800 policemen to arrest 1 person? hmm na wa oh! where were all those policemen when all those thugs and imbeciles were running loose? God help Nigeria.

What is wrong with us Nigerians? Why should 50 people have to die over an election? The worst part of the matter is that these low level fools and thugs that perpetuate this madness don't realize that they are being used/abused. When will we ever have a truly free and fair election? When will our politicians become man enough and stop being sore losers? I must tell you that I'm sure ashamed of being a Nigerian at this moment.

JERRY GANA OF ALL PEOPLE. RODE WITH CUNNING/DESTRUCTIVE BABANGIDA, SLEPT WITH BRUTAL ABACHA AND ATE WITH OBASANJO.

What a low life! Absolutely no moral compass. For those who say Obasanjo is a failure how do u come about your grading? AFAIK every leader in Nigeria's history could be said to be a failure then. I don't think Obasanjo has done everything he could have done as president but to label him a total failure is very disingenuous.

Yes the masses have not started benefiting from the reforms taking place but then again did we expect Nigeria to become a Utopian society overnight? These things take time. Not a big fan of Obasanjo but at least I know he's laid the groundwork for our country to move forward. Namely stabilizing the banking sector, building up the foreign reserves, EFCC, telecommunications sector to name a few. When was the last time there was exchange rate parity between the parallel market and the black market?

Even if you hate the PDP at least lets be honest its the only party that is a semblance of an institution. The other parties are in disarray. To be honest there is no reason why we should have more that 5 to 7 max parties in Nigeria. Politician in Nigeria are like spoiled "Stepford Wives" and big time "Sore Losers" Why must every one that loses a primary go and create another party when they know they have absolutely no chance of wining. However I agree there are some principled people e.g Pat Utomi that are running, but then again look at that clown, Orji Kalu God bless his heart. That one one become president for Nigeria? Na wah for Naija because our standards low sha.

I think we are in the right direction and Nigerians need to realize that the government can do everything for them. The next thing that needs to be done is Land Reform so that  entrepreneurs' can use their land as collateral for loans, privatization of most parastatals, enforced anti corruption, building of transportation infrastructure to move products efficiently, focus on education, security and then leave the rest to the budding Nigerian entrepreneur.

Nigeria is a cashed based society and without easy access to capital we are going no where. How many people do u think can afford to pay cash for a car in the US or in Europe for that matter? All those flashy cars we see on TV are all financed by banks because only a few people can afford to pay cash for them. That's what's called "consumer driven" economies. Eventually those loans are paid off in 3-5 years and the car becomes the property of whoever financed it. Then take a look at home mortgages, if you borrow money to buy a house from a bank and can pay it off over a 10-20 year period, a lot of Nigerians will then be able to buy homes and those are just 2 examples. If Nigerians are not able to get loans to finance their spending as I said earlier we ain't going no where and that's why banking reforms are imperative.

Why are people so silly? Nigeria is bigger than Atiku and so is the constitution. The courts said INEC does not have the power to disqualify him and as the OP @damoche07 so succinctly put it, the fact is he was never disqualified. He is just ineligible as per the constitution. The constitution is very clear on this fact. No indicted persons are eligible to run for the presidency. Now what good old Atiku should do is to go and thoroughly clear his name first. I'm no supporter of any of the candidates but I think Nigerian politicians need to grow up and stop being sissies. Common! You lose a primary and the next thing is that you decamp to another party or better yet u start your own party. How many gad damn party’s do we have? These lunatics don't even no where they stand issue wise. Are they conservative, are they liberals, are pro big government or for limited government? What are their plans for Nigeria? We are not talking about all the "I will build this and that road here" Bull Shit that they use in their campaigns. I even heard one candidate campaigning on winning the World Cup for Nigeria. Goodness Me! These guys are all lunatics. Damn! They all need to grow the Bleep up.

Now this is from the Guardian
<sub>Power Supply: Where Have All The Billions Gone?
BY CHARLES ADINGDUPU
NO doubt, the federal government has been making frantic efforts to nip the seemingly intractable problems of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in the bud. Much money has been injected towards the resuscitation of the power authority's antiquated infrastructure without corresponding result.

In the last six years, the Power Holding Company of Nigeria received a whooping sum of N244 billion from the federal government to improve power supply but all to no avail.

The President, Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies, Godwin Ifeanacho, who made this disclosure to journalists recently in Abuja, said the amount was used for the refurbishment of dilapidated power infrastructure from 1999 to date.

According to him, the funds helped in pushing up the generation capacity from 1, 600megawatts in 1999 to 3, 600mw in 2006.

"Today, we have the capacity to generate 3, 600mw but the major concern that is worsening power supply is the spate of vandalism of pipelines in the Niger Delta", he said.

