[size=16pt]Nigeria spent N45trn in 12 years[/size]

Federal, state and local governments have jointly spent over N45 trillion within the last 12 years.
Speaking in Lagos Third Annual Bola Tinubu colloquium, the chief executive officer of Resources and Trust Company Ltd, an investment company, Opeyemi Agbaje said of the amount, N38.8 trillion came from oil revenue. He said the 36 states and FCT have spent over N14.75 trillion since 1999 while the 774 local government areas spent almost N6 trillion.
Agbaje who is also an economist and a director in Lagos Business School, said the revenues of the Nigerian government are generated and centralized through oil sales, taxes and duties but that in efficient economies, revenues go into the hands of businesses and individuals from where taxes then accrue to government.
“The Nigerian structure promotes waste, lack of accountability and high cost of governance. The political system and its manner of remunerating political appointees make the cost of government prohibitive and probably unsustainable. It is the residue of the revenues devoted to office holders and public employees that is available for development and poverty alleviation”, he lament.
He said the issue has gone beyond political matter, but an economic constraint as focus is not on production and wealth creation, but rent distribution, adding that with that it is unlikely that proper economic management for the benefit of the majority will ever happen under the centralised political and economic structure.
Agbaje said to achieve any meaningful changes in the economy, there must be budgetary reform which, he said, would include amendment of Fiscal Responsibility Act to stipulate 70:30 capital/recurrent budget ratio within five years, public sector reforms, execution of Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA) 2005 and Power Sector Roadmap to create private-sector dominated power sector as well as privatisation of all government-owned refineries; concessioning of airports and leveraging transparent PPPs.
He said government should focus on mining sector and Mines and Minerals Act 2007 and strong regulatory institutions and competition law and policy. “In making the Nigerian economy work for the vast, majority of our people requires structural policy and governance reforms. It requires concrete actions to diversify Nigeria’s production base and aggressive social action to build human capital and improve the quality of life of the people”, he said .

http://news2.onlinenigeria.com/news/general/88036-nigeria-spent-n45trn-in-12-years.html

A Joke Called Nigeria

This may seem unpatriotic, treasonable even. But it is real. Nigeria is joke. The key to surviving this farce is not to take the country too seriously.
If you did, you face the risk of sustaining a heart attack. Leaders of this country are clowns. That bears stressing. I wondered where they were in the days of the theatre of the absurd.

Everywhere you turn to, the farcical nature of Nigerian leaders confront you. Our educational system, for instance, must have been created in hell. It has suffered so much back and forth from policy inconsistencies that foreigners wonder if our leaders are not clowns. Every now and again, some bright-eyed minister would come up with an idea, and bingo! It is done.

Nigeria’s education was once a pride of the continent. Citizens of sister African countries used to come here to study. Not anymore. Those who studied abroad, especially America, were derided. Now they are celebrated. There is a newspaper in this country which goes ecstatic at the sight of a foreign degree. Three years in a row, less than five percent of the total students that sat for NECO and WAEC score five credits.

Those who take Nigeria seriously wonder if we have not lost the future. They wonder out of ignorance. They only need to see the clowns calling the shots as leaders to know that this country is a huge joke.

With education in tatters, our circus clowns move on to destroy other sectors of national life. Because our universities churn out semi-literate graduates, the process of leadership recruitment becomes a do-or- die affair.

We all know for instance, that a certain former senate president didn’t contest an election but he was shoved down the throats of our not-so- ‘distinguished’ senators- most of whom have skeletons to fill the size of a five year old cemetery! There was the story of a federal legislator (now late) who was an international scammer. He got elected into the legislature and manouvered to be chairman of the police affairs committee.

The judiciary is no different. I remember a certain High Court judge (also now late), who had a penchant for issuing interim injunctions in the night for a fee.

And the police? It is better not to talk about the police. We once had the head of police giving cover to criminals involved in all manner of sleaze and crime. Presently the ruling party willingly subverted its own constitution to accommodate the aspiration of a president who lives in denial.

As I write, the same party is busy ordering a rerun to weed out those the people voted for. The story is no different in other political parties. Everywhere one is confronted by the seeming rascality of the elite. People are kicking the imposition of candidates. But those clowns and comedians don’t give a hoot.

