₦airaland Forum

sauer and goggs, I noticed the same thing as well as soon as I read the report.

Is Vanguard Newspapers the Fox News of Nigeria, considering their various lopsided and epileptic reports?

Lemba

Axum?

Negro_Ntns, my apologies if I trespassed.

PAGAN 9JA, I doubt that ALL did, or do you have proof?

http://thestreetjournal.org/2011/08/the-untold-benefits-of-being-a-nigerian-lawmaker’s-aide/

https://thestreetjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Senate-150x150.jpg


Based on the results of our investigations, Street Journal recently came out with a report that two aides of Nigeria’s Senate President, David Mark are actually his very close family members- one is his son while the other is his junior brother. Street Journal has found out that the National Assembly is one of the places family members and associates of politicians would rather send their children to work as legislative aides. Street Journal has gathered that the maintenance of Legislative aides to lawmakers costs the Federal Government about N 4 billion annually. And at the end of every four years, close to N 20 billion goes out of the Federal Government’s coffers as salaries and allowances to legislative aides who are said to be about 2,500.

Street Journal has found out that there is a provision that allows each member of the National Assembly to appoint five aides namely a Senior Legislative Assistant, two Legislative Assistants, Personal Assistant and a Secretary. Principal Officers are however allowed to have more and their own teams include Chiefs of Staff, Senior Special Assistants, Press Secretaries and Special Advisers.

Apart from the fat salaries they enjoy, Street Journal found out that most of them enjoy certain levels of trust and are sometimes beneficiaries when their bosses land big time “jobs”. They also use their bosses’ links effectively in their own “runs” some of which allegedly include small contracts in ministries and local governments in their home states. For some, it is a grooming ground as they build their political careers from there. After serving legislators for some time, they go ahead to contest for political office.

It has also been discovered that Senior Legislative Assistants in the House of Representatives are on Grade Level 13 to 15 while their counterparts in the Senate are Grade Level 15 0r 16 officers. Legislative Assistants are between Grade Level 10 and 12 while Personal Assistants are Level 08 officers, Secretaries are however placed on Level 07.

On the average, a Senior Legislative Assistant takes about N 200,000 home monthly while Legislative Assistants earn about N 150,000, Personal Assistants N 60,000 and Secretaries N 50,000. Street Journal also found out that they are paid a 28 day allowance on assumption of duty while they get 300 % of their basic salaries as severance allowances when leaving. A Personal Assistant to a Honourable Member however revealed to Street Journal that “it is as if some legislators are short-changing their aides because some are not paid the stipulated wages”.

Street Journal gathered that the set of Senior Legislative Assistants that served in the last House of Representatives were paid N 3.954 million each as severance allowance while Legislative Assistants got N 1.609 million, Personal Assistants got N 1.16 million each and Secretaries N 780,000.

And doing a simple calculation of the allowances, 4 year salaries and severance packages of each Senior Legislative Assistant, it would be found out that each Senior Legislative Assistant costs the Federal Government about N 17.9 million every 4 years. On each Legislative Assistant on the other hand, the Federal Government expends N 10.1 million every 4 years while for each Secretary; it is N 3.95 million and N 5.2 million on each Personal Assistant.

For some time now, the “jumbo pay” of Nigerian legislators has been one of the most commonly discussed topics in the country and it has been given as one of the reasons for which many would do anything to perpetuate themselves in office.

http://thestreetjournal.org/2011/09/wikileaks-reveals-how-police-bungled-investigations-into-bola-ige’s-murder/

https://thestreetjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Bola-Ige-150x150.jpg

The whistle blowing website, Wikileaks has revealed how the Nigerian Police Force struggled to cope with the challenges of investigating the murder of the late Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige. The cable which was dated 18th January, 2002 was released on the 30th August, 2011.

In the cable forwarded by the then Ambassador, Howard Jeter , the investigators were described as being ill-equipped and under-trained. It also stated that the police sought the aid of the United States Government to help solve the murder. Even AIG Osomo that handled the investigation was not spared, especially in the handling of evidence.

