I've been in Toronto for a few years now. Schooled and now work here.

Been checking this thread intermittently and it's interesting to see how it has morphed.

Happy to be of help to newcomers who need help/advise navigating and settling in. Can't help with immigration, visa et al. - not familiar with that. Can only advise folks already here. Feel free to inbox me.

Good game, but clearly Chelsea wasn't firing on all cylinders.

That was Ramires' worst game ever. Forget the red card. The guy didn't win any tackles, didn't hold possession, attempted only one surging run that was quelled by Robben. At half time, I was wishing JM would sub Ramires or the equally pedestrian Lampard for Mikel.

That Ramires-Lampard thing is clearly not working. Maybe it might be effective against weaker teams.

Hopefully, Mikel is not loaned out because no other chelsea MF has his presence, calmness and dexterity.

I'm a CFC fan but not smitten that we lost. For one, I think we were too passive in this game.

Just curious - why do most Nigerian celebs like to hold 1-2 phones in their hands everytime?

I don't think I've seen this anywhere else. Is this peculiar to Nigeria?

I don't think emigration would solve it oh. On the contrary, immigration from those folks in Niger simply strolling into those Northern states would worsen it. Can't those folks pass for hausa people.

I think the birth rate outpaces the death rate by a large margin, maybe 2-1.

Yes, in 40 years Nigeria's population, currently estimated to be ~170mm is expected to surpass USA's (~320m).

While 40 years might appear to be far off, I imagine most Nairalanders would still be very much around. And kicking hard. So this affects all of us.

Personally, I find this very troubling. Firstly, our land mass is smaller than Texas'. Where would be house a population twice our current size? I can't imagine the effect on our environment and strain on whatever little infrastructure we currently have, and building. Lagos is already bursting at its seams. I read about some beggars being deported to Onitsha about a week ago. Is this the beginning of a long-term, but perhaps necessary, trend?

More troubling is that by then crude oil wouldn't be trading at $100+, if at all. It's foreseeable that there will already be an alternative by that time. How will our Government function?? Even more troubling is the fact that our child enrolment numbers are among the poorest, globally. Imagine the implication of having a large and most illiterate population.

Would it be out of place for Government to start enforcing birth controls like in China where folks were restricted to just a child/family? Apparently, this worked for them to keep their population in check. On the flip side, this has led to stunted population growth and their workforce shrunk, for the first time ever, last year. While children are definitely bundles of joy, is it fair to sire an inordinate number of them recklessly?

Quite frankly, I think this is a serious issue, and at the very least, it should be placed and debated on NL's front page.

Interesting posting.

I've been a big fan of the International Devt space as well, and would consider switching. My background is accounting/finance (Masters in Finance) and work experience is limited financial advisory roles. I've even considered taking a second masters degree in Intl Devt, or Economics. But in reality, degrees don't really guarantee jobs - or do they?

Applied for a number of roles on WB, ADB websites in the past and didn't get any traction there.

Any ideas on how someone with a pure finance background could break into this space?

Thanks folks!

Quite interesting.. firstly, I must commend the OP for such an excellent write-up.

This is the predicament in which we find ourselves, and I don't think it might improve anytime soon.

>50% of Nigeria's population is <30 years old. We are breeding millions of potential suicide bombers, kidnappers, thieves and thugs. Most of these folks are uneducated, or have crappy education. At this rate, what would we look like in 20 years??

Where are the jobs to engage these millions in the coming years. Worse still, what if our oil dries up soon or an alternative to oil is found sooner than we expect?

There is a saying about the rich - poor. The poor man cannot sleep because he is hungry. The rich man can only sleep with one eye open because the poor man is awake.

Sadly, when the time comes - armoured vehicles, 20 feet fences, armies of security guards etc wouldn't suffice to secure the rich.

Interesting topic, as I happen to be have been away myself for a couple of years.

For everyone who has the chance, I think it is a great idea to live abroad, experience other cultures and generally see the world. Simply makes you a well-rounded individual.

This would only make sense, and be enjoyable, if you have your papers. No point playing hide-and-seek with Immigration if you are a young, educated person.

From my perspective, a major reason to return would be to make a difference. Employ my education/experience/exposure to make a difference in Naija. There is so much opportunity in Naija.

