Is this editor not same person who was recently kicked out of Punch over corruption case?

I weep for this country!!!!

@chosen04, yeah he almost declare them bankrupt

This editor sounds extremely naive - is he saying that up until these disclosures by wikileaks he had no idea that nigeria was crawling with foreign intelligence operatives?  I find it very difficult to believe that a journalist would be totally clueless about how the IOC's operate in nigeria.  

Also he seems to be unaware that nigeria is a police state and therefore in any police state the media is always heavily censored by its govt,  this is actually demonstrated by the fact that majority of the nigerian newspapers and other media outlets are owned by corrupt nigerian politicians - this indicates that there is a conspiracy on the part of the nigerian elite to keep nigerians in the dark about what is really going on in their own country.

To be honest the only uncensored news that i have read about nigeria from a nigerian journalist is news from sahara reporters, the western corporate media like CNN, bbc, msnbc is also censored - notice how they conveniently never mention anything about their own involvement in the ongoing corruption in nigeria.

Non mainstream western media will report the truth but these are usually provided by independent freelance journalists, many of whom provide this info at great risk to their lives.

The reason that nigerian politicians willingly provide foreign journalists with confidential info is not because they (the nigerian govt) are stupid but because the foreign media and the IOC's are the senior partners in this criminal partnership , the nigerian govt owes its very existence to the west, is it not the same western countries that help them into office by assisting them in election rigging, isnt it the same west who provides the intelligence reports that enable them know the right time to stage coup d'etats?  Isnt it the same west that provides them with military aid which ensures that they are armed to the teeth in order to ensure they retain their stranglehold on power?

The idea that the nigerian govt is in the dark about what is going on is a complete and utter joke.  What you have here are two criminals who both have vested interests in the current set up, the nigerian kleptocrats wish to continue stealing from their own people and the western IOC's wish to have access to cheap oil - you scratch my back i scratch yours.

What a country I live in.

Such a profund article.

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What this article and the many emotionally provoking comments has taught me.
Some people made this country what it is today without realising what they were doing at that time. It took place over a period of time, not just a day. Now, you as a Nigerian, most importanltly a n/lander, must seek to promote values that encourage excellence and patriotism.
All of these failures are opportunities for us to shine - do and make things right, starting now no matter how small.
This is our opportunity. We must refuse to be shortsighted (me, myself, my family and associates).
We are talking about Sanusi LAmido today, he obviously didnt start building his balls that morning on his way to National Assembly.
Talk is cheap. What shall we say about YOU tomorrow?

cap28:

This editor sounds extremely naive - is he saying that up until these disclosures by wikileaks he had no idea that nigeria was crawling with foreign intelligence operatives?  I find it very difficult to believe that a journalist would be totally clueless about how the IOC's operate in nigeria.  

Also he seems to be unaware that nigeria is a police state and therefore in any police state the media is always heavily censored by its govt,  this is actually demonstrated by the fact that majority of the nigerian newspapers and other media outlets are owned by corrupt nigerian politicians - this indicates that there is a conspiracy on the part of the nigerian elite to keep nigerians in the dark about what is really going on in their own country.

To be honest the only uncensored news that i have read about nigeria from a nigerian journalist is news from sahara reporters, the western corporate media like CNN, bbc, msnbc is also censored - notice how they conveniently never mention anything about their own involvement in the ongoing corruption in nigeria.

Non mainstream western media will report the truth but these are usually provided by independent freelance journalists, many of whom provide this info at great risk to their lives.

The reason that nigerian politicians willingly provide foreign journalists with confidential info is not because they (the nigerian govt) are silly but because the foreign media and the IOC's are the senior partners in this criminal partnership , the nigerian govt owes its very existence to the west, is it not the same western countries that help them into office by assisting them in election rigging, isnt it the same west who provides the intelligence reports that enable them know the right time to stage coup d'etats?  Isnt it the same west that provides them with military aid which ensures that they are armed to the teeth in order to ensure they retain their stranglehold on power?

The idea that the nigerian govt is in the dark about what is going on is a complete and utter joke.  What you have here are two criminals who both have vested interests in the current set up, the nigerian kleptocrats wish to continue stealing from their own people and the western IOC's wish to have access to cheap oil - you scratch my back i scratch yours.

That actually makes a lot more sense than anything else that's been written on this thread.

cap28:

This editor sounds extremely naive - is he saying that up until these disclosures by wikileaks he had no idea that nigeria was crawling with foreign intelligence operatives? I find it very difficult to believe that a journalist would be totally clueless about how the IOC's operate in nigeria.

Also he seems to be unaware that nigeria is a police state and therefore in any police state the media is always heavily censored by its govt, this is actually demonstrated by the fact that majority of the nigerian newspapers and other media outlets are owned by corrupt nigerian politicians - this indicates that there is a conspiracy on the part of the nigerian elite to keep nigerians in the dark about what is really going on in their own country.

To be honest the only uncensored news that i have read about nigeria from a nigerian journalist is news from sahara reporters, the western corporate media like CNN, bbc, msnbc is also censored - notice how they conveniently never mention anything about their own involvement in the ongoing corruption in nigeria.

Non mainstream western media will report the truth but these are usually provided by independent freelance journalists, many of whom provide this info at great risk to their lives.

