Baba Yusuf — Strategist & Policy Advisor breaks down the renewed fuel subsidy debate.
"You don’t flip an aircraft mid-air. Policy shifts need strategy and shock absorbers."
Subsidy removal was done without an impact assessment. Now we’re dealing with the consequences.
#InsideSourcea #ChannelsTV #FuelSubsidy
During my postgraduate days at UNILAG, there was this guy who would always drive to lectures in his 2004 Toyota Corolla. He worked with FAAN.
Whenever exams were approaching, he would always want to borrow my notes and make photocopies because he liked the way I structured it. I had a way of highlighting important points and adding side notes, some of which would later turn out to be likely exam questions.
We had this particular course he had been battling with. At that point, his mindset was simply to write the exam, pass somehow, and probably end up with an E.
So I picked him up. We would have WhatsApp voice calls while going through the course materials together. We did it consistently, and we both ended up with an A.
He would usually tell me that if I ever needed anything, I shouldn't hesitate to let him know and that he would come through for me. Most times, I ignored the offer because I was also doing fine on my own.
About two years after our master's programme, I had a cousin who had graduated for years but was still struggling to secure employment. He had twice gotten a fully funded scholarship in the US and was denied visa twice. He also tried Australia and was denied three times.
He eventually gave Belgium a shot, got admission, and was required to present a blocked account, meaning he needed to show proof of a certain amount of money in a Belgian account. The amount was approaching €13,000.
He had nothing, and his resumption deadline was fast approaching.
He reached out to me. Even though he had never told me about his plans to travel, I decided to do everything I could.
I reached out to two of my friends in the UK, but they couldn't help because they were still trying to establish themselves t ground. I also contacted someone in the US who was on a fully funded scholarship. He told me his monthly stipend wasn't even up to $2,000 and that, after paying rent, he had less than $300 left.
Then something told me to reach out to my old master's classmate from UNILAG.
I narrated the situation to him. He asked me straight up, "How much do you need?"
I told him we needed €14,000 in a Belgian account.
He asked, "Will that be enough?"
The next day, he provided €14,000.
A few weeks later, my cousin's visa was approved. While he was heading to the airport, my same friet also gave him ₦2 million in cash, this time, a gift.
Today, my cousin has emmigrated to the US, happily married to an American woman who is also a scholar like him. They now have two children.
I have also become his go-to person for almost every thing he needs done in Nigeria. When he bought his first home in Maryland, Mende, Lagos, I was the one who went for the inspection, received the funds in my account for a Duplex, and handled the closing deal for him.
There is hardly anything I need today that my cousin wouldn't go the extra mile to do for me.
Life has a funny way of bringing people back into your life.
Sometimes, the person you think you are helping today may become the person who changes your life tomorrow.
Never underestimate the value of being genuinely useful to people.
Be useful. Be kind. Build genuine relationships. You never know when life will bring the same person back to you in a different season.
It is not your fault if you were born into a poor family. You had no say in your parents' marital decisions and finances. However, it is your fault and a shame if you are going into a relationship with your mate or senior brother's mate and putting your father's responsibility on them.
Regardless of your father's finacial reality, you are his responsibility. The pressure you're mounting on your mates, mount it on your old man. You cannot be understanding of your father's struggle or financial limitations, and be brokeshaming your age mates or killing them with pressure to foot your bills. If it is easy, why are you not footing your own bills yourself? Do you actually sit down to think these things through?
You say if he loves you, he would do it. Does your father not love you? Why is he not doing it? You call your dad the best dad but absolve him of irresponsibility. But your peer that you chose to date, which presupposes intention to love and cherish, you're judging him by his ability or inability to foot your bill. How shameless!
You say you don't want to sell your body for sex. But you're entering relationship to do just that. The whole point of a relationship is to love and to cherish, not to put your father's responsibility on your partner. If you want to sell sex, please do it. I'm too liberal to judge. Everyone is trying to survive. But don't enter relationship with the goal of wrecking your mate by mounting pressure you and your parents cannot carry, on him. Talmbout "if he wants to, he will." Don't you want to do it for yourself? Why have you not done it?
Tinubu is mortgaging the future of this nation. Borrowing more than all previous administrations combined over the last 55 years is ridiculous. He now also controls the media, so they don’t put this up for the public to see. In all of this, there is no power supply, taxation and inflation are at their highest, the security budget is way below standard, civil servants’ salaries equal a bag of rice, and our currency is almost going to zero against strong currencies. Meanwhile, Tinubu is busy living large while citizens wallow in agony.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not come to power to make Nigeria work. He came to power to make Nigeria worse. Tinubu is not and was never a stateman. He knows nothing about governance. He is a mere politician who grooms political puppets and thugs he uses to assert his selfish influence. For a Muhammadu Buhari miserable government to be far better than Bola Tinubu's government, Nigeria is a walking corpse.
Every Nigerian must do everything to not only ensure that Bola Tinubu and his associates do not win a re-election in the 2027 presidential election, but to also account for the generational debts they put Nigeria and the huge revenues his government earned. Tinubu and his stooges must refund the moneys into our national treasury and spend the rest of their lives in prisons in Nigeria.
Today, @SpaceX (Nasdaq: SPCX) makes its public market debut with a $75Bn offering (pre-greenshoe) at $135 per share, marking the largest IPO in history.
Congratulations to the SpaceX team. We are honored to serve as joint lead bookrunner and sole stabilization agent.
The first trillionaire in human history
- Elon Musk
- Born in South Africa
- Bullied relentlessly as a kid
- Immigrated to North America
- Arrived with a backpack and a dream
- Built Zip2 with his brother
- Sold it 4 years later for $300 million
- Co-founded PayPal with the profits
- Revolutionised digital payments
- Sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion
- Bet everything on Tesla and SpaceX
- Got mocked for electric cars
- Got laughed at for reusable rockets
- Nearly went bankrupt in 2008
- Kept building anyway
- Turned Tesla into the world’s most valuable automaker
- Made EVs mainstream and transformed the automotive industry
- Made reusable rockets a reality
- Reduced the cost of reaching space by 95%
- Sparked the modern commercial space race
- Built Starlink and connected millions around the world to high-speed internet
- Turned SpaceX into the most valuable private company in history
- Bought Twitter for $44 billion
- The world said he overpaid
- He was called reckless, stupid & crazy
- Advertisers fled, media declared it dead
- Critics called it the worst acquisition in tech history
- Renamed it 𝕏
- Rebuilt the platform anyway
- Turned it into one of the most influential platforms on Earth
- Launched xAI and accelerated the global AI race
- Sent astronauts to space
- Is trying to get humans to mars
- Created millions of jobs
- Generated hundreds of billions in value
- Inspired an entire generation of builders
Before:
- Failed repeatedly
- Worked insane hours
- Slept in factories and offices
- Got bullied, laughed at and mocked
- Constantly told “it’s impossible”
- Kept building anyway
- Made it possible
Today:
- Richest person on Earth
- First trillionaire in human history
- Largest IPO in history $1.77 trillion
Most people quit when the world laughs at them.
Elon Musk built the future instead.
Love him or hate him…
Nobody has changed more industries in a single lifetime.
Payments. Cars. Energy. Space. Social Media. Communications. AI.
History won’t remember the people who said it couldn’t be done.
It will remember the people who did it anyway.
Congratulations Elon.
The first trillionaire. 🚀
@Onsogbu Because the price went up, he wanted the customer to add money. If the price had gone down, would he give the customer the balance he had left? He really needs to answer this question