But Nigerians have not stopped lamenting the frequent power outages across the country. "Electricity supply and distribution have become a political tools in the hands of greedy and ambitious politicians. They make empty promises", said a Lagos-based business centre operator, Samuel Akande.

Also recently, the federal government announced that it would commit a total of N80 billion to the purchase and installation of new injection substations across the country as part of implementation of the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP). The Adviser to the President on Electricity Power, Engineer Joseph Makoju, who made this disclosure in Abuja, said the money would be spent on improving the distribution network.

Makoju said there are two major projects being implemented with the aid of the World Bank. According to him, the World Bank has also extended further facility in form of National Electric Development Project, which is perhaps making the greatest impact in effort to commercialise the power sector.

World Bank is funding the transmission in development project at the cost of $100million while the National Energy Development Project is gulping $72 million.

Under the new initiative, the federal government will be expected to spend $40 million to upgrade power distribution facilities in Karu, Nyanya, Maraba and Kubwa in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and Ogba, LUTH area, Idi-Araba, Agege in Lagos State, and Ibadan in Oyo State.


It will be recalled that upon assumption of office in 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo assured Nigerians that the epileptic power supply would be a thing of the past. Ironically, eight years into his administration, the problem of electricity supply and distribution have grown from bad to worse across the country. Both government officials and workers of the PHCN have heaped the blame on militants in the Niger Delta area for tampering with gas pipelines.</sub>


How many private entities will spend N244 billion and still have almost nothing to show for it. Now don't get me wrong some progress has been made especially during this administration however, the point I'm trying to underscore here is that a private corporation would have done a lot more with that money and as well as doing it more efficiently .

You know I'm very fascinated by the discussion that is going on this board, as I said I've been an observer for some time now. Discussions like this on the role of government vs. the private sector should be the reason why we elect leaders. Our elections should be about ideas and what a candidate stands for, unfortunately right now that's not the case. When elections in Nigeria are about ideas i.e. left vs. right, capitalist vs. socialist, big government vs. small government, privatization/deregulation vs. more government/heavy handed regulation, then I know my country has arrived. However, with more elections and the growth of the various institutions of government we will eventually get there. That is why it's imperative this election takes place as scheduled regardless of what happens even if it's not the freest of an election. With more time and elections behind us we become more sophisticated, culture, civilized and enlightened and then maybe 8 years from now what we are discussing here will be what candidates for elected postions are talking about.

@ Seun
You do hit the mark when analyzing the situation of limited competition and unlimited competition. Limited competition my lead to the situation whereby a duopoly arises e.g. in the Coca-Cola and Pepsi example. Now with less barriers more companies can come in and set up/create whatever kind of drinks they want thereby creating MORE choices. I tell you if Nigerians did have a lot more choices as far as what they can consume is concerned then Coca-Cola and Pepsi would have a lot on their hands. Frankly they're not even good for the health. Lol. But that's another story.

Nigeria really needs to get its infrastructure especially its power sector in order before any meaningful development/job creation can take place. Our economy is indeed growing but I tell you we should expect double digit growth when we have a descent power sector for industries/service based companies to utilize. The cost of powering up industrial plants/factories is too prohibitive right now and that's one of the reason our manufacturing sector is not moving forward. With a good road/rail infrastructure, goods can be moved from place to place cheaper and efficiently thus spurring growth.

The government needs to make it a lot easier for businesses to setup up shop and absolutely stay away from how businesses are run. The only role for the government in this case should be as an honest broker/referee between competing entities.

babasin:


Enron, Pan Am were privitized and collapsed like park of Cards. Okada air was private and is dead like dodo.

If privitization is the key; why do we have government?? we could just privitized the Presidency, Senate, Courts etc,

Pan Am/Enron were never privatized. As a matter of fact they were never owned by the American government. Yes Okada failed because it was most likely an inefficiently run company. In economics we know that companies will fail and others will flourish. Now that's what competition is all about. Enron failed because it cooked its books. Pretty much it was a sham of a company and declared bankruptcy so as avoid paying heavy fines in court.

Why don't we privatize the government? well strange enough there are some things that can be done more efficiently by the government like public safety/law and order, fighting wars, enforcing rules/regulations for businesses, creating laws and policies that benefit the populace, in a nutshell we need the government so as to avoid anarchy and lawlessness however, they should rear their heads as less as possible.

