₦airaland Forum

A company just started in 2010 is worth $1 billion? Seems like a gold rush going on out there!

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Facebook has agreed to buy photo sharing network Instagram for $1 billion in a combination of cash and stock, the company announced Monday.

It's Facebook's biggest acquisition ever, in both price and reach. With around 30 million active users, Instagram has the largest audience of any startup Facebook has purchased, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post.

"We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all," Zuckerberg wrote. "But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together."

Founded in 2010 by Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom, Instagram has just a handful of employees supporting its wildly popular photo app, which lets users add distinctive filters and visual flair to photos they've snapped on their smartphones.

The long-awaited Android version, released last week, racked up more than 1 million downloads in just 12 hours. The launch also met a backlash from iPhone users, who enjoyed having an exclusive hold on the stylish service.
Just one month ago, Instagram's creators claimed they had no interest in selling.

"We're pretty focused on remaining an independent company right now," Instagram cofounder Systrom told CNNMoney at South by Southwest, where the company delivered a talk on its wild growth.

Even some of Instagram's investors were startled by the takeover. Late last week, Instagram closed a $50 million financing round that valued the company at $500 million, according to a source involved in the deal.
Those investors essentially doubled their money, instantly.

Facebook likes to scoop up hot startups, kill their products, and redeploy their staff on other projects. That's definitely not the plan for Instagram, all the players insist.

"It's important to be clear that Instagram is not going away," Instagram's founders wrote on their company blog. "We'll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience."
Zuckerberg pressed the point.

"We're committed to building and growing Instagram independently," the CEO said. "Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people."

Facebook, which is in the process of going public, ended 2011 with a cash stash just shy of $4 billion.
It's paying steep price for a startup that has lots of buzz but no business model. Here's a fun comparison: Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) paid just $35 million seven years ago for Flickr, which remains one of the Web's most popular photo networks.

Instagram is a free app and doesn't charge for any of its services. The company's founders insisted that would come in time, once they'd built a sizeable user base.

Instagram was their second stab at a product. Before "pivoting" to create the wildly popular photo sharing app, the crew was working on a check-in service called Burbn.

"I remember what I'll call 'pivot day.' We sat down and said 'what are we going to work on next? How are we going to evolve this product into something millions of people will want to use?'" Systrom said last year. "What is the one thing that makes this product unique and interesting?"

The answer they hit on was "photo sharing," and the result was Instagram.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/09/technology/facebook_acquires_instagram/index.htm?hpt=hp_t1

yamakuza: of all the 2 digit multiples of 8, only 72 fits.

72 = 9 x 8 = (7+2) x 8

2. 16/7
3. 24/6 = 4
4. 32/5
5. 40/4
6. 48/12 = 4
7. 56/11
8. 64/10
9. 72/9 = 8
10. 80/8 = 10
11. 88/16
12. 96/15

I never thought of the brute force method!

Here's another way of setting it up algebraically...
10x + y = 8(x + y) --------the 10 represents the tens position in a number
10x + y = 8x + 8y
2x = 7y

You guys should also explain your answers!

Kudos to yamakuza and codeaddict!

Wallie: A man dove into the ocean with nothing that allowed him to breathe underwater but stayed there for the rest of his life. How's that possible?

He was there until he died.


Here's another variation of an earlier puzzle...
A two digit number that is 8 times the sum of its digits?

The price of a product depends on how much someone is willing to pay for it! However, some websites give an objective way of determining the potential price based on number of pageviews.

Website Worth: $1,837,566
Daily Pageviews: 4,573,000
Daily Ads Revenue: $146

http://www.sitevaluecalculator.com/www.nairaland.com

Kobojunkie: Wrong!! I know first hand that is not the case.

[b]Programmers who are well versed in logic and algorithm analysis skills are not necessarily the best programmers, and are certainly not all able to learn all that is necessary to get the job done. Many of 'em are simply very good at handling those quick task, such designing solutions for complex problems. However, when it comes to sitting down to code websites which require commitment and long hours, tackling the many, for lack of a better phrase, 'mundane tasks' that many so-so programmers are used to, they find it hard to deal.

