₦airaland Forum

aurenflani:
the iranians wanted to purchase the s-300 air defence system from the russians but the russians have been playing hide and seek. already the iranians are designing a better system domestically. so in answer to your claim about the russian factor with regards to ajaokuta steel, i say a serious nation would have since found a solution even domestically. afterall, we do have competant engineers and scientist etc. unfortunately, a are never ready for our collective benefit but individual benefit.

This is exactly the problem. Nigerians are by disposition very self serving. The only unifying force appears to be government which ironically we collectively dislike.

Why for instance are we looking up to government to create enterprise and create jobs when we are all too aware of their track records.

Which government company or agency, federal or local, past or present has or is working. All they know is how to raise salaries and award themselves unmerited inflationary benefits that is bankrupting this country.

For our information, it is the true private sector (or what's left of it) that is keeping this country on life support.

For every misguided institution government sets up at least ten real, income generating, mass employment businesses close down.

This simply isn't fair. Government has no business in business. It has no business buying refineries in Indonesia or steel plants in Ajaokuta. Just organise the tournament and provide the referees, but you can't play.

If Nigerians feel they need such goods and services they will invest.

Till tommorrow the best hotels, office and residential complexes, tv and radio stations, telecom outfits, airports, docks, etc., are owned and operated by the private sector, employing far more than government can ever imagine and paying real wages.

BRT for instance is great but all the money in Lagos will never replace the danfo and okada.

All government needs to do is to sell its vision, organise 'tournaments'. Knock a few heads together. Beat the hell out of selfishness and individualism in us and we will create all the jobs.

But for Fashola to be buying busses and brake pads and GEJ carrying cans of crude round the world is quite frankly demeaning.

Oga has a wife, hired hands and and a house load of servants and is still buying pepper and salt., haba.

Nigerians are ready to serve.

eghost247:
funniest subject ever molue with wings

Rattled my cage too. An airplane gallop as in, air pot holes or gallop as in equestrian sports or perhaps bare back riding.

LagBlogger:
siasia should not be sacked.

Instead he should be allowed to consolidate and build a strong super eagles that can do Nigeria proud. Our golden years of football (1994 - 2000) was built by westerhof's consolidation (1989-1994) and siasia was among those who benefited during that period.

One thing that westerhof did not tolerate was indiscipline that is why the likes of Amokachi, uche okechukwu and okocha, Augustine eguavoen were checked, after westerhof left our football started taking a nosedive.

Siasia is hardworking and means well, he should be encouraged rather than jeered. Fine we are not going to the nations cup for the first time in 25 years but this is because we have a bunch of overrated players and besides siasia is not at fault for our wasted goal scoring chances. Why didn't the eagles convert their chances and why were they so fatigued? The guineans obviously wanted to qualify more than we did so let's learn our lesson and move on.

Peace to all!

Best reply so far perhaps for someone who has experience trying to turn around difficult situations.

The worst thing you can add to a tragedy is confusion and uncertainty. Any deep malaise will take time getting out of such as the quality of our game.

I believe he's only lost one match in charge and much unlike the insinuations portray the team is playing much better.

Give him time.

Those who argue against his strict stance cannot even tolerate opposing views on an open, equitable forum such as this.

How anybody thinks it is possible to have indiscipline and success is quite frankly beyond me.

This is a finite resource that has done untold damage to the environment and has not particularly benefited the communities in the line of fire.

However one can understand the cataclysmic effects a total subsidy removal will cause and this is why better government management would have sufficed.

I can't understand why it cannot be withdrawn instalmentally over an agreed period of time conditional on investment and other developmental targets being met.

What I certainly object to is a liberalisation policy under the shadows of absolute government monopoly in the form of NNPC. This is a recipe for corruption on a scale only to be imagined.

For those who smell revolution, I would say it is not entirely a bad thing but trust those in charge of Nigeria, they would never permit that to happen.

Haven't seen the footage neither am I interested but considering all the comments so far we appear to be moving away from a case beyond reasonable doubt and once the public prosecutor can be disuaded then its practically lost public opinion not withstanding moreso if the perps are found before the victim.

On a cautionary note I want to advise our womenfolk it is you that sets the criteria for what can and cannot be called a rape scenario. Like what someone said earlier there are very wierd sex acts and relationships out there. It cannot be possible that they are all criminal or exploitative. Ladies, set the standards and make them exceed pure passion or greed.

