₦airaland Forum

freecocoa:
no doubt, stupid boys and girls elope but to just change your identity like that, well says a lot about the girl and her home than any other thing but you can't rule out the fact that she may have been brainwashed, given the region involved.

Jesus knows I'm no bigot, just realistic.

Yes the two teenagers are very stupid and says a lot about their homes (both homes), but perish the idea of being brainwashed. Teenage lovers are known to do stupid and crazy things due to their fantasy ideas about love. They can even commit suicide. The famous Romeo and Juliet story was simply two teenagers in love and you know how it tragically ended.

This Ese saga is a vindication of the so called social media law, a simple case of two teenagers running away to " elope " had given some hate filled bigots excuse to spew insults at whole regions of the country, whole tribes and religion, including elders, leaders and constituted authority. The did not even wait to hear the full details of the story before screaming pedophilia, rape, kidnap, abuse. Now the true story is emerging, the have changed gear to juju and charm.

This is a case of failure of parental irresponsibility on the part of Ese's parents and carelessness and ignorance on the part of Yenusa's parent. I doubt Ese's parents can ever really get their daughter back, even if she is forced to return home with them, she will never feel integrated with her family or society again. Are they going to forcefully re-convert her back to Christianity?

Let's wait and see the saga unfold.

plaetton:
My dear good friend,

How can you say with a straight face that a 13 yr old girl fell in love with a man, eloped with him and converted to Islam ?
And therefore we should treat the matter with care ?

What country are we living in and in what century are we living?

I am deeply suspicious of any human who does not get emotional about this matter.

My long time pal,
You know I can never support child marriage and even child relationship, I have a daughter so you shoud know that EseI am appalled by this whole episode. But, you know I try to view issues dispassionately and so try to remove emotional response to complex issues.

You should understand that according to Ali Mazuri of blessed memory, we africans have triple heritage. We have our tribal laws and customs which in many cases still involve many primitive practices, then we have our religious heritage bequitted to us by our Arab or European conquerors and finally we have our colonial heritage which gave us colonial laws and political systems. All these three heritage are often in conflict within every African society. Islam allows 13 year olds to marry which is at variance with our colonial laws. Meanwhile, the Christian heritage of the Christian south forbids underage marriage.
In northern Nigeria the Islamic heritage has a strong grip on the people and society. Child marriage is commonplace like most other Muslim societies.
Now there is a problem because the people involved here are from two conflicting religious heritages. If the said 13 year old is from the muslim north, then there is nothing anybody can do despite what the constitution says. Remember Yerima married an underaged Egyptian girl and nothing happened despite all the hues and cry by the public.

You said 13 year olds do not fall in "love", you are very wrong, in fact 13 year olds are easliy infatuated by adults, it is the time their hormones starts firing up. Teenage sex is a huge problem in the US and the UK.

tanteta:
.... And who says that the islamization of Nigeria agenda by the northerners is not on course......even an IGP that is empower by the constitution to handle such matter, whom is even a southern can not do anything stating that it (the of kidnapping, rape, sex slavery, Forced marriage of a minor, possible torture ) is in the jurisdition of an emir......... whom according to the constitution is an ordinary citizen.... My goodness this is way past normal. I used to think that this sort of thing only happens up north where they do it to southern girls with impunity and nothing happens. Coverting them christians to muslim and the parents of the child will do nothing....... God help us...

The bolded part of the quote is a figment of your imagination, read the complete story to know that Ese willingly followed the man to kano.

Tension is mounting high in Bayelsa state over the abduction and forced
marriage of 13 year-old Ese Rita Oruru by one Yinusa who resides in Kano.

Yinusa who resides in Opolo, Yenagoa, had abducted Ese on August 12 2015
and eloped with her to Kano and has refused to allow her return home.

The parents of the victim, Mr. and Mrs. Oruru, who had made several visits
to Kano to secure the release of their daughter, have been unsuccesful as
Yinusa’s kinsmen insisted that Ese, who they now refer to as ‘Aisha’,
belongs to them as they are ready to pay the necessary bride price.

The Orurus reported the matter to the Police and the Department of State
Security (DSS) and their promise to bring home Ese has remained
unfulfilled forcing the parents to take the issue to youth and civil
society groups.

In a press conference addressed by Mr. Kizito Andah of the Child
Protection Network, he said civil society and youth groups in Bayelsa are
ready to stage a protest and press home the demand for the release of Ese
from the custody of her abductors.

Andah, who lamented that both the Nigeria Police and the DSS have been
unable to secure the release of Ese, warned against an ethno-religious
crisis which the abduction and forceful conversion into Islam could
trigger in Bayelsa state.

He said CPN was demanding that Nigerians prevail on all relevant
authorities to ensure that Ese is released and her abductors are punished
in line with the laws of the land.

“ We strongly believe that the said Miss Ese Rita Oruru has not only has
been hypnotized but also recruited as a tool in the hand of an Islamic
fanatical group in Kano State. Miss Ese Rita Oruru is only 13-years-old
and cannot give informed consent to marriage and is still held hostage.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Oruru are petty traders who are putting all efforts
to meet the needs of their children. ”

Most people here are just ranting based solely on emotions. Instead of Ben Bruce ranting only on twitter, he should have gone to personally see the IG to get an explanation of his position, or better still raise a motion on the floor of the senate to summon the IG to come and explain his position to Nigerian.

