10mobile: Is your name Methuselah? Your generation failed to birth a great country. So, we threw away everything you cherished.
Relax. We are happy with the rise of Afrobeats. It was Obasanjo (''my generation'') who ordered radio stations to play a minimum 60% local content in 2000, which made local musicians become hot cakes.
That ls why Nigeria is a world music powerhouse today, boasting multiple world class stars.
And make no mistake, AFROBEATS came from our earlier R&B culture, and local artistes like Remedies, 2Shotz etc simply blended those grooves with indigenous Nigerian melodies and rhythms to start AFROBEATS.
In the R&B days of the 80s, 90s etc, before this your Pangolo music began reigning, this was the kind of jam we used to chill with at parties, just before the main grooving starts.
Please ignore these children of yesterday typing rubbish.
Here is confirmation from Reno himself.
Reno Omokri
@renoomokri
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Nigerians did not use to listen to Nigerian music. We started listening to our local music when President Obasanjo and Ben Murray-Bruce implemented the 60% local content idea, forcing our radio and TV stations to play 60% local music. People complained. Today, not only do we love and listen to our indigenous music, Afrobeats is now the number one music genre on Earth.
Without Obasanjo and Ben Murray-Bruce being intentional about making Nigerians listen to local music, there could not have been Wizkid, Davido, Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage, Rema and Kizz Daniel. And I can prove it. Tiwa and Naira Marley are British citizens. They had to leave the UK for Nigeria to succeed locally here and globally thereafter.
That policy influenced Glo to use local artistes as brand ambassadors. And they sent them to etiquette school. Glo had P-Square on billboards all over Lagos and Nigeria. You could not go from Ikoyi to Victoria Island without seeing a giant Goo billboard with Nigerian music stars.
From Glo ambassadors, they were featured on CNN for the Glo with Pride campaign, and that blew our artistes up worldwide.
MTN did not start doing it until they saw Glo doing it. And that is the difference between a homegrown company and a foreign one. One had total commitment. The other is often here to exploit.
Good policy creates global hegemony.
The same thing will happen to Naira flotation. The Naira will find its natural value, and we will complain because we can no longer afford foreign goods and services as before. When we realise that nobody is coming to save us, we will accept the situation and be de Glo instead of MTN or Airtel and use IVM instead of Toyota and Range Rovers. We will toast our successes at Cubana and Quillox with palm wine rather than Moét, champagne, and scotch whiskey. We will fly Air Peace and replace custard with ogi and akamu.
Then, when we start featuring these made-in-Nigian goods and services in Nollywood movies and Afrobeat songs, the rest of the world will also buy them.
It is a template that never fails. When you love yourself, others will also love you. When you love your music and movies, others will also patronise them. When you celebrate your local goods and services, the rest of the world will venerate made in Nigeria. It begins with us. Naira flotation is good for Nigeria. Embrace it!
Nigeria must use her political, economic, military and social policies to promote her own military-industrial complex rather than just remaining a consumer nation. We must be prosumers, people who consume what they produce!
ycat: This baboon had nothing to do with it, Nigerian musics are just damn good and it has always been good but wherever water goes, it always finds its level. I found out about Nikki Minaj and Candi B from Nairaland, because I don't belong where melody is missing, any music you can't figure out who sang it just by hearing the beat alone I don't want it.
Mrfeel: I don't know what you mean by women with nothing I don't think there is anyone in your family as educated as Diezani Alison-Madueke and I don't think anyone in your family will ever work in those positions she worked in right from the government of Obasanjo
Diezani the educated grand looter and criminal fugitive on the run for almost a decade now, is the person you are hyping like this?
ayindejimmy: It's a popular opinion. Imagine parents in Nigeria having to look for forex to pay the school fees of their children schooling in Nigeria Even some people working in Nigeria only accept to be paid in forex I recalled some of OBJ's ministers were paid in dollars. All these people using forex to pay for services rendered in Nigeria are putting undue pressure on the foreign exchange market. Do we even want the progress of this nation at all?
DaddyCoool: A whole bunch of countries Nigerians are dying to japa to are doing great without them. I bet u if China, US, UK, etc had a whole bunch of useless "kings" they won't be doing as well as they're doing
Mr Oyinbo, BOTSWANA is one of Africa’s best governed, most prosperous, and stable economies, and has been so for decades.
Guess what distinguishes them from other African nations?
They have a House of Chiefs, who are traditional rulers acting as their peoples’ representatives by constitution, right up there as another arm of the govt, alongside the National Assembly, House of Reps, Senate, etc.
Unlike you mentally colonised people, they do not shun their heritage and worship everything white.
