₦airaland Forum

Our president will pass for an educated illiterate. , and this Reuben Abati guy, what kind of public statements does he advise the president to release? I have read a lot of his articles when he was with the masses, he seemed smart, what happened to his brain in such a little time that he jumped ship?
Does the president need to be reminded that whoever breaks the law should be arrested and prosecuted in the court of law and not in the court of public opinion. What am i going to do with the freaking list. It is bad enough that GEJ is a terrible commander in chief, i just hope he won't break the Abacha record as the worst president that ever ruled Nigeria!

I respect Dangote as an accomplished businessman, but can you blame him for the unregulated monopoly of the market when our corrupt system encourages him. If you know Dangote's antecedent, you'll understand he's for any govt. in power, i still remember the fundraising for OBJ's presidency campaign in 1999, he was the highest donor with about 150 million naira, the evil genius IBB was second on the list with 135 million naira. I'm not surprised he was accorded such award. They are all padi padi.

Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!, this tells you how dumb some of these ministers can be. So he enjoys the way millions of Nigerians are perputually in darkness. In a normal society, he will be made to resign for that dumb statement. 'Olodo' minister, it's just a matter of time the Nigerian masses will wake up to fight the rampant maladministration.

May i request commentators not to belabor on the known issues raised, if you agree with the writer's opinion, please profer solution and action points, like
I will never verbally attack any fellow nairalander, if provoked i will simply try to get the person to understand that we are on the same team and the looters are our real enemy.
I will be mindful of the kind of language i use on my comments, i'll imbibe the culture of mutual respect.
I'll ensure i understand the subject of discussion before jumpimg to post comments, e.t.c
Let's make this forum productive. You guys will make my day if your comments are devoid of political, ethnic, religious sentiments.

May i bring NLanders' attention to this commentary that seem to nail our societal problem, even though i quite disagree with the very first statement about SR.

SaharaReporters And The Readers Of Their Stories
By Wasiu Raji
Sahara Reporters is no doubt the most unbiased Nigerian news media outlet in the US for Nigerians both at home and in the Diaspora. This notwithstanding, they may have their own agenda which may either be positive or negative to the entity called Nigeria. I leave the choice of whether or not the Sahareporter’s plan for Nigeria is good or bad for posterity to judge.

My concern is not with this news media but rather with the teaming masses that read the articles being churned out by this media giant. I’m concerned about these readers who write their comments on what they have read. I am also concerned with the mindset of Nigerians as a whole.

Some of the readers of Sahara reporters articles will vouch not to come back if what they see is not in line with their political or religious believes or to their public understanding of an issue. But they continue to come back. Some will curse Saharareporters that they are touching the anointed as against the “Touch Not my Anointed.” Some will comment because they saw a lot of comments and they must comment even though they do not know the issue in question or the antecedent or context of the issue. Some will offend other faiths or their adherents, or other regions or people from other regions and totally deviates from the original story which they are commenting on. Some will discuss in such a way that one would be wondering what kind of training did this people get. A reasonable person will be wondering if the corruption in Nigeria has degenerated to our educational system to the extent that people are now taught ignorance as a subject in Nigeria schools.

President Jonathan Goodluck said we do not need a strong leader but strong institutions. I disagree with the President on this. What we need is not only strong institutions but also strong leadership. We also need strong, sound and vibrant followership. But have we any strong institution, strong leadership or strong followership in this country? The answer is NO. Our institutions which include education, health, telecommunication, energy, electoral system and so on, are in their worst state in decades. If there is any adjective that is worse than worst, I will prefer to use that for our institutions.

Nigeria is a country that even the Minister of Health will never want to be treated in our glorified mortuaries that we call hospitals. Our education minister and those in public office will prefer to send their kids to US, Canada, Britain and even Ghana to get an education. Yet, we the masses will choose raining curses on ourselves because we come from different ethnicity or because we are adherents of different faiths.

