₦airaland Forum

The guy in glasses and helmet, omg

Author of The Concubine and one of the foremost Nigerian novelists, Elechi Amadi, was on Monday January 5 abducted by gun men suspected to be militants from his country home town of Aluu in Rivers State around 9p.m.

The bolded phrase should have read "The Author of Sunset in Biafra".

Some of your contributions are horrible!

I'm Igbo but if I'm convinced an Igala man would make a better president, I would chose him in lieu of the Igbo man.
But to say an Igbo man can't be the president of nigeria is rather idiotic.

What are the pre-requisites for the position and why is it that no Igbo is qualified?

It is only a fool that cannot see that the war against corruption is over.

Yar' Adua remains the most foolish president nigeria has ever had.

game_rod:
and what would you have done better if you are asked to do something to save Nigeria?

Strangle people like you, that's what i would do for nigeria.

Can't imagine our dear Akunyili doing Walter Ofonagoro's job.

As I heard Achike Udenwa's name has been re-presented, I won't be surprised if Yar' Adua makes him the Finance Minister.

Yar' Adua surely need the attention of a psychiatrist.
This can't be for nothing.

Akunyili should do the honourable thing, after all Okonjo Iweala did.

I have been checking nigeria dailies from work to see if they have published the portfolios as Reuters have done so.
If it's true Akunyili is now the information minister, poor nigeria! Why waste our human resources?


http://africa.reuters.com/country/NG/news/usnLH696724.html

Nigerian president appoints new cabinet ministers
Wed 17 Dec 2008, 14:27 GMT

[-] Text [+] (Adds byline, quote, background)

By Felix Onuah

ABUJA, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua on Wednesday swore in 16 cabinet ministers, including heads of energy and the Niger Delta, filling a political void that has hindered government projects in Africa's most populous nation.

Former OPEC Secretary-General Rilwanu Lukman was appointed senior energy minister in the world's eighth biggest oil exporter, a post the president had kept for himself during the first 19 months of his administration.

Odein Ajumogobia remains the junior petroleum minister for Africa's top oil producer, the presidency said.

The appointments, already approved by the Senate, come nearly two months after Yar'Adua fired 20 cabinet members to begin his long-awaited reshuffle.

The drawn-out reshuffle has heightened uncertainty for foreign investors and brought government business to a virtual standstill.

"In this period of stark economic realities at home and unprecedented global economic challenges, we all must begin to think out of the box," Yar'Adua told the new ministers after a swearing in ceremony.

Godswill Orubebe, previously the minister of special duties, was picked to head the newly created Niger Delta ministry.

He will be in charge of improving security in the oil-rich delta, the heartland of the country's oil and gas sector.

Attacks by militants and criminal gangs in the region have cut a fifth of Nigeria's oil output since early 2006. Piracy and kidnappings for ransom are also common. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ ) (writing by Randy Fabi; editing by Andrew Roche)

© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved. | Learn more about Reuters

sholasys:
azorji,

If you read the story very well you will know that all those eight point item are fundamental and are what we need as a developing country and a true democratical nation. One can reject any honour on the bases of lack of those 8 points. I dnt think is proper to reject a well deserve honour just bc of one person over-do. Moreover Ribadu does not beleive in the rule of law, disregard court orders, infringe on human rights anyhow. Infact the little he achieved was base on "eye -services", "sycophancy" " I please my master (OBJ)" , witchunting opposition. Me, i want to believe he rejected the honour bc of Bad Gov., corruption, lack of good road, health etc and not bc Ribadu is been hawked

You are right.

All the issues are fundamental, but his immediate  reason for refusing the national 'this-honour' was because a government which should be fighting corruption with all available weapons is instead fighting a man who staked his life to fight corruption.

your source reads:

In the light of the above, I cannot accept the ‘honour’ of OFR. Whether now or in the life beyond. How can I wake up in the morning and look at the insignia of honour bestowed on me under a government that persecutes anti-corruption effort, particularly those of Nuhu Ribadu?

