₦airaland Forum

1. Gen Yakubu Gowon, a Christian had Vice Admiral Joseph Edet Akinwale Wey another Christian as his de-facto 2nd in command with Chief Obafemi Awolowo another Christian as his Chief Economist and Finance Minister and many people will also say doubled as his vice in many respects

2. In 1979, Chief Obafemi Awolowo a Christian, picked Philip Umeadi another Christian as his Vice Presidential candidate. That ticket almost won the election

3. In same 1979, Alhaji Shehu Shagari a Muslim won the election with Alex Ekwueme a Christian as his Vice. The next 2 officers in the hierarchy were Christians namely Senate President Joseph Wayas and Speaker of House of Rep Edwin Ume-Ezeoke

4. In 1983 though a military regime, Buhari and Idiagbon as his number 2 in command were both Muslims

5. In 1993 elections, Chief MKO Abiola and Babagana Kingibe, both Muslims won the Presidential elections

6. In 2015 and 2019, Buhari a Muslim chose a Christian Pastor as VP. They won, however the Senate President, House of Rep Speaker and the entire security apparatus were populated by Muslims

Religious combination of candidates though important is not sufficient grounds in my opinion. I'll rather look at the antecedents, competence and what each ticket has to offer.

FreeStuffsNG:
You are being alarmist and not putting your education to good use with this lamentation.

In the first place, gas cost has risen astronomically globally since Russia-Ukraine war started. Read up on why it is so.

On your unnecessary dramatics about food, parents still feed their children as no sensible responsible parent will let his or her children go without food because of high gas prices.

For as long as this war continues, gas price will remain high and that is why even Europe has started telling their citizens to cut down on gas usage and switch to alternatives, even EU itself has switched to other energy sources like coal.

If wealthy EU countries can switch to alternatives, that should teach you how to be sensible with your finances too when prices of any commodity is going sky high because of artificial reasons. That is called demand destruction to force price down.

In Nigeria, we can switch to kerosene, coal etc to reduce demand for gas so that those who want to further profiteer from the scarcity can reduce their price.

Sensible parents have since bought stoves and coal pots for now like Europeans in order to wait out this war period and will get back to gas when the price falls.
This is the way out not just lamenting and forming a lamentation group.

Gas itself , due to the deleterious effect of its combustion CO2 emision on our climate, will one day be phased out once we perfect the renewables.

N:B To those 'entitled' ones screaming we have gas in Nigeria, let me remind you that between the gas underground and your kitchen is a lot of billions of USD investments you do not have o and those who made the investment from their hard-earned money can not keep subsidizing your gas consumption endlessly especially when they have willing buyers and international contracts that pay more for this gas in the scarce forex our country currently needs.

Banking on gas subsidy after you enjoy petrol and electricity subsidies that our folks in the villages do not enjoy is an unjust ungodly welfare system you use to kill those poor villagers who are not enjoying your privileges of electricity,petrol subsidies and now gas subsidy but picking your bills , environmental and social costs while you feed fat on resources govt could use to give them basic amenities like pipeborne water; clinics, security, schools, standalone solar generators etc.
Their blood is on your hands if you want to extend your subsidy appetite now to advocating for gas subsidy at their expense.

FG must never subsidize gas. Get creative and responsible. Kill this lazy youth with entitlement mentality of yours.

Meanwhile,here's free book on business ideas & money sources directory for you,it's 100% free! to download, read and use https://www.nairaland.com/6666800/looking-business-ideas-money-fund. Cheers.
God bless Nigeria for ever.

Very very few can assimilate or understand what you posted. Everything you said is spot on. Of course many will disagree because it doesn't address the high gas price. Subsidies on petrol and electricity are wrongly targeted as mentioned, not to talk of adding gas subsidy. People shouting Peter Obi will be shocked because should he win, the first thing he will do is remove fuel subsidy if he wishes to tackle the subsidy corruption and free up money for other useful productive programs like he is touting or how do you thing he will solve ASUU crisis, increase existing workers' salaries, recruit new workers into civil service and armed forces, pay them salaries, fix judiciary, provide subsidized health and education and lots more? It is those who don't understand that all these take money that is scarcely available that will believe everything is easy. I wish us well.

