₦airaland Forum

[quote author=thelastPope]The stup1dity of the Fashola talk is that cities of the world are no longer developed along tribal lines and will never be anymore. Even the most conservative countries like china and iran are begining to open their borders to foreigners from all over the world to interact and participate in building those cities. No one is spewing this kind of tribal drivel anymore in the world. Fashola sounds like a guy from 1945. Tribal or racial profiling is in the dumps of history and am amazed that a so called enlithened lawyer is deep in it in 2012. How does he know which ethnic group is making lagos dirty or bad. Is he going to pursue the many Lagos indigenes in Mushin, Igando, Yaba, Ikorodu, Badagry and other places that are as dirty as can be? Where did he carry out the survey to find out if Lagos is being messed up by non lagos indigenes?

How many Lagos indigenes have money to setup businesses in Lagos and pay taxes? What is the population of Lagos state indigenes living in Lagos?

In th last elections, total votes cast was around 1.8 million. If Lagos is around 9 million (using the census figures because Lagos is probably around 15 million) it means around a fifth of Lagosians came out. From the turn out, even if we assume that half of those are Lagos indigenes, which is definitely not, It still means that the Lagos indigines cannot account for a tenth of lagos population. so how come he thinks Lagos is run or dominated by non indigenes. It is all very funny the way he reasons like a real unintelligent guy. Lagos is what you call a metropolitan city. A city that has long lost its tribal or indigene status and composition and that cannot be reversed even if Nigeria were to fight another war, it wouldnt change. Just like New York, Joburg, Accra and many other metropolitan cities around the world. So when I hear some of you making your foolish statement like you do, it makes me laugh out loud. It is a very ignorant way to think. The world is not going backwards. It is going forwards. Composition and domination of metropolitan cities like Lagos will never ever be dertermined by tribalism. It will be determined by hard work and ability to harness the opportunities therein. Dangote is the richest man in Lagos controlling almost the whole Lagos port. Oya, go and drive him away now! Foolish thinking. You should be harnesing the human capacity and resources to build a better place instead of promoting tribalism and ethnic profiling. very sad![/quote

Fashola is just speaking like a Nigerian, think tribal first and adapt what you only know into practice no matter the circumstances(in his case Law and governance). I am just worried about the implications for social malaise. Underneath the talk, the top priority may be population control in terms of limiting foreigners from coming to Lagos and those from other states and eliminating the informal sector. But the implication of his actions and how to mitigate the side effects, he has refused to talk about or do nothing. The informal sector generates income for a significant number of the population, if you want to make it go away find a way to make them adapt, i.e erecting affordable stalls instead of task force chasing recharge card sellers and market women on the street. The market woen go to the street because if they pay 5k for rent and another 5k for government tax monthly, the profit diminishes. You can actually build markets and rent it out at affordable rates, and use the tax aspect as rent and allow recharge card seller who are not space hogs to stay at corners until a solution can be found just to keep the youths busy ad engaged. But his solution is to use law to restrict income of the informal sector participants and not minding the long term implication for the families and the society. Not all will leave Lagos, some will find another scheme or way to make a living while their children may be forced to help out. My fear for the state and the country is not just corruption but a breakdown in the family and core ethical values imbibed by a strong family unit may be another problem many are not thinking about.

It is a mis-conceived notion, I would think both the father and mother's parental actions or inactions can be a guiding motivation in the boys actions. Both parents can have effect in a child life, the one that comes to mind is the educational status and I think in Nigeria fatherly inattention may lead to children seeking male guidance from peers and others outside the nuclear family.

It is an indictment of the police if they issued this alert. At two of those spots: the Otedola bridge and Olowora-Isheri bridge, they are there for almost 24hrs a day. I know those spots were notorious before but if they still are then the police are not serious.

You first have to define what is termed East. The region they were talking about was more likely a little bit northeasterly than present Yoruba sector. Most likely, he came from a conquering group from the middle belt-Sudan, and there was a split between is group and the Igala who are close to the Yoruba linguistically. So most likely Northern or Eastern Igala land.

