₦airaland Forum

@Gbawe: Be real. What sort of useless MoU is this?

Aregbesola said: “The management of poverty is a general issue with black people. The post 2nd World War situation of Europeans that informed the institutional reforms of Europe is 100 times better than what Africans are presently experiencing.”
He spoke on his administration’s plan to improve the education sector and explained the significance of the items that make up the Osun Flag.
Aregbesola urged Nigerians in the Diaspora to return home with their experience and resources to support the reform process.

Some Black Panther jibber jabber Osun flag Is he a governor, or a Yoruba cultural studies lecturer

If you are flying to the UK, you'd better come back with a company who wants to build a BUSINESS in Osun State. Or provide a loan for Project X at a good interest rate. Or donate free medical care. *Something*

You cannot just come back empty-handed. Is this MoU food for people in Osun to eat?  

Is this costing Osun State any money ? Must some of us just criticise to sound good or for the sake of it ? If the man was wasting money signing 'white Elephant ' project then I would understand . Instead he has signed an MOU with a Borough , employing a lot of Professional Nigerians, in one of the undoubted homes of administrative excellence in the entire universe .

Of course it costs Osun money. How many people went with him to the UK? Plane tickets are not free. And wth can this useless borough do? Boroughs are not in the business of giving away lots of valuable stuff for free.

I could see if he was visiting the UK to talk to say a billion-dollar investment fund, maybe to convince them to invest in high-tech farming in Osun. That would be very useful.

Peter Obi of Anambra and all of this Governors forum:

The Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi has said that but for lean resources, every governor in the country would be willing to implement the new minimum wage structure approved by the National Assembly. Mr Obi, who is deputy chairman of Nigeria's Governor's Forum, said yesterday in Awka that though it is good for Nigerian workers to have a good wage structure, the resources available to state governments might not be enough to pay the approved packaged. He said a meeting of the Governors' Forum had unanimously agreed that the federal government takes too much of what accrues to the nation and there is need to re-adjust, because what is left to the states is not enough to enable them to pay.

"For instance, where federal facilities located in some states are either privatised or commercialised, the states lose those sources of revenue and get poorer," Mr Obi said. He said the sooner this was redressed, the better for all Nigerians.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/5697908-147/story.csp

If he delivers on this, he'll be a national hero.

Fixing the roads/transportation in and out of Lagos means reduced costs of goods, faster travel times and cheaper services in the rest of the country.

Cheaper imports into Abuja, Kano, Ibadan, Warri, PH, etc.

By Olalekan Adetayo, Ibadan
Friday, 6 May 2011

The Senator-elect, representing Oyo South, Chief Olufemi Lanlehin, has said that his first task in the Senate is to ensure that the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, which is currently in a deplorable state, is repaired within a short time.


He said it was his desire that the road be repaired and brought to world standard.


Lanlehin made his position known during an interview with journalists in Ibadan, Oyo State capital on Thursday.


He said it was appalling that the road, which he described as the busiest in Africa, could be in such a deplorable state.


He said the present state of the road is having negative impacts on the economy of the people of his constituency and the country in general.


He observed that the effect of the bad road was more felt because the nation lacked functional railway system.


“The number of lives being lost on that road is mind-boggling. As a senator, I will network with other senators to make sure that the road is put in shape.


“I am passionate about it and I will do everything possible to ensure the repair of that road within the shortest possible time,” he said.


Lanlehin also made a case for true federalism, saying that the amount of money at the disposal of the Federal Government was too much.


“For the Federal Government to have over 52 per cent of Nigeria’s revenue is not fair. There should be a re-appraisal of the duties and powers of the Federal Government vis-a-vis the duties and revenues of state and local governments,” he observed.


http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201105062264248

i dey laff

Seems to be mostly nature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ

Makes a lot of sense.

Hehe.

