blink182: thanks for чυя earlier reply, if fire guts a concrete framed building, doesn't it lose structural integrity too. What foundation is the erected frame on? Looks like sand to me.

@blink182 The steel columns are most likely resting on structural piles sent into the ground for support.

Actually reinforced concrete has a higher fire rating than steel. The steel been used for this construction is eventually going to be covered with fireproofing material because if there is a fire, steel can begin to deform and even melt at very high temperatures hence losing its structural integrity and that's why you see the "elevator core" in the left of the picture is built using all round concrete and not steel for safety reasons.

Also @blink182 those 3 concrete structures you see going up are either "elevator core" or "fire stairs". The elevators core is usually all concrete and in really huge buildings they can go up to 2+ feet thick. The fire stairs are also all concrete for safety reasons as well because steel might lose its integrity at very high temps as stated earlier.

That's what happens when you have uneducated as well as educated illiterates running a country. How do you expect development and foreign investments when you can not even honor a contract no matter how bad it is. It just shows the jungle mentality of a lot my fellow Nigerians. We want to be taken seriously around the world yet we can't even build and maintain roads, we can't provide electricity for our fellow Nigerians, we can't pick up the trash on our streets, we can't provide decent health care for our citizens heck our government doesn't even know its left from its right hand yet we want to be taken seriously.

Looks like this country is cursed at least, not a big fan of Obasanjo but at least we knew where he stood yet the same can not be said of the current government. Shame on all of us Nigerians.

Not a fan of Virgin Airlines or the virgin brand but I must tell you, if we want to move forward as a country we need to start honoring contracts/agreements no matter how unfavorable they are or at least negotiate a settlement if u don't like a contract, and not by applying brute force to obtain ur objective.

@ Eziachi, I just couldn't agree with u more. If the majority of Nigerians truly did file and pay taxes on their HARD earned income, corruption wouldn't be as much as it is because no one would like for someone else to steal their hard end money. There would be serious accountability and you better believe that.

Obama can win against McCain however he could also lose. He has a wide ceiling to work with. If he wins against McCain he could win big but if he loses it would be in landslide proportions. Obama is right now an unknown quantity. If he does win the nomination there would be enough time for him to get defined by the republicans. Believe me when the repubs are done with attacking and defining him it would be another story. The "phenom" Obama is really a creation of the media because he is new to the scene and is a fresh face. Right now he is getting very favorable media coverage and cheerleading (he should enjoy it while it lasts) but when they the media turns against him it would be very it would be very disastrous for him and believe me they will if he becomes the nominee.

However, I don't think he is going to be the nominee. He will be beaten on Super Tuesday. Hillary is going to win most of the states while Obama wins a handfull notably the delagate rich state of Illinois. He will win a lot of delegates but Hillary should get up to 60% or more of the total. When that happens he might have to go on the attack and become negative but I doubt if he does (I could be wrong).

As far as the endorsement of moveon & Ted Kennedy, I don't think it will make a difference, as a matter of fact their early endorsement of Obama will make her look Hillary look like a moderate and help her in the general election. The republicans right now are having a fight between the conservative and more moderate wings of their party. The hard core conservatives are not too thrilled with McCain at the moment so they may stay home during the elections. On the other hand some people say Hillary is polarizing and because of that unifies the repubs to vote against her. While this is possible, also remember that there are a fair amount of republican women who will actually vote her during the elections. If she does win the nomination I think she's going to be odds on favorite to win the elections regardless of whatever poll you see at the moment.

The Clintons do know how to get down and dirty when it comes to fighting the republicans. I honestly don't think Barack will be up to that when the republican onslaught starts and believe me it would come. But then again I might be wrong.

The debate was cordial and honestly a lil boring atimes. Clinton won the first half of the debate while Obama came through in the second half. I think at the end of the day Clinton is going to pull through and get the nomination. Most of the polls in the Super-Duper Tuesday states are showing her up. She will win most of the delagates although not enough to clinch the nomination. I think by March 4th we would have a picture of where everything stands when Texas & Ohio votes. Obama still has about a 30% chance of winning but I'd say Clinton will eventually pull through.

Yup because there are more whites in other parts of the country. Lets see how he does there.

He won 80% of the black vote, blacks made up 53% of the voters. Thats what I call block voting. Blacks carried him through. This victory means nothing. Wait for super tuesday.

Neither Barack nor HRC has a birth right to the Presidency, so they need to battle it out to get the nomination. If he can't take the heat from members of his own party, how is he going to be able to compete with the republicans? This "change" mantra really is begining to drive me insane beause every single politician that has ran to become President always cry about change. We've heard it before.

