₦airaland Forum

Racoon:
A president told the world that his country is poor while he is spending recklessly to live a life of opulence. Meanwhile, most African leaders are going cap-in-hand to continually beg for foreign aids as these wasters are never intuitive or reasoning on how to be innovative with their brains.

Imagine China, France and Russia calling African countries to themselves and tying with constricting economic policies that is mortgaging their home countries. So sad!

Which constricting policies exactly have china and Russia forced upon African countries?

Basic123:
Did OBJ kill himself?

Which corruption was OBJ fighting?
He was only using EFCC has an attack dogs for his political enemies

OBJ started EFCC, best his successors could do is strengthen that institution. At least, EFCC was best effective when Ribadu was head unlike what we have now

What do you mean by did OBJ kill himself?

[quote author= post=136706757]It is true that Lee Kuan Yew did some of these things. For example, he built a world-class educational system, and he underwent an urban renewal that revamped slums. He paid ministers really high wages because of the expertise required and fought a great war against corruption. But that isn’t all he did—or thought.

You see, LKY believed a few foundational things that drove his actions. In a 1983 rally, he said this to his party members:

“If we continue to reproduce ourselves in this lopsided way, we will be unable to maintain our present standards. Standards of competence will decline. For how can we avoid lowering performance when, for every two graduates… in 25 years’ time, there will be one graduate, and for every two uneducated workers, there will be three?”

The implication was obvious. He believed competence and intelligence were somehow linked to genetics. In case people misquoted him or believed he didn’t mean it, he made the same remark in Hard Truths:

“When the graduate man does not want to marry a graduate woman, I tell him he’s a fool, stupid. You marry a non-graduate, you’re going to have problems—some children bright, some not bright. You’ll be tearing your hair out.”

He believed that stupid people gave birth to stupid children. And he didn’t just keep this thought to himself—he acted on it. In the 1960s, Singapore was experiencing crazy population growth. LKY thought this would affect the small island nation in the future, so he did the sane and normal thing that any of us would have done: He instituted a national voluntary sterilization program for women.

This program, true to form, didn’t target rich or educated women. It targeted the poorest women, with the government paying up to 10,000 Singaporean dollars to women who chose to sterilize themselves after their first or second kid. He also targeted the richest and most educated women with the Graduate Mothers Scheme, which gave them perks for having kids. So he made sure the poor and uneducated gave birth to fewer kids, and the rich and educated gave birth to more kids.

The impact of this program was quickly visible, as Singapore’s Total Fertility Rate dropped from over 3.0 in 1970 to below 2.0 by the late 1970s. To put that more clearly, around a third of the future generation was wiped out. Singapore’s population has never recovered and now stands at lower than 1.

LKY’s eugenic instincts didn’t stop there. In the above screenshot, our poster tells us how LKY banned tribal politics. However, he banned it in the sense that he made sure it would never be possible again. He made sure that Chinese people made up 75% of the nation by encouraging immigration from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China. He also granted thousands of Chinese immigrants permanent leave to stay while using metrics like education, language, and economic contribution—all factors that guaranteed a Chinese majority.

Remember that we already know that LKY believed in genetic intelligence. Therefore, he only did this because he believed that Han Chinese were just smarter than the Malays and Indians who made up a significant chunk of the Singapore population. So his policies were geared toward maximizing the percentage of Chinese because he believed they were simply superior people.

Here is how this position was put in the book Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas:

“There are deep and abiding differences between groups. And whatever we do, we must remember that in Singapore, the Malays feel they are being asked to compete unfairly, that they are not ready for the competition against the Chinese and the Indians and the Eurasians. They will not admit or they cannot admit to themselves that, in fact, as a result of history, they are a different gene pool and they do not have these qualities that can enable them to enter the same race.”

Elsewhere, he says this:

“I started off believing all men were equal. I now know that's the most unlikely thing ever to have been, because millions of years have passed over evolution, people have scattered across the face of this earth, been isolated from each other, developed independently, had different intermixtures between races, peoples, climates, soils... I didn't start off with that knowledge. But by observation, reading, watching, arguing, asking, and then bullying my way to the top, that is the conclusion I've come to.”

