₦airaland Forum

OMG2013: I listened to d coordinating minister of d economy on d said day she made those coMments were made and she carefully chose her words knowing fully well that it might be mis-interpreted by some quarters which we're now facing...back to d issue on ground I also listened to d spokesman of d House of Reps 2day on d same program and all wht he was screaming was blackmail...shying away from d fact...he was even saying such issues should not be brought to public glare because its like blackmailing d reps...even when one of d political analyst on d program...categorically said dey av it on good authority that some sub heads were moved 2 roads of d speaker of d house of rep...which is local govt road and not a federal road...his comments really shows that d house of reps re playing politics of 2015 wif our progress as a nation.

oshyno: I don't anything wronge in what tinubu has said. That is a political statement which PDP is used to even. Tinubu is mainly saying d PDP guy doesn't stand a chance and thus shudnt bother contesting. I hate Tinubu with a passion though.

The Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, on Thursday said the Federal Government would complete all ongoing road projects, including the Oyo-Ogbomosho section of the Ibadan-Ilorin Expressway.

Mr. Onolememen stated this at the inauguration of the N20.1billion Ibadan-Oyo section of the four-lane expressway.

The contract for the 43.25 kilometre Ibadan-Oyo road project was first awarded on Jan. 31, 2001.

The minister said that the Federal Government was committed to putting in place a good road network to enhance the movement of people and goods.

“One of the major programmes of the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan is to provide the people with a better road network across the country.

“This programme is very important to Nigeria because it has led to a reduction in traffic congestion,’’ he said.

The minister, however, urged all road users to refrain from the abuse of the road by engaging in overloading, indiscriminate parking and dumping of refuse.

“The Federal Government will continue to carry out the maintenance of the road networks,’’ he said.

In her address, the Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Jumoke Akinjide, said President Goodluck Jonathan had pledged to reconstruct the Olorunsogo-Ona-Ara- Akanran road.

She also said the president would flag-off the re-construction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Friday.

Earlier, Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State said that the inauguration was long awaited; noting that it was coming 12 years after construction first began.

Mr. Ajimobi, who was represented by Akin Olajide, the Secretary to the State Government, pleaded for the quick completion of the Oyo-Ogbomosho section of the road.

“We will like to bring to the notice of the minister again that the Federal Government is owing the state the sum of N18.4billion which the state government had expended on the construction of some federal roads,’’ he added.

He further said that his administration had awarded 251 road contracts across the state, with some already completed and inaugurated.

Among dignitaries at the inauguration were Bashir Yuguda, the Minister of State for Works, and Kabir Abdullahi, the Federal Director of Highways in the South-West Zone.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has accused the leader of opposition Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Bola Tinubu of “carrying his despotism too far” by allegedly seeking to bar some persons from contesting the Ekiti state governorship election in 2014.

The Nigerian ruling party in a statement by its Acting National Publicity Secretary, Tony Okeke, on Thursday, said it is extremely “wicked and undemocratic” for Mr. Tinubu to order a House of Representatives member from Ekiti state, Opeyemi Bamidele, to forget his governorship ambition adding that such smacks of tyranny and outright disdain for democracy.

The ACN leader had led a delegation of the party’s leadership to Ekiti State on Tuesday where incumbent governor, Kayode Fayemi, was reportedly endorsed as the party’s candidate for the 2014 governorship election, thereby putting paid the ambition of Mr. Bamidele to vie for the office of the governor.

The PDP however said “by ordering a House of Representatives member from Ekiti state, Hon Opeyemi Bamidele to forget his governorship ambition in the 2014 governorship election, Tinubu has once again displayed his despotic tendencies and utter disdain for democratic process.

“This is extremely wicked and indeed the height of tyranny and outright disparagement for the people and their right to choose their leaders as guaranteed by the 1999 constitution as amended”, the statement said.

The party also said that since Mr. Tinubu is not even from Ekiti State, he should not decide for the people, and urged the people of the state “to rise up to the occasion and defend their rights by rejecting the usual practice of allowing god-fathers to select their leaders for them.

“In openly endorsing Ekiti state governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi for a second term and ordering Hon. Opeyemi to forget his ambition, Tinubu has clearly shown his resolve to truncate laid down electoral processes so as to retain the system through which the resources of the state are being diverted to private purses,” the party said.

