Compounding to mastery.
Joined September 2011
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Abubakar retweeted
A lot of times, we, myself included, talk about market-reflective electricity tariffs and emphasise the need for consumers to pay prices that reflect the true cost of generating and supplying electricity.
But let us not pretend that these costs exist in isolation. The cost of generating electricity is also a function of operating inefficiencies, decaying infrastructure, poor maintenance, high inflation, FX instability and other structural problems within the system.
These are costs that are peculiar to Nigeria and, to a large extent, reflect years of poor policy decisions, inadequate investment and government failure.
All of these feed into the cost of generating and supplying electricity, and by extension, the so-called market-reflective tariff.
Yes, consumers should pay prices that reflect the cost of electricity. But when do we begin to have an equally serious conversation about the inefficiencies that keep driving these costs upwards in the first place?
Are we simply going to allow tariffs to keep rising to accommodate every increase in operating costs, regardless of whether those costs are justified or could have been avoided?
At what point do we hold policymakers and operators accountable for the inefficiencies within the system? Can we also emphasise that?
There is something fundamentally wrong with a system where consumers are repeatedly asked to pay more, not necessarily because the service has improved, but because the cost of delivering that service keeps rising due to structural inefficiencies.
And consumers, who have very limited alternatives, are left to bear the consequences.
Abubakar retweeted
A society that treats poverty as evidence of stupidity is a society that has lost its moral compass, lacks self-awareness and quietly legitimises crime and reckless haste.
It teaches people to pursue wealth at any cost, because the shame of being poor has become greater than the shame of acquiring wealth dishonestly.
And when wealth becomes the measure of intelligence, we inevitably begin to mistake privilege for brilliance, restraint for incompetence, and dishonesty for ingenuity.
Abubakar retweeted
Seeing Nigerian bigots this helpless, convulsing and imagining they know better than the Americans who made their electoral choices gives me immense joy. Imagine your idea of freedom being to force another woman to abandon her choice of dress. What a spectacularly brainless twat!
Abubakar retweeted
Ah that’s a very convenient argument. When Muslims conquer a territory, its subsequent religious transformation becomes evidence against Islam. When Christians conquer the same territory, it becomes “regaining control,” and the demographic consequences suddenly cease to matter. You’ve cheekily changed the question from whether conquest contributed to religious transformation to whether you consider the conquest legitimate. Thankfully your approval of an event has no bearing on its historical consequences.
Consider what happened to the Muslims who remained in Spain. Compulsory conversion was imposed in Castile in 1502 and extended to the Crown of Aragon in 1526. Between 1609 and 1614, roughly 300,000 Moriscos were expelled. These are documented historical events. How exactly does the fact that Christianity had spread through preaching in an earlier period invalidate the coercion that followed centuries later? You’re using one historical period to excuse another, while applying precisely the opposite standard to Islam.
And your argument about Spain’s earlier Christian identity creates another problem. Anatolia was home to pagan religious traditions before its widespread Christianisation. If an earlier religious identity determines which subsequent transformations count, why should its Christian period be privileged over its pagan past? More importantly, why are you comfortable treating medieval Anatolia as part of the history of modern Turkey while excluding Muslim Spain from the historical account of Spain? Either historical geography and demographic change matter consistently, or your comparison has no coherent basis.
None of this establishes that Muslim conquests did not happen, but It establishes that conquest, conversion, migration, persecution, and demographic transformation must be examined under the same historical standards, regardless of the religion involved.
Read L. P. Harvey’s Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614 and Brian A. Catlos’s Kingdoms of Faith. Both examine the history your argument CONVENIENTLY skips.
You cannot make conquest the explanatory variable when discussing Islam, then replace it with historical entitlement when discussing Christianity, and still pretend you’re making an objective historical comparison.
Abubakar retweeted
In this piece, I examined the "Opportunity Cost of Corruption in Nigeria" using Frederic Bastiat's assertion which supposes every action taken by any individual or institution to have two varying consequences; an immediate that the eyes can see, and a remote which they eyes can't see — at least not easily. Corruption in Nigeria agrees with the French economist. On one had, it has become an accounting tragedy in which raw numbers are reported for the public to grief. But on another hand, there is a sacrifice made because corruption happened. That sacrifice is what economists view as Opportunity Cost. And the opportunity cost of corruption in Nigeria is a phenomenon that no institute has the framework or methodology that can accurately capture its width, depth and severity of the consequences.
