Nigeria is a giant problem (those who profit from it as it is would argue otherwise). WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

In late January 2013, I was invited to give a short lecture and acoustic performance at Federal Polytechnic Offa to mark the school’s 20^th anniversary. I drove there early in the morning with two members of my crew. After about 4hours on the road, and with only a few minutes to our destination, we encountered a make-shift road-block at the Erinle-Offa “border”. It was manned by a large number of mean-looking individuals holding pistols, rifles, swords, machetes and hunting knifes. They descended upon us violently and ordered us out of the car. I informed them that we were on our way to Offa. Immediately, we heard voices saying, “They are from Offa, hit them, maul them, kill them!” My 2 assistants were dragged out of the car, roughened up, slapped and punched. They were made to go on their knees. The tip of a sword was thrust near my face and I was pulled out of my seat. Several rifles were trained upon me as I stood by the side of the car quietly. It seemed as if we would be shot, cut to pieces and burned to ashes in a matter of seconds by these drugged up vigilantes. Suddenly, one of their handlers who was sitting under a tree some distance off recognised me and shouted “Don’t you know who it is, that’s Beautiful Nubia, the man who sang ‘Owuro L’ojo”. Slowly the ‘warriors’ relaxed and lowered their weapons.

One said, “Why didn’t you just tell us who you were when you were stopped?” They explained that a border “war” was on between Erinle and Offa and we had driven right into the thick of it. Several people had been killed and property destroyed, both towns were on total lock-down and the school we were going to had been ordered shut as well. We would not be allowed to pass through Erinle to get to Offa and were told that it would be too risky to even try taking an alternate road. We should just go back to Lagos. I chose to take the risk and goon to my destination through an alternative route.

What struck me most strongly about this encounter were the sense of insecurity and the lack of government presence. Those Erinle warriors barricaded a highway and assaulted people as they wished, and there was not one security agent anywhere near. Of course this is child’s play compared to what obtains in several other parts of this “country”. There is no organized government here, just organized thievery and corruption. Perhaps it is time to take this land back from all these poorly bred, wicked and twisted elements that populate the halls of power? Perhaps the people of this time can decide to make that change and create a society that thrives on excellence and creativity? Nigeria is a giant problem (those who profit from it as it is would argue otherwise) but we can fix it – either by giving all its federating units a chance to reconfigure it as a workable behemoth or peacefully break it up so that the people of this place have a chance to breathe true freedom and progress for once. We owe it to the innocents just being born and the young whose dreams are yet untainted.

-Segun Akinlolu

Twitter: beautiful_nubia

ECONOMIC REVOLUTION TIME IN NIGERIA

We are living in a real and true revolution time. We’ve got to wake up now from deep slumber, break away the economic chains that hold us down. True freedom does not come to those who sit and pray. Stand up, raise your voice and be heard.

It’s time to throw away the yoke of economic slavery. We’ve been used and abused far too long. Even as I speak the exploitation continues, the masters take the Gold and we get the pain just like before.

It doesn’t matter the colour of your skin, the man in Washington only cares for America economy. So when you need some economic help don’t you go there for salvation. We’ve got to depend on ourselves and look inward.

Segun Akinlolu (@beautiful_nubia)

The Great Speech

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I Have a Dream

delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.



Video Purchase

Off-Site audio mp3 of Address

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio. (2)]

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!3

¹ Amos 5:24 (rendered precisely in The American Standard Version of the Holy Bible)

2 Isaiah 40:4-5 (King James Version of the Holy Bible). Quotation marks are excluded from part of this moment in the text because King's rendering of Isaiah 40:4 does not precisely follow the KJV version from which he quotes (e.g., "hill" and "mountain" are reversed in the KJV). King's rendering of Isaiah 40:5, however, is precisely quoted from the KJV.

3 At: http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/free_at_last_from.htm

Also in this database: Martin Luther King, Jr: A Time to Break Silence

Audio Source: Linked directly to: http://www.archive.org/details/MLKDream

External Link: http://www.thekingcenter.org/

U.S. Copyright Status: Text and  Audio = Restricted, seek permission. Image = Public domain.

