₦airaland Forum

Seems to me Nigerians have had their psyche so battered by the system that they do not even recognise Sarcastic/Satiric train of thoughts by a poster when they see one. Abi OP what do u think?

We created a society where the income gap and income spread are very ridiculous and so much status is attached to higher education (especially university education). That's the reason we are here. If Government (and the private sector) pays a good minimum wage (and I am not referring to 18k) and our political office holders are paid a modest wage (to act as a dis-incentive to those with dubious motives), and vocational studies are given attention, and most importantly, our value system (of money money money and power power power ) is changed,things will be a lot better. People who have no business going into the university will not feel the need to chase any degree. Then we will have fewer universities of substance and the only reason Govt will build more universities would be to attract more foreign students/professors alike to further boost the standard of research. I realise I have painted serious utopia here. But I bet a lot of you will agree with me on this.

I need someone to reconcile the following two statements for me pls.
1. It costs ₦1.28 Billion to maintain ONE (1) legislator for a single tenure of 4 years. El Rufai,2011.
2. Abia State paid ₦1.8 billion monthly wage bill, out of an average monthly federal allocation of ₦2.8bn. Chief Don Ubani,2011.

If you still do not understand what is ridiculously absurd (but true) about the above statements, then you are no where close to understanding the problem Nigeria is facing.

Going by all these theories, then I guess we should be grateful that they even played like a team and scored goals in the first place. Cos it seems to me that if the hatred was as you all describe it, then there would have been sabotage even at that first goal. Abeg make we leave 16 year old matter and celebrate what is still our finest hour to date on world stage. I know we won the Olympics in 1996 but I am sure you all agree that it is still nothing compared to our performance in our very first world cup. For God's sake Nigeria was 5th on fifa ranking then. If they hated each other like some suggest, then I sure hope this present team hate each other even more, cos it seems to me that is what will bring the performance level any close to USA 1994.

@Manmustwac
You call me a dumbo for trying to protect minors from accidentally viewing this video on a site without age restriction.
What does that say about you?

I have asked youtube to remove it and they have. Please share this kind of video on adult only sites or give it an adult only status. The number of tweens and early teens on youtube everyday are in millions.

I have asked youtube to remove it and they have. Please share this kind of video on adult only sites or give it an adult only status. The number of tweens and early teens on youtube everyday are in millions.

If you know how to manage risk in a factory, can you manage risk in a school?

@Katsumoto Please ask this question again but restrict it to financial risk only.

@manny4life
I guess what some of us are saying is that if the recent past has taught us anything, it is that risk should become more important than it currently is. I wont stretch as far as to say the most important. But certainly more important that it is now.

@Manny4life and @Katsumoto.
I will say no more from here since economics is not my forte. However I am learning a lot so please keep dem posts coming. ciao!!

Quote from: manny4life on Today at 09:39:06 PM

I know u're not asking me but I if u may let me diffuse some of the thought on here. Risk Management isn't only special when dealing with banks but in all forms of business even manufacturing. The questions isn't about risk; business as part of their operations assume risk, question is how much risk? In addition to that, how to mitigate such greater risk. When banks loan money to you for mortgages, their money is tied up in that mortgage hence they have equity on that mortgage, what collapsed the banking  and mortgage wasn't because banks gave loans to people who cannot afford it, but simply those mortgages were used to back up other securities transaction (this is a lil complex).

When recession hit, people were laid off and as a reason couldn't pay mortgage, banks were tied up and could not fulfill their securities contract, that's how the housing bubble broke. IMO Risk Management is the least thing on the mind of a CBN governor, Risk management isn'ta macroeconomic factor the gov should be worried about. If the banks fell, CBN bails them out, but instead Sanusi did something entirely.
Risk management in banking is actually special. Banks use so much leverage and they are exposed to so may types of risks that are difficult to insure that insurance companies that happily insure most of the assets of a manufacturing companies dare not insure the largest assets held by banks - loans

If risks should be the last thing on the mind of a central bank governor, why do they worry about systemic risk, why do you have stringent regulations for banks, why do they prescribe capital adequacy for banks, why did they talk about asset price bubbles, why have they removed banking regulation from FSA and brought it under BoE, why did Greenspan speak of irrational exuberance?

Banks take monumental risks and their collapse can lead to contagion. Any governor that does not worry about risk management is sitting on a time bomb

@Betathings
You have said it all in a way I never could have since I am no economist. Thanks for this.

@Katsumoto
Sorry my bad. I guess I was trying to refer to macroeconomics.Trust me I dont need a lecture on the micro/macro little detail/big picture systems. My calculus background as applied to physical systems gives me an idea. (even though I may be speaking pure sciences here).
Also thanks for making the point that risk management is part of microeconomics and not macroeconomics. I respect that. However, like Ola, I am baffled that risk management is not part of macroeconomic handling. Seems to me what we are saying is that in order to correct the big picture, one has no business looking at the finest details. Maybe due to time constraint. But the facts still remain that errors (including finest detail errors) add up and multiply just like any other kind of data. If a correction can be made at micro level that might bring good results as well. Rather than just putting a plus or minus (emphasis on plus) on the overall answer to correct it. That creates waste in my opinion.
But I realise that it is difficult in most situations to be both effective and efficient. That's what the arguments boil down to in my opinion. A trade-off between these two.

