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T O P I C     R E V I E W
the lioness
Member # 17353
 - posted
LAGOS, Nigeria — In a quarter-century, at the rate Nigeria is growing, 300 million people — a population about as big as that of the present-day United States — will live in a country the size of Arizona and New Mexico. In this commercial hub, where the area’s population has by some estimates nearly doubled over 15 years to 21 million, living standards for many are falling.

Lifelong residents like Peju Taofika and her three granddaughters inhabit a room in a typical apartment block known as a “Face Me, Face You” because whole families squeeze into 7-by-11-foot rooms along a narrow corridor. Up to 50 people share a kitchen, toilet and sink — though the pipes in the neighborhood often no longer carry water.

At Alapere Primary School, more than 100 students cram into most classrooms, two to a desk.

As graduates pour out of high schools and universities, Nigeria’s unemployment rate is nearly 50 percent for people in urban areas ages 15 to 24 — driving crime and discontent.

The growing upper-middle class also feels the squeeze, as commutes from even nearby suburbs can run two to three hours.

Last October, the United Nations announced the global population had breached seven billion and would expand rapidly for decades, taxing natural resources if countries cannot better manage the growth.

Nearly all of the increase is in sub-Saharan Africa, where the population rise far outstrips economic expansion. Of the roughly 20 countries where women average more than five children, almost all are in the region.

Elsewhere in the developing world, in Asia and Latin America, fertility rates have fallen sharply in recent generations and now resemble those in the United States — just above two children per woman. That transformation was driven in each country by a mix of educational and employment opportunities for women, access to contraception, urbanization and an evolving middle class. Whether similar forces will defuse the population bomb in sub-Sarahan Africa is unclear.

“The pace of growth in Africa is unlike anything else ever in history and a critical problem,” said Joel E. Cohen, a professor of population at Rockefeller University in New York City. “What is effective in the context of these countries may not be what worked in Latin America or Kerala or Bangladesh.”

Across sub-Saharan Africa, alarmed governments have begun to act, often reversing longstanding policies that encouraged or accepted large families. Nigeria made contraceptives free last year, and officials are promoting smaller families as a key to economic salvation, holding up the financial gains in nations like Thailand as inspiration.

Nigeria, already the world’s sixth most populous nation with 167 million people, is a crucial test case, since its success or failure at bringing down birthrates will have outsize influence on the world’s population. If this large nation rich with oil cannot control its growth, what hope is there for the many smaller, poorer countries?

“Population is key,” said Peter Ogunjuyigbe, a demographer at Obafemi Awolowo University in the small central city of Ile-Ife. “If you don’t take care of population, schools can’t cope, hospitals can’t cope, there’s not enough housing — there’s nothing you can do to have economic development.”

The Nigerian government is rapidly building infrastructure but cannot keep up, and some experts worry that it, and other African nations, will not act forcefully enough to rein in population growth. For two decades, the Nigerian government has recommended that families limit themselves to four children, with little effect.

Although he acknowledged that more countries were trying to control population, Parfait M. Eloundou-Enyegue, a professor of development sociology at Cornell University, said, “Many countries only get religion when faced with food riots or being told they have the highest fertility rate in the world or start worrying about political unrest.”

In Nigeria, experts say, the swelling ranks of unemployed youths with little hope have fed the growth of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, which has bombed or burned more than a dozen churches and schools this year.

Internationally, the African population boom means more illegal immigration, already at a high, according to Frontex, the European border agency. There are up to 400,000 undocumented Africans in the United States.

Nigeria, like many sub-Saharan African countries, has experienced a slight decline in average fertility rates, to about 5.5 last year from 6.8 in 1975. But this level of fertility, combined with an extremely young population, still puts such countries on a steep and disastrous growth curve. Half of Nigerian women are under 19, just entering their peak childbearing years.

Women Left Behind

Statistics are stunning. Sub-Saharan Africa, which now accounts for 12 percent of the world’s population, will account for more than a third by 2100, by many projections.

Because Africa was for centuries agriculturally based and sparsely populated, it made sense for leaders to promote high fertility rates. Family planning, introduced in the 1970s by groups like Usaid, was initially regarded as foreign, and later on, money and attention were diverted from family planning to Africa’s AIDS crisis.

“Women in sub-Saharan Africa were left behind,” said Jean-Pierre Guengant, director of research at the Research Institute for Development, in Paris. The drastic transition from high to low birthrates that took place in poor countries in Asia, Latin America and North Africa has yet to happen here.
That transition often brings substantial economic benefits, said Eduard Bos, a population specialist at the World Bank. As the last large population group reaches working age, the number of adults in the labor force is high relative to more dependent groups — the young and the elderly — for a time. If managed well, that creates capital that can be used to improve health and education and to develop new industries.

