₦airaland Forum

@poster,
Your American English isn't better than ours, i hope you know that?



I am not an American, the lady in the article is an American, at least it is good to know that there is someting called Nigerian English we have something in common.

I am coming oh , when u are actually going. uhm

m

I think Jonathan will be President on the 1st of May 2011, for just 28 days, he will however hand over on the 29th day to the new President elected. But meanwhile we should be proud of as ourselves as the only naation with about 5 President at once.


1.Yaradua the one the whole world knows who is in coma in Saudi Arabia or is he even 6 feet under  

2. Jonathan Goodluck is president without executive powers, his primary powers are to Chair FEC meetings and pose for the cameras after such clandanstine meeting.

3. The AG of the nation, who has being busy clearing all the dirty works in Yaradua's in-tray b4 he recovers. Ibori gains his freedom is one good example.

4. Turai Yaradua - Who has being silently ruling us under cover for months now, "Fine woman like that God knows who is keeping her company in the house in the absence of Oga" you did not hear from me oooh  

5. A combination of Governors from Yuguda to Saraki who beleive they are in the know of what is happening to Yaradua.

How does the existence of God equate with Houses of "God"?

You will have to ask him directly. But one thing I can draw from his postulations and arguments is,  his views are closer to this beleif I might be wrong.

He will have to standup and answer that, why would anyone want to be the devil's advocate when God Almighty is the master in giving out Judgment why dont you live it to God.

How does the existence of God equate with Pastor Adeboye


With the magnititude of problems that have befalling our great nation, misappropiation which cannot be proven or thithing in the house of God which our eloquent Jakumo often refers to House of Dogs is the least social ills any sane man should focus his attention on. Firstly the whole exercise of attending a church is a volunatery one and secondly the funds sloshing around in those places were donated without duress and are not liable to EFCC or any tax authorithies investigation. It is purely a private initiative.

If one can refer to the House of God as the House of Dogs what respect does person have of whether God exist or not. If he is of the view that God exist he would know that nothing coverd in the dark will not be unravelled in the day of Judgement.

A foreigner's perspective of our English not pidgin but Nigarian English. Who said Nigerians dont have anything in common



My first day at the office a insurance representative came in to discuss something and as he was leaving, he called Jim “Sir” and I guess for a lack of a better word, I was referred to as “Sista”. There are some other peculiar aspects of Nigerian English, for example instead of “Welcome (to Nigeria)” they say “You are welcome” – I am getting used to it but it takes a while to realize that you needn’t say “Thank you” to get a “You are welcome” in response
For starters, my American accent is completely useless – where I pronounce “t” as “d” – which is basically all “t”s – water, later, better etc. – they don’t understand. So I have to consciously pronounce “t”s as “t”s and it sounds very unnatural to me “wader” becomes “wata” and so on. Yesterday I caught myself speaking like this to Juan, an American. Embarrassing.



Now, the funniest part of Nigerian English is the aptitude toward switching “C” and “S” in words with both. So, “disc” (as in a CD) becomes a “diks” – a mosque is “moks” , ogygen mask is a “maks”, office desk is a “deks”and most often – ask is “aks”. “Barbara aksed me when we were leaving to Lagos.” They say it very fast so you don’t pick up on it the first time but if you listen in it’s so funny! Emeka, my colleague was explaining some of the bookkeeping stuff to me and said something with “ks” and I had a really hard time not bursting into laughter – I had to make it look like I was coughing!


There also seems to be a respect for long words. So instead of “Why was there no salary increase this year?” you hear “There was no salary INCREASEMENT this year?” or on the plane “Make sure you have all your belongings before leaving the plane.” is “Ensure you have all your belongings before DISEMBARKATION.”


Confusion between when to use “each other” and “ourselves”. Two people are not looking at each other, but at themselves here. Not “we know each other” but we “know ourselves”. Past tense: with irregular verbs where the present resembles or is the same as the past tense, another syllable gets added for emphasis, I suppose. So, “I split the salary into half” becomes “I splitted, ”, same with “I got stuck in traffic” is “I got stucked…”


More clarification on the “sista” issue I brought up. I aksed my friend Isabelle whether they also call her “sista” and she started a litany about how lucky I am when they still call me sista because starting around your 30s, sista becomes “auntie” – a sign you are getting older. So Isabel is wishing she would still get called sista. I was happy for a couple of days until I got called auntie at the market… L devastating.