Back to the topic, it is what it is and I cant add a thing more to what you have said.

Strange that APC can criticise PDP govt of Oyo State on loans and borrowings when it has done and still doing far worse on that front at the national level

aribisala0:
There are many industrial users of gas

The oil companies use it free for their operations
There are certain products that are classed as

ENERGY INTENSIVE


meaning the energy cost is a very high part of the cost of production

A simple Google search for Energy Intensive products would help

A few are

Cement
Fertilizer
Steel
Paper
Plastic
Glass
Basic Chemicals
Aluminium
Dangote confirmed that his recently commissioned fertilizer plant is getting gas from NNPC


Glass is another one . We have all the inputs for glass in Nigeria and very cheap gas yet we import a lot of glass from places like Germany a huge gas importer. In 2019 Nigeria imported $1.5 billion glass
We got less than $ 1 billion from gas
https://guardian.ng/business-services/how-nigeria-can-cut-glass-import-tap-production-advantages/
Bear in mind that the World Glass market is growing and in excess of $120 billion . There are all kinds of specialty glass products e.g. . laboratory use, windshields, beverage etc.

So there are many things we can do with gas at home, adding, value and creating jobs rather than generating revenue for government which is wasted and stolen
The focus should be on building world class companies and taxing them rather than government selling commodities and stealing the money.

Apart from glass there are several energy intensive products apart from power generation that we can use gas for to create
wealth and employment

Imagine this; if you transport gas in pipelines you would use IMPORTED metal pipes (another energy intensive product) None of which is made in Nigeria .

So Government should prioritize Value addition, company formation, wealth creation and job creation over sale of commodities .
Do you know that a British Company sold its stake or "ownership" of Nigeria to the British government?
The Royal Niger Company = Unilever today

We are not going to get our own Unilever, Mobil, Samsung etc. with this commodity selling mentality. We must realize that companies are part of the tools for projecting National power

The Chinese companies constructing upandan across Africa is a good example.
With regard to splitting gas money 50/50 , just one question . Do you realize how low the price of gas is? in terms of our needs if we increase our export volumes today FIVE TIMES the Nigerian government will not see $3 billion

It is just not worth our while considering the social and environmental impact to export more gas


There is another crucial element KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

The oil industry knowledge is jealously guarded as proprietary property S o you have expertise embedded in firms like TOTAL,
SHELL from countries that have no oil or gas of note .

For me as a leader the only way I export gas to Europe is if they transfer knowledge and skills to our people.

Julius Berger has been in Nigeria nearly 50 years , Since that time how many generations of engineers have graduated yet all major projects are controlled by white men.

So we need a Nigeria first vision. If we do not have the skill and knowledge to bring out gas from the ground by our own people. Let it stay in the ground till we get the knowledge

As long as NNPC is controlled by Abokis they will never negotiate Knowledge transfer because they do not have that kind of self belief and that is why the IOCs abuse expatriate quotas and exploit us.
Why is NNPC not bidding for oil blocs in Angola? No vision

Yes, all you outlined are the ways to increase domestic gas utilisation. However, investments in those industries are capital intensive. Apart from Dangote and perhaps Indorama, who else can make the quantum investments in fertiliser and petrochemical plants to the tune of $2-3bln?

As of today, power consumes the most gas in the domestic market. I believe we should prioritise gas to power as it is the bedrock for many other industries you mentioned. We will get there but a blueprint needs to be agreed and followed through. It won't be quick, this can easily take 4-5 yrs to see results if investments pour in today

aribisala0:
At current level of consumption in Nigeria we have reserves to LAST US about 300 years

If we industrialize our consumption would expand
Let us imagine we raise our consumption to the level of Mexico

That is 5 times our current consumption 18billion CM X 5 = 90 billion CBM

Not really a big deal in global terms


Then we have gas to last us 60 years

If we use gas at the level of China it is just 20 years gas in the ground

So let us not deceive ourselves about how much gas we have.

