Cjrane2:


Atlanta, Georgia, i truly miss you. A beautiful city like many others in USA.

The key take away is LANDSCAPING combined with good architecture is what makes a true mansion. When you build the BEST architectural masterpiece without flowers and trees, you have built an ugly concrete jungle. Which is what makes many homes in nigeria look distasteful despite the huge sums used in their construction. EXCEPT in Abuja and parts of Ikoyi where houses are adorned with adequate flowers and trees to beautify them into true mansions.While keeping the environment rich in oxygen and protecting the soil

My brother, I don't mince words when I tell you this; it brings tears to my eyes when I see so many humongous imposing mansions in igboland with hardly any landscaping. I just saw a picture of a building belonging to the nigerian labor congress on the imo state thread in nairaland, supposedly commissioned by okorocha's chief of staff. As far as I'm concerned, the structure looks unfinished because the landscaping have not been done. But yet, the building has already been commissioned. This is the MEDIOCRITY we have going on, in igboland. Igboland is practically littered with shoddy projects. SOMETHING HAVE TO BE DONE TO CHANGE OUR PEOPLE'S MINDSET ON HOW TO DO THINGS.

Ofuzo:

My comparison is definitely not WOOD vs CEMENT. The comparison should definitely be CEMENT vs BRICKS/TILES.

You sure bricks are a viable and cost-effective alternative to blocks/cement? If they are, how come their use hasn't gained enough traction since the Brits last widely used them to construct their houses in the GRAs spread across the country?

Though i have to admit, those brick houses they built do have charm and character....coupled with the fact that they don't need a coat of paint every now and again!

Ofuzo:

My comparison is definitely not WOOD vs CEMENT. The comparison should definitely be CEMENT vs BRICKS/TILES.

This is Owerri looking like shit after a little rain. What can we do to change the narrative?

Ofuzo:

My comparison is definitely not WOOD vs CEMENT. The comparison should definitely be CEMENT vs BRICKS/TILES.

Here's Owerri looking like Nagaski after the atomic bomb blast. Is there anything we can do so that our people shall start building decent mult storey residential buildings for the masses like seen in Onitsha and Enugu instead of littering everywhere with this slum.

lmo1stson:




Here's Owerri looking like Nagaski after the atomic bomb blast. Is there anything we can do so that our people shall start building decent mult storey residential buildings for the masses like seen in Onitsha and Enugu instead of littering everywhere with this slum.

Why are you singling out imo state when the problem of aesthetics and lack of greenery/landscape is everywhere in igboland.

Chino stop it. Let's have a productive discussion for once. I want to hear your ideas. You travel around and your positive and constructive contribution is always welcome.

Enough of the trouble making.

horsepower101:


Why are you singling out imo state when the problem of aesthetics and lack of greenery/landscape is everywhere in igboland.

Chino stop it. Let's have a productive discussion for once. I want to hear your ideas. You travel around and your positive and constructive contribution is always welcome.

Enough of the trouble making.

I am lmo1stson, I am an Igbo nationalist but I am more worried about what is happening in my state. The person I quoted is from my state. I had to quote him because he appears to have the magic wand, so I wanted him to start the reform from our state.

They must have put up this bar to discourage trucks from passing through the Milliken hills.

This very important road is starting to spoil, due to overuse.

I also noticed some half hearted attempts to repair the failing portions near the valley.

spyder880:
I also noticed some half hearted attempts to repair the failing portions near the valley.

Imagine this road next with markings

Ofuzo:

Poor soil? What do you mean by poor soil? Igboland does not have any poor soil, regardless of what anybody said in the 1940's. The problem of igbo soil is because we have a tendency to pull out grasses and shrubs that holds the soil together whenever it rains. If you leave the land bare which igbos do a lot, after five hundred years of rainfall, without the grass and shrubs to hold the exposed land together, it will begin to erode. That's why YOU WILL NEVER EVER SEE A BARE LAND ANYWHERE IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES. As a matter of fact, it's ILLEGAL in the US to leave your land bare. You must either cement it or grass it. You can never leave it bare. There's no piece of land anywhere in the US where that piece of land is not designated for something.YOU WILL NEVER SEE ANY BROWN ANYWHERE IN THE U S LIKE YOU SEE ALL OVER NIGERIA Green grass in developed countries are what they use to prevent erosion. When you drive around the US, all you see is green, mostly green lush grasses. Go and watch tekno miles music video "where" to see what I'm talking about.

