@presido1

Yes, that is essentially what they are implying - we own you now. Why? Well, your country decided to go rudderless for months (not even in Iraq or Afganisthan would that happen) with a president in comma. Meanwhile a Nigerian attempted to blow up an airplane on American soil - you better thank heavens that he failed.

If American doesn't take Nigeria over, Osama bin Laden already had designs. All the while those who could not see beyond their noses were thinking of preserving "power" for themselves.

Update:
2. 6000MW by December 2009
Status:
January 2010 - Sorry we failed; generation actually declined; newest argument is that new plants are being completed.
March 2010: US assisting IPPs to generate 10,000 MW by 2011; Ag. President assumes head of power ministry - dissolves rural electrification agency to be replaced by PHCN subsidiary distribution companies, to ensure amnestry progamme is progressing to ensure uninterrupted gas flow;

New Addition:

9. Conclude High Profile National Embarrassment Corruption Cases
Status:
March 2010: Procastinating on the Halliburton Case - US says Nigeria has enough evidence (US Ambassador to Nigeria, Washington D.C, 04.09.2010 - ThisDay); Ibori has gone into hiding, while his investigators were attacked by gunmen; Bank Manager Cases before EFCC - involves more than 1/2 trillion Naira;

@RichblacK
I pity u already. The next time Ikengawo, who is not Igbo at all, quotes you, your words would be edited to say you completely agree with him. He is a robot his Ogas sent ahead to claim what they have not done and probably have no clue how to do.

Facts don't bother him one bit - he has no space for those up there.

RichyBlacK:

I understand your lofty idealism about Nigeria, but try to get your facts straight.

Who told you that government-backed and government-funded Dangote is "the first african billionaire"?

Seems some people only learnt about Forbes' list when Dangote's name appeared there.

you showed my beliefs to be nonsensical? ===> Are you a religious zealot?
lol, are you mad cause of the internet? ===> And you are mad, why?

Ikengawo:

you showed my beliefs to be nonsensical? Are you a religious zealot?
lol, are you mad cause of the internet?

Cut the crap.

what you've got is pseudo-intelligence. The kind that make religious zealots cry instead of accepting the truth when their believes are shown to be nonsensical.

Enough said.

@Kobojunkie
You get time for this guy. Even after he was severally reminded, where is Shagari's name in that list. He is like a robot or something - that needs to be told to buzz off.

Kobojunkie:

@Poster, Goodluck Jonathan has NEVER been a President in Nigeria though. Yar adua is still the President of Nigeria.

- cut the crap already !

So, what is your point in separating these presidents out. Are you not trying to figure out who were responsible for governance in Nigeria? If that is your purpose then you are simply engaging in self-deceit by focusing on those who have been called "presidents".

Your mum may be too extreme in labeling Hausa/Fulanis in general, but she is right that they have produced most of those who ruled Nigeria since independence.

Ikengawo:

-Military HOS's aren't presidents they're dictators, there's a HUGE difference
-the only presidents nigeria has ever had ate Zik, OBJ, Yaradua and Johathan
-You can't say the "hausa' are doing this or the "Igbo" are doing that cause when Abacha steals he didn't send 500 Niara to the bank accoutns of every northerner, he sent money to his private account in the west to be used by him and his children only, Im igbo, no corrupt igbo governor has ever given me money. he puts it in his account, so "igbos" aren't stealling the money, an igbo is stealing the money.

^^
I don't know which lopsided view of the Western Media you are talking about here - that is just another propagandist statement:

It is not the western media that told our president to ridicule us throughout the entire world, nor ask the son of a fat cat to join al qaeda, nor ask religious extremists to go on rampage, nor caused extra-judicial killings openly, nor----it will never end.

They report the truth, they may pass undue judgements, but that is for the reader to decipher. Unlike many they don't ask us to watch black and blatantly tell us it is white, and if they did, we have an obligation to confront it with the truth, not see-through propaganda. Otherwise, lying to ourselves is worse than others lying about us.

tensor777:

^^Well you are free to accept the lopsided view Western media feeds you with about Africa.

A balance to the flow of information via the federal government media machine is a positive development in my view

@Ikengawo and tensor777
I actually like some of your main points, but I hate the way you are going about it. If we are going to solve our problems we have to look it in the face.