Copyright inquiries and permission requests may be directed to:

Estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
Intellectual Properties Management
One Freedom Plaza
449 Auburn Avenue NE
Atlanta, GA 30312
Fax: 404-526-8969

Top 100 American Speeches

Online Speech Bank

© Copyright 2001-Present.
American Rhetoric.
HTML transcription by Michael E. Eidenmuller.

Top 100 American Speeches

Online Speech Bank

© Copyright 2001-Present.
American Rhetoric.
HTML transcription by Michael E. Eidenmuller.

THE MONSTER CALLED UNEMPLOYMENT

THE MONSTER CALLED UNEMPLOYMENT


I like to appreciate everyone for visiting our blog; your comments have been very helpful. In my last publication I discussed the impact of slave mentality in our society, and did close by saying Nigeria needs to be selling something, so we can create wealth as well as reduce the number of idle hands we have in our society today. Today, our subject of discourse is unemployment, a monster we have grown to know.
The oxford dictionary 2010 has described unemployment as a state of not having a job, and wealth as the state of being rich and affluent, having a plentiful supply of material goods and money. You will agree with me that these two tools (unemployment and wealth) used in measuring sustainability of a nation, are so far apart in Nigerian context today. Birth rate kept growing at a very alarming rate, increasing the realities of having more unemployed in our society not to talk of crime, the resultant effect of having so many idle hands.

Unemployment as a result of a Failed Educational System
I still remember my dad telling me I had to go to school so I can be successful. So, I worked hard to pass my SSCE and got admission into higher institution, my thoughts were, there is a ready job waiting for me at graduation. In fact, I believed I’ll be recruited even before my graduation year since that was my dad’s story and he was also looking forward to me having the same experience. I made up my mind to be outstanding in all my courses, but I later learnt after having waited for six months without a job that my dad’s information wasn’t complete or my case was different from his, it was as if no one was willing to engage me with my good grades. The reality was, there was just too many of us looking for the same job, we were all unemployed. I began to ask myself how I got here, how come my professors at the university never told me I’ll have to queue up for jobs.
Then, I found out all our education system permit my lecturers to teach me is how, what, where and when to produce goods and services, they never saw me as a product that would need to be sold. So knowledge of how, when, what and where to sell myself as a product was the 50% balance of my education I had to learn all by myself after having paid hugely for it. It dawned on me I have been paying for an incomplete education, so everyone with a job has actually been selling something through their services to the company they work for or a product they are selling.
I made up my mind to begin to sell, but since I don’t have money to start the production of a product or have sufficient funds to distribute an existing product, my last option was to sell my services through the skills I acquired in school, and before I knew it, I was selling, and could even use extra hands.
Our educational system has been producing half-baked graduates, they feed them with all the knowledge they can use in solving production problems, which are; HOW, WHAT, WHEN, and WHERE TO PRODUCE, but forgot that no matter how huge our production was, if we don’t sell, it doesn’t yet translate to wealth:
(Profit=Total revenue- Total cost)
which is the primary aim of every business, individual or society. We blame our government for not providing us with employment opportunities, but I beg to differ because as far as I know, our government cannot engage all employable youths in our society, they can only institute policies that will create opportunities, and that they are even failing to do.

