a look at the pictures on the bbc website puts a smile on my face. i couldnt get many details but am trying to figure out that location in the lekki area. the journalist wants a selling point and thats the reason for the use of going to school by canoe. if it were going to be a report on the northern part of the country, then it will be gong to school by donkey.

hey, the water is like land to the people of this country who live in the river and lagoon areas and they take pleasure in the ways they relate with it. what would you expect of someone who practically lives on water. if you live on an island where there is no school, i wonder how you will get to one if not by canoe or oh a boat if in the uk, i beg make them leave us or na we no go mind them oyinbo.

i hear someone talk of safety and i laugh in pigin. safety! when the day you are born, you will be immersed in the water as a baptism and confirmation as a true son or daughter of the water. do you wonder why nobody remembers any accidents?

sometimes you wonder if people really know whats going on in the country or they are economical with the truth. how can anybody say the general cut off mark is 180 and uses that as a measure for statistics of students to be admitted into tertiary institutions when schools like university of lagos have commenced post ume examinations and the cut off mark for the exam is 200. yaba tech and lasu will be conducting their respective post ume soon and i learnt the same condition apply.
if you have scored 200 and above, pay N1,000 into designated banks and register on-line. so where is the 180 cut off. i beggi
anyway deadline for lasu registration is 20th july while that of yaba is not too different. i will post it as soon as i can confirm

if the issue at hand is that sanusi talks too much or that perhaps he doesnt understand how the nigerian media operates by making statements that can be understood differently from what he meant, then we may be right. he needs to watch what he says and how he says it. another angle to this issue is the politics that might be played with this. an example is the question, is he pro capitalism or anti captalism?

if however, we want to talk about the banks, the ceo, the directors as well as shareholders. i bet you it all a mess. a lot of people do not know how our markets operates and the economy at large.
i work on the books of companies listed on the exchange and i can tell you that for the bailed out banks, its a sad story. if you see some of these things, you shout yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh

for some of these banks, shareholders just have their names on paper, the banks are dead and they know this. that is why they have not been talking these and that legal actions. what do you say about a bank with a negative shareholders fund of 250 billion naira? oh somebody will say let them raise the capiatal, i ask, how? when a supposedly healthy bank could not even raise a fifth of that during the bobble period.

you see, sanusi might be talikng too much but he speaks the truth and that truth is not relative if the what we talking about is the banking mess we had about a year ago

Now i know something apart from football that unite Nigerians = FOOD

in Nigeria, the story is no light, no security, no road, no school, no fuel, and the list goes on

BUT PLEASE, anytime you see NO FOOD, PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE DELETE

its good we have something to cheer about abi?

as much as news like this will likely make you believe that perhaps things might change in nigeria, that it is a politician vying for the position of the next president that is saying this and the sheduled date is june when it might be somebody else in office say a lot of things.

i will want us to however critically look at what i think is the ultimate challenge to the development of nigeria. THE HOUSE OF THIEVES

there are several things that are to be done to give this country a headway but those guys are just too foolish to see anything. imagine a request by the president to cut down the budget by 1.2 trillion based on the realisation that the NNPC data used as estimates were faulty was turned down and they only cut the budget by 400 billion. next year, it will be noise that the budget was not implemented. there has been no developmental law passed by these rogs only laws to make them remain in their sits or add more money to thier pocket have been passed.

if jonathan realy means business, let him start with the required laws that will bring about realistic involvement of the private sector in our economy. but if we want to go the way of regular politicians. it will all end as campaign promises

its always interesting reading topics on nigeria politics and realising how much dream and hope we love to have than work on the reality as it is particularly before the wish or dream may become reality. that goodluck will run id dependent on a number of factors. the most important of these factors does not in any way involve you except you are going to be a pdp participant at the primary election of the pdp. that is where its starts. and do you know those who have 'mouth' at these level? the babas of the party. you know how they do it? the participants are always loyalist to the party who also want to attain a political office or maintain the one they already have so they have to do the bidding of the party particularly at the local and state levels. this process takes place in all the geopolical region. infact, the state governors if you must know by the constiotution of the party are the leaders in thier state and ofcourse they direct affairs though not a case of states where the afobajes (kingmakers) hold sway. That is why a south south governor was reported to have said they will determine if jonathan should run.

