The Problem with Nigeria Revealed

By

Salihu Yarima

abdu852933@yahoo.com

 

 

This article will delve into the dilemma of becoming a successful public office holder in Nigeria of today and at the same time, surviving foreign interference. Nigeria is now a country where one achieves success in government by doing the destructive biddings of foreign agencies such as the IMF and World Bank. In order to be successful and rewarded, one has to auction off state assets, destroy the only chance of industrialization (steel production at Ajaokuta), remove petroleum subsidy or create an artificial crisis in the banking sector. Contrary to popular knowledge, Nigeria seems to have been re-colonized only this time other Nigerians under the control of powerful foreign agencies are running the country rather than directly by Caucasians as it was done in the past. One may ask, how did Nigeria come to this?

 

A look back at Nigeria in the early seventies shows Nigeria was well on her way to a successful future as a growing country with few mineral resources , a small literate population and a thriving agricultural economy albeit, agrarian. This all changed with the Arab oil embargo of the seventies when the developed world needed an alternative to Arab Oil. The foreign oil majors invested in Nigerian Crude oil exploration subsequently discovering massive deposits of crude oil and natural gas; the most compact source of cheap energy known to man (forget about nuclear energy which is too messy and creates nuclear waste). It takes a few dollars (below $5) to get the oil out into drums which can be sold for a price of $25 after which it is refined into something called the composite barrel that sells for over $100 a barrel (this information was provided by OPEC “who gets what from Oil”).

 

It seems no other raw material produces so much profit. One barrel of crude oil bought at OPEC’s Benchmark price of twenty five dollars (Price band not withstanding) can be refined into a one hundred dollar barrel called the composite barrel! This sounds like the ultimate dream of every medieval king; the pot of gold or black gold. Thus Britain for instance buys one barrel of crude oil from Nigeria for $25 and refines and sells the same single barrel for over one hundred dollars, out of which the British government makes about forty nine dollars a barrel profit (tax). How can the consumer countries make more money out of refining crude oil, than the producers who make less than $20 per barrel (FOB)? Multiply $49 profit per barrel by over two million barrels a day and one gets an idea of the profit made by Britain or similar countries on a Daily basis (Other countries tax at $20 a barrel, Britain gets the honors for making the most profit).

 

Here lies the reason why the Refineries in Nigeria will never work no matter what the NNPC boss says. Nigeria has to import refined products so that the foreign shipping companies make money, Nigeria pays taxes indirectly to foreign governments since the refined products imported into Nigeria have already been taxed by the government of the country where it is refined. Who pays for all this? The Nigerian masses of course, those hungry good for nothings who have no choice but live perpetually in poverty. One should not forget that interest (fines etc whatever the Paris Club of creditors names it) on the thirty billion dollar national debt is accruing daily for the masses to pay! From macroeconomic indices, Britain should actually be in debt right now since it imports more than it exports however, Oil, money brought in from Nigeria , interest on the $23 billion Nigeria pays and other ventures help the British economy to remain out of debt (any economist to prove this wrong is welcome).

 

It seems that whenever the Nigerian government is about to discover the truth about the problems facing Nigeria, something drastic suddenly happens (many people have noted this happen for over four years, all Nigerians should start taking similar notes), like a riot or suddenly the price of petrol is increased and the leadership of the NLC calls a “fake” strike as if to distract the masses or government form tracking down the culprits. An artificial banking crisis is created like the time Bank of the North was about to be liquidated (fortunately, the Northern states came to its rescue). Now with the new CBN governor, a new crisis is about to be introduced after which the Nigerian currency would probably be devalued again.

 

An appointed minister accuses elected senators of bribery or asking for bribes, or perhaps all Certificates of Occupancy in a city are revoked (probably to prevent Nigerians from keeping their wealth in landed properties or real estate while the Naira is devalued). A governor is told he would be murdered or someone threatens a politician. Retired Col. Umar stated after he published his letter that he got threats. General Buhari also reported threats. This list of avoidable induced crisis seems to increase constantly, the question is why? The answer seems to be a Distraction for government, keeping the Nigerian government occupied while the economy is slowly being taken over. The saying goes “once you control a man’s pocket (money or economy), you control him.” This writer does not believe the President of Nigeria is even aware this is going on. Hopefully this article would bring it to His Excellency’s attention so he may shake the leadership of the SSS and all the security agencies in Nigeria the way he removed the facilitators in the Nigeria Police under the leadership of Musiliu Smith, consequently reducing the ethnic crisis that shook Nigeria from 1999.

