ideology:


It is like a man with 6 figures in account but sleeping under the bridge and eating food without meat.

Hahhahaha

Is that no madness?

Exactly! Like a starving man boasting of fat account balance while hunger is gradually squeezing life out of him.

LordAdam16:


It takes money to make money.

We are 145 on the ease of doing business index out of 190 countries. Interest rate is 14+%. We only produce roughly 4,000 MW of electricity on average for the entire country when the current demand of manufacturers alone is 100,000 MW. Only about 11% of our population is in the middle class. And manufacturing already contributes roughly 10% to the GDP.

We aren't going to produce all that we consume very soon. It'd take time. A long time. And for every successful plastic or toiletries manufacturing company, there's a failed tinned tomato processing company. These loses and leakages you refer to would plug themselves as more people brave the tough terrain to set up plants. But that's only going to happen when all the indices point upwards. And I don't see how having $100b in reserves will stop these indices from pointing upwards.

As I've said Nigerians don't know what they want and are pathologically impatient; thanks in part to a chronic lack of understanding of how macroeconomics work. And then all that happens in social discussion is unintelligible noise.

That's how everyone was forming expert in 2008-2014 when GDP growth was in high single digits, inflation was in single digits, the economy was opening up net 1.2m jobs annually; people were claiming they are paper achievements and were not affecting the "common man." Today, when the chicken has come hope to roost and GDP growth is negative or less than 2%, inflation is in double digits, and the economy is losing net 1.5m jobs annually; and people can clearly see how that things are worse now than before, people are now saying let's do all we can to get those same paper achievements they lambasted just 2-3 years ago. Talk about epic ignorance.

Who is fooling who then?

We've just wasted 4 years and over N30t in FG budget alone because ppl couldn't see past their nose, and we're likely to waste another 4 years and tens of trillions if this inept government continues. Yet the one thing that should be excused from all the brouhaha, is the one thing everyone is fixated on with their pseudo- and quasi-analysis.

-Lord

I never said $100bn will or may hinder indices upward movement. What i pointed out is what we must do. What you replied is largely about things we lack like power.
I repeat that the pressure on reserve is a product of our self-induced famine. We have good wheather, rain and land for agric but don't cultivate to full potential. Until we start producing the things we are used to importing we will just be making "inteligent noise". If the last admin had built us refinery today there will be no need for huge petrol importation that's choking the reserves and indirectly affecting exchange rate adversely.
In the last 10 years we have earned hundreds in billions of dollars around $300bn to run the economy but didn't build good refineries to utilize our number one raw material - crude.

Today Dangote is opening eyes with his $12bn 650,000bpd refinery that's inline to create thousands of permanent jobs. The govt could have built 3 of such refineries effortlessly over the last 10 years knowing fully that it will create employments and increase the nation's earning.
It is easy to pick on one admin and bash it subtly based on political bias. What i am pointing out here transcends any admin or political party. It was recorded in The Holy Bible.

CodeTemplar:
I never said $100bn will or may hinder indices upward movement. What i pointed out is what we must do. What you replied is largely about things we lack like power.
I repeat that the pressure on reserve is a product of our self-induced famine. We have good wheather, rain and land for agric but don't cultivate to full potential. Until we start producing the things we are used to importing we will just be making "inteligent noise". If the last admin had built us refinery today there will be no need for huge petrol importation that's choking the reserves and indirectly affecting exchange rate adversely.
In the last 10 years we have earned hundreds in billions of dollars around $300 bn but didn't build good refineries to utilize our number one raw material - crude. Today Dangote is opening eyes with his $12bn 650,000bpd refinery that's inline to create thousands of permanent jobs. The govt could have built 3 of such refineries effortlessly knowing that it will create employment and increase the nation's earning. It is easy to pick on one admin and bash it subtly based on political bias. What i am pointing out here transcends any admin or political party. It was recorded in The Holy Bible.

And I'm saying the reserve shouldn't even come into the discussion of how we go about developing the country.

And more importantly that these things you're clamoring for--producing most of what we consume--would happen naturally when the indices are on an upward march. We used to import plastic, we now produce it. Tires are produced in Nigeria. Some types of glass are produced in this country. Shoes same thing. So it's not like we haven't started producing things we used to import. We are already nearing sufficiency in rice production.

The problem is that most of us don't want to acknowledge that in 2018, we're better than where we were in 1999. And accept that it'd be a long, tortuous journey to get the Nigeria of our dreams. And we'd need to get several parameters right, not all at the same time, but slowly.

Pressure or no pressure, let's all accept to let the reserves grow to a predetermined number--anywhere between $100b-$200b is fine. That is a milestone. Then we know regardless of how the oil market goes tomorrow, we have some level of fortification. Then we can continue talking about all the other things we intend to do from industrialization to food sufficiency.

I have no idea why you'd talk about producing what we consume, when it is common knowledge that is something we need to do and that successive governments since 1999 have all done their best to get that done. And in fact, we're making strides, even though it is not at the pace many of us would prefer.

The government would not open a hair factory. Whoever is going to open a synthetic hair factory would check some of these indices, from purchasing power to credit facilities before opening one. If it checks out alright, they'd go ahead; if it doesn't they stay away from the market. So when I hear we need to produce what we consume, I wonder if you guys are living in this country where there is multiple taxation, poor infrastructure and the likes... You're not going to resolve all of these huge issues in one year.

The refinery you talked about, I think I've answered that previously. By the way, can you imagine the level of graft that'd accompany a $12b refinery project in our political system where there is no accountability or transparency? Ordinary concession of airports we're struggling to do, is it a $12b refinery that we'd be able to get done efficiently and in due course? Do you even know how long it'd take? This is a country where civil servants under defunct NEPA/PHCN sat on containers of materials for power infrastructure for TEN good years at the ports, and there was not a single protest. To my knowledge, not one person was sacked.

But if it is to come up with fancy ideas of what we should build, everyone would have an opinion. When it is time to demand transparency and accountability, we'd sit behind our keyboards and wail.

You all want world class universities with bottom-rate tuition fees, stable electricity, excellent roads, produce most of what we consume, world-class hospitals, N50,000 minimum wage; all on less than $30b annual budget where more than half goes for recurrent expenditure, and inherent wastage screws over the less than 30% capital expenditure. What sort of magic is that?!

-Lord

LordAdam16:

You all want world class universities with bottom-rate tuition fees, stable electricity, excellent roads, produce most of what we consume, world-class hospitals, N50,000 minimum wage; all on less than $30b annual budget where more than half goes for recurrent expenditure, and inherent wastage screws over the less than 30% capital expenditure. What sort of magic is that?!

-Lord

i am not an advocate of free or cheap education.

CodeTemplar:
i am not an advocate of free or cheap education.

It's not necessarily directed at you, I'm giving a blanket summary of all the things that regularly form the bulk of populace demands.

Which is why it is remarkably easy for politicians to sway opinions and tap into their emotions.

Who would vote for a candidate that says Nigeria can't have steady power in the next 4 years if elected? I mean Sowore is saying he'd make minimum wage N100,000. And if you ask him, he'd say it's doable, whip up a calculator and start punching in phantom figures.

An ignorant civil servant hears that, imagines Sowore would know what he's talking about, because when you're dumb with a bias, everyone who has a better vocab than you that appeals to that bias must be heaven sent. It becomes popular opinion and everyone starts gulping it up, because of herd mentality. Then hypothetically, if Sowore gets in there and inevitably is unable to make N100,000 the minimum wage, the same civil servant starts rummaging through for another politician that'd tell him nonsense promises he'd want to hear. Rinse and repeat!

-Lord