Companies that majorly suggest puzzle solving are companies that are looking for people who are able to provide quick solutions/patches needed for mainly complex applications, not your run of the mill website project.
Web Developers don't really require puzzle solving skills. . . . I mean 70% of the times, once you have coded one website, you can code em all.It would be great if you could find someone who has ability to solve puzzles but also settle for the typical tasks. [/b]

Some of my colleagues are very good puzzle solvers . . . . but when it comes to coding your typical application, I would rate many of them a 4 out of 10. One seems to have answers for most every situation but has a hard time sitting down to actually code up the very same solutions, yet he is a brilliant dude.

I agree because you can teach a “monkey” to write correct syntax (no disrespect intended), which is why there are automated code writers, albeit inefficient!



Speaking of puzzles and brain teasers...

What is the number that is 5 times the sum of its digits?

https://www.nairaland.com/907329/brain-teasers

What is the number that is 5 times the sum of its digits?

A man staring at a picture on the wall uttered the following words:

"brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father, is my father's son". Who is the picture of?

What word if pronounced right is wrong but if pronounced wrong is wrong?

A man dove into the ocean with nothing that allowed him to breathe underwater but stayed there for the rest of his life. How's that possible?

saxywale: yes, you need to brush with toothpaste or rinse your mouth with mouthwash before breakfast. I had the bad habit as well until I had a chat with a dentist. The reason being that, the bacteria or plaques that build up overnight though not harmful to your mouth but are harmful when they get into your stomach.

Not true! The only harmful bacteria in your mouth are Streptococcus mutans and that's because it causes tooth decay! It matters very little when you brush your teeth! I would actually say that you're better off brushing at night if not for the mouth odor in the morning.

Skii: Even if the judiciary is not corrupt, if the police are corrupt, they can thwart the course of justice

The police are mostly irrelevant because they do not prosecute nor could they just go out and arrest the type of people retarding Nigeria's growth! However, the Attorney General can decide to look into someone when petitioned and charge that person to court.

A perfect example is the case of Ibori.

Order of importance
1. Extremely strong and independent judiciary (take a note from what happened in Pakistan)
2. Incorruptible and independent police force especially the EFCC
3. Motivated, results driven and foresighted President
4. Country-first legislature

The judiciary is the most important element because it does not matter how good everything else is, a corrupt judiciary will dismiss every single case before them with prejudice (means they cannot be retried)!

Don’t blame them; the car represents their most prized possession! People do the same with their fake watches.

AjanleKoko: I think you got my point. I was talking about the Nigerian context.
As far as I can see, Nigerian entrepreneurs have had their chances, and only a few have managed to grow their businesses beyond their egos. As you rightly pointed out, only Dangote seems to be taking his business to the next level.

My take is, we need to invite more multinationals to open up the various sectors which the government or their proxies have put on virtual lockdown. That at least would create opportunities for smaller players to take advantage of.

Agreed.

If structured correctly, it will also allow local businesses to leap frog the normal process of acquiring business know-how and trade secrets that a business needs to function at a high level.

However, my fear is that people in power seem to lose sight of that fact and think that MNCs are only there revive a sector! No, it is a symbiotic relationship! They make a profit off the relationship and we get the know-how!

It did surprise me! The US produces more than x4 of what Nigeria produces.

No. Country Production (Thousand Barrels per Day)
1. Saudi Arabia 10,521
2. Russia 10,146
3. United States 9,688
4. China 4,273
5. Iran 4,252
6. Canada 3,483
7. Mexico 2,983
8. United Arab Emirates 2,813
9. Brazil 2,719
10. Nigeria 2,458
11. Kuwait 2,450
12. Iraq 2,408
13. Venezuela 2,375
14. Norway 2,134
15. Angola 1,988

http://www.eia.gov/countries/index.cfm

The only downside is that the US consumes a little less than twice of what is produced locally! It seems that if the US embarks on a major reduction in consumption, there would be less reliance on foreign oil.