As i noted in a previous comment, the Ese girl was not forcefully abducted, she "fell in love" with Yenusa and ran away with him to Kano to secretly elope. All these happened since last August. She is also alleged to have converted to Islam further complicating the issue. That is probably why the IG demand the involvement of the Emir of Kano as this is now a case involving 2 Muslims.

The problem with Nigeria is that we are governed by three (sometimes) incompatible laws - The constitution, customary laws and religious laws, that is why we must marry 3 times before we are truly satisfied we are truly married.

This issue is better resolved diplomatically than using force. Using brute force might even have negative consequences on the Ese girl we are trying to help. She needs serious counselling and psychological help

It is refreshing to see all Nigerians support the prosecution of an alleged criminal irrespective of region, tribe, religion or party affiliation. We have not heard the usual defence of witch hunting, media trial, vendetta and the" is he the only person that have defrauded Nigerians" defense. If we had been in unison in condemning criminals in the past irrespective of tribe tongue or religion in the past, Nigeria would have been a better place.

deedo93:
if this statement credited to yemi osinbanjo is true then I must say its absolutely unfair to the immediate past government and I'm starting to wonder how much of the allegations this new APC govt has laid on the past administration is true.

I wasn't a fan of the good luck administration at all but a road I use everyday(gwagwalada to zuba) in d FCT was dualized during the goodluck regime and I heard d road actually started from lokoja. so wat is prof. yemi saying. pls the APC should stop the accusations and start working. God bless Nigeria

That is why insist that English comprehension is a huge problem in Nigeria. Read what Osinbajo said again and this time try and comprehend better.
Osinbajo said no new road was built by the Jonathan administration and you are here yapping about dualization. If you and Doyin Okupe disagree with Osinbajo, why not list at least 1 new road constructed by the Jonathan administration.

IVORY2009:
Do you hv proof to this effect? If yes why to seek redress @ the court of law against the formal hon. Minister, rather than been online spreading propaganda.

Even the very vibrant minister of finance and the economy says the unremited oil money by NNPC under the very vibrant minister of petroleum is $10 billion.
Except you are insinuating that the finance and economy minister does not know the finances of the economy she is coordinating.

A week later, Mr. Sanusi appeared before the National Assembly along with Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke. The three announced that their officials had been in marathon meetings to “reconcile” accounts. The Central Bank chief regretted his astonishing estimate of nearly $50 billion as missing remittances. The figure yet to be accounted for by the “reconcilers,” he announced, was $12 billion. Ms. Okonjo-Iweala interjected that the figure was $10.8 billion .
- http://saharareporters.com/2014/01/01/nigerians-yawn-over-missing-billions-okey-ndibe

And where did Jonathan's vibrant ministers get us? We had a vibrant oil minister who was very vibrant with non remittance of oil revenues into the federation account, we also have very vibrant with national security adviser who was very vibrant in sharing monies meant to purchase arms to fight boko Haram. We also had a very vibrant interior minister who was vibrant scamming unemployed youth with non existent jobs and killing some in the process. Yes Jonathan's ministers were very vibrant in looting indeed.

curiox007:
all the $100 oil to $30 oil you are saying is not for me, in a civilized country when an aspirant that was blabbing his mouth during campaign and see things he can't handle on getting to the sit of power , the honourable thing is for him to resign

False. Not all campaign promises are met. Politicians sometimes make promises he knows are popular at the time but renege on getting to power because of the impracticability of such promise.

Obama made the promise that he would shut Guantanamo bay if elected during his first campaign for office and had been reiterating the same promise since then. Uo till now - just a few months to the end of his Second term, guantanamo bay is still opened, and he has not resigned.

OKDnigeria:
Hmmmm
APC supporters....
when Buhari made d promise, they supported it.
Now that he has reneged on it, they support it
If he tomorrow reintroduces it, they will support it.
Even if Buhari turns around and says unemployed youths shld pay #5,000 monthly to govt, they will support it.
To them Buhari is always right. he must not be criticized

Although i an not necessarily an APC supporter, i am a staunch Buharist. I support Buhari for most of his actions, why? Because he has a track record going back more than 40 years. He is patriotic, discipline, upright and respected by everybody except PDP/IPOB, so i trust his judgement. Although i suspect the N5000 promise was made by APC. I have never supported free handouts to youth under any guise, it dies not add any value to both the youth receiving the handout and the government giving out the hand out.

If Buhari tells us to give N5000, i will still support him. I trust he will utilize the money for the betterment of the country. It will be better than men of god telling us to give N5000 for the betterment of their own lives, while doing nothing for the country. It is certainly better than the last government collecting N1000 from the youth for non existent jobs only to kill over 10 of them. Until till today, their money had not been refunded.

Leadership is powered by trust. Once a leader is able to establish trust, his followers would follow him to the end of the earth.

jamesibor:
2n2k



Here you go;


Newswatch VOL 31, Nos. 9 & 10


How Buhari Ran PTF
Interim Management Committee on PTF raises questions over some of the
transactions it considers irregular during the tenure of retired
Major-General Muhammadu Buhari

 By Jossy Nkwocha

  How did N500 million belonging to the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF,
disappear mysteriously? That is one of the questions being raised in
the preliminary report of the Interim Management Committee, IMC-PTF,
set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to wind-down the activities of
the organisation.

Newswatch gathered that the money was put in a bank by the erstwhile
management led by Muhammadu Buhari, retired major-general and former
head of state. But when the IMC-PTF took over the operations of the
body, it discovered that the money had been withdrawn by unidentified
persons.

