₦airaland Forum

^-- You can go hug a transformer too.

Accusing a paper of being tribalist and trying to suppress other regions, then claiming that this is something that everyone should "noticed (sic)" is pretty silly. You aren't in much of a position to accuse anyone else of lacking intelligence.

*shrug*

Republicans don't like the NYTimes either. . . but many consider the NYTimes one of the best newspaper in the world.

I doubt SR and Next will change. And if you don't like that, go hug a transformer.

So if we wanted to do this for low-income people, what would the strategy be?

What type of homes should we look for using the 40 foot container? 40 foot container is 8 feet wide, so you have 320 sq ft of space.

What should a basic 320 sq ft home look like? What are the basic, mandatory amenities? Should they basically be studios (single bathroom, kitchenette, single room that is both bedroom and living room)? One bedroom in this 320 sq ft? Two bedrooms?

I think we should focus on a single basic design that will appear to the masses and figure out how it can be mostly cheaply made.

edoyad:
Some people have made that proposition- that is , splitting the capital City by way of river kaduna. Everything to the north bank of the river becomes aboki territory while everything to the south bank sk territory. That would leave areas like kawo and the likes to you while we get barnawa, sabo et al.

But to me, anything that leaves the barest minimum(and i mean barest possible minimum) number of hausas in the new southern kd state will do just fine for me and many others.

That sounds pretty fair, doesn't it?

lmao @ this peter obi dude

PhysicsMHD:
I don't get the point of twitter. Why tweet?

I don't tweet, but other people's tweets can be interesting to read. It is a nice technology.

^-- I understand English fine. It just seems weird. If I need a blood transfusion, they'll get me blood from the blood bank. Not my GF, or some girl I know.

So I don't get this story. . . I don't see how it would ever happen.

Rossikk:
These things are not durable. That seems to be the problem, and why they're not more popular. I hear they have 15 - 25 year life span in most cases.

What? Why would a giant steel box not be durable? What happens to them? Should be able to last forever, no?

Do you have some reference discussing this lifespan issue? I don't see why they wouldn't be more durable than your average wooden/brick home.

^-- Right. But you need some basic estimates of this sort to get a sense of whether something is feasible or not. Traffic counting, things of that sort are step D or E, something you use to make your estimates very precise. They are not Step A.

^--- See my second edit above. You might want to google and call your local companies too, see how much they are charging.

ERR, let's not derail this thread into North/South bullsh1t. Housing only.


@Playmode: I just called a few companies around my area, the containers cost quite a bit more than I thought. Used 20 footer is $2600, used 40 footer is $3700. From this, it basically makes no sense to do any projects involving 20 footers, I think. . . everything should be 40 footer if you want to save money.

EDIT: I called exactly 2 companies, not "a few." So maybe shopping around more would give better results. But I'm wondering if steel prices have gone up or something, so those old prices listed on these sites might not be as accurate. Or maybe I'm just in the wrong location, where there aren't many used containers available.

EDIT #2: Yeah, I think steel prices must have gone up. See the prices listed in the recent Time magazine article: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2047072,00.html

I'd like to see a breakdown of how they reached that $45 figure. Hmm

And what is the current cost like per square foot in say Nigeria, or the western world via traditional construction?

@playmode: Keep posting here and answering people's questions. But at some point, you should write up an op-ed and submit it to a newspaper. Get this to Fashola and cos attention, let everyone in the SW become aware of the possibility and demand it from the government.

If we can meet this $5,000-10,000 price point for nice, modern homes, then that would be a wonderful, wonderful thing. That is a low enough price for a short mortgage scheme to become feasible.

Regarding land. . . remember the mighty land use act! Land can be found.

Gekko:
Wont people bake in these things?

Found this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRq4UJLqLDI

Amazing technology, lol

Anyway, there is another thread that focuses on transport. . . let's focus here on housing!

I'm not an expert, I've only been reading lots of articles the past couple of days.

But most of the high-speed rail projects don't seem profitable: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2010/07/26/000334955_20100726032714/Rendered/PDF/558560WP0Box341SR1v08121jul101final.pdf

Gautrain specifically isn't economical: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/gautrain-will-not-be-a-profitable-venture-economist-2008-08-29

Rather than high speed rail in Yorubaland, we should do 150-160 mile per hour speed rail, on tracks that will allow freight traffic. That is the current sense I have of things. . . I'll let you know how my opinion changes as I gather more information.

This is a brilliant idea. These containers are dirt cheap!

Why isn't it being done yet in naija?

I think another thing we need is some sort of credit scheme.

Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae sort of thing for the SW. If you make it easier for people to acquire homes on credit, then there will be higher home ownership.

^-- Thanks for that. I'm surprised. . . N1200 by bus, for a single person? Is that only one way, too? Seems quite expensive. Surprised that the masses can afford that.

^-- You mean thus Gautrain stuff? High speed rail isn't going to be economical in naija, I don't think (or in most places in the world without massive subsidies.)

I think the best bet is to try to do 150-160 mile passenger rail using ordinary tracks that can also be used for freight.

Working on a feasibility study/newspaper piece with a friend of mine; hopefully this will get the ball rolling.

The container housing is not a bad idea though.

Can you give some more info? How big is a container? How much does it cost to acquire? How much to retrofit into a home? Etc, etc?

