₦airaland Forum

If the wrong register is used in something as important as a governorship elect6ions, then something is very wrong with INEC's management structure. It would the height of mediocrity for one mistake by one office - junior or senior to cause such a fatal error. So it means INEC does not have various levels of cross referencing and proof reading. Anyway even if it is their most junior officer that is responsible, the bulk still still stops at Iwu's table. In Nigeria we should learn to take responsibility for our positions - Take credit when we excel and take the heat when we fail.

Iwu did not propose Electronic Register, what he proposed was electronic voting, with electronic voting machines. And people are rightfully skeptical, when voting manually is being heavily rigged, what would happen when everything is done virtually.

Even then we all registered electronically with those electronic machines that was supposed to capture our finger print and photograph, the problem was in the compilation and display of the voter's register, except you are alleging that it was Nigerians that stopped Iwu from displaying the voter's register online, since INEC is supposed to have a working website.

AjanleKoko:
Actually it is possible theoretically, to have a closed-loop recyclable energy system. I.e. you use the output of your fuel-source as feedback, to 'recycle' the stored energy back into storage.

But you have to have what is called a 'lossless' system, a 'superconductor' carrying the current back into the feedback loop. Which is only possible in a lab where you create an environment without temperature, pressure, humidity, light, etc. I doubt anybody in Abeokuta or Osogbo would have achieved that.

Or you could have a primary source of energy, like water, from which you can produce hydrogen via a closed-loop converter. The hydrogen will now be used to power a generator specially rigged up for that purpose. I have seen a few patents on that online.

I like your imagination, at least it is more lively than that of the so called scientist trying to re-invent the wheel or is it the round table.

Theoretically you can travel back in time, the problem is its practicality. There is nothing like a lossless system, it can never be achieved, energy will always be lost once the energy moves from on location to the other, and we are not even talking of using the energy yet, or else you can have a perpetual motion machine.

Producing Hydrogen from water consumes more energy than can be obtained from it. Except other methods of extracting hydrogen is found other than electrolysis. What you see online is patent (and there are thousands of unpractical ones out there) and not a working device.

I do not believe someone can exonerate Iwu for our electoral misfortunes.  It is live an Architect blaming the workmen for the collapse of a house he designed and supervised.

So who is to blame for the non display of Voter's register in order to correct mistakes. Iwu kept on lying that he had complied with the Law by displaying the voter's register when all he did way to organize a stage managed show for the camera. meanwhile majority of voter's could not check their names. This made it possible for mike tyson and Fela to vote in the elections. Anambra elections was a very good example of Iwu electoral skills, where over 80% of registered voter's were excluded.

Who was to blame for the non serialization of ballot papers used for the presidential elections, who approved the design and award of contract for the ballot papers?

Who supervised the Ekiti debacle, when we are told that Madam (can't remember her name now) was still part of the INEC family after being declared wanted by the police and meeting with Iwu.

Who gave himself pass mark after the 2007 "non elections" only for the courts to find many of the elections flawed. Some of the elections of 2007 are still being nullified 3 years after.

The list goes on and on, but the bottom line is Iwu is very incompetent and must not be allowed to organized any more elections in Nigeria.

So jokers here are praising Iwu for declaring that elections should be declared at the polling units, In the 2007, elections a lot of elections were declared at the polling stations, the problems is the announcement of results from either the state INEC secretariat or Abuja, where they write a different result. And the laws state that one a result is declared  by the REC, only the courts can reverse the results, which can take up to three years.

Nigerians and hype, i do not know whether to blame the journalist or the so called "scientists".  A generator "generates" electricity. It generates the electricity by converting other forms of energy into electrical energy. A hydo turbine is a fuelless generator as the kinetic energy of falling water is converted to electricity. Solar panels, wind turbines, wave turbines are other forms of fuelless electric generators. But to link a fuelless generator with a dry cell battery is either ignorance or plain stupidity. A dry cell battery already possesses stored electricity, so you have to explain how the electricity got into the battery in the first place for us to see if the electricity is fuelless or not.

Furthermore you do not use dry cell for an inverter system, you either us regular lead/acid batteries or you use maintenance -free batteries which still lead-acid batteries but is completely sealed. So the journalist or the scientist have no clue on the regular inverter system.

tensor777:
@wirinet
What are you on about. Since when did NASA become a business. It is in fact a scientific research and development institute with the focus on outer space exploration.
The US government certainly does not run any utility company so I don't know where you got your facts from.
Look up the role of the John D Rockerfeller family in the early 20th century development of the oil industry in America.
There you go with familiar cliches and old slogans. Meanwhile this Nigerian factor has not hinderered the tremendous growth and  development of the private banking industry and the telecommunications industry.

