Omo_Tier1:

Point of correction, BA is NOT in a PPP with IAG. IAG owns BA, that the FACT. BA merger with Iberia automatically resulted in IAG being the owner of BA, Iberia and others with Willie Walsh, BA chief Executive being appointed to head the IAG restructuring and future growth for their airliners.

Point taken

As long as BA is jointed owned by public and private interests it qualifies for PPP. What IAG is referred to in this case is a core investor and automatically becomes the owner

my point is on the definition of the economic term 'joint venture' which occurred regularly in the course of the detailed and informative write ups you gave above.

for those with non economic background, it is easy for them to assume that whenever private and public bodies partner for economic projects it qualifies to be called a joint venture. Not necessarily unless there is a defined terminal life to the partnership

Happy new year to all of you

Interesting this

Never knew. But I know for a fact BA used to accept Nigerian Issued debit cards on Lagos to anywhere route. I used this option in 2008 to fly LAG-LON-BWI

I do not know about now

Just so we learn. Some PPP are joint ventures (eg the type NNPC does and the current arrangement Lagos state has with LCC over the Lekki toll collections

Some PPP are not joint ventures (eg the BA deal with IAG, the moribond transcorp deal etc)

Joint ventures are for a defined period and are determined once terminal life is reached.

Happy new year folks

@justwise,

I will advice that when some of these dumb comments arise, simply ignore them. They are only goading you and you must not banter to them

@poster,

Don't travel on the expired passport. It is illegal worldwide. Even during deportations, if valid passports are not found, a travel certificate is required for the deportee. some countries allow visa nationals to travel on an expired passport which has an unexpired visa but in addition you must be carrying a valid passport also.

Even if you are British and want to return to London and your passport is expired, you must get an emergency travel cert from the foreign British embassy. I have never heard of someone allowed to travel on an expired passport. Better to err on the side of caution

wanaj0:

Maybe we should start by asking how come it is Nigerians and not Sudanese, Kenyans, Zambians, etc. How come it is ONLY Nigerians that EVERY country seems to discriminate against?

We always try to shy away from the truth living in denial.

You may be the one living in denial. Ask yourself the number of those nationals you mentioned that live in Malaysia. Nigeria is a country of 140 million folks (albeit maybe more than 200m). This is the same problem India and China have and you will find that these overpopulated countries tend to export human resources more than others (with the possible exception of the United States)

I have come to realise that the Chinese and Indians are worse criminals than Nigerians but the society is prone to rush to negative publicity (especially in the west) when the crime involves blacks. Now Malaysia has taken it to a whole new levels and it seems ok with some folks here.

It is immaterial if they were after Nigerian criminals. When they chose to arrest and brutalize any Nigerian due to the activities of others, they have lost the moral and diplomatic right to claim self righteousness. Two wrongs cannot make a right. I won't believe only Nigerian nationals commit crime in Malaysia but these other nationals don't get to have their citizens brutalized for crimes their criminals committed. This is what is called selective justice and designed to emotionally degrade a certain race. Germans used this method to start the Jewish extermination attempt under Hitler and in Russia under Stalin.

If your argument is reasonable, it means the next time you vacation in Malaysia with your family it will be acceptable for the Malay police to bundle you and your wife into jail for a few nights simply because you are carrying the green passport and a few greenbacks as some Nigerians just committed a crime across the block.

I do not have much sympathy for criminals but no one has the right, even remotely to class all Nigerians as criminals and treat them accordingly simply because of some dumb stereotype. If you chose to throw away your dignity on account of others actions, that is you and foreigners will treat you accordingly.

Anything built on falsehood and deception is bound to soon fail. If by her action someone, somewhere is weeping, she cannot lay any legal claim to happiness herself. Her days of vain glory will be short lived

It is actually a major flaw in the Malay's justice system to swipe every Nigerian with the huge criminal brush. It is unacceptable and unjust. Should you be a victim you may understand the humiliation that it entails. Using the vague description 'most Nigerians', 'almost all', is attempting to defend the indefensible

I am sure there are several Nigerian criminals in the UK yet their cops don't raid Nigerian students and brutalize them all in the name of fishing out Nigerian criminals and gangs. The Malay cop's action is nothing short of barbarism, racist and a breach of all known international and diplomatic conventions.