The Ambassador too suggested that his home country should lend a helping hand in order to get Nigeria’s help in tracking down terror suspects who might be in the country.
The cable reads inter alia “there has been little progress in solving the December 23 murder of Attorney General Bola Ige. A frank meeting with the head of the police investigation found a group of under-trained and ill-equipped investigators struggling with a complex criminal investigation. With political and public pressure inexorably mounting, the police desperately seek United States Government’s assistance.



RNLEO, LEGATT and Assistant LEGATT called on Assistant Inspector General of Police Mrs. Ajibola Ojomo January 10 to discuss the ongoing investigation

into the December 23 assassination of Attorney General Bola Ige. Ojomo, with whom the Embassy has a long- standing and excellent working relationship, was personally picked by President Obasanjo to lead the

investigation. She has moved her office from Abuja to Lagos to be nearer to the murder scene and the location of most suspects. The strain of several weeks of continuous work showed in her tired composure.



The AIG summoned members of her hand-picked investigative team to join in discussing the case with the United States Government visitors. The ballistics expert confided that unspent shotgun shells left at the crime scene were not processed for latent fingerprints and were handled by at least six police officials before being placed in a paper envelope and marked as evidence. Similar examples of poor collection and preservation of crime scene evidence were evident, including the removal of the body, the movement of a suitcase that the assailant reportedly opened and searched, and the failure to take fingerprints of the Attorney General to compare with unknown fingerprints found at the crime scene. Mrs. Ojomo candidly expressed disappointment in her team’s performance and noted that these deficiencies highlighted the need for advanced training for CID

investigators – training that could be provided by the USG, particularly the FBI, in evidence collection and forensic analysis.





Ojomo shared the autopsy and ballistics report with FBI agents and summarized the facts of the murder: during the evening of December 23 Ige allowed all members of his police security team to take a dinner break, during which the assailants entered the Ige compound unchallenged. The assailants entered the home, found and forced household staff and Ige’s grown children and wife into a room, before killing Ige with a single shotgun blast at near point-blank range. (Note:

Ige’s son has told Police officers that the assailants had threatened to slaughter all family members. End note)

Police investigators believe the assailants searched a suitcase and some bedroom furniture before fleeing.

Possible drug- or organized crime-related motives for the murder have been investigated and rejected, claimed the AIG. She disclosed that she had specifically investigated the possibility that two Nigerian drug traffickers arrested in August with 60 kilograms of cocaine – against whose bail the AG personally fought in court – could have had a hand in the murder, but came up blank.



The investigators stated that they have interviewed all of those close to Ige, including members of his security detail. Ojomo revealed that ongoing

interviews of potential suspects have focused attention on one political associate of Ige’s whose story is inconsistent. This is their most promising suspect, she claimed.





Ojomo called on the USG/FBI to provide immediate technical assistance for the investigation, a plea which has been echoed separately by people close to the Ige family. She is particularly interested in the aid of a FBI polygraph machine and polygrapher for interviewing suspects. LEGATT explained to the AIG that he is attempting to find United States Government funding for the travel and expenses of a visiting FBI polygraph expert;

he hopes to have some news in the near future. Responding to a RNLEO query on the veracity of local media reports that the Israeli government had formally offered Mossad’s assistance to the police investigation,

Ojomo claimed that she had heard of the press report but that she had nothing to confirm it, though she said she would welcome any and all outside assistance. (Note: in a follow-up phone call January 18, Ojomo stated that she never obtained confirmation of an Israeli offer. End note)







Comment: The police feel whip-sawed between political pressure to produce a suspect and generating a solid lead in their seemingly stalled case. Embassy officials were stunned by the poor quality of this high-profile police investigation. Investigators failed to take the most rudimentary steps to collect and preserve key evidence and forensic specialists seem to have ignored basic tests, such as the examination of unspent shotgun shells

and the lifting of fingerprints. These deficiencies were underscored by an offer from Mrs. Ojomo herself to open the envelope containing the gunmen’s unspent shells and give these to the FBI agents for examination in her

office (which would have further contaminated the evidence).Post concurs with the LEGATT’s opinion that, absent a credible confession or outside assistance, the Nigerian investigation will fail to identify the

assassin or his paymaster because of the lack of preserved evidence and the weak investigative skills of the police team.

