₦airaland Forum

Oyo Empire which at its peak reached into Ghana.

Igbo villages, which were raided by Ijaw and Calabar for slaves

Lmao. Let me hear one of you Igbos mock Yoruba people for the Oyo Empire losing Ilorin again

Even your Biafra, within a few months lost a large chunk of its land.

What martial prowess can you all brag of?

Hehe. Real Jews defeat Islamic hordes and their allies, fake Jews (Igbo) make threats, lose large chunks of their land within the first few months of fighting, and then whine and complain about how the entire world came against them.

And then mock ancient peoples who did far more than their own ancestors did.

Imagine, your entire SE zone can nearly fit into Oyo State. Just to give you an idea of how indolent and weak your own ancestors were. Hiding in the bush in fear of the slave raider

In terms of the hiearchy of martial prowess of groups in Nigeria before the 1900s, Igbos rank probably near the bottom.

As little as the accomplishments of the Oyo Empire may have been, none of your own ancestors have ever conquered even a quarter of the territory. The Ijaw, Ibibio, etc territory you were gifted by the British upon independence and secession, you rapidly lost. 1/3 of Biafa lost within the first few months, if I remember correctly.

So again who are you to mock it for losing Ilorin? Like seriously, who the fvck are you? Who was even aware of you all before 1900?

Regarding the "the whole world" fought to put you down, you are entitled to believe any lies or untruths you like. I don't much care. Though I'd encourage any third parties who might mistakenly believe that there is any truth to what you say to read this:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1984/SMR.htm

A people who were illiterate villagers hiding in the bush to avoided being raided by Ijaw and Calabar slave raiders, mocking the Oyo Empire for losing Ilorin?

Who born you?

roflmao @ this epic fail of a thread

Man wtf is Seun banning links to SR?

Link to the article:

http://[b]s[/b]aharareporters.com/news-page/gov-peter-obi-and-bianca-abandon-ikemba-england

I think what he is suggesting is more of a production subsidy. Things like tax waivers/holidays on people who build refineries, things of that sort to encourage people to build.

I'm against the consumption subsidy (for a variety of reasons, some of which you just mentioned), but not necessarily against a production subsidy.

Onlytruth:
@henry101

Start ignoring the goat calling himself Negro_Ntns.

His land is a no man's land with Fulani ruling his people and he is here yapping like a bi1inch in heat.

There is no shame in losing wars. At least the Yoruba actually expanded and built empires. What were your own ancestors doing in 1810? Being raided for slaves by the Ijaw and Calabar folk.

It kind of boggles my mind that Igbo folk, of any group in Nigeria would use Ilorin to mock Yoruba.

Eko Ile:
This is really a silly thread, def' not expecting such from the OP.

Didn't 82% Lagos electorates just gave the man a landslide victory less than 3 months ago and wasn't there flooding every year he's been in office?

Responding "Not at all" is a valid option. Maybe I should have titled my post, "Has Fashola's Stock Fallen"?

I'll retitle.

ola olabiy:
"clutter".

That's a carefully-veiled attack, Eku.

You have cluttered and derailed the thread to some extent, have you not? Rather than just posting concisely to argue your point, you are dragging things out far longer than they must or should be.

I just feel that making your points clearly and directly is useful, otherwise the thread will get derailed again (as it did with the risk management stuff.) If you feel that the CBN is well within its rights to do Activity X, then say so and argue why. All this other baiting stuff you were doing isn't needed, in my opinion.

Anyway, I don't think it is an attack so much as a statement of what has happened.

ola olabiy:
But, I wasn't happy with the word"clattering" in your post hence my outburst.

Where did I used that word? It doesn't sound like a word that I'd use.

hrm. Seems to me that the NYSC DG has blood on his hands

Naijanistan, we hail thee

ola olabiy:
Stay in Programming secton, mate.

I would tell you to return to whatever section your own area of expertise is, but I'm not sure what that is.

Based on what? What evidence is there that Sanusi is this top-notch brain?

Desola:
So you admit to Fashola being blamed for something he's not necessarily responsible for, yet you join hands to open a thread to test his popularity? What a load of contradiction! W

If the economy in a country falls apart, a guy will get blamed for it even if it wasn't his fault. Similarly, if the economy is booming, he'll get credit for it even if he didn't have that much to do with it.

This just comes with the territory of being a politician.

1. I've already explained why your example is useless, right? It appears that the Albanian CB was buying that hotel not for investment purposes, but for additional office space. Do you get why this is different from the various proposals that Sanusi has made, or not?
2. In my post earlier here was what I wrote:

Can you show us an example of any central bank in the world building hotels, taking over a commodity board, offering to run the power sector, etc?

