MR WAKA WAKA- NIGERIA’S MINISTER FOR TOURISM; AND HIS MANY GAFFES.
You rmight wonder why the writer of this article is so misinformed, Nigeria under Buhari’s administration has no minister for tourism. Yes we have tourism minister, many have ignored the obvious that Buhari doubles as both minister for petroleum and tourism. On the 8th of May, 2018 Nigerian president went on another medical trip, while all the hospitals across the nation were all closed. This shows how insensitive the president is to the needs of the nation. How dare the president treat himself abroad while many patients are dying as a result of health workers strike! Has he forgot his campaign promise? “To stop all travel abroad at government expense for the purpose of medical tourism”. The hypocrisy on full display reminds me of Fela Kuti “Waka waka” where he exposed the hypocrisy of both Christians and Muslims in government. The joke is now on the president and his aides who were the critics of the past governments foreign travels. What do we call a nation whose chief housekeeper spends more time flying than the fowls of the air, who is the Guinness book of record older for the most travelled octogenarian head of state in the world. What song would Fela have sang for the president Buhari, if he were alive today. Indeed Buhari most immediate act as president was to travel to Niger on 3rd of June 2015, while this raised less highbrows back then; tongues were wagging by the end of 2015.Buhari had travelled for 42days in his first 200days.This was when many eyes started rolling in the sockets because there were no cabinet ministers in the same period but his lovers came to his aid. One would think that the “new sheriff in town” has he was fondly called back then; would be studying handover notes, receiving briefings from different heads of the MDA’s and strategizing on ways to govern. He was still enjoying his honeymoon said the “lion of bourdillon”. Even Obasanjo a ‘’hailing-hailer’’ now turned ‘’wailing-wailer’’ came to the rescue saying “He needs to be known and to know people, how do you make friends and influence people except you know them and this cannot happen if he sits in Aso Villa, especially in a situation that we found ourselves, a situation where we have bad image in the world, a situation where we need to play leadership role, especially in Africa, because during Jonathan’s administration, Nigeria was not on the table.” His linguistic-gymnast were not far behind has Senior Special Assistant to the President on media and publicity Garba Shehu, one of the best in the propagandist talents assembled by the president said “In public diplomacy, experts say that it is better conducted through face-to-face interaction than through third parties. This is even more so at the level of heads of state. To do it by proxy is to miss the effect of fostering strong interpersonal relations between leaders, by which nations benefit,” “They were mostly undertaken to attend specific meetings, not State Visits. Looking at these assignments, the trips are inescapable for the President. He went further to say that the president entourage were smaller compared to previous governments who took all their family members and pet on foreign trips. Yes the entourage were smaller but he compensated for this with more globetrotting. After two years he had spent 4months out of 24months travelling.
Then came the jaw dropping and gnashing of long absence of 2017, the president spent 157days of the 365days in a year travelling, no oh! Absent or should we call it kidnapped by “Abuja swamp”. The longest foreign voyage by any sitting head of state of our time; even the president ardent supporters and spin doctors retreated to their living rooms to discuss quintessential quagmire of the Presidents absence. In this instance, the president became a private citizen whose medical records were only for his eyes while taxpayer’s foot the bill for the medical vacation. Minister for information scrambled to UK to get some photos to prove the president was as fit as a fiddle, even a 70year old man with exemplary medical record could not be issued a medical report with such characterization. His effort became futile and an important instrument in the hands of the president’s nemesis like Fayose and Fani kayode, who took the president image makers to task by in faring and analyzing the minute details provided by the pictures in bad faith. The ink could barely dry on the president absence with rumor mongers and opinion shapers writing in the papers and making TV appearances. While the president prides himself as a man with the highest moral rectitude and as an anti-corruption crusader; the amounts he has spent, which government agency is paying for the bills and who approved the expenses are mind-boggling questions whose answers remain a classified document locked under the president mattress in Aso rock villa. In 2016 a total of N1.5billion was budgeted for the president and his vice presidents for foreign trips; while in 2017 N1.28billion was budgeted and in 2018 appropriation N1.3billion was budgeted. This does not cover medical bills. I believe this money could be better spent on somewhere else, lets even put money aside let concentrate on substance. The president preference for foreign trip even became more ridiculous has he failed to visit state affected by insecurity. If the president could visits more than 31countries in 3years, why is he struggling with visiting just 10 states out of 36 during the same period?
In most of Buhari’s foreign trips you will see the lackluster attitude of his entourage on full display, they are always on vacation mode eating snacks at bilateral meetings tables while their serious opposite counterparts are busy take notes of proceedings; and are well prepared. His handlers basking in the foreign trips euphoria always fail to prepare him while they are busy packing their suitcases and shopping. That is why the most painful part of the president’s foreign trips are the international embarrassment, de-marketing of its citizens and his demoralizing gaffes. At an event to mark the queen of England 90th birthday, the then UK Prime Minister David Cameron was caught on camera saying “We’ve got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain… Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world”. At the global anti-corruption summit hosted by Cameron in London, Nigerian president was put on the spotlight; when sky news diplomatic editor, Dominic Waghorn asked Buhari whether Nigerians were fantastically corrupt, he said yes. When pressed further whether he wants an apology from Cameron he said no. To me Buhari was implying “my bank is the safest in the world that’s why all the cashiers are thieves come and keep your life savings in my bank. Tell me which foreign investor will invest in an economy where it citizens are “fantastically corrupt” .During a joint press conference with Angela Merkel the German chancellor in October 2016, Buhari responded to the interview given by his wife to BBC Hausa by saying “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room.” The German chancellor was left stultified and horrified by Buhari’s mansplaining, in the era of gender equality and sensitivity. The gaffe was an insult to the German people who have elected a woman has their head of state, many German’s I presume took it as a dig on their intelligence to appoint a woman as head of state. As if that was not enough Buhari at the commonwealth heads of government summit in London last month created another episode when he declared that Nigerian youths are lazy, the greatest insults to Nigerian youths till today. The statement was an irony because the presidents is the laziest head of state in the world who has spent 6month in 3years jet-setting instead of working. If Nigerian youths who represent more than 60% could vote for a 75years old octogenarian, who cannot produce his WAEC certificate and has not been successful in anything in the last 33years. Then they deserve the insults. You can see that what you chose is what you get, I hereby declare that Nigerian youths are intellectually lazy for voting Buhari into office and I hope they do a better job voting out Buhari in 2019. The president is our number one marketing officer, if the only thing he spews out is hooey whenever he travels out of the country. Then he should belong to the other room, charity they say begins at home; if our presidents see nothing good about us, then who else will see it. The president of a country should blow its trumpet and not scorn it citizens. If we don’t expect any better from our leaders we won’t get any better at as a nation.

MR WAKA WAKA- NIGERIA’S MINISTER FOR TOURISM; AND HIS MANY GAFFES.
You rmight wonder why the writer of this article is so misinformed, Nigeria under Buhari’s administration has no minister for tourism. Yes we have tourism minister, many have ignored the obvious that Buhari doubles as both minister for petroleum and tourism. On the 8th of May, 2018 Nigerian president went on another medical trip, while all the hospitals across the nation were all closed. This shows how insensitive the president is to the needs of the nation. How dare the president treat himself abroad while many patients are dying as a result of health workers strike! Has he forgot his campaign promise? “To stop all travel abroad at government expense for the purpose of medical tourism”. The hypocrisy on full display reminds me of Fela Kuti “Waka waka” where he exposed the hypocrisy of both Christians and Muslims in government. The joke is now on the president and his aides who were the critics of the past governments foreign travels. What do we call a nation whose chief housekeeper spends more time flying than the fowls of the air, who is the Guinness book of record older for the most travelled octogenarian head of state in the world. What song would Fela have sang for the president Buhari, if he were alive today. Indeed Buhari most immediate act as president was to travel to Niger on 3rd of June 2015, while this raised less highbrows back then; tongues were wagging by the end of 2015.Buhari had travelled for 42days in his first 200days.This was when many eyes started rolling in the sockets because there were no cabinet ministers in the same period but his lovers came to his aid. One would think that the “new sheriff in town” has he was fondly called back then; would be studying handover notes, receiving briefings from different heads of the MDA’s and strategizing on ways to govern. He was still enjoying his honeymoon said the “lion of bourdillon”. Even Obasanjo a ‘’hailing-hailer’’ now turned ‘’wailing-wailer’’ came to the rescue saying “He needs to be known and to know people, how do you make friends and influence people except you know them and this cannot happen if he sits in Aso Villa, especially in a situation that we found ourselves, a situation where we have bad image in the world, a situation where we need to play leadership role, especially in Africa, because during Jonathan’s administration, Nigeria was not on the table.” His linguistic-gymnast were not far behind has Senior Special Assistant to the President on media and publicity Garba Shehu, one of the best in the propagandist talents assembled by the president said “In public diplomacy, experts say that it is better conducted through face-to-face interaction than through third parties. This is even more so at the level of heads of state. To do it by proxy is to miss the effect of fostering strong interpersonal relations between leaders, by which nations benefit,” “They were mostly undertaken to attend specific meetings, not State Visits. Looking at these assignments, the trips are inescapable for the President. He went further to say that the president entourage were smaller compared to previous governments who took all their family members and pet on foreign trips. Yes the entourage were smaller but he compensated for this with more globetrotting. After two years he had spent 4months out of 24months travelling.
Then came the jaw dropping and gnashing of long absence of 2017, the president spent 157days of the 365days in a year travelling, no oh! Absent or should we call it kidnapped by “Abuja swamp”. The longest foreign voyage by any sitting head of state of our time; even the president ardent supporters and spin doctors retreated to their living rooms to discuss quintessential quagmire of the Presidents absence. In this instance, the president became a private citizen whose medical records were only for his eyes while taxpayer’s foot the bill for the medical vacation. Minister for information scrambled to UK to get some photos to prove the president was as fit as a fiddle, even a 70year old man with exemplary medical record could not be issued a medical report with such characterization. His effort became futile and an important instrument in the hands of the president’s nemesis like Fayose and Fani kayode, who took the president image makers to task by in faring and analyzing the minute details provided by the pictures in bad faith. The ink could barely dry on the president absence with rumor mongers and opinion shapers writing in the papers and making TV appearances. While the president prides himself as a man with the highest moral rectitude and as an anti-corruption crusader; the amounts he has spent, which government agency is paying for the bills and who approved the expenses are mind-boggling questions whose answers remain a classified document locked under the president mattress in Aso rock villa. In 2016 a total of N1.5billion was budgeted for the president and his vice presidents for foreign trips; while in 2017 N1.28billion was budgeted and in 2018 appropriation N1.3billion was budgeted. This does not cover medical bills. I believe this money could be better spent on somewhere else, lets even put money aside let concentrate on substance. The president preference for foreign trip even became more ridiculous has he failed to visit state affected by insecurity. If the president could visits more than 31countries in 3years, why is he struggling with visiting just 10 states out of 36 during the same period?
In most of Buhari’s foreign trips you will see the lackluster attitude of his entourage on full display, they are always on vacation mode eating snacks at bilateral meetings tables while their serious opposite counterparts are busy take notes of proceedings; and are well prepared. His handlers basking in the foreign trips euphoria always fail to prepare him while they are busy packing their suitcases and shopping. That is why the most painful part of the president’s foreign trips are the international embarrassment, de-marketing of its citizens and his demoralizing gaffes. At an event to mark the queen of England 90th birthday, the then UK Prime Minister David Cameron was caught on camera saying “We’ve got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain… Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world”. At the global anti-corruption summit hosted by Cameron in London, Nigerian president was put on the spotlight; when sky news diplomatic editor, Dominic Waghorn asked Buhari whether Nigerians were fantastically corrupt, he said yes. When pressed further whether he wants an apology from Cameron he said no. To me Buhari was implying “my bank is the safest in the world that’s why all the cashiers are thieves come and keep your life savings in my bank. Tell me which foreign investor will invest in an economy where it citizens are “fantastically corrupt” .During a joint press conference with Angela Merkel the German chancellor in October 2016, Buhari responded to the interview given by his wife to BBC Hausa by saying “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room.” The German chancellor was left stultified and horrified by Buhari’s mansplaining, in the era of gender equality and sensitivity. The gaffe was an insult to the German people who have elected a woman has their head of state, many German’s I presume took it as a dig on their intelligence to appoint a woman as head of state. As if that was not enough Buhari at the commonwealth heads of government summit in London last month created another episode when he declared that Nigerian youths are lazy, the greatest insults to Nigerian youths till today. The statement was an irony because the presidents is the laziest head of state in the world who has spent 6month in 3years jet-setting instead of working. If Nigerian youths who represent more than 60% could vote for a 75years old octogenarian, who cannot produce his WAEC certificate and has not been successful in anything in the last 33years. Then they deserve the insults. You can see that what you chose is what you get, I hereby declare that Nigerian youths are intellectually lazy for voting Buhari into office and I hope they do a better job voting out Buhari in 2019. The president is our number one marketing officer, if the only thing he spews out is hooey whenever he travels out of the country. Then he should belong to the other room, charity they say begins at home; if our presidents see nothing good about us, then who else will see it. The president of a country should blow its trumpet and not scorn it citizens. If we don’t expect any better from our leaders we won’t get any better at as a nation.