Basketmouth, Julius Agwu, Clint ‘da drunk’ and Ali Baba are known comics. The last especially is a grandmaster in the art of rib splitting humour. He towers above all the dozen or so of the Nigeria’s burgeoning tribe of comedians. And mark you, the nations’ comics could hold their own anywhere in the world. But Ali Baba’s amazing gift to make light of a heavy matter places him a shoulder above his nearest competitor.But compared to Nigeria’s leaders,these guys are upstarts.

I recall an instance this pure genius called Ali Baba, in the theatre of the absurd performing on stage. Before the imperial presence of ‘Baba Iyabo’ himself, Ali Baba was at his artistic and caustic best. He secured a place for himself in the hall of fame of comedians by that performance. He derided the president maximally in his unique comical ways demonstrable only by masters of clowning. He was unsparing of his ministers too. He began taking poke shots at President Obasanjo with the story of the contract of erecting his life size status in Ota.

During an unofficial visit to Ota, according to Ali Baba, , an obviously impressed Obasanjo asked the supervising minister, Jerry Gana how much it was going to cost to the national treasury. An obviously excited Gana promptly responded ‘N300 million, sir!’

‘What!’, a not too pleased Obasanjo asked, ‘N300 million?’ Give me the money and I will stand there!’

Ali Baba went on. Soon after the attacks on the World Trade Centre (WTC), the world was beside the US sharing in her grief. Expectedly, world leaders were calling President Bush to commiserate with him and other Americans. Suddenly there was a call from Africa on the direct line of President Bush. Presidential aides knew that the caller must be a fellow president but which country from Africa, they couldn’t tell. They were certain the caller must be an important African leader. So they handed the phone to Bush. The first thing the caller uttered after clearing his throat as he is wont to was ‘Boosiii’. Ali Baba so mimicked Obasanjo that everyone burst out laughing, including Baba Iyabo himself.

So tell me is this country not a joke?

[size=13pt]About $300 Billion dollars spentso far in 12 PDP Years[/size]



What do we have to show for all that money? Still

a) No Electricity

b) No good healthcare

c) No good roads

d) Education in dilapidated state

e) No jobs

f) Poverty rate about 30% higher today

These are great reasons to support Jonathan and PDP

Kobojunkie:

[size=13pt]About $300 Billion dollars spentso far in 12 PDP Years[/size]



What do we have to show for all that money? Still

a) No Electricity

b) No good healthcare

c) No good roads

d) Education in dilapidated state

e) No jobs

f) Poverty rate about 30% higher today


WOW  . .  some  argue that voting PDP is voting for CONTINUITY   

The concept of wealth is a real problem here. Nigerians and Africans at large use the wealth conception in terms of paper money and that's a real problem, it shows how simple we truly are.

And why should government provide electricity and jobs in the first place? When all that is needed is privatize electricity and try to create a business environment to enhance employment by PRIVATE sectors. You spend no money in doing this, government actually gain from doing them - so don't tell me corruption is the problem.

It is not in the place of government to provide private goods to individuals but public good like road and maybe prioritize education. All that is needed in Nigeria is taking the power back to the people - government have no business selling oil,  give the well back to the people and impose resource tax - limited government is the only way out for Africa not a social order which we have deeply skidded into.

Socialism is a curse - it places an entitlement on the people. There is no such thing as "our money" and corruption is not the problem with Africa but stupidity.

[size=13pt]About $300 Billion dollars spentso far in 12 PDP Years[/size]



What do we have to show for all that money? Still

a) No Electricity

b) No good healthcare

c) No good roads

d) Education in dilapidated state

e) No jobs

f) Poverty rate about 30% higher today


WOW  . .  some  argue that voting PDP is voting for CONTINUITY   

Many Nigerians are impractical onlookers. In my political permutation, PDP does not constitute the only problem in Nigeria. The colonial contraption called Nigeria is the root of its problems. The constant deterioration of economic infrastructures in Nigerian did not start and fledge the last 12 years of PDP reign in the office. It is pure political naiveté to blame PDP for the societal decadences found in abundance within Nigerian society.

Even the so-called democracy being forced upon the people on the urging of the colonial masters had encouraged the backwardness. It beats my imagination how any society could practice democracy without the fundamental pre-requites of the system. Nigeria has the most useless three arms of the government that compliment democracy in the world. The government have completely rendered the society powerless by the taking the guns away from the law-abiding citizens of the country.