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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKwf4SJHdMk&feature=youtu.be[/flash]



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKwf4SJHdMk

I see the only way to make a change is from the "ground up".

Tackle state governments, engage the local government people, wean your state off the FG. That way the states and regions become less dependent on FG.

Nigeria's GDP is approaching $400bn, oil adds less than a quarter of that. So we should engage those state level guys as well.

"Power is never given, it is always taken".

Abuja produces zero but it controls the power, I say the states and regions should take that power back - within constitutional and reasonable means.

I believe GEJ meant refined petroleum, or crude oil already extracted and set aside to be refined exclusively for Nigeria.

Strategic oil reserves in the context of the discussion was in case of an emergency Nigeria has only 55 days worth of petroleum before our cars, generators, war machine etc stop dead.

I am also looking out for the transcript, so if you find it please do share.

Reflections On the Jonathan Presidency

There are several challenges facing Nigeria some of which started or gained prominence during President Goodluck Jonathan's tenure.

These challenges came up begging for solutions from our president, who had hitherto promised us a 'journey to transformation during his electioneering campaign. Although these challenges were many, the most prominent were the Boko haram debacle and the fuel subsidy imbroglio. Another issue that deserves response is the 2012 budget.

The provisions of budget 2012 further affirm the widely held belief that President Jonathan doesn't understand Nigeria's problems. The allocation of about N1 trillion to security as against a paltry N78 billion to agriculture goes a long way to expose a calculated attempt to take Nigeria on another journey as 'usual'. This is more so when juxtaposed with the fact that the president mentioned in his budget speech that he is going to give high priority to agriculture to create jobs. Actually nothing has changed and there are no indicators that anything is going to change in the near future.

Insecurity cannot be tackled by pumping even the total budget figure of N4.749 trillion into the security sector. Only social justice can guarantee security. For an end to the continuing Fun of lawlessness in the country occasioned by kidnappings, Boko haram, MEND etc, the wealth of the nation must be rescued from the control of a select few who find themselves in public office and this wealth must be directed towards freeing more than 70% of Nigerians from economic slavery imposed on them by their own leaders.

The budget is glaringly lopsided and disproportionate with 72% allocated to recurrent expenditure, aka payment of salaries and estacode for public officers and their domestic staff as against 28% allocated to capital expenditure. The president allocated about N1 billion for his food and entertainment allowance including those of his vice with another N2 billion voted for foreign travel for the president and his deputy for year 2012. This proves the point that the Jonathan administration is on a wild goose chase in its 'transformation' mantra.

Only jobs and other options for economic empowerment will guarantee security and keep the youths at zero level of susceptibility towards kidnappings, terrorism and related vices. A large security vote in the budget will only end up in unrelenting corruption and self aggrandisement. More money in the private pockets of those in government!

On Boko haram, the most prominent solution administered by the president to the seemingly intractable Boko haram quagmire is to, at the slightest opportunity attempt to reassure a highly sceptical and disenchanted public that his government is ' on top of the situation'. The president and his security advisers didn't seem to have a clue as to how to tackle the Boko haram issue other than leaving the police to do 'their job' of providing internal security with the help of the army.

As we have seen since 2009 particularly during the most recent Boko haram onslaught in the last 6 months, the Boko haram isuue is much more than a problem to be tackled with only force. Force cannot crush Boko haram but will only lead to more bloodshed. It is very difficult if not impossible to crush an ideological agitation. Henry Kissinger the respected former U.S. Secretary of State has once said that a conventional army can never defeat a guerrilla force. So far we have not seen a pragmatic approach from the president in tackling Boko haram. The president seems to hinge his hope to end the Boko haram on a wishful thinking that 'it will fizzle out naturally'. Instead of fizzling out, what we have witnessed within the last half of this year was a Boko haram that grew from strength to strength, out manoeuvring our security agencies and causing havoc at will. They choose not only where but when to attack as they so wish. All of us have resigned to faith and many a Nigerian will tell you that 'we leave the Boko haram issue to God'.

The president had earlier set up a high powered committee to look into and proffer suggestions on how best to deal with the Boko haram issue. The committee was chaired by the respected Ambassador Galtimari. The committee submitted its report to the government and since then the only thing we heard was that 'Mr president has thanked the committee members for their efforts. Nigerians were later informed that a white paper will be released, till date the government has not released any white paper from the Galtimari committee report.

