₦airaland Forum

caprini1:
Some parts of lagos island have covered drainages and side walks,but traders have turned the side walks to their shop extensions. Its our bad maintenance culture that is really a big issue.

Exactly! Spoken like someone who actually lives in Lagos...

Lagos' situation often vividly brings into sharp focus the inherent folly/frustration of trying to build a modern city and 21st century infrastructure in a country and city where mindset and personal habits of large segments of the population are still seemingly mired in the 18th century (or earlier). Ultimately, to be able to sustain any real development, we have to massively (if not even first) invest in our people. There's no point building public toilets and bus shelters/pedestrian bridges only for folks to wee/defecate right beside the former and turn the latter into trading posts. Or have folks ignore litter bins and simply toss their litter into open drains or on the streets. Just look a how comfortable and seemingly naturally at ease the folks in those pictures are cooking, eating, pissing, sleeping, begging and working right beside open gutters.

Rossikk:
YOU'RE WRONG.

YOU DON'T WAIT FOR ALL YOUR ROADS TO BE TARRED BEFORE YOU COVER YOUR DRAINS AND BUILD SIDEWALKS FOR PEDESTRIANS. I'M STUNNED BY YOUR SUGGESTION.

Virtually all of the 450 or so inner roads built under the Ambode administration have covered drains and sidewalks (see video below)...
Lagos had a road building code (in place since the Fashola administration) which stipulates certain minimum standards/requirement per road type.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQbUMEImxak

dunkem21:
But I thought Ambode is the most performing Governor..

Virtually all of the 450 or so inner roads built by the Ambode administration have covered drains and sidewalks...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQbUMEImxak

lonelydora:
Scrap Senate and see how fast Nigeria will develop

Scrap the entire government and Nigeria will develop even faster...

DUMMY!

Why not slap/confront your father who should know better (not saying that 2 consenting adults did anything wrong here)?!
.

magicminister:
We have a long long way to go I swear.
This is disgusting and the seeing other passengers fail to rally around her and even makes it more sickening.

Inherent sexism and misogyny in Nigeria is just SHOCKING!

And if you dare request basic respect and/or decent treatment, some NLers will brand you a radical feminist (apparently the concept of basic respect is a tad bit radical for many of them). SMH

Satan66:
So many things wrong with our society due to feminism
What right does a woman have to sit at the front?
Throughout my life, My father never allowed my mom sit at the front.
Nonsense

[quote author=bukatyne post=77823051]What happens in your home doesn't have to necessarily spill to the society.

[/quote]Unfortunately he will bring that mindset into the general society...
Can you imagine how the dude will interact with women at work? SMH

PrecisionFx:
It came back up in March 2019, it already folded up like many other businesses he has. It will still fold today as always.

Dangote cement is the only viable business he has and we all know why he succeeded in that aspect.

Sorry to burst ur bubble, Dangote is an overhyped failed businessman, he only thrives in Monopoly.

Again, sorry to disappoint you with FACTS but where's the "monopoly"?

Cement: LaFarge, Heidelberg, Scancem, BUA, Ibeto, etc.
Sugar: Flour Mills of Nigeria (Golden Sugar), BUA Group, etc.
Flour Mills: FMN (Golden Penny), Honeywell, Olam, etc.
Tomato Paste: Erisco, Jos Tomato, smugglers, etc.
Rice: Stallion Group, Olam International, Croscharis, etc.
Petrochemicals/Fertilizer: Indorama, Notore, NNPC, retc.
Refinery: NNPC, Orient, 28 other licensees, etc.
>

PrecisionFx:
OBJ helped him with cement monopoly.

Abegi, get basic FACTS right....
There's NO monopoly in the Nigerian cement industry!

Nigeria has always had the world’s biggest cement companies operating continuously here since before even many of our parents were even born from the 1950/60s until the present day! The likes of LaFarge, Blue Circle, Holcim (since merged into LaFarge with Blue Circle), Scancem, and Heidelberg have always continuously maintained operations in Nigeria, long before Dangote built his first kiln. What Dangote (and the BUA Group) has achieved to get these foreign competitors to up their game and put more investments into their Nigerian operations (thus, for example, LaFarge has modernized its Shagamu and Ewekoro plants), and upgrade the quality of Nigeria-produced cement from 32.5R grade to 42.5 R (while Dangote is the first/only African plant to produce 52.5R graded cement). Meanwhile, Dangote has expanded into several other African countries, where he not only has to compete with these multinational powerhouses but also with national competitors.

PrecisionFx:
It came back up in March 2019, it already folded up like many other businesses he has. It will still fold today as always.