Claiming that the ACN has shown that it is not ready to respect the rights of the people, the PDP urged all lovers of democracy to come over to the “national party where no individual sits in his room and decides who will be candidate for an election”.

samilo88: The last time I checked, this was the party that wants us all to believe that they alone have the monopoly to offer good governance. Smh..

awodman: “Like most human follies, military coups sound good at the time; and always fail. They sound good because what they replace is usually bad: riotous civilian leaders, corrupted institutions, stolen elections. They fail because beneath the chaos are political problems that soldiers cannot unpick...”

The foregoing quote was taken from a January, 2006
edition of the ‘Economist’ magazine, following a coup
d’etat in Bangladesh where some military Generals seized
power from a corrupt and inept civilian leadership.

However, after the initial euphoria by the people, the
reality was to sink in, as it always does, that soldiers have
no magic solution for dealing with complex socio-political
problems.

It is against this background that one can situate the
current turmoil in Egypt. On Monday, the military
authorities upped the ante with a curious statement that
was hailed by many Egyptian protesters and which has
also excited not a few Nigerians. With troops deployed in
strategic positions across Cairo, General Abdel Fattah al-
Sisi, defence minister and head of the armed forces,
warned that the army would intervene if the government
and its opponents failed to heed “the will of the people”
within 48 hours. Last night, Al-Sisi made good his threat
when he sacked the democratically elected government of President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood and picked the chief justice of constitutional court to take over.

Not surprisingly, there were jubilations on the streets of
Cairo last night following the military intervention. And with the grass always greener on the other side, I have read some of our online commentators disparaging Nigerians for not acting like the Egyptians and that we need that sort of street intervention to deal with our current political challenge. Before I go further, it is important to highlight some of the grievances of the opposition movement behind the seemingly endless protests on the streets of Cairo.

By the expectations of the protesters, a government that
had barely spent one year in office ought to have restored
security to the level it was before President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011. Aside protesting that there was “no justice” for the people killed by security forces in the course of the anti-government protests of the last two
years, they also claimed that “no dignity is left” for
Egyptians or their country and that the economy has
“collapsed”. With all that, the opposition movement gave
Morsi until last Tuesday to step down and call fresh
presidential elections, or else face a campaign of civil
disobedience which the army capitalized upon to overthrow the government yesterday.

For every grouse that an Egyptian can level against their
government, a Nigerian can probably come up with ten
about our government. So it came as no surprise that some of our compatriots would romanticise “revolutions” or any form of political upheaval that will sweep away the current system and its operators. Incidentally, this had actually been a subject of interrogation in the not-too-distant past, following a May 2005 document from the United States National Intelligence Council, entitled “Mapping Sub- Saharan Africa’s Future”. Specifically, under the sub-heading “Downside Risks” in the report, the US National Intelligence Council had claimed that “while currently Nigeria’s leaders are locked in a bad marriage that all dislike but dare not leave, there are possibilities that could disrupt the precarious equilibrium in Abuja. The most important would be a junior officer coup that could destabilize the country to the extent that open warfare breaks out in many places in a sustained manner.”

In his response to the US report back then, President
Obasanjo had dismissed most of the assumptions that
informed the conclusion. But he also noted most
poignantly: “It is important for us to know that we are
being rated low, not because of what is happening to us
from outside but because of what we do to, for and by
ourselves internally...”

Yes, what is true of Egypt is true of our country today as
many are disillusioned with our politicians, including those who claim to be in opposition yet whose values are at variance with what they mouth publicly. But the fact also remains that all the demonstrations of the last two years have not improved the material conditions of the people of Egypt and there is no sign that things will get better anytime soon. In fact, chances are that things may actually get worse. To that extent, whatever may be our misgivings about the current political situation in the country, the future of our nation depends largely on sustaining our democracy and making it work.

However, there is also this erroneous assumption that the
Nigerian people are docile and that a revolution can never
happen here. What I find most interesting is that even
people in government believe this lie, the same way it was assumed and always glibly said in the past that an average Nigerian loves life so much that not one of our nationals could ever be a suicide bomber. Now, we know better.

