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Abuja – Players and officials of the victorious U-23
National Team, Dream Team VI, which lifted the
Africa U-23 Cup of Nations on Saturday night, will
arrive in the country on Monday.
According to the team’s itinerary, the team will
depart from the Leopold Senghor Int’l Airport on
Monday at 3 a.m. aboard an Arik flight.
The team is expected to arrive at the Murtala
Mohammed International Airport, Lagos at 9 a.m.
and is expected to board another Arik flight to Abuja.
Meanwhile, a statement posted on the Nigeria
Football Federation (NFF), website, the three foreign-
based players invited for the championship, have
since returned to their different clubs.
The players are Captain Azubuike Okechukwu and the
duo of Junior Ajayi and Taiwo Awoniyi who played in
the forward line.
The players departed for their bases on Saturday
night immediately after the Dream Team VI returned
to its Alafifa Hotel base from the Stade Léopold Sédar
Senghor. www.adeatom..com/2015/12/african-u-23-championship-victorious.html?m=1 Let appreciate these boys Cc: lalasticlala seun dominique ishilove

Following Saturday’s violent clash between the
Nigerian Army and members of the Muslim sect,
Shiite, in Zaria, Kaduna State, which reportedly led to
the death of scores of the sect’s members, the Shiite
group on Sunday, took to the streets of Bauchi,
Potiskum in Yobe State and Birnin Gwari in Kaduna
State to protest the killings of their members.
Recall that following the violent clash, which
paralysed commercial and vehicular activities in the
ancient city of Zaria, the Nigerian Army and the
Muslim sect have continued to trade blames as to
who instigated the clash.
While the Nigerian Army alleged that members of the
sect attempted to assassinate the Chief of Army Staff
(COAS), Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai, when he visited Zaira
on Saturday, the sect has denied it, describing the
allegation as “blatant lies.” www.adeatom..com/2015/12/photos-shiites-protest-killing-of.html?m=1
Below are photos of the protests. Cc: lalaticlala Seun

