Sunday, February 25, 2024

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Govt Panics

Whether the intention was malicious or not, in a dictatorship, Gozie's hyperbole, if intentional, would not have gone unpunished. In his heyday, who would suggest or recommend to Saddam that he should forfeit his salary because he was so rich? Or suggest such self-sacrifice to any of the world's current dictators?


 Let us count our blessings that Nigeria is not a dictatorship.


Since this listserv is supposed to reach the entire world, a curious visitor who drops by may get the wrong impression from any ostensibly or inadvertently misleading piece of misinformation that a whopping 25% of Nigeria's National budget is devoted to lubricating Nigeria's legislators, thus leaving the entire world wondering if that means that the remaining 75 % of the national budget of Africa's greatest economy (Nigeria) is supposed to be devoted to debt-servicing and attending to the problems arising out of the mass poverty in the country, especially poverty in the North, and everywhere else, the crying needs of the 220 million plus population of some haves (big belly empire moguls  - the ogas with bellies full of money) and at the much lower margins of society the many outcast have-nots, led by the armies of discontent, the army of child beggars and the army of the unemployed ( which at circa 5% is at about the same national average as in the UK, US, and EU countries) 


Anyone who could accept that kind of figure (25%) uncritically - no questions asked, is likely to repeat the folly by misinforming fellow human beings, some kind of low-level gossip: "Do you know that 25 % of the national budget of Africa's greatest economy (Nigeria) goes to running their senate and house of representatives?" And repeated enough times, that becomes another gospel truth. Why did Paul hate Jesus and his followers? Outrageous. 


Cornelius Ignoramus enquired from Professor Google, "How much are Nigerian legislators paid? and he is not terribly impressed by the data Professor Google coughed up about Nigerian legislators' monthly salary of $2,088 juxtaposed with the monthly salary of $5,125 that Kenya's members of parliament are paid, whilst, understandably, at the lower end, Sierra Leone's members of parliament who have a monthly salary of circa $2,000 are crying for a pay rise, to keep up with the Jones…


Here's a List of salaries of heads of state and members of government from which we can see, that relatively speaking, all things considered, Nigeria is not doing too badly in the championship league even if some people's desired ideal would be someone like José Mujica also once known as "the world's poorest president


According to Gozie, "Tinubu is very rich and does not need his salary to be paid by Nigeria, so he can forfeit his salary." And that after all wouldn't amount to more than a drop in the ocean or in his teacup, enough to purchase the the equivalent of just a few crates of beer that could keep all the senators happy at the next Christmas party. 


It should be a relief to know that Tinubu is and was already very rich, even rich without adding the very before being elected president so that his presidential election victory is therefore not a " from rags to riches'' story (one of the reasons for the request - a control mechanism, that wannabes should declare the extent of their assets before entering the otherwise murky game of politics - the quickest entry visa to the class of high-status beings/ criminals known as the lootocracy (not endemic to Nigeria only) and this means that most probably, unlike Brother Jero (another metaphor), dear Brother Bola Ahmed Tinubu affectionately known as the JAGABAN of the people) wasn't motivated to run for President because he was hungry for money, nor would anyone in his right mind think so, if e.g. Aliko Dangote wanted to be elected next president of Nigeria. It should also be noted that not at any time did we hear Oga Obasanjo say about dear Bola Ahmed Tinubu, what he said about his former vice-president Alhaji Atiku, that God would not forgive him if he supported Alhaji Atiku to be democratically elected to occupy the highest post in the land. 


If some of the above is sad, bad news, then here's some really good news to cheer you up:


It was a wonderful evening with TF INTERVIEWS: A PANEL DISCUSSION ON 2023 OUTSTANDING AFRICAN CREATIVE BOOKS WRITTEN IN ENGLISH at which I'm reasonably motivated to say that for me, " A star was born " - i.e. I discovered Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, a budding young writer after my own heart - no pompous big grammar embellishment/s, he was down-to-earth (just like I said, none of the big grammar of the pretentious monkeys) he was exceedingly bright, intelligence and wit shining through, and with deep insight addressed some of the implications of the simple surface matters he was asked to address - before which discovery I have as yet only read the rave reviews of his last three publications and viewed this Arise interview with him from a few years ago. I must now recommend his love story Season Of Crimson Blossoms to my Better Half's book club (The literary and intellectual Mafia, an all-female club of diverse ages) - to earmark him for a potential Nobel Prize in Literature, enough to get the wannabe Swedish translators and publishers of his works to get cracking, since there's a lot of money to be made by securing early rights and even monopolies. A word to the wise. I hope to see him soon, at The International Writers Scene in Stockholm, later this year.  


