₦airaland Forum

Aggrippa: a very huge departure from the above stated are the asians esp CHINA and INDIA. these pple have somehow managed to preserve their culture, technology, for centuries and have even proven to be strong competitors with the west.

Iceslizer: Check out Miss Noodle-Legs


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iekhz3ha74I

InvertedHammer: Oga Seun kilode!

Eye pencil and lip gloss.

I refuse to comment.

bcomputer101: We’ll punish those behind Borno massacre – Jonathan



http://www.punchng.com/news/well-punish-those-behind-borno-massacre-jonathan/

Seun: https://i.minus.com/ise6P0Lc8bbF0.gif

[img]https://www.nairaland.com/attachments/1072985_PicStory-2013-04-21-07-32_jpgc7a0f62d5f29842cce4814eea1889f52[/img]

[img]https://www.nairaland.com/attachments/1073057_Suarez-bites-Ivanovic-1846142_jpgd686b44f3774282f603bd1b921e7bce7[/img]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BC17uLqCcAAeJLI.jpg

Abrantie: Let me help -- "Shordy" By Praye:

http://www.ghanaplaylist.com/home/music/play/11919298078956

billante: FOR any Nigerian enthusiastic about our groping our way back unto the road to industrialisation, the two pieces of news I read recently must be heart-warming. Last week, a company in Lagos, African Foundries Limited claimed that it would begin to export steel products on 27 April 2013.

This week, on Thursday 18 April 2013, President Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR, is going to Commission Wempco Steel Mills Ltd located at KM 8, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. What makes Wempco’s 5-Stand Tandem Cold Rolled Steel Mill important is that it is going to produce flat sheets!

Let us take our minds back to the ’70s and early ’80s. Ikeja and Iganmu areas of Lagos boasted of several steel foundries and steel end user factories. I remember some companies that produced refrigerators and air conditioners in this country. We had vehicle Assembly plants that were able to fabricate some of their parts locally.

Tax reliefs were also extended to pioneer industries. The Customs had all the incentives to tackle smuggling and concealment, before some smart Alec brought pre-shipment inspection that ceded Customs job to foreigners whose companies are in competition with our local manufacturers! With the above incentives, industries boomed in Nigeria. Although some foreigners abused some of the incentives, yet our industries were waxing strong and providing the needed jobs.

But in 1973, following the post Yom Kippur war oil boom, we removed all restrictions on imports, opened our borders for dumping and the factories began to die while we watched the Excess Crude Account! Even today, Nigeria is still a dumping ground for goods we can produce here. It is mere hypocrisy to cry for investments without protecting the local industries, World Trade Organisation or not. The other day, I bought a bunch of bananas only to discover that it was imported from Camerouns! Bananas?

If you consider the number of end users that will utilise Wempco’s flat sheets and the jobs that will be created for engineers, electricians by fabricators and makers of the end user products I enumerated above, as well as artisans-mechanics, painters and drivers-we will be looking at almost 50,000 direct jobs and limitless other job opportunities.

But the company, like many others, is likely to have the usual Nigerian fiscal mismatch of its raw materials attracting the same rate of duty as similar finished imported products. I can bet that because of attendant deficit, it may have even invested a huge sum in providing power, water and bad roads, not to talk of insecurity.

These items often increase cost of production and make goods uncompetitive in Nigerian against imported ones. And that is inimical to our Made-in-Nigeria drive. So the Federal Government has a duty to jealously protect investments that provide jobs in the country. That is its primary responsibility because no government can provide all the jobs needed by its teeming unemployed.

This must be emphasised because notwithstanding that Nigeria has enormous gas reserves and even flairs enough to sustain some African countries, yet, one of the major challenges dogging our power sector is inadequate of gas supply! Nigeria is blessed with abundant iron ore, coal and gas.

Ordinarily, there should be no reason for us not to be a major player in the steel sector, except, as I said earlier, bad politics and government’s policy of inconsistency and instability. This is the time to begin to understand the needs of manufacturing industries in Nigeria and systematically solve them. Last week, the Minister of National Planning, Dr ShamsudeenUsman said that the Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government is a medium term development strategy to speed up Nigeria’s march towards becoming one of the 20 largest economies in the world by 2020.

He said the strategy is anchored on job creation and laying a foundation for robust economy (Sunday Sun 14 April 2013). President Jonathan’s trip to Wempco Mill Ltd on Thursday must not be purely ceremonial. He must go beyond the tape cutting ritual to have a private audience with the company and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN to understand and address their problems.