dearpiriye:
Hi guys, nice to be here

welcome

Cc: lalasticlala

The National President of Igbo Youths Movement,
IYM, Evangelist Elliot Uko has given reasons MASSOB
and IPOB would not give up the fight for the
actualisation of Biafra Republic. Elliot said that the
over six million MASSOB members were protesting
what he described as the “shameful bootlicking and
crumb picking culture of a large section of Igbo elite,”
which they believed was largely responsible for the
pitiable condition of Igbo land.
Biafra protesters
He further said that Ndigbo had been aggrieved
against Nigeria for over 45 years now due to
marginalisation in all spheres of life, pointing out that
MASSOB and IPOB leaders were afraid of bringing up
children that would be treated as slaves in their own
country. He spoke in an interview with newsmen in
Enugu, weekend.
Exercepts:
Enugu—The Pro-Biafra boys are alleged to have
burnt down a mosque in Onitsha; don’t you think
this ongoing protest is getting out of hand?
My dear brother, I am as worried as you are, I find it
difficult to sleep at night when I remember what will
happen if this protesting army runs into Fulani
herdsmen or if they match through Lokpanta near
Okigwe or Amansia near Awka where Northerners
live and do business. These are troubled times
indeed, I have just talked to their leaders, but they
denied burning the mosque in Onitsha. All the same,
I together with some respected Igbo elders plan to
meet with them this week in order to plead with them
to give peace a chance.
Everybody agrees that violence is not the way to go
and that the Federal Government must sit down with
the authentic leaders of IPOB and MASSOB
immediately. These boys really feel unwanted and
isolated by Nigeria. For 40,000 people to march on
the street day in day out means that they believe in
something unique.
The silence of Igbo leaders and elders is a source
of worry to everybody.
People are unfair to Igbo elders, the elders are more
afraid than anybody else. They do not control these
boys; besides, everybody knows that Ndigbo have
been aggrieved for 45 years. Every Igbo man or
woman knows that Nigeria is merely subsisting at the
expense of Ndigbo.
Ndigbo are deliberately excluded in Nigeria. The boys
mobilized themselves and grew into millions over the
last 15 years. It is a delicate and dangerous
enterprise confronting them. If you ask them to calm
down they call you a traitor, if you openly identify
with their grievances Nigeria will brand you their
sponsor, everybody is scared.
You said Ndigbo have been aggrieved since 1970,
how, why?
The code of silence over the usually undiscussed
reality of the Nigerian political equation is not
helping matters. Nigeria thrives at the exclusion of
one zone; others pretend that is fine and all right as
long as the youths of that zone have not taken up
arms. Everybody knows that the delineation of
federal constituencies was specifically designed to
favour and disfavour certain zones.
Evang. Elliot Uko
The creation of states and local governments were
also designed to cage and hold down Ndigbo
because they lost a war. Discerning people always
knew that a generation will rise someday to question
that injustice, may be that day has come. These
young people are clearly saying that the present
structure of Nigeria is unacceptable to them. The
present government also chose to rub it in to Ndigbo
that they are lost and finished.
Every commentator mocks them to no end that they
put all their eggs in one basket and therefore, they
are in trouble. One Junaid Muhammed advised them
to go to war again if they are still bitter. Mr. President
himself announced to the world in far-away America
that he has a formula of governance known as 5/97
per cent. Everybody painted gloom and hopelessness
to the Igbo, laughing at them.
The youngsters now believe that they have no stake
in Nigeria, that they would rather fight and die for
freedom than remain eternal slaves. These are self-
evidence truths that Nigerians shy away from,
assuaging aggrieved Ndigbo through affirmative
action.
Instead of initiating genuine attempt to restructure
Nigeria along the line of true federalism, Nigerians of
all ages and status choose only to mock and remind
them: that your zone is landlocked; you have
investments all over the country; you are not sure
southern minorities will flow with you; and we will
fight you and conquer you again.
Nigerians justify the injustice against Ndigbo for two
main reasons: They believe secession is difficult to
attain, therefore, the injustice against Ndigbo should
continue. The fierce envy towards the Igbo man
because of his God- given talent makes it difficult for
others to empower him politically. Therefore,
everybody seems comfortable with the oppression of
Igbo man, as everybody conveniently pretends that
they are not aware that the Igbo man has been
denied his rightful place in Nigeria since 1970.
These are the roots of the birth of an army of five to
six million young men who say they want to be out of
Nigeria. Everybody knows the solution to this
insanity, it’s just that some people believe Nigeria is
their property.
What is the way forward?
These boys, who are so well organised with branches
all over the world, told me that they are clearly tired
of Nigeria. They believe Nigeria will never give them
justice, they are afraid of tomorrow, they don’t want
to give birth to children, who will remain political
slaves in their country and despised by all.
They are angry at the fraudulent census figures
where states who give themselves five and six million
population in the North East and North West,
produce only 10,000 candidates for West African
School Certificate Examination, WASCE, while the
states they gave 2.8 million population here in the
South East produce 350,000 candidates for WASCE
yearly. How do you reconcile that?
The disparity in Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examination, UTME, cut off mark between the north
and southern students embitters South East students.
They strongly believe that if the oil wells that sustain
Nigeria were located in the North East or North West
that Nigeria would have split decades ago.
They believe that the peace of 1970 was forced on
them with the help of Russian jets, Egyptians pilots,
British military advisers and the wicked blockade that
led to starvation, everybody knows that the peace of
Nigeria is the one that is forced on people by the
force of arm, but peace that endures is agreed by
consensus and built on true federalism; peace that
gives everybody a sense of belonging where nobody
is born to rule and no section is oppressed, that is
the peace everybody wants.
And the peace Nigeria needs, these boys are angry
because some people in Nigeria have sworn that they
will block every attempt at amicably addressing the
