SAM OHUABUNWA'S PARADIGM

  There was a time in the biblical Israel when money was said to have failed . At that time, I believe there was famine for about three years because there was no rain. People had money but there was nothing to buy. It got so bad that women were eating their Children in turns and it was actually when the King reigning at that time was called to settle a quarrel between two women, because one of them reneged on the agreement of surrendering her own Child for cooking, after she had participated in eating the other woman's son that he really became acutely aware of how things were. Thereafter he went in search of the prophet who had shut down Heaven, prohibiting it from sending rain .   Since after the Nigeria-Biafra which was fought partly because of oil, Nigeria has lived on Crude oil and it's associated gas. In the 70s following the Middle East crisis, prices of oil jumped and Nigeria got high on Petrodollar. That was when as alleged Gowon made the famous declaration...

  Last week, I was surprised that many Nigerians were shocked that the US dollar exchanged for over 300 Naira. Our Senators seemed to be in greater shock than many, no wonder they have summoned the CBN Governor to appear in their chamber this week to explain why the Naira is being pummeled in the parallel market which as I said last week is the true foreign exchange market.    O-level Economics taught me that the price of every product or commodity is fixed at the point where supply intersects with demand. If supply remains constant while demand increases, price goes up and when supply dips in the presence of high demand, the price goes further up. And that's why I am surprised that any body is asking why the Naira is losing value rapidly, competing to join the league of Italian Lira, the Greek Drachma, the old Ghanaian Cedi, the  Gambian Dalasi or the old Panya money. For a while now, I believe it started when Prof Chukwuma Soludo was CBN governor and intens...

In this column in the last two weeks, I have looked at the Economy and concluded that 2016 will be a tough year. I will not deserve any awards for saying so because many other commentators and analysts have come to  similar conclusions. But if an award must be given, then President Muhammadu Buhari( PMB) is the undisputed winner. First, since he assumed office , he has been consistent in telling Nigerians that our economy was in bad shape and that difficulties lay ahead. This call has intensified by the day rather than abate. In his recent media chat he again harped on the subject of the difficult economy that lies ahead.   The only award that has no obvious winner is that which will go to whoever tells us exactly what must be done to heal the economy and restore it to sanity as quickly as possible. All kinds of ideas are floating in the air and some tentative and experimental measures are being taken, but so far nothing has changed. Or rather nothing has changed for the...

 We are thankful to God, that we survived 2015. It was indeed a monumental year for our Country. It was largely a year of mixed blessings. As I opined last week, we had a positive political outcome with the unexpectedly peaceful transfer of power from PDP to APC at the Federal level but we ended the year with miserable economic outcomes, fueled by the precipitous decline in oil prices and the restrictive measures taken by the government to contain the fall out. Every body that I met and every Industry that I reviewed closed the year hoping for a better 2016. I therefore wish to join all these people to express my wish for Nigeria in 2016. ECONOMY  First, I wish that the 2016 Federal budget is approved speedily. Though the 2015 budget has been extended to the 31st of March, 2016, it is clear that 2015 budget has no answer to the prevailing economic challenges. Perhaps the only thing left in the 2015 budget is the supplementary budget aimed at ensuring payment of Salaries a...

  In many  of my commentaries and books, I had criticized the Security vote provisions for the executive arm of government at all levels in our Country. I had done so for a number of reasons. The first is that I felt that the amounts that are drawn monthly by the chief executives for 'security' purposes was too much and dis proportionate to the other needs of the governments. In some States, the security vote appropriation was higher than allocation to Health care for the entire State. And we know that in addition to this vote, specific budgetary provisions for most of the security agencies like the Military, Police, Civil Defence, etc are usually made. Worse is that these so called security votes were also given priority place in cash disbursement. Thus even when we do not have cash to pay workers salaries in many States of the Federation, we conjured cash to draw down security votes.   The second reason I have been uncomfortable with the Security vote issue is t...