Ikengawo if you looked again at my reply below you will see my conclusion.

What is not acceptable are those who want to say that we are doing well enough, we are okay. No, we could be far better than this if we only get honest with ourselves and our leaders, instead of painting rosy pictures, that not even the painters, believe. That is why I can see that Anti Dora is a good person, but rebranding a non-repairable system would only damage her reputation as she quickly found out. Even when push came to shove, she called it as it was.

We have to be honest, both on the positive and on the negative. Right now the negative in Nigeria far outweighs the positive, but that doesn't mean there are no positives.

Lekki free trade zone? - there you go again using evidence that has nothing to do with the argument.

naijamini:

@Ikengawo
You here again  .

Most of the accomplishments in your list have nothing to do with the Presidency, in fact the Presidency was trying to stop some of them, and if those responsible for this achievements were like Yar'adua they would not have happened. Others are flatly untrue, like the one about standard of living steadily increasing.

Yes, you are a Yar'adua supporter too! I have to agree that there are still a lot good things about Nigeria.

Ikengawo:

^co-sign

you're saying nothing good is happening in nigeria and you're singing Dora's praises, for doing good in nigeria.
my friend that's confusion.
there's a lot of good happening in nigeria, more good then bad, its just we as a people dwell on the bad.
that fact that most of you have never heard of the lekki free trade zone is proof.

  - cut the crap, what you guys are doing is keeping us in a vicious cycle. When we have a little peace you use that as an excuse to praise the unworthy. Such useless praise-singing gives them undue confidence that they are doing something, until Alas it collapses, then you guys are no where to be found, until someone cleans up your and your ogas messes, then you start repeating the cycle. If you think this is how you are going to build up Nigeria, then you have something else coming.

Go and ask Anti Dora, a hardworking woman with good intentions, where the futile attempt to rebrand Nigeria is in the rank of dustbin-programs. There is no hiding behind one finger, Stalin-era propaganda doesn't work anymore. Information is flowing at the speed of light.

tensor777:

^^^

You are entirely missing the point. Moving Nigeria forward is a collective effort. That is why he cited those examples. These developments are ALREADY turning the country around so what is the point of your post??

And you are telling me this because you heard I did not do my NYSC obligation!

It is simply about living - and N3,500 just doesn't cut it. It is not about learning any random stuff, the original intent was to promote national unity, but you get to work on the farm and help clean the streets. Although there is a lot of good that can come from participating in the NYSC you have to take care of people.

I now realized mine could have been better, but still it was good as an opportunity to see another part of Nigeria. For me, it was free housing and walk to the office, so it wasn't too bad. I can't even remember what we were paid back then, but I know that a lot of people only managed because they received extra pay from people they worked for (think I did too) or simply went back home and returned for the passing out. Some other folks endured very hard conditions because they were sent farther into the rural areas where they got sick, and had to get out of there.

You can't conscript someone and then hand them paltry sums of money, less than the minimum wage in Nigeria I think.

honeric01:

^^^^^^

Guy, for 'God's sake, this is not a job, it's just like a place where you go to learn about random things, that's what NYSC means, it's not anything you're making it look like, it's for people to get acquainted with places they have never been to, live with people they'd never have lived with, teach,work,train younger ones, impact what they went to school for into these young ones, it's not for money purpose so for the money to have been increased to 15k means the government of each state already know about the small pay issue.


for once, let Nigerians put passion first before pocket.

I rest my case.

@honeric01

I never brought up the non-profit comparison, you did, so don't blame me if it doesn't support your argument. The National Assembly is a non-profit organization. I will play along - if someone volunteers to work at orphanages, does that mean they don't get living wages. I don't know how much they earn, since you brought it up you find out, then others can verify for us.

My whole point from the begining is that you should not hand any graduate N3,500 per month, no matter what he is engaged in - its either he/she is desperate or has no choice than to accept it, like in the NYSC. I compared it to the National Assembly because both are really supposed to be selfless National Service. Being a judge is not national service, it is a professional job, politics may be what you do, but nobody trains you for it, you volunteer, campaign and may get elected once you meet certain criteria, as should be the case for any job.