And who does the stronger naira benefit. Those who never want to make anything for themselves. Thanks Seun. Lets continue importing and seeking cheap dollars. In a while the Greek economy will be like a weekend picnic compared to ours. Lousy move.

LCC is just not a sound engineering outfit if indeed that's their mandate. Passed by a few times during construction and wasn't too impressed. Thus I'm not surprised that its pricey. I'm sure the Berger, Ikoyi bridge will be much cheaper.

Having said that I salute their courage. PPP is a novel concept in this part of the world and raising funds remains a major challenge.

It is up to government to keep its partners in check and ensure the people get a fair deal.

The bottom line is, it is better to have expensive commercially infrastructure than to have cheap and disfunctional government alternatives or worst still none at all.

and when he unvieled some of the most important, most innovative and most compelling products and ideas known to man, there was never any fanfare. No crackle and pops, no bells and whistles, no pyrotechnics nor cultural troupe, just him and his beloved toys, an excitement and innocence that wouldn't even permit a flowing agbada or an Armani suit, just plain old jeans and turtle necks simply saying, folks, if you don't quite like it the workshop isn't far, just give me a moment and I'll be back.

What a man.

[quote author=Ileke-IdI link=topic=774814.msg9284827#msg9284827 date=1317872146]Keep laughing.

Guess who cries at the end.

They're already planning alternative way of earning their salary. Expect increase rate of arm robbery and check point money.[/quote]Just ran into one on the Apapa axis this morning with few side effects. I presume that 'small' loss is confined to downtown Ikeja. For motorists in that area this is a heads up call.

You can see this mess we are in. A company in a small country trying to BORROW to buy key assets in a bigger country. Pity. Real pity.

I mean, what the hell is Shell and Agip here for. To just milk us dry. How can you compare the service arm of a mining company to the global giants who flare our gas and throw away millions every day. Can't we compel them to burn it for power in exchange for immunity from their environmental and economic crimes.

If the Zambian company is competent because it powers copper production, then out oil companies should be able because they produce gas.

I bet the private output of the combined IOC's already exceeds that of the Zambian company so getting it across the country should only be a matter of scale.

If we cannot have solid internal competition in the power game we certainly will not be able to control tariffs nor mitigate the type of shows we see in the likes of Airtel.

No one has been able to explain why the IOC's have not expressed interest in power or petroleum. What's it about this country that attracts only the very mediocre.

I am yet to see an enterprise on earth that didn't wish it was a monopoly. Rather it is active competition that improves quality and ultimately addresses pricing.

The government on its part can only regulate, it cannot compel any man to invest.

To his credit while others sit on their hands and mourn the infrastructure drought he creates his own solutions.

Tommorrow they will complain yet again that you are a rail monopoly. How do I know this. There's been nothing but complaints about Bi-Courtney's MM2.

That's Nigeria for you. A nation of can't do's.

So if government does not build a rail line. Does it mean we will never have one.

AjanleKoko:
Many thanks.
I could only get an idea of what the scheme is about from [url=http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/05/aregbesola%E2%80%99s-oyes/]this[/url] Vanguard article.
The only other stuff online I can find is a slew of vague stories about how the World Bank thinks it's great, and how Aregbesola is great. Nothing really describing what the program is about, not even an official Osun State press release.

Yeah, the whole matter remains vague but judging from the World Bank's interest one can only assume there has to be a monetary return somewhere down the line.

The model I would suggest will be a pie of many parts - a socialist trigger with a capitalist outcome targetted at running the state to provide social services which everyone without exception eventually pays for starting with short term achieveables before long term ideals.

For instance if I were in Lagos I would scrap the tax system. It simply does not work. There are far too few people paying tax to carry the burdens of others in repairing roads and building rail lines. I would rather have companies pay directly for the development of infrastructure through the goods and services they produce while the unemployed are engaged to put these projects together, with their wages realised from the payment for these services.

Thus you can build roads, bridges, sewers, hospitals, rail lines, all commercial ventures by engaging the assets of companies and the low wages of the unemployed.

More to come.in repairing roads and building rail lines. I would rather have companies pay directly for the development of infrastructure through the goods and services they produce while the unemployed are engaged to put these projects together, with their wages realised from the payment for these services.

