Nguroje Pointer

13/10/2024

I am ready to die: Prof. Wole Soyinka

23/06/2023

TITANIC AND SUBMARINE TRAGEDY

1st picture: image of the original Titanic.

2nd picture: image of the wreck of the original Titanic after over a 100 years under the ocean.

3rd picture: The submarine which sank in search of the Titanic.

4th picture: the 5 heroes that sank with it.

5th picture: John Jacob Astor who was the richest man in the world with a networth of over 150, million dollars (around 10 billion dollars today) when the Titanic sank in April 15 1912. He was only 47 years old.

His grandchild is among the passengers of the ill-fated submarine.


The titanic is so historical that once in a while a debris from the wreck would break and wash ashore and be found by seamen.

A few years ago, 4 pieces of rusty metals from the Titanic were auctioned and bought for 160 million dollars.

In 1912, Thomas Andrews, the Man who designed the Titanic Ship Sank with it.

111 years later, the man who designed the Titanic Submarine has so just sank with it in 2023.

21/06/2023

Throwback...
Pre-wedding Picture that was snapped in 1944 somewhere in Northern Nigeria!

19/06/2023

Throwback....
The first set of graduates convocated by ABU Zaria in 1965. Students in all programs (four faculties comprising 15 departments) numbered only 426, out of which only 147 were from the North...

04/06/2023

The Dark Side of Farming:

As much as we encourage young people into farming, come armed with knowledge, it is not MMM, Ultimate cycler, a get rich quick scheme.

Farming is a good venture and can multiply your investments a thousand fold. However, it can also go bad, real quick.

Social media is full of stories of success in farming. Others are not farmers but will pose on farms to chase clout. Lol Farming is not rosy.

The risks in farming include:
Diseases, market flooding, high costs against low yields and ever changing climate.
Although we have successful stories, few negatives are posted. The pursuit for feeling successful and showing off on social media overshadows the daily failures.

Whenever losses strike, it is the very point at which we differentiate real farmers and "wannabe" farmers.
A real farmer will endure the risks, learn from them, pick up pieces and replan while staying focused on the goal. "Wannabe" farmer will abandon farming altogether.

Many farmers are quiet on the problems they face in farming. Success stories are good. But let us also show the newcomers what awaits them.

All crops and livestocks have their challenges. However, I wont bore you with details per crop and livestock. Let me shed light on a few selected ones. If I don't mention what you want to farm, don't think you are safe. Shock still awaits you. So come prepared.

Poultry Farming:
This is an interesting option. I know of someone who reared 2000 broilers, lost up to 1500 heads in a butch of 2000. Reared 500 layers but wasn't keen. At 7 months, only 126 were laying!! Remember, feeds for layers are the most expensive. A mere change in feeding program can cost you. Farmers buy day old chicks and by day 5, they have zero. All Dead!
One sick chicken in a flock can wipe out everything. You will get stuck with mature dying chickens with no buyer.

Maize Farming :

Here, timing is good if you need to fetch good profits. Seed companies selling fake seeds are the first frustration. You will plant seeds that wont germinate. If they do, they underperform. The bags mentioned as yield in those packages are a myth. They don't yield. A friend planted maize in 2019 with good timing. He could count the maize that germinated! He slashed everything and planted pumpkins!
If you get credible seeds, fake fertilizers await you. He bought 8 bags of NPK. After applying, one month later over 50% was still solid! Sand!!

Some unscrupulous sellers mix fertilizers with sand and repackage.
Some fertilizers starts dissolving into liquid few hours after you open. You store the opened sack only to find everything liquid and gone! You cant use that. It's your bill.

If you get good seeds and fertilizers, striga w**d strikes!! Striga w**d is a menace in maize farming. It can reduce your yield up to 80% if it attacks the whole farm.

Tomatoes Farming:

Don't be fooled by the red pictures of bumper harvests. Tomatoes can give you stroke.
This is a crop that is highly prone to various attacks. Viral, fungal and bacterial diseases that once they enter, no exiting. You will spend weeks spraying chemicals. Losses will be on your list. Any slight mistake ruins your harvest. Diseases attack at fruiting. This is also one crop that floods the market and price per kg can reduce by 80% in a flash. You will be stuck with crates upon crates of your bumper harvest and no interested buyer.

Cattle Farming

This is one area that is full of losses. Cattle feeding is one part that you will always complain about. Cows are gluttons. Some though high milk producers, they feed 24/7. Feeding machines. Labour intensive. You may Always get into issues with employees
Milk prices only favour milk processing companies. Farmers are just a conveyor belt in the grant scheme. You will also pour milk for lack of market due to excess supply. Interesting? Wait.
The milk cows are also very vulnerable to diseases. You need a standby vet on call. That thing can show signs of sickness in the evening and by morning its dead!
Then comes delivery complications. Most overfeed and the calf overgrows in the womb. Normal delivery becomes hard.

