₦airaland Forum

romeo:
Lagos state needs money!! Way too many of it. And 5 days without collecting returns from BRT is not good bizness. Why not 25th and 1st? at least for a stipulated number of hours. Damn it.


What  about "profit above predictions". Shouldn't that be a good thing? or must we waste money that should've been spent on other things to buy fame. BRT fares are cheap and the impact will not be felt by the commuters but in the other hand Lagos revenue will incure a huge loss.

Can you elaborate more?

Mind if I jump in for a sec?  
Your claims might have more weight if you could actually give something resembling figures or even estimates of how much lagos government gets in revenue from BRT schemes, etc. @A Town, if the service is free for customers then it means it is being run at some loss not at "no loss" as you stated, because fuel has to be paid for and staff have to be paid, so it won't be free for the stae; however your other arguements about it being a possible boost for the economic activity of the state and also encouraging people to try it, etc actually does hold water.

My approach is completely different though. In an ever increasingly capitalist environment and especially in a country whereby people are used to knowing that government does not care about their opinions or about them, i am finding it difficult to see how providing people free transport can possibly be a bad thing especially when you consider it is Nigeria. How much of an impact will the week of free BRT make on the Lagos state treasury? If anything i think it is good advert for public transport run by lagos state government and if the services hold up and it can get more people using the services which are already well patronised then good. @romeo, you are soo quick to assume that this is being done for "fame" as you put it and i really don't know why? Thats a lot of sceptisism which i would normally understand coming from Nigerians but when you even argue the points out i don't know where the whole "fame" thing becomes the over riding issue you make it out to be. So let us assume this is for "fame"? A governor is going out of his way to gain "fame" with his people, in Nigeria and hence aknowledging that they are "wooable" because they have opinions which can be affected, and that is a bad thing? LOOOOL. At least the people are seeing as having opinions and feelings and seeing as human beings who can be wooed as opposed to the way they are normally treated in Nigeria by the government (i.e. like animals). Please let the wooing continue, i urge the government to continue to woo the people by continueing with the infrastrucural upgrade, job creation, tackling of the energy situation, etc. If anyone is soo irritated at being wooed they can protest by not jusing free bus service and telling everyone they know to follow suit  

mikeansy:
a bid for 3rd term is not unconstitutional.

A process wey get guidelines inside our constitution no fit be unconstitutional.

even when the process fail Obj give up the idea. . . . . . . .there is nothing wrong with that.

Wetin I no like na this lama in Aso Rock he give us. wetin obj dey think? . . . . . .even ex-Bauchi Governor for better pass this one.

Obasanjo "gave" Nigenria Yar Adua? Amusing. So if Yar Adua decides to "give" Nigeria to somalia as slaves tomorrow please do tell, what is going to happen? Isn't it more accurate to say Nigeria allowed Yar Adua to happen?

Honestly, it is slowly beginning to dawn on me that Nigerians might actually like the predicament they face with recycled rubbish, bad governance and corruption. Just going through some threads on the political section of Nairaland and what do you see? If excuses are not being made for the situation Nigeria faces whereby the country has been dangling on the edge of a precipice for so long, it would be another thread which seeks to compare vomit and feaces or cancer and aids and by so doing come up with a conclusion that one is "better" than the other. Tomorrow it would be someone making a thread about comparing between Babangida, Obasanjo and Abacha and see if it would be possible to bring back one into power since such would be "better". I always wondered why thesame old set of shady characters seem to have lead Nigeria for soo long and I am beginning to think that maybe that is what some Nigerians want. Has the country been so brutalised that people refuse to think outside the box of thesame old tried and tested failed characters? It is soo disheartening especially when so many Nigerians here on this forum claim to be standing for progressive ideas and change. I guess i should not be shocked if Yar Adua is replaced with Babangida in the next round of selections. Nigerians will never complain (it seems).

