kalu's 20 pounds

Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme

2012-09-05T09:26:00.000+01:00

The CBN has just released N45b to participating banks in respect of 75 Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme. To date the CBN has released N197b to 252 beneficiaries (222 private sector and 30 state governments) under this scheme. In terms of Geopolitical spread of the projects, ie rank in order of volume 1. SW 45% 2. NW 18% 3. NC 12% 4. SS 10% 5. SE 9% 6. NE 4% Some of the Beneficiaries of this fund include, Ebony Agro, Umza Farms, Stine Industries Nnewi, Grand Cereals Jos, Beloxxi Biscuits Factory Agbara, Rivers Vegetable oil, Temo starch and Glucose Coy, Yammfy Farms Kwara, Premier Feed mill. My focus is that the entire North which is agrarian is just 34%! This with Sanusi at the CBN. I hope El Rufai will take this up

Repeal Federal Character

2012-07-10T14:41:00.002+01:00

If we don't practice affirmative action for something as "unserious" as football, why should we do so for the Army and Police? > > Affirmative action cannot go on in perpetuity, there has to come a point when the "learning" wheels are taken off the bicycle, unless the "minority" remains a kid forever, unable to ride a bicycle in adult life without "learning" wheels. What is made worse in NIgerias case is that the affirmative action is not intended to lift a disadvantaged group to new heights but to maintain an established status quo. > > My stance on this FC and Quota issue has been very clear, it has breed a nation of tribes, not a country. It is corruption, FC is corruption, legalized corruption. > > I recall a story about Bola Ige, born in the North, he did not realize he was "different" until he was like 12 and applied for secondary school and was told even though he passed the exams, his state cutt off was higher. Thus the kids he grew up with in the North got into tax payer funded schools and he, a Nigerian in name, but a citizen by tribe was not only denied entry based on where his grandfather came from but it imprinted in him that what mattered was not where he Lived ie North but where his Grandfather came from ie West. > > The same will happen to our kids, today they are watching Ben 10 together, oblivious of anything, once they experience the Federal Government for the first time, they become tribesmen, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba tribesmen. > > > What Nation can prosper like this?

Rains are from God, floods are from Governments

2012-06-30T16:41:00.001+01:00

The Rains in Lagos have really started and as I type it's still raining. In Lagos this is bad news. Rains in Lagos, even the slight drizzle bring panic, not the usual panic to bring the washing in but the panic that you may lose your car, house and sadly even a kid to the floods that follow the rain. Lagos is after all surrounded by water, it's the land of "aquatic splendor", the land of regattas and bridges, but no other city in Lagos is so shut down when it rains than lagos. The fact is what we call Lagos i.e. Marina and the Mainland were simply small islands of planned developments surrounded by concrete unplanned slums. These was never any real planned water management system, not drinking water but waste water management. The open sewers or in Nigerian parlance gutters are simply holes dug in front of houses, they are not connected to channel rain water away from the concrete slums to the nearby lagoons and oceans. The town planning laws are also not just obeyed, they don't exist. In Lekki which is probably the most expensive peninsula in world, it's not unusual to see a school, next to a market, next to a factory next to a mass housing estate, next to a bus park next to a bulk iron rod trader, next to a brothel next to a bank etc. This mix of residential and industrial developments creates waste management issues and hampers planning. I mean on the monthly sanitation days who will clean the area of the school that is beside the housing estate that is beside the bank that is beside the brothel? In summary, Lagos is a maze, a maze of houses, and streets with no plan. When it rains, the water cannot flow in a planned manner, it simply accumulates and then percolates down via gravity. This is dangerous and unhealthy. This means the sewage, fecal and otherwise mix with the rain water are then carried into wells,streets and houses. It's a miracle there is no break out of cholera. The rains in lagos are not new, they are as seasonal, so the question is what have we done about it? The answer is not much. The AC government has governed Lagos since 1999, surly that is enough time to solve the perennial flooding in the mega city. This is a government that earns excess of N22b a month! Controls the House of Assembly and Councils in all 21 LGAs. The response of the state government has been to clear gutters every year in anticipation of the rains. That has not worked. The rains will come, we know that, what we need are drains, connected, covered storm drains to channel that excess water to the lagoons and oceans. open sewers aka gutters won't cut it anymore. We also need strict enforcement of zoning and planning laws to prevent houses being built on the natural flow of rain and flood waters. A cursory look in any gutter revels purewater nylon sachets and empty water bottles, all non biodegradable . the state should use it's tax collected from the pure water and polyethene bag users and manufacturers and fund the creation of a recycling programme. The state must start to discourage use of no degradable plastics if necessary ban them. The state should set up it's own recycle and collection regulations and encourage the private sector to create a system to collect waste plastic bottles, and nylon sachets etc . This greates lots of green jobs especially for the very poor. In India, the recycle business is big and helps to give the extreme poor something to earn daily. It's not Impossible to stop flooding in Lagos, the AC Govt stopped the Atlantic ocean flooding the Victoria Island, and I do not see flooding on Bourdillon Avenue when it rains, this shows it's an issue of priorities. The state has to ensure it solves the flooding problem, it owes that responsibility to the tax payers. It's our problem, we will fix it Kalu A. Aja

the Shale Shale in our Oil

2012-06-14T13:41:00.001+01:00

Shale Gas, i.e. natural gas derived from share rock is probably more dangerous to Nigeria than Boko Haram, corruption and illiteracy put together. For every cubic metre of shale gas recovered and sold means one less barrel of oil sold by Nigeria to the US. Nigeria sells the bulk of her oil to the United States. Majority of the energy consumed in the US comes from fossil fuels i.e. oil. In 2009, the Energy Information Administration EIA data showed 37% of America energy came from petroleum, 21% from coal and 25% from natural gas. Nuclear power supplied 9% and renewable energy supplied 8%. The Economist reports that between 2005 and 2010, America’s shale-gas industry, grew by 45% a year. As a proportion of America’s overall gas production, shale gas has increased from 4% in 2005 to 24% today. The Economist reports that America produces more gas than it knows what to do with. Its storage facilities are rapidly filling, and its gas price (prices for gas, unlike oil, are set regionally) has collapsed. Shale production is projected to increase from 23% of total US gas production in 2010 to 49% by 2035. The maths is quite simple today, America energy comes from crude oil by 2035 it will be gas, not imported gas, but local shale gas. The implication? Nigeria will lose her biggest buyer of crude oil. Crude oil in 2011 netted Nigeria N6.816t in income (via crude oil sales, Petroleum Profits taxes, gas sales, Royalties,) and contributes the cream of our forex imports. If we lose the US, where will we sell our oil? Asia remains the biggest market but India and China are much further than Texas and the extra distance means Nigeria has to offer incentives (she already does) to crude buyers to import our low sulphur Qua Ibo crude. Also competition with clean gas will also reduce the markets we can sell our oil to. Already the Qatar gigantic LNG gas project which was built to supply America is now billed to go to Japan. No buyers mean no dollars, no dollars means we can’t print naira to spend. This means we can’t fund our police, polytechnics and politicians (wait, politicians that's a good thing right?). Ok now the bad news, it’s already started, the U.S. purchases of Nigerian crude fell to a five-year low in February 2012, already Nigeria can’t sell about 31 cargos of oil. If oil sales or price fall to $70, we are sitting ducks (consider that we import everything). For years we have put our prosperity eggs in one basket of oil and quite frankly the chickens are coming home to roost. Selling crude oil is cheaper and more profitable than selling palm oil. However, how many jobs does the oil and gas industry create? A few thousands how many does palm oil create? Hundreds of thousands. Nigeria got a seed in the form of crude but we have treated that seed like a harvest. It not yet curtains, Nigeria probably has 2 decades of selling crude oil before the combination of loss of North and South American markets (Brazil has a gigantic Salt oil fields), Asia (China has the greatest deposits of shale gas) conspire to take crude oil at $60 a barrel. The starting point is to go back to agriculture, then agro allied then manufacturing then services. To create a rich Nigeria, we have to create an educated Nigeria. Rural families, who are farmers, will only send their kids to school, if they get richer to afford school fees and buy mechanised farming equipment. Already agriculture employs 44% of the active labour force but we still do subsistence farm using the rainfall meaning for half the year almost half of the population are technically unemployed, thus poor. There can be no poverty elimination that will work unless it is built on the back of the agriculture. A good starting point is to repeal of the Land Use Act to get land cheaper and faster to the rural farmers and to pledge as collateral and attract credit from banks Land Reform is really more important than the PIB. The faster Nigeria opens up the agric space, eliminate subsidies and devolve powers to the states the better we are to withstand the shock that is coming. It’s our problem, we will solve it

FAAC for March 2012

2012-04-20T20:49:00.001+01:00

The Federal Government has gotten N244.7684 billion as its share of the revenue accruing to the nation in the month of March. This was made known today by the minister of state for finance and the chairman of the Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting at the end of the committee’s meeting in Abuja. According to the minster, N235.13 billion will go to the Federal Government from the total statutory allocation, while it will get N9.6384 billion from the total N64.229 billion Value Added Tax revenue. “For the month under consideration, I am happy to announce that total funds available for distribution have increased. We collected N726.772 billion for the month of March which has exceeded the projected funds as per the 2012 budget by N224.216 billion. That shows that the revenue accruing to the federation account, the actual is higher than the budgeted because of the actual rise of the price of crude oil. However, compared to last month, we have a slight reduction by fourty billion because of shortfall in the amount of crude oil that is exported.” “For the total distribution for the statutory allocation is as follows: Federal Government will get N235.13 billion. State governments will get N119.278 billion. Local Governments will get N91.958 billion. And we are distributing 49.908 as the derivation. For VAT, of the total N64.229, the Federal Government is getting N9.6384 billion and state governments will get half of it which is N32.115 billion. The local governments will get 35% of the VAT which is N22.48 billion.” “There is no need for any augmentation for the month of March. So, we didn’t withdraw from the excesses crude account because we have enough revenue to distribute to all tiers of government.” “We also distributed exchange gain. Over the years we have been accumulating exchange gains, and we have decided to distribute it. We are distributing N48.82 billion.” “Then the normal repayment from the NNPC has also been received, that the fixed N7.617 billion.” Ngama told reporters after the monthly Federal Account Allocation Committee meeting that the Federal Government, the states and the local governments shared N613.6 billion from the Federation Account in March. The figure was N7.041 billion lower than the amount shared in February, he said. The minister said the country received a total revenue of N726.772 billion in March compared with N766.772 billion in the previous month. A statement from the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Jonah Otunla, explained that the shortfall was due to a decrease in crude oil export for the month as a result of several ``operational issues and safety challenges’’ in Bonga, Brass, Bonny and Qua Iboe Terminals.’’ Also, oil revenue slumped to N586.631 billion in March from N631.959 billion in February. However, non-oil revenue increased to N90.141 in March from N74.813 billion in February, according to the minister. The total revenue shared to all tiers of government included Value-Added Tax (VAT), refunds by the Nigerian National Petroleum NNPC and exchange gain. ``The total funds, statutory allocation, that are available for distribution is 496.308 billion and the total VAT collected which is also available for distribution for the month is N64.229 billion. ``These are almost the same with the actual collected for the month because the actual has 497.731 for the statutory allocation and the actual VAT collected is 69.529 billion, which is slightly below the budget. ``Because these two amounts are almost the same, there is no need for augmentation for the month of March so we didn’t draw from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to augment any because we have enough revenue to distribute.’’ In addition, the minister said a total of N48.820 billion was distributed to all tiers of government from the exchange gain while NNPC refunded 7.617 billion. ``So the total distribution for statutory allocation is as follows: federal government will get N235.163 billion; state governments will get N119.278 billion and local governments will get N91.958 billion. ``We are distributing 49.908 billion as the derivation to the oil producing states. ``For VAT for the total of N64.229 billion, the Federal Government is getting N9.634 billion and state governments will get halve of it which is N32.115 billion and local governments will get 35 per cent of it, which is N22.48 billion,’’ he said. Responding to questions, the minister said the balance in the excess crude account still stood at 3.6 billion dollars. The minister said for the months of February and March, the Federal Government did not draw funds from the ECA. Rather, it added N474.345 billion to the account. He said that the government had enough funds to distribute to all tiers of government within the budgeted allocation. ``The depletion has stopped. ``In two consecutive months, we are not augmenting because we have enough revenue to distribute and that tells you that one area of depletion has been taken care of and the other area is whether or not we distribute. ``Right now in this month of March, we are actually transferring to excess crude account N173.928 billion so it is actually increasing. ``The figure for last month we transferred N300.417 billion to excess crude. The excess crude account is actually growing,’’ he said.