unresolved national question.
What actually is this unresolved national
question?
A willingness to address the fears and grievances of
Nigerians across the six zones. I can only talk about
the South East where I know that the younger Ndigbo
are so bitter with Nigeria and the formula which
Nigeria applies on Ndigbo for decades now. For
instance, *Erroneous application of the very wrong
strategy of compromising large sections of the elite
of the oppressed zones in the false belief that they
could be useful in holding their own people down in
the event of a rebellion.
*The mindless and single minded commitment to the
breeding of quislings and vassals in the oppressed
zones, who are deliberately empowered by external
forces just for the sole purpose of weakening the
elite base of Ndigbo. The idea is to make a large
number of them to own allegiances and loyalty to
power bases outside Igbo land
*The abuse and talking down of youth activists, who
genuinely believe that it is better and more
honourable to die fighting for freedom than to
remain in perpetual slavery. The truth is government
can only succeed when the Federal Government gets
down to reality and acknowledges and regards them.
*The dangerous and false belief that secessionist
agitators can be intimidated by threat of military
action. In actual fact, the use of force can only result
to pouring petrol to fire. *The continuous insistence
that the lopsided structure of state, local government
and delineation of federal constituencies based by
land mass is iron cast. As this remains the root of
much bitterness to those, who genuinely feel short-
changed by the military creations.
*The refusal to create and adopt a people’s
constitution based on true federalism, as the
majority of Nigeria do not have faith in the 1999
military constitution. *The shameful boot-licking and
crumb-picking culture of a large section of Igbo elite,
something the young generation, not only believes is
disgraceful, but largely responsible for the pitiable
condition of Igbo land.
*They believe by 99 per cent of Ndigbo that most
Igbo organisations are merely tools designed by the
elite to achieve relevance as opposed to the great
need to protect and promote group interest. Nobody
believes they are interested one bit in group interest.
*The continuous encouragement by the oppressive
Nigerian state to practise carpet-bagging on Ndigbo,
thereby, successfully dividing the masses and the so-
called leaders. Imposed leadership, has remained
the biggest problem facing Ndigbo. As the queer
political structure of Nigerians makes it possible for
external forces to influence, who and who emerges
as leaders in Igboland.
*The blunt refusal by Nigeria to face the reality that
someday, a generation of Ndigbo will arise, who will
reject the unending humiliation of Igbo race. Worried
about the future of their unborn children. This
generation will fight for their honour. That day has
come.
*The ongoing Pro-Biafra agitation has clearly split
Nigerians, and Ndigbo along three and six broad
groups respectively. Amongst Nigerians, the first
group are angry at Biafran boys and want them
crushed even if it means spilling blood.
The second group wants Federal Government to
reassure the East, by addressing infrastructure decay
and draw the East closer to Federal Government
through appointments and other incentives that will
give Ndigbo a sense of belonging to avoid crises of
any sort.
The third group wants Nigeria to use this opportunity
to find lasting solution to the lingering unresolved
national question. They want Nigeria restructured
along the lines of true federalism. They know that
when Nigerians agree peacefully on how best to stay
together that Nigeria will unleash her God given
potential towards true greatness.
For the Igbo, the first of the six groups are the Pro-
Biafra boys, who believe Nigeria hates them with
passion, that salvation lies only in actualizing a
separate state, where no one will oppress them
again. The second group is afraid of and averse to
bloodshed, they don’t want anything that will lead to
violence, they pray for peace and harmonious co-
existence.
The third group are quisilings and opportunists, who
as always are only out for their own pocket either
way, they don’t care about the future of the country,
they work against everything good as long as they
pick crumbs that fall off the table. They exploit every
situation just to advance their self-interest. They
ruthlessly take advantage of every situation to benefit
themselves. Their philosophies is me, myself and I.
They are usually everywhere in situations like this,
running up and down as informants and agents of
oppressors while pretending to mean well. The
fourth group are selfish leaders who try to cash in on
the situation to achieve relevance. Pricked always by
their conscience that they are neither respected nor
accepted by Ndigbo as their leaders, they always
form convenient cabals in their struggle to present
themselves as the leaders.
They run to Northern leaders, Presidency and
organisations of all sorts, pretending to have the
answers to the problem, they claim they control the
Biafran boys which is false, they hustle to put
themselves into and inside every arrangement, their
desperation for relevance knows no bounds. They
don’t believe in anything.
The fifth group are clearly the majority, they
empathise with the Biafran boys, but they don’t
believe secession is the only solution. They are sitting
on the fence, they will only throw in with the Biafran
boys if the Federal Government applies force. The
Biafran boys are their sons, cousins, brothers,
among others. They believe in the justice of the
struggle, but they lack the courage to join now.
The sixth and final group are honest Igbo men and
women, who know that only a presentation of the
truth will save the country. What is the truth? That
Nigeria should return to true federalism in order to
give every section a sense of belonging. This group,
where I believe I belong, is standing up for truth,
knowing full well, that they will not be popular with
the oppressive elements of Nigeria who want to
sustain at all costs this unsustainable unitary
structure.
They also know that elements within the F.G. are only
interested in those Ndigbo who will help to crush
these boys without addressing the real root of the
problem, the root and the truth is that Nigeria must
be restructured without delay. Not heeding to the
truth is only postponing the evil day.
What is your final word?
Mr. President must as a matter of urgency meet with
authentic leaders of IPOB and MASSOB. That meeting
is the only way forward now. Source: www.vanguardngr.com/2015/12/why-massob-ipob-agitations-will-not-stop-igbo-youths-movement/ cc Lalasticlala Seun Ishilove dominique

