₦airaland Forum

4) Bobby Ologun - Nigerian born mixed martial artists in Japan
5) Anthony & Chidi Njokuani = mixed martial artist brothers
6) Abdul-Fattah Abu-Abdullah Taiye Ejire Adelabu = Islamic scholar
7) Temilola (Lola) Fatoyinbo-Agueh, NASA Goddard scientist
DAGRIN - RIP
9) Adekunle Adeyeye = renowned Nigerian professor, National University of Singapore
10) Michael Olowokandi = retired NBA player

1) Dare Obasanjo - son of Baba Obas,
2) TD Jakes - Igbo descendant
3) Femi Oke: a British television presenter and journalist, born to British and Nigerian parents.

the only thing that GTB has to offer are the big breasts their Customer Care carry around. The big breasts of GTB staff are competing with those of Zenith Bank staffs

UBA has taken on the former Standard - Standing Trust Bank.

Oceanic, they are useless.

Diamond, their NETWORK is always down.

You need patience whenever you go to any Nigerian bank.

@poster (osisi)

you were engaged in August, I would rather ask: what are you waiting for till December.

As far as Im concerned, from the little I read in my Bible, after a man gets parental-consent and blessings from the parents of the Lady, and pays the dowry, they are married. God blesses such unions and does not wait for the blessing of a wedding official.

The Church wedding is good and fine, but is more of a public announcement, that 'we are husband and wife'. It is not necessary, if the couple do not have the financial means.

I believe both the man and woman should have sat down to discuss and make sure that the time-frame is not too long between the engagement and the marriage. If the time frame is long and such begin to have sex, yes the lady might end up preggy on the wedding day, however in the eyes of the guests at the church wedding, they might think the wedding is a coverup to the pregnancy, and many other people might get a false impression.

No, its not fornication, after parental consent and dowry payment.

@ishmael,

O boy, are you angry at people that call themselves engineers or what exactly is your problem?

ishmael:
@oyb

Please read all my previous posts and tell me where i ever said it is the work of engineers to carry out constuction work or repairs and fixing. I have been emphasizing that Engineers design and develop new things while Technicians fix and repair. The problem we have in Nigeria you and other Engineers have not designed anything for Nigeria. Most of you do fixing and repairs which is the duty of Technicians.

Yes, theoretically, an engineer is one that designs, but you dont have to design something entirely new to be an engineer. You dont have  to go and do the extra-ordinary to call yourself an engineer. 'The right Application' of existing knowledge is part of engineering design, so whether or not one applies/builds upon existing research/knowledge and comes out with something better than before, yes, such is an engineer. Look around in the environment and tell me that you cannot see anything done by engineers. Even if you are holed up in your village, the fact that a telecom mast was not there before and its there now means that somebody did something new. Yes, Nigerians might not have designed and locally built the telecom equipments, but yes they installed it, they are maintaining it, they are upgrading it one way or the other, so yes, they are engineers.

If your calling yourself a TECHNICIAN is because you dont have necessary engineering education, fine, no problem. But you cannot argue that someone who has completed 5-years of an engineering course cannot be called an engineer. Even if such was the last in his whole class. He still owns the title.

What we should rather focus on is not the name, its on the EFFICIENCY LEVEL. Yes, Nigerian engineers might not be very competent because many of them are not CURRENT as per Technology-level, but what I have observed over time is this: if you give a Nigerian an opportunity, he/she will excel more than your expectations. The reason why the general air that Nigerian engineers are not competent is because they have not been exposed. If you find exposed Nigerians, you will be surprised at how far they have gone, and the untapped potentials that still lie within.

I agree with OYB:

1) nigerians do not value brain work.
2) nigerians love to cut corners.
3) impositions
4) too many quacks in the industry
5) remuneration

Expatriates and our Leaders:
As for expatriates, I blame our leaders.

99%(based on very reliable information) of foreigners who call themselves expatriates and come to Nigeria never had a formal education. They summarily went to primary school. 99% of them dont have a University degree. I say these as a matter of fact.  Sometime ago, I was privy to some immigration documents of some of the local-big shots and I was like, wwwwooooowwwww.