We cannot get money from gas that will change our lives

So for me we should forget about export and focus on how to USE MORE GAS AT HOME

Let us be more ambitious for what we can do in Nigeria

I am with you on this. We have to industrialise Nigeria and this needs a focused, long term thinking leader. The allure of gas export today is that it pays at least 5 times more than selling to the domestic market. Revenue is in foreign currency and is guaranteed as per signed contracts with offshore buyers. However, domestic gas revenue is often in local currency and irregular, typified by the pile of debts owed to gas suppliers who primarily feed our power plants. The chain is dysfunctional at the moment so can't be profitable for those in the value chain.

So a leader can recognise that issue, split short term development to feed export and domestic markets 50/50, use money from export to further develop the domestic market until a time it can be brought up to standard. A policy of moving domestic/export gas market development from 50/50 to say 80/20 can be developed over a 15-20 yr period. Challenge is, who will invest in that 50% seemingly unprofitable domestic gas venture in the near term? The IOCs will not, as demonstrated over decades of doing business in Nigeria. A leader therefore can negotiate and in certain circumstances mandate IOCs to invest 10-20% of investments in their profitable export gas projects in domestic gas projects and provide more incentives. In the short term, govt may have to subsidize consumption but gradually remove them over the years as the domestic gas market deepens and can make money commercially.

No option is easy in the short term but a leader with long term view will take measures today no matter how unpopular such measures might be. Such a leader should be able to communicate his/her vision to citizens, asking them for their support and understanding and explaining the pain points but with clarity to where we are headed.

Most people don't want to confront reality. We borrow to fund subsidy. Remove subsidy and you immediately save N4trn per year. Not only will revenue go up, debt service to revenue ratio will fall to 30-40% and there will be less need to borrow money. When a problem is identified, it behoves on such a person to proffer solutions no matter how unpalatable

There are 18 or so parties in Nigeria. What is Falana saying about discrimination? People are free to join other political platforms and pick much cheaper or completely free forms. There is a cap on how much a candidate can spend for elections. If that law hasn't been broken, what is the hullabaloo around this?

Ohaneze should be bold to call out those SE Govs following non SE candidates to campaign instead of covering them. All hands to be on deck in backing SE candidates, it is no time for so called camaraderie. The govs can make excuses when other candidates call them for support but should be firm in words and action in supporting SE candidates. If the Primaries go against SE candidates, they can then be justified to rally round whoever the party flagbearer is but not before the Primaries

Would be interesting to tabulate achievements of Jagaban, Osinbajo and Peter Obi for sake of comparing and contrasting. Peter Obi for instance is a better manager of available resources but Jagaban creates wealth in multiples. VP Osinbajo is erudite and did a lot in the area of Social welfare and policy reforms such as the botched NLTP. Would be nice to break down what each brings in terms of the economy, security, structural reforms, fighting corruption and creating wealth amongst others

I am not convinced that IPOB is not part of the continuous enforcement of this sit at home order. With the countless denials from IPOB, it should be easy to isolate the riff-raffs that keep killing and maiming people, expose and get rid of them. Looks like a combination of fear, collusion or both.

dwas:
Tell the Government in those state to be creative like Lagos.

Lagos State facilitated the creation of the Lekki Deep Sea Port. The Port is privately owned for at least 45 years.

Shareholding thus;
China Harbour and Tolaram 75%
Lagos state is 20%
Federal Government is 5%

Therefore, it's not the federal government building the Lekki deep sea port. They only have shares because of the law enabling federal through NPA that territorial sea belong to federal Government. That's the only reason that federal government is involve.

