How can you buy 33,000 liters of diesel per week to run a rice mill in the country according to one rice Miller.
How can he face his competitors in Thailand & India ,if he has to spend that much on energy alone ?Is banning the importation of rice the solution to this problem?
As oil prices rise , definitely the cost of diesel will rise and if he ever had a margin,it will shrink more and more.
Over the years I have been listening to experts on the energy sector explain some simple facts to governments on national television without success.
The challenge is that facts change nothing in Nigeria no matter how it is explained.It doesn’t make sense to those in government as soon as they are sworn in.
It is either they don’t believe anything outside their political circle or understand anything except how to strategically rig elections and keep improving on it
Another manufacturer said that he has been buying 10,000 litres of diesel every week to keep his PVC plant running.
He has tried everything possible to get connected or get his power supply from the National grid.It has been very difficult to stay afloat.
Some have suggested that industrialists run their business on solar energy.That with enough solar panels and batteries they can solve their power problems.But they forget how expensive that option would be.Even if they decide to go with that option, definitely the additional costs shall be transferred to the consumers.
Instead of fixing problems and making life easier for all of us,they are used to making things easier for a few of them in government.
Many of the rich in Nigeria created their wealth by being at the corridors of power and not through industries
How dare you create wealth outside the corridors of power?Which means breaking free,which means they cannot hold you down again.You must be a in Dreamworld.
But I know that the evil agenda of certain people to put Nigeria in their pocket is already a failed venture.
Our wounds in the nation need nurturing care in order to heal. If we are to nurture and heal, we must admit that the wounds exist.Unfortunately the media has become the tool that worsens the wounds.They have lost their voices in nation building. They are rather pulling the nation apart and expanding the wounds.
Because of the existence of this wounds,words spoken by each ethnic group will just be waiting to be animated from wrong perceptions.
They are weaponised to offend or to upset regardless of any good intentions by the speaker.
Those who have lorded it over the majority are suffering from guilty conscience.This triggers prejudices and myopic consideration of issues of national interest .The reason many of them jump off the handle for little or no reason.
They react by misrepresenting facts with their ethnicised versions that can take us to nowhere.
Somebody saying that his vision of Nigeria is of the SouthEast as Singapore,the North as Dubai,the South- South like Norway and the South-west like Germany should not attract insults.
It began to attract insults on social media because there is an existing wound in the heart of the ethnic groups that made up the nation .That nobody wants to be reasonable again.
He was of the opinion that if a new federal constitution with a regional structure is in place,it can create insentives for that to become a reality in a few years time.What is wrong with his thinking,is it not patriotic enough? . Should he be insulted and abused because he came from a particular ethnic group?
The fact is that the states are no longer working ,their financial viability is questionable.Nobody is engineering the capacity to develop the solid mineral resources existing in each state.
My thinking is that the regional structures may help to achieve this developmental purpose.But it may not work with the same kind of politicians presently in governance over the years.We may likely get the same result.
We can have ceramic industries and coal mining industries in some states .We can export fruit juices and wine and poultry products.We can make chocolate confectioneries from cocoa.We can be like Holland with our cows.
We can eliminate the issue of one member of the family being a millionaire and the rest are depending on him through massive industrialization.Having products with export values and not just raw materials.
But let us recognize that there are unhealed wounds all over the place.We must heal the wounds before we plan and plant.
“Both my daddy and mummy have called to plead that I avoid every protest,it makes me wonder what the government did to our parents to make them this scared. They are the cause of our problem.They accepted everything past governments threw at them.But we have to fix the problem”
This was from one young man on Twitter because of the current situation or scanty protest at Lekki Toll Gate.
My son, you may not understand.Many of us are not the cause.
You may not have one solid reason to prove that such “parents” very decent citizens,who are in the majority,are the cause of the national problem.Maybe a few parents.
When you have your own children,you will understand.For some of us very elderly parents,it is not that we are ignorant of what is going on, but no elderly parent wants to lose their children at old age for any reason,in a nation where there is no provision for the elderly.
If the children die protesting,they may be labeled as armed robbers in the first place.Can we afford to go to the grave with such a shame?
In addition to this shamefully fabricated fact by government in most cases,who takes care of us.?
Secondly,the military regime was bloody and we had no social media at that time. Most of us were brought up during such frightening regimes and were ruled by decrees.So,we lived and grew up with such a shock from the 60s.
Thirdly,we want to let you know that “Yesterday’s heroes” have become “Today’s oppressors”before our very eyes.
The present administration is full of former June 12 activists,but that “June 12” generation is unfolding itself as a fraud before our very eyes .Can you now understand why we don’t want to lose you?.