If you can post such an example, please do so. But please be direct and to the point when doing so, to avoid cluttering this thread.

So I am sure that you can find cases where some central bank in Afghanistan, Sudan, Russia, Zimbabwe, etc do something crazy. But implicitly in my post, I'm not interested in what basket-case countries like that are doing. I'm interested in what the best practices are, where banking is already well-established and fairly strong. Countries like the US, UK, Canada, Germany, UAE, the BRICS, etc.

Now, granted, maybe I should have made this explicit, so that you'd not have felt the need to post some example from Albania.

Hehe.

I am not sure which is worse, lacking balls or lacking brains.

Anyway, it looks like ola olabiy is just trolling or purposefully trying to derail the thread. I would suggest that he be ignored henceforth.

Did you even read that article you linked to?

Albania's CB is not acquiring that hotel for investment purposes or whatever else Sanusi is justifying the CBN for building its own.

From the very article you linked to, there are two reasons being offered:
1) Office space (it appears that this hotel is across the street from the Albanian CB office)
2) loan from the bank to the government

Anyway, at a more fundamental level, why do we care what Albania is doing? We should be looking at the best practices worldwide, not some other country where the CB is also possibly overreaching its mandate. In the article you linked to, notice that locals are criticizing the move. So how exactly does that support your argument (if you even have an argument)?

At times I think you like to be contrary just for the sake of it.

Desola, dunno if you've read my other writings on this forum, but I'm pretty pro-Fashola. Don't get the wrong idea and think I'm an enemy of his or blaming him.

But sometimes you get the blame in life for stuff you aren't really responsible for.

He is just saying that the government should subsidize production rather than consumption.

Just curious, how much of a hit do you think he has taken from these unfortunate events? And I mean your own personal rating, not what your guess about other people's ratings now looks like.

Perhaps I should add a poll too.

Top 3 candidates? lol

Kx:
Without being a BFR critic,
could nt he have ordered that all unapproved structures on the drainage channels be demolished
instead of singling out and mentioning church?

But the title of this thread says church and other structures. Maybe the largest one there is a church? I don't see any reason to suspect his motives.

Good.

@ola olabiy: Isn't this Maiden Lane Transactions similar to AMCON? It is just a vehicle for managing assets related to financial institutions that the Fed had to bail out.

That is still directly related to the Fed's mandate.

Can you show us an example of any central bank in the world building hotels, taking over a commodity board, offering to run the power sector, etc?

If you can post such an example, please do so. But please be direct and to the point when doing so, to avoid cluttering this thread.

@fstranger: Sorry for taking so long to respond. A certain book came out about 25 hours ago, and I've spent most of my time since then reading it

iragbijile:
Standard? What standard are you talking about?

Educational?

Work Experience?

Tribe /ethnicity?

The point here is that the notion that there is an absolute standard that must be met by a CBN governor is hogwash?


EVen in the US, what standard do you think thses people met before they were appointed Fed Chariman:

Greenspan Vs. Bernanke

Even with the god-like status of Greenspan, the economy went down under his watch. Does that make him incompetent?

Now compare those two with Larry Summers ( Was supposed to be Fed Chairman before Obama changed his mind), an eccentric lucky rabble-rouser.
Compare his speech here to that of Sanusi.

http://ceoworld.biz/ceo/2009/03/13/lawrence-h-summers-on-the-crisis

Yet, he is fit to be the Fed Chair and fit to be appointed the Economist of the world bank

We need to stop chasing shadows.

What exactly is the absolute standard you are talking about? Spit it out!

He simply is not. Almost all of these other CBN heads have both far superior educational qualifications than him (PhD), went to better schools (NYU vs ABU), and have substantial work experience. Not just working at Bank of America or whatever before becoming CBN head, but actually working as junior economists or in public policy think tanks!

A guy who graduated from college in economics in 2000 will have about 11 years of experience right now. Yet would anyone proffer such a guy as CBN head for Nigeria   Is that really what we'll use, when there are so many other candidates with more experience, more education, or both?

Milton didnt know more than that before he was granted a Nobel. you know why Krugman got his Nobel prize? Not for something fancy, and yet his name was thrown around for the fed job.

Why the fvck are you comparing Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to fcking Milton Friedman or Paul Krugman? You think Nobel Prize is beans? Something you can get just by virtue of being some descendant of Usman Dan Fodio? Wth? I've been reading Krugman since about 1996. SLS doesn't hold a candle to the guy in any way shape or form. They are not comparable.

It is never about what you know, it is more about using what you know to advance the plight of the people. James Watson discovered the double helix not because he knows more than Linus Pauling, he knew less actually, he was just able to stay long enough with the problem.