The police want to see this investigation yield a successful prosecution and U.S. assistance could assist greatly. Moreover, we believe that support for the Nigerians could have long-term benefits for the United States. We have already approached them once for help in tracking down the suspected movements in Nigeria of one of the WTC terrorists. Their appreciation — and the skills they are able to absorb — could be useful to us when we next ask for assistance in the war against terrorism. In 1992 or 1993, the GON rendered Egypt Air hijacker Rezaq to U.S. custody after at least two other countries through which Rezaq was passing declined. Post would appreciate Department’s assistance in securing from

outside sources the modest funding (about $10,000) needed to provide FBI assistance to the Nigeria Police. We note that similar FBI assistance has been offered in the recent past to Ghana and Swaziland and that this technical assistance would not involve FBI agents in an operational role.

Jeremiah 23:26: How long shall [this] be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yes, [they are] prophets of the deceit of their own heart;
Jeremiah 23:27: Who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.


Many centuries ago our some of our forefathers worshipped idols under green trees and poured drink offerings to idols, and the abominations are still practiced. Yet the practitioners and defenders seem not to realize that all the prophecies against them have been coming to pass, from Somalia to Senegal to South Africa. Yes, the afflictions (including curses of Egypt) are not surprising, but the stiff necks,

A very heinous abomination has been that of a particular name substitution of which almost gives me the shudders.

image of Shango ≣ image of Baal?

Some Nigerian saboteurs at work with what seems like a tinge of economic treason.

By Ernest Nwokolo, Abeokuta

• Says govt owes $2m
SEPCO111, the Chinese engineering firm that constructed the Olorunsogo – Papalanto Power plant in Ogun State, has alleged that untrained members of staff of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) that man the power station are liable for damage to most of the plant’s turbines.
The Project Manager of SEPCO111, Mr Li Xianlai, said lack of expertise on the part of the PHCN’s staff was responsible for why only six of the eight turbines are working. Before the Minister of Power’s (Prof Barth Nnaji) last two weeks, only two turbines were working, four were just recovered and two are currently not functional.
He said lack of experience of the PHCN staff and inadequate gas supplies to the plant were some of the reasons the plant have not been working at optimal capacity.
"Six units of the eight turbines are running currently. One has a major problem caused by cleps from the national grid. The other has problem and the part has been ordered from China," he said.
Xianlai, who spoke with newsmen on Monday at the project site, said in line with the agreement, 20 PHCN staff were sent to China on training on how to run the turbines, but regretted that after they gained the requisite expertise on how to man the facility, they were deployed elsewhere.
He explained that those on ground running the turbines are not only inexperienced but are equally causing major damage to it even when the existing operational manual for the turbines were written in both English and Chinese for consultation when necessary.
"One has a major problem caused by lack of technical know-how on how to prevent the cleps from the national grid. When the power plant was being constructed, some staff of PHCN (20 in number) were sent to China for training on how to operate the plant but to our surprise, after the training and handing over, the staff trained in China were not sent here.
"They brought people that were not trained and who do not have the experience on how to run the plant."
He said despite the fact that the Phase 1 of the project was completed and handed over to the Federal Government through PHCN in 2009, his company – SEPCO111, is still maintaining the turbines at a great cost, spending "over $2million on spare parts alone in the last three years. "There is provisional running period of one year and for over three years after handing over to PHCN, we are the one still running it at our own cost. We have not received money from the government of Nigeria. We are still expecting the government to refund us," he said.
He said the reason for the current boost in generation from the plant was that SEPCO111 transferred gas meant for Phase 11 to phase 1, but added that the situation will not endure if gas supply by the appropriate agencies, is not improved upon.


http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/business/17833-chinese-firm-sepco-blame-phcn-for-plant-crisis.html

hagiolatry

moremi2008:
What exactly does spitting anywhere have to do with mosquitoes and their breeding habits?

