₦airaland Forum

BlueDiva:
@babyx,
Oya, send your account number.

@netotse,
You guys job seems quite challenging.
We need to see result from all these una hard work as per megawatts.

I'm on a sabbatical from the nigerian power sector o (been out of it for a year), the place was killing my morale. . .I work in manufacturing now,

I'll prolly go back to the power sector this year or next, (when the reforms are kicking in,) still spend a lot of time at our power plant at work(we generate our own power). . .

lol. . .the spokesperson dude is trying to be clever by half. . .

In simple english he's saying that the men that the army gave to the lagos state govt are the same men the army directed to 'enforce' discipline in lagos, so there was no net deployment of soldiers to lagos. There was simply a redeployment

AjanleKoko:
Care to expantiate?

hmmm. . .

when I arrived here, all I knew was power o, for most other things I would resort to 'iko', but I've been inducted into the wonderful (and often confusing) world of induction motors, sensors and lastly automation.

In addition, I figured I would be just an 'electrical engineer' but funnily enough I got drafted into predictive maintenance and that has changed my worldview as far as engineering is concerned, I no longer think in terms of 'what do I do if/when that machine breaks down' I've been brainwashed   to think what can I do to ensure that even if this machine were to breakdown I would be able to detect it sufficiently early enough that it doesn't affect production/reliability.

I'm better able to understand/relate with mechanical engineers especially since out of 25 people in my department we're only 6 electrical engineers(by training), heck sometimes the electrical engineers(by JD) say I'm almost a mechanical engineer(na so e easy reach? na just local champion I dey use shalo them  ). I still feel having a mech engr as HOD is somewhat holding me back, there's stuff I cant discuss with him, he just wont get. . .smh

I can better appreciate the interface between maintenance and production (I still think production people are annoying   ) things like reliabilty factor, availability factor and utility factor have crept into my lexicon.

In order to measure up to departmental standards, I had to read fire just to understand the process and it affected the way I try to understand engineering concepts, ultimately all the stuff I had to learn in school is starting to make sense.(people tend to get tired of the pedantic way I approach things. . .hehehehe)


etc etc ati be be lo. . .

all that said, I have stuff to be grateful for and stuff to be pissed about. . .still think I could've done better given more (a bit of an oliver twist aren't I? )

@sefago
is that graduate naija help still valid?

hey pple,


I've been here for a year now. . .mennnn time flies o, It was only yesterday that I was a newbie now meself wan dey form 007 with awon boys

I've grown quite a bit, I dont get angry as often as before (even though my brain dey touch once in a while sha ),

I think I'm becoming a more complete engineer too. . .that said, the boys are becoming restless

had a quiet appraisal this year, didn't make any statements (I no get energy to dey have 'talks' with anyone again. . .)

one of my new year resolutions is to always close before 7.00pm so I try to get to work 7.00am and leave 5-6ish, so far so good it's working. . .

going on leave next week. . .yay!!!! no rotating machinery, no radios, no toolbox talks for 15 days

you could use an insect repellant, either the cream (odomos) or the mortein one(electric), I've used both and they work

jmaine:
Promising news . .He sounded so assured . . .but we ought to seek a confirmation to his bold declaration of 60% cut in emoluments ( but their constituency funds should be deleted if possible, cos they virtually do nothing with it) . . .I

I stopped taking him serious when I read this part. . .

efisher:
He debunked assertions that members of the National Assembly were earning millions of naira as salaries monthly, noting that the entire package was not more than N435,000.

http://www.punchng.com/news/nass-will-cut-2012-budget-lawmaker/

if it was just 435,000 people would be selling their souls to the devil abi? the fellow must think we are brain-damaged abi. . .rubbish and nonsense!

@mark

paste the questionnare in this thread (or you can attach it) i'll fill it and re-attach it here

@mods
this thread would do better in culture no?

hercules07:
@netotse

Is the government still pumping money into Generation or they are deregulating it?

yes and no, govt will invest in a couple of hydro power stations(e.g. mambilla) seeing as they are more capital intensive, but they (FGN) will leave the gas/steam power stations to private investors.