To Abubakar : Felix Baloy : Acheremy

To Olayinka Agbetuyi: James Brown: Gut Bucket

To the Bad Bois: Maceo and All The King's Men: Funky Women 



On Saturday 24 February 2024 at 22:48:52 UTC+1 cornelius...@gmail.com wrote:

Re - "As I understand, APC controls the Senate and the House and Tinubu is the effective leader of APC. APC controlled Senate and House can reduce their remuneration to 2% of national budget and return the remaining 23% to the people of Nigeria." ( K. Gozie Ifesinachukwu) 


The general understanding is that legislators are highly remunerated in Nigeria and some other African countries so that corruption / influence-peddling etc is less of a temptation.


Of course, if President Tinubu were to - God forbid - "reduce their remuneration to 2% of national budget and return the remaining 23% to the people of Nigeria." - he would face unanimous rebellion from the rank and file of both the APC and other parties Senators and House representatives. Overnight he would face rebellion and enmity; and if he were to - perish the thought -  suggest that the salary of the military and police personnel should also be reduced, he would probably be deposed by the military and the police with immediate effect - for taking from their mouths, that which they have been praying for, namely their daily bread 


On the whole in addition to addressing the problem of tax evasion, what's probably needed is higher taxation of the rich as that would rake in a lot of the much-needed money, to the national treasury.


The government could also prohibit the reckless importation of e.g. certain types of cosmetics, skin-lightening products, etc,  that burn up a lot of much-needed foreign exchange.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………


From


The Letters of Marsilio Ficino Volume 2 


Letter 44 


Lupus est homo homini , non homo / Man is a wolf to man, not a man  


Marsilio Ficino, the Florentine, to Jacopo Bracciolini, a most learned man : greetings.


Terrifying indeed is a wolf in the sheepfold. Terrifying is a fox among chickens. But much more terrifying is a man to men, for a man is at once lion, wolf and fox. Just as a really good man, if one can be found anywhere, is the best of all beings, so is a really evil man the worst. The most prudent of men , my Bracciolini , is the most wary; and the most wary of all is one who is carefully on guard against man. But here is need for a lynx-eyed Lynceus and an Oedipus: here is need for an Argus.

He alone will hold the nature and purpose of man who always remembers that his nature and purpose can be held either not at all or, at most, only rarely and with great difficulty. 



On Saturday 24 February 2024 at 11:04:16 UTC+1 K. Gozie Ifesinachukwu wrote:

Tinubu's APC government can start with simple "symbolic" actions.

 

According to Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and former Emir r of Kano, 25% of Nigeria budget goes to maintaining the Federal Senate and House.

 

Tinubu is very rich and does not need his salary to be paid by Nigeria, so he can forfeit his salary.

 

As I understand, APC controls the Senate and the House and Tinubu is the effective leader of APC. APC controlled Senate and House can reduce their remuneration to 2% of national budget and return the remaining 23% to the people of Nigeria.

 

For completeness, 2% of Nigeria budget going to Nigeria Legislators will still be too high by any standard relative to remuneration of other federal legislators in the world.

 

NASS Budget: Sanusi refuses to shift grounds - Vanguard News (vanguardngr.com)

Nigeria stands by Sanusi's government barbs - Central Banking

 

Off course, as symbolic action, these government officials can always stop flaunting their "wealth", but that will not be in line with Nigeria "big man" mentality!

 

Gozie

 

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Toyin Falola
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2024 11:25 AM
To: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Govt Panics

 

Dear Jibrin:

The spokespersons of the Tinubu government want us to give them more time. Should we ask them how many months they want? Or is it years?

The optics of the government itself are bad at several levels: corruption as usual; wealth flaunting; lack of empathy and compassion for the citizens; inadequate policy studies; and extraordinary incompetence.

