odumchi: I don't think most of you guys understand the real dangers of industrialization and urbanization. I'm not saying that we shouldn't urbanize ir industrialize, rather I think that such things should be limited to certain areas. Like someone said, urbanization is not the same as development. A rural community can still be developed without being turned into a city. In Afam's words, "God forbid a Nigeria without villages."

I honestly don't want my own rural community to become a city. I don't want us to be outnumbered by foreigners (as in the cases of Aba, Onitsha, Lagos and etc.). I want my community to remain the place where I can go to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. If development is to come, let it come in the form of roads, schools, electricity and pipe-borne water. We don't need large factories or mills. I'd prefer my community to be rural or suburban, but never urban.

As for employment, I think that in every refion, governments should designate specific sites to concentrate commercial and industrial development. An example of what I'm saying is my current suburban community. Although not fully urbanized, we are not impoverished or undeveloped. We have all the amenities that urban dwellers have, but at the same time we haven't sacrificed tranquility and order. Most of our employed citizenry work in the nearest urban center which is 25 miles away.

A surburb like you are refering to is an extension to an urban area, it is not a rural area

Bliss4Lyfe: No it is not? Urbanisation and Industrialisation has to be targeted and designated to a specific sector of any country's economy.

Agriculture is central to any economy survival. Never underestimate agriculture, besides you have the environmental externalities that are attributed to mass urbanization and industrialization that are negative with health implication.

what da hell are you talking about? whats with this agriculture people always talk about but want others to participate in? Like I said there is a big difference between abject poverty and rural living, there is also a big difference subsistence farming resulting from abject poverty and large scale farming!

odumchi: Picture this:

You live in a rural, seaside village. Every morning, you climb up the palm trees that loom over your large, open compound and help yourself to a horn or two of palm-wine. After drinking you head to your farm where you spend the mid-morning hours doing farm work and inspecting your yams which seem to be growing healthily. In the afternoon, you return home and climb into your Peugeot 504 and drive to the nearest city (30 minutes away) an attend to some of your business there. In the evening you return to your small village and spend the remainder of the day at the local palm-wine joint in the company of friends. As you guys discuss, you suggest that the government should establish local industries and create commercial opportunities for your village, so that you won't always have to journey to the city. But is this a good thing?

Twenty years have passed. The government has finally responded to your people's demands. A government corporation has built a tire and a cement factory in your village and has employed hundreds of youths. However, a large portion of your people's forestland has been cleared. In addition to the two factories, a government-commissioned port has been built and now a large market has sprung up in your town as a result. As your town develops into a large commercial and industrial center, thousands of foreigners move in and purchase land originally owned by your people. In addition to their financial investments they bring crime, disease, and strange customs along with them. Before you realize it, you're outnumbered.

Is this really what you wanted? Is this what we need in Nigeria?

I think you are confusing living a rural life with living in abject poverty!

Texas.Cowgirl:


[size=18pt]
Why are PEJ and GEJ silent on this issue?

OBJ would never have allowed such disgusting nonsense.

How many senator do we have in this country? How can 35 senators determine this issue?[/size]

Is it the obj dat said nothing when sharia was introduced in the north or another one

enigmang: Since when did Elele Road become East/West Road

It's not east-west road, but for the purposes of APC propagandist scoring cheap political points in the minds of ignorant Nigerians, we can assume it is east west road.

[size=58pt]Rochas! Rochas!! Rochas!!!
Wake up! Wake up Wake up
You r having a bad dream!!![/size]

bloggernaija: Themselves .they are responsible for the level of desperation in that region .
If the dafinone,utomi ,sunny odogwu and other successful people can come out of the place , why are they desperate.
Bayelsa is a basket case.put simply,it is a dysfunctional state and is beyond help.
Delta state has a lot of human resources courtesy of awolowo extending the free education to hinterlands of the old western region.however ,that state has been hijacked by vultures and mafia ever since.the madness from bayelsa also filters in.however, I believe that delta has more potentials than any other place.
Rivers state has some human resources but it is at the centre of all the madness emanating from the ND.you can call it the capital city of the ND.
Akwa ibom has a docile and peaceful population .they are the most accommodating of all the states in the Niger delta.
Summary
They all share something in common .
They have the greediest ,cruelest ,crudest and most corrupt elites in the country.many of these so called elites are like adedibu.
uneducated
Half educated failures
Well educated but morally bankrupt.
The only reason why they are better than the north is because of Christianity and the receptive to western education.