Funny advice coming from Mr 3rd term

Nah definitely not everything. I think environment plays a dominant role in this though close to 80% IMO. The girl had educated parents, lived probably in some comfortable middle-class area in NJ. Had 3-square meals everyday. Was surrounded by equally achieving students. Parents gave her some guidance from experience. Probably had a high-school counselor who was familiar with Ivy admissions.

Nurture alone can get someone to that 99.9 percentile this chick is in?   It cannot be up to 80%. Otherwise those with similar backgrounds (financial status of parents, etc) would achieve results not too dissimilar. Though educational status of parents is kind of evidence for nature rather than nurture, btw.

80% for nurture means that you can get nearly the same results as this chick, but with your average person (or rather, the child of two average people) swapped into her place.

I dunno though, I'm not a geneticist and haven't studied this subject. But not going to try to leave things to nurture, if I can help it.

I wonder what the odds of her ever returning (or going for the first time, possibly?) to Nigeria is, though.

Hrm. Really sucks to lose talent like her to America.

She is needed in Yorubaland

And regarding intelligence being hereditary, it makes sense that it would be. Pretty much everything else is, right?

Eh. . .

I'm seeing Fayemi making a lot of moves. Reducing the amount of money spent on government (getting rid of all these special advisors and such), calling a panel to reform education, merging the state's universities to cut down adminstrative costs, this herding area so that cattle herders who stray out of it can be arrested and prosecuted, prompt payment of salaries, etc, etc.

Granted, I've not seen Fayemi land any major investments from private business yet. But as far as the administrative side of being a governor? I think he has done quite well in what, 7-8 months on the job?

Aregbesola needs to step it up. . . we cannot afford mediocrity and inaction in Yorubaland.

EDIT: typo

ezeagu:
The truth is that the poverty rate in the south east is lower than the south west not because of unemployment, otherwise many people in Nigeria would starve to death, but because more people are taking advantage of skills there, maybe because of the culture.

1. Can you find and post a list of poverty rates by state? So we can see and compare?
2. Also, to me, unemployment (and underemployment) is intimately tied to poverty. . .  no work, then no pay, and thus poor. If this is true, then hopefully you can see how mass emigration out of the SE helps keep poverty rates lower there.

Where is it official that the Lagos State population was under counted? Or was it also a case of people thinking so?

Well, I think I can make a pretty good case for Lagos State's pop being undercounted. # of banks, this US ambassador's report claiming that Lagos is the most populous state, GDP data (if Lagos and Kano had roughly the same population as the 2006 official census suggests, then why is Lagos's GDP 20%+ of Nigeria's GDP, while Kano's is like 3 or 4%?), and even this parallel census that Lagos did at the time. Not to mention UN population projections. . .

Like, it is pretty, pretty obvious at this point that Lagos is (A) by far the most populated state in Nigeria (B) Probably north of 15-18 million people.

I'm not saying that one cannot make a similarly good argument for the SE zone being undercounted. But. . . you've not done that. Instead you ask me to take you at your word, without providing any evidence. Truth be told, given that the SE zone sees the largest amount of emigration of any zone in Nigeria, it doesn't make any sense to assume that what you hold says true (at least, w/o some sort of evidence.)

Wow. I'm really impressed by her. Very intelligent, and very mature.

I'm sure she will accomplish big things in life. Congratulations, Saheela!

I'm not trying to be a d1ck. But what exactly has Aregbesola done? It will be one year in November or so. . .

What reforms has he made? What concretely has he done in Osun state?

Seems sketchy.

This Aregbesola guy had better sharpen up. . . deliver something real. We need real progress, not a bunch of smoke and fireworks.

Hmm. Guess I was wrong.

@alj harem: You truly hate your people, then. You are closing your eyes and pretending there are not BIG problems with the current system you have.  At least some of your leaders (Sanusi, for one) doesn't have his eyes closed.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Islam. If someone offered me the choice between a Christian theocracy where the law of the land is the Bible and a secular state, I'd choose the latter.

Religion and government have no business being mixed together.

Government is about bread and butter things. Religion is mostly about less physical things. Things that will happen in the next life, etc. What is the point of mixing up the two? Makes no sense.