Look I agree the Clintons are roughing him up a little bit but lets face it this is politics and everybody wants to win. The Obamas have being attacking HRC for a full year.  If you think I'm lying then just take a look at this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN1qZMBE9Gc . That's just one example. The same people that were praising the Clintons are now attacking them as racists because she's running against a black man. This race thing is becoming to piss me off and the longer blacks in the US continue to push it the more likely Barack is going to lose.

@ kobojunkie -- Well said.

The Blacks are the ones that have ruined Obama's candidacy. In some cases there are truely instances where blacks have been wronged and discriminated against but I believe they don't do themselves any good by always raising the race card for everything single that happens.

To all those that say the Clintons didn't inject race into this campaign, you are all right. You see the Obama people/surrogates totally miscontrued the words of the Clintons on both the fairy tale and MLK comments to make it sound like the Clintons were dissing Obama and his campaign. First, the fairy tale comment as some posters have already made clear was directed at his stand on the Iraq war. As far as the MLK statement is concerned, what HRC said was that it takes both inspiration as well as experience and leadership to get things done i.e. the Civil Rights bill. As a matter of fact she only made that statement after Obama compared himself to both JFK & MLK.

To be honest blacks in America as far as I'm concerned are too sensitive when it comes to race and I understand where they are coming from considering what they've gone through. However, on this particular issue I think they are destroying Obama by coming out overtly and espousing that the Clintons are playing the race card when as a matter of fact they are the ones playing that card. If  blacks just shut their mouth up and speak at the voting booth by voting for Obama I have no doubt that he would have had a good chance but as soon as they start crying racism the whites would be like wait a minute what's going on here? This has made them recoil against Obama.

To be honest I think the media are also responsible for what is going on by first misquoting Bill Clinton vis a vis the "fairy tale" comment as well as blowing out of proportion the MLK comment by Hillary.

He may win SC but he ain't gonna win the nomination. His message of change is all good and dandy but when it comes time for the general elections the Republicans are going to smoke him dry. As far as I'm concerned he's a good candidate but running at the wrong time. However, I do think his running now will also give him experience on how to run in the future. I think he needs a little bit more seasoning, maybe a few more years in the senate or maybe run for Governor of Illinois to get executive experience. If he does that and does a good job, I tell you he'll be unstopable.

I don't think Hillary Clinton is desperate. This is politics, its a full contact sport and this is how the game has been played for a long time. If Barack can't beat the Clintons then think about what the Republicans will do to him. If you want to know then google "Lee Atwater". His tactics are still used successfully by the republicans. Politics is a game and the Clintons have successfully put Barack on defense. Instead of talking about his message of change he's playing a tit for tat with the master of the game, Bill Clinton which as far as I'm concerned is going to be a losing battle for him. Its now like a wrestling match where you're fighting with two people and getting hit from different angles. They've strategically and successfully made him into the "Black Candidate" which would make his win in South Carolina useless because of the overwhelming amount of blacks that will vote for him. I think the Obama people made a big mistake pushing MLK issue to much.

He's definitely not going to win the democratic nomination. The Clinton machine is just too much for him. The Clinton's have tactically/skillfully made him into the "The Black Candidate" with that he's toast and any body that thinks otherwise is leaving in to borrow Bill Clinton's word "a fairy tale"

Just to add my 2 cents to the topic, I'll say if u can afford to buy either technolgy i.e. plasma or lcd then go for it as you will be future proofing yourself. As far as I know i haven't heard of any plans to broadcast HDTV signals in Nigeria but if you are into watching DVD's (both standard def & high def HDDVD/Bluray in widescreen 16:9 format), playing next generation games like the PS3 and Xbox 360 then you will definitely appreciate what your tv can do for you. I personally, I'm kinda biased towards LCD's (got 4 of them, 1 1080P and 3 720P) and they work pretty well for me especially watching those HDDVD/Bluray movies and playing PS3 games, the pictures are simply AMAZING.

Also an earlier poster noted you can also connect your laptop/desktop as I do (actually using it to type this) as well as play DVD's from your computer. The computer does a wonderful job in displaying regular standard def DVD's because it works like an upscaling DVD player but just make sure u have a video card that can put out wide screen resolution (most do).

P.S some electronic manufacturer are slowly exiting CRT production and in 5-10 years it is very likely most will stop making CRT's altogether.

A lot of dumb people dey this board sha. Even upon the explanation of what re-denomination means them still dey confused. Some people are actually thinking that the value of their money will drop from N50000 to 500.