another factor is the northern compromise. we all shout democracy but seems to always forget that it is about numbers. personaly, one of my grouse with democracy is that it perpetualy puts the minority in minority. jonathan needs the numbers and that number is not available in his region, even the incubency factor would not help him if the northen compromise is missing.

you see, talking about jonathan running is not just typing on keyboard

an issue like this will put people in different categories such as
1. those that disagree with it
2. those that agree with it
3. those that are indifferent
the position of each category can be supported with different reasons that could be factual or purely emotional. those who disagree could come up with reasons of religion, morality, decency, culture, natural leanings etc
those who agree with it usualy come up with argument for the right of the individuals and sometimes the hypothesis of genetical inclination
those who are inddifferent sometimes are just too overwhelmed by the discuss or just still battling with thier consience and sometimes critically trying not to be hypocritical cos they have thier own issues too
whatever your position, you must understand that our actions or inactions will and surely have consequences. this life is about cause and effect. sometimes though, the effects of our actions come a long time lafter.

i belong to the 1st category and my reasons are
1. the laws and ways of nature are well defined. it is rather unfortunate that only we humans see ourselves as being different. the physiology of man is well defined and we all of course are happy with the way our body works. there is no denying the fact that nature has made heterosexuality agreeable. for instance, the nose is an opening into our bucal cavity but it will be something to want to eat through it. now, there are unnatural things that may happen such as in a case of mutation. when such a mutation occurs what we do is take care of it or try to currect such deformities. for those who believe its a genetical issue then it means we should advice people with such a condition to seek medical or any other acceptable means to correct the condition

2. the unfortunate demand for rights for everything. its funny that we have now equated freedom for whatever. i just imagine what else to expect to have rights for? the ironical part is that people who ask for gay rights will say no to bestiality and incest and other of such excesses. you know why? that is not their leaning and have nothing to gain from such. what is right is right, it shouldnt be because it affect you. to cap it, you hear statements like consent between two adults, soon someone will advocate consent between two children at least they are children and have right to play together andddddddd sex is play. you can imagine how the human mind works. dont be supprised if people with other pervasion come arround to claim rights

3. religiously, nobody is perfect and of cause we commit sins or call it wrongs. when such happens, we are to seek forgiveness and be resolute not to go back to such act. it is rather unfortunate that we flaunt sins now in the society. people have become bold and reckless with sins. OH how i pity mankind. the only wrong we complain about are those that directly affect us. if it doesnt affect us, who cares, that is our atitude. how can someone say its exciting looking at two ladies kissing. let every sinner seek for forgiveness. if you are gay, know that it is a sin, you dont flaunt it, you seek forginess cos if you dont?,

its further disturbing to see how we have become so naive and easily taken by words coined to beautify bad acts. what is the meaning of sexual orientation? consenting adults, genetical inclination, social freedom etc. something funny is these beautification of bad acts are always employed to gently push forte their agenda

lastly, to those who argue that it doesnt affect anybody, then you accept that there is an issue with it only that you believe there may not be an effect that you know now. i mean now because the myriad of issues we battle with now spending billions of tax payer money to mitigate thier effects have origin such as this. HIV/AIDS and other STIs, climate change, Alcohol, smoking, drugs, name them. do we have to wait until its too late before we say this aint right?

prevention is better than cure.

some people believe isreal has the right to defend itself using any means, no matter how inhuman such a measure can be - you know the unending list of many attrocities the state of isreal has committed. the justification given is that it is surrounded by enemies. i wonder, did isreal jump into the midst of the enemies or the enemies came to surroud it? the answer to this explains why the crisis in the region has continued and why it may continue.

