₦airaland Forum

The fact that Seun has to consider this is testament to the state of Nigeria and what the future portends. It is an objectionable course but Seun bears the commercial risk if this site is shut down not most users. It is easy to hyperventillate about Seun kowtowing to the powers that be whilst hiding behind the anonymity that the internet affords.

I must say I am enjoying the supreme irony of ardent Buhari supporters - I am referring to you Barcanista - fuming with righteous indignation at the prospect of such "violations" of basic human rights as are being proposed. You would think that people who purport to hold freedom of expression sacred would make strange bedfellows with Buhari

phantom:
the tribal warriors both from the east and west have all scurried into their holes like rats. they've realised they are equally represented by these fraudsters.

They are completely discombobulated by the equal representation. I suspect some must have developed a serious headache thinking of how to handle this.

This is why I made the point that the money paid to online writers to act as propagandists for their political employers is a waste of money as the online demographic is unrepresentative of the general populace. Here is a snapshot of reports on online polls in 2011:

There are now several platforms online that allow Nigerians with access to the Internet to vote for their favourite presidential aspirant and share their preference on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. The retired military general, Mohammadu Buhari is in the lead on two online voting sites: Nigerians Decide and Online Voting for the Nigerian 2011 Elections.

On Nigerians Decide, Mr Buhari is winning with a wide margin of 60 percent (1,378 votes) and 68 percent of the votes, respectively. He is followed by President Jonathan with 24 percent (546) and Nuhu Ribadu at 13 percent (300). Pat Utomi and Ibrahim Shekarau both have 1 percent of the votes with the remaining candidates at less than 1 percent.Over 3,500 people have cast their vote at nigeriansdecide.110mb.com for the 18 different presidential aspirants.

[url]https://sites.google.com/site/nigerian2011election/today-s-election-news/buharileadsinmockonlinepolls [/url]

You are simply wasting money trying to influence political anoraks on the internet as they are mainly made up of a self-selected group who want to change the status quo. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-selection_bias

You are better off holding US style town hall meetings talking to people on the street to show them why they need to vote your candidate. I suppose for many on here who make a living from posting on the net this is tantamount to rams voting for Sallah.

bushdoc9919:
Tis a lot of money....that would have been spent on a lot of things like infrastructure projects, universities, etc...

But we wanted cheap fuel (Which we REALLY can't get because we are producing less than we need for domestic consumption, but let's not get too factual here).

The honest truth is that we are importing fuel, the govt does not have money to build new refineries (and the private refineries promised are on the drawing board). Meanwhile, we are exporting less petrol than the United Arab Emirates....and for a population of 160million people(UAE has 8million).

The sad thing is that the fuel subsidy has to go. Yes, we will get high fuel prices, and I for one don't like having to pay up to N200 for a liter of fuel under the new regimen. But the sad thing is that we are pouring money that we do not have down a bottomless pit....and it is high time we stopped.

Ultimately, Nigeria has to get off oil....and become an industrial society. Maybe the oil subsidy money can be used for things like roads, railways, power, etc...that would fuel our industrail development...leading to jobs galore, and an end to unemployment.

But we Nigerians want free things. We don't want to work for our supper. The rich want their free bee money and the poor want their free fuel...Both want their slices of the oil cake...with no thought as to how the cake is baked.

Oil is a curse.

Thank God there are still some intelligent people left in Nigeria. Next to corruption, nothing is as wasteful and harmful as the subsidy programme.

Martins301:
Did Buhari ask sellers of essential commodities to hoard the goods? Of course people, especially Nigerians, won't be happy when their opportunity of MAKING ABNORMAL PROFIT is taken away from them.

That sellers will hoard their goods if you fix their price is the logical and predictable consequence of a price control policy and explains why such policies are wrong headed in the first place! This is what Nobel laureate Milton Friedman said of price control:

"We economists don't know much, but we do know how to create a shortage. If you want to create a shortage of tomatoes, for example, just pass a law that retailers can't sell tomatoes for more than two cents per pound. Instantly you'll have a tomato shortage. It's the same with oil or gas."

It is not the stated intention behind a policy that matters but the likely outcome. Hence the saying, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Nigeria is the way it is because we implement policies that are ostensibly populist, for the good of the common man, but which are impractical.

