Moses,
Many thanks for your kind words and the feedback. Again, like I said previously I generally stay away from evaluations and opinions of me and my work unless there is something slanderous, defamatory and/or injurious to me. I will however address you directly since you have addressed me in the first person. As to your charges, guilty as charged, I own every one of them and proudly.
A few thoughts:
1. Why are things the way they are? Why does Ikhide talk too much? Because that is all there is to do. That is all we do, talk. Talk, talk. Nothing ever happens. No one is ever held accountable, no one. The list is long: Chris Abani, Philip Emeagwali, Dele Olojede, Premium Times, our political elite, etc., etc.. In many societies, good people make poor judgments and they pay for their sins. Look at the situation we are in with journalism, we are now being told that when a veteran newspaper like The Tribune shares news, we must wait a few days to vet it before using it. How did we get to this point as a nation? By ignoring these issues. When I was hollering up and down on this space about Premium Times, what did we do? Nothing.
2. The notion that what we have in Nigeria is "governance" that is worth analyzing is in itself a problem. In the absence of accountability, people are just doing whatever the hell they want, and they are getting away with it, because folks like you want "nuance." Why should I thank a certified thief for merely doing his or her job sometimes? Why?
3. As public intellectuals, your job is to hold up an asymptote for these people to aspire to. Many of these public intellectuals sleep with thieves at night and make the right noises in the daytime. That is the truth. Let us simply agree on one thing: The day will not come when I will respect the El Rufai's of the world. That would be plain wrong. The man has hurt Nigeria badly along with Obasanjo, Tinubu, and the rest of the kleptocracy crew since 1999. That is my point and I intend to hammer it at them and at y'all over and over again. They are all criminals who should not be celebrated. And quite honestly, any "intellectual" who celebrates them as models of good governors and probity is just as bad as them. Would you put up Obasanjo or el-Rufai or Tinubu before your kids as worthy role models? I hope not!
3. It bears repeating: Nigerian intellectuals are complicit in the mess we find ourselves. They have abdicated their role at a critical juncture in our country's life and we see the result. I am not letting them off the hook. We are past cheap words, it is time to walk the talk, and they are not doing it. I have been very open about my contempt for what our intellectuals are doing and I don't see any thing in the horizon that will make me change my kind any time soon.
4. I do not wake up every day with s strategic plan to be more effective in whatever it is I do. I just do, with everything I have got, warts and all. I am just one noisy dude, the most effective thing for people to do methinks, is to ignore me. If I am even remotely successful at making people begin to worry about whether this "democracy" is appropriate for us, then my work is done. Moses, listen, I have no respect for the farce that we are calling democracy in Nigeria. It is definitely not what we asked for; wringing our hands and doing nothing about our situation is only making tho ga worse.
5. It is true, I have zero confidence in Buhari. Even at that I have offered several ideas and solutions, many of them low hanging fruit, quite achievable. I am not the only one, they don't listen to big ogas, who am I to be upset that they are not listening to my ideas.
6. My fellow travelers in the prodemocracy movement did not scam me, they owe me nothing, they scammed the nation, and that is a point I drive home at every opportunity.
7. Here is my central beef: Most of my colleagues are bs artists; they are standing on illogic and hypocrisy and lies and they are trying to convince us of their right. Do not fool me, just tell me the truth, and I might surprise you. These people are so disrespectful it is fglling.
8. It is clearly futile for anyone to try to bully, intimidate me or blackmail me into submission. I have actually restrained myself from going personal with at least one individual because it would have meant the loss of his job and everything that he holds dear. I am data-driven, I fight over and over with data. In any case, why the obsession with Ikhide? I am just this dude standing on a street corner and doing my thing. I rarely leave my wall, or my lane. I have said to these people; simply ignore Ikhide and do your thing, you will be fine.
9. Look, I have no problem with anyone working for the government; I actually encourage folks to contribute if they are asked to. That doesn't make them evil, it is their actions and inactions that I try to judge.
10. Moses, I wish you and yours a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year, and hope to see you back here in the new year. I shall be here perched on my stool doing the same thing I have been doing since I discovered my obsession for Nigeria and all things Nigerian. Be well, man.
