₦airaland Forum

^-- Indeed. But American territory is not an option, really. We'd never give up our land.

Faeb:
Even foreigners can see the problems the core Northern cabals have foisted on Nigeria.

We need another deep purge in the army.
Let the officer cadre be immediately populated with Middle Belters as a stop gap to gradual North-South equity. Over to you Jonathan and Ihejirika, no smiling.

What is the officer core now? BTW, the middle belt has historically aligned with the North when they found it convenient. A lot of those "Northerners" in the civil war were actually from the middle belt.

I think it is better if the office core and rank-and-file is drawn from all parts of the country, rather than one.

“We want to collaborate and work closely together in the areas of power generation and distribution; we are looking at the rail system, edcation, health centre, renewable energy and other areas where we can touch on,” he added.

Fayemi said there was the need for regional integration among the states of the zone.

Aregbesola explained that it was not good for the three states to see themselves as separate entities because they were politically and economically connected.

Mimiko congratulated the two visiting governors on their victories at the courts, and stressed the urgent need for regional integration to be coordinated by them for the benefit of the people of the South-West.

Mimiko said the governors would work on a zonal rail-line and zonal power plant that would guarantee the economic development of the people.

He regretted the fall in the standard of education among the students of the zone, and advised that they should focus on education, health and information and communication and technology among others.

He said, “We must think of economic collaborative effort. We must have a Yoruba rail-line, generate electricity and create markets for investors. We must resume the path to development.”

He said the current quasi-unitary system of government being practised by the Federal Government was not in the best interest of the country.

The Western Region is reborn! 

racheal84:
Im white. And i am curious as to why alot of nigerians hate us white ppl? or woman, whatever. I was asking some of my nigerian friends why so many bash on us. Im just curious. I really dont know or understand why?

Err, what? I don't think Nigerians hate white people at all. We might hate the ones who contribute to Nigeria being a bad country. But this is overall a small number of people, I think. Mostly expats in Nigeria, people like that.

kokoye:
the man was pretending to be dead. Nice move old man.

That is a really long name

Yoruba parents-to-be, please give your kids more concise names!

Lol, that is really rude, calling out your minister like that.

Live and let live, imo. Though it would be much better if they didn't call it a church, lol.

Akin-Egba:
What does this mean?

What it means is that I doubt your claim.

Does it tell that your buddy is Nigerian?

The answer to your question lies in the following, which you quoted:

Eh, I called my buddy up just now from India (he lives out here though), he says it is company specific.

I've even highlighted the relevant text. As I said, some questions make no sense to ask.

Akin-Egba:
Or you are now foolish, if not why would a discussion about Nigeria and oversea job requirements be referenced to India?

Well, I doubted your claim of recommendations required from the start (primarily because this requirement would (A) be company specific (B) doesn't really make sense, since they have no reason to value a recommendation.)
The description given by my friend of the process in India, combined with the high likelihood of the recruitment process from India (or any other 3rd world country, really) being quite similar to that from Nigeria have only make my doubt stronger.

Some questions one should be able to answer for yourself. In fact, some questions it makes no sense to ask if they've already be answered.

Yes, he is an Igboman named Akin-Egba. But from India.

Rotting away is not the issue. Not everyone necessarily wants to work for a bank or an oil company. If when you were a little kid, you dreamed about X, but X doesn't exist in Nigeria, then you'll certainly not be happy to restrict yourself to just Nigeria when it comes time to look.

Akin-Egba:
I said to get a job abroad from Nigeria you need a recommendation. It is not speculation; it is a reality and I am a living example + many people that I know.

Eh, I called my buddy up just now from India (he lives out here though), he says it is company specific. He himself has never had to do it. Unless somehow these companies ask more from Nigerians than from Indians.

Akin-Egba:
To get a job abroad from Nigeria, you will need recommendations.

Says who? Do you have evidence of this, or is this just speculation on your part? FWIW, none of the jobs or interviews I've had have ever asked for a recommendation. They ask for resume, transcript, and then do some combination of phone and face-to-face interviews. The process might be different trying to do this from Nigeria to go abroad; I wouldn't know. So if you've been through the process, fine. But if you are only speculating. . .

Akin-Egba:
Except just to answer abroad man, why would any one leave those companies I mentioned to work abroad. The pay is better in Nigeria considering the low cost of living.

Pay isn't everything. Honestly, suppose you want to design chips for a living (Intel.) Or design planes/aircraft (Boeing.) Or any number of other things that are not done in Nigeria, or Africa period (if you want further examples, I can supply them from a job listerv I'm on.) Not everybody dreams of working for an oil company or bank, dude. There are lots of other interesting jobs, many of which simply do not exist in Nigeria or Africa.

Akin-Egba:
Those guys will get jobs in NNPC/LNG/SHELL/Agip/Chevron/Mobil, etc. They are few number of graduates as you can read from the list and not all are Nigerians. The non-Nigerians can find something in their own countries or elsewhere.

I agree. But if they wanted to leave, I don't think they could be stopped.

