₦airaland Forum

^{This news site has suddenly risen to fame as a source of news-behind-the-news in Nigeria.
Many Nigerians take this site as the most reliable source of undiluted news in the country.
But how credible are these reports? Why are they always reporting negative news about the country}

I thought that you would come out with a well researched piece criticizing their form of bad news journalism. You sound like Dr Akunyili's sympathiser.

OBJ's right hand man. Maybe he got connections through OBJ. Show me any community  that has developed through religion, I will  show you thousands of cities that have sprung through industrialization. To work is to pray.

unfortunately, in international relations, "men keep friendships, nations keep interests" So sad SA bowed to chinese pressure the same way  Abiola was killed in the presence of a US envoy- Thomas Pickering in order for OBJ to become  the president.

all these follow follow supporters of Soludo have not given us a contradictory publication in order not to believe  Sahara report. The onus is on Soludo suporters to show us how he's made his money.  How much he made from his consulting jobs outside his teaching job at UNN. The fact of the matter is Soludo loves to be seen and regarded as a normal Naija politician who wields so much power. He  goes around with convoys, meddles into politics, He selected  his own man to represent his  constituency at NASS under PDP platform but he lost to a different candidate.
So show me something that is not produced by Sahara reporters that would back your claim that Soludo is a saint.

So EFCC is now a law court that settles cases?

fegflu
^{@To all those who insist i should shut my mouth on my convictions abt which is more superior among academic qualification and experience. Are u now convinced that these guys do not have any university degrees but guts , brains , and are rutless in deal making. This is the guiding principles behind their daily life. And see were it has landed them- only jah knws were it will take them next.
Posted on: Yesterday at 08:19:08 PMPosted by: Lagosboy}

who tell you say dangote no get academic degree. I think he went to a university in Egypt. As per Femi, he comes from a very politically connected family. His dad was the governor of Lagos state, how could he not have gone through the four walls of higher education?

eziachi
^{No need for sarcasm, you should have been more serious and the headline of your well research opinion should be: WHY IGBOS SHOULD BE EXPELLED FROM NIGERIA. In a partnership as Nigeria were, when you querried or do not recognise your patners equal right to everything, there is no need for such partnership. Period
LOL!}

Dude I did not start this post. Just highlighting 1001 reasons why igbos not deserve Nigerian presidency. LOL

Preselect
@under five mortality rate

US.=6.30

EU=5.84

UK=4.93

Canada= 5.08

Use UN Human Development Index and see that US has lower life expectancy amongst these countries. US spends 15% of its GDP and yet 50 million folks are uninsured. The US has a sick care system not a health care system.

this has nothing to with magic power, these are women who know how to flaunt there sexuality . You know that most Nigerian politicians  are polygamists and their wives do not bleeping care so as long they are called first lady and there is money to be spent. Most Naija gold digging ladies would not even minding settling for 4th and 5th wife .

dede and ikeyman!

I was sarcastically arming the poster with a lot of "facts" as to why Igbos should not produce a president. Cos most likely they would rather with what they have than what they dream of.

They go by their guts, is that why most men cheat these days?

Have you ever wondered who do men sleep with? Last time I checked most men like doing it with women.

some women  go into a relationship with things they learn from books and authors, but most men go by their guts.

igbos should be allowed presidency on these conditions.

Equal number of beggars in the south east and other regions of the country.
Igbos should match their high illiteracy rate with the rest of Nigeria.
Igbos should sell their assets acquired through illegal means like drug money, 419,armed robbery, prostitution, embezzlement of public funds, blood money,Okija shrine money etc to the rest of Nigeria.
Igbos should forfeit their landed properties which were acquired through dubious ways like under paying for property values in other regions of the country or through non-competitive bidding methods or bribing of emirs, village heads, community chiefs to lower property values or tariffs etc.
Igbos should forfeit their goods to the FG for not allowing other Nigerians the opportunity to establish business relationships with manufacturers, traders, and representatives.
Igbos should put a stop on the numbers of their folks, mostly MASSOB followers going to the universities, it should be a level playing field where every region is equally represented.
On the ground that a cup of garri is the same price to an Hausa who lives in Enugu. There should be no favoritism amongst Igbo traders. Everybody should pay the same price in Naija regardless of tribe.
Do all these and there will be peace and properity in Nigeria and we will live as ONE nation

spot  on poster.
We can only allow Igbo presidency if  they agree to be the most educationally backward  tribe , If Igbos are less economically empowered- with the lowest GDP amongst all regions,  Igbo presidency is possible   if we can only allow them  to have the highest percentage of unemployed youths whose daily existence depends on the successes of their Chief, Igwes, and Obis. Nigeria can only allow Igbo presidency if there is a reversal of trend on  women education- to have the least educated population of women. Igbo presidency could be attainable if there is 360 u turn on property ownership. It seems Igbos own  alot of properties in Lagos and Abuja while at the same no Keffi man is allowed to buy a piece of land in Okigwe- imo state for his cattle business.

