₦airaland Forum

How can Atiku Abubakar even contemplate the sort of things he writes just because he lost an election? Too many people get carried away by sweet words that don't mean much. Atiku is one of the longest serving politicians in Nigeria. From his days in Customs to his 8 years as Vice President, to his massive wealth and influence that has bought him the Presidential ticket of political parties from 2007 till date etc. What has been the overall contribution to life in Nigeria?

A very simple test for me is his home state of Adamawa where he has more or less overtly or covertly controlled governance for decades. What is the quality of life there? What are the Human Development indices like? What is the state of infrastructure? I can go on and on. Your guess is as good as mine. Anybody seeking to convince me beyond sweet words that anyone can put together, should show me their past performance.

casualobserver:
What is clear is that not only are too many ignorant people given a platform to display their ignorance, too many Nigerians have a plroblem with acknowledg8mg of celebrating good nes because it hasn’t come from their side whatever that side may be. The problem of Nigeria are Nigerians.

I've observed this same thing with us Nigerians. Whoever is in power doesn't matter. The 'other' side will be vociferous, difficult, antagonistic, non cooperative till the very end, whether logic supports or not.

COMPAQ:
So many Nigerians think they are well informed and smart by don't realise how dumb they are!!

Most of the IOC's have been very clear that they are divesting their stake in the ONSHORE aspect of their business because of the activities of crude theft.

They have all said they will keep their investments in the OFFSHORE aspect, as that is not subject to vandalization. They also plan to keep investing in GAS, because gas is pretty much impossible to steal like oil because it's a intangible product!!

Be EDUCATED!!

Exactly 💯.
IOCs are still in deep offshore and onshore domestic and export gas business. Gas will be big because many of the blockers to investments in the past are being removed. It will be big in a few years time.

HE Engr David Umahi is certainly a round peg in a round hole, one of the best ministerial appointees of PBAT. The three qualities that stand him out are as follows;

1. He is a Civil Engineer hence understands what the job is about

2. He is a very good manager of resources. See how much he accomplished in Ebonyi State within a short time and with far less resources than other states. His emphasis on quality at reduced cost, use of longer lasting concrete roads and challenging wasteful spending and excessive beaureacracy testify to this

3. He is bold and courageous, taking on vested interests in the process

I like the way he commends his predecessor HE Babatunde Fashola who though is a Lawyer, confronted some of the road infrastructure issues during his time. People forget how very bad and dilapidated our road infrastructure was before he came in. Govt budgets less than N100bln yearly for roads that need nothing less than N4trillion annually and everybody across the 6 geopolitical zones want their roads fixed. How possible?

Credit that roads such as Lagos-Ibadan, 2nd Niger Bridge, Loko-Oweto Bridge, sections of Abuja-Kano Road, Ilorin-Jebba, Oshodi Expressway, numerous roads funded under Sukuk etc were all accomplished.

Umahi will soon grapple with the issue of funding. Just like he said, N14trn is required to complete ongoing projects of which he is working hard to secure N4trn. This is just to complete ongoing projects and nothing yet on the new projects which will be his signature projects such as the superhighways between Lagos and Abuja and between Lagos and PortHarcourt. Each of those roads will cost at least $10bln or N8trn.

I advise him to also focus on raising funds outside govt i.e. lots of PPPs, Sukuk-like funding, tax credits etc. Without that, he won't be able to achieve much. I like the fact that he will build more roads and infrastructure for the same cost that Fashola did. Contractors and civil servants may have played on Fashola's lack of engineering knowledge to fleece Nigerians through those expensive contracts. Umahi will not allow that. I wish him all the best as Nigerians have lost patience.

BALLOSKI:
The Itsekiri man there is not from SS?

She is a woman

This Phrank Shuaibu guy is so daft and a nuisance. If Atiku supports this nonsense he wrote, then I can only wish him well.

Is Lagos State Goverment partnering with Ogun State as I see many areas in the masterplan firmly in Ogun State territory.

Dammyseyon:
This has always been a master plan and very commendable.

Not to criticize, but the fact that Badagry, the cradle of civilization in the entire south west not included in this capital and economic development project makes me question why?

I am Badagrian and projects like this are always exempted from the historical town.

Shameful.