The reason that nigerian politicians willingly provide foreign journalists with confidential info is not because they (the nigerian govt) are silly but because the foreign media and the IOC's are the senior partners in this criminal partnership , the nigerian govt owes its very existence to the west, is it not the same western countries that help them into office by assisting them in election rigging, isnt it the same west who provides the intelligence reports that enable them know the right time to stage coup d'etats? Isnt it the same west that provides them with military aid which ensures that they are armed to the teeth in order to ensure they retain their stranglehold on power?

The idea that the nigerian govt is in the dark about what is going on is a complete and utter joke. What you have here are two criminals who both have vested interests in the current set up, the nigerian kleptocrats wish to continue stealing from their own people and the western IOC's wish to have access to cheap oil - you scratch my back i scratch yours.

You have said all this without telling us where to look, really.

Are you saying both sides are right?
Are you saying it is normal for our leaders to kowtow without asking questions?

You have not proferred any way out.

ola olabiy:

[size=13pt]You have said all this without telling us where to look, really.
[/size]
Are you saying both sides are right?
Are you saying it is normal for our leaders to kowtow without asking questions?

You have not proferred any way out.

At least someone else noticed that. He basically discredited every single source out there, and essentially left me wondering if he even realizes how absurd whatever else he has to say on this or any other issue will seem since he himself relies on at least one of the sources to get his information on what is going on around him. ROFLMAO!

Reminds me of a conversation I had some time ago with a conspiracy theorist pal of mine. She spoke of how scientists are working daily to control our lives with gadgets like the TV, the cellphone, computers etc and tried explaining to me how it would be best for me to get rid of all the gadgets and live without/off the grid as she does. While she was talking, she walked over the to kitchen to get out a pack of popcorn. She popped it in the microwave and could not wait for the corn to pop so she could munch on it. I then asked her why she was not serious enough to get rid of the microwave, she essentially ignored me. I knew then and then she probably had some nuts loose and likely best for me to move on. ROFLMAO!!

i have been entertained [using russell crowe's voice in GLADIATOR].

Blazay said:

Funny enough. . . Julian Assange and co had already contacted ALL involved that the cable series were gonna be released in a timely fashion. . . no surprise there.

Only a white man can do that. . . no fear of the consequences. . .all sheer guts and a matter of principles.
A black man would have been thinking of his wallet and his precious dusty black skin that lead into all evils and temptations.
Foolish, baseless empty pride without any meaningful underlying principles.
What a curse!

You are a complete dolt with clearly dysfunctional upbringing.

It is your type we are talking about here. White skin worshippers. ''Only a white man can do it'' my foot.

I suppose heroes and matyrs like Fela, Mandela, Garvey, Saro Wiwa, Sankara, Malcolm X, Dr King, Gani, and numerous others, were all ''thinking of their pockets'' since they are all ''evil black people''.

Dolt!

I guess the moral of the story is that we need to clean out our motherland and also clean out corruption from the west that we find ourselves entangled in .

We really need to provide security to ourselves and perhaps nationalise anything in our basic interest for the future while harvesting the potentials of the youth; only then can we guarantee that more nigerians will be proud and never sell himself out/short.

Hopefully our leaders will realize that money is just paper- really just paper any western country can print loads of it, hence worthless. Money is not worth sellling all our natural resources to strangers for. Think of it; if all our resources belonged to the same foreigners, we'd be at their mercy if not wiped out. Time to look at countries that are mutually beneficial. God bless Nigeria

By the way only someone that doesn't understand nigerian complex mentality would use the word "inferiority complex" to describe their acts lol  NL . (Africa is very diverse in skin color, culture and more and nigeria is no exception)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Restructure Shell and all other foreign companies/banks while we are at it .

ola olabiy:

You have said all this without telling us where to look, really.

Are you saying both sides are right?
Are you saying it is normal for our leaders to kowtow without asking questions?

You have not proferred any way out.

Nope am not saying both sides are right at all - im saying both sides are part of a criminal conspiracy designed to exploit the nigerian people.  

Our leaders are not in a position to ask questions because they depend on the west for military aid and export markets, if nigeria starts getting too uppity with the west all the west needs to do is :

destabilise the country internally - very easy to do in multi ethnic nigeria -where ethnic groups are forever at each others throats - remember what happened in Jos?

impose economic trade embargoes - remember what the US and EU did to Zimbabwe and are still doing to Cuba, North Korea and Iraq?

cut off military aid

cut off oil exports to the US and the EU (Iraq)

if any of the above fail to acheive the desired result, launch a military attack (this is what they eventually did with Iraq when Saddam started trying to export his oil to the EU using the euro instead of the dollar thereby undermining america's control of international oil prices

You guys simply do not understand that the nigerian govt will not and cannot challenge any foreign multinational because they will  be crushed.  You should try and read up about what BP (british oil company) did to a former Iranian president when he nationalised the iranian oil industry.

The only way out is for a revolutionary grass roots movement which is militarily equipped to combat any internal as well as external attack - no mean feat but possible, Venezuela has managed to do this but they could not have done it without Chavez, we do not have a Chavez yet but thats not to say we will never have one.

As it stands the FGN can not and will not bite the finger that is keeping it in business, Shell and the FGN are like a mafia run crime syndicate, the FGN allows the IOC's in to loot and plunder. They are even allowed to cause massive environmental devastation without having to worry about the cost of cleaning it up - this is all part of the deal.

In return the FGN is allowed to keep recycling the same old criminals who are guaranteed security and protection with a beefed up army, mobile police and other security operatives which protect these crooks.

