This is a perfect stage to fix the problems of Africa. Most people here are middle to upper class and we have the social and human resources to make a difference. But most of the things on the front page are celebrity, sports, or other things that won't fix Africa's problems. Why don't we put more things on the front page to get African's aware of the problems of the world we can fix them. We have to understand what is going on then find solutions to them. There are many problems that need to be solved about Africa. Can we start using this site to fix them. Not even just talking but ACTIONS??

I think fixing Nigeria's problem will go a long way in fixing Africa's problem. But Nairaland is not even doing that.

igbo2011: Most people here are middle to upper class and we have the social and human resources to make a difference.

Bro, which section of NL are you reading?
Middle to upper class?

LOL.

poster

ok, seun or mukina will make you a mod.

happy now?

Some people are just stup1d sha...

Cyber no fit handle Nigeria like that bros!!!
Poverty and hardship may sound and appear to be abstract but i tell you they are bloody concrete . . . Good topic though

I see many posts that should be on the front page that can be used to fix our problems but we there are only posts about gossip SMH.

I created a site promoting African economics but they didn't front page that post. I gave SOLUTIONS to Africa's problems but NOOOO.

Here are links to the page: www.africanedp.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/African-Economic-Development-Plan/278164788911610

But we rather talk gossip and when we do get together it is for charity instead of real economic investments.

igbo2011: This is a perfect stage to fix the problems of Africa. Most people here are middle to upper class and we have the social and human resources to make a difference. But most of the things on the front page are celebrity, sports, or other things that won't fix Africa's problems. Why don't we put more things on the front page to get African's aware of the problems of the world we can fix them. We have to understand what is going on then find solutions to them. There are many problems that need to be solved about Africa. Can we start using this site to fix them. Not even just talking but ACTIONS??

Yon know I have often thought like this. Most contributors on this forum either live abroard (guilty), have dual nationality (for quick getaway) or live in Naija but belong to the 'servant owning' class and have links to people of influence. Go back over the life of this forum and you will find casual references to connected, prominent and influential people. I can think of at least two people on this forum who claim to have relatives that are current politicians.

Was that the reason why Nairaland was set up?

2CatWoman:

Yon know I have often thought like this. Most contributors on this forum either live abroard (guilty), have dual nationality (for quick getaway) or live in Naija but belong to the 'servant owning' class and have links to people of influence. Go back over the life of this forum and you will find casual references to connected, prominent and influential people. I can think of at least two people on this forum who claim to have relatives that are current politicians.

Good observation. In fact, this is a platform for partisan politics bickering. More of shouting on behalf of the master. This is why I don't take part in Nigerian politics on here. Because if the tables were to be turned the other way, same a..ss licking will continue . Very few people are genuinely concerned to bring about fundamental change.

A site that has been hijacked by the stupidity of the Yorubas and infected by illiteracy of the Igbos, setup to display their uncultured and uncivilized character in entertaining the world. What do you expect from such a platform? It hasn't fixed the problem of it's country and you're mentioning AFRICA
If any change is gonna happen, it begins with you.

Eko Atlantic: A site that has been hijacked by the stupidity of the Yorubas and infected by illiteracy of the Igbos, setup to display their uncultured and uncivilized character in entertaining the world. What do you expect from such a platform? It hasn't fixed the problem of it's country and you're mentioning AFRICA
If any change is gonna happen, it begins with you.

I am trying to change things with my site www.africanedp.com but it is hard.d Most Africans worldwide are mentally enslaved. Slavery, colonization, media and negative history has destroyed the mind of the African. Most Africans believe everything western in superior so this is why we worship Italian clothes, German cars, and French Champagne. We consume but we don't produce. So I am promoting producers in Africa. I am giving people actions they can take. But I can't force people to buy Africa. They either do it or they don't. But if they don't they should stop complaining.

igbo2011:

I am trying to change things with my site www.africanedp.com but it is hard.d Most Africans worldwide are mentally enslaved. Slavery, colonization, media and negative history has destroyed the mind of the African. Most Africans believe everything western in superior so this is why we worship Italian clothes, German cars, and French Champagne. We consume but we don't produce. So I am promoting producers in Africa. I am giving people actions they can take. But I can't force people to buy Africa. They either do it or they don't. But if they don't they should stop complaining.