You may be right. I once lived in Badagry. The masterplan is subject to review and update so the blue line can still be extended to get to Badagry. I won't criticise but urge reps from Badagry area to take it up with LAMATA and the Lagos State govt.

Badagry is connected by a federal road under construction through Sukuk funding. That road will also benefit from the African Development Bank's $25bln funding of a major highway from Lagos to Abidjan in Ivory Coast, passing through some West African countries.

Also Badagry will benefit from a deep sea port under consideration. Not all parts of Lagos will immediately benefit from the rail system as many factors in how development is spread and its needs basis will come into play.

Shettima may be a loose cannon but you can't compare Borno and Atiku's home state of Adamawa. Despite Boko Haram ravaging Borno state, it is better developed than Adamawa. Shettima rose to the heights at Zenith bank before becoming commissioner in Borno. He was so good that he was commissioner for several ministries before contesting and winning Governorship election.

Thereafter, he mentored one of the best Nigerian governors in Zulum and gave him a free hand to manage the state. Go and visit that state and see for yourselves.

Sam Amadi is constituting himself a nuisance and descending into the company of unlettered folks. How can he be saying this?

Well spoken Rufai. Sometimes you speak so well. I urge you to reason issues end to end before speaking. Some things are popular in the short term but defective in the long term

Atiku and these old politicians did PDP great disservice by still hijacking the structures of that party. After the 2015 Presidential election loss, the party should have rebounded by pushing to the fore young and vibrant persons but it dwelt on the same old and useless strategies that brought them to their sorry state.

Unfortunately they now have the very shrewd and strategic APC politicians to deal with. It will be hard to topple APC in the near future except they reengineer, sideline these old and useless politicians, seek partnerships with other parties such as LP etc, they will remain in the doldrums

Economy was stable in 2013 and early part of 2014 because of high oil price at the time and we were producing at almost 2 million barrels per day at well over $100 for almost 5 years. As soon as oil price started crashing in late 2014, the economy started tanking. No provision to cushion immediate impact of low oil price to the extent that we started borrowing to pay salaries.

The 4 key things that impacted Buhari's govt was low oil price for much of his time, lack of support of the Saraki-led Senate in his first term, insecurity and covid19. Furthermore the Buhari govt was too lazy to apply reforms to boost the economy. It resorted to borrowing and money printing as the way out.

That said, Tinubu and Co had to support Buhari because doing so was his only path to the Presidency. Only those with no long term political strategy will still be blaming Tinubu for supporting Buhari. Today that strategy has yielded results and he now has the chance to set Nigeria on the path of progress and prosperity. Time will tell if this was a good strategy

Zooposki:
This southern politicians are ridiculous. Please focus on the south. If the southern politicians want to start working for the north, then let we the south vote for the northern politicians that will favor us and leave the southern politicians to their stupidity.

The Minister started his tour from the North. He has a schedule and will get to inspect Southern federal roads in a couple of weeks' time. Please be calming down.

I expect him to prioritise Enugu-PortHarcourt, Benin-Warri and East West roads in the next 12 months

Nice one from Engr Dave Umahi. That interview with Channels TV revealed his thorough knowledge and deep experience of the construction industry. As a civil engineer and a former Governor that transformed his state infrastructure wise, I can't really see any better person as Works Minister.

My advice to him is to understudy the funding mechanisms explored by Fashola and improve upon it rather than discarding it. He will need a lot of funds that the budget will never be able to provide so he should be very creative. All the schemes around road concessions, tolling etc embarked upon by Fashola should not be jettisoned. The people are solidly behind him and we wish him the very best.

But when unemployment rate suddenly went up from 8% in 2014 to 33% in a few years, Atedo Peterside and Co were happy to believe it and milked it for all the political gains they could find.

If you don't believe the 4.1%, how come you believed the 33% before?

My view is that both numbers were/are wrong.

Buccalcavity2:
Last tenure, we had an overbearing CBN Governor poke-nosing into fiscal matters. This time Edun is the one talking about monetary matters. That's not his job! Let CBN handle money supply and sundry.
Everything he said is ok and normal inflation control mechanism. Nothing special.
He should tell us about how to ramp up fx inflows in the short term to tackle imported inflation and fx fluctuations. Low hanging fruit... Stop crude theft, improve production! This is absolutely within your control. Then Attract long term FDI and stop importing fuel. Make balance of trade +ve first. We'll get stability with that.
I disagree with concept of pumping money into one area by @vitalis. Money from where? At what cost to the giver? Sounds like palliative again. All that only create inefficiencies.