We thought that they didn’t want their children to lose their future freedom and democratic rights, during the military regime,so ,they decided to fight and protest on our behalf during the June 12 days, but, unfortunately those military regimes have become more tolerant and less brutal,based on what we are witnessesing today.
They are presently shooting at protesters, killing and packing their corpses in car boots for mass burial, which we rarely saw during the military regime.
We now understand that they didn’t like to be oppressed,so they worked hard to replace military oppressors to become present day oppressors.It is now their turn to oppress ruthlessly.We used to hear operation ” kill and go”,now it is “operation kill and remain” .Who dare challenge them.
Now we understand that most of them are not”June 12 heroes” but “June 12 opportunists and hijackers”
Our guess is that they were not really fighting for the soul and security of the nation,but a people who wanted a chance to get to power to do and put into practice what they saw the military,(who were then our mild oppressors) doing and the benefits they had with their properties all over the nation and oil wells.
The cycle continued from military to military to civillian to military to civillian to civillian to civillian…. Nawaooo.
We don’t want to lose our children and grandchildren, because we have discovered that, when you give an average Nigerian power,he or she would turn arround to become a political monster overnight , to oppress anything against his or her wish. Just be a politician and you have made it for life.
It corroborates the notion of some Nigerians, (including yours truly)that some Nigerians who are dreaming and aspiring to be in power or wealth ,are just aspiring to become oppressors themselves. Please don’t blame us.
Unfortunately our greatest fear again in your own generation (youths) with the social media,is that some of you who are shouting protest, protest online,butgo offline to align with the oppressors in order to get some crumbs.
We are beginning to realize as elders that majority of the youths are two faced . They are strong online activists and offline supporters of the same oppressors.
They are strong online protesters, who aggressively declare ,that they will not keep quiet till their voices our heard but offline……Which means that,they also don’t want to die.
We can also state categorically that many Nigerian heroes ,are unfortunately identified and appreciated, only in retrospect, the week of their death.
They are villified in real-time and their history scantily or briefly told or mentioned, the week before their final burial . That is the only time their heroism is made known and also forgotten.
You can now understand our frustration, and why we protest your protesting.
The scars on protesters fighting for the people are never recognized in the history of this nation.
Nigeria has the richest Pastors , highest paid Politicians ,the Most Black US Dollar Billionaires , and the Most Black US Dollar Millionaires.
Nigeria also has the highest number of extremely poor people in the World (91 million).
Meaning that the poverty in the country is really making some rich?A few Nigerians are seriously taking advantage of the poor population and acquiring enough wealth to cling or return to power.What a pity.
Nigeria is also the most black country and the first country that so much believes in having certificates and not skills.
Every body wants a white collar job.No skill acquisition,no technological advancement.Just let me have certificate to show that I “tasted”school.
Sometimes when I walk arround the neighborhood the number of churches and mosques are several times greater than hospitals arround the neighborhood. Yet we are the giants of Africa, whatever that means.
According to the global multidimensional poverty index in 2015/2016 the % of India’s population living below national poverty line and below $1.9 was 21.9% and 21.2% respectively.
Nigeria’s 2018 report was 46.0% and 53.5%.
India with a massive population is working harder than the giant of Africa.
The anti people policies of the Government is done principally to enrich those rich men that sponsor thieves for elections and campaigns and keep us number one in the world for the wrong reasons.
We keep packaging and repacking dead administrations.People that have blocked their ears to reason.
If you like make your voice louder than the loudest speaker, they have refused to hear.You will never make sense to them.
Even with a lot of brilliant minds in the nation with advanced ideas yet we are number one in having some funny hangers-on at the corridors of power trumpetting obsolete ideas.
Government that comes up with policies that even block any ray of hope for the huge youth demographic.
If we continue to allow some slothful, outdated policy makers to be at the helm of affairs in the nation,we may end up globally detached except on internet.
People who are not abreast or unprepared for the dynamics of International political economy,we may not end up well .
These are people who are only interested in the absolute control of power.They are already intoxicated with power.They are not interested in new businesses flourishing, investments growing and welcoming new developments in technology in the world.
Must we remain number one in the world for the wrong reasons, and for how long?
It is only fair to release all kidnappers in Nigerian prisons and those awaiting trials because bandits are given amnesty left and right in the same country.
Evans should not be in court for any crime.He should be given amnesty forthwith.
If killers and terrorists are being celebrated just because of their ethnic origin, why not kidnappers?.
A top bandits’ commander in Zamfara identified as Auwalu Daudu who has been in the news over the years for ruthless killings said he had agreed to surrender his guns to authorities after he learnt that banditry is fruitless and meaningless.
It is disheartening that the State government is celebrating him on social media. Somebody that has made many widows and widowers and many orphans. Some are even homeless.
