olusuccess2012: I can see a better Nigeria in no distant time. I don't see any reason why intellectual forum members here should not maximize this opportunity to commend the impeccable stride of the implementation committee on the PRESSID assignment. From day one, the President of the FRN has said that this issue of PRESSID is going to be 100% merit based. By the way, a first class degree holder (who is a Tiv by tribe for instance)may have graduated from OAU or UNIPORT or better still UDUS Sokoto where he or she has competed favourably with Nigerians of all tribes even foreigners. Why MUST it be a matter of FEDERAL character now. Did u get ur FIRST class by FEDERAL CHARACTER? Please, I stand to be corrected.

olusuccess2012: I can see a better Nigeria in no distant time. I don't see any reason why intellectual forum members here should not maximize this opportunity to commend the impeccable stride of the implementation committee on the PRESSID assignment. From day one, the President of the FRN has said that this issue of PRESSID is going to be 100% merit based. By the way, a first class degree holder (who is a Tiv by tribe for instance)may have graduated from OAU or UNIPORT or better still UDUS Sokoto where he or she has competed favourably with Nigerians of all tribes even foreigners. Why MUST it be a matter of FEDERAL character now. Did u get ur FIRST class by FEDERAL CHARACTER? Please, I stand to be corrected.

Elcherino4: @Immortal! Prof. Julius Okojie works unda d Nigerian gov't & has to dance to their tune. Even d GEJ has pple he is loyal to, datz 9ja 4 u.
@zzaccx I also notice dat ova 60% are from one geopolitical zone. This is not workin 2wards Unity. Take 4 exp d Northerners in Nigeria who nw bliv because of their population shud b d ones to rule always. Of the about 38 or so years of dem rulin d north stil has one of d most poverty stricken pple.
@ daulprince, federal character is what is stil kipin Nigeria til 2day, take dat away and Nigeria wil no longer b one.
Nigeria is a diverse country wit many ethnic groups and languages, let us acept dat, both majority n minority languages.
Even in d quota-based system, d best wil stil b selected. If u say purely merit regardles of ur region, den a time wil com wen evrytin wil bcom so one-sided and what next? REVOLUTION wil b d next option. Why do u tink Revolution is evrywhere? Only d rich are getin richer, d poor can easily b influenced and violence wil b an alternative.
If u say purely merit a time wil come only pple 4rm d S/west wil enjoy evrytin, blood is thicker dan water remember! We knw guys 4rm S/west were d first to completely welcome western education. So shud dey use dat as opportunity to be evrywere? Then d Northerners shud also use deir population to rule Nigeria til eternity, d S/south guys shud also monopolise deir oil and d S/east guys shud also monpolise deir business ideas.
NUC/PRESSID committee's integrity should b questioned 4rm d day dey started bendin d criteria 4 selection;
4rm statin clearly dat only graduates of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 are eligible to seeing graduates as far bak as 2006 shortlisted and awarded. Pls guys is dis d integrity U are all talkin about? We are all learned pls no sentiment.
4rm sayin U must hav completed NYSC to sayin if u can provide ur NYSC cert by october 2012
4rm sayin shortlisted candidates shuld com 4 selection test to sayin WAEC results wil b used, for gudness sake some people went 2 public schools were u dont get much coachin most of d work is done by d student. Dont 4get WAEC can be bought dis days.
Check out PTDF after d test selection is based on d test score. WAEC has bin used to shortlist 4 d test y use it again to award d scholarship? Otherwise clearly state dat what u nid are WAEC students with A1 and not first class graduates.
@Giantparrot sori to say don't act lyk ur name. @PhatIon who go say him mama soup no sweet? U hav bin awarded abi?
Let me ask al d awardees on simple question pls b sincere.
Which of u after havin ur PhD wil lyk to go to a troubled state lyk maiduguri and serve?
These are d challenges we are talkin about wen nowhere wil b safe to go.
@olusuccess2012: u r talkin lyk an awardee. U can see a beta Nigeria, sori to say we have bin hearin dat since we were children.
@zzaccx weldone. Eventhough u were awarded u stil knw their is somtin wrong somwhere.
Pls no offence. Just my own point of view.
It wil b a gr8 idea if we can publish somtin on d paper about dis and make tinz rite let us liv sentiment out of dis. Dis is just a forum let us not continue to say what we dont knw much about. Thanks evry1.