Is it sharia that will provide healthcare for northern nigeria?

Sharia that will provide jobs?

Sharia that will attract investment?

Sharia that will reduce poverty rates?

Sharia that will bring electricity so that the dying businesses in Kano will revive?

Sharia that will allow your GDP/capita to catch up with that of the south?

Why do you keep talking about this useless sharia? 

What good has it done you in your life? What good has it done anyone? When have all these religious things ever helped anyone?

They are all useless.

Religion is/should be a private, personal affair. It isn't the basis for governing or forming a country.

Alj Harem, if your people do not modernize, they will eventually be slaves in this country. Stop believing in things that don't work. Wake up, see what the leading countries in the world are doing, and follow their example.

[quote author=dem_people link=topic=660974.msg8267281#msg8267281 date=1304639953]In the case of your 2nd post over your 1st post, logic has finally prospered. We should champion secularism over any other ideology if 9ja is to remain one. Not that I want it to.

Infact, we must adequately ENFORCE secularism for near-peaceful cohabitation.[/quote]I don't see how I can force those 12 sharia states to be secular, though. How does one do it? And if I cannot, then I just have to nudge them into moving into the right direction rather than forcing them to.

@Alj Harem: Your part of the country is VERY poor. GDP of $714/person (according to The Economist), comparable to Chad, Takijstan, Mali, countries like that. And this is WITH huge transfers of cash from South to North.

There is only so much longer you can wallow in backwards ways. It is putting you all at a huge disadvantage relative to not only the rest of Nigeria, but also the rest of the world.

Saudi Arabia produces 10 million barrels of oil a day. So they can afford to do absolutely nothing useful and still have a pretty decent country.

Northern Nigeria doesn't have a cash cow sitting under the ground like Saudi does. So you cannot use them as a model.

If you do not modernize and face reality, the future will be very dismal for you.

^-- Hehe.

So long as Fashola taxes them heavily, no wahala.

BTW, don't get me wrong. . . the best thing to do would be to have a purely secular state, of course. No religion whatsoever in government-funded schools, no religion as the law of the land.

But I'm just trying to be somewhat realistic for the context of Nigeria.

If I'm not mistaken, Catholic private schools (at least in the US) do one hour a day of religion stuff (I'm not Catholic, so correct me if I'm wrong.) And these Catholic schools do very well on the standardized exams like SAT, AP Exams, etc.

If Muslim PRIVATE schools want to do the same, fine by me. . . though I'd take away the licences of any private schools that don't do well on standardized exams.

But it should not be done in PUBLIC schools, that are government funded and open to everyone. Islamic class can be an optional thing that happens for an hour before school officially starts in the public school, or something. But it cannot cut into time meant for real academics in a public school.

chino11:
Is lagos your home state of origin? Even though lagos is not liveable, its dirty and harzard all over the place. Lagos was built over 70yrs ago by the FG.

Which federal government built Lagos 70 years ago? 70 years ago was 1941.

What has the SW done to develop other SW states, just like the SE states are doing? Dirty people wey dey poo inside bedroom. lmao

GDP-wise, SW zone minus Lagos is bigger than the SE. Western region was wealthier than the Eastern region in the 50s and early 60s (until it was broken into Western and Midwest.)

Actually, I guess in real life, it'd be more complicated than I make it out to be. Just think of a town with a suya stand. Imagine the suya man leaves forever. Now, will someone from that town not eventually start making suya himself, occupying the vacated job?

^-- Thought experiment for you.

Suppose all non-indigenes in the SW were rounded up and deported to their homelands.

Does this:
a) Increase
b) Decrease
c) Have no effect on

the unemployment rates in the SW?

(Keep in mind that if many are forced to leave like that, those who remain will fill in the economic niches remaining. In other words, the answer is B).

And regarding population of the SE zone being massively under-counted during the census; like I said, I don't know if this is true. And am not sure it makes any sense to simply assume it to be true just because you think so.

aight, we can agree to disagree

ezeagu:
They were merciful to Lagos in the "census".