Listen to him: “I have submitted my 20 rifles to the state government authorities.” Is that all it takes to be free from mass murder in Nigeria?
The conclusion is likely that this criminal can no longer be taken to court or go to jail.Who will do that?.
They may even settle him with millions of naira to add to the one he has made as ransom through banditry,plus one Hilux van.The whole issue in Nigeria is very confusing.
There is confusion everywhere.While we were blaming some herdsmen for the kidnap and killing of the Edo philanthropist recently,it has finally been realised that he was kidnapped and killed by his jealous kit and kin.Nawaooo.
It is also very terrible that some people’s business in Nigeria is to dig potholes on tarred roads ,so that people can slow down to buy things from roadside hawkers?.
In some parts of Lagos the boys deliberately cause holdup arround a particular area,to break the windscreen of some private cars to rob owners of their items at gunpoint. You may lose your phone,purse or laptops.What is really going on.?
Some are called manhole cover thieves who set such deathtraps on highways or major roads (steal metal covers).Many have lost their lives as a result of such deathtraps.
Nobody has been able to apprehend the criminals who are within the neighborhood.
How can any sane person openly put the lives of pedestrians at risk for little or no money?.Terrible heartlessness.
It is been discovered that as busy as the Benin-Lagos highway and express road (ORE) in particular, that residents along the highway pour raw acid on the tarred roads to dig potholes ,to halt traffic or for robbery. A phenomenon that I was told has been there over the years.What a business!!.
That some people’s business is to dig potholes on roads from year to year,so that they can do whatever they want to do with innocent citizens?
Some people did a poll recently on who is responsible for Nigeria’s problems between the Government and the people.Bear in mind that the “people” and “the people” are the same.
We can only make such a difference when we talk about the Government of the people by the people for the people which we don’t have in Nigeria.
Some voted “the people”while others voted ” the Government”My own vote is that ” we are the problem”
But I also believe that it is the Government. If the citizens keep doing evil things and are rewarded by the Government,if people keep doing evils and killings and the Government cannot enforce the laws or enforcement based on ethnicity .
If I can do anything I like and there is no consequence of system for punishing offenders,or l can go scot-free based on where I come from,then ,why not.?
If there was justice,if people were arrested and punished,both rich and poor,the level of lawlessness all over the nation would have been reduced.
The question is;Is it possible to isolate those who are our problem in Nigeria,old and young ,men and women, boys and girls,because these are all demons in all age-ranges all over the nation?
My answer to the question is that until we get leadership and governance issues right in Nigeria,it may be very very difficult. What do you think?
As you go through our numerous Airports , International or local departure hall,What you hear is” A/C is not working , toilet is not clean” the heat from the toilets will kill Covid -19 as a joke.
Some people who are so pressed and could not manage the eyesores, pay private lounges to use their facilities and to enjoy AC.
This is a terrible factor in shaping first impressions and opinions of any foreigner about Nigeria.
These things affect or influence foreign investments.Foreign Direct Investments ( FDI).
We see hustlers of all ages struggling to help with your luggages.Atimes you find yourself in total darkness outside the airport premises with these hustlers.
Occasionally, you begin to question yourself whether there are even Airport Managers, and what they are doing.
When you listen to Airport Trade Unions on national television, screaming blue murder whenever the issue of concession of our Airports ,on the grounds of losing jobs , you may conclude that they are all blackmailers. Yet they are allowing national infrastructure to decay.
If they are unable to ensure basic cleanliness of the Airport facilities ,then it becomes the same Nigerian factor.You may be asking whetherthey really need the job?
Are they not occupying spaces, and depriving multitudes,who are unemployed , who would be willingly ready do the job with gratitude.We still have the same challenge of infrastructural decay and lack of maintenance with our sports facilities. Many have become dilapidated,no maintenance,yet the Federal Government budgets loads of money annually.
A state Governor who does not believe that Covid19 is in existence paid teachersNG6,720 per month.
You can judge ,if this can feed an average Nigerian family for two days.
This was supposed to be the youngest of all the Governors who brazenly rigged his way into office during his second term.He has nothing to lose ,after all ,he was no longer asking for anybody’s votes again.
A country where the minimum wage is NG30,000.Yet workers are not receiving full salary as many Governors are paying in percentages of the full amount.
The receiver, because of family pressures may have borrowed and borrowed ,and may have been servicing the loans , which are deducted at source.
Many workers look at their available balance every month as zero,as was the case with the teacher mentioned earlier, who always sighed and leaves with nothing.
Another Governor,a month before Christmas paid workers 50% of their salary.
Our Governors take delight in making Nigerians poorer.Their ideology is very simple, the poorer they make the people, the more loyal the people become.Are they not sardists?.
