₦airaland Forum

tundchip2:
Pic 2. Airport Station I guess they meant Railway Station. This country no balance at all.

By the way, the light rail is just propaganda mostly. The train that passes my side everyday is a re-furbished diesel engine that goes maybe 80km/hr. I haven't seen no light rail cab on the tracks for the past 1 year.

What is the definition of light rail? As far as I've seen the train I see here is not very different from what is used within dubai. Perhaps the means of powering it may be different. But went does it really matter to you if we use diesel and they use electricity.

Tittos:
You do realise that picture is a digital model also called a computer generated model and not a real picture. The idu station is of the Lagos model . Have we come to the point where we now pass off computer images as how Nigeria looks for clout or for politics. BTW, these counties have moved to speed trains and electric trains, so no one will have confused these pics for Tokyo or Dubai. Not especially when these kinda trains in these countries are being phased out

Guy, no picture of the 4 I see above is a digital model. They are real pictures.

jumobi1:
No reasonable person will confuse that picture for Tokyo, Dubai or London.

Get the context in what the guy was saying ,instead of looking at it literally.

That's why nigerian graduates don't do well in interviews. No ability to discern nuances, context and poor emotional intelligence

Poor spending power is indeed a problem with places such as Obudu in Nigeria, amongst other issues like maintenance, accessibility and cost.

I always say that FG needs to make reinvigorating the middle class in Nigeria. Its always better for 1mln people to have N1mln, than 10k people to have N1bln, when the rest are poor.

I always wanted to go there like 10years ago during Duke's time. But it seems to have been going down the hill since then.

Obudu needs to be privately managed and with investment to improve the facility and also lots of local and international advertising. It should be a place people from Ghana, Togo, Senegal, Ivory Coast etc are visiting.

Litmus:
Nigerians are lively, adventures types and wanting to travel to distant lands is part of the deal. It is part of the human condition, this travel bug in our guts. I only wish Nigerians would realize this and stop saying they left Nigeria or want to travel from Nigeria because Nigeria is a shithole. We all need to change that negative refrain of leave it to the political types that do so for Grandstanding Statement purposes.

I do not agree that we are adventurous types. When we travel all most people are interested in is shopping.

How many Nigerians do you find bungee jumping, hiking, mountain climbing, kayaking, sky diving etc. But go to any mall and you will see us there.

Lionelbhass:
People do patronize this particular destination, but the pandemic at hand has it own negative effects. So

Not as much as they should for a country of 200m. I think that's the point!

naptu2:
These are pictures of furniture that was made in Aba. The pictures were shared by Sam Hart, the director general of the Abia State Marketing and Quality Management Agency.

Don't know why Igbo people like these ugly chairs that have all this fake gold edges and stuff. Every time you see the picture of a rich Igbo man's house you see it there.

I don't know why we like to build housing estates in Nigeria with no roads or infrastructure!!! Dirt roads everywhere and no drainage.

The first thing to do in anew layout is to do the road and drainage infrastructure, but here in Nigeria we always leave that for last and start managing! Soon, this estate will be experiencing flood and it's only at that point will people be looking for water channels.

Also I can't understand why houses can't be in straight line. This is a brand new area with no impediment, yet plots and houses are already haphazard.

TooNoisy:
This Government is extremely unserious. You were able to pay only 20% of the total amount Generated by Gencos and you are proud to say it. How do you want the generating companies to survive if they get only 20% of their revenues? How do you expect investors to come invest in the Power sector when they get paid only 20% of their forecasted revenue.

This government is shameless. They have no idea how to fix the power sector and they are not even pretending they do.

The way to fix it is what they have done, which most Nigerians don't want to hear, which is increase tarrif to plug the revenue gaps

Angelfrost:
Enugu airport is beyond embarrassing... It's shameful and shocking!!!

There was a post a few days ago which suggested that abrand new terminal for Enugu was being built on the side, similar to the approach for PH. When its ready (and it looked almost ready) it will be a replica of the new PH international, so calm down.

Any body investing starts with the one that yields highest ROI, which in this case is Lagos, Abuja, Kano, PH and Enugu in that order.

And FYI, the Lagos one which is even the top of that list is not completed yet due to design issues that were not thought of at the start.

So be calming down

Don't know why all states suddenly have an obsession with airports. Bayelsa is building, Akwa ibom that has an airport is building another, Anambra is building and I think Osun and Ebonyi as well, not to talk of some northern States too.

