₦airaland Forum

@ Kobo

What is it you don’t understand nor agree with?

I agree with Bawomolo.

Cutting supply will create artificial scarcity for the commodity, therefore pushing the price up. “It also depend on how much cut OPEC is going to embark on”.

The question should be “what is the right price of crude oil” Some people might say because we’re depleting more than we’re exploring globally, and for that the price should be ~$200 to $300. Even with the current situation, OPEC might come up with the argument that there needs to be conservation of crude oil (To affect run out). And even with the current economic crisis…oil is too cheap, that the price needs to be raised above $100. Depend on what side you’re on; most people only care about the prosperity of their economy alone even at the detriment of others.

We all know people are scouting for alternative source of energy…but how feasible is it right now to create that source of alternative energy? People are used to one thing and that is crude oil. For people to change from crude oil mentality to other source of energy, the transportation lines have to be there, adaptability and sustainability have to clearly justify itself. I believe once supply is cut, demand will align with supply. Price will crop up a little bit to create market equilibrium.

My believe

The only way we can profit from this crisis is for our government to focus their attention on how to motivate our brain drain and have them return home. They need to strengthen security, improve on power, education, transportation and other sector. They need to focus on improving most reasons why most Nigerians don’t believe in the economy anymore.

A lot of people are already fleeing America right now, because the land that used to be free of honey and gold is ready to suck the living honey out of you. Unemployment is increasing everyday; people are loosing their homes everyday due to foreclosure, people that use to send money home every week don’t even have the job to cater for themselves. And if this persist, who knows what will happen. Based on the current situation, I’m thinking of relocating. Now the thought/idea is that I will be better off living in my home country… I have a foreign degree, its even better for me to come back and contribute my quota to the system that gave me my early start. I believe I can work for oil companies, banks, & other companies at home while I don’t have to give Uncle Sam half my paycheck. On the other hand, money does not signify happiness. Where does my country stand on security, education, health care, power, infrastructure… if the country fall below average on those question, then the thought of coming to Nigeria suddenly disappears. The thought will further change to which country will I go that will guarantee at least half the pay, plus all those benefits.

My point is
If all the necessary infrastructures are available; Nigerians oversees will come back home, investor will swam our economy like we’ve never seen before due to our population and resources, jobs will be created, government will profit from taxes therefore creating efficient economy. I believe this is how we can profit from the current crisis.

[quote author=WHAT?? link=topic=178266.msg2915988#msg2915988 date=1223529128]I am a proud American and you are seriously delusional if you think the economic issues of our economy doesn't effect you. When the chips are down you want us on your side. When the chips are down for us you kick us when we are down. That's ok though, I'm sure we will survive if we close our borders and stop giving so much to other countries. This way our "big bad Western influence" won't bother you anymore. I was taught to never look a gift horse in the mouth but hey, our country can survive without gifts. How about yours? Does that make you feel better? [/quote]Don’t forget Americans will never give a gift that does not come with an attachment. They will not give gift / aids unless they see a benefit attached to it. They have to do a cost benefit analysis before they can render specific help. Common people, we all know that nothing is free especially in America. I guess it’s a good strategy to keep countries, people loyal to you.

Can the government make it their priority to set up independent parastatals to supervise and guide all non profit investments embarked on foreign coys aided to assist Africans. And if we have this already, then the government should equip this parastatal with resources needed to carry out their job function effectively. We all know most of these so called countries/companies coming to our shores, promising different incentives, ideas …Their strategy are just a marketing ploy to get whatever raw materials they need to elevate their economy. This is supposed to be a mutual benefit; on the long we find out we’re the one getting hurt. I believe failing to monitor their investments; checking properly quality of resources (monetary), quality of manpower, quality of technology that is being deployed into our economy…and evaluating the future impact of all these investments, and make sure our will and dependent on FDI will not put us in a reverse gear .

Others what says yall?

Could this be an approach to have a controlling stake in our economy, to destabilize us from moving forward and always depending on them?

Some of the laws of power are to always make others come to you. “Use bait if necessary”
Keep people dependent on you.
Control the Options: Get others to play with the Cards you Deal

If we look carefully, we will realize that these are the tactics that they are using to align themselves with Africans. They are forming Joint ventures with government entities to cement their tides to extract resources from Africa therefore offerings incentives to help us manage our economy. Their incentives include building of infrastructures using Chinese technology which does not offer knowledge transfer or technology transfer. Meaning we will always be at their mercy for quality product, maintenance or so.

