₦airaland Forum

It is not a contradictory statement and i restate;
THE FUTURE OF WORLD ENERGY IS NUCLEAR!
Nuclear technology is advancing rapidly and it is getting safe and safer as the years go by. If you do further research, you will find out that some of the energy you consume comes from nuclear, a certain percentage of britian's energy mix comes from nuclear ( i think 2 - 5%, i am not sure) and would have built more nuclear power stations if not for green peace and the likes.
Remember, it is estimated that fossil fuels would be exhausted by the beginning of the next century and our rivers are drying up, so where do you think countries would turn to for cheap energy?

@ Ujujoan
I know you are right when you say we lack adequate manpower,both managerial and technical; as most of them have been stolen by USA, Europe and Canada has also joined in poaching manpower from Nigeria. thereby leading to our most serious problem (worse than corruption itself), which is INCOMPETENCE, MALADMINISTRATION AND PLANLESSNESS. Thereby giving room for corruption to thrive and grow, unabated.

Having said that, NO MEANINGFUL INVESTMENT CAN TAKE PLACE WITHOUT POWER. Uju read your history, before any country can embark on an industrialization drive, It must resolve how to get the power necessary. Britain embarked on massive exploitation of coal to drive their stream engines (no internal combustion engines then). It was the drive to find energy to drive her industrialization that lead the US to discover and exploit black oil (crude oil). even today china is swallowing up almost 40% of the world crude market and is ready to die for Sudan because of the oil needed to drive her industrialization.

@ Skyblue,
You cannot run industries solar or inverters, if it is possible i am sure more advanced countries would have been making use of it on a large scale.
The energy they produce is too small and too expensive to install. Technology has not reached the stage to make it economically feasible, otherwise USA would not be going to war to preserve her oil supplies. So even today at $140 per barrel, Oil remains the cheapest and most available form of energy.

Having said that it is foolhardy to rely only on Oil for your energy needs. A country that have leaders with even half brains would know you have to have a good energy mix from the following sources, in case they is problem with one source.

1. Fossil fuel.
2. Gas.
3. Hydro
4. Thermal (heat from the ground)
5. Solar.
6. Biofuels
7. Nuclear - the future of world energy is NUCLEAR. It is abundant and cheap, the only problem is its toxic bye-products and the ease of using it to make the bomb. That is why countries like Iran and western countries are investing heavily in nuclear.

Nairalander keeps forgetting that Nigeria had been in the hands of the same group of friends since after the civil war. And almost all presidents after OBJ's first coming were installed with the support of OBJ.

OBJ was the Master and others were his students, let me explain further;
It was OBJ that brought IBB into the Supreme military council when he was military head of state, when IBB was barely a Major, and gave him privileges of senior officers. In fact OBJ was IBB's mentor, as often confirmed by IBB himself. So we can safely say IBB learnt from OBJ.

Abacha also was a student of OBJ, as had been confirmed by Theophilus Danjuma, who asked that Abacha should be retired early and not be allowed to go beyond the rank of Major, But OBJ refused and protected and promoted him. So it ironic when student having learnt from his master turned against his master ( it is allowed in the power game).

Although i do not have much info on abdulsalami, but since he was IBB's cousin, i suspect they had the same mentor.

I am sure the presidency was to be the turn of another in the group of friends as chosen by OBJ (rotational Presidency), but since the beneficiary was dead, his Junior brother was asked to fill his space.

So can now appreciate why their styles of governance is similar (looting, Killings, sit tight syndrome).

Of course you cannot expect OBJ to be present at Abacha's remembrance after his betrayal

skyblue,
i share you passion about industrializing Nigeria but the situation is getting worse by the day. i just heard over the TV now that diesel is now 150 Naira a litre. Imagine running an industry on diesel ( meanwhile NEPA sorry PHCN, would still harass with with outrageous bills). Also it would be mind boggling to imagine the cost of running a steel mill or aluminum mill on diesel ( as they are heavy energy consuming industries), while we wait for Yaradua to work out his energy or is it gas policy.

@Skyblue,
Yes, increasing the secondary product sector so we produce more finished good does not only sound like a very huge task, it is an ENORMOUSLY HUGE task, As anybody in production (and i know quite a few) and they will tell you the huge problems they are facing.

You make me laugh when you say a Nigerian Professor designed a car, I have news for the Professor (if really he is one), The car (internal combustion engine)had already been designed, except he designed a car that can run on water. Most Asian countries that manufacture cars do not waste their time designing cars, they buy a design from an established company and use cheaper material to assemble, then giving it their own brand name. The difficult part of manufacturing a car is the design and assembly of the production plant (assembly line) and the materials necessary. For example how do you get iron sheets when we do not have a steel plant that can manufacture sheet, Ajaokuta is comatose and the few working steel mill we have only manufacture Iron Rods. Even now car body is made from composite material of metal and plastic, do we have a petrochemical industry. What of other parts like Tyres, Fabrics (textile), Glass, etc,. What about the engine, we can not even fabricate a "i better pass my neighbour" generator engine.
Do we import all the parts and then just assemble, then why not save yourself time and cost and import the whole car.
About some people making buses, the only panel beat the body parts together (with imported iron sheets of course) and assemble the parts together (also all imported).

