Leads to regrets 99.99% of the time.

Here’s an old nairaland post with evidence they are long time business partners in Intel. They are actually good friends in real life (or atleast they used to be).

https://www.nairaland.com/4797308/atiku-sold-part-intel-tinubu

samint1:
Una good morning o. For those that have booked and written the Provisional Driving Licence test how did you get a closer or desired date for the test?
Provisional just arrived within a week of posting the form back and I have been trying to get test date but no available slots months away.
I need guidance pls �

What I did was to Download an app - Driving Test Cancellations Now. There’s many apps but this has a red icon. The app will try to find a cancellation appointment for you and book it automatically.

It is more effective outside London in my experience as there’s less struggle for dates / less people using these sort of apps. Also, the app can help book in a different test center so you can choose up to 3 test centers for it to search for cancellation test appointments. For example, you book in a far location for a far away date (if no closer test center is available on DVSA website when making the original booking) and the app moves it to a closer test center and date for you based on your preference.

Lastly, the app is not free. Good luck !

Famoustemmy:
From what I heard from people that has been to that country called morocco, he said, Moroccan doesn't like other Africa country, they wished they are not in Africa at all.

Strange cause Morocco has been trying to join ECOWAS for years unsuccessfully.

https://mipa.institute/7323

INEC can’t register fictitious names as each registration is tied to a biometric id.

The north takes elections very seriously. Even more than the WAEC some of us are quoting. They will gladly mobilize their people to come out enmass to vote, whilst the southerners continue to think votes don’t count.

Lots of Eastern European countries are worse off in my view: Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, Northern Cyprus

Nice analysis OP.

I do think the political parties are raising these fees because a grass root based fund raising mechanism for parties in Nigeria is non-existent so parties can only rely on sales of forms for revenue generation.

In the states most people who belong to a party will make contributions as little as $1 towards their preferred candidates and this adds up when millions are genuinely donating for the campaign of their preferred candidate.

The parties need to be innovative. Once they can crack fund raising at scale, then our politics will be unshackled from Godfatherism and money bags who sponsor candidates in expectation of favors to a large extent.

Someone claiming to be a forensics expert should be wise enough to provide facts backing up her 75% claim. Sad tale of pot calling kettle black in this country. People who don’t know anything just open their mouths and are given audience by journalists.

kode12:
House, people with all electric houses, how is your billing like? I'm looking at a property that uses electricity for heating with a storage heater. EPC rating is C, with no reasonable options to upgrade it.

Averaging £120-£160 per month. All electric 2bedroom, prepaid meter on economy 7 with storage heaters - Though those don’t work anymore and landlord switched to panel heaters etc.

aragbaboy:
I am about insuring my car in the UK. Please which UK insurance company accept a No Claims Discount from an insurance company in Nigeria?

Marshmallow does.

ibk5891:
Thank you for this info bro. i will surely apply asap then.

can i get more coroboration on this? Is it true i can apply right away without waiting for the 183 days?

i no won waste money oh!

You can apply right away. The DVLA has a huge backlog at the moment so do it online and it’ll come with a few weeks, much faster than paper applications.

The USA can do some annoying things.

Will the UK or a European country create such a website in the USA? The USA has enough problems of their own that they haven’t resolved. Institutional racism, police brutality, corruption (though theirs is very very coded).

We should be mature enough to be left to resolve our problems rather than this condescending approach. How does the US plan to act on the reports? Seeing as they have no jurisdiction to try anybody or any crime in Nigeria.

They should rather support our security agencies than these gimmicks. But no, they will cry human rights abuses and all what not.

babranancy:
Hi everyone, please I am looking for an accommodation that is close to central London. Probably 1 hour drive to central London, please it’s urgent as I will be moving out of the hospital provided accommodation next month, thanks.

Check Rightmove, Zoopla or OpenRent. Your budget and family size will determine the areas in greater London you should go for, but check for Zone 6 or places just outside of zone 6.

It's basically that being polite increases your chances of getting your request to a complete stranger granted. In English one will say something like the following to a stranger:

- If you don't mind, could you please point me in the direction of the nearest bus stop"?

Nigeria’s problems runs deep. The comments from some of us here is no different to Sheik Gumi asking FG to grant amnesty to bandits.

Nigerians tend to celebrate criminality and offer forgiveness to them once they are from the same tribe and the impact of their actions don’t affect us directly.

Uzonma:
Hello house
Can I spend dollars or exchange it to pounds in the UK?
Looks like banks hardly give pounds for PTA

Fidelity Bank does Pounds. The HQ branch at Kofo Abayomi.

Conrod:
I want you to start thinking seriously about it cus it will happen,....must happen.