And that has happened elsewhere. Per-capita gross domestic product in Latin America, Asia and North Africa increased between three and six times as population was brought under control, Dr. Guengant said. During that same period it has increased only marginally in many African countries, despite robust general economic growth.

In Nigeria, policymakers are studying how to foster the transition, and its attendant financial benefits, here. In the ramshackle towns of the Oriade area near Ile-Ife, where streets are lined with stalls selling prepaid cellphone cards and food like pounded yam, Dr. Ogunjuyigbe’s team goes door to door studying attitudes toward family size and how it affects health and wealth. Many young adults, particularly educated women, now want two to four children. But the preferences of men, particularly older men, have been slower to change — crucial in a patriarchal culture where polygamy is widespread.

At his concrete home in the town of Ipetumodu, Abel Olanyi, 35, a laborer, said he has four children and wants two more. “The number you have depends on your strength and capacity,” he said, his wife sitting silently by his side.

Large families signal prosperity and importance in African cultures; some cultures let women attend village meetings only after they have had their 11th child. And a history of high infant mortality, since improved thanks to interventions like vaccination, makes families reluctant to have fewer children.

Muriana Taiwo, 45, explained that it was “God’s will” for him to have 12 children by his three wives, calling each child a “blessing” because so many of his own siblings had died.

In a deeply religious country where many Roman Catholics and Muslims oppose contraception, politicians and doctors broach the topic gingerly, and change is slow. Posters promote “birth spacing,” not “birth control.” Supplies of contraceptives are often erratic.

Cultural Factors

In Asian countries, women’s contraceptive use skyrocketed from less than 20 percent to 60 to 80 percent in decades. In Latin America, requiring girls to finish high school correlated with a sharp drop in birthrates.

But contraceptive use is rising only a fraction of a percent annually — in many sub-Saharan African nations, it is under 20 percent — and, in surveys, even well-educated women in the region often want four to six children.

“At this pace it will take 100-plus years to arrive at a point where fertility is controlled,” Dr. Guengant said.

There are also regional differences. The average number of children per woman in the wealthier south of Nigeria has decreased slightly in the last five years, but increased to 7.3 in the predominantly Muslim north, where women often cannot go to a family planning clinic unless accompanied by a man.

The United Nations estimates that the global population will stabilize at 10 billion in 2100, assuming that declining birthrates will eventually yield a global average of 2.1 children per woman. At a rate of even 2.6, Dr. Guengant said, the number becomes 16 billion.

There are signs that the shifting economics and lifestyles of middle-class Africans may help turn the tide, Dr. Ogunjuyigbe said. As Nigeria urbanizes, children’s help is not needed in fields; the extended families have broken down. “Children were seen as a kind of insurance for the future; now they are a liability for life,” he said.

Waiting in a women’s health clinic, Ayoola Adeeyo, 42, said she wanted her four children, ages 6 to 17, to attend university, and did not want more children.

“People used to want 6 or 7 or even 12, but nobody can do that now. It’s the economics,” said Ms. Adeeyo, elegant in a flowing green dress and matching head wrap. “It costs a lot to raise a child.”

Dr. Eloundou-Enyegue worries that Africa’s modestly declining birthrates reflect relatively rich, educated people reducing to invest in raising “quality” children, while poor people continue to have many offspring, strengthening divisions between haves and have-nots. “When you have a system with a large degree of corruption and inequality, it’s hard not to be playing the lottery because it increases the chances that one child will succeed,” he said.

In Nigeria’s desperately poor neighbor, Niger, women have on average more than seven children, and men consider their ideal to be more than 12. But with land divided among so many sons, the size of a typical family plot has fallen by more than a third since 2005, meaning there is little long-term hope for feeding children, said Amadou Sayo, of the aid group CARE.

Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund and a former Nigerian health minister, said he is optimistic for a turnaround if governments better support education for girls and contraceptive services. “We can see rapid changes, but that’s up in the air, because you have to be aggressive and consistent.”

Birthrates have edged down to about four children per woman in Kenya, Ethiopia and Ghana.

One recent morning in Lagos, hundreds of patients waited at the Ketu district clinic for treatments like measles vaccines, malaria pills and birth control.

“Of course when the population grows so quickly, that stresses hospitals,” said Dr. Morayo Ismail — although migration from rural areas has also swelled Lagos’s population. A mother of one herself, Dr. Ismail said many poor women still want four or more children.

That evening at the clinic, Bola Agboola, 30, gave birth to her second child. After nurses swaddled the boy, dispensed with the placenta and declared Ms. Agboola well, they whooped, praising God.