Most of their structured investment ventures set up to assist Africa only award contracts to Chinese contractors. If the money is coming from Chinese government (banks)…they are the only people that are going to supervise what ever projects that is on ground. How do we make sure whatever projects embarked on cater to the needs of the people and done with quality resources?


Could this be true? What can we do to change the mentality and orientation of people to avoid been dependent on countries like China?

@ skyone,

Liquidity is a big problem within the market in terms of consumer spending (this keep going down every day – Due to increase in unemployment), couple with banks freezing lending or lending at a very high rate. What impact will these have on the overall US and British market? Manufacturers who are the major energy users will have to reduce their production level (reduce their energy level due to cash constraints), most consumers are already cutting their gasoline (energy) spending due to budget limitations. Real estate sector which is forecast to take its share of energy is not booming anymore, so the forecast will have to be adjusted to align with reality. Refineries will adjust their production level in order to maximize profit. As time goes on, this will have drastic effect on crude oil demand.
I understand US and Britain are not the only countries jostling for oil. China, India, Japan, France… also contributes to the demand of oil. If all these factors affect US and British economy…, it will also affect those other countries jostling for oil as well (may be not as much). Overall, this will impact crude oil supply and demand globally.

This is my take on the subject.

Yes, the ripple effect will get to Nigeria and Nigerians. On the short run; demand for global oil will reduce, oil prices will fall. Our economy that depends so much on oil price fluctuations will crumble based on this fact alone.

On the long run, I hope this will be a wake up call for our government to elevate infrastructure for other sectors to thrive. The budget is benchmarked around oil prices rather than all general contributing sectors; the lower the oil prices, the worst our economy become. This will send a message to our governing bodies that it is important to diversify our portfolio and pay very good attention to the decay of infrastructure in the country for other sector to thrive, and contribute to taxation for development. They need to lay a solid foundation to improve energy, logistics around the country, health care, securities and all.

Kobojunkie:
Do we need to blend at all? As far as I am concerned the majority of cars in Nigeria are not equipped to run blends, not to speak of E100s. I think we should scale one mountain before we jump into blending. I mean I am all for this experiment, continuing as simply that, experiment. Until we are sure that we have a refinery functioning at some capacity, then we consider the best way to go about production of blends. This to me is another case of putting the horse before the cart.

Do we need to blend at? May be not.

But in order to comply with global warming issues; curtail amount of CO2 emissions (green house effects) from vehicles. Yes we need to.

Kobojunkie:
Imported bad fuel? What exactly is Bad fuel? So E20 is bad? How? From my understanding E20 simply implies 20% ethanol mixture. How did they conclude this is bad when you state above that they are going for 15% mix or there about?

I used the word Bad fuel…because that’s what they used in the article.



I totally agree with you, we need more refineries…and more money should be channeled towards this area. But even, if we build the refinery, we still have to blend them with additives. If we don’t have enough supply of additives, then we will end up importing them into the country.

My point is as we’re making provision to refine our crude oil, we need to be thinking about the ethanol or some form of additives as well.

Sky Blue:
So basically if i am getting this correctly you are saying that the aim is to produce ethanol to be used as an additive for fuel which the country imports from others? So the fuel imported from foreign countries that probably have no crude oil but have refineries, don't these already contain ethanol additives? This is the point i keep driving at, i don't see how this could be more cost effective than investing in a refinery? Is this a joke or some experimant for a science class to show that "it can be done"? LOL. Even if it is being used as an additive, are we all picturing what 300litres looks like?

Yes, that’s my assumption.

It does, because they have to mix the additives later on once the raw gasoline is produced. But at what price are you (as a company) buying the additives from them…when you can pay less from the ethanol manufacturer themselves.

Keep in mind; those refineries that sell E-15 or E-20 have to get their ethanol from ethanol manufacturer. Then, they have to mix the two together. They are in business to refine petroleum product, and also to justify the cost of any additional chemicals used for blending. Those refineries will like to sell you blended product of what they produce the most with additional cost (cost of additives). If the cost of additives is less somewhere else, then you can give refinery your specs of raw product (gasoline product for example) and then you get your additives from ethanol manufacturer (locally) considering cost of transportation…and do the mixing yourself. But again, the costs have to justify it means.

We have refinery in Nigeria. Although those refinery might not be performing up to full capacity, but the product from them still require additives. That’s part of their market. We have some more refineries that will come on stream within the next 2 years or more, they’ll also need additives. It might be cheaper for those refineries to source their ethanol locally.