Enough said.

honeric01:

you must be joking, tell me you are comparing the national assembly with NYSC, one of the qualifications to work in the national assemble is NYSC so why should you compare both? why not compare the position of the president too, or maybe the position of the judges of the federation of Nigeria.

good comparison should be orphanage home, school for the blind and so on, most of these people that work there do it for the love and passion first before the pay they get, so why should corp be looking for 100k per month? i hope you know that no amount you'd give to a graduate that would dim fit and okay for our money hungry citizens. this is not a permanent job so they should cut us some slacks.

9jaganja:

I know we should accept help intelligently. The idea of Africans being surrounded by some foreign military is scary. Don't say they have taken what they want from us. They are still finding more and more stuffs they need in Africa. They want more and sadly they are getting it. Look at Liberia? American companies trading weapons for blood diamond and when war broke out on a massive scale what happened? they absconded with their own people and left the problem on the bill tab of Nigeria. That's the truth. What did the US do to help in Liberia? they caused the commotion. Every continent is helping themselves why can't we be our own peace keepers?

Simple, Nigeria is the big dog in West Africa, but doesn't know how to use that position because we are most of time led by incompetent people. So, we are always doing the obvious, breaking up fights and walking away. We need a foreign policy that is Nigeria-centric before being Africa-centric. Look at the role we played in South Africa, and then walked away. Now South Africa is hosting the world cup, while we can't successfully host an U-17 event. You know what, South Africa is accepting technological help from around the world, intelligently. We have to be part of the global mainstream - the alternative is for us to be forever held down by incompetency.

@Ikengawo
You here again  .

Most of the accomplishments in your list have nothing to do with the Presidency, in fact the Presidency was trying to stop some of them, and if those responsible for this achievements were like Yar'adua they would not have happened. Others are flatly untrue, like the one about standard of living steadily increasing.

Yes, you are a Yar'adua supporter too! I have to agree that there are still a lot good things about Nigeria.

Ikengawo:

nothing good since this recent president?

well stop watching CNN and peep this poo.

[size=15pt]DURING THIS RECENT PRESIDENCY [/size]
-Lagos is reclaiming land lost to the Atlantic Ocean and building an ultra modern city on top of it (Eko Atlantic). It's designed to rival manhattan, NY.
digging and reclaimation of land has begun and is in an advanced stage
-Lagos is building an ultra modern city within a city specifically designed for industrial production (Lekki Free Trade Zone)
-Awka Ibom has achieved steady electricity and is building a massive tourism complex (Ibom Tropicana)
-Lagos is building a light rail system, has emergency services, and a massive road network on top of the already repaired previous one
-Imo state offers scholarships to the poorest rural families for education
-Port Harcourt is expanding the size of the city by building ultra modern districts (Greater Port Harcourt)
-Nigeria is set to be the largest construction market in the world
-Nigeria's middle class is back and larger then ever
-The nigerian movie industry is now #2 in the world
-Nigerian music artists are now outselling their American counterparts
-Nigeria no longer allows people to drill out oil without investment into refineries
-Nigeria has acieved another peaceful transition of power based on the constitution
-Nigeria's telecoms inudstry is now the largest in africa
-Nigerian's standard of living is on a steady increase
-accord to my dad , all states are repairing their roads

now im not even a yar adua supporter cause i think he could have done more and most of these achievements if not all were done by governors and not him, im not going to ignorantly say that nothing good is happening in nigeria cause its insulting to the heros and patriots that are trying their best

@proo212

Only if we leave our intelligence behind in cooperation with rest of the world, as our forebears did.

proo212:

another step forward in the global governance network, Prophecy fulfilling itself. 

@honeric01
May be you are blind of reading  Sorry, I just couldn't resist, didn't mean any insult.

I already compared the NYSC to a non-profit organization ---- wait for it -----  OUR NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. Much closer to the NYSC than any private, non-profit organization you can find. Now you tell me why they get to keep millions each month and live in priviledged quarters, while doing close to nothing (okay so that's an exaggeration, sue me).

honeric01:

you're still mixing up full time job with a volunteer job, they ain't the same, compare non-profit organization with NYSC and we'd debate it.

