₦airaland Forum

Legislative? I am not 100% sure but wasn't all the sovereign national conference outcry coming from the opposition and civil society?

The point I am trying to make is, Daniel is implying here that he specifically joined the obj train because of the promise of a sovereign national conference being convened which is a load of bull. I do not recall at anytime any urgency on the part of the pdp to put the issue on the front burner

He did not explicitly state how the 3rd term bid stifled the sovereign national conference though. Sounds like the usual tales by moonlight of Nigerian politics like Daniel expects us to believe he was silently championing for it

Gbawe:
The main problem with you is that you do not have even a basic grasp of evolution as applied to nation building , the struggles that led to the emergence of strong national institutions and the pragmatic agitation that have preceded the enshrinement of sustainable political tenets and ideology. In the history of most nations of the world, developmental, societal and political evolution has involved the notion of good men , rather than stand aside impotently only to criticise as you do,  pragmatically embracing "the better devil" as a precursor to the birth of the beautiful ones.

What do you actually want? That twenty Winston Churchills, 30 Marcus Garveys and 50 Martin Luthers will suddenly appear to deliver Nigeria ? We have to work with what we have in recognising that progressive national evolution , differently paced for every nation , includes a need to deal with the prevailing political and socio-economic conditions of the day. You seem not to believe in anything or anyone and I really dont see how your stance , most of the time, is not defeatist and unhelpful.

Excellent post. There are 2 ways our country can make any significant progress, either through a violent overthrow of some sorts which will have to involve a few selfless individuals ready to risk life and limb all for the greater good, resist the attractions of absolute power (will be needed to bring some sanity to government) which I seriously doubt is happening any time soon. The more realistic and much slower path will be for a regular occurrence of  'anomalies' like Fashola which rise from within the establishment, stir the pot gently but ultimately raise the bar and create a window of opportunity for more such occurrences.

I do not know the inner workings of the squabbles within the AC but there is no doubt that the goodwill Fashola has built up over the past 4 years will play a large part in him getting the nomination for a second term (if he does) in spite of the possible friction between himself and Tinubu. It is beyond delusion to expect some outsider like a Gani for instance to rise out of nowhere, defeat BOTH the establishment AND the short sighted general populace and take over the reigns of government while the establishment say 'bravo, well done sir, we were outmatched by your superior values and intellect'.

Katsumoto:
Again, you get it wrong. The house unseated Akintola; under the parliamentary system, the governor exercised his power to sack Akintola. Adegbenro was elected and then there was brouhaha. It was never Awo's intention to return as premier. Awo just wanted the party's ideology to be implemented but Akintola thought otherwise. That point has been made. Even Prof Aluko confirmed it. Akintola wanted an elitist (feudal) structure as practiced in the North while AG had a democratic socialism ideology. No one has any business to be in a party in which they do not agree with the political philosophy.

Exactly! ethically, he's position was no longer tenable after he got dismissed by the party. You cannot talk of stooges when in a parliamentary system these 'stooges' are the source of the legitimacy he had to being premier! Awo himself cannot lay claim to being party leader if enough 'non stooges' existed within the party.

toba1909:
The above word in bold is a ruse.
The uproar that occurred in the house was as a result of the game of the AG that was leaked to the NNDP. The move was blocked by Hon. Oke, which eventually led to the uproar.

Can you tell me what happened in the North and East that is more violent than the West parliament uproar then?

The game? what game? If you are referring to the TOS Benson article I posted earlier then you should take unverifiable excuses with a grain of salt. I mean, comeon! they realised that based on pure numbers Akintola will be impeached and decided the best course of action was to disrupt parliamentary proceedings. He then proceeds to justify the nonsense by spouting some BS about some greek individual (nameless ofcourse) and the tales by moonlight about getting revenge for the AG stealing the 51 elections (I believe I have gone through that already a couple of times on here).