More about language. Ok, the first couple of days I thought people were just plain rude. Then my colleague Sebastian explained to me that in the local languages, there are no equivalents for the words “Please” and “Sorry” (and many others, probably, like “excuse me”). Quite the contrary, if you use these words, you will NOT be understood! First, it’s shocking when you hear a mother on the market tell a 6-year old: “Put in the fridge!” – and a couple of weeks later you go to Abache barracks and you hear yourself saying: “Bring beer!” Today, I said to someone “Count the money!”
Maybe it’s just too hot to bother speaking in longer sentences.


Another one – “I will be right back” is said “I’m coming” (they haven’t even left yet!) – Maybe I am not used to hearing “I’m coming” in public places, is all….

If something is good, it’s “good”. But, if something is better, it’s “more better”. Using the word “now” gets things done sometime within the next 24 hours. If you need something immediately, you have to aks for “NOW NOW”. You should see us use it within the expat community. Niels said yesterday: “We are leaving now, are you coming along?” The first thing I said was: “Are you leaving now or now-now?” It does have the desired effect though; using it gets things done, well, now now.

Lenka Beňová, utorok 1. marca 2005 14:09


Čítajte viac: http://benova.blog.sme.sk/c/4039/Nigerian-English.html#ixzz0aPhtu6SX

@Knowall
The article clearly stated that Obi was the first to arrive before he left.

I have just read the article again, what he even did is even worse than comming late, What is a sitting Governor doing going back and forth, in a discussion forum, dont u know each time he stands-up, up to 20 to 30 men will stand up with him and they will all leave the hall only to come back and yet repeat the same silly sequence again. Was he trying to intimidate Soludo or Ngige I dont get it.

*smiles*
@poster,
u get mouth


It is something to celebrate, Mubarak has being President for almost 20 years yet fear no go let am spend more than a week outside his country, same thing Cmporore of Burkina-faso the Ghost of his friend will come and hunt him if he dares to spend a few days outside his country.

Meanwhile our Yaradua is enjoying the best hospitality the Saudi's are ready to give him with no cares in the world. It is really worth celebrating.

Hey man, a point of correct here! Because, I've seen many people keep making this mistake I feel its time it's corrected.

I noticed most Nigerians have no understanding of the of directions on the compass otherwise known as the Cardinal point as a result, don't understand Nigerian map and locations of their respective States, Towns and Villages on it hence, the mistakes.

By definition, the Cardinal Point is: One of the four principal directions on a compass: North, South, East and West.

Evidently, school geography teaches us this but I understand not many of us got there or learned that at school. Yes, in Geography we have Four Cardinal Points: North, South, East and West and anything in between these points are referred to as:

North East, North West, South East, South West.

It irritates me when I see people referring to the South as South South because that's where I come from.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SOUTH SOUTH instead, one could say FURTHER SOUTH OR FAR SOUTH.

Yes, if we are talking in Pigeon English everyone would understand and no offence but when you are speaking or writing simple English, it's another thing. Please can we deviate from spreading or contaminating innocent minds with bad grammar and sentences since Nairaland is an educative/informative medium.


Yes there is A South - South geographical Zone. It means South of the the South or deep south which is commonly used in America to descibe areas just south of New Orleans. So lady Bayelsa and Rivers State qualify for these Geographical expression, Delta is to the West of the deep south and Cross River and Akwa Ibom ARE to the East. The SE as it is Known in Nigeria is actually East Central hence the old EASTERN Igbo States where called East Central State.

The correct nomenclature for these areas should be as thus :

Rivers and Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom - SSE
Delta and Southern Ondo Statw - SSW

Cross River is the true SE states as it tucked in the SE Corner of the map of Nigeria as suppose to the Igbo States of Imo,Abia Enugu,Anambra and Ebony State. It may intrest u to kow Cross River State use to be SEastern State after the state creation exercise of 1967.

These terms would be a mouthful, hence for easy expression and understanding the term SS is commonly used to include both the SSW and SSE.