I think posterity will not only judge our leaders, it would also judge us the followers who refused to change the polity for better when we have the power and freedom to do so. We would rather vote for someone who will serve himself and his family instead of serving us. Our votes have become “Jeun soke, kotun jeun sapo,” this means, vote for the moneybag or a corrupt politician and line your pocket with money. This tendency showed itself in the last election where people were doing multiple thumb printing for corrupt and incompetent candidates because they were given money. Our polity has so degenerated that a first class Oba (King) was also caught in this act and no prosecution for this criminal offence was carried out.

How much is this money in question worth? It is a token that cannot take one for a week but would put us in bondage for the term of the office holder, 4 years at least. Why is it difficult for us to think with our head? Why is it part of us to believe either you vote or not, the moneybag will always win? Why is it that we believe in voting for the wrong person and think we’d pray to gods or God to make our country better? Why is it that we do not want to live beyond our ethnicity and religious believes? Why is it that we do not desire real change but pretend we want it? Why is it that we are looking for mystery when we should be the miracle maker? Why is it that our looters do not see one another as a southerner, a northerner, a Muslim or a Christian but we do?

There are many whys that are begging for answers. Do we need to continue doing the same thing over and over and rely on gods or God for help? God will help those that help themselves.

More on our educational system, it is surprising that none of our universities is in one to one thousand (1-1000) in the world universities ranking. We have graduates in various fields. We have people that made first class in different fields of endeavor, but Nigeria could not boast of any serious research breakthrough that is of international interest. Larry Page and Sergey Brin that invented google are products of Stanford University, Jerry Yang and David Filo, that invented the yahoo are also products of Stanford. Mark Elliot Zuckerberg who invented the Facebook, that all of us use, and even our president is a product of Havard University. Although these are top rated universities worldwide, but there is nothing stopping us from aspiring and becoming a country that has the best universities in the world. The list of products of different universities having significant world changing inventions is endless, but our own universities are no more than glorified post primary schools, where ignorance, secret cult, tribalism, nepotism, ethnic and religious intolerance are the core subjects that every student must pass before graduating.

On any issue of national importance it is not clear how we Nigerians cannot contribute objectively without deviating from the topic of discussion. Rather than being objective, we prefer abusing one another based on the region and religion. I practically see no hope for Nigeria if we continue to live like this. Nigeria will always be like this, if as Nigerians we do not see ourselves first as Nigerians before seeing ourselves as Hausa, Yoruba or Igbo and as a Muslim or Christian. Libya, Egypt and Tunisia are better than Nigeria in terms of quality of life, yet their Nationals wanted more from their government. But as Nigerians we want the status quo and pretending we need a better life and better Nigeria.

When I was doing my master degree in England, the Libyans in my class went back to their country as soon as they leave their pen and came back for graduation. The reason is not because their country is ok. It is because there is work is waiting for them and there is nothing in the western countries they could not get back home. They showed that patriotism in them. They have the enthusiasm to give genuinely to their country’s development and they came to study with various scholarships from their government and employers. These are same people that are fighting because they wanted more. But in our country, we do not have half of what they enjoy. Yet we remain silent and continue doing the same thing over and over and expecting miracle. How feasible is this?

A liter of gasoline is sold in Libya for $0.17 (N25.50), in Tunisia, $0.46 (N69), in Egypt, $0.31 (N46.50) and Nigeria, $0.44 (N66). And after removing the subsidies as our leaders are saying, I am sure Nigeria gasoline per liter will be one of the costliest in the world. And as Nigerians, we would continue to pray to the gods or God and voting for the same group of people and expecting miracle to happen to our standard and cost of living. The unemployment rates in these countries are Libya, 13 %, Tunisia, 13.3%,  Egypt, 14% and Nigeria, (35%-50%, www.economywatch.com).

The people from these countries, except Nigeria, wanted more from their leaders. But we Nigerians wanted nothing and pretend we wanted more, if not we would not continue to do the same thing over and over and expect miracles. We would not be cursing ourselves because of our ethnic and religious differences.