BlackPikiN:
Prof. Nnaji remains the best(for now) power minister Nigeria have had in years.
His work speaks for him.
Now you (mumu) list all the minister of power Nigeria had since 1999 til date.
Prof. Nnaji has done very well within a very short time but there's always room for improvement.

you wouldn't believe it but Nnaji is the only one out of all of tham that has anything resembling experience in the power sector. . .

@A-zed
Because of the sensitive and capital intensive nature of transmission, it's best to leave it in the hands of govt. also, the power is not sold to the transmission company, it(transco) merely collects a "toll" (you can call it that), the power purchase agreement is between the generation companies(genco) and distribution companies(disco)

It isn't advisable to have different companies build their transmission networks because then redundancy between islands will still be an issue, also what if the genco A in maiduguri has the lowest cost electricity how will disco B in lagos purchase the electricity from it? will the construct lines all the way to maiduguri for their exclusive use?

P.S. what is in osun state is the NCC, national control centre, the transmission company is located all over the nation.

blacksta:
Just what i stated earlier - Many here behave like they lack formal education.  

what is the name of the transition company  - where is their struture.

I guess  it is another one of those "  23 licences given to refinery operators"

as far back as 2007, OBJ wanted to name James Olotu (he's the present head of NIPP) as the CEO of NELMCO but the PHCN union no gree, govt has been trying to privatise the sucessor companies but union no dey gree make the posible investors visit the site to inspect the stations, how do you expect govt to achieve anything meannigful if the workers are trying to sabotage them at every turn?

All the successor companies have CEOs (which could of course change when they're sold).

BTW, the MD of NELMCO is Dr. Sam Agbogun(I only know his name,  I dont know his gist)

@gbawe
you have a point sha the extra income isn't that much. . .


@xavier
the figures are per month o, if you earn 3m a year you still fall under the 0 - 300k band, so you're paying less P.A.Y.E. na the armed robbers wey dey earn above 3m a month don enter one chance

@aletheia
na why I put "?" in the topic o, I still dey look for other sources to corroborate the matter o. . .even though the pepper sellers I work for should know what they're talking about

oyb:
netotse is lookin' for chinko booty

lol. . .all the chinko ones wey I don see here flat pass my own sef , so I guess I'll just stick to our homegrown sturvs. . .

thanks for the tips, I'll download the adblocker asap, I use chrome and firefox at work(mostly firefox sha)

I got this mail from HR a couple of minutes ago:

The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria recently signed into law some amendments to the Personal Income Tax Act (PITA). The two main changes as follows:

1. The current Personal Relief Allowance (PRA) which was defined as N50,000 plus 20% of Earned Income, will be replaced by the Consolidated Relief Allowance (eRA). The value of this relief allowance has been increased. The definition is somewhat contradictory in the amendments and this has been pointed out to the Federal Inland Revenue Service by various Tax Experts.

2. A new Income Tax Table has been introduced as follows:

Before:

First N30,000 taxed at 5%
Next N30,000 taxed at 10%
Next N50,000 taxed at 15%
Next N50 000 taxed at 20%
Above N160 000 taxed at 25%

Now:

First N300,000 taxed at 7%
Next N300,000 taxed at 11%
Next N500,000 taxed at 15%
Next N500,000 taxed at 19%
Next NI, 600,000 taxed at 21%
Above N3, 200,000 taxed at 24%

If this is a palliative measure it's not a bad first move if you ask me. . .

does anyone know where in lagos I can find the barrons for the new GRE?

@tollu
lol. . .