I dont blame them, see, these are people who have been fending for themselves and working as technical hands, apprentices, etc since the ages of 16-18. They basically learnt all they know by watching-experience. By that age, you and I were still battling with heaven and hell, trying to JAMB our way into one university or the other. By the age of 26, they have gathered about 8-10 years experience as a technician doing various things. Those that are a little wise among themselves quickly brush things up on the Information Technology level, with one diploma or the other. By 28, the become expatriates and are ready to be deployed to Africa. When they get here, they have so much experience, and many things to talk about ex: about their previous jobs, that we are soon swept off our feet, believing that they are technical-magicians. They really dont know much. The truth is the knowledge they have gathered are mostly by 'watching', 'trial and error', etc.

I would give it to them that they are sharp minded and fast learners, but as per having the 'koko', nope, I cant.

Its not all of them that are technically skilled though. You dont expect a company run by absolute foreigners to put a Nigerian at its top realm. One way or the other, they would want to have control of their business, they would want to maintain the 'we are more superior' level, even if they dont know anything. Can you imagine someone who says he has a CCNA and yet he cannot install Windows XP, and yet he is an expatriate in Nigeria, has a driver and a house-maid? How many Cisco guys are walking the streets in Lagos state. How many Windows XP gurus are there in Computer village, who have nothing to do but sell CDs?

The thing is that they, expatriates actually dont understand "why it works like it is presently working", but they understand "what can I do to make it work", and "what can I do if it is not working". If something is working, you wont start asking if its working as it should be working, or its just working. In reality, they are technicians. They cannot actually explain the basics of 1,2,3 about what they are doing. They just do whatever they need to do and make it work. By then, we begin to think that they must be very good, very intelligent, very this and that. If you work with these foreigners, ex: indians, lebanese etc; as much as I do, you can test them with a little 'logical reasoning',  and you see that they fall flat to the ground.

Can we turn the tables around:
Is it possibe, or when will it be possible that a Nigerian who doesnt have a University degree, who is maybe a 50% ignoramus like many of the expatriates we have here, gets employed as an expatriate to work abroad, in the same capacity these guys work here - and with all the enjoyment perks of the work environment. Wont somebody ask his/her academic qualification at the embassy? Why dont our embassies demand qualitative academic qualification from these people before issuing them visas? We are talking reciprocity here, if we are to be exporting dumb people abroad.

Sometime ago, a lady, ICAN certified etc, complained about her boss, a froshe expatriate who does not know how to use MS.Excel, yet he is an accounting manager. She told me that she had to put him through how to do simple stuffs. Can you compare the rigors of the ICAN exam with someone who previously worked as a department store clerk abroad and then as an accouting manager in Nigeria. Can we turn the tables around and begin to export our business center typists abroad to go work as managers?

Thats why I blame our leaders.

P.s. Compare these Lebanese, Indians, Chinese etc, with their American, U.K and European Counterparts. These American and European counterparts are usually more educated, with very technical foundations.

Educational standard:
FYI: kindly note that, for example in India, their 3-year B.Tech degree is not acceptable in the USA as an undergraduate. You have to go and do an additional 1-year brush up course to get into a Masters degree if you come with an indian B-Tech. Its not only the english language, but also the technicalities are lacking. In fact, schools in South Korea still rank higher than many Indian Universities. The only ones in repute are the IIT campuses. Any other one are just like our mushroom institutes here.

Our own educational standard needs to be revamped. Im sorry to say, but if I were at the helms of affairs, I would throw out many lecturers. I would first make it a policy that a University lecturer without a minimum of 5-years full-time industry experience has nothing to do in the University. I dont see it right for a fresh graduate to become a research assistant, then a lecturer in a few years, without any industry experience. Such end up teaching what they jotted down in their own notebooks, what they read from other places. They never have the opportunity to talk out of experience. Thats not the way it is abroad. You usually have lecturers who have had industry experience for at least 7years before lecturemanship. That way, they can bring the industry and the academe together.