Those who are well educated and progressive, those who recieved free education, whare are they now? Arent they still parasiting on the oil from the Niger Delta?

dolphinife: I will like us to x-ray the reasons why the Niger-Delta is highly underdeveloped despite its high deposit of crude oil. The people of Niger-Delta are always quick to point accusing fingers to some ethnic groups for milking their natural resources and leaving crumbs for them to swallow. I have found out that these assertions are untrue.

The problem with Niger Delta's underdevelopment can be linked to the niger-deltans. Each of the six Niger delta states received more money in terms of Federal allocations. Ministry of Niger-delta, NDDC, scholarships for oil producing states and so many important schemes have been put in place for the region.

All the former governors of Niger-delta since 1999 are crooks and thieves. Shouldn't these politicians nbe held responsible for their domain?

Mr Dolfin, Governors should be charged with providing the necessary conditions to make people develop them selves with the resources at hand...
Governors can not and will not provide the type of development we desire in the Niger delta...
So how are the SW and the Core north responsible for the underdevelopment in the Nigerdelta?
Simple
By insisting on a policy of sharing instead of a policy of generating
!

Reference: Development comes when leadership rallies people to confront their common challenges, whatever they are. It is then resources can be harnessed. It is often said about this country that our problem is not money, it is poverty.

We donot lack the funds the Chinese provide. In fact we donot lack the technical know-how. What we lack is the will to prioritize our resources and this takes a focused leadership that knows and leads by example and not one that finds itself tip-toeing through dirty laundry in search of help.

I've often said it. With a population in excess of a hundred million, a quarter of a million graduates a year, all the natural resources you can imagine and a total lack of any index of development, it should not take a brain surgeon to tell leadership that they should just put people to work.

It is the people that should build THEIR roads, their refineries, their hospitals, their power plants, their airports, their dams, their homes.

But where we collectively accept to spend our money at Shoprite and ask Julius Berger to build our toilets, then poverty, ignorance and slavery will never be far away.

Of course Dangote took a loan from his uncle but he was FIRST a darn hardworker with a smart nose for opportunity. His uncle did not build him. He built himself. Today he can pay back whatever interest has accrued. Will Nigeria ever be able to repay the Chinese. I mean really repay?

Not only do we not have the funds, we do not also have the technical know how, I would like to know where you think we can get the funds from,
I would like to know what systemic changes we can have before we start being productive?

Reference: Yes you can just like you can take loans to grow a business but the question remains, should we be doing this. Is this the way to develop. Is this the way America became industrialized or China for that matter, I think not.

My view of this is clear. Just as democracy is of the people, by the people and for the people, development likewise should be of the people, by the people and for the people, no matter what.

Development should be people-centric. If a group of people want or need a road they must have the capacity to build it and the cost awareness to value it. It is then their appetite for imports and luxuries can be tempered by the realities of acquisition and maintenance.

When modern civilisation came to these parts, our fore fathers liked what they saw and embraced it. They literaly built their churches, schools, cobblestone roads and bailey bridges with their hands and the little farm produce they gleaned to sell. Then all the white man brought was knowledge. Some of these structure remain standinp today as a testament to the value people placed on them because their sweat mixed the mortar.

That is how America was built, China during the cultural revolution and pre-second world war germany.

No country can develop another without the active participation of its inhabitants. Its a pity this is an electronic forum where space is limited for proper explanation.