Far more difficult to understand is that public office holders who call for “revolution” always assume that if such ever happened, it would leave them untouched. Two days ago in Lagos, House of Representatives Speaker, Hon Aminu Tambuwal, said in a paper he personally presented: “The most compelling reasons for revolution throughout the ages were injustice, crushing poverty, marginalization,lawlessness, joblessness, and general disaffection of the ruling elite. You will agree with me that these factors capture the conditions of our nation now, to a large extent.” Fair enough you will say, but then Tambuwal would rather prescribe an “intellectual revolution” to resolve such contradictions, evidently because he is well aware that he is also in the line of fire should our people ever revolt!

What those who misread the maturity of the Nigerian
masses ignore is that political upheavals are usually
spontaneous actions that most often result from innocuous things; like the self-immolation of the Tunisian man which ignited the uprising in his country and eventually, the entire Arab world. Even then, it is not true that Nigerians cannot offer sustained resistance against authority. Many of us were living witnesses to the June/July 1993 post-annulment (of the presidential election) demonstrations on the streets of Lagos that ultimately forced then military president, General Ibrahim Babangida out of power. And the January 2012 national protests against hike in fuel price is still fresh in our memory. It will therefore be baseless for anybody to assume that the Nigerian people are not capable of rising against those in power.

The point never to be missed, however, is that perpetual
street protests offer no predictable outcome and they could engender sectarian violence from which it may be difficult for a nation to recover as is evident in several Arab countries today. But as the Egyptian protesters rejoice the overthrow of Morsi, I have a message for them: At the end of the day, the ultimate beneficiaries of their struggle may be the same corrupt forces that were in bed with the 30- year dictatorship of Mubarak they upended two years ago.If allowed to take root, democracy, for all its imperfections,has in-built mechanism for improvement and self-correction, even in Egypt.

All said, what happened in Cairo is a good warning to the
powers at home that we cannot assume indefinite
immunity against the things that provoke outrage in other counties. Tahrir Square is perhaps nearer than we may be ready to concede as our people can see around them the combination of factors that are fuelling protests from Rio to Cairo. Worse still, our population distribution in favour of young people makes us prone to impatient revolt. Nobody should therefore be under any illusion that the tide of violent rejection of substandard governance blowing across the world will elude us simply because “this is Nigeria”.

Those who have ears…

A parley called by the leadership of Action Congress of Nigeria in Ifon community of Osun State ended in a free-for-all following a disagreement over the sharing of elective posts among members of the locality.

Findings by our correspondent in Osogbo, on Wednesday, showed that a heated argument ensued during the meeting held at the residence of a party’s leader in the community, Mr. Kelani Orisawale.

It was gathered that the representative of the Irepodun-Orolu State Constituency in Osun House of Assembly, Mr. Kamil Oyedele, and other leaders of the party in the community were present at the meeting.

A source told our correspondent that the free-for-all was a fallout of the intense tussle for the party’s House of Assembly ticket by ACN members in the state constituency.

The Chairman, Osun Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Gani Olaoluwa, condemned the free-for-all that greeted the ACN meeting, saying “it is capable of causing tension in the polity.”

But the state Chairman of the ruling party, Mr. Biyi Adelowo, in a statement, on Wednesday, described the incident as “a heated argument where nobody died like the PDP meeting in Edunabon last Sunday.”

Olaoluwa said, “The fracas that broke out during the ACN meeting in Ifon shows that there is a stockpile of arms and ammunition, with which the ruling party wants to disrupt the 2014 governorship election.

“Several members of the ACN sustained machete cuts while some barely escaped death.”

But the statement by ACN’s Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, quoted Adelowo as saying, “Yes, there was a heated argument over representation at the next House of Assembly election but we are proud that, unlike the PDP meeting in Edunabon last Sunday, nobody ended in the mortuary.”

Rossikk: The FG had actually arranged for the China trip to occur DURING Obama's visit to Africa. It was only after repeated appeals from the US state department for Abuja to delay the trip to avoid embarrassment to Obama, that Abuja finally backed down, and postponed the trip till after Obama's exit.

otokx: Lets hope the funds are used for their intended purpose. Would have preferred if all of it was channeled to the deployment of high speed railways. What is the point investing in the power sector if its being privatized

dasparrow: @Post

I knew Sahara Reporters were right. If the economy was not broke why should the government be owing people salary? Nigeria will never change I tell you.

