I am nearly done seeing any good in this country called Nigeria - the way it is currently put together. Let's face it NO GOOD CAN COME OUT OF PRESENT-DAY NIGERIA.

[size=14pt]It is almost certain that the 2011 elections will be another complete farce.[/size]

Please take a look at the picture below. What is the purpose of this picture to the world - that the 15 kidnapped kids were found right on independence day!

The irony of it all - this picture further emphasize what is wrong with us as a nation. Look at the fatness around the frames of the adults in this picture, then look from child to child, especially the two youngest kids to the extreme right and left. The adults are wrapped in useless Nigerian colors, but these kids that have just spent days in captivity are probably wearing the same clothes they had on several days ago.

When will salvation come to Nigeria!

What on Earth? What is this?! Couldn't the kids rest/wash/dress first?

op

must you type for the sake of typing?

why so many illiterates in this place.

Omg.

This is horrible.

@tpiah
I seem to have hit a raw spot here. I can imagine you belong to the class of one of the women in that picture - you will complete your dressing with national colors, and purse to match, to get in a photo with kids that have just been emancipated from captivity.

These kids are traumatized for life. In saner countries those kids would be waited on hand and foot to alleviate the untold emotional trauma they have just gone through. They were probably sent on their merry way after that picture, while the oga patapatas got in their expensive limousines waiting for the next crisis and a photo op. Shame I say!

It is obvious that you are beyond redemption! You simply cannot feel it. Bombs are going off around you, 3 years olds are being kidnapped and the first thing a governor does is take photographs with the same kids, with cloths unchanged. God Almighty.

Tell me the purpose of this picture if not to emphasize the shame of a nation.

tpiah:

op
must you type for the sake of typing?
why so many illiterates in this place.

Talk about photo op. . . .

What is the purpose of this picture again?

With all due respect, I'm a huge fan of your thread-point but disagrees with your heading, We are NOT a shameful nation but our government may be.

ehs:

With all due respect, I'm a huge fan of your thread-point but disagrees with your heading, We are NOT a shameful nation but our government may be.

The classic denial.

Gamine:

The classic denial.

lol, "classic denial" can be good or bad, can you please elaborate. Thx

I actually shed some tears. . . .

Disgusting people.

Like someone said, the first thing they could have done is wash them and feed them. Let them rejoice with their family. If one of my children was kidnapped [God forbid this situation], I seriously wouldnt leave them in the hands of those vultures. Shameful lots.

I understand your point, and splitting hairs on behalf of Nigeria was one of my professions, but this here simply makes me furious!

How much more can we take as a people. How much more can our kids take. How long are the so-called elders of this nation going to be walking around the planet as emperors without clothes selling snake oil.

Without security of life and property we might as well write-off any other plans we have, including the upcoming elections. There is nothing simpler than that to grasp!

To me this makes ours a shameful nation - though we do have individuals of integrity and repute, but in our representations as a nation, we are projected to the world by shameless officials and institutions.

ehs:

With all due respect, I'm a huge fan of your thread-point but disagrees with your heading, We are NOT a shameful nation but our government may be.

We can all agree that all our leaders are worse than CRETINS!
SHAMELESS I.DIOTS!

WHERE IS MEND WHEN U NEED THEM!
If they succeed in bombing this unrepentant kleptomaniacs, i wouldn't shed a tear!
(Minus the kids of course) 

I almost did after seeing this picture, but was soon truly infuriated at the sight.

Does the governor not know better? Does his wife or whoever that woman in the picture is not know better? Isn't this the same governor that was caught performing rituals?

Kids that were treated this way years ago are the ones doing the kidnapping today - and the vicious cycle goes on!

Ileke-IdI:

I actually shed some tears. . . .

Disgusting people.

Like someone said, the first thing they could have done is wash them and feed them. Let them rejoice with their family. If one of my children was kidnapped [God forbid this situation], I seriously wouldnt leave them in the hands of those vultures. Shameful lots.

nigerians at their sycophantic best. We crowing here are no better . . .

koruji:

I almost did after seeing this picture, but was soon truly infuriated at the sight.