The Effects in our Society
The list of the effects of unemployment is so huge that I don’t desire to discuss it anymore, it saddens my heart anytime I look back at how our able hands trained to produce goods and services meant to add to the wealth of our nation has now turned to hands perpetrating ritual killings, kidnap, rape, armed robbery and the baba of the baba is Boko-haram, a menace burning our nation and stealing our destiny day-in day-out are as a result of unemployment.
The Gap between Poverty as a result of unemployment and Wealth
I gave a mathematical expression of wealth creation which is total revenue minus total Cost; where total revenue is defined as the sum total of proceeds from the sales of goods and services while total cost is the sum total of expenses put into the production of goods and services. The left over is what is referred to as profit which I call wealth in this write up.
Our nation will never grow until we understand we must keep selling at a cost higher than our production cost and reduce purchases beyond our shores. We must begin to produce our products as gradually as possible, because both the total revenue and total cost stays within our shores, the profit will be added to our GDP (economy), it is then the ripple effect will be felt in the lives of our average Nigerian.
They told us our GDP has increased to about $509billion, but we can’t feel the impact on an average Nigerian’s per capital income yet, because a huge part of this amount stays in the hands of a little fraction of our population that understands the secret of wealth creation, and are actively using it to dictate the price we pay in exchange for goods and services. They own the big corporations in our nation today because, they knew the secret (producing and selling). You will notice big companies producing or importing most of our consumables and other products are owned by very few Nigerians, and they’ve kept us hostage with our taste in electricity, food, clothing, and other stuffs we use to forge our survival on a daily basis. The bulk of proceeds from the sales made, they invest outside the country where it is been used to better the economy of other nations. They kept doing this and hoping we would wake up from our slumber someday but sadly we never did, instead foreigners saw the opportunities with our green pasture while an average Nigerian saw the nation as a desert, we are so blindfolded.

This few wise men, dictate how much we buy our cement, food items, clothing, and other daily needs. They produce or import them so it’s easy to dictate how much we the fools must buy to keep them wealthy, since we had no regulatory body checking them and even when they do all they need is a big envelope. Sometimes when they want to check their control on the market, they will create artificial inflation and before you know it, we are dancing to their tune, we kept enriching them. They found out we loved western life style, so they kept selling at their price since we are keen on living western. We wanted furnitures made in China, tiles from Italy, phones from China, cars from Japan, Korea and the likes.
We gradually transferred our wealth to other nation through our purchases. Our country has now become a dumping ground for Tokunbo foods, cars, clothes, shoes and even human beings since they know we have no choice we’ll take it since we are not producing and we’ve got to eat to sustain our survival.

I ask again, what happened to promoting our Adire, Ankara and Aso-ofi, what happened to promoting our Ofada rice, What happened to fine tuning our educational system In such a way that it promotes our local contents and value, we now had British, Turkish and all sort of country’s standard schools in our country, the worst is we boast of this schools than we boast of our indigenous schools. We became a lost generation.

Way Forward
First, we need to change our attitude towards our local products, heritage and culture; because it is the only way we can begin to appreciate who we are, where we came from, and what we can do as Nigerians positively.
Our lifestyle must begin to reflect a new Nigeria, a Nigeria devoid of crime and corruption; we must begin to portray the goodness in us as a nation blessed by God himself.
We must be a good prophet of our nation, how we portray it through our action, inaction and statements, say a lot about us as a nation in the eye of other nation. A reflection of who we said we are will be felt in their dealings with us.
Finally we must begin to create replicas of those products we buy abroad with the same taste and satisfaction or close to it, as this is the only way we can gradually reposition our products amongst foreign products, and our wise men should be honest in their dealings. Some of them exploit Nigerians to the tune of billions of naira, and give back as charity millions of naira, while in our foolishness we applaud them. Nigeria! We must be wise.
Please join the conversation by following this link to like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/278305818997969/photos/a.278344372327447.1073741827.278305818997969/278345528993998/?type=1&relevant_count=1 and u can reach us on www.engagemenigeria.blogspot.com, u can also send us mails on engagemenigeria@gmail.com. Keep your comments coming; we are here to help create wealth through sustainable employment in our society.

Garri production equipment

Happy new month Nigeria, I bring hope to the unemployed this new month.
Are you tired with your financial status quo and willing to turn your financial incapacitation around to becoming an employer of labour, here is your opportunity;

Cassavamillers and equipment ltd is selling self producing garri production equipment pls read