Imagine a situation where an Igbo president is allowed, he will re-colonise the whole of Nigeria. Look at how they have colonised the whole of Nigeria with N20 that was given to them after the war. The fear of Igbos is the begining of wisdom. We just need them  for some services like selling spare parts, electronics, buying and trading. they  are illiterate traders who dont know how politics is played.

Read his Memoir " You Must Set Forth At Dawn" he dedicated a whole chapter to Nigerian civil war

TayoD
Again, an attempt to impugne the good gentleman.  Shall we ignore everything that comes out of Clinton's mouth because he is an adulterer?  That Rush had some drug problem due to an abuse of medical pain prescription only shows he is human afterall.  You cannot provide a superior argument and you take the low road of character assassination!  What is the rich's fair share?  Do you have an idea of the US tax  laws?  Do you know that all the charity giving of the so-called poor people are tax deductible but not the rich? Same with the mortgage interest payment and a lot of stuffs!  Think about it.  The rich are no burden to the State, ut rather subsidize it.  As Rush said in NY, 40,000 of the 6 million inhabitants pay 60% of the govt's operating budget.  That is les than 1% of the entire populace paying 60% of the tabs.  What is fair about that?  What is fair about you thinking you have the right to the fruit of another man's labour!  Are you a thief?

I can see your lowest standard for   a gentleman- a drug addict who was even sanctioned by the law, had to go to a rehab. If Rush is a gentleman as you posited, then we should hold him to higher threshold or else we should compare him with folks he constantly criticizes. Any difference between an abuser of drug and a welfare abuser?
It seems you  don’t know the difference between morality and legality. Clinton’s adultery speaks of his low morality, while Rush’s drug issues border on legality and as such the US law criminalizes illegal use of drugs while there is no law legislating on moral behaviors.

You should also tell us, that a hedge fund manager who makes millions or billions of dollars annually pays less tax than a secretary working for him/her. A hedge fund manager pays about 10-15% while his secretary pays 20-30% and if they both live in the same neighborhood, same type of  house with the same sqf, shop in the same grocery store, mall, market, they are taxed evenly.  I rather believe Warren Buffet than a political entertainer.


Many of my lecturers back in UI are not even registered engineers even though they trained me to be one.  Does that undermine their credentials.


This should be a lame argument. The fact the your lecturer is not a COREN certified engineer does not make him/her less qualified to be a teacher, but his education does not allow him/her to teach, Calculus, thermodynamics,FEG, sociology, and  English. I would like to know Rush’s credentials in order to be master of all.


You sure don't understand what this is all about.  Why don't you tell Christians to declare Jesus is not God in order to have more converts?  You cannot compromise your core belief just so as to achieve some transient goals.  You either believe in conservatism or liberalism, good or evil, light or darkness; and has Rush mentioned, where is the compromise between these extremes?

That’s why he picks fight with every conservative who doe not totally agree with. His ideas are grandiose and grotesque and as such cannot be tested in the political fields.  He is grandmaster of GOP. RNC Steele had to apologize to him for calling him an entertainer and chastised him for making incendiary comments. Rush is  a demi-god of GOP while Mr Steele is a pseudo chair. He blames John McCain for criticizing Bush and blames Clinton for all the problems of last 8 years. This is akin to you blaming Gov of California for incurring budget deficits as a Liberal. I then thought would George Bush be considered a liberal for racking up huge budget deficits? 


If you guys are so into socialism, why don't you move to Cuba?  Tell me, who do you expect to pay for the welfare state?  The poor people whose intiatives are being destroyed by the entitlement mentality?

Check the real meaning of socialism in your dictionary with a cup of coffee – that is a decaf.  It was your mentor- Bush who introduced us to socializing losses and capitalizing gains. Maybe you know more than Sen Lindsay Graham who is insisting that zombie banks should be nationalized temporarily. It would be delusional to compare Cuba to USA. It was Wall street that first requested for  tax payers funds, not the Govt.

Would  you hire  a lawyer who is a drug addict to represent you in a case that might lead to death sentence?  Rush has an impaired credibility. He is against  tax hike on rich because  he is going to be affected. I rather believe Warren Buffet who thinks that  the wealthy should pay their fair share.