Remains to be seen how many of them can be sustained without government subvention.

ZIAZI:
Sire, are you aware that Shell has caused more harm than good in the Niger Delta? Does the UNEP Report on Ogoni ring a bell? Are you aware that Shell has contributed to insecurity in Rivers by sponsoring cultists to guard their oil facilities which has in turn caused cult clashes between interested cult groups?
Allow people protest when they feel aggrieved.

The part about cultists is a damned lie. Shell facilities are protected by Government security agencies. Which right minded person uses a cultist for security, much less a multinational.

Does it even make sense?

nony43:
They are sacking the indigenes when so many Northerners and Yorubas are occupying different positions there

I can tell you authoritatively that Northerners in Shell are not up to 1%. Reality is that Shell conducts its recruitment to world class standards and most northerners even with degree will not pass their entrance test, cos they earned their degree by lower standards.

Unfortunately most south south states have the same issue with education. Their youths don't go to school as much. The South West and South East have far more numbers in the education space and this is duly represented in those thst work for Shell.

To test it, go and look at the official list of chartered accountants from ICAN, or registered Engineers from NSE, or registered lawyers from NBA, you will find that South West and South East lead the way. South South and North are at the rear.

And this is a problem caused by the State Governors mainly cos primary and secondary education is in their remit. Before anyone starts to cry FG or Buhari. NDDC that should have helped, its the same South South people that undermine it as we have recently seen, so don't blame anyone else o.

First of all the riff raffs I see in that picture don't really look like the quality of people that would be contractor staff of shell.

Second, so these guys don't know that demand for crude has tanked globally and that there is a global pandemic with job loss! They dont realise that oil projects are being slowed down or outrightly cancelled world wide?

Just the same Nigerian entitlement mentality that we have.

RuudVanNisteroy:
You still didn't answer my question. How did he appease IBB,Abacha and OBJ to be given favourable policies and monopoly to import key commodities?

What favourable policy exactly. Be specific please. I have been very specific with all my fact's with dates etc . As I recall, others also bought cement plants from the technical committee on privatization then.

When Dangote had licences for re bagging cement, others like Ibeto also had same licence. Dangote had connections and advantage being a northern oligarch no doubt, but my point is HE DOES NOT OPERATE A MONOPOLY IN CEMENT AND FLOUR. Mind you 80%of his wealth is cement. And not just because of Nigeria but mainly his Africa cement operations. 50% of the 80% comes from outside Nigeria.

And if he had bribed along the way given how corrupt we all are, why have others not done same? Trust me, they probably tried but a northerner will never stab themselves in the back for a southerner. Again it's a function of the northern political powerhouse, not because Ibeto or anyone else is not corrupt. Do you think Ibeto doesn't bribe customs and Co?

I abhore corruption but I do realise its a way off life in Nigeria

RuudVanNisteroy:
That is what i'm saying. He did enjoy monopolies in the 80's and 90's and had almost all the market share. How did he appease IBB,Abacha and OBJ to have favourable policies and be given monopoly to import key commodities during those times?Do you think they made decisions favourable to him because they like their face.

Still don't understand this 80's monopoly you keep saying for someone who bought BCC in 1990 and launched Obajana in 1994 or so. In fact after buying BCC , the indigenes did not allow him operate for almost 2 years before the community issue was settled. That may have been what drove him to build Obajana brand new sef. Meanwhile Lafarge was there already o! As well as NORTHERN Nigeria cement company sokoto and Ashaka cement

Besides Dangote uncle was already a rich man then, so obviously Dangote started business as a connected young man. And we all know that the north thrives on connection, so it's just his luck.

Femi Otedola also became wealthy through his Governor father. Almost single handedly supplying diesel to a huge market like Lagos. Why is nobody shooting about that? Why always Dangote!

RuudVanNisteroy:
You keep missing my point. What was the trade-off to get monopoly from evil fantastically corrupt crooks like IBB,Abacha and OBJ and have government policy favour him.

. You know those leaders deal in dollars,pounds and swiss francs.

I keep saying and have proven he doesn't have monopoly. You keep missing that point too!

Do you think any of the Bank Md's are not corrupt? Is it not forex scam all of them used to blow in the 90's and 2000's. No big private entity in Nigeria is above corruption.