@Manny4life
Thanks for your posts. I understood everything you said. Nothing was complex there. But again it begs the question. Why would any sane institution use "essentially bad debts" to back other securities and thus heating up the system. Maybe it is because they ignored the warnings of the risk managers or they did not have one.
So you are of the opinion that CBN should just bail the banks out and mind its own business as to why the banks are failing? That seems to me like a model designed to fail since it rewards excesses and escessive risk without question.

@Katsumoto. Permit me to make an observation regarding one of your earlier posts. Now I am no economist and I am not doubting the importance of micro-economics in the kitty of any would-be CBN Governor. In fact I am in the field where the same quantitative/mathematical models used in physics are easily applicable in Micro-economics. However my observation has to do with the way you played down "Risk management" as unimportant especially since that is the area where SLS has carved a niche for himself. Luckily again, my mathematical background allows me to see stats and probability as applied to Risk generally.
I  do not know but are you willing to allow for the fact that the institutions that collapsed during the last recession (in fact during any recession) could have used a little help from Risk Management. I mean what did the banks think would happen when they started giving mortgages to people who ordinarily defaulted on smaller credits (abi what is the concept of sub-prime lending?)
I rather think that risk management should have played an even bigger role (than it currently does) right from time. Common sense tells me that an industry(banking) that  has risk as an essential part of its operations would benefit a lot from someone who perhaps made his name from risk management. I even think that was the reason he could spot some of the things you claimed are impossible to spot within two months of being on saddle.
Please let me know your take on this. Like I said before, I am not an economist but I am very perceptive(totally my opinion. lol)

It's been a while since I signed into nairaland. I usually just observe.
But I delibrately signed in today just to say "God bless you" to 90% of the
contributors(Pro01 you deserve a special mention) on this thread
just for say things as they are without any sugar-coating or ethno-religious horse crap.
I thought I was the only one wondering if the Govt we want can ever be obtained through the ballot box.
As for those 22M that voted PDP GEJ PDP GEJ PDP GEJ PDP ***ok I am unable to decide
but they know themselves. Chei!!! if only IQ were a measure of eligibility to vote. Just saying, lol

No but i believe they can sing the National Pledge and it goes like this.

I pledge to Nigeria my country,
To be unfaithful, disloyal and dishonest.
To slap Nigerians with all my strength.
To destroy her unity
and uproot her honour and glory,
,



You know the last line

I have never watched any of the trilogies, Matrix or Lord of The Rings.
I am not ashamed. I just think 9 hours (18 hrs if you count both movies) is too much of my time.
lol. Plus I am not really a fan of Scifi, Borderline or not.

Say you are receiving an emergency call from me. Would you like to hear me say "My house is on fire" or would you rather have me say "A colossal conflagration is masticating my domiciliary edifice"

No further comment

Well, they got the job of "scoring while preventing your opponent fron scoring" done so may be they deserve the world cup.
However, I am still more likely to pay from my pocket to watch a friendly involving, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Holland, but not spain.

I grew up knowing my parents to have been ever first position in class. At least that is what they always told me (and which motivated me by the way) and my siblings.
Imagine my surprise when i came across my dad's report sheet. Enough said there. Mum on the other hand was smart enough not too leave any traces of her reports.

Then my grandmum(who is ageing gracefully. God bless her) when she first moved to our house (mid '80s). She was given a maltina bottle. I dont know if it's because the bottle was short (not up to coca cola size) but she treated it like she will treat a cough syrup. Imagine the surprise in the whole house when a week later, the matina was still under her bed just half empty. Apparently, she had been using a spoon to take one dose everyday.

@Elrazur, you have echoed my thoughts almost perfectly. Especially where you talked about nairaland music standards and the other guy who was attempting to talk about role models without even an inclination to its meaning.

Styl-plus still has my respect anyday. Atleast i understand them lyrically(which is more than i can say for most other artists, especially the ones living a lavish lifestyle).
That's all i have to say on this topic.

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I dont get it. I thought the first thing any junta does when they come to power is suspend the so-called constitution.
At any rate, i think what has been done right now is to tell would-be military rulers that they had better maximize that opportunity to the fullest while in office.
I wonder who ever thought our past leaders even needed any pension. Even the interest generated by their loot is many times more than what legally giving or denying them.

