₦airaland Forum

Bollinger:
I disagree. Every single country in the would started with being a geographical expression. America is a mixed country of Aisans, Latinos, Africans, Germans, Scots, Indians, etc. The British are a country of Germans, Scots, Welsh, irish etc. How come they made theirs work. It has been scientifically proven that diversity is a key ingredient to social and economic develop but for some reason, Nigerians do not understand this.

The America you talk about is run according to the whims and caprices of the dominant group /population ,
White Americans .
The country is not organised according to country of origin or ethnic nationality.
America is organised around race and the dominant race (whites ) have always changed the definition of white to preserve dominance.
There was a time when the Irish and Italians were not considered white . But they were brought into the fold because it maintains dominance .
At a point black made up a third of America's population and 90% of Brazil's population. The percentage were diluted by opening up to the immigration of people from Europe while not allowing from elsewhere.
Listen to Trump properly , thr maintenance of that population dominance is at the very core of his ideology.


All the countries you have listed have the same problem , you do not hear about them because the minorities have no path to power .
But follow closely you will see the same problems .

Eating indigenous people's crops is an attack on their culture .
Killing them in their own indigenous home and land is a declaration of war.

Frankly speaking , the Nigerian political, business, militant and thug elites do no want restructuring.

Just ask IPOB who are making the most extreme moves about partition and restructuring how many allies they have amongst their elites.


The ND only understands restructuring up until resource control but their elites want the same structure of elites and serfs .

The northwest and northeast donot want restructuring because it will end their resource capture at the center through the federal government.

The SW want restructuring as far as it isolate us from the Nigerian mess .Every aspect of Nigerian life must be restructured

The SE want restructuring only if they can go with Niger Delta oil .



The middle belt want restructuring to stop the ethnocide being committed by Fulani herdsmen and also do not want restructuring because it will end resource capture at the centre.

At the bottom of all this , the elites do not want or care about any restructuring.

A dead country waiting to be buried

naijapips04:
How? That Obasanjo awarded the contract or that he fully funded it?

Sources of funding for the first phase spanning Lagos - Kano with inner ring between Abuja ,Kaduna and minna with a total cost of $8.5 billion. Out of the $8 billion , the Lagos- Ibadan was to cost $1.5 billion . Many aspect of the rail project was to be fully electric . Travelling at
150 miles per hr .


Already agreed source of funding .
1 Loans from China - $2.5 billion
2 Excess crude account -portion of funding was to come from the excess crude account which had $22 billion (Jonathan promptly looted this account within his 6 months).
3 Loans from Nigerian banks - $1.4 billion
4 Oil concessions to Chinese companies

When Yardua came in , it was stopped ,supposedly because there was no design.
But that was a big lie .
Even the worldbank claimed that it was too expensive ( world bank will always discourage progress, if you doubt it ,show me a single world bank hard infrastructural project in Nigeria that will lead to self reliance; just one like power plant , railway ,steel ,aluminium mill etc ) .

The reason it was stopped was northern elites wanted a cut .Just plain corruption (A Chinese man actually wrote a paper on this fact).
They started rolling back or delaying all Obj's initiatives .
Eventually they gave the go ahead for the KDN -ABJ part of the line (a consideration which does not make business sense today considering there are more profitable routes which should have taken priority ) .

aolawale025:
He implied he was one of GEJ harshest critics but helped elect a worse government.

" I was elated when Nigerians succeeded in chasing away the profligate and reckless government of the PDP, led by President Goodluck Jonathan. I was one of those who unleashed terror on that government and I subsequently presented you with a compilation of my articles in which I criticised and advised the then President, free of charge. I never expected that our situation could ever get worse under the APC government that almost literally promised heaven and earth.".....Dele Momodu

Sorry , where did you get your conclusions from?
Jonathan's government remains the worst government in Nigeria's history .
You could only imagine what the country would be like if Jonathan had continued.