Country Consumption
1. United States 19,180
2. China 9,392
3. Japan 4,452
4. India 3,116
5. Russia 3,038
6. Saudi Arabia 2,650
7. Brazil 2,560
8. Germany 2,495
9. Korea, South 2,251
10. Canada 2,216
11. Mexico 2,073
13. France 1,861
14. Iran 1,800
15. United Kingdom 1,622
16. Italy 1,528

http://www.eia.gov/countries/index.cfm?topL=con

Do big businesses start out big? No. They grow to that size either through acquisitions or the old fashioned way, doing things right over several decades.

I think what you’re highlighting is the lack of capable business leaders that can grow a mom & pop operation into a MNC. This is the same reason almost all Nigerian businesses do not survive post founder’s life! Actually, most Nigerians that are rich are only rich for a short period of time and eventually go broke before their death! How many kids of the super wealthy are richer than their father?

This is truly a case of “shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations” except that we don’t even last one generation! The adage used to be that the father buys, son builds and grandson sells. However, in Nigeria, the father buys though whatever means and ends up walking around in his former glory before his death only to tell tales! Even Abiola was perceived to be richer than he actually was, at least by me (no disrespect intended to Abiola)!

Dangote, Adenuga and probably a few more seem to by trying to buck that trend by diversifying and taking their companies public but only time will tell!

Not to pour sand into anyone’s garri but most of the people you think are super wealthy are not! Just because someone blows a few million dollars doesn’t make the person the wealthiest!

A divorce case in the Western world truly brings out the true/perceived worth of an individual. You have to recognize that the woman is trying to get the most money she can, which will mean that she will reveal every source of income she knows the guy has.

Are there people out there that are truly worth more money that Forbes accounts for? Yes. Almost everybody listed is worth more because income that’s not publically listed is not taken into account.

For example, any income from any of Dangote’s businesses that is not listed on the stock exchange is not taken into account.

Also, exactly when did Dangote break the $2 billion threshold after umpteen years doing business? When he got listed on the stock exchange. Why do you think companies go public?

My point is you can only become 13 billion dollar rich by “including” other people’s money into your wealth! You have something that people think is valuable and they invest in it! People are investing in you because they believe you can return value for their money. NOBODY in Nigeria, either dead or alive, is richer than Dangote.

For Fernandez to be sued for $300 million by a woman that has being with him since the 80s means that the number is a high approximate value of half his wealth, which includes properties, yachts, bank accounts and businesses. PERIOD. As an attorney, you shoot for a very high number to scare the guy into settling! Or are you going to say someone that knew him that long wouldn’t be privy to businesses he owned?

Even people that steal billions of dollars end up deceasing the loot significantly due to ongoing expenses because they don’t know how to replenish that kind of money. They also have to be careful where they invest the money; otherwise, people will start asking questions.

Nice thread!

Two cars, a Porsche Panamera Turbo S and a BMW M5, were raced on a 1 km track. Here are the results:

Porsche - 239.43 km/h @ 21,65s
BMW - 243.8 km/h @ 22,15s

1. How far behind was the BMW when the Porsche reached the finish line?
2. If the race started at 50 km/h, who would reach the 1 km end line first?

Too ashamed to list all my failures!

However, here’s something that I regretted not following through! In December of 2000, I was going to travel to a francophone country but I was a little apprehensive because the only word I knew in French was “bonjour”!

Then I got a bright idea about using a PDA as a handheld translation medium. I bought a Sony Clie to do the translation and since I knew absolutely nothing about speech recognition, I also bought a book on speech coding algorithms. To make a long story short, I realized that the Clie’s processor wasn’t powerful enough to do anything meaningful and the memory was also lacking. I abandoned the idea!

Fast forward 10 years later, an exact solution to the problem now exists! In hindsight, I could have solved the same problem if I had stayed with it long enough for technology to catch up and added a little bit of foresight!

Technology today makes the solution easier to tackle.
1. Processors on mobile phones are now super powerful.
2. Memory is no longer an issue.
3. We now have something called “Apps”.
4. Text to speech is now everywhere!
5. Google translator can translate from one language to another.

The foresight I lacked was:
1. I should have divided the problem up and not try to re-invent the wheel! I knew of Dragon Naturally Speaking back then, I should have thought of using their software as an input.
2. I didn’t think of offline processing. Internet connection on mobile devices now makes offline processing a no-brainer!

