₦airaland Forum

I can't believe that I don't watch NTA again. In the late 90s and 2000s, NTA was a must for me for education and current affairs and the quality of grammar coming out from Tokunbo Ajayi, Kalu Otisi, Ruth Opia, Cyril Stober, abdulram kudu Abubakar, Eugenia Abu and Orji Ogbonnaya Orji.

These people sharpen my grammar skills and communications skills. Sadly, I don't watch NTA again as Aljazeera and Euro news have replaced NTA

Our urban centres lacks adequate town planning. People putting up buildings any how and of whatever design.

That's why when you see a well planned estate and cities, navigating through is always easy. Our govt should emulate the west by being the centre of housing development and issuing guidelines for people to follow

Golan007:
Its not because of technology that UK thrives.

Well before technology, the people tended to abide by regulations, at least in the majority.

Our problem is the Nigerian inherent and inordinate love for lucre.

We cheat and steal and kill and sometimes we literally eat shit just because of money.

I agree with you - that's another dimension. As a development expert, corruption and poverty could be seen as a way of life of people. What is that way of life called? The answer is culture. Culture is people's way of life

We analyzed some of the reason of high rate of multi-dimensional poverty in Northern Nigeria and found out that people are just poor out of choice because of their cultural belief that wealth comes only from God. They did not believe that hard work and education could take you out of poverty and enhances your social mobility.

I agree with you. Our value system has been bastardized.

aremuforlife:
Rest in peace to the dead.
Why do we like shortcuts in Nigeria?
This same problem is what has been leading to lots of avoidable accidents on our road, most of the drivers on the road are not qualify to ride a motorcycle, yet you will see them drive a v6, v8 and even trailers. We need to stop killing people.

Why I like short cuts is because government regulators and agencies makes things difficult for private businesses to flourish. The easiest way to get around is to bribe your way. I don't support corruption but our institutions and systems have been programed to be corrupt. Take away conditions that makes corruption to thrive and the corruption will go down.

Forget all these agencies being established to fight corruption. What we need are strong institutions and technology-driven processes with minimal human contact and corruption will go down.

I always use UK as an example, all the things and processes I passed had little or no human contact. You carry your transactions through technology-driven processes which makes people vulnerable to corruption.

Very common among "umu boy" in Onitsha. One Abakiliki guy was selling his Oga's goods without people knowing till the thing got busted. He had about 5.7M in bank account from the deal.

Another angle to OP story is that some of these' umu boyi' sells goods above their oga's official price and corner the excess. Some makes huge money from margin sales and keep it to themselves and not necessarily that the Oga's money or goods were stolen.

Take for example, a material of 2k will be sold for 2500 and the nwa boyi will take the N500 and put in his account. For his mind, he delivered to his master what they agreed on. The rest is his own but done mostly without the Oga's knowledge

One chemical company I consults for in PH pays their staff 50% of what ever excess margin made on the normal sales price of their product. A product with sales value of 1m could be sold by a staff for N1.3m. The staff that made the sale will get 50% of N300K.

The difference between the scenario above and OP is that the above scenario is official while in OP case, it is not

Dennis3D:
Hello guys.
Pls I need a tile dealer or supplier for this type of Tiles shown here. Kindly let me know your price here on direct message on my profile.

Location. Within Ikota Axis. Lekki.
Kitchen Tiles. 25x90mm

My spec of tiles and design. I so much love white. Well done! You are doing well and your aesthetics taste is equally good.

No be all those builders/designers wey go say "Oga, leave am like that, na this one others dey use" even when you are trying to bring them to reality of modern day house design

I didn't see water pipes and how water is connected to the wash hand basin. Nigeria architects still have a lot to learn when it comes to modern designs. They should be creative and innovative and not just doing things the usual way.

OP, I like the interlocks tile on your compound. It looks neat and well laid. Not like those ones done by Laye or Nurudeen.

Rugaria:
If you are a young black African living/schooling in some of these jumpy areas in secluded parts of Europe, South America or most of Asia with an unhealthy quantity of racists.., just take out time to be street smart. It may prove helpful.. Been there, so I know what I'm saying.. There must be places you just can't go at night and if by mistake you find yourself there, flag down a taxi and disappear quick.. , be smart with their girls! Won't tell you not to have gfs, but be careful who you chose. Dont try rubbing it in especially iff she chose you over a local.. If she is young and beautiful, don't get involved in too much PDAs with her even if she pushes you to.

