The United States will no longer issue temporary visitor (B-1/B-2) visa to aliens seeking to enter the country for birth tourism

Hello guys,

The interview notice states that prospective candidates come with "Original academic transcripts". Most Nigerian universities do not issue transcript to students. How do we go about this?

These are the values in the National Population Census Report

Birth and early career

Durojaiye earned a BSc (Economics) London, and an LLB, London. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1979, and is a Barrise Supreme Court of Nigeria. He also graduated from the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru. He worked for 35 years in the Nigerian public sector, including 28 years as a Director of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the National Mint. He worked with the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Reserve System in the U.S.A and the City University London between 1964 and 1982.

Political career

Durojayi was an elected member of the 1988/89 Constituent Assembly. In 1992 he was a candidate to run for President of Nigeria on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), losing to M.K.O. Abiola. Abiola's subsequent election as president was quashed by General Ibrahim Babangida, leading to a return to military rule. In December 1996 Durojayi was arrested by the military regime of General Sani Abacha, and was imprisoned for 560 days and mistreated while in jail. A June 1997 report stated the 63-year-old lawyer was reportedly in poor health and suffering from high blood pressure caused by his treatment. Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience and campaigned for his release.


Durojaiye was an elected Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999-2003). After taking his seat in the Senate he was appointed to committees on Judiciary, Establishment (Chairman) and Special Projects. In December 2002 he recommended a life jail-term for anyone who perpetrated election fraud. He won the AD primaries to represent the party in the Ogun East constituency in the 2003 elections, although he was threatened with legal action by Chief Adamo Olayinka Yesufu, a rival for the nomination. In the event, the PDP candidate Tokunbo Ogunbanjo won the election

Durojaiye's wife Florence Olufunso Adejoke died on 6 June 2009, aged 72, in Ikeja, two months after she and her husband had marked their 50th wedding anniversary. She was survived by her husband, six children and many grandchildren. In a March 2010 interview Durojaiye, now in his late 70s, spoke out against the covert way in which President Umaru Yar'Adua's illness was being handled, with the President smuggled back into Nigeria at night and no reports issued on his condition.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olabiyi_Durojaiye

Olabiyi Durojaiye was born in 1933 and is 83 years young

(1) SPATIAL LOCATIONS OF FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES
(2) SPATIAL LOCATIONS OF STATE UNIVERSITIES
(3) SPATIAL LOCATIONS OF PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES
(4) SUMMARY OF NUMBER OF UNIVERSITIES BY STATE

Full details may be viewed at: http://spidersolutionsnigeria.com/UniversityAtlas/index.html

Good morning guys. We are trying to develop an interactive web platform called "University Atlas of Nigeria". The platform should cater to the needs of prospective students at undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels by displaying the universities that offer different courses. What do you guys think? Is there any other thing we may include to improve the user experience?

Q9a) A two-digit number is such that its tens digit is greater than its unit digit by 5. If d number is 14 less than 3 times d product of its digits, find d number.

Let the two digits be X and Y. This implies that the two-digit number is:
10X+Y ----------------------------eqn 1
its tens digit is greater than its unit digit by 5: this implies –
X = Y + 5 -----------------------eqn 2
If d number is 14 less than 3 times d product of its digits: this implies
(10X + Y ) + 14 = 3XY.-----------------------eqn 3
find d number. By substituting (2) in (3) we and rearranging we have:
3Y^2 + 4Y – 64 = 0
Solving the quadratic equation yields Y = 4 or -16/3. We discard the second value of Y is it is not a whole number. We then solve for X
Ans: X = 9, Y = 4

Continued

contd

continued

contd

Contd

Apologies to Nairalanders who tried accessing the story map but were unable to because of the exceeding of the bandwidth for our website. We have decided to post screenshots of the story map here.

Since His inauguration as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 29th May, 2015, Mohammadu Buhari has made several foreign trips for different purposes. As we mark his first anniversary today, we capture 25 of such trips using a story map.








The full details of the story map be viewed here: http://spidersolutionsnigeria.com/storymap/index.html

umaryusuf:


Ok thanks. I noticed QGIS - qgis2web plugin, played some part in you webmap?

Yes, the qgis2web plugin was very helpful in generating the geoJSON data used.

barapistis:

Ii have had this in mind for a long time....
The important question is .what is the.source of your data

The source of the indicator data is shown at the bottom of each choropleth map

tpiah01:
oh, ok.

I was thinking it might be similar to the marketing apps used for data analysis and research.

When is the time frame estimated for release?

