Soludo claims if he is elected , he will turn Anambra into a Dubai. 

Rivers is next Dubai on the Atlantic – Rotimi Amaechi

The Governor who though delivered a long speech and engaged discussions on a very long items and projects was very direct when he spoke on the crisis and the Amnesty that was granted to the Niger Delta Freedom Fighters.

He said that the ten percent of the oil revenues granted directly to each producing communities has brought new hopes to the Niger Delta and cemented the second term aspirations of the President.

He believed that the fighting youths would take advantage of the amnesty, return to school and become responsible members of the society.

Speaking specifically on his development plans for the Rivers State, the Governor declared that a new Port Harcourt city would be built. And that city will be as good if not greater than the city of Dubai.

http://odili.net/news/source/2009/nov/5/300.html

How many Dubais can one have in Nigeria?

All these politicians with sweet mouth - Give me South Africa and i will be happy.

This second one na fake. Soludo own na original one

Mekuslogan has selected Soludo as governor of Anambra state.

When are we coming for the inauguration?

citizenY:

Mekuslogan has selected Soludo as governor of Anambra state.

When are we coming for the inauguration?

But seriously, apart from the shoddy manner he was selected, he remains th best candidate from the PDP side. He only has to slug it out with the two other good candidates namely Nigige and Obi. He should resolve the PDP matter so he can move his campaign to the NEXT level.

^^^ He still doesn't stand a chance in hell to win the election with these two opponents.

Nigeria does not need any dubai at the moment.

TheSeeker:

^^^ He still doesn't stand a chance in hell to win the election with these two opponents.

You seem to be too sure about that. Unfortunately so.

Pharoh:

Nigeria does not need any dubai at the moment.

What do we need? Zululand?

Dubai is Dubai! There can only be one dubai. Just as there can only be one NY, Chicago, London, Lagos etc. We need to design a final solution that suits, not just our climate, but our culture and society. Before we start shooting for the stars, at least get the basics down and RIGHT. Na so a whole governor go dey build replicas of the coloseum, white house, etc in the middle of jungle dey call am development!

Which Dubai?
Iv not eaten nd they're busy telling me they want to transform the city I live in to Dubai.
Bollocks, if U ask me.

puskin:

Which Dubai?
Iv not eaten nd they're busy telling me they want to transform the city I live in to Dubai.
Bollocks, if U ask me.

Please do not transport your hunger here. Some of us have more than enough to eat. Dream big for ones would you?

I think when Nigerian governors and developers say they will turn there city into Dubai, they actually mean that there going to rapidly modernize and start a change in government toward developing basis infrastructure.

Dubai and the U.A.E. was basically a 3rd world country during 1990 and earlier. But because Dubai Started building roads and started developing, it started to catch the eye of international investors and the more Dubai developed, the more the investors came and built. Employing local people and paying money back to the Dubai government, in which they used to build Mega highways, Hospitals, bridges, tunnels, education, etc.

A Nigerian example is Lagos. Lagos started developing in the past 3 years and thus, in the past 3 years, caught the eye of many investors who are building projects such as Eko Atlantic. look at how much dubai changed in 13 years, i wonder how lagos and other nigerian cities are going to look like.

GAR3TH:

I think when Nigerian governors and developers say they will turn there city into Dubai, they actually mean that there going to rapidly modernize and start a change in government toward developing basis infrastructure.

I disagree!! Dubai did not become the dubai of today the way you describe it above. If all the developers did was to provide BASIC infrastructure and modernize in the way you describe, then Dubai would be no different from any other developed city out there.

Developing BASIC is one thing but going MEGA is another. Dubai has been able to go MEGA because of OIL MONEY which funds it all. Does Nigeria, or even Lagos have access to such funds? Can we provide DUBAI considering the population burden we currently have to deal with? Take for instance Anambra state, does that state bring in enough for the government to FOCUS on dealing with anything MEGA at this point but the basics?

Kobojunkie:
Developing BASIC is one thing but going MEGA is another. Dubai has been able to go MEGA because of OIL MONEY which funds it all. Does Nigeria, or even Lagos have access to such funds? Can we provide DUBAI considering the population burden we currently have to deal with? Take for instance Anambra state, does that state bring in enough for the government to FOCUS on dealing with anything MEGA at this point but the basics?

When i talk about Basic I mean stuff like 10-12 lane highways, sorry my lingo is a bit different .  anywayz, Lagos State estimates it would need around $50 billion to finance this model mega city project and as of right know its projected to pass that mark. Lagos is Raising the funds through taxes on businesses and the citizens among others. In addition, the funding from investors. eko atlantic is a private developement that wont cost the state a kobo, nothing. nigeria is an oil rich nation and even with the decline in oil prices lagos and some other state are still gaining revenue. I see the mega cities in lagos, port harcourt, and kaduna becoming true, or at least the best chance of becoming a reality. for anambra, IDK, i know nothing about the state or government so i wont respond to that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUEsAGtRarE

GAR3TH:

When i talk about Basic I mean stuff like 10-12 lane highways, sorry my lingo is a bit different .