Does the governor not know better? Does his wife or whoever that woman in the picture is not know better? Isn't this the same governor that was caught performing rituals?

Kids that were treated this way years ago are the ones doing the kidnapping today - and the vicious cycle goes on!

I'm not crying only because the children looked like they've suffered, but because they've been turned the children into a pawn game for this campaign election. They took the picture to show Nigeria that situation in Aba has calmed down and that the children have recovered; Supposed to show that GEJ has everything under control

Was this picture taken in Aba or Abuja? [looks like Abuja to me]. . . .

It's disgusting, I say!

koruji:

I understand your point, and splitting hairs on behalf of Nigeria was one of my professions, but this here simply makes me furious!

How much more can we take as a people. How much more can our kids take. How long are the so-called elders of this nation going to be walking around the planet as emperors without clothes selling snake oil.

Without security of life and property we might as well write-off any other plans we have, including the upcoming elections. There is nothing simpler than that to grasp!

To me this makes ours a shameful nation - though we do have individuals of integrity and repute, but in our representations as a nation, we are projected to the world by shameless officials and institutions.

Your point well taken and opinion highly commended, J F Kennedy said "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Is time for us as individuals to start making conscious effort to better our nation and look less on others.

ehs:

Your point well taken and opinion highly commended, J F Kennedy said "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Is time for us as individuals to start making conscious effort to better our nation and look less on others.

JFK was talking to a nation that takes care of its own people. Its easy for me to think of how to give back to America so long as i have my daily SS checks, subsidized health care, free tuition to college, high standard of living e.t.c.

omo_to_dun:

LOL. Buhahahaha. Boy, that was the dumbest thing I have read all week. Ehs, I respect you but imagine that I wrote this about a hypothetical country named Muwonleru: "Although the government of Muwonleru victimizes her people, cares not for their safety and lives, and endlessly embezzles from the national treasury, Muwonleru is not a shameful nation." How would you feel about my assessment? Once again, I can't help but to laugh: Buahahaha.

Interesting, cool picture you just painted and I will let you be the judge. It will be safe to assume you're in Pasadena and familiar with what's happening in Bell, is Bell a shameful city?

davidylan:

JFK was talking to a nation that takes care of its own people. Its easy for me to think of how to give back to America so long as i have my daily SS checks, subsidized health care, free tuition to college, high standard of living e.t.c.

I concur and appreciate you using the word NATION

I think this was taken in Aba, but your assessment is right that the objective was to show that everything is under control, and that the kids are safe.

However, that is what makes it even more annoying since those kids are not really safe - they may be home but are not really free. If anything, it shows that things are worse in Nigeria than people might have thought without those pictures. How could anyone think this picture projects a positive image of the government?

We have to find our way in this country, but we don't even know how lost we really are.

President GEJ a few days ago, probably with good intentions but failing to grasp the high standards that an American President requires, talking about wanting Obama to visit Nigeria after successful elections in 2011. Good dream, but at this rate, Obama might be sending soldiers and planes to help in 2011, if our serious lack of security is not tackled pronto.

Ileke-IdI:

I'm not crying only because the children looked like they've suffered, but because they've been turned the children into a pawn game for this campaign election. They took the picture to show Nigeria that situation in Aba has calmed down and that the children have recovered; Supposed to show that GEJ has everything under control

Was this picture taken in Aba or Abuja? [looks like Abuja to me]. . . .

It's disgusting, I say!

omo_to_dun:

Gbam! Oga David, you took the keystrokes right out of my hands. It always seem absurd to me when folks from under-developed countries invoke JFK's famous line. Had America, then, been in the neighborhood of Nigeria's current heartwarming situation, there would have been a revolution. Unlike Africans, whites, in particular, have zero tolerance for hardship and I opine that they are not nearly as resilient or as adaptable to extreme situations as we are.

David, I assume you have seen---or read about---what happened to the "corrupt" city officials of Bell, California. I put corrupt in quotes because those officials, unlike their Nigerian counterparts, actually got those insanely huge salaries through legal means, albeit by finding loopholes in the legal system and by exploiting the ignorance of the people. In Nigeria, we have been complaining for ages about corruption, but I do not think anyone---ever---had the cojones to publicly protest about this ostensible injustice. However, I fault not my brothers and sisters. After all, like we say in Nigeria: no one wants to die.