See compass map below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brosen_windrose.svg

@Jaybee

You know the truth but u are just being economical with it,


If teachers and Civil servants can afford to travel on holidays on their Salaries in the early 80’s and cannot do now, don’t u think something is not right here. We are still producing the oil we were producing back then, yet the Nigerian people has being short-changed no government anywhere would do this injustice to her citizens. When Soludo muted the idea of re-denominations of the Naira, he knew that there is no reasons and justification why the FG or State Governments are paying their staffs those horrible wages.

At the time Nigeria had $52 billion in reserve, so he decided to go about it through the back door by revaluing the Naira through the re-denomination scheme but the Yardua administration kicked against it. Yet it is ok to pay lawmakers N40 million a year.

the poor would remain poor

Even in the good old days of Udoji award there were poor people and there was a thriving middle class.

1+1=2  that cannot be the basis to unnecessarily increase expenditure


If we dont spread it amongst 25 to 30 million civil servants, 1 man will put everything in his pocket and that is wrong.  

Seriously what's your profession?
Are u making assumption that CPI & PPI will stay stagnant to be able to predict them kinda figures you are chuning out?
Do you know if we going to have negative growth or stagflation?

I suggest you go and read basic economics. Google is your friend remember.
Get informed



This country can afford it,

1. Our Legislators are the highest paid in the world for a developing nation, this is an anomaly that needs urgent correction.


2. Our Central Bank was a able to find a phoney N600 billion to bail out banks that were not distressed in the first place.  Yet no Inflation.


3. There is no reasons why it should not be implemented straight away except for the uproar it will cause, hence staggered implementation. To be sincere the earlier they get to that figure N200,000.00 the better. The 10 year I mentioned in my earlier post my be too late making the gains to be eroded by inflation

4. The reason why Abuja is the most expensive real estate city in Africa after Luanda is because u have about 600 people each armed with N40 million chasing scarce goods and services in the city. Not taking the ministers are other government officials into account .

5. The country is a Rich and wealthy country. If one man can be found guilty of embezzling $580 Million dollars, God knows how many have got away with it we might as well add these huge sums of money lying about to our under paid workers to give them liveable wages.


6. Since the Naira got devalued by 1,500% in the mid eighties wages have not being adjusted to reflect this devaluation.

what u are talking about is still a mostly private sector based project. . .

lagos state govt,will not construct the rail lines,or design it or make the steel and so on. . .

perhaps they will supervise. . .now what we have is public-private partnership,which is all good

there is nothing wrong with that,but it is not what u were saying before


I am still saying the same thing Nigeria as a nation should pay N200,000.00 as the minimun wage. But this figure will not be in one swoop, it will be staggered like the UK Minimum rate. They can start with N50,000 and in 2 years time add another 20,000.00 until we get to the promise land which is N200,000.00.

They should strive to get to this figure within a 10 year period otherwise it gets eroded by inflation which is low at the moment.

In terms of jobs creation, Im not sure this is a difficult problem. People don't work at civil service because there is no work to do.

Look at the Lagos State civil service, they have had to start working because the Governor has given them work to do. Infact, they have hired more people.
If governors for instance, spend more time on capital projects like road construction and engage the civil service in these capital projects, there will be more work to do.
I can suggest more capital projects for states if thats the problem. The money they are using to buy cars for people to use as cabs will do more for the people if they use them for other useful things.


I agree with u ,

There is a new office for the train projects, I have a few friends who left london and are now working on the Lagos light rail project- Fashola has created jobs for these people, by creating jobs u stimulate the economy which interprets to more taxes for the govt in other climes, I am not sure if the interpretation is the same in Nigeria.

All I can say is, it is a good and the right step to take if one wants to resusitate a depressed economy like ours.

dont think anybody in nigeria makes N10,000 per annum,when last did u go home?. . .thats N833 a month. .  .

as for public sector employment thats where me and u dis-agree,public sector workers are usually,lazy,unproductive and a drain on the economy. . .the less the better


Do u know what public sector employees entails

1. Civil Servant

2. The Army, Navy and Airforce

3. Police Force

5. Immigration Officers

6. Customs Officers

7. Prisons Officers

8. In Nigeria Uni Lecturers,

9. FG Teachers

10. States and FG Court officials

11. LG Workers in the UK COUNCIL WORKERS

12. Lastma and other State officials like the ones sweeping the Streets

13. AIRPORT OFFICIALS IN Nigeria they are paid by the FG

14. Sea Ports diffrent from customs and Naval officers

15. Liason officers of the different States

16. Emabassies abroad.

17. EFCC

18. ICPC

19. CBN

20. Some members of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

21. And so on and so forth , I cant continue

d guy just dey pluck out figures from outter space jare.


