₦airaland Forum

aasog1: Rossik, like katsumoto and berem, and crazy billyionaire is one of the best thing that ever happened to nairaland politics section. If that guy stop posting, I'm forever off nairaland and will personally beg seun to ban me along with him. Its fine to shut down an insensitive post. Indiscriminate banning messes with people with genuine intention.

are you for real? Funny.i think and believe 100 percent that that thread should have been deleted but not the ban.moderating is not easy but i think the mods have always turned a blind eye to tribalistic threads on this forum and then to start all of a sudden to close a thread cos of tribalism while more deeply rooted tribalistic threads are left leaves a sore taste.frankly. i honestly believe the mods should go all out and ban these threads.threads with such intent are not difficult to spot at all.

Mowire: U're either a child or a dunce(sorry). Mama HID has no real political influence in SW. SWners don't really worship Awo any more, though he's greatly adored.

whats the difference?

Perfectly normal these days....hope the casualty figures if any, are low.

is that so?

occam: Such comparison highlights the disconnect between our leaders and people; not about GEJ only. Fixing the rail system has been a mantra repeated In the past and nothing meaningful has been done

Fixing the trains on one route without new tracks will not cut it. A specific mandate must guide investment decisions. For instance reducing the travel time from Lagos to Kano must be the goal. And based on this goal govt can set aside budget to achieve it. Given the potential to increase ridership and economic activity, this is a worthwhile investment

Piecemeal investments like this will not work and transform nothing

please how do you propose to do the bolded?

nne korubo....

nne korubo model school.....

Amaechi and Rivers’ state model schools

Category: Opinion
Published on Thursday, 07 March 2013 05:00
Written by Idang Alibi

Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi won my heart for his self-confidence, courage, positive stubbornness and resolute stance in defence of his controversial policy of outsourcing the management of the model primary and secondary schools that his administration has built as a way of helping to improve the quality of schooling in Rivers State.
In the course of a three-day stay of members of the National Good Governance Tour team in Rivers State from February 13-16, members were conducted round a sample number of some of the flagship development projects Amaechi has executed in the past five years of his leadership of Rivers state. One of the most remarkable of them is the Ambassador Nne Furo Kurubo Model Secondary School located in Eleme, near Port Harcourt. This sample, which is to be replicated in 23 other locations spread across the state, is a marvel to behold. It is no exaggeration to say that at present, there is no secondary school, whether public or private, which is quite like this model in the entire country. In fact, as many observers had cause to remark, the school’s structures and facilities are better than those of most of our universities. They are simply breathtaking. The sheer ambience of the school will make an adult yearn to become a teenager again in order to be able to receive secondary education from that school.
The trouble however with this beautiful idea which is beautifully executed is that Amaechi has decided to outsource the management of this school and the other ones that will be built later on, to an Indian education management firm call Educomp. Not a few of the visitors and indigenes of the state alike resent this idea. They think the arrangement is a negative commentary, a sort of vote of no confidence, on the managerial capacity or ability of Nigerians. They argue that if Amaechi had bothered to search diligently for capable hands he would surely find Nigerians who are good enough and committed enough to be able to run that school.
At the Port Harcourt Civic Centre venue of the Town Hall Meeting which usually marks the end of visit of the National Good Governance Tour team to a state, a concerned citizen raised this matter during the question and answer segment. I thought the governor will buckle under pressure and concede that in deference to popular opinion the school will now be consigned to indigenous Nigerians to run. But not Amaechi. He resolutely stood his ground that the Indians will be asked to run the one now on ground and the 23 others coming so that Rivers state children and the children of other Nigerians in those schools will have quality education.
The idea of the schools is so out-of this world that Amaechi does not want to take the risk of asking Nigerians to run them. And I am one with Amaechi in holding such a view. At the risk of sounding contemptuous of ourselves, I want to state with all sense of responsibility that Amaechi is right. The attitude of our people towards the running of things, especially public institutions and organisations, is so deplorable that I think that in our own interest, we need to bring in more serious minded expatriates to help run some of our critical sectors and then have Nigerians understudy them foe specified period. We will have a guided programme in which such Nigerian apprentices will learn to imbibe some of the global best practices before they can be trusted to be in charge. This may sound outrageous to those who think they are patriotic but it is a bitter pill which some of us who are pragmatic have learnt to recommend as a solution to especially our managerial challenge. My dear compatriots, it is not a matter of incompetence. No. So many Nigerians are smart and so many are smarter than their counterparts elsewhere in the world. The trouble with us however is our attitude. Simple. We have over the years acquired a very bad attitude towards things meant for the common good. Public things are not seen as our individual things. They are like the proverbial community goat that dies of starvation because no one has the right attitude to care for it.
As I said earlier, I support Amaechi’s stance. What Amaechi is paying the Indians for is not necessarily superior administrative competency. No. What he is paying for is attitude. There is no question about it that they are thousands of Nigerians who can mange such a school or any other school for that matter even far better than the Indians. But Amaechi’s fear, which is not groundless, is that because of our attitude, any Nigerians contracted to run the schools will ruin his dream of providing excellent education for children of the poor.
We Nigerians tend to be very sentimental about a lot of issues and I think that is why we are not making much progress. On this particular issue, my honest opinion is that where we need to begin from is to admit to ourselves very honestly that most of us have a very poor attitude to work. Yes, there are lazy, corrupt and incompetent people in India or elsewhere in the world. But in many of those places, including India, there are many people who still have a far better attitude to public work than we do have. The value of hard, impersonal and honest work for the public good is all but gone in our country. And we must confront this serious challenge if we want to develop as fast as many of us expect. Development is not a mere wish. Any people who want progress have no option but to learn to cultivate a very positive attitude to work. There is no other route possible.
Let me move from one outrageous remark to yet another one. I believe that given our terribly poor attitude, we urgently need to outsource the management of some of our services, not only educational ones, to outsiders. Since we seem to feel particularly pained by handing over leadership in some spheres to White or brown skinned people, I recommend that we invite our Diaspora brothers who live in environment where they have imbibed positive attitude to work, to come back and provide leadership and then have us lazy stay-at-home Nigerians to understudy them and imbibe a more positive attitude before we can be trusted and entrusted with some responsibilities. The inconvenient truth we must be ready to face and try hard to overcome is that we have lost it. We have lost a lot of cherished values which make a society grow and become strong.
source:http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/opinion/51960-amaechi-and-rivers-state-model-schools

Three European countries explore multilateral relations with Rivers
Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Finland, Austria and Norway have indicated interest in partnering with the Rivers State Government in education, energy, trade and commerce.
Ambassadors of the three European nations to Nigeria made this known when they paid a courtesy visit to the Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi in Government House, Port Harcourt on Tuesday.

They expressed their country’s willingness to kick start multilateral relations with Rivers State to enhance cooperation between the State and the three Scandinavian Countries.
Finland’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Mrs. Riitta Korpivaara said: “We very much appreciate coming to Rivers State for the first time ever as Ambassadors of our countries. We plan to visit the University of Port Harcourt to discuss education development in Rivers State and how our countries could partner with Rivers state in the field of education which is an area that is especially dear to me and to my country Finland.”
“Also, we would like to enhance co-operation in trade and commerce between your state and our countries. We already have various companies from our states which have already established their offices in Rivers but we would like to promote and improve trade relations and we are interested especially in offshore business, energy and education which I already mentioned and I am very glad that we have this opportunity now to come and see with our own eyes, because as you know, Abuja is quite artificial when you compare it to other cities of Nigeria and meet other people other than the politicians and diplomats in Abuja. So we are very pleased to have this occasion.”