I'll be there to know wad up.

@Igbo2011.

Nairaland can indeed be used as a veritable tool of information to change things for the better and put our leaders under real pressure if that is what the owners of this website want. I am of the opinion that a "Jerry Springer" persona is preferred for this forum because that is what generates traffic.

A few 'tweaks' could do magic and really deliver results. We could , as even only one example , have a section specifically designed to address how the FG and Governors , respectively, are handling States and federal responsibility with a bent on pictorial evidence since a picture speaks louder than a thousand words. Most Nigerians have camera phones. A little education can show them how to upload pictures to the net.

This section can show what the FG and Governors are doing well and , most importantly, what they are failing at. NL can then formally approach the FG and State Governors over 'areas of deficiencies'. Nairaland could become a saharareporter with a positive influence i.e dreaded to the point leaders have to respond - because formal questions are asked before the entire world as per why things are not being done. It is not about exposing corruption and negatives alone only for everyone to then begin cursing and baying for blood.

Saharareporters is feared for exposing mainly the negatives 'antics' of our leaders. Sowore is now feared by our leaders and I am sure they would love to buy him off Abati-style. Nonetheless, I don't rate Sowore's effort as 100%. I think we must show the good being delivered. That way, we can be fair and supportive of those who got involved to change things instead of constituting ourselves into a mindless 'lynch mob' when we can be much more effective than that through making a deliberate effort to understand and utilise "people power".

The owner of NL, because of the heavy traffic here, could actually influence good governance by creating an awareness in Nigerians of how to use this age of information to make it tough for our leaders to sit around doing nothing. Does he want to do that? I think not.

It is then down to the rest of us to do our Zuckerberg thing with a political 'spice'. I am getting feedback on a workable platform for something like that right now and will be attempting to engage certain Nairalanders in Nigeria, Ghana and other West African Nations soon. Hopefully I can push out something formal in future to support this idea.

Gbawe: @Igbo2011.

Nairaland can indeed be used as a veritable tool of information to change things for the better and put our leaders under real pressure if that is what the owners of this website want. I am of the opinion that a "Jerry Springer" persona is preferred for this forum because that is what generates traffic.

A few 'tweaks' could do magic and really deliver results. We could , as even only one example , have a section specifically designed to address how the FG and Governors , respectively, are handling States and federal responsibility with a bent on pictorial evidence since a picture speaks louder than a thousand words. Most Nigerians have camera phones. A little education can show them how to upload pictures to the net.

This section can show what the FG and Governors are doing well and , most importantly, what they are failing at. NL can then formally approach the FG and State Governors over 'areas of deficiencies'. Nairaland could become a saharareporter with a positive influence i.e dreaded to the point leaders have to respond - because formal questions are asked before the entire world as per why things are not being done. It is not about exposing corruption and negatives alone only for everyone to then begin cursing and baying for blood.

Saharareporters is feared for exposing mainly the negatives 'antics' of our leaders. Sowore is now feared by our leaders and I am sure they would love to buy him off Abati-style. Nonetheless, I don't rate Sowore's effort as 100%. I think we must show the good being delivered. That way, we can be fair and supportive of those who got involved to change things instead of constituting ourselves into a mindless 'lynch mob' when we can be much more effective than that through making a deliberate effort to understand and utilise "people power".

The owner of NL, because of the heavy traffic here, could actually influence good governance by creating an awareness in Nigerians of how to use this age of information to make it tough for our leaders to sit around doing nothing. Does he want to do that? I think not.

It is then down to the rest of us to do our Zuckerberg thing with a political 'spice'. I am getting feedback on a workable platform for something like that right now and will be attempting to engage certain Nairalanders in Nigeria, Ghana and other West African Nations soon. Hopefully I can push out something formal in future to support this idea.

