I once read about a story that talked about freedom. Once upon a time, some circus workers captured a baby elephant from its family in the amazon jungle of South America. This elephant was very aggressive and violent towards its captors. It resented deeply its forced seperation from its mother and the rest of its family. It fought its captors bravely but unsuccessfully and they were able to subdue it a little, bind its legs and carry it on a horse drawn cart to the circus camp.

On getting to the circus camp, they tied up the elephant to an iron stake in driven deep into the ground. The elephant tried time after time to get away from his captors but each time he tried, when he had stretched the chain fully, he got stopped by the chain and had to return back to the stake. He kept on doing this for days and after a while resigned to fate that he could never be free from bondage.

One day after many months, one of his captors came and removed the chain from his ankle and literally set him free. The elephant simply walked to the same point at which the chain gets fully stretched and stopped. After a while, he returned to sit by the stake. Day after day, the elephant performed the same ritual, never stepping beyond the point he had been unable to cross when he was bound.

The elephant though hav’n been set free in reality was still bound in his mind and as a result could not live in the reality of his freedom.
The state of the elephant is one I like to define as being delivered but not being free.

Many people are like the elephant in this story. They have shut down their minds to freedom so much that in the moment of their deliverance, they are not aware of the consequent freedom that attends it. Deliverance is many times an external activity but freedom must be internal.
People’s minds are bound to the prevailing circumstances in the environment. I just got into Ado-Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti state with a great opportunity. I really expected to be greeted with enthusiasm and drive, rather I was met with skepticism and excuses. I almost got discouraged but quickly recognised the fact the deliverance vs. freedom issue springing to the fore.

People don’t want to fail forward. They don’t want to try something that looks like something they have failed at before. It is no wonder that Nigerians support one club in England this season and another in Spain next season and another in England next season and so on….People are so used to rushing after the winning team. They don’t understand the importance of building a winning team.

I couldn’t help but wonder, “what will it take me to drive the elephant beyond the boundary of his bondage in his mind?”. “what do I need to do to open the eyes of his mind?”

People have one negative thing or the other to say about network marketing and I ask myself.

“would people rather stay on a job, work their lives out, hate their bosses and their organisations, earn less than they desire, deprive their family of necessarily time  and still get stuck int he rat race simply because they are unwilling to bolster up courage and write their own stories?”

“If network marketing especially those with models by which you can earn passive income for the rest of your life  isn’t the fairest type of marketing inthe world, then tell me is it conventional marketing that only rewards the direct salesman and not the chain of advertisers, referrers or indirect marketers?”

“Why are people hypocritically behaving as if there’s one particular thing they are passionate about, the absence of which they’d rather die when it’s obvious that all they truly wish for is freedom (financial and otherwise)?”.

“If only wishes were horses, even beggars will ride”.

“The proof of desire is pursuit”.

Apparently, loads of people around here are not desirous of freedom, they only wish it, otherwise, they’ll pursue it with all they’ve got.
Deliverance is not equivalent to freedom until one gets involved in making it so.

Deliverance is to wishing what desire and pursuit are to freedom.
You may have been delivered, but are you free?

“if God judge count the iniquity of the wicked, who shall stand?”

I seat here watching and listening to intermittently the CEOs of banks in the U.S giving comprehensive account of their transactions with regards to the bailout they got from the government a while ago. I see seated all the CEOs of the big and mightly banks. The JP Morgan Chases, Goldman Sachhs of this world are ably represented as they say what and what they have done with the moneys given to them an what amount of profit or loss they have made.

The idea behind the committee that is holding them accountable is to find out whether the CEOs can be trusted as proper custodians of public funds and whether or not they will sacrifice all that is needed to ensure that Americans have access to proper credit again credibly in the bid to grow the sunken economy.

The last time some of them were told to give account, questions fired at them bothered on their own personal sacrifices and those of the management with regards to crises situations. Questions like “Did you arrive by private jet or did you take the train or did you fly first class?” were thrown at them to see what lengths they were willing to go to indicate their empathy with Americans and the American economy crisis at present. Those whose personal spending habits didn’t reflect what they drafted on paper as reports were seriously reprimanded.

And then suddenly, with tears in my eyes, I ask myself “when will this happen in Nigeria?” When will the Jim Ovias and Tony Elumelus be brought before an equitable committee to give an account of how they have put public funds to use?