I was referring to general attitudes to community health.

Dispense justice, group tells Jonathan

By Segun Balogun
August 28, 2011 07:00PM




The founder and president of the Oodua People's Congress, Frederick Fasehun, during a press conference over the weekend said President Goodluck must be seen upholding the tenets of Nigeria's Constitution, to which he wilfully sworn on May 29.

Mr. Fasehun has been a vociferous supporter of President Goodluck, criticising how the top eleven political offices in the country are tilted "precariously" to the North than the South, against the dictate of constitutionally enshrined federal character.

"We still believe he [President Jonathan] is worth fighting for but he should sustain our expectation by dispensing social justice," he said, when asked if he still believes in President Jonathan's administration considering how he swiftly implemented the recommendation of the National Judicial Council, which prescribed the suspension of President of Court of Appela, Justice Ayo Salami.

"We will take it that the President was misled to hastily endorse a replacement for Justice Salami. It is not too late for Mr. President to bring all parties in this crisis to the peace table," he said.

However, he urged "all men of goodwill to pronounce that by the way the Justice Isa Salami matter has been handled, justice has not been done conclusively. In fact, the NJC has demonstrated impunity and resorted to self-help, qualities that must have no place in our law."

Mr. Fasehun implored the NJC to "revist" its deliberation over Mr. Salami's case. According to him, doing so will not diminish the council's constitutional right to discipline judicial officers. More so, the council's actions must be seen to have followed due process and rule of law "which have been flagrantly sacrificed in this case."

On the other hand, he enjoined the Nigerian Bar Association to brace up and "save Nigeria's judiciary by going beyond rabble-rousing and placard-wielding."

Deepening marginalisation

The suspension of Mr. Salami and the swearing in of Justice Adamu Dalhatu further got the ire of Mr. Fasehun, who believes that, in the mean time while the Sovereign National Conference is awaited, federal character must be strictly adhered to in order to preserve the sanctity of national unity.

The current arrangement means the South-south holds the presidency, while the north hold the next four positions of vice president, senate president, House of Representative Speaker, and the head of judiciary - the Chief Justice of Nigeria and President of the Court of Appeal.

He blamed President Jonathan for this marginalisation.

"Let it be said loud and clear that the noisy silence of the Yoruba people should not be considered as acquiescence to the evil being perpetrated against them. We Yoruba people strongly protest our marginalisation. And no effort shall be spared to make our protests heard at the highest level," he said, urging President Jonathan to "veto the confirmation of Justice Dalhatu."

"If no effort is made to arrest the status quo, we will review the comfort we derive from our common bed. We have silently tolerated more than enough. President Jonathan should persuade the Yoruba people that he has nothing against them. The Yoruba people are marginalised and it is time to give them their dues."

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/Metro/5740243-146/dispense_justice_group_tells_jonathan_.csp

It seems the study involved two Tanzanian communities therefore it would be helpful if it could be extended to increase the number of sample populations.
Perhaps the reduction is due to better attitudes to Public Health and cleanliness compared to Nigeria where people spit and throw refuse anywhere without so much as batting an eyelid.

I got the picture from this BBC article
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14673047

Besides, lots of DNA studies have been pointing to the Out-of-Africa hypothesis. Some of these studies included Yoruba DNA samples, amongst others. The tentative conclusion has been that much of black Africa have remained "pure". The fact that French is mentioned does not mean that the researchers used samples from one French subgroup. I haven't read the original article where the picture was first published so I cannot say what the sample constituents are.

Furthermore, it is just a picture - inanimate, no life, no feelings, no actions. How then can the picture be foolish?

Jezebel-like make-up: I used to think that living in urban settings meant a reduction in opportunities to see masquerades that appeared frequently during the time of my grandpa and great-grandpa. I wonder what they are making up for as if their beauty is not good.

High heels: The muscles of the calves look taut like the strong ponmo I did not want to buy from Iya Ruka. Also, it seems like an attempt at backward evolution in that cows, dogs and pigs walk on their toes.