About time, these guys took their eyes off the ball.
Apple, Samsung and the Android folks have blown past them big time. RIM's share of the US market is down to about 6%.
On the upside, RIM continues to grow in emerging economies like Nigeria and Singapore (not sure, some country where there was a stampede for blackberries recently).

But the RPU of these markets don't compare to the US market.

Isn't it interesting how CEOs of multinationals in advanced economies are expats?
The new RIM CEO is German. Similarly, Nokia's CEO is Canadian.

Where would be RIM be in 3 years? Thoughts, anyone?

Interesting post,

I guess the main benefit of the HBS MBA would be the life-long connections.

Like other posters have rightly noted, a lot depends on the finances of the OP, and where s/he wants to work post-MBA. Also, if the OP doesn't have any experience in IB/Finance/Consulting, the MBA might be like Bosoms on a hog

From my perspective, it clearly doesn't make sense to throw 40m @ an MBA, and begin an uncertain job-search after.

I'd rather trade/invest, then consider doing an MBA thereafter. Heck! HBS aint even #1 these days,

PS. I think those folks masquerading as HBS grads with their 1 wk certificates are clowns. Those programs are excellent, but no one in the west puts those on their profile/resume,

Sad to hear this happen.

Clearly, there is more to this saga than meets the eyes. As noted above, I'd expect the risk guys at GTB to have gone over their prospects
with a fine comb.

I might be mistaken - but I think I began to have serious doubts about HITV's mgt years ago when I visited a friend, and saw that
an HITV employee - a senior engineer or something- had a range rover as his official car. And then range was like 15m+.

Maybe they didn't do a good job of creating / acquiring quality content (outside of the EPL). And of course, losing the EPL was a death knell,

Interesting post. Its a tough call. But looking back now, its hard to see any past leader who outperformed OBJ's 99-2007 years - given the circumstances. He had several issues - conflicts of interests, corruption in his Govt etc. but give it to him. He had quite remarkable achievements as well - GSM, Debt cancellation, substantial FDI, and most importantly Security. Boko Haram wouldn't have flourished under OBJ. Never!

It pains me to concede that OBJ has performed all past - and current - leaders.


Without a shadow of a doubt. But expect the sheep in 3-2-1, they'll start bleating as usual, without any proof beyond the same old tired rubbish, Odi (soldiers were killed, their colleagues retaliated), power (sabotaged by the Northern power clique, led by Yar'Adunce), $16b spent on power (debunked time and again by people who know better), power probe (the man replied, they scattered, turned out it was a shake-down, led by the lead investigator himself, with the approval of Yar'Adull).Obasanjo almost single handedly squelched apartheid and negotiated Mandela's freedom (says Margaret Thatcher), sent the military back to the barracks and kept them there, got rid of the odious debt inherited from idiots like IBB, Shagari and Abacha, brought back the dead middle class, sorted out telecoms, strengthened the banks, got us R-E-S-P-E-C-T from the international community, so tey even Gaddhafi, who intimidated Abacha in this same Nigeria with his guards, was made to behave himself by small Fani-Kayode!!He put our aboki friends in their place, and demystified them completely, freeing the Middle-Belt and Nigeria as a whole from their grip in the process. He almost single handedly installed Jonathan with that famous statement to the comatose but concealed Yar'Adua that the cabal was using to torment all of us:"Yar'Adua should do the honorable thing and resign"! That's the statement that set off the noisemakers like awon Save Nigeria, and gave Dora Akunyili the courage to set the chain of events rolling that would eventually see Jonathan installed as Acting President. First time a Southern Minority, first time an Ijaw Man, the people feeding Nigeria with their oyel, would become President!!!Stopped Atiku, IBB and the murderous Buhari dead in their tracks with some correct political maneuvering that left them dazed and gasping for breath. They're still gasping!!On top of it all, the man still actually works as a farmer, daily!!! At his age, !! IBB, the younger man, has ALL his(our) money abroad in France, servicing the comatose French economy, instead of bringing it back here to help our own economy.Atiku is busy collecting mansions all over the world. If it's not Potomac, it's Dubai. Buhari is busy building a private Boko Harmy and bomb us all to death, all this while Obasanjo feeds the nation!!Yes indeed. Obasanjo IS without a shadow of a doubt, the most influential, powerful, patriotic, detribalised African alive today.

