₦airaland Forum

Nothing embarrasses me — Obasanjo
By Emeka Ezekiel
Published: Monday, 30 Mar 2009
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has declared that nothing can embarrass him.

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Photo file
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo

Obasanjo , who spoke to journalists at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, on Sunday, was reacting to the allegation that he was booed and stoned with eggs in London penultimate week.

“Nothing embarrasses me. Not even you journalists,” Obasanjo told journalists who sought his reaction over the alleged ugly incident in London

The former president, who arrived Nigeria aboard a presidential aircraft marked 5N-AGF, later dashed into a dark Mercedes M-Class, after exchanging banters with journalists

Two weeks ago , Obasanjo was reportedly booed by scores of African students who besieged the London School of Economics where he delivered a lecture on the unrest in Democratic Republic of Congo.

The former President delivered a lecture on “Eastern DRC: What should the international community be doing?” along with David Leonard and James Putzel, both experts on the Congolese crisis.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200903304341768

does it really matter who wins.

Why dont the Osun people make history and put an easterner in the govt house. After all, going by Fani Kayode and so many Osun nairalanders eg Deepzone, bawomolo, debosky, sauron (or where did he say he's from), etc they seem to be the Yoruba state that loves easterners the most. I used to think it was Ogun after they supplanted Oyo, but Osun is the one taking the cake now.


And who says an Igbo man wont perform better than most of the governors they've had so far.

They should show their openmindedness and become the first Yoruba state to have a civilian non-Yoruba governor.

Nya bu egwu di mma.

A requiem for my town
By Stephen Gbadamosi

When the poet, John Pepper Clark, wrote in his poem, Ibadan, that the city is a “running splash of rust and gold,” it was not lost on those who could read between the lines that he was not merely referring to the spread of rusty roofs that one sees in and aerial view of the city. Clark knew that Ibadan had potentials; gold! He also knew that despite hosting the first university in Nigeria, Ibadan, lags behind in finesses, erudition and ‘civilisation’.


But then, poem connoisseurs thought that as time went on, ‘the rust will eventually turn to gold’. It is not my argument that Ibadan has not produced sons and daughters who can hold their heads high in any segment of the society, but we should look around us, several years after, the rustiness is still with us.


A few days ago, I was returning from the office on a chattered motorcycle, okada, several of which are rode by our brothers who are still of school age as a means of livelihood. We got to Mapo and ran into a traffic gridlock caused by hundreds of adherents of a local god who are celebrating a festival. Again, it is not my argument that our culture should perish, but that 90 per cent of those revelers were youths in the age bracket of 13 to 25 was a cause for concern. More worrisome was the fact that the festival offered them the impunity to do what even their parents should be ashamed of doing, were they to be more civilised. Apart from chants of sexual obscenities that should be a taboo for their age grade, I saw many scantity-dressed girls smoking indian hemp and cigarettes in the crowd! Reaching in his pouch of experience, my Okada rider quickly warned me to put away my mobile phones and wrist watch. But for him, I would have kissed them bye-bye, because, right in front of us, a rider lost his to hemp-wielding teenagers without complaining.


A sitting commissioner recently told the Nigerian Tribune that Ibadan, my cherished town, was the dirtiest city in Nigeria. “Take a ride from Molete through Idi-Arere to Oje and so on, your vehicle would match on nylon bags and it would burst; it’s human faeces that’s inside,” he said.


Yes, the present government is trying to address the situation, like the emptying of their thrash bins in the gullies when it rains? In Ibadan, the most popular professions are commercial vehicles driving, bus conductor work, Okada riding and meat selling. Alas, gone are the days when you find such professions being manned by the aged like our own good Baba Eleran of the 3SC fame (may his soul rest in peace). Today, it is illiterate teenagers that populate such occupations. It is not uncommon to find behind the steering wheel of your commercial bus, a boy using pillow to support his seat so as to view through the windshield. Bodija, Itamerin, Oje, New Bola Ige and many such other markets are where you would find most of Ibadan school-age persons today. Yet, it is said that the future belongs to this category of people. Where then lies the future of Ibadan?

