₦airaland Forum

yuzedo: well to talk truth he divorse from mrs biggy so since den his mind have not settle. So das why he fail in live. Tenk.

snakova: its a big lie. when common automobile u cant make na robotz n drones una specialize on. wen even China dey reverse engineer una dey invent. GEJ apologists

naptu2: I'm going to add that to my list.

Let's see. . . . All the things I've been called on nairaland.

"Government official or SSS agent", "Benefiting from Lagos State Government", "Yoruba Boy", "Northerner", "GEJ asslicker", "librarian", "journalist", "you people" (I suspect that the guy meant either muslim or northerner), "Fashola". I think there's more.

[size=14pt]Jonathan to inaugurate $1.5bn WEMPCO steel rolling mill[/size]

2013-04-17 23:00:49

President Goodluck Jonathan will on Thursday (today), inaugurate a $1.5bn steel rolling mill built by the Western Metal Product Company Limited at Ibafo, Ogun State.

A statement on Wednesday said the Wempco steel rolling mill was worth $1.5bn and capable of producing 700,000 metric tonnes of steel annually.

Also located in the Wempco steel complex are a ceramic tiles plant worth $500m and a nail production plant worth $200m, the Group Managing Director, Wempco Group, Mr. Lewis Tung, said.

With a combined investment of $2.2bn, Tung disclosed that the entire facility would create 5,500 additional jobs.

According to him, the production capacity of the steel mill represents 65 per cent of the 1.2 million of steel used annually in Nigeria, mostly imported.

Tung said the mill, which would begin the production of cold rolled (flat steel), would depend on imported steel billets for raw materials until it could work out how to transport iron ore from Itakpe in Kogi State.

To ensure adequate and uninterrupted power supply for the massive operations of the complex, the Wempco boss said about $250m had been invested in building a 50 megawatt gas power plant.

Tung said the steel complex, which would be the largest in Africa upon completion, was motivated by the need to conserve foreign exchange resources and the availability of the needed raw materials in the country.

"We realise that importing these products costs a lot of foreign exchange and we thought that since the raw materials are available locally, producing them locally will help conserve foreign exchange," he said.

He said the huge investment in the complex was a demonstration of the confidence and belief of the Wempco group in Nigeria.

"We have been in Nigeria in the last 40 years with established manufacturing companies producing a wide range of building materials and associated products. This is because we believe in Nigeria and we see a lot of potential in the country and its people," he said.

The Wempco Steel mill is expected to boost Nigeria's capacity in the production of ocean vessels, train bodies, agriculture steel equipment, earth moving vehicles, coils, flat sheet for round/hollow/square pipes, household electronics casings such as refrigerators, air-conditioners, fan-blade/stands, washing machines, and microwaves, among others.

Tung added that the mill would also enhance the production of office steel furniture for cabinets, desks and stands, containers for chemical, foods and drinks packaging.

Analysts said if Nigeria must really occupy its place of pride amongst the committee of nations that have progressed industrially, emphasis must be placed on the genuine development of the steel industry.

They argued that the Wempo Steel mill would be a watershed in Nigeria's history, owing to the fact that the country had consistently imported steel since the attainment of independence in 1960.

[size=14pt]26,049 students undergo skill acquisition training in Lagos.[/size]

Posted on Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

By Ekene Okoro Snr. Reporter, Lagos

Lagos State Government has said 26,049 students have been trained on various skill acquisition programmes to achieve the Millenium Development (MDG) One.

State Deputy Governor, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, disclosed this at the weekend during a ministerial briefing ahead of Governor Babatunde Fashola’s sixth anniversary in office.

Adefulire, who oversees the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA), said the students were drawn from 35 states of the federation as well as from neighbouring countries.

She said the 13 skill acquisition centres in the states have responded to the needs of young entrepreneurs and created a platform for their self reliance and wealth creation.

She said in the period under review, government carried out upgrading and expansion of Lagos Island and Egbeda Skill Acquisition Centres to take additional students and to increase the number of skills.