10-12 lane highways? What for? These states don’t even have a population problem for them to need such.

GAR3TH:

anywayz, Lagos State estimates it would need around $50 billion to finance this model mega city project and as of right know its projected to pass that mark. Lagos is Raising the funds through taxes on businesses and the citizens among others. In addition, the funding from investors. eko atlantic is a private developement that wont cost the state a kobo, nothing.

Most all of the “development” work happening in Lagos is PRIVATELY FUNDED and is NOT STATE CONTROLLED. So at the end of the day, the state needs to ensure it spends STATE money on providing the BASICS for it’s populace. Dubai was able to spend as much as it did because it had surplus, and does not even have a quarter of our population problem to deal with.

GAR3TH:

nigeria is an oil rich nation and even with the decline in oil prices lagos and some other state are still gaining revenue. I see the mega cities in lagos, port harcourt, and kaduna becoming true, or at least the best chace of becoming a reality. for anambra, IDK, i know nothing about the state or government so i wont respond to that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUEsAGtRarE

The so-called mega cities in Nigeria have ALWAYS had the chance to develop. I mean Lagos actually started developing from way back during Jakande’s time. If you knew Lagos from back when it was the capital of Nigeria, you would admit that it was half way there. We had the basics essentially taken care of and what was needed for the government to work on working but we know what happened.

Most all other towns have to take care of the basics. If you have ever taken a trip to Johannesburg or Capetown, you will see that we don’t necessarily need to build it bigger and outrageous for to get it right. No one goes to these places in search of a MEGA this or LARGEST that. No, people like to go places that are INVITING. We don’t need 10-12 lane highways for our towns to be INVITING. We need to get the basics right and deal with the MAJOR problems rather than trying hard to scale the MOUNTAIN before even taking the first step outside of our holes.

Okay, but you do realize that I was talking about infrastructure and development and not skyscrapers . Anyway, if you didn't know already, according to the U.N. and studies, Africa’s urban population is expected to double by 2030.  What I am saying is that we need to build for the future. Building for the present is what got Nigeria in this mess.  We need to be 2 steps ahead. Im not for building a giant mega city anambra or what every but im talking bout the building up the "big 10", Nigeria’s 10 populous cities. If more people are expected to arrive then why don’t you build before they come?

GAR3TH:

Okay, but you do realize that I was talking about infrastructure and development and not skyscrapers .

Ok. . . . Let’s go with this a bit .

GAR3TH:

Anyway, if you didn't know already, according to the U.N. and studies, Africa’s urban population is expected to double by 2030.  What I am saying is that we need to build for the future. Building for the present is what got Nigeria in this mess.  We need to be 2 steps ahead. Im not for building a giant mega city anambra or what every but im talking bout the building up the "big 10", Nigeria’s 10 populous cities. If more people are expected to arrive then why don’t you build before they come?

If you look back about 20 years ago, you will probably get the same news from the UN. I believe in building for the future but now it all comes down to what one means when one speaks of building for the future. You and I know that Dubai is NOT BUILT to cater to needs of the average or low class people in the world. It is built to accommodate the rich ( indigenes are promised life of the rich but low class people from other parts of the world will not necessarily enjoy the same considering the place is too expensive for the average man).

Here I have to ask what do you mean when you say we do not need to build for the present?

It is possible to build solutions for the present that work in the future. I also know that many of the FUTURE projects are sold to us as MEGA projects (projects somehow designed to put us on the map and not necessarily projects meant to handle future pressure as you describe it).  For instance, Eko Atlantic is not necessarily designed to handle FUTURE rise in population in the state of Lagos, it is more designed to put Lagos on the map.  How many projects do we have working on turning places like Ajegunle into huge housing areas with buildings such as those you find around satellite town or even the famous 1001? Majority of the states have yet to show themselves capable of handle the current weight they are bearing today. Won't it be hard to plan for future explosions when many of our governors have not figured out how to handle what we have now?

Dubai beyond.

[flash=560,340]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY0Uuyf8Xhw&hl=en&fs=1&"[/flash]

Developing BASIC is one thing but going MEGA is another. Dubai has been able to go MEGA because of OIL MONEY which funds it all. Does Nigeria, or even Lagos have access to such funds? Can we provide DUBAI considering the population burden we currently have to deal with? Take for instance Anambra state, does that state bring in enough for the government to FOCUS on dealing with anything MEGA at this point but the basics?