The people of Ibadan, one must say, need to wake up from their slumber. Gone are the days when, in other climes, residents organised parties on major roads, creating headache for other road users. In Ibadan, it is still in vogue. The worshippers earlier referred to blocked the Bere-Oje-Gate road from the roundabout to Kanike junction because of an organistic party to herald the worship of their deity. Theirs was on a Wednesday. On Saturdays, when school compounds are usually free for party goers to use, the people of Ibadan would prefer to block a major road for the sake of partying. They would rather party in front of their fathers’ houses.


To a considerable percentage of the economically useful populace of Ibadan, education is not a necessity. It is the ability to earn money on a daily basis that matters most. Even those in primary schools close to take up the work of bus conductor and, sometimes, petty trading. For how long do we continue to blame poverty for the result of our own lackadaisical attitude?


The truth is that, we are daily breeding thugs, miscreants and potential armed robbers. Beer parlours and paraga joints are being proliferated in the town and it is these school-age persons that you mostly find there. Most school compounds in the city serve a secondary purpose of hemp joint in the evenings, at weekends and during holidays. You would be amazed to know how many children visit such joints regularly. Ibadan is on the tentherhook.

Woe betides any woman that passes around Bere, Oja-oba, Bodija, Alaro in Sango, Oremeji, Olorunsogo, Iwo Road, Gate and such other areas of the town around 12:00 p.m. Night life in Ibadan has turned into nightmare. A lady recently told a gory tale of how she closed at her shop in Alaro area of Sango at about 10:30 p.m. and as she was waiting for an Okada to board home, two young men alighted from an Okada and demanded for her money and cell phones. She was recalcitrant until she received a deep matchet cut on her back after which the boys made away with her phones and bag. Ibadan, where do you go from here?


The political upheavals of the 2007 elections were unleashed by teenagers mostly. At the governorship primaries held in the town in December 2006, precisely at ward four in Ibadan North Local Government area in Yemetu, a man in his late 20s, an alfa (an Arabic scholar), was seen wielding a machete to scare away members of another political party. Ibadan is playing with its future.


Let the people know that poverty, their usual alibi, will not be there to answer to any charges when the doomsday comes. May it never come. But Ibadan is dying; if my people are listening, they should please help save the precious soul?


Gbadamosi is on the staff of Tribune

Ghanaian Vice-President John Dramani Mahama has attributed the increasing exodus of Nigerian businessmen and other investors into the country to what he called a safe, secure, politically stable democratic environment in place in Ghana.
He said it was reassuring that in this period of global economic meltdown, Ghana continued to see an increase in interest in foreign investors willing to invest in the country.
Mahama spoke at the weekend in Accra, Ghana at the launch of a Nigerian company, eTransact, which is engaged in electronic payment system.
“All over the world, investors are sensitive to the business and political environment and would only put their capital in environment that they consider safe, secure and conducive. I believe that the current spate of interest of the investor community is the result of what we have been able to achieve collectively as a nation since the adoption of the 1992 Constitution- a safe, secure, politically stable democratic nation in which the rule of law is faithfully upheld,” he said.
By investing in Ghana, the country’s vice-president said eTransact was introducing into the country a facility that in today’s IT driven world had become very imperative for economic growth.
“The use of any electronic transactions platform would reduce the need for cash and would enhance the creation of credit by the financial sector. It would also reduce the huge outlay we spend on currency printing at the moment,” Mahama said.
The launch held at the State House, Accra, Ghana was attended among others by the Ghanaian Minister of Commerce Haruna Idrissu; Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Paul Acquah; Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the country, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro; bank executives and captains of industry in Ghana and their counterparts in Nigeria.
The Global CEO of eTransact Valentine Obi said eTransact Ghana was set up to provide cutting edge innovative financial switching and electronic payment solutions for the Ghanaian financial sector.
He described the company as a pan-African organisation with operations in four other African countries and the United Kingdom.
Obi said most African countries were deeply cash-based economies with over 60 per cent of money outside the banking system, disclosing that eTransact was out to take African payment system to the next level.
According to him, the mission of eTransact is to provide secure, convenient and cost effective means to make and receive payments.
Harnessing the power of internet, mobile phone, ATM and POS terminals, Obi said eTransact is positioned to be the leading global financial switching solution in Africa and worldwide.
Acquah, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, said the country’s financial sector remained healthy following some transformation it had gone through.
He said the sector had been built on a set of legislation and regulations that had established a framework for the development of a modern banking and financial services industry.


http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=139542

By Godwin Ijediogor, Samson Ezea and Olawunmi Ojo http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article01//indexn2_html?pdate=280309&ptitle=Pro,%20Anti-Soludo%20Forces%20In%20Succession%20Battle

POWER hawks backing and opposing the reappointment of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have taken their campaign to the Presidency.