Buhari created his own problems just like Yardua and Jonathan.
He started conniving with Dogora and Saraki( 2 useless politicians) and marginalising those who paved the way and brought him to power .
The result is there to see.
A dysfunctional senate and House of representative supposedly controlled by the ruling party .
Imagine these clowns were trying stop the funding for the Lagos - Ibadan road . An economic road whose importance cannot be disputed and pays back multiple times over .
Appointments of incompetents into government agencies .
His kitchen cabinet and chief of staff , another set of problem. Through those two , all manner of nincompoops found their way into power .

naijapips04:
You are murdering yourself on your own thread. So you now know that awarding contracts is different from actually funding them.

It shows el rufai was right .
The argument started because Ben Bruce was trying to make a monumental disaster(Jonathan) look good . El rufai showed him that he Jonathan contributed the least to this initiative.

naijapips04:
Lol. Which funding?

This is how Jonathan ran the country .
N15 billion only for all the federal roads in the country . Probably less than zamfara's road budget allocation in the same year .

Fashola explained that, “The Federal Government budgeted N18.132 billion in 2015 and the Ministry of Works got N13 billion for all roads and highways in 2015, although it has contracts for 206 roads, covering over 6,000km worth over N2 trillion.”

He added that for the current administration to deliver on its promises to Nigerians, the government has to increase its capital budget to enable it significantly meet infrastructural needs of the nation.


https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.vanguardngr.com/2015/12/fg-owes-construction-firms-n1-87trn-vows-to-complete-all-ongoing-roads/amp/

naijapips04:
So what is your fact here? So awarding a project means Obasanjo provided funding for it? The criminal Obasanjo had to wait to the end of his tenure to award a trillion Naira project that he didn't provide funding for

Now I've posted facts on how GEJ sourced for funding to execute that project. Kindly post how Obasanjo FULLY funded that rail project. I'm waiting.

Onye gbaa oso mma ya.

Stop moving goal post .
You wanted funding , I showed you the funding which was more than 30% of the funding needed to build rail network for almost the entire country ( not Kaduna - Abuja line alone ).
That sum is more than enough to build Abj-Kaduna line and more.

Can you list projects funded by Jonathan and waiting to be completed

Obasanjo commits to regauging plan
01 Sep 2006
'NO NATION has achieved holistic development without a coherent, integrated, efficient and reliable transportation system', explained Nigerian President Olusegum Obasanjo on August 9, setting out his vision for the revitalisation of his country's 3500 km rail network in a special radio broadcast.

The Bureau of Public Enterprises has already commissioned CPCS Transcom to draw up three operating concessions (RG 7.06 p373), but Obasanjo said that 'even this requires minimal rehabilitation to get value for money from concessionaires.'

Responding to a State Council report released on July 19 that recommended complete reconstruction and conversion from 1067mm gauge to standard at a cost of US$8·3bn, the President agreed that work should start immediately. 'By the grace of God, contract formalities will be signed this month and construction work will commence immediately thereafter', he announced.

Work is to begin with the 1126 km Lagos - Kano corridor, to be undertaken in five stages over four years for US$1bn, funded by a US$2·5bn soft loan from China. A new line is to be built for 100 km from Minna to Abuja, continuing for 205 km beyond the capital to Kaduna. Phase II would see reconstruction of the Port Harcourt - Jos route.[b]

Design-Build-Maintain contracts are to be let for reconstruction to permit 150 km/h passenger and 80 km/h freight trains, with a maximum gradient of 1·5% and a minimum curve radius of 1200m. Diesel traction, electronic interlockings and a 23 tonne axleload are envisaged.

'The construction of the rail line will employ tens of thousands of Nigerians immediately', Obasanjo explained. 'The entire project will promote technology transfer, the building of new skills and the development of allied industries. As far as possible, local materials will be used.'

No-one disputes that a new impetus is badly needed. NRC traffic has collapsed from 11·3 million passengers and 2·9 million tonnes of freight in 1964 to 1·6 million passengers and less than 100000 tonnes last year. There was a brief upturn in 1979-82 when Rites was brought in to run the railway by the former military regime. But a recent review found just five locomotives in working order. The only lines currently operating are those from Lagos to Kano and Port Harcourt to Madiguri.

