₦airaland Forum

[quote author=emeka_gh link=topic=629443.msg7969719#msg7969719 date=1300885798]The issue of cost, as it affect supply is a critical one. Like you mentioned, there may still be challenges in supply. But by saying it has been roundly dealt, I am not entirely wrong.[/quote]My point is that it HASN'T been dealt with. Whether privatized, federal government run, etc, etc. . . electricity will not work in Nigeria until people can make profit doing it. Who wants to sell electricity at a loss? Who wants to sell something that costs 10 cents for 4 cents? Whether private business or government owned, nobody is going to be happy doing that.

I want it to be privatized. But that won't help unless this issue of making it profitable is solved.

Government owned but profitable >>> Privatized but operating at a loss. Of course, the best would be privatized but profitable.

I'm going to have to try this when I next go.

I agree, the PDP deserves some credit. Functional rail transport is *really* important.

I'm kind of curious about the prices. . . and how much time it takes to go from Lagos to Oyo, Ilorin, etc.

[quote author=emeka_gh link=topic=629443.msg7969570#msg7969570 date=1300884404]Whether the General was coherent of not is not the issue. The issue here is his plan. Buhari  government cannot do jack about the technical problem of a private company. Most of the power stations complain of inadequate gas. The GEJ has done extensive work on getting gas to the power stations. Those who follow closely issue in the power sector will realise that the issue of availability of gas has been roundly dealt with.[/quote]No, this is false. The government mandates (through MYTO) that electricity is sold for $0.04 per kWH in Nigeria. It costs roughly $0.10 per kWh to generate the electricity from natural gas.

As a result, there is no interest in supplying natural gas beyond what the federal government subsidies (I cannot remember off the top of my head exactly how much subsidized NG the FG supplies.)

So supply is still an issue, until the government lets the price of electricity charged to the end consumer float (more) naturally.

@Beaf: Jensinmi and others are correct. Solar energy is not a viable solution for large-scale energy needs in Nigeria. You pay too much money per unit of electricity generated.

Natural gas (SS), coal (SE, Kogi), hydro (NW) make more sense.

I think we need to have an accurate census, with ethnicity also mentioned on it. For every local government and state.

Otherwise, people will falsely claim to be 40% of the population of Kano, 35% of Plateau, etc.

Next they'll claim to be 40% of the population of my village too.

^-- As the above two posters allude to. . . being in Kano in three weeks time might not be good for the health

Where did he get this 40%, 35%, etc figure from? Even as far as voting #s go?

Did the voting register include ethnicity, or something. . . ?

40% of Kano voters being Igbo suggests a similarly large fraction of the population of Kano is Igbo. Which to me seems. . . surprising and counterintuitive.

This might just be propoganda.

^-- I don't have a problem with you having an opinion. But I've noticed that for you, everything that ails Igboland is someone else's fault.

I mean, look at this:

Onlytruth:
Armed robbery for instant was a product of the Nigerian civil war where Nigerian soldiers (dominated by northerners) looted and violated on their way into Biafra and Igboland. Most of the Biafran soldiers used to believe that if they looted or violated, they never made it back home alive, they believed they would die at the fronts, so they desisted.
But aboki never believed that, and alas they won!

Perhaps I misread your statement. But are you really blaming armed robbery in Igboland specifically on the North and Hausa man?  That it was the Hausa man who taught Igbos to commit armed robbery?

Don't you think that is a bit unfair? And more importantly, not accurate?

I fully blame the Northerners for making Nigeria a poor country, robbing people of economic opportunity. This caused them to turn to crime in order to make up the difference. And I'm sure that there are other factors.

But directly blaming them, in the way you did?  It is too simplistic and frankly inaccurate.

I don't even like the North. But if some youths in my village steal and blame it on the Hausa, I'll not be happy with that explanation at all. People have to take responsibility for their own actions, in my opinion.

johnie:
A new detail has added international flavor to the sexgate – the allegation that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was present at one of Berlusconi's sex parties on April 25-26, 2010, in a villa outside Milan.

The Italian prosecutors are investigating whether Putin met the underage love-peddler Ruby; reports say an Italian court could even summon the Russian PM as witness during the investigation of Berlusconi's sin assemblies.

This sounds like the plot of a indecency movie, not real life. Wow.

Contrast that with Clinton getting impeached for his little escapade. Different cultures, I guess.

@OnlyTruth: Me, brain dead? With all due respect. . . you aren't even in my league. Please, do not embarrass yourself any further.

PhysicsMHD:
Well, I would assume the embarrassment is a kind of deterrent. You're right in that it's not clear cut and can't really be demonstrated that avoidance of personal shame or a damaged reputation is the main thing keeping them from engaging in any looting. I guess it's an unprovable assumption on my part. Call it a gut feeling or intuition.