The river Niger is already being dredged by the FG to accommodate current and future planned ships going to the ports along its banks. The Onitsha Port and Baro Port in Minna are along the river Niger. The problem as someone as explained earlier on is dredging a river downstream has to be a continuous exercise otherwise it gets back to its original state with sentiments washed from the upstream after some years.

The only benefits of dredging that I’m aware of are to make the river deeper in other to allow larger sized ships pass through. This means ships can more easily get to Onitsha and Baro ports respectively, so in this case it actually also benefits the north to dredge the river Niger.

SEGLIZ:
forgive my ignorance, does Nigeria export frozen food?
I know we do import them but exporting I don't.

We export frozen shrimps and prawns and import most of our frozen fish.

Relocation Sales

Sold!!!

[s]1. 65 inch Samsung Smart TV - 2020 model - 300k (bought September 2020 from SIMs Nigeria)

2. 6x6 Vitafoam mattress plus Bed frame, side stools and dressing mirror - 100k. Mattress bought July 2021 from Vitafoam. [/s]

Contact: xxxxxx

Location:

The senseless and tactless way this government has gone about banning Twitter is ridiculous, even if there is a slight (1 in a billion) that it had good intentions with the ban. A ban should be the last option. They could have written to Twitter, taken them to court for non-compliance etc.

Thinking about it deeply the reaction of the west though. I often wonder if the west uses human rights as a means to exert indirect control over developing countries. The west gets away when they do the very same things in which they will castigate a developing nation.

Sadly, Nigeria hasn’t gotten to a point where it’s government or citizens can read between the lines of the politics going on.

There’s the valid example of Tik Tok being banned in the USA due to national security interests. There’s Australia implementing new laws to make Google and Facebook pay content creators, which they are vehemently fighting against. I could imagine such a law being enacted in Nigeria will attract all sorts of freedom of … allegations the west can bring up to make us cow to their social media companies.

The simplest way I will put it is We are not a nation. We don’t have a common vision for what we want to be and where we want to go as a people.

To help answer your question, what we have in Nigeria is termed Geo-political zones as against strictly geographical zones.

For example, Kwara is geographically south west but geo-politically North central. Cross rivers should be south east geographical but is termed part of the South South. All the South Eastern states are geographically South Central or South South.

Afikoo:
.

I am 32. I have been working for 7 years here. Also working while in school. Just finished last year and got a pay rise to 80k as security administrator.

Baba, my issue isn't the marriage. My issue is the money. I am desperately asking on how best improve my income. Concrete suggestions on what I need to lay my hands on now to get started. I am tire of submitting applications

Here’s my candid suggestion for you:

1. Have a plan: I’m not sure what you meant by security administrator but you need to ask yourself if this is what you want to continue doing? What career path does it fit into? How have others moved upwards from earning 80k to higher earnings?

It is often a tough pill to swallow but I personally believe that it is often better to work for “free” in a job with food prospects of upward mobility vs a job where you’ll be stagnant for years.

2. Will your current employer miss you when you leave? You need to answer this as honestly as possible. The goal here is to find out introspectively if you’re really good at your job as you think. If your employer will not really miss you, is it because you lack a certain skill they want? Are there any specific skills your employer sees in you and likes about you? If you asked your employer for a raise today will they say bye bye or ask your to reconsider. Seeing as you’ve spent 8 years in your current role I have the feeling that you should be able to answer this question easily.

2. Pick a career with higher chances of getting a job: it’s sad to say it but life doesn’t deal the same hand to everyone. If being a security administrator isn’t something that can earn you 500k monthly in any company over the next 3 to 5 years you probably want to change your career path quickly. If yes, ask yourself and others who have made it in the profession what it takes to get there. If no, you need to start thinking of changing course:

- get really good at using a computer if you aren’t already. It pays in today’s world to have your own laptop
- learn a skill in a profession like Software Design, Engineering, Data Science, Web Developer, Digital Marketing etc. these are career paths that are in demand where employers don’t necessary worry about what you studied in school.
- once you’ve identified what you’re passionate about and you have a computer with internet access there are many online platforms that can teach you skills for free.

3. Keep applying: I’ve noticed that people tend to underestimate how much work it is to get a job. I will suggest you adopt the mindset of aiming to apply for at least 50-100 jobs - in Nigeria you have to apply and apply and keep applying. Ensure you apply for a job you have a chance at. Update your resume and add skills that are complimentary to what the employer is looking for.

Don’t just send the same CV to every employer. You need like two or three versions of your resume where you tweak your resume to highlight certain aspects of your strengths as a security professional. Have a resume for example that speaks to working in a school. Have another that speaks to how your skills can be applied in a bank. Include your achievements in your resume too.

