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eseleborjpyaho:
PLS CALL ME 0706893478 OR S END ME AN EMAIL TO eseleborjp@yahoo.coluk for d etails

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We are looking for people who are into charcoal production or processing and/or firewood producers to help us burn the wood logs from the trees we feel on our farm to charcoal or cut them into firewood. Farmland is 50 hectares. So far, trees on about 21 hectares have been felled.

The farmland is located in Moloko (via Idofian), Ifelodun LGA, Kwara State.

Any interested party should contact me.

Thank you.

A quick disclaimer is necessary here: I am not a marriage counsellor. I don’t have any particular degree nor qualification on marriage counselling, but I have all my life, been around marriages and I have always understudied them. I have however, discovered that, most marriages built on mutual respect, mutual trust, mutual appreciation, mutual understanding, shared-vision, and mutual commitment, fared or fare well. The mutuality of those characteristics is very important. They cannot be from one end, they must be from both ends.

Before I proceed, again, this piece is a personal view because I understand that marriage is a very sensitive aspect of our lives.

MUTUAL RESPECT

“Respect is reciprocal,” so they say. It is important in life that we respect everyone around us and most importantly, our spouses (after our Creator and parents). They are the people that we intend to spend the rest of our lives with. To this extent, no one should get married to whom he or she does not respect. Human beings are prone to treating people they respect fairly and conscientiously. Again, I repeat, no man or woman should be married to anyone he or she does not have a huge respect for. This is a very important factor in choosing a spouse.

However, the respect must be two-way. If you respect the person and he or she doesn’t respect you, walk out of the relationship before it gets too deep. You don’t want to be at the receiving end of an arrogant spouse. Such relationship is always very brittle and combustible; it is ready to explode any moment your respect for such arrogant spouse evaporates, because it would someday – it only depends on the elasticity of your tolerance for his or her arrogance.

A spouse who respects you puts a premium on your feelings. He or she doesn’t want to hurt you, he or she would be sensitive to your plight, he or she would always choose his words and be very polite to you, and he or she would be willing to overlook petty issues out of respect for you and out of the understanding that we are humans and we are prone to mistakes. Indeed, mutual respect cannot be over emphasised in a marriage.

MUTUAL TRUST

Trust is a big deal in every marriage. It shouldn’t be compromised for anything and for any reason. Dictionary.com defines it as “reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.” Those words say it all. Very powerful words, indeed. Our spouses must be someone whose integrity measures minimally as ours or above, and not less. Otherwise, we would be second-guessing their words and actions.

Every party must not toy with the trust imposed in them by the other. And this brings me to why I feel people shouldn’t indulge in too much jokes nor too much surprise packages. Or after every joke, one clarifies that “it’s a joke ooo,” lest your spouse took it too seriously. Too much of jokes won’t let your spouse know when you are serious and subsequently won’t make your spouse take you seriously or act seriously when you need them to.

While we expect that our spouses should be trustworthy, we must be willing and ready to demonstrate that they can rely on our own higher level of integrity, strength, ability (to deliver on our words) and surety. When we promise, we must try our best to fulfill our promises, and if we couldn’t (due to no error/intention of ours), we should sincerely apologise and explain what went wrong. Trust is built on honesty and sincerity; trust is destroyed by deceit.

MUTUAL APPRECIATION AND UNDERSTANDING

Intrinsically, mutual appreciation and mutual understanding are inseparable. They are like two wings of a bird, without one, the bird remains grounded. Marriage works when both parties recognise the good qualities in each other and focus on them and celebrate them. That is why it is always good to marry a spouse that shares a great deal of moral, cultural and faith values with one, because it is easy to appreciate the level of effort she/he has put into being decent, disciplined and grounded in those aspects of life. Such similarities form the foundation upon which mutual understanding is built as life would mostly be viewed from almost the same perspective albeit different hues.

They form the bases upon which you gauge each other’s utterances and actions and measure the seriousness or otherwise of such utterances and actions. For example, if your spouse said something that you felt slighted by, you would only be able to judge the sincerity and seriousness or otherwise of such words base on the morality of your spouse. If you don’t appreciate that people use slangs or dirty street languages around you, then you don’t marry someone who is found of using such slangs or have an understanding with him or her to drop them before things get too serious between you both.