Fair enough. You might be right; I honestly do not know. I'd have to live in the country for some time to get a better sense of things. But honestly, many stereotypes I had before in my mind about different peoples (Texans, Californians, Mexicans, Canadians, etc, etc) ended up being false. I think on an individual level, people aren't too different. They generally want the same things, have the same goals, aspirations, etc.

I've no clue how blame lies solely with the acn here. Can someone explain what I'm missing?

PhysicsMHD:
Yeah, you're right in that the claim seems tenuous. I really think the low amount of poor people is the main thing. But I can't image people who would commit suicide for mistakes or failure or other events that reduce their dignity and standing later going around and trying to pick through the remains of someone else's property to see what they can get. I really think personal pride and self-respect is deeply embedded in the culture.

Hrm. Well, Japanese clearly do wrong things, just like everyone else. Maybe less frequently, I dunno. The issue is, if they are CAUGHT, or publicly shamed, they are more inclined to commit suicide. So I don't think this fact (if we accept it as a fact) necessarily means less looting.

More likely to be embarassed after looting? Yes. (Contrast this with Bode George (or most Nigerian crooks) who view getting caught/punished as a witchhunt  )

Less likely to loot? Not clear.

As for the suicide thing, yeah I find it kind of impressive too, but there's no way you could revive it in modern times. In the past, some of the Obas' wives and closest servants committed suicide with them. Even if that was dropped, there's no way it would come back because if an Oba did commit suicide, the community would probably not even understand. They would probably see the act of committing suicide after the disgrace as disgraceful itself, rather than as something naturally following the shame/disgrace. This modern point of view is not necessarily a bad thing, in my opinion.

Hrm, you are probably right.

I'd like to see Gbenga Daniel encouraged to commit suicide for his crimes against Ogun State, though. And I'm not joking at all when I say this.

^-- Not completely sold.

High propensity to commit suicide for errors => No looting?

Poor Indian farmers who have borrowed heavily to farm commit suicide after bad harvests. I don't think anyone is saying that India is a corruption or looting-free country, though.


As an aside, the suicide stuff to me is very honorable. Reminds me of those obas of old. . . I wish we would revive that custom in Yorubaland.

aisha2:
Sorry to say; this is not a good article, the writer seems to have to much bile.

+1.

Much ado about nothing. Sure, he doesn't know how facebook and technology works. It isn't his area of expertise. Not a big deal.

alj harem:
Onyeabor said: “The ACN that claims to be leading us have brought pains, sorrow and misery to the Igbo community in Lagos. We have gathered to demonstrate our resolve to improve on our plight, so that the Igbo may be free from the bondage of the present administration.

“Governor Babatunde Fashola once insulted us when he said we could go back to our states if we were not comfortable with the way he was destroying our businesses. The hardship he brought upon us during the closure of Ladipo Market is still fresh in our memory.”

Sai Fashola!

This is also probably the best way to tackle corruption in a meaningful, long-lasting way.

“Say hello to your president. What a strong man! He r.a.ped ten women! I never expected that from him! We all envy him,” NEWSru Israel quoted Putin as saying.

^-- I dunno why you bothered responding to the dude. He has an agenda, and will push it regardless 

Interesting comments, PhysicsMHD.

However, I'm hesitant to accept that explanation fully. . . we Westerns have a habit of romanticizing Eastern cultures.

I'm wondering a bit if this is the media only putting out stories that fit in with certain pre-conceived notions.

With that said, I wouldn't be surprised if Japanese are intrinsically less inclined to loot. Just I've not seen evidence of this yet. . .

Hehe

The problem is, everyone has different definition of fiscal federalism

Beaf's definition of fiscal federalism is likely quite different from Tinubu's

Anyway, I agree with Tinubu. Shrink the FG share to 30%, let the states and LGs share the remaining 70%.

^--- I can only speak in generalities, since I've not looked at the science of polling specifically.

However, from what I've seen from other polls, the sampling methodology is fine and completely standard. So assuming that one has taken into account all modeling biases, then you are fine (this is a BIG assumption, though.)

Like, the right way to think about this stuff is having a big bin filled with red basketballs and blue basketballs. If you want to know what fraction are red, you could of course count all 1 million basketballs in the big bin.

A cheaper way to approximate this fraction is to randomly sample 1000 of them, measure what fraction of those are red. Assuming your sample is truly random, the 1000 you chose should be pretty representative. And the fraction of reds in that random sample of 1000 will be fairly close to that of the full 1 million. . . the deviation will be on the order of 1/sqrt(1000)  ~ .0316 (there are some constants here and there that I'm ignoring, since they aren't important right now.)

Anyway, that sketches out the basic strategy pollsters use. This is the problem they are trying to solve, but a bit more complicated than red and blue basketballs.

I don't want to say anything more than that, since I've not looked into the science deeply, though.