Sunday, January 8, 2012

Nigerian Legislators Are Behaving Like Unruly Pupils In A Classroom

Nigerian legislators often forget that they are no longer school pupils in a secondary school.

I have just been following the so called emergency session of the House of Representatives on Sunday January 8, 2012, to address the unpopular removal of the fuel subsidy on petrol and the state of emergency over terrorist attacks in the middle belt and northern states. But I see that majority of them are not really bothered as they are busy antagonizing themselves without any definite resolution.

Many of them are misbehaving like pupils in a classroom and laughing when the country is threatening to implode?

They said Nigeria is broke, but they are not even bothered about reviewing their own salaries and allowances and the lopsided revenue allocation formula.

Since Nigeria is broke, the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) should fix the total monthly salary of a senator at N1.06m and that of a House of Representatives member at N794, 000. And anyone who is not ready to accept it should resign!

After all, Nigeria was even a better country when there was no National Assembly. Therefore, a nation can function well without these so called lawmakers who are nothing more than political contractors in the corridors of power.

The following allowances should be suspended until further notice,with the exception of the allowances for annual leave.

Accommodation allowances, furniture allowances, vehicle allowances and travel allowances.

~ By Orikinla Osinachi

President Jonathan Becomes the Most Hated Nigerian on Facebook

Following his unilateral removal of subsidy on premium motor spirit (PMS) on the first day of the new year, the fans numbering over 678,829 turned against him enmass and have been raining curses upon him in torrents.

Korrect Nation

From all indications of the nationwide protests over the removal of the fuel subsidy on petrol, majority of Nigerians will even welcome a coup d'état to remove the corrupt and unpopular administration of their once beloved, but now called an incompetent President Goodluck Jonathan as the protesters are asking for his impeachment. Ironically the much talked about good luck of his first name has turned to bad luck to the poor masses of Africa's most populous nation where the majority live on less than $2 a day.

Since President Jonathan has become the most cursed President on Facebook, majority of Nigerians will certainly celebrate his removal on the streets.

Where President Goodluck Jonathan Failed

President Goodluck Jonathan plunged himself into a quagmire between the devil called "Boko Haram" and the deep blue sea of angry masses protesting the unpopular removal of the fuel subsidy on petrol since New Year's day to date.

Mr. President, Public Offers and Sensitization about Oil Deregulation
Came too late

~ By John Egbeazien Oshodi, Ph.D

No one doubts that there could be a long-term benefits for all Nigerians from the massive oil price deregulation but the ill-timed manner by which executive decision was made showed poor management style.

This leadership blunder has not only resulted in a state of economic and social confusion but it has equally received tensed response to split-minded way with which the government reached its decision.

The ineffectiveness behind the fuel subsidy removal order remains clear as evidenced in the people’s painful reactions.
Certainly, in an economy like Nigeria which is marked by severe economic gap and class division among the people, the President and his advisers could have fully prepared the nation, and should have anticipated the people’s reaction.

Majority of Nigerians have taken to the street in public protest against the undemocratic removal of the fuel subsidy on petrol. Photo Credit: Indepth Africa.

The corpse of Muyideen Mustafa, a protester shot dead by the government's law enforcement agency in Ilorin, Kwara State.

A reaction that could have been less hostile if the government had in the last few weeks and months talked openly about the grave need for oil subsidy removal.

The President could have made sure that everyone or targeted groups are informed of the full benefits of the deregulation of oil by carrying out vigorous campaigns across the country.

Today the President is faced with split opposition both at home and abroad. An opposition that is further complicated by the President’s close agents which include ministers and other executives. They who grossly failed to campaign for public preparation and change in this oil matters.

They failed for habitual and selfish reasons. And they appear to be in a state of ineptitude due to fear—a fear caused by the need to avoid the people, a fear surrounded by insensitivity in regards to the people’ day-to-day burden and plight.

Instead they are known to travel overseas wastefully and within the country ride in a convoy of cars to work, residence, market, church, mosque, and restaurants. A better approach leading to the removal of the oil subsidy could have been more helpful if the administration had done what it is doing now in terms of offers—buying sufficient numbers of mass transit vehicles duty free, reduction of salaries of political office holders, opening up employment and other sweet incentives!

