₦airaland Forum

“We may add here that as far as PDP continues to be voted into power by Nigerians, no one shall any more be appointed into any position on account of the pedigree of his parents. We shall also engineer a process through the National Assembly where nominees to federal offices must undergo a psychiatric test. Femi is a huge disgrace!

PDP don vex, this nah serious planking.

Based on the current numbers, that means the Old, Kano state, Sokoto state and Kaduna state[b][/b] were more populated than Lagos. Who is this world believes that nonsense.

The following table presents a listing of Nigeria's 36 states ranked in order of their total population based on preliminary 2006 Census figures.[1]
Rank State Population
1 Kano State 9,401,288
2 Lagos State 9,113,605
3 Kaduna State 6,113,503
4 Katsina State 5,801,584
5 Oyo State 5,580,894
6 Rivers State 5,198,716
7 Bauchi State 4,653,066
8 Jigawa State 4,361,002
9 Benue State 4,253,641
10 Anambra State 4,177,828
11 Borno State 4,171,104
12 Delta State 4,112,445
13 Imo State 3,927,563
14 Niger State 3,954,772
15 Akwa Ibom State 3,902,051
16 Ogun State 3,751,140
17 Sokoto State 3,702,676
18 Ondo State 3,460,877
19 Osun State 3,416,959
20 Kogi State 3,314,043
21 Zamfara State 3,278,873
22 Enugu State 3,267,837
23 Kebbi State 3,256,541
24 Edo State 3,233,366
25 Plateau State 3,206,531
26 Adamawa State 3,178,950
27 Cross River State 2,882,988
28 Abia State 2,845,370
29 Ekiti State 2,398,357
30 Kwara State 2,365,353
31 Gombe State 2,365,040
32 Yobe State 2,321,339
33 Taraba State 2,294,800
34 Ebonyi State 2,176,947
35 Nasarawa State 1,869,377
36 Bayelsa State 1,704,515
– Abuja Federal Capital Territory 1,405,201

payless: I saw Abiola, Musa Yar'Adua, Tukur, Arishekola..............

That was before Christianity, Islam, and ethnic sentiments found their ways into our politics.

Wrong, that was before people were classified in this country as second class citizens.

agbameta: I don't think the Delta people have been begging for the 2nd Niger bridge for 30years so don't bother me with irrelevant and off topic nonsense..

Buy yourself some clue before your next ignorant post..

That's your problem, on this forum, you never know when to park your mouth. When people feed you the same rubbish you are trying to sell, they become ignorant. When you are the embodiment of Ignorance.

agbameta: What have you gained off 40 years of no forgiveness, hate and bitterness?

Nothing?

You are still begging 30 years later for a common village bridge in 2013.


The joke is on you....

My pikin no vex, but what bridge are you talking about. Uduaghan don finish Udu bridge. Otokutu/ Egbo Uhurie bridges have been repaired, so what in God's name are you talking about.

tomakint: You wondered why I find those APC gremlins the 'most miserable and irritating to debate with' they reek of gross hypocrisies from the eldest (Gbawe) among them to the youngest (egghead), Buhari cancelled a bright project like the rail system in the 80s for selfish reasons and the fools are still yearning for the same fundamentalist comeback, what could be more deluding than that! Abeg free them!

Most of these people making noise are mostly in their mid twenties. They can't help themselves. The 80s are light years away for them. So please cut them some slack.

payless: So all reports must be in video? Tell me another one.........

Let's see it when you find it.

payless: Google those dates with the name of each newspaper beside it. You guys are ready to go any length to defend indefensible.

Play a news report with Jonah saying those words. Let's listen to the context of what he said. That's actually besides, the point. What Nigeria needs now is not an election in 2015. But the kind of country where that election will happen in 2015. You might be having one in 2015 in O'dua's republic , we just don't know yet. Anybody looking towards 2015, without seeing the rivers of flowing blood ahead is either politically blind or plain wicked.

payless: Below are Jonathan's words; not mine.


