sauceEEP:
Welcome back to Nigeria....

oyekan1997:
Welcome Mr physics, I wish you the very best of luck in your future endeavors.

By the way Mr physics, PTDF overseas scholarship is back again, what do you advice in terms of writing motivation letter, choosing country of choice and scaling through the interview process. Thank you so much.

emeritus007:
Welcome home Mr Physics.
You have my best wishes sir.

mrphysics:

I am not sure about any ongoing PTDF scholarship, I am only aware that last year's applicants have been shortlisted.

mrphysics:
As I prepared to return to the country, I had to make some hard choices. First of all, I didn't tell anyone save family that I was coming back. This was to avoid unnecessary advices from people who would discourage you from coming back but also fail to give you money to stay back and continue your life.

I had over 1 month to the expiration of my Visa, I also had the option of extending it to one year. Now, the scholarship will end August 31st 2021, from then onwards, you are on your own. My accommodation will also expire by August 31st 2021, same with almost everything. If you must continue to stay, then you must get something doing. I decided to come back. Friends over there offered to share their accommodation with them, well, as good as it sounds, I hate inconveniencing anyone. And again, I understand how it works; you stay one to two weeks and then they realize you are a burden to them.

The Nuclear Industry was the deal breaker. It's the table upon which I took my decision. The only option available was finding a PhD. It's extremely difficult to find a job in the nuclear industry without a PhD and even with a PhD, it's still very difficult. Now in France, most jobs require you to have background in same field, except you are going for the low hanging jobs like food delivery, cleaning, workshop, farm, etc. which I knew I can't do.

I weighed everything on an imaginary weighing balancing and decided to come back to this country to meet you guys

oyekan1997:


Yes. 2022/23 PTDF overseas scholarship is ongoing. I just want your general advice on writing a good motivation letter, country of study and scaling through the interview process. Thank you.

atom080:
mrphysics pls help answer the question i ask you on freelance writing on fiverr

omorttee4u:


Welcome Mr physics. Feel at home anywhere as long as you are able to find that comfort.

I follow your thread for a very long term now and your zeal is an inspiration to others. I wish you best of luck in anywhere you find yourself. I'm sure you can't work just anywhere in Naija lecturing job might be fine sha. I envy your vast knowledge. Keep it up man.

emeritus007:
Welcome home Mr Physics.
You have my best wishes sir.

mrphysics:


Making your SoP unique will give you an edge over others. When you read other people's SoP, don't duplicate it, try to create yours which is peculiar to you alone. Pay more attention to the first paragraph of your SoP, it should be interesting. Avoid add secondary school interests on a particular subject or how ones parent or friends always suggest a particular field to you. Look for what is current in that field, write about it, link it to oil and gas industry and thats it for you.

PTDF is a very good scholarship. I wish you the best in your application.

mrphysics:
Before coming back to the country, I already knew I would be spending atleast one year before thinking of leaving the country again. Since I will be spending quite sometime, I need to organize myself. So I got a place rented in the capital city of Abuja and also bought a 2012 Toyota Camry, the latter will become my worst nightmare.

While standing infront of the exit door of the Abuja International Airport waiting for my friend to pick me from the airport with the newly bought car, I received a bad news. The car just turned itself off on their way to the airport. Imagine the first time of seeing your car was on a towing van? It was not my first car, what happened? How did I enter into this mess. That's for a later time, for now, I will use Bolt to leave the airport and to meet the car on the road with my sister and my friend all standing like passengers on the road.

I like to organize myself, I hate to rush things. I try my best to plan everything I do before I do them. I avoid alot of mistakes while doing this, though not in the case of this vehicle.

I have always loved Camry 2012, before leaving the country, I knew it was my next car and I worked towards it. I watched the price move from N3m to 3.5m to 4m to 5m. So while I plan my return, I already knew this was the car of my choice. I told my friends to look out for one so I don't get to spend much money on Uber/Bolt or even struggle in public transport. One of my friend in Lagos saw Tokunbo Toyota Camry, 2012 model (The way I like it) and sent me the pictures. I quickly forwarded it to my guy in Abuja who went to inspect it. He sent me the VIN and I contacted the nairaland ComputerGlobal guy for vehicle history. I ran two checks on it including the one with auction pictures, everything turned green and ready to go.

I still called my former colleague for his engine check device (forgotten the name), told my guy to go pick it, which he did, inserted it in the car and sent some pictures, there was absolutely no issue found. Since everything seem to be looking good, I proceeded to exchange euros for naira in preparation for the purchase. It was N4m and it was bought in Royal Brims Autos Mabushi Abuja (Don't ever go there).

