₦airaland Forum

Enugu launches free internet service http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/28842/45/
Written by Tony Edike
Sunday, 15 February 2009












ENUGU—GOVERNOR Sullivan Chime of Enugu State yesterday, launched a free city wide wireless internet service in the coal city, saying his administration was determined to transform the state into one of the most technologically advanced state in the country.
Speaking during the launch, Chime said that the project which is a collaborative effort between the state government ad Zinox Technologies Ltd, an indigenous information communication technology (ICT) provider, was aimed at enriching knowledge base and enhancing access to new ideas and sources of obtaining up-to-date information on virtually all issues that daily agitate the minds of the people.

According to him, such ventures will provide platforms that would lead to the rapid technological development of the state and the country, stressing that if the people can be made to be computer and internet-compliant, “then we would have started the journey to social rejuvenation and economic prosperity on a bright note”.

He said, “It is a well-known fact that the internet has occupied and will continue to occupy a critical position in the development of nations and the enthronement of progressive ideas which will propel peoples and countries on the path of greatness. There are many instances all over the world where young men and women had utilized the platform provided by internet to make new findings. The question is: why not our own people?”

Dayo keita is a malian!
Besides i watchd udinese vs siena and obodo was good playn as a 10,making runs,giving pass,accurate passes and even created the goal with a classy pass!
Hope our coaches are watching!
Mikel is a waste!
Oliseh playd 4 and was mobile!
Essien,flamini,diarra,muntari are all dm's and we know how they play!

Sultan visits Prince Charles                                     http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art2009021511442239 
By Our correspondent
Published: Sunday, 15 Feb 2009
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa‘ad Abubakar, is expected to travel to England today (Sunday) as a special guest of Prince Charles, who is also known as the Prince of Wales.

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Prince of Wales, Prince Charle

The visit is on the invitation of Prince Charles.

”This is intended as a courtesy visit,” said a spokesperson from the Sultanate. ”It will also help to reinforce the positive relationship between the Sultanate and the English monarchy.”

That visit was in recognition of the sultans desire for world peace, cultural harmony and religious understanding,” said the spokesman.

The Sultan will be accompanied on his trip by the Galadima Sokoto, Alhaji Isa Bajini, Serikin Kudu, Muazu Abubakar and Kogunan Sokoto, Alhaji Danladi Bako.

They are expected back in Nigeria at the weekend

An emerging trend also is that of businesses folding up. Dunlop, for instance has folded up and may be relocating to Ghana. Part of the reason for the relocation is the unstable power supply in Nigeria. Checks shows that many businesses are already rethinking their continued stay in the country

@Ify
You too darling
Oh yes o, your brother did veeerrrryyyy well
I am even still wobbling inside

From his comments and conduct,the former ambassador has left us no iota of doubt that he was on drugs while in the US.

Dillwynia glaberrima is not the same plant as Oryza glaberrima

you picked USA, thats smart,  what about INDIA AND THE CHINESE.
Formed by immigrants too i guess,

Why do you refuse to fall in love with the name Nigeria?

how many states do you intend to take along as Biafra?
I guess RIVERS, BAYELSA, DELTA who are not IGBOS ARE INCLUDED,
Because they have oil.
You greedy man. Biafra will be like DUBAI as soon as they have Independence

Did you hear me say that we are no more interested in division, we are more interested in addition.
That means that if you can convince TOGO and BENIN REP to join us, you will become  hero,

Ijaw In The Diaspora: Their Hypocrisy Is Tiring     http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php/content/view/11397/55
Written by Sabella Ogbobode Abidde    
Tuesday, 03 February 2009
Sabella Ogbobode Abidde


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The Ijaw Ethnic Nationality is said to be indigenous to the coastal area of modern Nigeria. For more than seven hundred years, the Ijaw traded with and conducted diplomacy with the Europeans. And for much of recorded history, the region has been in a bedlam: the people opposed to marginalization, oppression and exploitation.

In so many ways, not much has changed since the Portuguese and the British first set foot in that part of the world. It was a breadbasket. They traded in palm oil and in various other agricultural resources. The region continues to be a breadbasket with its vast reservoir of oil and gas.

In recent years, especially within the last fifty years, the Ijaw Ethnic Group -- spread over six or more states -- wanted a Mecca, a Jerusalem. They wanted a Home. And so it was that a group of men and women endured sleepless nights and uncertain daylight hours just to actualize an Ijaw Homeland.  Their efforts seem wasted now as the younger generation has mostly engaged in local exploitation and marginalization of their own people.

