SOMETHING ABOUT OUR RENAISSANCE AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND FACTORY PARKS FOR NIGERIA (2020-2050

VOTING FOR THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA

VOTING FOR THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA

In a few months' time, two hundred million Nigerian citizens will have the opportunity to vote for their next PRESIDENT. I wish every one of them full success in this huge opportunity.

Yes, Nigerians, this is  an opportunity that is granted to you every four years. Make the best use of it, for the sake of your wonderful country. I have lived, resided and worked in it for nearly ten years. I have also traveled over most of its territory, from North to South, and I loved every inch of it.

Now, is your opportunity to make your voice heard all over the 37 States of the Federation and to participate in electing the right leader, in your estimation, for your country. So, think it over carefully to make sure that the person whom you consider to be the best one for your country is elected.

Please, bear in mind a very important consideration. The President you will elect will have to bear a huge and crucial responsibility. During the four next years he will have to decide upon the future of your country. Nigeria, today is at the cross roads. Either it goes on the right way, and everything will be fine for the200 million Nigerians, or, God forbid, it takes the wrong one and only HE knows what will be the outcome.

The direction that your President will take will be influenced by your voting decision. So think carefully, very carefully before making your choice.

Some of you, upon reading these words, may be tempted to ask me: "But, upon which criteria, should I vote?

It would be easy for me to hedge and tell you : "vote according to what your conscience tells you to do.

But I do not wish to play around, and I would rather reply by asking you instead the following:

1. Are you satisfied with the current living conditions in your country?
2. If your frank question to that answer is yes, I would say go ahead and vote the way you see fit.
3. If your answer is either non-committal or an outright NO, I would suggest that you explain to me the reason for your dissatisfaction.
4. Once I receive your explanations, whatever they are, my reply would be the following:

" If you are dissatisfied with some or all of what is going on presently in your country, then the normal thing to do would be to find out "HOW TO MAKE THINGS BETTER".In such a case, what you should do, BEFORE VOTING, is to ask the candidates, and I assume there will be many, including, for sure, your current President, the following GOLDEN QUESTION:

" What are your proposals to solve our problems, should you be elected, or re-elected President of the Nigerian Federation?" WHAT IS YOUR PLAN?????????????

May I suggest to you that you should insist upon a very detailed, explanatory answer, supported by clear elicit proposals about what the future candidate to the Presidency intend to do.

After seeing his reply, you can try to compare it with the reply of the other candidates to decide upon the one that YOU find the most convincing, because YOU my friend will be part of a decision that will influence the fate of 200 millions of your compatriots.

Yes, my friend, you will be one of the millions of citizens who will contribute to "Build the New Nigeria"

So, be very careful in what decision you will take, and I wish you the BEST OF LUCK!

WHO do you want to vote for? The President who will let you live in the slum shown in the first picture, or the President who will build the community shown in the second picture, below.

I wish you the best, Nigerians. You deserve it.

NIGERIAN BLOGS: INTRODUCTION

9/27/2018

NIGERIAN BLOGS

Dear Readers,

We are starting today a new series of Blogs entitled NIGERIAN BLOGS.

But before we proceed editing let us consider what the average Nigerian readers, for whom these blogs are destined, wish to read about.

1.- A house, a job, and a friendly community
As any human being on earth does, the interest of the average Nigerian is, foremost, to improve his/her living conditions, earn sufficient money to care for his/her family, find a stable and secure job, or seek to work independently. But, in addition to these instinctive reactions, there are also higher ideals and goals. They may want to see their neighbors and their relatives enjoy life the way they would like to do. Man or Woman cannot live alone. They need the company of neighbors. They need to share the good things in life with them, as well as the inconveniences and the troubles.

2.- Are these the current living conditions of the average Nigerian?
As I may have told some of my readers in the past, I have lived permanently some ten years in Nigeria, three of them building, organizing, and managing a clothing manufacturing company in Nigeria, employing 265 workers and producing high quality clothing products that were, for the large part of them, exported to France. The rest of the time I spent it building a hotel for my son, starting it and running it for over three years. I also spent three other years years exporting to the United States and to Europe a large variety of Nigerian products (rubber, columbite and tantalite, sesame seeds, cashew nuts, wood products, and others) So, you can be sure that during these ten years I knew what my colleagues and my employees were thinking, feeling, and seeking during this period. I visited the homes of many of them, and saw the conditions they were living in and what they would have loved to possess, but could not afford to do so.