of jobs and agriculture

2012-03-14T11:38:00.001+01:00

A friend once told me how tomatoes and other stuff literally rot away in the sun in Benue after harvest. Thus I was very happy when President Good Luck, Governor Suswan attended Tony Elemelu and Transcorps new Terago Juice Plant opening, a new first of it's kind, juice concentrate facility in Nigeria in Benue. The plant I hear can produce 26,000 metric tons of orange, mango juice concentrate per annum. I also hear Nigeria spends $1b importing juice concentrates so this is a good example of import substitution and a welcome jobs, jobs, jobs to Benue.

I am also reading how Governor Amechi of Rivers is getting into joint venture with folks to turn Rivers to an Agric exporter, he has a Cassava initiate with the Dutch, large scale poultry with the Zambians, a banana plantation with the Mexicans, large scale fish farming in Buguma, an upcoming sea fish project with the Chinese and the injection of N20b into RISONPALM. The $140m Israeli backed farm settlement system involves the creating of an Agro Industrial City Project. The Israeli firm LR Group will contribute $40m and Rivers $100m. It involves over 3000 hecters of virgin land which will be developed, and will build from scratch 100 homes in 3 centers close to each other, with water, power, schools, hospitals etc. These centers will do commercial and Agro processing. The selected farmers will work for the project but will also have their own 2 hectare farms within The complex. In effect a kibbutz. Again Jobs jobs jobs

The Lagos state government is now tapping into the FGN rice transformation plan, Governor Babatunde Fashola has a Special Assistant on Rice, and the chap is developing rice fields, putting graduates to work in farms and Fashola even wants to buy land outside Lagos (in the Ogun Osun River Basin Authority) to grow rice. The State has also set up a joint Private and Public sector Rice transformation committee to benefit from the FGN NIRSAL project. All I see is jobs jobs jobs

I am also reading how the TY Danjuma foundation is launching a Agro Business grant scheme with the NYSC that will provide seed grants to NYSC graduates interested in starting sustainable Agro business. Yep jobs jobs jobs

If you notice, I have posted Private sector, State and Individual initiates all tapping into agriculture. Agriculture is 44% of our GDP and employs 80% of Nigerians. Any push or vision to industrialize and reduce poverty in Nigeria that does not focus on Agriculture is a non starter. Keke Napep cannot eliminate poverty, Agriculture can.

So ask your Governor, even your LGA what they are doing about Agriculture today.

Using our Nolly

2012-02-20T23:32:00.003+01:00

Rangers of Enugu v Heartland of Owerri, see attendance, negligible Why? Everyone was at home to watch Sunderland take on Arsenal on DSTV

By sheer numbers alone, our football should be the most lucrative in Africa, we have the fans in every city to fill a 10,000 capacity ground, but where are the fans? Where are the sponsors? Better still where are the Nigerian investors? DSTV is investing in Nigerian football, a South African company, they are also sponsoring the Nigerian Basketball League.

What about Nigerian music? Today Nigerian music, the hip hop brand is the best in Africa, economically that is, we have even won the Grammy Twice! these chaps were made, produced and blended in Agegunle and Jos. However It took DSTV, South Africans vis Channel O to make Nigerian music hip!

What about movies, Nollywood is a $500m industry, Nollywood is the highest employer after the Federal Government, Where are the Nigerian institutional investors? How many Nigerian banks have a Nollywood desk?

see how Economist describes the power of Nollywood.

"Nigerian films are as popular abroad as they are at home. Ivorian rebels in the bush stop fighting when a shipment of DVDs arrives from Lagos. Zambian mothers say their children talk with accents learnt from Nigerian television. When the president of Sierra Leone asked Genevieve Nnaji, a Lagosian screen goddess, to join him on the campaign trail he attracted record crowds at rallies. Millions of Africans watch Nigerian films every day, many more than see American fare"

This is power, latent power, has Nigeria tapped this power? This is far beyond some patriotric write up, this episode in Nigeria economic history will probably go down as the biggest missed opportunity by Nigerian businesses and the government.

the Pentagon has an agreement with Hollywood, Hollywood gets all the military gear it needs for it's films, but has to portray the Military and America in good light, the "bad movies" like Platoon which show GI's abusing Vietnamese girls don't get Pentagon support. Hollywood is America biggest export, it's Hollywood that sells IPods not Apple, it's Hollywood that sells American cars, not Detroit, Hollywood sells Jeans, not Levis. simplly put Hollywood is Americans marketing department.

Everybody in this planet admires America, even the Iranians and the North Koreans why? What they see ND believe on hollywood. At a point, America was beaming the Cosby Show with the Huxtables into communist Cuba to show the comrades what they were missing.

So why can't the Nigerian government use Nollywood and our hip hop music to sell Nigerian goods? Why can't the Northern textile mills get DBanji and Asa to promote "Nigerian textiles" just as the US milk industry uses hollywood stars to promote the consumption of Milk? That surly will spark a demand for the Nigerian cotton abi?

I read that 1m jobs were lost by the leather industries in Kano, Why cant Aba and Kano together ask Nollywood to promote made in Nigerian shoes, if the same Genevive says in Zambia that she wears only genuine Kano leather slippers or Made in Aba pumps, do we not think Malawians will demand those same Kano leater slippers? Even for security, Why can't the SSS sponsor a local hausa film to explain why Boko Haram will only lead to job losses and disinvestment in the North?

For our football, why cant the FGN guarantee loans to football clubs or even ask the NDE to buy bonds issued by these football clubs? The value chain for football involves the publicity, the sportswear, the betting, the broadcasters, accountants, agents, sports medicine, hospitality etc, these are all jobs long hanging fruits, have we tapped it? If DSTV can show Nigerian football, why can't NTA?

I commend Lagos state for using Nollywood to sell the paying of taxes, the result are very positive.

You can't "buy" a Nollywood, It's a godsend, and the Nigerian Govt must use it. If the banks won't loan money to Nollywood, then simply allocate money to them, because they are job creators, heck we allocate money for other consumption stuff like paying religious pilgrimage estacode.

We need to use Nollywood, we need to maximize our hip hop music and our football to create jobs, and drive Nigerian exports, if we don't, DSTV will rebranded Nollwood as DSTV Magic and that goodwill will go to Jbourg.

It's our problem and we can fix it

fix the fiscal federalism

2011-07-02T09:50:00.002+01:00

Fix the Fiscal Federation

Executive Summary

The Federal government has abrogated to itself massive power over virtually every economic activity in Nigeria. This makes the states and Local Governments useless and makes the cost of running the federal government obscene. A key figure to take away is that the FGN spends 63% on its workers to provide these services to the Nigerian people.

The proposal is for the President to present a Bill to reduce the powers, specifically the fiscal powers of the Federal Government by devolving tax powers to states and Local governments.

What is the problem with Nigeria fiscal structure?

1. The Federal Government legislates and collects all fiscal revenue.

Nigeria is a federal republic In Nigeria, the fiscal power should be based on a three-tiered structure of federal, state and local governments but this is not so. The Nigerian tax system favours the federal government, as pointed out by the Study Group on Tax Reform (2003), the federal government accounts for 99% of the tax revenue in Nigeria.

All fiscal enactment powers are held by the Federal Government e.g. Personal income tax (PIT) is legislated by the federal government, payable by individuals, but collected by state authorities. For concurrent taxation such as the capital gains tax and stamp duties, the federal government retains legislative power, while sharing administrative powers with the states. The federal government has jurisdiction for such taxes as VAT and Education tax. The federal government taxes corporate bodies while state and local governments tax individuals.

The state and local governments have had no freedom to introduce new taxes because matters dealing with taxation are on the Exclusive list of the constitution. They may enact laws only with the concurrence and approval of the National Assembly

Why is this problem?

1. It deprives the states and Local governments the ability to use taxation as a means of earning revenue or attracting investment.

States like Lagos earn almost 80% of their income from the PIT, but they cannot determine the rate to apply to attract investment. The Company Income Tax CIT and the VAT are collected in states. Lagos State may build roads and attract multinationals to Lekki but the federal government will take the revenues generated by these multinationals.

It also put all the states in the same bracket in terms of tax policy. Ogun state for instance cannot use a lower VAT or CIT rate as an incentive to attract investors from Lagos to Ogun. Yobe state cannot declare a tax free zone to attract Dangote Industries to set up a factory there.

States like Lagos also see no incentive to enforce the payment of taxes as these taxes are sent to the centre. The CBN estimates that Lagos has about 60% of the manufacturing and commercial activity in Nigeria. Lagos is the generator of the highest VAT and the highest Customs duty, but it does not see these tax benefits. It is, instead, shared anchored on such factors as equality of states (40 per cent), population (30 per cent), landmass and terrain (10 per cent), social development needs (10 per cent), and internal revenue efforts (10 per cent). This sharing formula, discouraging revenue drive, particularly for federally adjudicated taxes e.g. VAT.

2. The federal government is reckless with spending.

The tax (and revenue) collected is used to pay federal workers.

Take the figures for 2010, the total receipts for Companies Income Tax, VAT and Customs duty was N1.40t (net of cost of collection, gross collection was N1.52t). Let us now look at the total non-debt cost of the federal government (salaries, pensions) that is N2.54t.