Was this characteristic so inherent of loving the opressive caused by some mass government conspiracy whereby people were injected with what was claimed to be "vaccine" when we were kids not knowing it was some government sponsored tranquiliser? This characteristics is everywhere you look, from the Nigerian football team that for so long has been characterised with failing to perform until they are 3-0 down and there is five minutes left and all of a sudden a miracle is expected (i can see that and i am not even into football at all); to the blase and non chalant attitude of people in the political space when "bad things" are metted out on the populace. Why should Yar Adua's performance be compared with Obasanjo's unconstitutional bid for third term and then even more scary a scenario whereby the conclusion is that one was "better" than the other that leads people to certify that we "miss it"? How very progressive indeed, just sounds like some battered housewife who has been so brutalised for years that she will take a man who slaps her instead of whacking her with a baseball bat as a saviour. It seems there is some love affair with being between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Isn't it about time people stop making excuses for what goes on in Nigeria? It is just getting quite embarassing now. Who said the job would be easy? That is why like Yar Adua, Waziri also had something called freedom, to reject the job given to her. If she is not making excuses for herself then why are people making excuses for her? People also want to immediately make excuses for Yar Adua too. "Oh he didn't know he was going to be president"; so was he held at gun point and forced to take the role? Excuses are easy to make but at the end of the day what do they actually achieve? Unless we are going to be told otherwise, no one was forced to take on any roles and hence is it too much to ask that the jobs being given to these people are actually done with some degree of competence?

ode remo:
in politics , it has a calculation that defies common sense . now lets look back to how many political parties we have had in nigeria , upga, npp,npn, gnpp,etc, etc the thing is will pdp last longer than OBJ and its financers . the answer is no. money will change hands that is why it is called CURRENCY .so does politics. let wait and see.PDP is a dead living duck.

Oh, i see. So you were not suggesting some sort of progressive from the status quo, what you were basically saying was that the era of bad governance and hence slavery and corruption and retrogression will continue but just possibly under a different name.

ode remo:
in your dreams matey.

Really? And who is going to stop them? I hope we are not all putting hope on passing comments like "in your dreams" as the antithesis to bad governance and corruption as opposed to having thought out plans to accomplish set goals. No offence intended at all but your comment just reminds me of when Yar Adua speaking on the Jos carnage apparently "vowed" that nothing like that would happen again (without any forseeable actions or plans articulated on his path to prevent such from occuring again). I guess the whole world was meant to fall into order and such carnage abolished because Yar Adua said so. All these sppeches without actions seem futile and unfortunately the only people that seem to be acting with such zeal are the corrupt in Nigeria.

@debosky, what i find most infuriating about the article you referenced was not what you highlighted, No. What i found most irritating about the article was how the choosing of a minister was not based on his/her competence but was based on "who fought who in the past". HOW DISGUSTING? The arrogance of PDP never ceases to amaze me. Must everything happening in the country revolve around the infights of the PDP and their different squables? Yar Adua - result of PDP infighting and party struggle. Etteh Gate Imposition, Ibori, etc. WOW. It is really irritating when people loose focus of the issues and make it about something that it shouldn't be about. So we are basically being told that the criteria for being a minister is not having any fights with anyone in the PDP. I am not saying Sam Egwu deserves ministerial position, it is bigger than that. How on earth could the selection of a minister degenerate into personal squabbles? Nigerian offices hold no respect whatsoever. Is the future of Nigeria going to forever depend on the tantrums and moods of the PDP and some select individuals? WOW. When PDP sneezes the whole country goes up in flames. It ought not to be so.

smooooooth:
when will bush be visitiing nigerian

because i need to start gathering all my shoes

both old and new, to throw at him.

Oh please, pardon me but how many shoes have you thrown at any elected officials in Nigeria and you are looking for President of America to throw shoe at? Who send you message?

@landis, I disagree. Sure it is so easy for this to easily fade into obscurity like other plans that have never been implemented. Case in point, how many "lets start a revolution and do something together" threads have appeared in the political section on Nairaland and how many of those threads have been genuinely fruitful? We may not know if these groups still live on but i would not blame anyone for being skeptical.