MR WAKA WAKA- NIGERIA’S MINISTER FOR TOURISM; AND HIS MANY GAFFES.
https://olaniranoladotunblog./2018/05/14/mr-waka-waka-nigerias-minister-for-tourism-and-his-many-gaffes/
MR WAKA WAKA- NIGERIA’S MINISTER FOR TOURISM; AND HIS MANY GAFFES.
You rmight wonder why the writer of this article is so misinformed, Nigeria under Buhari’s administration has no minister for tourism. Yes we have tourism minister, many have ignored the obvious that Buhari doubles as both minister for petroleum and tourism. On the 8th of May, 2018 Nigerian president went on another medical trip, while all the hospitals across the nation were all closed. This shows how insensitive the president is to the needs of the nation. How dare the president treat himself abroad while many patients are dying as a result of health workers strike! Has he forgot his campaign promise? “To stop all travel abroad at government expense for the purpose of medical tourism”. The hypocrisy on full display reminds me of Fela Kuti “Waka waka” where he exposed the hypocrisy of both Christians and Muslims in government. The joke is now on the president and his aides who were the critics of the past governments foreign travels. What do we call a nation whose chief housekeeper spends more time flying than the fowls of the air, who is the Guinness book of record older for the most travelled octogenarian head of state in the world. What song would Fela have sang for the president Buhari, if he were alive today. Indeed Buhari most immediate act as president was to travel to Niger on 3rd of June 2015, while this raised less highbrows back then; tongues were wagging by the end of 2015.Buhari had travelled for 42days in his first 200days.This was when many eyes started rolling in the sockets because there were no cabinet ministers in the same period but his lovers came to his aid. One would think that the “new sheriff in town” has he was fondly called back then; would be studying handover notes, receiving briefings from different heads of the MDA’s and strategizing on ways to govern. He was still enjoying his honeymoon said the “lion of bourdillon”. Even Obasanjo a ‘’hailing-hailer’’ now turned ‘’wailing-wailer’’ came to the rescue saying “He needs to be known and to know people, how do you make friends and influence people except you know them and this cannot happen if he sits in Aso Villa, especially in a situation that we found ourselves, a situation where we have bad image in the world, a situation where we need to play leadership role, especially in Africa, because during Jonathan’s administration, Nigeria was not on the table.” His linguistic-gymnast were not far behind has Senior Special Assistant to the President on media and publicity Garba Shehu, one of the best in the propagandist talents assembled by the president said “In public diplomacy, experts say that it is better conducted through face-to-face interaction than through third parties. This is even more so at the level of heads of state. To do it by proxy is to miss the effect of fostering strong interpersonal relations between leaders, by which nations benefit,” “They were mostly undertaken to attend specific meetings, not State Visits. Looking at these assignments, the trips are inescapable for the President. He went further to say that the president entourage were smaller compared to previous governments who took all their family members and pet on foreign trips. Yes the entourage were smaller but he compensated for this with more globetrotting. After two years he had spent 4months out of 24months travelling.
Then came the jaw dropping and gnashing of long absence of 2017, the president spent 157days of the 365days in a year travelling, no oh! Absent or should we call it kidnapped by “Abuja swamp”. The longest foreign voyage by any sitting head of state of our time; even the president ardent supporters and spin doctors retreated to their living rooms to discuss quintessential quagmire of the Presidents absence. In this instance, the president became a private citizen whose medical records were only for his eyes while taxpayer’s foot the bill for the medical vacation. Minister for information scrambled to UK to get some photos to prove the president was as fit as a fiddle, even a 70year old man with exemplary medical record could not be issued a medical report with such characterization. His effort became futile and an important instrument in the hands of the president’s nemesis like Fayose and Fani kayode, who took the president image makers to task by in faring and analyzing the minute details provided by the pictures in bad faith. The ink could barely dry on the president absence with rumor mongers and opinion shapers writing in the papers and making TV appearances. While the president prides himself as a man with the highest moral rectitude and as an anti-corruption crusader; the amounts he has spent, which government agency is paying for the bills and who approved the expenses are mind-boggling questions whose answers remain a classified document locked under the president mattress in Aso rock villa. In 2016 a total of N1.5billion was budgeted for the president and his vice presidents for foreign trips; while in 2017 N1.28billion was budgeted and in 2018 appropriation N1.3billion was budgeted. This does not cover medical bills. I believe this money could be better spent on somewhere else, lets even put money aside let concentrate on substance. The president preference for foreign trip even became more ridiculous has he failed to visit state affected by insecurity. If the president could visits more than 31countries in 3years, why is he struggling with visiting just 10 states out of 36 during the same period?
In most of Buhari’s foreign trips you will see the lackluster attitude of his entourage on full display, they are always on vacation mode eating snacks at bilateral meetings tables while their serious opposite counterparts are busy take notes of proceedings; and are well prepared. His handlers basking in the foreign trips euphoria always fail to prepare him while they are busy packing their suitcases and shopping. That is why the most painful part of the president’s foreign trips are the international embarrassment, de-marketing of its citizens and his demoralizing gaffes. At an event to mark the queen of England 90th birthday, the then UK Prime Minister David Cameron was caught on camera saying “We’ve got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain… Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world”. At the global anti-corruption summit hosted by Cameron in London, Nigerian president was put on the spotlight; when sky news diplomatic editor, Dominic Waghorn asked Buhari whether Nigerians were fantastically corrupt, he said yes. When pressed further whether he wants an apology from Cameron he said no. To me Buhari was implying “my bank is the safest in the world that’s why all the cashiers are thieves come and keep your life savings in my bank. Tell me which foreign investor will invest in an economy where it citizens are “fantastically corrupt” .During a joint press conference with Angela Merkel the German chancellor in October 2016, Buhari responded to the interview given by his wife to BBC Hausa by saying “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room.” The German chancellor was left stultified and horrified by Buhari’s mansplaining, in the era of gender equality and sensitivity. The gaffe was an insult to the German people who have elected a woman has their head of state, many German’s I presume took it as a dig on their intelligence to appoint a woman as head of state. As if that was not enough Buhari at the commonwealth heads of government summit in London last month created another episode when he declared that Nigerian youths are lazy, the greatest insults to Nigerian youths till today. The statement was an irony because the presidents is the laziest head of state in the world who has spent 6month in 3years jet-setting instead of working. If Nigerian youths who represent more than 60% could vote for a 75years old octogenarian, who cannot produce his WAEC certificate and has not been successful in anything in the last 33years. Then they deserve the insults. You can see that what you chose is what you get, I hereby declare that Nigerian youths are intellectually lazy for voting Buhari into office and I hope they do a better job voting out Buhari in 2019. The president is our number one marketing officer, if the only thing he spews out is hooey whenever he travels out of the country. Then he should belong to the other room, charity they say begins at home; if our presidents see nothing good about us, then who else will see it. The president of a country should blow its trumpet and not scorn it citizens. If we don’t expect any better from our leaders we won’t get any better at as a nation.

