Well said. I don’t know why we Christians & Muslims alike walk with a ”chip on our shoulders" thinking that our religions are the only true ways. With the way we worship God in this country one cannot reconcile our lack of morals which should be the keystone of any religion. I come from Anambra State and I support this if this will end kidnapping that has made us "run away" from our home towns. I am a christain but I also believe in the ways of our ancestors who were not morally bankrupt like our "modern day born-again christains" who pray for protection & success from GOD before they steal, rob, embezzle, kidnap, cheat, lie, kill, etc……………………………………..

Brilliance9000:

[b]Why do people always doubt a belief system that predates Christianity and Islam? Do you all think our ancestors were that foolish to have worshiped these gods? These gods date back to thousands of years, we are talking about 10,000+ yrs before the arrival of Christianity and Islam. 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of Nigerians have no clue how Christianity and Islam came to Africa...I'm sadden to say this but have to. How could God bring a religion to us by the same people that enslaved, and drowned our forebears en route to the New world....over 1 million of our forebears perished in the Atlantic. I'm not asking you to disbelieve or disabuse yourself of modern religion...NO, all I 'm saying is, learn to REASON AND THINK.

Have you observed that the more educated one becomes, the less they think of or give credence to modern religion? This is not by happenstance, it's because they are thinking more critically and saying...this ain't right. Something is wrong somewhere. I will clarify this for those those nescient Nigerians who see this as fruit of Atheism and Agnosticism....NO it isn't. They still believe there is God but do not believe in unsubstantiated religions....aka Christianity, Islam and many others.
[/b]

@ lafile Nice post. We like easy solutions to our problems in this country. Our policy makers do not display any thought process in formulation & exercution of their policy thrusts. Its as if we sleep walk into these things and this is common in all aspects of our economy (Power, Transportation, etc).

lafile: All they ever think about is ban. Ban this, ban that. Ban okada, ban importation of rice etc. It never occurs to them that the things they are banning came into existence to meet a need. And as long as the need remains, these things will not go away even if you ban them. Think of creating alternatives and make the things you want to ban undesirable and they will just go away. Naija Govt people just think. Oops! Thinking is beyond their capabilities. Lets just Ban.

@bobthebuilder99 Nough said When the FG wants to remove fuel subsidy again, I will be the first to support it, so that "the money saved can be used to provide much needed infastructure". I would want to know what the reactions of the so called "intellectuals" & "being tos" like you, and so called oppositions parties like ACN would then say......

By the way for a newspaper of Punch's reputation I am utterly dissapponted with the level of analysis of the dicsussion of this topic on Nairaland. If this is a pointer to their standards of reporting it shows how far off we are in "everything"...............

bobthebuilder99: So many of you are daft beyond belief.

Have you ever asked yourself how a country of 170 million can survive without anyone paying for government services?

Have you ever asked yourself how every other government in the world funds itself?

The answers to those two questions are so obvious that you must be daft if you haven't figured it out. 1. Nigeria has oil. 2. Governments tax, toll, and charge their citizens.

NIGERIANS ARE LIVING LIKE PARASITES. 99% of us PROVIDE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the government, yet we feel entitled to demand things. We are lazy 419'ers living on government welfare. Just like Nigerians all over the world.

If the government is going to provide more services, it MUST make more money. And I am sorry you disgustingly lazy Nigerian, but that means you will have to get off your a** and contribute! Pay the toll and shut your mouth. angry

Even in highly developed New York City all the bridges are tolled. Keep waiting for government handouts like a beggar and I will pay my toll so that Lagos can move forward.

You lazy, arrogant, beggars make my stomach hurt. If oil ran out tomorrow we would all DIE. We are too lazy. Most of us don't know what hard work is. All we know is beg, steal, kidnap, bribe, 419, and get visa to go to Yankee.

Ghana's govt has a 16 billion dollar budget for 24 million people. We only have a 30 billion dollar budget for 170 million! The reason even little Ghana puts our budget to shame is because we DO. NOT. CONTRIBUTE. TO. THE. RUNNING. OF. OUR. OWN. COUNTRY!!!

