₦airaland Forum

@davidylan

Dude,

The casual manner in which you throw around seismic registers tells me that you have no comprehension of the severity of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, not to talk of a 9.0. And obviously, since you've never lived through one, it's easy for you to direct disaster management activities from the comfort of your living room.

I live in California and I've been here since I was a youth. As a youth, I saw the devastation of the Loma Prieta earthquake and how it almost crippled the economy of the San Francisco Bay Area. I saw the ruins of the twin-deck Nimitz freeway in Oakland, whose total collapse effectively put an end to the double-stacked freeway design in California's engineering manual. Many were trapped underneath the Nimitz and many lost their lives.

Loma Prieta severely strained California and the state needed considerable federal assistance to emerge from the disaster. Yet, no country or state in this world was more practiced at earthquake preparedness than California.

Those of us who have had the misfortune of being caught in the “eye of the storm” never brand around 9.0 Richter with the callousness and ignorance you do. I can tell you with certainty that no CEMA (California Emergency Management Agency) official, prepared as the agency may be for the “big One”, is itching to show the world the efficacy of their preparedness for a 9.0 disaster in a real earthquake.

Your mighty UK, with its vaunted disaster preparedness as you would like us to believe, was virtually paralyzed for three days last January because of heavy snowfall. Yet, it was an amount of precipitation that would hardly raise an eyebrow in Chicago.

I choose my battles carefully and I often pick narrow areas of contention to debate. On the issue of seismic registers, I maintain that you are not informed enough to fully appreciate the seismic numbers you throw around naively. I certainly do not disagree with your comments about the need for Africans and blacks in general to start looking inward for solutions to their problems – you should read some of my posts on Nigeria's current predicament. But there is popular maxim that says, “When a man is down, you don't kick him in the groin.”

The world rose to help the victims of the SE Asia tsunami in 2004, just as the world rose to help the 1999 victims of the massive 7.6 earthquake in Turkey. The Turkey quake left well over 30000 dead and millions homeless. Turkey has a long history of massive quakes 7.0 and higher, and each time needed foreign assistance to pull through. Even Iran, a country that constantly vilifies the West accepts foreign aids when its active seismic landscape tremor.

Many SE Asia and Middle Eastern countries fall into the category of "aid recipients due to natural disaster". Haiti is not unique in that respect.

davidylan:
Haiti has no seismic monitoring stations . . . American scientists warned of this earthquake as far back as March 2008.

Dude,

This is exactly why I asked how much education you have had.

I know of no technology in this world that will predict the exact time, location and extent of an earthquake. Seismic monitors don't predict earthquakes; they record seismic activities that happen around the clock everywhere on earth.

I live in California. I've been here since I was a youth. I have never received any advance warning from CEMA (California Emergency Management Agency) of an impending earthquake before it happened. Everyone in California talks about the “Big One” all the time, but no one knows when or if it will come.

I’ve heard some scientists refer to the Haiti quake as the “Big One” everyone talks about. But none would give assurance that another “Big One” will not happen in California.

PapaBrowne:
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I think we can pretty much get close to that without doing much- that is on the assumption that the price of oil stays high throughout the decade and with the hopes that there isn't another major economic slump btw now and 2020.
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@PapaBrowne
The 2000-2008 spike in GDP is skewed because of the high oil prices between 2006 and 2008. This is not a sustainable model for economic growth.

Nigeria will need massive structural adjustment of its government, if the GDP is to grow beyond South Africa’s by 2020. If you look at federal spending, a staggering 57-60% of revenue is spent on recurring expenditure. That’s right! Sixty percent your money goes to paying the salaries of government employees, elected officials and other expenses to keep the government “functioning”.

No country can ever developed by skewing expenditure so heavily toward administrative costs. The individual states are even worse (with the exception of Lagos and a couple others, of course). Many of them blow over 68% of their annual budget on administrative expenditures.  I read somewhere that one governor in the north has a retinue of 2000 special assistants and advisers. Another was said to be ramping up his cabinet to match the bloated federal cabinet of 40.

One impediment to GDP growth is Nigeria’s heavy reliance on crude oil. You don’t have to be an economist to see how quickly Nigeria’s revenue stream would dwindle, if oil prices were to suffer a major retrenchment.

