SUGAR KENDY MOUNTAIN A FLOURY FOR NIGERIA FOOLS –SIBANJO (PASTOR)

SUGAR KENDY MOUNTAIN A FLOURY FOR NIGERIA FOOLS –SIBANJO (PASTOR)

Nigeria is dully sick; even sicklier is their political professor laden with the tag of the “deputy president”. Each time there is a little increase in the oil revenue the best thing Nigeria government does is to look for any means to channel it out. Which difference lies between these statements by two leaders of different periods?

“Nigeria’s problem is what to do with money” Yakubu Gowon

“Nigeria now feed the world”,  Prof. Pastor, San. Yemi Osibanjo

Let us return to history as Toye Oke (Phd) puts it on page 65 of The News Magazine, 6th June, 2000; on the title, The Oil Glue.

“Prior to the discovery of oil, Nigeria was essentially an agrarian economy, surviving for a manufacturing capacity. Conditions were poor, but people were generally able to feed and clothe themselves. The gain from oil production was relatively modest from the 1960s through the 1970s when, in 1973 Israelis and Arabs went to war against each other. The price of crude oil suddenly went through the roof and Nigeria became so rich that its name was removed from the UN list of poor people; it was deemed too rich to qualify for any form of assistance from internal agencies. During this time, Nigerians generally got a warm welcome in any country they visited anywhere in the world. They walked the streets of western capitals with their hands held so high that one could identify their swaggering walk from a distance.”

“The major headache for the government of the day was not whether there would be enough loans to finance major projects, but how to spend the abundant riches. We became very generous to our neighbours by selling them oil at concessionary prices, and offering them soft loans in return for nothing. Gowon was the first lucky head of state of Nigeria’s history to be saddled with the problem of how to spend money. When he could no longer find needy African states to throw money at, he looked out to the Caribbean Island of Grenada, and paid the backlog of the civil servants’ wages there. Yes indeed, it happened.”   

“The point of all this is that, the oil bounty made any talk of marginalization, partition, Housa, Yoruba, Igbo, Ogoni etc. an idle chatter. Oil became the super glue with which all the elements of Nigerian political jigsaw were patched. It provided the mechanism for bribery via contracts for lifting of crude oil, and an excuse for oil mercenaries such as Shell to operate at the behest of the federal government. In 1983 though, the Shagari administration had turned huge surpluses in our reserve into S30b deficit and worsening. However it was Babangida that finally signed the death warrant of Nigeria as an economically viable country. He threw oil money at everything and in anything that stood on his way of staying in power, devalued the Naira against hard currencies to the point of worthlessness, murdered and tortured his political opponents at will, and dared anyone to challenge him.”

Now, hear the professor politico,

 “We are also diversifying within oil, while adding that Nigeria is already exporting urea since it is producing more than enough for its domestic needs and in the very near future.

“In the service sector, about 1.8 million international travellers spend two nights on average at Nigeria’s estimated 10,000 hotel rooms yearly.

“This generated about US$210 million in revenue for the industry in 2017, which barely reflects on Nigeria’s US$500 billion GDP size.

“Nigeria’s hotel industry alone is projected to grow by double digits by 2020, as the sector bounces back post-recession to one of the fastest growing in the world, and the possibilities for investors is significant.”