Dangote cement is the only viable business he has and we all know why he succeeded in that aspect.

Sorry to burst ur bubble, Dangote is an overhyped failed businessman, he only thrives in Monopoly.

The richest black person EVER is a "failed businessman"?! May the Good Lord shower such "failure" on the rest of us.

Temporarily suspending the operations of a plant is NOT "folding" the business (otherwise GM, GE, P&G, and many of the world's biggest manufacturers have "folded" many times over). Meanwhile, the tomato industry problem was not restricted to Dangote in Nigeria. Erisco Foods also temporarily shuttered its plants, suspended operations and even threatened to relocate to other countries, and Jos Tomato was also adversely affected. Thus, your argument is akin to calling a student a "failure" because ASUU went on strike and he couldn't complete his course. Businesses can only thrive in a healthy regulatory/economic environment - and sometimes the SMART move is to shutter operations. For example, NO rational person would consider the likes of Michellin and Dunlop as "failures" because they elected to exit Nigeria.

There's respect and there's subservience...
So which exactly are we "teaching them young" by having them virtually kiss another human's shoes?

I love my peeps dearly but this is one of those (increasingly many) times I'm glad that I did NOT grow up in Nigeria...
One of the anchors of Western advancement is a healthy skepticism of authority allied with cultural/social disruption.
.

Corruption? And there was NO Nigerian involved? We're slipping...

I don't see that as a suicide threat...
Rather it seems she's ready to fight anyone to "death" over the rumors.

Meanwhile, serious-minded folks do NOT threaten suicide - they Just Do It!

handsomeclouds:
Will you keep kwayet
Have they repatriated $8.1B it remitted for dividends and complied with the order to pay back taxes of $2b

And you think sane people “comply” with arbitrary orders without seeking judicial recourse? Dude, not everyone is a Next Level Nigerian...

uruba23:
I don't get it when people says Alhaji has a lot of support from government, someone whose industries is second largest employer of labor please who should they have supported.The major component of Flour is wheat ,and even indomie seems to the Flour.We are trying to diversify our economy, today we are self sufficient in cement, rice,sugar...hopefully tommorow we will be in milk,chocolates, petrol and whatever we have competitive advantage over.

Exactly!

Nigeria has moved from reportedly the world’s second-largest importer of cement (reportedly after only the US), with some of our parents regaling us with tales of the Lagos ports clogged and choked with cement-ladened ships (infamously once described by The Economist magazine as the “Great Ship Armada of Lagos”) bleeding millions of dollars just in shipping demurrage charges and billions more in imported products, into not only being self-sufficient in cement but also becoming an exporter of products within the continent, and thus not only saving wasteful foreign currency depletion but earning foreign currency for the nation, creating jobs and livelihoods (and thus wealth) within Nigeria for Nigerians, generating corporate and income tax (from all those jobs) revenue for the treasury (hopefully to be invested in physical and social infrastructure such as education, healthcare and public transportation). So why shouldn’t the government support such local businesses?

PrecisionFx:
His tomato and tomato paste company folded in less than 2 planting seasons .

Sorry to disappoint you buddy...
But it’s back up and running - and even looking to EXPAND (see link below)!

https://www.pulse.ng/bi/strategy/dangotes-tomato-plant-resumes-production-in-a-move-to-cut-paste-imports/hhyy2z2

AbuAmmaar77:
Nigeria is not self sufficient in sugar. what the sugar producers do is to import raw sugar, refine and bag, as against making use of our sugar cane. so, not less than 80% of the sugar we consume is imported.
As for rice, it is a blatant lie (pure propaganda) that we are self sufficient. locally cultivated and processed rice are not readily available to consumers, while we mostly consume foreign brands that are massively smuggled in through the land boarders.

It is quickly becoming less and will ultimately be negligible (if not non-existent)...

A lot of raw sugar is still being imported but large amounts of backward integration is now occurring in the Nigerian sugar industry, with huge sugar plantations (or about to come online) in Adamawa, Kwara, Taraba, Niger, Kebbi, Kogi, Jigawa, etc. In fact, Flour Mills (Golden Penny Sugar) launched a mega plantation in Niger State (Mokwenye) last year and Dangote Sugar is developing an even bigger plantation in Kogi State (in addition to its Savannah Sugar plantation in Numan, Adamawa State), while BUA Group also has a large plantation in Kwara.