In regards to Awo being autocratic in style, you have to take into account that he initially deemed some of the AG's most lauded achievements (minimum wage, free education) as unfeasible and it was down to party pressure and better arguments being put forward that those policies saw the light of day. Akintola's actions were morally and ethically indefensible, if he took issue with the leadership of the party he had the power to form he's own party and I believe dissolve parliament and call for an election.

Dude, the opponents DID go to court and they DID win in court. SLA changed the rules mid-game to keep himself in power rather than respect the court ruling. The bit about George Bush with all due respect makes no sense. Bush won (I think Al Gore conceded before the case was concluded) at the apex court, SLA lost at the apex court, turned around and changed the laws to invalidate the ruling that did not favour him.

TOS Benson's own recollection of events complete with he's bizaro logic :
http://www.dawodu.com/benson2.htm

"On the D-day in the Western House of Assembly, AG and NNDP/NCNC alliance members each sat on opposite sides and galleries and each on the side of the seat where honourable members of their camp were to be based as they trooped into the Assembly Chambers. But the NNDP/NCNC alliance was ready with the machinery it set up to stop and rubbish the AG. Riot police with guns and teargas canisters strapped to their waists were combat ready for any eventuality."

"As honourable members entered the Chambers, the Chief Whip of the NNDP/NCNC alliance counted them. The two candidates for the office were Chief Akintola for the NNDP/NCNCN alliance and Chief A.S. Adegbenro for the Action Group. After the Speaker had entered the Chambers, it became clear that majority of members were on the side of the AG."

"He got up from the back row where he sat and jumping from one table to the other shouting repeatedly "Fire on the Mountain, Run, Run, Run". He kept up the chant and the jumping exercise. Thus there was great confusion in the House as members packed their bags and baggage out of the Assembly chambers. The honourable member representing Ajeromi-Ajegunle Constituency, Mr. Ebube Dike, an Igbo settler from Okigwe, raced to the Speaker's table and made for the mace to hit it on the Speaker's head. The Speaker, Prince Adeleke Adedoyin dodged it and the mace hit on the table and broke into pieces."


Now Awo's counter motion during the state of emergency debates and notice which politicians used violence as a means to an end:

http://www.waado.org/nigerdelta/FedGovt/Federalism/emergency_rule/western_region_awolowo.html

@Dayokanu

As some other posters have said already. the wetie incident was a revolt against an undeniably unpopular government and I may be wrong but I do not recall any official support of the violence and rioting from Awo.

Saying Akintola took some sort of intellectual high road is also wrong, the man and he's cohorts bent the rules and did all he could to hold on to power at all costs. To continue from Katsumoto's recollection of events at the time

1. SLA did not enjoy majority support in the western house of assembly which anyone will agree is a prerequisite in the Westminster style government we had at the time. Now the 'intellectual' thing to do was to resign and/or dissolve parliament and test he's popularity. He did neither. He took the all too familiar route of hanging on to power by any means necessary and preventing a new premier from taking office.

2. TOS Benson has boasted countless times about how he instigated the disturbance in the western house of assembly by signalling for the parliamentary mace to be broken (draws direct parallels to the vulgar brand of contemporary democracy in Nigeria but I digress) in an attempt to prevent SLA's removal and force an unpopular government on the people of the region.

3. You say he resorted to the Law courts but you did not go through the specifics. The Supreme court in a deliberately loose interpretation of the regional constitution decided the Governor did not have the power to remove the premier without a direct mandate from parliament (thanks to the mace breaking incident this was not possible). The privy council overruled this judgement on the basis that the constitution did not explicitly state that parliamentary approval was needed and the Governor can sack a premier that did not enjoy the support of the majority at the regional assembly. So what did SLA (now premier via a combination of the faulty supreme court judgement and the state of emergency federal aide) do? retroactively changed the regional constitution to invalidate the privy council ruling which at that point in time was the highest court you could appeal to.

Blu Malam:
Something is being done right in the NDLEA. It should be studied, its by far the most effective security agency in the country. I mean, the coke beat German Security yet was intercepted here, and this is not the first time. Thumbs up.

Good point!

philip0906:
Its d culture of political thuggery in d south west(no pun intended).so d people already c it as a way of life dats y they keep shut.