You can read the piece here on The Public Interest thepublicinterest.ng/article…
Abubakar retweeted
"Reforms are working... Don't worry about all these small small things like food and all... It's the price to pay..."
Meanwhile, dey share Prados and approve more loans on top of our mounting debt.
I woke up this morning thinking about how hard things have become.
We're not living anymore. We're just existing.
Things that should be basic, like food, rent, transport, light and school fees, have become luxuries. You work twice as hard just to prove you're trying, and at the end of the month there's still nothing left to show for it.
Drive through any street and you'll see grown men and women begging. Some of them once had jobs, dreams and dignity. I can't blame them. The system that was meant to protect them failed them.
Every day, prices go up. Every day, we're told to be patient, that the reforms will work, that we should wait a few more years.
But how long can a hungry person wait?
As someone who talks about money every day, this one hurts me the most. I tell people to invest from the little they have. But for millions of Nigerians, that little isn't even enough to survive. You can't invest money that has already been eaten by rent and food before it lands.
Go anywhere in the world and you'll find Nigerians working harder than anyone in the room. We are not lazy. We are not unserious. Life here has just become unfair, and the wealth sits in the hands of a few.
Our brightest minds keep leaving. Doctors, engineers, creatives, builders. They didn't leave because they hate home. They left because home stopped making room for them.
And if you choose to stay and do things the right way, the system frustrates you until it breaks something in you.
To those who benefit from this, who loot what was meant for millions and think it will last forever, remember this. Everything in this life is vanity. The pain you've caused doesn't disappear. One day it comes back to the same table you're eating from.
But I refuse to give up completely. Things can still change if we become intentional and stop accepting this as normal.
The 2027 election is coming. Please, vote with your conscience. Don't sell your vote for a bag of rice and ₦5,000. That money finishes in a day. The suffering lasts four years.
Think about your children. Think about the generation coming after us. They deserve a country that doesn't punish them for being born here.
We deserve better. Nigeria deserves better.
Shalom.
Abubakar retweeted
You people want Muslims to vote for Peter Obi but you’re fuming that two Muslims were elected out of the literal hundreds of people who were voted into positions of power. Practically saying that Muslims have every right to reject Obi for not sharing their faith. Dumb ass. 😭
Abubakar retweeted
Let me get this straight: Trump is actively in bed with Saudi and Qatar, but for some reason, a Muslim senator being elected is what’s going to usher in the Islamic revolution? So its perfectly acceptable and not suspicious at all when Muslims are bringing in billions of dollars to the table and gifting the American president a whole private jet, but suddenly an existential threat when a Muslim American citizen is exercising democratic representation in the country he was born and raised in? You want to look me in the eye and tell me that one Muslim senator has more political and economic leverage than Saudi Arabia and Qatar? Are you seriously going to tell me that, on your life?
Abubakar retweeted
you’ll think someone is your friend, next thing you’ll see them writing islamophobic essays 🙂↔️🧍♂️
Abubakar retweeted
This means so much, man. Do you understand the strength of conviction and consistency of identity it takes to be unapologetically Muslim in a country where Islamophobia remains a reality, while contesting for the US Senate?
Granted, Michigan has a significant Muslim population, but Muslims are still a minority there.
There is a lesson here for Muslims. You do not have to dilute your identity, conceal your faith or compromise your convictions to pursue opportunities, excel or work alongside non-Muslims. You can engage the world on its own terms without surrendering who you are or what you believe.
"My name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, and I am so proud and honored to stand here as your Senator-elect from the great state of Michigan. Up until right about now, you might have noticed I always say 'Inshallah' or 'God willing' whenever the outcome of this race was mentioned. But today, tonight, we can turn that 'Inshallah' into a 'Alhamdulillah!'"
Abubakar retweeted
Schrodinger's Christianity.
Nigerian Christians cannot seem to decide whether the US is a Christian country or not. When it bombs the Middle East, it inot acting as a Christian nation. When it legislates LGBTQIA+ rights, it is not a Christian country. When it invades Venezuela, it is not, When it bombs Libya, it is not. When it cripples Cuba, it is not.
But when a Muslim comes into power, the US suddenly becomes a Christian state once again.
Abubakar retweeted
This is why I'm so delighted that @DrMooh_ is contesting to represent his people in the National Assembly. His core is the closest thing we get to an articulate policymaker, ideologically grounded, internationally educated, a certified professional with an accomplished career who shares many realities and aspirations of the dominant age group in Nigeria, and knows exactly what he is doing. Rather than the conventional bullshitters that make us feel jealous when we see Mamdani, El-Sayed, etc. on TV.