Cassava production has suffered tremendous setback in the country due to lack of constructive innovation. The
traditional process is riddled with stress and drudgery and that has hampered the growth of garri production.
The modern Garri Processing Plant is a new innovation that simplifies the production process by mechanizing the
cause of stress and drudgery in the system. It improves the availability and quality of garri by drastically
reducing the moisture content, hydrogneic content, the sand content, shelf life and the causes of microbial and
bacterial infestations. The Garri frying pot which is insulated with fibre glass, cuts off the incessant heat that
makes garri frying and production very stressful, tortuous and sedentary.
When the modern garri processing plant is located in an area cassava is preponderant, it creates wealth,
alleviates poverty empowers the rural folks and creates jobs.
Garri is our major staple food and the demand grows by the day while the supply keeps diminishing because the
old women who produce the garri are giving up because of the stress and drudgery and the young people are not
interested. The modern garri processing plant will reverse the ugly trend.
2. CASSAVA
Cassava is God’s gift to the tropics because it can grow in poor soil with inadequate rainfall. The starchy roots of
cassava are major source of food for more than 500 million people all over the world.
Nigeria is the world largest producer of cassava. We produce over 41 million metric tones per annum and we are
followed by Brazil, Thailand, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) and Indonesia. Thailand does the largest
global business in cassava because it is not part of their food security. They export over $20 billion worth of
cassava products annually. Nigeria tried to expand the local cassava business through the Cassava
Empowerment Fund but to no avail. Cassava is produced all over the country but more abundantly in all the
Southern and Middle Belt States of Nigeria and is widely consumed as garri and fufu.
3. GARRI
Garri is produced from cassava tubers and is the commonest staple food in Nigeria consumed by over 130 million
people. We consume about 7.7 million metric tons of garri per year and it comes to about 30.7 million tons of our
cassava production. Our actual demand for garri is 12 million tons but we can not accomplish that because of
the stress and drudgery involved in the traditional production.
Garri is produced in the rural areas (where cassava is grown) by the local women. The young people are not
interested because of the stress and the drudgery involved in the traditional production, they will rather migrate to
the overcrowded cities where poverty is rampant.
4. OUR PROPOSAL
We propose that the Tinsel group takes garri processing very seriously and give their garri a specific brand name
(Tinsel Garri) and push it proactively to saturate the Onitsha market within six months.
We also propose that they expand their production after one year and adopt a formidable marketing strategy that
will involve export to European and American markets. These can be done because the opportunities of tomorrow
belong to those who prepare for them today.
5. MODERN GARRI PROCESSING PLANT
The Modern Garri Processing Plant will eliminate the stress and drudgery occasioned by the sedentary nature of
traditional garri production. It will reverse the trend of migration to the city and make the youths interested in
garri production. It will create local livelihood opportunities that will enable businesses and households to thrive
in their local domains rather than be forced to migrate to overcrowded cities where unemployment and crime hold
sway. It will create jobs and generate sustainable prosperity to reduce poverty in the rural areas. Modern garri
processing using the local cassava will build a local human resource base in the impact areas; this will inevitably
lead to empowerment which is the surest guarantee of sustainable growth.
Modern garri processing is a sustainable intervention in poverty alleviation because of the abundant availability of
the cassava tubers and the huge size of the garri market. It will enable the rural folks to escape extreme poverty
and ascend the ladder of economic growth. The garri project will strengthen farm-to-market linkages: Cassava
from the farms are processed in the modern processing plants and marketed domestically, regionally and
nationally. The market dynamics will create a regional economic engine that will enhance entrepreneurial growth.
6. THE EQUIPMENT, CAPACITY AND PRICE
The heart of this Modern Garri Processing innovation is the Roasting or Frying Pot which is made of stainless
steel and insulated with fiber glass to absorb heat from the fire. It is powered by 2 HP gear motor that rotates
the paddles that continuously turn the frying garri mash. The full lists of the equipment are:
1. 2 (No) stainless Steel Hammer Mill with:
15 HP electric motor.
Capacity – 1 ton/hr.
1. 2 (No) Fermentation Racks with:
Press Jack
1. 2 (No) Dewatering Racks with:
Mechanical Press Jack
1. I (No) Stainless Steel Granulator with:
7.5 HP electric motor
Capacity 1 ton/hr
1. 2 (No) Stainless steel Garri Roasting pot with:
2 HP electric motor, fiberglass insulation, exhaust pipes
and stainless steel paddles. It can be heated with
gas, charcoal, firewood, palm kennel shelves etc.
Capacity 2 ton/ day
6.1 Production Capacity: The Hammer Mill or Cassava Grating Machine and the Granulating Machine have
capacities of 1 ton per hour respectively. This means that within one day of 8 hours, they will process 8 tons of
cassava mash.
The two frying machines will then roast or fry them into two tons of garri or 40 bags of 50 kg each per day. Four
tons of cassava tubers produce one ton of garri.
The capacity of the plant is therefore 2 tons of garri or 40 bags of 50 kg each per day of 8 hours. Output will
increase if production hours increase.
6.2 Qualities of the Garri: Two Qualities that have scored our garri low in the international market are: sand
content and moisture content. The effects of the moisture content are more devastating because they cut short
the shelf life by making the garri rancid and thereby susceptible to microbial contamination and infestations. The
modern garri plant takes care of them.
The major qualities are:
It will have a moisture content of 9 – 10 percent. This means that microbial contamination and infestations
will not easily affect it.
The shelf life will be over eighteen (18) months. Government authorities can easily procure it as part of our
Food Reserve against disasters and emergencies.
Sand content is less than 1 percent, making it an excellent product to compete with those from other places.
Our garri has always been rejected in foreign markets because of high sand content.
Cyanide content is less than 10 percent which is the acceptable SON and NAFDAC standards.
There are different particle sizes to meet the tastes of different customers.
7. TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF PURCHASE
70 percent of the price will be paid at commissioning, 20 percent before delivery and installation and 10 percent
after installation and test run.
Delivery Period: Delivery of machines shall be 8 weeks from the payment of the 70 percent and the clearing of the
cheque.
Installation: Our technicians will install and test-run the plant. The client will provide the central gear switch of
about 100 amps, motor starters and gear switches. We will prepare the bases for the Hammer Mill and the
Granulator but the client will provide the materials. It will take a maximum of 1-2 weeks if the electrical
connections, water, power etc are in place. The client will take care of the accommodation, transportation, feeding
etc of the technicians.
The production space should be about 200 square meters and the Frying Pots should be located in a well
ventilated location.
Test run: About 5 tons of cassava tubers shall be required for the test run and it will be provided by the client.
Training and Commissioning : Your operators: Technician (1), Welder (1), Electrician (1) and Operators (3) will be
trained during the installation. They are therefore supposed to participate in the installation and commissioning
Warranties: 6 months for any production problem excluding changeable parts affected by aging, misuse and
accidents.
Technical Support: Supply of spare parts at short notice, maintenance, quality control to ensure standard and
consultancy services when needed.
Validity: This quotation is valid for 90 days from the date of submission after which the price may change.
Mobile : +234 08037209102 , +234 08058840778 , +234 08184330598 , +234 08078775210
Email : info@ cassavamillers .com , cassavamillers @ gmail. com
Address: 45 Charity Road , New – Oko Oba, Agege , Lagos, Nigeria .
Post Address: P .O .Box 2187 Ikeja , Lagos, Nigeria