Would you hire a med doctor who claims to tackle everything from diseases, law, govt, politics,  and economy? No . Rush knows "everything"  but still refuses to run for US presidency to test his wacky ideas in the political fields of Iowa and NH.

He is opposed to expanding conversative base to include more people. He even took a swipe at intellectual conservatives- you know why ? They are least likely to subscribe  or listen to him.

His stance on war on poverty as the longest US war contradicts with his mostly Southern followers given the fact that southern states are the most poorest states in the Union with strong GOP base. If Welfare state is the problem, why have southern states caught up with  some other states in terms of GDP and household income given the fact their governors are most likely to be 'anti welfare".  Let Southern states show us how  we can make it without   Uncle sam ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVFtyonw5FE

^{Louisiana's share of the stimulus - $3.9b
Jindal is refusing - $100m}

By the way,  he got $97 million in earmarks in FY 2008.  He ranked 14th of the 435 in supporting the highest earmarks at a cost of $97,913,200 for Fiscal Year 2008, according to the Taxpayers for Common Sense.
He is number 14 spot in Taxpayers for Common Sense's annual tally of the most successful appropriators in the House.

He got $97  in earmarks and is rejecting $100 million. This is shear hypocrisy. He has accepted money for tax cuts and state projects but not for unemployment benefits. He besieged   Feds for money in order to rebuild his state after Katrina. I am trying to see the difference between folks who lost jobs during Katrina and Wall Street induced "Katrina"

Why didnt he tell Louisianans that they  could " do anything" during Katrina instead  of relying on Feds for help?  Let the policies we wish for start with us.

The Gov. of South Carolina has one of the poorest states in the US and richer states like Vermont and Florida are saying give me the money.  Oh! by the way, the young woman who was referenced in Obama's  speech  asking   the Congress to come to the aid of her school comes from a school district suing  the Gov for under funding of their schools. 8 school districts joined in the suit against state of South Carolina for under funding education.

Auditors raise alarm on Nigerian banks - “We doubt their state of health”
Nigerian Tribune 25.02.2009

IF the verdict of a renowned auditing firm on Nigerian banks is true, then many depositors may soon be in trouble. The auditing firm, PriceWaterHouseCoop er (PWC), on Tuesday gave a damning verdict about some Nigerian banks, saying they might not be as healthy as being portrayed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).


The auditing firm, known for its uncompromising stand on financial matters, stated in Abuja that many of these banks were not actually healthy.


The renowned audit firm said in a statement on the global financial crisis and implications for Nigeria that some of the banks had already signaled interest in government’s intervention in their operational activities.


“As at the beginning of February 2009, none of the banks has publicly shown any signs of needing intervention. “However, in spite of positive financial statements, some of the banks have called for the intervention or part takeover by the government.


“Various industry commentators have reported that banks are struggling with non-performing facilities in excess of N300 billion to N400 billion,”the firm told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).


The PWC discussion paper, obtained from the Ministry of Finance by NAN, said that there had been concerns that the CBN’s assurances that the 23 banks in the country were liquid and operating well might not be entirely accurate.


“Western governments have taken stakes in banks in order to prevent their collapse. Whilst this has not yet happened in Nigeria, there is speculation that large underlying bad debts accumulated by banks could force government to intervene,” the PWC said.


According to PWC, banks in the country had all but stopped granting loans and credit terms had been cut to mere months and that their interest rates were among the highest in the world.


“In order to avoid government intervention in the event that bank balance sheets weakened, a second round of bank consolidation may still occur,” the PWC added.


The audit firm said that Nigeria’s reliance on oil and its falling price in the world market had exposed it to the vagaries of the global financial crisis, adding that “Oil prices recently fell to their lowest point in four years, having peaked at 147 dollars.


“As a result of the reduced prices, OPEC has instigated a reduction in quotas, through which Nigeria’s quota has been reduced by 18 per cent to 1.97 million barrels per day,” the PWC said.


Apart from dependence on oil, the PWC listed other areas of vulnerability to include reduction in global capital outflows, retrenchment of foreign investors towards familiarity and safety and Nigerians’ reliance on foreign investments.


On the capital market, the PWC said that the decreased investment levels caused a 46 per cent fall in the Nigerian All Share Index in 2008, partly driven by foreign divestment and exacerbated by a devaluing naira.


“Over the last year, foreign investors divested more than N1 billion from the Nigerian capital market, driven by the reduced availability of financing and concerns on liquidity.