Always know that the men get pissed off most time seeing you with them gal even if they smile at you.. Always know where the police points/numbers are but don't totally bank on the police. I received some of the most crude racist outbursts from folks in uniform over there. Move in group, if you can. If you sense you re being lured to a place, run! Avoid visiting her in her place! Park, restaurant, shopping malls, your home .., anywhere but her place. Avoid much argeuments and crowded areas.. An if all these dont the work? Bros, Relocate! Quickly! It's not easy walking around with this skin color in some parts of Asia an eastern Europe. I know what I'm telling you..

Well said!

just as when I was in Scotland in 2008/2009 for my masters, I was doing one per hour job in St. Andrews, a town populated by mostly by whites. Infact, from my place to bus station to the care home I worked, I was the only black person, I never saw any black man. The laundry man at the care home was an Indian and that was the only non white person I saw. One night, I was coming back from work after dropping off from a bus around 11pm at night on Friday, I saw some group of locals about seven drinking from bottles and two ladies that were almost drunk on the floor. I was just looking at them and taking style to pass. They started talking to themselves and looking at me. Small small, they started making move towards my direction, speaking in heavy Scottish accent, even though I was walking slowly but my survival instinct just kicked in and I picked race. See how the pursued me holding their bottle of beer while the ladies on the floor were shouting and screaming at them. My brother, see race. As I was running they were throwing those bottles till I sited the Scottish yard police making an announcement from their car speaker.

I narrated my experience to the Matron of the care home and she felt pity for me. She asked me whether I wanted to change my schedule to day time but I still insisted on the night schedule as it paid more and I used my day for other jobs and classes

qdlvy:
This is really nice.

This still boils down to Nigerian mentality of nature and greenery. IITA is an international development organization. This kind of scenery is common with offices of international agencies, High Commission and other places where foreigners are working or living. The French center in PH (Alliance Francaise) and the Charge D Affairs residences have beautiful green zones. Same with the newly commissioned British High Commission's residence in Abuja.

Foreigners living here appreciate the greenery scene and plants more. Their houses are usually different. You will see flower pots everywhere and grass plants on the walls, just trying to replicate their home country environment in Nigeria.

1979.04.06 - A child was born there.

n3xt:
What maintenance do you require for a system that uses DC?

My 12V pump has been working without issues for years.

I still don’t get the maintenance we talk about.

Do I need 24hours light to maintain a DC pump that’s connected to my inverter?

Or do I need 24hours light to run a gate operator running on 650VA UPS battery? The system runs on battery for 3 days without electricity supply mehn.

Sigh!

Mehn, I am learning a lot here. I used to see this automatic gate thing as one complicated matter. I first saw it in my hall of residence in UK as a PG student in 2008.
The smaller one for pedestrian had a sensor that once you are approaching the gate, it would open. The big one had a sensor that recognizes the sensors in the windscreen of incoming cars as only those that were living in the compound are allowed to come into the compound with their cars.

Sensors were given to those big boys students with cars but for visitors cars, the gate would not open for them.

Honestly the contract looked somehow. The Barca lawyers need to be thought a lesson. Don't joke with English law firms. They sure knows how to craft a contracts.

They inserted that clause of 5million Euros without specifying with which club. It was stated that Liverpool will be paid the amount if Courtinou wins Champions League> Barca lawyers wanted to argue it because he did not win it with Barca. But the clause is clear, " If he wins champions cup"

So people, be careful with every details in your contract. My former Boss will always tell you that the details lies in the thin lines of the contract. Read them very well.

They will be worse off.
Military regimes comes in the name of salvation army and would later turn to monsters. Agreed that the Civilian president of Abubakar Keita has not done well, but he has attracted international support in his fight against the Al-Qaida in the Maghreb. EU and NATO has some troops stationed there.

Economically, Mali has not fared well same with her other West African States. If not checked, those military boys will be worse.

They should hand over back power to the civilian regime!

You have nice doors here but I don't know why you don't attach prices to your product. It will make more sense. There is no need asking people to call certain number.

diordaves:
Let me attempt to ease your confusion. Please note that EVERY HOUSE NEEDS AN INSPECTION CHAMBER be it plastic, pre-cast or in-situ built.