Kobojunkie:
WHAT THE?? How did you get this?? I mean how do you know 98% of the cars in Nigeria are designed to run on at least 85% gasoline and at least 15% ethanol? I am shocked and would like to know how you got this information.

This is an assumption that I made based on the NNPC’s report that came out couple of months ago. The report stated that some petroleum marketing company imported bad fuel into the country (E20). They quarantined their vessel because of detrimental effect those petroleum products posed to our cars.

May be the number (85%) is a little high, but you get my drift.
I understand that our cars are now coming from different part of the world right now, including Brazil that runs (E100).

Kobojunkie:
Actually, it is not the same. I don’t know how you came to the conclusion that it is but I have to say I do not agree. As Skyblue already pointed out, this is just for test production.

Yes, even if it’s a test production. It makes business sense.

The N15 million will be factored as sunk cost and should be recovered during operation assuming the money is meant for their feasibility study. For every long term investment, you have sunk cost here and there (including floating vessel for crude oil production).

To refine 1 barrel of oil, (building a typical refinery)

Goal: Separate Crude into specific products (boiling Points)

Design phases (Putting all these below into consideration)

Process Design Phase (About 6-12 months):
Process the resulting streams to:
 Remove Sulfur
 Remove contaminants
 Improve Characteristics
 Meet specifications
Processes Considered
 Gas Processing – Gases (Butane & Lighter)
 Gasoline Blending (Light Naphtha blended to produce gasoline)
 Catalytic Reforming (Naphtha catalytic reformed to produce gasoline)
 Hydrotreating – to produce Kerosene & Diesel
 Distillate Fuel Blending – Distillate Product
 Fluid Catalytic Cracking – Heavy gas Oil cracked to produce lighter material
 Coking
Blend streams to maximize profit subject to:
 Product demand and shipping time required
 Product specification
Find a home for all streams


Typical Products (refining Output) includes:
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
Residual Fuel
Distillate
Kerosene
Diesel
Jet fuel
Asphalt
Gasoline (PMS)

Detail design Phase (6-12 months): Designing all specific piping, equipment and processes to work to properly. Answering all what if situations during this stage including safety issues

Construction Phase (12-18 months): Putting all the necessary piping and equipment on ground.


I hope this help

Kobojunkie:
I think we should learn to separate good plans from good ideas. Bio-fuel is a good idea on it’s own but in an oil rich country like Nigeria, is it a good plan? Our government spends 8oo billion on fuel subsidies and the amount is expected to go up by next year, why? One of the main reasons is because we do not refine our own Petroleum products and not because there is a scarcity of oil.
Why are we spending millions on a couple of litres of bio-fuel? Is this so the north can gain independence from southern oil? If so, Ok, but what about the extra costs that will follow? Increased pollution in the north where these plants are to be situated? Cost of large scale production of this fuel? Cost to outfit cars with technology to allow used of these fuels? Cost of transportation of these fuels? Cost to outfit gas stations so they can sell the fuel? Do we have enough money for this? Better yet, does the North have enough money for all this?
There is definitely the good side: job creation, education and skill training for more northerners in the area of bio-fuel technology, opportunity for farmers to get in on the deal. But it remains that the cost needs to be considered.
Speaking of farmers, I can almost see tomato farmers moving to sugar cane farming instead for the quick money and that may have a huge effect on the already low food supply system in the country.

Then we come down to the claim made by the article. How do you justify spending millions of naira on production of just 300 litres become a good plan? Does this include maintainance cost? If yes, PHEW!!! If no, MY GOSH!! I don’t think it is worth it. How much will it cost to produce 1 million gallons?


And yes, even for it being an additive, large scale production is needed for it to be of use.

I think their Idea, planning, initiatives are in the right direction, and they deserve commendation and support. There is demand for this product in Nigeria currently as additives for our petroleum product. Pretty much about 98% of our cars in Nigeria are designed to run on at least 85% gasoline with may be 15% ethanol, so how can we assume that their idea will be to gain independence from southern oil…we all know that is not possible yet. The idea is not to replace gasoline with ethanol…but to reduce the dependent on imported ethanol that are used as additives.

Spending 15 million to produce 300 lit/day is pretty much the same as when you invest $2 billion on floating vessel in order to produce 100,000 barrels of oil /day from oil rig. So what is the problem? This is a one time capital investment except for when expansion sets in.