this struggle by the humanitarian groups will continue. that is thier job, fighting the cause of the people. they do the same on other issues like it has been pointed out earlier and pls note this is not the first time isreal will be doing this but this is the first time that the details of killing in the process is made public. what the humanitarian group want is simple and they will alaways make it known before embarking on thier actions, stop the blockade.

what the group also want to fight is the media blockade of what is going on in the occupied lands. we have not been able to hear anything from the activist because the communication channel of the activist was blocked immediately the attack took place.

its important to put things in the right perpective to be able to decipher it. its more important when the focus is something that happened in the past, a different environment, a different culture, a different civilisation etc.

let me quickly create a scenerio. in nigeria, we beat our kids when they disobey us or do very bad things. in the uk, that is not done. in the next 30 years and that culture moves to nigeria, i bet that our children will then accuse us of haven abused them while they were young or our grand children will see us as terrible people. you know why? the pysche at that time will not just understand or comprehend why we do it now.

the human psyche is continuously evolving and so is our sense of judgement. every change in our psyche through education, civilisation, exposure, culture transfer will ultimately affect our sense of judgement. therefore, it does not mean that our judgment now is correct while that of the older generation is wrong cos i tell you, the future generations are coming to find us very foolish.

i smile when an african today says polygamy is stupid or how can a man marry many wifes and have many children when he can not take care of them. cos i imagine the perception such would have had say 50 years ago. this is not a forum to discuss polygamy but let me quickly point out some issues so that we can appreciate how societies develops and how we should relate with those changes.

1. the high child and maternal mortality rate in africa made the family life a gamble. it was a case of let us take our chances and see what will happen. mothers of that time will give birth to as many as they can and men would marry more women.

2. the economic activity at that time was best subsistence. so the larger your workforce particularly family members the better for you.

3. the uncertainty attached to future prospects. have many wifes and children- whichever of them that makes it in the future! the family then benefits

4. the desire for a male child. my family name must continue so if a wife can give a male child then another or another or another should

5. social balance and family integration. i want my family to be a part of your so take my daughter and marry her. the community has more young ladies and the should be a balance young men should take more wives

6. show of elegance and prowess. the size of your family show your ability

these and many more are reasons for polygamy in different societies. to see otherwise at that time, you must be a foolish one. today we see differently.

somebody talked about a fathers responsibility or responsibilities. well, i would want to ask, based on which culture or society because there are places where the role of the father is expected to be performed by the mother. different cultures have different roles that assigned to individuals and groups. a friend of mine just got married and the family of the bride provided all household materials. infact my wife told me that in the north, there are places where all the guy does is provide the house and everything that will be in the house will be provided by the bride's family. i mean everything. tell a yoruba man that your wife's family bought everything in your house and you will be the most irresponsible man before his eyes. do you know what he will say? 'ole ni e, eni wa ifa, o n wa ofo' meaning, you are a thief, he who looks for free things, is looking forward to perish.

the diversity and complexity of the human existence demand that we tread softly with our judgements. whatever happened in the past can only be best judged based on the factors of that time.

the factors surrounding this issues can not be easily understood except with further details from all parties. what any of us should do is what would be humanly right to do? just be the good samaritan
if you want to ask everybody before you help them if they have been good or bad or if they have been dutiful in thier responsibilities, then i bet you aint going to find someone to help. we all have one story or the other

and to think that attaining success is primarily by your actions, ask yourself what actions of others could have destroyed that success.

my mother didnt care for me, what would you have done if she had decided to abort your pregnancy, suffocate you with the shawl, live you to die when you had malaria?

my dad didnt take care of me, what would you do if he had died trying to take care of you even before you were born because he would still not be there for you.

if you have been succesfull, know that every action taken by all arround you either good or bad had led you to that success. the same goes for the other way.