What was the pun that wasn't intended?

Good stuff! thanks for that paddy_lo

A power cut = Power supply not meeting demand?   you lot keep cracking me up. No power failures in Mumbai,

debosky:
There are power cuts in Mumbai - not only the slums. Again, avoid making hasty comments. http://www.hindustantimes.com/Power-cuts-return-to--City-s-eastern-suburbs/Article1-535438.aspx

Analysts say that the availability of power in Mumbai is around 2,350 mw against the demand of over 3,000 mw. The deficit is increasing annually.

While issues of power generation/availability exist in Lagos, the government is trying to tackle them as we speak - asking the FG to sell the local distribution companies to LASG, so they can accelerate power development in Lagos. If you are saying all other issues must be solved in Lagos before embarking on large infrastructure projects like these, then you are mistaken. One does not need to happen before the other progresses.

LOL@ people dreaming up facts without bothering to check.

Kobojunkie:
Nope!! You challenged my claim and I asked you to prove me wrong. This is not about nairaland and it is quite logical to be asked to prove someone wrong. I stand by what I said, if you have any information that says what I posted is wrong, show it! It is really that simple/uncomplicated.

Yeah, sure that's how it works,  I should go get evidence that something that probably never happened did not happen? You do realise you did not post any information but made a rather vague allegation without any specifics? When was this claim made? Have a date and/or audience at said event so we can narrow down the window a bit?

Kobojunkie:
duh!! Prove me wrong . .  make my day!!

You said they claimed it was ppp, shouldn't you have evidence of this claim? Good ol nairaland where logic stands on its head.

Kobojunkie:
  How about we try this. Do you have evidence that he did not ?

LOL, got jokes!  You said the government said something and I should bring evidence they did not?

Kobojunkie:
@Kushe, I believe the major confusion with this project came when the Lagos State Governor became sort of a spokesperson for the project and started telling folks it was a PPP project . . . that was when the confusion came in as to who actually owns and is running this and who is not.

There are other similar projects right now happening in the same Lagos state, the difference is those estates are not working reclaiming land lost on the island. I believe there is an even massive estate project with similar ideals somewhere in Lagos. We were recently acquainted of it. The project is simply a large private estate, fully serviced and fully functional from day one for all those who purchase plots on it. Since the developers are private, if it falls short in the way Tinapa did, then the people do not have to worry since the people's money was not used at all.

There are settlements like this across Africa. Even in places like capetown, SA, and other parts. Some of them are gated communities while this one is possibly not gated but on a more massive scale(according to what I have been told of it). What I am saying is generally, the project is not really to be of bother to Lagoscians since it is private and not even PPP in the way we have come to consider PPP to mean. It is simply a private project that the governmor signed off on and that is that.

The hype is mostly that there is potential for huge influx of cash, jobs, etc from the island, but generally, the average person will not even be bothered much and life in lagos will not be affected much.

@Kobojunkie, do you have any evidence to show the Government 'started telling folks' it is a ppp project?

Besides, wasn't the midwest created in the 1st republic?

Beaf:
We will [b]soon [/b]have more states that are totally unviable and rely 100% on other states for sustainance.
Nigerias problem is not states, it is the lack of standards, organisation and institutions.

This rubbish will only take us back several decades. Our fake federal system only makes these things worse; lets have true federalism or break up.

Soon? most of them are a joke as it is. There are probably not more than 10 states that can stand on their own 2 feet without subventions.

Thanks for that GAR3TH!

@Akainzo, I am no Lawyer but if you can have a maximum floor size why cant you have a minimum? As per the 'city' name , no be 9ja? our naming convention no get part 2 mega/super are never far away from our tongue and no forget the 'city of london' is a square mile.

In regards to regenerating VI, I doubt you can get enough contiguous property space at current rates, knock them down, rebuild and make a profit on top of that. Not to mention the fact a lot of property owners will not sell, VI is a goldmine with ridiculous rental value.