In effect, the total tax revenues of the nation are swallowed up by personal cost of the federal government. An argument can be made that oil revenues are actually paying the salaries of the federal workers but keep in mind that non-oil revenues made up 34% of the total revenue in 2010.

In addition, how many federal workers do we have in Nigeria? The federal workers take home 63% of the total revenues of the nation, (tax and oil receipts).

3. It makes Local governments ineffective.

The current fiscal structure created a situation where the Local governments must exist at the mercy of the federal and state government.

Primary schooling is the exclusive responsibility of local governments; the constitution states, “The functions of a local government council shall include the provision and maintenance of primary, adult and vocational education”. We then wonder how Nigerian children can be educated by taxes charged on items such as fees on marriages, motor parks and bicycles.
Unlike States who can charge Personal Income Taxes generate billions of Naira (like Lagos), the Local governments have been “allocated” very poor means of livelihood and are thus unable to serve the citizens of the LGA.

What can GEJ do about it?

• Amend the constitution to allocate to the three theirs of the federation appropriate income-generating taxes to enable them fulfil their constitutional requirements. The federal government cannot simply tax the wealth of Nigeria and spend it on only the federal workers. Such a move will discourage the payment of taxes.

• Devolve most of the powers from the exclusive list to the concurrent and the forth schedule or and duties of the Local governments e.g. Insurance, stamp duties as a whole, and VAT.

• The states and Local governments should share VAT

• States to determine and charge Personal Income Tax

• Local Governments to charge Property taxes, charge, and collect the education taxes

• Pass a law that will cap how much of the federal, state or Local Government earnings can be allocated to recurrent expenditures. This is specifically to forestall a situation where taxes are charged just to maintain the lifestyle of workers.

It’s important to note that The former president of the NBA has presented a private bill to the National Assembly for an Act to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 by creation of the States Court of Appeal, introduction of Federal and State Legislative Lists and adjustments/modifications of legislative powers of government between the Federal and State Governments."
Agbakoba said the present "bloated federal system" had made governance too expensive to support any meaningful development in the country.
The bill seeks to replace the "Exclusive Legislative List" with "Federal Legislative List" with respect to powers limited to the federal government and introduced the "State Legislative List" for powers exclusive to the state governments.
Issues recommended in the bill for devolution to the states include natural and mineral resources, excluding petroleum and gas; agriculture; micro finance banks; municipal police, state appeal courts; solemnisation of marriages; incorporation of business enterprises with state objects; taxes on income and profits within states, other than income and profits of companies; regulation of labour and industrial relations at the state level, including prescription of minimum wage; and evidence.

It is our problem and we will fix it.

repeal the Land Use Act

2011-06-11T21:58:00.000+01:00

An Act to Vest all Land compromised in the territory of each State (except land vested in the Federal government or its agencies) solely in the Governor of the State , who would hold such Land in trust for the people and would henceforth be responsible for allocation of land in all urban areas to individuals resident in the State and to organisations for residential, agriculture, commercial and other purposes while similar powers will with respect to non urban areas are conferred on Local Governments.(27th March 1978) Commencement.

1. Repeal the land Use Act.
In simple terms, the Land Use Act places a government official between a legal contract of ownership and sale of land. It places all land in the hands of government and specifies that future transfers or sale of land must be authorised by a government official irrespective of the value of the transaction. "It shall not be lawful for any customary right of occupancy or any part thereof to be alienated by assignment, mortgage, transfer of possession, sublease or otherwise howsoever -
(a) Without the consent of the Governor in cases where the property is to be sold by or under the order of any court under the provisions of the applicable Sheriffs and Civil Process Law; or
(b) in other cases without the approval of the appropriate Local Government."
Land Use Act

The main issues of the Land Use Act of 1978 is that it transfers title and ownership of land from individuals and communities to the Governors of the states who hold the land in trust. It also makes acquisition of land by individuals and corporate bodies for commercial, agricultural and economic development purposes extremely difficult.
This leads to transaction bottlenecks, cumbersome and tiresome processing of title documents and negative wealth as all land without a C of O cannot be brought into any formal transaction. Consider that if a client wanted to buy or sell a Rolls Royce or an oil Refinery, the transaction would involve both parties' legal teams, but crucially it would not need the consent or accent of any government official before the sale is approved.
Another contentions issues is the changing of the legal status of the Nigerian land "user" from ownership to that of statutory occupancy. In effect no Nigeria owns any land, we simply have a statutory right to use it, this limits the rights of the "user" i.e. your proprietary interests are extinguished.
The argument against repel will rest with the issues government has in securing land from private citizens for the greater public good e.g., building a road over private land. These concerns can be address by passing a bill to give the Federal and State Government the power to acquire land under the Right of Eminent Domain, i.e. the superior dominion of the sovereign over individual property rights. The Land Use is in fact a universal application of this Eminent Domain right.
The repeal of the Land Use Act will immediately give millions of Nigerians "equity". They can own, transfer and/or sell the land they live on, put up that land as collateral, bring the land into the formal market place and make property transactions easier to finance via financial institutions.
The Repeal will boost Nigeria mortgage market, it will create jobs as realtors, surveyors, estate agents, and builders will have more opportunities and more property to bring into the market.
Most importantly, the repel of the Act will open agricultural land otherwise "locked" up in administrative red tape in the Local Governments. Farmers can negotiate directly with the local community for sale or lease of hectares of arable land to grow food, considering that 70% of Nigerians labour is agricultural based, the bottle neck of ownership of land if removed will instantly increase the acreage of land available to agriculture.
Its important to note that that Late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua had sent 14 Amendment clauses (titled Land Use Act (Amendment) Act 2009 or the Constitution (First Amendment) Act 2009) to the National Assembly for the purpose of amendment.
So i would like the president to push the 7th congress to consider and pass these 14 amendment clauses or simply sponsor a new bill to repel the Land use Act.
Without land, there is no wealth.
Its our Problem, we will fix it.

of Jobs and Government

2011-03-11T08:54:00.001+01:00

I just saw a news article that the Ekiti state Governor Kayode Fayemi conducted a survey and discovered that 250,000 youths in his state were unemployed; hence, he "employed 25,000 of them into the Ekiti Volunteer Corp.

The Governor must be commended for showing the need to inquire about employment figures in his state but i fear his solution is short term and a mirage because no government Federal State or Local govt can create jobs.

you hear it all the time, GEJ says he will create jobs, Fashola says he created jobs, but the reality is that if those jobs are not created in the private sector then really no job has been created, the government (state of federal) has simply taken tax revenues which could have built roads or hospitals, and converted them to recurrent expenditures.

A job is created when a demand exists and an entrepreneur hires a person to fill that vacancy. The government by collecting tax revenue has reduced the amount of jobs that entrepreneur can create.

In the short term, Ekiti and others can employ to reduce poverty, but a longer-term plan is to reward companies that employ by giving them tax breaks or concessions. The State can simply grade companies according to how much PAYE the company remits and then do a 50% tax break back to them.

Dangote just signed an agreement with BOI to advance billion to them to loan out at zero interest rates to small scale manufactures, a better approach is to tell Dangote he will get a 50% import duty waiver on every bag of rice he imports for every staff he remits PAYE for based on the minimum wage, same for Shell and Co, reduce the fees the pay to the NNPC, and Department of Petroleum Resources based on how many Nigerian they submit PAYE based on minimum wage.

To submit PAYE they must employ remember.

Ekiti certainly does not have many private sector companies so their challenge is to use their FAAC Oil allocation to build infrastructure and attract Dangote out of high tax states like Lagos to Ekiti. Using the oil money to pay salaries only starts a vicious cycle of high taxes to pay salaries, which drive off private sector investors.

It is our problem we have to fix it

Promise Tracker: GEJ women get 35% of posts

2011-02-18T04:11:00.000+01:00

" President Jonathan assured women that his administration would honour the 35 per cent “affirmative slots” for them in ambassadorial and ministerial offices".

Obama's Middle East policy, can you spot it?

2011-02-17T19:15:00.002+01:00

Iran 1, Obama tweets, does nothing, popular uprising crushed by Basij

Tunisia, Obama plays golf, Ben Ali out

Egypt, Obama does not know what to do, then asks Mubarack to quit, Army takes over, the US endorses Military Coup

Yemen, Obama says nothing, riots continue

Libya, Obama says nothing, riots continue

Bahrain, obama says nothing, Riots crushed 3am

Iran 11, protests ongoing, American support terpid.

what will be the response (if any) if riots break out in Saudi Arabia?

Ribadu Promise Tracker

2011-02-17T16:31:00.000+01:00

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday kicked off its presidential campaign with a colloquium in Abuja. the Flag Bearer Nuhu Ribadu has promised that an ACN administration would “bring to all Nigerians a sense of hope that would radiate across the land when the party initiates its one million houses a year and through this scheme alone, open the doors for 30 million jobs.

can we boo?

2011-02-16T00:48:00.000+01:00

Why do Lagos fans boo the national football team the Super Eagles when they perceive they are not playing according to the fans desires? The common answer is that its constructive criticism, “booing makes the players play well” really? These is a reason why the home team has an advantage you know.

In football, any good team needs the home crowd to be the “12 man” i.e. an unfair advantage. Cheering inspires and propels 11 men to become superheroes, but booing (especially when you deep down the fans want a victory) is cutting off your nose to spite your face.

So if Lagos fans are not to boo the super eagles but to stick with them because deep down we all want a victory, can the Nigerians boo or critic the President? After all, we all seek the same thing ie victory for Nigeria, Same analogy?

Kalu, its different, in football we have a common enemy. It can be the Idomie Lions of Cameroon or the Silly stars of Guinea, but in politics the President could be pursuing a socialist agenda and the opposition can be pursuing a capitalist agenda. Really?

the fans can still critic the Eagles with their cash, they can refuse to buy tickets and refuse to turn up and watch the Eagles play, in all these the message is still being passed along, but the act of publically ridiculing the national team undercuts the common purpose.

What do you think?

of bonds and brains

2010-12-29T20:41:00.000+01:00

By 1978, the GDP of China was $147b; Today China is a $4,900b economy, that is a 3,233% GDP growth in 31years. Can Nigeria grow her GDP by 178% in 9 years?

The Vision 202020 is a plan to make Nigeria one of the 20 biggest economies by 2020, i.e. in 9 years Nigeria will overtake Belgium (the 20th largest economy) which has a GDP $470b. Nigeria has a current GDP of $173b. For Nigeria to overtake Belgium by 2020, we would have to grow our economy by 178% or 19% in 9 years. Please note that Belgium has to "stand still" for 9 years, Possible?

Currently in Nigeria, there is corruption, no power, no roads, no security, no credit, yet the economy has grown on average 7% a year. Therefore, a lay argument will be to say if we simply double our power generation, it will bump our GDP to 14% a year.

GDP means how much productive active happens in a country, it is the addition of

To get a good GDP score, it means you have to spend money in your country on stuff and export stuff. Note that investment in shares does not qualify as investments under calculation of GDP, and all imports are deducted.