Finally, I thought it is usually land which is the lion's share of the cost of a home, not the actual physical structure.

Hrm, though with cheap container homes, you could replace slum/shanty towns with something clean and neat. Hrm. . .

good question

hrm

Dunno about the UK, but the incentives we have here in the US are pretty much penalties on people who use primarily cash.

For example. . . I have a reward's credit card that gives me back 1% on purchases. I think the CC company charges the salesman 2% of the value of whatever he sold to me. So the CC company keeps 1% for himself, gives me 1%.

In effect, the salesman has to pass on some of this increased cost to the customers, in terms of increased prices. So those who do NOT use credit cards effectively subsidize those who do. So in other words, there is incentive to switch from cash to credit card.

So maybe the CBN isn't too far off with this idea? I'm not sure.

There probably is not a way on earth to encourage card usage without penalizing cash users.

Won't the end result be people keeping more cash on them? So doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose?

I dunno

This sounds fascist. How is it their business what people do with their money?

Well, I'll start then.

Some of what this article says makes sense. The best way to bring about peace in the north is to help the average northerner have a better life.

How can Goodluck go about doing this? What is the biggest impediment to prosperity in the north? Or should we simply not care as southerners, and wash our hands of their problems?

Why do landlords demand this much in advance?

Have they always done this, or is it a recent phenomenon?

How easy/difficult is it to kick out someone who is renting from you but not paying their rent?

And how should this problem be fixed?

Thoughts?

WHEN Nigeria’s presidential election results started trickling in on April 17th, showing that the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan, was heading for victory, youths in the country’s north started to burn buildings in protest. The election itself was hailed as an improvement on the rigged and violent polls that have kept the ruling People’s Democratic Party in power for a dozen years. But its outcome has widened old divisions in Africa’s most populous country, home to 150m people and over 250 ethnic groups.

Hundreds are now thought to have died in the post-election violence, though authoritative figures are hard to come by. A local human-rights group says that more than 500 people were killed just in Kaduna, one northern state, in the worst of the violence between April 17th and 19th. Human Rights Watch, a New York-based lobby, said that 311 bodies had been found in one mass grave alone. A heavy military presence and curfews in the worst-hit states, including Kaduna, Kano and Bauchi, have since brought an edgy calm.

Many voters in the mostly Muslim north plumped for Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler who hails from the landlocked and impoverished region. Thinking he had been the victim of rigging by Mr Jonathan, a Christian from the oil-rich southern delta, youths burnt the homes of local Muslim leaders denounced as PDP stooges. In Kaduna this soon led to wider sectarian clashes.

State governorship polls on April 26th, which should conclude a month of elections for national and local posts, passed off with a low turnout and high security in much of the north. Bombs went off in Borno state before the poll and on the day itself, killing at least three people. Previous explosions there have been claimed by Boko Haram, an extreme Islamist sect. Polls in Kaduna and Bauchi, deemed the most volatile states, were postponed by two days to let extra troops be deployed.

But soldiers and curfews are only a temporary solution. The youths are angry not just because of this month’s election results. Northern Nigerians lag behind their southern counterparts on almost every measure of development, even though poverty blights the whole country. The average annual income of $718 per person in the northernmost 19 states is half the figure in the remaining 17 states, according to UN data. Literacy rates and child nutrition are also poor.

Rather than foster industries, successive governments have relied on the oil revenues of Africa’s largest energy producer for their income. Such neglect has hit the north, far away from the coast’s ports and banks, a lot harder. “If those youths were employed, they would have just gone to work on that Monday morning,” says Ismaila Zango, a sociology lecturer in Kano, the north’s biggest city, referring to the day Mr Jonathan’s victory became clear. “What happened then was just the beginning—unless there is development.”

Many northerners hope the president will make the development of their region a priority, now that it seems to pose a security threat. In recent years the PDP has paid off and tried to rehabilitate and retrain insurgents in the delta, because their attacks have threatened the oil industry that provides around 80% of government revenues. Unrest in the north has bothered those in the corridors of power a lot less. If they were wise, they would change tack.

https://i51.tinypic.com/11ih9pu.jpg

http://www.economist.com/node/18621789

Tinubu really improved Lagos's tax base. And I think he has helped pioneer this PPP model for Lagos. I dunno, that Fashola accomplished so much in his 4 years is in part due to the framework that Tinubu laid out.

Tinubu is not the demon he is made out to be, in my opinion.

Not saying he is a hero, but he isn't the devil either.

I think the main thing is fairness.

If you don't like cooking, then fine, you'll be responsible for:
A) taking out the trash
B) fixing stuff that gets broken in the house
C) mowing the lawn (or paying the money for the lawn to be mowed, mulched, etc)
D) servicing the cars
E) dealing with the mechanic
F) dealing with the dude from Sears when the washing machine breaks down and needs to get fixed
G) changing lightbulbs
H) getting the hole in the wall fixed after one of the kids broke it
I) Supervising the construction workers who we hired to renovate the kitchen
J) And all the other tasks the man is responsible for

If a woman prefers being responsible for doing all of the above to cooking and cleaning, fine by me 

All I know is that from observing how my own parents interact and the HEAVY amount of errands my mom makes me run when I'm in town supposed to be chillaxing, nobody can tell me I won't be working as hard as the other person in the relationship.

^-- I cannot betray EzeUche and fstranger, who both already have a claim on you