For goodness sake redenomination doesn't mean that your N50000 will now be worth what N500 currently is. All it means is that new currency will released and henceforth if you currently have N100, that N100 would now be exchanged for a NEW NAIRA NOTE @ a rate of 1 new naira to 100 old naira.  That means for example goods now worth N40000 will now cost 400 "New Naira" and yes u will might not see or notice an immediate change to your purchasing power, however in the long run it is hoped that the new policy will curb inflation, reduce capital flight, make the Naira convertible with other world currencies as well as reducing the amount of money people have to carry around. This will also allow more foreign money to come into the banks, which means more money for people to borrow to make investments and improve the economy.

I just can't believe that some on this  forum can't comprehend/understand that simple fact before they start making stupid posts.

@ bajon - I couldn't agree with u more. There are just too many negative folks in Nigeria and that's what is keeping us down. Every proposal, in fact anything & every thing is criticized, even by peeps that know next to nothing about modern economics. Every body is already prophesying failure instead of them to be optimistic. The fact of the matter is that most intelligent people on the know do in fact support this policy even though some do have reservations. I find it very disingenuous when people like Kalu I. Kalu who partook in the destruction of the Naira are coming out to criticize the policy.

The fact of the matter is that Solodu has done a wonderful job since he took office, inflation has been tamed, the banks are doing fine, uncontrolled spending has been checked as well as a healthy current account balance. He has definitely done well and I trust him on this one.

Abubakar ruled for too short a time to be effectively compared with OBJ. AFAIK they are all corrupt SOB's and crooks. However, I think OBJ's legacy will be paving the road for the modernization of the Nigerian economy. I also think a civilian regime is in most cases always better than a military regime because believe me there is some form of accountability in civilian governments whereas in military juntas the top dogs could do almost whatever they want without any repercussions. Can you imagine the Supreme Court ruling against the govt? Hmmm I don't know whether that would be possible in a military junta.

Even though our last elections were flawed I still think its a good thing that power got transfered without massive chaos. What we need in Nigeria is the building up of our institutions of govt and orderly continuity will follow.

Honestly I don't know when Nigerians will wise up. Which generation will have the common sense to know that government and business usually don't mix well especially in 3rd world countries like Nigeria. Looks like we don't ever learn in this country. Consolidation of banks - complain, sell aluminum smelter co that hasn't produced any thing - complain, sell inept/incompentent/grossly inefficient NITEL - big complain. This is really crazy, especially when we see how privately run companies are thriving, providing services they are supposed to provide and at the same time making a profit.

Government has no business in running enterprises and it has been proven time and time again all over the world except in very few cases. Me I'm all for putting on the choping block all these so called govt run enterprises, every single one of them should be disposed off and stop wasting limited resources on them.

Those refineries should be gotten rid off. I wonder why we keep delaying the inevitable. NNPC/Government has failed in respects to the refineries and they will fail again. Nigerians need to understand that hard decisions need to be made for our country to modernize. In the short run, privatizing the refineries might be painful but in the long run it will benefit all if fuel is available and if there is competition in the downstream sector.

Those refineries are not worth what some people want to believe and the more the Govt holds on to them the more the Nigerian populace will suffer. Just think about all the productive man hours spent and as a matter of economics lost/wasted on queues just to buy fuel. Its absolute ridiculous. SELL OFF THE DAMN REFINERIES.

@ denex & debosky I couldn't agree with u more. The so called Labour unions are just protecting their do-nothing jobs. These people are really holding this country back. "Due Process" I thought ads were put out long ago for the refineries and everyone had a chance to bid. debosky did a splendid job when it came to explaining cost & value but it appears the mumu's amongst us just don't get it.

@ Johny na wa for those dumb people wey full Nigeria. Even if Dangote & co got a sweet heart deal its better than NNPC which has shown itself time and again to be incompetent. Just look at how its running the LNG projects and how serious it takes its obligations to it Joint ventures. Very appalling. Yet we have all these "know it all" making noise. Just look at the power situation. Men we need to sell all these wastes and allow the govt to focus on roads and other infrastructure.

So the topic has now morphed into talk about polygamy.

I couldn't agree more with those in support of selling off these wastes. When will people in Nigeria ever realize that the govt has no place in running businesses. Na wa oh! Those refineries have been dead for some time now meanwhile they've been doing so called TAM's (Turn Around Maintenance) every now and then and in the process siphoning billions of dollars yet they are producing next to nothing. Those refineries were actually offered to Multi-National Co's and they all refused to touch them with light pole yet a NIGERIAN tries to buy and fix them and all the hoopla. People get serious mental problem for that country and they're really slowing down the potential of that Nigeria. Very sad.

Sad to say this but our leaders have been a reflection of ourselves and we in deed deserve whatever we are getting or have gotten. I have to agree with Seun on this one though. The Govt can't solve all your problems because it takes individual ingenuity to succeed and prosper and the Gov't can only serve as an enabling environment. Bottom line is individuality first and collectively second. I do think Nigeria will move forward if Yar'adua just follows the damn policies Obj started.