Moral of the story, don't easily give up on your ideas/dreams and make sure that you pursue them to a logical conclusion!

Here’s a link to the device:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thjn4pyt770

flourishG: Hi Everyone,

I have lived in the United States and being watching how people win different state lottery. Often times, something in my mind tells me there is a talented person somewhere in Nigeria who can crack down the winning numbers. I believe in my people, Nigerians. With Nigerians, anything is possible.

Am not so good at mathematics, permutation and combination and all that stuffs so I decided to bring it on board. This is a deal. If there is anyone in the house that can crack down on the winning numbers, let's share the details. The result can be viewed online to be sure of monitoring.

Let's go guys.

I've thought about it and will continue to think about it until my Einstein moment occurs, if ever! However, keep in mind that if you do solve the problem, you will probably be killed or locked away in a laboratory somewhere!

The lottery numbers are really chosen at random based on random events. If you can establish a pattern or formula to predict random events, then you literally have the keys to all military and financial secrets, which is why you will be killed.

AjanleKoko: Looking at the way the world works, I find it very absurd to hear the whole world chanting the mantra 'small business is what grows the economy'.
When you really look at the way things work everywhere in the world, nothing could be further from the truth. Sure there is small business but . . . which growth are they providing?

In fact, it is only big corporations that can unlock big markets. Like the US, like China, like even Nigeria. Small businesses can never solve infrastructure problems, can never grow without injection of massive capital. And we are seeing it every day in Naija. Retail, telecoms, banking, energy. Even nature's resources can never be unlocked without massive capital. Without big money, how will you drill for oil? How will you refine it, and produce all the by-products for human consumption?

Ironically, the US is the biggest perpetrator of this small-business lie. Americans preach that mantra to all and sundry, yet they spent billions bailing out their big corporations when they failed. Which shows they're not stupid.

I think we need to have mega-corporations in Nigeria invest in farming, manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, etc. For me, that is the only way the economy can be stimulated. That's the only way wealth can trickle down. Comments anyone?

Well, it’s not exactly that clear cut!

How do you define a small business? In the US, a small business in manufacturing is a business with less than 500 employees and less than $7 million in annual receipts. Small businesses account for half of the US GDP and more than half of the employment. The top job providers are companies with less than 10 employees.

The US government recognizes the fact that small businesses provide the muscle needed to drive the economy, which is why they preach the same.

However, just like you said, you need big businesses for more complex problems but that’s not to say that small businesses cannot solve infrastructural problems.

For example, let’s take a look at the power sector. There are 11 power distribution companies spread across the country. If the power distribution companies are further subdivided into smaller companies that mainly consists of local governments, a small business will be more than adequate to serve that local need. The big businesses can focus on power generation while the federal government deals with power transmission.

My point is, we need both small and big businesses to be successful!

A woman that cannot accurately recall all the men she slept with is an absolute no-no. I like to be able to walk the street with my head up high like am the man because of the hot woman beside me. It is about feeling special because both of you share something special that people looking at you could only dream of.

To those who think otherwise: would you marry a reformed blue film actress or actor? There are quite a few of them that moved from being an on-screen actress after about a decade or 10s of thousands of blue movies to being a very successful movie producer. Some of them even moved onto regular acting in mainstream movies. Jenna Jameson is one of such people.

Here’s why it will be a serious uphill battle for her to lead the World Bank.

World Bank Donors 2010
1. US $1.5 billion
2. Germany $1 billion
3. UK $823 million
4. France $730 million
5. Canada $591 million
6. Japan $582 million
7. Norway $300 million
8. Spain $186 million
9. Sweden $155 million
10. Australia $149 million
.
.
16. Brazil $58 million
.
.
26. Nigeria $9 million
.
.
29. China $6 million
.
.
42. South Africa $1 million

https://finances.worldbank.org/Financial-Intermediary-Funds/Biggest-donors-by-countries-2010/r2cs-ptjn

Whose money is really floating the World Bank? How much money is contributed by people supporting her? Europe and the USA have an agreement in place for the Europeans to lead the IMF and the US to lead the World Bank. I highly doubt the republicans will be trooping behind her just to spite the democrats.