@mimi234 - feel free to drop me a few lines before you commence your Queen's application.
Maybe I could give you a tip or two.
Laajman@yahoo.ca

How do you switch to Legacy mode?
That defending thing can be annoying - I haven't played the thing more than a few times since I bought it in Sept.

Interesting topic.

The benefits of credit, if properly managed, could be amazing.

Firstly, we must admit that Nigeria is afflicted with the vicious circle of poverty.
Low income -- low savings -- low investments -- low income,

While we might argue that Nigeria is a cash economy, we are gradually evolving. Its interesting to note that most employees
with blue-chip employers take consumer loans from the banks.

But its harder to grant loans to individuals in the informal sector - simply because you can't track term.

I can't imagine how the average graduate who has an average job would ever own a house in Nigeria is we don't address the mortgage issue.
A credit system is founded on savings- longterm savings. Hopefully, our burgeoning pension system would address this.

We can argue that credit has almost crashed the global economy. No - it was greed. The credit system worked well for decades and greed has caused the problems we see.

I stand to be corrected - We simply can't have a middle class, and in effect grow our economy, without credit.

I'd focus on the bright side of this story.
Not necessarily the movie, or its quality or lack thereof.

That Nollywood is being premiered and shown at local Cinemas is definitely a good sign.
Finally, Nollywood is picking a few tricks from Hollywood,

@Delta007:

If you're looking at a Masters in Finance/Economics, I'd suggest:
- U of Toronto's Master of Financial Economics; and Master of Mathematical Finance. The Masters of Finance @ Rotman, UofT, is pretty expensive and most competitive. Depending on your exp, you may stand a chance.
- Queen's Business School- Master of Finance - based in Toronto
- Wilfried Laurier - Master of Finance - also based in Toronto.

You'd have to check their respective website for details.

Keep me in the loop/questions - Laajman@yahoo.ca

Its hard to fault BRF's argument about redistributing wealth- although I can't imagine how much
traction they'd get from this given the scale- 72 apartments. I'd expect that BRF explores more viable means of raising funds for mass housing.

Given that BRF seems bent on "redistributing wealth" a great idea would be property taxes - and I don't mean
those tenement rates collected by LCDAs.Developed cities do this eg. Toronto levies an annual tax of ~1-2% of the property value on all residential properties.

Imagine how much LASG could make from this. Using a very conservative estimate of N1Trillion as the value of residential properties in "Gidi, that would amount to ~10b, which can be deployed towards cheaper mass housing.
Rich folks in Lagos don't taxes anyway, might as well catch them via their properties.

Just my $0.02 - LASG might already be working on something like this. I'd leave it to Eko_Ile and his ilk to enlighten us,

Does anyone have any idea what a written test for the big law firms might entail?

Thanks in advance!

@Freezy
Its amazing how these banks are being picked for kobos on the naira. Similarly, Access is offering 1 for 7 Intercontinental shares. I think this translates to about 60k for each In'continental shares.

Come to think of it, shouldn't the real assets of those banks (properties etc) be worth more than these kobos they are being traded for?

Nigeria, we hail thee!

The Verdict According to Olusegun Adeniyi. Email, olusegun .adeniyi@thisdaylive.com


Bash Ali: Godsday, we included in the budget the fight and land cost for the 9 sports academies in Nigeria with 3 of your directors at the meeting. And I have always told you that this GWR fight must be done TRANSPARENTLY because apart from the honour and glory that it will bring to Nigeria, there is a lot of PPV fight money which we can all benefit from. Is doing a TRANSPARENT business at your ministry a fake thought that calls for the examination of my head? What happened to the money that was included in the budget? Did you divert it?

Orubebe: I thought you were reasonable but had to withdraw because I realized you are not coordinated, you have a loose and porous mind set and living in the air. (April 23, 2011)

Bash Ali: You withdrew and sent me back to the NSC because I insisted on a TRANSPARENT deal and now have the audacity to insult me. This is the second time you have said I am living in the air for believing a TRANSPARENT deal can be done at your ministry in particular and Nigeria in general. Do you know that out of 150 million Nigerians, I am one out of less than 5,000 Nigerians that have a national honour, do you know that I am an officer of the Order of the Niger, OON?

