Captain Gbilo

Healthcare Scientist. Passionate about cancer biology. Professional article reviewing and editing!!!!

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

"Show me a nation's budget, and I will tell you what they value."

The Action Aid International @ActionAid did a report titled "STILL COOKING WITH A FAILED RECIPE: A review of IMF country advice on social spending, public services, debt, tax and gender equality"

Of the eight listed sample nations, Nigeria has the highest external debt, but the lowest health and education spending as a percentage of national revenue.

Nations listed as "in distress," such as Ghana, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, still spend more on health and education than Nigeria does.

Nations like Senegal, Kenya, Zambia, and Malawi that pay a higher share of national revenue toward external debt payments still spend more on the health and education of their citizens than Nigeria does.

In the same report, Nigeria is calculated as spending just 1% of its GDP on social services, in comparison to Brazil 18%, UK 20.7%, Malawi 2.5%, Nepal 4.1%, Uganda 3.7%, and Zambia 1.5%

How do we explain this? What's the excuse now?

Like I keep emphasizing, Nigeria does not have a revenue problem; Nigeria has a spending problem.

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

No ECG
No Aspirin.
No Cath lab in an entire state.

We need to stop speak and start doing

So sorry for your loss

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

It will cost about $2m to evacuate 1,000 Nigerians via chartered flights.

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

You are talking to Nigerians ar if you are making a presentation to Wall Street

If Nigeria has FX reserves of $100b, does that mean Mama Bisi's NEPA bill will fall, or Emeka’s rent will go down by 30%?

Na wah oooh

I am helping you, but you think I am being negative

Soon you will tell nursing mothers about the Gini coefficient

[Abolitionists Rising 🌳🪓 @AbolitionRising]

Don't pressure anyone

[Alex Onyia @winexviv]

I've been thinking about something.

Through the Olympiads, Maths Quizzes, and competitions we run, we come across some exceptionally brilliant children. Not just students who score high once, but young people who consistently demonstrate extraordinary problem-solving ability.

What if companies could identify and invest in these students early?

Not as charity.

As talent investment.

Imagine a company picking a brilliant 14 or 15-year-old student, funding their education, providing mentorship, laptops, internships, exposure, and opportunities throughout secondary school and university.

In return, the student gains a clear pathway into a career, while the company gets early access to exceptional talent. We can all agree that finding exceptional talents is high, and with an early investment a company can access this privilege.

We do this for sports.

We do this for entertainment.

Why don't we do it for intellectual talent?

Some of these children will become future engineers, scientists, founders, researchers, and innovators. The challenge is that many brilliant young people never get the support they need at the stage when it matters most.

Perhaps we need to start thinking about academic talent the same way the world thinks about football talent.

Does this make sense?

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

I don't think Nigerians care whether the subsidy stays or goes. What they care about is affordability

Agege bread was expensive with subsidy, and it's still expensive after subsidy, so what has changed?

The debate is not whether the subsidy should have been removed or not; the debate is what was done with the massive fiscal inflow that accompanied the subsidy removal

At first, many claimed the removed subsidy was not a revenue event; now the talking point is “hold your governors”

Governors did not remove the subsidy; the president did

If the president removed the subsidy and gave the funds to governors to spend at will, without a framework to ensure at the minimum tracking of “government money”, then he has a case to answer as well

I end with this, you folks are talking too much

Nigerians do not care about subsidy economics; Nigerians want the basics

1. Security
2. Clean drinking water
3. Cheap food
4. Affordable rent
5. Quality schools and healthcare

Stop talking.

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

Overstayed

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

China eradicated extreme poverty

It's literally gone

Huge population, yet China went from famines to eradicating extreme poverty, the largest such accomplishment in numerical terms in the history of the world

Global extreme poverty has plummeted from 43% in 1990 to 10% today, lifting over a billion people out of poverty.

In all large population clusters on Earth, each cluster has reduced extreme poverty. India, Bangladesh, Mexico, Ethiopia, etc

Except Nigeria

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

Happy Fathers Day

[ZUBY: @ZubyMusic]

The podcast I recorded with my dad is now available in full on X!

We discussed family history, making marriage work, how to raise good children, living through the Nigerian civil war, the importance of faith, and more.

Lots of wisdom shared. I hope you enjoy it.

Timestamps:
(00:00) Trailer
(01:33) Introduction
(02:57) Early life in Nigeria
(16:33) Becoming a doctor
(29:33) Meeting Zuby's mother
(43:33) Moving to Saudi Arabia
(59:33) Faith and providence
(01:18:55) Why modern marriages fail
(01:25:46) Raising five children
(01:28:42) Disciplining children
(01:34:38) Fatherhood
(01:36:51) The Saudi compound incident
(01:44:53) Hidden blessings in setbacks
(01:46:35) Miraculous escape stories
(01:50:27) Coincidence or God's hand?
(01:52:46) Closing reflections

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

Nothing is affordable in Nigeria

(except votes)

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

The AMEX black card

1. Invitation only, you can't apply for one

2. $10,000 initiation fee and a $5,000 annual fee

3. No limit. You could buy a private jet with it

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

We are in stage 2

Stage 3 is Idu Amin

[ZUBY: @ZubyMusic]

If you treat people with respect and stay away from people who don't, you can avoid 95% of destructive human behaviour.

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

Food inflation is still double-digit sir

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

Wealth tax is enacted with the assumption that capital is immobile.

The reality is that capital is mobile.

What you tax, you do not see.

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

Or sawdust stove

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

Vice Chancellor? No
Chief Medical Director? No
Super Eagles Coach? No
Chief of General Staff? No

Ok, Pastor? No

The judiciary could have put this in their budget and demanded it, just as the National Assembly does; that's why the concept of first unencumbered charge on the budget exists

He who funds you owns you.

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

I am not against subsidies; I am against importing subsidised consumption.

You can't have cheap PMS and diesel without subsidies, but you can't subsidise refineries abroad.

A local subsidy is a local investment in consumption; it's a reallocation that should either drive growth or prevent loss.

Hope this helps.