Yankee and Europe feed us and clothe us, they educate our children, allow us to live in their nations, and they even punish our criminals for us. They chastise us when we misbehave, and they pump our oil out of the ground for us. They even give us a small allowance of AID money so that we can go to the market and buy from Chinko. Are we children? Are we really this daft and weak? Are you really going to sit here and complain about contributing to you own society? Could you walk with your head held high as a man after you impeached a Governor because he asked you to contribute to your fatherland?

Shame on you.
Poverty of the heart and mind is going to kill so many of you dead.

If you were my children I would be looking for something to lash you with.

Your post is so false. Lagos was the former capital of Nigeria. The attraction of populations to Lagos was due to it postion as the administrative & commercial capital of Nigeria at that time. Where did the money for the massive road expansion & other infasturcture development of the 70's & early 80's come from...... The Oil Boom. And to say that Lagos does not rely on oil wealth...... Laughable. The money oiling the financial wheels of Lagos is mainly from where........... Don't belive the Hype the day Oil starts to sell for less than $40 a barrel, which will happpen by the time US, China & Russia fully exploit Shale Gas as well as develop other substitutes, you will understand the term economic linkages in relation to my above comments. Fill free to look it up......

bloggernaija:

Lagos was not built with nigerian wealth. Neither was it built by the federal government . The only contribution of the federal government is to built a few ugly flyovers and third mainland build bridge. Most of he roads were there before. Expanding a road does not make you the builder.
Lagos was built with the wealth of yoruba elites(egbas,ijebus, ilajes,Ibadan ,oyo,Brazilian ,ondos,akokos,ikale and other carribean slave returnee,Lagos island elite ,binis,Dahomeys,Freetown ).lagos importance predates the whiteman because it served as a major port for the evacuation of produce from the thick forest of the yoruba hinterland.
The most recent postitive influence on Lagos was the British .
Lagos wealth has always been there. it generates revenues from it's taxes.
However, Lagos is nt getting any derivation fom the use of it's natural resources(waterways).
Fact:The wealth of Lagos and the western region was used to subsidise other parts of the country before oil.
The wealth of Lagos ,ogunand ondo is still being used to subsidise other laggard parts .
The southwest as a whole is revenue neutral(we contribute our keep). Only the south south can boast of this.

LAGOS WAS ALREADY BUILT UP AND WAS A MODERN CITY BY THE 1920
many of the old 3/4 storey buildings in Lagos island were built before the 1940s

The developments of the 70s ,80s and 90s basically destroyed Lagos. People started immigrating into Lagos in droves . Green sites , public park ,car park were parcelled out and built on and building codes were ignored.
SO GET THAT IN YOUR HEAD. LAGOS WAS NOT DEVELOPED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ?LAGOS WAS NOT BUILT WITH OIL MONEY. EXPANDING ROAD THAT AVE BEEN THERE FOR OVER 100 YEARS AND BUILDING A FEW UGLY FLYOVERS(GOWON) IS NOT BUILDING A PLACE.CITIES LIKE LONDON,PARIS HAVE VERY FEW OF THOSE EYESORES .

@ bloggernaija you are speaking from both side of your mouth. @9gerian made his point aptly.....

There is no difference between toll gates as presented by LSSG and the removal of fuel subsidy as presented by PDP as they are both aimed at generating revenue for so called infastructure. ACN should not call us for protests when it suits them to "fight for the poor".

bloggernaija:

Off point and off topic. The protest against oil subsidy removal was protest against extreme rightwing ideology ,plutocracy ,slavery and colonisation. Every president from IBB , ABACHA,OBJ tried to increase fuel price and faced one protest or the other.
I won't bother you with stories.Have you ever wonder why there is growth without development ? It is not by accident . It was meant to be this way.
GO AND READ ABOUT MILTON FRIEDMAN AND THE DAMAGE HE CAUSED IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD.

It is funny how we are celebrating a "bridge" contracted after 14 years of Democracy and then tolled as dividend of democracy in an area that is flood prone every year, with no proper drainages or flood control mechanisms or "first class hospital" operated by the government within a 10KM radius of the areas covered.

