midas02: I have pondered about the possibility of the Nigerian Government building a comprehensive and well integrated Rapid Mass Transit System (Metro-System) that is rail based and truly functional in Lagos. I know that what Lagos state is doing now is supposedly called a mass transit system, however, the truth is that it is actually a Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT) and it is limited in its effectiveness (as it is currently being executed) and is grossly inadequate in scope and scale. There is no where in the world where you can find a city or metropolitan area that is the size of Lagos existing without a Metro-System or Rapid Transit System. As a matter of fact, there are very few cities in the world with over 2 million inhabitants that do not have a comprehensive Metro-System. You can go from London to Mexico to Cairo to Bangkok to Shanghai to Moscow to New York to Johannesburg to Rio de Janiero to New Delhi to Sydney to Tunis to Paris to Vancouver to Los Angeles to Berlin to Tokyo - I do not care where you go, the story is the same - all big metropolis are the pride of their respective national governments and they always have an integrated, comprehensive Mass Rapid Transit System (Metro-system).

frosbel: Everyday I wake up about 06.00 precisely, prepare for work and bike to the train station leaving home at 06.45 prompt. At a precise time my train arrives, I board it and off to work I go, always arriving ON TIME and mostly 30 minutes before actual work starts.

On my way back from work, as I wait for my train to arrive, I see the high speed trains whizz past me with incredible speeds of sometimes 120mph, carrying business and first class passengers, company executives and normal commuters and workers like myself. I also see heavy duty transport trains carrying dozens and dozens of containers, cars, building materials etc travelling at not less than 70mph.

As I look I wonder, what about my own country Nigeria ? Why have we not been able to come up with such an efficient rail system, thereby alleviating the serious transportation problems we have today ? With such a system in place, businesses will flourish because goods will always arrive on time, appointments will be met, workers will be more relaxed after an easy journey to the office and most importantly the Roads will be de-cluttered.

proudly9ja: I propose that the government gives a well known road construction company like Julius Berger, the contract of building Nigeria's own motorway. This motorway should be a wide road net work of at least 3 lanes on each carriage way and should run through all the states of the federation with smaller access roads. So the motorway itself is like a ring going round Nigeria but with 'branches' into all the states.

Nigeria is a major oil producer in Africa. It is also the most populous with some 150 million people. With the oil revenue. Nigeria could start some petro-chemical industries. These would in themselves, start other industries. It is strange that Nigeria produces oil, but does not have an oil refinery. Kenya does not produce oil, but has an oil refinery that serves most East and Central African countries. Some of the refined oil is infact, from Nigeria! And with the oil revenue, Nigeria could improve the infrastructure.


If the oil was refined within Nigerian, and was to cater for Nigerians first before the international markets, it would be cheaper. It could then be used to produce and provide cheaper energy and generate electricity. Cheaper energy translates to lower costs. Lower costs translate to a booming economy.

Spyker: I had an argument with my some friends about the above topic which was shown in AIT. In my opinion, i think security should be given urgent and immediate priority. However, my friend argued that Power should be given more priority than security. They said that with constant power, security threat will be minimized. I did not accept this because to me, it is the man who is alive that enjoys constant power supply.

I gave them example of country with constant power yet still has security problems. I also informed them of the Rivers State Gas Turbine that was built by the Odili Administration but its high tension iron poles were vandalized by thieves because of lack of adequate security.  Unfortunately, no body said anything on electoral reforms.

So, Nairalanders, which of these pressing problems do you think the New Executive Council of the Federation should tackle as a matter of urgency: Security of lives and Property, Power Generation or Electoral Reforms.

you have to be corrupt to get ahead anywhere in the world, and im not doubting that, but some seem to think the more corrupt the further ahead you get, which isn't true.

when anyone thinks of rich nigerians we think of Dangote, who made money being productive
the guy who runs Oando Oil, who made money being productive
and the guy who runs Glo, who made money being productive.

there's another billionaire that rivals Dangote but i can't remember the name.