Big brother Nigeria just wind down, here is my personal opinion on the program. Sometimes you can’t get your head around why people enjoy somethings, the rationale behind the almost inseparable sense of attachment to something. You often watch those around you in disgust for the love of that which seems to you a “made for fools” TV show. A seldom pleasure they feel which makes you see them in condescending manner. They gaze in awe on TV screens like there life depends on its, like a fanatic football fan who never misses a game. You don’t find it interesting ,so you want to escape from it but you can’t; it’s like air. A colleague whose words are poison to your soul, with a zero sense of optimism but you are locked up in the same office every working day; so you can’t escape him. That’s “Big brother africa”, a non-consequential show that preys on perversion of our time. A cocktail of this with home video will make you into a low IQ fellow. You want to escape but you can't, after all you are going to have a friend, a colleague, a house mate that watches and talks about the “ Big none sense”. When you check the newspaper there are many articles waiting for you; you go on nairaland, Facebook, twitter and Ig they are all peppered with news about it. You will say to yourself, don’t be a jerk and a non sensitive fellow; common! it can be that bad. So you try to watch, you see some clowns in a ritzy fiefdoms house living, eating, bathing together. They argue with each other, play games with each other, acts together. A house of " double none sense where breast and laps of young ladies are on full display, male eggplant dangling away in see through briefs. You go on the internet,fans of the contestants are trading school yard insults. Before you know it; breaking news! Miracle and Cece had sex in the kitchen while others were sleeping. No this can be true, you click on the link it takes you to YouTube; there you go, it’s a sex tape. This was the moment I snapped, the grotesque video made me feel incandescence in a bad way. Spurned I quipped in an uncanny way, How does this hard value to my life? Thus this make me a better person? Thus this enhance my productivity ? Am I pragmatic and resourceful ? What is the opportunity cost of watching. The answer is that this show adds no value, you can’t be a fan of big brother show and I will appreciate your time management strategy.  Don’t waste away your time, it’s a resource you have wasted in the last three months watching a low life show. If you’ve spent two hours in the last three months, you’ve spent one hundred and eighty hours of your time watching that crap. The real cost is the productive use you could have spent that time on; it’s a pity you wasted it. And you are one of those annoyed when Buhari said Nigerian youth are lazy. Don’t get me wrong I love reality TV shows like idols and project fame; where talent and passion are properly channeled and nurtured. But big brother doesn’t offer any real moral lesson. This Programme seems to have provided circus and bread to distract youths from the reality of the society we live in; if not permanently but at least in the interim. A society where there is meagre opportunity for the youths, if you don’t find a way for yourself no one will. Big brother has piggyback on lack regulations and decorum in our society and metamorphosed into a national calamity. A successful ballyhoo on the part of multichoice and its parent company DSTV; that have stultified the youth of our nation. A quintessential quagmire that all have fell for. The Buhari administration run by a megalomaniac, couldn’t have been happier about this hiatus to public hemorrhage; they have suffered in recent months, all courtesy of avuncular hornswoggle that was not of there making. I see them hobnobbing, swooning and fawning away in adulation . A perfect storm to disguise inherent societal upheaval. There is a “big nonsense” happening in Nigeria and I hope it has less audience next time. We must not kowtow to this modicum of immortality that has gain national preeminence and recognition. It’s a house of perversion period. I leave you with this word of advice “You always waste time on trivial matters, But what you can't see is this: Time is wasting you”
https://olaniranoladotunblog./2018/04/22/there-is-a-big-nonsense-happening-in-nigeria/

Ethnic sabotage, Ethnic nationality and religious bigotry.
Both PDP and APC have used the ethnic diversity, school yard insults, locker room vulgarities, bizarre policy speeches and religious bigotry to their advantages at the detriment of unity, peace and progress of Nigeria. This has become the “hocus pocus” both APC and PDP have deployed to their advantage. In the run-up to the 2015 election the APC was branded a Muslim party by the PDP, in fact at one point it was alleged that the APC wanted to feed Muslim- Muslim candidate as a springboard for islamizing the country. The APC denying this allegations used this Muslim party propaganda to garner vote in the north while the PDP used the propaganda to garner vote in the south-east and south-south. The ethnic and religious diversity of the country which should be source of strength for the country have been polarized for political gains of both parties. The PDP zoning arrangement for political offices and its adoption by the APC has become a cog in the wheel of progress of the country producing irresponsible leaders who either manipulated their PHD certificates,leaders who can’t boost of secondary school certificate and forgers of certificate. Countries like USA who are well developed have elected brilliant minds like Obama who obtained first class honors in law from Havard while Nigeria have elected leaders with NEPA bill certificates. There is no developed society where dumbs made it great, of course when merit is not put at the front burner when choosing leaders such nation will suffer from leadership crises. That is why past dictators who oppressed and suppressed descending voices; violated basic human rights and who are supposed to get Charles Taylor and Laurent Gbagbo treatment have returned to rule us with their head raised above their shoulder and without atoning for their sins of the past. Indeed a country that cannot boost of a national hero accepted by all is ethnic group fifty six years after independence is in a deep leadership crisis and is jinxed. Most successful countries have national heroes the USA as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, South Africa as Mandela, Singapore as prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and the Chinese have Mao Zendong. Both parties have used the ethnicity card to undermine each other’s government, with party B promising to sabotage or make the government of party A ungovernable if they don’t win the election while party A also promised to sabotage the government of party B if they don’t win election. These promises have transformed from campaign rhetoric’s and locker-room banters to present day realities through Boko Haram and Niger Delta Avengers. Such politics of bitterness present grave danger for the survival of Nigeria. The problem of ethnic nationality and resource control which have lead to violence and chaos in Sambisa forest, Biafran agitating southeast and in the creeks indeed need to be visited by all and sundry who want the survival of the country, united we stand divided we fall.
LEGISLATHIEF
The national assembly which should checkmate the excesses of the executive have turned itself to slaves of the executive. The national assembly under the PDP was very corrupt, this lead to the emergence of five senate president during the reign of OBJ from Enwerem to Okadigbo to Anyim to Wabara and Nnamani. All past senate president during OBJ era were imposed by him and were later removed when they ran out of favour in his eyes. Obasanjo displayed his unrepentant dictatorial credentials and tendencies through the institution of the national assembly. Of course it was business as usual as huge amount money was budgeted for members of the national assembly during his reign from wardrobe, housing, feeding allowances to constituency project that were never implemented after claiming huge sums of money for same purpose from the federation account. When members of the legislature go for oversight functions they receive envelops and turn their eyes away from glaring gross mismanagement by ministries, department, agencies and contractors. The widespread corruption continued and became worse with the third term agenda of OBJ, huge amount of money and cars exchanged hands from the OBJ camp who wanted the constitution amended to make way for the third term of OBJ and Atiku Abubakar who wanted to stop OBJ and become the next president. In fact a national assembly member in my church said back then that “when I prayed to God for a birthday gift God brought the third term agenda”. This indeed underscored the widespread corruption which took place under OBJ. The national assembly was reduced to mere gathering of market women who came to the market because of their stomach not because of their constituent which they represent. Budget and bills passed without thorough deliberation and examination. The widespread corruption continued under the PDP era unabatedly and moved to next level under the reign of Yar Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. In fact fuel subsidy scam investigation undertaking by the 7th National assembly turned out to be a scam itself with honorable Farouk Lawan collecting bribe to get favorable result for fuel importers that were supposed to be indicted by the investigation. With the coming of the 8th National assembly the internal party power play characterized by imposition of candidates for principal offices continued with a dangerous dimension with power blocks emerging. The liberal democrats seizing the opportunity of this infighting supported the emergence of Bukola Saraki as the senate president and Ike Ekweremadu as his deputy senate president while Yakubu Dogara emerged as speaker of house of representative. The progressive conservatives who behaved like the five foolish and five wise virgins in the bible holding meeting at international conference centre when others were voting in the floor of the senate were left dismayed by the turn of event underscoring the fact that they were not prepared for governance. The corruption that the 4th,5th ,6th and 7th national assembly continued with the 8th national assembly presided over by the progressive conservative with over bloated budget for inappropriate allowances that do not reflect the economic reality of the nation. The word “Padded budget” and “budget of yams” became the new word on every man’s lips. The fallout of this events have continued till today with the trump-up politically motivated trial of the senate president at the code of conduct bureau. There is therefore no difference between the national assembly under the liberal democrats and the progressive conservatives who profess change. It is therefore business as usual as the various ridiculous allowances that characterized the national assembly under the PDP are still obtainable till today. Both liberal democrat and the progressive conservatives have offered protection for rogue political appointees; who treat the national assembly with sneering disdain. Remember Alhaji Abdulraheed Maina the then chairman of Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) who refused to show at senate investigative hearing on his gross mismanagement of pension funds and was shielded by the executive arm government. We cannot also forget the present comptroller general of customs Hameed Ali who defied the senate and refused to wear his uniform after being instructed to do so by the senate, shielded also by the executive branch of government of the progressive conservatives. The national assembly under both liberal democrats and the conservative progressive have never pass the annual budget before 31st of December each year, but usually gets all its huge salaries and allowances before the end of each year.

Political disaster
The PDP came to power after the military had held sway for several years in the country with a widely rigged election in 1999. The victory brought in Olusegun Obasanjo whose “vade mocum” (or mantra) for political success is do or die politics as the president of the country. The PDP which was the creation of past military head of states, extremely corrupt politician, who ruled and reigned till last year; when broom wielding liars of the APC listed their made for fools campaign promises deceiving undiscerning members of the public. Indeed the APC consists more than: 40% aggrieved members of the PDP, small political parties like ACN and CP, past dictators, governors who rigged elections and were sacked by the supreme court; very very corrupt politicians. The members of both parties have been recycling themselves between the two parties depending on which one will protect their selfish interest. Both parties have no moral compass, moral rectitude, moral sanctimony nor political ideology .The new party APC is the party of aggrieved PDP members and losers of past political event; who were hungry for dominance that comes with power at the centre —an old wine dressed in new bottle—united under one banner of seeing the end of the PDP. Both liberal democrats and progressive conservatives came to power through rigging of general elections, party primaries and imposition of candidates, underage voting e.t.c. During the OBJ era elections were completely rigged with snatching of ballot boxes, doctoring of election result sheet, chaotic and sometimes violent atmosphere on election day. The third term political ambition of OBJ almost made Nigeria to join the league of failed states like North korea, Zimbabwe, Burundi with strongman dictators. In fact OBJ in the run up to the 2007 election when he received members of his party in his home in Otta said that "It is left to you to ensure that we elect credible and committed leaders. I commend those of you in the PDP for your efforts so far. I will campaign. This election is a do-or-die affair for me and the PDP. This coming election is a matter of life and death for PDP and Nigeria.". This no doubt set a dangerous precedent in Nigeria’s political history which was later corrected by Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who made Nigerian election relatively free from irregularities at least if not completely it was minimized . In his acceptance speech of party presidential nomination in December 2014 he said "Let me emphasize again, that nobody’s political ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian. We must eschew violence, even in the face of the most outrageous acts of desperation’’. He matched his word with action when he conceded defeat and handed over power to Mohammad Buhari on 29th May,2015. Even with all his heroic political gesture that won him international accolades the world over. The country hard earned foreign currencies were shared among party delegates at its national convention and they were shared to get undue advantages on election day; I have never witness an election where the president shared foreign currencies like handing out candies, sweets and biscuits to kids. The APC is also guilty of using underage voters has was evident during the 2015 elections. Imposition of candidates was also wide spread, while hard currencies were also shared at its own convention at the Tafawa Balewa square in Lagos. Indeed stolen public funds was also used for Buhari’s election campaigns with present and past state governors emptying their various state treasury to campaign. One of the then state governor now a minister in Buhari’s administration was dubbed an ATM machine because of his ability to get any amount of money in short notice. Buhari flew in chartered aircraft and organized mega rallies across the country with stolen public funds. The Buhari’s administration ushered in a new era of inconclusive elections and election violence; the recent River state and Kogi elections points to this fact. The invasion of Ekiti and akwa ibom state assembly by DSS officials under Buhar’s administration shows impunity and recklessness. Both parties are also known for renting crowds for their campaign rallies and distributing consumable items at such rallies.