I for one have no issue with private money going into a land reclamation project, the multiplier effect of job opportunities, tax revenue and a new business/residential district are all pluses with 1 major possible minus which based on GAR3TH's link is not just an after taught.

We do not all have to buy into it and most of us will not be able to afford to live there and that is ok. I expected the arguments against this project to be along the lines of Government not doing enough to take advantage of the project and do something along the lines of giving the investors tax breaks if they develop some low/mid income residential projects on the mainland or legislating a special tax for the area that can be used to generate seed money for a mortgage institution / building society geared towards lower income earners or something along those lines. Certainly not the tedious claims about glorified estate, neglect of the mainland and weather it is Tinubu or Abacha financing it. I remember the other thread about this project where some clown made some assertions like the project costing at least $100 billion and how he tried to get information and got nothing back which gives credence to some of the claims being made about people not simply stating their case but just arguing for the sake of it,

Paddy_lo has made some excellent, well reasoned points and the counter arguments have mostly being borderline ridiculous straw gripping except the ecological one which is a valid concern. The effects of a potential disaster will certainly outweigh any benefits of this sort of land reclamation and can potentially affect not just the reclaimed area but other parts of Lagos Island.  

@Paddy_lo has there being any indications that a thorough study of the environmental impact this project has being done?

Akainzo:
All of this on 4 square miles   You are definitely a sucker for advertisement and grand talking. bUt as it is, you are free to spend your money any where you deem fit.

Read Mr Chagouri's mail to you, he clearly also stated that they have no say in what the developers build, just that they need to conform to certain zoning. That they build one circular financial centre within the estate doesn't make it any better than what it is. That teh developers, can build whatever they want, so long as they conform to zoning.

And pray, tell me anywhere in the world that has a zoning formula /rule that stipulates the number of floors a building MUST HAVE within that zone. And please, don't confuse that highrises congregate together to mean that the zoning forced them to!

This is obviously a nice argument to be borrowed by our thieving politicians. Nigeria actually has so much money, so what if I take a small pittance out of it!

You do know the average size of a financial/central district is less than 4 square miles? How big do you think the square mile in London,the financial district in Manhattan or Jo'burg is? You also know there is (or at least was) a strict floor limit on buildings in Abuja. You also know that the area density is actually bigger than the (already congested) Victoria Island?

I also find the estate claims amusing, maybe Kobojunkie can give us a dictionary link of what an estate is so we can decide if 4 square miles / mixed use qualifies as a 'glorified estate'

Kennyblues:
Did Fashola pay those money to private school, think guy

I am sure he is referring to a tax (at least I hope so). I actuality think that is a fair point. Fashola has done a very good job so far but education is one area I think he is not doing enough.

gbengapro:
Mr desigiezd, you are either uninformed or mischievous. The truth from news report is that Alapini was injured, his car damaged and his windscreen broken. He could have been killed. Now put yourself in Alapini's shoes. What would you have done?

Christ on a flipping bike, how is that even remotely close to the article that was posted? Let me guess, we should watch out for part 2?

Kobojunkie: I have a question for you. I have myself not done much more than the website myself in the line of research on this, but since you are there QUICK to claim the reason @Onlytruth has yet to get additional data on this is because he does not know how to go about researching this. Now I know that what goes on CNBC, CNN, BBC are just advertisements, and many of these same sites tell you to go to the ekoatlantic website for more info. Could you possibly provide us with links to the detailed information you seem to be privy to?

Adverts on BBC? 

@Knowall, I posted the quotes and the links here not for the ethnic 1-upping some Muppet's on here are engaged in but to separate fact from the story land stuff that keeps getting regurgitated.

