₦airaland Forum

mapet:
I would rather commend because of two things

1. It's a well-thought out idea to maximize advantages of our water-ways to push trade into the interlands. Even if Obaseki cannot finish it, the next governor will (should) continue. At the end, the economy of Edo State will receive a tremendous boost
2. When states are able to attract foreign Capital, it can only drive our economy northwards.

mapet:
You started to a thought-provoking trajectory but deviated into emotional and ridiculous reasoning. Well may be your lack of exposure can be excused as the reason why you think Obaseki and his team will just sit at a negotiation table and come out empty

mapet:
Did their study of Engineering confer on them the ability to be an investor in Ports?

paddymo:
Tell the mods if this ads are no more, they should let people know pls. I paid money for the Nairaland ads and it’s gettig to 2 weeks now, not confirmation and no ad credit added to my account. Please I respect Nairaland and I want them to improve their response theme to this paid ads. This is really unfair.

Originalsly:
What has the team come out with?... .apart from a burdensome loan?

dontbothermuch:
No, it doesn't

It confers on the Chinese Engineers or foreign Engineers only

China bringing Nigeria investors to build a port in Beijing.
Sounds funny right?

mapet:
Nope, nothing sounds funny. Rather it sounds pretty dumb. How do some of you folks with limited reasoning make rocket-science out of a simple situation. MOU is an agreement of an intent. The detailed workings that would land the project proper is probably still in the works.......yet you fast-forward to looking for Professors of Engineering? To do what if I may ask? To help them draft MOUs?

dontbothermuch:
Plenty write up without any sense in it



The Edo state government on Monday signed an agreement with a Chinese firm, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) to build a port on the Benin River.

All i asked is don't we have Engineering company here in Nigeria. - Did you ask about Engineering companies? Hu! See you try to shift the goalpost Liar!. Or are you trying to deny this daft statement

dontbothermuch: :

Our Professors wey study engineering nko

Even at that, what is the most important thing at the stage of MOU? The nature of the company or the nature of the Project/Busines? Even if we stoop low to try to operate in your low-grade reasoning, did you miss the part in this write-up

The company we are working with is the largest investor in the Lekki deep sea port.

. That leads me to ask, who are the comparative alternative in Nigeria? Can you name one? Oh! I forgot, your "Engineering Professors"

mapet:
Olodo

dontbothermuch:
My brother, My simple point is this.


Why is a Chinese Engineering company building our port?

Can Julius Berger from Germany build any bridge in America?

Even the few construction companies in Nigeria are filled with expatriates.

I was only asking, if we have Professors in Civil Engineering that earns big and then Engineering college has existed in this country since 1932. Aren't we capable of building ports?

My brother, this is my worry, why do the Chinese company have to build our port? Any explanation to that?

Well, earlier my anger over clouded my judgment. Professors aren't to be blamed.

My brother, am sorry for the harsh words.
This is a public forum, who knows, maybe one day i might need your good advice.

One love bro.

mapet:
Bros,

1. You humbled me. I apologise for my jabs.
2. Let's even dissect this point of yours.....we all can learn a thing or two
3. While I appreciate your genuine concern that we should have and probably explore Nigerian alternatives first (reference to Professors of Engineering), we also need to understand the consequences of our present predicament. Let me explain this below

We have not developed a National philosophy and value system. The Chinese is a society that we should learn from. They built everything up from the philosophy and value system. The built their culture, their way of living and their future aspirations on this. The government constantly communicates this to the people through the media, schools (formal & informal), families etc.

The Chinese regonized they had a quest to become a global leader in virtually all ramification. They did not just wake up to become a global giant; they planned for it and actioned it. The Chinese developed their education and business structures around what they knew and what they could rapidly learn from the west. When the "western" businesses went to China, Chinese workers learnt their technology and replicated it. Even though their initial attempts were deemed fake, they still persisted until they mastered it and got better at it. China's naval force is about the 3rd best in the world today. While the world were unaware, China bought a "knocked-down" Carrier from Ukraine, towed it through a longer distance to avoid the suspicion of America and Russia. The repaired the Carrier and brought it back to life. Lo & Behold! China instantly became one of the countries that have a Carrier. They reverse-engineered it and built a second Carrier that is bigger, stronger and better than the first. In a span of less than 2-decades, China became a top 3 in Naval force......

