₦airaland Forum

They put oil in a different category than manufacturing. I cannot remember the name of the category they use for it though

For me, if the FG becomes weaker relative to the states, then it becomes less important to me who is president and who isn't. Yeah I feel sort of bad for Fashola, and am hard pressed to think of a suitable position for him after 2015 that matches his talents.

But life sucks sometimes, you don't get what you want. 2015 will be some Hausa dude. Hopefully he isn't too corrupt. Which is why it is absolutely critical that the FG is shrunken as much as possible to reduce the amount of money that can be stolen at the center.

Sagamite:
That is why I said Complimentary.

My point is I don't think Ogun has to be "complimentary" in any way. If transportation is fixed, then it actually has some strategic advantages over Lagos when it comes to manufacturing. . . land and labor are much cheaper there than it is in Lagos, for example. So at some point it will be the first place one looks when they start a factory or industrial business.

Wetin Ekiti go do?

Good question. Not clear to me. Agric alone isn't the answer, I'll put it that way.

Ogun should aspire to more than that. It should become a major manufacturing/industrial center, rather than just a "suburb." The state has too much potential by virtue of its location.

There is something amusing about this to me. I get a visual of obese politicians who have grown fat from gorging on federal resources being the target demographic for this hospital

3 June 2011

Nigeria may have recorded a major break- through in its health care policy following the establishment of a world class hospital with state-of -the-art facility to carter for patient s with life threatening aliment by an Indian Health care expert in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)

Bariatric surgery, is a specializes kind of operation carried out on patients who suffer from obesity.The sugary also carries weight loss help to cure high blood pressure and other common illness associated with sickness.

The birth of the hospital, is first of its kind in the sub Sahara Africa and will bring succor to million of Nigerians who frequently travel overseas in search of medical care for various degrees of illness such as Alzheimer's , Kidney transplant, spinal disorder, Cancer, obesity, diabetes, epilepsy, stoke among others.

The hospital, Primus International Specialty has admitted over 100 patients since it began operation in the FCT and has also carried out successful Bariatric surgeries on about 6 patients who suffer from obesity just within one month of opening for business in Nigeria.

Speaking with Abuja Reel on the feat achieved by the hospital director bariatric and Minimal Access Surgeon Dr. peter s Atul said the operation which is the first in the whole of African Continent last for several hours using modern scientific method .

Atul said the surgery which recorded a 100 per cent success was done by a team of renowned Indian based surgeons including Dr. Yogesn Cautam a Senior Consultant ,and Advisor Minimal Access and Bariatric Surgery who is working with the hospital to provide the best globally accepted hospital services to Nigerians and other Africans in the FCT.

He explained that the Bariatric surgery which is also known as metabolic or weight loss has become necessary especially in country like the United State of America (USA) and Nigeria in order to treat or cure associated diseases such as Diabetes, Hypertension, High blood, etc that are commonly found in people with obesity.

Dr. Atul who disclosed that the country has a high rate of obsessed persons said that the disease has become epidemic and must be tackled with all seriousness.

He also observed that every 1 to 3 patients who were treated in the hospital has obesity and need surgery.

According to him, the disease comes with associated illness such as diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure among others medical disorder, if treated can not only cure the patients but also change the way the individual think.

He said after undergoing the metabolic surgery the patients will not only be cured from the sickness but will also loss about 30kg kilogram of his/her weight within few months.

Speaking further on the bariatric surgery, Atul said "getting this surgery done in Nigeria was a marvelous thing to us, it's like finding a cure I, mean drug for malaria in Africa. We applied the latest method in surgeon, using high quality equipment in the world today, like MRI 1.5 Tesla Spinal CT. etc

Dr Atul who is one among the best surgeons in the world said with the establishment of the hospital in Abuja, Nigeria will soon become a hub in the west African sub region in area of medical care.

He assured that with the quality of equipments and skill-specialized manpower assembled by the hospital, the nation will witness a drastic drop in its capital flight for medical treatment abroad and put to end consistent trips to India, and other advance countries in search of good health care facilities.

The surgeon said "Nigerians and individual citizens of other sister African nation need not to travel else where in search of medical attention again, the quality of services rendered in any other hospital in the world can now be obtain in Nigeria,"he said.

Earlier, chairperson of the hospital, Mrs. Achla Dewan said she was motivated to set up the hospital in Nigeria due to the high number of Nigerians who visits hospitals for proper medical attention.

