₦airaland Forum

Airport brings tourism and trade to the city of its operation. In addition, it provides economic growth, jobs opportunities to locals and generate revenues to the city government from tax revenues.

That is a victory for Akwa Ibom State.

But I have one concern: high unemployment rate among the locals and low wage in the state will exclude local participation. Without local participation in local business, chances of success are limited.

Akwa Ibom State is the country highest oil producing state, yet, locals are the poorest in Nigeria. Private sector job is zero. When you see someone in the state with a pay check, that person is working for the government.

How did this happen?
State leaders don’t fight for their rights and those of their fellow citizens. The Northern Nigerian run federal government comes thousands of miles to take away, steal local resources and locals don’t fight back. Locals spend more time fighting war against fellow locals--opening opportunities for outsiders to walk way with what belongs to locals unchallenged.

Very shameful!

So, I recommend job training and high wage for the locals. That is the only way this airport is going to succeed.

“Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has inaugurated a committee set up to look into some prevailing staff matters in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).”

Mr. Akpabio is an attention stunner and a bully. Drawing attention to himself is why he got ministerial post. He does not understand policy. He stokes fears and traffic hate and divisions where ever he goes.

In 2019 he travelled all over Akwa Ibom State and broadcast to the citizens that President Buhari would win election in the state. This was an attempt to telegraph to president Buhari that he controlled and has power over everybody in the state.

oh, Really?
President Buhari lost election badly in Akwa Ibom state.

And as soon as president Buhari appointed him to Niger Delta ministry as a minister in charge, he went to all television stations and print media in Nigeria to announce that he had uncovered millions of missing money.

That was a year ago, and today not a single missing money has been uncovered.

President Buhari made a serious mistake when he appointed Mr. Akpabio minister because he is there to make noise and accomplish nothing.

And mark my word, sooner or later a big fight is going to breakout in Niger Delta ministry due to Akpbabio constant outburst.

tensazangetsu20: “You do realize in the USA there are indian restaurants that cook strictly Indian food, Mexican restaurants that cook strictly Mexican and Chinese restaurants that cook strictly Chinese. Food is a fundamental part of culture.”

True—you are right.
I ate in an Egyptian restaurant last Night—here in US. I saw 5 waitresses. That number excludes the cooks. Believe me, some of them are college graduates. Minimum take home a day for these restaurant workers is $100 plus tips. These waitresses dress well and drive expensive cars.

The different between restaurants in western countries and Nigeria is wages in Nigeria are too low. That discourages people from patronizing restaurant jobs. It also discourages investors from coming to Nigeria to open up business.

Cnnews is an American television news network. On August 3, 2020 its market place segment on Africa reported that a south Africa business store in Nigeria---Shoprite is closing its operation and leaving Nigeria because wages paid to workers is too low.

So, higher minimum wage in Nigeria must be made compatible to those in America, Europe, and Asian nations if Nigeria is to improve hiring prospect at home.

This will only work if the government of Nigeria hires policy people to be ministers and corporate managers.

I took my time to examine the qualifications of Nigerian ministers servicing in Buhari government. I was stunned to notice that not a single one of them is a policy person.

No more college professors as ministers. Business owners should be ministers and corporate managers in Nigerian government. Business owners know how to make things work because they have gone through it before.

Hi Slydog:
You said: “This your solution is not easy o, I wonder what restaurant did to you to deserve this. Will closing down restaurants & having a "national policy" on those sectors generate employment for the teeming millions? I need to understand the rationale behind your solution”


Let me explain:
Restaurant is classified as a small business and one of the most important engines that drives economic growth in the society and creates jobs for locals. According to 2012 business report by the small business administration in USA, small business-like restaurant comprised 99.7% of US employer firms.

People who work in restaurants keep money earned in their communities. They shop in local stores, shoes stores, barber shop, groceries stores. When people spend money, it provides jobs opportunities for others.

