Nice and educative topic.
Coincidentally, I attended some financial conference/workshop last year, and a gentleman from one of the leading global banks started a discussion along these line. And I am almost sure there are new financial products in the pipeline in this direction. It could be in the form of equities/shares derivatives that will be similar to existing FX options (plain vanillas / structured products). which is, you buy the right to sell or buy financial instruments within specific time frame. For this right, you pay a premium.
Basically, what this might look like is a new financial product in the form of equity derivatives with some sort of floor and ceiling prices built in it with triggers to trigger automatic sales when these indicated price ranges are reached.
What happens when you buy shares, is that you buy part of the company in which you are buying the shares and as long as the construction remains this way, I am not sure companies will be willing to be the ones to solely take on the risks without passing on some of the risks involved onto investors, who are also investing in anticipation of making profits.
It’s early Monday morning and it’ too early to crack / stretch my brains…, But nice topic though. To all the financial gurus in the house I would say. Bring it on! This could be an opportunity to develop a product with huge market potential! 
Poske, you game? haha! just teasing.
Have a nice day guys,

Okonkwo, in "Things fall apart" but with a lot more refined and sophisticated temperiment.

My brother,
N5,000 is nothing o. I am almost certain this will not even cover your transportation cost, let alone feeding yourself.
Like someone mentioned earlier, boredom is not the best either.
Why not take up some voluntary work ie old people' home, motherless babies home, salvation army. This way you will be involved in something that is highly socially responsible and at the same show to prospective future employers that you are willing and ready to work. You will also develop a routine and descipline you will need when you eventually get a job.
Why not drop me an e-mail @ amster_1@hotmail.com
Goodluck brother!

Ijogbon? Ijogbon?
First you try playing ignorant by asking for the definition of corrupt and dubious.
And then start pointing fingers at other Nations that are corrupt in your opinion. As if this should justify the magnitude of corruption in the Nigerian society. Moreover, those countries you’ve mentioned, they at least have health care systems that cater for the majority of the populace, stable supply of electricity, consumable water supply, good roads network, telecommunication, good education system etc. to mention but a few.
Who cares if those countries you’ve mentioned are corrupt and dubious! Let’s look and talk about Nigeria, that’s the country this post is intended to address.
Yes. Corruption and being dubious can be very relative and almost everyone might be guilty one way or the other.
“They all looted and continue to loot the gullible African people. They receive the proceeds of the looting of African treasuries by their leaders and refuse to return these funds”….This is exactly part of the point! You might want to ask yourself why the looting isn’t happening the other way around. Could it be because that the citizens of those other countries are less ready and less willing to compromise themselves as the average Nigerian?
I guess this is what the poster is trying to address. I totally disagree with figures though.
Corruption is very rampant and endemic in the Nigerian society, and the average Nigerian tends not to have a clue or tend to turn blind eyes to the pitiable and devastating consequences of this evil eating up our society. It’s about time we started developing a different orientation as a people as far as corruption is concerned.
We have a great nation in terms of raw materials and human capital, reduce corruption and Nigeria will be one of the best countries on earth to reside. I am not asking for Eutopia, no society is perfect, we all know this. But Nigeria why this level of self-destruction?

Hi Chichimma,
This sounds very familiar; I have been in a similar situation in the past.
I was in a relationship with a lady for over six years. And I had to leave Nigeria, I came to Europe and we stayed in contact for another few years.
We did not get to see each other until another five years. But what happens is, along the line you both grow apart. Whether we want to accept this or not, this is a natural process. And as you mentioned, this is where the wave-length thing comes in. You develop different future plans and vision, interests, your views and opinions on important issues of life get influenced by the environment you live in and same happens to the other partner. Then raise the question, are you both ready and willing to give the energy and challenges it takes to integrate this into a relationship? It is always easy look back and hold on to past relationships. Part of the reasons, being that those were the days of less worries and challenges, and we dealt with things then based on what we knew. These are different times and people do not like uncertainties. So consciously / unconsciously, we tend to want to fall back to the things we know. I completely agree with you in that it’s a struggle with your heart and mind.
Back to this lady I was dating, she is now married. And for very few times I was in Nigeria initially, I didn’t mind seeing her for old-time sake. But each time I saw her, she was always complaining about her marriage and she once asked me if I would not like to go back to the way we were. But with all due respect, I have moved on and it also occurred to me that we are on different wave-length. After noticing this, since then I have been forced to avoid her when I am in Nigeria. Which I think is a big shame, ‘cos I think we could still be good friends only if she can accept and live with the fact that we would only be friends and nothing more. Which I noticed is difficult for her to accept.
Chichima, like someone already said, you are the only one who can decide for you.
I can imagine it’s not going to be easy, but I think you are an intelligent lady who can take the right decisions. What I can say though, is that it will help if you take some time away from all factors that might influence your decision making process and look into yourself and try to figure out what will be good for you.
I wish you good luck and all the wisdom you need.