Connoisseur: A particular car gave you problems dosent mean all the cars across that model and brand are defective. Factors like your mechanic (most important) and your driving habits determine how well your car serves you

Not really true! Mechanic and driving habits have very little to do with it. Moreover, in my case, the car was serviced by VW dealership where I bought the car new.

VW and Audi share most of the same engines, and any inherent problems with a particular engine will permeate through both brands, at least for that model year. The 2.0T engine used by VW is used by the following models in the US:

Audi A3
Audi A4
Audi A5
Audi A7

VW Passat
VW Jetta
VW Golf
VW Beetle
VW Eos

Is my hate for the 2.0T engine irrational based on my experience about 10 years ago? Probably! But there’s also nothing about the engine for me to like because it has largely remained unchanged for well over 10 years! I know it is somewhat more efficient nowadays due to direct fuel injection (DFI) but I have a problem buying the exact same thing twice, engine in this case, for more money!

Anything VW especially with the 2.0T engine. The engine is too small anyway even with turbo charging and all! Any car with a timing belt instead of timing chain.

By John Blake, CNN

(CNN) - Which revered religious figure – Moses, Jesus, or the Prophet Muhammad – spoke out boldly and unambiguously against slavery?

Answer: None of them.

One of these men owned slaves, another created laws to regulate - but not ban - slavery. The third’s chief spokesman even ordered slaves to obey their masters, religious scholars say.

Most modern people of faith see slavery as a great evil. Though the three great Western religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – disagree on many matters, most of their contemporary followers condemn slavery.

Yet there was a time when Jews, Christians and Muslims routinely cited the words and deeds of their founders to justify human bondage, scholars say.

At times, religion was deployed more to promote the spread of slavery than to prevent it.

Read about present-day slavery in Mauritania

“The lesson in all this is we need historical humility,” says Daniel C. Peterson, author of “Muhammad, Prophet of God.” “It’s stunning for us to look back now and say, how can people face themselves in the mirror after doing what they did, but they did.”

But what did the founders of the three great Western religions do? Did they have slaves and did they condemn the practice? Or were they, at least on this issue, squarely men of their times?

The answers to these questions are as murky and contradictory as history itself.

What’s a slave?

Part of the problem is historical context. Most contemporary people think of slaves as people condemned to a lifetime of bondage, working on plantations and being whipped like oxen.

That kind of slavery did exist during the lives of Moses, Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad. Many slaves were prisoners of war; concubines, gladiators, laborers in salt mines. They could be killed, raped and discarded at any moment.

Yet there were layers of slavery in the ancient world. Many slaves would be seen today as indentured servants, or people trying to pay off debts; royal bodyguards and entrepreneurs, historians say.

CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories

Sometimes the slaves became masters. In medieval Egypt, Muslim rulers trained and educated slaves to be their bodyguards. One group of slaves grew so powerful that they overthrew the rulers of Egypt and established their own dynasty, says Ali Asani, a professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Languages and Culture at Harvard University.

“Slavery meant different things in different cultures,” Asani says. “There wasn’t always this sense of powerlessness and oppression. In certain forms, it became an access to power.”

In other forms, it became access to freedom, says John Dominic Crossan, one of world’s leading scholars on the life and times of Jesus.

That was the case in the world of Jesus. The Roman Empire was the dominant power of Jesus’ day, and it survived on the backs of millions of slaves. Yet there was only one mass slave revolt against Rome, which was led by Spartacus, a gladiatorial slave, Crossan says.

The reason there were so few massive slave rebellions against Rome was because some of its slaves had avenues for advancement, dim though they may seem to modern sensibilities.

Slaves could buy their freedom. They ran businesses for their masters or tutored their children. Greek slaves, in particular, were often valued because of their education and culture, he says.

Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter

Roman slavery was cruel and capricious, but not all Romans saw slaves as subhuman.