These quotes make Lee Kuan Yew as straightforward a racist as you are ever likely to meet. And he wasn’t a racist in the sense that it didn’t affect his work. He was a racist in the sense that it was what most of his work was about. By the end of his life, he was certain that the most important reason Singapore was successful was because it was majority Chinese.

This is crucial: His position wasn’t that cultural hegemony was good—but that cultural hegemony of the right race was good. That is why he said he would never have been successful if Singapore had been majority Indian or Malay. Let’s hear from the man himself:

“I have said this on many a previous occasion: that had the mix in Singapore been different, had it been 75% Indians, 15% Malays and the rest Chinese, it would not have worked. Because they believe in the politics of contention, of opposition. But because the culture was such that the populace sought a practical way out of their difficulties, therefore it has worked…. I have said openly that if we were 100 per cent Chinese, we would do better. But we are not and never will be, so we live with what we have.”

Lee Kuan Yew didn’t only have a low opinion of Malays and Indians—he had an even lower opinion of Blacks. After reading The Bell Curve by Charles Murray, a book that posited (tangentially, at least), among other things, that Black backwardness is caused, at least in part, by low genetic intelligence, Lee Kuan Yew had this to say:

“The Bell Curve is a fact of life. The Blacks on average score 85 per cent on IQ, and it is accurate—nothing to do with culture. The Whites score on average 100. Asians score more… the Bell Curve authors put it at least 10 points higher. These are realities that, if you do not accept, will lead to frustration because you will be spending money on wrong assumptions and the results cannot follow…. Supposing we had hidden the truth and taken the American approach and said, all men are equal. Then they (the less able or well-off) will demand equal results. And when the results are not equal, they will demand more equal treatment.”

It is important to note that these views weren’t an irrelevant part of his person. They drove his politics, and in his view, were the most important reason he was a success. This must be bad news for the Nigerians looking for their next Lee Kuan Yew.

If the man were to be seriously asked for suggestions on how Nigeria could also experience the Singaporean miracle, his answer would likely be that we can’t. Or if he said we could, he would likely suggest immediate eugenic policies that many Very Serious Nigerians will cry about from Lagos to New York.

Are you seriously going to suggest to the Nigerian uneducated, unaccomplished poor that it isn’t in the country’s interest for them to be fruitful and multiply? Are you going to suggest to Nigerian society that bandits and militants should at least be sterilized before they are “rehabilitated”? It is an unworkable situation.