That Awo 'stole' an election has gone from the 'dem say dem say' claptrap it really is and is now stated as fact.  Actual facts:

1. AG declared their candidates on the day of the election, NCNC did not (they also got party members to sign their party affiliations afterwards which they did)
2. The electoral officer declared AG winner of the election BEFORE parliament opened
3. Zik wrote a congratulatory letter to the AG a few days after the election

The claim that IPP members (some of which had NO NCNC affiliations) stood the 1951 elections as NCNC members is laughable, Never mind that the IPP itself was created specifically to run in the 1951 election AS INDEPENDENTS TO REPRESENT Ibadan interests as alluded to in the article Dede1 posted.  Anyone actually interested in learning about our history and answers to the 1951 election issue can look at the footnotes on page 116 and 117 from Richard Sklars work on the 3 political parties of the time (posted the link below)

Dede1 can take a look at some of the 'magic' on the link as well as you will clearly see S. O. Lanlehin's name as an AG member at the very first meeting of the AG

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Oi0aVR4YkmUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

@Dede1, so now the AG 'stole' independents? I taught the accusation was NCNC members mass crossing over to AG?

By the way, the Ibadan peoples party members like S. O. Lanlehin and Akinloye were original founders at the AG! Their names are on the minutes for the inaugural AG meeting.

Tuyis:
Revisionism at work.

The most potent argument against Awolowo from some Igbo people have always been the carpet crossing episode in the Western house of Assembly, but having read all the posts on this thread and especially the blockbuster from nulldev, I have come to realise that, preventing Zik to become the premier of Western Region was the right thing to do.

Allowing him to become premier would have been tantamount to making EzeUche the governor of Oshun state!

Thats the thing though, he was not prevented from anything! what happened at the election directly parallels what happened after the last UK general elections. The AG had a majority (38 seats) but not the numbers needed to form a government on its own (41) so needed 3 independent candidates to form government, somehow NCNC with 24 seats looking to form a patched up coalition with independents was morally cheated!

This parallels a scenario where Labour claims it was cheated of power because they wanted to strike a deal with the Lib dems. Laughable stuff

Nigeria did not exist? your special

The 'Awo stole 1951 election' story is a fabrication that I see repeated (quite often) not only on this thread  but all over this forum, as I said under one of the many threads that this was parroted on, read the article below on NVS which analysed the 51 elections with candidate names and party affiliations.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/guest-articles/rebutting-ralph-uwechues-lie.html

For those allergic to reading, the long and short is this:

The total tally for the 1951 poll in the 80-member Western Regional Assembly was as follows: Action Group 38; Independent/AG 15; NCNC 24; Independent/NCNC 3. Three members of the NCNC who had been elected to the House changed party allegiance that day ahead of the House of Representatives vote. They were: Chief SY Kesington-Momoh, JG Ako, and Awodi Orisaremi, from Urhobo and Kukuruku Divisions.

Pray tell, how those that 'introduce tribalism into Nigeria'

Bear in mind the following

1. Egbe Omo oduduwa was formed years after the Ibo state union was formed with Zik as president.
2. The Nigerian youth movement of which Awo and Zik were members was dissolved as a result of the fallout of an election in 1941 between Samuel Akinsanya (supported by Zik) and Ernest Ikoli supported by Awo. Ikoli won said election and Zik's accusation at the time? That it was an Eko conspiracy against Ijebus! never mind that Awo was Ijebu.

Here is a quote unedited from Awos Biography written prior to independence on he's rivalry with Zik which should shed a lot more light on the politics of the time and put it in its proper context:

An article written by Zik himself, published on the front page of the Pilot, and entitled: "'Football Iliad, 1940 Edition'", shocked many people. It was a big step forward in an insidious campaign which had gone on for more than two years on the pages of the Pilot. A football team composed of students of the Christ the King's College, Onitsha, came to Lagos to play a 'Win the War' football match against St Gregory's College. The CKC team from Onitsha defeated St Gregory's team by 5 goals to 4. To the ordinary man in the street, let alone the highly sophisticated elements, there was nothing extraordinary or unusual in one school or college defeating another in a game of soccer. But not so with Dr Azikiwe. He saw in the sporting exploits and triumph of the team from Onitsha the inherent superiority of the easterners over their opponents, and he went to very great pains to establish this fact, by means of careful choice of words and emphasis. These extracts from the article are relevant: And then to think of the great combination of the Spartan heroes who crossed the lordly Niger, journeyed through the good earth of Benin, hurried across the domains of the Oshemawe of Ondo, of the Atanla of Owo, of the Owa of Ilesha, of the Oni of Ife, of the Alake of Abeokuta in their invasion of these islands!
Who, but heroes of mighty brawn and exceptionally developed brain would have dared to make this invasion and to succeed in carrying to their River Niger home, the Golden Fleece of InterCollegiate Soccer Championship of the Eastern and Western Provinces?
Yet they came to Lagos, they saw the irresistible defence put up by their opponents, and they conquered impressively, convincingly, and were graceful even in victory!
Could their achievement be paralleled?
Would it not be better for me to leave the answer to the laps of the gods?