She also said that most of Nigerians who travelled overseas for proper medical care encounter serious challenges and difficulties.

"My house is close to the Nigerian high commission in India. And most Nigeria come to my hospital in new Delhi India, I have come across many of them on a daily basis so ,I ,asked the question why and they told me that Hospitals in Nigeria lack the kind of facilities to take care of their problems .so, I in a way want to provide the best world class health care services for Nigerians and others without necessary traveling to India or UK."

"There are so much advantages in this, one is that the patient do not need to travel to another country for services that can be found in Karu,be gotten It will also serve the cost of traveling, accommodation because our charges are the same like in our hospitals in India." She emphasized.

She said however, that they we facing major challenge in the areas of infrastructure especially, electricity and called power line to the hospital.

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/201106030873.html

Officials of the FCT Administration have so far repatriated 129 beggars and 12 lunatics to their respective states of origin.

The beggars and lunatics were arrested at various locations in Abuja during a joint operation by the FCT Social Development Secretariat, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and a non-governmental organisation, Society Against Prostitution and Child Labour in Nigeria (SAPLAN).

Our reporter gathered from the officials that the repatriation exercise took place at Bwari Rehabilitation Centre.

However, some beggars, who pleaded to be enrolled in the centre's rehabilitation programmes, had their request granted.

Also at the centre, parents whose under- aged children were arrested for hawking on the streets of Abuja, were allowed to collect them, after signing an undertaken with stern warning never to allow their children to hawk on the streets of Abuja again.

Speaking to journalists shortly after the exercise, Coordinator of SAPLAN, Mrs. Grace Adogo, said Abuja is not a safe haven for destitutes, beggars and hawkers because of efforts put in place to keep the city clean as well as safe.

Deputy Director, Social Welfare Department of FCT Social Development Secretariat, Mrs. Folashade Ayileka, warned the beggars and hawkers never to return to the streets of Abuja as the city is not for nuisance and law breakers.

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/201106031156.html

^-- I completely agree.

enyojo:
What are u actually saying??
I don't think u urself know what u r saying.

Tribal sentiments, political sentiments, that Nigerian politics is very cash oriented. All these factors work against Fashola.

Nigeria’s southern state of Cross River signed a memorandum of understanding with Essar African Holdings Co. to build a power plant, the Guardian reported, citing the state’s deputy governor, Efiok Cobham.
The 600-megawatt plant will be built in two phases of 300 megawatts each, and work is expected to start within a year, the Lagos-based newspaper said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-03/nigerian-cross-river-state-essar-sign-power-deal-guardian-says.html


(Wish I could find more details, but this is all I could come up with.)

Governors and other Nigerians who have been pushing for a new revenue allocation formula may have won a major victory.
Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) chair Elias Mbam yesterday said it will produce a new, equitable and just sharing formula early next year.
Governors have been calling for a review of the formula which is largely skewed in favour of the Federal Government that, according to critics, has little to do, to the detriment of states and local governments.
The Federal Government takes 52 per cent from the federation account, leaving the 36 states to share 26.72 per cent. The 774 local governments get 20.60 per cent.
The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) revenue panel headed by Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, has recommended a drastic reduction in the Federal Government’s allocation.
It proposes 35 per cent for the Federal Government, 42 per cent for the states and 23 per cent for the local governments.

See the rest of the article here: http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news/8265-new-revenue-formula-coming.html

Not bad. But I'd rather be exporting expensive chocolate than raw cocoa.

Exports of cocoa products from Nigeria, the fourth-largest producer of the beans, rose 47 percent to $822.8 million in 2010, according to Olakunle Akingbola, business development manager of Cobalt International Services, an inspection company.
This represented about 35 percent of $2.32 billion earnings from non-oil exports last year for Nigeria, Africa’s leading oil producer, Akingbola said by phone today from Akure in western Nigeria.
“We expect to raise earnings from cocoa to 40 percent of non-oil revenue this year,” said Akingbola, whose company inspects all Nigerian non-oil products at ports before export.
Cocoa is Nigeria’s second-biggest foreign-exchange earner after crude oil, according to figures published by the Nigerian government. The Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia produce more cocoa, according to the International Cocoa Organization.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-02/nigeria-s-cocoa-bean-exports-climbed-by-47-last-year-akingbola-says.html

thread completely derailed

I'm not too optimistic about Fashola 2015. The country doesn't really work in a manner conducive to a guy like him being president.