Others factories were fabricating steel chairs and steel cabinets. Today those foundries and factories are shop front churches. The same is true of many Textile and shoe factories. The products of those factories are today being imported, a great drain on the nation’s foreign exchange.

The Wempco Mills which President Jonathan will commission on Thursday is a game changer in Nigeria’s industrialisation, because it is going to produce flat sheets. We all know that steel is at the root of industrial revolution. We only need to look around our homes and appreciate the numerous household products that are made of steel, especially flat steel, from refrigerators, air conditioners, computers, printers, standing and ceiling fans, enamelware to aerosol cans.

Look outside and see the oil tank farms, oil pipelines, ship and auto bodies, tubes, pressure vessels and roofing sheets to appreciate the importance of steel in our lives. It is for this that at a time, the development level of countries was measured by their consumption of steel. Major developed countries like USA, Germany, Japan, Britain and France are still heavy consumers of steel.

The world’s steel production stood at 790 million metric tonnes in 1999-2000 and 50 per cent of this was produced in developing world. But regrettably, Nigeria was not there! India at the same period produced 1,686,700 metric tonnes and is 100 per cent self-sufficient in Cold Rolled Flat Sheets, satisfying over 50 per cent of India’s requirement in the auto sector. It is not surprising that Tata Steel of India progressed from being a major steel producer to a major auto maker in India with their vehicle products making in roads into Nigerian market today.

In fairness, the Federal Government recognised the centrality of steel in the nation’s development and tried to address our need. It set up the Ajeokuta Steel Mill as well as several Steel Rolling Mills across the country. But politics ruined that effort. First, some of the Steel Mills were wrongly sited purely for political reasons. Secondly, most of the Rolling Mills were producing rods instead of flats.

That was understandable given the boom in the construction industry in the seventies which occasioned the infamous cement armada! Thirdly, because the Mills were government companies, choice of management toed the line of political patronage and soon the companies were run aground! Even to sell these Mills off to private hands for better management have been fraught with politics and corruption!

When the President commissions the Wempco Mills on Thursday, Nigeria would be taking a significant step towards creating impetus for our steel industry and local contents. Nigeria’s annual demand for cold rolled steel flat sheets today is estimated at 1.2 million tonnes, unfortunately, mostly imported.

The Wempco production capacity, I understand, is 700,000 metric tonnes per annum with additional expansion capacity for 300,000 tonnes per annum. With necessary encouragement, Wempco and other companies in the steel sector can reduce our imports and even make Nigeria a major exporter of various steel products in the long run.

It will be recalled that, in the ’70s, many industries thrived in the country through incentives such as refunds and duty draw back on raw materials used to produce goods for export. Nigerian industries were also protected through fiscal measures that imposed high import duties and absolute prohibition (trade) on goods produced in Nigeria and low or outright exempt on duty on essential raw materials. Excise duties were annually structured to encourage local production.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/04/reviving-the-steel-sector/

talktimi: GEJ is at fault...

Adekay2011: Yes what else do u expect when their Holy Quran promised them of unlimited
sex with virgins (at least 80,000 girls) and a full river of Alcoholic wine
for each suicide bomber.if you think I m telling a lie check these for yourself
(Surah 56:10-22, 35-38) (Surah 38-52, 52-20,
47-15, 8:25-29)
[/b][/b][/color]

bloggernaija: Tamar AbramsCommunications Strategist for Nonprofits
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Abuja, Nigeria: Happy to Leave
Posted: 08/29/11 03:08 PM ET
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I'm writing from Nigeria -- not with an email that uses the word "barrister" and attempts to scam you out of thousands of your hard-earned dollars -- but rather as a visitor to this country that regularly turns up as a punch line on late night TV. It is not my favorite place to be, at least not in the capital city of Abjua where I am working for 10 days.

While Nigeria is clearly an undeveloped country, here it attempts to hide behind flashiness. There are broad avenues that sweep past tall, modern buildings that would be at home in the States. But many of the cars on the roads are barely drivable, and there are few working stoplights. Battered green taxis ply their trade everywhere; they are cheap but dangerous -- most lacking seatbelts -- as they weave in and around other cars. Without crosswalks or stoplights, pedestrians appear to be in mortal danger every time they cross a road. Most of the large buildings bear the names of corporations or banks.

This is a nation made wealthy by the discovery of vast stores of oil, and it would appear by the buildings and roads that its citizens are sharing the wealth. Unlike Nairobi, for example, there are few slums and beggars evident. But, unlike the oil, much remains below the surface here.