I can't argue about telecommunications, but the Banking sector is not a good example. The banking sector is a neck deep in corruption as any government agency and what keeps then afloat is government patronage and unwholesome practices like round tripping in the forex market. If various governments withdraws patronage from the banks, only very few of them would survive because the banks are not really engaging in traditional banking business.

I wonder why you like the US capitalist system so much and always us the US in your arguments but live in a welfarist and less capitalist Britain. If you feel any form of government involvement in public utilities is a bad thing, why not move over to the US

tensor777:
I have already told you guys that it is pointless arguing with some people on this issue. They have been indoctrinated from a very early age to believe that it is the job of the federal government to be a major player in the economy in spite of clear evidence that this policy has been a failure.

Look at NNPC, NEPA NITEL , Nigeria Airways, NRC, the River Basin Authorities, NNSC, Ajaokuta etc etc. These parastatals have been total  failures yet somehow these lot still have faith in the ability of government to run businesses.
Why so? Their refrain is that oh you just have to pump in more money and appoint the right people [color=#990000][/color]and all will be well. These policies have not worked and will never work.

The government should leave business to the professionals and concentrate on creating a legal and regulatory framework within which the private sector can operate and prosper.

In soccer parlance the government should be the referee and not the captain.

I think some people just like to argue to the sake of argument. You are jumbling and mixing issues, nobody is asking the government to hire the whole 140 million Nigerians, what we are saying is that the government should nurture and protect our industries and agriculture (subsidize if need be) so that employment would be created due to government's intervention.

All the companies you quoted are very bad examples, there is no country i know of that allows private sector to control their National Oil corporation, same for National electricity, there is no country where government is not involved in electricity, it is only a matter of extent. Same for communication, most communication satellites belongs to government - even in the US. NASA belongs to government. The american railroad was built by the American government, same for British rails.

The reason public cooperation fail in Nigeria is not due to the facts that the companies are public per se as many public companies in many countries are successful, but due to the Nigerian factor which affect even our private cooperation, eg banks, airlines, etc. We have a management deficiency.

Please tell me how individuals can create jobs by themselves without government intervention when;

1. The cost of borrowing capital hoovers around 20%. In Japan, some sectors borrow at 0% and in most industrialized countries, it is less than 5%.

2. You have to generate your own power by buying and maintaining a generator and then buy diesel at close to N100 per litre. Meanwhile factories in other countries get cheap and stable grid electricity

3. You have to build and maintain your own water treatment plant. Also other countries have pipe water.

4. You pay all sorts of duties and taxes when importing raw materials including demurrage as you cargo can be in the port for 1 month , not to talk of egunje (illegal taxes)

5. When you must pay egunje on every check point you pass conveying your goods to the factory. If your factory is outside Lagos, the fees become very significant.

6. When various tiers of government look for all kinds of excuses to extort money in the name of taxes. I remember i had to pay all kinds of fine including to the fire service for some issues, when i was running a workshop.


To me it is a miracle some people are able to manufacture at all in this environment. The various governments government seems bent of stifling manufacturing.

otawa:
Governments are not responsible for creating JOBS.

But it is in the interest of Governments that JOBS are created.

Without jobs:

1. No taxes to fund Government activities

2. The citizen become lawless

3. There wont be rule of LAW

4. The governement will collapse

All above anyway is for a true country. It does not hold in an already FAILED STATE like Nigeria!

I disagree with you proposition; governments are responsible to make sure that jobs are created for its citizens. But the government probably take the view of the poster (as the poster confesses, his father is a government official), because;

The government does not need our bloody taxes, because they sit on their asses in Abuja and oil money flood flows in like honey. They main problems is how to distributed and share the money.

The citizen cannot be come lawless as a result of joblessness, the religious establishments are there to keep people in check, with messages of miracles, hope and submission to the will of the men of God.

Of course, there would be the rule of law, the only problem is that there is one set of rule for jobless people (poor people) and another set of laws for rich people (rich elites).

Government would only collapse when the oil dries out and not as a result of any jobless situation.

Our governments are even creating Jobs, the problem is that the government is creating Jobs for foreign countries like China. I had had the misfortune of raising money to set up a furniture manufacturing outfit in 1999, where i hired over 15 people. Before we could stabilize, government lifted ban on imported furniture and furniture from Malaysia and China flooded the market. Of course i could not compete as their prices were much lower than ours, so we lost most of our regular  clients to importers of furniture. I was then forced to close the furniture workshop.