I appreciate what you are trying to say, but unwillingness of the average Nigerian to be creative, inventive and productive has roots in the "government will do all" philosophy we are currently running, day in day out we are bombarded with how educated some sections of the country are, forgetting that education is only a means to attaining greater development..
There are laws in his country preventing people from being productive, thankfully some of the laws are making way for sensible ones...

gerald09:
Lemme get dis story straight, Mr president went to china to collect money to give to china to build infrastructure for Nigeria. So Ѿε̲̣̣̣̥ taking a loan from china n give d money back to china after which Ѿε̲̣̣̣̥ wuld pay back that money Ѿε̲̣̣̣̥ Collected from china n gave to china with interest. Wow! Dats just a bad limerick.

Guy concentrate on Tonto dike threads...there you will find peace of mind and harmony..
Rest in prefect peace

greaterlove: . A lot of Nigerians share your view because of the distrust we already have for the government, but if we are really honest I don't think any government could have come up with a better deal. On the quality of job the chiness will do, I for one know the chiness are thinking long term, $3B is a tip of the iceberg of what Nigeria really needs to invest in infrastructure, like someone said in a previous thread, we need about $200B invested in infrastructure if Nigeria really want to be in the top 20 economies, will they the chiness shot themselves in the leg when there is still a long way to go? I don't think so.

So we even need over $200b to get a decent level of infrastructure in the country, Nigeria's budget for infrastructure development every year is no more than $15b, and some baggers on this thread are asking if we need to borrow...
Maybe GEJ should ask GEJ to print the money...surprisingly some of the people asking this type of questions are actually graduates from a university!

Guess what! AD/AC/ACN has been in power in lagos for the past 14years, yet flooding in the state has continued unabated while buildings collapse every other month....
My question is the general populace of Lagos and Nigerian not holding the ACN responsible for the failure to effect positive change in these areas after 14years at the helm of power!

I won't be surprised if his doesn't make the front page because GEJ is not responsible for the flooding or maybe he is? One Nairalanders may be able to twist the logic enough to illustrate how GEJ is responsible for the collapse buildings and floods in lagos

Akpomene, the reasons why Yorubas abuse Jonathan so much boils down to economics..

You see, in sane countries..to whom much is given, much is expected,

But in Nigeria, much by way of education financing (first cocoa, then oil) has been given to the Yorubas,
It would be expected that they lead the nation into an industrial revolution, technological advancement, spread economic empowerment across the country, but what we are seeing is that
The Yorubas who have been given so much are asking for a lot more and GEJ is seen as standing in the way of this.

Fuel subsidy is serious cheating on the owners of the land where oil is produced, but the Yorubas are the champions of subsidized distribution of petroleum products...

The first step to whipping the SW and the rest of the country into a productive mode was taken by GEJ to remove the subsidy and the most educated people in Nigeria have never forgiven him!

Abagworo:

The problem with you and other Nigerians is in the failure to realize that natural resources are no contributions as nobody worked to put them there. You can only claim to contribute when you help in mining the resources or when you help by giving land and condusive environment for the mining companies to operate which all regions in Nigeria seem to score 50%. All Nigerians contribute equally in terms of natural resources. The North contributes more in Agriculture while the South contributes more in formal sector.

Please could you stop this dumb philosophy that it belongs to everybody because nobody put them there?
Resources come in different ways, land, human, mineral, sea, air etc...
People of a specific area should use he resources they have to generate wealth for themselves and pay tax...smple

Most of the write ups above me seam but ignoramus talk from a set of daft people...

Noody even ask ow the money is going to be disbursed, or managed...
Will it go straight to the FG accounts, or will the EU appointment a consultant to manage the funds in payments for EFCC lawyers, investigations, crime labs and other hard wares that make evidence gathering for cases in court easier...

When we make contributions on these forums, always know that it is an opportunity to impact knowledge!

I am very worried about how the govt is funding all these projects it is running...
The FG earns an average of $27b an year and and only this road is gulping $1b is 48 months or
$500m per year...
Keep in mind that there are several other parallel projects

This brings into question the system of over dependence on 9ja delta oil and refusal of the general Nigerian populace to move from a system of sharing funds to a system of contributing to funding the FG..
At the rate we are going it won't be sustainable for very long

playmode: [size=15pt]Intervene? What is this fisherman smoking

How can you intervene in the construction of a road that"belong" to you?