I'll support him if he runs of course, but he'd have to be considered a long shot.

Nice article.

SEFAGO:
Man u love electricity more than an Ekiti man loves pounded yam. Half your posts about electricity.

Whats up with electricity? Is that the only memory you have of NIgeria

Lack of electricity is probably the biggest thing keeping Nigeria away from prosperity. So it makes sense to care about it.

wow

^-- Amazing that the hotels were not making profit. Definitely should be privatized. . . but auctioned off cleanly and transparently.

[quote author=peter_tosh link=topic=659909.msg8440636#msg8440636 date=1307017788]btw. I would like to know why most people want ACN to fail? I am not a member of the party. Just curious. Thanks.[/quote]In short, tribalism and bad belle.

Thing to me is that the FCT has always for the most part been administered by core Hausa-Fulanis. Why hasn't a non-Hausa Fulani ever run it recently?

I could see if the capital of Nigeria were Sokoto or something. But it is the middle belt.

Maybe the OP needs to ask instead if the FCT is a Hausa territory.

I'd have taken some more economics courses in college. But overall, I'm mostly happy with what I've chosen so far.

[quote author=mr.official link=topic=680156.msg8438750#msg8438750 date=1306996927]Seeing is believing. Supply 24/7 everywhere before you effect new tariffs.[/quote]And why would anyone want to invest money in making sure there is 24/7 supply without a profit incentive?

Policy like the one you suggest in bolded will leave Nigeria in darkness.

No new tarriff => no new investment from the private sector

Shortly after midnight on May 11 in central Mexico City, Isaac Chinedu, an immigrant from Nigeria, became involved in some kind of confrontation with a group of police officers on a dark side street. The encounter escalated, and Chinedu was severely beaten. Some minutes later, he was dead, the victim of a hit-and-run driver, authorities say.

The case of Isaac Chinedu has led to demonstrations among Mexico City's African and Afro-Mexican communities, which are laying blame on the police officers who allegedly beat the 29-year-old before he apparently ran into traffic on a busy highway. Chinedu's Mexican widow, Liduvina Castillo, claims that racial prejudice resulted in her husband's death, a charge activists here are rallying around.

"This was an act of discrimination," Castillo told a newscast. "Why? Because they detained him simply because he was black. He wasn't doing anything. Isaac was waiting for a taxi to return to his home in peace."

Prosecutors and forensic investigators said they've determined that Chinedu died of injuries suffered after he was struck by a vehicle on Calzada de Tlalpan, but said his body showed trauma from blows delivered by at least two auxiliary police officers, whose actions were captured by surveillance video. Four officers have been questioned in the incident, but there have been no arrests or charges filed.

Two other officers who may have been involved in the incident have not been identified, authorities said. The hit-and-run driver, meanwhile, remains at-large.

Supporters have held two protests this month seeking justice for Chinedu and bringing attention to a small but growing community of black foreigners in Mexico (links in Spanish). Hundreds of refugees arrived from Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake, as La Plaza has reported. Chinedu had come to Mexico as a refugee from Nigeria, reports said.

A civil organization, the Citizen's Committee in Defense of the Naturalized and Afro-Mexicans, staged the demonstrations and plans to initiate a fast Thursday morning on the doorstep of City Hall. The group's president, Wilner Metelus, a native of Haiti and long-term resident of Mexico, said group members seek a meeting with Mayor Marcelo Ebrard about the death of Chinedu.

"We no longer believe what the attorney general says about the case. There are many contradictions," Metelus said in an interview with La Plaza. "We want a direct dialogue with Marcelo Ebrard on the matter. How could any human being receive such treatment?"

Chinedu had lived in Mexico City for about 10 years. He was a legal resident and the father of two Mexican-born children. As the incident was reported by the local press, revelations surfaced that Chinedu had spent two years behind bars on minor narcotics infractions, which were later dismissed. (In Mexico's deeply troubled justice system, such long prison terms for minor or even nonexistent offenses are quite common.)

On May 11, his widow says, Chinedu was leaving a Mother's Day party and waiting for a cab. The grainy video shows Chinedu rushing toward a passing police cruiser to flag it down. He then appears to try to force his way inside. Standing police officers drag and then violently yank Chinedu back to the sidewalk, where he is struck repeatedly, the video shows.