Korpivaara also indicated that the delegation while in the state will meet with Shell and visit the Chamber of Commerce and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the field of environmental protection and others.
The Norwegian Ambassador, Mr. Rolf Ree, commended the Amaechi administration for using state resources to develop education. “It’s a great pleasure to be here in Port Harcourt for the first time for me as the Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria. Actually, a special pleasure in the sense that I come from the Port Harcourt of Norway, Stanger, the centre of the oil industry in Norway and it is very interesting to me to see how Port Harcourt is developing and using the resources of the oil industry to expand education- an area that I understand is very close to your heart.”
It is also of interest for us as a country that has benefited greatly from oil sales that also benefits from co-operating with Nigeria and participating in the oil industry in Nigeria to also visit representatives of environmental NGOs and try to explore more on the societal challenges that you face in this area,” he said.
On his part, the Austrian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Joachim Oppinger also expressed his country’s willingness to have bilateral relations with Rivers State to further develop the state’s education sector.
He said, “Let me just add one short remark which is sort of my interest in coming to Rivers State. I have been here before for a very short time in Nigeria but there is the saying, if you want to understand a person, you have to look at his heart, and for me not only for the reason that the oil is pumped out of the ground, the heart of Nigeria I think is Rivers State. So I think it is important to know how Rivers State is doing to understand Nigeria. I see there is great investment in education going on, we just spoke about that in Rivers State and I think at the end of the day even a country which has such potential in raw material, the real raw material in any country is the brain and I see that there is a strong investment in the brain here and I think there is a chance that Rivers state at a point in time, might not only be the heart pumping the oil, but also the brain of Nigeria and it is indeed good news.”
Responding, Governor Chibuike Amaechi thanked the Ambassadors of Finland, Norway and Austria for their visit and assured that the Rivers State Government would partner with them in the area of education.
Amaechi said security had greatly improved in the state which is why some companies were relocating their headquarters and their staff back to Port Harcourt, the state capital. “There is an indication that there is an improvement in security which we need to focus on to ensure that we don’t lose it again, we continue to remain peaceful. Basically, when it comes to security, the reason for which you have insecurity is poverty. If we address poverty and people are working, they won’t leave their work to go and kidnap people or commit armed robbery or other vices.”

“So in Rivers State here, we are working hard towards creating social environment that improves on people’s well-being and if that happens then you have reduction in crime. We are focusing on agriculture as a tool to creating employment for the workers that are not educated and employed in an unskilled environment. So once you address unskilled labour, then you can tackle the skilled labour a bit easily because they are more mature and not too easily prone to crime. So we are dealing with agriculture with a focus on the primary aspect of agriculture because the secondary aspect which has to do with processing is a bit complicated for the unskilled. But, we are also dealing with the secondary aspect because we have a farm we are partnering with an Israeli firm, about 5,000 hectares of land which includes both primary and secondary to create employment both for the unskilled and skilled manpower.”
“So we will be glad to partner with you in the area of education and I think I will get the Commissioner for Education to meet with you tomorrow because I have already briefed you that we send about 300 children every year to UK and Canada and that we have tried to exploit the free opportunity in Germany, that we were able to send only 15, then we tried to exploit the one in Brazil when the Ambassador spoke to us. Out of the 50 chances they gave us, we were able to send only six not because we didn’t enroll 50, but like I told you 44 failed. Some failed woefully so they won’t go back. Others failed in between and they have been asked to repeat the course for another one year. So we will be glad to partner with you and see what opportunities that are open to us,” Amaechi said.

source:http://governor.riversstate.gov.ng/press/three-european-countries-explore-multilateral-relations-with-rivers/