The Galtimari committee recommended that the government should dialogue with the Boko haram sect on the condition that the sect lays down its arms. This same strategy was used to dilute the terrorist activities of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) by late president Yar'Adua and it worked. The late president granted a general amnesty for MEND in return for MEND to lay down its arms. The recommendations of the Galtimari report if implemented early enough may have saved some of the several lives that have been lost since the report was submitted. The Boko haram have vowed that they are not interested in a dialogue with the government saying that the same option was used against them in 2009 only for the government to kill hundreds of them.

The onus is on the president to fire the first shot by offering to dialogue with the sect and more importantly to allay fears that this dialogue will be different from that of 2009. I also think the president should reintegrate some of the moderate boko haram members into mainstream society by offering some lures as done in the case of MEND. These lures should include a conditional release of these moderates within the Boko haram network with an undertaking from them that they will renounce violence and be productive members of the society. The government should also respect the court orders obtained by the sect against it including the 100 million naira compensation that the court granted the family of the late 70 year old Baba Fuji Mohammed who was executed by the Nigerian police after turning himself in on the invitation of the force. This will smoke out the sect members and prove to the sect that the government is friendly and ready for dialogue.

Some of the several people in detention today in the name of Boko haram actually have nothing to do with the sect. A lot of them are only victims of circumstances caught up in the web of the confusion that attended Boko haram attacks. After any attack by the sect, security agents simply come around and either kill or arrest any male on sight. The government is nonetheless not looking at this angle, preferring to punish even the innocent and their families.

Alkali Sokoto wrote from Councillors Quarters, Sokoto

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Why do people want Nigeria to negotiate with Boko Haram?  Apart from that bit, I think the article is mostly well written.

Source:http://allafrica.com/stories/201112280346.html

@ Worm

GEJ resigns, then what? Nigeria cannot afford a constitutional crisis. A GEJ resignation will lead to huge upheaval.

The SS may explode in righteous indignation and the SE may see a GEJ resignation as proof of marginalization.

Who takes over and in what capacity? Will the military sit and smile? Do we even know the ethnic composition of the military and the size of paramilitary groups?

Let's do things properly and use the constitutionally "selected" president to try and resolve this - at least until 2015.

GEJ was not my candidate in April but I fully understand why people supported him and why they still do. A GEJ that still relies on a delicate balance of power to rule is better than one who rides a wave of bloodshed and violence.

People are burying their dead; in our haste to stem the bloodshed let's not cut off the wrong limb.

After GEJ all the other people may not be acceptable to two zones, so we then have Boko Haram unresolved but we may see more paramilitary groups joining in and trying to outdo each other.

What is the "African First Lady Peace Initiative"?

How sad that within ear shot of GEJ and his wife innocent Nigerians are being slaughtered. Let's first get Nigeria peace before any African Peace. This whole first lady office business is crap, just because you sleep with the CIC doesnt mean you get to control tax payers' money!

My condolences to the families of the bereaved.

.

GEJ should not resign because of Boko Haram. I do not like GEJ's economic policy and most of his other policies but I do not want him to resign over security. GEJ resigning over security would be a disaster to Nigeria and set us back decades.

If GEJ resigns, who takes his place:

- Sambo?
- David Mark?
- Tambuwal?
- Fresh elections?

No, if some elements in Nigeria cannot stand a Niger Delta man being president then that's extremely pathetic. Boko Haram and the military elite are the only ones who benefit from a GeJ resignation and the correlation between GEJ's ascendancy and Boko Haram's attacks is quite strong.

Sambo, Mark and Tambuwal are even less qualified to "rule" Nigeria than GEJ is. Either of these chaps in charge would be much worse than GeJ.

GEJ, stand your ground - tackle Boko Haram and their sponsors ruthlessly. The floor is yours. If you must resign then announce a Sovereign National Conference and do your duty.

And voila: 30 pages of tribal wars.

Ive just seen other threads where the dead and wounded from the Christmas bombings are being remembered or their stories told, yet here we exhaust time on insulting ourselves.