This achievement is celebrated by our leaders who travel abroad and are so to speak more enlightened than us. It is therefore also funny how we are quick to compare ourselves with the big cities of the world like London, Amsterdam. Paris etc. in justifying the need for tolls as necessary if we are to get much needed additional infrastructure. However we than forget to apply the same rule when it come to providing other public services like qualitative education at least at primary & secondary school level, hospitals that can cater beyond malaria & typhoid or fix our pot hole infested roads outside VI, Ikoyi & Ikeja etc via the revenue earned by this state.


It also funny how people in this forum tell “us poor people” to go to hell (or use the alternative which incidentally is also tolled) if we do not like the idea, so that those of us that have the means can enjoy it (someone even compared the charge to the cost of buying a bottle of Coke & Gala which in their opinon is "too cheap" Ignorant & laughable as it may seem), forgetting that we live in a society where the “poor” pay more tax proportionately that the “rich”, and if the source of the wealth of the called rich people are to investigated, most of them will go into hiding due to inability to explain their sources of income as well as the pay the appropriate taxes there-on .

I have no problem with tolls, but charging N250 per trip for a car and up to N400 for some classes of vehicles is shylock. All over the world tolls are used to recover funds spent on building infrastructure over a long period of time say 30 to 40 years. How does the LASG then justify the charge vis a vis the tenure of the PPP for 10 years as contracted.

Governance goes beyond building roads/bridges & tolling. If this is the kind of governance we are shouting and singing praises for. I wonder what will happen if “APC” takes power from the PDP at the federal level.
Note that the Orile- Mile2-Badaagry road will be tolled so those living in that area should gear up.

I read the original write-up too in the punch and I will boldly say it was s directed & senseless attack on the Ibo tradition. The writer obviously lacked any inner understanding his own tradition vis a vis those of the SW where he currently resides and uses as a model for "acceptance". Stigmatization is everywhere and no tribe has fully dealt with it...

My response to you is this.

My term baby factories is used to represent birth of children with reckless abandon, whether it is institutionalised as a trade as seen in the SE or dictated by tradition as seen other parts of the country. In the north a man is allowed to as marry as many wives as he wants, in the process he has as many children as he wants whether he can take care of them or not. In some cases after have 2 or 3 children the women is sent back to her parents (for whatever reason) without any regards to her welfare or those of her offspring. I ask where do these children end-up? ( I will not go into how this has negatively affected and continues to hamper development of their society.) The fact that these kids are not bought and sold is only a reflection of their "value" in the eyes of the society concerned.

I still maintain that no culture accepts premarital pregnancy even in the SW here. It is usually constrained to individuals. I come from the SE and we do not condone it generally. However some people still demand pregnancy as a sign of fertility before marriage. Whether this crystallizes into marriage or nor is another matter entirely.

abdulkayus:


my guy, u lied. U can never found baby factory in d north. Dey dont even knw abt dat.
And also ur assertion dat no tribe encourage pre marital sex is false. In d south west, dey believe in pregnancy b4 marriage and even encourage it. Dat one is rare in south east sha. Bt in d north, dey abhor dat alot. Mind u, am a Yoruba guy, its in south west, u will c where a father will said he will nt accept a bride until she is pregnant for his son. WTF. Jus imagine dat. D rate of preg out of wedlocj in too much in south west cos it has been socially accepted, bt its still been look down upon in d south east and north. In SW, hardly, u will enter any house or compound witout seeing a bastard. Its jus too annoyin cos am frm SW. And d issue of cheatin married men and women in SW is anoda topic reserved for anoda day.

I come for the southeast & I would like to correct some of his insinuations:

1 There is no tribe in this country that has fully dealt with the issues & stigma surrounding the "I want a male child" or childless syndrome. It is therefore wrong to therefore insinuate and generalize that this is the reason behind baby factories in the south east.

2 There is no part of the country where we do not have baby factories. The only difference in the south east is the huge financial inducements that have pushed the illicit trade to new heights. I live in the southwest and the media is always awash with “old” women who claim to have delivered children after protected labour. We have heard of cases where women who go to hospital to deliver are told that their children died and these children are then sold to other people. We also have common cases where 2 or in some cased 3 different women lay claim to a child. The fact that the latest cases in the media is in the south east does not make it only prevalent there. Followers of NTA Newsline for the past 20 years will understand what I am saying. We also hear of churches whose “special calling” is to address couples issue of childlessness here in the south west. Has anybody bothered to investigate these claims??

