USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: On the Matter of FG finally scrapping fuel subsidy and reducing (?) petrol price to N85/litre from Jan 1, 2016

Ikhide Ikheloa:

1. You are also not the same Ikhide that I knew in 1993. If then you
were this insufferable narcissist that you have become in the way you
write about your self so self-absorbedly, I doubt if I would have
crossed the street with you more than twice.

2. My psycho-analysis of you is that you had deep Nigerian minority
complex - with the Yoruba, (among who you grew up as a Police-boy in
Molete and Moor-Plantation) being your greatest psycho-dump. You mask
it by being friends with me and Sola Adeyeye and Debo Akano - and we
tolerate some of your comical excesses! You lash out at the Igbo and
Hausa-Fulani for various "majority sins" reasons, but I also suspect
that some Yoruba gal refused your amorous advances in primary school,
and you have never gotten over it.

3. As to being a closet Ogoni 13 activist, that is not true. In
fact, as President of the Nigerian Democratic Movement (NDM) and
member of the Amnesty-International-led International Round Table on
Nigeria (IRTON), Dr. Owens Wiwa and I once clashed seriously over the
issue at a meeting in Washington DC during the period, when he gave a
version of the circumstances which I promptly corrected because of
what I had learnt from the Orages. Owens promptly accused me of
being one of the "Yoruba" who murdered Saro Wiwa, and I just shook my
head.

By the way, Desmond just sent me email:


QUOTE

Dear Bolaji,

Compliments of the season. This is to confirm that your below email is
well received and facts affirmed. You did say that you have two months
left on your five year VC contract. Will you be returning here or do
something else in Nigeria?

Best regards,

Desmond Orage
+1-213-xxx-xxxx (Cell)

UNQUOTE


4. As to O. Kasirimobi Nwuke (alia okn, alias Ekenlor Idi), he cannot
be asking of me from you "all the time", because of all the "vandals"
that we left behind on Naijanet-2 that seceded from Naijanet-1, it is
only he and Femi Ojo that I still keep in touch with! Since 2005, I
have exchanged emails with Kasirim at least sixty times (at least till
late last year) and Femi Ojo maybe fifty times with Femi as late as
earlier this month, December 3 to be exact. (I just checked my deeep
archives to confirm those figures, Both of them are always checking
on my progress at Otuoke, in a friendly manner of course!),

5. Concerning Nnamdi Kanu, "ima njakiri" has consequences when it
comes to secession, Biafra, arms and ammunitions - and terrorism.
You and I have soft spots for him for his guerrila radio activism, but
the Yoruba say that when it comes to a conversation with toads, at the
mention of tails, further speech is skipped by them. He had been
warned before, and he broke his parole terms. Mazi Nnamdi should have
his day in court, is entitled to the best defence he can muster, and
be treated with justice and fairness under Nigerian law.

6. Finally, concerning the 2016 Budget, here is EXACTLY what PMB
stated in his speech, NOT what you think he stated or what some
newspapers reported:

QUOTE

Paragraph 23. As an emergency measure, to address the chronic
shortage of teachers in public schools across the country, 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.

UNQUOTE

First, the fact that you state a figure in a budget does not mean that
you will complete that figure in that budget year. Secondly, the FG
has to "partner" with State and Local Governments, so that partnership
agreement must be fulfilled. Thirdly, and most importantly, the three
components that were stated in that paragraph are RECRUITMENT (maybe
20,000 teachers?), TRAINING (maybe 250,000 teachers?) and DEPLOYMENT
(maybe 230,000) of 150,000 UNEMPLOYED GRADUATES and 350,000 ALREADY
EMPLOYED NCE HOLDERS? Did you consider those nuances?

And there you have it. Season's greetings.


Bolaji Aluko



On 12/29/15, Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.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 t
> My 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.Here is another news report on the issue.
> | |
> | | | | | | | |
> | 2016 N6.08tr Budget To Create 500,000 Teaching Jobs Fo...Though Buhari's
> recent 2016 Budget has sparked lots of controversies, it apparently
> considers the challenges which the country is currently facing. If not for
> anyth... |
> | |
> | View on buzznigeria.com | Preview by Yahoo |
> | |
> | |
>
> 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:
> https://www.facebook.com/moses.ochonu/posts/10153801264711484?pnref=story
> 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
>
> | |
> | | | | | | | |
> | FG to employ .5m teachers in 2016Buhari In order to address the chronic
> shortage of teachers in public schools across the country, the Federal
> Government has said it will in 2016 employ about 500, ... |
> | |
> | View on www.ngrguardiannew... | Preview by Yahoo |
> | |
> | |
>
>
>
> - Ikhide Stalk 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 Year
>
> 6. 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

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