₦airaland Forum

^^^ Thanks a lot. Hopefully someone might begin to use his head to reason rather yank off ideas from pages of capitalist text books.

^^^ Well you can make your own rules when u have your show. The concept is clear, populate the tails house with a lesser favoured housemate from heads while dropping two housemates from the tails house we are already a month into the game and both houses are still crammed with people that have no business being on local tv not to speak of a continental show. I Guess AMAKA was right afterall bigups to you.
I'm beginnig to get tired of Luclay and his unwarranted theatrics and i think i share the opinion of Kim, if he wants to go home i think he should have his wish granted, the show is boring enough not to speak of having an unwilling participant in the house.

@Naijaking
Why not rid yourself of your know all attitude and at least make an attempt to grasp the core issue before throwing unnecessary jibes.
The issues has always been whether or not to sell govt owned parastatals (Privatize) or open up the market and allow privately owned companies to operate alongside currently existing govt parastatals(liberalize). This has been the basis of my entire argument on liberalization and privatization and in this context, both terms are somewhat mutually exclusive. The entire reform process in the power sector (since that seems to be where u're concerned the most about) isnt just about opening up the mkt(liberalizing), if that were the case by now the process wld have been concluded but rather it is focused on dismembering existing companies and selling them off (privatizing), a sort of total hands off by the govt. My entire argument has been in support of the former so I wonder who among us lacks an understanding of the core issues.

^^^ So do you agree that Privatization esp now is not the way to go?

^^^ I completely accept your assertion but with a little modification. You should have added the words 'western and capitalist', so that should read; 'you lack a basic understanding of that western capitalist market economies entail' and i wholeheartedly admit that.
I'm curious though, did you study economics? Cos i'lld love to return your favour by pointing out why your argument seems to be fundamentally flawed in my opinion. You lack a basic understanding of what Development Economics entails. Am i right?

^^^ Lets not loose sight of the argument which still is that govt parastatals should not be SOLD but should rather be allowed to exist alongside privately owned businesses.
The problem here seems to be a lack of self belief more than anything else and seems to be a direct reflection of what most feel about our nation as a whole and our leaders. The lack of faith in our institutions is glaring in your arguments - of course there's every reason not to - but what if we've actually turned a corner? Would it still be right to judge our every leader and institution by the Failures and rot instituted by our past leaders? If it is possible for a govt OWNED (not necessarily run) parastatal to run efficiently, then i think it is worth a try in an age of civilian rule with more openness and increasing govt accountability.
Why the rush to sell? For every single corporation that u can point to that has been a failure, i can point two that have been sold to private owners and have failed woefully. So if your argument is that this time the govt wld get the sales right then mine is that this time the govt would pick better managers.

^^^ Which part were you clapping for? The monopoly part or the Govt non intervention part or the entire falsity?

tsquaure:
emotions flew to all time high tonight  when Dj caise  jammed house mates . the drinks which flowed did not help the matter . something surely is going to go down tonight

The housemates really indulged themselves today with the booze i agree something has got to happen tonight. Someone definitely needs a release with the way i saw them housemates grinding on each other. And what on earth was Karen thinking when she was practicing gymnastics whilst she was already over her head with booze? That girl's got drama sha.

@kalokalo,
There's a whole load of sense in what u've said but more importantly, there are more distorted truths. Let me try n address some of them.

1) No government is going to hand out subventions to a corporation that is partly owned by the public ( in terms of issued out shares) the govt being the majority owner does not necessarily mean it is obliged to issue out subventions in whatever form to prop up its operations. All companies including the govt owned would operate under same framework without any form of tax exemptions or unique advantages else we might as well have stuck with our single monopoly. Therefore your assertion about subventions and tax exemptions are wrong and completely out of place.

2) You really want to know why public companies have not been able to compete with their private counterparts? Lets take the cases of Nigerian Airways and Mtel for instance. Of course incompetence of mgt is always a factor but beyond that have you noticed that the goal of our previously established corporations were beyond profit making? While it was uneconomical for private airlines to operate routes like Yola - Benin - Calabar, a public airline would be obliged to do so in the nations interest and the unavoidable result would be losses while a private airline would streamline its operations to its areas of strength - now who's not playing fair?
Part of the reason Mtel went under was that while the likes of Mtn were targeting high density areas to launch their networks( any surprise it took over a year for some states to get covered ), mtel was busy trying to meet the nations regional interest by having a presence in all regions of the country, tell me if losses wont be inevitable in such circumstances without monopolistic restrictions.
There's a reason state run corp's are loss makers and its definitely not cos anything touched by the state is destined to fail but because the motive is to serve the general populace not make profit. So i can understand if Shell should make more profit than Petrobras.
In our quest for economic development, it is imperative that we do not forget the whole essence of it; to serve theneeds of the people and who's best to do so in societies with poverty and illiteracy dominant as ours? The private sector? Yeah right!

naijaking1:
You can't talk about goverment running companies without bringing up the issue of monopoloy, because that's one big reason goverments shouldn't be running companies. You've really got to understand what's involved here.