Let’s all keep in mind; the so called ethanol is an additive to supplement fuel products. I believe this is initial stage and if the plan works well, there is always room for expansion. This is a one time investment that will generate revenue, and to expand the plant should demand increases will not cost that much compared to how much it cost to build the plant initially. Whether some heat exchanger bundles and separation equipments need to be modified or new ones needs to be installed in order to accommodate their target. The cost should justifies its means if they plan properly.

This is from my understanding. I believe the reason why Brazil is able to dominate the sugar industry and ethanol industry at the same time is because they produce sugar from their cultivated sugar cane and produce ethanol from the sugar cane molasses. The molasses is pretty much byproduct from sugarcane, some people call it trash. Having said this… I don’t know what kind of technology they are using in Kaduna, but I will expect them to be producing their ethanol from Sugar cane Molasses and not the sugar cane itself.

The rate at which we ship our raw crude product to another country to later on get the refined product is alarming. If we’ve only spent 887b on oil subsidy within the past 3 years, who knows how much more we will spend in the next coming 10 years with global energy rising day in day out. I only hope those people running this sector are paying attention.

Please, anybody with information on below questions to shed more light on them. Thanks

 What is the current state of our three refineries? I heard that they were all recently recommissioned for production. Are they functioning up to their full capacity?
 What is the current state of Amakpe Refinery and when is their commissioning date?
 The Refinery/Refineries that is supposed to be built around Lagos axis, what stage are they at in their design phase?

AS federal lawmakers continued their review of activities in the Nigerian oil and gas industry yesterday, the contentious issue of fuel subsidy was again thrown up.

Specifically, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulation Agency (PPPRA) told the House of Representatives Committee on Finance at the resumed public hearing in Abuja that in the past three years, the Federal Government spent N887 trillion on oil subsidy in the country.

The disclosure came as the committee queried the N1 trillion yearly deduction from the excess crude account for the operations of the agency.

Source:
http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/news/article06//indexn3_html?pdate=180908&ptitle=Govt%20spends%20N887b%20on%20oil%20subsidy,%20says%20PPPRA&cpdate=180908

Sometimes, dreams do come true.

Obafemi Awolowo

then you can say

Buhari & Tunde Idiagbon

Richguys:
Big B1 to answer your question it is not a matter of what yar adua have done within the 13.5 month of his administration but how he have tackle the problem that arises within the 13.5 month of his gorverment. No body in Nigeria is expecting him to perform magic and transform nigeria into diamond city within the four years of his administration but we do expect him to lay the foundation and leadership example on which everybody can build on. tell me how our dear president is doing that .

is it by declaring war on militant? for heaven sake our primary and secondary education have been in stand still for 3 good weeks how did Mr. president respond to that by travelling out of the country even as the media treatning to go on strike, tell me of any head whose house is on fire and goes on for visitation.

i am not for any reason against yar adua in person, infact i can swear he will make a wonderful husband and father to his family what i do not like is the childish leadership style he is showing. maybe he would have make a very good vice president. you talk about obama, can you compare obama speech to our president speech, immposible obama speak with passion with desire, you can see it in his face, it shows in his action, it make people ready to follow him to the grave. but our own presdent clearly shows that he himself do not believe in his own speeches, he posses no leadership quality. that is why he did not know how to handle all these problems, he was not prepare for them, he has no option but to run away to the uk thinking by the time he is back the problem would have reduce

what our near collapsing country need now is a man of strong will not a timid man, we need a man who is bold not a shy man, we need a man who can motivate the people to do impossible things a man like Lincon, Hilter. A man who have vision not agenda. a man who will give the people hope, A man who is nor afraid, a man who is daring. our country Nigeria lack leaders with vision, if the leader lack vision what can the follower do. nothing you will say but i will say much.

The first solution to problem is to recognise the problem then will think of solution. so let all of us as nigerian accept the fact that we do not have a leader. then we can focus on how to get ahead without a leader don't tell me it is impossible, if other country have not do that does not mean NIGERIAN can not do it. we are Nigeria, the survival blood is in us, we can make things happen. i am not advocating for impeachment but what i am saying is that the country Nigeria is made up of Me and you call \NIGERIAN. so if Nigeria fall it means Nigerians fall, it mean me and you fall.

let begin to look into the future and say positive about Nigeria, bless her do not curse her, if you say Naija is bad it will continue to be bad because the voice of man is the voice of God. so brethen forget about all our leaders and do things in the right way where ever you find your self.