If the country can realign its expenditure in favor of infrastructure development that will spur the industrialization of Nigeria, a GDP of $400-500b is quite possible by 2020. But I cannot see $800. It’s just impossible considering that 2020 is only ten years away.

edoyad:
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Our  GDP today stands at about $ 320 billion +, for a country with 150 million people that sucks considering South Africa with 50 million people has a GDP of about $500 billion.
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@edoyad
Where did you get the $320b figure for 2009?

davidylan:
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If UK experienced an 8.0 earthquake, they WILL survive WITHOUT aid because as a society they are well prepared to deal with such.

@davidylan

Obviously, you have absolutely no idea what a magnitude 8.0 earthquake is. An 8.0 will release 30 times more energy than the 7.0 in Haiti released. If the epicenter is close to the surface, and to a densely-populated area such as London, the resulting devastation and loss of life will be unimaginable. And yes, the UK will need the help of its EU neighbors to pull out of such a disaster.

Even in earthquake-experienced California, where buildings are designed to strict seismic codes, an 8.0 will overwhelm the state's capacity to cope.

How much education have you had, davidylan?

Are we going to see him on the streets of Lagos begging for alms?

No2Atheism:
is red cross d only organisation collecting aid money . . is there no haitan organisation collecting aid money . . .

No. There  are other organizations. Follow this link:

How to Make Sure Your Donation Helps Haitian Earthquake Victims
http://blogs.forbes.com/moneybuilder/2010/01/13/how-to-make-sure-your-donation-helps-haitian-earthquake-victims/

When a country is rudderless and leaderless, this is what happens. Nigeria has had years of warning from the US and the international community about the growing threat of Islamic extremists within the country. But Nigeria's ingrained culture of ambivalence and neglect has allowed a rot to grow to this extent.

However, the regrettable action in this episode is to announce the agreement publicly. Both the US and Nigeria may come to regret it because the US may have unwittingly painted a bull's eye on Nigeria. Any overt exercise of US law in Nigeria is recruitment propaganda for Al-Qaeda in the Islamic north. The temptation for Al-Qaeda to thumb its nose at the US over Nigeria will be too much.

Nigeria, today, is fast reaching its nadir in international relevance and reverence. It's a shame because in its younger years, the country had so much promise. These days, it's anybody's turn to pee on Nigeria.

I am beginning to adjust to the idea that this may indeed be the beginning of the end of Nigeria.


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Emotions aside, the US cannot legally put US air marshals on a foreign aircraft while the aircraft is outside US jurisdiction. The US can, however, put armed marshals on US carriers outside US airspace provided they have the consent of the host country.

But putting US marshals on Nigerian airliners in Nigeria on flights en route to the US is an extrajudicial development. Any lawyer in Nigeria can challenge the jurisdiction of US law enforcement within Nigeria since Nigeria’s constitution does not recognize American jurisprudence.

My guess is that the air marshals will be deployed on US carriers only. I am also inclined to believe that the US landing permit given to Arik (or was it Virgin Nigeria?) will be put on hold until the US has trained enough Nigerian air marshals to fly on Nigerian carriers en route to the US.

Again, I urge you guys to give, if you can. Unless you've seen devastation like this first hand, you can never appreciate the misery in that little country right now.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-381047.0.html

I know Nigeria has its problems these days and I am sure most of you have your own daily challenges to deal with. But if you are in a position to give to the earthquake victims in Haiti, please do so without delay.

Having lived through the devastation of a major earthquake in California myself, I know how it feels to be caught in a “Big One”, as California residents call it. A 7.0 earthquake is a VERY significant disaster.

I’ve seen enough of the devastation in Haiti that I can no longer bear to watch anymore.

So, please give and give generously, if you can.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Those interested in supporting the relief efforts may donate at http://www.redcross.org

How to Make Sure Your Donation Helps Haitian Earthquake Victims
http://blogs.forbes.com/moneybuilder/2010/01/13/how-to-make-sure-your-donation-helps-haitian-earthquake-victims/

naijaway:
As much as i want him to testify it doesn't have to be in America as much as it should be in Nigeria. What about a court anywhere in Nigeria for a day/week with the Nigerian police force (not army) guarding the event and ensuring peace and normality while the US senators(on intelligence) and relevant parties and presscoverage carry out the hearing.