An Editorial page of Premium Times, Feb. 19, 2013 has it that, “Jonathan personally promised not to run in 2015, a denial today that is bareface lie.” The page continued: At a press conference in Abuja in late 2010, a day ahead of President Goodluck Jonathan’s formal declaration to run in the 2011 presidential election, Mr. Dalhatu Tafida, then Director General of the Jonathan/Sambo campaign organisation, said the president won’t seek another term in 2015. The president, he said, would be available for only a single term if elected.” “I’ll not contest in 2015-Jonathan (2011),” see Daily Independent, Sept 9, 2013. “Four years is enough for anyone in power to make significant improvement and if I can’t improve on power within this period, it then means I cannot do anything even if I am there for the next four years” (Nigerian Vanguard, Feb. 1, 2011). The New PDP is also pointing to a 2011 statement credited to Jonathan in Ankara, Turkey, which states that “President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, said he has no ambition to stay in office beyond 2015, assuring Nigerians in Diaspora that while he will not contest the 2015 election, he will ensure that this year’s election is free and fair.”

How do you know those are Jonah's words, because a Nigerian newspaper said so

Any attempt by Tinubu to talk down the SNC/NC will only isolate him in Yorubaland. There's no two ways about this fact. 2015 elections is not an issue. What Nigeria, we are trying to have elections in, is the issue.

Ignorance of the average Nigerian is simply appalling.

fkaz: @kettykin so in your own opinion, the main reason behind SNC is for GEJ 2015 agenda. If the dialogue of SNC is for northern come to term in agreement for GEJ 2015 election you people has failed. This is the best opportunity for SE/SS to secede from this country. This is not a threat, but from the look of things to come. If GEJ win 2015 election under a flaw election, expect a post violence election which will lead to a full scale war.

What will happen if the other side wins peace and tranquility

Another truckload of horse maure

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has given marching orders to his service chiefs on the fight against Boko Haram insurgents, this time warning that he will take no more excuses for failures.
The presidential directive, it was gathered, was handed down to the security chiefs by the president following last weekend’s terror attack on students of the College of Agriculture, Gujba, Yobe State.
A subsequent meeting between the National Security Adviser and the service chiefs, according to a security source, decided that henceforth, commanders and heads of operation would be held responsible and accountable for failures in the fight against terrorists.
Since Sunday’s attack on the Yobe college, more than 100 militants have been reported killed, especially those linked to the murder of the pupils, while several commanders and other members of the sect have been arrested.
Apart from the deployment of fighter jets in Yobe and environs, Saturday Tribune gathered that state-of-the-art satellite surveillance equipment have been installed in the troubled area to monitor movements of the insurgents and prevent future surprise attacks.
It was also gathered that well-armed plain clothes security operatives have been deployed around schools in the zone.
The top military source told Saturday Tribune that the National Security Adviser recently held meetings with the service chiefs, including the police, State Security Services, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps on effective collaboration and synergy.
A series of conferences and meetings have also been held lately among other ranking officers and commanders for them to close ranks and work together.
The source said that following recent orders to the effect, there is now better collaboration and sharing of information among response agencies (Army, Air Force, SSS, etc) towards a more effective anti-terrorism crusade.
As part of the renewed onslaught against the rampaging sect, the volunteer youth (also known as Civilian JTF) are to be trained on basic security, safety and self-defence.
Meanwhile, suspected Boko Haram members reportedly killed a Nigerien soldier and seriously wounded three others in Borno, a high-ranking Niger security official told AFP Thursday.
“A soldier from Niger was killed yesterday (Wednesday) around 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) and three others were wounded in an attack by eight armed bandits on Nigerian territory,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
The soldiers were part of a West African force based in Baga, a town located in Borno. The three wounded soldiers were taken to a hospital in eastern Niger’s Diffa, near the border with Nigeria.
Diffa-based private radio station, Anfani, claimed the soldiers were “ambushed by Boko Haram 10 kilometres from the border with Niger.”
Boko Haram has said it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north, but the group is believed to be made up of different factions with varying aims.
The group has attacked churches, mosques, newspaper offices, the security forces, politicians and a UN building, among other targets.
According to an estimate earlier this year, Boko Haram’s insurgency has claimed more than 3,600 lives, including deaths caused by the security forces. The current toll is likely much higher.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/news2013/

The pictures, we see today are the results of too much centralization. Why is the federal government in the university business The University system in this country spends hundred of billions yearly at the federal level on salaries and allowances. Universities generate billions from fees and miscellaneous cost. Ask their VCs and Senates why their schools look like war zones or refugee camps Keep waiting for Abuja to solve your problems.