There is no specific time frame. We will be updating the list of indicators regularly as different indicators become available (indeed we are presently working on updating it as I am typing this). Our target is to have at least 50 indicators before the end of May.

tpiah01:



Impressive.

How do you gather and verify the data?

The data used are sourced mainly from the website of National Bureau of Statistics. The source of the data for each selected indicator is shown at the bottom of the map (see Panel #12 in the first image).

umaryusuf:



Hi,
What technology did you use? Am currently conducting a research on a web based Mapping and web GIS.

The platform is developed using mainly web-based languages i.e. html/php, css, and javascript. The charts are developed with the support of javascript-based chart libraries while the choropleth is developed with the support of javascript-based mapping libraries. One will need to be very conversant with GIS softwares (ArcGIS or QGIS), javascript/jQuery, and frameworks for developing interactive dashboards to be able to pull it through.

tpiah01:
Ok, thanks for the info.

What applications would you suggest it be used for, seems more like an official resource supposed to be utilized by govt organizations.

It for general data visualization of different cross-sectional data by states and to appreciate the geospatial differences across the states vis-a-vis any selected indicator

Choropleth map
A choropleth map is a thematic map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable being displayed on the map, such as population density or per-capita income. The choropleth map provides an easy way to visualize how a measurement varies across a geographic area or it shows the level of variability within a region.

Dashboard
a dashboard is an easy to read, often single page, real-time user interface, showing a graphical presentation of the current status (snapshot) and historical trends of an organization’s key performance indicators to enable instantaneous and informed decisions to be made at a glance.



1. This is the control to hide/show the base map. We are using openstreetmaps as our basemap. If this control is changed, our platform will look like this



2. This is the control (dropdown menu) that enables users to select the socio-economic indicator to the mapped in the choropleth map. Depending in the indicator selected, the summary by geopolitical zones will be plotted as a piechart or barchart in {3} while the top and bottom five states will {9} and {10} respectively.


3. This shows the summary of the selected indicator by geopolitical zones. This may be a barchart or piechart depending on the indicator selected.
4. This is the zoom control for the active choropleth map
5. This is the title of the active choropleth map
6. This is the information box for the active choropleth map. As users hover their mouse on the states, the name of the state and the value of the active socio-economic indicator will show here. In addition, on the name of state and the value also show as a popup above the state where the mouse is over.
7. This controls the opacity of the choropleth map. The present value of the opacity is shown in {8}. If the slider is moved left to change the opacity to 0.5, the map will look like this


8. This shows the current opacity of the map
9. This shows a list of the top-five states based on the selected indicator
10. This shows a list of the bottom five states based on the selected indicator
11. This is the legend for the choropleth map
12. This shows the source of data used for the choropleth map.

Hello webmasters, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) enthusiasts, and data visualization experts, kindly check out Nigeria's first website that integrates data visualization with geospatial information via dashboards and choropleth maps. Here is a GIF file showing basic functionalities of the website.



Our target is to have at least 500 indicators fed into the map before the end of the year. Nigerians are free to send cross sectional data on any socio-economic indicator covering all the states in Nigeria to us so we can update the database. The website is presently hosted here: http://www.spidersolutionsnigeria.com/NGRChoroplethMaps/index.php .

What goes to Nigeria coffers is not the differential between cost and revenue. Nigeria operates a profit sharing fiscal regime so only about 51% of the profit will go to NNPC/Nigerian government (after tax). Nevertheless, there is also royalties that are paid for each barrel of oil sold.

Bevista:
Meaning that, if oil price averages $30 in 2016, Nigeria will earn a profit of around $5pb instead of the expected $13pb (based on budget benchmark of $38).
---
This will reduce crude oil revenue from ~880bn to ~N400bn. The low oil price will also have contagion effect on other forms of Tax revenue. Basically, $30 oil price might knock off ~N700bn - ~1tn revenue from the 2016 budget. The worst impact will be felt by state governments who depend largely on FAAC with little or no IGR. Lagos state will, surely, be the most resilient of all states, while the likes of Osun and Ekiti will, practically, declare bankruptcy.
---
Lower oil prices will benefit the Saudis the most since their average production cost is around $12. They can comfortably ride oil price to $20, driving other players out of the market and increasing their market share before prices rise again.

The events of the past week in the Nigeria’s political space have been very interesting and intriguing. Finally, change has come! Therefore, I start this piece by congratulating President Jonathan for being the first agent of change by insisting on creating a level playing field for all political parties in Nigeria’s political space; insisting on free, fair, and credible elections; not interfering with INEC; and accepting the outcome of the election. I also congratulate Gen. Buhari for putting up a good fight and eventually being elected as President.