all these military men that steal billions, what's the point?
Everyone knows your rich, if you steal 100 million or 1 billion, ppl know your rich. the difference is you can't be recognized on a global stage or a historic stage for you wealth, all you can do is literally hide it. i mean, you can barely spend it or you'll get caught and that's why these guys are just stashing way currency with no meaning in swiss banks.
in this world the rich are the rich and the poor are the poor, if you have 100 million or 100 billion you will be look at the same, rich. Now if you want to be a step ahead of the rest by being able to say i have billions while that guy has millions, what's the point of stealing money you can't openl y announce.

like, Abacha is porbably richer then Dangote, but for the next 500 years Dangote will be remember as the frist billionaire in nigeria. He'ss be known as Nigeria's Henry Ford while Abacha will be known as a thief. only and illiterate can lack the foresigth to see there's no point in being THAT corrupt, you don't even get celebrated as a rich man because your just a stealin backside nigga

ikengawo: Civilians are civilians and PRIVATE business heads.

we should stop blaming the nigerian government 100% for the lack of jobs.
I suppose they failed to provide the means for businesses to prosper in some states like roads and electricity, but against, in a capitalist economy the government isn't responsible for creating jobs.

it can create various civil service jobs, which it has, but outside of working for the government it's not supposed to create industry. The next nigerian that complains about the government creating jobs should ask himself what jobs has he created for nigerians, because that is his sole responsibility.

It is often said that Nigeria produces the best annual budget in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. This assertion cannot be doubted because the nation is blessed with an intimidating array of top class financial experts in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and ministries in charge of Finance, Planning, and Budget. Ordinarily, this huge advantage should have helped to drive Nigeria up the ladder of developing nations in the world. Nigeria could have by now been counted among the first twenty industrialized nations on earth. These two significant feats would have been achieved even if the federal and state governments had strived to achieve a moderate 60% budget implementation benchmark since 1997. Twelve years are enough time for any oil-rich nation like Nigeria to lay a solid foundation for massive industrialization agenda. This would have no doubt helped to solve the perennial problems associated with high unemployment figures, which has also given impetus to the ravaging force of poverty. High level youth unemployment and poverty are two major causes of increasing crime rate in the country.

Yes another fruitless year has passed in our frustrating journey to nowhere, but we can fan the embers of hope and beat a path to great feats of development and individual well-being through leaning on, and channelling our collective strengths.

It isn’t all the time that networking and discussions produce a eureka moment; but over a few drinks, me and a couple of others thrashed out what we believe is a radical and effective solution to development, personal fulfilment and communal empowerment.
In a short word it is grassroots development. The goals of our proposal are;
•   Self-reliance
•   Community empowerment,
•   Job creation
•   Provision of critical industrial infrastructure and know how
•   Create an environment where inventors and entrepreneurs can be richly rewarded
•   We will also source and donation of inventions to the community for free (mostly from in-house brain power).
        We already have a free invention in transportation, two in agriculture and a couple in energy production.

What will you recommend to GON or the Minister of Mines and power as a way to Nigeria having a durable power supply.

        We already have a free invention in transportation, two in agriculture and a couple in energy production.

Ferrets key to bridging the digital divide between cities and rural areas
Specially trained ferrets are being used to deliver broadband to rural areas following groundbreaking techniques used by an Internet provider.

ust wondering if we on nairaland forum could become change agents for the improvement of our dear nation

1.  Buy made in Nigeria goods, whenever you can afford to.
2.  Try to be part of the solution and not the problem.
3.  Support your country and compatriots.  Don't be a sell-out.
4.  Don't supress your creativity/ideas, you just might be the next Mandela.
5.  Love your neighbour as yourself.  You never know who will help you out.

These are my ideas for a peaceful solution to the Nigerian question. The basic make-up of the country is already known by most of the readers of the political section of this country. So, with the ethnic diversity and close-held feelings of oppression that complicate things in the country, it only make sense that switching to a Confederation system of Government would be more beneficial to the country. This is the basic system that can be implemented with minimal adjustment while avoiding actions that could place the country in civil war,

Hello,

I was having a chat with a colleague and we stumbled on an idea that might put more transparency into the governmental process. We propose that:

1. Each department within the government - police, military, social security, state governments, health department, etc - should maintain a separate debit account (preferrably with the central bank).

2. Towards the end of each year, each government department must prepare a separate budget for the next year and present it to the senate for ratification. Adjustments will be made until the senate is satisfied.