That's not going to happen.

People are making too much of Mutallab's invitation to testify before the US Congress. This whole thing is nothing more than a fact-finding exercise. That's all there is to it.

violent:
I feel for the poor dude, he's been called to testify against his own son. .  .nothing can be worse in life.

Refusing the invitation might not be such a good publicity after all, they will probably interpret it as support for terror
Accepting the invitation is not also a too good choice, they are going to ask him questions he'd hate to answer.

I think his best bet is if he is going to accept, he must have his own lawyers vast in international politics and laws around him whenever he is being questioned!

The Elder Mutallab cannot be forced to testify against his own son, but only under certain circumstances.

In US law, anything the younger Mutallab might have told his father would be deemed “privileged communication”. The word “communication” is significant because it must in form of spoken or written words, e-mail, or coded message that only father and son would understand. This is similar to the same privileged communication rights the law grants attorneys and clients, or doctors and patients.

If, however, Mutallab Sr. witnessed his son commit the act of terrorism, then anything he saw his son do would not be covered under the privileged communication rule. But generally, prosecutors avoid calling relatives to testify against other relatives unless they have no choice.

The other point to make is that the US Congress is not a court of law. His attorney, if he chooses to have one, will negotiate with Congress so that nothing he says during the hearing will be admissible in a court of law. I doubt if Mutallab Sr. would need any special protection, though.

My speculation is that Mutallab Sr. will choose to give his testimony behind closed doors without the presence of reporters and TV cameras. Besides, if congress really wants to hear from Mutallab, they’ll grant him every reasonable request he makes. It will tell me that the Republicans are more interested in TV showboating, if they refuse to take his testimony behind closed doors. This does not mean that anything he says during the closed door session will be confidential. Congress will release transcripts of his testimony to the public after the hearing.

@ sammyzacks  and @annyplenty, well-done lists.


In law – at least in American Jurisprudence – there is a concept called preponderance of circumstantial evidence, especially in civil litigation. It means that the law must not necessarily have a "smoking gun" evidence to convict, or in civil proceedings, assign liability.

The US looked at available intelligence, current events in the country and over the last decade and came to a logical conclusion: the Federal Republic of Nigeria is slipping into a failed and radicalized state and should be put on the terror-watch list.

Nigerians, despite their individual and collective industry have an antipathy to probity and accountability, and a disposition to neglect things until a rot becomes unmanageable. Had Nigeria heeded warnings of extremism within its midst, and taken concrete steps to curb it, the world might have seen the mutallab incidence as an aberration.

Had Nigeria, over decades, not developed its sordid reputation as a country that harbors fraudsters, embezzlers and drug traffickers, and tolerance for intolerant religious sects, the world might have had some empathy for the country's inclusion on the terror-watch list.

In addition to the lists posted by sammyzacks  and annyplenty, who can forget the black eye the same northern brothers gave Nigeria during the 2002 Miss World contest?. Let's face the fact that Nigeria has exhausted its reservoir of global goodwill.

So, to bluespice and those who continue to whine about Nigeria's inclusion on the terror list, it is important to realize that the world is tired of the excesses of Nigeria and its citizens. Even black Americans have become weary of Nigerians and their ways. It's no surprise then that the black civil right movement in the US has not risen to Nigeria's defense. Everyone is weary of Nigeria.

I thought Sahara Reporters' web site reported this about a month ago and no one believed it.

If these people had any brains at all, Yar’Adua could have built and staffed a very good specialist hospital in Abuja and even add a presidential wing to it. When he collapsed last Nov, his journey to the emergency would have taken five minutes rather than the hours it took to fly him to Saudi Arabia. Who knows how much damage was done to his organs during the long “emergency” flight to Saudi land?

Beaf:
Whether the Mutallabs like it or not, they have become part and parcle of US politics. They should be prepared to be investigated by the press, threatened, blackmailed and be tools in all sorts of dirty tricks. Farouk the fool, didn't do anybody any favours.

A good way to deal with being dragged into the web of American politics is to avoid giving interviews to the local media while they are in the US. They should talk to the FBI, though. They have nothing to worry about as far as dirty trick or blackmail is concerned. His cooperation is more valuable to the US authorities than any wacko’s desire to play dirty tricks on them or see them dead.