Between the liberal democrats and the progressive conservatives, a tale of a country on the horns of dilemma.
When general Abdulsalami Abubakar handed over power to Olusegun Obasanjo at the eagles square on the 29th may, 1999 many Nigerians and indeed the international community thought Nigeria has turned a new page in its perilous and sometimes troubled past, but no things turned from bad to worst and Nigerians have tasted hell ever since; because this is what actually hell feels like—an unending cycle of suffering and pain in the hands of two political parties of doom. Such is the nature of evil out there in the vast ignorance of many Nigerians. It has spread and festered like wild fire consuming all on it parts. A Sleepless malice as black as the oncoming wall of the night, so it as always being and I pray it stops. Since 1999 when democracy returned little or next to nothing has been achieved by the political class; Nigerians have no access to portable water, no health insurance, no access to quality education, our infrastructure is in state of comatose. I am yet to see one dividend of democracy delivered to people in the right quantity and quality. The 18years of democracy in Nigeria has been a boon, boom and boost for the political class, the rich and connected while the poor masses have had a sucker punch delivered to their gut; the inequality gap has never been wider. Many have wondered why we have suffered such horrible fate, Nigerians have become inscrutable and ad nauseum to the injustice that has become anathema. One reason for our dismal failure is what I intend to explain with this article which is bad political parties producing bad political actors. There are only two main dominant political agent of transmission of evils in Nigeria, they are the APC and PDP. Both the APC and PDP are like two accelerating trains coming towards each other, competing for speed and at the end of the day they have created a state of “social dyspepsia”. They have divided the nation along ethnic lines, cleaving families, turning friends into enemies; and transforming children into unwitting enemies and surrogates for warring side. Together both parties form one hell of a wrecking crew destroying lives by their actions and inaction. Watching both parties rule this nation is like watching a car wreck in slow motion, where Nigeria is a car driven by two drunks with its parts flying in different directions, believe me it is not a good sight to behold and it is painful. Politicians of both liberal democrats and progressive conservatives are most times con artist (or call them weasels) selling shimmer and calling it silver to voters. Promising a pie in the sky to voters who in the long run don’t even get the crumbs; and when they perceive that voters aren’t buying into their cheap theatrical façade of empty campaign promises, they resort to deploying violence to install themselves in political offices and let me tell you electoral violence is the only way losers win political contest. The gap between big campaign boosts and promises and tiny achievement is so wide and deep under both PDP and APC, that many voters have been left frustrated in the morass vortex of discouragement. Many voters feel hornswoggled and abandoned when they see themselves live in peasant penury while the political class pay themselves outsize salaries and embezzle public funds to live in ritzy luxury. They often times craft their messages into catchy mantras like “Transformation agenda”, “Seven point agenda”, “Change begins with me”. After and during every administration of both PDP and APC most voters often feel like disciples of “false-prophet” that the scales in their eyes have been removed (or “participant of Ponzi scheme” whose feeling of unshakeable optimism have been turned to great disappointments). Both parties are changing the rules to suit their agenda, misinterpreting the laws and constitution. They are simply intolerant of opinions that differs from their parties narratives. Their goal when you oppose them and their ill-informed narratives is to guilt you into believing that you are: intolerant, stupid, an ethno-religious bigot, corrupt, uncharitable, unreasonable and low in intelligence quotient. They go nuclear and become ill-tempered when you confront them with facts because their parties are like buildings standing on foundation of lies and propaganda and of course such buildings collapse in the face of facts. Explaining your line reasoning to members of both parties make you see them in syrupy condescending voice— the smarmy, indulgent niceness of people who think they are more intelligent than you. Both party often engage themselves in dialogue of the deaf, in which each camp justifies its own intellectual laziness by pointing to the laziness of the other, but you cannot buy into their narratives, you must stay the course. No country should be faced with the choice between dying by hanging or dying by lethal injection which is what choosing between both parties feels like .Before going into the details of this article it is important to explain what I meant by the liberal democrats and the progressive conservative. The people’s democratic party (PDP) will be referred to as liberal democrat’s because of their liberal economic approach through privatization and deregulation of key sectors of the economy e.g. telecommunication sector, power sector, cement manufacturing e.t.c; and their extravagant way of lavishing the nation resources. While the progressive conservative will be referred to as APC because they favor more government intervention through school feeding program and conditional cash transfer. They also tend to preach conservative mode of spending, railing against lavish government spending, even if they don’t practice what they preach. The recent disastrous turn of things in the country coupled with my deep feeling that people might reprimand me for my initial opening monologue, where I placed both parties in one basket of rotten fruits and some might even say I am committing fallacy of hasty generalization; I therefore am compelled to expatiate by writing this article and I intend to expose how bad the two political parties are. To be continued!!!!!
olaniranoladotun19@gmail.com
Twitter @akanbiquest
https://www.nairaland.com/3809211/between-apc-pdp-tale-country

Between the liberal democrats and the progressive conservatives, a tale of a country on the horns of dilemma.
When general Abdulsalami Abubakar handed over power to Olusegun Obasanjo at the eagles square on the 29th may, 1999 many Nigerians and indeed the international community thought Nigeria has turned a new page in its perilous and sometimes troubled past, but no things turned from bad to worst and Nigerians have tasted hell ever since; because this is what actually hell feels like—an unending cycle of suffering and pain in the hands of two political parties of doom. Such is the nature of evil out there in the vast ignorance of many Nigerians. It has spread and festered like wild fire consuming all on it parts. A Sleepless malice as black as the oncoming wall of the night, so it as always being and I pray it stops. Since 1999 when democracy returned little or next to nothing has been achieved by the political class; Nigerians have no access to portable water, no health insurance, no access to quality education, our infrastructure is in state of comatose. I am yet to see one dividend of democracy delivered to people in the right quantity and quality. The 18years of democracy in Nigeria has been a boon, boom and boost for the political class, the rich and connected while the poor masses have had a sucker punch delivered to their gut; the inequality gap has never been wider. Many have wondered why we have suffered such horrible fate, Nigerians have become inscrutable and ad nauseum to the injustice that has become anathema. One reason for our dismal failure is what I intend to explain with this article which is bad political parties producing bad political actors. There are only two main dominant political agent of transmission of evils in Nigeria, they are the APC and PDP. Both the APC and PDP are like two accelerating trains coming towards each other, competing for speed and at the end of the day they have created a state of “social dyspepsia”. They have divided the nation along ethnic lines, cleaving families, turning friends into enemies; and transforming children into unwitting enemies and surrogates for warring side. Together both parties form one hell of a wrecking crew destroying lives by their actions and inaction. Watching both parties rule this nation is like watching a car wreck in slow motion, where Nigeria is a car driven by two drunks with its parts flying in different directions, believe me it is not a good sight to behold and it is painful. Politicians of both liberal democrats and progressive conservatives are most times con artist (or call them weasels) selling shimmer and calling it silver to voters. Promising a pie in the sky to voters who in the long run don’t even get the crumbs; and when they perceive that voters aren’t buying into their cheap theatrical façade of empty campaign promises, they resort to deploying violence to install themselves in political offices and let me tell you electoral violence is the only way losers win political contest. The gap between big campaign boosts and promises and tiny achievement is so wide and deep under both PDP and APC, that many voters have been left frustrated in the morass vortex of discouragement. Many voters feel hornswoggled and abandoned when they see themselves live in peasant penury while the political class pay themselves outsize salaries and embezzle public funds to live in ritzy luxury. They often times craft their messages into catchy mantras like “Transformation agenda”, “Seven point agenda”, “Change begins with me”. After and during every administration of both PDP and APC most voters often feel like disciples of “false-prophet” that the scales in their eyes have been removed (or “participant of Ponzi scheme” whose feeling of unshakeable optimism have been turned to great disappointments). Both parties are changing the rules to suit their agenda, misinterpreting the laws and constitution. They are simply intolerant of opinions that differs from their parties narratives. Their goal when you oppose them and their ill-informed narratives is to guilt you into believing that you are: intolerant, stupid, an ethno-religious bigot, corrupt, uncharitable, unreasonable and low in intelligence quotient. They go nuclear and become ill-tempered when you confront them with facts because their parties are like buildings standing on foundation of lies and propaganda and of course such buildings collapse in the face of facts. Explaining your line reasoning to members of both parties make you see them in syrupy condescending voice— the smarmy, indulgent niceness of people who think they are more intelligent than you. Both party often engage themselves in dialogue of the deaf, in which each camp justifies its own intellectual laziness by pointing to the laziness of the other, but you cannot buy into their narratives, you must stay the course. No country should be faced with the choice between dying by hanging or dying by lethal injection which is what choosing between both parties feels like .Before going into the details of this article it is important to explain what I meant by the liberal democrats and the progressive conservative. The people’s democratic party (PDP) will be referred to as liberal democrat’s because of their liberal economic approach through privatization and deregulation of key sectors of the economy e.g. telecommunication sector, power sector, cement manufacturing e.t.c; and their extravagant way of lavishing the nation resources. While the progressive conservative will be referred to as APC because they favor more government intervention through school feeding program and conditional cash transfer. They also tend to preach conservative mode of spending, railing against lavish government spending, even if they don’t practice what they preach. The recent disastrous turn of things in the country coupled with my deep feeling that people might reprimand me for my initial opening monologue, where I placed both parties in one basket of rotten fruits and some might even say I am committing fallacy of hasty generalization; I therefore am compelled to expatiate by writing this article and I intend to expose how bad the two political parties are.