You are too ambitious by suggesting we manufacture cars, you will be embarrassed by the array of stupid things we import, things like; tooth pick, candles, matches, fruit juices ( most people that claim the produce juice import the concentrate from South Africa, while oranges, pineapples and other fruits rot in our markets.
It is also a national disgrace that we import second hand pants and bra, handkerchiefs, towels.
You claim south Africa manufactures, of course it is because the Europeans have put structures in place for industrialization and they remain to maintain those structures.

People are talking about social revolution, i also laugh. Do African understand what a society means? Do we share commons goal and aspirations? Do we understand all these "oyimbo" grammar like Country, Nation, Society. What we understand are terms like clan, tribe language and religion.

@skyblue
yes you are right when you say that Africa has to focused more internally than begging for foreign investors by trading among itself. but you have forgotten that before you can trade, you must produce goods with which you can trade in. At the moment africa can only trade primary products and not finished goods. And since we do not have the facilities, the infrastructure and knowhow to convert primary produce to finished goods, we are condemned to trading (albeit unfairly) with the developed world. Also how can we make ECOWAS work, when we have not been able to make Nigeria work.

@ Davidif,
Do not waste you money on any PR campaign, Hundreds of Heart Of Africa campaigns would not improve your PR as Frank Nweke Jr., found out. The best PR in the world is Success, Once we Get our country working, even if crime is as Bad as in South Africa, or as undemocratic as Saudi Arabia and UAE, or as oppressive as Chinese Tibet, western companies would still rush here and everything else would be overlooked.

Also I disagree with Dangote, Although i admire his entrepreneurial achievements, i feel he had and still have unfair advantage. He has monopoly in most of his businesses ie, Sugar, cement, etc. It would have been harder for him in a competitive market like the US or Europe.
Before you can succeed as an industrial power you have to embark on an industrial Revolution.
1. Have a steady and cheap source of Power
2. Have a viable Machine tools Industry - Imported machines would not do.
3. Have cheap and reliable transportation especially rail and sea transportation
4. Have cheap and reliable source of raw material - that we have in abundance.

Study all the industrialized countries, they took care of these before embarking on industrialization, for example china is building a rail system across the Himalayas (the highest mountains in the world) to Tibet, also every American was involved in the building of the railroad in order to industrialize America.

Conclusion: YOU CANNOT TRADED IN A GLOBAL VILLAGE IF YOU DO NOT PRODUCE. You will only become a dumping ground for finished and used goods.

Nairaking,

Why are you complaining, we all know that yaradua like his predecessor was unprepared to be president. Yaradua was was about retiring to his village was hand picked to be president, how do you imagine he would know how to begin to solve the problem of Nigeria. That is why one year after he his still constituting committees on the power sector, the aviation sector, the electoral sector and in fact every other sector, he his asking Nigerians to help him out on what to do. People in Nairaland are free to make recommendations to the various committees. Imagine Obama constituting committees on how to reform the health sector one year after being inaugurated, i am sure he knows exactly what he want to do as president and he has to convince the american citizens about his plans before he can even gain nomination but in nigeria the standard campaign rhetoric is; I will provide you with power within 6 months (although Yaradua was cleaver as he did not commit himself, he said i will declare a state of emergency within 6 months, please can lawyers in this room explain the meaning of that promise, i understand what it means to declare a state of emergency in Nigeria or a part of it, but to declare a state of emergency in the power sector or the education sector or any other sector for that matter. Is it in our constitution?

Other promises are; I will provide good roads, i will fight corruption and there will be no sacred cows, i will do this and do that. And he get voted for on our behalf, then the problems of what to do begins.
Remember OBJ also went through the same thing as he was catapulted from prison to aso rock, so he spent the first term traveling the globe looking for the elusive foreign investor because he is of the opinions foreigners would invest where locals fear to thread. It took OBJ another term to have an agenda, as as his reasoning goes that was why he needed a third term to complete his agenda.
So wait until Yaradua's second term, them the reports of all the committees would have come in and he would then start implementing a plan, but then he would need an extra term to complete the plans.

So Nairaking and the likes; DO NOT BLAME YAR'ADUA FOR BEING TOO SLOW, it is the nature of Nigerian politics

@ mdceo

I can help you out as i am an Architect. Your question is very vague as the cost of building and finishing any buildings depends on a number of factors.