“To whom much is given, much is expected”, goes a popular saying. Indeed, Nigerians expect a lot when Gen. Buhari is eventually sworn-in as the President and takes full charge of the affairs of the country. Before we get carried away by the euphoria of change, it is important to note that a change in guard in the presidential villa and government offices will not necessarily lead to a change in the socio-economic situation of most Nigerians. Those who understand the dynamics of change in a liberal democracy will know that change is a gradual process that takes a long time. Moreover, change is multidimensional and real change has to incorporate attitudinal, structural, systematic, and policy change. Will the change in government lead to attitudinal change in the polity? Yes. Will it lead to structural and systemic change? May be. Will it lead to policy change? Yes, but only in a few sectors of the economy. The main crux of this opinion piece is to provide a brief overview of the change Nigerians are expecting from Gen. Buhari when he becomes the President.
One of Gen. Buhari’s main campaign mantra was fighting corruption. Nigerians expect that with Gen. Buhari in the helms of affairs, there will be attitudinal change with respect to how government carries out its business. However, in a liberal democracy, Gen. Buhari cannot jail anyone and any conviction has to go through the tedious judicial process. The question now is whether there will be systematic and structural change in the judiciary arm of government given judiciary independence. Therefore Nigerians may be highly disappointed if a corruption case is adjourned for several months. Nevertheless, there are several low-hanging fruits that will cement Gen. Buhari’s stance on corruption. One of these is the jumbo pay packs of the members of the national assembly. Members of the APC will be the majority in the Senate and House of Representatives and Nigerian’s will expect them to lead by example by approving the reduction of their allowances. Will this be possible? Only time will tell.

The second campaign mantra of Gen. Buhari will be the issue of insecurity in the country. Here, we note that the Boko Haram menace is only a part of the insecurity problem. On the Boko Haram manace, even if Gen. Buhuri may eventually bring the fight against Boko Haram to a decisive end, it will likely not be immediate because guerilla warfare is never an easy type of war. Moreover, there will likely be two legs of media propaganda here. Any delays in decimating Boko Haram may be looked at as Gen. Buhari not keeping to his campaign promises and people will wonder the right he had to criticize his predecessor. On the other hand, in the event of the defeat of Boko Haram, people may also say that Boko Haram has been proven to be a tool by northern elite to frustrate a president from the minority. In terms of other levels of insecurity, Nigerians will be expecting a reduction in armed robbery incidences, kidnapping, etc. Can Gen. Buhari achieve this in the short or medium terms? May be. This will involve increase in funding for the police and civil defense and any such increase in funding will imply a reduction in funding to other sectors. One thing is however certain; there will be attitudinal change among the ranks and files in the police and in-turn a reduction in the incidences of police harassment.

On the economy as a whole, what are we expecting in power, oil and gas, agricultural, education, trade, health, etc. sectors? Well, Nigerians expect improved power supply. However, the Gen. Buhari’s government will have very little impact on the power sector. A policy change in the power sector will cripple the entire power sector reform process which has been going very well. Gen. Buhari’s government will not have much impact on the power sector since most activities in the sector are out of government’s control even though a reduction in the spate of destruction of gas pipelines due to increased security will boost electricity supply. For the oil and gas sector, Nigerians expect to buy kerosene for N50 naira as against N130. Nigerians expect that under Gen. Buhari, the refineries will be working at maximum capacity and Nigeria will no longer be importing petroleum products, and in-turn, there will be need to pay subsidies and the subsidy cabal will die a natural death. Nigerians expect not to queue for hours to get PMS (petrol) or AGO (diesel). This is one area Gen. Buhari may have the greatest impact given that the government is fully involved in the sector. However, any meaningful change will take time.

On industries, trade and investment, Nigerians expect that the cost of doing business in Nigeria will reduce and local entrepreneurs will be able to nurture their businesses to be competitive internationally. This is possible but it will take a long time given the cost of developing infrastructure. The present administration has already done a good job in creating an enabling policy framework in this regard. The educational sector will also take time to blossom because any meaningful change in the sector has to start from the basics (primary and secondary) therefore Nigerians expecting much in these sectors may be disappointed. Nigerians are expecting that Nigeria will cease importing basic agro-commodities during Gen. Buhari’s tenure. The policy framework of the Goodluck’s administration has already set this on motion therefore Gen. Buhari will do will to develop on the foundation in place.

