Cabinet Nigeria

State Of The Nation Address - Shadow Cabinet of Nigeria


It is with deep pain and sadness we review the situation of events in our beautiful country, Nigeria.

The series of events within the last one year have shown us that there is an urgent need to have a sober reflection on our country and its mode of operation.

We are presently in a country where every well meaning Nigerian is tagged an opposition figure at every opportunity in order to render them speechless. Freedom of speech is no longer tolerated, which is a far cry from what Nigerians have come to enjoy.

The arrest of Audu Maikori yesterday is yet another case where the government muzzle freedom of speech and it is part of an extended plot to muzzle opposition and critics of government. We must collectively stand up against this plan and resist the evil plot to destroy democracy and rule of law.


The economic hardship currently ravaging Nigerians is also worrisome and should be a cause for concern from all and sundry. This is the right time for the government to remove the partisan glasses and bring in economic experts across the divides to give the President and his team a glimpse of advise or direction.

It is noteworthy that all economic policies and advise our group has formulated and shared with this administration to savage the economy from further collapse has been continuously discarded by the powers that be. The Government surely needs help but discards every iota of help it gets from well meaning Nigerians.


We are also very concerned by the disparity in
Forex rates. The issue of the present slave/master treatment in the country calls for serious investigation. A situation where some citizens are treated more highly than others in the area of foreign exchange access is detrimental and this policy should be reviewed urgently.


We as a group also condemn the way and manner CSOs and human right activists have gone quiet in the face of continuous human right violations and rape of the constitution. We urge all citizens to use any platform available to them to continue to ask questions and hold the government accountable.


Finally, the State of the nation is being undermined by daily drama over an absentee President recuperating in the United Kingdom. Governance has been reduced to kindergarten double-play and we have become the laughing stock of the world with the presence of a home base president and a foreign base president.

The presidency must come clean on the health status of the president. A situation where everyone keep saying President Buhari is hail and very fine yet has been stuck in London is untenable. The citizens demand answers.


Signed
Shadow Cabinet of Nigeria


PS: Shadow Cabinet of Nigeria is a group of young Nigerians who collectively provide alternative policies to the government and ensure Nigerians get a better treatment from their leaders.

StOla:



In a sane society, criminal elements must always live in fear.

Criminal minds must never be free to loot and destroy their country.

We rejected a clueless leadership that had no will to sanitise the nation. Every criminal was happy and at rest with the last regime, but now they can sleep well anymore.

stebell:
Be careful of what yu say @OP cos soon the Dullard aand his EFCC would invade dis forum and start arresting us for criticizing the govt and levelling charges on us that we share in the "Dasuki diversion of fund".
The govt hav no word like criticize in their dictionary.
May God have Mercy on us all and deliver us frm the hands of this King Herod of our time.

Pidggin:

You have said it all, but be careful, you do not know who is reading this, they have their eyes on anyone opposing them.

These Nigerian citizens quoted above who have expressed statements of fear are criminal elements too?

Go easy on the insult

This is what we don't want.

Why should people live in fear?
The comments on this thread tell a lot.

We never saw such in the last admin.
People were free.

We reject Gestapoism.

It is on record that President Muhammadu Buhari rode to power on the political tripod of fighting corruption, insecurity and unemployment (much is left to be desired of these).‎
‎
However, the manner with which Buhari and the APC have been conducting the fight against the hydra headed monster called corruption is unbecoming and condemnable in saner climes.‎

History will not forget how Buhari's government dubiously quashed corruption cases against Late Audu Abubakar and Timipre Sylva because they were to be made the gubernatorial polls party's flag bearers in their respective state.‎
‎
The recent arrest and quizzing of the PDP speak person, Chief Olisa Metuh has removed every iota of doubt that the APC is simply out to decimate and humiliate the opposition. Any government that hates criticism will remain an enemy of the governed.

This agenda of turning Nigeria to one party nation cannot stand. You cannot force your choice on others.

While we stand against corruption, its one sided fight is a show of brazen shame.‎

In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, "there is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts."‎

We hereby call on all lovers of Democracy and the international community to come to the rescue of Nigeria's nascent democracy. 
At this stage of our develop as a people, we cannot afford to be taken back to the old, dark days.‎

God Bless Nigeria.‎


‎Signed:
Shadow Cabinet of Nigeria‎

jlinkd78:
Great analysis. U will not see NL here to contribute to this didactic and erudite write up cos some degree of reasoning and IQ are involved. I see this Shadow Cabinet, an intelligentsia body, as one great way we can all contribute towards providing alternative ideas to d govt and not always being arm chair critics who only criticize without providing superior argument. Its been almost an hour this Op posted this, yet only views without comments but if its one ethnic, tribal or toutish topic, the traffic will be too much and FTC and FP battles wud v been activated.