It is important to appreciate our spouses for who they are, and vice versa. We must be willing to tolerate their shortcomings and/or work on them together to help them improve and grow into better persons. They should also reciprocate same to us. That is only when we can understand ourselves and live in harmony.

SHARED-VISION AND MUTUAL COMMITMENT

Marriage is a very serious “business” and no one should go into such business without securing a buy-in into its “mission and vision” from his or her spouse. What are the principles that would guide the marriage and the family you are about to build? Upon what foundation are we building it? What do we hope to achieve with this marriage? What are the conflict solving mechanisms we have in place should we disagree on issues? Proffering sincere answers to such questions and many more you can think of, would put a wife and her husband in synchrony. It would make them have a shared-understanding that every step, action and inaction must be towards the shared-vision they have for the family.

Having agreed on the vision for the family, there is a need for complementing and mutual commitment towards achieving such vision. Every member of the family must be supported to reach their full potentials. On matters that have encompassing consequences on the family, there must be a buy-in into the steps and procedures to be taken to address them; while on matters that affect a member (especially an adult member) of the family, other members can and should only advise and give opinion, the decision should solely be on the person. In that way, she can own, accept and take responsibilities for the results of her action. However, when things go wrong, no one should castigate and condemn, everyone should encourage and support the other to see past the disappointment and focus on the positive sides of the result and lesson learnt.

Marriage is beautiful when a woman and her husband respect themselves, trust themselves, appreciate themselves, understand themselves, support and encourage each other to be who he or she wants to be.

NOTE: This article was first published on jidezubair. on 30/12/2014

Let’s allow our President and his economic team worry about the macroeconomics, it is really not our business. Our problem is microeconomics. We don’t have control over the price of crude oil, nor do we have control over the value of the American Dollar. We can’t control the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria nor Nigeria (yes, the Boko Haram issue is a war). It is the job of our economic team to manage our exchange rate, our price indices, unemployment rate, inflation rate and interest rate and so on. Our own business is microeconomics, that is, how we manage our personal income.

But before we have an income to manage, we must work to earn. Whether as an entrepreneur, a businessman, or an employee (who is also in her own right an entrepreneur because she is selling her skill-set to her employer), we must provide a service and/or sell a product to earn. When we earn these monies, what we do with them is our prerogative. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t spend our money conscientiously.

Money is an instrument of transaction. It has no value in itself but it derives value from what we do with it, and that is why we must spend it with scruples. I am aware of the unprecedented materialism that has taken over the world now and I am also aware of the attendant pressure it is putting on everyone – after all, we are human beings. Again, it is our sole right to spend our money the way we so want to, but we can choose to use it for useful things instead frivolous ones. However, the choice is ours. There is need for us to always differentiate between our needs and wants. A need is a necessity while a want is mostly an indulgence, literally.

Unfortunately, the problem of mismanagement of resources if not only at the individual level, our government is also a waster of resources. Our governments, at all levels, waste everything and anything; time, material and human resources. Therefore, ours is a society of wastage. But that is a discussion for another day. Let’s discuss you and me. The Nigerian Middle-Class. I am a member of this class. As such there is the likelihood that most of what I will be writing about is applicable to me; so, it is not an attack on anyone.

I am happy that since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, there is this seeming renaissance of the middle class albeit very little in ratio, when their number is ratioed by our overall population. Most of which is borne out of the fact that quite a good number (not all nor most) of graduates now earn decent salaries (in my definition, and in the Nigerian context, I would say somewhere around NGN 300,000 and above). This could be linked to various economic reforms and programmes; Bank Recapitalisation and Consolidation, Nigerian Content in the Oil & Gas Sector, and the likes.

On the other hand, the seamless flow of information, or let me say globilisation, has changed our attitude towards life because the world is now some clicks away with the help of technology. As a result, we are now inundated with the news of “new trends” across the globe, whether or not they suit us, that doesn’t matter, we just jump on the bandwagon. Truly, our way is to copy, mostly, the bad things the world has gotten to offer. And if we mix these trends with our natural “Nigerian ego,” what we get is catastrophic. We are becoming unnecessarily obsessed with consumerism and superficialism. If our obsession was in science and technology, or in business and enterprise, it would be better.

