We should organize ourselves and stimulate one another into building a product/products in its full capacity for exportation , something which would revolutionize the world and Naija like china has done for themselves. We can tap into their knowledge and see if th red winter wheat can be genetically modified to grow in Naija instead of having to pay billions for it to our detriment... I live you for today

What The Nigerian Government does not tell you

Top flour milling executives

from Nigeria visited the United

States in April 2010 to tell the story

of how a partnership between

the U.S. government and wheat

producers has helped them

build the second largest

industry in the West African

nation. U.S. Wheat Associates

(USW), using USDA’s Market

Access Program (MAP)

funding sponsored the trade visit, which includes stops in Washington, DC,

Kansas, and Texas.

Nigeria buys more U.S. hard red winter (HRW) wheat every year than any

other country and will likely be the largest U.S. wheat buyer in the world in 2009/10 (June-May). As much as 90 percent of the wheat milled in Nigeria

is imported from the United States, including hard red spring (HRS), hard

white (HW), durum, and soft red winter (SRW) wheat. Since 2001 when

USW opened a technical service office in Lagos, average annual wheat sales

to Nigeria have doubled from about 1.5 million metric tons (55 million

bushels) to almost 3 million metric tons (110 million bushels), returning

billions of dollars back to the U.S. economy

''Our industry relies on U.S. wheat because it is a very good value and we

can source every type of wheat we need all year long,” said Mr. Debo

Agbonyin, Executive Director, Corporate Services, for BUA International

Flour Mills.

“U.S. wheat has also become a basic ingredient for greater economic

opportunity in Nigeria,” said USW President Alan Tracy. “Doing business in

Nigeria can be difficult, but their milling industry supports thousands of jobs

and is still expanding its capacity. We have supported that growth by helping

these millers introduce new products like pasta, instant noodles, and cookies

into this growing market.”

U.S. wheat producer checkoff funds MAP, Foreign Market

Development (FMD) program, and other USDA programs,

provide in-country USW representation, support trade and

technical service activities, and allow USW to bring trade teams to

the United States to help buyers, technicians, and government

officials understand how to get the most value possible from U.S. wheat.

This Nigerian trade team is unique in that the millers will spend two days in

Washington, DC, meeting with U.S. officials who have jurisdiction over

federal export market development programs. They want to inform those

officials that these programs are a valuable investment.

“Whatever we have achieved, the foundation has been laid by U.S. Wheat

Associates,” said Mr. Tunde Odunayo, Chairman of Honeywell Flour Mills,

Lagos, Nigeria. “We know that USW is funded by farmers and USDA. It is

money well-spent.”

From Washington, the Team traveled to Kansas City, MO, to meet with U.S.

exporters. Stops in Manhattan, KS, and Dallas, TX, managed by the Kansas

Wheat Commission and Texas Wheat Producers Board, put the team in

touch with wheat producers and gave them a chance to get an early look at

the 2010/11 hard red winter wheat crop.

Has anyone been to Murtala Mohammed International Airport lately.... OMG better seen than talked about.

Why does our government allow things like this happen? How irresponsible can a government be? Mr Ajumogobia would definitely find it difficult selling Nigeria. It is not enough having a lawyer and Harvard trained guy as a minister of foreign affairs without the appropriate incentives. Nigeria is a hard sell.... But we can still change it.

I heard Mr Fashola had turned Lagos into a paradise. I was at Raymond Njoku, Queens Drive and a few other streets in Ikoyi and the roads were in a deplorable state. I then went to Ijegun satellite and Usher's hit came to my lips.... OMG...

I am back after a long period of silence. I had a lot of stuff to do and take care of for a year. I hope I turn a new leaf and blog regularly.

I was thinking about what would be the best thing to do regarding security in Nigeria. I talked with a couple of people in Ireland /U.K and I was very surprised when nobody accepted anything I had to say. There were a lot of cynical comments passed as well that I began to wonder how Oyibos would change what they thought about us if we were not any better about our thinking of ourselves.

The change in Naija would have to start from somewhere. It would not be enough if we just talk and do nothing about it.