The whole idea is to dismantle existing monopolies but leave the companies in the hand of the govt, maybe with a certain percentage given out to the public while the rest remains with the government. I'm not aware of a theory that says govt participation in biz is certain to end in disaster, If one exists then i think this is a great time to prove such a theory wrong. Why are we so afraid of turning a failure into a success? If these parastatals r privatized would they be manned by aliens? Are they not also going to be manned by humans just like the public owned enterprises? So i ask again, who is afraid of competition?

naijaking1:
Your 'well run' qualifier makes all the difference when speaking about monopoly. Only God can run a monopoly well, and since God is not going to come down to run companies here on earth, forget about well run monopolies, that's never going to happen. Try Animal Farm, try USSR, and try China, it never works on the long run. So, no monopoloy is a good monopoly, not matter how 'well run'.
The only concern of our developing goverment should be security, customs, and a few othe regulatory agencies. Our government should not be in the business of runing all sorts of corporations.

Well, we can leave the issue of the practicality or desirability of running a monopoly for another day, meanwhile the question remains why are we selling off our national assets when we can have them operate alongside private enterprises? Who's afraid of competition?

@Naijaking,
I'm really hoping we can get somewhere considering the stance u've taken, I just hope I'm not trying to get a fixated individual to see some sense when he's chosen not to.
Monopoly does not kill EVERY economy, yes it may stifle the private sector and limit growth but it has its use. The whole essence of the economy is to serve the needs of the people not just to be engaged in some madd race of impressive economic aggregates. An efficient and well managed Monopoly has got its use, I can point a number of areas we wld be better served by a well run monopoly .
Govts regulatory role does not have to suffer if it is a participant in such biz, instances abound of succesful govt endeavours. All it has to do is to provide a framework for operations and get competent individuals to run these orgs, its not as if there's to be a Ministry of PHCN with a cabinet minister at its helm.
I do not know what religious undertone u've sniffed out of my posts but I can assure u I had none. There's a reason MTN seems to personify the greed in the telecoms sector more than any other company in the sector and I can assure u it has nothing to do with the volume of their profit, so my refering to their "Shylock excesses" definitely isnt out of place.
We can either look back to the bad old days of NITEL's monopoly and learn from it or leave in perpetual fear of making the same mistakes and choose to sell off all that we own because of the lack of vision of a bunch of men in uniforms. When do we choose to snap out of the mental bondage of self disbelief inherited from our fathers? I say NOW but all I seem to be hearing from u is ITS NOT POSSIBLE.

Funny that my views are being interpreted to be communist. But let me point this out, I'm not in support of tight govt controls or restrictions but of liberalization and govt's active participation alongside the private sector. Those corporations are failures today not cos they were destined to be so, but cos NOTHING escaped the rot in the entity called Nigeria.

kalokalo:
What happened to those "national assets" after they have been paid for is not your business!! If the new owners run it aground, they lose their investment and money.

Sorry but you've got it completely wrong. Maybe u need to do a check on why govt's get involved in businesses in the first place. The govt initiates corporations because the existence of such corporations are imperative to national development. Each single failure (regardless of whose hands its in) represents a setback to national development not just a mere loss of investments. Any serious govt has got to be an active participator in its own economy not just as a regulator but as a participant in order to 'sway events' and cut the excesses of the private sector and more so in a developing economy as ours. The telecom sector readily comes to mind cos here we are all complaining about high prices but what if we still had govt's Mtel in existence? Couldnt it have been a vehicle for determining realistic prices and therefore saved us from the shylock excessess of the likes of MTN?
Today its Mtel, tomorrow it could be PHCN or NNPC.
The failures of the past should be no excuse to abandon the future. Govt corporations can operate efficiently, we've got the likes of EDF and Petrorbras to look up to and i'm optimistic we can replicate same in Nigeria. The private sector handling sensitive sectors in a country with lax regulation as ours, is the worse that can happen to the common man.

^^ You really should be ashamed of such a list as the evidence of success of governments privatization programme. Most of those companies were sold at a fraction of their true value to individuals and are yet to realize their true potentials. Take AP for example currently embroilled in deep mess no thanks to trying to obey Otedola's every whim it used to be BP (yeah, thats British Petroleum) before it was nationalized by Obj and subsequently privatized, now can you compare our AP with its foreign counterpart? Or perhaps its NICON that has almost been run aground by Jimoh Ibrahim. Believe me the successful companies on that list are successful cos they've got some sort of peculiar advantage not cos of the brilliance of their owners.
And yes govt has got every business in business esp in a country like ours with an increasingly Shylock private sector with no thought in the world for the common man. Yes we've had a number of failures and huge losses but gone are the days of brazen ineptitude and this generation is one that is willing to hold its leaders and officials responsible unlike the generation of our fathers, unfortunately, there might be nothing left for us to call our own by the time these men are through with our national assets no thanks to folks like you that have been brainwashed into believing there's a curse on anything being managed by the govt.