give thanks if you

we have all spoken well

there is a part of this issue that we often overlook. pls do we have any militry, police, sss or whatever security forces in the house. pls we would want you to paint a little picture of what loyalty means in that circle. if you have an undertsanding of that loyalty then you will also appreciate what is happening now particularly with governance in nigeria. once a soldier, always a soldier. all these miltary men who came into politics came in with all the military ideas and that is how they work. thay have equally transfered this military mentality to the alagbadas and babarigas they dine with. ribadu is a tool, yes and what about others? are they tools too? the answer is yes. you want to work with them, then you have got to be loyal. katakata starts when there is a change in leadership or structure. all loyalist get the favours and all non-loyalist get the bashing. that is how it works. and when they are able to bring back their structure, they try to right the wrongs on the loyalists. these things are always about which camp you belong to.

this is how it happens everywhere. advanced, developing or underdeveloping countries. what our prayers should be is that the camp that will bring more benefits to the people have the day.

what we read in the papers are plays and dramas. the real thing is always classified. you know, sometimes, they just laugh at our analysis. they feed us gibberish and we shit same by talking the same gibberish

rather than be a pro-ribadu or anti-ribadu, pro-obj or anti-obj, pro-corruption or anti-corruption, tackle the issues and not the persons.

i like your idea. its simple and straight. i would like to have details for a toyota rav4 2001 model and also details on how the transaction would go. this would enable me put plans together as soon as i get the details. details should be sent to my mail, mmresource@gmail.com. thanks. i hope to enjoy doing business with you. your ideas make sense

i would say that i am not surprised at the way this discussion has gone so far. when an economic issue is put in the politics section, what do we expect? emotions, sentiments, prejudice etc.

if we want to discuss the economy and not just talk about "garri and epa" then we should rather get our facts straight.

please read the attached file to understand where are coming from and where we are going in the banking sector.

just to quickly point out some things

1. the reforms that sanusi is executing are not sanusi's reform. they are soludo's reform. prof soludo had about 13 point agenda when he was the cbn governor and consolidation for instance was no 4. effective risk management, good corporate governance were all part of the agenda. they were not just implemented during the time of soludo. and to add, all the banks executives know this. in fact, do you know that before any decision is taken and the announcement made by the cbn, the issues would have been discussed at the bankers committee meeting and of course they would have agreed to all these things. that is why you will not find people from the banks or the financial sector passing comments on a number of these issues. what happens. those of us who know nothing really would be commentators.

2. there is a difference between the economy and the financial system, the cbn as a regulator and the finance ministry. the cbn is a regulator of the financial system and not the economy. to evaluate an economy, the macroeconomic objectives to look at are
a. economic growth
b. redistribution of income
c. full employment
d. price stability
e. favourable balance of payment

of all these, the only part where the cbn plays a role is price stability. cbn responsibility is to ensure price stability. so really, if the cbn would take any blame whatsoever on the economy, it should be on price stability and going by the statistics, the cbn has done well in this regard. inflation rate is now 11.8 down from 12.3. other issues should be directed at the relevant government structures. for example, for the economy to work, we need the real sector which depends on power. is it cbn that will provide the power and other infrastructures? is it cbn that will control how much importation that we do compared to exportation? common guys, lets talk to the right guys on our economy and that is the finance minister and the government as a whole.

3. people also talk about lack of confidence in the economy, the truth is that before the reforms we had no confidence in ourselves, the international financial institution had no confidence in us, even the banks were doing backstabbing on themselves to market saying this or that bank in distressed. but now what do we have? we all know that our money is safe. we know the nature of the problems of the banks. some of the banks are even back to profitability. the capital market has grown by about 30%. the international credit line is back for the banks. and i still wonder, they say sanusi has destroyed the confidence. nay! sanusi has restored the confidence.