Read the full article here https://elewa.substack.com/p/never-ask-a-nigerian-what-lee-kuan[/quote]Many nations have employed unusual measures like minimising the family unit, or making sure unnecessary population growth doesn't deter economic growth, when the population is growing at a rate that the available resources cannot satisfy, then all sorts of calamities are to be expected.
Look at northern Nigeria, predominantly Muslims, they belief in multiplying, both culturally and religiously, it has become a way of life, what region is most backward? Where do you find the highest number of sad occurrences like child marriages, maternal deaths, significantly low percentage of educated folks, a large population of mentally poor people, and perpetual inconceivable violence?
When a certain fraction of a population has higher tendencies to draw a nation backwards, a visionary leader can only be thankful that such a fraction is the smallest, because this way, such a leader can figure out how to keep this fraction "small", where's Malaysia and India today? How is the welfare of the Indian people? How clean are the streets? and how large has the state resources grown to accommodate every Indian? How has their explosive population, diverse cultural and religious differences contributed to their national development? India knows this.
People should have sex, but also wise enough to understand what situation they're in, if a leader is "blessed" with a population that believes the future of their country is embedded in how every national conducts his personal affairs, then such a nation can go from being third to first in just two decades, rather than one where the majority believe everything is divine, and that the most high will soon descend to save everyone and their 10 kids.
Eugenics, many great nations where our people still sell family Inheritance and take loans to run to have practiced it, this is not to say this is somehow good science/practice, it is not, but I am only emphasizing that a population that refuses education, doesn't believe the nation is too economically backward for a man to have 4+ children, is not going to have development in its story.
Education is vital, not necessarily within the four walls of an institution, let the people understand how resources can reach everyone, how these things can be managed, and that how corruption within our government is directly responsible for insecurity, poverty and hunger, poor healthcare and all sorts of vices, economic development isn't divine, it is made to happen by men.
Let Nigeria and Nigerians unlearn the bulk of nonsense in their heads, start with every family having just two kids (civilization is definitely connected to Education and that to fertility rate), a decade In prison to anyone who shows the littlest interest in tribalism, accept and believe religious affiliations are unimportant in the grand scheme of things, promote and reward only those qualified for leadership positions, clean up the judiciary and have a death penalty for anyone found to be mismanaging public funds even if the amount is 1000 naira, let their be order, all these things in place, and watch how speedily the tales told of Nigeria become music even to the ears of westerners.
Many nations with changed stories over the years worked on their population, tried to end corruption, disregarded religion and cultural differences or just encouraged only one and outlawed others, they either encouraged secularisation or accepted only one religion, it takes hard 'unusual' measures, but can anyone hate good results?
Look at Singapore, Taiwan, south korea and even China at some point, they all had to do their own things, today these countries have a large percentage of the African population rich in culture and strong beliefs in the supernatural, trying their best to live in these countries, when they arrive in these "promised lands" they thank "God", many say they did what they had to do to secure a better future for their kids, a better remuneration for labour/skill, a better everything, men made these places, a supernatural being had nothing to do with it! all actions have consequences, the summary of all of this.

patrickcollins:
The prime minister was never enjoying and told others to sacrifice, the prime minister was part of the reform. President Tinubu and other elected officials can't be enjoying cashing out and told us to starve. Monthly take home of Judges was increased to 13m monthly after allowances, The legislatures collecting almost 30m monthly and Tinubu wants to increase the salary of political office holders. Tinubu can't be half what the prime minister was

All what you have mentioned here which one is Tinubu's doing. We have constitution and Tinubu is operating under the constitution, Judiciary and legislative arms of government are independent of executive arm of government.

When Tinubu removed pms subsidies he increased civil servants basic salaries to cushion the effects of subsidies removal,he increased the monthly allocations of state government because we always said state governments are the one closers to the citizens.

President Bola Tinubu's administration has implemented various social interventions to address Nigeria's economic and social challenges. Some key initiatives include ¹ ²:
- *Healthcare Reforms*:
- *Free Caesarean Section*: Approved free Caesarean Section for vulnerable pregnant women under the National Health Insurance Scheme, benefiting over 2,000 women.
- *National Health Fellows Program*: Established to empower young professionals in healthcare delivery, focusing on primary healthcare and universal health coverage.
- *Healthcare Infrastructure*: Construction of pharmaceutical-grade warehouses in 22 states and commissioning of healthcare projects in universities and federal medical centers.
- *Education*:
- *Student Loan Bill*: Signed into law to provide financial aid to students pursuing higher education, establishing the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
- Economic Support
- *Minimum Wage Increase*: Approved an increase in the minimum wage from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000.
- *Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) Funding*: Provided N125 billion in funding for MSMEs, with N50 billion allocated to grant 1 million small businesses.
- *Food Security*:
- *Agricultural Support*: Provided support to farmers, including solar-powered irrigation facilities and high-quality seedlings.
- *Food Distribution*: Implemented programs to distribute food to vulnerable populations, such as the National Construction and Household Support Programme.
- *Social Investment Programs*:
- *Direct Benefit Transfer*: Implemented to provide financial assistance to vulnerable citizens.
- *Youth Employment Benefits Scheme*: Introduced to address youth unemployment through targeted interventions.

seunmsg:
Lee Kuan Yew was a reformist like Bola Tinubu is right now. Unlike Bola Tinubu though, Lee was a dictator who didn’t allow opposition and ethnic hatred to distract him in the process of reforming Singapore. He held tight to power and ruled for 30 straight years.