Haroun Adamu, executive chairman of IMF-PTF who confirmed the story,
said: “ They took in N500 million but by the time we came in, there was
no one kobo from the deposit. ” According to Newswatch investigations,
both the bank and Buhari were dragged before President Obasanjo who
insisted that the money must be recovered. Adamu told Newswatch in
Abuja a fortnight ago that the bank has now agreed to pay back the
money in seven years but his committee insists that the money should be
refunded as soon as possible. Adamu neither named of the bank nor say
whether or not Buhari was personally involved in the matter.

The mysterious withdrawal of the money is one of the allegations
levelled against the Buhari-led past administration of PTF by the IMC
which seems to have put the four-year tenure of Buhari as the executive
chairman of PTF under intensive searchlight. Although Adamu insists
that Buhari is not under probe, he said that a technical
audit/verification exercise being carried out by the committee shows
that a lot of ugly things had taken place under the acclaimed
no-nonsense retired army general.

The committee is asking questions about several contracts worth N207
billion awarded by PTF under Buhari. It is also raising serious doubts
over different payments totalling N135.59 billion made by the Fund for
various projects, leaving a debt burden of more than N70 billion owed
numerous contractors, consultants, manufacturers, publishers and
suppliers who are now waging a big war against the IMC-PTF.

Is this the so called report that indicted Buhari? I keep insisting that Nigeria's number one problem is not corruption, it is illiteracy. It is easier governing corrupt people than illiterate people.

Now where did the report indict Buhari? This style of indictment is just like the Sanusi indictments, they looked into the accounts of PDF and conclude that this item is too much or this contract is inflated without bringing in expert valuers. If contracts can be valued at mare sight by everybody, then companies and government agencies would not need to go through elaborate tender process to award contracts. The chief executive can just guess contract sums from the top of his/her head. The report simply substituted PTF with Buhari's name and pronto, you have an indictment.

I do not have the time to go through the frivolity of the so called indictments but i would just bold the relevant areas for the reader to see the indictments.

They took in N500 million but by the time we came in, there was
no one kobo from the deposit.

So the N500 million deposited at the bank was remain sitting in the account, waiting for the Adamu led committee to be formed, so they can spend it.

both the bank and Buhari were dragged before President Obasanjo

Obasanjo is now a judge where cases of financial crimes are dragged before.

Adamu neither named of the bank nor say whether or not Buhari was personally involved in the matter

Although Adamu insists that Buhari is not under probe.

If Adamu cannot name the bank or say whether or not Buhari was personally involved and still insist that Buhari was not under probe, then why waste our time with the long epistle and why are PDP/IPOB so ecstatic after reading the report?

Even before the Adamu led PTF began its operations, they were already being accused of corruption and asking for bribes.

There is nothing untoward about PDF hiring consultants to help it run its operations, the PDF is like the ministry of works and housing , health and education all rolled into one. You do not expect a committee of less than 10 people to run and manage all their operations.

Nigerian youths always celebrating ignorance for the world to see. You guys are just too mentally lazy to study and read so you accept fairy tales as spoon fed by religious leaders.

uchkochi:
The interpretation of the Creation story.

This interpretation is very vital for the understanding of who you really are.

Where did you get this your interpretation? From the bible, holy spirit, from your pastor or through research and empirical evidence?

You are not a product of the evolution theory propounded by Charles Darwin
God made man from clay (Adam)
Man was therefore empty until He breathed His spirit into Man
Thereafter man became a living being exactly like God
Adam named everything without consulting God
Because He thought like God, acted like God.
He was in charge and had dominion. Genesis 2 vs.6-7

Have you read the theory of evolution? Have you read the origin of species by Charles Darwin? I doubt you even understand the theory itself. I am sure you rely on your pastor to interprete the theory for you, as everything else.

What evidence do you have that your God made man and from clay for that matter? What evidence do you have that shows human body has clay constituents (which is mainly silicon)? So you are only humans are made of clay, what of the rest of animals, what are they made of?

God saw the loneliness of man and extracted woman from the rib of Adam
Eve was created to be a help meet for Adam and a companion. Gen 2 vs.22-25

So you omnipotent god did not foresee that his single creation would be lonely and cannot fvck himself? So how did he think he would multiply? Or are you telling us that you god's initial plan was to have only Adam roaming around the earth, while all other animals were created in pairs.

God was always visiting them every evening at the cool of the day.
Satan who was Lucifer became jealous, because God was so much in love with man that no day passes by without God visiting Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. Some angels began to say who man that God is mindful of Him is. Psalms 8 vs. 4

Lucifer got envious and led a coup with a lot of angels in heaven to sit on Gods seat.
But there was war in heaven, no place was found for the devil so He was cast down with his rebellious angels.
Satan then vowed to put enmity between man and God and to take a lot of people with him to hell which is his final destination. Isaiah 14 vs.12 -15, revelations 12 vs.7-9.

He caused Eve to disobey God involving Adam and man sold His dominion to the devil.
God came the next evening but found that man who always rushes to meet him was hiding cause of sin

He proclaimed judgment and returned man back to the dust and told serpent to feed on dust all the days of his life, while the woman was to pass through pain during child labor.
But God said unto the serpent who was Satan, that THE SEED OF A WOMAN WILL BRUISE HIS HEAD, This was the first prophecy of Jesus. Gen 3 vs. 1-24

Even though man fell God had a plan to redeem man through the death of Jesus.
It was only the blood of Jesus that could save man. And it was shed completely.