3. At the end of the year, the central bank will collate the departmental budgets, check their account balances, and calculate how much money needs to be collected as tax revenue during the coming year to cover the combined budget for all government departments.

Who Do We Blame? Federal Or State Government?

The slow pace of development in the country who do we blame? Federal or State government i need your Opinion. Thanks

how are the reforms embarked by this administration impacting the lives of common people.what have you benefitted since 1999.

I strongly believe so? What we need is one Godly sincere man; an experienced leader with a servant heart as President and the change we desire in our country will begin. With a man of vision who can see and who has a strong desire to prayerfully lay hold of what he sees, the rot in Nigeria will end.

Irrespective of the sorry state that the African continent is currently in, its storied past and accomplishments deserves to be publicized. Unfortunately, that probably wont be the case, unless we Africans step upto the plate and tell our version of the story. As a saying goes, " Until the lions produce their own historian, the story of the hunt will only glorify the hunter" is more apt in this case. Stories of starving kids, poverty, corruption, famine and all ills that has reduced us to the laughing stock of the world are regular highlights in the western media. While there is this element of truth that bad news is good news for the journalists, by reading some of this articles with no berth whatsoever highlighting the storied past of Africa, many, without prior knowledge of Africa would come to the conclusion that Africa is a perenial loser in the affairs of the world.

The staggering figures behind the rate of poverty and unemployment in Nigeria

5.66milion Nigerian graduates or 5.66% of the total population are roaming about unemployed.
The figure could hit 10 million by the year 2002(which obviously is the case today)
As at January 2000, 18.8% of Nigerians were unemployed according to the statistics released by the Nigerian manpower Board.
That the following holds true for the 8 main metropolitan (Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, PortHacourt, Abuja, Aba, Jos, Maiduguri):

Is The Culture Of Praising Stolen Money Responsible For Nigeria's Predicament?

i think this is the root of all our problems. The outrageous looting has got to stop. Less than 1% own all the wealth; lets discuss.

ichommy: According to Crowley, “Nigeria is a significant country, one of the anchors of Africa, and yet – you see that it is a country that is blessed with considerable resources; and yet it has to import refined petroleum products. It makes no sense.”

“There is no rational basis for that to be occurring, other than you have a number of people in Nigeria who are looking after their own interest and not the broader public interest.”

Ikengawo: We Have The Issues Confused: The Real Trouble With Nigeria

I was discussing with my mother and this subject of autonomy for the tribes came up.
she said she was for it because the hausa/f ulani have robbed nigeria blind, and had been int he presidency for too long.
I told her the Yar adua is the first Hausa/Fulani president, and i think she has the issue confused

1. Presidency- Nigeria has only had 4 presidents. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Olusegun Obasanjo, Yar Adua and if you want to count in Goodluck Jonathan. The rest are military figureheads that imposed themselves of the will of the public claiming to aim for a restoration of democracy. Therefore you cannot out the military heads of state as 'the presidents' because they were in no way shape and form presidents as recognized by any constitution then and now. Besides most of them were christian middle belters. This list tells you something. though. We the people of nigeria are given the right to speak, tribe doesn't matter.

The United States of America has pledged to assist Nigeria and other African countries interested in generating electricity from nuclear sources.

The US Ambassador to Nigeria, Ms. Robin Sanders, who made the pledge on Monday in Abuja at a meeting of the Forum of Nuclear Regulatory Bodies in Africa, said that the US would render the assistance through the International Atomic Energy Agency, working with the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority and Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission.

Sanders said the US was pleased that African countries had come together to create the FNRBA, which would help them exchange ideas and experiences in building their nuclear legislative and regulatory capacities.

She explained that “developing a safe and reliable nuclear power is a major undertaking that requires long-term planning and development and a huge investment for any country.

There is absolutely no reason why the criminal who imported these bombs shouldn't be apprehended.
On the Bill of Lading, the name of the consignee will be boldly written, and if no name is there, the notify party's name i.e the bank that processed the Form M name will be written. The official can start their investigation from the bank that processed the Form M and the risk assessment report RAR.

Finally, the agent responsible for the clearing of course knows the contact person that gave him the Bill of lading and other documents. Its the simplest investigation that can be carried out.

Even if the culprits are at large, at least they can be identified and soon they will be caught.

I dont expect the security agents to waste time on this one at all.