i dont think some people here have seen real poverty b4.
imagine some people try to use canoe to cross the ocean to enter europe. a man was rescued and sent back to senegal and when bbc asked him if he'll try to enter europe again, he said yes, and he was asked. . .aint u afraid of the high seas, he replied. . ''i am more scared of looking at my hungry children''

excruciating poverty. try it for a hobby

pres-elect:

i dont think some people here have seen real poverty b4.
imagine some people try to use canoe to cross the ocean to enter europe. a man was rescued and sent back to senegal and when bbc asked him if he'll try to enter europe again, he said yes, and he was asked. . .aint u afraid of the high seas, he replied. . ''i am more scared of looking at my hungry children''

excruciating poverty. try it for a hobby

You are talking to bodies floating on the river like rejected firewood
Some of these people worsen their problems by having babies like roaches and later blame it on everyone else.
I have them in my extended family.
One of my beautiful girl cousins ran away from school and moved in with this stupid boy
all attempts to bring her back home failed
Very beautiful girl.
basically threw away her life at 16
the next time they found her,she was 7 months pregnant for the efulefu idiot.
Today she has 6 children,living in a one room,uneducated and the idiotic so called husband of hers sells stickers for a living on the streets.
You know those stickers people put on their cars
"my miracle is on the way"
"Ike g'agwu ndi asiri"
"do me I do you"
That's what the father of 6 does for a living
If he decides tomorrow to tap fuel lines and gets burnt up,why should anyone feel sorry for him when his problems are mostly  of his own making.

$osisi:

You are talking to bodies floating on the river like rejected firewood
Some of these people worsen their problems by having babies like roaches and later blame it on everyone else.
I have them in my extended family.
One of my beautiful girl cousins ran away from school and moved in with this stupid boy
all attempts to bring her back home failed
Very beautiful girl.
basically threw away her life at 16
the next time they found her,she was 7 months pregnant for the efulefu idiot.
Today she has 6 children,living in a one room,uneducated and the idiotic so called husband of hers sells stickers for a living on the streets.
You know those stickers people put on their cars
"my miracle is on the way"
"Ike g'agwu ndi asiri"
"do me I do you"
That's what the father of 6 does for a living
If he decides tomorrow to tap fuel lines and gets burnt up,why should anyone feel sorry for him when his problems are mostly of his own making.

ebelebe igba . . ike ga agwu ndi asiri

osisi, this is a result of ignorance. ignorance is the #I concomittant of poverty. crude ignorance, but the bad thing is poverty has a way of building a vicious cycle, now those 6 kids are born in abject poverty(not their fault) they grow(if child mortality allows them to grow) the parents send them out in the streets to hawk(to get some cash) the girls get early exposure------>sex/pregnancy/disease/etc . . . the boys------->gangsters, political thugs etc . . . . more premarital sex-------->more unplanned pregnacies . . . another generation of poverty stricken household in the making . .etc

yes, some people fall into poverty by mere stupidity, but most are victims of circumstances. e.g, this ur cousin's case, let me assume her parents gave her all she could have, and let me also assume the efulefu boy had great parents too who gave him a chance at life, and both lost their chances . . . we now have a family of 8, 2 of them(the parents) were stupid but 6(the kids) are a product of circumstances

this proves me right that most people in poverty are just victims of their circumstances. try escaping poverty in this day and age of recession.

You guys are getting it all wrong. Its the get rich quick syndrome that is playing out here and not poverty. They can continue to kill themselves for all I care.

1st let me say may their soul rest in peace.

Some Nigerians continue to amuse me with their ridiculous excuses of poverty.

Let’s ask the question.  Was a crime committed?  Yes Pipe vandalism is a felony crime in Nigeria and these lunatics as I see them have no regards for their lives or the law and they paid the ultimate price.

If you can justify the kind of actions then we might as well legalize arm rubbery in Nigeria.

The government is to blame for this on timely death.  If the government can not enforced the law and prosecute violators.  Then this attitude that poverty encourages people to steal or vandalize will continue.

How many of these people will walk into a lions den to get a basket full of money?

Pres-elect I suPport your view; poverty can drive one to extreme. @osisi your cousin is one rare person who choosed to be poor, their are thousand of Nigerian young graduates roaming the street daily looking for honest job without success!

@Pres-elect,
true WoRD!!!
i solely 2nd your replete.