The sudden announcement of these compromises has in an ironic way fired up the already exiting bubbling relationship between the administration and labor organizations.

It could have been more psychologically healthy for the administration if before now it had made operational declaration of fully fighting fraud and corruption, and if it had assured Nigerians of better ways to enhance their economic safety.

Now this mindless act of not passing out public information on time in regards to their subsidy plans is being complicated by a reported court order to stop the strike. But it appears that this tactic came too late as the bitterness and rage has grown too deep in the people.

Now there could be threat to public peace, to national security and even to the demonstrators. No matter how this trouble ends, one great lesson from this lack of
good time management and poor information/sensitization campaign to policy issues is that the President and his persons will learn to use less desperate and harsh moves to address Nigerians on realities like the subsidy removal. This is essential in order to avoid any future abrupt, hasty and underhanded announcement like the subsidy removal decision.

Let us hope that the proposed people’s mass protests does not result in a state of harm and evidence a show of injustice from both sides in order to reduce more trouble, woe and discomfort to the nation.

~ John Egbeazien Oshodi, Ph.D, is the Secretary-General of the Nigeria
Psychological Association (NPA), Abuja, jos5930458@aol.com

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Saturday, January 7, 2012

Platts: December Petrochemical Prices Slip Nearly 1% on Year-End Slowdown

6 Jan 2012 17:13 Africa/Lagos
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Platts: December Petrochemical Prices Slip Nearly 1% on Year-End Slowdown

LONDON, Jan. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Platts – Prices in the $3-trillion-plus global petrochemicals marketplace slipped nearly 1% to $1,161 per metric tons (/mt) in December, according to the just-released monthly average of the Platts Global Petrochemical Index (PGPI), a benchmark basket of seven widely used petrochemicals.

This compares to a November PGPI monthly average price of $1,162/mt. The somewhat sideways price trend is largely attributed to the typical end-of-year slowdown in the petrochemical markets. Historically, liquidity tends to thin ahead of the holiday season, according to Platts, the founder of the index and the physical market price assessment processes for each of its components.

On an annual basis, the December 2011 PGPI average was down 6.9% from the same period in 2010.

PLATTS GLOBAL PETROCHEMICAL INDEX IN U.S. DOLLARS PER METRIC TON

PGPI Monthly Average

Dec-'11

$1,161.00

Dec-'10

$1,194.00

% Chg

6.9%

Nov-'11

$1,162.00

Oct-'11

$1,200.00

Sep-'11

$1,324.00

Aug-'11

$1,397.00

Petrochemicals are used to make plastic, rubber, nylon and other materials for consumer products, packaging, manufacturing, construction, pharmaceuticals, aviation, electronics and nearly every commercial industry.

Three of the seven PGPI components' monthly averages were lower in December. The largest drop was seen in propylene, which fell 6% to $1,057/mt, down from $1,125/mt in November. That drop in propylene was felt in polypropylene prices, which fell 5% to $1,350/mt, down from $1,420/mt in November.

On an end-of-day, end-of-month basis, the PGPI market-on-close value was $1,173/mt on December 30 – a 2% increase compared to the end-of-day, end-of-month value for November of $1,149/mt. The slight rise marks the first end-of-day, end-of-month value gain recorded since July 2011. Month-end closing prices are often used for valuing portfolios.

In December, global petrochemical markets traditionally see a drop in liquidity ahead of the holiday season. This is due to U.S. inventory levels typically being reduced ahead of the New Year as companies try to decrease their end-of-year inventory taxes. In Asia, petrochemical converters also work through their inventories ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which this year starts on January 23, 2012.

Despite the December lull, the January PGPI monthly average price has historically been stronger as companies restock following the New Year. Since the PGPI was introduced in 2007, the January PGPI price has averaged 10% greater than the previous December.

The minor change in the December PGPI also mirrored the relatively stable global equity markets. Through December, global equity markets were relatively flat, with both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange Index (FTSE) gaining less than 1.5% each. The Nikkei 225 also was higher, but only by a quarter of one percent.