Nobody talked down on him after just two years in office. He was given absolute support by everyone just to ensure the reforms work out well. Singapore is also a small country with no ethnic or religious division. There was no ethnic governors and a corrupt National Assembly to carry along. Even at that, it took him 30 years to get the job done.

So, you want to compare him with another reformist who has only served for two years as the president of a very big country with over 200 million people, over 250 ethnicities and multiple religious groups.


With Tinubu, Nigeria is on the right track and all indices confirms this. However, it will take years of we being on the right track for the results to start getting to the ordinary people. It is a marathon and not a sprint. We shall get there if we stay true to the cause.

Let's take your claim of Tinubu being a reformist. You guys say he laid the blue-print for Lagos State during his tenure and afterwards. So successive governors use the blueprint, considering it's a one-party system.

It's 18 years since BAT. Can u bet that in 42 years to come Lagos State would be like Singapore?

You've not been able to tackle common waste management let alone open defecation and you think that the blueprint designer is a reformist.

A man that resisted subsidy removal only to turn around to make an unplanned pronouncement because of the pressure at the timen and the need to score political points.

Does that look like a man that has an ideology?

The man does not even believe in Nigeria. He goes to UK and France at the slighest of ailments. His children schooled abroad. He and his children likely have second passports.

He designed Lagos' blueprint yet he can't use any hospital there, let alone suitable for a vacation.

Does that strike u like someone who believe in what he's doing?

Guestmale:
Hypocrisy of the highest order. Tinubu has not introduced half of strict and tough measures the prime minister introduced to rebuilt his nation, but you people are already crying and calling him names because it isn't your preferred candidate.

You're right...
Strict policies and tough measures were implemented to transform the country.

At some point, his method were even criticized for being authoritarian... Lol

benardtotti:
He launched sweeping reforms in housing, education, defense, and urban hygiene. The Housing Development Board (HDB) rolled out the world’s most ambitious public housing program. He famously banned chewing gum, not out of pettiness, but as part of a broader campaign for cleanliness and order. Strikes, riots, and public disorder were clamped down on with uncompromising resolve

If BAT does half of this, same OP will be up in arms crying democracy is dead.

This is the honest truth i have observed about Africa and why we are under developed:
African leaders who try to change the status quo especially in a democratic setting end up failing as most Africans are only after what they can eat today and not future plans, any African leader who tries to do hard reforms will get called out so most of them chicken out and just keep pleasing the masses just to stay in power , the few successful African countries are those with either dictators or long term democratic terms, reason I'm an advocate of 5 to 7 year tenure for presidents .

Jerry rawlings ruled Ghana both as military and civilian for over 20 years and set a template for Ghana, Lagos has been the most consistent state in Nigeria for decades cos its a one party state, Rwanda has come up from its genocide past cos the president has been in power since 1996.

For africa to move forward all these 4 year nonsense won't work .

Stop justifying nonsense. If your African leaders can lead by example, no matter the hardship, people will be happy to endure in hope of a better tomorrow.
If the oba in my community can endeavor to go around the community picking trash and sweeping dirt, tell me the vagabond that will have gut to litter the community.

Or do you think the Americans followed Washington blindly or the Singaporeans followed yew blindly?

Eriokanmi:
We're not ready yet ni. If we yorubas want to go, no amount of the Abdulsalaam Abubakar's 1999 constitution (as amended) can deter us. We're the ones still holding other tribes. This shall happen, only that we dont know when.

explain how Yorubas are the ones holding the others tribes from leaving

budaatum:
I was not aware I said this here, but yes. Any tribe that does not want to be part of Nigeria should pack their load and go somewhere else please.

There is plenty land they can go occupy in the Sahara desert for a nominal fee to those who currently own it.