Then, as Ms. Agboola’s husband entered, some started another chant: “Now start another one. Start another one.”
 
facts
Member # 19596
 - posted
And then they will look to the developed world to feed them. Eugenics is the order of the day!
 
claus3600
Member # 19584
 - posted
Lioness

Woooh, and the number of your posts keeps climbing rapidly. 9269 in 27 months. Quite incredible. You admitted to being paid per thread, and that the website would close down if you weren't so prolific - I recently asked you how much they paid you but I don't think you've answered.

Any plans to visit Africa? It would be a first for you wouldn't it? I'll never forget your evasiveness when I asked whether you had actually been and then you eventually had to admit that you hadn't. So, thinking of going?
 
typeZeiss
Member # 18859
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by facts:
And then they will look to the developed world to feed them. Eugenics is the order of the day!

That is funny. The develop world is tapping Africa for farmland and resources yet in your simpleton mind state you think Nigeria will ask the west for help. The only thing Nigeria needs to do is throw the western savage off her back and come up with a modernized form of traditional W. African governance and things will be fine.
 
Doug M
Member # 7650
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by typeZeiss:
quote:
Originally posted by facts:
And then they will look to the developed world to feed them. Eugenics is the order of the day!

That is funny. The develop world is tapping Africa for farmland and resources yet in your simpleton mind state you think Nigeria will ask the west for help. The only thing Nigeria needs to do is throw the western savage off her back and come up with a modernized form of traditional W. African governance and things will be fine.
LOL! Absolutely. The whole "global population growth" scam is to basically say that the West should consume the majority of the worlds resources and that the third world should stay under populated and destitute while giving all their resources and wealth away for the West(and now the East). After all, the United States as a single country has a bigger population today than any individual African nation and consumes far more per capita than Africans can ever expect to consume in a 100 years yet nobody is complaining about that. Wonder why?

The United States is number 3 behind China and India.

quote:

The estimated one billion people who live in developed countries have a relative per capita consumption rate of 32. Most of the world’s other 5.5 billion people constitute the developing world, with relative per capita consumption rates below 32, mostly down toward 1.

The population especially of the developing world is growing, and some people remain fixated on this. They note that populations of countries like Kenya are growing rapidly, and they say that’s a big problem. Yes, it is a problem for Kenya’s more than 30 million people, but it’s not a burden on the whole world, because Kenyans consume so little. (Their relative per capita rate is 1.) A real problem for the world is that each of us 300 million Americans consumes as much as 32 Kenyans. With 10 times the population, the United States consumes 320 times more resources than Kenya does.

...

People who consume little want to enjoy the high-consumption lifestyle. Governments of developing countries make an increase in living standards a primary goal of national policy. And tens of millions of people in the developing world seek the first-world lifestyle on their own, by emigrating, especially to the United States and Western Europe, Japan and Australia. Each such transfer of a person to a high-consumption country raises world consumption rates, even though most immigrants don’t succeed immediately in multiplying their consumption by 32.

Among the developing countries that are seeking to increase per capita consumption rates at home, China stands out. It has the world’s fastest growing economy, and there are 1.3 billion Chinese, four times the United States population. The world is already running out of resources, and it will do so even sooner if China achieves American-level consumption rates. Already, China is competing with us for oil and metals on world markets.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/opinion/02diamond.html?pagewanted=all

And note the hypocrisy in all of this. The Western "developed" world built itself on the idea of a higher standard of living through resource consumption as "progress" yet at the same time knowing full well knowing that only a few folks out of the total population could sustainably live this way without killing the planet. But as opposed to pointing to themselves as the problem, they point the finger at Africans or other people who consume a fraction of what they do as the problem.
 
claus3600
Member # 19584
 - posted
Yep, and there aren't enough fossil fuel resources on the planet to allow everyone to have a 'First World' lifestyle.

The term 'developing' is therefore somewhat misleading as most of the countries will remain at this level.

And global warming, if it exists, is a problem caused largely by the industrialised West.
 
the lioness
Member # 17353
 - posted
make more babies,
by any means necessary
 
Troll Patrol
Member # 18264
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by typeZeiss:
quote:
Originally posted by facts:
And then they will look to the developed world to feed them. Eugenics is the order of the day!

That is funny. The develop world is tapping Africa for farmland and resources yet in your simpleton mind state you think Nigeria will ask the west for help. The only thing Nigeria needs to do is throw the western savage off her back and come up with a modernized form of traditional W. African governance and things will be fine.
Nigeria's economy grew at a faster rate in the fourth quarter last year than the previous three months because of a stronger performance in the non-oil sector, particularly telecoms, data showed on Tuesday.

