CC™ VideoSpective
Tuesday
Monday
Nigeria lost close to $200 billion in investment opportunities under Buhari administration
Nigeria may have lost close to $200 billion, representing more than 92 percent of investment opportunities available to the country between 2017 and 2020.
Details of a report by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) on “Investment announcements versus FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) Inflow in Nigeria, 2017 – 2020” revealed that the actual inflows of FDI into Nigeria within the period was about 7.65 percent of the total investment announcements captured by the Commission.
This indicates that most investment announcements and expression of interests to invest did not materialize or translate to actual investment inflow.
The report shows that total investment announcements captured by NIPC during the period amounted to $203.89 billion whereas actual FDI inflow was $15.6 billion, representing 7.65 percent.
Specifically, statistics obtained from NIPC stated that in 2017, only $3.5 billion actual FDI inflow was recorded out of a total investment announcements of $66.35 billion; in 2018 only $6.4 billion FDI materialized out $90.89 billion announced; in 2019, $3.3 billion out of $29.91 billion; and in 2020 only $2.4 billion actual FDI inflow was recorded out of $16.74 billion investment announcements that were captured.
NIPC noted, however, that its report is based only on investment announcements captured by the Commission which may not contain exhaustive information on all investment announcements in Nigeria during the period, adding that it did not independently verify the authenticity of the announcements.
NIPC further reported that in 2017, a total number of 112 projects were announced across 27 States and FCT; in 2018, there were 92 projects across 23 States and FCT; 2019, there were 76 Projects across 17 States, FCT; while in 2020, a total announcements of 63 projects were made across 21 States, FCT and the Niger Delta region.
Further details of the NIPC report revealed that in 2020, the top 10 announcements accounted for $15.59 billion, representing about 93 percent of total announcements.
The details show $6 billion by Indorama Petrochemicals and Fertilizer company from Singapore; $2.6 billion by Bank of China and Sinosure from China; $2 billion by 328 Support Serves GmbH from USA; $1.6 billion by MTN South Africa; and $1.05 billion by Sinoma CBMI of China.
Others are $1 billion by Torridon Investments of UK; $600 million by African Industries Group in Nigeria; $390 million by Savannah Petroleum of UK; $200 million by Stripe from USA; and $150 million by NESBITT Investment Nigeria.
In 2019, the top 10 announcements accounted for $26.29 billion or 88 percent of total. These include $10 billion by Royal Dutch Shell from Netherlands; $5 billion by Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company from Nigeria; $3.15 billion by Sterling Oil and Energy Production Company (SEEPCO) from Nigeria; $2.3 billion by TREDIC Star Core from Canada; and $1.5 billion by OCP Group from Morocco.
Others are $1 billion by Tolaram Group from Singapore; $900 million by Yinson Holdings Bhd from Malaysia; $880 million by CMES-OMS Petroleum Development Company (CPDC) from Nigeria; $860 million by China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC)/Lagos State; and $700 million by Seplat/NNPC from Nigeria.
The top announcements in 2018 accounted for $79.3 billion, representing 87 percent of total announcements captured by the commission.
The details include $18 billion by Range Developers of UAE; $16 billion by Total from France; $12 billion by Azikel Refinery from Nigeria; $11.7 billion by Green Africa Airways from Nigeria; and $9 billion by Royal Dutch Shell from UK.
Others are $3.6 billion by Petrolex Oil & Gas from Nigeria; $3 billion by CNOOC from China; $2 billion by Vitol/Africa Oil/Delonex Energy from Luxembourg, Canada and Nigeria; $2 billion by General Electric from USA; and $2 billion by Blackoil Energy Refinery from Nigeria/Niger.
The NIPC report revealed that the top 10 announcements in 2017 accounted for $43.1billion, representing about 65 percent of total announcements captured.
The commission did not, however, provide the details of the investors, sector, source and destination.
According to NIPC, the gaps between announcements and actual investments demonstrate investments potentials which were not fully actualized.
The Commission stated: “A more proactive all-of-government approach to investor support, across federal and state governments is required to convert more announcements to actual investments.”
Reacting to the situation, Director General, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Ambassador Ayoola Olukanni, noted that the gap may not be unconnected to the economic recession and COVID-19 pandemic events within the period, aggravated by policy instability.
Olukanni stated: “Numerous studies have established that Foreign Direct Investment is dependent on the market size of the host country, deregulation, level of political stability, investment incentives, openness to international trade, economic policy coherence, exchange rate depreciation, availability of skilled labor, endowment of natural resources and inflation.
“You will agree with me that the four years spanning 2017 and 2020 are characterized by struggle to exit from economic recession, a period of slight recovery, the COVID-19 pandemic, and another period of recession. These circumstances may or may not be responsible for the political and economic reaction that can be witnessed in the uncertainty in the foreign exchange market, increased inflation, increased unemployment, increased political unrest and insecurity and so on.