Those who remain will make us stronger because we'd have gotten rid of those tearing us apart. And one day we'd be better than Singapore, and might have done it without Singapore's racial eugenics.

Ok Singapore was expel to the Sahara desert or the north pole Abi?

Nteogwuija:
Let's take your claim of Tinubu being a reformist. You guys say he laid the blue-print for Lagos State during his tenure and afterwards. So successive governors use the blueprint, considering it's a one-party system.

It's 18 years since BAT. Can u bet that in 42 years to come Lagos State would be like Singapore?

You've not been able to tackle common waste management let alone open defecation and you think that the blueprint designer is a reformist.

A man that resisted subsidy removal only to turn around to make an unplanned pronouncement because of the pressure at the timen and the need to score political points.

Does that look like a man that has an ideology?

The man does not even believe in Nigeria. He goes to UK and France at the slighest of ailments. His children schooled abroad. He and his children likely have second passports.

He designed Lagos' blueprint yet he can't use any hospital there, let alone suitable for a vacation.

Does that strike u like someone who believe in what he's doing?

If Lagos is a standalone country and not subjected to the yokes of a federal system where it has to give away over 90% of its tax revenue to the federation for the development of parasitic states like the SE states, it would have been better than Singapore by now. However, if the current growth trajectory is maintained, Lagos should be better than Singapore in the next 40 years. The state is already in that path.

Guestmale:
You said Tinubu is not sacrificing but asking Nigerians to sacrifice but it seems you didn't read my respond to that.So tell me what good example are you expecting Tinubu to live.

And I asked you the money he gave to the governors what are they doing with it. And apart from the subsidies removal which has removed fuel scarcity and queue in our filling stations,it has also increased our GDP and stabilized our economy. There are many infrastructures like building of roads going on all over the country.

Many reforms in economy are on going which will we may not see the results now but will latter become visible.

What stop tinubu from using Nigerian hospitals Or wearing prints made in Kaduna
Or jailing kwam1
Banning agbero or using a Nigerian made car or having an auditable account or jailing half northern, south western and eastern politicians.

Dreamhans1:
Ok Singapore was expel to the Sahara desert or the north pole Abi?

Singapore was not expelled to any desert. They were expelled from a union with Malaysia who did not want them to be part of their combined nation anymore, which is very different to those seeking Oduduwa or an Igbo Republic, whom I say we need.

Thanks for suggesting the North Pole though. Land might be cheaper there for those who want to expel themselves from Nigeria. We will not stop you leaving if you get on a plane and go. Just don't be claiming you are Nigerian once you've gone please.

And good luck.

Nteogwuija:
You people should stop this talk about Tinubu distributing money to governors. And then you guys would turn around to gaslight Nigerians, telling them to hold their governors accountable.

If Tinubu really was altruistic and cared about the citizens of each state, setting up a system that'd ensure that the governors account for every penny spent won't be an issue for him.

If he can comfortably suspend an elected governor, then this should be a walk in the park for him.

But we all know he won't do. And we all know the real reason he's "blessing" the governors.

About reforms. GEJ removed subsidy in 2012 and Tinubu championed a protest that saw GEJ rescind on his decision.

The same Tinubu came and announced subsidy removal in 2023.

The point is that Tinubu is not one to be trusted to carry on these reforms. Apart from having a load of baggages, he's not ready and won't lead by example. The proofs are everywhere.

Anyone who's truly honest about implementing reforms and needs the trust of the citizens is someone who's Nigeria first, such politician having a second passport should not be trusted.

Has no mystery surrounding their identity, can be accepted by most Nigerians as an honest person, someone whose integrity isn't debatable.

Tinubu does not tick any of those boxes. I'm yet to see any politician that ticks all of those boxes, maybe they're yet to emerge in the political scene.

Until then, we'll continue to revolve around our existing circle.