Therefore, it is clear that Nigeria GDP is low because we export oil and bring in billions of $, then we import everything, and the bulk of the population has low spending power.

So to grow by 19% a year Nigeria needs to develop the infrastructure that will make us export, and grow the spending powers of Nigerians by creating a middle class. Primarily we need to build up our infrastructure.

So the first question is how do we develop the infrastructure of Nigeria?

The Nigerian Urban development Bank recently stated that Nigeria would need N32t to repair and invest in new infrastructure. Clearly, we do not have N32t and we really cannot borrow it, that $213b, we cannot get it from oil sales because we make average $11b a year from oil, and immediately spend in on salaries and allowances. We cannot get it from import duty and VAT either, combined all non-oil revenues bring in average $5b a year. What about Foreign Direct Investments? We got $11b last year, even though this figure has been rising, it is not guaranteed, one bad MEND headline and poof! So where?

I think we should focus on our citizens offshore who are earning foreign currency, have access to credit, and can channel financial assets to Nigeria.

Nigeria is called the Giant of Africa why? It not because our landmass, Sudan takes that, it’s not our heritage Egypt has that, it’s not our oil wealth, Libya has that, it’s not our mineral wealth that Congo so what? It is our people. It is not just our population of 150m in Nigeria but the 12m or so offshore.

The World Bank released a report showing that $21b was remitted to Africa in 2009; out of that figure, $10b went to Nigeria I.e. Nigerian citizens sent cash via Western Union and the like to their families etc. That is massive economic power, to put that in perspective, Western union payments of $10b bring in as much as FDI and Oil! Astonishing. That figure was just 6% of our GDP..

So is it possible to tap this group of Nigerians and raise the remittances to say $30b a year from $10b? Yes, it is, considers that India got $35b in FDI in 2009 but got $55b in the same 2009.

However, we need foreign currency investments and not just remittances, remittances are simply cash sent home, FDI are cash sent in to make or take a stake in a business or enterprise. Our bad perception means we might not get the huge foreign FDI, but we already have huge remittances. The paper proposes we instead focus on increasing the level of remittances and locking them in as investments. Remittances are from Nigerians, they will likely understand the headlines about kidnapping, bombings and 419, oyibo wont. In effect, sell Nigeria to Nigerians.

What Nigeria needs to do is to create a series of 10-year dev bonds to invest directly in specific revenue generating infrastructure i.e. airports, tolls roads, inland port in Lokoja etc, each with its own earnings stream. Lets the investors pay directly to the bonds SPV, not the federation account, the SPV collect the fees from the project and pay back to the SPV which will pay off the investors., the coupons should be tax free and allow the repatriation of 100% the proceeds in forex with no restrictions back to the country where it came from.

In effect, break the total N32t needed for infrastructure into separate project based bonds. The main point is that we match the revenue projects to bonds and let the projects not the federation account pay off the debt. We can add sweeteners, the proceeds can be used to buy oil at discounted prices or pay for federal or state land at a discount. Central to this is that if Emeka can send back $100 to Chidi in Aba, he can invest $1,000 in a bond.

It is not mere patriotism, its business, if you invested $1,000 in a 10 year US, UK or Euro zone bond you would get 3% at best, in Nigeria you would get 8%.But Kalu, Nigerians offshore don’t have $213b, where will they get it from? They can take a mortgage. They might not have that amount in cash but they have access to credit, which we do not have in Nigeria.

Right now Tunde in Baltimore can borrow $1,000 from bank of America at 3% interest rate buy the Nigeria development bond earn a 4% premium, tidy and everybody wins. If without a remittance programme we get $10b with this programme, we will get a lot more. This will allow Nigeria build the infrastructure off balance sheet i.e. off budget

Yeah, but almost all the states in Nigeria have sold bonds, even the Nigerian govt has a plan to sell $500m bonds, yet we are still hungry, what different? The states have raised bonds mainly to smooth out their revenue streams, i.e. the bonds are not designed to be deployed to a particular project but are simply raised to go into the accounts of the state governments who spend as they see fit. If we consider that the federal and state spend far more on recurrent than capital projects, it then presumes that the bonds are raised to pay salaries and allowances.

In this model the states will generate revenue backed projects they want the FGN to fund from the Nigerian Development bonds, let the FGN set out specific revenue and payback criteria to access the bonds, no Federal Character here, if states can match it the criteria, they don’t get the funds.

On the average, Nigeria spends about 30% of her budgets on capital (infrastructure) projects, that's hardly enough. This model will also ensure only capital projects are financed through the development bonds.

However, i suspect no one will invest in North Korean bonds if they are paying 100% a month. This is the challenge for Nigeria leaders, they must install confidence in investors, investors must know that if they invest in Nigeria they will get their coupons back, that some politician will not take it way or some major will do a coup, We should be transparent, conduct a fair poll in 2011, pass the FOI, show we are serious about fighting corruption. Its important to note that Nigeria has never failed to honour any interest payments on any debt since the creation of Nigeria

Once we secure the infrastructure funding, the govt can them use the oil money for education and health and increase the minimum wages to grow consumption and recreate an educated middle class. As consumption grows, our GDP rises.

However, not just the offshore money but the brains as well. In every western university, there are Nigerians, learning or teaching, in every Fortune 500 company there are Nigeria working or doing business with them. Just as India and China used the brainpower and entrepreneur drive of her returning western-trained citizens to add points to their GDP board, Nigeria must do the same.

Imagine if Emanalo and Finidi both come back from Betis and Chelsea to manage Sharks and Enyimba. Now imagine if our doctors and engineers also came back.

Imagine our offshore doctors bringing in equipment and knowhow and pass on to the Nigerian based doctors. Imagine our lecturers bring in experience on how to access research grants to our local lectures, our engineers installing solar panels in Katsina. With all the money, we need brainpower and Nigeria has it in abundance offshore.

But not just Nigerians, lets get radical and offer Nigerian citizenship to investors willing to invest $1,000,000 in the 10 year bonds no questions asked, if the Chinese want to come , let then come, but let them pay. Just like the Canadian do the points based auction for immigration.

There is a unique opportunity for Nigeria, capital is flowing from North America to Asia, Nigeria should position Nigeria as a mid way destination, the bond yields, the distance, the market and the English language all favour Nigeria.

Time and chance happens to them all, let’s not let this chance go to waste

It is our problem, let us fix it.

remembering Rosa Parks, dont stand up

2010-10-21T10:03:00.000+01:00

A decision is a powerful thing, a decision leads to events, and events are not singular, they affect people far removed from the decision maker, events lead to history.
At 6pm on the 1st of Dec 1955 in Montgomery Alabama, Rosa Parks decided to break the law; she refused to stand up and give up her seat, as was the law since 1900 to a white passenger on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in response she was arrested by the police.

Her arrest led to the Montgomery bus boycott, which was coordinated by a young unknown black preacher, named Martin Luther King. The success of the boycott promoted Martin Luther King to national prominence made him the father of the Civil Rights movement, and led to the “i have a dream speech” and ultimately the passage of the Civil Rights Bill and the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Therefore, you see a premeditated decision is the most powerful thing in the world.

Back to Rosa Parks, it was bad for her, following the success of the boycott she suffered, she was in jail, sacked from her job, her husband also had to quit, and she had to leave Montgomery because she could no longer get a job there. She was hounded, they both suffered from ulcers, they never had children. when she was 91, she lived in a flat, could not pay her rents, she was about to be evicted, but the owners gave her the flat rent free, she survived on charity. Nevertheless, when she died in October 2005 she was laid in honour in the Rotunda of the US capital, the first woman in the USA to receive the honour. So a good decision might bring you pain, but offers great reward.

I do not think Rosa Parks knew her action that day would be so far reaching, in fact she had never met Martin Luther King before the boycott, Martin Luther was a new comer to Montgomery. She didn’t refuse to stand up from her seat because she wanted to help elect a black man into the White House in 2008, No, she just wanted to fight her own little fight in her little Montgomery.

In life, we will be presented with choices to make a decision, and sometimes the decision may not seem material at first, we could be asked to pay a bribe for a vote, we could be asked to take a bribe in return for a vote, the decisions we make will have far-reaching consequences.

We must not only fight the “Abuja” fight, we also should stay focused on our Local Government Areas and Wards . Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist, in fact, she was the Secretary of the local NAACP, but she did not take her fight for civil rights first to Washington, then Alabama then Montgomery, she started small in Montgomery then Alabama then Washington.

The lessons for Nigerians who just as Rosa Parks are living in the bondage of no roads, power or hospitals, is first make a premeditated decision to cause a change, then act local first with a global strategy in mind.
For example, go online to the Ministry of Finance Website www.fmf.gov.ng or Accountant General of the Federation www.oagf.gov.ng or the budget office www.budgetoffice.gov.ng. Print out 100 copies of the allocation your LGA receives monthly, go to your bad road/street, and distribute the copies to every house hold and challenge the ward chairman to get the LGA chairman to fix the bad road. Will it work? I do not know but at the least, the Ward Councillor will make a mental note to patch the road before those troublesome street tenants “spoils his gari”

Imagine if every ward Councillor was hounded in Aba to fix the roads, imagine if every Ward Councillor in Aba was hounded to clear rubbish from the streets?, imagine if every ward chancellor was hounded to set up a primary health care clinic in Aba? Imagine if every ward chancellor in Aba was hounded to set up a small SME for the “boys”? Just imagine if all Aba councillors were hounded for the 10 years we have had this democracy, there would have been no kidnapping in Aba.
Our problems are local, not international, your ward chancellor has no police escort, he still lives and sleeps in your area, his kids still go to the school next door, do you know him?

As we remember the First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement Rosa Parks, i ask you to make a decision not to stand up.
Let us fix our problem Nigeria.

Kalu A.

register to be voted for

2010-06-26T19:10:00.001+01:00

Don’t just register to vote; register to be voted for also.

In one month Nigeria has witnessed a cataclysmic change in leadership, power changed from the North to the South, but not to the connected Yoruba with their sophisticated power structure and strong institutional human capital base, not to the commercially minded, republican Igbo but to the minority, people of Bayelsa state.

The people of the Delta have long been associated men, who fished at night and slept all day (literally), but without a shot being fired or the intrigues reminiscent of a proper African palace coup, a colourless Delta fellow became the most powerful black African in the world. Make no mistake the president of Nigeria commands oil revenues and juicy appoints he can dish out without going through any pesky congress.

What does this mean? I being a praying man, fully understand God is speaking to Nigerians, who have since crowded out His prayer request box with cries of “God, give us light”, “God give us water”, “God give us road”, so God answered Nigerian, “fellas, you can’t win a lottery unless you buy a ticket”.