I will say it is a good start, but the aviation industry still needs better regulation in terms of maintenance and better structure for promotion. The Lagos sector right now is dry, with Arik and Aero the main airlines using both MMA2 and GAT. The minister needs further briefing and ideas on developing the sector if they are building or remodelling new terminal and old terminals. Also, security and proper regulation for relatives of passengers, I was at the international section yesterday and had to spend an hour in the sun, no proper screen for arrivals and no proper information dissemination for waiting visitors, I almost had to start asking arriving passengers which flight are they coming from just to find a way to go and rest under the shade. If they are to start remodeling, they have to do an almost excellent job in all corners unless they will get criticism from people waiting in the sun, to staff packing luggages from the airline to waiting passengers, not properly supervising taxi drivers. BUt all in all it is a good start.

I think Fashola's half baked transportation politices are the architect of useless bruhaha. First of all, you should create a first timer driving offence with a maximum of 5k for poor driver to pay who are the one to be actually liable for the misdeameanour traffic offence. Now if the vehicle injures another person or property then the company can be liable, you can withold the license and release the company vehicle for a first time offence. But in a case where the driver commits a misdeameanour offence, a first time offense and you want to charge 50K and withold company vehicle, I doubt it is sound policy. Also, LG state government are known to be above the law especially in Alausa, the most reckless drivers there are Lagos state drivers so the idea that no one is above the law is bogus. WHen you create a policy for the common man and another for police and government vehicles you create the potential for abuse especially among former state and federal government officials and their drivers under the banner of official vehicle, and I don't see Lagos stopping this yet. The rumour is that those buses were taken for traffic/regulatory offences too, and sadly, I believe those buses were more likely to have committed offense than what a lastma official says. Lastly, among the agbero and transporation class, the LASTMA guys are the richest, the source of thier money is not salary but infraction fines and bribes. Don't get me wrong,I belive in some of his transportation policies, but from what I have read and witnessed, the fines are high, it is more of a revenue generation policy than safe driving, LASTMA is corrupt and I just don't like the idea of seizing companyvehicle for a minor infraction committed by the driver

It is just a load of clearly crafted speech to fit into designated audience. Truth be told, the government can't encourage working without adequate space designed for pedestrians. I like walking but I later found out that the pavements are sometimes uncleaned or blocked gutters and some roads do not have a covered drainage for pedestrians. It is obvious Dr Folami is not a real walker or jogger, because if he is one, security, pedestrian safety and pedestrian space/clean covered drainage is lacking in Lagos leading many to walk or jog within their estate with good infrastructures and security. Increase security less robbery and good infrastructure will increase the pedestrian rate even without promotion.

To the OP. I think your take is quite pedestrian. It seems more like a jingo coming from the mouth of a politician. It is okay for me for some section of diaporeans to dislike Nigeria and okay for me for some home based Nigerians to dislike some aspects of the country. The point I am making is that to make a country better, it is best to help dignose the significant problems afflicting it and bitterness by some in dispora is minuscle to the problem at large, in fact it may help to diagnose the problem by asking what are they bitter about? I know thata lot of Nigerian abroad get a lot of criticism when they come home and don't take the usually nonsense, but those at home to have to realise some of the things like extra marital infidelity, corruption (in which >75% support in one way or the other), lack of employment opportunities, inflation, over dependence on imports, lack of customer service are things to be concerned and be deeply disliked in other to remedy the situation without a deep concern for something you can well adapt to it. First of all, a large scale brain drain is a significant indicator of a problem in the country and a rise in the population of bitter diasporeans frankly is not good for the country.

"u shldnt 4get dat mimiko can neva do everytin.if he does everytin wot wil d next governor be coming to do?bible says "do ur best and leave d rest".mimiko wil do his best and leave d rest 4 d next governor to continue.have all acn governors done everytin in their respective states?did tinubu do every wen he was governor?if yes,wot has fashola been doing as gov since 2007?why are they hailin fashola as one of performin govs?dat shows almighty tinubu didnt do everytin in lagos while in office"