Soldiers accused of disobeying orders in fight against
Boko Haram were sentenced to death in Nigeria
[Olamikan Gbemiga/AP]
Lagos, Nigeria - As much of the rest of the world
geared up to celebrate winter holidays in December
last year, a group of 54 soldiers formerly deployed to
fight Nigerian Islamists stood in front of a court
martial in Abuja.
Among them, one young man listened in shock as the
court found him guilty of mutiny and sentenced him
to death by firing squad.
"We did not fire on anybody. And we didn't threaten
anybody. They are just punishing us for an unknown
sin," he explained over the phone from Lagos, where
the soldiers are being held in military detention.
Their only "rebellion", he said, was to ask for
weapons before undertaking an offensive against
Boko Haram fighters who have caused the deaths of
nearly 15,000 people during a six-years of fighting
in Nigeria's northeast.
After almost eight months in custody, their panic is
rising.
"Things are going as if we are not in the civilian
regime any more," the soldier said, referring to
previous periods of military rule.
"Soldiers were never sentenced like this before,"
argued Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer who
represents the soldier and the 53 convicted with him.
In total, Nigeria sentenced 70 soldiers to death in
2014, in trials which were perceived by many as an
attempt to shift blame for the failure to curb Boko
Haram's bloody expansion.
"They are being persecuted for the failure of the
state," Falana stated.
Those convictions have contributed to a huge spike in
the number of death sentences awarded in Africa's
most populous nation.
Some 659 people were sentenced to hang or die by
firing squad in 2014, Amnesty International found in
a report earlier this year, compared with 141 the
year before.
China is believed to sentence and execute thousands
of people annually, but it keeps its data secret. In 55
countries tracked by Amnesty last year, Nigeria
accounted for over a quarter of the total 2,466 death
penalties handed out.
“
They brought the statement and wanted me to say I
was the one to write it, but I was not... In the same
hand I was shot, they pulled out the nails with pliers.”
Moses Akatugba, victim of torture while in prison
Chinonye Obiagwu, a lawyer who chairs Nigeria's
Human Rights Agenda Network, explained that this is
partly because Nigeria imposes a mandatory death
sentence on non-heinous crimes like armed
robbery. Adultery and sodomy are also punishable
by death under the Islamic law in effect in the
predominantly Muslim north.
"There is huge public support for the death penalty -
about 65 percent," he explained from his Lagos
chambers. Such sentiment may be boosted by
feelings of insecurity over the course of the
insurgency, Obiagwu added.
"When there is armed conflict there is always a
tendency for the society to support capital
punishment, not only for military offences but also
for crimes like armed robbery. So armed conflict
increases the possibility of conviction and sentence,"
Obiagwu said.