In simple terms, Nigeria dodged a bullet in the form of YarAdua and his absence from governance, the Nigerian political class acted with maturity in following the constitution instead of a “gentleman’s” agreement by some old farts to rotate power amongst them. This maturity was enforced by ordinarily Nigerian in the mould of the “Save Nigerian Group” but most importantly by the direct and forceful pressure exerted by the United States of America. It was no coincidence that the Houses of Parliament agreed to “appoint” the Vice President as the “Acting” President only after a high ranking US official Mr Carlson met with the House and Senate leadership and a certain gap tooted general.

America does not want to fix a problem like Nigeria, for them, it is much cheaper to make sure no problem like Nigeria occurs. The problem with Nigeria is elections, because elections determine who controls the oil money and public spending. So fix the electoral process and you have fixed Nigeria, so goes the US theory. Hence to this end, the US signed a Bi National Commission pact; BNC, with Nigeria, central to that agreement is an explicit promise by the USA that they will do all in their power to ensure the 2011 elections are credible, free and fair.

Let me explain the strategy in simple terms, register to contest for a position, if you are running against a stronger opponent, you do not need to get more votes than your opponent, all you need to do is to prove your opponent cheated (stole a ballot box, used thugs etc) and i suspect the election tribunals will hand you the victory. This theory is not a product of the BNC pact, the election of Rotimi Amechi in Rivers was based on this precedent, but the BNC will seek enforce that precedent. Iwu was sacked because of the BNC, the new INEC chairman will be someone the US can work with, and the elections will be devoid of the “do or die attitude”. I predict that a large number of incumbents will lose out.

And the incumbents know this; they have sought to amend the constitution to help them in this event. First they have made the position of independent candidacy constitutional, they have said an indicted candidate can run, and most importantly they are looting the treasury (by increasing their constitutional allowances) to fund their re-election campaigns.

In 1999 many “smart” people (like you reading) stayed away and left the field clear for the “illiterate” politicians, the result has been years of corruption and mismanagement, do not let 2011 be like 1999. Many people are thinking, do i resign from my middle class job and seek the Governors House? Remember there are many non-executive positions, Ward Councillors etc, Do not only seek the high profile executive positions like Governors, Senators, etc, remember Ward Chancellor, LGA Chairman even State House seats also carry the power of change. Obama started as a community organiser.

Do not stand by, don’t just register to vote, register to be voted for also.

That’s one way of fixing this our problem.

nigeria is going broke

2010-06-26T18:47:00.000+01:00

Nigeria is going broke!
We can’t pay our bills, we have no savings.
Our bills are what are on the expenditure side of the annual budget, capital and recurrent i.e. the salaries and also the classrooms and hospitals. So this year we projected we will have bills of N5.2 trillion (4.2t in the budget plus N620b supplementary budget) but we are projecting an income of only N3.08t (based on selling 2.3mbpd at $67) hence we have a budget deficit of N1.52 trillion.

We have projected to fund this N1. 52 trillion deficits by borrowing N897b from Nigerians via bond sales borrow another N75b ($500m) from the international Bond market and sell new oil blocks for N132b. Just recently the President has also forwarded a request to borrow $915m from the World Bank to fund the deficit. Note that the Excess Crude account has been decimated, from a high of $20b in 2008 to just over $2b today, so we can go there. It’s also interesting that the federal government will finance the deficit by borrowing and selling, while Lagos state funds 75% of her budget through internally generated personal income taxes, but i digress.
A close look at the budget revenue figures also shows how optimistic and fragile our assumptions are. We are projecting two things, (a) is that we will sell 2.3mbpd (b) oil will sell at $67 a barrel.

For us to sell 2.3mbpd there has to be zero MEND activity, no bombings, no spills of the pipelines nothing, that is a tall order. (In 2009 with the amnesty and total elimination of sabotage, oil output was put at 2.29mbpd) the oil price assumption is also fragile at best, will oil to remain high with all the bad news coming from the Euro Zone and the US. The point is if oil price falls to $60 and production falls to just 2mbpd then we will create another funding gap of N1trillion naira in the budget. Where will we get another N1trillion, print? Too late the CBN has already printed close to N1.5t for the banks and power sector, AMC i opine will suck up a further N3t. so what can we do? Pray? If we cannot fund this deficit, then we cannot pay the police and civil servants, we cannot repair roads and sponsor the Senators (there is good in every problem)

The simple answer is reducing our expenses, not investments our recurrent expenses. we have to cut our budget to fit our oil revenues, not our spending plans,(sorry Honourables) if we will only get N3trillion in revenues, then the budget should be maybe N2.8trillion not N5trillion, there is nothing like Keynes in Africa. We have to view the oil wealth not as a harvest but as a seed, it should not be spent 150% but at least 10% be set aside for a rainy day.
Nigeria spends so much because we are funding a bloated federal structure. We have inconsequential ministries, wasteful states and local governments that exist only in name and paper. The structure of Nigeria is inherently flawed, the Federal government has allocated to itself powers such as the privilege to educate and provide water to the citizens not because it can do so, but rather to corner the revenues required to pay for these services.
First of all we need to remove the stupid policy of federal character in the constitution because it mandates 36 ministries are created for 36 states. Why is this necessary? What if the president wants just 10 ministers? In effect the constitution is mandating a spending plan irrespective of the revenue earned; because no matter what happens we must maintain 36 ministers and their ministries (The US has 50 states and only 15 cabinet secretaries). At this time, and in the future we need flexibility, We cannot sustain 36 ministries and numerous boards, parastatals, commissions and councils etc what does the National Institute for Cultural orientation do? Should the Nigerian National Merit Award be a commission?
This is important when we consider that in Nigerian budgets recurrent expenditures i.e. salaries and allowances are usually more than the budgets for developmental and simulative activities i.e. road and power projects. The recurrent budgets are a direct consequence of the huge federal workforce. The ministry of education for instance no longer exist to educate students, it now exists to pay salaries, I’ll prove it, 83 % of the funding for federal universities from the 2005 to 2009 went to salaries of the workers, direct teaching and laboratory cost plus research only took 4% of the entire budget! So are they really universities? Or federal salaries paying centres? This tallies with what the former minister said that the budget for the ministry, 90 %goes to the Unity Schools, of which 89% went to pay the salaries of the teachers only, nothing left to buy books and reagents for the labs.
In effect we have used our oil money to pay salaries, instead of investing. Sad.

Next, we cut the size of the federal government by transferring some powers to the states and local governments, and converting ministries who do not contribute to the creation or protection of our GDP into agencies and departments. Specifically, transfer Education, Health, Water and Agriculture Police, Works from the Federal to the State and Local Governments list of responsibilities., then let the Federal govt do Defence, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Labour, Judiciary and Commerce.
The Min of Aviation, Communications, Culture, Environment, Housing, Industry, Information, Power and Steel, Science, Solid minerals, Sports, Transport, Women affairs, convert them to parastatals or agencies. For guidance the average contribution of the aviation sector from 1999 to 2008 to the Nigerian GDP from is less than 0.06%, yet it a ministry with 2 ministers, permanent secretaries, state offices, but most importantly budgetary allocations, a waste.

Is it reasonable that we can have a minister in Abuja who will dictate where and how water bore holes will be built? Should water be a federal duty or state and local govt duty? Can the federal minister oversee nomadic education in Funtua and also oversee boy child education in Abiriba, should this not be a duty for the states?

The federalisation of Nigeria has taken responsibility away from those closest to the electorate. Who should we hold responsible for the 10 % pass rate of the NECO exams? States or federal government? We can’t really say, these are federal exams, taken by state students, paid by federal money to local, state and federal teachers. Make it simple, lets the states and local government be responsible for the quality of education and pass scores in their states and LGA.
Also remember that states earn PAYE tax, Federal does not. Lagos as an example generates N14b a month, 75% of that figures comes from PAYE, Levies and fines. So if water and education is moved to the states, you as a citizen can demand to see your tax money at work from your state governor, LGA chairman, not a faceless senator in a big house in Abuja.
The GDP growth of the Nigerian economy has come not from oil (which generates the bulk of foreign exchange) but from the nonoil sector, which has an 80 % share of the GDP Level. The policy of the government should be to utilise the oil earning to grow the non oil sector by provision of infrastructure and the well being of the citizens, the oil money has been used to pay salaries, meet JV calls of the oil majors, repay foreign debts. Less than 30% is earmarked for capital projects, which are simulative.
The oil sector is simply the federal government the non oil sector the private sector, the federal and state government (any government) cannot create jobs, it can only distribute cash for spending; only the private sector can create jobs. (That’s why the Ugoji awards did not create any economic base but rather increased inflation). To grow GDP we must create in the economy the conditions that will make private investors borrow and invest capital.
But Kalu, you really want to give the governors the education and health budget to spend, are you serious? They will just host seminars and lobby to become VP with the money. Not really, the governors have had a free ride because the Federal government have provided them a good cover. Ask why roads are bad the answer is FERMA, ask why schools are bad the answer is SUPEB (funded by the federal govt), ask why there is not drugs in the hospital, the answer is that Min of Health has not done counterpart funding. Let the Federal government set policy, set up the master plan, then let the states implement and spend to achieve it. A governor and a LGA are easier to get to than a minister in far away Abuja.

It will be tough, but once people start paying taxes and realise the states are responsible they will hold them accountable.
Then we make the parliament a part time job, yes i am serious in the second republic the parliamentarian were not full time allowance collectors, they came in, sat and were paid sitting allowances, now a senator gets N42 a quarter for passing just 4 bills from 2007 till date. By making the lawmakers earn only sitting allowances this nation will save N102billion a year (this is the yearly cost of maintaining the Senators and House of Reps members a year). Then we pass the Freedom of Information bill FOI so no idiot governor can buy a TV for N500k

This is my take, but nothing can work till we eliminate section 14(3) of the constitution, look it up, it’s a big contributing factor to why we are underdeveloped.

This Nigeria remains out problem, we need to fix it.

Queen Turai the Magnificent

2010-03-19T11:12:00.000+01:00

Queen Turei the Magnificent walked into her presidential library in Tureina. It had been a short drive from the state house where she had just presided over the weekly Executive meeting of the Kingdom of Negeria.

She took a glance at the cashew trees; she recalled planting them 20 years ago, when Negeria was still a republic, it made her smile, but it also stiffened her, it made her remember her motto in life, keep pushing until something happens. KPUSH. That motto has made her the richest and most powerful women in Africa, Queen Turei preferred to be called the richest woman in the World but her handlers knew that one of her daughters who had been the minister of petroleum for 20years and had carved out a state for herself out of Bachi was far richer, but they kept mum.

Queen Turei had always pushed, when she saw her brother in law and father in law enter politics she pushed Maru to get into politics, she silly man wanted to become a chemistry lecturer she chuckled. When unfortunately her Brother in law died in jail, she pushed Maru to take up the family mantle to govern Tureina. Maru absence for medical reasons had enabled her to enter into the world of Negeria governance, and she discovered a dark secret about men. They would do anything for money. Money was important to her, but that someone was willing to forgo future wealth for immediate cash was a lesson she attached t her KPUSH mantra.