- Ikhide
"Moses joins a long line of people who do not quite know what to make of my attitude. I am happy. You probably don't know this but Moses did post his piece on Facebook and he got interesting feedback from folks. Here, you are on Facebook, click and read the comments"Oga Ikhide,I actually like you a lot and you know it. Without you on the forum, it would be boring and I probably would participate less. You are calling at calling out the BS of many people on this forum--really irritating BS--and you do it with swagger, discursive confidence, and, what's more, excellent prose. What's not to like. Again, without you in this forum, a lot of folks would get away with predictable, recycled, and illogical group-think and other kinds of pedestrian or partisan BS.My wahala with you is your self-obsession; you seem to think that you alone or your ideas/opinions alone should be driving the Nigerian conversation and when this does not pan out you get frustrated and lash out. You have a set view of Nigeria and its politics and will not be shaken even a little from that view even in the face of contrary evidence or compelling polemic. It gets boring after a while and discourages productive engagement. Everything about Buhari and APC is bad ab initio, and nothing good can come from them, according to you. This is a fatalistic conversation ender. What then is the purpose of engaging in any discussion of Nigerian topics with Buhari as president? And when you repeat this in every post it becomes farce and smacks of narcissism, an insistence on being right all the time and an unwillingness to give an empathetic, if skeptical, hearing to your interlocutors. Critique is celebrated but a balanced, nuanced assessment is dismissed.You have contempt for dissenting voices without even examining the content of their contentions, and you have a penchant for labeling and drawing preemptive conclusions about motives and about why people do not see things your way. What's more, you personalize everything, imagining that opinions expressed incestuously within your discursive circle represent and should stand in for a national consensus. When you encounter a difference of opinion or view from outside your bubble, no matter how solidly argued, you throw out tired charges and binaries and go on tirades against your favorite boogeymen--intellectuals and PhDs, especially the ones you deem compromised by the APC.Look, my brother, I know how you feel about being scammed by the NADECO people alongside of whom you fought for "democracy" only to see many of them morph and hen justify or participate in perfidy from OBJ's time till now. The roster is long. I would be similarly outraged if I were you. I agree with you that this is not what we fought for and that this counterfeit democracy is a weapon of national destruction in many respects. The problem is that, being allergic to nuance and complexity, you insist on putting every intellectual, activist, or commentator who does not share your absolute, black-and-white analysis or your acerbic and combative style, in the same box. Pragmatic analysis is devalued and those who insist on analyzing Nigeria as it is rather than as it ought to be are called names. What's the value of that? Is there just one way of looking at Nigeria?Life is rarely black and white, and we are all complex. You will not find a harsher critic of Mr. el-Rufai than me. Yet I have applauded some of his actions as governor of my second home state of Kaduna. And I will not simply disassociate myself from or devalue an intellectual friend of mine simply because they are friends with el-Rufai (or with GEJ, Buhari, or OBJ for that matter). I will rather engage their ideas and public intellection and if I have a criticism I will express it to them privately or do it publicly if the critique is of the general type that I am expressing here regarding you. Quite frankly, absolutes are a boring, easy, and cheap tool of analysis and polemics. Complexity and nuance are harder. You make and broach a lot of strong points but you often mar them with hyperbole and absolutist thinking that is laced, for good measure, with unwarranted generalizations and forced parallels and equivalences. This often falls flat, even when it is intended for humor and effect, and then your point gets lost while traducers who can't otherwise hold a candle to you discursively have a feast attacking the straw man you've given them.I know I can't teach an old dog a new trick but I admire you too much not to tell you these things. Most of your powerful messages are lost because of these tangential style issues, and that is a shame. I simply want a more effective Ikhide to continue to hold all of us accountable but in a way that creates a distance between himself and the interventions. So, yes, I am advising you like I would a brother. I am not the only one who has this ambivalent view of you as you know. On my Facebook wall, to which you posted a link, several people commented that I was spot on in my portrait.Happy new year in advance!--On Mon, Dec 28, 2015 at 11:41 PM, 'Ikhide' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:Fair enough, Bolaji, you are not an APC member, you fought not just for the Ogoni 9, but for the Ogoni 13, and you are really doing all of this for one Nigeria. And of course, there are many who believe that Pa Ikhide is a card-carrying member of the PDP and a Jonathan supporter because he is "Igbo" who does not want the Yoruba and the Hausa in Aso Rock.By the way, o. kasirim nwuke is on Twitter and he asks me about you all the time. You will recall him, he used to irritate us with his demand that we extend our agitation to the other four. It is almost comforting to me today to learn that you were a closet supporter of his views, this was not obvious to us in the 90's, I remember you almost obsessively focused on the Ogoni 9. The Naijanet archives will show that okn's position exercised you no end. LOL. He is now a PDP loyalist on Twitter, occasionally giving me hell for being anti- PDP. Small world.As for the budget that you find balanced, etc., and your surprise at finding that the budget will fund the recruitment, training and whatever of 500,000 teachers, blah, blah, blah ["I did not read the Budget say that it would hire 500,000 teachers in the Year"], here is what the Nigerian Guardian reports that President Buhari said:"We also will partner with State and Local Governments to recruit, train and deploy 500,000 unemployed graduates and NCE holders. These graduate teachers will be deployed to primary schools, thereby, enhancing the provision of basic education especially in our rural areas,"2016,]t tMy English is not so bad that I won't get the import of that statement. In any case, my English may be bad, but there is precious little you or anyone on this forum will teach me about budgets, That is what I do to put food on the table.I am data-driven, but then, I fully expect Lai Muhammed to deny that this was said, lol.Finally, thanks for sharing Moses Ochonu's views (not advice) about my person and my "activism." I generally don't comment on personal opinions about my attitudes towards literature, Africa, Nigeria, my race, because it would overwhelm me. Many people, several scholars tend to spend their evenings musing about me, especially after a good glass of something. There have actually been scholarly articles with my work as the burden of the articles. My nonsense has been featured in books, and I just found out from Guernica that I will be part of a book coming out. Come to social media and you will find on a good day that there are many who find me quite fascinating on many levels. My attitude attracts attention and scrutiny. I don't worry about that, as long as it is a personal opinion. Long after my death, there will be readings on my life's journey. Moses joins a long line of people who do not quite know what to make of my attitude. I am happy. You probably don't know this but Moses did post his piece on Facebook and he got interesting feedback from folks. Here, you are on Facebook, click and read the comments:Enjoy. I am proud of my work, be it on literature, or on that project called Nigeria. I could have been super comfortable today by saying all the right things to the APC, PDP and Nigerian writers and intellectuals, the vast majority who are compromised and accountable only to the crooks ruining er ruling us. I chose to be a stark raving, penniless lunatic holding all of you accountable on my own terms. And I am having a grand time, really enjoying myself. If I truly worried about how and what people thought about me, you and your friends in the APC would not be spending time trying desperately to shut me down with all sorts of techniques. Let me be first to say this: There is some value which I bring to the table. I will continue to be myself, regardless, because even you would agree that my absence from the table would be a great loss to theatre at the very least. I am good for something and I plan on milking that until the din dies down. In the name of my people who don't know that they live in a space called Nigeria.Finally, I do find your position on Kanu beyond disappointing. You are struggling with me and several because you and several other good people have boxed yourselves into a corner where logic, principles and the truth conspire to make your desired positions untenable. Read what you just said about Nnamdi Kanu and you will get why I am so openly rebellious against you and many of my friends. Your position is unsustainable. And you are not the same person that I met in 1993. You have turned your back on Nnamdi Kanu for reasons of expediency. That is not the same 1993 Bolaji that I remember. You are saying that Kanu should go to hell for running your mouth while Buhari who made many vile statements about Nigeria in 2011 and wanted the place to burn down is now president of Nigeria. Where is your consistency? Why is Buhari not sharing the same cell with Kanu? You see your life?Abo mi re o!O'dua!And Esu smirks.- Ikhide- IkhideStalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/Follow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
From: Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com>
To: Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com>
Cc: USAAfrica Dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2015 6:09 PM
Subject: Re: On the Matter of FG finally scrapping fuel subsidy and reducing (?) petrol price to N85/litre from Jan 1, 2016
Ikhide Ikheloa;
I will try again, following which I will detain you and your
ventilative and almost bipolar partisanship no longer.