^^ You funny sha. A guy wants to do 'something' and you're talking of hair odour, believe me it wont matter if her head smelt like rotten eggs, no one would care until the deed is done. Abi odour dey kill person? About condoms, well Danny and Lotus managed quite well without any didnt they? I dont know if Biggy granted Lotus' request for some but they sure didnt wait for him to get their little thing going did they?
I'm kinda beginning to dislike Vina and her over westernized accent, that girl no dey rep at all, she's got just too little of Naija in her. Imagine being asked by Weza how many Tv stations were in Naija and she could only mention NTA and silverbird! The girl fall our hand.

Ibime:
Interesting read.

It occured to me that the only two successful privatisation projects I can think of are NAFCON and the mobile telecoms industry.

Anyone know of any others?

The only PRIVATIZATION we had in the telecoms industry were those of NITEL and Mtel and they both were monumental failures. What worked in the industry was LIBERALIZATION and I've always been amazed at how these two completely different economic terms have been lumped together and shoved down the throats of ignorant Nigerians with the success of liberalization ascribed to the glaring failures of privatization in order to justify the foolishness of our decision makers.

^^ which reputation be that? abegi, people r only doing what's natural. Shebi we all want them to be real. So after Lotus and Danny these two have taken over the baton? Interesting.

While the real battle is in Ngige's bedroom, he's nosing around in someone else's kitchen. What would be wrong if a South Easterner became the national chairman of the ACN? Or is it already a fait accompli that Igbo's are to forever take the back seat in the party and therefor it isnt worth fighting for?

^^ No way! I dont believe you. What's your source? Come to think of it, the guy really acts weird sometimes. Kinda too laid back for a hunk that most girls in both houses r already falling over themselves for. I felt he was being calm and calculative but Gay? No way. Please convince me.

To an extent i understand its almost impossible not to feel intimidated by 9ja. Just look at the volume of messages coming from us and the degree of support our not-too-great housemates seem to be enjoying and you'll begin to understand. Vina is all over Lomwhe even though she knows Lomwhe has the hots for Hanni, karen has got great entertainment value but in reality, she's got little substance, yet they both seem to be runaway favorites judging by the level of 9ja's propaganda dominance.

THE AMAKA:
@wesley80

no one from the Tails house is ever gonna move to the heads because biggie doesn't want them to know there is another house that is also competing for the money. some have an idea that they are in another house, but they are not totally sure. so moving any from the tails into the heads is highly unlikely.

You're wrong. The Heads housemater r already aware of the existence of another house, what they do not know is that only one person is evicted weekly while the other goes to the tails house. I hope u're right sha, cos i'lld luv 2 see the back of both Ernest and Bhoke.

Been wondering why Karen got so few nominations and i could only point to her open confession abt the facts behind her boobjob as the only reason. I'm sure she would at least have gotten one other nomination. Her timing was perfect and her reason (whether true or not) made quite an impression on a number of housemates, it sure did on Miss P.
I'm really praying for a double eviction this week cos Bhoke moving to the Heads house might not be too good for karen, that gossip bag is sure to do her reputation some harm in the event there was to be a merging of both houses.
And did anyone else notice the increasing anti-Nigerian posts? There's even an anti9ja group already!

Plus one.

Perharps govt intervention would have been possible if we still had Mtel/Nitel in operation through which the govt would have initiated low prices and effectively forced other operators to follow suit, right now the govt has got either of two options:
1) Provide infrastructures that wld reduce running cost and in turn reduce prices
2)Pray that mkt forces act quickly enough to reduce prices
Direct intervention by regulatory bodies wld make the ngrn mkt as a whole unattractive to foreign investors so the govt isnt keen on doing so and the mkt isnt such that can be impacted overnight even if the govt had the will to do so. We've got a sellers mkt and the operators r havin a ball.
This is one of the reasons i'm not an advocate of Privatization, Liberalization is always a better option.

My highlight so far would have to be watching those military men march without command, meeeeen i was wowed! . And i think say those things wey we zuzu for NYSC na marching.

He's got $1b dollars but still takes a personal loan of N10b using the House as collateral? You would think by now people would be smart enough to know WHAT TO QUOTE FROM SR. I've never seen people take so much pride in lame sensationalism. Rubbish