“One of the most extraordinary aspects of Roman slavery,” says Crossan, author of “The Power of Parable: How Fiction by Jesus became Fiction about Jesus,” was that the Romans ended up with a huge number of slaves who were smarter than their masters.”

The uncomfortable historical record

It’s been said that great religious figures transcend history. They rise above the peculiar customs of their day to show a new path forward.

It’s a matter of debate if Moses, Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad did that with slavery. All three seemed to either ignore or tolerate some forms of slavery, some scholars say.

The parables of Jesus, for example, were full of references to slaves. Terms like “servants” or “stewards” are what we would call slaves today. Yet Jesus doesn’t seem to make any moral judgments about slavery in his parables, Crossan says.

The subject may have been irrelevant to him or his audience, says Crossan, the Jesus scholar. Jesus didn’t own any slaves. Neither did his disciples or the crowds Jesus addressed. They were all too poor and lived under desperate economic circumstances.

“It may well be that the people he talked to were small farmers who would not have the luxury of slaves,” Crossan says. “He [Jesus} doesn’t say anything for or against it.”

Still, Crossan says that he believes that Jesus would have opposed slavery, given the nature of his teachings. Scholars aren’t so certain about Jesus’ most influential disciple, the Apostle Paul.

The man whose writings make up most of the New Testament had to deal with slavery. As Christianity spread through the Roman Empire, many slaves joined the church.

At various parts of the New Testament, Paul seems to accept slavery. He tells slaves to obey their masters. At other times, Paul seems to challenge the morality of slavery. In one New Testament letter, Paul intercedes on behalf of a runaway slave and chides the master for calling himself a Christian and holding a slave.

Crossan, along with some other biblical scholars, says there are actually two versions of Paul in the New Testament: the authentic, “radical” Paul who opposed slavery and a “Pseudo-Paul” inserted into the texts by early church leaders who were afraid of antagonizing Rome.

“It’s one thing to say that Jesus is Lord,” Crossan says. “Now if you’re saying a Christian can’t have slaves, then something must be wrong with slaves. So now you’re attacking the Roman system, which is a slave economy.”

Jesus’ apparent silence on slavery and Paul’s ambiguous statements on the issue had dreadful historical consequences. It helped ensure that slavery would survive well into the 19th century in the U.S., some scholars say.

American Christians who owned slaves had a simple but powerful defense in the run-up to the Civil War. The Old and New Testament sanctioned slavery and, since the Bible is infallible, slavery is part of God’s order, says Mark Noll, author “The Civil War as a Theological Crisis.”

“The defenders of slavery said Jesus condemned quite a few things that were standard in the Old Testament,” Noll says. “He condemned polygamy, violence, easy divorce, but he never condemned slavery.”

Let my people go, but keep the others

Neither did Moses, the founder of Judaism, say other scholars.

There’s no record of Moses owning slaves, but the Mosaic laws permitted and regulated slavery, says Peterson, the author of “Muhammad, Prophet of God” and a religious scholar at Brigham Young University in Utah.

Still, under Mosaic law, a master was encouraged to free slaves and forgive debts after a certain period of time that was called the year of jubilee, Peterson says.

“They were not trying to create a permanent underclass of slaves that went from parents to child and child and grandchildren,” Peterson says of the ancient Israelites.

But how could ancient Israelites sanction any form of slavery given their exodus from Egyptian captivity? Didn’t their God explicitly condemn slavery when he ordered Moses to tell Pharaoh to “let my people go?”

The text is not clear on that question, says Brannon Wheeler, a religious scholar.

He says the Exodus stories suggest that the God of Israel was angry at Pharaoh not for enslaving a group of people, but for unjustly enslaving the “Chosen People”—the people God had promised to give their own homeland.

“In order to make that promise stick, He [God] has to get them out of Egypt,” says Wheeler, director of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the United States Naval Academy in Maryland.

“It’s not like He [God] says slavery is bad and I want to abolish it.”

The Prophet Muhammad never explicitly condemned slavery, and actually owned slaves, some scholars say.

Yet he recognized the humanity of slaves, teaching followers that freeing slaves was an act of piety. He allowed slaves to buy their freedom and demanded that they should be treated with love and respect, says Asani, author of “Celebrating Muhammad: Images of the Prophet in Popular Muslim Poetry.”