On 24 August 1940, however, the same CKC team played in Ibadan against the Olubadan XI in another 'Win the War' match. The CKC were beaten 3-2 by the Olubadan XI which were an undiluted Yoruba team. Apart from sending the news to the Daily service myself, I also saw to it that it was wired to the Pilot. It was after there had been clamours in the Daily service, in form of letters to the editor, that the news of this Ibadan match was published some two weeks later in the Pilot. Even then, it was a small item on the back page, and it was explained in it that the CKC team were already tired and that some of them were in fact limping, before they went into the field against Olubadan XI. This was of course untrue.
I said before that the CKC episode was a big step forward in an insidious campaign which had gone on for more than two years on the pages of the Pilot. One or two more instances will be given. By the time the Pilot had published for a year, an important feature of the paper had become manifest. The Igbos in particular were given inordinate publicity on the pages of the paper. Perhaps this was as it should be. The Igbo had never had a share in newspaper publicity before the advent of the Pilot. But equally so, no Yoruba man of the class of the Igbos publicised in the Pilot ever had a share of publicity in any paper either. In those days one had to be an outstanding politician, a big shot in society, or a well-connected person, for one's name to appear in the Nigerian Daily Times, Nigerian Daily Telegraph andLagos Daily News. Of course if you had a friend working in the news or composing section of a paper, no matter who you were, you might be slipped in. Names of people like myself appeared in the papers simply because we were agitators or free-lance journalists. All the same, it was generally agreed that the Igbos needed all the boosting they could get.But Dr Azikiwe went about it in a manner which disgusted those of us who were used to describing citizens of Nigeria as Nigerians or Africans, and regarding their achievements as reflecting credit on Nigeria, indeed Africa, as a whole. The following are typical of the titles of front page news items and of editorial articles in the Pilot.


1. ' Ibo Young Man to Sail to U.K.' is the heading of a frontpage story and picture on September 23, 1938. The young man is Mr Jaja Wachuku, now Speaker of Nigeria's House of Representatives.
2. '14th West African Student, 10th Nigerian, 8th Ibo in U.S.A.' Another front-page story on January 28, 1939. The 8th Ibo is Mr Nwafor Orizu, now Senator in Nigeria's Upper House.
3. 'Ibo Medical Student Passes Exam In First Class Honours.' Yet another front page story, on June 26, 1940, of the brilliant success of Dr S. O. Egwuatu.
4. Editorials:
i. ' A Model Union' ( August 8, 1938) in praise of the Ibibio State Union.
ii. 'One Year Ago' ( August 18, 1938) celebrating the first anniversary of the call to the Bar of the first Ibo lawyer, in the person of Mr Justice Louis Mbanefo, now Chief Justice of the Eastern Region High Court.
iii. 'The Ibo Are Coming' ( December 31, 1938) -- The very title is sufficiently indicative of the contents.