The funniest part of all these is that people are defending them for paying salary.As if payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities is an achievement.
Some Governors are still clearing the backlog of unpaid salaries of their predecessors ,when they took over government.
While such predecessors are cooling off in the senate after paying themselves all their entitlements even before their last day in office, including that of numerous Special, and Semi Special Advisers.
We must fight for the things we care about and do it in any way that will lead others to join us.
How can Nigerian citizens pay ransom to kidnappers and get released.Then police will give a press conference that they have rescued the victims.
Our journalists should ask kidnappers the right questions to unravel facts and those behind the kidnapping .
Their questions are all muddled up.Many kidnappers have various reasons for kidnapping.
Some may be terrorists,others may be based on businesses that went sour among partners and a lot of other issues.
Asking kidnappers whether they are from a particular tribe several times means that you have a bias.Too many journalists are unnecessarily biased and that cannot help the nation.
You cannot put pressure on a criminal to emphasize his tribe.That is diversionary and divisive.
They must learn how to craft news values on kidnapping objectively.
You cannot skew your reporting with a particular mindset and get the best out of terrorists,local kidnappers who are doing that for business or hatred or to settle scores .
Government should have been mindful of the stress the directive that citizens should register their Sims during the Covid19 pandemic.
There should have been some level of critical thinking on how to make it easier.
You cannot because of National Identity Number ( NIN) registration and shut down economic activities for several months.
Stopping the sale of new sim cards for voice and data is the same way our leaders are fumbling with the lives of people.
There are many who depend on that for their daily livelihood, when you have many unemployed citizens.
We must begin to lend voices to this level of disorderliness in governance.
We know that due to many unregistered SIM cards,it becomes very difficult for security agencies to track crime and criminals.
These security issues should be addressed through technology to enhance efficiency.
But there are students who use SIM registration as agents to sponsor their education.
If you close the business down for months,what do expect them to do?
You cannot render them jobless and idle and expect them to be patriotic citizens.
Before 2014 ,many network providers paid a huge fine for not disconnecting unregistered some,why is the issue of unregistered Sims a problem.What are the regulators doing?
But we must also not look away from what ugly contributions ,we, as citizens have made which is keeping us where we are. Many hardly do anything until the dying minutes even when notices have been given for months or even years.
We,as citizens are also the ones manipulating sim cards to commit crimes.
Let us keep lending reasonable voices without bias, believing that things shall turn arround shortly.
WE NEED A GOVERNMENT THAT DOES NOT THINK WE ARE COMPLAINING, EVEN WHEN WE ARE EXPLAINING.
You must be careful with people who are always on defensive mode .Before you open your mouth to explain,they have already concluded that you are complaining.
Reducing cost of governance requires strict adherence to due process and extant public procurement policies.
When public policies are transaction driven,cost will surely over-run , and bloated estimates become a normal thing.
A patriotic Nigerian says that nation needs only about N150 billion to procure COVID-19 vaccines.
But the Government is saying it cannot be.The man said He can help Nigeria procure vaccines for less even mentioned his source,but the Government says that they prefer it for more.
Dr. Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, said in December 2020 that the federal government needs about N400 billion for COVID-19 vaccines.
According to Ehanire, about the sum would be required to vaccinate 70 percent of Nigeria’s over 200 million population, at $8 per person.
Here comes the issues of transparency regarding the procurement of vaccines.
Looking for N400bn, puts many of us at a loss, our budget this year for health is N547bn.
I don’t know if they are going to take this vaccine procurement from it, because if they do, we are left with N147bn.
Many people are dying ,yet ,for vaccine procurement we need to beg for transparency in the procurement.
Vaccine in India costs between $2 25 cents to $3. That is an average of $2.75 , and if you say you are going to use N400 billion that is about $1bn.
If you divide $1bn by $2.75cents each, that is about 350 million doses which is far in excess of what we need.
“WHO”said if you can inject 70 percent of your population, that’s it.
70 percent of Nigeria is about 140 million so we are actually looking for 140 million doses.
Considering that some other people are going to give us some free, we actually don’t need more than 120 million.
But even if we’re buying 140 million, we just need about three hundred and eighty-something million dollars which is about N150bn to buy it.
Now listen to the man: “If they have a N400bn budget to buy the vaccine, my suggestion is that they don’t need to award contracts in this vaccine, let them just call Serum institute in India and plead with them. I am sure they will even give us discount. If they want I can go for the negotiation. It won’t cost more than $2 each.”
If we can get it for N150bn ,why N400bn. Why should somebody want to pocket N250bn blood money.
Knowing our country for what it is,even before delivery, they would have unilaterally reviewed the amount upwards to accommodate other political interests.
The Political Animal 