3 days after the purchase of the vehicle, the first issue started the car was packed and unused by anyone, yet it was leaking oil. I recall asking my guy to look out for oil leakage (I later learned he wasn't very thorough, he only depends on the sound of the engine and how smooth it changes gear to make decisions) and there was no issue found. So how did this start? We changed the first oil seal, it was still dripping oil, then the next was the one between the engine and gear box, meaning they have to drop the engine. This is a car that has never been used. The registration was ongoing. They removed the engine, changed the seal and the leakage stopped, but created many problems. It was Paul Shrivastava (1987) who said that "when a triggering event occurs, spontaneous reactions by different stakeholders solve some of the immediate problems, but they also create new problems – thus prolonging the crisis and making it worse."

The new problem that was 'created' by just changing the oil seal was that the new mechanic, call him engineer, didn't only couple everything back, he also forgot to add water to the radiator, so while my friend and my sister were on their way to the airport to pick me, as they never expected anything to happen, they didn't pay attention to the temperature gauge without knowing there is no water in the radiator, the engine over heat itself, burned gasket and and the car turned itself off.

So the first time of seeing the car was on the road, in a vegetative state, hopeless and I used police to arrest the Auto Repair guy and the owner of the place (this was the next biggest mistake of all time).

So in a single day, I was welcomed back to Nigeria, became like a real Nigerian, experiencing all the deceits, fraud, and corruption that exist across the entire country. I entered my house by 11PM the day I came back, after spending the entire day at the police station with the most useless Nigerian police force.

I will go on to experience one of the worst car issues, burning more than N1m within a month, including buying a new engine for the vehicle before deciding to sell it before it takes everything I came back with


Let's continue tomorrow guys.

mrphysics:
Before coming back to the country, I already knew I would be spending atleast one year before thinking of leaving the country again. Since I will be spending quite sometime, I need to organize myself. So I got a place rented in the capital city of Abuja and also bought a 2012 Toyota Camry, the latter will become my worst nightmare.

While standing infront of the exit door of the Abuja International Airport waiting for my friend to pick me from the airport with the newly bought car, I received a bad news. The car just turned itself off on their way to the airport. Imagine the first time of seeing your car was on a towing van? It was not my first car, what happened? How did I enter into this mess. That's for a later time, for now, I will use Bolt to leave the airport and to meet the car on the road with my sister and my friend all standing like passengers on the road.

I like to organize myself, I hate to rush things. I try my best to plan everything I do before I do them. I avoid alot of mistakes while doing this, though not in the case of this vehicle.

I have always loved Camry 2012, before leaving the country, I knew it was my next car and I worked towards it. I watched the price move from N3m to 3.5m to 4m to 5m. So while I plan my return, I already knew this was the car of my choice. I told my friends to look out for one so I don't get to spend much money on Uber/Bolt or even struggle in public transport. One of my friend in Lagos saw Tokunbo Toyota Camry, 2012 model (The way I like it) and sent me the pictures. I quickly forwarded it to my guy in Abuja who went to inspect it. He sent me the VIN and I contacted the nairaland ComputerGlobal guy for vehicle history. I ran two checks on it including the one with auction pictures, everything turned green and ready to go.

I still called my former colleague for his engine check device (forgotten the name), told my guy to go pick it, which he did, inserted it in the car and sent some pictures, there was absolutely no issue found. Since everything seem to be looking good, I proceeded to exchange euros for naira in preparation for the purchase. It was N4m and it was bought in Royal Brims Autos Mabushi Abuja (Don't ever go there).

3 days after the purchase of the vehicle, the first issue started the car was packed and unused by anyone, yet it was leaking oil. I recall asking my guy to look out for oil leakage (I later learned he wasn't very thorough, he only depends on the sound of the engine and how smooth it changes gear to make decisions) and there was no issue found. So how did this start? We changed the first oil seal, it was still dripping oil, then the next was the one between the engine and gear box, meaning they have to drop the engine. This is a car that has never been used. The registration was ongoing. They removed the engine, changed the seal and the leakage stopped, but created many problems. It was Paul Shrivastava (1987) who said that "when a triggering event occurs, spontaneous reactions by different stakeholders solve some of the immediate problems, but they also create new problems – thus prolonging the crisis and making it worse."