  In many  of my commentaries and books, I had criticized the Security vote provisions for the executive arm of government at all levels in our Country. I had done so for a number of reasons. The first is that I felt that the amounts that are drawn monthly by the chief executives for 'security' purposes was too much and dis proportionate to the other needs of the governments. In some States, the security vote appropriation was higher than allocation to Health care for the entire State. And we know that in addition to this vote, specific budgetary provisions for most of the security agencies like the Military, Police, Civil Defence, etc are usually made. Worse is that these so called security votes were also given priority place in cash disbursement. Thus even when we do not have cash to pay workers salaries in many States of the Federation, we conjured cash to draw down security votes.   The second reason I have been uncomfortable with the Security vote issue is t...

   In the history of elections in Nigeria I had never seen the type of reversals of electoral results by the courts as we have seen in recent times. Last week was particularly spectacular as the appeal courts in Abuja, Lafia, Owerri and Enugu went on a kind of stampede and by the time the week ran out, a significant number of seats won by the PDP in the legislature, especially the senate had been annulled. In Rivers state, it was more like a tsunami that completely wiped out all the electoral victories of the PDP in the last General elections. And except for one case in Nassarawa that affected the APC, almost all the judgements were against the PDP. Very Puzzling!    By the last count PDP had lost Taraba and Rivers State, through judicial declarations and I have heard comments about the puzzle of the Taraba case. The tribunal that was seating in Abuja because of security conditions annulled the Taraba gubernatorial elections and handed victory to APC beca...

  In late October this year, I wrote an article titled " The implications of the resurgence of the Biafra Movement". In that article I advised the Federal Government to learn a few lessons from our recent poor handling of dissents and conflicts in our Nation and to try to engage the agitators for Biafra and to find out their grouse. I had opined that the unity of our Country is work in progress and as a Nation, we have advertently or inadvertently injured certain individuals or groups to the extent that they feel so unhappy with the Nation and would wish to opt out or failing may wish to pull down the roof on all of us. I also indicated that from all I had seen and heard, the pro-Biafran agitation did not start after May this year when President Muhammadu Buhari came to power. Those who read news or watch Television would have read about or seen one Chief Ralph Uwazurike and his movement for the Actualization of the sovereign State of Biafra( MASSOB) in the last couple of yea...

Global development is entering a phase where Entrepreneurship will increasingly play a more important role. An analysis of sources of economic growth by the World Bank( 2013), finds that the biggest differences between developed and developing economies are in innovation performances. It emphasizes that while Entrepreneurship and Innovation are very critical for economic growth,they have also become increasingly important for addressing major development Challenges, such as the ones related to poverty, inclusion and sustainability.    According to the World Institute for Development Economics Research( United Nations University), it is expected that Entrepreneurship will continue to make significant contribution to growth and employment generation in advanced, emerging and least developed economies alike. This is a reasonable expectation- one that is supported by recent findings of historians, economists and management scientists.   In the highly industrialized Wes...

 Last year , I wrote an article titled "Alqueda, ISIS, Alshabab  & Boko Haram: Different manifestations of the devil set loose" in which I opined that the extreme Islamic Fundamentalism that we were witnessing in many parts of the World was nothing but the end time manifestations of the devil as predicted in the Holy Bible . But last week after the Paris multiple terrorist attacks that took more than 129 lives ( now risen to over 180), the Pope brought home to me the reality when he declared that was happening was akin to a Third World War . This categorization resonated with me so much and I presume with many other people. The French President called it a war against France but in reality  it is much more than that. It is a global war.    Looking back now, we can see that the war started on the 11th of September, 2001 in the United States of America with Alqueda leading the war. In that first shot, over 2000 citizens of many Nations were kill...

  After nearly six months of being sworn in as President, Muhammadu Buhari in turn swore in 36 ministers last week. Thus ending his reign as a kind of sole administrator and setting a record as the President that took the longest time to swear in his ministers in the history of our 55year old Nation and perhaps competing for the top position globally. From all indications, it was clear that the President took all this time because he did not seem to fully appreciate the value these ministers will bring into his governance, or as was speculated, he was searching for " human Angels" to populate his cabinet. When he released a partial list at the last minute of the end of September in order not to fail his own chosen time limit, and then the second list early in October, Nigerians did not see any 'Angel'on the list. Except for a few exceptions, all the ministerial nominees were regular human beings, some previously recycled- past governors, past ministers, past...