If you must know, Lagos state has many of such Private partnership initiatives she earns percentages from. While Lagos government is being creative, your governors are lazing around waiting for FG to everything for them.

What stops River states from partnering foreign investors to build rifinery
While they earn certain percentage from the deal. Lagos is not your mate.

Respect Lagos, Respect Tinubu the visionary leader.

Thanks for this post. States need to put on their thinking caps and attract investments themselves very much like Lagos is doing. Akwa Ibom is another state thinking in that direction - the Ibom deep sea port is unfolding while BUA's 200k bbl/d refinery is going ahead. When Ibom deep sea port starts operations and attracts shippers and other operators to its ports, Calabar, Warri, PortHarcourt and possibly Onitsha ports may still be there screaming marginalisation and underutilisation. Let them put on their thinking caps and do the needful

No need to color corruption cases with ethnicity. Below are few examples of Nigerians either jailed, convicted or who were investigated and stood trial for corruption cases. The list is not skewed to any particular region;

1. James Bala Ngilari - former Adamawa gov (jailed)
2. Joshua Dariye - former Plateau gov (jailed)
3. Jolly Nyame - former Taraba gov (jailed)
4. James Ibori - former Delta gov (jailed)
5. Orji Uzor Kalu - former Abia gov (convicted)
6. Lucky Igbinedion - former Edo gov (convicted)
7. Late Diepiere Alams - Bayelsa (convicted)
8. Ibrahim Magu - efcc chair (convicted)
9. Abdulrasheed Maina - Pencom (jailed)
10. Mukhtar Yero - former Kaduna gov (convicted)
11. Jonah Jang - former Plateau gov (convicted)
12. Sule Lamido and 2 sons - former Jigawa gov (convicted)
13. Senator Bala Muhammed - former minister (convicted)
14. Sambo Dasuki - former NSA (jailed)
15. Ayo Fayose - former Ekiti gov (tried)
16. Bode George - jailed
17. Tafa Balogun - former IG (jailed)
18. Nwaobosi, Olisa Metuh, FFK, hundreds more all tried, many convicted and jailed

The list is endless, just typed the ones that came to my mind. So rather than play the ethnic card, let us join hands to expose all corrupt persons and rid our land of those cankerworms that are as bad if not worse than terrorists, kidnappers, yahoo yahoo and those other terrible crimes

We can complain all we want. The issue is not as simple as many people see it. Bottom line is that the value chain is broken. There is massive transmission and distribution losses and payment for what is left that is consumed by customers is grossly inadequate to pay everyone involved.

2 things to do in my opinion is 1) reduce losses, most of which is due to illegal connections 2) customers to pay competitive market rates for electricity.

We are more like subsidising electricity consumption similar to fuel subsidy. It just can't work. Once we sort out these two issues, the other complaints by gencos and discos will naturally disappear.

FG's contribution to funding this bridge is about 60%. That said, if tolling will generate funds to maintain the bridge, so be it. Other selected federal dual carriage roads will be tolled as per the government's tolling policy which I believe is the right way to go.

For those not happy with the tolling of the 2nd Niger bridge, there is always the alternative to use the existing Niger bridge which is not tolled. This is the practice worldwide - to provide alternative routes so that people are not forced to take the tolled roads.

This guy is all hot air to me. He won't support power shift to the South, he won't close ranks with his party members to ensure credible people are put forward, he won't form a political party, 4 months to producing a candidate that will run in next year's elections etc etc. No need to waste any time listening to this guy.

shinealight:
All the aspirants will step down….are you joking? Some people will rather die than do that. Some of the Presidential aspirants fought IBB and his brother Abacha to a standstill….so Buhari’s partisanship means nothing to them. Nigerians are no longer thinking like people living in a banana republic. You saw how the CSO just went on protest to force the signing of the Electoral Amendment Bill into law……the guy was vacillating and was not willing to sign but he had to in the end…otherwise he would have been vetoed. Just keep watching the movie!