Akin-Egba:
Not the university, but the govt whose money was involved in training you. Of course those are examples I just gave. The govt can find just about anything to instigate you being refused a visa. The fact is we do not have all the details on which basis the woman gave the warning/advise.

So you are saying that the AUST (a private organization) will ask the Nigerian gov't to ask the US embassy/consulate to block someone from getting a visa, and somehow the embassy will comply?

Let us temporarily accept that the AUST has this influence. Even with this assumption, I think that unless the Nigerian gov't makes up some false legal/criminal issue, then this scenario doesn't seem plausible. The Nigerian gov't is mighty, but not mighty enough to tell the US embassy what to do without justification.

Akin-Egba:
This is Nigeria not America. Your passport can be declared forged (or something) especially if the govt gets involved which is possible since their money is also involved in your training. Get of your utopia, face the Nigerian reality where the govt is the king. The only thing I see is that these guys will get jobs in Nigeria or elsewhere in Africa (e.g., South Africa or some oil-producing countries of Africa). If it gets worse they can adopt the Ethiopian style: stop you at the point of exit with some flimsy excuse.

How is a private university invoking government powers? How is this university declaring my passport forged, for example?

I don't see how that war affects things. Of course Arabs would come together to dislodge Israel.

You do realize that initially they also considered Uganda as a place for their Jewish homeland? I would hope that Africans would show solidarity if they'd succeeded in colonizing Uganda, too.

I've never understood how Germany genocides the Jews, but the Palestinians end up losing land. Why didn't they just punish Germany by carving out a slice of their territory for a Jewish homeland?

Fine, track me. But how do you prevent me from getting a work visa abroad, especially if some company in the US/Canada/Europe has given me an offer? How do you convince the embassies of those countries from denying me the visa? Something they'll almost 100% give me if I've been given a job offer?

WTF is wrong with these lawmakers?

^-- Nope. Screw zoning.

Akin-Egba:
They do not have the power to deny you a visa. But they can instigate that visa be denied you. Often the embassies in Nigeria work with Nigerian govt (police, immigration) if there is doubt about any applicant. You also need certain documents to approach the embassy and perhaps one of those may be from your uni.

Who knows. Color me skeptical. If this were the gov't involved, then I might agree. But I doubt the US embassy is going to deny you a visa simply because of some dispute you have with a university you graduated from. Unless it is made into some sort of legal matter (i.e., the school takes you to court), then I don't think they'd have a leg to stand on.

May be not in Nigeria, but in Ethiopia, you are physically stopped at the airport if involved in such case. Your parents could be made to sign an agreement which was what happened to my own immediate younger brother who was trained by the LNG for his MSc in production engineering in the UK. My family signed an agreement to refund some huge amount of money if my brother did not work for them for at least two years. He has been there now for 5 years because the pay is great.

This latter sort of strategy I think would work well, have some way of ensuring the scholarship money can be recouped if the graduate bails. But I'm not sure this is what the AUST is doing here. . . ? Doesn't seem as if they are guaranteeing the money through parents/other relatives/assets/etc.

On Nigerian graduates, most of them are ill-trained and thus unqualified for the 21st century challenges. These AUST guys appear to be different.

Fair enough.

Many americans, including professors, are jobless. I think they have 9+% unemployement there. Any jobs now is for Americans first and foremost.

Well, that unemployment rate is an aggregate over all types of workers. I'd imagine the unemployment rate for college education engineering graduates is much lower.

Not true at all.  Britain is sending Nigerians/others back home and tightening their foreign quota. So it is hard out there too.

Perhaps, I don't know much about the UK. So I'll take your word for it.

Sponsor doesn't mean they have the power to deny you visa. Again, whatever beef a student has with the university is between those two parties, not the federal gov't, immigration, etc.

In any case, isn't the issue more of getting the visa from the target country? Like, if you have your Nigerian passport and want to go to the US, then you need to get a visa from the US, not say some sort of Nigerian gov't organization, correct? I'm not familiar with the process, so am just guessing; correct me if I'm wrong.

Akin-Egba:
There are opportunities in Africa and I wish I got such a scholarship when I was studying.

Is this true, though? Why are there so many unemployed graduates in Nigeria, if so?

Actually, there may not be any jobs for them abroad because there is really nothing they know that the west does not know, coupled with high unemployement in the West.

Nah, there are plenty of jobs in the west. Unemployment is low, and companies like hiring entry-level guys who are relatively affordable compared to more senior guys who command lots of money.

Good. I'm glad for the Palestinians. Israel is an evil, oppressive colonialist nation.

Akin-Egba:
It is enforceable, depending on the agreement with the govt (immigration). They may stop them from getting int passport or cause that visas are not issued them unless with some approval from somebody. In Ethiopia, this happens under similar circumstances. I believe they will get good jobs in Africa based on the nature of their studies- high tech stuff.

AUST is a privately run organization, not a gov't owned one, yes? If so, then absolutely no chance of them preventing anyone from getting a passport. Best case is that they can sue.