The father actually has some positive press in the media here. He appears to an educated and dignified person who wanted the best for his son, but unwittingly opened the door for the son's indoctrination in radical Islam.

wirinet:
I must apologize for for tying the 20 signatures to Mutallab's invitation/summon. But i think you have problems with ethics and i think you have a very low self esteem, for being a Nigerian, If not you would have demanded that the US (including the US senate) accord Nigeria and Nigerians some degree of respect, the way it respects other friendly sovereign Nations. It is very disrespectful for the US senate to issue an invitation/summon to a citizens of another sovereign state. There are diplomatic ways of doing things and i do not think Nigeria had refused to cooperate with the US so far. When we need to "invite"  our own citizens who have committed an offense and have taken refuge in the US or UK, they insist we pass through normal channels and not just issue invitations.
Tell me which other country the US senate had ever issued such an invitation.

The word to note here is "invitation". As with any invitation, the invitee reserves the prerogative to accept or decline. What's so hard to understand here?

While I cannot cite specifics without doing a Google search -- and I won't -- extending invitations to foreign nationals to testify before the US congress is not uncommon.

South American nationals had appeared before Congressional Committees investigating drug trafficking. Britons had testified before US congress on terrorism and other matters in the past.

Again, these subjects accepted the invitation on their own volition. No one forced or coerced them to attend the proceedings.

SEFAGO:
But he is obliged to go except he is hiding something. Declining to go, could have consequences. This simple request is bubbling with connotations.

Mutallab is neither obligated nor can he be forced to testify before the US congress. That obligation is reserved for US citizens and legal residents. He may decline the invitation, if he so chooses.

I don't think it would look bad, if he should decline the invitation. There is nothing Congress will ask him that the FBI had not already asked him. I hope he gets good advice before he accepts or declines the invitation.

But as another poster already noted, the Republicans recognize the PR value in having Mutallab testify before Congress, so this is nothing more than an opportunity for them to paint the Obama administration as "soft on the war on terror".

I wish you had a more appropriate title for your post because it fails to appreciate the issue as being at the core of quality education in Nigeria.

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I would not begrudge any Nigerian who wanted to return home due to unfavorable economic situations where they had taken up residency or even citizenship. It is justifiable to question their stated motive for returning home, but where else would they go but home?

My concern is the large pay disparity between the repatriates and Nigerians who scored their baccalaureates and/or post grad diplomas in Nigeria. Paying returning Diasporas excessively more than their locally-educated counterparts devalues University degrees from Nigerian institutions, particular if neither the repatriate nor the locally-educated graduate has relevant experience for the job he or she is being hired to do. Furthermore, nothing validates Nigerians’ never-ending itch to leave the country for higher education more than such pay disparity.

Around mid-2009, when I first received some buzz about Fashola, I was quite sure that he was educated either in the US or in the UK. Imagine my surprise when I learnt that the man is a Nigerian-trained lawyer. On the other hand, one of the most useless individuals in the Nigerian legislature today is Dimeji Bankole, the British educated, British accented speaker of the house. What has he done since his ascent to that exulted position?

The legislator who slapped a policeman in the House of Assembly, from what I’ve read, obtained his MBA from a reputable college in the US. Certainly, he didn’t cultivate his attitude toward lower-ranking employees in college nor by watching C-Span (for those outside the US who may not be familiar with C-Span, C-Span is a television channel that shows deliberations of the US Congress live or otherwise).

So, it’s not always a valid proposition that a foreign degree is better than a local one.

We should not discourage the Nigerian diaspora from returning home with low pay and lousy benefits. But the diaspora who should be showered with largesse are those who have demonstrable skills, integrity, and reasonable accomplishments on their resumes. This is how compensation policies are executed in developed countries.

Someone who schooled at some uncelebrated university abroad and has accomplished nothing should not automatically be a superior hire to a locally-educated job candidate who made the dean’s list at UNILAG.

Depilot:
Some of us are obviously frustrated and hopeless; a very very bad and deadly combo. This combination seems to place us in the darkness of no return.