Meanwhile, Nigeria is now the BIGGEST rice producer in Africa (and reportedly among the top 15 globally), and thus, even with the unrelenting economic sabotage of smugglers, should achieve virtual self-sufficiency in the near-to-medium term.

debaj10:
sir, go to nairametrics and read about it.
however they came into possession, dangote was the chairman.
it failed under him.
simple.
despite taking over, he's selling in less than 3 years.
whatever excuses u make for his sale, people have lost money due to d confidence they placed in him.
enough of defending wrong.
wen 9ja youths go len?

I do not need to go to Nairametrics (an online gabfest journal) for things that I already have knowledge of...

Dangote Flour Mills is a PUBLICLY-LISTED company on the NSE and thus ALL such transactions are PUBLICLY-AVAILABLE information. The sequence of events here was that Tiger Brands bought 63% of Dangote Flour Mills in 2012 for $200 million (with Dangote retaining a 10% equity holding while the remainder remained publicly floated), and subsequently INCREASED its holding again in 2013 to assume “full” control of the company. Bear in mind that the Dangote Mills acquisition was Tiger Brands THIRD acquisition in Nigeria, following its previous acquisitions of Deli Foods plc and UAC Foods. Thus, this was NOT a company that needed a so-called Nigerian “front” to enter or do business in the Nigerian market.

Furthermore, while it retained Dangote as chairman of the board of directors, this was NOT an executive position and virtually all of its executive management staff was brought in from the South African parent company. In fact, Dangote and three other Nigerian directors (including arguably Nigeria’s pre-eminent capital markets lawyer Asue Ighodalo) resigned from the board of the company (which by then had been rebranded as Tiger Consumer Goods Company Nigeria) when the South African parent company refused to financially support the Nigerian operations in the wake of the recession and currency slump in Nigeria in 2015 (the latter resulting in a sharp spike in the Naira value of the companies foreign currency loans).

Ultimately, as the CEO of the South African parent company virtually ‘confessed’ to its shareholders in 2015/2016, the South African management underestimated the level of COMPETITION in that segment of the Nigerian market, and they were therefore quite relieved to exist when Dangote offered in 2016 to inject N10 billion to re-capitalize the company together with a token payment price of $1 (yes, one dollar) to buy off Tiger Foods’ 65% shareholding. In just under 3 years, the company (obviously since rebranded back to its original name of Dangote Flour Mills plc) has since gotten back to profitability (N22 billion gross profits as per last published annual report on the NSE), and is being purchased by one of the world’s biggest multinational agricultural companies at an APPRECIATED value of $362 million.

Mosedge:
Olam is not an American company. Olam is own by Indians take note. Nigeria wake up.

Olam International is NOT owned by Indians...SMH

It is Singapore-headquartered MULTINATIONAL company that is PUBLICLY-LISTED on the Singapore stock exchange (which means that ANYONE ANYWHERE) can buy its shares. It is also one of the world’s BIGGEST and most prominent agricultural companies, with a presence in EVERY CONTINENT and in over 70 countries across the globe, including ALL of the world’s most advanced economies (such as the US, China, the UK, Germany, etc.). Olam has been in Nigeria for about 30 years, investing across the entire agricultural value chain and space ranging from cashew nuts, sesame seeds, and cocoa to shea nut and rice, poultry and pig hatcheries. It currently has what is reportedly sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest feed mill in Kaduna State, as well as rice farms (uses out-growers as well) and mills, and in agricultural processing has Nigerian operations in dairy products, flour milling (including pasta and noodles), cookies, confectionary, etc. Olam has been in Nigeria before it became “fashionable”.

OGHENAOGIE:
I Don hear...do dis guys look like beggars??

Very few people look like “beggars” until they start begging...

Anyway, we are discussing child marriages in general...
Unless you are going to allow only rich people to get married and prohibit poor folks from doing so.

Gforce2019:
I appreciate your good composition of words and coherency....
But look at those two teenagers , do dey fall within the picture you painted with your words?

I said the “prevalence” of child marriages...
Unless you are only going to let rich people marry but stop poor people.

Cadec007:
ok....

@PS sorry i really didn't mean it that way..

No problem. I have edited that out because I see that sadly some misguided people insulted him as well.

Cadec007:
me too, i was persuaded to agree and i see his point... "a real business man is one who thrives when there is competition not one who thrives only in a monopoly"

But the chickens insulting him don't get the point....... Smh

We got the point and are pointing out to him that there is NO monopoly...

Cement: LaFarge, Heidelberg, Scancem and BUA
Sugar: Flour Mills of Nigeria (Golden Sugar), BUA Group, etc.
Flour Milling: FMN (Golden Penny), Honeywell, Olam, etc.
Tomato Paste: Erisco, Jos Tomato, smugglers, etc.
Rice: Stallion Group, Olam International, Croscharis, etc.
Refinery: NNPC, Orient, 28 other licensees, etc.