“The Nigeria capital market lost N2 trillion in one month. Unsustainable capital borrowing and spending in 2007 helped drive Nigerian share prices to record highs.


‘’However, as investors began to see companies as overvalued, 2008 saw a severe cool-down in investing,’’ the PWC said. The audit firm added that the NSE lost N5 trillion market capitalisation in 2008 and in January 2009 alone, it dropped to a further N2 trillion.


“A confidence crisis in the Nigerian economy, coupled with prohibitive business environment, had caused international corporations with Nigerian operations to relocate to more sustainable and friendlier markets,‘’ the PWC said.


The devaluation of the naira over the last quarter, according to PWC, would further limit capital flows into the economy. The PWC said that there was the need for deeper cooperation between the Ministry of Finance and the 21 public institutions that work on the economy.

These institutions, it said, included the CBN, the NDIC, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Debt Management Office (DMO), adding that they should work in harmony in handling the effects of the crisis.


“Co-operation between key stakeholders is important. However, existing links are highly bureaucratic, informal or inefficient resulting in poor management of the economy and slow response to the crisis,” the PWC said.


The health of the commercial banks has been under the spotlight since last year, but the CBN and the NDIC had repeatedly given them a clean bill.


A commissioner at SEC, Mr. Charles Udora, heightened the suspicion when he disclosed a fortnight ago that the meltdown in the capital market was partly caused by the banks.


Udora said that the banks sank more than N388 billion loan into the capital market, most of which had not been recovered. Quoting a report by Renaissance Capital, a Nigerian investment company, the PWC said that the country’s stocks were unlikely to recover this year, predicting a further fall in the All Share Index.

naija is always good on paper but lacks the will to tranform dreams into realities. from Visions 2000  t0 2010 to 2020, it shows that we are a bunch of unserious fools.

Aumur
@
^{My dear brother, the issue concerning religious crisis in northern Nigeria is much complicated, it is beyond the imaginations of my fellow Nigerians that lived in the southern part of this country. I have many reasons for saying so:  Most of the time the people in the south are mis-informed, secondly, most of the time the problem is not just about religion its about ethnicity.The problem is way back the history of Northern Nigeria and it is simply ethno crisis not religious as always claimed,  Most of the tribe that lived within the Kaduna-Jos- and Bauchi axis are Mostly christains and they are the minority tribe in Bauchi and Kaduna state respectivily, but in the case of Jos they are the dominant tribes. The Kataf people in southern part of Kaduna state, The Biroms,  Jarawa and Angas in plateau state,  and Sayawa in only one local government (Bagoro LG) in Bauchi state. As i said they have been on dagger drawn for more than 30 years with the Hausas' which are the Majority tribe in Bauchi and Kaduna state, while they formed the minority in Plateau state. so when ever such violence occur they turned into religious crisis because the two parties are muslim and christain respectively. So in order to attract the attention of government the papatrators use religion as the only way to get sympathy.
You can not just rely on the Nigerian media to get to the real cause of this merhem, infact as i was writing this piece some body called me from Bauchi and it was reported in the media that the said area that this guy lived was burnt down to ashes but to my greatest suprise i learnt that nothing happen in that area.}

You keep avoiding these issues like some of your foes in the north. How many times have Southerners killed northerners in the name of religion? If this is rooted in ethnicity as you claim- is the north waging a war against anybody who is not of their tribe/religion? Is it the North that is uninformed or South? Why does South get blamed for evils unleashed on them by northerners?
As per your folks marrying outside your faith- this is a welcome development, but how many of these blood suckers would have such a liberal mindset? Also knowing someone who is of different ethnicity or religion does not make one less bigoted. US Senator Strum Thurmon- a famous Segregationist /bigot had a black child outside wedlock and campaigned for years to keep blacks from integration. Pastor Ted Haggard vilified Gays but always solicited for sex from Gay prostitutes.
Let me see Islam in action. Not just being preached as a religion of peace without an iota of track record to back it up.

a second chance means that you are setting yourself up to be heartbroken again. marriage is a serious business that sometimes love does not factor in decision making of this magnitude.
I sense some self esteem  issues here. This guy has not fully pledged  to be faithfully, instead you are hoping that he doesnt cheat on you. The ball is our court. You do not need a man in your life to feel loved, but want a man. Ok. good luck

sex without protection is like knowing that a bus is bound to crash without any survivor and you choose to jump on it hoping that you will jump off when it crashes.

R. Allen Stanford
FBI tracks down Texas financier in fraud case
By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 19, 5:48 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Texas financier R. Allen Stanford was tracked down Thursday in Virginia, where FBI agents served him with legal papers in a multibillion-dollar fraud case.