How has he advanced the plight of the people?

The most important thing is that he understands the Nigerian problem, that is good enough for me.

He might understand the Nigerian problem, but is he the best qualified person for the job?

Awolowo was boss of the CBN during the Civil war, even though he was a lawyer by training.

Minister of Finance is different, is it not? In any case, that Awo did XYZ 40 years ago doesn't mean we should do the same now.

Clinton, the next World bank chief, knows less than "your typical college econ grad from a good school with a few years of work experience."

Says who? Hillary Clinton? You mean the chick who got her law degree from Yale (#1 law school in the country)? The one who was in charge of Bill Clinton's healthcare plan in the 90s? The one who was senator for NY? This is the one who knows less about even economics than an aveerage econ grad?

In any case, World Bank President is primarily a political position; you don't really need to have any econ background to get it. Wolfowitz was World Bank President, for example. BTW, World Bank President is not the top economist position at the World Bank. That appears to be the Chief Economist of the World Bank." All men who have impeccable credentials as economists.

Maybe we dont need economists to run our central banks per se. Anyhoo, SLS knows enough to run the CBN, at least more than Awolowo and Clinton.

See above.

Lies and half truths.

12 years of consecutive banking experience before beginning his job. The 6 years he did after college are of questionable value. I dunno how it works for you in your particular profession, but for me, if I took a 6 year hiatus outside of my field, then I'd find it very difficult to get the same thing i had before I left.

Nuff said.

Sadly, I've noticed that foreign commentators on Nigeria sometimes miss certain things.

Well, I know that for sure. There are more applicants than space. ( 10000 : 1, candidate to space ratio) Go figure.

What did SLS get on his JAMB and WAEC? (or whatever the exams were at that point?) That he got in doesn't mean he deserved to.

I thought one of your criticisms of SLS is his lack of significant experience

So not knowing "any more about economics than your typical college econ grad from a good school with a few years of work experience" is good enough for this person, BUT NOT FOR SANUSI?

You see the contradictions in your statements.

Very obvious that this is personal, just like the air-head OP.

Despite her lack of experience, she has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she understands macroeconomics. This is something that cannot be said for SLS.

I wouldn't mind Sanusi's work experience if he'd demonstrated this in some way.

This is what you said to discredit Sanusi:


?

I see it differently.

Anyway, here is another one:

http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/karticles/kano_political_economy_reflectio.htm

I doubt you even read the last one.

These are the sorts of things that might be fine for an Op-ed in a newspaper of some sort. But as evidence of intellectual horsepower or mastery of economics, it doesn't measure up. I'm looking for something more like this: http://www.princeton.edu/~chassang/research.html

Peer reviewed scholarly work.

Op-eds on websites Gamji.com, NigerDeltaCongress.com are pretty fine, but not quite what I'm looking for.

OAM4J:
I think he will make a better State governor or President. I would have even been happier if he is our present President cos I rate him far ahead of GEJ. Don't be surprised if I support his presidential bid anytime he put himself forward, his religious extremism notwithstanding.

Err, what?

Blacklisting Port Harcourt University
By Uche Igwe
July 11, 2011 05:41AMT
print email


Last week I had a reason to visit the website of the World Educational Services and made a very surprising discovery. There was a bold announcement on their site that they do not accept credentials from the University of Port Harcourt. I was unsettled by this especially when I contemplate the long and short term implications.

For those who do not know, the World Education Services is a US based non-profit organization that evaluates credentials of students seeking further studies in the United States and Canada. Essentially, the role of WES is to convert the grades from universities overseas to a standard comparable to those used in America. This assessment ensures a common standard and enables the universities where international students apply to grade them side by side their US colleagues.

In many universities in the US, WES credential assessment is compulsory for any (post) graduate study. It has become increasingly fashionable for students graduating from Nigerian universities to seek opportunities for post graduate studies in Europe or America. Despite the huge costs of such educational enterprise, many Nigerians go annually to these schools ostensibly in search of better standards. The rejection of the certificates from Uniport means that the ambition of graduates from this university to pursue further education in America and Canada is cut short. This is a clog in the wheel of the progress of many aspiring leaders in Nigeria and should not be ignored.

Granted, the standard of education in Nigeria has gone so bad and that is even the major reason for the exodus. However one is curious as to why out of all the universities in Nigeria, University of Port Harcourt is singled out for such a blacklist treatment. The reason for this must be investigated immediately and corrected. Coincidentally this is a university that has a great history and produced our president, Goodluck Jonathan, state governors Rotimi Amaechi and Timipre Sylva and many others.