Hey, Obasanjo is not my cup of tea, but I must give him this one. Yes, he has been very quiet lately, he has done all of us wrong and he's still the bully of all time, but I think he got this one right.
He came out at the right time to say the right thing.
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It is ok to hate the man, it is ok to criticize the man, it is even fine to stone the man, but we must not allow the past to take away from the future. Obasanjo has done the right thing. He was very prudent during this speech and I think he nailed it (for a minute I thought Babangida was the one that made the speech).

Obasanjo has my kudos for the first time for making this courageous move at this time. Let us hope that this will rub off to other old thieves in our country.

Well said, but I REALLY like the part about stoning OBJ! 

AfroCynic:
Did Obasanjo consult the nation before he signed Bakassi away? No! So the very act of signing it away is illegal as per Nigerian law. SO, I do not recognise it. Thank You.

For a while there, I thought you were going to tell me that you would march in your commando gear towards Bakassi and liberate the land from Cameroon.

***************

To put the blame squarely on Obasanjo would be ahistoric. OBJ was not the Nigerian head of State who signed away the Bakassi peninsula. That ignominy belonged to Gowon, who flew into Yaounde to pawn away Nigeria’s birthright as gratitude for the support Cameroon gave Nigeria during the civil war. Cameroon had prevented arms flow into Biafra through the waters around Bakassi. That strategic assistance from Cameroon starved Biafran soldiers of weapons and supplies and precipitated the collapse of the Biafran army.

Whether Obasanjo was wise in assenting to adjudication at The Hague is debatable. What is clear is that part of OBJ’s motivation was to be seen as a “World Statesman”, which he had fancied himself. Recall also that OBJ, earlier in his presidency, had purged the Nigerian army of senior officers in a bid to secure long jeopardy of democracy in the third Republic. So, the man was in no position to proposition the military for gunboat diplomacy with Cameroon over the Bakassi peninsula. 

And if you think back, Cameroon was negotiating with IBB on a framework for financial compensation for Bakassi, and joint administration with Yaounde before the impetuous Abacha provoked a military confrontation with Cameroon. That drove a militarily weaker Cameroon to the ICJ. Before Abacha, the Cameroonians were willing to work with IBB to reach a diplomatic solution.

As for your complaint that Obasanjo acted unitarily without consulting the nation, you'll have to realize that it would invite paralysis, if a nation’s leader called a plebiscite each time he or she had to make an important decision. Did Abacha call a referendum before he created the 774th LGA in Bakassi (I am asking because we had fled the country when Abacha came to power)?

Political analysis aside, the fact remains that OBJ was the legitimate president of Nigeria at the time and any action he took in Nigeria’s stead was validated by his standing. End of story.

. . .many good suggestions in this post.

I would expunge the section of the constitution that grants immunity to sitting governors. It is the most hideous statue ever penned and it promotes, sanctions and applauds corruption by elected officials.

Y.M.E:
I agree in the lines being colour-coded. It is the norm as you said "makes it easy for people to identify which trains they will connect to". But literally naming them after the colours, i am not so sure about. But having said that, I am not an expert in transportation or any project of the sort. So, if I am wrong,  I concede.

Shey them go paint d trains too in the colours after which they are named?

Look at it this way: Let's say your dear grandparents (no insult intended and I'll explain later) use the same medicine but different dosage. Since you're picking up their prescription for them like the beloved grandson you are, the pharmacy offers you two options:

Option one uses the same color medicine bottle for grandpa's and grandma's prescriptions, and put their respective names on the bottles as mandated by law.

Option two will color code each bottle according to each patient's favorite color as well as the mandatory printing of their names on the medicine bottles.

In your opinion, which option offers the lesser chance that grandpa and grandma will mix up their medicines?

This may seem like an elementary exercise, but it offers a short insight into what makes good industrial design.

Now the reason I used this example is that a similar incident happened in the US except for the grandson and favorite color parts. Those are my embellishments. Target Stores, one of the largest department stores in the US started offing the color coded medicine bottles after the grandparent of an employee took an overdose of a medicine he/she shared with the other grandparent. Target used to run that radio and TV commercials when the company first introduced the color-coding option.

Question:
What’s the big deal painting the rail cars different colors anyway? I curious to know: why does it disturb you? Lagos already has color coded buses. The red colored LAGBUS and the blue ones that belong to LASTMA.