Elcherino4: @Immortal! Prof. Julius Okojie works unda d Nigerian gov't & has to dance to their tune. Even d GEJ has pple he is loyal to, datz 9ja 4 u.
@zzaccx I also notice dat ova 60% are from one geopolitical zone. This is not workin 2wards Unity. Take 4 exp d Northerners in Nigeria who nw bliv because of their population shud b d ones to rule always. Of the about 38 or so years of dem rulin d north stil has one of d most poverty stricken pple.
@ daulprince, federal character is what is stil kipin Nigeria til 2day, take dat away and Nigeria wil no longer b one.
Nigeria is a diverse country wit many ethnic groups and languages, let us acept dat, both majority n minority languages.
Even in d quota-based system, d best wil stil b selected. If u say purely merit regardles of ur region, den a time wil com wen evrytin wil bcom so one-sided and what next? REVOLUTION wil b d next option. Why do u tink Revolution is evrywhere? Only d rich are getin richer, d poor can easily b influenced and violence wil b an alternative.
If u say purely merit a time wil come only pple 4rm d S/west wil enjoy evrytin, blood is thicker dan water remember! We knw guys 4rm S/west were d first to completely welcome western education. So shud dey use dat as opportunity to be evrywere? Then d Northerners shud also use deir population to rule Nigeria til eternity, d S/south guys shud also monopolise deir oil and d S/east guys shud also monpolise deir business ideas.
NUC/PRESSID committee's integrity should b questioned 4rm d day dey started bendin d criteria 4 selection;
4rm statin clearly dat only graduates of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 are eligible to seeing graduates as far bak as 2006 shortlisted and awarded. Pls guys is dis d integrity U are all talkin about? We are all learned pls no sentiment.
4rm sayin U must hav completed NYSC to sayin if u can provide ur NYSC cert by october 2012
4rm sayin shortlisted candidates shuld com 4 selection test to sayin WAEC results wil b used, for gudness sake some people went 2 public schools were u dont get much coachin most of d work is done by d student. Dont 4get WAEC can be bought dis days.
Check out PTDF after d test selection is based on d test score. WAEC has bin used to shortlist 4 d test y use it again to award d scholarship? Otherwise clearly state dat what u nid are WAEC students with A1 and not first class graduates.
@Giantparrot sori to say don't act lyk ur name. @PhatIon who go say him mama soup no sweet? U hav bin awarded abi?
Let me ask al d awardees on simple question pls b sincere.
Which of u after havin ur PhD wil lyk to go to a troubled state lyk maiduguri and serve?
These are d challenges we are talkin about wen nowhere wil b safe to go.
@olusuccess2012: u r talkin lyk an awardee. U can see a beta Nigeria, sori to say we have bin hearin dat since we were children.
@zzaccx weldone. Eventhough u were awarded u stil knw their is somtin wrong somwhere.
Pls no offence. Just my own point of view.
It wil b a gr8 idea if we can publish somtin on d paper about dis and make tinz rite let us liv sentiment out of dis. Dis is just a forum let us not continue to say what we dont knw much about. Thanks evry1.

zzaacx: Morning, Thanks for your views GiantParrot, dualprince, PhatIon and olusuccess2012.. First of all let me state this, I was also awarded the scholarship. its not that am jealous or anything. being a Nigerian, it is sad to say we are divided by religion and tribe. this two factors are the main problems we face today.

As i recall 2011, there is no representation of the yoruba people in the top five positions in Nigeria, why was that? are you trying to tell me they cant produce a good person for any of the slots? Nigeria has be built on power sharing since its inception. however at the early stages we had selfless people (who dont care about self wealth eg when ahmadu bello died is account was over drawn by 5 naira so he was in dept, when Maitama sule was removed as minister he had to borrow money from his friends to take his family back to kano from lagos) but now the tables have turned. Our main problem as Nigerians now is that we dont know how to identify selfless people.

Nigeria is not the only country that employs zoning in one form or the other... if every thing was merit based you will get a high concentration of educated people in one area. the aim of the government in this case is to elevate its universities by providing better lecturers. any university you go to the majority of the students are from that geopolitical zone mainly because of various factors such as security, religion, cost etc.

Trust me general knowledge on road signs doesn't mean ur smart.. it just tells me you know ur traffic rules.. its has even be argued that tests are not the through determinates of knowledge.

Dear GaintParrot, how do you measure the impact of other scholarships, the question i have for you is how did you measure the impact? i believe its to early to tell.. its just like me asking you what is the impact have you made to nigeria from being awarded your degree last year or the year before.. only time can tell your impact.