RuudVanNisteroy:
In each industry, the Dangote Group has been able to climb from zero production at market entry to become a
top producer in a relatively brief period. Sugar refining began in 1999 and today the Group manufactures an estimated 100 percent of Nigeria's sugar consumption needs. In cement, the Group reports it started from zero importation of production inputs five years ago to today
importing between 3.5 and 4.0 million tons each year, comprising 50 percent of imported cement into Nigeria and 40 percent of the total cement market in Nigeria. A Dangote manager told AgAttache and Econoff the Group's goal is to dominate every sector in which it operates. He also
proclaimed its willingness to play hardball to reach its goal

Because of their influence in the Hausa and Muslim communities, Dangote and Dantata have always been useful to both the civilian and military leaders who ruled Nigeria. Dangote enjoyed GON favoritism in the form of importing rights throughout the military regimes and coups of the 1980s and 90s. Though he has connections with political figures throughout the country, his link to Obasanjo (OBJ) paid off when OBJ was elected president in 1999. Since then, Dangote's market advantages and growth have multiplied.



Excerpt from Wikileaks. You keep making it seem like he was some kind of self made man.

Dude, his influence being a northerner is his luck and a function of the political smartness of the north as a whole.

If Awo and Zik had collaborated early on, maybe the north would not have dominated politically and Dangote we know today would never have been. But that is his luck. That propelled him yes, but not every northern business man used that advantage to multiply himself. When OBJ was president, if we didn't use the opportunity to grow a Southern mega business man, the that's also due to our political naievity.

RuudVanNisteroy:
In each industry, the Dangote Group has been able to climb from zero production at market entry to become a
top producer in a relatively brief period. Sugar refining began in 1999 and today the Group manufactures an estimated 100 percent of Nigeria's sugar consumption needs. In cement, the Group reports it started from zero importation of production inputs five years ago to today
importing between 3.5 and 4.0 million tons each year, comprising 50 percent of imported cement into Nigeria and 40 percent of the total cement market in Nigeria. A Dangote manager told AgAttache and Econoff the Group's goal is to dominate every sector in which it operates. He also
proclaimed its willingness to play hardball to reach its goal

Because of their influence in the Hausa and Muslim communities, Dangote and Dantata have always been useful to both the civilian and military leaders who ruled Nigeria. Dangote enjoyed GON favoritism in the form of importing rights throughout the military regimes and coups of the 1980s and 90s. Though he has connections with political figures throughout the country, his link to Obasanjo (OBJ) paid off when OBJ was elected president in 1999. Since then, Dangote's market advantages and growth have multiplied.



Excerpt from Wikileaks. You keep making it seem like he was some kind of self made man.

I'm confused!! Which business man would not like to dominate their industry?? You think
Zenith doesn't want to dominate banking? You think Nestle doesn't want to dominate Cadbury? You think Enyimba doesn't want to dominate Heartland? You think Mtn doesn't want to dominate Glo?

And don't get me wrong, it's common knowledge that Dangote is cozy to those in power, but do you know what Ibeto and Co also do? They are just not in the news cos everybody like to hate on Dangote, but it doesn't take away the man's quality as a business man and his vision.

Didn't you hear that COS of Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple were called before US Senatein July or so to have anti corruption grilling? As faras I'm concerned those 4 companies are closer to being a monopoly than Dangote.

RuudVanNisteroy:
Why did you fail to mention the undue advantage he enjoyed from the government in the 80's,90's and 2000's from IBB,Abacha and OBJ?

Okay can you educate us and explain this undue advantage succinctly, instead of just saying the same thing over and over.

SegFault:
Yes you're in their pockets to know where they got the money from, poor people really hate rich people I see it clearly now.

See this one. I'm a senior financial analyst with JP Morgan Chase in Houston. Poor is nowhere near my dictionary, but I work for my money.

For the 100th tone, Dangote has dominant market share but not monopoly!! A Google search indicates he controls 65% of cement market. That IS NOT A MONOPOLY!

Google and Microsoft are more monopolies than Dangote.

And this he was given monopoly in the 80s is nonsense. Dangote first ventured into cement in the 90s when he bough Benue Cement as part of government privatisation. Others also bought at the same time. I think Nkalagu and one in PH and Edo were sold at the same time. Not long after he constructed Obajana and that was the game changer for him. Obajana was so big that it single handedly catapulted him into the dominant force.

For info WAPCO (now lafarge) had been there way before Dangote since the 70's or so. Their plant at the time Dangote was coming up in the 90's was quite old, but rather thN invest, they did not.

