[AFP] Jammeh waving to supporters as he leaves for the beaches of Equatorial Guinea, obviously in high spirits
I was thinking about the situation with Jammeh in the Gambia, and while I am happy that the situation was resolved without military action and any loss of life, I don’t like how it ended.
Jammeh reportedly secured immunity for himself and members of his cabinet, left the country with at least 13 vehicles, and seems set up for this life and the next going by some accounts of the money he has ‘stolen’...
You may have seen the video of Governor Ajimobi of Oyo State addressing protesting students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH). I watched it twice, and I think what follows is a good summary of what the governor displayed and said:
He displayed no sense of responsibility to address the underlying issues that have kept LAUTECH closed for the past eight months. While he later said Oyo and Osun State would chip in N250million each towards reopening the school, this does not solve the underlying problems.
He DEMANDED respect based on his office and (implied) age, to the point where he told the students they should have addressed him as “Oga… Governor…”.
He dared the students to be violent and threatened them with violence in return. He cowed them into submission by asking the Police to apprehend one of them, then called the Police off after a few moments.
He believed he was doing the protesting students a favor by exiting his Exco meeting to attend to them.
“This is the constituted authority for Oyo State. Even if I don’t pay salary, and I don’t pay this… The fact is that I am the constituted authority; it does not remove that authority.”
Imagine for a moment that NAFDAC requested Coca Cola and the 7Up Bottling Company to price Coke and Pepsi at N150 per 50cl bottle so that Big Cola can stay in business and gain share. Would you think it made any sense?
Probably not.
I exaggerate a little for emphasis, but that is exactly what the NCC has tried to do with their recent re-introduction of price floors for data. In the absence of a press release from the NCC explaining their reasons, we turn to excerpts from a post on The Cable, the writer of which claims to have seen NCC’s letter to the Telecom Companies.
“In order to provide a level playing field for all operators in the industry, small operators and new entrants to acquire market share and operate profitably small operators and new entrants are hereby exempted for the price floor (0.9k/MB) for data services,” it said.
“For the avoidance of doubt a small operator is one that has less than 7.5 percent market share and a new entrant is an operator that has operated less than three years in the market.
“Also, note that effective date for the interim price floor is December 1, 2016.”
I have exerted great effort to avoid all news media, spending far less time than usual on Facebook, Twitter, and Quora. I scroll past furiously when news related to Trump appears in my newsfeed, and I am uncharacteristically missing CNN's Quest means Business for the second night in a row.
When I made this post yesterday, I thought it was because I was weary of all the news about America's election. It had crept into my life and dominated my thoughts and conversations for weeks. I thought I was grateful it was over, so I hastened to document my thoughts in a bid to quickly move on.
When President Obama ended this skit by saying "At least I will go down as a President", I wanted desperately to believe his implied statement that Mr. Trump would never be President - although I had my doubts already. Now it is confirmed: Donald Trump will also go down - at least - as a President.
I am no political pundit, and I am not American. I am a concerned Nigerian who describes myself as a citizen of the world, and I am invested in living happily and helping other people rise above poverty and live happily too.
I had a cornucopia of thoughts on the way to work this morning, and I wanted to document them so I can come back (hopefully) in four years and see how my expectations turned out versus reality.
Trump won in more counties where most adults did not have Bachelor's degrees
1. Globalization is slowing rapidly, and nationalism and xenophobia are on the rise. My theory is that us (educated) folks from developing countries like globalization because it affords us the opportunity to move to and live in developed countries where systems work. (Educated) folks in developed countries believe in globalization due to a variety of reasons - including the exposure afforded them by education. Big businesses like globalization because they can leverage global supply chains to maximize gross margins. On the other hand - I also theorize that the (uneducated) natives in these developed countries who lose their jobs to immigrants are fed up with this situation - and are voting for that to change. Closely linked, people are tired of seeing their jobs move to Mexico and China, or go to Poles, Nigerians, or other immigrants who will do the same job for less money or benefits. Net - I think it's a new world order, one that is less "global".
Today was crazy. (Thank you, Shereen). Scratch that – the past
few weeks have been crazy. I have been wanting to write about the MMM rave for
a while, but couldn’t find the time – so I have had to be content with liking
other people’s posts and dropping sarcastic comments here and there on Facebook.
Right now I need a break from writing recommendations and thinking about foreign
exchange, so I have decided to finally write this.
First some context for the uninitiated. MMM is a Ponzi
an investment scheme that offers 30% returns on a monthly basis. Yes. You read
that right. 30% monthly. To help put that in perspective, if you invest
provide help of N100,000, you can expect returns to get help of N130,000
in thirty days. If you leave this N100,000 in for twelve thirty-day cycles, it
becomes N2.3 million at the end of the period. That is a 2330% annual rate of
return!
Looking forward to when next I'll have these many cakes! :)
I can’t believe it’s already one year since my last birthday…
Like really. Just like that? It feels like I was posing for pictures with my
record number of cakes only yesterday. And wasn’t it last week or the week
before that I was 18? Or 21? I am now confused. Where are all the years rushing
to?
I think the CBN needs a new governor. Like yesterday.
It appears there is active manipulation going on to keep the Naira in the low N300s. The value in the parallel market, in the low N400s, is a better indicator of the Naira's true worth. Whether it is due to their inability to educate or convince the Presidency or whether there is some ineptitude in the mix, I no longer trust the current leadership of the CBN to weather this storm.
Our best bet in the short term at strengthening the value of the Naira, other than an unlikely jump in the value of oil, is for foreign investors to return with their dollars. Forget all that talk about ramping up local production of non-oil goods. Making anything in Nigeria is incredibly expensive, and it will take years of concerted action on power, transportation, finance, labor (read everywhere) to create a significant base of export-worthy goods.
We have a lot of English-speaking people and a lot of raw talent, so another option is to ramp up exportation of services - but that's a story for another day. Companies like Andela are leading the way here, but there's a lot more that we can be doing.
Back to foreign investors.
A 'man of God' is caught pants down with a female church member, but say nothing because ... touch not my anointed.
A 'man of God' is jailed in a foreign country for a variety of financial offences, but do not comment on newspaper article because ... touch not my anointed.
A 'man of God' is obviously manipulating people, making them eat grass and drink petrol... yet, say nothing, because - touch not my anointed.
I feel envious when I hear about or research a country that has a manageable population.
Switzerland and Israel, for example, have about 8 million people. The UAE has under 10 million people. Canada and Australia, both of which have taken a decent amount of Nigerian immigrants in recent years, have 36 million and 24 million people respectively. We often point to Singapore as a model for rapid and sustainable economic development; they have just over 5 million people.
On the other hand, Lagos alone has about 20 million people. Kano has somewhere between 15 million and 20 million. Nigeria nets out somewhere between 150 million and 180 million - depending on who you ask. Some projections have it that we will number 400 million people by 2050.