The Deputy Governor added that renovation of Surulere, Mushin, Shibiri, Egan, Kosofe, Ikorodu 1 and 11, Ibeju Lekki, Igbo-Oye, Iba, Ejigbo and Badagry skill acquisition centres was also embarked upon to provide effective skill training programmes.

She also listed the construction of Ilase Skill Acquisition Centre, garri processing facility, cold room, market stalls and viewing centre at Ilase riverine community of Amuwo Odofin Local Government as part of the grand scheme.

On efforts to minimise the trend of child abuse, she said government has stepped up its campaign to show its zero-tolerance for child abuse as well as aggressive prosecution of offenders.

Adefulire said the trend of baby trafficking being rampant in some states will not be tolerated, warning that the government will not hesitate to prosecute those found perpetrating the act.

“Child traffickers from other states have no safe haven in Lagos. They are not safe at all and the long arms of the law will reach them”, she warned.

mamikky: Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, yesterday commissioned the first Engineering Academy in Nigeria, assuring of his administration’s commitment to giving top priority to vocational training and skill acquisition to residents of the state.

The Governor who commissioned the ultra-modern centre located at Government Technical College, Agidingbi,Ikeja, also presented certificates to 6,467 students who graduated from the five Lagos State Government Technical Colleges after successfully completing a three-year training in 370 different vocations.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony and special awards, Fashola described the event as remarkable and a massive boost to vocational education in the state asserting that the nation’s economy will only thrive if government remains committed to vocational education.

Presenting the graduands with their certificates, he urged them not relent in furthering their education up to university level, noting that it will improve on their capacity and horizon to be relevant in the scheme of things.

On the newly commissioned Engineering Academy, which is the third built in Africa and the first in West Africa; Fashola noted that the centre will go a long way to impact on the technical and engineering skills of youths in the state.

He said the Academy was a brain child of the state government and a Korean firm, Samsung Electronics Company, equipped with state of the art cutting edge training technology gadgets to train Nigerian youths in electrical, electronic, air-condition maintenance and other households appliances.

Earlier, the Managing Director of Samsung Electronics, West Africa, Mr. Nicholas Shin, said the Academy like its counterparts in Kenya and South Africa will after providing training, will also afford trainees an opportunity to work in any of their companies or become self employed.


http://nigerianpilot.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4475:fashola-commissions-first-engineering-academy-in-nigeria&catid=40:more-headlines&Itemid=208

Eko Ile: [img]http://2.bp..com/-yU5bh1lNprE/UAlbgfqlwsI/AAAAAAAAFw0/agdRos48YZo/s1600/4.jpg[/img]

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Jul 17, 2012 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Tuesday commissioned an automobile sales, services, training and skill acquisition centre in Ikeja saying the biggest achievement of the Government from the centre would be the qualified personnel that would be produced there from. The automobile sales, services, training and skill acquisition centre named CG – Eko LLP Automobile Centre, is a Public Private Partnership arrangement between Messrs Coscharis Group and the Lagos State Government which has revamped the old Eko Engineering Ventures Limited into an ultra modern centre for the sales and service of automobiles which will also provide training and skill in automobile engineering for young artisans.

In his remarks at the ceremony, Governor Fashola said the concept and successful execution of the project underpinned the philosophy of his administration that Public Private Partnerships are very strategic tools for achieving its objectives in the State. Governor Fashola, who gave credits to his predecessors for their initiative in establishing Eko Engineering Ventures Limited, however, said the failure of the venture to achieve the objectives for which it was established probably validates the popular thinking today that there are businesses that government should not be involved in.

"The concept of ownership necessarily requires that we should rethink and rework our models. It is not who owns the land; it is whether or not we can get skilled and qualified men whose core business is automobile sales, automobile maintenance and automobile re-fleeting to work for us, to give us what we want", the Governor said.

kiyosaki1: What achievement are you boasting about ? More than 90% engines and coaches were bought by Abacha, and the rehabilitation work was actually started by Obj, and it was the late president Yar'dua that really made NRC what it's today.So stop giving undue credit to your pay master.Remember that you can only fool some people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time

Paentera: Western Region stopped at present day Maryland, so places like Ikeja were part of WR. Yaba was part of Lagos just like Ebute Meta, Palmgrove and the likes

[size=14pt]Nigeria: NRC Reopens Passenger Train Services in Apapa[/size]

21st Oct 2011.

