₦airaland Forum

HR.hotness:
@ post
i actually don't believe nigeria is as bad as people make out
yes theres the corruption problem and lack of infrastructure but we have something other countries (esp UK) don't have
and that is a proud, harworking and happy people.
All the country needs is reorientation to take away the feeling of hoplessness, to show people that it can get better and things will start to go right again.
can't wait come back home

You are welcome!. Thats the spirit
As long as you are focussed and professional, this is the best country in the world, warts and all!
We should all stop the blame game, come back and contribute your own bit.
If it does not work you can always go back!

I do not see any reason to go anywhere. I am stuck

I read this article in another forum
Written by a recent returnee
We (old returnees) encounter this in our daily lives and thats why we believe, we will get there
It is not easy., but some times it is very frustrating and scary, but hey I am still here!
Read on,

The Days Gone By
Written by Uche Nworah
Friday, 11 April 2008
It is 2.53 PM on a sunny Friday afternoon in Lagos, I’m seating at my desk thinking of what to do about lunch. Should I send Richard (aka Pastor) to Tetrazzini to buy their jollof rice, moi-moi and chicken or should I brave the lunch time Lagos island traffic for a short journey to Yellow Chili? As I pondered my options, I remembered that it has been a while since I last wrote an opinion piece. They say if you leave writing, writing leaves you. 45 days is a long time in this our business not to have written something. I have been feeling so ashamed of myself having not logged onto my blog (http://thelongharmattanseason..com) in ages, talk about not wanting to visit a deserted house.

As I tried to open a Microsoft word page to string together some thoughts, I suddenly realized how rusty I had gotten, and how very much I miss writing. Not my fault if you ask me. Since I partially relocated to Nigeria, it has not been easy settling in. I am now caught up again in the Lagos hustle and bustle. So many things to take care of, so many issues to settle work- wise and home front -wise.

I am hunting for a house presently and at the same time trying to settle into a new job. New work ethics, new colleagues, new bosses, new sector, new everything. There are things to learn again, especially being a Nigerian again after sojourning abroad. Call this re-learning or unlearning if you wish but things are different here. Things move at the Nigerian pace, love it, hate it, this is Nigeria and that is the way we are.

I missed home for sure. All those years of paying my dues in another man’s country never really was my thing. It was Abacha that drove me and many other people of my generation away but things are better now, I think. Sure, we still have our wahala, the traffic, the power and energy situation, and the menace of the bad guys or armed robbers as they are called. There are also the thieving politicians but still, I’m happy to be back home. This is my country and the country of my forefathers.

As I am writing this, Ben, my driver and friend pokes in his head, just checking up on me. I don’t need him; I hardly do especially after he deposits me in the office in the morning. The next time if at all that I will need him will be late in the evening when he takes me back to the temporary accommodation my organisation has provided. I dismiss Ben with a wave of the hand and he goes back to his base office. Sometimes I feel that Ben is underutilized, such a young man should be doing more for himself and his country.

I have had this conversation with him but he says that this is the best he can do for now. This makes me to think that human capital in Nigeria is still not being well harnessed. The Bens of this world are caught up in a system that holds both the driver and the people they are driving down. I have recently encouraged Ben to stop spending his day idling away his brain in the driver’s lounge. Luckily, the guys in our general office have accepted for him to come in and help out with stuff. Hopefully, this will excite him well enough that he will begin to see endless opportunities, who knows?

Still on the issue of human capital development. There are indeed lots of hidden talents all over this country. Just the other day, I put forward a request to my bosses to allow me bring in a graphic artist to come in and train me and two members of my team on the use of Corel Draw. This was to enable us publish our in-house e-newsletter ourselves. Doing it ourselves will save the company tons of money judging by the quotes we got from external agencies who had indicated interest in producing the e-newsletter for us.

The consultant had asked for a fee of three hundred thousand naira for the two days training. Just a day before the scheduled training, I had to go into the general office to take care of some matter when along the line; the issue of the forthcoming training came up. You will never imagine my shock when Jerry, one of the office assistants whose other job includes going to the mama-put at Ghana High Commission in Obalende to buy food for staff told me that he could use Corel Draw with his eyes closed.

I challenged Jerry and in less than no time he knocked out a copy of the front page of the mock e-newsletter. I stood and stared at him in awe and just couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. So for this I had been willing to pay an external consultant 300K? Jerry went on to design the first edition of the e-newsletter and received full credits in the front page for it.

