₦airaland Forum

baccaspace:
Oby Ezeks performed well in Due Process Office but didn't do dat well in Education Ministry(under baba Obj).

Mrs. Sarah's impact as water resources minister is non existing as long as Nigeria is concerned. Though kudos to Oby for keeping the #BBOG campaign

I suspect you lack info on Ochekpe's accomplishments as the water resources minister,reason you have made such characterization.
Ochekpe has seen to the completion of most abandoned dam & irrigation projects and kickstarted those that have been under the drawing table for ages.Chief among these is the kashimibilla dam in Taraba built to contain the effect of the expected collapse of Lake Nyos in cameroun,the dam will also supply 40MW of electricity,has an airstrip and the irrigation component is expected to irrigate 2000hectares of farmland

thenationonlineng.net/new/inside-the-1billion-money-spinner-called-kashimbila dam/?utm_content=bufferabfa2&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

You also have the Galma Dam in Kaduna almost completed,the greater Markudi Water Scheme almost completed etc.In all there are about 139 Dam projects currently on-going and at different stages of completion and 16 of them have hydroelectric components

Rochas should stop making silly noise just to grab headlines...lots of Govs have reconstructed federal roads and received refund from FG without fuss..Akpabio has done countless number of roads..even the Port-Harcourt owerri road he is complaining of Amaechi has done his end without unnecessary fuss

ba7man: Donald Duke?? I love him, people like that won't get their deserved recognition in PDP. The rest are not on my radar.......yeah, even Akpabio.

He's just a rich, spoilt kid wit lots of toys.

The only problems he's encountered in his State is what to do with the virgin forests and what to do with all the cash in hand..........of course, build, build, build......anybody with cash can do that.

He hasn't gotten to the management level yet.

Sullivan Chime is more famous for the marital squabble he had with his wife and cancer growth he had than his performance.

Lol....so Victor Attah didn't have the money Akpabio has?...why didn't he play with it?

To know more about Chime's exploits isn't far-fetched..just take a trip to the Enugu thread on nairaland

Anyway thanks for agreeing with me that PDP also has its fair share of good guys?

ba7man: I'm not an APC supporter because of Tinubu, I am because of its members such as Oshiomole, Fashola, Ajimobi, Amosun, Pat utomi, (Ribadu used to be one too but his desperation got the better of him) , rabiu kwakwanso. I dislike Atiku with a passion.



Did u see the way I mentioned people I admire in APC?? PDP now tries to force their mediocre politicians eg Bode George, Obanikoro, Buruji Kashamu etc on the South west.......imagine, fielding a candidate like Omisore and now Akala to Govern.....that's just plain 5tupid.


Try and mention yours in PDP and see how far you'll get. If PDP had presented credible candidates, no problem but with the crop of Governors they keep parading, what's not to dislike??

Apart from GEJ, there's nothing for you guys in PDP. When he's gone you all will probably scatter into the wind because there's nothing left for u guys to hold on to in PDP.

Who will you then root for?? Jonah jang?? Uduaghan?? Seriake Dickson??.....its hard to find an individual with a semblance of credibility in that Party.

Goodluck with your awakening.

Lol...conveniently you named the PDP bad guys...How about Donald Duke,Akpabio,Dakwambo,Frank Nweke Jr,Sullivan Chime,Liyel Imoke,Tonye Princweill....

Let me just spare you the APC bad boys...so stop making distinctions like one party has better credibility than the other...both are one and the same

AKURE Nigeria (Reuters) - College graduate Omatayo
Adeniyi stands in a humid tropical forest of southwest
Nigeria and explains why he chose cocoa farming over a
white collar job in the city.

"There is money in the ground. The future is bright. I hope to make one tonne of cocoa by next year," he says from his farm in Ondo State.

Such optimism has for decades been rare among Nigeria's cocoa farmers: Many abandoned their fields and moved to cities in search of alternative work after commodity prices collapsed in the mid-1980s and the country's booming oil industry siphoned investment away from agriculture.

But years of focus on oil revenues has left Nigeria with a lack of industrial diversity and made it over-dependent on
energy, which uses a lot of costly equipment but employs
few people. So while the economy has been growing at an average of 7 percent for the past five years, it has failed to create jobs for many of Nigeria's 170 million people.

High unemployment and poverty levels have prompted the government to look again at cocoa with the aim of getting more people to grow a product for which prices have been rising.