This forum can be a rich source of information regarding building, but occasionally, some fancy impractical dreamy ideas are propagated by some. They see some solutions abroad or online and without a full understanding of the situation and solution, start calling for such to be implemented in Nigeria without marrying the abroad (internet) solutions with the practical reality in Nigeria. This T-pipe and chamberless home is a dreamer idea.

You need chambers to have access to periodically clean and maintain your drains. Not only when the drains are blocked. You should clean your drains minimum twice a year. The chamber offers the possibility to do so without disrupting the drain network.

You need chambers to isolate the problem when the drain is blocked. This is particularly important in a block of flats. For example, you have a block of flats and Flat B is blocked. With chambers, you can isolate Flat B and deal with the problem without affecting other flats unlike T-pipe where you need to shut down the whole drain system just to fix a simple problem. And with T-pipe, any blockage will affect the whole flats. This is a cheap amateur plumbing solution. Not professional.

Now abroad solution and applying same to Nigeria. It is a legal requirement that homes MUST have inspection chambers. In the UK, we call it drains. This is where waste water and rain water flow into in the first instance and then into the council drains. No building will pass mortgage or planning approval with T-pipe as chambers. This is just a fancy idea.

There is this flat I wanted to extend and modernised here in the UK. The extension means the drain needs to be moved. My council turned down the application because they weren't convinced there's enough room to include a proper inspection chambers.

So go with your plumber. If you don't like the aesthetics of protruding chambers, do the chambers below ground level or at street level. But chambers you must have for periodic maintenance of your drains. Not only when they are blocked.

You are on top of your game my brother. We will flow with the chamber thing but it won't be that visible.

I love your detailed analysis. Nice job!

n3xt:
You don’t need a chamber. We discussed this some years ago. Go chamberless with T-pipe

This is the same thing my plumber is saying. He said it is easier to carry out repairs on chambers than with T pipes.

n3xt:
@egunmogaji2 mentioned it here
https://www.nairaland.com/2745049/construction-journal-browne-mews-nexthome/3#40633415

Take it easy on your plumber. He’s a Nigerian and you sure know a typical naija man has a fixed mindset of “this-is-how-we-do-it”

A typical naija builder believes alternative solutions must be a lot more expensive.

Edit:

I thought you said your plumber has been discouraging you from using it. My apologies for misconstruing your msg.

Give him extra credit for recommending it sir.

Oga, is this the T pipe thing? I am hearing this T pipe thing for the first time and I seems to like it more than the ubiquitous chambers we see here. I hate those chambers especially those ones that are so visible. I like it when it aligns flat with the compound.

michlins:
I don't know your house but I will want to be an occupant. How you defined it dey totori me already

My brother, na small build on kobo kobo basis. Just that I love nature die. My compound before I started was waterlogged with aquatic life. You would be hearing sounds of frog and other small marine lives

During foundation, I left a tiny portion of that swamp water as I would want to culture it an make it a tiny fish pond just to watch the fishes swim because that was what I met when I bought the land. I saw tiny fish fingerlins, (I hope I got the name right) and frogs. Even monitor lizards.

qdlvy:
Totally agree with you there. Your plans are similar to mine. Although I'm at least 10 years to a build (if I ever even get to doing any build for that matter), I also plan to have trees growing and some controllable species of bamboo for fence screening years before I even start at all. I'm sure when we have a few like yours around, old common practices will change.

Yeah, I want the compound to be a mini botanic garden. I encourage people to plant trees in their compound, especially palm like and canopy-shade like trees. They will like the ambience. You can also plant vegetables. It will add a new look. After all the compound is yours .
My build is still on going but I deliberately planted maize corn in the compound. There is this satisfaction that comes from eating what you planted. those that grew up in the village can relate to this

qdlvy:
Hello all. Seeing the debate about interlocking and stamped concrete, I'm curious why most people don't go for landscaping and concrete for the walkway only. What are the advantages of common practices against landscaping and concrete? Water sprinklers are very cheap and DIY friendly. Looks like a no brainer to me but I'm sure I'm missing something.

Examples in the pictures below.

What you have there is what I have in mind. I am not a fan of covering the whole compound with concrete.

If I see way sef, I will grass the whole compound. Only the section where my car will park will be concrete. The walk way is going to be grass and concrete slabs at regular intervals of the walkway.

