₦airaland Forum

[quote author=ekt_bear link=topic=746609.msg9028494#msg9028494 date=1314556499]He said after visit Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos and Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone, Wenzhou businessmen have seen the economic future of Nigeria.[/quote]I know of Lekki, but had never heard of Ogun-Guangdong FTZ?

At any rate, sounds solid.

Updated: 2011-08-28 10:11

LAGOS - A trade group of 38 businessmen and government officials from East China's Wenzhou City in Zhejiang Provicne visited Nigeria on August 23-27.
The businessmen coming from garment and shoemaking, electric appliances, building materials and agriculture visited free trade zones in Lagos, Nigeria's economic center, and Ogun State and attended a series of investment and trade talks.
In Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone, two companies from Wenzhou signed investment agreements on ceramic tile production and tyre recycling production amounting to $25 million.
Wang Jianping, chairman of Hazan Company from Wenzhou City, said he is optimistic about Nigeria's market.
Nigeria has the largest population in Africa and has rich resources and it is suitable for Wenzhou businessmen to tap their talents.
He said he has already hired more than 600 local workers and he will continue to contribute to Nigerian economic development.
Qian Guolin, another businessmen from Wenzhou, said the trade group's visit shows that more and more Wenzhou entrepreneurs are favoring development in Nigeria. He said after visit Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos and Ogun-Guangdong Free Trade Zone, Wenzhou businessmen have seen the economic future of Nigeria.
China's acting consul-general Zhang Zhengxi accompanied the Wenzhou trade group in the visit and trade talks.


http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-08/28/content_13204845.htm

^-- hehe

The Economist tells us that the sky is blue, or that water is wet, and of course there will be a few who will deny what is obvious.

Such is life.

djustice:
The curses that are pronounced daily on his head because of his thievery and that of his godfather will eventually cause the veil of holiness he has put on his demonic nature to fall.

Fashola's demonic nature? If what you say is true, then I see no reason to have any hope in Nigeria

Are you sure you are not overreacting a bit?

hrm, maybe I should ask my question elsewhere then (to avoid derail)

nolongTing:
The fact of the matter is Iran is richer than Nigeria, in fact its in the top 20 richest nations in the world with a population half that of Nigeria.  secondly, the sanctions have not worked at all, the Iranians saw them coming and have found plenty of alternatives, China being the main beneficiary. Finally, despite the sanctions Iran dose more trade with the west than Nigeria 

Those sanctions have devastated Iran, imo. They are a great and talented people (at least based on the Persians I've met here from there, results in these international math/physics/science competitions), and would be much more further developed economically if it weren't for these sanctions. Just because they are richer than Nigeria doesn't mean they are anything close to their full potential.

The article makes a few mistakes, but largely is on the ball.

Most of the mistakes Fstranger is nitpicking at aren't really central.

And the second "mistake" you accuse them of, you are simply flat out wrong.

Literacy rates in the north-east are two-thirds lower than in Lagos, the southern business hub. Less than 5% of women are able to read and write in some northern states. Income per head is 50% lower than in the Christian south. The lack of economic opportunities is driving some into the arms of radicals.

Sentence 1, 2, and 3 are facts. Sentence 4, well we don't know how they concluded it, but it seems reasonable given the lower incomes and higher unemployment rates in the north.

Why not just settle the debate on topcoder or another one of those competitive programming sites?

Heh. As I expected.

premechaz:
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.

Out of curiosity, who is this quote directed at?

deluxecad:
I really do not cherish this Kobojunkie character,  I keep wondering what she'll be like in real life if she could really be this controversial and dramatic in virtual space. You need to be feeling and reasonable at times, you just aren't. Making cutting remarks and gestures on sensitive issues is quite unfeeling. I guess you live in Nirvana.


As for Ibadan and the rest of Oyo, this too shall pass away. I would recommend that proactive measures be put in place and people should learn to heed warning.

I think ultimately she is well-meaning. But sometimes she says and does stuff that makes you want to slap the he11 out of her. A personality flaw of sorts, but overall a good person (This is my interpretation, I could be wrong! Maybe she really is malicious, i just doubt it.)

^-- When you do, please post it. Hopefully you won't let "one day" be 50 years from now, btw

kandiikane:
I can sing better. .

Can we hear a demo or sample? Always nice to hear talented people.

OP, I think you are right. Tablets and smartphones seem to be the new direction of computing. Supposedly Apple would be the largest manufacturer of computers in the world if tablets are counted along with PCs (don't quote me on this, something I vaguely remember reading).

Not hard to read the direction computing is going, I think.

@OP, you seem to have lost a little weight? Look a bit skinnier.

Of course there will always be some who regret. But how many can this be? And what fraction of the population? Even Jesus Christ wouldn't have a 100% approval rating, let alone Fashola.

However, he probably has the highest approval rating of any major politician in Nigeria. Which is not insignificant, imo.