“What can be established is that Foreign Direct Investment is averse to risk and uncertainty, especially the kind of uncertainty brought about by policy instability and economic policy. An obvious example is the closure of the land borders in 2019, while justifiable through the lens of national security is certain to have a negative impact on Foreign Direct Investment which has a long-term planning horizon.
“In summary, to seek to increase actual FDI is to promote the factors that have been shown, empirically, to positively impact FDI. While the Nigerian economy checks the boxes of most of these factors, economic policy coherence, foreign exchange market stability and insecurity are issues that are currently the bane of FDI inflows.”
Also commenting, an economist and private sector advocate, Dr. Muda Yusuf, who is also the immediate past Director General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce of Industry (LCCI), said the development reflects low level of investors’ confidence occasioned by structural problems of infrastructure and worsening security situation.
His words: “It is investors’ confidence that drives investment, whether domestic or foreign. Investors are generally very cautious and painstaking in taking decisions with respect to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). This is because FDIs are often long term and invariably more risky, especially in volatile economic and business environments. Uncertainties aggravate investment risk.
“Investors in the real sector space are grappling with structural problems especially around infrastructure. There are also worries around liquidity in the forex market; there are concerns about the accelerated weakening of the currency. There are issues of heightened regulatory and policy risks in many sectors.
“Investors’ confidence has also been adversely affected by the worsening security situation in the country. Meanwhile, the economy is still struggling to recover from the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. These are the likely factors impacting investment decisions.
“Our ability to attract FDI will depend on how well we position ourselves. The critical question will be around expected returns on investment. Overall, it is the investment climate quality that will make the difference. We need to ensure an acceleration of necessary reforms to make Nigeria a much better investment destination. We need policy reforms, regulatory reforms and institutional reforms, among others.
“We should accelerate the ongoing foreign exchange reforms; we need to undertake trade policy reforms to liberalize trade in sectors of weak comparative advantage; we need regulatory reforms to make regulations more investment friendly. We need to create new opportunities in the public private partnership (PPP) space, especially in infrastructure. We need to see more privatization of public enterprises.
“It is important as well to quickly fix the ravaging insecurity in the country. All of these are crucial to boost investors’ confidence.”
AGENCY
Sunday
FULANI POLITICIAN - ‘NO YORUBA WILL EVER BE PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA AGAIN’
CC™ VideoSpective
CREDITS: NEWSPOST TV
Saturday
Friday
Islamic State (ISWAP) moved $30M annual revenue through Nigeria's financial system under Buhari government - ECOWAS organization
CC™ Breaking News
The Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa, established by the Economic Community of West African States, says Boko Haram splinter group, Islamic State West Africa Province, moved about $30 million generated from trading and taxing communities in the Lake Chad region through the Nigerian financial system annually, under the past Buhari administration.
The group, set up by ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government in 2000, stated that both Boko Haram and ISWAP had continued to mobilize, move and utilize funds through the nation’s formal financial and commercial system.
It noted that the Buhari administration lacked adequate insight into Boko Haram and ISWAP’s international connections and support system, and abuse of the formal financial and commercial sectors.
It said even though the Department of State Services (DSS) had significant ability to identify and investigate the financing activities of terrorist groups, while also also conducting parallel financial and terrorism investigations, there was little evidence of the effectiveness of such efforts, under the Buhari administration.
Thursday
The toxic legacy of the Confederacy and why the monuments remain a painful vestige of its sordid past
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| Caroline Randall Williams |
I have rape-colored skin. My light-brown-blackness is a living testament to the rules, the practices, the causes of the Old South.
If there are those who want to remember the legacy of the Confederacy, if they want monuments, well, then, my body is a monument. My skin is a monument.
Dead Confederates are honored all over this country — with cartoonish private statues, solemn public monuments and even in the names of United States Army bases. It fortifies and heartens me to witness the protests against this practice and the growing clamor from serious, nonpartisan public servants to redress it.
But there are still those — like President Trump and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell — who cannot understand the difference between rewriting and reframing the past. I say it is not a matter of “airbrushing” history, but of adding a new perspective.
I am a black, Southern woman, and of my immediate white male ancestors, all of them were rapists. My very existence is a relic of slavery and Jim Crow.
According to the rule of hypodescent (the social and legal practice of assigning a genetically mixed-race person to the race with less social power) I am the daughter of two black people, the granddaughter of four black people, the great-granddaughter of eight black people. Go back one more generation and it gets less straightforward, and more sinister. As far as family history has always told, and as modern DNA testing has allowed me to confirm, I am the descendant of black women who were domestic servants and white men who raped their help.
It is an extraordinary truth of my life that I am biologically more than half white, and yet I have no white people in my genealogy in living memory. No. Voluntary. Whiteness. I am more than half white, and none of it was consensual. White Southern men — my ancestors — took what they wanted from women they did not love, over whom they had extraordinary power, and then failed to claim their children.