During the June 12th election, Chief MKO Abiola and Alhaji Babagana Kingibe were voted for overwhelmingly despite the fact that both of these gentlemen were Muslims. Why? It is just because we believed in them and we believed they could change the destiny of our dearly beloved people for better. But the Nigerianism in us came out when General Babangida annulled the said election, that was proclaimed to be the best, freest and fairest election in the history of Nigeria till date. This Nigerianism was in the form of reclaiming back the mandate we gave to these gentlemen- all other regions were quiet, except in the south-western part of the country as if that was the only section that voted for this duo. I ask myself on a countless number of times that could make we as Nigerians rebel against our oppressors, our ruiners and our tyrants? I just could not help myself to believe that we could or we are capable of doing that.

My point is not farfetched. We see ourselves first as southerners (SS, SW and SE), Northerners (NC, NE and NW), Muslims or Christians. This is exemplified in the electoral map of our last presidential election. Most of the southerners that supported President Jonathan Goodluck did that not because they believed in him, but because he is a southerner and a Christian. And most of those that voted for General Buhari did that not because of his previous records in office, but because he is a Northerner and a muslim.

Nigeria can never move forward if we, the masses, do not take our destiny into our own hands. Our religious leaders have failed us. Our political elites have failed us. The religious and political leaders are the most united in Nigeria against the masses. The religious leaders do not preach to our leaders to be exemplary leaders because they do not want to wrong them. But they will speak to us, using verses in the Holy Bible and the Holy Quran that supports being polite and respectful to our leaders. Who else can we rely on rather than ourselves? These political leaders do not use their region and religion to discriminate against themselves in sharing our National Resources. But anytime they are less preferred in the center, they would come to their base for support, using different terminologies such as marginalization of our region or our religion. It is high time we took our destiny into our own hands. If we cannot do the kind of revolution that happened in Egypt, Libya or Tunisia, let us achieve our own in the form of our votes. Let us vote based on past records of the would-be office holder. Let us start voting based on merit. Let us tell these leaders, politicians and office holders, that enough is enough. They have used us enough to achieve their selfish ends. These people do not come from Abuja or different state capitals to rig election. We do it for them. They do not handle the bombs that kill us. We handle it for them. We masses are the victims of our ignorance. They will fail to perform and when the election is near, they will come to give us rice, clothes (Ankara) and N50 to do their dirty jobs which will eventually have a negative effect on us, and on our children, and our children’s children, not them.

I call on well meaning Nigerians who has resources not to use their money to contest but use it for mass mobilization and change the attitude of Nigerians to be able to make the right decisions in the electoral process. I also call on those that want Nigeria to break to think otherwise, breaking Nigeria will do no good for any region. We all depend on one another. As one region produced the oil which serves as the principal revenue generation today, another region produced the food we eat. As one’s region technical expertise is evident another region’s technocracy is unquantifiable. We all need one another. Our problem is not in disintegration but in ourselves, the leaders and followers.

As the leaders continue to be what they are, the followers continue to apply same thing over and over again, and relying on God to change their situation. We continue to advocate for the wrong group of people from local government to the state government and to the federal government, and expect better governance. This is manifestly impossible. We the youths should start thinking of how we could make Nigeria a better place on earth rather than cursing ourselves because we are of different ethnicities or religions. We should stand up and tell these politicians, that do not see us until the election day when they would be distributing rice, clothes and token amount of money because they need our votes, that enough is enough. The days of taking us for granted are over. Let us see ourselves as Nigerian, not as Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Christian or Muslim.