In all, change is not an event but a process, and change in a liberal democracy is even a much slower process. Nigerians expect a lot from Gen. Buhari, but my understanding of the Nigerian economy, the laws, and the policy frameworks, and the opportunistic nature of the average Nigerian has taught me to be optimistic with caution because change does not happen overnight. Indeed, where there are vested interests who will insist on all constitutional rights and liberties, the process of change becomes a hard and tortuous one. I wish Gen. Buhari the very best as he gets set to contribute his quota to Nigeria.

Uduak Akpan is a researcher and public commentator

http://www.opinionnigeria.com/the-change-we-expect-now-that-gen-buhari-will-be-there-by-uduak-akpan/

I'm writing this note based on the prevailing notion that Buhari will bring significant change if elected president. Well, let me say I am yet to decide which side to lean on and want someone to convince me on why I should vote Buhari.

Let me start by saying that the Nigerian political space has been rife with blank statements on issues that are very complex and require detailed analysis. For example, when someone says he will create one million jobs for graduates (i.e. skilled jobs) within a year someone needs to ask: How? Where will he get the additional money from to invest? Will it be from loans or government bonds? How will this affect future generations? In standard project implementation there is usually a "logical framework" that states the activities, outputs, outcomes, and indicators. The progress/success of the project may then be measured against the output and indicators. Moreover, before a logical framework is established there is usually a critical appraisal of the state of the system. For now, both PDP and APC are only playing to the gallery with all the rhetoric. The PDP government has done its bit - whether excellently, averagely, or poorly. APC has not told us how it will deal handle the same issues in a very pragmatic manner taking into consideration the peculiarity of Nigeria.

"Fighting corruption" is so vague a campaign manifesto. In fact, the first issue here is the definition of corruption. Really, who isn't corrupt? The students that cheat in WASSCE and university exams? (I’m sure most people on Nairaland are culprits). The civil servant that swore to serve but doesn't stay in office from 8am-4pm? The contractor that uses sub-standard materials for construction? How will Buhari treat the members of the National Assembly vis-a-vis budget approval if (or when) they demand their allowance? Won’t he "negotiate"? Can Buhari ensure that the judiciary will not release people with corruption allegations (guess that negates the principles of separation of power). How will Buhari ensure that a Supreme Court judge doesn't give give a former governor "permanent protection against harassment by the government or any of it agents"? Won’t we also accuse him of the same corruption? etc. Indeed, most of our youths talking about corruption are worse. All you need is to look at the departmental and faculty students' association in the various universities to see how corrupt we are. Nobody has presented us we a true picture of the "State of Corruption in Nigeria" which is the first step of solving the corruption problem. And I am convinced that if the "State of Corruption in Nigeria" is presented 95% of those shouting Buhari as the redeemer will be fall under the corrupt category. Here, I am reminded on the story of an electronic retailer who complained bitterly about how wicked people are. He said "can you imagine, that man bought over N150,000 worth of things from my shop using fake currencies. Indeed, people are very wicked". When asked what he did with the fake currencies he responded "well, I .... I also spent the fake currencies".

Moreover, on all this talk about Buhari being the only saint in Nigeria. My opinion is this: I agree that Buhari has all the credentials of not being corrupt, and has even declared his assets already. However, electioneering is quite expensive; therefore can someone tell me where Buhari will get the money to run his campaigns. Sure, someone will say is from donations. So where twill people get the money to donate? It seems the argument here is "I am not a thief but if you steal the money and donate to me I'll happily accept". Now, what does not make Buhari? Well, i'll tell you. An "honest" man who receives stolen wealth! I remember my primary school teacher used to say "show me your friends and I'll tell who you are"

For now, I'm yet to see APC appraise the existing government policies. For example, how will the health sector be improved to prevent all the strikes by health workers and also improve quality of service? How will Buhari handle the ASUU issues? What about public procurement policy, public-private partnership policy, automobile policy, agricultural policy, energy policy, etc. Nobody is presenting a roadmap, with clear measurable targets, on improving education sector. Nobody is telling us how he will ensure that the high foreign investment entering Nigeria will ensure mutual benefits to Nigerians. How will Buhari ensure that "pending trial" suspects do not stay in cells beyond three months? How will Buhari ensure that the erosion in the south east is contained? How will Buhari ensure that the million Almajiris created in the North through neglect by their state governments and now used by Boko Haram are engaged in productive activities? (Yes, education is on the concurrent list on the constitution so state governments are mainly responsible for secondary education). How will Buhari ensure that the Calabar EPZ is reactivated or that the sea port in Akwa Ibom is fast tracked? How will Buhari ensure that the rail system becomes fully operational and efficient? What about all the inter-state boundary crises, how will these be sorted out? Will Buhari propose the 25% derivation for resource-rich states to the national assembly? How will the solid minerals sector be developed to diversify the economy? I think I have seen enough of Nigeria and understand that things are very complex. In 1999 Obasanjo was heralded as the one to solve our problem but I guess we expected too much.