The simple but bitter truth

Umaru Yar'adua (reversal of VAT, refinery sale, price hike, asset declaration etc)


Please, what good was all this reversals. How about promising ASUU 26% of the budget. The man came to power through the most fraudulent elections in Nigeria's history. All he did was destroy the foundations OBJ laid. HE SHOULD NOT BE ON YOUR LIST.

timpaker: make them stop the salary na. Enough is enough!
If we can't hold the government by their words then i don't think we deserve anything from them

You are still getting paid? Oh my God.

ASUU wants N3T for federal universities or are state schools included too

There are 22 millions kids in primary and secondary schools in Nigeria are they included too??

Somebody talked about the NASS spending N150B per year. They forget, that the same assembly employs 5,000 civil service workers. Their salaries and allowances are included in the N150B.

ASUU makes the best case for decentralization, a one size fits all government is bound to fail. Even communist China will not put up with ASUU.

barcanista: we don't need vagabond in GEJ family.....






Phukctard

If you knew, the meaning of vagabond. I will allow the kids have their time here. night night

barcanista: I'm pro-GEJ but I dnt tolerate such thrash..... Grw up man..... Respect the ladies cos your mom is one

what trash start by respecting yourself and minding your own silly business. Who gives a crap, if you support GEJ or not.

berem: After your usual spewing of trash,answer the damn question you d!cck head! Why didn't the independence celebration hold at the Eagles Square? If you have no answer to the question,SHUT DA PHUCK UP!!

Because they knew you were coming to parade your unclothedness. To avoid corrupting our children, government closed the place down.

Pray to avoid the nightmare of Nigeria banks. The OP's story is a normal day in Nigeria banks. Where monies walk off accounts. Never leave millions in one account.

SLIDE waxie: dude, go back to ur history. When the Nation's GPD derive her highest percentage from groundnut exports!

And all ur rantings are stories. Like i said, 'i am from the SWtern part of this nation'!

Go take a dive!

Which history There are records, just do some checking yourself.

SLIDE waxie: dude,

1. What is my concern with palm oil?

2. Nigeria survived mainly from groundnut sales. Remember the groundnut pyramid? Rubbers are everywhere in the SW, including palm oil and coccoa. i hope u are not going to start chest-beating by insinuating u are the provider of palm oil for other regions

3. i am from Ogun state. So, before u start ur foolishness,

i. Knw dt we dnt collect a 13% allocation

ii. Check with the feds, how much my state generates for the feds and how much allocation they receive. Ok? U will be amazed.

Since the allocation has not been paid, m state is owing nobody a kobo, and projects were not stopped. Both rivers and edo were the first to shout!! i dnt blame them. No self sustenance

iii. Tell me wot we dnt av: limestone, rubber, coccoa, bitumen, crude oil, timber, industries( ), or what?

U people overrate urself, and the worst part is, u dnt even knw

Mtcheeeewwww!!!!

Like i saidn siddon there they shout 'our oyel' while dubai whose oil hd finished had structures on ground for self sustenance!

MUMU xp!

Maybe Awo's western region lived off groundnut. The Midwest did not. The people in Nigeria, that overrate themselves line my office corridor in Warri looking for jobs. I will see a couple of them next week when I return from leave. The most sophisticated and most intelligent Nigerians.


We siddon dey look, una go dive kota.

SLIDE waxie: lemme ask u, cos i'm beginning to see it as a curse, and unnecessary obsession, u people and ur problem with other region in relation to your so called 'oyel'- was Nigeria not benefiting by a larger percentage from the Agricultural prowess and success of the North before the advent of oil exploration?