Serpent: Some tempt men to sin with them by saying: "Are you not a man?", "Show me that you are a man"; when the man was created as a man already and does not need to prove anything. Many men stumbled at the hands of women - Adam, Samson, David, Solomon, ati be be lo.

did you include beer parlours as well?

HE called himself the Son of Man and not the Son of Israel.

Recently in Lagos, I've been plastering my window nets with dead mosquitoes at an increasing rate. I wonder what the stats indicate for Nigeria.

By Matt McGrath
Science reporter, BBC World Service

https://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/54959000/jpg/_54959300_mosmcgrath.jpg

Malaria-carrying mosquitoes are disappearing in some parts of Africa, but scientists are unsure as to why.

Figures indicate controls such as anti-mosquito bed nets are having a significant impact on the incidence of malaria in some sub-Saharan countries.

But in Malaria Journal, researchers say mosquitoes are also disappearing from areas with few controls.

They are uncertain if mosquitoes are being eradicated or whether they will return with renewed vigour.

Data from countries such as Tanzania, Eritrea, Rwanda, Kenya and Zambia all indicate that the incidence of malaria is dropping fast.

Researchers believe this is due to effective implementation of control programmes, especially the deployment of bed nets treated with insecticide.

But a team of Danish and Tanzanian scientists say this is not the whole story. For more than 10 years they have been collecting and counting the number of mosquitoes caught in thousands of traps in Tanzania.

In 2004 they caught over 5,000 insects. In 2009 that had dropped to just 14.

More importantly, these collections took place in villages that weren't using bed nets.

'Chaotic rainfall'
One possibility for the reduction in numbers is climate change. Patterns of rainfall in these years were more chaotic in these regions of Tanzania and often fell outside the rainy season. The scientists say this may have disturbed the natural cycle of mosquito development.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote

It is most likely we will have an epidemic of malaria ”

Professor Dan Meyrowitsch,
University of Copenhagen
But the lead author of the study, Professor Dan Meyrowitsch from the University of Copenhagen, says that he is not convinced that it is just the changing climate.

"It could be partly due to this chaotic rainfall, but personally I don't think it can explain such a dramatic decline in mosquitoes, to the extent we can say that the malaria mosquitoes are almost eradicated in these communities.

"What we should consider is that there may be a disease among the mosquitoes, a fungi or a virus, or they're may have been some environmental changes in the communities that have resulted in a drop in the number of mosquitoes"

The research team also found anecdotal evidence that their discovery was not an isolated case.

Prof Meyrowitsch added: "Other scientists are saying they can't test their drugs because there are no children left with malaria.

"They observed this in communities with no large interventions against malaria or mosquitoes. It may be the same scenario that the specific mosquitoes that carry malaria are declining very fast now"

The researchers are unsure if mosquitoes will return to these regions. If they do, one particular cause for concern is the young people who have not been exposed to malaria over the past five or six years since the mosquitoes began to decline.

"If the mosquito population starts coming up again" says Professor Meyrowitsch "and my own assumption is that it will, it is most likely we will have an epidemic of malaria with a higher level of disease and mortality especially amongst these children who have not been exposed."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14685612

Aren't there any other willing contributors to this topic on Nairaland?

What of a system of writing prior to the introduction of Ajami?
We could start with our own unique writing and use it for direct translations of the earliest/early Biblical texts and the study of our history and migration.

I have also wondered if the Amorites mated with the Neanderthals.

https://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50547000/gif/_50547826_human_family_tree304.gif

Concerning that crypt, my guess is that the bodies were positioned with the head facing north while the faces were toward the east. This was common in other cultures as well. Maybe some of our ancestors grew fat and forgot the reasons for certain cultural practices; and ended up saying "that's how our ancestors have been doing it" with no explanation e.g. killing of twins in amongst certain peoples in the past.

.

Where does IFA stand today? (I'm aware that OLORUN is, before the existence of time.)