FBI agents, acting at the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission, served Stanford papers in Fredericksburg, Va., said FBI spokesman Richard Kolko.

Stanford is not under arrest and is not in custody.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090219/ap_on_re_us/stanford_sec/print

Bernard Madoff

Bernard Madoff, the former Nasdaq chairman who was charged on Thursday with massive fraud, was long considered to be quirky. Employees at the offices of his eponymously named brokerage firm in midtown Manhattan's Lipstick Building had to follow strict rules for what they kept on their desk. Family photos were allowed but only if they were displayed in a simple black frame.

Now it looks like Madoff, who went by Bernie, may also have been a crook, and quite possibly one of the largest Wall Street has even seen. According to the U.S. Attorney's office in the southern district of New York, Madoff admitted to defrauding clients for up to $50 billion in a massive Ponzi scheme that was committed over a number of years. (See the top 10 scandals of 2008.)
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1866154,00.html

everybody for Naija is using tokunboh. OBJ bought a used jet from Sultan of Brunei. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Mystery over E Guinea gun battle
An unidentified armed group has launched an attack on the presidential palace in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea.

The West African country's ambassador to London accused Nigerian militants and said they had been repulsed.

But the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) denied this, telling the BBC: "They are paranoid."

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema was not in his official residence in the capital at the time, say reports.

The country, sub-Saharan Africa's third biggest oil producer, has suffered decades of instability.

'Not ghosts'

The shoot-out is said to have lasted for several hours from the early hours of Tuesday.

By daylight, armed security forces had deployed in Malabo and erected roadblocks to search vehicles and check passengers' identities, witnesses told AFP news agency.


Equatorial Guinean ambassador to London Augustin Nze Nfumu told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme: "I will categorically say there hasn't been any coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea at all."
He accused Mend and said the attackers had died when the security forces destroyed their boat.

Pouring scorn on Mend's denials, he added: "I don't think they [the attackers] are ghosts."

The ambassador said Mend had been behind two bank robberies in Equatorial Guinea's mainland city of Bata in December 2007.

Mend, which says it is fighting for a fairer distribution of wealth from Nigeria's oil, has normally confined its operations to southern Nigeria and its offshore oil installations.

But the militant group has been linked to more ambitious attacks in recent months on vessels off the coast of Cameroon.

"It seems more like a criminal act than something political. At the moment, the situation is calm," a Spanish foreign ministry spokeswoman told Reuters news agency.

Madrid's Radio Exterior de Espana Servicio Mundial reported another account which said forces loyal to British mercenary Simon Mann had tried to rescue him from a hospital he has been in for a few days.

Mann was sentenced to 34 years in jail last summer for his role in a 2004 coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.

President Nguema has ruled since 1979 after toppling his uncle in a coup.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/africa/7894651.stm

the same Ojo maduekwe who called igbo's quest for presidency 'idiotic' As per the Rtd Gen, it tells you the mindset of those running Nigeria. One Nigeria! Amen

pork means pig abi?

dont mind them. they are taking legislative lessons from a drug addict called Rush Limbaugh?

ttp://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-oped0217gopfeb17,0,1788854.story

pastor
@_{Why would I want to get unto a ship that is about to sink?  I'm not an idiot and I'm not suicidal.  The captain of the ship is my son and I know how unruly he is, afterall I brought him up and imparted my indiscipline to him.  In fact we would all be running amok on the ship and stealing parts of the engine for personal profit, if I got on the ship.  But I have no desire or inclination to get on that ship, thank you very much}.

In life, can anyone choose where he or she will be born? You can choose to go into a wreck bound ship, but cannot change the direction of the ship one you are on board. Nigerians did not choose to be born in Nigeria. If followership is the problem as you theorize, why is Zimbabwe not a better country given the fact that they are not as 'bad" Nigerians?
Other examples; India and Pakistan got independence the same year, India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and has just launched a satellite, while Pakistan is begging for assistance to help her grapple with economic woes and terrorism. You can also compare South Korea with North Korea. It is the leadership of these two countries that has led a different path for their citizens not the Korean people.

sometimes in life, we have to sow before we reap. Thinking that the  guy in the UK will not ask you for money is how some-how delusional becuase everything overseas is 50/50. You  have to  work like a horse in order to meet your own side of the bargain.
As per the guy in Naija, you to really have to  ask yourself what you are looking for in a man- a  provider or a partner? list his  positives on the positive side and his negatives on the negative side and then cross them out. See how his positives measure against his negatives and critically examine what they mean to you.

good luck