Goodness! what has slavery mentality got to do with suggesting atire to wear. We do have a lot of illiterates and non reasoning people making ridiculous analogies even talking about market women changing their dressing. Goodness rowland is talking about an international function he's making a suggestion and you guys are all trying to hang the dude aven going as far as evoking slavery yet some of you actually live in the West. I wonder whether u wear ur Iro and bubba to work.

@ Superman abi na Spiderman be your name, I don't know if you were refering to me as per "Chinese Analogy" well if u were I'd just like to take time out to show how Idiotic your assertions are re: "Kolo Mentality".  Na you dey Kolo big time. If you knew how to read, well you'd see that I wrote and said he should wear whatever he so chooses and was only stating my own personal preference in dressing business ready.

u are wearing suit cus u think u are oyibo or something

Well I guess with your kind of reasoning you probably don't wear any western oriented clothing. Shows how shallow you are. You should probably think before you write. I wonder what you are doing in the white mans land if you are so in love with Africa.

This isn't about preserving our culture and what not. The Japanese, Chinese and others have a culture thousands of years before ours yet they still dress in suits because it is the international form of dressing for diplomacy and business. I think he'd look a lot sharper and ready for buisness in a suit. However, I do think he should dress in whatever he feels comfortable in, be it the babanriga or some other formal atire. If I was in charge though every govt worker must be decked out in suits with ties to match because it looks a lot more professional and nothing more. lol

p.s we also need to get above this talk of trying to copy the whiteman/neo-colonialism and what not because its not. In my opinion its about looking business ready and the babanriga doesn't cut it. Before all the assault(s), remember its just my opinion.

I think they got both refineries a little bit on the cheap side but i'm not against the sale as a matter of fact its about time. Government needs to sell itself completely off these failed enterprises and let the private sector run the show. As a matter of fact subsidies on petroleum products need to be removed for a period of time to see its effect. I believe if this is done there would be investments in refineries which would lead to growth and competition in the sector. We absolutely need to stop importing refined products because it is such a waste of money.

Ps. we are sitting on one of the largest reserves in the world and we are importing fuel? what a shame.

Are you kidding me! how many people can afford N130 a day for food. Pls lets stop being disingenous here even the regular folk on the street in Nigeria lives on more than  a $1 a day.

@adconline I don't need empirical evidence I use common sense. Yes there are poor people in Nigeria but to tell me that 50+% of the population is living on LESS THAN A DOLLAR a day is rubbish. Well u show me the empirical evidence and how those stats that claim this were deduced.

@Omoge very few people in Nigeria can afford to eat bread, eggs, tea? How much be loaf of bread sef? In some cases more than the so called $1. Bread is a regular on Nigerian tables FYI.

Well I still think that LESS THAN A DOLLAR A DAY stats are flawed and someone needs to convince me.

Also just to throw this out. Pls everybody pull out your thinking hat here because i want to know how they came up with the percentage of people living with $1 or less a day. Me thinks this is a big fallacy. I've been looking around me and everywhere but can't seem to find anyone living with $1 a day. Even the poorest of the poor no dey live on $1 a day abeg.

I think the Government should get out of subsidies and let the price of fuel float and lets see what the market does. It might be a blessing in disguise. Just like folks saying we shouldn't sell those moribund refineries and other government companies. Just think about the trillions wasted/looted. Ultimately removing subsidies is the way to go because it would surely spur building of refineries and lead to competition. In the short run we will feel the pain but in the long run it will benefit the overall economy.

Ah! bluenubian is cute sha, wa_do_mi u sef fine, in short both of una fine welle. Which one wan wey be sey una dey abuse unaself now? Na wa oh!

Jen33's not working for the Govt. those pics are all on www.skyscrapercity.com in the Africa section. Nigerians, better stop waiting for the government to do every thing for you. We have to take our destinies in our own hands. Look at the garbage on the streets for example, simple logic tells me and others with common sense that if we throw garbage on the road it keeps on piling up and eventually becomes a mountain of rubbish. Pick the garbage up and clean the streets where you live. Just look at Calabar. Very neat and clean. The garbage is picked up and the streets are clean. Paint your house every few years and the difference would be clear, even Ajengunle could look good if cleaned up. LOL

I think we are heading in the right direction, and even if we as citizens have a beef with the Govt. we need to start with the local government, then state governments just as that Nigerian saying "charity begins at home" and that applies especially to the Niger Deltans. Their beef should be with their state govts first. what are those governors doing with all the billions of dollars? they get more money than Duke in Cross River and (pardon my French) can't do shit for their people. Really pisses me off.