At the time the Nigerian Bar Association wrote the letter to my office that my name would be forwarded for national honour while I was in London receiving medical treatment for lung cancer, the government of President Yar‘ Adua had not begun in earnest the war against anti-corruption war and the harrowing persecution of Nuhu Ribadu had not reached its crescendo. I do not blame the NBA for sending my name at the time it did for national honour,

However, events from August 2008 to this day are so bizarre, unbelievably barbaric in their intensity, in terms of persecuting those fighting against corruption and the singling out of Ribadu for persecution, all for giving honour and dignity to this country and for recovering for our treasury, billions of naira and other forms of wealth looted by public officers.

[size=15pt]A government that covertly and overtly encourages corruption has no honour in its arsenal of power to dispense honour. Consequently, I reject the dishonour of OFR termed ‘honour‘ given to me by the Federal Government[/size]. ‘

Apparently, he would have accepted the 'honour' if we had an honest government in the centre.

We can give 1000 reasons why nigeria is not working, but what is central is corruption.
How can we then tackle other problems when we abhor the fight against corruption?

sholasys:
I read through this story and i was touched by the travail this Man have passed through in is life in the hand of Nigeria Gov.
I concluded that the honour worth rejecting base on the 8 items listed on the page except the case of Ribadu. I think Ribadu is reaping what he sow.
He flaw the law. disobey court oder etc. Ribadu does not worth fighting for. Good he achieved, no doubt about that. Guys in the house please throw in your comments or opinions and suggestions. Lets get the ball rolling
see story http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20081216231962

@ poster,

The reason he is refusing the useless honour is chiefly because of the unholy battle of the FG against a man who put his life on the line to fight corruption.
How then can you agree with other items except the crux of the argument?

[size=20pt]Cholera? It is over[/size]

Reading through the comments which celebrate the witch- hunting of Ribadu by Yar Adua and his cronies, I can't but say

"Bleed, bleed, poor country/Nigeria!
Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,
For goodness dare not check thee! wear thou thy wrongs;, " Shakespeare.

You guys calling for the crucifixion of Ribadu,
is our memory too short to remember that this was a man who fought corruption the best he could?
Remember this was the man whose actions changed people's perceptions about nigeria.
He put his life on the line for our sake, forgetting that nigeria is irredeemable.

Now, we all want him killed just because he confronted the devil.

Lady Waziri is in, and the corruption war is dead.
We can now rejoice and celebrate.
"Now we are in an era of the rule-of-law"
We can only get what we ask for.


Something has gone wrong with my fatherland,
and her children are fled to safety!

Seeing Ghanaians queuing patiently to vote in an election, I think Africa has finally got a giant.
Kenya and Nigeria can't say they haven't got a role model.
Can we not study their system and learn from it?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7769695.stm

Wow, was going through this section today and stumbled into this post.

It's been a long time since I left Sweden, but for the guys/ladies
who got admitted into my former Uni, Umea University, goodluck.
The place is cool and cold. I was there autum 2005- 2006.

I hear say our naija boy wey go there dey run go other countries go work though-
not good news for starters.

News like this make my heart bleed.
Why can't we annihilate these vampires?


http://www.thenationonlineng.com/dynamicpage.asp?id=71426

‘My son’s killing in Jos is Satanic’    30/11/2008
     

Three young men on the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme in Jos were on Friday morning killed in the rampage that broke out over the council polls. They were among the hundreds killed in the crises. Joke Kujenya spoke with family members of one of the victims, Ibukun Akinjogbin

The gloom that pervaded the Lagos State Low Cost Housing Estate, Meiran, Ojokoro, Lagos, residence of Mr. and Mrs. Akintola Tokunbo Akinjogbin, yesterday can be felt with touch. The woman, emotionally broken, laid on the bed while female members of her family and friends sat around to share in her grief. Her eyes bore the image of a woman that is wearied from shedding excessively painful tears.
The second son of the family, young Mr. Ibukun Oluwatosin Akinjogbin, 23, was one of the fifty people whose lives were brought to a cruel end by the rampaging voters in Jos on Friday morning. He was killed along with his nephew, Mr. Leke Akande, 23, and a friend, Mr. Tola Odusola, 20, all youth corps members, in the home of Ibukun’s uncle, Mr. Bisi Akinjogbin, an Abuja-based businessman. The hatchet men, who broke down the high gates and stormed the residence along Katako Junction by 7Up depot in Jos about 9.15am on Friday morning; caught down the three young men in the presence of Mrs. Doyin Akinjogbin, the uncle’s wife while her daughters also watched in horror.