 

Within the last few years over ten thousand Nigerians died in one ethnic or religious crisis or another (at that time rather than arrest the culprits, Musiliu Smith’s police was busy writing false reports about the situation, no one knows who advised Musiliu to write those reports but the writer’s guess is as good as the readers). An explosion in a military facility suddenly happens for no reason costing the lives of approximately one thousand people and till date, no one has been arrested or charged. In the history of Nigeria , this has never happened, the question is why now? This is the first time foreigners have unfretted access to Nigeria . The leadership of Nigeria was constantly distracted with the crisis while the economy was slowly being taken over by foreign agencies. The refineries were slowly being sabotaged and the pipelines were being damaged. Although the aging pipelines in Nigeria also compounded the problem, it was reported that petroleum pipeline saboteurs used Scuba gear to damage underwater pipelines. The question is who in Nigeria has expensive Scuba gear and would put it to use cutting petroleum pipelines?

 

 

It is easy to solve electricity (NEPA) problems in Nigeria by simply building a large natural gas powered electricity power plant right by where natural gas is being flared. Build a garrison of Soldiers right next to it for security and solve electricity problems in Nigeria for a very long time. That way no pipelines are needed to carry natural gas, the high voltage pylons can be built in less than three months to feed the national grid. Would the IMF/World Bank and its cronies allow this? Of course not! This would help Nigeria industrialize so it must be stopped or filibustered! The IMF/World Bank has seen to it that the only thing implemented by NEPA is privatization, sacking workers of the corporation and a lot of double-talk. These foreign agencies are really smart since they do what is called Double-Talk. Double-talk is when the IMF says to the Nigerian government “to build your steel industry you must privatize it” while in the real sense, the words should have been “to destroy your steel industry privatize it, give it to our people who would destroy it and change it into the most expensive power plant ever made, that way Nigeria will always remain an undeveloped country.”

 

One wonders if this is the reason why the late Abacha tried to stop all Internet access to Nigeria when he was Head of State (it must take a lot of coordination using the Internet and cellular telephones to create or start old inter-tribal battles, or coordinate the creation of several crises at the same time in Nigeria ). Probably why Cellular telephone access is a success in Nigeria today while others like electricity, water, job creation drive, etc are all failures. Perhaps this is why countries like China use its security agencies to monitor all Internet access and Cellular telephone communications heading into China .

 

It is helpful to know that China today is the largest producer of steel in the world (Ajaokuta steel comes to mind), the GDP of China is growing in such a rate not seen by economists in a very long time. A macroeconomic indicator of growth in an economy is the consumption of steel which can also be the production of steel. China has till date not followed IMF/World Bank requests to devalue her currency or destroy her local industries and thus the growth. Neither does China collect World Bank loans so as to auction off state assets like the BPE in Nigeria has been doing for years.

 

Nigeria like several other slave countries who followed IMF/World Bank policies is at the edge of collapse just like Argentina . The mouthpiece of the IMF/World Bank in Nigeria claims industrialization in the new age only comes from high-tech development knowing full well without a steel industry (so called heavy industry); high-tech would never take shape. Semiconductors needed to produce a High Tech industry would have to be imported rather than manufactured. The high tech industry relies on semiconductors (Microprocessors, Integrated circuits, Transistors etc) which are made by a simple process of growing silicon (sand) which is then “doped” and changed into electronic parts in something called a “semiconductor clean room.” How can a country develop a high tech industry without steel to create the equipment needed for a semiconductor clean room? It’s like trying to build a house without blocks and cement while at the same time installing the fittings!