People talk about Nigeria having made lots of money from crude oil sales. How many people understand that upstream petroleum exploration in Nigeria is done on joint venture or production sharing contract basis? How many people understand that even if oil price is US$100 per barrel that the amount of money that goes to the federation account may not be up to US50 per barrel (even US$50 seems on the high side). And the inherent problem here has nothing to do with corruption, unless the corruption that made military governments lease oil fields to oil majors for a 20 years lease period (and 40 years in some cases) or sign contracts that gave oil majors over-riding powers. How will Buhari sort out this problem (if possible)? What about the petroleum industry bill that oil majors are doing everything to block?

So for now, PDP has shown the little (or much) they've been able to do but APC is yet to provide a clear radmap on exactly how they would have done things differently or better. I remember that Obasanjo said it took him over three years to understand the power sector in Nigeria and how the now-defunct NEPA really operated. May be it will take APC one year to understand how the electricity sector really works if they don't start articulating the issues. The only thing i'm seeing here is APC wanting to be in power by any means possible. I've learnt that in business we get what we negotiate for. If developing Nigeria is our business then I think we need to negotiate for real issues. We need to go beyond the rhetoric.

God bless Nigeria!!!

It is no loner news that homosexuality is legal in many states in the United States. What may seem to be a news is that the movement to make pedophilia legal is gaining grounds. Already, campaigns on removing pedophilia from the list of psychological illnesses has increased. The organization leading this movement is the North American Man/Boy Association which already has prominent persons, including the Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg as supporters.

http://www.nambla.org/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2010/10/07/mark-zuckerberg-joins-the-north-american-man-boy-love-association-and-other-adventures-in-facebook-groups/

Most Nigeria are oblivious of the fact the there is an ongoing cultural war against the traditional African cultural norms and beliefs. I'm sure that in a couple of years "pedophobia" will be added to "homophobia" as the new lingo for those not in support of America's agenda to expunge every form of morality in the world.

From South Korea, to USA, Russia, Nigeria, Ukraine, Mexico, India, etc., leaders have engage in fights when things have gotten so heated up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3DHKni1mu8

Nigeria: Son, I went to meet South Korea and my club members at World Bank to beg them money and assistance to provide you development in infrastructure

Son: But you said you have the skills and knowledge to build us.

Nigeria: That’s true, but you know you have to keep building you skills in this world. Presently, the skills we have cannot develop us. I think I am too lazy and have also made you my children to be lazy.

Son: But you said you had skills when you were young

Nigeria: Let me tell you, I was the big boy then! My money was bigger than US dollars. I helped South Korea back in the 1960s when we were still young. I use to have much skills and money, so I gave him money to help him develop himself after his parents (Korean Peninsula) divorced. I was even the one who taught Malaysia how to develop oil palm. Back in the days I was in the click of the happening countries.

Son: So what happened? The people you helped then are now very rich. They can provide their children all the basics of life and even more. Their children are well respected throughout the world but we are not. In fact, we cannot even feed ourselves; we do not have other basics infrastructure, or security.

Nigeria: I think I had too much money and did not know what to do with the money. I became so spoilt. I failed to inculcate in my children the essence of hard work and innovation. So your older siblings stole most of the money and squandered it. But my friends like South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore who know they had nothing worked very hard. They taught their children that knowledge and innovation is the path to greatness in the world that is why they are rich.

Son: So does that mean we will never be rich.

Nigeria: My son, I have told you the truth. I have failed you! But you don’t have to fail yourself. If you behave like your older siblings and refuse to develop your knowledge and skills, and invest in innovation, even Togo, Benin, Guinea, and all these other smaller boys will pass you and you’ll become poorer. Already they no longer respect you.