C'mon, man!
Go easy with the exaggerations. Its giving me toothache!
You trying to buttress this point with a music video, shot in a cool part of the city doesn't cut it.
Not every part of that country looks the way it is seen in that video.

Stop talking like the US and some European countries haven't got untarred roads, pavements or walk paths. I've seen them myself. I'm not talking about videos or movies.
Yes, Nigeria's case is annoying, given the huge resources that has been squandered. Let's not dwell on the negatives. Such comparisons won't help much, either.

Xander85:


You sure bricks are a viable and cost-effective alternative to blocks/cement? If they are, how come their use hasn't gained enough traction since the Brits last widely used them to construct their houses in the GRAs spread across the country?

Though i have to admit, those brick houses they built do have charm and character....coupled with the fact that they don't need a coat of paint every now and again!

Of course they are viable. You know the saying that YOU DON'T HAVE TO REINVENT THE WHEEL. Western countries have already done the cost analysis and for the past three thousand years, ancient civilizations like Babylon, Rome, greece etc used bricks in the building constructions. That's why you can still see remnants of those civilizations till the present day. Western countries like the US and europe have been, and are still currently using bricks in their housing and construction. Cost analysis is only part of the problem, not the whole problem.
As for the adoption of cement over bricks; well, the answer to that is very simple. Block and cement is cheaper than bricks and tiles. There's one way though, to force nigerians to migrate to bricks and tiles. Pass a law in the state house of assemblies mandating home owners, and owners of commercial buildings to repaint their PLASTARD buildings every five or seven years, and brick buildings every two hundred years. With the huge cost of repainting, everybody will quickly start using bricks. This is what's prevalent in developed countries. They use REGULATIONS to force certain behaviors on their people. Currently, there are thousands and millions of REGULATIONS for practically everything in developed countries!! These regulations are seriously and vigorously ENFORCED on a daily basis like a heart attack.

whirlwind7:


C'mon, man!
Go easy with the exaggerations. Its giving me toothache!
You trying to buttress this point with a music video, shot in a cool part of the city doesn't cut it.
Not every part of that country looks the way it is seen in that video.

Stop talking like the US and some European countries haven't got untarred roads, pavements or walk paths. I've seen them myself. I'm not talking about videos or movies.
Yes, Nigeria's case is annoying, given the huge resources that has been squandered. Let's not dwell on the negatives. Such comparisons won't help much, either.

Please, don't argue what you don't know. I've lived in the US for more than thirty years, and is currently living there. The US and europe do 100% LANDSCAPING. YES, YES AND YES, unless it's indian country (native American land), almost all parts of the US is TARRED, you better believe it. I'm talking about wall to wall landscaping. Something I'll talk about later is how to transition from our current position to what's obtainable in developed countries. It's indeed achievable because CHINA have already accomplished that. I'll give you a hint by stating what contributed to this problem. It was a collosal mistake of monumental proportion to allow individuals to buy land and build whatever they want as opposed to leasing or selling the land wholesale to BIG real estate developers, something that's been going on since Independence. The antidote here is to reverse this trend and do the opposite. This is exactly why I'm applauding okorocha's urban renewal projects even though it's MEDIOCRE AND HALF BAKED. It's still better than nothing.

Ofuzo:


Please, don't argue what you don't know. I've lived in the US for more than thirty years, and is currently living there. The US and europe do 100% LANDSCAPING. YES, YES AND YES, unless it's indian country (native American land), almost all parts of the US is TARRED, you better believe it. I'm talking about wall to wall landscaping. Something I'll talk about later is how to transition from our current position to what's obtainable in developed countries. It's indeed achievable because CHINA have already accomplished that. I'll give you a hint by stating what contributed to this problem. It was a collosal mistake of monumental proportion to allow individuals to buy land and build whatever they want as opposed to leasing or selling the land wholesale to BIG real estate developers, something that's been going on since Independence. The antidote here is to reverse this trend and do the opposite. This is exactly why I'm applauding okorocha's urban renewal projects even though it's MEDIOCRE AND HALF BAKED. It's still better than nothing.