I am surprised the FG had not deemed it fit to protest the humiliation of her citizens. The High Commissioner has chosen to look the other way while this is happening. Well, good for him. Someday his sibling or children will be so treated by some foreigners using this as a precedent

If their justice system is anything feasible, fishing the real criminals out will all but settle issues but no, they had to disgrace as many of the 'infidels' as possible. I blame those going there to study, the certs obviously does not worth the ink used to print them. In a way, their system is as broken as ours and any attempt to justify their barbaric action is simply as disgraceful as their actions

The bill is not against what people do in their bedroom or private lives. It outlawed public display of gay affections and celebrations. Maybe it is the prof that needed going back to school

Nonsense prof

androck:

can someone help Pls

i was recently banned for 10 years for not disclosing the criminal conviction and i had to leave uk befor my visa expired, this has ruined my entire life as i had spent 7 years in uk and i was very close of getting my PR, now my girl friend who is a british citizen want to marry me, but we are not sure if i will be granted visa on a ground that i have a conviction which will be spend in another 4 years and ban for 10 years,
i know hiding conviction was very silly of me but didnt realise that drink driving had to be mentioned,
any help in this regard will be highly appreciated, my mistake has put our life on stake,

What visa category did you apply for when you got banned? was it in country or outside the UK?

jujumma:

hello,first time user,i am a nigerian married to an indefinale leave to remain holder in the uk,i went to have my first baby in the uk in may 2008 at that time me and my husband were married under the traditional rights.i had a tourist visa then,i stayed there for three months and came back home with my baby,a year later i applied for a visiting visa for my son but his application was rejected on the grounds that i breached immigrations rules by having him in the Uk.so i have been travelling to the uk alone without him.my 2 years visa has expired and i want to reapply but i dont know if i will be refused again,or should i apply for a settlement visa for me and my kids,please i need all the advise i can get.

Your son do not need a tourist visa anymore. Since one of his parent holds an ILR, he is automatically qualified for a British citizenship through registration as he was UK born. Note that this is an entitlement and cannot be denied (Usually called non discretionary cases)

For your case I will advice you apply for a settlement visa. It is likely you have a 10 year visa ban if you apply for the visit visa category. Also note the ban will not apply if you go for the settlement visa

Good luck

jerryland:

Hello House, this forum has really been helpful. I have someone that is 29weeks and already in the States. She is looking for cost of an average cost that will not rob the bank for a C-section in Maryland. Any useful information including Hostpital names will be appreciated.

Your best bet is Sinai's hospital Baltimore but although it is the cheapest you will still pay around $17k, for all mum and baby's bills. You are in the wrong state if you are looking to save cost

Why C-section if I may ask?

halle2:

@ DAncewith,

I am currently in houston, and i have been searching for hospitals, its not been an easy task at all, infact the hardest is getting a doctor, u said a close friend of urs had her baby for less than 5k dollars in houston? thats cheap compared to what am seeing here, did she have an epidural as well? please let her give u d name of the hospital and doctor that treated her case, its over five days i have been hospital hunting with not much success,
its really getting to me right now, its either doctor's appointments are fully booked till next year or they cant take me cos am over 24weeks gone, some ppl r suggesting i go to ER of one of these hospitals but i know that is gonna cost me an arm and leg, pls HELP!!!!

Go to Memorial Hermann. Call them on 713 704-2026

Ask for Mum's birth plan

Good luck

@OP

I understand we have numerous problems like corruption, high inflation, educational decay, unemployment and so on. However, these problems can only be addressed one by one. You see, we can only be stupid if we do not realize this unfolding homosexuality syndrome in Nigeria is also an emerging problem and the senators are only right to tackle it. They have the tools to do so and they are perfectly in order to address this before it becomes a bigger problem.

If there are aspects of the law that proves problematic (like the Alabama, Maine & Arizona's immigration laws) those aspects can easily be repealed. But the bill itself is good and I believe you have ulterior motives to be so highly, strongly and critically against it?