In its bid to provide transport solution in the Lagos metropolis, Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) on Wednesday reopened train operations in Apapa station.

The Public Relations Officer, Mr. Segun Esan who disclosed this in a telephone interview with Daily Champion said the passenger turnout was very impressive.

He stated that the first train carried over 2000 passengers from Apapa to Ijoko in Ogun state.

The development may indicate the beginning of decongestion of traffic gridlock that has become part of daily features of Apapa as most passengers could now be conveyed by train.

"NRC on Wednesday commenced train services from Apapa to Ijoko, the first train conveyed not less than 2000 passengers" he said.

Meanwhile in a recent chat Daily Champion the Railway District Manager (RDM) Lagos District, Mr. John Dottie said the frequency of the mass transit train has been increased to three times daily from Ijoko in Ogun state to Ebute-Metta in Lagos.

Dottie stated that the mass transit train services which is run by the district carry over 9000 passengers on a daily basis.

This, he said was made possible by the new locomotives the federal government acquired in its bid to revitalise the nation's railway system.

Dottie said the district recently introduced the business class, adding that plans are under way to provide train service on the route on hourly basis.

"With support from Federal Government and our management, we have introduced the business class on this mass transit trains, we have air-conditioned coaches with inbuilt television sets, and its well patronised by members of the public" he said.

According to him, the corporation makes at over N1 million everyday on passengers trains alone, adding that once the rehabilitation on the lines were completed the freight trains service would commence.

"Where can make good money is the freight trains, we are just waiting for rehabilitation work to be completed on the track for us to start running freight trains, as I am talking to you Four Mills have written to us because we used to carry goods for them to Kano and Maiduguri and we also carry for Dangote" he said.

He said that individuals, oil marketers and big business concerns are all warming for commencement of freight trains, adding that the resumption of freight train services in the country will take a lot stress of the road and also reduce carnages that have bedevilled the nation's road since the collapse of the rail system.

naptu2: The major new rail lines that have been planned are (in no particular order)

1) The East-West rail line

2) The line to Abuja

3) The high speed rail line from Abuja to Lagos.

At the moment they are rehabilitating existing lines, but one of the reasons GEJ went to China last week is to get a loan for the line to Abuja (and the Abuja metro).

https://nigeriaexport.com/news/02maptren.jpg

snakova: r u high? wheres the steel they'd use in building the engines? the best they can do is assemble n by the time the phony reality of this project becmes obvious they'd pack up lyk the rest of them. when shell is shutting down ops cos of theft u want us to believe we r moving forward. if GE builds engines on wic trains wud they run? those 1920's in the 2000's abi?

[size=14pt]Nigeria to become a Global Leader in Steel Production from 2018[/size]

15 Apr 2013

By Crusoe Osagie

Nigeria is said to be on track to join the world’s largest producers of steel in the world from the year 2018, as the country’s potential for iron and steel production is progressively transformed into actual capacity.
Chief Executive Officer of African Foundries Limited, Mr. Sanjay Kumar, dropped the hint in Lagos when he announced that the steel giant has concluded plans to ship about 5,000 tonnes of fully-manufactured iron rods to Ghana in what would become their first major export deal.
Kumar said the company, which began steel production in Nigeria, 2010, churning out varied dimensions of iron rods for construction and other purposes, has now developed the business to a point where it has began to seek more market for its products outside the country.


“In the next 5 years Nigeria may be one of the largest producers of steel in the world. Nigeria is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of unexplored iron ore, so if steel is developed then it will lead to more mining and essentially more development for the nation’s steel sector and the entire economy,” he said.
Explaining that the growth in the steel sector has been on the upward swing from year to year, the AFL boss noted that the industry was now heading towards the inflection point where demand for steel products will actually be outpaced by supply, stressing that this reality was the primary reason why the company began to explore the export market for other off takers for its products.