Between the liberal democrats and the progressive conservatives, a tale of a country on the horns of dilemma.
When general Abdulsalami Abubakar handed over power to Olusegun Obasanjo at the eagles square on the 29th may, 1999 many Nigerians and indeed the international community thought Nigeria has turned a new page in its perilous and sometimes troubled past, but no things turned from bad to worst and Nigerians have tasted hell ever since; because this is what actually hell feels like—an unending cycle of suffering and pain in the hands of two political parties of doom. Such is the nature of evil out there in the vast ignorance of many Nigerians. It has spread and festered like wild fire consuming all on it parts. A Sleepless malice as black as the oncoming wall of the night, so it as always being and I pray it stops. Since 1999 when democracy returned little or next to nothing has been achieved by the political class; Nigerians have no access to portable water, no health insurance, no access to quality education, our infrastructure is in state of comatose. I am yet to see one dividend of democracy delivered to people in the right quantity and quality. The 18years of democracy in Nigeria has been a boon, boom and boost for the political class, the rich and connected while the poor masses have had a sucker punch delivered to their gut; the inequality gap has never been wider. Many have wondered why we have suffered such horrible fate, Nigerians have become inscrutable and ad nauseum to the injustice that has become anathema. One reason for our dismal failure is what I intend to explain with this article which is bad political parties producing bad political actors. There are only two main dominant political agent of transmission of evils in Nigeria, they are the APC and PDP. Both the APC and PDP are like two accelerating trains coming towards each other, competing for speed and at the end of the day they have created a state of “social dyspepsia”. They have divided the nation along ethnic lines, cleaving families, turning friends into enemies; and transforming children into unwitting enemies and surrogates for warring side. Together both parties form one hell of a wrecking crew destroying lives by their actions and inaction. Watching both parties rule this nation is like watching a car wreck in slow motion, where Nigeria is a car driven by two drunks with its parts flying in different directions, believe me it is not a good sight to behold and it is painful. Politicians of both liberal democrats and progressive conservatives are most times con artist (or call them weasels) selling shimmer and calling it silver to voters. Promising a pie in the sky to voters who in the long run don’t even get the crumbs; and when they perceive that voters aren’t buying into their cheap theatrical façade of empty campaign promises, they resort to deploying violence to install themselves in political offices and let me tell you electoral violence is the only way losers win political contest. The gap between big campaign boosts and promises and tiny achievement is so wide and deep under both PDP and APC, that many voters have been left frustrated in the morass vortex of discouragement. Many voters feel hornswoggled and abandoned when they see themselves live in peasant penury while the political class pay themselves outsize salaries and embezzle public funds to live in ritzy luxury. They often times craft their messages into catchy mantras like “Transformation agenda”, “Seven point agenda”, “Change begins with me”. After and during every administration of both PDP and APC most voters often feel like disciples of “false-prophet” that the scales in their eyes have been removed (or “participant of Ponzi scheme” whose feeling of unshakeable optimism have been turned to great disappointments). Both parties are changing the rules to suit their agenda, misinterpreting the laws and constitution. They are simply intolerant of opinions that differs from their parties narratives. Their goal when you oppose them and their ill-informed narratives is to guilt you into believing that you are: intolerant, stupid, an ethno-religious bigot, corrupt, uncharitable, unreasonable and low in intelligence quotient. They go nuclear and become ill-tempered when you confront them with facts because their parties are like buildings standing on foundation of lies and propaganda and of course such buildings collapse in the face of facts. Explaining your line reasoning to members of both parties make you see them in syrupy condescending voice— the smarmy, indulgent niceness of people who think they are more intelligent than you. Both party often engage themselves in dialogue of the deaf, in which each camp justifies its own intellectual laziness by pointing to the laziness of the other, but you cannot buy into their narratives, you must stay the course. No country should be faced with the choice between dying by hanging or dying by lethal injection which is what choosing between both parties feels like .Before going into the details of this article it is important to explain what I meant by the liberal democrats and the progressive conservative. The people’s democratic party (PDP) will be referred to as liberal democrat’s because of their liberal economic approach through privatization and deregulation of key sectors of the economy e.g. telecommunication sector, power sector, cement manufacturing e.t.c; and their extravagant way of lavishing the nation resources. While the progressive conservative will be referred to as APC because they favor more government intervention through school feeding program and conditional cash transfer. They also tend to preach conservative mode of spending, railing against lavish government spending, even if they don’t practice what they preach. The recent disastrous turn of things in the country coupled with my deep feeling that people might reprimand me for my initial opening monologue, where I placed both parties in one basket of rotten fruits and some might even say I am committing fallacy of hasty generalization; I therefore am compelled to expatiate by writing this article and I intend to expose how bad the two political parties are.
To be continued!!!!!
olaniranoladotun19@gmail.com
Twitter @akanbiquest

United states of America Nigeria’s fair weather friend, but no ally.
The recent announcement by the US to sell 12 embraer A-29 super tucano fighter jets cannot make up for past US snubbing of the nation Nigeria. During the Nigeria civil war former president of the US Lyndon B Johnson —a life-long democrats— refused to sell ammunitions, equipment and fighter jets to the Yakubu Gowon administration to prosecute the civil war; in fact they refused to provide spare parts for hardware they supplied before civil war broke-out. This refusal to sell military hardware was as a result of discovery and development of oil production in the region which the US and its allies wanted to exploit for their own aggrandizement. The US saw the new state of Biafra as a way to get unfiltered and unrestricted access to Nigeria oil instead of the bureaucratic bottlenecks it will face dealing with Nigeria as an entity; they believed that after the war the new Biafran state will be on its knees begging for assistant in the exploration of its oil resources. Thank God for the leadership of Yakubu Gowon and the peace loving brinksmanship of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who found common ground to their differences and stopped the ensuing carnage. History repeated itself again when the US at the height of the Boko-Haram insurgency refused to sell cobra helicopters and other military hardware that would have made substantial difference on the battle field. The hypocritical excuse of unfounded and lack of evidence base human right violation allegations cited by our Washington friends was laughable,because the Egyptian military killed and unlawfully detained protesters and journalist during the same period of arab uprising for the whole world to see; but that didn’t stop the delivery of F16 fighter jets to them. The saudi’s also killed innocent civilians during an air raid mishap on a wedding compound in Yemen and the US didn’t stop the sale of military hardware to the Saudi’s;which all the mainstream media in the USA had a 24hours rolling coverage on. The fact that the US not only refused sell military hardware to Nigeria ;but also blocked sales from other countries to Nigeria notably the sale of surplus AH-1 cobra attack helicopters which the Israel defense force(IDF) phased out in 2013 and the Israeli-produced unmanned air system. The US can make up whatever flimsy excuse for all I care,the true reason for the refusal was because the US had a preferred candidate in the 2015 elections which wasn’t GEJ;the US knew fully well that the preponderance of consideration on which the electorate will vote was security and therefore decided to leave the then administration in the cold. This diplomatic maneuverings by the US created the avenue for the GEJ administration to approach the black market for the purchase of military hardware and also allowing it to loot the treasury in the process .The fact that the democratic president Barack Hussein Obama snubbed coming to Nigeria and insulted our ego has the power house of Africa twice during his eight years stint in the white house by choosing to go to our backyard Ghana left tongue wagging across the continent. Some may make excuse for the republican elected president Donald Trump and say the two times this refusal to sell weapons has occurred were during the reign of democrats in the white-house is untenable. The USA cannot abandon us in the days of adversity and come back with open arms when our existential threat has been eliminated. The main reason why the Trump administration has decided to sell the $600million worth 12 embraer A-29 super tucano fighter jets to us is to boost job creation at home; and in the same vein achieve its campaign promise and not our national security interest. The fact that many folks in Nigeria’s foreign affairs establishment are blowing trumpets to high heavens citing the new decision of US to sale military hardware as a Nigeria’s foreign policy success story is not only misleading but self-deceiving;we must see it as a Greek gift to think otherwise is to live in a fools paradise. We must not forget that the Trump administration is also proposing cuts in foreign aids to Nigeria. The United states of America cannot choose when it will stand shoulder to shoulder with us in the face of existential threat. The present administration will be wise to remember history; therefore a quick tweaking and recalibration of our bilateral relation to reflect historical realities is urgently needed. It is not that we should ignore our longstanding relation with the US, of course we admire the US democratic principles; in fact our presidential system of government is a copycat of the US presidential system. We cannot emulate the strongman dictatorial tendencies of the Russian federation, who have been with us through the thick and thin of all existential threat ; nor can we copy the communist system of the Chinese who were also with us in our days of adversities. But we must remember and recognize the countries who have stood with us in the days of trouble and make them our national security allies and treat the US as a fair weather friend and partner in progress in the days of peace.
http://thenationonlineng.net/us-nigerias-fair-weather-friend/

BUHARI'S MAY 29TH SPEECH LEAKED!!!!

Your seselency, Aisha Bureau De Change, the pest lady, oh! Sorry the wife of the fresident of the pedral lipublik of Naijeria,.
Your seselency, fropessuar Yemi Osibande, the pice fresident of the pedral lipublik of Naijeria.
Your seselencies, the Senate fresident and the sfeeker of the house of refresensesiv.
Your seselency, John Oyegun, the national chairman of our great farty, the All Frogressive Confidence. (A Fee Cee).
You seselency, the chairman of Independent Naijeria Electoral Cuomisun.
Not porgeting our sfecial guest of honor, fresident Michele of West Germany.
Members of the fress.
Pellow Naijerians.