State of Origin!
Somehow i think if we can just expunge that from our everyday lives, we will begin to solve our problems

By and large, travel abroad to study without proper planning (aka,  financial planning) is an expensive risk.
Even b4 i finished my NYSC, i started planning ahead by enquiring about Scholarships.
I applied for the PTDF for my masters and i was not chosen. I was undeterred and i applied for the BEA (Bilateral Education Agreements)
Scholarship which is administered by Federal Scholarship Board in Abuja. I noticed that a lot of candidates ignored BEA the moment they saw on the form that
participating countries did not include the UK and North America(well, lots of my friends did). I went for the interview and i got a scholarship to go to China. You may wanna know that
It was sort of a double scholarship as i was getting money from both the Chinese Govt and the Nigerian Govt.
Finally b4 the end of my interesting and rewarding stay in China for Masters, i applied to PTDF again, this time for PhD in UK. Guess what , i got it!!!
When it rains, it pours. Even b4 PTDF came through, i already secured a 4-yr Scholarship in Singapore (please google the word SINGA and the read the very first entry)
and i even had a Nigerian Born prof as my tentative supervisor. I remember travelling to Singapore only to de-register myself and do some sight seeing. A few weeks later i was enroute UK where i am at the moment.

By the way i know another Nigerian who was in China with me and is now in Canada on full scholarship. I know yet another compatriot in China one who is in the USA on full scholarship and another two, one doing a PhD and one doing a second Masters all on PTDF scholarship in the UK.


I guess my message is, dont be too focused on Western Europe and North America Alone. So many countries like China, Japan, Russia, Turkey, Singapore offer scholarships. One thing though, Note that i havent advocated for Part-time work. These countries are not exactly the places for that ooooo. Be warned! But i assure you, there are numerous scholarships out there as long as u are not tunnel visioned to US/UK/Canada alone.
Gbam!

@Mikeansy,
Thanks for breaking it down. Although all i have gathered from all these is that in Govt establishments, at lower cadre, merit is the criteria for promotion.
But once you get to the senior cadre, it's politics. Take for example, it is quite possible that at a particular instance, the most senior officer (age or years of service) in say the army, and navy, will be from the same region or even the same state. But does that mean that the two of them get to occupy the respective Chief of staff office? In the Nigeria of today, NO.

It's a shame that merit takes back seat at such a crucial time of one's career.
Where then is the motivation to work hard if i know that federal character will work in my favour , hardwork or not.

I pulled this from Thisday,

"Onovo, a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) for seven years, takes over from Mr. Mike Okiro, who will be pulled out of the Nigeria Police Force today after attaining the retirement age of 60 years."

and this from Guardian,

"Onovo, who is 56 this year, has four years more to attain the mandatory retirement age of 60 years. But if service years become the criterion, Onovo will retire at 59 years, when he would have clocked 35 years in service."

So my question is, How was Onovo Okiro's senior? Or did Okiro report to the Police Academy late
How was Onovo edged out two years ago. I know he was appointed Acting IG but thats what it is, Acting capacity.

How was Okiro's appointment wrong?
I have no stake o. I am a northcentral/southwesterner.
I am just interested in facts and not emotions

I am not necessarily preaching about Fortran. I am just emphasizing something that a lot of folks(including me b4 i started my program here) dont know about recent Fortran developments. Anyway, perhaps Lisp and Ada95 are more powerful given the might of those who started them. My argument is based on the High Performance Computing Journals i have read as well as conferences i attended. Everyone seem to be using MPI with Fortran for parallel computing. I will find out more about the above alternatives. Thanks

chukz4real:
If I have my way, I'll abolish Fortran and COBOL from the curriculum of all Nigerian Universities and Polytechnics. We are in a GUI age.  My problem today in computing is as a result of starting programming with those outdated languages.

I beg to disagree with you. If you were doing courses with names like Numerical calculus/Computational Mathemetics/ Computational Fluid dynamics/ Computational seismics/ etc, the best program for it is still Fortran. The name says it all. Meanwhile what you should recommend if you were  ever in that position is the use of updated versions. You are probably angry because u only experienced Fortran 77. Well, Fortran has come a long way too with Fortran 90, Fortran 95 and Fortran 2003. Intel still have their own dedicated fortran flavour. It may interest you to know that the 2003 version has OOP in it.

I still maintain that as long as it's FORmula TRANslation you are working on, then FORTRAN is it.
And by the way, no other program comes close for use in Parallel computing which is like the bride of performance computing at the moment.

I hated fortran while doing my Bachelors too cos the flavour i was taught was older than me.lol

Might i add here that if you were ever to find your self doing a performance-computing oriented job, then best is still Fortran.That is if your interest in that program is high speed calculation/iteration and no window dressing with gui. I'm currently using Fortran 2003 for my research

As someone already mentioned, it's more like "Goliath of Africa " to me. But guess what, ?
While i was in the far east Asia schooling, i met a certain number of Africans especially Liberians who were quick to Appreciate Nigeria almost more than me.
You will be surprised to find how many Liberians consider themselves alive today only because of the will of the Nigerian troops and how many Africans
are generally just eternally grateful to a few to many Nigerians.