People, don’t get mad at me, I am not here to “yab” us. Have we not seen people around us competing with others on frivolous things? How many people around us have plunged themselves in huge trouble all because they want to “keep up with the Joneses”? We have so much tied our worth to how much material things the next guy can see us possess.

My brother is driving a BMW X6, I must at least drive an X5 (forgetting that the guy earns more than me and that he has even put like 20 years into his career). We break the bank to get a new 62” TV because our neighbour just got one, while there is nothing wrong with our 42” TV, which we hardly put on anyway. We must buy every new gadget in town – oh, we need the new iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Samsung Galaxy Tab and so on (all together at once despite that they have the same functionalities) – which we don’t really use, at most, we watch movies and listen to music on them and that’s it.

Another new “craze” is our obsession with foreign vacation. For those that can afford it as a way of life, it is no issue. However, for we that cannot and are forcing ourselves to do it, it is a very big issue. Most of the rich folks we want to copy go on these trips, mostly for business purposes and not leisure. Even if leisure, they sure can afford it. It is good to travel abroad to see what life looks like on the other side, but we don’t have to force ourselves to do it. It should come naturally and affordably.

If we must have a vacation, who says we can’t have a decent and affordable one within Nigeria, or in Ghana or Benin Republic, at a cheaper rate? There have been Obudu Cattle Ranch, Olumo Rock in Ogun State, and Tinapa for some years now and I heard they are good destinations, and now we have Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort in Ekiti State. We can even go to our villages to enjoy and appreciate the serenity there. I am also certain Ghana and other African countries have beautiful tourists’ destinations whose cost won’t poke a hole in our pockets.

If you can afford the foreign trips, it is fine, but if you can’t you would only be hurting yourself on such vacation because for most part of it, you’d be thinking about how you would refund your creditor(s) if you had borrowed the money you spent on such trip. We travel to Kenya for vacation and return back to Naija to gist people how our “vacation to Dubai” was and how “beautiful Dubai is”, whereas, there is nothing wrong in travelling to Kenya for a deserved-vacation, if that is what one could afford. It is definitely not a crime to enjoy ourselves and slightly indulge in those little fantasies, perhaps to see what they feel like, but there must be a limit to it. Besides, we must do it with sense and only when we can truly afford them. My point is that we need to quit this fake life.

We can all get over our fantasies only if we would be pragmatic. We have to put value on our earnings and discharge them scrupulously. A proper cost-benefit analysis has to be done before dipping our hands into our wallets. Anyone who spends what he hasn’t earned is either spending a borrowed money or a stolen money, no one can give what he doesn’t have. What are the forgone alternatives of this spending? Who benefits what from the spending? Could we have gotten better value for money by deploring the money on something else? What if we delay our decision on a particular spending to give us time for proper analysis of the benefit of such spending? Because most often than not, we suffer “buyer’s remorse” because we buy what we don’t actually need or paid higher than what they are really worth for we rushed into making decision to buy.

Life will be more beautiful and healthier for us without the unnecessary financial pressure we put on ourselves.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON: https://jidezubair./2014/11/24/dont-worry-about-macroeconomics-the-real-problem-is-microeconomics/

DATE: 11/24/2014

Literacy is the ability to read and write. In Nigeria, to a large extent, we have done well as far as our literacy level is concerned. We now have, quite a high number of people who can read and write. And a lot of us have gone through various educational systems to perfect our reading and writing skills – I guess our comprehension skill too. Being literate is a powerful tool – it can make or mar anyone. That is why one must be careful of what one reads, because what we read are directly fed into our minds. The essence of reading is to be educated. Education could be formal or informal. It could be organised or unorganised.

Many of us have also been through the process of administering and acquiring all forms of formal or informal training, in whatever field. Be it through apprenticeship of a craft or trade, or through schooling (primary, secondary, technical school, polytechnic or university) or through our experiences in life. It means we have been fairly educated. However, to be thoroughly educated, one must read wide – read subjects that are not even primarily linked to our core area of studies.