They are a proud African people who have decided to do the right thing, by marrying their rich cultural heritage to modern governance systems in a way that enables INCLUSIVITY and grassroots representation in decision-making at the highest levels of government.
nedekid: Great development. That state seems to have visionary governors making investments for the state, just as Qatar uae and the rest do all over the world. Ibom air is another great investment flying brand new aircrafts, now this building that will generate huge income and while increasing in value over time. Hope delta state sees this, not the one that the booming business over there is olosho, hotel etc. A place all the correct hotels are fully booked by yahoo boys and mostly gov officials all to nack. Where on Sundays and Mondays the airport is filled with chicks flying out and after flying in on Fridays. Most driven to the airport with official suv complimented with PAs and armed security. Heck I even saw a private jet doing uber to drop off chicks. Lol
IF ENTERTAINMENT IS THEIR NICHE IN DELTA, THEY SHOULD GO AHEAD AND EXCEL IN IT, and be the PLACE TO GO for balling, just like Florida.
Not every place must be industrial!
There are many other ways of making money!
Owerri is known for such leisure activities too. They should create the Nigerian version of International Drive, Orlando, Florida.
International Drive is an 18 kilometre long, winding street that is all about hotels, clubs, restaurants, amusement parks, eateries, malls etc. You can spend an entire month in Florida, and not leave I - Drive. So much fun to be had on that one street.
Owerri can build a similar thing and become the Mecca of fun in all Africa.
WizardOfNG: I know. I am a student of history and culture. Yorubas love their Itsekiri brethren because we have ancestral Yoruboid links. Reno is a very bright dude.
Two women removed from BA flight ‘after altercation over MAGA cap
- Punches were allegedly exchanged in ‘extraordinary’ incident that delayed plane at Heathrow for two hours
Tom Ambrose Wed 30 Oct 2024 00.14 GMT
Two women were removed from a British Airways flight at Heathrow after an altercation reportedly provoked by a Make America Great Again (MAGA) cap.
The incident occurred on Saturday as the women, aged 40 and 60, were preparing to board a flight bound for Austin, Texas.
Witnesses said that one woman took offence at her fellow passenger’s red MAGA hat, worn by supporters of the former US president Donald Trump, and asked that it be removed, the Sun reported.
Flight BA191 had been due to depart the airport at 12.10pm and eventually took off at 2.11pm without the two women onboard.
Punches were allegedly exchanged between the two women, both booked to fly in premium economy, before they ended up squaring up to one another in the cabin. When the captain called for assistance, police arrived at the scene to escort the passengers from the aircraft.
Arrests were not made but both women made claims of affray against the other.
Police are continuing to investigate the incident. A spokesperson said: “Shortly after 12.45pm on Monday, 28 October, police at Heathrow were made aware of an incident involving two women waiting to board a plane in Terminal 5.
“A woman in her 40s and a woman in her 60s made counter allegations of affray. Enquiries are ongoing.”
British Airways said in a statement: “We apologised to our customers for the delay and got them on the way as quickly as possible.”
A Heathrow source told the Sun: “With the US presidential election so close, tensions are sky high. Airline crew could not run the risk of a full scale punch-up at 30,000ft.
“BA officials cannot recall a flight being delayed before due to a passenger’s baseball cap. It was extraordinary.”
Jeje247: Our marketers say dangote fuel is too expensive. They want to import from oyibo. Ghana is saying oyibo fuel too cost. They want to import from Nigeria. Abeg which maths topic person fit take draft and solve this problem cos my head wan blow. I no dey understand anything for this country again
Ghana are paying over 2,000 Naira a litre today bro.
Bobloco: What does the World Bank want? The question is pertinent in light of its deadly stance on Nigeria’s precarious fate. The country borrowed over $24 billion from the global lender in five years. In 16 months, the Bola Tinubu administration borrowed $6.45 billion. Within this short period, Nigeria sank deeper into crisis thanks to Tinubu’s Ill-advised removal of petroleum subsidies and floating the naira. Food prices and transportation costs immediately shot up. As sustenance became increasingly hard to come by, Nigerians grasped at any semblance of a lifeline. They stampeded for a loaf of bread, a small rice bag or yam tuber. Some died chasing the lifeline.
In a year, the country witnessed two major protests against hunger and bad governance. Inflation has reduced the naira to a near-worthless piece of paper. In a country notorious for its epileptic grid electricity, most Nigerians cannot afford to buy a litre of petrol at over N1000 for their power generators. Businesses are folding up. Unfortunately, the World Bank applauds the Tinubu government’s choking reforms. And sadly, the International Monetary Fund joins in the praise.