@honeric01
You are yet to show me the volunteer job.

honeric01:

you're still mixing up full time job with a volunteer job, they ain't the same, compare non-profit organization with NYSC and we'd debate it.

@9jaganja
This is the history of mankind. I have recently had a keen interest in our past, and what I am reading suggest that Africans had a glorious past, way better than those who wrote history caused us and their people to believe. This is especially so when you consider that the ancient world was one babaric village. Many of the things they accused us of were untrue. The books of those days were like the tabloids of today filled with fantanstic stories just to sell. Those that were true were very similar to what was being practiced in their own world. The reason we lost it all is double-edged: 1) One, we are a welcoming people, especially to foreigners. We tend to trust them more than our immediate neighbours; 2) At the same time we seem to have a "cultural" superiority complex that keeps us from seeing that the world is a world of change, and if you don't keep up you get left behind. As a result, while we brought people that know what they want and would take it when they see it, if not prevented, into our midst we failed to accept that they had either certain knowledge or skill that we were lacking. As a result, they used those advantages against us when it was time to take what they wanted. Most of today's sub-saharan Africans missed out on the modern development of writing once we were basically kicked out of Egypt and the surrounding area - that was the begining of our problems. The British did not dare venture too far beyond the coast until they discovered that the quinine in the bark of a tree from Brazil cures malaria - today that same malaria is still killing Africans by the thousands. If it was a Western disease it would be almost eradicated by know, simply because they would throw knowledge at it.

So, the solution is not to reject help, but to accept it INTELLIGENTLY. They are already taking what they want from us anyway. What we need to do is define where we need help, what we can give back to them and what they are not allowed to touch. We also need to rapidly increase our knowledge of what others know that we don't. This last is essentially what the Japanese, Taiwanese and now the Indians and Chinese are doing. This requires us to find leaders that are world aware, know the supreme importance of education and can lead us in these areas.

In the late 19th century, the Ethiopians actually succeeded in this same strategy. By studying and acquiring the weapons the foreigners were using to great success they defeated, no crushed is the way the history book put it, the Italian army and remained the only African country that was never taking over in those times.

It is interesting that one book mentioned what the Ethipians did along with what the army of Sokoto did: "The Ethiopians had first first experienced the power of modern breech-loading rifles during a brief punitive campaign in 1867 when a British column assaulted the royal residence at Magdala to free the British ambassador from captivity. After Menelik II succeeded the emperor Yohannes IV to the Ethiopian throne in 1889, he assiduously acquired modern European weapons that enabled him to mobilize an army of 70,000 repeating rifles and quick-firing artillery against the Italians in 1896. The army of Sokoto, however, remained dominated by the ideal of the Hausa warrior and relied on its aristocratic calvary equipped with lance, sword, and bows with arrows." By the time we acquired the rifle in these parts it was against each other we turned them.

9jaganja:

Isn't this why they let Obama in at first? A familiar face for Africans to trust. Tss. How did slavery start? Just like this. Visitors. They were visitors. They were welcomed, we were infidels/inferiors. We were slaves/subhumans. Egypt fell same way, all African emerging civilization fell same way. Karma

karma karma comes back to you hard---Lauryn Hill.

@9jaganja
I agree with your analysis that the direct $1 to $1 comparison between Nigeria and US is not entirely accurate, which is why the purchasing power parity was developed, and that actually doubles out GDP. Still, the PPP cannot account for differences in lifestyle, satisfaction and so on.

9jaganja:

People are just not taking somethings in to account here when they say "Nigerians live on less than $1 a day". How far Nigerians can stretch that dollar a day Americans can't attempt to stretch $60 a day with that. I told Frosbel on one thread that I can feed my self with $150 a day in Nigeria and change go remain. What you can do with 20 naira in Nigeria, you need $40 for it in the US.

In 9ja I can get weed for 20 Naira and smoke it twice, in New York, to smoke the weed twice, it has to be $40 and that's more than 5000 Naira. I'm using weed and food cause it's the most I've noticed.

Stop joining the propaganda and say Nigerians live on less than a dollar a day. Compare the power of Nigerian currency in her domestic economy and then compare the American dollar in her domestic economy.