When Obajana came on stream with like 3 times capacity and with a brand new efficient plant which was of course much cheaper to operate, it meant that he could sell cheaper and drive others out of business.

Thats why Lafarge had to build a modern factory at Ewekoro to compete. In fact I think they shutdown the old one. But what they built was only about 1.5million metric tones, meanwhile what Obanajna built was like 6million. Surely you understand economies of scale.

SegFault:
Number one it's not your money and therefore not your business number two it's for the people who come to visit so keep your opinion in your pockets.

Idiot!! It actually is our money as tax payers. Only someone who is stupid rich with money he didn't work for would do such a senseless thing.

And dont give me that nonsense of he worked for Shell. Shell can never pay you enough to spend money this way. Unless he stole money from there as well.

obailala:
When Dangote's refinery is completed, Nigerian govt will stop importation of petroleum products completely and the govt will completely deregulate the downstream sector (this has already even just happened). Being basically the sole supplier of such an indispensable product (other private refinery owners would supply less than 10% of Nigeria's demand), Dangote would unanimously fix the pump prices and it wouldn't be less than N250/litre. In less than 5 years, he would have recovered his entire investment and in the next 5 years again, he'd be competing with Gates and Bezos at the top spot, and the gross stupidity of Nigerian governments (past and present) would be exposed clearly for the world to see.

So if Dangote is selling for N250 and I could bring in from South Africa for N180, sourcing forex by myself, why would FG stop me. Don't create unnecessary conspiracy theories. Dangote is just a better business man that has better vision than most. Being connected helps, but that is not all of the story.

She isn't a Nigerian. She's an American of Nigerian decent.

RealEzee:
we don't have a money problem but a management problem here, we keep on making budget yearly and taking loans without immediate effect in the economy, all Nigerians including myself ask for the basic things be met by the government and we will thrive, we talk of taxes daily yet what have they done with it really? I have lost trust for the government unfortunately bud.

Bros, seems you still have that mentality that Nigeria is rich?? No doubt our money from when we were rich has been squandered and contributed to our poverty of today, but as at RIGHT NOW, Nigeria is a poor country!!!!

FG budget for NIGERIA of N8trln is $20bln. CITY OF HOUSTON budget is $5.1bln. TEXAS STATE budget is $251bln!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meanwhile population of Nigeria is 200mln, population of Texas is 29mln!!!!!!!!!

eagleu:
I bet you have never heard about Ibeto cement?

They are still existing are they not? At least they have a functional website as of right now, so I assume they are?

The website say they are building a 5mln tonne cement plant in Ebonyi. This is what we need. It will make Dangote less dominant in the East. By the time they finish, Dangote share drops to maybe 55%. Thats how these things work.

No doubt Dangote has connections in govt, but big business people that donate to Trump and Biden, what do you think they donate for? Fine the system still enables better playing field in Yankee, but you think there arent' those complaining about the practices of Apple, Google, Microsoft and co??

jesmond3945:
but you know cost of drilling 440k barrels is in millions of dollars. They have to sell to Dangote and make some profit. Dangote would now refine and sell to make some profit. The issue is that Dangote used our subsidized dollars to build. Probably he deceived the govt.

Don't mind them. They think the 400k barrels is free. Crude we spent millions to find and bring from the ground should just be given to Dangote free to refine for the sake of cheap petrol?? Oil that has market value of $16mln PER DAY!!!

Then they wonder why we have no roads, good schools and hospitals etc

eagleu:
You're either an economic illiterate or simply blinded to the Dangote cause!

Government doesn't subsidize your Delta ticket, because Delta has many competitors like United, KLM, BA, etc plying the lucrative route.

Government killed off Dangote competitors in cement, sugar, and flour, now the corrupt minister is the one parroting Dangote 's expected pricey products as if she's doing a jingle for Dangote!
How bad, corrupt, and insensitive could that be? Only in Nigeria.

Dangote is a major player in those sectors, but he's not the only player. For cement there is Lafarge, Bua and a few others. Dangote has a 65% market share in cement. The other 35% should also invest more. Lafarge was in the market long before Dangote, but they refused to invest. They were happy with their one plant in Ewekoro. When Obajana came with almost triple their capacity and far more efficient plant, they scrambled to build a new plant in Ewekoro. If anything, Dangote forced their investment.