₦airaland Forum

Fareed ZAkarai was recently invited as a guest speaker in Airtel's "night of influence" in Lagos. Thisday suggests that "Power, influence and class were the determining factors" in selecting the invitees.

Reading excerpts of his delivery was a delight in some aspects (especially his conclusions), but generally got me worried. Segun Adeniyi describes a portion of Fareed's delivery as follows:

"This optimism, Zakaria argued, was founded on the familiar sequence of asset bubbles and financial crises that have characterized the last forty years and the boom and bust they have always engendered. He sees a consistent pattern where every of such upheavals was usually followed by a period of prosperity even when experts usually spoke in absolute terms in painting doomsday scenarios that almost always turned out to be grossly exaggerated". Source http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/obasanjo-s-introspection-on-zakaria-s-night/131335/

Why was I worried?
1) Did Fareed for any reason think that the Nigerian "elites" were soooo ignorant of this rudimentary economics concept of the boom and burst cycle?
(My guess is that he would'nt have said something like that to an influential gathering in the Western world, but he could have said it to any '3rd' world country)

2) If he did, why would he think that our elites could be so divorced from such a historical boom and burst cycle reality?

3) Are our "powerful, influential and classy" elites ignorant of this basic concept? Or, do they even care about this?

I read comments around Fareed's delivery, and all the comments I have seen so far seem to potray people who were star struck by Fareed, and happy to be associated with him courtesy of the event

I am an admirer of Fareed, but I think he needs to be told (reoriented) that our elites are not simpletons?
-or are they (our elites) actually simpletons?

.........Umhhhhhhhhhhhh



Also see
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/the-glitz-at-airtel-s-night-of-influence/131591/

Ishilove: @naptu2, I am so going to involve you in my MA project

Naptu2

Make i join book you down

Abeg, when I wan do my phd on business and strategy for Harvard I go involve you too o

naijababe: ^ How many 10k pieces did I nick from my dad's kolokolo? ( the little compartemnt where you keep coins in a car, I don't know what it's called, that what my dad called it and that what I call it to date). He couldn't tell but stealing coins from my mum was another matter entirely, the woman na eagle eyes, watching everything. There was a time I was convinced my mum had special powers.

LOL

Mums are special with money aren't they

If well planned, you could pilfer money enough to buy a car from my dad, and he would not notice
But my mum, chei!!
Even zapping money to buy a pencil would be noticed
So we soon learnt to concentrate on zapping and eating the eggs from her poultry instead
She no fit count that one as it was random laying by the Layers

"Umh" I said
Just to ensure I made a comment once more on this thread

[quote author=Negro_Ntns]Is North still in or are they out and under the rulership of boko. Who rules North nowadays? It is important to get answer to this question. It has ramifications for 2015.[/quote]IMO
The Northern North is presentlyy ruled by fear.
1) Fear that power is slipping off its fingers
2) Fear that that the infidel south is wiping out its culture and religious values
3) Fear that its big shots now have limited access to the national cake, and can no longer distribute it in the form of alms etc

Anybody that is capable of tactically plugging into this, is ruling his or her section of the Northern north
-Bokaharam is doing its bit in plugging into this fear, especially as per #2
-The politicians plug into #1 and #3. They also view Bokoharam as an opportunity/tool such as the Niger Delta Militants were, in the hands of the Niger Deltan political class

Could bokoharam sponsor candidates loyal to its camp into Governors offices in the North and what would it mean for the country?

They could support someone/a politician who appears loyal to them. I however think it would be tough for them to actually sponsor someone from amongst themselves.

The reason is simply because that means they would first have to pick someone, >> force the person into a party, >> then force people to accept the person -quite a tough task as they (BH) would have to drive and cordinate the process

However, if a politician they like approaches them, it becomes more feasible. The politician if extremely calculating will drive the process using Boko Haram as a tool of blackmail, coercion, religious appeal and rigging

Could they field a candidate for Presidency and if they win how could that change the country?