@thread
I'm an introvert too, a lot of stuff here applies to me. . .heck learning to dance help me become more confident (still cant dance but I sure as hell have fun doing so anyway  ), and I'm known to say my mind when the mood catches me (I get a lot of 'he didnt just say that!' looks. . .lol)

@cogent
yeah we do, I for one tend to look for a nexus of some sort (not necessarily emotional) before I commit my time and emotions to any relationship (business or otherwise)

abeg o. . .you people should not let them sack me

Practically all of the ads that appear on the front page are one kind, one kind. . .if my boss should see them only heaven knows what damage it would do to me errrr. . .sterling reputation

I think admin should understand that not all the ppl that visit NL are juveniles, it we're going to have ads they should be sensible now. . .abi I dey lie?

P.S.

that it's google adsense cant be used as an excuse o. . .

see the attached as an example, who wouldn't think I'm visiting a dating site if they saw this over my shoulder. . .

@cecegorz and AJ

you guys might find this interesting, it's about mobile money. . .

okay. . .I'm being held hostage in my office. . .bros J is around and his security ppl are not smiling,

seen some guns you only see in the movies. . .lol. I shouldn't have come to work today sef.

the whole thing is a circus!. . .

hey pple, compliments of the season!!!

come see as pple dey vex for here ontop say them tax 13th month o. . .it's not easy. . .lol

of which we're having inauguration in a couple of days and bros J himself is supposed to be coming,

being seeing awon boys coming around to check security arrangements. . .whole thing's going to be a circus. . .bah

debosky:
I heard y'all are now exporting power to the national grid? Abeg land dey beside your site? Lemme build my country home there with 24/7 electricity.

lmao. . .no be naija?. . .they plan to do so but they haven't started yet.

AjanleKoko:
Frenzied end to a very successful year for me and my team.
Next year will be interesting, with QoS and number portability the hot items with the regulator.
The SIM registration exercise made this year quite interesting, as it cut into the gross additions targets for 2011. But we did pretty good. I hope we'll impress the shareholders, we definitely didn't achieve budgeted revenues, but still made a very strong showing. Anyhow, bonuses must show face .

you best believe. . .but with the bonuses comes annual appraisals. . .*sigh* I think I'm going to have a quiet one this year. . .I dont have energy to cause wahala anymore. . .

@thread
I'm getting tired of this whole mech engrs being the favoured bunch setup. . .let's see what the new year holds sha. . .

@wallie
lmao. . .

@thread
. . .I had a roller coaster week!

I stopped the Kiln** on wednesday. . .or so the chinese engineers say. The drive had been overheating(the kiln is turned by a variable speed motor so it has a drive

in a panel located in a substation). The menu on the panel was in chinese so a colleague changed the language to english(they didn't know we could do that  )

and I was checking the fault history, my colleague was like "let's leave before this thing trips" and I replied "abeg free me, do I look like I'm playing here". . .next

thing the machine tripped, a few seconds later, like 4 chinese engineers appeared in the substation and asked the labourer monitoring the panel what happened,

the dude pointed at me. . .lol, next thing they started screaming in chinese and terrible english, me sef I raked back(I was scared o. . .), then their commissioning

manager came, he now called the plant manager who is my N + 4(he didn't even call my boss sef. . .yeye chink), I sharply sent a text to my boss, "sir,

there's been an incident. . ., " . . .lolcome and see the english/chinese and theatrics (the chinks used style to give the panel time to cool down before they could started

the drive again), surprisingly, when the plant manager showed up(with most of the plant excom in tow. . .trust naija now), I sha said my bit after the chinks

practically accused me of sabotage, thankfully the ogas had discussed the problems with that drive earlier that morning so my story was plausible.

In the end, I sha got a "we all make mistakes" speech from my N+2 (the plant manager didn't even stay long sef. . .), men. . .I've been gentle since then o.

now some of my friends at work call me kiln stopper, but that day, It wasn't funny at all o. . .