Ore
Actually, I won't vote for ACN, and I am not saying he should do everything, but the civil service needs to be reformed, I know that becuase he uses consultants and the consultants are being paid a lot of money for jobs the civil service can do. By reforming the civil service he can bring in bright people or command his commissioners (fabo/adeyanju etc) to focus more on public adminsitration. Just basic improvement in management of the state through the civil service will yield results because government will be doing basic things it is supposed to be doing. I actually care less about the other ACN states becuase I am not based there and do not know there antecedents very much to be objective but I am a proud Ondo and citizen, the truthis that Labour may be a 8 year thing and after, he is gone the bitterness continues the opponent are going to rubbish his programmes like he did his opponents and a continuation of the same whole rubbish with no clear direction or a way forward for the state just intermittent blubs of varying levels of change/disturbance with no clear way forward. Trust me ask those who went trhough IKpeme to Otiko and the disaster of the military regime and now. The latter is just a binch of musical chairs.

Mimiko still has a whole lotta work to do. My issues with Mimiko has a lot to do with the way his supporters tell everyone in Akure that the people are behind them and it will be a landslide, I will prbably vote for Mimiko, but I don't think he is perfect, actually far from it but I just don't trust Ondo politicians anymore. One issue is politics of bitterness and feuds, MImiko is a master and as a citizen of Ondo, it has to be stopped unless we will all suffer in the state. Just take a look at the dome, Agagu had a prior project before he left, Mimiko came in abandoned the conference center and started a dome with 1.5B now he seems to have abandoned the dome, in between both of them Ondo state probably lost millions of naira or maybe hundreds of millions becuase both of them can,t see the other get one naira anymore from the state, so becuase of one naira Ondo should loose millions. Two, he should focus on good management/public administration as a key to enahance development in the state and not just projects, the civil service is rotten and there are few jobs in the state, he should make the civil service better and enhance project quality and delivery instead of wasting billions of naira on consultants who would be jettisoned by the next administration and which will inherit a rotten civil service. Some consultants make about 5% or more(through mago mago) on capital projects, a job a better qualified civil servant can do. Lastly, Ondo state is poor in job creation, I schooled there and I can say the brightest in high school are in Port Harcourt, Lagos or Abuja, the feeling is that the state is for the mediocre or if you want to be a crooked politician. The civil service employs less on merit but connections to crooked politicians further gettting the place rotten. HE may not realise it, but a lot of young people feel his toga of man of the masses is actually man of the mediocres and the opportnunity for better quality jobs are still not there.

Can someone tell me what is the OIC and when Adegbite was teh Sec Gen

Whatever, we may think about his opinion, I believe he has some points. First, I have always suspected that the problem started in 1913 and was between the colonial powers, we have to understand that Nigeria itself was a colonial contraption and the court documents basically had to follow colonial maps and pseudo African/Western confugurations. However, I disagree when he said British gave Bakassi to France, I thought the British controlled southern Cameroons. Also, there is a feeling that the Nigerian and Eastern region leadership fumbled on the referendum unlike the Northern leadership under Bello, that is why we were able to have a firm claim in the northern parts than in the southern parts. But the sad thing is that Bakassi's are largely Efiks or EFIk/Ibiobio, all this while, why did the NIgerian leadership not do anything to claim Bakassi since 1960 before the referendum,it just shows that sometimes, minority rights are not that well protected in the country. I suspected the government did not do a proper demographic survey of the area prior to the 1975 to ascertain that they were ethnically NIgerians living there and not English speaking Southern Cameroons.

Whatever, we may think about his opinion, I believe he has some points. First, I have always suspected that the problem started in 1913 and was between the colonial powers, we have to understand that Nigeria itself was a colonial contraption and the court documents basically had to follow colonial maps and pseudo African/Western confugurations. However, I disagree when he said British gave Bakassi to France, I thought the British controlled southern Cameroons. Also, there is a feeling that the Nigerian and Eastern region leadership fumbled on the referendum unlike the Northern leadership under Bello, that is why we were able to have a firm claim in the northern parts than in the southern parts. But the sad thing is that Bakassi's are largely Efiks or EFIk/Ibiobio, all this while, why did the NIgerian leadership not do anything to claim Bakassi since 1960 before the referendum,it just shows that sometimes, minority rights are not that well protected in the country. I suspected the government did not do a proper demographic survey of the area prior to the 1975 to ascertain that they were ethnically NIgerians living there and not English speaking Southern Cameroons.

