It seems you don't get it do you? High rises doesn't signify growth or financial whatever. Switzerland and has world's best banking and financial sector, you don't see high rises there like you see in Chicago. You don't seem to understand my analogy quite well. I wasn't arguing architecture either. I was pointing out that high rise buildings are not monuments for financial growth. BBC/CNN shows what they see. Now instead of us to get mad and look for ways to solve our problems we are pointing fingers at the US/UK saying they have slums too blah blah blah.

On the other note who's fault is it that Nigerians don't pay taxes? The thieving leaders know they are not bold enough to ask Nigerians to start paying taxes which they'll use in increasing salary for senators. You want me to pay you money but you didn't tell me how.

You can't get loan when you don't have a job and in Nigeria, there is no way to check for good credit etc, Don't have a job or you make 5k naira a month who you kidding? Ain't no bank gon give you loan for sh!!t. You gon keep consuming. It calls for a back to the root system. Any nation can design a system that works for them provided freedom and other human rights are respected. Capitalism and all these greed driven systems that private investors lobbied for to be legally accepted will not work in Nigeria. That all man for himself mentality is a dark age mentality but many of us think we are educated cause we earned degrees in Ignorance.

paddy_lo:

[b]

Heres the point construction pushes or drives GDP growth. . .in china its 60% in the latest qtr, in spain and ireland its been driving GDP growth for the past decade
In the USA its been a significant driver of GDP since the 1960(residential and commercial real estate construction)
so whether its highrise or lowrise,construction drives growth. . .if u dont know it, well now u know

Now for u to have a healthy construction industry,u have to have a healthy financial services industry. . . .
Switzerland is a poor example cause its a tiny country that doesnt have the population to require much construction boom
but places like spain,UK,Ireland,USA,Brazil,China,Hong-Kong and so on use their banks to channel credit to the construction sector
they help to give cheap mortgages to the ppl, help them own homes,own an asset and it helps to lift them out of poverty. . .
(In america they got something called fannie mae and freddie mac, that is Govt owned and basically subsidizes mortgages for the populace and helps to push home ownership for all americans)

as for your conclusion i concur with u. . .go back to my first post and see that i have mostly outlined my idea of what needs to be done to solve the problem
i wasnt pointing fingers at nobody. . . However those that come here to lambast Nigeria are no better than those that come to Lambast the BBC/CNN
it doesnt help us in any way to move forward[/b]

paddy_lo:

I respectfully disagree with u. . capitalism is what has saved the world and lifted millions out of poverty from brazil to india to china to indonesia. .
u cant honestly tell me Nigeria is an exception to best practices everywhere. . .
I have no desire to live under whatever loony system of govt u dream to cook up. . .

T[b]he fault of Nigerians not paying taxes lies squarely with the past military rulers. . they were mostly incompetent
again i mentioned PENCOM to u, our new contributory pension scheme. . .
this is something most serious nations instituted as far back as the 1970s, but we only just got it in 2005. . . .
However that alone is a positive. .
PENCOM assets have risen to N1 trillion in just 4yrs. . .see link http://www.proshareng.com/news/singlenews.php?id=8331
it is forcast to rise to 4 trillion by 2014, thats $30billion dollars. . .this is a pillar of any modern economy
so a good tax system can be designed and implemented also

As for credit, the first credit bureaus were just licensed in 2006. . .so it will take some time to get records going
and as in anywhere else if u dont have a job u cant access credit. . its not unusual, so we have to start creating more jobs
but dont forget that capitalism is the only path to prosperity
all other forms of running an economy are doomed to failure [/b]

@Paddy_lo


You said what we should be discussing is how to make Nigerians pay more taxes, really? In a country with so many people out of work and without any safety net?

First, let me remind you that people paid their taxes in the old western region, when people could clearly see what the government was doing with their money. Most people paid willingly, though some had to be forced.

The point I'm trying to make is, in those days the goverment invested heavily in agriculture, being the main source of revenue and employment, they provided better seedlings, pesticides and so on. The roads were regularly maintained, there was free education, basic health care delivery. The government was doing it's part and the people responded by paying their taxes because they could actually afford to pay.

Now let's fast forward to 2010, agriculture is comatose, the goverment is unable or unwilling to do much. Manufacturing sector is practically dead beacuse those responsible could not figure it out all these years that constant power and energy is crucial to any dream of developing Nigeria.

Transportation is also neglected, the only reason we need a government is because we them to do for us what we cannot do ourselves. A situation where you have so set up your own little power plant before you can manufacture anything is ridiculous.
The only thing Nigerians have done wrong is not dragging out corrupt politicians and beating them to death.
How many power plants can you build with 4 billion dollars? that is how much Abacha stole all by himself and there are probably 100 more " Abachas" parading themselves as eminent people in Nigeria today.

@bolded civilians has been there for 10 years now name one thing they have done?


