₦airaland Forum

I don't see how the FG cannot invest good money in Nigerian football and attract private sector people to buy up stadia and their facilities being mismanaged by state governors.

150 million is too small for league winners. Increase it to 500 million to 1 billion, and you will see the best of Nigeria in action. Nothing motivates humans like money.

In a country where the electoral umpires aren't independent, then there has to be another name for what the country practices because it's not democracy.

This so-called democracy hasn't worked in Nigeria; the only issue I see here is that there's no better alternative.

I think Olusegun Obasanjo is a free spirit who just wants to see his country succeed.

If he could still endorse Atiku Abubukar for presidency after calling him unprintable names in his book, it should tell you the kind of person he is.

Ezmans:
more than 25 billion monthly

Most of the money that comes into Bayelsa is shared among the people. Development isn't a priority. It's a long-standing tradition that Former Governor Seriake Dickson tried to change and met fierce resistance. At some point, he would go on air and call his people lazy, encouraging them to work hard like the Yorubas, Deltans and Igbos who manage a significant fraction of economic activities in the state.

This is the right thing to do. I am glad the army listened to the voice of reason. Destroying the houses of innocent people because some ignoramuses killed your officers isn't a show of professionalism.

They handled it better because Alex Otti intervened; that man is too smart. Had this happened in Imo State, Hope Uzodinma would tell Obinze Barracks to roll out their APCs and destroy the communities in his own state. That man isn't just incompetent, but he's also evil and wicked.

MrEverest:
Finer than this is an understatement. These pictures are slums. Only one road with trees looks a bit decent, the rest are shanties. What sort of abysmal standards are we operating that someone will post these shanties and be proud of it? Even villages in many third world countries look better than this!

How Bayelsa looks is really depressing and shows they can’t achieve anything great even if they control their oil resources 100%.

It seems only Igbos have presentable cities and villages in Nigeria, the rest are an eyesore.

Oga, take this your narcissism elsewhere.

Sometimes, I wonder the kind of parents who raised and taught you to always put others down just to feel good about yourselves.

Considering how tiny this state is and the amount that comes in in federal allocation, Yenagoa should be finer than this.

If this exit trend continues, there won't be any foreign company left in Nigeria by 2034.

Tinubu and BATerians have totally destroyed this country's economy.

BlackRock, one of the world’s top asset managers, announced it would liquidate its iShares exchange-traded funds (ETFs) worth $400 million over unprofitable business environments in Nigeria and Kenya, particularly the challenge of currency repatriation worsened by the naira devaluation.

iShares Frontiers, which invested millions of dollars in emerging market equities in Nigeria and Kenya over the years, fixed its last trading day for March 31, 2025, when the extended liquidation is anticipated to conclude.

“The board of directors of the company approved a proposal to liquidate the fund. In light of persistent liquidity challenges in certain frontier markets, including among other things, delays or limits on repatriation of local currency, the board determined that it is in the best interest of the fund and its shareholders for the fund to liquidate,” said iShares said in a recent statement.

The company said it was opting for an “extended liquidation” given the significance of the naira conversion on the liquidation, which cannot easily be predicted.

“Currency conversions, including conversion of Nigeria’s currency, the naira, will impact the timing of the fund’s liquidation. As a result, the fund will enter into an extended liquidation period,” BlackRock’s iShares stated. “After market close no earlier than August 12, 2024, but on a date as soon as practicable, the fund will cease trading and the creation and redemption of creation units.”

Already, the company has liquidated $5.2 million of its shares in Kenyan companies like Safaricom ($2.8 million), Equity Group ($1.5 million), and KCB Group ($885,000), which are quoted on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

The planned exit of BlackRock’s iShares was another dent in Nigeria’s economic scorecard as the one-year-old President Bola Tinubu’s administration grapples with Nigeria’s dwindling economic fortunes.

Diageo, the parent company of the Guinness brand, on Tuesday announced it was selling its controlling shares to a third-party venture called Tolaram after recording an over N61 billion loss in its financial year that ended March 31.