Thus you can build roads, bridges, sewers, hospitals, rail lines, all commercial ventures by engaging the assets of companies and the low wages of the unemployed.

More to come.

Looking at the title I thought this thread will appeal to the engineering or tourism ideals in us. So sad.

[quote author=tosino_t link=topic=772931.msg9272952#msg9272952 date=1317725639]i pray that telecommunication business will not become like cybercafe business, where it will be survival of the fittest,where turnover will gradually come down.[/quote]This is exactly where it is heading. With the price wars going on I find it hard to imagine why most of us expect lower tariffs without lower operational profits and thus lower wages or/and staff right sizing.

This is pure market economy, something we have never seen in mega corporate Nigeria not with corruption, useless subsidies and price gouging.

At a time Walmart was the second largest cap company in the world but paid one of the lowest American wages, saying one thing: size doesn't translate to salaries., but what matters is the industry that pays them.

A decade ago telecoms was big business outgunning even oil but technology has killed that and opened the field to all comers and once Asians took hold they simply undercut all countries including the U.S.

Now a battlefield commander using a Qatari cell phone in the movie 'Transformers 1' has to go through a lousy indian call centre to the Pentagon. Who needs a bloody premium package under fire. I'm not laughing neither should anyone working in telecoms.

Take it from me. The glory days are over. Very soon all other companies one by one will begin their right sizing to survive.

So if you are not like the average 'chop without looking up till I drop' Nigerian or another deaf, dumb and paralysed 9 to 5 statistic get prepared.

History has told us that time and technology never favours telecoms. Just ask your cybercafe or post man.

Well its obvious your survival on the job is all wound round your secretary's judgement or lack of it so very soon both of you will be free to conclude your pursuits leaving others who go to the office to work. Simple. A short skirted temptress most likely has nothing more than that advertised to offer. Don't rely on any sort of rationality when you've been sucked in and suckered.

This is simply why we must compel these people to build institutions first rather than roads and bridges, you know set up the kitchen before cooking. The disorganisation in our body polity and this personality conundrum is simply killing us.

My unreserved sympathy for those at the sharp end of forced structural adjustments. The truth though is that they face like the vast majority of us (with the obvious exception of government workers) the reality of globalisation worsened by the peculiarities of our very bad economy. However we need cheaper calls, like cheaper fuel, cheaper rents, etc and someone quite frankly has to pay for it.

Secondly, there is a prevailing misconception about the involvement of foreigners in economic activities via investments as those which bring sophisticated, overpaid jobs alone sometimes with conditions prevalent in the country of origin. Far from it because business considerations are governed 100% by cost and profit considerations.

I think the extractive industry has caused this and we know why they pay out of sync with the local economy. One, their products are 100% exported at a price no one can control, two the guilt factor, knowing it is a natural resource.

This skewed system has dulled our senses to the twin reasons why I for one would take my hard earned money abroad - an expansive and expensive market and two, cheap and sophisticated labour.

Yes, Asia dominates world manufacturing today simply because they undercut western wages. Apple was accused yesterday of turning a blind eye to child labour practices among its suppliers and just today Nokia is tossing 3,500 jobs and shifting production from low cost Romania to lower cost China, yet no one perceives them as evil.

Airtel has every right to restructure its costs to survive and thrive. Anyway in present day Nigeria 240k for call centre job, haba. How much do air traffic controllers earn, how about engineers or junior doctors. Its unbelievably skewed.

Thus no thanks to Asians the aura and era of jackpot telecoms is fast fading for a more balanced reality.

igbogolo:
Surprising no one is giving serious thought to the RIGHT candidate, irrespective of geological affiliations, that can move this country forward. No body is talking about the right person to tackle the issues in the country. If by now we are able to produce a 4 paged response filled with Tinubu, Atiku, Fashola, David Mark, Okorocha, Ngige, North West, North North, South East, south West, Down Down, Up down, Nyansh Nyansh,  then something is seriously wrong somewhere.

Yes, but the main issue that besets this country is structural. You cannot have any sort of development without structural adjustments that enshrines equality for all sections of the country. As long as government remains the biggest boy in the class, politics remains important and as such political office holders especially at the very top. That is not ideal but its true. So as I have always said there are two parts of the country, the government and the people. The people have to create their own destiny. The government has to ensure we are alive to see it.