To the Op, first of all is this story true? because if it is so, how can you expect many respondents here to say marry him?. You claim you like him as friends? but not crazy about having a love life with him and secondly you are apprehensive about his financial status or caring financially about you. As long as you are true with this statements then don't marry him. If you are too hung up on money now it will be a problem later, if you don't love him now it will be a problem later. The best thing is to realise this, if you go along with the marriage you have to realise this and find a way to work around it. But my advice for you even if you search for a future husband is that money is a big thing in a marriage and contrary to many hearsays you hear, the wife has to contribute if she loves the husband to make the marriage work. The solution may be after saying yes, tell the prospective husband to lay out his financial plans(housing, children for future, pension, food, etc and you say yours and find a way to work out a common ground. You have to contribute because really the financial burden of school fees, housing, pension, healthcare and other should not be the sole responsibility of one man if the man is hardworking and not corrupt and wants to live long. I personally don't support a joint account but if you feel you are earning enough and the man is earning okay, you both need to specify an amount to put into a joint account every month to cover your basic necessities.

To the OP, the only problem I have with your issue is with you. When you said the more money he gives you the more you dislike him, now if that is a genuine or true statement and coupled with the fact that you do not like him, you have to check your self. By that I mean, do you have any form of self hate or you not pleased with your situation in life. It could be interpreted like the guy has many things you want and do not have and you dislike him for that and dislike your self for not having those things. It is not a right mentality, get yourself a good work and leave the guy, it is better for the guy, better for you and oh Lord better for your future husband.

Like Amalaaba said it is too general, but another way to look at it is that Etisalat Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria are different from their parent companies. So when their parent companies purchased the license or bought out Celtel and invested in the purchased entities, the money used may have been a loan by the parent company to the Etisalat Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria instead of it being an investment. Even the parent company may have taken loans in the home countries to invest while the Nigerian entity basically remits what it is termed interests on the loans or paying back the capital instead of it being termed profit. I think MTN Nigeria did it when they first came to Nigeria, they were financed by a loan from MTN West Africa or something like that but now are self sustaining, the others may not yet be self sustaining until they pay off their loans.

If ever this administration implements this act, it will still be a minor reform if ever the government is able to embark on meaningful development initiatives. In the 70's when the oil boom which I believe now basically means, 'capital budget doubles recurrent budget', then roads were built: the Ore-Benin expressway was finalised (then it was a real expressway) and so was the Ibadan-Lagos and other critical infrastructures, this continued into the early 80's but was largely confined to the states. In the west the best governors ever came from that period, from jakande to ajasin and onabanjo. But now corruption and the overbloated government can't even pay contractors. Many nairalanders don't even know that Nigerian contracts need to be inflated whether you are corrupt or not because they don't pay fully and on time. There are few Nigerian contracts that I know that had paid more that 70% of the total sum when you don't know anybody to push for payment. Even when you know someone, the person maybe re-deployed and the files locked up somewhere and never to be brought up in any meeting. So if the government is ever serious to cut the rubbish, pay contract sum on time and within the status period, if this is done, then cut the inflation of contract by using market prices and a markup up of 20% instead of 100%. Reduce corruption and then reduce government recurrent expenses. BUt that may not be enough, the solution may be with us as an individual to be upright and hardworking/entrepreneurial.

People seem to forget that the Nigerian economy is currently in a stalement and our minister of finance, is now burdened with the ambition of becoming World Bnak president. First of all, we are now suppose to implement a new budget at least by beginning of April, she either needs to resign or focus on her work as finance minister. She should have known that the position could be open before she came to Nigeria, if she was interested she should have stayed at the World Bank than coming to the country to spend less than year in which the most high profile issue she was involved in was the fuel subsidy removal and the subsequent strike and loss of productivity. The moment she came to Nigeria she should have been ready to dedicate her time to real performance or else she should have told the president to shove it. My take she needs to let go of her position win or loose. It is time, we have dedicated and committed professionals in Nigeria now.