Punishing the poor

This worries activists who believe that the system is
skewed to discriminate against the poor.
Police, looking to close cases quickly, regularly stage
arbitrary raids, the activists told Al Jazeera.
The rich who are picked up can afford bribes, bail
and lawyers. Those who cannot often bear the scars
of brutal torture by security forces who extract
confessions under duress.
Moses Akatugba, who was illegally sentenced to
death as a minor in 2005, and is now free, was a
victim of one such pick-up. Aged just 16 at the time of
his arrest for armed robbery, he recalls being shot in
the hand before being taken into police custody,
where he was beaten and tied up in an interrogation
room.
"They brought the statement and wanted me to say I
was the one to write it, but I was not," he
remembers. "In the same hand I was shot, they
pulled out the nails with pliers. It was a hell of a thing
I went through."
Source: www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/08/nigeria-addiction-death-sentence-150804123550934.html cc: Lalasticlala , Seun , Ishilove , dominique

switcakes:
Pls edit your post properly

how do u mean pls

Just months after doctors announced the success of
the most extensive face transplant ever performed,
which gave a severely injured fireman new facial
features, better eyesight, and a full head of hair,
surgeons in the US have announced that they will be
performing the country's first ever p.enis transplant
within a year.

The procedure, which will attempt to transplant a
donor p.enis onto a young military veteran, will be the
third p.enis transplant ever performed. If successful,
the surgical team from Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine says it will continue to work with
veterans who have suffered traumatic injuries to
their genitals in the field.

According to the US Department of Defense Trauma
Registry, between 2001 and 2013, a total of 1,367
soldiers sustained injuries to their genitals in the line
of duty in Afghanistan or Iraq, mostly due to
homemade bombs detonating nearby. Most of these
soldiers were under 35 years of age, and have to
spend the rest of their lives dealing with a life-
altering injury that people don’t like to talk about.
"These genitourinary injuries are not things we hear
about or read about very often," W. P. Andrew Lee,
the chairman of plastic and reconstructive surgery at
Johns Hopkins, told Denise Grady at The New York
Times. "I think one would agree it is as devastating as
anything that our wounded warriors suffer, for a
young man to come home in his early 20s with the
pelvic area completely destroyed."

The plan is to attach a p.enis from a deceased donor
to the veteran, and within months, restore proper
unitary function, feeling in the organ, and the ability
to have sex and maybe even father children (if the
testes remain). While these are all realistic goals - so
long as the recipient has retained certain nerves,
blood vessels, and his urethra - the success of the
procedure is far from certain.

So far, there have been just two p.enis transplants
performed in the world, and only one of these has
ended in success. The world’s first p.enis transplant
was completed in China in 2006, but two weeks after
the 15-hour procedure to attach a 10-cm donor penis
to the 44-year-old patient, it had to be removed
again.

While the donor p.enis worked fine, restoring urinary
function and the capacity to have sex, the recipient
just couldn’t get past the severe psychological effects
that can come from having someone else’s
appendage attached to your body.
"Because of a severe psychological problem of the
recipient and his wife, the transplanted p.enis
regretfully had to be cut off," Weilie Hu, a surgeon at
Guangzhou General Hospital, told the press at the
time.

The Guardian reported that an examination of the
organ showed no signs of it being rejected by the
body, but more recently, the Johns Hopkins surgeons
told The New York Times that photographs of the
transplant revealed patches of dead and peeling skin,
possibly because the penis had inadequate blood
flow.
"Psychological consequences of hand and face
allografts show that it is not so easy to use and see
permanently a dead person's hands, nor is it easy to
look in a mirror to see a dead person's face," French
surgeon, Jean-Michel Dubernard, who performed the
world's first face transplant in 2006, wrote in the
journal European Urology. "Clearly, in the Chinese
case the failure at a very early stage was first
psychological. It involved the recipient's wife and
raised many questions."

Fortunately, the world’s second penis transplant has
seen greater success so far. Performed on a young
man last year in South Africa, the procedure has not
only seen him regain proper unitary function, but
he’s been able to successfully father a child.
The team at Johns Hopkins has been given
permission to perform 60 penis transplants in the
coming years, and a study will be done on the results
to determine if the procedure can be upgraded from
'experimental' to being made available as a standard
treatment. While the university will be footing the bill
for this particular procedure, the cost would usually
be somewhere between US$200,000 and $400,000,
and at this stage, only army veterans will be eligible.