INTERIOR DECORATION E- COURSE PART3

The Key to Successful Interior Design - Is a Good Client Brief part 3A
Start at the Beginning
Ok shall we start at the very beginning, the first meeting. This is where you need to find out all the nitty gritty details of the project. I can send you to a form as an idea of how to collate all this information.
Date
Client name
Address
Contact details including phone fax and email
Draft outline of design and documentation needed
Define the budget available
Estimation of fees and engagement letter
Size of project
Number of family members, pets,
Lifestyle (professional, family orientated, teenagers with lots of friends, babies, loads of pets, retired and relaxed, home office etc)
Current style of the house,
The type of construction,
Type of project - the overall content of the project (ie renovate the kitchen and bathrooms).
Individual rooms to be developed
Expected flow and arrangement from client
Expected timing of project
Particular tastes colors,
Other consultants needed,
Permission letters to research relevant records and plans Confirm consents required
Type of contract required to confirm timing
Receive any legal documents, titles, existing plans, building owner details etc.

It all seems totally boring and it is, but it is necessary as it is the bones of the project.
You then need to take one item at a time and expand on them either straight away or at your next meeting.
For example
Family Members - how many? What ages? What are their needs? This is especially important for the bathroom area - privacy, showers, baths, double basins, additional toilets. Equally important to construction too, sound proofing to walls, locks on doors, window stays to stop any kids falling out or teenagers sneaking out windows!