jesusfreak,
Me think you are entitle to complain, but come to think of it,
Are you in this relationship only for the food thing?
And because of what kind of food the guy can buy you?
You are f, king CHEAP! Get a life!
When I am in Nigeria, I take my time to enjoy buka food o.
There is one in Surulere, , ehm , wetin call: OLAIYA

The one,
Thank you very much for you contribution and feedback. Appreciate.
It’s a shame though that you will not be attending, would have been a good opportunity to meet another member of our wonderful Nairaland community. But no probz, it’s all good.
Thanks a lot bro.

Hi fresh2impr,
Thanks for the feedback. Appreciate.
Yeah, I currently reside and work in the Netherlands as a Banker. I am into Treasury operations and securities settlements. I do have the ambition to go work in Nigeria, and bring my experience, knowledge and exposure with me. I observe positive developments taking place in the Banking sector in Nigeria at the moment and I am really looking forward to putting in positive contributions in terms of STP, New innovations i.e. services and products, process improvement and enhancements etc.
Yeah, I have been invited by Oceanic and Zenith Banks for an inteview at this event.
This is for me some sort of orientational step, to see what their expectations, ambitions and offers are.
Thank you very much for your response, it has in a way given me more insight into how things work at this event.

Friends on Naira paradise,
I was wondering whether there are any Nairalanders that will be attending the forthcoming Carriers in Africa 2007 uk Summit.
Also, past attendees willing to share there experience and opinion, your reactions will be highly appreciated.
Cheers.

Ladies,
I guess it's a moment in time madness. And a time will come that all the craze, media exagerations and hypes for skeleton/skinny ladies will slow down.
I my opinion, that's even already happening, despite the fact that fashion magazines wants us to believe otherwise.
If you look at the "drop-waist" (Don't actally know what its called, I was in Nigeria last december and some girl told me that's what they call it) jeans design that's been in vogue for a few years now, In my opinion, it fits and suits ladies with curves more than the skinny types.
And our famous, talented, beatiful, latin-American singer/actress of world fame: J-LO. Has shown and proven that being skinny is not the only pre-requisite for being beautiful, gracious, elegant, fashionable and sexy! It's all between the ears and as they say: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
For me, i'll say gimme them ladies with the flesh in the right place/proportion anyday, anytime. Hahahaha!!

Texazzpete,
Very good analysis and observation. I could not agree with you more, except for the below 2 points:
“I see no reason why we should call them greedy for trying to get easy money. isnt that what we do when we buy Zenith Bank and Dangote shares and hope they double in value? Are we greedy?” The distinction between the 2 instances in my opinion is that, the one is legal and the other is not. We could go further in discussing the legality and illegality aspects.
“Go read most of these letters, tell me how you can call a man greedy if he's been told he won a lottery or a rich relative left him money”
Come on! You are being requested to claim winnings in a lottery which you have not taken part in, something should tell you this stinks! In as much as people have rights as citizens, they do also have duties too. Someone you do not know from adam, is promising you huge sum of money from some long distance relative you’ve never heard of. Or in some cases they are trying to launder some money of some dead relatives or oil company. And you agree to be part of this deal, but then you need to pay some fees upfront. Come on!

Apart from the above 2 observations, I do agree with you totally and completely with your write-up.
Further, the issue with our Nigerian nation is that (to further buttress your point), over the years, a large part of the Nigerian populace has come to honor, respect and glorify the wrong people for the wrong reasons.
We are where we are today as a nation, because of the way we think and reason, and we will not be able to bring about positive changes without changing the way we think and reason as a people.
Mass enlightenment campaign is the key word. That is why I appreciate so much, the internet medium through which we are able to exchange ideas and share opinions.
We do not have to agree with each other, but it’s a platform to discuss issues and by so doing we can agitate, educate and organise ourselves against the negative elements amongst us.

[b][/b]

Coincidentally, I was having a discussion with a colleague yesterday along this line.