Recipients will then need to take anti-rejection
medicine for the rest of their lives, and a one-off
infusion of stem cells from the donor.
While some people have criticised the procedure as
unwarranted and non-essential because not having a
penis isn’t a life-threatening condition, doctors and
veterans alike say they cannot overstate the
importance of making procedures like this available.
"I don’t care who you are - military, civilian, anything
- you have an injury like this, it’s more than just a
physical injury," Sgt. First Class Aaron Causey, who
lost both his legs and most of his testicles in
Afghanistan, said to Denise Grady at The New York
Times, adding that the damage to his testicles was by
far more troubling to him than the loss of his legs.

"To be missing the penis and parts of the scrotum is
devastating," Richard J. Redett, director of paediatric
plastic and reconstructive surgery at Johns Hopkins,
told The Times. "That part of the body is so strongly
associated with your sense of self and identity as a
male. These guys have given everything they have.". Source: www.sciencealert.com/america-s-first-penis-transplant-will-be-performed-within-months cc: lalasticlala , Seun , dominique , Ishilove

The history of Nigerian aviation will be
incomplete without the mention of Maiduguri
and Kano city, where the first aircraft landed in
Nigeria on November 1, 1925.
It is exactly 90 years since the historic flights,
involving three De Havilland DH 9A aircraft belonging
to the Royal Air Force, RAF.
Vincent Orange’s book, the “Coningham: A Biography
of Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham”, vividly
captured the expedition.
The air trip, led by the then Flight Lt. Coningham,
began from Helwan (a town in Egypt) to Kano, with
several stopovers with Egypt, Sudan and N’Djamena –
then known as Fort Lamy.
Excerpts from pages 44 to 46 of the book revealed
details about the journey, including how the pilots
played polo with Emir of Zazzau, Ibrahim Kwasau and
how Shehu of Borno Sanda Kura offered them rams.
“By 1925, interest was growing in the problems and
possibilities of opening up the African continent to
civil aviation. The French and Belgians had plans for
their own territories and Britain did not wish to be
left behind. In September, the Air Ministry
announced that three DH 9as of 47 Squadron
(stationed at Helwan, near Cairo) would fly from
there to Kano in Nigeria ‘for the purpose of gaining
experience in long distance flights over tropical
countries, where few facilities in the way of the
ground organisation required by aircraft exist, and
with the object of allowing Nigeria to see the
capabilities of British aircraft’.
“The venture would be led by Squadron Leader
Coningham. His major problems would be navigation
and engines. Although there were wireless
telegraphy stations at some points along the route,
the aircraft carried no transmitting or receiving
equipment and had to rely on compasses and on
maps which were nearly useless. The engines,
reconditioned American ‘Liberty’ engines of 400 hp,
had an unreliable record, so Coningham decided to
run them gently, reducing the DH 9a’s normal
cruising speed from 90 to 80 mph.
“The aircraft took off from Helwan at 7 am on 27
October, waved away by a large gathering of soldiers
and airmen and landed at Wadi Haifa – 644 miles
south of Helwan – after eight hours and twenty
minutes in the air, all three pilots aching in arms and
chest because, as Coningham frankly admitted, he
had misjudged their weight distribution and they flew
tail-eavy. Fortunately, this first day of their journey
was both the longest and hardest of the sixteen they
spent in the air. At Wadi Haifa, Coningham boldly
reduced the load carried and, taking off at 4.50 am
next morning, they reached Khartoum at noon. With
a lighter, better distributed load, it proved a faster
and more comfortable journey.
Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham
“En route due west to El Fasher, a ‘considerable range
of hills’ soon appeared and perturbed Coningham,
for it was not marked on his map. Believing El Fasher
lay east of such a range, he looked for it in vain and
then decided to press on towards another range,
some twenty-five miles farther west, which was
marked. After fifteen anxious minutes, the town
appeared and the flight landed safely (despite three
punctures), everyone much relieved. Refuelling
began at once, ‘assisted by the officers, who had
cancelled their polo, and the men of the garrison’. It
was while in El Fasher that Coningham again
contracted the malaria that would plague him at
intervals during the rest of his life.
“’The country from this point onwards,’ he wrote, ‘had
never been traversed by aircraft.’ Visibihty as far as El
Fasher had been ‘phenomenal’, but westward fires
had been deliberately started to trap game ‘and at
times it was so smoky that at 4,000 feet one was now
and then taken unawares and compelled to make
sure that nothing in the machine was burning’. For
some time after leaving El Fasher, they were able to
follow a well-worn camel track, used by Muslim
pilgrims making for Mecca, until it ran into
mountainous country. After an overnight stop at
Abecher, they flew over the landing strip at Fort
Lamy, for Coningham had intended to press on to
Maidugari, but noticing that more smoke than usual
was coming from Herbert Rowley’s exhaust, he
decided to turn back. At Fort Lamy, he learned that
Rowley had lost most of his fuel: had they kept going,
‘he would have crashed in rather thick forest twenty
miles beyond’. Not surprisingly, Rowley remembered
the incident vividly, as we shall see.
“It was not until 10.20 next morning that they were
able to leave Fort Lamy and French territory for
Maidugari in British Nigeria. ‘Crowds had been out
