...
Post A Reply
my profile
|
directory
login
|
register
|
search
|
faq
|
forum home
»
EgyptSearch Forums
»
Egyptology
»
OT: African Computer Technology Comes Full Circle
» Post A Reply
Post A Reply
Login Name:
Password:
Message Icon:
Message:
HTML is not enabled.
UBB Code™ is enabled.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Doug M: [QB] But Kenndo, this thread isn't about shipbuilding it is about the computer industry...... But since you mention the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, why not actually produce the facts about it? The ASC is one of the most scandalous examples of corruption and collusion in Nigeria. It is a steel plant that was built by Russians to be a government owned steel operation, that NEVER produced anything and has continually been plagued by mismanagement, theft of equipment and corruption. The company was then put up for sale by the government and had been bought by an INDIAN steel company. But then there was a lot of controversy within Nigeria about the sale of a company that was FINANCED by NIGERIAN TAXES to a foreigner. Now the sale is tentatively canceled because Nigerians questioned why a company financed by Africans and built by Russians should be controlled by Indians. So this is EXACTLY an example of why your spam posts are not relevant because they show how NAIVE you are in understanding what is ACTUALLY happening in Africa. You oversimplify the problems facing Africans and engage in PR spam by cutting and pasting stories that amount to nothing but superficial advertising for projects and agendas that are not fundamentally controlled by or run by Africans. NOW the Ajaokuta Steel project may have the potential to serve the agenda of African industry over 20 years after it was built. But it is ONLY because of the PRESSURE that has been put on the government to STOP the practices that only allow FOREIGNERS to gain the majority benefit from industrial activity in Africa. [QUOTE] The Federal Government may have terminated the concession of Ajaokuta Steel Complex to Global Infrastructure Holding Company of India. The steel complex, built by a Russian firm, was Inaugurated on September 16, 1979. The complex was initially expected to produce 1.5m tones of long steel products per annum. Its capacity was, however, expanded to between 3.6m and 6m tonnes. Investigations revealed that the steel company has not met its objectives, forcing the Federal Government to look for investors. The concession agreement with the Indian firm was hurriedly concluded in May 2007. Although Global Holding paid about $300m for the concession, the value of the steel complex was then put at about $5billion. A source in The Presidency, told our correspondent in Abuja, that the Federal Government had not been happy with the concession agreement and the management of the steel complex. He also said that Northern leaders are opposed to the engagement of the Indian firm. "Since this administration came in board, it has received many petitions and protests on the concession of Ajaokuta Steel Complex. "The protests led to the establishment of a panel of inquiry to look into allegations surrounding the concession of the complex. "From the findings of the panel, the government may have no choice than to terminate the concession agreement" the source told The Nation. "The report of the panel has been sent to the Attorney-General of the Federation for advice. You know that the government cannot terminate a concession agreement without considering the legal implications." On the technical competence of Global Holding, he said it had been less satisfactory to the government. He added, "We have found out that the Indian firm could not manage the complex and it had to reengage about 50 Russian and Ukrainian experts, who built it. "There are also allegations of cannibalization of Ajaokuta Steel Complex and non-payment of salaries of workers. The purpose of concession is being defeated by these problems." When contacted, the management of Global Holding said it could only speak officially on Monday. One of the officers of the firm, Mr.Aja Nittin, said: "The management, through the corporate affairs unit, will react to some of the issues on Monday." [/QUOTE]From: http://www.thenigeriabusiness.com/comm29.html Everyone in Africa does not share the undue optimism of those who ignore or pretend not to know about the challenges facing African development. It isn't an issue of being negative, it is an issue of understanding and realizing the obstacles so that they can be moved out of the way. Ignoring or pretending that such obstacles do not exist only means that they will continue to hamper the goals of African economic independence. BY a Nigerian FROM Nigeria: [QUOTE] Ajaokuta Steel Project And Nigeria's Industrialisation Process Daily Trust (Abuja) ANALYSIS November 12, 2003 Prince Haruna Al-Rashid Yusuf Ajaokuta is in the news once again! The steel complex located there has turned out to have the longest gestation period among public sector industrial projects in Nigeria. There are confused signals surrounding the "concession agreement" signed between the federal government of Nigeria/Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (FGN/ASCL) and an American company (SOLGAS ENERGY LTD). A sigh of relief came in the wake of the news that ASCL will resume production soon and the joyous mood was overwhelming at some quarters. The worrisome and salient question is 'does the American company have the expertise and experience to execute all it has claimed?' From all available information the answer is unfortunately NO. The chairman of the company, Thomas Russell, started trading with Nigeria since 1992 as an oil merchant. The Nigerian subsidiary of his company, according to one Mr. Segun Oyefeso was registered in 2001 - to carry on the business of importation of electric generating sets. Today the total annual turnover of Solgas Energy Ltd. is $ 60million. This represents the modest financial profile of the American company. The company has no stint in steel business from any part of the world. Yet, the presidency has defended SOLGAS as a "financier" who is willing to bring into the country the whooping sum of $3.6 billion - to invest in our steel sector, but has