These discussions have made me realise that the country has no hope as even the "educated" class subscribe to some of the most hare-brained ideas known to man.

It is understandable for Akande to dwell on political appointments as he is part of the political class but what has holding political office done for the ordinary people?

The far-North is a prime example. Years of dominating political positions have done nothing have done nothing for ordinary people in the far-North.

Martins301:
Why not keep quiet if you don't know economics. Price regulation is very vital for maintain stability in an economy where there are so many imperfections.

It's ironic that in a nation many believe in voodoo, many also believe in voodoo economics. You are a quintessential subscriber to the Nigerian economic school of idiocy on steroids.

Why did Buhari's price controls generate scarcity? A highly predictable outcome and tallies with what we know in the history of price controls.

brownlord:
Meanwhile Victorciza is 43, Chino almost 50, Gbawe about 45, sincere9erian 39, same with berem, demdem and their group of pay per post crew headed by Gbawe and Sincere9erian respectively shouting Fresh Air, Progressive for a Buhari of 70, john Oyegun, annenih of 80 plus, danjuma, atiku David mark etc who the oldest among them before entering leadership position. would be 30 yrs. this guys have been in govt. for decades and their hired supporters on this forum still twist gullible people to support this evil men.

These people count on Nigerians relative youth and lack of curiousity.

Think of GEJ for instance. Why would anyone support his candidacy when he achieved nothing as Governor and failed to articulate what he will fo differently as President?

Buhari's tenure as President was marked by a fall in living standards. Despite his ineptitude, some Nigerians perceive him as our saviour.

swezenberg:
I might need more enlightenment on the economics you are trying to pass across. I'm an Engineer but I can learn from you if you can break it down a little.

You are an engineer. . . .if the Govt imposes price control on your labour by declaring that you shall not be paid more than a certain amount as engineering is vital to the nation, you and other engineers will seriously reconsider being engineers. The net result is that there will be less engineers. With scarcity comes fraud as the former is a breeding for the latter.

If the Govt can simply fix the price of goods and services by fiat, inflation will be a thing of the past. All Govts will do it as why allow prices to rise, with the unpopularity that entails, when you can simply decree a a particular price.

@OP

You know what you have written is a bare faced lie. I still don't understand why our political class think they can affect electoral outcomes by hiring internet propagandists.

swezenberg:
Buhari is different. He identifies himself with ordinary men. He introduced Price control just for the ordinary man to afford bread and sugar because the government before him was almost wiping out the common man. He brought in different measures that stabilized the country.

When I read comments like these, I thank God that I am a British citizen.

What happens to the availability of a product when price controls are instituted? Only the people who made money from the artificial scarcity generated by the price control should applaud it.

This refinery building business misses a more pertinent point. The Nigerian Govt has no business building refineries as it is essentially a business undertaking.

CrudeGH:
what exactly do you hope to acheieve by posting this report? first, this particular report was published many many months ago. secondly, Ghana's annual budget is $16 billion, not $6 billion. thirdly, you should be ashemed to even post this kind of report. it means Ghana is achieving far greater results with the limited funds while your states may be receiving billions but have little to show for it. such level of stvpidity

Why do you have to lie?

adioolayi:
If that will cleanse our land from corruption and will bring development I will vote for Buhari....after all...there are Christians in Saudi Arabia worshipping unhindered

Are you sure Christians worship in Saudi Arabia unhindered?

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic theocratic monarchy in which Sunni Islam is the official state religion. Although no law requires citizens or passport holders to be Muslim, almost all citizens are Muslims. Children born to Muslim fathers are by law deemed Muslim, and conversion from Islam to another religion is considered apostasy and punishable by death. Blasphemy against Sunni Islam is also punishable by death, but the more common penalty is a long prison sentence. There have been no confirmed reports of executions for either apostasy or blasphemy in recent years.[1]

Religious freedom is virtually non-existent.[2] The Government does not provide legal recognition or protection for freedom of religion, and it is severely restricted in practice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion_in_Saudi_Arabia

gangar:
It's a shame this old and fabricated news is mmade front page. Nairaland is loosing credibility

Fabricated in the sense that these comments were not actually made?

iseyi:
"It is a legal responsibility which God has given us, within the context of one Nigeria, to continue to uphold the practice of Sharia wholeheartedly , and to educate non-Muslims that they have nothing to fear," he said.

