₦airaland Forum

FOLLOWING the series of misfortunes that befell Nigerian football in recent times the president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has lambasted the country's top football stars saying they are not disciplined and lack commitment to play for the nation. Most of the players had in recent times during major international assignments for the country played pranks which made them not to honour such assignments which results were not favourable to the country.

This year’s results by Nigerian in international stars have been far from satisfactory as the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations and both the male and female teams failed to qualify for the London Olympics.

“The players feel too big and pompous. They lack discipline and their commitment is not total while in the national team,” Maigari told the country’s parliamentarians in Abuja.

The NFF boss said,“for this reason, the players who will now be called to the national teams will have to be those who know the value of the national team colours as we have in the past with the old players who served he country religously with their might”.

Maigari further disclosed that the NFF has now had to initiate grassroots development programmes that will produce new players and which will go a long way in restoring the country’s lost glory.

Meanwhile, general secretary of the NFF, Musa Amadu, has disclosed that a national technical director will be hired by the association this month as part of efforts towards developing the game in Nigeria.

Former Ethiopia coach Tom Saintfeit and Lars Lagerback’s assistant to the 2010 World Cup, Roland Andersson, are in the running for the top post.

Christmas is the time when many people will go out to do their shopping and are more willing to splurge a lot of money. Therefore the Christmas season presents a great money making opportunity. There are many ways to make money during Christmas like:

* Sell homemade gift baskets
* Install lighting and XMas Tress
* Sell Crafts related to XMas
* Sell XMas cards
* Decorate people’s house
* Sell Christmas cookies
* Sell Gifts
* Sell unwanted stuff
* Offer gift wrapping services
* Do Christmas Shopping for others
* Use the Amazon Associates Program to sell physical goods

Create Homemade Christmas Baskets;
The process of assembling items to make a Christmas basket is similar to making a gift basket for other types of special occasions. The first step is to choose a theme for your Christmas basket. For the Christmas gift basket, you can either choose red or green filler. The filler for the gift basket can be tissue paper, shreds and etc. To decorate the gift basket, you can use poinsettias and pine cones. If you want, you can add ribbons and bows. The colors of the ribbons and bows must have a holiday theme. To cut down the cost, you can create homemade gifts to place in the basket. Some of the items you can use to fill the Christmas basket include Christmas confectionaries, mugs, Christmas music CD, nativity set, Christmas video, Christmas jigsaw puzzle and etc. You can fill the empty spaces with small items such as scented candle, ornaments, and greeneries.

Install Christmas Lighting;
Installing Christmas lighting is a great way to make money during Christmas. You can expect to make more than $30,000 by offering lighting installation service for 3 months, if you are able to tap the posh and upscale residential areas for clients. Many people like to have their houses decorated with colorful Christmas light bulbs. Most people will prefer to outsource the Christmas lighting installation because they don’t have the required skills. Some people outsource the work because they don’t have time to install the Christmas lights. Many landscapers offer the lighting installation service as an add-on service during the holiday season. If you are a landscape contractor, you can start advertising the service to your existing clients. To do this, you can distribute a flyer to all your customers. You can distribute a discount coupon along with the flyer to encourage people to hire your Christmas light installation service. You can start advertising your Christmas lighting installation service in September,
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It was India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, that said: “Evil unchecked grows, evil tolerated poisons the whole system.” This timeless truism illustrates how age cheating in sports, tolerated years ago, has become a behemoth that is causing Nigerian sporting attainments to pale into insignificance, while the practitioners end up having a less than honourable sunset for their careers. What was seen as an African scourge in times past has spread to Asia, Europe and North America, among other nations. ENO-ABASI SUNDAY writes on efforts made by the Nigeria Academicals Sports Committee (NASCOM) to revive academicals in the country and how the absence of an authentic data bank, the connivance of cheating parents and sports administrators and the use of non-students in age-group international competitions constitute the greatest factors that retard sports development in the country.

ONE of the most bizarre and shocking cases of age fraud in world sports was uncovered a few years ago in South Africa, when a local journalist, Thomas Kwenaite, unearthed a handful of “age-cheats,” who represented the country in an U-16 tournament in France.

Making it more scandalous was the fact that the captain of the side, it later emerged, was a 24-year old university student from Port Elizabeth. In a bid to force the belief that his son was within the needed age-limit hence eminently qualified to represent South Africa at the cadet championship, the captain’s father dragged Kwenaite to the South African press Ombudsman, charging him for slandering his ward.

But the shamed dad was forced to swallow his vomit and withdraw the complaint after documents obtained from schools indicated that the captain would have started school at the tender age of two. But the revelation did not stop hordes of people branding Kwenaite as being “unpatriotic.”
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FOR Ekiti State workers, cheery news came from the Head of Service, Mr. Olubunmi Famosaya, that the governor has approved the payment of N18,000 minimum wage to workers from grade levels 01 to 06. He said the arrears from August this year will be paid before the Christmas.

But workers from level 7 would still wait before enjoying the largesse because the government is waiting for the decision of other states within the South-West as it concerns the adjustment of wages of senior workers.