Any reasonable person will never supported subsidies removal at that time when oil prices in world market are selling for more than one hundred and ten dollars and yet we couldn't see what the government was using it for.
Later they resulted to borrowing money to workers salaries

If Tinubu does not tick any of those boxes now tell which of the current politicians ticked it.

Dreamhans1:
Stop justifying nonsense. If your African leaders can lead by example, no matter the hardship, people will be happy to endure in hope of a better tomorrow.
If the oba in my community can endeavor to go around the community picking trash and sweeping dirt, tell me the vagabond that will have gut to litter the community.

Or do you think the Americans followed Washington blindly or the Singaporeans followed yew blindly?

You are the one who lacks the logic to assimilate my surmise ,even after quoting a specific and important portion of the original article you still are stuck in your myopic ways , a leaders personal lifestyle has nothing to do with how well or bad he will govern a country or state, the Lee Kuan yew you are famzing shut down protests and workers unrest when he was reforming the country, if according to you the Singapore citizens didn't follow Yew blindly then why did they protest his initial reforms? Try to think properly and digest an article before making conclusions.

Guestmale:
Any reasonable person will never supported subsidies removal at that time when oil prices in world market are selling for more than one hundred and ten dollars and yet we couldn't see what the government was using it for.
Later they resulted to borrowing money to workers salaries

If Tinubu does not tick any of those boxes now tell which of the current politicians ticked it.

Any reasonable person who understands economics and how fuel subsidy was draining our income would most definitely support the removal of subsidy.

But perhaps look at it this way. Imagine I am your father, subsidising your feeding, and then I lose my job and my income, or find that what I have left is insufficient for the education of your siblings. Of course you would argue that I shouldn't remove your feeding subsidy, but your siblings would likely approve when I now have money left to educate them.

Your argument that I am spending my money drinking beer and marrying olosho is no excuse to continue subsidising your feeding. Go and earn your own money please, and subsidise whatever you want, would be my retort.

benardtotti:
You are the one who lacks the logic to assimilate my surmise ,even after quoting a specific and important portion of the original article you still are stuck in your myopic ways , a leaders personal lifestyle has nothing to do with how well or bad he will govern a country or state, the Lee Kuan yew you are famzing shut down protests and workers unrest when he was reforming the country, if according to you the Singapore citizens didn't follow Yew blindly then why did they protest his initial reforms? Try to think properly and digest an article before making conclusions.

Speaking of logic, please kindly point out 10 leaders anywhere the world that were corrupt, lack proper ideology and didn't lived by example that went on to achieved very very good standard of living for her citizens judging by good metrics.
Or go play with bottle corks

This is what I called Adaptability and Resilence.
Lee Kuan yew na change maker. .

budaatum:
Singapore was not expelled to any desert. They were expelled from a union with Malaysia who did not want them to be part of their combined nation anymore, which is very different to those seeking Oduduwa or an Igbo Republic, whom I say we need.

Thanks for suggesting the North Pole though. Land might be cheaper there for those who want to expel themselves from Nigeria. We will not stop you leaving if you get on a plane and go. Just don't be claiming you are Nigerian once you've gone please.

And good luck.

Singapore was expel from the union but they were allowed to remain in their land Abi?

Dreamhans1:
Singapore was expel from the union but they were allowed to remain in their land Abi?

Yes, from a union, as in go and be by yourselves, which we are not offering any Nigerian tribe that wishes to go anywhere.

You after all do not see Nigeria expelling anyone, do you? We are in fact doing the exact opposite, not allowing any tribe that might want to leave to leave with our land.

We are not the State of Singapore (Malaysia). We are Nigeria, and we've decided to do our thing our way.

Hope that's clear.

I dont know if it has anything to do with the subject but my dad went to teach english there for 3 years in the 90s

franchasng:
This is what we Igbos have been begging Yorubas and Hausa-Fulanis to please use their majority vote at the national Assembly to expel Southeast from Nigeria so that we can exit Nigeria peacefully and start from scratch to build our dream country even if it takes us a century because from the look of things, trib alism and nep otism will never allow Nigeria do things rightly.