I go for Vcjustice since justwise is now a moderator

Plutonium:

One question was asked earlier, and no one seems to have given a straight answer. My wife is in the US, and is due (birth) in February, but at the border, it was stamped on the passport 'to leave the US Dec 15, No Extension'. Our intention was that she'll give birth there (I will cover 100% of the bills). What should we do now? stay and give birth? leave and come back(pregnancy is very well visible)? Please I need advice,

You have only yourselves to blame. She was obviously spotted by an immigration officer but instead of being honest about her intentions she had to do the Nigerian style of claiming she was seeking entry for a short visit. I had someone that came to NY that had similar problem but her I-90 was not endorsed 'no extension' so she was able to seek extension from DHS when the 2 weeks they gave her expired. This proved fairly easy but since your case is different I dunno.

I believe she should seek for extension and see how it goes. If it fails then she can still stay and give birth and overstay the validity of her I-90. Its not as if the immigration people are infallible. I have heard (not seen) of people who overstayed but were not detected. However the choice is yours but I think you cannot come this far and falters

Good luck

mamathrice:

Hello guys. Can you please advice me? I went to renew my visa and I was turned down. I went again a month later, and got turned down again. It was my fault. I lied when I got the visa that I wasn't pregnant. well, i was and I had a baby in the US. Now, it keeps coming up that I lied. Both times, I told them that I didn't know I was pregnant but they didn't believe me. My people are telling me to try again for the third time, and this time, to tell the truth and say I'm sorry I lied. Will it make any difference? Or will I just get turned down again and permanently blacklisted?

I don't know how long apart you waited in between the two refusals. But some similar cases I have known were later issued the visa after about 3 yrs of the initial refusal. I don't know if their system has changed now but like someone here advised you need to give it time

walcolm:

must nigerians fly BA?

i dont believe a company should be told what price to sell their goods in a free market economy. why cant the aviation minister as a matter of national interest; help or facilitate a system that will enable Arik and Air Nigeria improve their services to the point where the thousands of Nigerians who fly the 21 BA flights weekly to and Fro UK will switch carriers?

if Arik and AirNigeria offer services that are at par wit BA at a cheaper cost, there will be no discussion

There is a principle called consumer protection. It is not about a company offering its product at superior prices due to varying quality, but such superior quality should have standardized pricing across similar geographical areas. It is the responsibility of the government's watch dog to ensure this happens. Similar incidents prompted the anti-trust law.

eGuerrilla:

Well, I don't buy this line of reasoning.

In a few of the 150-odd videos uploaded to YouTube by Bishop Gloria, I see an unstable disposition which is alarming in itself.
Align this observation with the onerous task of raising '5+1 children', all under the age of 10; then tell me if it is still implausible that these parents, who were obviously constrained for time and resources, might have made some fundamental mistakes.

I call it as I see, madam.

It is no use asking Nigerians to go to war over this issue, if you are not prepared to deliver a few home truths to the Chiwars.

I really don't see your point. Parents make mistakes all the time raising their kids and are still raising those kids well. Suggesting that parents that make some 'fundamental mistakes' raising their kids should lose custody means nobody should live with their kids.

Nigerians are notorious for proper upbringing of their kids, despite our inadequacies. Whatever the issue here it, it would be proper if the British authorities allow the kids be reunited with their parents. All the data above suggest a high handed approach in separating these children from the love of their parents and frankly their excuses seems hush-wash.

When has adultery become an excuse to take kids into care?

It seems you and only you see more beyond your nose to adduce such rosy colouration to an otherwise contemptible and disgraceful act by the Haringey council

Kalango:

On second thoughts, think i should try bursting some of the myths people have of having your baby in the US.

Myth 1: Having your baby in the US is expensive: This is relative. However i have heard from people even on this thread saying that childbirth is about $15,000 to even as high as $25,000.

Is this true? Not necessarily. You will hear this proce quote mostly from US residents becuase most of them pay for childbirth via health insurance. Now because health insurance is a long term thing, the cost of childbirth can usually get as high as $25,000 even for a normal delivery. However, if you travel in to have your baby and pay cash, you'll get huge discounts.

From my experience (and the friends i have guided through the process); a normal delivery should cost about $6,000 in total and a C-Section about $8,000. This includes all doctor, hospital and even pediatrician's cost.


So how does one manage his/her medical bills so as to spend within this range (as much as possible).
I'll share 3 tips on this over the next 3 days.

1. Plan to have your baby in a big city vs. smaller cities. Hospitals in big cities leverage scale (i.e. access to more mothers) and charge less than hospitals in smaller cities.