She had planned to teach the manta to her sons for them to apply, but suddenly in the dead of night a phone call came in from BOJ, Maru had taken the call he was surprised, then more surprised, then a bit happy. curious she asked him “who was that” “oh he replied “ it was BOJ, he asked me if i wanted to become the president, i told hem i had already gotten a letter of appointment to teach Chemistry in University, i said i would consider it” that was the first time she got a heart attack. She scrambled, called BOJ back and said of course Maru was interested in the job, of course his Doctors had declared him fit, and Maru became President, Just like that.

That Presidency has tested her wits, it had started off well enough, Maru had as usual gone academic with the agenda thing, he had even managed to bring truce to the Neger Delta, and then it all changed, Maru “issue” started again. The Western hospitals said yes come over, but she was worried about their pesky freedom of information ideas, they might give some idiot online paper an interview. So she went to where reporters were not allowed; Saudi Arabia. She had hoped the folks in Abaja would take care of things, but the common folk kept asking for see Maru, to talk to Maru some even asked he write some letter! Did they elect him? What was their business? She simply ignored them.

When she was awaken with news that Lady Pat was now the acting First lady, it made her decision easy. She drew on all the tenets of KPUSH and her knowledge of men, the funds in the appropriations bill she had signed came into use. She brought back Maru for them, abi they want him to come back? Well he is back.

She then moved quickly, she got 3 months to allow Maru rest, she used the courts to change the rules, and Lady Pat was made the Second lady again. She adopted 36 new daughters, and married them off to 36 young men in 36 states and simply sent to names to Owu, he knew how to get them elected as Governors. She then went to the PaDP and asked for an early election, she asked her bankers to give anyone with a title in Abaja $10million each, and by May it was done. Her son-in-law was the candidate for the Presidency, Andoakaa was made his running mate, it was a landslide, the Senators and Honourables, Judges, Press and Army were busy buying houses in Dubai and UK, they did nit interface.

She promptly made her son in law appoint her Senate President, it was really too easy, “Ghana Must Go” flowed and the Constitution was changed, and only Senators and Honourables could contest elections into the Presidency, of course she being the Senate President was first in line, by 2014 she was President and Commander in Chief.

She zoned the Armed Forces and police to the North, Civil service and Judiciary to the West and Commerce and Banking to the East, she was being equitable she opined. She eliminated the federal character principle and appointed her daughters Min of Finance, Petroleum and CBN Governor. She passed a freedom of Information bill hence all newspapers, radio and TV stations were banned, “since freedom is free, why should anybody make profit from it?” To sanitise the banking system she closed the entire banks apart from one, the Turei Trust Bank, she directed all foreign reserves be transferred there, federation units, and customers doing business with Negeria were mandated to open accounts there. “Well its easier for the CBN to inspect one bank, we have killed off bank failures” she said

all new bank notes now bore the image of Queen Turei, as she said this was to only was to ensure it was not faked. she made supreme courts justices a life time appointment, reduced the judges to two and appointed her adopted daughters as the first Supreme court justices, “it was to empower women she said, the UN had mandated it in the MDG”.

By 2022, she sent a resolution to the Parliament to convert Negeria into a Monarchy, As usual the people had shouted, wrote editorials, went on marches, went to court etc she just smiled. The Parliament by voice vote affirmed her request , Turei, became Her Royal Excellency, Field Marshal, Dr, Chief, Eng, Queen Turei the Magnificent, MNI, PSS, Queen of Negeria and West Africa excluding Ghena .

It was now 2030, the federal capital had been moved to Tureina, as it was nearer to Seudi Arebia, she had solved the power problem by banning Air Conditioners s and Deep freezers, “AC are ruining the ozone layer”, she said. She had solved unemployment by hiring everybody into the federal civil service, to get a salary, you than had to swear an oath of allegiance, not to her but to her office ooh! Education was free, as no one went to school anymore, as everyone was guaranteed a job in the civil service. She sometimes wondered why men who taught they were smarter could not manage to solve these “problems”.

But today in the Turei Presidential library, she was on a peacekeeping mission, her daughters were fighting again, these girls were really embarrassing her, first it was about which states they wanted as 15 year wedding anniversary gifts, then it was about who would get to monopoly to import petrol and shut down NNPC, she was tired. One daughter had had asked the mint to put her picture on the other side of the N1,000,000,000 note, another then simply asked them to create a N1,000,000,000, 000 note and put her picture.

She signed as she opened the door to meet with her warring daughters, it was her problem, and she would fix it.

Nigeria's never changing census

2010-03-19T10:01:00.000+01:00

How many are we, and why does it matter?

In simple terms, number of local governments in a state, revenues from the federation account, Senate seats, House of reps seats are all shared out according to population figures. If a state has more people, it receives more from the federation account. State population accounts for 26% of the criteria to share in the 31% allocated to states from the joint federation account, others criteria are;

Basic equality of states 45.23%?
Landmass & Terrain 10.70%
Internal revenue effort 8.31%
Education 3%
Health 3%
Rural road and water ways 1.5%
Portable water 1.5%
(population of LGA carries a 37% weighting to share the 15.31% allocated to them)

So how many people there are in a state or local government is very very important, i would call it the most important asset a state of Local government can have in Nigeria.

So how many are we in Nigeria? We can use the Federal govt and British census figures and break this down into groups of states using geography as a basis. Thus we will have Northern states and Southern States. I will attempt to put the figures from 1952 when Nigeria had the first census till 2006 the last one as below;

Table 1.

1. Census in 1963 and 1973 were cancelled

2. Source; NPC Abuja & census news 1992, ISSN1116-666996

3. Allow for figures rounded off.

In summary, the Northern region since 1953 is reported to have an average of 54.1% of the population of Nigeria. Remember this number i.e. 54%.

As a matter of fact, the Northern region has maintained 54.1% average for all census since independence, the Western region (including Lagos) has maintained an average of 18.7% the East 22.7% and the Mid west 4.9% in all census! Let me be clear in 57 years (1953 to 2006) NO region, North or South, East or Midwest has grown its population exponentially, we have all grown at the same pace. Rural to Urban drift has not occurred in Nigeria in 57 years! The relative proportion of the regions has remained the same. That is the population of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun; and Ekiti has grown the same as Ebonyi, Abia, Enugu, Anambra, and Imo. Ditto for the North. I did not say so; the Nigerian Population Commission said so. Lagos with all the Luxury buses bringing Easterners every day has remained at 18.7% while the East where everybody has a relative in Lagos has maintained at 22.7%.

Nigeria’s national growth rate is 65%, the Northern region grew by average 60% from 1963 to 1991, the Midwest region grew by 78%, and Eastern region grew by 60%, but Lagos and the West declined by 63.6% in the same period i.e. 1963 to 1991. Specifically the Western region grew by 26.3% between 1931 and 1963, then grew by 124% between 1953 and 1963, then slowed down by 63.6% from 1963 to 1991. Again i only publish the figures i see.

But back to our question why is population important? Because the population figures are consistent with election results in Nigeria, i explain;

In 1959, the British conducted elections into the Federal House of Representatives. There were 312 seats on offer, the results allocated 174 seats or 55.8% of the seats to the Northern region, 73 seats or 23.4% to the Eastern region and 65 seats or 20.8%. Since 1959, this has been the norm. In the 1979 presidential elections, the Northern region cast 48.2% or votes, the East 22% and West 25.8. In the 1999 elections the Northern region cast 52.5%, East 24.2% and West 18.3%, in the 2003 elections the North cast 52.3%, East 24.6% and west 13.2. Note that the results for 1999 and 2003 are almost exactly similar. Thus it seems that after 4 years of governance, No Nigerian changed his mind in the North and East, the same numbers of votes were cast, no increase, no decrease.

It seems that the census figures and the electoral results are joined at the hip, i.e. they never change. The totals go up and down, but the independent components do not change, they are frozen in time. The census figures have not changed in 57 years; does this mean the election figures will not change in 57 years? (Didn’t a party promise to rule Nigeria for 60 more years?)

I will make no conclusion, my memo simply brings out the facts, my data are from the FGN own published figures; i urge you all to go online and get your own and compare with mine. These data i use are publically available data, simply Google Nigerian census or Nigerian revenue sharing formulae.

Let’s ask ourselves these questions

Are the census figures correct?
Should population determine how much a state should get? More than portable water, roads, health & education, derivation?
What role should population play in national decision making? Should it play any role?
If population brings money, will any state adopt family planning?
If education and health care brings so little money, will any state provide it?
What can we do going forward?

of schools

2010-02-20T12:58:00.000+01:00

Last week, Hon Emmanuel Bello from Adamawa state presented a bill to the House of Representatives to prohibit the children and wards of public officials from attending schools outside Nigeria. Hon Bello point is simple, If YarAdua’s kid was in the University of Katsina, ASUU would not be on strike.

But can forcing the decision makers to sleep in the bed they make improve the bed? If we banned generators would NEPA work? If we banned jeeps, would we have good roads? If all the big men from Anambra had their kids in Anambra and didn’t have police escorts, would we still hear of kidnapping in Anambra? I suspect that this banning could work ooh.
I know of a school in Jos that was founded in 1980, it was a dream; the school was not only free but paid the students. The school had modern laboratories, sports facilities and lodgings. The students were pampered with swimming, equestrian, and map reading lessons. The uniforms, books, excursion, medical care and food was free, the students travelled to Lome to study French, and even air transportation to Jos was provided free of charge! Now this is clearly unbelievable but trust me, the school exists, (now it has fallen somewhat, students now pay fees and there is no free air transport as the planes are rotting away on some tarmac in Lagos.) I have a theory that the promoters of this school, who were “big men” seeing their wards were in this very school, showered all the perks imaginable on it, because they had a vested interest in the school.

On the flip side we saw the senators in Abuja cut the education and health budget to build a 10 lane expressway in Abuja. One of the reasons the senators arguing for the “viament” as it was called was that the Senators spend hours in traffic going to their home states, but this makes sense, they don’t use the school or hospitals but they use the road, so it had to be fixed. Heaven forbid a Senator has to spend hours in his A/c convoy negotiating a two lane expressway.(one senator could not take the punishment anymore and simply bought a plane to fly him home)
There is a clear correlation between the increase in Nigerian kids schooling offshore and the standard of government education in Nigeria, as more UK schools come over to Nigeria to do school fairs, the failure rate in the WASC keeps increasing. The current pass rate in WASC is put at 20% i.e. only 2 in 10 students have 5 credits! The Punch newspapers carried a story that N137billion was spent on tuition in two years for about 50,000 Nigerian students in the UK and US alone , the total education budget for the same period was put at N459billion for almost 100m students in Nigeria do the maths. I could stake my lunch money that no Minister has his kids in a Nigerian federal, state or Local govt school, thats astonishing, It’s like saying no Toyota top Exec drives a Toyota.
It does seem that Hon Bello is clearly unto something.