Orubebe: OON, a disgrace. I will ensure that you are removed from the honours list. I promise you that. (April 24, 2011)
Bash Ali: That is an empty talk. I got my OON on merit, so a million Godsday cannot take it away. Why are you preventing me from doing more great things for Nigeria and getting the highest national honour possible? Why? Must corruption always win?
Orubebe: There will be no room for your apology and begging when we set up government without you. (April 28, 2011)
Bash Ali: Godsday, it is you that must apologise and beg me to forgive you for being rude and talking trash. Set up government without me? What a joke!! If I am a fool for insisting that the boxing deal must be TRANSPARENT then I don’t want to be wise and above all, I gave Jonathan my mandate, not Godsday.

Orubebe: Big fool. Why can’t you stop deceiving yourself? I am sorry for your children and family for having a silly father who does not understand the times. (July 9, 2011)

Bash Ali: Godsday, does understanding the times mean you have to be corrupt? I was just thinking, why can’t we do a TRANSPARENT business where we can all come out WINNERS? Let us contribute our quota to make Nigeria great, please. Let us help our brother, Jonathan to succeed, please.

Orubebe: It’s like you are in love with Orubebe, remove shame and come, I will forgive you and teach you to be a responsible man like me. (July 10, 2011)

Bash Ali: I cannot be in love with a man who has an arid vision for Nigeria. What shame? And forgive me for insisting on a TRANSPARENT business? Does being corrupt make a man like you responsible? I feel sorry for Nigerians, Jonathan.
Orubebe: Your foolishness has made you not to know that this is the man that can bail you out of your blindness and frustration. Time is clicking. Don’t make me change my mind again. (July10, 2011)

Bash Ali: You are the foolish and blind man who wants to continue to steal from government because you are in power. I will never again deal with you unless I get instruction from Jonathan. You are right, time is clicking because very soon, I will lead a revolution that will remove corrupt people like you from government and if I die in the process, nothing can be more redemptive.
Orubebe: How can you be afraid to die when you have nothing to offer to Nigeria? (July 10, 2011)

Bash Ali: I have contributed more to the betterment of Nigeria than you. I have spent millions of Naira to promote sports and NEVER asked government for a kobo despite being frustrated by a corrupt man like you.
Orubebe: Come and take one very small contract to survive (July 13, 2011)
Bash Ali: Give the very small contract to survive to your corrupt friends in government.
Orubebe: If you are a fool at this age, am sorry for your children and family. I will tell your children to deny you. Big FOOL. (July 15, 2011)

Bash Ali: From your action and text messages, you have shown Jonathan that he made a big mistake by appointing an  like you as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A revolution is coming and it will sweep you out of office.
Orubebe: It’s like you have no job. I would have taken you as an aide but you don’t have the brains. Sorry, too bad. Yours is a hopeless case. (July 15, 2011)

Bash Ali: I am a world boxing champion and a national honour holder but your corrupt government has made me jobless, frustrated and hopeless but my brain is intact for a REVOLUTION that would remove you from office. Mark my word.
Orubebe: I thought your head was getting normal. Oh sorry, I have volunteered to take you to Uselu at my own cost to bring you to normalcy. Foolish man, silly man, crazy man, nuisance to society. Waste to our generation. Uselu is your rightful home. (Sept 1, 2011)

The foregoing is an abridged version of the text messages between Niger Delta Minister, Elder Godsday Orubebe and renowned boxing champion, Bash Ali beginning from April until the first week of this month. It was first published last Thursday in The Nation newspaper with an accompanying interview by my friend and one of Nigeria’s best reporters, Yusuf Alli, who spoke with both Orubebe and Bash Ali. The text messages speak volume about the character and temperament of our senior public office holders and help to explain why Wikileaks reports (of US diplomatic cables) about our country have been so damaging.