So everything that Satan afflicted man with after the fall; death, sicknesses and diseases, barreness, depression, sin, poverty and whatsoever cannot be described as very good was destroyed on the cross. But to work in the totality of this victory you must believe in Christ and accept Him as your lord and savior. And by doing the word you will experience the God-kind of life which is your redemption. I needed to break the creation story down because without understanding even when you are saved life could be frustrating. So as you begin to walk in this consciousness knowing the real you. Dominion over the problems of life is your portion. You shall live the remaining days of your life as if there is no trouble. The joy of the lord is your strength. You are blessed in Jesus Name. Amen.

The rest of your story is like Alice in wonderland.
You God is always visiting? Where does he go to?
It is a wonder, that a sane and supposedly educated man in the 21st century believe some fairly tale that some stone age men made up to try and explain their world as they understood it.

And why why do we have to import common salt? can't we manufacture salt? Is Pat Utomi saying we do not have salt deposits in Nigeria? or we cannot manufacture salt from salt water?

Joseph, i am really impressed by the amount of effort you are putting into trying to educate the youth and free them from mental captivity. They are just being groomed for financial milking for life by pastors and religious leaders. It is like grooming a cow to be milked for life. So the strategy of these religious leaders is to keep these youth in perpetual ignorance by discouraging the acquisition of scientific knowledge. Most TV programs and films tailored for kids and youths in developed countries are geared towards teaching kids basic sciences, but in Nigeria most programs made for kids discourage sciences and instead teaches faith - Christian or Muslim. Our youth are increasingly unable to compete with the rest of the world in the information and knowledge age. One wonders why we are not developing

I use to be like you tying to get the youth to focus on science and technology instead of faith, now i am very busy and only come here occasionally. Please keep the faith, do not relent in educating ignorant youth on basic science. Because of a few people like you, many people here have started questioning life long dogmas and some have even abandoned blind faith to embraced scientific knowledge and ideals to improve their lives and of those around them.

Cmiller:
until you can prove to us that you have never or dont patronise Nigerian tailors..STOP TALKING
Those europe, U.S etc patronise our made in nigeria products and before you ask which ones lemme list few: oil, skin and hides, skills and talents(our graduates from our universities that currently work and base in europe), foods(oyibo dey flex our food pass us for the europe..ask people) etc. So what we need is a more better environment to grow our made in nigeria products, skills and talents

Are you sure you can comprehend the topic under discussion? What you wrote up there is completely off-point from the issue under discussion. We are admonishing Ben Bruce for making it seem that he is the only one that had ever bought a made in Nigeria item, while every Nigerian had bought made in nigeria goods before.

MissingBudget:
If you know anything about publishing, you will know that our publishing houses here are not up to standard. He wants the best for his book. Get over it. Maybe when he needs quality medical attention he should also go to Nigerian hospitals and die abi?

If Ben Bruce feels Nigerian publishing houses are not up to standard, then he has no business promoting "made in Nigeria". Aba made shoes cannot compare with the standard of Italian made shoes. Even innoson cars cannot measure up to the standard European, US or Japanese cars, so why should anybody buy made in Nigeria.

onatisi:
Where the printing was done is totally irrelevant and a very stupid argument to nullify the contents of the book and the author. What any sensible individual and normal thinking human being should be after is the content of the book and whether it is applicable to the nation. There can be many reasons why the book was printed in the USA,only sensible human beings will be able to think that through anyway not everyone .

The implications of what you are saying is, What the messager does is totally irrelevant, the content of his words is what is important. No wonder pastors, politicians and leaders get away with anything in Nigeria, they just have to offer the right sound bite and we start worshipping them.
A pastor can have many mistresses and even wives, but as long as he stands on a pulpit and preach against adultery, he becomes a hero and role model. Same with politicians, he can steal the electorate blind, but as long as he preaches anti-corruption, he becomes a hero and gets the people's votes.

M4gunners:
People are just looking for ways to paint BMB bad.What if he has made arrangements for the book pay down since last year, before naira started to fall Op?
At least, he bought and keep buy made in Nigeria cars , you try and buy one!

You guys are ready to defend any gaffe (and even crime) by any PDP member or supporter but be quick to criticise the minutest mistake by any APC member. So you are telling me that Ben Bruce did not receive the revelation to promote made in Nigeria until the present fall of the naira. Besides, i thought part of the so called common sense revolution as contained in the book is buy made in Nigeria, so what sense is making a book that promotes "made in Nigeria" in the UK.

Which Nigerian does not buy at least one made in Nigeria product? Which Nigerian dues not buy made in Nigeria cement, bathroom slippers, traditional attire, yams, etc. The issue is quantity and frivolities. The quantity of made in Nigeria products is too small to meet demand and we are in the habit of importing frivolous items like campaigne, handkerchiefs, sweets, etc.

If Ben Bruce says we should buy made in Nigeria cars, how many made in Nigeria cars are available? How many cars does innoson make compared to the demand for cars?

Ezenwammadu:
Who the fvck cares what he thinks

At least okonjo never said 16+6=24 nor was $1 above N200 during her tenure

But Okonjo did not have an idea of how much money NNPC remits into the federation account, intact she had no idea of much much revenue her government was making. Added to that she was clueless on how much subsidy payments she was owing oil marketers. She was only competent at approving whatever money Jonathan requested for - no questions asked about its legality.
Now what type of finance minister was that and which economy was she coordinating?