Let me know whatever you do man. I would love to help support the movement. I have a site promoting African economics. I saw that you did business in one of your former posts. Does your company manufacture in Africa? if so I would love to add your company to the site www.africanedp.com

Gbawe: @Igbo2011.

Nairaland can indeed be used as a veritable tool of information to change things for the better and put our leaders under real pressure if that is what the owners of this website want. I am of the opinion that a "Jerry Springer" persona is preferred for this forum because that is what generates traffic.

A few 'tweaks' could do magic and really deliver results. We could , as even only one example , have a section specifically designed to address how the FG and Governors , respectively, are handling States and federal responsibility with a bent on pictorial evidence since a picture speaks louder than a thousand words. Most Nigerians have camera phones. A little education can show them how to upload pictures to the net.

This section can show what the FG and Governors are doing well and , most importantly, what they are failing at. NL can then formally approach the FG and State Governors over 'areas of deficiencies'. Nairaland could become a saharareporter with a positive influence i.e dreaded to the point leaders have to respond - because formal questions are asked before the entire world as per why things are not being done. It is not about exposing corruption and negatives alone only for everyone to then begin cursing and baying for blood.

Saharareporters is feared for exposing mainly the negatives 'antics' of our leaders. Sowore is now feared by our leaders and I am sure they would love to buy him off Abati-style. Nonetheless, I don't rate Sowore's effort as 100%. I think we must show the good being delivered. That way, we can be fair and supportive of those who got involved to change things instead of constituting ourselves into a mindless 'lynch mob' when we can be much more effective than that through making a deliberate effort to understand and utilise "people power".

The owner of NL, because of the heavy traffic here, could actually influence good governance by creating an awareness in Nigerians of how to use this age of information to make it tough for our leaders to sit around doing nothing. Does he want to do that? I think not.

It is then down to the rest of us to do our Zuckerberg thing with a political 'spice'. I am getting feedback on a workable platform for something like that right now and will be attempting to engage certain Nairalanders in Nigeria, Ghana and other West African Nations soon. Hopefully I can push out something formal in future to support this idea.

Great one. We need more of this.

igbo2011:
Let me know whatever you do man. I would love to help support the movement. I have a site promoting African economics. I saw that you did business in one of your former posts. Does your company manufacture in Africa? if so I would love to add your company to the site www.africanedp.com

My brother, I am not involved with manufacturing currently but I plan to be in future. Currently, I am involved specifically with Property development, commercial hospitality, e-trading various African offerings to the West, importation and 'equitable' franchising. I am particularly passionate about 'equitable' francising because I think it can transform Africa. For example, the company below can be brought to Nigeria and Ghana in a purist and non-exploitative form. They have racked up awards for value and specialist efficacy:

http://www.richersounds.com/

With this aspect of things, if we don't get involved as Africans, then others outside our continent will pick up the mantle and they will, because of a lack of committment to Africa, provide franchising without the "equitable" part.

We don't have to re-invent the wheel when we can just trade more equitably by accepting , alongside our zeal for profit, the intrinsic responsibility, as educated men from the poorest continent on Earth, which means we should also be driven by a desire to bring development to Africa. The 'templates' are there already and I sometimes wonder why so many cannot see it. In the end, I can only conclude the education in Africa does not optimally deliver solutions providers. Many search for multiple masters degree and vacuous academic pursuit when, in reality, the main purpose of education is to make you a solutions-provider and trouble-shooter able to better how man does things.

Business-minded Africans, with a moral backbone, that helps them acknowledges inherent responsibility to our continent of origin, simply have to rise up to the challenge. It is too easy to focus on the acquisition of vaste wealth , for its own sake alone but better to think how your business pursuits can develop your nation and continent. Trading and business remains essentially about supplying goods and services, and even 'intangibles' to areas where they can be purchased to derive profit for the suppliers offering those goods and services. When advising many of my diasporan friends looking to 'come home', I simply tell them "what can you bring from the West , goods or services, that Africa needs and what, from Africa, is needed in the West that you can export to gain profit?"

@Igbo2011.


By the way, do you see how many responses this thread has gained? If it is a thread focusing on mindless ethnic baiting or vacuous pontifications about a war several decades in the past, we will be on page 50 now. What does that tell you about NL?