As an example, if you are a scientist or an engineer, you should pick interest in reading materials, news items, and journals from social sciences or medical sciences and so on. Or as a Christian, don’t be afraid to research into the fundamental principle of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and so on; and vice versa. This kind of attitude gives you an understanding of other people’s world-view and you are better positioned to relate with them respectfully. In my opinion, the level of information – on multifarious subjects – a man/woman has ingested is the mark of his/her level of education.

Access to information has never been this easy in the history of human race. The proliferation of knowledge in the cyberspace is huge, likewise that of distraction. There are materials online – in e-books, journals, audios and videos (interviews and lectures) – to acquire knowledge from. Howbeit, one must be very careful of the credibility, background and the agenda the sources of materials online. But if one sieves carefully and do due diligence, one can get good information from the internet.

Our literacy and education should lead us to intellectualism and enlightenment, and that is where this discussion is headed. Intellectualism is the “exercise or application of the intellect (ability to learn and reason).” In simple words, it is the objective application of knowledge. That is, the deployment what we have learnt through education, based on facts and reality, “especially with disregards to emotions.” It is a way of life that places reason over emotion; that queries the why, when, what and how of events and situations. It makes us discover ourselves – character, strength and value.

But today, we are mostly quasi-intellectuals. That is why we don’t ask questions from self, from our leaders (political and religious), from the elderly ones in our societies, from our parents and even from friends. When I say questions, I mean constructive and genuine questions to seek understanding into events and actions and others’ positions. Because we are quasi-intellectuals is why we assume and pre-empt the other person. It is why we draw conclusions from innuendos, suspicions and unfounded allegations. It is why we distort facts and history for our selfish gains. It is why we argue blindly and/or with ego. Even when facts are presented, we find holes in them and twist their meanings. It is why we act ignorantly. It is why we are not civil. Because we are quasi-intellectuals is why we criticise without proffering alternative but superior methods of doing things. It is why we are not guarded and considerate.

Intellectualism should reinforce our beliefs and value system. It should also give people a glimpse into our minds. It abhors hypocrisy, bigotry and superiorism. It encourages fair hearing and willingness to understand others’ views on issues, even when we don’t agree with their positions or reasoning. It leads to open-mindedness. Intellectualism encourages healthy debate and genuine communication between us and others. It proffers solutions to problems rather than whinge about them. It works towards improving the present order of things and events by genuinely querying the status quo.

Embracing intellectualism gives meaning to our lives and existence, and leads to enlightenment. Enlightenment is the ultimate goal. It leads to self-awareness. It doesn’t accommodate inferiority complex, envy and hatred. It makes us identify our purpose on earth and breathes “life” in us. It makes us humane. It makes us identify our Creator and find the best way to serve Him, and subsequently leading to peace from within – and this is the ultimate gift of life.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON: http://jidezubair./2014/11/17/of-literacy-education-intellectualism-and-enlightenment/
DATE: 17/11/2014

Life has a way of giving us opportunities to reassess ourselves and make amendments, these periods of reassessment, is what I term the waiting period. At different stages of our lives, we experience these periods of pause. Be it after we are done with our secondary education and waiting to get admitted into a higher institution to further our education. Or after our university education, and waiting for NYSC or employments. It could also be after everything else have been settled but marriage and waiting for that compatible spouse. Life just has a way of giving us a pause before any major decision is made in our lives. And what we choose to do with these waiting periods is important. They mostly form the turning points of our lives.

In my mind, I strongly believe that a qualitative secondary education is a must for every child. I however, do not feel same for a university degree – it is not a necessity for everyone to be successful in life, depending on what success means to you. Therefore, you that, for some reason, cannot proceed to a polytechnic or a university to bag a degree, do not despair. You are likely not going to lose much if you apply yourself resourcefully. So, if you are just done with your secondary school, whether you are waiting for an admission to further your schooling or you don’t have intention (or financial capacity) to continue schooling, you should use this time to add value to yourself.

Go into apprenticeship of a craft or trading (like tailoring, hairdressing, carpentry, mason, hair styling, plumbing and so on), computer programming/software coding/networking (SQL, Microsoft Access and Excel, Java, C+, C++, visual basic, LAN and so on), software proficiency (AutoCAD (for technical draughting and design), PDMS, Ceasar II, Pipeflow, Microstration, MathCAD, Microsoft Planner or Primavera etc.) or any other thing of interest. The point is, there is space for you and your talent(s) in the society.