I dunno about this. Cities like Maryland, Washington, New York, Chicago, NC has an average of $15k for non insured deliveries and go higher for complicated procedures

@poster
Sorry. Often they do not indicate why you are being refused other than the cryptic reason that you do not have reasonable economic and social ties to which you will return. This is a standard refusal term and does not tell applicant much to work with

I was issued with a 3 months visit visa sometimes in 2002. I traveled with this, stayed only a week and return. You can imagine my surprise when I was refused during a renewal a mere four months later! The question then was: what could have changed in my circumstances within 4 months? It didnt make sense to be honest and two month's later I was issued a 2yrs visa

I believe my story answers your question

Good luck

Guk:

Whilst we have not been provided with enough information to make sensible judgement of this empasse, it would have been educative to know what roles the Trade and Commerce section of the Nigerian High Commission in London did on behalf of Arik and also whether Trade and Investment Ministry has intervened without success because the truth is, do we know whether ARIK itself has complied with the rules of the Aviation Authourities over the years? We have only heard from one side.

As for reducing the number of flihts for BA & time of arrival and take off, its akin to 'cutting one's nose to spite the face'. Has the aviation ministry checked how many nigerians fly on BA in relation to expatriates? We are probably more on the plane. You have just succeeded in inconviniencing your own people just to appear to adopt a bravado stance which doesnt excite the discerning traveller. Who will suffer from less frequency when coming home for christmas? Nigerians and BA. Our leaders need to think through things before shooting sporadically. And, can i rely on the intelligence of the Minister who came on TV and told us, to each ask the Pilot for weather conditions before allowing him to take off. Does she think Pilots are suicide professionals who will fly into bad weather against advice?

Have you heard the phrase: What is the essence of peace without justice? People and nations go to war, knowing full well some will be killed, to fight for justice. The central theme here is 'justice' not about inconveniencing people.

If the move brings some hardship to people, the wider implication of allowing such discriminatory policy is worse.

This should be applauded by all and thinkings as yours is what has kept us backward through the ages.

How about Nigerian citizens by descent? Can they contest? A lot of Nigerians were born in foreign countries to Nigerian citizens. Would these category of people be eligible to contest for elective offices in Nigeria?

halle2:

tnx dancewith,

i e-mailed parkland hospital and they replied saying they are not receiving international patients at the moment, that they are only serving residents in dallas county, please anyone with info on a cheap birth center in houston? i really dont mind one since they are like one-third the average hospital price

Few hospitals will tell you upfront they will take in internationals. When you show up there you become a resident and most would attend to you.

Best of Luck

halle2:

@dancewith,

pls whats the name of the hospital in texas your sis used dat she paid less than 5k dollars? am going to texas nxt month and i intend to have my baby there, seriously looking out for a very affordable hospital,

Try Parkland in Dallas.

mailed you

Hey

This is simpler than you thought. Google requirements for a Canadian passport and you will see:

1) Birth Certificate for Canadian Born
2) Naturalization Certificate for naturalized citizens
3) Registration of birth for those born abroad to Canadian parents

For category one above, there is no mention of bringing parental proof of citizenship or PR status.

Read the same law you cited above here and see how clearer it will become

http://www.cic.gc.ca/EnGLIsh/citizenship/proof.asp

kangasomti:

@dancewith, except I'm wrong, the statement is quite clear.

In general, you are a Canadian citizen if you were born in Canada. You are not a Canadian citizen if you were born in Canada and at the time of your birth, your parents were neither Canadian citizens nor permanent residents, and at least one parent had diplomatic status in Canada.

This is the core of the statement. They are one sentence, meaning the last part is a continuation of the former.

Just re-read the law. What it actually means is that: If ANY OF YOUR PARENT has DIPLOMATIC STATUS IN CANADA AT THE TIME OF YOUR BIRTH and NEITHER has Canadian citizenship or PR status, then you cannot be Canadian despite being born there. Meaning it only affects those kids with diplomatic parents. This law is universal really

I know a Mexican lady that had a baby in Toronto in June this year and she still got the Child a Canadian passport. Note that the Mexican went to Toronto for the purpose of birth only because they were inadmissible in the US for a previous visa violation. Please when did this new rule come into force?

deenee:

I am tired  of trying to explaining myself. It looks like a lot of us don’t understand how an M and A transaction works. We keep saying that Intercontinental has been short changed in the whole transaction. How ?, when they have negative shareholders’ funds at the point that the whole deal  was originated? Whilst structuring a merger or acquisition, the market capitalization of the company to be acquired is used. What was the market capitalization of Intercontinental as at when the transaction implementation process was agreed? Market capitalization (often  called ‘market cap’) is a measurement of the size of a business enterprise (corporation) equal to the share price times the number of shares outstanding (shares that have been authorized, issued, and purchased by investors) of a publicly traded company. As owning stock represents ownership of the company, including all its equity, capitalization could represent the public opinion of a company's net worth and is a determining factor in some forms of stock valuation.