Neighbors came to Chinedu's aid and the officers left the scene, officials said. "What I did was hug him and separate him from the police so they would stop beating him," a witness told ForoTV.

A top official in the Mexico City attorney general's office said Sunday in a news conference that as paramedics arrived and began tending to Chinedu, he regained consciousness, kicking and struggling. Without explanation, he got up, ran into traffic, and was hit by a fast-moving passenger car.

Toxicology tests showed Chinedu was not under the influence or alcohol or drugs on the night he died, officials said. The investigation is ongoing.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2011/06/nigerian-mexico-police-beating-racism-investigation-isaac-chinedu.html

Nere Emiko has quietly built a fashion house step by step.

Three years ago, Emiko, an engineer-turned-fashion designer, began designing modern and traditional wedding gowns. Last year, she opened a luxury boutique, Gilda Grace Collections, off MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) on West 35th Street.

In the past few weeks, Emiko, 28, has been working on her summer projects. She's designing a custom wedding gown for a local boutique owner, a dress for a woman in West Texas, stage clothes for a jazz singer and women's outfits for a destination wedding in Malta.

But that's not all.

She's ready to expand her fashion repertoire. She and her design team are creating a women's ready-to-wear line for the fall.

"I really haven't had time for my hobbies," said Emiko, an avid reader, traveler and music lover.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.statesman.com/life/style/nigerian-native-nere-emiko-builds-fashion-house-here-1513020.html

Here is another article from the same paper, this one by Atedo Peterside:

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/06/01/post-election-nigeria-jonathans-journey/

Some quotes:

Nigeria’s Federal Government revenues (estimated at only N3.35 trillion in 2011) are too small and its recurrent expenditures (N3.33 trillion in 2011) are too high. In a nutshell, the cost of servicing the bloated government bureaucracy plus inefficient and wasteful maintenance spending consumes all the revenues. The Federal Government has to rely on borrowing to cover capital spending, most of which is aimed at improving Nigeria’s decrepit physical and social infrastructure.

Many politicians as well as sections of the trade union movement, the media and academia in Nigeria want a “free lunch”; they favour subsidised fuel and power, no consumption taxes, no road tolls, school fees or hospital bills, but believe they have a divine right to demand quality social and physical infrastructure. Politicians gleefully concurred in order to get elected.

By Nasir el-Rufai, former minister of Federal Capital Territory and former director of the Bureau of Public Enterprises

Nigeria, a nation of over 150 million people, generated only 2,000 megawatts of electricity this week. Ethnic, religious and political crises have claimed thousands of lives and displaced countless more. Maternal mortality is among the highest in the world. Not a single university in the country appears among the top 5,000 universities in the world. Infrastructure, where it exists is broken and neglected.

Yet, this year, government will spend more to subsidize petrol (about USD 5 billion) than on roads, education, health and power combined. This prioritization is symptomatic of the political economy of today’s Nigeria.

At issue is whether Nigeria remains a “Clique Democracy” or a real, people-driven democracy; whether the current leadership, sworn in again on Sunday has the character, vision and will to defy vested political and business interests to govern decently and grow the economy. Without a major change in the way our country is governed there is reason to fear that what should be Africa’s leading economy, will instead be courting disaster.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s first 18 months at the helm did not bode well. The politics of division has pitted northerners against southerners and Christians against Muslims to the point that obtaining the cohesion and social harmony necessary for economic development will be very difficult.

In the last 4 years, the administration led first by Umaru Yar’Adua, then by Jonathan spent over $200 billion of oil and non-oil revenues, including over $23 billion the previous administration left behind in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) – designed to create savings from revenues above the budgeted price of oil. There is little to show for it. No single major infrastructure investment or policy initiative has been concluded. About a third of that amount was spent under Jonathan’s watch. As Acting President and then President, he ran down the ECA to less than $500 million from the over $6 billion he inherited – sharing out the nation’s savings account to State Governors and traditional rulers to win their support for his presidential bid.

Not content with spending our savings, Jonathan borrowed massively. Nigeria’s domestic and external debts also increased rapidly. According to the Debt Management Office, our domestic debt rose from N2, 051 billion (US $14 billion) in 2007 to N3, 228 billion ($21 billion) by 2010 in the three years Yar’Adua was in charge. Jonathan ramped up domestic borrowing within a year to N4, 869 billion (US $32 billion) – borrowing a massive $11 billion in less than 12 months. Our external debt also increased from $3.719 billion at the end of 2009 to $5.227 billion by March 2011. No one can point to a new power station, seaport, rail line or interstate road completed.