 

Gross domestic product (GDP) in Africa's second-largest economy rose to 7.68 percent in the fourth quarter 2011, compared with 7.40 percent in the third quarter, the national bureau of statistics (NBS) said in a report.

 

Africa's largest oil exporter pumped an average of 2.4 million barrels per day in the last three months of the year, down from 2.6 million barrels per day a year earlier due to production outages.

But the non-oil sector grew 9.07 percent in the fourth quarter, higher than the 8.93 percent recorded in the same period in 2010.

 

"This growth was largely driven by improved activities in the telecommunications, building and construction, hotel and restaurant and business services," the NBS said.

Nigeria's economy grew 7.36 pct in the full year 2011, down from 7.98 pct in 2010, largely in line with expectations. The decline in growth reflects global economic sluggishness. Growth in Nigeria outperformed most developing economies.

 

Nigeria is reliant on oil exports for more than 95 percent of its foreign exchange revenues but only 15 percent of GDP. Agriculture is the largest contribution to GDP, making up about 40 percent of it.

Telecoms surged in Nigeria in the past decade, after private companies were allowed to take advantage of the huge mobile phone market potential in the continent's most populous country.

 

"This sector continued to perform impressively and has remained one of the major drivers of growth in the Nigerian economy, with its contribution to total GDP increasing continuously," the NBS report said.

"The telecommunication sector recorded a real GDP growth of 36.31 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011," it added, but did not give a comparative figure for the previous quarter.

Investors are optimistic about the consumer potential in Nigeria, but so far the telecoms surge has not been followed in other sectors.

 

BUDGET COMING UP

 

Nigeria plans to change the base year for its GDP this year from to 2008 from 1990, a move that could lead to a "huge jump" in the estimated size of the West African country's economy.

When Ghana made a similar move to recalculate its GDP last November, its estimated output shot up by 60 percent, catapulting it into the ranks of the middle income countries.

Nigeria's parliament is deliberating on an amended 2012 budget proposal put forward by Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala last month.

 

Okonjo-Iweala widened the fiscal deficit projection in this year's spending plans to 2.97 percent last month, from the 2.77 percent in a previous budget plan presented last year due to lower revenue expectations.

The government was expecting to receive more funds after removing fuel subsidies on Jan. 1, but it was forced to reinstate them partially after tens of thousands took to the streets in more than a week of protests.

And the National Assembly usually adds to the budget.

 

"This is a cause for concern at a time when the government is trying to at least freeze recurrent expenditure and initiate some fiscal consolidation," said Standard Bank's Samir Gadio, adding that if they do it this time, the central bank would most likely be "forced to tighten monetary conditions further".

President Goodluck Jonathan won an election last year pledging to create jobs, boost woefully inadequate power supplies, unlock the world's seventh largest gas reserves and reduce poverty.

But reform plans have stalled. A bill aimed at overhauling the energy sector has been stuck in parliament for years, while a proposed sovereign wealth fund, the 2012 budget and power privatisation plans are months behind schedule.

 

Despite record high oil prices last year, Nigeria's foreign exchange reserves remained flat and oil savings fell. Nigeria is vulnerable to an oil price dip, but with prices at over $125 a barrel, revenues remain strong.

Despite rocketing growth, poverty is increasing in Nigeria owing largely to bad governance.

An NBS report a month ago showed poverty rose to 60.9 percent in 2010, compared with 54.7 percent in 2004, with almost 100 million people living on less than $1 a day.

"Growth without tangible development is a major risk to Nigeria's outlook," Gadio said.


http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/news/76-hot-topic/34349-nigeria-gdp-growth-rises-
 
anguishofbeing
Member # 16736
 - posted
Can anyone explain exactly what it is about the governance of Nigeria that makes the growth rate unable to close the poverty gap?
 
IronLion
Member # 16412
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by anguishofbeing:
Can anyone explain exactly what it is about the governance of Nigeria that makes the growth rate unable to close the poverty gap?

Fake ass J'can, fake ass African...lol!

You are as fake as a whore's false eye lashes.

You wanna know about Nigeria's governance?

Where did you claim to come from this time? The toilet bowl?
 
anguishofbeing
Member # 16736
 - posted
LOL! Check out this hysterical fruitcake. I thought you said you were going to ignore me from now on? [Big Grin]
 
ausar
Member # 1797
 - posted
I imagine a even more devestating problem that Nigeria may encounter is the pull of intellectual capital being exported to the west. Due to the appeal of excessive materialism of the west most of the brighter Nigerians migrate to the west for a better life. Untill greed of the elite and brain drain is effectively managed most of Nigeria will never rise to a competent country.
 
typeZeiss
Member # 18859
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by ausar:
I imagine a even more devestating problem that Nigeria may encounter is the pull of intellectual capital being exported to the west. Due to the appeal of excessive materialism of the west most of the brighter Nigerians migrate to the west for a better life. Untill greed of the elite and brain drain is effectively managed most of Nigeria will never rise to a competent country.