1. Whether it was in 2003, 2007, 2012 or 2015, I have NEVER believed
that there was REALLY a fuel subsidy to be paid for. But I am also
painfully aware that Government has being paying what it called
"Subsidy" to some entities, and that the Nigerian people had come to
believe - or be made to believe through both propaganda and real life
- that once that "subsidy" was removed, life would be harder for them
in terms of derivative price increases. So it was "political subsidy"
- and government needed to be careful how it REMOVED it. The way
Iweala/GEJ tried to remove it in 2012 was one of the worst kinds; the
way it is being "removed" now by Kachikwu/PMB is one of the better
kinds. That is my opinion.
2. Whether you believe it or not, get this straight: I am NOT a
party member. I do not belong to APC or PDP...I stopped being a card
carrying member at AD then AC, and wrote about it here - but not ACN
or APC.......I did not belong to APC under the GEJ presidency, and so
any opposition or criticism to government policy that I had then was
principled and not partisan. Although I was a public servant
ostensibly with a political position as a Vice-Chancellor, I
considered my role as a public intellectual more important than as a
mere public servant, and many times when I was warned about the
edginess of some of my criticisms, I told many people that the job
could be shoved to the darkest body part if anybody felt offended - I
would not because of my love for beef call a cow my sibling. Very
early into my term as VC, I found out that there was little that I
could POSITIVELY do to influence the GEJ administration - outside my
VC-ship - because of the nature of the people surrounding him,
including those that crowded around him at Otuoke when he came to
visit, and especially a few that took significant roles in his
campaign, particularly in the Yoruba South-West. [I have since told
GEJ that straight up since he stopped being President - he is a decent
fellow who I still keep in touch with.] But I made sure that I
continued to do my job as a VC to the best of my ability, so that
there could be no excuse against me on that score. Two months to the
end of my five-year term, I continue to hold that view.
3. With respect to Nnamdi Kanu, I do not share your belief that it is
Buhari asking him to be held, but rather a security/justice system
that has good reason to be jittery over sececssionist/terrorist moves
by a video-appearing fellow (who had once been arrested before, and
released with a warning) soliciting money for guns and other
ammunition. Biafra evokes bad memories in Nigeria, and Boko Haram/ISIS
evoke terroristic pain; the two are a combustible mix. He will have
his day in court, no doubt.
4. With respect to Saro Wiwa, you forget that I was one of the few in
the Diaspora talking not only for the Ogoni 9 but also for the Ogoni
4. Up until today, Desmond and Blessing Orage, (son and
daughter-in-law of one of the Ogoni 4) still keep in touch with me in
appreciation of my position in those days. As President of the
Nigerian Democratic Movement, and member of the
Amnesty-International-led International Roundtable on Nigeria (IRTON),
I had met with the Orages (who flew in from California) privately to
hear them out, and I appreciated better ALL the circumstances
surrounding what led up to the deadly Ogoni 13 feud. They can bear me
witness. However, nothing I heard justified the murder of Saro Wiwa
by Abacha. Ikhide, remember this always: I am more nuanced than
yourself on many matters, and the image you have of me as a
black-and-white radical ain't simply true.
5. Concerning the 2016 Budget, before it came out, I had three
markers: less dependence on oil, more balance between capital and
recurrent expenditures, and greater emphasis on infrastructure. All
three have been met by the budget, and I applaud it. Some people have
joined me to applaud it, others like you have panned it. We all await
its implementation - let us be patient. [I did not read the Budget
say that it would hire 500,000 teachers in the Year6. As to my being "one of the finest Nigerians that you have ever
met", that is a small sample of people. If you left out, "that you
have ever met", maybe I would jump over the moon. Thanks anyway.
7. Finally, I urge you to read what Moses Ochonu wrote in advice to you
QUOTE
The problem with [Ikhide], which I have told him elsewhere, is that he
is to melodramatic, too eager to reach conclusions, too inclined to
exaggeration and neat binaries (APC vs. PDP), too presumptive and
cynical when it comes to Buhari, and too willing to attribute all
pro-Buhari pronouncements and any hesitation to join in his giddy,
excited anti-Buharism to partisanship or ethnic loyalty. In my
opinion, this style discredits him and takes away from his valid
points, some of which he is among a small minority to have the courage
to broach. Personally, I like to examine each case and each person on
their own merit. I do not like lumping people and things together for
effect or using a blanket opinion on a leader to judge all his actions
or inactions. As it is, Buhari cannot do any good in Ikhide's book,
and that is not good citizenship or punditry. And anyone who has
anything good to say about Buhari, no matter how valid, nuanced, or
qualified, and anyone who refuses to criticize the president
impulsively as Ikhide tends to do, is automatically assigned a label
of APC or APC intellectual. Ikhide would be a lot more effective if he
were to simply make the points and curb his enthusiasm (apologies to
Larry David) about the "i told you so" he so eagerly wants to throw at
those he perceives to be empathetic to Buhari.