Was Nigeria's economy not even stronger than the pounds?

The problem is the Laziness the oil slapped on every region in this country and the curse of corruption is brought with it!

The issue of 'our oyel' is becoming overflogged, overstupid and 'nonsensical'!!

Is that all the think of?

And little by little this has pushed ur half-baked graduates to crime with the belief that they could just sit home and the oil should provide a daily means for their survival!

Just like dubai, let's assume the oil dried up...what do u guys wish to fall back on?

Nothing!!!

The southsouth was known for oil before this Country called Nigeria was formed, "Palm oil". You are calling people "half baked" sitting at home, waiting for their daily survival is not only insulting, but it shows, you have serious self esteem issues. It is our oyel so what

As for it drying up, you are the people that cannot live without it.You should be one worrying more, about that problem. Our palm trees and Rubber tress are still there. Edo, Delta, Cross river, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom are all on course to double their plantations in the next two years. Don't worry about us.

That oyel has caused more problems for my people and blessings to your people. WHO IS REALLY GOING TO MISS IT, ASK YOUR STATE COMMISSIONER FOR finance.

BY OMOH GABRIEL, BUSINESS EDITOR
NIGERIA after Independence was on the right path of economic growth and development. It had visionary leaders who were interested in the welfare of the people.
Industries were springing up in every region of the country. In the North, Ahmedu Bello who held sway was occupied by setting up farm settlements, textile industries.

It was the same story in the East where Michael Opera set up farm settlements and a number of manufacturing companies. In the West, Chief Awolowo, apart from the popular free education, set up a number of industrial estates which attracted several companies from abroad. It is this simple reason that the West is the most industrialized part of the country.
At this time, the Nigeria economy was in top shape and at take off stage in economic development. The Nigerian economy was rated along the same indices with Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia and the rest of the now talked about BRICKS countries. Then Nigeria had development plans that guided the nation.
Autonomous entities
In the North pyramids of groundnuts and cotton were part of foreign exchange earning commodities. In the West, cocoa was found in abundance.
It brought pride to the nation. The various regions were autonomous entities and there was competition among the regions on internally generated revenue. The military intervention and the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity seemed to have radically altered the course of Nigeria’s economic development.
While the military discarded the fiscal federalism structure of the country and made the states to become federal allocation collector, the discovery of oil made Nigerian leaders to sleep walk and refuse to plan believing that the money flowing from the ground will solve all the nation’s problems.
As the military leaders were sleep walking and basking in the euphoria of petro dollar earnings, Nigeria’s population was growing faster than the resources
Peter Drucker, the management expert, in his book the practice of management wrote that “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship, the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.
Nigeria military leaders did not yield to the management advice that management must always, in every decision and action, put economic performance first. It can only justify its existence and its authority by the economic results it produces.
There may be great non-economic results: the happiness of the members of the enterprise, the contribution to the welfare or culture of the community, etc.
Yet management has failed if it fails to produce economic results. It has failed if it does not supply goods and services desired by the consumer at a price the consumer is willing to pay. It has failed if it does not improve or at least maintain the wealth-producing capacity of the economic resources entrusted to it. During this period there was no serious investment in power and other critical infrastructure, the ones available were not maintained and infrastructural decay set in making many to feel that Nigeria is a failed state.
This is far from the truth. Nigeria is a land of ample opportunity and immense possibility. In a fast changing and evolving world, where weaklings of yester years have become economic giants and the strong of yesterday are fading in economic glory and becoming weaklings. Nigeria has a chance to make a difference. Twenty years ago, no development economist would have accepted any theory that postulated the emergence of China, India and Brazil as economic power houses.
Economic power house
Today, China is almost the largest economy in the world beating United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany and Italy.

