@osasuo@jayhemz@gozie_cyril@jon_d_doe You are the one that lack basic English communication skills. You can not type someone's name immediately after “old classmate” and expect people not to see it that way. You should have tagged him at the beginning before you started typing your story.
Was a regular flyer 2008-2009.
Arik was 15k (Aero used to do 6k but you needed to book long in advance).
One of my tickets below.
Lagos-Ilorin, Dec 2009.
N15k. Return trip, N30k
That was 15% of my 200k salary.
15% of total salary on a single return trip to Ilorin was not something you would "spend and not know"
Companies paying N200k then are paying N1.5m today.
15% of N1.5m = 225k = N112.5k one-way.
Not too far off from the average flight cost today.
It was as convenient/inconvenient for people working in those companies then as it is for those working there today.
If you think N15k flight was an easy decision then, the night buses won't have market then.
Just as people thinking building a house was easy when N200k can build a house. Why didn't everyone build a house then if N200k was that easy to come by?
Or when flight ticket to the UK was N17k in the 1970s (& even visa free for Nigerians then), why didn't many people's parents travel to the UK then if that amount was easy spend relative to their income?
I know things have been getting worse over years, but I see this trend of people using "today's eyes" to look at "old expenses" and declaring those old expenses as easy to spend then.
If na so e easy, why everyone no get house then or fly or travel abroad.
Flying was a luxury in 2009 as it is in 2026. When it was N15k, only few people in good jobs can afford it. Almost just as now.
@StatiSense This kind of tweet will erode your reputation and relevance. This data doesn't have meaning to most people because data like this can never be objective and therefore won't be credible. Kindly focus more on verifiable facts rather than opinionated views presented as fact. Thanks!
I actively supported and campaigned for Buhari/CPC in 2011.
But I knew he was not going to win.
Few weeks to election, I stopped to buy recharge card at a place in Ajah.
I saw some guys - including one named Taofeek - discussing politics.
I joined them.
To my shock, none of them knew there was any candidate as Buhari.
Few weeks to election. In Lagos.
They didn't know there was a candidate called Buhari. They were of voting age.
Meanwhile, Buhari was pulling crowds at campaigns in the North. And on some sections of social media (eg Nairaland).
I had to pick my pen and write this article ar the time.
An Adamu in Kano whose worldview is shaped by what he saw in Kano would have thought Buhari was going to win that election.
But a Taofeek in Lagos didn't even know there was a Buhari contesting, not to talk of an Emeka in Ogwuashi Uku.
You can't win a presidential election without national spread.
If you use your own environment to judge, you are mistaking.
This was also why violence erupted in some parts of the North after 2011 election result was announced when the Adamus used their environment to think that was how everywhere was for Buhari and felt Buhari was rigged out when the result was announced and he didn't win.
This is also the problem I have with those that kept saying PO won the 2023 elections.
There were places in Kebbi or Katsina where the mention of Peter Obi, few days to that 2023 election, they would ask you whether he was a footballer.
People don't get these things.
People use popularity within their immediate environment or social media to conclude presidential elections result.
I am not your problem. I am only telling you how presidential election is won in Nigeria.
You can keep insulting me.
@Letter_to_Jack Babafemi Ojudu wrote about it in his book, Adventure of a Guerrilla Journalist. MKO Abiola, Owner of African Concord asked them to apologize they resigned instead. I thought they would kill them while reading the book because of what they had to go through. So many near misses🤣
@maxsiollun Please don't retire. I have all your books(original copies not pirated ones) on Nigeria. I plan to buy as soon as you write in the future. Don't stop because of nonentities. Your book is the only book I lost after I read and I had to buy it again and keep it for next generation.
@Letter_to_Jack Voyager 1 and 2. They won't be able to reach the Andromeda galaxy which is our closest galaxy before they both shut down and continue silently on the endless journey. If you read about the universe you will realise how minute we are in the grand vastness of the universe.
No, it is not a defence. Just a statement of fact. And difficult doesn’t mean impossible. Selling crude and funding primary schools and primary healthcare centres is not hard at all if that were all there was to it. Pouring concrete and building roads is also not difficult at all. Virtually anybody can do it.
What is hard is doing it while fighting corruption, ethnic distrust, insecurity and a population that is growing at a higher rate than your economy., in a system that appears to have been deliberately designed not to work.
But even in societies where these factors don’t exist, majority of people still fail at governance because it is such a complex endeavour. Musk was busy wielding chainsaws while Trump was preparing his ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’
Leading people and taking countries to prosperity and development is not easy. It’s doable but not easy. That’s why the developed countries are fewer than the underdeveloped ones.
We were able to export groundnut in 1963 but can’t do so now because we discovered that crude oil you want us to sell, abandoned agriculture, manufacturing and honest effort, and embraced corruption and waste as directive principles of state policy.
We also had a Constitution, based on regional autonomy, that encouraged productivity and healthy competition, not the overcentralised one we have now that only cares about sharing.
That is why some of us advocate strongly for a restructuring of our arrangements. Governance still won’t be easy in a restructured setting but at least the basics (like funding primary schools and healthcare centres) would be much easier.
Today, I joined my fellow South West governors in Ibadan for the South West Governors’ Forum meeting, where we focused on the major issues affecting our region, including security, agriculture and economic development.
As a Forum, we agreed to establish a South West Security Fund under the DAWN Commission and to create a digital intelligence-sharing platform to strengthen coordination among our states. We also discussed the need for improved forest surveillance and called for Federal support to deploy Forest Guards, with states providing the required personnel.
We addressed concerns about unregulated interstate migration and committed to working with NIMC to enhance identification and border monitoring. We also highlighted the growing risks associated with illegal mining and agreed on the need for stricter licensing and stronger enforcement. The Forum reaffirmed its support for the establishment of State Police, as we believe this reform is overdue.
The strength of our region lies in our unity, and as Chairman of the Forum, I remain committed to working with my colleagues to build a safer and more prosperous South West for all.