For those looking to be auditors, accountants or financial analysts, you might not really need a degree. Some certification routes (ACCA, CFA and so on) might set you on the path to actualizing your dreams. There are other institutions for journalism and public administration if that’s your field of interest. Look for a mentor in your chosen career and ask questions. The point is to look for what is applicable to your industry, relevant to your career aspirations, and that would add values to you. You can also pick books and read. The important thing is not to stay idle. You don’t need any degree to learn how to do these things and they could be your saving grace in future. Yes, survival in today’s world is largely knowledge-based, but knowledge doesn’t only come from within the four walls of a higher institution. That is the reality we now live in and which we must embrace.

For those who want to further their schooling, it is important to ask yourselves questions and convincing answers must be provided to them. Why do you want to further your studies? Why do you want to study the course you are intending to study? What is your post-university plan? What are the benefits for you? I mean, at the end of your course, how would your degree benefit you (and your family and society)? What are the possible job prospects after your graduation? Answering these and many other questions that come to your mind would allow you to make the decisions, whose consequences you can live with. With this, you would simply be prepared for future possibilities.

And for you, the new graduate from the university, what is your game plan? The sad reality is that “good” jobs are hard to get nowadays. The problem is no more of unemployment only, it is also of under-employment. A lot of those who have employment are under-employed and/or under-paid. This is not to scare you, it is to awaken you. While shooting out those applications, you shouldn’t stop learning and upgrading your skills. You see those courses/programmes I listed earlier, they are also suited for you. You can pick the relevant ones from them and do. But most importantly, start thinking of how you can employ yourself instead of being employed by someone else. It is a possibility, and almost a necessity if you have passion for industry and enterprise.

Believe me, I know it is not easy to create your own venture. But if the vision is clear and your product (or service) has a clear need in the society, it is a matter of time, you would thrive. There is a huge gap in agriculture, facility management, daycare for children, extramural coaching/studies, and so on. You just have to think – most importantly, differently – and pay attention to the needs of your environment. If you are lucky to key into a right need of your locality, you could be better-off financially than taking on a regular paid-job. It is a great thing to think big, but it is more important to start small. Never despise humble beginnings. Starting small gives you the opportunity to grow with the venture and minimize your loss. The point is, you can’t stay idle. It is not good for your body, neither is it for your spirit. Remember that popular saying, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. So, you can’t afford not to engage your mind productively.

And if your waiting period is for the right spouse, you can’t get the right spouse if you are not right yourself. Personally, I feel your work is both spiritual and of common sense. It is spiritual because you really need to genuinely seek the support of the Almighty in choosing and leading you to the right person. But remember, He won’t come down to select for you, and that is where your common sense comes to play. I have this slogan when it comes to scouting for a spouse, which is, “when selecting, be very selfish. After you have selected, be very selfless.” And before you start getting selfish about the attributes you desire in your future partner, you need to work on yourself first.

Are you also a right guy or lady? Are you morally and mentally fit to be someone else’s spouse? What values are you bringing to the table? How clear is your mind? How real are you? How sensible and sensitive are you? What level of sacrifices are you willing to make? What are you willing and ready to give in return for the other person’s love, affection, emotions, sacrifices and time? What are those bad characteristics you possess that need to be dropped/fixed before getting married? These and many more are things you should work hard to be clear about and mend during your waiting period.

Now that you are working on yourself to be that right person, you do not have to compromise on those values you seek for in your spouse, that are very important to you. For example, if as a Muslim, you cannot marry a lady who doesn’t observe her 5 daily prayers without no one prompting her, you don’t have to compromise on that (it is good to want to get some reward from God for helping someone be dutiful to his/her responsibilities to God, but are you willing to put in the required efforts? Remember, only the Almighty gives guidance.). And if you are allergic to lies, don’t marry someone who lies and think that he/she would change. The point I am making is that, when looking for someone with whom you would spend the rest of your life, do not compromise to those spiritual and moral values that are important to you, which when flouted, you cannot overlook. People hardly change, any new behaviour you are just noticing in anybody has always been inherent in them, they are only just manifesting due to their present condition or situation.

