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Olaudah Equiano®

28 Jun, 11 tweets, 2 min read

THE ONLY REASON WHY THEY WANT TO BORROW FROM THE CHINESE AT INFLATED COSTS TO DO THE RAIL PROJECT INSTEAD OF ADOPTING PPP MODELS LIKE THE GHANAIANS ARE DOING, IS SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY DESIRE TO LOOT, PERIOD.

Thread.

The Ghanaian -European Railway Consortium has signed a contract to construct 340km railway line in Ghana at the cost of $2 billion under a 27 years BOT (Build Operate and Transfer) concessioning arrangement.

This Ghanaian Project is a PPP (Private/Public Project) driven initiative that will not add any jot of debt on the Ghanaian government's balance sheet .
In Nigeria, President Buhari and Minister Rotimi Amaechi have borrowed the same amount of money, $2billion to construct...

the 156km Lagos-Ibadan Standard Guage rail line. Similar technology and project as the Ghanaians .
We are even hearing rumours that their maybe cost overrun on the Lagos- Ibadan project.

The World Bank , IMF and every other global development funding agency have on their websites, average contemporary costs of doing a KM of rail projects across different frontiers in the world.
Average cost of doing a kilometer of standard gauge rail network project is $3.5m.

For narrow gauge rail network of $2.56m per kilometer.
If you do your calculation and numbers well, you will see clearly that the average cost of doing a kilometer of the Ghana national standard gauge rail network project under a 27 years private sector led BOT arrangement...

is not far from the World Bank average cost benchmarks.
But for a similar standard gauge rail network being executed by Amaechi and Buhari in Nigeria under the obsolete and corruption ridden Public sector led Nigeria Railway Corporation, the cost is double. This is sad!!!

The most painful thing about the economic rape that have continued unabated in Nigeria since 1999, is that we have an overwhelming mass of ignorant citizenry, who celebrate this daylight public sector heist, without asking questions.

They celebrate those who daily rob and steal from them without asking questions.
To compound our woes in Nigeria, we have a hopelessly docile national and state assemblies, that passes every rubbish that is presented to them without much queries .
This is annoyingly sickening.

Even ordinary Ghana, Ethiopia and Rwanda are getting it right, and we are here wasting resources in Nigeria and accumulating public sector debts, that are mostly looted by those we elected to serve us.

Tomorrow one ignorant court jester, will do a selfie at Km 23 of the Lagos Ibadan rail line, and celebrate as if he won a lottery that something good is happening here.

© Nnaemeka Obiaraeri

citibusinessnews.com/2019/04/ghana-…

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Olaudah Equiano®

@RealOlaudah

28 Jun

THE STORY OF JESUS OF OYINBO (JESU OYINBO) THE SELF-ACCLAIMED CHRIST.
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Read the fascinating story of Jesus of Oyingbo, a self-acclaimed saviour, his empire and how he died in 1988.

- A self-acclaimed Jesus, Jesu Oyingbo, made history in Lagos between the 1970s and 1980s
- He acquired converts to his church, wealth and wives, some of whom he acquired very unlawfully
- He claimed he was the coming Christ, drew a lot of people to himself but died miserably

- Following his death, his ministry, family and all that called his name were scattered and abandoned
“I am He. I am Jesus Christ, the very one whose second coming was foretold in the New Testament. I have come, and those who believe in me will have an everlasting life and joy.

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26 Jun

EE to bring back mobile roaming charges in Europe.

EE, leading UK mobile operator, reinstates roaming charges for new UK customers traveling in Europe and becomes the first mobile operator to re-introduce roaming charges after Brexit.

The BT-owned company, said Thursday that customers which are joining after July 7 will be charged £ 2 per day from January to use their data, voice, or text messages in the EU.

This is a departure from the previous position of the EE, regarding the possibility of reverting to roaming tariffs after the UK, left the single European market.

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Olaudah Equiano®

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18 Jun

2023: BOLA TINUBU AND THE COST OF POLITICAL MISCALCULATION.

The godfather of Lagos politics, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in 2015 led the South-West into an alliance with the North to birth the All Progressive Alliance (APC).

His decision, evidently, was informed by the expectation that the two geopolitical regions will share power, invariably to the exclusion of the Eastern bloc. And ultimately that he, or the South-West, will take power by the time the North completes two terms in 2023.

But it has proved to be a miscalculation.
Certainly, power play is about conspiracies and alliances. Tinubu is well within his right to do what he thought would best advance his political interest and that of his region.

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Olaudah Equiano®

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18 Jun

MERCENARIES AND THE ULI AIRSTRIP

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The Uli Airstrip was the most important link between Biafra and the outside world during the Nigerian civil war. Most of the major airfields in Biafra were captured by government forces early in the war.

Had the Nigerian government destroyed the Uli Airstrip, the war and the humanitarian catastrophe that accompanied it probably would have ended very quickly. Unfortunately, the government was dependent on mercenary pilots who were skilled enough to target the airport at night.

When mercenaries working for the government refused to destroy the airport, Biafra was able to continue its resistance (De St. Jorre 1972, 318).

Why were the mercenary pilots unwilling to strike an obvious military target? There are two basic reasons.

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Olaudah Equiano®

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Igbo Critics and the Presumed Menace of Nnamdi Kanu:
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Among the broad conglomeration of Igbo people of Nigeria, there are two categories of critics of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB (Indigenous Peoples of Biafra).

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Olaudah Equiano®

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13 Jun

How Nigeria under Buhari kidnapped an ex-minister in London and bundled him into a crate bound for Lagos:

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Dikko, who criticized the military regime under Buhari, managed to flee to London reportedly dressed as a priest.
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