Until the lion learn to speak, the tales of hunting will always favor the hunter. A look at how the headlined of major global media houses. Even though I admire their wide coverage and professionalism, I always remind myself that they sometimes serves the interest of their owners by reporting less negative things about the represent and more negative things about the ones they don’t like or by reporting along the line of a greater agenda. Let’s examine how some global media houses reports some events.
Israel Vs Palestinian conflict
CNN: Hamas continues to fire rocket to Israel. Israel says it has the right to defend itself from terrorist activities
BBC: Israeli rockets targets homes of Hamas leaders
Al Jazeera: Dozens of innocent civilians killed in Gaza by Israeli military
Russia Today: No related headline

Malaysian Flight MH17
CNN: Pro-Russian separatist shoots downs aircraft killing everyone on board
BBC: Russian backed separatist downs civilian aircraft using ground-to-air rocket launcher allegedly supplied by Russia
Al Jazeera: Malaysian civilian vessel shot down in rebel-controlled area in Ukraine. Ukraine and Russia trade blames
Russia Today: Malaysian civilian aircraft shot down in breakaway region of Ukraine. Russia says it has evidence that the act was committed by Ukrainian military

Syria crisis
CNN: Islamic State executes another western captive. Obama says IS must be destroyed. Urges Western allies to cooperate to destroy the enemy of western civilization
BBC: Islamic State executes another western captive. David Cameron says IS members are not Muslims but monsters. NATA to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces
Al Jazeera: Islamic State executes another western captive. US promises to destroy Islamic State
Russia Today: US foreign policy backfires: How US funded rebels turned against them

About the United Kingdom
CNN: UK government faces more pressure referendum to leave the Eurozone
BBC: Cameron urged to tackle growing health problems of obesity in the UK
Al Jazeera: Anti-Semitism growing in the UK
Russia Today: Health of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange deteriorate: UK government still bent on handing over for prosecution

About the United States
CNN: Republicans urges Pres. Obama to do more to control illegal immigration from southern borders
BBC: UK and US scientists collaborate in solving some of the world’s greatest challenges
Al Jazeera: How greedy Wall Street executives collapsed the world and became billionaires
Russia Today: Poverty and Homelessness reaches all time high the US

About Russia
CNN: Opposition in Russia says the Kremlin is trampling of civil liberties
BBC: US accuses Russia of supporting Assad to kill innocent civilians in Syria
Al Jazeera: Russia supports to Iran in its right to peaceful use of nuclear power
Russia Today: Russian scientist break new grounds in nano-technology

About Israel
CNN: Israeli government says it faces daily threats from the terrorist group Hamas
BBC: Iran nuclear power remains a threat to Israel’s existence
Al Jazeera: Israeli government acquires new lands in West Bank. Displaces thousands of Palestinians
Russia Today: White House and Pentagon remain silent over Israel’s nuclear facilities, but wants Iran to stop peaceful use of nuclear power.

About Africa
CNN: Transparency International says corruption has fuelled rising poverty in Africa
BBC: Africa Rising-separating facts from myths: World Bank says poverty on the rise in Africa despite high growth rate
Al Jazeera: The cost of conflicts in Africa: Central African Republic conflict displaces thousands of innocent people. Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria displaces over 100 thousand.
Russia Today: How western countries promote corruption in resource-rich African countries: from Nigeria to Sudan, DR Congo, Gabon, and others, the story is the same.


Africa is always at the receiving end as the continent does not have any media house that is objective about events and happenings on the continent.

Until the lion learn to speak, the tales of hunting will always favor the hunter. A look at how the headlined of major global media houses serves the interest of their owners by reporting less negative things about the represent and more negative things about the ones they don’t like or by reporting along the line of a greater agenda . Africa is always at the receiving end as the continent does not have any media house that is objective about events and happenings on the continent. All talk about balanced journalism in global media is a hoax!!!

Israel Vs Palestinian conflict
CNN: Hamas continues to fire rocket to Israel. Israel says it has the right to defend itself from terrorist activities
BBC: Israeli rockets targets homes of Hamas leaders
Al Jazeera: Dozens of innocent civilians killed in Gaza by Israeli military
Russia Today: No related headline

Malaysian Flight MH17
CNN: Pro-Russian separatist shoots downs aircraft killing everyone on board
BBC: Russian backed separatist downs civilian aircraft using ground-to-air rocket launcher allegedly supplied by Russia
Al Jazeera: Malaysian civilian vessel shot down in rebel-controlled area in Ukraine. Ukraine and Russia trade blames
Russia Today: Malaysian civilian aircraft shot down in breakaway region of Ukraine. Russia says it has evidence that the act was committed by Ukrainian military

Syria crisis
CNN: Islamic State executes another western captive. Obama says IS must be destroyed. Urges Western allies to cooperate to destroy the enemy of western civilization
BBC: Islamic State executes another western captive. David Cameron says IS members are not Muslims but monsters. NATA to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces
Al Jazeera: Islamic State executes another western captive. US promises to destroy Islamic State
Russia Today: US foreign policy backfires: How US funded rebels turned against them