I dont know why this is coming as a suprise to anyone, this is standard operating procedure for ALL multinationals and foreign govts that appropriate natural resources from third world countries.  

This same method was used in the democratic rep of Congo in the 1960s, the belgian govt fomented internal uprisings and encouraged the mineral rich sections of the country to secede because they wanted to make it impossible for the democratically elected but revolutionary leader Patrice Lumumba to govern the country.

Eventually Lumumba was assassinated by the belgians and american CIA and replaced with a puppet leader - Mobutu Sese Seko who was kept in power by the americans for 35 years.

Omenani

This article was correct on many points. I do feel that many Nigerians suffer from an inferiority complex. This is not only found in Nigeria, but Africa as a whole.

That is why I say, Africans have a lot to learn from Black Americans. They do not suffer from such an inferiority complex compared to most Africans I have encountered.

I absolutely agree with you. In fact many black Americans will tell you for free that that is the single thing they hate most about their African brothers - they turn to jelly before a white man.

I remember back in the day when I visited Ikoyi club as a kid. Everyone needed their club ID to get in. The black kids were all asked for their cards, and the white kids were just allowed in no questions asked. And the guards were blacks! I was only about 12 then but I remember thinking something wasn't right about that.

I think it's a problem that afflicts nations just recovering from long-term colonial rule.

The hope is that as the psychological effects of colonialism begin to wear off with time, most of our people will start to rediscover their equal humanity with all men.

Nigerians are a disgrace. We no dey shame sef  The nonsense we put out here for people to see is terrible!!! "White" man this, "white" man that. What stupidity!

Who is this so-called "white" man sef wey some people dey always open their mouth dey yarn okpata on top??


Who stops us from living in clean cities? from paying taxes, from working hard?

Who makes us piss all over our environment, eat around heaps of trash, and never keep to time?

Who stops us from beign productive? organizing our societal structures? treat Nigerian citizens like humans

Ive seen stupidity before, but the level of stupidity I see now makes me wonder if I am actually on a Nigerian forum[i][/i]


When did Nigerians start blaming foreigners for not being able to do something for himself??

Kobojunkie:

At least someone else noticed that. He basically discredited every single source out there, and essentially left me wondering if he even realizes how absurd whatever else he has to say on this or any other issue will seem since he himself relies on at least one of the sources to get his information on what is going on around him. ROFLMAO!

Kobojunkie did you understand what i wrote at all, here is an excerpt from my post:

To be honest the only uncensored news that i have read about nigeria from a nigerian journalist is news from sahara reporters, the western corporate media like CNN, bbc, msnbc is also censored - notice how they conveniently never mention anything about their own involvement in the ongoing corruption in nigeria.

Non mainstream western media will report the truth but these are usually provided by independent freelance journalists, many of whom provide this info at great risk to their lives.

Now does that sound like i am discrediting EVERY news source?

I usually dont bother responding to your posts because they consist of your usual inane empty rambling but i thought id just put you straight this time.

Omenani:

This article was correct on many points. I do feel that many Nigerians suffer from an inferiority complex. This is not only found in Nigeria, but Africa as a whole.

That is why I say, Africans have a lot to learn from Black Americans. They do not suffer from such an inferiority complex compared to most Africans I have encountered. Maybe it was due to their Civil Rights struggle with leaders like the great Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

Nigerians have absolutely nothing, I mean nothing to learn from a mentality that makes a certain segment of American society the biggest joke of the world. Every single group of migrants to this country consider that segment of America with the worlds most terrible mentality the absolute biggest joke in humanity.

The idea of some "white" man stopping you from being useful to yourself is un-abriged stupidity. What so-called "white" man are some people talking about sef?


Our problems have absolutely nothing, I mean nothing at all to do with anybody's skin colour including ours. It is stupidity for us to be even discussing such rubbish

Japan is a country where Westerners are loved to death regardless of Atomic bombs and all. They are more developed than virtually all Western countries. Stop bringing skin colour into issues that it has no relevance in. It makes us a caricature in front of the world

cap28:

Kobojunkie did you understand what i wrote at all, here is an excerpt from my post:

Now does that sound like i am discrediting EVERY news source?

I usually dont bother responding to your posts because they consist of your usual inane empty rambling but i thought id just put you straight this time.

Ofcourse it is empty rambling to someone who does not even understand the implications of what he writes/posts on here


Sahara Reporters -- You may not think it censored but that media house happens to report it wrong about 40% of the time and much of what it reports to you is sourced from the MAIN stream media which you happen to be are afraid of.

Non-mainstream media FEEDS main Stream media -- and vice versa.

If you took care of most all the media houses with your claim, what is left?  What are you telling us you know when the source you claim is uncensored happens to source much of it's own news from your censored sources? ROFLMAO!!!

sage:

Nigerians are a disgrace. We no dey shame sef  The nonsense we put out here for people to see is terrible!!! "White" man this, "white" man that. What stupidity!

Who is this so-called "white" man sef wey some people dey always open their mouth dey yarn okpata on top??


Who stops us from living in clean cities? from paying taxes, from working hard?

Who makes us piss all over our environment, eat around heaps of trash, and never keep to time?

Who stops us from beign productive? organizing our societal structures? treat Nigerian citizens like humans

Ive seen stupidity before, but the level of stupidity I see now makes me wonder if I am actually on a Nigerian forum[i][/i]


When did Nigerians start blaming foreigners for not being able to do something for himself??