For your choice leader to be effective in delivering the utopia we all desire he needs the full co-operation of all Nigerians involved whether they be issues of good governance, anti corruption, creating institutions and economic enterprise we all have to pull together but if you have certain sections of the country feeling alienated on account of not having tasted real power it will be like putting on an airconditioner and opening the windows, little effect. Let me be practical here.

If we say we want total and absolute anti-corruption then you must exclude the Niger-Delta. Why, because they have seen resources being dragged from under their feet and corruptly manipulated by peoples of other geo-zones both for personal and sectional development at their expense. They feel its their time now. So how can you argue that. after chopping their resources suddenly you want to preach prudence to them. No way.

2. Do we realistically expect for instance an Igbo man to lay down life and limb in any venture or theatre for this country Nigeria when the issues that led to the civil war have not been addressed and forty years later people are still being killed in certain sections of the country. This is why the Igbo man excels in his business and his business alone. Nigeria should not expect anything from them. You cannot reap from the Ndigbo what you have not sown in justice both legal and social. There are so many examples in the middle-belt, west and other places. That is why the forces that seek to split this country are far stronger than those that seek its unity. Even if our GDP rises to that of Switzerland there will still be discontentment. Money does not cover everything you know.

I could remember the 2000 Olympics and what happened to that lady Aborigine gold medal winner and all the furore that incident caused both in Australia and her amongst her natives. There you are winning things for a country that marginalizes your people. It doesn't work.

I tell you a lot of things will naturally fall in place when and if there is equality in Nigeria, proper social justice where no appointment is a given and no section is viewed as the political mule that pulls the plough. So glad things are changing and serious political equations are being calculated. A decade ago it would be a dead rubber. North versus South and north means hausa-fulani while south will be a scramble for crumbs going to the dog that barks louder. This is exactly why I personally preferred the candidature of GEJ to Buhari not that the latter is not qualified but the fact that nothing meaningful will change. Just sideways movement. He alone cannot possible change Nigeria. He needs the active co-operation of all sections. All parts of the Nigerian engine need to be firing to be able to tackle our grave situation. The ND has got it. In five or ten years time there will be no excuse coming from that section as to why it is not co-operating. The yoruba have had it and that's why they seek to better the nation through co-operation with others. Are they selfishly seeking the presidency in the short term, no. That is the benefit.

You tell me to come sacrifice to right this country when I have not benefited anything from it. I say a big no. Let the debate continue. The country is slowly changing.

AjanleKoko:
Very right.
We are living for Hollywood and Western glamour. We all want to live like movie stars. That's why when Nigerians are complaining, it's always 'no light, no light, no light'.

It may surprise a few here that even within the so called manufacturing sector one of the reasons why this infrastructure challenge appears to be an anchor round their necks is because of the artificial standards they have adopted. When we say manufacturing is not getting enough power, when we say refineries are not getting enough crude who are those at the vanguard of this kind of talk, industries that are largely configured exactly the way you have them in advanced economies. It is because we must drink Bournvita that conforms to ISO standards that Cadbury needs those kinds of plants that murder electricity. Kudos to Cadbury and the rest but they do not represent the reality and the way forward in our industrialization drive. They cannot possible consume all the power neither do they buy up all the airtime.

And when some of these outfits complain I just wonder. The bulk of Nigerians don't even want those products like that. What concerns a poor man with fancy packaging. What concerns a danfo driver with the size of refinery you are building. Our industrialization must grow organically. It is far too top heavy and western oriented. I bet you a local producer of pure water has a better chance of surviving economic shocks than a PLC with a gargantuan factory producing western styled products. If those products are not for export forget it. But what you have in Nigeria is Cadbury (sorry to use this example) seeking markets on the west coat while the same product types (albeit of inferior quality and cheaper price) flood our markets from Asia. It appears Asians understand our markets better than our local industries.

Same thing in other sectors. I keep on saying it. If we cannot build roads and bridges ourselves that represent the standards we are comfortable with we do not deserve to have them. What is our problem. Most people who have had the opportunity to start-up companies and turn around others can attest to this. When push comes to shove the last thing you need is waste. Everything in done in-house at a rate and standard you find comfortable with to enable stable and organic growth. It is then roads can be built an maintained instead of this model whereby legions of contractors await the next road our sewer to crack up simply because they know our maintenance culture is zero. Now why wouldn't it be when the six year old boy is given a Ferrari as his first car.

