Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on February 6, 2016
Nigeria: Oil, Greed and Ineptitude
The inevitable decline of rational and intellectual thinking at the commanding heights of socioeconomic and political process in Nigeria was brought to the fore by the recent interaction between the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, a “seasoned Banker”, and members of the Finance Committee of the Senate. In response to concerns about the rapid depreciation of the national currency, the Naira, in the unofficial current market, as a reaction to plummeting oil prices and the depletion of national hard currency reserves, the guardian of Nigeria’s monetary policy had this to say:
“Nigerians(and the Senate) should not worry about the falling value of the Naira currently” , assuring that the value of the currency would soon stabilise. He added; ” By our records, 45 per cent of our foreign exchange earnings go into importation of food, fuel and fertilisers. With the coming on board of Dangote factories, we are sure that 45% will stay with us. That is why we are backing him to complete the projects in record time”.
In a nutshell, and according to Emefiele, the fortunes of Dangotes factories constitute the basis of Nigerian monetary policy. Did Emefiele say this , and in the hallowed chambers of the Senate? If indeed he was quoted correctly, the the descent to mediocrity and ineptitude as Government policy has found new impetus in the current Chanji ideology. This reliance on the fortunes of a single ‘industrialist’ for the economic salvation of over 100million Nigerians is equivalent to India relying on the Ambani brothers of Reliance notoriety for national fiscal policy.
It’s quite interesting that both Dangote and the Ambani brothers, Anil and Mukesh, are really products of sweetheart monopoly arrangements by the power elite, which has succeeded in making the beneficiaries’ immense wealth dependent, not really on the productive aspects of their commercial activities, but the exploitation of immensely favourable fiscal policies, tax breaks, foreign exchange support with round tripping and arbitrage opportunities, subsidies etc. How can this be the basis of a country’s fiscal policy?
As if this was not enough, both the Vice President and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, at the Davis economic summit, also made statements that betrayed their poor appreciation of the economic predicament of the country. The Vice President waxed lyrical about the positive effects of the end of petroleum subsidy(expected to end this year ) on the viability of the 2016 budget, without saying anything about plans to end the absurd situation where the 6th largest exporter of crude oil needs to import refined products;, while,the Minister was effusive about Nigeria’s ability to survive $20 per barrel oil, because of average production costs of $13 per barrel for onshore fields. It did not occur to the Harvard alumnus, that a Country of over 100million, cannot sustain the economic and social consequences of an 70-80% drop in revenue.
The foregoing revelations do not bode well for the economic future of Nigeria, as these inexplicably pedantic rantings from the commanding heights of Nigerian political and economic policies, confirm the national slide to economic, fiscal and social ineptitude. If these are the the ideas of our leaders, then we are headed on the road to national perdition.
The destructive, heady influence of easy oil revenues on the application of basic knowledge to the solutions for our problems has now come to the fore. Oil and the greed associated with its easy money underpinnings, has destroyed the ability for Nigeria to be an economically and intellectually independent state.
Emefiele, Osinbajo and Kachikwu’s forays at the Senate and Davos are rude awakenings that should frighten those who still have hope for a Nigerian Renaissance . The greed generated by cheap oil money has finally destroyed the last vestiges of intellectual thought in Nigeria.
23 Comments on "Nigeria: Oil, Greed and Ineptitude"
noobtube on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 5:41 am
Why is it Americans/Europeans never have anything good to say about Africa/Africans?
To hear the Americans/Europeans tell it, you would think no one could survive in Africa.
Yet, Americans/Europeans are constantly going to Africa for some reason.
If it is so bad in Africa, why are Americans/Europeans there?
Davy on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 7:32 am
Nigeria and Venezuela faces a crude induced collapse. Both have corrupt and inefficient economies. Venezuela problem is it imports most of its food. Both have the majority of their export income that comes from oil. Venezuela has a population of 30MIL in an area of 353,841 sq mi. Nigeria has almost the exact same land mass 356,669 with a population of 173MIL. Agricultural production is significant in Nigeria but not keeping pace with population. Wheat is a significant import. Climate change is already a factor in the north.
http://www.irinnews.org/report/95751/nigeria-owning-up-to-food-insecurity-in-the-north
http://www.foodsecurityportal.org/nigeria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Venezuela
noobtube on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 9:29 am
An American is talking about other places being corrupt and inefficient?
This is why Americans are seen as insane.
paulo1 on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 9:39 am
If you took the ex-pat oil workers out of Nigeria production would most likely collapse.
My son has a friend who is a drilling specialist. He had a mechanic shot by some kind of rebel who saw a white guy and decided to pull the trigger. Pilots are kept in compounds, or so I have been told. Jobs are drying up.
noobtube on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 10:41 am
The ex-pats contribute nothing to Nigeria.
They are there to take, not to give.