3. In the southwest where I live we all see cases of abandoned children on a regular basis in refuse dumps, drainages etc, which is a rare occurrence in the south east whose tradition you crucified. With all his explanations about how it is acceptable for a lady to have children out of wedlock, how does he then explain this continued practice?

4. There is no tribe in Nigeria that encourages premarital sex especially, where it leads to pregnancy before marriage. Likewise there is no society in Nigeria that has fully dealt with the stigma meted out to pregnancies out of wedlock. His assertion of the practices in the south west where he lives only tells half the story. Every family that values its reputation no matter where they come from. It is common in all traditions for the families of pregnant single and/or school girls/women to be shielded for the public and sent on “exile” until after childbirth when they return. This does not mean their education stops in most cases , but is done to protect themselves & their children for the “societal” stigma associated with it.
I would like go on and on about his post but it is futile as the writer in my opinion demonstrated a lack of understanding of the issues at hand. It is wrong to compare different traditions and use that as a yardstick for the ills he pointed to. If we start to air all the so called “dirty laundry” of different traditions/tribe we will never move forward.
The problem here is simple. People want children, I expect that we start to address the issue of removing the stigma and roadblocks associated with adoption and put in place a process that will make it legal, open & regulated. That way the issue of baby theft, abandonment & factories (his article) will be holistically addressed, instead of this senseless attack on the tradition of the Ibos.

My 2 cents………………………….

From December 2007 to December 2010 then December 2013. Now it is December 2014. By the time we get into next year they will tell us another story………………….. may be 2020..........

This trend will continue until we collectively demand better governance from our politicians instead of trashing each other at every opportunity we get.

I don't blame them. It is not in their interest for power or any other sector to work in this country as it will stop their rent-seeking activities and divide & rule tactics we followers constantly fall for.

Nigerians cant see beyound their nose in anything they do.

muktar mtt: lol u ppl r. Funny u always call Aboki names dumb,a fool, elitirate, u always say nasty tings abt aboki saying dat aboki doz not knw anyting, but dey d pll holding big force in dis country rulling u offering u job I mean given ur graduate a driven job while most of ur ppl r rushin 4 it wit dere Bsc in any field while u never see any aboki on dat interveiw take a real look at dis who b d real fool or dumbst person here, hahaha stop foolyn ur self ppl aboki dnt pass ur level nd nfing u cn do abt it kiss my aboki ass hahaha so long suckers lol

Well Said. Nigerians have grown so norm that "real" issues no longer matter... and trivialities are what we concern ourselves with

Reptyle:

I think we should concern ourselves with the allegations of corruption and neglect of the people who voted her in as their representative rather the value of the said cars.

Have we become so inured to corruption that stories like this no longer bother us as Nigerians? Most of the comments I have read on this thread almost totally ignored the crux of the story, focusing instead on banalities like whether the cars are exotic or not.

Na wah o!

@ collynzo2 Nice one but have you factored in that of the 110 million active lines in Nigeria the average Nigerian telecoms subscriber has a minimum of 2 lines, in some cases 3 and we discount that number by 50% the "real" number of active phone subscribers amounts to about 55M. This is less than 40% of our population. Even if we discount people under the age of 18 from our population out tele-density is still low. If I may ask if it is so easy to “maintain a phone”, how come we have recharge cards denominations of N100 & N200 and with that we still have promos to recharge and get more specially targeted at low recharge denominations……..

collynzo2: What is the pedigree of action aid as a data reporting institution? Their major reason for disputing the findings of NOI was that most of the respondents were mobile phone users, which suggests that those maintaining mobile phones are living above poverty level as measured by the $1 a day benchmark. Following their logic and the fact that we have over 110 million mobile subscribers in this country which is around 70% of the population. What is your conclusion?