It remains to be seen whether the government can muster the commitment and resources to complete the work this time, or whether it will fade away like so many previous revival attempts over the past four decades.
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/obasanjo-commits-to-regauging-plan.html

Yar adua -Jonathan were myopic.
The usual Nigerian mentality to try and outshine your predecessor by making it look like it your project .

That contract included Lagos - Kano but that was stopped and only kaduna- Abuja was given the go -ahead
Try build the same rail with $8.5 billion

naijapips04:
http://sharpedgenews.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1703:nigeria-secures-500m-chinese-loan-for-abuja-kaduna-fast-train-project&Itemid=692

$500 million was secured by the GEJ government for this same project. Tell me again how Obasanjo fully funded it.

Now your own turn, kindly post pictures of project initiated and commissioned by Buhari from 1983 to date.

From 2008
Assitant Editor The Presidency is in a fix over the $8.3 billion contract for the modernisation and expansion of rail lines awarded in the dying days of the Obasanjo administration.

A committee set up to review the project submitted a report that did not favour its continuation. So also is the report of the World Bank on the gargantuan project.

The Federal Government had paid $250 million mobilisation fee to China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCEC), the main contractor of the project which involves the construction of a standard gauge rail covering 1,315 kilometres from Lagos to Kano with a loop from Minna to Abuja. The $2.5billion loan promised by the Chinese government is yet to be consummated.

Shortly after assuming office last year, President Umaru Yar’ Adua stopped the project and set up a committee headed by Finance Minister Shamsudeen Usman to review the funding options already planned for the project.

A source in the Presidency told The Nation that the committee’s report recommended the suspension of the project.


The committee, which also has Minister of Transportation Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke and her counterpart in National Planning, Senator Sanusi Daggash, as members, cited “procedural errors” in the award of the contract, such as lack of competitive bidding and inflation.

The Usman-led committee advised the government to ask the contractor to stop work for a proper feasibility study to be conducted, renegotiation of the contract sum and loan terms as well as involving the private sector in its funding and execution.

But the President whose seven-point agenda accommodate the revival of the ailing rail system is in dilemma over the committee’s report, which he does not want to set aside, it was learnt.

http://www.nigerianmuse.com/20080319201221zg/sections/other-peoples-essays/obasanjo-s-8-3b-rail-deal-unsettles-yar-adua/

naijapips04:
El tufia is a mad man. The question is, who completed that rail project?

I don't care if it was stalled for 2 year. Who completed it it , dumbie.?

Going by your logic ,
Give me a list of fully funded federal projects initiated by Jonathan ,waiting to be completed by Buhari.

Anybody can award a contract or sign a memo of understanding ( which is nothing but making a commitment to pay . Funding it is a different matter.
Obj completed most of the power plants , initiated and fully funded all the big contracts including the first portion of the rail roadmap.
In fact the roadmap was paired down and initially stopped by Yar adua.
Almost all the roads Jonathan awarded were not funded.
How can he when his budget had a capital expenditure outlay of N100 billion ( less than akwa ibom)

Omg
Shutting down economic activities on a federal because of one useless local election that we all know will be rigged as usual .

Those dredging contracts are simply an item to steal .
Just like training , fumigation , grass cutting , street light items in that Nigerian civil servants and politicians put in the budget .

Where is the strategy paper to synchronise the inland water ways into the national transportation policy?
What are the measurables ?

aolawale025:
Hope Dele would have the balls to reach out to GEJ and apologise

Apologise to whom?
The cause of the recent decay !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway , Dele Momodu has hit a point that I noted less than 9months after Buhari's election.
Remember that he delayed his appointments.
One appointment that really struck me as backwards was the managing director of the Nigerian ports authority.
He handed over an important agency of government to a woman who does not have the skill set just like obj and Jonathan handed the same agency to the useless and hopelessly corrupt Anenih.
Nothing in this woman's CV says I am competent for or have a background in this role .