What is a monument but a standing memory? An artifact to make tangible the truth of the past. My body and blood are a tangible truth of the South and its past. The black people I come from were owned by the white people I come from. The white people I come from fought and died for their Lost Cause. And I ask you now, who dares to tell me to celebrate them? Who dares to ask me to accept their mounted pedestals?
You cannot dismiss me as someone who doesn’t understand. You cannot say it wasn’t my family members who fought and died. My blackness does not put me on the other side of anything. It puts me squarely at the heart of the debate. I don’t just come from the South. I come from Confederates. I’ve got rebel-gray blue blood coursing my veins. My great-grandfather Will was raised with the knowledge that Edmund Pettus was his father. Pettus, the storied Confederate general, the grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, the man for whom Selma’s Bloody Sunday Bridge is named. So I am not an outsider who makes these demands. I am a great-great-granddaughter.
And here I’m called to say that there is much about the South that is precious to me. I do my best teaching and writing here. There is, however, a peculiar model of Southern pride that must now, at long last, be reckoned with.
This is not an ignorant pride but a defiant one. It is a pride that says, “Our history is rich, our causes are justified, our ancestors lie beyond reproach.” It is a pining for greatness, if you will, a wish again for a certain kind of American memory. A monument-worthy memory.
But here’s the thing: Our ancestors don’t deserve your unconditional pride. Yes, I am proud of every one of my black ancestors who survived slavery. They earned that pride, by any decent person’s reckoning. But I am not proud of the white ancestors whom I know, by virtue of my very existence, to be bad actors.
Among the apologists for the Southern cause and for its monuments, there are those who dismiss the hardships of the past. They imagine a world of benevolent masters, and speak with misty eyes of gentility and honor and the land. They deny plantation rape, or explain it away, or question the degree of frequency with which it occurred.
To those people it is my privilege to say, I am proof. I am proof that whatever else the South might have been, or might believe itself to be, it was and is a space whose prosperity and sense of romance and nostalgia were built upon the grievous exploitation of black life.
The dream version of the Old South never existed. Any manufactured monument to that time in that place tells half a truth at best. The ideas and ideals it purports to honor are not real. To those who have embraced these delusions: Now is the time to re-examine your position.
Either you have been blind to a truth that my body’s story forces you to see, or you really do mean to honor the oppressors at the expense of the oppressed, and you must at last acknowledge your emotional investment in a legacy of hate.
Either way, I say the monuments of stone and metal, the monuments of cloth and wood, all the man-made monuments, must come down. I defy any sentimental Southerner to defend our ancestors to me. I am quite literally made of the reasons to strip them of their laurels.
Caroline Randall Williams(@caroranwill) is the author of “Lucy Negro, Redux” and “Soul Food Love,” and a writer in residence at Vanderbilt University. Ms. Williams' oped piece was originally published in the New York Times.
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Laura Ingraham: An epitome of hypocrisy and a walking contradiction of privileged ignorance
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| Laura Ingraham |
By Deji Fashola (Contributing Editor)
One of the most consistent things in life is time. Time never fails to tell the story. The story of the day, the story of your life and the events that have shaped that very life; but even more importantly, time never fails to remind us of our past, with historical and poignant markers that speak to how our past actions ultimately determine where and who we are, or will become.
For Laura Ingraham, a talk show host of Fox News and someone whom I had never heard of until she name dropped basketball superstar, Lebron James, a few years ago by telling him to shut up and dribble, time has essentially encapsulated the very essence of her being, as it relates to her place in the evolving but contentious conversation about Americas contract with people of African descent, in particular.
One of the most consistent things in life is time. Time never fails to tell the story. The story of the day, the story of your life and the events that have shaped that very life; but even more importantly, time never fails to remind us of our past, with historical and poignant markers that speak to how our past actions ultimately determine where and who we are, or will become.
For Laura Ingraham, a talk show host of Fox News and someone whom I had never heard of until she name dropped basketball superstar, Lebron James, a few years ago by telling him to shut up and dribble, time has essentially encapsulated the very essence of her being, as it relates to her place in the evolving but contentious conversation about Americas contract with people of African descent, in particular.
I am not a consumer of American news as a matter of principle, be it CNN, Fox, MSNBC or any other alphabet news organization, but one thing I will say having had a glimpse of Fox news in particular, is that the latter (Fox news) is the most brazen attempt at instituting State-run TV in a country that is supposed to be the very epitome of democracy.
Time and time again, we are inundated with the Republican mantra that seemingly serves to eschew the tenets and principles of so-called conservative values. But, what exactly do these values entail.