Allahamdullilah,Allahamdullilah,Allahamdullilah.I thank God for ma life and odas too.its really very sad to see ppl end up their lives in such manner.Its really a shame we are leaderless.Nothing works in this country xcept looting leaders who knows nothin other than to steal, Always be thankfull to him ALWAYS and dont discreminate,because yu cud be in their shoes.
Its just too sad. Amin @ georgecso

pres-elect:


ebelebe igba . . ike ga agwu ndi asiri

osisi, this is a result of ignorance. ignorance is the #I concomittant of poverty. crude ignorance, but the bad thing is poverty has a way of building a vicious cycle, now those 6 kids are born in abject poverty(not their fault) they grow(if child mortality allows them to grow) the parents send them out in the streets to hawk(to get some cash) the girls get early exposure------>sex/pregnancy/disease/etc . . . the boys------->gangsters, political thugs etc . . . . more premarital sex-------->more unplanned pregnacies . . . another generation of poverty stricken household in the making . .etc

yes, some people fall into poverty by mere stupidity, but most are victims of circumstances. e.g, this ur cousin's case, let me assume her parents gave her all she could have, and let me also assume the efulefu boy had great parents too who gave him a chance at life, and both lost their chances . . . we now have a family of 8, 2 of them(the parents) were stupid but 6(the kids) are a product of circumstances

this proves me right that most people in poverty are just victims of their circumstances. try escaping poverty in this day and age of recession.

You have proved what i said earlier . Poverty is a choice and you can either chose to accept the status quo or fight it. Even in the hashest of conditions one can still prosper.

$osisi,

Why not just thank your stars that you were not born into extreme poverty. To the poor it comes to a point where to die is better than continuing to live a life of no prospect whatsoever. if you are privileged you will not see what the less privilege are seeing. In fact you will be wondering why some people are poor while you are so confortable. The ability to feel the pain of our less privileged brothers and sisters is what makes us human. Not the number of hummers we have in our compound.

There is nothing extreme poverty cannot cause or lead someone to

oh please, there are extreme poverty in other parts of the world, but they are not this foolish. The first time ok, u can say it's extreme poverty, but everytime after that, it becomes pure foolishnes

all these people jumping on the bandwagon of poverty. Poverty this , poverty that. Have you heard of the story of a boy who was born into abject poverty but decided enough was enough. You dont have to stupid or poor to know petrol is high flamable. how many examples of pipeline explosion have we had in Nigeria.

Causes:

1. Corruption/weak law enforcement = 50%

2. Greed =10%

3. Poverty =40%

i read what some of my friends write here and it breaks my heart that we have lost the ability to empathise. that soft spot that makes us human.

i read about iragi children who go to refuse dumps looking for what they can rescue for food or sales knowing fully well that there are likely some IEDs there that may end their lives.

i saw many families who when their child is ill will take the child to one chemist after another and from one fake nurse to another and finally to church even when a hospital is nearby. . . . no money for hospital fees. . . . . and of course the child usually dies.

i saw a man who could not pay I00 naira for a simple blood test, to commence treatment of his child whose illness will not cost anything less than 50,000 naira .

i saw a girl, very intelligent geology student sell her body to idiots to get money not even for her school fees but to help out with her family.

my loving parents sent me out as a young child to go out and hussle for kerosene with older boys during one of those artificial scarcities created by corruption, in such struggles, in those days, little kids could be harmed, there are usually fights at the gas stations and some vagabonds smoking nearby. . . yet i was sent to do this for my family who had nothing else to do to survive. . . mumsie was very ill and dad was transfered by his company to a far away city.

people are suffering immensely. we are lucky. many aren't. yea, some people are stupid, but most are just victims. . . . it is sad . . . . .

May their souls rest in peace.

Not again

Superstition and BLIND religious faith combine with abject poverty to push Nigerans into suicidal choices every day.  

Folks breaking into pipelines flowing with pressurized, volatile and unstable fuel,  do so with the steadfast, insane conviction that "God", or any number of other invoked dieties will not allow "bad things" to happen to the perpetrators, many of whom fire up cigarettes while they steal gasoline.

Hopelessly incapacitated by the same absurd delusions, many Nigerian motorists remove or CUT OUT the seat belts in their cars, because they feel that the mere presence of those life-saving restraints indicates a lack of faith that "God", and/or sundry other "Higher Authorities" in whom absolute faith is reposed, will grant them the magical power to defy Newton's laws of momentum, even as common sense is tossed out the window.  Common sense is in fact NOT common in Nigeria, but rather is an exceedingly rare commodity.

NO lessons will be learned from this latest inferno, and more Nigerian petrol stealing  lemmings will rush to their fiery deaths at the very next opportunity that arises, calm and confident in the suicidal assumptions of their alternate universe.

pres-elect. Haba!!

What happened here cannot be blamed on poverty but greed and stupidity. I live in Ejigbo and we are surrounded by pipelines and the government have launched vigorous campaign over the last few years talking about the dangers of this very incident and that people should refrain from this dangerous act. In my view the government has really done its jobs. The campaign used all mediums in all our local languages, radio, bulletins, signboards - name it.