I'd kind of like a news aggregator for the SW zone of Nigeria. I guess you'd need to use the Google News API (seems defunct or dying) or the Microsoft Bing API.

Anyone interested? I think this would be a relatively easy task; just read up the relevant docs for the Microsoft Bing API, then write some code to pull the data and display it. Could probably be done in a day (or much less, I guess depending on how easy the API is to use).

Unfortunately I don't have the time, but someone else might.

Lots of good stuff in what you wrote. Truth be told, I know almost nothing about the Nupe; never been to northern Kwara or Niger State before in my life. However, I'm drawing my guess based upon the election results. And a few other things I have heard and read from papers.

[quote author=okada_man link=topic=536334.msg9024504#msg9024504 date=1314498483]BTW I don't necessarily want Nigeria to break up, but Nigeria is a fraud as it currently stands. I will prefer if we can agree to a loose confederacy for the sake of shared history, values, security and maybe economics. But we all have to agree to it. It is possible.[/quote]Well said.

I'm lost.

Why would anyone make that same statement about GEJ and Nigeria? At least a few would argue that the FG isn't spending money wisely or is stealing it.

I don't get the impression here that people are accusing Oshiomhole of corruption, more of incompetence/misplaced priorities/etc.

If the above three sentences are correct, then how does what you wrote relate?

^--What % of this money does your typical poor man see?

Won't he see a higher fraction if you directly cut him a check? Rather than indirectly cutting him the check through this blanket subsidy?

If your goal is social welfare, providing for the poor, etc, then this isn't the most efficient way to do it.

alj harem:
makes sense but instead of wrting it off to poor nigerians, why not make a security force or authority that ensures this subsidies are not taken to other countries

That never works. It is impossible. What security force on earth can prevent fuel smuggling? If fuel costs N50 in Nigeria but costs N200 in Benin Republic, how do you prevent smuggling from happening? You'll probably spend more money on preventing the fuel from being smuggled than the value of the subsidy!

Wiser to just eliminate the subsidy and spend the money more intelligently. Rather than letting your neighbors reap where they did not sow.

N600 billion a year.

How about we let the SW zone opt out. Cut a check for N100 billion a year to the zone, and then eliminate the fuel subsidy from our zone

Hehe

EDIT: Sorry, was converting from dollars to naira and miswrote/confused myself. Should be USD6 billlion/year, cut us a check for $1 billion. . .

I even wish that this money were divided up into 6 slices, one for each zone. Let each zone decide if its wants to provide a fuel subsidy or not. I want to be like BR, Cameroon or Niger Republic and profit if my neighbor mistakenly implements a stupid policy like a fuel subsidy.

lmao

Spending nearly $500 million a month on subsidizing Benin Republic, Niger Republic, Cameroon and the few lucky connected individuals who are fortunate enough to be able to profit from this.

What a tremendous waste.

You'd be better off writing a welfare check each month to the 50 million poorest Nigerians.

Err, ok. You are entitled to your opinion I guess.

[quote author=okada_man link=topic=536334.msg9023688#msg9023688 date=1314482979]^
@DemDem The maker of that video criticized Sule at the end, I don't think they are fans of his at all.

Anyway, I hope Auwal can answer my questions.

@Ekt_bear, for the sake of the Kanuris, nupe, ebira and other "northern" people, it's better the Hausa or Fulani have their own separate country diffrent from the minorities. I hope they succeed.[/quote]I'm not lumping the middle belters with the core northerners. But at this point, aren't Kanuri and Nupe core northerners? Don't they speak Hausa as the day to day language in Borno State? Supposedly the PDP chairman in Borno State is a Hausa.

I think Kanuri and Nupe would rather be in the same nation as the core north. Kwara, Kogi, Benue, etc, probably not.

^--- I said "even be wiser." Not "it would be wisest."

If you read my post carefully, you should see that I'm saying Arewa nation identity > religious identity > Hausa identity.

At least, that is what I'd do if I wanted to forge diverse peoples into one.

I support Arewa Republic. I support a Biafra of the 5 SE states. I'll also support a ND republic of some sort in 20 years time or so.

I would suggest though that it is strategically unwise to give your republic an "ethnic" name like Hausaland. After all, you would have Kanuri, Fulani, Gwari and Nupes in this nation too, no?

To my knowledge, Lugard and Bello after him focused on northern identity rather than ethnicity for this very reason.

It would even be wiser to focus on religion (Islam) than ethnicity.

Ogun State is uniquely positioned. If/when electricity comes to Nigeria, it could become one of the largest industrial zones on this continent. Our version of Shenzhen, if you will.

Amosun needs to continue laying the groundwork so that Ogun achieves its potential. If he sets the goal for himself that he wants Ogun to have the finest road network in Nigeria, that would not be a bad goal at all.