When will there be a harmonised financial year end for banks so that all the buffering up of accounts from one bank to another and mistatement of accounts by so-called auditors who have been bribed stop?

When will even the CBN governor be able brought to accountability on his projections, his statements and the state of the economy as a fall out of his policies or inactions?

This hand-in-glove arrangement that the banks have with the CBN governor such that the true state of health of the banks are not disclosed despite the fact that billions of naira of public funds are at risk may have been exposed by then.

When will those who are in charge of leading, driving and growing our economy be brought to accountability in the face of their woeful failures?

I can’t wait. I just can’t. Even the Bank of England governor can attest that the nation is in deep recession. Our own CBN governor can’t even state the banks that are “living dead” and find a solution to rescuing the public’s funds.

Who will bell the banks? and when? In the New Nigeria, I believe all that should be will be.

I had some internet training with one of my friends yesterday evening. In fact, the training was supposed to have commenced yesterday morning but it commenced in the evening because my friend came in late. When he came, he narrated his ordeal to us. He had gone that morning to a bank in Ikorodu (GTB) to withdraw money and having completed that transaction successfully had moved to another bank immediately (UBA) in Ikorodu as well to pay in the money.

On getting to UBA, he filled in the deposit slip and joined the queue. After several minutes of waiting, eventually, it was his turn to pay in his cash in. The cashier collected the stash of cash from him, looked through it and concluded that there where “mutilated” notes in the stash. She therefore returned the money to him and insisted that he changed the “mutilated” notes otherwise, she wouldn’t accept his deposit. What did she mean by “mutilated” notes by the way – Naira notes that were torn, ragged or defaced.

My friend argued that the bank was supposed to collect such notes and return them to CBN – Central Bank of Nigeria for recycling and that if banks who were the public’s last resort to exchange “mutilated” notes for whole notes where refusing to do so, what other options did people have apart from losing their money outrightly. She informed him that when they took such notes to the CBN, the CBN charged them for it by reducing some bla bla bla – technical stuff he didn’t understand and so returning the notes to CBN wouldn’t fly by her.

My friend tried to let her know that he just collected the money from a bank and brought it straight down to theirs. If a bank could issue him such notes, certainly, another bank should be willing to receive them. The cashier at this point was losing patience with him and told him point blank “Oga, it’s either you change those notes, or you find some other branch of our bank to pay it in. I will not collect them from you.” she told him in so many words. Beaten, my friend had to take his “mutilated” notes back to the bank from which he collected them. He narrated his ordeal at the receiving bank to the cashier who paid him earlier and demanded that the notes be changed. The notes were eventually changed and he had to head back to UBA tail between his legs to deposit whole notes in the bank. The whole process lasted several hours and caused our training schedule to be moved by the same time. It didn’t help that he had to begin to find his way down to Allen avenue, Ikeja all the way from Ikorodu. Took him a while to arrive.

Anyway, we eventually had the training and I started making and losing money immediately (LOL), but I couldn’t help but wonder, if CBN isn’t collecting mutilated notes without a charge, are they saying that they need money? After all, they must have anticipated this mutilation of naira notes and made provision for it’s return and recycling. Are they trying to tell the banks, “see, we gave you brand new notes, we will receive no less from you.” What roles exactly are the CBN supposed to assume in situations like this? Should people begin to reduce their dignity to fisticuffs over mutilated notes? Because that’s what I see happening very soon, especially when it becomes popular knowledge that banks are refusing those notes on the excuse that the CBN is charging them for deposits which such notes. If the CBN needs money, can they not make requisition for it? Must they tax banks because of mutilated notes that are not the responsibility or the consequence of the banks operations?

Can we please have a sensitive, human faced money and bank regulator in this country? Soludo please take note. – (not a mutilated one anyway LOL)

This is quite a lengthy article but a must read for every Nigerian who loves his country. Just when we were beginning to rejoice that our economy was moving vertically upwards and that our currency was getting stronger, something seems to have pulled out the floor from under us and everything seems to be plummeting towards ground zero. I just read this article in the newspapers and feel I need to post it as it is. If those managing the economy of this country are so intent on destroying it, then we who are bound by oaths to save this country need to rise up and deliver the future. The president yesterday or today inaugurated a team that will look into and combat the financial meltdown that is upon us in the country. As usual, he has chosen a reactive means rather than a proactive one to address serious national issues.  I find this article very insightful and interesting. It doesn’t mean that the article portrays my views about the situation or that I totally support the facts but it’s really an eye-opener. It’s titled “Naira’s strategic crash”.