Bala Usman was born in Zaria to the historian, Yusufu Bala Usman.[2] Bala Usman grew up close to the campus of Ahmadu Bello University, where her father worked.[4] Bala Usman earned her bachelor's degree in 2000 from Ahmadu Bello University and her master's degree from the University of Leeds in 2009.[2] She worked for a non-governmental organization, the Centre for Democratic Development and Research Training (CEDDERT) in Zaria as a research assistant for a year starting in 1999.[5] She has also worked for the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and as a Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Project Implementation.[2] In 2011, she worked as Director of Strategy for the Good Governance Group (3G).[2] In 2015, she was appointed Chief of Staff for the Kaduna State Governor.[2]







Being one of the most important economic appointment, Buhari did not avail of himself with the global talents at his disposal.

KEYWORD - global talent .
There are thousands of experienced managers available globally , who can be enticed to work in Nigeria.
Managers with experience in facilities ,human resources, administration etc .
T
People who see a problem and set out to fix them .
Experience beats narrow tribal or national considerations every time
Where you expected him to move away from the practice of putting expired nincompoops ,children of rich politicians,traditional rulers , deadbeats and thugs in positions of public trust ,he doubled down on the practice .
You can say the same about almost every other agency ,ministry or board .
Even though , I predicted and I was right that Buhari would probably govern like obj ( and he is ) , His narrow nepotic tendencies drops him tad below obj . He cannot use Obj standards because the problem have only got worse since then especially under Jonathan.

For those asking why I zeroed in on this non oil agency aka NPA.
It is because it is one of a few parastatals which can become a mega global corporation .
The NPA cab be turned into one that buys and build ports not only in Nigeria but worldwide , generate humongous profits in the hands of the right managers .
All this without needing funding or directions from Abuja

deomelo:
You can not cry today that you don't have HQs and businesses after burning up other people's investments, kidnapping investors and business owners at the same time.


The people in that part of the country and the SE don't know anything about governing or even ready to govern. They are all incompetent, clueless, not worldly or have any kind of personal sophistication.

Frankly , if it were possible for the Oil companies to move their corporate headquarters to Amsterdam, they would . There is really nothing special about Lagos apart from being the closest thing to home for most expatriates.
Some work in the ND but have kids in school in Lagos.
Port harcourt used to be a very serene and peaceful city with a small town vibe like Portland Oregon.
In fact , PH was for me was the best place to live in Nigeria.
That is until the Ijaws started their nonsense in port harcourt. Warri quickly followed the PH example
I remember when shell moved their non essential staff to Lagos during Abacha regime when the ND started harassing the oil companies.
The operation side of things remained and still remains in the ND .

Oil companies like Mobil ,National oil, Texaco etc have always had offices in Lagos since like colonial times. They have always had a part of the administrative side of things to deal with local procurement, taxation, government and consular services in Lagos .

deomelo:
Akpabio budgets billions every year for this invisible seaport.






1. Ibaka seaport is not in the FG gazette and there is zero FG budget for it.

Meaning the FG doesn't know anything about this seaport officially

2. Akpabio budgets billions for this bridge every year with not even bush clearing or fence erected.

Meaning Akpabio pockets free billions every year.



...but who are they blaming? Yoruba people

These clowns just conjure fairy tales out out thin air .

The rest of Nigeria have a population of 140 million out of 190 million.
Those 140 million can direct their cargo to Onne , Warri , Calabar or wherever.

Rebuke:
Lions roaming d land in huge numbers. Really? Dis uncle sha..

Yes.
Just over 100 years ago , even the desert around the northwest and northeast etc had desert lion species .

Nigerians can eat poop.
Once upon a time , elephants ,lions and other species used to roam the land in huge numbers.
Imagine having that eco-diversity today with the tourism jobs and revenues associated with it

If the federal state fails in her chief responsibility, communities and states have every right to defend themselves.

TrueSenator:
Another Regret

Do you stay in the same place forever?
Do you ever evolve in thoughts.
Based on the choices , most will vote the same way again .

The problem was created right there in the north east and as fate would have it,
They have not changed.

The fulani mayhem has gotten out of hand

OKDnigeria:
Pmb promised to diversify the economy. So if Nigeria exports nothing apart from oil, he has failed.