failed to educate us what percentage of the total FGN investment is such capital outlay. Secondly, is it the right type of investment to salvage our steel industry? And very importantly, has SOLGAS got the financial clout to inject such foreign capital from the western financial world into the Nigerian economy? Where is the proof? On the surface of it, there is no clear evidence to substantiate the above claim by SOLGAS. Our recent experience in which NITEL privatisation crashed is still fresh in our memory. As the core investor, Investment International (London) Limited, IILL, was instructed by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to effect the payment to the tune of $131.7million in favour of FGN; being 51 percent of NITEL capitalisation. The so-called foreign investor failed woefully to redeem its pledge at the end of the day... In summary, our entire approach to the privatisation scheme is "shrouded in secrecy and frauds incorporated" and it is very frightening. We will not get that $3.6billion from SOLGAS. Our current effort is a dismal failure and a national disaster. We can sit up again to re-strategise Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flow into the country. World politics on steel Ordinarily, one should not have bothered oneself about it. But as soon as you look beneath the skin of SOLGAS saga, one observes quite different type of images emerging. It is the immediate cause of the refraction, which in reality accounted for the grand conspiracy "hatched" between the United States, Britain and Obasanjo's administration to scuttle the Ajaokuta Steel Project - to truncate the entire steel dream of Nigeria, which President Shagari nurtured - knowing full well that without steel technology, we can never, ever, become industrialised. Yes, all industrialised nations have functional steel industry (ies). What is more, if we actually desire a new gas plant for Nigeria, as being proposed by the president, why must it be sited just on the parcel of land already earmarked for phases I and II expansion programmes of the integrated steel plant? Why Ajaokuta of all places in the world? Please, let SOLGAS find elsewhere to site its power generating plant. ASCL is the brainchild of NIOMP, Itakpe. What is intended to sprout out there are "iron and steel" and not "electricity". There are perhaps other communities within Nigeria that would gladly welcome a foreign investment of any description but Ajaokuta, most certainly, will not accept this American (i.e. Greek gift) investment. Gas power technology The Sapele Gas powered electricity generating plant in Delta State is left there moribund for some time now. The question is that why can't SOLGAS enter into agreement to rehabilitate, expand and manage this industry, more so that Sapele is closer to the "flaring gases" of Niger Delta than Ajaokuta. "Propane gas" is fluid and highly inflammable but steel is more tangible in material handling. The engineering difficulties associated with transportation of the gas over long distances, with difficult terrains like we have around Ajaokuta is better imagined. We should ask ourselves, firstly, how effective we can cope with "pipe vandalisations" and maintenances thereof in the country? Can you imagine a situation in which we cannot vouch to deliver drinking water safely to our homes - I mean without leakages here and there, then, how does the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) contemplate handling the hazardous hydrocarbon gas-pipe lines? What is the evidence of experience of SOLGAS in similar jobs anywhere in the world let alone in Nigeria? We deserve to know these answers, to confirm my fears or otherwise that President Obasanjo and his surrogates have concluded plans to exterminate the entire Ebira race in gas chamber-like catastrophe - reminiscent of course, how in 1942 Adolph Hitler of Germany and his cohorts eliminated six million Jews at a concentration camp in gas chambers explosion. It amuses one quite frankly, that President Obasanjo and his Oyibo friends are making frantic mistake in history with SOLGAS project to deceive and tame Anebira with the rest Nigerians looking on helplessly. He dragged them along the street, veiled their vision in ignorance, innocence and misery. And the truth must be told that the president is dishonest about ASCL. He has not asked the host community whether we would prefer a power generating plant to a steel plant. We desire a "presidency with decent human face". [/QUOTE]From: http://www.nigerianmuse.com/projects/ChemIndustryProject/?u=YusufAjaokutasteelproject.htm [QUOTE] The celebration of the 10th anniversary of Nigerian independence in 1970 took place in an atmosphere of a euphoria induced by the cessation of the civil war and the beginning oil boom. The Sunday Times, by far the most popular Nigerian newspaper at the time, had asked its readers to summarize Nigeria’s post-independence history in three sentences. The inimitable Sam Amuka, writing under the pseudonym Sad Sam, provided an insightful summary that reflected his satirical genius and journalistic wit. He wrote: “The white man went home but came back on a platter of gold. The man of the people fed fat until the redeemer of the people came. We exchanged monkeys for baboons!” Over the years, I have often wondered how Sad Sam, if he had not retired his peerless pen, would have been summarizing Nigeria’s convoluted and sickening history. Taking a cue from him, one could summarize our years of putative independence in these three sentences: British alligators were replaced by Nigerian crocodiles. Soldiers and politicians turned Nigeria into a Plunder Unlimited Company. Because of the ensuing decay, we have become a colony of maggots! The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines a maggot as the young stage of a fly that lives in a decaying environment. Any professional entomologist will pick bones with such restrictive definition of a maggot. We shall permit the entomologists and others inclined towards esoteric zoology to pick whatever bones they wish with Longman’s definition. Likewise, we need not spend extensive time to catalog the symptoms of Nigeria’s syndrome- the unarguable stagnation and decay that tail our dog like prehensile