If somebody coughed up 15 K USD, for you it is only fair that you at least contribute to the immediate society.

Oh, I agree. I'm not saying someone skipping the country would be fair, ethical, etc. But it is certainly possible for the students to do.

Akin-Egba:
They will also need references/recommendations for jobs and will definitely need that from their graduating uni or professors. That is one way of ''catching'' them too.

Nope. For graduate school, yes. But just to get a job? Generally not the case. You submit a resume, transcript, then do some sort of interview. People don't make hiring decisions based on the opinions of professors, at least the companies I've interviewed at and interned for.

Akin-Egba:
The National President of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Alhaji Yerima Shettima, has said that the northern domination of power is a curse rather than a blessing to the region. Shettima told Daily Sun that all the years the North was in power brought nothing to them as poverty and undevelopment are higher in the North than in the other parts of the country.

I suspect that the North would progress faster if a southerner is president, to be honest. Northern leaders only want to empower their elites, gobbling up pieces of a small cake. Southerners I think would be more interested in revitalizing the economy of the country as a whole, making the national cake larger.

Personally, I have never subscribed to power going to any part of the country. My opinion has always being that Nigeria is Nigeria and no particular region can do it alone. We need the South and vice versa

Not quite true, the south needs very little from the north.

So, I feel that the system is wrong. Over time, we have been clamouring for a Sovereign National Conference. Free and fair election is not really the answer to our problem. Since the dawn of democracy in 1999, we have been running from one problem to the other and the problem keeps on increasing. We must sit down to discuss the Nigerian issue. There is no short cut to this. Fundamental issues are at stake. The 1999 Constitution which claims to bind us together is a fraud because it was imposed on us by the military. We cannot afford to continue with this kind of document. We must insist on the government of the people and we cannot have government of the people with a document that does not reflect their wishes.

Agreed, SNC would be very useful.

Yes, as we now have Ministry of Niger Delta, we also need Arewa Ministry because ecological problem is not peculiar to the Niger Delta region. There is a serious desert encroachment in the northern part of Nigeria. Our lands are being taken over by desert and this is a very big challenge to us. If this is not checked, it could lead to famine because the land that are been taken over are farmlands. So, the North needs a special ministry to be taken care of this and since it was late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua that showed special concern to the people of Niger Delta by creating a separate ministry for them and also declaring amnesty for the militants, we also expect President Goodluck Jonathan to reciprocate this good gesture by creating a special ministry for the desertification and other ecological problems in the North. Our youths also need rehabilitation.

Err, what? You guys some of the largest oil allocations in the country for non-oil producing states. Take the massive amount of money you are given and fight the desert yourself. There is no need for a new Ministry. Creating a new federal minisry is effectively having the South pay for the North to fight the Sahara.

What is happening now is that some people take the almajiris to a kind of a camp and be feeding them without teaching them any vocation. That is why I say that they are in prison. If not they should be taken to where their future would be prepared. They should not only be given fish, they should be taught how to catch the fish. If these youths are not adequately rehabilitated and trained, it could jeopardize our future.So, I as I said; I want President Jonathan to reciprocate what the late President Yar’Adua did for the Niger Deltans.

Who is this "some people"? Why President Jonathan? Again, take the massive amount of oil money you get and fix the problems of your people. Why are you waiting for someone else to do it for you? I don't understand this attitude.

Pretty provocative. Not sure these two are wrong, though.

Absolutely no way this is enforceable.

Better tactic is to hook up graduates with companies in Nigeria/Africa. They'll stay if they can find well-paying jobs on the continent, and leave if they cannot.

Noigeeriaa:
but most of them are just selfish fortune seekers which is why i don't like them

This is true of 95%+ of the foreigners in Nigeria, lol. Especially the white guys working at oil companies in Nigeria. By and large they are the dregs of their native country, but go to Nigeria to make lots of money without working very hard.

appletango:
of course there are. i just don't think GEJ and his team are capable of such shrewd thought, as they have bungled everything up to now. i mean, they tried to bride a pastor who had already declared his support for another candidate with foreign currency - do you really think they have slight of hand??

Fair point. GEJ may yet find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, lol

^-- Do you really think the only way someone can be bribed is the ham-fisted way Bakare and SNG were? There are more subtle ways of doing it that can less easily be traced and can be denied if the target runs to the newspapers.

appletango:
GEJ couldn't get away with bribing one little old pastor with USD50k without the whole world hearing about it. it is actually much harder to "steal" directly from government funds today than it was in the past under military regimes. in the good old days the military boys could literally print cash from the national mint. and guess what, most of those guys were northern and we all know where their loyalties lie.

Hrm, I would imagine that PDP delegates would be a bit more discreet than Bakare. Plus there are other ways to bribe people than throwing them cash.

And no, I don't think it would be difficult to steal money as the President of Nigeria.

With that said, if GEJ cannot defeat Atiku in the primary with all of the advantages he has, then he isn't fit to be president anyway, imo.