TonyeBarcanista:
That's because Emefielle was playing hide and seek and was initially economical with the truth but only stating the ban expressly until few days after he had barred banks from bringing dollar to the apex bank.

READ THIS...

Nigeria: CBN Officially Bans Foreign Currency Cash Deposits in Nigeria

www.allafrica.com/stories/201508061477.html

You can read the full article....


Now that you get the fact of CBN's action, what's your next argument?

As i said earlier, i do not understand the policy, but after reading your link, i have have an idea of what Emefiele was trying to do.

Emefiele was trying to reduce the influence of the parallel market by starving it of dollars and making genuine importers of items not banned by the government go through official channels.

Read this to understand Emefiele's thinking;

For the avoidance of doubt, only wire transfers to and from Domiciliary Accounts are henceforth permissible.

"The CBN advises individuals that wish to source foreign currency for eligible and legitimate purposes such as BTA, PTA medical, mortgage, school fees, goods etc. to do so through recognized channels with the use of Form 'A' for "invisible" and Form 'M' for "visible" transactions."

The problem with Emefiele's plan was that Emefiele's plan was that the CBN does not have enough dollars to met the demand of those with eligible and legitimate purposes. Secondly, since we have no alternatives yet for banned items, importers of these items are ready to buy dollars at whatever price they can get it and the cost would be transferred to the final consumer who have no choice. So i agree the policy cannot work and that was why CBN quickly abandoned the ban policy.

What i disagree with is your assertion that it was the restrictive policy that is responsible for the falling value of the naira now. I am telling you, that the value of the naira cannot be saved by any monetary policy save withdrawing dollars from our foreign reserves and flooding the market with it. Any other policy is like fetching water with a basket. The only sure way to improve the naira is to reduce imports, increase exports and consume locally made products.

TonyeBarcanista:
The restriction on import of certain product is a different issue and I welcomed it. This is different from the ban on the dollar.


READ THIS and see reactions to the ban.... www.allafrica.com/stories/201508040971.html

The truth is that we put the cart before the horse. We have no capacity to produce locally yet nor the infrastructure but we muscled the dollar six months ago thinking that the backyard policy will help. Here we are.....

I read your link, and no where did it say that the CBN banned the dollar. It was reporting on the new forex policy and the views of stakeholders.

I will quote relevant parts of the article;

Some manufacturers and financial market analysts have expressed divergent opinions on the Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN) foreign exchange policy as well as the decision by commercial banks to reject foreign currency deposits.

Emefiele explained in the interview that the decision by the banks to stop accepting foreign currency in their vaults was not taken by the CBN, but that the central bank was in support of the idea.

I do not get the place where you got the information that Emefiele banned dollar deposits not to talk of the said ban is responsible for the falling value of the naira 6 months later.

TonyeBarcanista:
Firstly, there was no time the Naira jumped from N146 to N230 in January. What happened was that the Naira was devaluated in Nov 2014 and officially pegged at N165 from N155. It was again devaluated to N199 in February 2015. Please we should get right our fact!

We are aware how speculators hoarded the dollar and the flooding of our economy of same currency by polithiefcians before the general election. This made the dollar rate to shoot to N225 . Nevertheless, there wasn't this huge scarcity of the said currency like we are facing now.

On Vanezuela, someone brought it up but both situations are parallel. They had to officially embrace devaluation(something I had advocated since last year) but ours isn't yet devaluated officially but it's now in comatose.

Finally, this has nothing to do with impressing any group. You should know that.... And I'm an Analyst not an economist, that doesn't make my analysis wrong.

You are stubbornly refusing to learn and at the same time making contradictory statement to defend your untenable position.

The bolded part of the statement is highly contradictory, you said speculators hoarded dollars and at the same time politicians flooded the market with the same dollars and you hypothesized that it was the net effect that made the dollars shoot to N225. Please explain.
How is the Venezuelan situation parallel to our own? What is the effect of their devaluation? Did it eliminate the parallel market or bridge the gaps between the markets? As long as you have lots of local currency chasing fewer dollars (due to reduction in foreign earnings), the local currency would continuously lose value.
This your hypothesis that the dollar restrictions imposed on commercial banks by CBN 6 months ago is responsible for the falling value of the naira is untenable and not supported by any renown economist. I might not understand the reason for the policy, but i know it's effect on the value of the naira even at the time it was imposed was minimal. The policy did not affect big importers like fuel, flour, rice, etc, or else we would have starved and had fuel crisis during the period, it affected mainly individuals and small time importers. I do not see how the total volume of dollars affected by the restrictions would have significant effect on the dollar, even then, not to talk of now 6 months after the policy was lifted.

TonyeBarcanista:
Again you fail to see the point!

You are in fact echoeing my position. The CBN is yet to devaluate the Naira but the state of the Naira is on a comatose due to scarcity of the dollar in the market. Read again..

I still do not understand barcanista's views, are you calling for outright floating of the naira or devaluation ? Devaluation is still controlling the naira at a government approved price (official market). There will still be a parallel market. Then you did to answer this question, if government devalues the naira ti say N400 to the dollar, would that reduce dollar demand for importing items like cotton bud and milk? What about the socio-economic implications of such devaluation, how will the government survive it?