However, as possible as it is for such a plan to fail, it is also possible for such a plan to come to fruition. You make this about Yar Adua and very valid point. However i see it as being much more than Yar Adua and the fraudulent elections which you are right in pointing out was allowed to haapen. If such a thing as is being postulated on this thread occurs, it would be one of the very very very rare occassions whereby Nigerians put all trivialities aside and focus on the behemoth that is bad government and corruption which is continuously imposed on the nation by (i believe) a very small minority. It would be a very rare occassion of Nigerians standing up for themselves against a system that has continuously sought to destroy hope of a functioning nation as it seems to have done to you. Would it be fair to bog this down then with Yar Adua and the elections and wouldn't that be short-sighteded? If anything we should see it as a duty to make such a plan come to a successful implementation because the possible implications are great. You think such an event won't make news and even more importantly, news in Nigeria? Just imagine the potential it would have (and i really don't mean to sound condescending) of educating the masses and creating a new scenario of focusing on the behemoth and the few select that have chosen to deny Nigeria of good governance. Nigerians standing up for themselves? Is that not a change?

Am i being optimistic? Perhaps so and i always am hopeful, it is not delusion but simply is possible. The possible danger to such a plan is if it is infiltrated by tribal sentiment and if it degenerates into the normal squables we see on nairaland and hence further distracting from the issue. The potential of such a thing is great and its possible implications and ripples even greater and i happen to think such is definately worth believing and fighting for. There is always hope.

@poster, please more information.

Very interesting development, if anything it is just an indication that there are people who are willing to stand to demand better. 1million people? WOW. Now that would really be something to see and could be a catalyst.

Obasanjo has been appointed to resolve conflict in other african nations, don't be surprised if Yar Adua gets invited to work in the UN after his term. If Nigeria cannot or refuses to condemn the actions of failed leaders and their cohorts what else do you expect outsiders to do? When one refuses to treat themselves with respect can there really be any shock when those people are not given respect by others?This circle kwill continue until we face what it is we have been runing from like coward since. Everything else will be a pale and shoddy compromise that will not bring the progress Nigeria seems to magically want without having to work or fight for.

With regards to Ribadu, what will bringing him back actually achieve? While there are many that seem to hate the man, i like the fact that for once there was something in the way of fear in the hearts of corrupt people in power when ribadu was around. Hence the issue not being Ribadu but actually being the fight against corruption, which at present is none existent in Nigeria as far as i can see (unless we are now equating spoken rhetoric without actions as a fight). The fight against corruption while present during Ribadu's tenure, was tainted and not a mwholesome approach at all. However it is understandable that many saw itas progress because you know what? Compared to before when nothing was done at all, it was some sort of progress. Howeever do we want to return to that level of "progress" or do we want to actually for once do the right thing and instill a more impartial and genuine fight against corruption?

Nigeria: Aondoakaa Wins Election Into UN Body
Sunday Ejike Benjamin
17 December 2008
http://allafrica.com/stories/200812170412.html

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa (SAN) has been elected into the Governing Council of the United Nations International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) in Rome, Italy.

The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law is an Independent Intergovernmental organization with its seat in the Villa Aldobrandini in Rome. Its purpose is to study needs and methods for modernizing, harmonizing and coordinating private international law, and in particular, commercial law, between States, and to draft international Conventions to address the needs.

Membership to UNIDROIT is restricted to States acceding to the UNIDROIT statute. Its 61 member States are drawn from five continents, and represents a variety of different legal, economic, and political systems as well as different cultural backgrounds.
A statement from the Special Assistant to the Minister (Media)and made valilable to newsmen in Abuja, Onov Tyuulugh said in a keenly contested election held at the Institute on December 11, 2008, and attended by representatives from the 61 member countries, "Aondoakaa emerged as the only African member on the 25 member Governing Council of UNIDROIT."

According to the statement: "Aondoakaa has dedicated his victory to the Rule of Law and claimed that it was a universal acceptance of the effort of President Umaru Musa Yar' adua to enthrone the rule of law in Nigeria. Aondoakaa said he would dedicate himself to the Rule of Law and ensure that Nigeria and indeed, Africa benefit from his membership of the governing Council of UNIDROIT."