Restaurants pay taxes to the government. People who work at the restaurant pay taxes to the government. People who eat at the restaurants also pay taxes. These taxes generate revenues to the government—allowing government to hire people to work

On the other hand, restaurant workers spend their wages to buy personal items like shoes, clothes, etc. That creates jobs for locals and generates revenues for other business to help them to hire others to work.

now, this kind of business does not work in Nigeria because every tribe in Nigeria has their own food. For an example, in Nigeria, you have Ibo food restaurant, Yoruba food restaurant, Hausa food restaurant, Ibibio food restaurant, Ijaw food restaurant----making it difficult for employees of these restaurants to transfer their skills to restaurants not designed to feed people from another tribe.


I propose national policy not just on restaurants business but all other private sector businesses because it will allow businesses to be located anywhere in Nigeria instead of a particular tribe. That means if you know how to cook Yoruba food, you have skill to cook Ibibio food. And that is job opportunity.

Why is operation of restaurant business work for people America, Europe and Asian countries, not people in Nigeria?

The short answer is Nigerian government officials run government services not on policy, but whatever gets into their mind. That is a recipe for disaster. You are witnessing it in Nigeria today.

Education is a job training, not a magic bullet—something Nigerian government has failed to communicate to the public before every Nigerian begins to acquire all the education.

In Nigeria, students graduate from schools with absolutely no job experience and expect to get hired. No, it is not going to happen. It is happening in Europe, North America, and Asian countries.

In Europe, North America and most Asian nations, people get jobs soon after they graduate from schools because they have existed private sector businesses that offer students opportunities to work when they are students and gain job skills. In Nigeria, such opportunities do not exist.

And here is why

Nigerian government does not have a national policy on restaurants, clothing stores, groceries stores, shoes stores, barber shop, etc.

At the heart of the problem is tribalism. Every tribe you go to, people there have their own foods, dressing code, customs, and so on. That makes it difficult for Nigerians who graduate from schools to obtain jobs skills that they can transfer. It also makes it difficult for jobs to be created in a large scale to hire school graduates.

Solution
Nigerian government should propose and pass a national policy on restaurant busines, clothing stores, barber shops, shoes stores, convenient stores business. All tribal restaurants and associate business should be shut down. This will allow Nigerian to work in any business and transfer skills gained to other business.

Education is job training. Try to get a job while you are a student to gain job skills. Do not wait until after school graduation to look for job to acquire skills. That way you don’t start at the bottom or sit too long to find a job.

“Speaking also on the TV programme on Friday, a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Abuja, Dr Ahmed Adamu, faulted the timing of the policy because of the inflation already in the economy.

Adamu said, “It is also a wrong time because we have not built the right infrastructure and not supplied the right agriculture facilities and we have not built the entire agriculture value chain. We are also facing insecurity and a lot of farmers have been displaced from their farms and they cannot produce much. And now the government is discouraging cheap importation from other countries. It is going to create a lot of food scarcity in the country.”

President Buhari policy on banning food import is the right policy for Nigeria, period. And Dr. Ahmed Adamu’s claim of wrong timing of policy is wrong. Where did Dr. Ahmed Adamu get his economic degree from?

Import ban benefits local producers and creates jobs for locals. In a recent article in Quartz Africa magazine title “Nigeria’s unemployment rate has more than tripled in the last five years—and it will only get worse, the author Yomi Kazeem claimed that one in every two Nigeria labor force is either unemployed or underemployed. The article further claimed that Nigeria unemployment stands at 27.1%.

This unemployment rate is serious—enough to increase crime rate among the youths. So, import is not a healthful path to follow if Nigeria is serious about reducing unemployment.

In about two weeks, Nigeria is going to be 60 years old since it became an independence Nation and it still relying of food import. Continuous importation of food from foreign countries, especially when a larger part of Nigeria land is fertile speaks badly about the way Nigeria is managed.

Unlike northern Nigeria which land is infertile for agriculture development, southern states—with its regular rain fall a year should be funded fully by the federal government to engage in a large-scale agriculture production. This will create jobs locals and make Nigeria self-sufficient in food production—leading to permanent ban on all foods import

Electronic voting is the only way to credible elections—Jonathan Goodluck

Easy said than done.
When President Jonathan Goodluck was in power, he never talked about credible elections in Nigeria. Back then, election was credible because it favored him. He took $2.1b out of federal account to fund his reelection, to appease his cronies, and failed. He appointed a northern Nigeria man to run NEC—an action that cost him his reelection.