The largest gain in December was in the global benzene index, which climbed 10% to $1,033/mt, up from $940/mt in November. Ethylene prices also were significantly higher, climbing more than 4% to $1,121/mt, up from $1,074/mt in November. To access a summary of the December performance of each of the seven key petrochemicals included in the PGPI, visit this link: http://www.platts.com/newsfeature/2012/pgpi/index.

The PGPI reflects a compilation of the daily price assessments of physical spot market ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, paraxylene, low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene as published by Platts and is weighted by the three regions of Asia, Europe and the United States. Used as a price reference, a gauge of sector activity, and a measure of comparison for determining the profitability of selling a barrel of crude oil intact or refining it into products, the PGPI was first published by Platts in August 2007.

Published daily in Platts Petrochemical Alert, a real-time news service, and other Platts publications, the PGPI is anchored by Platts' robust and long-established price assessment methodology and the firm's 100-year history of energy price reporting.

Platts petrochemicals experts are available for media interviews, consult Platts Media Center. For more information on petrochemicals, visit the Platts website at www.platts.com.

About Platts: Founded in 1909, Platts is a leading global provider of energy, petrochemicals and metals information and a premier source of benchmark prices for the physical and futures markets. Platts' news, pricing, analytics, commentary and conferences help customers make better-informed trading and business decisions and help the markets operate with greater transparency and efficiency. Customers in more than 150 countries benefit from Platts' coverage of the carbon emissions, coal, electricity, oil, natural gas, metals, nuclear power, petrochemical, and shipping markets. A division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), Platts is headquartered in New York with approximately 900 employees in more than 15 offices worldwide. Additional information is available at http://www.platts.com .

About The McGraw-Hill Companies: McGraw-Hill announced on September 12, 2011, its intention to separate into two public companies: McGraw-Hill Financial, a leading provider of content and analytics to global financial markets, and McGraw-Hill Education, a leading education company focused on digital learning and education services worldwide. McGraw-Hill Financial's leading brands include Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, S&P Capital IQ, S&P Indices, Platts energy information services and J.D. Power and Associates. With sales of $6.2 billion in 2010, the Corporation has approximately 21,000 employees across more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/ .

SOURCE Platts

CONTACT: Kathleen Tanzy, +1-212-904-2860, Kathleen_tanzy@platts.com; Additional media contacts: Elizabeth Catalano +1 212-904-4937; In Asia: Casey Yew +65 653 06552; In Europe: Shiona Ramage +44 207 1766153

Web Site: http://www.platts.com

Boko Haram Says State Of Emergency Cannot Stop Them

Abul Qaqa, the spokesperson of the Boko Haram says that their recent attacks prove that the so called state of emergency cannot stop them from attacking anywhere in Nigeria.

"We are extending our frontiers to other places to show that the declaration of a state of emergency by the Nigerian government will not deter us. We can really go to wherever we want to go," said Abul Qaqa.

He said the attacks were "part of our response to the ultimatum we gave to southerners to leave the north" and called on the government to release all Boko Haram prisoners.

Source: BBC News.

Who are Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists? 29 DECEMBER 2011, AFRICA
Why can't Nigeria defeat Boko Haram? 11 NOVEMBER 2011, AFRICA
Foreign backers for Boko Haram ? 21 JUNE 2011, AFRICA
Maiduguri: Nigeria's city of fear 15 MARCH 2011, AFRICA
Nigeria country profile 19 APRIL 2011, COUNTRY PROFILES

Dear Karl Maier, This House Has Not Yet Fallen

Being extracts from In the House of Dogs (Kindle Edition) by Michael Chima Ekenyerengozi; King of Kings Books International; 1 edition; November 2011.

It’s not easy to state who started it or how many died. But the horror for those affected is clear.

— Craig S. Keener, June 2010.

Dear Karl Maier,

This house has not yet fallen, but it is shaking. Our house is full of strange bed fellows of lunatic fringe elements of the black sheep of a dysfunctional family.

One is turbaned and goes round the bend bowing to the crescent moon and star suffering from a very contagious Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease of his mad cows.
The other one has gone loco from sniffing too much hydrocarbons in his littoral states at the bottom of the river Niger.