Naira’s strategic crash
Written by Les Leba
Wednesday, January 14, 2009

News Analysis

In August 2007, President Yar’Adua shot down the Central Bank’s proposed Strategic Agenda for the Naira (SAN) on the grounds that the Presidency was excluded from its conception.

In spite of the announcement that an adhoc economic team had been constituted to re-evaluate the proposal, nothing more was heard of the verdict of government’s economic experts.

This presumably could mean that no merit was discerned in the proposals for naira redenomination and for dollar derived revenue to be paid as dollar allocations to the three tiers of government.

Indeed, the tenets of CBN Governor’s proposed Strategic Agenda for the Naira was a complete somersault from the overt inclinations of Soludo’s prevailing monetary framework, but the proposals were surprisingly in consonance with the framework which I had canvassed unceasingly for over seven years, in spite of the indifference and open derision by the CBN!

We have always insisted that all the permutations for a development agenda, from NEEDS, to SEEDS to LEEDS to NAPEP, etc, etc, would come to naught if the CBN continued to impound federal dollar derived revenue and substitute naira allocations!

To be fair, President Yar’Adua may be excused for his suspicion of CBN’s sudden turnaround in its monetary policy framework after earlier assurances and promises that the Nigerian economy was treading the path of recovery and development under expert professorial guidance.

The issue of redenomination, as canvassed by Soludo, may also have smelt foul to Mr. President, seeing that billions of naira of public funds had just been expended in designing, producing and promoting the acceptance of new currency notes and coins!

The thought of discarding these notes and coins barely six months or so after introduction certainly would not sit well if viewed from the perspective of any rational person. Indeed, our advice in several articles that the issue is not that of new currencies but that of value or related purchasing power went unheeded!

Our prediction that the coins would not be adopted because of their meaningless values was similarly discountenanced! Today, the CBN is stuck with container loads of valueless coins for which it has now placed newspaper adverts to solicit for those buyers who may want to recycle the coins into bangles, trinkets, copper pipe and wires or other forms of designs or gift items and artworks!

Not even a hurriedly enacted legislation with prison terms and fines as penalty have induced the public to patronize the new coins or treat our currency notes with respect! (See our article “RESPECT FOR THE NAIRA”) at www.geocities.com/lesleba.

The CBN’s subdued acceptance of the government’s suspension of its Strategic Agenda for a healthy naira may be seen as an indication of Soludo’s lack of faith even in his own proposal!

If, indeed, the CBN believed in the power and relevance of its ‘new’ agenda in promoting economic development in the face of increasing poverty in the land, the CBN failed to exercise its constitutional duty to promote policies which will improve the common good and discard policies with negative or adverse consequences for the economy!

In other words, something else other than the desire to serve our people faithfully and productively goaded the CBN Governor to continue in the pursuit of defective monetary policies!

In our paper titled, “A LIBERALISED FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET: a proposal for a liberalized foreign exchange market in Nigeria and its economic benefits” – Boyo/Ojomaikre, we had insisted that the system where the CBN was the major direct supplier of both naira and dollar to the money market was an unhealthy monopoly with serious consequences for a market-determined economy!

Our advice that the three tiers of government be given dollar certificates (not cash) for distributable dollar derived revenue to ensure a market-determined naira rate that will stimulate economic growth was discountenanced and the CBN subsequently responded with its farcical so-called ‘liberalized foreign exchange market’, which in reality was no different from the earlier and existing market frameworks, called DAS, WDAS, IFEM, AFEM, etc.

The common denominator of all these foreign exchange market contraptions was the maintenance of the CBN’s stranglehold on the dollar market and the consolidation of a market system which ultimately instigated increasing poverty with increasing wealth!

The evidence of this correlation was amplified when our dollar reserves rose to over $60bn at a time we became classified amongst the world’s poorest nations!

In fact, monetary policy in that period became so confused that the CBN appeared embarrassed by our sudden healthy reserve balances and decided that the best way to use up the reserves was to allocate over $3bn every month to Bureaus de Change (BDCs) patrons.