Here is what i wrote earlier on the topic;

I have never supported the devaluation of the Naira. Every government since the 70s had devalued the naira and we never fared better after the naira was devalued. Each time the Naira was devalued, we also go through rounds of socio-economic crisis. As the naira rate increases against the dollar, inflation would skyrocket (since we import everything), petrol prices would increase (and the same argument would come up again that petrol has become cheaper than a bottle of coke), labour would discount wages in dollar terms and ask for increase in wages (because take home pay would no longer take you home, doctors would go on strike and demand wage increases, poverty levels would increase, etc. PDP/TAN/IPOB aka wailing wailers would be estatic saying we told you Buhari is a disaster and call for civil disobiedience.

So buhari is trying to manage a very tricky situation with the current dollar policy, he is giving dollars very cheap for importing essential commodities like fuel, medicines and industrial raw materials, while telling those that want to import milk, tooth-picks and champaigns to source their dollars themselves. Whether this policy would work in the long run, i am not sure as the policy is highly prone to abuse.

TonyeBarcanista:
Since late 2015 I deliberately barred myself from making any commentary on the state of the naira in particular, and the economy in general despite watching things move from bad to worse. I had reasoned that it was best to observe things in silence and take note of development. Though my silence was interpreted by some of being sympathetic to President Buhari and a "ploy" to return to APC, I still maintained mute, focusing on other aspect of the economy.

As someone rightly mentioned you should continued observering the state of the naira and the economy in general in silence instead of coming out to make a fool of yourself. You have no idea of basic economic principles of demand and supply and the workings of the world economy.

Firstly, Crude Oil Slump Not Responsible For Naira Fall
We are all aware that our own currency, the Naira now trade at N403 to the Dollar($). Contrary to the notion that the fall in oil price is responsible for Naira collapse, the painful truth is that the massive fall of the Naira has nothing to do with oil price. If it was, the Naira would have traded at N20 per $1 when crude oil was selling at $120 per barrel in 2012. If the fall in oil price was the cause, the Naira would have fallen to N500 to the Dollar in December 2008 and February 2009 when oil price slumped to $30 per barrel from $147 that it sold in July 2008(but instead the Naira exchanged at N140-N145 to $1). If the Naira didn't fall so fast when crude oil price slumped in mid 2008, if the Naira didn't experience huge growth when the price of crude was at $120 per barrel in 2012, why then should we ascribe the astronomic fall of the naira to crude oil slump in price?

How can a person with even ssc level economy education say that the fall of the Naira has nothing to do with oil price. It is like saying the goods we import and consume has nothing to do with the amount of foreign currencies (mostly dollars) we earn. So where do the government get the dollars to sell to importers to import fuel and every other items we consume?
In the cases you sighted, how long was crude at those two extremes? I remember crude hitting $147 for just a single day and it was above $140 for not more than a week. Also during the slump of 2008, crude did not go below $30 for more than a couple of weeks, intact it did not fall below $40 for more than 2 months and it rebounded almost immediately to the 50s and 60s. So how do you expect a few weeks of extremely low or high prices to have immediate effect on the naira. Besides during the 2008 slump, Nigeria had enough dollar reserves to defend the naira.
Comparing to the current situation, crude prices had been consistently low for more than 6 months, our foreign reserves are very low, so how do you expect the government to defend the naira?

sparrowkid:
Please don't say what you don't know. Ben Bruce and Tony Iredia are one of the best DGs of NTA in recent times. He did a lot of wonderful things in NTA. It was in his tenure that NTA started nationwide expansion and he was supported by the Presidency then because he was very close to Mrs Stella Obasanjo of blessed memory. He equally changed a lot of things in program contents of the outfit. And he laid the foundation of numerous NTA stations we have now like NTA international, NTA Knowledge, NTA Entertainment, etc.

As for his showmanship, many of you have forgotten that he is an entertainment guy. He lives all his life in entertainment and to me, politics is a means to an end for him. When all the political distractions are over, he will be back to his innate constituency - entertainment industry. At least National Assembly have been quite boring after the exit of Patrick Obahaigbon from the House of Reps. I think Ben Bruce is giving for us his own brand of entertainment. Life is too fun and we can't all be serious all the time.

It is you that do not know what you are saying. Which poll rated Ben Bruce as on of the best DGs of recent times? Viewers, NTA staffs, the general public or his twitter constituency? I was very close to NTA then, so i know the great relief NTA staffs felt when he was sacked.

The numerous NTA stations were just avenues to enrich himself, i got the papers to build the Uyo offfice at N15 million naira, while the actual contract sum was N35 million, that was without the equipments. He brought in sub-standard and outdated equipments for the stations. The one in warri hardly works, NTA warri sometimes works a few days a week.
What is the sense of having NTA in every state capital in a digital world, is ben bruce telling us that there can not be one or two NTA stations in Nigeria and different local contents can be allocated to different digital channels, just like Startimes did. It was startimes that introduced digital broadcasting to NTA.

Yes, he brought 24 hours broadcasting to NTA, but then what was the content of those broadcastings? NTA during ben bruce's time lacked content, if you disagree, name one program introduced by Ben Bruce during his stint at NTA. NTA used to boast of a viewership base of 30 million, what was it during Ben Bruce's period.