You've been to Nigeria then?
 
Troll Patrol
Member # 18264
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by ausar:
I imagine a even more devestating problem that Nigeria may encounter is the pull of intellectual capital being exported to the west. Due to the appeal of excessive materialism of the west most of the brighter Nigerians migrate to the west for a better life. Untill greed of the elite and brain drain is effectively managed most of Nigeria will never rise to a competent country.

What I hear from Nigerians, is that a lot of the intellectuals are returning. My barber is Nigerian.
 
ausar
Member # 1797
 - posted
No, but I have many Nigerian classmates in my pharmacy classes which happen to be of Ibo and Yoruba descent. Due to my interest in Ifa I can know read many Nigerian newspapers published in the Yoruba language. I realize that this does not present the full picture but I am definately under the impression that brain drain is a big problem for not only Nigeria but many countries all across the African continent.

Please understand I am fully aware that Nigeria has some of the best Universities and research in the continent of Africa and I never made an umbrella statement that the remaining Nigerians were incapable of sustaining a competent governance.

Nigeria is definately on my list of African countries to visit as I would like to see Ile-Ife, the Earthern earth works of Erdo and many other cultural treasures that Nigeria has to offer.

I will also mention that of all the African immigrants Nigerias are amongst the highest achievers in the hard sciences of medicine,engineering, robotics and physics. I would imagine that Nigerians of the diaspora heavily invested in national building skills would provide their home country with the stability that is needed to compete on a global scale.
 
claus3600
Member # 19584
 - posted
@Ausar
I will also mention that of all the African immigrants Nigerias are amongst the highest achievers in the hard sciences of medicine,engineering, robotics and physics.

I thought that Nigerians in the US were educationally the most successful out of ANY immigrant group.
 
claus3600
Member # 19584
 - posted
@Lioness
make more babies,by any means necessary

Another inane comment by Lioness, who pretends to be a black woman; posts at 6am in the morning; has submitted over 9000 comments in just over 2 years; admits to be beimg paid per thread; and was evasive in answering a simple question over whether she/he had visited Africa before finally admitting that she/he hadn't.

Lioness, are you one of the Egyptsearch management? A simple yes or no answer will suffice.
 
ausar
Member # 1797
 - posted
Honestly, I have not looked at the statistics but I am aware of anecdotal evidence from personal experienance. Most of the people of color in my physics/Cal classes were either Indians, eastern Asian,Carribeans,and Nigerians. Since America acts as a magnet for the best of any country I would naturally suspect they would be well represented in the middle to upper middle class demographic.
 
typeZeiss
Member # 18859
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by ausar:
No, but I have many Nigerian classmates in my pharmacy classes which happen to be of Ibo and Yoruba descent. Due to my interest in Ifa I can know read many Nigerian newspapers published in the Yoruba language. I realize that this does not present the full picture but I am definately under the impression that brain drain is a big problem for not only Nigeria but many countries all across the African continent.

Please understand I am fully aware that Nigeria has some of the best Universities and research in the continent of Africa and I never made an umbrella statement that the remaining Nigerians were incapable of sustaining a competent governance.

Nigeria is definately on my list of African countries to visit as I would like to see Ile-Ife, the Earthern earth works of Erdo and many other cultural treasures that Nigeria has to offer.

I will also mention that of all the African immigrants Nigerias are amongst the highest achievers in the hard sciences of medicine,engineering, robotics and physics. I would imagine that Nigerians of the diaspora heavily invested in national building skills would provide their home country with the stability that is needed to compete on a global scale.

whoa, back up. WHY do you have a interest in Ifa? Part of my extend family (cousins) are from Yorubaland. You should also add Benin City to your list and see the Oba's palace. Also they are known for bronze work there. Very beautiful stuff.

As far as Nigerian's problems it is the same story for ALL of Africa. People are being put in power that the west backs. Generally speaking, these people are serving the west, not Africa. Secondly Africa is using western style governance. They need to ditch it and use a modernized traditional African governance. Lastly the education system for primary schools need to be overhauled and put into a African, not a western perspective.
 
typeZeiss
Member # 18859
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by Troll Patrol:
quote:
Originally posted by ausar:
I imagine a even more devestating problem that Nigeria may encounter is the pull of intellectual capital being exported to the west. Due to the appeal of excessive materialism of the west most of the brighter Nigerians migrate to the west for a better life. Untill greed of the elite and brain drain is effectively managed most of Nigeria will never rise to a competent country.