@BlackRevo. Now i really do believe you are missing the point. Again you make it about parties and fail to see that this is not about parties at all. You said you were limiting the parties to PDP and AC and that though there were many of them those where the ones to focus on or something of the sort. This is not about parties. This is about free elections. I am narrowing the issue down to the presidency? The presidency is the highest and arguably the most powerful office in Nigeria. It is about the message being sent by showing that the president is not above redress or above the law. It is setting precedence in the highest office and hence encouraging order in all the land. Who won't want to break the law and corruptly enrich themselves when they know that the ministers, the government and even the president is doing it and the system "rewards" such behaviour by letting the offenders keep stolen wealth and mandate? The head is rotten and you are shocked the tail is in decay? All around the world you see situations whereby a public officer is accused of something horrendous and he/she steps down in order to keep the respect that particular office demands. In Nigeria the opposite is the case. Nigerians have come to expect the president to be a thief, corrupt etc, the office of the president holds no respect whatsoever. Why should anyone be surprised when simple elections cannot be conducted to begin with. If you can't see that this is not about parties AT ALL, or Yar Adua, etc, then i am sorry i can't help you.

I have written on this issue and the importance of credible elections a bit too much and it is getting tiring especially when it is thesame old arguements.When Barrack Obama takes office in January he would act in confidence and be willing to perform because he knows the people he is accountable to for getting him into office are the American people and not some select few. Hence he will be obliged to act in the interest of the americans and will be empowered because he has their confidence via votes he got. That is the power of the mandate. That house has a chance of surviving because at least it has something in the way of foundations. If we are going to practise democracy can we at least attempt to practise it right? It is typical Nigerian thinking of taking something and turining it on its head then defending the fallacy. If your next post goes back to AC, PDP or whatever other party or Yar Adua or names as opposed to the bigger picture which you accuse me of not seeing then please don't be offended if i don't respond. I am just tired of this nonsense.

I was actually going to respond to @Black_Revo but i decided to question wether it was worth doing so especially when i remember the day just before the last hearing when Yar Adua won the first appeal, how there was this huge debate and after the election was judged to be fair i just did not even know what to think. Why must we continue to jump of skyscrapers all in an attempt to make excuses for the failures of leasership? @Black_Revo again instead of making this about conducting free and fair elections that will mean people can boldly go to the ballot boxes because they know they won't be taking thesame risk as going through a mine field due to the thuggery and violence, you belittle such horrors by making it about PDP vs AC. It is quite distasteful and insensitive. You pointed out that the right of the people has never been respected in the country. Why do you think that is? Have Nigerians actually ever given leadership the inconvenience or signs to show dissatisfaction (to put it mildly) with their performance? Here you have a scenario like many that have presented themselves before and now again and will continue to do so, for Nigeria to stand of for what is right and to actually do the right thing and people want to throw such an opportunity to the wind in the name of "national interest"? A chance to set a new precedence and new status quo of electoral discipline whereby it is shown that nobody, not even the president is above the law, and you want to belittle the magnitude of such by making it about Buhari or Atiku or Yar Adua?

Will annulling the whole sham elections cure Nigeria of all its ills and turn it into paradise? I don't believe so, but it will definately be a step in the right direction. The next step after this would be to conduct free and fair elections and prosecute the perpetrators of the last elections. The vote of the people, the vote of confidence of the electorates is what would empower a government. It is quite shocking you think that the way to "free" Yar Adua and make him work better is to ignore this atrocity. According to you i guess ignoring the wrong is what is going to embolden Yar Adua who was also governor of Katsina state in 8 years whose cling to fame was that he left money in the treasury, meanwhile what changed? Nigeria, how many opportunities must you deny yourself to actually begin to make things right? Changing things takes courage and it seems Nigeria wants all the progress without the sacrifice, courage or hard work. Vision 2020 indeed. What a shame. Contentment at potential instead of driving that potential into manifestation. That alone is the acceptance of mediocrity and even worse

[quote author=Black_Revo link=topic=206378.msg3210740#msg3210740 date=1229006282]Yeah Sahara reporters said the judgment have been sold to the highest bidder but  in that same article it also says that some of the judges have skeletons in their cupboard. I just  hope the supreme court upholds this election in the interest of the country because neither buhari nor  atiku have the moral right to contest the election in the first place or go to the court for the election to be canceled.