They say the beginning of wisdom is to know who  your enemies are, conversely the mark of foolishness  is to remain blissfully ignorant of who your enemies are.

Since you seem to think that the white man is our best friend who has all of our best interests at heart, i would appreciate it if you could explain to me how it is that nigerian politicians after looting the national treasury are able to electronically transfer billions of dollars in funds to switzerland, the UK, germany, and various other foreign banks, how are they able to do this without any assistance or co-operation from foreigners.

How about the arms trade - why is it that the US and the UK provide billions of dollars in military aid to the nigerrian govt and for what purpose?

Can you explain the following for me as well,  why was  Hugo Chavez  kidnapped and flown out of Venezuela in a US sponsored coup detat despite being his country's democratically elected candidate - why did this happen.

Also why  was Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti also kidnapped in 2004 and flown out of the country again by the CIA and dumped in Congo until he was eventually taken to South africa where he remains to date despite being the democratically elected president of his country?

I would appreciate responses to the above, thanks

My Fellow Nigerians!

We have been our own worst enemy and still are

When the past Prime Minister of Singapore visited Nigeria back in the 60's along with the Malaysian prime Minister, he left dejected

Nigeria was on the same footing or even better than them that time and he had hoped to see former British colonies prosper and saw us as brothers in an uphill struggle

But he realized that we were going to be stuck in mediocrity for a long time to come and he placed the blame for that squarely at our feet. Our mindset and the mindset of our so-called leaders, who are also a product of our society led him to that conclusion. He knew that their countries were going to leave us behind in the dust simply because he didnt think we had what it took to get anywhere.

Our issues have nothing to do with some bogus "white" or "black" label. Our problem is not our skin nor that of another person and there is no solution in that line of thought

The biggest joke of all time is to blame our mediocare status on some "white man" or claim that somebody is stopping us from doing anything for ourselves
Even worse is adopting the mindset of a certain segment of America

Haba my people we are not that kind of caricature are we?

@caps

I know we have gotten into it a couple of times but I wonder why you have missed my point all along

Vietnam is a country that foreign powers meddled in and totally destroyed. In 1970 Nigeria was far better than Vietnam, and better than Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia etc

Today they are all ahead of us (and they said that they would be back in the 60's) Singapore is fully developed like the United States.

Vietnam, a country behind most African countries and totally devastated by foreign meddlers and their cohots is better than all so-called "Sub-Saharan" African countries with maybe the exception of S/A.

They are far ahead of Nigeria now and the rest of Africa as well

Some people are here loking for excuses left and right. Oh so and so is the reason why Sigapore is developed. Oh so and so is the reason why Malaysia is doing so well bla bla bla. Its always excuse after excuse

When all excuses fail, this funny idea of some "white" man now crops up . Why are we the only group of people into this level of stupidity. Whats this "white/black" meaningless label sef.

there are two stupid extremes. One is the thought that skin colour is the reason we cant do anything for ourselves. the other is that skin colour is the reason some imaginary "white man is stopping us from doing something fopr ourselves. How stupid can we get

we should not be even bringing up skin colour in issues like this. We make ourselves look like fools to the world

Shell exploiting us, Overseas banks storing our looted treasures etc are symptoms of a bigger issue that is plaguing us.

Our issues have nothing whatsoever to do with skin colour. Ive never seen other groups of people blame their inability to do anything for themselves on a phantom "white" man nor do they measure their successes by skin colour.

We are following the lead of morons by boiling our existence down to skin colour, something that is not the reason why we have the problems that we do today. The only result of that is the kind of mentality found in certain parts of America that is horrific to any new arrival from around the world ie some "white" man is stopping us from doing well for ourselves

It is a hopeless dead end and I am horrified that some Nigerians advocate for such a thing.

"White"/"Black" are just man made labels that actually dont address the issues we have on hand. If you leave yourself open for exploitation, people will exploit you. Humanity has always been that way.

If you make a joke out of yourself, everybody will always regard you as a joke. We as Nigerians should know that better than anybody else. In Nigeria we say that you cant respect people who dont respect themselves.
If we dont even respect ourselves how do we expect somebody else to do that for us?

sage:

Nigerians have absolutely nothing, I mean nothing to learn from a mentality that makes a certain segment of American society the biggest joke of the world. Every single group of migrants to this country consider that segment of America with the worlds most terrible mentality the absolute biggest joke in humanity.

The idea of some "white" man stopping you from being useful to yourself is un-abriged stupidity. What so-called "white" man are some people talking about sef?


Our problems have absolutely nothing, I mean nothing at all to do with anybody's skin colour including ours. It is stupidity for us to be even discussing such rubbish

Japan is a country where Westerners are loved to death regardless of Atomic bombs and all. They are more developed than virtually all Western countries. Stop bringing skin colour into issues that it has no relevance in. It makes us a caricature in front of the world

You should not lump everyone into the same category, in every society you have differing levels of intelligence, you have intellectuals, academics, entertainers, ordinary working people etc, the same goes for nigeria, to dismiss an entire group of people as being a joke is wrong and totally misses the point.  

African americans will go down in history as producing some of the greatest radical minds and intellectual thinkers of the 20th century.