You think the CSOs action forced his hand? Far from it. He was just looking at those ones like irritants. He had a month within which to assent or veto and he was still within the constitutionally required time. He was smart enough to sign though, asking them to expunge the clause he still had issues with. If not, NASS would have overridden his veto.

NASS didn't help the situation. Everyone looking after their interests. If they just removed the clause that PMB complained about, it would have been signed. However they slotted in more controversial clauses and didn't deem it fit to align with the Executive before sending in for assent, now putting FG in a tight spot. In any case, PMB should sign the bill so we all move

Lauretta Onochie's nomination was fought on the floor of the Senate and defeated. How come the same thing wasn't done in the case of this Prof? I didnt hear about the Senate clearing. If it can be proven that she is a card carrying member of APC, PDP can go to court to challenge it

Take the good with the bad in this Federal structure we operate. Bayelsa state rightly gets a lot more than states far far bigger in land mass and population because of derivation, no complains. It would have been odd to argue otherwise. If allocations accruing to Bayelsa are judiciously applied, every indigene there will be living at least a Middle Class life. This is a state with about 2 million in population.

Realdeals:
Yes, but not on a full scale. Some construction are still ongoing and also some stations are not fully ready.

Some people will still considering traveling by road, going by the location of the stations. For example, you either go to Alagomeji or Agege to board the train from Lagos, with the final destination in ibadan at Monatan, which is a little far from the city centre.

The Lagos Ibadan train service is steadily progressing. 2 journeys either way daily, 3 on Fridays and Saturdays. About 6 stations enroute operational while a few others are almost ready. I agree that a few more stations are required in Ibadan as Moniya the last station is a bit far from city centre.

Buhari should have called for a reduction in the price of cement so that ordinary Nigerias can afford it. I listened to the CBN Governor Emefiele at same occasion and he admonished cement manufacturers to make their products affordable. That was a statesman comment.

Just goes to show that direct primaries though more democratic is not the silver bullet that will solve our electoral issues. It only means there are more people to bribe, settle or cater for by either the moneybags or those in charge of party structures in states like the Governors.

Fashola should clarify what he means. US Federal spending on new capital infrastructure projects have significantly declined over the past decade. However, their maintenance and operational spending on existing infrastructure has steadily increased. Because US infrastructure is in such horrible state, Congress approved Biden's more than $1trillion bi-partisan infrastructure deal to address it.

The states and local councils spend a lot more on infrastructure than the US Federal government and Nigeria does not even scratch the surface in comparison.

If you have symptoms and use the ncdc portal, you can book a free covid test in Nigeria. If you have to travel and require a PCR test, you have to pay for it almost everywhere in the world. Testing to go into stadia in Cameroon is already covered by the Cameroon govt as part of its hosting responsibilities. Most countries require negative PCR test results before flying or coming in. That costs money. If other forms of testing are required, it can be cheaper.

Sanwo Olu has 4 key things to deliver in my view;
1. Blue and Red metro rail Lines
2. Completion of Mile 2 - Badagry expressway
3. Commencement of 4th Mainland bridge project
4. Lekki coastal road and rail line

If he can deliver these, he would have achieved in my opinion. Of course other projects like the deep sea port, Lekki Airport, power generation and others should go on side by side but I will prioritise those 4 above if I were him.

I enjoyed the discussions though could have been more cordial. We learn everyday. Greenville does LNG but at a very small scale. There was also a plan by Lagos State govt to build an LNG regassification plant along the Lekki corridor but I dont know the status of that. As noted earlier, gas pipeline transportation is cheaper than LNG for certain transport distances and this flips for longer distances, reason why LNG is more lucrative when shipped in large quantities to far off lands.