UNQUOTE
That paragraph might have been gobbled up before it reached your email
box, hence my repeating it here.
And there you have it.....let us move on ...Season's greetings.
Bolaji Aluko
On Mon, Dec 28, 2015 at 4:28 PM, Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Bolaji,
>
> If it will make you happy, I am happy to let you have the last word, but the archives do not lie and you are not the Forrest Gump of data and words, always present only where there is irrefutable data (tables) and awesome words. I was comparing just one of your essays in 2012 with today's version. Please go to the archives; you will remember that you were at the center of a feisty debate on the issue. To bring in 2003, 2007 data to refute my assertions seems like a stretch, well, it is. I do keep some of your tables, but your conclusions are usually compromised by your biases, to be honest. You were a civil servant under a presidency your party was hostile to and you tried unsuccessfully to restrain yourself, but now that Aso Rock is friendly to you, all that caution has fled. The new you is the old you.
>
> 1. Free of the shackles of a hostile Aso Rock, the old you would have argued strenuously that getting rid of the subsidy is the right thing to do. You did not. Again, go back to the archives. I suspect that like the current Anti-Buharists, you were not going to say or do anything that would seem to help Jonathan. Your new-found clarity meets your political party's needs. That is the problem I have with your changed position. It is borne out of expediency, not necessarily out of what is good for the country. I have a problem with that.
>
> 2. You are being inconsistent on many fronts. On the Nnamdi Kanu matter for instance, you have taken to coyly judging him in public, instead of questioning why Mr. Buhari persists in holding him against the wishes of the courts. This was not you in the nineties when Ken Saro Wiwa was in trouble. You would have had none of that. You remember our positions/reactions when many were asking us to advocate for the Ogoni 13, not the Ogoni 9, and when many were pointing out that at the very least, Saro Wiwa's intemperate statements caused the murders. What has changed now? Nothing but political expediency. You will not say or do anything that will embarrass Mr. Buhari. Same thing with the budget he just put out: Can you imagine your reaction if anyone other than Buhari had put out a "budget" that claims it would recruit and train 500,000 teachers within one year, on a budget that assumes cost per barrel of fuel that is at least $5 above the going rate? I can imagine it! You are being inconsistent and many of us who read you can read through your calculations. They are so blatantly partisan I am surprised you don't see that.
>
> 3. It is all about respect, integrity and credibility. The APC currently lacks any of these and for good reason. The assumption that Nigerians are just dolts that must jump at their ever changing commands is borne of arrogance, condescension and ignorance. They need to go back to the drawing board, get a good PR and communications team and a stellar economic team and perhaps things will be better for them.
>
> 4. Relax, man, you are still one of the finest Nigerians I have ever met, but you are clearly not infallible, and I am here to respectfully remind you loudly when I get anxious about your "data tables." LOL!
>
> And there you have it!
>
> Doxology.
>
> - Ikhide
>
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/usaafricadialogue/Bolaji$20Subsidy/usaafricadialogue/ai0UkqPn4Xs/44cW0qtwqykJ
>
> - Ikhide
>
> Stalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/
> Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
> Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com>
> To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
> Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2015 4:40 PM
>
> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - On the Matter of FG finally scrapping fuel subsidy and reducing (?) petrol price to N85/litre from Jan 1, 2016
>
>
> Moses:
>
> Thank you, o, for coming to my aid over this my friend Ikhide. Immediately the guy sees any table in my essay, he gets anxious....
>
> But I will continue to use tables to explain myself, Ikhide or no Ikhide...
>
> And there you have it.
>
> Do have a wonderful Holiday season....
>
>
> Bolaji Aluko
>
> PS: Concerning a number of you six points below, I could take you up on a number of them as being truly legacy issues - but every body is entitled to their own (political) opinions, so we shall let it pass.
>
>
>
> On Sun, Dec, 2015 at 6:03 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> By the way, while I found Bolaji's analysis of his earlier and current positions on subsidy convincing, thereby nullifying Ikhide's giddy accusatory conclusions, the "town crier" is right about the shameless hypocrisies of certain segments of our commentariat.
>>
>> Some examples:
>>
>> 1. Two years ago when Shiites clashed with Nigerian soldiers in Zaria, resulting in the death of two sons of El Zakzakky, the current governor of Kaduna, Mr. el-Rufai tweeted crassly that "genocidal Jonathanian army have massacred civilians once again" or something along those lines. Today, he is not only supporting the massacre in Zaria by the same "genocidal army," he is praising that same "genocidal army," banning Shi'a processions, and calling for the El-Zakzakky to be prosecuted. The pro-APC pro-Buhari media have not called him out on this nauseating hypocrisy, neither have the change agents. A few people who raised the contradiction were told that "the army is no longer genocidal because Buhari is now in charge"!! Case closed.
>>
>> 2. It is definitely true that many pro-Buhari/APC commentators and politicians who are today champions of subsidy removal vehemently or pretended to be vehemently opposed to subsidy removal during the Jonathan administration and continued to invoke the subsidy removal (more like reduction) during the campaign season, saying that subsidy was not the problem but its management, and promising that an APC government would manage the subsidy better and more transparently. Today, they are unabashedly and without apology for their blatant hypocrisy, cheerleaders for the subsidy removal policy announced a few days ago. And, of course, because of partisan loyalty, many of those who berated Jonathan for trying to do what Buhari has just done, have predictably greeted the recent announcement with a cheer or a yawn.
>>
>> 2. The 2016 proposed budget apparently contains N1.7 billion for feeding and entertainment in Aso Rock, which is almost double what Jonathan budgeted for the same purpose. While Jonathan's budget was a huge scandal and caused mass outrage in the traditional and social media, there has been no criticism in the press or on social media and certainly no memes have been created to mock Buhari's Aso Rock feeding budget.