The problem with most of us is that we think Nigeria is a poor country. For your information it aint.

The govenors dont want to creat jobs because they feel, there would be nothing left in the pot for them. What they fail to realise is by creating jobs, the state can generate more income from taxes on salaries are other indirect taxation like VAT.

nigeria already has a minimum wage so whats the problem again. . .

as for increasing the so called pay for public sector. .do u want the whole annual budget to be consumed by re-current expenditure?. . .cause thats what will happen


Any Economy that is worth its salt should employ 10 % of its population in public sector. Nigeria should have a least N25 to 30  Million employed as public sector workers. In the UK the figure is 6 million considering most tasked performed have being computerised, in Nigeria most task are still done manually hence the 25 to 30 million figure will not be far from the truth.

So WHAT IS THE Minimun rate in Nigeria done tell me N10.00 PER Hour, I know meh-guards and house boys still get N10,000 per annum that is slave labour and the perpetuators should be arrested and locked up.

my friend am a son of no senator,i could care less what a senator does in abuja

however,i care that my senator is not easily bought with measly amounts of money

so pay them well,and leave it at that. . .thats why u had monetization by obnasanjo. . .all these idea of accommodating govt workeres and all that leads to corruption
pay them let everyone find their level

as for u quoting what a driver makes in london. . .u have not told us he pays nearly 50% of that in taxes. . .

what tax does a danfo driver pay in lagos?,

secondly i am against anything that distorts price discovery especially in the private sector

u cannot come and dictate to me what i will pay my workers,and expect me to then come and open a business in that state

that is madness,and no-one would have employed the so called hypothetical bus driver in the first place



This minimum pay is for public sector pay. That is both state and fed workers plus other government agencies like police, Immigration Officers e.t.c

With the private sector a minimum rate will be set by the FG, in which it will be spelt out to any would be employer, u cannot pay any worker below a certain amount per hour.

In England it is about £5.70 per hour. In Nigeria it could be ¼ of this amount considering Nigeria is still a growing economy which will be about £1.40 per hour or N350 per Hour. This amount should be reviewed as the economy expands

I hope you know that's just the salary.
The average allowance they claim is £118000 per annum.



Give Nigerians 20% of the official Salary of Senator of N1,900,000.00 most Nigerians will be happy. forget about the allowances.

Jonathan's stats now 5,250,000


I think by highlighting this fact more Nigerians and visitors to NL have gone on line to verify the authenticity of this figure.

stop comparing a senator in abuja to a bus driver in lagos. . .it will not work,

we must not encourage any socialist policy in nigeria. . .go to indonesia and see how its done

market forces fix wages,if u are skilled enough u will get paid. . .

also we have a huge informal sector. . .who sets the wage of a plumber,or trader,or panel beater?

its a slippery slope,i dont care to thread



It is either u a son of Senator or one of our numerous jobless senators who is trying to justify the huge money u are getting from the FG. Even in England using the lower figure of proudlyNja of £11,500.00 per annum. An English MP only gets about £68,000.00 per annum that is 5 times the lowest briton using £11,500.00 as a benchmark. There is no justification for our Legislators getting what they presently getting.

In other climes the more difficult the job the more the pay. Compare what a under-ground train driver gets £40,000.00 per annum a London Bus driver roughly £25,000.00 to £30,000.00 PER ANNUM. There is no reasons why a well run bus company in Lagos should not pay their drivers good pay no reason whatever.

What's the average cost of renting a comfortable property where they are required to reside?
Cost of yearly transportation?
Cost of paying salary for their respective employees?
et al


I have already answered that in my earlier post, If they cannot transport themeslves to their constiency, then they should forget the job, millions will be ready to fill the post with even lesser money.

I will however expect the FG to provide a permanent quarters for the legislators thus.