Can't it be said that science is a framework for the expression of the human spirit? If so, science would be seen as evolving till the best guess reaches perfection. However I feel that with time it has been placed ahead on the human spirit and as a result has been driven further away from perfection at the beginning.

Is the Holy Trinity mentioned in the Ifa literary corpus?
Likewise Hermes Trismegistus and Melchizedek


By the way, that chain as mentioned in our creation myth does exist. This I know for sure.

Binary is a scientific term and denotes something discrete and interchangeable in its essence.

For instance in an event of 1 0 0 1, the zeros and ones are interchangeable in state given an elapsed time - its dynamic.

Duality in nature does not change from its designated state - its fixed in its nature.

Doesn't the term BINARY infer that the object of reference cannot simultaneously exist in both states but has to be either one or the other, as in
"Matthew 6:24: No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

In my opinion, duality points to dual existence of which I doubt the possibility.

There is without doubt a substitute race of people in North Africa, some mixed and some of pure caucasian roots.

This is what I've found out about the Amorites.
The Egyptologist Flinders Petrie and Assyriologist Archibald Henry Sayce analysed Egyptian illustrations of what they identified as Amorites (Amurru) depicted as "white skinned, blue eyed, fair haired". According to Sayce (1889):
“ “The Amorites, were a tall, handsome people, with white skins, blue eyes and reddish hair, all the characteristics, in fact, of the white race.” ”
Sayce further discovered a painting in a tomb (No. 34) at Thebes, belonging to the Eighteenth Dynasty which illustrates an Amorite chief with "white skin and red-brown hair". Henry George Tomkins (1897) an Exeter clergyman and member of the Royal Archaeological Institute also wrote the Amorites were blue eyed and fair haired. Easton's Bible Dictionary also contains an entry stating the Amorites are "represented on the Egyptian monuments with fair skins, light hair, blue eyes, aquiline noses, and pointed beards." The Encyclopædia Britannica, 13th ed., vol. 1, 1929, also contained a physical description of the Amorites from Egyptian illustrations:
“ “Egyptian illustrations of the New Kingdom show the Palestinian Amorites to have been a race much more like the Northern Europeans than the Semites; long-headed, with blue eyes, straight noses and thin lips.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorite

I wonder if they are Caucasians and are the ones described thus
Genesis 15:16: But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites [is] not yet full.

.

Once upon a time the official excuse was had to do with something like snakes at the Kainji dam. I wonder what has happened to that facility over the years till now. As usual, it seems that many of my fellow Nigerians got swayed by amala politics.

and a trophy-less Arsenal FC too

.

http://www.economist.com/node/21526948?fsrc=nlw%7Cwwb%7C08-25-11%7Cbusiness_this_week

Steve Jobs resigns
The minister of magic steps down
Can Silicon Valley’s most disruptive firm prosper without its maker?
Aug 27th 2011 | SAN FRANCISCO | from the print edition

https://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20110827_WBP006_1.jpg

IN A commencement speech to students at Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, advised his audience to avoid being trapped by dogma and to have the courage to follow their hearts and their intuition. “Stay hungry. Stay foolish,” he said as he signed off. By following his own advice, Mr Jobs, who resigned as Apple’s boss on August 24th, has turned the company from a basket case on the brink of bankruptcy when he returned to its helm in 1997 into a world-beater that is reshaping a big chunk of the technology industry. Earlier this month, Apple even briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil, an oil giant, to become the world’s most valuable company.

No other boss in recent history has embodied and defined a firm as completely as Mr Jobs. So his decision to resign as chief executive has inevitably raised the question of whether Apple will remain as hungry and as wildly successful without its entrepreneurial maestro at the helm. Other giants in the tech industry have seen their fortunes fade after iconic leaders have departed. Microsoft has struggled to regain its mojo since Bill Gates stood down as its chief executive in January 2000. Could Apple suffer a similar fate?

That seems unlikely for several reasons. One is that the company has had plenty of time to plan for this moment. Mr Jobs has stepped aside from day-to-day management at Apple on a couple of occasions before, after having surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004 (see timeline). Each time, Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, temporarily assumed his boss’s responsibilities.