Like explained above, they (BokoHaram) cannot field someone for Presidency. However a Presidential aspirant can curry their support as political tools. The motivation to BokoHaram could be either financial rewards or religious vanity (the man/president shares our beliefs)

In an effort to appease his BH supporters, the change to the country if the bokoharam anointed president rules could be
A) Increased islamic religious trips Sponsored by the FG
B) Apointment of as many Muslims as possible into sensitive positions
C) The military/Force personels turning a blind eye to cases of religious abuses/persecutions in the Northern North and Central North
D) The Central North could become the battle ground for the islamists (with the FG looking away). The Islamists will insist that they also accept Sharia


The FG will expose the islamists to the control of wealth and power (for example by putting them in charge of the Islamic pilgrim board).
As time goes on, the islamists will become lazy with the acquisition of wealth. Its center wont be able to hold anymore
It would then have splinter groups
One fighting against the other

In all of this, there are implications for our neighbouring countries

Ayowumie: I absolutely agree with you. The next thing, we persuade Ghanian and Chadian governments to patronise Innoson by providing trade credit. It would be difficult to bring in Benin Republic because the country gets direct supply of fairly used cars from Europe but then the country is a land-locked nation, Nigerian government can provide some incentive such as training Benin republic's custom and immigration agencies. The whole thing can be worked out.
But then, before all these work, Nigerian governments (Federal, State and Local) must be forced to patronise IVM. This is how it is done in developed countries. United States govt patronise General Motors to the 'core'.

ah!! thank God that there is someone here reasoning outside the box
and not busy pitching ethnic tents

Can anyone give practical examples of Access database related projects and other analytics project. I have done quite a lot of training on many of the analytics tools, but would like some dummy projects modelled after real life scenarios.

I think if such simulations and project modelling are available, it would be as useful as an actual hands-on experience would be to everyone

Ishilove: Lwkmd!!!! Me??

Ahhhhhhh!!!

Kai mana!!!!

this girl sef, shwooooo
I was referring to the idea of opening a parralel chatting thread ooooo

@OP

Excellent post. I really dont care whether its assembly or manufacturing. For now, -Great
The next step:.................................

We (the Nigerian government) force the innoson vehicles to be bought for the ECOWAS military mission to Mali
After that, we (the Nigerian governmenet) force/push the Innoson vehicles to be bought by the Malian government as their regular official cars
(make them test am well well there).

Now, that is the way to think and act like a true global power player
(That is what Europe also did with us)
you can take it to the bank

Ishilove: Since you are the fellow who suggested this thread and I erroneously omitted to acknowledge you, come here let me give you a big hug. Don't worry ehn, "it" is not encased in omo na bouncing or koste for that matter

My glory must not be shared with any other

naptu2: Great writing as usual. Engaging, entertaining and gripping; keeps the audience coming back for more.

Resist the temptation to "tell anyone what happened next" on this thread

So you guys are keeping us in suspense purposely,..... ehn ehn,.............
i see
I have catch you today

Yipee, yea!!

I have found a home

Ishilove: Like I said earlier, na you get time to dey come hala for this here place.

I have calmed down, especially as I know what I am going to do about this

I shouldn't be wasting my time hala-ing about simple issues that were overlooked
I am now going to spend my time doing more productive things like chasing chicks and reading Wasimi Chronicles

But I think it's your fault Ishi,...
If only you had continued with that chronicles of yours on NairaLand, I no for siddon dey watch president and Twitter

Umhh.... I've got an idea for front page.
*will you kiss a fine person who's teeth is brown?"

micklplus: Esere! I like you. Your passion is great. However you can bring about change, please do.

Really, welldone. Cheers

Thanks my friend

manny4life: LOL, so you're still enraged by this topic?
Until Nigerian businesses begin to reposition themselves, NL inclusive, don't expect anything good. NL as it's known has demeaned its prestigious value, for it to regain that lost pride, lots of work need to be done. For NL to be taken seriously, it needs to reposition itself - Twitter, Facebook, Google and Google+ are all doing it. If Seun starts now and decides to take NL to a new frontier, by 2015 electoral polls, you will see politicians using NL as their platform, but reorganization must first begin.

shymexx: I can't believe this guy was ranting and raving about the media chat of a President whose IQ and age quotient should be in the second decimal place - what a messed up generation, this generation of Nigerian youths(both home and abroad) is... Imagine crying about an inarticulate retar.ded President, who can neither express himself in basic English, nor his native language lol... What has that tool done since he became President? - absolutely nothing... The IQ of Nigerians should be below 69, the guy who said; 69, was probably just being generous, to be honest...