Dear dualprince, the problem is, there is no unity. our problem comes from simply lack of obeying rules and regulations. the federal character aims to ensure equal representation of all sides at all levels of government. dude its not the system that is corrupt its the people. I have a quote for you "if you think education is expensive try ignorance." the French and Russians did it and they paid heavily cause it ignited revolutions, education and wealth should not be concentrated in specific areas. unity can only be gotten if all sides feel equal.

Dear olusuccess2012, all scholarships awarded in nigeria are said to be merit based however other factors take into effect like eg best two students in all states. and trust me if it wasn't for zoning jonathan wont be where he is today. if ur hausa at the end of the day you wont stay in benin, you will move back.

Elcherino4:
If u say purely merit a time wil come only pple 4rm d S/west wil enjoy evrytin, blood is thicker dan water remember! We knw guys 4rm S/west were d first to completely welcome western education. So shud dey use dat as opportunity to be evrywere? Then d Northerners shud also use deir population to rule Nigeria til eternity, d S/south guys shud also monopolise deir oil and d S/east guys shud also monpolise deir business ideas.

GiantParrot:

Dear zzaacx, the PTDF scheme was instituted in 1973 (39 years ago) http://www.ptdf.gov.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40&Itemid=54, and the NITDA was established in 2001 (11 years ago), I graduated 2010 (approx 2 years ago). The point of the facts listed above is to show to you that likening my expected impact to those of NITDA and PTDF is very faulty. And you must consider that I am just one person while these schemes ought to have provided many intelligent people with skills to better some aspects of this country.

On your reservations about the test, I am fairly in support. But from what I remember, the road signs questions were not up to ten and we had 100 questions in all. There were more questions on english language (more of oral english) and quantitative reasoning than there were on road signs. I do not know of any test that can accurately test people's potential for innovation and development, and I believe that there are tests that would pass for better tests than the one we wrote. But I do not believe that this was your initial contention. What I inferred from your earlier post was that quota should have been taken into account in arriving at decisions. That is what I am totally against. In issues regarding development, I am of the opinion that only those who merit positions should be awarded those positions. Who they are should be completely irrelevant and qualities like trust and patriotism should be preached. The procedure for determining merit is what should be debated. The fact that we made ourselves available for the test and that no one launched a formal complaint about the test after we had written it shows that we tacitly agreed to its being used as a selection criterion even though that agreement may have been inadvertent. Someone on this forum once said that merit should not be sacrificed on the altar of the quota system. I believe this statement is justified by reason and by conscience. If our unity is founded on trading merit for the quota system, then we got it wrong from the beginning.

On PTDF and its impact, I have to tell you that even if one may be unable to measure some form of impact, impact can be felt. I would like you to know that I have had experiences and have done a little informal research on the Nigerian petroleum industry as part of my undergraduate engineering internship project. I speak of the petroleum industry because it is the mainstay of our economy and would therefore provide a good perspective for examining this country. With the PTDF, its goals and its 39 years of existence, one would expect that the engineering aspects of the Nigerian petroleum industry would be largely taken care of by Nigerians. But the reality is that the expatriates have always been and are still the key players in the industry in terms of servicing, production and exploration. President Obasanjo instituted the Nigerian content policy which was aimed at having at least 70% of the operations in the industry to be carried by Nigerians by 2010; The act was signed by President Jonathan in 2010. But there is a scarcity of expertise among Nigerians in the core engineering aspects,as a result we still have less than 40%. From my experience, I can say that almost all the sensitive and critical aspects of engineering is done by expatriates. One can only be forced to ask: where are the PTDF beneficiaries? As for NITDA, although it has existed for 11 years, I must tell you that I heard about it for the first time on this forum. I really can't say if it has had any impact. Again on Oil companies, I would like to ask: What is the most incompetent Oil company in Nigeria? Ans: The federal character based NNPC. I stand corrected.

I plead with you to not take the tone of my writing as an affront on your person. I only wrote this way because I am very serious about what I was trying to pass across. On a friendlier note, Congratulations on being awarded the scholarship.