Current Style of the house, if it is a 1960's bungalow, what kind of style are you wanting to portray in the home? Is the whole house going to be updated eventually or simply the kitchen and bathrooms? Look for long-term plans as well as present as these can effect the look of the whole house if it doesn't flow cohesively. Some house styles limit design creativity as they don't lend to change well, for example heavy dark exposed timber beamed ceiling with thick heavy stippled plaster. Difficult to change the look of this without major work or relining the entire ceiling. Then the windows and doors inside are often heavy dark timber too.
The Key to Successful Interior Design - Is a Good Client Brief part 4
Expand on Your Brief Outline
The type of construction, this is vitally important for structural purposes, for example you may want to put granite bench tops in the kitchen, these are extremely heavy and if you had a timber framed floor would need additional engineering support for the floor, the same applies if you wanted to add marble to the bathroom floor on the first storey, again very heavy. If you want to lay tiles or vinyl over timber floorboards is another example. Whether internal walls are load bearing, you may want to remove them. You will need to find out about the state of the plumbing system and electrical wiring. These have a major impact on the budget if you don't find out about them at the start of the project.

The Budget - this is a major part of the brief, a good designer brings their project in on budget, this keeps everyone happy! It means that when you do your initial planning you are realistic as to what materials, fittings and fixtures are affordable, and you can set a priority list and use it to get the best quality project for your money.

I have just written an article in my blog about quality of finishes. I visited a home of a friend recently, they had just bought it. It was an expensive home, well designed and laid out, open plan and flowing, but do you know what hit me as I walked in? Printed cotton drapes, not sophisticated Toille de Jouy printed cotton, but the kind you find in a cheap "you find it all here" store. My jaw dropped, mouth opened and I think I swallowed a fly, because I nervously choked! I was flabbergasted at the expense spent on the construction and then throwing up some silly flimsy bits of fabric resembling curtains seemed to totally strip the home of it's value, lower the design integrity severely and I had to walk around the rest of the house with by head looking at the carpet, which was good quality by the way. So what I am saying is that you need to allow for everything, and then add 10% for a contingency.

Let's face it no matter how hard we budget there are always unforseen things that crop up, and I think in this case the money for the curtains was stolen! You need to let your client know that you will hold a contingency for the budget, just to ease there mind when these problems arise.

Remember one change to the project may cost $500.00 which is ok, but 10 and you are up to $5,000.00, and it can happen so quickly!

more to come....
The Key to Successful Interior Design - Is a Good Client Brief part 5
Creating a Realistic Project Budget
One thing that often arises relating to budget is the Jones factor, similar to the Sheep example! It basically means that the client wants what the Joneses have.

They are the most difficult to control as they are basically spoilt children.

This is a treadmill in our consumer society, we all have to have everything, especially if the neighbours have it, we have to have it or better. The reality of it all is that most people do not have the budget to keep up with the Joneses! My husband has this expression and I hate it, I will tell you why later, but it is a good thing to remember.

"There are a lot of people with a champagne taste and a beer budget!" Do you know what happens to these people, yes, they are never happy, they are always trying to keep up with the Joneses and they never will, they cannot make a decision for themselves. But do you know the sad thing? The Joneses are probably trying to impress someone else, they probably don't realise their already high position in the consumer social class!

Back to the earlier note: Why I hate the expression? Because I love champagne and drink beer, no really, white wine, but not champagne! Never mind the expression does explain a lot of people's ideals and fantasies about their appearances. Remember that a person's home is an extension of themselves. If the client wears designer clothing labels then they will probably have their home full of designer furnishings. Does this make there house a home? Or does it make it a clone of Ikea, Ralph Lauren, actually I am a little out of my depth here with designer clothing and furnishing labels where you all come from! But you know where I am going to here. No it doesn't, a home exudes personalities and this is where we come in.
We are the facilitator of personal style. We listen, we consider, we analyse, we communicate, we experiment, we provide ideas, we rework ideas, and we get to the soul of the client and we help them express themselves through their home. This is what I want you to remember when you think of the client's budget. You have the skills to create amazing interiors on a small budget, but the client has to be working with you and have realistic goals for the final outcome.