tags. Once we purge ourselves of the chloroform of Government propaganda and our masturbatory, much hackneyed self-adulation as the giant of Africa, we can face the somber reality that, almost 48 years after our so-called independence, Nigeria has tragically remained what Professor Wole Soyinka described as “The Open Sore of a Continent.” More than Forty-seven years after the British ostensibly departed, our major towns and cities have abandoned the concept of town planning. Filth and squalor mark our municipal centers as showcases of urban decay. The collapse of our physical infrastructure is evident in our comatose railway system. Most of our schools are decrepit; their physical disrepair depicts a society that has been too busy to think, too confused to plan, too lazy to work, and too insane to take care of its young. Consequently, St. Stephen’s Anglican Primary School, Ora-Igbomina, is worse today than when I was there. The primary school where I once served as the pupil librarian now has no library! Ilesa Grammar School, Ilesa, is worse today than when I went there. The U.C.H. and the University of Ibadan are worse today than when I studied there. In stark contrast, the University of Minnesota, in the twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul is much better today than when I was there. The University of Florida, Gainesville, is far better today than when I was there. The University of Georgia, Athens, is infinitely better today than when I was there. [/QUOTE]From: http://www.nigerianmuse.com/20080805121807zg/nigeriawatch/rescuing-nigeria-from-the-maggot-syndrome-sola-adeyeye [QUOTE] Alu Kingsley The decision of the federal government to rescind on the concession agreement between it and the Indian company, Global Infrastructure Nigeria Ltd, on account of non-compliance in respect of Ajaokuta Steel Company and the National Iron Ore Mining Company, has drawn a lot of reactions from a cross section of Nigerians. The extended invitation to TPE, the Russian Company and the original builders of the Ajaokuta Steel Company to come and carry out a technical audit of the company, has continued to generate hot debates. It is necessary to recall, that an administrative panel of enquiry, set up by the federal government and charged with the responsibility of reviewing the concession agreements and determining the extent of compliance by both parties, submitted in its report that, the agreements were largely skewed in favour of the concessionaire to the detriment of the federal government and the country at large. The report also said that any benefits that might have accrued to the government and the people of Nigeria from implementation of the agreements, have been mischievously thwarted by breaches and other unwholesome practices by GIHL. The Indian company was also indicted for breaches of concession agreements which included, failure to submit a workable business plan with a specified time frame. Other offences were, non payment of concessioning fees, as well as the cannibalisation and exportation of plants and equipments. Even as the government pointed out, the purported Share Sales Purchase Agreement (SSPA), between it and GIHL, in respect of ALSC, was technically not in force, because the transfer of shares to the purchase was never effected. Going by the fragrant breach, the statutory obligations outstanding against GIHL was put at N350 million. It was also revealed by the report that there was a clear case of criminality; instead of investing external funds on the completion of both the Ajaokuta Steel Company and the National Iron Ore Mining Company as expected, GIHL, embarked on massive borrowing from local commercial banks, and without recourse to consequences, pledged the assets of the Delta Steel Company as collateral. Presently, its debt portfolio to the banks according to financial reports, stood at $192million. The company was also indicted in diminishing the values of ASCC and NIOMCO, to buoy up their fortunes. Another Economic and Financial Crimes report, also implicated them on the same account, following which president Yar'Adua ordered the criminal persecution of indicted officials of the federal government under the Obasanjo regime and promoters of GHIL, for asset stripping. Chukwuma Soludo– led Central Bank was also charged to determine the exact amount borrowed by GIHL from Nigerian banks, and establish the amounts actually utilised locally and amount allegedly siphoned out of the country. Ajaokuta Steel Company was valued at $6billion in 2006, according to technical foreign experts, but amidst wide protests, by concerned interest groups, the Obasanjo administration, inspite of its sanctimonious posturing and make-believe anti-corruption stand, turned a deaf ear to the calls and sold the company at a paltry $525 million. In a letter dated April 16, 2007 and signed by Mr. Didi Adodo and Mr. K. Kadiri, both of whom are general secretaries of Iron and Steel Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ISSSAN) and Steel and Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria (SEWUN), the workers warned the government of the day, that the Indian Company did not possess the capacity to carry out the project as they had earlier claimed in their submission to the government. The two unions, then drew the attention of the government to the need to follow due process which they claimed had been compromised in the entire process. To drive home their point, they mentioned a local company called B.G.L, which the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), was fingered to have hurriedly contracted to evaluate Ajaokuta Steel Company and which equally concluded the assignment in a record five days. In 2001, it took a Russian company three months to conclude the same task on the steel company. The Ibira community also expressed shock at the frenetic super fast lane process of selling the company to GIHL. [/QUOTE]From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200809290398.html [/QB][/QUOTE]
Instant Graemlins
Instant UBB Code™
What is UBB Code™?
Options
Disable Graemlins in this post.
*** Click here to review this topic. ***
Contact Us
|
EgyptSearch!
(c) 2015 EgyptSearch.com
Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3