If you read up on the original post, you can see that Lee Kuan Yew changed things from being gotten by privilege to merit, that's how to build a nation not by appointing government officials by first considering their tribe and religion before competence

And in your estimation it is only "you" that is competent? Really? How come with all your "competence" there isn't some sort of miracle happening back home? How come your youths are all on the available night bus out of your region?

You can keep telling yourselves all the lies you like so you can sleep well at night!

Aside: If any government pushes for half of similar policies that Lee pushed, Nigerians would revolt! Tinubu hasn't pushed for anywhere close and he gets reviled day by day!

Why? He isn't my preferred candidate (read: my brother)

Just imagine Tinubu pushing for anti "chewing gum" in a broader sanitation mandate, and you will hear silly comments like "is that the priority?"

budaatum:
Yes, from a union, as in go and be by yourselves, which we are not offering any Nigerian tribe that wishes to go anywhere.

You after all do not see Nigeria expelling anyone, do you? We are in fact doing the exact opposite, not allowing any tribe that might want to leave to leave with our land.

We are not the State of Singapore (Malaysia). We are Nigeria, and we've decided to do our thing our way.

Hope that's clear.

Will your Nigerian tribes allow a Igbo president?

Dreamhans1:
Will your Nigerian tribes allow a Igbo president?

We are a democracy! We don't "allow". You contest and campaign and hope you win and are elected.

Personally, I am disappointed my tribe man beat my desired Peter Obi. But knowing it took Buhari three turns to win, my hope is not lost, though he needs to organise better than he currently is.

Same why Tinubu transformed Lagos

budaatum:
We are a democracy! We don't "allow". You contest and campaign and hope you win and are elected.

Personally, I am disappointed my tribe man beat my desired Peter Obi. But knowing it took Buhari three turns to win, my hope is not lost, though he needs to organise better than he currently is.

So our current President, Mr. Emilokan, won because he organized better? And you are certain that our next president will not be from the North? So other tribes have equal chances of also winning? Oga, this is Nigeria na.

member13:
So our current President, Mr. Emilokan, won because he organized better? And you are certain that our next president will not be from the North? So other tribes have equal chances of also winning? Oga, this is Nigeria na.

Our current president won because he got more votes than anyone else. And I think organising his supporters had a huge role to do with it. And if someone organises better and shows they have more to offer, that person just might be our next president regardless of their tribe.

I of course must compensate for the îgnorants in the electorate who vote along tribal or religious lines instead of merit.

Good thing is, when we elect the wrong leaders we all suffer, and there's no way my suffering will be more than anyone else's. But in time, that suffering will make us abandon our îgnorant ways, and vote more wisely irrespective of tribe or religion.

My only prayer is that we don't wait till 2125.

Guestmale:
Hypocrisy of the highest order. Tinubu has not introduced half of strict and tough measures the prime minister introduced to rebuilt his nation, but you people are already crying and calling him names because it isn't your preferred candidate.

Succinctly stated.

I'm only just seeing this thread on the NL front page. The OP sounded totally uninformed about the specifics of how Singapore got transformed and he's irresponsibly lashing out blindly at imaginary enemies! He certainly hasn't read the book FULLY (which I read over 20 years ago) in order to realize how very strict policies were introduced that Singaporeans cried out. Besides, Singapore is just a small city-state with those of Chinese origin being about 80% of Singapore while the rest are Indians, Malays, etc.

I FIRST bought and read the massive over 700-page book, "From Third World to First: The Singapore Story" back in the early 2000s (over 20 years ago). I read the iconic book from front to back 3 times and took notes. The book sits right among other book collections in one of my personal home libraries.