Mrs. Doyin Akinjogbin is already placed under sedation as a result of the shock she suffered from witnessing the killings of the young men in her home.

The three men were among the scores of youths doing their one year mandatory youth service scheme in Pankshin, Jos central, in Plateau State, till they were killed.

Riot had broken out in Jos on Thursday, due to attempted manipulations with the results of the local government polls. The election was said to have been widely won by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), candidate.

Mr. Akintola Akinjogbin, who seemed to be taking the incidence with calmness, said the killing of his son is "barbaric, satanic and uncalled for."

One of the three youth corps members, Ibukun Oluwatosin Akinjogbin, a 2001 to 2003 Quantity Surveyor student from the Obafemi Awolowo (OAU), Ife, was said to have been in contact with his family on phone up till the last minute that life was ebbed out of him.

According to the father while narrating the gory ordeal, Ibukun was about coming to Lagos when the incident caught up with him without prior warning. He said prior to that day, the late young Akinjogbin had finalised plans to visit Lagos after a while.

He said: "My son had reported for the NYSC on August 26, 2008. We were in constant touch with him because mine is a very closely knit family. He would have actually returned to Lagos on Thursday but could not because it was rather late. So, I called him around 6. 20a.m on Friday morning and he said he was on his way to the park. Then later, he called that he was going back to his uncle’s home because the riot going on in Jos was quite heated. I said it was a good decision. So, he ran back into the house and we remained in touch.

"From that time, there were several calls and it was as if he was giving us situational reports. Then, his elder brother, Kayode Akinjogbin, an Investment Analyst with Lead Capital in Lagos, took over from me and kept monitoring his brother."

Speaking, Kayode said Ibukun started asking for prayers. "Please start praying for us’’; he had begged. "They are moving towards our side of the town. In fact, they seem to be getting close to our gate. Please pray Bro. Kayode. They are outside our house now. I don’t know why they came to us but they are here," Ibukun was reported to have said.

"Now, our gates are down," were the last direct words the young man could say to me, said Kayode. "Then I started hearing him beg them. Later there seemed to be some struggles but my younger brother was still pleading. Then, I heard cries and I was afraid while at the same time shouting his name. I heard the voices of women screaming and praying to God for help. For some time, everything seemed to get silent but by this time, I was almost running crazy when my colleagues in the office grabbed my phone from me to calm me down.

"A few minutes later, after I had regained my composure, I picked my phone to call my younger brother. But it was a Hausa man that replied me. And he said in Hausa tone and seemed to be mocking at the same time: ‘Ya broad, I'm dey die, I'm det die…hHa ha, now, I'm don die’. And at that point, the phone went dead. And that was when I blacked out too," Kayode said.

Akinjogbin senior said his son had come to the Uncle’s house because of the visit to Lagos. "The uncle is like their father over there. They all go to his house whenever there is need. Ibukun served as a Works Officer with the Pankshin Local Government council because he was a Quantity Surveyor. But what can I do now than to throw my hands up to God and accept my fate?

"My concern however is why the Nigerian government should subject our children to death on annual basis? Every year, Youth Corpers die in their numbers. The government should please scrap this programme. Parents would have laboured to educate their children and in the process of doing the youth service, those children will die. This is very unfair," Akinjogbin said.

"Ibukun was a core gentleman. He was very quiet and easy-going. Everyone that ever dealt with him knew that. And how can a people kill such a young man? Nigeria is one country and we should all learn to accommodate one another regardless of religious differences. As a matter of fact, how does a political riot change to religious fight? This is why government must tame these people up North. They can’t just be killing innocent people and go scot-free all the time. If they have been dealt with in time past, they wouldn’t have done it again. For me, the NYSC stuff is a bad taste that has left a traumatic mark in my family. I just pray God to grant my wife the grace to bear the incident with calm equanimity.

Kayode also described late Ibukun as a promising, enterprising and diligent and gentle young man that everybody said something good about in his life time. "Rather than brawl, Ibukun will usually hold his peace over any issue. Sadly now, he has been caught off in his prime with his hopes and aspirations all gone with him."