@debosky Yes, indeed mobile phone operations and power generation are fundamentally different, the nexus between them is that guess what? they are both businesses. I only used mobile phone systems as a powerful illustration of what "TRUE" deregulation and privatization can do to an economy. If we had done this a long time ago only God know how state of the art our overall communications systems would have been.

the market was non-existent before the GSM operators came, so they had free reign to set things up as they best deemed fit

you almost made my point, GSM absolutely non-existent, power generation--->something is already on the ground. Your words "free reign to set things up as they best deemed fit" If there were regulatory handicaps as far as how much they can charge for airtime, it is almost very certain that those investment wouldn't have been made.

unless it is a concerted effort directed at truly deregulating ( at the risk of inflaming public rage due to escalating cost), the sector may get the private drive it requires.

There you go, it has to be true deregulation, and yes the consumer will initially experience price shocks but guess what? there would be power available and they would adjust accordingly, an earlier poster gave a good example of why there are no food shortages and that is because the market determines prices, if power generating companies where truely allowed to sell power at whatever price they so choose, the market becomes attractive and hence, more players would want to get in to reap the rewards, this leads to competition and maybe a price war and eventually lower prices for the consumer.

To deviate off topic a little bit, it makes absolutely no economic sense whatsoever for Nigeria to import refined petroleum products, first of all the government is paying the market price for these products and eventually subsidizes it for the general public, how many billion of dollars is the government losing/wasting doing this? This is the most stupid thing we are doing in Nigeria, sell oil at an average of $60+/barrel then import refined fuel at double that. VERY RIDICULOUS. Eventually a lot of these products find their way out ala smuggling so as to get the best price possible thereby resulting in shortages, the government shouldn't be in the business of selling fuel especially in a corrupt society like Nigeria. Now, with the government subsidizing the price of fuel and determining how much it costs, it is almost very likely that no one will invest in building refineries if they can't be guaranteed that they will make a profit. Now if tomorrow a bill is signed guaranteeing refiners the ability to charge whatsoever they want there will definitely be a scramble to build said refineries. Refineries cost several hundreds of millions of dollar to build and with government setting prices, almost no financial institution will lend money for such a capital intensive project.

Okay I agree in some societies government run utilities do get the job done however, those are usually an exeception to the norm and in almost every instance they are less efficient than private run entities in COMPARABLE societies.

If we keep on waiting and depending on the government for everything from providing power to any other thing, we will remain where we are for eternity.

Continued privatization & deregulation of the economy is the only way forward for Nigeria. Almost 50 years of continued stewardship of the mostly government run economy should tell us that they have no business whatsoever in running a business. The government should only be there as an arbiter to foster competition between private enterprises. Look all over the world and count how many government run business(es) are successful. Though there are a few, they are in most cases an exception to the norm.

Same thing goes with public utilities. NEPA has failed woefully because it's a government run monopoly. I tell you even if it was a private monopoly it would still probably have been in a far better position. Therefore, genuinely allowing private enterprises (without any obstruction/unnecessary regulation) to compete in the generation and transmission and determining how much they choose to charge would go along way in improving power situation in Nigeria. If you go by demand and supply eventually market forces will determine pricing. If it’s too expensive people will find ways to reduce their consumption hence there's less demand and prices drops. With other factors like more power plants coming on-line, the net effect is that more power becomes available in the distribution level of the power cycle, economics tell us more supply and same demand leads to lower prices.

There are actually a few private investors in the generation level right now. With more liberalization (generating companies determining what they want to charge) even more companies will get into the business. The Oil Refinery license issue by an earlier poster is a very good example. If the government determines how much refined products should cost then how are these companies supposed to make a profit or run an effective business. By the way refineries are very capital intensive and having an inefficient price control mechanism results in shortages ala smuggling to neighboring countries to get the best price.

Is the price of GSM call time or availability to those who want it going up or down? You're very smart, you already know the answer, Just 10 years ago u could count how many people had mobiles but look at the difference now. What if we sincerely started what we're doing now 20 years ago only God knows where we will be today. Honestly if we don't solve the infrastructure problem in Nigeria and especially power/transportation, economic growth will not move as much as we want to. Think how many industries/factories will be setup if there is a decent availability of Power and good 1st rate road/rail networks to move products especially for exports, remember we have a decent, less expensive, educated (too some extent) workforce.

My friends if we Nigerians wait for the government to do everything for us we will never move forward in this country. Their job should be to provide good decent roads/transportation mechanism, uphold the rule of law/protecting its citizens, minimal business regulation ala creating a level playing field for private enterprises, education up to the secondary school level, collecting taxes, cleaning the streets/picking up the garbage (damn look at how dirty some parts of our country is), pretty much we need less government in our lives and take more responsibilities for ourselves, Big government leads to wastes and corruption (cronies need to be taken care of) that's not to say there shouldn't be a role for the government, it should just be to a minimum.

I've been reading this forum for sometime as a spectator and decided to add my views,