UK pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and tech giant Microsoft have also shut down their business operations in Nigeria.

Source: https://gazettengr.com/blackrocks-ishares-worth-400-million-issues-notice-to-exit-nigeria/

BossGerald:
Is this not the same project that was meant for the east but gbajamiala cornered it and even named it after himself.

What is their to make noise about

Victim mentality again? Aren't you guys tired of this nonsense already?!

Naijadaily:
You're not well informed, do you know how many years Gbajabiamila has spent in the House of Representatives even before becoming speaker ?? Can you compare the amount of funds available to a Reps member who spent donkey years the later speaker for four years... with just a year Jarigbe has done absolutely well.

My point is that these senators should stop building pig houses in the name of classroom blocks. Our world has moved. You cannot budget 300 million for a project and end up giving 20 million to a contractor and expect the best. Please let's stop defending mediocrity.

Deltatoto:
there’s Nthg to study na cos she ugly.ezekwesili dey marriage.e good to marry ugly woman.pressure no Dey Dey on her

First, NOI isn't ugly. Besides, when a woman gets to that level, she feels she doesn't need a man anymore because one of the major roles men play in the life of women is to provide them with financial stability.

Like someone rightfully said, NOI belongs to a generation that holds marriage in high esteem and comes from a royal family that cherishes marriages too.

Imagine the kind of classroom blocks senators are building in 21st century. I thought I would see very beautiful pictures when I saw transform.

These senators should be taking classes from Femi Gbaja on what decent infrastructural projects should look like. The world is upgrading its infrastructure and Nigeria cannot continue to exist in isolation.

Pix: See what your colleagues in a lower legislative house did in his constituency.

Good news just scarce for Nigeria's business world

How a woman this influential and successful can stay in marriage for this period of time should be studied as a course at Harvard University. Congratulations to them and happy birthday to her!

Una go just dey fake nonsense!

It's only in Nollywood that a man sleeps with a woman under the sheets.

Nice try, but you guys can make it better.

Make sure you don't drive that car in Lagos. Lagos is a mad people's zone! Yellow buses will bash it, lie down naked on the roadside and start begging you.

chucky101:
I think it's a good idea to not borrow money for business as a state government if you're not sure about success. Nigeria is a graveyard for capital most of the time. The chance of success is very slim.

Life is all about taking risks. People even say that it's risker not to take risks at all. If individuals like Dangote could take risks, lose a lot of money and still become successful, why can't governments through PPP arrangements?

I have talked about government in the South investing massively in agriculture. A serious eastern government can invest in oil palm plantation (it can also be other crops, depending on what grows well in the state) and massive cattle ranches to make a lot of money from it.

If you imagine how much foodstuff sells in the market, you understand how much a government can make from investing in agriculture, creating massive jobs, and improving IGR and GDP. Nobody should be in government and be boasting of not borrowing to invest in ventures that yield money for the state. This is something other states should learn from Lagos and AKS.

Dangote is on fire! He has conquered several industries. He wants to move into steel production now. I wish he would invest in power generation, transmission and distribution as well. If our military leaders had reinvested all they stole back in this country, Nigeria would have gone far.

Africa’s richest person and founder of the Dangote Group, Mr Aliko Dangote, yesterday disclosed that he had already offset about $2.4 billion of the $5.5 billion he borrowed to build his $19 billion refinery located near Lagos.

Speaking at the Afreximbank Annual Meetings (AAN) and AfriCaribbean Trade & Investment Forum in Nassau, The Bahamas, the billionaire businessman further stated that several entities, both local and foreign, did everything to sabotage the 650,000 barrels per day facility.

Stressing that many persons thought that the project was going to fail, he lauded the Afreximbank and Nigeria’s Access Bank for supporting the project, noting that the vision would have died without them.

He noted that without banks like African Finance Corporation (AFC), AfreximBank and others, it would be difficult to industrialise the African continent, because they are the financial institutions that understand the challenges and the issues peculiar to the continent.