In another instance, a young youth corps member, Mr. Gesham Jagboro, 26, a graduate of Geology from the Federal University of Technology, Akura (FUTA), was reported dead in an automobile accident in Lokoja, while returning from Jos where they had gone to attend a Christian conference, last weekend. According to family members, young Jagboro was among the few corps members chosen by his team of corps members to represent them at the programme.

Mr. Akinjogbin said the charred remains of his son’s body would be brought to Lagos on Monday so that he can be given due burial.

I just read on reuters that at least 20 people have been killed and that means alot of people have lost their lives.

I was in Jos when the 2001 crisis happened. I know what it means.
They killed, they looted. It started as a religious crisis and ended as a tribal war.
Muslims from the South were not considered as "righteous" enough.
They will slaughtered like the other Nyamiris.

As with nigerian media, the accurate number of casualties was never reported.
It ranges from 5 to 5000.
I saw dead bodies littered over the city.
The ugly works of Islamic fundamentalists of northern extraction.

They bombed Terminus market- a modern market financed by the world bank.
Today, they are still suffering the impact.

This is not surprising. They are still killing in Mumbai. Islam in northern nigeria has become a parody of peace.

Nigeria, Nigeria! Cry the beloved country!

So it took Yar Adua 6 months to come up the names of Egwu, Udenwa, etc?
Very Poor attempt.
Very sad.
What he is implying is that nigeria lacks credible leaders.
Where are the El Rufai's of Obasanjo administration, the Okonjo Iweala's, the Ribadu's etc?

" Our fathers' minds are dead and we are governed with our mothers' spirit".
Eight years to be wasted by Mr - go- slow.

Whoever loses should emulate MCCAIN.

wrong section pls.

don't worry guys. just operating double.

http://africa.reuters.com/country/NG/news/usnN03344242.html

At last Obasanjo on the road to being hired. Rejected at home, but revered abroad.
Lesser than Yar Adua, but greater.

Let's wait and see if your happiness extends beyond one week.

On a serious note, we are all praying and fasting hoping our eratic (Mccain-type) electricity attains some stability.

http://www.thetimesofnigeria.com/Article.aspx?id=1077

I was reading through the nigerian Times when I stumbled into this articles which reads: Akunyili, Macebuh, Ibrahim Mantu, Jega, Ahmadu Ali Top Ministerial List!.

Now think about it, how can Yaradua achieve anything in the next three years if he works with people like Mantu and Ali?.

I read from somewhere recently that sycophants won't make his new list. Can someone therefore give me the best description of Mantu and Ali?

Let's presume this is only a rumour.

azorjiu:
Please notify me when the knell that summons him to heaven or to hell sounds.

Could someone please verify that the knell actually sounded.

The said guy may have graduated from another degree by now.
You guys scared him out of nairaland.

I checked the poster's posts and found this:

I have decided to join my ancestos because no member of my family want me 2 be in d university after obtaining upper credit in auchi poly

Who killed Murtala Mohamed?
Dimka? Gowon? Gomwalk? Osama?

I take yours as a rhetorical question.
Let's find who killed Marshal Harry first.

The guy reminds of orji kalu on hardtalk.

What a jackass he is.
Talking hugwash.
No knowledge of history, yet he is suppossed to be a polital pundit.
Any way, he's American.
I forgive him because of that.

I recognise the woman in the middle.

Yar' Adua should kick-start his government.
Nigerian has been undergoing hibernation since OBJ left office.
Things are not getting any better.

All we hear is rule of law, rule of law.
At the pace he is going, Yar Adua won't do anything to the
generating capacity of the country.
If anything, I suspect a reduction.
Stories!

Boris won because the minorities, those Livingstone stood for did not vote.
They were all at work, eking out a living.
Too bad!

Must it be from bush to bush,
from clinton to clinton in america?
is presidency a family heritage in america?
when will chelsea become the next president?
no wonder we say we are practising american democracy.

the clintons should know it is over for them.
they have brought the world's largest democrasy to ridicle.
it's now all about race, class and gender.

tufiakwa!

I doubt if your LEADERS read such posts.