Imagine living in the house of nightmares, cast between the devil and the deep blue sea and caught in the snares of the sirens.

Our house is like a home full of Wole Soyinka’s “Madmen and Specialists”, swimming in the whirlpool of the vicious circle of the same ethno-religious conflicts that precipitated us into the catastrophic internecine civil war of the late 1960s. The same ethno-religious crises are recurring now with incessant attacks by homegrown terrorists plunging Jos, Maiduguri and Abuja into chaos with carcasses of burnt-out vehicles and razed houses, mosques and churches and the charred remains of corpses littering the streets with acrid smells attacking our nostrils and leaving us ill from the nausea.

Religious fanatics of the lunatic fringe on rampage have murdered hundreds of innocent compatriots in reprisal attacks.

Brothers of that lunatic Farouk Abudul Mutallab the al Qaeda “Underwear Bomber" who failed in his satanic attempt to blow up the Northwest Airlines Flight 253, en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, on December 25, 2009, have unleashed their terrors on us as they sighted the moon on Christmas Eve of 2010 at about 7.15 pm in Jos and Maiduguri, and struck again on the New Year’s Eve in Abuja.
These terrorist bombings have now confirmed our worst fears as Sunday Dare concluded that the final script of the terrorists is unfolding now.

The Maitatsine uprising in Kano in 1980 whilst I was a high school pupil in Lagos could be called the genesis of what is now known as the Boko Haram uprising. The first ethno-religious crisis began in Jos on September 7, 2001, but the ethno-religious indigene/settler dichotomy is deep-rooted in the history of Jos as explained in “Sliding towards Armageddon: Revisiting Ethno-Religious Crises in Nigeria” by Gwamna Dogara Je’adayibe, Ph.D. and Amango Kudu A., Ph.D.

You should also read “The Truth About the Religious Violence in Jos, Nigeria” by Craig S. Keener published in Christianity Today and posted on www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010 How and when it started is good to know, but in the present state of emergency as our house is on fire, who started it, what started it or when it started is not the most urgent thing, but to put out the fire by all means possible and at all costs to save our home from being destroyed by these conscienceless elements of the lunatic fringe on rampage. This is the responsibility of our government.

Our President was more concerned about his egocentric presidential election campaign and forgot to put his house in order until his kinsmen bombed the Eagle Square venue of our 50th Independence Anniversary in the Federal Capital city of Abuja. That was the first time such a catastrophe would happen to us since our freedom from the colonial British Empire on October 1, 1960. But he failed to correct the terrible mistakes of his security agencies and intensified his presidential election campaign gimmicks until the turbaned lunatics of the Boko Haram sect set off their deadly bombs in Jos, Maiduguri and Abuja over the holidays.

The devastating terrorist bombings have rocked the foundation of our house and put us all at risk, because it may collapse if we fail to get rid of these lunatics in our house.

We do not have enough specialists to handle these madmen. Our elites are disillusioned and as the madmen are raising dust in the north and blowing embers in the south our children are in fear and trembling in the premonition of another civil war.

“When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
— Psalm 11:3

The righteous should not give up!
The righteous can do a lot to salvage it, no matter the collateral damage that has been done.

KARL Maier, our house is a house of wonders.
Our children are still full of dreams as they are going on with life with tall ambitions and many of them with their heads in the clouds reaching out for the stars. As the lunatics were exploding deadly bombs of destruction in the north, our ignorant children were exploding firecrackers of celebration in the south.
No Karl, it is not funny. It is the irony of life.

You cannot live in denial of the agonies of the ironies of life in a hostile universe.

Yes, we have our dreams and those who have dreams, also have their nightmares.
This is the burden of humankind.

We all must experience the checkered fortunes of the vicissitudes of life.
You have come across what the Chinese said about our fate on earth.
Joys and sorrows, partings and reunions are daily occurrences in the vicious circle of life. Both our joys or sorrows do not last forever, and life goes on.