@kobojunkie,
u are uninformed about dubai and as such keep your gutters closed and stop spreading your lies.
dubai is a state in uae of which they are not the capital of the country rather abu dhabi is.
they operate on a central system of govt of which oil funds are used at the capital.
go back to your source of information and find out why the other states in uae are not developed like dubai.
dubai is the commercial center with most of their revenues coming from tourism.
nigerian politicians and other criminal minded politicians in africa and world wide are other major sources of funding that has developed dubai to its present state.
if you are a normal person, u can't reason this way seeing abu dhabi the capital making dubai grow more than other states with the central funds.
if your internet is not virus infected, you will know that everything about dubai is more developed than the others. dubai laws are moderate compare to the other states in the country hence europeans and americans settle with ease and a wide range of freedom.

@topic,
our politicians have nothing to offer. their mentioning dubai makes open to us that dubai will be their depot for all the state lootings. 99% of nigerians politicians have investments in dubai so the idea of telling nigerians how u will make any of our states to be like dubai is crazy. why can't anyone of them tell us that he will make dubai to look at his state as a role model afterall prof iwu told us that americans have a lot to learn from the nigerian electorial system. what a shame?

Realistically, the Dubai dream is achievable if our politicians become selfless.
We can have a Dubai in every state if the political rulers discard their parasitic mentality and adopt entrepreneurship for the benefit of their states.

"There is no passion to be found in playing small - settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living"
- Nelson Mandela

@Chidicris, now I know you are just another rambling idiot with access to a machine. You come in to tell me to shut up yet you proceed to repeat exactly most of what I have posted on Dubai and you somehow think that makes you more intelligent and knowledgable about dubai? Roflmao!!!

Kobojunkie:

Ok. . . . Let’s go with this a bit.

If you look back about 20 years ago, you will probably get the same news from the UN. I believe in building for the future but now it all comes down to what one means when one speaks of building for the future. You and I know that Dubai is NOT BUILT to cater to needs of the average or low class people in the world. It is built to accommodate the rich ( indigenes are promised life of the rich but low class people from other parts of the world will not necessarily enjoy the same considering the place is too expensive for the average man).

Same with New York, L.A., Paris, etc. the rich are the ones that can afford to live there but it’s the poor and middle class that built it,, for money$$$$$. The majority of middle to lower class worker live on the outskirts and suburbs of major cities.

[Quote]Here I have to ask what do you mean when you say we do not need to build for the present? [/quote]

That its better to plan ahead rather than take life as it is. The reason lagos and many other cities, look the way it does today is that many of these governors in the past did not have a well set plan for the dramatic population boom that “plagued” their cities. I saw pictures of how lagos looked in 1970’s, it was next to prefect. Then compare that to pictures from the 80’s and 90’s and today. In the 1970’s The government basically built the roads and bridges based its currant population and not its future. It takes time to build such project, year upon years. thats why lagos couldnt keep up with its population and thats why cities look the way they do. Rather in New York, they are currently building 2 new subway lines. New york subways aren’t really that crowded so why build more? Because there population is expected to “boom”. So they are preparing for the boom by building more subways repairing and build more bridges and highways etc.


[Quote]It is possible to build solutions for the present that work in the future. I also know that many of the FUTURE projects are sold to us as MEGA projects (projects somehow designed to put us on the map and not necessarily projects meant to handle future pressure as you describe it).  For instance, Eko Atlantic is not necessarily designed to handle FUTURE rise in population in the state of Lagos, it is more designed to put Lagos on the map.  How many projects do we have working on turning places like Ajegunle into huge housing areas with buildings such as those you find around satellite town or even the famous 1001? Majority of the states have yet to show themselves capable of handle the current weight they are bearing today. Won't it be hard to plan for future explosions when many of our governors have not figured out how to handle what we have now?[/quote]

I cant speak for every state, but Lagos has many master plans going on that will turn her into a modern mega city that will help all masses. Its not just building skyscrapers at eko atlantic, lagos has other projects that is made for the development of poorer areas. developement as in building sewers, roads,  bridges, schools, etc. masterplans aren’t always about skyscrapers. These masterplans im talking about are ones like Lekki Master Plan, Ikeja Capital City masterplan, Surulere Model City, Yaba Model City, Alimosho Model City Plan, Badagry Master Plan and many more. There not all about build highrises or for building for the rich, those are for modernizing lagos for the future.

GAR3TH:

Same with New York, L.A., Paris, etc. the rich are the ones that can afford to live there but it’s the poor and middle class that built it,, for money$$$$$. The majority of middle to lower class worker live on the outskirts and suburbs of major cities.