>>
>> 3. The nation has been gripped by what by some accounts is the worst fuel scarcity in recent history. Criticism of the Buhari administration's handling of the matter has been muted. The pro-Buhari press and social media players will tell you that he has apologized and that this is unprecedented and worthy of praise, as though the apology will fill people's cars with petrol or that it explains the clearly incompetent and confused actions of the administration that led to the scarcity. Others say it will take time to clear Jonathan's mess, the implied claim being that the fuel scarcity is Jonathan's making as information minister, Lai Mohammed, claimed recently. Under Jonathan, incidents of fuel scarcity drew mockery and criticism of him as clueless and incompetent. Under Buhari, it is largely excused as a legacy of Jonathan or an opportunity for Nigerians to see a humble, apologetic leadership on display!
>>
>> 4. When Jonathan and his military people exaggerated the military's successes against Boko Haram, they were roundly and deservedly mocked for being insensitive to or distant from the gruesome realities in the Northeast. Buhari and Lai Mohammed have basically declared Boko Haram "technically defeated" and the December deadline met. Everyone knows that this is bunkum. On Christmas day, just two days after Buhari's pronouncement, Boko Haram raided a village, killing 14 people. Has there been any criticism of this apparent gaffe from the president--this statement of denial and indifference from the President? No. Instead, the APC/pro-Buhari social media warriors are busy spinning the president's words in illogical contortions.
>>
>> 5. Jonathan was accused rightly of insensitivity for increasing the presidential aircraft fleet and for allowing expensive presidential or chartered private jet travel in his administration. Today, Buhari, despite his campaign aligning itself with the criticism against Jonathan's handling of the presidential fleets, continues to maintain that over bloated and financially draining fleet. Not only that, his wife, like Patience Jonathan, flies around in one of the jets, has a pet project her predecessor, and is practically playing the role of First Lady like Patience did before her despite the Buhari campaign saying the office would cease to exist if he became president. What's more, like Diezani like Hameed Ali, Buhari's Customs boss, who travels around the country in a private jet. Where is the outrage or criticism similar to the one directed at Jonathan and/or Diezani? None so far! Some of us who have raised some of these issues have been told that the "contexts are different."
>>
>> 6. Buhari's monetary policy, if you can call it one, is disastrous, primitive, and counterproductive. Under him the Naira, despite the fixed official exchange rate of 198 to the dollar, which everyone knows is unrealistic, has lost about 35 percent of its value against the dollar. Jonathan was pummeled for even the most routine market-driven downward fluctuation in the value of the naira. So far, criticism of Buhari's disastrous foreign exchange controls have only come from abroad, from Euro-American entities, and not from our pundits and certainly not from our numerous APC/Pro-Buhari commentators.
>>
>> There are other examples too numerous to list. Ikhide is thus absolutely right in his larger point, his error regarding Bolaji notwithstanding. The problem with him, which I have told him elsewhere, is that he is to melodramatic, too eager to reach conclusions, too inclined to exaggeration and neat binaries (APC vs. PDP), too presumptive and cynical when it comes to Buhari, and too willing to attribute all pro-Buhari pronouncements and any hesitation to join in his giddy, excited anti-Buharism to partisanship or ethnic loyalty.
>>
>> In my opinion, this style discredits him and takes away from his valid points, some of which he is among a small minority to have the courage to broach. Personally, I like to examine each case and each person on their own merit. I do not like lumping people and things together for effect or using a blanket opinion on a leader to judge all his actions or inactions. As it is, Buhari cannot do any good in Ikhide's book, and that is not good citizenship or punditry. And anyone who has anything good to say about Buhari, no matter how valid, nuanced, or qualified, and anyone who refuses to criticize the president impulsively as Ikhide tends to do, is automatically assigned a label of APC or APC intellectual. Ikhide would be a lot more effective if he were to simply make the points and curb his enthusiasm (apologies to Larry David) about the "i told you so" he so eagerly wants to throw at those he perceives to be empathetic to Buhari.
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 27, 2015 at 10:02 AM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> My Facebook update on this matter:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On this fuel subsidy business, I like President Buhari's earlier position better than the one to which he has apparently been converted by his minister of state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu. Buhari had echoed my own skepticism about the existence of genuine subsidy on petroleum resources, a position I articulated in 2012 in a newspaper oped during the debate over the withdrawal of fuel subsidy.
>>> Subsidy as we know it is overblown and largely fraudulent. It seems to me then that if true subsidy does not exist or only exists minimally in the form of the small differential between the pump price of petrol and the total cost of importing and transporting the said petrol to stations, then the thing to do is simply to pay this difference and nothing more as a way to maintain the set price of N87 per liter.
>>> With the price of crude at almost a ten year low, this difference has become negligible--N6.50 per liter, according to the NNPC, which is a far cry from subsidy amounts/rates the importers claim and collect. Buhari's earlier position in an interview during the campaigns was that the government should accurately calculate the difference between the pump price and the total cost of bringing fuel from foreign suppliers to petrol stations plus a small, fair margin or commission for importers and marketers, pay that difference, and nothing more. If the NNPC does the importation the additional margin/commission is eliminated, further reducing the differential. That was a sound analysis, and I remember telling a friend that this was the most lucid ameliorative analysis of the problem I had heard from any candidate or government official.
>>> But Buhari advanced this approach only as a stop-gap, temporary solution. For the long term, Buhari acknowledged that the solution is to get our refineries working again and wean us off dependence on import fuel.
>>> I loved Buhari's position. Unfortunately, Buhari has realized that that position is unrealistic at this time, given the apparent inability of the new NNPC management to get the refineries working at full capacity. He has also realized that, given the unfortunate but, for now, inescapable dependence on fuel importation and the power of blackmail that it gives the importers (they can refuse to import and cause politically unpopular and economically crippling scarcity), he has to decapitate the fuel importation cartel sooner than planned, hence the decision to deregulate the market, essentially allowing market forces, the cost of crude, freight charges, landing, and transportation costs to dictate the pump price.