He took over the presidency in 2009 after the dead of President Yar’Adua and stayed in power till 2015 without building a single road. He comes from Ijaw tribe in Nigeria—one of the most oppressed tribe in Nigeria and did nothing to them while in power to lift them up from the bottom of economic ladder.

Now that he is out of office and cannot enforce his opinion, it is someone else fault.

Nonsense!

But to be honest, I have seen this movie before and I don’t want to see it again.

Glad Jonathan Goodluck has lost his opportunity to be relevant.

Report “Investigations by Vanguard, yesterday, indicated that their action was propelled by recent developments, especially the planned forensic audit of the operations of DISCOs and the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, that banks should commence collection of tariff, targeted at enabling them recover huge loans granted them to buy the assets””

Disco threat to pull out of its contract obligation is because they scare audit probe will expose their criminal activities.

Corrupt people don’t like audit. They don’t want oversight. They love backdoor deals. That is why they are threating to leave.

So, this attitude by DISCO calls for the federal government of Nigeria to invest in job training for Nigerians in the right field so that they open electrical companies themselves instead of relying on foreign expertise.

Next month, October1, 2020 Nigeria will be 60 years since it became an independence Nation.

Again, it goes back to the history of Ajaokuta steel company in the mid-1970s when then, General Gowan awarded contract to a west Germany company to build a steel company. While in the middle of construction, the Germany company stopped the construction and pull out due to mounting pressure from western governments over the suspicious Nigeria might use the steel development to build bombs, then attack western nations with these bombs.

There was no evidence offered by the West Germany company that Nigeria would use the steel company to build bomb.

Last but not the least, I call on the federal government of Nigeria and all the state governments to stop handing scholarship to Nigerians to go and study business administration. Scholarship should be handed to Nigerians who want to study science and technology.

No brainer here.

Claim that incompetent leadership is what is stopping Nigeria from having 24/7 electricity is half true. The problem is Nigerian government and Nigerians don’t focus on education and jobs training in areas likely to help Nigeria to build steady electricity supply.

Five years ago, I visited 10 American universities to investigate what Nigerian students were studying when they arrived in the United States. In the process, I interviewed 612 Nigerian students.

And this was what I found:
1. 80% Business Administration
2. 10% Accounting
3. 5% Marketing
4. 3% Economics
5. 1% Computer Science
6. 1% Social work

I also found that no Nigerian was studying engineering, electronic, Mechanical engineering, physics, or other science fields.

For Nigeria to have 24/7 electricity supply, local expertise is key. Foreign countries don’t sell their ideas to others. They make products from their ideas and sell them in form of products and services.

And the worst part is Nigeria is a black country—which means we are always viewed as threat.

It should be noted that in the mid 1970s, west Germany pull out of the contract with Nigeria to build Ajaokuta steel company because western countries thought Nigeria was going to use the steel company to build bombs to attack the west. These countries are still around and they will never teach Nigeria how build its own electricity.

So, for Nigeria to have a steady and sustainable power supply, it has to stop giving scholarship to Nigerians to study business. Instead, Nigeria needs to hand scholarship to those who are going to study science and technology.

In addition, Nigerian government should challenge Nigerians by putting out a reward for any Nigerian who is capable of developing a successful electricity company.

This reward should be in the amount of $5millin to $100million. If the Nigerian put this reward out, we will see a local company in Nigeria develops a steady power supply within one to five years.

While I applaud the federal government of Nigeria effort in its recent engagement with foreign companies and government about finding solution to irregular power supply, I don’t believe it is a lasting solution.

I think these foreign company chasing contract to build electricity supply is trying to rip off the government. When they get their money, they are gone.

I can see debate on resource control popping up again.
And especially in Akwa Ibom State. Over 50% of Nigerian annual revenues come from Akwa Ibom state, yet, the citizens of Akwa Ibom State are the poorest in Nigeria.

Who do you blame for poor conditions of living the citizens of Akwa ibom state are experiencing?