@ Richguys

Good points.

On the other hand, the man called Yaradua cannot implement certain policy without the full backing of the National Assembly. We all know how long it took them (National Assembly) to ratify the budget into law all in the name of modification , [size=5pt]so they say[/size]. My point is, for smooth sailing of our economy; there has to be full cooperation between all the three tiers of government with the interest of the masses at heart. I am of the opinion that our policy makers are not consenting to most of Yaradua policies, because those policies does not address their interests. If these activities persist, then the country will never move forward.

Informative, Nice

In an economy where injustice, corruption, shady practices in corporate worlds prevails day in and day out couple with political instability, are the perennial disadvantages of moving the country in the right direction. Until we challenge individuals, families, for profit and non profit organization, corporations, political parties to place high emphasis on curbing high rate of illiteracy, develop our human resources in order to unwind the wealth of knowledge that is bequeath to them, promote transfer / sharing of knowledge; we will never be able to move the economy forward. Please, don’t get me wrong. I am not saying Nigerians are not educated, or we’re not making progress in sharing of knowledge. All am simply saying is that high rate of illiteracy in the country is really alarming; we need to equip/update our younger generations with the tools / foundation necessary for them to recognize and deduce right from wrong. Right now, most of our primary and secondary schools are in shambles, our higher institutions are nothing to write home about with high rate of strikes couple with our graduates not competent enough to work in the industries e.t.all. We need to combat this sector seriously by placing it on our high priority list. My question to everybody is that, what we can do individually, as family, corporate governance, political lobbyist, and as federal parastatals to uplift / impact our educational system? What can we do to modify/sustain certain progress that we’ve made in this sector in the past couple of years?

Thanks for your contribution.

@ texazzpete

I used Pfizer because it pertains to the situation where there is an adverse effect of certain theories. I guess you will rather I use genetically modified organism as an example. Their drugs include GMO or genetically engineered organism whose genetic material has been altered to create what they want (I guess you know that already). Do we know fully the adverse effect of these new organisms?

And I’m pretty sure that you don’t know that “ebola virus” also came from Africa (based on their claim).

Please, understand my argument. I’m not saying AID did not erupt from Africa, and I’m not saying it did. All I’m simply saying is that, this has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt before we can entertain it as fact. I understand people can conduct experiment and prove legitimacy of certain theory; can we all believe that all these experiment are conducted in good faith. Do we know the motives behind their theory?

texazzpete:
What an uninformed fellow you are

http://www.avert.org/origins.htm

The HIV/AIDs origin from Africa theory actually has extremely strong scientific backing.

A simple Google search would have sufficed to show you how silly your words are. Outrage at a media presentation is no excuse for the abdication of common sense.

@ texazzpete

My man,

These are not my words; you should have seen where this article came from. To the bolded portion, I’ll let the sleeping dogs lie… we’re all civilized people.

I hope you don’t believe every news and publication from Google. Most of these information are not regulated you know (checked for accuracy), so how can you deduce the truth from most of them.

With all these internet publication on the origination of aids, how can we prove their accuracy? How can we prove that AID is not just another failed experiment that was conducted on Africans for crying out loud? Day in day out, we hear about all these pharmaceutical companies conducting research everywhere…using Africans as scape goat to test their theories. The case of Pfizer spring to mind. “Pfizer violated international law during a 1996 epidemic by testing an unapproved drug on children with brain infections at a field hospital”. This happened right here in Nigeria. You need to also see the movie “Constant Gardner” to understand what I’m talking about.

Kobojunkie:
What the heck has science of AIDS to do with your leaders??