The U.S.-based multinational General Electric, which points to a 100-year record of involvement in Africa, is one of the companies participating in the Power Africa initiative, announced during President Obama’s Africa visit, designed to double access to electricity across sub Saharan Africa. GE is expanding operations in several places, perhaps most aggressively in Nigeria. Last year, GE and the Federal Government of Nigeria signed three Memorandum of Understanding agreements (MOUs) outlining cooperation in the energy, healthcare and rail transportation sectors. Ground-breaking for a U.S.$250 million manufacturing facility in the port city of Calabar took place two weeks ago. Lazarus Angbazo, President and CEO of GE Nigeria, discussed the company’s growth strategy in an interview with Reed Kramer in Abuja last month. Excerpts:

Why has GE decided to enlarge operations in Nigeria?

This is a country where the GE portfolio – the full GE portfolio – fits perfectly in terms of the need of the country and the capabilities of the country.

You can’t get away from the fundamentals of this country – 170 million people with tremendous natural wealth [and] and an unbelievable entrepreneur spirit. There’s opportunity around the continent, but I have to say that the opportunity is of a different order of magnitude in Nigeria.

The company has been operating in some of the toughest places around the world, and Nigeria is probably one of the toughest. We’ve been operating here for more than four decades. Now top management starting with Jeff Immelt [the CEO], John Rice [vice chairman] and Jay Ireland [CEO of GE Africa] are making a commitment [to increase activities] based upon a sound understanding of the long-term fundamentals of the country. Their support has been amazing – in terms of resources but also in terms of their personal investment of time in the country. They’ve come here many, many times.

I am absolutely convinced that the investment is going to pay – not just in the power sector but in the oil and gas sector, the healthcare sector, the aviation sector or the transportation sector.

Tell us about the new plant being built in Calabar?

When Jeff Immelt came to Nigeria in January, one of the initiatives he announced was the commitment to invest in a multi-model service and manufacturing facility. This facility in the Calabar Free Trade Zone will provide local servicing capability for a full range of power-generating equipment in Nigeria – capability that we’ve never had – and make Nigeria a local hub for servicing GE turbine generating machines for all of Africa.

The facility is both servicing and manufacturing. On the manufacturing side there are a number of product lines in the oil and gas sub-sea exploration and production segment in order that we will be able to localize the manufacture and assembly of those product lines.

For example, regarding the ‘Christmas trees’ used in the sub-sea area, we make well-heads for the deep sea. We have special connectors and pipes that help in transporting what is drilled to a central processing facility for gas or for crude.

This capability is second to none, and Africa will have that. It is really a demonstration of the long-term commitment GE has for developing and supporting both the power sector in Nigeria and the oil and gas sector in this country.

What is the scale of GE’s investment?

A billion U.S. dollars over five years – over U.S. $250 million in capital expenditure on this plant and anywhere upwards of U.S.$800 million, when you consider the supply chain, that will be required to support this investment. It is a huge investment on the scale that we have never seen in Nigeria by any company that is either not in oil and gas or in the telecommunications sector.

The country wants to be a top-20 economy in the next 20 years. When you look at the key enablers of that ambition, it’s got to be power. Without power, there is no future in Nigeria. And in that segment, our commitment is to help develop 10,000 megawatts of incremental power-generating capacity.

We’re on our way in terms of identifying projects that we can support with project development capability as well as with equity. Obviously, we would be able to sell a number of turbines as well.

As Nigeria privatizes the power sector, this opens new opportunities for GE to do business with the Independent Power Producers?

Absolutely. About 70 percent of the installed turbine base in Nigeria is GE. So we sold a lot of turbines. We expect to sell a lot more. As these assets move into private hands, they will be much more incentivized to operate and service these machines to be running at a very high level of reliability and availability. That means service opportunity for us, parts opportunities for us, and O&M [operations and maintenance] support opportunities as well.