Most of the vege meals we eat for less than 50 bucks in Nigeria will cost you $50 in the US. I can buy fresh Orange in Nigeria for less than 50 buck (Upto 20 oranges), I had to drink Orange juice here cause first I can't find fresh Oranges that cheap and their organic markets is tooo expensive. I have to be taking supplements for my vitamin C needs whereas in 9ja Orange is the cheapest fruit and you can always get it for however much you have on you. I spend $50 a day on meal here if I don't cook (eating junk food) And $200/month if I'm cooking. Tell me an average Nigerian spend 30k/month on food alone in Nigeria? Taaaaa. I'll eat yafun yafun with 30k budgeted for food each month.

It's like that on every product. The only thing we have equal pricing on are Gas (We import refined oil from foreign companies, what a shame), and clothes (Cause they are both made in sweatshops in China/India or Taiwan anyways)

8. Deliver Credible 2011 Polls
Status:
March 2010: Except for PDP no party has its national acts together;IBB claims he is consulting;Buhari and others are forming a new party;Atiku seems to be returning to PDP too;Still the same old faces;Iwu must go protest by NLC;Counter Iwu must stay moves looking for 15 million signatures;Iwu's current tenure expires in June;National Assembly seems to be thinking about tinkering with the structure of INEC;No real preparations apparent with less than one year to elections;

@tensor777
Nobody is disputing his entitlement to opinions, but nobody is entitled to their own facts. His first post argued that Yar'adua is the first Hausa/Fulani President Nigeria ever had. Can you imagine that level of fact cooking? In his counting he forgot to mention Shagari, replaced Tafawa Balewa with Zik, and then erased almost 30 years of military rule, mostly dominated by northerners. Then he said they were mostly Christian Middle Belters. He may have good points in some cases, but he has an agenda for which he is trying to bend the facts.

tensor777:

He is entitled to his opinion and I for one welcome his own perspective on national issues.
What is good standard of living and by whose criteria do you measure it Yours , The West's or the UN's?? The point the guy is making is that such things are highly subjective.

@sjeezy8
America doesn't need to sign any pact with Nigeria to know when to take out any danger coming out of Nigeria if they know about it. To be sure, America doesn't do anything for nothing, and that is the way it should be. It is a give and take world. It is Nigeria that spends billions of $, that we don't have, to stop wars across the length of West Africa, and leave it to others to harvest the fruit of that labor.

Nigeria needs to accept help that we badly need. It is obvious we can't get even simple things done in our current state e.g. construct 6000MW of power for 150 million people. The Chinese intelligently accepted this help, while proclaiming themselves communists. Now they are standing toe-to-toe with the Americans. You can be sure the Americans reaped the rewards from that venture as well, and despite all the hullabalo in the press about US-China conflict they have got so many of these cooperative pacts going on. India recently received assistance from the US to develop better and safer nuclear power - to help curtail dependence on dirty fuels by one of the largest nations on earth and to prevent use of technology that can easily be turned into weapons.

All the friends Yar'adua found for Nigeria so far have brought us trouble - for the first time ever a Nigerian citizen engaged in al qaeda's war.

sjeezy8:

yaye! Im soo happy lol

I guess this would be bad news for the militants, religous extremist, and the secessionist
So when anyone acts crazy and the US military in Nigeria shoots you dead no blaming the naija govt, or northerners oooo.
One thing I like about yankee is they dont believe in freedom fighters or religious zealots - anyone that is disturbing peace and progress is a terrorist.

lmfao

That Ikengawo guy should probably be left alone - he's got an agenda that facts cannot get in the way of - or may be he actually likes cooking them. It also seems that he doesn't recognize the law of averages and sampling. People that you see everyday, especially if you are in the pay of Abuja, are not a good population for your sample of the average Nigerian condition. Go and ask those living from mouth to mouth, while responsible for feeding uncountable mouths.

Even if they can prove that Nigerians live on more than $1 a day, so what? What is the minimum income to guarantee a good standard of living, and do Nigerians earn that much. Yesterday, some people were trying to justify paying NYSC members Naira 3,500 a month. Why can't we conduct a credible census? Or have a genuine account of our GDP? These are the questions Ikengawo and his colleagues need to take back to who their agenda is serving.