The Design:
The total area (square meters) of your spaces has a lot of bearing on the cost of a building. The larger the spaces the more expensive.

The Finishes:
The Quality of your finishes aslo goes a long way into determining the total cost of your building. Finishes such as P.O.P for ceiling and granite or marble tiles for floor can be quite expensive. Also good doors, wardrobes, kitchens cabinets and other woodworks are very costly.
The Consultants
Cost of consultants such as Architects, Structural Engineers and Contractors can vary significantly, thereby contributing to the final cost of the project. The most important one is the contractor, a good honest contractor can save you money but a disohest one can make life and cost unbearable to you.

Sundry costs
Costs such as landscaping, Generator house, borehole, paving stones, fencing and gate, garage, external/security lighting and septic tank and soakaway pit are often overlooked but has significant bearing to the cost of a house

So it is impossible to put a cost to your building without determining the above factors. Your duplex can be built with 10 million naira and it could also be built with 150 million if you want designer kitchens, Jacuzzi, bullet proof doors etc.

Now you can contact me at my email wirinet@yahoo.com and we can discuss specifics. At least you can get my quote free of charge, if only for reference purpose.

Before i go further, the answer to our present state has to do with our evolutionary development. I Know when i mention evolution lots and lots of people will explode and say "WHAT NONSENSE" but i implore you to have patience and gradually it would be made manifest (understood).

When i say evolutionary development i do not just mean physiological evolution but also societal and spiritual evolution. Evolution in its basic form means adapting to changing environment, food, situations and requirements, the more extreme the situation the more the adaptations needed to survive. species that are unable to adapt fast enough quickly become extinct. Please allow me to digress here.
We african are very resistant to changes, when the europeans brought christianity, we refused to leave our old ways and rejected christianity, so the europeans set up schools to educate and convert the children as they are less rigid than their parents and gradually we accepted christianity. Now that the europeans have embraced science and regard science higher than religion we still refuse to follow and scorn at them for being unbelievers (sinners), we still refuse to stop old beliefs and embrace science, most of us still scorn at scientists but are quick to use and perform thanksgivings for scientific inventions (computers, GPS, Plane, Moblile phone and lots more).
sorry for the digression

So the differences in the development of the races can be seen the the challenges each race had to face and how they evolved to solve those challenges.

to continue later

Thanks funloving for raising a vital question. I believe that a problem is 50% solved when we identify that a problem exists, and the greatest problem facing us as a people is not the backwardness of the the black race but the failure to recognise that a problem exists and living in a state of denial as done by many people in this forum.

Having said these, I believe i have the answers to your questions and I know that 90% of you would not even comprehend the reason not to talk of agree with me. Because it would mean viewing changing our whole perception of ourselves and life as a whole, and as you know breaking of our beliefs systems and perception is tantamount to suicide to majority of humans especially blacks. it is our psychological security. so i will slowly and gradually explain the reason why we are backward as a people, some not of our doing while others is entirely our fault. It will take many posts to even begin to explain but i will try my best.

Before i start i will want to add more to your observations
We blacks have the least population among the races but the whites would have us feel we are overpopulated so we should reduce our population. But if you look at the statistics the number of blacks on the earth surface is less than 600 million, about half the population of india but the white man is not talking about reducing asian population. when small europe became overpopulated, the colonized other continents so today the whites occupy almost every continent in the world with their total population runining into at least 1.5billion. Why i added this observation to show that even from the position of population we are backward and if there is a war among the races today (hypothetical that is) the blacks stand no chance.

Will continue later

I, as a person was disappointed with the Appeal Court verdict, not that i expected Gen. Buhari or Atiku to win and i am sure that is not their expectation, but to throw more light on the farse called 2007 general elections, with a view to making corrections for future elections. But according to the Appeal court, we should hand Prof. Iwu and all INEC commisioners national awards for a job well done and more grease to their elbows come 2011.
I wonder how Gen. Buhari and Atiku can proove that the elections were rigged to the satisfaction of the Appeal Court. Even if Prof Iwu, INEC,s Comissioners and OBJ sit at a beer palour and write (allocate) the election results it would not be easy to prove the elections were rigged, because, the onus is on them to provide evidence.
As I said, I expected the tribunal to highlight the deficiencies in INEC,s preparations and the conduct of the elections, But instead it said it is alright for INEC not to have numbered the ballot papers as it complied with the provisions of the Law.

Also it is strange that other elections were annulled ( local, senitorial and governorship) but the presidential passed with flying colours. A typical example is benue state where most of the elections were annulled.

So we can only wait for the supreme court verdict.

One Question: Will the outgoing court of appeal president be a member of the supreme court justices that will determine the final judgement?