According to a United Nations economic data, the global economy’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as at 2010 was $62.6 trillion. Of this, the United States of America accounted for $14.447 trillion as the largest economy in the world. It is followed by China with a GDP of $5.739 trillion making it the second largest economy.
Japan the third largest has $5.458 trillion GDP. Germany which is fourth has a GDP of $3.280 trillion while France the fifth has $2.559 trillion GDP. Britain which dominated the world for decade as the economy to beat is now a distant sixth economy in the comity of nations. Nigeria is occupying 47th position with a GDP of $238.920 billion.
This shows that from the peak there is only one easy way to go: downwards. It always requires twice as much effort and skill to stay up as it did to climb up.
In other words, there is real danger today that in retrospect the United States of 1950 may come to look like the Great Britain of 1880—doomed to decline for lack of vision and lack of effort. Going by the current trend and projection by 2020 there will be a major shift in the global balance of economic power compared to 2010.
Emerging economies will rise in importance and China would have overtaken the USA to lead the list of the world’s top 10 largest economies by GDP measured in PPP terms.
Looking at the Nigerian economy in the last few years since the return to democratic governance, from global perspective, foreign investors are now looking to Africa, Nigeria and Kenya in particular.
There seems to be a tide, the type Shakespeare spoke about, in the economic affairs of Nigeria if only policymakers can see beyond their noses and take the tide at its high to give Nigeria an economic take-off to recover from the missed opportunities of the late and early 1980s.
Epileptic power supply
Investors are seeing what most Nigerians are not seeing. The complaint of lack of infrastructure, epileptic power supply, low industrial base etc., are fast becoming opportunities to foreign investors.
At the Reuters Africa investors’ forum in Johannesburg early this year, foreign investors who have businesses in Nigeria and other African countries were quoted as saying; “If you want to ride Africa’s business boom, choose your country well and be ready for bumps on the road.
But the momentum is upward and you will be rewarded if you stay the course.” African policymakers and chief executives of companies operating in Africa are spreading this upbeat message, as interest in what was once dubbed the “hopeless continent” blossoms along with growth rates.
During the year, Global X Funds listed the first Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) on the New York Stock Exchange to track Nigerian stocks. The head of the Fund said this is a move which will enable U.S. investors to buy high growth Nigerian shares at home.
Nigeria, in the eyes of funds managers and economists today, is growing in popularity as an investment destination, offering the promise of seven per cent economic growth and a consumer market of around 170 million people. The Nigerian stock market index rose 35 percent in 2012 but dropped to 29 per cent this year, making it the second best performer in Africa and one of the best in the world. The index is up 29 per cent so far this year and analysts expect gains to continue as strong corporate earnings trickle in.
There are a massive amount of U.S. investors looking to get exposure to Nigeria.
Nigeria’s stock exchange disclosed that it is reviewing applications from some leading global investment banks to join its trading floor, as reforms aimed at improving liquidity and transparency bear fruit. Mr. Oscar Onyema, Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit in Lagos that some foreign investment banks have applied to trade on the floor of the exchange. “We cannot announce which ones yet but they are in the top 10 in the world,” Onyema said.
Rencap and Standard Bank already have traders operating on the floor of the exchange. Before the stock market bubble burst in 2008, wiping nearly two thirds off its value in a year. Domestic investors own 85 percent of the shares, with foreigners owning the rest. The investment tide is afoot; will Nigerian public servants, government functionaries and elected officials stop stealing and ride on the tide of development?
Come January 2014, the geographical expression called Nigeria will be 100 years old. The Northern and Southern protectorates were amalgamated by Lord Lugard in 1914. The land mass in which Nigeria is located is a land flowing with milk and honey. Many have looked at the progress made in desperation and have written off the country. But many out there are seeing the Nigeria experiment as a land of great opportunity.
The United States of America recently described Nigeria as the next economic success story. Apart from its natural resources, Nigeria has a young and dynamic population made up of upwardly mobile middle class. It is this middle class that current serve as attraction to the international business community because of the huge market it represents. The experience of the telecom operators in Nigeria bears this out clearly. It is for Nigeria to put its act together and get it right. Nigeria’s economy has been growing at 6-7 per cent in the last few years without regular supply of power, when eventually the country gets the power equation right, the economy will frog leap.
Economic success
President Barack Obama himself declared Nigeria as the world’s next economic success story, stressing that this was one of the major reason his government was committed to helping the country build strong democratic institutions and remove constraints to trade and investment through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
Making this declaration at the US-Nigeria Trade and Investment Forum, an event organised by the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDOA) in Washington DC, during the year, Obama who was represented by Ambassador Eunice Reddick, said that his country expanded opportunities for Nigeria to effectively access markets and diversify its economy beyond a narrow reliance on natural resources. “As we support these efforts, the Diaspora can play an important role in contributing to a strong, vibrant and economically prosperous Nigeria” he noted.
It is not only the US government that is seeing the great possibilities in Nigeria. In 2004, Goldman Sach said that Nigeria will emerge one of the 20 largest economies of the world in 2025. This was the basis of Nigeria’s vision 20-2020 by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