@ Red-Light I would like to ask a few question based on your comments
1 What is the population of people in the over 40 "cities & towns" you highlighted?
2.Compare that poulation to the entire country?
3.Compare your findings to the reports by various population studies done by locally & abroad.

Then we can talk................

@ collynzo2 If you have the basic knowledge of Economics & the inner workings of how a country's economy works along with statistical measurements of economic data you will understand that the report is false even without reading it. It is not rocket science. What is the pedigree of the NOI as a data reporting institution? The fact that agencies use our economic data to attract aid for embezzlement does not make the data false.
Yes my comments reflect my frustration in this country. “A country where you have to know someone who knows another person, who in-turn knows a govt official, before “anything” can be done”.
My comment of average Nigerians is true with due respect to everyone, including myself. If we are to move as a country we should start to “Investigate, Analyse, Think, Document & Solve our problems ” for ourselves. We are yet to get to this level as a people that is why we are still backward 50 years after Independence. The Asians (where our citizens now go to for studies & employment) are no better than us but have left us behind while we still argue whether there is still widespread poverty in the land or not.
The truth is bitter for us to face and confront as a people that is why we remain the way we are.
And for your information I have had opportunities to leave this country but turned them done because they did not meet my criteria/ambition as compared to my current position (Not all of us are “hyped” by overseas travel). In Nigeria what we call achievement is only measured in “Naira & Kobo”, so it would make no point reeling them to you.

collynzo2: What have you acheived with your own intellect other than coming on NL and probably other internet forums to put down people? Your comments smacks of frustration, you are now referring me to a report from a govt agency that says 65% of Nigerians live in rural areas but you rejected the one that says 80% live above a dollar per day, why didn't you analyse the former and see if it's actually true. I know what I think of people that use phrases like average Nigerian but I'll keep it to myself for now. If you are that good you should be working as an expatriate in one of those your ideal countries by now not wasting away in Nigeria and complaining.

@collynzo2 I will not descend to your level of intellect in responding to your comment.
Your response typifies the average Nigerian; Lacking any real meaning in content or tact in its delivery.
Kindly read the FOS report published monthly which makes inference from the last census report issued and then make a proper, comment/remark.

Excellent comment toluene12!!! Thank God, There is still hope (intellectually) after all for our country...........

toluene12: 1 dollar per day= #4500 per month. I'm sure very few nigerians earn this amount monthly- most likely per time job or locum. However, poverty definition now includes dependents and total amount earned by a family.
A wheelbarrow pusher will do well to earn btw #10000-15000/ month, but that amount may not cater for a family of four( husband, housewife and 2 children).
That's how they came about 54% of nigerians living below poverty level(2010 poverty index). Remember these figures includes children and elderly who are not working but are dependent on the workforce population. Therefore those working must earn enough to take care of themselves and the population not working.
For example in the U.S poverty is defined as a family earning below $11000 per year. Based on this figure, recent survey shows that 15% of americans are poor.

It is funny how we sit on our chairs and become overnight analysts after reading “one liners” and headlines without any investigation.
How many of us travel outside our areas of commute to & from work?
How many of us go to the Hinterland outside Lagos, state capitals or business hubs where we reside. Over 65% of our population still live in Villages outside these areas , and that is where the “real” poverty our statisticians are talking about is: Where people earn less than a dollar a day.
Just becos you have internet access & manage to look after yourself and family in the city, does not mean its like that for all people ( I served in a village in this country were you grow what you eat and sell the rest in exchange for other necessities, which they cannot still afford. Even in my Village in addition to this, we have a lot of Idle people with no livelihood who rely of “Transfer Payments” for people living in the town to survive) . And for the ignorant comment on paying a laborer over "N200", have you asked him how many dependants he has here and in his village to cater for after paying all the Omonile/Govt dues to enable him operate his cart in the market?.
I don’t need to be a statistician to deduce all this it is right there in our faces but we choose not to see becos we are so blinded by our ignorance, selfishness, tribal sentiments and religious dogma
We should stop this myopic way of analysis and comments on issues if we want move forward as a nation.
Reading some comments on nairaland on issues make me wonder if there is hope at all for this nation as it is no different for those made by the so called leaders we also criticize..................