Rivers hit N9.5bn IGR for February, Amaechi excited
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
For the first time in the history of Rivers State, the state government has hit internally generated revenue of N9, 591, 046,990.43, the highest since the commencement of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s tax reforms in the state.
The new tax regime being done by the State government in partnership with Skye Bank has continuously yielded positive results with a monthly average of between N5billion to 6billion, and now a whooping N9.5billion in the month of February, 2013.
Prior to Governor Amaechi’s emergence at the helm of affairs in the State, the Rivers State Internally Generated Revenue has never grown beyond N2.5billion, sometimes its well below N2billion but Amaechi began the tax sector reform and the figure has gradually increased over the years.
Spokesman of Governor Amaechi, Mr. David Iyofor in an interview with State House correspondents said Governor Amaechi is very excited by this new development. “He is very happy with this figure of N9.5billion for the month of February. Governor Amaechi is happy with what our partners in the tax project-Skye Bank is doing with the State government in the tax project and has urged them to continue on this path. He believes that the state can do even better than this figure of N9.5billion and has clearly told them to improve on it.”
“This new high is a clear testimony of the benefits of Governor Amaechi’s initiated reforms in IGR in the State. He strongly believes that with a robust tax reform policy, the state can do very well in internally generated revenue,” Iyofor said.
Iyofor urged Rivers people and corporate bodies to continue to support the Rivers State Board of Internal Revenue and our Syke Bank tax partners by promptly and accurately paying their taxes for sustainable growth and development of the State as funds collected would assist the Amaechi administration in carrying out more developmental projects in the State.

source:http://governor.riversstate.gov.ng/press/rivers-hit-n9-5bn-igr-for-february-amaechi-excited/

Amaechi completes Rivers ultra-modern Waste Plant
Monday, March 11, 2013
In his administration’s determination to recycle waste and have a cleaner environment, Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has completed construction of a 71,000 cubic metre sewage plant that will treat and process waste in the state to make it useful and re-useable again.
Located in Oroworukwo community in the Eagle Island area of the state, the Amaechi administration’s pilot waste treatment and processing plant when commissioned, will turn waste into fertilizer and methane gas for agricultural and domestic use.
The waste treatment and processing plant provides jobs to people around the facility areas and will also offer employment to electrical, mechanical and waste management engineers.
Speaking during an inspection tour of the facility with journalists, Governor Amaechi’s Special Assistant on Sewage Management, Dr. Ogu Emejuru said, apart from producing fertilizer and methane gas, the waste treatment and processing plant was also being constructed to check the spread of diseases that come from indiscriminate dumping of sewage in the state.
“About four years ago the governor had a vision to have a sewage plant because of the issues of dumping sewage in the creeks and in gutters. You know when sewage is dumped indiscriminately, the issue will be about malaria, diseases and typhoid, so the Governor had the vision that we should have a sewage plant where sewage will be dumped and processed into re-useable materials like fertilizer, methane gas etc”, he said.
“We employ a lot of citizens here from Eagle Island. The actual employment now will be for engineers – mechanical, electrical, waste management engineers. That is when we commission. We are in that process now of trying to work with them to see how we can bring them. Even students from universities, they have come here to see how they can understudy the process of sewage treatment and deriving benefits from sewage”.
Emejuru said the waste treatment and processing plant will process about 1,000 cubic metre of sewage per day or 20 truckloads of sewage daily, disclosing that talks are already on with sewage contractors in the state to bring truck loads of sewage to the plant for treatment and processing.
“We are talking now with sewage contractors. We have met with them. We have registered all the sewage contractors. They are very cooperative with us. They are working with us. What we need now, we need sewage, we need the waste food, we need them to come here, so we will be talking to them. So as we get more and more of business, we employ more and more,” Emejuru said.
According to him, there will be cleaner environment and health benefits for the people of the state when waste from homes and other sources are brought to the sewage treatment and processing plant and not dumped indiscriminately.
Also speaking, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. David Iyofor said Governor Amaechi’s pilot scheme in constructing the sewage treatment and processing plant is another evidence that the governor gives priority to a cleaner environment. When the plant becomes fully operational, the quantity of fertilizer or gas produced, he said, will be of immense use to farmers in the state.
“Don’t forget that we have farms all over the state, so the fertilizer can even be used in our farms. It shows that the Governor Amaechi administration actually pays serious attention to environmental sanitation and having a cleaner environment. He takes environment very seriously, very, very seriously.”
“From a plant like this you’ve got the fertilizer, you’ve got the gas plant and this is besides the fact that it also cleans up the environment and the Amaechi administration is going to do more projects along these lines to make sure that Port Harcourt, Rivers State is clean and healthy for the people”.