3.- What did these Nigerians seek more than anything else?
Let me answer this question with one word: a HOME! But not simply a HOME, they all wanted a HOME that they could call their own. Here, someone is bound to ask me: "But, these persons, did not live in homes?" No, my friends, most of them were living in rented houses under the wrong living conditions, and paying relatively high rents. But all this was nothing compared to the feeling that most of them were living under the threat of being evicted at any time, particularly if they delayed paying the exorbitant rents they were charged for extremely unsatisfactory living conditions.
Let me ask you one question my friends: Under such conditions, how can one expect that worker to work efficiently and produce the right quality products? I will not mention the matter of transport. I shall never forget the day when my old storekeeper happened to arrive 15 minutes later to work. When I remonstrated the fact,  he told me that he lived in a far away village and had to change over three buses and start up at 7 in the morning, in order to be at 9 am at work, every day. I checked upon all these facts and found them to be correct.

4.- How can one satisfy the basic needs that I have outlined above?
In my next publication I shall try to describe, as clearly as possible, HOW one can address all these problems, and what would be the advantages to the employers, but even more importantly, and ultimately to NIGERIA?

LEBANON

AFFORDABLE LIVING, JOBS, SECURITY, EDUCATION, BELONGING, AND GOALS

If the first four prospects are fundamental, the last two are essential

A proposed web publication

Beirut, 23/05/2011 “The starting point for a better world is the belief that it is possible” by Norman Cousins, philosopher and author

“Our Project is not just about “bricks and mortars” and the building of homes, but also about the building of new neighbourhoods and improved quality of life. Neighbourhoods, where families can live closer to employment opportunities, schools, recreation facilities, public transportation and work together to build security and stability in their community”

Extracted from the web site of "The Housing Partnership".

 Copyright © 2004 Home Quest Nigeria Ltd. All rights reserve

4. WHAT are the project guidelines?

4.1 Focus primarily on fulfilling the needs of the end-users, the low-income homebuyers.

The project planners should never forget that the sole objective of this entire enterprise is to enhance the quality of life of the low-income worker in Nigeria and his family. This superior motive must condition and shape the design, the planning and the execution of the project.

The ultimate goal is to succeed in providing the low-income residents of the housing communities with a fuller and healthier life and to give their children access to a better education.

To illustrate the profound impact that an effective affordable housing project can have on people who were previously deprived of decent lodging we quote below the statement of a resident of a low-income housing project in Sidi-Harb, Algeria upon taking possession of his new house:

“ What do get from the project? We can get an official address; we become property owners and can provide an inheritance for our children. Cars can come to our front doors. We are no longer people without a real home and as second-class citizens. We can invite guests home without shame. We can wash properly. husbands and wives can enjoy privacy together, sometimes for the first time in many years.” Mohammed, resident of Sidi-Harb.

4.2 Aim at an affordable price ceiling for the homes.

We have mentioned in another section of the project that we should aim at a target home price that does not exceed the equivalent of twelve thousand US dollars. However, this is a preliminary estimate, and the project initiators should strive to find a housing solution that will cost less than this amount and still provide the appropriate benefits to the residents. The opportunities for cost cutting are innumerable in such a project and should be taken advantage of at every step of the design, planning and execution.Some of the areas where considerable savings can be achieved include the design of the infrastructure, the choice of the appropriate housing system and the building materials that will be used, the proper planning and management of the construction project and a strict control on overhead costs.Important cost saving achievements will be obtained by favoring whenever possible the use of locally manufactured products and employing semi skilled workers who will be provided with adequate on-site training. This subject is elaborated upon in paragraph 4.4.

4.3 Seek Expertise and foster Interaction among the participants.

In our Introduction we emphasized the importance of recruiting fully qualified and experienced professionals to design and plan the project in its minutest details in order to ensure a perfect and economical implementation and ultimately to procure the residents with appropriate housing conditions.

The disciplines that are needed for such a vast enterprise are so diverse and so demanding that only the best experienced and knowledgeable people should be chosen to lead it. It is a well-known fact that projects do not succeed because of the size of their budget but through the quality of the people who take part in them.

Furthermore no project initiator, whether from Nigeria or from overseas, should be allowed to work in a vacuum. Although most parts of the project require expert knowledge and specialization, it is essential that all the initiators should be allowed to comment upon the findings of their colleagues and to contribute their own viewpoint on the subject. This kind of interaction will ultimately lead to a better design, better execution and a product that will best serve its purpose.

Another important feature of our project is that it is essentially based upon an open and dedicated cooperation between the two teams of Nigerian and foreign initiators. Through a tight collaboration between North and South, between developed and developing countries, we aim to bring together the best of both worlds and add the experience and systematic approach of problem solving of the West to the intimate knowledge of the local culture, the living conditions and the aspirations of the Nigerian people.