Posterity will not forgive us as it would not forgive those that are ruining us today. Let us avoid violence. Let us stop being used by these politicians. Let us start voting with our mind and heart and stop voting with our hand only. The time is not later. It is now that we must act urgently to save Nigeria. Let us be objective in our analysis of national issues. Let us see ourselves as brothers and sisters not as “aboki,” “omo una,” “Yoruba Yoruba” Muslim, Christian. Let us start believing in Nigeria. Together we can make Nigeria great again. Together we can make Nigeria live up to her name, “Giant of Africa”. Together we can vote for merit and together we would enjoy the fruit of our labour. Together we can live to the National Pledge of Nigeria


http://saharareporters.com/article/saharareporters-and-readers-their-stories

We suddenly give credence and attention to anything that has the tag "US", who tha, F (excuse my french) is this agency to make such flagrant statement? , as much as i agree that GEJ has no clue on how to rule Nigeria and infact was rigged in, his elec-fraud didn't cause the insecurity. The culprits are the Northern politicians that assumed power is their birth right. If Buhari had the chance and opportunity, he would've rigged himself in too and he wouldn't be any better than GEJ. His cabinet would've been filled with illiterates to standard six graduate as ministers. Then the terrorism will be from Niger-Deltan militants NOT Boko Haram.

Pastors collecting money from poor people to buy private jet and fleet of cars when the poor cannot afford bicycle, i don't get it!
Pastors collecting money from poor people to build the university poor people's children cannot afford, i don't get it!!
Isn't these financial terrorism?

He should remember to curse Uduaghan too.
See them, AGIP (Any Govt. In Power) pastors.

Hmmmmn!

This is the kind of project state goverments should be investing in, but there will be nothing to STEAL! should they invest some of their federal allocation. I wonder what the point is in having states that cannot sustain itself, just avenue for polilooters to steal money. The only confidence i'm having in this project is because it involves someone of impecable character.

I'm sure if Boko Haram start unleashing their terror in the S. West and S. East, you guys will have a rethink about your "He's just been there for 4 months". Wasn't he the VP to the dead president?
The thing is, HE HAS NO CLUE! My only advice is for the West to be vigilant, because these idiots called boko haram are getting bolder by day.
State of emergency should be declared in those states, get a no-nonsense military administrator to take over, build a big jail house, acquire a big farmland that the prisoners can work while they are in jail.
End of story!

What a failed state, Nigeria and Nigerians are in total mess. Lawlessness, everywhere, even with government agencies.
First of all, please stop believing all these jazz nonsense. They couldn't find any drug on him because he didn't have any.
Why would they force him to take things in order to defecate? suppossing he dies, what happens?
I implore Bamidele Aturu and other lawyers to ensure NDLEA pay for these atrocities.
They have failed and heads should roll.

Congratulations to Baba Suwe that he made it alive and they didn't plant stuffs in his poo.

Thumbs up for this guy.
I think we should start supporting lawmakers that seem to have some sense in them.

@Phuck NL
"They both started it. If you insult me, i insult back, God no go vex". , 2 wrongs don't make a right, play the mature one my friend."You definitely have a point. Since you are a P.E, you should also know that the ROI on refineries is nothing less than 10years in this scenario", Not particularly accurate, the last one built by then Buhari administration at PH took only 2 yrs to complete and it became functional immediately, of course IBB and his goons wrecked it in no time due to maladministration and sabotage "Who in their right mind will want to invest billions to build refineries in nigeria when there is no guarantee that it will be "bombed" by boko haram 3months after commissioning", Seems like a problem Govt. can fix by enabling adequate security, make the law work, jail militants that breaks the law not rewarding them with payments.
"Who would want to build a refinery if their is no open market forces at hand i.e if govt continues to subsidize it a\@ 65 bucks and it costs the refinery about 65 bucks or even more to refine, how would they make profit? Also consider thte fact that the price of petrol is related to the price of crude. If the price of crude skyrockets and govt peggs the price of petrol at 65 naira, how would a refinery owner be able to make profit since he has to buy crude oil at the market rate. Crude is not subsidized?", There will be no "fake" subsidy if the refineries are working and OPEC or whoever does not tell you how much you sell your own crude to yourself. Their limitation applies only to oil exports. Also, the amount of money they claim to have spent on the fake subsidy per year will almost bring our refineries back to life"
Refinery business has never really been lucrative. Even in the US it wasn't lucrative bakc in the 80's. That was why Shell sold most of their refinining power to Valero who become a major refining power", Do you have any fact to back this assumption?Has Valero ever declared any loss? even in the wake of the recession, they were doing relatively well in the stock market.
"With all these considerations, who in their right mind would want to get in the refinery business in nigeria when they can easily venture into the upstream sector and make cool cash" , are you saying that if Nigerian Govt. invest in the refineries to refine our locally produced oil, we will run at a loss?, i don't think so. Let the Govt rise up to the occassion first by fixing security and see how investors will come swarming us. Even on the upstream sector, do you have an idea how much our so called joint partners are breaking the regulations to maximize profit? do you have an idea of how much damage these guys have done to our environments? but nobody will talk because money keeps exchanging hands