In Nigeria the various taxes on local manufactured products ( Taxes on imported raw materials taken separately) is much higher that that those of finished imported products. So it make more economic sense to import finished candles, that import paraffin wax and other raw materials to manufacture candles locally. That is why you it is difficult for someone to attempt to manufacture matches, tooth pick or even cotton buds. Meanwhile the Chinese people are being fully employed at our expense because their government makes sure their companies have everything to produce cheaply and efficiently.

I have refrained from further comment on this issue, because the arguments of the post is nonsensical. He absolve government from any responsibility and believes the people and organizations behaving in a random fashion can build a society. So politicians should tell people that there not responsible for providing jobs, roads, water, schools, health, etc. and they would be roundly applauded and voted into office.

The level of ignorance displayed by the poster will discourage me from sending my kid to the US to study. The poster need to go back and study elementary government and economics.

He should acquaint himself with the various economics models. There are various types of economic models based on whether the wealth of the country is in public hands (government) or private hands.

There is the strictly market (capitalist) economy where the countries resources and wealth are vested in private hands. this is what is referred to as the market economy, where everything  is determined by the forces of demand and supply. In reality there is nothing like a strict market economy but the US practices what is closet to the theoretical perfect market economy.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, there is the strictly regulated economy (communist). Here all resources are controlled by the government and then attempts to distribute these resources evenly within its population. Here the government provides everything,  individuals are not allowed to own land and property, all lands belongs to the government. The former USSR, tried to operate a strictly regulated economy, but it failed in the long run.

Most other countries tried to strike a balance between a free market economy and a regulated market economy. It is often called a mixed economy,whereby the government attempts to provide the basic services of like education, infrastructure, health, etc for the masses and at the same time allow the private sector to provide the same services for those that can afford their prices.

The Nigerian system is a confused market system, the government seizes all state resources but at the same time shy away from providing services like education, water, roads, etc with these resources. If they do not want to be responsible  for jobs, education, roads, etc and wants it to be handled by the private sector, then they should not control the state resources and allow the private people themselves to control their resources. But it is criminal for the government to control all state resources and then say there are not responsible to use these resources to build schools, roads, hospitals, water plants, electricity.

Now that Ribadu has been deceared innocent, does that mean he can have his old job back. Would be be given back his post of Deputy inspector of police or is it assistant commissioner of police?.

Has all charges of insubordination been dropped also?

totalfact:
This is like a dream.
to start with, what of all the allegation against him.
does it mean now that, he was somehow falsely alleged?
this country is something else!

That is the way the cookie crumbles in Nigeria. Once a government changes, a former accused becomes innocent and a former innocent becomes accused, Just like Ribadu declared Akitu guilty during OBJ's government and he became innocent under Yaradua, even when Ribadu was still at the helms of affairs at EFCC.

kokoA:
Oh! When is my wiz kid coming back to place ibori where he belongs.?

You kid cannot put Ibori anywhere, he can never have such powers, the person that has the power to put Ibori where he belongs is the Judges handling the case.

Once the case is in court, the case has left the purview of the EFCC or any other person, except the judges.

I cannot believe what i am reading here and from supposedly enlightened people for that matter. If government are not responsible for creating Jobs, then what is the function of a government. Government had shied away from building infrastructure as every thing is now being built and concessioned to private individuals, electricity is being given to private companies, roads are being concessioned, government run companies are being sold of to individuals, health services and schools have been left to private sector.  We handle our personal security with maiguards and  security guards. The average Nigerian citizen is like a local government unto himself.

So why do we need a government, maybe we should disband all governments and just have the military in case of external attacks or are we also to have our own private army?

If as someone says, that that the US government does not create Jobs, why is Job creation an essential aspect of electoral campaigns, all presidential aspirants always promises to create several million new jobs. Why does the US and European governments real out their unemployment figures every month as an indication of how well the economy is faring. Also why do their government take responsibility for the unemployed and actually pay them for not having a job.

I have never heard a sillier statement in my life.

GOVERNMENTS MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE UNEMPLOYED,  because in a sane country, they country survives on the taxes paid by the employed. 

Additionally, governments must take responsibility for the health, welfare, security, education, etc of its citizens or else it has not reason to exist in the first place.