4.4 Sustain the use of local labor and local resources throughout the construction process.

We have already mentioned in another part of our presentation that we plan to  favor the use of local labor and local resources in the construction process from laying down the foundations and the infrastructure to the finishing of the buildings.

However this goal should not deter us from seeking, in the initial stages of the  execution of a project that is planned to last ten years, the best and the most  economical materials available abroad.

For this purpose the project initiators will seek to secure for each operation and  each process the most appropriate types of building materials and equipment. At  the same time they will make it clear to the foreign suppliers that they must plan to  manufacture in the future these products in Nigeria, and preferably in the factory  parks that will be built near the residential settlements.

This action will serve multiple purposes, among which to foster the development of  the factory parks, increase labor opportunities, reduce costs, and promote the  progress of industry and technical knowledge in Nigeria.

The labor on the construction sites should consist of semi-skilled workmen and  technicians who will receive on the job training from qualified instructors. The  structuring of the construction process should allow for this transitional progress.

Furthermore it is planned to introduce in the selling contract of the properties a  clause requiring the low-income buyers to work for a period varying from six  months to a year on the construction site before being allowed to apply to  purchase their homes. This will have the desirable effect of instilling in the low- income residents a closer bonding to their property.

4.5 Promote actively the development of the factory parks.

As mentioned on many occasions in this presentation, the factory parks  development is considered as the linchpin of the entire project.

In fact, should the industrialization program, God forbid, eventually falter it may cause the entire affordable housing project to collapse. This is understandable  because if the factories fail, the owners will not be able to keep their employees  who will consequently be deprived of their revenue and will be unable to meet their  installment purchase payment obligations.

It is a well-known fact that an affordable housing project does not end with the  construction of the houses but by the full redemption of the loan contracted to  execute it. In other words, only when all the homebuyers have fully acquitted  themselves of the payment of their homes, can the project be considered as  having truly reached its objective.

Consequently it is of paramount importance to very carefully organize the entire  industrialization program of the factory parks. This is why the Project Initiators  include among their members an Industrial Engineer and a Marketing Specialist.

The former will be in charge of providing the Architect and the Construction  Engineer with his specialized knowledge of building and equipment layout.  Subsequently he will devote all his attention to studying with the future factory

Owners/Managers the Organization and the Management systems of the individual  enterprises.

As for the latter his responsibility will be no less great. His job will be to organize a  market research of the manufacturing opportunities in Nigeria, call upon the local  entrepreneurs to participate actively in the project, and synchronize with them the  installation of their marketing operations. Through the foreign initiator the  development company will seek to encourage an identical involvement from  overseas manufacturers to acquire and run some of the factory units in the parks.  Such programs were rapidly adopted and implemented in Egypt, the Dominican

Republic or Mexico and it is expected that Nigeria will not be different in this  respect.

The Industrial Engineer and the Marketing Specialist will seek further support and  advice in their task from experts in the Nigerian Government, such as the Ministry  of Industry and the Export Promotion Council and from  International Organizations.  The latter’s assistance is developed in the next chapter.

4.6 Seek international support for the project.

The committee for better housing conditions in Nigeria has already identified a  number of International Institutions with wide experience in the domain of  affordable housing ready to provide their precious knowledge to the project and  assist each of the project initiators in fulfilling their respective tasks. These  mentors will prove invaluable for the success of the project because they will pin  point to the Development Company the mistakes to avoid and indicate the best  method of approach to problem solving derived from their own unique experience.  It goes without saying that all efforts should be made to secure this valuable  guidance. The foreign initiators are best placed to seek and connect with these  institutions and individuals.

On the other hand, one of the major objectives of the project is to secure  international funding, The Foreign Finance specialist will devote all his efforts to  seek the various institutions that we have listed in chapter 5.1 (How to seek

financing for the Project). Having established contact he will follow-up each case  individually to determine clearly the requirements of each individual fund provider  and comply with them as closely as possible. For this purpose he will use his  specialized knowledge and experience and will coordinate his action with his  Nigerian counterpart who will also strive to reach similar goals in the local financing  market.

The Foreign and Nigerian finance specialists will seek guidance in their tasks from  foreign institutions and individuals. The mere fact that such reputed institutions are  taking an interest in the project will influence favorably prospective investors.

A very potent argument to present to would be international lenders or investors is  to stress the globalization of the world economy and how a disaster occurring in  one country is bound to affect all the others in the long run. Rwanda, Sierra  Leone, the Sudan, and the Ivory Coast are vivid examples of what happens when  nothing is done to improve the lot of the poorest segments of the population.  As we mentioned in our introduction the gap between the demand and the supply of  affordable housing in Nigeria has reached gigantic proportions. If left to grow unchecked it may be the source of great social and political disturbances.  Premises of such events have already been manifest in the East and the North of  the country. The Federal and the State Authorities are called upon to actively  support the developers of this affordable housing project bearing in mind that, as  the adage goes: ”an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of remedy”.