chidichris:
we always get angry when anything we think to be bad against us is coming from outside - but why not when they are coming from inside.
look at obj almost destroying AIT for airing his third term agenda in the house. what a shame? look at mugabe, indirectly killing his own people day by day - why?
look at practically all the african leaders, trace their big investments and u will see that they (our rulers) do not even have faith in their own economy.
why are we always blaming the west for calling us inferior when we call ourselves inferior on daily bases.
how many nigerians have been killed of late in indonesia and how many are on death row for drug related offences? how many of us are dying on daily bases in the algerian deserts? what happened to our roads, electricty, water supply, security and other infrastructures? we can equally blame the west for all these.
it is time for us to look back to where we have gone wrong. it is time we starting thinking positively on ways forward, think of how to elect rather than select our rulers. these wars on corruption shld be made a real war rather than a proggramed war on rivals and opositions.
it is time we ban our rulers from traveling abroad for treatment. it is time to change our way of thinking.
we have to embrace the west to understand why they reason the way the do and why they do their best to call a spade a spade.
follow up with this anderson cooper's matter and u will see a thorough investigation by cnn and at the end u will see him resign as a sign of remorse.
but follow borrishade(a proffessor) as minister of education and u will see that when the cries of the masses became unbearable obj cld do nothing but shifting him to the aviation ministry and the man had no option than introducing his calamity expertriate as he made history with a record number of air misharps. did he end there and the answer is no - he was shifted to culture and youth ministry and we can testify to the down going of our movie industries. does these shameful things happen over there and i can't even hear anyone say NO.
we have to accept the fact that we are a failed people.

My reply was because of those bolded section.

chidichris:
we always get angry when anything we think to be bad against us is coming from outside - but why not when they are coming from inside.
look at obj almost destroying AIT for airing his third term agenda in the house. what a shame? look at mugabe, indirectly killing his own people day by day - why?
look at practically all the african leaders, trace their big investments and u will see that they (our rulers) do not even have faith in their own economy.
why are we always blaming the west for calling us inferior when we call ourselves inferior on daily bases.
how many nigerians have been killed of late in indonesia and how many are on death row for drug related offences? how many of us are dying on daily bases in the algerian deserts? what happened to our roads, electricty, water supply, security and other infrastructures? we can equally blame the west for all these.
it is time for us to look back to where we have gone wrong. it is time we starting thinking positively on ways forward, think of how to elect rather than select our rulers. these wars on corruption shld be made a real war rather than a proggramed war on rivals and opositions.
it is time we ban our rulers from traveling abroad for treatment. it is time to change our way of thinking.
we have to embrace the west to understand why they reason the way the do and why they do their best to call a spade a spade.
follow up with this anderson cooper's matter and u will see a thorough investigation by cnn and at the end u will see him resign as a sign of remorse.
but follow borrishade(a proffessor) as minister of education and u will see that when the cries of the masses became unbearable obj cld do nothing but shifting him to the aviation ministry and the man had no option than introducing his calamity expertriate as he made history with a record number of air misharps. did he end there and the answer is no - he was shifted to culture and youth ministry and we can testify to the down going of our movie industries. does these shameful things happen over there and i can't even hear anyone say NO.
we have to accept the fact that we are a failed people.

So because our leaders lack the moral and ethical capabilities to provide, and lead the country in the path of righteousness; does that give any western or even our own (African) journalist the right to publish / air unproven or half baked information?

Source:

http://article.wn.com/view/2008/07/02/Reactions_on_CNN_Anderson_Coopers_False_Presentation_on_Afri_o/

The assertions made by CNN's Anderson Cooper on the 16th of Junethat HIV/AIDS and some other diseases started in African jungles where human beings (Africans) share diseases with apes (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees) have drawn lots of criticisms and uproar among his viewers.At the same time, the article, Anderson Cooper's CNN Negative Journalism about Africa (published by World News on 23rd June), which questioned his professionalism, the scientific processes he carried out before making such conclusions, and his true intentions, has also attracted some reactions from readers.
Many viewers of Cooper's AC 360 who know very well that what he presented about the origin of HIV/AIDS was based on mere speculations,instead of proven scientific facts, felt deceived and misinformed. Some saw it as an insult on Africa or Africans and remembered some other wrong information which CNN had aired about Africa in the past. For example last year, Jeff Koinage, CNN's former correspondent in Africa presented a report about the militia group MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta), struggling to have a better share of the oil revenue for the Niger Delta people. In trying to present the truth that there were problems in the Niger delta, Koinage went to the extent of giving some inducements to hoodlums to put up a show in order to give the impression that the Niger Delta was "hellish and that Nigeria was in a state of civil war." It was found out that MEND, which Koinage claimed to report on, denied any involvement in the whole show.

When the Nigerian government protested, CNN stood strong and held onto their story as a complete truth. When Koinage was later implicated as having influenced and stage managed the show, the Nigerian government punished CNN by removing the advert contract it had with CNN; Koinage was made by CNN to pay the price. Whether Koinage lost his job because CNN lost the advertisement contract with the Nigerian government or because CNN felt that Koinage did what was ethically wrong is yet to be made clear. Some of the viewers questioned if CNN is going to give Mr.Cooper awards for similar unethical actions in Congo and Cameroon.