In other related news, I went out today and bought myself this really cute 5" adjustable spanner, It's so pretty I'm not sure I'm going to be able to use it to loosen/tighten any bolts. . .NOT!!!! (yes I just described a tool as cute. . .dont hate )

Chapi:
@netotse, Tanks 4 your concern, I have HND in Elect/Elect(power) 2008. Served in 2009. I did IT with PHCN in 2003, I ve work with a contractor installing prepayment meter 4 PHCN. 2009, work with an India Company that are into installation of UPS, Inverter, Transformer, AVR and other Electrical work. 2010. But at the moment I'm a Technician in bank, I wish to go back to the power sector to continue my career.

k. . .your background is pretty good, you seem to be more distribution oriented, I dont think there are any IT programs that'd be of much use, however knowing how to use excel well is always a plus for any engineer, methinks you should focus on improving your skill set so when you get the chance to go back to the power sector you'll be ready.

Ultimately, as an engineer, when an interviewer is in front of you, he's trying to gauge what you have to offer aka what you can do. . .having a lot of certificates is a step in the right direction but still it isn't as good as being confident enough in your abilities such that the interviewer cant help but think "damn this guy knows his onions!"

knowing how to use them power flow softwares wont hurt if you're looking to get into transmission when the reforms move into high gear.

fury:
Hi netotse, Ajalenkoko etal, i wish to commend you guys for the great job you have done keeping this thread alive and informative.I graduated with a 2.1 in EE power option in 2010 and just completed my NYSC. My zeal for power was similar to the one expressed by netotse earlier in the thread. Now that i'm thru with service though, i'm not so sure anymore. I worked as a pre NYSC trainee in Rockson Engineering Ph (they are involved in the building of most of the generating stations in naija,from alaoji in Abia to gbarain in Bayelsa, including the new one in kaduna). I thought that I'll get all the exposure i'll need in power during my stay there, only to discover that most of the work there are contracted out to foreign companies (like General Electric) who supply and install the turbines. to make matter worse i served in the north as a teacher.Now that i'm thru with service, i'm just confused as to where to go from here. My goal was to be a design guru in power systems( i've learnt Autocad on my own to a reasonable degree).can't pursue masters cos there's no fund.I'm very confused.pls advice

*sigh* I'm not sure where to start. . .why didn't you serve in Rockson? or PHCN? networking would have been much easier then, I got my first job after NYSC through someone I met during my IT in PHCN, although the job sucked, it was still something. . . If you're still interested in power, my advice to you would be to keep your eyes open and continually seek information as well as contacts, I know activity in the power sector should pick up soon(hopefully from next year) getting jobs in the power sector now is basically a function of the information you have or who you know. I've deviated from power for a bit(long story), the skills I'm learning now are applicable in power so I'm not worried about being relevant when the power sector picks up

teeo:
am sorry to say this but it seem this forum has not really been to help to the fresh graduates on this forum. The big guns just speak electrical terms that we the freshers dont understand and give us little without any serious pointer on what to really do to devlop. If we receive help from u definately a day would come when we would also teach others, am a fresh graduate with 2.1in electrical electronics engineering. Pls show us the way.

my advice to you is to network. . .start to develop contacts, seek out knowledge relevant to what you want to do, seek out people that do what you want to do, learn from them. . .that's what I do and it's serving me well

one more thing. . ."I'm sorry to say this". . .wrong approach. . ."nuff said

@chapi, fury and teeo
I'll keep my eyes peeled, If I hear anything I'll come here and share it. . .

I saw a job ad a while ago, you could try it, it might still be open

okay, I'm starting to turn into that person I said I would never let my self become:

one of those people that go to work in the morning, come back at night too tired to do anything but sleep. (well, I call my girlfriend before I sleep sha. . . )

This past week has been lousy, I've consistently worked more than 12hours er'day. . .I barely have time to eat sef nowadays

The annoying thing is that It isn't only paperwork I've been doing, so instead of being just mentally tired, I'm also physically tired

There's just soooo much work to do. . .heck I'm starting to get short tempered

Thankfully I enjoyed my sallah break sha. . .I need to get away from this village more often!

jennykadry:
He is not an orphan? His father isnot dead, his father is well and alive.can you people please stop giving these un necessary excuses? Sommeone told him to live like an orphan,seriously?live like an orphan when you have a father?. As long as his father is alive, he has to step up and take care of his 24 year old son.