One thing I fail to understand in all this is why did the CP send over 100 policemen & SSS to a location that had no unrest. If this was the way BH & other issues were handled we would not have problems in this country.
There is a political undertone to this. My heart goes out to the officers who lost their lives but this should serve as a lesson to the police to allow themselves to be used for persecuting personal agendas of the political class

While I commend this project I have a few burning questions.

What happened to all the information captured in the former exercise?
What happens to the old ID cards issued?
Would we need to go through the whole process again?
Who manages the Hugh Database for this exercise?
How much will it cost?
What happened to the huge sums spent in the past?
What mistakes were made in the former exercise and how do we prevent this from becoming another "White Elephant"?
How will this obviously more sophisticated system work in our environment where we do not have power, poor literacy & enlightenment, abysmal record keeping culture and corruption among “Nigerians” (yes I mean all of us) who would try to manipulate the system since the data for this could be used as a defacto "census' figure with all the demographic information that can be plotted from it .
How will this be used as a spring-board to solve the “Population Equation” we have had unresolved as a country since 1960?
How is this process supposed to work in the mainly rural areas of this country where majority of the "real" population who are “poor” of this country reside
What process has been put in place to prevent Identity Theft especially with the intention to link it to personal banks accounts?

Why are our Universities and indigenous firms not partnering with these foreign contractors to enable us learn from them and develop a system that will be more suitable & acceptable to Nigeria. How do we hope to develop as a country our Science & Technology base when we always run to foreign contractors who know little or nothing about our environment and end up giving us what we term “egg head” solutions that are impracticable here. In most countries that value their internal security & technological development, these huge projects are handled by a combination of both Foreign and local concerns(Universities, Research Institutes & Competent local firms) as a means of encouraging technology transfer (usually via reverse engineering) & increased economic activity and conservation of foreign exchange

I can go on and on. I have heard too many laudable projects on paper since 1999 that have translated little or nothing in the lives of ordinary Nigerians. All we hear is the announcement of the award of the project for $X billion or NY Trillion, media hypes, jingles etc as if the project has been completed & nothing else.
Where do I start is it NIPP that has been shifted for 2007 to 2010 now 2015 (I bet you by 2015 it will shift again) or Benin-Ore road or East West road in the Niger delta or the 2nd Onitsha Bride or the failed National ID card projects of the past with $x the Billions sunk in them respectively.

We Nigerians need to start to read more, remember more and ask more enlightened questions before we rush to praise or critisie.................................................................................................................

Until then our rulers know how to continue “arrange and divide” us

All these just to please a woman. No wonder there are a lot of single men and women al over the place. The men are looking for Miss Perfect. The women are lookinng for Mr perfect. When Mr & Miss Perfect finally get married to each other and all the scales fall off from their eyes, it then becomes a nightmare.

Pls tell them.................................................

yeboyes: I for one do not understand how any intelligent person can attend this con man's church.This dude was exposed on BBC for the whole world to see as a conman who takes advantage of desperate people yet morons still flock to his church.

The major problem we Nigerians have is these mentalities of "He go better" ,"GOD's times is the best","touch not my anointed", "all is well" and other ridiculous as well as regressive mentalities.These lines of reasoning has crippled the minds of Nigerians as many have become intellectually incapacitated.The fact of the matter is all these pastors are con men. You don't need anyone to pray for you before you succeed.

If you believe in your yourself and help yourself by working hard,GOD will help you.Stop waiting for one idiotic pastor to lay hands on you.USE your GOD given brain and work your way to success.Like the saying goes ,GOD only helps those who help themselves.Helping yourself does not mean saying tithes every day ,kissing your pastor's butt or sleeping in church everyday.It seemly means you should apply yourself or find something to do.

The same rule applies to our politics,we cry all the time when our leaders commit treason against the nation but continue to vote them back in.I have heard people saying " I know Jonathan is corrupt but what can we do? He is better than the rest".I am sorry but i disagree ,such assumption is the retort of an intellectually redundant mind.Others will say "I will vote for Jonathan again because he is from the south.It is better for a south man to chop the money instead of an Hausa man".