According to Laura Ingraham et al, conservative values seek to:
a) Preserve the sanctity of life pre-birth but seemingly abuse and devalue it after birth, especially if the life in question is of the wrong hue.
b) Promote avaricious greed that encourages limitless profit by a very limited few to the detriment of the overwhelming majority.
c) Encourage and promote governmental interference in the lives of others with the exception of those who profess a divine following of a God, whose commandments and ordinances they (the so-called conservatives) never abide by, but project and force on others who merely seek to live and let live.
d) Bully, vilify, slander, defame, abuse and in some cases, seek to intimidate with threats of violence those they disagree with, including defying constituted authority even though the latter's conduct and ordinances are within the framework of the laws and statutes of the land.
A perfect example of this vilification is the Republican messaging of referring to those who ask why the wealthiest nation on earth has more than half of its population without basic healthcare, as socialists.
These same conservatives (Republicans) have no problems though with the government giving away billions of dollars in corporate welfare to big corporations, deemed too big to fail. To them, the average American is too irrelevant and too small to succeed or be cared for, so long as Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom "call in the troops" Cotton, Josh "inordinate ambition" Hawley and the always opportunistic Rafael Ted Cruz line their pockets and those of their corporate benefactors.
e) Extol the virtues of democracy and civility when in the majority or win elections but then turn the same institution on its head, refusing to concede when you lose, and then seek to undermine and subvert the will of the people by judicial fiat. And when the latter fails, incite a violent insurrection against the duly elected leadership of the country, namely the Vice President and Congress, a co-equal branch of government, by a sitting President of the United States of America.
The four years of the Trump misrule of incompetence, laced with brazen nepotism, cronyism and racism, as well as unbridled corruption, was undoubtedly egged on by State TV (Fox News), with Sean Hannity (the former construction worker and high school dropout) and Laura Ingraham as the unofficial spokespersons of the Trump-led civilian junta.
It remains to be seen if the resulting socio-political scars remain embedded in the mental and institutional psyche of the nation, for decades or even generations to come.
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British Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch triggers Kashim Shettima and the leadership of Nigeria’s kleptocracy
CC™ VideoSpective
At the recent International Democracy Union (IDU) Forum dinner, firebrand leader of the British Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch touched on several issues (video below) including that of her connection to Nigeria (she was born in the United Kingdom to Nigerian aristocrats).
In response to her speech, Nigeria’s Vice-President Kashim Shettima, took exception to his perceived slight or denigration of Nigeria and proceeded to essentially declare her persona non grata, as far as Nigeria was concerned.
In her response to Shettima’s vile and rather uncouth remarks toward her, Badenoch made it clear to Shettima (a known sponsor of Islamic terrorists including Boko Haram, like majority of the Northern Nigeria political class) that she was Yoruba and held no allegiance to the geographical contraption called Nigeria, or the terror ridden and Islamist North Shettima and his ilk originate from.
In listening to Badenoch’s speech, her vision for the United Kingdom is clear. While I may disagree with most of her salient points (and categorically if I might add), she should be left alone and allowed to pursue her goals and aspirations without the unnecessary distractions and hissicuffs from a rudderless kleptocracy, steeped in debilitating corruption.
In a sane society with true human values and the rule of law, Kashim Shettima would be throwing stones behind bars rather than from the podium.
Kemi Badenoch is British and her future lies in the United Kingdom, regardless of whether or not she becomes the Prime Minister.
Nigeria’s loss is Britain’s gain and what Shettima and his band of marauders should be more concerned about is creating a conducive climate that allows for the nurturing, development and retention of our most prized asset, our people.
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Ifá/Afa- A Computer Programmer’s Perspective
By Eyes Sea
For some of us who earn our daily bread from programming computers (I have been doing this for over 2 decades), making the connection between Ifá binary notation and programming is a no brainer.
We programmers write codes/instructions (incantations) on the cpu – made from silicon (sand) to carry out our desires.
The parallel between a Babaláwo and a computer programmer is striking. We write on sand (silicon/cpu), a Babalawo writes on Iyerosun (camwood powder). We chant/write binary codes, a Babaláwo recites Odù Ifá!
In essence, a computer code is àfọ̀ṣẹ par excellence! In Yoruba, àfọ̀ṣẹ means “oun tí a fọ̀ tí ó sì ṣẹ” – something commanded to happen.
Our incantations (computer codes) can animate the entities in the cpu (sand) and make them become whatever we want: a game console, a financial trading system, an air traffic controller, facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon, Bitcoin etc.
How did this come about? Well, the Binary System makes this possible.
The Binary System of Ifá is based on the Yorùbá philosophical duality of Ibi and Ire (Evil and Good); for several millennia, the Yorùbá had been using the binary system before the German mathematician – Gottfried Leibniz formalised in 1679.