Intervene ko,eggovin ni! Yeye goat wey dey call himself President.
[/size]

Intervene...yes because the previous contract was not working so the govt had to intervene

Abok1:


Now I know you guys are jokers, you should have stated in the title that the train project is just starting, then we will take you serious, not lie in our faces about being in the final phase.

How about the practicability of the exercise? I bet you think constructing an high speed rail line is a joke. It is permissible if you guys are ignorant and rather than try helplessly to mask your naivety, you should come out plainly and admit your folly.

How does it benefit an average Nigerian if you embark on an ego boosting project that is simply senseless to say the least? How does investing billions of dollars into Highspeed rail improve the standard of living of an average Nigerian. How does it improve the standard of education?

An average locomotive train which is not HSR costs between €1.29million ("Inspiro" EMUs) to €4.7million (Vossloh Espania), thats expensive in itself, talkless of an old variant HSR engine of the likes of 300X Shinkansen (1996 or 1997) which costs around $40 million each. How many of those would be needed to effectively service the whole country? or you guys are thinking of buying just one HSR train engine to serve the whole federation.

Lets state the obvious when we see it. GEJ is trying, but investing in HSR is simply stupidity and for you praise singers to applaud such move shows your level of reasoning. GEJ should not finish the whole federal reserve or push Nigeria into years of indebtedness all because of senseless projects. There are millions of projects that could be effectively tackled which would be more beneficial to the masses

Again, this is not HSR, just a normal fast train...take am easy sha

Abok1:
The level of shamelessness as exhibited from Sincere9gerian is just unfathomable.

How would someone shamelessly call track laying the final phase of an High speed train construction project?

Except you don't know what an High speed rail is called which can be understood, don't you dare come to a public fora like Nairaland to lie into our faces.


Firstly, where are the overhead switches for powering the high-speed rail? Until you get to this phase, you cannot say with clear conscience that you are in a final phase of construction.

Secondly, if the overhead current transmitters are constructed, where would the FG conjure up the required power generation to sustain the constant need for the individual railway footprints?

I think you should desist from saying things that you know little about, because its becoming insulting to say the least

Bros, you have truely earned the name ABOKI,
firstly the train tracks being constructed is for fast trains not High speed, and fast trains use diesel, hence no need for power line or power what ever!

Secondly have you seen the project plan and the phases involved, how can you doubt what phase the project is in?

lastmanstandn: I DROVE ON THIS SAME ROAD ON WEDS AND THURS (ORE-IJEBU ODE- LAGOS). AND THIS IS ONE FAT LIE. (MAYBE THIS WAS DONE BETWEEN YESTERDAY AND TODAY) BUT WHAT I AM SEEING IN THIS PICTURE IS ABSOLUTELY NOT ORE-SHAGAMU ROAD. T

If only you could post the real pictures of what you saw...or na 3310 you still dey use?

youngies:

I do not support the removal of immunity clause for the reasons already canvassed above by take dat

All we need is to strengthen our legislative arm of government to do their work the way the constitution envisaged. Their is no kind f misconduct under the sun that legislature does not have the powers to impeach the president or the governor.

Impeachment MUST come before criminal proceedings and NOT the other way round

They dont even need to be strengthened, the provisions for impeachment are clear and straight forward! Removing the immunity clause is just an admission that the HOR do not know what their scope of work is

take dat: Why should duly elected political office holders lose their immunity, therefore subjecting them to civil and criminal prosecution? Removal of immunity clause will generate a lot of distractions and would impermissibly interfere in the discharge of their duties. We cannot afford to have leaders whose energies are diverted by concerns with lawsuits thereby neglecting the effective functioning of government.

