₦airaland Forum

texazzpete: You misunderstand my post.
I never claimed there needed to be parity in pay between a graduate assistant in a federal university and the pay for a new employee in a private organization like Zenith Bank. My point was that conditions of service were so bad then that a man who had spent the last 5 years of his life becoming a scholar in Engineering would easily cast his discipline aside for a mundane, repetitive job as a cashier.

You'll also notice that apart from the comment on remuneration, I also talked about decaying infrastructure.

texazzpete: Actually, UNESCO recommends 26% of the budget for education as 'vital for national development'. There's still a lot of scope left in the 74% remaining if judiciously used. This IS a pragmatic way to develop a country.
As far as I know, we're still devoting less than 10% to Education, a far cry from UNESCO's recommendation. You may argue the 'minority of Nigerians' line, but the ripple effect from millions of Nigerians receiving top notch tertiary education in a decade will be felt by a much larger pool of Nigerians.

texazzpete: I feel sorry for prof.femi. He has displayed more tolerance than I would have, but it must feel like casting 'pearls before swine' at the moment. This is a forum where people like you will call lecturers out for being 'unqualified' yet complained bitterly when ASUU went on strike to press for more befitting remuneration for its members. I graduated in 2004. The best graduating student in Engineering in my set finished with a GPA of 4.89. The school offered this Electrical/Electronics Engineering graduate automatic employment. Do you know what the young Engineer did? He turned it down to become a cashier at Zenith Bank. So where are the qualified lecturers to come from when the best and brightest grads see the current system as not being lucrative enough, or are put off by the decaying infrastructure ?

Cockroaches may be considered vermin but one team of scientists has found a way to keep the pests under control - remote control that is.

Michigan-based Backyard Brains created an electric backpack that fits onto a cockroach and makes it turn on command using electric impulses, and the firm has now begun selling DIY kits meaning anyone can use the technology at home.

The Roboroach stimulates the creature's antenna and forces it to turn left and right at the flick of a switch and the backpack links with a smartphone app that is used as the remote control.

Sincere 9gerian: I knew vultures will not allow this pass without making frantic efforts to draw cheap political gains from it. Oya add smuggling of rice to list of the 'sins' of GEJ. Yeye dey smell.

infoscope: You are correct bro. Poor infrastructure is a general problem bedeviling Nigeria, but that doesn't stop us from speaking out against it. I am a student so for me education is my priority, hence this post. Those in the healthcare system should come out same with other sectors of life.

A hatchet has been thrown through the window of a Nigerian family's home in central Belfast in a suspected racist attack.

The attack on a woman and her two children happened in the loyalist Sandy Row area close to the city centre at around 2am on Wednesday morning.

It is the second such assault in the city in just over a month after a house where two Nigerian men lived in east Belfast came under attack.

In the latest incident Adenike Yisa was on the sofa in the living room at the front of her home when a hatchet was smashed through it.

"I was really, really upset," she said. "I have never been in that situation in my life. I only moved into that house about a year ago and never had any trouble.

"When I heard the noise I thought it was a shot, then I saw the axe or hatchet and the big hole in my window. I was screaming at the top of my voice and shaking like a leaf. Luckily my children were in their rooms.

"I didn't see whoever did this, but think it was because of the colour of my skin," the 40-year-old said.

Gunmen have killed 160 people and abducted 10 married women in different villages of Zamfara State in the last three months, according to Governor Abdulazez Yari.

He made the disclosure yesterday in the state capital Gusau while addressing members of the House of Assembly on security situation in the state. A National Mirror report on the meeting quoted Alhaji Yari as lamenting that the situation has caused disaffection between residents of the affected villages and the state government.

“The governor said the hoodlums, who continued to terrorise villages in parts of the state, stole no fewer than 6,000 cows and 4,000 sheep within the period,” the paper reported. “Yari said the state government was handicapped and urged the Federal Government to deploy more security personnel to the state to protect lives and property of the people,” the report added.