I hope Ribadu does not go back to his old gestapo ways of locking up people for months without trial, harassing and detaining legislators until they impeach their governors, and declaring who is corrupt or innocent on the pages of newspaper and therefore screening politicians on who is eligible to run for office.

I have to lean towards Paddy_lo's argument here, as he understands the futures market more than most people. Since the Excess crude account had served use well in the past, why change it now. Whether we hedge or not does not guarantee that the budget would be implemented or that we would not run a deficit budget.

Also i do not think it part of Sanusi's mandate to tell the government how to sell its oil, that should be part of the government fiscal policy and is not a monetary policy.

As i said hedging in such a corrupt and unstable environment would be counterproductive.

[quote author=paddy_lo link=topic=423879.msg5828263#msg5828263 date=1270389841]Who is deleting my posts, ? [/quote]No body is deleting you posts, it is being swallowed up by the spam bot because it is too long. Try breaking it up into two or three posts.

I read the post from your profile.

The christian leaders if invited should shine their eyes well, because the so called Yaradua might actually be Jimmy IKye, Musa Daba or any other Nollywood actor with the stature of the president. They would most likely use poor lighting, heavy make up and costume to fool them.

[quote author=paddy_lo link=topic=423879.msg5826876#msg5826876 date=1270356148]Here is Another of Sanusis Mindless rants below. . . .

Budget 2010 not likely to succeed – Sanusi
Apr 4, 2010
*Says rescued banks are making profit
By Babajide Komolafe
Budget 2010 may not succeed because it is based on totally unrealistic oil price assumptions, Governor  of the Central Bank  of Nigeria, CBN, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, said yesterday.
Speaking on Channels Television, Sanusi said the CBN had advised the government to hedge its oil price with a view to minimising  the impact of  decline in crude oil prices.“Now we have proposed to government, and which again has not been done, why you don’t hedge your oil price. Let me give you an example, we have just passed a budget, that budget was based on an oil price of $67 per barrel, it is based on assumption of oil output of 2.3 billion barrels per day. The answer is its totally unrealistic.
“We have a problem huge problem in Nigeria at the present, the oil fields in Iraq are coming back to production in 2010, and we are going to have our OPEC quota reduced, and unless America bombs Iran you are not going to produce 2.3 million barrels a day, your quotas will be there and now that Obama has allowed oil firms to drill in the offshore of the United States, you are not going to get elevated oil prices for a long time. So we have already defined a budget that is likely not to succeed.
Now, the next step is to protect yourself and guarantee stability, monetary stability is to make a hedge. If you make it $67 per barrel, you have to hedge, Mexico has done it, and you can hedge half of your production at $37 per barrel so that whatever happens to the price of oil you will not be hit hard. Now in that way the excess crude account was a very good introduction by Central Bank because what it does is that it minimises the fluctuations in earnings.”
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/04/04/budget-2010-not-likely-to-succeed-sanusi/


To show that sanusi is mostly clueless, this is what experts are predicting for oil this year,
Note that oil has already hit $85/barrel
The world economy is picking up,the US economy just started adding jobs so more demand is coming
meanwhile if u follow the crude oil chart, any smart economist that adds the technicals and fundamentals of oil will know its heading for $100/barrel for this yr
and perhaps $120 next yr

Link,
Jeff Rubin, who called oil's rally, expects it to hit $100 this year
Jeff Rubin, an economist who correctly forecast that oil would reach $100, is predicting that it will hit that level again by the end of this year.

Mr Rubin, who was the chief economist at Canadian bank CIBC and published a book on the energy of economics last year, told Bloomberg News in an interview that "it’s safe to say that we’ll see triple-digit oil prices by the fourth quarter of this year."
The emerging economies of China and India will help drive demand for oil, according to Mr Rubin, who expects crude prices to reach $90 a barrel during the first quarter of this year.

Oil prices have jumped for the past 10 days as the cold weather sweeping the US, Europe and parts of Asia fuels demand for the commodity. It was trading at about $82 a barrel in early trading in New York.
Oil peaked at close to $147 a barrel in July 2008 and then tumbled sharply, falling to below $40 a barrel in early 2009, as the global downturn dented demand. Mr Rubin, who last year wrote “Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller”, expects oil to hit $200 by 2012.
“When we get into 2011 or 2012 and we start to deal with prices of $120 a barrel, $147 a barrel, $160 a barrel, that’s where I think at least the global economy becomes very challenged,” Mr Rubin told Bloomberg.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/oilprices/6946923/Jeff-Rubin-who-called-oils-rally-expects-it-to-hit-100-this-year.html

So sanusi is basically calling for lower oil prices, whearas everything points to higher oil in the next 2yrs,
and to make it worse,he actually wants to spend money to hedge,thereby potentially capping our gains from higher oil
this is madness, and i hope Mr Aganga vetoes it. . . . .

