Improvement of Nigeria Agric Sector Hope of Rebirth of the Nation

Toward A Reformed aNd RevolutioNalized Palm Nigeria While applauding your wise and enormous efforts at transforming the Nigeria agricultural profile the honourable minister of Agriculture I want to strongly suggest this measure to once and for all put to a stop the devastating effect of wild palm (Ogbanje palm) on Nigeria palm oil output and by implication the contribution of palm oil and palm produce on the nation’s GDP. You recall, Honourable Minister, that even up till this very moment the wild palms in the South East and South South and indeed the rest of Nigeria account for over eighty percent of the total number of palm trees producing in Nigeria! This {Ogbanje Palms} produce very sparsely when compared with the improved palm trees at time the improved palm trees produce between 2. Time to 3 times what an ogbanje palm tree produces. That is not all while it may take as much as ten years for a wild palm to start producing; most improved variety starts from as low as two and a half year to start productive life! What is more while the wild palm produces x amount of palm heads per production the improved variety produces between 1.5 Times to 2 times the number of heads! Is it surprising then why Malaysia outstripped Nigeria in palm oil production even though we have been on it for over a thousand years before Malaysia! Malaysia came to Nigeria and collected the very best species nurtured them and in no time; with the great advantages the improved verities have, It outstripped Nigeria in palm oil production even though its land exposure to palm trees are far more less than that of Nigeria! Call For Action My honourable Minister everything is now configured for you to once ad for all remedy the Nigeria nemesis on palm oil production. You just can’t have a more unique chance to make this one time remedy. All your steps so far in Agriculture are anything less than genius and what is more the president of the nation is as enthusiastic as yourself and is ever ready to follow you all through to any length both morally and financially so as far as I am concerned you have nothing standing before you all you need is your sanction and action so I strongly recommend that YOU CUT DOWN ALL THE OGANJE PALM TREES MAKING A MESS OF OUR PALM OIL PRODUCTION NOW! no matter the number of the improved variety distributed to farmers now, if the ogbanje wild palms are not destroyed it would continue to sprout newer similar ogbanje palm trees that would eventually make a complete mess of the ones supplied by the ministry of agriculture. The result of this is that palm trees would take more than enough land space that would have been used to maximise the production of other agricultural products and what is more get the lands wasted! Suggested strategy First, all palm trees are to be identified by ad hock workers to be engaged by the ministry of agriculture piloted by the members of NYSC. After this identification each farmer would be provided two improved verity of palm tree for one wild palm that would be failed. The improved palm would be planted months before the wild palm trees are cut down. The experts in the ministry of agriculture should work out the manner in which the old palm trees are to be cut down but cut down they must. Secondly the experts in ministry of agriculture should calculate the average yield of a wild palm tree per year and I recommend that apart from giving the farmers two palm trees to one to be cut down; the farmer, to further reduce the economic loss of their palms should be paid an equivalent of three years yield for each palm cut down since on the average the improved variety would start to yield from 2 years to 3 years. With this the farmer would have lost quite little. Here is the result of this exercise a) Only the improved variety of palm trees would be on the land. b) The farmer would have a more organized palm plantation instead of the scattered palm tree at random all over the available farm land, if a farmer for instance has 20 palm trees scattered all over his land wasting the soil, the farmer would opt to devote just a piece of land to cultivate forty improved palm variety and therefore free otherwise wasted land for other agricultural ventures! c) The ministry of agriculture would on the other had have a statistic of all the palms within the country and therefore be able to effectively predict the nations palm oil output and hence its contribution to the nation’s GDP. d) Our farmers would now be able to earn much more from palm oil and palm produce. To ensure that our farmers not only palm oil producers, earn more the nation’s export transaction must be decoded to the level of our local farmers , the ministry of agriculture must liaise with the ministry of commerce or whatever ministry that is in charge of customs exports and related miniteries to work out something to enable pour farmers to earn foreign currency directly. Where farmers are not able on their own to generate enough quantity of goods to export they should be organized into cooperatives furnished with information that is required to export their produce. All the necessary papers required for exporting their goods are to be filled by the farmers themselves and helped by experts from ministry of agriculture and export department to access those who require the various products overseas. Once papers are filled the goods are loaded at the ward level for shipment either through Lagos Port Harcourt or Oron port for onward export. With these the well being of our farmers are improved. These are the kid of moves that would impart directly the lives of our citizens where you say that economy grew at 7% and that 7% would be felt in the pockets of our farmers. That would undoubtedly once again create the much needed middle class. The overall result of this growth and other measures the agric ministry have put in place would create direct jobs and lead to growth of allied industries, preservation industry, value added industries, even more bank branches insurance, microfinance banks and a host of other industries. The overall result would be huge job creations and direct wealth to our citizens. My Honourable mister when you have done this cleansing of the wild palms you would have changed for all times the agricultural landscape of Nigeria. The Honourable minister sir I am sure you are considering the possible substantial outlay to carry out this revolutions in various agricultural products because it is not only palm trees, I am coming up with suggestion for cocoa, groundnut and even live stocks but I want you to bear in mind that without the necessary investments in agriculture by the federal government we would never get out of the circle of eking out our living depending on just one product, crude oil. I am confident that if the proper will and investment are exercised as regard agriculture we could raise up to 100 billion Dollars in agriculture alone that is when we could be talking of minimum national reserve of the country being a hundred or 120 billion Dollars over a five years period. You can imagine the stability such a reserve would, mean for our country’s currency but above all our poor citizens would benefit directly with improved livelihood. I am also aware you may be considering the execution. This is not the first time we are taking such a determined measure, when the bird flu showed its face several millions of birds, chicken turkey Guiney fowl were destroyed y the government to save the entire birds in the country from being completely destroyed and of course the government compensated farmers. So it is doable! Eye On Palm Oil Revolution in Nigeria2 The imperative of fixing the palm oil and palm produce industry to the nation’s economy cannot be over stretched. The Honourable Minister, sir I am very much convinced that when all the efforts and resources you had and will be pumping into palm plant yields their results you would discover that Palm oil alone is enough to push the nation’s GDP to a new enviable height and give crude oil a run on its influence on Nigeria economy. Honourable minister, sir have a look at this analysis: A barrel of crude oil of about 32 gallons of unrefined crude is on the average about 100 Dollars, when this is multiplied by about 160 you have about N16000, now a drum of red oil of about same 32 gallons of red oil is between N19,000 and N21,000 even in Lagos market! This means that even red oil is more expensive than crude oil. Lets stretch the analysis further, even the about 16,000 earned per barrel of crude oil does not all enter the purse of the Nigeria government when you consider the counterpart agreement with foreign oil producers. Let’s make it simple and say that only 30% goes to the foreign oil companies it means in effect, that less than N12,000 actually reach the hand of the Nigeria government and by implication Nigerians. However, the whole of about N19000 accrue to the Nigerians and what is more these are ordinary Nigeria citizens. The question, The Honourable Mister is why any stone should be left unturned if your quest to make Nigeria produce 2 million barrels of red palm oil per day!? It would sure yield far more than crude oil but most importantly put real cash into the government coffers ad most importantly into the pockets of ordinary Nigerians. Igwegbe Lawrence