The lack of tools also makes things scary in Nigeria. Imagine a computer science graduate who has to go for a computer diploma in a computer school after the UNiversity. Methinks, what did he/she learn/do for 5-solid years in school. Worse, what kinda teacher taught such. How can a university graduate be going for Computer appreciation courses. We might not be able to do anything about the present corp of engineers, but if something is not done, and that fast enough, the coming generation have no hope.

The lack of research facitilities is another problem in Nigeria. Yes, everyone is looking for fast money, fast business etc, and our leaders have no vision for a research institution. Countries in the West have solid and well-funded research institutions that produce outstanding results after years of dedicated experiments and intelligent research. Thousands of dollars are spent on every area of technology. This is not so in Nigeria, neither it is for Africa.

Until we start a dedicated research effort, honestly I dont think we are going anywhere.

This one has been quite long, let me rest my case.

I think marriage is over-emphasized in the Nigerian culture.

It kinda restricts the woman into the 'fruit bearing' realm alone, as if shes good for nothing more than just to get pregnant. And even after getting pregnant, she then begins another battle: 'I must give birth to a boy by all means'.

In fact a lot of women are confused. Whether they should pursue their career or not, do this or that, their first aim is to get married, and even if they are not enjoying it, coz their husbands has seen that 'all she wants is to get married', he misuses her just as he likes / does what he likes, while 'she cant do what she likes' because she is the 'woman' - summarized as the lesser-human, and she continues 'smiling to her friends': 'im married, im married', but the question we should be asking is: are you happy in that marriage? the answer is usually NO.

No, I don't think its necessary.

I just had some information about a woman who poisoned her husband. When the whole story came out, she admitted that she was tired of the marriage. Did the man beat her? No. Did he cheat on her? No. Didnt he provide for the famly? he did. What was the main problem? she realized that she just didnt want to continue(after 3-kids) and since the man does not understand(divorce), according to the Bible, the only option was to poison him.

everybody has a past, whether it was good or bad.

Yes, its good for couples to TELL ALL to themselves, about their pasts etc., This serves to solidify the foundation of the relationship, build trust and confidence.

No matter what she was before, if Im in Love with her, I believe that Love seals up her past, but I should know about it, coz you know ppl are different. You might meet someone in future and he tells you something bad about your wife. If you knew it before, you can quickly brush the statement aside and even make a joke out of it. At least, such keeps your own peace of mind, and your wife's dignity. At the end of the day, the story-teller will have to keep his/her mouth shut.


The truth is there is no future without a past, and the sooner couples open up to each other, the better for the relationship now and in the future.

Love does not exist.

Love is actually whatever you call it. Love joins two people. Love also separates two people = hate.

@web_master

format and reinstall the car,

maybe its running out of memory,

I have an account with UBA, from Standard Trust bank - actually should be called (Standing Trust bank), coz you never find anywhere to sit down and the queue is always hell. I have to use it just to make things easy for sending money to ma sister etc - only that reason anyway, but the service is CRAP.

@babasin

na wah o, if your post about Erastus Akingbola is true, the man should be arrested. Such an action goes against fundamental human rights and logical reasoning.

so what am I to do if the customer leaves his account dormant? my salary will be deducted if the customer isnt depositing in his own account?

and what incentives do these banks offer clients to deposit their money's anyway.

In a Nigerian bank, to deposit is no problem. But if you want to withdraw, na halala. At the end of the day, these bank heads cooperate with nigeria's looters to transfer dubious currencies around the world.

saucekid:
kiss her butt out
i wont appreciate a lady that can't cook. . . . .it shows that when her mama was in the kitchen,she was watching sitcoms

yes, ure right. When a lady can't cook, it looks to me that something is wrong, u know,

even if she was watching sitcoms when her mama was in the kitchen, shouldn't the thought of becoming a full-fledged woman arouse her interest in she, preparing herself for another stage in life?