I don’t want to bore you with verbosity, the point is that, there really shouldn’t be any idle time in our lives. We should always make every moment count.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON: http://jidezubair./2014/11/11/with-your-waiting-period-do-something-tangible/
DATE: 11/11/2014

In 2005, the then Kwara State Governor, Senator Bukola Saraki, started the “Back-To-Farm” project. This project was intended as a mechanism to increase and improve the participation of citizens and residents of Kwara State in agriculture. Till date, three major events have happened in that direction; (1) the establishment of Shonga Farm by the Bukola Saraki regime, (2) the launching of Kwara State Agriculture Master Plan (KAMP), by the Abdulfatah Ahmed regime, and (3) the signing of an MoU (70 billion Naira worth) with some Spanish (and Dutch) rice investors, also by the Abdulfatah Ahmed regime. These three events have comfortably painted Kwara State as an “agrarian state” for the last two successive governments have made efforts to make it so.

The focus of this discussion is not on the successes or the failures of these aforementioned efforts, because I don’t have access to reliable information about how they have fared, and I don’t want to rely on online news reports on them to draw conclusion(s). I would rather focus on alternative but simpler route/model to making Kwara an agrarian state. The intention of this effort is to generate healthy discussion on how to make Kwara State an agrarian state.

Understanding the historical background of agriculture in Nigeria should lead us to the right policy direction. My independent studies on the history of agriculture in Nigeria have shown that, the past achievements Nigeria made in agriculture were as a result of great investment into research (we had over 10 focused research institutions) and great support from government in providing structure and policies. There were also complementing commodity trading platforms that bring buyers (mostly exporters) and sellers (farmers and middle-men).

Most of the farmers in the 1960s, when Nigeria had domination in supplying the world palm oil, groundnut, cocoa, and cotton were peasant farmers who worked their farmlands with crude farm-tools and mostly practised bush fallowing. No fertilisers. No tractors. What they had was a combination sheer determination, hard work and focus. There was no electricity nor good roads nor proper irrigation (they simply cultivated seasonally). The growth Nigeria achieved in those years were “organic” – driven by the people while government provided the enabling environment.

Yes, the world has advanced in knowledge, science and technology. However, the underlying path to success remains the same – hard work, dedication, proper planning, focus, discipline, proper execution and so on.

If Kwara State wants to make its core competence, agriculture, and achieve the status of an agrarian state, it cannot talk its way through. A lot of work has to be done in creating policies, infrastructure and framework that will make the “common man” the driver of the agricultural revolution the state seeks. I don’t want to believe our people do not want to farm anymore. What I believe, is that, there is no incentive to encourage them to do so. The major desire of a businessman is the availability of a willing, ready and able buyer of his/her merchants. And this is anchor upon which the government has to hinge its policies on agriculture.

RESEARCH

Kwara does not really have to do much research into the science of agriculture (crop improvement, soil enhancement and so on) at the moment, because there are a lot of breakthroughs that have been made by our research institutions that have not been yet implemented. Therefore, its research focus should be on how to make the Kwara people drive its vision in agriculture. This, again, is not costly. What the government needs is to gather people who can come up with simple and implementable ideas that would put an average man at the centre of action of the processes leading to delivering its vision in agriculture, just like I have intended to do with this article.

CREATION OF THE MARKETPLACE

Kwara State, through its investment company, Harmony Holdings Limited (HHL), should develop at least one “agrocentric” industrial park in each local government area within the state. These parks would focus on processing into semi-finished products or finished products, the major agricultural outputs from Kwara State. Some of which are cotton, cocoa, palm produce, coffee, kola nut, tobacco, corn, cassava, rice, sorghum, cashew nut, and so on – all these have strong local and international markets.

These industrial parks do not have to be big. They could be designed to accommodate between 10 to 20 companies – a mixture of cottage processing companies, packaging companies, storage and warehousing companies, and logistics companies.

There are small and medium food processing companies in Asia and Middle-East that would be willing to subscribe to these parks and set-up their plants there. Our population and our over reliance on imported food items are good marketing points for the industrial parks. And Kwara State can and should in fact take the lead the process of increasing Nigeria’s agricultural industrial base. All what the state needs is to properly handle all the stages of the project and properly market it to the world.