That's where we all make mistake!! What makes you think cause it works for Indonesia, it will work for Nigeria? Even the US that people think is the capitalist capital of the world are realizing that leaving things in hands of private sector will run the nation to the ground.  What will you call a system where the rich pay more taxes than the poor and the poor enjoy the taxes more than the rich? I don't think that is a capitalist society. The so called socialism that the world despise so much is what the world has been practicing indirectly except Nigeria and some other countries and we see how well Nigeria and those countries are doing.

"Nigeria can learn from it how to handle our economy once our oil starts to dwindle"


I hope our leaders are as enthusiastic about Nigeria as you are. I once read a book written shortly after Nigeria's independence. The author cited various studies that suggests Nigeria will become one of ten largest economies in the world within thirty years.
  It's 50 years on, Nigeria in not on the list of first 50 and nobody seems to care except say we are at least better than Ghana and stuff like that.

paddy_lo:

Nigeria right now is about the 33 largest economy in the world. . . .
so even u are suffering from an unnecessarilly negative bias. . .
pls see link. . .

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html

9jaganja:

Nigeria is bad simple. The only people enjoying and defending the cesspit are Elitists and Elite wannabes and elite minded idiots who ain't nothin yet. . . .  I'm like how will this put food on the table? Same idiots when they think of Nigeria, they think of business they see the people as customers instead of brothers and sisters in need.  [size=13pt]Many Nigerians I've met, they all talk about going back to Nigeria to do business cause there is money to be made blah blah [/size] and when I raise  the question about the voluntary help Nigeria urgently needs they raise the question of why my grandma is white and how I'm quarter Nigerian (silly jums). One got a face palm on campus!!!

I am not suffering from any bias, Knowing what I know about at least the 20 leading economies in the world, I still can't understand why Nigeria is lagging so far behind.
I find no comfort in comparing Nigeria with some sick countries like Somalia as wont to do.

I think this thread should be name "paddy_lo vs. other posters".

paddy_lo:

32 out of a list of 227 countries is lagging behind?

are u kidding me or do u know what u are saying?. . .

check the link and see the countries ahead of us, they are 31 in number. . .
u will find that we only de-regulated our economy in 2001 whereas these countries have deregulated theirs mostly from the 1980s to 1990s. . .

@paddy_lo, can you explain to me how construction help grow the economy?

Paddy lo seems to have lots of ideas and points he just throw at the wall, whichever one stick is his point.

yEp, I reside in MD and attend UMD college park. I work at Freddie that you were talking about in one of your post. I'm a contractor at Freddie

raintree:

@ paddy-lo
Your quote: "I still have Faith in Nigeria and i know we will be in the top 20 countries in 10yrs."  
So, I see you still have high hope in Yardy's Vision 2020?  You make me laugh in Hindi.  I don't even see a glimmer of hope of achieving this in another 50 years with the way things are moving in Naija with the continuous cycle of self-serving governments and politicians, epileptic power supply and corrupt practices that drive away even the most enthusiastic investors.
May I ask why are you hiding in Philadelphia since you are so patriotic?  Come back to Naija to build your empire and give the arm robbers an opportunity to run for your money and life (ie. natural disaster).  
Statistics are mere numbers which if majority of its people are not enjoying the wealth of the country's economy, then what good does it serve?

@ paddy-lo
Your quote: "I still have Faith in Nigeria and i know we will be in the top 20 countries in 10yrs."  
So, I see you still have high hope in Yardy's Vision 2020?  You make me laugh in Hindi.  I don't even see a glimmer of hope of achieving this in another 50 years with the way things are moving in Naija with the continuous cycle of self-serving governments and politicians, epileptic power supply and corrupt practices that drive away even the most enthusiastic investors.
May I ask why are you hiding in Philadelphia since you are so patriotic?  Come back to Naija to build your empire and give the arm robbers an opportunity to run for your money and life (ie. natural disaster).  
Statistics are mere numbers which if majority of its people are not enjoying the wealth of the country's economy, then what good does it serve?

As for me, I'm not expecting Nigeria to be well developed to the current state of a developed nation. All I need to see is the commitment and improvement of the economy that its moving in the right direction.

paddy_lo:

Well Nigeria's economy was growing at a 7% annum compounded from 2003 - 2008 before the credit crunch hit
even last year at the worst of the worlwide recession it still managed a 4.5% growth rate according to the world bank

whearas Economies like,Ghana, South Africa and most developed Nations shrank
I believe that more rapid growth will resume this yr,

The Banking crises(in Nigeria) is slowly being tackled, we may get some M/A activity before the yr is over
U have the Asset management company coming on stream,which will likely help those bank shares recover a little more

Political risk seems to be receding
and the CBN seems determined to flood the real sector with Funds,
so lets see. . .am not a big fan of the CBN governor, but what can i do,

cheers its 2.00am and am going to bed