Our entreaties in various articles of the suicidal consequences of this profligacy were ignored as the BDCs became an easy pool for capital flight as looters of public treasury and smugglers of contraband had a field day.

The result is now plain for all to see— divestment by such multi-nationals like Dunlop and Michelin and the suffocation of indigenous small and medium enterprises which are generally regarded as the engine of growth in all economies!

The admission of increasing unemployment and insecurity by various agencies of government can only be a confirmation that our monetary policy experts failed woefully to turn our years of plenty into meaningful welfare improvement for our people.

Now that the locust years are at hand, Nigerians should be ready to finally lay undisputed claim to the lowest rung of the world’s poverty ladder!

Indeed, in spite of the sustained increase in reserves from less than $20bn a few years back to over $60bn in November 2008, Nigerians ignored our clarion observation that the naira rate of exchange to the dollar remained resistant rather than its touted state of stability by all and sundry, including the poorly informed Chambers of Commerce and Association of Manufacturers!

Our sometimes irreverent overtures to these pillars of the private sector to see reality were unceremoniously rebuffed! Regrettably, the chickens have now come home to roost! In less than six weeks, the naira rate has depreciated by almost 50% with no end yet in sight!

The CBN has once again suddenly accepted our enduring observation that it is not in its mandate to sell dollars to BDCs, while our foreign reserves have quickly fallen by almost 15% in six weeks; at this rate of depletion, we may inexplicably have zero reserves before year end and we may need to go borrowing big time before the end of 2009; never mind the CBN’s often expressed notions of over 30 months of imports cover provided by our level of reserves!

The tragic thing about the above scenario is that the CBN Governor confidently confirms that the devaluation of the naira is deliberate and designed to ensure a balance in government revenue against projected expenditure!

In other words, the depletion in our oil revenue will be countered by deliberate devaluation of the naira so as to ameliorate any potential deficit in the quantum naira available for monthly allocation! In this wise, we may see the naira rate fall to almost N200/$1 before year end!

This would be no surprise as the government’s economic bible, NEEDS 1 & 2, had projected a naira value of over N180/$1 as the appropriate exchange level that will drive economic development!

It was a tragedy of epic proportions to watch the standing ovation by members of the National Assembly in response to Prof. Soludo’s presentation in defence of the deliberate policy to devalue the naira!

One day, one day, their abysmal ignorance or complicity in deceit will be blown wide open, but regrettably, millions of lives would have been depraved by the self interest of a few Nigerians!

SAVE THE NAIRA, SAVE NIGERIANS!

Africa has been dubbed the untouched and virgin continent. This was due to the seeming unscathing of African countries in the global meltdown that characterised the latter part of 2008. African seems to have escaped almost wholly from the economic recession that hit the world and crushed many countries and multinationals in other continents of the world. Iceland is bankrupt, auto makers in the US are bankrupt; Mega Banks in UK, Japan, Switzerland, US, Belgium, Germany and many other countries of the world would have gone under but for aid from their governments. Albeit, many banks have still being crushed in the wake of the recession.

However, Nigeria for one has been touched by the recession. Even though the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria has kept assuring Nigerians that we are beyond the reach of the economic whiplash swinging across the globe, happenings in our own economy are pointers to the fact that his assurances hold no water. Examples are:

1. The crash of the NSE

The Nigerian Stock Exchange fell through about the same time the economic crisis started in the west last year. The Central Bank of Nigeria ordered banks to refrain from giving margin facilities to investors and SEC pegged the condition for the rise in value of a stock to its ability to trade over 100,000 units. Investors immediately lost confidence in the market and the inevitable loss of the All Share Index started. One policy after another was released to the public by SEC, CBN and NSE at different times to help boost the market but it seemed to have tipped. The irrecoverable free fall cost the lives of many as people who had so much exposure with regards loans decided to end their lives as they couldn’t take the pressure anymore. The NSE has since lost more and more value as institutional investors (especially foreign ones) cashed out of the Exchange unable to vouch for the credibility of the market any longer. All those who had planned on creating a path to financial independence through the NSE are having to look elsewhere now as all their investments have at least been cut to about one-third the value a few months ago.