I share this view 100%. Simple, realistic and honest. Only addition is that Wale Edun as Finance Minister and the acting CBN Governor should work together to ensure achievement of the common goal. No working at cross purposes.

kettykin:
What exactly stops states from managing its maritime economy, must these brain dead one Nigeria mentality prevent real federal structure for how long , the federal government should remove everything from the exclusive list so that Nigeria can run a full federal structure

The constitution and relevant maritime laws provide areas of responsibility for states and FG regarding water bodies. BAT during his time as governor fought FG and OBJ on control of lagoon fronts and coastal resources. Osinbajo as Attorney General spearheaded that fight and I think they achieved some success

NLC is perceived as an arm of the opposition Labour Party. It didn't put forward its points intelligently with so much bile, threatening and confrontational language in that write up. How do you want govt officials to sit down to negotiate with you after calling them names and rubbishing what they are trying to do?

TUC comes across as a far more serious, strategic and thought provoking union body. Both unions should team up and apply themselves to finding joint solutions and challenging govt intelligently rather than recourse to war-like strategies that will still land on the negotiation table after all the damage is done.

For instance, both unions are putting the needs of their members (less than 5% of the population) at the forefront. I bet if they get an agreeable raise in minimum wage and allowances for their members, they will de-prioritise incentives that better the lots of the vast majority of the people like cash palliatives, affordable public transportation, health and education etc. So who is fighting for who? Staff of our 4 refineries have collectively earned close to N200bln in salaries and allowances without refining a single litre of fuel but NLC will not say a word about it because those staff are members affiliated with it.

Why is Gov Abiodun targeting cash palliative only to workers who make up far less than 5% of the population? What happens to the vast number of other citizens?

Arabk25:
If emiefule goes buhari is going down with him so he goes nowhere bitter truth

Former NSA to GEJ distributed $2bln ahead of 2015 elections and upon PMB's victory, was arrested and tried for over 6 years before his release. Very few if any called for GEJ to be arrested as Dasuki was merely following orders. I see how we Nigerians defend people based on our affiliations. When Emefiele disobeyed Supreme Court on Naira redesign, many hailed him. Today they are busy crying wolf about why DSS is using strange and delay tactics in his prosecution. Let us all be consistent.

004gist:
I don't even understand what u are saying... what's your point here?

we should keep importing fuel? that way it will be cheaper?
do you know that we are suffering from trade imbalance already ? and a responsible government must seek ways to tackle and correct this trade imbalance by encouraging import substitution industries and Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI)

1) refining our own fuel here means government won't spend billions of dollars importing fuel. naira won't be under pressure.

2)dangote budget 9$ but later spent 18 billion... most of this money was borrowed from Nigerian banks... namely Access Bank; GT Bank; Zenith; UBA; Fidelity and Afriexim Bank etc... browse the Internet n learn things

3) the faster we get our fact right by building new refinery so as to produce our fuel the better will our economy heal.

4) turn around maintenance on the old scrap refinery built over 40 years ago has not yielded anything... those refinery are old.... they are 40 years old plus

any one that tells you we don't need new refinery but we should keep importing, mounting pressure on scarce dollars then that person is an enemy of the Naira.

am an economist... let me school you a little....
Please study more on economic theory such as Mercantilism and Economic Nationalism.

But for now here is why Nigeria must do everything possible to stop the importation of everything :

Importance of export to a country

Economic Growth:Exports play a crucial role in boosting a country's economic growth. when the list of what we export grows way longer than what we import then true economic prosperity for all Nigerians
Foreign Exchange Earnings: Exporting allows a country to earn foreign currency. if we can refine our own oil and surplus could be exported to West African countries, that way we earn more foreign currency
Foreign Investment Attraction: Countries with strong export-oriented industries often attract more foreign direct investment (FDI).
Enhanced Standard of Living: Export-led growth can lead to an improved standard of living for citizens... today we import everything including toothpicks,fuel which God has blessed us with this has made Nigerians poorer not richer

creating jobs
improving the overall well-being of its citizens.

disadvantage of export to a country

Trade Deficit
Job Displacement
Loss of Domestic Revenue
Dependency on Foreign Suppliers
Reduced Domestic Investment

I'm not sure the other guy said don't build refineries. By all means, we need refineries but not to be built by govt but rather private entities like Dangote has done. Refineries in Nigeria will not translate to substantially lower fuel prices as many people believe but its advantage as you rightly pointed out is that it reduces significantly our use of scarce forex to import products thereby putting pressure on the Naira. Local refineries also generate jobs, guarantees energy security and encourages other industries that benefit from the numerous products from the refinery.