As we speak, Intercontinental has the largest number of authorized shares in issuance alongside Bank PHB and Oceanic and currently trading at rock bottom price (in fact, I think trading has been suspended because of the 'deal in progress'). Are we quick to forget that these banks were amongst those that came to the market to raise additional capital even when they didn’t need it? Have we forgotten the period when some of these banks were involved in the ‘my balance sheet size is bigger than yours fiasco’ that eventually led to reckless corporate management practices and how branches sprung up in every ‘nook and cranny’ even when there was no business/strategic justification for their existence? We keep saying that Intercontinental , Oceanic et al. have a huge branch network. My question is how many are actually posting  profit?  Most of these branches are ‘dead weight’ and just cost centers!

Once again, the 550 billion that AMCON has plugged into Intercontinental  to fill a ‘big hole’ as is not equity.  It is the book value of non-performing loans that they have been carrying in their books which we all know is determined by the market value of the shares as they are traded on the exchange. To shed more light on this, the loans in a strict sense were worth  much more than this. Are we quick to forget that Intercontinental singled handedly gave out margin loans to ‘one individual’  using several legal entities as ‘proxies’  and to the tune of about 400 billion naira, which was used to buy back their own shares from the capital market and create the ‘impression’ that there was ‘real’ demand for these stocks. Thus driving prices up just before their last ‘hybrid offer’. This is further exacerbated by the fact that such loans didn’t have a strong ‘collateral base’ and were just backed up through the securitization and domiciliation of share certificates with the obligor (Intercontinental in this case). I am sure that a lot will agree such share certificates are worth nothing now. What AMCON simply did was to determine the current market of the various tranche of NPLs and they acquired them at a fair value. If we are to go by the 2006-2008 prices, those loans were worth over 2.3 trillion as at when they were structured!

Please let’s not be stuck in the simplistic assumptions that form the central theme of the balance sheet equation. What about the ‘contingent liabilities’ that are treated as ‘off balance sheet items’ and not  included in the BL equation?  I would ask this question once again; would you as an investor buy into such a corporation with a ‘big hole’ (whose breadth and depth has not been fully determined till date) without the assurance from CBN via AMCON that the recovery of the NPLs will be guaranteed? What Access paid which is around 50billion is the current ‘market cap’ of their stake in Intercontinental (as defined above). Once the TIA is successful,  new stocks will be issued to the shareholders of the ‘merged entity’. The sad thing is that Access bank shareholders would probably get more of a ‘fair deal’ than those of Intercontinental!

Thank you!

Obviously you don't get it, do you? This is simpler than you are trying to struggle with. Let me brake it down in details so you can understand as I can see its either you don't understand simple accounting or you chose not to, for whatever reason.

The N550b AMCON paid in has restored Intercontinental bank to a state of zero shareholders fund. They were taken over because they had high NPL. Before the take over, they had shareholders fund in excess of N150b. When CBN took over, they were forced to provision for their high non performing loans (NPL) to the tune of N500b. This money was forcefully taken from their capital account which automatically took them from having a shareholders funds of +150b to a negative shareholders fund of about N400b.

With the AMCON funds, they are now back to positive shareholders fund or capital base and therefore does not need Access bank. if AMCON claims they are not in the business of banking and desires to sell intercontinental (which as you can see rightfully belongs to them and by extension all Nigerians), then they are bound by ethics and morals to sell at a fair value.

Now do you consider selling Access, with over 300 branches, some 12,000 human capital, sophisticated IT infrastructures, landed assets all over the country and a deposit base in excess of N700b at a price of N50b fair?

I make bold to say that their buildings in Lagos alone is worth more than N50b, not to talk about those in Abuja (Mind you they are many there), PH and all over the country.