The poorest residents of Abuja -- including many of the workers who staff the people who work in the tall buildings -- have been forcibly moved to the outskirts of town where many live without running water or electricity. You would see them if you gazed out the window of your car as you travel from the airport into the city center. The women with infants strapped to their backs balancing heavy bundles on their heads, the men sitting under trees looking at you with hollowed eyes.

Abuja is a planned city, designed by three American firms; while they may have gotten the infrastructure right, they forgot about the heart. And because everything dates back only to the 1970s, this is a place devoid of much history or charm.

There are speed bumps in the middle of major thoroughfares that invariably result in flat tires and disabled cars by the side of the road. The incessant honking of horns can be maddening. The oil wealth has brought with it inflated prices. We visit Amigo Market where the expats and wealthy shop and are horrified by the cost of food -- fresh fruit is prohibitively expensive and a small container of yogurt is almost $4. Outside the market young men hawk everything from bananas to pirated films on DVD. In a nation where some people are getting rich, everyone is desperate to make some money.

There's something sad about Abuja. I've traveled in other parts of Africa and Southeast Asia where I've seen great poverty but I always sensed a spirit of hope and strong community. I don't see that here. Abuja is a harsh place without much warmth. Sure, people say hello and appear to do what they are supposed to do but there is little extra effort expended. Perhaps it is simply soul-sapping to see the corruption and wealth that surround and confine them without providing sustenance to all.

And then five days into my visit, I spend a Sunday evening at a gospel-and-jazz service at Abuja's largest church, House on the Rock. It is Pentecostal and resembles a low-rent American megachurch. Cheap plastic chairs -- maybe 1000 of them -- fill the cavernous space facing a huge stage with disco lights and several Jumbotrons. My two colleagues and I are the only white faces, but congregants are welcoming. We are given seats of honor in the second row behind the preachers, and a clear view of the singers and band members who fill the stage.

There is no preaching, no sermon -- only heartfelt music. Amazing, soul-calming music. Trumpets, saxophones, drums of many kinds, guitars and bass. There are tribal drummers whose increasingly frenetic beats are a traditional call to worship and singers who sway and raise their hands and eyes to God as they exhort us to turn our lives over to Him. Congregants are on their feet, clapping and dancing and swaying to the music. One woman faints and is carried off. It is a beautiful evening, even when we are singled out by a preacher as new "converts" -- a Jew, a Quaker and a reformed Angolan Catholic -- and applauded as our faces appear on the giant screens. It doesn't matter. I am being transported into the soul of a place that I feared would hide that part of itself from me.

The next day there are power outages and those damned car horns and the knowledge that wealth is so unevenly distributed in this country that claims to be working against graft and corruption. But I hold tight to the evening that neither my religion nor my skin color nor my nationality kept me from becoming part of something uplifting and communal in Nigeria. I suppose there is hope hidden in the corners of everywhere.

And, on my last full day in Abuja, an explosion rocks the UN compound across the street from our hotel. Black smoke billows from the building where people labor each day to bring peace and development to this nation and others. Within hours, we're told, a suicide bomber with a radical Islamic sect drove his bomb-laden car into the building. It is Ramadan. I suppose the bomber didn't see the irony. Eighteen people are dead and scores are injured. The sirens that day seemed to go on forever. And, as I head to the airport for the first leg of my flight home, the driver says there are many people still trapped in the rubble of the building.

I am racing home, trying to stay ahead of Hurricane Irene which is predicted to lash my neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia. I'm more than ready to face the destructiveness of nature; it is the cruelty of my fellow human beings that is far more frightening.


Follow Tamar Abrams on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@Tamarabrams

bloggernaija: A soulless city. Just like Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom , Abuja lacks character and is nothing but an emblem of waste and corruption. A capital city that has no correlation to the plight of its people.no wonder it empties out on weekends and during public holiday.
While China , Korea ,Thailand ,Taiwan ,Singapore ,UAE,Indonesia,Malaysia ,chile ,even Ghana etc where busy gearing up and retooling for the 21st century, nigeria was busy building a mirage.a so called showpiece.
Even brasil stopped wasting money on brazilia (the capital from which the Abuja was copied) and concentrated on where the true wealth of the country was made , kept and people lived.camberra (another show piece capital)was not created at the expense of the other cities.
Let us just keep deceiving ourselves .
The thieves have built themselves a fort and have thrown away the keys