On the issue of domestic consumption of gas, the elephant in the room is on how much we are willing to pay for it. Reason for export is purely the economics. Gas that we export is sold at almost 4-5 times the price it is sold locally and even at that, the local buyers don't pay promptly. Look at all the monies owed to GENCOs for instance. Gas production value chain business is very capital intensive and those that go into it expect a decent return which they don't get when they supply the local market. The govt tries to impose a certain obligation on companies to supply the local market but this has not worked out as planned. It is in the light of this that recent decision by NLNG to sell 100% of its LPG to the domestic market should be commended. It is a good starting point. Income from LNG still far outweighs that from LPG so I can see how giving up a fraction of revenue to fully serve the local market is a wise political decision and in the long run a wise business decision.

These are the type of conversations we should be having to sort out our problems in Nigeria. Nothing is as easy as it seems when you first look. If in doubt, you can ask Fashola concerning the power problem.

Where was Afenifere, YCE and PANDEF when GEJ sought reelection in 2015? If he had won, the South would have done 18 years vs the North's 2 years by 2019. Easy to always see things from an ethnic and religious prism. As PMB said, agitations are mostly noisemaking towards positioning for a better share of power and influence. Watch closely, these guys are those out of power today. No more patronage and perks accruing.

The stakes are high. No response other than a YES or NO will satisfy Nigerians. Laolu's response itself points to an ambition at a well advanced stage. Tinubu and Osinbajo will play this out. I only hope it ends amicably. My preference is Osinbajo as the younger, more vibrant and more experienced at this level.

backbencher:
ON refineries, PH and Warri are being repaired, plus we have five private refineries coming up, Dangote included, that can refine PMS (BUA's refinery can refine everything but PMS).

ON subsidy, the writing has been on the wall for some time. Subsides are funded by crude oil revenue, whose price has not been favorable to us for several years now, and even long before 1993. Alternatives like tax revenue, and revenue from non-oil exports are not enough to pay for subsides, and finally, subsides means that no one until recently was going to invest in refinery and sell fuel at a loss, with the subsidy unable to cover the resultante loss.

My view is that FG should wait until Dangote, PHC and Warri refineries come on stream. From what I've seen, at crude price of btw $65 - $80 per barrel, exchange rate of N410/$, a litre of petrol should be around N220 - N250. That is going to be profitable for the refineries, create more jobs, drastically reduce dollars required for imports and a lot more benefits. Labour will not have any more excuses and it is a middle ground for all involved. I foresee this happening by early to mid 2023. In the meantime, FG can put in place some measures to cushion the effect by completing intercity rail projects, helping states like Lagos to complete the blue and red rail lines, driving down inflation to like 12% this year by focusing on making food cheaper etc. All these will pave the way for a less painful increase by next year. The downside is that FG will keep borrowing in the meantime to finance budget deficits. There are no easy solutions.

No need to overflog the issue. NASS should remove or amend that section of the bill and represent to PMB. I am sure he will sign. The other issues in the bill are far more important to get thrown away along with this direct primaries thing. That fight should be for another day. Important thing is to keep making progress incrementally.

NGpatriot:
The person you quoted is a troll and he's trolling you, you won't get any sensible or rational submissions from him, he's only replies are going to be dumb and silly trolling questions after questions and even after answering his question, he'll ask you another dumb question.

Don't waste your time on trolls, they have nothing to offer.

I see he/she does that all the time. No need to further engage.

NGpatriot:
Countries all over the world tax goods entering their countries from entities like Amazon and AliExpress, but only Nigeria your own country should be the only last mumu standing losing entitled income to benefit your own life.

The roads you drive on, the bridge you drive or the rail you ride on are all free or even the salaries you get paid are paid with cowrie shells or fall from the sky?

You people are your own worse enemies..

Absolutely right, don't understand what the counter argument is all about. We are struggling with revenues which leads to borrowing to fund budget deficits. We all complain about borrowing but will frown at opportunities to shore up our revenue to reduce or stop the borrowing. As you said, quality govt delivery requires money. Who will fund all the goodies we are expecting from govt? With current situation, the brightest brains cannot do much without resolving the revenue problem. Next to go are fuel and power subsidies. As unpopular as they are, they are vitally important and someone has to take that painful decision.