First, a man name Alamieyeseigha came along to make a mess. He spat on his people’s face and showed them his middle finger. His calamitous rule was followed by the rudderless acts of Jonathan Goodluck.  As if the people had committed cardinal sins, their gods sent a lackey name Timipre Sylva. In rapid succession, they misappropriated the people’s resources and lay waste their dreams and aspirations.

Alamieyeseigha, Jonathan Goodluck and now Timipre Sylva: three sons of the soil soiled their heritage, made fun of their ancestors, mortgaged the people’s hope, and then went on to steal from posterity.

Not only did Alamieyeseigha and Jonathan Goodluck engage in criminality (as Governors of Bayelsa State), they also asphyxiated a burgeoning democratic culture. What is democracy without a thriving and healthy opposition? What is government without a freely expressed legitimacy conferred upon it by the people?

How do you positively impact people’s lives without a responsive, responsible and transparent government? And how does a society function without a populace that holds its government responsible for its actions and inactions.  No society can afford to be timid. No society can afford to be lackadaisical.

Indeed, no society can afford to be indifferent to the actions and pronouncements of its representatives. A society – any society -- that is afraid to caution, counsel and or reprimand its representatives is not only asking to be trampled upon, to be abused and to be used, it is indeed asking for disaster.

In a later date and exposition, I shall return to this theme -- a theme that demands further and careful analysis. The Ijaw, as we shall see, are in a critical stage in their history.

For now, it is the behavior and the pronouncements of the overseas-based Ijaw, the Diaspora Ijaw, which is vexing me -- specifically, those Ijaw who live in the UK, Canada, and the US. The vast majority are “God-fearing,” but there is a group (whose membership is increasing at an alarming rate) that is galling all decent Ijaw men and women.

We have Ijaw organizations that are simply useless, and in some cases, directionless. We have members and leaders within such organizations that have no clue as to their aims and objectives. We have leaders and members who steal and misappropriate public funds; yet, are very vocal when it comes to issues of crimes and corrupt practices in the Niger Delta.

There are Ijaw who, publicly, will abuse and attack and criticize government officials; yet, when government officials visit the United States, Canada or the UK, will be first in line genuflecting, running errands and getting involved in all sorts of duplicity and stupidity: they arrange prostitutes and call-girls for government officials; they help government officials hide money; and help them to export cars, furniture, electronics and other goods.

Some of these overseas-based Ijaw have no visible means of income other than the “maintenance allowance” they get from governors, ministers, commissioners and other high ranking public and private officials. They have become the gate-keepers, the treasury-keepers for thieves and rogues and political bastards.

We have gotten to the point where you cannot criticize members of the Ijaw-Diaspora who engages in criminality. We know they steal. We know they engage in shady deals; and we know they inflate contract costs. In fact, we know they get contracts that are mostly never executed. We know they are milking our people back home. Yet, we cannot criticize them.

If you are bold enough to say a word about their crimes, their surrogates and supporters will attack you. They will come after you.  And so one wonders: (a) How can you criticize the state governor or commissioner if you are also involved in shady deals; (b) How can you criticize the local government chair if you are also involved in criminalities; (c) How can you call for change and progress when you are a hindrance to change and progress; and (d) How can you call yourself a change agent if you have no tolerance for criticism?

When it is all said and done, some Ijaw in the Diaspora are worse than most of the elites back home. Given the chance, we’d commit more crimes than those who occupy official positions. Given the opportunity, they’d oppress, suppress, exploit and rape the less fortunate back home.

Given the way some Ijaw behave in the Western world -- once home and once given the opportunity to govern people and be in charge of the public purse -- they’d turn into a monster: proscribing opposition and prohibiting criticisms. But more than that, they’d engage in unparallel criminality.

Yes, no one is without sins. No one is without faults. And no one is perfect. Even so, we must do better; we must do more to set good examples and be beacons on the hill. If one is entrusted with an organization’s fund or if one is entrusted with public money -- one must give accurate and timely account; and one must respond to all questions.

One cannot and must not hide or refuse to answer questions in the name of privacy. Imagine what such a person or group of people would do if entrusted with millions and millions of the state’s monthly allocation.