What I hear from Nigerians, is that a lot of the intellectuals are returning. My barber is Nigerian.
A LOT of African's are turning home. Heck even in Sierra Leone, GDP growth has been great and a lot of projects have been going. Also Kenya with its Tech cities are also going to be rising up. Now is the time to go lay ground work and make a go of it.

Not sure if you nkow but even rappers are doing business in africa like Rick Ross, Jay-z, lil Wayne, chuck d etc are all trying to get into the hip hop business in Africa, specifically Nigeria. One of my cousins just came back from Accra and she said it was really coming up too.
 
Troll Patrol
Member # 18264
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by typeZeiss:
quote:
Originally posted by Troll Patrol:
quote:
Originally posted by ausar:
I imagine a even more devestating problem that Nigeria may encounter is the pull of intellectual capital being exported to the west. Due to the appeal of excessive materialism of the west most of the brighter Nigerians migrate to the west for a better life. Untill greed of the elite and brain drain is effectively managed most of Nigeria will never rise to a competent country.

What I hear from Nigerians, is that a lot of the intellectuals are returning. My barber is Nigerian.
A LOT of African's are turning home. Heck even in Sierra Leone, GDP growth has been great and a lot of projects have been going. Also Kenya with its Tech cities are also going to be rising up. Now is the time to go lay ground work and make a go of it.

Not sure if you nkow but even rappers are doing business in africa like Rick Ross, Jay-z, lil Wayne, chuck d etc are all trying to get into the hip hop business in Africa, specifically Nigeria. One of my cousins just came back from Accra and she said it was really coming up too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGSQH51bN-Y&feature=related [Wink]


There is a lot to be seen on YouTube.
 
IronLion
Member # 16412
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by typeZeiss:
quote:
Originally posted by Troll Patrol:
quote:
Originally posted by ausar:
I imagine a even more devestating problem that Nigeria may encounter is the pull of intellectual capital being exported to the west. Due to the appeal of excessive materialism of the west most of the brighter Nigerians migrate to the west for a better life. Untill greed of the elite and brain drain is effectively managed most of Nigeria will never rise to a competent country.

What I hear from Nigerians, is that a lot of the intellectuals are returning. My barber is Nigerian.
A LOT of African's are turning home. Heck even in Sierra Leone, GDP growth has been great and a lot of projects have been going. Also Kenya with its Tech cities are also going to be rising up. Now is the time to go lay ground work and make a go of it.

Not sure if you nkow but even rappers are doing business in africa like Rick Ross, Jay-z, lil Wayne, chuck d etc are all trying to get into the hip hop business in Africa, specifically Nigeria. One of my cousins just came back from Accra and she said it was really coming up too.

quote:
Jeffery Daniels sits at Nigerian Idol
Written by MJJC News Dept
Monday, 27 September 2010 09:34
During the week, OMG (Optima Media Group), the organisers of the Nigerian Idol reality show announced that Jeffrey Daniel, is going to be one of the judges in the talent hunt. Many may not be familiar with that name but in the 1970's and 80's, Daniels with his crew, Shalamar was a sensation.

As a group they were responsible for the great songs including the international smashing hit, A Night to Remember. The man himself was at the launch of the reality show and he spoke with Hazeez Balogun.

Jeffrey Daniel is an African-American dancer, choreographer, singer-songwriter and performer. He's most well known as a member of the soul group, Shalamar, and for performing "the backslide", a physically

http://www.mjjcommunity.com/michael-jackson-news/jeffery-daniels-sits-at-nigerian-idol

[Cool]
 
ausar
Member # 1797
 - posted
I like Ifa because of its complexity. Its a complex religious system that contains morals and values that most westeners believe is lacking in traditional Western African culture. I discovered it while rsearching facts about Africa. I have no interest to convert but I would like to approach it from an academic stand point to learn about the ethnics and morals it can demonstrate.
 
IronLion
Member # 16412
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by ausar:
I like Ifa because of its complexity. Its a complex religious system that contains morals and values that most westeners believe is lacking in traditional Western African culture. I discovered it while rsearching facts about Africa. I have no interest to convert but I would like to approach it from an academic stand point to learn about the ethnics and morals it can demonstrate.

[Roll Eyes] Gee!

ausar, you go and come depending on the day...
 
typeZeiss
Member # 18859
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by ausar:
I like Ifa because of its complexity. Its a complex religious system that contains morals and values that most westeners believe is lacking in traditional Western African culture. I discovered it while rsearching facts about Africa. I have no interest to convert but I would like to approach it from an academic stand point to learn about the ethnics and morals it can demonstrate.