Many radical african intellectuals believed in the philosophy and ideology of radical thinkers such as Malcolm X. 

look at the calibre of young men who shook america in the 1960s - Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, H Rap Brown, Huey Newton these were all young black men in their 20s and 30s who dared to challenge the monster that is white supremacy.  

The nigerian military are 100 times more brutal than the white supremacists in america.  The reason i say this is because in a way you can understand a white man brutalising a black man, when he looks at a black man he cannot relate to him because he does not see himself in a black person,  with the nigerian military they look into the faces of their own people and STILL brutalise us DESPITE being of the same race as us - its tragic.  

During the civil rights marches of the 1960s african americans were still given some semblance of protection from their govt as the federal govt ordered federal troops to escort black students to all white schools to protect them from lynch mobs, contrast that with the way in which Obasanjo ordered troops to rampage through the niger delta in response to peaceful protests from demonstrators.

The big elephant in the room which you have failed to even notice is the superior military might that the US and other european nations have over africa , military might is the ultimate determiner of power, when you say that we are merely making excuses you fail to understand that the reason we were conquered and remain a conquered nation is not due to our inability to develop but our inability to defend our sovereignty, nigeria cannot prevent any military attack from an external power, therefore even if we were to suceed in kicking out the kleptocrats and refused to carry on with the destructive economic policies of the  IMF and world bank we would STILL be at risk of military attack from the west, it is not simply a case of getting your economy on track as i have cited a few instances where democratically elected govts were subsequently toppled because they were not the "right type of governments".

Japan was rewarded with a place at the table of the G8 nations because the US wanted to create pro western countries  in south east asia, these countries acted as buffer zones and helped to prevent the spread of communism within that region, as a reward for staying loyal to the US they are allowed to develop economically.

The US operates what it calls spheres of influence - this means that nations lying within certain regions of the world are under US control, all of this was decided between the US and europe in 1823 under what is known as the Monroe doctrine the agreement was that europe would not interfere with or colonise any part of the western hemisphere, by the same token the US was also not to interfere with any regions of the world already colonised by europe.

It should therefore be clear to you that control and domination of world resources had already been shared out amongst europe and the US  with everyone else playing the part of a pawn on a grand chess board.

The entire continent of africa was and is still seen as a source of cheap raw materials for europe and america.  What you have totally failed to understand is that africa remains a possession of europe, all the nation states of africa were created by white men in the berlin 1885 conference.  those artificial countries were created for the economic benefit of europe, the resources contained in those nations remain under the control of western govts and western owned multinationals.  The only difference being that the europeans have appointed handpicked collaborators to oversee the exploitation process, that is the model that europe designed for africa and that model remains in place.  Notice what happens when any nation tries to break free from that model - remember biafra, remember how britain immediately came to the rescue of nigeria and crushed the secession of biafra, that was because europe will not tolerate a deviation away from this model.
there are other examples - southern sudan has been trying to secede and form a seperate nation from northern sudan for over 30 years, angola was at war for around 30 years in order to free itself from portuguese control the list goes on.

ola olabiy:

You have said all this without telling us where to look, really.

Are you saying both sides are right?
Are you saying it is normal for our leaders to kowtow without asking questions?

You have not proferred any way out.

Maybe you should make his post better, put on your thinking cap, and COME UP WITH YOUR OWN solutions. We will all be the better for it. cap28, you hit the nail square on the head, problem and solution-wise

cap28:

Japan was rewarded with a place at the table of the G8 nations because the US wanted to create pro western countries in south east asia, these countries acted as buffer zones and helped to prevent the spread of communism within that region, as a reward for staying loyal to the US they are allowed to develop economically.

I think Ghana may have been picked in W.Africa to serve as a counter weight to Nigeria, should we prove unmanageable. Even with foreign agents, the dynamics of Nigerian politics is too volatile to control reliably, too many factors and factions. Seen in this light, Obama's visit to Ghana wasn't just harmless, diplomatic fun. I honestly can't blame them. You have to do whats best for YOUR own country.

We Nigerians have a manage it "mentality".Leaders are terrible we manage them. policemen kill innocent citizens for no reason and they are not brought to book, no protest for justice,roads are terrible we manage them.public schools are bad we manage them instead of protesting and trying to make a change,even the struggling ones amongst us start to hustle to send our kids to the outrageously expensive schools where they teach them how to speak thru their noses and sound like Brit kids, subconsciously telling them copy whitey they are better than you.

I"ve even heard of a school of a school where they teach them only foreign things and charge them outrageously and the parents discussed happily about this,so tell me this children how are they to be proud of being Nigerians when they have become copy and paste products.This looks like the future generation.To move ahead we first need to beat the "manage it mentality".our counterparts are far ahead of us because they constantly demand for the better we must learn to do that,which is why we have expatriates all over the place receiving more income than blacks we simply do not push for better.The blame lies at our feet all of us.not the this day editor or the us ambassador or some MNC but us.

We must learn to push for higher standards and not subscribe to "lets just manage it".

cap28:

You should not lump everyone into the same category, in every society you have differing levels of intelligence, you have intellectuals, academics, entertainers, ordinary working people etc, the same goes for nigeria, to dismiss an entire group of people as being a joke is wrong and totally misses the point.

African americans will go down in history as producing some of the greatest radical minds and intellectual thinkers of the 20th century.

Many radical african intellectuals believed in the philosophy and ideology of radical thinkers such as Malcolm X.

look at the calibre of young men who shook america in the 1960s - Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, H Rap Brown, Huey Newton these were all young black men in their 20s and 30s who dared to challenge the monster that is white supremacy.