atiku is a confirmed born thief and he also took part in a government for 8 years that came through a fraudulent electoral means also while buhari  is a former dictator who has not asked himself if he was right in the first place to overthrow a democratic elected government and now wants to be a president through that same means without remedying the past.[/quote]I do apologise if it seems i am picking on you but the line of reasoning in bold continues to both shock, confuse and frustrate me. Why on earth would you make the elections about Buhari and Atiku? Were those the only people in the elction? Was the election a fraud, a disgrace, a shame, etc? So all of that should be ignored because it is now all about Buhari and Atiku? Unbelievable. So if the last elections that we know were a sham is given a pass mark please someone tell me why the next one will be any better? What is it with Nigeria and the fear of condemning the wrong simply because it is wrong? Why must everything be so upside down in reasoning? Why would a people choose to plant thorns and expect mango? This is thesame arguement that people made the first time round when Yar Adua won the first appeal. You heard the most ridiculous arguements (to me anyway) of how keeping the status quo was good for "stability" and my favourite: "national interest". Again i apologise if i seem impatient or harsh but, what trite! Abuse of power, supporting of fraudulent elections, having a rotational system of government whereby a criteria for a ruler is not their ability to lead but simply because it is "their turn" and all of this rubbish, only in Nigeria would these things be seen as "for the good of the people" and "national interest". You are saying a fraudulent election marred by violence, rigging, political thuggery, etc is acceptable with no prosecutions, etc to account for such and you expect next elections to be free from such? Oh the horror.

This removal of immunity might just turn out to be a disaster in the making if correct steps aren't put in place to make sure that such a change won't render the government innactive due to dealing with various law suits etc. The real problem is how serious the government is about actually fighting corruption. Delayed justice or no justice at all has become the norm in Nigeria. It is approaching two years now and the president of the federal republic of Nigeria is still facing court charges. Adedibu had to die of natural causes after living to a ripe old age and that to some was "justice", no ex governor or minister, etc is in jail today after what happened in the last administration that was marked by some of the worst abuses of the constitution when taken into consideration that it was meant to be a "democractic" government. So who is being punished?

This stinks of desperation and eagerness to gain cheap points by pandering to populist views and it also seems to be the apex of cowardice. You want people in the current government to "behave themselves" then simple, make scape goats out of the last offenders. Let it be known that nonsense will not be tolerated and will not go unpunished. Just a simple measure of creating and instilling a system that enforces the law. Nigeria would not be anywhere as bad if the current laws are enforced. However as has been the case of succesive administrations, just to be seen as "doing something" as opposed to a simple case of all motion and no movement, the law as opposed to the breakers of the law would be made the problem and the scape goat. Is such a fundamental change in law actually suppossed to cover the fact that Yar Adua has not really done anything worthy of note since he got into power? Then attacking the state of education? How much money and investment has been pumped into the educational sector and how much of this money has actually been used to develop the educational sector as well as pretty much all other sectors? So how can the federal government now lament at the state of the educational sector? WHAT AUDACITY! Are people actually going to be deceived by this trite?

It would continuosly be reiterated on my part that if anything is to be forced by the people on the administration to get it to do anything, it would be to force this yaradua of a man to address the electoral reforms so that votes can count and when next elections come we can show a lot of these repeat offenders the door including Yaradua himself. But of course i guess i am puting quite a substantial ammount of faith in the good judgement of the Nigerian masses.

banom:
POSTER,
you know what will happen in 2015 but you don't know what will happen in 2011,  i will raghter vote abacha for president in 2015 than a yoruba man to come and lead Nigeria again immidiately after Yaradua, do you think other tribes are fools ?

                   infact,
ABACHA FOR PRESIDENT 2015

WOW. I am simply speechless. I just don't even know what to say. @banom with that post of yours do you think you should actually have the audacity to complain about anything relating to the state of Nigeria? I apologise, i shouldn't have bothered.

Firstly, let this man please not get distracted and continue to focus on the job which he currently has which is Governor of Lagos State. Secondly @Jakumo, if such a dream has a ghost of a chance of ever manifesting then electoral reforms should be addressed. Have such been addressed? Yar Adua is still the president of Nigeria and all that the electoral tribunals have done in his case is prove the inability or lack of courage or any balls to do what is right. So why on earth won't PDP or whomever (most likely PDP) rig whomever they want into power when it seems like they have malready gotten away with the last major one?