These are but a few examples of the publicity given to Igbos as a group. But as against these, the achievements of Yorubas and, in particular, the academic laurels of their scholars received, if at all, inconspicuous notice in the Pilot. When an Igbo did or was about to do something praiseworthy, he was invariably given a two-column headline and report in the Pilot, and was always described by his ethnic origin in the headlines. But when the Ph.D. degree of London University, indeed of any university for that matter, was conferred on the first Nigerian ever, the historic news was given a small singlecolumn space in the Pilot, and the headline read: 'Nigerian Economist Passes Ph.D. London.' The scholar concerned was Dr Fadipe, a Yoruba. As late as 1945, two Nigerian law students of Cambridge University, one Yoruba and one Igbo, passed the Law Tripos Examination. The Yoruba passed with second class honours (upper division), and the Igbo also passed with second class honours but in the lower division. The latter got front page publicity in the Pilot, but the former got a small space given to him on the back page a few days after the report of his Igbo colleague had appeared. As for outstanding Yoruba public men, they were all of them daubed as 'imperialist stooges' and ' Uncle Toms'.

Kobojunkie:
How did you show me this?  Can we also safely conclude, applying the logic you have offered me so far, that because the cost of telecom in Nigeria is one of the highest in Africa, Nigerians can afford healthcare? Come on!!

Snap out of this NEED TO LEAD/WIN arguments, and use your head. That the people you see and know have cell phones and receive calls on them DOES NOT MEAN all NIGERIANS can AFFORD CELL PHONES, let alone the costs that come with it. THINK! THINK!! THINK!!!

What next? Because SOME Nigerians you know have generators and buy diesel, even if for one hour for their generators means ALL NIGERIANS CAN AFFORD electricity?  You do realize someone tried that argument earlier and we dissected it and showed how it is flawed generalization. Yet, you come back at me with something exactly same, only using telecomm in this case and think it makes sense?

If you are having a hard time reasoning this one out, think of Obama's healthcare( funny I have to continue to use Obama examples to help people think better now) plan, and how it is designed in such a way as to offer over 40 million Americans who CANNOT afford healthcare, subsidies to help them afford it. Now, think of our electricity issue in sort of the same way and see how it is possibly a good idea to start thinking along the lines too. . . .Yeah USE THOSE BRAIN CELLS . . . they are there to be used! Not insulting you but come on!

With all due respect, you make absolutely no sense. The other posters used valid analogies with the telecoms sector another sector with similar parallels on how best to sort out the mess we were in and the implications of privatization not to mention the 2 sides of the divide were split along these exact same lines about average Nigerians not being able to afford the service.

Last I check there are over 60 million lines out there in Nigeria as opposed to the appalling 100k Nitel lines and everyone from a Bus driver to Mama in the Village has one. Now compare that to the blackhole that was Nitel and you cannot tell anyone the current high prices is not a vastly improved situation  which can be improved by better regulation (better quality management at the NCC) and lower costs (like reducing power costs for running telco equipment for starters). Will you argue universal coverage provided by Nitel now with the benefit of hindsight? see Mtel for a look at were we would have being if your half ass position saw the light of day.  

Barbers, electricians, Hairdressers, welders all run their businesses on generators and they certainly are not spending anything less than 5k on average to run their business at below sub-optimal levels, these people are NOT middle class and are definitely representative of the class of Nigerians you want to empower their lot and improve their efficiency. Like someone said even face me-i-face you houses are crowded with generators that run for significant part of the night also populated by artisans. It costs at least $1 to get from one end of Lagos and back (even prior to BRT) and even more in Abuja and PH with the okada ban and all.

Pie in the sky schemes devoid of any taught, scant on details are not going to bail us out of the rut we are in as a Nation, providing those who can work with the tools to help them improve their lot will. Adequate electricity for even a marginal reduction in the cost of running a generator for the same amount of time will significantly improve all parts of the economy and better the lot of all Nigerians. It took centuries for healthcare reform to get passed in America because of the share cost of providing universal healthcare or you think healthcare reform ideas started in the 90's or even 60's?

mikeansy:
There has been Presidential debate before

Abiola vs Tofa
babagana Kingibe vs Silvester Ugo VP debate.

There was even meant to be one in 2007, Buhar and others showed up Yar'adua chickened out.

I think we need to have a debate in the run up to 2011 elections

Didn't OBJ and Falae have won in 99 as well? I know Atiku had one with Shinkafi for sure. I remember Atiku mentioning the pdp massive majority in the senate during that debate.

Part 5 de again? Koburu popcorn at the ready.