I know for a fact that if the Ministers had to send their sons to queue for 9 hours by 4am to buy 4 litres of fuel, there would be no fuel scarcity; I also know that if generators were banned, we would be talking of 60,000 mw, not 6,000mw. So it does follow if we banned foreign medical trips, the National Hospital in Abuja would rival John Hopkins, if we banned Jeeps, Lagos to Calaber road would look like a German autobahn, and hence if we banned public officials sending their kids offshore, then University of Markudi will rival Harvard. It’s so simple to fix Nigeria abi?
But you do not need to be grounded in politics in Nigeria to know this bill will not even pass first reading in the House Hon Bello belongs to, it will be killed off like the FOI and Electoral reform bills. And that why it’s so hard to fix Nigeria.
Sign! It’s our problem, we will fix it

of Duke and Dubai

2009-12-10T10:42:00.000+01:00

Vision is more important than knowledge, for it was Leonardo da Vinci vision of men flying that lead to the Wright Brothers flying at Kitty Hawk. It is the vision of men to choose their own kings enshrined in the English Magna Carta that lead to democracy and rule of law.
A nation that has a vision can say “we will place a man on the moon in 10 years”, and do it. A nation that has a vision can build an oasis of financial, economic and political stability on a barren rock, no not Dubai, Singapore. It is a nation without vision that wants to return to the “golden ages” by killing all her citizens that can read or write, no not Boko Haram, Cambodia under Pol Pot.
Thus we can say that a nation without vision is a nation that will never be first.
Vision is what saves lives, creates jobs, and builds wealth. That’s why Africa and Nigeria in particular are where we are. No written vision.
Let’s consider what visionary projects has Nigeria done in 49 years, I can count 3, Abuja, the Development of the Lagos Marina and the ongoing dredging of the Niger River. Kalu just hold on, what about the Lagos Ibadan express road? What about the federal universities and the unity schools? National Theatre? The Teaching hospitals? The National stadia? Pally these are all what our leadership is obligated to provide with the oil money we have in Nigeria, we can hardly clap for them. Are there no roads, universities or stadia in Chad republic? Difference is the quantity my brother. By Vision, why didn’t they build a subway in Lagos in the 70’s, why don’t we have a deep water container port in Onitsha? Why haven’t we tapped solar power in Sokoto? Why didn’t we build a mobile network when we built NITEL?
Because men of vision are so rare in Nigeria, when i see one, i sit up.
I have been a great admirer of Tinapa. Tinapa is a vision by the people of Cross River under Donald Duke. Duke became the governor of a state known for pineapples and “apples of the eye”. The state is a marginal oil producing state, with 90% of the citizens rural based? Duke imagined a better state of affairs and put in a plan to transform the state into the tourism and serviced based economic hub of Nigeria. Tinapa is a $450m bet to transform the state into a Dubai.
But sadly Tinapa is not working, do you know why? Kalu the idea was bad to start with; can Nigerians afford the expensive oyibo goods to be sold there? Thing is, Nigeria is a consumer nation, we love to spend on western stuff, Tinapa basic idea is simply to bring the same shops Nigerians travel to in UK, US and Dubai to Calaber. Let the Nigerians fly in (no visa), stay in a hotel, shop, eat, party and fly back to Lagos and Abuja. The state generates huge VAT, creates jobs in hospitality, trade, real-estate and services, the states transform her economy from dependence on “Abuja” money to taxes, that’s vision.

Ok Kalu so it’s a good idea, but has the state delivered? Have they built the structures? Maybe that why it has not worked. Pally, I have been to Tinapa; it is 100% completly built, it’s a beauty. Shops, hotels, film studio, serene near a lake, even the big man, our President YarAdua declared that he would use it as his own “camp David” to host visiting heads of state, now that a presidential endorsement. Akwa Ibom sef has invested $300m in a brand new airport they say is to service cargo transport to Tinapa. (Nice excuse to spend govt money).

Ok so, it’s a good idea, the state has delivered the infrastructure, tenants have moved in, so why has it not worked? Oh a little document called a Procedure and Guidelines (P& G) document, what’s that? Well that the FGN gazetted framework that will guide the operations of Tinapa, without that the chaps in Tinapa cannot import or sell anything as the customs guys will seize it.

So who prepares this P&G stuff? Well the Federal Governments of course, the same Federal Govt that signed agreement with the Cross River state in Oct 2007, the same Federal Government who commissioned the project.

Hang on Kalu, you mean a non oil investment of $450m, was made by Cross river state, probable the largest non-oil investment in Africa, the money was not “chopped”, but a world class shopping, hospitality and entertainment facility was built from scratch, and the site is now wasting because some fart in Abuja cannot sign a damm P & G document? Wait it gets worse

Imitation they say is the best compliment, the Dubai folk seeing the potential harm Tinapa will do to them , have moved swiftly to build a “Tinapa” in Senegal for $800m,they want to make Senegal the hub of their West African business deals. They also want to take over the Ghana Free Trade Zone. The chaps sense that Nigerians will simply stop coming over and they will lose in air travel, Accommodation and shopping expenses of Nigerians. So they are bringing Dubai closer to the market (never mind Dubai is already in Nigeria via Tinapa)

Kalu this is incredible, do you know what I am thinking, just as we hear the generator importers pay NEPA to “off” the power so their generators will sell, could these Dubai guys be paying the fellow in Abuja to sit on the P& G until they build the Senegal and Ghana Free Trade Zones?
Bros, what can we say to these things? If the Federal Government is against you, who can be for you?

It’s our problem, we have to fix it.

of nature and nurture

2009-11-12T11:48:00.000+01:00

In the field of behavioural psychology, the jury is still out on why humans behave the way they do. Is it nature or nurture that causes a man to steal? Better put, if a man is a thief is it because the genes his parents gave him had a “stealing” chromosome or did he just grow up around thieves?

It’s a tough call to make, if you had twins and you put one in the US and the other in the Nigeria, would they behave the same? No, why? well the environment in the US is different than Nigeria, ok we can postulate that both factors; your genes (your family) and your environment plays a role in your behaviour and views on life. I however will have to vote that the environment where you are raised carries a greater percentage share in determining your behaviour.
A psychologist BF Skinner who introduced us to the term “conditioning”. Simply put conditioning is the process where you can be made to behave in a certain way through the application of an external pressure or circumstance or habit, I explain. A Nigerian is conditioned to jump a queue, once a Nigerian see a queue his mind automatically ask” how can I get ahead”, it does not matter if it’s an online queue to get an appointment date for Visa, a fuel line, or a supermarket queue, Nigerians hate queues, we have been conditioned over the years to hate queuing. Well think about it, do “bigmen” queue up?

Children also learn by observation, notice how your baby boy puts your phone to his ear and says “hello”, he can even tell a fake phone from a real phone. What the child, sees can influences his behaviour, that his environment. If he sees the governor doing “one way” with sirens, he will do “one way”, if the senator does not pay his taxes, he won’t pay his taxes also.

So let’s put all what we have together. We know that behaviour is part genes, part environment, we know that the environment can “hot wire” us to respond to situations in a predetermined manner, i.e. conditioning, we also know that we learn by observation.
Ok that done, if I asked you to describe to me how a Nigerian boy, what would you say?

First of all the boy would be illiterate, not innumerate, just illiterate. How do we know? the last NECO scores just released last month shows a general pass rate of just 10.7% (pass rate in some states was 5%). He would be illiterate because his government takes money from the education budget to build roads in Abuja. He would be an illiterate because there are no more teachers, Kalu where the teachers go? The govt is taking some to South Africa, Some are on strike, others are on "Nyger Sings" as judges, a professor make N753,549 a year, D banj make N10m in a week! Do the maths.

He would be aggressive, aggressive? How do you know that? You have to be aggressive to catch the only bus from Iyan Ipaje to Ikoyi by 4am every day, you have to be aggressive to get your baby to see a doctor in a govt run “free” clinic, you have to be aggressive to even cast your vote in a tiny LGA with 10,000 armed police and army men all around. You have to be aggressive to challenge a LASTMA official.
He would be an optimist, optimist? Please explain, only an optimist can hear that the budget for 2009 was only implemented by 25% as at November 09 and still believe the road to his village will be fixed before Christmas. Only an optimist can see Iwu as head of INEC and believe 2011 will be ok, only an optimist can believe we will have 6,000mw by December (there is a thin line between optimism and stupidity you know).
He would be an expert engineer, now I am lost, he is illiterate how can he be an engineer? Have you not seen 1970 Volvo’s still running in Aba? Have you not seen houses powered by truck batteries in Lagos? Have you not seen destroyed tyres “vulcanised” back to life in Kano?
He would probably want to be a kidnapper, senator or a footballer than a doctor, lawyer or engineer. Kalu what’s wrong with being a footballer? Nothing, I wanted to be Spider Man when I was 7. But when all the kids want to be footballers or actors just so they can feed their family, then you have a problem. His role models matters, if he sees a graduate, first class student from University of Ife, driving a state taxi cab, and he see a “exmilitant” earning N65,000.00 a month plus benefits for just chilling, which would he want to be?
He would be a quick learner, yes notice how quickly he learns how to email business letters to oyibos asking for 10% advance, all this without entering an economics or IT class. most telling he would learn that no one would ever call him to “eat” food on the family dinner table, rather his father will cook and take the food to his master bedroom to “eat” alone, it’s up to him to either “steal” food while it’s still on the fire, wait for his dad to finish “eating” and get the scarps or even “kidnap” the dad for a ransom of the food.
Kalu stop. So where does genes come in. My theory is this, under normal circumstance there is no difference between the Nigerian in the 1960’s and the Nigerian in 2009. Both Nigerians were born of the same “father” hence the same genes.
The Nigerians (1960 and 2009 models), was simply exposed to different environments, while the Nigerian in the 60’s saw oyibos giving him, roads, education, honest police and civil servants, he became conditioned to excellence and produced Wole Soyinka, Chike Obi and Ememgwali. He was a healthy, honest, educated, and organised Nigerian.
but the oyibos left and his new “father” gave him NEPA, INEC, Mobile Police, PDP, NNPC he became aggressive, illiterate, unruly, corrupted and angry and produced Iwu, Boy loaf, and Tafa. What a difference a “father” makes.

It’s our problem, we can fix it

of wags and waziri

2009-10-18T13:00:00.000+01:00

“Wag the dog” is a term used to describe a situation where the tail is wagging the dog or purposely diverting attention from a bigger event to a smaller event in order to refocus the public attention, so that the smaller event assumes a greater role than the bigger event. Like a doctor treating an AIDS patient for headache not the AIDS, thus the Headache gets more attention than the AIDS.

“Wagging the dog” is done all the time, we do it, you promise your son a gift if he comes first in his maths class, he comes first, you forget the gift and when your son asks you immediately fire back that he has not had his bath. Your wife tells you to buy diapers for the baby, you buy beer forget the diapers and when she asks you remind her that your own mother did not use diapers, you get pulled over for driving one way by LASTMA, you immediately challenge them “do you know who I am”? “Why are you calling me Mr”? Don’t you know I am a “Chief”?