Thank you. You said the obvious

The Shadow Cabinet of Nigeria in Abuja today released a statement pointing the expectations of the group and Nigerians on what is need in the 2016 budget.

The statement signed by the Secretary of Finance of the group, Mr Onunka Kanyidi raised critical issues of what is expected.
The statement reads:

The importance of careful, proper, continuous and timely preparation of budgets in any endeavor - personal, organizational or government - cannot be over emphasized. Budgeting is a planning mechanism of income and expenditure estimation and how they can be exploited for value creation - economic and social wealth as is the case for a country.

Budgeting can also be a roadmap towards actualizing the dreams, goals, aspirations and vision of an organization. In Nigeria, proper budgeting entails prioritizing projects that have the largest impact on the citizenry.

Also important in the budget process is a measure of monitoring the performance of budget implementation - ensuring that the maximum gain is achieved.

Critical appraisal factors to be considered in the preparation of a budget are ensuring that due processes are followed in the award of contracts, blocking of loopholes in revenue generation, best value for projects are only considered to be executed, transparency and accountability are encouraged and enforced,.

Over the years, the Nigerian income component of the budget has always been centered on the price of crude oil; the attendant consequences have always been devastating as with other countries whose budgets are based on the prices of commodities.

The forces of demand and supply have affected these income expectations, the recent being a devastating sharp, continuous and prolonged decline of these crude oil prices from second quarter of 2014.

The fact is that it is not the inability to meet budgetary expectations in capital projects but the failure to take appropriate steps towards ensuring timely and focused planning of a budget and the continuous ignorance to improve on previous budget preparation processes, taking into consideration the volatile risks prevalent in the commodity markets.

The 2015 budget was benchmarked on a crude oil price of $53/bbl and today, the average price of crude oil is $45/bbl down 15%. On the other hand, the expenditure component has always been tilted in favour of recurrent expenditures stripping availability of funds for the development of critical sectors of the economy. The dependence of crude oil also limits the income expectations and this can be seen as another reason for low allocation of funds for capital projects.

A timely and well focused budget in today´s Nigeria, especially with the prevailing condition is long overdue. Having been hit by the wave of crude oil price decline, we have seen our GDP decline to 2.84 percent in the third quarter compared to 6.02 percent in the same quarter of 2014.

We have seen continuous increase in inflation leading to increased cost of business activity, increase in unemployment and near stagnation of the economy with no clear policy direction or expectation from the government.

More so is the concerted effort of the CBN using monetary instruments to protect the naira and ensuring adequate liquidity in the economy thus placing a huge burden on its shoulders.

The expectations from all Nigerians, irrespective of tribe, political affiliations, economic, religion and social inclinations, is for a budget that is geared towards improved standard of living, wealth and value creation and safety of life.

Our expectation is for a budget that is focused on creatively developing ways for improved revenue generation with minimal associated costs through ensuring tax compliance by individual and corporate organizations.

The budget should be focused on continued and sustained use of information technology to ensure accountability, efficiency, flexibility and transparency in the entire budget process. From the payment of salaries, management of pension, to the payment for projects and subsidies. We demand for a budget that contains executable projects that are bankable.

During the two-day retreat held by newly appointed Ministers of the Federation, Vice President, Professor Osinbajo proposed a budget of 7 – 8 trillion naira laying emphases on a 2.5 trillion naira capital expenditure component with no about how it is to be funded.

While it is encouraged for extensive and massive capital projects to be executed, reckless spending and abuse must be avoided. The budget must be in line with ensuring that the tempo of national development as initiated by the past administration is sustained.

The CBN via the Monetary Policy meeting it held on the 23rd and 24th of November recently voted to reduce the CRR from 25% to 20% and reducing interest rates from 13% to 11% with a caveat that the liquidity arising from these decisions will be used for employment generating activities such as agriculture, infrastructure and solid minerals.

This is a welcome development as this will inject more funds into the real economy stimulating local economic activity and growth their by contribute towards improving the collective quality of life. The CBN should however, ensure strict compliance through continuous monitoring of these disbursements to ensure its intended purposes.