“He himself did own slaves but he treated them as family,” Asani says. “One called Zayd he treated like an adopted son and one of his wives was a Coptic Christian slave.”

The followers of men like the Prophet Muhammad, though, would take a harsher attitude toward slaves.

By the time of the crusades, Christians and Muslims were enslaving one another by the thousands. They cited their faith as justification, says Robert C. Davis, author of “Holy War and Human Bondage.”

“Religion was the defining principle of slavery—this person is another faith and can be enslaved,” Davis says.

Some church leaders preached that enslaving others was an act of evangelism, Davis says.

“One pope said that the justification for slavery was that it was important for spreading the faith,” Davis says. “Once they were enslaved, they would more readily take to Christianity.”

Those kinds of actions may now seem barbaric, but the texts and stories that were used to justify slavery still exist in the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Few, though, would quote those scriptures today and many don’t even know they exist.

“We shouldn’t be surprised,” says Jonathan Brockopp, a religion professor at Pennsylvania State University. “Religions redefine themselves and people draw on different stories and underplay other stories. This happens constantly.”

It happened with slavery, and, who knows, perhaps it’s happening again in our time. There may be a religious practice accepted today that future generations will look upon and ask the same question we ask about people who enslaved others in the name of God:

How could they?

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/29/how-religion-has-been-used-to-promote-slavery/?hpt=hp_c1

debosky: Nigeria did not spend $15bn on power between 1999 and 2007. The projected TOTAL cost of the NIPP project initiated by Obasanjo in 2004 was $15bn. The project was however stalled by the Yar'adua government and has still not been completed. As at the time the suspension happened, $2.8bn had been spent on building the power stations and buying long lead items.

This is just another example of the blatant misinformation that goes on whenever the power sector gets discussed in Nigeria. http://www.nidelpower.com/main/index.php

With that cleared up, this argument that you need ‘help’ from GE to ‘break’ this cycle is a non-starter.

What you need is a stable legal framework that allows private entities to come in, build and own their own power generation facilities and make profits off it, after you’ve provided the basic elements they require to set up.

The government should instead be focusing on building gas pipelines as well as making sure IOC’s have a domestic supply obligations inserted in their contracts so all sufficient gas is available for local power generation and not all contracted to foreign buyers.

GE will sell you all the parts you want, like they did previously - remember the NIPP parts that were sold off at the ports?

You are right that $15 billion wasn’t spent based on what the government claims. The $15 billion figure was from articles I read from Nigerian Newspapers. I guess you can say that I bought into the misinformation but that still doesn’t change my conclusions.

Based on the presentation given by Prof. Bart Nnaji in June of last year, here are the official figures:
1. 1999 about $10 million
2. 2000 about $220 million
3. 2001 about $450 million
4. 2002 about $210 million
5. 2003 about $50 million
6. 2004 about $300 million
7. 2005 about $250 million
8. 2006 no data
9. 2007 no data

Total amount spent between 1999 and 2005 is about $1,490,000,000.
http://www.sec.gov.ng/files/Prof%20Nnaji%20Presentation.pdf



With regards to comments you made about “nonstarter”, there’s no doubt that the legal framework has to be there. Actually, it has to be the very first step; otherwise, investors will stand on the sidelines and the government recognizes the same. However, just like you said, you need private entities to run the power sector, which makes “GE”, a private entity, a “starter” to the argument.

Here comes my reason why you need companies like GE: who will finance the private entities to the tune of several billion dollars per year for the foreseeable future at an affordable rate? Keep in mind that the cost of borrowing the needed funds will be passed onto the consumers as private entities are out to make a profit. As it is, the electricity tariff has not even been raised to reflect the current market rate! Ultimately, the tariff will reflect the cost to upgrade the generation stations, transmission lines, and distribution lines.

The bottom line is that Nigeria needs access to all the cheap money she can get and that may mean getting a credit line from an equipment manufacturer like GE at a reasonable cost + equity.