INFRASTRUCTURE

To make these industrial parks attractive to investors, complementing infrastructure must be built. Roads must lead to and from them, there must be constant electricity supply, water must be there, and telecommunication infrastructure must be built. The locations of these industrial parks should be such that, they are within a maximum of 100km reach to every village in the state. And the state government has to work extensively in linking every community within the state to these parks by providing good roads, thereby giving farmers easy access to them.

Private power companies would readily partner with HHL to deliver electricity and water to the industrial parks (and their environments) if HHL is able to get agro-allied processing companies to subscribe to putting their facilities in the industrial parks. It is all about structuring the idea to attract serious industry players to desire wanting to be part of the development.

Harmony Holding Limited (HHL) can itself set-up a commodity buying company that buys of the crops from the farmers and sell to the end-users, this has a dual function of stabilising pricing and instilling confidence in the farmers and the processing companies.

Apart from the attendant job creation (direct and indirect) that these industrial parks would bring, they would also lead to knowledge and technology transfer.

EDUCATION & AWARENESS

The workings of this concept must be properly communicated to all relevant stakeholders – most importantly the Kwara people. Therefore, the government, through relevant agencies would have to invest adequately in educating the people on how this model works, on how the government intends to protect their labour and making it worthwhile, by providing a structure that buys their harvests from them with decent profit margin. This will definitely encourage people to go back to farm – in the short-, medium-, and long-term – when they start seeing results.

The state should carry out findings to determine the tons of each crop (rice, corn, cassava and so on) produced in the state annually and its expandable capacity. This kind of information would encourage the prospective processing companies to make decision about their investment, as availability of raw material is an important consideration for manufacturing.

FUNDING & IMPLEMENTATION

Kwara State is one of those states that are low earners – low federal allocation and low Internally Generated Revenue (IGR is about NGN 800 million monthly). The state has always been generally regarded as a “civil-servants’ state” except for the recent past when decent commercial activities started springing up.

However, Kwara State has always had good relationship with financial institutions and therefore should be able to structure a deal to get funds to pursue these kind of projects if the government wants to.

The implementation of this kind of project should be phased and long-term in nature. Its vision and focus should be back by legislation to ensure its implementation and sustainability. The idea is to pick one or two local governments as its pilot scheme and implement. Proper monitoring of progress and documentation of lesson-learnt at each stage of the project, meticulously done.

CONCLUSION

It is good to dream big and bring big industry players to Kwara State to participate in our agricultural industry; however, that cannot engender participatory nor organic growth, wherein the “common-man” is an active player and beneficiary. Good policies should be all-inclusive.

PS: THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED ON MY BLOG (http://jidezubair./2014/11/04/kwara-state-as-an-agrarian-state/) ON 04/11/2014. I BROUGHT IT HERE TO GET PEOPLE'S OPINION ON SAME.

This discussion is not about you; if you are lucky to have a rich family to send you abroad for studies and support you while there. Nor is it about you that won scholarship(s) (tuition and living expenses all covered). It is also not for you, rich business executive, who want to further your education and have the means to do it without losing your livelihood. It is for you, who have worked hard for years and have saved enough money that is either only enough to allow you start the programme you have applied for or can sustain you through entire course. It is also for you, whose parents want to use their life-savings or borrowed-money to send you abroad for an MSc.

Before I proceed, I have a disclosure to make; I have a Master of Engineering Management from University of Wollongong, Australia. I don’t want to sound hypocritical. But we need to examine the facts – according to my personal experiences and understanding of how things work.

As an international student who wants to procure a higher degree, the relationship that exists between you and your prospective school abroad is that of a buyer (you) and a seller (the school) – a school is a business enterprise. And the service to procure is the knowledge the school will impact during the course of your study with them. Whether or not the knowledge, in itself, is useful for you on the grand scheme of things, is another talk all together. But remember, you are buying something the school is selling – knowledge. Therefore, let’s begin to reason together. And we will have to focus on cost, benefits, and goal.

Let me also state that, it is not all schools abroad that are recorgnised (even in Nigeria) and accredited in their home countries, therefore, one has to be careful in choosing schools.