>>> The big unknown is how the importation cartel will react and whether the NNPC's cost calculation accurately reflects what the importers and marketers believe to be their actual costs. These actors may claim legitimately or otherwise that N85 does not adequately cover their costs, including the profit margin that makes the business worth their while.
>>> Deregulation/subsidy withdrawal is a courageous move and was forced upon Buhari by the skyrocketing and increasingly unsustainable subsidy payments, payments that are based on inflated claims that hardly reflect the true costs associated with the importation and transportation of fuel. Given the financial strain Nigeria is under, the low price of crude, and the inability of government to accurately account for what constitutes true subsidy amounts, this is an auspicious moment to deregulate the sector. Politically, it is the best time too, because, thanks to cheap crude, it will result in no unpopular fuel price increase.
>>> Nonetheless this major policy shift raises several questions that Mr. Kachikwu has not addressed:
>>> 1. If this is true deregulation, or surrendering the price of fuel to market forces or market dynamics, why is the government reducing the price of fuel to, or more appropriately, fixing it at, N85. How does a policy of deregulation coexist with a policy of price fixing?
>>> 2. What if the fuel importers (and marketers) resent and protest this contradictory policy of deregulation and price fixing and refuse to go along with it? Deregulation is something the importers and marketers should welcome, but price fixing is something they will resent for the obvious reason that the fixed price lacks the flexibility to respond to fluctuations in the price of crude and in the costs associated with fuel importation.
>>> 3. Crude is cheap now, but it will not be that way forever. For now, as long as crude remains cheap, the N85 official price may stick without resistance or serious repercussions, but when crude prices go up, which is inevitable, the pump price will have to go up to reflect that. What will the government do then? If the price is adjusted upward as it should to make importation worth while for the importers, how will such an increase in the pump price of petrol be explained by the government or received by Nigerians?
>>> 4. What is the government's endgame regarding domestic refining of petroleum products, which is the permanent, most cost-efficient solution to this problem--a solution that keeps fuel prices affordable and extricates control over fuel supply and prices from the grip of nefarious and shady importers?
>>> These are all questions and issues that Mr. Kachikwu's glib rhetoric is silent on. Talk is cheap and reality can bite. I hope that the government has thought about these issues and has contingency plans to address them if/when they threaten the new deregulation regime and/or become a political fallout of the new approach to fuel pricing.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Dec 27, 2015 at 5:50 AM, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> There is obvious difference between the proposed removal of oil subsidy in 2016 and the removal of subsidy in 2012. In 2011 the appropriated fund for oil subsidy was N245 million but by the end of December 2011 the government had paid N2.6 trillion and there were still carried forward arrears from 2011 to be paid in 2012. At that stage, Jonathan's government decided to remove oil subsidy with implication that the pump prize of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as petrol in Nigeria would have risen from N65 to N141. Based on Petroleum Products Price Regulating Authorities (PPRA) and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) claims, the Federal Ministry of Finance pointed out on Tuesday, 29 May 2012, that N451 billion of the N888 billion budgeted for subsidy in 2012 had already been spent on arrears for 2011 even though the estimated arrears was N232billion. What Jonathan's government failed to tell Nigerians in 2012 was why the daily consumption of PMS jumped to 60 million litres in 2011 from 30million litres in 2010. Following the uproar against the price hike of petroleum products, the House of Representatives led by Farouk Lawan conducted investigation to the escalated fuel subsidy payments. Ngozi Iweala's Federal Ministry of Finance constituted a committee, led by the Group Managing Director, Access Bank Plc, Aigboje Imuokhuede, to look at the payment records to verify and ascertain subsidy arrears paid to oil marketers. President Jonathan reconstituted the committee to a 15-man headed by the same Mr. Imuokhuede and gave them one week to complete their assignment by Friday,13 July 2012. At the same time, President Jonathan appointed Nuhu Ribadu as the Chairman of the National Task Force on Petroleum Revenue.
>>>>
>>>> Appearing at the House of Representatives investigating committee, the Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alinson-Madueke told the Committee that Nigerians consume 52 million litres of PMS daily; The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Austin Oniwon, put the daily consumption at 35 million litres; the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) put it at 43 million litres; the Executive Secretary of PPPRA claimed it was 24 million litres per day; while the Finance Minister and the Co-ordnating Minister of the Economy, Okonjo-Iweala said the daily consumption was 40 million litres. On the amount paid as subsidy to oil marketers by the end of 2011, Okonjo-Iweala told the House Committee that it was N 1.3 trillion; while Diezani said it was N 1.4 trillion and Sanusi the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria said it was N 1.7 trillion. On the status of the subsidy accounts, Diezani told the House Committee that the account is a virtual one; NNPC said there is no account in existence as the layman will look at it; the PPPR claimed that the account is a technical one; the CBN says there is no account with us for subsidy; and while the Finance Minister posited that the account exists but not with a bank. The House of Reps Committee's investigation over the oil subsidy collapsed when the Chairman, Farouk Lawan, was caught in camera receiving bribe from one Otedola, an oil subsidy scammer.