The budget should also focus on the continuous drive towards diversification of the economy, shifting away from the sole reliance of crude oil commodity to a basket of other income generation streams.

The budget must focus on significantly reducing recurrent expenditures irrespective of political, social and religious sentiments. Government must in the overall interest of the Nigerian people strengthen for maximum and effective impact, the Civil Service.

Redundant staff must be encouraged to retire while benefits are given to them. Departments and agencies that carry out duplicate activities should be merged while organizations without proper and clear objective, especially if such objectives have been overtaken by event should be scrapped.

Actions should be taken to discourage the idea of one working in a government organization as the best because this can stifle the effectiveness, productivity, capacity and profitability of an organization; boomeranging into the national economy.

The Management of government organizations should be encouraged to be self sustaining and equipped with clear targets and mandates including milestones that must be achieved. Government must be seen to mean business but with a human face.

The Budget Office must be revamped, restructured and motivated with a clear focus on monitoring, ensuring compliance and implementation of budget deliverables. This team should be under the direct supervision of an Economic Coordinator.

In addition, for excellent result and impact, Budget Offices should also be set up in each Ministry, Department and Agency of government. This team should coordinate with the Bureau of Public Procurement to further improve on their mandate. A healthy relationship between the National Budget Office and the State Budget Offices should be encouraged.

Most importantly, independent relationships, devoid of political affiliations must be fostered and nurtured, between the Federal Government and Local Government for maximum impact.

In other to build public acceptance and encourage healthy discussion, the budget properly detailing income generation and expenditure profile, budget benchmarks and milestones must be published in easily acceptable formats and disseminated.

Budget documents must be easily obtainable through the internet and an independent monitoring by interested organisations should be encouraged by the government. A robust engagement and discussion with the government at all levels must be promoted.

Finally, accountability and transparency must be encouraged and seen to be done.


Signed:
Onunka Kanyidi,
Secretary for Finance, Shadow Cabinet of Nigeria

The Shadow Cabinet Of Nigeria in a state of utter shock and dismay hereby decry the coordinated‎ bombings in Yola and Kano in the past 72 hours resulting in 49 deaths and many injured, worse still, the alleged case of 105 missing soldiers as reported in the media.
‎
We are aware of the recent press statement by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, that no army officer is missing.‎

‎We beg to differ on this.
We have reached out to a few reliable sources within the ranks of the Nigerian military and we can confirm that things are very bad, the Nigerian press seem to be covering up a lot of things. 

Could it be that the Nigerian Army and FG have colluded to quash this issue of grave concern by maintaining plausible deniability‎, in a bid to forestall a campaign similar to the BringBackOurGirls movement? 

At this point, we demand to know the men who make up the 175 battalion, we demand a proof of life. Also, we demand undeniable proof that all vehicles, a truck loaded with over 60,000 rounds of AA ammunition and artillery pieces be accounted for‎.
‎
As a matter of National emergency and urgency we charge the presidency to take the following steps:-‎

1. Conduct a more thorough investigation and release an official press statement confirming or denying such reports. Nigerians deserve to know the truth.
‎
‎‎
2. Inform the Nigerian people on steps being taken to ensure the safe return of our gallant and brave soldiers to their families and loved ones, in the case that this report is officially declared to the general public as true.‎

3. Employ every might and resource to ensure that the Nigerian Army #BringBackOurSoldiers‎ ALIVE.
‎
The Boko Haram insurgents have been reported as the world's deadliest terrorist organisation. Such negative and shameful development is a far cry from President Muhammadu Buhari's promise to annihilate Boko Haram within two months of assuming power.

The Chibok girls saga is yet to be resolved and at the time of this release, we have an alleged case of missing soldiers on our hands.‎

If this eventually turns out true, then it is a monumental embarrassment; A slap on our military might.
This cannot be handled with kid gloves.
‎
We urge all hands to be on deck.
Our collective resolve as a people must be to shun terrorism in all it's forms.‎
In all sincerity and purpose, we hope that this alarming news turns out false, however, in a case where such is confirmed, our hearts and prayers go out to the families‎ of the missing soldiers who are yet unsure of the fate of their husbands, sons, and fathers.
Moreso, we commiserate with the families of all the victims in the recent bomb blasts.‎ We pray that they be granted fortitude to bear such immense loss.
‎
We equally encourage our soldiers out there on the battlefield not to despair.‎
‎
Nigeria will rise.‎
#SayNoToTerrorism‎