The blame sits at the heart of the citizens themselves—which include their leaders. That is because we are too scare to fight for ourselves. Oil revenue should be controlled by Akwa Ibom State government. Natural gas revenue should be controlled by Akwa Ibom State government. Mining of solid minerals—when revenue is generated should be controlled by Akwa Ibom State.

But it is not happening because when new source of revenue is discovered, our leaders invite federal government of Nigeria to come over and take the lead. And that means when revenue on mining of sold minerals start kicking in, Akwa Ibom State government has to beg the federal government of Nigeria for 1% and 99% go into the pocket of Northern controlled government.

I am so irritating by how Nigerian government is mistreating citizens of Akwa Ibom State.

Currently, light rail is not in Akwa Ibom State, but states that don’t contribute to the national treasury. Federal highway project does not exist in Akwa Ibom State. This is happening in view of alarming statistics which show over 50% of revenue Nigerian government spends each year come from Akwa Ibom State.
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Right move by Vice president Atiku.
On February 8, 2013 African Business magazine in an article title “the shocking truth about fuel subsidy fraud” described Nigeria oil subsidy as the world biggest national frauds. Investigation into Nigeria oil subsidy program by the magazine finds the following:

1. Most alarming fraudulent practice listed in the magazine against Nigeria oil for subsidy program said “Nigerian government pays subsidies on 59m liters of fuel a day while the country consumes just 35 liters a day “
2. Nigerian government paid or owed $14bn in 2011, up 154 % on the previous year, and almost two-thirds the amount Abuja’s entire budget for the year, which stood at $22bn
3. The number of companies importing fuel increased from six in 2006 to 140 by 2011—suggesting that they are huge profits to made from the trade.

Have you ever wondered why Nigerian government was unable to remove the oil subsidy program? Profit by fraudsters was the reason.

So, removing this oil subsidy program does not mean Nigerian government is going to return this money to the pocket of Nigerians.

That is because President Buhari has not said so. And that means someone is pocketing it.

Just tells you how hard it is for Nigerians to win.

Governor Udom: “When I came into office as Governor, I inherited just one private aircraft, but I thank God I will not leave office with anything less than eight to nine more aircrafts, so that people can see progress and I’m sure the person that will come after me will not leave office with less than twenty five aircrafts”, Governor Emmanuel said.”

I disagree.
8 to 9 aircrafts in operation will not measure Governor Udom Emmanuel effectiveness as governor. Instead, if majority of Akwa Ibom citizens have jobs to earn income and able to take care of their families better than period before Udom became governor.

So, my advice to governor Emmanuel is to focus on economic policies that will lift up people who are at the bottom of economic ladder. For an example governor Emmanuel never talks about his investment in citizens of Akwa Ibom State.

Does governor has policies on job training, child care services, wage increase, and more?

Not smart suggestion.
1999 constitution of Nigeria does not provide for revenue sharing based on landmass. One good reason is unused land does not generate revenue.

So, if Niger state government wants more money from the government it should convert its unused land into something productive to generate revenue.

One good idea for converting unused land into revenue generating tool is building apartments for people to live. Apartment buildings generate revenues to government through taxes collected by the government on the property.

And another way is building shopping centers to attract businesses to open shops to hire people to work and earn income.

These and more are ways Europe and western nations have generated revenue instead of waiting for free money.

Will Niger state government take this advice?

1999 constitution of Nigeria does not provide for revenue sharing based on landmass. One good reason is unused land does not generate revenue.

So, if Niger state government wants more money from the government it should convert its unused land into something productive to generate revenue.

One good idea for converting unused land into revenue generating tool is building apartments for people to live. Apartment buildings generate revenues to government through taxes collected by the government on the property.

And another way is building shopping centers to attract businesses to open shops to hire people to work and earn income.

These and more are ways Europe and western nations have generated revenue instead of waiting for free money.

Will Niger state government take this advice?

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/08/buhari-swears-in-12-permanent-secretaries/ :President Muhmmadu Buhari on Wednesday swore-in 12 Permanent Secretaries at the Council Chambers, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Will the appointment and sworn in of permanent secretaries by president Buhari of Nigeria put food on the table for hungry Nigerian families?

I am tired of reading about Nigerian President announcing the appointment of people to government jobs and not telling them how this appointment will affect their bottom line.