There has to be a convergence between desire and reality at some point in our nationhood. Back to China again. That country is still building its infrastructure today. Not yet complete. Never will be. Why, because good infrastructure is not a destination, it is a journey. They did not have it all in place before the end of the cultural revolution when they turned tiger. If today North korea turns tiger will we say, ah, but they have had all their roads fixed and had power 24 hours and good government all this while. Certainly not.

kulutempa:
You know what, that is why the Chinese are in the driving seat at the moment, even in Africa.  I saw a BBC documentary some time ago about Chinese engineers and foremen putting up a factory in Tanzania.   They were living on the site, sleeping on bunks beds with mosquito  nets and the commentator pointed this out as another example of  why the West can never compete with the Chinese on the world markets.    The average Western expat thinks he is God's gift to Africa and wants to recreate European living conditions wherever he goes on the continent.  The Oyinbo people you refer to, are beginning to find out that their jobs are being exported to China and India, and that a large number can no longer afford to pay the mortgage on their  "heavenly houses".   We are therefore effectively doing them a favour but our silly leaders don't realise that as well as the fact that  we are actually better off without them as we can get equally skilled and experienced Chinese  expats or Indians for a fraction of the cost of hiring these uppity arrogant Oyinbos.  However what would really be nice, if only we had sensible leadership,  would be to make use of our own manpower and train them  to do these jobs instead of spending our precious foreign reserves on expatriates.

And this is exactly why Nigeria will soon be at the mercy of China. They stoop to conquer. Low wages, hardwork and all. Instead of grumbling against government (who born them to grumble against their government) they just go ahead like mad men recreating the world. No power they survive, no roads they continue manufacturing. Ahead, ahead, while lazy men seek all the excuses why they cannot and should not be expected to succeed. Who was investing in China before they turned tiger, no one. But when they started crushing all comers now the world cannot have enough of them. Just looking forward to the day their attitude returns all the world back to its roots, liberalization and undeserved so called freedoms have taken away and sacrificed on the altar of Hollywood.

Yes they once worked hard now they sit down only to play. As for Nigeria by the time the Chinese and Indians begin to cultivate our Ugwu, fry our garri and and hunt for our beloved grass cutter then we know our time is up. May we continue to wait for government. Who after-all is government. I've said enough on other threads.

If you teach properly you certainly don't need to force or to dictate anything. Good information makes for proper choice. But you can't give what you don't have so the onus is on parents spending time to train themselves and open up to proper information about life issues.

For The Nigerian economy to grow properly there is a need to have the following:

Aggressive privatisation of government key assets to transfer a good portion of wealth into the hands of the people. This would create in the first instance a good, working middle class (as we can see in telecoms), redirect priorities as regarding education making it less top heavy, and take away much capital flight through skewed foreign participation in sectors such as oil and construction (large employers). The truth is that foreigners dominate both purely based on government patronage with its corrupting tendencies. Me, you, Globacom are unlikely to engage foreign labour en-masse for any considerable period of time and will demand technology transfer. Government simply does not do this. They just hide behind the 'they are better' syndrome. But you cannot make serious progress when you outsource the bulk of your key economic assets.

Secondly, with less government money flowing around, financial institutions will be forced to leverage on the private sector to survive thus creating a real economy. One beneficiary would be manufacturing because it is far less risky than the retail sector. Right now banks have very little incentives to 'get real' because they are saddled with huge funds coming from government agencies that have very little economic value. No one will see cheap money having unserious demands and chase real money having difficult demands. That is why when saddled with excess private capital (through Soludo's move) there was practically nothing real to spend the money on thus the mass stealing. Banks then and now simply do not have the capacity to manage enterprise. They cannot spot potential areas of growth (they have this herd mentality, wait for foreign institutions to light up certain sectors before scrambling for parts) and initiate business.