Meanwhile, what exactly is "thriving" if turning around a business and selling it for a huge payday is not thriving? Even Warren Buffet sells some of the business that his Berkshire Hathaway controls and no rational being would argue that he is not "thriving" in business.

Cadec007:
no iys not.... A seasoned businessman would have survived the competition

He took a business that was bleeding money in the hands of Tiger Foods, turned it around into profitability and is selling it for $361m...
Not sure how you define "surviving the competition" but competition is NOT an end in itself, but only a means to the greater end - SUCCESS!

PrecisionFx:
Like I always say, Dangote isn't a real business man. All his businesses keep folding every year

Name one!
Because a US$361 million price tag doesn’t sound like “folding”.

emmanuelpopson:
that is the basics bro... the world Is going green.. and fossil fuels are been phased out gradually. but my fears is.. is Nigeria prepared for the aftermath of this era. our gas would still be Useful... I do tel people that Africans are gonna be impoverished if oil money isn't coming again... the time fora Change of approach is now.. dangote or not. the Nigerian youths shd stand up and chart a pathway for this country to sustain itself..

Reasonably certain the world (and Africa, in particular) will still be using hydrocarbons in many forms for most (if not the rest) of our lifetime.

gypsey:
How much tax did he pay to the Government? the crooked Dangote doesn't pay Any taxes to the Nigerian GOVT.

Dangote Flour Mills is a NSE publicly-listed company and thus such info is easily available...
It paid over N7 billion in taxes (on N22.4 billion gross profits) in its last published annual report.

Lovelyn451:
I don't use his product and he's not my role model

Good for you. It’s a free country (relatively)...

NOETHNICITY:
Why should govt build and own refinery?
If I become president today, I will sell off our refineries and even nnpc.

What govt need to do is created the enabling environment required for the private sector to own refineries and many other things

You have my vote then!

debaj10:
that refinery will break him.
d flour mill was owned by a south African company, Target, I think.
they used him as a front and made him chairman.
they removed him and gave his daughter director.
they later dumped it. I'm sure he was gloating when he bought it off them for small change.
…
by 2040 most western nations would have stopped producing fossil fuel engines.
once Iran and US ramp up production, prices will crash.
so year on year, world consumption is dropping.
Nigeria currently has 2-3 oil tankers on d high seas, without any buyers for our crude.
meanwhile, our present (high) consumption is actually based on smuggling and less than 5% required power generation.
imagine Nigeria with adequate, 24/7 power supply!
who will u sell petrol and diesel to?

Not true! Tiger Foods bought the company from Dangote but made a hash of running it...
After a few years of losses, they put it up for sale (it is a NSE LISTED company w/ PUBLIC shareholders) and Dangote bought 65% control.

nadiq1:
And also

And also, the fear of Buhari is the beginning of mucho wisdom� they yaff started selling our properties

Good to see some folks have not lost the ‘innocence’ of believing in fairy tales...

Aiyk2333:
Govt crippled Ibeto's booming cement business only to monopolize Dangote, plus top politicians laundering money, hiding it in his business all these gave rise to his wealth

Abegi, which “booming cement business”?

First, Ibeto is the ONLY Nigerian cement company that IMPORTS (and bags) ALL of its products, while ALL of the other companies currently produce ALL of their cement locally. FYI, government had allowed every Nigerian cement company (including the big foreign multinationals that have been based in Nigeria since the 1950/60s but continued to import and bag most of their products) to import a certain quota of cement until their local manufacturing plants were operational, and while ALL other cement companies (LaFarge, Dangote, BUA, etc) achieved domestic manufacturing capabilities while Ibeto was still importing ALL of its products up until 2017 or 2018 (when it finally signed contracts with Sinoma of China to build its manufacturing plants).

Furthermore, one of Ibeto’s biggest obstacles came, NOT from the federal government, but from his own ethnic ‘kinsmen’ in Ebonyi State who steadfastly refused to allow the Ibeto Group take control of the privatized Nkalagu Cement Company (which was sold to the Ibeto Group at about the same time that Sokoto Cement Co. and Bender Cement were sold to the BUA Group, Calabar Cement Co. was sold to Holcim/Flour Mills, and BCC Gboko was sold to Dangote Cement, with the Benue government under George Akume opposing that sale because they wanted “foreigners” - even though NO foreign company had bid for BCC). It was only until mid-2018 (more than a decade after the privatization sale) that Ibeto finally reached agreement with his own ethnic ‘kinsmen’ to assume control and modernize the Nkalagu plant.
.