>>>>
>>>> Seventy-one companies were indicted by Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payment, for collecting money for unsupplied petroleum products. Among the fraudsters were two Ministers in Jonathan's government. The then Minister of Aviation, Stella Adaeze Oduah, parallel with her ministerial appointment, owned 99% of a company called Sea Petroleum and Gas (SPG) of which she was a Director. The remaining 1% was shared by persons identified as Elisabeth Stewart, Josephine Oduah and Erotimi Buwa. It was discovered that the Aviation Minister's Company, SPG, collected the sum of one billion, nineteen million, five-hundred and seventy-one thousand six-hundred and nine naira without supplying any petroleum product. Similarly, Jonathan's Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, had a company called Pinnacle Contractors Ltd which he used in collecting N2.7 billion as fuel subsidies in 2011. Chief Emeka Wogu owned 75% of Pinnacle while Mrs. Oyebabefe Wogu owned 15% and the rest 10% was owned by Mr. Enyinnaya Wogu. Pinnacle Contractors was not even qualified to bid for fuel supply by the time Wogu collected subsidy money in 2011 as it was not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) until Friday, 30 November 2012. Worse still, the mother vessels which Pinnacle Contractors claimed to have transported fuel to Nigeria could not be located in any part of the world and not to talk of having anchored at any port in Nigeria. Another fuel subsidy fraudster was the former Military Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who through his Company, Maizube Petroleum Limited (MPL), collected five billion, five-hundred and nine million, four-hundred and seven thousand, nine-hundred and three naira without supplying a drop of petroleum product. Jonathan and Okonjo-Iweala were fully aware that they were subsidizing fuel thieves before setting up the Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payments and when the report was ready, they ignored it. Due to the uproar at the beginning of 2012, the official daily consumption of petrol in 2012 fell to 40 million litres from 60 million litres the previous year and was reduced to 38 million litres per day in 2013 and 2014.
>>>>
>>>> Nigeria, Achebe once said, is not a country. He would have been telling the truth if he had said that Nigerians are not human beings because no other human beings would have remained quiet if one-hundredth of what happens in Nigeria were to befall them. Nigeria is the 12th largest crude oil producer in the world, contributing about three percent of the global crude production, which makes her the largest crude oil producer in Africa. She is also the 9th country in terms of reserves in the world, making her have the largest gas reserve in Africa and also contributing about eight percent of the global liquefied natural gas supply. Nigeria has four oil refineries located at Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri with installed capacity to refine 445,000 barrels of crude oil per day for domestic consumption. A barrel of crude oil is equal to 159 litres which means that 445,000 barrels would yield 70, 775, 000 litres of crude oil to be refined daily in Nigeria. Apart from diesel, bitumen, kerosene and other chemicals to be derived from the refinery of 70,775,000 litres of crude oil, not less than fifty million litres of PMS would also be produced. At that rate of production, which is even more than required daily consumption, the highest pump price of PMS in Nigeria would be N30 /litre. While the Managers and Directors of Nigeria's oil refineries collect their monthly salaries and fringe benefits for producing nothing, they divert the crude oil meant for refinery in Nigeria to export. By keeping the refineries in comatose, they pave way for the so called oil marketers to import refined petroleum products. Thus, Nigeria is the only member of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that depends on imported refined petroleum products. The current Government has promised to see to it that the refineries would function to full capacity thereby rendering fuel importers needless and the need to subsidize their fuel imports would cease. Stopping fuel subsidy thieves now is not the same thing as withdrawing fuel subsidy and increasing pump price of petrol by over 120% in 2012. The analysis of Bolaji Aluko in 2012 is still valid now in 2015 as far as subsidizing thieves known as oil marketers are concerned.
>>>> S.Kadiri
>>>>
>>>> ________________________________
>>>> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - On the Matter of FG finally scrapping fuel subsidy and reducing (?) petrol price to N85/litre from Jan 1, 2016
>>>> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
>>>> Date: Sat, 26 Dec 2015 12:51:43 -0500
>>>> CC: alukome@gmail.com
>>>> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
>>>>
>>>> "In finally removing subsidy, the move must be properly explained to The People. The Wailing Wailers must NOT be allowed by subterfuge to turn The People against The Government under the political guise of protecting The People against Subsidy Removal - as we had in January 2012."
>>>>
>>>> - Bolaji Aluko
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Bolaji,
>>>>
>>>> Many thanks for sharing yet another round of data that supports your new position that removal of subsidy is good for Nigerians. How does this now square with all your "analysis" in 2012 when you and Bola Tinubu were adamantly against subsidy removal? Your analysis at the time (see link below) was quite influential in forcing young men and women to hit the streets and apparently fight for what they did not understand:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.gamji.com/aluko/aluko220.htm
>>>>
>>>> Bolaji, please go to the archives on this forum and re-read your contributions. You have changed your tune, and it is your right. But then, you would think that those who have suddenly changed their minds because it is the expedient thing to do, would apologize to those they fooled, and explain rationally why they are now bleating a different tune. There is virtue in changing one's mind. But those who purport to lead must be seen to be credible and trustworthy, must wield their influence responsibly because many people are listening. Indeed, it is the case that many young people died because they truly believed (what now turns out to be) the nonsense that the APC was bleating just to make Mr. Jonathan look bad. Today, those of us who refuse to drink the Koolaid du jour are bullied with reams of arrogance and condescension as if that will fix the situation that the APC created. Many of us are being called Wailing Wailers and GEJites. Interesting, because the archives will show that there is no one more vociferous in condemnation of GEJ on this forum than myself.
>>>>
>>>> I was also fooled by Tinubu et al. I admit it. I was used by the same characters who now want subsidy removed. I feel silly, like Boxer of Animal Farm. They convinced me to shed my dignity and dance and sing in protest against subsidy removal and against Goodluck Jonathan before the World Bank in DC! It is these same folks that are trotting out new reasons why we should remove fuel subsidy, because Tinubu now says so. I live far away from the hell that youths go through in Nigeria. When they protest, I join them. Don't lie to me!
>>>>
>>>> Integrity and credibility are essential tools in any fight. Our leaders have lost all those. I would never go to war with these folks again, they have lost credibility and integrity before me. Fool me once...
>>>>
>>>> ps.
>>>> My analysis of your stand and those of many prominent APC intellectuals also applies to your baffling wink at the atrocious handling of the Kanu case by Aso Rock. You and Tinubu and the others would have had yourselves arrested on his account in those days... We all live to learn!