That allowed Mr Cook, who is taking over from Mr Jobs as CEO, to get a taste for the top spot—and it gave Apple’s board a chance to see him in action. On each occasion, Mr Cook kept Apple’s money-making machine ticking over smoothly. An expert in manufacturing and logistics, he closed down almost all of Apple’s manufacturing operations after he arrived at the firm in the late 1990s and outsourced much of these to Asia. Announcing his promotion, Apple’s board said that he had shown “remarkable talent and sound judgment in everything he does.”

Talent is something that Apple also has an abundance of elsewhere in its ranks. Executives such as Phil Schiller, who oversees the company’s marketing, and Jonathan Ive, a Briton whose domain is design, are part of a team that has worked closely together for many years. If Mr Cook can keep this group intact, then Apple’s future should be bright.

The firm also benefits from an intensely loyal and motivated workforce. Glassdoor, an online jobs and careers community, carries reviews of the company from almost 1,000 Apple employees. Most are glowing about the firm and in particular about Mr Jobs’s impact on it. One post even calls Apple’s former boss “the Thomas Edison of this century”. Paul Saffo of Discern Analytics, a financial-analytics company, reckons that this depth of loyalty will mean that even though Mr Jobs is stepping down, the firm’s employees will continue to ask themselves “what would Steve do?” when making decisions. (Of course, asking the question is easier than guessing the right answer.)

https://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20110827_WBC491_0.gif

Another reason for optimism is that Mr Jobs is not disappearing from the scene entirely. Instead he is taking on a new role as the chairman of Apple’s board, which should allow him to keep weighing in on important decisions for some time to come, assuming that his health allows. Apple has a pretty clear product pipeline for the next couple of years, which is reassuring. The firm is due to unveil the latest version of its hugely successful iPhone in the coming weeks and is expected to launch a new iPad early next year.

But Apple is far more than the sum of the devices that it sells, impressive though they are. Its secret sauce lies in the integration of these with software and services such as its iTunes online content store and its recently announced iCloud online-storage offering. These form what tech types like to call an “ecosystem” that has proved so popular that it is forcing other companies to develop similar capabilities. Google, which has long excelled at developing software, recently splashed out $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility so that it could get its hands on the firm’s smartphones, tablets and other devices. And Amazon, which has a huge cloud business, is planning to launch its own tablet computer to compete with Apple’s iPad.

The good news for Apple’s investors is that the firm has been given a great head start in the battle for dominance of this emerging tech landscape thanks to Mr Jobs, whose vision of the future has been honed over a long and tumultuous career. After co-founding Apple with Steve Wozniak in the 1970s, he went on to pioneer the era of the personal computer in the following decade. He was then ousted from Apple after a boardroom coup in 1985.

After that, Mr Jobs followed his heart and his intuition by building up Pixar, a film studio that specialises in computer-animated films. It has produced a string of hits, from “Toy Story” to “Finding Nemo”.

He returned to Apple as an adviser in 1996, when the firm was in dire straits. A year later he was made interim chief executive. Asked at the time what he thought Mr Jobs should do with Apple, Michael Dell, a rival computer-maker, helpfully suggested that he should shut it down.

Mr Jobs ignored that advice. Instead he led the company on to its greatest triumphs. Among them were the creation of the iMac, which revived the firm’s ailing computer business, and the development of the iPod, which ended up transforming the music industry. But just as important as what Apple did was what it did not do. Charles Golvin of Forrester, a research firm, says that one of Mr Jobs’s greatest skills has been to decide which projects the firm should not undertake.

It has been widely rumoured, for example, that engineers at Apple were urging its boss to create a tablet computer in the early part of the decade. But Mr Jobs turned a deaf ear to their entreaties and instead insisted that the company focus on producing a smartphone. The result was the iPhone, which transformed yet another market and is still minting money. In a creative cauldron like Apple, ideas are rarely in short supply. But the skill of choosing the right ones to focus on at the right time is rare. Mr Jobs has it. Apple’s shareholders will have to hope that Mr Cook does too.