@clemcykul

as a matter of fact food is second to sex in a relationship.

I beg to differ, but I believe food is #1 and then sex is #2

@yong babe

money buys gucci bags, gucci bags make wife happy, wife makes husband happy, husband and wife transmit happines to kids,
all this adds up to one happy family!

I like your mathematics. but what if gucci stops making its bags, what next
kai.

happy new year to y'all,

2008 is my blogging year.

that one doesnt need 'In Jesus name'

as much as women want to marry up, no man wants to MARRY DOWN and descend into povety.

@ poster

'YOUR WIFE is discussing marriage with ANOTHER MAN while she's still married to you?

Are you still living in the same house? - as in are things Ok between two of you?
- if you're still living in the same house as husband and wife, you better shine your eye o. If its only marriage shes discussing with the other man, good. If the discussion goes into killing you, you better run and leave her alone.
- maybe she wasnt your wife, as in YOUR WIFE from day-1.

If your relationship has been strained before she started her discussions, maybe you could try to make things up somewhere somehow, but definitely the gasoline of your marriage is leaking seriously, and buying new gasoline would not do until you find the leaking point.

Lemme give this up,

when a girl can't cook, as in, she doesnt know the 1,2 and 3.

Im not talking disabilities here, but she just doesnt know.

its often said that if a woman wants to keep her man, she can only hold him as much as she can hold his 'stomach'.

what are guys supposed to do? proceed? or press the breaks?

I have a friend whose girl friend doesnt know how to cook and she even told him shes not even interested in learning. Now he loves her and vice-versa, but the 'cooking' part is kinda straining things up as my guy is looking at 'the future', coz as he asked me "how can hubby and beau be bukateering from day-1"?

p.s - she from an average family. Shes a last born with older brothers(2) and sisters(2).

everybody has mouth odour, its only that the degree varies - partly due to upbringing and general hygiene.

Its not something that cannot be taken care of, Yes, you can tell him his mouth stinks, and let him know you mean no insult, but coz u like him and want the best for him.

Im quite pissed at Nigerian Banks and their staff.

they have this 'air', this kind of "we are doing you a favor attitude", and rather than giving you simple courtesy, I don't know whether its intentional or just that these peeps are not just right for their jobs.

I was told sometime ago that 'Customer Service' is non existent in Nigeria. How true.

so what will happen when your GSM is stolen/lost? the car becomes stranded?

hi,

dunno if you've had my kind of experience. You see, im into a lot of tech-consulting, computers, telecoms and networking....and so i walk up to this client-to-be or maybe he gets my contact#/vice-versa and we start talking about him/his business(usually a cafe)/his office or even residence getting hooked up to the internet. So i put together a proposal on the best ISP to meet his needs.

Usually, a VSAT is purchased. If you dont know that, its called a Very Small Aperture Terminal. Lemme give an example of cafes, you know this idea of bandwidth is becoming a problem. For example: a company says they are selling 64kbps/128kbps or 32kbps/32kbps or any other combination they may fancy, and maybe for a cafe, the proposal goes well, the client pays me and I go and pay-up at the ISP or wherever, i set up the cafe, the VSAT equipment gets delivered and the company's engineer comes to do the installation, or sometimes, i might do it myself.............okay, later the client starts complaining.....the usual......"my internet is slow"

so for a while, i try to do some checks here and there to make sure that the client-side, his Local area network is not at fault. You know sometimes, even on a single computer, the connection/browsing speed is slow, how much more on 5 or 10 computer systems.

i sometimes had to set up gateways, firewalls etc., at least to manage the connection, but really several times ive discovered that the internet connection is not as fast as stated.......as in im getting lower than what i paid for. And the whole thing is becoming a nemesis already.......

just to ask, if youre into this same kinda dilema, what are the ISPs you use that have met your expectation about this bandwidth-paid-for and bandwidth-gotten issue?

AA

I think we should appreciate the fact that they are talking.

If they didn't say anything, thats worse.

What if we are like sao-tome?