another opinion is that they could have been an outside threat against the police officers and their families from boko haram associates and they arranged for him to be released

I really do not understand the question corruption is quite a broad term and in Nigeria in some levels over 95% of the political class is corrupt. You have to understand that even if the president uses is influence to award contracts to his relatives, wife's relatives, kinsmen, acquintance without due process it is deemed corrupt. Corruption is not merely enriching oneself, also, to reduce corruption contracts, investing people's money needs a certain level of budgetary passage and due process. It is the legislature through the power to pass bills that does some influencing in cornering contracts for their constituency or kins men because they deem it technically does are the people they are representing but when the executive does it it is deemed corrupt. Without fact but from common knowledge of politics in Nigeria the president like almost all previous is corrupt. To me it is as simple as that, it depends on our definition or resolve to eradicate corruption and the policies we want to institute, merit, due process etc.

This particular viewpoint is something that has been coming out since 2000, that Abacha was demonized. However, I think even though they may have hearsay reports that there was systemic/planned demonization of Abacha but most of these reports actually quite note that he stole but he meant well for the country more than his successors. But truth be told and lets not to continue derailing out intellect. Abacha was simply an inept leader, from a general and personal point of view.
First military leadership at his worst/best(in Abacha's-military fascicm mindset) in Nigeria concentrate power in the center, this idea is quite controversial and does not mean your country will move forward, in my own opinion too much power at the center will derail development. All this IMF, Ecowas are all Aso rock talk, when genuine leaders like Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Okpara were ruling it was all about farmers, my people and genuine care for the average Nigerian did you hear ECOWAS even OAU was being pushed largely by Balewa(a basically okay leader). Please lets note that since the late 1980s, over 75% of cities and towns in this country has been ongoing a depression not recession but economic depression that is worse than the great depression in U.S. But like Segun, Yardua and Goodluck who learned from Abacha churning out good economic reports based on a controversial commodity means all is well. I will note that during the Abacha regime this depression escalated. Tell me, if you are from a small city or town what economic development is going, in my place, it is ogogoro and okada the youths engage in, after mild robbery, 419 on the side. Trying to paint Abacha's grap for power at the center as genuine concern for the average Nigerian is faulty and demeaning to most of us in places like Akure growing up when we had to endure lifeless economy, a governor not paying salaries on time and carrying wood to his sawmill in Kogi, fuel scarcity, I remember that time, like many of us, it was a gradual degeneration of the nation largely caused by the military, and this notion that some fascist leader with nationalist intention or lingo is good is quite a poor record to preserve for a nation. And I will boldly say give me good economy than some nationalist talk based on fascism.

@feelamong

Are you serious?, they look like a bunch of armed robbers that took me inside their danfo bus on thursday in Yaba area. They first stop you then proceed to search you, if they feel you have money on you, they will find an excuse to detain you in their chartered or seized danfo and carry you along surulere and yaba looking for more money, I was in there bus for an hour, did not want to part money, they detained me cos of my father's documents with me, I called my father and after explaining the documents and they did want to release me he told them to go to hell. I knew teh law, they can't detain me without charging me pass one day, so I kept quiet, until they were almost begging me to give them something,

Organizing a public protest in Lagos. I am looking for like minded youthful individuals, from whether from the Save Nigeria Group but under their leadership because of the political undertones of the leadership and others. From my perspective
I want a protest against extortion by uniformed men whether police, soldier, FRSC, Customs
I want a reform in the legislature whereby service to the country is paramount and allowances reduced
I want a protest to initiate an international money laundering agreement whereby money looted by this country is investigated abroad by relevant foreign or international agencies and repatriated. I want barriers to enterprise be reduced.
A more responsive government to the infrastructural needs of the country. Other protesters can bring in their inputs to want they are agree with. Please, we want a legal protest/march like save Nigeria or light up Nigeria.

Please any ideas, kindly respond to this thread, from there we can move to other social networks.