The press propaganda with a lot of gullible minds, I believe a lot nairalander here just read the heading and start comments with their bias mind for Islam -''Islamphobia''. Shariah Law is for Muslims what then is your fear.

So the comment is excused because he recommends the education of non-Muslims? Not only is Sharia law as implemented in the Northern states unconstitutional, but his comment must be seen in the context of the mayhem the implementation of Sharia wrought, e.g, the deaths of thousands in places like Kaduna.

collins011:
o boy why buhari na? few years ago when I was still in property business that guy was evicted from his rented apartment situated in asokoro for unable to pay a rent of 15 million. pls delete his name abeg

Why is he even in a position to undertake to pay rent of 15 million Naira on a property that I presume is not even his main home?

Buhari did not steal more than every other Nigerian. For one thing, IBB may have a greater stake to the position of numero uno thief.

However, you cannot help but laugh at the delusions that undergirds the thinking that a clean honest politician can emerge from a corrupt political system.

Fulan Nasrullah, a Boko Haram sympathiser, is reporting that no such fighting took place. I am inclined to agree with him on this because we don't have the troop numbers to mount such an attack. DHQ have also not said anything as far as I can tell.

That "3 helicopters" story is like sticking 2 fingers at Nigerians to say - "we know you are simpletons, so we can publish any figment of our imagination and many will fall for it."

birdman: Isnt it interesting that barely a month after BH sponsors were named, BH is falling like a pack of cards.

You people and your harebrained thinking. Today, Boko Haram controls Bama, Gwoza, Madagali amongst a list of 25 towns. Effectively, more territory than a month ago. Not only do the bare facts belie your conspiracy theory, the notion that Salafist Muslims are "sponsored" by Christians is so profoundly moronic that it beggars belief that a functioning brain can accept such a theory.

There is merit to the position that we need to offer a path for those elements within Boko Haram who are open to negotiation to come to some accommodation.

But that Tinubu interview reflects a time when the main criticism of the FG was that it was too harsh in its military campaign. This was when the opposition opposed imposing a state of emergency, opposed calls for the US to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation and when an amnesty deal, a la Niger-Delta militants, was being suggested, notably proposed by Buhari.

Personally, I think the Nigerian army's scorched earth policy acts as a recruiting tool and BH have expanded in numbers partly, I believe, as a result. Nevertheless, you can't help but marvel at how many elements in the opposition now act as if they have always maintained that the FG needs to take a stronger military line.

The "beauty" of Nigeria's personality-based and zero-policy analysis political discourse is that a politician can be subsequently proven resoundingly wrong about a policy position and suffer no adverse effect.

Headline should be: Shekau dead again?

I believe there is some truth to the claims that the US is reluctant to offer certain equipment and intelligence but it is a complete red herring using it as justification for the South African debacle.

The US's reluctance stems from the likelihood that its equipment given to Nigeria will end up in the hands of Boko Haram. The Pentagon noted in a briefing to Congress that Nigerian soldiers are reluctant to fight. There are also major concerns about Nigerian soldiers' human rights violations. These are longstanding worries - same was experienced during the fight against MEND.

[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-eager-to-help-nigerian-search-for-girls-but-cautious-in-sharing-intelligence/2014/05/15/c5ad010e-dc5c-11e3-bda1-9b46b2066796_story.html [/url]

Nigerian soldiers charged with countering the “exceptionally brutal” Boko Haram insurgency are outgunned and fearful, and the Pentagon has been reluctant to share intelligence with the Nigerian military because of its own record of brutality, a senior Pentagon official said Thursday.

The Nigerian army’s 7th Division, deployed against the insurgency in the country’s north, “has recently shown signs of real fear,” Friend said. “They do not have the capabilities, the training or the equipping that Boko Haram does.”The Islamic insurgency is increasingly taking on the military in direct fighting, she added, and “is exceptionally brutal and indiscriminate in their attacks.”As a result, “we are now looking at a military force that is, quite frankly, becoming afraid to even engage,” Friend said.

reedonne: If 900,000 child die before 5 Nigeria, then more than 1000 young people die in my hometown(EDE,STATE OF OSUN) every year?.
Maybe they should go and validate their stat.