Very interesting.

Let me say this. The western mind will never grasp the African mindset, its culture, traditions or religions. Why? Because Africans are spiritual people by nature. The western mind and its constant over rationalization of the foundations of life itself, will naturally oppose such a state of being.

The average westerner knows nothing about West Africa other than what they see on tv or what some lying "academic" presents them with. So I do not blame them for thinking Africa doesn't posses complex religions.

Now, if I can suggest something to you. You should take some months out to study metaphysics, geometry (how it relates to nature, matter and man), the atomic theory and even string theory. Then you should go back and study Ifa. See, African religions are nothing more and nothing less than spiritualized science. Africans have taken the fundamental functions of reality, matter and nature and spiritualized them (as they should be). This is all these religions are dealing with. Its not hocus pocus magic, its real science put to a spiritualized story, to convey what western science hasn't been able to grasp in its 300 years of existence. Not because they are inherently ignorant but because they approach the field from such a Eurocentric standpoint.

Another thing you have to remember is, knowledge is sacred in Africa. It isn't like in the west where any savage can go to school and learn things they have no business knowing. Only the initiated are taught the greater mysteries. This is where the secret societies in W. Africa come in. We have TONS of them like Porro, Bundu, Sande, Komo, Ogboni etc. This is where, as you move up through these systems, you come to understand the spiritual science which governs the universe. You learn about astrology and the affect on the body etc. Again, things the west still can't grasp. it will probably be in another 300 yrs before they even half way grasp what our fathers knew thousands of years ago. Just to give you a example, a game they play in Sierra Leone and through Africa for that matter is called Warri or some call it Mankala. Anyway, that is nothing more than binary, you know, like the binary that allows computers to function, yeah that binary. Binary is also used in the divination practices as well. It goes deeper than that but im just giving you a glimpse. Anyway you have your work cut out for you, thats for sure. At least you do if you intend to truly understand Ifa.

Your research sounds very interesting and I wish you the best.
 
kikuyu22
Member # 19561
 - posted
Nobody is amazed by lioness' Anglojewish assumptions. We all know where the eugenecist mindset and first world resource hogging right comes from.
Fyi,quite a number of Africans are returning. Its a continental development. Kenya,Uganda,Ethiopia and Naijja most are returning or hope to do so and accomplish meaningful things.
That's a thread in itself,btw!
 
typeZeiss
Member # 18859
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by kikuyu22:
Nobody is amazed by lioness' Anglojewish assumptions. We all know where the eugenecist mindset and first world resource hogging right comes from.
Fyi,quite a number of Africans are returning. Its a continental development. Kenya,Uganda,Ethiopia and Naijja most are returning or hope to do so and accomplish meaningful things.
That's a thread in itself,btw!

Hey brother are you actually kikuyu?
 
Whatbox
Member # 10819
 - posted
Interesting stuff.
 
kikuyu22
Member # 19561
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by typeZeiss:
quote:
Originally posted by kikuyu22:
Nobody is amazed by lioness' Anglojewish assumptions. We all know where the eugenecist mindset and first world resource hogging right comes from.
Fyi,quite a number of Africans are returning. Its a continental development. Kenya,Uganda,Ethiopia and Naijja most are returning or hope to do so and accomplish meaningful things.
That's a thread in itself,btw!

Hey brother are you actually kikuyu?
Yes,of course. Why do you ask?
 
typeZeiss
Member # 18859
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by kikuyu22:
quote:
Originally posted by typeZeiss:
quote:
Originally posted by kikuyu22:
Nobody is amazed by lioness' Anglojewish assumptions. We all know where the eugenecist mindset and first world resource hogging right comes from.
Fyi,quite a number of Africans are returning. Its a continental development. Kenya,Uganda,Ethiopia and Naijja most are returning or hope to do so and accomplish meaningful things.
That's a thread in itself,btw!

Hey brother are you actually kikuyu?
Yes,of course. Why do you ask?
I have a lot of friends from Kenya
 
the lioness
Member # 17353
 - posted
Beyond the Nigeria fuel subsidy crisis

Posted on Friday 20 April 2012 - 08:40
By Yemisi Akinbobola, for Africa Renewal Photo: Isaac Billy, UN photos
One would think that being a citizen of a country with the second-largest oil reserves in Africa came with some perks. Not so in Nigeria where scores of people are up in arms after being stripped of a petrol subsidy in effect since 1973. The price of gas at the pumps more than doubled, sparking massive protests around the nation in early January.