PhatIon: I also want to say few things about a question earlier posted about: if any of the awardee would want to serve the country in Maiduguri. In my honest opinion I think that question is not too fair to Maiduguri as a place, because I believe security or insecurity is not a function of a place or region, and it is not so fair to label a place or region as permanently unsafe. What makes any patriotic Nigerian think that Maiduguri is a place that should be avoided forever? or a place that can't be the safest place in Nigeria in two years from now? I think patriotism (or maybe faith in Nigeria) should make Nigerians hope and wish that everywhere in Nigeria should be crisis-free. If it is about this "you are on your own" mentality, what makes you think it can't be the turn of your state tomorrow. Every human being naturally has the instinct to survive and avoid any perceived danger, if Maiduguri is unsafe, even a Maiduguri indigene may not like to work there while it's unsafe, same with if my own state or city or town is unsafe, I would also not like to work there under that condition, that doesn't mean I don't like my state and same for the Borno state indigene as well and this also applies to a non indigene too to an extent. Maiduguri was once peaceful and I believe it can be peaceful again, let us adopt a mentality of "we are all in this together" and stop tribalizing, politicizing, or regionalizing insecurity and hope that peace returns to all parts of Nigeria. MAIDUGURI CAN BE PEACEFUL AGAIN, WHY CAN'T ANY NIGERIAN WORK THERE THEN? I CAN.

wizzle04:
Mr. PhatIon thanks 4 d observation. Pls dont get it wrong, It stated clearly "a troubled state lyk Maiduguri" any state could be in dat state at any time, It was not specific, it was lykend 2. Pls dont say what u cannot do. Nobody said maiduguri cannot be peaceful again. Can U go 2 a state with similar challenge to serve at ur return? Dat is d question. No hard feelings Man.

GiantParrot:
Less importantly,I do not see how the fact that the southwest were the first to welcome western education means that a time would come when they alone will enjoy everything given that every other region has had access to western education since the seventies. Merit should instead encourage every other region to invest more in education.

GiantParrot: Hello forumites, if one's ultimate goal in postgraduate studies is getting a PhD, is a UK taught masters going to be helpful in actualizing that goal? I've been hearing stories about the importance of relevant research experience in obtaining PhD admissions and that US schools for instance do not consider taught masters degrees when evaluating applications for PhD degrees. Does anyone have any info on this? How about UK schools? do they accept taught masters degrees if one intends to go further for a PhD. Your responses will be very helpful. thanks.

masperano: lol @ pink boi u re so correct me i get 63 i no make d list some of my guyz wey get 62 make am lol! but wetin b ur food no go pass u !congrats to those shortlisted kai i wish say my name show oo! na me like abroad pass o!e don be o

PhatIon:
I contacted the graduate administrator of a UK university recently, and from the response I got, masters is not a prerequisite for PhD admission, what is most important is to find a potential supervisor who is willing to take you on as his/her PhD student, after contacting the supervisor with your CV attached and being able to convince, with overlapping research interest. But evidence of ability to do research in that area of interest (which I think a research masters-MPhil is enough to show or research work experience) can be an added advantage but not a prerequisite. I don't know much about US schools... "I no get GRE"...lol...

Nanaiky: @ phatlon and giantparrot, u guyz shd try imperial college london,most graduate programmes (sciences and engineering) are taught pg, and u do not need to get a course adviser or write IELTS/TOEFL, WAEC ENGLISH A1-C4 is sufficient. for enquiries: mail: admissions.enquiries@imperial.ac.uk (please state your course as offered by the institution). If u intend crossing to the US, MSC does not really count, will be given the same admission as a Bsc for Phd except that you have more experience in academics to backup ur application (still the same no of yrs), apned to a senior colleague...it all depends on u,UK; after masters,apply for phd,..US; apply to the phd prog directly,...ALL D BEST

ijanarado: So so great to see all of us life today. PeralAdams, phatIon, Silence, logbon, nanaiky etc. God bless us all

dualprince:

@ijanarado Were u d lady who gave d speach 2day?

ijanarado: So so great to see all of us life today. PeralAdams, phatIon, Silence, logbon, nanaiky etc. God bless us all

ijanarado: So so great to see all of us life today. PeralAdams, phatIon, Silence, logbon, nanaiky etc. God bless us all

logbon72:



yeah she is. It was nice seeing y'all. I'll share a document with bank sort codes with you guys soon.

dualprince:

@ijanarado Were u d lady who gave d speach 2day?

Nanaiky: Nice meeting u guyz @ last,...ok,nw,frm nairaland to facebook, who has joined the group or liked d page,i couldnt locate anything like pressid or is it yet 2 b formed?....anyone wif any idea