Again i repeat, any textbook oil trader,will know its heading higher based on a study of the oil charts
and oil futures contracts. . it would do mister sanusi some good to study the charts[/quote]Please embark on some research before you post. If you understand the very basic principle of the Markets, it states that the "behaviour of the markets can never be predicted" Anybody trying to predict the market is gambling. No body (not even T.B Joshua could have predicted that oil prices would fall from $140 to less than $40 dollars in less than three months. So NOBODY KNOWS WHERE OIL IS GOING. Else that person would become a billionaire in a very short time.

I am not exactly convinced yet about hedging our oil against future fluctuations of prices, but it is an option worth looking into. I would like to see a robust debate by our professionals.

A lot of companies and government use hedging to guard against fluctuations in prices. They hedge currencies, commodities and even financial instruments like bonds and interest rates.

The problem i see with hedging our oil is the unreliability of production due to the Niger Delta crisis and the spot market. Production cannot be guaranteed and priced would be hedged against a certain date. Also a lot of oil is sold in the volatile and highly corrupt spot market, thereby defeating the reason to hedge in the first place.

Nairaking1

It is obvious that you personal vendetta against Lamido Sanusi is because you lost money in the stock market, and looking for somebody to put the blame on. So as Sanusi is the most visible person, you pick him as an easy target.

Your attacks are ridiculous and sometimes borders on irrationality. (i notice i did not say psychotic). Please re-read some of your statements;

naijaking1:
Time will tell that when compared to Bart Ebong, Akingbola and Ibru, Sanusi with his post graduate degree in Islamic studies would turn out to be the charlatan in our banking system.

If you wonder the source of income for this group, then you totally underestimate the "hurt" inflicted on people by Sanusi. I lost millions of naira to his crazy quest for personal agenda, so it would be no big deal to spend a few more thousands in support of any group that seeks to make him accountable for his actions.
I can't wait to donate money to this RP group, hopefully they take Visa/Mastercard

You call Sanusi a charlatan, but he rose to the top of two biggest (privately owned) banks in Nigeria in a very short time. I did not realize Nigerian banks hire charlatans into top management positions.

I cannot fathom how Sanusi is to blame for your loss. If you think the stock market would be bullish till Jesus comes, then you had no business investing in the stock market. Stock market had been having a boom/bust cycle since time immemorial and all countries had experienced it. This is the first of such busts in Nigeria because the Nigerian Stock market is a very young market. The market will boom again and will burst again whether Sanusi is alive or dead.

Honestly, most Nigerians trading in the stock market are simply gambling, they have no ideas of trading principles, they buy stocks when prices are very high and hold onto it until it eventually crashes. Then they blame other people but themselves.

Nigerian banking stocks were overpriced due to insider trading and share manipulations, it was bound to find the right level as it eventually did.

naijaking1:
If you owned shares of Nigerian banks, if you invested to build some of these second generation banks, if you're even a lowly paid worker in a Nigerian bank as we speak, you'll understand that the "house has been burnt down"
Please don't go repeating Sanusi's allegation, because almost 9 months into this diatribe, nobody has been convicted in any court of law, but many have been convicted in the press during Sanusi's many road shows.

Don't talk about "stock manipulation and misdemeanour of bank CEOs", because thses are still merely allegations, and it's been shown that the man had a personal fish to fry with these people.
Let's wait for an independent body, ie the courts to thoroughly examine these cases and tell us whether the CEOs were the criminals or Sanusi was the criminal who has used his sacred big offices to settle small personal differences.

Just wait and see

You call share manipulations by the banks "mere allegations"?. There are some allegations that is visible as the sun. The price of these shares themselves is enough to show evidence of share manipulations. Technical analysis is able to discount all factors responsible for price, and any other component of price not accounted for would be attributed to other extraneous factors like insider trading and share manipulations. There was not way a share price of over N40 could be accounted for some bank shares, even in the hay days of the bull market.

If the house has been burned down as you alleged, then why are the banks still standing. The "burnt down banks are still operating and carrying out their daily business, Albeit under a Sanusi appointed management. Had anybody gone to the bank to request for their money and been turned down.

Sorry for your loss, but there is a popular adage in stock trading " Never Risk Money You Cannot Afford To Lose". You should have put your money in a savings account or fixed deposit account instead of investing it in the stock market.