>>>>
>>>> - Ikhide
>>>>
>>>> On Dec 26, 2015, at 9:00 AM, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> My People:
>>>>>
>>>>> If the report of the FG finally scrapping fuel subsidy and reducing (?) petrol price to N85/litre from Jan 1, 2016 is correct, then Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu is moving in the right direction here, as he inspects more closely some of the arbitrariness in the Pricing Template that is used to determine the so-called "Fuel Subsidy" that we have been allegedly paying......
>>>>>
>>>>> May his tribe increase....
>>>>>
>>>>> Please come with me....
>>>>>
>>>>> In the PMS Pricing Template posted below by PPPRA for Christmas Day 2015, the expected Expected Open Market Price (OMP) for PMS based on thirteen cost items is N93.45 per liter. With the Retail Price fixed at N87 per liter, that requires a so-called subsidy of N6.45 nper liter. Let us put that at N6.5 per liter. To be more aggresive and fix the price at N85 means a subsidy removal of N8.5 per liter.
>>>>>
>>>>> Let us stay with N6.5 per liter subsidy removal for now, meaning an OMP of N87 per liter.
>>>>>
>>>>> That means that if on average EVERY cost element were reduced in price by N0.50 per liter, the OMP would come to N87 per liter. More realistically, if we leave three of the cost elements (#5, 14 and 15) in place, reduce two of them (#4, 6) by N0.25 per liter, two of them (#2, 12) by N0.5 per liter, four of them (#3, 7, 10, 11) by N0.75 per liter, one of them (#13) by N1.0, and one of them (#1) by N1.25 per liter and impose a Highway Maintenance Tax of N0.25 per liter (instead of building new toll gates, which require new capital costs without assurance of recovery), then we can still maintain the OPM at N87, and thereby completely eliminate so-called "subsidy". After all, some of those charges are somewhat arbitrary - some are even government-imposed (eg NPA cargo charges) - and are subject to negotiations.
>>>>>
>>>>> These are examples of the "price modulations" that Kachikwu must be talking about
>>>>>
>>>>> In finally removing subsidy, the move must be properly explained to The People. The Wailing Wailers must NOT be allowed by subterfuge to turn The People against The Government under the political guise of protecting The People against Subsidy Removal - as we had in January 2012.
>>>>>
>>>>> And there you have it.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Bolajij Aluko
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________________________
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> http://pppra.gov.ng/pricing-template-pms-2/
>>>>>
>>>>> Pricing Template – PMS
>>>>> Posted on December 25, 2015 by pppra in Pricing Templates // 0 Comments
>>>>> PPPRA PRODUCT PRICING TEMPLATE -PMS
>>>>> Based on Average Platts' Prices for 24th December, 2015
>>>>> Average Exchange Rate of the NGN =N= to US$ for 24th December, 2015
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> PMS
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Cost Elements:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> $/MT
>>>>> Naira/Litre
>>>>>
>>>>> 1
>>>>> C + F
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 458.41
>>>>> 67.34
>>>>>
>>>>> 2
>>>>> Trader's Margin
>>>>>
>>>>> 10.00
>>>>> 1.47
>>>>>
>>>>> 3
>>>>> Lightering Expenses (SVH)
>>>>> 27.72
>>>>> 4.07
>>>>>
>>>>> 4
>>>>> NPA
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 5.25
>>>>> 0.77
>>>>>
>>>>> 5
>>>>> Financing (SVH)
>>>>>
>>>>> 3.44
>>>>> 0.51
>>>>>
>>>>> 6
>>>>> Jetty Depot Thru' Put Charge
>>>>> 5.45
>>>>> 0.80
>>>>>
>>>>> 7
>>>>> Storage Charge
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 20.42
>>>>> 3.00
>>>>>
>>>>> 8
>>>>> Landing Cost
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 530.69
>>>>> 77.96
>>>>>
>>>>> 9
>>>>> Distribution Margins:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 10
>>>>> Retailers
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 31.31
>>>>> 4.60
>>>>>
>>>>> 11
>>>>> Transporters
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 20.35
>>>>> 2.99
>>>>>
>>>>> 12
>>>>> Dealers
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 11.91
>>>>> 1.75
>>>>>
>>>>> 13
>>>>> Bridging Fund
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 39.82
>>>>> 5.85
>>>>>
>>>>> 14
>>>>> Marine Transport Average (MTA)
>>>>>
>>>>> 1.02
>>>>> 0.15
>>>>>
>>>>> 15
>>>>> Admin Charge
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 1.02
>>>>> 0.15
>>>>>
>>>>> 16
>>>>> Subtotal Margins
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 105.44
>>>>> 15.49
>>>>>
>>>>> 17
>>>>> Highway Maintenance
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 0.00
>>>>> 0.00
>>>>>
>>>>> 18
>>>>> Government Tax
>>>>>
>>>>> –
>>>>>
>>>>> 0.00
>>>>> 0.00
>>>>>
>>>>> 19
>>>>> Import Tax
>>>>>
>>>>> –
>>>>>
>>>>> 0.00
>>>>> 0.00
>>>>>
>>>>> 20
>>>>> Fuel Tax
>>>>>
>>>>> –
>>>>>
>>>>> 0.00
>>>>> 0.00
>>>>>
>>>>> 21
>>>>> Subtotal Taxes
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 0.00
>>>>> 0.00
>>>>>
>>>>> 22
>>>>> Total Cost
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 636.13
>>>>> 93.45
>>>>>
>>>>> 23
>>>>> ** Ex-Depot (for collection)
>>>>>
>>>>> 528.64
>>>>> 77.66
>>>>>
>>>>> 24
>>>>> ** Under/Over Recovery
>>>>>
>>>>> 43.91
>>>>> 6.45
>>>>>
>
> ...
>
> [Message clipped]--
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