Worse still, oil revenues for the year will not cover the salaries and running cost of the Federal Government according to projections in the 2011 budget. This is in a country where around 30 million people have no jobs. There is little or no investment in physical and human capital, even with very high oil prices the administration has enjoyed. The consequence is militancy in the Niger Delta, extremist violence in the north. Nigeria is now more divided – along religious and ethnic lines – than at any time since the civil war in the 1960s. Internal security must necessarily be the priority.

The administration must also re-establish macroeconomic stability. Sadly, election spending, policy reversals and falling exchange rates have pushed inflationary trends upwards, left the economy unproductive and scuttled domestic and foreign investments in many sectors.

Few countries have road networks as poor as Nigeria’s. The country has no functional railway system; seaports are decrepit and in need of massive investment. And yet there is no sense of urgency in government circles to stimulate activity in these critical sectors – and take advantage of the employment opportunities they create.

Even if Jonathan develops the vision to implement urgently needed developmental strategies, he still has to contend with corruption. Corruption drives up the cost of doing business, derails government policy and is a major disincentive to foreign investment. But does he have the wherewithal to fight it? Does he have the impetus to fight mass poverty on the one hand and vested interests on the other?

His supporters think Jonathan will somehow turn things around. But good governance requires more than good luck. We have to wait patiently and as we always do in Nigeria, pray. While we are praying however, the signs are scary. Because of the nature of his ascent to power, Jonathan is beholden to vested interest groups who helped him on his way and from whose grip he may struggle to fight free.

Even before he was sworn in for his first full term, he indicated that four years would not be enough to achieve much. This implies that he may spend the next four years working for his re-election – with all the consequent squandering of resources that we saw before the elections just gone. In these circumstances simply muddling through may prove to be an achievement.

Nasir el-Rufai is the former minister for the Federal Capital Territories

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/06/01/post-election-nigeria-muddling-through-or-economic-disaster/

By Chris Kay - Jun 1, 2011
Nigerian lenders bailed out by the central bank in 2009 may seek to list on the London Stock Exchange to raise funds before a deadline to recapitalize.

Some of the eight lenders that received funds from the Central Bank of Nigeria have contacted the LSE about possible listings, said Ibukun Adebayo, the LSE’s head of primary markets Middle East & Africa. The central bank has ordered lenders to boost capital by Sept. 30 or it will withdraw interbank guarantees.

“Financial services in Nigeria are an area where we see increases in listings,” Adebayo said in an interview in London yesterday. He declined to say how many banks had approached the bourse because the discussions are confidential.

The central bank provided 620 billion naira ($3.9 billion) to eight of the nation’s 24 lenders after loans to equity speculators contributed to 700 billion naira of non-performing debt, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Abuja. Governor Lamido Sanusi fired the chief executives of the distressed lenders and set up Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria, or Amcon, to buy bad debts from the banks to help recapitalize them before matching them with potential buyers.

The bailed-out lenders are Afribank Nigeria Plc (AFRIBANK), Bank PHB Plc (PLATINUM), Equatorial Trust Bank Ltd., FinBank Plc (FIRSTINL), Intercontinental Bank Plc (INTERCON), Oceanic Bank International Plc (OCEANIC), Spring Bank Plc and Union Bank of Nigeria Plc.

FinBank has signed an agreement to merge with First City Monument Bank Plc (FCMB), FCMB said on May 5.

Africa Listings

Oceanic Bank is yet to sign an accord with a potential investor after talks collapsed with First Bank of Nigeria Plc, the country’s third-biggest lender. Union Bank said on March 23 it signed an agreement with African Capital Alliance under which the group will invest $750 million into the bank.

Access Bank Plc will merge with Intercontinental Bank, Access said on March 27.

The LSE has 18 companies trading on its main market and 56 on its Alternative Investment Market that are incorporated or have operations in sub-Saharan Africa. Four African companies have global depositary receipts listed on the exchange, including Lagos-based lenders Diamond Bank Plc (DIAMONDB) and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. (GUARANTY)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2011-06-01/bailed-out-nigerian-banks-may-seek-london-listing-before-funding-deadline.html

^-- Interesting. That is good to hear.

I never really thought it made sense to have all universities either. There should be different options for people post-secondary school. University for all sounds a bit cookie cutter.