4. please dont be fooled by what you read in some of our dailies. it would be better if the names of those papers are changed to reflect what they really are now. they are no more better that city people, encomium, spectacle etc you know, they have all become soft sell. you would read about the banks not lending to people anymore because of sanusi's reform. if they want to make sense, let them publish the figures of bank lending and to who the loans go to before the reforms and figures and to who now. i bet you, if you see the figures, you will throw eggs at any of these bankers when you see one. the truth is, they have not been lending to the real sector. not to any body that wants to do real economic business. what they have been doing is gambling with their shareholders fund. i work in a stock broking firm so i can tell you it was soooooo bad. the banks were doing handbill to advertise that people should come and borrow to buy shares. they used these funds to buy their own public offers. one stock broker alone has a debt of about 90 billion naira. imagine the number of industries that could have financed.
somebody talked about importation of cars coming down. why will it not come down, when it was the banks that were financing the purchase of these cars. if you earn about 90,000 a month you can buy a car of about 2 million. all you have to do is pay 25,000 naira every month. i am sure a lot you guys outside nigeria dont know what has been going on. they were financing buying of generators, television etc adverts were aired on tv and radio. i am sure that you would not be surprised if i tell you that they equally financed political campaigns.
the other areas they were pumping money is aviation and importation of petrol so when the meltdown happened in 2008 and oil price came down, they lost a huge chunk of there fund. a lot of bad things happened then.

5. its really a painful one for those who lost their job. but lets put the cards on the table. do you know why the banks employed so much people in the first place? we most be frank on this one. the banks were engaging in a competition for the number of branches they have. imagine a situation where on ogudu road for instance, you will find all banks represented. now you wonder, is there so much fund in a residential area that all these banks have to be here to get a share. and check out the size of these buildings. you will wonder if these new branches can survive on their own. the crux of the matter is unhealthy competition. so when the bubble burst, each branch was mandated to work on sustaining itself. that is the ‘koko’ of the job loss in the banking sector. mind you it was not sanusi that said sack your staff. it was the decision of the banks and let me inform us that these sacks had been going on since 2008. only the large scale execution took place sometimes ago. you know what the banks do now, they employ ond holders and pay them 30- 40k even lower to get there clerical jobs done. well, they will say they are being prudent, it is unfortunate though.

its important that we all support what is good and give good advice on better ways to do it. what we should not do is castigate someone who wants to do a good job because of our sentiments particularly when we do not have the facts.

the situation in nigeria require that we always seek the facts and figures before we let some foolish thieves and criminals bamboozle us

its always nice to hear people speak. sometimes its enjoyable and could be lots of fun. if however we want to really put our money where our mouth is then its important that we should take the issues as it should be and not as we assume that it should be. if nairaland would remain an educative and a  positive tool to bring about positive changes then we should avoid the temptation of just posting for fun.

the question we should answer is what next?
the answer unfortunately is not what you and i just think. its about the provisions of the laws.

the first of course is the swearing in of the acting president as the president.
this will be followed by the appointment of a vice president by the president who shall be confirmed by 2/3 majority of the senate and house of rep.
the person the presidents appoints as the vice president is not dependent on what you and i think or want cos we would not vote for such person. the senate can only approve whoever, they can not suggest.

the suggestion is not even for jonathan alone as the party machinery is required. dont forget, the position of the vp is political.
the names and suggestion given here are mere speculations and exercise in futility. a productive discussion would be to analyse the party machinery, consider the political implications of unfolding events, what our role should be as we can not participayte in this particular task of selecting the vp. what we should do now is educate ourselves on the polity etc
 
the next thing after this and while this is going on is for the administration to continue on its path of trying to make us believe that this adminstration we serve the people.

the political game of pre 2011 will also begin to show more participants and the intrigues that we are used to for those who have follow the nigerian democratic process and not spectators who little to nothing of what is really going on.

if you want to know whats realy next for nigeria, get involve not just talking in loud voice in with big fonts