Walahi talahi if I must conpess, it is not easy to gubern a kuontri like Naijeria because our fifu are criminals and berry kwarupt, no wunder my preind, the frime minister of UK said we are pantasticaly kwarupt. And I totally agree with him though I don't agree with UK Daily Mail newsfafer that said the pormer gubernor of Livers State who is now my minister por transfort is pantasticaly kwarupt. The money Amaechi injected into my camfein was gotten prom his savings.

Waka shege damburuba to Tyrano Tsunami and his gang por Pesvook and Twitter that are saying that I am not paiting kwaruption. If I catch them eh, sorry would be their middle name.

Boko Haram terrorists are still bombing though, but they have been depeated tekinicaly because we have granted them amnesty. Any Boko Haram you see still bombing today are not Nijerians but Chadians. If you are prom the North and you have any bruder that looks like a Boko Haram member, just bring him and we will grant him amnesty.

Flease you fifu should stop accusing Pulani herdsmen of killings because those fifu are not Pulani fifu but Libyans. Pulani fifu are feacepul fifu.

Chibok Girls! Yoowaa, this is my highest achievement por the fast one year in oppice. We have rescued two of the Chibok girls that were kidnapped in their hotels. Though there is confroversy surrounding their rescue because the pest girl has so many conplicting names and cannot speak English. And madam Oby Ezekwesili of BBOG has said that the second girl's name is not pound on the oliginal list. I don't know if she is saying that because I repused to give her pedral appointment. But whether they are Chibok girls or not, the most imfortant thing is that there was a rescue. Shikena!

Lung live the pedral guberment of Naijeria.

Your seselency, Aisha Bureau De Change, the pest lady, oh! Sorry the wife of the fresident of the pedral lipublik of Naijeria,.
Your seselency, fropessuar Yemi Osibande, the pice fresident of the pedral lipublik of Naijeria.
Your seselencies, the Senate fresident and the sfeeker of the house of refresensesiv.
Your seselency, John Oyegun, the national chairman of our great farty, the All Frogressive Confidence. (A Fee Cee).
You seselency, the chairman of Independent Naijeria Electoral Cuomisun.
Not porgeting our sfecial guest of honor, fresident Michele of West Germany.
Members of the fress.
Pellow Naijerians.

Walahi talahi if I must conpess, it is not easy to gubern a kuontri like Naijeria because our fifu are criminals and berry kwarupt, no wunder my preind, the frime minister of UK said we are pantasticaly kwarupt. And I totally agree with him though I don't agree with UK Daily Mail newsfafer that said the pormer gubernor of Livers State who is now my minister por transfort is pantasticaly kwarupt. The money Amaechi injected into my camfein was gotten prom his savings.

Waka shege damburuba to Tyrano Tsunami and his gang por Pesvook and Twitter that are saying that I am not paiting kwaruption. If I catch them eh, sorry would be their middle name.

Boko Haram terrorists are still bombing though, but they have been depeated tekinicaly because we have granted them amnesty. Any Boko Haram you see still bombing today are not Nijerians but Chadians. If you are prom the North and you have any bruder that looks like a Boko Haram member, just bring him and we will grant him amnesty.

Flease you fifu should stop accusing Pulani herdsmen of killings because those fifu are not Pulani fifu but Libyans. Pulani fifu are feacepul fifu.

Chibok Girls! Yoowaa, this is my highest achievement por the fast one year in oppice. We have rescued two of the Chibok girls that were kidnapped in their hotels. Though there is confroversy surrounding their rescue because the pest girl has so many conplicting names and cannot speak English. And madam Oby Ezekwesili of BBOG has said that the second girl's name is not pound on the oliginal list. I don't know if she is saying that because I repused to give her pedral appointment. But whether they are Chibok girls or not, the most imfortant thing is that there was a rescue. Shikena!

Lung live the pedral guberment of Naijeria.

Who ever wrote this is one of buhari praise singing sycophant.While the deal is welcome development. It must be stated that it was initiated under the CBN governor sanusi administration.First was the diversification of Nigerian foreign reserves with the yuan.This agreement is follow up to the one under sanusi administration. Secondly buhari inability to employ the Chinese to buy our crude shows his incompetence. Has without the Chinese buying our crude we would have no yuan to pay for our import.But since Mr President and his team are inept they failed to make this the sticking point of the agreement.

Surely amaechi is not corrupt but that range rover speaks volumes

Via his Facebook page

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, on Wednesday said he would not stop criticizing the Federal Government over its bad policies despite the recent clamp down on state officials by men of the Department of State Security (DSS).

The governor, who arrived the state from Abuja where he had been since Sunday to attend PDP meeting, said no policy of the FG that is inimical to the welfare of the people would be spared by his comments.

According to a press statement issued by the Governor's Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, Fayose who was reacting to the development for the first time since DSS officials invaded the House of Assembly Complex, Ado-Ekiti and whisked four lawmakers away said he remained resolute in his determination to criticise obnoxious policies of the president in the interest of Nigeria and our democracy.

The Commissioner for Finance, Chief Toyin Ojo, was also arrested by DSS officers but was released late Tuesday night.

"The Bible says people with God are in majority. This is not the first time people will harass me. It is a conspiracy and it will collapse like other attempts before it. I will remain critical of the activities of the Federal Government, especially when they do things that are inimical to the welfare of Nigerians.

"Imagine the questions they asked my Commissioner for Finance, they asked him if the Federal Government has reimbursed the state government on works done on federal roads. But the records are with them in Abuja, can't they check? We have nothing to hide and they are only chasing shadows and are time wasters.

"Telling the Federal Government that the economy is in trouble and that the President should stay at home to face governance is not a crime and is part of my rights as a citizen of this country. I am like a tree planted by the bank of a river that brings forth its fruits in due season," he said.

Answering question on the allegation that some people offered some lawmakers $1 million to impeach him, the governor expressed implicit confidence in the lawmakers.

"I am just coming from Abuja and I know that our lawmakers are solid guys and their future and mine are tied together. When the APC was at its peak in the state and they wanted to use 19 lawmakers to impeach me, they failed woefully and they will still fail again. This is a storm in a tea cup. They are not just starting I defeated them in all court5s in the land. I won't deter from saying the truth about the FG.

“We are in the morning we have not seen what the night is going to be. If it is me that brought myself here they will succeed, but if it is God, they will have to first overcome God before overcoming me," the governor noted.

Can somebody please tell these babbling,bubbling bands of gerontocrates baboons to start walk.I am tired of their blame games,lies and propaganda

: Clearly Mrs Adeosun is incompetent just as I feared .She gave the normal textbook list of Nigerian problems and textbook solutions.I mean any fool knows we have decayed infrastructure in this country and that we need diversification our economy
What Mrs Adeosun failed to highlight is the funder mental problems
: One of the reasons we are witnessing decline in the economy is shortage of revenue and you know the solutions she have was borrowing.

Indeed are borrowing plans should it be maintained will double public debt in 4years
What we need is companies paying their taxes correctly and as at when due I believe the rich the dangote, the otedolas and ko should pay for our current revenue shortage.For the economic to grow we need to stimulate the demand side of the economy.This currently being impeded by lack of payment of salary at the state level Mrs Adeosun need to come up with clear cut strategy to tackle this problem her o level textbook approach will not work