Rakeless Power Struggle between president Jonathan and Obasonjo's Boys

General Olusegun Abasonjo to President Good luck Jonathan- Would There Ever Be Honor Amongst Thieves? President Jonathan is not doing anything to stop the crises in PDP to or rather aiding discord in PDP! Well it is obvious that General Olusegun Obasojo consider him self as one of the mini gods that run the nation Nigeria; Perhaps he is right to consider him self so after all he had ruled this country as a military officer for about two years and still come back to rule the country for another eight uninterrupted years as a ’civilian’ President. Very few Nigerians in one life time would ever be able to have such an incredible opportunity and awesome privilege. However despite that enormous privileges it is in the public domain that why he made sure that Alhaji Atiku Abubaka , his vice President was down loaded by him was because he Obasonjo (General) wanted to run for a third term even though it runs clearly contrary to the Nigeria constitution! Every right thinking person should expect General Obasonjo to be thankful to his God for having been so exceptionally benevolent instead the general would want to push his fate far more by trying to be the only and over all king maker in the country. What I think the General want is who ever he says is to be the President becomes the president whether Nigerians like it or not . Further more I think the General also want to extend his ‘powers’ in such a fashion that he can from his Otta farm order a seating president of the republic to vacate his seat whether the President like it or not. However let me remind the self appointed god of Nigeria fate that before a crown is placed on a selected kingship candidate he would be bowing down to the king makes but once the crown is on his head the king makers have no choice than to bow down to the new king who now exercise instrument of power and authority! Obasonjo may have been instrumental in the emergence of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as President of Nigeria but General Obasonjo can’t bring him down when he wishes. Right from few years into Jonathan’s first term General Obsonjo started his plot to unseat him in order word, to prevent the President from running for his rightful second term just like General Obasojo ran for a second term even though he had ruled the country as a military junta! Obsonjo did this by openly throwing in the name of Gov. Sule Lamido as an authentic replacement of President Jonathan in 2015 General election! You may not also look too far to see Gov. Rotimi Amechi’s interest in the whole deal since it is alleged that same Obsonjo in his wisdom considers Amechi as possible Vice President to run with Gov. Sule Lamido. So if there is any body who initiated the discord in PDP it is General Olusegun Obasonjo by his attempt to deny President Jonathan of his right to run for a second term by openly throwing in Sule Lamido’s name as authentic replacement of President Jonathan in 2015! So what is going on in PDP is indeed a power struggle between Obasonjo's boys and President Jonathan! President Jonathan is arming killers! This is laughable! How can Obasonjo be talking of killers being armed by the President. Perhaps President Obasonjo has for gotten that we still remember what happened in Anambra state between Ngige and Uba who is well known to be an Obasonjo’s boy in that state responsible for doing what General Obasonjo alone know how to do best. You recall how the Anambra government house was vandalized by the hoodlum powered by who you can guess by yourself while the police and army kept mum. Why because a child sent by his father to run uses leg to smash the doors of their victims! So, Citizen Olusegun Obasonjo should keep his mouth closed when he has nothing serious to say. I am also not holding brief for President Jonathan because probably he would do the kind of thing that Citizen Olusegun Obasonjo is doing if he were in his position and have his kind of ambition. However I urge President Jonathan to probably ignore the ranting Citizen Obasonjo and pursue with vigor the empowerment of Nigerians and watch and see if Citizen Obasonjo would make one grave mistake and then probably get him docked out of circulation! This may teach the General that he no longer controls the air wave in Nigeria.