Abubakar retweeted
When people don't trust their govt they elect them out — that's always the normal and sensible tradition in every democracy except in Nigeria where civil-hooligans will be empowered to discredit people's experience, promote fallacies and distort their reality. God sees all!
Abubakar retweeted
When Firdauz was denied the call to bar in 2017 because she refused to open her head or remove her Hijab, all the bunch of jokers who stood up against her were disgraced in the end. She remained resolute until the draconian rule was upturned. Today, she is now a lawyer doing well for herself and family. Since then, Muslim sisters have been allowed to not only cover their heads during call to bar, across the country, Muslim sisters now enjoy that liberty as well anytime they appear before courts.
Abubakar retweeted
One interesting thing about this fooling is that it’s only realized when the Muslims are being discriminated against. Just to show solidarity for the oppressors of the Muslims. They do not feel the need to demand for their rights on a normal day because it never existed. And guess what? They can’t sustain it like the Muslims.
Nigerian Law School Hijab Row: Traditional Worshippers Demand Right To Wear Religious Attire If Muslims Are Allowed Hijabs | Sahara Reporters bit.ly/4sHYXHa
Abubakar retweeted
"Growing the economy is an anti-corruption strategy"
Lee Kwan Yew went straight to corruption and public service reforms. Mao, same. In fact, all tiger nations did the same.
It's NOT possible to develop with corruption. You just want to vote a thief.
Abubakar retweeted
I disagree with your submission.
Corruption is one of Nigeria’s biggest problems.
How do you trust an entity with much more when it can’t manage the little it has? Ask taxpayers if they would rather pay taxes to the government or use it to develop their communities and see what would the outcome be.
Every country that has made significant progress in lifting people out of poverty has had to fight corruption seriously- Singapore, China, Taiwan, South Korea and so on. In fact, in some cases, some of these countries had to resort to draconian measures to curb the menace of corruption.
It is transparency, accountability, resources management and development that make people and companies trust you and want to work with you and not a high tax to GDP.
How do you even grow the tax to GDP ratio when taxes go to individual pockets?
Fighting corruption and increasing the government’s revenue base can happen simultaneously.
Corruption is one of Nigeria’s biggest problems!!!
Yup, Whilst corruption is a problem, it is not even top 5 of Nigeria's problems, any leadership in Nigeria that makes corruption a central issue for its campaign or rule will just chase shadows and waste everyone's time. Nigeria's central problem is a revenue problem, the country is just too poor for the kind of life we aspire for.
Our net budget is barely $40B, which is wholly inadequate and unacceptable for a nation of 240 million people. Nigeria needs a leadership that can grow the pie, to have a semblance of stability, we need a GDP of at least $800B, and a Tax:gdp of 15%, that will put government annual revenue from just taxation at at least $100B, we've wasted decades chasing shadows and spending what ought to be our seeds on ineffectual subsidies that only bred corruption.
Abubakar retweeted
The rat keeps entering my kitchen and stealing my fish. I tell my neighbor and he says well the problem is that you are not buying enough fish. If you had a whole lot more fish, you won't even feel it that your fish is being stolen.
Anyone that tells you we don't have a corruption problem but a revenue problem is deliberately playing tricks on you.
Nigeria is ranked 142nd out of 182 in the transparency international corruption perception index.
Nigeria trails behind 33 other African countries on the index including Seychelles, Cabo Verde, Botswana, and Rwanda.
We and Cameroon, Guinea, and Papua New Guinea are mates in corruption.
Don't let them distract you. Corruption is a major reason we are in multi dimensional poverty.
You go vote abi you no go vote?
I disagree with your submission.
Corruption is one of Nigeria’s biggest problems.
How do you trust an entity with much more when it can’t manage the little it has? Ask taxpayers if they would rather pay taxes to the government or use it to develop their communities and see what would the outcome be.
Every country that has made significant progress in lifting people out of poverty has had to fight corruption seriously- Singapore, China, Taiwan, South Korea and so on. In fact, in some cases, some of these countries had to resort to draconian measures to curb the menace of corruption.
It is transparency, accountability, resources management and development that make people and companies trust you and want to work with you and not a high tax to GDP.
How do you even grow the tax to GDP ratio when taxes go to individual pockets?
Fighting corruption and increasing the government’s revenue base can happen simultaneously.
Corruption is one of Nigeria’s biggest problems!!!