This is why I fully appreciate what you said earlier , reproduced below, about many Africans being "mentally enslaved". To be honest, it is disheartening. Ultimately, one is almost left to conclude that human effort is but a little part of the jigsaw. Perhaps evolution is the most important part. When the likes of lumumba and Nkrumah arrive ahead of their time, they ultimately fail because others , their own "brothers and Sisiters", are simply not evolved enough to appreciate and protect them. I think we can only do our best and leave the rest to God and evolution. You can't force folks to see or appreciate what they have no capacity to discern.

but it is hard.d Most Africans worldwide are mentally enslaved. Slavery, colonization, media and negative history has destroyed the mind of the African.

@OP and Gbawe, may God bless you in your quest to see a better Africa.

I have wondered while Nairaland has not been employed as a platform to at least address some of our problems. The owner is probably interested in making it a gossip website than a platform for sound discussion. If that's what drive the traffic, why would he behave differently? There are just too many items on the front page that are not even gossip worthy not to talk of newsworthy while a thread like this is hidden somewhere. Get a picture of how Obama yawned in Florida and before we say Jack Robinson, it's already on the front page. It's such a sad thing.

I know you are in diaspora. It's difficult for someone who has lived in Nigeria and then get to West not to be genuinely concerned about happenings in Nigeria. Why? You realize our problem is not as great as it seems. There is nothing in the whole of Germany and USA(the two countries I am familiar with) that can not be replicated in Nigeria. Nothing! But our political process is such a bad path that leaders who are not even interested in being president kept emerging in a country where presidency is everything.

I have come to conclusion that except the Left in Nigeria shun ethnicity and come together, set up an alternative platform, capture the presidency and restructure the country to a workable federation, development will continue to elude us. Some of us are erroneously fixated on corruption as the sole problem of Nigeria. That's not true. The structure breeds corruption and until the system is redesigned, corruption will continue to grow and even become part of Nigerian culture.

It would be nice if great minds from diverse ethnic backgrounds can come together on this forum to even influence and shape opinions. We can control the media, influence opinions and shape direction of discussion on this platform. We can even set up group that can participate directly in Nigerian political process. That's the power social media has brought to this generation. Let's use it to make an impact.

bayooooooo: I have wondered while Nairaland has not been employed as a platform to at least address some of our problems. The owner is probably interested in making it a gossip website than a platform for sound discussion. If that's what drive the traffic, why would he behave differently? There are just too many items on the front page that are not even gossip worthy not to talk of newsworthy while a thread like this is hidden somewhere. Get a picture of how Obama yawned in Florida and before we say Jack Robinson, it's already on the front page. It's such a sad thing.

I know you are in diaspora. It's difficult for someone who has lived in Nigeria and then get to West not to be genuinely concerned about happenings in Nigeria. Why? You realize our problem is not as great as it seems. There is nothing in the whole of Germany and USA(the two countries I am familiar with) that can not be replicated in Nigeria. Nothing! But our political process is such a bad path that leaders who are not even interested in being president kept emerging in a country where presidency is everything.

I have come to conclusion that except the Left in Nigeria shun ethnicity and come together, set up an alternative platform, capture the presidency and restructure the country to a workable federation, development will continue to elude us. Some of us are erroneously fixated on corruption as the sole problem of Nigeria. That's not true. The structure breeds corruption and until the system is redesigned, corruption will continue to grow and even become part of Nigerian culture.

It would be nice if great minds from diverse ethnic backgrounds can come together on this forum to even influence and shape opinions. We can control the media, influence opinions and shape direction of discussion on this platform. We can even set up group that can participate directly in Nigerian political process. That's the power social media has brought to this generation. Let's use it to make an impact.

