The All 'New' Naira

And the main news today, out of naija is about the all New "revalued" Naira coming your way. From August 1st 2008 , two zeroes will be knocked off N100 (N1), N200 (N2),N500 (N5) (i'm sure you get the idea)

When Soludo (the CBN governor) was asked what will happen to some body, for example, who has kept N1000 and wants to exchange it. He explained, “If you have $1000, it’s the same thing, you get the value for the $1000. There is no devaluation, there is no loss of value, it is just like instead of N100, you carry N1. That N1 in comparison with the dollar, it’s the same value. Before, you pay N126 for a dollar, now you have N1.26 for one dollar. So it’s fantastic.”

To the man on the street, who has N1000 in his account, he said, “if you have N100, 000, it would become N1000, but the key thing about valuation is that it is in relation to other currencies. If you relate to the dollar, N125, 000 in your account before would give you $1000 but now N125, 000 in your account, would now become N1, 250. If you want to buy dollars, it would give you the same $1000.
As a Nigerian, psychologically it is good for us; that our Naira is N1.25 to a dollar, unlike N125 to a dollar. It’s a feel good factor.
The Naira Big bang

I don't know, it all sounds like some strange IMF experiment to test someone's thesis on the chaos theory.
I'm not knocking naija here but this is the same country where we had "slight" problems organising a simple election.
In a country where 70% of the population is barely literate, how are people expected to understand that N1000 will now be N10. How will iya sikira understand that the 'ogi' she sold for N200 the day before is now N2 or how will baba Morufu, the meat seller understand that the 'bokoto' he is selling for N2000 is now N20?

On a funnier note whats going to happen to the naija version of who wants to be a millionaire considering 10 million naira will soon become 100,000 naira...

random musings II

really sorry for the long break, some 'disgruntled elements' had been using jazz to stop me from blogging : - )

(blogger seems to have gone crazy on me, can't seem to get the text to display properly)

Another reason i've been offline is because i've used up all my energy trying to catch up with Ijebuman jr, he took his first steps a few weeks ago and now he is running around the house thinking he is Linford Christie. [just in case you regulars have forgotten, he was a year old 2 weeks ago : - )]

The BNP is going to love this:

Foreigners commit 20 per cent of crime in London, say police

The highest number of offences were carried out by Poles, charged with 2,310 crimes between the start of January and the end of June.

Jamaicans, Irish nationals, Somalians and Romanians - accused of more than 1,000 crimes - had the next worst levels of offending.

[snip]

The worst fraud total was recorded by Nigerians, with 275 crimes

who says Nigeria hasn't got talent LOL.

Seriously, although i know its bad we're on the list but at least we're not in the top 3, considering the bad press we get you'll think naijas commit most of the crime in this town.

(just in case you didn't notice it in the story 80% of crimes is still committed by brits)

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Celebrating What?
Yar'Adua to mark first 100 days in office

According to Mr. John Ogar Odey (Minister of Information and Communications) a committee has been put in place to work out modalities for the celebration.

Really..

What exactly has Yardy done in the last 100 days, he only just appointed his ministers last month. Apart from reversing a few of his predecessors policies he hasn't exactly done anything, i suggest he waits a year before "celebrating" anything.

As far as i'm concerned the jury is still out on Yardy, his made a few good moves but i still have my doubts about him. Back in '99 when Obj too was reversing decisions made by the previous military government, na so people dey hail am, 8 years later we all know better.