But the most adept at playing this game (“yes it’s a game”) are public officials, The ability to play this game is key to your progress through the corridors of power, Examples abound, like you ask the minster of power why there is no power and he says its militants, to take your attention away from the fact that almost $20b has been spent, for 10 years and we are still at less than 3,000MW. you have to be able to say “bitumen” to charges of not repairing Lagos roads and “water goddess” to charges of ocean surges at the bar beach (true, a Lagos state governor said the cause of the ocean surge was that when the ocean goddess see’s her reflection on Fin Bank building, she sends waves to attack the “imposter”. Another governor came and built a wave breaker, same environment, different response).

Ok but for my money (no pun intended) the biggest “wag the dog” is the CBN war on private jets. The EFCC has been in a coma after Ribadu left, yep we have had lots of arrests but curiously no convictions, we have instead had plea bargains, a lot of plea bargains. We have heard of numerous international scandals involving Nigerian public officials, we have the Halliburton saga, the Siemens shocker, we have the N300million Min of Health affair, the N5B Rural Electrification case, the $16bn NIPP power scandals. All these scandals but the EFCC has mobilised the Chairman, 80 operatives and has moved to Lagos to collect bank debts.
“Madam” has given more interviews, more resources more time on these banking crises than any another scandal. Madam even travelled to the IMF conference in Turkey, yes the IMF conference to explain why her commission was collecting bank debts, debt collections is now an “achievement”.
The press has played along, Nigerians no longer talk about ASUU, it’s better to talk about 2 new jets ordered by an ex-bank chief, we don’t talk about electoral reform, it’s better to talk about bonus paid to ex bankers, we don’t realise that there is a Cholera, yes Cholera outbreak in Bornu state its better too argue about what a nonperforming loan is, the National Assembly nko? They too not wanting to be left out of the “loop” last week they actually debated if females should be allowed to work in banks as marketers, in the 21 century Nigeria this is what our lawmakers are debating! but again every time spent on this insane debate is another day not spent on constitutional review or land use reform.
Let’s ask a serious question what is the contribution of the entire financial institutions (banks, insurance, mortgage & stock broking) to our GDP from 1998 to2008? Answer its only 3.93%, Agriculture meanwhile is 41.53%, ok what about the % contribution to GDP growth well for financial institutions its just 1.79%, Agriculture is 45.86%.

No Kalu I don’t believe your figures, how can you say First Bank, Zenith, IGI, Stanbic IBTC and Co only have a 3% share of our GDP? Where are you getting your figures from?

Well consider this, is there is bank in your village? Ok is there a farm in your village? How many people do you know that can walk into a bank a get a loan of N50,000? ok how many people do you know can walk into a village and start planting yams.Banks are huge business but because they are so small when compared to the general wealth and activity of Nigeria their impact is insignificant. So by implications the FGN, the press, the Parliament, EFCC, even we have focused on 3.93% of the economy while 41% languished in non attention. “Wag the dog”?
N200billion for Agriculture to feed 150million, N420million to feed 5 banks “wag the dog”?
Hang on Kalu, even if your figures are correct the US passed Tarp $700b, Obama has jumped into bonus paid to bankers, the whole press in the US focused on AIG, banks have been discussed in the Congress, Michael Moore even has a new film on evils of Capitalism, yep, but the US banking sector short term liabilities alone is 15% of US GDP and 43% of the entire National Debt, Consumer spending is 78% of the GDP of America, almost all the shoppers use Credit cards, debit cards, Bank cards etc, would you allow 78% or 42% of your economy freeze? Ooh Agriculture is 0.9% of the US economy
The EFCC circus with the bank debtors, the public trial on the pages of the papers is a stimulus package to the newspapers and the TV news, and a distraction. It has made all Nigerian experts in risk management (everybody now knows what non-performing loan is) it has enabled Sanusi live out his sheriff desire but at what cost?
Bank lending to the private sector is down, Nigerian letters of credit are not worth the paper they are faxed on, Nigerian banks, (all of them the cleared and uncleared), are now viewed with grave suspicion, the stock market has tanked, consumer credit is over,$2b to be spent on “stimulus” and heck unemployment will rise. Was the crises caused by the banks or is the bank crises an effect of falling oil price? Where would Nigerian economy be of we still had 84 moi moi banks when this crises hit? But i digress.
Ok Kalu but are you saying because its 3% of GDP is not important its not important? Isn’t N420b real money? Oh no! Far from it, i am mealy asking that we don’t only “eat the bankers” lets ensure the “efficiency” of the EFCC spreads around, surly this is a democracy.
The real wag the dog, the villains are the bank CEO’s not the guys mentioned in Siemens, Halliburton, and NIPP etc.

It’s our problem, we will fix it

of balls and barrels

2009-06-24T15:22:00.000+01:00

If a mosquito perched on your left ball (Blokus) what would you do? Would you slap the mosquito hard? Well you will kill the mosquito alright, but your balls might bust, would you leave it? Not likely, the bugger will suck your future children away, so what? Well an option is to first make the mosquito fly away from your left ball (blokus), then smack it in the air, far away from your balls. It’s a no brainer abi?

What if you had a MEND in your oil fields what would you do? Would you slap the MEND hard? Well you will kill the MEND? But your oil output might fall, would you leave MEND alone? Not likely, the bugger will create a state within a state, so what? Well an option is to first make the MEND irrelevant so they lose local support, then you smack them, far away from your oil fields balls. It’s a no brainer abi?
You see if its man to man fight in an open field the Nigerian Army (JTF) will finish off MEND and have time to do a beer or two, but JTF is not fighting an army, it is fighting an insurgency. Mao said an insurgency must avoid direct confrontation with the ruling powers because they will lose, but the insurgency must move like a toad in a swamp, in and out of water, and weaken the enemy to a point where they lose the will to fight. Modern counter insurgency principles are built around “draining the swamp” that feeds the insurgency.

In Malaysia the British starved off the Malay Communist by sequestering the villages into dedicated villages, which were then heavily defended. This strategy deprived the communist of food, information and most importantly local support. In Iraq, General Patreaus -using lessons learned from the NYPD in defeating gang members in New York- inserted US troops inside Iraq neighbors, enclosed the neighbors with walls and just sat there, this allowed the residents to feel confident that the US was there to stay and they turned on Al Qaeda.

After 2 months of JTF action what are the results? Well we are not in Gbaramatu so we don’t know how effective the routing of the militants had been, what we know is this;
1. Falling government oil earnings; a 39.5% drop from last quarter
2. Deficit in governments fiscal (tax) operations, 31.5% drop in preceding quarter
3. Depreciating value of the Naira
4. Expanded FGN debt, N2.5 trillion up 28.7%
5. Fall in commercial bank credit to private sector from (plus) 16.7% to (minus) 2.6%
6. Inflation rate of 13.1% in first quarter compared with 5.8% in corresponding period in 2008
7. Fall in the Nigerian stock market by 36.9% from the preceding quarter
8. Fall in FOREX inflow by 46.9%
9. Fall in oil output from a installed capacity of 3mbpd to almost 1.23mbpd
10. No power (light) in the country, because no gas from the creeks to power the gas turbines.
So who dunnit? One reason only one, a fall in oil output, caused by MEND. Nigeria earns 90% of our foreign earnings from oil, Nigeria is also import dependent and a heavy consumer , we earned $5.72 billion from January to March 2009, impressive abi? but we spent $11.26 billion, that’s why our reserves are now %45 billion from a high of $65 billion plus.
So a MEND reducing how much we can earn from oil is the proverbial mosquito on the balls. We would be fools to discount that MEND has the ability to significantly reduce how much we would earn in the next quarter. Chevron has shut in output, now shell has shut in output also. Even if Iran boils and oil gets to $200 a barrel, Nigeria might see output restricted further. Our brave soldiers nor matter how trained and equipped they may be (with or without unmanned drones) cannot guard every inch of pipeline in the Niger Delta. All it takes is for a MEND guy (or gal) to ride a bicycle to a pipeline into a forest, set a local fuse , and boom, 200,000 barrels are shut in, and the stats above gets worse.

So what can we do?

1. Yar Adua need to do a “Sadat”, and fly into the creeks and visit that area, call the global MDs of Shell, AGIP, ExxonMobil and Chevron to accompany him. Let him go there are tell the people Nigeria wants to “reset” relationship with them, let the MD of Shell and Co with the FGN invoke a “Marshall plan”, let them announce a multi billion offer to cleanup and develop the area, let Julius Berger announce it wants to hire 100,000 ND citizen to build a 8 lane, rail and road network in the creeks, let GE announce plans t build a massive 5,000 power plant in Gbamaratu kingdom employing 2,000 ex militants, let the Army replace the JTF with the Army Corp of Engineers to build jetties and fish ponds, let start to build a gigantic sports facility to host Africa in 2035, lets make the militants and the citizens of the Niger Delta dizzy with imagining how that area will be if they put down the RPG. What a morale booster this will be to the Nigerian troops in the JTF, what a morale booster it will be to the fisherman in the creeks who has not seen a fish since 1970 in his creek. Such a visit will change overnight the tone in the creeks. The symbolism and significance cannot be imagined.
2. Declare the entire Delta a federal zone i.e. Bayelsa Rivers and Delta State become the Delta federal republic (about the size of Florida); allocate 25% of the budget or oil earnings to develop the area, this is not derivation, it’s just an appropriation vote. Drain the swamp of kidnappers and militants, employ them in Julius Berger, Siemens, and Shell, take a census and pay every Nigerian from Delta, Rivers, and Bayelsa a special dividend being shareholders of the nations wealth. Cancel the states let only the local governments remain, that way the representation goes around
3. Set in a plan to return Nigeria to a fiscal federalism. This means that we live out the meaning of a federation, where the federating units have exclusive powers to create wealth, and pay a tax to the central government. This will mean that the Federal government hands over Education and Health to the local governments, the local government will fund health education with their resources and then pay a tax to the federal government. No state and in consequence individual will work if he knows his sweat will be taxed away to Abuja.
4. Pull the Army away from the land, I find it funny that we are using the army when the stolen oil will eventually find its way unto a barge and then t a ship on the high sea. Invest in the Navy; if we stop the barges leaving the creeks to the sea, we stop the bunkering.
5. Equip the police, the courts, and the laws. Let rule of law be a verb not a noun.
Do this all at once, don’t delay, if we can give FIFA a presidential guarantee that we will develop 6 stadia in 6 cities in one month to host a junior World Cup, then we can guarantee the Niger Delta People that we will develop 6 states in 6 months with N6 trillion and create 6 million direct jobs.
Kalu these are radical measures, it will cause the Nigerian government trillions to implement, we would have rewarded militancy and would appear unfair to other parts of Nigeria who depend on federal grants to survive, if I recall only I state (Lagos) generates enough internal revenue to pay salaries and build infrastructure.

Yes it’s a tough choice, but what’s the option, wait till MEND takes output down to 100,000bpd?

It’s our problem, we will fix it