The nigerian military are 100 times more brutal than the white supremacists in america. The reason i say this is because in a way you can understand a white man brutalising a black man, when he looks at a black man he cannot relate to him because he does not see himself in a black person, with the nigerian military they look into the faces of their own people and STILL brutalise us DESPITE being of the same race as us - its tragic.

During the civil rights marches of the 1960s african americans were still given some semblance of protection from their govt as the federal govt ordered federal troops to escort black students to all white schools to protect them from lynch mobs, contrast that with the way in which Obasanjo ordered troops to rampage through the niger delta in response to peaceful protests from demonstrators.

The big elephant in the room which you have failed to even notice is the superior military might that the US and other european nations have over africa , military might is the ultimate determiner of power, when you say that we are merely making excuses you fail to understand that the reason we were conquered and remain a conquered nation is not due to our inability to develop but our inability to defend our sovereignty, nigeria cannot prevent any military attack from an external power, therefore even if we were to suceed in kicking out the kleptocrats and refused to carry on with the destructive economic policies of the IMF and world bank we would STILL be at risk of military attack from the west, it is not simply a case of getting your economy on track as i have cited a few instances where democratically elected govts were subsequently toppled because they were not the "right type of governments".

Japan was rewarded with a place at the table of the G8 nations because the US wanted to create pro western countries in south east asia, these countries acted as buffer zones and helped to prevent the spread of communism within that region, as a reward for staying loyal to the US they are allowed to develop economically.

The US operates what it calls spheres of influence - this means that nations lying within certain regions of the world are under US control, all of this was decided between the US and europe in 1823 under what is known as the Monroe doctrine the agreement was that europe would not interfere with or colonise any part of the western hemisphere, by the same token the US was also not to interfere with any regions of the world already colonised by europe.

It should therefore be clear to you that control and domination of world resources had already been shared out amongst europe and the US with everyone else playing the part of a pawn on a grand chess board.

The entire continent of africa was and is still seen as a source of cheap raw materials for europe and america. What you have totally failed to understand is that africa remains a possession of europe, all the nation states of africa were created by white men in the berlin 1885 conference. those artificial countries were created for the economic benefit of europe, the resources contained in those nations remain under the control of western govts and western owned multinationals. The only difference being that the europeans have appointed handpicked collaborators to oversee the exploitation process, that is the model that europe designed for africa and that model remains in place. Notice what happens when any nation tries to break free from that model - remember biafra, remember how britain immediately came to the rescue of nigeria and crushed the secession of biafra, that was because europe will not tolerate a deviation away from this model.
there are other examples - southern sudan has been trying to secede and form a seperate nation from northern sudan for over 30 years, angola was at war for around 30 years in order to free itself from portuguese control the list goes on.

100% on point. add FELA to this list of people influenced by the radical african american thinkers of the 60s, but applied it to the Nigerian situation. well written bro.you know current and past affairs of the world.

The entire continent of africa was and is still seen as a source of cheap raw materials for europe and america. What you have totally failed to understand is that africa remains a possession of europe, all the nation states of africa were created by white men in the berlin 1885 conference. those artificial countries were created for the economic benefit of europe, the resources contained in those nations remain under the control of western govts and western owned multinationals. The only difference being that the europeans have appointed handpicked collaborators to oversee the exploitation process, that is the model that europe designed for africa and that model remains in place. Notice what happens when any nation tries to break free from that model - remember biafra, remember how britain immediately came to the rescue of nigeria and crushed the secession of biafra, that was because europe will not tolerate a deviation away from this model.
there are other examples - southern sudan has been trying to secede and form a seperate nation from northern sudan for over 30 years, angola was at war for around 30 years in order to free itself from portuguese control the list goes on.

Gbosa! Gbosa!!

good read. i have read all 4 pages and found it all to be hysterically funny. this whole idea of the west exploiting africa first off is 'relatively' absolute bollocks. these things called resources are in the ground and will continue to be in the ground if the west have no need for it because lets face it, africans wouldnt know what to do with those resources let alone how to mine them let alone know what they are. for me, i think the only issue is the environmental damage that is left behind when they mine for the resources. the ecosystem is polluted and made toxic. as per the resources ? its like someone coming to your house and seeing a stone on the ground that you have ignored for all your life and considered dirt, then me informing you that the stone is some good stuff and i will pay you 30 dollars for it. shyttt thats a plus to me. and those resources are needed to make stuff that even africans enjoy. the television you watch, the cars you drive, your mobile phones, your generator, etc etc. so i dont see the 'exploitation' as a problem because we are getting paid for those resources. its not like they are taking them for free. nigeria makes 29 billion dollars annually from oil alone.

africas problems lies squarely on the shoulders of africans. nigerians are very unpatriotic, un-resourceful, worship wealth almost to the detriment of their own existence, very disorganized, non long-suffering, no staying power for completion of projects, always look to others for validation, dont know how to transfer knowledge from one generation to the next, very possessive of information and will not share it for the greater good of the community, misplaced priorities, lack of critical thinking, very corrupt, extremely myopic,  and thats just the beginning. thats our problem in a nutshell.