The article was written by Olaniran oladotun a 400level students of oau

Naira's tug-of-war- by Dman
The Nigerian government and CBN have engaged themselves in game of tug-of-war against currency speculators that normally accompanies a fall in prices of a major export of any country. This fight has been fought in recent months in major economies from oil dependent nations of Russia, Venezuela,Saudi Arabia to advanced economies of Japan and China .As in a typical tug-of-war,not much happens first. The teams are evenly matched and there is no motion for a while,just lots of tensions on the rope. The rope in this case is the foreign exchange markets. Eventually one side will collapse,and the other side drags the losers over the line to claim victory. This has been the battle for 16 months now in Nigeria foreign exchange market. While government has been wallowing in " money illusions" by not accepting that there is need for adjustment in the face of present day realities of fall in oil prices and its attendant effects on foreign exchange inflows. The currencies speculators and experts like IMF chief Christine Lagarde,former CBN governor Sanusi Lamido, renowned economist Bismarck Rewane e.t.c the list is endless. This experts hell bent on forcing government to follow its policy prescription of devaluation have been overbearing in recent months. Added to these voices are the currencies speculators who who have kept their assets in foreign currencies ready to make short-term excess profits should CBN accede to their demands and devalue. Together this set of people constantly blow the trumpets of devaluations which it in itself unpleasant to the Buhari's administration. It is therefore instructive to look at both side of the coin.
Fear of inflation.
Some have been strong advocates against devaluation of the naira because of fear of inflation. This argument cannot be justified because without official devaluation prices have already in adjusted to devaluation in the parallel markets. So what's the catch? If you go to the market prices have already increased by 40% across board from essential items of food and clothing's to luxury items of electronics and gadgets. There is general consensus that prices have increased and so the arguments of inflation is not tenable. While assuming devaluation has taken place earlier the price increased could have been marginal. As was the case in december 2014 when devaluation was undertaken under Gej before elections.
We don't export anything so why devalue?
This arguments is the most stupid because of serious ignorance attached to it. On daily basis crude oil and natural gas are being exported in billions of dollars. Devaluation will increase Nigeria's competitiveness in the oil sector. Since devaluation will increase the naira supply at the disposal of oil companies after converting proceeds from sales of crude oil. Thereby reducing job losses in the oil sector .It will also reduce the cost of production per barrel and enabling oil companies to sell our oil faster in the oil markets by offering discounts in the era of oversupply without incurring losses.
Fear of political backlash.
After Buhari's made for fools campaign promises he now faces the reality that it is easier said than done. The mountain of exaggerated optimisms his now weighing him down. Since himself used the value of naira at N225/dollar to ensnare Gej campaigns and promised $1 to s N1. While Buhari's supporters of fawning admirers and praise singing sycophants danced to the music of kwam 1 and wallowed in pornography of propaganda without asking how he was going to fulfill his campaign promises. The implication of his failure to fulfill his near impossible campaigns remains the major driving force of Buhari's hard stance on devaluation. The oppositions parties are already scoring cheap political points even without devaluation .With people like Fayose heating the airwaves with doomsdays scenarios and heaping the blame of exchange volatility on Buhari's incompetence. There are already political backlash from the opposition whose raucous noise will cheer any bad news as victory.
Unnecessary wastages.
I read in many articles where Nigerians have been blamed for the exchange rate crises for their tastes for quality .But have we looked at government contributions to the crises. The unnecessary foreign trips of Mr president with no meaningful benefits are also contributing factors to the volatility. The hard earned foreign currencies need to be conserved not wasted on fulfilling Mr President youthful days fantasies of traveling round the world .This should be reduced. The unnecessary pilgrims personal allowance of purchasing $1000 at N160/dollar is totally unnecessary in this season. Traveling abroad for religious pilgrimage is a luxury government cannot afford to subsidize with Nigeria hard earned currencies.
Economic backlash.
Already foreign investors are living Nigeria in doves. This is underscored by the fact that Nigeria's capital markets capitalisation shed a total of N2.354trillion in 2015 as it moved from N11.478trillion in 4th quarter of 2014 to N9.12trillion in December 2015. Foreign direct investment also reduced in the same period from $21billion in 2014 to $11billion in 2015. No foreign investors will invest in a country where there is no certainty in its abilities to repatriate profits and investments when necessary. The CBN foreign exchange controls is a major contributing factors to this huge capital flight. The Lagos chambers of commerce noted that its members had lost N1.4trillion in the last 6months owing to inabilities of its members to access dollars to purchase raw materials and machineries used for its manufacturing.
Conflicting policies.
The CBN seems to be confused as his momentary policies is in conflicts with its determination to defend the naira. The CBN reduction in interest rate from 13% to 11% indeed increased supply of naira when it supposed to mop up excess liquidity in the markets. The administrative policies CBN as introduced is suitable for controlling capital inflows not outflows .The CBN under Buhari has lost its autonomy,with Buhari in his highfalutin publicly declaring that he his in charge of the CBN and not the its governor. This was underscored when Buhari categorically stated that " He won't kill the naira".The CBN according to the act that established it should be shielded from political sentiments when making its decisions. In other climes the central banks are completely shielded from politics but this is complete departure from what the CBN acts says.
Lessons most be learnt from other countries that have in the past followed this same script ,the case of Venezuela and Zimbabwe readily comes to mind where their currencies are either no more or have completely lost it value due to this kind of exchange regime being implemented by CBN. The inability of Jonathan's administration to prop the foreign reserves are not tenable excuses because had Jonathan had enough reserves he won't have devalued the currency and introduced austerity budget in 2015.All reserves saved would have been exhausted within a year and we would have been back to square one. Thou notwithstanding the serious oppositions and; courts and verbal threats that was hauled at Okonjo when she wanted to prop up the excess crude account and the sovereign wealth fund, she should have tried harder. Buhari and his supporters cannot blame past administration for this because leadership his about taking responsibilities not making up excuses. Leadership is an obligation and you need to step up everyday. The blame game is old news, yesterdays paper. The banks themselves have not helped as you can't work into any bank and request for dollar and get, they will simply refer you to an Aboki man in sabo to whom they have sold available hard currencies. This off the books activities have made abnormal profits for banks in billions,they are illegal and most stop.
Devaluation is indeed inevitable as oil prices falls and are predicted to fall further. It is like living in a fools Paradise to think that not devaluing is a better alternative. I personally wish there are better feasible options to devaluation but non exist .It is therefore expedient for CBN to embrace the forces of demand and supply. The cost of not devaluing simply outweighs it benefits. In the long term lets support concerted effort towards import substitutions.
Email: olaniranoladotun@yahoo.com

Naira's tug-of-war- by Dman
The Nigerian government and CBN have engaged themselves in game of tug-of-war against currency speculators that normally accompanies a fall in prices of a major export of any country. This fight has been fought in recent months in major economies from oil dependent nations of Russia, Venezuela,Saudi Arabia to advanced economies of Japan and China .As in a typical tug-of-war,not much happens first. The teams are evenly matched and there is no motion for a while,just lots of tensions on the rope. The rope in this case is the foreign exchange markets. Eventually one side will collapse,and the other side drags the losers over the line to claim victory. This has been the battle for 16 months now in Nigeria foreign exchange market. While government has been wallowing in " money illusions" by not accepting that there is need for adjustment in the face of present day realities of fall in oil prices and its attendant effects on foreign exchange inflows. The currencies speculators and experts like IMF chief Christine Lagarde,former CBN governor Sanusi Lamido, renowned economist Bismarck Rewane e.t.c the list is endless. This experts hell bent on forcing government to follow its policy prescription of devaluation have been overbearing in recent months. Added to these voices are the currencies speculators who who have kept their assets in foreign currencies ready to make short-term excess profits should CBN accede to their demands and devalue. Together this set of people constantly blow the trumpets of devaluations which it in itself unpleasant to the Buhari's administration. It is therefore instructive to look at both side of the coin.
Fear of inflation.
Some have been strong advocates against devaluation of the naira because of fear of inflation. This argument cannot be justified because without official devaluation prices have already in adjusted to devaluation in the parallel markets. So what's the catch? If you go to the market prices have already increased by 40% across board from essential items of food and clothing's to luxury items of electronics and gadgets. There is general consensus that prices have increased and so the arguments of inflation is not tenable. While assuming devaluation has taken place earlier the price increased could have been marginal. As was the case in december 2014 when devaluation was undertaken under Gej before elections.
We don't export anything so why devalue?
This arguments is the most stupid because of serious ignorance attached to it. On daily basis crude oil and natural gas are being exported in billions of dollars. Devaluation will increase Nigeria's competitiveness in the oil sector. Since devaluation will increase the naira supply at the disposal of oil companies after converting proceeds from sales of crude oil. Thereby reducing job losses in the oil sector .It will also reduce the cost of production per barrel and enabling oil companies to sell our oil faster in the oil markets by offering discounts in the era of oversupply without incurring losses.
Fear of political backlash.
After Buhari's made for fools campaign promises he now faces the reality that it is easier said than done. The mountain of exaggerated optimisms his now weighing him down. Since himself used the value of naira at N225/dollar to ensnare Gej campaigns and promised $1 to s N1. While Buhari's supporters of fawning admirers and praise singing sycophants danced to the music of kwam 1 and wallowed in pornography of propaganda without asking how he was going to fulfill his campaign promises. The implication of his failure to fulfill his near impossible campaigns remains the major driving force of Buhari's hard stance on devaluation. The oppositions parties are already scoring cheap political points even without devaluation .With people like Fayose heating the airwaves with doomsdays scenarios and heaping the blame of exchange volatility on Buhari's incompetence. There are already political backlash from the opposition whose raucous noise will cheer any bad news as victory.
Unnecessary wastages.
I read in many articles where Nigerians have been blamed for the exchange rate crises for their tastes for quality .But have we looked at government contributions to the crises. The unnecessary foreign trips of Mr president with no meaningful benefits are also contributing factors to the volatility. The hard earned foreign currencies need to be conserved not wasted on fulfilling Mr President youthful days fantasies of traveling round the world .This should be reduced. The unnecessary pilgrims personal allowance of purchasing $1000 at N160/dollar is totally unnecessary in this season. Traveling abroad for religious pilgrimage is a luxury government cannot afford to subsidize with Nigeria hard earned currencies.
Economic backlash.
Already foreign investors are living Nigeria in doves. This is underscored by the fact that Nigeria's capital markets capitalisation shed a total of N2.354trillion in 2015 as it moved from N11.478trillion in 4th quarter of 2014 to N9.12trillion in December 2015. Foreign direct investment also reduced in the same period from $21billion in 2014 to $11billion in 2015. No foreign investors will invest in a country where there is no certainty in its abilities to repatriate profits and investments when necessary. The CBN foreign exchange controls is a major contributing factors to this huge capital flight. The Lagos chambers of commerce noted that its members had lost N1.4trillion in the last 6months owing to inabilities of its members to access dollars to purchase raw materials and machineries used for its manufacturing.
Conflicting policies.
The CBN seems to be confused as his momentary policies is in conflicts with its determination to defend the naira. The CBN reduction in interest rate from 13% to 11% indeed increased supply of naira when it supposed to mop up excess liquidity in the markets. The administrative policies CBN as introduced is suitable for controlling capital inflows not outflows .The CBN under Buhari has lost its autonomy,with Buhari in his highfalutin publicly declaring that he his in charge of the CBN and not the its governor. This was underscored when Buhari categorically stated that " He won't kill the naira".The CBN according to the act that established it should be shielded from political sentiments when making its decisions. In other climes the central banks are completely shielded from politics but this is complete departure from what the CBN acts says.
Lessons most be learnt from other countries that have in the past followed this same script ,the case of Venezuela and Zimbabwe readily comes to mind where their currencies are either no more or have completely lost it value due to this kind of exchange regime being implemented by CBN. The inability of Jonathan's administration to prop the foreign reserves are not tenable excuses because had Jonathan had enough reserves he won't have devalued the currency and introduced austerity budget in 2015.All reserves saved would have been exhausted within a year and we would have been back to square one. Thou notwithstanding the serious oppositions and; courts and verbal threats that was hauled at Okonjo when she wanted to prop up the excess crude account and the sovereign wealth fund, she should have tried harder. Buhari and his supporters cannot blame past administration for this because leadership his about taking responsibilities not making up excuses. Leadership is an obligation and you need to step up everyday. The blame game is old news, yesterdays paper. The banks themselves have not helped as you can't work into any bank and request for dollar and get, they will simply refer you to an Aboki man in sabo to whom they have sold available hard currencies. This off the books activities have made abnormal profits for banks in billions,they are illegal and most stop.
Devaluation is indeed inevitable as oil prices falls and are predicted to fall further. It is like living in a fools Paradise to think that not devaluing is a better alternative. I personally wish there are better feasible options to devaluation but non exist .It is therefore expedient for CBN to embrace the forces of demand and supply. The cost of not devaluing simply outweighs it benefits. In the long term lets support concerted effort towards import substitutions.
Email: olaniranoladotun@yahoo.com

