RiverNaija

The process of sharing Nigeria’s oil block national cake is as fraudulent now as when Ibrahim Babangida started the process of discretionary allocation of oil blocks to indigenous firms. Discretionary allocation of oil blocks entails that a president can reward a mistress who performs wonderfully with an oil block with capacity for cumulative yield of over $20 billion dollars without recourse to any process outside of manhood attachments. Babangida, Abacha, Abdulsalami and Obasanjo awarded discretionary oil blocks to friends, associates, family members, party chieftains, security chiefs and all categories of bootlickers, spokespersons and cult members without any laid down procedures. The recipients of such oil blocks will get funds from ever willing offshore financiers and partners to graciously settle the benefactors, the awarders, facilitators and the Commander-in-Chief through fronts. These settlements mostly paid into foreign accounts runs into hundreds of millio...

By Odilim Enwegbara “A weaker euro…a sharp decline in the euro’s exchange – say by 15 per cent – would remedy many of Eurozone’s current economic problems. A weaker euro would raise the cost of imports…devaluation of [euro] would also boost average Eurozone GDP growth by stimulating exports and encouraging Europeans to substitute domestically produced goods and services for imported items…[Thus] a weaker euro would significantly improve the external balance with the rest of the world.” That was Martin Feldstein’s remedy for current Eurozone’s economic malaise. For the reader who may not know who Mr. Feldstein truly is; it is important to introduce this far-right Harvard economist. Chairman, President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers (1982-1984) and emeritus President the US National Bureau of Economic Research, Feldstein was allegedly one of the front-line neoliberal economists who supervised Washington’s economic fascism in developing countries in the false name o...

As a follow up on the article ‘What is your exit strategy?’ let us take a look at why there is a general perception that investing is risky. Investing per se is not risky. What is risky is the investor not knowing what he or she is doing. Most investors have no clue what they are doing. They hear a rumour that a certain market is booming and they want a piece of the action. They jump in first and learn later – usually the hard way. In an age where instant gratification is valued above due process, we are always looking for a short cut. Rather than learn the ropes, understand fully what we are doing, start small and keep learning more as we go along, we make a big jump based on half-baked advice and expose our investment to unnecessary risk. In short, we take a naked position. By leaving your investment or asset in an exposed or naked position, you put it at risk of loss. Online, if your website or system is naked (having inadequate firewall or strong password protection), a hacker c...

By Femi Aribisala In the churches, truth has fallen in the pews and falsehood has become the established doctrine.   Bishop David Oyedepo says poverty is not of God.  He insists a child of God has no business being poor and declares: “There’s a proven covenant cure for poverty.”  If this were true and proven, all the world’s poor would have become rich Christians by now.  Let us juxtapose the bishop’s enticing words with the word of God and see whose report should be believed.  Jesus says: “You will always have the poor among you.”   (John 12:8).    Moses says: “The poor will never cease from the land.”   (Deuteronomy 15:11).   So where does that leave Bishop Oyedepo’s “proven covenant cure for poverty?”  It is a pie in the sky. Wealth transfer A few years ago, Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo organised a crusade in Port Harcourt , Nigeria captioned “The Coming Wealth Transfer.”  The import of this crusade was to bring t...

  Mark Amaza I am writing this article mainly for the benefit of Southern Nigerians who have never been to the North, and mostly have a warped and inaccurate view of the North. I have been driven to write this out of my many personal experiences, and those of friends and family, as has been shared with me. This is mainly an educative piece about what Northern Nigeria is in reality; a complete, holistic picture of this region. To make this piece a simple read and easy-to-follow, I am going to write it around five common perceptions about the North and debunk them: Religious Perception: The general belief held by most Southerners about the North is that the region is not just mainly Muslim, but wholly Muslim. Whenever I meet someone from the South and introduce myself, I am correctly placed as a Christian. But once I am asked my state and I say Borno State, the next question becomes, ‘Are you a Muslim?’ This is despite my name being a very common Biblical name, Mark, which is the...

Protocols: Good afternoon, chieftains and members of the All Progressives Congress. Thanks for inviting me as your Keynote Speaker at your Unveiling of Road Map Summit. I do not know how you decided to take this high risk of inviting me to your gathering, knowing full well that my zeal for candor can be generally unsettling for some people of your class and occupation. Since you took the risk, I have assumed the liberty to speak boldly even to your discomfort especially considering that we live in a season of grim when our country is greatly troubled. In perilous times like this, Truth is the absolute freedom. I shall be spurred on by the counsel of George Orwell who in honor of truth stated that “in a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act”. I further assume that if you wanted someone with the skills of deceit, it would not be me that you would have invited to your gathering. I therefore speak to you today not as a politician Context and Fact are very important f...