now in another thread i commented about exploited resources and hence run the risk of sounding like a hypocrite but if anything is being exploited by the west, it is our humanity as africans not our resources. the fact that they feel that they can push us around, infiltrate anywhere they want and take whatever they want is an assault to the humanity of africans. i think this is where the problem lies. our humanity is being exploited

buzugee:

good read. i have read all 4 pages and found it all to be hysterically funny. this whole idea of the west exploiting africa first off is 'relatively' absolute bollocks. these things called resources are in the ground and will continue to be in the ground if the west have no need for it because lets face it, africans wouldnt know what to do with those resources let alone how to mine them let alone know what they are. for me, i think the only issue is the environmental damage that is left behind when they mine for the resources. the ecosystem is polluted and made toxic. as per the resources ? its like someone coming to your house and seeing a stone on the ground that you have ignored for all your life and considered dirt, then me informing you that the stone is some good stuff and i will pay you 30 dollars for it. shyttt thats a plus to me. and those resources are needed to make stuff that even africans enjoy. the television you watch, the cars you drive, your mobile phones, your generator, etc etc. so i dont see the 'exploitation' as a problem because we are getting paid for those resources. its not like they are taking them for free. nigeria makes 29 billion dollars annually from oil alone.

africas problems lies squarely on the shoulders of africans. nigerians are very unpatriotic, un-resourceful, worship wealth almost to the detriment of their own existence, very disorganized, non long-suffering, no staying power for completion of projects, always look to others for validation, dont know how to transfer knowledge from one generation to the next, very possessive of information and will not share it for the greater good of the community, misplaced priorities, lack of critical thinking, very corrupt, extremely myopic,  and thats just the beginning. thats our problem in a nutshell.

now in another thread i commented about exploited resources and hence run the risk of sounding like a hypocrite but if anything is being exploited by the west, it is our humanity as africans not our resources. the fact that they feel that they can push us around, infiltrate anywhere they want and take whatever they want is an assault to the humanity of africans. i think this is where the problem lies. our humanity is being exploited

This makes a lot more sense than those it-is-not-our-fault postulates from some quarters.

They say: "the West want us that way, they control our leaders ni".
But, does it have to remain like that? For how long do you have to loot your country just because foreign powers want it that way?

These oyinbos are in control of countries like Singapore as well. Besides, politicians in those countries steal too.

The difference is when we steal we do so with reckless abandon.
Also, when we steal we take the loot to another man's country something they seldom do in places like Singapore. They invest more in their country.

These leaders are a reflection of what we are as a people.
We lack REAL love. Chikena.

ola olabiy:

This makes a lot more sense than those it-is-not-our-fault postulates from some quarters.

They say: "the West want us that way, they control our leaders ni".
But, does it have to remain like that? For how long do you have to loot your country just because foreign powers want it that way?

These oyinbos are in control of countries like Singapore as well. Besides, politicians in those countries steal too.

The difference is when we steal we do so with reckless abandon.
Also, when we steal we take the loot to another man's country something they seldom do in places like Singapore. They invest more in their country.

These leaders are a reflection of what we are as a people.
We lack REAL love. Chikena.

I am with you!

buzugee:

good read. i have read all 4 pages and found it all to be hysterically funny. this whole idea of the west exploiting africa first off is 'relatively' absolute bollocks.

Can i ask you a question? do you think the carving up of africa by europe in 1885 was "absolute bollocks" ?

how about the amputation of limbs of congolese men, women and children by belgian colonial officers during belgium's colonial rule over Congo?

Are you aware that it was standard practice for belgian soldiers to cut off the hands of congolese  men and the br.easts of their wives  if their husbands  came back from the forests without collecting enough rubber for the lucrative rubber exportation business that Belgium was engaged in at the time?

Are you also aware that german colonial soldiers massacred thousands of rebellious namibian tribes who refused to voluntarily give up their fertile land to make way for german settlers - did you know that many of these tribes were  decimated almost into extinction and many were driven into the Namibian desert where they died of dehydration and starvation?

These are just a few of many atrocities that were comitted by white colonial soldiers in africa in the latter part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century all in a bid to get their hands on our land and the resources in the land.

Do you consider those incidents to be "relatively absolute bollocks"?

These things called resources are in the ground and will continue to be in the ground if the west have no need for it because lets face it, africans wouldnt know what to do with those resources let alone how to mine them let alone know what they are. for me, i think the only issue is the environmental damage that is left behind when they mine for the resources. the ecosystem is polluted and made toxic. as per the resources ? its like someone coming to your house and seeing a stone on the ground that you have ignored for all your life and considered dirt, then me informing you that the stone is some good stuff and i will pay you 30 dollars for it. shyttt thats a plus to me. and those resources are needed to make stuff that even africans enjoy. the television you watch, the cars you drive, your mobile phones, your generator, etc etc. so i dont see the 'exploitation' as a problem because we are getting paid for those resources. its not like they are taking them for free. nigeria makes 29 billion dollars annually from oil alone.

why does this sound like something a white south african or white zimbabwean would say and not a black african?
this argument sounds ominously identical to what white supremacists use in order to excuse their genocide and brutalisation of non white people, actually this argument is normally referred to as the "white man's burden argument" - this is an argument in which the white man states that he had to invade, annex and murder thousands and in some cases millions of blacks for their own good because blacks are naturally uncivilised and need to be brought up to the same standard of civilisation as the superior race (the white race).   The argument goes something like this:

" Every abomination that we perpetrated against them was done "for their own good", had we not done what we did these heathen people would still be living in a primitive subhuman state. 
At the end of the day they should be grateful that we allowed them to become "independent" states.  So what if we handed power to a group of brutal puppet leaders, what does it matter that these puppets are merely our collaborators who are merely ripping off their own people, we couldnt care less, after all africans are not fully human and are used to living in a state of squalor and extreme poverty.  The main thing is that we can continue to have access to cheap raw materials and cheap labour.  Democracy does not apply when you are dealing with africans as they are too childlike and inferior to appreciate the benefits of such a system.  The main thing is that we retain our position in the world and if it means a few million people have to suffer as a result so be it.
Lets face it,  without us they wouldnt even know that they were sitting on billions of dollars worth of black gold".