It’s always very good to update your knowledge and also diversify.

I think your IT knowledge and experience will definitely come handy. Your decision to take up courses in the financial area is a good one. This will consolidate your IT knowledge and experience with business (Financial) knowledge, increasing your marketability and employability. I work in the financial sector, and my and the observations of a lot of people in projects is that, there are always gaps between the core business and the IT guys in translating business requirements into IT processes and the other way around. So I think your plans to acquire more education in the business aspect of things is not a bad one.

I was wondering, have you looked at ITIL. I am not extensively knowledgeable in this myself, but what I have been made to understand by people who do is that, it’s the application of IT infrastructures into business processes for enhancement by way of increasing productivity, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. If you are considering going into investment/business analysis, with certificate / degree in finance you’ll be much more empowered in your carrier indeed. Vendor management can also come into the picture. Good luck brother.

Segedoo,
Thank u my brother, I have been trying to remember that guys name: Amunike. The guy did well at BARCA. But his carrier was brought to an abrupt end by bad knee injury.
Does anyone remember the Olukanni brothers? Femi and Segun Olukanni. Muri Onigbanjo (scoror)
, Okoloba, Raymond King, Lets not forget the goalkeepers,
Cheers guys.

Walelead,
Those were the good, good old days men!
As a grammarian, (CMS Grammar school) I do reminisce often with my friends on this topic.
You know, it was the principal cup that brought spectular footballers as; Henry Nwosu, Stephen Keshi, Paul Okoku, Wakilu Oyenuga etc to limelight.
I don't know how deeply involved you were. But I do remember like yesterday, all the logistic preparation going into organising the supporters clubs. Hiring Molues / Danfos to convey students to the stadiums to support their teams. And all the singing and chanting to gear up your team. Then, as youths, we had something sportive and social flowing out of an educational setting / organisation that we could identify with and were very proud of. Looking back, one cannot but help observing that Nigeria has changed a great deal and not for the better.
I do remember the competitiveness between us (CMS) and St.Finbarrs. We were neighbours and at the same time competitors. Apart from the educational achievements: like which shool had the best results, and higher number of admissions into higher institutions, the principal cups was like the factor to seal that sentiment of superiority.
We should not forget other major schools that contributed substantially to the success of the pricipal cup phynomenom then. Schools like; ICY (Igbobi college), St. Gregory' college, Baptist academy (Baptakads), Anwaru Islam etc.
The joy and sportive performances were occassionally overshadowed by violence, but overall, the positive impact it had on our lives then, is a life-long one!
Wale men, nice one! You made my day with this. Thanks.

Youngies,
Ose. Thank you very much. And may the almighty continue to shower you with abundant wisdom.
I am not going to start pointing fingers now, because two wrongs do not make a right.
No matter which Nigerians might have done whatever, do Nigerians deserve collective punishment? No. For the people who are suggesting that we are responsible for the inhuman treatments being metted to innocent Nigerians, the only thing I would say, is that you are unconsciously or naively justifying the abject abuse of the basic human rights of innocent Nigerians. A lot of people do not know jack about Nigeria/ns other than 3rd or 4th hand information passed on to them by whoever and the media (Who would hardly reports anything positive on Africa rather than: hunger, corruption, aids, wars etc. or else it woun't be news worthy to the Average westerner)
I reside in the Netherlands, and work in the Banking industry. You guys don't want to know how much of all these non-sense I get to hear daily from colleagues or from stories from colleague' friends, neighbours, family member etc.
If all Nigerians were that bad, I wonder why they are still making use of my service that I have been offering for the past 7 years without any blemish to my name and the work I deliver.
Just last week again, I was on the way home with another colleague and one thing led to another about Nigeria and the negative image of Nigerians. I allowed him ran his mouth for a few minutes. And then, I said to him like: Do you know what Nigeria' population is? He could not give an answer. So I helped him out, and then I further told him like: If 10% of Nigeria' population would be assumed "bad apples", that would be almost the whole population of the Nederlands! (16 million). I then said to him, this in NUANCE! Then he kept quiet and could not say anything anymore. Of course he never saw it along that line. This is IGNORANCE!
I am very much aware of the nefarious activities of some Nigerians, we should not tolerate this and condemn it outright! On the other hand, I want to implore those ignorant people not to judge me by other people' standard, because they happen to originate from the same geographical piece of the world as me. And some of those ignorant people could do with some enlightenment. We need to de-colonise ourselves!
See u o the flip side.