source:http://governor.riversstate.gov.ng/press/amaechi-completes-rivers-ultra-modern-waste-plant/

I used this route to enugu on thursday and i must say the journey was sweet.....my advice? The opposition shouldnt even bother coming to campaign in the south east.QED

interesting.....ojukwu seemed really upset.from his attitude it was obvious he was'nt comfortable being there.almost as if he could see that that agreement wouldnt be kept.....

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKXK2Er8UZk[/youtube]

on a lighter note,these were devilishly handsome as young men o! ...especially ojukwu ....cant say i blame bianca

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNRzgB8PNtM[/youtube]

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3zjoN6-ddQ[/youtube]

WINTER IS COMING!!

awodman: I wonder if you are really a student.why can't u just use your brain for once.U Ave been educated here on how PHCN works and the appropriate place to channel your complains to.Still u keep on making a fool of yourself here.smh ƒσя our undergraduates these days

dont waste your time.na youthful exuberance dey worry am.

otokx: when i say uniport suffers some dudes here will be quoting grammer. PHCN has been very bad this year and they have not giving any explanation to us at UNIPORT. Its when students riot and destroy things then they will know its serious. Tired of all this lies and wicked propaganda.

i live at eligbolo, r/okoro and i must say power has improved tremendously in my neighborhood.its still not perfect but its a lot better.your problem in UP might be a local thing.

ITbomb: All these English na wa o
By the way, Land of Naira and Nairaland can never be the same. sine quo non

lol...i love your signature ....

By the way , is mtn headquartered in Nigeria? Heard it some time back.how true?

Roger ramjet ....inspector gadget....globetrotters

Akshow: Dont forget that the south westerners produced the only Nobel prize winner. A feat achebe will never achieve even in his grave.

do you realize that the nobel was concieved by a human and not God and that the committee is human and the award is given out by humans?

Boss13: I previously considered you to be a beautiful mind with the way you analyze political issues. However, i am shocked you would stoop this low and incline yourself to tribal backwardness.

his case is pitiful really...reminds me of majek fashek..

qualified: Who made u the mouth piece here?
We are ok wit Afam, besides i have never heard of those names u mentioned, who are they? Js asking

welcome to nairaland

** gives up, leaves thread in frustration and lights a cigar**

django1: I don't know about you, but this is an unconfirmed and highly sensationalized statement;
"It is my impression that Chief Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself in particular and for the advancement of of his Yoruba people in general. And let it be said that there is, on the surface, at least, nothing wrong with those aspirations.However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbos at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when opportunity arose-the Nigeria/Biafra War-his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go every length to achieve his dreams. In the Biafran case it mean hatching up diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation-eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations".

And I find the bolded highly highly insultive, so take your BS elsewhere.
Remember too that achebe here was saying all these about a dead man, who couldn't defend his honor.

frankly, if i was yoruba, i would just pass it off as a conspiracy theory(the part about advancing his tribe by killing off igbos) or laugh it off BUT would not see it as an insult so pls relax.the man did not insult awo or his tribe.

ilugunboy: who is your brother?

funny young man.

Prof Corruption: Above everything, no man is perfect. Achebe would conveniently be on any Nigerian list of heroes.
RIP to a great man of letters.

even though we ve resorted to insulting ourselves at a time and even though i hate your second comment on this thread, my respect for you has gone up a notch.cheers mate.