The Nigerian government and CBN have engaged themselves in game of tug-of-war against currency speculators that normally accompanies a fall in prices of a major export of any country. This fight has been fought in recent months in major economies from oil dependent nations of Russia, Venezuela,saudi arabia to advanced economies of japan and china.As in a typical tug-of-war,not much happens first.The teams are evenly matched and there is no motion for a while,just lots of tensions on the rope. The rope in this case is the foreign exchange markets.Eventually one side will collapse,and the other side drags the losers over the line to claim victory. This has been the battle for 16 months now in Nigeria foreign exchange market. While government has been wallowing in " money illusions" by not accepting that there is need for adjustment in the face of present day realities of fall in oil prices and its attendant effects on foreign exchange inflows. The currencies speculators and experts like IMF chief Christine lagarde,former CBN governor Sanusi lamido, renowned economist bismack rewane e.t.c the list is endless.This experts hell bent on forcing government to follow its policy prescription of devaluation have been overbearing in recent months.Added to these voices are the currencies speculators who who have kept their assets in foreign currencies ready to make short-term excess profits should CBN accede to their demands and devalue. Together this set of people constantly blow the trumpets of devaluations which it in itself unpleasant to the buhari administration.It is therefore instructive to look at both side of the coin.
Fear of inflation.
Some have been strong advocates against devaluation of the naira because of fear of inflation. This argument cannot be justified because without official devaluation prices have already in adjusted to devaluation in the parallel markets. So what's the catch? If you go to the market prices have already increased by 40% across board from essential items of food and clothings to luxury items of electronics and gadgets.There is general consensus that prices have increased and so the arguments of inflation is not tenable.While assuming devaluation has taken place earlier the price increased could have been marginal. As was the case in december 2014 when devaluation was undertaken under Gej before elections.
We don't export anything so why devalue?
This arguements is the most stupid because of serious ignorance attached to it. On daily basis crude oil and natural gas are being exported in billions of dollars. Devaluation will increase Nigeria's competitiveness in the oil sector. Since devaluation will increase the naira supply at the disposal of oil companies after converting proceeds from sales of crude oil. Thereby reducing job losses in the oil sector.It will also reduce the cost of production per barrel and enabling oil companies to sell our oil faster in the oil markets by offering discounts in the era of oversupply without incuring losses.
Fear of political backlash.
After buhari's made for fools campaign promises he now faces the reality that it is easier said than done. The mountain of exaggerated optimisms his now weighing him down.Since himself used the value of naira at N225/dollar to ensnare Gej campaigns and promised $1 to s N1. While buhari's supporters of fawning admirers and praise singing sycophants danced to the music of kwam 1 and wallowed in pornography of propaganda without asking how he was going to fulfill his campaign promises. The implication of his failure to fulfill his near impossible campaigns remains the major driving force of buhari's hard stance on devaluation.The oppositions parties are already scoring cheap political points even without devaluation.With people like fayose heating the airwaves with doomsdays scenarios and heaping the blame of exchange volatility on buhari's incompetence.There are already political backlash from the opposition whose raucous noise will cheer any bad news as victory.
Unnecessary wastages.
I read in many articles where Nigerians have been blamed for the exchsnge rate crises for their tastes for quality.But have we looked at government contributions to the crises. The unnecessary foreign trips of Mr president with no meaningful benefits are also contributing factors to the volatility. The hard earned foreign currencies need to be conserved not wasted on fulfilling Mr President youthful days fantasies of traveling round the world.This should be reduced.The unnecessary pilgrims personal allowance of purchasing $1000 at N160/dollar is totally unnecessary in this season. Traveling abroad for religious pilgrimage is a luxury government cannot afford to subsidize with Nigeria hard earned currencies.
Economic backlash.
Alredy foreign investors are living Nigeria in doves.This is underscored by the fact that Nigeria's capital markets capitalisation shed a total of N2.354trillion in 2015 as it moved from N11.478trillion in 4th quarter of 2014 to N9.12trillion in December 2015. Foreign direct investment also reduced in the same period from $21billion in 2014 to $11billion in 2015. No foreign investors will invest in a country where there is no certainty in its abilities to repatriate profits and investments when necessary.The CBN foreign exchange controls is a major contributing factors to this huge capital flight. The lagos chambers of commerce noted that its members had lost N1.4trillion in the last 6months owing to inabilities of its mrmbers to access dollars to purchase raw materials and machineries used for its manufacturing.
Conflicting policies.
The CBN seems to be confused as his momentary policies is in conflicts with its determination to defend the naira.The CBN reduction in interest rate from 13% to 11% indeed inreased supply of naira when it supposed to mop up excess liquidity in the markets. The administrative policies CBN as introduced is suitable for controling capital inflows not outflows.The CBN under buhari has lost its autonomy,with buhari in his highfalutin publicly declaring that he his in charge of the CBN and not the its governor. This was underscored when buhari categorically stated that " He won't kill the naira".The CBN according to the act that established it should be shielded from political sentiments when making its decisions.In other climes the central banks are completely shielded from politics but this is complete departure from what the CBN acts says.
Lessons most be learnt from other countries that have in the past followed this same script ,the case of Venezuela and Zimbabwe readily comes to mind where their currencies are either no more or have completely lost it value due to this kind of exchange regime being implemented by CBN.The inability of Jonathan's administration to prop the foreign reserves are not tenable excuses because had Jonathan had enough reserves he won't have devalued the currency and introduced austerity budget in 2015.All reserves saved would have been exhausted within a year and we would have been back to square one.Thou notwithstanding the serious oppositions and; courts and verbal threats that was hauled at okonjo when she wanted to prop up the excess crude account and the sovereign wealth fund, she should have tried harder. Buhari and his supporters cannot blame past administration for this because leadership his about taking responsibilities not making up excuses. Leadership is an obligation and you need to step up everyday.The blame game is old news, yesterdays paper.The banks themselves have not helped as you can't work into any bank and request for dollar and get, they will simply refer you to an Aboki man in sabo to whom they have sold available hard currencies. This off the books activities have made abnormal profits for banks in billions,they are illegal and most stop.
Devaluation is indeed inevitable as oil prices falls and are predicted to fall further. It is like living in a fools Paradise to think that not devaluing is a better alternative. I personally wish there are better feasible options to devaluation but non exist.It is therefore expedient for CBN to embrace the forces of demand and supply.The cost of not devaluing simply outweighs it benefits. In the long term lets support concerted effort towards import substitutions.
Email: olaniranoladotun@yahoo.com

I mean he didn't award a single contract with borrowed funds.

Buhari borrows N820billion in the last 6months of 2015 without awarding a single contract for capital project , plans to borrow another N2.2trillion in 2016 budget.The osun state fiscal policy model is now being implemented at the federal level. #takeastandagainstfiscalrascality

Nigeria’s debt burden rose by N1.31tn in one year, the Debt Management Office has said.
Official statistics released by the DMO in Abuja on Wednesday showed that the country’s total debt rose from N11.24tn as of December 31, 2014 to N12.6tn at the end of 2015.
The N1.31tn increase showed that within a period of one year, the country’s debt rose by 12.1 per cent.
As of June 30, 2015, the country’s debt burden stood at N12.12tn. This means that the federal and state governments grew the country’s debt profile by N480bn in the first six months of last year.
The total is made up of the external debt of the federal and state governments, the domestic debts of the Federal Government as well as the domestic debts of the states.
In terms of segmentation, the external debts of both tiers of government rose from $9.71bn as of December 31, 2014 to $10.71bn as of December 31, 2015. This shows a rise of $1bn or growth rate of 10.37 per cent within the period.
The domestic debt of the Federal Government, which is the biggest component of the debt burden, rose from N7.9tn as of December 31, 2014 to N8.84tn in the 12-month period.
This shows that the domestic debt of the Federal Government rose by N932.97bn within the one-year period. It also means that the domestic debt of the Federal Government rose by 11.8 per cent.
The 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory held $3,369,911,154.54 of the country’s external debt component, while the Federal Government’s external commitments stood at $7,348,520,340.26.
With $1,207,900,597.65, Lagos remained the most externally indebted state of the federation as it held 35.84 per cent of the country’s subnational external debt.
For 2016, the Federal Government expects to borrow N984bn from domestic sources and N900bn from foreign sources to finance the capital component of the budget.
It will also set aside the sum of N113bn as a sinking fund towards the retirement of maturing loans, while N1.36tn has been provided for foreign and domestic debt service obligations.
Our correspondents reported that the Federal Government spent a total of N2.95tn to service domestic debts for a period of five years from 2010 to 2014.
The amount spent on servicing the domestic component of Nigeria’s total debt rose from N334.66bn in 2010 to N846.64bn by the end of December 2014.
The increase in the debt service obligation of the Federal Government showed an increase of N511.98bn within a period of five years. This means that in that time, the country’s domestic debt service obligation rose by 152.99 per cent.
The increase also reflected the rise in the size of the country’s domestic debt portfolio, which moved from N4.55tn in December 2010 to N7.9tn as of December 31, 2014, an increase of 73.63 per cent.
This means that while the domestic debt rose by 73.63 per cent within the period, the cost of servicing the debt rose by 152.99 per cent. Some of the debts that had fallen due within the period, however, might have been liquidated.
While reacting to the development, the Director-General, West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management, Prof. Akpan Ekpo, told one of our correspondents in a telephone interview, “It is unfortunate that the last government incurred so much debt. It is not healthy for the economy because a lot of the money was not used for capital projects. They were borrowing to meet recurrent expenditure to finance the budget, which was very wrong.
“But we have sympathy for the new government because there is a deficit, which has to be financed. I suggest that to reduce the debt burden, we should reduce the debt service obligation of over N1tn. It is too high. We should then try and borrow externally from the African Development Bank or the World Bank because they have long repayment periods and concessionary terms. We should minimise borrowing domestically.
“Then going forward, we should be very careful. I don’t think the rising debt profile is good for the economy. And the money borrowed should be put into viable projects like infrastructure development.
“This new government is in a dilemma. There is a deficit and they have no choice; they have to borrow. Also if the looted funds are recovered, they should be used to reduce the deficit.”
Prof. Sheriffdeen Tella of the Department of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, said, “The debts were actually accumulated by the last government at a time when the economy was going down, pretending that we were still having some money as it were.
“This is not good for us. We should worry about it because of the situation now. It is more precarious for us to continue to accumulate debt. If the debt is long-term, it is okay; but it is likely going to be short and medium-term.”

Inflation 9% may 2015 - 9.6% in dec 2015
GDP growth 6.3% in 2014 - 2.83% 3rd quarter of 2015
Foreign direct investment $20.75billion 2014- $11.1billion 2015.
Exchange rate parallel market N215 in may 2015 - N310 in Jan 2016
Gdp percapita $3416 in 2014 - $3298 2015
Federal govt borrowing N715billion 2015 - N2.2 trillion in 2016