The Key to Successful Interior Design - Is a Good Client Brief part 6
Keep expanding and define the scope of work.
The Overall Changes - in other words, the scope of work. What do they want to do with their renovations. Is it simply a repaint with new carpet, drapes and furniture or more extensive construction and cabinetry work involved. List up what they want to achieve, what changes are required and to what rooms, what contractors will be involved and their input. This all helps when you want to define the budget and start prioritizing. This is often where you have problems, the husband wants his garage lined and carpeted, speakers for his stereo, and a bathroom added to it. (perhaps he wants his bed moved in too!)The wife wants a new kitchen and study to do her handicrafts! How do you find out what they really want and which takes priority if they can't even work it out. You don't want to start being a marriage guidance councillor. I have had a few clients who used me as a pawn to get what they wanted, unknowingly to me but they were both putting words in my mouth and trying to get what they wanted by suggesting to each other that I thought it was a wonderful idea to add a fireplace to the kitchen or a big screen TV in the bedroom for example. It's all about communication and teamwork. You also don't want to get into the situation where you have started the project and the client decides to add things to the scope, "oh, while we have the fireplace wall under demolition, we might as well add a recess for the plasma TV above", these little client inspired ideas can throw your budget, so try and pre-empt them! Think about the spaces you will be working in and look to the future, try and foresee what they might want and ask before you get started.

Lifestyle - this is important when it comes to finding the right style of decoration. You need to find out how the occupiers of the home work on a daily basis. It is no use having a stark white kitchen with clean sleek horizontal surfaces when you have toddlers and babies and you spend all day making food for them. Getting everything out and putting it away again and again. You need something with user friendly appliance storage, easy access and a more softened look if you are going to spend most of the day in the kitchen. Same thing for a mass of teenagers you would need to allow a large space for a huge refrigerator as they will also eat all day!


The Key to Successful Interior Design - Is a Good Client Brief part 7
The Designer Detective
The biggest thing to remember here is that the ideas that the client has and the practical ability of it working for them may be quite different, you as the designer need to work around what they envisage as the end result and make sure before you start that it will actually work for them.
How?
As I said earlier, use your detective skills, call in when they aren't expecting you, visit at meal times, Saturday morning is always a good time to see how a house flows, call in when it's raining or muddy outside, observe how the occupants live and how they move about and their habits. Do they pick up after themselves, or leave a cookie trail? The cream shag pile carpet the mother is dying to put in the living room just won't work if she has a home full of teenage boys and their friends who walk in the door without wiping their feet, taking shoes off and eat in the living room with their burgers and coke. It spells recipe for disaster, so you would probably have to direct this decision to a compromise and perhaps have a firmer, darker, tighter weave loop pile carpet with perhaps a cream shag pile rug under the coffee table for example! A win, win for everyone.
Now then, the most important part - the aesthetics! What style or look you or your client want to achieve. This can also be the most difficult as it is the creative side of decorating. All the rest has been "accounting", vitally important to
any project but not the fun side of decorating that we all enjoy.
So we will look at one way of finding a style that is right for your project - use it as a catalyst to get your creative juices working.
Take the brief that you have already created and sit somewhere with your client having no distractions and start jotting down ideas, scribbling sketches, flicking through magazines and books together, (you will find that after picking out a few examples in magazines and books that you start to get an idea of the style that your client is predominately drawn to, the schemes will have a similar theme), looking at color and fabric and flooring samples and swatches, photos of the existing space and items that you are going to keep from your existing room to work with. Start putting things together haphazardly, picking out things that catch your eye, put them all together and start again over. Continue this process a few times until you run out of ideas. Then leave the room for a while take in some fresh air - very good for the brain.

The Key to Successful Interior Design - Is a Good Client Brief part 8
Summing Up the client Brief Process
So to sum up what I have tried to express today, is to take the time at the start of a project to get deep down into your client's lives and find out what they really need, not just what they think they should have! At the end of the day we often don't know ourselves until someone points it out to us.
Thank you and I hope you have found a few ideas to help make your future projects work better. We all have our own system for achieving a brief, but we all want the same outcome. A happy client without an overdraft for designwork and a home that they feel comfortable living in that expresses their personalities.