Some viewers also recalled how CNN aired "How to Rob a Bank,"which seemed to have given viewers the impression that there are more criminals in Nigeria than in other countries. Though there are some Nigerians who have gotten involved in some bank fraud, some viewers felt that CNN as a reputable communication company should have trained its reporters not to make some sweeping statements that could put both the innocent and the guilty in the same camp. There are thousands of Nigerians living in the United States who are very law abiding and doing their businesses in clean ways and without making troubles. These words, "some Nigerians," and "Nigerians," speak differently to viewers and readers. The use of the word "Some Nigerians," gives the viewer the impression that there are some Nigerians who are not involved in Bank robbery, while the use of the word "Nigerians," amounts to a fallacy of over generalization,which makes the viewer think that all Nigerians are bad. It is not the true picture of all Nigerians living in the US.

Interestingly, many viewers who are more politically conscious saw deeper meanings in Mr. Cooper's broadcast about the origin of HIV/AID in Africa. Such politically conscious viewers did not see Cooper as simply insulting Africans but as politicizing the origin of HIV/AIDS possibly for political gains. They asked questions, "Is it only in Africa that we have monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees?" Do we not have such apes in the Amazons of South America and in Asian jungles? What is Anderson Cooper's true intension for connecting human beings in Africa with apes at a period when Americans are about going to the polls? Are there some political implications of his actions?

To answer the above questions, some viewers who know American political and racial history recalled the crude political strategies of the 1700s and 1800s, when politicians and business men, for political and economic reasons, made people see blacks as unable or incapable of achieving what other Americans, especially Americans of European ancestry can achieve. To subjugate blacks as those who can only serve, instead of lead, politicians and business men used social scientists, biologists and theologians to propound false theories and ideologies that dehumanized blacks and presented the black person as sub human or closer to apes. They used "biblical, classical, and scientific arguments to stereotype blacks as limited in mental capacity, as ugly, lazy, promiscuous, odiferous, and dangerous, "(1) A concrete example was Carolus Linnaeus who in 1758 published his widely read Systema Naturae, in which he presented and described various species of the human person with some of these qualities:

Europaenus: white, sanguine, muscular, gentle, acute, and inventive, governed by laws.

Asiaticus: sallow, melancholy, stiff, severe, haughty, avaricious, ruled by opinions.

Americanus Indian: reddish, choleric, erect, obstinate, merry, and free, regulated by custom.

Afer: black, phlegmatic, relaxed, without sexual shame, crafty, indolent, negligent, governed by caprice.(2)

Linnaeus rated Afers last, and immediately after them, he put the orangutang, meaning ape or man of the woods, (3) This was the starting of thedeception of Americans about how they looked at themselves and how they looked at others. This wrong imagery of the black person as closer to apes of the jungles formed the minds of Euro Americans as early as the 1700s. To keep this imagery alive and to form the minds of the black person to believe that he or she is at the lowest racial formation of humanity, and so is incapable of achieving what other Americans can achieve, equal education, economic, and political freedoms were denied the black person for centuries.

However, blacks or Americans of African ancestry have never in history accepted that they are at the lowest level of humanity. They have always resisted this imagery of being incapable of leading or achieving what others have achieved or can achieve. This struggle to show that the black person is capable, gave rise to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and1960s. Though the Civil Rights Movement brought a dramatic change in making many Americans more tolerant of the blacks in politics and in other aspects of the American life, the mind set of not imagining the black person assuming some political and economic posts or heights in America is still very hard for some conservative Americans to accept, even if it means applying the crude political strategies of the past.

So when Anderson Cooper went to the jungles of Congo and Cameroon, and without scientific evidence declared in his AC 360 that HIV/AIDS started in African jungles where human beings share diseases with apes, many viewers recalled history and suspected or even concluded that Mr. Cooper must have been paid by some powerful conservative political folks to do what one viewer called a "political kill-job." A political kill job involves using his show AC 360 to start "a fire on racist straws in the minds of Americans voters" whose attention could easily be drawn to the origin of this deadly and mysterious disease HIV/AIDS in connection with Africa.