And so it is that today – especially within the last five years -- a sizeable number of overseas-based Ijaw have been co-opted into looting the state’ treasury. They are silent, when they should speak up. They look the other way, when they should raise alarm over indecent behaviors. They giggle when they should be condemning crimes and transgressions. Their hypocrisy and their indecent indulgence are tiring. It really is.

Sabidde@yahoo.com

President Umaru Yar’Adua has appro-ved the immediate recall of Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States, retired Brigadier-General Oluwole Rotimi, for “gross insubordination.”
Sources at the Nigerian embassy in Washington DC said the decision to recall Rotimi followed his running disagreement with the Foreign Affairs Minister, Ojo Maduekwe, over issues bordering on activities of the mission, policy, protocol and hierarchy.
The disagreement that was said to have started last year resulted in a series of correspondence between Maduekwe and Rotimi, culminating in a letter written by the latter in which he called the minister a tribalist and boasted, “I have dealt with people like you in the past. I was the Adjutant General of the Nigerian army that thoroughly defeated your ragtag Biafran army.”

American Invents Music Hearing Device in USA.

When will something be done in the urban squalor of Ogunpa and Amunigun? When will Ibadan roads be rid of the undesirable road traders? When will appropriate flyovers be constructed in Molete-Ring Road and other intersections tying up Ibadan traffic? When will the Lagos type of discipline come to Ibadan and other towns in the state? What is happening in Ibadan is a collective shame of the entire country. It is unimaginable that the Federal Government is unconcerned about the deplorable situation in Ibadan. Can Washington D. C. ignore the collapse of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago simply because there are state governments in such places?If the local authority in Ibadan does not know what to do,the Federal Governmen even if out of shame, should call the attention of the state government to it.

Thank go we now have somebody that can proffer solution  to "THE CAUSE OF THE EFFECT", o ya now, Mr lectural lecture us oooo.

Sincerely, I have lost confidence in our public security system long ago. A high ranking police officer ( don't know his position but he should be as high as AIG) lives in the same estate with us and there is usually tight security(police) presence in the evenings, and my family members used to feel confident, easily quoting that to claim that our area is safe. But I always dismiss this that we are on our own o. That cannot stop the 'owners' from coming to claim their 'properties'. Afterall, a couple of yaers ago it was reported in papers how armed robbers robbed a police station in Katsina state at broad daylight, carting away the policemen's salaries.

This is just the beginning!

Reports from the Central Bank of Nigeria shows that Nigeria was in recession since 2006 when the Bank started proposing for the devaluation of the currency

Kidnappers place N100m price on Rep’s undergraduate daughter
From JAMES OJO, OLUWOLE AKINBOYEWA and LAMBERT TYEM,Abuja.
Friday, February 13, 2009http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2009/feb/13/national-13-02-2009-01.htm


Photo: Sun News Publishing

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A gang of kidnappers on Wednesday evening stormed Gwagwalada, the host town of University of Abuja and abducted the daughter of a member of the Representatives from Opodo/Andoni Federal Constituency of Rivers State, Hon. Christopher Beriwari in a commando style.

Daily Sun gathered that Teresa Beriwari, a 100 level Medical student was standing in front of her residence in Owoye Housing Estate, Gwagwalada, when the abductors, numbering five, alighted from a car, bundled her into the vehicle and zoomed off. They also allegedly made away with her car.

The shout of the lady was said to have attracted people in the vicinity, but they could not do anything to stop the kidnappers as they sped off to escape any attack.
Shortly after she was abducted, the kidnappers contacted Hon. Beriwari, asking him to pay N100 million as ransom for her daughter’s freedom. It was gathered that Hon Beriwari, after discussing with the kidnappers, informed the Speaker of the House, Dimeji Bankole.

When contacted on phone yesterday, Beriwari was too shocked to respond to enquiries, as his voice was barely audible. A member close to him, however, said negotiation with the kidnappers was on and that they had reduced the asking price from N100million to N50million as at 2p.m.
He said the matter had been reported to the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro who promised to secure the release of the girl without paying any ransom.
But the Abuja Command Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Moshood Jimoh said he had not been fully briefed on the development and asked to be given some time to find out what actually happened from his boss

He told me that Nigerians in Nigeria even have their own currency not naira,like they created their own money they use among themself.

@asha 80,
My goodfriend, I am still in mid air, I haven't even landed yet. You spoke too soon.[/quote]

Instead of a revolution, I highly suggest that we start assassinating these men.