Like I said earlier on. Have the mindset that you need to apply for 50 jobs to get an interview. You will likely need to attend 4 or 5 interviews to seal a job that fits what you want pay wise. Overall you might end up applying for 200 jobs to get a job.

Where the hard work is is in applying for these jobs on a shorter period of time as against over years. Expose yourself to online platforms where you can upload your cv and applying doesn’t take much time. If you’re sending an email to apply for every job you will find it stressful. If you have to drop your cv physically same time as well. You need to balance these things but online applications make it easier.

If you aren’t already on LinkedIn for example, go there and create an account. Same thing with Jobberman and any other jobs portal you can find. Keep “Bombing” employers till they hear you. Keep updating your cv and in each interview try to know what you did right or wrong so you can improve your interviewing skills.


4. Ask your partner to go through these steps above. It’s important for husband and wife to have an income these days. I won’t say more here.

5. So your marriage postponement doesn’t become unending. Find out if money is the real issue here. If money is ask yourself how much you need to earn to get married. The amount you arrive at should be based on your expenses now and your future expenses when you get married. It’s also possible that you guys get married and plan to avoid having kids till you’re more stable. This Doesn’t sound “Nigerian” thing to do with the womb watchers that are abound but it’s an option for you to consider.

For example, taking care of a baby costs about 15-20k monthly depending. Some ppl spend much more others spend way less (I.e. use napkin instead of pampers, give the baby Ogi and stuff)

Lastly, be prayerful. There’s nothing God can’t do. He will expose you to the right path and you will see opportunities and clarity in whatever it is you decide to do.

Quite long but I hope this helps.

@OP, quite the opposite. unfortunately the electoral college is one of the huge downsides of US elections. No other constitutional democracy that I know of runs this model.

California for example has 55 electoral votes, Texas and New York have almost 30 each. A president needs only 270 votes. This has led to the emergence of so-called swing votes / states. A democratic presidential candidate will only focus on areas where he is sure of winning rather than campaign to the entire country. I.e. places like Wyoming and Alaska have little electoral value (only 3 electoral votes) so there’s no point campaigning there.

So imagine a Nigeria where the presidential candidate only visits some states to campaign. States like Bayelsa, Taraba, Jigawa don’t get any attention cause they have little electoral votes.

This will result in far less representation in Nigeria as a candidate only needs to win the most populated states to cross the line. It also means you can win an election without achieving the majority vote in 2/3 of the states which will it constitution requires for fairness.

AsiwajuNdigbo:
Are they aware LAWMA has already cleaned up the crime scene, and a lot of evidence swept away?

It makes this news comical at best.

Somewhere people are passing everyday. Why will the governor seek permission to visit a place? Besides their mandate doesn’t include jurisdiction over that location, and if it does it is impossible to enforce as there were incidents in many other locations besides Lekki toll which same panel is meant to investigate.

If only Power was on the concurrent list, states will be able to address these issues / put the right policies in place to attract investment to those areas without power. This FG agency won't need to exist...decentralisation is the way to go here.

Very good for the ecosystem. Drives confidence for more investors to come in.

It’s quite strange but I’ve always wondered why the police in the North hardly terrorizes people the way they do in the South. Best bet is they ask for weekend money...no taking you to the station or forcing you to go to an ATM. It’s virtually a different sane org. there.

ejibaba:


I was with the ASUU president raising this same question to him that we the younger academics feel the struggle should channel more to our welfare... Doctors don't strike because of infrastructure but only we in ASUU. At least VCs should do all that. He gave me a response that I would not want to share here.

However, you know Nigerian politics and high service. Nobody wants to be said to be against his Oga. VCs are also ASUU members so they know and support ASUU on this, but since they are political appointees they often stay off critical issues.

Finally, yes tax is pay as you earn but when agreements are reached on variations and it is documented it should be respected. Also, usually AG staff come from Abuja to capture people to the IPPIS before they are paid and in some cases it takes close to 1year as experienced in some government agencies most especially if the leaders are not willing to play balls through giving them slot for recruitment or paying for their expenses to and fro.

Since the introduction of IPPIS buying job is now rampant cos they are people who sell slots given to them and at outrageous rates.

Finally, it's a pleasure to share perspectives on issues like this.

Sad to see that IPPIS is already being sabotaged by human operators. Too many issues in this country.

It’s a pleasure as well.

ejibaba:


First, your responses does not show you are an outsider, however, I'm willing for the objective discuss though to further clarify certain issues you raised. I actually am...just a well-read one.

Second, you aviod the second issue I raised on tax variations? Or you think it's not enough to reject the system? For your information sir, the previous tax system often times takes cognisant of teaching environment. How can I be paying same tax with someone in urban setting or what motivation do I have to leave my established university in an urban to a school in rural setting considering all off checks are the same??

