Apropos of nothing, (other than my blog at least every month streak :D) I have decided to put of a few quick hits about what I've been thinking about today. Some of these don't really merit a full post but some of them will (well may) be developed further.

Subsidy Wahala Part 100: So subsidy is technically illegal in its current form. NNPC deducts the subsidy as a first charge on the federation account. This implies that the states pay part of the subsidy. However technically this is illegal because it amounts to unappropriated spending. As a result, the state governments are refusing to sign off on September allocations, so there is no money being shared. However this reminds me of the tanker driver's strike. The tanker drivers always blink first cos they have more to lose. Most States have no Internally Generated Revenue to speak of, so i don't think they'll be able to stand off much longer.

Bayelsa Brouhaha: So Ben Bruce was apparently disqualified from running for the Governor of Bayelsa State because he has dual citizenship. The luminaries of the PDP committee are basing this on Section 182 of the constitution. However Section 182 is subject to Section 28, which makes it clear that the dual citizenship malarkey is pretty much only for non-ethnic or naturalized Nigerians. This is interpretation and not settled law as such, but most people seem to agree with the common readings. Still Mr. Bruce should go to court if only so we can get a reading on this after all.

PPP Palaver: So Ijeoma has a wicked article in This Day today about the PPP scheme for MMA2 the domestic airport built by Bi-Courtney. The article highlights the problem with PPP in Nigeria. Nobody trusts the government to honor its side of the agreement. There is practically no transaction that has been completed in the last few years that the government has not tried to renege on the agreement terms. So you have to be ridiculously politically connected to ensure that your transaction stays intact or your economics have to work if the government changes its mind in a few years.

Local Government Liberation:  A lot has been made about the RMFAC and NASS decision to provide the local government with direct access to the federation account. Currently the State Government receives the funds on behalf of the LGs and then distributes it onward. The belief is that giving the LGs the funds directly will make them more independent. However with the ability of the State Governments to dissolve the local governments any how, and the lack of immunity of the Local Government Chairman, I seriously doubt that there will be any effective independence until our polity moves past jobs for the boys politics. However if there was no jobs for the boys politics, you won't need this law anyway.

I actually had fun doing this, it flowed off my fingers like it was 2007. Who knows may be this is the start of a new beautiful friendship. Laters.