Without mentioning names, the businessman stated that foreign banks are not interested in helping Africa grow, explaining that indeed some of them clandestinely attempted to push the company into loan default during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Describing the situation as very scary, he stated if he had raised the idea of international project financing with some of them, the international banks would have shut it down because they would “ Ask for my great-grandmother’s certificate of birth.”

“We borrowed the money based on our own balance sheet. I think we borrowed just over $5.5 billion. But we paid also a lot of interest as we went along, because the project was delayed because of lack of land, also the sand-filling took a long time. Almost five years or so we didn’t do anything.

“We actually started in 2018. We borrowed that much. We have actually, of course, paid interest and some principal, about $2.4 billion. We ‘ve done very well. We now have only about $2.7 billion left to be paid. So we’ve done very well for a project of that magnitude,” he said.

On whether he was receiving enough crude oil as feedstock for his refinery from the International Oil Companies (IOCs), Dangote said that those who had access to cool money for decades would not want the opportunity to slip and would always fight back.

“In a system where for 35 years people are used to counting good money, and all of a sudden they see that the days of counting that money have come to an end, you don’t expect them to pray for you. Of course you expect them to fight back.

“And I think that is the process that we’re now really going through. But the truth is that, yes, the country, the sub-region, and also the continent, sub-Saharan Africa, need this refinery. So, you expect them to fight through non-supply of crude, non-purchase of the product, but I think it’s all temporary. We’ll get there,” he added.

Stressing that he knew there would always be a pushback, Dangote pointed out that what he did not envisage was that it would be so vicious

“ Well, I knew that there would be a fight. But I didn’t know that the mafia in oil, they are stronger than the mafia in drugs. I can tell you that. Yes, it’s a fact,” he mentioned , stressing that the local and foreign mafia tried several times to sabotage the refinery from coming to fruition.

Describing himself as someone who has fought all his life, Dangote posited that the mafias ‘tried all sorts’ to stop him. “But I’m a person that has been fighting all my life. You know, so I think it’s part of my life to fight,” he stated.

Dangote said that although the fight was still on , he was very sure he would end up winning “Because the population and the government will be on our side”.

He pointed out that Africa must produce what it consumes, noting that there’s currently no support coming from the West to the continent.

“As a matter of fact during the COVID period, some of the international banks really were looking forward to making sure that they push us into default of our loans so that the project will just be dead. And that didn’t happen with the help of banks like Afreximbank,” he added.

He also disclosed that 25 per cent of the Dangote fertiliser currently goes to the US, stressing that it can also fully satisfy the needs of the Caribbean countries in terms of urea.

He added that currently, Nigeria does not have a strategic oil reserves, describing that situation as dangerous, but said with the Dangote refinery, the country can now be assured of one.

“So, we are not living from hand to mouth anymore. And the country doesn’t have strategic reserves in terms of petrol, which is very dangerous. It is. But in our own plant now, when you came, we had only 4.78 billion litres of various tankage capacity. But right now we’re adding another 600 million.

“So effectively, as we go forward, the refinery will be the strategic reserve of the country in terms of petroleum products,” he stated, adding that the refinery will produce and export the best quality of products.

He stated that before now, Nigeria was importing dirty fuels which had health implications like cancer, caused by the bad fuels.

Reiterating that the Dangote Group was targeting a revenue in excess of $30 billion, Dangote stated that he intends to move into the steel business soon. ”We want to make sure every single steel that we use will come from Nigeria,’’ he said.

“What I keep telling people is that, look, we as Africans, please, don’t be deceived, no foreigner can come and make your continent great. It must be the domestic investors. Because domestic investment is what actually attracts foreign investment,” he noted.

He stressed that the Dangote Group currently produces about 1,500 megawatts of power for self-consumption, without going to the national grid, which would have impacted it negatively.

Source: https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2024/06/13/dangote-i-have-paid-2-4-billion-of-5-5-billion-borrowed-to-build-refinery-eyes-steel-production/

When most motorists switch to CNG, its price will become expensive! No be Nigeria again?

Those who accuse politicians of being corrupt just don't have their opportunity. Nigerians are irredeemably greedy.