Soludo's tenure expires in May, this year.

The Guardian learnt that camps, who are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that their candidates get picked by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, have not given Aso Rock a breathing space on the matter.

A source in the Presidency confirmed to The Guardian the on-going supremacy contest between the two camps in the seat of power, but remarked that the President was still weighing the options before him.

"You know that since President Yar'Adua assumed office, new power hawks have emerged in the Presidency, mainly from the North-West axis. They decide who gets what and Soludo is not in their good book; that is why they have been doing everything possible to rubbish his achievements, including the scuttling of his policy on naira redenomination and the controversy over Federal Government's alleged investment in the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).

"Also, in alliance with this camp are some bank executives, whose outfits failed to meet the recapitalization policy deadline, which had forced them out of business since 2005," the source added.

The official said this camp believes that Soludo's removal could pave way for drastic changes in banking policies that could bring them back to business.

The allegation of employing people from mainly the South at the apex bank is said to be part of the plot by the anti-Soludo forces to discredit him. The same group is allegedly behind the ongoing media campaign, claiming that Soludo plans to contest the next governorship election in Anambra State to divert attention from his reappointment.

Those making a case for Soludo's retention are mainly bank executives and other Nigerians, including some prominent leaders from the North, who are impressed with the CBN chief's performance in office. They are said to be asking the President to keep Soludo on the job because a new entrant may not easily come up with a feasible economic blueprint and prompt response to challenges posed by the current global economic realities. They are said to have argued that such a sensitive position should not be politicized.

In fact, a prominent traditional ruler from the North Central geopolitical zone told The Guardian that Soludo's re-appointment should not be a matter of controversy, having paid his "dues diligently."

"It takes more than the discipline and commitment of a man like Soludo to take the banking sector where it is today. If reforms were not carried out in the banking sector, I wonder what would have happened to the banks in the face of the global economic crunch.

"Although those that are being touted to replace him from the North are qualified, the economic situation in the country today needs a person who has the experience and vision," he added.

The monarch said Yar'Adua was only concentrating major appointments due to the North in his Northwest zone, instead of spreading them across the entire region.

He said the idea of releasing appointments into federal boards and parastatals piecemeal was a plot by the Presidency to divert attention of Nigerians and a smokescreen to deceive Nigerians, especially northerners from North Central and Northeast zones.

Those accusing Soludo of not giving their banks more time to recapitalize are allegedly losing grounds on the issue as his supporters flaunt the CBN write-off the debt of many banks to the tune of N730 billion to enable them reposition. It is believed that the extension of that treatment to the Bank of the North, which failed to meet the deadline, has further deflated the claims.
A source in CBN told The Guardian that Soludo came under severe attack and pressure for taking the decision, but that he defended the actions, arguing that it was to help some sick banks owing their staff and others to recapitalize.

Findings at CBN headquarters in Abuja show indifference among the workers, though most of them, naturally, are in support of Soludo's re-appointment.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the intense politicking being generated by the choice of replacement for Soludo, former Presidential candidate, Prof. Pat Utomi has urged the presidency to ensure that only a competent hand is appointed to the office.

Utomi said the idea of using geographical balancing as an excuse to appoint incompetent hands into sensitive offices should be never be allowed to rear its ugly head in the matter at hand.

On insinuations that the presidency is angling for a northerner and possibly one of the president's cronies as Soludo's successor, Utomi said: "I really do not care who is nominated to be governor of CBN so long as he is competent and can do the job. I understand it is the politics of Nigeria but in my view, there are certain positions we should not even get into this geo-political thing."