Famosaya, who disclosed this at the weekend during the flag-off of the Civil Service Week in the state, added that the government had approved 20 per cent of workers’ salaries as their Christmas bonus and reiterated Governor Kayode Fayemi’s pledge that salaries will be paid before December 18.Read more,

The faces of FC Barcelona are some of the biggest names in world football. Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez and Carles Puyol have become the players most associated with the Blaugranas over the years, but on current form, it's debatable that none of them are the most important player for Barcelona. Going into El Clasico against Real Madrid, Andres Iniesta could be the man most likely to make a massive impact for Barcelona. He's been overshadowed by Xavi in the past, but he's been Barcelona's best creative force early in this season.

Barcelona have struggled to break down Real Madrid when they've played their trivot tactics, playing with three midfielders with defensive responsibilities instead of two, plus a trequarista. It's going to be difficult for Barcelona to get through them, and according to SB Nation's FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes, Iniesta is the man to make it happen while C.Ronaldo will be the key for Real madrid.

Iniesta takes up position on the attacking edge of midfield. While Xavi tracks back to help bring the ball up, Andrés stays focused on goal, no matter if he's 35 yards out. Always aware of the opposing defense and the position of his own strikers, by the time Barça get him the ball, Iniesta has an ideal attacking scenario fully formed in his sizable skull.Benzima will be in front for Real,it has ability and what it take to fire Berca if they slump.i

With dribbling abilities second to none, and a fair amount of quicks remaining in his 27-year-old legs, Iniesta is a pure danger man on the ball. Inviting defenders to close him down too tightly, Iniesta can get past anybody that doesn't give him enough respect. If space is given, he'll eat it up quickly, getting as close to goal and attracting as many defenders as possible. When the moment is right, he'll unleash a dagger through-ball, take a crack of his own, or win a corner kick, Read more,

The way we use Google and its long list of products is about to change. The company announced Tuesday that it will retire its classic navigation bar — a staple on the website in some form since 2001 — in exchange for a flashy new menu, in an effort to streamline the user experience.
“Instead of the horizontal black bar at the top of the page, you’ll now find links to your services in a new drop-down Google menu nested under the Google logo,” developers announced Tuesday on the company’s blog.
“Google menu opens on rollover, has links from your navigation bar and a whole lot more, with plenty of flexibility for the future,” a video demonstrating the new navigation menu explains.
Dating back to late 2001, the Google bar sat for years directly above the search field and initially gave us three new ways to explore the Internet right from Google’s homepage: by searching images, groups and the site’s web directory.
But as the Mountain View, Calif.-based company expanded, the bar became crowded with even more search options such as Video and News, and products like Gmail, Calendar, Documents, and Reader added to the mix. In 2007, Google responded by relocating the bar to the top of the page, and adding to it a drop-down menu with additional navigation options.
Six months ago, the search giant made another distinct change; it turned the navigation bar black and anchored it to the top of the screen, making it available across Google’s array of products.
But on Tuesday, Google admitted that “it’s time to unify, simplify and say goodbye to navigation bar,” a voice in the video says, conceding that its old bar simply “takes up precious space on your screen.”

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Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, on Thursday arrested four commercial motorcyclists, popularly called ‘okada riders,’ for driving against the traffic.

Fashola who was on his way from the inauguration of a 60 housing units at Apapa Local Government Area, named after Senator H.A.B. Fashinro, arrested the okada riders at the Apapa-Ijora Link Bridge and Ikorodu Road

He said the arrest would send a message to other riders to desist from flagrant violation of the state traffic rules and regulations.

Fashola’s warning was re-echoed at a media briefing at Alausa, Ikeja, where the state Commissioner for Transportation, Kayode Opeifa, read the Riot Act to okada operators in the state.

Opeifa, who noted that the operators had not obeyed any of the measures put in place to guide their operations, said the government was ready to deal with any of them that ignored its regulations.

He said, “Some of the areas the operation of okada has been prohibited are, Agindigbi, Olowopopo Avenue, Allen Avenue, Oshodi Apapa Expressway, excluding the service lanes.

“The entire stretch of Funso Williams Avenue, Eko Bridge, Apongbon, Murtala Muhammed way from Jibowu – Yaba – Oyingbo –Iddo –Idumota, Ikorodu Express Road, from Jibowu to Ikorodu Roundabout, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway/Agege Motor Road and all Lagos Bridges.”

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There are signs that the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has been unsettled by the revelation of the convicted spokesman of Boko Haram, Umaru Konduga Ali, that the violent Islamic sect was working for the party’s interest in Borno State.

The sect has claimed responsibility for the spate of bombings in Maiduguri and other parts of the North for nearly one year.



Ali, who bore the pseudo name, Usman Al-Zawahiri, had told the State Security Service during interrogation, that the sect had sent frightening text messages to judges at the Borno State Election Petitions Tribunal in order to intimidate them.

Besides, he had alleged that a PDP senator, Ali Ndume, was one of the sect’s sponsors.

The PDP had filed a petition against the election of Governor Kashim Shettima of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, shortly after the April general elections.

However, a national officer of the PDP, who spoke on these developments on Friday, said that with the revelation, Nigerians would have the impression that the party was responsible for the national security challenge posed by the Boko Haram attacks.

The source, who craved anonymity, said, "It is unfortunate. Though the claim cannot be said to be genuine, the mere mentioning of members of the PDP as sponsors of the group is damaging.

"Now, we have been painted as the one trying to undermine the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, who is our national leader.

"It is like we are the one working against our own government. It is a serious allegation, which may affect the impression that people have about us."(cont) Read more,