COST

Picking up a master’s degree from any good school in the USA, Canada, UK and Australia (or elsewhere) should cost you an average of $30,000 (NGN4,966,200) and above, depending on the course you want to study, the ranking of the school and its location. It could be a bit lesser than that amount and it could also be as high as $120,000 (NGN19,864,800) and even more if you want to pursue an MBA in some of the “top MBA schools” in the world. Let’s say this figure covers all expenses – application, acceptance fees (if applicable), visa procurement, air ticket, tuition and living expenses. So, the $30,000 (NGN4,966,200) is quite conservative.

Exception to this cost-rule are schools in Germany and some other European countries that are either of lower tuition fees or are tuition free.

BENEFITS

For me, one of main benefit of studying abroad is quite sociological. It opens one’s mind to the possibilities of a decent and comfortable living. Wherein life is given the deserved dignity and appreciation. One gets to see that societies could be organised and well-managed, people could be respected and treated with decency, and state officials could dispose their duties with humility and decency and so on.

On the academic side, learning materials are recent and relevant to the present-day world. Most of the lecturers understand that the relationship between you and them is that of “customer-and-sales-representative” and they take that relationship very seriously, because there is always an appraisal mechanism towards the end of the semester wherein you grade the lecturers’ performances.

There are assignments that expose you to proper academic writing and referencing styles. In the course of doing these assignments, you learn about how to do proper research work and give due credit to others’ works and efforts (avoiding plagiarism). Some of these research works are done in collaboration with other students and this gives you the opportunity to learn about and appreciate teamwork. One also learns how to present one’s ideas to people clearly through regular presentations.

Therefore, at the end of your programme, you would have become more academic and literate but not necessarily more educated (we can debate this controversy in future). And of course, you would then have a new certificate, and new academic title or appendage to your name (and it feels cool at the early stage).

GOAL

One of the major reasons that might prompt you to want to pursue a higher degree is to improve your earning potentials. This is more of a myth than reality. Research has shown that, if at all, one’s earning power would increase after a master’s degree, it is by at most 15% higher than one’s colleagues without an MSc. This scenario rarely occurs. And even at that, if you did not have any working experience before going for the MSc, you would have to start from the beginning of your career – a trainee. In real life, on-the-job experience is far superior than an MSc and most employers (if not all) understand this. Therefore, if you are in this category, you would be disappointed after your MSc.

For people in this category (someone who believes that MSc is an investment that enhances his/her earning power), I do not personally think you need an MSc. Stay on your job and continue acquiring experience. If you have such money saved-up, and there is a hunch to “invest” in yourself, look into starting a business (as a part-time thing) and watch it grow. Instead of travelling abroad to go and bless another man’s business (always remember that those schools are business enterprise themselves), start creating yours. Five million Naira (upwards) is a lot of money to invest in an MSc that wouldn’t really be of significant importance to the grand scheme of things – growth and happy life.

Another reason people go for an MSc is to broaden their understanding of their chosen field of career. If you are in this category, whether or not you earn more than your colleagues because of your MSc, you would still find fulfilment in having that MSc. Close to this, are people pursuing their MSc as a prerequisite to achieving a PhD and are not really interested in having industry experience – they just want to teach and/or do research. To these set of people, completing their MSc means they are a step closer to their goal.

People also desire to go study abroad as a relocation strategy into a country of choice. This is not a bad idea since our leaders have refused to improve the living condition in Nigeria. Yes, schooling is about the best way to gain entrance into most foreign countries. If your papers are genuine and you have your money, you have a very high chance of securing an entry permit. However, the mindset of going there, completing your MSc with the “certainty” of getting a “lucrative” job (or any job at all) is a big gamble. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a possibility of securing one.

However, the reality is that, job market, world all over, is becoming extremely competitive as most economies are becoming digitalised and thereby resulting into reduced requirement for labour plus there is a lot of qualified people competing for the little available openings. Besides this, most of these countries place priority on getting their citizens employed first before foreigners and there are policies in place to make sure companies comply.

So, before you go for that MSc programme abroad spend quality time on research. Ask yourself critical questions on what your real intentions are. You don’t want to spend your hard-earned money without fully understanding what you are about to get yourself into.

PS: THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED ON 26/10/2014 ON MY BLOG (jidezubair.). I HOPE THE MESSAGE IN IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO SOMEONE OUT THERE.