It’s win-win. Our role is to accelerate these projects. In exchange for that support we get to sell equipment. We’ve got capability. We’ve got technology. We’ve got the experience, and we provide the operators a very compelling proposition value that allows them to generate real cash flow from assets that have been operating at very low levels of reliability.

Is it realistic to project that Nigeria can more than double boost electricity output in a decade to 10,000 megawatts?

I am very confident that it is achievable. The supply curve for power in Nigeria is well-documented. Estimates range from 40 gigawatts to 80 gigawatts for a country of 170 million people growing at 7 to 8 percent. All the essential elements for a real stampede of investments in Nigeria in the power sector are there. I have no doubt that the country can absorb another 10,000 megawatts very easily.

Power outages remain a major challenge. There are areas – in the northwest, for example, where there has been no electricity for many weeks – and a lot of that has to do with poor transmission infrastructure. How would you characterize the challenges?

We are learning how complicated it is to build a power plant in Nigeria. It’s not like building a house which – if you’ve got money and concrete and blocks – you can get it done. There’s so much still undone on the regulatory side. There’s so much on the financial side still to be done, and there’s human capital development that is required to make these investments sustainable.

But this country has never come this far and towards understanding what it takes to address power issues in Nigeria. As complicated and as overwhelming the challenges are, there is a strategy, and there is commitment.

What involvement does GE have in solving the transmission problems?

Our focus has been on the generating side, as it is with most original equipment manufacturers here. The transmission and distribution business represents an opportunity. We are beginning to have a better understanding of what the constraints are and what investments are going to be needed to build the required capacity.

As excited as we are about the opportunity to sell turbine equipment for generating power, we have opportunities in transmission that we haven’t really done a good job of capitalizing. Whether it’s generating stations, substations or power converters, there’s so much we haven’t focused on, and the country hasn’t focused on it either. It’s a huge, huge challenge for the country but that’s what we see as the opportunity for us.

In what other sectors is GE expanding?

Today, you’ve got about 100 million metric tons of freight that goes on the road, and another 75 million metric tons of weight of freight that goes through the ports. So the essence and the intention of both Mr. President [Goodluck Jonathan] and our chairman was, how do we provide that additional capacity in the logistics rail segment to increase the freight that goes on rail. Currently, only an estimated one percent of freight goes on rail, which is tragic.

We will be localizing the assembly of locomotives in Nigeria in exchange for a guaranteed off-take of about 200 locomotives over five years. If you look at the economy here in Nigeria again, the second key-enabler is the logistic system. Without a strong and viable rail system, it’s impossible to see how a lot of the natural wealth of Nigeria can be commercialized.

In the healthcare sector, again, the goal is to build many diagnostic centers, and then hospitals as well. We are working with private medical entrepreneurs as and with government agencies as well. This is not charity. It is economic development that is in alignment with the development strategy of the country.

Your role is to develop hospitals not operate them?

We are working with medical entrepreneurs and with the government. GE’s role is usually to provide development expertise and – to the extent that it is required – a little bit of catalyst equity. We will not invest if there is no pull-through for GE equipment. The extent of our investment is limited by the amount of equipment pull-through that we see for a company here.

GE is clearly a world leader in power, in transport. Do you face real competition here?

Everybody has discovered the power opportunity in Nigeria, so I am mindful of the competition. I’m not sitting here and saying, “we’ve got the largest install-base and therefore we are home-free”. We are not.

It’s a constant battle everyday. I feel like the underdog here – not because of fear of competition, but because there is so much to do. We are very careful to make sure that we execute and deliver based upon our commitment. We are not resting at all. We are proactively searching all those opportunities and competing in terms of delivering our market value proposition to all of the players.