The 9 million the wrote down for Lagos's population in the 2006 census may very well have been half of the true population. Even the US ambassador (in one of those Wikileaks) mentioned how the official census cheated Lagos:
[quote="Wikileaks"]14. (C) Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola: He leads the most populous state in the country (despite what the 2006 census claimed); very popular in Lagos and noted for his energy and initiative; only Action Congress governor, and has access to Yar'Adua when he wants it, given the importance of Lagos State.[/quote]http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5683895-146/wikileaks_cable_us_view_of_nigerias.csp

Eastern towns were underestimated as strongly and the South Eastern states still came to around 24 million while the south western states including Lagos were around 29 million.

If you say so; I dunno if this is true or not.

The point is that the majority of south east natives are not out of their homelands

Right. But certainly more than any other ethnic group in Nigeria, more have left their homeland.

and the population (even underestimated) isn't low enough to be blamed for the low (or lower) poverty rates.

So the principle here is pretty easy. Immigration from location A to location B increases the # of people relative to the number of jobs in location B, increasing unemployment in location B. For the same reason, it reduces unemployment in location A.

Why would it cost so much just to come up the Niger, something which has been done by steamers since the 19th century oil palm trade. River Niger is a mile wide, some sections of it leading to Onicha are around half that which means there's no problem getting the largest ship in existence to Onicha and further. Port Harcourt, for example, isn't even on the coast, yet large oil ships make their travels up the Bonny river which is half of the smallest section of the Niger.

I guess we will find out shortly whether this is true or not.

[quote author=alj_harem link=topic=660974.msg8267067#msg8267067 date=1304635209]it has a lot

i am a strong muslim and in science I would have been tought that God does not exist or God's existance is scentical proven
this i am against[/quote]When in science class is the existence of God ever talked about?

moreover, in sharia states, i would prefer if Quran is tought as a compuotry subject in classes just like maths and english

That is one class out of many. Koran might have some cultural stuff, but the other classes (maths, english, science, etc) have nothing to do with culture, ethnicity, religion.

moreover there are even certian dress pattern the student have to adhere to, which southerners might not like

Then in Muslim-only schools, have that dress pattern. But how does that effect the actual education  Has nothing to do with whether they are passing the exams and doing well on the homework assignments or not.

What does culture and religion have to do with teaching algebra? Or geometry? Or calculus? Or chemistry? Or physics?

@Ileke-IdI:
I don't buy this cultural diversity stuff in education. I think it is mostly a function of how much money you have to spend, and how efficiently you spend it.

Math, physics, English, etc don't give a damn about you being Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, etc.

I don't know off the top of my head what the worldwide education rankings look like. But there are bound to be some countries ranked higher than naija which are about as wealthy (or more importantly, spend about as much on education per student.)

ezeagu:
How many people did the Federal Government count in the south west states and the south east states in 2006?

I don't know off the top of my head. You tell me. But we both know the SW zone is far more populated than the SE zone, even if the official statistics suggest the gap isn't huge. For example, 2006 #s had Lagos State population at roughly 9 miillion. When most believe it to be be 15-18+ million.

So you tell me which zone in Nigeria is the most populated, and which gets the most immigration.

So if importers tell the ships to come to Onicha they'll go to Lagos instead like a steamer going to New York because it doesn't want to travel to St. Louis?

It depends on the cost. If it turns out that you can only bring 20 containers on a river boat to Onitsha, and say 200 on a sea ship to Lagos, and a shipper only pays 2X as much to bring in 10X as much goods into Lagos, then the economics might not work out in favor of the Onitsha port. Anyway, we shall see.

My intuition tells me that something like is what is going on.

Regarding St. Louis vs NYC. . . I've not looked into it, but I'd guess that the major coastal ports probably get 90% of the traffic, not the river ports in the Mississippi. Maybe you should look into it ($ business for year for the various US ports) and report back to us what you discover.