Hello on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 10:49 am
As the name suggests. Nigeria has a lot to do with negro. Anybody surprised that they have a hard time doing something that’s more complex than eating or pooping?
ghung on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 11:08 am
Gosh, Hello, has it occurred to you that your site host here may be a “negro”? Go back to picking your nose. It’s lunch time.
twocats on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 11:24 am
nootube,
yes, the stooges that Western powers install in Africa are usually greedy and inept. They are chosen for those traits along with corrupt and vicious. The window for Africa to develop along the lines of a Democratic Socialism or even Capitalism have all but faded into the dustbins of history.
geopressure on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 12:29 pm
When an Oil Exporting Country refuses to maintain or increase their oil production rates, the US Destroys them… They are hit from every conceivable angle that you can imagine – economy, currency, stock market, credit rating, grain imports, etc, etc…
In the case of Saudi Arabia, the US even went after the companies that the Saudi Sovern Wealth Fund was/is invested in…
—
So, what is happening to Venezuela & Nigeria is not their fault… They refused to increase production as quickly as Obama wanted them too, so we destroyed them…
—
The world is going to hate us when all this shit is over…
penury on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 12:52 pm
“The world is going to hate us when all this shit is over…” What makes you think they will wait that long?
onlooker on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 1:02 pm
the populations of the world have been hating us and our arrogance for quite some time. Even while they have envied us and some have immigrated here. Kind of like having a boss you cannot stand. You work for him because he pays you good but you cannot stand his guts. Oh yes the Institutions, Banks and many governments are willing partners in a coercive system that forces compliance one way or the other. See the book “Confessions of an economic hitman”
Apneaman on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 1:05 pm
Hello, you mean like these people.
Famous Black Inventors
A Rich Heritage Gives Way to Modern Ingenuity
Look for information about African-American inventors and you’ll quickly find that American innovation is rich with the contributions of famous black inventors like Elijah McCoy, Lewis Howard Latimer, George Washington Carver and Madame C.J. Walker (Sarah Breedlove).
In fact, many modern conveniences and necessities are directly related to, or derivative of, the inventions of black inventors: blood banks, the refrigerator, the electric trolley, the dust pan, comb, mop, brush, clothes dryer, refrigerator, lawn mower, traffic signals, the pen and the pencil sharpener.
But what of the present-day counterparts to these historical figures? Did African-Americans just up and stop inventing? The answer, conclusively, is no.
http://www.black-inventor.com/
claman on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 1:41 pm
apne, the greatest influx on western culture in the last 150 years are actually african.
African colour use and abstract sculptures are the main influence for modern art, in contrast to victorian realistic art.
Modern music owes it all to african rythmic music and a little bit of salvation army music and lyrics.
Modern sports would be nowhere without the african physical superiority in many sports.
Even modern dance has its roots in african spontanieus dance.
I think this influence is quite an achievement considering africas low economical and military powers.
paulo1 on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 1:42 pm
Noob,
That is the stupidest reply you have ever made.
re: “The ex-pats contribute nothing to Nigeria.
They are there to take, not to give.”
Now who, in their right mind would ever go to Nigeria unless it was for self-interest? I didn’t know foreign workers were missionaries? But if they didn’t work there no oil would have been produced and the corrupt leaders would have to do with so much less….(sarcasm, so relax).
Can you imagine an oil worker saying, “let’s go where they hate us, where it is bug ridden unbelieveably hot, where we have to live in a compound or get kidnapped or killed, and don’t bother paying us. We just want to help them develop their resources”.
Yeah, I used to build houses because I knew people would like them!!?
onlooker on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 2:08 pm
“Anybody surprised that they have a hard time doing something that’s more complex than eating or pooping?” That is an overtly racist comment that is unworthy have any reply.
twocats on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 3:59 pm
onlooker,
Not worthy of a reply, but I’m giving one anyway. African culture also contributed to Western developments in math. Fourier is a good example of someone who studied in Africa and was able to (in part) acquire principles that were understood almost intuitively by the local populations and apply them to the understanding of heat and dimensional analysis. I would say Africans probably could have discovered these things themselves but that’s more of a Guns, Germs and Steel question…
onlooker on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 4:11 pm
I am afraid Two, someone like Hello would bypass your and AP’s links or any other links to prodigious Black intellectual achievements over time. He/She is too blinded by racial bias.
makati1 on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 9:23 pm
If the West had been colonized, plundered and kept down for 300 years, what would you be like? Yes, the US is hated. And the day of retribution is coming. Wait and see. It’s collapse will be cheered around the world, even in Europe.
Ian on Sat, 6th Feb 2016 11:06 pm
Most Africans here forget that 90%+ of white europeans are themselves descendents of slaves. Feudal servitude was a fact of life in medieval Europe for century. Besides that some countries like Poland were colonized, plundered and kept under down for hundreds of years yet are modern NON third world countries. Europe after WWII was on par with Bengladesh yet raised itself in a few short years, including Eastern Europe plundered and destroyed by the Soviets for a few more decades.
Not A Liberal on Sun, 7th Feb 2016 12:42 am
“If the West had been colonized, plundered and kept down for 300 years, what would you be like?”
Keep posting lies, many countries are 100x better post-colonization. Yes and also “300 years”, not 100. Fucking retard, learn some history, Sub-saharan Africa is a fucking savage shithole. Always has been, always will be.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Sun, 7th Feb 2016 12:57 am
Nigeria is a failed state. The north-south divide will get worse and the internal divides within the south will reemerge, think Biafran War (yeah most stupid Americans never heard of that war. Most retarded yanks can’t even find Nigeria on a map lol, anyway but I digress) and the Delta rebel groups. The list of failed states will grow larger and larger until all are consumed.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Sun, 7th Feb 2016 1:03 am
Check out these fucking retards!
http://youtu.be/a0TK_vk-XDM
USA! USA! USA!
Lmfao
Hgthhtynhih on Sun, 7th Feb 2016 5:54 pm
Noobtube i am an American. I I don’t think we’re insane. Our politicians are corrupt, greedy and arrogant.