These days, the Binary Numeral System (Base 2) is well known in Mathematics and digital electronics and the system underpins how computers work by representing numeric values using just two digits – zero (0) and one (1)
In Computing, a Bit (i.e. BInary digiT) is the smallest unit of storage and can either be 1 or 0
A Nible (also called half Byte or semi-octet) is the grouping of four Bits e.g 0 1 0 1
In Ifá, Odù signatures are marked with “|” and “||”. Where “|” is the binary number “0” and “||” is “1”.
For example Ogbè (0000) has the following signature:
|
|
|
|
Ọ̀sá (1000) is represented as:
||
|
|
|
Òtúrá (0100) is marked as:
|
||
|
|
We can therefore summarise the representation of the first sixteen Odus as follows:
Decimal == Nibble == Odù
00 == 0000 == Ogbè
01 == 0001 == Ògúndá
02 == 0010 == Ìrẹtẹ̀
03 == 0011 == Ìrosùn
04 == 0100 == Òtúra
05 == 0101 == Ọ̀sẹ́
06 == 0110 == Èdí
07 == 0111 == Ọ̀bàrà
08 == 1000 == Ọ̀sá
09 == 1001 == Ìwòrì
10 == 1010 == Ọ̀̀fún
11 == 1011 == Ìká
12 == 1100 == Ọ̀wọ́nrín
13 == 1101 == Òtúrúpọ̀n
14 == 1110 == Ọ̀kànràn
15 == 1111 == Òyẹ̀kú
́
Since Ifá speaks only in binary (Odu Èjì Ogbè says: “Èjèèji ni mo gbè, n ò gbe ọ̀kan ṣoṣo mọ́” i.e “I will only support two, I will not support one”), each Odu must be paired.
For example, after pairing the main Odu, we get the following (see graphic for the main Odu signature)
Èjì Ogbè (also called Ògbè Méjì): 00000000
Ògúndá Méjì : 00010001
Ìrẹtẹ̀ Méjì : 00100010
Ìrosùn Méjì : 00110011
Òtúrá Méjì : 01000100
Ọ̀sẹ́ Méjì : 01010101
Èdí Méjì : 01100110
Ọ̀bàrà Méjì : 01110111
Ọ̀ṣá Meji: 10001000
Ìwòrì Méjì : 10011001
Ọ̀fún Méjì : 10101010
Ìká Méjì :10111011
Ọ̀wọ́nrín Méjì :11001100
Òtúrúpọ̀n Méjì :11011101
Ọ̀kànràn Méjì :11101110
Ọ̀yẹ̀kú Méjì : 11111111
The other 240 minor Odus are derived from the main 16 Odus.
For example (note: the binary notation and the marks are read from right to left)
Ogbè-Ògúndá : 0001-0000
| |
| |
| |
|| |
Ọ̀yẹ̀kú-Ìrẹtẹ̀ : 0010-1111
| ||
| ||
|| ||
| ||
Computers also speak in binary and binary numbers can be converted to decimal, hexadecimal, octal etc.
Without getting into too much math, below are the decimal values of the 16 main Odu:
00000000 = 00
00010001 = 17
00100010 = 34
00110011 = 51
01000100 = 68
01010101 = 85
01100110 = 102
01110111 = 119
10001000 = 136
10011001 = 153
10101010 = 170
10111011 = 187
11001100 = 204
11011101 = 221
11101110 = 238
11111111 = 255
i.e. 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = 55
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
In Ifa, the patterns of bits above translate to…
ọ̀wọ́nrín-ọ̀sá èjì-ogbè èjì-ogbè
ọ̀wọ́nrín-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọ̀sá
ọ̀wọ́nrín-méjì ogbè-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọtúrá
ọ̀fùn-ọ̀sá ogbè-òtúrùpọ̀n ogbè-ọtúrá
ọtúrá-méjì ogbe-ọtúrá ogbè-ògúndá
ìrẹtẹ̀-ọ̀wọ́nrín ogbè-ọ̀sá èjì-ogbè
ìrẹtẹ̀-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọ̀sá ogbè-ọ̀sá
ọ̀sá-ogbè ogbè-ọtúrá èjì-ogbè
èdì-ọtúrá èjì-ogbè èjì-ogbè
This was how programmers used to write computer programs before high level programming languages like Fortran and Lisp were created in 1957 and 1958 respectively.
For programmers, entering these patterns manually was a laborious, tedious and error-prone task. Even for a seasoned programmer, it could get dizzy and nauseating after assembling a couple of these patterns.
However, a competent Ifá priest can commit to memory 256 of these patterns without breaking a sweat and able to recite close to 4,000 Ifá verses by heart!
Effectively, the meaning of the 1s and 0s in the code above is as follows:
- Store the number 0 in memory location 0.
- Store the number 1 in memory location 1.
- Store the value of memory location 1 in memory location 2.
- Subtract the number 11 from the value in memory location 2.
- If the value in memory location 2 is the number 0 continue with instruction 9.
- Add the value of memory location 1 to memory location 0.