Adeniyi's trees have been supplied by the government,which is also distributing plant pods and disease resistant seeds at subsidised rates, alongside cheap fertilisers, agricultural chemicals and training to improve practices.

Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina aims to boost
production to 1 million tonnes a year by 2018 - on a par
with current number two global producer Ghana and
approaching top grower Ivory Coast's projected 1.8 million tonnes for this year.

Nigeria says it's already on track to produce 500,000 tonnes of cocoa next year, double what it grew in 2012, and though analysts say that target may be optimistic, it is clear that no other cocoa growing country is boosting production as fast.

Output from Africa's top four growers - Ivory Coast, Ghana,Indonesia and Nigeria - which makes up over 70 percent of global production, is projected to rise in 2013/14 after staying flat for two years, according to Africa's Ecobank.

"Nigeria has been underperforming for many years because of a lack of investment and the discovery of oil. But in the last two years, there's been genuine commitment ... to develop agriculture," said Edward George, Ecobank head of research.

BIGGER, BETTER, MORE

Nigeria currently grows cocoa on less than a quarter of the 3 million hectares of land suitable to produce the beans, and the government is encouraging farmers to expand to the uncultivated savannah grassland.

With the materials the state provides, crops are flourishing.Adeniyi received his high-yield disease-resistant seeds from government two years ago and planted 800 seedlings of which 700 survived - much more than usual. The new trees flower within 18-24 months instead of 3-5 years.

"The materials will increase output more than three times
from what farmers had before," said Leila Dongo, director at Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria.

However infrastructure still poses a problem - bad roads
hamper the transport of beans to market - and many
producers are at the mercy of the weather because of their rudimental operations.

In a leafy plantation where rows of cocoa trees sit three
inches apart to let in air and sunshine, farmer Rafiu Saliu
demonstrates the problem. Picking up a pod from a just-
harvested heap he shows how most of it has gone black
with fungal disease.

Farmers like Saliu rely on the whims of weather for growing and drying their crops. This year Saliu faced a dilemma:leave pods on trees until the rains pass, and risk them over ripening, or harvest them and risk mould levels exceeding the maximum 5 percent allowed on the market.

"If not for the rains we should be harvesting. All the pods
are ripe," said 65-year-old Saliu, as more dark clouds spread over his four hectare farm.

To tackle this vulnerability, the government is training
farmers to set up warehousing and storage, including
creating shared drying spaces covered with plastic sheets
that let sun in but keep rain out.

FROM TREES TO FACTORIES

When Nigeria's government turned its back on the cocoa
industry, it also scrapped the cocoa marketing board, a
farmers' cooperative that regulated farming practices,
guaranteed prices to farmers, and provided subsidies
through the cocoa board.

Farmers now bear the price risk themselves but have seen cocoa prices swing from a low of less than $1,000 per tonne in 1986 to a peak of $3,500 per tonne in 2011. This month cocoa is trading around $3,252 per tonne.

In Nigeria this year farmgate prices - the amount Saliu and Adeniyi will make on their beans before they go to the wider market - are around 450,000 naira ($2,779) per tonne - up 50 percent on last year. But that could fall quickly if as predicted a bumper West African crop depresses global prices.

So in an attempt to avoid a cycle of boom and bust, Nigeria is encouraging local processing and manufacturing enterprises.

Samuel Oyebade, head of the government's cocoa reform
plan in its main growing region Ondo State, told Reuters
talks were afoot with U.S. chocolate manufacturer
SPAGnVOLA to set up a chocolate factory in which the state would invest around 5 billion naira ($31 million) to build, while SPAGnVOLA would manage the production for export and some local consumption.

Nigeria's beans have been deemed by the global market
unsuitable for chocolate because of their high moisture
content and so tend to be used more in cake, butter and
soaps.But with expert input from a U.S. chocolate expert their beans could yet make it to premium buyers, for premium prices.

"The industry says cocoa beans from Africa are inferior to
those from South America and the Caribbean ... (but) it's
how you treat that beans that renders the flavour ... every single tree has the potential for producing fine flavour," SPAGnVOLA Chief Executive Eric Reid told Reuters.

mobile.reuters.com/regional/article/idAFKBN0H00EX20140905?edition=af

Impressed with the pictures of the current state of the new terminal building am seeing...am just grinning sheepishly here...Nwanne spyder thanks for the good work!

myworld01: guys pls is 10 photocopies of each document enough??