If Sanusi is as bad and evil as you want us to believe, how come it is only a few people ( non professionals for that matter) that can see it.

Why has the Nigerian Stock Exchange not condemned Sanusi and Take issues with him?
What of the Nigerian Institute of Banker and even the Institute of Directors who are mainly top directors in Banks.
What about the other professional bodies, like ICAN and NIM?

why are they not vocal criticizing sanusi with the same venom as you and the Renaissance Professionals? I see interest - selfish interests.


My beef with Sanusi is that he gets too emotional and talks too much. Let him carry out his actions and allow people who feels aggrieved to go to court.

Watin concern the chief Imam or us for that matter what Turai thinks about Yayale or any other person. Turai is entitled to her own personal opinion about any body. It is the opinion of the president that concern us, and since we are told he cannot talk, then there is no way the Chief Imam or even Turai can know the opinion of the president.

I am not boasting but it seems i understand how to govern and what governance is all about that all our so called politicians. In Nigeria we always have our priorities wrong, then our plans are either utopic in Nature or outright silly. Yesterday we attempted to join the space race, today we want to join the nuclear race, now we want to lease out lands to foreigners. Please what is the problems with developing the lands ourselves?

Is is that we do not have the population or labour force required?
Is it that we lack enough capital? what about all the trillions of bad debts incurred by our banks, which we will have have to pay for one way or the other. If the bad debts were incurred in the agric sector, wont we at least benefit in the form of cheap food?

Or is it that we do not have visionary leaders who can put together a workable agricultural policy?

If i was in charge, i would make it mandatory, that all tiers of government are involved with agriculture, including state and local governments, one can adopt the kibbutz system, where you will build agricultural communities.

The most important thing in a persons life (and even animals) is food, not petrol, not electricity, not roads and not even houses. After food comes water. Once you have food and water, you are certain of survival. If ask a man to choose between food and water and petrol or  gold, there is no doubt what he will choose.

All societies were built on agriculture, human became urbanized because of agriculture, prior to the agricultural revolution, man did not need to live in villages and towns, but roamed around hunting and gathering. So why should we relegate agriculture now.

If you move around the west, you will see lots of agricultural settlements planned by Awolowo that has been abandoned and the land sold off. I saw one on the outskirt of Ikorodu towards Mowo. It has been sold off and one of my friends bought two acres there.

That is even one area i have issues with Governor fashola, how does he intend to build a mega city capable of accommodating 40 million people without a plan on how to feed the 40million people. There are lots of arable land between Ikorodu and Epe and even Badagry, why not plan agriculture within those axis?

papas:
Nigerians that want to farm are already farming. Will you happily agree to grow and tend to crops if you were given land for it? Most Nigerians I know will not want to even think of doing this, so don't say "when we want it, it won't be there".
Please present your facts of what is happening in Pakistan with regard to the leasing of land for farming. I have not heard yet.

Nigerians would want to farm if it is made attractive. If government invests in agriculture and support agriculture, you will find many people ready to give up white collar jobs and go into farming. Even the Zimbabwean farmers brought in by saraki is heavy supported by the Kwara state government.

In Europe and the US, the government supports farmers with all sorts of instruments like zero interest rates, and even subsidy on farm produce. Here in Nigeria, the government does not support farmers at all and even over tax them both legal and illegal.

The major problem with agriculture in Nigeria is our land use act. If our land laws are clear and direct and people are allowed to have all ownership right to their land, and land documentation is made clear and precise, then it would be easy to use land as an asset to borrow money for agriculture.

Papas, Land is the most important resource after manpower. It is a very bad idea to lease out very large expanse of land to foreigners, in the name of agriculture. That would be a huge security risk. Also Nigeria does not own land, people do. They would be huge conflicts in the future between the owners of the land and the leasing foreigners.  We are still grappling with local "leasing problems" some 200 years after the said leasing/settlement took place in places like modakeke and a host of other places in Nigeria. If you lease a portion of land out and the leasee  decides to bring in a huge immigrant population. What would you do to their children and grand children that would be born on the land. They would be Nigerians and have the same rights as the original owners -wound they not?.

This is a disaster waiting to happen.

Look we have to understand that we have to learn to feed ourselves, we did it before the foreigners come, we did it before Nigeria came, so why can we not do it now that we have all this free oil money and a population busting at the seams.

We have to go back to the basics, go back to the farms and produce our own food, from there we would have raw materials for production, and then we can start a real process of industrialization, instead of the fake industrialization we are doing now, relying on foreign raw materials and manpower.