About the United Kingdom
CNN: UK government faces more pressure referendum to leave the Eurozone
BBC: Cameron urged to tackle growing health problems of obesity in the UK
Al Jazeera: Anti-Semitism growing in the UK
Russia Today: Health of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange deteriorate: UK government still bent on handing over for prosecution

About the United States
CNN: Republicans urges Pres. Obama to do more to control illegal immigration from southern borders
BBC: UK and US scientists collaborate in solving some of the world’s greatest challenges
Al Jazeera: How greedy Wall Street executives collapsed the world and became billionaires
Russia Today: Poverty and Homelessness reaches all time high the US

About Russia
CNN: Opposition in Russia says the Kremlin is trampling of civil liberties
BBC: US accuses Russia of supporting Assad to kill innocent civilians in Syria
Al Jazeera: Russia supports to Iran in its right to peaceful use of nuclear power
Russia Today: Russian scientist break new grounds in nano-technology

About Israel
CNN: Israeli government says it faces daily threats from the terrorist group Hamas
BBC: Iran nuclear power remains a threat to Israel’s existence
Al Jazeera: Israeli government acquires new lands in West Bank. Displaces thousands of Palestinians
Russia Today: White House and Pentagon remain silent over Israel’s nuclear facilities, but wants Iran to stop peaceful use of nuclear power.

About Africa
CNN: Transparency International says corruption has fuelled rising poverty in Africa
BBC: Africa Rising-separating facts from myths: World Bank says poverty on the rise in Africa despite high growth rate
Al Jazeera: The cost of conflicts in Africa: Central African Republic conflict displaces thousands of innocent people. Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria displaces over 100 thousand.
Russia Today: How western countries promote corruption in resource-rich African countries: from Nigeria to Sudan, DR Congo, Gabon, and others, the story is the same

I'm glad the poster highlighted this issue because it's appalling that many Nigerian youths are ignorant about a whole lot of things. One can read the interview of former Nigeria's envoy to Sudan to get more perspective.
Excerpts

Did you discover anything inimical to the interest of Nigeria in the reports of your boss?

Many! He was actually being selective in his reports. At that time, the war between the Northern and Southern Sudan was on and he was always behind the North who were Muslims. I discovered he was pro-Northern Sudan. He picked whatever he liked, never giving the true picture. On two or three occasions, former President Olusegun Obasanjo invited him and asked if he was still Nigria’s ambassador. He asked him how many embassies Sudan had. At that time also, Sanni Yerima, former governor of Zamfara State was in Sudan for two weeks and underwent indoctrination. He was exposed to all the training camps of Osama Bin Laden, who was my neighbour. In fact, Osama Bin Laden’s office in Sudan was just a few blocks away from our embassy. No report was made. Our embassy never reported Osama Bin Laden. In addition to having his headquarters in Sudan, Osama Bin Laden also had many firms and industries which he only used as a façade because he was actually using those firms as training camps for Al-Qaeda. Among his trainees were many Nigerians from the North. They would leave Nigeria as if they were going to study but were at the training camps of Osama Bin Laden. I got wind of all these things and told them, but my reports were dismissed. It was a policy of “see nothing, say nothing” because they were working for Muslims. They were not able to draw the line between Arabisation and Islamisation. What Sudan was practising was both Arabisation and Islamisation which led to the breakaway of the South from the North. That was the dangerous part of it which was also my major concern. In fact, that was the main concern of Mo Ibrahim, the richest Sudanese. That’s why it pained him seriously up till now that Sudan must not have divided just because of religion. And it’s one of the reasons why he established the Mo Ibrahim prize. That is the motive behind the prize. Up till today, the man is still pained.

Are you saying what was being practised in Sudan was exported into Nigeria?