2. The crash of Oil

When the stock exchange started making people cry, and even die, another opportunity opened up in the Oil and Gas industry. Oil seemed to be the next panacea. Oil products were selling for unbelievable margins. The price of crude oil per barrel had hit $150 and was reaching for $200. AGO (Diesel) in particular was the next best thing to be involved with. The commodity is in high demand in Nigeria and completely deregulated by the Federal Government. This made it an all-comers market. People made as much as NGN1billion in single deals on oil products. DPK (Kerosene) and LPFO were not left out. As if the cloud that had hung over the NSE was moving in the Oil and Gas direction, the price of crude oil started to dip in the international market. People started incurring losses and getting heavily indebted to banks who were financing oil deals. The volatility in the market made it even harder to play in and ultimately it also bottomed out with the price of crude oil hitting below $40 per barrel. Banks stopped financing Oil deals. Gist had it that collectively they were exposed to the tune of almost NGN400billion. Bad debt that is.

3. The rise of Real Estate.

Immediately, opportunities moved from Oil & Gas to Real Estate. 3 bedroom flats were going for about $3million in places like Banana Estate. Rental rates increased by as much as 100% in some places. It seemed as if those who lost in categories 1. and 2. wanted to recoup through category 3.

4. The crash of Real Estate

This boom unfortunately like the golden era of real estate and mortgages both in Europe and America which has since crashed, appears to be headed for the precipice and signs abound to that fact. Banks had financed loans with which developers built houses. These houses are still on the market with no buyers in sight because of the low cash flow of buyers due to number 1. and 2. above. Even buyers who had bought had bought with loans from the same or other banks. One way or the other, banks have financed loans from both developers and buyers and neither of these have the cash flow to repay the loans. The banks are therefore foreclosing on the properties and selling at any price possible to regain their monies and developers are making distress sales at ridiculously low prices to offset their loans and keep the banks at bay. One way or another, the property market in Nigeria is headed for a crash and Lagos is leading the downward tumble predict analysts. Brace up for this eventuality and get out of the way if you can.

In our opinion, The CBN postponement by one year for banks to converge their year end may offer a respite both for the banking sector directly and also the capital market as the sector constitutes above 60% of the market capitalization of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
While the banks may heave a sigh of relief, stakeholders, especially Nigeria’s foreign partners and investors may worry about the credibility of CBN or question the decision-making process of the industry regulator, as policy somersaults have been the bane of the country both in the past and in the present times.
It can be hoped that Nigerian banks will put on their thinking caps to utilize this window of time extension to ensure an orderly convergence without doing damage to the banking sector and the economy as a whole.  We also hope that regulatory authorities and managers of the Nigerian project will be more consultative and engaging with industry operators and stakeholders in making major policy decisions that impact on the economy.

InvestIQ

The CBN moved the deadline for the uniformity of year end for banks from December 2008 to December 2009.
Although moving it to December 2009 will have a positive impact on the market in the coming weeks, I don’t think it is right. Majority of the banks that have been selling their equity positions to raise cash, will now bring the funds back into the capital markets to push the stock prices up.
I believe the policy should be implemented this year. This will allow investors to determine which banks are truly fundamentally strong. By moving the deadline, CBN is encouraging the charade. It is the Nigerian investors that are being swindled. I started writing an article about this issue today, but on second thought, I decided to stop.

CSL Research & Strategy

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shifted the deadline for Banks to adopt a uniform accounting year end to December 2009 “in response to “irrational behavior” of some banks in their attempt to mobilize deposits”.
The direct impact of this announcement could at least ease the current strain in liquidity created in a bidding continuum following the banking industry’s battle for deposits. This could unravel a long sought key to unlock institutional funds
The key to market recovery in our view remains a total change in general mindset. We perceived that prevailing sentiment has been largely speculative and short-term, which has consistently denied the market the so desired rally and momentum. We can’t conclude without pointing out that this has, in a way, present opportunities for investors seeking long positions as some equities are currently trading in their oversold bands.

INVESTORS

You can see our regulator’s lack vision. How can I put my children inheritors money in NSE?
Anyway am waiting for January to sell all my shares in Nigeria. In my last phone link interview with the presenter of The Money Show Mr. Boason Omofaye, I explained to him why most investors in the diaspora, like me, are not very happy with our regulators because the make laws everyday and change it everyday too.
CBN knows that most Nigerian banks dress their balance sheet, as they have insinuated to such in the past. How can one then know which bank that is doing well or not. As far as am concern Nigerian Capital Market appears to lack CREDIBILITY. I am sorry. – Emeka

culled from proshareng.com