on the main road from Maidugari to Kano from dawn
looking up into the sky,’ he wrote, ‘and people
assembled in the towns on that road, coming in from
considerable distances north and south.’ Coningham
landed to apologise for not having arrived the night
before, but soon regretted his generous impulse
because all three machines got stuck in soft yellow
earth on the landing strip and it took forty-five
minutes to free them, by a combination of engine
and muscle power, and run them on to a harder polo
ground. More harm was done to the engines during
those minutes than would normally occur during at
least twenty hours of flying time.
“The flight had been expected to arrive at Kano about
10.00 that morning and would have done so but for
Rowley’s faulty carburettor. The Resident
Representative in Kano of the Government in Lagos
told the huge crowd which had assembled that the
aircraft would now arrive about 5 pm. It was a rash
promise, but Coningham redeemed it, landing on a
polo ground outside Kano’s ancient walls at 5.10 pm
on 1 November 1925, the sixth day of the journey.
The Resident, greatly relieved, afterwards told
Coningham that ‘we had saved their prestige’. The
machines were carefully roped round to prevent
damage and the whole airfield completely
surrounded by troops holding back a crowd of at
least 20,000 people. The airmen had flown the official
distance from Helwan – 2,904 miles – in thirty-six
hours and fifty minutes, but the actual distance
covered, ‘allowing for finding the way’, was well over
3,000 miles at an average speed of about 83 mph.
“Throughout the journey, Coningham closely
observed the character of the country over which
they flew and concluded that good landing grounds
were few and far between. Distances and the time
taken to cover them impressed him deeply. If a
machine had come down near Lake Fittri, for
example, the crew would have had to sit tight near
the crash, living off what they could shoot or buy
from the natives until rescued – and that would have
taken at least forty-five days from Fort Lamy or
Abecher: a distance the aircraft covered in two and a
half hours. However, there was no possibility of a
successful landing between Kaduna and El Obeid,
except for a short stretch west of Abecher. ‘The
knowledge of this,’ wrote Coningham, ‘becomes a
cumulative strain.’ And yet, flying sometimes seemed
to him the slowest means of transport. ‘At 3,000 feet
with visibility up to 150 miles, a hill comes into view
quite two hours away. You know that your destination
is some way beyond. There is no sense of speed and
for hours the hill seems never to get any nearer.’ The
temptation to hurry, to risk damage to elderly
engines, became difficult to resist towards the end of
a long day, especially when an airstrip lay in view for
up to an hour.
“Flying from Kano 130 miles south-westward to
Kaduna on 6 November, the airmen were met by
‘everybody in full dress’, taken to Government House
and ‘lived in the greatest comfort’ until the 10th. ‘A
special grand- stand had been erected and the
preparations were such that the natives were
convinced that the Prince of Wales liked Nigeria so
much that he had come back … I was again given two
days very good polo and well mounted.’ Coningham
took up the Emir of Zaria, Flight Lieutenant Humphrey
Baggs took up the Sergeant Major of the Regiment
and Rowley the Sergeant Major of the Police, a
Hausa. ‘He looked slightly thoughtful as he clambered
into the machine,’ wrote Rowley, ‘but once in the air
he broke into a great smile and then sang at the top
of his deep voice until we landed.’
“’The Qualities of a Senior Officer’ the machine,’ wrote
Rowley, ‘but once in the air he broke into a great
smile and then sang at the top of his deep voice until
we landed.’
The three aircraft left Kano for Maidugari on the first
leg of their journey home at 7 am on 12 November.
They flew at 1,000 feet for much of the way ‘to give
the people a better view of the machines’. Having
flown low over the native town, they landed or the
same soft yellow sand as before, only this time
making sure to run on to the polo field before
stopping. The airmen were presented to the Emir of
Bornu, who presented Coningham with two huge
white rams, which he accepted with an enthusiasm
made all the warmer by his knowledge that the
Resident’s staff would have to find some means of
hiding them until long after he had gone.
“They retraced their outward course without incident
(except for strong head winds and punctures at every
landing) until arriving safely at Helwan on 19
November 1925. Coningham and his men had flown
on sixteen of the twenty-four days spent on the total
journey, covering a distance that he estimated as
about 6,500 miles. Exactly eighty hours were spent in
the air (apart from a few courtesy flights) and all
three of their much-maligned engines ‘ran faultlessly’
throughout, a fact that greatly pleased the crews for
‘fifty-three successive hours were spent over country
ordinarily called impossible’. The Air Ministry proudly
announced two firsts: the first east-west crossing of
Africa by air and the first appearance of aircraft in
Nigeria. That same journey, ‘by the normal methods
of rail, steamer, camel and bullock transport’, would
take about six months,” wrote Orange in the book.
However, Kano residents only saw plane again ten
years after the Coninghams’ departure when Imperial
Airways aircraft landed during the reign of Emir
Abdullahi Bayero in 1935.
Coningham was presumed dead on January 30, 1948
when the airliner he was flying, G-AHNP Star Tiger, to
Bermuda got missing off the coast of US. Coningham
remains one of the unsolved mysteries of the
aviation history as his whereabouts remains
unknown till date.
Source: www.howng.com/how-and-where-first-aircraft-landed-in-nigeria/