What Mininister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew did WASN'T rocket science. Back from the 1950s, and beyond, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, GCFR, SAN, did the same by transforming the Old Western Region with many FIRSTS such as the massive construction of many Industrial Estates [located at Ilupeju, Iganmu, Ikeja, Oluyole, etc] Cocoa House in Ibadan, Western House on Lagos Island, free education, the first television station in Africa, etc, LONG before Lee Kuan Yew started his own painful tranformation of the tiny Singapore. If the Military hadn't struck and compounded stagnation and corruption, the likes of Western Region would have been a Super Power within a Nigeria. I'm in really in total support of an exit strategy for the different ethnicities with the creation of about 9 countries out of Nigeria and you will see the Yorubas with a massive Diaspora population in major world population centers (and other ethnic groups literally develop faster than a speeding bullet). It's the crab mentality 🦀 and ethnic rivalries that's been holding Nigeria's progress down as a significant underachiever for decades!

It is even instructive that the now President 'Bola Tinubu's Chief-of-Staff, Babatunde Raji-Fasola actually flew to Singapore to pay a visit to see, and bounce ideas off the now late Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew when Fasola became the Governor of Lagos State. I was highly impressed that Babatunde Raji-Fasola met with Yew and immediately knew he would further bring some more dynamism into the Government.

seunmsg:
Lee Kuan Yew was a reformist like Bola Tinubu is right now. Unlike Bola Tinubu though, Lee was a dictator who didn’t allow opposition and ethnic hatred to distract him in the process of reforming Singapore. He held tight to power and ruled for 30 straight years.

Nobody talked down on him after just two years in office. He was given absolute support by everyone just to ensure the reforms work out well. Singapore is also a small country with no ethnic or religious division. There was no ethnic governors and a corrupt National Assembly to carry along. Even at that, it took him 30 years to get the job done.

So, you want to compare him with another reformist who has only served for two years as the president of a very big country with over 200 million people, over 250 ethnicities and multiple religious groups.


With Tinubu, Nigeria is on the right track and all indices confirms this. However, it will take years of we being on the right track for the results to start getting to the ordinary people. It is a marathon and not a sprint. We shall get there if we stay true to the cause.

True that!

You have some historical grasp of how Yew managed to stay in power with his autocratic rule.

I FIRST purchased my personal copy of the late Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's book "From Third World to First: The Singapore Story" in the early 2000s and read the over 700-page book.

What Yew did to transform the very tiny city-state of Singapore with 80% of Chinese descent were largely done by Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo GCFR SAN and his team who were ahead of their times in the 1950s with several Industrial Estates, Cocoa House, Western House on Lagos Island and more.

Lee Kuan Yew was indeed authoritarian in his style and that stifled political dissent and press freedoms! So the OP of this thread was irresponsibly making misleading comments and persistently casting daily aspersions on the Nigerian President and Lagos which was MOST distasteful and unacceptable and should call for a ban! Besides the ethnic Chinese of Singapore (who mainly migrated from Guangdong in Mainland China) are about 80%, ethnic Malays and Indians constitute the other groups who were relatively easier to manage. This is unlike Nigeria with over 300 distinct ethnic groups where the enervating crab mentality reigns supreme in the quest by different power centers to gain central political power.

budaatum:
We are a democracy! We don't "allow". You contest and campaign and hope you win and are elected.

Personally, I am disappointed my tribe man beat my desired Peter Obi. But knowing it took Buhari three turns to win, my hope is not lost, though he needs to organise better than he currently is.

I'm Igbo but I haven't really read obi manifesto. I still don't see him as a revolutionary leader.

with the system of government we are practicing in Nigeria, we can never develop to this level. I keep saying this, 4-8years is not enough for a person to put a country on a good map. For Nigeria to have a meaningful forward development, we need a visionary leader that will lead us for at least 20yrs... consistency matters in developing a country. If Singapore had changed their leadership the way we do in Nigeria, these development wouldn't have happened

tommy589:
A very interesting story. Is it achievable in our own brand of democracy even if we have a visionary leader at the helm for 31 years

Not possible here in nigeria they were able to achieve all that because they were working in one accord and with cohesion. If lekwan yew was to be from nigeria am definitely very sure he would have been sabotaged by ethnic and religious bigots.