When I told my boss my amazing discovery, he was also surprised and elated at the same time and suggested that I feature Jerry in the Employee Spotlight section in our next edition as a way of encouraging other departments to dig deep and see if there are other rough uncut gems in their departments labouring away at tasks that do not stretch their skills.

I want to wait a couple of weeks to have a fuller portfolio of Jerry's work with the e-newsletter before taking up his case with HR. Although he was employed on the basis of his not possessing any formal qualification, I want to believe that there should be other ways he would be compensated for the added value services he is now providing.

Jerry’s case has now inspired others in the general office including Ben; they now congregate around the computer to observe how he does his magic when ever he is working on the e-newsletter. Some are even teasing him saying that ‘Jerry level don change’. This has been one of my most exhilarating moments since I relocated back to Nigeria almost 5 weeks ago.

There is yet the best to come from Jerry, and from this country. That I can assure you.

http://thelongharmattanseason..com/

What Is Bad About Nigeria Than Others?
- Corruption
- Leadership
- Civil and Public Service
- Law Enforcement Agencies
- Misplaced value system
- Followership
- Power Supply

We need to fix these, like I always say, it is not a hopeless case

It is not safe to short your eeprom, unless you know what pins to connect

You can check this link: http://www.tech-faq.com/reset-bios-password.shtml
Or use Hiren's BootCD 9.4 (You can get it in computer's village)

Also try this, I used it once, and it worked, but read the instructions

Grid or cluster computing will not replace the way we use our computers for a long time to come
The basic advantage of cluster computing is using combined (or excess) memory, speed and capacity of all computers in the grid
But we still need to interconnect all these computers in the grid
So the dial up, broadband etc will still be relevant
Grid computing is the resource not the interconnectivity (or transport)

I did not know I was arguing with a 22 year old kid!trader
No need to waste my time

@ Martins00
This is the problem with some half baked Nigerians abroad
Little knowledge, half educated , ignorant and arrogant
The smart home was built by Nigerians, works and adapted to our peculiar suitations!

We are talking about control system not pollution!
The guy who wants to control these systems, already has them, so power supply is not the problem he wants to solve.
He wants to solve control problem, not power or pollution problems.
There are many projects in these fields. You do not want a control engineer to start solving power supply or pollution problems. Do you?

With the so called knowledge you assume you have, you are un-employable in Nigeria!
You can start your own business, but because of the limited knowledge you have, you will not succeed, there are better and more intelligent competitions locally
So, my advice is, just stay abroad and get employment. Nigeria does not need your un-educated expertise

I wouldnt even employ you as a trainee engineer, with this rubbish you have just written
Because you don't even understand the problem! And if you don't understand the problem, how can you profer solution? We are not trying to solve power problems here

You do not apply a German Solution to a Nigerian problem.
Stop deluding yourself
You must think Nigerians are stupid!
There are smart Nigerians out here and they are self employed!

PS: I do not want this to degenerate into a slagging match!
Talk about the project at hand!

The importance of the thread is to show how empty the leaders are
Playing the blame game. Blaming everybody apart from himself.
It was Danjuma, now Malu others will follow. Exonerating themselves.

Nobody is claiming responsibilities for the decadence in the system
See no-evil, hear no-evil , part- of-no-evil leaders!

In a decent army, Malu and his likes should retire as Sergeant Majors or at best Lieutenants
He should just shut up!

Projects are meant to be prototypes
Projects are also meant to solve some local problems (not universal problems) and work in our own peculiar environments
Smart homes can work in Nigeria and there are some smart homes in Nigeria.

People who use smarthomes already have backups, so public power supply is not the problem

In Nigeria, you can have a centralised control system (Home Controller) to integrate the following:
- Lighting 
- Power change-over system
- Remote & IR
- Phones & Intercoms
- Security Systems
- Window, Door, Gate burglary systems
- Motion Detectors
- Safety
- Video Surveillance
- Multi-Room Video
- Multi-Room Audio
- Home Monitoring
- Home Networking   
- And many more

So the project is not useless
The fact that you already have these facilities, means that power (mains & backup) is already available
The power required for a central controller will be small compared to power required to drive the systems mentioned above.

The project should be focussed to our peculiar local environment and give room for future enhancement and integration
This is a control engineering project not a power supply project

I disagree with the professor who said "there is no other way of making money in Nigeria other than stealing money from oil revenues".
There are so many ways to make money genuinely in Nigeria without stealing!

But I agree with him when he said " unless the elite is placed under a tax system where they must justify their earnings, they will continue to steal."
I think this is where the FIRS should do its work. The tax system should be strengthened and made more efficient.
We should all account for our incomes, formal or informal.