I hope all the Nairaland tribal warriors do something nice to one other Nigerian this week. Even if it is your fellow tribesman, at least he or she is still Nigerian and Nigerians need to help ourselves more.

This story is sad, Nigeria has not been safe for Nigerians for a very long time now.

I predicted 30 pages for Nairaland tribal warriors.  We are half way there.

Carry on.

NLs do love an online fight. The old "my farm is bigger and better than your farm argument".

After this thread reaches 30pages or more, nothing would have been learnt or taught. Just online ninjas claiming their father's farm is bigger and better. The Nigerian elite is out there robbing the nation blind while you are arguing amongst yourselves.

The Chinese, European and American vultures are waiting for us to kill ourselves so they can feast on our mines, oil and other resources - so keep at it.


Igbos, Yorubas, Hausas and the other ethnic groups have a lot to learn from each other despite the commentary of the online Ninjas in Nairaland.

cold:

So if things go awry in your home.You would blame your wife for bringing forth irresponsible kids to the world.Rather than taking the blame for not living up to your responsibilities of being a good father to your kids.Very typical

The analogy is not correct. I'm far from a GEJ supporter, but place blame where it needs to be placed.

Islamic terror in the shape of Boko Haram wants to make Nigeria its home. A religious and ethnic war is being incited and you want to blame someone who is neither a religious or ethnic leader.

There is a huge queue of people that should be blamed, locked up and tortured before we even get near blaming GEj.

I think his strategy and tactics can be improved and he should realise he is dealing with entrenched powers.

These words are not inspiring.

GEJ is not a military man, he is not a religios leader and he is not a leader from the north.

Whilst blaming him is easy, it is not right. He can order the army to burn down 1000 Northern towns but Boko Haram will still exist.

It is painful to watch innocent people being murdered by cowards, but I believe the blame does not lie with GEJ in this instance.

Responsibility begins at home, the blame for the insecurity in the North lies with those who instigate, encourage and benefit from this madness.

On the matter of security and what I have heard that GEJ is doing, I don't believe the blame rests with him.

GEJ is not to blame for Nigeria's insecurity.

Why put the blame of Boko Haram's insanity on GEJ's head.

Why not ask: "are Northern elites responsible for Nigeria's insecurity?"

Young And Ready Deadly Soldiers.

HARAM

Bump.

You've assumed I'm a party hack. You are defending a spectacular failure in leadership.

Sycophants and political vagabonds are selling the lives of future generations.

Nigeria's CIC had a chat yesterday asking for trust but he is impotent and incompetent as he can not face the people looting the country blind. He swore to uphold the constitution and now can't look the public in their eyes.

Dude, I have a business to run so I take my exit. Sycophants who feast on the carcass of the unborn do not deserve a reply especially when they act like trolls!

GEJ sycophants are the people feasting on the huge recurrent expenditure. They are literally eating the future of unborn generations.

Nigeria's population was 106m in 1999 and is said to be 160m in 2011.  Our debt has grown from N794bn in 1999 to N5,318bn in 2011.

Which means that every man woman and child owed N7,500 in 1999 but now owes N33,238 in 2011 without any capital infrastructure or improvements to show for it and some people don't see a problem with that!





Source:
1999 to 2008 (http://www.dmo.gov.ng/oci/debtstock/docs/Domestic%20debt%20stock%20and%20Service%201999%20-%202008.pdf)
2009:  http://www.dmo.gov.ng/oci/debtstock/docs/Domestic%20Debt%20Stock%20Outstanding%20By%20Instrument%20as%20at%2031st%20December,%202010.pdf

2010: http://www.dmo.gov.ng/oci/debtstock/docs/Domestic%20Debt%20Stock%20Outstanding%20By%20Instrument%20as%20at%2031st%20December,%202010.pdf

Mar 2011: http://www.dmo.gov.ng/oci/debtstock/docs/Domestic_Debt_Stock_by_Instrument_march2011.pdf

Sep 2011: http://www.dmo.gov.ng/oci/debtstock/docs/Domestic_Debt_Stock_Outstanding_by_Instrument_as_at_30th_September_2011.pdf

GEJ and his supporters talk a good fight.