Now, what is the story behind this altercation? Even without any investigation, I have an idea about what happened because it is a familiar tale. Since the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Bash Ali has been writing any and every Nigerian president that he wants to stage a Guinness book of World Record fight in the country on the basis of the old age which he touts. Whenever a president gets that letter, he minutes it to an appropriate ministry while a standard courtesy letter is written to Bash Ali to liaise with the ministry. With that letter, woe betides whoever he is directed to meet. Of course most officials who get the letter don’t place much premium on it but once you have been unlucky to have given audience to Bash Ali, then you are in trouble. I know many officials who have unpleasant tales to tell after meeting him.

While I am almost certain that is also the experience of Orubebe, what the exchanges show is the immaturity of our officials because not only is the language deployed by the Minister in his text messages shameful, he also should have seen how Bash Ali was cleverly leading him on in the conversation. Consistently, Bash Ali was reinforcing the charge of corruption against Orubebe who was all the while abusing the man oblivious to the fact that in this information age, he was unwittingly putting himself on record without even dismissing the allegation. Now that Ali has put the text messages in the public domain I will not be surprised if one Polsec (whatever that means) at the American embassy writes a despatch to say Nigerian Minister demands bribe to stage boxing tournament!

In their piece, ‘How Public Officials Can Avoid E-Mail and Texting Liability Landmines’, Patrick J. Harvey and Ballard Spahr warned that public officials should always assume that all e-mails and mobile telephone text messages will eventually become public and that they should never use a text message to rant unless the person is ‘comfortable with it being printed in his/her local newspaper or enlarged on a poster board in court as a litigation exhibit’.

But our public officials have not learnt any lesson in what they put down in writing and what they say some of which is now coming back to haunt many of them given the expose of the United States diplomatic cables that Wikileaks has put in the public arena. The more I read the cables emanating from the American embassy in Nigeria the more I realise the damage that our officials have done to the image of the country. Now, there are two variants to the cables published by Wikileaks. Some despatches were based on the ‘information’ independently sourced by the officials which were not credited to any sources and then there were those based on the subtle debriefing of our important personalities and public officials. The latter is what I am concerned about because from what transpired in most cases, it would seem these officials just let loose without realising they were being recorded.

The main reason why many of our officials become unguarded and irresponsible when discussing corruption in our country with foreign dignatories is to put on a self-righteous image so as to present themselves as saints. It is then no surprise that whenever you see a top Nigerian official in the midst of Western diplomats and he or she is asked a simple question as to what challenge our nation is facing, the instant response would be ‘corruption’. It doesn’t matter that the person speaking could have houses all over the world and be sitting atop stupendous wealth that cannot be explained. As we can glimpse from the wikileak reports, almost all the officials encountered by the diplomats pointed the finger of corruption at others except themselves.

Incidentally, we are a nation where every official from local government to the presidency is ‘fighting corruption’ yet questions remain as to who actually is doing the corruption. In my piece published on October 1 last year to mark Nigeria’s 50th Independence anniversary, I made allusion to this disposition by Nigerian officials and to illustrate my point I used the African folklore of three famished brothers eating from the same plate of food not enough to satiate their hunger. Apparently losing out in the game of greed, the first brother remarked but to no one in particular: ‘you are eating too fast’. To this the second brother responded: ‘so you saw him’.  The third brother completed the farce: ‘That was exactly what I wanted to say’!

That kind of posture accounts for most of the negative things we now read about our country based on Wikileaks reports but if there is any lesson that we can learn it is that officials can no longer afford to be careless with information, and that goes with what they say and what they put down in writing. Letting down their guards and allowing themselves to be used as spies just because they were invited to a cocktail by a clerical staff at the American embassy just shows the character of most of our public officials. But the reason many sold themselves and the nation cheap was because they never in their wildest imagination thought that what they said in secret would ever be out in the open. How naïve they were!

I hope we have all learnt sufficient lessons from the Wikileaks saga as to how we should comport ourselves when discussing with foreigners just as I believe Orubebe would also have taken note that in this information age, every careless and irresponsible text message will one day be accounted for. And the price for that could be very high.

Whatever happened to Mikel?
Is he simply injured, or does it mean he doesn't even stand a starting chance?