Our worst enemies are not even these terrorists, but the corrupt looters in the corridors of power and their accomplices, the political contractors and their cronies and hypocritical beneficiaries. These kleptomaniacs are the anathemas of our nation. They have done worse things to us than all the bomb blasts and ethno-religious riots since 1960 to date.

Do you know the casualties of road accidents on the nightmarish roads they have failed to repair after their embezzlement of the revenue allocations of the ministry of works?

Can you count the millions of lives lost since these kleptomaniacs rigged their way into the corridors of power?

Pensioners have collapsed while waiting for the arrears of their unpaid gratuities.
Patients have died from bad health care and when doctors went on strike, because of bad conditions of service.

Have you forgotten the 60 students of Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja and others who perished in the ill-fated Sosoliso plane that crashed at the Port Harcourt airport, because the fire service had no water to put out the fire?!

Click here for the rest of the article.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

RFI Broadcasts Suspended Over Election Coverage in the Congo

5 Jan 2012 03:11 Africa/Lagos

In DRC, RFI broadcasts suspended over election coverage

NEW YORK, January 5, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo shut down broadcasts of the French government-funded Radio France Internationale over its coverage of the aftermath of the November 2011 presidential elections, news reports said.

On Monday, Communications Minister Lambert Mende said the Council of Ministers had ordered the "temporary" measure of switching off RFI 's six FM broadcast frequencies until the Congolese Broadcasting and Communications Superior Council, the new state-run media regulatory agency, had issued a decision.

The run-up to the presidential elections saw anti-press violence, including arson attacks , against journalists and media outlets supportive of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, according to CPJ research. On November 28, incumbent President Joseph Kabila defeated Tshisekedi although he took less than 50 percent of the votes in the election, which was marred by deadly violence and allegations of irregularities, news reports said. Security forces cracked down on subsequent protests by pro-opposition supporters, but Tshisekedi declared himself president-elect and staged a swearing-in ceremony and a new year's national address, according to news reports. RFI reported on bothof these events.

"The government did not at all appreciate the way RFI attempts to trivialize the anti-constitutional comedy of Tshikedi," Mende told Agence France-Press. RFI Deputy Director Geneviève Goëtzinger declined to comment when contacted by CPJ.

"This decision is part of a pattern of closures to punish Radio France Internationale whenever it reports independently on political news in the DRC," said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. "We call on the Congolese media regulatory agency to break with this pattern of political censorship and reverse the decision immediately."

RFI is the most popular news station in the DRC, according to CPJ research. On December 23, the station's broadcasts were disrupted after it aired information about Tshisekedi's staged swearing-in, AFP reported. The government also suspended RFI for more than a year through 2009 and 2010 over its coverage of the military, and in 2006, authorities expelled RFI journalist Ghislaine Dupont, according to CPJ research.

Source: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

The Facts on the Cost of Petrol in Nigeria

One barrel is 42 gallons or 168 litres. The price of 1 barrel of petrol at the Depot gate is the sum of the cost of crude oil, the refining cost and the pipeline transportation cost. Refining costs are at $12.6 per barrel and pipeline distribution cost are $1.50 per barrel. The Distribution Margins (Retailers, Transporters, Dealers, Bridging Funds, Administrative charges etc) are N15.49/litre or $16.58 per barrel. The true cost of 1 litre of petrol at the Mobil filling station in Port Harcourt or anywhere else in Nigeria is therefore ($5 +$12.6+$1.5+$16.6) or $35.7 per barrel . This is equal to N33.36 per litre compared to the official price of N65 per litre. Prof. Tam David West is right. There is no petrol subsidy in Nigeria . Rather the current official prices are too high. Let us continue with some basic energy economics.

The government claims we are currently operating our refineries at 38.2% efficiency. When we refine a barrel of crude oil, we get more than just petrol. If we refine 1 barrel (42 gallons) of crude oil, we will get 45 gallons of petroleum products. The 45 gallons of petroleum products consist of 4 gallons of LPG, 19.5 gallons of Gasoline, 10 gallons of Diesel, 4 gallons of Jet Fuel/Kerosene, 2.5 gallons of Fuel Oil and 5 gallons of Bottoms. Thus, at 38.2% of refining capacity, we have about 170000 bbls of throughput refined for about 13.26 million litres of petrol, 6.8 million litres of diesel and 2.72 million litres of kerosene/jet fuel.

