Fuel Subsidy Removal: Fraud, Deception, Corruption or Good-intentioned?
By Akintokunbo A Adejumo | This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
I will be very frank with you; despite the raging debates over the past six months or so, I had not the slightest intention of writing on this contentious and controversial issue of fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria until the Federal Government actually did it on 1st January 2012. One reason I did not want to is because I feel that deregulation of the petroleum sector is something that should happen, if only we have a responsible, accountable government and an efficient and less corrupt system with devoted, selfless, efficient, effective and honest government officials. But nay! Sadly we don’t have any of those.
The Great Debate: Removal of Subsidy is good for Nigeria
By: Ben Oguntuase
There are three levels of high fraud that the removal of subsidy will tackle. The first is fraudulent payment on phoney import of PMS. The product is fraudulently certified as imported into Nigeria but is actually diverted to other countries in West Africa. Meanwhile, the documentation is perfected by criminal elements in Customs, Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Pipeline and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) and Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA). They not only collect the subsidy (which actually is outright theft), they also connive to collect demurrage on product that really never entered the Nigerian market. The reality is that what we actually consume in Nigeria may not be up to half of what the records or statistics say we consume.
Nigeria’s N4.6 trillion 2011 budget runs into hitch
By Omodele Adigun, Louis Iba, Adewale Sanyaolu and Chima Nwokoji
The SUN Monday, September 19, 2011
The alarm sounded last week by the Minister of Finance, Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on the zero-level implementation of the 2011 Budget has again brought to the fore the problem of poor budget implementation in the country.
Nigeria: A Nation examined in one day
A day after 9/11’s 10th anniversary celebration in the US it was no surprise to see the Nation newspaper taking the human interest story of the event as the front page, and terrorism Nigeria style as another.
Japan: INCJ Beyond Ninja
Something is happening in Tokyo. Since the great Tohoku Earthquake of March 11, 2011, life has been back to normal. Students have since resumed classes and the yearly national baseball game has come and gone where high school students played with all the zeal of “never say die.”
Bankole’s Fear of the Unknown. Behind The Figure By Ijeoma Nwogwugwu
At the instance of the Presidential Task Force on Power, a meeting was held two Wednesday’s ago between members of the task force and the leadership of the House of Representatives to brief the latter on the road map for the power sector reform programme. During the course of the meeting, Dimeji Bankole, speaker of the House, breezed in mid-stream, staying all of five minutes.In those precious few minutes that he gave the task force, he made it clear that he had issues with the road map being implemented by the federal government. According to him, the road map did not have the input of the House of Representatives, nor did the government deem it necessary to consult stakeholders before formulating the roadmap. Using one such stakeholder as the perfect fodder, Bankole stated that no consideration was being given to importers and suppliers of generators, which by his estimate is a billion dollar industry that needs to be protected.