Interior Decorating e-course Part 3B. How to Brain Storm Your Style Ideas

Never overlook the power of brain storming. It can bring out ideas
you may never have dreamed of!

Today we will look at one way of finding a style that is right for your project - use it as a catalyst to get your creative juices working.
Take the brief that you have already created and sit somewhere with no distractions and start jotting down ideas, scribbling sketches, flicking through magazines and books, (you will find that after picking out a few examples in magazines and books that you start to get an idea of the style that you are predominately drawn to, the schemes will have a similar theme), looking at color and fabric and flooring samples and swatches, photos of the existing space and items that you are going to keep from your existing room to work with. Start putting things together haphazardly, picking out things that catch your eye, put them all together and start again over. Continue this process a few times until you run out of  ideas. Then leave the room for a while take in some fresh air - very good for the brain.
Go back into the room and see what scheme or idea catches your eye first. Take that one and start to work with it. Ask questions. What caught your eye and why, should this be the focal point, is this the look that you were aiming for in the brief? Will it work correctly in your space? It is a bit like a flow chart. If yes, then keep working on it, look for other items and accessories that coordinate with it. If no, then go back and find another idea and start working with that. It sounds daunting and a little bit scary and of course the old favorite too hard! It is difficult the first few times until you get your confidence. (By then you may have come up with an even better process of your own for brainstorming - after all accessing your brain is a very personal thing! This is a catalyst for creative thinking) So to make your life easier, don't practice on a real project. Experiment on some rooms in your house, without actually decorating, come up with some different schemes for different client briefs. Eventually you will do all this on auto pilot, but it helps to have someone give you a starting point!
I can visualize what things will look like when the project is finished, as so will you be able to when you have done it a few times. The hardest thing is often trying to explain to your clients or your family! To resolve this you can make up a color board showing all the samples and swatches, but this only gives them ideas of the colors, they usually want to see it in 3d ie already finished! A very expensive way of showing concepts!! So a good way is with the use of technology. You can now get software that provides amazing graphics of what a room can look like, this is another way to experiment with out actually decorating anyones room and very good practice.

LEARN INTERIOR DECORATION FOR FREE PART 2

The Key to Successful Interior Design - Is a Good Client Brief

How do you extract your good client's brief?
I always use this example as I feel it is an abundant problem here, is that we follow like sheep! People see a kitchen design in a magazine and then everyone has to have it. The designers follow the European trend and everyone gets coerced into the same design. Then even more magazines are published with almost identical kitchens, it is absolutely crazy.

We don't study and learn design to be the same as everyone else - we strive to create something different, unique and most of all personalised for our clients needs.

I believe strongly that the key to successful design is taking a good client brief. Just like the construction of a building, you need a good solid substrate and foundation on which to start building and that is the client brief.

I can send you to more reading on this topic; I will now go through some of it and expand on the theories of how to obtain the best brief that you can work with. The great thing is that after a while this will become second nature. The more you practise getting inside people's heads the better you get at communicating with them and instilling trust for them to open up with their ideas. Design is teamwork, anyone with an ego that thinks they know it all might as well stop now, good design is about communication between you and the client, and you never stop learning as a designer, but I guess you all know that, that is why you are here reading, learning and extending yourselves. Congratulations by the way!

Anyway, long gone are the days when a designer had a style that people came to you for, they now need you to create them their own! They need to be able to tell you if you are not heading down the same path, not finding you approachable and then later end up with a design that they dislike such that they feel it has been forced upon them, this will not be good for them and it will always end up on you, your skills and your business creating bad impression on others. You definitely do not need this. As they say, more
people spread the word if something is bad than when something is good as they feel emotional about it, it has upset them!

You have probably all learnt about this topic, but it never hurts to have another opinion, even if you are happy with the current way you take a client brief, you may find a few extra bits to add in that are useful from today.

more to come tommorrow....