@Phuck NI and @amtheone
What's up with the verbal abuse? can't you agree to disagree?
Make your point/counter-point and desist from drama as adults should do.

I am a PE and i can tell you that if our 4 refineries are made to work, petrol can be made available for less the 50 naira.

They won't make it happen because people like OBJ and Co. have interest in refineries outside the shores of Nigeria that our oil are sent, to be refined and sold back to us at exorbitant prices.

This is so hilarious! i am laughing so hard right now.
Farting na part of God's work o, imagine if those terrible smell stays in one's system for long. Besides, you can't tell how heavy it'll turn out to be. But if you must do it, just excuse yourself to the nearest toilet.

In mosques however, it's easy to tell who the culprit is. You have to make another ablution whenever you fart in the middle of solat (prayer).

Has any of the public office holder behaved differently despite their dual citizenship? NO, they are still their wicked avaricious Nigerian self.
Presently, in the constitution, dual citizenship preclude you from contesting for elective offices, but what the likes of David Mark, Bankole, The Saraki's e.tc did was to lie that they have renounced their foreign citizenship while they still hold on to it. As usual, nobody cared to probe it since they are untouchables.

We all agree on the fact that Nollywood is not yet there, but amongst her pair, she a force to reckon with. I'll watch her movie anyday. With the poverty in Naija and lawlessness (unrestrained piracy), do you expect them to produce any high budget film? Can anybody buy any naija movie's DVD for even $10 (1500 Naira) for example, if the answer is NO so let's make do with fast improving standard and stop hating. Funke Akindele is the bomb, she veered into the industry and set the standard. Even for the token amount they sell it, most of you haters will not buy but waiting for someone to post it on youtube et al.

This NDLEA is the stupidest agency i have ever known in my life. They screwed up and should be made to face the music. What a shame! No way in this world that any drug in Baba Suwe's system wouldn't have bursted or been defacated, forget about 'kurube' guys.

Where are the "I voted for GEJ not PDP" people? i dey laugh o!!!!!

Has any Nigerian presidential election in Nigeria ever been upturned? when the judiciary is not independent. That election was rigged.

I'm kinda confused, court granted him bail for which allegation, was he charged to court for any offense? My dear Nigeria with drama.

It is ill advised! doesn't make any sense to me. 60 out of millions of students, what effect will that have?, how about subsidizing school fees of much more students. Besides, is the state that rich?, shouldn't primary education be the focus?, at least those bunch of students have struggled to the university and are no longer illiterates. $7000 is on the high side, you can rent a decent apartment for between $500 to $1000/month in any part of US. I'll say another $500/month for sundry bills. Food is the cheapest in US, so i'll go to the upper limit $250/month for food. Transportation, maybe another $250/per month. In all between $2500 to $3000 per month for each student to sustain themselves. I am also sure no company in US will hire an intern without payment, it is against US law which they follow, so WTF.
The other concern is, the list will be filled up with children/families of political associates and party members, pregnant mistressess of politician. I'll also like to know how much of those students will willingly come back after the program, they'll all make themselves missing.