1/15/2015

POST NO.5

How we can make things better for ourselves in Lebanon

In my previous four posts the readers may have found me too harshly critical of the performance of most of our leaders in Lebanon since independence, and strongly bemoaning the near absence of any serious attempts by civil society to address these issues. They may cite the proverb that says “la critique est facile mais l’art est difficile” (criticizing is easy but performing is hard). This is why, in this fifth post, I shall do my best to try and briefly summarize what, I believe, happened in our country since 1945, what were the causes of our failures, and suggesting how we can remedy them in the short and in the long run.

1.- A glance backward

Let me start by throwing a quick look at the past seventy years and consider the conclusions that we may draw from that exercise. For that purpose, I have arbitrarily divided the entire seventy years period into three main phases:

Ø  The pre-civil war phase (1945-1974). During these first thirty years, corruption and mishandling of public funds were widely spread, though some efforts were made to combat them, especially during the Fouad Chehab Administration (1958-1964) that produced some noticeably good and innovative initiatives. Unfortunately, after the end of his mandate, the old evil habits soon returned, most of the reforms that he introduced were abandoned, the plans, were relegated to the archives, the Ministry of Plan ceased to exist, and was replaced by the CDR., an institution that was used to partially solve some of the problems, leaving the other half unsolved and the wounds in the country’s Administration pestering.

Ø  The civil war (1975-1992) In 1975 the Civil War broke up in Lebanon following the famous Ain El Remmaneh bus incident. Some half million Palestinian refugees eager to find in Lebanon a replacement for their lost State in Palestine rose against the established order, aided and supported by the Moslem population. Their famous slogan: “the road to Palestine passes through Jounieh” only served to add fuel to the fire, and some eighteen years of murderous infighting and destruction ensued that engulfed the entire country and butted half of the population against the other.

Ø  The post-civil war phase (1993-2014) The Civil war ended with the typical Lebanese compromise based on the concept of “La ghaleb wa la magloub” or “no winners and no losers” that left almost everybody unsatisfied, with the exception of a band of war profiteers who constituted a new social class in Lebanon eager to keep hold of their illicit gains and increase them as much as possible. This policy subtly became the credo of an entire new generation for whom only immediate or near immediate personal gains prevailed and no consideration was given to the rest of the population who were left to fend for themselves. This new credo and attitude gradually spread around and moved from the top of the pyramid down to its roots. Lebanon soon became the region’s “Far West” where every strike was allowed as long as one had enough “friends” and “protectors” in high places.

Some people may object to such a brief description of seventy years of Lebanese history and claim that my outlook of the events is biased. Allow me to stick to my views and claim that all that we are complaining about today comes as the result of our lax past behavior. Even, the privileged five per cent of the population, who consider themselves immune to harm through their present wealth, should realize, by now, that this may no longer be the case in the future. The examples of burning Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen, to cite but a few cases, are there to prove it. The French proverb, ”Tant va la cruche a l’eau, qu’a la fin elle se brise”, illustrates that truth perfectly. When some of our leaders, ingrained in their military upbringing, call for jailing all the corrupters and the corrupt, some people ironically remind them that there are too many of these thugs around, and, in Lebanon, our penal system is not large enough to house them all.

On the other hand, reading through that necessarily brief relation of modern Lebanese history, people are bound to ask the perennial question: “OK, so what are we supposed to do, assuming that the author is right in his interpretation of the events?”  In the next paragraph I have tried to answer that question. Maybe you will find it useful to relay to your interlocutors.

2.- How can we turn impediments into assets?

If one reads my numerous writings on the subject and particularly the recent ones that are published on the following addresses: http://www.a-planned-development.blogspot.com, and at  http://www.5-can-help-save-Lebanon.blogspot.com, in addition to my web site that can be reached at http://www.cpi-lebanon.org , one is bound to notice that, since my return to Lebanon in 2005, my outlook on things in general and on solving the Lebanese conundrum has not changed an iota. There is only one way to make things right in this country. How to redress the wrongs is fully described in the above publications and in hundreds of other facebook, linkedin, twitter, and blog posts.

To provide a succinct answer to question number two above I simply propose to enlist the help of the very people who consciously or inadvertently contributed to create the hellish situation in which Lebanon finds itself stuck presently and ask them to simply help us reverse course. Without providing further details, I am sure that they would promptly understand my meaning. In any case, a great deal of suggestions as to how it should be done can be found in my above cited publications., particularly how we can repay entirely our Public Debt by 2032.