Darn. I’ve written so many words on a trivial subject.

I have only a few questions to ask you, then I’ll make a final comment and bow out of this debate with you. The list of villains from slave traders to colonial masters to capitalism to multinational oil exploiters is just too long for my little brain to tackle.

cap28:
obviously none of this would happen without the collusion of the nigerian elite but you must understand that this is a joint  effort, with countries like britain, US and Israel ensuring that this repression carries on unchecked.  last year gordon brown pledged to increase arms exports to nigeria in order to get rid of militant groups such as MEND - why are they hell bent on supporting such a repressive regime?  could it be because they have a vested interest in keeping the nigerian masses oppressed?

I was not aware that little Israel has been added to the list of monsters Nigeria must slay. What have they done to you guys?

cap28:
with nigeria you have multinationals such as shell bp, exxon mobil and chevron reaping huge profits from the petroleum industry without having to bear the burden of carrying out any meaningful economic development in any of the oil producign areas whilst also causing massive environmental devastation.

If “multinationals such as shell bp, exxon mobil and chevron” had not come to Nigeria, how would you have exploited the oil resources of the ND?

I thought Nigeria has had over 45 years to develop indigenes who could take over from these multinationals. Didn’t Nigeria form the NPC and later the NNPC to manage its oil wealth? Do you fault the villain multinationals that neither NPC nor NNPC had the vision to see 90% indigenous control by the year 2010? How many years has Nigeria had to control of its destiny?


This reminds me of something Donna Brazile, Al Gore’s campaign manager in the 2000 US presidential election, said of Gore, in the epilogue to his drama-laden loss to George Bush:

“He blamed everyone else but himself”

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One last question:
If you like Hugo Chavez's socialist system so much, what are you doing in capitalist UK? Certainly there are like-minded Nigerians like you living in Venezuela.

AfroCynic:
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Reclaim Bakkasi from Cameroon.
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. . .and how would you accomplish that? Was it not Nigeria that instigated the legal proceeding at the ICJ in The Hague thinking it could not lose?

What Fashola has done to date in Lagos is nothing extraordinary, if you held him up to the standard by which you would judge the chief executive of a municipality in a developed country. But given that in Nigeria, government is reputed for corruption, ineptitude, lack of vision and a care-not attitude toward the welfare of the state, the fact that Fashola is delivering on his vision for the state is enough to endear him to his constituents.

The challenges Fashola faces are never experienced by his counterparts in other states. No other governor has to deal with 15m people crammed into a small landmass, all of whom are needy of municipal services. And they keep coming from every nook and corner of the country and other African countries as well. The fact that the state, under his tutelage, has not buckled under such tremendous weight is enough to earn him accolades as the best among Nigerian governors.

This is a very good development. The LSG should be commended for this Bill as it further cements the image of Lagos as progressive and democratic (well, at least under Fashola's administration).

This will go down well with foreign and domestic investors who value transparency in government. What Lagos needs now are good investigative reporters who can dig into government records to get to the bottom of things. Reporters in Nigeria will be the weak link in this chain. But who can blame them when law enforcement is incapable of protecting them from harassment and assassinations.

I hope government and the courts in Lagos will put their full weight (and teeth) into enforcing the FOI act. Halfhearted enforcement has always been the Achilles' heel in a good intention such of this.

cap28:
@emperor olu and tippy top - thanks for your comments.  

i think nigeria is still capable of producing a charismatic leader with vision like chavez and who has the interest of the common man at heart - . . .  
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in my view the western capitalist system is a form of modern day slavery with africa as a designated place where the west obtains cheap natural resources at the expense of the indigenous people in order to develop and enrich their own economies.  african nations cannot develop until they get rid of their corrupt puppets who are being controlled by corrupt western govts. this is easier said than done as all repressive african govts are trained and armed by western govts.  now the US is gearing up for any future showdown with militant groups like MEND by deploying their troops (AFRICOM) to so called troubled spots in order to "secure" oil wells and other places where valuable natural resource are located.