My response as well...not sure why the next paragraph is not in bold.

[b] I have no idea how taxation works in the govt. sector. But in private co's, everyone is under the PAYE (I will presume this law governs governments as well) tax. I had mentioned how individual university ASUUs had gotten agreements with state governments for a tax relief. My opinion is that the government disagrees that it is lawful to obtain a tax relief which is why they are placing everyone according to the default PAYE deductions (my assumption again). I know that in the private sector, taxes are the same whether you work in the bush or in an urban area. The only times you might see a different is working with an Oil & Gas firm or an OEM (i.e. Oracle, Microsoft), you often get taxed at higher rates compared to working with a one-man company. The difference can be as high as 35% tax at O&G firms and 20% at private firms. Then again, is there a legal framework for ASUU's previous agreements on tax reliefs? If the answer is no, then Govt has a point, if the answer is Yes, then ASUU is right. This is a case you guys can actually take to the courts I believe. [/b]


Third, why should it be ASUU duty to drag the gazette of an the agreement? Why is it an issue now? No idea. My point here was more around getting / giving the government an ultimatum / negotiating within its own established framework rather than what they are doing now with a president who doesn't listen. If the government says this is the way to go (i.e. get the salaries and wages commission to gazette the said allowances, give the government a 30-day ultimatum to get these wages gazetted and included in IPPIS.

Fourth, if IPPIS is truly for salaries, why are they dictating to universities, whether to have visiting lecturers, sabbaticals and contract staff? Why? I don't know your definition of autonomy but mine is...verify whether the person exists, confirm if the person deserves to be paid but it's takes away my autonomy when you dictate to me that I should not have visiting, contract staff since you don't know what value they are to my institution. if this is true then it's a valid argument you make. I'm just hearing this for the first time actually. I'm not sure on what legal grounds IPPIS can dictate recruitment needs provided the individual university is not exceeding their approved budget - especially for contract staff. I don't have enough info plus it seems there is a lot of politics around the issue of visiting lecturer and sabbaticals so I'll leave that out for now, however, universities shouldn't be restricted from hiring.

Fifth, recruitment in the university system most especially when accreditation is approaching is usually fast and this may suffer given the time phase it will take IPPIS to capture a person for payment. I believe you know as an insider how corrupt you people in IPPIS are, most especially when invited to come for capturing and the corrupt demands that follows. I can't refute any of this. 100% valid concerns...I believe these can be sorted out through negotiations. Why does IPPIS need to come and physically capture ppl? I work in the software industry and just as JAMB enables registration remotely, IPPIS can enable such arrangement as well....the most important thing is that BVN and Biometrics are captured and supporting documents are uploaded. Someone can verify and validate on the admin panel in Abuja or from wherever.

Sixth, I think it is also wrong for you to refer to payment of salaries and allowances to senior researchers as: payments for capital expenditure and operational expenses to vendors or third parties...that remains I think you misread my comments here. By Capex and Opex I meant things such as renovations, buying furniture, fueling campus shuttles and other any expenses the universities may want to embark on..these are currently done through the GIFMIS platform.


Seven, I want to ask again that you pls, state you view on this disadvantage of this system that I pointed out that you delibrately avoided: The payment platform doesn't allow for a convenient tax system that academics enjoy previously rather tax is on gross pay. I had actually mentioned the tax variance issue in my earlier post on this thread..so my omission is just that rather than being deliberate.

Thank you. I await your response.

Thanks for clarifying. Your points have provided further context into the issues. Believe it or not, I'm not an insider...I'm have never worked for the govt or any govt affiliated institution. Anyways..thanks once again for the civility in your response....a rarity on NL which is why i don't bother commenting here much.

One more question though, if you can shed some light. Since these issues are mostly administrative, why are the Vice Chancellors and Governing councils not involved in this fight with the FG. ASUU should rightly be pushing from a position of it affecting their take home pay...but I expect the association of VCs if there is one to be the ones pushing the issues around visiting lecturers, sabbatical, limits on recruitment etc. It appears they've taken a back sit.

21cents:
lie..

Partly true actually. https://newsdigest.ng/business/2019/12/04/nnpc-are-not-ippis/

Many MDAs that are revenue generating are not on IPPIS which is even fine. The thinking from the article linked is they do not draw from the FG account, rather they generate revenues, deduct their expenses (i.e. salaries and ops expenses) and remit the remainder to the FG account.

This is completely different from what ASUU is trying to imply. FG Universities are a cost center, so ASUU can't expect to be treated differently from other MDAs that are cost centers to the FG.