“Currently, we have an order of 5,000 tonnes of steel products and this has been produced and prepared for shipping out we are trying to get around the ancillary challenges of logistics occasioned by the large volume of the present order. However, we expect to meet the time lines and we have met all the required international quality standards.”
With a current plant capacity of 500,000 tonnes of steel output per year and another 500,000 tonnes per annum capacity to be added, Kumar said theirs will likely be the biggest steel factory in Africa, and stressed that this was the major reason why serious effort is going into seeking markets outside Nigeria.


Stating that a clement export regime will make the next phase of their business better, Kumar stressed that the company was currently revving up its steel production, explaining that in the economics of steel manufacturing the more steel a company produces the cheaper it becomes for it to produce a phenomenon that has taken AFL beyond the inflection point of their production process, leading to the need for a much larger market to absorb steel output from Nigeria.
“The potential is there for Nigeria because of her drive toward economic diversification; her manpower base; her intellectual base in metallurgy science; and because she possesses abundant natural resources for steel production. It is without doubt that Nigeria has the capacity to become Africa’s voice in the international market place for the manufacture, marketing and exportation of rods,” Kumar said.


He added that indigenous steel producing companies were doing enough to bridge the local demand-supply chain, adding that domestic rod production could reach 1,250,000 tonnes by 2013.
Kumar urged the Federal Government to improve on the nation’s infrastructure to encourage more investors to go into the production of steel and iron rods locally.

Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, African Foundries Limited, Uche Iwuamadi, said that local rod manufacturer would address the nation’s unemployment crisis. According to him, the steel making industry attracts skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labour, which Nigerian has in abundance.
“Recycling of scrap metal entails getting scavengers to go get waste metal objects and supply mills that use them to produce rods. About 5000 people alone have been known to be gainfully employed and supplying us with the scrap metals we recycle for our production,” he said.


The Technical Director of African Foundries Limited, Ravi Sharma, said that building collapse in Nigeria should not be blamed on use of substandard iron rods. He said that rods alone have not been known to be the cause of building collapse.
“There is the need, however, for more government’s intervention in checking the importation and production of substandard building materials. We manufacture under full international certifications such as ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001:2004, OHSAS 18001:2007 and NIS 117:2004 of international certification by RINA, ones that meet the International Finance Corporation and World Bank guidelines”, he added.

awodman: Following its announcement last year that it intends to invest $1 billion in Nigeria, General Electric (GE) has scheduled the groundbreaking for its $250 million manufacturing and assembly plant for Tuesday in Calabar.

The ceremony will be performed by Vice President Namadi Sambo.

When completed in the next three years, the facility will be the biggest in Africa and will have an additional operating expenditure of about $1 billion in the next ten years.

Besides, it intends to make Calabar the hub of its manufacturing activities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Expectedly, Calabar is agog with various activities just as economists have been listing the impacts GE’s arrival will have on the economy of Cross River State in particular and Nigeria as a whole.

Prof. Ndem Ayara, the Economic Adviser to Cross River State Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, said, “The biggest infrastructure gap we have is in the energy sub-sector.

The expectation is that they are coming to close that gap between energy that is available and the energy we need. They are going to provide energy that will support other sectors of the economy.” Ayara said apart from creating employment opportunities by stimulating investments in other sectors of the economy, thus creating a multiplier effect, Cross River as the host state will become the cashment area or primary beneficiary of direct employment from GE.

“Cross River as the hub, will have the advantage of being the immediate market. Indigenes of the state will benefit from employment, especially if what GE seeks is skilled labour.”

Speaking in a similar vein, the head of Cross River State Investment Bureau, Mr. Gerald Ada said “the investment by GE will add approximately 2500 skilled jobs and several unskilled jobs in the supply and distribution chain.

“There will be various opportunities triggered from this
investment as GE suppliers will follow suit.”