Answering the post, the system is still inherently corrupt, and there are so many agencies involved that can make the system less corrupt: The Police, Customs, NDLEA, NSO, NAFDAC, EFCC, ICPC etc.
All these agencies need to be re-organised and revamped.
And above all, our value system has to change!

I do not think Nigeria is less corrupt now, I think people are just being more cautious and finding better ways of hiding their loots

It is not war for EFCC alone.

I am sorry, I will prefer they do this than being jobless, thats my point

They are not scavenging for food.
They scavenge for things they can recycle like metal, bottles or jars.
These items are big business locally.
Better this than joblessness!

Why do we always limit ourselves?
Why cant we always play with our first eleven everytime?
Why are we always sucked into this tribal /ethnic selection?

I dont care who the president is, or where he comes from.
We all need somebody who understands the Nigerian problems, ready
and rational enough to solve them.

Haven't we played this tribal card for too long? and where has it landed us as a nation and as Nigerians?
Any good person can become the president of Nigeria!

The fashion now is to blame Obasanjo for everything that is wrong in Nigeria, while the same set of people are still stealing us dry
We should all remember same thing was said about Balewa, Gowon, Babangida (?), Abacha (?), Abdusallam etc
Almost everybody is carried away with this Obasanjo phobia that we all forget that we are not asking questions.
Is the new government working?

Let us please wait for proofs and facts before we start jumping to conclusions
Some people are busy working on our emotions with unproven sensation
Lets get smart!

Seun:
It may have been hijacked or stolen somehow.

I think the latter

My candid opinion is that if the plane was missing, it would be found close to its destination than anywhere else
But I have an eerie feeling that the plane is not missing!
The true story will be told at the end of the day

I hope this is the position of the missing plane
Or is it something else?

With the given coordinates, the plane would be in the sea (or some island in the sea)

There is still so much inherent corruption in the system
The governors are now better educated and understand the problems better
Hopefully things will improve

@ Enigma
If the S/N (Signal to Noise) ratio is good, in-line amp is ok
The reverse would be the case though
I am prepared to try and test the amp

gofitech:
@enitan2002

if you wish to solve your attenuation problem you can fix a line applifier in the middle of the cable. it's only 1000naira from oshodi if alaba is too far.

I have very bad attenuation on my DSTV.
I am sure it is as a result of poor installation
What is the exact name of this Line Amplifier?

Some of these installers think they are doing you a favour!

koksy:
downloading frm wher?, and please who knows d solution to my onlinenigeria problm?, wats d cause of d blank screen,y am i nt able to watch movies on ther, HELP PLS!, THNKS

Check the bottom right corner of your browser.
You will see Restricted
Change the option

The only thing they can offer is being virgins?
Please send them to the nunnery, before the fathers even loose interest

Try another usb cable
Use another usb port
I guess your usb cable was working before now?

@ texazzpete
DSTV signals are still the best and cleanest signals we receive here
CRTs are becoming obselete

Monitor is just a small part of a tv set.
Sony still has the best tv signal reception technology in the world
Best selling tv sets are not necessary the best technically

Technically: Sony, Samsung, Sharp, LG
The worst is Phillips (in Nigeria)

@ poster: Whatever tv you want to buy, ensure there are local repair and service centres

LCD is a better option (at least in Nigeria) than plasma
There are no blurs if you use LCD tvs for DSTV
From my own personal experience, Sony LCD is the best, but it is over priced
LG is another good option

@ donchichi
Thanks!

LearnBook:
Dele shares out 15 sweets. He gives Ifeoma 1 for every 4 he eats. How many does Ifeoma get?

Should it not be 3?
4x + x = 15
5x = 15
x = 3

Correct me if I am wrong

Some of these problems have mathematical solutions, but not practical solutions!
Like this one:

Rasheed can mow his mother's lawn in 6 minutes. His brother Peter can mow it in 9 minutes. How long will it take them to do it together, if each has his own lawnmower.

The answer depends on many variables
Are the mowers clones of each other? Same efficiency?
The time that will be used by the two brothers can never be determined in practice
Dem fit quarrel self and the job is never done

So always remember prototypes are always different from the real thing
But I like the zeal put in by contributors

Mobile phone marketing will work if the marketers/advertisers are innovative and pro-active
Messages must be engaging, funny and entertaning. Not this "down-your throat"tactics being used now.
I detest it, when I receive some dry unsolicited commercials and adverts on my phone

I am sure most users will complain too.

And any sane Nigerian should not!