Yes, if the residents of Ede make up 0.11% of Nigeria's population and the under-5 mortality rate in Ede is the same as Nigeria's.

Guinea officials said that they have found eight bodies after a team of health workers went missing during a push to raise awareness of the outbreak of Ebola which started in the country nine months ago.

Six members of the team – three journalists and the director and two senior doctors of the regional hospital – were set upon by angry residents in the remote village of Womey, where many remain in denial about the disease, or suspicious of foreign health workers. The six have been missing since Tuesday. Officials said all six were held captive, although attempts to reach them stalled after angry residents destroyed bridges leading to the village.

"The meeting started off well; the traditional chiefs welcomed the delegation with 10 kola nuts as a traditional greeting," said a local resident who was present at the meeting earlier this week and gave only his first name, Yves. "It was afterwards that some youths came out and started stoning them. They dragged some of them away, and damaged their vehicles."

A government spokesman, Damantang Albert Camara told Reuters: "The eight bodies were found in the village latrine. Three of them had their throats slit."

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/18/ebola-health-workers-missing-guinea

This story struck me when thinking of the preponderance and popularity of conspiracy theories in Nigeria and the adverse effects it has in mobilising people to solve grave national problems. The people in Guinea have obviously accepted a conspiracy theory, that health workers are out to harm them, and decided that this calls for decisive action in the form of slitting the throats of the health workers.

I am placed in the ignoble position of defending shysters like Ayo Oritsejafor but there is little in the South Africa story that serves as damning evidence of Oritsejafor's involvement in arms smuggling.

It is said that he is implicated because the plane is his. Given that the plane is leased out, it is like proclaiming that a landlord is a drug abuser because his tenant used drugs in the tenanted house.

The value of this story lies not in the weight of the evidence but in the Nigerian knack for guilt by conjecture. For Muslims inebriated with conspiracy tales, it serves the purpose of claiming that Boko Haram is truly a Christian conspiracy and has nothing to do with honest peace loving Muslims. For APC supporters, it serves the purpose of smearing Oritsejafor who is known to have his tongue stuck on GEJ's as-s.

It's a classic Naija non-story and misses the real issue - the lack of transparency in arms purchases which is a problem that predates GEJ.

@OP

I have linked to Fulan's blog before as it does contain some inside information but his spin of the Boko Haram defeat in Konduga is just to put a positive face on a defeat.

A probing mission that leads to a slaughter, he even acknowledges Boko Haram sought reinforcements, is no probing mission. It's a rather laughable spin of events.

I have to laugh at those who express surprise that Boko Haram operates in Kogi. There have been reports in the past about Boko Haram's Kogi cell: [url] http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2013/11/boko_haram_cell_busted.php [/url]

Nigerian soldiers heading to Mali a couple of years ago were attacked in Kogi. It's really sad people don't know what we are dealing with.

The planes are old and poorly maintained. It could also have been sabotaged on the ground before take off.

However, if the pilot didn't have the time to put in a "may day" call, then it may have been shot down.

obailala: From these responses, it seems BH still has a stronghold at Bama?... I thought they said it was false news when it was reported that BH overran Bama?

Boko Haram stills holds Bama and this defeat at Konduga is a relatively minor setback for them.

lurvy: [size=16pt]So, An APC belonging to the terrorists escaped??

I have asked this question several times, now... Let me ask again... DOES NIGERIA STILL HAVE AN AIRFORCE..??

How can Nigerian soldiers be fighting without an air cover from the Airforce..??

Why should an APC belonging to the terrorists escape and the Airforce couldn't bomb it?[/size]

There aren't enough air assets to provide air cover at short notice. When Nigerians are demanding that Govt continue to plow billions of dollars providing subsidy, it didn't occur to people that things like health, education and security need to be tackled first.

I'm sure someone will proclaim that we have been spending billions of dollars on security so we should have the necessary equipment, but whilst corruption is a major issue, most of our military spending has gone on personnel costs - paying wages - to the nearly 1 hundred thousand soldiers we employ. I created a thread on this issue about 2 or 3 years ago, if you multiply the average yearly military wage by the amount of military personnel, you will see that very little is left for major weapons acquisition.