Reasons why foodstuff prices are increasing:

1. Insecurity in the north - farmers cannot access their farmlands anymore

2. Increase in transportation prices - thanks to petrol subsidy removal

3. A lot of middlemen (like policemen and agbero) extorting drivers and sellers

4. Increase in prices of farm inputs - inflation

5. Little or no government intervention in forms of seedlings, tractors, fertilizers, etc.

6. Price manipulation by sellers to make more profits.

Nigerians are typically opportunistic, hypocritical and dubious. People who exhibit these devilish tendencies must be tamed.

Things are getting out of hands, so the government should step in and stabilise prices, especially if the increases are artificial.

Hahnemann:
If that's the case, how do these governors get billions of naira that they always loot. Someone tell me how

Soludo said those politicians are squandering people's money and that they should be careful the way they go about throwing their flamboyant lifestyles in the faces of the people so they don't cause a political unrest.

Femi Gbaja is a Christian, and it is the turn of Muslims to rule Lagos now. The only Christian who can govern now is Ambode because he will do only one tenure. Ambode and Sanwo-Olu will do 12 years.

It took a lot of convincing to get Tinubu to anoint Ambode after stakeholders told him that both him and Fashola (two Muslims) have already governed and that Christians should be given a chance. If you don't know this, then you don't know Lagos politics.

obiekunie01:
i no blame you. i blame us that loves washng our smelly pants in public

That guy you replied to his comment is a Nairalander from South Africa. There are Americans on this forum too. Take note of that.

Fashola is right. Once in a while, the government will intervene in the market and stabilise things. If not, things will go wrong.

The speech I consider most interesting was that of Oluseun Onigbide, I just came across the name today. He encouraged everyone to show interest and get involved in governance.

Prof Soludo did well, but I don't think being in government and not borrowing to invest in ventures that will yield more money for the state is something to celebrate.

Babatunde Fashola, the immediate past minister of works and housing, has said there are no totally free market economies in the world, adding that the idea is “illusionary”.

Fashola, on Wednesday, said this while speaking at the 36th edition of The Platform Nigeria held in Lagos with the “Democracy and the Free Market Economy”.

The event, organised by the Covenant Place, seeks to commemorate Nigeria’s Democracy Day by discussing issues surrounding its efficiency.

Fashola stressed that the thoughts of allowing market forces to determine the economy have consequential effects which would eventually lead to the government stepping in.

“Free market economy is illusionary, government plays a role in ensuring that certain businesses don’t go insolvent,” Fashola said.

The two-time governor of Lagos State said that rice and petrol were cheaper in years back due to certain interventions by the government, asserting that such shouldn’t happened in a free market economy.

Speaking further, Fashola said developed economies such as the USA and UK after the wake of the COVID-19 had to incentivise their people to cushion its effects, claiming that such derides the idea of a free market.

A free market economy is a system where the prices for goods and services are determined by the open market and consumers and producers interact freely without government intervention.

In theory, it promotes competition, innovation, and efficiency but the former governor questioned whether truly or not it’s really practiced.

Source: https://businessday.ng/news/article/the-idea-of-free-market-economy-is-illusionary-fashola/

Anioma should be created from Delta State and added to the 5 states of the South East. How can you even think of creating another state from the little SE region?

Poshvector12345:
Bro you dull. Dah!
I blame successive governments for blaming everything for inflation, people don dey believe am. That's the power of propaganda

You may not agree to his first paragraph, but the second paragraph is correct.

Bullet01:
Please protest with your Voters card in the next election. Nigeria does not worth dieing for

Nigeria isn't worth dying for.

That's the correct way to say and write it.

Etnot:
They should also remove the two SE states in NDDC

What's the connection between SE Development Commission and the NDDC?

FYI, this commission gained urgency due to the devastating effects of the civil war.

According to Godswill Akpabio, Yakubu Gowon announced 3Rs (Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation) but started building world-class infrastructure in Lagos, leaving the battlefield (SE and parts of SS) without significant infrastructure to date.