Floods can wreck havoc in your farm. You will get to the field and find all your precious plants that were glowing few hours ago swept away. Some find this and die of stroke or commit su***de. Water logging is also a serious issue. Increases soil acidity, reduce fertility.

Crops get stunted. Drainage is inevitable in farming. Ensure your farm has enough drainage if you are located in areas receiving heavy rains.
Live stock structures in such heavy rain areas need to be well built. Storms can kill your livestock. Check wind direction when constructing.
If you are keen on livestock, be keen on worms. Worms kill and cause stunted growth. Pigs, goats, chicken and cattle are the most vulnerable to worms. Most worms have a secondary parasite that is more lethal than the worm itself.

Market and Flooding :

Market for farm produce is a challenge to many farmers. This can send you parking on your first trial. Many farmers complain of absence of markets after harvesting. Understand your market. If you are not sure of the market don't farm. Market your produce. Farming is an investment like any formal business. Start marketing your produce even before you see it. Get contacts. Be careful with brokers. They are barriers to accessing markets but are also the key to getting your trusted customers. Don't harvest if you don't want brokers.

While using any chemicals be careful. A neighbour didn't read and follow instructions while spraying army worms on maize. He lost 4 acres. Everything burnt down. If you are spraying foliar, be keen. Too much of it burns the leaves. Some crops like melons require specific sprays.

Dry your produce well and use recommended preservatives if storing for long. Weevils are a menace in cereals. You can lose them 100%.

A real farmer must develop thick skin.
Many examples are out there of farmers encountering 100% losses or more.
Farming is not for the fainthearted get rich quick "wannabes".

03/06/2023

Subsidy Removal;
-Removal of the Devil!
-Making Sense of the Real Enemy

Many people do not understand the politics behind fuel subsidy and it's dangers to the development and growth of Nigeria.

The intention of the government to subsidise petrol was simply to make the product affordable for Nigerians and make life easier. So, the average price of petrol in the world can be as high as N590, however, the Nigerian Government will subsidise the product and fix price at N185 bringing total amount of subsidy per litre to N405.

The average consumption of litres of petrol in Nigeria per day is 60 million litres. However, Marketers of the product loads as much as 100 million litres and above per day.

This means the Nigerian Government is expected to pay as much as N405 × 100,000,000 (litres) as subsidy per day to the Marketers of the product to keep prices at N185 for instance. This brings the amounts to N40.5 billion daily and about N1.2 trillion monthly. Kindly take note that this amount can either decrease or increase following prices of petrol at the international market.

So, just try to wrap your head around it and know what Nigeria expends on fuel subsidy alone in a year - obviously some billions of dollars.

Here's the irony of whole arrangement

1. Petroleum Marketers (major petrol dealers with tank farms) usually divert larger quantity of the subsidised petrol to neighbouring countries to resell at the international market price. So, they make same amount of money the Nigerian Government has paid on the subsidised petrol at the neighbouring countries.

2. This makes the product relatively scarce in Nigeria as the left over becomes lower than the daily consumption in the country. The implication is that petrol stations will be selling fairly higher than the fixed price of N185 (some sells N190, N205, N225, N250 and so on depending on the area). And during peak periods of scarcity, which are also engineered by the marketers, Nigerians still buy same subsidised petrol for as high as N400, N500 and even N800 as the case was in first quarter of this year while sleeping in filling stations. Again, marketers make double.

3. Marketers also import above the daily consumption of 60 million litres as seen above and still force the federal government to pay subsidy on the excesses, which are usually part of what they smuggle to neighbouring countries. Again, marketers dupe Nigeria.

4. This entire scenario makes a mess of the good intention of the Nigerian government to make petrol affordable for Nigerians.

5. This scarcity and high cost of the product despite subsidy leads to arbitrar increase in the cost of living. Transportation for instance, goes up crazily.

Moves to Remove Subsidy & Reactions

Therefore, successive federal governments having seen the outright abuse of the subsidy policy have always tried to cancel the policy so that market forces can determine the cost of petrol.

More so, the huge amount of money paid into the pockets of Marketers can be channeled to other meaningful venture such as infrastructural development, agriculture, social security, technology, health, etc.

However, whenever the move to remove subsidy is made, the Marketers are quick to shutdown their filling stations and deprive Nigerians access to the already subsided fuel in their possession. This leads to instant scarcity regime and hardship (like we are already witnessing).

And while the marketers make more money on one hand, they force and instigate Nigerians against the federal government with the hardship created on the other hand.

Then, the innocent Nigerians who do not understand the politics behind subsidy goes on strike, attacks the government and force her to continue the subsidy regime. We pay more for our ignorance at the long run.

The marketers are happy; they remain the top billionaires in Africa. Everyone loves them, wish to be like them, and celebrate them. Whereas the federal government count her losses, takes the insult, bears the bad name and pity uninformed/suffering Nigerians like you and me.

Will you support Tinubu to break this barrier and give us freedom or you will remain adamant and spread the hate.

Copied.

25/12/2022

30/10/2022