Emboldened by this endorsement, Tinubu once thumped his chest saying he deserved to be listed for an award in the Guinness World of Records. It was an insult to the injury his policies inflicted on his people. As if it is oblivious of the Nigerian people’s plight, the World Bank says the Tinubu administration should sustain the deadly policies, or stay the course, as it puts it. In 10 to 15 years, the World Bank says, Nigeria will become a big player not just on the continent but on the global stage. This is a pipedream and a dangerous stance on a struggling country and its suffering people.
“It is not only unacceptable but inhumane to ask Nigerians to endure 15 more years of suffering in the name of reforms that have historically failed us. Millions of Nigerians can barely afford food, fuel, or basic services today. Asking them to wait for over a decade for ‘things to get better’ is an affront to their dignity and a reckless gamble with the nation’s future,” says ActionAid Nigeria, a non-government organisation focused on rights and development issues.
The World Bank does not have a history of caring whether borrower countries sink or swim, provided they keep borrowing, even at forbidding costs. In the late 1980s, under pressure from the IMF, the World Bank’s sister organisation, Nigeria cut subsidies to its manufacturing sector and devalued the naira. The people were told to tighten their belts under a strangulating Structural Adjustment Programme. The result was catastrophic. The manufacturing sector crashed. Textile companies folded up, throwing tens of thousands of employees into the labour market. The country’s gross domestic product tumbled too. Nigeria’s borrowing and debt profile worsened ever since.
Reforms are desirable but if they strangulate the people they are meant to serve, they shouldn’t be touched with a ten-foot pole. Curiously, the World Bank does not utter a cautionary word on the stench of corruption that can be smelt from neighbouring countries. The subsidy regime is mired in corruption and opacity. No one knows how much has been saved from its removal, if at all. The World Bank which applauds its removal also said Nigeria was still paying it. Neither does the global lender care how borrowed funds are used. Tinubu has stepped up revenue generation through multiple taxes and sundry charges. But where is the money going?
At its founding in 1944, the core aim of the World Bank was to provide loans to help countries build their infrastructure and fight poverty. Decades after receiving billions in loans, Nigeria’s education, health, power, and other sectors remain comatose. The World Bank says more than half of Nigeria’s 233 million people live below the poverty line. Why does the Bank not take concrete steps to ensure that loans granted to Nigeria are used to close this huge poverty gap? Simple answer: it doesn’t care. Loan cash and funds from taxes are wasted on frivolities, presidential aircraft, luxury vehicles for the commander-in-chief and federal lawmakers, and refurbishing living quarters for the vice president. Rather than call the government out on these wastages, the World Bank applauds Tinubu’s reforms that take food off poor Nigerians’ tables. This speaks volumes of its agenda.
SpiritMoney: Hardship: 50% of private hospitals have shut down, says doctors guild’s president
No fewer than 50 per cent of private hospitals have shut down, while existing ones are currently struggling to survive due to operating costs.
The Guild of Medical Directors raised the alarm that healthcare providers were grappling with increasing financial burdens which was threatening the sustainability of many facilities across the country.
In an interview with Sunday PUNCH, President of the GMD, Dr Raymond Kuti, stated that private hospitals were struggling to meet their operational expenses, particularly in areas such as electricity and medical supplies.
Kuti lamented that the decline in patient patronage has exacerbated an already dire situation, leaving many hospitals on the brink of collapse.
“Averagely, three out of six private hospitals are shutting down every month in Nigeria, and this trend is primarily driven by the challenging economic environment,” Kuti explained.
He noted that the running costs for hospitals had escalated significantly, particularly for those classified as Band A facilities, which now spend more on energy compared to previous years.
Kuti, who doubles as the Chief Medical Director at Prisms Health Care Limited, added that majority of medical consumables used in hospitals were imported, noting that the current exchange rate has made the items expensive.
“The cost of consumables has increased by a staggering 500 percent,”
According to him, the matter is compounded by a workforce crisis, as many young healthcare professionals were choosing to leave the country in search of better opportunities, a phenomenon popularly referred to as “japa.”
This exodus has resulted in significant staff shortages, making it even more challenging for the remaining hospitals to provide adequate care.
Kuti also stressed that there was a troubling trend in patient behaviour as many people were hesitant to seek medical treatment and often resorted to self-medication or local remedies before considering a visit to the hospital due to the economic downturn.
“People are struggling to afford healthcare, which leads to a delay in seeking necessary medical attention,” he said.
To address the issues, he called for a comprehensive overhaul of Nigeria’s healthcare system.
He emphasised the urgent need for government intervention to support the private hospital sector, which plays a crucial role in providing medical services to a significant portion of the population.
“We need the government to recognise the challenges we face and provide the necessary support to ensure that private hospitals can continue to operate and serve the community,” he urged.