Nigerian do not vote for the best candidates they vote for the candidate which hails from their own tribe or the one who bribes them.Your dishonest finance minister had the guts to lie on CNN by saying 99% of Nigerian's are honest.We have serious issues in Nigeria and we are our own worst enemies.Unless we begin to engine ourselves in honest and intelligent conversations ,we will never get out of this cesspit we are in.

@Rossikk, All your claims about foreigners working in most parts of Nigeria without hindrance is false: I just got back from the east and most of the contracts on all the major roads passed had JTF Vehicles stationed during the "day". I can imagine what amount of security would be need if they have to work at night.
You claimed you were a member of the Good Governance Tour that went round Nigeria to showcase projects. What amount of security was present during your movements and at various locations visited? I can imagine the effort made by the various states visited to "present" their projects.
I think you live in a bubble the one create for themselves by public officers & people in the private sector who are "doing well" and probably forgotten the road you all came from (as is the case with most Nigerians who "Make it", while in power or in its shadow to shield you for the real Nigeria. That is why people like you will always want to cling onto power because as soon as you leave you receive a culture shock. I have met ex public servants and staff of multinationals who will tell you how great Nigeria is and how we are moving forward as a nation only to change their tone when they leave office, retire or are no longer close to the corridors of power. All of a sudden Nigeria is no longer the land of Milk and Honey as portrayed.

Well I will not join in character assassination of you and other who "see no evil and hear no evil" as our elders say as far as Nigeria is concerned. The only advice I have for you is to enjoy it while it lasts. History has taught me in this country that "every one will always get his own measure when your time is up".

BH like all other insurgencies in the country is has arisen out of the corruption, deliberate underdevelopment by present & past govts. at all levels & criminal procurement and distribution of weapons by politicians whether in govt or in the opposition to achieve their selfish interests, which in turn has fueled religious extremism. The people are only naturally reacting by venting their anger at everyone out of ignorance. The criminal element is only a derivative of the problem just like we have armed robbery & kidnapping the south.
This is the problem with Nigeria: All we know how to do is to throw money at our problems. There is no strategic approach to address our problems that is why our problems never go away and continue to multiply and mutate. The Niger Delta problem is still there. We chose the easy way out with amnesty and it has now mutated into a serious Crude Oil Theft (including Illegal refineries) problem which is costing the Nation over $12 Billion annually not to mention the serious environmental degradation going on there. Why do we like running around in circles? What are the root causes of these insurgencies OPC in the south west, BH in the North & "Bakassi boys" in the south east (now responsible for the kidnapping industry there). It is the all same: groups of people are armed by politicians to pursue there narrow minded interests. Upon achievement or otherwise of these, the people are abandoned with their weapons to fend for themselves. They then develop their own objectives and interests and use the weapons in their possession to achieve them. In Nigeria we never get to the root causes of our problems; instead all we do is to set up more & more ad-hoc committees to solve problems that border on the fundamentals of our existence. That is why we will remained an underdeveloped country, no matter how much FDI we claim to attract.
Nigeria is not the only country with problems facing it. The difference between the developed countries and us are
1. Where there is a crime, it is investigated and punishment must follow no matter how long it takes and who is involved. Until we address the source of the arms used by these insurgents we will keep granting amnesty to thieves instead of punishing them.
2. National interest overrides any other interest as the overall interest of the people take precedence
3. Governace is goes beyond awarding contract to build roads, schools, hospitals, provide water, build Airports, etc. It is much much more strategic and ideological must go beyond the physical structures we rush to put up and term "dividends of democracy". Eg. What is the aim of our education policy? Just to graduate people with first class or 2.1, who can’t write simple applications or essays, let alone think for themselves....................
4. External influences in the lives & workings of the nation are reduced to the barest minimum. China, Norway, Singapore, Swissaland , Luxemburg, Japan ,Denmark , Brazil, South Korea etc are all examples of countries who took their own individual paths to development. They are all at various stages of development but one thing common to them is how they have made advancements and still protected their own individuals identities from the "inferiority complex syndrome" of the West.

I can go on and on but if we continue to chase shadows and dodge asking the right questions we will never move forward as a nation....................................