you also have to take cognisance of the traditional igbo setllement pattern(which is a 'scattered' pattern)..what you are suggesting here might work in cities and towns but semi urban and villages?it will not be easy and cant be done by fiat

asha80:
you also have to take cognisance of the traditional igbo setllement pattern(which is a 'scattered' pattern)..what you are suggesting here might work in cities and towns but semi urban and villages?it will not be easy and cant be done by fiat

Agreed. You most definitely have to exempt our villages until they grow to about, say, 150,000 to 250,000 population. When they reach that level, the state should grant them city status with certain powers, like allowing them to elect their city mayors, and the right to raise their own revenues through taxation.

Special Report On Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu.

They're yet to fix the glass panel that got destroyed in a rainstorm about two years ago.

I hope the aircons are working ok now. When i last used the airport in 2016, heat wanted to kill me!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49pkVZ5ZZkw

It seems this thread has developed acute retardation and stunted growth.... Hmmmm..... Interesting.

Rgade:
It seems this thread has developed acute retardation and stunted growth.... Hmmmm..... Interesting.

What do you want us to talk about?

How do you like these delicious slices of Enugu ?

How common is the use of solar in Enugu as I can one in the second picture

spyder880:


What do you want us to talk about?

How do you like these delicious slices of Enugu ?

Dremca:
How common is the use of solar in Enugu as I can one in the second picture

Solar power is rapidly gaining acceptance in many homes in the city of Enugu. Many more houses has solar panels hanging on its roof.

spyder880:


Solar power is rapidly gaining acceptance in many homes in the city of Enugu. Many more houses has solar panels hanging on its roof.

If solar was cheap in Nigeria, we would have solved half of Nigeria's problem.

spyder880:


What do you want us to talk about?

How do you like these delicious slices of Enugu ?

Beautiful!
This is golf estate right? Not centenary & golf city o! That one is still metamorphosing.

Dremca:
If solar was cheap in Nigeria, we would have solved half of Nigeria's problem.

GBAM!
When i see those elevated tanks, i'm gladdened that Nigerians finally found a way out of the perennial water scarcity issue by providing their own water than wait for government cursed water works.

If rooftop Solar panels would allow Nigerians to enjoy power at home without noisy generators and stress of fueling and servicing them, half of the problems of living in Nigeria will indeed be solved. Imagine cooking soup once a month and it will be fresh every time because your freezer is always frozen.

Best part is that sunlight is renewable and will always produce more electricity for you the next day. So you will NEVER run out of fuel or suffer fuel scarcity as generators.

Even if someone come up with idea of generating electricity through sold and swelling to consumers, federal government will file several law suit against the person for trying to spoil market for the men in monopoly.

Cjrane2:


GBAM!
When i see those elevated tanks, i'm gladdened that Nigerians finally found a way out of the perennial water scarcity issue by providing their own water than wait for government cursed water works.

If rooftop Solar panels would allow Nigerians to enjoy power at home without noisy generators and stress of fueling and servicing them, half of the problems of living in Nigeria will indeed be solved. Imagine cooking soup once a month and it will be fresh every time because your freezer is always frozen.

spyder880:


Wood vs blocks and concrete buildings.

I would have done a detailed comparison and analysed the likely costs of both, but we are thinking of building upwards of 5 or more floors. Our peculiar situation in the South East where we have an increasing population on a small landmass call for high rise buildings if we can have electricity to power the lifts. Wood may not help us much if we move towards this direction.

I buy your ideas about landscaping and greenery totally.

Truth is that a poorly educated brick layer can build a mansion with Cement, but it requires a higher skill set to do same with wood. Besides, Sheetrock isn't available in Nigeria, so how do you finish the walls? Not to mention that we don't have enough wood to go round in Nigeria.
Did i mention the problem of termites? in our country where we can't even control mosquitoes, is it termites we can control like oyinbo is able to do ? Imagine if you built a wooden house in the village and by the next Christmas, the whole thing collapse to the ground due to termite activity.

