White Zimbabweans bring change to Nigeria

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | 5/2/08 | Sarah Simpson

[Dawnsblood]

Musa Mogadi says he is better off since "the whites" came. He's got a new job, learned new farming skills, and he can chat on a mobile phone while zipping around the countryside on a motorbike.

Three years ago, Mr. Mogadi got by as a subsistence farmer. But he now earns a regular wage as a supervisor on one of this town's new commercial farms.

He's applied skills he learned from some of the two dozen white Zimbabwean farmers who moved to Nigeria in 2005, after being kicked off their land by President Robert Mugabe and later attracted by large parcels of land on offer under 25-year leases and commitments of support from the Nigerian government.

Production on his farm is now up.

"We are starting to use fertilizers," says Mogadi, explaining that he was encouraged to buy fertilizer after seeing yield benefits on the commercial farm. He's also started planting his maize in a more compact formation, like the Zimbabweans, increasing production from each field planted.

Before the Zimbabweans arrived, there was no mobile phone network in the area and so no reason to have a mobile phone. Now he and most of the other workers have snazzy cellphones, and many have bought motorbikes imported from China, often with a loan from their employer.

In the future, when the national power network reaches the Shonga farms, Mogadi is looking forward to having electricity in his home and village for the first time.

[Travis McGee]

There are two concepts required for a modern civilization that have never penetrated Africa, at least not widely enough.

1. Enlightened self interest
2. Deferred gratification

[Dr.Zoidberg]

There are two concepts...

1. Enlightened self interest 2. Deferred gratification

Those are becoming increasingly scares here as well.

Most of africa is indeed still be pre-civilized, but the west is sliding into a post-civilized era. And the two are becoming harder and harder to distinguish one from another.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

There are two concepts...

1. Enlightened self interest 2. Deferred gratification

Those are becoming increasingly scares here as well.

Most of africa is indeed still be pre-civilized, but the west is sliding into a post-civilized era. And the two are becoming harder and harder to distinguish one from another.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Bloody browser hiccup. Sorry Travis.

[SunkenCiv]

:’D

[Travis McGee]

Yep, the masses have discovered that ‘voting themselves largesse from the public treasury’ gambit in spades.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Indeed.

That's why democracy or a democratic republic is a failing concern in the long run.

Selfishness gets the same vote as altruism, but the selfish are much easier to pander to.

[Travis McGee]

Until the inevitable fall.

[MinorityRepublican]

Looking ahead: Kwara state governor, Buloa Saraki (l.) visits the airport as the first cows arrive from South Africa.

[MinorityRepublican]

Thabo Mbeki shows solidarity with Robert Mugabe