We already have an impeachment clause in the constitution, Impeachment should precede prosecution. Whenever an elected official is found wanting most especially in the areas of financial impropriety or misuse/abuse of power, such person should be impeached by the House of Assembly or the National Assembly and then face prosecution. What we should rise against is legislative docility, they should be alive to their statutory duties of scrutinizing the activities of the executive, check the profligacy and recklessness of the executive arm, and not to serve as an appendage to it. Removal of immunity clause will leave room for agents of the pull-him-down syndicate to hamstring the operation of government apparatus.

Fully supported, the reps are on a revenge mission, ever since GEJ refused to support their bogus consituency projects they have resolved to get back at him by any means possible, refusing to approve budget for SEC amongst others...
What I dont understand is that their annoyance and greed at loosing this previously uncheck funds is now directed at the state in an attempt to catch GEJ...this is so childish

Tambuwal has forgotten that he may one day become president, and these obnoxious laws, if passed, will one day be used agained him

After the subsidy issue when several anti GEJ forces teamed up to form the noise making 'remove GEJ' group, i warned them that they risk talking themselves into irrelevance, now everybody sees them as opportunist who will go to any low level to get themselves into power

musiwa28: what achievement, they did not achieve anything in agriculture.. I dont know where Bloomberg get that information. They did not do well. Price of food is at all time high.

Food is so expensive in Nigeria.. that I wonder where they get the money to pay for it. I pity nigerian.. things are very expensive mostly food... so expensive..

I cant say I know what your expectations are, but improvement is a gradual process, I really dont know what you expected to happen in 2 years...but it cannot immidiately wipe away the in-actions of several previous years!

emmysenior:

If only they can as well spell out their back up plans to curtail the unemployment and hardship that will arise as a result of this feasible plan.

If Government gets out of the way and concentrates on its core functions, the private sector will be the driver for economic growth and employment generation,
Its as simple as that!

With very little noise this administration is creating so much opportunities, they are achieving so much at a pace they don't even have time to stop and gloat about it, I wold even have know of this, if not for Bloomberg !

This is great news, the FG is carrying too much luggage, a more focused approach of the FG should be towards policy formulation and regulation, and probably some limited infrastructural development, all others should be dropped..that the only way we can proceed as a nation,

This will be definitely be the righ step in the right direction

Nice and dandy thread moving along nicely and slowly...

Imagine GEJ cutting a Manu cake!

Imagine the hell that would have been let loose!

Imagine the number of pages of insults and haterade in a single thread...

Well it is not GEJ....so no hate venting!

Demdem:


Dude, u are a complete joke. Where were u when demdem praised and encouraged the retardeen when light was improving? Now that it seems like Barth has taken it with him, u expect demdem not to put fire on his head eh?
Get this to u skull, when and if Demdem sees something positive from retardeen, I praise him. Afterall I was the first to do such for cassava bread and energy bulb initiative. What about his clamp down on evil boko? When he was calling them his brothers and sisters, demdem asked him to wipe them off. Only if he has listened earlier, the multitude that have died afterwards wouldn't have.
Demdem has no reasons whatsoever to hate the retardeen, he only hates the stupidity and foolishness he most times brings to governance.

Such a sad case!

ndu_chucks:
“Frankly we don’t need energy from Africa,” he said pointing to developments in natural gas, clean energy and oil shale at home.

Source:Vanguard

If this does not serve as a wake up call for the lazy fools in government and equally lazy fools, whose only claim to fame is that majority of our onshore oil is found in their region, I don't know what will. Excellent news!!

If those with oil found in their region are lazy, what would you call those who depend on the monthly allocations?

dayokanu:

If there are more people from from Ibo land migrating to Zamfara than vice versa, Its a no brainer Zamfara is better than Alaibo.

Its like questioning gravity

Its law of nature

Using your tribal driven logic, since there are more Yoruba people in rivers state than rivers people in Yoruba land...rivers is better than Yoruba land!

Even Adolf hitler appreciated the hardwork and industry of the Jews, despite his level of hatred for them, I refuse to believe that you can hate the Igbos more than hitler hated the Jews to such an extant that black becomes white and white becomes blue...it's really amazing