Imminent sale of Cross river's TINAPA and Imperative of Empowering the Citizens

Imminent sale of Cross river's TINAPA and Imperative of Empowering the Citizens Though projects like Cross River's TINAPA and the like embarked by governments of some states in Nigeria are quite different from deliberate waste and probably means to siphon the tax-payers money on white elephant projects like Okuiboku paper mill and Ajaokuta steel mill by the powers that be; in the sense that, that it was a genuine effort of the Governor to develop the state though it is now and even when it was being built a misplaced priority. Otherwise would one not question the wisdom of a governor in building world-class leisure out fit amidst a population that earns on average of a minimum wage? How could such a population afford to patronize such a great outfit? That population by Maslow's hierarchy of human need would be more concerned of their stomach and shelter and even those needs are in the strictest form of it no additions or surplus! The money that Governor Donald duke spent in building his massive TINAPA would have been better employed for Cross River State if it was used for instance to send 100 of Cross River Indigenes to acquire Harvard MBA Degree. Those 100 would have imparted Cross river several folds financially and other wise more than TINAPA! This is not quite different with the whopping 600 billion Naira dished out to rascal business men in the name of saving depositor of ailing banks. The 600 billion Naira would have provided the much-needed money to finance at least 2.5 million different small-scale business entrepreneurs that may have ended up providing close to 10 million jobs to oil the nation's economy. In the same vain the several tens of billion or perhaps hundreds of billions spent by Gov. Raji Fashola in planting trees and flowers in Lagos would have given Oxford university MBA degrees to hundreds of Lagos state indigenes and they would have imparted Lagos and the country several folds what a beautiful flower and tree filled Lagos would have. Don't get me wrong I like tress ad flower perhaps more than Fashola but what can flower and trees do to a hungry and angry man? I already hear you say nothing and here I also say nothing! It is time the few who have the chance to lord it over all of us know that what we care for is how whatever project the government is embarking on affect us individually and directly!

THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA AND MOUNTING INSUCURITY- WHY WE MAY NEVER BE ABLE TO ENSURE SECURITY ACROSS THE COUNTRY!

THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA AND MOUNTING INSECURITY- WHY WE MAY NEVER BE ABLE TO ENSURE SECURITY ACROSS THE COUNTRY! Are you worried that arsonists suicide bombers, terrorists armed robbers and kidnappers are increasing in number everyday in our country? Well consider the following: -According to the former minister of education that out of about 1.7 million of Nigerian youths who sit for Jamb only a paltry number of about 500,000 would be given admission by a combination of all universities and polytechnics owned by Federal government state governments and all private universities and polytechnics! This leaves about 1.2 million youths roaming the street - out of about 500,000 graduates each year from all the universities and polytechnic less than 150000 are likely to get employed ; that leaves about 350000 joining their counterparts to loaming the street! We now have a global total of over1,5 million youths loaming the street each year. In ten years if this trend is not checked; 15 million youths would be loaming the street! That is about 10% of the entire nation’s population and about 45% of the active youth force! Have you also considered this? - In all the developed nations about 70% of the entire work force is employed by the agric sector and SMEs. In Nigeria the banks lend less than 1% of their money to agric related business and even sometime less than five percent of their money to SMEs! This m4eans that the two vital sectors that would have helped to crack down on unemployment are starved of the much needed leverage instead the banks in Nigeria make money available to sectors that have little bearing on creating employment to the teeming population of Nigeria unemployed. Are you surprised at this? You shouldn’t. Nigerians who are into private business when they go into politics become politicians there they allocate whooping amounts to themselves as allowances salaries privileges; the senate President for instance is alleged to be taking home over a hundred million Naira each year , that is officially; He had once been a n army General and is on army pension; he had once been a minister, he should also be on a kind of pension though not quite clear may have also served as a military governor if true may also be on a kind of pension there too and he is also alleged as conversing that Senators earn a life pension so once that is approved he alone would be benefiting from three to five different pensions packages! Back to the main talk when a politician has finished what he came to do in the government house, he sheds his overflowing dress; ‘agbada’ and takes up suit and most likely invest in banking business! So why should you now expect him, to dish out his stow away money to help farmers and SMEs. The politician couldn’t help the citizens while in office it is now he is investing his money in banking he would start helping the citizens! Recently a whopping 600 billion Naira of tax payers money was pumped into four banks; well the reason that sounded nice was that that was to save depositors from imminent collapse of the affected banks but if you care to look carefully you may have noticed that it was one gang of politicians or private business people outwitting the other gang! It was easy for the government to dole out over half a trillion Naira in a deal that was highly doubtful who the actual beneficiary was; however if the Government could make a similar amount available to observed banks that had been there for the Agric sector and SMEs it would have sure achieved a better result in creating the much needed employment! For purpose of analysis if half a trillion Naira is given out to borrowers from agric and SMEs sector at an average of 200,000 Naira per borrower that would mean that about 2,5 million entrepreneurs would be created. If each of the entrepreneur employ on the average only 4 persons, it means that 10,000,000 Nigerians would have been employed You agree that this number of unemployed out of the labor market would sure have a great impact in the economy and most importantly in the lives of the citizens. Out of this whopping number a serous number of those willing to hack off citizens’ necks just to survive would have been reduced. A chunk of those who are willing to use AK47 to blow out the brains of citizens would be reduced. A chuck of those willing to tie fellow citizens up like cow in the name of kidnapping to extract money just to survive would have reduced as well as reduction in the number of people willing to wear a belt of explosives to kill fellow citizens in supermarkets, theatres hotels churches and mosques would also reduce. I am sure that perhaps President Jonathan had realized his mistake of giving such a whooping amount of money to bankers without any clear definition of what the huge outlay was and hence his speech at the bankers’ forum recently. However if the President is serious and not merely playing with words like his predecessors he should wake up quickly and do what must be done. He must identify banks that have been friendly to agric sector and SMEs on their own volition and provide for them an employment intervention fund of N500 billion. This fund should not be given out to the identified banks at more than 3% per annum and the favored banker will borrow it at not more than 7% per annum to borrowers from Agric sector and SMEs With that I ma sure nearly 10 million jobs would be provided for Nigerians. And that would reduce all the insecurities that plague us as a nation!

Fashola Deports Igbos!!! Fashola déporte Ibos!