Cc: lalasticlala , Seun , Ishilove, dominique

Atom57:
Trump has been increasingly virulent in his remarks
targeting Muslim Americans since the Paris attacks
[Reuters]
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump
has called for a "total and complete" block on
Muslims entering the United States.
A statement from Trump's campaign team said the
halt on Muslims entering the country should remain
in place "until our country's representatives can
figure out what is going on."
“
Until we are able to determine and understand this
problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our
country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks
by people that believe only in jihad. ”
Donald Trump
The statement does not specify if the proposal would
affect both tourists and immigrants.
Trump's campaign cites poll data allegedly showing
"hatred towards Americans by large segments of the
Muslim population".
"Where this hatred comes from and why we will have
to determine," the billionaire real estate mogul, who
is leading in opinion polls among likely Republican
voters, said in the statement.
"Until we are able to determine and understand this
problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our
country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks
by people that believe only in jihad, and have no
sense of reason or respect for human life."
Trump has been increasingly virulent in his remarks
targeting Muslim Americans since the deadly Paris
attacks, and again in the wake of last week's shooting
attack in California, which was carried out by a
Muslim couple, leaving 14 dead and 21 wounded.
"Just put out a very important policy statement on
the extraordinary influx of hatred & danger coming
into our country. We must be vigilant!" Trump
tweeted after the statement was released.
His announcement unleashed quick condemnation
on Twitter.
"@realdonaldtrump removes all doubt: he is running
for President as a fascist demagogue," Democratic
presidential contender Martin O'Malley said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations group
said: "We're entering into the realm of the fascist
now."
Source: www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/donald-trump-calls-halt-muslims-entering-151207220200817.html

cc: Lalasticlala,Seun