Media chat, or no media chat - Nigeria is speeding off to abyss with a v12 engine on the motorway...

Get a life, mate! .

Thanks for all your input guys
I don dey calm down
I probably made a mistake by overestimating my fellow Nigerians. Maybe na there the trouble start

Its about time I throw off my clothes and enjoy a play in the mud with my compatriots.
or perhaps just let go and claim that I am not a Nigerian, but fell from the sky.


Now I see why some xtian folks where so quick to cast down their nationality and claim that they where from Zion
I just hope 'Zion' does not get tainted with our ,....em,...em............. EQ


*hears a voice whisper: " U think say ur surname na Smart abi? I don tell u tey tey, U no gree hear. Forget dem. Think about ya belle only. Na cultural thing, ask Blackteeth et al"*

zerocool: Nairaland is a fantastic forum no doubt. But the two platforms serve different functions. A forum is for discussions while twitter can easily fit into the "questions asking" model. Like a text message system, sending a fixed number of words at a time.

If the president was having an online discussion or chat, then Nairaland would have been the perfect model or any other forum. If the media chat was done on a forum board, then you would find someone asking JUST ONE QUESTION and writing a 2-page ESSAY with that one question.

I am less emotional now about this. Thank God
I agree with you to some extent, but sha.................... Check this scenario out:

I would think that there would first be an interface initiator from NL or the presidential media chat organisers
So lets say Seun meets Reno over some drinks

Reno: We are thinking of using twitter to gather questions for the media chat
Seun: ehn, ehn, why not use NL instead?

Reno: NL's model is different, we need short questions
Seun: Well thats easy. My team will design a thread in the forum for the chat that limits the number of characters that can be entered into it. You guys caan the choose the questions you would like to ask the president

Reno: sounds great
Seun: yep, sure does

Reno: *thinks to himself: well we can then even use this as an example to showcase how the GEJ transformational government, is encouraging and positioning nigerian youths to think globally*
Seun: *thinks to himself: kai see hammer for advertisment ooo. 5, million viewers be that ni**

They both hurriedly drink their beer, touch some bumbums and run back home to strategise.

Shikena!!!

Thinking about all what I've said
and some of the responses (or none response) so far

I begin to imagine myself as one of the influential organisers of the presidential media chat
pushing that a nigerian social media forum such as NairaLand be used to gather questions
I can imagine one of the other organisers gently grabbing my shoulders and shaking his head

"No Esere826", he says,
"if we do that, the same people you're trying to encourage/bolster will turn back and say that the president is a timid, schnapp drinking, fisherman and local champion, lacking in prestige and gobal savvy".
Remember the cassava bread episode?

Probably, something like this played out

*Shakes head*
A vicious cycle of inferiority mentality

In fact, you know what??

I think it's time for Seun to go to Harvard Business School ( that's if im never go yet)

---double post

J12: I didn't read your first post quite well. Didn't know that you were angry because question asked to the president were gotten from twitter. Well this is because

1. There are more public/specific/important figures/publicly recognized figures on twitter than there are on nairaland
2. Twitter has more prestige than nairaland

You make a fine point in 1)above.
For 2) which is also indirectly linked to 1), my question becomes why does Twitter have more prestige than NL?

My knowledge of such subject matter makes me understand that branding, business model and patronage are some of the key factors that make any business more prestigious than the next.

- Like I have said in earlier posts, if all heads of states in the world visit a particular hut in Nigeria, that hut will soon become a shrine.
- Black berry became overly prestigious/popular through free marketing by Obama, when he said he could not do without his blackberry (that is at the beggining of his 1st term)

- When Peugeot was the nigerian official car, it was prestigious to own one, no matter how rich you where. In fact, without one, you would expect to be locked out of an official event by the security officials in Nigeria.