- Add the number 1 to the value of memory location 1.
- Continue with instruction 3.
- Output the value of memory location 0.
Using names in place of numbers for memory and instruction locations, we can do the following:
Set the value of “total” to 0.
Set the value of “count” to 1.
[loop]
Set the value of “compare” to the “count” value.
Subtract 11 from the value of “compare” .
If “compare” is zero, continue at [end].
Add “count” to the value of “total”.
Add 1 to the value of “count”.
Continue at [loop].
[end]
Output “total”.
In a modern programming language like Python, we can write the following:
total = 0
count = 1
while count <= 10:
total = total + count
count = count + 1
print total
In 2017, I wrote series of programming tutorials on this wall using the Python programming language. In the coming series of articles, I will translate the posts into Yoruba so stay tuned.
Ire o.
Credit:Ifá – Olobe Yoyon
SOURCE: rymcitigh
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Yes, racism is still very much alive and will always be here.....
This ABC experiment on racial prejudice is quite revealing and speaks not only to the prejudices carried by the "majority", but those unfortunately imbibed by the recipients, as a result of centuries of a sense of diminished self-worth, resulting from institutional and related racial prejudice.
Watch and learn.....
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RACISM: An evil and methodical global system of oppression and consequent decimation.....
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| W.E.B DuBois |
"A system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect"..... W.E.B. DuBois
The afore-stated quote with the requisite attribution to the great W.E.B. DuBois essentially sums up the crux of the piece. Racism, as I have always stated is not a behavior, nor is it a word, action or an attitude. Racism at its very core is an institution with its attendant benefactors as well as victims.
There is nothing more disheartening than to hear people of an ethnic background in particular refer to an individual, an action or a statement as racist. The institution is what is racist. Yes, the institution that deemed the Black man and woman as less than human and forced people of African descent in particular into an artificial class, then proceeded to accuse them (to this day regardless of geographical location) of all manner of sin with the sole intent of damning and systematically subjugating them.
Whether it is in South Africa (pre or post apartheid), Brazil, Argentina (where Blacks have been systematically exterminated over time) and other parts of South America, the United States of America or countries in Europe like France and England, the system has always ensured that "people of color" (Blacks in particular) remain at the bottom. Brazil for example, has the second largest concentration of people of African descent (Blacks) after Nigeria.
In Brazil, the poverty level among its Black or "colored" population is terrifying with the unemployment rate among the latter in Brazil well over the 50% clip. The same scenario plays out in the United States with Black unemployment rate nearing 10% (Blacks make up only 13% of the US population) and 1.6 times the US national unemployment average.
The same pattern of subjugation is also found in South Africa where the majority population of close to 90% is black (African) but the broad unemployment rate among South African Blacks (who are the majority) stands at close to 40% and should be more if the unemployment among the "mixed-race Blacks" (designated as coloreds by the former racist apartheid regime) is also taken into consideration.
In the third quarter of 2024, the unemployment rate for Black South Africans was a staggering 36.9%, which is higher than the national average and has been for the past decade. This is more than three decades after the supposed end of apartheid!
The sole intent of racism (as an institution) as designed by White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP) was to ensure the continued dominance of other ethnic (non-White) groups by minimizing the traditional ways, religion, ideals and institutions of non-White racial groups, while promoting those of the colonialists and western imperialists as superior to those of the former.
It is not surprising that countries like Japan, China and the Asian Tigers, who have maintained their core culture and traditions are the ones that have been able to compete and even out-duel the so-called global WASP economic powers. The Chinese, Japanese and the Asian Tigers have kept their culture and institutions the way they have always been even in the face of some of the most debilitating wars and conflicts with the West, as they understand its existential importance to their survival.
African countries on the other hand continue to imbibe the alien cultures and values of the West with its attendant negative consequences. As a people, we (Africans) have essentially abandoned our traditional institutions including our language, thus embarking on a journey that may not augur well for the future survival of our people.
The sole intent of racism (as an institution) as designed by White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP) was to ensure the continued dominance of other ethnic (non-White) groups by minimizing the traditional ways, religion, ideals and institutions of non-White racial groups, while promoting those of the colonialists and western imperialists as superior to those of the former.
It is not surprising that countries like Japan, China and the Asian Tigers, who have maintained their core culture and traditions are the ones that have been able to compete and even out-duel the so-called global WASP economic powers. The Chinese, Japanese and the Asian Tigers have kept their culture and institutions the way they have always been even in the face of some of the most debilitating wars and conflicts with the West, as they understand its existential importance to their survival.
African countries on the other hand continue to imbibe the alien cultures and values of the West with its attendant negative consequences. As a people, we (Africans) have essentially abandoned our traditional institutions including our language, thus embarking on a journey that may not augur well for the future survival of our people.