True. In fact, majority of our problems are self-created. Like I said earlier, we do not have to re-invent the wheel. Too many 'templates' exist to the extent we are spoilt for choice as "developing Nations". The main problem is that parochial interest always overcome effort to secure the deliverance of a system that caters for what is best for the majority.

bayooooooo: I have wondered while Nairaland has not been employed as a platform to at least address some of our problems. The owner is probably interested in making it a gossip website than a platform for sound discussion. If that's what drive the traffic, why would he behave differently? There are just too many items on the front page that are not even gossip worthy not to talk of newsworthy while a thread like this is hidden somewhere. Get a picture of how Obama yawned in Florida and before we say Jack Robinson, it's already on the front page. It's such a sad thing.

I know you are in diaspora. It's difficult for someone who has lived in Nigeria and then get to West not to be genuinely concerned about happenings in Nigeria. Why? You realize our problem is not as great as it seems. There is nothing in the whole of Germany and USA(the two countries I am familiar with) that can not be replicated in Nigeria. Nothing! But our political process is such a bad path that leaders who are not even interested in being president kept emerging in a country where presidency is everything.

I have come to conclusion that except the Left in Nigeria shun ethnicity and come together, set up an alternative platform, capture the presidency and restructure the country to a workable federation, development will continue to elude us. Some of us are erroneously fixated on corruption as the sole problem of Nigeria. That's not true. The structure breeds corruption and until the system is redesigned, corruption will continue to grow and even become part of Nigerian culture.

It would be nice if great minds from diverse ethnic backgrounds can come together on this forum to even influence and shape opinions. We can control the media, influence opinions and shape direction of discussion on this platform. We can even set up group that can participate directly in Nigerian political process. That's the power social media has brought to this generation. Let's use it to make an impact.

I used to think it was corruption too. That is a big problem but also inferiority complex and self hatred play a big role in Africa. We complain about the government but we send our kids to school in Europe or America. We buy German cars, Italian clothes, Frnech Champagne, American technology, Chinese Products, Japanese TVs and cars. We go to foreigners for everything instead of looking inward. My parents even did the same thing. I talked to them about it and they agreed with me.

Right now I am in school in America so I am playing a role. I admit it but my parents forced me to go to school here. Next time I am going to an HBCU like Howard or Moorehouse for my Master's and get my MBA from a school in Africa like Lagos business School. Yes even though the HBCU's are in America we have to understand that these schools are African schools too. They are ran by African Americans so that is alright. We need to work on working together as a whole and connecting with the Diaspora. Schools like Howard are bankrupt because there alum go through racism in the workforce and don't pay as much as their white counterparts. Also the black professionals have it hard because when their family member dies they have to pa money whereas when a white person's family member dies they get more money due to wealth. We need to have more of a Pan-African approach in thinking. Working with Jamaicans, Haitians, Afro Brazilians, Afro0Iraqis. We all need to work together to tackle our problems because they are all related in some form.

I started my site www.africnaepd.com to tackle some economic issues. But I can't do everything. We need to have a conscious mindset of all Africans but as Gbawe reinstated before. We are mentally enslaved. Japanese people can take a nuke and return back but 300 years of slavery plus colonization (even longer with the Arab slave trade) has destroyed the African mindset worldwide.

@bayoooo, you made a good point there.

i wonder what type of character owns this site.
i landed into this site trying to get an info on a topic,later registered and hoping to learn, share and discuss constructively with meaningful ideas about my home country called "Nigeria". Alas, it was a spit on mine and the entire Nigerians face, to discover how divided and un(unified) we are.
What amazes me is the blind eye the owner of this site turns to threads, topics raised to tackle this issue. If he thinks it's all about traffic and making his cool cash, then I don't know the difference between him and the evil cabals that govern Nigeria, if all he cares about is money and not the future atrocities it'll bring to the younger generation's mind from baseless and hatred filled post we litter the site with.

The popularity and power this site possesses can't be matched by any african forum, but instead of using it's advantage as the voice of Nigeria or African youths in criticizing their corrupt leaders, it's turns out to be somewhere Nigerian Youths publicizes their hatred, where africans show the bad lucks they wish themselves(I.e. Nigeria, SA, Carmeroon, Ghana). It need to be cautioned.

I wish this thread'll yield positive results, and not end into the pit like those of the past had. Mr owner if you're reading this please do something