Cooper's arrow according to one viewer could be directed at Presidential candidate Barrack Obama who is of African ancestry. One of the most effective ways of dehumanizing Obama and to create bias in the minds of American voters is to take him back to his "unromanticised roots in Africa. Kenya's wild life tourism is not famous with HIV/AIDS infested lions and giraffes. So call in the jungles of the Congos and Cameroon for help." Not many Americans know the difference between Kenya, the Congos and Cameroon. By using the word "Africa," Mr. Cooper demonstrated ignorance of differentiation of African country and African continent hence deceived a lot of Americans to think that Africa is the size of a village or the size of a state in America.

So by presenting a theory similar to the old theories of the 1700s and 1800s that dehumanized the blacks and deprived them of equal political roles, the American voters may think twice preferring a black person for the highest political post in America. Anderson Cooper's AC 360 program is presently seen by many viewers as full of criticisms against Obama and full of comments connecting politics with race. Is Mr. Cooper really working for some conservative politicians? How do we keep him honest? Many viewers feel that this political strategy is not going to work because it is old fashioned strategy, based on deception. Americans can no longer be deceived either with the origin of HIV/AIDS or with the old image of the black person. Americans also know that the world is watching them to see if they can truly overcome the ugly politics of the past decades.

Apart from the political implications of Mr. Cooper's mission in Africa, some viewers also felt uncomfortable with his mission and wished that there be no repeat of what happened in 1932 when "400 poor black sharecroppers with late stage syphilis were part of a government-sponsored medical experiment to see how long it would take them to die if the disease was left untreated."(4) The Tuskegee experiment was discovered to have been based on a "dubious science,"(5) as the victims who taught that they were getting a true treatment were not really given a treatment for cure, even when the treatment for the disease had been found. The black men were used as specimen for experiments. Remembering such historical fact (Tuskegee scandal), many viewers prayed that there be no new mysterious diseases springing up from those jungles, among those apes, only to be tested in future and claimed to have originated from Africa. The credibility of CNN as a media institution is being questioned by many viewers, who also accuse it of putting profit before facts. Some see it as a media institution that is unable to enforce a code of truth and high standard of evidence on its producers, presenters and writers. Some CNN presenters are also being accused of feeling that their viewers are ignorant and unable to carry out a critical analysis of their media reports. Mr. Cooper presenting the origin of HIV/AIDS while still inside the jungle and before their cameras, without presenting to his viewers any scientific processes he carried out before reaching a conclusion is an example of playing with the intelligence of his viewers. CNN seems to be losing the confidence of many of its viewers.

While we acknowledge the efforts CNN is making to keep the public informed of current happenings all over the world, it really needs to keep its journalists honest and transcend acting as a propaganda machine. It can still regain the confidence of many of its viewers as THE MOST TRUSTE DNAME IN NEWS it claims.

Instead of slaughtering cow, cooking and all of that; isn’t there another avenue the man called Adedibu can channel, to affect the life of his people positively. The man is gone, and the people are still hungry as ever. People always say “the man who showed us out to fish is better than the man that gave us fish” I believe basic foundation is a necessecity in every human endeavor; people need basic foundation in order to survive. Instead of cooking, pounding and feeding the neighborhood…why not embark on series of project that will create employment for these masses of people rather than making them your prey. Embark on specific program that will improve on the status of your people one way or the other, infrastructure is there. Giving them food day and night is not going to solve their problem, because they will always come back. I understand the man is not educated, but he has intellectual people on his payroll that should know better. I commend the man Adedibu for taking the initiative to provide food and other financial help to his people. I know Nigeria is bequeathed with wealthy (regardless of how they got their wealth) people like Adedibu that don’t even care about the welfare of their people. Kudos to the man for setting high standard for others to emulate. I just wish whoever is going to fill that role; need to rethink about the needs of his/her people. These people don’t need immediate food; they don’t need certain amount of money here and there. They need Jobs, infrastructure to sustain them for a long time. These wealthy people can build factories where they will employ their people, the factory make money and indigenes also benefit as well. The person, as a high ranking officer of the society (because of his/her wealth and influence) can influence government policy for the betterment of his/her people.

I believe Nigeria needs other source of power generation rather than relying on Hydrocarbon alone. I commend government's initiative for pushing towards nuclear energy and some other form of energy policy. This idea will afford us the opportunity to divest our source of power generation, capitalize on the strategy and improve total power generated within the country to 50,000 mw or more. Also, G8 critiquing our preparedness should be a welcome idea. I know we can do this; we have the human and capital resources to handle this type of technology. This will definitely strengthens what ever preparation they have in place. It is from strong criticism you get the best out of people. I just hope my people are not fronting this idea just to siphon money into their own pocket.