Donzman wrote:

(so is every single politician in the nation in which case we should not be voting for a president), It is justified that Mr Kalu is also corrupt then! Great reasoning uncle!
So Mr Kalu's partake in the corruption and self-enrichment gala for 8 years is obviously not enough, he apparently needs to go for a higher office, to achieve greater heights in the abject act of corruption being perpetuated by public office holders in Nigeria.
Bros, I think you need to read you comments again to understand your imput in this discussion.
That is exactly the point, governance and accountabililty cannot be separated! Obviously with your above statement, some Nigerians like you, are used to and appreciate different form of governance/leadership.
I actually am not bothered with his English, but the guy is sitting there on international stage telling the world (Koro-koro) that the refuge problems his state is having is not his problem. I am wondering what his idea of leadership is, if providing his people ammenities as basic as refuge collection is not his problem. And his state gets allocation from the federal government!? Apparently those allocations goes to other pressing matters other that providing very basic services to the people of his state. Unbelievable!

For the Niaralanders among us who are versed and have extensive know of Islam or Christianity.
, Does any of these religions condone or allow the use of condoms in a marriage?
Thanks.

Lady T wrote:

"It is us so called modern civilised people who have become obsessed with sex. We no longer see sex as a man and woman coming togther and showing their love and thus producing a child. Sex is now about getting the best possible orgasm and getting as much sex as possible with as many people that you can fit in."

, Could this be part of the so-called evolution? Same as we are now able to travel to other planets and chat with people around the world in a fraction of minutes? Could it also be that religions need to modernise and keep up with mordern developments. I think they can achieve this without losing their core values.

I am of the opinion that issues should be dealt with from the perspective of the time and place they happen.
Sex and all it's associated issues is a multi-billion $ industry, you only need to look at bill-board ads, tv ads, listen radio jingles etc. Further, sex and promiscuity is as old as the human existence. The human race has never been exposed to sexual temptations as we are today and this trend is set to increase. If there has been so much time, effort and money spent on researches to establish the negative impacts of unsafe sex and at the same time, we have developed enough to come up with an invention that could serve as precautionary measure for a lot of otherwise mysteries resulting out of unsafe sex. Why not?
Anyway, this is a rather curious posting, because, from the point of view of Islam and Christanity, condoms do not exist (or is a non-issue).
Another point that needs to be made clear again, is that condoms are not solely invented to prevent the spread of diseases.  What do the anti-condom religious brigades, think of unwanted pregnancies and how this seriously impacts the lives of the unwanted children who have had no imput in the decision making that has brought them unbearable mysteries. Which otherwise could have been prevented.
Abstainance until marriage is a utopian approach. For those who are successful in achieving this, I say kudos. And for the other rational, objective group willing to take responsibities for their actions, I would say, rational decisions leads to the best results.

The role of the parents cannot be underestimated considering their important socio-economic positions in a society as Nigeria'.
Further, it will course add more value and less problem for all the parties involved to have the blessings of your parents coupled with all the other very important aspects. I.e. Mutual love, respect, peace, harmony etc
But if you will allow the decision to be taken by your parent, then you will be approaching the whole issue from the perspective that your parents will be telling you their real reason/s for approving or disapproving of specific spouse.
My take on this, is that, all the parents need be concerned about and wish for, is the "hapiness!" of their children and not start playing unnecessary politics that will not be based on any rational, objective nuances.
And finally, it's you who is going to live with this person and put all it requires into this relationship to deal with and overcome the challenges that marriages brings with it and not your parents.

My people,
Na wa o! Well personally, I have seen situations where things have worked out positively and negatively. Like every situation and circustance in life.
Does that mean that relationships/marriages entered into by both home based and abroad based spouses don't go sour?
In a way, I think I know where the poster is coming from. But, I think the conclusions and insinuations are too general and quite on the negative side.
Nigerians in general and especially the ladies, have had enough of image bashing. They could do with some positive vibes.
Further, it's also very important what kind of people you surround yourself with when you are in Nigeria. Like the saying goes: "If you pay bananas, you'll get monkies" If you go to Nigeria and surround yourself with riff-raffs (male/female) and act like some local champion, well you will be partly responsible for the negativities that befall you.
Finally, I would like to say : "Fear can hold you prisoner, hope can set you free"
There are still a lot of well-meaning, open-minded, metropolitan people in Nigeria. You only need to place yourself in the right setting.
This is my take on this issue. Thanks.