On too many levels, it is not even desirable to think of wooden houses in Nigeria. It's just not practicable for our environment.

One thing i think we can do to bring down construction cost is to begin local manufacture of sinks, wash-hand basins, bath-tubs and toilets with reinforced plastics. I know many countries are already doing this. This will help reduce the cost of these inputs.

Only caveat is that the plastic bath is usually supported on all sides with a short wall as in the picture. But that is a small price to pay for using our own home made building materials. I'm sure Oga spyder can always make up such short walls to support the bath tub and tile it neatly as in the picture.

It's very frustrating that gov'ts can't seem to keep up with the pace of development in our state capitals. This is the case in varying degrees in ALL our state capitals and major cities. Just look at the latest pics Spyder posted....but for the overhead water tanks and terrible roads, they could pass for a prosperous city in Europe.

The solution is for gov'ts to ensure there are no leaks in their IGR collections, as presently they collect only a fraction of what they should. When there is enough funds, gov't can then dedicate a percentage of what's collected in a city to improve its infrastructure..and also publicise what it's doing so tax payers would be encouraged to pay as and when due. There are some cities in the South East you can think of and you'd struggle to point at what the state gov't has built there in the past three years to justify asking people to pay their tax.

Also, i think the state capitals should have Mayors who would be voted for every four years. These Mayors sole responsibility would be to build infrastructure with the IGR raised and their share of any allocation available. They can also be mandated to enter into PPP arrangements with banks and foreign/local investors. Their remit would also be to sell their city to the world like we see being done in London and New York where their Mayors are the cities major ambassadors.

The situation now where the state Governor oversees all this is not tenable, and it's distracting for them when they should be more concerned with the overall economic development of the state.

ChimaAdeoye:


If they really wanted to do any good at the airport, they would complete the abandoned taxiway.

Akanu Ibiam International airport, Enugu remains the ONLY international airport in Nigeria without a taxiway and they deliberately left it like that. All other Intl. airports in Kano, Kaduna, Port harcourt,Abuja, Lagos airport all have taxiways EXCEPT Enugu intl.

They claimed a taxiway was part of the upgrade they paid for. Yet, they won't arrest the contractor to finish it, nor award it. So it's obvious they don't want anything to develop the capacity of the airport to function properly as international airport to be implemented.
They should complete the abandoned taxiway and leave the good runway alone.

Just wanted to remind us of this post. They should give the airport a proper taxiway and concession it to allow more flights

I have read severally about the need for successive governments to tighten the loopholes in the system as regards taxation. Most of the write ups are well thought out, kudos to the writers. Many of the writers went ahead and proffered suggestions as to how it can be used by the states to provide infrastructure in our cities and towns. It is a laudable thing to say the least.

But I see it differently; I believe those untapped funds in the form of uncollected revenue by the government circulates at the last rung of the ladder for many of our indigent citizens, because these are the people mostly untouched and it is helping out. If not our government will tax the poor of our society and give it out to a foreign company to build something in the cities or export all the money to China for use in buying what we need to build our cities and towns.

I think our government should tax everyone and everything taxable but in the same vein make the revenue available to industrialists as loans or simply provide an enabling environment even 'tax breaks' for wealthy business men to become manufacturers who can produce most of what we need in providing infrastructure in our cities. Such that while you are milking the poor of the society through taxation you are in turn providing jobs for them .That way after a decade or two we will have an organized and well structured society filled with citizens making a decent livelihood working in those companies.

To drive home my point, I don't support taxing all the shops littering the sides of our urban roads and streets even the street hawkers till they are bleeding, then subsequently take it to China to buy steel, building materials and most of our consumables thereby providing jobs for the Chinese while forcing our own citizens to close shops. Every naira collected as tax should be put to judicious use. Mindless taxation have forced many out of businesses and made our youths resort to touting for politicians, internet scams, armed robbery or embarking on perilous journey abroad through the deserts. I stand to be corrected, just my two cents observation.