The Governor of lagos state should not be distracted please. If at least one state in the whole state of emergency country turns out to be working then that is one down and 35 to go. I have been shouting electoral reform since, i guess the importance of such will make itself known when it is not addressed and about 2 years from now Yar Adua gets second tenure. That is when the crying will begin again and the whole cycle continues.

Kobojunkie:
[size=13pt][/size]

This holds true for all the "WE ARE THE ONLY TRUE NIGERIANS" army here on Nairaland. All of whom are deeply tribalistic, preaching patrotism as "True Nigerians" but their every conservation is filled with wickedly tribalistic ideas of a "Divided Nigeria".

Stop being "unpatriotic", do you want to be sanctioned by the nairaland 'ministry of patrotism' who will not fail to send their officers to your location to give you a traditional Nigerian flogging?

ruledworld:
Nigerians gone abroad don't come back - 1 Million every Year
Nigerians killing themselves in the country - 5 Million every Year
Diseases killing Nigerians - 10 Million every Year
Accidents killing Nigerians - 100,000 every Year
Nigerians make Suicide - 10,000 every Year
In one year we have 16,110,000 People erased from Nigeria
Only 5 Million Births per Year, but then 2.5 Million Children die before the age of 5

Nigeria will have a population of 114 million in 2010
Nigeria will have a population of 49 Million in 2015
Nigeria will Approximately have less than 5 Million inhabitants in 2020.

If there is War or Disaster, Nigeria can end well before 2020.

The World will look into the History on the Rise and Fall of Nigeria (From 1940s to 2020)

This is my Prediction, I am not Pastor or Prophet or Sheikh, but an Ordinary person with an ordinary calculation,

Did things just get this way? Were all of these things not also the case years ago? And yet the population has continued to increase and all of a sudden it is now it will begin to cause "death by population depletion"? The analysis is quite amusing, should i even have bothered responding? LOL

QuotaSyste:
You can go and tell your stories to a Cameronian or an Ivorian that doesn't know exactly what is happening in your northern nigeria. But not to me and other Igbo people. We the Igbos know that the killings are targeted towards Igbo people, but a non Igbo like you who is not feeling the pinch can think what ever you like and make up what ever other stories you feel like to justify what is happneing there, that is your own cup of tea. Fact is 99% of the vicitims are Igbo, so go to hell with your questions of what about other people and churches and non Igbos living in northern nigeria.

Normally i might be shocked that someone has accused me of justifying killing of innocent people but since it is you i guess i should expect such. I should really stop trying to join issues with you because it has laways proved a lesson in futility; especially when you can't be courteous enough to read through my posts before spewing accusations of non existent justifications on my part. Anyway, to each his/her own, God Bless and have a nice day  .

QuotaSyste:
Until Igbo president emerges, expect no president of your nigeria to do such thing. Obasanjo, a Yoruba president was there and it happened under his nose, what did he do? nothing and no arrest till this date because the victims were Igbos. This is why is support General Laurant Nkunda 100%.

Unless i am missing something the victims continue to be the people which goes beyond igbos as you always like to make the issue about. What about people who are killed or attacked by their families or communities when they decide they don't want to be muslims anymore? Are those all igbos? Churches burnt down are they only igbo churches? So igbos are the only non muslims or non northerners living in the north? When will you begin to allow your debates flourish beyond such a view that i won't blame others for seeing as myopic?

[quote author=Black_Revo link=topic=201346.msg3152057#msg3152057 date=1227869719]We really need to solve all these ethnicity problem by putting tribes that can tolerate each other in the same state and making laws that governmens how we relate to other tribe. The government shoud set up a special division in the police and military that will be deployed immediately within 24hrs when ever there is an issue like these to stop the total breakdown of law and order before a solution is found.