The reputation of the Nigerian education system continues to dwindle by the day and people who brandish Nigerian certificates anywhere in the world are treated like lepers and discriminated against. The reasons are not farfetched. The carrying capacities of many Nigerian universities have all been exceeded. For instance a class room that was originally constructed to house 50 students is now taking more than 500. Not to talk about the accommodation situation and the dilapidating infrastructure. Many school hostels do not have pipe borne water and students die daily from preventable water borne diseases. It is commonplace to see 90 per cent of students standing during lecture sessions.

A few existing laboratories are only empty rooms and graduates from science based disciplines hardly get the equipment to do practical work all through the duration of their stay. Lecturers turn blind eyes to cases of examination malpractices and often make themselves facilitators or conduits. In the end the certificates awarded are worth nearly nothing. Stories of cash-for-score and cash for scores are increasingly becoming a celebrated practice rather than a contemptible scandal. Some unscrupulous university staff are ready collaborators for admission fraud and certificate forgery.

Rather than confront these deficiencies and work to improve on each of them, university authorities in Nigeria are rather busy handing out honorary doctorate degrees indiscriminately to those who either have questionable degrees already or none at all. These transactions often happen at a fee.

However, none of these are enough reasons to hand down a blanket ban on a whole university. The management of the University of Port Harcout should contact the World Education Services and find out the reason why they were blacklisted. And quickly map out strategies to reverse it. Beyond this, everyone who is an alumnus of this great institution must see this as both a challenge and a responsibility.

Furthermore we must all work to improve both the reality and the image of the Nigerian education system. There is an aspect of this that rests on government that I believe has declared an emergency on the education sector. There is also another symbolic aspect that behooves on all of us to change our mindset. We must reawaken the spirit of hard work and excellence within our communities. That is what Nigerians are known for. It starts at family level and creeps high when we make a difference elsewhere to affect how we are rated in other places around the world.

Uche Igwe wrote from Africa Program Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC. He is on ucheigwe@gmail.com

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Opinion/Editorial/5730293-182/blacklisting_port_harcourt_university__.csp

@dem_people: What was the result of your conversation on Sunday? Please post in the other thread.

iragbijile:
Under qualified in what sense? What does that even mean? Who are we comparing him with?  The older Sanusi, Paul or Soludo or Adamu Ciroma?

And what do you mean by substantial work experience? where was Soludo before he became the CBN governor? They cant all work at Goldman Sachs or Lehman

I'm comparing him to an absolute standard of what a CBN head's job qualifications must be. What they must know and understand. I am not comparing him to the previous job holders, but to this absolute standard. I am not convinced he knows any more about economics than your typical college econ grad from a good school with a few years of work experience. This is essentially what he was before he became promoted to CBN head. And that is simply not enough.

More qualified than Sanusi? You mean those he out-competed to get into ABU? I dont get it.

First, we have no clue if he really even "out-competed" anyone to get into ABU. Second, yes. If you come on YIM I can point you to at least one person I know in RL who today is probably at least as qualified as Sanusi is be the CBN head of Nigeria. And this person I know is still very early in their career. . . in fact their career has just started.

You mean non-interest banking and sharia banking isnt economics? you have to analyse his articles within the framework of what he is doing? people like Alan Greenspan did not write much, they just followed already laid down principles from people they studied in books.

Anyway, this is one I saw way back:

http://www.bis.org/review/r101210e.pdf

And if you go to Gamji, there are tons. You just have to stay awake while reading it.

Sorry, I guess i wasn't specific enough. Yes, this is an article that talks about economic data for Nigeria. But what about this demonstrates that he has a clear mastery well beyond that of a lay person or typical econ undergad? What analysis, insight, explanation, etc does he bring to the table?

You kind of see what I am saying, right? There is nothing exceptional about that writeup, nothing that makes it obvious that he is an expert.

iragbijile:
Pretty much, he has maligned the academic achievement of this gentle man who by what we know about him is one of the finest and most articulate and if i may add, one of the smartest in Nigeria. fter all, ABU has the best economics department in West Africa. You can quote me on that.

Even if it were the best econ department in the world, that wouldn't change the point being made about him being under-qualified. I don't think it'd make sense to hire even an econ degree holder from Harvard as your CBN governor, unless he has substantial work experience and shows that beyond a shadow of doubt, he is a master of his domain. Sanusi has not done this.

We have at least a few qualified Nigerians available. Why not make use of one of them?

He even said that SLS hasnt written much of hard core stuffs besides his article on islam and sharia. Talk about laziness and lack of due diligence.

Can you show us anything Sanusi has written on economics? I looked and couldn't find anything. Perhaps you can show us what you've found.