Thanks

Many of our cultural upbringing and teachings expects us to respect those with power or those who have climbed social, cultural, religious or economic positions  and most importantly have aged, the fault is that is comes without the requisite support for critical analysis of those members of the social, cultural, religious or economic institutions and the institutions themselves. I had an argument with a salesman, importer or oga in computer village because he was doing big man when he was the only one at the shop when I visited the place, he treated me rudely even I though I was a customer who came with a complaint, we argued and the only thing people said was that he is a big man and I should leave me. The truth is that, in real life outside cyberspace and anonymous forums, this big men are treated with respect no matter how they accumulate wealth, how that wealth benefits society and many are smart nowadays that they watch you to gauge if you recognize their bigmanism and whether you showed genuine respect. So all in all the people are cowed because most are poor and depend on the few economic political, social or cultural institutions headed by the big men to survive, with the big man watching their moves, we remain docile.

What is the averse mentality to risk and price of Nigerians, this is a critical question to answer.

What is little discussed is the economics of creativity. Econ 101, (atleast some theory) shows that the effect on growth stems, labour, capital and technology. But innovation or creativity can also had additional expenses to development of a company or product. What I have learned in NIgeria is that they prefer the cheap things, cheaper labour, higher capital but cheaper technology. This put a dent on creativity. I remember some sectors I know about that a company was the pioneer, they brought in the first equipment and charged 50% or more above cost, but as many people got into the industry, the prices went down, the products quality(reports) went down and basically corruption killed the sanity of the sector eventually. Nigerian businesses, are averse to things that cost money, innovation although, can lead to cheaper products in the long run, but the initial stage cost a lot of money, it is also takes risk. I have been selling products in Nigeria and to tell you people are less inclined to take chance. Look at simple computer products. Most people with money (government or corporate contractors) prefer HP, to me Hp, is not that better than DELL, SONY or even Toshiba, but if you quote those three products you are better sure that you know the man in charge because you are likely to loose the job. These behaviour is pronounced among market women, take a good/better product to them than the common one in the market, whether Nigerian, American European or whatever, they would first tell you they have never heard of it, they can't even try it if it is not on credit and they who are ignorant of the production process would tell you it is fake, even though the major brand has been diluted into a mixture of China products or original ones.

I just think the history of the 'nationalist' movement in Nigeria is as fractured as the country and maybe one can say obviously. The Nigerian nationalist movement is quite a broad term, reason why secondary school textbooks cannot delve into deeper points of Nigerian nationalism because it will expose the cracks and fractures that stumbled and wumbled unto independence.

Balewa came from a strand in Northern nationalism that used quite well Azikiwe's democratic ideals to push for equal representation in the affairs of Nigeria but while pushing for regional autonomy(1946 constitution). This strand was doubtful of southern Nigerians intention to properly represent the North along their cultural norms and when they saw the rising potential domination by southern politicians they quickly used strong democratic sentiments to push up their political power in the equation while though they were less educated wanted 50% of all federal seats in the House of Rep or legislative council while knowing that the south was fractured secured unity through anti-southern sentiments among the Northern fulani trado-elites and set the ball rolling for political success at the center even though there were the late comers in the nationalism movement. Their nationalism was less emphatic than Zik and Awo and focused on two strands, reform within the emirate system but acquiensce to the fulani emirate leadership (led by Balewa, sa'ad Zungur and Bello) and reform of the emirate system and revolution of the traditional hierarchy led by Aminu Kano. It was this subtle acquiesce that led to the emergence of Bello over Balewa or even Zungur in Northern leadership.

On Nationalism and in fairness to Zik. He was Nigeria's first true modern nationalist in the modern usage of the word. Albeit, truth be told, what a lot of people don't know is that the original elements of nationalism in Nigeria was scattered and idealist in outlook. It's proponets were foreigners, some indigenous foreigners sometimes controversial in their statements or outlook and unyielding in many cased to opponents who share a common goal. One was Edward Blyden, one was John Payne Jackson, Marcus Garvey and another was Macaulay. Blyden was the first African nationalist to have significant supporters in what is termed Nigeria. He was a proponent of race conscious nationalism, black and white so to say. And, he believed in promoting our cultures and ethnic identity, some say a father of Pan Africanism. Jackson focused on power and politics. He felt Africans needed to remove the Europeans from active civil and political post in other to ensure emancipation. Garvey's influence stems from the fact that he was influential within the West African Student Union and later nationalists came through the British educational system and American coloured universities were Garvey's writings were influential. If you doubt the importance of this man. Truth be told, many of Nigerian nationalist used Garvey militant styles in the 1930s and 1940s and his words were very much common in their speeches. Macaulay was a thorn in the British administration and a great mobilizer, he was also militant had had lots of enemies. He can be described as the first giant of Nigerian politics or I would say stereotypical black politics in Nigeria. A little bit harsh in dealing with opponents but had wide following among the market women, artisans and illiterates in Lagos while also a major force in the ruling house of Lagos (the House of Docemo). It is not surprising that Azikiwe, Awolowo and Balewa used this harsh style,  crude, unyielding and sometimes tyrannical in their grip on the groups (maybe with the exception of Balewa).