He has the largest bureaucracy Nigeria has ever seen, he is accumulating the biggest debt Nigeria has ever accumulated and this has been over a period of extremely high Oil prices and strong GDP growth.

Since 2007, GEJ has been close to power or in power yet cannot name even one single substantive project. Instead we get hot air.

Kobojunkie:

Any company that spends more than it produces needs to engage in some serious downsizing and restructuring. Government is bloated and we spend so much more taking care of it than it produces. We need to cut it by more than half and then add back only that which we need to. Jonathan made it more than obvious yesterday that he does not have faith in his own Government.

So true. Instead we get half truths and actions plans that are the opposite of the half-truths. The borrowing rate has accelerated to N100bn a month or N3bn a day. Since GEJ's budget proposal on 14 December, he has borrowed N30bn.

What were the promises he made pre-election and what's the road map to achieving them! No one knows. Instead all we hear about is 1) tenure elongation, 2) subsidy removal and 3) cabals.

Soldiers Have Encouraged Evil Politicians.

SAUDI

Every four months, under GEJ's borrowing rate of N100bn a month Nigeria borrows N400bn.

N400bn is higher than Nigeria's health budget, our police budget, our defence budget and our education budget.

Despite this huge debt overhang GEJ intends to borrow more.

Whilst I do not doubt Nigeria's capacity to borrow more based on an expected GDP on a recalculated basis of c$400bn, the issue is what the money is being spent on. Nigeria is borrowing to feed a bloated executive and a bloated national assembly.

Sacrifice some fat cows in the executive and national assembly first before asking commoners to make sacrifices.

Drago Ruined Esther's Super Suzuki.

MERRY

Nigeria's domestic debt since 2007

Domestic debt  
OBJ/Atiku years
Dec 1999: N794bn
Dec 2000: N898bn
Dec 2001: N1,017bn
Dec 2002: N1,166bn
Dec 2003: N1,329bn
Dec 2004: N1,370bn
Dec 2005: N1,525bn
Dec 2006: N1,753bn

OBJ/Atiku added N959bn in 8 years, an average of N120bn a year.  However OBJ/Atiku saw foreign debt of $30bn repaid or forgiven.


Yaradua/GEJ
Dec 2007: N2,169bn
Dec 2008: N2,320bn
Dec 2009: N3,228bn

Yaradua took our debt from N1,753bn inherited from OBJ and added N1,059bn in 3 years, an average of N353bn a year.

GEJ/Sambo
Dec 2010: N4,551bn
Mar 2011: N4,869bn
Sep 2011: N5,318bn

GEJ has taken our debt from N3,228bn inherited from Yaradua and added N2,087n in less than 2 years. Every month GEJ has added debt of N99bn (more than Nigeria's 2012 agric budget of N79bn)

Surely Nigeria needs a better explanation than just "trust him", "he means well" or "he is passionate".

The N2,087bn he has borrowed in 2 years nko, what has he done with it?


Source:
2007 to 2008 (http://www.dmo.gov.ng/oci/debtstock/docs/Domestic%20debt%20stock%20and%20Service%201999%20-%202008.pdf)
2009:  http://www.dmo.gov.ng/oci/debtstock/docs/Domestic%20Debt%20Stock%20Outstanding%20By%20Instrument%20as%20at%2031st%20December,%202010.pdf

2010: http://www.dmo.gov.ng/oci/debtstock/docs/Domestic%20Debt%20Stock%20Outstanding%20By%20Instrument%20as%20at%2031st%20December,%202010.pdf

Mar 2011: http://www.dmo.gov.ng/oci/debtstock/docs/Domestic_Debt_Stock_by_Instrument_march2011.pdf

Sep 2011: http://www.dmo.gov.ng/oci/debtstock/docs/Domestic_Debt_Stock_Outstanding_by_Instrument_as_at_30th_September_2011.pdf

So did they explain why calls were not taken.

It is a pity that I was right at the beginning. The number was just for "show".

@Leomax

I did not watch the whole interview as I had to "torture my spiders" (more rewarding). I picked up the comment from someone else.

@Kobojunkie

Thanks for confirming that something similar to that was said. I like your "smileys".

Did GEJ really say this:

"We need a reserve that can last for at least six months since we have six geo-political zones"

Govt would not want to inflict PAINS on Nigerians