Diversification needs heavy capital expenditure.
Diversification needs the sum of all parts making the whole . States ,Federal and local government working efficiently towards the same goals.
Nigeria lacks both .
Every government in Nigeria has failed starting from Tafawa Balewa .
You need to set a vision and follow through .Based on the vision ,goals and execution criteria , Buhari is an utter failure like the rest .
Based on the normal criteria, his performance no different from Obasanjo in terms of economic policy( building up the reserves, reactivating Obj's rail roadmap , power roadmap etc )
His personal character flaws ( he is as nepotic as Jonathan ,if not worse) stand out more.
He is also politically naive like Jonathan thinking you can just dump those you climbed to get to power.
They left him to his own devices and his government was hijacked .

Msteeew.
Brainless conclusions.
I am tired of all this absolutely useless criticism.
The answers are right there in his crappy tweets but as usual ,most Nigerians are as clueless as their politicians .
For those who want to learn.

The price of rice per tonne ( 20 x 50kg bags) has barely changed when measured against the US dollars since 2013 .
The taste of Nigerians for reckless importation of raw materials has not changed .
The taste for borrowing to feed the importation has not changed .
What has changed is the price of crude oil from the days $110 /barrel.
For you to pay to feed the taste for imports , you have to export to things to generate the forex needed.
Unfortunately, Nigeria exports nothing apart from oil ,a few thousand tonnes of cocoa ,hide and thousands of people.

Now carefully look at the dollar / Naira exchange rates he quoted

PDP - N170
Buhari - N350
That Naira has lost value in that time by approximately 2 times (100%)
Now look at the price of a bag of rice .
The price of rice has gone up by approximately 2 times(100%)

The problem with price fluctuations of imports is because of the controlled devaluation of the Naira.
If Buhari had listened to all the clowns who told him to allow the exchange rate to float , you will probably be talking about a monumental disaster by now (N1000 to the dollar).

The Recent Genesis of the problem (The others factors date as far back as the day oil was discovered)

Under Jonathan,borrowing to import and consume was the order of the day .
Instead of using the boom to increase Nigeria's foreign reserves, Jonathan , Iweala and his goons went about looting and encouraging the importation of stuffs. They even borrowed to feed the habit.
While Algeria accumulated $170 billion foreign reserve , Nigeria's foreign reserve went down from $64 billion to 25 billion during a boom.
Nigeria was in essence living a lie .
So what happens when you do not have the dollars to buy rice .
Simple you cannot buy rice .
But since everybody has a mountain of Naira that they want to change to dollars to consume crap( including services like schools,hospitals care), made abroad ,the scarcity means some people are Willing to offer more Naira for the scarce forex.
That is how you get a devalued currency.

The solution
Make more of what you consume and import less .
Nothing to do with government policy .
A crude analogy
If Nigeria exports say 4 times more , reduces capital flight (stop giving contracts to foreigners)tomorrow and import less ,your 100,000 salary suddenly develops the buying power of N400,000.

If people cannot make well measured and well informed criticism, then they should keep quiet .
They are not criticising the failure to alter the dangerous trajectory that the country has been on such as

1 Desertification and deforestation
2 Huge birth rate and overpopulation
3 A corrupt and inefficient unitary government that is spreading poverty all over.
4 Insecurity

Those 4 are far more dangerous than the stomach infrastructure.

Most Nigerians are innumerate and lack basic Civic literacy.
That guy is talking fantastic nonsense.
Lagos has less than $1 billion to play with every year for a population of over 20 million .

Lagos at Xmas is a more livable city.

I wonder how these bastards are able to conduct large scale operations against the Nigerian army without forewarning.
The quality of the generals conducting the war have only barely improved .
The equipments I see with the soldiers are not good enough .
The welfare of the soldiers ,from the pictures, they post online is still bad.
Some of the equipments which could have been deployed are so cheap that you can get them on alibaba eBay for less than $5

Due diligence is seriously lacking .
The embarrassment could have been stopped at multiple levels .
The chief of staff is the main culprit.
Then you have the DSS
The national party
State parties.