This is the most stupid idea i have ever heard. Which part of Nigeria are they going to lease. I hope it is the land of those advocating for the idea. So what happens to the original owners of the land that Nigeria wants to seize. They would become tenants and the foreigners would become landlords.

Why can't the government promote agriculture, by providing credits and training to the local population. They can import the trainers if they want. Why don't they fund our agricultural institutes and universities. They could also engage our NYSC members to work on farms.

There has to be a firm agricultural policy both at federal level and at state level. Is the government saying that Nigerians are so useless that they cannot farm?

Odunnu:
Plz tel us why doctorz want there children 2b in same profession

At least you agree that pastoring is a profession like any other, so why all the bull sh.it about being specially called by God. So you will also agree that opening a church is like starting a business in a chosen profession, and so the children must be groomed to take over the business, once the sole proprietor is gone.

Dr Kitaun:
@Wirinet

my bad! Meant to write : a little left to a little right- this explicable from the body of my statement.

So u are here claiming HID was never Awoist? Jesus wept!!!

Dont get it twisted, the Yorubas were always deemed guilty of tribal politics despite the strong culture of socialism

It is not ethical to start questioning peoples intelligence because they disagree with your views, we are all here to exchange ideas and learn from each other.

HID was Awos wife and that is all the credentials she has, she still reminds us of Awolowo himself, so people give her the respect she is due. But she never proffer that she was an Awoist, in fact she held no important position within in AG or UPN, she was no more an Awoist than Joseph or Mary was a disciple of Jesus. She did not and has never promoted socialism. The true face of Awo's socialism is Jakande, and he implemented socialist policies during his reign in government.

The reason people like me is scrutinizing Fashola is because of all the noise and propaganda out there. The press and supporters are turning him into a messiah. So people are bound to scrutinize his messiah-ship further to see if truly me is one. Yes next year is an election year and opponents are bound to take advantage of lapses, but we the people deserves answers to our questions.

Imagine such an allegation happening in US or Britain, the politician concerned would quickly call a press conference to put forward the facts and answer necessary questions and the matter would die down immediately, the accusers would be shamed. Fashola does not always have to rely on legal gymnastics to exonerate himself in the court of public opinion.

Dr Kitaun:
Illiterates like kobojunkie, mbulela, wirinet and the other twats just keep forgetting the EFCC and the various Courts are still active . . .

@wirinet

dont be foolish! Nobody is playing tribal politics any more and Awoist policies died with the man such that even HID has not been Awoist in behaviour. Its sad but the only way the Yorubas could get integrated into the mainstream was to move a little bit left.

It is a pity, those calling others illiterates should test their literacy level. They are only literate in abusive words and are unable to string together a decent argument.

Awoist policies are not tribal in Nature, they are socialist. Except you want to equate socialism with tribalism. Awoist policies as i said is socialist and a lot of European nations are still practicing socialism. Further more HID had never claimed to be Awoist, the Known Awoist of old were Bola Ige, Jakande, Ebenezer Babatope and members of Action Group and UPN.

Your are showing your literacy levels by saying " the only way the Yorubas could get integrated into the mainstream was to move a little bit left.". Do you exactly know what you are saying, Doing you even know what "Left" means in terms of political orientation. The Yorubas had always been to the left, it is recently that Yorubas had shifted to the right - far right for that matter, as exemplified by AD and AC.

Please get some political education.

Dr Kitaun:
This Kobojunkie is as dumb as ever!

Everybody here on NL since way back had known me to be die-hard AC, my maternal grandfather was a great leader of UPN, my father is himself a leader in the current setup so I KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABT.

SILENCE IS GOLDEN, if y'all have facts and evidences, EFCC wouldnt turn u back!!!

Have u been to your Ikorodu lately? Tenancy rates there have become as high as BRF giving d tenancy bill utmost priority, do we call that backlash of development?

Felele

talk true, u lost out on that contract? LOL

Kobojunkie is dumb because she asked for accountability and openness in Governor Fashola's projects. I wonder what makes a person wise.

Since you are a die-hard AC member, you should be able to provide some of the answers we seek of the Lekki Road project, but you instead question the intelligence of people asking. Please tell me what AC as a party stands for, and how they are different from PDP. What differentiate you from all other parties in Nigeria. To me AC, PDP, and all other parties are one and the same. They are all a confused agglomeration of different selfish interest struggling for power for the sake of power only.