The debilitating effect of colonialism and racism continue to take its toll on our people, our institutions and our way of life. In sports for example (soccer or football for one), we disregard our best local talent and seek even the most unqualified White expatriates to fill the same role, while paying them exorbitant amounts of money, a fraction of which the local handlers would gladly take, and produce better results than the White mercenaries.
Our women have been told that their natural beauty is not enough, and that they must purchase and wear human hair procured from dead women in India and other parts of Asia and Europe to be considered beautiful. The same racist institution also tells them they must bleach their skin so they can be light skinned like Beyoncé (the white held ideal of Black beauty) and inculcates the Black woman with anti-male propaganda that has inevitably seen the Black man and the Black woman increasingly at odds with one another.
The most obvious example(s) of the effects of racism are the US elections in 2016 and the most recent one this year, 2024, that saw Donald J. Trump elected as the 45th and soon to be 47th POTUS. There is no question that Donald Trump's first election in 2016 was in response to the election of his predecessor, Barack H. Obama as the 44th POTUS. Obama (who is half White and half Black) was elected in 2008, against all odds as the so-called first Black POTUS.
Our women have been told that their natural beauty is not enough, and that they must purchase and wear human hair procured from dead women in India and other parts of Asia and Europe to be considered beautiful. The same racist institution also tells them they must bleach their skin so they can be light skinned like Beyoncé (the white held ideal of Black beauty) and inculcates the Black woman with anti-male propaganda that has inevitably seen the Black man and the Black woman increasingly at odds with one another.
The most obvious example(s) of the effects of racism are the US elections in 2016 and the most recent one this year, 2024, that saw Donald J. Trump elected as the 45th and soon to be 47th POTUS. There is no question that Donald Trump's first election in 2016 was in response to the election of his predecessor, Barack H. Obama as the 44th POTUS. Obama (who is half White and half Black) was elected in 2008, against all odds as the so-called first Black POTUS.
He (Obama) endured some of the most contentious times any POTUS has ever endured in the history of the United States and by the end of his tenure, the majority White population already had enough and any White person, no matter how unqualified, would do. The election of Donald Trump was essentially a White backlash to the election of the first Black POTUS!
The 2024 elections followed the same trajectory with the backlash this time against perceived marginalization of Whites (talk about an oxymoron) by DEI (Diversity Equity & Inclusion) programs that seek to promote equality of representation and opportunity across the national landscape.
When you see all these scenarios, it is clear to see that racism is an institution, an evil and methodical system of continued oppression, marginalization and consequent decimation of a class of people by and with the apparatus of national and global economic, executive, judicial, legislative and military power.
Africa and Africans must wake up from their slumber. We must realize that the second scramble for the continent is already in effect and those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.
When you see all these scenarios, it is clear to see that racism is an institution, an evil and methodical system of continued oppression, marginalization and consequent decimation of a class of people by and with the apparatus of national and global economic, executive, judicial, legislative and military power.
Africa and Africans must wake up from their slumber. We must realize that the second scramble for the continent is already in effect and those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.
Rather than looking to join global organizations like the G20 or BRICS, the impetus should be to strengthen our traditional and cultural institutions at home, while also forging greater regional and inter-regional cooperation amongst African countries and economies.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), ECCAS, EAC, SADC, COMESA, CEN-SAD, AMU and the IGAD are Regional Economic Communities (RECs) recognized by the AU (African Union) for the sole purpose of fostering greater cooperation towards ensuring the economic prosperity of the African continent.
The focus should be inward first. Then when you engage externally, you do that with a united front and from a position of strength. The economic policies being espoused by the West are geared towards maintaining the status quo and African leaders must NOT mortgage the future of the continent to please those who seek to bring the continent to its knees.
#racism #imperialism #neo-colonialism #white supremacy #panafricanism
#racism #imperialism #neo-colonialism #white supremacy #panafricanism
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From gas to solar, bringing meaningful change to Nigeria’s energy systems
CC™ Energy News
MIT Energy Initiative
Growing up, Awele Uwagwu’s view of energy was deeply influenced by the oil and gas industry. He was born and raised in Port Harcourt, a city on the southern coast of Nigeria, and his hometown shaped his initial interest in understanding the role of energy in our lives.
“I basically grew up in a city colored by oil and gas,” says Uwagwu. “Many of the jobs in that area are in the oil sector, and I saw a lot of large companies coming in and creating new buildings and infrastructure. That very much tailored my interest in the energy sector. I kept thinking: What is all of this stuff going on, and what are all these big machines that I see every day? The more sinister side of it was: Why is the water bad? Why is the air bad? And, what can I do about it?”
Uwagwu has shaped much of his educational and professional journey around answering that question: “What can I do about it?” He is now a senior at MIT, majoring in chemical engineering with a minor in energy studies.