This is the mindset of the average white supremacist - and it seems as if you and them look at black people in the same way.

The problem with your analysis is that it sees everything through the eyes of a white man, in your eyes the white man's way of looking at the world is the correct way, every other way is backward and primitive.  According to you the black man should be grateful to the white man because left to his own devices he would not have appreciated the value of crude oil, i would argue that this is an incorrect way to judge a black man's world view,  prior to the invasion from the white man the black man had a different civilisation which was serving the needs of his people adequately.  The white man perceives the world in terms of money, plunder and exploitation ie capitalism, this is why he left his own country, there was a need for him to  venture out into the world, his own countries were poor and therefore he had to explore, occupy and appropriate the wealth of other nations  - this is what drives him, but this did not apply to the black man because he already had a land rich in resources, on this basis he had no need to think or behave like the white man.  What you are trying to do here is blame the black man for not initially adopting a capitalist outlook which the white man had to adopt out of necessity but which was not necessary for the black man.

Prior to the discovery of crude oil in Oloibiri in 1958, people in the riverine areas were engaged in the palm oil trade with europeans, actually palm oil was one of south eastern nigeria's largest exports, the whites refined it and used it as a  lubricant for machinery and also for soap products, did the white man teach us how to grow and harvest palm oil produce ?

africas problems lies squarely on the shoulders of africans. nigerians are very unpatriotic, un-resourceful, worship wealth almost to the detriment of their own existence, very disorganized, non long-suffering, no staying power for completion of projects, always look to others for validation, dont know how to transfer knowledge from one generation to the next, very possessive of information and will not share it for the greater good of the community, misplaced priorities, lack of critical thinking, very corrupt, extremely myopic,  and thats just the beginning. thats our problem in a nutshell.

i am forced to agree with you that we nigerians are unpatriotic, worship wealth etc etc however there is a reason for that and it is primarily because we have adopted an alien culture ie the white man's love for materialism and unadulterated consumerism.  As a conquered race our culture was destroyed and replaced with christianity/islam  and capitalism.  We were brainwashed into beleiving that our own culture and religion was backward, heathen and primitive, we were told to aspire to be more like our masters, this mentality is now ingrained in the average nigerian and will take extensive re education and reprogramming in order to put us in a mental state where we are capable of thinking in a manner which is devoid of inferiority complex, greed, consumerist and materialistic obsessions and extreme selfishness.

The other reason behind our current backward state is that we are not really a nation, we are merely just a group of diverse people who have been forcefully thrown together and who do not have a common purpose or goal , the northerners want a country governed under sharia law, the igbos do not want to live under such a system and i m pretty sure the non muslim yorubas and other ethnic groups dont want that either and yet we are told that in the interests of "unity" we must remain as one entity for better for worse.  Where have you ever seen a country that can progress where all its citizens do not have a common purpose and vision for their country?

if nigeria were to split along ethnic lines i believe that this would engender a spirit of nationalism in each respective ethnic group, with each group wanting to work towards building up and developing their own  country.
look at how resourceful the igbos were during the biafran war - they were able to make their own improvised weapons, run schools, courts and markets and even operate their own currency - all this acheived during a state of siege!!!! - it was that nationalistic spirit that kept the igbos going even in the face of so much adversity.  Imagine what they would have acheived under normal circumstances.

now in another thread i commented about exploited resources and hence run the risk of sounding like a hypocrite but if anything is being exploited by the west, it is our humanity as africans not our resources. the fact that they feel that they can push us around, infiltrate anywhere they want and take whatever they want is an assault to the humanity of africans. i think this is where the problem lies. our humanity is being exploited

You can not separate our humanity from our natural resources the two go hand in hand. 
The thing you seem to be forgetting is that before the discovery of crude oil many of our people were fishermen or subsistence farmers, this land that has now been appropriated by the FGN in cahoots with the IOCs was owned by indigenous people, therefore by right any resources found underneath this land should remain the property of the landowner.  If you appropriate land which was serving as a means of livelihood to a people without giving them any form of compensation and then to make matters worse pollute and devastate that land, surely you have taken away their humanity.  Land is a form of wealth and anything in, under or on it is part of the land therefore taking it away from that person without compensating them is not only theft but an abuse of a person's basic human rights.
 
many of our people regard land as an integral part of their identity without access or rights over your land you are a dispossessed people, the first thing the apartheid south african govt did to the black south african people was disposses them of their land and "resettle" them in barren isolated townships, this also happened in kenya where the british stole fertile land from the kikuyu people and dumped them in overcrowded ghettos, zimbabwe - again the british farmers appropriated the most fertile land and again resettled the indigenous people in ghettos, these are all forms of human rights abuse and should not be defended.