~ The Real Cost Of Nigeria Petrol- By Dr. Izielen Agbon

1) One barrel of Crude oil = 42gallons or 168 litres
2) Our Refineries (i.e 4) Installed (combined) capacity = 445,000 barrels per day
3) Actual refineries capacity due to ageing equipment = 30% i.e. 133,500 barrels per day
4) 133,500 barrels = 21.2 million litres
5) Local required consumption (F.O.S) =12millions litres
6) It means that even our MORIBOND refineries can actually meet our local consumption need of petroleum.
7) The cost structure of crude oil (i.e.Qua Iboe Crude Oil) production;
- Findings / development - $3.5
- Production cost - $1.5
- Refining Cost - $12.6
- Pipeline/transportation - $1.5
- Distr/bridging fund Margin -$15.69

- Total sum cost = $34.
8) - 1ltr cost = $34.8/159 litres = $0.219
- Naira equiv. 0.219xN160= N35.02k
- Add Tax N5 + N35.02 = N40.02
9) Let FGN refute the above composition and if not, they should tell us how they came about N65/litre.
10) Locally refined products cannot be sold at International price.
11) We really do not need FGN SUBSIDY as there was NONE in the first place.

~ Lekoile

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

The Real Subsidy That Nigerians Need By Ben Bruce

Ben Murray-Bruce

Subsidizing Transport for the Poor: An Initiative
~ By Ben Murray Bruce

A good plan is only as important as the willingness to execute it. Since Independence in 1960, successive administrations have paid little attention to the poor.

Government has played the role of Robin Hood, unfortunately though in reverse: they have taken from the poor to subsidize and sustain the rich.

I urge the Federal Government to reverse that role and play the real Robin Hood, and now take from the rich and give to the poor.

This simply means that they must ensure that the rich make the same sacrifice that the poor have made and continue to make. After all, it is not a sin to be poor.

The government of Nigeria must practice what it preaches. If it does and implements the Ben Bruce Transport Policy it will go a long way in easing the untold hardship the increase in the cost of petrol will have on the Nigerian masses.

The Ben Bruce transport policy is simple, realistic and very achievable. I propose $2 billion annually for 10 years. This will re-invent and re-build the transport sector of Nigeria and alleviate the sufferings of the Nigerian people and at the same time grow our economy.

I demand for the Nigerian masses a $500 million fund to subsidize bus and taxi services in Nigeria. I want that subsidy at 50 per cent of the cost for all Nigerians. Many other developing and advanced economies have subsidized their transport sectors. For instance, Brazil by 70 per cent, South Africa by 34 per cent, Chile by 57 per cent, the UK by 49 per cent, Belgium by 69 per cent and Finland by 65 per cent.

We all know the problems that have plagued our nation for decades. We all know the untold hardship our people have been through, and so did the Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo- Kuti as emphasized in many of his songs.

One of the focal points of my plan is that all school children in uniform, senior citizens over 60 and children under 10 must travel free of charge by public transportation under this plan. Transport fares should not rise because the government should pay the difference of deregulation immediately to the transport sector. I estimate that we spend N50 billion annually on transport fare. Deregulation will double that and make it N100 billion.

The additional N50 billion should be paid by the government. And equally important, I propose an additional $500 million annual intervention fund at 5 per cent interest over five years provided by the banks and guaranteed by the Federal Government to be used to buy fuel efficient cars and buses.

These vehicles must be among the top 5 most fuel efficient in the world and most importantly, they must be duty free.

I don’t have to be psychic or a soothsayer to know that the money that will accrue to government from deregulation is more than enough to pay for the purchase of such vehicles, with an estimate of N3 million for Cars, N11 million for mini buses and N16m for bigger buses. Old cars and buses should be brought to designated centres, where they can be purchased for at least N300,000 each and crushed, so they are taken out of circulation and will reduce the carnage on our roads.