The more power that comes online, the better it is for GE because it means that GE technologies are working in Nigeria and helping the country grow. It means the GE brand in technology is seen as being a great enabler for the economic growth of the country.

ckkris: She's saying that Prof Nebo has to outsmart the demons CLEARLY IDENTIFIED & NANED. Some people don't want Nigeria to progress, and they're not fools. They're experienced in how to game the system, and Nebo is expected, BY ALL NIGERIANS, to overcome these demons.

tatosh: Why are you all trying so hard to paint GEJ in a bright picture? If he was realy that good, you don't need to be telling us the above, we would already know

Ferdinandu: Is he not right? GEJ has ambitious goals but OBJ had an over-ambitious goals but we didn't see anything but only to hear later that our $16bn dollars has gone to the wind. until we start seeing light anytime we touch the switch in our houses,the goal is still what it is, "A goal"

seunfly: Anybody that says Nigerian gov is not broke is either blind, lives in d cave or something unmentionable is wrong with him or her. otherwise how will one explain the walking out of all state comisioners of finance on minister of state finance, the inability of fed gov to pay her staffs the june salary, rejection of last month allocation by state gov, refusal to release second quater fund for MDA's and so many things dt has been happening. The earlier we accept and find a way forward the better, instead of lies and weaping of sentiment by the blind supporters.

take dat: Is the PDP a Christian Party? Below are the names and religion of members of the newly constituted PDP interim management executive committee. Out of 23 powerful key positions in the PDP, we have 19 currently being occupied by Christians.


1) Bamanga Tukur- Chairman(Muslim)

2) Chibudom Nwuche- Deputy Nat. Chairman(Christian)

3) Remi Akintoye- Nat. Secretary(Christian)

4) Emma Agboti- Deputy Nat. Secretary(Christian)

5) Tony Okeke- Nat. Publicity Secretary(Christian)

6) Caleb Yahya- Deputy Nat. Publicity Secretary(Christian)

7) Simon D. Jok- Nat. Legal Adviser(Christian)

Yau Kwadon- Deputy Nat. Legal Adviser(Christian)

9) Oyibo Nnwaneri- Nat. Women Leader(Christian)

10) Torkwuase Ajor- Deputy Nat. Women Leader(Christian)

11) Yahya Abubakar- Nat. Organizing Secretary(Muslim)

12) Onyemaechi Jideofor- Deputy Nat. Organizing Secretary(Christian)

13) Mohammed Dandari- Nat. Treasurer(Muslim)

14) Augustine Lugbenwie- Deputy Nat. Treasurer(Christian)

15) Bolaji "Akpan" Anani- Nat. Financial Secretary(Christian)

16) Mohammed Sa'ad- Nat. Youth Leader
(Muslim)

17) Peter Adefunmilayo- Deputy Nat. Youth Leader(Christian)

18) Akin Taiwo- Ex Officio(Christian)

19) Mike Akinfenwa- Ex Officio(Christian)

20) Gbenga Oduwaiye- Ex Officio( Christian)


Other influential positions in the PDP:

Goodluck Jonathan- National Leader(Christian)

Tony Anenih- Chairman B.O.T(Christian)

Godswill Akpabio- Chairman, PDP Governors Forum(Christian)



I am yet to see any muslim PDP member or neutral observer protest against the marginalization of muslims in the PDP.

Before some people start calling for my head and calling me an Islamist or Boko Haram, let it be known that I am a Christian but I vehemently oppose the hypocrisy currently being displayed on these boards. Agreed that Christians are in the minority in APC's interim management executive committee, but so far party members who are christians were a part of the ratification process of the executive we should let it be. Those who are promoting this ethno-religious dichotomy amongst us, unite in ethno-religious looting!

ballabriggs: Bla bla bla, was it also GEJ that initiated these "ambitious goals" in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Liberia? Was it also GEJ that initiated the NIPP? Did the NIPP not also have "ambitious goals" set?

Fact is we have spent billions of dollars over the past years, yet electricity supply is not commensurate with this spend.

Someone therefore needs to tell Obama, it is not all about the availability of funds. Obama will do well to start by asking where all the money spent over the years has gone.

ballabriggs: Bla bla bla, since 1985 when they pledged no more power failure to 2004 when they started the NIPP, they have always had "ambitious goals".

What we know today is, "we no get light" while billions of dollars have gone into reforms and electricity generation. These ambitious goals have little meaning.

Prof Corruption: "ACN challenged anyone who doubts the authenticity of the facts and figures quoted above to verify them at INEC, instead of taking to the social media to spread rumours."

take dat: @Sincere9gerian, abeg make the package circulate o as people just dey lobby for their names to be included. Make we sef enjoy from the national cake.

Keep it up bro! Can't knock the hustle!!!