Source:www.vanguardngr.com/2013/06/ge-breaks-ground-for-250m-manufacturing-and-assembly-plant-in-calabar/

naptu2: LAGOS IN THE 1800s

During the 1850s there was a large influx into Lagos of educated Africans, who had earlier been sold as slaves, from Sierra Leone, Brazil and Cuba. Their return profoundly affected the history of Lagos. The Sierra Leonians were known as Akus or Saros, the Brazilians and Cubans as Agudas. The Agudas were mainly Catholics, skilled artisans and craftmen who had purchased their freedom and returned home to their “country” of origin. The Akus or Saros were slaves (or descendants of slaves) rescued by the British naval squadron that patrolled the high seas on the look-out for slavers. The Saro émigrés were mainly missionaries (Protestants), teachers, clerks, or traders. All of the returned émigrés had their homes in one of the hinterland kingdoms – Ijebu, Egba, Ekiti, Oyo-Ibadan, Nupe. Most were probably shipped from Lagos, but none seemed to have been Lagosians.

The composition of populations in Lagos in the 1880s was as follows: Brazilians 3,220, Sierra Leonians 1,533 and Europeans 111, out of a population of 37,458. of all the population 30 ½ per cent (11,049) were engaged in commerce as merchants, traders, agents, clerks and shopmen, 5,173 were tradesmen, mechanics, manufacturers and artisans; 1,414 were farmers and agricultural labourers. In 1871 only 9 2/3 per cent of the population were in commerce, 5 per cent in agriculture. In 1881 the percentage of agricultural workers dropped to 3 ¾ while that of commercial workers jumped to 30 ½. Lagos was therefore predominantly a commercial city. Most of the population was animist in 1868, 14,797 as opposed to 8,422 Muslims and 3,970 Christians.

In the 1880s there were four distinct groups in Lagos – the Europeans, the educated Africans (Saros), the Brazilians and the indigenes. The town was physically divided into four quarters corresponding to these groups. The Europeans lived on the Marina, the Saros mainly west of the Europeans in an area called Olowogbowo, the Brazilians behind the Europeans – their quarter was known as Portuguese Town or Popo Aguda or Popo Maro – and the indigenes on the rest of the island – behind all three.

The Saros were culturally closer to the Europeans than to either of the other two groups. The top social class of Lagos of the 1880s was dominated by the Europeans – merchants, missionaries, civil servants. The Saros tried to gain admission into this class. The criteria for membership were education and wealth. In this sense, the educated elite, both black and white, could be considered as members of the same social group. They lived like Victorian gentlemen, entertainment consisting of numerous ‘conversaziones’, ‘soirees’, ‘levees’, ‘at homes’, ‘tea fights’ and concerts of the works of Bach, Beethoven, Handel and so on. The press had music critics; one irate critic lamented that concerts had fallen to the level of music-hall entertainment. Christmas was a season of Victorian festivities. As one newspaper editor enthused “Balls are announced and concerts and athletic sports, dinners, with the accessories of plump turkeys, minced pies, plum puddings and Christmas trees. Fineries of all sorts and conditions. All the elite seemed to lack was snow. Their dressing and eating habits were predictably Victorian. Most of them were profuse in their loyalty to the queen. In 1881 the Lagos Times prayed for the success of British arms in Ashanti. It declared: “we are so jealous of the Power of British arms that we would not have it suffer the slightest reverse.” The Imperial Federation League found enthusiastic support in Lagos. Several prominent Saros, J.A.O Payne, J.J Thomas and S.J. George came to Britain for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1887 at their own expense.

Life styles among the indigenes continued as before. They ate the normal Yoruba dishes of maize, cassava, yams and Yoruba sauces. They dressed in the same large flowing cloak, called Agbada, and baggy trousers. The Saro educated elite wore the lates London fashions – stiff collars and heavy woolen suits. The traditional elite continued to dress as they had always done but had developed new drinking habits. An observer described Dosunmu as “a good tempered, easy going man, much given to pomp …(he) possessed a hundred wives and innumerable suits of apparel. Visitors are always regaled with Champagne whenever they go to see him and I have heard he kept a most luxurious table.” Whitford wrote that when he met Dosunmu, the Oba was “attired in a clean loose white rob; red silk velvet slippers encase his large feet and gold, silver and brass rings profusely adorn his thumbs, fingers and wrists.”