It doesn't matter if it is political or not or anything but these things scares me alot they are not just right?[/quote]I disagree, the problem does not lie with putting people who can "tolerate" each other together, but having an effective police system that can enforce law and order and having an enforcement agency that is able to bring culprits of a crime to justice even years after the crime is perpetrated. As things stand and as far as i am aware, there is no notable detective or forensic agency or section in the country and if they exist they are doing a very lousy job. How many people have been killed throughout the north as a result of "riots" and how many people have been convicted as a result of such? When you hear stories of police officers standing by while hooligans carry out their despicable activities then what do you expect? What is the message being sent out? When crimes put under the umbrella of "religous riots" are treated as childs play then what on earth do you expect? That it will stop automatically? A people are being given a message that there is nothing wrong with what they are doing and you expect them to stop? I can't wait for the day when a leader with balls will be able to throw a few imams and even pastors in jail for inciting their followership to violence and i am not afraid to be blunt and i may be wrong, but this problem is more pronounced in the north and with imams. Wasn't IBB quoted as saying it was "god's will" in response to one of the earlier riots in the 70s as i am led to believe? So what is the message?

this is too funny, LOL. Especially the part where these dogs were divided up and shared among the country as if they were sharing oil money or this was sharing one goat among a whole village naija style. "Mama boniface, this na your share". Maybe people can start fighting about the sharing of these dogs that seem to be more equipped than the police themselves. How come so and so's state got only 4 dogs? Where is the federal character in all of this? 19 in Kano? If these dogs are for fighting drug abuse do they have the ability to sniff out dangerous possibly sniffable gutters? LOL.

ziddy:
true the issues we face in this country are beyond tribalism or national character configurations, but aren't these nominees the same tired old hands? must they continuously be recycled when then have failed us time and again? Rilwanu Lukman??
for what? what more does nigeria owe people like this man? Sam Egwu?? Osotimehin?? what do these guys still want

You will get no arguement from me, i don't know why leaders continue to show such defiance to any real progress whereby in a country of over 140 million people thesame set of very few people who have proven incompetency in the past are always seen as the way to progress into the future, never makes sense,so why make it about where the ministers are from just as the poster seems to be doing rather than their competency? Yar Adua is day by day proving himself to have nothing to offer, but again what could be expected of a leader that was imposed on the populace?

[quote author=Abu-Maryam link=topic=197914.msg3111298#msg3111298 date=1227161259]I don't know what you people (Igbo) are preaching in this country. You had forgotten your sin to this country. Putting you in abeyence is justified. We have already tested your style of leadership long ago. You people didnt reconcile within youself how could you handle the affairs of a great country like Nigeria? Any development they will say marginalisation. Is a high time for us to forget all sort of nonsense.[/quote]Please go through your post, think about it and then reassess where it belongs in this discussion. Sin to the country? It is always disgusting when people speak as if leadership of the whole country belongs to a particular group and hence is a benefit to others if and when such benefit is deemed fit to throw to anybody else, sorry but i really do find it disgusting. Does Nigeria deserve its leaders afterall? When will people begin to look past all this rubbish and begin to go for leadership preference based on the contribution a leader is expected to make as opposed to where he or she comes from? If people continue to think along these lines then such really should think twice before ever lamenting on the state of backwardness of the country. Expected progression with retrogressive views?

For Africa to be self reliant and at thesame time "developed" in terms of not just the continent but countries as autonomous entities, then i don't see how this can be achieved without industrialisation. Industrialisation does not necessarily mean globalisation, but even for internal trading within the continent itself, there needs to be a very rapid increase in the growth of industries, or do you have any other ideas? Perhaps a more innovative system of trade by barter? Your cow for my fish?

Should the question be about the ethnicity of the ministers or their capability? I don't think the face of development has any ethnicity. So if a 100% northern ministerial cabinet ends up doing a good job you will reject it because the cabinet does not show "federal character"? Please, Nigeria is too underdeveloped to afford such "luxury" of being so ethnically focused that it is actually a bit obstreperous especially when you take into account the state of the country. The real question is if Yar Adua still has anything to offer (really finding it difficult to believe so), and if he does then it is natural that he would work with perhaps the people he knows and he is more comfortable with, shock horror that they might actually be northerners, what's the big deal? As long as the job gets done and development is not compromised for any particular side of the country. The ministerial cabinet is afterall made up of 100% Nigerians isn't it? Again, this sort of ethnocentric thinking is one the country can't afford to focus on right now, it just seems folly to do so.

Finally some order. I am not so convinced about number 3 though especially with the whole nigerian culture of discipline. Obviously there is a line to be crossed whereby there is child abuse but that law if it is in existence does seem a bit too vague. The main issue will always remain enforcment of these laws and the mega issue of "who will police the police?"