In a presentation on Nigeria’s Debt Capital Markets, Richard Fox, Fitch Rating’s Head of Africa/Middle East sovereigns, had compared Nigeria’s current sovereign debt metrics to those of Emerging Markets (EMs) that have recently made the transition to investment grade (IG) and came to the conclusion that Nigeria is on the path of success.
He said: “Since 2004, seven EMs have moved up the rating scale from Nigeria’s current ‘BB-’ level to the lowest investment grade ‘BBB-’ rating. The most recent was Indonesia in 2011; the others are Azerbaijan (2010), Brazil (2008) and Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Romania and Russia (2004).
Of the seven, four are oil producers to varying degrees. The three notch upward movement has typically taken between six and eight years, which makes it a plausible ambition for Nigeria in the context of its Vision 2020. “Among the key indicators that Fitch uses to assess sovereign creditworthiness, three stand out as being well outside the range of experience of recent newly IG EMs: per capita GDP, reserve cover and governance (the latter measured by the World Bank’s governance indicators).
These areas represent Nigeria’s biggest challenge to improving its “Nigeria’s stable and robust GDP growth of more than 7 per cent since 2009 and it compares well with the record of newly IG sovereigns and is even more creditable given its reliance on the non-oil sector.
However, structural reforms planned in the electricity, oil and agriculture sectors, will be crucial if growth is to be diversified and sustained closer to double digits, in order to close the large gap in per capita income.
Even with a likely substantial increase in nominal GDP this year due to the rebasing of the national accounts, Nigeria’s per capita GDP will still be outside the range enjoyed by the new IG countries when they became IG. “Nigeria’s inflation rate is now on the low side – in single digits.
If the goals of this administration’s transformation agenda are to have strong, inclusive non-inflationary growth, to generate employment and alleviate poverty and to achieve value reorientation, Nigeria must begin to take advantage of this positive disposition.
Positive disposition
The World Bank’s Doing Business Index of 2012 ranked Nigeria as 133rd out of 183 countries on the basis of the constraints encountered in starting a business, dealing with construction permits and registration of property and enforcement of contracts.
It also identified differences in state regulations and in the enforcement of national regulations that can enhance or constrain local business activity. Nigeria was on the path of greatness at independence.
It evolved development plans which saw major development in the country at the early stages of the nation’s development.
The first, second and third plans were executed but the fourth was abandoned and since then Nigeria has had no development plan. Nigeria needs to return very quickly to development planning if it is to tap into the vision many are seeing for it.
If the fourth development plan that was jettisoned was religiously implemented, Nigeria would be singing songs of freedom today. In that plan, the framers said “Since the fourth national development plan is only one in the series of medium term plans intended to transform the Nigeria economy and society over time, its basic objectives are naturally and broadly similar to those of its immediate predecessors.
What ever changes there are would be no more than a reflection of the lessons of experience derived in the implementation of the preceding plans”.
The over riding aim of any development is an improvement in the living conditions of the people using the resources, human and material, with which the country is endowed. It is around this principal goal that the specific objectives of Nigeria’s development efforts were woven. The nations set objectives in the 3rd National development were what the country is clamouring for today.
It envisaged increase in real income of the average Nigerian; more even distribution of income among individuals and social economic groups in the country; reduction in the level of unemployment; increase in the supply of high level man power; reduction of the dependence of the economy on a narrow range of activities; balanced development – the achievement of better balance in the development of the different sectors of the economy and various geographical areas of the country; increased participation by Nigerians in the ownership and management of the productive enterprises; greater self reliance that is increased dependence on internal resources in seeking to achieve the various objective of society.
This implies increased efforts to achieve optimum utilization of Nigeria’s human and material resources; development of technology; reduction in rural urban migration; the promotion of a new national orientation conducive to greater discipline, better attitude to work and cleaner environment.
The main trust of Nigeria’s strategy during this period was in the direction of increased self reliance and considerable reduction of its dependence on the external sector in general and the petroleum sector in particular. If these objectives were rigorously pursued Nigeria would not be playing a catch up game in the global economy.
Global economy
Nigeria needs to return to its roots, plan, strategise and push to become relevant in the eyes of other nations. This will require greater sacrifices especially in terms of established consumptions habits if resources are to be freed for pressing development needs. There will be no room for subsidy. It must free resources for development.
This strategy will demand a greater spirit of innovations, hard work, and greater utilization of domestic resources and in particular, the involvement of the masses especially at the local level in the development process. A conscious effort must be made to mobilize the Nigeria masses — the entire Nigeria population for the implementation of the new Nigeria vision.
If China could successfully mobilise its populace to achieve the second largest economy position out of obscurity, yes Nigeria can.
Nigeria and China have certain things in common, a growing population, an emerging middle class that constitute a huge market for industrial products, a huge land mass. Yes, Nigeria can move into the league of top economies of the world. All that Nigeria needs is an effective leadership.