If your great-grand father was UPN, why did his siblings -you and your father abandon awoist philosophies, at least your grand father would have been inculcated with UPN (awoist) agenda. The core Awoist philosophies involves socialist philosophies like free education, free health care, mass housing, intensive social  agriculture, industrialization and other people oriented programmes. Please explain why you and AC are now core capitalists like the NPN of old and prefer to sell state assets to individuals including roads. You people have abandoned free education for expensive education, socialism for hard core capitalism. why have the Yorubas suddenly gone capitalist.

Please explain.

I hope i am not also asking dumb questions.

ziga:
In life, when you attempt to do something that is new and seems unachievable, lots of people will discourage you and say it can never be done.

But if you really want to do it, and you plan properly, you will do it and the same people who discouraged you will congratulate you.

I'm sure we've all experienced this.

So what we should be clamoring for should be proper planning, siting of the nuke plant, implementation, maintenance, and constant reevaluation rather than trying to put down something that will benefit all.

If the implementation is not done properly or evaluations show that the standards are falling then i support that it should be shut down, but otherwise, carry dey go.

Shame on all of you, you people should learn to let go of colo-mentality. We do not always have to ape the white man. Just because the whites use nuclear to generate electricity does not mean we too have to jump into the band wagon. We have enough oil, gas, coal and hydro-power to meet our needs for the next 200 years. These technologies are relatively cheap and easy to adopt. You must learn to perfect simple technology before you can dabble in to complicated ones.

Why don't the US help us with technology for gas turbines, hydo-turbines and even teach us to build transformers and substations. That would be far more useful than nuclear technology.

Why don't they help us with agricultural technology so we do not have to rely on America for all our wheat needs. So we can grow our own wheat or something similar to be able to bake our bread, biscuits and cakes with. What about rice technology.

A country that have no technology to feed itself want to acquire nuclear technology.
A country that cannot maintain simple refinery as they keep burning everyday wants to acquire nuclear technology.
A country than imports candles from china wants to build nuclear reactor.

You guys are a joke.

dlox01:
i think you should stop being lazy and google/yahoo/or ask.com the achievments of the governor. And again, if its about commisioning, just type in 'fashola commissions' and you'll see a few things there.
you say you stay in ikorodu right??okay,
Lagos — Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state  commisioned a N1.024billion 265 housing units at Igbogbo in Ikorodu area of the state.Aside this, he also delivered  micro water scheme and two other projects to Ikorodu residents, including Maternal Child Centre (MCC) and a shopping plaza. The micro water scheme was built by the state ministry of rural development and has a capacity of producing 207,000 litres per day.
basically, if i start listing it to u then im doing your work.
there is one thing that i know has not been listed anywhere,and its also something that tinubu could not achieve, its called 'HOPE'!!!!
People comeout to celebrate him coz he signifies hope,the lagos carnival and anyother carnival gets brighter every year because people have seen change and people believe in him to deliver,people in lagos thought coming out to vote were for touts(which really it was)during tinubus regime due to the inflow of thugs with no jobs but now dont you feel abit confident and you wil actuallu come out when the time calls to vote for him. Abeg,i don tire to dey preach,even stevee wonder can see what he has achieved

Sorry, it is you guys that are being lazy, you make claims, so it is your responsibility to give us facts to support those claims and not mine to look for evidence to support your claims. If you claim Fashola has performed exceptionally, you should give us evidence of this performance so that we can agree with it or not.

From your evidence above i can make my comment.

The Igbogbo Housing Estate project is a beautiful estate, i have seen it, so i can concede that to Fashola. But please help us out with the details; Is it a public-private partnership development? because i know Fashola prefers private participation in his projects. Also how is the general public going to purchases these houses and what is the cost of each. At a total cost of   N1.024billion for 265 housing units, the cost of each individual unit is about N3.86 million. Now that is the construction cost. At what cost will it be available to Lagosians and at what conditions.

But i quarrel with the micro water scheme, you fail to provide any detail of its Location and the number of people it is to serve. Sinking of a bore hole is very cheap in Ikorodu and the water is so clean that it requires little or no treatment. You could sink a bore hole with a i horse power submersible pump for N200,000. So if what Fashola did was a simple bore hole, then i would not count that that as an achievement. So please furnish us with more details of the mini water works.

If you notice, i am not a religious person. I do not believe in unfounded hope. I believe you need to have something concrete to hope for; a concrete plan and concrete outcome. So investing in unfounded hope is like hoping for a new jeep without a plan of getting a job or starting a business.