Yes this whole fiasco has been a monumental failure, digrace, embarassment, etc. However i hope that such does not actually draw people away from the fact that a Nigerian owned satellite in space would be highly beneficial in advancing so many areas of the economy especially the telecommunications sector (phones, broadband, etc). While some may argue where such lies as a priority with the current state of the country, i do feel that the main hindrance to development in the country has very rarely been money but actually fiscal responsibility and hence making sure that money assigned for projects is actually spent on projects and not 3/4 of the money "chopped" while the rest is used for the project. In other words the issue remains corruption and fiscal responsibility. The country's infrastructure, educational, power, agric, health and many other sectors are not in delapidation because of lack of money to focus on such areas but simply because money budgeted for such areas are not spent on such areas. How much money was meant to be "spent" on roads during the last administration and how much was actually spent on roads? I think we should all perhaps vaguely familiarise ourselves the budgets being passed by the house if for no other reason than to get involved an educate ourselves on how the country is being run

So is the issue about wether money cannot/shouldn't be spent on a satellite which could be very beneficial and the value of such so easily recovered or wether the money allocated to such is actually used for such?

LOL, yes, Nigeria can really be funny at times as is being showcased on this thread. Are we actually going to make this about "chinese defrauding Nigerians"? Now that in itself is funny because by so doing it will just seem all so deliciously hypocritical. How many people abroad have been defrauded by Nigerians? And now people want to scream bloody murder at the possibility of such occuring to Nigerians? The huge irony is the fact that while the people in Nigeria are the "screwees" in all of this, the "screwers" have very rarely if ever at all been foreigners but the Nigerian government and leaders whom the populace continue to allow to walk all over them. Do people really believe thay if such a thing happeneed it could have happened without some politicians or Nigerian civil servants etc taking a very huge cut? However, as usual the eye is shifted off the real causes and focused on outsiders who could hardly have been able to pull off such a stunt (if it did occur) without conivance or blessing of some high up people in the Nigerian side of things. So please may we all be spared the phony outrage? IBB, Abacha, OBJ, Peter Odilli, James Ibori, Alams, etc, these names will continue to hunt Nigerians when they attempt to fake bravery or fake "growing a pair" at outsiders. Why the shock at being 419ed? Isn't the citizenry used to it by now? Infact public looters are celebrated and are allowed to keep their wealth so what is all the fuss?? I might seem harsh and even offensive to some but the very idea that anyone can make this about someone else defrauding Nigerians is quite irritating. When is this country going to grow up??

Good thing i was patient enough to get to the bottom of the thread and read the claims being rebuffed. Perhaps this is a good time for people to ask for visual imagery of the satellite so that we know there is actually a "satellite". Honestly i think Nigerian politicians have come to learn time and time again how gullible Nigerians can be and how easy they are to step on without getting any punishment from it except the mild inconvenience of noise making and being called "ole". You don't even know sef maybe they just showed a clip from star trek on the news and even with reasonably well known actors people didn't get clued into this fact and started celebrating that we have "satellite". Abeg, this is the time to start asking for visual imagery of the satellite o, maybe it would have been better if during launch there was some kind of legal requirement to put some form of "identification" say a green ribbon or so, so that the masses don't get shown an american satellite as our own. Perhaps i am giving too much credit, even with an american flag shown on an american satellite they might have even been able to get away with it. Perhaps an "OBJ wuz here" on the side of the vessel would have sufficed? Hey, you never know, we do all know what Nigerian leaders, politicians and the Nigerian populace are capable of, right?  

I just want to highlight people to a very simple fact, it has been two weeks now since the Ministers in the cabinet were dropped and so far nothing has been announced (feel free to dispute this) with regards to nominees for the positions that were left vacant. This means that for over 2 weeks now Yar Adua has been working with over half a cabinet. While the reshuffle is welcome does this mean that Mr President had no clue as to who he wanted to take over from the dropped ministers or is this just part of his famous "style" of leadership.

I really wish all the people that were so keen to initially make excuses for the pace at which things were progressing would come out now and tell us what they think now that it has been almost a year and half since Umaru Yar Adua became president.