When Sudan came under pressure during the US Bill Clinton era, they sent Bin Laden away. Osama Bin Laden had established himself there. In fact, one of his wives was the daughter of the Speaker. So when Sudan was under pressure to send Osama Bin Laden away, he decided to divide his Al-Qaeda army into three; he took the first team to Afghanistan and kept the second team in Sudan; the third group he sent out to be disturbing the whole world, including Magreb which is close to Mali, Chad and Niger. I raised an alarm in 2001 that Al-Qaeda was in Nigeria – that Al-Qaeda had penetrated Nigeria through Chad. You know Chad has a border with Borno State. We have about eight million Nigerians in Sudan: people who settled there after pilgrimage. Many who couldn’t reach Saudi Arabia just settled there. And Al-Bashir (Sudanese president) was a descendant of Borno State. I reported all these, including the fact that Yerima was there at that time but I was ignored. Yerima got back to Nigeria and the following day, he declared Sharia. And from then, they were sending students for Jihadist training. Then when I got wind of the distribution of Osama Bin Laden Al-Qaeda groups, I reported. I told them to check our borders between Mali, Niger, and Chad – that Al-Qaeda was on the move. It got to a stage that it became evident that my report was becoming a concern to our permanent secretary then who incidentally had intelligence security background as a former director of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency. His name is Ambassador Heart. He brought in his NIA background into the Foreign Service. He knew what was sensitive and newsworthy. So he took the case seriously and played his part. But instead of our government sending inspectors were to check the veracity of my reports, they didn’t do that; they would just call the NIA man there who was also a Borno man who would refute anything I said. He would tell them not to mind me because I was a Christian and a religious bigot. In fact, he said Obasanjo deliberately sent me there to spy on the ambassador. That was how they usually dismissed my reports.

Full interview: http://www.punchng.com/news/i-was-chased-out-of-sudan-when-i-raised-the-alarm-about-boko-haram-ambassador-bola-dada/

Fresh facts have emerged on why the Nigeria Customs Service seized 248 containers of equipment imported by the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) for 11 years.

The Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo had during the recent occasion of the flag-off of the release of the containers seized at the ports in Lagos and Onne in Rivers State, promised to launch an investigation to unravel the circumstances that stalled the clearance of the equipment.

“We want to investigate why 248 containers bearing goods that the federal government imported into this country, through the PHCN, were abandoned. We want to investigate and make sure that no such thing ever occurs in the power sector and hopefully in other sectors for that matter,” he said.

THISDAY’s investigation, however, revealed that government bureaucracy at the time the electrical equipment were imported and the unbundling of the PHCN led to the long years of delay of the containers.

Former top officials of the defunct PHCN, who spoke to THISDAY on condition of anonymity at the weekend said apart from the unbundling of PHCN, which raised legal issues on the ownership of the imported containers, there was also bureaucratic bottleneck as the 11 distribution companies unbundled from the PHCN were not given the free hand to operate.

One of the former Chief Executive Officer of one of the distribution companies told THISDAY that before the equipment were imported in 2003, the former PHCN was one indivisible entity.

He further disclosed that when the equipment came into the country, PHCN had been unbundled into 18 legal entities, thereby raising legal issues on the ownership of the equipment.

“The unbundling of PHCN created the confusion that led to the delay of the equipment. The containers were imported by one company, which is the PHCN but when they arrived the country, PHCN had been split into 18 companies. Which of the 18 companies should claim ownership of the containers? Each of the companies was supposed to be autonomous by the law that created them. So, there were ownership issues,” he said.

Another former top executive of PHCN blamed the situation on government’s interference on the operation of the 18 companies, which created serious bureaucratic bottleneck.

“Each of the companies created by the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005 were supposed to be autonomous but the government did not give them free hand. If they had been given the free hand, they would have cleared the containers. A situation whereby each of the companies had to go from table to table seeking for every approval could have caused such delay. It was due to bureaucracy at that time,” he said.

A former staff of the PHCN said the delay in getting approvals in the past led to the non-payment of the relevant levies, thereby delaying the containers.

“If the government had paid for duties and levies, the containers would have been cleared. No private company will allow that to happen. That is why I support privatisation. But it was not easy to get approvals at that time,” he said.

The containers were recently released to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which represents the defunct PHCN.

Power projects, which should have been delivered a decade ago were stalled on account of the overstay of the imported containers at the ports for a period ranging from seven to 11 years.

Some of the 10 of these projects include: Abor Mbaise – Mpu – Ideato Substation projects in Imo State; Kano Combusto-Dankata –Hadejiya Transmission Substation; Oba- Nnewi Substations and Lines in Anambra State; Dambata Substation and Omotosho –Epe- Aja lines in Ondo and Lagos States.

Other projects include: ALSCON – Ibom 330KV Lines in Akwa Ibom State; Igangan –Igbora Substation and Ikorodu-Odiganya –Shagamu Transmission Lines in Lagos and Ogun States.

The rest of the projects include Nsukka – Ayangba through Enugu, Benue and Kogi States; as well as the project for the supply of current transformers and capacitor voltage transformers.

Source: http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/why-248-containers-of-phcn-equipment-were-seized-for-11-years/185379/