Finally, the bottom line remains another area where the government needs to come in. As small scale farmers constitute 90% of agricultural production in Nigeria and are thus by far the largest employers, in emerging economies such as China, Thailand, India and Brazil small scale businesses including manufacturing, extractive and construction form an important block in terms of employment and economic growth. What we need in Nigeria is a convergence of points one and two above. Government patronage by privatisation and credits from banks. Even in advanced economies when things get really bad government steps into to directly invest in the private sector by way of stimulus and lower bank rates to encourage borrowing for enterprise.

But when you have a government all too keen to hang onto the reins of the economy for selfish, corruptive reasons and the people largely unwilling to do much for themselves we have this comfortable but rather unfortunate alliance that is called the Nigerian economy.

Endless repairs, endless fixing. If those things are comatose, just kill them, blow them up for goodness sake. Thirty years after they were built we still cannot keep them going for twelve calendar months. Is it a curse or something. What a mess. Is it that we are doomed to imports.

Maybe because they see their parents apparently just watching yet 'making it'. Practically no meaningful activity yet bringing home the bacon. A lamb cannot give birth to a lion you know.

rhamzus:
Taking over the schools is needed, cos of the deplorable state of this once glorified schools.
I happen to b a product of SACHS, now the sch is nothing to write home abt, talk less of AGGS, Abeo-gramms . Private owners r jst eating d money made, payin tutors peanuts and running the school like public schs.

This is not right. I thought there was a school's board of some sort responsible for regulating schools. Education standards, salaries, emoluments, staff welfare sanitation, everything can be regulated. This is the extent to which government should be concerned. If they wish to implement free education simply give out scholarships to the disadvantaged and deserving, period. What is with all these re-nationalisation.

When they are supposed to be making government leaner and more sustainable, cutting recurrent expenditure so they can concentrate on infrastructure they are loading themselves with more burdens. It is evident schools are insufficient so the Ogun state government should rather be building more not polishing what exists.

On the other hand if the private sector cannot run ordinary schools it is unfortunate and only lends credence to the thinking that the electorate, the peoples are probably as bad as the government they constantly charge with ineptitude. The future lies with private ownership. We must learn to pay our bills and live according to our means. Enough of the government carrying this six year old child on the back. We must see our future beyond subsidies and allocations and the corrupting tendencies they create. And it is the government that should preach this.

manny4life:
Exactly what @ AjanleKoko is saying; electricity is service oriented. If 1,000 Nigerians like you and I can put $10,000 (I will), that is $10million, we can go a long way of building 4 mini power plants <2.5MW each. Recent reports stated that more than 30% of China's electricity output largely depends on mini power plants strategically located in communities and villages that enable manufacturing and production. Like I've often said and argued with some people; we the people are not helping, the govt WILL NOT change it for us, we have to change it ourselves.

Yes Manny, but electricity in itself does not translate to development. How I love steady power but at the end of the day if all I can do with it is to watch DSTV or chill my beer cans then its pointless and has a negative cost. What we fail to realise is that services in themselves are catalysts not the real products. They boost production, improve efficiency, reduce costs not create production. They are like yeast to flour. They are a demand thing. For example a sector that is ready for stable electricity we can see is the telecommunications sector. They have invested and need a break from unstable power. They are ready. Who else is, very few. That is why though there is a huge potential market out there, there are however no takers for massive investment. The bulk of electricity in any economy is taken strictly by industry. But in Nigeria there are not many. What we have is a nation of potential electricity consumers not users. Bills are not likely going to be paid - corruption.

The same talk was made about GSM in 2002, that it would spur industrial development. Of course it can and I've seen huge benefits in easier and cheaper communications but it hasn't caused the economic transformation we all thought. This is simply because you can only transform what is there. We don't have a real economy so there's nothing to boost. This leads me to think that when in a few years the power problem is solved (hopefully), we would probably identify yet another thing lacking in Nigeria and boy do they abound.

Today there's good electricity in China but it is far from adequate. Same as in India, Thailand. It does not stop them from trying. You need to see some of the dire conditions under which some of our choice goods are manufactured in China and you will be amazed but their competitive spirit has them going and determined to be the world's factory. I think we should have that here.

A good number of our folks here are really trying, I must admit but they are not just enough. I cannot recall how many times I travel across this country each year in search of the most basic of tools and equipment only to end up on the net. Its really frustrating. We are simply not doing enough.