Ofuzo:


It was a collosal mistake of monumental proportion to allow individuals to buy land and build whatever they want as opposed to leasing or selling the land wholesale to BIG real estate developers, something that's been going on since Independence. The antidote here is to reverse this trend and do the opposite. This is exactly why I'm applauding okorocha's urban renewal projects even though it's MEDIOCRE AND HALF BAKED. It's still better than nothing.

I beg to differ. It boils down to lack of oversight by the gatekeepers. They approve any plan and anything. Giving lands to estate developers will create more problems because they cut corners and use inferior materials to maximize profit. Have you visited some estates in Nigeria? Sure the buildings are decent but the lack of landscapping finesse is still the same. What is the Ministry of Lands for? What are the duties and responsibilities of Urban and Regional planners?

/

Cjrane2:


Truth is that a poorly educated brick layer can build a mansion with Cement, but it requires a higher skill set to do same with wood. Besides, Sheetrock isn't available in Nigeria, so how do you finish the walls? Not to mention that we don't have enough wood to go round in Nigeria.
Did i mention the problem of termites? in our country where we can't even control mosquitoes, is it termites we can control like oyinbo is able to do ? Imagine if you built a wooden house in the village and by the next Christmas, the whole thing collapse to the ground due to termite activity.

On too many levels, it is not even desirable to think of wooden houses in Nigeria. It's just not practicable for our environment.

One thing i think we can do to bring down construction cost is to begin local manufacture of sinks, wash-hand basins, bath-tubs and toilets with reinforced plastics. I know many countries are already doing this. This will help reduce the cost of these inputs.

Only caveat is that the plastic bath is usually supported on all sides with a short wall as in the picture. But that is a small price to pay for using our own home made building materials. I'm sure Oga spyder can always make up such short walls to support the bath tub and tile it neatly as in the picture.

/
Termites, security, harmattan (fire insurance?), temperature.

All of these are major concerns.

There are reasons why majority of countries do not build wooden houses.

/

I have heard too many nonsense talk about how to build Dubai and Los Angeles in Southeast.
Truth is that those talks are either deliberately deceitful, or folks don't know a thing about how great cities evolve.

The foundation of every great city isn't necessarily building skyscrapers from day one, but adequately planning the city very well to ensure development occurs evenly and future developments can still occur without destroying the city.

Roads and use of roundabouts at every road intersection is critical. Many new African and Asian cities already know this and build new areas of their cities with lots of roundabouts to compensate for lack of power to operate traffic lights as we see in American cities.

The plan below should be adopted as a model for city expansion. By the way, this is Palmas which is the capital city of the state of Tocantins, Brazil. This is their city extension plan and you can see their generous use of roundabouts. This is how Southeast cities should plan new areas for expansion.

InvertedHammer:


I beg to differ. It boils down to lack of oversight by the gatekeepers. They approve any plan and anything. Giving lands to estate developers will create more problems because they cut corners and use inferior materials to maximize profit. Have you visited some estates in Nigeria? Sure the buildings are decent but the lack of landscapping finesse is still the same. What is the Ministry of Lands for? What are the duties and responsibilities of Urban and Regional planners?

/

Ok, so, the reason you don't want to give land to real estate developers is because they'll cut corners and use inferior materials? That's actually not a good reason. There are about 100 big cities in the US that are ten times better than Lagos, and they were all constructed by real estate developers. All the buildings in these 100 cities were constructed with BRICKS AND TILES, as opposed to BLOCK and CEMENT whose paints start to peel off after five years. Same goes for all the major cities in the world. There are no cities in civilized countries where individuals are allowed to buy a plot of land to build anything. There are no selling and buying land in developed countries like you have in igboland. That is 100% why our cities look like shitholes. You guys are fond of posting all these humongous imposing mansions with giant pillars in igboland, but that's all crap because the houses have absolutely no infrastructure. Block and cement houses with no running water, no gas piped through a central system, some of them have no roads and are surrounded by opotopoto, no electricity, most of them surrounded by high walls that make them look like prison, human waste dispossessed off in the backyard. All that is RUBBISH. Also, when you go to any country in the world and ask them to show you the skyline of their cities, they don't show you imposing Mansions were people live, but rather the skyline of the commercial business districts. So, all that huge mansions you guys show off here all the time is not what counts when the yardstick of any city is measured.