After attending high school in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, Uwagwu decided to pursue a degree in chemical engineering and briefly attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016. Unfortunately, the impacts of a global crash in oil prices made the situation difficult back in Nigeria, so he returned home and found employment at an oil services company working on a water purification process.
It was during this time that he decided to apply to MIT. “I wanted to go to a really great place,” he says, “and I wanted to take my chances.” After only a few months of working at his new job, he was accepted to MIT.
“At this point in my life I had a much clearer picture of what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be in the energy sector and make some sort of impact. But I didn’t quite know how I was going to do that,” he says.
With this in mind, Uwagwu met with Rachel Shulman, the undergraduate academic coordinator at the MIT Energy Initiative, to learn about the different ways that MIT is engaged in energy. He eventually decided to become an energy studies minor and concentrate in energy engineering studies through the 10-ENG: Energy program in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Additionally, he participated in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) in the lab of William H. Green, the Hoyt C. Hottel Professor in Chemical Engineering, focusing on understanding the different reaction pathways for the production of soot from the combustion of carbon.
After this engaging experience, he reconnected with Shulman to get involved with another UROP, this time with a strong focus in renewable energy. She pointed him toward Ian Mathews — a postdoc in the Photovoltaic Research Laboratory and founder of Sensai Analytics — to discuss ways he could make a beneficial impact on the energy industry in Nigeria. This conversation led to a second UROP, under the supervision of Mathews. In that project, Uwagwu worked to figure out how cost-effective solar energy would be in Nigeria compared to petrol-powered generators, which are commonly used to supplement the unreliable national grid.
“The idea we had is that these generators are really, really bad for the environment, whereas solar is cheap and better for the environment,” Uwagwu says. “But we needed to know if solar is actually affordable.” After setting up a software model and connecting with Leke Oyefeso, a friend back home, to get data on generators, they concluded that solar was cost-comparable and often cheaper than the generators.
Armed with this information and another completed UROP, Uwagwu thought, “What happens next?” Quickly an idea started forming, so he and Oyefeso went to Venture Mentoring Services at MIT to figure out how to leverage this knowledge to start a company that could deliver a unique and much-needed product to the Nigerian market.
They ran through many different potential business plans and ideas, eventually deciding on creating software to design solar systems that are tailored to Nigeria’s specific needs and context. Having come up with the initial idea, they “chatted with people on the solar scene back home to see if this is even useful or if they even need this.”
Through these discussions and market research, it became increasingly clear to them what sort of novel and pivotal product they could offer to help accelerate Nigeria’s burgeoning solar sector, and their initial idea took on a new shape: solar design software coupled with an online marketplace that connects solar providers to funding sources and energy consumers. In recognition of his unique venture, Uwagwu received a prestigious Legatum Fellowship, a program that offers entrepreneurial MIT students strong mentoring and networking opportunities, educational experiences, and substantial financial support.
Since its founding in the summer of 2020, their startup, Idagba, has been hard at work getting its product ready for market. Starting a company in the midst of Covid-19 has created a set of unique challenges for Uwagwu and his team, especially as they operate on a whole other continent from their target market.
“We wanted to travel to Lagos last summer but were unable to do so,” he says. “We can’t make the software without talking to the people and businesses who are going to use it, so there are a lot of Zoom and phone calls going on.”
In spite of these challenges, Idagba is well on its path to commercialization. “Currently we are developing our minimum viable product,” comments Uwagwu. “The software is going to be very affordable, so there’s very little barrier for entry. We really want to help create this market for solar.”
In some ways, Idagba is drawing lessons from the success of Mo Ibrahim and his mobile phone company, Celtel. In the late 1990s, Celtel was able to quickly and drastically lower the overall price of cell phones across many countries in Africa, allowing for the widespread adoption of mobile communication at a much faster pace than had been anticipated. To Uwagwu, this same idea can be replicated for solar markets. “We want to reduce the financial and technical barriers to entry for solar like he did for telecom.”
This won’t be easy, but Uwagwu is up to the task. He sees his company taking off in three phases. The first is getting the design software online. After that has been accomplished — by mid-2021 — comes the hard part: getting customers and solar businesses connected and using the program. Once they have an existing user base and proven cash flow, the ultimate goal of the company is to create and facilitate an ecosystem of people wanting to push solar energy forward. This will make Idagba, as Uwagwu puts it, “the hub of solar energy in Nigeria.” Idagba has a long way to go before reaching that point, but Uwagwu is confident that the building blocks are in place to ensure its success.
After graduating in June, Uwagwu will be taking up a full-time position at the prestigious consulting firm Bain and Company, where he plans to gain even more experience and connections to help grow his company. This opportunity will provide him with the knowledge and expertise to come back to Idagba and, as he says, “commit my life to this.”
“This idea may seem ambitious and slightly nonsensical right now,” says Uwagwu, “but this venture has the potential to significantly push Nigeria away from unsustainable fossil fuel consumption to a much cleaner path.”
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