Also, “pipelines” which relates to power generation is only part of the problem. You still need adequate and efficient transmission and distribution power lines. I would actually surmise that building pipelines might be the easiest of the problems facing the power sector.

Overall, I do not disagree with your post except for the nonstarter argument part. So I still stand by my comment about the government knowing that they need help to break the current cycle; otherwise, the government wouldn’t be soliciting private investors and would just pump the billions of dollars needed while keeping the status quo.


After all the grammar, I think that this is the time for “generation X” or seventies babies to take over a significant sector in Nigeria! We are too young rule Nigeria because our fathers and grandfathers no wan give way but we are better educated and technology savvy to pull off the power sector reform!

Dis Guy: ^^ but who will pay for the preservation aspect? the farmer or the consumers

Will the consumers pay extra to get plantain when its off season or wil they prefer to just wait when it will be all over the market?
and if they will are there enough consumers that will make the venture profitable

People will pay for the convenience of having the fruit readily available! if the option is having to eat no plantain or paying a little extra for it, most people that want it bad enough will pay extra for it.

People will also pay for convenience, especially those in the city. It follows the same exact reasoning why one would buy cooked food from a street vendor rather than buying the ingredients and cooking it yourself.

Why do people buy powdered pounded yam in a bag instead of pounding their own yam?
Why do people buy tomato paste in a can instead of making their own?

If I were a farmer, I would want to sell my produce off season when supply will be lower if I can guarantee that the produce can be preserved until then because the same produce will fetch me more money! Supply vs. demand.

There's no doubt that the venture will be profitable if the preserved food is "good enough." You will be more profitable than a farmer because you will sell the end product >10 times what you paid the farmer who did all the manual labor!

RIP! Just hope he had a succession plan in place so that his business won’t die a slow death due to mismanagement or lack of knowhow!

playmode: I will ignore your last statement for the sake of having a civil conversation. Are you saying that since GEJ has been in power , he and his cronies have not stolen as well as wasted more than $10billion dollars on irrelevant things e.g ?

Are you saying there no “QUALIFIED” Nigerian professionals that can be trained to perform well in the power industry?

Where will the money come from you ask, where does the money this cabal embezzle come from?

Like i said in my statement, it does not require rocket science just commitment. There is nothing simplistic about my view except that in Nigeria even the simplest things can be made to look like the most complicated thing on GOD’s earth. That is the Nigerian way. Small countries with little resources in Africa light up their country 24hrs a day but Nigeria will all it’s resources and intellectuals can not light up 25% of homes in the small towns.

We have one of the largest gas reserves in the world but our Lecturer President and his Professor Minister can not do anything with it. To them it is rocket science to use our Gas reserves to light up people homes.

We hire all these undeserving professors year in year with no result. Well the fact is there is no real commitment to the cause , just a hogwash tactic to keep fooling the sheepie masses. If I were in charge of the Ministry of power ,I will make visible and effective strides within 6 months. Action speaks louder than word and press conferences. We see all the BS stories and the dribbling has gone on for too long.

Gej and his team are a bunch of idiots who have no clue about how to change a tire talkless of fixing power, a student from yaba college of technology will provide better ideas than this Professor in power.

The snotty last statement I made was in direct response to your first sentence in the post that I responded to because I felt it was equally snotty; however, I do see that that might not have been your intention.

Funny thing about your post is, I do agree with you 100% except for the last paragraph. There’s nothing spectacular in generating, transmitting, and distributing power except in Nigeria, fraud, tribalism, cronyism and inefficiency makes the simplest of tasks impossible.

Why allow the same “incapable” government(s) to try to revive a sector that they’ve systematically killed over several decades? If they can do it, they would have done it.

To answer your question – yes, there are qualified people with the ability to run the industry but most of the people in charge are either corrupt and/or incompetent.

The gas reserves thing will need a lot of money to bring to fruition. We need an economical way of transporting gas to where it’s needed. And the most economical way of transporting gas is through underground pipes but I cannot trust the Nigerian government with 10 kobo as a down payment for laying the pipes. This is a great area for private public partnerships.

Note that when I say Nigerian government, I’m also including all those in power to make a difference (federal, state, and local).