The governor was also quoted as saying that the state government had committed a lot of its scarce resources on security issues and called on the Federal Government to stand up to its responsibilities.

The Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Sanusi Rikijin, assured the governor of the Assembly’s support. “We will consult with other state Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly to ensure justice, equity and fair play in the country,” Rikijin said.

bloggernaija: The nigerian army is not underfunded.
It is just like every other institution in nigeria
Corrupt ,incompetently led and not fit for purpose.

The total budget of the Army is N122.4bn, nearly a third of the total defence budget but only N5.77bn is for acquisition of equipment and weaponry, while N116.7bn is for recurrent needs.

Sam xiu lee: my brother there is nothing wrong with foreigners building industries,but its better if one of our own build those industries to prevent capital flights,do you know how much MTN is taking out of the economy?let me brake it down for you.
We sell our crude oil,earn dollars lodge it with Cbn,
Mtn makes profits in naira buys the dollars we lodged at Cbn takes the dollar to a bank in south Africa.
The naira get weak,the rand get stronger,because the dollar is now in a south African bank.
Imagine if mtn nigeria sells at least 60% of its shares to the Nigerian public,that means 60% of their profits will remain in Nigerian banks,thereby making the Naira stronger and the purchasing power of Nigerians higher.
Can we identify why we can't have more indigenous industries in SW?
Please we all know power is a problem,
But if they can have innoson,zinox computers and other indigenous manufacturing companies in the southeast,what the hell is stopping us in the SW?all the billionaires in the SW what are they doing?

The following few weeks continued to surprise me – and to make me feel very embarrassed about my initial preconceptions. I’ve been lucky enough to visit a whole range of places in the Delta State. The TV and radio stations need some work, but the staff are young, enthusiastic and very hard working. Warri, the oil centre, is a thriving hub that is only going to get bigger, with the construction of the largest business park in West Africa.
The sign at our hotel was a bit disconcerting. It asked everyone carrying guns to make sure they weren’t loaded – which was nice.

The University Teaching Hospital in Oghara is as well equipped as any I have been to in the UK or the rest of Europe.

There are state of the art CT and MRI scanners, a world class renal unit and 25 paediatric intensive care beds

uceee: Anybody who knows ASUU will understand that even if all their demands are met they'll find a reason to go on strike next year. ASUU strike is a yearly event, they can't afford to miss.

13 September 2013 | NEW YORK/GENEVA - In 2012, approximately 6.6 million children worldwide – 18 000 children per day – died before reaching their fifth birthday, according to a new report released today by UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank Group and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Population Division. This is roughly half the number of under-fives who died in 1990, when more than 12 million children died.

“This trend is a positive one. Millions of lives have been saved," said Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director. "And we can do still better. Most of these deaths can be prevented, using simple steps that many countries have already put in place – what we need is a greater sense of urgency.”

The leading causes of death among children aged less than five years include pneumonia, prematurity, birth asphyxia, diarrhoea and malaria. Globally, about 45% of under-five deaths are linked to undernutrition.

About half of under-five deaths occur in only five countries: China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. India (22%) and Nigeria (13%) together account for more than one-third of all deaths of children under the age of five.

Kei144: Education sector does not equate to ASUU. As you travel around the country, do you see the kind of houses that constitute our primary and secondary schools? Primary and secondary schools are where almost every Nigerian youth goes through. Universities are for very privileged few,and yet people want to tell me that Nigeria educational system equates to universities. If Nigerians are so much interested in upgrading the educational system, the sections of the system that are used by majority of Nigerians should be given priority attention. Enough of this ASUU and NANS elitism. Somebody needs to speak for Nigerian masses whose only education are obtained in dilapidated primary and secondary school buildings.

Their allowances are so minute compared to the bulk that would go into building class rooms, laboratories, lecture halls, etc. ASUU members wont share 87billion amongst themselves. They are fighting for all Nigerians. They want a better environment for learning so that these ignorant ones can get a proper education.