The money will be used as a down payment towards the purchase of new cars and buses. This should also apply to any Nigerian who wishes to purchase a fuel efficient vehicle. We must transform bus drivers into bus owners and taxi drivers into taxi owners and make it easy for the Nigerian working class to own cars. $500 million is also needed to provide infrastructure for the buses and taxis such as depots for overnight parking/garaging of the buses, fueling, repairs and maintenance etc. A depot could be built to accommodate as many as 500 buses.

BUS TERMINALS: This is the location for buses to park and wait for passengers. Terminals should also have passenger facilities such as restaurants, conveniences, shops, fuel stations and a bus washing bay. Bus Terminals should be located at the ends of bus corridors in urban areas and at critical intersections in the inter state mass transit systems Bus Shelters and;
LAY BY’S: for buses to pick up and drop passengers, along bus corridors in urban areas without affecting the general traffic flow. They should be located at 200 metre intervals on both sides of the bus corridors in urban areas. This is what you have on Ikorodu Road in Lagos.

To make my plan work, $500 million must also be provided by government to replace old, unsafe and uneconomical trucks. The same principle applies, but they will not get subsidy because they use diesel which had been deregulated long before the deregulation of petrol even became an issue.

The government must set up a Transport Regulatory Authority to regulate the industry.
Nigeria will spend in 10 years exactly 20 per cent of the savings that will accrue from the removal of subsidy.

The Real Beneficiaries of the Misappropriated Fuel Subsidy in Nigeria

The fuel subsidy has never favoured the majority of Nigerians, but the oil marketers and their distributors who are major stakeholders in the corrupt government of President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria.

The masses don't own the filling stations and they don't import fuel.
So who are those ripping them off?
The oil marketers importing fuel and the owners of filling stations who are leading members of the corrupt ruling party and the President is their major beneficiary.

The real beneficiaries of the misappropriated fuel subsidy in Nigeria are the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and others on the following list.

List of Petroleum/Oil Marketing Companies in Nigeria

September 24, 2007

The list below contains the names of the oil marketing companies in Nigeria. Companies that are only involved in the downstream section of the oil chain. The list is not exhaustive but these are the main players in the industry. The information is available both in the table below and also as an attached PDF file with embedded links to redirect you to the companies websites. The table below can be sorted either by company name or the websites by clicking on the header rows in the table.

1	ACORN PETROLEUM	www.acornpetroleum.com
2	AFRICAN PETROLEUM PLC. (AP)	www.applcng.com
3	ASCON OIL	www.asconoil.com
4	CAPITAL OIL PLC.
5	CONOIL PLC.	www.conoilplc.com
6	ETERNA OIL & GAS PLC.	www.eternaplc.com/main.asp
7	GENERAL OIL (NIGERIA)
8	HONEYWELL OIL & GAS	www.honeywelloil.com
9	HYDROCARBON SERVICES OF NIGERIA (HYSON)	www.nnpcgroup.com/hyson.htm
10	MOBIL OIL NIGERIA PLC.	www.exxonmobilafrica.com
11	OANDO PLC.	www.oandoplc.com
12	OCEAN & OIL HOLDINGS	www.oandoplc.com
13	PIPELINES & PRODUCTS MARKETING (PPMC)	www.nnpcgroup.com/ppmc.htm
14	SADIQ PETROLEUM NIGERIA (SPNL)	www.sadiqpetroleum.com
15	SHELL NIGERIA OIL PRODUCTS	www.shell.com/home/content/nigeria
16	TEXACO NIGERIA PLC.	www.texaco.com/worldwide/africa/nigeria.asp
17	TOTAL NIGERIA PLC.	www.ng.total.com
18	ZENON PETROLEUM & GAS	www.zenonpetroleumng.com/

This is the PDF version of the file - List of Oil & Gas Marketers in Nigeria. Also find attached a comprehensive list containing all oil and oil related companies in Nigeria - This listing consists of companies in oil exploration, drilling, survey, engineering, geo-physical etc. These are parts 1,2 & 3 of the file and the subsequent files are coming soon - Comprehensive List of Oil Companies in Nigeria #1-131 and Comprehensive List of Oil Companies in Nigeria #132-254 and Comprehensive List of Oil Companies in Nigeria #255-328.

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