- Believe me, if GEJ media chat, had used NL for their question harvesting, NL would have collapsed the next day due to traffic.
Business schools would have noticed the shift and incorporated it into their case studies. So would foreign media houses
Seun would have had to employ at least one more person in his organisation

- I can't begin to explain a text book here, but the bottom line is that prestige value does not fall from the sky.
It is created consciously or unconsciously by the incorporation/usage by certain high value individuals
-During the power years of the Northerners, Agbada was the prestigious clothes of choice, now, you'd notice more simpler outfits modelled after the Niger Delta style, sometimes with a hat to match when you go to ministries

Within the Nigerian and African context, the Nigerian president happens to be one of such high value individuals love him or hate him

You could also avail yourself of this post of mine https://www.nairaland.com/994349/how-create-economic-success-out
It touches on the fundamentals of what I am saying here

J12: Far more important messages and broadcasts all over the world have been sent through twitter. Why should this be different?

thanks for this question
It takes us back to the genesis

firstly, the quarrel is not that messages and broadcasts shouldn't be sent through Twitter
the quarrel is that questions where not consciously harvested from NairaLand or some Nigerian forum, but where harvested from Twitter (except i missed it)

*********
2ndly if we are to branch off into your own suggestions/analogy (which is not what I am emphasising on)
then this opens a new set of discuss, which would have to be approahed bit by bit in order to arrive at an intelligent analysis

For example, we would first try to clarify/define concepts such as "important messages", "far more important messages", "the world"

questions that might follow from this are:
"important to who?", "why is that particular channel of communication chosen?"
"what channels of communication where chosen previously before Twitters existense?"
"What are the key success factors for twitter?"
"historical antescedents of twitter and other social media"

In fact, the list is too long and I am not up to the task at the moment?. So I'll stick to my major gorouse which is the issue of harvesting questions from a local social media forum

@OP

The issue of Power and security didnt strike me as being different in position.

The president simply made it clear within the presidential media chat context that the Malitoba contract was being reviewed despite its hiccups and that the results would be favourable to the Canadian company. I bet the Candians have brought out their champagne glasses with that news

In the issue of negotiation with the BokoHaram group, GEJ took the official position that they were not negotiating with them. This is an official position which prevents moral harzards. Any negotiation with the sect is therefore an informal one that will not be on official record

But the issue of Patience recovery was where GEJ took a different position. I guess he couldn't hide his joy at his wife's recovery and blew that one. Best wishes and speedy recovery to her

Ishilove: It seems you don't have important things to think about...

Ah, the passion of youth...

This is important to me naw
and I had better push my youthfull passion here than chasing other things that get old and droopy with time

Since the actors are important personalities, I strongly suggest the use of bottled water rather than satchet water. Twill be more effective

no o. I no radical reach lke that. I would rather use something soft like eba

Ishilove: You have time

Ishilove, I believe (i hope) that this was an oversight from the actors
they need a little shock therapy

I've read stuff that Rueben and Reno have written previously, it seemed deep
I would hate to believe that smartness dissapears when you've got a full tommy

I choose to believe that something of the past is still embedded somewhere in them

naptu2: Hahahahahahaahhahahahahahahaha! Ouch! My aching head.

Kpele
I think my head aches more.
I have had a restless night thinking about this

I wish I could gather the actors together and pelt them with satchet water for lacking originality

naptu2: You can twit at them

@abati1990

@renoomokri

Thanks
Wow, need to retrieve/reactivate my twitter handle wich I had dished way back then. Thanks

Please does anyone know how I can reach Abati and Reno?
I need to pass this message accross
Thanks

We,ve lost the war
even before we started the battle

They are like giants
and we felt like grasshoppers before them

This is fullfilled in this act of callousness

naptu2: I'm surprised I didn't see joystickheads.

You guys had better not turn this place to a amorous 'brain deadening' thread ooo

Ishilove: True...but you forget this is Nigeria, where dickheads rule.

4 particular dickheads relevant to this discussions are Seun, Reno, Douglas and Abati.
These are supposed to be mentally sophisticated individuals
That is another reason I dey vex and dey loose hope.

If some of our brightests happen to be coconut heads, without initiatives,
what hope do we have from the rest of our 'brain deadening' compatriots?

Ishilove, do you feel me?

^^^

Me thinks, they were not even thinking in that direction in the first place
and that is another reason I dey vex

They took it for granted that social media means oyibo equiptment like Facebook, and Twitter only