I grew up in the extreme poverty of Nigeria but I can categorically tell you this - POVERTY IS A CHOICE. But people make that choice over time. I have accomplished some of the things I set out to achieve.

Those poor adults you refer to chose to be poor - they often dont know it but if you analyse their lives thoroughly you will see the path they have taken enroute to poverty. The people who died on this and other occasions are nothing  but idiots and we should have no sympathy for them. 

You can eat and prosper anywhere in this world. It depends solely on the individual. We have a ready made universal excuse - Bad government!!!!
Give me a break!!!

pipeline burst? again?

pres-elect:

i read what some of my friends write here and it breaks my heart that we have lost the ability to empathise. that soft spot that makes us human.

i read about iragi children who go to refuse dumps looking for what they can rescue for food or sales knowing fully well that there are likely some IEDs there that may end their lives.

i saw many families who when their child is ill will take the child to one chemist after another and from one fake nurse to another and finally to church even when a hospital is nearby. . . . no money for hospital fees. . . . . and of course the child usually dies.

i saw a man who could not pay I00 naira for a simple blood test, to commence treatment of his child whose illness will not cost anything less than 50,000 naira .

i saw a girl, very intelligent geology student sell her body to idiots to get money not even for her school fees but to help out with her family.

my loving parents sent me out as a young child to go out and hussle for kerosene with older boys during one of those artificial scarcities created by corruption, in such struggles, in those days, little kids could be harmed, there are usually fights at the gas stations and some vagabonds smoking nearby. . . yet i was sent to do this for my family who had nothing else to do to survive. . . mumsie was very ill and dad was transfered by his company to a far away city.

people are suffering immensely. we are lucky. many aren't. yea, some people are stupid, but most are just victims. . . . it is sad . . . . .

Spare us the sob story. All the examples you mentioned, how many of them were engaged in criminal activity?
Pipeline vandalism and stealing of petroleum are serious crimes in Nigeria. Even apart from that, have we not seen enough photos of burnt corpses in Nigeria to know that stealing pipeline products is an extremely hazardous act? IS it not selfish to take a risk that can possibly leave your family further bereft of any hope?

Empathize my butt. When you open the papers and see photos of Armed robbers pleading poverty and the devil for their actions, do you empathize with them?

Perhaps we should extend empathy to all the drug smugglers, armed robbers and even clifford orji.

ibedun:

pres-elect. Haba!!

What happened here cannot be blamed on poverty but greed and stupidity. I live in Ejigbo and we are surrounded by pipelines and the government have launched vigorous campaign over the last few years talking about the dangers of this very incident and that people should refrain from this dangerous act. In my view the government has really done its jobs. The campaign used all mediums in all our local languages, radio, bulletins, signboards - name it.

I grew up in the extreme poverty of Nigeria but I can categorically tell you this - POVERTY IS A CHOICE. But people make that choice over time. I have accomplished some of the things I set out to achieve.

Those poor adults you refer to chose to be poor - they often dont know it but if you analyse their lives thoroughly you will see the path they have taken enroute to poverty. The people who died on this and other occasions are nothing  but idiots and we should have no sympathy for them. 

You can eat and prosper anywhere in this world. It depends solely on the individual. We have a ready made universal excuse - Bad government!!!!
Give me a break!!!

GBAM

When will these foolish people learn that not only open flames can ignite gasoline, just an ordinary spark from static electricity from a cell phone or just static electricity from rubbing two plastic container is enough to ignite gasoline fumes.

Like most on this thread have said I hope only the vandals burnt to ashes and no innocent person got hurt.

All this is as a result of the country we live in.Extreme Poverty is everywhere around us or how do you explain someone risking his life all for little money.I mean the situation is very pathetic.

i dont think some people here have seen real poverty b4.
imagine some people try to use canoe to cross the ocean to enter europe. a man was rescued and sent back to senegal and when bbc asked him if he'll try to enter europe again, he said yes, and he was asked. . .aint u afraid of the high seas, he replied. . ''i am more scared of looking at my hungry children''

our people are too adamant dat they dnt really care if they loss their life in the process of pipe vandalization.i pray 4 those who are not part of the vandalization but are victims. Nigerians beware of your dear life

.I mean the situation is very pathetic.

Yes O! The situation is extremely pathetic

No good roads
No Stable power supply
No Petrol
No Kerosene
No Gas
No Railway line
No good health care facilities
No good food for the masses
No! No!! No!!!

@poster! no wonder we have fuel scarcity.

Govt seems not to care at all