Ben Bruce might be a good businessman, but as a politician and a public officer, he had been terrible. His Bayelsa governorship campaign was not impressive, he was making such outlandish promises like introducing BRT scheme in Yenogua ( a state with few roads, few population and mainly riverine). He had not done anything major in the social and philanthropic scene.

sarutobie:
You've been making phantom claims here..how much quantity of beans will twenty naira get you? Twenty naira sachet milk will provide an individual with the essential amino acids,minerals and fat needed for his/her daily activity.

This is where you have got it all wrong. N20 beans is far mor nutritional and beneficial than N20 cow milk. The only problem with beans is that you need micro amounts of animal protein to fully activate it. Infact cow milk is said to have many nagative consequence on humans, cow milk was designed for cows and not human, that it is why it is dangerous to give infants unprocessed cow milk and it is dangerous to give cow milk to baby cats and dogs.
Read this for more info

In fact, most people believe that their health will be jeopardized if they don’t consume dairy products. Cows milk is often described as nature’s most wholesome food. Our “nutritional education” in schools (funded in part by the dairy industry) teaches us that dairy products form one of the main food groups we all need for proper nutrition. And with the most powerful Congressional leaders in Washington receiving campaign contributions from the National Dairy Council, we can be assured that dairy products will continue to be advertised as food that is “necessary” for good health.

Humans weren’t designed with an odd gene flaw requiring us to drink the milk of other animals to grow, because every species has endemic traits that only apply to their specific type.

Cow’s milk contains most of the same components as human breast milk, however, these components are not in the same amounts. For example, humans have the most advanced brains of all species on earth, therefore human breast milk has evolved into having high levels of PUFAs or polyunsaturated fatty acids (especially linoleic acid) which is responsible for the rapid brain development.

Cow’s milk, on the other hand, contains significantly lower amounts of PUFAs, but higher levels of saturated fats, which contribute to rapid body building. Therefore it should come as no surprise that cow’s milk has double the amount of protein than human milk because cows double their size in 45 days, while humans take 180 days for the same growth.

In addition to the difference in the amount of protein in cow’s milk when compared to human milk, there are also major differences in the composition of this protein. There are two important proteins in milk; Casein and Whey. Cow’s milk has twenty times more casein, which puts a huge pressure on human digestion as it coagulates and forms dense curds that are adapted for the four tiered stomach digestive apparatus of a cow. Human milk, on the other hand, is made up of sixty to eighty percent more whey than casein which is easier to digest for our stomachs.

These are some very logical, factual and scientific reasons why a cow has a brain weight three times as small as ours and a body weight seven times as heavy. The bottom line is, cow’s milk is meant for calves to grow and not humans. We are really not meant to be drinking cow’s milk, at least not in the quantities that we do and especially not into adulthood. To make matters worse, human milk is getting more and more contaminated by pesticides due to the meat and dairy that makes up a mother’s diet.
- http://www.onegreenplanet.org/lifestyle/is-cows-milk-meant-for-human-consumption-part-1/

I have never supported the devaluation of the Naira. Every government since the 70s had devalued the naira and we never fared better after the naira was devalued. Each time the Naira was devalued, we also go through rounds of socio-economic crisis. As the naira rate increases against the dollar, inflation would skyrocket (since we import everything), petrol prices would increase (and the same argument would come up again that petrol has become cheaper than a bottle of coke), labour would discount wages in dollar terms and ask for increase in wages (because take home pay would no longer take you home, doctors would go on strike and demand wage increases, poverty levels would increase, etc. PDP/TAN/IPOB aka wailing wailers would be estatic saying we told you Buhari is a disaster and call for civil disobiedience.

So buhari is trying to manage a very tricky situation with the current dollar policy, he is giving dollars very cheap for importing essential commodities like fuel, medicines and industrial raw materials, while telling those that want to import milk, tooth-picks and champaigns to source their dollars themselves. Whether this policy would work in the long run, i am not sure as the policy is highly prone to abuse.

obasiken:
In 1983, people had to line up to buy a tin of milk. Go and ask your father. This policy is an ancient policy or you now know better than 2 former CBN governors sanusi and soludo who have come out to say the same thing.

And is it by force to drink milk? In fact an adult does not have the need to drink cow milk. If Nigerians are obsessed with drinking milk, then they should rear cows and milk them. The government says there is no dollars to import milk and you are complaining of lining up for milk. If you insist on drinking foreign milk, then source for dollars yourself and import it.

oduastates:
NOTHING I WANT MORE THAN FOR CRUDE OIL PRICES TO FALL MORE AND MORE .
This is the best thing to shock the country out of uselessness. And if people refuse to change , let them continue to suffer.
It will also be good for the Niger delta

At this present moment , I believe that the true value of the naira is closer to N5000 if you discount oil.
Basically means that Nigeria does not export anything , does not make anything and will forever remain dysfunctional until the bitter medicine is applied
Restricting dollars does work . It did work in 1983 .
It means that individuals and companies whose business are built on importation and dumping of basic items will suffer and possibly collapse .
It also means that potential local alternatives will grow out of the ashes .
I cannot forget how South Korea used Nigeria to experiment and dump those paper Daewoo experio cars .we allowed them . Countries come and dump in Nigeria without restrictions while they put all sorts of restrictions on Nigerian agricultural produce.