Manufacturing, manufacturing, manufacturing is the key factor. Its prevalent presence anywhere globally has attracted and sustained prosperity. In Europe the largest manufacturers have the largest cash reserves, sovereign wealth and least debts - northern Europe as illustrated by Germany. Where manufacturing is falling, failing or none existent those countries are experiencing serious problems - Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom (with its so called huge services industry) In Asia same story - Korea, japan and China are posting more than decent returns. In South America, Brazil is another economy that has seen steep rises in its manufacturing base hence its economy.

The US is gradually losing its competitive advantage hence the contraction in its economy. I personally think that at the end of the day no matter what you have by way of natural resources, no matter how intelligent you are by way of computing and information technology and no matter how enterprising you are in creating paper wealth the bulk of people on earth consume the most basic of things, stuff that endure when wealth creation fails, paper clips to passenger aircraft, cream cakes to containers. The extent a country is able not only to be self sufficient in these products but competitive in the international market place determines its economic fortunes on the long run.

I've also had this feeling for sometime that in the medium term manufacturing has a dampening effect, a stabilizing effect on a country's economic psychology better than most other indices of development. I am speaking of the financial/service sector. I'm sure we are all aware that we have two distinct types of economies. The spend economy (with the US as its chief protagonist) and the save economy (with japan as its leading contender). Obviously to succeed you must have a good balance.

Where you have an extremely strong services sector there is every likelihood that you sooner or later get into a spend habit that racks up credit, raises wages and down the line seeks cheaper products to sustain that habit inevitably leading to massive imports (from countries of cheaper manufacturing) and the cycle of de-industrialization and structural economic problems. It happened to the UK in the eighties, it is happening to the United States now. On the other hand I feel where economies actively resist the advances of strong services sector, curtailing and directing the activities of banks for instance as it is done in China and Germany manufacturing remains strong because quite frankly the country and the tastes of the people remain with what the produce.

Manufacturing is not easy and when the people of a country are accustomed to it tastes for (the best things in life which they cannot possibly earn) are quite curtailed. On a lighter note that's why farmers are not attracted to material things. They simply donot have the time for such and cannot imagine all the effort they put into production going into things they largely donot need. Clearly in Nigeria we have a huge disparity between our tastes and abilities. This is one of the huge engines running the system called corruption. And that's why over the years manufacturing has crumbled and agriculture (another hard sector) is not existent.

So to answer your charge. If the bulk of what I see on your list is insurance, medicare and perhaps telecommunications (the so called driver of the phantom economic growth figures the Federal government is bandying about) then its clear these service sectors IMHO do not represent any real and sustainable economic growth and cannot profit this country and its teeming unemployed youth in any way whatsoever. I mean banks were re-capitalised, they drew huge funds out of our local and some foreign economies but what do we see today, practically everything is lost, leaving everyone - shareholders, workers, depositors at a loss. where has al the money gone. That is the sad effect of paper wealth. It will always be controlled by two factors - greed and fear. But when your wealth is built on tangible stuff, wake up any day and its there.

As a nation, its leaders and its people we are simply not ready to face the challenges of getting our economy on track and ourselves out of poverty. We may yet have to suffer to get mentally and psychologically re-oriented. And if our economy is one commanded by one product, controlled by five companies and the rest of the populace are either contractors or traders, there is practically no hope. I keep on saying it. We are not Saudi Arabia. Wd should quit kidding ourselves and get to work. Real work.

hillsate:
So you guys prefer Governors to make their girlfriends advisers and not their sons. Or are you saying if Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala (pardon my spelling) were Goodluck Jonathan's daughter she should not be made minister of finance?
kai! Nigerians and their are-you-the-only-ones mentality!
Allow the guy to advise his father jo. Una no want make him upgrade him resume.

Exactly she should not be made a minister. Nepotism isn't a dictionary word for nothing. Special adviser on/for special duties indeed. Does that sound like job requiring any sort of professional qualifications. Some fellow Nigerians simply amaze me. If anyone can boldly tell me what such a portfolio entails kindly make my day.

So we can all see where this country is inevitably headed if courts, banks, government and politics are increasingly split along religious lines. Those who sow to the wind,

This is supposed to be a democracy. If they don't have any evidence against him he should just be released. Though the trial has started, the long march to justice has not shone the judiciary in any good light at all. Every passing day it looks more like a vendetta. For goodness sake there were scores of other actors in the theater of Abacha's regime.