It is wrong to blame Africa’s retarded development on “western capitalist system” or creation of western puppets as Africa’s rulers. No Western power has created a puppet in Nigeria on whom you can blame Nigeria’s inability to become self-sufficient in refined petroleum despite Nigeria’s leadership in crude oil production. Neither is the Western capitalist system responsible for Nigeria’s inability to see beyond oil as the driver of the nation’s economy.

The Nigerian legislature recently rejected the fiscal 2010 budget proposal by YarAdua’s administration because it focused almost exclusively on crude oil development. Can you blame YarAdua’s lack of vision on Western collusion to stymie development in Nigeria?

Is Western collusion responsible for Nigeria’s electricity problems? Certainly, the Western capitalist system was not responsible for Dunlop and Michelin decamping to Ghana because of Nigeria’s power problems and public safety concerns.

When will Africans stop blaming the West and start looking inward for solutions to Africa’s problems?

There is a popular maxim that goes like this: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”


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Btw, Nigeria does not need a charismatic leader. Nigeria needs a visionary leader, who can lead by example and uphold the law. The Chavez you admire you much was the same Chavez who tried to con the Venezuela people into making him president for life. They shot him down, of course, but some role model you've picked as example for Nigeria's future leadership.

gaby:
A great and laudable move by the people's Governor.But we need to take time out to think about what the trains will be running on are they going to be generator-powered or coal-ran.
. . .

No one makes coal-fired locomotives anymore. The trains will most likely have diesel engines. I say diesel because the other alternative is electrified rail lines (track or overhead cables). But given the electricity situation in Lagos, I am not sure the authorities would choose this mode.

Y.M.E:
Nice initiative, but wait,  I'm I the only one absolutely disgusted by the proposed name of these line?

I mean,  what is blue line, red line and pink line.

Is this female Kindergarten project?

It’s a common nomenclature all over to world to apply color designations to the routes run by municipal transit. Besides it makes it easy for people to identify which trains they will connect to, if there is no direct train line to their destination.

What would you rather they call the lines?

SEFAGO:
LOL, I used the wrong word-radioactive (see how misinformation starts ) I meant radiative. Yes radiation is everywhere but avoiding it is usually a good idea as No2Atheism said. As long as it gives out "millimeters" of electromagnetic radiation it could be a problem. What can we do, just take it as it is- everyone is going to die one day anyways- even laptops giveout radiation

@ No2Atheism, @ SEFAGO et al.

You can’t avoid radiation; it is everywhere. X-rays, microwave, millimeter wave, radio waves, light (any type of light, including light from the sun and your flash light), gamma rays, etc., all fall under the general classification called Electromagnetic Waves. They are all radiation. Soil, water, plants, minerals in the ground, all emit radiation. The only difference from one type of radiation to another is the wavelength at which they operate. That difference imparts certain characteristics in the type of radiation.

It’s been said many times in this thread that the MMW machines are safe. Why are some people still crackling (pun intended) about its safety. You get bombarded with more radiation just by stepping out into the sun everyday than you would with the MMW body scanners.

Even the foods you eat have very low amounts of radiation. Some areas of northern Nigeria are heavy in metallic mineral deposits, so the foods grown there are naturally laced with unstable isotopes of those metals (isotopes are radioactive cousins of normal atoms). You need some of these radioactive substances to be healthy and survive as a human being.

Potassium, Sodium, Magnesium, Calcium, Iron, all of which your body needs, emit radioactive particles. Do you eat bananas? Well, bananas happen to be one of the most radioactive foods we consume. They are high in potassium and contain tiny traces of radioactive Potassium-40. High dosage of Potassium-40 can cause cancer. Be relieved, however, that your body washes out all Potassium-40 you consume within 30 days.

You’ll worry yourself to death over nothing, if you keep going like this. If you want to avoid radiation, then you might want to avoid yourself because even YOU give off radiation. Everything on this planet gives of radiation.

Didn’t you guys take physics in secondary school?

The whole issue is irrelevant at this point. The old CJ is gone; the new CJ’s tenure has started. The short legal wrestling was fun while it lasted, though.

It’s now up to the Nigerian lawmakers to pass legislation to avoid this type of confusion in the future. They need to define when the tenure of one official ends and when his or her successor’s tenure starts. This is a very simple legislation that should take no more than a day to pass.

The lawyers should move on to more important issues.