TF

 

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jibrin Ibrahim <jibrinib...@gmail.com>
Date: Friday, February 23, 2024 at 11:06
AM
To: 'chidi opara reports' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Govt Panics

Government Panics as Cost of Living Crisis Deepens

Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy, Daily Trust, 23rd February 2024

The Tinubu Administration is a fanatic believer in economic liberalism and market forces.  Based on its belief, it cancelled fuel subsidy and floated the naira so that it can find its true value. The naira played its part and has been rising steadily, desperately searching for its true market value, which it turns out, is still very far away. The result is a "misery crisis" as food prices rise beyond the incomes of ordinary citizens whose naira is too small to enable them purchase food and hunger and anger spreads throughout the land. The President who always tells Nigerians that he understands their pains then offers a solution and orders distribution of free grains from the Strategic Food Reserves. It turned out the civil servants forgot to brief him that the reserves are empty. 

Over the past few weeks, hunger and anger have led to street protests all over the country and strike threats. Our politically savvy President sensing the danger decides that since the stupid market forces are now threatening his turn to rule in peace, he must find a diversion. If you search, you will find. The Bureau de Change operators, the "Mallams", are responsible for destroying the capacity of the "market forces" he unleashed to bring down the cost of living. He therefore got the EFCC to establish a Special Task Force across its commands, to clamp down on individuals "dollarizing" the Nigerian economy. The gun trotting operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have since Monday been raiding Bureau de Change operators and arresting them all over the country. The task force which was inaugurated by the Executive Chairman of the Commission, Ola Olukoyede, was raised: "to protect the economy from abuses, leakages, and distortions exposing it to instability and disruption", we were told.

Those of us of a certain age were brought up in an era in which the dollar did not circulate as a means of exchange or store of value and we used our currency, the naira. Did our Afrobeat hero Fela Kuti not do to jail for having dollars cash that he wanted to travel out of the country with to perform in a concert? Then the neoliberals told us it was imperative to allow free purchase and sell of foreign currency. They even encouraged us to open domiciliary accounts in our banks to store foreign currency which the government guaranteed will be safe as the ideology of free markets requires the assurance. The Central Bank of Nigeria licensed thousands of BDCs and asked them to trade in currencies. Why the hell are they being arrested today for doing what the law asked them to do? The other panic move is to place the blame on crypto-currency websites for stealing the value of the naira. The issue is that the few people with naira, conscious of its steady and daily loss of value, would seek to protect their asset anyway they can, won't they? 

The fact of the matter is that we are simply not earning enough foreign currency to meet our high demands for imported goods. In so doing, for decades, we have relied on petroleum rent as our major source of foreign currency. Then to our shock, in 2022, the Group Managing Director of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, explained to us in a State House media briefing that most of our petroleum was being stolen so the dollars are no longer coming in. Mr. Kyari blamed various sections of the Nigerian society for being complicit in the theft of millions of barrels of crude oil, mentioning even that make-shift pipelines and stolen fuel have been found in churches and mosques. 

We were told that between January and July 2022, Africa's biggest oil producer lost an average of 437,000 barrels of oil a day to criminal entities and individuals who illicitly tap pipelines onshore and offshore in the Niger Delta region. The solution to the problem is therefore clear – stop the oil theft and more dollars will come in. The bigger issue is that for a rentier State, safeguarding the source of rent is an existential problem and simple logic should have prevailed and made the state stop the theft. The underlying reality, as we all know however, is that our political leaders and upper echelons of our security forces are beneficiaries of the oil theft. They have taken the decision to eat the goose that lays the golden egg and move to Dubai thereafter as rich refugees. 

There is still an explanation needed for the astronomic collapse of the Naira over the past few weeks. What the hell is going on? The answer, says the research done by Business Day is that we should look at those with a lot of naira – government. Since the removal of fuel subsidy, the Federal and State governments have been receiving massive amounts of naira through the disbursement of money by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).  BusinessDay learnt that portions of the funds from FAAC were often changed to dollars by some governments at the parallel market, putting more pressure on the naira. Their analysis shows that from July 2023 to January 2024, the naira depreciated in the black market for the six months immediately after the FAAC shared money to the federal, state and local governments:

"With the removal of fuel subsidy, more volumes of naira are being shared by the federal, state and local governments and some of these monies are changed to dollars at the parallel market." BusinessDay has asked us to open our eyes from now on. We should note the price of dollars one week before FAAC allocation, check back the price after the allocation and you will see clearly the difference. Let's all do that and know that those who should go to jail are some of our governors and ministers. President Tinubu, please stop panicking, just look around you and you shall see.

 

 

Professor Jibrin Ibrahim

Senior Fellow

Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja

Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

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