Nigerians want to buy what they cannot afford .
What has changed between 1983 and now is the taste for excessive luxury.
What has never worked in Nigeria is the devaluation.
Every devaluation in a Nigeria has always led increase in poverty while the looting elites later bring back a little bit of their looted dollars to buy government properties for cheap.
To show you how the useless Nigerian economy behaves, tomatoes , onions and beef sellers have increased their prices because of the devaluation of naira.
When exactly did dollars become the Nigerian currency.
None of the inputs into the production of these two goods has suffered a corresponding increase in price.
What you have there is an economy that simply does not work . For a few years under Obj , it felt like Nigeria was about to build a truly middle class led economy . That dream was blown away by Yar Adua and Jonathan
This is why I support the dismantling of the current system of excessive importation which I hope will be followed up by the dismantling of the informal sector as shown by the behaviour of these tomatoes seller.
This crisis remains an opportunity. Let the elites cry and starve for the dollars .
This crisis present and opportunity to change the way Nigeria works .
A Nigerian value chain can be built without much effort . If your drink factory need orange concentrate , source it locally . Mango is wasting away in Benue , tomotoes is rotting away in the north .
Talking about priorities,
Ondo was building useless conference centres when it should be building Cocoa plantations . Cross river was building Tinapa instead of palm oil , Akwa ibom was building stadium instead of pineapples and coconut , Osun building airport instead of plantain.
Do they know that they can build an entire value chain on what they have ? From chocolate to soap , cosmetics ,detergent,lubricants, medicine etc

I doff my hat? You seem to grasp the current economic situation and indeed economics itself better than all our politicians and 99% of Nigerians including the so called economic experts. Our politicians embarked on useless projects when they had plenty of money, conference centres, stadiums and airports have little economic value. In fact they are economic liability, because the cost of maintaining them is a drain on the state's resources. Power, agricultural, industrial and transportation (especially rail) infrastructures are what can secure the economic future of a state or country.

ocelot2006:
What bloody decline? The economy kept growing at a rate of 6-7% under the GEJ watch. Even at the last days of his administration, Nigeria still maintained that growth and was projected to be one of the largest economies in the world.

Bubu on the other hand SQUANDERED that success. 2-3 months into the PMB admin, and No thanks to his lack of economic policies to guide the nation and gross incompetence, our growth rate dropped to 4%, job growth was slashed, freaking Ethiopia overtook us as choice destination for FDI, we're no longer among the top 5 fastest growing economies in Africa, the Naira's value took a nose dive, no team to drive the president's no existing economic policies. 9 months down the line, the country's in recession. Thousands of jobs have been lost with 2 million being threatened. There's massive capital flight as investors run away. The business environment is so harsh now that small business's are parking up. And there's the.budget fiasco. All these while Bubu and co are busy blaming GEJ, who btw is busy trying to.enjoy his retirement in peace.

It ie because of lies and voodoo statistics from PDP faithfuls like you that i bookmarked this quote by obailala
Read it and learn the truth about the lies being reeled out in the guise of statistics.

quote author=obailala post=42950364]
Let me tell you a short story of what happened when the oil prices began to crash, just between October 2014 and May 2015 when GEJ handed over:

(1) The Naira fell from N166/167 to N220 to $1, meanwhile oil still sold at about $65/barrel as at May 2015.
http://abokifx.com/previous-rates-2/

(2) The nation's foreign reserves dropped from ~$38.5bn to $28.7billion, that's a drop of about $10billion in 7 months, with oil still selling at about $65/barrel as at May 2015.
http://www.cenbank.org/intops/Reserve.as
(3) Nigeria's GDP growth rate which was maintained at an average of 6-7% suddenly dropped to its lowest since 1999 of 2.3%.
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/gdp-growth-annual

(4) Due to a severe cash crunch occasioned by fall in oil prices, the Nigerian government had to borrow about $2.4billion dollars early in 2015 to pay salaries. The FG could not also pay accumulated arrears of fuel subsidy since August 2014 to petroleum importers (this led to the fuel scarcity in May 2015 just before the handover and Lai Mohammed also blamed this owed fuel subsidy as the reason behind the fuel scarcity late last year)
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/05/nigeria-borrows-to-pay-salaries-with-cash-crunch-worsening/
http://www.channelstv.com/2015/12/21/lai-mohammed-blames-fuel-crisis-on-past-administration/

Note that all of the above happened at a time when oil still sold above $65/barrel; today oil sells for about $30/barrel

Now I do not want to imagine the kind of economic humanitarian crisis that would have enveloped Nigeria had GEJ continued in his usual manner of dipping his hands into the forex reserves; only God saved us as a nation else we would have been standing on long queues by now to receive one cup of rice daily from W.H.O or UN outlets.


Did I just hear you say continuity of those four (4) negative events I just pointed out above?
Are you aware that the FG under Buhari has not borrowed to pay salaries? It even bailed out the states
Are you aware the FG has paid off subsidy arrears owed to oil importers even since the days of GEJ?
Are you aware the FG/CBN has been able to maintain virtually the same forex reserve amount that it inherited till date?... Unlike GEJ that crashed it by $10billion in 7 months of oil price crash?
And now all these have been done when oil sells for less than half of what it was when GEJ was handing over and you think the present government is more useless?? I challenge you to tell me that these figures and indices I have written here are wrong, kindly explain to us your 'empirical' evidence.

banio:
Why live in the past. Let's pray that Buhari performs because it's bitting hard on we fathers. I am not saying GEJ was excellent or that OBJ was a saint.

Any society that losses sight of the past cannot have a future. Nobody was saying OBJ was a saint, but we need to know how he was able to achieve all those things when crude was selling at $30/barrel.