I am sorry but the statement above leads me to believe you have probably never been to Net York, let alone lived there. New York was not built for the rich. It is NOT LIKE Dubai and is certainly not just for the rich. Right in the middle of town square, you are bound to find mom and pop stores that are owned by people of middle class or even lower levels. You only need to take a drive to places like queens or the Bronx(which happens to be considered major parts of the city itself) to understand that New York, even though it is world known, is not really for the rich, especially in the way that Dubai turned out.

GAR3TH:

That its better to plan ahead rather than take life as it is. The reason lagos and many other cities, look the way it does today is that many of these governors in the past did not have a well set plan for the dramatic population boom that “plagued” their cities. I saw pictures of how lagos looked in 1970’s, it was next to prefect. Then compare that to pictures from the 80’s and 90’s and today. In the 1970’s The government basically built the roads and bridges based its currant population and not its future. It takes time to build such project, year upon years. thats why lagos couldnt keep up with its population and thats why cities look the way they do. Rather in New York, they are currently building 2 new subway lines. New york subways aren’t really that crowded so why build more? Because there population is expected to “boom”. So they are preparing for the boom by building more subways repairing and build more bridges and highways etc.

Lagos in most of the early 80’s was a model African city. It has many of the basic infrastructure in place for all. Electricity, Clean water supply, Garbage collection system, Transportation, broadcasting etc. I mean that state was wonderful, until Babangida showed up.

GAR3TH:

I cant speak for every state, but Lagos has many master plans going on that will turn her into a modern mega city that will help all masses. Its not just building skyscrapers at eko atlantic, lagos has other projects that is made for the development of poorer areas. developement as in building sewers, roads, bridges, schools, etc. masterplans aren’t always about skyscrapers. These masterplans im talking about are ones like Lekki Master Plan, Ikeja Capital City masterplan, Surulere Model City, Yaba Model City, Alimosho Model City Plan, Badagry Master Plan and many more. There not all about build highrises or for building for the rich, those are for modernizing lagos for the future.

These master plans you speak of, any clue where the ones that are to handle population boom can be accessed? I would really like to see some of them considering most of the plans I have seen have said little about tackling expected population boom, and the likes. I also wonder if it is possible to deal effectively with future population growth without dealing with today's population first.

*signing in*

@kobojunkie,

people like you prevent Nigeria from moving forward, u better return to your village, than rambling here about things you dont know

@ Gar3th, smart thinking!

ezeagu:

Dubai beyond.

[flash=560,340]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY0Uuyf8Xhw&hl=en&fs=1&"[/flash]

these images remind me of babel,

Looking at that Dubai pic 1990-2003, I quite remember Nigeria's vision 2010, now shifted to 2020.

The problem with Nigeria and Nigerians is that there are too many motivational speakers around that make us think anything BIG is good. They have also made us lazy believing that once you think it it will become reality automatically. We fail to work, plan and prepare, always waiting for manna from somewhere.

Whats the rubbish talk about mega city or turning a state to dubai? whatever happened to planning and viewing the problem from a whole rather than in bits and pieces? If you turn Anambra or even Lagos to dubai, what are you setting out to achieve? Will it provide more food on the table or improve standard of living? Will it be able to handle the population explosion that will definitely follow if the dream is realised? What about the crime rate? How will you handle the increase of crime that is bound to happen? These are the questions we should be asking our leaders and not whether it is possible to turn a state to 'dubai' or not. If you have the money, you can turn the dryest, arid desert into dubai if you like. However, you need proper planning to take care of the attendant problems that will arise from such venture.

Il give an example, in the UK and some other developed countries, the government set targets of building a certain number of houses every year to take care of the growing population. In the UK for instance, I think (not exactly sure) the target is a hundred thousand housing units for this year 2009. How many are our governments at both state and federal level targetting per year?
Also in developed countries, they have a target of having a certain number of teachers per every no of students so for instance, 10 students to a teacher. To maintain the target, they must train and pass out a certain number of teaching graduates per year. Do we have such in Nigeria?

I have no problem with the country developing. But we must understand that with every DUBAI or MEGA CITY comes increase in population and thus a stress on existing facilities. Already, there is stress on the facilities we have in Lagos and we have not solved that problem and we are talking about mega city? Isn't that a misplacement of priority?

Why are they aspiring to be like Dubai? why not set common Abuja as a standard, then we can grow from there? Too much talk and no action.

ladi02:

@kobojunkie,

people like you prevent Nigeria from moving forward, u better return to your village, than rambling here about things you dont know

@ Gar3th, smart thinking!

Actually, your mentality is the reason Nigeria as a whole has barely moved a step forward in the past 20 years. You swallow Up these promises offered up too easy, without thinking it is probably BEST that we all start from square one. Do you see homeless people aspiring to live in HIGH RISE buildings FIRST without at least making plans on how to move from where they are to a better place where they can best structure their dream of living in the high rise later on?