“Igbo destitute” deported to Onitsha!- Fashola Simply is an Impetuous tribalist. You recall how his Excellency, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) and his aids dealt with the Igbo traders all over Lagos when he started his ‘Eko ni baje’ projects? Though; he gave the Nigerian army ample time to move their walls and facilities lying directly on the road between Yaba and oyingbo and indeed paid for rebuilding those structures affected. However, Fashola neither provided an alternative for the Igbo traders nor did he make any attempt to relocate them before he commenced his ‘Eko ni baje’ flower planting exercise oshodi and in fact all over Lagos or did he think of compensating the Igbos. All at once and in most sudden and wicked manner his tax force moved into Osodi roadside market using sledge hammer and other dangerous clubs to smash goods and wares sold by the igbos in addition to goods that were destroy where you can’t provide the three years tax you are arrested tried by mobile court and straight to ikoyi prison or kilikili maximum security prison; as I am writing now, hundreds of Igbos are still serving their jail terms and some have finished serving and came out to face a bleak future as all means of their livelihood had earlier been smashed by His Excellency and his armies What is worrisome is that if my investigation is right and I believe it is , I gathered that the deported Igbos were and has never been any kind of destitute at all they are the latest batch of Igbos who had just finished serving their jail term as regard Oshidi assault and I guess His Excellency’s advisers fearing negative publicity as the batch may talk to the press quickly moved all of them into the vehicle and ran off to Onitsha head bridge and dumped them and speed back before anyone would say jack! Fashola’s aids knowing that the Igbos are proud people and since the Igbo man amongst all other ethnic groups in Nigeria has the freest sprit and no Igbo man would want to say or associated of being imprisoned! Looking at Fashola’s second show of advanced comics, he assembled ‘destitute’ from osun state in a record time and sent them back to osun state. Though it is worthy of note that he handed those son of soil ‘destitute’ in more dignified manner by handing them over to the governor of the state. One would wonder if that was not an arrangement between him and the governor of the state in question because a man of ordinary intelligence would have expected Fashola and his aids to dump the ‘destitutes’ at Ogun state toll gate since that is the nearest Yoruba town to Lagos just like Onitsha Head Bridge is the first contact on your way to Igbo land! Recall that while Oshodi operations were going on His Excellencies ministry of works was busy tearing up almost all the road sides in Lagos states and as it were all shops close to the road are all bulldozers by Fashola’s caterpillars and since most shops are close to the road you can now add up what the Igbo traders experienced in the hands of this heartless tribal and impetuous state man. I know of so many Igbos whose three shops were destroyed in one week wiping out their means of livelihood and just about five years after, His Excellency has got the gut to be talking of Igbo destitute. I think that that was what His Excellency had in mind while he was maliciously executing his so called ‘Eko ni baje’ projects. Perhaps let me remind His Excellency that the Igbo man has no business with destitution. A classical prove of this was the civil war I am hundred percent convinced that if the Yorubars had drank the cup we drank during the civil war plus Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s 20 pounds ceiling on all Igbo deposits in Bank no matter how much you had pre-civil war the Yorubas would have had more destitute that would attract the attention of United nations, Ecowas, UNDP, EU, AU, China, Russia and US! The same thing is true of the other ethnic groups in Nigeria or they may even be worse off. So Your Excellency, if you want to insult the Igbos you should have something less demeaning to use other than associating the wide eyed proud loins, the Igbos with destitution. Though I know that there are many Yorubas that are not tribal atall the problem is that in my own opinion none of them has been able to occupy a prominent position. But if actions of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and General Olusegun Obasonjo were anything to go by I do not in my opinion believe they care a hoot whether the Igbo man is heading into the swamp or not! So I am not that surprised that Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN behaved the way he did! The shrew can’t stop its stink or can it? Gen Obasonjo for all the eight years he spent as President made only one promise to the Igbos you already no it, it was second Niger bridge but you and I already know the level of its completion! General Obasonjo did not waste any time to wipe out the Odi community just because some two police officers or thereabout were killed in Odi but you recall at the same time the Yoruba Vigilante group killed a whopping 100 police officers in Bariga a suburb of Lagos one expected Bariga to be turned over like cartage but don’t feel disappointed they were the sons of the soil! Even before Chief Moshood Abiola won his his presidential election he was quoted as having said something like he doesn’t need the Igbo man to win his Presidential election. It was generally believed that it was this verbal marginalization of the Igbos that pitched him against Arthur Nzeribe! Come to think of it the so called money, Lagos has that the governor is sending everybody away so that it can go around for the few people left what is the component and lets see whether the Igbo person contributed anything into them: Federal allocation, bulk of what Lagos has comes from VAT and custom: from VAT who brought in the vast goods being vated it is the Igbo traders on Custom who imported the goods Customs taxed? It is once again mostly the Igbos. That is not all the other component and very huge too comes from crude oil which the Igbos in South East and south south along with the other nationalities from south south contributed for Lagos! Concerning the other arm of Lagos revenue the IGR shops and business premises are taxed as well as individuals and the Igbos still have a comparable contribution if it is not a highly weighty contribution. Finally I would want to say that I do not blame him, I should rather ask the Igbo groups to thinker up how to deal with people like Fashola, Col. Gadaffi, who killed about 500 Igbos in Libya when his madness ran out of proportion and Atamiels of Ghana that did a mini Nigeria Must Go on Igbo traders in Ghana by demanding a deposit of $300000.00 for you to run your singlet shop or paper and pencils shop in Ghana and till date most of the Igbo traders shops in Ghana are under lock and key! The Igbo leaders and association must find a way to send a message of some kind to Ganges khan or Joseph Stalin kind of leaders that would want to use Igbo man to practice macho man leadership either now or later!