Both of you have your points and I believe you can align on some facts while drawing the necessary conclusions.

Deji's comments are largely uninformed. Same Atiku sold many of our national assets as Vice President. Has he done a post mortem on where we are with those sales? Yes, the refineries should be sold because they are laggards but due diligence has to be done first in this order - remove subsidy, deregulate downstream sector, encourage private refineries such as Dangote Refinery to come on stream in the shortest possible time, complete ongoing rehabilitation of PortHarcourt Refinery, sell off all govt owned refineries at competitive prices, allow market forces to control prices but with strong regulatory oversight etc

mrvitalis:
Firstly there was no 400 billion to save... Subsidy was borrowed money

Subsidy meant NNPC did not remit into FG coffers so not enough funds to run govt thereby borrowing to fund infrastructure. We didn't borrow money to fund subsidy per se. There are subtle differences there

mrvitalis:
Which governor said it? Oga no body made any 1.9 trillion

The signs are there. Are you denying the N400 billion per month saving from subsidy or the N5.5 trillion record half year revenue made by FIRS? If you adjust exchange rate from N450 to N800 to the dollar, shouldn't you expect your Naira receipt to double even if dollar revenue remains the same? You can argue that in dollar terms, not a lot has increased but we spend Naira and that has doubled which allows local payments such as salaries, pensions etc to be made and even service or repay local debts. Inflation is of course the danger here but careful injection as they plan to do will mitigate to an extent.

mrvitalis:
I repeat this is a big lie and it's impossible
APC lies have caught up with them now they want a new propaganda

There are PDP, LP, APGA and NNPP governors there too. Are those ones also buying this so called APC propaganda?

Both can be done. Workers are a small part of the population. What happens to majority others who are not workers and can't benefit from an increase in minimum wage?

Same argument for those who say the N500bln should be used to procure buses and distribute across the country to make transportation cheaper. Again both can be done. Short term cash palliatives AND a massive public transportation roll out can be done. Afterall during covid, US, UK and many other developed countries provided cash to vulnerable households to cushion the impact of sit at homes and widespread job losses.

AntiBMC:
I came for the pictures but as usual, fulani army neva disappoints. Only one corpse that must've been killed by mistake. Where are the others? Abi their body disappear after the said attack?

All this media hullabaloo nd audio killing of ISWAP because twitter suspend one vegetable for twelve hours.

Una never start.

You won't believe this because it is good news for Nigerians and our gallant troops but you are quick to believe that Malami advised PMB to suspend constitution without a shred of evidence provided, with many gyrating up and down on that thread.

I think the President touched raw nerves going by the number of responses on this thread. As the saying goes, you do not talk of dry bones in the presence of an old lady. Rather than inflame passions this way, the President could have generalized his comments so it is applicable to ALL nuisances across the country.

If he wants to be decisive, he will declare state of emergencies in some states, suspend the civilian administration of these states for 6 months and move in to restore complete law and order. Such states should include Borno, Niger, Zamfara and Imo as a minimum. Anything short of this is dancing around the edges

Most people are shouting constitutional review now or break up. What with the threats? Was this same constitution not in use since return to democracy in 1999? Let us get into a constructive dialogue as to how to resolve. Threats, violence and blackmail will only lead to escalation and after all grandstanding which may or may not lead to war, we will still come back to the negotiation table. Let us use our brains and stop all the abuse, blackmail, violence and threats as these only go to harden positions with nobody listening to one another.

This article by the Leadership newspaper is poor journalism. Who doesn’t know this paper’s opposition to the govt. What does it mean by Boko Haram, ISWAP etc have taken over ‘most’ of the country? It even goes to write about the ‘irredentist agenda of his Fulani ethnic group’. It mixes half truths with pure emotion to manifest its agenda.

A few weeks or months from now, all these challenges will be behind us and we will see what all these people who don’t wish well will resort to. What will be their next talking point?