Did anyone see the Meireles pass that lead to the Sturridge goal?
Mikel hasn't simply been doing enough of that,

It'll be interesting to hear from all the posters on this thread, especially Constantin.
Its been about five years. Please share your experiences, and thoughts- now that you have the benefit of hindsight,

Additionally, a lot has happened since 2006. What would be your decision today "Re: Should I Return To Nigeria To Work?"

Why don't use answer you Qs by yourself, and we can take it from there,

1. He was very good at what he did, and this brought him global fame.
2. He stood up for/stood against corrupt leaders,

His personal life - wives, weed et al, shouldn't really be any of our business.

We should learn to appreciate our own.

I'm in a class in North America, and get talking with the white dude next to me. He finds out I'm Nigerian and boom, his first question: "do you know Fela?". Turns out he is a big fan.
Similarly, I've come across folks reading Chimamanda, "Things Fall Apart",

I even met a uk boy who chose to go to school in Bolton (as opposed to Univ. of Manch.) so he could see Okocha play regularly!

Too much emphasis has been placed on the mathematical possibility of scoring a 4.99 gpa.
In developed countries, scoring a 1st class is not an issue. It's just the backward-thinking mentality of our lecturers that make them delibrately fail students.

I attended a state uni, and the lecturers in the dept were happy to boast that in about 18 years of the dept's existence, no one had finished with a first class. It was even clear that they were not eager to "allow" anyone finish with a 1st anytime soon.

Rather than argue about Fed/State/Pvt university comparisons, I'd submit that all these universities are guilty of not providing the our graduates with the relevant skills to move Nigeria forward.

Like Seyi42K mentioned, how would talent like this be best deployed to advance Nigeria's future?

That, my friends, is the key issue.

I simply don't understand why some Nigerians are just outright lazy.
As if our infamous reputation with the 419 thing is not damaging enough, a sizeable number of
Nigerians abroad are happy to live off welfare, and drive flashy cars.

They'd concoct all manners of lies and deceit to remain on welfare. Why are they so short-sighted, and
unambitious?

It pains me when I hear how those ZA guys are just having our lunch.

Its even shuddering what someone mentioned earlier "yet the combined turnover of these 4 banks at N762 billion is almost the same as 10 yrs old MTN Nigeria's at N749 billion".
A $5bb company in 10 years? Wow! Imagine all that money leaving our shores for ZA.

Well, we cant exactly blame banks. Their deposit base is largely short-term, and they'd be foolish to mismatch this with infra investments.
For crying out loud, Nigeria's pension now have close to 1Trillion. This is perfect for infrastructure investments.

And to think that those ZA guys have bought UAC too,

I just left a public hospital in Toronto, and was awed by the roll call, which shows names of individuals/institutions that
have made charitable donations.

On a broader level, Charities are a big deal. They are run by professionals and employ a sizeable number of people.Obviously, they are funded by donations from individuals/institutions. This is one reason why these folks keep advancing. These charities fund scholarships, research, all for the common good.Something struck me yesternight while watching a group of arab demonstrators on tv.

There is so much unrest in the world today- especially in the Middle East where there are so many young people living in deplorable conditions and have no jobs. The gap between the rich and poor keeps widening. About 10% of the world's wealthiest control 90% of the wealth. Its a similar situation in Nigeria.

It also amazing how "underdeveloped" Charity is in Nigeria. We've got so many wealthy folks who can make a huge difference in their communities.

Is it an african thing to enjoy in the midst of so much poverty and suffering?

@Ajanlekoko: you've captured it all.

i-banking is basically is customer facing role. While you'd be expected to be grounded on the technicals, what would count
really would be your social skills- poise, leadership skills, relationship management, and invariably, your accent.
As an african, who grew up in africa, to break in you'd need to go to the right schools and network like a ninja.
For those in Europe, a second language would be helpful too.

For jobs in i-banking, the thing is those guys recruiting you have to be extremely comfortable with you because they'd end up
spending more time with you at work, than with their family.

Martinosi- congrats on your Goldman Sachs (GS) experience.

Apparently, you haven't heard of GS Infrastructure Partners; a fund set up to invest in Infra projects.

Thats besides the point anyway. It doesnt have to be GS who makes the investments.
The point is for the Minister to create the enabling environment. Clearly, Nigeria needs massive investments in
Infra, amongst other things.