 

In contrast, privatization has seen to it that Argentina a once thriving economy with some of the world’s largest beef exports turned into a bankrupt economy. Ninety five (95%) percent of all public companies and utilities were privatized in Argentina between 1980 and today. Now Argentinean bankruptcy is fit only for its foreign creditors to sell the land to would be buyers. Even the president of Argentina has to be accepted by foreign investors or he would be changed the next day! One wonders if this would happen to Nigeria since the BPE was almost successful at doing the same to NITEL, NEPA, NNPC, NAFCON, Nigeria Airways, nine thousand to be sacked from NPA, Ajaokuta Steel plant given to a company that would destroy it, ALSCON, etc.

 

Can the Nigerian government today take the excess savings from crude oil sales to build three new refineries in each of the zones such as three in the East, West and in the North of Nigeria? Of course not, IMF/World Bank will use their people in government to block it (Filibuster). There may even be new rumors of Coups if government even thinks of resolving the petroleum import issue. Thus nothing can be done anymore since Nigeria has been re-colonized. What people like the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Late Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa fought for has been lost.

 

This comes full circle to the original discussion, if one is not an IMF/World Bank supporter, one will never reach any powerful position in Nigeria today. These organizations now control the economy of Nigeria regardless of what government officials tell the masses. If IMF/World Bank does not control Nigeria ’s economy as suggested by government propaganda, how come Nigeria only has IMF/World Bank people running the Nigerian economy? Why is it that the refineries cannot be repaired, Nigeria continues to collect World Bank loans, Nigerian oil (Bakassi) is taken away from Nigeria and given to Cameroon (that way, the oil in Bakassi is not under OPEC’s control).

 

Everything that would help build Nigeria today is clearly targeted for destruction by the foreign agencies we know (IMF/World Bank) and some we do not know. There is now a new threat from NGOs who get their financing from unknown sources. For instance even the Nigerian Army was almost destroyed a few years back with over forty thousand soldiers retired or dismissed. One does not ask why a government would stop soldiers from working while it pays them pension. Would it not have been better to have the soldiers working and receiving a salary? Of course the foreign interests do not want this. They wanted Nigeria to disband its Army similar to what Aristide did in Haiti , now Haiti is in the hands of non-Haitians and the duly elected president is hiding in another country while the new puppets run the country under the control of foreign masters!

 

It seems the Sovereign National Conference (SNC) was supposed to be the catalyst of Nigeria ’s destruction since the Nigerian Army has been ethnically reduced in size (over forty thousand solders have been retired or dismissed). The present small Army cannot protect Nigeria if violence escalates. The SNC was supposed to declare the presidency null and void so as to escalate violence, disorder and allow foreigners to walk into Nigeria and take over just like in Haiti where a rebel army formed by retired military officers ousted a democratically elected government simply because Aristide stopped obeying IMF/World Bank orders.

 

Now the only advice for anyone who wants to build the Nigerian economy is HIDE YOUR IDEAS! Once the people who control the Nigerian Economy find out you will go against their policy, you will never amount to much in Nigeria . They will grind you to the ground. However, if you show yourself to be very destructive such as destroying people’s properties or suspending Certificate of Occupancies, help to demolish Ajaokuta steel plant, stop the idea of dredging the Niger, open the Nigerian ports so arms can be freely imported under a privatized NPA, removal of subsidy or the so called liberalization of downstream oil industry (causing hyperinflation), support forever importing petrol from overseas, you will be promoted and become extremely wealthy. So good people of Nigeria, HIDE; hide your plans or you will lose your life (late Okadigbo comes to mind) or they will destroy your chances of serving Nigerians (Professor Tam David West who successfully made oil lifters refine a  portion of exported crude oil to be brought back into Nigeria for local consumption was setup with a wrist watch!).

 

Nigerians should not lose hope since things are bound to change and would not remain the same for ever. For the only constant known to man is change. The great French seer by the name of Micheal De Nostradamus made a prediction over four hundred years ago that scares the developed world till this day and hence has not been discussed extensively. Nostradamus stated that “Out of the dark race (Africans), out of the country by the gulf (Probably Nigeria or some other African country), would a ruler rise up above all nations”. From a scientific point of view, one does not know whether to believe Nostradamus or not however, since he predicted this along with other things that have happened over four hundred years ago before present day Nigeria was made, one is at loss for words. Time alone will tell.