.....

nifton: See dis man ooh,mandala package nko,u no hear am abi.

Madalla wasn't religious/ethnic riot but a bomb blast...It happened only once and hasn't happened again

heemah: Working on my Marriage Certificate alrdy...evnthough im still single, ma dad's middle name will b used as ma husbamd name..i cannot come and go and kill myself away in Adamawa State

Lol...why the stress when you redeploying based on "Security concerns" is a sure bet..anyway its good to have backups

dstnd: pls how can I post a link

Just copy it and paste...like you are typing a normal post

ikescope: bros am very indifferent abt d whole tin now. Tnk God am nt gona b there alone...*weak smiles* God dey so lessgoo

Niger is not Hausa/Fulani but Nupe & other tribes..It also has a large Christain population like Plateau...I have friends currently serving there and none has a bad story to tell..so No fears

nifton: Election period is always volatile in dat state,i recalled 2011 general elections.

You are wrong...Niger doesn't have a history of religious or ethnic riots...I can't remember any riots or demonstration there after the 2011 elections..If you have provide a proof like a newspaper link...

kel4soft: Is there anything wrong if we have different high transportation in Nigeria?

Nothing wrong but what we are against is you people pushing propaganda of a train body hanging on a yet to be completed track and shouting "Amaechi delivers Monorail project"

Another thing that gets us angry is the number of years the Rivers Monorail has been on construction apparently going to nowhere

MadCow1: the cost of building that monorail is crippling especially in an urban area like port-harcourt.

The first city planners did not provide for the future. The monies paid in compensation alone is staggering. That's why the monorail was broken down into milestones. This is the first leg. The next would start from where this one stopped. The master plan for the monorail covers from Lagos bustop to Obigbo and from Azikiwe road to the Airport.

Relax, he is setting a precedence that can't be ignored.

For over 7 years he has been in govt we have been relaxing..when will our wait end?...So he can't build more than 3Km in 7 years?

Auto Policy is working...Good One there

Atlwires pls modify the topic and add the date it is coming out August 8..so that the headline will be more eye catching

papiforreal: These pics are from Road construction here in Kano.

Some of you are just incredible...a road in Kano now has a river?....Tufiakwa

Good one TabletMan...pls create a separate thread for the pics and mynd must push it to the front page

Mynd_44 can I know exactly what is making you excited?

A Twitter hashtag is being used to attack Levick for its work with Goodluck Jonathan.

The Washington public affairs firm Levick is coming under fire for its contract with the government of Nigeria.

A campaign hashtagged #SomeoneTellLevick is being used to attack the firm for its $1.2 million deal to represent Nigerian

President Goodluck Jonathan, who has been criticized as not doing enough to find the more than 200 girls kidnapped in his country by the extremist group Boko Haram.

Former Nigerian government and World Bank official Oby
Ezekwesili is among those taking issue with Levick’s work.

“How can @LEVICK earn filthy income on the back of innocent women (amp;men) that have STOOD EVERYDAY for 78 DAYS DEMANDING: #BringBackOurGirls?” Ezekwesili tweeted,

<strong>as first reported by</strong> the Los Angeles
Times, which says she was one of the main organizers of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign in Nigeria.

The anti-Levick campaign has resulted in more than 5,000 individual tweets, according to Twitter analytics website

Topsy, most appearing to originate in Nigeria. In addition,
there are also more than 6,000 tweets mentioning Levick’s handle, @Levick, on Twitter in the last two days.

The Hill <strong>first reported the news</strong> about the Levick contract, which the firm actually signed with a state- run news agency in Nigeria.

Levick says it is performing more than just public relations work for Jonathan, and is partnering with a high-profile human rights lawyer to provide legal advice on how best to combat Boko Haram, which kidnapped an estimated 270 girls in April.

The contract states Levick's work is part of a larger effort to create “real change” in Nigeria.

As the world witnesses the brutality of Boko Haram, and I
ts cowardly tactics of using children as pawns in their terrorist campaign, Levick’s only mission is assisting the Government of Nigeria with its number one priority — the rescue of the girls and combating terrorism,” the firm said in a statement to The Hill.

The hashtag campaign has drawn pushback from other
Twitter users who have praised the Jonathan administration and defended Levick.