The press exhibited a deep preoccupation with what it regarded as the essentials of society. The editor of the Eagle and Lagos Critic, Mr E.O Macaulay, writing in 1883, described the society of a place as that class of its community which comprised its ruling body, which absorbed by its influence all other ‘societies’ (he found four in Lagos – the Muslims, the Brazilians, the indigenous and the English, which of course, included the Saros) into its unit and imposed its rules of conduct on the other ‘societies’. To despise the society of the ruling class, Macaulay said, was to commit social suicide. He held that Sir John Glover, governor of the colony, 1866 – 72, understood this and therefore had given Lagos ‘society’ some directions. Glover collected at Government House the most prominent, intelligent and promising of the inhabitants of Lagos whom he created into a society, i.e. “a union in one general interest, social sympathy, companionship”. This society had “name and influence above any other, men and women aspired to become members of it and its doors were open to all who proved themselves (worthy)”. After Glover’s departure, this society was left by successive governors to go ‘moribund’. In 1883, Macaulay continued, it “was almost at death’s doors. With the cord of society thus broken, the various groups considered themselves to be of common social level; a new social egalitarianism developed, each group evolving its own code of rules. The divisions increased fear and suspicion and forced each group to seek strength in unity: it was this that brought tribal sentiments and the formation of tribal associations. Suspicions increased; jealousy, ill-will and rancour followed, judgment perverted and man ceased to be estimated by his intrinsic worth”. Every entertainment that was directed from Government House was seen as “an amelioration of the sad condition of society” in the 1880s. in 1884 the press called for the governor to resume his position as “Social Head” of Lagos.

The governors themselves testified to the high level of civilised society in Lagos. Governor Young in 1885 said Lagos was his first contact with civilisation since he left England. The administrators of Lagos found it impossible to keep up the high level of social entertainment Lagos demanded. And requests for increase in table allowances and salaries were frequent. Griffith described Lagos as “the Queen of West African settlements”. He went on: “ no single settlement on the West coast can compare with Lagos in public expenditure, in imports, and exports, in population or in activity, enterprise, and wealth of her mercantile community…Her merchants are unbounded in their hospitality. They entertain liberally and place the choicest and most expensive services on their tables. Even the natives will offer champagne to visitors…they keep open house and everywhere a cordial welcome awaits a stranger.” Griffith asked for horses and a carriage because both the white and black merchants had them. The Colonial Office, in one of those priceless minutes, thought mules and a carriage would suit the deputy governor best.


"Modern and Traditional Elites in the Politics of Lagos" by Patrick Dele Cole, King's College Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1975 at p 45 - 47.

jakaiso: Cant totatlly agree with you. Even without being the capital-Lagos couldn have modestly deveopled-at least far ahead of many States:
1) Its bordered by an ocean and could have had a sea port-.
2) Its the entry point from Ghana/Togo/benin and would have had customs.
3) It would have been under the development program of Awolowo/AG from 1955 to 1963
4) It was the main point of entry for the arrival of British ships in the 19th century.
5) Its where the Brazilian freed slaves came.They built many solid infrasture even before Lagos was made the capital ( in those days Calabar was the capital)-before ANY nigerian city had modern or european style buildings -

Lago

talktimi: even though we're usually on opposite sides of the divide, i like the way you present your points & arguments in a very concise and articulate manner.

KenGali: She went to Lagos because she knows that it is the place where more than half of the money derived from her states (Delta State) resources is locked in both by siting of oil firms offices mining her lands, and the monthly handout to Lagos state by Federal Govt. of funds that truly belong to the hardworking people of Delta State.
So why then should she be deported?

berem: @ naptu,i guess your posts has something to do with a thread i posted some months ago about a street urchin turned vulcanizer.thanks for making that thread reach frontpage.