This kind of talk disappeared as soon as Yar'adua's shenanigans boiled over. Now that things seem to be settling down, they have started again. Unfortunately it is this kind of false patriotism that eventually create the kind of mess we would like to pretend is not Nigeria.

Kobojunkie:

When you hear LIVE ON, it usually excludes things like RENT/WATER & Other Amenities/TRANSPORTATION/HEALTHCARE expenses etc and so on. In your example there, you forgot to REMOVE those. When you do, you may realize that that family is actually POORER than you make them out to be.

A single man who earns N25,000 a Month will need to, for each month, deal with cost of Transportation, Rent, water, electricity/kerosene and so many other things. What is left afterwards? N25,000? Now, add the wife and kids and you can get a better picture of the situation.

@honeric01
And of what use to you is dragging a horse that has decided not to drink water to the river. You are the one that would be left huffing and puffing, and needing water.

honeric01:

They made it mandatory imo because we all know nigerians won't do anything for free, you know it and i know it, if it was volunteerily, how many do you think will serve with the way we all chase money starting from our mother's womb?

@honeric01
Nobody is comparing it to a full time job - just that if you are going to conscript someone you shoudl take care of them, not make them slaves.

The problem is that the NYSC, while built on laudable objectives, should be voluntary and well provided for. That way the government can say each year we only have space for 100 this year, 1000 the next or 1 billion (because we found money on Mars). You take as many as you can use and care for. Right now people are being forced to do what they don't want to do, in places they don't want to go or is dangerous for them. Those with enough connections has turned it into a sham, where postings are arranged rather than accepted. Can't blame them though, no parent wants to raise a kid all this time and have him/her cut down senselessly or wasted for a year.

The incentive should be that voluntary national service is a plus when you wish to be in public office. If you checked it, a lot of those collecting millions of Naira from Abuja today "did not really" do their national service, others enjoyed doing their part.

Mandatory service, especially for as long as a year, should be for building a reserve army, but we know who are afraid of such a progressive idea.

By the way, was the National Assembly founded for money-making? If not, we should just tell them to make laws by feeding on air and living in tents on the grass of the National Assembly.

honeric01:

Nysc was not founded for money making so why are some comparing the pay with a full time job? Though i don't even buy the idea but it was created for selfless service to your fatherland.

So I guess IBB's impending troubles would be a case of he who sows the wind reaps the whirlwind.

Nigeria needs to find people of character - that is not IBB.

Onlytruth:

So I guess Abiola's trouble was a case of he who sows the wind reaps the whirlwind.

@Beaf

Thank you for the clarification. I am a bit long-winded, but that was basically my point, not that the suggestion is to deliver that money to businessmen per se.

Perhaps another way is that you don't sell your only house and spend the entire amount, without having any other means. You want to put much of that money into activities that keep on giving back - which is why  wiping away the debt was like an investment.

Beaf:

@naijamini

If you put that $200.34 Billion in the hands of an average business man, he would have multiplied its value by up to a hundred by now. I think thats a better way of looking at it.

@ikeyman00
Not to burst your bubble, not $54 per person per day, but 54 Naira per person per day.

ikeyman00:

$54 per person; fak that man; lets look at it this way

@snowdrops

I am not refering to what they make full-time or not, I am talking about the DISPARITY.

Focus dear friend, millions of Naira for one political office holder (excluding egunjes), N4,000 for a graduate - thus Nigeria is in ruins.

If you employ a graduate, especially because of his qualifications, part time or not, you cannot hand him N4,000 per month. He must really be in bad luck to accept it or HAVE NO CHOICE, like being in the NYSC! That is why you are never going to get true commitment from NYSC members.

You are not saying NYSC members are working part time and don't deserve living wages, right?

N4,000 is how many bottles of coke compared with meeting a single person's expenses for one month.

snowdrops:

The fact one is a university graduate should not gaurantee automatic high paying white collar job.
I believe your statement is a bit overstated as a good number of those graduates earn far more than N4000 when they start working full time.
Afterall one has to start from somewhere

Can you imagine that in a country where a senator is taking millions home every month, excluding other benefits (and bribes) - a university graduate is handed less that N4,000 for any job at all. Even if they get free housing that is no excuse.