Let's come to Nigeria and contrast against China. We are doing the opposite. We have not as a nation defined a philosophy, an acceptable value system and a commonly agreed future for ourselves. We have lost so much ground in Science and Technology, only recently have we realised that we need to double-up. These Nigerian alternatives (professors) that you refer to, you will be surprised that many of them are living in "yesteryears". They can hardly survive outside their local campuses and simply cannot do business. I do understand they need more govt and private sector support, but unfortunately the world is so connected that Nigerian private sectors could be sponsoring researches of a South African professor if it fits into their aspirations.

Secondly, We do not have any Nigerian conglomerates of that magnitude that can out-compete these Chinese companies in bidding for jobs at this levels; not even a Dangote. These Chinese companies don't just go to bid for jobs, they are backed by the Chinese govt whose strategy is to use this Chinese companies as vehicels to make inroads into developing nations and foster bi-lateral (neo-unilateral) partnerships. A friend (ex-Shell) told me he once led a team to bid for Oil blocks in Angola some years ago. He was shocked how CNOC beat Shell to the deal. He later realised that CNOC was not only there to bid for Oil Block, but was Chinese govt's strategy to make inroad into Angola. So CNOC sweetened their deal with additional incentives (roads and rail infrastructure in Oil producing communities).

So within this analysis, I hope you can see the impetus for China to have rapidly developed their engineering expertise among many other areas. The question is, Have our leaders looked at things from this perspectives? Let me add a Nigerian example. In the 90s during the Civil wars in Liberia, Serra Leone & other UN-backed peace keeping efforts, Nigeria almost single-handedly went to restore peace in these countries through ECOMOG and successfully did so. After the war, aside from few greedy investments of Babangida and Abacha, we simply left. We did not even stay to take active part in their rebuilding process. South Africa that contributed practically nothing to the war came to take the "economic-spoils" after we left. South African businesses, schools, Super-markets and banks went into these countries and took foot-hold, something Nigeria could have done. It was not until post-Soludo Banks Recapitalization initiative that our banks started making forays into these African countries.

So back to your initial question. Can we have Nigerian alternatives (Nigerian Engineering firms and Professors)? Absolutely Yes! but it will have to take a painstaking rebuilding process. These are my takes

1. Our small/medium scale businesses must consolidate. We cannot compete with these international companies, primarily because they have a huge financial war-chest that we don't have

2. Our Educational system must be strategic and tailored. We need to ask ourselves pertinent questions like, How many Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers etc should we have "per-capita"? "How many Plumbers, Welders, Electricians etc should we train and certify in the next 10yrs"? How many skill-development institutions should we have as a minimum per-local-govt? What is volume of funding can drive our aspiration and what portions should come from govt and private sector?

3. Govt needs to come in and help. Most Chinese conglomerate are actually govt funded and stimulated institutions. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce gets investible funds (I understand this fund is pushing up to a trillion Dollars) from govt through which they make available to Chinese conglomerate for strategic purposes. Chinese govt got small companies to combine forces to ward-off western incursions. In some cases govt fund a local company up to match foreign competition. Look at the case of CNN vs. CCTV. Why can't our govt get Channels TV, AIT, TV Continental to combine forces with govt facilitated funding to fight DSTV? Same model can then be replicated in areas of infrastructure, road and ports construction, Medicine, Agric, Oil and Gas etc. OBJ govt tried to do this with the Transcorp experiment but greed later set in and things fell apart.

Let me pause here to invite folks to contribute

@dfrost

misano:
The same thing I am suffering hear o. I paid about 2 months and nothing. No credit , no ads after my payment. I just kept quite because I'm also running my ads on Google which has been very good. When I'm done with Google, I will cast Nairaland. I just kept my deposit slip. The way I will cast Nairaland en.... Seun go shock.

Otilox2:
Oh wow! I wish I saw these messages before paying into that bloody account. Money trapped, no credit, no ads... client is asking for refund and I'm just chopping mouth. This is really unfair. @Seun how far now?