://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/10/fiscal-federalism-ll-make-nigeria-great

General Electric (GE) will in the next four years create 2,300 new jobs in Nigeria out of which, 300 will be direct hires, Phil Griffith, GE global supply chain leader, has said.

This development, according to analysts in the human capital industry, will boost the Federal Government job creation programme and take many youths off the street.

Griffith, who spoke in Lagos, said GE planned a $1 billion investment over the next five years in Nigeria, adding that this investment is aimed at strengthening GE’s local presence with the new service and manufacturing facility in Calabar, as well as an additional investment in its service workshop at Port Harcourt and Onne.

According to him, GE’s investment plans include a $250 million capital expenditure that would make Nigeria a regional hub for manufacturing, service, and innovation with an ability to support a broader range of product lines in power generation as well as oil and gas exploration and production.

This investment, he said, will create 2300 jobs out of which 300 will be GE direct hires while the remaining 2000 will be created through GE suppliers that will support its expanded operations.

The company will also spend an additional $800 million over the next five years in local sourcing of goods and services, labour, staff welfare and training.

As part of this goal and in alignment with the local content policy of the Federal Government, as well as to give back to its host community, GE, he said, plans to build a vocational training centre on its manufacturing site.

“The company will provide one-year to four – year training programs locally and internationally for repair engineers, welders, fabricators, machinists and special processing,” he said.

GE is collaborating with Cross Rivers State educational and community leaders to implement curriculum, instructor development and equipment enhancements that will support the development of top notch vocational school graduates, Griffith added.

According to him, Nigerians will make up 90 percent of the staff and management of the planned manufacturing facility while GE’s local suppliers base is expected to increase from 10 to 100 local suppliers.

“This investment will significantly increase the local content of our operations in Nigeria by increasing local ownership of equipment, in-country project execution expertise and use of local legal, financial advisory and engineering services.

When this project is completed, our annual spending on these basic services that will be locally sourced is expected to increase to over $60 million,” Griffith added.

GE has built a very large platform that covers all sectors of GE businesses across the globe – oil and gas, power and water, energy management, aviation, healthcare, transportation, GE capital and home and business solutions.

GE businesses in Nigeria represent the biggest GE platform on the continent of Africa where about one third of the entire GE Africa business comes out of Nigeria.

In the past two years, the company has renewed its focus in Nigeria with businesses spanning across major infrastructure sectors. GE footprint in Nigeria consists of about 400 employees with offices in Lagos and Abuja;

and currently serves over 100 public and private sector customers and partners in Nigeria.

FRESH AIR EVERYWHERE YOU TURN.