@DAYO
Only an irresponsible father will use that line of" I can spend my money whichever way I want to.even as a mother, I can never make such a statement, the min you bring a child into this world that statement takes the back seat. Its no longer all about you, it's all about them. Get over it

my old man used that phrase on me years ago o, then he was telling me I was developing habits that would be difficult to sustain on my own. . .

My story is similar DK's own(esp the not getting any money after NYSC bit), there's nothing like knowing that you're standing on your own feet/merit, it's a feeling I'd want my children to have.

I think we should teach our kids to be independent and if life throws curve balls, we should be there to help them face the situations if it's beyond them, The OP is having issues because he hasn't learnt to be independent, not because his dad is wicked. I've battled emotions such as he is facing but thankfully, I was able to overcome them and I can tell you, knowing that your dad didn't make any phone calls or talk to anyone to get you a job is one of the best feelings a young man can have.

@chapi
when the power companies want to employ, they'll be looking at your experience, not necessarily your certificates. . .

I have a few questions to ask you, hope you dont mind. . .

what's your profile? done with school? when? are you serving? where? what's your interest in power?

@op
it depends on what your goals are. . .but it's pretty certain that it will shape your career to some extent. How much? only time can tell!

Chapi:
House pls help, Which IT course can best match my career as an Electrical Engineer (Power). And where can I enroll in Abuja. Thanks.

cant think of any IT course o, knowing how to use microsoft office(excel, word and power point) are useful as general skills. . .you dont need to go to an IT centre for those.

try to get your hands on some of the power system analysis software (NEPLAN, ETAP powerworld) and toy around with them, there's this game called power grid on the DOE(US dept of energy) website that'll be useful.

My guess is you're trying to make your CV look good, am I right?

DOGI DOPE:
its their business paddle your own canoe,moreover na people you go watch for airport?

I'm guilty of the bolded as well it's a hell of a lot of fun. . .

@thread
while I belong firmly to the not-talking-to-you-when-i'm-pissed school of thought or the one-word-answers school of thought, the part I fail to understand is why a man would let his wife and kids struggle with baggage (his or theirs all join). The dude should just take the luggage and continue not talking to her nii. . . that's part of being a (married)man, there are things they(emphasis on the they     ) SHOULD/MUST do irregardless of how you feel at the moment.

Being the bigger/stronger/whatever-you-want-to-call-it-person means that there are times you need to suck it up and do the right thing even if you've done the wrong thing in your head a million times over!

There's nothing manly about letting your emotions make you come across as retarded IMNSHO

oyb:
in my second and final week of some long overdue leave - and the fecking calls just keep coming in

yodiyokun:
Ajanlekoko,

Vacation has a way of ending eh!. Look forward to the long xmas break.

una just dey opress me o. . .

no christmas break for me (in fact I dey on-call on christmas day gan gan. . .), new year I'm not sha, torn between spending it in gidi and going to abj to spend it with my *cough*family*cough*

@Ajanlekoko

AjanleKoko:
No vex.
Baby AjanleKoko is keeping me up late nights

Let's touch base whenever you can jare.

Baby?. . .congrats o. . .you no qualify for paternity leave ni?

lol. . .I no know say we plenty for this zones. . .lol

been using glasses for the past 17 years even technically I've only ever worn them half of that period  (I dey break fire )

I'm short sighted as well as astigmatic, the astigmatism is more of a problem though,

How I started? my elder sis got hers and I was jealous so I used to put my face in front of the TV, the rest is history. . .

my current pair of glasses: the safety kind with shields on the handles (I work outdoors most of the time so I no get choice)

Would I try contacts: naaahhhhhh, not of fan of toying with my eyes. . .

had an annual medical test last week and the optometrist was of the opinion I need to get a stronger pair of glasses that guy is on a looooonnnnnggggg thing! (been wearing my current pair for  3 months after a 2 year break)