Edmund Burke the Irish statesman and somewhat English gentleman is wrongly quoted to have said "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." What is important is that this statement makes sense. What exactly are we doing

Hello,

If you stumble upon naked pictures of people you know in a camera , would you upload them online and circulate them to other friends. What about if you do not know these people? Mmmmhh..... Food for thought. Would you see it as a 'laugh' or take it seriously and say it could have been you and decide to hold back believing it is the right thing to do? Empathically putting yourself in the shoes of the one who apparently enjoyed him/herself but realised what they did was a mistake especially in a hostile society like Nigeria, I do not think sending their naked pictures around via email or text should be the order of the day even if they were working at ......

Hi Folks,

I was watching AIT News this evening and one of the captions was the plight of the widow in Nigeria and the difficulty they go through to pull themselves and their children through everyday necessities including feeding and schooling and I was wondering if it was possible to set up a social welfare system which would be specific for widows in nigeria. Would this be too hard for us to do? I wonder what government feels about this. A lady that was subsequently interviewed said that wickedness on the part of the inlaws would be responsible for the paucity/lack of help from them but I would reckon the reason to be the pervasive lack/poverty amongst these individuals. It is so hard to make enough naira only for it to be fast losing its value as the days turn into weeks and the weeks turn into months. However our government is not popular for living up to responsibilities. What can we do?

Hello Folks,

This is just me Uche.... reaching out to my fellow Nigerians and wondering what their thoughts are regarding what we would like to see changed in our home country Nigeria. Having said this, I would also like to add that many of us do have thoughts but that is where they usually end.... I mean they just end being thoughts.

I was with a group of friends recently and I asked this question-. how do we think we can change this country for the better? Unfortunately one of the resounding replies was that we have to get the agberos on our side before we can have any meaningful change. Sad isn't it . Do the agberos reallly determine the pace of the country? However I guess it is time for us to prove James watson wrong( we do remember his story about something being genetically wrong with the black race http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/fury-at-dna-pioneers-theory-africans-are-less-intelligent-than-westerners-394898.html ) because it is taking a long time in coming.

I read The Sun Newspapers on the 7th of august 2009 and I was wondering what exactly was the meaning of federal character. Please see excerpt

According to a letter to the chairman of the Federal Character Commission, Prof. S. Oba Abdulraheem, a copy of which Saturday Sun got, the Supreme Council for Sahari’an in Nigeria said that the opportunity of having a Muslim as number citizen in the country should be used to entrench Muslims in government.The letter said: “Mr. Chairman, it is important to note that Muslims are not asking for any favour on this matter. Rather, they are demanding their right, justice and equity. In our considered view, now is a God-given opportunity, which may not avail itself again, once it is not seized upon. We should, therefore, promptly seize upon this opportunity and in doing so, adopt a holistic resolution of the ugly and untenable trend in the marginalization of Muslims. “If we fail to do so, then we would unwittingly find ourselves in the helpless position of the Hutu complacent majority in Rwanda, who were overrun and massacred in genocide by the minority Tutsi, who had the foresight to plan the systematic control of the military and other strategic security agencies. And as the saying goes, those who fail to learn from the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it. If we fail to right the monumental wrong today, then we should prepare for a perilous future.” Entitled, “the Imperative of the Constitutional Principle of Federal Character to redress gross marginalization in the Armed Forces, the Police, Security Agencies and other MDAs (Ministries, Departments and Agencies),” the council said that the lopsided recruitments and appointments in the armed forces and police/security agencies in flagrant disregard for constitutional requirement of Federal Character does not augur well for the security and stability of the Nigerian state and transgresses the sense of constitutional propriety, transparency and fairness, all of which are indispensable components of the rule of law.Besides, the group said that it does not give assurance of fairness and fair play in the conduct of national affairs, thereby creating the fear of the probability of a re-enactment of the Rwandan Hutu/Tutsi massacres among a large section of Muslims.

This sounds interesting. I would be glad to know what we think about this. Does merit really matter in Naija? Can mediocrity produce results because of the federal character principle or would this principle favour merit better than mediocrity? If we need results the way we desperately do, would this form and line of thinking help in this present day and age. Does this begger belief? I would want change to start with water everywhere from Ijebuland in the southwest to kachia in kaduna and sunkani in taraba right across to iboland to the itsekiris to the gwaris to the nupes to the fulanis. Is this a pipe dream? I will share a secret with you - water is freely avaliable in every home in Ireland and guess what.... It is free, No bills. I would love to hear your thoughts about this.