Some of the messages from both sides are politically charged,as the country is set for elections in February. Jonathan is expected to run for reelection, but has not yet announced a formal bid.

One of the opposing parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and a co-founder of the “Bring Back Our Girls” movement in Nigeria, hired public relations giant Burson- Marsteller to arrange a single meeting in Washington D.C.,according to a filing with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

“The firm was originally approached to support a one-off visit to Washington, D.C. by the co-founder of the ‘Bring Back Your [sic] Girls’ campaign and other APC officials. But the visit was called off,” a spokeswoman from Burson-Marsteller wrote in an email. “We are in the process of de-registering with FARA [the
Foreign Agents Registration Act].”

The one-month, $100,000 contract was abandoned after the meeting was canceled, she said.Burson had subcontracted with the public affairs firm Prime
Policy Group, which also confirmed to The Hill that the work had ended

mobile.thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/lobbying-contracts/212715-pr-firm-under-fire-for-contract-with-nigeria

HappyJoe: Nothing is happening there. If that "port" starts operation in 10 years time, collect a million dollars from me.

Onye nkuzi...You and all these ur bets...Remember u said something similar on 2nd Niger bridge,Lagos-Ibadan highway,2014 budget and many more...

Obiagelli: thumbs up to all that made this project a success, can't wait to start eating paddy rice.

If u say thumbs up to the GEJ admin...you go die?

egift: Did you miss this part or you are just trying very hard to defame them?

Don't show me what a follow follow BBOG member who might not even know the inner workings of the group said...point out where Ezekwesili denied that allegation in her Op-ed and I'll keep shut and subsequently apologize

Read through...they didn't deny ogar's allegations...they didn't deny having a bank account nor that members have to register

OAM4J: Another corruption case swept under the carpet on the altar Jonathan's reelection.

Jesus wept!

I used to think you have got a brain....

GEJ spent barely one year in Bayelsa state govt house & that year was a pre-election year

No wonder they are fighting tooth & nail to occupy Aso Rock come 2015...so that they can continue( & even make more bogus) this lie...

We need to shine our eyes in this country...without an accurate demographic data we ain't going anywhere...You know this data is what determines FAAC allocation...determines state creation etc...and this people are just bent on maintaining the status quo

Civilian JTF...we saw it coming

A terrorists’ intelligence cell headed by a businessman
who participated actively in the abduction of School Girls
in Chibok has been busted by troops. The man, Babuji
Ya’ari who is also a member of the Youth Vigilante Group
popularly known as Civilian JTF which he uses as cover
while remaining an active terrorist, also spearheaded the
murder of the Emir of Gwoza. His main role in the group
is to spy and gather information for the terrorists group.
Babuji has been coordinating several deadly attacks in
Maiduguri since 2011, including the daring attacks on
Customs and military locations as well as the planting of
IEDs in several locations in the town.

The arrest of the businessman who is known to deal in
tricycles has also yielded some vital information and
facilitated the arrest of other members of the terrorists’
intelligence cell who are women. One of them, Hafsat
Bako had earlier escaped to Gombe State to avoid
suspicion but was tracked and arrested. Prior to her
arrest, Hafsat coordinated the payment of other operatives on the payroll of the group. In her confession, she disclosed that a minimum of N10,000 is paid to each
operative depending on the enormity of his task.

Another female suspect named Haj Kaka who doubles as
an armourer and a spy for the terrorists group has also
been arrested. Until their arrest, all the suspects actively
operated a terrorists’ intelligence cell in collaboration with
others still at large.
In another development, troops deployed in Goniri, Yobe
State, over the weekend, had an encounter with terrorists,
resulting in casualties on both sides after the attack was
successfully repelled.

CHRIS OLUKOLADE
Major General
Director Defence Information

defenceinfo.mil.ng/troops-bust-terrorists-intelligence-network-arrest-a-key-actor-in-chibok-abduction/

Was Lai Mohammed drunk when he issued this statement condemning the proscribing of Boko Haram?
www.vanguardngr.com/2013/06/proscribing-boko-haram-ansaru-wrong-says-acn/

Crap...Do you know how the "Job/Vacancies","Careers","NYSC" sections have helped millions of young Nigerians to network and secure their dream jobs?...Do you know the data loss & valuable time lost in those sections when nairaland was down?..

Abeg park well