We are not used to green environment in Nigeria as we lack maintenance culture in Nigeria. People are here saying lack of time. What lack of time? Bring out 1hour on Saturday or Sunday and you will keep your lawn well mowed. I am also a core environmentalist.

Since I am on a kobo kobo budget, I have already planted coconut trees and other plants round the compound for them to be growing pending when there is money to continue with the building.

My fence is not plastered. I planted wall carpet grass and the grass have started covering the fence wall. My intention is that the whole wall will be covered green. Though it will take years to cover the whole fence. I am ready to use the long scissors to be trimming them down once in a while.

A public state school yet its facilities and neatness can beat the best of our private school here. Our standards are terribly low in this country.

Secondly, hard work pays a lot. Some kids from rich homes with private tutor couldn't get admission even in some low level universities. I saw a case in US where a celebrity had to bribe her way to get her two daughters admitted into the University of Southern California. The thing busted and the parents have been sentenced to 5months in prison.

If you are wealthy, please teach your kids the culture of hard work from inception. Don't wait till they get old as it would be difficult at that time. It is always painful seeing kids from poor background securing admission to top schools while your kids with all the support system you provided him struggles to even enter local colleges.

Ignorant people will be here shouting if Lagos were to be a country, it would be this and that. My people, Lagos is still a full fledged ghetto when compared with its pears. Dirty, congested, no basic infrastructure, highly disorganised and sometimes with indiscipline and crude looking inhabitants.

Compare Lagos with Cape town, Abidjan, Cairo, Marrackesh, Johannesburg or even Harare. People will be here comparing Lagos with Nigerian local towns and cities.

My small University town of Aberdeen in Scotland is far more beautiful and developed than Lagos. Inclusive and sustainable development is when all nooks and crannies are developed. Not just focusing on one area.

Nigerian cities and towns are still ghettos!!

All these UK crown courts. They know how to extract money from rich people, especially if you are a foreigner and wealthy. That's why they like to entertain cases from wealthy Arab countries. See the way they first slamed the guy 500k pounds as if the judge can boast of £500k in his own account. They will milk the man dry before they grant him pardon.

Ask Ibori how much he forfeited to the UK crown court. If you are rich and a foreigner in UK, don't misbehave, else them go use chop.

See how disorganized the whole scene is - Nigeria and Africa towns and cities are crime scene. The towns and cities are so disorganized.

I am surprised that this action was captured live. We don't have CCTV installed in our cities to capture live events. That's why investigation is always difficult here. The eye witness guy that took the picture seems to be on the spot and was watching as the container fell.

Esseite:
"Good luck in your future endeavours".... A jobseekers greatest nightmare..

"However, we will keep your CV in case of any other opportunity that may come up in the future".

Advice the owner to demarcate the hotel building and sell out rightly to different buyers. I know one hotel along okota road that was put for sale, the man couldn't sell it. What they did was to divide and demarcate the hotel for people to purchase and the buyers converted them to flats. It was beautiful as I saw a guy that bought a portion and converted it to a four bedroom flat. They have close to 20 home owners in that place now. Some converted theirs to 2 bedroom, 3 and 4, depending on the space bought. Also you are at liberty to buy the furniture and ACs

The whole hotel is now fully sold to people and the place is like a mini estate and the owner got more money than the amount he stated for the hotel to be sold out rightly.

We lack data in this country. I watched how palliatives and grants introduced in developed countries are working. Some stopped deductions of PAYE from staff salaries and mortgages with verifiable data.

Business owners also felt the impact as government took over the payment of salaries of some of the employees of business owners. People have not felt the impact of palliatives in Nigeria.

They should have exercised caution. Why so much in a haste when the season has ended? I am not sure of this man.

I like the guy that commented in one of the threads that if the current government appointments are to be on betnaija, guys will be cashing out as it would be easier to predict their appointments.

European powers and cowardice!! I don't know why they usually abstain from voting on things that concerns US. Since you didn't like the resolution, why not vote against it than just abstaining. It means that you are afraid of the sponsor of the motion.

If It was another country that sponsors a motion now, you will see them voting and issuing joint statement. They bow to US too much and US under Trump no dey send them again.

Poverty, anger, Nigeria situation and frustration are deadly combination that have wrecked havoc on the psyche of most Nigerians.