He said that whereas he is convinced that there are very good people from all parts of Nigeria who can do very well, he equally believes if the CBN governor must come from the north, there are capable persons from the region. "The problem I have is the way we use the geographical thing as excuse to bring in incompetent cronies while there are competent people from that same part of the country. My view is that we must put competent people there.

"We must also bear in mind something that was not well managed during the Obasanjo tenure. Whoever would be appointed should be confirmed through hearings by the National Assembly. The president should not just unilaterally appoint the CBN governor," he surmised.

Home  Authors  Kunle Owojori  Letter To Carol Bartz (CEO, Yahoo! Inc.) Letter To Carol Bartz (CEO, Yahoo! Inc.)     http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/kunle-owojori/letter-to-carol-bartz-ceo-yahoo-inc.html
Written by Kunle Owojori   
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
March 23, 2009

Carol Bartz, CEO
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Dear Ms Bartz,

Unfair Characterization of Nigeria on Yahoo! Inc. Internal Content Webpage

I wish to call your attention to a web page on the Yahoo! search engine under the Yahoo! Abuse Help Topics titled, ‘How do I report email scams, such as Nigerian "419" scams or other advance fee scams’? - http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/abuse/abuse-110240.html I found this page by accident while trying to find some help on how to make some changes on my personal Yahoo! account.

By singling out and characterizing Nigeria in this manner on an internally controlled webpage on your search engine, Yahoo! Inc. is unfairly perpetuating the terrible image that the government and the majority of the people of my country, Nigeria, has been working hard to dispel. The characterization is also without regard to the progress made over the last few years by the Nigerian government to aggressively target and prosecute internet fraudsters and to repatriate recovered proceeds to victim foreign companies and individuals. The progress made over the years especially by the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), http://www.efccnigeria.org/, has been widely acknowledged by a number of international institutions/agencies.

I am not under any illusion concerning the depth and nature of corruption and other social problems in Nigeria, but contrary to the perception currently perpetuated on the webpage in question, one of the areas Nigeria is making relatively good progress is in eliminating internet fraud, including email scams. As I strongly believe that you are aware, the web of today’s email scam industry spurns across the globe, from North America to Asia, Russia, Europe, and Africa. Your webpage unfairly singles out Nigeria and perpetually implies Nigeria to be the epicentre of global email scams and advance fee fraud, irrespective of the progress that has been made by the government and the people to the contrary.

I am appealing to you and your team at Yahoo! to review the contents of this webpage and remove this outdated characterization (at best) and unfair reference to Nigeria immediately. I love my country like you love yours and it breaks my heart to imagine how many uninformed and unfair opinions are formed everyday by potentially millions of Yahoo! users who visit or stumble on this webpage like I did. Unfortunately, it is very likely that any visitor to this webpage, even with no prior encounter with anything Nigeria or Nigerians, will go away with the unfair impression that Nigeria, a country of over 140 million mostly decent, hardworking and proud people, is simply a country of mostly email scammers and advance fee fraudsters. This, when the current reality is that email and advance fee scams with all its common elements, including counterfeiting, identity theft, fake wire transfers, email hijackings and fake websites are now as widespread all over the world as the internet itself. Also as it is being shown by the various daily revelations (including many that are still unfolding) in connection with the current global economic crisis, corruption and greed is not an exclusive trait of any single country or people.

As I look forward to the review and removal by Yahoo! of any unfair specific reference to Nigeria, I will suggest replacing the webpage title with something like, ‘How do I report email scams, including advance fee scams’?  I will visit this webpage every week and continue to direct attention to this until all unfair references to Nigeria are removed from its contents. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

Regards,

[Signed]

Kunle Owojori

Copied:



1. Susan Decker, President, Yahoo! Inc.

2. Hilary Schneider, Executive VP, Yahoo! North America

3. Michael J. Callahan, Executive VP (General Counsel and Secretary), Yahoo! Inc.

4. Dora Akunyili, Nigerian Minister of Information and Communications

5. Farida Waziri, Executive Chairman, Nigerian EFCC

6. The Guardian newspaper (Nigerian)

7. ThisDay newspaper (Nigerian)

On delivery, rythm, flows nd rhyming. Lord of Ajasa na baba, listen to Awe o, collabo, grammar, le fenu so, kekere, esha loba de. U'll understand beta