I get tired of folks misusing that line as well. Americans demand more from their leaders because at least they have a transparent system of government that ensures inefficient and corrupt officials can be easily removed and handed over to a fair justice system.

What do we have in Nigeria? How do we expect those kids to give back to Nigeria? What shld they give back aside from car bombs?

Ileke-IdI:

I'm not crying only because the children looked like they've suffered, but because they've been turned the children into a pawn game for this campaign election. They took the picture to show Nigeria that situation in Aba has calmed down and that the children have recovered; Supposed to show that GEJ has everything under control

Was this picture taken in Aba or Abuja? [looks like Abuja to me]. . . .

It's disgusting, I say!

I couldn't have said it any better.

Resilience is at same time one of our strengths, and yet our greatest curse!

Rather than push back and demand our rights, we 'll rather squirm and find somebody below to oppress.

But this nation is about to reach its breaking point - yet there are peaceful, if drastic means, to deal with all of these mess. Otherwise, whether we like it or not this nation will break soon, and the outcome would not be pallatable for anyone.

Destiny calls on President Jonathan to put into action those radical ideas he must have toyed with as a youth growing up under the heavy burden of a careless state, and as a suffering lecturer back in the days. If he has none, then he must give way to those who have shown that they, given the slimmest of opportunities, would purse their goal of bringing sanity to this nation as far as possible.

omo_to_dun:

Gbam! Oga David, you took the keystrokes right out of my hands. It always seem absurd to me when folks from under-developed countries invoke JFK's famous line. Had America, then, been in the neighborhood of Nigeria's current heartwarming situation, there would have been a revolution. Unlike Africans, whites, in particular, have zero tolerance for hardship and I opine that they are not nearly as resilient or as adaptable to extreme situations as we are.

David, I assume you have seen---or read about---what happened to the "corrupt" city officials of Bell, California. I put corrupt in quotes because those officials, unlike their Nigerian counterparts, actually got those insanely huge salaries through legal means, albeit by finding loopholes in the legal system and by exploiting the ignorance of the people. In Nigeria, we have been complaining for ages about corruption, but I do not think anyone---ever---had the cojones to publicly protest about this ostensible injustice. However, I fault not my brothers and sisters. After all, like we say in Nigeria: no one wants to die.

chic2pimp:

I couldn't have said it any better.

Actually you could have, sweety. I just realized that I made a few grammatical errors . . .  typing with my phone, so am excused

koruji:

I think this was taken in Abuja, but your assessment is right that the objective was to show that everything is under control, and that the kids are safe.

However, that is what makes it even more annoying since those kids are not really safe - they may be home but are not really free. If anything, it shows that things are worse in Nigeria than people might have thought without those pictures. How could anyone think this picture projects a positive image of the government?

We have to find our way in this country, but we don't even know how lost we really are.

President GEJ a few days ago, probably with good intentions but failing to grasp the high standards that an American President requires, talking about wanting Obama to visit Nigeria after successful elections in 2011. Good dream, but at this rate, Obama might be sending soldiers and planes to help in 2011, if our serious lack of security is not tackled pronto.

So if it was taken in Abu, how much rest and peace of mind did this children get before traveling?  I'm pissed at the parents, how dare they let the children go?  Sigh.

Ileke-IdI:

Actually you could have, sweety. I just realized that I made a few grammatical errors . . . typing with my phone, so am excused

Having just checked it again, I realise that you indeed made a few grammatical errors(and for that you will be severely punished ). . . . . . . No excuses jor, you are an Olodo

davidylan:

JFK was talking to a nation that takes care of its own people. Its easy for me to think of how to give back to America so long as i have my daily SS checks, subsidized health care, free tuition to college, high standard of living e.t.c.

you're boasting of the benefits you enjoy which many erstwhile citizens of the country itself DO NOT have access to?

i think by now you should know better.