Prior to the subsidy’s removal, the pump price of fuel was 65 naira ($0.40) per litre, against a landing cost of N139. The government therefore contributed a N73 subsidy, for an annual total of N1,200 billion (US$7.6 billion), or 2.6 per cent of the country’s GDP. Divided among nearly 160 million people, the gross domestic product (GDP) averages just $1,695 per person annually.

Reform needed

With 37.2 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, Nigeria is the continent’s largest oil producer. Yet Nigeria is the only member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that needs to import refined fuel, and often suffers scarcities.

Most economists, both in Nigeria and abroad, believe that removal of the subsidy is a necessary step towards long-needed reform, since the country can no longer sustain the cost. Political analyst Garba Sani points to the colossal sums spent on the subsidy, N3,700 billion ($23 billion) in 2006–2011 alone. As an oil-producing country, he adds, Nigeria should not be importing — and subsidizing — refined oil.

A report by Renaissance Capital, a leading investment bank that focuses on emerging markets, argues that removal of the fuel subsidy, combined with other reforms in the power sector, could increase global investors’ interest in the Nigerian market. Potentially, it suggests, Nigeria could become one of the world’s top “frontier markets.”

‘Just the spark’

In 2011, Transparency International ranked Nigeria as among the 40 most corrupt nations in the world. The oil industry in particular is notoriously corrupt, notes Renaissance Capital.

Years of anger and discontent with government performance fuel much of the resentment among ordinary Nigerians, according to Denja Yaqub, the assistant general secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress.

“All sectors have problems in Nigeria, so the subsidy removal was just the spark that Nigerians needed,” says Mr. Yaqub.

Nigeria now has democratic structures, adds Mr. Yaqub, but corruption and mismanagement within the legislative bodies mean they do not adequately perform their democratic duties. “They are constitutionally set up to check each other, but they are all behaving the same way: corrupt, undemocratic, irresponsible and absolutely reckless.”

This corruption, unaccountability and lack of transparency have now been coupled with the government’s apparent inability to tackle increasing religious intolerance, including the attacks of the Islamist sect Boko Haram. All this contributed to the resistance the authorities met when they announced the removal of the fuel subsidy.

Importance of strategy

While President Jonathan may have had the best of intentions for Nigeria’s economic future, observers argue, his government lacked an effective implementation and communication strategy. Subsidy removal may have been the right move, but it was done in the wrong way, and at the wrong time: the country was still recovering from multiple bombings by Boko Haram on Christmas Day.

Mr. Garba Sani argues that it would have been better to remove the subsidy in phases, while at the same time refurbishing the country’s four dilapidated oil refineries. Since 2000 the government has spent $1.78 billion on maintaining the four refineries, with very little to show for it.

They operate at less than a quarter of capacity, and are 30 years behind modern standards. Some maintain that the money used on the fuel subsidy could have been better put to building new refineries and thus ending the need to import refined petroleum.

In addition, tackling corruption and mismanagement within the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation would have helped make removal of the subsidy a more acceptable proposition to the populace.

“If they can simultaneously fight [corruption] as well as increase refinery capacity and withdraw the subsidy gradually,” says Mr. Sani, “the country would have then set up a solid foundation for a permanent removal of the subsidy, a permanent capability of domestic production and a more stable economy.”

According to Thomas Sterner, an expert in environmental economics, getting rid of corruption within the industry may not be easy because of the powerful interests involved. Urban elites directly benefit from the petrol subsidy, he argues, as do smugglers and oil companies such as Oando, which took in $1.4 billion from the subsidized fuel imports last year.

The next time the government contemplates removing the subsidy, it must be “more careful,” argues Mr. Sterner. “You need to have a strategy, and say, ‘We are moving the money immediately. We will use it on health or education or something else’.” That, he says, would make it harder for the beneficiaries of the status quo to say that removing the subsidy hurts the poor.

President Jonathan, it seems, has heeded the experts’ advice. In a sign that the government is moving towards a longer-term strategy to win public acceptance for the subsidy removal, recently inaugurated the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment (SURE) programme in mid-February.

The programme is intended to monitor the funds saved from the subsidy removal and manage their investment in public works projects that may generate 370,000 new jobs, especially jobs for women and youth.
 
Medjay Commander
Member # 17604
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by typeZeiss:
quote:
Originally posted by facts:
And then they will look to the developed world to feed them. Eugenics is the order of the day!

That is funny. The develop world is tapping Africa for farmland and resources yet in your simpleton mind state you think Nigeria will ask the west for help. The only thing Nigeria needs to do is throw the western savage off her back and come up with a modernized form of traditional W. African governance and things will be fine.
[Smile] Indeed I agree
 



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