It's a lie, is this an interview from Koro the scumbag, i remember all his activities during the 2007 guber race, how he made guns pure water amongst the area boys. It is even still alleged that he assasinated Funso Williams. See pot calling kettle black. Your former mentor outwitted you and you are making all these noise. All of you are rogues, thieves, e.t.c Let people in your local Govt. tell us how your son became the candidate? was it democratic or you forced him on them just like Tinubu did too.? You all can't just do without milking the society of its funds. You claimed you have haulage, downstrem, farming businesses, why did your son venture into politics again, shouldn't he be busy with that?, you yourself have been a LGA chairman, Commissioner, Fed. senator e.t.c Is your family the smartest in your community? why not give one of the millions of unemployed youths the opportunity to serve too? same goes for Tinubu that his wife, in-law, son e.t.c are all in politics. Revolution is simply inevitable in Nigeria.

Seriously guys, this is not funny at all. This is a total aberation of the laws. This is stupid, you can't just have someone detained for that long without evidence or trial. You can laugh it off all you care, but it can happen to anybody if NDLEA is allowed to set this precedence. What are the so called human right lawyers doing? what about the public, they are only interested in orchestrating the story. Guilty or not guilty, NDLEA should just respect the law and that is what we should all be clamouring for. Nigeria is corrupt, bla! bla!! bla!!!, what are you doing to RIGHT the wrong?

Very funny, are there car thieves on Nairaland now? Nigeria Police that should have such statistics don't, they are busy collecting 20 naira at the road block.

Ok guys, every human has the tendency to be corrupt if nobody is watching or there are no consequences for it. The disrespect for the rule of law is the issue. If the law is enforced to stupor, then people will refrain from sharp practices. That's why we need to get it from the top, if the legislative arm can promulgate good anti-corruption laws, the executive are commited to enforcing it and the judiciary is unbiased, then problem is solved. Let there be capital punishment for corrupt public officials and the society will adjust itself. There are more terrible humans here in the western world, but they are careful of what they do because they understand the law is not a respecter of anybody. When public officers are made to resign for alleged infidelity in the western world, our legislooters are been supplied with glorified prostitutes in Abuja constantly.

"Flagrant disrespect for the rule of law", sorry can't find a single word for it.

Every human have the tendency to be corrupt, but if the law is enforced people will think twice before breaking the law.

BetaThings:
I have never agreed that Siasia is a good coach
Do you remember what happened in Cairo. By 65th minute, had 2 advantages, He was leading 2-1
He had 11men on the pitch against 10men Germany (Siasia replaced the keeper with himself and conceded the goal, abi, interesting)
Then he performed a miracle = he conceded 2 goals against Germany within the next 25mins to lose 2-3
when people were shouting Siasia, I said I know he would fail at AFCON and we would get a proper (foreign) coach after that.
I did not know that he would not even qualify
Yes, Siasia uses a foreign assistant. So don't start that argument of local coach
Now regarding hypocrisy = can you really use the word here
2 things. 1. Let us assume Nigerians THOUGHT that Siasia was the best. Can they not change their minds
Has Abrahamovich not changed his mind about sacking coaches now. Or is he a hypocrite too?
2. The hypocrisy I see is when you sack a coach who achieved targets (World Cup AFCON)
and retain the one who fails to achieve target
Anybody who says that is best for Nigeria is a foreign agent
No short cuts; overhaul the team
Same thing you guys said when Amodu was to be sacked in 2002 and replaced with Onigbinde
But you ran back to Amodu when you wanted to qualify for South Africa 2010

Amodu is a lousy coach = he got results
Siasia is an excellent coach = he has ensured that we are not going to AFCON; 1st time in 25 years!
Should we not be redefining some words or at least admit that we are a sick nation
Indeed Siasia is perfect = he has made a perfect fool of us

I'm sure Sir Alex Ferguson is no longer a good coach since he lost 1 - 6 to Man city last weekend. Wenger is also a bad coach because of the recent Arsenal's losses. It's called a game, you win some and you lose some.Where were you when Siasia was winning friendlies? Nigeria wants to win all the time without preparing for the win. Our football sucks right now and that's what need to be fixed, not cherry picking coaches.