Where are the stunch supporters of GEJ on NairaLand I want to hear how they will defend this one...................... I have since lost hope in this country. We are unoffically in a freefall...............

It is funny, so we now need a "president" to approve construction of a borehole in a "State University" and we nigerians are clapping as usual. I wonder how we now expect this govt to fix more complex problems of Power, Poverty, Unemployment, Spirally Crime, Insurgencies in the North & South Southern part of Nigeria, Piracy on the coast of Nigeria, when it is bugged down by issues to be addressed by state & local govts and public agencies like the NUC in this case (How come the NUC has not sanctioned the University for poor management).

We have now gotten to a stage where nothing works anymore until the President or Governor says so...Public parastatals and ministries and even the police no longer do anything until the president says so. It took the president to get the police to start to find the police pension fund chairman under investigation by the Senate for allegedly misappropriating N400B. It took the president to visit the police college before any renovation work started after he was "embarrassed" by a report. Now with Lagos International airport facing blackouts almost on a weekly basis lasting for a long as 5-8 hours (it is funny that the minister was awarded man of the year for 2012 by some group for her outstanding work since she became minister of aviation) , we will need the president to "intervene" before this is fixed.

Until Nigerians move forward and demand much much more from their leaders in the next 20-40 years we will still be saying the same thing. "The people get the leadership they deserve".

Kanu Thank you very much…..may God continue to reward both in health and materially. This is in addition to sponsoring countless medical trips for heart related diseases for the poor children, both abroad and locally, in spite of how your former business partner tried to swindle you of your donations. The is a special place for you with God and among those of us who have followed your journey in life
At least he is better than those who use their wealth to buy Jets, build Schools and Universities only the rich can afford, splash in church for "thanksgivings", throw all manner of parties –wedding, burials, etc including” renewing wedding vows after 25 years” and requesting N4B to build a " befitting First Ladies Mission House" .

Inflation rate did not fall to 9% we should stop spreading this propaganda. Average inflation rate still remains at 11.9 percent. What they are referring to as "9%" is the "rate of change from the month of Jan 2013 as against the month Jan 2012".There is no "real improvement" in Inflation in Nigeria. Economists & statisticians will understand this better.

As soon as one "Jankara" Financial Services House sent this report in their weekly bulletins, I knew something was fishy about their report and it was only a matter of time before the ignorant public latched onto it, for & against.

The report that published this is mischievous and misleading. My only problem is whether it was deliberate (which makes you wonder who sponsored it) or not (in which case smacks gross incompetence. I worry for the kind of financial advice they give to their clients)

The times are bad for Nigeria. We are now where history calls the "Dark Ages". Where the words of "Pastors, Prophets, General Overseers, Priests ETC" is now law & bond, without us reasoning them, irrespective of how illogical or untrue they are atimes. Every Religious practitioner is now competing for whom will give the most prophesies and we the followers are just being lead like sheep with any mind of our own. We are indeed in trouble. I believe in faith, however it must be supported by "Good Deeds"- Honesty, Chastity, Hard Work, Charity (Not giving tithes),etc otherwise it is all talk which is what we now practice in Nigeria.

She is as ugly as F**K..... Almost did not recognise her...........
Meeen Women dey try. All that powder & pancake to mask the real thing.

CrazyMan: Nigerians are naturally rude.

Just take a look at the stress you go through in the education sector.

Waec wahala

Jamb whala

Post utme whala

Admission/clearance whala

Final year clearance whala

NYSC whala

To get job whala

When you eventually get, for them to pay you whala.

Nigerians treat each other like animals.

And that's one of the major reasons why this country has refused to move forward.

You aptly stated the problem with US nigerians. We like to play God in any position we find ourselves. This a country of "EJOOR & BIKO Sir" You beg for power to do your Biz, you beg to buy fuel to put in your car, you beg to get your salary/payment for work you have done, you beg to write exams, you beg to see your results, you beg to collect your certificate, you beg for job/contract, you beg for the doctor to attend to you. I can go on & on.

Why is it that we do not remember people when they are alive only to throw big parties when they die??...... Africans we still have along way to go...............