Isn't this meant to be a divisive article. I don't know the social, moral, academic intercourse this would produce except to further malign one group or the other. What is clear is that during those period the colonial government invested less in Education, health care, and social amenities but chose economic aiding inftrastructures such as railway, transport and ports to develop. It wasn't until the 1950s that education and health care began to reach majority of Nigerians and more social amenities. But for the most part infrastrucutres where largely meant to interlink with each major cities or new major cities intraregionally and inter-regionally, what the British did try was to separate the regions for independent economic sustenance while promoting raw materials for their industries abroad.

Palm oil, it was the goose that brought more Europeans to Nigeria in the nineteenth century. Cocoa was a locally promoted product, I think it was brought from Brazil and local farmers started planting it in the 1900s, Groundnut was brought by Europeans along with Cotton in the 1910s, It became prominent after 1915 or so in the North.  Throughout this period Groundnut most likely earned the most along with cocoa but Cocoa and Palm oil earned more than groundnut each year since 1914. What I am saying is that this raw materials were meant to earn foreign exchange and supply materials for British factories while the same  British dominated the import segment. The major infrastructures most likely were economic (the British really did not invest in white elephants or giant elephants projects without an underlying economic or trade benefit). Within the interland, in the west cocoa merchants and some traders were wealthy but overall there was a small economy of farming, trade, transport, fishery and mining that was a largely insulated from the major exchange products up to 1946.


Basically what I am saying is that largely the British managed the country on economic and trade reasons and were not really helping one region or the other if not to further economic or trade development of the colonials. Most people were insulated from social amenities, for a long time ppl in the ori oke areas because of trade reasons had no major roads for their farm produce, they trek from their villages to Ibadan, Ilesha or Abeokuta taking days. They had some elephants or antelopes in the nearby bushes and the doctors were native doctors. Even I think UI and Yaba tech were funded through special grants from UK

Ant if you are still interested in cement. I can supply magen roi portland for 1600 per bag naira next week

email me at deleaca@hotmail.com

I don't know whether you can categorize Nigerians as sheepish when many say we are individually aggressive. I think part of the problem is alack of passion for collective mass action and also another issue is the lack of will power to prosecute another fellow Nigerian who is corrupt. I think deep down many feel that this fellows are Nigerians typical ones at that. And removing them will lead to another bunch to come and eat. You have to understand there is growing cynicism among Nigerians especially towards the political class. Even the average Nigerian in danfos or joints believe Fashola is trying but also stealing, mimiko is stealing and Adams is partially useless or may not be better than Osunbor. So to them what merit is there to protest when the system is inherently corrupt and may enthrone another fat belly cat.

The last issue is the law enforcement. They are not well educated and are brutish.

Yomi Edu was once married to Fatima Wali.

Three sites for you. Calculating the cost of producing oil in Nigeria is complicated largely of different contracts, There is the noral JV which governs most oil onshore, the cost of exploration and development before the Niger Delta crisis speculatively is around $2 or $2.5 after the crisis oil companies are claiming $4 or more, beyond that I think it is unknown even to Lukman.


http://www.neiti.org.ng/publications/JV%20AND%20PSC%20ARRANGEMENTS%20PRESENTATION%20TO%20NEITI.pps

http://www.nnpcgroup.com/nnpc-group/napims



http://www.supanigeria.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=35