The new problem that was 'created' by just changing the oil seal was that the new mechanic, call him engineer, didn't only couple everything back, he also forgot to add water to the radiator, so while my friend and my sister were on their way to the airport to pick me, as they never expected anything to happen, they didn't pay attention to the temperature gauge without knowing there is no water in the radiator, the engine over heat itself, burned gasket and and the car turned itself off.

So the first time of seeing the car was on the road, in a vegetative state, hopeless and I used police to arrest the Auto Repair guy and the owner of the place (this was the next biggest mistake of all time).

So in a single day, I was welcomed back to Nigeria, became like a real Nigerian, experiencing all the deceits, fraud, and corruption that exist across the entire country. I entered my house by 11PM the day I came back, after spending the entire day at the police station with the most useless Nigerian police force.

I will go on to experience one of the worst car issues, burning more than N1m within a month, including buying a new engine for the vehicle before deciding to sell it before it takes everything I came back with


Let's continue tomorrow guys.

Chriswazo:


Why didn't U buy it directly from contact in USA or Canada?

Sorry to say this, I fear doing auto business with my country people, , considering i know little about it and am not a mechanic and these mechanics can also scheme U out for their own economic interests. What I mean is that, I don't trust any assurance from my Nigeria people on anything autos. The prices from abroad might be the same at the end of the day with the prices at home, going with the skyrocketing custom clearance and other bills, or it could be cheaper with 100k thereabout.

That's d best option

Limassol:
There is no way under high heavens i will buy a Nigerian used car, never. Same goes to dealing with some Nigerian car-sellers. Not that it's all gloom but as experience shows, it's unlikely to end well.

mrphysics:
One thing we are told repeatedly in life is not to give up easily. For men, the society expects you absorb alot of life's dynamics and the tides thereof. It was with this that I decided to chest the expenses that comes with the vehicle, of course if you have bought a car, you will know you have to do some little maintenance. This was a complexity that I had to deal with, however, Hernes (2008) said that ‘the mind grappling with complexity, then becoming part of that complexity. The mind establishes labels in order to understand what is going on, but then the labels become part of what is going on.’ Throughout the month of September, I had to combine work with vehicle issues. By the end of September, I had the same conclusion as the biblical Job "What I feared most has come upon me." and T. S. Elliot summarized my life:

We shall not cease from exploration,
And the end of all our exploring,
Will be to arrive where we started,
And know the place for the first time.

I already mentioned in the previous pages about the work I do, just to recap, I have not been treated differently by life, I have had to work in a place opposite of what I studied. While the pedagogy of learning expects that skills are transferable, however, for career growth, we all need to align ourselves in one field, one that we studied anyway. So call me a tax guy, a process automation analyst, business developer, business analyst, whatever, this is what I do. I may not mention names, however, we deploy revenue applications to states, and FG and some government agencies. If I mention names, it will be very easy to decode where I work. So I spend most of my life trying to understand revenue collection from regulators (Government) reference point. I understand perfectly all state taxes, who should pay and who shouldn't pay. While in France, we got a contract to deploy Capital Gains Tax, Stamp Duty, Consumption Tax, Gaming Tax etc for a state government. So it's my work to decode how these could be automated, process engineer it, try to shut down accountants or tax officers technicalities and ways they reduce revenue for government. To simply put, I know alot about revenue/tax collection at state levels. This is what I do.

While I France I have been working. So the decision on coming back to the country had nothing to do with where to work, I only have no job if in France. As long as I am in the country, there are alot I can do. I am always engaged.

oyekan1997:


Yes. 2022/23 PTDF overseas scholarship is ongoing. I just want your general advice on writing a good motivation letter, country of study and scaling through the interview process. Thank you.

Ramanto:

I was trying to apply but had to stop when I was asked to pay 500 naira. Is that normal?

attaboi:
Pls auto mechanics help out a bro. I have this issue with my 2005 Camry 2.4. The speedometer fluctuates on the first gear and it makes this noise like it’s on neutral until it engages the second gear. My mechanic advised I change the gear sensor yet it persists. Pls help a brother out. Thanks.

hammed71:
so any plans of going back

Ramanto:

I was trying to apply but had to stop when I was asked to pay 500 naira. Is that normal?

DisGuy:


https://www.nairaland.com/cartalk

mrphysics:

My thesis supervisor has been trying everything within his power to make sure I get a PhD.

JohnPhysics:
Hello bro. I got a PTDF scholarship to study Masters in Nuclear engineering. A fellow scholar shared your link to me. Pls I wish to talk to you privately and get some questions off my chest. Please, can you give me you email, whatapp number? My email is john.damisa@uniben.edu. I look forward in chatting and talking with you.